Kachins to Meet US Delegation
Junta supremo visits Cyclone Nargis devastated delta
Hundreds flee homes in eastern Burma
Myanmar PM to attend first Mekong-Japan summit in Tokyo
Hyundai wins Shwe race
A Look at Myanmar’s History as Emerging Energy Supplier
Myanmar to participate in India car show next year
KIO Calls for Discussion of Panglong Agreement
Karen Fear Military Offensive near Planned Dam
Myanmar to open business representative office in Nanning of China
US President Obama to invite ASEAN leaders to Washington
Time to Inject Pragmatism
Yangon bans environmentally unfriendly plastic bags
Protracted displacement and militarisation in Eastern Burma
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Kachins to Meet US Delegation
By PATRICK KELLY         Monday, November 2, 2009

LAIZA, Kachin State—Representative s of Burma’s ethnic Kachin State are en route to the capital, Naypyidaw, to attend a meeting on Wednesday with a US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell. The delegation marks the first meeting between Kachin ethnic leaders and US officials since World War II.

The armed cease-fire group, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), previously expressed an interest in attending the meeting, but the military government denied it the opportunity to participate.

However, in a compromise arrangement, well-known Kachin peace brokers Rev Dr. Lahtaw Saboi Jum and Dr. Manam Duga will deliver the KIO’s proposal for a federal system in Burma and represent the organization’ s official stance.

“We want to let them know we just want a real federal system,” said KIO Vice Chief of Staff Gen Gun Maw. “We are requesting they [the two Kachin delegates] talk about this on behalf of the ethnic minorities.”

Campbell has said the Obama administration will continue to press for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and for an end to conflicts with ethnic minority groups. Campbell has said he views US delegations as a means to facilitate genuine dialogue between the Burmese government, the democratic opposition and the ethnic minorities.

The delegation will meet individually with ethnic representatives and junta officials, and has requested to meet privately with Suu Kyi. US officials have stated they will not be meeting with junta Snr-Gen Than Shwe on this visit.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org
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Junta supremo visits Cyclone Nargis devastated delta
News – Mizzima News
Monday, 02 November 2009 09:05

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burmese junta supremo Snr. Gen Than Shwe embarked on a visit to regions of the Irrawaddy delta, which had been devastated by Cyclone Nargis, sources in the military establishment said.

The trip was postponed earlier. Snr Gen Than Shwe had in October planned to visit the Irrawaddy delta to boost the morale of victims of Cyclone Nargis, which lashed the country on May 2 and 3 2008. He is to inaugurate cyclone shelters in Pyapone district, but had abruptly postponed his visit.

The junta chief left from Rangoon and is expected to arrive in Pyapone town by lunch time, sources said.

His visit, after the postponement, has remained cloaked in secrecy. Sources said even officials accompanying him were not in the know until October 30.

At least 140,000 people died or went missing and another 2.4 million lives were devastated by Cyclone Nargis, which hit Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon division in full fury last May.

Last month, Than Shwe’s wife, Daw Kyaing Kyaing, who largely resides in Rangoon, despite the seat of power shifting to Naypyitaw in November 2005, is said to have been hospitalized for an unspecified illness.

Meanwhile, Burma is expected to receive United States Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell and US ambassador to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Scot Marciel.

The visiting US officials are unlikely to meet Burma’s military chief Than Shwe, because he has already embarked on a trip to the delta, according to military sources.
http://www.bnionlin e.net/news/ mizzima/7338- junta-supremo- visits-cyclone- nargis-devastate d-delta.html
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Hundreds flee homes in eastern Burma

Nov 2, 2009 (DVB)–Military offensives by the Burmese army against a Karen opposition group have caused “hundreds” of civilians to flee their homes in the past fortnight, a senior Karen official said.

Burmese troops have also been using Karen civilians as army porters, according to Karen National Union (KNU) joint secretary, Saw Hla Ngwe.

“Hundreds of locals have been displaced since the third week of October. Their farms, left unattended, have gone to waste,” he said.

There has been an increase in troop activity in Moe Oo and other townships under KNU control, he added.

The news follows a report released last week by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) that warned of increasing security threats in Karen state.

The destruction of some 3,500 villages by the Burmese army and proxy Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) since 1996 was comparable to Darfur, the report said, “and has been recognised as the strongest single indicator of crimes against humanity in eastern Burma”.

