Burmese Party Leader: Suu Kyi Expects Meeting With US Officials
Myanmar, Japan cooperate in promoting trade, investment
US envoys in Myanmar ‘unlikely to meet junta chief’
Envoys unlikely to meet junta
Myanmar PM stresses amendment of past systems practised in Kokang region
Official says US envoys in Myanmar unlikely to meet military chief
U.S. officials to visit Myanmar next week
Burma torches seized drugs: state media
Visits to neighbours a must, says Chavalit
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Burmese Party Leader: Suu Kyi Expects Meeting With US Officials
By VOA News
31 October 2009

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (file photo)
Aung San Suu Kyi (file photo)
A lawyer for Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she has been informed of the upcoming visit of two senior U.S. officials and is preparing to meet them.

The U.S. State Department said Friday that Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and his deputy, Scot Marciel, will visit Burma for two days next week (November 3 and 4). Spokesman Robert Wood says the two will meet with members of the government as well as the opposition, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

Her lawyer, Nyan Win, who also is a spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy, told reporters Saturday that the U.S. embassy in Rangoon is making arrangements with the party for the meeting.

The United States and the United Nations are pressing Burma to release all political prisoners so they can participate in next year’s election. But rights groups say Burmese authorities have arrested more opponents of the regime in just the past two weeks, including about 10 local journalists.

Burma is still holding hundreds of political prisoners. Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years under some form of detention. Her house arrest was extended by an additional 18 months in August for allowing an uninvited American man to stay at her home without official permission.

U.S. Senator Jim Webb held a landmark meeting with Burma’s military leader Than Shwe in August. He also was permitted to visit with Aung San Suu Kyi.

Critics have said high-level U.S. visits from other countries give legitimacy to the military regime that jails opponents. Aung San Suu Kyi has recently backed direct dialogue with the military government.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters. http://www.voanews. com/english/ 2009-10-31- voa25.cfm? rss=topstories
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Myanmar, Japan cooperate in promoting trade, investment
www.chinaview. cn 2009-11-01 21:00:14

by Feng Yingqiu

YANGON, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) — A 30-member Japanese economic delegation is due to arrive here Monday to meet and discuss with businessmen from the Union of Myanmar Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) to seek ways of promoting trade and investment in the country, the UMFCCI, Myanmar’s biggest private business organization said on Sunday.

The Japanese economic delegation is led by Sumitaka Fujita, Chairman of the Economic Cooperation Committee of the Japan-Myanmar Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The discussions will also attended by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Japanese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the sources said.

Myanmar and Japan have been cooperating in a number of sectors and in their latest development, the Myanmar industrial authorities are working together with Japanese entrepreneurs in quality garment production in a bid to boost the export to Japan as well as to expand its foreign market.

The Japanese entrepreneurs include those of JETRO, Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) and Juki Corporation,

These organizations have been providing for Myanmar staff at all-level trainings related to management, production and human resources since February this year.

Myanmar’s garment export to Japan has been increasing annually and during last year, the country’s export hit 135 million U.S. dollars, up 38 million dollars compared with 2007.

Japan takes up one third of Myanmar’s garment export standing as Myanmar’s largest garment exporting country, followed by England, Germany and Spain, according to statistics.

Meanwhile, the Mandalay City Development Committee and a Japanese consultation group are cooperating in launching a major project as one of the latest to build Myanmar’s second largest city of Mandalay into an international standard one and the project will be implemented phase by phase in 25 years.

The 18-billion-US- dollar project covers building of eight zones which are outlined as regional economic zone, international economic zone, regional industrial zone, national culture zone, city administration zone, sports village, heavy industrial zone, products storing and distribution zone, and energy zone.

Of them, the energy zone will be constructed near the west bank of Dada-U township in Mandalay, the major trading and communications center for northern and central Myanmar.

It is expected that the completion of the Mandalay up gradation project will coincide with that of the Asian Highway which runs through Mandalay. By then, Mandalay would become a business hub of the region, experts said.

Besides, a Japanese technical team plans feasibility study on all-season waterways in Myanmar’s storm-hit delta area to pave way for a new project to enable local people travel safely with ships plying in the area.

Four waterways– Yangon-Maubin- Myaungmya- Laputta-Kanbe, Yangon-Kyaiklatt- Bogalay-Mawlamyi negyun, Myaungmya-Pathein and Kyaiklatt-Phaypon, are under study to find out needs for renovation of maritime facilities destroyed by May storm last year.

