BURMA RELATED NEWS - JUNE 19-20, 2011

Suu Kyi to deliver message to US Congress
26 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will deliver her first-ever remarks to a US congressional committee amid worries over recent clashes in the country, supporters said Monday.

Suu Kyi has sent a recorded video message to be broadcast at a hearing Wednesday at the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on East Asia, the US Campaign for Burma said. A congressional official confirmed the plan.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest but was freed in November. Wednesday's hearing is due to discuss last year's widely criticized election in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The military-backed regime has announced a political transition amid talks with the United States on improving relations. But Washington and opposition groups say that the changes are little more than cosmetic.

The United States has voiced concern and urged Myanmar's government forces to cease hostilities after recent clashes in northern Kachin state, which has sent ethnic minority refugees fleeing across the border to China.

Suu Kyi, who turned 66 on Sunday, enjoys wide support in the US Congress. She was awarded the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal in 2008 but has not visited Washington to receive the award.
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India's foreign minister visits Myanmar
2 hrs 52 mins ago

YANGON (AFP) – Indian's foreign minister arrived in Myanmar on Monday for Delhi's first high-level contact with the new government in a country where it is keen to counter China's growing influence.

Once a staunch supporter of Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, India began engaging with the ruling junta in the mid-1990s over security and energy issues.

Underscoring the close ties, Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna will be received by new President Thein Sein in the capital Naypyidaw on Wednesday, a day after talks with counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin, a Myanmar government official said.

But he is not the first visiting dignitary to meet the new president.

A group of Communist Party officials from India's regional economic rival China received an audience in April, just days after the handover of power from the junta to a nominally civilian government.

Krishna made no comment on whether he would meet with Suu Kyi during his two-day visit, but Indian sources said no talks had been scheduled with the Nobel peace laureate.

The foreign minister is the highest-ranking Indian official to visit Myanmar since elections in November -- the first in 20 years -- resulted in the new army-backed government.

Suu Kyi, who was freed from long-term house arrest shortly after the elections, had refused, along with her National League for Democracy party, to participate in the polls, saying the rules were unfair.

In a statement on his departure from India, Krishna said talks would focus on "enhancing security cooperation" and collaboration in fields such as energy and infrastructure.

As well as needing the Myanmar military's help to counter Indian separatists along their common border, India is eyeing oil and gas fields and hydroelectric projects in the country.

It is also keeping a wary eye on China. Beijing, a long-time ally of the Myanmar junta, has shielded the country from UN sanctions over rights abuses as a veto-wielding, permanent member of the Security Council.

"India has come to realise that China has been showing more than the normal interest in the Indian Ocean affairs," Krishna told parliament after two Chinese warships docked for a rare visit to Yangon last August.
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Myanmar's Suu Kyi celebrates birthday in freedom
Sun Jun 19, 8:12 am ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – For the first time in nearly a decade, Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi celebrated her birthday in freedom on Sunday, with supporters freeing symbolic caged birds as more than 50 state security agents watched from across the street.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate turned 66, and received one gift at Yangon's international airport: the arrival of her youngest son, Kim Aris, who lives in Britain and kissed his mother on arrival.

"If I were asked what I would wish on my birthday, I wish for peace, stability and prosperity in the country," Suu Kyi said in a brief address to supporters at her opposition party's headquarters in Yangon.

Suu Kyi said there are "sparks of war flying" in the country, apparently referring to recent fighting between government troops and ethnic Kachin rebels in the north which displaced thousands.

The celebration was attended by around 500 party members and supporters, who held candles in their hands as they wished Suu Kyi well. They then released balloons into the air and freed dozens of sparrows and doves from cages in her honor.

Across the street, more than 50 plainclothes police and intelligence agents took photos and videotaped those who came and went.

Suu Kyi has celebrated 15 birthdays in detention or house arrest over the past 22 years, and this was the first in nine years that she was able to mark freely with friends, family and supporters.

Ruled by the military since 1962, Myanmar held its first elections in 20 years in November. Suu Kyi was released from seven years of house arrest just days after the poll, which her party boycotted. The junta handed power to a civilian government in March, but critics say it's merely a front for continued army rule.

Last year, Suu Kyi marked her birthday alone, locked in her dilapidated lakeside compound while world leaders called for her release and supporters held somber ceremonies elsewhere in Yangon in her honor.

Born June 19, 1945, in Rangoon, as Yangon was then known, Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her determined nonviolent struggle for democracy.

She was last detained in May 2003 after her motorcade was attacked in northwestern Myanmar by a pro-junta mob while she was on a political tour. This month, she is planning her first trip across the countryside since that ill-fated tour.

Since her release last year, Suu Kyi has continued to be outspoken, but little has changed in the repressive nation, which still holds more than 2,000 political prisoners and deploys security agents to monitor Suu Kyi closely.
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India, Myanmar to discuss trade and security ties
India's foreign minister heads to Myanmar to boost trade, security ties
Nirmala George, Associated Press, On Monday June 20, 2011, 6:09 am EDT

NEW DELHI (AP) -- Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna headed to Myanmar on Monday after reaffirming his country's commitment to economic and strategic cooperation with its neighbor's new nominally civilian government.

Krishna is the first high-level Indian official to visit Myanmar since an elected government replaced a military junta in March.

India and Myanmar have developed deep economic and security ties over the past decade. India has said it believes talking quietly is a better approach than sanctions in dealing with Myanmar's military-backed government, which has been widely criticized for human rights abuses.

On Monday, Krishna did not reply directly to a question about whether he would meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his three-day visit.

"I don't know if I will get a chance to interact with other leaders during my brief stay in Yangon," he said.

India is also wary of China's growing influence in Myanmar, and is in competition with its large regional rival for access to the country's large natural gas resources.

India and Myanmar have widened cooperation between their security forces since the mid-1990s, with both countries fighting armed insurgencies along their shared border.

India says separatist rebels in its northeastern states often slip across the 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) -long border and take shelter in jungle bases inside Myanmar.

Krishna, who will meet Myanmar President Thein Sein, said he will explore ways to increase trade and investment in oil and gas projects, hydroelectric power and railways.

Two-way trade, which has doubled since 2006, reached $1.57 billion in 2010.

The two countries will also review progress on a $110 million project to improve transport links to India's remote northeastern states, Krishna said.

The ambitious Kaladan project includes the building of roads, a waterway on the Kaladan River and development of Sittwe port in western Myanmar, which will provide an opening to the sea for India's landlocked northeastern states.
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Moderate quake hits southwestern China; 2 injured
2 hrs 2 mins ago

BEIJING (AP) – A moderate earthquake struck southwest China on Monday evening, causing some injuries and damage, state media said.

