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HEADLINES
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AP - Lawyer: Suu Kyi wants to meet Myanmar rep
AP - Suu Kyi's refusals indicate anger over slow reform
Reuters - Myanmar's Suu Kyi refuses to meet doctor - papers
Nasdaq - Myanmar's Suu Kyi Rejects Meeting With Junta Liaison - Report
IRIN - MYANMAR: Cyclone survivors wish for return of private donors
IRNA - Bangladesh to settle maritime boundary dispute with neighbours
Xinhua - Myanmar builds motor road deep into cyclone-hard- hit area
Thaindian News - 4.8 Richer earthquake hits China and Myanmar border
Guardian News - Locked in Burma
Asian Tribune - Burma: More than 39 activists arrested, and 21 imprisoned during August 2008
Mizzima News - Aung San Suu Kyi honoured with Dundee freedom award
Mizzima News - Restaurants and shops ordered to close early in Rangoon
The Irrawaddy - Burmese Media Silent on Thai Turmoil
DVB News - Legal group calls for an end to forcible disrobing of monks

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Lawyer: Suu Kyi wants to meet Myanmar rep
AP - Thursday, September 4

YANGON, Myanmar - A report that detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi refused to meet with the government minister who acts as her liaison officer is misleading, her lawyer said Wednesday.

The state-run Myanma Ahlin daily reported Wednesday that the government had arranged a meeting between Suu Kyi _ who has been detained without charge since 2003 _ and Relations Minister Aung Kyi on Tuesday but that she had refused to meet him.

Lawyer Kyi Win, who met Suu Kyi at her lakeside house on Monday, said she had conveyed a message through him that she wished to see the minister but said "she was a little tired and needed some rest."

"I am very upset because Daw Suu had politely conveyed the message through me that she wanted to see U Aung Kyi and also sends her regards to him," Kyi Win said. 'Daw' and 'U' are honorifics conveying respect.

"I am very upset because the message was a misrepresentation by omission," he explained added.

Myanmar's junta appointed Aung Kyi last year to facilitate talks aimed at bringing political reconciliation and democratic reforms to the impoverished and isolated country.

Earlier Wednesday, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party said on the basis of the newspaper report that any reluctance on Suu Kyi's part to have a meeting indicated her continued frustration at the slow pace of reform in the military-ruled country.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is dissatisfied with the lack of progress from the talks and also unhappy with the lack of a time frame," said Nyan Win.

The 63-year-old Suu Kyi has made several gestures recently whose intention has not been clear. She has repeatedly turned away food deliveries to her house in recent weeks and refused to meet U.N. Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari when he visited Myanmar last month.

After Kyi Win visited her on Monday he said she had lost weight and was shunning food deliveries. He would not comment on rumors that the opposition leader had gone on a hunger strike.

The lawyer said Suu Kyi had asked for "certain living conditions to be solved and that has not happened yet."

He said some of the living conditions involved granting greater freedom of movement to two female companions who live with her and help take care of the house. She also wishes to be allowed access to some publications, Kyi Win said.

Suu Kyi has been detained under house arrest for years and relies on food delivered to her home by her party. Supporters said last week she had not accepted food deliveries since Aug. 15.

Kyi Win declined to say why Suu Kyi was refusing food deliveries.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been in a political deadlock since 1990, when Suu Kyi's party overwhelmingly won general elections but was not allowed to take power by the military.

The United Nations has tried with little success to nudge the government toward talks with the opposition. But the junta has not responded to international pressure to embrace national reconciliation following its violent suppression of massive anti-government protests last year.

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Suu Kyi's refusals indicate anger over slow reform
Wed Sep 3, 3:29 am ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to meet her personal physician and a top government minister, indicating her continued frustration at the slow pace of reform in the military-ruled country, her spokesman said Wednesday.

