88GS LEADERS TRANSFERRRED

Former student leader Min Ko Naing and eight leading political activists from the 88 Generation Students group were transferred on Friday morning from Rangoon’s Insein Prison to Maubin Prison in Irrawaddy Division two days after they were sentenced to six months imprisonment for disrespecting the court, according to sources inside Insein Prison.
A staff member at Insein told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Min Ko Naing and eight political prisoners were loaded into a prison truck, which left the prison at about 7am escorted by two police vehicles.

The nine members of the 88 Generation Students group were sentenced to six months imprisonment on Wednesday under Section 228 of the penal code—for contempt of court—by the Northern District Court inside Insein Prison in the northwestern suburbs of Rangoon.
According to the source, the nine political prisoners were named as Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho (aka Htay Win Aung), Htay Kywe, Mya Aye, Hla Myo Naung, Nyan Lin, Aung Thu and Myo Aung Naing.
Several members of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Pyone Cho, after they led a march on August 19, 2007, against sharp increases in the price of fuel and other commodities, which led to mass demonstrations led by Buddhist monks the following month.
Since August 2008, more than 35 members of the 88 Generation Students group have been charged by the Insein Prison Special Court under a variety of charges, including Section 4 of the SPDC Law No. 5/96 (Endangering the National Convention).
The joint-secretary of Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP-Burma), Bo Kyi, said that the nine members of the 88 Generation Students group were moved to Maubin Prison because they verbally appealed to the judge for “free and fair justice.”
“They will not get regular family visits in Maubin,” Bo Kyi said. “The prison transfer will cause trouble for the prisoners’ health, their families and their lawyers.”
According to the AAPP-Burma, a political prisoner, Kyaw Myo Thant, died in Maubin Prison in 1990 under what it called “awful” conditions.

Than Shwe’s Daughter Goes Shopping for Gold

The London-based BBC’s Burmese service reported that an unnamed daughter of Than Shwe visited the Aung Tharmarde gold shop on Mandalay’s 22nd Street and bought gold worth 100 million kyat ($80,645).
“People were shocked to hear about the extravagance,” said a Mandalay gold dealer. “I’d like to ask her where the money came from when most Burmese people are poor and some are starving.”
The report reignited anger over the extravagance of the marriage in July 2006 of one of Than Shwe’s daughters, Thandar, who draped herself in the precious metal when she married Maj Zaw Phyo Win. The bridal pair were showered with expensive gifts estimated to have cost the equivalent of $50 million.
One Rangoon gold dealer suggested that Than Shwe’s family wanted to invest in the precious metal at a time when the price of bullion had dropped.

Thailand causes upset with ASEAN summit switch

Officially, the reason for the 700 km (435 mile) move to the northern city is because of its pleasant climate in December and a desire to "show the delegates some other part of Thailand," according to foreign ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat.
In private, however, officials admit it has nothing to do with tourism or the weather and everything to do with the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the protest movement that has occupied the Prime Minister's official compound in Bangkok since August.
"They are just trying to avoid trouble with the PAD," one government official said, trying to play down suggestions that the last-minute change of venue represents a loss of face and makes the country look unstable.
Thai media have speculated that the PAD, whose street protest has crippled government decision-making since it started in May, will target the summit venue to embarrass the elected administration in what should be one of its proudest moments.
As well as government leaders from the 10 Association of South East Asian Nations countries -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines -- the meeting also includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Bangkok-based diplomats are fuming at the abrupt switch for the summit, which coincides with the height of the tourist season.
Coming at such short notice, it is hard to see a city with a population of 200,000 finding enough beds to cope with the influx of thousands of government officials and foreign media.

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DOG AND DRAGON HAVE TO COOPERATE AND BURMESE LADIES ON CHINESE MARKET

Xinhua did not provide details of the meeting, but said that Zhang Li had discussions with Thura Shwe Mann, the chief of general staff of the Burmese army, navy and air force. The Chinese news agency also commented on the spirit of “friendly cooperation” between the armed forces of the two countries.
Htay Aung, a Burmese researcher in Thailand, said that Gen Zhang Li’s trip to Burma was a means of strengthening cooperation between the two armed forces.
China has been the major supplier of military hardware to Burma since the regime crushed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988. China has provided fighter jet planes, naval ships, tanks, military vehicles and ammunition to the Burmese junta. It has been reported that China has delivered some US $2 billion worth of military equipment to Burma since the early 1990s.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst living at the China-Burma border, said he believed that the generals’ meeting focused on the military industry.
“The Chinese armed forces have helped and supported the Burmese with heavy military hardware for years,” he said, adding that 90 percent of Burmese military transportation is supplied by China.
New York-based Human Rights Watch pointed out in its October 2007 report that India, China, Russia, and other nations have supplied Burma with weapons that the Burmese army uses to commit human rights abuses against civilians and to bolster its ability to maintain power.
The international rights group said that China has supplied Burma with advanced helicopter gunships, arms production technology, support equipment and small arms, including mortars, landmines, and assault rifles, as well as assistance in setting up an indigenous small-arms production capability. It said China had also supplied a vast array of advanced military hardware to Burma, including fighter planes, naval vessels and tanks, and other infantry support weapons.
In August, Burma’s Chief of Defense Industry Lt-Gen Tin Aye visited China. State-run Xinhua reported that he met with Gen Liang Guanglie, a member of the central military commission and chief of general staff of the PLA, in an effort to increase cooperation in political, economic, cultural and military spheres.
According to Xinhua, the Chinese defense ministry was ready to work with Burma to further expand bilateral cooperation, so as to help the two nations’ defense and to safeguard regional peace and stability.
According to a report leaked to The Irrawaddy, in July, at a confidential meeting with senior staffers, Home Affairs minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo said that Burma was not pro-China. However, Maung Oo stated that Burma was China’s “road to the sea of southern states” because allies of the US, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were encircling China.
In 1989, Than Shwe, then deputy commander in chief of the armed forces, led the first high-level visit to China to purchase military hardware.

BURMESE LADIES ON THE CHINESE MARKET

and two weeks afterward the truth was found out – Ma Phyu was part of a human trafficking operation that specialized in selling young Burmese women as brides to Chinese men.With the arrest of Ma Phyu, in her thirties, and her accomplices, a grizzly story of the trafficking of over twenty young Burmese women to China as forced sexual partners gradually came to light.Nabbing the human traffickers, it would transpire, was linked to a rape and murder case a Chinese police force cracked. About 18-years old and hailing from Syriam, Burma – the same native town as Ma Phyu – Wah Wah was one of the women that Ma Phyu and her gang had sold into slavery.Wah Wah was sold to a Chinese man living in Sandong, near Beijing, at the price tag of Chinese RMB 20,000 (approximately US$ 2,900). A few weeks later, Wah Wah managed to flee from the clutches of her buyer and made her way back to Ruili earlier this month.The hapless young lady had nowhere else to go but to return back to her perpetrators, and Ma Phyu was happy when her commodity arrived back in her hands for resale. However, when she tried to sell her to another Chinese man, Wah Wah vehemently refused.

But the traffickers, having already struck a deal and received some advance money, tried to force Wah Wah to accept her newest companion.As dusk fell over Ruili on that fateful day, Wah Wah was taken by taxi along the road to Namkhan, Burma, a few miles away.

Accompanying her in the vehicle were several members of the human trafficker's family.Eventually, they stopped the taxi next to a paddy field beside the highway in the vicinity of Man Heiro, still in Burmese territory and about 20 miles from Ruili."Before leaving Ruili, they were drunk with beer.

She was taken to a paddy field near the highway. Then Kyaw Swa started raping her. After that, Bo Bo stabbed her repeatedly. She died from five stab wounds. Then her corpse was left in the nearby drainage," recalls a source from the Chinese police investigation team of the incident.Local Shan people found her corpse the next day and informed Chinese police by phone. At first, Chinese authorities only investigated the local habitual offenders.But fortunately, another victim of this human trafficking gang, Shwe Shwe, managed to flee from her Chinese buyer and also return to Ruili. She was given assistance by the local Burmese people living there and provided details vital to tracing down the human trafficking gang, leading to the arrest of 12 people, including Ma Phyu.

