Burma’s ploy to escape sanctions
Only 2, 000 Burmese migrant workers verify nationality
Judges sacked in corruption probe
Monk among 11 activists sentenced
Many Burmese Monks Arrested
Burmese Activists Urge Japan to Increase Pressure on Naypyidaw
NLD Leaders Meet EU Delegation in Rangoon
Sanctions Undermined by Burma’s Neighbors: US
Myanmar to add another border trade zone in N Shan State
Artists in Myanmar urged to work for thriving traditional art
42 trafficked Myanmar citizens repatriated from Thailand
Burmese Student Receives Scholarship to Attend Green Mountain College
DEVELOPMENT:  UNESCAP Steps in to Help Burma’s Debt-ridden Farmers
Elderly Face Lonely Challenges
Trade restrictions increase in Myawaddy and Mae Sot
Arms and explosives seized in Sittwe
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Burma’s ploy to escape sanctions
By Zin Linn
Column: Burma Question
Published: October 15, 2009
Bangkok, Thailand —

Last week Burmese leader Than Shwe allowed detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet Western diplomats, at her request, to talk about the sanctions imposed on the military regime.

The Nobel Prize winner, who remains under house arrest, was driven to a government guesthouse on Oct. 9 to meet acting U.S. Charge d’Affaires Thomas Vajda, British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, who represented the European Union, and Australian Deputy Head of Mission Simon Christopher Starr for an hour to discuss the possible lifting of sanctions on Burma.

It was no surprise that the junta agreed to Suu Kyi’s request, as the sanctions are hurting the regime, said a Burmese journalist on condition of anonymity. Senior General Than Shwe would like to improve relations with Western countries, both to improve the country’s economic condition and increase his legitimacy, he said.

“However, people do not believe the affair is an honest move,” he said, pointing out that the junta’s supreme commander wanted to get the international community to support his so-called “discipline-flourishing democracy.”

The surprise meeting with diplomats followed two consultation sessions this month between Suu Kyi and the junta’s liaison and Labor Minister Aung Kyi, to discuss her Sept. 25 proposal to help end sanctions against the regime.

On the same day, Oct. 9, Than Shwe spoke at military headquarters in the capital, Naypyitaw, confirming the launch of general elections as scheduled in 2010. He said he would not yield to demands from domestic and international critics who say that the country’s military-sponsored Constitution should be revised ahead of next year’s elections.

The 2008 Constitution, the junta said, was “approved” by more than 90 percent of eligible voters during a referendum in May 2008, just a few days after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country. The outcome of the referendum was widely dismissed as a sham, but the regime has ignored calls from the international community and Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, to review the Constitution.

Although there are 10 registered political parties in Burma, most are inactive. An electoral law should be put in place to allow new parties to form and register to contest the elections. The international community, led by the United Nations, has constantly urged that the election be all-inclusive, free and fair.

In April the NLD set forth the conditions for its participation in the 2010 elections. It requested that all provisions in the Constitution that are not in accord with democratic principles be amended, and that the poll be all-inclusive, free and fair under international supervision.

Rights groups have also said that the regime must release all 2,100 political prisoners, including NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, if it wants the elections to be regarded as legitimate.

The elections, which promise to be neither free nor fair in a country long condemned for human rights abuses, were planned following the 2008 Constitution, which in effect reinforces military control over any democratically elected administration.

The Western democracies and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have warned that the world community would not recognize the election results unless the NLD participates in the polls and Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from house arrest, where she has been kept for 14 of the past 20 years.

International sanctions have been imposed on Burma since 1988, when the military mercilessly cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations, leaving an estimated 3,000 people dead. The United States and the European Union increased their sanctions after the junta refused to acknowledge the NLD’s victory in 1990 elections and then arrested opponents and suppressed every type of opposition. Most of the sanctions target the top generals in particular.

In addition to the U.S. and EU sanctions, the regime is presently suffering assorted sanctions from Australia, Canada and Japan. The regime has been left without development assistance from international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asia Development Bank.

Than Shwe hinted this year that he would be willing to open a political dialogue with Suu Kyi if she agreed to cooperate on the sanctions issue. However, in his speech to the War Veterans Organization, Than Shwe said that some powerful nations were trying to force and influence Burma under various pretexts.

“However, the military government of Myanmar does not get scared whenever intimidated and will continue to work relentlessly for a better future of the state and the people by overcoming any difficulties,” Than Shwe said.

There is a contradiction between allowing the Lady to meet with Western diplomats and the heartless tone of Than Shwe’s speech at the meeting with war veterans. People are concerned that the Lady is being exploited by the crooked military chief. The purpose of allowing her to meet with the diplomats seems to be to get the sanctions eased and to persuade the world to support Burma’s version of democracy.

According to some analysts, there has been no improvement at all in the junta’s treatment of its citizens. In 2009 there have been more acts of aggression, more restrictions toward media and civil society, more control over Internet users, more arrests, more political prisoners and more military attacks in ethnic minority areas.

Sanctions are not likely to be lifted until the junta takes positive steps such as ending aggression against the NLD and ethnic parties and allowing freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.

The best option would be for the junta’s supreme commander to agree to dialogue with Suu Kyi in pursuit of national reconciliation. The 2008 Constitution and the junta’s unyielding adherence to its seven-step roadmap toward the 2010 elections will create a highly unstable political climate. Without an agreement of national reconciliation, the elections will achieve nothing.

