News & Articles on Burma-Monday, 26 September, 2011-UZL

News & Articles on Burma
Monday, 26 September, 2011
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Why does Burma want war in Kachin State?
Yingluck to Pay First Visit to Burma
Peaceful Protest Marks Saffron Revolution Anniversary
Four Days of Heavy Fighting in Northern Burma
Govt. Bans Media Reports on Myitsone Dam Protests
Campaigners Send Petition for Release of Political Prisoners
Wa army-linked airline to fly again
Japan eyes rare earth deal with Myanmar
Hundreds march to mark anniversary of Myanmar's monk-led protests
MYANMAR: Military guilty of rape, activists say
Leaked internal report reveals the staggering scale of those arrested during Saffron
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Why does Burma want war in Kachin State?
By Zin Linn Sep 26, 2011 3:00PM UTC

0 Comments and 6 Reactions

When the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) did not support the Myitsone Dam project in Burma, the military-backed President Thein Sein government launched a major offensive, recently targeting the KIA’s Brigade 4 which occupied a key position near the Sino-Burma border.

After a new military conflict started between the Burmese army and the KIA in June in Kachin State, the KIA post along the Myitkyina-Kambaiti route banned trucks loaded with construction materials and equipment, according to truck drivers on that road. The KIA also damaged key bridges on the road using mines. Part of the Stilwell Road (also called Ledo) was reconstructed in 2006 at a cost of 97 million Yuan (US$15.2 million) by Chinese companies from Yunnan province.

The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) has waged revolutionary war for self-determination, including having more power over natural resources in Kachin State. Since June 9, skirmishing has escalated between the KIA and government troops.

The warfare is related to the outsized developmental dam projects on the Irrawaddy River being built by China.

Construction continues on a $3.6 billion hydropower dam project on the Irrawaddy River in the face of widespread objections from many environmentalists and social activists, including several celebrities.

The Myitsone Dam, a joint effort by Burma’s previous military regime and the China Power Investment Corp., is estimated to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity and 90 percent of the output to be exported to China. Under an agreement signed by Chinese and Burmese officials, CPI will receive 70 percent of the project’s profits. CPI has a plan to build and manage six additional dams on the Irrawaddy and its tributaries.

Most analysts believe that Burma Army’s new military maneuver in Kachin State aims to protect the Chinese benefits than the Kachin people’s basic rights. The Burma Army has launched a storm-offensive using more than 1,000 soldiers against the KIA’s Brigade 4, based in Northern Shan State, quoting local witnesses Kachin News Group said Saturday.

According to KIA brigade officers, the battle is continuing at Huphet, Manje, Mung Hkawm, Bang Hpik and Dima. Government troops are firing mortars into the villages in the fighting area.

Burma Army’s Bureau of Special Operations-2 (BSO-2), Lt-Gen Aung Than Htut is the commander of the offensive, KIA officers said. KIA’s Battalion 2, Battalion 8 and Battalion 9 are resisting the government’s offensive by two Light Infantry Divisions, LID No. 88 and No. 99, which consist of 18 battalions. Magway-based LID No. 88 and Meiktila-based LID No. 99 launched the offensive early Saturday morning. Burmese troops mainly fired mortar rounds at the KIA post in Loi Lem Bum in the evening, said a KIA Brigade officer.

The battle is the largest offensive against the KIA troops since the civil war started on June 9. Many Burmese soldiers were killed in action and more than 60 injured in the fighting, confirmed a KIA Brigade officer. The Burma Army’s storm-offensive aims to do away with the KIA’s Brigade 4 troops from the area where the oil and gas pipelines to China will cross in Northern Shan State, said the KIA officers.

According to local sources, civilians in the war zone are being told to leave their villages by the KIA. Thousands of local ethnic Kachin and Shan Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the war zone are fleeing to safe areas and the China border. However, China is strictly refusing entry to ethnic refugees (IDPs) from Burma who are seeking to cross its border, said local witnesses.