Suu Kyi refused to attend a Tuesday meeting with Relations Minister Aung Kyi at a government guest house in the city of Yangon, according to Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

Myanmar's junta appointed Aung Kyi last year to facilitate talks aimed at bringing democratic reforms to the impoverished and isolated country.

Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, also declined a checkup from her personal physician, Dr. Tin Myo Win, Nyan Win said. The Nobel Peace Prize winner's last checkup was Aug. 17, when her doctor said she was well.

Nyan Win said he did not know for certain why Suu Kyi had refused the meetings but that it was likely to do with the government's failure to embrace a timetable for democratic reform.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is dissatisfied with the lack of progress from the talks and also unhappy with the lack of a timeframe," he said.

The 63-year-old Suu Kyi has repeatedly turned away food deliveries to her house in recent weeks and refused to meet U.N. Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari when he visited Myanmar last month.

Suu Kyi's lawyer Kyi Win visited her on Monday and later said she had lost weight and was shunning food deliveries. He would not comment on rumors that the opposition leader had gone on a hunger strike.

She has been detained under house arrest for years and relies on food delivered to her home by her party. Supporters said last week she had not accepted food deliveries since Aug. 15.

Kyi Win declined to say why Suu Kyi was refusing food deliveries.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been in a political deadlock since 1990, when Suu Kyi's party overwhelmingly won general elections but was not allowed to take power by the military.

The United Nations has tried with little success to nudge the government toward talks with the opposition. But the junta has not responded to international pressure to embrace national reconciliation following its violent suppression of massive anti-government protests last year.

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi refuses to meet doctor - papers
03 Sep 2008 11:07:42 GMT

YANGON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Myanmar's detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to meet her doctor and a government minister who is in charge of liaising with her, official media said on Wednesday.

She has refused to see anyone except her lawyer Kyi Win, state-controlled newspapers said.

Kyi Win met her on Monday amid reports that the 63-year-old Nobel laureate had refused food supplies since Aug. 15.

"I am well, but I have lost some weight. I am a little tired and I need to rest," Kyi Win quoted her as saying during their 30-minute meeting.

Kyi Win is working on an appeal of the latest extension of Suu Kyi's detention order. She has been in prison or under house arrest for nearly 13 of the past 19 years.

A spokesman for her National League for Democracy, the party that won a 1990 election landslide only to be denied power by the military, said he had also heard from the lawyer that Suu Kyi had refused to meet Minister of Relations Aung Kyi on Tuesday.

"I think she's unhappy about not receiving any reply from the regime in response to her suggestions for a reconciliation process," the spokesman said. "She had given hers to Aung Kyi in their previous meetings."

In September 2003, the U.S. government reported Suu Kyi had gone on a hunger strike, although the Myanmar regime and the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was untrue.

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi Rejects Meeting With Junta Liaison - Report
Nasdaq - 09-03-080333ET

YANGON (AFP)--Myanmar' s detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to meet with the junta's liaison officer and declined a visit from her personal physician, state media said Wednesday.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been under house arrest for most of the last 19 years, but in recent weeks has refused even the minimal contact the regime allows her with the outside world.

The military had arranged for her to meet Tuesday with labor minister Aung Kyi, who is tasked with coordinating official talks with her, the government- owned newspaper New Light of Myanmar said.

But she informed her lawyer U Kyi Win during a meeting Monday that she wouldn't speak with the minister, and also refused to see her doctor for a scheduled medical checkup, the paper said.

"For the time being, she wanted to meet no one, except advocate U Kyi Win," the paper said.

The talks with the liaison officer had been arranged at the request of the United Nations, following the visit of U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari last month, it added.

Suu Kyi, 63, refused to meet with Gambari during his six-day mission to the country. He was also shunned by the junta leader Than Shwe, who didn't invite the envoy to visit the capital Naypyidaw.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, or NLD, party hasn't been able to explain her actions, but analysts have said she could be protesting the dialogue with the regime, which has yielded no tangible results.

