BURMA RELATED NEWS - DECEMBER 21, 2010(UTK)

*************************************************************
BURMA RELATED NEWS - DECEMBER 21, 2010
*************************************************************
Newsweek - After years of detention by Burma’s junta, the nobelist speaks of sanctions, karma, and the future.
The Huffington Post - In Burmese Opposition There Will Be No Reform: Aung San Suu Kyi
Global Security Newswire - Myanmar Urged to Allow U.N. Scrutiny of Alleged Nuclear Sites
TamilNet - Nambiar, UN, undermine war crimes investigation on Sri Lanka, Burma
UN News Centre - Myanmar major source and user of amphetamine drugs, says UN report
IRIN - MYANMAR: Food worries for cyclone survivors
Asia Times Online - A Nobel view on Myanmar
Asia Times Online - A crony rises in Myanmar
The Vancouver Sun - Escape from Myanmar brings family to Langley
AsiaNews.it - World tired of dictatorships like that of Burma
Manila Bulletin - Romulo hopes to meet Suu Kyi
People's Daily Online - Myanmar works for booming tourism through int'l activities
The Jakarta Post - Opinion: Myanmar, Vision and vicissitudes
Financial Express Bangladesh - Opinion: Deepening economic relations with Myanmar
Asahi Shimbun - Resident Burmese portray Myanmar repression in movie
The Irrawaddy - Senior General's Grandson Orders Attack on Business Rival
The Irrawaddy - Burma Army Deploys More Troops in Shan State
The Irrawaddy - NEWS ANALYSIS: Is DKBA Unity Broken for Good?
Mizzima News - US sends Transocean a fresh subpoena over Burma conduct
Mizzima News - Naypyidaw hotels extend capacity for March gem fair
DVB News - USDP assailants fined $0.50
*************************************************************




Aung San Suu Kyi
Newsweek - After years of detention by Burma’s junta, the nobelist speaks of sanctions, karma, and the future.
by Danielle Bernstein December 21, 2010

You spent much of your time under house arrest listening to the radio. What do you like to listen to?

Listening to political programs was a duty, a job. But cultural programs I enjoy. I listen a lot to the BBC World Service, but for some reason they don’t seem to have very many music programs these days. Maybe they came on at the times I was listening to Burmese-language BBC and Radio Free Asia. I listen at least six hours every day. There were so many shocking bits of news all the time. There seems to be so much violence and natural disasters all over the world, not just here in Burma. Floods, earthquakes, cyclones…c12/21/1012

How did you feel to hear the news of the monks’ uprising [against the Burmese junta] in 2007?

I knew from the very beginning it was not going to end well, so I was very sad. [But] it created change in the minds of lots of people, and that’s what’s really important. I think there were many people who had felt politics was not their concern [but] were so deeply shocked by how the monks were treated that they began to see you cannot ignore what is going on in the country.

You’ve been criticized for taking a stubborn stance on sanctions [against Burma’s military-dominated regime].

Some people are using economic sanctions as an excuse for the [country’s] economic mess. [But] most economists think the main problem is the policies the present regime has imposed. A change in government policies [would] bring about a change in the economic situation. And that’s what organizations like the IMF say, as well as economists.

Why have they not changed?

Because some people seem to be doing well out of it. Those who are close to the ones in power are not particularly interested in change.

How can your party avoid a leadership vacuum when the older generation moves on?

There are plenty of young people inside the country who are active, alert, and eager to learn. [They] may not know as much as their contemporaries abroad, but they are learning. We have to work at keeping some of those who are best educated from leaving the country. There is not a vacuum, just fewer than we would wish.

What obstacles face those who have chosen to stay?

So many obstacles! I don’t think I could enumerate all the obstacles. I’m just wondering whether we couldn’t find a stronger word than “obstacle.”

There are quite a few female political figures who seem to have inherited a desire to do work for their country from their fathers. Is that true for you?

I’ve always looked on my father [Burmese independence leader Aung San] as my leader as well as my father—a political leader in whom I believe, because I’ve studied his life and his work and his political thoughts.

Do you think this has been your destiny?

I don’t believe in destiny in that way. The Burmese like to talk about karma. I keep reminding people karma means “doing.” What you sow, you reap. So you create your own karma by doing; your karma is your deeds. I don’t believe in destiny as fate or kismet, like that.

You’ve maintained a sense of humor despite the hardships you’ve witnessed.

I hope so!
*************************************************************
The Huffington Post - In Burmese Opposition There Will Be No Reform: Aung San Suu Kyi
Virginia M. Moncrieff
Journalist
Posted: December 21, 2010 11:23 AM

In what must surely be a blow to the dwindling ranks of young and progressive supporters of the Burmese opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) the just-released figurehead of the movement, Aung San Suu Kyi has categorically ruled out any reorganization within the party's top ranks.

"We are not going to ask our older leaders to leave because they want to serve as long as they have strength to serve the party and I think that is a good thing to be encouraged," Daw Suu said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

The hope and joy that was felt when Daw Suu was freed must certainly now be tinged with those familiar feelings of frustration and near despair that the rigid and ancient hierarchies within the party are set to remain in place -- indeed seemingly set in cement.

In Burma, respect is not primarily earned by actions and deeds. Simply hanging in for the long haul and getting old has traditionally demanded the respect of others. This is not to suggest that the dedication and commitment of many opposition apparatchiks is under question. But generational change is urgent according to the NLD's younger supporters who, despite the restrictions placed on them, know how to campaign via social media and often have displayed ideals and ideas very different from their elders.

"I think this should be the time to reform the party because party's future is our country's future," an exiled 31 year old journalist (and NLD supporter) told me. "Old people at the party ha(ve) endured all the disturbance from the regime strongly for the party for 2 decades. We see no significant changes made by the party to the country especially during (Daw Suu's) house arrest which means old people in the party had no idea how to deal with the regime without her. So rather than letting them rule the party, let the new flesh come in and the old people can surround them and support them as the old do not need to step down completely."

Interviewing or meeting senior members of the NLD has become a tiring task. While available and willing to talk, their world view can be (understandably) restricted and their views inflexible and arrogant. Recent wikileaks have shown that the US embassy in Rangoon has understood the limitations of the freedom campaign because of rigid, old fashioned rule-by-the-rod methods in place that have driven droves and droves on younger people from the NLD.

"The way the Uncles run the NLD indicates the party is not the last great hope for democracy and Burma," said a leaked cable. "...new ideas are not solicited or encouraged from younger members, and the Uncles regularly expel members they believe are 'too active'," it said.

The Central Executive Committee is the powerhouse that drives the NLD and is mostly populated by politicos over 80. Breathing new life into the CEC means creating a modern pragmatic platform that takes into account contemporary economic policies as well as human rights and democracy. But Daw Suu says there will be no reorganization of the CEC.
Daw Suu has called an opposition 'youth meeting' this month, but many remain pessimistic about her will to take ask the heroes of the past decades to step down.

But the growing discontent with the NLD has been obvious inside Burma for most of the past decade. It came to light internationally when, during the November elections, desperate discussions were held about the official boycott. Many argued that the NLD had to step up and be a part of the process -- however flawed and corrupted. They were dismissed out of hand and a breakaway group created the National Democratic Force in order to contest the elections (16 candidates were elected). There was -- and is -- a deep fury aimed at those who left to start up -- or vote for -- the NDF.

Daw Suu has her work cut out for her. Since her November 13 release her overtures to the arthritis riddled iron fists of generals that have been met with silence. She has held many peace talks within her own party and other opposition camps but has acknowledged that deep divisions remain. If she -- and the NLD -- fail to treat the fault lines within the opposition, the future for Burma will remain, indeed, grim.
*************************************************************
Global Security Newswire - Myanmar Urged to Allow U.N. Scrutiny of Alleged Nuclear Sites
Monday, Dec. 20, 2010

The International Atomic Energy Agency has in the last few weeks pressed Myanmar to grant inspectors access to facilities said to have links to an undisclosed nuclear program, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday (see GSN, Dec. 17).

"(The IAEA) is now officially asking for a visit," said one official with knowledge of a letter sent by the IAEA Safeguards Department to the ruling military junta in Myanmar. The Vienna-based agency had in previous months sought details from the Southeast Asian nation on its purported atomic development efforts.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog issued its latest request on the heels of heightened concerns shared by Washington and Asian governments of stepped-up military collaboration between Myanmar and North Korea (see related GSN story, today). Joint cooperation could include work on atomic projects as well as the development of hardened bunkers and extended-range missiles.

Myanmar could face a tough international reaction if it rejects the IAEA request for audits of the purported nuclear sites, according the the Journal. Still, officials and experts have expressed uncertainty over the country's atomic intentions.

"Something is certainly happening; whether that something includes 'nukes' is a very open question which remains a very high priority for embassy reporting," the senior U.S. diplomat in Yangon wrote in a November 2009 dispatch.

A large portion of the equipment said to have been sought by Myanmar has non-nuclear uses, and defectors might have exaggerated the nation's nuclear ambitions for political reasons, proliferation analysts and former IAEA staffers said.

"North Korea has been trying to sell missiles to Myanmar for some years ... but there's no clear evidence of a nuclear program," former State Department nonproliferation official Mark Fitzpatrick said. Fitzpatrick and other specialists have still called for extensive audits in Myanmar over the country's alleged atomic activities (Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 17).
*************************************************************
Nambiar, UN, undermine war crimes investigation on Sri Lanka, Burma
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 December 2010, 08:48 GMT]

Unchecked for the role he played in the genocide of Eezham Tamils last year, Vijay Nambiar’s UN villainy is now targeting ethnicities struggling in Burma. The Burmese military now plans to adopt the Rajapaksa doctrine of military solution to the national question in Burma, with the backing of the same establishments that backed Rajapaksa, and Vijay Nambiar is in the scene again, facilitating the agenda and shielding the war crimes. A few days ago, UK has urged the UN to replace Vijay Nambiar by another fulltime envoy to deal with Burma. According to Mizzima News Wednesday, the London-based Burma Campaign expressed extreme disappointment on the approach of Nambiar befriending military generals and ignoring nations struggling for liberation. Meanwhile, the UN panel on Sri Lanka meeting Colombo’s LLRC has raised eyebrows in the human rights circles.

