France shrugs off Suu Kyi release claims
Published: Oct. 6, 2010 at 2:04 PM

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) — The possible release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest by authorities in Myanmar is in no way “a measure of clemency,” French authorities say.

Suu Kyi’s name was apparently added to the voter list for the elections scheduled for November. She has been under house arrest for nearly 15 years. Her National League for Democracy won 1990 elections though the military leadership refused to sanction the results.

Authorities announced last week they would release Suu Kyi before the November vote. The French Embassy in Washington shrugged off the move by the military junta in Myanmar.

“In no way at all can this be deemed a measure of clemency on the part of the junta,” an embassy statement read. “Indeed, Aung San Suu Kyi’s term of house arrest ends on Nov. 13 this year.”

Myanmar said the election is meant to usher in a new era of civilian leadership in the country. Critics complain the election process is controlled by military authorities, who are guaranteed a 20 percent allocation of the seats in parliament.

Suu Kyi is challenging her detention, though the opposition Democratic Voice of Burma says she isn’t allowed to discuss the case with her lawyer.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Factbox: Myanmar’s shift to democracy
Tue Oct 5, 2010 1:00am EDT

(Reuters) -  Myanmar will hold its first election in two decades on November 7 as part of a process critics say has been carefully crafted to ensure the military retains its five-decade grip on power.

Below are details about Myanmar’s stop-start journey to the election and how the country will choose a president and form civilian-led legislatures, a judiciary and a new central government, according to its 2008 constitution.

LONG ROAD TO ELECTIONS

– The National League for Democracy party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a 1990 election with a landslide, securing 392 of the 485 parliamentary seats in the first multi-party general election in 30 years. The military refused to hand over power, saying a new constitution first had to be drafted.

– A National Convention was formed in 1993 to draft a constitution, made up mostly of people hand-picked by the military, but the process was fraught with adjournments, walkouts, bickering and cries of foul play.

– Then Prime Minister Khin Nyunt announced a 7-step “roadmap to democracy” in 2003 but gave no firm timetable. The junta appointed a 54-member constitution-drafting commission in 2007.

– The government announced in 2008 that it would hold an election in 2010. A constitutional referendum was held in May 2008, during which 92.48 percent of people voted in favor of the charter, with a voter turnout of 98.1 percent, the junta said.

– Election laws were announced in March 2010. The timing of the poll was not announced until August 13, when the regime set the November 7 date, giving parties little time to prepare.

PARLIAMENTARY POLITICS

– Polls will be held nationwide to elect civilian representatives for legislative assemblies, or “Hluttaws,” at national and regional level, for five-year terms. At least 27 million of Myanmar’s 50 million people are eligible voters.

– A lower house of parliament, known as the Pyithu Hluttaw, will have 440 seats with representatives elected in 330 constituencies. A senate, or Amyotha Hluttaw, will have 224 representatives. There will be up to 900 seats in 14 regional assemblies of varying sizes.

– Voters will cast three ballots, one for the lower house, one for the senate and one for a regional assembly. Seats in each constituency will be contested on a first-past-the-post basis, with voters allowed to choose one candidate for each chamber.

– The role of the assemblies will be to pass and debate legislation, although not all presidential decisions will require legislative approval. The Hluttaws will choose their own house speakers and committee members. Parliamentarians are guaranteed freedom of speech and voting.

ROLES FOR THE MILITARY

– A quarter of the seats in the lower house, the senate, and the seven state and seven regional assemblies have been reserved for serving military officers, appointed by the armed forces chief.

– Former military personnel are allowed to become lawmakers upon resignation from the armed forces. Scores of soldiers, among them some 27 government ministers, have recently retired to join pro-junta political parties to contest the polls.

– Serving military officers will be nominated by the commander-in-chief of Defence Services and placed in charge of the defense, interior and border affairs ministries. The president can also select military officers to head other ministries.

– The president would grant the commander-in-chief full control of the country during a state of emergency, including complete legislative, executive and judicial power.

– With a perceived threat of “disintegration of the union, disintegration of national solidarity or loss of sovereign power” the commander-in-chief can seize control without the president’s blessing.

POWERFUL PRESIDENT

– The head of state of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, as the country will be called, will be a president, not elected by the people but chosen by a Presidential Electoral College consisting of members of both the lower house and senate.

– The president’s term will be five years, with a maximum two terms. Two vice presidents will be selected from among unsuccessful presidential candidates.

– The president, who must be a civilian, will appoint government ministers, the attorney general and chief justice. The lower house can only challenge the president’s appointments if nominees are not deemed qualified.

– The president or his office is not answerable to parliament or judicial courts, provided he acts within the constitution. The president has the power to grant pardons and amnesties, offer honorary titles, appoint and remove state officials and sign or revoke international treaties.

HANDING OVER THE REINS

– The constitution has not stipulated a timeframe for the handover of power and the junta will remain in charge until it takes place.

– Hluttaws are likely to formalized, a president chosen and a government appointed within a few weeks of the election, perhaps as long as three months. Parliament must convene its first regular session within 90 days of the polls.

(Compiled by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Thirty killed in Myanmar boat accident, many missing
06 Oct 2010 15:58:32 GMT

YANGON, Oct 6 (Reuters) – At least 30 people were killed and about two dozen are missing after a ferry carrying mostly students and teachers capsized in Myanmar’s southern Irrawaddy delta region on Wednesday, witnesses and authorities said.

Most of the passengers were young students travelling to watch a football match when the overloaded boat sank in Labutta township, 160 km (100 miles) southwest of Yangon, the commercial capital of the former Burma.

Boat accidents are common in the impoverished army-ruled country where several sinkings or collisions involving overloaded vessels occur each year. About 40 people were killed when a passenger boat sank in the Yway River in July 2008.

Can an “election of generals” help reform Myanmar?
By Martin Petty – Tue Oct 5, 8:31 am ET

BANGKOK (Reuters) – By holding an election to legitimize decades of military rule, Myanmar’s power-hungry generals may have inadvertently created a framework for a democratic system they might not be able to control.

An army-dominated political process will culminate in November 7 polls dubbed an “election of generals” and widely dismissed as a sham, but there is hope that the system could spur reforms and gradually take power away from authoritarian military officers.

For now, few expect any change to the status quo, just more suits and a lot less army uniforms. Most analysts say a transfer of power to civilians — whether intentional or not — would be an evolutionary process of at least a decade.

“Of course the election won’t be free and fair, but there’s a chance here that over time, more political space will be created,” said Georgetown University’s David Steinberg, a veteran Myanmar analyst who has studied the former British colony since before the generals seized power in a 1962 coup.

“There’s potential for improvements to the economy and for the first time in decades, a parliament will convene and normal people will have some voice.”

But it’s almost certain that voice will be silent at first.

Myanmar’s complex and verbose constitution, which few Burmese admit to having read, appears to be a blueprint for cementing the military’s grip on power, with recently retired generals poised to win scores of parliament and senate seats, in addition to the 25 percent quota reserved for serving soldiers.

Restrictive election laws and steep registration fees mean pro-democracy parties will present no challenge to two well-heeled pro-military parties, whose lawmakers are sure to choose a powerful army-backed president whose policies and ministerial appointments will sail through parliament.

