Bangkok: Three members of Myanmar’s opposition have been arrested for distributing pamphlets to party members, an opposition legal adviser said on Monday. (more…)

November13: Yangon: Myanmar’s military rulers, in a move which might indicate a change in attitude to detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, has sent condolences on the death of one of the last independence heroes led by her
father.

The military, which has ruled the former Burma in one form or another since 1962, had never before sent condolences on the death of a colleague of General Aung San, who mostly supported his daughter in her battle for democracy, veteran politicians said on Saturday.

Senior generals went to the residence of Bohmu Aung, one of the famed “Thirty Comrades”, led by Aung San, who led the country to independence from Britain, a relative said.

One of the top members of the regime, Lt General Thein Sein, led the delegation late on Friday and it passed on the condolences of Myanmar’s paramount leader, Senior General Than Shwe, U Zaw, a son-in-law of Bohmu Aung, told Reuters.

“He quoted the Senior General as saying that the present day Myanmar armed forces were born out of the ‘Thirty Comrades’ and he mentioned our father as a selfless leader,” U Zaw said. “He sent us his deepest sympathy at the demise of our father.”

Wahkheima Thakhin Thein Pe, an 86-year-old veteran politician and close colleague of Bohmu Aung, said the condolence messages were a good sign.

“They seem to have changed their attitudes,” he said. “I hope we will see them make further positive changes.”

“I am so glad to hear this news,” said Bo Ye Htut, 82, another surviving member of the “Thirty Comrades”.

The condolences were sent just weeks after the regime purged Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and his power base in the military intelligence, which he had headed.

The junta first announced Khin Nyunt had been allowed to retire on health grounds, but then said he and his family had been deeply involved in corruption.

It was an accusation which drew scorn from foreign analysts of Myanmar who regard the military as thoroughly corrupt, but it was followed by widespread arrests of senior military intelligence officials.

Among them was Brig Gen Than Tun, Khin Nyunt’s liaison with Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

Khin Nyunt was thought to be willing to talk to Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won an election in 1990. The generals ignored the result.

Than Shwe is believed to be keen to ignore Suu Kyi, who inherited the mantle of a charismatic father assassinated in 1947 while preparing for independence.

In 1962, General Ne Win, another of the “Thirty Comrades” seized power from a democratically elected government and jailed several dozen politicians, including many colleagues in the group like Bohmu Aung,

After their release, they urged successive military governments to work for national reconciliation by holding meaningful talks with the opposition led by Suu Kyi.

November 14: Yangon: Myanmar leader Lieutenant-General Thein Sein has urged former anti-government armed groups in the country to work for national development under the framework of law, state newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.

So far, 17 anti-government ethnic armed groups have returned to the legal fold and have been joining with the government in regional development since the government introduced a national reconciliation policy in 1989.

“The national race organizations, on their part, are to work together with the government within the framework of law in peace for achieving progress in economic and social sectors,” stressed Thein Sein, first secretary of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), while meeting with the
leadership of the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Association (DKBA), a group splitting from the Kayin National Union (KNU) in 1995 and being backed by the government.

Meeting with DKBA Chairman U Tha Htoo Kyaw in Kayin state’s Hpa- an on Friday, Thein Sein reaffirmed that the government’s policy toward the turned-in armed groups would remain unchanged despite recent change of prime minister, urging the groups to join the efforts for the realization of the government’s political roadmap to democracy laid down in August last year.

Myanmar’s political roadmap was outlined as undergoing a national referendum on the draft of the constitution through the national convention, holding a general election to produce parliament representatives and forming a new democratic government .

Accordingly, as the first step of the roadmap, the national convention was resumed on May 17 this year but was adjourned again on July 9 until now after month-long discussions on detailed principles for power sharing in
the sectors of legislature, executive and judiciary. The convention was boycotted by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

The government has declared that the national convention would be resumed in the open season as originally scheduled.

November 12: DVB has already reported on the removal of military and civilian officials as an emergency need for the country.

