Burma Related News - Dec 16-17, 2009.

[TIN KYI]

******************************************************************
BURMA RELATED NEWS - DECEMBER 16- 17, 2009
******************************************************************
AFP - Bomb kills six on restive Myanmar border
AFP - Myanmar's Suu Kyi in rare talks with party elders
Reuters - Over $1.6 bln in barred Credit Suisse transctions
Reuters - Border stability to top China-Myanmar talks
Reuters - FACTBOX-Five facts about China-Myanmar relations
AP - Thais: US tip led to seizure of arms from NKorea
AP - Credit Suisse Group to pay $536M in Iran case
Bloomberg - Myanmar Should Let Suu Kyi Hold More Political Talks, U.S.
Says
Bloomberg - Golden Triangle Warlords Swap Guns, Drugs for Tourism:
Review
International Herald Tribune - Dams and Development Threaten the
Mekong
New York Times - Where Impunity Reigns
Christian News Wire - Gospel for Asia Missionaries Working with Famine
Victims in Myanmar
EarthTimes - Nobel laureate economist advises Myanmar junta on
agriculture
Xinhua - ASEAN envoys optimistic on solution over Myanmar democracy
problem
UN News Centre - UN development partnership seeks to boost
agricultural sector in Myanmar
IPS - BURMA: A Celebration of Life through the Arts under the Junta
ITLOS: THE MARITIME BOUNDARY BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND MYANMAR IN THE BAY
OF BENGAL
The Nation - Burma: a man-made disaster zone
Bernama - New Mother Among Four Charged With Drug Trafficking
The Straits Times - Woman hit maid
The Irrawaddy - North Korean Weapons Mystery: Is Burma the Missing
Link?
The Irrawaddy - Call to Reorganize NLD Garners Support, Questions
Mizzima News - 'Economics and politics inseparable', Stiglitz tells
Burma
Mizzima News - ADB will not expand TFFP in Burma
DVB News - 'Enthusiastic' Suu Kyi calls for party reform
******************************************************************
Bomb kills six on restive Myanmar border
1 hr 28 mins ago

YANGON (AFP) - Six people have been killed and 12 injured when a time
bomb exploded in Myanmar's restive Karen state on Wednesday night, an
official told AFP Thursday.

He said the bomb was detonated at 9pm (1430 GMT) on Wednesday as the
ethnic Karen celebrated their New Year in the southeastern state
bordering Thailand.

"Altogether six people were killed and another 12 were injured when a
timed-bomb exploded," said the official, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

"One injured person is in a critical condition. It happened as they
celebrated their New Year's Day party," he said.

The bomb exploded in Phapun town in northeastern Karen State, about
120 miles (192 kilometres) from the economic hub, Yangon, he said.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that the bomb went off in
the middle of market stalls where a new year festival was being held.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the bomb, but the
town is close to the area where separatists have been fighting a
decades-long insurgency.

The Karen National Union has been fighting the Myanmar government for
autonomy for more than five decades. Myanmar has been ruled by the
military since 1962.

Altogether 17 armed groups and some 40 small ethnic groups have signed
ceasefire agreements with the current military junta since it took
power in 1988.
******************************************************************
Myanmar's Suu Kyi in rare talks with party elders
by Hla Hla Htay - Wed Dec 16, 3:08 am ET

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's junta allowed detained opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi to meet with three elderly senior members of her party
Wednesday in a rare concession by the military regime.

The democracy icon was taken to a state guesthouse in Yangon for the
talks with 92-year-old party chairman Aung Shwe, secretary Lwin, 85,
and executive committee member Lun Tin, 89, all of whom are in poor
health.

"The authorities allowed us to meet Aung San Suu Kyi privately at the
guesthouse. She paid her respects to us and gave presents and fruit
baskets," said Lwin after the meeting, which lasted about 45 minutes.

"I had not met her since 2003," he told reporters.

"Aung San Suu Kyi asked us to allow her to reorganise the central
executive committee. We accepted her request," he added. Most of the
party's current 11-member committee are very old.

In a letter to Myanmar's military strongman Than Shwe last month, Suu
Kyi requested she be allowed to visit the three men.

"Daw Suu accepted the authorities' suggestion to meet them all in one
place for security reasons," her lawyer and NLD spokesman Nyan Win
told reporters on Tuesday. Daw is a term of respect in Myanmar.

The visit followed a meeting between Suu Kyi and junta liaison officer
Aung Kyi last Wednesday -- their third since the beginning of October
-- where they discussed her letter to Than Shwe, Nyan Win said.

In the correspondence, she also asked to meet with the junta chief
himself and said she wanted to cooperate with the government to get
sanctions against Myanmar lifted for the benefit of the country.

"Daw Suu is also expecting the rest of her requests to be fulfilled.
She's optimistic about her letter," Nyan Win said.

Suu Kyi has been locked up for 14 of the past 20 years and was ordered
in August to spend another 18 months in detention after being
convicted over an incident in which an American man swam to her house.

The country's supreme court has agreed to hear a final appeal against
the 64-year-old's house arrest next Monday, after a lower court
rejected an initial appeal in October.

The extension of her detention after a trial at Yangon's notorious
Insein Prison sparked international outrage as it effectively keeps
her off the stage for elections promised by
the regime some time in 2010.

If the polls go ahead they will be the first since 1990, when the
junta refused to recognise the NLD's landslide victory.

In another letter to Than Shwe in September, Suu Kyi offered
suggestions for getting Western sanctions lifted and requested a
meeting with senior Western diplomats in Yangon, which she was also
granted.

In recent months the United States, followed by the European Union,
has shifted towards a policy of greater engagement with Myanmar --
which has been under military rule since 1962 -- with sanctions
failing to bear fruit.

In November the regime allowed Suu Kyi to make a rare appearance in
front of the media after she held talks with US Assistant Secretary of
State Kurt Campbell, the most senior US official to visit Myanmar in
14 years.

Despite an apparent shift in relations between Suu Kyi and the junta,
state media last week accused her of being "insincere" and "dishonest"
in sending letters to Than Shwe and accused her of leaking them to
foreign media.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said her change of tack after years
of favouring sanctions was "highly questionable".
******************************************************************
Over $1.6 bln in barred Credit Suisse transctions
Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:38pm EST

WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - U.S. court documents in the Credit
Suisse (CSGN.VX) case show a total value of all prohibited
transactions with Iran, Sudan, Myanmar, Cuba and Libya exceeded $1.6
billion.

The documents, filed on Wednesday in federal court in Washington, said
the Swiss bank may have begun evading U.S. sanctions as early as 1986,
when sanctions on Libyan were first implemented.

The bank was specifically charged with "knowingly and willfully"
attempting to violate regulations issued under the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act from mid-1995 through about 2006,
according to the documents, filed by the U.S. Justice Department.
******************************************************************
Border stability to top China-Myanmar talks
By Ben Blanchard and Aung Hla Tun - Tue Dec 15, 10:36 pm ET

BEIJING/YANGON (Reuters) - Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping arrives
this week in Myanmar where he is expected to meet the regime's
reclusive top leader and press for assurances there will be no more
unrest on their shared border.

The military-ruled former Burma has few foreign friends due to its
human rights record and detention of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi ahead of an election next year. That gives extra
significance to a visit by Xi, seen as a frontrunner to succeed
President Hu Jintao.

China is one of Myanmar's rare diplomatic backers, often coming to the
rescue when it is pressed by Western governments over issues such as
the 2007 crackdown on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks.

But relations have been strained of late.

In August, Myanmar's army overran Kokang, which lies along the border
with the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan and was controlled
for years by an ethnic Chinese militia. The action pushed thousands of
refugees into China and angering Beijing.

A second, 20,000-strong ethnic Chinese militia, the United Wa State
Army (UWSA), denounced as a narcotics cartel by the United States, has
refused to disarm and is preparing for an imminent attack by the
Myanmar army, activists and local media say.

"If there was renewed fighting with some of the other groups, the
potential refugee flows would be much greater," said David Mathieson,
Myanmar researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"I think they would also be concerned about increased drug shipments
coming from that part of Burma into China, because a lot of these
groups have just been liquidating their inventory to try and get money
to prepare for fighting, and some of it does go through China."

RARE MEETING WITH TOP GENERAL

China's Foreign Ministry has given few details of the visit set for
Saturday and Sunday. But a Myanmar government official told Reuters
that Xi was scheduled to meet General Than Shwe, the leader of the
junta, who rarely receives foreign dignitaries.

Problems along the border, where Myanmar is trying to coax ethnic
militias to end decades of fighting and form a border guard force
under government jurisdiction, will likely top issues to be discussed
with Xi as will next year's election.

"Matters concerning the transformation of ethnic armed groups like the
UWSA and the upcoming elections could be on the top the agenda," the
official said on condition of anonymity.