A sugarcoated concept like “discipline-flourishing democracy” cannot be sold in this information age. Citizens have enough knowledge to differentiate between sham and genuine freedom. http://www.upiasia.com/Politics/2009/10/12/burmas_ploy_to_escape_sanctions/4736/
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Only 2, 000 Burmese migrant workers verify nationality
News – Mizzima News
Report by Usa Pichai
Thursday, 15 October 2009 09:46

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) — Nearly three months have elapsed yet only about 2,000 Burmese migrant workers have gone in for nationality verification from among an estimated one million in Thailand, according to the country’s Labour Minister.

Phitoon Kaewthong, Thai Labour Minister and Maung Myint Burmese Deputy Labour Minister held a meeting in Thailand and signed a memorandum of understanding for the 7th Meeting Nationality Verification of Burmese Workers from October 10 to 13.

Phaitoon said there is some progress. So far about 2,000 migrants from Burma have gone through the nationality verification process, while 700,000 have registered with the Labour Ministry (with the old regulation, without passport) from among an estimated one million Burmese migrants in Thailand.

He answered questions by the press about the threats to Burmese migrant workers, who want to cross over to Burma for the verification process, that they would be arrested and their families taxed. He said “these are only rumors.”

Burma and Thailand agreed to set up centers to issue passports and visa, started from mid of July this year in three major official border towns; Mae Sot, Thailand’s border town, Tarchileik and Kawthong in Burma.

“People can inform officials if they have problems. In addition, Burmese authorities have also set up centres to receive petitions in Thailand and will provide more information in Burmese for workers,” he added.

Jirasak Sukonthachart, Thailand’s Director of the Department of Employment and Min Lwin, Burma’s Director of the Department of Consulate and Law have signed a memorandum of understanding to bring down visa fees for the first 10,000 verified Burmese workers to work in Thailand. It has come down from 2,000 Baht [60 US$] to 500 Baht [15 US$]. This will be proposed to the Thai cabinet next week for approval.

The 500 Baht fee is to be used for migrant worker management funds, including repatriation. The funds will also be available for protection of the rights of migrant worker’s welfare – in the event of sickness, paralysis or death both while at work and from other causes. They would also get Thailand’s standard minimum wage, according to a report in Thailand Ministry of Labour’s website on Tuesday.

Private agencies processing verification should not charge over 4,000 Baht [120 US$] per person, Phitoon said.

The verification process was stalled as the Burmese junta insisted that nationality verification take place in Burma in its three major border towns. The Thai government then announced that all registered Burmese migrants must go through nationality verification before February 2010.

Meanwhile, labour rights activists remain concerned. Recently, Thai Labour and Human Rights groups submitted a petition to the United Nations Special Rapporteur Jorge A. Bustamante and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, demanding an urgent investigation into the process of ‘Nationality Verification of Burmese Migrants’ in the Kingdom.

The groups in their petition, and open letter said they are concerned over the confusing and complicated process, which involves migrants having to pay ‘unreasonably high costs’ saying it could make them victims of human traffickers. http://www.bnionline.net/news/mizzima/7221-only-2-000-burmese-migrant-workers-verify-nationality.html
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Judges sacked in corruption probe

Oct 15, 2009 (DVB)–Two senior judges and one legal advisor in Burma’s northeastern Shan state have been sacked after government officials accused them of corruption in a drugs trial, a court official said.

State judge Win Myint Oo was summoned to the capital Naypyidaw last month and dismissed. Another judge, Thawtar Min from Shan state’s Taunggyi and legal advisor Bo Min Phyu, were also dismissed.

The three men had been involved in a trial in Taunggyi in June this year in which four individuals were charged in relation to a drugs seizure in Rangoon. The court acquitted three of the defendants, and passed a 20-year sentence on the final defendant.

A court official speaking under condition of anonymity said however that the three men escaped conviction because of a 100 million kyat ($US100,000) bribe paid to the judges and the state military commander by the owner of a local mattress shop, Chit Kabar.

The wife of Taunggyi-based military commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Maung Maung Myint, was found dead in August after apparently committing suicide. Her death came shortly after she was questioned by the government’s Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI), which is investigating the corruption allegations.

Local residents in Taunggyi said that she was suspected of playing a key role in persuading judges to take the bribe.

The mattress-shop owner, Khin Win, is being charged for her involvement in case and is being interrogated by the BSI, according to the court source, who added that more people were under investigation.

“Police chief Hla Htut and a deputy chief of the [Taunggyi] Special Narcotic Taskforce have been sacked and they are now under detention where they are being interrogated,” he said.

The three men previously aquitted by the court have reportedly been rearrested and are to face trial alongside Khin Win.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2957
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Monk among 11 activists sentenced

Oct 15, 2009 (DVB)–Prison sentences of up to 10 years have been handed down to 11 activists, including one monk, by a prison court in Burma, family sources say.

Five of those sentenced on Tuesday were already serving lengthy detentions for activity related to the September 2007 protests.

A monk, U Sandimar, of the All Burma Monks Association (ABMA), was sentenced to 10 years under the Explosives Law and Unlawful Associations Act. Three others Kyaw Zin Min, Wunna Nwe and Zin Min Shein, were sentenced under the same charges.

The ABMA told DVB today that they so far have no information on the sentencing.

The lawyer for Sandimar, Maung Maung Latt, has said that his client and co-defendants claimed they were tortured during interrogation by authorities.

“They all said they were physically and mentally tortured and denied food and during interrogation by Rangoon division’s intelligence unit,” he said, adding that he is preparing to submit an appeal for his client at a higher court.

The remaining seven activists, Aung Moe Lwin, Moe Htet Nay, Htun Lin Aung, Zaw Latt, Naing Win and Htun Lin Oo, Saw Maung, the latter a member of the Generation Wave activist group, received five-year sentences for violation of the Unlawful Associations Act.