According to latest reports, those who were removed yesterday were 12 high-level officials from the judiciary and the legal system including Supreme Court Judge U Thet Tun, director of Upper Burma Supreme Court, and Rangoon Supreme Court Judge U Tun Shin.

According to a law official, who wished to remain anonymous, the judges and law officials who were removed included those who were connected with former Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt and those who refused a request by Gen Thura Shwe Mann to give legal advice to convict Gen Khin Nyunt and the
military intelligence units.

November 13: Yangon: A link man between detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s military regime was among 16 senior intelligence officials sacked and facing corruption charges, a military source said Saturday.

Brigadier General Than Tun was among the latest victims of a purge against the military intelligence body once headed by former premier Khin Nyunt, who was accused of corruption and sacked on October 17.

Khin Nyunt was the figure within the State Peace and Development Council, the junta’s official name, most in favour of dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi who has been kept under house arrest for more than a year.

The pair launched a timid secretive dialogue four years ago and Than Tun was involved in shuttling between the two sides.

But the talks stalled after Aung San Suu Kyi’s arrest in May 2003 following an attack on her supporters by a pro-junta mob.

Khin Nyunt’s downfall deepened the pessimism over an early release for the Nobel peace prize winner as the junta’s top man Senior General Than Shwe, a military hardliner, strengthened his hold on the leadership.

The military intelligence wing had been seen as becoming a threat to the safety of top military figures especially Than Shwe, according to analysts.

The military has now removed the threat from the intelligence wing after acrackdown on corruption which was also seen as a move to wrest control of lucrative business interests once controlled by intelligence officials.

Some 186 people, including intelligence officials, have already been punished over a smuggling racket at a town near the border with China in a prelude to the crackdown.

The latest 16, who have been discharged from the military, include two senior intelligence men involved in foreign relations and contacts with overseas media.

“Graft charges are being compiled against them,” the military source told AFP.

The only senior intelligence officials to remain in their jobs are one involved in the nation’s anti-drugs crackdown and another known to be a Than Shwe loyalist.

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s ambassadors serving abroad have arrived back in the capital Yangon to be briefed about the latest developments. At least three of them have backgrounds from military intelligence.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. The opposition headed by Aung San Suu Kyi won elections in 1990 but was not allowed to take power.

November 14: Democratic Karen Buddhist Army says that it will fight against SPDC in response to a rumor that the DKBA must give up their arms to the military
junta.

Captain Lay Winn of the DKBA at the Three Pagodas Pass said that the SPDC forced its party to draw up a list of its arms and members and give it to them, a Mon politician quoted Lay Winn as saying.

He says that Lay Winn had looked at the probable area of confrontation, which is about three, or four kilometers from the Thai Burma border town in preparation to fight back when its troops were pressured to give up their arms.  Karen National Union (KNU), he added, is also being deployed
around the area, which is not so far from the Three Pagodas Pass.

Reflecting the tense nature of relationship after General Khin Nyunt and MI (Military Intelligence) were dismissed, the Burma Army commander in the Three Pagodas Pass has threatened Lay Winn and the DKBA group on a number
of occasions, says another resident.

“Lay Winn was forced not to join a religious ceremony while the (Burma Army) Commander was there,” says the resident to Kao Wao under condition of anonymity.

Secretary 1, Lieutenant Generals Thein Sein and Mauna Bo, the chief commanders of the southern Burma command and other ministers, called on the cease-fire groups in Southern Burma two days ago to talk about the condition of the cease-fire agreements.

New Mon State Party (NMSP) liaison office in Sangkhlaburi said that its leaders including Vice-President General Htaw Mon recently met the SPDC leaders to talk about the process of the cease-fire agreement.  “The SPDC told our leaders not to change the truce process because of the ousting of
Prime Minister Khin Nyunt,” Chief Liaison Officer Mr. Nai Ong Shein said.

Today, the leaders of Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the SPDC met in the capital of Karen state.

November 14: Rangoon: Shopkeepers in impoverished Burma are giving customers candy and cigarettes — not as enticement to return but as change because of a shortage of small banknotes.

