Junta, Ethnic Groups Still Use Child Soldiers, Says Human Rights Group

The Burmese military and armed ethnic insurgent groups are still using child soldiers, according to a human rights group.

Some child soldiers in the Burmese army are as young as 10 years old, the report said.

A report, “Sold to Be Soldiers: The Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Burma,” released on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based organization, says the military government is forcibly recruiting children.

“The brutality of Burma’s military government goes beyond its violent crackdown on peaceful protestors,” said Jo Becker, a children's rights advocate for Human Rights Watch. “Military recruiters are literally buying and selling children to fill the ranks of the Burmese armed forces."
The report said recruiters target children at train and bus stations, markets and other public places. Some are threaten with arrest when they refuse to join the army while others are beaten, the report said.

Ye Htut, the deputy director general of Burma's Information Ministry, told The Associated Press news agency that the report uses baseless accusations and lies created by ethnic insurgent groups.
The report said child soldiers receive about 18 weeks of military training and some are sent into combat situations within days of their deployment to military units. Some are forced to participate in human rights abuses—such as burning villages and using civilians for forced labor—and those who attempt to escape are beaten or imprisoned, the report said.

One child soldier in the Burmese army who escaped to the Karen National Liberation Army, the military wing of the Karen National Union, and was interviewed by The Irrawaddy in mid-2004 said child soldiers who were arrested after an escape attempt were imprisoned for as much as seven years. (See related link: http://www.irrawaddy.org/print_page.php?art_id=3796)
The human rights group said armed ethnic insurgency groups also use child soldiers but in smaller numbers. Two ethnic armed groups, the KNLA and Karenni National Progressive Party, are reducing the use of child soldiers, the report said.

In 2006, the KNU and KNPP said that they no longer recruited child soldiers and appealed to UN officials and other international organizations to remove their names from the lists of organizations that use child soldiers.

The report said ethnic ceasefire groups including the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, United Wa State Army and Karenni Nationalities People’s Liberation Front continue to recruit child soldiers.
Thousands of children are included in the Burmese army’s ranks, the report said, although the number varies widely among different units. In some newly formed units, children reportedly constitute a large percentage of recruits.

In September 2006, Lt-Gen Thein Sein, who was recently appointed Prime Minister, ordered the army to recruit 7,000 soldiers per month, the report said.

In July 2007, Thein Sein met with the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy. He agreed to set up a special government post to work with the UN on the issue of using child soldiers and agreed to reduce the recruitment of children into the army.

Bush Discusses Burma Crisis with UN Chief

US President George W Bush discussed the Burma crisis in a telephone call to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday, as both leaders prod for change in the repressive regime in Burma.

Bush and Ban agreed on the importance of serious talks between the military regime and the democratic opposition, with the goal of a return to democratic government, White House spokesman Dan Perino said.

To that end, Ban told Bush that UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari is expected back in Burma by as early as Thursday.

"The president emphasized the need to maintain a clear message to the military regime that real political change, aimed at a restoration of human rights and democracy, is required to end the crisis," Perino said.

The UN does not have confirmation of a specific date for Gambari's visit, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said. Earlier this month the UN said that Burma had agreed to move up the date to early November from mid-November.

Germany, India Urge Burma to Release Political Prisoners

India and Germany urged Burma's military rulers Tuesday to free all political prisoners and hold talks with the United Nations, following a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

India has come under intense international pressure to take action over the junta's repression of recent monk-led protests across Burma, largely because of the strong economic and military ties established between the two countries in the past decade.

"We jointly share the view that political prisoners have to be released. There has to be negotiations with the United Nations," German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in India for a four-day visit, said after meeting External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.

Last week, Ibrahim Gambari, the UN's special envoy to Burma, urged India to break its silence over the Burmese military's violent response to the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations. Gambari, who also visited Beijing, has suggested that Burma's two giant neighbors should take a lead in resolving the crisis.

India has said it is talking quietly to Burma—an approach that has upset critics at home and abroad who argue India's inaction makes it complicit in the brutal repression.

India shifted its policy from support for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi—who has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years—to one of engaging Burma's generals in the early 1990s, in part because of a desire to access Burma's large natural gas reserves.

New Delhi has never specified the extent of business ties between India and Burma. But even as the protests gathered momentum last month, India's petroleum minister, Murali Deora, was in Burma signing a US $150 million gas exploration deal.

India has also shown interest in securing the cooperation of Burma's military in containing several separatist groups fighting New Delhi's rule in the remote northeast, a region that borders Burma. India's military has said several insurgent groups launch attacks in India from bases across the border in Burma.

France, Thailand Say Burma Needs Incentives to Democratize

France and Thailand agree that the world community must provide positive incentives to push Burma's junta to democratize, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday.
World criticism of Burma's military regime heightened after it violently quashed pro-democracy demonstrations last month, with the US and Australia increasing economic sanctions against the junta as a result.

The European Union has also proposed increasing sanctions. "We worked on sanctions ... Was it enough? Certainly not," Kouchner said during a joint press conference with his Thai counterpart, Nitya Pibulsonggram.

Expressing some skepticism over the effectiveness of sanctions, Kouchner said such measures have to be coupled with positive incentives.

"The people are miserable. The people are living in poverty," he said.

As an incentive for the regime to work for national reconciliation in Burma, an international trust fund could be set up for development projects, Kouchner said on Monday in Singapore.
Kouchner cited as an example the World Bank trust fund that was set up in 2000 for war-devastated Kosovo, where he worked as chief UN administrator to coordinate reconstruction and peace efforts.

He did not give a target sum or a timeline for a Burma fund.

Kouchner is visiting the region to discuss Burma with some of its closest neighbors and trading partners. He will also be traveling to China, the junta's most important ally.

Nitya said Thailand "sees completely eye to eye" with France on the issue of incentives and would fully support a fund as well as policies on Burma that focuses on social and economic development.
Nitya said sanctions by Thailand—Burma's second most important trading partner—would be not be easy, adding that there is no consensus among nations about whether sanctions work effectively.
"Where does it hurt? Does it hurt the few or does it hurt the people?" Nitya said.

United We Stand, say Burmese Ethnic Leaders

Ethnic leaders based inside Burma have told The Irrawaddy that they supported the recent monk-led protests. This comes in response to reports suggesting that exiled ethnic groups shied away from the protests and largely ignored the uprising.


The leaders confirmed that they did not view the uprising as a conflict between Burman and Burman, but a fight between the military government and the people of Burma.

  A substantial percentage of Burma’s population is made up of ethnic peoples, including the Kachin, Karen, Shan, Mon and Arakan (Rakhine). The regime often claims in its propaganda-prone media that Burma has more than 130 national races, but does not clarify the subgroups of the minorities. The multicultural claim has raised fears among several governments in the region that Burma could disintegrate into another Yugoslavia or Iraq once the regime is overthrown.

Ethnic minorities joined in the nationwide demonstrations, side by side with Burmans. Although the monk-led demonstrations mainly took place in Rangoon, there were also protests in ethnic areas, particularly Arakan and Kachin states.

Aye Tha Aung, chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy and the secretary of the Committee Representing People’s Parliament, said that since the junta took power in 1962 the country’s political and economic situation has deteriorated.

“The fight for democracy is also a fight for the rights of ethnic people,” the leading Arakanese politician told The Irrawaddy by phone.

Khin Htwe Myint, an elected member of parliament from the Karen State National League for Democracy told The Irrawaddy that the majority of people living inside Burma faced great difficulties as a result of military rule.

“Those who think the recent demonstrations were just for the benefit of one political party or one individual are very narrow-minded people,” she said.

During the peaceful protests, the security forces arrested more than 3,000 demonstrators, including Buddhist monks and well-known ethnic leaders who were outspoken, such as Cin Sian Thang, a member of the CRPP and chairman of the Zomi National Congress; and Thawng Kho Thang, also a member of the CRPP and the United Nationalities League for Democracy.

Burma’s ethnic leaders live in danger. Aye Tha Aung, and Shwe Ohn, aged 84, the senior leader of the Democratic League for the National Races of the Shan, claim that they are closely monitored by the Burmese authorities and can be arrested at any time.

In February, 2005, Hkun Htun Oo, chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, Sai Nyut Lwin, secretary of SNLD, Maj-Gen Sao Hso Ten, president of the Shan State Peace Council and Sai Hla Aung of SSPC were all arrested and given life sentences.

Several ethnic leaders are reputed to be narrow-minded; however, not only are they moderate and broad-minded, but they have been active in the democracy movement and take great risks in continuing the fight, not only for the rights of ethnic minorities but for all the people of Burma.
Aye Tha Aung and Khin Htwe Myint are cautious and emphasize that there are many opposition groups and armed groups living in Burma. Although their goal is the same they still cannot overthrow the regime.

“In this situation we have to think about unity,” Khin Htwe Myint said. “If we work together as one united front and are of the same conviction, we will achieve our aim.” 

