News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday 28 June, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday 28 June, 2011
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Aung San Suu Kyi on freedom and the human cost of dissent
Suu Kyi Condemns Burma's 'Tradition' of Violence
KIA Doubts Burmese Army Will Attack Through China
No permission given to Burma Army to attack KIA from Chinese side
US told to cast Burma sanctions net wider
Suu Kyi delivers prestigious BBC annual lecture
Myanmar tilts towards civil war
Burma refuses entry to star of Aung San Suu Kyi film
Burma deports, blacklists Michelle Yeoh
Burma: Mandalay gemstone brawl a sign of increasing anti-Chinese sentiment
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Aung San Suu Kyi on freedom and the human cost of dissent
Posted by Samira Shackle - 28 June 2011 11:29

Burmese democracy leader delivers Reith Lectures.




The freedom to make contact with other human beings with whom you may wish to share your thoughts and your hopes, your laughter and at times even your anger and indignation, is a right that should never be violated.


So said Aung San Suu Kyi, in the first of her Reith Lectures, broadcast on Radio 4 this morning.

In a moving address, she discussed the notion of dissent and her personal experience as a democracy campaigner.

While the Reith Lectures are normally delivered in person in front of a live audience, Suu Kyi's two addresses were recorded in Burma last week. The second was played at a special event at Broadcasting House last night and will be aired on Radio 4 on 5 July.

A team of BBC journalists secretly entered Burma to record Suu Kyi and smuggled the tapes out again. "It's been a tense week," wrote Gwyneth Williams, BBC Radio 4 controller, on her blog.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in the 1990 Burmese election. They were not allowed to take power and she spent 15 of the next 20 years under house arrest. She was released on 13 November 2010 but is unable to leave Burma.

She described the isolation of those who choose resistance and the toll this takes:


Human contact is one of the most basic needs that those who decide to go into, and to persevere in, the business of dissent have to be prepared to live without. In fact, living without is a huge part of the existence of dissidents. What kind of people deliberately choose to walk the path of deprivation?


Max Weber identifies three qualities of decisive importance for politicians as passion, a sense of responsibility, and a sense of proportion. The first -- passion -- he interprets as the passionate dedication to a cause. Such a passion is of crucial importance for those who engage in the most dangerous kind of politics: the politics of dissent. Such a passion has to be at the core of each and every person who makes the decision, declared or undeclared, to live in a world apart from the rest of their fellow citizens; a precarious world with its own unwritten rules and regulations, the world of dissidence.


Suu Kyi also referred to recent events in the Middle East:


In Tunis and in Burma, the deaths of two young men were the mirrors that made the people see how unbearable were the burdens of injustice and oppression they had to endure.


Do we envy the people of Tunisia and Egypt? Yes, we do envy them their quick and peaceful transitions. But more than envy is a sense of solidarity and of renewed commitment to our cause, which is the cause of all women and men who value human dignity and freedom. In our quest for freedom, we learn to be free.



You can listen to the first lecture here . http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b012402s
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/06/suu-kyi-burma-democracy-reith
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Suu Kyi Condemns Burma's 'Tradition' of Violence
By SAI ZOM HSENG Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday that she denounces violence, whatever the motive, and vowed to change the country's “political culture” of using force to secure power.

“In our country, we have to change the style of the political culture, because almost every government in Burma has taken power by force of arms,” said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate during a youth forum at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Rangoon. “Political violence has became a tradition in our country. Whatever the intentions of violence, it is still violence. That’s why we have to change it.”

Sources at the NLD said that about 100 young people from upper Burma attended the forum, which is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Suu Kyi spoke to the group about the necessity for the youths of today in Burma to be accountable, and not to take a back seat while senior persons make all the decisions.

“Our country has suffered for years because of this tradition of sitting down. Young people must consider their accountability, their responsibility and their duty.”

“Youths must realize and understand what their advantages are, and what their weaknesses are. They have to face their weaknesses and try to change them,” Suu Kyi said.http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21586
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KIA Doubts Burmese Army Will Attack Through China
By BA KAUNG Tuesday, June 28, 2011

LAIZA, Kachin State—Kachin Independence Army (KIA) leaders said on Monday that they do not believe the Chinese government would allow the Burmese army to launch offensives against the KIA headquarters in Laiza, Kachin State from Chinese territory.