Over 100 Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers and over 80 Border Guard Force troops have jointly blocked Burmese IDPs from crossing into Chinese territory at the Chinese Manghai border gate, opposite Mongkoe, said Mongkoe residents. Chinese citizens in Mongkoe and other places in Shan State are allowed to return to their homeland, said witnesses.

Currently, over 20,000 Kachin IDPs are seeking shelter at the KIA headquarters at Laiza and other areas close to China. China is also blocking the delivery of food, emergency shelter and medicines from China for the Kachin IDPs, referring refugee aid groups, Kachin News Group said.

Now, there are some hot questions among the citizens. What is the objective of the Burma Army’s current large offensive against the KIO, and why have their peace talks been discontinued? Has the Thein Sein government an objective to colonize the Kachin State under China’s orders? http://asiancorrespondent.com/65802/why-does-burma-prefer-war-than-talks-in-kachin-state/
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Yingluck to Pay First Visit to Burma
By SAW YAN NAING Monday, September 26, 2011

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will pay her first visit to Burma in early October, amid rumors that her trip will include meetings not only with President Thein Sein and other senior officials, but also with pro-democracy Aung San Suu Kyi.

Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul, who met with his Burmese counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin during a meeting on the sidelines of the 66th session of UN General Assembly in New York, said the visit aims to strengthen bilateral relations between the two Southeast Asian neighbors.

Surapong said that ties between the two countries have developed through exchange visits by officials cooperating on issues such as illicit drug suppression, registration of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, prevention of human trafficking and the construction of a controversial multi-billion-dollar deep-sea port project in Tavoy in southern Burma.

No date has been set for the visit, and it was still unclear if Yingluck would meet with Suu Kyi. Nyan Win, a spokesperson for Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), declined to confirm whether a meeting is scheduled to take place.

Suu Kyi earlier congratulated Yingluck on becoming Thailand's first female prime minister after her Pheu Thai Party won a sweeping election victory on July 3, and called on her to support Burma's efforts to achieve a meaningful transition to democracy and help Burmese refugees in Thailand.

Another issue discussed by Surapong and Wunna Maung Lwin in New York was the possible reopening of the border at Mae Sot-Myawaddy. Surapong also hailed Burma's efforts to achieve democratic development and reconciliation in the country.

Last week, Yingluck traveled to Brunei, Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos. She is planning to visit Malaysia on Oct 3. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22137
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Peaceful Protest Marks Saffron Revolution Anniversary
By SAW YAN NAING Monday, September 26, 2011

Dozens of Rangoon residents marched peacefully through the city on Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of the Saffron Revolution only to be stopped by security forces, according to local sources.

Onlookers watched around 200 marchers, some of them were wearing yellow shirts, set off peacefully from Sule Pagoda in downtown Rangoon at around 1 pm local time towards Kabar Aye Pagoda in North

The Saffron Revolution was led by Buddhist monks across Burma in September 2007. The peaceful protests were brutally quashed by government troops in a crackdown which claimed 31 lives including many monks, according to government figures.

Security guards closely followed and monitored Monday's protest with many officers also deployed near Sule Pagoda. But there is no violent crackdown against the protesters and the event took place peacefully.

“They didn’t shout and hold placards. They just marched peacefully but some wore yellow shirts,” said a witness.

Dozens of people also launched a separate demonstration in North Okkalapa on Monday. They were blocked by Burmese authorities before ending the march peacefully. They repeated the “Metta Sutta” (Buddhist chant for compassion) after being blocked by security forces but then decided to end the march, said a protester.

Meanwhile, separate ceremonies to mark the fourth anniversary of the Saffron Revolution were also held in Rangoon today. Burma opposition party the National League for Democracy held a ceremony at a monastery in southern Okkalapa Township with around 1,000 attendees including monks, party members, representatives of the 88 Generation Student Group, individual MPs and other politicians.