The report also said that around 75,000 people in eastern Burma had been forced to flee their homes in the past year, while more than half a million remain internally displaced.

The Thai government is also said to be concerned about a possible increase in Burmese refugees crossing the border to escape fighting as the government prepares for elections next year. The Washington-based Refugees International (RI) warned last month that Thailand faces a “wave of refugees” prior to the elections.

In June this year around 5,000 Karen refugees crossed into Thailand to escape fighting, although many have since returned.

The conflict between the Burmese government and the KNU has stretched over six decades, and is thought to be one of the world’s longest running.

The DKBA, which split from the KNU in 1995, is alleged to be vying for control of Karen state in lieu of creating a black market trade zone.

Reporting by Thurein Soe http://english. dvb.no/news. php?id=3008
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Myanmar PM to attend first Mekong-Japan summit in Tokyo
www.chinaview. cn 2009-11-02 10:47:36

YANGON, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) — Myanmar Prime Minister General TheinSein will soon visit Japan and attend the first Mekong-Japan Summit to be held in the Japanese capital of Tokyo, an official announcement from Nay Pyi Taw said on Monday without specifying the date of his visit and attendance.

Thein Sein’s trip to Tokyo is to be made at the invitation of the government of Japan, the announcement said.

Myanmar is a member of the six-country Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)-Economic Cooperation. The others sharing the Mekong River are China, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

The GMS has designated the year 2009-2010 as GMS tourism year as part of its economic cooperation in the subregion.

In February this year, a Japan-Mekong exchange year was launched in Myanmar’s former capital of Yangon to showcase the cooperation and friendship between Japan and Myanmar and the event was marked with joint performance by Japanese and Myanmar artists.

In June this year, Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae visited Myanmar, bringing their bilateral relations closer.

Meanwhile, a 30-member Japanese economic delegation, led by Sumitaka Fujita, Chairman of the Economic Cooperation Committee of the Japan-Myanmar Chambers of Commerce and Industry, will be meeting here Monday with businessmen from the Union of Myanmar Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) to seek ways of promoting trade and investment in the country.

Myanmar and Japan have been cooperating in a number of sectors and Japan traditionally stands as Myanmar’s biggest donor country.

Japan’s investment in Myanmar has so far amounted to 216.76 million U.S. dollars in 23 projects since 1988, according to official figures.

The bilateral trade between Myanmar and Japan stood at 341.8 million dollars in the 2008-09 fiscal year, of which Myanmar’s export to Japan amounted to 179.6 million dollars with Japan ranking the 6th in Myanmar’s exporting countries line-up. Myanmar’s import from Japan accounted for 162.2 million dollars.
Editor: Anne Tang   http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2009-11/02/ content_12371684 .htm
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Monday, 02 November, 2009, 02:39 GMT  |
Hyundai wins Shwe race
By Upstream staff

South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries is primed to start a $1.4 billion deal in Burma after operator Daewoo International handed its compatriot the order for the Shwe gas development project.

Hyundai, backed by French company Doris Engineering edged out a rival consortium led by Technip and supported by South Korean fabricator Samsung Heavy Industries and Chinese offshore services giant Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC), as previously reported in Upstream .

Hyundai said today that it will serve the entire project on a turnkey basis, including engineering, procurement, construction and installation.

The outfit will build a 40,000-tonne offshore platform, a susbsea production system, subsea pipelines, an onshore gas terminal, a jetty and a supply base.

Doris is expected to pick up the design work, while Hyundai would carry out fabrication and installation.

Hyundai has sealed $6.4 billion worth of orders for onshore and offshore plants, surpassing its annual new order target of $5.84 billion.

Work is due to begin this year, with first gas planned in May 2013.

The platform and subsea facilities are part of the phase one development of Shwe, along with an onshore gas plant and a 40-inch 825-kilometre onshore gas pipeline to China’s border.

In the future, a compression platform, wellhead platform and an additional manifold could be introduced.

Shwe is in line to be Burma’s third offshore producing field behind the Yadana and Yetagun projects. Daewoo has said the project has independently certified recoverable reserves of up to 7.7 trillion cubic feet of gas in blocks A1 and A3.

