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HEADLINES
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Reuters - Nobel laureates urge pressure on Sudan, Myanmar
Reuters AlertNet - Traditional Myanmar rice style hurts older people
Reuters AlertNet - Myanmar: True humanitarian heroes
AP - Myanmar rejects Western criticism of rights abuses
Asia Times - Myanmar on the cyber-offensive
NST - COMMENT: Winds of change fail to stir Myanmar
Bernama - Myanmar's cyclone effort gets less than half of required aid
EARTHtimes.org - Chinese investments in Myanmar's energy, mining sectors of concern
Bangkok Post - Myanmar bans Chinese dairy products
Quamnet - Kyoto Protocol Could be Key to Myanmar’s Economic Development

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Nobel laureates urge pressure on Sudan, Myanmar
By Claudia Parsons
Mon Sep 29, 7:21 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - African Union leaders are more interested in protecting Sudan's president than its people and Southeast Asian leaders do the same when it comes to Myanmar, a group of women Nobel Prize winners said on Monday.

"All those clubs, the African Union, ASEAN, or the U.N. Human Rights Council club, recognize their job as protecting the state rather than protecting the human rights of people from states that violate them," said Jody Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for campaigning against land mines.

She said ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, should put more pressure on Myanmar over human rights and democracy rather than buying timber and gems that give the military junta money to support itself.

She criticized the African Union for siding with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir over a request by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to charge Bashir with genocide in Darfur. Bashir and AU leaders have said the move would damage prospects for peace in the region.

"We need to put intense pressure on these institutions that are supposed to be having a role in protecting people," Williams told a news conference at the United Nations, reporting on a fact-finding trip to south Sudan, Chad, the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa and the Thai border with Myanmar.

The trip was organized by the Nobel Women's Initiative, which was founded in 2006 by six women Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Williams said the reason for visiting refugees from both Myanmar and Sudan was to show the linkages between the two situations -- especially the role of China in buying oil and providing weapons that helped support the governments.

Actress Mia Farrow, a vocal campaigner on Darfur who was part of the delegation on the trip, said AU officials had been "quite agitated" when she and the others raised the subject of the ICC indictment on Bashir when they met in Addis Ababa.

She said women she met in refugee camps in Chad who had fled Darfur were unanimous in supporting the indictment requested by ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

"Babies are being born, babies are being named Moreno Ocampo," she told the news conference.

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Traditional Myanmar rice style hurts older people
Reuters AlertNet - 30 Sep 2008 07:18:00 GMT
Written by: HelpAge International

Retired doctor Maung Maung Shien, 75, reports on working with HelpAge International in Kyaik Lat and Dedaye townships on the Irrawaddy Delta after it was devastated by a cyclone in May. HelpAge is the only international agency providing health care services tailored to the needs of older people in these areas.

The sun has not yet risen as we begin loading boxes of medicines from the office in Yangon out into the car. Alongside me are four nurses, four junior doctors and Dr. Aung Thu, an old colleague who invited me to join HelpAge International' s mobile medical units after Cyclone Nargis struck.

Being an older person myself, I find I can communicate better with the older patients. I also know that older people have knowledge, wisdom and experience, and are an underused resource in the relief effort.

It takes over six hours to reach the township. When we arrive, it's no surprise to find over 150 patients sat waiting in a queue outside the small hall where our clinic is held.

The numbers are growing with each visit. In this area, the government provides only one health assistant, one nurse and five midwives. It's nowhere near enough, and certainly not sufficient to meet the specific needs that older people have.

Before Nargis, older people here were already living in extremely deprived conditions with limited access to healthcare, shelter, clean water and sanitation. The cyclone has compounded this situation further. Our surveys have shown that 98 per cent of older people in this area are experiencing significant illness.

Over the course of the day, nearly all the older patients I see are suffering from peripheral neuritis, an inflammation of the nervous system causing pain and loss of sensation, which is linked to Vitamin B1 deficiency. Many older people wash rice too many times before cooking it, draining all the vitamins out. Education on cooking and other areas of health and hygiene must play an important role in any humanitarian work here.

