News & Articles on Burma-Saturday, 18 December, 2010

News & Articles on Burma
Saturday, 18 December, 2010
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The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi's Fight for Freedom
Suu Kyi Rules Out Replacing NLD Leadership
Than Shwe Vows to Build Strong, Modern Military
Inside KNLA Brigade 5 with the Free Burma Rangers
Former First Lady Laura Bush speaks by phone with Suu Kyi
Myanmar's Links With Pyongyang Stir Nuclear Fears
Weekly Business Roundup (December 18, 2010)
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Time Online
The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi's Fight for Freedom
By Andrew Marshall / Bangkok Monday, Dec. 27, 2010

On Nov. 13, Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi walked free from seven years of house arrest in Rangoon. She called her son Kim Aris. She greeted supporters outside her lakeside home. Then she got on a plane to Bangkok where, on a stage erected in a parking lot on the city's outskirts, she appeared in a film made by a bearded Frenchman called Luc Something.

That's what some of the 2,000 Thai extras on the set of Luc Besson's latest movie seem to think, and their confusion is forgivable. Since filming of his biopic The Lady began in Thailand in mid-October, everyone from Besson to best boy has been perplexed by how often art has imitated life — and vice versa. (See a Q&A with Luc Besson.)

Take Malaysian-born actress Michelle Yeoh, the former Bond girl who plays Suu Kyi. Yeoh not only strongly resembles the lissome Nobel laureate, but also occupies the part so convincingly that Besson calls it "perfect for her." "From the moment I saw this actress," says Thein Win, a Burmese actor playing a member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), "I thought, 'She is Daw [Aunt] Suu.'"

Movie magic and reality merged again when the junta finally allowed Suu Kyi to walk free. Besson had just re-created her release from a previous spell of house arrest, when she steps out of her Rangoon home to cheers from a crowd of supporters. Two days later, Besson and his cast sat in Yeoh's Bangkok hotel suite to watch a near identical scene — this one for real — play out on TV. "It was surreal," says Besson. Also in the room was Aris, chatting on the phone to his mother: "I'm here with Michelle. Yes, the woman playing you." Then the champagne started flowing. "It was so sweet," says Yeoh. "We were all very privileged to share that moment with him." (Read a Q&A with Yeoh.)

Both celebrated and scorned for his popular success, Besson has in recent years produced more films than he has directed. Then Yeoh showed him a screenplay about Suu Kyi, sent to her by British writer Rebecca Frayn. "The more I read, the more I wanted to direct it myself," says Besson. "Her life story is amazing. It's almost Shakespearean."

After studying at Oxford University, Suu Kyi married academic Michael Aris and raised their two sons in England. She returned to Burma in 1988 to nurse her ailing mother and was swept up in the democracy protests, becoming the symbol of the Burmese people's struggle against military rule. She later spent years in prison or under house arrest. When Aris was dying of cancer in 1999, the junta denied him entry to Burma to see his wife for the last time, while Suu Kyi refused to leave for fear she couldn't return. "She has to be an icon ... And she has to be a wife and mother," says Besson. "That's what makes her character so interesting and rich to film." (See pictures: "Freedom for Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi.")

The Lady's Thailand scenes have to be shot discreetly, mainly, it seems, to mollify the Thai government, which is forging closer relations with Burma's generals. To avoid offending the authorities, who would possibly order the shoot shut down, scripts carry a deliberately insipid working title (Dans la Lumière) that gives no clue to their content. Cast and crew have signed confidentiality agreements. And TIME is the only publication allowed on the set.

If secrecy is one obsession, authenticity is another. The sets — Suu Kyi's dilapidated house, her cell in Rangoon's Insein jail — are the results of meticulous research; many of the cast are from Burma. The realism often overwhelms exiled actor Thein Win, who not only plays an NLD member but is one. He attended party meetings with Suu Kyi before fleeing Burma in 1991. And he wept real tears during the scene in which Yeoh as Suu Kyi bids farewell to her sons before her incarceration. "It was heartbreaking to watch," Thein Win says. (See the Top 10 movies of 2010.)