Of these culprits, Kyaw Swa and his wife, Bo Bo and Aung Thu Soe are still in the hands of Chinese authorities and are to be dealt with in accordance to Chinese law. The remaining eight traffickers, including Kyaw Tun, Ma Phyu and her 13-year old daughter, were transferred to the hands of the Burma's Muse Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force on the 14th of this month.Yet the existence of the Muse Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force is itself a sad commentary on the current status of the Burmese state.The government-supported organization, part of a five year human trafficking eradication program, is poorly funded, and locals frequently complain of their ineffectiveness and incompetence in preventing human trafficking, the existence of which is a well known fact among local residents. In contrast, people see and hear of the successes of Chinese authorities in preventing the same crime.Deprived of adequate funds, the Muse Task Force has to collect money from businessmen to feed victims when they arrive back to their homeland. Moreover, to provide clothing, female colleagues are forced to share their uniforms with the victims. And on occasion, victims have to wait for about six months to accumulate the transport fare necessary for them to get back to their hometowns.Under the pressure of abject poverty in Burma, young Burmese women become easy and vulnerable targets for traffickers, as many future brides for sale are seeking greener pastures and better economic opportunities by leaving their native homes.Among the many victims of Ma Phyu and her gang were also two Mandalay University students, who were included in the six victims transferred to Burmese authorities by Chinese authorities on the 21st of this month."Most victims are in an age group from18 to 22 years old.

They were persuaded and cheated by traffickers through the promise of a good paying job. They cheated educated girls with computer and English language skills by promising them jobs paying 100,000-150,000 kyat per month (approximately US$ 85 to 130)," an eyewitness from Muse said.The two university students were taken by highway from Lashio to Chinshwehaw and then sold to a Chinese citizen hailing from the province of Anhui in northern China at the price of RMB 20,000. They proceeded to change hands from one owner to another like a common commodity for about three months.After three months, a bridegroom was sent for each of them; one a mute and blind and the other over 60 years old. They had no choice and could not expect help from any quarters. They had to spend a total of about six miserable months with these husbands.Both faced a lot of hardships in living with their husbands in a place that experiences harsh weather and maintains a different social environment with a different staple of food – flour instead of rice.The one who had to sleep with the elderly groom was persecuted every night for not giving her consent to consummate the relationship. The old man burnt her entire back with a cigarette and injured her head in two places. Moreover, this old groom defaced her by cutting her hair in a bad way.Yet the removal of Ma Phyu and company from the scene does not spell the end to human trafficking at the Ruili border crossing, let alone to other avenues through which traffickers ply their trade.Amid the tight pre-Olympic security clampdown, Chinese authorities discovered over 100 Burmese human trafficking victims; among whom were the two university students.The pre-Olympic security screening also identified and rescued 18 Burmese women from 18 to 30 years of age who were sold to fishermen in Fujian Province.

These 18 ladies have also now arrived back on the Burmese border and will shortly be transferred to the Muse Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force.But, just how long the recent returnees to the border will have to remain there before finding their way home is unfortunately just one of the many questions that remain hanging and unanswered regarding the continued trafficking of Burmese women.

US HAS TO TIGHTEN IMPORT FROM REGIME AND BOMB THREAT UNDER HELD

The United States said it began enforcing Monday a law seeking to tighten an import ban on gems from military-ruled Myanmar in a bid to deprive the junta of precious revenue.
.The Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act was approved unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in July but the US Customs and Border Protection provided a grace period for the jewelry industry to adapt to the new rules.
.The period expired on Sunday and the authorities on Monday began enforcing the law that aims to keep Myanmar's rubies and jade from entering US markets via third-party countries, officials said.
."After the grace period expired on Oct 26, 2008, CBP (Customs and Border Protection) will begin enforced compliance," the agency's spokesman, Jaime Castillo, told AFP.
.Despite a longstanding ban on all Myanmar imports, gems from the impoverished country have entered the United States via third nations such as Thailand, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, rights groups say.
.The new law closes a loophole that allowed into the United States gems cut or polished in third countries, officials said.
.The gems trade is one of the most lucrative sources of profit for the military rulers, accused of blatant human rights abuses and stifling democratic opposition.
.New York-based Human Rights Watch called on US consumers to refuse buying from jewelers unless they ensured their gems were not from Myanmar, previously known as Burma.
."For years many American jewelry retailers have bought Burmese rubies and jade that help finance the military junta's brutality," said Arvind Ganesan, the group's director of the business and human rights program.
."Now it is illegal to support that trade."
.In addition to the import ban, the US Treasury Department has put in place targeted sanctions on a number of Myanmar companies involved in the gem business. — AFP
The United States said it began enforcing Monday a law seeking to tighten an import ban on gems from military-ruled Myanmar in a bid to deprive the junta of precious revenue.
.The Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act was approved unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in July but the US Customs and Border Protection provided a grace period for the jewelry industry to adapt to the new rules.
.The period expired on Sunday and the authorities on Monday began enforcing the law that aims to keep Myanmar's rubies and jade from entering US markets via third-party countries, officials said.
."After the grace period expired on Oct 26, 2008, CBP (Customs and Border Protection) will begin enforced compliance," the agency's spokesman, Jaime Castillo, told AFP.

Myanmar man held after bomb threat
.Despite a longstanding ban on all Myanmar imports, gems from the impoverished country have entered the United States via third nations such as Thailand, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, rights groups say.
.The new law closes a loophole that allowed into the United States gems cut or polished in third countries, officials said.
.The gems trade is one of the most lucrative sources of profit for the military rulers, accused of blatant human rights abuses and stifling democratic opposition.
.New York-based Human Rights Watch called on US consumers to refuse buying from jewelers unless they ensured their gems were not from Myanmar, previously known as Burma.
."For years many American jewelry retailers have bought Burmese rubies and jade that help finance the military junta's brutality," said Arvind Ganesan, the group's director of the business and human rights program.
."Now it is illegal to support that trade."
.In addition to the import ban, the US Treasury Department has put in place targeted sanctions on a number of Myanmar companies involved in the gem business. — AFP
The United States said it began enforcing Monday a law seeking to tighten an import ban on gems from military-ruled Myanmar in a bid to deprive the junta of precious revenue.
.The Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act was approved unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in July but the US Customs and Border Protection provided a grace period for the jewelry industry to adapt to the new rules.
.The period expired on Sunday and the authorities on Monday began enforcing the law that aims to keep Myanmar's rubies and jade from entering US markets via third-party countries, officials said.
."After the grace period expired on Oct 26, 2008, CBP (Customs and Border Protection) will begin enforced compliance," the agency's spokesman, Jaime Castillo, told AFP.
.Despite a longstanding ban on all Myanmar imports, gems from the impoverished country have entered the United States via third nations such as Thailand, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, rights groups say.
.The new law closes a loophole that allowed into the United States gems cut or polished in third countries, officials said.
.The gems trade is one of the most lucrative sources of profit for the military rulers, accused of blatant human rights abuses and stifling democratic opposition.
.New York-based Human Rights Watch called on US consumers to refuse buying from jewelers unless they ensured their gems were not from Myanmar, previously known as Burma.
."For years many American jewelry retailers have bought Burmese rubies and jade that help finance the military junta's brutality," said Arvind Ganesan, the group's director of the business and human rights program.
."Now it is illegal to support that trade."
.In addition to the import ban, the US Treasury Department has put in place targeted sanctions on a number of Myanmar companies involved in the gem business. — AFP

Tin Myint, 41, was held on Friday, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported, three hours after he allegedly threatened to blow up the offices of a pro-junta organisation and a local police station in downtown Yangon.
The paper did not mention his motive for the threats.
Tin Myint's arrest came after a suspected bombmaker accidentally blew himself up on October 19 at his home in Yangon in the latest in a spate of blasts in the military-ruled nation.
Myanmar saw four bomb blasts last month, one of which killed two people and wounded 10 at a video cafe northeast of Yangon. Authorities later arrested an ethnic Karen rebel fighter in connection with the bombing.
The ruling junta has in the past blamed explosions on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels who have been battling the military rulers for decades, but the regime has also started pointing the finger at democracy activists.
State-run media in September accused two members of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) of bombing pro-government offices in July.
The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never allowed it to take office and Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest almost constantly since.

BARRICADES REMOVED BUT NOT TO FREE AND MYANMAR WENT TO NK

Two leading members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), Spokesman Nyan Win and Central Executive Committee member Khin Maung Swe, both confirmed that the road in front of Suu Kyi’s house had been cleared of security checkpoints and barricades and was now open to normal traffic.
Political observers in Rangoon saw no significance in the development. A veteran journalist told The Irrawaddy the regime was “just playing” and misleading the international community with “disinformation.”
“The junta can release Suu Kyi within minutes, they don’t need to remove barricades first of all,” he said.
The NLD’s Khin Maung Swe, who was released from Lashio prison in September after serving a long term of imprisonment, made an appeal for Suu Kyi’s release. “Aung San Suu Kyi must be released from house arrest, if the junta want to solve Burmese politics,” he said.
The new constitution and the general election planned for 2010 offered no solution and couldn’t work in the long term, he said.
The NLD said no response had yet been received to the handing in of an appeal against Suu Kyi’s latest term of house arrest. Her legal representative presented the appeal to the military government in Naypyidaw on October 8.
The 63-year-old Nobel peace laureate has spent more than 13 years of the past 19 years confined to her Rangoon home. Suu Kyi’s current period of house arrest began in 2003 after she and her supporters were attacked by government backed thugs in upper Burma.
NLD lawyers say the extension last May of her house arrest conflicts with article 10 (b) of the Burmese State Protection Law 1975, which stipulates that a person judged to be a threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people can only be detained for up to five years.
Asian and European leaders attending an Asia-Europe meeting in Beijing on Saturday called on the Burmese government to release political prisoners, lift restrictions on political parties and engage all sides in an inclusive political process.

