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HEADLINES
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AFP - Rice signs onto UN campaign to fight violence against women
AP - Myanmar court gives student activists prison terms
AP - UN: $7 billion needed for 2009 humanitarian work
IRIN - MYANMAR-THAILAND: Min Min U, Myanmar: "We thought we were all going to die"
Bernama - Activists want ASEAN Leaders to focus on abuse in Myanmar
Asia Times - Bangladesh and Myanmar in fuel spat
OutLook India - China plans to build major oil, gas pipeline across Myanmar
Economist.com - Icons under fire
Shanghai Daily - Woman charged with selling, beating Burmese girl
Scoop - Burma's Brutal Junta Continues
The Vancouver Province - Remote jails make family visits difficult
Mizzima News - Garment workers hit hard by global economic turmoil
Mizzima News - Editorial: Making a prison out of Burma
The Irrawaddy - Burma’s Youth Drown Their Sorrows
The Irrawaddy - Three Activists Jailed as Crackdown Continues
DVB News - Rights group highlights abuse of children in conflict
DVB News - Interview: Win Tin dismisses junta’s scare tactics

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Rice signs onto UN campaign to fight violence against women
2 hrs 51 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed onto a UN-sponsored campaign pressuring governments around the world to find ways to end violence against women, her spokesman said Wednesday.

"The secretary signed the UNIFEM (the United Nations Development Fund for Women) 'Say-No-to-Violence ' pledge as part of the campaign at the Web site, saynotoviolence. org," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

In signing the document on Tuesday, Rice released a statement describing the campaign's growing momentum and steps it has taken.

"One year ago... UNIFEM began its global campaign to advocate among publics and governments for an end to violence against women," Rice said in the statement read by McCormack.

"During its June 2008 Security Council presidency, the United States focused on actions that would follow from UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security," Rice said.

On June 19, she chaired a UN debate that culminated in the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1820, which she said "condemns the use of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations.

"Violence against women remains a fact of life in countries worldwide," Rice said in the statement.

"Like poverty, HIV-AIDS, poor maternal health, and lack of access to education, violence against women is an ill that affects the person, her community, and her nation," Rice said.

With the campaign going strong, she said, "we should dedicate ourselves to creating awareness among individuals and communities of the great damage violence against women afflicts and commit ourselves to end this atrocity."

During the debate in New York in June, Rice cited the example of Myanmar where she said "soldiers have regularly raped women and girls even as young as eight years old."

In the meantime, Rice said the Myanmar junta keeps opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a woman, under house arrest instead of allowing her to take the office as the country's elected leader.

Rice also referred to widespread acts of sexual violence in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan.

The top US diplomat also highlighted acts of sexual violence perpetrated by UN peacekeepers in several countries around the world.

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Myanmar court gives student activists prison terms
AP - Wednesday, November 19

YANGON, Myanmar - A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced a student activist Wednesday to 6 1/2 years in jail, a week after his father received a 65-year prison term for his own political activities and a decade after his grandfather died in custody.

Colleagues said Di Nyein Lin was one of three student activists sentenced by a court in a suburb of Yangon for various offenses, including causing public alarm and insulting religion. The colleagues spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of official retribution.

Di Nyein Lin's father, Zaw Zaw Min, was one of 23 members of the 88 Generation Students group who were each given 65-year sentences last week.

Zaw Zaw Min's father, Saw Win, was a member of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, and died in prison about 10 years ago.

Many of the 88 Generation Students' members were at the forefront of a 1988 pro-democracy uprising and were subjected to lengthy prison terms and torture after the rebellion was smashed by the military. They resumed political activities after being freed, spearheading protests against the junta.

Di Nyein Lin is a leader of the outlawed All Burma Federation of Students Union, to which several of the 88 Generation Students' members belonged in 1988.
In an intensive judicial crackdown on the country's pro-democracy movement, at least 70 activists have received prison sentences in the past two weeks, many after being held for more than a year before being tried.

The courts' actions _ which would keep many of the country's most prominent activists in jail long past a general election set by the ruling junta for 2010 _ have received worldwide condemnation.

Most of the 88 Generation members were arrested on Aug. 21, 2007, for protesting a fuel-price hike, while others were arrested after rallies led by Buddhist monks that were violently suppressed in September that year.

They were sentenced under various charges, including a law calling for a prison term of up to 20 years for anyone who demonstrates, makes speeches or writes statements undermining government stability, and for having links to illegal groups and violating restrictions on foreign currency, video and electronic communications.

Also sentenced Wednesday were Kyaw Swa Htay, who received a five-year sentence, and Kyaw Hsan, sentenced to four years in jail.

Amnesty International and other international human rights groups say the junta holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 in June 2007 _ before last year's pro-democracy demonstrations.

The prisoners include Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, as she has been on and off since 1989.

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UN: $7 billion needed for 2009 humanitarian work
AP - Wednesday, November 19

GENEVA (AP) - The United Nations asked Wednesday for $7 billion (5.5 billion euros) to fund its humanitarian work around the world in 2009 _ almost double last year's appeal as a result of soaring food prices and crises in Africa, among other factors.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged donor nations and private groups to support urgent aid for 30 million people in 31 countries who need drinking water, emergency shelter, medicines and other basic necessities of life.

``Our aim is to help these most vulnerable people survive the coming year,'' said Ban, who left Geneva on Wednesday morning after visiting the European headquarters of the United Nations.

Aid agencies have to spend more money to buy food, and more people need food aid because they cannot afford it anymore, said Robert Smith, an official with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Worsening humanitarian situations in countries such as Congo and Somalia _ where an increasing number of people have suffered from droughts and violence this year _ also contributed to the increase of the appeal, he said.