“I feel bad giving sweets in exchange for small notes but I have no choice,” said the proprietor of a medical store.

Some shopowners are fighting the trend.

U Pyone, a coffee shop owner, complained he was breaking large bills at a loss because of the scarcity of small notes, and said: “I have to because I don’t want to disappoint my customers.”

Some shops are getting their supplies of small bills from beggars, car-parking fee collectors and even Buddhist nuns who receive cash instead of food as alms.

November 14: Bangkok: A prisoners rights group on Monday called for the boycott of an international Buddhist conference in Myanmar next month because of the detention of an estimated 300 monks by the military regime.

The fourth World Buddhist Summit due to take place in December has already been hit by the pull-out of its main sponsor in a blow to a government trying to promote religious tourism.

The report by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) out later this week cites new accounts of brutal interrogations of monks over the last 16 years.

Monks, widely respected in Myanmar where 85 percent of the population are Buddhist, have been stripped of their robes, beaten inside jails and sent to labour camps, according to the report: “Burma (Myanmar’s former name): A land where Buddhist monks are disrobed and detained in dungeons”.

Many monks have been jailed under a law designed to suppress dissent and are seen as posing a danger to the junta’s rule because of links with the pro-democracy movement, according to the group.

It says many of the monks were given only perfunctory trials before being jailed for terms up to life.

“Torture is still going on,” said AAPP joint secretary Bo Kyi. “They don’t get good enough medical care, water or sanitation.”

The report, based on interviews with more than 20 monks released from custody, focuses on the period after the crushing of pro-democracy riots in 1988 when monks were among the leaders. It says at least 100 monks have been arrested since 2003.

The AAPP called on the regime to release an estimated 300 monks and a couple of nuns among the country’s 1,400 political prisioners, according to the group’s sources in Myanmar. Amnesty International in its 2004 report said more than 1,350 political prisoners remained imprisoned.

The AAPP, which plans to deliver the report to the UN, foreign embassies in Thailand and religious groups, also called on worldwide Buddhist organisations to boycott any religious events hosted by the regime.

The military authorities have denied the existence of political prisoners in Myanmar and are trying to promote religious tourism to the “Land of Pagodas” to help its ailing economy suffering under international sanctions.

The internationally isolated regime has built a new convention hall and spruced up temples in preparation for next month’s summit but its main sponsor, Japan’s Nenbutsushu sect, has already pulled out.

Most participants have refused to attend after the junta last month sacked its premier General Khin Nyunt and put him under house arrest for corruption, according to the organisers.

They said it could no longer use the summit to spread its message of world peace and called on Myanmar to cancel the event. However Yangon has said it planned to press ahead with the conference on December 9-11.

The military has ruled Myanmar since a coup in 1962. The opposition, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has not been allowed to rule.

November 13: Two weeks after Gen Khin Nyunt and his associates were “permitted to retire”, business has almost returned to normal in northern Shan State, reports Hawk eye from the border:

“Business is picking up again,” replies a shopkeeper from Muse, opposite Yunnan province’s Ruili, to S.H.A.N.’s query, “with more dust (meaning heroin) leaving for China than the pills (meaning methamphetamines) and at a good price too.”

The price of low-quality yaba (methamphetamines) remains high, Kyat 70,000 per 200-pill bag since the flap that followed Khin Nyunt’s abrupt dismissal while heroin is Yuan 33,000 ($ 4,125), much to the delight of the traders, he says. The high-quality yaba, meanwhile, remains stable,
around 100,000 kyat ($ 100) per bag.

Kickbacks for all commodities also remain the same as before, he claims. “The only difference is that the new guys on the landscape are the police instead of the MI (Military Intelligence) people”.

The rate of pay-offs has not gone down with the departure from the scene of the MI either, at least in the case casino operators, says another source. “The cut for the MI now goes to the military commanders here.”

Along the Thai border, the refineries, closed after Khin Nyunt’s ouster, are reopened and functioning as “usual” reports an insider source, who remarks, “Now, we can believe that, with or without Khin Nyunt, life does go on.”