While major human rights organisations of the world have boycotted Colombo’s LLRC, there are reports that Ban Ki Moon’s advisory panel on Sri Lanka may have ‘meetings’ with it. According to SL government, since it has said that anyone could come up with submissions to the LLRC, on that basis the UN panel also could come to Colombo to meet the LLRC. This means that the UN panel is treated as a party submitting before the LLRC.

Informed circles say that the UN panel has plans to meet the LLRC behind the scene somewhere outside of the island, perhaps for exchanging notes.

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited U.N. investigators to share evidence gathered with his own reconciliation commission. Associated Press cited Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella saying Saturday that "We resisted the panel saying we can't allow a U.N. investigation unilaterally. But in this case, the president has invited them not to undertake any investigation but to share the evidence."

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon praised the move, AP said.

After collecting sensitive and trusted evidence from the affected, the UN move of ‘sharing’ with LLRC is calculated to undermine the credibility of the panel which had been set half-heartedly and the modus operandi of which had already raised doubts, said human rights activists.

In Burma, Ban Ki Moon’s chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar sabotaged war crimes investigations against Burmese military at the behest of the Chinese, accuses the Mizzima article by Thomas Maung Shwe.

Indian and Chinese opposition to war crimes investigation in the island of Sri Lanka and their backing to the war crimes accused regime of Rajapaksa are well known.

The Chinese have told Nambiar that war crime inquiry in Burma would be dangerous and counterproductive, and should not be allowed to proceed. Nambiar appeared to have shared the view by omitting a proposal for war crime inquiry in his report to the UN, despite the fact that UN officials had earlier called for such an inquiry, Mizzima said.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma in his report in March said that abuses were a state policy that involved authorities at all levels of the executive, military and judiciary, and called for an inquiry by the UN Human Rights Council.

Ironically, Burmese military offensive in August-September targeted ethnic Chinese in the Kokang region that made thousands of them to flee to Yunnan of China. The Chinese came out only with verbal protest.

After meeting Aung Sun Suu Kyi in Burma, Nambiar commented that he found her “out of touch and somehow too hard-line”, reports Matthew Russell Lee of the Inner City Press.

Writing on the controversial role played by Nambiar in Sri Lanka, Mizzima said: “Ban sent the former Indian diplomat to Sri Lanka despite that his own brother, retired Indian army general Satish Nambiar, had served as an adviser to the Sri Lankan military for several years.”

Citing The Times, Mizzima said that Nambiar knowingly suppressed information to the public, despite UN staff briefing him in Colombo that at least 20,000 people had died in the final stages of the war.

But there are some other Indian names that not only suppressed information but came out with misleading information on the civilians in the killing zone, contributing to the ‘smooth progress’ of war crimes.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka connection is a key factor in the renewed ethnic war in the regions of Burma, bordering Thailand, India and China, says Simon Roughneen writing in The Irrawaddy, November 29.

According to the article, while Aung San Suu Kyi, released from her years-long house arrest, has called for discussions on federal model solutions, the Burmese military is gearing up for a military solution to the ethnic issue in the model of Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka.

Rajapaksa’s first visit outside after the Vanni War was to Burma. The Burmese generals reciprocated in June 2009 by visiting Colombo and thanking Rajapaksa for his support in combating “illegal activities carried out by the LTTE in the past and in drug trafficking in the region."

But most of the poppy-growing areas in the Shan State of Burma are under the control of militia groups backed by the Burmese military, says Shan researcher and journalist Kheunsai Jaiyen, cited by The Irrawaddy.

The Burmese military is now eager to learn from Sri Lanka and to borrow methods from Sri Lanka’s COIN strategy used against the LTTE, The Irrawaddy article said, citing a recent report by researcher Kim Joliffe.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s army commander Jagath Jayasuriya said Wednesday that his military would be seeking UN ‘peace keeping’ missions abroad. Revealing that Colombo would be negotiating with Russia for armoured fighting vehicles, he said that his country was ready to take up foreign assignments at short notice.

In Burma, the Sri Lankan-style strategy appears primarily to target the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), The Irrawaddy said.

“In total, an estimated 446,000 people are thought to be displaced inside Burma and allegations that the army uses forced labour, forced displacement and rape as part of its campaign in ethnic minority regions are part of the campaign by rights groups to establish a Commission of Inquiry into war crimes in Burma,” The Irrawaddy further said.

According to Joliffe's report, more violence looms in Karen-populated regions in eastern Burma. The Sri Lanka-style strategy “would include the assassination of key leaders, the pinpointing of key bases and the herding of KNLA forces and civilians into kill zones using heli-borne forces.” Ominously, Joliffe suggests, “the final phase of these hammer and anvil tactics is the obliteration of everyone in kill zones using massed artillery.”

But it seems too much importance is given to the military of these terrorist states and their military ‘successes’ when the real problem lies in the attitudes of some powers and in the criminal mind of some individuals occupying establishments. The Sri Lankan state is increasingly proving itself as a crucial test case where the backbone of state terrorism should be crushed for the benefit of any fresh tide in world affairs.
*************************************************************
UN News Centre - Myanmar major source and user of amphetamine drugs, says UN report

21 December 2010 – The manufacture, trafficking and consumption of synthetic drugs in Myanmar is worsening, with methamphetamine and other amphetamine-type stimulants smuggled from the country affecting neighbouring States and other parts of East and South-East Asia, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) says in a new report.

According to the “Myanmar Situation Assessment on Amphetamine-Type Stimulants (ATS),” which was released yesterday in Bangkok, seizures of ATS pills in Myanmar and countries bordering the country’s Shan state in 2009 tripled compared to the previous year, a trend which has continued this year.

“In 2009, large seizures of high purity crystalline methamphetamine were made in Myanmar,” said Deepika Naruka, the UNODC Coordinator of the Global Synthetics Monitor, Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) programme in East Asia and the Pacific region.

“Authorities in both Myanmar and Thailand confirm that the manufacture of crystalline methamphetamine is now occurring in the Golden Triangle [opium-producing Asian region],” she said.

Between January and September this year, more than 44 million pills were seized in Thailand alone, while over 22 million pills were confiscated in Laos.

Home to between 50 and 80 per cent of the estimated total number of ATS users in the whole of Asia, the issue of amphetamine-type stimulants in the East and South-East Asian region is a major concern, UNDOC says in the report.

While most of the drugs produced in Myanmar – both opiates and methamphetamines – are mainly destined for the international market, domestic use of ATS in the country is increasing, the agency notes, adding that the trend has been exacerbated by the lack of resources for drug treatment facilities.

“This Situation Assessment is the first of its kind. It aims to provide a clearer understanding of the ATS situation in Myanmar, in order to design effective and evidence-informed responses,” said Gary Lewis, UNODC Regional Representative for East Asia and the Pacific.
*************************************************************
MYANMAR: Food worries for cyclone survivors

RAKHINE STATE, 21 December 2010 (IRIN) - Aye Mya always struggled to provide food for her family, but after Cyclone Giri that task has become almost impossible.

"Now it's even harder to put a meal on the table for my family," said Aye Mya, a 36-year-old single mother of two, as she cooked the family's first meal of the day at lunchtime outside her makeshift hut in a small village in western Rakhine State - a four hour-motorboat ride away from Myebon, the hardest-hit area.

The category 4 storm that struck western Myanmar on 22 October killed 45 and affected some 260,000 while destroying a large portion of the region's paddy fields and fishing industry - the primary sources of livelihood.

An estimated 86,000 farming households and 7,500 fishing households were left food-insecure, the UN Development Programme said.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), some 200,000 people need food assistance in the worst-affected townships of Myebon, Kyaukphyu, Pauktaw and Minbya.

Impact on rice production

As the cyclone struck right before the annual harvest in November and early December, many farmers lost all or most of their crops.

"This will result in a loss of food production, and will have an impact on the food security situation of the affected farmers," Carlos Veloso, WFP country representative to Myanmar, told IRIN.

At the same time, whatever rice stores residents had in their homes were also lost to the storm.

Traditionally farmers in Rakhine State can grow rice only once a year in the monsoon season (May to mid-October), as opposed to some areas of the country where access to fresh water is more readily available, allowing two harvests.

"Right now farmers in the Giri-affected area - depending on the level of the damage inflicted on their farms - are facing food insecurity or are receiving food aid," Tesfai Ghermazien, Myanmar's senior emergency coordinator with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said.

Agency efforts

WFP distributed 1,353MT of rice to nearly 200,000 beneficiaries in the worst-affected townships in November. The UN agency also plans to distribute 6,580MT of food, comprising rice, pulses, oil and salt, in December and January.

"WFP remains committed to continuing the provision of food assistance to the people in need, and to improve the food security situation in the most vulnerable areas," Veloso said.

To better understand the current food security situation, including household consumption and access, WFP and FAO will conduct an in-depth food security and livelihood assessment beginning in the third week of December.

All the 200,000 affected people are receiving food assistance, Veloso said.

Food running out

But despite that effort, many cyclone-affected complain that food aid often runs out long before the distribution arrives.

"I received rice expected to last for one month, but it ran out within two weeks," said one villager from Pyae Chaung, about a seven hour-motor boat ride from Myebon.

Laurent Campigotto, head of mission of Action Contre La Faim (ACF) in Yangon, said that depending on the capacities of agencies, the amount of food assistance could be different from one place to another.

"Families who have received low assistance have to use coping mechanisms such as borrowing food, or borrowing cash to buy food," Campigotto said.