The quake measured at a magnitude of 5.2 hit near the Yunnan province town of Tengchong, 1,550 miles (2,500 kilometers) southwest of Beijing. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude slightly higher at 5.3.

The provincial Civil Affairs Bureau says at least two people were injured and several houses damaged, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Rescue crews and supplies of tents, quilts and clothing have been sent to the quake zone, but heavy fog shrouded mountain roads, making for slow going, Xinhua said.

The area near Myanmar has seen frequent seismic activity recently. A magnitude-5.8 quake in March killed 25, destroyed buildings and raised questions about whether structures had been built to code.

China's worst recent quake devastated Sichuan province in 2008, leaving 87,000 dead.
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Myanmar fighting flares after peace talks fail
By Martin Petty | Reuters – 6 hours ago

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar government troops and ethnic Kachin separatists fought on Monday following the collapse of talks aimed at ending a conflict that is threatening China's energy interests in the remote area.

Low-level clashes since June 9 in Myanmar's northernmost Kachin state has disrupted operations of two Chinese-built hydropower plants and sent thousands of ethnic Kachin people fleeing into makeshift camps.

Burmese exiles said the fighting was ongoing and sources on the ground were unable to determine the number of casualties from battles between Kachin guerillas and light infantry units of Myanmar's "Tatmadaw" army.

More than 200 Chinese workers have returned home after one hydropower plant with four 60-MHz generators was shut on June 14.

In its first comments on the unrest, Myanmar's state media said on Saturday the military had no choice but to respond with force after the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) ignored its warning to move fighters away from the Taping Hydropower Project.

It said the KIA had destroyed 25 bridges and had repeatedly launched "heavy weapons fire" at the project. The shutdown of the plant had caused "great loss to the state and the people".

The risk of the unrest spreading in the heavily militarised border region is a particular worry for China, which is building oil and gas pipelines that will span its Southeast Asian neighbour to improve energy security. China has called for peaceful negotiations.

Exiled Burmese news sources based in Thailand said the regional commander of Myanmar's military had held talks on Friday and Saturday at the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the rebels' political arm.

TALKS FAIL

"But this seems to have failed because the government sent no message and did not sanction these talks," said Lahpai Naw Din, head of the Thai-based Kachin News Group.

"The talks took place as the army continued to send in reinforcements, so there's not much trust there."

The KIA battled the central government for decades but agreed to a ceasefire in 1994 that permitted a degree of self-rule, albeit unofficially.

However, the government's refusal to register a Kachin political party for last year's parliamentary election -- due to its refusal to disarm -- has angered the Kachin.

Myanmar's 11-week old government, its first civilian-led administration in five decades, is intent on seizing control of the rebellious states along its borders with Thailand and China but is aware conflict could easily spill into other areas and spark an aggressive response from other ethnic militias.

Analysts say the government is under pressure from China, its biggest economic ally, to secure the two hydroelectric plants on the Taping River owned by Datang Corporation, a Chinese state company, which says 90 percent of the power generated will flow into China's power grid.

Chinese-built energy projects are a highly contentious issue for ethnic minorities in Myanmar, which see their construction as an incursion by an aggressive military that is reaping financial benefits from their resources.

Aung Zaw, editor of the Thailand-based Irrawaddy magazine, said it was in China's interest for government troops to prevail, despite its official calls for calm.

"It looks as if China is taking sides with the Burmese government. As long as the military says these offensives are to secure the energy projects with as little damage as possible, then it will have China's support," he said.

"It's no real surprise this is happening. The Kachin have been cut out politically with last year's election and economically with these dams. They have a lot to fight for."
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The Independent - State spies watch as Suu Kyi marks her first birthday in freedom
Associated Press
Monday, 20 June 2011

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi celebrated her birthday in freedom yesterday, with supporters freeing symbolic caged birds as state security agents watched from across the street.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate turned 66, and received one gift at Rangoon's international airport: the arrival of her youngest son, Kim Aris, who lives in Britain.

"If I were asked what I would wish on my birthday, I wish for peace, stability and prosperity in the country," Ms Suu Kyi said in a brief address to supporters at her opposition party's headquarters in Rangoon.

She said there were "sparks of war flying", apparently referring to recent fighting between government troops and ethnic Kachin rebels in the north which displaced thousands.

The celebration was attended by about 500 party members and supporters. They then released balloons into the air and freed dozens of sparrows and doves from cages.

Across the street, more than 50 plainclothes police and intelligence agents took photos and videotaped those who came and went.

Ms Suu Kyi has celebrated 15 birthdays in detention or house arrest over the past 22 years, and this was the first birthday in nine years that she was able to mark freely with friends, family and supporters.
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Bloomberg - Foreign Minister Krishna in Myanmar as India Seeks to Offset China’s Sway
By Bibhudatta Pradhan and Andrew MacAskill - Jun 20, 2011 5:24 AM PT

India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna began a three-day visit to Myanmar today, holding the first high-level talks with the government elected in November as he seeks to counter China’s influence in the country.

Krishna, accompanied by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, will meet Myanmar President Thein Sein to discuss increasing trade and cooperation in areas such as energy and defense. The governments will also discuss work on the Kaladan project that will improve transport links across their border, Krishna told reporters in New Delhi today.

“India wants to strengthen its economic ties with Myanmar, it doesn’t want it to go completely into the embrace of China,” said S. Chandrasekharan, director of the South Asia Analysis Group, a policy-research organization in New Delhi. “China has a head start in terms of influence. India started late so it is now looking to catch up.”

India and China are competing around the world to secure oil, gas and metals to feed their fast-growing economies. The two countries are investing in ports, railways and oil and gas pipelines in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, that give them access to natural resources and trade routes in the Indian Ocean region.

November’s elections, the first in Myanmar in two decades, were won by the military junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. The United Nations condemned the vote for excluding pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and about 2,100 political prisoners. Suu Kyi was released from house arrest on Nov. 13, six days after the poll.
Energy Projects

Myanmar, sandwiched between China and India, Asia’s two fastest growing economies, is a resource rich country, with a proven 20 trillion cubic feet (570 billion cubic meters) of natural gas and mines that are potentially the world’s greatest source of high-quality rubies and jadeite jade.

Last year, China National Petroleum Corp. started building oil and gas pipelines across the country, and India approved plans for Oil & Natural Gas Corp. and GAIL India Ltd. to invest a combined $1.3 billion in a natural gas project.

Thein Sein met Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on May 27, securing a series of financial agreements, including a 540 million euro ($776 million) line of credit from a government lender.

Indian bilateral trade with Myanmar has more than doubled since 2006 and reached $1.5 billion last year, according to Indian government figures.
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NIA grills Myanmarese arms smugglers
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS – Sun, Jun 19, 2011

Umiam (Meghalaya), June 19 (IANS) The National Investigative Agency (NIA) Sunday quizzed the three members of a Myanmarese arms smuggling gang who were arrested in Meghalaya with a huge cache of Kalashnov rifles, an officer said.