Later, during a break in filming, Yeoh would fly to Rangoon to meet with Suu Kyi. "It was like visiting a family friend," Yeoh says. "She held my hand. I was mesmerized." One of Besson's motivations for making The Lady was to publicize Suu Kyi's plight. With her release, "She doesn't need us for now," he jokes. But he hopes his film will remind audiences that "real democracy" is still a long way off. If you live in Burma, it's a safe bet that The Lady won't be showing in a cinema near you.


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2037417,00.html#ixzz18TB4AQ8V
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Suu Kyi Rules Out Replacing NLD Leadership
By SAW YAN NAING Saturday, December 18, 2010

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi ruled out a reorganization of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party to replace elderly leaders with younger members, according to a report by Agence France-Presse on Friday.

“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,” Suu Kyi was quoted as saying in an AFP interview at the party’s headquarters on Friday.

Suu Kyi also said that she and other NLD senior leaders are not going to reorganize the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) by replacing old leaders with youth leaders.

Apart from Suu Kyi, who is 65, many NLD senior leaders are in their 80s and 90s and some are in poor health. Six of the party's CEC members are not well, according to NLD sources. NLD Chairman Aung Shwe is 92, Vice-Chairman Tin Oo is 82 and Secretary U Lwin is 86.

Suu Kyi also plans to meet with Burmese youth activists next week, although no specific date for the meeting has been set.

Myo Yan Naung Thein, a Burmese activist and member of the 88 Generation Student group who will be among those attending the meeting, said that he will report to Suu Kyi about the role of young activists, including NLD youth members.

He said that young Burmese activists, including NLD youth members, should be entrusted with more duties and should also be given a chance to participate in the decision-making process alongside more experienced leaders.

“In fact, since we are in our 40s, we should be in executive roles. We should be decision makers and the elder leaders should be our advisors,” he said, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Saturday.

Some young activists aren't very clear about their role because they haven't been assigned any specific tasks or given any formal positions by their leaders, he added.

Yar Zar, an NLD youth member, said he also hoped to see a younger generation of activists playing a more prominent role in Burmese politics, but agreed with Suu Kyi that older leaders still have important contributions to make.

“I agree with her because the NLD's senior leaders have shown their strong commitment to the party despite the many difficulties they have faced over the past 20 years,” he said.

“But I think these leaders should join hands with us and guide us. They should allow younger members to join with them because we now need strength for change,” said Yar Zar.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20345
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Than Shwe Vows to Build Strong, Modern Military
By WAI MOE Saturday, December 18, 2010

Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the head of Burma's ruling junta, told cadets at an elite military academy on Friday that the country could defeat its enemies by exploiting their weaknesses and developing a strong, modern armed forces, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar.

“The aim of the Tatmadaw is the building of a strong and capable modern patriotic Tatmadaw,” said Than Shwe, referring to the Burmese armed forces.

Speaking to graduates of the 13th intake of the Defense Services Technological Academy in Maymyo, he also said that some countries were developing weapons of mass destruction, but this did not necessarily give them an overwhelming advantage in warfare.

“In today’s world, efforts are being made to utilize new and powerful weapons of mass destruction to achieve land, sea and air supremacy as well as dominance in space and to exploit it in warfare,” he said.

However, he added, there was no need to worry about such advanced arms because “strong points are always accompanied by weakness and shortcoming.”

In his speech—the second he has made in Maymyo in the past week—he emphasized the word “we” to show the importance of solidarity within the armed forces.

He did not specify who Burma's “enemies” are, but his mention of weapons of mass destruction suggests that he had an external threat in mind, rather than one of the many ethnic armies in the country that have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades.

Burma does not face any immediate threat from its more powerful neighbors, China and India, but the Burmese junta leadership is believed to fear the possibility of an invasion by the US, which has expressed growing concern about rumors the regime is developing nuclear weapons.