In an interview with The Irrawaddy in Laiza, the KIA’s deputy military chief, Gen. Gun Maw, said that the Burmese army might have asked the Chinese government for such help during a recent meeting of Chinese and Burmese government officials in Mungshi City, Yunnan Province.

But while not completely ruling out the scenario of China-based attacks by the Burmese army, he did not believe the Chinese government would allow such a move because it would have a substantial negative impact on border stability.

Gun Maw said that one reason he doubts the Chinese government will let the Burmese army use the main trading route between Laiza and Yunnan Province to launch military offensives against the KIA is the fact that an estimated 300,000 Kachin people are living on the Chinese side of the border.

“If the Burmese army wants to attack us from China, they can do so without the Chinese government’s permission. They can use the border pass cards to send commandos,” said Gun Maw. “But I think the Chinese government will not want to have problems with the Kachin community in China.”

Ringed by rugged mountains, Laiza used to serve as one of the main trading points between Burma and China before the KIA and the Burmese army became engaged in deadly clashes more than two weeks ago. The current conflict has been centered mainly on control of Momauk Township, Kachin State, where the Chinese government has built hydropower plants.

Since the fighting began, the previously busy road between Laiza and Yunnan Province has been mostly silent. Gun Maw said that if the Burmese army troops tried to enter Laiza using this road, it would find itself in “a killing field.”

“We have spread out our defenses all over the area,” Gun Maw said, adding that he has received information that the Burmese government is now preparing to launch major offensives against Laiza and the KIA-controlled areas of Momauk Township.

Although the Burmese government claimed that its attacks against the KIA were aimed at establishing the security of China-built dams in Momauk Township, KIA officials, including Gun Maw, viewed the move as having a broader military purpose.

“The Burmese army wants to cut off the logistics line between our troops in Kachin State and Shan State and weaken our position,” Gun Maw said.

Col. Zau Raw is the KIA military commander overseeing the hundreds of KIA troops in Kukai, Thipaw and Theindi townships in Shan State—the townships where China’s strategic oil pipeline will pass through on its way from the Bay of Bengal to Yunnan Province.

Asked what actions the KIA would take if the Burmese army launched attacks against his troops on the pretense of providing security for the pipeline, Zau Raw said, “We will launch guerilla warfare. We have already obtained an abundance of small rockets with which we successfully resisted the Burmese army attacks in Momauk.”

Following the interview with Zau Raw on Monday, the Burmese army sent reinforcement troops to Kukai and Theindi Townships in Shan State.

On Tuesday, Zau Raw said the reinforcement troops were coming in small groups dressed in civilian clothes.

“All indications are that we are in for a major war,” he said.

The recent fighting has effectively ended the 17-year ceasefire between the KIA and the Burmese military. The conflict flared after tension built up over the government’s demand that the KIA join its Border Guard Force, which has the aim of placing the KIA and other ethnic armed groups under the central command of the Burmese army.

The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of the KIA, has rejected a recent ceasefire offer by intermediaries representing the Burmese government, and through those intermediaries has asked the government for formal evidence stating that it wishes to end hostilities.

Although in the aftermath of the fighting the Chinese government called for the Burmese government and the KIA to show restraint, KIA officials described communication between KIA and Chinese government officials as being virtually inactive.

However, they would like the Chinese government to host a dialogue between the Burmese government and the KIA in order to hold the government accountable for any deals reached.

Meanwhile, an armed clash broke out in Hpakant Township, Kachin State at 3 pm Monday between KIA troops and the Burmese army. KIA officials said that their troops did not suffer any casualties, whereas the Burmese army lost three of its soldiers in the fighting. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21588
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Chinese security:
No permission given to Burma Army to attack KIA from Chinese side
Tuesday, 28 June 2011 17:49 Hseng Khio Fah

Some Chinese security officers, who were reportedly present at a meeting between Burma Army and Chinese officers last weekend over Kachin Independence Army (KIA) issue, denied giving permission to the Burmese Army to launch military operations against KIA from Chinese soil, according to sources from Sino-Burma border.

