News & Articles on Burma-Wednesday, 27 July, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Wednesday, 27 July, 2011
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Suu Kyi Pressured to Register Party During Talks
Shan Vice-President Powerless to Stop Abuse
A Top Govt. Official Downplays Peace Proposal
Burmese-Kachin fighting takes place at three locations
Burmese Crossroads: Oil & Gas Rush Stokes Civil War
Landmine Victims on Both Sides of Burma Civil War Escape to Medical Mecca in Thailand
Myanmar is No.1 in Attack Traffic
Burma tells Thailand to ‘clear out’ rebels
Suu Kyi photos make Burma’s front pages
Strike Leaders Sacked as Warning to Others
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Suu Kyi Pressured to Register Party During Talks
By YENI Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Burmese Labor Minister Aung Kyi urged pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to legally register her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), when they met on Monday for the first talks between the two sides since a new government was formed earlier this year, according to sources.

Sources close to the NLD said that Suu Kyi rejected the suggestion, however, because the party doesn't accept the 2008 Constitution, which set down the new registration regulations.

The NLD lost its legal status last year on May 6 because it failed to re-register in order to take part in November general election. The party boycotted the polls, which it considered unfair and undemocratic.

Among the various restrictions imposed under the election laws, the NLD would have been required to expel Suu Kyi from the party she founded more than 20 years ago because of her marriage to a foreigner. The military-backed constitution also contains clauses that would bar her from holding political office.

Following Suu Kyi's release from house arrest last year, less than a week after the Nov. 7 election, the NLD took the case concerning its legal standing to court four times. However, Naypyidaw’s Supreme Court dismissed the NLD’s special appeal against dissolution early this year.

Since then, the NLD has decided to submit a letter of appeal to the UN Human Rights Council to challenge the government's efforts to eliminate Burma’s most influential political party.

“We feel that there is no way to win legal recognition of the NLD under domestic law, so we are preparing to submit a letter to the UN Human Rights Council,” NLD vice chairman Tin Oo told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

Aung Kyi reportedly called such a move “inappropriate” during his talks with Suu Kyi, according to sources.

Last month, the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported that the Home Ministry sent a letter to Suu Kyi and NLD Chairman Aung Shwe informing them that the party was breaking the law by maintaining party offices, holding meetings and issuing statements.

The government also told Suu Kyi ahead of her trip to Pagan earlier this month to halt all political activities and warned that her tour could spark riots and chaos. Although the trip was billed as a private visit to Burma's ancient capital, hundreds of emotional supporters flocked to see her.

Despite signs of tension between Suu Kyi and the government, however, on July 19 she was permitted to attend a ceremony commemorating the 1947 assassination of her father, independence leader Aung San. More than 3,000 people followed her on a march to the Martyrs' Mausoleum in Rangoon, but no incidents were reported.

Some observers said that Suu Kyi would likely continue to seek opportunities to demonstrate that her actions are not intended to lead to confrontation. Others suggested that both sides needed to do more to ease tensions.

“They should seek to build trust between them by holding a series of meetings aimed at cooperating and fulfilling the needs of the country,” said Khin Maung Swe, a former member of the NLD and founding member of the National Democratic Force, a party formed to run in last year's election. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21782
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Shan Vice-President Powerless to Stop Abuse
By KO HTWE Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Burma Vice-President Sai Mauk Kham, an ethnic Shan, lacks the influence to halt human rights abuses by government troops in ethnic areas, according to observers in his home state.

The conflict between the Shan State Army (SSA)—a former ceasefire group known until recently as SSA-North—and government troops began on March 13 when a 22-year-old ceasefire agreement was broken.

In this photo taken on Feb. 12, 2011, Vice President Sai Mauk Kham, left, and President Thein Sein walk for a reception to mark the 64th anniversary of Union Day in Naypyidaw. (Photo: AP)
Hundreds of thousands of local people live in fear for their lives with villagers routinely raped, tortured and killed.

But it is unclear what political power is held by Sai Mauk Kham regarding government policies on ethnic conflicts in Shan and Kachin states, said 61-year-old Sai Mauk Kham who grew up in the Sino-Burmese border town of Muse.

The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand claims that at least 18 female Kachins—aged between 15 and 50 years old—were gang-raped by five different Burmese Army battalions in four different townships of Bhamo District from June 10-18.

According to accounts documented by Thailand-based Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and Shan Human Rights Foundation in mid-July, government troop authorized rape as a terror tactic in its offensive against the SSA with four women and girls raped by soldiers in separate incidents.

“Everyone should talk and confirm these rape cases because things are deteriorating. We do not only want discussion inside Burma and the cabinet but also ASEAN and the international community to talk about these things and make change,” said Charm Tong, a leading member of SWAN.