Ban said the global financial crisis had raised inevitable concerns that there could be a decline in humanitarian funding for 2009.

``I urge (U.N.) member states and private donors not to let that happen,'' he said.

This year's appeal was made on behalf of 360 aid organizations, including specialized U.N. agencies, non-governmental organizations and other international bodies _ 172 more than last year.

It includes aid programs designed for the Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, Congo, Iraq and surrounding countries, Kenya, the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, the West African region and Zimbabwe.

Sudan is by far the country with the largest funding needs, at $2.2 billion (1.7 billion euros), followed by Somalia, at $919 million (726 million euros) and Congo, at $831 million (657 million euros).

Smith said aid programs in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region ``continue to be very expensive.''

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, and officials have been unable to protect citizens from violence or the country's poverty. Eastern Congo has been unstable since millions of refugees spilled across the border from Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

``Millions of people continue to struggle with long-running conflicts, natural disasters, the effects of climate change and high food prices,'' U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said.

``The $7 billion that we seek equates to, for every $100 of national income in the rich countries, only a few cents of aid,'' he said in a statement.

Last year, the U.N. originally appealed for $3.8 billion to support 25 million people during 2008.

Disasters, such as the Myanmar cyclone in May and growing numbers of uprooted people and refugees from Iraq, led the U.N. to increase its total funding requirements for
this year to $7 billion. The U.N. said it has received 67 percent of the funding needs.

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MYANMAR-THAILAND: Min Min U, Myanmar: "We thought we were all going to die"

MAE SOT, 19 November 2008 (IRIN) - Min Min U, 24, from the village of Betut in Labutta Township, deep in the heart of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta, recalls the day Cyclone Nargis struck, prompting him and his wife to migrate to the Thai border town of Mae Sot:

"The winds started to blow at around 2pm on 2 May. They were quite strong, but nothing out of the ordinary for that time of year. After a couple of hours we thought it might get worse, so my family collected our belongings and took them inside the house.

"At around 5pm the winds became stronger still. Everyone moved to shelter in our rice store. Only I stayed in the house.

"We lived next to a big creek and the storm was making the water level rise. After a while our boats started to blow against the house. It was deafening. The house shook so violently that it started to lean over and collapse.

"I was very frightened, so I ran to the rice store. By then, about 100 people from my village were sheltering there. It was very crowded and noisy. People were crying, the children were screaming.

"Everyone was sitting on the wooden beams under the roof, because the store was full of rice and the water was rising. But eventually the wind ripped the roof off.

"We were terrified. We thought we were all going to die. But all we could do was sit on the remaining shattered pieces of wood in the torrential rain.

"By the time it was light, the storm had stopped and the water level had dropped to normal. All we could see was devastation. My house was completely destroyed.

"I built a shelter for my wife and I. No one from the police or army came to our village, so after 10 days living off old rice and coconuts we went to Labutta.

"We stayed at a monastery where the monks built temporary shelters and were doing what they could to give out food and help to survivors.

"A group of monks from near Myawaddy [in Kayin state near the border with Thailand] was helping. They listened to my story. I told them how we'd lost everything, our house was destroyed, and we had no work. We didn't know what to do.

"One of them said a lot of Burmese people went to Mae Sot. He told us how to get there, and gave me the name of a group, the Arakan Workers' Union [AWU], that would help us.

"I had some money, and we sold everything else we could, even our wedding rings, to pay for the trip.

"It took us more than three days by bus to travel from Labutta to Yangon, and on up to Myawaddy.

"We crossed the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge to Mae Sot on 3 July.

"Things are okay here. We feel safer and we have food and a place to stay. AWU is teaching us Thai, and how to sew, so we can get work in a local factory.

"We really just want to go home. But as our livelihood in Betut has been destroyed, and there aren't any jobs, how would we survive?"

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ACTIVISTS WANT ASEAN LEADERS TO FOCUS ON ABUSES IN MYANMAR
Bernama - Thursday, November 20

BANGKOK, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- Asean leaders have been urged to pay more serious attention to the alleged human rights abuses in Myanmar where in November the military regime sentenced 119 pro-democracy activists, some with up to 65 years' imprisonment.

Burma Partnership, a movement of organisations and individuals promoting freedom, democracy and human rights in Myanmar, said the nine Asean members should recognise the widespread and increasing problems in the country, and that the situation would not improve until strong international action was taken.

"Burma (Myanmar) is already a red stain on Asean's name, and its increasing instability is spilling over.

"Asean needs to take significant measures to propel the release of all political prisoners in Burma and the return of a proper process of national reconciliation, " the movement said in an open letter to the nine leaders.

It said that despite calls from many international leaders, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Asean ministers for the release of political prisoners and valid progression towards national reconciliation, especially in the run-up to the 2010 elections, nothing had changed.

"The military junta is avidly ignoring these calls by locking up and harassing any organisation or person that questions their tyranny," Burma Partnership said.
-- MORE

MYANMAR-ASEAN 2 (LAST) BANGKOK

The letter was sent to the leaders of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The movement said Asean leaders should demand the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic leaders.

"As the Asean Summit is approaching, we particularly ask you to make this issue focal there," it said, referring to the 14th Asean Summit to be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand from Dec 13 to 18.

According to the movement, the military junta has stepped up arrests and sentencing of political prisoners who are not violent criminals, "but monks, students, bloggers, lawyers, journalists, musicians, poets and political leaders who peacefully demand a stable government that respects the rule of law and the people's right to life, liberty and security".

"These arrests and sentences stand against the Asean Charter, and will contribute to regional instability, " it said.