The denial followed a report by the Kachin News Group released on 25 June- “Chinese-Burmese military officers meet in Mangshi on KIA”- that the Burmese Army officers had asked China to permit its troops and those of its allies to cross the border to attack and capture Laiza, the headquarters of KIA. The two sides were reported to have secretly met on the night of 23 June in Mangshi in China’s southwest Yunnan province, bordering Burma.

A Chinese official confirmed that the meeting was held at the Burma Army’s request.
“But we did not consent to their request as we thought it wasn’t a proper way to solve the problem,” he said.

Laphai Nawdin, editor of the KNG, stood by his agency’s report, and recalled a similar incident taken place in 1987, when the Burmese army reportedly entered Chinese territory to stage a surprise raid on KIA’s former headquarters Pa Jau- Na Hpaw from the rear.

“There has been a precedent. Otherwise, the Burma Army could not have occupied Pajau- Na Hpaw,” Nawdin said.

A similar incident had taken place on the Thai-Burma border on 8 February 2001, when 200 junta soldiers seized Pangnoon, a Thai base, and detained 19 paramilitary troops to attack the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’’s base Loi Kawwan, opposite Chiangrai, from the rear. The seizure of the base ignited a military confrontation between the two countries.

However, the KIA said it has not seen any significant movement around its areas yet.
“Dozens of people in civilian clothes believed to be Burma Army agents are seen crossing the border each day,” Nawdin added.

Clashes between the Burma Army and KIA have reportedly halted but tension between the two sides has not eased, according to sources from the border. The two have been fighting since 9 June at Sang Gang in Momauk (Mong Mawk) township in Bhamo district in Kachin State, forcing over 20,000 Kachin civilians to take refuge along the Chinese border.

Latest update (17:00)
Mr La Nan, Joint Secretary and spokesperson for the KIO, said in response to SHAN query:

The Chinese government has always urged Burmese authorities to work for border stability. I don’t think it will say anything that is destructive. We have also heard these reports. But in reality, it will not be as easy. China is a superpower and being so will not readily give in. If the Burmese soldiers want to enter Chinese territory all they have to do is obtain a border pass. However, we don’t think the Chinese government will allow that to happen either. http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3812:chinese-security-no-permission-given-to-burma-army-to-attack-kia-from-chinese-side&catid=85:politics&Itemid=266
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US told to cast Burma sanctions net wider
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 28 June 2011

The US government should expand its sanctions against the Burmese government to include all businessmen whose industries and capital help to maintain the status quo in the military-dominated country, US campaigners have argued.

Despite a ruling that requires to the US to target anyone perceived to be providing “substantial economic and political support for the regime”, many business cronies remain off Washington’s sanctions list, claims the US Campaign for Burma (USCB).

And although US criticism of the government is amongst the most vitriolic, “the cronies targeted by the Department of Treasury are much fewer in number than those who are sanctioned by the governments of Australia and the European Union”, the group adds.

While the EU has spoken of a “greater civilian character” of the Burmese government, which came to power in March and is dominated by disrobed junta members, the US has trodden a more cautious line.

Last week it announced it would back a UN investigation into rights abuses in Burma after prompting from opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi, but USCB says it must go further.

The group’s calls are echoed by Australia-based economist Sean Turnell, who has consistently urged more precision targeting of international sanctions on Burma. He says the emphasis of USCB’s call is correct.

“It’s an unchallenged fact that wherever you look democratic transition around the world, people have gone after the cronies,” he told DVB. “These people are so aligned with the Burmese government that they are beyond being a useful influence.”

Instead, he advocates for a sharpening of sanctions that target cronies, but leaves the door open for the “productive economic class” to manoeuvre. “The US should push on this one and identify these groups [cronies] and minimise collateral damage” on other sectors of society that could prove useful in reforming the country and its economy, he says.

The first set of US sanctions were implemented in the mid-1990s but were upgraded with the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act of 2008, which specifically targets regime, military and judicial figures with financial penalties.

Yet they remain too broad, Turnell says, while US policymakers have suffered from a degree of complacency. “They have the attitude that ‘we’ve covered that problem’”, Turnell says, but are perhaps unaware of the ability of certain officials to deflect punitive measures.