They also called for the immediate release of all political prisoners without condition. An estimated 1,998 political prisoners are currently detained across Burma, according to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

While some of the protesters present on Monday were activists who demand the release of political prisoners, others were campaigning against the Myitsone Hydropower Dam in Kachin State on the Irrawaddy River. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22141
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Four Days of Heavy Fighting in Northern Burma
By BA KAUNG Monday, September 26, 2011

The civil war in northern Burma intensified over the last four days as heavy fighting between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) raged across northern Shan State from Friday morning.

The Burmese military reportedly used 17 battalions and an artillery regiment—totaling 1,000 troops in all—to attack KIA strongholds in areas near the towns of Kutkai, Muse, Hseni, Kunglong and Namtu in regions by the Chinese border.

“Intense fighting is still going on and the government is using heavy artillery. We were forced to evacuate some of our controlled areas,” said Col Zau Raw, the military commander of KIA forces in Shan State. He added that more than a 1,000 of his troops have been engaged in defensive guerrilla warfare against government attacks.

The official claimed that the government army has suffered more than 100 casualties while a KIA officer was killed and a few others wounded during the latest fighting. He also revealed that another local armed ethnic group, the Shan State Army, also fought alongside the KIA against the government's military offensive.

The recent fighting has been the most intense since clashes first broke out near the Chinese-built hydropower plants in Bhamo Township, Kachin State, in June which ended a 17-year ceasefire, according to KIA officials.

Efforts by both sides to renew the ceasefire agreement have failed with the government rejecting KIA demands for an all-inclusive political dialogue between ethnic armed groups and Naypyidaw.

The military objective of the offensive remains unclear, but KIA spokesman La Nan believes that the government intends to weaken Kachin forces to get an upper hand in future rounds of negotiations.

The construction of China's strategic oil pipeline from the Bay of Bengal to Yunnan Province will pass through the current conflict zones in northern Shan State, and so the recent fighting has created uncertainties for the project's future.

“The government may claim that its military objective is to establish security in current conflict areas where China's pipeline will pass through. But we are not against the pipeline construction project, regarding which we talked with the government about shared security arrangements.

“But now, in this kind of situation, we can say that any hope for this pipeline construction has finished,” the KIA spokesman said.

Since late 2009, Naypyidaw has demanded that the KIA transform into a border guard force which will be run under the commander of the government army. But the ethnic armed group rejected the plan which resulted in the collapse of the ceasefire between the two sides.

The instability has also much to do with Chinese investments in the region, since the latest fighting comes after a warning by the KIA that the construction of China's controversial 6,000-mega watt hydropower Myitsone Dam Project in Kachin State would spark a civil war.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday, the KIA's political wing of the Kachin Independence Organization called for the international community to step in and help stop the civil war and achieve national reconciliation.

“Actions towards the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam construction will be key for the future of harmony in our lands. Throughout our successive governments, there have been policies that monopolized our nation's natural resources. These policies were formed without consultation of the local people, much like the cultural heritage issues of our regions,” it said.

Since last week, the KIA has blocked the transportation of construction materials for the dam project from China's border.

These latest clashes have forced some local people to flee to other townships in this strategically important region near the Sino-Burmese border.

The fighting comes despite the nominally civilian government in Naypyidaw offering peace talks with armed ethnic groups and adopting a range of tentative economic and political reforms. However, skeptics describe the moves as still lacking in substantive progress. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22140
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Govt. Bans Media Reports on Myitsone Dam Protests
By SAI ZOM HSENG Monday, September 26, 2011

Burma’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), under control of the Ministry of Information, has banned journalists writing about the controversial Myitsone Dam Project and even the Irrawaddy River in general, claim media sources.

Fierce criticisms have been raised about the Myitsone Dam Project from the general public who want action to save the vital Irrawaddy River, and both the local and exiled media have highlighted this controversial issue.

An editor from a local journal revealed under condition of anonymity that U Myint, a leading Burmese economist and the top economic adviser to Burma President Thein Sein, already admitted that he does not support the Myitsone Project, but the PSRD forbade the journal from publishing his views.