The election, already roundly dismissed by rights activists as a sham,
are the last stop on Myanmar's "road map" to democracy, but it remains
unclear what civilian rule would look like after almost 50 years of
army-led government.

The visit will also give Xi a chance to get to know the leaders of a
country which China sees as a vital strategic partner ahead of his own
expected ascendancy to the presidency.

"He is expected to succeed President Hu in 2012 and I think the
upcoming visit of his to Myanmar is very important for cementing
existing ties," one Yangon-based Asian diplomat told Reuters.

The neighbors have significant business ties. Bilateral trade grew
more than one-quarter last year to about $2.63 billion.

In late October, China's CNPC started building a crude oil port in
Myanmar, part of a pipeline project aimed at cutting out the long
detour oil cargoes take through the congested and strategically
vulnerable Malacca Strait.

China's overriding concern is a stable Myanmar to give its landlocked
southwestern provinces access to the Indian Ocean as well as natural
resources like oil, gas and timber.

"The way political reform is going in Burma does suit China's
interests, because basically it's going to be a civilian-front
parliament for continued military rule," said Mathieson.
******************************************************************
FACTBOX-Five facts about China-Myanmar relations
Wed Dec 16, 2009 3:16am GMT

Dec 16 (Reuters) - Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, seen as
frontrunner to succeed President Hu Jintao, arrives in Myanmar on
Saturday for a two-day visit and is expected to meet the regime's
reclusive top leader.

Here are five facts about relations between the two countries:

* Burma, as the country was then known, was one of the first countries
to recognise the People's Republic of China in 1949. But relations
soured in the 1960s following anti-Chinese riots in Rangoon (now
called Yangon).

* Following a crackdown on pro-democracy protestors across the country
in 1988, the West imposed broad sanctions on Myanmar. China stepped
into the void, providing aid and weapons and ramping up trade. China
has continued to provide broad diplomatic support for Myanmar's
military government.

* China has invested more than $1 billion in Myanmar, primarily in the
mining sector, and is the country's fourth largest foreign investor,
state media say. Bilateral trade grew more than one-quarter last year
to about $2.63 billion. Chinese firms are also heavily involved in
logging in Myanmar.

* Myanmar gives China access to the Indian Ocean, not only for imports
of oil and gas and exports from landlocked southwestern Chinese
provinces, but also potentially for military bases or listening posts.

In October, China's CNPC started building a crude oil port in Myanmar,
part of a pipeline project aimed at cutting out the long detour oil
cargoes take through the congested and strategically vulnerable
Malacca Strait. [ID:nPEK34572]

* The friendship has had rocky patches. In August, refugees flooded
across into China following fighting on the Myanmar side of the
border, angering Beijing.

In 2007, China's Foreign Ministry published an unflattering account of
Myanmar's new jungle capital Naypyidaw, expressing surprise that the
poor country would consider such an expensive move without even first
telling its supposed Chinese friends.
******************************************************************
Thais: US tip led to seizure of arms from NKorea
2 hrs 4 mins ago

BANGKOK (AP) - Thai authorities were acting on a tip from the United
States when they seized tons of illicit weapons from a plane from
North Korea, a senior official said Thursday.

The Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane was impounded Saturday in Bangkok
during what officials said was a scheduled refueling stop. Thai
authorities found a reported 35 tons of weaponry aboard it, all
exported from North Korea in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

Speaking at a news conference, National Security Council chief Thawil
Pliensri confirmed media reports that there had been U.S. assistance
in the seizure, but gave no details.
He said that Thailand was waiting for advice from the United Nations
on whether the weapons should be destroyed.

The U.N. sanctions -- which ban North Korea from exporting any arms --
were imposed in June after the reclusive communist regime conducted a
nuclear test and test-fired missiles. They are aimed at derailing
North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but also ban it from selling
any conventional arms.

Thawil revealed little else new at his news conference, which seemed
aimed at quashing some rumors. He denied that Thailand would receive a
reward or bounty for the seizure, or that it was pressured to act,
saying it took action "as a member of the world community."

He added, however, that Thailand would like to be compensated if
possible by the U.N. for the cost of transporting the weapons, which
were taken to an Air Force base in the nearby province of Nakhon
Sawan.

It is still not known where the weapons -- said to include explosives,
rocket-propelled grenades, components for surface-to-air missiles and
other armaments -- were to be delivered. The plane's papers, which
described its cargo as oil-drilling machinery, said the shipment was
to be delivered to Sri Lanka.

Arms trade experts have speculated that the cargo may have been
destined for conflict zones in Africa, Iran or Myanmar.

U.S. Treasury Department records show that the plane had previously
been registered with firms controlled by suspected arms trafficker
Russian Viktor Bout, who is currently being held in Thailand. The U.S.
is trying to extradite him on terrorism charges. On Wednesday, he
denied any involvement with the plane, according to Russian news
agency ITAR-Tass, accusing the media of trying to influence the
decision in his extradition hearing.

The crew -- four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus -- have been
jailed on illegal arms possession charges.

The wife of Mikail Petukhov -- the Belarussian identified in Thai court
documents -- said he had served in the Soviet military and afterward
took whatever job he could find. Vera Petukhova said her husband never
knows who he'll be working with before going out on a job. A friend of
Petukhov, 54, added that he also never knows what he'll be
transporting.

"All the containers are sealed, and the captain only gets the printout
of what is supposed to be inside them. But what's inside, that's a
question for the people who load it onto the plane at the pick-up
point," said Vladimir Migol, who also served in the Soviet air force
and noted that many ex-service men struggled to find work after being
discharged.

Migol said while crew members such as Petukhov would never knowingly
transport weapons, they are all aware of the risk but are usually
desperate for jobs.

The plane was registered to Air West, a cargo transport company in the
former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry said this week that the plane was leased
to New Zealand company SP Trading Ltd.

Authorities in New Zealand are investigating, a spokesman for its
Foreign Ministry, James Funnell said Thursday.

"We have always been staunch supporters of the sanctions regime
imposed against North Korea," Funnell told The Associated Press. "So
we're very concerned by these allegations and are inquiring into
them."

SP Trading is listed in the government's register of companies as
having offices in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, which names Lu
Zhang as its director. The company's shares are held by nominee
company VICAM (Auckland) Ltd. Listed phone numbers rang unanswered on
Thursday.

Impoverished North Korea is believed to earn hundreds of millions of
dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other
weapons to countries such as Iran, Syria and Myanmar.
******************************************************************
Credit Suisse Group to pay $536M in Iran case
By DEVLIN BARRETT and MARCY GORDON, Associated Press Writers - Wed Dec
16, 8:20 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - Credit Suisse Group has agreed to pay $536 million
to settle a Justice Department probe and admit to violating U.S.
economic sanctions by hiding the booming illegal business it was doing
for Iranian banks.

The Justice Department announced the settlement Wednesday, saying it
was the biggest forfeiture ever against a company for violations of
that type.

"Credit Suisse's decades-long scheme to flout the rules that govern
our financial institutions robbed our system of the legitimacy that is
fundamental to its success," Attorney General Eric Holder said at a
news conference at department headquarters. "We cannot let this stand,
and today's settlement sends a strong message that we will not let it
stand."

The $536 million that Credit Suisse is forfeiting will be split
between the U.S. government and the district attorney's office in
Manhattan, which also participated in the settlement talks with the
bank along with the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.

The U.S. officials said the government is continuing to investigate
the handling of Iranian funds by big banks in the West. All payments
made in dollars must be processed through banks or bank offices in the
U.S., subjecting the transactions to U.S. laws even if the parties are
abroad.

Altogether, about $1.6 billion in transactions flowing from Iran were
involved, the officials said. They said there was no evidence of any
of the money going to missile development programs or terrorist
organizations. But the Manhattan prosecutors said a handful of the
entities involved subsequently made the U.S. government's list of
contributors to weapons proliferation, after the bank had decided to
stop its sanctions-skirting business.

"If they're doing business with a country like Iran and hiding Iran in
their transactions, they're running a tremendous risk that either now
or in the future, their transactions are going to link into something
bad," said Adam Kaufmann, a Manhattan assistant district attorney.

Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general who heads the Justice
Department's criminal division, said the government's action sends a
message to banks that they should come forward to the authorities if
misconduct is being committed -- "before we come knocking on your
door."

"I hope that other financial institutions are watching and learning
from Credit Suisse's experience," he said at the Washington news
conference.

Zurich-based Credit Suisse swiftly cooperated with the authorities,
the U.S. officials said, and therefore the Justice Department is
recommending the termination of the enforcement action in two years if
the bank complies with the settlement terms.

The bank, one of Switzerland's largest, has been under criminal
investigation for years over business it did with countries subject to
U.S. economic sanctions.