Myanmar, NKorean foreign ministers meet

Foreign Minister Nyan Win met his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui Chun, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang after his arrival at the North Korean capital earlier Monday, the North's official Korean News Agency said in a brief dispatch.
The KCNA did not provide details.
It was the first official visit by a foreign minister from military-ruled Myanmar to North Korea in 25 years.
Myanmar's top diplomat traveled to Pyongyang after attending the Asia-Europe Meeting — known as ASEM — in Beijing, a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Myanmar severed relations with North Korea in 1983 following a bombing in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, by North Korean secret agents targeting South Korea's then President Chun Doo-hwan. He was unhurt, but 21 people were killed, including four South Korean Cabinet ministers.
The two countries have been quietly working to normalize relations for the past few years, and agreed to resume diplomatic ties in April 2007.
Myanmar, which faces an arms embargo by the United States and European Union countries, has also reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.
Officials from the two countries have made some diplomatic visits since ties were restored. Myanmar's sports minister, Brig. Gen. Thura Aye Myint, recently traveled to North Korea. A military delegation led by senior military officers also visited the North earlier this year.

NLD ACTIVISTS JAILED FOR LONG AND EU-ASIA SHOULD SEEK TO FREE BURMA

“Daw Win Mya Mya and U Kan Tun received 12 years, and U Than Lwin who was elected in the 1990 election, received eight years in prison,” he said. Min Thu from Mogok Township, received 13 years; Win Shwe from Kyaukpadaung Township received 11 years; and Tin Ko Ko from Meiktila Township received two years. According to a Burmese human rights group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the NLD members were charged with Act 505 (B) for meeting with American diplomats and 153 (A) for campaigning for political and human rights and the reopening of NLD offices in the country. Win Mya Mya is a well-known pro-democracy activist in Mandalay, Burma’s second largest city. Since 1988, she provided food and other material to political prisoners in Mandalay Prison. In return, authorities harassed her family business and arrested her several times during 20 years as a political activist.She was injured and arrested when Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters were brutally ambushed by thugs backed by the junta in Depayin, Sagaging Division in northern Burma in late May, 2003. She has been in detention since the September 2007 demonstrations. Than Lwin, who was a successful candidate for Madaya Township in 1990, is vice-chairman of the NLD's Mandalay Division. He was arrested during the 2007 demonstrations. He was also assaulted when he returned home from praying for the release from house arrest of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a Buddhist temple in the township in June 2007. NLD spokesman Nyan Win said, “They didn’t commit any crimes. So the jail term for them is unjust and unfair.”

EU-Asia summit should seek release of Myanmar dissidents: MEPs

STRASBOURG (AFP) – The European Parliament on Thursday called on Asian and European leaders meeting in Beijing this week to launch a joint appeal to the Myanmar junta for the release of all political prisoners there.
In a non-binding resolution, adopted unanimously by the 68 euro deputies still present at the end of a four-day sitting, the parliament denounced "the arbitrary charges behind the arrests of many dissidents and the harsh conditions of detention of political prisoners including widespread use of torture and hard labour."
The European MPs, meeting in Strasbourg, also deplored "the fact that the number of political prisoners has increased from 1,300 to 2,000 in the aftermath of the Saffron Revolution of September 2007."
The MEPs in particular condemned the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who has been for the most part under house arrest since her victory at the last democratic elections in 1990, calling for her immediate release.
The European Parliament urged the Asian and European leaders, meeting in an ASEM summit in Beijing Friday and Saturday, "to jointly appeal to the Myanmar military authorities to release all political prisoners."
Forty-three heads of state and government from the 27 EU nations, the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and six other Asian countries, including economic heavy hitters China, India and Japan, will gather in the Chinese capital.

AUSI SHOOTS EXTENDED BULLET OF SANCTION TO BURMA REGIME AND DISPLACED 6600 IN BURMA

It replaces a list of 418 people announced a year ago after the junta brutally crushed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
"This was, unfortunately, only the most recent very public instance of the brutal treatment meted out to civil society in that country and to those seeking to make Burma a better society and a nation based on democratic norms and ideals," Smith told Parliament.
"Australia will continue to press Burma's regime for meaningful political progress toward democracy," he added.
Smith said the detention of 2,000 political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is "a major impediment to political progress."
The junta's initial response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in May was "very disappointing" and the referendum days later that approved Myanmar's new military-backed constitution was "a sham," Smith said.
The cyclone killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing, according to the government _ the worst natural disaster in the nation's modern history.
Australia has long banned defense exports to Myanmar and denies travel visas to members of the regime.

66,000 People Displaced By Myanmar Army Abuses - Aid Group

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, or TBBC, which provides aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees who flee Myanmar, formally known as Burma, said in a new report the junta's actions could constitute crimes against humanity.
"The extent of persecution and suffering in the border areas has been largely unseen and under-reported for decades," Jack Dunford, TBBC's executive director, said.
"Yet the same brutal army that crushed protests on city streets last September marauds with impunity in rural Burma, bringing fear and disrupting the lives of villagers on a day to day basis."
The TBBC report accuses the military of systematically forcing villagers from their homes in Myanmar's eastern Karen and Shan states.
Forced labor, land confiscation, and restricting people's access to farmland and markets also has a devastating economic impact, it added.
The group said its findings appeared to support London-based Amnesty International's report that the violations in eastern Myanmar "meet the legal threshold to constitute crimes against humanity."
Amnesty said in a June report Myanmar was committing crimes against humanity by targeting civilians during its military offensive against ethnic rebel armies who have been battling the junta's rule for decades.
Civilians living in the areas affected have been subjected to abuses including torture, forced labor, killings, arbitrary arrest and the destruction of homes, villages, farmland and food stocks, Amnesty said.
The TBBC estimated there are more than half a million people currently internally displaced within eastern Myanmar.
"Approximately 66,000 people were forced to leave their homes due to the effects of armed conflict and human rights abuses during the past year alone," the group said, referring to the time between July 2007 and June 2008.
There are also about 120,000 refugees living in camps along Thailand's border with Myanmar. Most are refugees from Myanmar's many ethnic minorities, the majority from the Karen group.

CYCLONE VICTIMS NEED PERMANENT SETTLEMENT AND BOMB BLAST

With no money to rebuild, the landless farmer has ended up squatting by the roadside outside Mhawbi village, 10 minutes from Pyapon town, on the Pyapon River, with hundreds of others with just a 5x6ft wide tarpaulin for shelter.
"This [tarpaulin] hut is unlikely to last more than two or three months," he complained, pointing to the already tattered roof, only 4ft high. He said his two children were unable to stay inside in the afternoon due to the stifling heat.
Before the cyclone, he and his family lived in a simple thatched bamboo house near the paddy field of their employer.
Nargis affected more than two million people, made tens of thousands homeless and left more than 140,000 dead or missing when it hit the southern coastal region in May.
According to the Post Nargis Joint Assessment report (PONJA) http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2008.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/KLMT-7HR2P9-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf by the UN, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Myanmar government, the cyclone affected 800,000 housing units - 450,000 were totally destroyed, while another 350,000 were damaged.
The worst-hit houses were built of wood and bamboo, accounting for half of all housing in the stricken areas.
While the initial response by UN agencies and NGOs to providing immediate life-saving shelter was remarkable, the lifespan of the materials provided is only six to 12 months and some of the plastic sheeting is already deteriorating and tearing.
Most households do not have the resources to rebuild or repair more durable shelters, either because they do not have cash or because materials, such as thatch, are not readily available.
"When it rains heavily, we get flooded inside the hut because rainwater flows inside, and also rainwater enters through the tattered plastic sheets," said Aye Khaing, 36. Her family of eight sleep on plastic sheeting on the dirt floor.
These makeshift shelters often consist of little more than sticks and thatch with perhaps a plastic sheet. Upgrading them would mean rebuilding with decent materials, bamboo, wood and possibly tin roofs.
Upgrading vital
"The families have already exhausted their savings, and are not able to keep repairing their homes, let alone bring them up to a comfortable standard," said Annie Scarborough, shelter coordinator for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
"There are tens of thousands of people whose shelters need to be upgraded so they can last one or two years," David Evans, acting head of the UN's Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT http://www.unhabitat.org/ , told IRIN in Yangon, the former capital.
He explained that at least 20 percent of families whose houses were totally destroyed were categorised as vulnerable. For these families of pregnant women, the sick, elderly and disabled, it was not enough to supply building materials - they needed support to construct a durable shelter to last at least 24 months.
UN-HABITAT said serious advocacy work was needed to convince donors to fund longer-term shelter solutions. "We hope a much wider range of donors will understand the priority for shelter provision and support early recovery process and reduce the burden which currently rests with a small number of donor countries," Evans said.
So far the only funds received had been US$600,000 to lead the shelter coordination cluster. Another $400,000 will be available in November for training artisans and building demonstration shelters with Disaster Risk Reduction features.
Now that the emergency phase is over, surveys are under way that will help to assess the shelter needs. Arjan Blankan, recovery delegate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said: "We will find out who hasn't got adequate shelter, and we will try to address this issue."
In the meantime, many families are worried about the coming winter as without proper walls they fear the cold will affect the health of children and the elderly.