Among those sentenced to jail was U Gambira, leader of the All Burma Monk's Alliance who organised nationwide peaceful gatherings of monks in September 2007. He received 12 years' imprisonment.

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Bangladesh and Myanmar in fuel spat
Asia Times - Nov 20, 2008
By Andrew Symon

SINGAPORE - The search for offshore energy resources has triggered a border dispute between Myanmar and Bangladesh that threatens to complicate China's ambitious designs to pump fuel from the region to its landlocked southwest Yunnan province through a yet-to-be-built 2,300 kilometer long pipeline.

The two sides squared off this month when Dhaka challenged the legitimacy of offshore exploration by South Korea's Daewoo, which won the now contested concession from Myanmar's military government. Tempers flared at the start of November when Myanmar sent two warships as escorts for Daewoo's vessels and rigs working in the Bay of Bengal in what Myanmar has designated as offshore block AD-7.

The block lies in waters along Myanmar's far western border and about 93 kilometers southwest of Bangladesh's St Martin's island. Dhaka has formally protested to both the Myanmar government and Daewoo, and sent three warships into the area, underscoring its demand for an immediate halt to Daewoo's exploration.

Both sides temporarily mobilized their frontier forces, but tensions eased when Daewoo on November 6 shifted its rig out of the contested waters. Myanmar's state-run newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, reported that the "necessary survey was completed and the rig moved to the uncontested offshore block A-3 further to the east". Bilateral talks over the dispute held in Dhaka this week were inconclusive, with the sides agreeing only to meet again.

The offshore border has been a contentious issue since the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 after the civil war in Pakistan. The demarcation stakes have risen with the recent discovery by Daewoo of large gas fields in the area. These finds, until now in undisputed Myanmar waters, suggested that areas further to the west and entering the disputed zone might also produce gas.

Daewoo discovered large gas stores in Myanmar's A-1 block, just offshore its Rakhine state coast near Sittway and east of the contested maritime border zone, in 2003. Daewoo estimated at the time the find contained 4-6 trillion cubic feet of gas at an easy-to-tap depth of 150 meters, and had potential prospects of 14-20 trillion cubic feet.

Daewoo has since 2001 operated the block in partnership with India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), GAIL India and the Korea Gas Corp. In early 2004, Daewoo also took up block A-3, immediately below block A1, and subsequently the contested block AD-7 to the west, in February 2007.

The Shwe discovery in Block A-1 triggered a frenzy of new exploration in Myanmar's offshore western areas. China's state-run CNOOC entered in 2004; Essar, the private Indian company, in 2005; GAIL as an independent operator in December 2006; China's Natural Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)/PetroChina in January 2007; Malaysia's Rimbuan Petrogas in February 2007; and ONGC, taking up three blocks, in September 2007.

Similar dynamics are at play in other potentially hydrocarbon- rich areas. Contested claims between Vietnam and China in the South China Sea have come into sharp relief over the past 18 months. Beijing has stridently declared that exploration rights tendered by Hanoi off Vietnam's southeast coast in 2007 to the UK's BP and India's ONGC and in mid-2008 to the US's ExxonMobil have been conducted in Chinese waters.

There are also disputes brewing between Brunei and Malaysia over the maritime border between the east Malaysian state of Sabah and Brunei, and between Malaysia and Indonesia over an offshore area between the southeast corner of Sabah and northeast Kalimantan.

These conflicts came to the fore respectively in 2003 and 2005, after governments awarded exploration rights to international companies in areas where maritime borders were still unsettled, and they are still unresolved. Also at issue is the believed to be highly prospective Overlapping Claims Area between Thailand and Cambodia.

The existence - or at least the possibility - of rich oil and gas stores in contested maritime areas is making it harder for claimant states to reach agreements. Analysts say tensions are being driven and negotiations stalled by growing governmental anxieties over energy security, and none want to be remembered as the one who gave away a potential sovereign prize.

"If it were a matter of fish, that is, if the stakes were just fishing rights, negotiations would be a lot easier," one international lawyer says.

It's a problem not unique to Asia. According to geographers Victor Prescott and Clive Schofield in their definitive Maritime Political Boundaries of the World, less than half of some 427 potential maritime boundaries have been formally agreed. In Southeast Asia, where boundaries were often determined by now departed colonial rulers, conditions are especially prone to dispute.

Few parts of the world have as many states situated in and around such a complex, oil and gas-rich archipelagic geography. There are nine Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) states, plus Timor Leste, along with China and Taiwan, that have maritime coasts in the region. The 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea, which allows states to claim exclusive economic zones 200 nautical miles, or about 370 kilometers, from their coastlines has often sparked rather than extinguished disputes.

These have often erupted into verbal slanging matches between governments, centering generally on how potential petroleum spoils would be exploited and divided. Sending out the gunboats, as seen this month with the Bangladesh-Myanmar dispute, has been a common regional response.

As Alan Perry, a UK-based law partner at Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge and an expert on cross-border disputes, recently told a conference in Singapore, "If you don't protest, you may waive your rights."

With the Bangladesh-Myanmar dispute, those rights represent potentially huge revenues, considering China's and India's interest in piping fuel claimed by Myanmar to their respective domestic markets.

So far, Beijing has won out and gas is scheduled as early as next decade to be transported through a proposed 2,300 kilometer pipeline directly to its southwest Yunnan province. China's success in securing the fuel, some say, reflects Beijing's larger economic interests in Myanmar, as well as its political and diplomatic support for the ruling military junta.

Piping gas to India's West Bengal would for efficient delivery require negotiating transit rights through Bangladesh, which won't happen any time soon in view of Myanmar's and Bangladesh's recent spat.