The settlement papers maintain that the bank had a long-running
practice of helping Iranian banks evade the sanctions by hiding the
identity of their Iranian customers in international money
transactions.

"Credit Suisse's internal communications showed a continuous dialogue
about evading U.S. sanctions spanning approximately a decade," the
government's papers say.

Earlier this year, Lloyds TSB Bank PLC agreed to forfeit $350 million
for helping customers skirt U.S. sanctions on business transactions
with Sudan, Iran and Libya.

The court papers filed Wednesday say that when Lloyds decided in 2003
to stop doing such business, the Iranian banks moved their business
over to Credit Suisse.

As a result, Credit Suisse quadrupled the number of Iranian
transactions in U.S. dollars between the years 2002 and 2005, from
about 50,000 to about 200,000.

U.S. authorities also said Credit Suisse handled a far smaller number
of transactions involving other countries facing sanctions, including
Libya, Sudan, and Burma.

The bank began winding down their sanction-evading business in 2006,
the government said.

"Credit Suisse is committed to the highest standards of integrity and
regulatory compliance in all its businesses and takes this matter
extremely seriously," the bank said in a statement Wednesday.

It said it had undertaken a review of some U.S. dollar payments that
involved countries, people or entities subject to sanctions.

The Manhattan prosecutors, at a separate news conference, said Credit
Suisse stripped out references to Iran from electronic messages
directing payments. Credit Suisse sometimes substituted abbreviations
or the phrase "one of our customers" for Iranian clients' names, they
said. The changes were designed to slip the payments past filters U.S.
banks use to block Iran-related transactions.

The bank is said to have used such tactics from the 1990s through
2006, processing more than $700 million in payments that violated U.S.
sanctions.
******************************************************************
Myanmar Should Let Suu Kyi Hold More Political Talks, U.S. Says
By Daniel Ten Kate and Viola Gienger

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
meeting with three senior members of her political party should pave
the way for her to be allowed discussions with all the group's
leaders, the U.S. said.

"We welcome the decision by Burmese authorities to allow Aung San Suu
Kyi to pay her respects to three senior members of the central
executive committee of her party," State Department spokesman Ian
Kelly said, using the country's former name.

"We hope this is a step towards a meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and
the entire central executive committee of the National League for
Democracy," Kelly told reporters in Washington.

Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past 20 years under house arrest,
met with her three compatriots today to discuss participation in
elections set for next year, an exiled party member said.

"They have to discuss the current leadership of the political party
and positions for the coming elections," said Moe Zaw Oo, a Thailand-
based spokesman for the exiled wing of Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy, which won the country's last elections in 1990.

The junta allowed Suu Kyi to meet with three members of party's 11-
strong executive committee after she requested talks with the whole
group, Moe Zaw Oo said. The Nobel laureate met for about 45 minutes
with party chairman Aung Shwe, 92, secretary U Lwin, 85, and Lun Tin,
89, all of whom are in poor health, Agence France-Presse reported,
citing Lwin.

U.S. Engagement

The meeting comes a month after U.S. State Department official Kurt
Campbell visited Myanmar as part of President Barack Obama's policy to
engage with the generals while maintaining sanctions. Campbell urged
the junta to release political prisoners and allow Suu Kyi to meet
party colleagues to show a genuine commitment to democracy.

Suu Kyi has spent more than 14 of the past 20 years in detention, with
her latest stint starting in May 2003. The junta extended her house
arrest for 18 months in August after a court found her guilty of
violating her detention terms, potentially excluding her from next
year's elections.

Myanmar's Supreme Court may decide Dec. 21 whether to hear an appeal
of the guilty verdict that triggered the extension of her house
arrest, AFP reported.
******************************************************************
Golden Triangle Warlords Swap Guns, Drugs for Tourism: Review
Review by William Mellor

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The jungle-swathed ridges of Southeast Asia's
Golden Triangle divide two worlds.

On one side, in Thailand, well-heeled tourists savor the luxuries of
Anantara and Four Seasons resorts. On the other, in Myanmar, mule
caravans laden with opium, gemstones and jade still ply hidden
mountain trails. Much remains concealed from even the most adventurous
traveler in this opium-growing region where the borders of Myanmar,
Thailand and Laos converge.

Yet one secret it has given up is that of the so-called Lost Army,
Chinese soldiers abandoned in 1949 by their leader Chiang Kai-shek who
fled to Taiwan after being defeated by his Communist nemesis Mao
Zedong on mainland China.

Trapped in the southwestern Yunnan province, the troops of Chiang's
93rd Division staged a fighting retreat into the adjoining Golden
Triangle, from where they launched futile attempts to re-invade their
Chinese homeland. Finally, the survivors struck a deal with the Thais:
they were allowed to set up an autonomous mini-state in return for
defending Thailand's northern borders from local communist
insurgents.

The site they chose was a mountain top called Mae Salong, 15
kilometers from the Burmese border, where the slopes were carpeted
with red-and-white opium poppies.

General Lei Yutian, the last surviving commander of the Lost Army,
reflects on the Golden Triangle's transformation from drug fiefdom to
tourist destination.
Guns to Calculators

"First we came with guns," said Lei, 93, as he sipped tea in a
manicured flower garden that was once the parade ground where he
drilled a 20,000-strong private army. "Then we became farmers. Now we
use calculators."

Those calculators have been busy of late counting the benefits of
tourism as resort operators like Anantara build hotels to accommodate
wealthy tourists venturing deeper into the mist-shrouded mountains of
the triangle, a once-lawless frontier where the borders of Thailand,
Myanmar and Laos converge.

The 77-room Anantara offers spa treatments, Thai banquets and $400-a-
night rooms with balconies overlooking the Mekong River at the exact
spot where the three countries meet. Nearby, the Four Seasons hotel
chain has created a five-star jungle encampment, each $2,000-a-night
tent equipped with its own copper bathtub.

Both resorts offer guests the chance to commune with a herd of
elephants and train to become a mahout. Nearby, a Hall of Opium tells
the colorful and violent story of the Golden triangle's drug trade.

"The attraction here is partly nature," said Bodo Klingenberg, the
Anantara's German-born general manager as we dined al fresco beside a
riverside rice paddy, watched by a white water buffalo and her doe-
eyed calf. "But it's also the mystique of the Golden Triangle."

China in Thailand

The Lost Army's then leader, General Duan Shiwen, became a drug
warlord, according to Alfred W. McCoy's 1972 book "The Politics of
Heroin in Southeast Asia," and recreated a piece of pre-revolutionary
China inside Thailand -- temples and houses with distinctive curved
Chinese roofs, restaurants serving fine Yunnanese cuisine and a
population that, despite intermarrying with local hill tribes and
Thais, continued to speak Mandarin Chinese and various Yunnan
dialects.

Duan died in 1980. His successor, General Lei, denies any subsequent
involvement in the drug trade, but kept up the Lost Army's war against
communist insurgents.

As a reward, the Thais granted Lei and his men citizenship. Mae Salong
was renamed Santikhiri, meaning Hill of Peace, although most still use
the original name. The government built an all-weather road linking it
with Chiang Rai, capital of Thailand's northernmost province. The Lost
Army had come in from the cold.

Growing Tea

Under Lei, the old soldiers and their descendants have taken up licit
business activities. Chamroen Cheewinchalermchot, 52, son of a
colonel, has embraced both tourism and tea-growing. He runs Mae Salong
Villa, a clean, comfortable hostelry with $30-a-night rooms
overlooking plantations producing high-grade oolong tea.

The triangle has long been on the itinerary of backpackers and
trekkers escaping Thailand's steamy southern resorts for the cooler
northern mountain air, especially during the dry season between
October and the mid-April Thai New Year water festival, called
Songkran.

Now, travelers demanding luxury and accessibility as well as adventure
are discovering they can find all these things by taking a one-hour
flight from Bangkok to Chiang Rai.
Once there, the Anantara and Four Seasons resorts, and tourist
attractions such as Mae Salong can be reached inside 90 minutes by
road.

Long Tailed Boat

I chose to arrive in more dramatic fashion. At Chiang Saen, a history-
rich river port that was once the capital of an ancient kingdom, I
boarded a hang yao, or sleek Thai-style long tailed boat, which
aquaplaned up the Mekong, veering between the Thai and Lao sides to
dodge sand banks, before depositing me at a jungle jetty.

There, a lumbering elephant emerged from the undergrowth to provide
transportation on the final leg to Anantara resort.