According to local residents living near to the conflict zone, men are afraid to leave their homes as they might be forced to act as porters for the Burmese Army and women are hearing reports of rape every day. Truck drivers operating near the region fear being commandeered by government troops and forced to help operations against the SSA.

“What I know is that [Sai Mauk Kham] is responsible for culture, religion, education and health. So it is very hard for him to talk about the affairs of Shan State,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, the editor of Thailand-based Shan Herald Agency for News.

He added that while Sai Mauk Kham has had a hard time raising the issue of ethnic conflicts so far, he can still provide advice to the government when they put the issue on the table.

While fighting was underway in Shan and Kachin State, Sai Mauk Kham attended the opening of the newly-built children's hospital in Chanayethazan Township of Mandalay Region, according to state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.

“I don't think [Sai Mauk Kham] will raise the issue in the cabinet,” said Sai Leik, spokesman for the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy. He added that Sai Mauk Kham's authority within the government is limited.

Some residents who have tried to complain about human rights abuses to candidates of the Shan Nationalities Development Party (SNDP) have been threatened by government troops.

SNDP members are documenting incidents of abuse in the affected area to present to Parliament, but it is unclear when the next sitting will be, claims Sai Leik.

“But some leading members of the party are reluctant to discuss these problems and keep silent rather than focusing on what is happening,” said an SNDP member from Taunggyi on condition of anonymity. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21780
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A Top Govt. Official Downplays Peace Proposal
By WAI MOE Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Burma’s Election Commission Chairman ex-Lt-Gen Tin Aye downplayed ethnic minority parties’ calls for “peace talks” over ongoing conflicts during a meeting in Naypyidaw on Wednesday.

According to leaders of ethnic parties who attended the meeting, Tin Aye was asked about the possibility of peace talks to stop fighting between government troops and ethnic armed groups in Kachin and Shan states. However, the leading government official apparently replied “no,” saying that the Election Commission did not have any authority on the issue.

“The Shan Party [Shan Nationalities Development Party] and other ethnic parties representing Chin, Karen and Inn people proposed a serious discussion on ‘peace.’ And then other ethnic parties plus pro-democracy representatives at the meeting supported the proposal for peace talks,” said Aye Maung, chairman of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party.

Burma’s Election Commission Chairman ex-Lt-Gen Tin Aye downplayed ethnic minority calls for peace talks. (Photo: AP)
“Then U Tin Aye replied that the issue has to be discussed at the Hluttaw [Parliament],” said Aye Maung. “U Tin Aye said he also wants peace,” he added.

The meeting’s main agenda was regarding by-elections for more than 40 constituencies which are expected to be held late this year. The Election Commission called 37 political parties to the meeting in Naypyidaw.

In past three months of President Thein Sein’s new administration, fresh armed conflicts have occurred in Kachin and Shan states where there were previously ceasefire agreements for 16 and 22 years respectively.

While the Burmese Army's presence have been increased in conflict zones, both the government and the ethnic armed groups of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Shan State Army (SSA) have discussed ceasefire talks.
However, negotiations have not been successful.

Ethnic groups complained that the government only sent low profile negotiators for the discussions saying that they could not guarantee “genuine ceasefire agreements and peace” in the union.

La Nan, joint-secretary of the KIA's political wing the Karen Independence Organisation, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the government’s negotiator, Col Than Aung—Kachin State’s minister for security and border affairs—contacted him frequently over the weekend regarding a ceasefire agreement.

“The government last called about a ceasefire on Sunday. But they have to offer more guarantees for a long-term ceasefire for peace and stability in the state,” he said. “Our troops report that the government’s militarization has not been decreased.”

He added that, whether it is connected or not, Naypyidaw’s fresh calls for a ceasefire and Minister Aung Kyi’s talk with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi came shortly after the Asean Regional Forum in Bali, Indonesia.

Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin faced pressure from the US and Asean members for “concrete, measurable progress” regarding political reforms such as release of more than 2,000 political prisoners and “meaningful and inclusive dialogue” with the opposition and ethnic groups.

Meanwhile, two secretaries of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party—former ministers Aung Thaung and Thein Zaw—are scheduled to visit Kachin State capital Myitkyina again in coming days. They are expected to hold another round-up meeting on the conflict with respected Kachin representatives in the town. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21781
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Burmese-Kachin fighting takes place at three locations
Created on Monday, 25 July 2011 07:00
Published on Monday, 25 July 2011 07:00
Written by KNG

Short battles between the Burmese and Kachin armies took place today, July 25, at three different locations in Kachin State, northern Burma, local sources said.


Around 11 a.m. local time, a gun battle took place between Nam San Yang and Ban Dawng, about 20 miles northeast of the KIA Laiza headquarters.

Two government battalions, with over 50 troops from Infantry Battalions No. 21 and 37, based in the Kachin capital, Myitkyina, were involved in the fighting with KIA troops protecting Laiza, according to a KIA officer at the frontline around Laiza.

