Burma Update

The Irrawaddy - September 23, 2004
By Shah Paung

A former political prisoner was arrested on Tuesday afternoon in Rangoon for staging a solo demonstration in front of the UN Development Program office in the Burmese capital, according to a statement released today by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), or AAPP.

U Ohn Than, 58, was arrested by three plainclothes military intelligence officers during his one-man protest. The statement said that he was holding a poster calling for a free and fair parliament under the direct supervision of the UN and to form a UN commission to investigate the deadly attack on the main opposition party’s motorcade in northern town of Depayin in May of last year, in which dozens, perhaps hundreds of opposition supporters were killed by government-backed thugs.

Four days before his arrest, he distributed a four-page statement in Rangoon written in English and Burmese, the AAPP said.

U Ohn Than graduated from Rangoon University in 1971, with a degree in forestry. Shortly after leaving his post of 17 years at the State Timber Corporation in 1988, he was arrested during the nationwide democracy demonstrations that year and sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released in 1995.

In 1996 Burmese intelligence officers arrested him again for passing out pamphlets that called on the military regime to improve its human rights record. He was released last October from Tharawaddy Prison.

Meanwhile, U Lwin, spokesman for the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, or NLD, said today by telephone from Rangoon that NLD member U Thet Wai was arrested on Wednesday but said authorities have given no reason for his arrest.

scmp - Thursday, September 23, 2004
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Washington

Some of the world's top artists and musicians have banded together to push for the freedom of Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

News of the release of a special album comes as US legislators considered seeking UN action against the military regime in Yangon.

U2, Pearl Jam, Coldplay, Sting, R.E.M., Travis, Indigo Girls and Matchbox Twenty, along with Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton, will launch the album on October 26 dedicated to Ms Suu Kyi.

"Anytime anyone inside Burma listens to my music, I want them to know that they are listening to an artist that supports their freedom," said Clapton, using Myanmar's previous name.

The album, entitled For the Lady: Dedicated to freeing Aung San Suu Kyi and the courageous people of Burma will be released by Rhino Records. Proceeds from the sale of the double CD featuring 27 tracks will benefit the non-profit group US Campaign for Burma, comprising activists around the world seeking an end to the military dictatorship in the impoverished nation.

"Music has helped bring about change in many parts of the world," said Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for Burma.

Myanmar's military rulers have detained Ms Suu Kyi for more than a year and clamped down on her National League for Democracy party (NLD) for their push for democratic reforms in Myanmar.

Myanmar has been run by the military since a 1962 coup. The NLD won overwhelmingly in 1990 elections, considered free and fair by the international community, but was not allowed to govern.

"Her dedication, resolve, courage and patience are the mark of a leader. We stand tall for her, as she will again stand tall for herself," said Michael Stipe, the lead singer of R.E.M.

The CD will feature exclusive numbers by R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Tom Morello's The Nightwatchman, Damien Rice, Lili Hadyn and Better Than Ezra as well as previously released tunes by Avril Lavigne, Coldplay, Bright Eyes and Travis.

It also features a song banned by Myanmar's military regime, Walk On, which U2 dedicated to Ms Suu Kyi on their last album, and a song in Myanmese written by jailed activist Min Ko Naing.

Singing a freedom song in Myanmar can result in a prison sentence, according to the US Campaign for Burma group.

Meanwhile, American legislators are considering a resolution seeking UN Security Council action against Myanmar's military junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council.

Nearly identical resolutions have been introduced in the US House of Representatives and the Senate calling for such action.

The House resolution asked the council to "immediately consider and take appropriate action to respond to the growing threat that the ruling State Peace and Development Council in Burma poses to the Southeast Asia region and to the people of Burma".

Myanmar launched a national forum this year which it billed as the first step in its "road map" to democracy. That process, however, has been rejected as a sham by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Malaysiakini.com
Roshan Jason
Sep 15, 04 11:24am

An international lobby group comprising Burmese citizens have urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) here not to ignore the plight of 19 Burmese nationals, including the group’s members, who are being held in the Sungai Buloh prison.

The Malaysian chapter of the US-based Democratic Federation of Burma (DFB) said the detainees, who have been accorded refugee status by UNHCR, are having a tough time in prison.

“But yet UNHCR is neglecting them,” spokesperson Tommy Myint told malaysiakini yesterday.

According to Myint, he and several DFB members visited the 19 in prison and are concerned with their deteriorating health and the alleged worsening treatment by prison guards.

Contacted today, a UNHCR protection officer said the agency is working towards the resettlement of the detainees and have taken up their concerns with prison officials.