The Japanese technicians are expected to complete the study at their own cost within this year and start work next year.

Moreover, as part of its human resources aid to Myanmar, Japan offered scholarship to Myanmar students for the academic year 2008-09 which was a follow-up of Japanese grant assistance for human resources development scholarship which worth 407 million yens (3.3 million U.S. dollars) along with another project of afforestation in the dry zone in the previous year.

Japan’s human resources scholarship project, which started in 2002, offers opportunities to promising youths of Myanmar, both from government and non-governmental organizations, for further study at Japanese universities to attain masters’ degrees.

Japan’s investment in Myanmar, according to figures, so far amounted to 216.76 million U.S. dollars in 23 projects since 1988 and Japan ranks the 6th in Myanmar’s exporting countries line-up with nearly 200 million dollars.
Editor: Deng Shasha   http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2009-11/01/ content_12369565 .htm
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US envoys in Myanmar ‘unlikely to meet junta chief’
AFP

US envoys in Myanmar ‘unlikely to meet junta chief’ AFP/File – A Myanmar national holds a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi during a demonstration in Tokyo in September. …
8 mins ago

YANGON (AFP) – Two senior US envoys travelling to military-ruled Myanmar this week will meet detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi but are unlikely to see the reclusive junta chief, an official said Sunday.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel are planning the visit in the latest move by President Barack Obama’s administration to engage the regime.

They will go to the remote administrative capital of Naypyidaw on Tuesday and meet Prime Minister Thein Sein, a Myanmar official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

This is the highest level government member the pair will meet, the official said, suggesting that they will not be granted talks with regime leader Than Shwe.

They will travel to Yangon Wednesday to meet Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) before departing the country, the official added.

The visit is a follow-up to discussions in New York in September between US and Myanmar officials, which marked the highest-level American contact with the regime in nearly a decade.

The Obama administration shifted its policy because its longstanding approach of isolating Myanmar had failed to bear fruit, but said it would not ease sanctions without progress on democracy and human rights.

In August, Than Shwe held an unprecedented meeting with a visiting US senator, Jim Webb, a leading advocate of engaging the junta.

But if, as the official’s comments suggest, Than Shwe does not want to meet the US delegation this week, he may leave the capital during their visit, said activist and scholar Win Min in northern Thailand.

“He doesn’t want to make significant concessions even though he wants to get the US to lift sanctions,” Win Min said, noting that the leader avoided a request to meet UN special envoy Razali Ismail in 2003 by visiting the west coast and leaving the then premier to see the envoy.

A State Department official, Stephen Blake, quietly visited Myanmar in March to hold talks with both junta members and the opposition. It was the first trip by a US envoy to the country in more than seven years.

Campbell told a congressional panel last month that the dialogue would “supplement rather than replace” the sanctions regime.

The chief US diplomat for Asia acknowledged that the talks, which aim to press for democratic reform in Myanmar ahead of elections promised by the ruling generals for 2010, would be neither simple nor straightforward.

Thein Sein told Asian leaders at a summit in Thailand last weekend that the junta sees a role for Suu Kyi in fostering reconciliation ahead of the elections, but it was not clear what form this would take.

The 64-year-old Nobel peace laureate has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, and in August was placed under a further 18 months’ house arrest, effectively barring her from taking part in the polls.

But last month the generals granted her two rare meetings with Labour Minister Aung Kyi, the official liaison between her and the junta, and a meeting with Western diplomats.

The talks followed a letter she wrote to Than Shwe in late September, offering her co-operation in getting Western sanctions lifted, after years of favoring harsh measures against the generals.

Suu Kyi’s NLD party won the last elections in 1990 by a landslide, which the junta refused to acknowledge.
http://news. yahoo.com/ s/afp/20091101/ pl_afp/myanmarus diplomacyjunta
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Envoys unlikely to meet junta

YANGON – TWO senior US envoys travelling to military-ruled Myanmar this week will meet detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi but are unlikely to see the reclusive junta chief, an official said Sunday.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel are planning the visit in the latest move by President Barack Obama’s administration to engage the regime.

They will go to the remote administrative capital of Naypyidaw on Tuesday and meet Prime Minister Thein Sein, a Myanmar official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

This is the highest level government member the pair will meet, the official said, suggesting that they will not be granted talks with regime leader Than Shwe.

They will travel to Yangon on Wednesday to meet Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) before departing the country, the official added.