Many residents say not only is it harder for them to earn money now, but even finding rice in the market is proving problematic, leaving many to worry about possible price hikes.

"Without action to support these farming families in accessing food and seeds," warned Campigotto, "food insecurity would be hampered for a longer time."
*************************************************************
Dec 22, 2010
Asia Times Online - A Nobel view on Myanmar
By Haseenah Koyakutty

BANGKOK - Amartya Sen, who won the 1998 Nobel economics prize, is leading a call for a special "global initiative" on Myanmar, styled after the Afghanistan conference held in London earlier this year when the international community came together to support that war-torn country.

Sen, a Myanmar expert who spent part of his childhood in the Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma, argued in a Bangkok interview that the newly freed opposition icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi's ability to work towards national reconciliation would depend on what other countries do.

"My concern is they're not doing much at all," said Sen, an Indian who pointed out that if the rest of the world does nothing, Suu Kyi would be forced to return to past populist practices which would risk her re-arrest.

According to Sen, the military government's strategy is to present an image of moderation without actually being moderate. He contends that people tend to underestimate the extent to which the military government is "unbelievably different" to other military dictatorships, save those of Sudan and North Korea.

"To the general public, it looked as if they [the ruling junta] have had an election, they've released Suu Kyi, how could you describe them to be extremist?" said Sen.

He believes the military regime, led by General Than Shwe, would like to be more like North Korea, even though Myanmar is not yet close to acquiring a nuclear bomb. He thinks the regime has not succeeded because Myanmar's people are more resistant and have revolted in the recent past. Nor does North Korea have a successful opposition leader like Suu Kyi. "She's kept the issue alive," Sen said.

Sen proposes several ways to move Myanmar forward. For starters, he believes an internationally led "commission of inquiry" could bring out the true extent of the military regime's brutality and internal suppression and that this could encourage its neighbors, especially China, India and Thailand, to re-examine their self-interested positions towards the regime.

Sen reckoned the ongoing economic and financial sanctions against the regime should hit the generals more than the people, and urged the West to end its hypocrisy by completely withdrawing from the country's petroleum and gems trades. The West, he said, should also lead an arms sale ban to the country.

"The opportunity of a hard-headed talk [with the junta] will arrive only if China, Thailand, India, as well as the most powerful international players, namely the European Union and America, do enough to make the lives of the junta unviable. Then it would be possible to talk." In his proposed global initiative, Sen believes these powers should begin thinking of an "ideal exit" for the generals, including exile options, even though the mismanaged government is not yet close to collapse. In an interview with Asia Times Online contributor Haseenah Koyakutty, Sen outlined his vision for change in Myanmar. Excerpts follow:

Asia Times Online: Why should Myanmar's neighbors consider changing policy towards the military regime?

Amartya Sen: The incentive is this: the dictators will ultimately fall, they always do ultimately. But no matter, when the memory of the collaboration with the military regime would remain. When Americans supported the [Augusto] Pinochet regime in overthrowing [Salvador] Allende [in Chile], it would have been hard to predict how long Pinochet would last. What was easy to predict then is that America's support for Pinochet and all other military dictatorships within Latin America would consolidate the anti-Americanism which is one of the gut reactions in Latin America today. There's a lesson there for China, for India and for Thailand.

ATol: What are the prospects for internal change?

AS: There's very little freedom the way the country is run. What do you advocate? You ask the monks to rise and revolt again to be clubbed down? You ask the students to go out in their agitation as they did 15 years ago to be brutally treated? I think these things don't make sense.

The freedom of action is very limited inside Burma [Myanmar], as it is in North Korea. And in that context, much depends on what other countries in the world would do, and that's why the responsibility of European Union, America, India, Thailand, China, among other countries is really very large.

ATol: What could be General Than Shwe's future role after the elections?

AS: We have to see, but it is very important to keep this issue in the public domain and as a high agenda item in the public global dialogue that is taking place right now.

ATol: How do you see Suu Kyi's future role?

AS: Regarding what part she can play in the end of the regime, if the international community gets its act together, then Suu Kyi will have a much bigger voice in the negotiations with the military regime. And she can show the kind of generosity that [South African icons] Nelson Mandela and [Desmond] Tutu did in allowing people who practiced apartheid, or in this case military butchery, to escape.

Penalizing isn't a very intelligent way of conducting political policy, even when you're dealing with butchers. You have to let the butchers go, and they have to know they can go, so that it is not the case that they can't get off the back of the tiger because the tiger would eat it.

ATol: In what ways do Myanmar's generals resemble Indian maharajahs?

AS: None of them had anything like the power that [Myanmar's] military dictators have. I mean the maharajahs have a lot of things to explain and answer for, but they were not about systematic murders and rape. They were not making minority communities pushed away from their local residences and chucked in some forest or other. They were not carrying out systematic imprisonment of every dissident.

I think Indian maharajahs were not great at introducing great systems, but to compare them with the military junta I think really is deeply illusory given the fact that the military junta is effective, determined and brutal in a way that the maharajahs by and large didn't manage to be.

Haseenah Koyakutty is freelance Southeast Asia correspondent based in Bangkok.
*************************************************************
Dec 22, 2010
Asia Times Online - A crony rises in Myanmar
By Brian McCartan

CHIANG MAI - With widely anticipated democratic elections completed and the military's preferred candidates now firmly in power in Myanmar, the prospects couldn't be brighter for the generals' business cronies. Atop that exclusive list is U Zaw Zaw, the owner and managing director of the Max Myanmar Group of Companies, and one of a clutch of Myanmar companies to be targeted by United States financial sanctions.

The 44-year-old Zaw Zaw's business activities were closely examined in a June 2009 US Embassy in Yangon cable recently released by WikiLeaks. In the confidential document, he was mentioned as "one of several mid-level cronies attempting to curry favor with the regime and to use his government ties to expand his commercial enterprises".

By any assessment, Zaw Zaw has impeccable connections to the ruling junta, including ties to former Lieutenant General Tin Aung Myint Oo, ranked number four in the junta and recently elected to parliament. He is also known to maintain personal relations with Senior General Than Shwe, the country's authoritarian military ruler.

In September, Zaw Zaw was included in a select group of individuals chosen to accompany Than Shwe on a state visit to China. The entourage included the general's family and senior junta officials. He also accompanied Than Shwe on a tour led by Chinese officials of the Shenzen Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

This month, Zaw Zaw was granted a major state construction contract to develop the new deep-sea port and future SEZ at the southern port of Dawei. The project, which is being led by Italian-Thai, Thailand's largest construction firm, is worth around US$8 billion.

Around the same time, Zaw Zaw attended a birthday party in Yangon for Than Shwe's four-year-old granddaughter, also attended by many leading high-society and military figures.

Until recently, Zaw Zaw owned the local Delta United professional football club, where Than Shwe's grandson played. The businessman gave up ownership of the company later in 2009 saying it conflicted with his presidency of the Myanmar Football Federation. Zaw Zaw became the organization's first head in 2008, along with that of the Myanmar Tennis Federation.

Zaw Zaw's connections to the military leadership were also apparent in the concessions he received during the mass privatization of state-owned enterprises and property that occurred in the early part of this year in the run-up to the elections. The fire sale has been touted as the largest sell-off of state assets in Myanmar's history.

In the process, Max Myanmar gained the right to operate eight fuel stations, all of which opened on June 10, in Ayerawaddy, Bago and Yangon divisions. The government has continued to set price limits, but observers expect fuel prices to eventually rise under the private ownership of some of Myanmar's most wealthy businessmen.

Zaw Zaw was also allowed to enter the financial sector through the establishment of a new private bank. Permission was given in late May by central bank chief Major General Tun Thein for the opening of private banks by Zaw Zaw and other junta-connected tycoons, including Tay Za, Nay Aung and Chit Khine. Max Myanmar's bank is known as the Ayerwaddy Bank and opened in August.

Myanmar's banking system is in urgent need of reform, with a high level of mistrust due to high inflation and negative interest rates, and the involvement of more private capital is seen by some as a positive development. That said, previous attempts at opening private banks were unsuccessful - the Asia Wealth Bank and Myanmar May Flower were closed by the junta due to widespread suspicions they were involved in money laundering.

Along with other prominent businessmen, Zaw Zaw was given a prominent role in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Along with Tay Za and Tun Myint Naing, he accompanied senior generals on tours of disaster areas and his donations to relief efforts were prominently featured in the local media, which estimated he made US$1.6 million in contributions.

Zaw Zaw was also given government contracts for reconstruction of the worst-hit areas, work which is ongoing. Max Myanmar's website says philanthropy is part and parcel of the group's standard operating procedures, including regular donations to educational, health, sports and religious activities.

Rapid expansion

Zaw Zaw originally founded his conglomerate as the Max Myanmar Co in 1993 to import buses from Japan. The company quickly expanded and, according to its website, later became known as the Max Myanmar Groups of companies comprised of six independent enterprises. These include the Trading Co Ltd, Construction Co Ltd, Hotel and Tourism Co Ltd, Manufacturing Co Ltd, Services Co Ltd, and the Gems and Jewelry Co Ltd. Zaw Zaw also owns the Singapore-based Max Singapore International Pte Ltd.

The Construction Co received contracts for some of the construction of the new capital at Naypyidaw in the early 2000s. This included an eight-lane highway and other parts of the remote capital's modern road network. Other projects handled by the company included the repair of sections of the Yangon-Mandalay road in 2009. Max Myanmar was later granted the concession to collect tolls on the road. It also notched the contract to construct a 30,000 seat stadium in Naypyidaw as part of Myanmar's bid to host the 2013 Southeast Asia Games.

The company's construction operations in Naypyidaw were enhanced in August 2009 with a contract given by the Ministry of Mines to produce limestone which supplies a new Max Myanmar-owned cement factory. According to the leaked US Embassy cable, the cement is expected to be used for the capital's newly expanded airport, now under construction by Steven Law's Asia World Company. Law is another of the regime's favored businessmen.

