News & Articles on Burma-Wednesday, 09 March, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Wednesday, 09 March, 2011
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Ex-British PM denied Burma visa
Mae Sot-Myawaddy Trade Banned
Myanmar Sets Up Satellite Launching Committee
Myanmar parliaments due on legislation process
Myanmar Times boss denies power struggle
Burma's Fallen First Family
Junta distributes propaganda letter aimed at the KIO
Military Security Trumps Human Security in Burma's Budget
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Ex-British PM denied Burma visa
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been denied a second visa to visit Burma (Reuters)
By DVB
Published: 9 March 2011

Britain’s former prime minister Gordon Brown has been denied for the second time a visa to travel to Burma, where he says he had hoped to meet “the greatest fighter for democracy of our generation, Aung San Suu Kyi”.

Brown, who left office in May 2010 following a three-year term, has long supported the opposition icon and made a previous, but similarly unsuccessful, attempt to visit her.

Writing in The Independent yesterday to mark the 100th International Women’s Day, Brown said that while he had spoken to Suu Kyi over the phone, “her release from house arrest in November last year has not allowed her to meet visitors from abroad”.

While no official restrictions accompanied her freedom, measures such as blocking foreign dignitaries from entering the country are seen as an attempt to isolate the 65-year-old, who despite her banishment from the political arena continues to provide the greatest threat to the junta’s grip on power.

Suu Kyi featured prominently in a range of international tributes published yesterday to mark International Women’s Day, likely irking the ruling generals’ who have consistently tried to discredit her.

“The woman her people call Daw Suu has endured attempted assassinations, lengthy incarcerations and enforced separation from the husband she loved,” wrote Brown. “Hers is a courage born of the deepest of convictions – that people can endure almost anything when their cause is just.”

Days before leaving office last year, Brown wrote a letter to Suu Kyi in which he said “I will do everything I can to support you. You are, for me, what courage is and I will fight for you to be free and your people [to be] free”.

Several months after Brown quit, his successor, David Cameron, pledged to do more than the previous Labour government to help Burma’s beleaguered opposition, and sent a message to Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in which he said Britain would “take the lead in pushing for strong and effective international action on Burma”.

The British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) said last week that it would double aid to Burma, elevating it to the position of the world’s top international donor to the Southeast Asian pariah.

http://www.dvb.no/news/ex-british-pm-denied-burma-visa/14660
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Mae Sot-Myawaddy Trade Banned
By THE IRRAWADDY Wednesday, March 9, 2011

MAE SOT — Trade at the Thai-Burmese border's major trading point, between Mae Sot and Myawaddy, came to a complete standstill on Wednesday as the Burmese authorities banned the illegal import of Thai commodities.

Burmese traders in Myawaddy said that they have been warned by the Burmese authorities to stop smuggling goods from Thailand.

“The instructions came from Naypyidaw,” said a trader in Myawaddy. “We were told to be patient, that the measure was a response to Thai government policy toward the Burmese government.”

The Burmese military authorities ordered the Friendship Bridge between Mae Sot and Myawaddy closed in July in an apparent attempt to pressure the Thai government, which has long allowed Burmese armed ethnic groups, including the Karen National Union (KNU) to operate along its border.

At least 20 crossing points between the two townships have been closed mostly by the Burmese authorities citing security issues.

Despite the closure of the border bridge, Burma has unofficially allowed the border trade to continue until Tuesday without interference.

“The main problem is that Myanmar [Burma] does not see the refugees in Tak as refugees,” Tak Governor Samart Loifah was quoted as saying to the DPA on Tuesday. “They see them as clandestine KNU supporters. This is why they refuse to open the bridge.”

Several Burmese traders said that this latest development might be also related to Thailand's control of its sugar export to Burma. They said that the Thai government's minister for trade visited Mae Sot on Monday and ordered the officials concerned to crackdown on the illegal export of sugar to Burma.

“The Burmese authorities in Naypyidaw were very angry with that move,” said another trader in Myawaddy, adding that he and other traders had been told by officials that Thai commodities already imported would not be confiscated, but that no more goods would be overlooked.

Myawaddy residents said that the Burmese army has increased security at crossing points along the river between Myawaddy and Mae Sot.