But even with the generals still at the helm, analysts expect they will initiate some reforms — perhaps self-serving — in the resource-rich country’s ailing economy after decades of mismanagement, corruption and crippling western sanctions.

WISER POLICIES?

“The election might help with the overall civilianization of the government and so lead to slightly wiser economic policies,” said Josh Kurlantzick, a Southeast Asia expert at the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations think tank. He said, however, it was unlikely much would change in the near-term.

A privatization drive is underway, although the process has been extremely opaque and fraught with cronyism, benefitting the junta and its allies among a wealthy civilian elite set to become the country’s economic powerbrokers for years to come.

There are now 19 private banks — four owned by tycoons close to the generals and targeted by western sanctions — which will provide more branches, cash machines and small loans, although Australian economist Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert, dismissed the banks as “cash-boxes” and “playthings” for their rich owners.

But the mass selloff of about 300 state assets this year in areas like banking, telecommunications, transport and shipping may not be all bad. It has transferred vital sectors away from the direct control of notoriously corrupt and inept generals.

Perhaps of more benefit to the population are plans to improve agriculture, which employs about 70 percent of the population and accounts for more than half of Myanmar’s economic output. Under British rule, Myanmar was once the world’s biggest rice exporter and is aiming to become a top exporter again. It shipped more than 1 million metric tons in 2009.

Agriculture currently receive only 0.4 percent of credit created, but this is expected to change as efforts are made to improve farming practices, increase output and boost farmers’ incomes in what could be early populist measures by the military.

MILITARY MODERATES

Most analysts point to the formation of 14 regional assemblies as the best hope for change and perhaps a willingness by the military to loosen its grip and allow more civilian input at local level while still retaining central power.

Others are hoping moderates will emerge in the military who one day start to civilianize the system by bringing on board educated technocrats or pursue their own individual agendas by forming political alliances with powerful public figures.

But Western countries have indicated that substantial reforms will be required before economic sanctions in place because of the government’s poor human rights record are lifted.

A first step would be to release an estimated 2,200 detained political activists or opposition politicians including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the figurehead of the struggle against military rule.

Suu Kyi’s house arrest term is due to expire six days after the polls and some analysts believe the generals might release her and some other political prisoners when they are no longer deemed threats to what appears to be an transfer of sovereign power to themselves.

But few expect any substantive progress while the wily 78-year-old junta supremo Than Shwe and sidekick Maung Aye, 72, remain in charge either directly, as president and vice president, or as puppet masters from behind the scenes.

“As long as these two guys are around, no one else can have a say in the decision making,” said a Burmese academic, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions.

“But after that, things will eventually change for the better. It might be a matter of unintended consequence. The military can’t create democracy and take it over forever, lock stock and smoking barrel.”

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi sues to keep her party intact
Tue Oct 5, 5:31 am ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday launched a legal battle against the ruling military junta, suing to keep her political party intact after it was disbanded earlier this year under Myanmar’s new party registration law, her lawyer said.

Suu Kyi filed suit against the ruling military council, seeking a High Court declaration that her National League for Democracy remains a legal political party.

The NLD officially lost its legal status on May 6 because it failed to reregister in order to take part in November general elections. The party is boycotting the polls, which it considers unfair and undemocratic. Among the various restrictions imposed under recently enacted election laws, Suu Kyi would not be allowed to remain a member of her own party. The military-backed constitution already has clauses that would bar her from holding political office.

The lawsuit appears to be largely symbolic since Myanmar’s courts invariably adhere to the junta’s policies, especially on political matters. Previous appeals by Suu Kyi to the courts, on matters such as her detention, have been shunted aside or dismissed.

Nyan Win, who is Suu Kyi’s lawyer as well as a spokesman for her party, told reporters that the state Election Commission does not have the authority to dissolve the NLD, which was registered under a previous party registration law. Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory in the last election in 1990, but was not allowed to take power by the military.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been locked away for 15 of the past 21 years. Her latest term of 18 months’ house arrest is due to expire on Nov. 13, just days after the scheduled Nov. 7 general election.

The Canadian Press – Asia, EU leaders call on Myanmar to release detainees, but do not press for Suu Kyi’s freedom
By The Associated Press (CP) – Tue Oct 5

BRUSSELS — Leaders of 48 Asian and European countries urged the military junta of Myanmar to release political prisoners before general elections next month.

The leaders attending the biannual Asian-European Union summit, or ASEM, said they “touched upon the issue” of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who has been under house arrest for 15 of the last 21 years, but did not specifically call for her freedom.

But a statement concluding the two-day conference said the release of detainees would help the elections be “more inclusive, participatory and transparent.”

The position was included in a “Chair’s Statement,” which meant it did not require consensus or Myanmar’s agreement.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy was declared illegal after it failed to register by last May to take part in the election, scheduled for Nov. 7. The NLD is boycotting the vote, which it considers undemocratic. Suu Kyi filed a suit earlier Tuesday with Myanmar’s High Court to declare that the NLD remains a legal party.

Suu Kyi’s latest term of 18 months’ house arrest is due to expire on Nov. 13, but it was unclear if her detention would be extended by Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the junta chief.

The ASEM statement urged the government to talk with all parties in a process of national reconciliation, saying a free and fair election would be a step toward “a legitimate, constitutional, civilian system of government.”

Protecting biodiversity will ‘help’ ASEAN economies: experts
Wed Oct 6, 10:09 am ET

MANILA (AFP) – Southeast Asian nations should encourage businesses to protect the region’s endangered plants and animals by showing profit can be made from biodiversity, experts said Wednesday.

Between 30-40 percent of all animal and plant species in the region could soon be extinct without action to protect them, said Rodrigo Fuentes of the think tank Southest Asian Nations (ASEAN) Centre for Biodiversity.

“You’ve got to involve the private sector and you’ve got to create a market mechanism that will encourage business to go into that,” Fuentes said at an ASEAN environment forum in Manila.

ASEAN groups the economies of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, a market of about half a billion people.

It covers only three percent of the world’s surface but has 20 percent of all its plant and animal species.

Govindan Parayil, a director of the Tokyo-based United Nations University, said there was profit to be made in “bio-prospecting,” where new drugs, foods or materials can be produced from local wildlife.

However he said special measures must be taken to ensure that local communities also profit from any scientific discoveries made.

Private sector inputs in “green growth” industries like non-conventional energy could also boost ASEAN’s manufacturing sector, Parayil added.

“We usually think business will not listen because this not a very profitable area to get into (but) there are great opportunities here for business in green growth,” Paraynil said.

Raman Letchumanan, head of the ASEAN secretariat’s environment division, called for wider use of “eco-labelling,” as this encourages consumers to buy such products.

Eco-labelling, where products get a special tag after meeting high environmental standards, is already being done in Singapore and parts of Indonesia and Thailand, Letchumanan added.

Businesses must also be convinced to adapt practices that can cut costs through more efficient use of energy and raw materials, the experts said.

The experts warned that ASEAN could not copy the high-consumption model of the United States without suffering serious environmental damage.