I've dubbed one woman I see "The Iron Lady". She is very old and lives alone, yet every day she walks determinedly round the village selling household wares, earning just enough money to survive.

Seeing her reinstates my conviction that, although many are vulnerable, some older people are active and play an important role in their communities. A significant number are looking after orphaned grandchildren, sustaining themselves but also their extended families without any support.

Another patient is a blind older woman who, a colleague tells me, has been asking over the past few visits about the possibility of regaining her sight.

Eye treatment is a common health need for older people, and one which is extensively overlooked in the humanitarian effort.

On examination, I see only a small operation is needed. That evening I call an old friend who is an oculist at one of the eye hospitals in the southern part of Myanmar. He offers to conduct a free operation at the hospital. Now all we have to do is arrange travel and accommodation for this patient, who will need a couple of days to recover.

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Myanmar: True humanitarian heroes
Reuters AlertNet - 30 Sep 2008 13:30:00 GMT
Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) - Switzerland
By Lasse Norgaard, regional communications delegate, Bangkok
Website: http://www.ifrc. org

Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers in Myanmar have been helping those affected by Cyclone Nargis from the very early hours of May 3. They assisted with rescue operations, transportation, first aid, blood donations and built temporary shelters. A number of volunteers had experienced personal losses, but chose to stay on duty.

"I do not hesitate to call these volunteers humanitarian heroes," says Bridget Gardner, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) delegation in Myanmar.

"The volunteers worked tirelessly round the clock and helped thousands of people with an unparalleled commitment and enthusiasm. Years from now, we will probably all remember this relief operation because of the actions of these volunteers."

Personal sacrifice

When the wind died down around six o'clock on the morning of May 3, Than Kyaw, a Myanmar Red Cross volunteer and local leader, began knocking on the doors of a few wealthy people in the village whose houses had withstood the cyclone. He was seeking small donations.

An hour later, he bought as much medicine and medical equipment as he could from the local pharmacy. By 07:30, he had opened a small temporary clinic at the local temple where many wounded people had gathered. In the days and weeks ahead, many more were brought to this same location to receive assistance.

"I asked some of them to stay behind and help me to search for wounded people and bring them here," Than Kyaw recalls.

Water and wind

Many of the survivors had been injured while they clung desperately to trees as the cyclone raged around them. Their backs had been sandblasted by the water and wind.

These wounds were treated and disinfected by the Red Cross volunteers, not only in Than Kyaw's village, but throughout the delta. This meant that the clinics and hospitals had more time and capacity to treat the seriously injured.

Thar Kyaw's own house was damaged and its roof was blown off. Now, more than four months later, the repair work is almost complete. Thar Kyaw relied on his son and relatives to rebuild his house, while he was busy assisting his fellow villagers.

Back on track

"Life is getting better, but people need tools and boats to earn an income and get their lives back on track," Thar Kyaw notes. "Right now we are all very fragile, particularly if another storm hits."

San San Mar, the manager of the local Red Cross hub office, was sent to a village in the Labutta area to support the local staff and volunteers. She always carried her big phone in a basket, always working, always encouraging her staff and volunteers, and constantly smiling and laughing.

The only exception was when she sat with a woman who had lost her husband, her children and everything else. San San Mar empathized with her predicament, and cried with her.

Outstanding

"We could not have achieved anything without our volunteers, they have been outstanding, " says Prof. Dr. Tha Hla Shwe, the president of the Myanmar Red Cross. "They have not only helped with the Red Cross Red Crescent operation, but also in the distribution of aid from other humanitarian organizations. "

The volunteers are so very dedicated and committed to their assignments that it has been difficult to persuade them to rest and take time off.

Prof. Dr. Shwe notes that it is therapeutic for the volunteers to help other vulnerable cases, though they too need support to overcome their losses. "When you ask them about their own experiences and losses, some of them break down," he says.