U Sandimar and Wunna Nwe were both a year into an eight-year sentence for breaching the Immigration Law and Unlawful Association Act.

A source close to the family of Zin Min Shein said that he will now face a total of 23 years in prison, having already been sentenced in October 2008 to 13 years under the Unlawful Association Act.

Htun Lin Aung, who was sentenced in 2008 alongside Zin Min Shein, will now serve a total of 18 years.

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet and Matthew Cunningham
http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2955
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Many Burmese Monks Arrested
By THE IRRAWADDY        Thursday, October 15, 2009

At least 30 monks were arrested in Burma in September and October, the two-year anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, sources said.

Sources familiar with the Sangha, the institution of monks nationwide, said 13 monks from Meiktila and 10 monks from Kyaukpadaung townships in Mandalay Division were arrested in late September, in an effort by the military junta to discourage or break up potential demonstrations by monks.
A Burmese Buddhist Monk makes a protest to ‘Free Burma’ during the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in May in Cannes, France. (Photo: Getty Images)

An official in Meiktila who requested anonymity said monks from the Nagar Yone Monastery in the township were among those arrested.

A Burmese human rights group in exile, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), confirmed that dozens of monks were arrested in the past two months.

“More than 20 monks were detained throughout September,” Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the AAPP, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. “We’ve gotten reports of seven monks arrested recently.”

The AAPP said the recent arrests took place in Arakan State, and Rangoon, Mandalay and Magwe divisions.

There are 224 monks among the 2,119 political prisoners in Burma, said the AAPP, not including the recent arrests.

In September, the Burmese regime announced an amnesty for prisoners. The number of political prisoners released totaled 127, including four monks, of the 7,114 prisoners who received amnesty.

The All Burma Monks’ Alliance, which led the 2007 demonstrations, has renewed its call for the regime to apologize for the beating and arrests of monks in Pakokku two years ago and to release all monks who were imprisoned during the subsequent crackdown.

The monks set an Oct. 3 deadline for the regime to respond, saying that if there is no apology, monks will start another boycott of alms offered by all military and government personnel, known in Buddhism as “patta ni kozana kan.”

Burmese authorities responded to the monks’ call by increasing security in Rangoon early this month.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17002
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Burmese Activists Urge Japan to Increase Pressure on Naypyidaw
By LAWI WENG    Thursday, October 15, 2009

A group of Burmese pro-democracy activists urged Japan’s new Deputy Foreign Minister Tesuro Fukuyama at a meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday to increase pressure on Burma’s military government to enter into dialogue with their country’s opposition.

According to a trade union association leader who attended the meeting, the group also appealed to Japan’s Foreign Ministry to put forward a plan for Burma at the UN Security Council.

The appeals were contained in a presentation by a leader of the Burmese group, Maung Maung, the general-secretary of the National Council of Union of Burma.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that Maung Maung informed Fukuyama how Burmese activists believed democratic change could be brought about in their country.

“Our basic policy stand is to promote democracy in Burma,” the official said. “This is why our deputy foreign minister hosted the meeting with Maung Maung, to listen to his view s on democratization in Burma.”

The meeting in Tokyo was the first between Japan’s new deputy foreign minister and Burmese democracy activists in Japan.

Chihiro Ikusawa, executive director of the International Department of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, who participated in the meeting, reported that apart from appealing for increased pressure on the Burmese regime by the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Maung Maung proposed that Japan should send a permanent envoy to Burma to observe the 2010 election.

Japan’s new government has asked the Burmese government to ensure a free and fair election in 2010, and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada has asked Burmese foreign minister Nyan Win to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, before the poll.

Earlier this month, Japan embassy officials in Rangoon held a meeting with Win Tin, an executive member of the opposition National League for Democracy.

The newly elected Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is seen to be taking a more active role in promoting democratization in Burma. The DPJ is believed to be a strong supporter of the Burmese democracy movement, unlike its predecessor, the Liberal Democratic Party, which rarely criticized the Burmese junta.

While pressing for democratic change, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it has no plans to alter its policy of direct engagement with the Burmese regime. It has also said that it supports the recently revised US policy, which now combines engagement with continued economic sanctions.

Japan is one of Burma’s main donor nations. Between 1999 and 2006, it provided Burma with more than US $2.96 billion in Official Development Assistance (ODA), according to Japanese officials.

However, Tokyo temporarily stopped its ODA to Burma after the 2007 Saffron Revolution, when a Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai, was killed by security forces.

Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had a phone conversation with Suu Kyi when she was released from house arrest in 2002.

When Suu Kyi was sentenced to a further eighteen months house arrest earlier this year, the Japanese Foreign Minister said his government was deeply disappointed and called on the regime to release her and all other political prisoners.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17001
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NLD Leaders Meet EU Delegation in Rangoon
By KO HTWE      Thursday, October 15, 2009

Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Wednesday hosted a delegation of diplomats representing the European Union (EU) at the party’s headquarters in Rangoon.

An NLD spokesman said the talks mainly focused on the 2010 election in Burma, NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent offer to work alongside the military junta, and the party’s calls for a review of the 2008 Constitution.

Khin Maung Swe, a spokesperson for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy: “First, the EU delegation enquired into the NLD’s point of view and intentions toward competing in the 2010 election. They also asked to hear the party line about Suu Kyi’s recent offer to cooperate with the military junta in efforts to lift international sanctions, and lastly they asked why the NLD is seeking a review of the 2008 constitution.”