Aye Tha Aung questioned why so many dedicated groups have taken so long to topple the military regime. “Is this because of the military government is too strong?” he asked.

“If we want to build a federal democracy in our country we have to work together believing in this mission,” Aye Tha Aung added.

“We can never achieve it if we are not united—especially when we are fighting against the military rulers.”

Rangoon Residents Forced Onto the Streets

The Burmese military government held pro-constitution draft rallies in nine townships of Rangoon on Monday morning for the first time, while authorities forced residents onto the streets to join the rallies, according to sources.

“The officials ordered each ward, or neighborhood, to send 500 people to this morning’s rallies,” said a Dagon Myo Thit resident. “After the rally at the public park in Dagon Yeik Mon Garden City, they (the officials) told us to walk around the townships. People don’t want to show their faces at pro-junta rallies because it is considered shameful.” 

The objective of today’s rallies was to show support for the junta’s constitution draft and the seven-step “Road Map to Democracy” plan, said the source. The protesters shouted slogans in support of the junta’s agenda regarding the “Road Map.” Thousands of people reportedly attended this morning’s rallies in Rangoon.

As the first step in the “Road Map,” the national convention concluded on September 3, a few weeks before monks led mass protests in Burma and the subsequent violent crackdown by the security forces.

The second step of the seven-step road map is rather obscure: “After the successful holding of the National Convention, step-by-step implementation of the process necessary for the emergence of a genuine and disciplined democratic system.”

As the third step—under decree 2/2007—a committee of 45 professional persons was appointed to draft the constitution. The appointment of the committee on October 18 is being hailed by the Burmese junta as another important step on the seven-stage road map.

Usually, pro-junta rallies only occur in Rangoon at football stadiums or in certain public places. However, this time the authorities forced residents to walk in the streets with the protests, said the sources.

Among the nine townships at which rallies were held, four were in Dagon Myo Thit Township, a notoriously poor neighborhood built in 1989 in the suburbs of the city after the junta’s brutal crackdown on the 1988 uprising. Hundreds of thousands of people in central Rangoon were forced to relocate to Dagon Myo Thit by the junta as a punishment for supporting the pro-democracy demonstrations and as a tactic to prevent another popular uprising.

Burmese Exile Media on Alert after Crackdown Warning

A Burmese exile media organization in Bangkok has dropped its Web site news service “temporarily,” amid reports of a crackdown on such operations on Thai territory that carry material critical of Burma’s junta.

The reports surfaced last week and caused other exile media groups in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Mae Sot to lower their profile. There were warnings of possible raids by Thai police and immigration authorities.

The Bangkok-based media organization that dropped its Web site news said it had been asked by Thai authorities to close its office “temporarily” starting from last Friday. A spokesman for the organization asked The Irrawaddy not to identify it.

Since Friday, the organization’s Web site has been carrying a message saying that “due to security and technical changes we are temporarily stopping our internet page.” The organization is reported to be still working on its printed edition.

The unnamed organization and several other Web sites and publications run by Burmese exiles have played a key role in reporting on the brutal suppression of September’s demonstrations.
They have come in for constant attack by the Burmese junta, along with overseas-based targets such as the Burmese service of the BBC and the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma. 

Zin Lin, spokesman of Burma’s democratic government in exile, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, told The Irrawaddy that its office in Bangkok had been warned by Thai authorities to adopt a “low profile.”

The NCGUB office in Bangkok was still functioning, he said. The headquarters of the government in exile are located in Washington DC.

“The Burmese state-media blamed the exile groups in Thailand for recent mass protests,” said Zin Lin. 

Myint Wai, of the Bangkok-based Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that his group is also vigilant in view of the reports of a possible crackdown.
The TACDB’s operations are mainly focused on Burmese migrant workers, many of whom have no legal documents.

Reports of a possible crackdown have also been circulating since Friday among the several Burmese organizations and NGOs working in northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai province.
Burmese officials are rumored to have asked Thai authorities to close some offices linked to the September demonstrations in Burma. In the past, the Burmese government has usually used a friendly channel to pressure Thai authorities close to Burma to harass exiled Burmese.
A source at the Democratic Voice of Burma said the DVB’s office in Chiang Mai was still operating but was taking a low profile. 

Previously, some Thai officials occasionally acted in cooperation with the Burmese regime, who complain that Thailand allows opposition groups to operate and demand they  take action against Burmese pro-democracy activists in the country.

In November 1995, Khit Pyaing, a Burmese-language news operation also known as New Era was raided by Thai police, and a veteran journalist, Ye Khaung, and his wife were arrested.
In October 2006, a Burmese stringer working for the Oslo-based DVB was forced to leave his home in Ranong province, southern Thailand, after voicing concern about his safety.

Previously, prominent human rights organizations, politicians and US congressmen have reacted promptly when Thai officials raided Burmese offices operating in Thailand.

During the administration of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, several offices in Sangklaburi were forced to shut down by Thai officials. The crackdown prompted international outcry and condemnation.

The Irrawaddy has learned that US and western diplomats have also been closely monitoring the situation and the safety of Burmese groups living in Thailand.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Meets Burmese Junta's Official

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi—under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years—met for about one hour with a Burmese military government official Thursday afternoon, a diplomat said.

In this Myanmar News Agency photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, newly-appointed Burma Liaison Minister Aung Kyi, right, meets with Aung San Suu Kyi, detained leader of the National League for Democracy, at the state guest house in Rangoon, Thursday. [AP Photo/Myanmar News Agency via Xinhua]

Suu Kyi was driven a few minutes from her home to a government guest house, where she held talks with newly appointed liaison minister, Aung Kyi. The information came from a diplomat who did not want to be identified for political reasons.

A retired major general, Aung Kyi, was appointed to the post on October 8 to hold talks with Suu Kyi.

It is not clear if this is Suu Kyi's first meeting with Aung Kyi, who on Wednesday was elevated to labor minister from deputy labor minister.

With Aung Kyi's appointment, the junta said it hoped to achieve "smooth relations" with Suu Kyi. Early this month the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece of the junta, printed a brief official announcement on its front page saying that Kyi had been appointed "minister for relations" to coordinate contacts with Suu Kyi, the country's democracy icon.

Appointing a liaison officer was suggested by UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari during his September 29-Oct. 2 visit to Burma, state media said.

Gambari met with both top junta officials and Suu Kyi.

A protest movement began August 19 over the government raising fuel prices. It mushroomed over weeks into a broad-based anti-government movement pressing for democratic reforms.

Tens of thousands demonstrated—the largest protests in nearly two decades of brutal military rule.
Gambari's trip came after troops quelled mass protests with gunfire. The government said 10 people were killed, but dissident groups put the death toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of monks.

Aung Kyi's exact duties have not been detailed, but it appeared he would coordinate all of Suu Kyi's contacts with both the regime and the United Nations, which is seeking to end the political deadlock between democracy advocates and a military that has ruled since 1962.

Aung Kyi has a reputation among foreign diplomats, UN officials and aid groups as being relatively accessible and reasonable compared to top junta leaders, who are highly suspicious of outsiders. He has had the delicate task of dealing with the International Labor Organization, which accuses the junta of using forced labor.

Early this month the government announced that junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe was willing to meet with Suu Kyi—but only if she met certain conditions, like renouncing support for foreign countries' economic sanctions against the military regime.

Than Shwe has only met Suu Kyi once before, in 2002.

If Burmese Junta Falls, What Then?

Under the most optimistic scenario, a "people power" uprising topples the iron-fisted generals who have ruled Burmese for a half century. Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from years of house arrest and announces general elections.

The world cheers.

But were such events to unfold—and many say the junta is sure to tumble one day—Burma's long anguish might simply give way to chaos.

After a collective sigh of relief from a long-suffering population, some experts foresee a "nightmare scenario"—resurgent ethnic insurgencies, gutted institutions, clashes among leaders with no experience in democracy and continuing aftershocks from the junta's ruinous economic policies in one of the world's poorest nations.

"The transition to civilian rule is bound to be extremely difficult, given the fact that the country has not had a truly civilian government since 1962," says Bertil Lintner, one of several Burma experts who believe elements of the military would have to be retained to guide the country through such turbulent times.

Following the junta's crackdown on protesters, many in the international community—including the US—have renewed calls for democracy in Burma.

However, the country's giant neighbor and chief backer, China, has stressed stability and a gradual transition over sudden regime change, a view shared by some of Burma's Southeast Asian neighbors.

Abruptly jettisoning the military, it is feared, would have dire consequences. There are too few qualified civilians left to run the country, and disbanding the army might imperil security, much as it did after Iraq's forces were sent home after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

"You've had, over the past 40 years, the army slowly become really not just a dominant state institution but practically the only state institution, even at the local level," says Thant Myint-U, author of a recent book on his homeland, "The River of Lost Footsteps."

Buddhist monks, numbering some half a million, took the leading role in recent protests and remain a highly revered and potentially effective force for change, but cannot by their own precepts step in to govern the country.