On 24 December last year, Daewoo signed a firm gas sales and purchase agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation for the supply of gas from blocks A1 and A3 for about 30 years at a supply rate during the plateau period of 500 MMcfd.

Daewoo owns a 51% operating share in Shwe. Its partners are India’s ONGC Videsh with a 17% stake, Korea Gas Corporation with 8.5%, India’s Gail on 8.5% and Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise with 15%.
last updated: Monday, 02 November, 2009, 02:43 GMT
http://www.upstream online.com/ live/article1973 41.ece
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* ASIA NEWS
* NOVEMBER 2, 2009
A Look at Myanmar’s History as Emerging Energy Supplier
By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter

Sandwiched in between China and India, two of the world’s biggest new sources of energy demand, Myanmar is believed to have significant untapped reserves of natural gas. But its tangled history of government restrictions and, more recently, allegations of human-rights violations have limited outside investment to develop its resources.

The country now known as Myanmar was one of the world’s first oil producers, with some exports as early as 1853. Foreign investment followed, with sizable fields developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In 1962, the country came under the control of a military regime that nationalized the oil and gas industry. Until the late 1980s, the government kept foreign operators out. But beginning in 1988, it liberalized the oil and gas sector to begin allowing outside investment again. Western companies including Total S.A. and Unocal Corp. — later bought by Chevron — entered the market.

Within a few years, however, the U.S. and Europe imposed sanctions against Myanmar’s military regime, preventing other Western companies from staking a claim. In their absence, a host of investors from Asia and elsewhere expanded their operations, including Cnooc Ltd. of China and South Korea’s Daewoo International. The process intensified after 2004, as Myanmar authorities accelerated the opening of areas for exploration.

By 2007, at least 27 companies from 13 countries, including Petronas of Malaysia and ONGC of India, were active in Myanmar’s oil and gas industry, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. The list included numerous companies that are wholly or partially owned by national governments in the region.

Although discoveries of oil have been limited, companies have found sizable deposits of natural gas, which now makes up the bulk of Myanmar’s production. Foreign companies are particularly interested in offshore areas along Myanmar’s western coast in the Bay of Bengal near Bangladesh, where a consortium including Daewoo is developing a major gas asset that will include a pipeline to China.

Human-rights advocates decry the rise in foreign investment in gas in Myanmar because they believe much of the revenue is used by Myanmar’s military regime to support its rule and commit human-rights violations.

According to Human Rights Watch, Myanmar’s military government earned approximately $2.16 billion in 2006 from sales of natural gas, accounting for half the country’s exports and serving as its single largest source of foreign exchange. In September, a Washington, D.C.-based group called EarthRights International said Myanmar’s military siphoned off at least $4.8 billion in revenues from gas in recent years, storing much of the money in foreign banks.

Critics say some of the worst human-rights abuses — including the use of forced labor — occurred in the construction of the country’s last major pipeline project, called Yadana, in the 1990s. EarthRights has compiled reports detailing the allegations and posted them online.

Many foreign companies in Myanmar, including Total and Chevron, have said they are not involved in human-rights abuses and that their investments benefit both the Myanmar people as well as consumers of the energy in other neighboring countries, including Thailand. Total has set up a Web site detailing its operations in the country with more detailed responses to some of the allegations regarding the Yadana project.

As energy demands in the region grow, interest in Myanmar’s untapped reserves — and the debates over whether they should be developed — will only increase.  http://online. wsj.com/article/ SB12571043086552 1395.html? mod=article- outset-box
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Myanmar to participate in India car show next year
www.chinaview. cn 2009-11-02 13:22:55

YANGON, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) — Myanmar traders will participate in an international car show to be held in India’s capital of New Delhi next January to seek international cooperation for the development of Myanmar’s car manufacturing industry, sources with the Union of Myanmar Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) said on Monday.

The six-day car show, which is the 10th of its kind, will run from Jan. 5 to 10.

Joined by car manufacturing companies from 29 Asian countries, the car show is the biggest ever in the region and cars of update model, spare parts, electronic motor cars and its accessories, air conditioning system, and other cars related items will be on display, the sources said.

Meanwhile, India’s largest truck and bus manufacturer — Tata Motors Company will establish a truck manufacturing factory in Myanmar to produce heavy turbo truck assembly and component parts, according to earlier report.

