************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
HEADLINES
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Reuters - UN chief Ban may drop plans for Myanmar visit
Reuters - Bangladesh, Myanmar sign deal, agree on more talks
AP - Philippine Senate ratifies ASEAN charter
AFP - Freed Myanmar prisoner rejoins inner circle of Suu Kyi's party
AFP - Britain says UN aid efforts hampered by poor leadership
IRIN - MYANMAR: High cost of fertiliser threatens harvest
ReliefWeb - Episcopal Relief & Development supports ongoing disaster relief in Myanmar
Earthtimes - Bangladesh proposes talks for link with China, Myanmar
Earthtimes - Myanmar army moves against refugees, aid organization says
bdNews - Gas, energy talks with Myanmar set for Wednesday
bdNews - Myanmar leader lauds look-east policy
Voice of South - Bangladesh-Myanmar link road survey to begin soon
PDNS - Even Myanmar shunning tainted Chinese milk
Xinhua - Bangladesh to procure 100,000 tons of rice from Myanmar
Xinhua - Myanmar media stress important role of teachers
Mizzima News - Soldier commits suicide after allegedly killing commander: Eyewitness
The Irrawaddy - NLD Seeking to Negotiate ‘Democratic Reforms’
The Irrawaddy - Burma's IT Generation Combats Regime Repression
DVB News - Officials spared fines in corruption crackdown

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
UN chief Ban may drop plans for Myanmar visit
Reuters - Tuesday, October 7
By Claudia Parsons

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he would drop plans to make a long talked-about visit to Myanmar unless he is confident it would achieve tangible results in promoting democracy.

Ban has been asked by the U.N. Security Council to do his utmost to pursue reforms in military-ruled Myanmar, which drew international condemnation a year ago for a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters led by monks.

Ban's special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, made a sixth visit to the former Burma in August, but failed to meet the 63-year-old Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who has been under house arrest for most of the past five years.

A visit by Ban has long been discussed but no date had been set. Ban made a first visit to Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis in May to pressure the junta to cooperate more with international aid workers.

Ban said he would remain "constantly and personally engaged" in Myanmar.

"I would be willing to (make) a return visit to Myanmar at an appropriate time, but you should also know that without any tangible or very favorable result to be achieved, then I may not be in a position to visit Myanmar," Ban told reporters.

"I'm now in the process of making some groundwork which may allow me to consider my own visit, but ... I need some more time. I will have to consider all the circumstances, (and) when would be appropriate timing for me to visit," he said.

Western countries have condemned as a sham a May referendum on Myanmar's army-drafted constitution, part of a seven-step "roadmap to democracy" that is meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010 and end a nearly 20-year political stalemate.

Gambari has met government officials on his visits to Myanmar but has made little progress in promoting dialogue with Suu Kyi or the release of political prisoners.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Bangladesh, Myanmar sign deal, agree on more talks
Reuters - Tuesday, October 7

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement on Tuesday to avoid double taxation to help boost trade, and agreed to hold talks to resolve outstanding issues including a row over Muslim refugees in Bangladesh.

The agreement came during the visit of General Maung Aye, Vice Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar, the country's second most powerful man.

Annual bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Myanmar currently is around $60 million.

"Bangladesh has sought to import natural gas and rice from Myanmar," Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, foreign affairs adviser (minister) to Bangladesh's military-backed interim government told reporters.

The repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar, demarcation of maritime boundary between the two countries, and Bangladesh's proposal for a road link with China via Myanmar, were among the issues discussed at the talks, officials said.

"There is need for further inter-action between the two sides to solve the demarcation and refugee repatriation issues," a Bngladesh government spokesman said.

Bangladesh has been hosting over 20,000 Myanmar Rohingya refugees at two official camps in southeastern Cox's Bazar region, near Myanmar, since 1992.

They are the remnants of around 250,000 Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh alleging persecution by the military in Myanmar's western Rakhaine state, which borders Bangladesh.

Bangladesh wants Myanmar to take back the refugees, but the government there says it will first verify their particulars.

The two sides have also been trying to negotiate a maritime boundary.

Bangladesh last year said that some offshore blocks that Myanmar had been trying to explore in cooperation with India are on its waters.

General Maung was accompanied to Bangladesh by a 55-member entourage, including his wife and seven ministers. The visit was originally scheduled in September last year but postponed due to pro-democracy protests.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Philippine Senate ratifies ASEAN charter
AP - Wednesday, October 8

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- The Philippine Senate on Tuesday ratified a landmark Southeast Asian charter that promotes democracy and human rights in a region blighted by many violations.

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last year signed the long-overdue charter, which aims to formally turn the 41-year-old organization _ often derided as a powerless talk shop _ into a rules-based legal entity.