Christian Freedom International Releases Documentary Portraying Reality of Burma’s Civil War
Contact: Craig McDonald, Christian Freedom International, 906-253-2336

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich., Oct. 6 /Christian Newswire/ — Christian Freedom International (CFI), a Michigan-based organization that assists persecuted Christians around the world, has announced the release of “Banned in Burma,” a DVD documentary that depicts the violent reality of Burma’s ongoing civil war.

The “Banned in Burma” film features a visit to the war-torn region by Bluetree, an Irish Christian rock band whose popularity in the U.S. skyrocketed with the release of their hit song, “God of this City.” Bluetree became outspoken supporters of CFI and their mission to the persecuted church after visiting the organization’s “Crisis in Burma” tent exhibition at the Big Ticket festival in Gaylord, Michigan last summer. Overcome by the magnitude of Burma’s humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of thousands and displaced thousands more over the past six decades, the members of Bluetree were compelled to witness the devastation for themselves, despite the risk of entering such a restricted nation.

The band was accompanied into the war-torn region in February by CFI president Jim Jacobson, who has personally made countless trips into Burma over the past 10 years to help deliver Bibles and humanitarian supplies to suffering ethnic Christians. Jacobson and the band bribed Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers with food and whiskey in exchange for access to a refugee camp, but it was the real threat of capture and execution by the Burmese army that reminded the men of how just how dangerous life is in Burma for Westerners, and Christians in particular.

By the end of the trip, however, the band had performed for over 15,000 Karen refugees at the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand, as well as an audience at CFI’s Vocational School and a local church in Mae Sot.

CFI operates a number of schools, medical clinics and orphanages in Burma and Thailand for persecuted ethnic Christians who suffer under genocidal persecution at the hands of Burma’s military government, and urges the international community to denounce the junta’s widespread human rights abuses against its own citizens. “Banned in Burma” is CFI’s latest project to highlight a conflict that has become the longest-running civil war in human history.

To watch a trailer of “Banned in Burma” or to order a copy, visit www.christianfreedom.org.

The Parliament – EU urged to press Burma on ‘fair and free’ elections
By Martin Banks – 6th October 2010

The EU has been urged to press Burma to ensure that its elections next month are “transparent and open.”

The appeal comes ahead of a meeting on Wednesday in parliament between the assembly’s president Jerzy Buzek and José Ramos-Horta, president of the democratic republic of Timor Leste.

Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is also due to give a keynote address to parliament’s mini-plenary on Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Portuguese MEP Maria da Graca Carvalho appealed to the EU to “put pressure” on Burma to ensure the elections are “fair and open.”

The EPP deputy, who was flanked by Ramo-Horta, said, “We are very worried about the current situation in Burma, in particular the violation of human rights.

“We want parliament to push the commission more in calling for a fair and free election.

“Some member states, including the UK and Czech Republic, have already come out publicly and stated much the same thing but we have not heard much, thus far, from the EU side.

“The time is right now for the EU to produce a clear position on Burma and, in particular, these elections.”

The demand comes after it was revealed earlier this week that detained Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has filed a legal challenge against the dissolution of her political party, the National League for Democracy.

Burma’s military government formally abolished the NLD in May for failing to register for elections due on 7 November.

The party is boycotting the poll, which it says will be a sham.

It won a landslide victory in Burma’s last general election 20 years ago, but was never allowed to take power.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is ruled by a military junta which suppresses almost all dissent and wields absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions.

The generals and the army stand accused of gross human rights abuses, including the forcible relocation of civilians and the widespread use of forced labour, which includes children.

EarthTimes – ASEAN head hopes for new beginning after election in Myanmar
Posted : Wed, 06 Oct 2010 13:39:49 GMT

Singapore – The head of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday said next month’s general election in junta-ruled Myanmar could start a new era in the country, offering hopes of better integrating it into the international community.

Myanmar’s military junta, denounced for its human rights abuses and failure to implement democratic reforms, has set elections for November 7, the first in 20 years.

But it introduced election laws that bar many top opposition figures from running, including Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years under detention.

“There will be a new Myanmar after the election because there will be a new group of people,” ASEAN’s Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan told a forum on Asian politics in Singapore.

There would be a new beginning, “probably not as new as we would like it to be,” but it was going to be a start on a different level, he said.

“That would probably make it easier (for Myanmar) to engage with the international community,” Surin said.

“Let us hope for the best,” he said.

Myanmar has been ASEAN’s albatross ever since the country joined the organisation, which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, in 1997.

ASEAN member states’ position of non-interference in one another’s internal affairs has undermined any past efforts to tackle Myanmar questions.

Myanmar would like to play a bigger role in ASEAN and to chair the association, Surin said, adding that “in order to do that it will have to do something inside.”

He said that the expectations and the pressure on Myanmar would have an effect, “not at the speed that we would like but it is working and evolving.”

Toyota Affiliate Exits Suzuki Venture in Myanmar
October 05, 2010, 5:08 AM EDT
By Makiko Kitamura

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — A Toyota Motor Corp. affiliate has sold its share of a Myanmar venture, majority-owned by Suzuki Motor Corp., that made Toyota a target of criticism for its ties to the country’s military junta.

Toyota Tsusho Corp. sold its stake in June in the venture, which builds cars and motorcycles with Myanmar’s government, because of the country’s poor human-rights record, Reuters reported earlier today. The Nagoya, Japan-based trading company is about 22 percent owned by Toyota Motor, the world’s biggest carmaker.

Katsutoshi Yokoi, a Toyota Tsusho spokesman in Tokyo, confirmed the stake sale, declining to specify the timing, reason, or stake size, citing an agreement with parties involved.

The venture, known as Myanmar Suzuki Motor, produced 12,000 vehicles in 2006, the report said, citing a researcher at investment fund Domini Social Investments LLC. Toyota Motor’s ties to the venture drew criticism from human-rights groups including London-based Burma Campaign UK, which included the carmaker and Suzuki in its “dirty list” of companies that do business with Myanmar’s regime.

Toyota Motor halted exports to Iran in June after the U.S. and the United Nations imposed sanctions in response to the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program.

Suzuki raised its stake in the Myanmar venture to 70 percent from 60 percent as early as this June, said Ei Mochizuki, a spokesman at the Hamamatsu, Japan-based carmaker. Suzuki has no plan to exit the venture, which began production in 1999, Mochizuki said.

October 07, 2010
Mainichi Daily News – Myanmar blasted in ASEM talks for detaining political prisoners

BRUSSELS (Kyodo) — The military-ruled Myanmar was blasted Tuesday by several countries from the European Union for detaining political prisoners, and many fear the upcoming election in the country will not be free and fair.

Among the countries that made strong remarks criticizing Myanmar at the Asia-Europe Meeting in Brussels were Britain and the Netherlands, while Mongolia, from the Asian side, joined hands with them to blame the junta government, diplomatic sources told Kyodo News.

Britain said that the current government in Myanmar is a military regime and has failed to cooperate with the United Nations, according to the sources.

London was also quoted as telling other ASEM leaders that more than 2,000 people are still under detention and thus it is unlikely that the “election will be free and fair,” saying it is “a complete disgrace.”

In concluding the remarks during the summit talks, Britain suggested that Myanmar should release the country’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, the sources said.