Plodding through the silent teak forest, the Golden Triangle didn't
seem much different from when the Lost Army first sought refuge.
Except that, back then, there weren't spas or copper bath tubs to
recline in at the end of the journey. And the warlords of those days
carried guns, not calculators.
******************************************************************
International Herald Tribune - Dams and Development Threaten the
Mekong
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: December 17, 2009

SOP RUAK, Thailand -- Basket loads of fish, villagers bathing along the
banks of the river, a farmer's market selling jungle delicacies --
these are Pornlert Prompanya's boyhood memories of a wild and pristine
Mekong River.

Mr. Pornlert -- now 32 and the owner of a company that organizes
speedboat outings for tourists in this village in northern Thailand,
where Myanmar and Laos converge -- peers across the Mekong today at a
more modern picture: a newly constructed, gold-domed casino where high-
rollers are chauffeured along the riverbanks in a Bentley and a
stretch Cadillac limousine.

The Mekong has long held a mystique for outsiders, whether American
G.I.'s in the Delta during the Vietnam War or ill-starred 19th-century
French explorers who searched for the river's source in Tibet. The
earliest visitors realized the hard way that the river was untamed and
treacherous, its waterfalls and rapids ensuring it would never become
Southeast Asia's Mississippi or Rhine.

But today the river, which courses 3,032 miles through portions of
China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying
into the South China Sea, is rapidly being transformed by a rising
tide of economic development, the region's thirst for electricity and
the desire to use the river as a cargo thoroughfare. The Mekong has
been spared the pollution that blackens many of Asia's great rivers,
but it is no longer the backwater of centuries past.

China has built three hydroelectric dams on the Mekong (known as the
Lancang in Chinese) and is halfway through a fourth at Xiaowan, which
when completed will be the world's tallest dam, according to the
United Nations Environment Program.

Laos is planning so many dams on the Mekong and its tributaries -- 7 of
about 70 have been completed -- that government officials have said
that their ambition is to turn the country into "the battery of Asia."
Cambodia is planning two dams.

At the same time, the dashed dreams of French colonizers to use the
river as a southern gateway to China are being partly realized: After
Chinese engineers dynamited a series of rapids and rocks in the early
part of this decade, trade by riverboat between China and Thailand
increased by close to 50 percent.

The cargo passes through increasingly populated areas, erstwhile
sleepy cities in Laos that are now teeming with tourists and defying
the economic downturn with swinging construction cranes. Many parts of
the Mekong were once a star-gazer's dream; now nights on the river are
increasingly aglare with electric lights.

Environmentalists worry that the rush to develop the Mekong,
particularly the dams, is not only changing the panorama of the river
but could also destroy the livelihoods of people who have depended on
it for centuries. One of the world's most bountiful rivers is under
threat, warns a series of reports by the United Nations, environmental
groups and academics.

The most controversial aspects of the dams are their effects on
migrating fish and on the rice-growing Mekong Delta in Vietnam, where
half of that country's food is grown. The delta depends on mineral-
rich silt, which the Chinese dams are partially blocking.

Experts say the new crop of dams will block even more sediment and the
many types of fish that travel great distances to spawn, damaging the
$2 billion Mekong fishing industry, according to the Mekong River
Commission, an advisory body set up in 1995 by the governments of
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Of the hundreds of fish species
in the river, 87 percent are migratory, according to a 2006 study.

"The fish will have nowhere to go," said Kaew Suanpad, a 78-year-old
farmer and fisherman in the village of Nagrasang, Laos, which sits
above the river's great Khone Falls.
"The dams are a very big issue for the 60 million people in the Mekong
basin," said Milton Osborne, visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for
International Policy in Sydney and the author of several books on the
Mekong. "People depend in very substantial ways on the bounty of the
Mekong."

Some analysts see the seeds of international conflict in the rush to
dam the river. Civic groups in Thailand say they are frustrated that
China does not seem to care how its dams affect the lives of people
downstream.

In August, the Vietnamese province of An Giang began a "Save the
Mekong" campaign that opposes the construction of the dams in the
lower part of the river, according to Carl Middleton, the head of the
Mekong program at International Rivers, an organization campaigning
against the Mekong dams.

Neither China nor military-ruled Myanmar, the two northernmost
countries through which the river passes, are members of the Mekong
River Commission, freeing them from the obligation to consult other
countries on issues such as building dams and sharing water.

And yet, for now, the dams are not national preoccupations in any of
the countries along the river.

"Most of the voices that are shouting in the wilderness about these
dams are still very little heard outside of academic circles," Mr.
Osbourne said.

There have been no major protests and for many people in the region
the dams are the symbol of progress and avenues to greater prosperity.
The development of the Mekong is also an affirmation of a new Asia
that is no longer hidebound by ideological conflict.

Jeremy Bird, the chief executive officer of the Mekong River
Commission, says the dams are likely to even out the flow of the
river, mitigating flooding and making the river even more navigable.

"You could have launches like you have on the Rhine," Mr. Bird said.
He added: "With dams there are always negatives and positives."

For Mr. Pornlert, whose boyhood village of Sop Ruak has now grown into
a town with five-star resorts and restaurants catering to tourists,
the negatives seem to outweigh the good.

He says the river behaves unpredictably, it is more difficult to catch
fish, and he is uneasy about swimming in the river because there is
"too much trash and pollution."

"The water level used to depend on the seasons," Mr. Pornlert said.
"Now it depends on how much water China wants and needs."
******************************************************************
Op-Ed Contributor
New York Times - Where Impunity Reigns
By BENEDICT ROGERS
Published: December 17, 2009

The world needs to be reminded, again and again, that the military
regime in Burma (Myanmar) continues to perpetrate every conceivable
human rights violation.

Any Burmese showing any dissent is brutally suppressed, as the world
witnessed two years ago when peaceful Buddhist monks demonstrated.
Many monks were killed or have disappeared; several hundred remain in
prison.

Beyond that, more than 2,000 political activists are in Burmese
prisons today, subjected to torture, denial of medical treatment and
ludicrous sentences.

Student leader Bo Min Yu Ko is serving a 104-year prison term; Shan
ethnic leader Hkun Htun Oo has been imprisoned for 93 years; democracy
activist Min Ko Naing for 65 years. The most famous human rights
activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for almost 14
years, and the term was extended for a further 18 months after a sham
trial.

Many of these activists are in prisons thousands of miles from their
families, and several are critically ill.

One category of victims of the military dictatorship that gets far
less attention is Burma's ethnic minorities.

In eastern Burma, the regime has been conducting a brutal military
campaign against people of the Karen, Karenni and Shan groups. Since
1996, more than 3,300 villages have been destroyed and more than a
million people internally displaced. A Karenni friend of mine has
described it as "Pol Pot in slow motion."

The catalogue of terror includes the widespread, systematic use of
rape as a weapon, forced labor, the use of human minesweepers and the
forcible conscription of child soldiers.

In northern and western Burma, the predominantly Christian Chin and
Kachin peoples also face systematic religious persecution.

The Muslim Rohingyas, targeted for their faith and ethnicity, are
denied citizenship, despite living in Burma for generations. Thousands
have escaped to miserable conditions in Bangladesh.

I have travelled more than 30 times to Burma and its borderlands. I
have met former child soldiers, women who have been gang-raped, and
many people who have been forced to flee from their burned villages.

Earlier this year, I met a man who had lost both his legs following an
attack on his village.

When the Burmese Army came, he fled, but after the troops had moved
on, he returned to his smoldering village to see if he could salvage
any remaining belongings. Where his house had stood, he found nothing
except ashes -- hidden in which was a landmine laid by the troops. He
stepped on the mine, and lost both legs.

He was carried for an entire day for basic medical treatment and then,
a few weeks later, he walked on crutches through the jungle for two
days to escape. He fled to a camp for internally displaced people near
the Thai border. Four months later, that camp was attacked and he had
to flee again.

An eyewitness once told me that in a prison camp in Chin State,
prisoners who tried to escape were repeatedly stabbed, forced into a
tub of salt water, and then roasted over a fire. A woman in Karen
State described to me how her husband was hung upside down from a
tree, his eyes gouged out, and then drowned.

The United Nations has documented these atrocities. For years, General
Assembly resolutions have condemned the abuses. Previous special
rapporteurs have described the violations as "the result of policy at
the highest level, entailing political and legal responsibility." A
recent General Assembly resolution urged the regime to "put an end to
violations of international human rights and humanitarian law."

The U.N. has placed Burma on a monitoring list for genocide, the
Genocide Risk Indices lists Burma as one of the two top "red alert"
countries for genocide, along with Sudan, while the Minority Rights
Group ranks Burma as one of the top five countries where ethnic
minorities are under threat. Freedom House describes Burma as "the
worst of the worst."

This year, the United States reviewed its Burma policy and adopted a
new approach of engagement while maintaining existing sanctions.

While this is the right approach in principle, and one advocated by
the democracy movement, the danger is that the message has been
misinterpreted, both by the regime and countries in the region.