A second battle occurred at Chipwi Township between Burmese troops from the Nga Oo-based Infantry Battalion No. 121 and KIA troops of Battalion 10, under Brigade 1, a KIA officer confirmed to the Thailand-based Kachin News Group.

Government troops were attacked on the road near Chipwi while returning to their base in Nga Oo, in southern Kachin State, a KIA officer added.

At the same time, more fighting took place in the Sinbo area in Mohnyin Township, central Kachin State, where the KIA’s Battalion 5, under Brigade 2, is based.

This third battle was between the KIA’s Battalion 5 and government troops from the Sinbo-based Infantry Battalion No. 141 and Infantry Battalion 142, based at Dawhpumyang, sources from the frontlines said.

Both sides suffered casualties in the three battles, however, the exact number is not known at this time.

Meanwhile, the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of KIA, is hoping for a message from Burmese President, U Thein Sein, concerning a renewed ceasefire which the two sides discussed three times in June, said KIO officials in Laiza. http://kachinnews.com/news/1995-burmese-kachin-fighting-takes-place-at-three-locations.html
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Burmese Crossroads: Oil & Gas Rush Stokes Civil War
by Matthew F Smith, Special to CorpWatch
July 26th, 2011

On a typical sunny day in 2010, Burmese authorities and their corporate partners from China confiscated Khaing Khaing’s small family plot on Maday island in the Bay of Bengal. The remote and mountainous Southeast Asian island, scorched during equatorial hot seasons and drenched in tropical monsoons, sits in the path of proposed oil and gas pipelines to China.

In 1980, “when we were married,” said Khaing Khaing, a resolute 52-year old farmer in Burma’s Arakan state, “we inherited about four acres of paddy field and two oxen from both sides of our families,” in accordance with Arakanese custom. The plot, with its rich and fertile soil, supported her and her husband’s family of two children for three decades.

Unfortunately, their traditional values and small farm were no match for the $2.5 billion mega-projects. The military rulers of Burma – also called Myanmar – cut deals in 2009 with South Korean and Chinese companies for the lucrative cross-country pipelines, which will stretch from Burma’s western shore to the restive border with Yunnan province, China.

The dictatorship has since been replaced by a military-dominated parliament, but for the pipelines it is still business as usual: the companies and the military are forging through allegations of human rights abuses on one hand and a civil war on the other.

New Oil and Gas Investments

The energy mega-deal actually involves several separate projects: offshore gas development, a deep-sea port, gas and oil terminals, roads, and other infrastructure.

The pipelines, however, are the vital element. Operated by the state-owned Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), in collaboration with the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), the oil pipeline will enable China’s crude shipments from the Middle East to circumvent the vulnerable Strait of Malacca, a narrow shipping chokepoint controlled by the U.S. It will also conveniently avoid the South China Sea, where China and its neighbor Vietnam are feuding over oil-rich territories claimed by both countries. The gas line will likewise follow the same overland route as the oil pipeline, under the control of CNPC and South Korea’s Daweoo International, together with the Gas Authority of India, Korea Gas Corporation and ONGC Videsh (India).

All told, more than $10 billion in new oil and gas investments poured into Burma last year alone, according to the country’s official figures. EarthRights International (ERI), a human rights and environmental watchdog with offices in Washington D.C. and northern Thailand, estimates that Burma’s controversial Yadana pipeline to Thailand generated over U.S. $5 billion in profits for the previous junta, from 1999-2010. These figures will increase considerably when the China pipelines come online.

Yet the military rulers have invested little in raising the living standards of people like Khaing Khaing and her family. The United Nations Development Programme continues to rank Burma last in the region according to nearly every indicator in its annual Human Development Index, measuring poverty, health, and education; and it ranks Burma 132 out of 169 globally.

Big Business in a War Zone

The controversial oil and gas pipelines are set to span 500 miles of rugged mountains and dense jungle in Burma, passing rushing rivers, expansive rice paddies, and several population centers, including areas of escalating armed conflict in the country’s mountainous northern Shan state. It is there that scores of non-governmental organizations, the United Nations, Harvard Law School, and others have reported some of Burma’s most urgent human rights violations.

According to Sai Kheunsai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News, the Burmese army has attacked the ethnic Shan State Army (SSA) every day for the last two months. The epicenter of the attacks has been near Hsipaw, a remote valley town and a key location on the proposed pipeline route.

The Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and the Shan Human Rights Foundation have in recent months documented rape as a weapon of war in the conflict areas of Shan state, committed by Burmese soldiers against ethnic women and girls. Survivors were aged 12-50, the groups say, and at least one girl was raped in front of her parents.

“Business as usual means ongoing rape for women and girls in our communities,” SWAN’s Charm Tong told the Bangkok Post on July 24. “[Investors and Governments] can’t hide behind ‘We didn't know’.”