Zaw Zaw's Hotel and Tourism Co operates the three-star Hotel Max, also known as the Hotel Chaung Tha Beach Resort in the town of Chaung Tha in Ayerawaddy division. The resort is a known favorite of the ruling generals and their associated business elite. The posh Royal Kumudra Hotel in the capital Naypyidaw is also operated by the company.

Max Gems and Jewelry is largely involved in jade mining with a concession in the Hpakant jade mining area of Kachin State. It operates the Lone Khine jade mine in conjunction with the Ministry of Mines. In 2009, the company unearthed a 115 ton jade stone, the second-largest mined in the past decade.

The company's Pinya Manufacturing Co Ltd, meanwhile, produces the popular Max Cola as well as several other beverages for the domestic market. The company began operating in 1998 with an initial investment of $41,000. This followed the 1997 pullout of Pepsi Cola under strong international activist pressure over the junta's human-rights record. The Pepsi distributorship was held by U Thein Htut, Zaw Zaw's father-in-law.

On January 4, Myanmar's Independence Day, Zaw Zaw was honored along with Tay Za and 16 senior military officials in a ceremony in Naypyidaw. Although not mentioned in the domestic media, the exile-run Irrawaddy reported he received the Thiri Pyanchi medal, one of the country's highest honors for his "outstanding work" in developing Myanmar's economy and contributions to the development of the country's professional football league.

The honor, which was suspended under the rule of former strongman Ne Win but restored recently by Than Shwe as part of his "roadmap to democracy", was traditionally given to civil servants and individuals who had made an important contribution to the country.

The US has also recognized his importance to the regime. In January 2009, Zaw Zaw and the Max Myanmar Group were specifically targeted by the US Treasury Department and placed on a list of sanctioned individuals and companies in Myanmar. The Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted eight of Max Myanmar's companies, including its Singapore-based Max Singapore International.

The financial sanctions froze any assets Zaw Zaw may have held in American banks and included a travel ban to the US. They also put pressure on non-US banks, especially those situated in Singapore, for holding assets of sanctioned individuals and companies. Zaw Zaw was added to the US sanctions list because "Max Myanmar has provided important services in support of the [Myanmar] junta, particularly in the form of construction projects".

Until now, Zaw Zaw has escaped much of the scrutiny and criticism leveled at fellow junta crony and his rival for richest businessman in Myanmar, Tay Za, the owner of the Htoo Trading Company. This is likely due to Tay Za's more public involvement in the procurement of weapons systems for the military and more recent revelations of his involvement in the regime's alleged nuclear plans. Tay Za's close public relationship to the top general has made him a favorite target of exile activist and media groups.

However, Zaw Zaw's companies have been criticized for at least one of its projects. Karen Human Rights Group, a grassroots organization which monitors human-rights abuses in eastern Myanmar, alleges the Myanmar army confiscated large tracts of land in northern Mon State in 2008 which it then sold to Max Myanmar for use in its rubber plantation operations. The project is listed on the company's website as beginning in 2005 and expected to begin production of rubber for export in 2012.

With 25% of parliament's seats reserved for military men and the junta's Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) overwhelming the rest of the seats, junta-connected businessmen are expected to win the lion's share of new government contracts doled out by the nominally civilian-led administration. As such, Zaw Zaw is expected to be one of the bigger business winners of the democratic transition.

Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
*************************************************************
The Vancouver Sun - Escape from Myanmar brings family to Langley
Part 3 of Refugee series
By Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun December 20, 2010

METRO VANCOUVER -- The strip malls, big-box outlets and mega-churches of Langley City are 12,000 kilometres from steamy Myanmar, a brutal South Asian military dictatorship that is infamous for having placed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

But in the past four years, one of Langley City's modest neighbourhoods has become the new home to Sar Pwo Kor and his family, as well as more than 250 refugees from Myanmar, also known as Burma, whose 50-million long-suffering residents are predominantly Buddhist.

Kor and his family belong to a persecuted Burmese ethnic and religious minority group called Karen, most of whose members have been Baptist, like Kor, or evangelical Christian since the days of British colonialism.

Before coming to Langley City more than three years ago, Kor, 29, spent 15 years in refugee camps of up to 100,000 people, mostly Karen, on the Thailand side of the eastern Burma border, protected by Thai troops.

"In my country we can't have a good life," Kor said, sitting on his couch wearing second-hand shorts and yellow knee-high soccer socks, toddlers playing at his feet.

He was on a waiting list of the UN High Commission for Refugees for seven years before Canadian officials finally interviewed him and chose his family for a flight to Vancouver.

The family now lives in a sprawling complex on the eastern end of Langley City.

Kor looked around his dour, low-cost two-bedroom suite, where his petite wife, Hearawah Naw, 27, and four young children - two of them born in Canada - squeezed together, and said, shyly: "Apartment is better than bamboo."

In the refugee camps he lived in fragile bamboo shacks, which frequently were destroyed by monsoons and had to be replaced.

Instead, Langley City has central heating, glass windows, glitzy shopping centres, youth soccer teams, an unfamiliar language and a nearby elementary school, Douglas Park, where his oldest child, a seven-year-old, goes with more than 35 other Burmese refugee youngsters.

"Everything is different in Canada," he said.

Kor - a polite, small, quietly intelligent man, the son of a poor Burmese farmer - is not overly expressive. He appears cautious, conveying a sense of multicultural shell-shock.

"I want to talk a lot, but the language is difficult," he said apologetically, while one of his younger sons played on the family computer in the living room.

Kor is striving to learn better English so he can get a job. His goal is to work at a Home Depot and get the family off welfare.

That way he hopes, among other things, to eventually pay off the interest-bearing loan the Canadian government gave him to fly his family to Vancouver.

The Kor family are among almost 800 Burmese refugees who live in Metro Vancouver, which makes them the largest ethnic cohort to arrive in the past five years, accounting for one-fifth of recent refugees.

In addition to the enclave of 250 Karen people in Langley City, which refugee-aid staff say is the most concentrated refugee settlement in B.C., there are also clusters of Burmese newcomers in Surrey's Whalley and Johnston Heights neighbourhoods.

In Canada, the Karen people, like most refugees and many immigrant groups through history, stick tightly together - for mutual emotional and financial support, to share dinners and festivals and figure out what is happening to them as they bravely confront their new world.

Kor's family members are in constant conversation with three of his sisters who live with their families in the same Langley City apartment building, as well as another sister in Surrey and a brother who has found work in a greenhouse. Two more sisters still live South Asia.

Many Karen refugees in Metro Vancouver attend Brookswood Baptist Church in Langley, or other evangelical Christian churches in Surrey. The church members, Kor said, are kind.
A simple tapestry on the mostly bare walls of the Kor family apartment says, "For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son."

The Karen people, who now number four million worldwide, have been on the run for decades.

They have, in one way or another, been in conflict with the Burmese hierarchy since the Second World War, when the Karen supported the British colonialists in keeping out Japanese invaders.

However, the British didn't keep their promise, which was to give the Karen their own small independent homeland, a place they call Kawthoolei.

As a result of their involvement with the British, the Burmese military has routinely denounced the Karen people as "imperialists," and systematically ostracized them, forcing mass relocations.

Kor showed no inclination for talking politics during our interview - even though he has been a refugee since age 13, when he took part in a student-led demonstration against the regime.

"I was a small student and followed the big students," he said, hoping to quickly conclude the discussion. He wouldn't say anything when asked if he feared for the safety of family members who remain in Burma.

However, Kor acknowledged that after the demonstration he had to run for his life from military troops. He spent a week travelling through the jungle, with his family, to the Thai border, all the time fearing he'd be discovered.

"If I had been caught, they would have killed me," Kor says; some of his fleeing friends and family were gunned down by the Burmese military.

Even though it's been hard to adjust to life in B.C., Kor asked to come here for the possibilities - for himself, his wife, extended family and children.

For a new, freer life.

Despite the rainy weather, Kor, a soccer fan, was dressed as though he is always ready to kick around a ball. One of the few decorations on the walls of his apartment is a map of the world. Kor likes locating the countries of some of his favourite soccer teams on the map. His top one is Argentina.

When not taking English classes and going to church, he regularly plays soccer on the apartment-complex grass with his young boys. His seven-year-old son is the proud member of a Langley youth soccer team.

It's one place where the family can fit in to this different world.
*************************************************************
12/20/2010 19:51
MYANMAR
AsiaNews.it - World tired of dictatorships like that of Burma
by Tint Swe

The great Burmese dissident highlights the important role played by Aung San Suu Kyi in building democracy in Burma. He warns the junta that history is passing them by and that Beijing and New Delhi will not let them do as they please forever.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) – China and India cannot tolerate a dictatorial regime on their borders. At the same time, the Burmese junta must face demands for democracy at home, which are growing on a daily basis, this according to Dr Tint Swe, an important Burmese dissident opposed to his country’s military regime. From his place of exile in India, he wrote to AsiaNews to discuss Burma’s post-election politics and the region’s new geopolitical situation.

Tint Swe is a member of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which was set up after the 1990 general elections won by the National League for Democracy (NLD) but never recognised by the junta. He fled to India in 1990 and has been living in New Delhi since 21 December 1991 where he is the government’s information officer for South Asia and East Timor.

According to Burmese military rulers’ roadmap, the so-called disciplined democracy is about to end now as the parliament gets ready to begin its first session a month or two. However, why do we continue talking about democracy in Burma?

There have been governments, like those in ASEAN, who saw the election of 7 November as a step in the right direction. Observers are excited about a few seats won by ethnic parties. But some dos and don’ts have already been issued for the conduct in the parliament. The military will appoint the chief ministers in the cabinet. It will be like the national convention when two ethnic presidium members had to go into exile. There were people who sought some political space and challenged the election. They found a square inch in the Black Sea.