The NLD has said Suu Kyi has stopped collecting her food supplies, but stressed that the circumstances were unclear and hasn't called her actions a hunger strike.
Lawyer Kyi Win said after his meeting with her Monday that she had lost weight but seemed to be feeling well.

He said they discussed a planned appeal of her current detention, which began more than five years ago.

She has met with her lawyer three times over the past month. Before August, she hadn't been allowed to see him since 2004.

The NLD won elections in 1990, but has never been allowed to take office. The regime now says it is preparing new polls for 2010 under a new constitution, which the party says will merely entrench military rule.

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MYANMAR: Cyclone survivors wish for return of private donors
03 Sep 2008 11:22:51 GMT

BOGALE, 3 September 2008 (IRIN) - From her makeshift hut along the highway between Pyanpon and Bogale townships in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Yee Yee looks to the motorway. "Whenever I hear the sound of a car, I think it might be someone coming to help," the 56-year-old said.

But four months since Cyclone Nargis pummelled the area, leaving nearly 140,000 people dead or missing, with another 2.4 million people badly affected, that sound has largely disappeared.

"I simply don't understand it," Yee Yee, who lost her husband in the cyclone, said. "But I wish they [the private donors] would come back."

Many cyclone survivors are struggling to rebuild their lives and worry whether promises of further assistance from the government and international organisations will materialise.

News of the storm's impact on the delta resulted in an outpouring of generosity from the country's 50 million-plus population, with scores of private donors travelling to the delta from all over the country with supplies.

In the first days after the cyclone, the two main motorways to the delta – the Yangon-Pathein highway and the Yangon-Hlaingtharya r-Twuntay- Kunchangone- Daedayal-
Pyapon-Bogale highway – were bumper to bumper with private donors struggling to reach survivors.

"Every weekend those motorways were full of donor convoys," recalled one resident, distributing rice, clothes, medicine, potable water and kitchen utensils.
Civil society role praised

Praising their contribution, John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, cited the role of civil society in the relief operation during his second visit to Myanmar in late July.

"The worst affected are being helped by those less affected. That's been a very important factor in the speed of recovery efforts," Holmes told IRIN in Yangon, the former Burmese capital.

At the end of July, the New Light of Myanmar, a government weekly, reported that more than half the rice distributed between the first week of May and 14 July came from private donors.

At the same time, private donors donated 1,057 power tillers, while the international community donated 316, it added.

The farmers also received 6,473 power tillers from the government, to be paid back in installments.

However, there is a limit to how much private donors can provide and many are themselves struggling to cover their basic needs. In addition, checkpoints and widespread deployment of security forces served as a deterrent, sources said.

"Private donors have done as much as they possibly can [in the period of emergency]," said one local resident.

"They cannot be expected to help in terms of development. It's the job of the government and international community," he said.

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Bangladesh to settle maritime boundary dispute with neighbours
New Delhi, Sept 3, IRNA

Bangladesh will hold talks with neighbouring India and Myanmar later this month to resolve the outstanding maritime boundary disputes as a United Nations (UN) set deadline for lodging maritime claims is set to expire in next three years.

Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry officials said an eight-member delegation will attend a three-day meeting in Yangon from Thursday.

The delegation will then hold talks with India in the third week of this month in Dhaka after a lapse of 28 years to discuss boundary issues.

"We are in the final stage of our preparation to put forward our claim to the United Nations and hope to conclude it very soon," Additional Foreign Secretary MAK Mahmood, who leads the team, told reporters in Dhaka, ahead of their departure, zeenews portal reported here.

Officials said Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister General Moung Myint would lead the home side in the third round of technical level discussions after its resumption in January.

Dhaka and Yangon earlier pledged to resolve disputes over their maritime borders in the quickest possible time as Bangladesh's foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury held a meeting with his Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win in Singapore last month.

Experts on sea-related issues from Bangladesh and Myanmar met in Dhaka earlier this year and decided to hold another round of talks on the issue in Yangon this year to resolve the dispute.