The Netherlands also urged Myanmar to attach importance to freedom of movement and freedom of expression and to release those under detention, while Mongolia questioned Myanmar why there have been so many people being detained in prisons and whether Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy will be allowed to take part in the Nov. 7 election, according to the sources.

Mongolia, meanwhile, expressed its sympathy to Suu Kyi in light of the fact that she has been under house arrest or in jail for much of last two decades, and asked why she continues to “suffer a lot in this country.”

While facing the critical statements from the European partners, Myanmar gently responded by saying that the “election will be conducted in a free and fair manner and inclusive,” but did not further elaborate, the sources said.

Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Nyan Win, the country’s only top-level official invited by the European Union to the summit, was quoted as briefly replying that the election will be joined by 27 political parties and many people will be voting.

The European Union was not originally happy sitting and working face-to-face with Myanmar’s top leaders and, therefore, participants of the ASEM summit in Vietnam in 2006 decided to allow only a foreign ministerial-level official from the country to take part in any later ASEM summit meetings.

In a chairman’s statement of the latest ASEM summit which just wrapped up late Tuesday afternoon, the ASEM chiefs “encouraged the government of Myanmar to take the necessary measures to ensure that these elections would be free, fair and inclusive, and would mark a step towards a legitimate, constitutional, civilian system of government.”

“The timely release of those under detention would contribute to these elections to be more inclusive, participatory and transparent” and they “also touched upon the issue of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” the statement said.

Some said it is considered quite unusual for Myanmar to allow the call for a “legitimate, constitutional” government in the chair’s statement and also allow the mention by name of Suu Kyi.

The European Union has long been the most vociferous in demanding Myanmar mend its ways.

Besides particular topics on human rights and democracy in Myanmar, the ASEM leaders also touched on various global issues and problems during their two-day talks, including the strengthening of partnerships between the two blocs of Asia and Europe, the economic governance, climate change, sustainable development, piracy at sea, reform of the United Nations and nuclear nonproliferation.

ASEM, launched in 1996, is composed of 46 countries — the 27 members of the European Union and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, plus Australia, China, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia and South Korea as well as two organizations.

Oct 6, 2010
Straits Times – Myanmar urged to free prisoners

BRUSSELS – EUROPEAN and Asian leaders urged Myanmar’s junta to release political prisoners and ensure November elections are free and fair, in a statement issued at the close of a two-day summit.

The leaders of 46 nations attending the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) encouraged the military regime to ‘take the necessary measures to ensure that these elections would be free, fair and inclusive,’ said the text adopted at the summit, also attended by Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win.

‘The timely release of those under detention would contribute to these elections to be more inclusive, participatory and transparent,’ it says. Amnesty International says some 2,200 political prisoners are languishing in the country’s jails.

Myanmar is preparing for November 7 polls that critics have dismissed as a sham due to the exclusion of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

The junta announced last week that Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, would be released after the the first elections in two decades.

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg urged Asem leaders meeting for the summit in Brussels to ’speak with one voice against the gross mistreatment of the Burmese people.’

‘That means being unequivocal: These elections will be neither free nor fair,’ Mr Clegg wrote in a column in the International Herald Tribune, adding that the election result was a ‘foregone conclusion’.

Refocusing on Myanmar
Published on : 4 October 2010 – 1:53pm | By International Justice Tribune

With the upcoming elections in Myanmar, the world is refocusing its attention on the military regime that is ruling the country. The US has recently voiced its support for a UN inquiry into alleged war crimes. Ashley South is an independent writer and consultant, specialising in humanitarian and political issues in Myanmar and Southeast Asia. He spoke to IJT’s Paul Anstiss.

Myanmar, or Burma, has been a very difficult country to crack, now the US is talking about supporting a war crime probe, do you think that it will bring Myanmar back into line or is it likely to drive the country away?

It is difficult to see how a commission of inquiry could really be a force towards reconciliation domestically, within Myanmar. The government is already quite dominated by an ‘officer clique’ that is quite paranoid regarding international relations, and has been driven by the isolation and sanctions regime of Western governments, towards having a much closer relationship with China than might otherwise have been the case.

If you look at what has happened in Sudan, Darfur, it may be possible to indict leaders of countries, but actually bringing them to justice is really something else. Could that be the case in Myanmar?

It is difficult to know quite how a commission of inquiry could be convened, assuming that China continues to exercise a veto in the Security Council. Then my understanding is that any other mechanism would be unlikely to result in a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Thus, it is likely to be a symbolic irritant to the military government and any successor that comes after the November elections, rather than actually a mechanism that could really move change forward.

I think another lesson perhaps to draw from Sudan is that after President Bashir’s indictment in the ICC many of the aid agencies working in the country had their operations restricted, some were kicked out, others left voluntarily.

One of the few positive developments in recent years in Burma has been an opening up of space for domestic civil society actors and also for international agencies in the country, particularly in the aftermath of the appalling cyclone Nargis, which struck in May 2008.

Any move to indict the government would make them much more cautious in terms of allowing aid agencies into the country, which could have very damaging consequences.
What are your feelings on the role that international human rights organisations play in Myanmar?

When I first started working on the country in the mid 1990s it was reasonable to say ‘the international community must know what is happening in Myanmar’, but over the past 15 years in particular a veritable industry has grown up documenting and denouncing abuses in the country. I think that is appropriate and I wouldn’t say it shouldn’t be continued, but I don’t think the human rights groups have achieved very much.

I think that often some of the most effective work is done behind the scenes in terms of persuasive advocacy, engaging with local power holders whether they be Myanmar army commanders or local non-state armed groups. This complementary approach or advocacy deserves a bit more attention.

We have seen what the blogger-community has been able to do in Iran and Thailand to be able to scrutinise what is going on in those countries. Is there such a community in Burma?

Yes, there is a very well established underground network of bloggers inside the country and in opposition. That was one of the characteristics of the 2007 so called ‘Saffron Revolution’. A monk-led popular protest in August and September 2007 which culminated 3 years ago this week.

That news of the protests and photographs of the military’s brutal suppression were sent to the outside world via mobile telephone photographs, bloggers, email networks. And I am sure that the same will be the case in the forthcoming elections.

Wednesday6/10/2010October, 2010
Gulf Times – Myanmar to set up 2 hydropower plants

Myanmar has agreed to build two hydropower plants aimed at exporting around 575MW of electricity to energy-starved Bangladesh, top officials said in Dhaka yesterday.

A high-powered Bangladesh delegation received Myanmar’s consent over cross-border electricity trade during its recent visit to the country, said a senior Power Ministry official.

He said a Myanmar delegation would visit Dhaka shortly to sign a memorandum of understanding on the electricity trade between the two neighbouring countries.

Before signing the final deal, Myanmar has sought power purchase guarantee from Bangladesh, said the official, also a member of the delegation that visited Myanmar.

The power plants having the electricity generation capacity of 500MW and 75MW respectively have been planned to be installed at Michuang and Lemro areas under Rakhine state in Myanmar, which are close to Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.

Bangladesh never dealt in electricity with overseas countries before.