The 20-member EU delegation was headed by the Swedish ambassador to Burma, acting in his capacity as the current chairman of the EU. The delegation included Rangoon-based ambassadors from Germany, Britain, France and Italy, as well as Bangkok-based ambassadors from Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and Finland.

Representing the NLD were Central Executive Committee leaders Than Tun, Nyunt Wai, Hla Pe, Soe Myint, Win Tin and Khin Maung Shwe.

“We explained that we are standing by our ‘Shwegondaing Declaration’ which we announced in April,” Khin Maung Shwe said.

The Shwegondaing Declaration is an NLD statement outlining three provisos for the party’s participation in next year’s election: the unconditional release of all political prisoners; a review of the provisions in the 2008 Constitution “not in accord with democratic principles”; and an all-inclusive free and fair poll under international supervision.

The NLD spokesman said that the party’s future policy can only be decided after the CEC meets with Suu Kyi. However, if electoral laws are announced and political parties are able to form, they would call a party convention so that the party’s leaders could debate the issues with NLD representatives from state and township level.

“On the issue of sanctions, we all agreed with Suu Kyi cooperating with the military junta,” Khin Maung Shwe said.

Last month, Suu Kyi sent a letter to junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe seeking permission to meet Western diplomats and meet with senior members of her NLD in order to negotiate an agreement for an end to international sanctions.

As a result, last Friday Suu Kyi met three Western diplomats in Rangoon for talks on the issue. Later, the NLD’s CEC held talks with the three diplomats for about 30 minutes.

“On the question of our demand to review the Constitution, this is not a power-sharing mechanism, but a chance to democratize,” Khin Maung Shwe said.

The 2008 Constitution—drafted by delegates who were handpicked by the junta—was “approved” by more than 90 percent of eligible voters during a referendum in May 2008. The outcome of the referendum, however, was widely dismissed as a sham.

The regime has consistently ignored calls from the international community and the NLD to review the Constitution.

On Friday, Than Shwe said he would not yield to demands from domestic and international critics who say that the country’s military-sponsored Constitution should be revised ahead of next year’s election.

Khin Maung Shwe told The Irrawaddy he was optimistic because Wednesday’s meeting gave the NLD leaders a chance to explain their beliefs and opinions to the international community.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17000
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Sanctions Undermined by Burma’s Neighbors: US
By WILLIAM BOOT         Thursday, October 15, 2009

BANGKOK — As Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi reviews Western sanctions against her country and a debate opens up about their affect on the military regime, a Washington agency has admitted that efforts to keep Burmese gems out of the US are failing.

Gemstones such as jade and rubies are among the core targets of economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union against the military junta running Burma.
Giant stones are displayed at the gem market in Tachilek, Burma. The city of Tachilek sits on the Thai-Burmese border in Shan State and is known to be one of the crossing points for Burmese gems into Thailand. (Photo: Getty Images)

But the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) says: “US agencies have not shown that they are effectively targeting imports of Burmese-origin rubies, jadeite and related jewelry.”

GAO is a policing agency of the US Congress charged with assessing whether laws are being effectively enforced.

“Impediments remain to restricting trade in Burmese rubies and jadeite,” concludes a 49-page report assessing the 2008 JADE (Junta’s Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act.

The report also admits that the US has been unsuccessful in winning the support of other countries linked to the gems industry in curbing Burmese trade.

“Strong support and the cooperation of China and Thailand are important to restrict trade in these items, but highly unlikely,” the report said.

It said the US government has failed to put forward any United Nations resolution on gems sanctions because “a number of countries would likely oppose a resolution.”

Burma’s neighbor Thailand remains a major source of finished ruby and jade jewelry for the US and Europe but insists that its products—although often sourced to Burma for raw materials—are substantially finished in Thailand and therefore not sanctionable.

Thai jewelry exports to the United States in 2008 were valued at US $8 billion, said the GAO.

The US admissions come as the new Barack Obama presidency signals changes in Washington policy toward the Burmese junta, including more constructive contacts and Suu Kyi’s meeting in Rangoon recently with leading Western country ambassadors to discuss the effects of sanctions.

Many campaigners for democratic change in Burma strongly support sanctions as a means of penalizing the junta, but others argue that they are merely hurting ordinary Burmese.

“The only perceptible effect of sanctions is that they have generally debilitated the Burmese economy, and this stagnation has been felt by the population at large,” said the former British ambassador to Thailand, Derek Tonkin, this week.

Tonkin heads up Network Myanmar, a Britain-based campaign for human rights and democracy in Burma.

“The regime and its cronies have, however, been able to avoid any significant or even measurable impact on themselves because of the total absence of sanctions applied in the region, notably by China, India and Russia,” Tonkin said.

However, Sean Turnell, another Burma expert who tracks and assesses junta business activities, argues that the Burmese regime itself is responsible for trashing the country’s economy and believes sanctions are a way of curbing the generals’ self enrichment.

“For the moment at least there is little substantive change in US policy towards Burma,” Turnell told The Irrawaddy.

“It’s clear that some movement towards the release of political prisoners and certain other steps that demonstrate a genuine commitment to reform will be necessary before it does. In a sense, the bluff is now called on Burma’s generals to put their cards on the table.”

Turnell is a professor at Australia’s Macquarie University and co-produces Burma Economic Watch.

The way in which the junta leaders sidestep sanctions was highlighted in a report last month by EarthRights International (ERI).

The junta leadership has siphoned off as much US $4.83 billion from the national budget in revenues from industrial giants Chevron and Total’s operation of the Yadana gas field, said ERI.