For the charter to take effect, it must be ratified by the parliaments of all ASEAN's 10 member nations. With the Philippines' nod, Indonesia is the only member that has not ratified the pact, said Filipino diplomat Rosario Manalo, who led a campaign for the charter's ratification.

The Philippine Senate is the treaty-ratifying body in the country.

ASEAN, founded in 1967, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

There had been concerns that ratification could have been derailed in the Philippine Senate. Some senators have criticized the lack of democracy in military-ruled Myanmar and demanded the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees.

``It's a sham effort with which I do not wish to be identified,' ' said Aquilino Pimentel Jr., the lone senator who opposed the ratification Tuesday.

Pimentel said the ideals of democracy and human rights enshrined in the charter are meaningless unless Myanmar fulfills its pledge to rapidly democratize.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's spokesman, Jesus Dureza, welcomed the ratification, saying it would cement crucial ties among Southeast Asian nations.

One of the most significant pledges in the charter is to set up a regional human rights body. Critics say such a body will have a limited impact if it is not empowered to punish governments, such as that of Myanmar, which violate the human rights of their citizens.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Freed Myanmar prisoner rejoins inner circle of Suu Kyi's party
AFP - Tuesday, October 7

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner Win Tin has rejoined the ruling committee of Aung San Suu Kyi's party, two weeks after being freed from jail, a party spokesman said Tuesday.

The 79-year-old former journalist, imprisoned for 19 years, will return to the National League of Democracy's Central Executive Committee, Nyan Win said.

"He started coming to the headquarters on Monday to start his duties as a member (of the committee). We are very glad he is rejoining," Nyan Win told AFP.

Win Tin was released along with more than 9,000 inmates on September 23 in an amnesty ahead of national elections promised for 2010.

He was one of the founders of the NLD party together with Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains detained at her lakeside home in Yangon.

Win Tin never witnessed his party's landslide victory in 1990 elections -- a win never recognised by the junta -- because he was imprisoned in July 1989 for his role as Aung San Suu Kyi's advisor, and for his letters to the then-United Nations envoy to Myanmar.

Win Tin was officially invited by the NLD leadership to rejoin the party's ruling committee on the 20th anniversary of its founding on September 27.

Two days after Win Tin's release, Myanmar's police chief held his first meeting with six NLD leaders, asking them to retract their latest statement calling for a constitutional review -- a move they refused.

A new constitution was brought in after a much-criticised May referendum held in the wake of a maasive cyclone that swept across the country, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing.

The junta's constitution paves the way for multi-party elections to be held in 2010 but bars Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest, from standing.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Britain says UN aid efforts hampered by poor leadership
AFP - Tuesday, October 7

GENEVA (AFP) - Britain's development minister on Tuesday urged the United Nations to put better-qualified people in charge of relief operations, saying lives are at risk from poorly-managed aid projects.

"One of the major problems is that many country-based UN humanitarian coordinators don't have the skills or right background to do their jobs," international development minister Gareth Thomas told a meeting of the UN refugee agency's executive council.

"We need to work harder to get the right people into these roles early enough, keep them there and make them accountable, " he said.

"These people are the lynchpins to the whole humanitarian effort when crises happen," Thomas added.

Sixteen of the 42 poor countries most at risk from conflict or natural disaster do not have such UN coordinators, and the demand for these positions is only going to rise given the growing number of climate-related disasters, the minister said.

He urged the UN to reform its bureaucratic structures to ensure effective and accountable aid delivery with a minimum of red tape.

"We also need to work harder to make sure the funds given to the UN by governments, charities and indeed the public for disaster relief appeals are released in a faster and more user-friendly way for people running projects on the ground," Thomas said.

"The systems that are in place and lines of accountability need to work better to get the most out of these efforts," he added.

In just one example of the challenges facing aid operations, the UN said in August that 1.56 million dollars (about one million euros) of international cyclone aid to Myanmar had been lost due to the military regime's complex foreign currency rules.

Britain proposed setting up a task force of ministers to meet annually to discuss how the UN should best respond to humanitarian emergencies.

"Millions of communities around the world are relying on us to get this right," Thomas said.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
MYANMAR: High cost of fertiliser threatens harvest

DAYDAYE, 7 October 2008 (IRIN) - With many farmers in Myanmar's cyclone-affected areas unable to prepare their fields in time, many planted high yielding rice varieties (HYVs), which have a shorter growth period than traditional types.

HYVs generally take around three months to mature, and with this year's rice planting season over at end-July, farmers can expect to harvest in late October or early November.

Traditional rice takes longer than HYVs and is generally harvested in late November or December, depending on planting time.

However, according to specialists, only with the appropriate fertiliser use can farmers fully benefit from the potential of the high yielding varieties.