Not only does the 400,000-strong army wield the guns—turning them on a rebellious citizenry as it did in recent weeks—but it has taken over all major business enterprises and all but the routine tasks of government.

A state-within-a-state as well as a privileged class, the military provides its own with relatively good schools, health facilities, housing and jobs, while the public copes with a shattered infrastructure on less than US $1 a day.

"Rebuilding these structures at the same time as easing the army out of its overall government role is an almost unprecedented task. It's hard for me to think of another situation in which that has happened peacefully," said Thant Myint-U, a former UN official.

Democracy may not find fertile soil in Burma, which has passed through a thousand years of feudalism, 124 years of British colonial rule and 45 years of military dictatorship, with a tumultuous, 14-year experiment in democracy sandwiched in between.

The last generation that participated in free elections is rapidly passing. Repeated crackdowns have decimated the ranks of younger pro-democracy activists, and many others are pursuing new lives abroad.

Although hugely popular inside Burma and internationally, the 62-year-old Suu Kyi remains untested as a political leader. Before emerging to lead an anti-government uprising in 1988, she had spent most of her life abroad, despite being the daughter of Burma's martyred founding father, Gen Aung San. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest.

"She's probably the only person who could counsel patience and moderation and be able to bring a large part of the population with her," said Thant Myint-U. "This will be important for the transition, but beyond that it's impossible to know how well she would be able to cope with the challenges of day-to-day government."

Many among the educated in Burma fear these are bound to be legion—from the confrontational politics that marred the country's flirtation with democracy to a dearth of human capital following what critics consider one of the military's worst offenses: a "war on education."

Universities, regarded as hotbeds of dissent, were shut down for nearly seven out of the 12 years following the 1988 uprising. In many schools, textbooks, if they exist at all, must be shared, library shelves are all but empty and science is taught without laboratories by teachers on starvation wages.

"Maybe that is what the military really wanted, the elimination of an educated population.

Women Activists Call for Rights, Protection

Women activists hiding in Burma have called for the safety of all women living in fear and in hiding, by sending a report to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, the same day the Security Council discussed and expressed concern over gender-based violence.

Nilar Thein, a member of 88 Generation Students movement, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that their report focused on the lives of women in Burma and the discrimination, abuse and violence of the Burmese military government during the recent political unrest.

The report said that women inside Burma, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are facing a loss of civil and human rights and a lack of physical security. It accuses the Burmese junta of using violence, arresting and beating civilian women and nuns who were involved in the recent peaceful demonstrations.

Nilar Thein, who had to leave her baby behind when she went into hiding, said that the Burmese soldiers and their security forces were hunting down various women and taking them to undisclosed locations. Those arrested include women up to seven months pregnant. 

“The military regime has been hunting down women activists women like common criminals. Several women are subjected to sexual harassment,” Nilar Thein said. “We fear for the lives of the women who were arrested by the Burmese authorities.”

The report has signed by four women activists, including two well-known women leaders who participated in the peaceful marches—Phyu Phyu Thin, a member of the National League for Democracy who is also known as a HIV/AIDS activist, and Nilar Thein.

For the sake of security the report was sent to the UN with only four signatures, but Nilar Thein stressed that it was sent on behalf of all women who are living in fear, hiding or facing violence in Burma.

“According to a cemetery caretaker, one pregnant woman was attacked by soldiers, bayoneted and then burned alive in the Yayway Cemetery in Rangoon,” Nilar Thein said.

In addition to the UN Security Council, the report was also sent to members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations, US first lady Laura Bush, non-governmental organizations and women’s rights groups.

The women urged the international community to come and witness the crisis in Burma with their own eyes as soon as possible, and to help the Burmese women and who live under the constant threat of the Burmese junta.

The Security Council itself on Tuesday urged member countries, including offices within the UN institution, to increase female participation in the decision-making process and to take specific steps to protect women and girls from gender-based violence during conflicts.

Chinese Embassies Targeted by “Free Burma” Demonstrations

Demonstrations demanding democracy in Burma were held on Wednesday outside a dozen Chinese embassies worldwide to mark the 12th year that Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spent in house arrest.

Activists wearing masks of Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi chained themselves together during a protest outside the Chinese embassy in Bangkok on Wednesday [Photo: Reuters]

Suu Kyi is the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and the other six women who have won the award wrote in a joint letter to the British newspaper The Guardian: "The detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is the most visible manifestation of the regime's brutality, but it is only the tip of the iceberg."

In Australia, where a demonstration was held outside the Chinese diplomatic representation in Sydney, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced on Wednesday his government was applying sanctions against more than 400 members of the regime, their families and business people.

In London, a demonstration was organized outside the Chinese embassy by the Burma Campaign-UK. Demonstrators wore Aung San Suu Kyi masks.

“We urge the Chinese government to stop using their veto power [in the UN Security Council],” said Zoya Phan, a Burma Campaign UK campaign officer. China was being targeted in demonstrations because of its support for the Burmese military regime.

“If the Chinese government cares about human rights, peace and democracy in Burma, they should influence the generals and pressure the military regime to cease their human rights violations and encourage political dialogue with Burma’s opposition and ethnic representatives,” she said in an interview with The Irrawaddy.

In January this year, China— along with Russia—used its veto to block a US and British- sponsored resolution in the UN Security Council to bring the Burma situation before the chamber. China maintained that the Security Council was not the right forum to discuss Burma since the regime there did not represent a threat to international peace.

Apart from London, protests were also being held outside Chinese embassies and consulates in Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Vienna, Sydney, Washington, Toronto, New York, Brasilia, Bangkok and Cape Town. Candle-lit vigils were being organized in other cities.

Asia's Deforestation: A Symptomatic of Corrupt Regimes

When a global anti-graft watchdog surveys the Asian landscape for corruption indicators, the continent’s forests depleted by illegal logging invariably enter the picture.

And as the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) notes, in countries where excessive corruption prevails, the destruction of natural resources, such as local forests, for private gain is not far behind. "Illegal logging is a symptom of the disease of corruption," says Lisa Elges, TI’s senior programme coordinator for the Asia-Pacific region. "In countries where deforestation is predominant, corruption is very high."

What has fuelled such abuse is the political climate that shrouds the forestry sector in the region, she explained to IPS in this northern Thai city, where a conference on the future of forests in Asia and the Pacific was held last week. "There is a great deal of lack of accountability and transparency in the forestry sector. Forests are held under the authority of governments, so there is no one to check the abuse by relevant ministries, politicians and local officials."

In fact, TI estimates that if left unchecked, the current pace of illegal logging in the Asian region could result in a loss of 6.6 million hectares by 2020. The affected countries range from Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia to Burma, Laos and Papua New Guinea.

Currently, Asia and the Pacific have 700 million ha of forestland out of the world’s 3.9 million ha, or some 30 percent of the earth’s landmass. In the past 15 years, however, this region lost 10 million ha of its forest cover, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN agency that hosted the conference on forestry, which drew 250 experts, policy makers and activists from 39 countries.

Other international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) have expressed similar concerns about rampant corruption fuelling the destruction of pristine forests across Asia. According to a speaker from the Rainforest Alliance at the conference, illegal logging in developing Asia "results in the loss of assets and revenue of over 10 billion US dollars annually."

In June this year, another NGO, Global Witness, shed light on the dire situation in Cambodia, one of South-east Asia’s poorest countries afflicted with the twin evils of corruption and illegal logging. The illegal logging trade in the country was estimated to be 13 million US dollars annually, said the London-based group in its report, ‘Cambodia’s Family Trees’.

The just-ended conference was also informed of other disturbing realities. They ranged from Indonesia being singled out as a country where it is estimated that "90 percent of logging is illegal" to another view that "80 of deforestation in the region is because of illegal logging and corruption."
Such revelations by NGOs are being welcome by some international forestry experts, since they have helped to break the silence regards the destruction of forests. "Civil society groups deserve the credit for triggering the debate on forestry, particularly with the issue of deforestation," says Jagmohan Maini, who was Canada’s chief negotiator on forestry issues at the 1992 Earth Summit in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. "This goes back to the Rio Summit, where activists broke new ground by saying that all was not well with the forests in tropical countries."

Illegal logging has only emerged as an issue of international concern and debate after 2000, he told IPS. "The forestry sector has been slow to respond because those who work as foresters are employed by governments and it was not in their interest to blow the whistle," he added. "They were constrained by the policies of their paymasters."

Failure to stem the corruption will not only mean the stripping away of a country’s natural assets by a powerful few, but the affected country failing to attract lucrative foreign investment seeking to pour funds into new forest plantations. "Investments by pension funds and state funds in forestlands are huge and rising," says Dennis Neilson, director of DANA Ltd., an international forestry consulting company based in New Zealand. "Pension funds have currently invested nearly 50 billion US dollars in forest lands."

The countries that have benefited from this financial windfall are the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile. "Overseas investments in forests started in 1992, because of the strong returns, it is a form of diversification of investments and there is low to moderate risk," he told IPS.