The 19 were arrested on May 17 for taking part in a pro-democracy demonstration outside the Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur without a police permit.

They were later charged with illegal entry into the country, and are still waiting for their case to be heard in court.

Monitor situation

Meanwhile, in letter to UNHCR from its headquarters in New York, DFB called on the refugee body to seriously look into the plight of the 19 by visiting them in prison and monitoring the situation.

“One of the imprisoned DFB members has already been hospitalised for suffering from mental distress and four others punished by prison officers for requesting to speak to UNHCR officials,” read the letter.

It also alleged that the 19 are being punished by being confined in a unlit cell and fed one meal a day.

Responding, UNHCR said its officials visit the jail once a week and have met the 19 in question and are following up on their grievances.

The Irrawaddy On-line EditionSeptember 14, 2004
- By Kyaw Zwa Moe and Nandar Chann

About 400 young military officers from Burma left for Russia early Tuesday morning for military and computer training, said a relative of one of the officers who left today.

Two Russian aircraft carrying hundreds of lieutenants left the Mandalay International Airport at about 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. today, said the relative in Mandalay.

The officers, selected from across the country, left for the Mandalay airport on Monday afternoon from Maymyo, 42 miles (68 km) north of Mandalay, the relative said by telephone. Maymyo, renamed Pyin Oo Lwin by the junta, is home to military training centers such as the Defense Service Academy and Defense Service Technology Academy, or DSTA. It is also reportedly the site of a new Russian-built ordnance factory, near the DSTA, although the Russian Ambassador to Rangoon, Oleg Kabarov, flatly denied the allegation in recent months.

Another resident in Mandalay said that on Monday airport officials told him about the trip.

In 2002, Russia reportedly agreed to sell Burma a nuclear reactor for medical research, providing assistance for its construction and operation. Burma’s military government recruited hundreds of students and sent them to study nuclear engineering and science in Russia. But the program was reportedly abandoned because the junta could no longer afford the costs. The junta denies it plans to develop a nuclear reactor.

The relative in Mandalay said some of the military officers would study computer science in Russia and the others would receive military training.

The relative said that courses for computer students would take three and half years to complete, while military courses, the details of which are unclear, require three years. If the courses are completed successfully, the source added, the officers would be promoted to captain.

The government provided each officer 60,000 kyat (about US $63), one Western-style navy blue suit and a military jacket before the trip, the source said, adding that an unnamed high-ranking military officer briefed the Russian-bound lieutenants in Maymyo before their departure.

The source also said that before the trip, the officers received language training from an unknown number of Russian teachers who have been sent to Maymyo and paid a monthly salary of $1,000. More officers would be sent to Russia in the future, the source added. Other groups of Burmese military officers are still studying in Russia, the source said.

In late 2002, the junta purchased eight MiG-29B-12 air superiority combat aircraft and two dual-seat MiG-29UB trainers from Russia, at a reported cost of about $130 million.

Malaysiakini - Sep 14, 04 12:42pm

The European Union (EU) will take more stringent action against the Burmese junta if it fails to act on an agreement reached last week on steps to restore democracy before the upcoming Asia-Europe Meeting’s (Asem) summit in Hanoi on Oct 8 and 9.

In a statement, the EU said its foreign ministers had told Burmese representatives that “existing measures... will be maintained and will be made stricter” if sufficient progress is not made on three conditions set during their meeting in Tullamore, Ireland.

The EU has demanded the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the participation of her National League for Democracy (NLD) in the national convention on the junta’s ‘road map’ to democracy, and open debate during such meetings.

The EU said it would extend its visa ban to apply to high-ranking military personnel and their family members, while EU-registered firms would not be permitted to finance Burmese state-owned companies if the junta does not comply.

“In international organisations, the EU shall vote against extending loans to Burma,” it said, adding that specific proposals would address the issue of illegal logging and export of teak from Burma.

The statement also said the Asem Summit has provided the EU with an opportunity to confront Burma over concerns on human rights violations and the need for democratic reform.

“The level of Burmese participation at the summit will have to be below the level of head of state or head of government,” it said.

Adding that the Burmese should not have to suffer because of the junta’s excesses, the EU has pledged to provide direct support in the areas of health and education.

Burma, whose military junta refused to recognise the overwhelming victory by the opposition NLD in the 1990 elections, has remained a thorn in the relationship between Europe and Asia since Rangoon joined Asean seven years ago.