Traditional local rice varieties generally have a lower yield potential and are often grown without much fertiliser.

Fertiliser in the cyclone-affected rice farming areas of Myanmar costs around $21 per 50kg bag, but $15 in Yangon. Damaged roads have driven up transport costs.

In addition, local fertiliser dealers refuse to sell on credit, unconvinced they will be repaid.

Most paddy farmers apply fertiliser in two stages. Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) is normally applied in full as basal application during the final tillage operation at a rate of some 25kg per acre, while Urea and Muriate of Potash (MOP) applications are typically split. Fifty percent of Urea and MOP is usually made as basal application with the remainder applied as top dressing.

In an effort to help cyclone-affected farmers, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has distributed close to 2 million kg of fertiliser to cyclone-affected farmers through their implementing partners, including Welthungerhilfe (German Agro Action), Cooperation e Sviluppo (CESVI), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and International Development Enterprise.

Each beneficiary household was to receive a fertiliser kit consisting of 100kg of Urea, 50kg of TSP and 25kg of MOP.

FAO says that more than 10,000 households have been helped with its fertiliser and seed programmes but that donor funding is low.

"The agriculture sector continues to be the least funded among all sectors that are part of the overall response to Cyclone Nargis," Rene Suter, the FAO's head of the emergency and rehabilitation coordination unit in Yangon, told IRIN.

"In order to rapidly restore food security and rebuild shattered livelihoods, much greater donor support is urgently required," the official said.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Episcopal Relief & Development supports ongoing disaster relief in Myanmar
Source: Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD)
ReliefWeb - Date: 07 Oct 2008

Five months after Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar (Burma), people in the impoverished country are still struggling to rebuild their lives. Nargis, a category 4 storm, tore down trees and buildings, destroyed crops and livestock and cut power and communications in the Ayeyarwady Delta region, home to nearly half of the country's population.

At least 77,000 people were killed by the cyclone and 56,000 are still missing. Four thousand schools were flattened or damaged, impacting 500,000 children. Overall, children account for 40% of the hardest hit population and are most likely to die in disease outbreaks.

At this point, an estimated 80 to 90 percent of the total households in the affected area are living in improvised shelter. The rains that have accompanied the monsoon season have intensified the conditions of overcrowding, inappropriate sanitation and scarcity of potable water facing the internally displaced people in Myanmar. There is an ongoing need for food, medical aid and shelter.

Episcopal Relief & Development is partnering with The Church of the Province of Myanmar (CPM) to provide immediate and long-term relief. Staff from Episcopal Relief & Development have just returned from a monitoring trip to Myanmar where they observed first-hand the incredible needs in the country and the heroic efforts of CPM to meet these needs.

CPM has conducted eight field visits into the very hard to reach epicenter of storm damage with relief teams consisting of health workers, pastoral support, logisticians and labor teams to clear debris and repair damaged water sources and infrastructure. CPM is providing families with food, water purification kits, sheltering material and household kits that include mosquito nets, blankets and towels, water storage containers, cooking pots and other essentials for daily living.

In the coming months CPM will launch the rehabilitation phase of recovery, focusing on restoring livelihoods, rebuilding homes and infrastructure and supporting children orphaned by the storm. As over half a million acres of rice paddy, 38,000 fish and shrimp ponds and 152,000 acres of forest were destroyed, the need for agricultural recovery is extreme.

"CPM's mobilization efforts to reach those most impacted by the cyclone have been incredible," says Nagulan Nesiah, Program Associate for Asia at Episcopal Relief & Development. "We look forward to supporting them through the long-term rebuilding phase of the recovery process."

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Myanmar army moves against refugees, aid organization says
Earthtimes - Posted : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:36:19 GMT
Author : DPA

Bangkok - Myanmar's army and their allies the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) have launched an offensive against Karen refugees in the border region with Thailand, an aid organization said Tuesday. Speaking from the border town Mae Sot in northern Thailand, Help Without Frontiers, an Italian-based organization aimed at helping refugees of the long-running Karen insurgency, said several villages have been overrun already.

"The villagers are chased, rice barns and food are sequestered or destroyed, large cornfields are burned as well as several houses in different villages," the NGO said in a statement.

Five schools and two hospitals the organization was operating in the region with donations from Europe had to be closed. The helpers were still trying to treat the often heavily injured victims despite the fighting.

Myanmar's army was moving against members of the Karen ethnic minority with the aid of the DKBA, a breakaway from the Karen National Union (KNU), a rebel group that has been fighting for the autonomy of the Karen State for the past six decades.

In an attempt to escape the violence many fled to the border region with Thailand. The organization accused Thai authorities of driving back refugees across the border, after Myanmar soldiers and militiamen crossed into Thailand and committed acts of violence.