Analysts note there were already long-standing difficulties, steeped in a history of mutual suspicion, between Dhaka and New Delhi over the idea of building a pipeline to India. Private companies operating in Bangladesh, including Chevron, Shell and Cairn Energy, as well as multilateral lenders like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, have long argued the economic case for pipeline-fed exports.

At the same time, the maritime dispute has only marginally complicated China's energy designs for the area, but could have wider implications if tensions resume and escalate.

When the situation threatened to spin out of control this month, China's Foreign Ministry publicly called for cooler heads to prevail and for both sides to settle the dispute "through equal and friendly negotiations" .

Andrew Symon is a Singapore based writer and analyst specializing in energy and resources. He can be reached at andrew.symon@ yahoo.com. sg

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China plans to build major oil, gas pipeline across Myanmar
OutLook India –

BEIJING, NOV 19 (PTI) China today announced revival of its plan to build a giant USD 2.9 billion oil and gas pipeline across Myanmar, in a major move to get a toehold on emerging Asian energy markets.

China, which has outbid Indian oil companies in a number of major contracts in Myanmar, said the work on the new pipeline connecting Myanmar with its Yunnan province would begin early next year, the China Daily newspaper reported today.

Quoting Chinese oil companies' officials, it said that the project, a joint venture between China and Myanmar, was being undertaken to reduce Beijing's over-dependence on energy transportation from the Gulf through the straits of Malacca.

The project includes constructing two separate pipelines one worth USD 1.5 billion oil pipeline and the other USD 1.4 billion gas pipeline, with the country's major China Natural Petroleum Corporation holding a 50.9 per cent stake in the project.

The remaining stake would be held by Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprises.

Once completed, the pipeline is expected to provide an alternative route for China's crude import from West Asia and Africa through the straits of Malacca.

Currently, 80 per cent of China's crude imports of 200 million tonnes pass through the straits of Malacca. According to international energy agencies projections, China and India are going to be world's leading importers of oil and gas in next 10 years.

China plans to extend its oil and gas pipelines by 60 per cent by 2010. It has already made operational the first West-East gas pipeline in 2004 and the work on the second such project has already began in February this year.

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Icons under fire
Economist.com - Nov 19th 2008

Both the Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi face criticism from their own sides

BORN to leading roles among their people; one a devout Buddhist, the other a reincarnate Buddha; Nobel peace prize-winners; championed by the famous; admired around the world: Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and Myanmar’s detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, have much in common.

Add two more items to the list. Both, so far, are political failures. And both are now facing quiet criticism for that from their own supporters.

The Dalai Lama’s policy of negotiating with China about the status of Tibet seems to be leading nowhere, as he himself has admitted. And Miss Suu Kyi’s long, lonely vigil in Yangon seems not to have weakened the junta ruling Myanmar. Indeed, the generals seem as solidly entrenched as at any time since they brutally crushed the pro-democracy movement in 1988.

In Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama’s seat in exile in northern India, exiled Tibetans have convened this week to discuss the future. Many have long felt uneasy at the Dalai Lama’s policy of offering to accept Chinese sovereignty in Tibet in return for the promise of genuine autonomy.

Two setbacks, probably related, have made the Dalai Lama’s efforts seem even more futile. Late last month, the British government, the only one in the world not to recognise China’s full sovereignty in Tibet, came as close as it could to doing so.

This undermined the historical basis of the talks the Dalai Lama’s envoys have been holding sporadically with China. At the eighth round, the latest, in Beijing this month, China’s position seemed to harden, and it denounced the Tibetans’ proposals for autonomy as a bid for “disguised independence” .

Similarly, Burmese activists have long whispered grumbles about Miss Suu Kyi—criticised either for not being flexible enough when there have been opportunities for talks with the junta; or for being too docile, and refusing to call for an uprising.

Some of the grumblers spoke to journalists who were writing a long feature on Miss Suu Kyi that appeared in The Guardian this month. Entitled “Not such a hero after all”, it has created, as its writers clearly intended it to, a bit of a stir, with its attack describing Miss Suu Kyi as recalcitrant, ineffective, “authoritarian and proud”.

The article is deeply unfair. It ignores the much more stringent conditions of her detention and isolation in recent years. And it accuses her of some things she never did—of, for example, “drumming out” NGOs working on humanitarian calamities, such as an HIV epidemic.

But, as with the Dalai Lama’s critics, the authors and the disillusioned Burmese activists they quote have a point. Miss Suu Kyi’s strategy, articulated in a brief period of relative freedom in the late 1990s, has failed. Encouraging international sanctions to isolate the regime has not brought it close to collapse. Rather it has reduced the influence of the West in favour of that of Myanmar’s regional neighbours.

Behind the sniping at both Miss Suu Kyi and the Dalai Lama is an important argument that is rarely made explicit: about whether non-violence can ever effect change. This is fundamental to what they both stand for. Both loathe violence.

The Dalai Lama is famous for his good-humoured optimism, even in the most trying circumstances. Yet a leading Indian politician, who was attending a series of religious lectures that he gave in March, as Lhasa erupted in bloody riots, recalls that the Dalai Lama found teaching almost impossible.

Similarly, this columnist met Miss Suu Kyi several times in the 1990s. Only once did she lose her poise, when the government had mobilised thugs to menace her supporters on the streets, and a nasty confrontation seemed to loom.

Many Tibetan and Burmese activists believe pacifism does not work. In fact, one surprising recent study by two American academics, Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, suggests non-violent campaigns are more effective than armed uprisings. They analysed 323 resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006, and found that non-violent campaigns achieved success 53% of the time, compared with 26% for campaigns of violent resistance.