There are more people who think that the release of Aung San Suu Kyi is ray of fresh hope for democracy and national reconciliation. Broadly speaking, after the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the people of Burma are half way on the road to democracy. It does not necessarily mean that they have to walk for two more decades to cover the distance of the other half. This phase, to quote Aung San Suu Kyi, will be travelled at a 21st century pace.

The issue of the NLD’s status may yet be answered. Officially, it does not exist but on ground, it is very much active. As the movement is 20 years old, it needs new blood and a fresh strategy as well as new allies.

Aung San Suu Kyi is as relentless in her work as she is tireless in her speeches. It seems that from outside world no former friendly countries will leave the NLD behind. It is encouraging that India, which has so far sat on the fence as an Indian expert from London University observed, now shows signs for more engagement not only with the junta but also with Aung San Suu Kyi and maybe others too. Indian media are doing a tremendous job. Indian civil society, especially at the academic level, is full of life. All will lead to new policies, which is what Burmese people want.

During a series of consultations on Burma in Delhi, Indian observers are excited to see the emergence of a new institution in Burma, the parliament. Some observers have stressed the significance that some seats were won by ethnic parties. Still, all the main ministers will be appointed by the military. It will be the same as the national convention, which drafted the constitution. Already some dos and don’ts are in place to govern conduct in parliament. Non-USDP parties will get as much political space as one square inch in the Black Sea.

By ignoring or not knowing that members of the NLD are under tight controls, the party has been criticised for its allegedly limited intra-party democracy. The party the November election, the Union Solidarity and Development party (USDP), is actually not a political party. It cannot be compared to the Communist party of China or the People's Action Party in Singapore. It is people in civilian clothes civilian who will perform different jobs, namely prime minister, ministers, commanders, crony businessmen, hooligans to beat and kill Aung San Suu Kyi and all dissidents.

One analyst said that everything has fallen on the shoulders of Aung San Suu Kyi, but he is wrong. Machiavellianism is as real international relations. But Burma’s quest for democracy is a revolution that needs a dynamic leader. In addition to national reconciliation, it needs a trusted leader. No other one can be Gandhi or Nelson Mandela!
In India, some think that the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) will tame the Burmese military regime by giving a greater place in regional and international forums. However, the Burmese military is different from all other armies in the region. The expectation in the West that military officers trained abroad could one day change things is just a pipe dream.

The next, and hopefully the last phase on the road to democracy, is already in place as new ideas and new initiatives appear inside, calling for new policies and approaches from abroad.

It is undeniable that China is challenging not only the region but also the entire world. History has let it happened. Now one country cannot resist or stand alone. For that mission impossible everybody is looking at Burma’s position.

During Cold War era, General Ne Win played the East-West card to stay in power for 26 years. The current junta has played the India-China card for 22 years to stay on power. But the people of Burma want to be friends with both China and India.

The recent high-level meeting between China and India is a good sign for Burma even though no word on Burma was uttered. It shows that there is no regional Cold War this century. Both are getting ready to take on more global responsibilities, and neither may be too happy about a dictatorship on their doorstep.

In the meantime, Burma’s senior general is busy cleaning up his own house. His focus does not go beyond Naypyitaw. However, the world cannot wait for long.
*************************************************************
Manila Bulletin - Romulo hopes to meet Suu Kyi
December 21, 2010, 5:39pm

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo hopes to meet Myanmar pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi next year when he visits his “good friend” who is set to step down as Burma's foreign minister after being elected as regional representative.

But prior to this, Romulo also revealed to reporters in an interview that the DFA is busy preparing for the meeting on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) declaration on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (DOC) slated on December 22 in Hanoi. “I am just waiting for the formal invitation (from the side of Suu Kyi),” Romulo told reporters in an interview as he pointed out that the reason he will be travelling to Burma is that they expect Foreign Minister U Nyan Win to become the prime minister of Bago Region, which is located in the southern central part of the country.

He said will be attending the ceremonies when Nyan Win ends his 6-year term.
*************************************************************
People's Daily Online - Myanmar works for booming tourism through int'l activities
20:41, December 21, 2010

Myanmar is working for development of tourism through taking part in international and regional tourism activities, aiming to bring in more and more world tourists to the country.

According to a latest report, airlines and travel agencies in Myanmar are making arrangement to join the ASEAN Tourism Forum ( ATF) set to be held in Cambodia to seek tourism promotion among regional members.

The ATF-2011 will be the 30th for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to host alternately in their capitals and will be the second time for Cambodia to host the event in its capital of Phnom Penh from Jan. 15 to 21, 2011.

Myanmar booths will include those of Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, some airlines and travel agencies.

Throughout 2010, Myanmar made every efforts to promote tourism and as part of them, the Myanmar Marketing Committee (MMC) planned domestic familiarization (FAM) package trips in April and September for international media persons and travel agencies this year in a bid to promote the country's tourism market through foreign media,

The travel packages were 8-day Mystical Myanmar FAM trip which brought tour groups to the country's famous Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and Inlay and 5-day Highlights of Myanmar FAM trip which also brought the visitors to Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan.

These familiarization (FAM) trips were planned with the cooperation of hotels, international and domestic airlines, tour operators and some travel agencies.

According to the MCC, over 360 tourists from international travel agencies and media persons visited Myanmar during the past five years through taking FAM trips.

The travelers were from North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East countries and Asian countries.

To boost tourism regionally, the Myanmar tourism authorities was also negotiating over a plan with CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) to travel to each others without visa, projecting a plan for the year 2012-15.

In September-October this year, Myanmar participated in an international tourism fair in Ho Chi Minh city and exhibit hotels established in the ancient city of Bagan in Mandalay division.

These Bagan hotels are selected as Bagan Hotel, Thiripitzaya Sakura Hotel, Amazing Bagan Golf Resort, Myanmar Treasure Hotel, Aureum Palace Hotel and Resort Ayeya Hotel, Bagan Thante Hotel, Tazin Garden Hotel and Tharabar Gate Hotel.

Earlier in March, a special tourist train which connects Myanmar's commercial port city of Yangon to the archaeological center of Bagan was put into service.

Jointly launched by the Ministry of Rail Transportation and the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, the special train program on Yangon-Pyay-Kyaukpadaing-Bagan route also involve other private tour companies.

In October, 13 Myanmar tourism companies participated in ITB Asia Singapore travel trade show at the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Center.

Taking part in the show were Myanmar Marketing Committee (MMC), Air Bagan, MAI (Myanmar Airways International), Inya Lake and Chatrium Hotel, Adventure Myanmar Travel , Grand Lotus Travel , Golden Host Travel , Interconnection Travel , Mobydick Travel , Wide View Travel , Glamorous Myanmar Travel and Unique Asia Travel Centers.

The Myanmar side displayed Myanmar historical sites to international tourism companies.

In November, six Myanmar tourism companies took part in World Travel Mart (WMT) 2010 in ExCel London.

Besides joining other trade shows in early 2011 in such countries as Cambodia, Australia, Italy, Germany in a bid to draw attention from more countries, Myanmar will attend the ITE and MICE 2010-Annual International Travel Expo in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) scheduled for June 9 to 12 , 2011.

According to official statistics, tourist arrivals in Myanmar through the Yangon International Airport reached 259,458 in the first 11 months of 2010, up 61,509 compared with the same period of 2009's 197,949.

The increase of tourist arrivals was partly due to the introduction of visa-on-arrival system for a four-month short period from April to August under the government's revised policy to promote tourism.

Foreign travelers mostly came from North America, Africa, Asia, Middle-East countries and East and West European countries.
*************************************************************
The Jakarta Post - Opinion: Myanmar, Vision and vicissitudes
Pierre Marthinus, St Andrews, UK | Tue, 12/21/2010 9:30 AM | Opinion

The focus on “reconciliation” for Myanmar, taken up by many notable scholars in Indonesia, is a goal worthy of scrutiny.

Such a position represents a compromise between Indonesia’s domestic aspirations for democracy in the Southeast Asian region and the necessity for a feasible foreign policy. In a nutshell, there is an unavoidable gap between Indonesia’s vision and its vicissitudes.

This vision of a democratic “push” for the region is evident in the buzz and political rhetoric surrounding the third Bali Democracy Forum (BDF).

Democracy is voiced by many as a gift to be shared outside of a nation’s border, a “sun of democracy”, with an internally embedded moral call to “salvage” the rest of the world (The Jakarta Post, Dec. 9).

As much as Indonesia would like to perform a democratic push within the region, there are limitations to what can be achieved due to the political, social, economic, and institutional constellation surrounding it, especially in the case of Myanmar.

Smarting from the experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan, a crackpot liberal approach is likely to bring many detrimental effects instead of a sustainable peace.

From a political scientist’s viewpoint, the focus on procedural and liberal democratic elements of reconciliation is often times more ideological and normative than it is of any analytical purpose (Chabal: 1998).

As a foreign policy, democratic visions differ from its functions as domestic politics. One needs to be careful when using it as a framework for reconciliation and be fully aware of its limitations.

Politically, reconciliation requires practical compromises that are not always in line with democratic visions and the pursuit of justice toward past grievances or atrocities — at least in the initial short-run.

Taking lessons from reconciliation in Cambodia, Indonesia’s leadership needs to show greater political will, regional commitment, and calculated risk-taking.

A reconciliation blueprint aiming to transfer power to a civilian government, consolidate effective civilian control over the military, and professionalize the military institution of Myanmar will need to obtain the involvement, if not full cooperation, of the generals who are often highly decorated with human rights abuses.

Understandably, this reality of reconciliation is quite hard to swallow for many ASEAN citizens that have witnessed Myanmar’s unimpressive track record of atrocities.

Furthermore, reconciliation means talking, negotiating, reaching an agreement, and coming to terms with adversaries, however atrocious they were.