The Hindu – Myanmar frees 8 Indian detainees
Iboyaima Laithangbam
IMPHAL, October 6, 2010

The Myanmarese authority has handed over eight Indians, including five insurgents, to the Immigration officials of the Indian government at Moreh on Monday as a friendly gesture.

These Indians had been arrested and incarcerated in Myanmar as they were found inside the country without valid travel documents.

Police said the three civilians in the group were produced in a court and set free. However, the five insurgents were remanded in police custody.

The Assam Rifles troopers have also been arresting Myanmarese nationals in Manipur. However, these foreign nationals are handed over to the Myanmarese authority at the international gate rather than being lodged in prisons.

The Myanmarese authority issues an immigration permit to Indian traders and tourists. The permit, which is valid for a few hours, allows the Indians to travel to Tamu, about 30 km from the international gate, for purchasing goods.

I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor
International Herald Tribune – The Case for a Burmese Vote
By PHILIP BOWRING
Published: October 4, 2010

HONG KONG — The elections set for Nov. 7 in Myanmar are a travesty of democracy — but they are welcome nonetheless.

Their main purpose is to dress the military regime in new civilian-looking clothes; a secondary purpose is to appease international criticism by putting on an electoral show. The possibility of real change in the power structure is the last thing the generals have in mind.

Yet the generals are sowing some seeds of change which might in time flower into something more plural and democratic, and provide regional as well as national forums for future debate. Meanwhile money from gas, minerals and privatization of state assets is seeping into a once austere military-socialist system, corrupting it and slowly undermining it.
In short, it is hard to argue that Myanmar will be any worse after the elections than it is now. It might start getting better.

The main opposition group, the National League for Democracy headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, whose victory in the 1990 election was overturned by the military, has good reason to boycott the polls. Its leader is under house arrest and unable to run. The apparatus of an oppressive regime and its captive media makes campaigning — and boycott calls — hazardous. Hundreds of political prisoners remain in jail, including monks held in the wake of the 2007 demonstrations in which many were killed. Government-backed parties, principally the Union Solidarity Development Party and its allies in ethnic minority regions, are destined to win. The military also has 25 percent of the seats allotted to it.

In the longer run the N.L.D. itself may be best served by its boycott. But Myanmar could also be served by the prospect that a few members from other opposition parties will be elected and create a thin democratic wedge.

A comparison can be made between Myanmar and the last decade of Suharto’s rule in Indonesia, when some parliamentary opposition became possible and, as the offspring of generals, sought wealth and business through access to government contracts and privatizations. Pluralism and competition began to sprout.

Of course there are many differences, not least that Suharto had a relatively open economy. But in Myanmar the generals are taking off their uniforms to become civilian ministers. Their families and associates are enjoying the fruits of privatization, and opening bank accounts in Singapore.

However badly managed Myanmar’s economy and its major domestic enterprises may be, plenty of money will come from new gas, pipeline and power projects to keep many a well-connected ex-officer in the style to which Southeast Asian businessmen have long been accustomed, and there will be many opportunities to acquire state and joint-venture assets. The power of money will be diversified.

Competition is growing for foreign deals after years in which China had a near-monopoly. In response to India’s bid for Myanmar gas and American attempts, so far unsuccessful, to engage with the military, China has been further bolstering its ties, most recently by inviting the Myanmar leader Than Shwe to Beijing. China is well aware that the United States is now more interested in limiting China’s influence than punishing the generals for repression.

While China officially welcomes the approaching elections, it may well be worried about the weakening of its own influence in the long run, or of a nationalist backlash against Chinese influence. Indians once ran much of Myanmar’s trade, only to be expelled, and have their assets seized, following the 1962 military coup.

The ultimate impact of elections on Myanmar’s rebellious ethnic minorities is also an issue for China — as it is for the integrity of a Myanmar in which only 70 percent of the population is ethnic Burmese. A semblance of democracy and devolution could start to bring an end to decades of intermittent conflict — or it could be the precursor of more warfare, particularly in the Shan and Kachin states, which abut China’s Yunnan Province.

China wants peace in these regions, but preferably through the government’s accommodation with rebel groups and not central government control. It wants to avoid crises such as the one in 2009, when 30,000 refugees fled to China to escape an army offensive. Meanwhile the Yunnan provincial government and Chinese businessmen mostly just want uninterrupted trade — which includes drugs and illegal mining and logging.

For Myanmar as a whole, the generals are trying to modernize their control system. But whether in the longer term they can keep control of change is questionable. Therein lies hope.

The Irrawaddy – USDP Blatantly Flouts Election Law
By LAWI WENG – Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Members of the Union Solidarity and Development Pary (USDP) led by Burma’s current Prime Minister are sticking posters in front of people’s houses in Taung Dagon and Thaketa townships, Rangoon Division, identifying them as party members during the election campaign, Rangoon sources said.

Thu Wai, the chairman of the Rangoon-based Democratic Party, said, “They have been sticking posters up in front of houses saying ‘the occupants of this house are USDP party members’ in Taung Dagon and Thaketa townships.

“Actually, those households were not USDP members but the posters were designed to prevent other party representatives from the approaching those houses while putting pressure on the occupants to join the USDP,” he said.

The USDP, the most powerful party running in the election, is a proxy party for the military and is running their election campaign. Many observers expect that the party is going to win the Nov. 7 election in Burma with a landslide victory.

USDP members have started intensifying their campaigning as the election draws nearer. Pictures of  party candidates have been put on electric poles, in public markets and hospitals and party pamphlets have been distributed in townships.

Opposing political parties have complained that the USDP has violated the election law during their campaign, meanwhile.

Nai Ngwe Thein, chairman of the All Mon Regions Democracy Party, said: “When they launched their campaign in Mon State, they took photos of houses and gave party membership application forms to their occupants.

“They told people that they will build new roads and give special privileges to them after they became party members,” he said.

Campaigning in villages in Karen State, USDP members pointed to a large photo of Prime Minister Thein Sein held up in front of the people, saying they all have to vote him, said a Karen man who had recently arrived in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border.

Khin Shwe, a USDP candidate who is going to run in the Upper House (Amyotha Hluttaw) in Kawmu, Kungyangone, and Ton Tay townships, Rangoon Division, paid 5,000 kyat to people who came to listen to his campaign speeches, according to local sources in Kawmu township.

Despite the Union Election Commission law that bans political parties from using national and religious buildings during the election campaign, USDP members have been continuing to use them regardless.

The use of religious buildings by the USDP in breach of the election law has sparked anger among Buddhist monks. Monks in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, have recently refused to let the USDP use their monasteries for election campaigning.

In central Burma and Arakan State in August, USDP members distributed loans to local farmers at two percent interest, well below the 10 percent rates other places normally charge.

“We have collected evidence of all their election law violations and have requested that the EC take action on this,” said Thu Wai.

The Irrawaddy – Democratic Space and a Military Apartheid
By HTET AUNG – Wednesday, October 6, 2010

With Burma’s general election just around the corner, many regional observers are predicting some form of political change; even if they do all agree that the election itself will be no more than a sham.

This was a common view at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok on Oct. 5 when a public forum was held titled “Transition to Democracy in Southeast Asia: Similarities and Differences with the Upcoming Election in Burma/Myanmar.”