Officials earlier said maritime border demarcation now appeared crucial as the UN-set deadline for lodging maritime claims will expire in next three years, exposing Bangladesh to risks of losing a vast territory in the Bay of Bengal.

Bangladesh needs to lodge claims over its maritime boundary to the International Seabed Authority by 2011 as per the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) by 2011.

Under the convention, Bangladesh will be required to submit necessary documents to the UN to validate it claim of territorial water, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) up to 200 nautical miles (nm) and continental shelf up to 350 nm from the baseline.

Bangladesh has decided to end offshore gas dispute with India and Myanmar through immediate talks, as the two neighbours earlier this year raised objections against exploration by the country in several blocks bordering their maritime boundary.

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Myanmar builds motor road deep into cyclone-hard- hit area
www.chinaview. cn  2008-09-03 19:35:02

YANGON, Sept. 3 (Xinhua)-- Myanmar has started building a new motor road directly running from Yangon deep into cyclone-hard- hit Pinzalu in Ayeyawaddy delta where waterway is only accessible, the local weekly 7-Day News reported Wednesday.

The new motor road, which extends as Yangon-Mawlamyinegy un-Pinzalu, remains one of the five key highway projects being implemented in the storm-ravaged region.

The prior part of the road from Yangon to Mawlamyinegyun takes 10 hours to travel by using the waterway and the new road, on completion, will save much of the traveling hours in transport and benefit commodity flow, local residents were quoted as saying.

Myanmar has worked out five key highway projects in cyclone-hard- hit Ayeyawaddy delta region as part of its prevention program against natural disaster in the region.

The five highways respectively stretch as Maubin-Mawgyun, Mawlamyinegyun- Pinzalu, Laputta-Pinzalu, Bogalay-Katonkani and Laputta-Teikzun.

These roads, which is being or will be built as concrete ones within three years, will have facilities to resist storm and tide, reports said, adding that some of these roads will be built a height of 20-30 feet (6-9 meters) near villages to create shelter for villagers in case of natural disaster onslaught.

During a recent cyclone storm in early last May, communications and road transport in the hardest-hit Ayeyawaddy delta region and villages near the sea were severely disrupted, creating much difficulties for carrying out relief work.

Meanwhile, Myanmar will also build and renovate 37 embankments in the cyclone-hit areas to prevent from flood in the future, according to earlier local report.

The embankments, to be built up to 1.5 meters higher than the height of the original ones, are estimated to cost about 110.56 million U.S. dollars and the project will be implemented in ten townships in Yangon and Ayeyawaddy divisions, it said, adding that the new embankments can prevent 484,109 acres (196,064 hectares) of farmland from being flooded in case of storm.

Due to early May's cyclone storm, over one million acres (405,000 hectares ) of farmland in 7 townships in Ayeyawaddy division, 3 in Yangon division, 2 in Bago division and 3 in Mon state were flooded by sea water with more than 200,000 cows and cattle killed, earlier statistics showed.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has set up an emergency telecommunication center (ETC) in Yangon to help for quick communication access in disaster relief and restoration works.

The UN's World Food Program (WFP) was using the center in distributing ration aid supply to such storm-hit areas as Laputta, Bogalay, Phyapon, Mawlamyinegyun and Pathein soon after the cyclone storm hit Myanmar.

The program has benefited a total of 29,000 survived population of 9 village tracts out of 50 in Ayeyawaddy's Laputta alone, reports said.

Myanmar is now entering into a second phase of resettlement and reconstruction.

Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis hit five divisions and states --Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on last May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.

The storm has killed 84,537 people and left 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured according to official death toll.

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4.8 Richer earthquake hits China and Myanmar border
Thaindian News - September 3rd, 2008 - 9:43 pm ICT
by Bupha Ravirot -

A moderate earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale shook China and Myanmar border on Wednesday 3 , 06:27:25 UTC, ( 12:57:25 PM local time) reported by the U.S. Geological Survey. There are no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The quake struck at about 24.809°N, 97.664°E with a depth of 10 km. The epicenter is 70 km SSE from Myitkyina, Myanmar, 255 km WSW from Dali, Yunnan of China, 350 km NNE from Mandalay and 900 km N from Yangon of Myanmar.