Intense fighting has also recently erupted between the Burmese army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the country’s second largest ethnic force, ending a 17-year-long ceasefire agreement. Like the SSA, the KIA has a key battalion stationed in the proposed path of the pipelines in northern Shan state.

Dr. La Ja, a senior representative of the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of the KIA, told CorpWatch on June 26 that that the pipelines are not yet under construction in the northernmost reaches of Shan state, but that the war in the region is intensifying. “We want stable peace along the border [with China],” he said, “but the fighting is escalating.”

The Kachin were “very surprised” by the renewed conflict when it began on June 9, and had “no option” but to take a defensive posture after a series of advances by the Burmese army, according to Dr. La Ja. State media reported that the Burmese army advanced on the Kachin to protect the central government’s interests in Kachin state, including two Chinese-led hydropower dams, but Dr. La Ja claims the projects in question were never under threat.

Since the fighting began in June, the Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand has documented 32 cases of rape; thirteen ended in death, according to the organization.

China’s foreign ministry has called for the conflict to stop, but has not elaborated on its plans for the pipelines or China’s other energy projects in Burma.

CorpWatch spoke to a Daewoo International company vice president in charge of the company’s energy investments in Burma, and asked him about the risks of running multi-billion dollar pipelines through a war zone and how the company would deal with imminent human rights problems. “That’s a very difficult question,” he said, requesting anonymity because he is unauthorized to speak to the media. “We are not quite sure what could happen in that area [in northern Shan state].”

“The issue is whether foreign companies doing business in that country can advance democracy or not,” the Daewoo vice president said. “If Daewoo in Myanmar eventually helps democracy in Myanmar [by strengthening the economy], then we should not be blamed [for being in Myanmar now].”

What if instead Daewoo’s presence is contributing to human rights abuses and authoritarianism? “I have no idea,” he replied.

Local Discontent and Opposition

Back on the western front of the projects, Khaing Khaing is less ambivalent. In January 2010, she and others from her Maday island community were given an ominous summons to attend a mandatory meeting with oil workers.

“There were about seven Burman men from the Asia World company and about five Chinese men from CNPC,” said Khaing Khaing.

Asia World is an influential Burmese company hired by CNPC to work on project-related construction and, evidently, land acquisition. The Daewoo vice president told CorpWatch that his company had not signed a contract with Asia World, but confirmed that Asia World is involved in the pipeline projects through CNPC.

Villagers in Arakan state said Asia World and CNPC handed down a non-negotiable demand for land to accommodate the pipelines, but promised fair financial compensation.

A year later, some of the dispossessed have still not been paid, according to ERI, which released a 24-page report on the issue in March 2011. Others received compensation from the companies above market value, according to ERI, but the villagers remained worried as to how they would survive given that farming was their sole skill set as well as the cultural and economic foundation of their lives.

“Now we have no paddy fields to survive,” Khaing Khaing said. “We value our traditions very much,” she said, including the vital custom of bequeathing land from one generation to the next.

EarthRights International’s Paul Donowitz told CorpWatch that he met with Daewoo’s senior executives in April and explained to the company that it shared responsibility for any abuses connected to the gas pipeline. “The company said they are advising their partner CNPC to observe human rights,” said Donowitz. “We’re watching the situation on the ground very closely and still see many troubling project impacts.”

Villagers in the pipeline’s westernmost path say that they are very worried. “If the companies and the authorities order us to move, we can’t deny their orders,” said one dispossessed villager in Arakan state. The oil companies and the authorities “can do whatever they want,” added another young farmer. Both, fearing reprisals by the state, requested anonymity.

After the ERI report was released, CNPC posted a Chinese-language statement on its website saying it spent $810,000 to compensate all affected Maday islanders. The company also said it is contributing positively to local employment and local livelihoods: “CNPC staff have brought loving care to Myanmar people.”

CorpWatch’s repeated emails requesting comments from CNPC either bounced or went unanswered. Several calls to its local contractor Asia World Ltd. were disconnected after CorpWatch raised questions about the pipelines.

Daewoo was more forthcoming. Its vice president told CorpWatch that his company had devoted scrupulous attention to land and crop compensation on Kyauk Phu island in Arakan state, a small corner of the project route where Daewoo is the sole operator. CorpWatch asked the Daewoo representative about villagers beyond Kyauk Phu who say they have still not received compensation for confiscated land. “We’re not quite sure if that instance is linked to our company,” the representative said.

In an official June 28 email to CorpWatch, the company’s communications team said it “is not relevant for Daewoo to make a comment over [non-governmental organizations’] views or objectives.”

Histories of Controversy

All three companies - Asia World Ltd., CNPC, and Daewoo – are politically and economically powerful and each has been linked to wrongdoing in recent years.