Man dies in bomb blast north of Myanmar capital

The man was killed Sunday in Shwepyitha Township, about 20 km (12 miles) north of Yangon .
"The bomb exploded at about 5:30 p.m. and one man was killed," a police officer told Reuters late Sunday, saying he could give no further information while an investigation was being carried out.
Another bomb exploded at about 7:30 p.m. (9 a.m. British time) on Saturday on a football pitch in Yankin Township in northeastern Yangon , residents and police officials said. No one was injured in this blast.
Police defused another bomb found nearby after combing the area, official newspapers reported Monday.
Bomb explosions are fairly common in the former Burma and the junta usually puts the blame on anti-government dissident groups, either armed ethnic groups fighting for greater autonomy or pro-democracy activists.
Four people were injured on September 25 when a bomb went off outside City Hall in Yangon the day before the anniversary of a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters.

THAI EX-PM(THAKSIN' MONEY UNDER THE CONFISCATION BY COURT (SPECIAL REPORT)

The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions yesterday agreed to consider a lawsuit seeking the confiscation of 76 billion baht of Thaksin Shinawatra's assets.
The civil suit, brought by attorney-general Chaikasem Nitisiri, claims the assets, most of which were frozen following the Sept 19, 2006 coup, were illegally acquired while Mr Thaksin was in office.
It is alleged Mr Thaksin abused his authority when prime minister to enrich his telecommunications empire.
The Supreme Court has scheduled Dec 25 for the first hearing. Mr Thaksin and others wishing to object to the lawsuit have 30 days to do so. None of Mr Thaksin's representatives were in court.
A meeting of Supreme Court judges yesterday selected judge Pongthep Siripongtikanont to replace judge Sirichai Jirabunsri on the nine-member bench hearing the case. Mr Sirichai is ill.
Democrat deputy leader Korn Chatikavanij said yesterday the Attorney-General's Office would be negligent if it failed to review its decision not to indict Mr Thaksin and his wife in connection with their shareholding in SC Asset Corp.
They were accused by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) of failing to inform the Securities and Exchange Commission of large share transactions in the firm. The DSI can ask the attorney-general to review the decision.
Mr Korn said those in power were trying to protect the Shinawatras.
''They cannot let the case enter the justice process because it is the only one not taken up by the Assets Scrutiny Committee. The government can amend the charter to nullify the ASC, but it cannot do anything with this case, which has been investigated by the DSI and the SEC,'' he said. Former DSI chief Sunai Manomai-udom was among the first to be axed after the People Power party won the Dec 23 general election.

WOMAN ACTIVIST IN JAIL AND ASEAN REPORT UNDER FIRE

Accused of illegally handling foreign currency, Khin Moe Aye, 40, a prominent social and political activist, was sentenced to three years imprisonment, along with former student leader Kyaw Soe, at Rangoon’s Insein prison court on Thursday, according to her lawyer, Khin Maung Shein.
Former political prisoners Khin Moe Aye and Kyaw Soe were arrested by military intelligence officers in Kyaikto Township in Rangoon’s northeastern suburbs on December 12.

Khin Moe Aye has been imprisoned by the military junta three times before. Her first arrest was in 1990 when she was jailed for one or two months. She was rearrested in December 1991 for her role in leading student demonstrations in honor of Aung San Suu Kyi winning the Nobel Peace Prize. She was sentenced to 10 years in jail, but was released in May 1992.
While continuing her pro-democracy activities, she was arrested again in February 1998 and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for assisting an author, Aung Tun, in documenting a history of the Burmese student movement. She was released on May 4, 2003.

In recent times, Khin Moe Aye has worked to provide aid, food and education to orphaned children and has founded an orphanage in Rangoon.
Tate Naing, secretary of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Khin Moe Aye actively participated in the 1988 popular uprising as a student leader of Rangoon University’s student union and was an active member of the All Burma Federation of Students Unions.
“She was often pressured by the military authorities for her involvement in social and political activities,” he said.

Aid groups blast ASEAN-led report
The Burma Partnership, which represents 19 aid organisations, released an "alternative" report to provide what it said was a more accurate picture of the response to Cyclone Nargis, which left 138,000 people dead or missing in May.
"When we studied the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment report prepared by the UN, ASEAN and the Burmese regime, we realised that it failed to describe the obstruction of aid and human rights abuses committed by the military regime in the areas affected by the cyclone," Khin Ohmar of the Burma Partnership told a press conference.
"As independent civil society organisations, we felt the need to tell the other side of the post-Nargis story."
The generals ruling Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, drew international outrage by refusing to allow a foreign-led aid response in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
But they dropped their resistance after coaxing from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) chief Surin Pitsuwan.
The official joint report was released to much fanfare at an ASEAN conference in Singapore in July.
But Ohmar said it failed to highlight issues such as blocking and misappropriation of aid and substandard treatment of survivors at relief camps.
It omitted cases of human rights violations such as orphans turned into child soldiers, survivors forced to do reconstruction work and farm land confiscated by the military regime, she said.
The coalition's recommendations include an independent system to monitor aid distribution and for all relief agencies to make public their activities.
"We hope international governments will consider using the new report to ensure funding reaches people who need the most help and that the recovery process will be implemented with the most transparency and accountability," Ohmar said.
Thai MP and coalition member Kraisak Choonhavan criticised Surin for failing to meet the organisers to discuss the alternative report.
He said he felt "let down" by Surin's late cancellation of a meeting in Jakarta, home to the ASEAN secretariat.
"They did not give any reason for cancelling. I feel let down and it makes it necessary for us to be more vocal. I am very disappointed," he said.

VOID FOR COOKIES FROM CHINA

FDA secretary-general Pipat Yingseree said officials picked random samples of the cookies from S&P factories for testing by the Medical Sciences Department.
The company announced its products had been recalled from the local market after receiving a report from Switzerland.
Authorities in Geneva say tests have found melamine in S&P milk cookies from Thailand and LemonPuff Munchee candies from Sri Lanka.
However, there was no indication of the exact level of melamine found in the two imported products.
European Union guidelines allow an intake of 0.5 milligrammes of melamine per kilogramme of body weight per day.
Dr Pipat said consumers should not be too alarmed as there was no grave risk to public health.
The FDA has tested for melamine contamination in 519 dairy products. Three samples of milk powder contained the chemical, with one of them over the FDA limit of 1mg/kg.
One hundred tonnes of powdered milk under the brand Beijing Shuangwa Daily Co, imported by Dairy Plus Co, was found to have a melamine level of 1.1-1.32 mg/kg. The company is a subsidiary of Dutch Mill Co.
The shipment arrived in Samut Prakan port late last month.
The agency previously seized 22 tonnes of milk powder of a similar brand under the parent company after two samples were found tainted with 0.38 mg/kg and 0.55 mg/kg of melamine.
The product was intended for the production of pasteurised milk.
At least 22 milk suppliers in China have been accused of adding melamine to milk products to falsely boost protein readings.
As a result, four children died and more than 53,000 people were hospitalised in China

TWO NAMES FOR PRESIDENTS OF BURMA FUTURE AND THAI AND COMBODIA ARE GOING INTO BATTLE

A source within the government-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) said members of the mass organization were discussing the chances of Lt-Gen Myint Swe, a protégé of Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his wife, and Minister of Industry-1 Aung Thaung.
“Aung Thaung is a strategic and influential player of the USDA, while Myint Swe is a favorite of the junta’s head, Snr-Gen Than Shwe,” the source said. They both had the potential to take on the task of president, he said.
Under the junta backed constitution, the president of Burma will be chosen by the parliament, a quarter of whose members will be appointed by the commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw (Burma’s armed forces) while the rest will be elected in the 2010 election.
The junta says the constitution was approved overwhelmingly in the referendum in May, although the claim is disputed by opposition forces within Burma and Western governments.
A Rangoon woman journalist said the names of Myint Swe and Aung Thaung also cropped up in teashop political discussion.
Myint Swe rose within the Tatmadaw to become commander of the Rangoon Regional Command in 2002, with the rank of major general.
Aung Thaung has been accused by Burmese dissident groups of being one of the masterminds behind the 2003 ambush of a convoy carrying democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Depayin, Sagaing Division in northern Burma. Human rights groups estimate that about 100 Suu Kyi supporters were killed by pro-government thugs.
Aung Thaung is also said to be one of the richest persons in Burma. His family runs at least three companies—Aung Yee Phyo Co, IGE Co Ltd and Queen Star Co— which are gaining footholds in oil, gas, agricultural products, timber and rice trading industries and the importation of computers and other electronic goods.
Meanwhile, a Rangoon researcher familiar with military affairs said Than Shwe, 75, is not ready to retire before the 2010 election and seems intent on maintaining his iron grip on the Tatmadaw.
The researcher said the two other members of the ruling junta, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and Gen Shwe Mann, were also likely to remain at their posts if Than Shwe stayed in power.