In 21 August 2008, 3 people lost their lives and 100 have been injured in the earthquake at Myanmar - China Border. The quake measured to be 5.9 Richter.

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Locked in Burma
After 13 years of detention, Aung San Suu Kyi perfectly represents the suffering of the Burmese people, effectively trapped in the world's biggest prison. Pressure is building on the UN to act
Guardian News - Simon Tisdall , Tuesday September 02 2008 16:45 BST

It is hard to imagine what life must be like for Aung San Suu Kyi, locked up inside her Rangoon home, separated from her children, denied visitors, her phone line cut, her mail intercepted. Burma's opposition leader, whose 1990 election victory was annulled by the military, is now in her 13th year of detention. She has been held continually since 2003. In June she spent her 63rd birthday alone.

Unconfirmed reports suggest Suu Kyi, who has suffered health problems in the past, is unwell again. Her lawyer, Kyi Win, who was allowed to see her last month, quoted her as saying: "I am tired and I need some rest." Following her refusal of a food delivery, there is also speculation the pro-democracy campaigner and Nobel peace prizewinner has begun a hunger strike. Her lawyer said her weight had fallen below the 7st she was known to weigh in 2003.

While uncertainty surrounds Suu Kyi's plight, there is nothing at all ambiguous about Burma's political, social and human rights situation one year after the junta brutally
suppressed the Buddhist-monk- led "saffron revolution". By almost any measure, it is distinctly worse. Last May's Cyclone Nargis disaster played its part. But most of the deterioration is man-made.

Despite last autumn's storm of international condemnation and impassioned calls for action, the junta continues to hold more than 2,000 political prisoners, including leaders of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) such as U Win Tin, in jail since 1989. UN attempts to foster political reform have got nowhere. And trade sanctions imposed by the US and EU are being undermined by the generals' energy deals with China, Thailand and India. Oil and gas sales topped $3.3bn (£1.85bn) last year.

According to Benjamin Zawacki of Amnesty International, half a million people are internally displaced. He said the army is continuing "systematic" rights violations against Karen and other ethnic minorities including "extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, forced labour, crop destruction [and] restrictions of movement".

Amid some of the worst poverty, health problems and corruption in the world, many people now have only one wish: escape. Even long-suffering Zimbabweans have an option to flee to neighbouring countries. But the Burmese are locked in, held down by their rulers and not wanted in India, China or Thailand. With an estimated population of more than 50 million, Burma has become the world's biggest prison camp.

"The UN mission has been a complete failure," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. Since Ibrahim Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister, was appointed special envoy in May 2006, the number of political prisoners had doubled, ethnic cleansing in eastern Burma had intensified, and humanitarian aid for Cyclone Nargis victims was blocked, he said.

"There has been a massive deterioration in the human rights situation. But during Gambari's last two visits no senior member of the regime bothered to see him," Farmaner said. "He is seen as biased towards the regime and we think he should resign. He no longer has the respect or confidence of either side."

Criticism of Gambari was also voiced by the NLD. It said his visits, the last of which ended on August 23, had produced "no positive developments" . The party said the UN envoy's offer to help the junta organise elections in 2010 under a new constitution that the opposition rejects had undermined his independence. For her part, ill or not, Suu Kyi twice refused to meet Gambari, reportedly leaving him standing on her doorstep.

Farmaner said the time had come for Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, to take personal charge before the country exploded again. He is due to visit Burma in December following talks with Asian leaders. "There have been 37 UN visits in 20 years but things just get worse. Now they need to set timelines and benchmarks which the junta must meet. The first benchmark should be the release of all political prisoners," he said. It was also essential the UN security council fully back the process, and be ready to pass a punitive resolution if the generals did not comply.