This is scant comfort to Tibetan and Burmese activists impatient for change. And both groups face another difficulty in common: that there is no alternative or individual in place to succeed Miss Suu Kyi or the Dalai Lama. Their passing will be a huge blow to both movements.

Yet it would also remove the only credible interlocutors available to China and the Burmese junta. They tend to see the Dalai Lama and Miss Suu Kyi respectively as the embodiment of their problems with restive populations. In fact, they may represent the only hope of a peaceful solution.

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Woman charged with selling, beating Burmese girl
Shanghai Daily - By Tom Qian  |   2008-11-19

A 16-YEAR-OLD girl from Myanmar was sold into marriage in Shanghai and beaten by her seller, according to prosecutors in a Shanghai Morning Post report today.

Prosecutors in the city's Minhang District charged Zheng Qinglan with human trafficking, the report said.

Zheng allegedly sold the girl for 30,000 yuan (US$4,386) to a man surnamed Wei on July 20 after telling him the girl was 20 years old, from Yunnan Province and spoke very little, the newspaper said.

Wei, 33, a native of Henan Province, found the next day he could not communicate with the girl and that she was uncooperative. She cut up all of her new clothes and smashed things in the bridal chamber, the report said.

Wei allegedly called Zheng and wanted his money refunded. Zheng rushed over, closed the door and allegedly beat the girl, the report said.

A 60-year old neighbor surnamed Hu called police.

Officers rescued the girl soon afterwards. With the help of an interpreter, police learned the girl was simply looking for work when Zheng took her from a Burmese man on a street at the China-Myanmar border, the report said.

She also said her father had died when she was very young while her mother had abandoned her and her sister. The girl wanted to find a job to help her pregnant sister, according to the report.

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Burma's Brutal Junta Continues
Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 12:11 pm
Scoop - Press Release: Terry Evans

The crackdown on opponents of Burma's brutal junta continues, with nine more political activists sentenced behind closed doors in Rangoon's Insein Prison yesterday. The jail terms handed down - on charges of illegal assembly and involvement in public demonstrations - ranged from 6 to 12 years.

The harshest sentence of 12 years was reserved for Htin Kyaw, who mounted a solo protest in 2007 against the junta's gross mismanagement of Burma's economy. In addition Sandar Wara, a Buddhist monk from Rangoon, received an 8-year sentence for his part in the September 2007 anti-junta demonstrations. Four members of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions together with three members of the youth wing of Burma's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, received 6-year sentences for participating in last year's mass demonstrations.

In a cruel new twist, the Burmese military authorities have transferred numerous political prisoners, including well-known pro-democracy activist Min Ko Naing, from Rangoon to remote prisons across the country. This action is designed to further demoralise the political prisoners by making visits from family and friends virtually impossible.

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Remote jails make family visits difficult
The Vancouver Province - Published: Tuesday, November 18, 2008

YANGON (Reuters)-- Myanmar's junta has sent dozens of political prisoners recently sentenced to up to 65 years in jail to far-flung corners of its gulag, making it hard for family members to deliver food and medicine, relatives said yesterday.

Without the informal delivery of supplies such as malaria and vitamin pills, detainees face a far greater risk of dying behind bars, say former political prisoners who have fled to Thailand.

"They were taken in secret from Insein Central Prison through the back gate early on Sunday morning,'' Ko Aung, the younger brother of former student activist Ko Ko Gyi, said. "We waited at the front gate hoping to see them but didn't get the chance.''

The U.S. government denounced Myanmar's military rulers for what it called "arbitrary sentencing'' of dissidents and "persistent repression of its people.''

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Garment workers hit hard by global economic turmoil  
Mizzima News - by Nem Davies  
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 17:07

New Delhi – Some garment factories in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zones in Rangoon have reduced their workforce in the face of declining foreign demand, while laborers are struggling to earn a sufficient income with fewer orders to fill.

A senior staff member from the Myanmar People's Garment Factory in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone (2), from which previously male shirts were manufactured and exported to Hong Kong, Australia and Germany, told Mizzima that because the company no longer has a need to pay staff to work overtime, many employees have resigned – as the base salary is insufficient to meet their needs.

He said, "Outside connection links have slowed, compared with before. Because of a halt in foreign orders, working overtime has also been stopped. We haven't cut labor, but previously we were able to pay for overtime since there were export orders. So, the workers have moved to places where overtime is still available."

The source did not mention how many workers left.

In two garment factories in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone (3), each previously operating with over 200 workers, the labor force has been reduced because of an apparent drop in foreign demand.

"There were over 200 workers. But one employer said they have reduced the number of workers due to the rarity of orders," said a man close to the factories.

At least 200 workers from these two factories were notified they would be laid off and were subsequently released with two weeks advanced salary.

Similarly, although the Yancikyan Garment Factory in Bago had already had to gradually reduce its workforce, rumors are now circulating that the factory has decided to shut its doors altogether – though management was unable to be contacted to confirm or deny the report.

In September of this year the global economy was sent into a tailspin following the collapse of several key financial firms in the United States.

This is but the latest blow to the garment industry, which was hit hard following comprehensive sanctions imposed on business interests in Burma by the United States in 2003, which led to the closing of approximately 100 garment factories across Burma and caused about 60,000 workers to lose their jobs.

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Making a prison out of Burma
Mizzima News - Editorial: Monday, 17 November 2008 17:31

Gagging the voice of protests and imprisoning dissidents for an incredible 65 years, pairs Burma's governing junta with some of the most repressive regimes in the history of the modern world. The verdicts are making a mockery of the justice system and turning the judiciary on its head.