“It is a sham election and everybody knows it, including the [Burmese] military,” said Dr. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, the director of the Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS), who was one of the panelists at the forum. “But it certainly will have an opening and a potential for new dynamics to emerge. This is where the space has to be considered for expansion.”

During his seminar—titled “Thailand’s Lost Democratic Consolidation”—Thitinan compared the upcoming election in Burma with the Thai military-sponsored election held in 1957 after a military coup, when the then Thai coup leader formed a political party and became prime minister after his party won the election.

Thitinan briefly analyzed the up and down struggle for democracy in Thailand since the 1957 military coup, including the mass demostrations in 1973 and 1992, and the drawing up of a new Constitution in 1997, something the speaker characterized as “a constitution to end all constitutions.” He then reminded the audience how that Constitution was put to the sword by a subsequent military coup in 2006.

However, Thitinan offered optimism, saying that Burma’s election represented an “opening-up”; but he noted the downslide of democracy in Thailand, a country he said that was once an example in the region.

Taking Burma as a country in transition to democracy, the forum looked to the experiences of elections in the Southeast Asian region and used the transitional lessons of Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia to shed some light on what might and might not unravel in Burma.

The other panelists at the Chulalongkorn forum were: Dr, Maung Zarni, a Burmese research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Mohammad Hatta, the Indonesian Ambassador to Thailand; and Youk Chang, the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. About 100 academics, diplomats and students participated in the forum.

Recalling an article in the New York Times published two weeks before the polls criticizing the 1990 Burmese election, Zarni, a staunch critic of the Burmese military regime, opened his seminar on Tuesday by saying that today’s discussion was exactly the same as the political debate that was going on 20 years ago.

Zarni predicted the political landscape of post-election Burma would practice “constitutional military rule with a select mix of feudalism and crony-capitalism.

“When we say ‘Constitutional Monarchy’ in history, it is to curb the role and authority of the Monarch and Monarchy,” said Zarni, reflecting the Burmese regime’s attempt to institutionalize ‘a constitutional military rule’ through an election.

“But in our case, the distortion is that the 2008 Constitution is expanding and legitimizing military rule,” he said.

The 2008 Constitution—the third in the country since independence from British colonial rule in 1948—has, for the first time, given the military the supremacy it has always sought. Moreover, the military’s directly appointed representatives are constitutionally guaranteed 25 percent of seats in the national and regional parliaments.

However, when discussing how democracy—manifested through the electoral process—had fulfilled the desires of Southeast Asian people and the point in transition where countries see themselves, several panelists from Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia presented vastly different criteria when presenting examples from within their different historical, ethnographic and geographic settings.

One common view at the forum was that those three countries had striven to maintain economic development despite their internal political conflicts. Thitinan said that even in war-torn Cambodia, where recently constructed high-rise buildings have helped develop the Phnom Penh skyline, signs of progress were evident—something that is sadly lacking in Burma.

Youk Chang, a former refugee who fled to Thailand and was later resettled in the United States before coming back to his homeland, reflected on the international community’s involvement in Cambodia’s transition to democracy, citing the United Nations-supervised Cambodian election in 1993.

He said that the political feeling in Cambodia at that time was that democracy must come first, with justice second.

After more than a decade, the issue of justice has finally reared its head through the opening of a tribunal to try those accused of genocide during the Khmer Rouge era.

However, when asked whether democracy had taken root in Cambodia, his answer was simple: “Cambodia has no democracy.”

Unlike Cambodia and Thailand, Burma has within its borders an armed ethnic resistance—one of the world’s longest running civil wars— which will not cease after the election. Indeed it is likely to intensify, given the recent rising tensions between the junta and the ethnic cease-fire groups.

On the subject of the ethnic issue in Burma, the panelist from Indonesia told the audience how his government solved the heated conflict in Aceh in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.
“We had the upper hand at that time,” he said. “If we took advantage of this, the violence would have continued. We needed peace and so we sought it.”

He said that the conclusion of the Aceh conflict was due to the government’s peace initiatives, such as the release of political prisoners, and the provision of land and revenue to the rebel groups.

The clear parallel in Burma’s case is that the profiteers of the military junta have only shown interest in securing everything for themselves—in particular, natural resources such as oil, natural gas, teak, minerals and gems, all of which are largely indigenous to and must be exploited from the ethnic states. Little, if anything, has been paid back into the socioeconomic development of the ethnic areas over the past 20 years.

Asked to elaborate on his stated viewpoint about the ‘democratic space’ that would open up in Burma, Thitinan told The Irrawaddy that “the democratic space is very little—in fact, almost none.” Despite that, he said he maintained a positive outlook toward the election.

As one who has resisted the longest dictatorship in the region and who has had to live in exile due to his political beliefs and active participation toward democratic change in his homeland, Burmese scholar Dr Zarni said: “The 2008 Constitution was designed to introduce a military apartheid in the country.”

The Irrawaddy – Former UN Rights Officials Call for Burma Inquiry
By LALIT K JHA – Wednesday, October 6, 2010

WASHINGTON — Two top former human rights officials of the United Nations on Tuesday urged the European Union to support the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, as recommended by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma.

The request was made by Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil and Yozo Yokota of Japan, who served as the special rapporteurs on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma in (2000-2008) and (1992-1996), respectively, in a letter to Catherine Ashton, the high representative of the EU.

“As former UN special rapporteurs on human rights in Myanmar [Burma], it is our firm conclusion that the pattern of human rights violations perpetrated by the military regime in Burma/Myanmar is severe, widespread and systematic, and directed at civilians, and may therefore violate international human rights and humanitarian laws,” Pinheiro and Yokota said.

“As the current special rapporteur has concluded, the abuses are a matter of state policy and there is more than sufficient evidence to justify the creation of such a Commission of Inquiry,” the letter said.

Pinheiro and Yokota also urged that the EU should propose the commission in a forthcoming UN General Assembly resolution. “It is essential to send a strong message to the regime ahead of the elections that the international community will not continue to tolerate its violations of international humanitarian law and that impunity must end,” they wrote.

The letter noted that evidence of the widespread and systematic use of forced labor, rape as a weapon of war, the forcible conscription of child soldiers, religious persecution, torture and killings is well documented and has been presented by many respected human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), among others.

Copies of the letter were sent to the government of Belgium, the current president of the Council of the European Union, foreign ministers of EU member states and permanent representatives of EU member states to the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

“Since 1996, over 3,500 villages in eastern Burma alone have been destroyed, and at least half a million people internally displaced. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee to the borders of neighboring countries, and beyond. These violations of international humanitarian law have been documented by the UN in numerous resolutions by the General Assembly and Human Rights Council, and in our own and other reports of Special Rapporteurs,” the letter said.

The two former UN officials said the new Constitution, which will come into force after the regime’s elections in November, contains a clause providing blanket immunity for all crimes, past, present and future, committed by the military, and guarantees the military a quarter of the parliamentary seats.

“The election laws issued earlier this year, the recent de-registration of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, and the regime’s decision to exclude many
ethnic populations and parties from participating, mean that the forthcoming elections offer little hope of meaningful change in Burma. The elections, in our opinion, will perpetuate military rule and result in continuing human rights violations,” they said.