In the biggest arms seizure in Meghalaya, the state police Saturday night arrested three arms smugglers and seized eight AK-56 rifles and eight magazines from a vehicle at Lad Umroi area, about 15 km from Shillong.

The arms were to be handed to another dealer at Mawlasnai village under Ri-Bhoi district, bordering Assam's Karbi Anglong district, according to officials.

Lalchawisanga Zahau, 45, C.L. Hlira, 47, and Lallawmzuala, 34, were travelling with the weapons from Piau village in Mizoram's Champhai district bordering Myanmar, police said.

Claudia A Lyngwa, the district police chief of Ri-Bhoi, told IANS that seized weapons hidden in a secret compartment under the seats of a Gypsy were believed to be meant for the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom.

The trio have been ferrying arms for northeast rebels from Mizoram via Shillong on several occasions, she said.

India shares a 1,600 km unfenced border with Myanmar.

The five-member NIA team from Assam led by Deputy Superintendent Devinder Singh grilled Zahau, one of the kingpins in the arms racket, for several hours.

A local court has remanded the three to 14 days police custody for questioning.

A team of police officials from Assam and Mizoram would also interrogate the three men.

The porous border, thick with forests, along Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura have been used by the illegal weapons syndicate to smuggle small and medium arms and ammunition, besides explosives, to northeastern militant groups.

'These Burmese Mizo (Myanmarese ethnic Chin) have made Shillong as their safe haven taking advantage of tribal Indian Mizos who have settled here,' said a senior Meghalaya police officer.
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Myanmar democracy group deplores fighting, urges negotiations with ethnic rebels
By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 22 minutes ago

YANGON, Myanmar (CP) - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political organization on Monday called for negotiations to end fighting in border areas between the government and ethnic minorities.

The National League for Democracy said in a statement it deplored recent clashes between the government and the ethnic Kachin Independence Army in northern Myanmar.

It also said ongoing fighting in southern Karen state had escalated and thousands of refugees have fled to Thailand and that clashes had taken place between government troops and the ethnic Shan in northeastern Shan state.

The league said it urged the parties "to hold genuine negotiations through mutual respect and understanding."

Suu Kyi on her 66th birthday celebration Sunday at her group's headquarters also called for peace, saying that "sparks of war" are flying in the country.

Fighting between the Kachin and government troops since early this month has displaced 10,000 people and forced Chinese technicians working in hydropower projects to flee the country.

The Kachin say government forces launched a major offensive after the ethnic rebels rejected a call to give up a military outpost in the region, while the government said the army had to protect a Chinese-built hydropower project that had come under threat from the Kachin.

Neither side has given casualty figures for the fighting.

The 8,000-strong Kachin Independence Army, the military wing of the Kachin Independence Organisation, is one of several ethnic armies in Myanmar that have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy.

The KIO reached a peace deal with the country's former ruling junta in 1994, but the truce broke down last year after the group rejected a call by the government to transform its troops into border guards under army leadership. The junta made the appeal ahead of last November's elections, Myanmar's first in 20 years, which installed the nominally civilian government now in power.
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The Vancouver Sun - Burmese dam projects fuel minority uprisings
Ethnic minorities not totally opposed to projects but want to ensure they get their share of the benefits
By Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun June 19, 2011

China’s quest for energy security is a major factor in outbreaks of fighting in neighbouring Burma between government forces and the militia armies of ethnic minorities in the border territories.

Scores of people are reported to have been killed and about 10,000 people have fled their homes since fighting broke out on June 9 between fighters of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and troops of the Burmese government.

In March there were several clashes between the Shan State Army and government soldiers and in December last year Burmese army reinforcements were rushed to the east of the country after the Karenni army attacked a convoy of trucks.

In all cases these clashes broke ceasefires between the minorities’ armies and the Naypyidaw regime that have lasted for over a decade.

And in all cases the spark for the conflict is a massive program to build at least 25 large hydroelectric dams in the territories of the minorities in order to supply power to China.

Minorities such as the Shan, the Karenni and the Kachin complain that they have not been consulted about the projects and they will see none of the benefits from this harnessing of the power of major Burmese rivers such as the Irrawaddy, the Salween and the Chindwin.

More than that, they say villagers are being forcibly displaced and their livelihoods destroyed to make way for dam reservoirs.

They suspect that these projects are also an effort by the Burmese government, with Chinese complicity, to take complete control of the minority regions that it has never succeeded in doing militarily.

A contributing factor to the renewed fighting has been efforts by the Naypyidaw government to persuade the minorities’ armies to transform themselves into border guard forces under the command of the Burmese military.

The powerful Wa United State Army, the Shan, the Kachin and the Karenni have all resisted submitting their forces to Naypyidaw control.

In Kachin State nine dams are either planned or under construction according to Burma Rivers Network, a coalition of the ethnic minorities affected by the power projects.

From various eyewitness reports from the region it seems fighting broke out on June 9 when government forces tried to dislodge contingents of the KIA that had set up bases near Shweli and Taping dam sites on tributaries of the Irrawaddy River.

The shelling by government artillery forces followed the publication of a letter by the KIA warning of a return to civil war if plans proceed to construct another dam on the Irrawaddy at Myitsone, also in Kachin territory.

The Kachin are not entirely opposed to the hydroelectric scheme developments, which some community leaders hope may bring prosperity to their impoverished region.

The group’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization, has been involved in some of the Chinese companies’ engineering plans.

But there has been growing mistrust that the Naypyidaw government, which recently tried to transform itself from a military regime to a civilian government through carefully scripted elections, will allow local people to benefit from dam revenues.

Indeed, it is apparent that in some cases the minorities’ militias have been holding the dam projects hostage to try to get binding commitments from the Burmese regime that a proportion of the revenues from power sales will flow to the local communities.

There is much speculation on Burmese networks that the latest attack came as a result of pressure from Beijing whose state-owned Datang Company is one of the major builders of the dams in Burma.

According to China’s official Global Times newspaper, about 100 Chinese engineers and construction workers were evacuated from the Taping River Dam site when the fighting erupted.

The 8,000-strong KIA is reported to have responded by blowing up three bridges to prevent the government sending in reinforcements, and to have toppled several power transmission pylons at Dapein Dam, completed last year.

The prospect of a complete breakdown of the ceasefire agreements made in the 1990s is alarming for the Naypyidaw regime.

It will undermine the government’s efforts to persuade its neighbours in the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations and the international community that it has reformed the internal political system and that economic sanctions should be lifted.