"And the international community is silent," noted the NGO.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Bangladesh proposes talks for link with China, Myanmar - Summary
Earthtimes - Posted : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:24:13 GMT
Author : DPA

Dhaka - Bangladesh on Tuesday proposed a tripartite meeting to discuss the possibility of linking the South Asian country with China via a cross-border road with Myanmar, an official said. Bangladesh's chief foreign policy adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed presented the proposal at a meeting with General Maung Aye, a high-ranking member of

Myanmar's military junta, who is on a three-day official visit to Bangladesh.

Maung Aye, vice chairman of State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar, leads a 55-member delegation including seven government ministers.

Dhaka has made the cross-border road, an approximately 120-kilometre overland link to China, a key point on the visit's agenda.

Myanmar officials did not respond immediately on the proposal saying they would think need to think it over.

Other topics under discussions were disputes over a maritime boundary, and leasing of Myanmar land to Bangladeshi farmers for cultivation.

Maung Aye will also make a courtesy call on President Iajuddin Ahmed.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Gas, energy talks with Myanmar set for Wednesday
Tue, Oct 7th, 2008 8:06 pm BdST

Dhaka, 7 Oct (bdnews24.com)—The ministry of energy and Petrobangla will meet separately Wednesday with a high-level delegation from Myanmar, in Bangladesh for three days for talks on a range of bilateral issues.

Energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin told bdnews24.com: "We will talk about co-operation in the energy sector in talks with the Myanmar delegation Wednesday afternoon."

Professor M Tamim, the chief adviser's special assistant for power, energy, and mines, and energy affairs minister Brigadier General Lun Thi will lead their respective sides in the talks.

The same Myanmar delegation will also sit separately with Petrobangla at its headquarters in the morning. Petrobangla will raise the issue of gas import from Myanmar.

Myanmar's vice-senior General Maung Aye is heading a 55-strong entourage in Dhaka, including seven cabinet members and chiefs of air and navy forces, for bilateral talks with Bangladesh on a range of issues.

Yangon has previously assured Dhaka of considering the latter's proposal on gas import, though it said last February that a decision would depend upon discovery of new reserves in Myanmar.

It also said priority would be given to Myanmar's promises to India and China ahead of Bangladesh.

The government began to ponder new avenues for gas following a countrywide crisis in supply last year. The energy ministry gave directives to prioritise gas to fertiliser factories during the last Boro rice season following crop-destroying floods last year.

Gas supply was reduced to power plants as a result.

According to Petrobangla, 613 million cubic feet against a requirement of 863 million cubic feet a day is being provided to power plants at present.

Around 240 million cubic feet gas against a requirement 289 million cubic feet gas is being supplied to fertiliser factories.

There are 79 wells with production capacity in Bangladesh's 18 gas fields. These fields wield a total production capacity of 1,834 million cubic feet a day.

A total 1,579 million cubic gas were produced on Tuesday.

Talking to bdnews24.com, chairman of Petrobangla Jalal Ahmed said another 30 million cubic feet gas from Bangura Gas Field was added to the national supply from Monday, bringing Bangura's total production to 100 million cubic feet.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Myanmar leader lauds look-east policy
Tue, Oct 7th, 2008 10:39 pm BdST

Dhaka, Oct 07 (bdnews24.com)— The visiting deputy head of the Myanmar military junta has praised Bangladesh's "Look East Policy" and the caretaker government's reform measures.

Speaking at a banquet hosted Tuesday night by Fakhruddin Ahmed at Hotel Sonargaon, Vice Senior General Maung Aye said his visit would strengthen relations between the two governments and the armed forces.

The chief adviser in his banquet speech said the general's visit would take forward Bangladesh-Myanmar relations further and suggested "better air and shipping connectivity" with Yangon.

"During our brief visit, we witnessed the impressive developments taking place in Bangladesh," said the Mynamar general, who was accompanied by cabinet ministers and chiefs of air and navy forces as part of a 55-strong entourage.

"We have also noted with interest the reform measures being undertaken by your government for the best interest of the country," General Maung Aye said in his written speech.

He said his country always maintained very friendly relations with Bangladesh.

"As my delegation includes high ranking officials from our armed forces, I am confident that our present visit would further consolidate the friendly relations between the two governments and between the two armed forces," he said.

He attributed the improved Bangladesh-Myanmar relations to the "Look East Policy" pursued by Dhaka in recent years.

"The traditional ties of our friendly relations have been further strengthened by our policy of maintaining friendly relations with its neighbours and your government's adherence to the look east policy initiative," he said.