But Asian countries have been sidelined from this flow of money. All these funds have stayed away from investing in Asia "because of a lack of good corporate governance, lack of land tenure security, illegal logging and corruption," Neilson added. "This is a pity and Asian countries are losing because of this. 

White House Wants More Steps to Democracy by Junta

The White House scoffed at Burma’s military regime’s moves to ease restrictions imposed after violently cracking down on pro-democracy demonstrators.

"The actions of the regime are ‘cosmetic.’ What we need are signs of serious intent to move toward a democratic transition," presidential press secretary Dana Perino said Saturday.

One day after President George W. Bush announced new penalties against the military-run government, the ruling junta said it was lifting a curfew and ending a ban on assembly.
"The lifting of the curfew is not a good sign, but a bad sign that the regime now feels confident that it has cleared the monasteries of dissidents by either jailing them or sending them to their home villages, and arrested all the major players in the demonstrations and sent into hiding or exile those they have not captured," Perino said.

The ruling generals also issued an unusual plea in state media for the detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, to compromise and hold talks with the government.

Bush says Burma needs to provide the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations access to political prisoners; allow Suu Kyi and other detained leaders to communicate with one another; and permit UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari to enter the country immediately.

"If the regime is serious about talking to Aung San Suu Kyi why have they not sent the special envoy to meet with her?" Perino asked. "Why have they not invited Gambari to come back? Why have they not invited the ICRC to visit?"

Expanding on punishments announced last month, Bush on Friday ordered the Treasury Department to freeze the US assets of additional members of the ruling generals and their cronies. He also acted to tighten controls on US exports to Burma. In addition, he urged China and India to do more to pressure the military regime.

Last month, tens of thousands of people turned out for rallies, which started as protests against fuel price increases and then grew into the largest show of dissent in decades.
The junta claims that 10 people were killed when troops opened fire on demonstrators to disperse them. Diplomats and dissidents say the death toll is much higher.

Burmese Junta Continues Crackdown as US Applies Sanctions

The Burmese junta continued its crackdown on pro-democracy activists on Friday, even as the US added additional sanctions on 11 more junta officials and 12 business cronies.

Troops raided a house in Tamwe Township in Rangoon early Friday morning, arresting five people who are connected to the 88 Generation Students’ group.

San San Tin, 60, Thet Thet Aung, 27, Noe Noe, 20, Thein Than Tun, 43, Kyaw Swa, 25, were arrested in the home of San San Tin, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a human rights group.

Soe Tun, a spokesperson of the 88 Generation Students group, told The Irrawaddy on Saturday that recent raids and arrests have sometimes involved the arrests of an activist's family members who are taken hostage in exchange for the activist who is in hiding.

One example occurred on October 8, according to reports, when the home of Thet Thet Aung, an 88 Generation Students member, was raided by soldiers and her husband, Chit Ko Lin, was arrested. A few days later, her mother and mother-in-law were arrested as hostages, according to reports. Police arrested Thet Thet Aung in her hiding place on Friday.

Assessing the current state of affairs, Soe Tun said, “The junta appointed a liaison officer to mediate a dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, but the generals are still going forward with their road map to democracy. It is not a positive sign. If they want dialogue, first they must stop crackdowns and arrests and release political prisoners. At the least, the junta should allow the ICRC (the International Committee of the Red Cross) to meet with political prisoners.”

Pokpong Lawansiri, the Southeast Asia program officer with the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, said the continuing crackdown shows the military junta does not care about the resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council or the calls for dialogue by the international community.

“It also means the international community, particularly Burma’s neighboring countries, do not work hard enough for the Burmese people,” he said. “The Asean reaction was very weak. The Asean countries need to take more concrete actions critical of the junta.”

Aid for Hungry in Burma at Risk after Political Crisis

The UN agency in charge of fighting hunger issued a plea Thursday for the world not to neglect providing food aid to the people of Burma, even as countries step up sanctions against its ruling junta for its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Some 5 million people in Burma are chronically short of food, and the World Food Program has been seeking to provide supplies to 500,000 of them each month, the organization's Asia regional director, Tony Banbury, said after an inspection tour of the isolated country last week.
However, the agency is now reaching only about 200,000 of them, he said.

The UN estimates that more than a third of Burma's children suffer from malnutrition, and about 100,000 of them die each year.

"In a food surplus country like Myanmar [Burma], no one should go hungry—but millions are," Banbury told reporters in Bangkok, explaining that under the junta's existing restrictive policies, some farmers are forced to sell the government their crops at below-market prices, which discourages production.

Speaking to reporters in Bangkok, Banbury warned that tightening of government controls in the wake of the recent protests could further restrict the distribution of food to the needy, who represent about 10 percent of the country's 54 million people.

Banbury also charged that countries worldwide have been quick to endorse sanctions to punish the military regime, but at the same time have failed to increase humanitarian aid for ordinary people, who are suffering.

"Unfortunately, there have been some verbal commitments to expanding aid, and WFP, at best, has not seen it," he said, not naming those who failed to honor their pledges.

He said that Australia, which donated A $300 million (US $270 million) to WFP, was the only country to provide such aid since the protests were quashed.

To meet its three-year goal of providing aid to 1.6 million people a month by 2009, the WFP says it needs US $51.1 million. Banbury said it lacks about 70 percent of the funding needed to do so.

The Burmese Road to Ruin

Detailed story: please read HERE

With its origins high in the eastern Himalaya Mountains, the Irrawaddy River sweeps down into Burma onto a vast plain. With the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Mekong, it is one of the great rivers of Ssoutheast Asia. From where it comes out of the mountains above Myitkyina, it runs along a valley perhaps 1,500 kilometers long.

Most Burmese farmers grow monsoon paddy as well as summer paddy. Paddy cultivation begins with land preparation. In this photo taken in June 2001 in Myaungmya Township of the Irrawaddy Delta region, two bullocks are used in paddy land preparation. [Photo: ier.hit-u.ac.jp]

The Irrawaddy Valley’s surroundings, a giant ring of mountains, bring to mind California’s Central Valley, with its Coast Range to the west and Sierra Nevada to the east. As hot weather, intensive cultivation and a complex irrigation system have made the interior of California the greatest agricultural producer in the world, the conditions exist to make the Irrawaddy Valley the breadbasket of Asia, rivaling the output of Vietnam, which currently holds that title. It is an unfortunate fact that it isn’t and won’t be, despite the fact that in 1949 the British colonial government bequeathed the most prosperous economy in Asia to Burma’s people on independence.
Hamstrung by a vicious and backward government, Burma’s prosperity has long since vanished. The valley, once the heart of its agricultural prosperity, remains one of the poorest regions in Asia, which has been exploding economically for decades. Burma ranks 23rd in purchasing power parity among the 26 countries that make up East Asia. Only North Korea, Afghanistan and East Timor are below it. Along with Zimbabwe and North Korea, there is no better example in the world of how a government can beggar its people for no other reason than to stay in power.

As an indication of just how wrongheaded government policy can be, Japanese researchers at the Institute of Economic Research at Hitotsubashi University in a 2004 paper described a household survey conducted in 2001, covering more than 500 households in eight villages with diverse agro-ecological environments. They found that the farther they got from the center of the village, where government authority is stronger, the richer the villagers were. Second, the researchers found, farmers and villages emphasizing a paddy-based, irrigated cropping system had lower incomes than those who didn’t.

“The reasons for these paradoxes are the distortions created by agricultural policies that restrict land use and the marketing of agricultural produce,” the researchers found. “Because of these distortions, the transition to a market economy in (Burma) since the late 1980s is only a partial one. The partial transition, which initially led to an increase in output and income from agriculture, revealed its limit in the survey period.”

In other words, the farther villagers got from the government, the better off they were.
It was the disconnect between the government and the people’s livelihood that resulted in the explosion of discontent that caused hundreds of thousands of protesters to take to Burma’s streets in September and early October after the government, without warning, increased fuel prices five-fold for a people so poor many cannot even afford public transport fares. It was a common sight even before the protests to see lines of automobiles on side streets and some main thoroughfares waiting for petrol, stashed away in black market barrels and openly distributed in full view of the military. Burma’s GDP per person is just US $1,800 annually—compared to neighboring Thailand, which it closely resembles culturally and geographically, with a per capita GDP of $9,200—more than five times as much.

In fact, any comparison between Thailand and Burma points up the miserable impact of the military rule imposed on the country since 1962. Life expectancy in Thailand is 72.5 years, compared to just 62.2 years for the average Burmese. Burma’s infant mortality rate is more than 50 per 1,000 live births, compared to 18.5 for Thailand.

Burmese Economy Has Hit Bottom; People Are Suffering

Two of Rangoon's biggest hotels have closed their doors in what business owners say is a drastic downturn in the tourist industry and the overall economy following the pro-democracy demonstrations.

A shoe repair vendor in Rangoon waits for customers [Photo: AP]

Signs of a failed economy are everywhere, say business people. Teashops have fewer customers, day workers are relying on rice handouts from their employers and prostitutes are walking the streets in daylight— unembarrassed—trying to survive.