Than Shwe has been on a year-end tour along with members of his family and key senior military officials since Dec. 11.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20344
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Inside KNLA Brigade 5 with the Free Burma Rangers
By ALEX ELLGEE Saturday, December 18, 2010

Saw Plo was returning from working in his paddy fields when a young boy from the village ran up and told him to pack his things quickly. The village leadership had received word the Burmese army was approaching, and with expertise acquired from a lifetime of fleeing, all the residents of Tha Da Der village were soon hiding in the jungle.

Throughout the night Saw Plo saw smoke rise over the horizon while the sound of mortars echoed through the valley. “I knew our lives were being burned to the ground,” says the wiry middle-aged man. Sure enough, when they finally returned to the village, the remains of their church, school and over thirty-five homes were still smoldering.

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“It was one of the best churches in Karen State,” Saw Plo said.

Also burned was any livestock left in the village—part of the military government's brutal “four cuts policy” intended to disconnect the Karen resistance army from the villager’s support base, a policy that has caused thousands to suffer human rights abuses and displacement.

As the smoke and stench of rotting carcasses drifted through the burned down homes, the villagers questioned their ability to move on but ultimately found the strength and resources to rebuild their lives.

“At first we asked ourselves, how can we go back, how can we rebuild our lives again?” said Saw Plo, now sitting in his new home in Tha Da Der, which has returned to a degree of normality. “Then we prayed for the ability to go on and slowly we all lifted ourselves out of misery and found the help and courage to continue.”

The help and courage came not only from their resilience and determination to carry on despite repeated attempts by the military regime to wipe out resistant Karen. It also came from the white bags mounted on villagers’ backs which passed this reporter by as we made our way through the jungle to Tha Da Der.

Following two days of creeping up the Salween River past Burmese and Thai army checkpoints, and an eight-hour trek through the rolling Karen hills, we arrived at the outskirts of Tha Da Der. As the sun set over the paddy fields, men on horses approached us and human-made animal noises were exchanged.

“Welcome to the circus,” said the director of Free Burma Rangers (FBR) as he greeted us. “It is as unpredictable here as it is any where else in Burma.”

The director is better known locally by his Karen name: Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa, meaning “The Father of the White Monkey,” with White Monkey being the name he gave his daughter. Along with his wife, daughter and two other young children, they live and work for half the year in war-torn Karen State.

Having retired from the Special Forces, Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa worked with the Wa until he was warned by the regime that if he ever came back to Burma he would never leave. Despite the threat, he did return in 1996, this time to Rangoon to meet Aung San Suu Kyi following her release from house arrest.

“I was so impressed by her humility, her strength and her love for her people,” he said while sitting around a table in the FBR temporary camp. “She asked me to help her people unify the ethnics and pray—so that is what I did.”

Following the visit with Suu Kyi, Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa was able to organize a meeting between 13 leaders of various ethnic groups who all signed an agreement saying they supported Suu Kyi as the democratic leader of Karen State.

Just as the agreement had been signed, the Burmese army launched an offensive against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), displacing thousands of villagers. Hearing the news he drove down to a spot near Mae Sot where the refugees were flooding over the border into Thailand.

Amid the chaos was Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa's first meeting with Eliya Samson, a KNLA soldier and now the FBR’s chief medic, who helped him distribute medicine.

“Oppression is wrong and I want to do something about it. Shooting and raping young girls is just wrong, children watching their parents being killed point blank is wrong. I just saw the situation in Burma and I wanted to do something,” said Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa. “I had no weapon, little money and no power but I thought if I could help one person then they would be happy and I would be happy.”

Despite his modest ambitions, Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa and Eliya went on to help thousands of villagers as they traveled around Karen State. “We would travel with four or five people, fill our backpacks up with medicine. We were like ants,” he said. “When the medicine had run out, they would come back to the border, stock up, and just go again, and again, sending out reports whenever they could.”

From one initial team of “rangers,” the FBR has expanded over the last 13 years to 53 and the number continues to grow. Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa is more than eager to point out that the main work is done by over 250 local staff members, who risk their lives on a daily basis to help their people in the war-torn ethnic areas.

“Without the help of FBR we would still be hiding in the jungle, or maybe we would have given up our homeland for life in a Thai refugee camp,” said Saw Plo while looking over the ashes of his old house.