And that enrichment has primarily been financed by Thailand which is the sole buyer of the Yadana gas and as a member of Asean does not apply or support any sanctions.

US Sen. Richard Lugar Lugar Lugar this week ann..ounced plans to introduce legislation to promote a free-trade agreement between the US and Asean.
US Sen. Richard Lugar this week announced plans to introduce legislation to promote a free-trade agreement between the US and Asean.

He said he believed current US sanctions against Asean member Burma would not be affected by such a development.

ERI also reported that the gas income theft by the junta was sitting in two Singapore banks­despite US sanctions supposedly in place to curb the international financial activities of junta generals and their proxies.

However, an economist with a Western embassy in Bangkok takes the view that Washington’s GAO appears to have been “too ready to accept some of the submissions put to it by gem dealers and traders in Thailand, all with a vested interest to talk up the difficulties of establishing place of origin for Burma’s gems and the damage done to small traders rather than SPDC [junta]-connected entities.”

That Burma watcher, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive diplomatic circumstances of the issue, also noted: “The GAO report significantly underplays the role of large established entities in the Burmese gems trade, especially the SPDC-controlled Myanmar Gems Enterprise which conducts periodic high profile gem auctions.

“Such auctions raise significant funds for the regime. To the extent that entities such as the MGE are impacted, then US sanctions on Burma’s gem exports are well targeted.”
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16999
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Myanmar to add another border trade zone in N Shan State
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-15 14:37:48

YANGON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) — Myanmar will add one more border trade zone in Kokang region, in the country’s northern Shan State,to facilitate trading between the region and neighboring China, sources with the Ministry of Border Area and National Races Development said on Thursday.

The new border trade zone to be built in Yan Lone Chai township, which is about 12.8 kilometers away from the Kokang capital of Laukkai, will be another after Chinshwehaw.

Once the Yan Lone Chai border trade zone is completed, it will help enhance the economic development of Laukkai and the Kokang asa whole as the border trade zone can be accessible by direct road link with Lashio, Kuttkai and Theini townships, it said.

With an area of 5,200 square-kilometers, Kokang, bordering China’s Zhenkang, Gengma, Mengding and Longling areas, has a population of about 150,000.

Myanmar has five border trade points with China, namely Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti which were established since 1998.

Myanmar-China border trade fair has been held annually and alternately in the two countries’ border town of Muse and Ruili since 2001 and the last event was in Muse in December 2008.

Ruili remains a main border trade point of China with its border trade volume alone accounting for 70 percent of Yunnan province’s border trade with neighboring countries.

Myanmar established the 150-hectare Muse border trade zone, the first largest of its kind in the country, and transformation of its border trade with China into normal trade has been underway since early 2005.

Main items that Yunnan imports from Myanmar are agricultural products, aquatic products, minerals, rubber and its products, while main items that Yunnan exports to Myanmar are electric and machinery, textile, chemicals, steel, daily-used products, pharmaceuticals and so on.

According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar bilateral trade amounted to 2.626 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 26.4 percent. Of the total, China’s export to Myanmar took 1.978 billion dollars.

Up to the end of 2008, China’s contracted investment in Myanmar reached 1.331 billion dollars, of which that in mining, electric power and oil and gas respectively took 866 million dollars, 281 million dollars and 124 million dollars.

China now stands the 4th in Myanmar’s foreign investment line-up.  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/15/content_12238127.htm
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Artists in Myanmar urged to work for thriving traditional art
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-15 13:29:27

YANGON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) — Myanmar official media Thursday called on artists in the country to take part in traditional cultural arts competitions with full respect for their national culture and spirit so that Myanmar’s traditional fine art will thrive for ever.

Without a fixed date, the 17th Myanmar traditional cultural performing arts competitions are due to be launched soon in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw with contestants across the country taking part in and candidates are being shortlisted.

“Myanmar traditional cultural performing arts competitions not only enable Myanmar’s traditional fine arts to thrive but also expose Myanmar national attributes deeply buried in Myanmar traditional fine arts,” the New Light of Myanmar said in its editorial.

The editorial said that Myanmar’s ancestors have tried to preserve and safeguard the national culture throughout the long history.

“Thanks to their efforts, we now possess a huge edifice of national culture as heritage,” it said.

The leading organizing committee also noted “the competitions are designed to promote the role of the traditional culture. Only then, will today’s youths keep themselves on the track of Myanmar traditional culture.”

“The development of science and technology has adverse effect on the traditional culture in the world. If cultures of foreign countries penetrate Myanmar’s culture, the characteristics of the people will be eroded and nationalistic fervor will be tarnished by the influence of other countries,” the committee warned.

There has been increasing interest and encouragement to the traditional culture and arts by the ethnic minorities, witnessed by the increasing number of the contestants year by year, the committee added.

Myanmar has held the traditional cultural performing arts competitions annually since 1993. Last year’s event included modern music contest.

The competitions were yearly participated by thousands of youth contestants, including contests of song, dance, composition, musicand play at different stages such as professional, amateur, higher education and basic education levels.http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/15/content_12237531.htm
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42 trafficked Myanmar citizens repatriated from Thailand
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-15 13:04:08

YANGON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) — A total of 42 trafficked Myanmar citizens, trafficked to Thailand, have been repatriated to Myanmar’s eastern border town of Myawaddy, sources with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said on Thursday.

The trafficked Myanmar people, including 30 women and three children, were handed over by the Thai Ministry of Social Welfare and Development to its Myanmar counterpart in Myawaddy last weekend, the sources said.

The returnees have been brought to Mon state’s capital of Mawlamyine and are being accommodated in a vocational skill training school and after the training, they will be sent back to their respective homes, the sources added.