So far, 13 nations have expressed their support for the establishment of the UN Commission of Inquiry in Burma, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Estonia, which became the 13th supporter on Saturday.

Aung Din of the US Campaign for Burma said the European Union is the major author of the Burma draft resolution at the UN General Assembly and it has been working on a draft in Brussels since September.

Pro-democracy activists including the US Campaign for Burma are pushing the EU to include the language, “calling for the secretary-general to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate human rights violations in Burma” in the draft resolution, which will be submitted to the UN General Assembly soon.

So far, the EU hasn’t agreed to the proposal.

The Irrawaddy – The Burma-Russia Connection
By ALEX ELLGEE – Wednesday, October 6, 2010

RANGOON—We’re sitting around a modern coffee table at a party hosted by an NGO worker in his smart condo in Rangoon. We’re talking about the Mandalay International Airport.

“I don’t understand why they built it so far from the city,” said one lady, slightly frustrated by the fact that the airport is 35 kilometers from Mandalay.

“Why have they built such a big airport when so few people are flying there,” asked another man, commenting on its annual capacity of 3 million people with 36 check-in desks, eight gates and a 14,000-feet runaway, the longest in Southeast Asia.

A visit to the airport itself, one hot afternoon, helped partially answer their questions. Parked outside the departures gates were more than 40 army trucks, each loaded with 30 young soldiers in crisp white shirts. One by one, the soldiers lined up for check-in.

The flight status monitor revealed their destination. It read: “MOSCOW, RUSSIA—on time—Gate No.2.”

“We’re DSA cadets, and we’re going to Russia,” one of them said proudly.

“Are you happy?

“Yes, we are very happy; we’ve been waiting for this for a long time. It is a proud moment for us.”

Before he can say more, a superior looks his way, and the cadet’s fleeting moment of bragging to a foreigner is over. He disappears past the check-in counter.

DSA stands for Defense Service Academy, the massive military academy just outside of Pyin U Lwin, a former colonial outpost for the British. Established in 1955 in Yaksauk in southern Shan State, the academy moved to its current location two years later, and since then it has churned out alumni which includes Thura Shwe Mann, the former joint chief of staff; Vice Sen-Gen Maung Aye, the No. 2 in the SPDC; and Prime Minister Thein Sein. Year after year, the academy turns out soldiers, who, upon graduation “are expected to be worthy sons of the country who carry out their duties without hesitation and who never shirk their responsibilities,” according to its website.

The question remains, what are all these cadets doing flying to Moscow and why is it their proudest moment?

Speaking to The Irrawaddy at a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border, Thet Oo, a DSA cadet-turn-deserter, explained that Burma’s “Russian connection” includes intense Russian language and culture training.

“We had beautiful Russian women teach us,” Thet Oo said, sitting on the bamboo floor of his new home. “I guess that was so we would find Russia appealing.”

Before going to Russia, he said all the students in his group were brought together to hear a talk by senior commanders. Throughout their schooling, they had been told very little, “but we knew we were going to Russia,” said Thet Oo. The commanders told them they had been handpicked to study in Russia and then handed out envelopes with passports, flight tickets and local currency.

Near the end of the meeting, one of the commanders told the group to learn as much information from Russia as they could.

“They even told us we would be rewarded if we married a Russian girl and would receive more rewards if she was a scientist,” said Thet Oo, recalling what he thought was the beginning of a new life in Russia.

The next day, however, when he returned with his bags packed and was ready to leave, they read out a list of names. His name was on it, but then one of the commanders took back all his documents and ordered him to return to his base.

“I could not believe it. I had worked so hard for this moment,” he said, visibly distressed by the memory. He was told he could not go because his mother was Karen, and he could not be trusted. When he spoke to the people who had returned, he learned that they had studied nuclear energy.

“They just didn’t want someone with Karen blood to get such advanced knowledge,” he said.

Burmese students have and are currently being trained in Russia. According to a report by Prof. Desmond Ball, who interviewed two defectors, “Burma is preparing to go nuclear by 2020.” In May 2007, Burma signed an agreement which said the Russian Atomic Energy Agency would provide a 10 MW light-water reactor, and it would train 300 to 350 specialists to work on the completed project.

In an article, Dr. Andrew Selth, a Burma expert in Australia, has said that all of Russia’s known dealings with Burma have been in accordance with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guidelines. He said there is “very little hard evidence” to suggest that Burma is pushing hard to develop a nuclear program, and many of the Burmese students who have gone to Russia are “ inexperienced and struggled to complete their courses.”

And not all the students in Moscow are from the DSA.

According to one Burmese student currently studying in Russia, “There are lots of Burmese civilians who are just interested in physics.”

One of the signs of the growing Burma-Russian involvement is the role of private businessmen in dealings with Russia.

Observers say Tay Za, one of the businessmen closest to the generals, controls various business relationships with Russia including the purchase of military parts for Russian equipment used in the Burmese military.

His company, Myanmar Avia Export, deals with two Russian military hardware suppliers, the Export Military Industrial Group and Rostvertol, which makes helicopters. He is believed to act as the key broker for all military deals between the two nations.

But Tay Za is not the only businessmen to have an interest in Russia. A journalist told The Irrawaddy, “There are so many Russians here. Their numbers have grown massively in the last couple years.”

As a result, there is growing interest by local businessmen to take part in  Russian investments. Sitting in a smart coffee shop which boasts wireless Internet and a menu that ranges from Ceasar salad to chili con carni, a young Burmese artist told me her father sent her to a Russian language school.

“He is a businessman, and he only thinks about money,” she said. “He thought that if I learned Russian, I would be able to take advantage of all these new business opportunities.” But, she dropped out. “You can’t control an artist,” she said.

Commenting on the growing Burma-Russian ties, economist Sean Turnell said, “There is nothing in the relationship that will deliver positive change to Burma economically. Much of the activity takes place ‘off the balance sheet’.”

Turnell said he was worried about the Burma’s recent privatization of key industries, which shows Burma to be “following Russia and its parasitic oligarch class.”

With connections between the two nations growing, Russia will likely be even more reliable in supporting Burma in the United Nations. Meanwhile, Burma will continue to look at the Russian way of business.

Although a Burmese nuclear program may not be as pressing as many believed, it is clear that the generals admire the nuclear leverage that North Korea enjoys. Outside the DSA a sign reads: “We are the victorious warriors of the future.”

It makes one wonder what dreams the regime might have.

A close friend of Burma withdraws from public life
Wednesday, 06 October 2010 11:51 Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The cause of democracy for Burma is not short of proponents, but few can be said to carry a better pedigree than South Africa’s archbishop emeritus, Desmond Tutu.

Recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, Tutu made it known this year that with his 79th birthday tomorrow, he would greatly scale back his public activities.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela – the joint recipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with the last president of apartheid-era South Africa, Frederik Willem de Klerk – has called Tutu “sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour”.

“Desmond Tutu’s voice will always be the voice of the voiceless,” Mandela said.