Thai troops wounded in clash with Cambodia

One Khmer soldier was killed during the clashes.
The Thai troops were suffered from sharpnels of explosives and were rushed to a hospital in Si Sa Kaet province.
They were injured in one of two clashes with Cambodia at Pa Mo I Daeng in Si Sa Ket province. Another clash Phu Ma Khur caused no casualty.They were first casualties of the Thai-Cambodia border conflicts which were flared up after Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen issued an ultimatum to open war if Thai troops were not withdrawn from the disputed area near the temple.
However his ultimatum was shot down as the Thai army vowed to remain troops.

Cambodia’s Preah Vihear governor Prieb Tan claimed that Thailand started shooting at the Cambodian army first. Thai army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd, meanwhile, claimed that Cambodian soldiers started the shooting first by firing about seven to eight shots onto the Thai soil so Thai soldiers had to defend themselves by firing them back using small weapons.
According to Col Sansern, four Thai army rangers were wounded while one Cambodian soldier was killed in the incident.
On Tuesday, Col Sansern reiterated that Thailand would not shoot first, but warned that Thai troops were ready if Cambodian forces encroach into Thailand. The Thai army is ready to confront any incident to protect the country’s sovereignty, he said.
Meanwhile, Thailand put air force fighter jets and C-130 transport planes on alert. The C-130s have been used in a previous operation to bring Thais back home from Phnom Penh.
"Normally we have fighter jets on stand-by at various regional headquarters ready for operation within five minutes, but under the current circumstances we have increased our readiness," Grp Capt Montol Suchookorn was quoted by the AFP news agency.
"I do hope the use of force is the last resort," he added.

THE SUN SET OF KHMER KILLER

He stood slightly apart from the other four defendants and held a fuchsia-coloured hand towel to mop his brow.
Even his blue, prison-issue pyjamas were of a different design and a better fit than those his former Khmer Rouge colleagues were wearing.
His initial appearance at the court earlier this month suggested that Khem Ngoun still saw himself as a powerful man, one who deserved more respect than to be charged with kidnapping and murder.
But his 20-year sentence confirms that former Khmer Rouge leaders should no longer feel safe from prosecution.

TO CATCH

It is not the first time that a former Khmer Rouge member has been found guilty in connection with the organisation's activities in the 1990s.

But Khem Ngoun was very close to the top of the hierarchy before the Khmer Rouge disbanded 10 years ago. He was the right-hand man to the military chief Ta Mok, and played a part in the internal coup which ousted the long-time leader, Pol Pot.
When the Khmer Rouge disbanded in 1998, an agreement with the government meant that many former members took high-ranking posts in civilian life or the military.
Khem Ngoun became a brigadier general in the Cambodian army, and lived unmolested until his arrest last year.
Mood shifts
The authorities had long shown little enthusiasm for charging senior Khmer Rouge figures. The memories of a three-decade-long civil war were too fresh, and the organisation's surrender too recent, to consider risking stirring up trouble again.

But at last the mood has changed, and Khmer Rouge leaders are being called to account.
Five of them are being held in custody at a United Nations-backed tribunal, charged with crimes against humanity.
Progress towards trials there has sometimes seemed painfully slow. But Khem Ngoun's conviction has raised hopes that justice may no longer be so elusive.
He was found to be responsible for giving the order to shoot Chris Howes, days after he was kidnapped while leading a mine-clearance operation near the town of Siem Reap 12 years ago.
The court also ordered Khem Ngoun to pay $10,000 (£) in compensation to the widow of Chris Howes's Cambodian interpreter, Houn Hourth.

Fitting tribute
Their former employer, the Mines Advisory Group (Mag), was delighted with the verdict.
"I think it's very important for the Cambodian justice system in as much as it's proof that justice can be done despite lengthy periods between crime and court," said the director of Mag's Cambodian office, Rupert Leighton.

"I think it's also a good signal for the tribunal, and a healthy sign for the justice system in Cambodia."
It is also, perhaps, a fitting tribute to two men who sacrificed their own lives to save their colleagues.
The Khmer Rouge unit which ambushed the Mag team led by Chris Howes gave him the chance to walk free, if he returned to his office for ransom money. Fearing for his workmates' safety, he refused.
While more than 20 de-miners were later released or escaped, Chris Howes and Houn Hourth were taken to the Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng, where Khem Ngoun decided their fate.
It took more than two years, and the intervention of a team of investigators from Scotland Yard, before their deaths were confirmed.
One of Phnom Penh's smartest streets was re-named in honour of Chris Howes. It serves as a reminder of the bravery of the mine clearance experts who have risked their own lives to make Cambodia a safer place.

complains about 37 activists on trails and FAO donation

The one-day appearances were closed to the general public, including the families of the accused, who protested against their exclusion.
The accused include several leaders of the 88 Generation Students movement, including Min Ko Naing. His trial was adjourned until October 27.
The accused face seven charges, including a provision of the criminal code covering crimes judged to threaten the stability of the government.
The trials are taking place in three locations—Insein Prison and court premises in Hlaing Tharyar Township and Kamaryut Township.
The accused also include Nilar Thein, a woman activist, and a prominent activist monk, Ashin Gambira, who were among the leaders of the September 2007 demonstrations, Htun Htun Oo, Maung Maung Latt, Aung Kyaw Moe, Si Thu Maung and Tar Tar Thet.
Gambira is charged with nine separate criminal offenses, including infringements of State Offence Act 505 A and B, Immigration Act 13/1, Illegal Organization Act 17/1, Electronic Act 303 A and Organization Act 6.
Gambira’s lawyer, Aung Thein, resigned his brief on October 1, complaining that he was not being allowed to prepare a proper defense
Another defense lawyer, Khin Maung Shein, said he would also resign his brief after the court refused to allow him to ask questions on behalf of his clients.
Both were asked by their clients to withdraw. “If we are asked by our clients to resign, then we have to [follow their instructions],” Khin Maung Shein said. “They asked us to resign not because they are not satisfied with our efforts but because they don’t want to cooperate with the courts’ schedule any longer.” Meanwhile, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Kyi Win, said no reply had yet been received to the legal appeal against her continuing house arrest, which had been handed in at Naypyidaw on October 8.Suu Kyi’s latest five-year term of house arrest was extended in May for a further year—illegally, according to Kyi Win, because article 10 (b) of the Burmese State Protection Law 1975 stipulates that a person judged to be a “threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people” can only be detained for up to five years. Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 years of the past 19 years confined to her Rangoon home.

FAO To Donate More Cattle To Myanmar's Cyclone-hit Regions

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is making arrangements to donate more draught cattle to support the rehabilitation work of Myanmar cyclone victims, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the local "Weekly Eleven" report Tuesday.A total of 550 cows and cattle as well as 15,000 chickens and 60,000 ducks are set to be distributed by the UN organization in November and December this year to survived farmers for the resumption of their agricultural work.Besides, local and other international organizations are also planning to donate pigs, chickens and ducks for the victims.In July this year, purchasing from lesser-cyclone-hit region of Bago and cyclone-free northern region of Mandalay, the FAO had donated 600 cows and cattle for four cyclone-hit regions - Kungyankon, Mawlamyine, Ngaputaw and Phyapon to help restart agricultural cultivation.Earlier, local reports said altogether 1,400 draught buffaloes and cows have also been supplied by local organizations and well-wishers to the storm-hit areas for recultivation.Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on last May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructure damage.The storm has killed 84,537 people, leaving 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured, according to official statistics.Altogether 300,000 cows and cattle died in cyclone-hard-hit Ayeyawaddy and Yangon divisions.