Meanwhile, in August this year, six trafficked Myanmar young women were saved and repatriated back from China to Myanmar across the border following a joint combating of human trafficking crime by special squads of both sides

The six were handed over by the Ruili anti-human trafficking special squad of China to Myanmar’s Muse squad.

A total of 13 men brokers and seven women brokers of two human trafficking gangs were also arrested in Ruili, a border town opposite to Myanmar’s Muse, according to Myanmar anti-drug authorities.

According to the ministry, under the government to government system, a total of 686 victims smuggled out of Myanmar had been rescued and brought back to the country as of 2008 and they were being kept at the rehabilitation centers.

Of them, those who were repatriated back from Thailand were the majority with 344, followed by those from China with 272, Malaysia with 45, Japan, Bangladesh, Jamaica and Singapore as well as China’s Macao, Chinese Taiwan, the ministry’s figures showed.

Myanmar has so far set up border liaison offices in Muse with immediate neighbor of China and in Tachilek, Myawaddy and Kawthoung with Thailand to promote cooperation in cracking down on human trafficking at the basic level.

Coordination is also being made for the move involving the UNODC and UN Inter Agency Project (UNIPA) on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).

The government has so far built eight rehabilitation centers offering educational program and vocational skill training for the victims.

In the latest development, Myanmar is also planning to set up a temporary care center in Muse for the victims with the help of GGA organization of Japan in November this year.
Editor: Li Xianzhi  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/15/content_12237443.htm
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Burmese Student Receives Scholarship to Attend Green Mountain College
By Marsha James
13 October 2009

Wai Phyo MyintFor Wai Phyo Myint, the education system isn’t that good at home so coming to America was her option. “I’m originally from Burma, Myanmar. The reason I would like to come and study is because of the education system. Over there the education system is not that good and that is the main reason I would like to come here and also I am interested in Communications Journalism and the Political Science study and over there we don’t have any institution that offers Political science or any Communications Journalism so coming here for me is an opportunity to come and study Political Science and Communications.”

Green Mountain College is in Poultney, Vermont and Wai is in her third year at the college. She is also on an academic scholarship. “I think one of the very beautiful things of the Green Mountain college is we respect and we love our community. Each and every member of the GMC community maintains the community so everyone in the community and so everyone is really nice. So that is a really lovely thing. I didn’t expect I would find that beauty in the United States,” she says.

“Also, the Green Mountain College offered me a ‘make a difference’ scholarship. It is a full scholarship so I got the full scholarship to come here”

Wai Phyo Myint says being able to have open communication with her peers and her instructors is something that she appreciates and isn’t able to do if she went to college back home. “Academically, I am really satisfied being here and my classes are really nice.I am quite close to the professors and the professors are also quite helpful and conversation outside of the classroom is always lively and interesting,” she says.

“There are a lot of things I still need to learn because over there in Burma, we don’t have a change to talk and be out spoken and to talk openly about what we think and about our opinion with other people so we don’t have very lively discussions, but here we can discuss everything not just about personal stuff, we can also discuss what our opinion on the government and policies,” she says.

Even though we are not the policy makers we can have a conversation in class or outside conversation so that is really helpful for me and for my career back in my country. So I am really enjoying being here.”

Wai campus activities include; “I work for the school newspaper, ‘The Mountaineer’ and also I got involved in the Indonesia Awareness Club, a club promoting awareness about different countries, culture and other situations on campus,” she says.   “We do more about educating students on campus to understand different cultures and to appreciate diversity.”

Wai Phyo Myint says she has come to realize that being in the United States is nothing like she initially had learned back home. “Before I came here whenever I heard about the United States it would be mostly about the bad things basically, but now I’ve been here in at a very small and lovely community so totally different from what I heard over there and now what I am experiencing here,” she says.

“Now I see the best part of the United States because over there whenever we talk about the United States or about the wars or foreign relationships with different countries and not about the good side of the United States, now I am living in a small community and most of them are local farmers and they value their environment and have a very strong sense of community and respect other community members and that is very lovely,” she says.

“So I see and I experience it because I been in the community.”

Wai Phyo Myint will graduate in 2011. http://www.voanews.com/english/americanlife/2009-10-15-voa5.cfm?rss=asia
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DEVELOPMENT:  UNESCAP Steps in to Help Burma’s Debt-ridden Farmers
By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Oct 15 (IPS) – A regional United Nations body dubbed by its critics as a “talk shop” and with limited concrete achievements to its name appears set to change that image by striking a deal with one of Asia’s recalcitrant regimes – the Burmese military government.

On the table is an invitation for the Bangkok-based Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to help the Burmese junta improve its troubled agriculture economy. The 62-year-old U.N. body has identified assisting Burma’s debt-ridden rice farmers as one of its development challenges.

“We have been asked to look at the agriculture policies, address issues of rice pricing and rural credit,” Noeleen Heyzer, the head of ESCAP, said in an interview. “We have been asked to share how other countries in the region have dealt with these problems and offer models of good practice.”

The seeds of this partnership between ESCAP and the Southeast Asian country that is also called Myanmar were sown during a six-day visit that Heyzer made in August. “This is the first time that the Myanmar government has invited ESCAP to be engaged at this level,” said Heyzer, who was appointed two years ago to head the largest of the U.N. regional commissions. “I have been building trust with the government in order to help the rural communities.”