“The PSRD also refused to let us publish news about security concerns after rumors spread regarding the protest at the Chinese Embassy in Rangoon. The PSRD also refused to allow us to publicize campaigns to ‘Save the Irrawaddy.’”

Many well-known artists, writers, poets, singers, environmentalists and social workers held events to save the Irrawaddy last week including exhibitions and campaigns around Rangoon which attracted thousands of people.

A Rangoon-based reporter told The Irrawaddy that the media is the only thing which can let citizens know what is happening in the country. “It seems that the government doesn’t want the people know what they are doing. But [the government] claims it is forming a democratic country so they should have transparency.”

The Myitsone Dam is currently being constructed on the Irrawaddy River in Kachin State and will become one of the largest dams in Southeast Asia. This project was contracted by Burma’s Ministry of Electric Power-1 and China’s state-run China Power Investment Corporation. Another private company from Burma, Asia World—owned by Stephen Law and blacklisted by US sanctions—is also involved in the project.

The dam's reservoir is expected to be completed by 2018, but thousands of people in Kachin State have already been forced to relocate.

The PSRD also warned journals not to write anything which criticizes China, according to a publishing editor from Rangoon “Some of our readers wrote in with their opinions and we tried to put them in our journal as letters from the people, but the PSRD refused to allow them to be published. In their letters, readers said that we shouldn't let the new generation treat China as a father. We also tried to cover the news about the petition campaigns to save the Irrawaddy,” he said.

Another reporter from a Rangoon-based weekly journal said that while there has been no official announcement to ban writing about Myitsone and the Irrawaddy River, the PSRD has informally told media organizations of the new restrictions.

“An art exhibition was held at Gallery 65 on Sept. 22. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi attended and made a speech that ‘People need to unite if they are to achieve what they want,’ but that part of the reporting was immediately crossed out at the PSRD office. They just approved us to publish background news about the event,” he said.

The local media community believe that the recent bans by the PSRD violates the 2008 Constitution drawn up by the former Burmese military regime. Article 354 states that: “Every citizen shall be at liberty in the exercise of the following rights, if not contrary to the laws, enacted for Union security, prevalence of law and order, community peace and tranquility or public order and morality (a) to express and publish freely their convictions and opinions.”

Kyaw Hsan, a former Brig-Gen who is currently a minister within both the Information and Culture Ministries, told a parliamentary meeting on Sept. 8 that granting freedom of speech and expression would bring more disadvantages than the advantages. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22139
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Campaigners Send Petition for Release of Political Prisoners
By KO HTWE Monday, September 26, 2011

The Burmese Democracy Network (BDN), an unofficial group formed at the urging of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has sent a petition calling for the release of political prisoners to President Thein Sein, according to one of the campaign's organizers.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, former political prisoner Toe Kyaw Hlaing said it was the fourth time the group had sent a petition to demand the release of political detainees.

“We collected signatures from across Burma. This time we reached 100,000,” said Toe Kyaw Hlaing, adding that the BDN started its latest campaign in April.

The petition calls on the new government, formed by Thein Sein in March, to release all political prisoners unconditionally and create an environment where Burmese people living abroad, including members of political organizations in exile and refugees, can return home safely.

Toe Kyaw Hlaing said many people signed the latest petition because people realize that the release of the political prisoners is important for the country.

“For the Thein Sein government to implement democracy in the country, the most important requirement is the immediate release of political prisoners without conditions,” he said.

Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy, was the first person to sign the petition, which has also been signed by members of the 88 Generation Students group, as well as prominent politicians, ethnic leaders and activists who did not compete in last year's November election.

Meanwhile, there are reports that activists inside Burma are marching in downtown Rangoon to mark the fourth anniversary of the 2007 Buddhist monk-led Saffron Revolution. According to witnesses, some of the protesters are wearing t-shirts calling for the release of political prisoners.