The regime is determined to push ahead with the 2010 general election and will resort to any measure at its disposal, a la the reported 93 percent approval in May's constitutional referendum, to emerge victorious. Laws regulating the election will soon be announced. But the writing is already on the wall, the opposition will struggle, under drastically curtailed opportunities, to contest the polls. A ban on Aung San Suu Kyi contesting the elections is already in force – as per the constitution pushed upon the people earlier in the year. In this context, the harsh sentences recently meted out to opposition figures are designed to discourage dissidents and anti-regime forces in contesting the 2010 poll.

To the civilized world, what is happening in Burma may seem like madness – a system gone horribly awry. But there is a method to the madness.

Burma's generals have unleashed terror in the run-up to its declared 2010 general election, the final phase of the so called "seven-step road map to disciplined democracy," that ostensibly promises to put an end to 45 years of what many people in the impoverished Southeast Asian country, and outside, call, "despotic military rule."

As has too often been the case with Burma, over the course of these four plus decades, caught in the eye of the storm are dissidents, political opposition leaders, party workers, ethnic leaders, human rights crusaders, journalists, literary figures, artists, bloggers, human rights activists and social workers. Their nomenclature means nothing to a regime fixated on a singular agenda -- to retain a stranglehold on power.

The unabated onslaught on the opposition in the aftermath of the 2007 Saffron Revolution is not new, what is new is the changed circumstances in the wake of the stage-managed constitutional referendum. Emboldened by the success of its countrywide deceit, the regime has gone ahead with preparations for the 2010 poll; the arrests and sentencing of numerous opposition figures and activists being yet one more calculated move by the junta in clearing and paving the way for victory through its civilian arm – Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).

What has transpired following the sustained arrests of activists, monks and others, is a spate of sentences since November 11th, in which verdicts were handed down ranging from two to 65 years – making a mockery of the judicial system. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Human Right for Burma, following his initial visit to the county in August of this year, identified reform of the country's judicial system as one of four crucial elements to be addressed if the 2010 elections are to stand any chance of being widely accepted, both inside and outside Burma.

Astonishing as it may seem outside the bamboo curtain that encircles Burma; the youth arrested were sentenced to prison terms meaning they will be nonagenarians when released, should they even manage to survive the harsh and hostile conditions of Burma's notorious prisons.

Over the course of a single week this November, nearly 100 people have been cast behind bars in the wake of trials in which, in many cases, no defense counsel was permitted. Unfair trails and arbitrary sentences on trumped up charges are well designed to intimidate politicians, activists and the people at large in the run-up to the 2010 election, causing dismay and condemnation around the world.

The irony is that none of the activists did anything to deserve arrest, let alone be put on trial and made to languish in jails across the country. All they did was protest against tyranny, human rights abuses, spiraling prices and a deteriorating political and economic atmosphere in a nation which has sunk to abysmal depths.

In just about a year, the number of political prisoners has jumped from approximately 1,200 to 2,100, according to Amnesty International and other rights organizations. Heading the list of course is Aung San Suu Kyi, the only Nobel Laureate under detention – having now been detained for an astonishing 13 years.

The lessen apparently drawn by Burma's generals following last year's mass protests was certainly not that of the desperate need for dialogue and national reconciliation, rather, the junta has taken it upon itself to implement and escalate a campaign of repression and arrest throughout the country – in an attempt to maintain its position as unilateral arbiter over all affairs of the country.

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Burma’s Youth Drown Their Sorrows
The Irrawaddy - By KYI WAI
Wednesday, November 19, 2008

RANGOON — The Kahthain festival represents the end of Buddhist lent and is an occasion for devotees to offer robes to the monks. Yet despite the religious nature of the day, dozens of young men are staggering around drunk.

Some of them gather under a tree where some women have set up a stall to collect donations for the local monastery. Behind them, the youths shout at each other and swear.
Two of them are so drunk they cannot stand up, and as they lean on the sacred tree for support it sways and strains under their weight.

“In the old days, some of us would drink alcohol to celebrate after the festivals had finished,” said a 68-year-old man in Thar Kay Ta Township in Rangoon. “Nowadays the youngsters are drunk all the time.”

He said that in his community there are about 50 households with a population of about 500, yet there are no less than 13 liquor shops or bars.

“Wherever you point your finger, there’s a bar or stall selling liquor,” said a resident of Hlaing Thar Yar Township.

According to a lecturer in the psychology department at Rangoon University, the customers are of various ages and backgrounds. The only connection they have is the economic and social stress they suffer from.

"When many men encounter problems and they cannot solve them, they go straight to the liquor store, buy a bottle, drink it and then fall asleep to forget,” he said. “However, the constant worry and stress drives them to keep drinking until finally they are addicted to alcohol.”

Another reason so many men spend their days in bars is that it is so economical, said the lecturer. While a cup of tea or coffee in a tea shop costs 250 to 300 kyat (US $0.20-0.30), a shot of cheap grain spirit sells for just 50 kyat ($0.04). That means sitting in a bar getting drunk with their friends is a seemingly cost-effective pastime for many disenfranchised youths.

A bar owner in Shwe Pyi Thar Township said that more and more bars are sprouting up to take advantage of the situation.

“Selling alcohol is simple math,” he said. “You get a profit of 400 or 500 percent on every drink.”

With shots of liquor so cheap, it seems unlikely that such a business could be so lucrative. The bar owner explained that he buys a gallon of 95 percent concentrated spirit at the market for 2,400 kyat ($1.90) where it is sold in tanks.

One bottle of concentrated spirit can then be mixed with four bottles of water and is immediately put on the shelf for sale. One gallon of distilled concentrated spirit can therefore produce 30 bottles of diluted liquor.