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Myanmar rejects Western criticism of rights abuses
From AP on 2008-09-29 15:57:00 (posted on 2008-09-29 15:55:24)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Myanmar's military regime on Monday dismissed calls from countries concerned with its repression of political opponents, saying that its ``roadmap to democracy'' offers the best chance for a return to civilian rule.

``Peace and stability now prevails in almost all parts of the country,'' Foreign Minister U Nyan Win told the U.N. General Assembly.

On Saturday, the so-called Group of Friends of Myanmar called on the junta to release all political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and to start talking with the opposition.

The group includes the United States, Britain, China, Southeast Asian countries and the European Union.

At a meeting held on the sidelines of the annual summit, the group also urged the authorities to cooperate with the United Nations, which has tried with little success to nudge the regime toward engagement with its opponents.

In his speech, Nyan Win never mentioned Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention.

He pointed to a series of cease-fire agreements that the government has concluded with 17 armed insurgent groups, saying this had effectively ended the bloodshed that has been ongoing since the nation also known as Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948.

Nyan Win noted that the next step of the junta's ``roadmap to democracy'' would take place in 2010, when general elections are scheduled to be held.

``All citizens, regardless of political affiliation, will have equal rights to form political parties and to conduct elections campaigns,'' he said.

International critics and Myanmar's opposition say the roadmap is a sham designed to cement the military's hold on power. A military-backed constitution was approved by a national referendum in May this year, but the opposition charges that the vote was unfair.

Nyan Win did not refer to Saturday's call by the Group of Friends of Myanmar, saying only that ``the international community can best assist Myanmar's democratization process by respecting the will of its people.''

The Security Council and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had hoped Myanmar's ruling generals would respond to international pressure to embrace national reconciliation following the violent suppression of massive, anti-government protests in Yangon last year.

The council has demanded that the regime release all political prisoners, talk with the opposition, open the political process and end human rights abuses.

Last week, the government released Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner, Win-Tin. He was among more than 9,000 inmates freed in a mass amnesty.

The military has held authoritarian power in the Southeast Asian nation since 1962 and has been widely criticized for suppressing basic freedoms and human rights.

The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a nationwide pro-democracy uprising, killing as many as 3,000 people. It called elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results after Suu Kyi's party won overwhelmingly.

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Myanmar on the cyber-offensive
Asia Times - Oct 1, 2008
By Brian McCartan

MAE SOT, Thailand - The distributed denial of service attacks, or DDoS, that hit and disabled several exile media websites between September 17 to 19, are widely held to be the latest attempt by Myanmar's military regime to silence its legion of critics.

The cyber-attacks, which flood a website with information requests which block regular traffic and eventually overload and crash it, coincided with the run-up to last year's "Saffron" revolution, in which soldiers opened fire and killed Buddhist monks and anti-government demonstrators. But the junta's cyber-warfare specialists appear to have wider designs than just censoring an uncomfortable anniversary and they are receiving plenty of foreign assistance in upgrading their political dissent-quashing capabilities.

The Defense Services Computer Directorate (DSCD) was set up by the War Office in around 1990, originally with the aim of modernizing the military's communications and administration systems. By the mid-1990s, however, the center had become much more focused on Information Warfare operations, according to a signals intelligence expert who spoke with Asia Times Online.

The center became responsible for monitoring telephone calls, faxes, e-mails and other forms of electronic data exchange. Another computer center was later set up at the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence (DDSI), Myanmar's main military intelligence service. The DSCD is aimed more at military communications, while the intelligence service's computer center is more politically focused, including monitoring opposition groups both within and outside Myanmar.

The service was disbanded in 2004 after the arrest of former prime minister and intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt. It was later reformed as the Military Affairs Security (MAS), which has also presumably taken over cyber-warfare functions, and its capabilities have reportedly substantially improved in recent years.