But perhaps even more important, renewed fighting along Burma’s border will disrupt trade with China, mostly the sale of Burmese natural resources, on which the country has come to depend.
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Channel NewsAsia - EU team in Myanmar for talks with new government
Posted: 20 June 2011 1230 hrs

YANGON: A team of senior European Union diplomats has arrived in Myanmar for exploratory talks with the new government following the handover of power from the long-ruling junta, a Myanmar official said on Monday.

Robert Cooper, special adviser to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, flew into the capital Naypyidaw on Sunday, joining EU special envoy Piero Fassino who arrived a day earlier, said the official, who asked not to be named.

They were due to meet three ministers in the new nominally civilian but army-backed government, including the foreign minister, followed by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday in Yangon.

The EU has declined to release details of the team's schedule.

Myanmar's military junta was dissolved in March following the first election in 20 years in November and the release of Suu Kyi shortly afterwards.

The transfer of power sparked cautious hopes of gradual reform in Myanmar, ruled by the military for nearly half a century, although the poll was marred by widespread complaints of cheating and intimidation.

"This is a first stage aimed at listening to the new Myanmar authorities to gauge their mindset," an EU diplomat said on Friday. "All partners concerned by Myanmar have sent, or will be sending, missions to test the new authorities."

In April, European governments extended by a year a set of trade and financial sanctions on Myanmar, also known as Burma, but opened the door to its foreign minister as an inducement to accelerate change.

Debate over whether to soften sanctions against Myanmar was stoked last November with the release of democracy icon Suu Kyi from house arrest.

Suu Kyi herself has said sanctions should remain in place until there is real democratic reform and the EU, on opting to maintain them in April, expressed hopes of "a greater civilian character of the government".

But the bloc lifted for a year a visa ban and asset freeze for "certain civilian members of the government", including the foreign minister.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi swept her National League for Democracy party to a landslide election win in 1990, but the regime never accepted the result and she spent much of the past two decades a prisoner in her own home.

Her party boycotted last November's election, saying the rules were unfair, and the vote was won by the military's political proxies.
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Monsters and Critics - Senior EU diplomat visits Myanmar, to see Aung San Suu Kyi
Jun 20, 2011, 9:53 GMT

Yangon - High-ranking European diplomat Robert Cooper arrived in Myanmar Monday for a two-day visit that is to include a meeting with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, government and opposition sources said.

Robert Cooper - a counsellor in the European External Action Service, the EU's foreign affairs department - held talks Monday with Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's capital, government officials said.

He was scheduled to fly Tuesday to Yangon for talks with Suu Kyi. She leads the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won the 1990 general election but was blocked from power by the military.

'Cooper will meet with Daw [Madam] Suu Kyi at her house in Yangon,' NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.

Cooper is the latest of several high-ranking Western diplomats to visit Myanmar after the country held its first election in two decades on November 7.

US Senator John McCain visited the country this month, and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Yun and UN special envoy to Myanmar Vijay Nambiar visited in April.

Suu Kyi was barred from running in the November 7 polls, which were won by the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, largely viewed as the political arm of the military regime that has ruled Myanmar since 1988. Myanmar has been under military dictatorships since 1962.
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Myanmar's visit will vitalize relationship in new political environment: Krishna
By ANI | ANI – 9 hours ago

New Delhi, Jun 20 (ANI) External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who left on a three-day official visit to Myanmar, on Monday said the visit would give India and Myanmar an opportunity to further vitalize their multi-faceted relationship in the new political environment.

In a departure statement, Krishna said: "I will be paying an official visit to Myanmar from 20-22 June at the invitation of my counterpart. The visit will give us an opportunity to further vitalize our multi-faceted relationship in the new political environment.

"We will have an exchange of views on enhancing security cooperation as well as our collaboration in the fields of Connectivity, IT, Energy, Agriculture, Power, Telecommunications and Infrastructure," he added.

Emphasising that India proposed to initiate a few new projects in Myanmar, Krishna said: "We have made considerable progress in implementing decisions and agreements emanating from that visit. Construction had commenced on Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project."

He further said he would be inaugurating three of the ten Rice Silos (Warehouses) being set up in Myanmar. The silos are being set up with India's assistance following the devastating Cyclone Nargis that hit the country three years ago.

"We are likely to sign a number of MoUs of cooperation to further strengthen bilateral cooperation," he said.

"We have had a useful exchange of views and have gained a better understanding of each other's positions. We have always approached our discussions in an open and constructive spirit, he added.

The visit will be India's first high level engagement with Myanmar's newly-elected nominally civilian government, following the military junta's decision to ostensibly hand over authority in March after being almost 50 years in power.

India shared close ties with Myanmar's military regime and began courting the junta in the mid-1990s as security, energy and strategic priorities came to the fore.
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New Kerala - Krishna leaves for Myanmar; meeting with Suu Kyi not ruled out

New Delhi, Jun 20: External Affairs Minister S M Krishna today left for a two-day visit to Myanmar, which will be the first high-level engagement with the newly established civilian government in that country after its assumption of office on March 30.

Though there were media reports that Mr Krishna might meet with with Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Minister was non-committal about any such meeting planned though he did not rule it either while talking to reporters before emplaning for Yangon.

When asked whether he would be meeting other Myanmarese leaders besides those in the Government, Mr Krishna said, "I don't know whether I will have a chance. There will be so many engagements and it will be a very brief visit." He said he was going to the country's eastern neighbour at the invitation of his counterpart there.

The visit will give India an opportunity to further "vitalise its multi-faceted relationship in the new political environment," he said.

On the agenda are issues like enhancing security cooperation as well as collaboration in the fields of Connectivity, IT, Energy, Agriculture, Power, Telecommunications and Infrastructure, Mr Krishna said.
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Metro.co.uk - Aung San Suu Kyi: Dave Lee Travis' show helped me through house arrest
Joel Taylor - 20th June, 2011

As a lifelong pro-democracy campaigner and a worldwide symbol of peace, you might expect Aung San Suu Kyi's heroes to include figures such as Nelson Mandela and Gandhi.

But Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi has revealed another, perhaps more unlikely, source of inspiration – former Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis, aka the Hairy Cornflake.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who spent 15 years under house arrest from 1989, said DLT’s request show on the World Service helped make her life of seclusion ‘much more complete’.

She told the Radio Times: ‘I would listen to that quite happily because the listeners would write in and I had a chance to hear other people’s words.’

Lee Travis, 66, who presented A Jolly Good Show on the World Service for 20 years until 2001, said: ‘I’m touched she remembers it.’

Ms Suu Kyi, 66, is to give two of Radio 4’s Reith Lectures, on June 28 and July 5.
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The Nation - Burma is the fifth world largest refugee producer: UN report
Published on June 20, 2011

Burma is the fifth world largest refugee producing country with 415,700 people fleeing from conflict at home, the United Nation refugee agency reported on Monday.