Bar owners also purchase locally produced rum for 2,000 kyat ($1.60) a bottle or local whiskey for 2,600 kyat ($2.08) a bottle. At the roadside bars they sell a single shot of rum or whiskey for 250 kyat.

An ex-alcoholic said that some unscrupulous dealers make moonshine by soaking the tip of a thin stick of bamboo with Cyclodiene insecticide and then setting it alight. They then scrape the ashes into bottles of concentrated alcohol and sell the poisonous concoction as “high-grade liquor.”

A private distiller estimated that 75 percent of “imported” spirits for sale in Burma are counterfeit.       

The moonshine industry has spawned a market in recycling empty bottles. Garbage collectors will even pay for certain bottle types.

According to a physician in Rangoon, the number of fatal incidents relating to cirrhosis of the liver has been increasing steadily in Burma.

He said that 97 percent of these cases were alcohol-related.

There are reported to be more than 20 state-owned and private distilleries operating in Burma, all owned by former military officers, ministers or their cronies.

Since only the General Administration Department of the Home Ministry holds the authority to issue permits to sell alcohol, and that permit often costs more than 1 million kyat ($800), most bar owners in Rangoon only apply to sell low-grade alcohol, then stock rum and whiskey under the counter.

The Burmese authorities officially stopped issuing permits to distilleries in 1999. However, the illicit production of alcohol is now escalating significantly in rural areas.

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Three Activists Jailed as Crackdown Continues
The Irrawaddy - By MIN LWIN
Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Three political activists were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment on Wednesday by a court in Rangoon’s Sanchaung Township in a continuing crackdown by the regime on dissidents.

Dee Nyein Lin, a leading member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, was sentenced to six years and six months imprisonment on charges relating to his involvement in anti-government demonstrations, family members reported.

Kyaw Zwa was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years and six years imprisonment, while Kyaw San received a four-year sentence.

Dee Nyein Lin’s father, Zaw Zaw Min, a member of the 88 Generation Students group, was sentenced to 65 years imprisonment on November 11 by a court in Rangoon’s Insein Prison, along with several other members of the group.

Dee Nyein Lin’s grandfather, veteran journalist Saw Win, a member of the opposition National League for Democracy, died in prison in 1998, seven years into a 10-year sentence.

In the current crackdown, about 80 political activists, students, journalists, a poet and a blogger have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 65 years imprisonment on charges relating to involvement in the August-September 2007 demonstrations and infringements of laws on illegal assembly, resisting officials on duty, disturbing public order and regulations governing Internet use.

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Rights group highlights abuse of children in conflict

Nov 19, 2008 (DVB)–The Human Rights Education Institute of Burma has published accounts of numerous violations of the rights of children due to armed conflict, in a new report released today.

Forgotten Future: Children affected by armed conflict in Burma was launched today at a press conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Aung Myo Min, executive director of HREIB, said the report was based on interviews conducted over the last year with about 100 children, parents, school teachers and local influential figures in different regions across Burma.

"A unique thing about this report is that it pointed out all six different types of child abuse that take place in areas of conflict," he said.

"These include the killing of children in areas of conflict, sexual abuse of children, abduction of children, forced recruiting of children into the army, preventing them for receiving humanitarian assistances and attacking hospitals and medical centres."

 

These six categories were identified as grave violations of children’s rights by United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and were set as a framework for investigation by a task force on Burma established by the UN Security Council in 2005.

The HREIB report claims that violations in all these categories have been committed against children in Burma over the past five years, mostly by government forces.

The recruitment of underage children into the military was identified as a war crime by the International Criminal Court in 1998, but the use of child soldiers continues, notably in Burma, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia.

The Burmese government has often claimed in the state-run media that the army does not use child soldiers, though there are regular reports of children being abducted by military officers and forced to enlist.

According to human rights groups, about 70,000 children in total are still being used as soldiers by the government military and ethnic rebel groups in Burma.

Reporting by Peter Aung

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Interview: Win Tin dismisses junta’s scare tactics

Nov 19, 2008 (DVB)–Veteran journalist and senior National League for Democracy member Win Tin said activists would not give in to the Burmese regime’s efforts to intimidate them, in an interview with DVB on Sunday.

Win Tin was released from prison in September after serving more than 19 years and immediately resumed his work with the pro-democracy movement.

DVB began by asking Win Tin’s opinion on the 65-year prison sentences recently imposed on leaders of the 88 Generation Students group.

WT: “They are giving student leaders, youth activist leaders and young democracy leaders such long sentences, and it is supposed to be very frightening and shocking. But in my opinion, these are nothing to be afraid of. These student youth leaders will not be shaken, because they will stand up for themselves during the trial. They will go to jail. What it shows is that however much they try to intimidate them, they will not be afraid.

“If you go and speak to the student leaders now, they will not say a word about fear. Similarly, when I listened to their parents and families' words in the media, they said nothing about being shocked. The families are surviving in defiance. For example, I heard them say things like, ‘however many years they imprison them for, it could all be over tomorrow or the day after’. Similarly, when the media speaks to the public, no words about fear come out. This is a very good sign. We feel sorry about their imprisonment, but we are not surprised. We have to be fearless. They are trying to frighten us but we are not afraid. Fearlessness will overcome and defeat those who try to frighten us.

“If I can quote the words of an old woman, the mother of Zarganar, ‘[the authorities] are the ones who should be afraid; they will get the hatred and revulsion of the people’.”

DVB: Do you think the authorities are trying to intimidate people in this way to stop them protesting against the 2010 elections?