Business sources told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the Kandawgyi Hotel and the Hotel Nikko have closed their doors for lack of customers.

Many hotels in Rangoon are reportedly empty, and business has dried up at tourist agencies and airline offices.

A shop owner in Rangoon said on Tuesday that business is suffering, following the demonstrations and the government's increase in fuel prices on August 15, which raised the cost of public transportation and increased food prices.

“This situation really hit our pocket,” said the shop owner. “We keep going with our business because we do not want to close. Rice shop owners keep running their shops not because the economy is good but because people need rice. All pockets are empty.”

Most businesses made only a small profit before fuel prices were increased, said the shop owner, but since then, profits have gone to pay for increased fuel prices.

“There is inflation in Burma and the currency is losing more of its value,” he said.

After August 15, gasoline and diesel fuel prices more than doubled, while the cost of compressed gas, used to power buses, increased five-fold, driving up ticket prices for those who depend on public transportation.

In 1988, the unofficial exchange rate for 25 kyat was US $1; in the early 1990s, 100 kyat equaled $1; currently, 1,300 kyat equal $1 on the unofficial market.

People have even cut back on going to the ever-popular tea shops, the traditional place for friends to gather, said one Rangoon resident. Now, he said, people try to save money any way they can.
“If I go with my family to a tea shop and have food there, it will cost about 6,000 kyat," he said. "When my income was good, it was no problem for me. But now my income is not good, and I have to use this money for food.”

“Most people cannot eat meat because the price is skyrocketing," he said. "Meat prices increase about 200 kyat every week. Poor people now buy only vegetables because they are cheaper."
Workers who rely on temporary day work are sometimes given rice by their employers, he said, which helps the very poor survive. The poorest families buy food one day at a time, he said.
Even younger people with educations who have jobs with large companies are feeling the strain. "All jobs are insecure,” he said.

Rangoon sources said women who rely on prostitution to earn money can now be seen on Rangoon streets even in daylight.

“Women are at the 10-mile highway bus station, around RC-2 (Regional College 2) and on Waizayanter Road trying to find customers," he said.

"They are not embarrassed to be seen in the daytime. They are trying to survive too, and it's hard to find customers. People now only think about daily food.”

A taxi owner in Rangoon said before the rise in fuel prices he could save a little money each month, and he could pick and choose when to drive during the day. Now he drives all day searching for customers, and it's hard to pay the monthly rental fee for his taxi.

A Burmese economist who lives in Thailand said a UN survey found that the average Burmese citizen used 70 percent of their income for food.

“It is difficult to find a real money-making business in Burma at the moment," he said. "So many people are poorer. It's the sign of a failed economy.”

Junta Says Crackdown Continues on Pro-democracy Protesters

Burma's military junta said Wednesday it detained nearly 3,000 people during a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, adding that hundreds remain in custody and that it is still hunting for others.
The official statement from the junta was published on the front-page of The New Light of Myanmar, a government mouthpiece, as a UN envoy pressed Asian nations to take the lead in resolving the Myanmar crisis.

"Those who led, got involved in and supported the unrest which broke out in September were called in and are being interrogated," the junta said in its statement. "Some are still being called in for questioning and those who should be released will be."

The statement said that 2,927 people had been arrested since the crackdown started and nearly 500 were still in custody.

In their last tally of arrests, released on October 8, the junta said that nearly 2,100 had been arrested.

Everyone released from custody was required to sign "pledges" the statement said, without elaborating.

Protesters freed from custody have said in interviews that they had to sign statements saying they would not take part in protests or support the pro-democracy movement.

The junta has said 10 people were killed when troops fired into crowds of peaceful protesters during the September 26-27 crackdown.

Diplomats and dissidents say they believe the death toll is higher and that up to 6,000 people were seized, including thousands of monks who led the rallies.

Burma was under increasing international pressure to call off its crackdown, as Japan canceled a multimillion dollar grant and China threw its weight behind a UN envoy's efforts to ease the crisis.
But Asean, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Burma is a member, said it would not support any sanctions against the military regime.

China—a longtime ally of Burma—said it backed UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari's mission to the region. Gambari is seeking to rally Asian countries to take the lead in pressing Burma to reconcile with pro-democracy groups, which have seen hundreds of their members detained and beaten following last month's protests.

He met Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Wednesday and was to fly later in the day to Indonesia. Gambari also planned stops in Japan, India and China before traveling to Burma. His six-nation tour started in Thailand.

Japan, Burma's biggest aid donor, had already said it would suspend some assistance in response to the death of Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai, who was among those killed during the crackdown.
In addition, the government would cancel a grant worth 552 million yen (US $4.7 million) for a business education center, slated for the Rangoon University campus, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said in Tokyo.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Yang told reporters Tuesday that Myanmar's recent calm after last month's violence was "the result of hard work and cooperation from all sides."
China is considered a key country in the effort to persuade the junta to open talks with the pro-democracy movement, because of its close relationship with the military regime. It also is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, giving it veto power over any UN action. It has been uncooperative in past efforts to pressure the junta.

The UN Security Council issued its first-ever statement on Burma last week, condemning the clampdown and calling for the release of all political prisoners.

The opposition National League for Democracy party of detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said Tuesday that more than 300 party members had been detained since August, including 60 within the past week.

Burma's military leaders have rebuffed calls for reforms, saying the only way to bring change is to follow the junta's seven-step "road map" to democracy, which is supposed to culminate with elections at an unspecified date.

So far, only the plan's first stage—drawing up guidelines for a new constitution—has been completed, and that took more than a decade. Critics say the road map is a ruse to allow the military to stay in power.

US Wants UN to Investigate Reports of Rape by Burmese Army

Saying the Burmese military is using rape as an instrument of systematic repression against ethnic minorities, the US on Tuesday urged the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to conduct an investigation into such cases.

“We want the UN secretary-general to do a very thorough investigation into the cases (of rape by the Burmese army) we receive and report back to the general assembly so that we can be prepared to take action,” Kristen Silverberg, assistant secretary for International Organization Affairs, told The Irrawaddy after a panel discussion on the issue at the UN.

“We have documented evidence of little girls in Burma as little as eight years old, ten years old being subject to rape by Burmese soldiers. So we want the international community to focus on this issue,” Silverberg said.

The United States plans to introduce a resolution during the current session of the UN General Assembly “condemning the use of rape as an instrument of state policy.” The draft of the proposed resolution does not name any nation, but it targets countries like Burma and Sudan where the US says there is strong evidence of their security forces using rape as a tool of repression against targeted communities.

Referring to the panel discussion on “Rape as an Instrument of State policy,” Silverberg said:  “We have seen in Burma as these experts described today the systematic use of rape and sexual violence against ethnic minorities as a way of intimidating the communities as a part of the government’s campaign of violence against them.”

Silverberg said the US has also urged Ibrahim Gambari, the UN Envoy on Burma, to raise this issue with the Burmese military junta during his upcoming visit to the country.

In the panel discussion, L. Dwelling, the joint general secretary of the Women’s League of Burma, alleged that there was a pattern of sexual and gender-based violence against women dissidents in central Burma during the recent crackdown.

“We have reached a conclusion that it is state policy in Burma to allow soldiers to commit rapes against women and girls. The government is fully aware of the numerous reports about this issue.”
Urging the international community to protect the women and children of Burma, Dwelling said: “Our reports show that sexual and gender-based violence are happening across the country—in Shan, Karen, Mon, Chin and other ethnic areas—and that the circumstances under which they take place are disturbingly similar from one area to another.”

Lway Aye Nang, a presidium board member of the Women’s League of Burma, in her presentation reminded the international community about security council resolution No.
1325 on women, peace and security.

“We at the Women’s League of Burma believe that it is time that the international community lives up to its responsibilities towards the people of Burma. We call for the full implementation of Resolution 1325 in all efforts to promote peace and reconciliation, democracy and respect for human rights in Burma.”

US Condemns Burma's Arrests of Political Dissidents

The United States condemned Burma's military-led government on Monday for arresting pro-democracy activists over the weekend.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey demanded release of all political prisoners in Burma.

"By unjustly imprisoning organizers of peaceful demonstrations, Burma's ruling generals continue to blatantly disregard the international community's deep concern and calls for a halt to its crackdown," Casey said in a statement.

On Saturday, security forces arrested at least four prominent political activists who went into hiding to escape a government manhunt, Amnesty International said.

Casey said continuing repression makes "clear the need for the international community to maintain strong pressure on the Burmese regime."

Democratic US Senator Joseph Biden and Republican Senator Dick Lugar have sent a letter to Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, and Javier Solana, the EU foreign and security affairs chief, urging the EU to join the United States and implement targeted financial sanctions against members of Burma's junta.

"This moment of opportunity should not be lost. Let us do everything in our power together to help the Burmese people achieve the goal for which they have sacrificed so much," the senators wrote.

Burma's State Media Blames Slain Japanese Journalist

Burma's state-controlled media said Sunday that a Japanese journalist, killed during a crackdown on recent pro-democracy protests, was to blame for his own death because he put himself in harm's way.