Sources inside Burma said that rumors are spreading that the government will in fact release a large number of political prisoners in the coming month, and many family members have been waiting for their release.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, there are 1,998 political prisoners in Burma.

However, Vice President Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, Foreign Affairs Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and presidential political adviser Ko Ko Hlaing have all claimed in conversations with foreign diplomats that the country has no political prisoners. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22138
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DVB: Published: 26 September 2011
Wa army-linked airline to fly again
Burma's aviation authority has renewed the license of Yangon Airways
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN

Leading domestic airline Yangon Airways will resume flights next month after a hiatus of nearly a year, after it was refused a new license in November with speculation over its links to a major armed ethnic group.

The airline ceased operations in December last year, but confirmed to DVB that it would begin again on 16 October.

Suspicions abounded last year that the denial of a license was linked to the fact that its owner, Aik Hauk, is the son of prominent United Wa State Army (UWSA) leader Bao Youxiang.

In November an official told Reuters that, “[the refusal has] nothing to do with the airworthiness of the aircraft, they’re absolutely perfect. We think it is something involving its policies.”

The government however held talks with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burma’s largest ethnic armed group, on 6 and 7 of September. Whilst the group has failed to fully sign up to the government’s Border Guard Force (BGF) plan, an effort to assimilate ethnic armies into the Burmese army, relations between the two sides have thawed in recent months.

This is despite ongoing Burmese army operations against the other two major northern armed ethnic groups, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Shan State Army (SSA).

The government has however embarked on PR offensive, with Information Minister Kyaw Hsan claiming that “the government will take steps for eternal peace by acceding to the wishes of armed groups to the most possible extent”.

But the Burmese army has shown no signs of relenting in its offensives, which has allegedly involved using Buddhist monks as human shields and displacing thousands of locals.

This means that peace with the UWSA have been essential for the government as it struggles to make headway against other ethnic rebels. The UWSA are the most politically palatable of the major armies, having renounced politics after a 1989 coup, focussing instead on business, in particular narcotics. Members of the Burmese military are routinely alleged to have profited from the trade.

Yangon Airways is the only non state-affiliated airline in a market where ownership and control is alleged to be highly contested and politicised.

The airline was founded in 1996 and flies domestic routes. Its central office confirmed that it will resume operations but would not disclose why operations were suspended. http://www.dvb.no/news/wa-army-linked-airline-to-fly-again/17834
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THE JAPAN TIMES: Monday, Sep. 26, 2011
Japan eyes rare earth deal with Myanmar
Kyodo

Japan plans to jointly develop rare earth metals and other natural resources with Myanmar as it attempts to diversify its supply chain for the minerals, which are used in a slew high-tech goods, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

The move was prompted by China, which virtually has a monopoly over rare earth metals but reportedly stopped shipments to Japan last year during an escalating diplomatic spat.

Japan is informally sounding out Myanmar about sending Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin to Japan later this year to advance the plan, the sources said.

But the strengthening of economic ties between the two countries might be criticized as premature on the grounds that Myanmar has been slow to advance toward democracy, although it nominally shifted to civilian rule in March.

In June, the government sent Parliamentary Vice Foreign Minister Makiko Kikuta to Myanmar as the first high-level official to visit the country in three years.

In her meetings with Myanmar officials, including Lwin, Kikuta noted that the Southeast Asian country had moved one step closer to democracy, while indicating Tokyo would work on human exchanges and economic cooperation on a bilateral basis.

The sources said Japan sounded out Myanmar on a potential visit by its foreign minister around the time of her visit.

Japan has gradually strengthened economic ties with Myanmar following prodemocracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest last year and the release last May of other political prisoners.

Although Japan had frozen all its Myanmar aid projects except for those related to humanitarian assistance, it decided to restart infrastructure projects that can directly help the Myanmar people, including hospital construction.

Japan's eagerness to jointly develop rare earth metals with Myanmar stems from concerns among trade and government officials that the manufacturing sector can't remain competitive if supply of the minerals is unstable. China controls more than 90 percent of global supply of the elements.