The production will start next month and Tata will become the first Indian automotive firm to operate in Myanmar.
Editor: Anne Tang http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2009-11/02/ content_12372047 .htm
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KIO Calls for Discussion of Panglong Agreement
By RYAN LIBRE    Monday, November 2, 2009

LAIZA, Kachin State — The Oct. 31 deadline for the ethnic crease-fire groups in Burma to disarm has passed quietly in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) capital of Laiza.

Observers are focused now on the ongoing KIO-junta negotiations.

After the junta rejected all nine negotiation proposals submitted by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the KIO has changed its negotiation tactics.
A Kachin soldier on duty at a guard post at Laiza. (Photo: Ryan Libre)

The tenth proposal—appealing to the principles outlined in the Panglong Agreement—appears to have put the junta on the defensive by asking it to respect a power-sharing agreement signed by the government and ethnic groups in 1947.

The Panglong Agreement, a one-page document, states the central government will not “operate in respect to the Frontier Areas in any matter which would deprive any portion of those areas of the autonomy which it now enjoys in internal administration.”

From the first Constitution in 1947 until today, the promise of internal autonomy for the outlying ethnic areas has never been fully realized, say Kachin sources.

KIO Vice Chairman Gauri Zau Seng, KIA Vice Chief of Staff Gen Gun Maw and others are expected to meet with the junta’s Northern Command in Myitkyina during the first week of November to discuss the latest proposal. The meeting could be the first of many to discuss the meaning of the agreement and how it might apply to the current political negotiations.

This is the first time the military has been willing to discuss the Panglong Agreement since seizing power in 1961, say observers.

A Kachin cultural and political historian said, “If you give us the full meaning of that agreement—the human rights and ethnic minority rights stated on that paper—we will surrender.”

A KIO source said, “Now we are back on the right track, but we are not sure how far it will go.”
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org

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Karen Fear Military Offensive near Planned Dam
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER     Monday, November 2, 2009

BANGKOK — With the annual monsoon rains ending, there is a growing fear among the Karen ethnic minority living along military-ruled Burma’s eastern border of a dry season offensive. The most vulnerable are villagers residing in the vicinity of the controversial Hat Gyi dam.

The Burmese military will use its proxy force, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), to target the area along the Salween River that is essential to the Hat Gyi dam, environmentalists and human rights activists told IPS.

Besides driving out the unarmed Karen civilians, the offensive will also target the fifth brigade of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), currently camped along the Salween River, which flows past the border that Burma shares with Thailand, they added.

The KNLA is the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), which has been waging Asia’s longest separatist struggle—since 1949—to carve out an independent state for the Karen minority in Burma, also known as Myanmar. The DKBA is a breakaway group, splitting from the KNU in 1995 and joining forces with Burma’s oppressive regime.

“The attacks in the fifth brigade area to defeat the KNU and clear the area for the dam will result in thousands of Karen fleeing across the Thai border as refugee,” said David Thakerbaw, vice president of the KNU.” It will lead to more human rights violations, adding more suffering to what the people have already endured.”

“People in that area are opposed to the Hay Gyi dam for this reason,” he added during a telephone interview from an undisclosed location along the Thai-Burma border. “The dam area will become more militarized; the Burmese army will bring in more troops to keep the site under their control.”

Such a grim forecast stems from what happened in June, soon after the monsoon rains broke. The Tatmadaw, as Burma’s over 400,000-strong military is called, launched an offensive with the DKBA, vanquishing the important seventh brigade of the KNU. The surprise attack forced over 4,000 already displaced Karens to flee into Thailand.

This onslaught and the link it had to the planned Hat Gyi dam, which the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has agreed to partially finance, prompted the KNU to ask the Thai government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to withdraw Bangkok’s support for the dam.

“There has been no proper survey to assess the environmental and social damage that the dam might cause,” wrote General Tamla Baw, president of the KNU, to Abhisit in an early August letter.

“The building of the dam at this time would bring many thousands of the junta’s troops who would perpetrate widespread human rights violations, such as forced labor, torture, extra-judicial executions, rape of women, looting of property (and) extortion.”
“The plan of the (Burmese regime) is to control KNLA positions for providing security to the construction of the dam,” revealed the letter, seen by IPS. “(This area) will become the centre for EGAT to transport construction materials to Yinbaing village, which is at the dam site.”