Even though President Obama and senior U.S. officials have
consistently emphasized that sanctions will not be lifted until there
is substantial and irreversible progress in Burma, including the
release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and a
meaningful dialogue between the regime, the democracy movement and the
ethnic nationalities, the impression created in the region is that the
U.S. is going soft.

This is unfortunate, as it has let Burma's neighbors off the hook just
when they were showing tentative signs of toughening up their
approach. Trying to talk to the generals is right, but it needs to be
accompanied by strong and unambiguous pressure.

In short, little action has been taken by the international community.
Countries continue to sell the regime arms, impunity prevails.

The violations perpetrated by the regime amount to war crimes and
crimes against humanity. The Harvard Law School's report, "Crimes in
Burma," commissioned by five of the world's leading jurists, concludes
that there is "a prima facie case of international criminal law
violations occurring that demands U.N. Security Council action to
establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate these grave
breaches."

Last week marked the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. If that is to mean anything in Burma, the time has come
for the U.N. to impose a universal arms embargo on the regime, to
invoke the much-flaunted "Responsibility to Protect" mechanism, and to
investigate the regime's crimes. The time to end the system of
impunity in Burma is long overdue.

Benedict Rogers is East Asia Team Leader with the human rights
organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and author of several
books on Burma, including "Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma's Tyrant."
******************************************************************
Christian News Wire - Gospel for Asia Missionaries Working with Famine
Victims in Myanmar
Contact: Taun Cortado, Gospel for Asia, 972-300-3379

CARROLLTON, Texas, Dec. 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- A natural
phenomenon is causing a plague of rats in Myanmar, leading to
starvation in the country's poverty-stricken Chin state and hampering
the recovery from Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy Delta area.

The heart-wrenching crisis is rooted in what the Asian people called
the mautam. Mau is the Burmese word for bamboo, and tam means famine.
About every 50 years a certain species of bamboo plants produces a
bloom that, when eaten by the rats, increases their fertility and
causes an explosion in the rat population. The latest mautam began in
2006.

The rats strip the bamboo plants of their fruit and seeds and plow
their way through other crops as well, devouring grain, corn and rice.
They even dig up and eat the seeds farmers planted in the ground.

"Can you imagine having to forage for leaves and bark for your
family's next meal?" asked Gospel for Asia President K.P. Yohannan.
"For the people of Myanmar, this is not just a nightmare or a scene
from a post-apocalyptic movie; it is their real life!"

The plague of rats has ravaged Myanmar's already impoverished Chin
state for two years now, wiping out 75 percent of its crops, according
to some estimates. Families are being forced to scavenge for food as
their rice harvest and other staples are being devoured by rats.

"I have never seen such a huge number of rats," a Burmese farmer told
Asia Times Online. "I had thought we could easily drive out the rats
and protect our crops. But just before the rice was ready to be
harvested, the rats came and ate all the rice in the fields in just
one night. We lost all our rice."

According to a report published by the Chin Human Rights Organization,
54 people have reportedly died from health problems related to the
food crisis.

Gospel for Asia missionary Zaw Dara works in Chin, Myanmar and said a
village where he serves is a sad example of the effects of the mautam.
The 50 families in this village are facing severe famine and a host of
related illnesses since the ravenous rats tore through their crops,
their stored grain, seeds and even the bamboo furniture in their
meager homes.

Dara is reaching out to offer comfort, a listening ear and words of
hope from the Scriptures to these people who are suffering so much. He
is also working with Gospel for Asia's Compassion Services ministry to
bring food and other immediate needs to the people of Chin.

Making matters worse, Myanmar's repressive military junta is denying
access to international aid organizations who may want to bring in
assistance, even in the face of such widespread suffering. But GFA--
supported national missionaries, who were already in the country
before the rat plague hit, are committed to reaching out in whatever
ways they can, offering hope and comfort to these people who are
hurting so much.

"Since our missionaries are already serving among the people, they are
aware of their every need. We are doing all we can to take care of
them," Yohannan explained.

In another part of Burma, the rat plague is wiping out much of the
progress made in the recovery from Cyclone Nargis. The devastating
storm hit the Irrawaddy Delta area of Myanmar May 3, 2008. The storm
killed an estimated 140,000 people and left hundreds of thousands
homeless. Farmland, animals, fishing boats and businesses were also
destroyed by the storm, crippling commerce in the country, which
relies on agriculture and rice exports for much of its national
income.

When the mautam hit the Irrawaddy area, another problem became clear--
the cyclone had destroyed many of the rat's natural enemies. The rats
were reproducing at a much faster rate than the cats, dogs and snakes
according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Efforts. This is making the current mautam last longer
than those of past centuries, with more devastating results.

Farmers in the Irrawaddy Delta area have been ordered by the
government to kill 15 rats a day and then turn their tails in as proof
of their efforts. The UN reports that despite these extermination
efforts, the rat population in the area is easily three to four times
its normal level.

Gospel for Asia missionaries worked tirelessly in the aftermath of
Cyclone Nargis and they will continue serving the people of Myanmar
through this time of famine.

"No matter what the situation, our Compassion Services Teams are
committed to continue serving the people of Myanmar by meeting their
physical needs and sharing the love of Christ with them," Yohannan
said. "And as they have humbly requested, we should continue to uphold
these precious people in prayer."

Gospel for Asia is an evangelical mission organization based in
Carrollton involved in sharing the love of Jesus across South Asia.
******************************************************************
EarthTimes - Nobel laureate economist advises Myanmar junta on
agriculture
Posted : Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:39:57 GMT

Yangon - Nobel laureate and former chief economist at the World Bank
Joseph Stiglitz has warned Myanmar's junta that economics and politics
cannot be separated if the country wishes boost agricultural yields
again, United Nations sources said Wednesday. Stiglitz on Tuesday
attended a seminar in Naypyitaw, the military's new capital, to
discuss ways to boost Myanmar's agricultural sector "to help it
reclaim its status as the rice bowl of Asia," the UN information
service said in a statement.

Myanmar, also called Burma, was Asia's leading exporter of rice before
1962, when a coup installed military rule under strongman General Ne
Win and launched the once affluent South-East Asian nation along its
disastrous "Burmese Way to Socialism."

Thailand quickly claimed Myanmar's spot as the world's top rice
exporter, a rank it has kept over the past four decades.

In his presentation Stiglitz urged the government promote access to
agricultural financing, take measures to boost access to seeds and
fertilizers, dramatically boost spending on health and education, and
create well-paid jobs in construction of rural infrastructure in order
to stimulate development and raise incomes and spending.

"Economics and politics cannot be separated," Stiglitz said.

"For Myanmar to take a role on the world stage and to achieve true
stability and security there must be widespread participation and
inclusive processes. This is the only way forward for Myanmar," he
added, according to a UN press release.

Stiglitz was in Myanmar at the invitation of UN Economic and Social
Commission for the Asia Pacific (ESCAP) Executive Secretary Noeleen
Heyzer.

Myanmar is ranked by the UN as a least developed developing nation.

The country has been the target of economic sanctions by Western
democracies since a brutal army crackdown on anti-military
demonstrations in 1988 that left an estimated 3,000 people dead.

Sanctions are likely to remain in place until the regime frees
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and
some 2,100 other political prisoners and introduces genuine democratic
reforms.

Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. As chief economist
of the World Bank from 1997 to 2000, heplayed a key role in the
publication Rethinking the Asian Miracle, which examined the reasons
behind the dramatic growth of eight Asian economies.
******************************************************************
ASEAN envoys optimistic on solution over Myanmar democracy problem
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-16 15:47:55

JAKARTA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The envoys of the Association of the
Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) said on Wednesday that they are
optimistic Myanmar could find solution to solve democracy issue.

"It's just a matter of time," the Chairman of the Eminent Persons
Group on the ASEAN Charter Tun Musa Hitam told the press after the
second ASEAN Secretariat Policy Forum at the ASEAN secretariat here.

He said that Myanmar delegations are very active in the Eminent Group
and always send participants to various occasions it holds.

"They are very constructive," he said.

The Chairperson on the High-Level Task Force on the Drafting of the
ASEAN Charter Ambassador Rosario G. Manalo, said that although the
ASEAN has a policy of not interfering domestic affairs, it does not
mean that the association does nothing.

"Our foreign ministers actively talk to Myanmar, offering steps," he
said.

Manalo added that the Myanmar issue is the top priority of Human Right
Commission's program in the association.

The Chairman of the Eminent Persons Group on the ASEAN Charter Tun
Musa Hitam said that the association would not teach the country about
democracy.

"We don't want to teach them or to provide aid and training for
democracy. We are not like that but we always talk with Myanmar to
find the solution," said Tun Musa.

According to Tun Musa, the ASEAN does not expect a rapid development
in Myanmar related to the issue.