Before the border was closed, Burma was importing from Thailand an estimated 3 billion baht (US $3 million) of commodities per month. The volume of trade is currently estimated at 8 million baht ($8,000), according to a Thai trader.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20903
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March 09, 2011 14:38 PM
Myanmar Sets Up Satellite Launching Committee

YANGON, March 9 (Bernama) -- Myanmar has set up a central committee and a working committee for launching satellite in a bid to promote the capacity of the country's telecommunication and information sectors, says China's Xinhua news agency citing a local report on Wednesday.

With the first secretary of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) as its patron, the central committee is made up of five members with the minister of communications, posts and telegraphs as chairman and its members comprise officials from the information and the defense ministries, a recent announcement of the SPDC was quoted by the Popular News as saying.

According to Xinhua, the seven-member working committee was formed with director of communications of the defence ministry as chairman and director- general of the Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications as the secretary.

The central committee for launching satellite will lay down policy with the launching of state-operated satellite, approve satellite-launching memorandums of understanding and other related documents, and carry out tasks aimed at obtaining space-related technology.

The establishment of Myanmar's committees for launching satellite signifies the country's entry into a higher stage of space technology, observers here said.

-- BERNAMA http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=569661
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Myanmar parliaments due on legislation process
14:10, March 09, 2011

Myanmar's ongoing parliaments are due to deal with legislation matter beginning later on Wednesday with the union parliament, a legislative body, being tasked to make laws.

The union parliament is composed up of the house of representatives (the lower house) and the house of nationalities ( the upper house), which includes members that were elected in the November-2010-general-election and 25-percent military-nominated officials.

Parliament representatives of both houses are urged to put forward questions about what is happening in their regions, cases and bills to the governing bodies and union-level organizations at the parliamentary sessions.

The parliament representatives are required properly use their power and right in the legislation process to shape the future of the nation without attachment to party concerned, personality, cult, dogmatism and racism.

The president-elect U Thein Sein has formed the union government, the union supreme court, the union judicature, the union constitutional tribunal, the union election commission and other union-level organs such as union attorney-general and union auditor-general as well as assignment of region or state ministers.

Besides, four committees of both lower house and upper house have been formed in the current parliamentary sessions, namely the Bill Committee, the Public Accounts Committee, the Parliament Rights Committee and the Government's Guarantees, Pledges and Undertakings Vetting Committee.

Since the parliaments are carrying out their functions, the union government would come into operation soon, according to official media.

The union parliament is yet to name specifically 30 union ministers with 34 related union ministries to form a union government and establish an 11-member national defense and security council as submitted by the president-elect.

In Myanmar's presidential election on Feb. 4 this year, Prime Minister U Thein Sein won the presidency, while U Tin Aung Myint Oo and Dr. Sai Mauk Kham were elected as the vice presidents.

Myanmar's three-level parliaments began its first sessions simultaneously on Jan. 31. The summon for the first parliamentary sessions in two decades by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) came nearly three months after the end of the multi- party general election on Nov. 7, 2010.

The sessions of the lower house and upper house are taking place at the newly-built parliament buildings in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, while the sessions of region or state parliament in 14 respective regions or states.

In the sessions, No.3 Myanmar state leader Thura U Shwe Mann, who is SPDC member and previously a general holding the military post of chief of general staff of the army, the navy and the air force, was elected as speaker of the house of representatives, while U Khin Aung Myint, Minister of Culture, was elected as speaker of the house of nationalities as well as speaker of the union parliament.

In the 2010 general election, 1,154 candidates out of over 3, 000 representing political parties in contesting were elected as parliamentary representatives at three levels, in which 325 as representatives to the house of representatives, 168 as representatives to the house of nationalities and 661 as representatives to the region or state parliament.

A total of 37 political parties including 82 independents took part in the parliamentary election held across the country's seven regions and seven ethnic states in November last year.

Source: Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7313316.html
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Myanmar Times boss denies power struggle
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 9 March 2011

The detained former editor of Burma’s only overseas-funded newspaper was again refused bail yesterday as judges await a testimony from a drugs expert.