“I would like to appeal to you and your government not to repatriate the Karen refugees in Thailand and not to initiate construction of the Hat Gyi dam,” added Gen Tamla Baw.

The recent flow of Karen refugees from Burma added to the already 120,000 refugees who have been living in camps on the Thai side of the border for over two decades. Within Burma, the plight of the Karens is as dire. They are among the estimated 540,000 internally displaced people seeking refuge in forests and in the mountains after fleeing attacks by the Tatmadaw.

“The highest rates of recent displacement were reported in northern Karen areas and southern Shan Sate,” the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, a humanitarian organization helping Burma’s ethnic minorities fleeing into Thailand, revealed this week. “Almost 60,000 Karen villagers are hiding in the mountains of Kyaukkgi, Thandaung and Papun Township, and a third of these civilians fled from artillery attacks from Burmese army patrols during the past year.”

The Karen, who make up an estimated seven million people of Burma’s 56 million population, are one of the largest ethnic minorities in this South-east Asian nation. The Shan and the Kachin are among the other groups in a country that has a patchwork of some 130 ethnic communities.

Burma’s military has been waging wars with nearly 20 ethnic rebel groups since it gained independence from the British colonizers in 1948. The Karen and militants in the Shan area have refused to kowtow to the military regime—unlike the 17 other ethnic separatist movements that signed ceasefire agreements two decades ago—consequently denying the Burmese regime total control of its land area.

Burma’s military regime has attracted interest from China and EGAT, Thailand’s state-run power utility, to invest in a cascade of dams along the 2,800 kilometer-long Salween, the longest untouched body of water flowing through South-east Asia. Its source is the mountains of Tibet, then coursing through China’s southern Yunan province, enters Burma, touches the Thai-Burma border, and then flows out into the Andaman Sea.

In June 2006, Burma’s department of electricity, EGAT and China’s Sinohydro Corporation, signed an agreement to build the Hat Gyi dam, which is expected to stand 33 meters tall. Much of its 1360 megawatts of power will be destined to quench Thailand’s demand for energy.

“Thailand’s involvement in this dam means that the roads with close and direct access to the Thai border have become important for the Burmese military. That is why the dam area was targeted in June,” said Paul Seint Twa, the director of Karen River Watch, an environment group based along the Thai-Burma border. “The Burmese army needs to make the dam site more attractive to the Thai investors.”

Till such attacks in June, the access road to the dam site was more circuitous—passing through central Burma—or through “areas held by the KNU, which controlled all movement,” added Seint Twa during a telephone interview from the Thai-Burma border. “But even after the June attacks, the area is not completely under the Burmese army’s control.”

The heavy human and environment cost to build the dam is turning the heat on the Abhisit administration. “The government has not decided. It is waiting for recommendations from a committee set up to listen to the concerns,” said Pianporn Deetes, the coordinator of Living River Siam, a Thai green group based in the northern city of Chiang Mai. “Activists want the government to halt this project, but EGAT wants it to be built.”

The message to Bangkok from Thai environmentalists is the same as the Karen. “There is a link between the conflict and the dam,” Pianporn told IPS. “Our field surveys show the area around the dam is becoming more militarized.”
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org

http://www.irrawadd y.org/article. php?art_id= 17111
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Myanmar to open business representative office in Nanning of China
www.chinaview. cn 2009-11-01 13:17:25              Print

YANGON, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) — Myanmar will open a business representative office in Nanning, capital of Southwest China’ Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, next year in a bid to promote business links between the two countries especially with the region, sources with Myanmar’s biggest business organization said on Sunday.

The Myanmar representative office will be jointly set up by the Ministry of Commerce and the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).

The four-storey Myanmar representative office in Nanning, built since 2007 and will be leased to its national entrepreneurs, will display gems and gem products, forest and marine products and agricultural produces, the sources said.

According to the UMFCCI, Myanmar won some investment memorandums of understanding from Chinese companies during the recent China-ASEAN Expo held in Nanning. These prospective investments include those in the sectors of mining, hydropower, agriculture, value-added wood processing and gem production.

There were 242 entrepreneurs of 83 Myanmar companies taking part in the five-day China-ASEAN expo held in Nanning late last month.

These entrepreneurs were from such sectors as agriculture, fishery, industry, manufacturing, gems, traditional handicrafts, forestry and hotel and tourism.