Singapore has been the military's main partner in bolstering those capabilities. The DSCD was originally set up with computers from Singapore and the city-state has been heavily involved in the cyber-units technological evolution, including upgrades to the regime's computerized information systems hardware and training, says the signals intelligence expert. The intelligence service's center was also set up with Singapore-provided assistance.

Several opposition media sources, including The Irrawaddy magazine and Democratic Voice of Burma satellite television station, have said they received information that the most recent attacks on their Websites may have been conducted by Myanmar military officers trained or undergoing training in Russia and China. A longtime analyst of Myanmar's signals intelligence capabilities noted that many of the officers who have undergone training in Russia and China have taken courses in computing and information technology.

While China has been heavily involved in improvements to the Myanmar military's radio communications and, together with Singapore, connecting major military commands with fiber-optic cable, it apparently has been less involved in developing the regime's cyber-warfare capabilities, experts say.

The opposition movement has become noted for its extensive usage of the Internet to send and receive information, reports and news the regime has tried to suppress. As activists and underground journalists have become more tech-savvy, the intelligence service has become more determined to counter the outflow of information. Much of this has taken the form of harassment and more recently DDoS attacks.

Long-running media list server, BurmaNet News, has been a target of Myanmar's junta, which is known to have posted misleading and often inaccurate information to discredit the pro-democracy movement. In 2000, a wave of e-mail messages were received by activists with attachments containing a virus that many suspected came from the regime.

Exile-run political groups, human-rights groups and non-governmental organizations have all repeatedly accused the regime of launching viruses, and Trojan horses, defacing websites, sending waves of spam e-mail and even purchasing domain names with political significance. Although it is difficult to prove who exactly is behind the waves of cyber-harassment, the sheer volume of the attacks points to the regime's trained cyber-specialists, experts say.

Last year, the day after the regime's violent crackdown on street protesters, the Thailand-based Burmese media organization The Irrawaddy was hit by a virus that also infected visitors to their site. The timing of the attack raised suspicions of the junta's involvement.

In July 2008, the websites of the exile-run, Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and New Delhi-based Mizzima News were hit by DDoS attacks that shut down their websites for several days. The attacks followed both news organizations' extensive reporting on the junta's inept and some say corrupt response to the Cyclone Nargis disaster.
On September 17, another wave of DDoS attacks was launched, this time against The Irrawaddy, DVB and the Bangkok-based New Era Journal. Two community forums, Mystery Zillion and Planet Myanmar, were disabled and shut down by similar attacks in August. Although not political in nature, both websites provided information and instruction on how to circumvent the regime's tough Internet controls and firewalls, which include blocks on internationally hosted e-mail services gmail and Yahoo!.

Strategic attacks

Analysts say the cyber-attacks have notably ramped up during the anniversaries of the August 1988 pro-democracy uprising and military repression, and the September 2007 crackdown. Servers involved in the most recent attacks have apparently been situated in Russia and China - however, experts say this may have been done by hackers trying to cover their tracks.

According to communications security expert and Australian National University Professor Desmond Ball, DDoS attacks are relatively simple and can be engineered without the aid of powerful computers or an advanced computer science degree. Similar attacks, he says, have been carried out against Taiwan and Japan for years by young nationalistic Chinese hackers.

DDoS attacks, redirection and defacing of websites are all overt forms of cyber-harassment, but the real essence of cyber-warfare, says Ball, lies in the ability to penetrate a computer or a network, cover your tracks to avoid detection on the way in and out and steal information or disrupt systems without the target knowing that they have been hacked.

The military regime's capabilities in this regard may be where the real danger lies, he says. So far there is little known about the ability of Myanmar's government cyber-warriors to carry out these attacks, partly because the nature of these kinds of attacks is to remain undetected.

Internet security among computer users worldwide is notoriously lax and this includes Burmese exile political and media organizations. Without firewalls and anti-virus programs configured properly and IT specialists monitoring computer systems - an expensive proposition for most exile groups - they are at a distinct disadvantage against the junta.