Of refugees from Burma, there are some estimated 200,000 unregistered in Bangladesh, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHRC)'s report on global trend of refugees 2010.

As of the end of 2010, Thailand is sheltering 96,675 refugees, mostly from Burma and the UN is discussing with the Thai authority to verify some 540,000 stateless persons in the country, the UN report said.

UNHCR's 2010 Global Trends report showed that many of the world's poorest countries are hosting huge refugee populations, both in absolute terms and in relation to the size of their economies.

Pakistan, Iran, and Syria have the largest refugee populations at 1.9 million, 1.1 million, and 1 million respectively. Pakistan also has the biggest economic impact with 710 refugees for each dollar of its per capita GDP (PPP) followed by Congo and Kenya with 475 and 247 refugees respectively.

By comparison Germany, the industrialized country with the largest refugee population (594,000 people), has 17 refugees for each dollar of per capita GDP, the report said.
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The Nation - Mega-projects pose huge challenge for parties
By Watcharapong Thongrung
Sasithorn Ongdee
Published on June 20, 2011

None of the experts is willing to single out any of the mega-investment and infrastructure projects promised by the parties as better.

The promises of the two main parties - Democrat and Pheu Thai - are not very different. Both are promising mass-transit electric train projects in Bangkok and its vicinities to the provinces and a high-speed train project connecting neighbouring countries. The only difference is their approach to private participation in these projects. Pheu Thai seems to prefer a "turnkey" basis while the Democrats prefer public private participation (PPP). The Democrat approach can lead to higher spending from the government budget.

Pheu Thai has promised to promote the South while the Democrats have vowed to promote the East as a strategic location for the country's transport and logistics hub to facilitate trade and investments. Both are also relying on funding from China, many experts in the industry said.

For those who believe in the Asean Economic Community (AEC) connectivity in 2015, the Democrat policy on logistics development in the East as a hub of marine transport, and promoting Dawei port in Burma as the west gate of Greater mekong Subregion (GMS) South-South Economic Corridor, should be favourable to all.

No more bad pollution is in the country in particular to the Southern part. But, in fact many know it's such risky if the country has no its own breaths even the mega-investment Dawei Port project is led by leading Thai contractor Italian-Thai Development, which was granted the build, operate and transfer concession to develop the project from the Burmese government last November. Moreover, the party's policy to develop Laem Chabang as a Habour City may be unworthy of investment.

" Laem Chabang Port is not located in the world's main shipping lines," Tanit Sorat, vice president of Federation of Thai Industry supported the above argument.

If people believe in transparency and good governance, the Pheu Thai plan for a Land Bridge in the South, including logistics facilities, heavy industry like oil refinery and petrochemical and deep seaport, should be a good choice. Scheduling the bidding and construction process can be speedy as they will be "turnkey" projects - a contract or concession granted as a package, including funds secured, for a long term. Implementing projects in this manner will give the state a one-time vast amount of money. The economy can also grow rapidly, driven by enormous investments.

Pheu Thai tends to prefer the "turnkey" investment model.

However, many contend that the turnkey model is a source of corruption, hurting public benefits in the future due to less bargaining power of consumers.
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India seeks stronger ties with Myanmar
Published: June 20, 2011 at 7:22 AM

NEW DELHI, June 20 (UPI) -- India's External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna traveled Monday to Myanmar, where a civilian government took over in March after decades of military rule.

The high level Indian delegation, which includes Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, will seek to strengthen bilateral ties, especially commercial and economic relations during its three-day visit to the strategically important country, the Press Trust of India reported.

India and China have maintained close ties with Myanmar over the years despite criticisms from the West stemming from Myanmar's poor human rights record. Of late, China's influence in that country has reportedly been growing.

Krishna will meet with Myanmar's new President Thein Sein and other top leaders.

"This will be our first engagement with Myanmar after a new civilian government assumed office in March," India's Economic Times reported, quoting a government source.

"This visit and the meetings will give us an opportunity to take stock of our broad-based engagement with Myanmar and get a better feel of realities and the outlook of the new government."

Bilateral trade between India and Myanmar, formerly called Burma, has increased from $12.4 million in 1980 to $1.2 billion last year, PTI reported. Investments by India, Myanmar's fourth largest trading partner after Thailand, Singapore and China, include oil and gas sectors to hydroelectric power and railways.
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Senior political advisor meets party delegation from Myanmar
English.news.cn 2011-06-20 20:46:06

BEIJING, June 20 (Xinhua)-- Senior political advisor Li Jinhua met with a delegation of Myanmar's Union Solidarity and Development Party, led by U Soe Naing, on Monday.

Li, vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, met with the delegation at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Monday afternoon.

Li reviewed the growth of China-Myanmar ties since the two neighbors forged diplomatic relations in 1950.

Bordered by China on the northeast, Myanmar shares a border of more than 2,200 kilometers with China.

Li said China would like to work more closely with Myanmar in the areas of energy, transportation and agriculture.

Li said the Communist Party of China (CPC) would like to share its experience in running the country with Myanmar's Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Myanmar's Union Solidarity and Development Party was founded on April 29, 2010.

Soe Naing extended his congratulations to the CPC on its upcoming 90th birthday, which falls on July 1.

Soe Naign said Myanmar takes its ties with China very seriously and is pleased about the establishment of the Myanmar-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

Soe Naign said Myanmar's Union Solidarity and Development Party would like to increase exchanges and cooperation with the CPC.

The delegation is visiting China at the invitation of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee.
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Myanmar adjusts visa policy for citizens, foreign visitors
English.news.cn 2011-06-20 23:47:06

YANGON, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar authorities prescribed that Myanmar citizens staying abroad for over three months for visit are to be taxed when their passports are renewed on expiry, local media reported Monday.

Such over-stay Myanmar citizens traveling abroad are deemed as working there instead of visit and they are to be taxed 10 percent of the lowest pay of respective countries unless the passport holders show testimonies issued by Myanmar embassies to certify that they are not employed there, said the Flower News, quoting officials of the Passport Issuing Office.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar authorities have also tightened measures against foreign visitors traveling in the country whose visas expired without applying for extension.

Previously, such over-stay visitors were punished by fining, but now certain action will be taken against them, earlier reports said, without specifying the new punishment to be made.

Foreign visitors entering into Myanmar with visit visa are being monitored if their undertakings are related to visit only.

Travel agencies are told to be responsible for such over-stay visitors introduced by them.

However, Myanmar has recently lifted a suspension of visa-on- arrival arranged through travel agencies for visitors from regions where no Myanmar embassy is set up.

Myanmar re-granted the visa-on-arrival of its kind, which was halted in last September ahead of the general election in November.