Aung Din, head of USCB, said in a statement yesterday that wealthy regime cronies such as Tay Za, head of the Htoo Trading conglomerate, and Aung Ko Win, who owns Kanbawza Bank, “constitute the second most powerful class in Burma just under the ruling regime.”

Many of them profited from a large-scale privatisation of Burma’s state-owned property last year, prior to the elections, when legitimate competition for lucrative industry appeared absent.

The line between businessman and politician has also been blurred in the new government, with figures like Khin Shwe, who owns the Zay Kabar construction company, a member of the election-winning Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), who won a seat in the upper house.
http://www.dvb.no/news/us-told-to-cast-burma-sanctions-net-wider/16336
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Suu Kyi delivers prestigious BBC annual lecture
Associated Press, London | Tue, 06/28/2011 5:19 PM

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has delivered the BBC's annual Reith Lecture, speaking to an international radio audience via recordings smuggled out of the country.

In Tuesday's lecture the Nobel laureate drew parallels between the uprisings shaking the Arab world and her country's failed revolt against its military rulers.

Suu Kyi says that people in Myanmar, also known as Burma, look to the Arab world with envy. Myanmar's own pro-democracy rising was crushed in 1988.

In a question-and-answer session following the broadcast, Suu Kyi said that Myanmar's democracy movement stalled because it didn't benefit from the information revolution and because, unlike in Egypt or Tunisia, the army opened fire on the people.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/06/28/suu-kyi-delivers-prestigious-bbc-annual-lecture.html
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Myanmar tilts towards civil war
By Brian McCartan

Myanmar moved closer to civil war in recent weeks after fighting broke out in Kachin State, a former ceasefire area in the remote northern region. Myanmar's newly elected government now faces ethnic insurgencies on three separate fronts, threatening internal and border security.

There is also the potential for more insurgent groups to take up arms and push their claims against the government. The escalating conflict is not going all the military's way and risks further stunting Myanmar's development and international confidence in its supposed democratic transition.

In the southeast, a revolt by formerly allied troops of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) on November 7, 2010, election day, resulted in the temporary seizure of two important border towns and the some 20,000 refugees fleeing into Thailand. Although the government was able to retake the towns, fighting continued in the area and the group allied itself with the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU).

The operations of DKBA commander Major General Lah Pweh, better known as N'Kam Way or "The Mustache", have added new energy to the Karen insurgency through stepped up ambushes and attacks on army camps both in rural areas and in towns and villages.

Hitherto, fighting in Karen State was a largely low-key affair with the occasional skirmish and heavy reliance on landmines to deter army operations. Lah Pwe's forces, together with the KNLA, have attacked towns and army camps, interdicted supply and reinforcement convoys and carried out "urban guerrilla-style" bombings and shootings in towns.

In Shan State, increasing government pressure against the 1st Brigade of the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) resulted in open conflict in early March. The 1st Brigade was the largest unit of the SSA-N and it refused to join the government's Border Guard Force (BGF) plan to incorporate the military units of the ethnic ceasefire armies into the Myanmar armed forces ahead of the 2010 elections. Other brigades of the SSA-N also opted against joining the government's scheme.

The Myanmar military apparently believed it would be able to crush the 1st Brigade in a few weeks of fighting. However, fighting continues after three months and the 1st Brigade has expanded its area of operations from central Shan State into its pre-ceasefire area in northern Shan State. Much of the Myanmar Army's operations have been geared toward cutting off the SSA-N from support from the neighboring area of control of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and its connections to China.

On May 21, the SSA-N combined with former adversaries in the still-insurgent Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) to form the Shan State Army (SSA). The move creates a zone of insurgent activity from the Thai border north through central Shan State to just south of the important city of Lashio.

A third front opened up on June 9 when negotiations over the release of several Myanmar Army soldiers captured by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State broke down amid army moves into KIA territory. The fighting was initially localized near the sites of two hydropower dams being constructed by the China Datang Corporation on the Taping River.

Fighting has since expanded into areas west and south of the dam sites as KIA units carried out attacks and destroyed strategic bridges to prevent army reinforcements reaching the area. On June 22, the conflict spread to northern Kachin State when fighting broke out in the Putao area.