September 09, 2004 - By Kyaw Zwa Moe

Two Burmese opposition groups in exile welcomed a recent peace proposal made by one of Burma’s most popular poets and aimed at ending the country’s years-long conflict among military, ethnic and opposition groups.

In recent interviews with foreign radio broadcasts, Dagon Tayar, the celebrated 85-year-old poet and close acquaintance of the late Gen Aung San, Burma’s independence hero, said that the only way to resolve the political impasse in the best interest of all involved parties is through non-violent means.

Two opposition groups based in neighboring Thailand, the Forum for Democracy in Burma, or FDB, and Democratic Party for a New Society, voiced their support for the poet’s proposal this week and encouraged him to take part in the country’s peace process.

“Today the country is at a crossroads,” said Dagon Tayar by telephone today, from his home in Shan State. “It’s time to choose a peaceful or violent path.”

“I hope that we will be able to see some change sooner or later if the authorities and opposition both genuinely believe in the idea,” he said.

He also said that he is skeptical of the UN’s efforts in resolving Burma’s conflict. “I think that their [UN] effort is in vain,” he said. “This is our own approach.”

The FDB, in its statement this week, called on other monks and respected individuals to take part in mediating the peace talks.

FDB spokesman Kyaw Kyaw Thein, however, said he was uncertain if the military regime would accept the participation of civilians, no matter how popular, in settling the conflict.

The Veteran Politicians of Burma, for example, has continually urged the junta to hold genuine dialogue with ethnic and opposition groups. But the junta has continually rejected their demands.

Dagon Tayar said that he has not yet approached Burmese authorities and opposition groups about his peace proposal but added that he was ready to take part in peace talks at any time.

PRESS RELEASE
ALRC-PL-65-2004

(Hong Kong, September 3, 2004) The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has urged the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to find new strategies to help end the practices of forced labour in Burma that have been bred and sustained due to the absence of the rule of law.

The Hong Kong-based ALRC calls on the international body to take up two cases in particular, in which the victims have been jailed or threatened with legal action by the authorities for failing to comply with forced labour orders and seeking redress.

"The real problem relates not to narrow questions of what constitutes forced labour and how a mechanism for complaints may be established to deal with it, but more broadly, to the non-existence of the rule of law in Myanmar (Burma)," ALRC executive director Basil Fernando said.

In a letter to the ILO Committee of Experts, Fernando said victims in Burma could be turned into the accused through the manipulations of the authorities and be punished for trying to assert their rights.

He pointed to difficulties in establishing an effective regime for making complaints about forced labour in the absence of the rule of law in the country.

The ALRC, which promotes human rights and the rule of law in the region, drew the attention of the ILO to the case of Ko Khin Zaw and U Ohn Myint, in which both victims were sentenced to jail for failing to serve as sentries at the Buddhist monastery in their village in Henzada Township last year.

Ko Khin Zaw was imprisoned for a month for "omitting to assist a public servant when bound by the law to give assistance", while U Ohn Myint was given a six-month jail term for the same charge and for threatening to injure a public servant.

The two have been accused of defaming the village tract peace and development council and its chairman after they filed a complaint to court that their punishment was in violation of government orders issued in 1999 and 2000.

The court is understood to have summarily dismissed their complaint and action is now pending against the two for defamation, the ALRC said.

In another case, a 34-year-old woman Ma Su Su Nwe made a complaint in court that she and other villagers of Tanmanaing in Kawmhu Township were told to work on a road construction, or else would be fined or put in detention.

The village authorities denied her accusation and insisted that the labour was a voluntary undertaking.

The ALRC said there were well-founded fears that the case would be ruled against Ma Su Su Nwe and subsequently she would face legal action similar to that of Ko Khin Zaw and U Ohn Myint.

"When any allegation about wrongdoing by a government officer is aggressively used against the complainant without regard to the validity of the complaint, how can an effective or independent complaint mechanism be properly established?" Fernando asked.

Those people who complain about state authorities through the courts in Burma, whether for forced labour or other rights violations, cannot expect any kind of independent review of their cases, he said.

"That a victim of a rights violation has no channel for effective redress is in itself a major problem; that in Myanmar this situation is compounded by punitive action against persons attempting to exercise their rights is of extreme concern," Fernando said.

"The evidence that exists at present is of a growing trend towards such practices, and one that the ILO must properly account for if it is to have any effect in bringing about change to forced labour practices in Myanmar, and offer genuine protection to victims," he noted.

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About ALRC The Asian Legal Resource Centre is an independent regional non-governmental organisation holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It is the sister organisation of the Asian Human Rights Commission.¡¡The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at local and national levels throughout Asia.