WHEN NATIONS KILL THEIR OWN (SPECIAL VIEW)

That is about as chilling and abhorrent a statement as it gets for many in developed countries. It's an apparent apologia not only for Tiananmen and the October crackdown, but the killing fields of Cambodia, the genocide in Rwanda, the bloody massacre of Srebrenica, and the crimes against humanity continuing in Darfur.
The statement reflects a feeling that seems to ignore the developments in international human rights law since 1945 – from the Universal Declaration and the Covenants, to the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court. And it seems to embrace the starkest possible interpretation of Westphalian principles; not only that what happens within state borders is nobody else's business, but that sovereignty is a license to kill.
For many others, however, the Chinese professor's statement, while probably chilling in its directness, and certainly less diplomatically expressed than it could have been, captures a sentiment that has great resonance in the developing world. It's also one that has too often been ignored by enthusiastic human rights campaigners arguing for "the right to intervene," by coercive military force if necessary, in internal situations.
While the right of humanitarian intervention might be seen in most of the developed world as a noble and effective rallying cry, it had the capacity elsewhere to enrage. And it continues to do so, not least among those new states emerging from the post World War II period, proud of their identity, conscious in many cases of their fragility.
To try to resolve this tension between competing worldviews, the concept of "the responsibility to protect," or R2P, was devised as a new rallying cry to replace the call for "the right to intervene."
The core of R2P is that sovereign states should retain the primary responsibility to protect their own people from mass atrocities. But if they manifestly fail to do so, through either incapacity or ill will, then it becomes the collective responsibility of the international community to take appropriate action. Sovereignty conveys no immunity when massive human rights violations are involved. The emphasis is on prevention and assistance for states in need. And any further response necessary stresses using the least coercive and intrusive effective means possible. Force might be needed, but only in extreme and exceptional cases, and with Security Council approval.
The R2P concept was proposed by a Canadian-sponsored international commission in 2001, and it took only four years – just a blink of an eye in the history of ideas – for the principles to be adopted, without dissent, by the UN General Assembly.
But celebration remains premature: It is one thing to have a new norm of international behavior up in lights, quite another (as the Chinese professor's comment shows) for it to be genuinely universally accepted, and yet another thing for it to be effectively applied.
The international community's immediate response – and by diplomatic rather than military means – to the postelection explosion of ethnic violence in Kenya at the beginning of this year was an excellent example of the new norm. And it provides very stark contrast to the cynicism and indifference that greeted the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
But other cases, like the Burma cyclone and the Russian invasion of Georgia, have been either prematurely labeled or mislabeled as R2P ones. And while Darfur is properly labeled a case of acute R2P concern, it is one where the international response has so far been very ineffective.
Three big challenges remain for like-minded governments and civil society organizations who understand and accept the power of the R2P norm:
First there is the conceptual one of ensuring that its scope and limits are fully understood, so that it is not seen as either too broad to be useful or too narrowly militarily focused to be acceptable. Second, there is the institutional one, of ensuring diplomatic, civilian, and military capacity is available to respond effectively to new situations.
And last, there is the political one of ensuring that, when preventive or reactive action becomes necessary, the will is there to mobilize that capacity.
If we are never again to have to say "never again," these challenges simply have to be met.
• Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister, is president of the Crisis Group and author of "The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All."

DO NOT EAT CHINESE BISCUIT STICKS

HK finds melamine in Chinese-made biscuit sticks
By DIKKY SINN,Associated Press Writer.
Hong Kong's food safety agency said Thursday it has found excessive levels of an industrial chemical in a sample of Chinese-made biscuit sticks.
The chemical melamine was detected in EDO Pack Almond Cacao Biscuit Sticks produced by Hong Kong company EDO Trading Co., the Center for Food Safety said in a statement.
The amount of melamine, which is used to make plastics and fertilizers, was 8.5 parts per million in the sample. Hong Kong has set the safe level at 2.5 ppm.
A man surnamed Wong who answered the phone at EDO's office said the company ordered a recall of the product after it was notified about the results.
"Our internal inspection earlier found our products are fine, so we'll have to check again," the man said, declining to give his full name because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
The biscuit sticks were manufactured by the company's factory in the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao, he added.
The man said the company has used Chinese milk as a raw material in its products but he did not know which brand.
Various Chinese-made milk and dairy products have been found to contain melamine, which is blamed for killing four babies and sickening more than 50,000 in mainland China.
Authorities say Chinese suppliers might have added melamine, which is rich in nitrogen, to watered-down milk to deceive quality tests for protein.

UN OUTLINE STEPS AND APPEAL AGAINST DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI'S DETENTION

“Myanmar is going through a unique moment in its political history,” he says, noting that the country’s new Constitution was finalized in February and adopted through a referendum in May. “The next step in the road map for national reconciliation and democratic transition is the election in 2010.”
He stresses that if those general elections are prepared and conducted in an atmosphere in which human rights are fully respected, “the process will be credible, resulting in progressive achievement of democratic values.”
Mr. Quintana proposes four core human rights elements to be completed by the Government before the 2010 elections. The first is to review and amend those domestic laws which limit fundamental rights – such as freedom of expression, opinion, peaceful assembly and association – and contravene the new Constitution and international human rights standards.
“The right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, as well as the right to freedom of opinion and expression, are fundamental rights to be respected in the process towards the establishment of a solid and reliable democracy,” stated the Special Rapporteur.
“However, full enjoyment of those rights remains outstanding in Myanmar, according to reliable reports on the extension of detentions and/or new arrests of political activists.”
Mr. Quintana proposes the progressive release of prisoners of conscience, of which there are more than 2,000 detained in different facilities around the country. “Without the free participation of prisoners of conscience, the very credibility of the general elections of 2010 would be at stake,” he stressed, adding that prisoner release would also reduce tension and inspire political participation.
Last month the Myanmar authorities freed several detainees as part of an amnesty procedure, including the country’s longest-serving political prisoner, U Win Tin, and six other senior members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.
Mr. Quintana had welcomed the move, saying he hoped it “would be the first in a series of releases of other prisoners of conscience.”
The transition to multi-party democratic and civil government, as planned by the new Constitution, will require “an intensive process of incorporating democratic values,” the Special Rapporteur notes.
Among the measures the Government should adopt are repealing discriminatory legislation, continuing efforts to respond to the aftermath of the deadly cyclone that struck the country in early May, and avoiding the recruitment of child soldiers.
He also suggests a number of changes for the country’s judiciary, which currently “is not independent and is under the direct control of the Government and the military.” Proposed measures include guaranteeing due process, exercising full independence and impartiality and setting up mechanisms to investigate human rights abuses.
Mr. Quintana, who took up his post in May 2007, serves in an independent and unpaid capacity and reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, as do all Special Rapporteurs.

Appeal against Suu Kyi’s Detention Handed in at Naypyidaw

Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Kyi Win, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the appeal had been handed in personally by his assistant, Hla Myo Myint.
The government had given no indication when the appeal would be heard in court, Kyi Win said. “But we are hoping for a positive outcome.”
Suu Kyi’s latest five-year term of house arrest was extended in May for a further year—illegally, according to Kyi Win, because article 10 (b) of the Burmese State Protection Law 1975 stipulates that a person judged to be a “threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people” can only be detained for up to five years.
Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 years of the past 19 years confined to her Rangoon home.
Kyi Win said he planned to meet Suu Kyi soon to discuss the appeal.
Suu Kyi has reportedly been in poor health recently. She refused for about one month to accept deliveries of food and other household supplies at her home in what was seen as a protest against her continuing house arrest. Last week, she was visited by an eye specialist, Dr Kan Nyunt, and her personal physician, Dr Tin Myo Win.
At a Geneva press conference earlier this month, a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights official, Navanethem Pillay, expressed concern about Suu Kyi’s continuing detention and urged the regime to free her and all other political prisoners.
Suu Kyi had “in fact served a sentence that far exceeds that served by many hardened criminals,” Pillay said.
Pillay welcomed the recent release of seven political prisoners, but said it was a very small step when more than 2,000 political activists were still detained. “I urge the government to release them all as soon as possible,” she said.