Asia World Ltd. is one of Burma’s largest conglomerates with numerous ventures in construction, hydropower, ports, retail and other businesses. Asia World CEO Lo Hsing-han and his son Steven Law are ethnic Kokang of Chinese ancestry, hailing from the general region where the pipelines will pass into China.

“Asia World is the best-connected and best suited to do that work,” says to Bertil Lintner, a noted author who has written widely on Burma, referring to the company’s involvement in the pipeline projects in Shan state. “They’d know the terrain up there,” he added.

Lo is one of the world’s best-known opium smugglers, according to the U.S. government, which has put both him and his son on a U.S. government blacklist. The duo’s company has been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2008 on suspicion of money laundering and drug trafficking, as well as for its close links to Burma’s ruling elite.

CNPC is China’s largest oil company with assets and interests in 27 countries worldwide, according to its website.

A 580-page report in 2003 by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based watchdog group, exposed CNPC’s large interests in Sudan’s oil sector, where the state and its militias violently displaced whole communities from their homelands around CNPC-controlled oil fields.

Human rights groups also allege that revenues from CNPC’s oil payments to Khartoum financed widespread human rights violations in the country. In 2009, Global Witness, a London-based human rights group, released a report claiming much of CNPC’s payments were not reflected in the Sudanese government’s published figures, implying massive corruption of monies that should have otherwise been shared with the recently independent South Sudan.

Daewoo (the company name means “Great Universe” in Korean) describes itself on its website as a “world top class trader investor, developer [whose] pioneering spirit guarantees plenty of progress for everyone.” With 1,767 staff and 6,000 clients in 180 nations around the world, according to the site, Daewoo “plays the roles [sic] as the driving force for the trade and overseas investment of Korea.”

The Axle Project: Guns for Gas?

From 2002-2006, executives from Daewoo International and other companies sold military equipment as well as blueprints for weapons technology to Burma in violation of Korean trade law, which restricts the export of strategic materials to countries deemed a potential obstruction “to world peace and regional security.” In 2004, the law was amended to label Burma a “limited export area.”

Senior Daewoo executives and their associates code-named their weapons supply scheme the “Axle Project” because they considered it the key lever to keep the gas wheel turning with Burma’s notorious difficult military leaders, according to prosecutors in the case.

Fourteen Korean executives, including six from Daewoo, were ultimately convicted in trial court, appellate court, and then again at the Supreme Court on charges of conspiracy and failure to obtain government approval for exporting strategic materials.

The prosecution argued that the company used various ploys to obscure the initiative: The Burmese Directorate of Defense Industries was code-named the “landlord’s house”; a weapons factory constructed by the group in Burma was the “rice bowl”; and financial exchanges between the parties were conducted through personal bank accounts.

Daewoo’s Executive Director Lee Tae-yong was alleged to have personally overseen the export of 480 different types of military equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

One 55-year old employee of the Korean government-affiliated Agency for Defense Development was charged with stealing more than 850 pages of blueprints for weapons technologies, and providing them for use in Axle. A Daewoo-led secret team also quietly trained Burmese officials in weapons manufacturing in Burma and Korea, court documents show.

The ultimate goal of the Axle Project was to help the military junta construct a fully functioning weapons factory in central Burma, according to facts recognized by the trial court. The now complete factory was designed to produce tens of thousands of six different artillery shells annually, including 120mm artillery shells and 105mm howitzer high-explosive shells.

“The 120mm mortar is the standard heavy mortar shell that the Burma army has used for years in attacking the resistance and villagers,” wrote David Eubank, director of the Free Burma Rangers in an email to CorpWatch. Eubank is a former U.S. Army Ranger and Special Forces officer. “The 105 is also used against some ethnic groups,” Eubank added.

According to Inhong Kim, a member of the Korea University international human rights clinic, sentences for the 14 executives varied from suspended jail time to fines. Daewoo’s Executive Director Lee Tae-yong was fined just $54,550.

In an email response to CorpWatch dated June 28, Daewoo noted that “only certain individual employees of the Company were sentenced to punishment…for violation of Korea laws” and that “the violation of the individuals was irrelevant to the Company.”

That “force” has been less than subtle at times. In 2009, the company was implicated in a military-backed coup in Madagascar after acquiring a 99-year lease from the government there for more than one million hectares, nearly half the country’s arable land. “We want to plant corn there to ensure our food security,” Hong Jong-wan, a manager at Daewoo, told the Financial Times in 2008. “Food can be a weapon in this world,” he added.

In March the following year, a military-backed coup ousted Madagascar’s democratically elected president, Marc Ravalomanana. Scrapping the widely unpopular deal with Daewoo was a primary reason for the coup, according to public statements by the self-appointed transitional president, 33-year old Andy Rajoelina, who abruptly cancelled Daewoo’s contract.