The KIA, like the SSA and the DKBA, have proved resilient and any hopes by Myanmar army officers for a repeat of their swift victory over Kokang insurgents in August 2009 have been dashed. Instead, the conflict has expanded as former ceasefire groups have allied themselves with existing insurgent armies.

In Karen State, meanwhile, the BGF plan appears to be unraveling with several battalions taking over their former headquarters of Myaing Gyi Ngu on May 24 and reverting to their old DKBA uniforms. They have allied themselves with Lah Pwe's fighters and the KNLA.

Indications are that if the government chooses to continue pushing these conflicts fighting could continue for years. Myanmar army casualties, if insurgent and exile media reports are accurate, have been high while insurgent casualties remain low.

Although the KIA's and SSA-N's forces have not fought since their ceasefires 17 years ago, they have clearly used the time to re-equip and stock ammunition and other supplies. Morale reportedly remains high among the Kachin, Karen and Shan, who see themselves as fighting against an outside oppressor.

Popular fighters
They also remain popular among the local civilian populations in the border areas who perceive the new government as simply a new manifestation of the previous military dictatorship.

Those counter-insurgency campaigns were often accompanied by gross human-rights abuses, including burning of villages, forced labor and forced relocations. The Kachin Women's Association Thailand has already accused the army of raping 18 Kachin women in four different townships during the recent fighting. Shan and Karen human-rights monitoring groups have reported similar abuses.

Many Myanmar Army units have not seen combat in many years, especially those from the regional commands responsible for the ceasefire areas. Low morale is a major problem among government troops and the subject of several leaked secret army documents. Units are hugely under resourced and desertion is rife.

Although it has rearmed in recent years, much of the emphasis has been on artillery, tanks and armored personnel carriers that are all but worthless in the mountains and jungles where the insurgents operate. The army will also be stretched thin to fight against three widely geographically distant groups, while keeping up pressure on the UWSA and NDAA and providing security in the towns and cities of central Myanmar against possible civil unrest.

To continue operating, the insurgent groups will require safe havens and access to supplies and ammunition either through the direct or tacit approval of neighboring governments and militaries in China and Thailand. Thailand has increasingly turned its back on the ethnic groups along its border as it has emerged as Myanmar's top trading partner.

Formerly accepted as buffers against an ostensibly socialist Myanmar, since 1988 successive Thai governments have placed more importance on commercial relations with the country, including rising shipments of natural gas. In moves to discourage fighting in Karen State, both the DKBA and the KNLA have been warned by Thailand about fighting near the border. Recently arrived refugees have been quickly repatriated once the shooting in their areas has stopped.

China's involvement is more complicated. It has a historic connection with many of the groups along its border from their days as part of the Burmese Communist Party (BCP). Chinese support for the BCP declined in the 1980s and the group imploded in a mutiny in 1989.

However, Beijing maintained relations with the ethnic mutineers who subsequently formed the UWSA, National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) and other groups. The groups were viewed as a way of maintaining leverage against the Myanmar regime and provided a buffer in case of unrest in the country.

This relationship, too, may be changing as China's investments in Myanmar expand, including strategically important energy projects such as the Shwe gas project and a vital oil and gas pipeline scheduled to run from the Indian Ocean to China's southern Yunnan province across Myanmar. Chinese government statistics indicate it has become Myanmar's largest investor with investments totally US$12.3 billion in 2010. Beijing has also become the country's second-largest trading partner after Thailand.

Beijing has played host to several senior Myanmar officials since the formation of the new elected government in March, including a visit by President Thein Sein in late May. During that visit, Thein Sein and Premier Wen Jiabao forged a "comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation".

However, some analysts see the Kachin conflict as part of a larger plan by Naypyidaw to seize control of areas where there is substantial Chinese investment and influence. Speculation is rife that China may have given its approval to these operations in order to safeguard its investment interests and an unknown number of Chinese working on projects in Kachin areas and elsewhere in Myanmar.

Chinese and Thai attitudes may be influenced by the historic inability of ethnic armies to forge productive alliances or to effectively link up with the opposition in central Myanmar. To Beijing and Bangkok, the government in Naypyidaw offers better guarantees for their rising trade and investments. A succession of ethnic alliances since the 1970s have foundered or become impotent over issues of trust, competition for leadership, and an inability to cooperate across the long distances that separate the groups.