Kenji Nagai, 50, a video journalist for Japan's APF News agency, was among at least 10 people killed in the September 26-27 crackdown, when soldiers fired automatic weapons into pro-democracy demonstrators.

"This was an accident. The journalist was not deliberately targeted," said an editorial in The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a junta mouthpiece. "The fact that the Japanese journalist was among the protesters amounts to inviting danger."

The editorial also said Nagai had entered Burma on a tourist visa. "He should have come in with a journalist visa, since he was a journalist," it said. "If he had behaved like a tourist he would not have faced this tragic end."

Burma is believed to have rejected all visa applications from journalists during the pro-democracy protests.

Video footage of Nagai's death, broadcast around the world, appeared to show a soldier shooting the journalist at close range.

Japanese police say he is believed to have died from blood loss caused by at least one bullet penetrating his kidney.

Japan's foreign minister, Masahiko Komura, said earlier this month that Japan—Burma's largest aid donor—was preparing to suspend assistance to Burma in response to Nagai's death.

Burmese Junta Dismisses UN Statement; Opposition Demands Reform

Burma’s military regime dismissed a UN statement calling for dialogue with the pro-democracy opposition, insisting that it would follow its own roadmap toward reform—a plan critics say is a ruse aimed at extending the government's grip on power.

The main opposition National League for Democracy, however, hailed the UN declaration and urged the ruling generals to comply with demands for negotiations with pro-democracy forces and ethnic minorities, and the release of political prisoners.

State-run TV and radio issued a statement Friday arguing that conditions inside Burma—a reference to the anti-government protests that were violently suppressed by troops on September 26 and 27—were not the concern of the outside world.

“Myanmar's current situation does not affect regional and international stability,” said the statement, attributed to Col Thant Shin. “However, we deeply regret that the UN Security Council has issued a statement contrary to the people's desires.”

“The government of Myanmar will continue to implement the seven-step roadmap together with the people,” the statement said, referring to the junta's plan that promises a new constitution and an eventual transition to democratic rule.

The road map process is supposed to culminate in a general election at an unspecified date in the future. But so far only the first stage—drawing up guidelines for a new constitution—has been completed, and critics say the convention that drafted the guidelines was stage-managed by the military.

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD endorsed the Security Council statement.
“Since Myanmar is a member country of the United Nations and as the government has declared it would work with the UN, we earnestly underscore the need to urgently implement the demands made by the Security Council,” the NLD said.

The 15-member Security Council issued its first statement on Burma on Thursday in an attempt to pressure the military rulers—in charge of the isolated country since 1988—to enter a dialogue with the opposition and make moves toward democratic reforms. 

Burma's Junta of Beating, Killing Detainees, Norway-based Radio Says

Guards at detention centers in Burma beat, kicked and slashed protesters rounded up during the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations, sometimes leaving their victims to die of their injuries, a dissident group said.

Burma's repressive military junta has said 10 people were killed and nearly 2,100 arrested in last month's demonstrations, with 700 later released. Diplomats and dissidents say the death toll is likely much higher and up to 6,000 people were seized, including thousands of monks who led the rallies.

At least a dozen freed prisoners described brutal treatment at detention centers, including one who said "dozens" of detainees were killed, the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based short-wave radio station and Web site run by dissident journalists, said in a report Thursday.

"They beat everyone, including women and girls," the dissident group quoted an unidentified female detainee as saying. "I was beaten myself. Monks were targeted and they were not only beaten but also verbally abused by security officers."

"I heard people shouting and crying from the interrogation room and then, I saw an army medical surgeon carrying people away," the woman said. The group said she was held at the Government Technical Institute detention center in Rangoon for five days following the crackdown.

DVB, which has supplied reliable information in the past, also reported that a 48-year-old detainee, Than Aung, died September 30 at a detention center in Yangon. He was arrested on September 27, beaten in custody which left him with severe internal injuries, and died when he was not given immediate medical attention, the group said, citing sources close to the institute.

There was no way to independently confirm the reports attributed to freed prisoners.
In an interview with The Associated Press, another released prisoner, Zaw Myint, 45, said he was arrested September 26 on a Rangoon street after a soldier bashed his face with the butt of his gun, leaving a bloody gash across his cheek.

Zaw Myint said he was denied treatment for three days and then stitched up by a doctor at Rangoon's notorious Insein prison, after the physician had treated several wounded prisoners.
"He used the same needle to treat all patients. And I saw him give injections to wounded people using the same syringe," said Zaw Myint, who was released after a week in custody. He said was "extremely worried" about having contracted HIV as a result of the treatment. Rights groups say that Burma's prisons have soaring rates of HIV/AIDS.

DVB also released video of an unidentified man who said "dozens" of detainees died. Another man was quoted as saying he saw two people die from severe beatings at Rangoon City Hall. Authorities failed to give a boy medical treatment for a gunshot wound and even refused to let him drink water from a toilet before he died, the man was quoted as saying.

Human rights groups have long accused the military government of abuse and torture of prisoners. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, comprised of around 100 former inmates, has put out a report describing homosexual rape, electric shocks to the genitals, near drowning, burning with hot wax and other abuse.

Arrests Continue in Burma

The state-run Burmese media has denounced the recent mass protests which were led by monks. The New Light of Myanmar went on to say that people who use religion will be destroyed. In the meantime, arrests of dissidents continue. 

On Thursday The New Light of Myanmar ran an article entitled “Do Not Be a Step on a Ladder”. The article blamed head monks, student leaders and celebrities who joined in the demonstrations for the unrest in the nation, said sources from Rangoon. The newspaper also blamed the foreign media.

“If we think about the causes of unrest in 1988 and today, we can see that it is all because of foreign media, such as BBC, VOA and RFA,” said The New Light of Myanmar, Burmese version.
Meanwhile, arrests of suspected protesters continue. Two students from the United States Information Service (USIS) in Rangoon were arrested on Wednesday night. Ye Myant Hein, a 17-year-old student at the University of Rangoon was arrested at his home in Insein Township in Rangoon. The other student who was arrested is Aye Myint Myint, aged 20. She studies law at the University of Rangoon.

A former political prisoner, Chit Ko Lin was arrested on the morning of October 8, according to sources. Security forces attempted to arrest him and his wife, Thet Thet Aung; however, his wife narrowly escaped arrest. The security forces then took his mother and his mother-in-law into custody two days later.

From her place of hiding, Thet Thet Aung spoke to The Irrawaddy. She said, “It’s like taking hostages. They arrested my mother and my husband’s mother because I escaped. Our children are now at home without an adult. I am very worried about them.”

A famous actor and director, Kyaw Thu and his wife were taken from their home by security forces. Kyaw Thu is also the deputy chairperson of Free Funeral Service Society.

Soldiers are still maintaining a checkpoint in Rangoon looking for cameras and cell-phones with cameras. This week, soldiers seized a camera from a wedding ceremony in Rangoon, a source said.
Authorities also came to the offices of international NGOs in downtown Rangoon and questioned staff about technological equipment, such as cameras and cell-phones, said sources in Rangoon.
Win Shwe, a member of the National League for Democracy in Kyaukpadaung, a central Burmese town, was recently killed during interrogation, according to reports.  

Meanwhile, the junta has held pro-government rallies in support of the draft constitution around the country. Private companies and industries are being forced to send their staff to the rallies, according to Rangoon sources.

Burma's Diplomat in UK Resigns over Suppression of Monks' Protest

A diplomat at the Burmese Embassy in London has resigned in protest over the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests, the British Broadcasting Corp reported Tuesday.

The BBC said Ye Min Tun, a diplomat with 10 years' service, had sent the embassy a letter of resignation.

No one at the embassy was willing to comment on the report or confirm the diplomat was on staff. British government records list a Ye Min Tun as a second secretary at the embassy.
The diplomat told the BBC he was horrified by military attacks on monk-led demonstrations last month.

"I have never seen such a scenario in the whole of my life. The government is arresting and beating the peaceful Buddhist monks," he said.

He said he had come to the decision on his own, without consulting anti-government groups in Burma or overseas.

"I think that my fellow colleagues will make their decision on their own—but I can't say that anybody's going to follow my way," he said.

Protests erupted in Burma, on August 19 after the government raised fuel prices. The anger mushroomed into nationwide marches by tens of thousands demanding democratic reforms.
The junta's troops crushed pro-democracy demonstrations with gunfire on September 26 and 27. The regime said 10 people were killed, but dissident groups put the toll at up to 200 and said 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of monks who led the rallies.

The crackdown drew condemnation around the world.

Asked whether he thought the pro-democracy movement was now finished, the diplomat said: "I think it's not the end. I think it's just the beginning of the revolution."

Forum 2000 Calls for Democracy in Burma

Academics and world leaders at this year's Forum 2000 conference called on Monday for democracy in Burma.