A transcription of a speech given by Secretary-1 Lt-Gen Thein Sein, then Commander of Kengtung-based Triangle Region Command, given on 9 May 2001 in Mongla, says, “I was in Mongton and Monghsat for two weeks. Very friendly with U Way Shauk Kan (Wei Hsuehkang) and U Pao Youyi (Bao Youri, elder brother of Bao Youxiang) from the Wa group.”

November 14: Myanmar earned nearly $35 million through the sale of jade and gems during its mid-year Gems Emporium earlier this month, the semiofficial weekly Myanmar Times reported Monday.

The weeklong sale in Yangon ended Nov. 4 with sales reaching $34.88 million, the state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprise was quoted as telling the paper.

Jade sales were the biggest earner, contributing more than 70 percent of sales ($24.55 million), followed by gem lots at 27 percent ($9.56 million) and the rest coming from jewelry and pearl sales.

Myanmar is a well-known producer of jade, rubies and sapphires.

The emporium drew about 700 gem dealers, mostly from China and Thailand.

November 14: Yangon: India will provide more educational aid for Myanmar public servants in terms of scholarship to help develop the country’s human resources, a local news journal reported Sunday.

Under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Scheme, 140 scholarships would be offered by India to Myanmar during the current fiscal year ending next March, an increase of 40 from two years ago, the Myanmar Times quoted Indian Embassy sources as saying.

The scholarships provide training in agriculture, rural development, finance and diplomacy and foreign policy, they said.

Such scholarships have been available to Myanmar public servants since eight years ago.

The scholarships include those provided under the Colombo Plan, a regional organization aimed at increasing economic and social cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the sources.

In most recent years, economic and technological cooperative ties between the two countries have grown. Recently, India extended to Myanmar a line of credit of 7 million US dollars for telecom projects and a grant of 3 million dollars for implementation of information and communication technology projects, the newspaper said.

November 12: Berlin: Myanmar has refused to issue visas to an all-party delegation of German parliamentarians, a senior Christian Democrat member of the lower house of the Bundestag (parliament) said Friday.

According to Klaus-Juergen Hedrich the Myanmar embassy had said that the country could not receive the delegation in the capital Yangon (Rangoon) because of preparations for the meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Laos at the end of the month.

Hedrich, chairman of the parliamentary committee with responsibility for ASEAN affairs, said he had “strong doubts” about the reasons put forward by the Myanmar authorities.

He also expressed irritation at the “manner”in which the deputies had been treated.

Passports and visa forms had been at the embassy “for more than a month” yet the delegation members had been told only a few days before their planned departure that their requests had been turned down.

November 13: More than 20 Nobel laureates demanded on 12 November the immediate and unconditional release of Burma’s democracy leader and fellow Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

The demand was made at the annual World Summit of Nobel Laureates in Rome, Italy and an official said a letter containing the demand will be sent to the chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Sr Gen Than Shwe.

He said the Nobel laureates expressed their concerns over the detention of Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Since she is the symbol of democracy and non-violent struggle, they cannot stand idly by over her house arrest. If they do nothing it would tantamount to surrendering to
the Burmese military junta. The meeting strongly urged and called upon the Government of Myanmar [Burma] to restore the civil, human, and political rights of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers.

The attendants of the meeting included former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, former Polish President Lech Valesa, East Timor’s Foreign Minister Ramos Horta, and Mairead Corrigan Maguire from Northern Ireland.

November 14: What do Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, U2, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel, Coldplay and April Lavigne all have in common?

Nope, it’s not their guitars. Or their presidential preferences.

The rock superstars from all around the world have pitched in songs to rally support for Aung San Suu Kyi, the only Nobel Peace Prize winner being held at gunpoint. At this very moment, the petite Oxford graduate is being held hostage in her home in Rangoon by the Burmese military, unable to see anyone other than the physician who visits occasionally and the woman who brings her food.