A new alliance of 15 insurgent and former ceasefire groups, including the KNU, KIA and the SSA, offers new hope. Formed in February 2011, the so-called United Nationalities Federal (UNFC) is a military and political alliance. It remains to be whether they can coordinate operations on the battlefield or maneuver politically with internal ethnic political parties or internationally.

Continued military operations, especially if they result in a spread of hostilities, threaten to destabilize Myanmar and the border areas. Army operations threaten large-scale displacement as villagers flee their homes and abandon fields, livestock and personal belongings. The economy of the areas will be severely affected through the destruction of infrastructure, travel restrictions, and the heavy regulation of trade routes to prevent support for the insurgents. The KIA has already destroyed several bridges including a railway bridge connecting Myitkyina with Mandalay.

Should the insurgency spread, diminished border trade could affect central Myanmar's already fragile economy. The country is largely dependent on outside supplies of consumer goods as well as high-tech items for construction and manufacturing. It may also deter investment in ethnic border areas where lucrative natural resource extraction takes place and several multi-million dollar hydropower projects are scheduled for development.

Failed experiment
A spreading civil war also raises the political risk of an early end to the military's experiment with "disciplined democracy" for reasons of national security. It wouldn't be the first time: Ethnic Shan pressure for discussions on instituting a formal federal system were a major factor contributing to the military coup of 1962 and the 48 years of military rule that followed.

Recent calls by several ethnic parties for a second Panglong Conference to discuss a federal system have been supported by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party, but have been derided by the military. Rising hostilities could provide the military with an excuse for reinstating direct military rule, which is allowed for legally through a provision enshrined in the 2008 constitution.

Security risks are fast internationalizing. Kachin sources estimate around 10,000 people have recently fled to internal refugee camps set up by the KIA along the border with China. Beijing has so far been wary of allowing them into China, accepting only some of the elderly and children. China is keen to avoid accepting a large refugee population which could have potentially destabilizing effects on its ethnically mixed Yunnan province.

Around 30,000 refugees fled to China in the wake of the Myanmar army's offensive against the Kokang in 2009. Thailand is also unwilling to allow the expansion of refugee camps on its border which currently hold some 100,000 refugees. Fighting around Myawaddy in November 2010 drove some 20,000 refugees into Thai territory, most of whom were quickly repatriated when the fighting subsided.

Fighting close to the border also brings the risk of stray artillery shells and spillovers of fighting as insurgent and army forces maneuver for advantage. Neither Thailand nor China want to see their border areas morph into battlefields.

Several Thai soldiers have been killed or wounded by mortar shells and landmines along the border since November. During the late 1990s there were repeated incursions into Thailand by army and allied ethnic militias resulting in the looting of shops, deaths of several Thai citizens and the burning of several refugee camps.

Another destabilizing influence could be an increase in narcotics and black market smuggling as insurgent groups attempt to finance their struggles and replenish stocks of weapons and ammunition. The UWSA and NDAA have been blamed for an influx of narcotics into Thailand since last year, flows believed to be inspired by a need to prepare for war.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in its recently released World Drug Report 2011 noted a 5% increase in poppy cultivation in Myanmar. Jane's Intelligence Review in April reported a large shipment of weapons and ammunition originating in Cambodia to the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the possibility of the purchase of weapons stolen from Thai army armories in March 2011 and September 2010.

As Myanmar's conflict widens, the stability and development promised by Thein Sein in his post-inauguration speeches in April now seem a far way off from reality. Unless his elected government can come to a sincere agreement with ethnic insurgents, the country seems poised to spiral into the type of widespread civil war not seen in its ethnic territories for over two decades.

Brian McCartan is a freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MF29Ae02.html
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THE NATION
Burma refuses entry to star of Aung San Suu Kyi film
By Deutsche Presse Agentur

Rangoon - Burmese authorities last week denied entry to Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, who stars in an upcoming film about opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after Yeow was put on a blacklist, airport staff said Tuesday.

"She was sent back on the same day she arrived on a Thai Airways International evening flight because she was blacklisted," said a Yangon International Airport official who asked to remain anonymous.

"I don't know why she was on the blacklist," the source said, but the reason she was expelled was apparently because of her film role.