The 2008 Myanmar Constitution does provide the regime with retroactive impunity that invalidates prosecution for their past actions. So, does reconciliation imply a zone of impunity in the transition that follows (Sriram: 2006)?

Practical compromises do not mean that past abuses and atrocities should be left unaddressed. This

is not a question of “whether” reconciliation or justice should be prioritized.

Instead, it is a question of “when” and “how” the injustice toward the people of Myanmar should be addressed. International experiences show that reconciliation can utilize a wide range of instruments, which includes truth and reconciliation commissions, tribunals, vetting, reparations, amnesty, and pardon (Sriram: 2007).

For Myanmar, some of these are apparently more relevant than others, but the point is that there is a big toolbox of options that the reconciliation blueprint can employ.

Regionally, liberal interventionism to induce reconciliation is unlikely. As a region built on the notion of sovereignty and non-interference, much resistance can be expected, not only from Myanmar, but also from other member countries.

The region itself is far from being a political miniature of a liberal order. Member countries span the whole length of the political spectrum, from liberal democracy, constitutional monarchy, authoritarian states, communist republic to military junta.

Due to the blurry vision of an ASEAN Community and the presence of a toothless ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) shackled with its limited mandate, the region still has a long way to go in developing its own justice settlement mechanism.

Furthermore, China’s vested interest in Myanmar is likely to blot out international efforts to bring the junta to justice through an ICC investigation supported by the UN Security Council (The Economist, Nov. 27).

Socially, different societies employ different strategies to reconcile themselves. A blueprint for reconciliation might have political accountability elements that are not democratic.
But then again, what is acceptable should be determined by the people of Myanmar themselves.

The ASEAN Charter speaks of a caring and sharing community, not one that is imposing and dictating. Indonesia should be aware that its involvement and efforts in Myanmar’s reconciliation will be backed only by limited diplomatic, economic, and political capacity.

The role assumed will be facilitative, not as a directive “power” intervener that can impose a certain kind of reconciliation.

Technically, a diplomatic venture of that scale will require transparent honesty, respect of confidentiality, a good knowledge of parties, strategic insight into their problems, an attitude of acceptance, and professional knowledge of procedures related to reconciliation processes (Smith: 1994).

But more importantly, taking lessons from reconciliation in Cambodia, Indonesia’s leadership needs to show greater political will, regional commitment, and calculated risk-taking.

The writer is a fellow researcher at Pacivis, the Department of International Relations at the University of Indonesia.
*************************************************************
Financial Express Bangladesh - Opinion: Deepening economic relations with Myanmar
Abu Zafar Iqbal

BANGLADESH'S neighbour to the east, Myanmar, has for a long time been known as a country with which it could promote in a planned manner stepped-up interactions in economic and trade matters. But the potentialities have remained little exploited or explored, not befitting of the mutual interests of both countries. Only in recent years, suggestions have been made for boosting trade and economic relationship with Myanmar. The process was, however, hazarded earlier by the influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh and the stand-off between the two countries over demarcation of their sea boundaries, etc.

It is a welcome development that the political problems between Myanmar and Bangladesh are now showing signs of a resolution. Myanmar has taken some of the Rohingya refugees back and remains committed to facilitate the return of the others. The dispute over demarcation of sea boundaries that at one stage seemed to be volatile has now been largely cooled off, and Bangladesh has sought international arbitration on it. Meanwhile, Myanmar also took some policy decisions that are otherwise likely to be helpful for its reasonable settlement. Thus, the political relations which have a way of powerfully impacting on trade and economic relation, are improving for both countries.

For Bangladesh, it remains imperative to keep itself engaged pro-actively with Myanmar in a constructive spirit and do everything possible to sort out the political issues on the two sides at the fastest. The doing of this, successfully, will pave the ground well for speedier interactions in economic and trade spheres.

As it is, very useful developments in the economic sphere are envisaged between the two countries. Power supply is proving to be a big worry for the Bangladesh economy. If Bangladesh can take up an effective move and follow it up for exploring the possibility of producing hydro-electricity in the Rakhine state of Myanmar for supplying to Bangladesh, that will help create a win-win situation for economic advantages of both the countries. It appears that there are good possibilities of importing - substantially -- hydro-electricity produced in Myanmar for use in Bangladesh.

Similarly, there are also prospects of importing gas from Myanmar. The cross-border trading in energies can be very complementary for both countries. Presently, Bangladesh is starved for energy and needs to get them from any source at the fastest. Myanmar in the present state of development of its economy has a surplus of both gas and power that it, as reports suggest, stands ready to export. The importing of the same in bulk can be cost-efficient as well as strategically sound for Bangladesh in all respects. In some ways, such importing of energies from Myanmar would be quick sensible.

Apart from energy, cooperation can be developed between the two countries in the field of agricultural production. Bangladesh reportedly made a proposal to Yangoon sometime ago about getting the facility of taking lease of vast tracts of unutilized fertile farmlands in Burma. Myanmar has not yet responded satisfactorily to this proposal. But there is no harm in continuing with the persuasion to that end from the Bangladesh side. Bangladeshi agro-farms can be allowed to set up enterprises in Burma for producing cereals and diverse agro-produces on the basis of joint ownership. Initiatives for trans-border agricultural production of this nature can be gainful for both countries, specially for Bangladesh with its fast growing population and rising concern about building its longer term food security.

The relevant ministry in Bangladesh needs to play a focused role from now on to give a boost to economic cooperation with Myanmar in the wider fields.
*************************************************************
Asahi Shimbun - Resident Burmese portray Myanmar repression in movie
BY RYUICHI KANARI STAFF WRITER
2010/12/21

Burmese living in Japan have made an indie movie portraying the plight of victims of a massive tropical cyclone in May 2008, sending a subtle broadside to the ruling junta in Myanmar about human rights abuses.

"The Sorrows of Irrawaddy" is currently showing on YouTube in eight segments, each one lasting about 15 minutes.

Organizers have managed to smuggle the movie on DVD into Myanmar and, for a while, the film was shown on the Democratic Voice of Burma website. Viewers could access it via satellite transmission.

Organizers said they have already received a positive response from their audience in Myanmar.

"The Sorrows of Irrawaddy," shot in Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, portrays the anguish of victims. The cyclone killed more than 100,000 people.

The military junta's refusal to allow relief workers from overseas to help out is said to have aggravated the disaster.

The film draws upon survivors' accounts accusing the junta of usurping relief supplies, expelling foreign media and aid workers, and whisking away orphaned children.

About 80 percent of the movie is based on survivors' accounts as told to the director, Htay Thit, 53.

"The movie is a crystallization of the desire of resident Burmese in Japan for democratization of the homeland," said Thit.

Seventy-four people from Myanmar, including those who have been recognized as refugees by Japan's Justice Ministry or have been granted special residency permits on a humanitarian basis, participated in the making of the movie by either acting or through production. The experience of acting and creating a movie was new for most and undoubtedly a daring endeavor for many.

Some chose to work behind the scenes, fearing that their participation could end up jeopardizing their chances for returning to Myanmar one day.

Because many of the actors and helpers work at part-time jobs, the movie was shot on Sundays. The cast and crew paid their own costs for traveling to Nagareyama and for shooting the movie.

As shooting had to be suspended on rainy days and on days that coincided with pro-democratization activities, the project ended up taking 16 months to complete. As none of the members owned a car, they had to rent a vehicle to transport the movie equipment.

The total bill for production came to about 860,000 yen, and Thit and his wife, Thin Thin Soe, 49, used up much of the savings they built up over 18 years in Japan.

Thit said he hopes teenagers and people in their 20s will see the movie, because many in that age group are even unaware of Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader recently freed from house arrest.

The original movie in Burmese can be viewed on YouTube. It can also be viewed with Japanese subtitles by clicking on a Japanese-language poster for the movie at the website (www.dawnmanhon.com).

Organizers said they are now working to create a version with English subtitles.
*************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Senior General's Grandson Orders Attack on Business Rival
By YAN PAI Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Nay Shwe Thway Aung (also known as Poe La Pyae), the grandson of Burmese junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, recently ordered his personal assistants to beat up the son of a former general for business reasons, according to sources.

A businessman close to the military regime told The Irrawaddy that the problem began when Win Htwe Hlaing, the son of former Maj-Gen Win Hlaing, tried to take over a real estate deal that Nay Shwe Thway Aung had already negotiated with a client.

“Poe La Pyae asked one of his friends to tell Win Htwe Hlaing to withdraw from the land he had already reserved. But Win Htwe Hlaing, as a general's son, replied that he didn't care who Poe La Pyae was,” said the businessman.

He said the junta chief's grandson was angered by this response and told his assistants to physically assault Win Htwe Hlaing. The attack was carried out by army officers with the ranks of major and captain, he said.

Win Htwe Hlaing, 31, whose face was injured in the beating, is an internationally recognized golf player and member of the Professional Golfers' Association.

His father, Maj-Gen Win Hlaing, was a major when Than Shwe was serving as the commander of Light Infantry Division 88, a position he held in the early 1980s. He reportedly taught Than Shwe how to play golf and was known as the senior general's second favorite subordinate after his current personal assistant, Maj-Gen Ne Win.

Before his retirement from the army, Win Hlaing served as the director of the Directorate of Procurement in the Ministry of Defense, the managing director of the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings, Limited (UMEHL) and the chairman of the state-owned Myawaddy Bank.

According to army sources, Win Hlaing asked his former colleagues in the military to press the police to identify those who hit his son, but Ne Win told him not to continue investigating the case as it was masterminded by Nay Shwe Thway Aung.

Last year, there were reports of a similar incident, in which Nay Shwe Thway Aung allegedly ordered some of his associates to destroy a coffee shop called 7 Lekker, run by former captain Tay Zar Saw Oo, the son of the regime's Secretary 1 Gen Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, and the son of National Planning Minister Soe Tha.