“They gave us supplies, a school and the hope to carry on.”

Around the temporary FBR camp at the foot of Tha Da Der, the mood was high. Medics joked near bamboo groves as they organized and distributed medicine from the white bags recently brought in preparation for a two-month relief mission.

Tha Da Der is the first destination after a two-month, multi-ethnic training course deep inside Karen State for 10 new teams and seven existing teams. The extremely diverse group includes teams from the Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Lahu, Mon and Pa-O ethnic groups.

One team had traveled all the way from Nagaland to attend the training.

Sitting in the “Naga camp,” made up of a couple of hammocks and a dying fire and based on the fringes of paddy fields, their team leader explained what motivated him to travel so far.

“It took us over a month to get here, sometimes traveling in dangerous conditions and always facing difficulties with Burmese immigration,” he said, adding that he wishes to remain anonymous so his team can travel safely back across Burma.

“We came here to learn many skills so we can go back and help our people who are suffering as a result of terrible education and health services in the rural areas,” he said.

The rangers are all handpicked by leaders in their communities and represent the next generation of ethnic leadership. Sunshine, a Karenni medic, said one of the best things about the training was the closeness he got from working alongside other medics.

“We learned more about each other's issues and will be able to work closely in the future with respect and understanding that we might have otherwise not had,” he said. “This is important for the future of the ethnic populations.”

The next day, automatic gunfire and the explosion of a grenade launcher awoke the valley, a reminder that the war and the KNLA front line outposts, which watch over every move of the Burmese army, are close by.

A group of KNLA soldiers had come across a patrol of government troops. When they spotted the KNLA soldiers, the Burmese army fired but hit no one.

“It’s not a big deal for us and the villagers,” KNLA Brigade 5 commander Gen Baw Kyaw told The Irrawaddy. “For the villagers, its like a motorbike crash in Chiang Mai—we hear it all the time.”

Since the offensive in July on Tha Da Der, Baw Kyaw says there has been little fighting. When this reporter followed a KNLA company to the front line for a recon on a Burmese army camp, it was clear the number of soldiers stationed there had dropped significantly— before there were around 200, now there are a maximum of 40.

“Many of the government soldiers had been taken away to the cities for election security,” said Baw Kyaw while overlooking the Burma army camp. “We don’t know when they’ll be back but I am sure they will.”

Reports have recently circulated that the Burmese regime has been working alongside the Sri Lankan government to create a plan to successfully wipe out the KNLA. Baw Kyaw reported that the Burmese army has been clearing helipads in KNLA Brigade 5 territory, but said, “We are worried, but not massively. We have a plan for everything and when they come, we will be ready and will shoot them down.”

Despite the ongoing war and lurking dangers, the FBR has created a pocket of happiness for the many people who have flocked from villages in the surrounding areas to see them. In a patch of shade on a paddy field, the “Good Life Club” begins.

The club is a side project created by Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa’s wife to bring a day of happiness to children from across Karen State who have gone through traumatic experiences.

A gunshot signaled the beginning of the “Run for Relief,” an international charity event which the rangers organized for the children here. Afterward, rangers from all the ethnic teams took turns organizing games and performances. The smiles on the children's faces remained wide throughout the day.

On the paddy field next door, a temporary clinic was set up to treat any villagers who turned up. The clinic was separated into three sections using tarp and sheets: a surgery department, a general treatment area and a pregnancy care section. From early morning until the afternoon, a steady of flow of villagers came to visit the medics.

“It's a blessing FBR have come to us,” said one mother of three children as she left the clinic. “I had a tooth removed and my children had a fun day, which is good for them.”

On return to the camp, sobering reports came through from KNLA Brigade 6 via satellite link. Fighting between the Burma army and a new KNLA / Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) coalition had led to an increase in the number of displaced people fleeing from incoming government troop mortar fire.

Golden Love, the KNLA Brigade 6 FBR team leader, sent in a report that said they are constantly trying to move the villagers to safety, but he does not want them to lose their crops.