Moreover, in 2006, 14 executives from six companies, including the former executive director of Daewoo, were indicted in Seoul central district court for illegally and secretly exporting military technology and hardware to Burma’s military rulers. (See box)

Given the increased attacks along the northern pipeline route, those weapons may prove as useful as bulldozers in assuring that energy and profits flow as planned --with gas sales slated to begin in 2013.

Military Controls Profits

European governments, the U.S. and other nations have long-restricted trade and investment in Burma because of persistent human rights violations and political repression. Just last week, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed a resolution to extend sanctions against Burma for another year, citing a lack of progress in democracy and human rights.

While the sanctions are a considerable economic thorn in the regime’s side, they have not stopped private and state-owned companies from Asia from descending on the country’s natural resources.

The investors in the new gas pipeline to China are hoping to cash in on some $29 billion in potential natural gas exports alone, according to estimates by the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM), an underground coalition of democracy and human rights activists who are documenting the impacts of the pipelines in Burma. Wong Aung, coordinator of SGM, doubts that people like Khaing Khaing will ever share in the prosperity and progress the pipeline is supposed to bring.

“The gas revenues need to fuel economic growth to combat poverty and improve the well-being of local communities,” he said, “but the industry’s revenues are still entirely controlled by the military.”

In 2011, prior to Burma’s first national elections in over 20 years, a “Special Funds” law was passed, authorizing the military commander-in-chief to use public money “to safeguard national sovereignty and protect the disintegration of the union.” The law says the military chief “shall not be subject to questioning, explanation, or auditing by any individual or organization” regarding use of the funds.

With a legal basis for impunity in revenue mismanagement and the prospect of multi-billion dollar profits from gas sales, it is no wonder why the military rulers fail to seek lasting peace or a more genuinely democratic federal union with the country’s ethnic nationalities.

“We call for political dialogue and negotiated settlement,” wrote Dr. Lian Sakhong, an ethnic leader who recently compiled his writings on Burma’s community struggles in a new book titled In Defence of Identity, “but the responses are always violent confrontations.”

Matthew F. Smith is an independent human rights and environmental researcher and former senior consultant with EarthRights International ( www.earthrights.org) based in Southeast Asia. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15651
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HUFINGTON POST
Olivia Katrandjian
Journalist and Travel Writer
Landmine Victims on Both Sides of Burma Civil War Escape to Medical Mecca in Thailand
Posted: 7/26/11 03:08 PM ET

When Maw Keh was 34 years old, he asked the question so many of us ask ourselves: What am I going to do with the rest of my life?

A lieutenant for the Karen National Union (KNU), a rebel group in Burma, Keh had his leg blown off by a landmine while rushing a Burmese Army camp in 1986. He had been fighting the Burmese for 11 years. The Karen, an ethnic minority living in Burma's much-contested Karen State along the Thai border, have been fighting for their independence from the Burmese government, a military dictatorship, for over 60 years.

Since no medical care was available in Karen State, Karen soldiers carried Keh to the Nam Ruak River that forms the border between Burma and Thailand, and from there Keh crossed the river by boat. Left in the Mae Sot Hospital in Thailand, Keh met a Frenchman named Arnold Thierry from Handicap International (HI) who was visiting patients. The two began talking, and after a few visits, Thierry invited Keh to work for the NGO. Still plagued with the question of what he would do now as an amputee, Keh decided to take the job and help people similarly affected. With funding and supplies from HI, Keh opened a prosthetic clinic in 1987 inside the Burma border in Karen State, where its services were badly needed.

Since Keh was technically still a Karen rebel, operating in Karen territory, the clinic had to function under the authority of the KNU administration. But when the KNU headquarters fell to the Burmese army in 1994, the clinic was forced to shut down as well. Its patients escaped across the border into Thailand, where they entered the bamboo huts serving as refugee camps along the border.

Keh tried to reopen the clinic at different sites in Karen State, but the Burmese army found and destroyed each location. In 2000, Keh opened the clinic in a internally displaced persons camp inside Burma. When the Burmese military found it, they burned down the entire refugee camp. Keh finally decided that it was not safe to continue working in Burma.

It wasn't until 2000 that Keh was able to re-open his clinic at the Mae Tao Clinic, a complex of medical units in Thailand serving primarily Burmese refugees. Keh became the director of the prosthetics unit, a position he still holds today. Keh not only treats patients, but also trains some to become technicians at the clinic. As a result, approximately 75 percent of the technicians who work at the clinic are landmine victims and amputees themselves, giving them a special understanding of how to make prosthetic limbs that are comfortable in practice, not just in theory. Most importantly, they realize that their patients still need to work, and often the only available jobs involve doing physical labor on farms, so they must have prosthetic parts that will allow them to do so.