Just how open the secretive and oppressive Burmese junta is to such U.N. assistance was reflected during Heyzer’s travels through central Burma, where she stopped and engaged with farmers by the side of paddy fields green with crops for the monsoon harvest. “I discovered that many of them were in debt because of the low level of rural credit and the high cost of fertiliser,” said the first female executive secretary of ESCAP. “They are highly dependent on money lenders.”

Heyzer feels confident that the initial round of talks she had with Burma’s Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation, Htay Oo, indicated a willingness to listen and even consider a shift in prevailing rural credit policies. “One issue I discussed with the minister was how farmers could get greater access to rural credit,” she said. “He and the other officials were open and willing to listen to new ideas.”

Yet translating such good intentions of ESCAP into reality will require a sea change in a country that was once – before the military grabbed power in a 1962 coup – a leading rice exporter. Today, on the contrary, malnutrition is rampant, affecting over a third of children in a country of 57 million people. Burma is also ranked by the U.N. as one of the hunger hotspots in the world.

As daunting for the U.N. body is to get an accurate picture of the extent of the rice-growing area and the number of farmers strapped by rural debt in a country notorious for unreliable data. In May, Burma’s strongman, Senior General Than Shwe, declared that the country was having a rice surplus “due to remarkable progress in the agriculture sector.” The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 7.8 million hectares are currently under paddy cultivation, up from 6.5 million hectares in the 2003-2004 period. Rice production also rose, from 23.1 million tonnes in the 2003-2004 period to an estimated 30.5 million tonnes in the 2008-2009 period, reveals the U.N. agency, which depends on official numbers for its estimates.

Yet that is far from the reality, states an Australian-based academic who heads a research team that produces independent assessments of the Burmese economy. “All the information I am in receipt of, including studies by the FAO itself, the World Food Programme, as well as independent researchers, suggests that agriculture conditions in Burma are dire, and very much at odds with a picture that agriculture in Burma is ‘on the rise’,” said Sean Turnell of the Burma Economic Watch in an e-mail interview.

“The output gains that the FAO numbers seems to show could be the result of increased output amongst a number of big commercial producers,” added the author of ‘Fiery Dragons: Banks, Moneylenders and Microfinance in Burma’. “The narrative otherwise here is very much at odds with the very difficult circumstances faced by the average small-scale ‘family cultivator’.”

The lack of rural credit for these small farmers has been “particularly problematic,” said Turnell. “The policies of the Burmese government have been anything but helpful. They have, in essence, stood by while Burma’s rural credit scheme has collapsed.”

The debt crisis faced by farmers in Burma was brought to light in April in a report by the British humanitarian agency Oxfam. That study centred around the farming communities affected by the powerful Cyclone Nargis, which tore through the rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta in May last year, resulting in a death toll of about 140,000, affecting 2.4 million people and destroying vast tracts of paddy land.

“Hundreds of thousands of people who survived Myanmar’s worst-ever cyclone are facing the prospect of being trapped in debt with little prospect of securing further credit or loans,” Oxfam declared at the time.

“The debt-cycle is common in the agriculture sector. They take loans before the farming season and then settle them after the harvest,” Claire Light, Oxfam’s country director in Burma, said in a telephone interview from Rangoon. “But the timing of the cyclone was pretty bad. It came at the end of the growing season and destroyed an entire harvest.”

The problem of rice farmers across Burma stems from the country having only one official source of rural credit – the Myanmar Agriculture Development Bank (MADB). This bank offers limited funds to farmers.

“The amount of credit MADB currently makes available to farmers – 8,000 kyats (8 U.S. dollars) per acre – is only a small fraction of the cost of paddy production,” says a study of the Burmese rural economy done by researchers at Harvard University. “Official estimates of summer paddy production costs are around 180,000 kyats (180 U.S. dollars) per acre and 130,000 kyats (130 U.S. dollars) for monsoon paddy.”

Added to that burden is another government restriction imposed on the farmers – controls over the price at which they can sell their rice.

“Government policy of keeping rice prices in the urban areas low have conspired to depress the price that farmers can earn from their paddy,” says the Harvard University study, ‘Assessment of the Myanmar Agriculture Economy, released early this year. “Many farmers are deeply in debt. Even if credit were available and paddy prices improved somewhat, many farmers would still be in deep trouble.”

(END/2009)  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48866
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Elderly Face Lonely Challenges
By SOE LWIN     Thursday, October 15, 2009

PYAPON, Irrawaddy delta—Tin Mya, 68, had a backyard poultry business. She managed to put away some money and gold. With her savings, she dreamed of having a comfortable life when she could no longer work.

Her dream became a nightmare when her gold and money—valued at the equivalent of US $500—disappeared when Cyclone Nargis pummeled Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008.
A woman walks down a dirt road near Laputta Township in Irrawaddy delta. Cyclone Nargis, the worst natural disaster recorded in Burma’s history, slammed into it’s delta in May, 2008, killing more then 130,000 people and leaving 2.4 million destitute. (Photo: Reuters)

“I tried to keep my plastic sack of gold and money with me until the flood waters reached to my waist,” Tin Mya recalled. “But when I was hit by a giant wave, the sack was washed away.”

Since the storm, Tin Mya has relied on food aid to survive. When the aid stops, she doesn’t know how she will find food. She believes she will never be able to rebuild her backyard business.

The Category 4 storm—the worst natural disaster in Burma’s modern history—killed close to 140,000 people and affected more than 2 million.

Like Tin Mya, there are still thousands of vulnerable elderly people who now face even harder times, 17 months after Cyclone Nargis.

According to HelpAge International, of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone, an estimated 200,000 were 55 years or older at the time of the disaster.