Rare earth metals are crucial to building smartphones, hybrid vehicles and other high-tech products, but their exploitation potential in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and Laos, is said to be unexplored. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110926a2.html
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Hundreds march to mark anniversary of Myanmar's monk-led protests
Sep 26, 2011, 10:07 GMT

Yangon - Hundreds marched in Yangon Monday to mark the 4th anniversary of an army crackdown on a protest led by students and Buddhist monks in Myanmar.

More than 200 people marched from the Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon's famed golden stupa, towards the Sule Pagoda in the heart of the former capital's commercial district, witnesses said.

The peaceful protesters were stopped from entering the town centre by police, and dispersed without incident.

On September 26, 2007 the army broke up the protest in Yangon against sky-rocketing inflation and the military's decades of mismanagement of the economy.

The protests led by barefoot monks started on August 15 and lasted more than a month.

The demonstrations drew thousands of people in the biggest show of public discontent since the pro-democracy movement of 1988 that rocked Myanmar's entrenched military regime.

The 1988 demonstrations were crushed by an army crackdown that left an estimated 3,000 people dead.

The army was also called in to stop the protests nine years later, shocking the world as soldiers were dispatched to beat and arrest dissident monks in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar.

That crackdown left dozens dead and scores missing, and many of the Buddhist temples without monks.

Myanmar has been ruled by military dictatorships since 1962.

On November 7, a general election was held for the first time in two decades, which brought to power a pro-military government.

President Thein Sein last month met for the first time with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, giving rise to hopes that political reforms were in the works.

Nobeal peace laureate Suu Kyi leads the disbanded National League for Democracy Party that won the 1990 polls, but was blocked by the military from assuming power. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1665124.php/Hundreds-march-to-mark-anniversary-of-Myanmar-s-monk-led-protests
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MYANMAR: Military guilty of rape, activists say
Photo: Contributor/IRIN
The true number of cases are not known
CHIANG MAI, 26 September 2011 (IRIN) - Human rights activists are reporting an increased incidence of rape against Kachin women in areas of recent military attacks by government forces in northern Myanmar.

In Kachin State alone, at least 18 cases of rape - sometimes aggravated with murder - were documented over an eight-day period in June by the Kachin Women's Association of Thailand (KWAT), following renewed fighting between government and Kachin forces.

In September to date, the number of reported rapes has risen to 37 in areas where government troops are active.

The attacks reportedly came within days of the government breaking the 17-year ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) by attacking ethnic forces in central Kachin State on 9 June.

The rape survivors included two 15-year-old girls and a 50-year-old woman - who was murdered after her granddaughter was killed, according to the report.

"For many years, the civilian population has been oppressed. If they [Myanmar's military] suspect that the people are giving information to the KIO, well, sometimes they disappear. Everyone is very afraid to speak out," KWAT spokesperson Ah Noh said.

David Scott Mathieson, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, added: "The use of sexual violence is one of the most serious within a whole litany of abuses that include forced labour, torture and ill-treatment and extra-judicial execution."

More than 25,000 people are now believed displaced by fighting in Kachin alone.

Burmese generals insist they are attempting to bring security to the country by demanding that all Myanmar's armed ethnic groups come under a single Border Guard Force (BGF), controlled by the military.

But many analysts believe the real reason is to access and control areas containing multiple energy resources such as hydropower dam sites, set to be built to supply neighbouring China with electricity.

"Targeting civilians"


The past year has seen an escalation in fighting as the military has pushed further into Shan, Karen and Kachin areas, bordering China, Laos and Thailand.

Amnesty International's Benjamin Zawicki says the KWAT report is consistent with previous internal conflicts.

"During retaliatory strikes, they are often targeting civilians," explained the Thailand-based spokesman. "This was the nature of our report in 2008, Crimes Against Humanity in Eastern Myanmar."

"For us as a women's organization we also want to focus on violence against women, particularly state violence like rape as a weapon of war...," said Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN) spokesperson Jam Thong.