In another incident demonstrating Nay Shwe Thway Aung's overbearing attitude toward those connected with other senior officials, he once spent two hours chastising an army captain who served as the personal assistant of the regime's Foreign Minister Nyan Win for blocking his parking space, according to a UMEHL employee.

Nay Shwe Thway Aung has also been accused of making money by using his grandfather's influence to help businesses claim illegally imported goods, including vehicles, confiscated by customs officials at various seaports.

Nay Shwe Thway Aung is known to be particularly close to his grandfather, and has accompanied him on state visits on several occasions. In September of this year, he joined Than Shwe on a high-profile trip to China along with his grandmother and aunts.

According to US diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks, Nay Shwe Thway Aung urged Than Shwe to buy the Manchester United football team for US $1 billion in January of last year. Than Shwe reportedly abandoned the plan, however, because he decided “that sort of expenditure could look bad” in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 130,000 people in May 2008.

Than Shwe finally opted to create the Myanmar National League, the very first multi-million-dollar soccer league in the country, financed by his cronies who would in turn receive government incentives such as “construction contracts, new gem and jade mines, and import permits,” the cables revealed.

According to business sources in Burma, several top generals and leading businessmen have told their children to avoid getting into any sort of confrontation with Nay Shwe Thway Aung.
*************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Burma Army Deploys More Troops in Shan State
By KO HTWE Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Burmese army has deployed an additional 500 troops in southern Shan State with the reported aim of cutting communications between two brigades of the Shan State Army-North.

The deployment could also signal preparations for a larger military operation in the area, according to Saengjuen Sarawin, deputy editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News.

He told The Irrawaddy the Burmese army troops had been deployed in Mong Hsnu and Kunhing Townships, in southern Shan State, with the apparent aim of cutting communications between Brigades 1 and 7 of the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N).

SSA-N Brigade 7, based in Kunhing Township, has accepted the regime demand for transforming its forces into the Border Guard Force (BGF), while SSA-N Brigade 1, based in Mong Hsnu Township, has rejected the BGF plan.

“They [the Burmese regime] want to control the territory of SSA-N Brigade 7 and they don’t want its soldiers to communicate with Brigade 1,” said Saengjuen Sarawin. “It is also a preparation for the new government to launch a military operation,”

The SSA-N and SSA-S are among the armed groups resisting the regime demand to transform their forces into the BGF. Other groups defying the regime demand include the National Democratic Alliance Army and the United Wa State Army.

Government troops clashed with the SSA-S in Mong Saik Township in eastern Shan State on Saturday, according to SSA-S Spokesman Sai Lao Hseng. The fighting continued for about one hour and casualties were reported to be slight.

SSA-N forces and government troops also clashed on Saturday night in Kyethi Township in Southern Shan State, according to Saengjuen Sarawin.

The Burmese army recently began to recruit local militias in Shan State to reinforce the regime campaign to pressure armed ethnic groups to join the controversial BGF. Talks have been held between militia leaders and the army on military cooperation.

Four ethnic armed groups—the UWSA, the NDAA, the SSA-N and SSA-S—discussed the possibility of deepening cooperation and mutual support at a meeting in Mongla during this month's Shan New Year festivities.

Altogether, 17 cease-fire groups have come under pressure by the regime since April 2009 to accept the BGF plan. Several of the smaller ethnic cease-fire groups have accepted the plan, but all of the larger armies, such as the UWSA—with 30,000 troops— and the KIO, with 10,000 have rejected it.
*************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - NEWS ANALYSIS: Is DKBA Unity Broken for Good?
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, December 21, 2010

After the split of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) from the Karen National Union (KNU) in 1995, the armed group was strong and it effectively defeated the KNU, its former ally, in many battles, including overtaking its strategic headquarters at Manerplaw.

Based on their disagreements, and perhaps hate of the Christian-dominated leadership of the KNU, the DKBA—with some 1,000 troops at that time—fought against KNU troops, killed Karen villagers, burned homes and villages in KNU-controlled areas, and even crossed into Thai soil and burned down several refugees camps on the border.

With the help of Burmese troops, the DKBA splinter group staged daring attacks and burned Huay Kaloke, Htee Law Theet, Mae Ra Ma Luang and Mae La refugee camps from 1996 to 1998. Afterward, the breakaway group benefited from its business interests including border trade mainly in Myawaddy on the border with Mae Sot, Thailand. The number of the DKBA troops has now grown to more than 5,000. They, however, avoided involvement in politics.

However, another remarkable split occured in November, this time within the DKBA.

Some 3,800 DKBA troops agreed to become members of the junta’s border guard forces (BGF). However, DKBA Brigade 5, with an estimated some 1,000 fighters led by Brig-Gen Saw Lah Pwe, rejected the BGF order. The DKBA has six brigades, and Brigade 5 was the only one that rejected the BGF order.

Since the breakaway of Brigade 5, fighting between it and Burmese troops and their DKBA border guard force have been ongoing. Also, the DKBA cease-fire broke down, war has restarted in the area, forcing more refugees to seek safety on Thai soil.

The fighting escalated further when the Karen National Liberation Army Brigade 5 got involved, leading to the Burmese regime to reinforce its troops.
The fighting is likely to go on not for the control of border trade, but because of racism and inequality, said one DKBA source in Mae Sot.

“The regime tries to eliminate all of our Karen people, our nationality. Their BGF is the end for our Karen soldiers. Under their BGF, you are treated like a Burman soldier,” said Saw Lah Pwe.

With its “divide and rule” strategy, some observers said the junta will use the newly founded BGF to defeat the breakaway DKBA Brigade 5 like it used the DKBA to attack fellow KNU troops during the past 15 years. The attack will be mainly undertaken by Col. Chit Thu, who commands some 3,000 troops.

The newly founded BGF will attack DKBA Brigade 5 troops whenever ordered by the Burmese regime even though the order goes against their will, said Saw Lah Pwe.

Some observers, however, think that the junta’s new BGF members are emotionally not in the mood to fight their former DKBA brothers, and they also cite dislike for the BGF plan itself.

Observers say that many several BGF leaders know that it was wrong to become BGF members, but went along with the plan because of their interest in properties and businesses.

Saw Lah Pwe said the regime has not honored its cease-fire agreement even though ethnic armed groups engaged with them during the past 15 years.

Seventeen ethnic cease-fire groups have signed cease-fire agreements with the regime since 1989, including several Karen armed groups such as the Karen Peace Force and KNU/KNLA Peace Council also known as the Karen Peace Council (KPC).

Also, distrust between the junta and the KPC has grown after the junta brutally killed six KPC soldiers in a raid on Nov. 30. The KPC split from the KNU and joined the junta in 2007.

Angrily responding to the murders, KPC spokesperson Timothy Laklem said that the junta deliberately killed the KPC members because the group had not agreed to join the BGF.

Laklem said the military regime did not respect the peace agreement it made with the KPC or the cease-fire agreements they made with other ethnic armed groups even though the ethnic groups tried to work harmoniously toward a long-term peace.

In the future, KNU leaders expect more fighting in Karen State. The ongoing fighting between DKBA Brigade 5 and Burmese troops is the beginning of war, said Zipporah Sein, the KNU general secretary.

Fighting now occurs almost daily around the KNU former headquarters of Manerplaw, forcing about 300 refugees to seek shelter in Thai border villages in Sop Moei District in Mae Hong Son Province. They can’t return home because of the fighting around their villages, said local sources.

Poe Shan, the acting director of the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), said that refugees need more protection in order to rebuild their lives in their villages.
Karen sources said the fighting is complicated by the BGF dilemma and the issue of racism between the opposing groups.
Saw Lah Pwe said, “When come to important situations, we all must realize that we are Karen people.”

Salai Yaw Aung, the joint general secretary 1 of the All Burma Student’s Democratic Front who spent time in KNU areas after leaving Burma in 1988, said that all of the Karen armed groups and the Karen people should be united in order to fight for the future of the next generation.
*************************************************************
US sends Transocean a fresh subpoena over Burma conduct
Tuesday, 21 December 2010 19:10 Thomas Maung Shwe

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Transocean, the Swiss-American drilling firm being sued by the United States for its role in the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has received a second subpoena over its activities in Burma, a recent regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows.

The administrative subpoena came from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the branch of the Treasury Department that oversees American trade and financial sanctions.

According to the filing submitted in September but made public last month, Transocean informed its shareholders: “We have received and responded to an administrative subpoena from the OFAC concerning our operations in Myanmar [Burma] and a follow-up administrative subpoena from OFAC with questions relating to the previous Myanmar operations subpoena response.”

“OFAC’s administrative subpoena authority,” according to the Treasury’s website, “generally provides the basis for OFAC to require the production of whatever additional information it may require to assess its enforcement response to the apparent violation.”

Transocean received first Burma subpoena after Mizzima exposé

The first administrative subpoena Transocean received about its activities in Burma came several weeks after Mizzima first reported in May that Transocean’s SEC filings showed the firm was hired late last year to do drilling work in Burmese waters co-owned by a company controlled by Stephen Law, a junta crony businessman alleged by the US government and analysts to be a major drug-money launderer.

Stephen Law, aka Tun Myint Naing, his Singaporean wife, and his “narco warlord” father are all on OFAC blacklists, officially called the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. All three are also listed in similar European Union travel bans and sanctions lists.

Transocean’s 8-K filing with the SEC on November 2 last year showed that Chinese state-run energy company CNOOC hired Transocean’s semi-submersible Actinia, a Panamanian-registered drilling rig, to operate in Burma from October to December.

According to the CNOOC website, all of the firm’s stakes in Burma’s gas industry are held in partnership with China Focus Development (formerly known as Golden Aaron) and China Global Construction, with CNOOC as the operator. China Focus Development is a privately owned Singapore-registered firm whose sole shareholders are Stephen Law and his wife, Ng Sor Hong, aka Cynthia Ng. The US and EU sanctions lists show Ng Sor Hong to be the chief executive of the firm, which is also among more than a dozen companies controlled by Law on the OFAC blacklist of banned Burma-related entities.