Her gutsy struggle to bring democracy to the long-oppressed Burmese has been eclipsed by the fight to bring democracy to the Middle East, and understandably so, considering the explosive threat level there. But a much-needed chorus of support for Burma is growing louder, and it is in a universal language: rock music. The biggest names in music have donated tracks for a two-CD set called For the Lady, which is going on sale this month. MTV is helping spread the word, which means young people all over
the world will hear about a real live heroine who is in peril.

The irony – no, make that the outrage – is that the United Nations continues to stand by and do virtually nothing about the deteriorating situation in Burma, which has become a cauldron of AIDS and drugs. The so-called “special envoy” sent by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was only a part-time envoy who has business deals with the brutal junta. Not surprisingly, he has gotten nowhere.

Mr. Annan – who’s supposed to retire in 2005 – has one last chance before he goes to make a difference. He should throw the weight of his office into a full-scale investigation of the massacre of Aung San Suu Kyi’s followers and her abduction by military goons in 2003. The suave secretary-general’s record has been sullied by the crooked “Oil for Food” program. He needs to do something right and just.

The United States is chairing the Security Council this month, so there’s an ideal opportunity at hand to ratchet up U.N. pressure on the junta. To its credit, the Bush administration has been leading the way on the Burma issue, supporting tougher sanctions and voicing support for Aung San Suu
Kyi. President Bush even took care to single her out during his speech to the General Assembly this fall, saying, “In the words of the Burmese democracy advocate, Aung San Suu Kyi, ‘We do not accept the notion that democracy is a Western value. To the contrary; democracy simply means good government rooted in responsibility, transparency and accountability.’ ” (And, yes, he pronounced her name correctly  (awn-sawn-soo-chee.)

Burma presents a chance for the new Bush administration to prove that its push for democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan is truly part of a Big Idea. The fate of the world does hang on freeing people in countries that are destabilizing their neighborhoods, like Korea, Sudan, Iran, Burma. Supporting democracy with vigor is not just a Big Idea, it is the Right
Idea.

Burma presents a chance to show the administration can indeed work in concert with others to spread democracy. The European Union recently approved new sanctions on Burma. The trick is getting the U.N. to help and getting the players in Asia  (China, India, Thailand, Japan) to quit playing footsie with the military regime under the table.

Do the Burmese people need help? Reports filter out weekly of village women raped by the military, children forced to serve in the military, thousands of refugees pouring across the borders.

Do the Burmese people want help? In recent weeks, thousands of Burmese have started circulating nationwide petitions for democracy, signing their full names and including their addresses. In a country where people are thrown in prison just for complaining out loud to their neighbors about
the government, that is an act of enormous courage.

In the meantime, junta strongman Than Shwe reacted swiftly to the For the Lady CD on the first day of its release: He banned it.

Let’s hope the producers slap a “Banned in Burma” sticker on the CDs and sell them in the U.N. lobby.

Rena Pederson is editor at large of The Dallas Morning News. Her email address is repederson@dallasnews.com.

November 14: Even in the most stable of times, which these are not, the tension is never completely gone from the Thai-Burmese border

Looking over the calm waters of the Mekong into Burma from a restaurant in Chiang Saen district in Chiang Rai province, you would not think you were viewing a country whose endless conflicts involving government troops, ethnic groups and drug warlords have repeatedly spilled over onto Thai
soil.

The recent leadership change in Rangoon has made the Thai army beef up security forces along the Thai-Burmese border. Thousands of soldiers from the Pa Muang and Naresuan task forces were sent to reinforce those already deployed along the border.

The army is heightening its readiness even though many Burma watchers expected that the new Burmese leadership’s tough stance towards minority rebel groups would contribute much to the fight against drugs along the border. Thai businesses are hoping that Burma’s latest political turmoil
will have only a limited impact on border trade and economic ties with Thailand.

Total bilateral trade between the two countries reached 47 billion baht in the first eight months of this year. It was 55 billion for the whole of 2003. Thai exports to Burma have increased by 30 percent since 2003, thanks to eased trading barriers between the two countries.

Despite the present quiet, the latest leadership change in Burma is keeping Thai military and business leaders on their guard.