At present, as a special case, Myanmar issues such visa to travelers from Cambodia's Siem Reap and China's Guangzhou after the Myanmar Airways International launched its maiden flights to the two destinations in February and March this year.

It was reported that Myanmar is deliberating to grant such visa- on-arrival for 10 selected countries phase by phase, quoting the Hoteliers Association.

According to official statistics, the number of tourist arrivals in Myanmar reached 106,795 in the first three months of 2011, up 24 percent from 85,519 in 2010 correspondingly.

In the whole of 2010, a total of 791,505 travelers visited Myanmar, of whom 297,246 arrived through the Yangon International Airport. Most of the tourists came on package tour, business and social purposes.

Visitors from Thailand stood top in Myanmar's tourist arrival, followed by those from China, France, South Korea and the United States.

Meanwhile, travel companies from Myanmar and South Korea have recently signed a memorandum of understanding on tourism cooperation, setting a quota of 1,000 tourists from South Korea to visit Myanmar monthly.
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The Irrawaddy - BKK Post Censored for Suu Kyi Feature
By KO HTWE Monday, June 20, 2011

The Burmese government's censorship board prohibited the distribution in Rangoon of the Bangkok Post on Sunday after it discovered the Thailand-based newspaper had reported about opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's forthcoming trip.

The cover of Sunday's weekly Spectrum section published a full-page photograph of Suu Kyi with the headline “History Repeating,” followed by a four-page spread titled “ Aung San Suu Kyi Steps Back Into The Firing Line,” written by Australian journalist Phil Thornton.

The move by the Ministry of Information's Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) to ban distribution of the English-language newspaper comes less than three weeks after permission had been given in early June to distribute in Burma both The Post and Thailand's other main English-language daily, The Nation.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Myo Aung, the manager of Success International Publisher’s Distributor Company [sic], the Burmese firm with rights to distribute the Thai dailies, said there exists a mutual understanding on controversial issues between the PSRD and his distributing company.

“When we passed this issue of The Post to the PSRD, we asked them if it was in accord with the regulations. They said that the subject matter lies outside the regulations, so we had to remove the offending section from that day's distribution,” said Myo Aung.

The PSRD allowed the main section of the Bangkok Post to proceed with a small photo of Suu Kyi on the front page, he added.

“Political news has to pass through the PSRD,” said Myo Aung. “They permit some issues, but restrict others. I hope the restrictions will be reduced in the future.”

On the same day, The Bangkok Post carried in its international section a report about the ongoing conflict between Burma's government forces and the Kachin Independence Army in northern Burma near the Chinese border.

Readers from Rangoon have access to the Thai newspaper at around 1 pm each day—only after it has been passed by the censorship board. However, Foreign embassies receive all newspapers without censorship.

The Bangkok Post retails in Burma for 2,100 kyat (US $ 2.50) per copy. Within the three weeks it has been distributed in Burma, just 20 subscriptions have been received, mostly from businessmen and hotel owners in Rangoon, according to Myo Aung.
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The Irrawaddy - Burmese Refugee Census Just Scratching Surface
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Monday, June 20, 2011

MAE SOT/MAE LA, Thailand— Oblivious to the late afternoon downpour, six children chase each other near the roadside fence at Mae La, the biggest of nine refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma frontier.

“Please, no photos of the people,” implores a man standing nearby, sheltering against the wall of one of the thousands of timber huts along the roadside. Three of the children are his, although he refuses to give his name, saying only that he crossed to Thailand from Burma's Karen State “more than one year ago” and has been confined to the camp ever since.

Acting on the orders of Tak Provincial Governor Samart Loifah, Thai officials started a headcount in Mae La as well as Umpiem Mai and Nu Pu—the two other camps in Tak province. The census is ongoing, with roughly 40 percent of the estimated 140,000 Burmese refugee population in Thailand unregistered.

The Thai government stopped screening and registering new arrivals in 2005, meaning that there are around 60,000 unregistered refugees from Burma currently inside Thailand, according to Sally Thompson of the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), a grouping of 12 NGOs that assists Burmese refugees in the border camps.

In total, Thailand hosts just over 96,000 registered refugees, according to figures released by the United Nations Refugee Commission (UNHCR) in its 2010 Global Trends Report, which was published on Monday to mark World Refugee Day. Pakistan, Iran, and Syria have the largest refugee populations worldwide at 1.9 million, 1.1 million, and one million respectively, with numbers swollen due to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Overall, the 2010 Global Trends report says that “43.7 million people are now displaced worldwide – roughly equalingthe entire populations of either Colombia, South Korea, or Scandinavia and Sri Lanka combined.” Of this total of displaced, 15.4 million are listed as refugees, 27.5 million people displaced internally by conflict, and nearly 850,000 are asylum-seekers, according to the new report.

Thailand has long been a refuge for Burmese people affected by oppression and warfare at home, with the 140,000 actual number of refugees, a figure which includes unregistered refugees, joined by around three million Burmese economic migrants working in Thailand. In 2010, a total of 11,400 refugees in Thailand were resettled to third countries, mostly in the West, making Thailand the second-highest refugee resettlement staging point after Nepal. Of that total, 10,825 were from Burma, according UNCHR Asia spokesperson Kitty McKinsey.

Burma is listed as the world's fifth biggest source country for refugees, ranking close to Colombia and Sudan. As well as Burmese refugees in Thailand, Burma's total refugee output is given by UNHCR at 415,700 and “includes an estimated 200,000 un-registered people in Bangladesh,” mostly Muslim Rohingya from Arakan State in Burma's west.

With the Tak refugee census ongoing, comments from Governor Samart and other senior Thai officials in recent months about sending refugees back to Burma have prompted consternation in the camps.

However, calls for the Burmese refugees to be repatriated are premature, according to people familiar with the situation on the ground in ethnic minority regions close to the Thailand border.

“There is conflict between the SPDC [Burmese military dictatorship prior to the establishment of a new nominally-civilian government earlier this year] and ethnic armed groups in many regions,” says Mahn Mahn, head of the Backpack Health Workers Team, which deploys almost 2,000 medics and associated personnel inside conflict-affected regions of Burma, places where existing health facilities are thin on the ground, or non-existent.

The latest bout of fighting in the northern Kachin State has forced around 10,000 people from their homes close to the Burma-China border, while in parts of Karen State, source of most of the refugees in adjacent Tak Province in Thailand, “the army has a shoot-on-sight policy, which affects civilians as well as militia fighters,” according to Mahn Mahn.

Since November 2010, when elections in Burma were accompanied by fighting in Karen State between the Burmese Army and various Karen factions, more than 30,000 people have been displaced, according to Sally Thompson.

“Around 6,000 of these are in temporary sites around the border,” she says, referring to new locations outside of the nine main camps.