Myanmar booth on display at the expo highlighted the Muse border town as a town of facilitating trade and cooperation in levying tariff.

China’s Nanning and Myanmar’s Yangon established friendship city relationship in July this year.

According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar bilateral trade amounted to 2.626 billion dollars in 2008, up 26.4percent. Of the total, China’s export to Myanmar took 1.978 billion dollars.
Editor: Li Xianzhi  http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2009-11/01/ content_12368674 .htm
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US President Obama to invite ASEAN leaders to Washington
Posted : Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:46:43 GMT
By : dpa
Category : Asia (World)
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Bangkok – US President Barack Obama plans to invite the 10 leaders of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to Washington next year to further strengthen ties with the region, media reports said Sunday. “Kurt Campbell, the assistant state secretary for East Asia and Pacific, revealed during an informal talk with international participants attending a conference in Washington on Burma (Myanmar) last week that Obama would make an official (invitation) announcement during the upcoming ASEAN-US summit in Singapore,” The Nation newspaper reported.

Campbell is scheduled to visit Myanmar this week to discuss Washington’s “re-engagement” policy with the pariah state, a member of ASEAN since 1997.

Obama will meet with seven of the ASEAN leaders in Singapore on November 15 after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

APEC’s 21 members include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taipei, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.

APEC excludes ASEAN members Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Since taking office in January, Obama has pursued a policy of re-engagement with South-East Asia, a region increasingly sidelined by the faster economic growth and diplomatic clout of Asian giants China and India.

In Singapore, the ASEAN-US meeting is expected to discuss the possibility of a free trade agreement between the US and South- East Asia, The Nation said.

Copyright DPA http://www.earthtim es.org/articles/ show/292702, us-president- obama-to- invite-asean- leaders-to- washington. html
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COMMENTARY
Time to Inject Pragmatism
By AUNG ZAW      Monday, November 2, 2009

This week a high level US delegation led by two senior officials will hold talks with the Burmese military regime and detained Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and his deputy, Scot Marciel, will be in Burma on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet Burmese junta officials and opposition leaders, including executive members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and ethnic leaders.

The visit is part of the Obama administration’ s new policy of “direct engagement” with the regime and opposition leaders. As Kurt Campbell admitted during a congressional committee hearing in Washington, it will be a “long, difficult and painful” journey and “step-by-step process.” Braving reality, the US will be testing the water.

Any dramatic change or breakthrough is unlikely during this visit, which can nevertheless be seen as one small step toward a deeper engagement with Burma, if pragmatism is still alive among top Burmese leaders.

Likewise, Burmese inside and outside the country are cautiously waiting to see what effect the US engagement policy will have on the stubborn regime. They ask: will there be any meaningful outcome?

Suu Kyi herself is “keenly monitoring” the visit and is ready to exchange her views with the visiting US officials, according to her lawyers, who met her recently.

The US remains a supporter of the democracy movement. The Burmese opposition inside and outside the country continues to count on the US and many believe the US has a negotiating role to play in Burma’s political deadlock.

Now the regime itself expressed willingness to engage the US. The question is to what end and at what cost?

It is important to note that the regime leaders want to counterbalance China’s growing influence in Burma. Depending solely on China is not an option for the regime leaders, who in the past forged a “neutral foreign policy” and have received financial and military aid and training from the West, including the US.

The irony is that the regime leaders and Burmese who opposed military rule have one thing in common: they don’t want Burma heavily dependent on China, which has been seen as a strong ally of the brutal military regime since 1988.

It is doubtful, however, that the regime will deliver anything of substance in the political arena, even though it wants US support for its 2010 election process.

Kurt Campbell has said: “We will take a measured approach to the 2010 elections until we can assess the electoral conditions and know whether opposition and ethnic groups will be able to participate.”

Campbell then added: “We are skeptical that the elections will be either free or fair, but we will stress to the Burmese the conditions that we consider necessary for a credible electoral process.”

It is highly unlikely that the regime will agree to Washington’s request for inclusive, free and fair elections and the release of all 2,000 political prisoners, including Suu Kyi. If it does, it can be considered a meaningful move and the US will then no doubt ease its sanctions.

The manipulative regime leaders have made small token gestures in advance of Campbell’s visit and the upcoming summit meeting between the US and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore.