Humanitarian aid workers say elderly people face greater challenges in terms of restoring livelihoods, earning incomes and living a healthy life, physically and mentally.

Many have forever lost the assets that they accumulated over their lifetime, and in many cases they have lost loved ones who they relied on for economic and physical support.

According to a HelpAge International report, 14 percent of the elderly said their life was more difficult now than before Nargis, while 21 percent said their life was back to normal.

In Burma, the elderly usually receive high respect within a community, which is a benefit for many old people, the aid agency said.

“Those who had no children particularly have been facing tough times,” said an official from the Myanmar [Burma] Red Cross Society. “The respect of their community is very helpful.”

In Thamainhtaw village in Pyapon Township, a 73-year old man who lost his wife in the cyclone said he does not how he would have survived without his neighbors help.

Three of his neighbors fetch potable water and cook for him, he said. At night, they come and sleep in his shelter.

“Now, food aid has stopped in our village,” he said. “But my neighbors are feeding me.”

According to aid agencies, many elderly without relatives are stranded in their makeshift houses and relying solely on food aid. Many are in need of psychological counseling and suffer from trauma and depression. Some elderly people still refuse to speak, say aid workers.

“The psychological well-being of older people is so much related to the material support given to them,” said an official with HelpAge.

In the meanwhile, many elderly carry on, trying to carve out a new way of life.

In Pyapon, a small village, a man in his 80s who lost his wife and one grandson to the cyclone, stays in a shelter built by aid workers.

“At night, I sleep at my home, but during the day I go to the monastery where I can chat with people my age and do religious work,” he said. “If I’m hungry, the monk gives me food.”
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=16998
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Trade restrictions increase in Myawaddy and Mae Sot
News – Independent Mon News Agency
Report by Asah
Thursday, 15 October 2009 09:36

According to Burmese and Mon onion and fish traders who regularly traffic their wares to Thailand through Myawaddy Town in Karen State, Burmese authorities and their relatives are behind recent freezes in trade traffic through Myawaddy.

An onion trader who regularly brings his goods to Myawaddy from his home in Moulmein informed IMNA that the Burmese government started restricting trade to Thailand out of Myawaddy a month ago. Myawaddy is a major hub in the international trade between Thailand and Burma; goods that are exported from Burma into Thailand include onions, shoes, automobiles, motorbikes, computer, and other electronics.

“Now it is very difficult to bring goods from inside Burma because a few months ago, in the Economic Zone [the trade checkpoint] at Myawaddy Town, they would not allow exporting. But we heard about how the son of a Burmese Government authority caused this. They [the Burmese authorities] don’t want the traders to bring anything through [the checkpoint], they want bring everything themselves and get more profit. But if the traders bribe the zone authorities, they are allowed to bring their goods through at night time,” he added

The Burmese Weekly Eleven reported on Monday, in a Burmese story titled “Thailand Scheduled to Build Economic Zone on Thai-Burma Border at Mae Sot“, that on October 6th of this year, the Thai Prime Minister announced his plan for the creation of a new trading checkpoint at Mae Sot, on the Thai-Burma border, a decision agreed upon by Burmese and Thai trade authorities. The building of the checkpoint will, according to the Burmese Weekly Eleven, cost 400 million baht.

A Mon trader who traffics his goods between Mae Sot and Myawaddy told IMNA, “We have not heard yet about the building [of the checkpoint], and also it has not started yet, things are still normal. If a taxi goes to Mae Sot, it has to give 50 baht at the toll bridge. If they build a new zone, taxi drivers will have to pay more money, and then trucks from Thailand will also have to stop there [ like a Kate station].”

A Karen cellular phone merchant from Mae Sot told IMNA, “We heard information about them building a zone but it is not certain, we don’t know yet. Thai authorities have not come to ask for [tax] money at my house yet.”http://www.bnionline.net/news/imna/7219-trade-restrictions-increase-in-myawaddy-and-mae-sot.html
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Arms and explosives seized in Sittwe
News – Kaladan Press
Wednesday, 14 October 2009 16:39

Sittwe, Arakan State: Some arms and explosives have been seized by authorities in Sittwe (Akyab), the capital of Arakan State, in the first week of October, said a source close to the authorities.

A group was coming to Sittwe from Rangoon through Taung Guupe pass in a white micro. When the car reached Taung Guupe check point, the authorities checked the car and found some explosives, but, the officials pretended not to be find anything in the car. However, intelligence personnel followed the car until it reached Sittwe.

When the car entered a Buddhist monastery of expansion (Toochey Wra) village near Sittwe airport, the officials seized the car and detained the passengers. After that, intelligence personnel accompanied by other concerned authorities searched the car and found 41 arms and seven hand grenades, an aide close to intelligence department said.

After a few moments, another car entered at the same venue. The second car was also seized with the passengers by the authorities. But, it is not confirmed, how many people were arrested.

However, it is learnt that over 100 people were arrested from Rangoon and Sittwe regarding the incident.

When the authorities asked the arrestees why they carried arms and explosives from Rangoon to Sittwe, they said, “We carried these to kill the Bengali Kular (Rohingya people) as they are very active against the Rakhine community.”
When asked Salim Ullah, the CEC member of Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO) he said, “It is an obsequious word to the authorities to make them happy, but in reality, they carried it for other purposes.”

Hearing this from the arrestees, the authorities smiled and took all of them to their camp for more interrogation. Security is being tightened in Sittwe (Akyab) since seizing the arms and explosives in the Buddhist monastery, said a trader from Akyab on condition of anonymity.http://www.bnionline.net/news/kaladan/7217-arms-and-explosives-seized-in-sittwe.html