Extensive de-mining in Karen State and in Burma's other ethnic regions will be necessary before refugees can return to their homeland, says Saw Maw Kel, a former Karen rebel who lost part of his left leg in 1986 after standing on a landmine. He says that Karen rebels themselves plant landmines close to army locations, but the rebels tell civilians where the mines are located. He claims this is in contrast to the Burmese Army's mines which are laid indiscriminately, affecting villages and making it dangerous to farm or work in forests.

Saw Maw Kel now runs the prosthetics department at the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, close to the Thailand-Burma border. “I have more than 200 referrals a year here,” he says,
pointing to a whiteboard on the clinic wall which shows that the majority of his caseload to be landmine victims from inside Burma.

Not all of the cases he deals with are Karen or from the country's other ethnic minorities. Than Tin, an ethnic Burman from Pegu Division, is one of the latest landmine casualties to visit Mae Tao. He lost half his right leg last January.

“I was lucky I had some friends with me,” he recounts. “One of them tied up my leg with a longyi and they all carried me to Myawaddy Hospital.” The improvised tourniquet likely saved Than Tin's life, allowing him be taken across the border to Mae Sot for treatment.

Pointing down to his bandaged leg-stump, he says, “it is not safe in many places across the border. I went out with colleagues for a day's work, and have not been able to work since. I nearly died.”
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The Irrawaddy - NLD to Discuss Ethnic Conflicts with EU Delegation
By SAI ZOM HSENG Monday, June 20, 2011

The National League for Democracy (NLD), Burma’s main opposition political party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, will highlight the current armed conflicts between ethnic armed groups and the Burmese army in its meeting with a high-level European Union (EU) delegation team during its trip to Burma.

NLD spokesman Ohn Kyaing said the EU delegation will meet with NLD leaders on Wednesday, and the meeting will focus on the current armed conflicts in the ethnic areas.

In the last two weeks, skirmishes broke out between the Burmese army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). The Kachin Independence Organization, which is the political wing of the KIA, claimed that about 10,000 local people became war refugees due to the fighting.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Ohn Kyaing said, “We already mentioned that what we want most is the peace. U Tin Oo and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi also mentioned that peace is the most important thing for the current situation. We are not pleased with the armed conflicts with the ethnic groups. There are so many problems in Burma which have to
be solved by political means. We will keep calling for discussion and dialogue. We urge the countries which can help us to bring peace.”

The New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, claimed on Saturday that the skirmishes were started by KIA shooting.

The NLD spokesperson said that Burma’s new government needs to change the 2008 Constitution, which was drawn up by Burma’s ex-military regime, if it really wants to terminate the conflicts.

The NLD will also discuss their party’s legalization, their position on tourism and their view of the new civilian government with the EU delegation.

“Although there is a change because of the new government, we still have to wait and see that it is a real change,” Ohn Kyaing said.

The NLD was dissolved by the Burmese government on Sept. 14, 2010 because it refused to register for the 2010 election.

The EU delegation, which arrived in Burma on Sunday, includes Robert Cooper, the director general for political affairs, Piero Fassino, the EU’s special envoy for Burma and Catherine Ashton, the EU vice president.

"This is a first stage aimed at listening to the new Myanmar [Burma] authorities to gauge their mindset, all partners concerned by Myanmar have sent, or will be sending, missions to test the new authorities,” an EU diplomat said, according to Agence France Presse.
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Suu Kyi’s birthday prayer for peace
Monday, 20 June 2011 15:39 Ko Pauk

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Sunday, her 66th birthday, that peace was the most important thing as more fighting has broke out in Burma.

National League for Democracy (NLD) General-Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi gave a five-minute speech at her birthday party at NLD headquarters in Rangoon.

‘In order to develop and prosper, the first thing a country need is peace. So my birthday prayer is that we all can live in peace', Suu Kyi said.

She also said that to establish peace, neither a person nor an organization could do it alone. She called for cooperation.

‘The most valuable birthday gift you can give to me is making yourself to want our country to be peaceful', she said.

Her supporters called her birthday ‘Burma Women’s Day’.

‘When wars or acts of violence break out, women and children are the worst sufferers, hence women want peace more than men want it', Suu Kyi said.

Her birthday party attracted a large turnout. Foreign diplomats also attended.

‘There are about 1,500 to 2,000 participants. The road was also very crowded’, NLD youth wing leader Myo Nyunt told Mizzima.

Suu Kyi, who has been dubbed ‘Mom’ by Burmese youth, seemed active and happy at her birthday party, Myo Nyunt said.

‘The youth network formed by Mom’s advice actively participated to hold her birthday party and it was extraordinary. Not only NLD members but also new generation students, 88-generation students including Phyo Min Thein, Khin Moe Aye and Toe Kyaw Hlaing, musicians and poets helped to celebrate her birthday ceremony’, Myo Nyunt said.

On Sunday morning, a song contest was held to mark her birthday and young people from Sanchaung Township won first prize singing the song, ‘Refresh yourself, Mom’.

‘I’m very glad to meet with Mom in the real world and participate in arranging her birthday party. Mom often wears a smile. She smiled many times today’, Kyaw Htoo Lin, who attended the party, told Mizzima.

NLD leaders including Tin Oo and Win Tin, prominent politicians including Thakhin Thein Pe and leaders of the Committee Representing People's Parliament including Aye Tha Aung and Pu Chin Sian Thang attended the birthday party.

Birthday celebrations were also held in Ahlone, Thanlyin, Twante and North Okkalapa townships in Rangoon Division as well as in Mandalay and Sagaing Divisions.

Although Suu Kyi’s birthday ceremony is held each year, she could not participate for many years because she was under house arrest.

In April 1988, Suu Kyi returned to Burma to look after her sick mother, Khin Kyi. She led a nation-wide failed pro-democracy uprising the same year and was put under house arrest on July 20, 1989.

She was released on July 10, 1995, but was placed under house arrest again on September 23, 2000.

The former junta released her on May 6, 2002, but a short while later following the Depayin Massacre, she was put under house arrest again on May 30, 2003, and was released on November 13, 2010.
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Unknown group fires on electrical power plant in Taungoo
Monday, 20 June 2011 21:22 Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The No. 2 Thoutyaykhat electric power plant in Taungoo Township in Pegu Region was fired on Sunday morning by an unknown armed group, according to residents.

The electrical power plant, which is under construction, came under attack by rocket propelled grenades about 5 a.m. The plant is located on the bank of the Thoutyaykhat Stream, 14 miles east of Taungoo.

There was no claim of responsibility.

Thoutyaykhat is a concrete hydropower dam 1,253 feet wide and 308 feet high. It’s projected capacity is 604 million kilowatt hours, according to the Ministry of Electrical Power No.1.