A long-time vocal supporter of Burma’s democracy movement, especially Aung San Suu Kyi, Tutu expounded at length on his views regarding Burma and its detained opposition leader in an editorial written for the London Guardian newspaper in July last year.

In the essay Tutu writes, “I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed.”

Both Tutu and Suu Kyi are members of The Elders, a group of a dozen eminent global leaders including former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and former US president Jimmy Carter.

In late August, the archbishop emeritus joined Amnesty International’s open-palm campaign for the release of Suu Kyi, writing her name on his palm and extending it forward for all to see.

Referring to Suu Kyi as the embodiment of a country’s hope, courage and quest for freedom, Tutu has, meanwhile, singled out Burmese strongman Than Shwe for his inability to comprehend the innate human drive for freedom that cannot be suppressed forever.

“Our world is sometimes lacking wise and good leadership or, as in the case of Burma, the leadership is forbidden to lead,” Tutu furthered in the Guardian piece.

The South African, along with supporting an international arms embargo against Than Shwe’s Burma, was an early advocate for a UN commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity committed by Than Shwe and his military regime, voicing his confidence that an inquiry would surely find the former senior general guilty on numerous accounts of gross violations.

Having lived through apartheid and fought for its end, Tutu believes there are lessons inherent in the South African experience from which Burma could benefit. Long supporting a total economic boycott of apartheid-era South Africa, the Nobel laureate further assesses targeted sanctions as critical in the eventual collapse of the apartheid government. Similarities in the tactics of Burmese opposition icon Suu Kyi and Western governments in their approaches towards confronting Burma’s generals are clearly discernable.

Though a vocal advocate for the presidency of Barack Obama, Tutu nonetheless credits the Bush administration for its approach vis-à-vis Burma, having spoken out sceptically of the Obama administration’s possible alternative approach to Burma, which attempts to counter negative policy with limited engagement.

Tutu, for his part, maintains Washington must differentiate between engagement and wishful thinking when it comes to dealing with Burma’s generals.

“Nothing in our experience suggests that offers of aid will cause Burma’s generals to change course; unlike some authoritarian regimes, this one seems to care not a bit for the economic well-being of its country,” penned Tutu on The Elders website last spring as the White House pondered a changed approach towards Burma.

Archbishop Tutu, together with a plethora of other accolades, was the 2008 honoree of the 18th W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, presented by Washington’s National Democratic Institute “for his work on behalf of democracy and human rights, which includes a focus on Burma”. Aung San Suu Kyi was previously honoured with the same recognition.

While Tutu will still pursue public activities once a week, and his commitment in supporting Suu Kyi and Burma’s pro-democracy opposition can be expected to remain undiminished, he says he is looking forward to watching cricket and drinking tea with his increased leisure time.

Arakanese activists post notices urging poll boycott
Thursday, 07 October 2010 00:22 Khaing Suu

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Notices urging the public to boycott the Burmese junta’s elections next month and oppose its constitution were posted on lamp posts and fences in 15 villages across Arakan State early yesterday morning, youth activists said.

The notices on white card posted in the villages of Taunggok Township in the western Burmese state bore the phrases “2008 constitution” and “2010 election” crossed out, with “Boycott the Election” underneath, and measured 8×6 inches eight.

“The notices were stuck up on lamp posts along the main road and on fences in 15 villages. But the papers were removed by police and local authorities since early morning,” Aung Tha Hla, an activist from Taunggok, told Mizzima.

A group of young activists from 15 villages including Maei, Sarpyin, Tanlwellchaung, Ywama, Lamu, Taintaung, Myotaung, Saidipyin and Yanmyoaung villages posted a total of about 800 of the notices.

Mizzima contacted Taunggok Police Station seeking comment on the case but the officer in charge refused to provide any response. Three local residents said they were unaware the notices had been distributed.

DVB News – Yuzana employees given weapons training
By AKT
Published: 5 October 2010

Employees of the Yuzana construction company, which recently bought up swathes of land in the Hukawng tiger reserve in northern Burma, are being trained in weapons handling by the Burmese army, a local development group has said.

Around 500 workers of the company, whose chief Htay Myint is close to the Burmese junta, have been trained for militias over the past three months and were given firearms in a special ceremony on 2 September, Aung Wa of the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) said. The training has focused on workers Tanai in Kachin state.

The KDNG in August released a report documenting Yuzana’s move into the Hukawng Valley, which is now the world’s largest tiger reserve. Up 200,000 acres of land has been cleared by the company for planting sugar cane, and with it villages are reportedly being flattened and locals displaced.

There is speculation that Yuzana fears a backlash from villagers, who have filed complaints to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) about the land grab, and so is equipping workers with weaponry.

The majority of the employees were hired from lower Burma prior to the project’s inception in 2007, Aung Wa said, adding that the 2 September ceremony was attended by a Burmese army commander from the Tanai region.

The Kachin News Group reported last year that Yuzana had built around 100,000 houses in the valley for men and women working on the plantations, which are being created in what last month became the world’s largest tiger reserve and the largest protected area in Southeast Asia, and celebrated enthusiastically by the Burmese junta.

Locals have said that Yuzana had confiscated land in seven villages in the region and compensated only 80,000 kyat (US$80) for an acre of land normally valued at 300,000 kyat (US$300). More than 160 families are so far thought to have been displaced.

DVB News – Burmese media decries ongoing cyber attacks
Published: 5 October 2010

Exiled Burmese media groups are today releasing a statement calling for global support in the fight against ongoing cyber attacks, which are suspected to originate from the Burmese junta.

International media watchdogs have lent their voices to the statement, with the Paris-based Reporters sans frontiers (Reporters Without Borders – RSF) saying that, “The use of cyber attacks against independent news websites is a cowardly tactic used by those who feel threatened by the truth”.

The attacks began on 27 September and, although two of the three websites targeted – The Irrawaddy Magazine and Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) – are up and running, the attacks continue.

The managing director of social purpose enterprise Media Frontiers, Thomas Hughes, said “it is important that the international community comes together, not only in condemning these attacks, but in actively seeking to provide any means necessary to keep these sites online and accessible”.

Observers are concerned that the Burmese junta, which is headed by Senior General Than Shwe and which resides over some of the world’s most repressive media laws, is carrying out a test run for the elections on 7 November. It has already banned election monitors from entering the country, and recently stopped the visa on arrival scheme, believed to be an attempt to block journalists and observers from entering during the election period.

Than Shwe is also facing calls to be tried in an international court for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity during his 18-year rule.

DVB has filed a case with the High Tech Crime Department of Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) – DVB is headquartered in Oslo, and feeds off a network of around 100 undercover reporters in Burma.

The executive director of DVB, Aye Chan Naing, said: “We will defend our right to tell the truth no matter what methods they use to silence us.  They will never succeed.”

The attack on the DVB website, known as DDoS, or distributed denial-of-service, peaked at around 6.5Gbps (Gigabits-per-second). The attackers also targeted the infrastructure of DVB’s carrier in Norway.

Burma already has some of the world’s most draconian media laws, and ranked 171 out of 175 countries in RSF’s Press Freedom Index for 2009. Out of the 2,150-plus political prisoners in Burma, around 15 are journalists, and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) last year branded Burma “the worst country to be a blogger”.