"We highly appreciate this particular policy initiative which has resulted in a rapid increase in the bilateral interactions between our two countries," the general said.

Fakhruddin Ahmed said the two countries would sign more bilateral deals "shortly".

"Not so long ago, we reached an agreement on direct road link between our two countries. It was a landmark event in the developing road connectivity in the region.

"We look forward to better shipping and air connectivity, which, as we all know, will enhance trade and increase people to people contact," said Fakhruddin Ahmed.

"We firmly believe that after this visit there would be a giant leap in our bilateral relations," he said.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Bangladesh-Myanmar link road survey to begin soon
Voice of South (VOS) - October 6, 2008
by Jharna Roy

Dhaka is set to begin a survey on the proposed Bangladesh-Myanmar link road this month with the consent of Yangon.

The communications ministry has already requested the foreign affairs ministry to seek opinions of the Myanmar authorities in this regard, said a senior official concerned.

Dhaka may take up the issue of the proposed direct road link between the two neighbours for discussion with the vice-senior general Maung Aye, the vice-chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar, who is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka this morning on a three-day official visit.

“The survey on the proposed Bangladesh-Myanmar link road will begin soon” The construction work may begin in the middle of 2008,” the communications secretary, Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, told New Age in his office on Monday.

The contract for conducting the study and cost estimation of the trans-boundary road by March 2009 will be signed soon as the evaluation of the proposals was under process, official sources in the communications ministry said, adding that five consulting firms were short-listed for proposal submission.

Eight firms submitted expression of interest for the survey in response to the advertisement by the Roads and Highways Department.

The interim administration of Fakhruddin Ahmed after assuming office in January 2007 expedited the previous government’s move to establish the direct road link between Bangladesh and Myanmar to boost trade and commerce between the two neighbours.

The Planning Commission on March 10, 2008 approved an estimated fund of Tk 4.97 crore for the survey.

The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar earlier signed a memorandum of understanding on April 4, 2004 to initially construct the 25km link road two kilometres in Bangladesh and 23 kilometres in Myanmar at an estimated cost of Tk 195.85 crore.

Later in July 2007, the two governments signed another agreement on the proposed road communication between Myanmar and Bangladesh, to be financed by Dhaka.

The project area includes Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and the Arakan province of Myanmar. As per the memorandum of understanding, two task forces ‘technical and financial’ were commissioned for the proposed link road.

The Bangladesh-Myanmar Direct Link Road Project has been initiated by communications ministry of the government of Bangladesh and the Roads and Highways Department is the implementing authority of the project.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Even Myanmar shunning tainted Chinese milk
Responding to crisis, China calls industry 'chaotic,' vows penalties
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
PRESS DEMOCRAT NEWS SERVICES
Published: Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

Thanks to tainted milk, China's product-safety reputation is plumbing new depths. Even Myanmar -- where one of the world's most repressive and isolated military governments relies on trade with China -- has now warned its people to steer clear of all Chinese dairy products.

The generals who run Myanmar are sealed off from much of the world by economic sanctions, following a bloody military assault last year on Buddhist monks and pro-democracy protesters. They increasingly depend on China for everything from military hardware to consumer goods.

Still, Myanmar's government has publicized its destruction of 16 tons of Chinese baby food tainted with melamine, the industrial chemical that was mixed with milk products, leading in China to the deaths of four infants, the sickening more than 54,000 babies and a Chinese government crackdown on 22 dairy companies.

"Authorities concerned have urged the people not to consume milk and dairy products," the state-run New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday in Yangon, the capital.

The anomaly of consumer protection in Myanmar points to the scale and severity of China's global public-relations disaster in the wake of what appears to have been a long-standing, industrial-scale scheme to adulterate infant formula and other milk products.

China's Cabinet vowed a complete overhaul of the scandal-ridden dairy industry Monday, pledging to inspect every link from the farm to the dinner table to try to restore public trust in Chinese-made food products.

In its strongest action yet, China's highest level of government called the industry "chaotic" and acknowledged there was a lack of oversight.

At Monday's meeting of China's State Council, or Cabinet, the government said it would punish companies and officials involved in the contamination of milk products that has been blamed in the deaths of four babies and for sickening more than 54,000 children.

The scandal revealed "that China's dairy production and circulation has been chaotic and supervision has been gravely absent," said a notice about the meeting on the government's Web site. Unscrupulous "elements" and companies had also put profit above people's lives, it said.

Dairy operators add melamine to milk products to increase its protein levels -- and their profits. The chemical often causes kidney stones when consumed by babies in infant formula.

A global backlash to the milk scandal continues to burp up melamine-tainted foods, from "Chocolate Pillows" sweets in Osaka, Japan, to a milkshake in Austria to White Rabbit Creamy Candies in West Hartford, Conn.