Ross Dunkley, who co-founded the Myanmar Times in 2000, will now have to wait until 17 March for further news on a case in which he is accused of immigration violations and assaulting a female sex worker, whom some reports claim he drugged.

The man who has taken his position at the newspaper, Tin Tun Oo, told DVB yesterday that another hearing has been scheduled for 23 March where forensic experts will present evidence.

“I met Ross in the morning – he was in good health. I also visited him in Insein prison [on Monday] and assisted him with his needs. He said he was doing okay when I asked.”

Speculation about the real motives behind Dunkley’s arrest last month have centred on a power struggle at the Myanmar Times and attempts by the ruling junta to eliminate foreign-funded groups.

David Armstrong, a business partner in Cambodia, where Dunkley is a key shareholder in the Phnom Penh Post daily, said in a statement last months that his arrest “coincides with tense and protracted discussions” between the foreign and the domestic investors in the paper

Tin Tun Oo, who in 2005 took a 51 percent stake in the paper’s publisher Myanmar Consolidated Media (MCM) after the jailing of his predecessor, Sonny Swe, is believed to be close to the regime’s information minister, Kyaw Hsan.

He told DVB however that “there is no politics behind [Dunkley’s arrest] and there is no personal issue” between him and the Australian national.

“I didn’t even know it was happening until later. I’m not that kind of person who would put someone else’s life in danger to take his position.” He continued that he is “100 percent innocent” and is “doing what I can, in the boundaries of the law, to get Ross released with as light a [punishment] as possible”.

The woman in question, Khine Zar Win, had earlier this month asked for her complaint against Dunkley to be withdrawn, saying she was pregnant and unable to travel to court, but her request was rejected.

Alongside the Myanmar Times, MCM, which employs 350 staff, also publishes the Burmese-language Crime Journal and Now! weekly magazine.

http://www.dvb.no/news/myanmar-times-boss-denies-power-struggle/14648
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Burma's Fallen First Family
By WAI MOE Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The fate of the family of Ne Win, the dictator who ruled Burma with an iron fist for more than a quarter of a century, is testament to the dog-eat-dog nature of military rule in this impoverished Southeast Asian country.

Since 2002, four members of the family—Ne Win's son-in-law Aye Zaw Win and his grandsons Aye Ne Win, Kyaw Ne Win and Zwe Ne Win—have been held in Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison for plotting to overthrow the current regime.

Sandar Win stands next to her father, former Burmese dictator Ne Win, at a party celebrating his 90th birthday. (Photo: AP)
Although they face the death penalty after being found guilty of committing treason, prison sources say that they continue to enjoy privileges that few other inmates would ever dream of receiving, including occasional permission to leave the prison.

“Officials have allowed U Ne Win’s relatives to bring their own TVs and DVD players into the prison, as well as other communication devices. Therefore a prison official was sacked at the time,” said a prison officer at Insein Prison.

“However, they have influence even over U Zaw Win, the director-general of the Corrections Department, since they are from the former No.1 family. Other low-ranking officials at the prison are like their tools,” he added.

When Win Tin, a prominent opposition leader, was in prison, he was detained at the Special Cellblock compound in Insein Prison where Ne Win’s family members are also held. At the time, the veteran journalist had some conversation with the former first family members.

Win Tin, who was released from prison in September 2009, once told The Irrawaddy that Aye Ne Win, who studied in the UK, said he wanted to see pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Ko Naing, a prominent leader of the 88 Generation Students group, released from detention.

The Special Cellblock, which is for top political dissidents and imprisoned seniors officials, consists of 10 cells and five small houses. It was directly overseen by the Military Intelligence (MI), but the Special Branch of the police now directs it after the MI was abolished in 2004. The Special Cellblock has a separate kitchen and provides daily state-run-newspapers to prisoners.

When Ne Win’s son-in-law and grandsons were arrested in February 2002, Ne Win spent his last days under house arrest with his favorite daughter, Sandar Win, until he died in December of the same year.

Although Ne Win was the founder of Burma's first military dictatorship, his funeral passed quietly, with only Sandar Win and his former colleague, Brig-Gen Aung Gyi, allowed to attend.