Domestically, the regime has spent considerable effort to block the flow of information into the country through the use of filtering software that block certain media, human rights and political sites, as well as gambling, pornography and other sites deemed socially unacceptable. Through the use of proxy servers and encrypted webmail services, many of Myanmar's citizens have been able to circumvent some of these controls.

Their tech savvy was shown to the world in September 2007, when graphic images and video of the military's brutal crackdown on protesters were broadcast from an instant army of citizen reporters, who sent their files to outside news organizations over the Internet. In Myanmar's heavily controlled communications environment, there are only a handful of Internet service providers (ISPs), all of them either state-owned or with strong government ties, and thus easy for the regime to disconnect.

Exile groups and much of the media pointed to the three-day period between the beginning of the crackdown in late September 2007 and the shutdown of the Internet as evidence of the junta's lack of technical expertise. Ball, however, contends that the opposite is true.

The generals were willing to endure some international criticism in order to monitor who was communicating with whom before shutting the system down altogether. This information would likely have fueled their post-demonstration manhunts, where thousands were put behind bars, he says.

Myanmar's original ISP is the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, which was later joined by Bagan Cybertech, a private communications company established by the son of former intelligence chief Khin Nyunt. Following his arrest, the company was partially taken over by the government and renamed BaganNet/Myanmar Teleport.

A third ISP was reportedly set up by the government-supporte d mass organization the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) in 2007 and is known as Information Technology Central Services. In July 2008, a fourth ISP was launched called Hanthawaddy National Gateway.

Established with technical assistance from China's Alcatel Shanghai Bell, the service is currently only available to military officers, but is expected to eventually expand throughout the country. Alcatel Shanghai Bell is represented locally by Myanmar tycoon Tay Za, a close associate to the country's leader Senior General Than Shwe and other senior officers.

Speculation as to the extent of the regime's cyber-warfare capabilities comes during a fast expansion of Internet access across the country. In addition to two new ISP providers, the generals are pushing local and foreign investment in its Yadanabon Cyber City project, located east of Mandalay.

Over one-fifth of the 4,500 hectare city is slated for computer hardware and software factories and is expected to have modern Internet services available through ADSL, CATV, Triple Play and Wi Max. In July, 12 local and foreign companies, including CBOSS of Russia, agreed to invest US$22 million in the development of the city.

Although ostensibly a civilian initiative, much of the technology to be developed, built and used there would have dual use capabilities, experts say.

Brian McCartan is a Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast. net.

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Winds of change fail to stir Myanmar
COMMENT: The New Straits Times - 2008/09/30
James Rose

LAST September, peaceful demonstrations let the world know that the people of Myanmar had enough of the crushing oppression of the military junta, yet, today, exactly one year later, Myanmar still languishes in a haze of terror and deprivation.

Another year goes by and those monks who are left after the military cracked down after the demonstration are contemplating huge risks once again because the world just didn't get it last time.

If Myanmar is a part of the global family, it is perhaps its most neglected, like a child cast away simply because it was mugged by some bullies and has been held hostage by them ever since. As with most situations of this kind, ostracisation is as much the story of the ostraciser as the ostracised.

It certainly doesn't make sense to ignore the people. Most risk their lives daily in keeping the Saffron Revolution alive and in trying to get the message to the world, they need help.

Led by the community of monks in this devoutly Buddhist country, known as the Sangha, a network of activism has firmed throughout the country since last September. Monks have boycotted the military and continue to thwart their attempts to crush the country's spiritual soul. The military have been largely cut off from the Buddhist clergy and the monks have openly campaigned for an international arms embargo as a means of taking the tools of oppression away from their oppressors.

The Sangha provided the aid and accommodation services the military refused to give to some 70 per cent of homeless survivors from May's Cyclone Nargis in Yangon and around the Irrawaddy delta.

This is a case of the civil overwhelming the political; of citizens and their spiritual leaders, not their political leaders, taking up the slack left neglected by the government.