Karen State is a hilly, remote jungle, making landmines a particularly effective weapon in this guerrilla conflict. Karen rebels use bamboo-encased landmines to keep the Burmese military from entering their territory, while the Burmese military uses more expensive Chinese landmines both defensively and offensively, planting them in both rebel and civilian areas. These landmines last for decades and require special equipment to detect, which the Burmese do not have. As a result, large swaths of land in Burma are littered with them.

Many people from Karen state escape from the heavy fighting by crossing into Thailand on foot or by boat, legally or illegally. UN-sanction refugee camps, refugee-run schools and 'underground' clinics line the border. The Mae Tao Clinic, where Keh works, is one of these clinics.

The Mae Tao Clinic offers free medical care, from malaria treatment to surgery to trauma counseling, to anyone who steps through its concrete walls. A patient is not asked which armed faction he is with. Most initially claim to be civilians, but even if the technicians are aware of a patient's affiliation, it doesn't make a difference. Both Burmese soldiers and Karen rebels are treated the same way, and often lie in adjacent beds.
2011-07-26-_MG_0750.jpg

"When a patient confesses he is actually a Burmese soldier, it's not a problem. We still provide everything they need," Keh said.

Keh's outlook on the conflict has changed since he began working at the clinic. "We are all human. We are not on the battlefield anymore. On the battlefield, we didn't know each other. We had to shoot -- if you don't shoot, they're going to shoot you. But at the clinic they become visible, and we are visible too." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-katrandjian/landmine-victims-on-both-_b_909939.html
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Myanmar is No.1 in Attack Traffic
July 26, 2011
By Sean Michael Kerner

Internet attacks can come from any country in the world at any given point in time. Over the course of the first quarter of 2011, Akamai's latest State of the Internet report found one country to be the source of more attack traffic than any other.

Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, now tops the list, representing 13 percent of all attack traffic observed by Akamai. Myanmar's top billing is particularly suprising given that the small south Asian country did not rank in the top 10 originating countries for attack traffic at the end of 2010.

The U.S. came in second at 10 percent up from 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Taiwan was third at 9.1 percent, Russia fourth at 7.7 percent and China rounds out the top five at 6.4 percent. At the end of 2010, Russia was reported to be in the top spot for attack traffic accounting for 10 percent of all observed global attack traffic.

"It's not clear if that attacks from Myanmar are coming from a specific group or if its some kind of botnet that happened to find some unprotected hosts," David Belson, editor of the Akamai State of the Internet report told InternetNews.com.

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Belson noted that it will be interesting to see if the trend on Myanmar leading the list will continue into the second quarter and beyond.

Akamai's data comes from its own points of presence and only looks at the last networking hop before a connection comes in. As such, it is possible that Myanmar is being used as a proxy for attacks as opposed to being the origination point itself.

"It could be the case that someone was bouncing attacks through Myanmar," Belson said. "That would align with some of what we saw with attacks on port 9050."

Port 9050 is often used for the open source Tor onion router, which is an anonymous proxy networking service. Belson noted that Myanmar's top billing could be a case of the attack community doing a better job at hiding their tracks.
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In terms of ports that are being targeted, Akamai once again reported that port 445 used for Microsoft directory services was the most attacked port, representing 34 percent of attack traffic. Attacks targeting Port 80 and Port 443, for HTTP and HTTPS were up significantly during the quarter. Port 80 attacks accounted for 11 percent of all attack traffic up from 1.5 percent at the end of 2010. Port 443 attacks were reported at 4.7 percent up from 0.2 percent.

Belson wasn't sure if the Port 443 attacks were directly related to the SSL certificate attack against security vendor Commodo earlier this year.

"I don't know if it was people trying to exploit those certificates or if it was a broader SQL Injection type attack or something else," Belson said.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. http://www.esecurityplanet.com/features/article.php/3937751/article.htm
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Burma tells Thailand to ‘clear out’ rebels
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 27 July 2011

The reopening of a prized trade point along the Thai-Burma border will rest on Thailand’s ability to effectively clear border towns of anti-Napyidaw armed groups, Burmese officials have reportedly said.

The remarks were made by Samart Loifah, the governor of Thailand’s western Tak province, during a recent press conference. He told reporters that the Burmese government has been pressuring authorities in the border town of Mae Sot to evict rebels believed to shelter there, and in return Burma would drop its blockade of the Myawaddy-Mae Sot Friendship Bridge, which has been closed for a year.

Samart said that three demands were made of the Tak provincial government, including that it “clear out” refugee camps along the border where Naypyidaw also believes rebels hide.

The issue of Thailand’s attitude towards the nine camps has triggered concern over the past year, with senior authorities making public their desire to see the inhabitants returned to Burma.

Samart also claimed the Burmese wanted Thai officials to locate the men suspected of a Rangoon bomb attack three years ago, whom it also claims are in Mae Sot. Added to this is Naypyidaw’s perennial wish to see senior members of the opposition Karen National Union (KNU) and its military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), arrested.