“We know that they trust and depend on us,” he said in the report, explaining they are afraid that if they stay, the Burmese will take them as porters or kill them. “It is a difficult situation for us to make a decision. We are thinking about their future. They did not finish their crops at all, so how will they go on next year unless they have rice?”

Along with the report, the team attached photos from the last 24 hours showing villagers fleeing fighting and hiding in the jungle. Every FBR team has a cameraman, which is part of the organization's mission to document human rights abuses and send them out to the world.

Commenting on this, Baw Kyaw said, “FBR has brought technology to the Karen people and enabled us to tell the world what is going on.”

“If they hadn’t come, we would have faced so many more human rights abuses,” he said.

Despite the hope many of the Karen people have placed in FBR’s operations, Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa remains humble.

“We’re just tiny,” he said. “We’re really more of a disorganization. We’re just an organization out of necessity.”

Despite his humility, FBR supplied medicine to over 100,000 patients last year and it’s clear FBR is more than just an aid distributor; the rangers are laying down the foundations for inter-ethnic cooperation, which has already begun to build “the tower,” which represents a new Burma in Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa’s “vision for Burma.” In it, the ethnic groups will continue to survive and build up education, health and political structures until the dictator’s fall.

“When the time comes, and the dictators' fortress has fallen due to its bad foundations, we will stretch out our hands and save them from drowning and welcome them in,” Tha-U-Wa-A-Pa said.

As the sun rose over the paddy fields, the various teams made their way out to their designated areas for their first relief missions. Packs were full and there was laughing aplenty. It was evident they were eager to test out their new skills and help their people.

One Karen medic turned to this reporter.

“We may be few, but we will grow and grow, and do great things for our people,” she said, smiling.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20343
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Former First Lady Laura Bush speaks by phone with Suu Kyi

DALLAS : Former U.S. First Lady Laura Bush on Friday spoke by telephone with pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from home arrest in Myanmar (Burma) last month.

It was the first time that Laura Bush spoke with Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights. She is sometimes compared with former South African leader Nelson Mandela as an international symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance in the face of oppression.

"I was heartened to hear the strong voice and enthusiasm of such an inspiring champion for human freedom," Laura Bush said after the telephone call. "Daw Suu has been under house arrest off and on for the last 20 years, but she never lost hope or stopped believing in a free Burma."

Laura Bush, whose husband served as U.S. President between January 2001 and January 2009, further said that she looked forward to the day when Suu Kyi and other people of her country can live in freedom.

In 1988, Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar after a period overseas but was quickly put under house arrest in Rangoon as the junta declared a martial law. Two years later, Myanmar held its first general election since 1960. The polls were by far won by Suu Kyi of the now dissolved National League for Democracy (NLD), but the results were ignored by the military junta and has since ruled the country.

Years later, in 1995, Suu Kyi was released from her house arrest in Rangoon although her movements remained restricted. She eventually was placed under house arrest again from September 2000 to May 2002 after she traveled to the city of Mandalay, in defiance of her travel restrictions.

Her release in May 2002 was unconditionally, but just a year later she was arrested after a clash between NLD supporters and a government-backed mob. After several months in prison, in September 2003, Suu Kyi was put under house arrest again.

Ever since, up until last month, she remained under house arrest but briefly appeared in public in September 2007 to greet protesting Buddhist monks. In May 2009, she was charged with breaking detention rules after an American swam to her compound and broke into her house even though he had not been invited by Suu Kyi.

After a trial that was widely condemned by the international community, Suu Kyi was convicted and sentenced in August 2009 to a further 18 months of house arrest. The term of this house arrest expired last month.

Days before Suu Kyi's release last month, Myanmar held its first national elections in 20 years even though foreign journalists were barred from entering the country and thousands of opponents remain imprisoned. As was expected, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party 'won' the election.

--BNO News http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-107411.html
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Myanmar's Links With Pyongyang Stir Nuclear Fears
By JAY SOLOMON

WASHINGTON—The United Nations' nuclear watchdog has written to Myanmar's military government in recent weeks asking to visit sites in the Southeast Asian country allegedly involved in clandestine nuclear activities, according to officials briefed on the correspondence.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's action comes amid rising fears in Washington and Asian capitals that Myanmar's generals have significantly increased their military cooperation with North Korea, possibly on nuclear technologies, as well as on long-range missiles and underground bunkers.