The visit is a follow-up to discussions in New York in September between US and Myanmar officials, which marked the highest-level American contact with the regime in nearly a decade. — AFP

http://www.straitst imes.com/ Breaking% 2BNews/SE% 2BAsia/Story/ STIStory_ 449084.html
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Myanmar PM stresses amendment of past systems practised in Kokang region
www.chinaview. cn 2009-11-01 12:11:45

YANGON, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) — Myanmar Prime Minister General Thein Sein has stressed that the administrative and economic systems, once practised in Kokang region but were announced illegal by the state, are to be mended in conformity with the law, official media reported Sunday.

Kokang stands as Myanmar’s Shan State (North) Special Region-1 bordering Yunnan Province, southwest of China.

“As Kokang region is within the boundary of Myanmar and is a part of the union, people are to cultivate union spirit without sticking to racism and localism regardless of whatever part of the region they live in,” Thein Sein said in his tour to Laukkai, capital of Kokang region, in the past two days, according to the New Light of Myanmar.

“As Myanmar shares the long border with China, the two peoples need to live in amity,” he emphasized.

He stressed the need to fight against producing and smuggling narcotic drugs and to try to improve the regional economy based on agricultural productivity.

He also outlined four tasks for the U-Pe-Sauk-Chain- led “Kokang Provisional Leading Committee”, which is a new provisional local administrative body, to carry out, that is “ensuring regional stability, security, smooth and secure transport and regeneration of local people’s businesses in cooperation with the administrative staff employed by the state”.

Meanwhile, a drug destruction ceremony was held in Laukkai Saturday, burning drugs worth of over 20 million U.S. dollars seized within a two-month short period from August 11 to October 24.

The burnt drugs included 11.9 million ATS tablets, 7.96 million ephedrine tablets, 0.13 kilograms heroin, nearly 1 kg opium, 0.44 kg ICE, 246 kg ephedrine, 45 kg caffeine and other precursor chemicals.

The ceremony was attended by diplomatic corps comprising ambassadors of 11 countries including Singapore and officials of resident United Nations organizations as well as local Kokang leaders and people. http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2009-11/01/ content_12368567 .htm
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Official says US envoys in Myanmar unlikely to meet military chief
Posted: 01 November 2009 1807 hrs

YANGON : Two senior US envoys travelling to military-ruled Myanmar this week will meet detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi but are unlikely to see the military chief, an official said on Sunday.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel are planning the visit in the latest move by President Barack Obama’s administration to engage the regime.

They will go to the remote administrative capital of Naypyidaw on Tuesday and meet Prime Minister Thein Sein, a Myanmar official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

This is the highest level government member the pair will meet, the official said, suggesting that they will not be granted talks with regime leader Than Shwe.

They will travel to Yangon on Wednesday to meet Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) before departing the country, the official added.

The visit is a follow-up to discussions in New York in September between US and Myanmar officials, which marked the highest-level American contact with the regime in nearly a decade.

The Obama administration shifted its policy because its longstanding approach of isolating Myanmar had failed to bear fruit, but said it would not ease sanctions without progress on democracy and human rights.

In August, Than Shwe held an unprecedented meeting with a visiting US senator, Jim Webb, a leading advocate of engaging the military government.

But if, as the official’s comments suggest, Than Shwe does not want to meet the US delegation this week, he may leave the capital during their visit, said activist and scholar Win Min in northern Thailand.

“He doesn’t want to make significant concessions even though he wants to get the US to lift sanctions,” Win Min said, noting that the leader avoided a request to meet UN special envoy Razali Ismail in 2003 by visiting the west coast and leaving the then premier to see the envoy.

A State Department official, Stephen Blake, quietly visited Myanmar in March to hold talks with both military government members and the opposition. It was the first trip by a US envoy to the country in more than seven years.

Campbell told a congressional panel last month that the dialogue would “supplement rather than replace” the sanctions regime. – AFP/ms

http://www.channeln ewsasia.com/ stories/afp_ asiapacific/ view/1015143/ 1/.html
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U.S. officials to visit Myanmar next week
Published: Nov. 1, 2009 at 1:05 AM

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (UPI) — Two high-level U.S. State Department officials plan to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a trip to Myanmar.

The department announced Friday that Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Deputy Assistant Secretary Scot Marciel are scheduled to be in the country formerly known as Burma on Tuesday and Wednesday. Their schedule includes meetings with government leaders as well as Suu Kyi and other opponents of the military regime.

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright visited the country in 1995 when she was the ambassador to the United Nations. That was the last visit by a senior U.S. official, The Washington Post said.