Perhaps this is why the community of nations finds it difficult to respond more firmly in Myanmar -- notions of state sovereignty run deep and tend to undermine many of the good souls who would dearly love to effect positive change in a much-maligned country. A flavour of this was seen in the immediate aftermath of Nargis, as civil aid groups found it more or less impossible to deliver aid over and around an unwilling state government.

Perhaps this is why the global community and its more influential members refuse to demand the release of some 2,000 political prisoners in the country, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi; nor find the will to dam the arms flowing in from Russia and China.

Perhaps this is why the world will not act even as the military backbone to the ruling junta bends and weakens under the force of its own people clamouring for an end to the nightmare.

Structural shifts and widespread dissatisfaction among the ranks, including regular desertions, are enfeebling an already untenable organisation, yet still no one moves to show the generals the door.

The country continues to win all the sort of awards no one wants to win. It has the largest number of child soldiers anywhere in the world, many fighting the world's longest running civil war; it is the world's most corrupt country; and it has probably the world's highest military spending as a percentage of budgetary funds (40 per cent). It has Asia's second-highest child mortality rate and is the third-largest source of refugees in the world.

This in a country with the 10th largest natural gas reserves in the world and in an economy which, despite much resource wealth remaining untapped, receives some US$150 million (RM500 million) per month in energy export revenues alone.

One year on from the Saffron Revolution, the world is highly distracted by an economic crisis largely of its own making. As the graphs and stock charts trend downwards, attention is justifiably on the family home, keeping one's job and hoping the whole shooting match doesn't come and end up with blood everywhere.

But this isn't the time to get caught up in our own crises. This is an opportunity to extend crisis thinking outwards. It is a time to remember that even as the world reels, there are those in Myanmar, as in Sudan, Tibet, North Korea, Chad, Zimbabwe, Western Sahara and elsewhere, who need some crisis thinking of their own. In dealing with the economic crisis, let's use that energy and fix-it thinking to extend to other areas.

One year after the Saffron Revolution offers a moment to lift the long-suffering people of Myanmar.

The writer is adviser to the Burma Fund, the policy think-tank of the New York-based National Coalition Government for the Union of Burma

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MYANMAR'S CYCLONE EFFORT GETS LESS THAN HALF OF REQUIRED AID
By D. Arul Rajoo
Bernama - Wednesday, October 1

BANGKOK, Sept 30 (Bernama) -- Nearly five months into the post-disaster response in Myanmar, more than 33,000 metric tonnes of food have reached over 733,000 people affected by Cyclone Nargis.

However, international contribution has hardly reached the required US$482 million (US$1 = RM3.39).

The Tripartite Core Group (TCG), which is overseeing the reconstruction, said distribution of food had been successful in the prevention of outbreaks of waterborne diseases, as well as dengue, in the cyclone affected areas.

In its latest report released by the Asean Secretariat today, TCG said the needs of the estimated 2.4 million Cyclone Nargis victims were still great and that increased and committed financial support was necessary to continue assistance to the cyclone survivors.

Almost 50 per cent of the requirements in the revised United Nations Flash Appeal remain unfunded, citing UN Office For the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Financial Tracking Services that reported total contribution as standing at US$240 million.

Agriculture and early recovery continue to be the least funded sectors, said TCG, which was officially established in May, this year, comprising high-level representatives of the Myanmar Government, Asean and the UN.

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Chinese investments in Myanmar's energy, mining sectors of concern
Posted : Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:36:06 GMT
EARTHtimes.org - Author : DPA

Bangkok - Myanmar has attracted 69 Chinese companies to its energy and mining sectors, raising environmental and security concerns for local populations, EarthRights International (ERI) revealed Tuesday. According to a survey conducted by ERI, a non-profit activist group, there are now 69 Chinese companies involved in Myanmar's hydropower, oil, natural gas and mining sectors compared with only 26 known companies in 2007.

The Chinese firms have invested in some 90 completed, current and planned projects, according to the US-based ERI, which has been influential in the past in mounting campaigns against investments by US oil multinationals Chevron and Unocal in Myanmar, deemed a pariah state among western democracies because of its poor human rights record and refusal to implement political reforms.