"The progress report shows no drastic increase, but moderate one.
However, it is still a progress," he said.

The ASEAN on Wednesday commemorated the first anniversary of ASEAN
Charter by hosting the second ASEAN Secretariat Policy Forum titled
"The ASEAN Charter: One Year On".
******************************************************************
UN News Centre - UN development partnership seeks to boost
agricultural sector in Myanmar

15 December 2009 - United Nations development officials held talks
with Government ministers in Myanmar today aimed at boosting the
impoverished country's agricultural sector to help it reclaim its
status as the rice bowl of Asia.

"It is my hope these ideas and analysis will open a new space for
policy discussion and a further deepening of our development
partnership," UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (ESCAP) Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer said at the event
held in Myanmar's capital, Nay Pyi Taw.

This development partnership, requested by the Government, provides a
unique platform for eminent international scholars and local
researchers to exchange experiences and ideas with government agencies
and civil society, she added of this the second in a series of events
being organized by ESCAP with the country's Ministries of Agriculture
and Irrigation, and National Planning and Economic Development.

At ESCAP's invitation, Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph
Stiglitz and other eminent experts discussed various strategies for
Myanmar to reduce poverty in light of Asia's regional and sub-regional
experiences. Mr. Stiglitz noted that Myanmar was well-positioned to
learn from other countries in the region that have developed
economically on the back of gains in agriculture.

There are large opportunities for improvement and Myanmar should take
a comprehensive approach, he said, urging the Government to promote
access to appropriate agricultural financing and boost access to seeds
and fertilizers. The country should also dramatically boost spending
on health and education, and create well-paid jobs in construction of
rural infrastructure to stimulate development and raise incomes and
spending.

Mr. Stiglitz also noted that well-functioning institutions were
critical to success, stressing that revenues from oil and gas can open
up a new era, if used well. If not, then valuable opportunities will
be squandered, he warned said, adding that economics and politics
cannot be separated.

For Myanmar to take a role on the world stage and to achieve true
stability and security, there must be widespread participation and
inclusive processes, he said.

Myanmar's Agriculture and Irrigation Minister U Htay Oo welcomed the
continued close cooperation with ESCAP in the development partnership
series. "I look forward to the joint activities to come in 2010, in
particular the regional development programme for sustainable
agriculture towards inclusive rural economy development," he said.
******************************************************************
BURMA: A Celebration of Life through the Arts under the Junta
Analysis by Marwaan Macan-Markar

CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Dec 17 (IPS) - The Burmese military spares
nothing with its iron grip on power - not even art.

So what happens when the vibrant artistic community in the country
seeks to express itself through such contemporary forms as performance
art is common. Expect a visit from the censors to check content. In
August, one show in Rangoon, the former capital, had such a visit.

The officials from the ministry of information's censorship board
frown on topics like politics and anti-junta sentiments in the
military-ruled country - and sex. The August show had little such
content. The nine artists performed hours before the show formally
opened and the censors moved on.

Such limits in the South-east Asian nation have compelled the
spreading crop of contemporary painters to look elsewhere for
inspiration and to respond to their times. Instead of anger and
political rage, canvases tend to celebrate the vibrant colour,
distinct motifs and modern interpretations of Burma.

Nay Myo Say's solo exhibition that opened early this month in the
northern Thai city offers a window into such artistic sensibilities.
The universal image of pain and suffering that the world has come to
identify with Burma - thanks to the international media and the
country's pro-democracy movement - is nowhere in sight in the 21
canvases that adorn the walls at the Suvannabhumi Art Gallery, the
only one in Thailand dedicated to Burmese art.

The 42-year-old Burma-based painter has returned to the female form, a
favourite of his, for this third solo exhibition at the Chiang Mai
gallery that runs from Dec. 4 to 25. His oils explore women from the
past. Their faces convey serenity and grace.

The larger canvases are a modern-day meditation of aristocratic ladies
from "ancient days." Their gentle black brushstrokes and fluid
outlines highlight details against a splash of bright yellows and
orange.

On the smaller canvases, the former medical doctor's depiction of
virgins is distinct by the gold combs on their head and hairstyles
shaped like a bird's tail behind the ears.

The canvases resonate with Nay Myo Say's interpretation of his
country's rich Buddhist traditions. The first painting in this series,
'Women of the Ancient Day', has such a detail in gold that adorns the
top of the canvas. They hark to the Burmese practice of pasting gold
leaf paper on the Buddha statues in the country's main temples.

Elsewhere, horizontal slabs of gold etched with ancient Buddhist
religious text in deep red contrast against the images of his female
subjects. This style of highlighting certain corners of his canvas,
which Nay Myo Say has done before, conveys, at times, a secular touch.
A painting of a woman blending into deep blue and green tropical
floral motifs with gold patches of colour seeping through reflects
that touch.

Nay Myo Say's choice of non-political themes is in itself a reflection
of a little-explored side of Burma.

Since the mid-1990s, which marked his arrival as an artist, the trends
and stark contradictions that have unfolded in Burma were
characterised, on one hand, by political themes dominating the arts
and mass media, focusing on a junta spreading its stranglehold on
power, crushing the fledgling pro- democracy movement led by Aung San
Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate who has spent over 14 of the last 20
years in detention.

On the other side is the country's image of "opening up" the economy -
albeit still a myth to many - in the 1990s after decades of
isolationism and stringent socialist policies since the military
grabbed power in a 1962 coup.

It is this apparent change of scene after the drab decades of Burmese
socialism that Nay Myo Say, one of the highly acclaimed artists of the
country's "third wave" of painters, has rooted himself in.

The artist and his contemporaries belong to a movement that is
described "not as angry rebellion; it is a celebration of
opportunity," writes Andrew Ranard, who has lived in Burma, in his
book 'Burmese Painting'. "(Their art is) full of joyful, colourful
outbursts."

Such celebration of Burmese themes was conveyed a year ago during Nay
Myo Say's second solo exhibition at the Suvannabhumi gallery. Then he
chose to interpret a form of traditional Burmese theatre called
'Anyein' (translated as 'tenderness' in Burmese). That exhibition
displayed male and female dancers painted in black lines, reminiscent
of the expressionists, set against mural backdrops.

"There is no clue or message in my paintings," Nay Myo Say said at the
time to 'The Irrawaddy', a current affairs magazine published by
Burmese journalists living in this northern Thai city. "I want to
convey serenity and peace, something of the feeling I experience when
I enter the old temples and pagodas in Pagan," a major historical site
in Burma, otherwise known as Myanmar.

It is a sentiment - serenity and peace - that has been marked in his
other paintings, ranging from his landscapes to watercolours, still a
popular medium of art in the country.

"This is a side of Burma artists inside the country want to show the
world, now that they have more opportunity to exhibit in foreign
countries," says Burmese gallery owner Mar Mar. "We have at least
seven exhibitions a year."

Little wonder why one Burmese art critic has remarked that the modern
paintings of Burma's third generation of artists like Nay Myo Say
ensures the country's greater presence in the international art world
- amid censorship and the junta's diktats.
******************************************************************
ITLOS: PROCEEDINGS INSTITUTED IN THE DISPUTE CONCERNING THE MARITIME
BOUNDARY BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND MYANMAR IN THE BAY OF BENGAL
2009-12-16 | INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE LAW OF THE SEA
Press Release

On 14 December 2009, proceedings were instituted before the
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the dispute relating
to the delimitation of the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal
between the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Union of Myanmar.

It may be recalled that the dispute between the two countries had
initially been submitted to an arbitral tribunal to be constituted
under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea ("the Convention"), through a notification dated 8 October
2009, made by the People's Republic of Bangladesh to the Union of
Myanmar.

In a letter dated 13 December 2009 addressed to the President of the
Tribunal, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of
Bangladesh referred to the declaration issued by the Union of Myanmar
on 4 November 2009 by which the Union of Myanmar "accepts the
jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for
the settlement of dispute between the Union of Myanmar and the
People's Republic of Bangladesh relating to the delimitation of
maritime boundary between the two countries in the Bay of Bengal" and
transmitted to the Tribunal a declaration by Bangladesh dated 12
December 2009 by which Bangladesh "accepts the jurisdiction of the
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for the settlement of
the dispute between the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Union
of Myanmar relating to the delimitation of their maritime boundary in
the Bay of Bengal".

Based on these declarations, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Bangladesh, in her letter dated 13 December 2009, stated that "[g]iven
Bangladesh's and Myanmar's mutual consent to the jurisdiction of
ITLOS, and in accordance with the provisions of UNCLOS Article 287
(4), Bangladesh considers that your distinguished Tribunal is now the
only forum for the resolution of the parties' dispute". In her letter,
the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh further stated that
"Bangladesh respectfully invites ITLOS to exercise jurisdiction over
the maritime boundary dispute between Bangladesh and Myanmar, which is
the subject of Bangladesh's 08 October 2009 statement of claim".