The actress, best known for her roles in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and the martial arts blockbuster Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, stars in The Lady about Suu Kyi's life and political struggle.

The movie, directed by France's Luc Besson, was scheduled to be released at the end of 2011.

Yeow was last in Myanmar in December when she met with Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burmese independence hero Aung San, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

She has spent nearly 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. Her last seven-year detention ended November 13, six days after the country held a general election from which she and her National League for Democracy party were effectively excluded.

Burma was under military rule from 1962 to 2011 and is now governed by a pro-military government, led by the Union Solidarity and Development party, which won November's election. The polls were dubbed a "sham" by most Western democracies.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/06/28/national/Burma-refuses-entry-to-star-of-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-fi-30158901.html
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Burma deports, blacklists Michelle Yeoh
20:09 AEST Tue Jun 28 2011

Hollywood star Michelle Yeoh, who plays pro-democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming film, has been deported by army-dominated Burma and blacklisted, an official says.

"She did not have the chance to enter Myanmar (Burma) again. She was deported straight away on the first flight after arriving at Yangon International Airport," an official in Burma told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.

"She's on the blacklist now," a second official said, declining to say why.

The Malaysian-born former Bond girl met the Nobel Peace Prize winner at her Rangoon home in December after shooting scenes with French director Luc Besson in Thailand for the production, which has been kept under wraps.

The film is expected to be released later this year.

Suu Kyi was freed in November after seven straight years of house arrest, less than a week after an election that critics said was a charade aimed at preserving military rule behind a civilian facade in Burma.

Suu Kyi, who turned 66 this month, has won international acclaim for her peaceful resistance in the face of oppression.

In 1990 she led her National League for Democracy party to a landslide election win that was never recognised by Burma's military rulers. She boycotted last year's vote, saying the rules were unfair.

Yeoh, 48, a former Miss Malaysia, shot to international fame when she co-starred with Pierce Brosnan in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies as a tough but beautiful Chinese spy.

She then starred in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - a Chinese-language martial arts epic that was an international hit - and Memoirs of a Geisha based on the best-selling novel by Arthur Golden. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8266564
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Burma: Mandalay gemstone brawl a sign of increasing anti-Chinese sentiment
By Zin Linn Jun 28, 2011 1:25AM UTC

A jade-and-gem market in Burma’s second city of Mandalay was shut down Monday morning after a brawl broke out between Chinese and Burmese merchants over a deal that turned sour.

The problem began on Monday morning after Chinese buyers had seemingly settled to purchase a jade-stone from a jewelry shop owned by a Burmese trader in Maha Aung Myay Township. According to a local source, the Chinese buyers had agreed a price of around US$5,000 for the jade-stone. However when they came back to collect the jade piece, the Burmese seller replied to them that the jade had been sold to another client.

The first Chinese buyer was enraged and allegedly quarreled with the Burmese jade dealer. The Chinese buyer bodily battered the Burmese vendor. As reported by the Democratic Voice of Burma, police arrived at the scene and detained five Chinese, including the one who allegedly hit the Burmese gem seller.

An crowd of Burmese inhabitants encircled the Chinese, but the police were on hand to control the situation.

“Other Burmese traders nearby got involved and they surrounded the Chinese merchants’ office for about one hour,” an eye-witness of Mandalay’s Mahaaungmyay township told DVB.

“About 100 police and security forces arrived and took them to the police station.”

There was a similar incident last month at the same market when a Burmese trader punched a Chinese man and he was sentenced to six months in jail.

Burmese people are seriously concerned about Chinese infiltration throughout the country. According to some patriotic Burmese, Mandalay is colonized by China since the city has been economically dominated by Chinese businessmen.

Some estimation said that the ratio of Chinese covered over half of the city’s population. Due to government officials’ corruption, there are thousands of Chinese nationals holding Burmese national identification cards. Even young Burmese people who hunt for jobs are learning Chinese language as a necessity.

Ordinary people are afraid of bigger anti-China demonstrations from such brawls as people are blaming the government for its pro-China policy that supports the regime’s military-based power stronghold. http://asiancorrespondent.com/58546/a-wrangle-in-mandalay-between-burmese-and-chinese-jam-traders/

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