The ERI report, aptly titled China in Burma: The Increasing Involvement of Chinese Multinational Corporations in Burma's Hydropower, Oil and Natural Gas, and Mining Sectors, was based primarily on government statements, English and Chinese language news reports, and company press releases.

While most US and European multinationals have in recent years shunned Myanmar, which is under economic sanctions, Asian multinationals have shown little restraint in investing in the resource-rich country, also known as Burma.

"India, Thailand, Korea, Singapore, and China are among the Asian countries with the largest investments in Burma's hydropower, oil and natural gas, and mining sectors.

Foreign direct investment in Burma's oil and natural gas sectors, for example, more than tripled from 2006 to 2007, reaching 474.3 million dollars, representing approximately 90 per cent of all foreign direct investment in 2007," said the ERI report.

It noted that investments in Myanmar's energy sectors provide billions of dollars in financial support to the country's military junta, which devotes at least 40 per of its budget to military spending.

"We have repeatedly seen foreign companies coming into Burma with disregard for local people and the environment, " said Ka Hsaw Wa, executive director of EarthRights International. "Given what we know about development projects in Burma and the current situation, we are concerned about this marked increase in the number of these projects."

Past projects, such as the Unocal/Total overland natural gas pipelines, were accused of using forced labour and evicting villagers from their land without compensation.

Field reports on new projects are hard to come by given Myanmar's restrictions of free press and the difficulties involved in getting access to remote areas.

"We are concerned about the lack of information about these projects available in the public domain," said ERI researcher Alek Nomi, principal author of the research.

The ERI survey found that at least 45 Chinese multinationals have been involved in approximately 63 hydropower projects in Myanmar, the largest of them 7,100-megawatt Tasang Dam on the Salween River.

The project, which is under construction, is highly controversial as it has yet to conduct an internationally acceptable environmental impact study and the proposed dam promised to displace thousands of Karen villagers.

The Karen are an ethnic minority group that has been fighting the Myanmar military for the autonomy of the Karen State for the past six decades.

"In April 2008, Sinohydro, China Southern Power Grid Co, and China Three Gorges Project Co signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement for the development of the hydropower potential of the Salween River," said the report.

At least 16 Chinese multinational companies, including the three major Chinese oil and natural gas companies Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Sinopec, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), have invested in 21 onshore and offshore oil and natural gas projects in Myanmar, the ERI said.

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Myanmar bans Chinese dairy products
Bangkok Post - 2008-09-29 17:45:57

Myanmar authorities have suspended imports of all dairy products from China amid a widening scandal over melamine-tainted milk, a newspaper reported Monday.

Myanmar's commerce ministry said it has barred entry of all dairy products from China since last Tuesday, said the Myanmar Times, a government-affiliat ed weekly newspaper. It was the government's first public announcement of the suspension.

The report said the decision was reached in a meeting of officials from various ministries, the Food and Drug Administration and dairy producers and importers.

Cheap dairy products from China, the country's largest trading partner, are widely sold in impoverished Myanmar, but there have been no reported cases of illnesses.

The health ministry is testing samples of dairy products, especially those from China, Health Minister Kyaw Myint said, according to the report.

Products that are found to be safe will be given a "melamine-free" stamp, it said.

Products that cannot be tested locally will be sent to Singapore for further analysis, the report said.

The health ministry will import additional testing equipment from Europe, Kyaw Myint was quoted as saying.

Myanmar's military-ruled government said it would destroy 16 tons of powdered milk made by one of the 22 Chinese dairy companies that were found to have produced melamine-tainted products. The milk was confiscated in Yangon last week.

Earlier this month, melamine, which is used to make plastics and fertilizer, was detected in milk powder in China and linked to kidney stones in children. Melamine-tainted milk has been blamed for the deaths of four infants and has sickened more than 54,000 children in China.

In 2006-2007, Myanmar imported more than US$995 million of goods from China, according to government figures.