Law’s Sino-Burmese father, Lao Sit Han, aka Lo Hsing Han, is believed by US drug-trafficking analysts to have controlled one of Southeast Asia’s best-armed narcotics militias during the 1970’s. In a deal with the Burmese regime, Lao Sit Han moved to Rangoon where he reportedly used the profits from his drug empire to expand into other areas including operating ports through the family controlled Asia World Group, also a US-blacklisted firm over which Lao Sit Han is chairman.

Stephen Law is the managing director of Asia World and is believed to be the driving force behind what has become one of Burma’s largest conglomerates. As well as running Burma’s largest deepwater port, the group owns lucrative toll highways, hotels and is also involved in many construction projects, including building Rangoon’s Traders Hotel and refurbishing the Rangoon airport.

A February 2008 statement by the US Treasury said: “In addition to their support for the Burmese regime, Steven Law and Lo Hsing Han have a history of involvement in illicit activities.”

Mizzima’s report of Transocean’s ties with a blacklisted Burmese narcotics-trafficking clan was picked up in a front-page story in The New York Times, which also detailed the firm’s questionable practices in Iran, Norway and Syria.

Activists call for Transocean to be punished for any violations of US sanctions

Wong Aung from the Shwe Gas Campaign, an advocacy group strongly opposed to the Shwe oil and gas pipeline project between western Burma and China told Mizzima that US authorities must take a strong stand against firms that wilfully violate US sanctions. He said: “The US must send a clear message that it won’t tolerate firms like Transocean violating US sanctions. There has to be full investigation of Transocean’s activities in Burma. There needs to be full disclosure of what happened and what Transocean is presently doing in Burma.”

Transocean resisted subpoenas in Gulf of Mexico spill case

Transocean, whose Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April in the Gulf of Mexico, resisted responding to three successive subpoenas issued by US authorities investigating the accident that killed 11 and caused an environmental catastrophe after the explosion and subsequent fire.

Last Friday, US District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans ruled that Transocean must abide by the subpoenas that sought safety inspection information for all of Transocean’s rigs based in the gulf at the time of the accident.

The judge reasoned that the requests were for a “proper statutory purpose, seeking documents that are relevant, and that are in no way unduly burdensome”. Transocean had argued that US authorities were asking for too many documents and requesting files not directly related directly to the accident. Barbier gave Transocean 15 days to deliver the documents. It was unclear if the firm would appeal.

Company’s rig caused tense naval stand-off between Burma and Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi government on November 2, 2008 revealed that the previous day its naval vessel the BNS Nirvoy detected the Burmese navy escorting four drilling ships, and a tug pulling the 100-metre-long drill rig Transocean Legend in waters claimed by Dhaka. The announcement was the first sign of a serious diplomatic spat that followed with a costly and heated naval stand-off between two of the world’s poorest nations.

On November 3, Bangladeshi authorities in Dhaka summoned the Burmese ambassador to issue a strong protest and Bangladeshi’s military-backed interim government, furious at the Burmese regime’s actions, responded by sending four of its own naval ships to the disputed area.

The Bangladesh Navy had caught Transocean’s Bahamian-registered rig and its Burmese naval escorts in an area the Burmese regime had designated as the AD-7 offshore gas block. Transocean’s SEC filing revealed that Daewoo had hired the rig to conduct drilling exploration at a cost of US$424,000 a day. Daewoo and its partner firms Kogas, had bought rights to drill in AD-7 despite the fact that Bangladesh claimed it was their territory.

The joint State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)/Transocean incursion into the disputed waters came three weeks after Burmese Energy Minister Brigadier General Lun Thi had assured his Bangladeshi counterpart that Burma, the Bangladeshi daily newspaper New Age quoted him as saying, “would not conduct gas exploratory work in the disputed maritime boundary area until the issue was settled” between the two nations.

Lun Thi made this apparently hollow promise during an October 8, 2008 Dhaka meeting with Dr. M. Tamim, then serving as special assistant to the chief adviser for Bangladesh’s Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources.

Immediately after the Bangladeshi government went public with their complaints, forces from both sides mobilised along their shared land border. The heightened tensions would prove deadly when on November 3, the mutilated bodies of four Bangladeshi woodcutters were discovered by relatives two kilometres inside Burmese territory. Bangladeshi military authorities said the Burmese military had shot and killed the four men for trespassing into Burmese territory.

Two days after the killings, an unidentified Burmese naval official told Agence France-Presse on November 5: “We will try to solve this peacefully, but we are also ready to protect our country if needed … we will not tolerate being insulted, although we do want goodwill. We will continue with exploration.”

Burma’s regime officially responded to the Bangladeshi complaints in a belligerent tone through its mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, declaring it would continue to operate in the disputed territory because Bangladeshi concerns were “mistaken and unlawful”. In an article published November 7, 2008, the newspaper declared that “Myanmar [Burma] rejected the mistakenly-made demand of Bangladesh” and therefore “in order to protect the interests of the country in line with international laws, Myanmar [Burma] will continue to do the work in Block No. AD-7 till its completion”. In fact, international law dictates that territorial disputes should be resolved first through peaceful means before drilling takes place.

Two days later, Daewoo, Transocean and the Burmese regime withdrew their vessels. It was reported that the Korean and Chinese governments had intervened to de-escalate the situation. China is set to be the destination of most of the gas Daewoo and its partners extract from off Burma’s Arakan coast.

Fortunately for Transocean, its equipment sustained no damage during the stand-off. Had a naval clash ensued, the exchange of fire could have easily caused Transocean’s multimillion-dollar rig to sink.

On December 15, about a month after the stand-off, Reuters reported that a senior Burmese energy ministry official had revealed that test results from the disputed AD-7 block “not very encouraging”. The anonymous official added that “we still need to dig four or five more test wells before we confirm the deposit is not commercially viable”. A Daewoo International report issued in March this year reveals however that the firm increased its stake in the contested block after its three partners pulled out. The report failed to show any exploration activity taking place in the disputed block since the standoff in November 2008.
*************************************************************
Naypyidaw hotels extend capacity for March gem fair
Tuesday, 21 December 2010 23:17 Mizzima News

Rangoon (Mizzima) – Naypyidaw hotels are planning further expansion to meet demand in March for a gem fair scheduled to be held in the junta’s secluded capital as unfinished properties are being rushed towards completion, hoteliers claim.

Gem traders in Burma, one of the world’s biggest producers of precious stones, took in a record US$1.44 billion at a 13-day exhibition last month, an official told Reuters early this month. “These are the highest proceeds from a single sale of jade, gems and pearls since 1964,” he said.

The fair in Naypyidaw attracted some 6,750 traders, 4,000 from overseas, with 9,157 lots of jade, 273 lots of gems and 237 lots of pearls sold in auctions, the official said.

“The emporium committee said the next gem emporium would attract more traders, so hotels in Naypyidaw are adding more rooms and the unfinished hotels are rushing to finish their projects,” a manager at the Sky Palace Hotel said.

The first gem emporium in Naypyidaw was held from November 17 to 29. According to the Ministry of Hotel and Tourism, the capital had a total of more than 1,500 hotel rooms.

“Since November, our hotel was expanded from more than 40 rooms to 90 rooms before the emporium. [More] Guests are coming to Naypyidaw on business so, the capital always has many visitors,” a Royal Kumudra Hotel marketing manager said.

A manager at the Amaya Hotel said the property intended to add 64 rooms. “Currently, we are operating with the original 67 rooms and we’re adding 64 rooms before the gem emporium in March. Some new rooms have been completed and we’re trying to complete the remainder soon.”

Oriental Palace and Thingaha hotel representatives said they also planned to build their accommodation capacity.

Hoteliers said the tourism ministry had directed them to try to expand meet the urgent demand. “As soon as the gem emporium was planned to be held in Naypyidaw, the ministry told hoteliers to try to meet the likely demand,” a Naypyidaw hotelier said.

The Junction, Zabuthiri, Sky Palace, Mingalarthiri, Tongapuri, Man Myanmar, Myint Family, Country and Golden Land hotels were all under construction and scheduled for completion by March, sources said.
*************************************************************
DVB News - USDP assailants fined $0.50
By NANG KHAM KAEW
Published: 21 December 2010

Two members of Burma’s recent election-winning party who assaulted a man shortly after casting votes on 7 November have been fined 500 kyat by a Rangoon court.

The apparently meek punishment has angered the family of Moe Win, who were required to pay 10,000 kyat ($US10) to file a complaint about the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) members, identified as Myint Naing and Win Hlaing.

Moe Win’s sister said that in all, the family spent around 30,000 kyat ($US30) on legal fees in order to bring the assailants, whom she claimed were drunk at the time, in front of authorities.

“Moe Win was waiting for a friend after casting the votes when Myint Naing and Win Hlaing arrived and beat him up – one of them held him and the other punched him,” she said.

“A police van arrived at the scene when they were punching him but left without doing anything when they saw [that it was USDP] members doing it.”

The motive behind the attack was unclear, she said, but speculated that it may have something to do with the votes Moe Win cast.

“My brother didn’t know how to vote so he ticked three marks on the ballot. Maybe [the USDP attackers] were disappointed with that,” she said.

Police had claimed that the case was not within their remit, and so transferred it to a township court which demanded the 10,000 kyat. Moe Win’s sister said the family was left exasperated at the 500 kyat fine given to the two men.

The USDP, which won close to 80 percent of the votes in the November elections, is believed to have millions of members, many of whom were leftovers from the party’s previous incarnation, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), the Burmese junta’s so-called civil society organisation which is believed to have been behind the 2003 Depayin Massacre.

Critics of the ruling junta claim that Burma’s judicial system lacks independence from the generals. Burma was awarded the penultimate spot in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index this year.
*************************************************************