Farmaner praised Gordon Brown who he said was personally committed to ending the impasse and actively raised Burma at the UN and in other forums. But other western leaders, and countries with real leverage such as China, were less concerned now the media spotlight illuminated by last autumn's revolt had shifted elsewhere.

"There is an increasing sense of desperation, " Farmaner said. "People were very depressed after the uprising, very frightened. But there was hope that Gambari would do something. Now that hope has gone and there is even more repression than before. At the moment, the fear is stronger than the anger. But that could change."

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Burma: More than 39 activists arrested, and 21 imprisoned during August 2008
Wed, 2008-09-03 04:36

Bangkok, 03 September, (Asiantribune. com): The politically motivated arrests and imprisonments have dramatically increased in Burma.

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) has pointed out that this alarming increase in the arrests and incarceration has been recorded during the first six months of 2008, despite the Special Advisor of the Secretary- General of the United Nations, and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Burma to the United Nations, were appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to visit Burma in order to try to help improve the Burmese political and human rights situation.

The report further reveals that the military regime of Burma arrested at least 39 activists in August 2008, and 21 activists were imprisoned.

The detainees are members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Human Rights Defenders and Protestors (HRDP) and Student Unions. Some of them were arrested, not because of current activities, but because of their activities in August and September 2007.

Ko Tate Naing, the secretary of the AAPP, said that even though UN high level representatives visited Burma to try to solve the problems of human rights violations, the regime continues to arrest and imprison democracy activists with impunity. This means that the regime is not cooperating with the United Nations or the International Community. Due to these facts we need to reconsider the process of UN involvement in Burma.

During 2008, at least 286 activists have been arrested so far, how many more will it take for the United Nations organization and member states to understand that the rule of law does not exist in Burma and that the people they recognize, refer to and negotiate with as the government of Burma are nothing more than an illegal and brutal dictatorship?

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Aung San Suu Kyi honoured with Dundee freedom award
Mizzima News - Solomon
Wednesday, 03 September 2008 22:42

New Delhi - Burma's imprisoned pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been honoured with the 'Dundee freedom award' for her courageous struggle to restore human rights and democracy in Burma by the Dundee City Council of Scotland in a ceremony on Wednesday night'.

"The Freedom of Dundee [award], made in recognition of her [Aung San Suu Kyi] achievements in the service of democracy, is the highest honour that the city can bestow," a spokesperson of the Dundee City Council told Mizzima in an email message.

But being under house arrest, the Burmese democracy icon, will not be able to receive the award. The award will be received on her behalf by Anna Roberts the director of the Burma Campaign United Kingdom, a group that has been vigorously advocating for human rights and democracy in Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been under some form of detention or the other for more than 12 of the past 18 years. Her latest incarceration was in May 2003, following a brutal attack on her motorcade by junta-backed mobs in upper Burma.

The City Council spokesperson said the award is a symbol of support to Aung San Suu Kyi in her struggle and is a sihnal calling for her immediate release.

"It [the award] signals the council's support for Aung San Suu Kyi's immediate release from house arrest and the restoration of a democratic government in Burma," the spokesperson said.

Anna Roberts, in a telephone interview with Mizzima, said the award helps in keeping Aung San Suu Kyi's ongoing detention in the spotlight and also helps in spreading awareness about other political prisoners in military-ruled Burma.

"This is a very prestigious award from the Scottish council," Roberts said.

The award was initially proposed by Lord Provost of Dundee, John Letford in a meeting of City Councillors in June. The councillors unanimously decided to grant the award to Aung San Suu Kyi as her struggle is similar to the former South Africa leader Nelson Mandela, who was honoured with the same award in 1985, the spokesman said.

The spokesperson quoted John Letford as saying "For many years Aung San Suu Kyi has been the best, and perhaps the only, hope, that Burma will be free from oppression."