She contributed to the 2004 report License to Rape, detailing incidents of sexual violence involving 625 girls and women.

"It was committed with impunity by the military regime until today and it continues."

"We document what is happening in Shan state and our sister organization in Karen State. Even in the ceasefire areas of Mon and Chin State and now Kachin State," she said.

At least 12 rape cases have been documented during the Burmese army's offensive in northern Shan State since March, including a 12-year-old girl who was reportedly raped in front of her mother in July, according to the SWAN report.

Veteran Kachin general Je Naw La Zing, who maintains the "War Room" in the KIO capital of Laiza, is not surprised that the attacks have occurred.

"The Burmese soldiers rape the women and kill the villagers and all of this happens but they never report this to their commanders.... They never report to their own base because they think it's not important to let the commander know. They want to wipe out our ethnic group and force us to become Buddhists like them, speak like them and become one of them," he claimed.

While there is little evidence of any state-sponsored policy to support such an assertion, activists have little doubt such attacks are occurring. Moreover, few have been charged or convicted of such crimes by the government.

"Sexual assault is probably the most repulsive tactic that they use. It's the most serious," explains HRW's Mathieson. "These reports have been very well documented over a period of years in lots of areas by very credible groups. To dismiss the allegations would be criminal."

ss/ds/mw http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=93822
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Leaked internal report reveals the staggering scale of those arrested during Saffron
Information Release
Date: September 26, 2011

On this day, the 4th anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, a leaked internal document from the Special Branch of the police force reveals for the first time the exact number of those who were arrested and
detained during Saffron. Until now, previous military regimes and the current U Thein Sein regime have routinely refused to acknowledge the mass arrests, detentions, and imprisonments of those who dissent, leaving the domestic and international community to guess at the true scale of the repression.

The document, dated October 3, 2007, sheds light on the peaceful protestors who were arrested, detained, and more disturbingly, lost their lives during the Saffron Revolution. The chart, attached below, confirms that the regime initially arrested 2,314 protesters within one week of the brutal crackdowns. According to the figures reported by the various security units in Rangoon, at least 3 of the protesters had died, 6 had been immediately hospitalized and at least 1,604 were still detained, all within 8 days of the beginning of the regime’s response.

In a country that shuns transparency, there are no publicly available records indicating any prisoners’ arrest details, their charges, where they are held, or releases. AAPP demands transparency and compliance with fully functioning democratic institutional practices. This cannot happen until all political prisoners are unconditionally released.

Some questions remain regarding the protesters who were detained, including what charges and sentences they were subjected to. If there is nothing for U Thein Sein’s regime to hide, then the full reports revealing information of those who were arbitrarily arrested and unlawfully detained should be made public, including the names and details of those who remain in prison.
The public should not be fooled by claims of Burma’s fast track to democracy. Until the pillars of democracy are founded “ including transparency, basic civil and political rights, and fully democratic
elections “ anything else falls short of substance.

On this day, the fourth anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, AAPP honors all those who have pressed for democratic change and who continue to endure the challenges while struggling for a fully democratic Burma.

Table of arrests/transfers/releases and current detainees by security forces regarding unrests sparked by riots in Rangoon
Date: October 3, 2007
Security Unit / Detention
Center Received Transferred Released Dead Hospitalized Remaining in D.C.
No. 5 Police Battalion 51 - 20 - - 31
No. 8 Police Battalion 91 2 50 - - 39
Kyikekasan Center (Transit) 336 - 250 1 1 84
GTC Detention Camp 1828 219 160 2 5 1442
Insein Prison 8 - - - - 8
Total 2314 221 480 3 6 1604

Explanation:
1. Arrested 2093
2. Released 480
3. Dead 3
4. Hospitalized 6
5. Remaining 1604

* This chart is a direct translation of the leaked internal report.
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)
For more information:
Tate Naing (Secretary): +66 (0) 81 287 8751
Bo Kyi (Joint Secretary): +66 (0) 81 962 8713