Last week, at the Asean summit in Thailand, Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein said that Suu Kyi had a “role to play” in the country’s national reconciliation efforts and in reaching a political resolution.

After the regime successfully extended her detention period after the mockery of a trial, Suu Kyi met with Labor Minister Aung Kyi, the junta’s liaison officer. It was their second meeting since Suu Kyi sent a letter to Snr Gen Than Shwe expressing a desire to work together with the regime to help lift sanctions.

Suu Kyi was also allowed to meet with diplomats from the US, Britain and Australia to discuss their countries’ sanctions policies.

The British ambassador, Andrew Heyn, said: “It was clear that this was a fact-finding exercise and that she had not yet reached a policy position.”

The ambassador said Suu Kyi wanted to know more about what sanctions are in place, what led to the measures being imposed and whether any assessment had been made of the impact of sanctions on the ground.

Heyn said: “We would also be encouraged if the regime permitted her to meet her party members, and a broader range of Burmese and international interlocutors.” But the regime has so far denied Suu Kyi’s request to meet her top executive party members—employing its “divide and rule” strategy, effectively cutting off body and head.

The US engagement policy is broad – aside from pressing for a meaningful move, it focuses on security issues, anti-drug measures, health and environmental protection and the continuing search for the remains of US servicemen registered as missing in action in World War II.

Despite the doubts, it is important to maintain cautious optimism about the US policy’s chances of success. Kurt Campbell is no Ibrahim Gambari, one of a procession of UN envoys who have achieved virtually nothing over the past 20 years.

Pragmatism is needed now. The US is moving fast to engage Burma. In return, it remains to be seen how fast the regime responds with meaningful moves of its own.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org

http://www.irrawadd y.org/opinion_ story.php? art_id=17113
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Yangon bans environmentally unfriendly plastic bags
Asia-Pacific News

Nov 2, 2009, 8:56 GMT

Yangon – Myanmar’s former capital of Yangon has banned the manufacture and import of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic bags for environmental reasons, media reports said Monday.

Businesses will be banned from manufacturing, importing, trading in or distributing HDPE plastic bags from November 30, the Myanmar Times English-language weekly reported.

The ban, announced by the Yangon branch of the ruling junta, does not apply to low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) plastic bags, which disintegrate more quickly.

‘It takes about 100 years for HDPE bags to break down due to their high density. It is a major cause of environmental pollution,’ said Ohn Than, the manager of a plastic factory in Yangon.

Yangon will be the third city in Myanmar to introduce such a ban, after Mandalay, in central Myanmar, and Nay Pyi Taw, the ruling junta’s new capital as of late 2004.

Myanmar environmental groups have warned that alternatives to HDPE need to be found to make the campaign successful.

‘We need to take into consideration consumers. We have to replace HDPE bags with another convenient form of packaging that they can use,’ said Phone Win, from Mingalar Myanmar, a non-governmental organization that runs several environmental projects in Myanmar.

‘Only when people participate actively will the programme be successful,’ he told the Myanmar Times.

LDPE and PP plastic bags are considerably more expensive that HDPE bags.

The government has touted natural alternatives to plastic, such as bags made from banana leaves, lotus leaves, paper or reeds.
http://www.monsters andcritics. com/news/ asiapacific/ news/article_ 1510773.php/ Yangon-bans- environmentally- unfriendly- plastic-bags
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Protracted displacement and militarisation in Eastern Burma

Source: Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC)

Date: 01 Nov 2009

As the sixtieth anniversary of the Geneva Conventions is recognized, the relevance of international humanitarian law continues to b challenged by the Burmese junta. Despite ratifying these rules of war, the Burmese Army persists in indiscriminately attaching civilians and causing massive displacement with apparent impunity.

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) has been collaborating with ethnic community-based organisations to document internal displacement in eastern Burma since 2002. This year’s survery updates information about the scale and distribution of displacement in 38 townships and reviews trends through analysis of interviews with over 3,100 households between 2005 and 2009. It also includes a conflict assessment based on community consultations in areas of ongoing fighting as well as ceasefire areas.

Full_Report (pdf* format – 5.9 Mbytes)
(*) Get Adobe Acrobat Viewer (free) http://www.reliefwe b.int/rw/ rwb.nsf/db900SID /SNAA-7XE9LK? OpenDocument