The award came amidst widespread rumours among Burmese as well as the international community that Daw Aung san Suu Kyi is refusing to accept food supplies, which has led many to speculate that she might be on hunger strike.

While the information remains unconfirmed, her spokesperson said Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to accept her weekly food supplies since mid-August.

Another action that sparked speculation is her refusal to meet the visiting UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari in August.

Nyan Win said it might be because she is frustrated with the UN's mission as it has failed to make any political breakthrough in the country.

"We know that she is increasingly frustrated with the UN's process," said Roberts, adding that all the UN envoys that have visited Burma for the past 20 years have failed to initiate a process of reform.

Roberts said the international community needed a much stronger action on Burma, by setting a timeframe to implement reforms, for which the matter needs to be discussed at the UN Security Council.

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Restaurants and shops ordered to close early in Rangoon
Mizzima News - Wednesday, 03 September 2008 10:28

New Delhi - In a move which defies explanation Burmese military junta authorities in the country's commercial hub Rangoon have ordered all shops including restaurants and roadside teashops, to close by 11 p.m. shop owners said.

Shop-owners said local township authorities since last week have been visiting every shop and told owners to down their shutters by 11 p.m.

"We have to request customers to leave, because we were told to do so by the township authorities, " the in-charge of a popular restaurant in Bahan township, told Mizzima.

Similarly, another famous restaurant near the Bandola Park in Pabedan Township said, "Authorities came to our shop and told us to close at the latest by 11 p.m. They have informed all the shops around here."

Earlier, authorities had occasionally asked shops and restaurants to close early on particular days, such as days when class XI students complete their final examinations, fearing that the youths might over-enjoy themselves at shops and restaurants.

But this time, the shop owners said, authorities had ordered all the shops and did not part with any information as to when they can go back to normal business.

"Earlier, authorities would ask us to close on days when school students completed their examinations. But this time it has been a week since we were told to close early," a tea shop owner in Tharketha township said.

A beer pub owner in Ahlone Township said, "Earlier, whenever they [authorities] asked us to close early, we were made to sign, but we reopened the next day according to our regular schedule. But this time they have not fixed any dates."

However, shop owners said authorities did not give any reasons or explanation on why they are being asked to close early.

Besides, though authorities will come again to talk to shop owners that flout the order, so far authorities have not taken any action against them, a restaurant owner in Hledan of Kamayut Township.

"So far no action has been taken but if authorities find shops open till late, they would come and talk to the shop owners," he added.

He added that following the new order, customers have decreased and only a few people are seen roaming on the streets.

The night life of Rangoon witnesses several teashops as well as beer bars open till late, with some remaining open for 24 hours.

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Burmese Media Silent on Thai Turmoil
The Irrawaddy - By SAW YAN NAING
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

As the international media continues to follow the tense situation in Thailand closely, the censors in neighboring Burma have imposed a blackout on coverage of massive anti-government protest in Bangkok, according to journalists in Rangoon.
 
An editor from a Rangoon-based journal told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the authorities were not allowing reports of the current unrest in Thailand to be published or broadcast by the country’s tightly controlled media.

“We can’t report it in our magazine,” said the editor. “They have censored reports about the protests in both the broadcast and print media.”

Another journalist in Rangoon confirmed that the protests, which are directed against the government of Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, have received no media attention inside Burma.

“I haven’t seen any news about the turmoil in Thailand so far,” the journalist said.

The blackout on news about the unrest in Thailand extends to the international news network CNN, which is available through Family Entertainment, a 19-channel satellite television service created by Burma’s Ministry of Information and the privately owned Forever Group in 2005.

“We can only see the headlines about the protest,” said one journalist. “None of [CNN’s] in-depth coverage of the protests is shown.”

According to the journalist, the only source of information on the situation in Thailand is the Norway-based Burmese news organization, the Democratic Voice of Burma, which some people can watch secretly using satellite dishes.

The anti-government protests in Bangkok are led by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which occupied the prime minister’s office compound on August 26 and vowed not to budge until Samak steps down.