After Ne Win passed away, Sandar Win remained under house arrest at their home next to Rangoon's Inya Lake. Since her release in December 2008, she has kept a low profile to avoid trouble with the ruling generals.

“She regularly visits her beloved husband and sons in Insein Prison. Sometimes she hangs out at the Railway Hotel, where Rangoon elites and international NGO staff gather. But she seems quite depressed,” said a businessman in Rangoon who close to the family.

“The fate of U Ne Win’s family is a lesson for all, but particularly for the current people in power,” he added.

Recent information leaked from prison officials is that restrictions on Ne Win’s imprisoned relatives have been eased. There have even been reports that they have occasionally been given permission to go outside of the prison.

However, this kind of special favor by prison authorities is not reserved only for the former first family, but also for other privileged prisoners, including well-known businessmen.

One of them is Maung Waik, a tycoon who is imprisoned for drug charges. He was arrested for allegedly providing drugs to Nay Shwe Thaway Aung, the grandson of the junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

“Maung Waik is not like prisoner serving a jail term on drug charges. He is more like a VIP guest at Insein Prison,” said the prison officer. “He mostly stays at a prison guesthouse which is outside Insein Prison. He can still use his mobile phones, doing his business as usual.”

Irrawaddy reporter Lin Thant contributed to this story.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20904
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Junta distributes propaganda letter aimed at the KIO
Wednesday, 09 March 2011 12:22 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burmese authorities are distributing propaganda letters, saying the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) is causing the deaths of many civilian deaths through the planting of land mines.

Kachin Independence Army soldiers and civilians on a road leading to their headquarters in Laiza in Kachin State. Photo : Mizzima

Kachin Independence Army soldiers and civilians on a road leading to their headquarters in Laiza in Kachin State. Photo : Mizzima
Since March 5, the authorities have circulated the propaganda letters to restaurants and other locations along the Myitkyina-Laiza Road, according to local residents,

The letters, which include photographs of landmine victims, have been distributed in Waimaw, Ga Ra Yang, Nam Sang Yang, Laja Yang and Sadung in Kachin State.

Some of the letters are written in the Kachin language. ‘But, they don’t know the language very well’, one resident told Mizzima. ‘There are many mistakes’.

Military intelligence officers from the Northern Command and local police ordered shop owners, especially the owners of tea shops, noodle shops and bicycle repair shops, to distribute at least 50 letters among customers, according to a shop owner in Nam Sang Yang.

‘They said that it was the order of Northern Command, so I put the letters on a table. Anybody could take the letters’, he said.

The letter said, in part: ‘The KIO obtains money from civilians by extortion. Why does they (KIO) give people trouble?, their actions are cruel and selfish’, and, ‘The KIO is all talk. Although they say they are doing good things for the sake of the Kachin people, their actions say the opposite. It’s time to question what the KIO does for the welfare of Kachin people’.

The letters were also distributed in some wards in Myitkyina, according to residents.

A KIO officer in Laiza told Mizzima that the KIO has not responded to the letter, and that the people would not lose trust in the organization.

‘It’s similar to the propaganda of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). At that time, the BSPP made anti-KIO propaganda when the KIO and the government were fighting. But, the Kachin people’s feelings for the KIO will not change. The authorities actions are very childish’, the officer said.

The KIO rejected the junta’s order in September 2010 to transform its troops into the Border Guard Force, causing increased tension between the junta and KIO.

On February 25, 10 remote-controlled mines, made from TNT gunpowder, were discovered outside the customs office in Loi Je Township in Bhamo District in Kachin State.

Lieutenant Colonel Thet Pone of the junta’s Northern Military Command Military Affairs Security (MAS) unit alleged that the mines were planted by the KIO and threatened the KIO, saying the regime would launch a major military offensive against it if it did not stop provoking the regime.

In October, two people died and one was injured after they stepped on a mine while climbing Nwalabo Hill in the Pinball Village tract of Mogaung Township in Kachin State. The junta said that the mine was planted by the KIO and state-run newspapers used the word “insurgents” to describe the KIO.
http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4983-junta-distributes-propaganda-letter-aimed-at-the-kio.html
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NEWS ANALYSIS
Military Security Trumps Human Security in Burma's Budget



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By HTET AUNG Wednesday, March 9, 2011

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Burma's government budget for the 2011 – 2012 fiscal year shows that the country's new military-civilian government will keep military security as its top priority and lacks the political will to improve the country's human security.