The annual event—started in 1997 by Czech President Vaclav Havel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and Japanese philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa—opened this year in Prague, the Czech capital, with Havel calling on delegates to sign a 14-point petition in support of the people of Burma.

The petition calls for the immediate release of democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, an investigation into the police crackdown on Buddhist monks and an international arms embargo on Burma.

"I am convinced it is the duty of all people of goodwill ... to defend freedom of the individual, of people's dignity, of good human coexistence," Havel said in a statement to the conference delegates.
Among the keynote speakers addressing the conference Monday were former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Iran Shirin Ebadi and former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.

The three-day Forum 2000, which ends Tuesday, aims to identify key global issues and prevent the escalation of religious, cultural or ethnic conflict.
The agenda also includes discussions on promoting democracy supporting civil society, human rights and social tolerance issues.

Witnesses Say September 27 Was the Worst

The violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrations in Tamwe Township and Sule Pagoda in Rangoon on September 27 was the most brutal of all, according to witnesses.

The crackdown took place near State High School No 3 a witness recalled to The Irrawaddy. “They [the security forces] rammed into the middle of the crowd in a truck. Two women were killed immediately. At least 30 people died in the incident.”

The witness added that the two women were mothers of students and they had just come to pick up their children from school.

“It was disgusting,” said the witness, adding that security forces used rubber bullets when they opened fire into the crowds, as well as teargas and batons.

Another witness said that the truck was full of troops and they opened fire at the protesters. One student who held the flag at the front of the rally was the first to be shot, he said.
A resident who was involved in the protest on September 27 said that soldiers blockaded the demonstrators from both ends of the street and then opened fire into the crowd. Protesters ran in different directions. Some climbed on the buildings and some jumped into doorways.
Several monks were killed in a separate crackdown near Sule Pagoda, said the resident, adding that the authorities detained about 200 protesters in the Government Technical Institute after the crackdown.

Afterward, the authorities tightened restrictions on Buddhist monks, demanding them to sign a register if they were going out for morning alms. Junior monks were ordered to return their homes, said the witness, who asked not to be identified.

Brig-Gen Win Myint, head of Light Infantry Division 77 and Lt-Gen Myint Swe, chief of the Bureau of Special Operations 5, were among the perpetrators of the crackdown, said sources, who added that Brig-Gen Win Myint appeared the most brutal of his peers.

Dissident groups are speculating that Hla Htay Win, Chairman of the Rangoon Division Peace and Development Council could have been directly responsible for the death of Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai, who was shot on September 27 near Sule Pagoda, in central Rangoon.

Other hardliners suspected of involvement in the violent crackdown were Industry Minister Aung Thaung and Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo, said an exiled Burma watcher.

According to the 88 Generation Students group, about 130 deaths occurred nationwide during the demonstrations in September. The group said that about 3,000 demonstrators were arrested, over 1,200 of who were monks.

However, the Burmese government has officially reported that 10 protesters were killed and 2,093 were arrested, 692 of who have now been released.

Global Protests for Burma

People around the world planned to march Saturday to protest Burma's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy activists, as the military regime admitted hundreds of Buddhist monks were detained after troops turned their guns on last week's peaceful uprising.

Protesters hold candles during a rally against Burma's military junta in Seoul. [Photo: Reuters]

Hoping to send a message to the junta that "the world is still watching," rights group Amnesty International called for a global demonstration in cities across Asia, Europe and North America. Protests were planned in at least a dozen countries, including Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Austria, Belgium, France, England, the United States and Canada.

The junta's treatment of the Buddhist monks—who are revered in this deeply religious nation and led the street protests—is a key issue that could further inflame the people of Burma and anger soldiers loyal to the military rulers.

The government insisted most of the monks it detained had already been freed, with only 109 still in custody, according to an official statement broadcast Friday night on state TV. The report noted the junta was still hunting for four more monks it believed were ringleaders of the rallies.
Demonstrations that began in mid-August over a fuel price increase swelled into Burma's largest anti-government protests in 19 years, inspired largely by the thousands of monks who poured into the streets.

Television images last week showed soldiers shooting into crowds of unarmed protesters—but the government described the troops' reaction as "systematically controlling" the protesters.
The government says 10 people were killed in the September 26-27 crackdown and 2,100 were detained. But dissident groups put the death toll at more than 200 and the number of detainees at nearly 6,000.

An activist from Amnesty International holds placards during a rally in conjunction with "Global Day of Action" in Bangkok [Photo: Reuters]

Friday's state media report said Burma troops searched 18 monasteries where alleged rogue monks were living. Initially, authorities detained 513 monks, one novice, 167 men and 30 women lay disciples from the monasteries, but most were released after "careful scrutiny," it said.

  Now only 109 monks and nine other men were still being questioned, it said.

A government official met senior Buddhist monks Friday in Rangoon, the country's main city, and asked them to "expose four monks who are at large," the report said.

The visit aimed to show ordinary people the ruling generals still had high regard for the Buddhist clergy, despite a crackdown that targeted monks.

The military has ruled Burma since 1962. The current junta came to power after routing a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, killing at least 3,000 people. Suu Kyi's party won elections in 1990, but the generals refused to accept the results.

Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her democracy campaign.

Sixty Nobel laureates added their voices to the global outcry over the Burma crisis, saying they were "outraged" by the "ongoing violent repression" of monks and other citizens.

In a statement issued by The Elie Weisel Foundation, the Nobel laureates called on the international community, particularly China, Russia and India—who have been competing for Burma's bountiful oil and gas resources—to use their influence to secure democracy in Burma and the release of Suu Kyi.

Rights Groups call for action in Burma

International rights groups and Burma campaigners have called for a global day of action to protest against the military clampdown on peaceful demonstrations in Burma.

The UK-based Trade Union Congress, Amnesty International, and the Burma Campaign UK issued a joint release earlier this week calling on communities around the globe to take action on Saturday to condemn the Burmese junta’s massive crackdown, in which at least 130 Burmese monks and members of the public were killed and more than 3,000 were arrested.

Myo Thein of the Burma Campaign UK, which is organizing the protest in London, said that, “The events in London are designed to show the people of Burma that we stand with them and [to show] the generals that we are watching their every move.”

The Burma Campaign UK also hopes the protests will force the UK Government to do more to demand an end to the military crackdown and get the UN Security Council to act.

Protests are expected across the world at noon local time. They have already been scheduled in key locations, including cities in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, India, Ireland, France, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, the UK and the US. In the UK, the protest is being organized by 25 organizations, including Burma Campaign UK, Amnesty International and the TUC.

According to the release, campaigners will wear red headbands in solidarity with the monks under arrest and tie these onto government buildings, religious shrines or key landmarks to signify the thousands of lives currently hanging in the balance.

“An event will take place on a global scale in support of Burma in their drive for democracy, freedom and justice,” said Alex Bookbinder, a 19-year-old student from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. 

Demonstrations in support of the peaceful protests in Burma will be held in ten cities across Canada on Saturday, including Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and the capital, Ottawa, according to Canadian Friends of Burma, which will be coordinating its efforts with the Burma Campaign UK and the US Campaign for Burma.

“This day of action is to show that this crisis has not gone away,” said Ko Aung, a Burmese refugee in the UK. “Our friends, families and spiritual leaders are in jail cells today at risk of torture. The UN Security Council must act now to end the crackdown and must keep focused on this crisis until we know the people of Burma are safe. The international community must not desert them now.”
The Burmese military regime has shown no signs of relenting in its efforts to keep a lid on protests, warning of more arrests after last week's crackdown, even as the European Union has agreed in principle to punish the junta with sanctions.

Burma Regime wants surrender, not talks

The Burma Campaign UK is concerned by media reports that there has been some kind of breakthrough in Burma because Senior General Than Shwe has agreed to talks. There has been no breakthrough. Than Shwe has repeated a demand made to UN Envoys since 1992. That is, that the National League for Democracy must agree to stop calling for human rights and democracy, and stop calling for international support, as preconditions before they start talking.

“We have been here before,” said Mark Farmaner, Acting Director of the Burma Campaign UK. “The regime is still refusing to enter into genuine dialogue, Gambari’s mission has failed. We have to break out of this cycle. Ban Ki-moon must go to Burma and deliver a strong message to the regime that further delay is unacceptable. There must be deadlines set for the regime to enter into talks and begin reform, after which there will be consequences. He should have the backing of the United Nations Security Council in delivering this message.”

UN Envoy Ibrahim Gambari is expected to brief the United Nations Security Council today. There has been a dramatic escalation in human rights abuses in Burma since his first visit to the country in 2006, including a military offensive against civilian ethnic minorities in eastern Burma, and the recent brutal crackdown on peaceful protests in Rangoon.

“The invitation to Gambari to return to Burma in November is a classic delaying tactic by Than Shwe.” said Mark Farmaner. “He wants to string out the process as long as possible, hoping that by then the world’s attention will be elsewhere. Than Shwe is a specialist in psychological warfare, and has been using these skills to dupe the international community for many years.”