The plant is located in an area controlled by the Karen National Union Battalion 5 of Brigade No.2.
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KIO wants proof to show Burmese troops have stopped military offensive
Monday, 20 June 2011 21:33 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) on Sunday sent a letter to Thein Zaw, the general secretary of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), asking for proof to show that Burmese government troops have stopped their military offensive against the KIO.

‘If the government really wants permanent peace, they need to give us proof to show that they have stopped the offensive. We need official documents that ordered the relevant government military units to stop fighting’, La Nang, a KIO central committee member, told Mizzima.

Thein Zaw is an MP from Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State.

The Kachin Consultative Assembly on Friday forwarded a government message that offered the KIO a cease-fire, but the KIO doubted the authenticity of the offer.

The KIO letter said that if the government could provide proof, the KIO would withdraw its troops from the front and try to reach an agreement.

Meanwhile, KIO troops carried out an attack on the government’s Military Affairs Security office in Namsangyang village on the Myitkyina-Bhamo Road about 2 a.m. on Sunday, La Nang said.

Because of recent fighting, about 10,000 people have fled to the Sino-Burmese border town of Laiza, where the KIO headquarters are located, the KIO said.

On Sunday, a ceremony to mark Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s 66th birthday was held in Laiza. In the ceremony, former members of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front and pro-democracy activists donated 5 million kyat (about US$ 700) to war victims.

The KIO, which is fighting for racial equality and self-determination, signed a cease-fire agreement with the former junta in 1994, but after it rejected the junta’s Border Guard Force plan, the cease-fire agreement was broken and fresh fighting began in early June.
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DVB News - Burma deploys extra troops to Karen state
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 20 June 2011

Additional troop columns are being sent to a region in Karen state controlled by a renegade group of one-time Border Guard Force troops, likely in preparation for an assault.

Two battalions were sent to Myainggyingu yesterday evening, following the deployment of two on Thursday last week. Expected fighting over the weekend did not materialise, although troops continue to arrive.

Myainggyingu region is home to the one-time Border Guard Force 1012, who last month began to refuse demands from their leaders and have since worn the insignia of the opposition Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).

A commander with the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), which is fighting alongside the DKBA against the Burmese army, said that the additional troops were sent from a unit “tasked with clearing out the Myainggyingu region”.

He said that the decision by BGF 1012 to wear DKBA fatigues was seen by the Burmese army as an act of rebellion. The group said last month that they had grown tired of the lack of rations and what they claim is discrimination between the ranks of BGF 1012, the same group that in April attacked their own armoury.

The Karen opposition, whose six-decade conflict with the Burmese regime is one of the world’s longest-running, was given a boost in July last year when another faction of the DKBA broke off and turned against the Burmese army. A number of defections have since followed.

The latest deployment marks a further escalation of hostilities in Burma’s border regions, where several groups have refused to transform into government-controlled BGFs. Fighting has raged in Kachin state over the past fortnight, while Burmese troops have also launched assaults on the Shan State Army.
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DVB News - Kachin raped, killed by Burmese troops
By MAUNG TOO
Published: 20 June 2011

Seven Kachin women have been raped in separate attacks by Burmese troops in the country’s north, four of whom were subsequently murdered, a rights group has told DVB.

All incidents occurred in or close to Bhamo district in Kachin state, where additional battalions of Burmese soldiers have been deployed in the past fortnight to fight the insurgent Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

Moon Nay Li, coordinator of the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT), said that six women were raped this month – two of the incidents happened in Donbon village, one in Momauk township and three in Nahlon. The three women in Nahlon were then murdered.

She said another incident occurred just north of Bhamo on 17 June. “We learnt that a couple in Dawhpumyang [sub-township] were taken into the woods by troops from the Burmese army’s LIB-142 [Light Infantry Battalion 142] – they tied up the husband and made him watch as they raped his wife before killing her.”

The latest wave of fighting in Bhamo began on 9 June when Burmese troops launched an attack on KIA bases, forcing thousands to flee their homes. The assault came after the KIA refused to become a government-controlled Border Guard Force.

Use of rape as a weapon of war in Burma has long been documented by rights group. The Shan Women’s Action Network’s landmark ‘License to Rape’ report in 2002 cited 173 incidents of rape by Burmese troops in Shan state alone between 1996 and 2001. Of these, around 61 percent were believed to be gang-rapes, while a quarter resulted in deaths.

Moon Nay Li said rape of women was a regular occurrence when the Burmese army staged offensives in ethnic regions, and voiced concern that it had become “a policy” of government troops.

Opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi told a summit of Nobel prize winners in May that rape in Burma is a “very real problem” and “is used as a weapon by armed forces to intimidate the ethnic nationalities and to divide our country,”

A statement released by KWAT last week said that China has restricted the movement of aid workers along the shared border, meaning that refugees were struggling to receive help.

Around 10,000 Kachin are estimated to have fled their homes since fighting began, some of whom have crossed into China and some of whom have travelled to the KIA headquarters in Laiza, north of Bhamo.
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DVB News - Wa army anxious about border conflicts
Published: 20 June 2011

Burma’s largest armed ethnic group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), has voiced “serious concern” about ongoing clashes along the country’s northern and eastern borders that have escalated in recent weeks.

The conflicts “resulted in a great number of civilian casualties and led to instability in the country”, a statement by the group said, noting that the Karen National Union (KNU), Shan State Army (SSA) and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) are all currently engaged in heavy fighting against the Burmese army.

It said the fighting resulted from offensives by the Burmese army against ethnic groups, contradicting President Thein Sein’s remarks that he would push for peace in the border regions.

The statement called for restraint from insurgent groups, whom it said should curtail their “excessive movements” inside government territory. It also urged Thein Sein to “control” the army, suggesting that regional military commanders may be acting with a degree of autonomy from the central government. It mirrors recent remarks made by the spokesperson of the KIA, who told DVB that Naypyidaw “couldn’t control their frontline soldiers”.

The UWSA is thought to have close to 30,000 troops in several blocks of territory around the edge of Shan state, which also hosts the SSA and several KIA battalions. It is one of the few ethnic armies whose ceasefire with the Burmese government remains intact.

The latest group to official signal end of decades-old truces is the KIA, which over the past 10 days have fought fierce battles with government troops in the country’s northern Kachin state.

The fighting has caused thousands to flee their homes, many of whom have crossed into China. China last week urged restraint from both sides.

The Wa army, whose refusal to become a government-controlled Border Guard Force has not been met with the same retaliation as that of the KIA and SSA, also warned that fighting could have serious long-term ramifications.

“The conflict is growing rapidly and is not conducive for long-term stability in the country or finding a solution to dispute with ethnic armies”, some of which have been battling the government for more than six decades.
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