But the budget for the new government was highhandedly drawn-up by the junta and enacted on Feb. 11 without any input from the already existing bicameral Union Parliament. In addition, it was signed into law by junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, over-hadowing President-elect Thein Sein, who will take office under the 2008 Constitution as soon as the junta's ruling council, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), transfers power.

The new government will allocate 1.318 trillion kyat (US $1.48 billion) to the Ministry of Defense­which constitutes about 20 percent of the 6.772 trillion kyat ($7.65 Billion) budget. Following defense, the energy, finance and revenue, electricity, construction and industrial sectors, in descending order, received the largest budget allocations (See the chart below).

Beginning in January, the junta used the 2008 Constitution's “Transitory Provisions” to issue a series of new laws. The budget, which is the latest of these enactments, was published only as a state gazette and not in the state media.

In concert with the budget, the junta also enacted a law whose title can be translated as: “The law of the special fund for the necessary expenditure of the perpetuation of the state sovereignty.”

The special fund can only be used by the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and the government is required to allocate to the state budget whatever special funds are requested by the commander-in-chief for each fiscal year.

The special fund is designated to be used for the vague purposes of “defense against enemies inside and outside the country and for safeguarding the Constitution.” The commander-in-chief is not accountable to any state organization or individual­he is only required to submit the balance sheet of the special fund to the president in each fiscal year.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), the disbanded opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, issued a statement on Friday saying that the special fund law does not have the characteristics that a legitimate budget expenditure law must have because it is drawn from public revenues but lacks any accountability either to the people directly or to the legislators who represent the people.

Many academic research reports on the expenditures of the Burmese military estimate the junta has spent about 40 percent of its past budgets on defense. So at first glimpse, the new budget looks to include a 50 percent reduction in the military budget.

However, the special fund law allows the commander-in-chief to divert an unspecified amount of state revenue to the special fund. And because the entire budget has already been allocated to different government ministries, this begs the question: Where will the money for the special fund come from?

Will it be drawn from the budgets of all other government ministries? From the Ministry of Defense only? From a secret slush fund?

There is also a constitutional question as to whether the president on his own can allocate the special fund money requested by the commander-in-chief.

In addition, the special fund will be secretly used without the knowledge of either the legislative or the judicial branches of government.

Some military observers are concerned that the special funds could be channeled to secret military projects such as constructing secret tunnels, trying to obtain high-tech missile technology and attempting to build a nuclear power plant with the intention of becoming the first country in Southeast Asia with nuclear weapons.

The new budget also allocates 14.90 percent to the Ministry of Energy, 13.72 percent to the Ministry of Finance and Revenue and 9.93 percent to the Ministry of Electricity, which is divided into two ministries.

In this regard, the new budget is focused on investing in the exploitation of natural resources through onshore and offshore oil and natural gas wells and hydroelectric power production, which the new government intends to do both by entering into joint venture agreements with foreign companies and utilizing Burma's private business sector.

However, a major portion of Burma's economy is now effectively controlled by the junta through military-owned business enterprises such as the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. (UMEH) and the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), which will increase the amount of money available to the military by an unknown amount, and it is expected that a substantial amount of the money generated by the country's major revenue sources­energy, electricity and mining­will go to the military fund as well.

With respect to the state's investment in education and health, a proper portion of the budget should be allocated to reducing poverty and enhancing the social welfare of the people who recently encountered two major natural disasters­Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy Delta region in 2008 and Cyclone Giri in Arakan State in 2010.

However, the new budget allocates only 4.57 percent to the Ministry of Education, 1.31 percent to the Ministry of Health and 0.26 percent to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.

The international community has sympathized with the suffering of the Burmese people and generously donated its own citizens' taxpayer money for the relief and recovery of the millions of victims of the two cyclones, as well as other social hardships associated with the gross poverty inside Burma.

But the new Burmese government's own budget continues to show the junta's negligence and irresponsibility toward its own people.



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