A State Department spokesman said the trip is an attempt to continue a dialogue that began with talks in New York on Sept. 29.
http://www.upi. com/Top_News/ US/2009/11/ 01/US-officials- to-visit- Myanmar-next- week/UPI- 24421257055547/
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Burma torches seized drugs: state media

* Published: 1/11/2009 at 03:03 PM
* Online news: Asia

Burma’s junta has burnt more than 20 million dollars worth of drugs seized during a recent campaign against ethnic rebel forces in the remote northeast by the Chinese border, state media said Sunday.

Burma soldiers parade during an armed forces event. The country’s junta has burnt more than 20 million dollars worth of drugs seized during a recent campaign against ethnic rebel forces in the remote northeast by the Chinese border, state media said Sunday.

Prime Minister Thein Sein attended the torching ceremony Saturday in Kokang, a mainly ethnic Chinese region of Shan state, where clashes broke out between the regime and rebels in August, the New Light of Burma newspaper reported.

The report said the drugs were seized from 50 different hideouts in Laukkai, the region’s main town, between August 11 and October 24, beginning with a raid by security forces on a factory owned by Kokang rebel leaders.

This sparked fighting with the Kokang group in breach of a 20-year-long ceasefire, which prompted an exodus of more than 30,000 refugees into China and earned Burma a rare rebuke from Beijing, usually its closest ally.

At Saturday’s ceremony, Burma police chief Khin Yi accused ousted rebel leader Phone Kyar Shin, also known as Peng Jiasheng, and his associates of producing and trafficking drugs “freely and openly like a Mafia gang”, the newspaper said.

Analysts say that while in the past the junta often tacitly assented to ethnic groups’ involvement in the drugs trade, it is now using it as a pretext to put pressure on groups that do not want to join the Burmese security forces.

The regime recently stepped up its decades-long campaign against the minority groups because it wants them to come under its control ahead of the elections planned for 2010.

The junta has also vowed to make the country drug-free by 2014 by following a 15-year elimination plan drawn up in 1999, but Burma remains the world’s second largest producer of opium after Afghanistan.

Khin Yi was quoted as saying at the burning ceremony that the authorities would make “every effort” to achieve the plan “with added momentum”.

The US State Department said in September however that Burma, which has been military-ruled since 1962, had “failed” in its efforts to meet international anti-drug measures.

Two senior US officials will travel to Burma this week in the latest move by President Barack Obama’s administration to engage the reclusive regime.  http://www.bangkokp ost.com/news/ asia/158778/ burma-torches- seized-drugs- state-media
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Visits to neighbours a must, says Chavalit

* Published: 1/11/2009 at 12:00 AM
* Newspaper section: News

The Burmese and Malaysian governments will not hesitate to host Puea Thai Party chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh if he visits the two countries as planned, according to a close aide of the general.

Lt Gen Piratch Swamiwas said Gen Chavalit is expected to travel to Burma around the middle of this month and meet Snr Gen Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council.

He will later visit Malaysia where he is scheduled to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, said Lt Gen Piratch.

His visits to the neighbouring countries would be closely watched by the government, which was embarrassed by his recent trip to Cambodia, whose leader Hun Sen expressed sympathy towards former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and offered him a home in Cambodia.

Gen Chavalit said yesterday that a trip to Burma was a must because of his close ties with both Gen Than Shwe and Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein. “Gen Than Shwe and I are like brothers to each other. For Gen Thein Sein, we are each other’s fans,” he said.

Gen Chavalit said the coalition government was wrong to condemn Burma over opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest.

He said his visit to Malaysia was meant to pursue bilateral cooperation with Kuala Lumpur and to stem the tide of the southern unrest.

Gen Chavalit has claimed that solving the southern strife is one of the reasons why he joined the Puea Thai Party. He would visit the region on Tuesday.

He said building trust is instrumental in bringing peace to the violence-torn region and in promoting peaceful coexistence between the peoples of different cultures and faiths.

He said the government has failed in its mission which has become a cause for concern for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Democrat Party spokesman Buranat Samutarak yesterday warned Gen Chavalit to avoid taking steps which could complicate Thailand’s relations with two of its closest neighbours.

He said Gen Chavalit should refrain from doing things which would allow the two neighbouring countries to interfere in Thailand’s internal affairs.

“I hope that his trips will not cause any discomfort like his visit to Cambodia did,” he said.  http://www.bangkokp ost.com/news/ local/26637/ visits-to- neighbours- a-must-says- chavalit