The scandal has touched some of the world's largest food companies, with Nestle, Cadbury, Mars and Kraft Foods recalling products or suspending sales. Imports of Chinese dairy products have been halted from Brunei to Burundi, Cambodia to Russia.

"China is overwhelming other countries with its ability to produce things at a cheaper price," said Yoko Tomiyama, head of the Consumers Union of Japan, where paranoia about Chinese food products is now ubiquitous. "As long as this globalized consumer system prevails, there will always be the next melamine."

Over the weekend, China announced the arrest of six more people suspected of producing and selling melamine. They were detained in northern China, where the country's milk industry in based.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Bangladesh to procure 100,000 tons of rice from Myanmar
www.chinaview. cn  2008-10-08 00:47:25

DHAKA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh will procure 100,000 tons of rice from Myanmar on a regular basis as Dhaka mooted several proposals to expand bilateral trade and economic cooperation with Yangon.

The proposals included a gas pipeline from Myanmar to produce fertilizer in Bangladesh to meet Yangon's demand as well as contract farming by taking lease of Myanmar's agricultural lands.

The propositions were made during official talks between Bangladeshi caretaker government Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and visiting Vice-Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar Vice Senior General Maung Aye.

During the talks the two leaders discussed early construction of a 23-km road linkage inside Myanmar at a cost of 20.3 million U.S. dollars.

The Bangladeshi side proposed that the road linkage could be extended up to China to establish a direct road connecting China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Myanmar side said they would think about the proposal since it requires funding.

Briefing reporters, Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said, the two leaders also discussed delimitation of maritime boundary. "Talks were extremely fruitful," he said.

The two sides also focused on how to increase bilateral trade from current 140 million U.S. dollars to 500 million U.S. dollars as Myanmar showed interest in importing more pharmaceutic products from Bangladesh. Present volume of trade is tilted towards Myanmar.

Besides, the two sides discussed intensifying military to military cooperation through training programs and exchange of visits between the two countries.

An agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation was signed after the meeting.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Myanmar media stress important role of teachers
www.chinaview. cn  2008-10-07 11:22:24

YANGON, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar official media Tuesday stressed the important role of school teachers in producing human resources capable of facing and overcoming the challenges of knowledge age in the 21st Century.

In its editorial, the state-run New Light of Myanmar called for efforts to assign enough teachers in every region including border areas and to conduct more teachership and management courses.

Pointing out that high morale is primary in striving for all-round development of youths, the editorial held that teachers are to train and inculcate the students with knowledge, education and skill as well as with the habit of helping and understanding others and observing ethics and morality.

Under a 30-year long-term education promotion plan, the editorial urged all teachers to teach, train and nurture the students like their own children, saying that only then will qualified intellectuals and technocrats capable of serving the national interest.

Meanwhile, Myanmar education authorities have also emphasized the need for rural schools in the country to strive for keeping pace with urban ones to reduce the development gap of education between the two areas, urging the teachers to make their utmost in the aspects.

According to official statistics, 86.41 percent of basic education schools are in rural areas with 68.25 percent of students being rural people.

As of 2007, the number of basic education schools in Myanmar amounted to 40,553 with the number of teachers registering 260,000 and that of students 8.83 million. Multi-media classrooms stood 1,694 in number as of the same period, statistics indicate.

More figures reveal that there were 64 universities and colleges in the country with 520,000 higher education students up to the period.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Soldier commits suicide after allegedly killing commander: Eyewitness
Mizzima News - by MyintMaung
Tuesday, 07 October 2008 19:12

New Delhi - A soldier from the Burmese Army's Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 757 based in Hmawbe Township of Rangoon Division, reportedly committed suicide on Saturday after allegedly killing his commander, local residents said.

A resident of Oat Pho Township in Pegu Division, who claimed to witness the ensuing standoff among soldiers in nearby Aye Mya Thar Yar Village, said Private Kyaw Shwe Maung committed suicide on Saturday evening as he was cornered by fellow soldiers for allegedly killing his captain.

According to the witness, Kyaw Shwe Maung fled his battalion on Saturday evening after allegedly killing his captain. However the accused ended up cornered in an electricity transformer building after several soldiers based in surrounding areas including those from LIB 707, LIB 35, LIB 6, LIB 4 and LIB 5 along with local police stopped him as he was trying to escape on a motorbike.

"He shot more than ten times into the sky and took shelter against the transformer boxes," related the resident, who claims to have rushed to the scene along with several other local residents.

The local said there was a brief shoot-out between the accused and an officer who was leading soldiers from the Oat Pho-based LIB 707 in their search. The officer was reportedly severely injured in the exchange.