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Kyoto Protocol Could be Key to Myanmar’s Economic Development
Quamnet - 08年9月29日

Rainforest conservation could become a crucial part in Myanmar’s economic recovery after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country a few months ago. Myanmar stands to earn up to $1.6 billion if it agrees to a proposed carbon trading initiative.

Myanmar is the poorest country in Asia with its nominal GDP per capita ranking 174th out of 180 countries in the world. Stagnation, mismanagement, and isolation have all plagued the nation in the past quarter century. Myanmar has an average growth rate of only 2.9%.

To make matters worse, Cyclone Nargis ripped through Myanmar on May 2, 2008, killing at least 146,000 people. The cyclone caused the worst natural disaster recorded in the country’s history. The Myanmar government’s official death toll is severely underreported because it has stopped counting fatalities. Lubutta Township and Bogale reported to have death tolls of 80,000 and 10,000 respectively. Over 56,000 people are still missing, many of which have probably been swept out to sea. The final death toll may exceed half a million people. Furthermore, about one million survivors have been left homeless. The country has suffered an estimated $10 billion in damage.

Because the country’s officials and military rulers initially resisted international aid, relief efforts were slow at the time when the country needed it the most. A Myanmar government representation in New York did not officially ask the United Nations for help until four days after the cyclone struck. Even then, the government only accepted aid that it could distribute itself. Myanmar officials refused French and U.S. offers of personnel. Another factor detracting from relief efforts was the Sichuan Earthquake which hit China just ten days after Cyclone Nargis.

Myanmar faces long-term food shortages due to the massive damage done by the cyclone. The five states that suffered the most destruction produce 65% of Myanmar’s rice, 80% of its agriculture, 50% of its poultry, and 40% of its pork. Rice mills, water pumps, and fuel resources were also destroyed. Experts estimate severe food shortages for the next year and a half.

Slowly but surely, the recovery process in Myanmar has begun. Though initially rejected, international aid has found its way to many of the homeless survivors. The government is now considering partaking in major projects that will invigorate the country’s economy. One such project is a forest conservation plan that would not only preserve Myanmar’s rainforests but also earn the country a significant amount of funds. Under a carbon trading initiative proposed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, industrialized nations would be able to pay rainforest nations to protect their forest and offset greenhouse gas emissions limits set by the Kyoto Protocol.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, 36 developed countries are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to certain level. These countries must reduce their emissions to below the emissions cap or participate in emissions trading to compensate for going over the cap. If a country exceeds the cap, they must buy credits from countries that are under their cap. Under the carbon trading initiative, industrialized nations over the cap would be able to pay nations like Myanmar to protect their rainforest. Preserving rainforests will allow the photosynthetic plants and trees to absorb carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas. About 20% of annual emissions of greenhouse gases are due to deforestation.

Myanmar currently harvests more than 450,000 hectares of forest each year, emitting somewhere between 32 and 93 megatons of carbon dioxide. Under the carbon trading initiative, industrialized nations would pay rainforest countries between $8 to $32 for every ton of carbon dioxide prevented from entering the atmosphere. Myanmar is currently home of over 34 million hectares of forest area. If government halts deforestation on half of the forests, the country can earn up to $800 million. Saving all of its rainforests could earn it up to $1.6 billion. According to the Forest Resource Environmental Development and conservation Association, Myanmar could potentially increase its per capita income by up to 25%.

The only potential setback to agreeing to the carbon trading initiative would be the financial damage to businesses relating to forest products. Businesses that manufacture paper, lumber, and furniture could potentially face shortages of wood supplies. The government may then have to enact programs to plant additional trees for the purpose of harvesting.

Myanmar’s agreement to the carbon trading initiative is a good deal all around. Myanmar, a developing nation, has recently faced devastating economic losses due to Cyclone Nargis. A boost in funds is exactly what the country needs. Industrialized nations must find a way to stay under the emissions cap set by the Kyoto Protocol, and Myanmar can offer them a way of doing so.

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