Concerns about North Korea's nuclear activities have heightened in recent weeks, as Pyongyang unveiled to a visiting American scientist thousands of new centrifuge machines used for enriching uranium. The Obama administration worries this machinery could be used by North Korea to produce more atomic weapons, but also could be sold to third countries such as Myanmar for hard currency.

U.S. officials have charged Myanmar, also called Burma, with being a key transshipment point for North Korean arms going to countries such as Iran and Syria. Washington has interdicted a number of North Korean ships and cargo planes in recent years that were allegedly moving missile parts and small arms through Myanmar's waters and airspace.
Suspect Sites

The IAEA's Department of Safeguards, headed by Belgian Herman Nackaerts, wrote the letter to Myanmar's government seeking to visit suspect sites, according to these officials. It follows at least two other letters the IAEA has written to Myanmar in recent months, seeking clarification of its alleged efforts to develop nuclear technologies at sites in the country's north.

"[The IAEA] is now officially asking for a visit," said one of the officials briefed on the letter.

Myanmar is a signatory to the U.N.'s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has a limited cooperation agreement with the IAEA focused on developing nuclear science. But the U.N. agency has only limited powers to demand access to Myanmar: the country has no declared nuclear facilities.

If Myanmar doesn't cooperate, it is likely to face more international pressure. The Obama administration has pressed Myanmar's military junta to cooperate with agency inspectors.

Myanmar's mission to the U.N. declined this week to comment on the IAEA request. The government has previously denied that it has any nuclear program or military cooperation with North Korea.

"No activity related to uranium conversion, enrichment, reactor construction or operation has been carried out in the past, is ongoing or is planned for the future," Myanmar state media quoted the country's ambassador to the IAEA, Win Tin, as writing to the agency in June.

In May, a former IAEA safeguards inspector, Robert Kelley, wrote a detailed report arguing that Myanmar was building factories north of its cultural capital, Mandalay, focused on producing nuclear fuel.

His report was based on the testimony of a former Burmese military officer and documents compiled by a dissident group, the Democratic Voice of Burma. Mr. Kelley argued that the photographs and satellite imagery were consistent and indicated that Myanmar was building factories to convert uranium ore into a powder form, known as yellowcake, then into uranium hexafluoride for enrichment, and finally into uranium metal. Uranium metal when fitted onto a warhead and detonated can create the fissile reaction of an atomic weapon.

"Burma is developing uranium processing equipment in secret that could legally be developed in the open if reported to the IAEA," Mr. Kelley said in an interview. "A secret program must only be for weapons."

Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables recently published by the website WikiLeaks document concerns inside successive American administrations about Myanmar's weapons programs and alleged cooperation with North Korea.

The documents recount meetings between U.S. diplomats and Myanmar-based businessmen who detail suspicious shipments they believe were materials being used to build a nuclear reactor. Another cable recounts sightings of roughly 300 North Korean workers who were allegedly building missile installations inside mountains in north-central Myanmar.

"Something is certainly happening; whether that something includes 'nukes' is a very open question which remains a very high priority for Embassy reporting," reads a cable written in November 2009 by the State Department's top diplomat in Yangon.

A number of proliferation experts and former IAEA staff have expressed skepticism about the prospect of Myanmar pursuing nuclear weapons.

They say much of the equipment allegedly being procured by Myanmar could have nonnuclear applications. They also said that testimony provided by Burmese defectors needs to be closely scrutinized, as many have political grudges against the Myanmar government. They note that much of the intelligence provided by Iraqi dissidents concerning Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons programs proved to be wrong.

"North Korea has been trying to sell missiles to Myanmar for some years...but there's no clear evidence of a nuclear program," said Mark Fitzpatrick, a former nonproliferation official in the State Department who is now at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Still, Mr. Fitzpatrick and other proliferation experts are pressing the IAEA to conduct intrusive inspections as a means to clear up the heightened uncertainty surrounding Myanmar's activities. They said that, even if the country isn't pursuing a nuclear program, its alleged pursuit of missile systems and other weapons capabilities could be extremely destabilizing for Asia.