The ensuing standoff persisted for several hours as soldiers feared they might destroy the electric transformer. But at about 11 o'clock there came the loud sound of repeated gunfire, and when a few soldiers went in they found the Private dead with multiple bullet wounds, the local said.

"Soldiers recovered more than 170 bullets, hand grenades, a 9 mm pistol and a rifle from the private. They [the soldiers] took the body and buried it in nearby Pyidawthar Village," he added.

Another local resident of Oat Pho, when contacted by Mizzima, said she also heard of the incident but had not gone to witness the events, as she feared for her safety.

Similarly, a shopkeeper in Pyi, about 70 miles north of Oat Pho, said she also heard of the incident as she was returning from Rangoon on Saturday evening.

"As I was returning from Rangoon, soldiers stopped and searched all buses at Latpadan Town. The soldiers were saying that they were looking for a defector," she added.

Latpadan lies on the Rangoon-Pyi highway and is about 85 miles north of Rangoon and about 15 miles south of Oat Pho, where the incident took place.

She added that according to the soldiers and other rumors, the soldier was defecting from his base in Hmawbe after killing his commander. Soldiers from various battalions joined in the search of surrounding areas.

However, the local police station in Oat Pho was unavailable for comment.

The local witness, citing rumors spreading among the soldiers, said Private Kyaw Shwe Maung, an ethnic Arakanese, had allegedly killed his captain for abusing his social rights. But details of the case cannot be verified.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
NLD Seeking to Negotiate ‘Democratic Reforms’
The Irrawaddy - By SAW YAN NAING
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The National League for Democracy (NLD) is seeking to negotiate “democratic reform” with the Burmese generals if they will establish a constitution review committee, a NLD spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“If we get those chances, we will hold bilateral negotiations and go on based on our agreement,” said Nyan Win, an NLD spokesperson. “Our idea is for ‘democratic reform.’ We willingly want to negotiate with them [authorities] .”

Other NLD members said that if the military government is willing to review the constitution, the opposition NLD party may be willing to take part in the national elections in 2010.

The junta held a referendum in May on the constitution, which was drafted by its hand-picked delegates. After the referendum, it announced that more than 92 percent of the voters approved the constitution. Critics and opposition groups inside and outside the country called the constitution and referendum a sham.

The constitution guarantees the military continues to dominate the country’s political future by assigning its own representatives seats in the people’s parliament without contesting in elections.

On September 22, the NLD released a statement calling for a review of the constitutional process, calling the draft constitution “one-sided” and lacking the participation of the 1990-elected members of parliament.

Nyan Win did not discuss any details it might propose regarding the constitution. The Burmese authorities have not responded to the request

Some observers said they were pessimistic the junta would review its own constitution.

Cin Sian Thang, the chairman of the Zomi National Congress, said he didn’t think the generals would agree to a review because they are in the middle of their “seven-step road map” to democracy.

“Even if we [ethnic leaders and NLD leaders] didn’t agree with the junta’s road map, they [Burmese authorities] are likely to continue. If they finish their process, the situation in Burma will only worsen,” he said.

The UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari earlier this year also asked the junta to review the constitution but Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan told the envoy in March, “It is impossible to review or rewrite the constitution which was drawn with the participation of delegates from all walks of life.”

Thakin Chan Htun, a veteran Burmese politician in Rangoon, said the general election should be free and fair and the detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi should be allowed to participate.

To be a free and fair election, he said, the junta should first release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.

All Burmese citizens should be allowed to vote in the multi-party election and the international community, including UN representatives, foreign observers and journalists, should be allowed to freely report on the general election, said Thakin Chan Htun. 

The state constitution is step three of the regime’s seven-step “road map.” The fifth-step is the 2010 general election.

On September 25, after releasing a statement calling for a review of the constitution, the NLD was warned by the head of Burma’s police, Brig-Gen Khin Yi, to withdraw the statement. The authorities said it might motivate citizens to undertake activities critical of the military government and undermine the security of the state.   

The NLD, the main opposition party in Burma, won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in 1990. However, the current Burmese government, led by Snr-Gen Than Shwe, ignored the election results and refused to transfer power to Suu Kyi’s NLD.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Burma's IT Generation Combats Regime Repression
The Irrawaddy - By YENI
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

A truck carrying a squad of police pulls up in front of a Rangoon's Internet café. The police burst into the café and shout to the customers sitting at the computer terminals: "Hands off!" Then they tour the terminals and check every screen, asking users to describe what they are looking at.

If anyone is found using G-talk, the police inquire further—"Who are you chatting with?" "Where do they live?" Customers who come up with wrong or suspicious answers can be arrested.