Overnight Arrests of Monks Continue in Rangoon

Five monasteries were raided in Rangoon and about 36 monks were arrested overnight on Wednesday, after receiving beatings from soldiers. 

Burmese soldiers patrol the streets in downtown Rangoon [Photo: AFP]

“They (soldiers) came and searched for monks on their lists,” a monk told The Irrawaddy. The soldiers had photographs of monks, and if they found a monk who was in a photograph, they arrested all the monks in the monastery, said the monk.

  Raided monasteries included Shwetaungpaw, Dhammazaya and Sandilayama monasteries in South Okkalapa Township and Zayawaddy and Pannitayama in North Okkalapa Township. Two mobile telephones that belonged to monks were also seized by troops, said the source.

The raids in the North Okkalapa monasteries started around 10 p.m. and ended in early morning, said Nilar Thein, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group.

“Monks requested soldiers not to use violent acts on them. But soldiers neglected their requests.” she said.

The raids on monasteries in South Okkalapa Township began at midnight and ended at dawn. Everyone in the monasteries, including laymen, women and children, were taken away.
Security forces also entered a monastery at Chauk Htat Gyee Pagoda in Rangoon searching for specific monks.

At Maggin Monastery in Rangoon, authorities took photographs of HIV positive laypeople that are housed at the monastery and questioned them regarding interviews with a foreign radio station. 
Sometimes arrests are like “kidnappings,” said one source, because soldiers might ask for up to 200,000 kyat (about US $130) for the release of unimportant detainees.

Overnight raids on monasteries began on September 26, the day the junta started its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

“I also heard some monks under detention at GTI (the Government Technology Institute) died,” said a Rangoon resident.

Soldiers are also looking for people who provided water or food to monks during the mass protests, said one source.

Also on Wednesday night, soldiers, searching for information, entered the home of a prominent former student leader, Min Ko Naing, who is under arrest.

In Taungdwingyi in central Burma, three men, Aung Ko, Kyaw Naing and Bo Ni, were arrested around midnight on Wednesday. All are members of the National League for Democracy.
According to Rangoon residents, security checkpoints are still scattered around the city. Soldiers stop and search civilians, particularly young people who carry bags.

Dissidents in Rangoon estimate there are 1,200 monks detained among an estimated 3,000 people arrested during the mass protests in Burma.

Monks are currently detained in Insein Prison, the Government Technology Institute and Kyaikkasan Stadium in Rangoon. Many monasteries in Rangoon remain locked up, and monks are unable to go out for alms, say Rangoon residents.

Burma's Ethnic Minorities Endure Decades of Brutality

While international attention has focused on the protests for democracy in Burma's cities, a hidden war has decimated generations of the country's powerless ethnic minorities, who have faced brutality for decades.

The Karen, the Shan and other minority groups who live along the Burma-Thai border have been attacked, raped and killed by government soldiers. Their thatched-roofed, bamboo homes have been torched. Men have been seized into forced labor for the army, while women, children and the elderly either hide out in nearby jungles until the soldiers leave or flee over the mountains to crowded, makeshift refugee camps.

"Many, many thousands of Karen have died in those 60 years," Karen National Union secretary general Mahn Sha said this week of his people's struggle for autonomy since 1947.
The military junta has denied reports of atrocities and says the ethnic rebels are "terrorists" trying to overthrow the government.

Burma has more than 100 sub-tribes. Burma's diverse minority groups make up nearly a third of the country's 54 million population.

About two-thirds of the country belongs to the Burman ethnic majority. The other ethnic groups include the Shan, the Karen, the Chin, the Mon, the Arakan or Rakhine, and the Kachin.
Thousand of refugees, mostly from a Muslim minority known as Rohingyas, have fled over Burma's western border with Bangladesh over the years because of persecution by the military junta and economic hardship. The Kachin in the far north, along the border with China, have clashed with the central government, as have the Chin in the central western region bordering India, and the Mon in the south along the Andaman Sea.

But the military is most aggressive in the eastern states along Burma's 1,300-mile border with Thailand—a frontier longer than the Texas-Mexico border.
The junta has signed 27 cease-fire agreements with rebels, many of them allowing ethnic groups to keep their arms.

The Karen National Union is the only major ethnic rebel group not to have concluded a cease-fire and its separatist struggle is one of the world's longest-running insurgencies.
The Karen struggle is concentrated in Karen and Kayah states in the middle of the Thai border region, but fighting also flares sometimes in Shan state to the north. Mon stae and Teninsarim division, which border Thailand in the south, have been quiet for more than a decade.

After the junta's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1988, many Burmese fled to the Thai border. The ethnic minorities did not trust them at first, but after years of interaction and intermarriage, some of the students-turned-soldiers settled along the border.

Now minority groups wonder if there will be a new influx of Burmese because they led the recent pro-democracy protests in Rangoon and other cities. The Karen held meetings to express solidarity with the anti-government demonstrators but did organize street protests.

The current protests began August 19 after the government sharply raised fuel prices in one of Asia's poorest countries. But they are based in deep-rooted dissatisfaction with 45 years of repressive military rule.

"The people have decided never to stop and never to surrender. They (the government) cannot stop all the people all the time," said Mahn Sha of the Karen National Union.
Burmese protesters will be welcomed by the ethnic groups, but the question remains how both can use the unrest to their advantage.

"We need to work together with the Mon, other groups, the students, to fight the (junta). We have a common enemy and common goals," Mahn Sha said.

"It is the beginning of the crack that could bring down the dictators. Even if these protests are crushed, it will still be a big block out of that tower. We all look at this with hope," Dah Say, a Karenni who is a member of the Free Burma Rangers, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Burmese Military Crackdown Shameful, Says Laura Bush

Terming the recent military crackdown on peaceful protestors in Burma “shameful”, the US first lady, Laura Bush, on Wednesday said Burmese Snr-Gen Than Shwe should step down in favor of a government run by legitimate leaders.

Bush urged the Security Council to issue a clear resolution that calls for release of the Burmese political prisoners, an end to the regime's crackdown and a real dialogue that leads to a peaceful transition to democracy.

The statement by the First Lady was read at a congressional hearing on Burma by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

"The U.S. believes it is time for Gen Than Shwe and the junta to step aside and to make way for a unified Burma governed by legitimate leaders,” Bush said. “We urge other governments to join the United States in condemning the junta's use of violence and in working toward freedom in Burma.”

She said the video now coming out of Burma confirms that the abuse of protesters is more brutal than initially described, and that there are likely many more fatalities than the 10 confirmed by the military regime.

Among the experts asked to give testimony before the congressional panel were Scott Marciel, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Michael Green, a senior adviser and the Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch; and Aung Din, the policy director and co-founder of the U.S. campaign for Burma.

Sen John Kerry, one of the few US lawmakers who have met Aung San Suu Kyi, questioned the seriousness of the United Nations and China and said: “We have to finish what the people of Burma have started with the people of Burma. This means getting the international community to provide the pressure to this military junta to release all political prisoners, starting with Aung San Suu Kyi and take steps down the path of political reform.”

Taking a tough position on China, Kerry, who met the Chinese ambassador on Tuesday, said: “The fact is that these generals in the junta, who have now moved their capital some 200 miles from the old capital, literally a bunker within a bunker of a country, they are surviving today because of their economic relationship with China and the world needs to understand that. China needs to understand that we understand it.”

Observing that China and India are the two biggest players in Burma, Sen Mitch McConnell said: “Their attitude seems to be largely it'd be bad for business to start siding with the pro-democracy forces.”

Sen Diane Feinstein, who also met the Chinese ambassador along with Kerry, said recent Chinese statements reflect that there was a change in their position on Burma.

“I think, China has taken the first step. I think we should encourage China to really step up and to really interface with the junta leadership.” She said it is time for the Bush administration to pull together India, China, the other major powers of the region, and encourage Asean to abandon its non-confrontational stance and join the US in an investment and import ban.

Scot Marciel, the deputy assistant secretary of state for east Asian and pacific affairs, said: “The brutal suppression of peaceful protest has only reinforced this administration's commitment, at the highest levels, to ensure that democracy is realized in Burma.” He said the US will work to turn the international outrage into increased pressure on the regime to move in a positive direction.

“We are coordinating closely with the British, the French, and other like-minded partners. We are reaching out to the Asean nations, whose foreign ministers issued an unprecedented statement last week, directly criticizing the regime and urging the kinds of political reforms we have been seeking.”

Marciel noted that Asean has taken a firmer stance, Japan is considering some kind of sanctions and India too has broken its long silence.

“After not speaking out for a long time, India, yesterday, called upon the Burmese military to investigate incidents of excessive use of force against pro-democracy protesters,” he said. “That was a positive step, but India can and should do more, given its influence with the regime.” he said.

Marciel said: “There have been a number of high-level discussions with the Indians...we have made it very clear to India that we felt that, particularly as a democracy, it needed to step up and use its influence with the regime to press for exactly the things that everyone here has talked about.”

Michael Green, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington, said the US has to push harder on the Security Council for a resolution.