WT: “The purpose of their intimidation is to frighten and alarm their victims and their families. But you can’t say what the consequences will be. Their purpose is not only to frighten the families, it is also political. The reason is, for example, we want to hold a dialogue. This means we would need to meet face to face. However, they seem to be saying they do not want this. If this is how heavily they have punished the student leaders, it suggests that their attitudes on other matters such as dialogue and negotiation won't improve.”

DVB: What do you think about the possible visit of Ban Ki-moon to Burma?

WT: “In this kind of situation, world leaders need to think carefully because [the generals] are creating this atrocious situation and if people like Ban Ki-moon only come and go along with their plans, see what they are shown and listen to what they are told, the international leaders will end up supporting and giving their blessing to the military government. To put it clearly, this kind of person should not come.

“I once said that when people like Ban Ki-moon come to Burma, it is very good as it shows that world leaders are interested in our country's political affairs. But, in this kind of dire situation, when world leaders visit it is like they are giving their blessing. We welcome their interest but we are not waiting here with open arms. We even want to say clearly to Mr. Ban Ki-moon; don't come.”

DVB: I heard that the US and UK ambassadors came to meet you. Can you tell us anything about that?

WT: “It is nothing new. I was told that the person from the US was an official from the US Senate budget committee. His main job is humanitarian assistance and aid. I explained to him about the current situation of our country and he told me that they are giving assistance through the government. We didn't make much comment about it. As for the various levels of assistance, I only told him that help should get to the people who are really in trouble, not to the military government. He also explained a little bit about his work. I didn't manage to say anything in particular as we only had 45 minutes. Then he held discussions with the NLD's AIDS support group for about 15 minutes.
“As for the meeting with the UK ambassador, he told me that UK's support for democracy in Burma is really growing. His prime minister, Mr Brown, recently said that support for democracy and the release of political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was very high. Moreover, the European Union are also holding discussions on how to give effective help to Burma's democracy movement or pressure the military government. He said that Britain would take part in this decision-making process.”

DVB: Did you meet them at the NLD headquarters or the embassy?

WT: “We have been doing all these things in the office, and the military government has often noted that people are going in and out of the office. Diplomats have been meeting with political parties and organisations; it is nothing new. They explained to us their political attitudes and we explained ours. I want people of other countries to understand. We are a legal political party. But when you see how much they know about how many times which embassy personnel have come to see us, you can understand how tight the situation is for a pro-democracy group like ours. “The military government is placing guards, intelligence agents and police everywhere. They say that diplomats' cars keep coming to our compound, making it sound as if the diplomats are giving us orders and directions. This is groundless. When an embassy car comes to our office, sometimes it is because the embassies have issued some statements, news or journals. They come to give us these; this is a tradition. In a democratic system, the embassy cars and newspaper people can visit political parties. “Similarly, when the embassy officials come, they hold discussions with us. They explain their political situation, their attitudes and the situation in their country. We also explain to them our country's situation and our political stance. I want to be clear on this because I knowing that [the government] is trying to make people misunderstand us. “I also want to say how difficult it is, how much we have been watched – I want the world to see clearly how much they are oppressing and controlling us. I have been out of prison for more than a month now and they have been tailing me non-stop. They have placed guards at a snack shop and a rice shop day and night. They also follow me to the houses I visit. They follow me on two motorcycles or by car when I go to the office.

“For example, I went to see an old friend of mine U Kyi Htoo the other day. He used to work as the chief director of the Interior Ministry's censorship board. He is more than 80 years old and he could not come out of his house to the garden, he was lying in bed. I went to greet him and the police intelligence officer followed me. He also asked the neighbour if the person who had entered the house was U Win Tin – they didn’t know. The neighbour then phoned U Kyi Htoo, which caused him to panic.

“The other day I spoke to the police officer and protested, 'What you are doing is not right. You can follow us. You can get information from us. It is not good to harass and intimidate our hosts or other people. Please do not harass other people. If you want you can ask me where I am going. I will tell you.' I am out of jail now but I feel like I am still in jail.

“The whole country is in prison, but we can communicate with each other because of the new technology called mobile phone. But when they imprisoned the students, they used technology, including mobile phones, to implicate them. They intercepted their conversations with people abroad and prosecuted them. They could also prosecute me for talking to you like this. I might even get 65 years like them.”

DVB: What can people do inside the country?

WT: “Inside the country, the people are feeling angered by [the harsh sentences]. People are becoming less frightened but more angry. It is another matter whether we can take advantage of these reactions inside the country or not. But the people’s resentment will increase anyway. The economy within the country is deteriorating and we have to expect more foolhardy actions by the government. The potential for confrontation between them and the people is very high. In this kind of situation, political, pro-democracy and opposition groups will have to say something, do something, give guidance, and I hope that they will do so. I cannot say what will happen. I am hoping that the movement will become stronger within the country; I believe that stronger opposition and resistance will emerge.

“However much they intimidate us, we are not afraid. As Daw Suu said, even if you are afraid, keep on doing what you have to do. Like the song by Sai Htee Saing, ‘I am tired, but not tired’, our motto should be ‘I am afraid, but not afraid’. I myself might be afraid, but I am living with the motto, I am afraid, but not afraid.

“The worst they can do is imprison or intimidate us. I don't care. We are not afraid in accordance with the guidance of Daw Suu. Even if I am not afraid, the people who are afraid will make me feel afraid. To be above this, I will proclaim that I am afraid, but not afraid. I want to encourage people to hold onto a doctrine of no fear. You don't have to be afraid.

“The more people are afraid, the more military governments tend to frighten and oppress them. If there are ten people and only five people are afraid, it will make the throne of the king unsteady. It could even bring it down.”

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw

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