In light of the agreement of the parties, as expressed through their
respective declarations, to submit to the International Tribunal for
the Law of the Sea their dispute relating to the delimitation of their
maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal, and taking into account the
invitation addressed to the Tribunal by Bangladesh "to exercise
jurisdiction" over said dispute, the case has been entered in the List
of cases of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea as Case
No.16.
******************************************************************
Letters to Editor
The Nation - Burma: a man-made disaster zone
Published on December 16, 2009
Re: "Eastern Burma: the Darfur of SE Asia", Opinion, December 8.

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, headed by Jack Dunford,
continues to do a great job for refugees from Burma. It is not too
much to term this organisation an oasis or sanctuary for all people
fleeing the Burmese army's oppression and notorious "Four Cuts" policy
to stifle food supply, funds, information, and what it considers to be
support for the ethnic resistance armies. In reality, the thousands of
refugees stranded in Thailand and other neighbouring countries, and
the many more thousands of internally displaced persons (IDP),
especially in the eastern part of Burma, is a man-made disaster. To be
exact, all this has happened because of the Burmese junta's violence.
The junta's goal has been first and foremost to continue military
rule, in effect since the 1962 coup. The non-Burman resistance has
come into being due to unfulfilled rights of self-determination,
equality and democracy. The junta's institutionalised cultural
assimilation scheme, coupled with the occupation of the ethnic areas,
has worsened the situation and led to the Darfur-like condition.

This man-made disaster could be easily reversed if the junta showed
the will and altruism to lift the country out of its misery. The junta
must to release all political prisoners, call for a nationwide
ceasefire, amend its 2008 constitution (which guarantees future
military supremacy), and conduct a free, fair and transparent
election.

If such reconciliation and democratisation is implemented, the junta's
man-made disaster will be rolled back swiftly with a speed one could
only imagine.

SAI WANSAI
BANGKOK
******************************************************************
December 17, 2009 21:00 PM
New Mother Among Four Charged With Drug Trafficking

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 (Bernama) -- With her newborn baby snuggled in
her cuffed hands, a Myanmar woman cut a forlorn figure at the High
Court here on Thursday.

Ambiga Mohamad was waiting for the court proceedings to begin when the
two-week-old became hungry and cried, breaking the monotony of the
court's ambience.

A policeman opened the handcuffs to enable the 37-year-old mother to
feed the baby with bottled milk.

Whether Ambiga will get to spend the rest of her life with the child,
will depend on the long arm of the law.

She faces the mandatory death penalty under Section 39B of the
Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, if convicted of trafficking in 3.15 kg of
heroin.

Ambiga was said to have committed the offence at a car park in Jalan
Manis 6, opposite the Maybank branch in Taman Segar, Cheras about 5pm
on April 3.

Jointly charged with the Myanmar woman were her Malaysian husband Lim
Siau Seng, 29, K. Vigneswaran, 23 and another Myanmar woman, Arafah
Abu, 30.

All claimed trial to the charge.

Ambiga was pregnant with the baby when she was arrested in April, this
year.

The baby was born at the Kajang Prison in Selangor.

Judicial Commissioner Zainal Azman Abdul Aziz fixed Jan 15 for re-
mention of the case, pending the chemistry report on the drug.

Deputy public prosecutor Mazelan Jamaludin appeared for the
prosecution while the accused were represented by Nagarajan Peri.
******************************************************************
Dec 16, 2009
The Straits Times - Woman hit maid
By Khushwant Singh

ANGRY at her maid for cutting broccoli wrongly, a housewife slammed a
kettle against the Myanmar woman's arm, splashing warm water on her
face. The maid told her agent, who reported it to the police the next
day.

Investigations then revealed 14 other occasions when Peck Choon Khim,
41, ill-treated Ms Moe Thandar Lin. Peck pleaded guilty on Wednesday
and will be sentenced on Jan 14.

A district court heard that Peck had been abusing Ms Lin, 24, since
Nov 15 last year. On that evening, she hit the maid's palm with a
spatula for taking too long to find it.
The abuse then grew worse.

On Feb 20, Peck used a cane to hit Ms Lin's ankle for not wiping
spilled water off the baby's dining table. Four days later, she
punched her arm for warming up the wrong curry for dinner.

Peck, whose children are 16 months and three years, could be jailed up
to three years and fined up to $7,500 on each of the four charges.
******************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - North Korean Weapons Mystery: Is Burma the Missing
Link?
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN - Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The North Korean arms cargo interdicted in Bangkok seems unlikely to
be bound for Burma, despite ties between Pyongyang and the Naypyidaw
military junta. Burmese junta strongman Snr-Gen Than Shwe visited Sri
Lanka in November, reciprocating a visit made by Sri Lankan President
Mahinda Rajapaksa in June this year.

The final destination of the cache remains unclear. The crew claim
that the airplane was to land in Sri Lanka to refuel, with the Ukraine
as a final destination, apparently after the cargo had been dropped
off elsewhere. Sri Lankan officials denied any knowledge that the
embargo-breaking flight was going to land in that country.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the plane was
going to "a destination in the Middle East" to unload the weapons.
Earlier this year, authorities in the United Arab Emirates seized 10
containers of North Korean arms on board a Bahamian-flagged ship. Like
the Ilyushin-76 flight cargo, the manifest was listed as "oil drilling
equipment." The consignment was supposedly destined for Iran.

Other speculation surrounds a possible African destination. Sudan is
also under a UN arms embargo, but acquires weapons from China and
Russia among others, and has become increasingly close to states such
as Iran and Burma in recent years. The latter two are thought to be
key buyers in North Korea's US $1bn per annum illicit arms bazaar,
prompting speculation that a bevy of human rights violators are
collaborating in an underground weapons trade.

Sudan's deputy foreign minister visited Burma in October 2009 to
discuss "beneficial cooperation on investment and energy sectors,"
according to The New Light of Myanmar, a junta-backed publication
based in Rangoon. Both Sudan and Burma are important sources of energy
supply to China, which has fostered these links while Western
competitors remain largely absent, due to international sanctions on
both Khartoum and Naypyidaw. Sudan, like Burma, will stage
controversial elections next year, amid speculation that oil-rich
southern Sudan will later secede, a move that Khartoum is likely to
resist with military force.

Another possible destination is Eritrea--a closed, autocratic regime
akin to Kim Jong-il's dictatorship in North Korea. Eritrea has
unresolved border problems with Ethiopia, and is also supporting some
Islamist factions in Somalia.

The US reportedly tipped off Thai authorities about the illicit cargo,
according to Thai media reports that the government and Americans have
not commented on. However it is not clear why the crew landed at
Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport. If carrying illicit weaponry from
Pyongyang, this move would appear foolhardy in extreme, given the
close military and intelligence links between Thailand and the US.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lauded the seizure,
stating that it "shows that sanctions can prevent the proliferation of
weapons and it shows that the international community when it stands
together can make a very strong statement."

Experts at Swedish-based SIPRI, an arms monitoring organization,
traced the jet to an arms trader linked to Victor Bout, who is now in
prison in Bangkok. It appears the airplane was most recently
registered under a company called Beibars, linked to Serbian arms
dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic. According to SIPRI and the UN, past
owners of the aircraft have trafficked arms to Liberia, Sierra Leone,
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Chad. It had
previously been registered with three companies identified by the US
Department of the Treasury as firms controlled by Mr Bout, labeled the
"Merchant of Death" for his role in supplying arms to an array of
terrorist groups and insurgents around the world.

The US is trying to extradite Bout, who was arrested in Thailand in
March last year, and later indicted on four terrorism charges in New
York.

Earlier in 2009, the US navy shadowed a North Korean ship suspected of
carrying arms to Burma, forcing it to turn back. North Korea is
helping the Burmese junta with conventional weaponry, and there is
some speculation that the nuclear-armed Communist regime in Pyongyang
is sharing this technology with Naypyidaw.

However, Victor Cha, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington, says that Burma is now wary of
receiving arms transfers from North Korea.

The Burmese junta is not under an international arms embargo, despite
calls for one to be applied, and therefore does not have to rely on
the underground arms trade to equip its military, which is believed to
be the largest in Southeast Asia.

Cha acknowledged that precise analysis of what and how North Korea is
selling, and to who, remains impossible. The Thai seizure is likely a
drop in the ocean of what is estimated at a $1 billion annual trade.
Cha cited a recent visit by China's Premier Wen Jiabao to North Korea,
followed by Beijing's defense minister, as fueling fears that North
Korea may on occasion be able to send arms through China, which shares
a land border with Burma. China is thought to fear instability or
economic collapse in North Korea, and Pyongyang relies on its illicit
arms trade for foreign currency.
******************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Call to Reorganize NLD Garners Support, Questions
By ARKAR MOE - Thursday, December 17, 2009

NLD leaders embrace Aung San Suu Kyi's call to reorganize Burma's most
prestigious opposition party, while raising questions about timing and
and other matters.