He said that “there are no less than 10 KNU leaders living in Tak province and Burma demanded their arrest”.

It echoes similar remarks made by the Tak governor in March this year, when he relayed concerns of the Burmese government that towns along the Thai border had become KNLA “enclaves”.

David Thackrabaw, deputy chairman of the KNU, claimed however that the group was not using Thai soil to launch attacks on Burmese forces. “We are based and operating in our own territory [in Burma],” he said, adding that no KNLA were hiding among refugees in the camps.

“According to international standards, peace should be fully guaranteed in the refugee’s native land before they are repatriated, and any return should be voluntary.”

The reason given by Burma for the closure of the bridge centred on complaints that Thailand was attempting to reroute the Moei river, although speculatio
n about Thailand’s perceived sheltering of the armed opposition quickly arose.

The KNLA has been fighting against the Burmese government for nearly six decades in what is perhaps the world’s most protracted civil war. A number of KNLA bases lie in the mountainous region along the porous frontier with Thailand where cross-border movement is easy.

Thailand’s countrywide border trade generates around $US4.3 billion each year for the developing economy, nearly a quarter of which goes through Mae Sot. The closure of the crossing is thought to have cost the country around $US2.7 million each day.
http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-tells-thailand-to-%E2%80%98clear-out%E2%80%99-rebels/16751
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Suu Kyi photos make Burma’s front pages
By SHWE AUNG
Published: 27 July 2011

A image of Suu Kyi with Labour Minister Aung Kyi printed on the front page of the People’s Age

Two batches of photographs of Aung San Suu Kyi taken in the last week have made it to the front page of various news journals, the first time in years that the opposition leader’s face has been allowed to take centre stage in domestic news.

Images released after Monday’s talks with Burmese Labour Minister Aung Kyi appeared on several high-profile publications, including People’s Age, Pyi Myanmar and Yangon Times.

A separate photo taken of the Nobel laureate during the Martyrs’ Day ceremony in Rangoon last week was published on the front page of the Popular News Journal

It marks something of a change from the military-controlled government’s historic attempts to sideline Suu Kyi, whom it has keep under house arrest for more than 15 of the past 20 years.

Following her release in November last year, nine news journals were suspended for publishing photos of her on their front pages, although several others carried the images in supplements.

Various analysts have claimed the media environment in Burma, which has historically been one of the world’s most repressive, is beginning to open up. The new government appears to have loosened a watertight grip on material considered critical of its policies, although heavy penalties remain for those who attempt to bypass the censor board before going to print.

Kyaw Yin Myint, a prominent Burmese writer, said that the appearance of Suu Kyi’s image on front pages was “delightful”, but to be considered noteworthy must be a permanent policy of the government.
http://www.dvb.no/news/suu-kyi-photos-make-burma%E2%80%99s-front-pages/16747
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Strike Leaders Sacked as Warning to Others
By LAWI WENG Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Around 40 Burmese workers who led strikes earlier this month to demand an extra 15 baht a day wages have been sacked from their factory near to the Thai-Burmese border in Three Pagodas Pass.

Wai Phyo, a Burmese worker for Watana Footwear Factory, said that his Thai bosses distributed a list of around 40 names to factories in the area to warn other people from employing the men.

Local sources say the workers were from Thai-owned Watana Footwear Company and Sakar War Company, both of which produces shoes and other related items.

Nai Seik Lyi, father of one of the workers, said, “My two children have had no job for two weeks already as they were leading the factory workers demanding extra pay.”

He explained that his two children did not get any extra pay after the strike while other workers did.

“This is how they oppress workers who lead strikes around here,” he added. “I told my children not to go to work unless they give them extra pay. We will just have to eat what we can find.”

There are some 5,000 Burmese migrants in Three Pagodas Pass who work at around 30 factories.

Local people say the 40 black-listed workers are unable to find alternative employment and have been forced to borrow money from friends to pay for food and accommodation.

“There are many people scattered along the street here who have no job. They have no money to pay rent for accommodation at the end of this month, and so they are depressed and get drunk from early in the morning in front of my house,” said Tun Oo, a resident in Three Pagodas Pass.

“I feel sad to see them as they are helpless around here and many of them are just teenagers,” he added.

Workers told The Irrawaddy that they want to find a labor organization which helps workers in Thailand in order to solve their problems, as nothing currently exists in Three Pagodas Pass.

“There is no organization here who can solve our problems. We want to find one as there are many cases of exploitation here,” said Wai Phyo.

Burmese workers in Three Pagodas Pass earn between 65 and 115 baht for a 10-hour workday, depending on experience. This is much less than average for Thailand, causing many workers to feel exploited.

The workers went on strike to demand an extra 15 baht a day earlier this month as they claim the cost of essential commodities in Thailand had risen while their wages had remained the same.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21773