This scenario is a common one in Rangoon's Internet cafes nowadays—in this era where tech-savvy young Burmese chat away on G-talk, check out the social-networking sites Facebook, Hi5 and Friendster, surf exiled Burmese websites and blogs and even share information about how to slip past regime censors by using proxy servers.

Since the September 2007 uprising, the Internet has shaped the way they think, relax and communicate in their isolated, military-ruled country. The Internet has created a virtual community and a new arena for freedom of expression.

"The uprising in Burma is ultimately an example of a protest where digitally network technologies played a critical role," researcher Mridul Chowdhury reported in his paper
"The Role of the Internet in Burma’s Saffron Revolution," a case study for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

Equipped with cell phones and digital cameras, and with access to the Internet, determined young Burmese are communicating with each other and the outside world as never before.

During last year’s monk-led demonstrations, known as the Saffron Revolution, Internet users also became publishers of text, audio, and video files illustrating what was happening inside the country. Suddenly, Burma was attracting the full attention of such international media as the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera. Condemnation of the regime’s repression of the protests followed from many governments.

Burma’s IT generation had a chance to flex its muscles before the generals pulled the plug on the Internet at the height of their crackdown on the September protests.

The junta has prevented Burmese citizens from using services like Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail and to block Web sites and blogs set up by exiled Burmese critics of the regime. But Internet cafes responded by installing foreign-hosted proxy servers to circumvent the government restrictions.

Risking arrest, imprisonment and torture, young Burmese—notably journalists and bloggers—have continued to play a crucial role in informing the outside world of the true situation in Burma.

They are more likely than ever to see the Internet as a means of achieving freedom of expression with the advent of information technology. In their blogs and chat rooms, they have been demonstrating the active role they play in sharing information and debating important issues in politics and other areas of domestic concern.

This is the reason why, one year after the Saffron Revolution, Internet cafes are becoming subject to severe surveillance by the police. Cafe owners are forced to take screenshots of user activity every five minutes and deliver these images to the authorities on a regular basis.

The owner of one Internet cafe in downtown Rangoon said the local authorities and police intelligence officers had issued orders to provide ID information about customers.

According to Internet cafe owners and users in Rangoon, Internet speeds have slowed down considerably since mid-September, making it impossible to upload large files such as photos or videos.

Meanwhile, the Web sites of the exile-run, Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and New Delhi-based Mizzima News were hit in July by DDoS attacks, shutting them down for several days.

Another DDoS attacks were again in September launched against The Irrawaddy, DVB and the Bangkok-based New Era Journal. The Web site of Mizzima News was hacked on October 1 with a cross-site scripting, making it inaccessible.

According to Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist Brian McCartan, two community forums Mystery Zillion and Planet Myanmar—Web sites providing information and instruction on how to circumvent the regime's control—were also disabled and shut down by similar attacks in August.

This kind of action by the regime, however, may indicate that the Internet has had an influence not only on ordinary users but also on the government’s overall response to the street demonstrations, the experts argue.

"While any number of deaths is unacceptable, it is also possible that the government actually exercised restraint in the use of force against civilian protesters because of the Internet and international media attention," Chowdhury wrote.

He pointed out that at least 3,000 demonstrators were killed in the nationwide uprising in 1988, while the official death toll in the crackdown on the 2007 demonstrations was far lower—31.

"It is plausible that the military felt it was under greater scrutiny because of the Internet, and that it was therefore more restrained in its use of force," Chowdhury said.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
Officials spared fines in corruption crackdown

Oct 7, 2008 (DVB)–Authorities in Meikhtila have provoked anger among local business owners by cracking down on those who buy electricity illegally while the military officers who supply them have gone unpunished.

Business owners who use electricity from the 30 army compounds in Meikhtila have complained that they are being fined several hundred thousand kyat while no action has been taken against the army officers who are selling this electricity, according to local residents and business owners.

One local resident said that local business owners, civil servants and market traders were being fined while the military officials escaped punishment.

"In truth, it is the army who are at fault. It is being taken directly from the transformer but it is the army that is operating it,” the resident said.

“There are many sawmills, ice factory and rice husk oil factory. The army is supplying them. Don't they have any responsibility?” he said.

“They are punishing only business owners. They are not punishing those responsible. "

The factories have been giving money to military authorities and using electricity from inside the army compounds for many years because of the shortage of electricity in Meikhtila’s industrial zone, locals said.

Business owners have been fined up to 1 million kyat for using electricity from the army compounds instead of the industrial zone, with authorities reportedly collecting 40 million kyat in fines in a single day.

The crackdown on the use of illegal electricity supplies began early this month and is being led by colonel Min Khaing, based on an order by the state electricity company which was issued eight months ago.

Business owners allege that the order was intentionally not made public to allow the authorities to make more money in fines.

Reporting by Aye Nai

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***