Write to Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703395904576025370005257388.html
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Weekly Business Roundup (December 18, 2010)
By WILLIAM BOOT Saturday, December 18, 2010

Opium Poppy Production Rises in Burma

Burma has been accused by the United Nations of dramatically raising cultivation of poppies for opium in 2010.

The area of land in Burma used for growing poppies this year increased 20 percent to over 38,000 hectares, said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Poppy cultivation also increased in Thailand and Laos, said the agency.

The overall estimated value of crops this year almost doubled over 2009, from US $119 million to $219 million, said the agency in its annual report.

Poppy cultivation is still well below the record levels of the 1990s, but over the last four years it has been steadily rising, said UNODC director Yury Fedotov.

“While governments have increased their eradication efforts, the potential opium production in 2010 is estimated to have increased by approximately 75 percent when compared to 2009,” Fedotov said this week.

The UN report said poverty, instability and higher prices for processed opium on the world market had all contributed to tempting farmers to resume or start poppy growing, despite official eradication programs.

India, Asean Talks on Investment Stall over Skilled Labor Worry

Negotiations for a broad agreement on investment and freer movement of skilled labor between India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) have been suspended in dispute.

Government officials in New Delhi accused Asean of being inflexible, reported India’s Business Standard newspaper.

The agreement was meant to supplement a trade deal between the two sides already signed.

Import tariffs on a wide range of goods will be ended or reduced from 2013.

However, some Asean countries refuse to allow skilled Indian professionals such as doctors, nurses, chefs and financial services personnel to freely work across borders.

“Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are not ready to give us anything. On the other hand, they want us to give them those flexibilities which we have offered to other countries with which we have negotiated bilateral trade agreements,” the Business Standard quoted a senior Indian Commerce Ministry official as saying this week.

Asean has expressed concern about skilled Indians swamping member countries.

India is one of the world’s top ten exporters of services. The ten Asean countries are net importers of English language-dominated services such as telecommunications, IT, hospitality and health care.

Asean is India’s fourth largest trading partner, behind the European Union, the US and China.

Dam in China Disrupts Trade, Transport in Shan State

A hydro dam in China’s Yunnan Province is being blamed for causing severe water flow fluctuations that are disrupting trade and transport on a river in Burma’s Shan State.

Twenty villages and thousands of people are being affected by the dam along the Shweli River just inside Burma, according to a report by two NGOs.

The dam is only 30 kilometers north of the border town of Muse on the same river, known in China as the Longjiang. It began generating electricity in the middle of this year.

Its effects downstream have been monitored by a Shan environmental group called Sapawa and the Shan Women’s Action Network.

Concern about similar disruptions on the bigger Salween River flowing out of China into Burma has been voiced by other groups.

China is reviving suspended plans to dam upper reaches of the Salween, also in Yunnan.

Several hydroelectric dams on the river, known as the Nu in China, are likely to be constructed because of power shortages.

Dam development on the Chinese section of the river has twice been stopped by the central government in Beijing over environmental concerns, but these now look like being overridden, said the China Securities Journal.

The Burma Rivers Network, an environmentalist-human rights alliance of NGOs, has warned of disruptions to lives and livelihoods by any damming of the Salween.

Britain Says Burma Sanctions Still Working Despite China

The British government claims that Western sanctions are still working in Burma despite the growing economic influence wielded by China.

In answer to questions in the House of Lords, the upper house of Britain's parliament, Foreign Minister of State David Howell claimed “sanctions appear to be causing considerable difficulties, reflected in the continual, bitter complaints made by the generals and the authorities about them.”

He was answering questions from opposition party politicians suggesting that China’s growing stranglehold on Burma’s economy was undermining sanctions.

In response to Howell's claims that sanctions were “causing considerable difficulties” for the generals, the London-based human rights group Network Myanmar said this week: “The minister seems unaware that the generals are multi-millionaires.”


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