BAN HAS TO POSTPONE VISIT TO BURMA AND FOOD CRISIS IN CHIN STATE

Ban has been asked by the U.N. Security Council to do his utmost to pursue reforms in military-ruled Myanmar, which drew international condemnation a year ago for a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters led by monks.
Ban's special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, made a sixth visit to the former Burma in August, but failed to meet the 63-year-old Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who has been under house arrest for most of the past five years.
A visit by Ban has long been discussed but no date had been set. Ban made a first visit to Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis in May to pressure the junta to cooperate more with international aid workers.
Ban said he would remain "constantly and personally engaged" in Myanmar.
"I would be willing to (make) a return visit to Myanmar at an appropriate time, but you should also know that without any tangible or very favorable result to be achieved, then I may not be in a position to visit Myanmar," Ban told reporters.
"I'm now in the process of making some groundwork which may allow me to consider my own visit, but ... I need some more time. I will have to consider all the circumstances, (and) when would be appropriate timing for me to visit," he said.
Western countries have condemned as a sham a May referendum on Myanmar's army-drafted constitution, part of a seven-step "roadmap to democracy" that is meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010 and end a nearly 20-year political stalemate.
Gambari has met government officials on his visits to Myanmar but has made little progress in promoting dialogue with Suu Kyi or the release of political prisoners.

FOOD CRISIS IN CHIN STATE

The food situation in 20 villages around Haka Township last week and discovered that seven of the villages faced a severe and immediate food crisis.

According to CAD’s assessment, farmers from the seven most affected Chin villages have been forced to let 500 acres of land lie fallow after an infestation of rats destroyed rice crops followed by a drought earlier this year.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy by telephone on Tuesday, Win Hling Oo, the director and founder of CAD, said, “People have sold their domestic animals to survive. They can’t find jobs in the area and they are too far from the [Indian] border to walk there in search of food. By the end of this month they will have no food left.”
The seven villages at risk—Jan Ra, Kon Toy, Lwin Hong, Tong Jin, Lon Hong, Hong Zen and Tong Ra—lie some 50 miles (80 km) south of Haka, an area out of reach of international humanitarian agencies, said the CAD director.
“While we were there, I saw farmers dumping their land because of the drought and the rats. It hasn’t been a good rainy season either,” said Win Hling Oo.
The villagers hoarded food supplies last year, he said. However, they will have run out by the end of this month.

Meanwhile, the Chin Human Rights Organization, which is based on the Thai-Burmese border, said that international humanitarian aid organizations can’t reach many of these villages, because they are too many days’ walk through mountain trails from the Indian border.
Victor Biak Lian, a member of the Chin Human Rights Organization, said, “We don’t know how bad the situation is for the people in these villages. We have not been able to reach them.”
Biak Lian said that 2,000 Chin people fled last month to seek refuge or find work in Mizoram, on the Indian side of the border.
Chin leaders said they have not received food relief from the Burmese military government. Meanwhile, the Burmese authorities have banned ethnic Chin people from receiving food supplies from foreign countries.
According to a Mizoram-based Chin relief group, the Chin Famine Emergency Relief Committee, about 100,000 of the 500,000 people in Chin State currently face food shortages.
The food crisis broke out in December 2007 when an infestation of rats destroyed crops. A famine generally occurs about every 50 years in Chin State when the flowering of a native species of bamboo gives rise to an explosion in the rat population, say experts. The rats devour the nutrient-rich bamboo fruit before going on to decimate local rice crops.
In July, the International Rice Research Institute warned of “widespread food shortages” in the region.
Then in August, the Chin National Council reported that 31 children had died from conditions caused by a lack of food, such as diarrhea.
On September 10, British newspaper The Guardian reported that several Chin villages were facing a drastic crisis following the infestation of rats. Then on September 22, the Mawta Famine Relief Committee reported that at least five children had died of famine-related illness, such as diarrhea, in Paletwa Township in Chin State.
Sources said that thousands of local people in Chin State are currently surviving on nothing more than boiled rice and wild plants.

THAKSIN' FAMILY WANTS TO BE REFUGEES IN UK

''He applied for asylum pretty much when he landed ... and so did his wife,'' a spokesman said.
But the Home Office said it could give no further information on the progress of the applications because it does not comment on individual cases.
The Supreme Court issued a fourth arrest warrant for Mr Thaksin on Sept 26 when he failed to appear.
His wife, Khunying Potjaman, has been convicted on tax evasion charges, adding to the legal cases piling up against the couple since Mr Thaksin was toppled.
Sirisak Tiyapan, chief prosecutor for foreign affairs of the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG), said even if the couple were granted asylum by the British government, the Thai government would continue to ask the British government to extradite them to Thailand if they were convicted by a Thai criminal court.
Nevertheless, Mr Sirisak admitted the extradition process could be more complicated if the British government allowed the couple to live in exile because when seeking their extradition, the OAG would then have to prove to the British government that the conviction against the couple was not politically motivated.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat has confirmed efforts to bring Mr Thaksin and his wife back are ongoing.
The prime minister's wife, Yaowapa, is Mr Thaksin's younger sister.
Mr Somchai said he had instructed his secretary-general to look into the possibilities of revoking Mr Thaksin's diplomatic passport.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry previously referred the proposed revocation of the passport to Mr Somchai for a decision

U WIN TIN JOINS NLD AND RUNNING REFUGEES

The 79-year-old former journalist, imprisoned for 19 years, will return to the National League of Democracy's Central Executive Committee, Nyan Win said.
"He started coming to the headquarters on Monday to start his duties as a member (of the committee). We are very glad he is rejoining," Nyan Win said.
Win Tin was released along with more than 9,000 inmates on September 23 in an amnesty ahead of national elections promised for 2010.
He was one of the founders of the NLD party together with Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, who remains detained at her lakeside home in Yangon.
Win Tin never witnessed his party's landslide victory in 1990 elections - a win never recognized by the junta - because he was imprisoned in July 1989 for his role as Aung San Suu Kyi's advisor, and for his letters to the then-United Nations envoy to Myanmar.
Win Tin was officially invited by the NLD leadership to rejoin the party's ruling committee on the 20th anniversary of its founding on September 27.
Two days after Win Tin's release, Myanmar's police chief held his first meeting with six NLD leaders, asking them to retract their latest statement calling for a constitutional review - a move they refused.
A new constitution was brought in after a much-criticized May referendum held in the wake of a massive cyclone that swept across the country, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing.
The junta's constitution paves the way for multiparty elections to be held in 2010 but bars Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest, from standing.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Regime army moves against refugees

"The villagers are chased, rice barns and food are sequestered or destroyed, large cornfields are burned as well as several houses in different villages," the NGO said in a statement.
Five schools and two hospitals the organization was operating in the region with donations from Europe had to be closed. The helpers were still trying to treat the often heavily injured victims despite the fighting.
Myanmar's army was moving against members of the Karen ethnic minority with the aid of the DKBA, a breakaway from the Karen National Union (KNU), a rebel group that has been fighting for the autonomy of the Karen State for the past six decades.
In an attempt to escape the violence many fled to the border region with Thailand. The organization accused Thai authorities of driving back refugees across the border, after Myanmar soldiers and militiamen crossed into Thailand and committed acts of violence.
"And the international community is silent," noted the NGO.

UN DEMANDS AND FORCED LABORS IN BURMA

Brockmann made his remarks during a briefing at the conclusion of the general debate of the UN General Assembly. He said his "solidarity with the people of Myanmar" remains, in response to a question on Burma.

Since he assumed the presidency of the General Assembly this session, Brockmann so far has maintained a silence on Burma, making no comments regarding violation of human rights, restoration of democracy or continued arrests of political activists in Burma.
When asked specifically what his plans were for Burma as the General Assembly president, he said: "We do not come here with a pre-conceived plan, or with the idea that the president of the General Assembly is going to solve all conflicts and they are going to have to accept my preconceived recipes for peace."
However, Brockmann, who is never shy of reflecting his anti-US agenda at the UN, said he is working on the Burma issue by getting the best and most reliable information from various sources.
"My job as president is to work with the General Assembly members, to gather [them] and come at some viable way of helping our brothers and sisters in Myanmar in whatever the difficulties are," he said.
"It is premature to tell you what exactly what those steps would be," he said. Discussions are currently in an initial, consultative phase that allows member states to gather objective information on the situation, he said.
Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, called for the release of Burma's political prisoners including detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We believe that there are still 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar," said Pilly on Thursday during her first press conference since taking office. "We are asking the authorities in Rangoon to free them."
The high commissioner also called the detention of Suu Kyi "completely illegal, even in respect of the country's law."