On Tuesday, Samak declared a state of emergency in Bangkok after one protester died in a clash between anti-government and pro-government groups that broke out on Tuesday morning.

It was not clear why the Burmese authorities had blocked coverage of the unrest in neighboring Thailand, although it is not unusual for Burma’s censors to screen out sensitive information or images that could incite domestic unrest.
 
In September 2007, the censors shut down the news networks on the Family Entertainment satellite service to prevent access to international coverage of the ruling regime’s brutal crackdown on monk-led demonstrations. Internet access was also temporarily suspended at the height of the conflict.

Thakin Chan Htun, a veteran politician and former ambassador to China, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the Burmese regime’s decision to prevent the media from reporting on the current situation in Thailand showed that its claims to be moving towards democratic reforms were meaningless.

“If they really want to form a democratic country, they should allow local journals and magazines to independently report news that the people should know,” he said.

Aye Thar Aung, the Rangoon-based secretary of the Arakan League for Democracy, said that the authorities were intent on controlling not only the media, but also the will of people.

“In Thailand, the King, the military and the government all respect the basic principles of democracy,” said Aye Thar Aung. “They are serious about the will of the people. But in Burma, we can’t imagine this. It is like a dream.”

Despite the lack of news coverage of the current unrest in Thailand, many Burmese have taken a strong interest in the situation there, partly because Samak, the target of the Thai protests, has in the past made a number of controversial comments about Burma’s political impasse.

Samak recently described Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as a “political tool” of the West, and suggested that international efforts to engage the Burmese junta would be more productive if Suu Kyi were kept off the agenda.

Samak made the remark during a meeting with Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations’ special envoy to Burma, when the two met in Bangkok soon after the Nigerian diplomat ended his latest trip to Burma.

Burmese opposition leaders reacted angrily to the Thai premier’s comments.

And now that Samak’s political future is in question, many Burmese say they hope to see him out of power soon.
 
“They are happy that protesters are demanding Samak’s resignation. They said it is good that he is facing the current unrest,” said one Rangoon resident, describing the sentiment expressed by many Burmese who are following the situation in Thailand.

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Legal group calls for an end to forcible disrobing of monks

Sep 3, 2008 (DVB)–The Burma Lawyers’ Council has demanded that the junta abolish state law 20/90 on religious organisations and stop the practice of forcibly disrobing monks and trying them at civil courts.

The BLC’s U Myo said the practice of handcuffing monks and not allowing them to wear their robes in court contravene prison regulations and should be stopped immediately.

The BLC’s demand was prompted by the regime’s treatment of monks in detention, including high profile monk leader U Gambira, U Myo said.

“In the case of Sayadaw Ashin Gambira, he will not attend court tomorrow [3 September] because the trial of a disrobed monk damages the dignity of the monks and the Sasana [Buddhist congregation] ,” he said.

U Myo pointed out that U Gambira, one of the leaders of the 2007 Saffron Revolution, had been prevented from observing his religious duties such as wearing robes when he appeared in court recently.

“According to the prison handbook, try monks in this way, disrobed, is not allowed. Articles 64, 65 and 66 of the prison handbook state that the prison must issue robes.

“Now they are not only being prevented from donning robes, they are also being forced to disrobe,” he said.

“They have no law that says you can turn someone from a genuine monk into a civilian. You are not allowed to do that, it is an insult to the Sasana.”

U Myo criticised the law for making monks accountable to the government instead of to religious authorities.

“As monks are not allowed to handle the affairs of monks and they are still under the mechanism of [state] power, monks are being oppressed,” U Myo said.

“That’s why we are demanding the abolition of this law.”

U Gambira has also raised the issue of the forcible disrobing of monks in a meeting with United Nations special rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana in August.

More than 700 monks have been arrested and imprisoned since 1988, 19 of whom have died in prisons and hard labour camps, according to a statement issued by the BLC today.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

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