Forced Labor Used in Delta

Local sources said people have been conscripted to work by military officers with Light Infantry Division No 66. An order was received in 17 villages in the Pyinsalu Village Tract, located in the coastal area of Laputta Township, saying one person from each family would be required to work on the construction of the Laputta-Thingangyi-Pyinsalu road.
Ma Nwe, who is four months pregnant and lives in Wabokhone village, told The Irrawaddy that she was conscripted to work on the road project, and her husband was conscripted to work on a government building in the city of Pyinsalu.
She said they had no choice but to do as ordered. "So I came here,” she said. “I can't refuse their order."
The village headman of Khonegyi village said he knew of 50 people were who sent to construction sites in Pyinsalu. The laborers have worked since September 16, he said, and no one knows how long the construction projects will continue.
According to villagers, the army said the workers will receive aid from INGOs and the government. Sources said the aid included a basic family water kit from UNICEF, "dignity kits" of clothes and personal hygiene items from the United Nations Population Fund, rice, food, and medicine.
In the areas of Laputta, regime-friendly companies such as Ayear Shwe Wah, Max Myanmar and Wah Wah Win have involved construction projects in Laputta Township, according to sources.
Ayer Shwe Wah was established by Aung Thet Mann, the son of junta member Gen Thura Shwe Mann, who has been accused of using his position to win contracts for construction work in the capital, Naypyidaw.
In June, London-based Amnesty International said the military regime has forced cyclone survivors to do menial labor in exchange for food, and authorities in several cyclone-hit areas continue to divert international aid to be used for regime-friendly projects, or to be sold in black markets.
Meanwhile, the United Nations' flash fundraising appeal for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis remains 50 percent unfunded, according to a statement issued by the Tripartite Core Group, which has coordinated relief efforts since June and is comprised of representatives from the military government, UN agencies and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

UN HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF CALLS FOR FREEDOM AND DANGER OF MYANMAR/ N KOREA BOND

"We believe that there are still 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar," said Pilaly in her first press conference since taking office.
"We are asking the authorities in Rangoon to free them," she added.
Last week, she welcomed the release of seven political prisoners there.
The High Commissioner also called the detention of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi "completely illegal, even in respect of the country's law."
Pillay also highlighted the plight of detainees in other countries.
"The number of people around the world who are believed to be held in some form of detention that is unjust or inappropriate probably runs into the millions," said Pillay.
"Every day around the world, there are hundreds of new cases of men, women and children being placed in detention, when they shouldn't be, sometimes in atrocious conditions," she added.
The South African lawyer, who has served as a judge with the International Criminal Court and as Judge President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, became UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in September.

Nuclear bond for North Korea and Myanmar

Before that, other Myanmar military delegations visited North Korea, including a group headed in August by Lieutenant General.

Tin Aye, chief of the Office of Chief Defense Industries, and another led in July by Lieutenant General Myint Hlaing, the chief of Air Defence. The rapid-fire visits have gone beyond goodwill gestures and the normal diplomatic niceties of re-establishing ties. Rather, the personalities involved in the visits indicate that Myanmar is not only seeking weapons procurements, but also probable cooperation in establishing air defense weaponry, missiles, rockets or artillery production facilities. The secretive visits are believed to entail a Myanmar quest for tunneling technology and possible assistance in developing its nascent nuclear program. Tin Aye and Myint Hlaing, by virtue of their positions as lieutenant generals, are logical choices to head official delegations in search of weapons technology for Myanmar's military, while Brigadier General Aung Thein Lin, current mayor of Yangon and chairman of the city's development committee, was formerly deputy minister of Industry-2, responsible for all industrial development in the country. Prior to 1998, the minister of Industry-2 also served as the chairman of the Myanmar Atomic Energy Committee. This came to an end when Myanmar's Atomic Energy Act of 1998 designated the Ministry of Science and Technology as the lead government agency for its aspirant nuclear program. However, the Ministry of Industry-2, by virtue of its responsibilities for construction of industrial facilities and the provision of equipment, continues to play a key supporting role in Myanmar's nuclear program. Myanmar's stagnant nuclear program was revitalized shortly after Pakistan's first detonation of nuclear weapons in May 1998. Senior general and junta leader Than Shwe signed the Atomic Energy Law on June 8, 1998, and the timing of the legislation so soon after Pakistan's entry into the nuclear club did little to assuage international concerns about Myanmar's nuclear intentions. Some analysts believe the regime may eventually seek nuclear weapons for the dual purpose of international prestige and strategic deterrence. Myanmar's civilian-use nuclear ambitions made global headlines in early 2001, when Russia's Atomic Energy Committee indicated it was planning to build a research reactor in the country. The following year, Myanmar's deputy foreign minister, Khin Maung Win, publicly announced the regime's decision to build a nuclear research reactor, citing the country's difficulty in importing radio-isotopes and the need for modern technology as reasons for the move. The country reportedly sent hundreds of soldiers for nuclear training in Russia that same year and the reactor was scheduled for delivery in 2003. However, the program was shelved due to financial difficulties and a formal contract for the reactor, under which Russia agreed to build a nuclear research center along with a 10 megawatt reactor, was not signed until May 2007. The reactor will be fueled with non-weapons grade enriched uranium-235 and it will operate under the purview of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog. The reactor itself would be ill-suited for weapons development. However, the training activities associated with it would provide the basic knowledge required as a foundation for any nuclear weapons development program outside of the research center. Constrained reactionThe United States' reaction to Myanmar's nuclear developments has been somewhat constrained, despite the George W Bush administration referring to the military-run country as an "outpost of tyranny". After Myanmar's 2002 confirmation of its intent to build the reactor, the US warned the country of its obligations as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). After the contract was formally announced in May 2007, the US State Department expressed concerns about the country's lack of adequate safety standards and the potential for proliferation. The warming and growing rapport between Myanmar and North Korea will likely further heighten Washington's proliferation concerns. Myanmar broke off diplomatic relations with Pyongyang in 1983, after North Korean agents bombed the Martyr's mausoleum in Yangon in an attempt to assassinate the visiting South Korean president, Chun Doo-hwan. The explosion killed more than 20 people, mostly South Korean officials, including the deputy prime minister and the foreign minister, and the South Korean ambassador to Myanmar. Four Myanmar nationals perished and dozens more were wounded in the blast. Myanmar severed ties with North Korea after an investigation revealed the three agents responsible for planting the bomb spent the night at a North Korean diplomat's house before setting out on their mission. However, common interests have brought the two secretive nations back together. The famine in North Korea in the late 1990s and Myanmar's military expansion ambitions, including a drive for self-sufficiency in production, have fostered recent trade flows. While Myanmar has the agricultural surplus to ease North Korean hunger, Pyongyang possesses the weapons and technological know-how needed to boost Yangon's military might. There is also speculation Myanmar might provide uranium, mined in remote and difficult-to-monitor areas, to North Korea. As testament to Pyongyang's willingness to supply weapons to the military regime, more North Korean ship visits have been noted at Thilawa port in Yangon, one of the country's primary receipt points for military cargo. During one of these visits in May 2007, two Myanmar nationals working for Japan's News Network were detained outside Yangon while covering a suspected arms delivery by a North Korean vessel. Growing bilateral trade has helped to heal old diplomatic wounds and eventually led to a joint communique re-establishing diplomatic relations in April 2007. The emerging relationship is also a natural outgrowth of the ostracism each faces in the international arena, including the economic sanctions imposed and maintained against them by the West. While it is possible the recent visits are related to Myanmar's nascent nuclear program, the evidence is far from conclusive. Nevertheless, Myanmar has undoubtedly taken notice of the respect that is accorded to North Korea on the world stage because of its nuclear weapon status. Unlike North Korea, Myanmar is a signatory to the NPT. Myanmar has publicly stated it seeks nuclear technology only for peaceful purposes, such as developing radio-isotopes for agricultural use and medical research. Yet two well-placed sources told this reporter that North Korean and Iranian technicians were already advising Myanmar on a possible secret nuclear effort, running in parallel to the aboveboard Russia-supported program. Asia Times Online could not independently confirm the claim. The lack of participation by Myanmar's Ministry of Science and Technology in the recent trips to Pyongyang would seem to indicate that nuclear developments were probably not the primary focus of the high-level meetings. The regime is also known to be interested in North Korea's tunneling technology (see Myanmar and North Korea share a tunnel vision, Asia Times Online, July 19, 2006) in line with the ruling junta's siege mentality and apparent fears of a possible US-led pre-emptive military attack. The junta and others have no doubt noted the extraordinary problems tunneling and cave complexes have caused US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the success North Korea has enjoyed in hiding underground its nuclear facilities. Bunkers are rumored to underlie several buildings at Naypyidaw, where the regime abruptly moved the national capital in 2005. The ongoing construction of a second capital, for the hot season, at Yadanapon, is also believed to have tunnels and bunkers integrated into its layout. Whether the visits are related to arms procurement, military industrial development, tunneling technology or nuclear exchange, they foreshadow a potentially dangerous trend for Myanmar's non-nuclear Southeast Asian neighbors and their Western allies, including the US. As the true nature of the budding bilateral relationship comes into closer view, the risk is rising that Pyongyang and Yangon are conspiring to create a security quandary in Southeast Asia akin to the one now vexing the US and its allies on the Korean Peninsula.