However, the party now faces difficult questions of how quickly and
extensively the leadership structure can be reorganized, replacing
long-serving leaders now in their 80s and 90s and how will such
changes affect its decision on whether or not to take part in the 2010
national election?

Among the issues within the NLD have been differences of views between
younger and more senior party members in terms of aggrersive promotion
of the party's interest throughout the country and its participation
in the upcoming election. In recent years, the regime closed NLD
offices throughout the country, threatening its survival as a viable
opposition group, and arrested and jailed many party members.

On Wednesday, Suu Kyi called for a reorganization of the central
executive committee (CEC) after meeting with three elderly and ailing
senior leaders.
NLD spokesman Khin Maung Swe confirmed to The Irrawaddy on Thursday
that most NLD offices outside of Rangoon are closed. "There are many
difficulties in holding a nationwide meeting," he said.

He said the central executive committe can be reorganized more
effectively.

The NLD has not held a nationwide party gathering for at least a
decade because of harassment by the authorities and other setbacks.
Although younger party members recently called for party meetings
across the country, the CEC did not authorize the move, sources said.

Political observers inside Burma have said the NLD must strengthen its
presence in the countryside to maintain its popularity and influence,
particular ahead of the 2010 general election.

Myat Hla,74, the NLD chairperson in Pegu and an elected representative
of the people's parliament, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, "I welcome
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's calls. Most NLD CEC members are not
functioning effectively now. If the NLD does not reorganize, it will
lose its leadership role."

Senior party leader Win Tin told The Irrawaddy, "I agree that the NLD
needs to reorganize, but, it won't be easy to carry out all in short
time."

Moe Zaw Oo, secretary 2 of the Foreign Affairs Department of the
National League for Democracy--Liberated Area (NLD-LA), told The
Irrawaddy on Thursday: "It's high time to reform, and I welcome Suu
Kyi's call. It's natural that there are different views between older
members and youths. But finally we must all be united in the best
interests of the NLD."

The NLD should hold a nationwide meeting, he said, but the military
government would probably not allow it.

In November 2009, NLD members from Pegu and Mandalay divisions sent a
joint letter calling for a national conference to debate the issue of
the NLD's role in next year's election.

The letter also called for the resignation of two elderly NLD
leaders.

Recently, members of the youth wing of the party voiced ideological
differences publically, saying the main objective of forming the NLD
in 1988 was to bring about democracy and positive change in the
country. They said that instead the party had drifted into a
"survival" mode.

Responding to the criticism, some members said the party reversed its
so-called "survival" policy, noting that in 2008, it rejected the
junta's call to withdraw NLD statements that criticized the
constitutional referendum.

The NLD wrote to the Election Commission on Nov. 16 saying that under
the election law it had the authority to reorganize its party.
******************************************************************
'Economics and politics inseparable', Stiglitz tells Burma
Thursday, 17 December 2009 20:28 Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Nobel Laureate Prof. Joseph Stiglitz said Burma
needs an all inclusive economic process in order to achieve stability
and security as "Economics and politics cannot be separated."

Prof. Stiglitz was speaking at a forum on "Restoring Burma as the Rice
Bowl of Asia", organised by the Burmese government and the United
Nations Economics and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(UNESCAP), on Monday.

"Economics and politics cannot be separated," said the Nobel Prize
winning economist.

"For Myanmar [Burma] to play a role on the world stage -- and to
achieve true stability and security -- there must be widespread
participation and inclusive processes. This is the only way forward
for Myanmar [Burma]," he added.

According to a UN Press release on Monday, the former World Bank Chief
said Burma has a large opportunity for development and that it should
take a comprehensive approach.

He urged the Burmese government to promote access to appropriate
agricultural financing, take measures to boost access to seeds and
fertilizers, dramatically boost spending on health and education, and
create well-paid jobs in construction of rural infrastructure in order
to stimulate development and raise incomes and spending.

Prof Stiglitz, however, said, while Burma's revenues earned from the
sales of oil and gas can help open up a new era, if they are not
wisely used, the opportunities would be wasted.

"Revenues from oil and gas can open up a new era, if used well. If
not, then valuable opportunities will be squandered," Prof. Stiglitz
said.

Prof. Stiglitz also noted that well-functioning institutions were
critical to success and that Burma could learn from the mistakes made
by other resource-rich countries.

The American economist was visiting Burma at the invitation of
UNESCAP. Prior to his visit, critics aired doubts about the Burmese
junta's desire to accept serious advice on economic reforms.

According to Prof. Sean Turnell of the Macquarie University of Sydney,
Australia, genuine economic reform will require political space and
willingness as it is impossible for the economy to be partially open
to reform.

Turnell said the failed economic situation in Burma is the result of
decades of economic mismanagement by the ruling military junta, which
has no comprehensive economic planning.

"It is my hope these ideas and analysis will open a new space for
policy discussion and a further deepening of our development
partnership," UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary
Noeleen Heyzer said at the event held in Burma's new jungle capital
city of Naypyitaw.

"These development objectives can only be achieved through the
successful engagement of local experts and people who know what is
happening on the ground. This development partnership, requested by
the Government of Myanmar [Burma], provides a unique platform for
eminent international scholars and local researchers to exchange
experiences and ideas with government agencies and civil society," Dr.
Heyzer added.

The event is the second in a series launched by Dr. Heyzer during her
visit in July and was organized by ESCAP in collaboration with Burma's
Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and Ministry of National
Planning and Economic Development.
******************************************************************
ADB will not expand TFFP in Burma
Thursday, 17 December 2009 17:42 Siddique Islam

Dhaka (Mizzima) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is not interested
in expanding its Trade Finance Facilitation Program (TFFP) in Burma
calling it a 'sensitive' country, a senior ADB official said in Dhaka
on Thursday.

"We're not interested in expanding the ongoing TFFP in Myanmar,
formerly known as Burma," Steven Beck, the head of Trade Finance
Capital Markets and Financial Sectors Division and Private Sector
Operations Department of the ADB, said.

There is lower market demand of such trade facilitation in the South
East Asian country, he added.

Mr. Steven is now in Dhaka for expansion of the TFFP in Bangladesh by
signing deals with 12 local private commercial banks.

The TFFP was set up in 2004 and was expanded to a $1 billion programme
in March this year after the ADB perceived a growing and urgent need
to address the lack of finance that was holding back trade,
particularly in developing economies.

Under the programme, the triple-A rated ADB provides loans and
guarantees through, and in conjunction with, local and international
banks to back trade transactions.

The TFFP is already active in Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Cambodia,
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

The TFFP is scheduled to expand in Philippines, Mongolia and
Uzbekistan in the first quarter of 2010. It will be followed by
Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, after which it will make its
presence felt in all other Central Asian countries over the course of
the rest of 2010, the Manila-based multilateral donor agency said.
******************************************************************
'Enthusiastic' Suu Kyi calls for party reform

Dec 17, 2009 (DVB)-The detained leader of Burma's largest political
party has called for it to be reorganised for the first time in the
party's 21-year history, following rare talks with three senior party
members.

The demand was heralded as "really necessary" by senior National
League for Democracy (NLD) member, Win Tin, who has been a lynchpin
for the pro-democracy movement in Burma since the party's formation in
September 1988.

The winds of change that Aung San Suu Kyi has ushered in came after
she earlier requested, via a letter to the ruling junta, a meeting
with party elders. She also requested a cross-party meeting and talks
with the junta's senior general, Than Shwe.

The talks were also hailed by the US, which has been urging for
dialogue between the junta and opposition parties.

"We hope this is a step towards a meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and
the entire central executive committee of the National League for
Democracy," US state department spokesperson, Ian Kelly said.

Win Tin said that it signifies both a fresh approach from the NLD, and
a sign that "if the junta agrees to her meeting with the party elders,
she may be able to meet with Than Shwe. It can result in dialogue".

The top echelons of the NLD are all in their senior years. At the
meeting on Monday, at which Suu Kyi proposed the reform, were 92-year-
old U Aung Shwe, 85-year-old U Lwin and U Lun Tin, who is 89.

"They are more than 80 years old. The NLD already has the idea of
expanding and reforming by giving young people places so that future
activities could be carried out," said NLD spokesperson Khin Maung
Shwe.

U Win Tin continued that "the junta should do the same thing to bring
innovation to Burmese politics. If the junta has the same spirit of
renovation, of course we will have new ideas and new thinking to work
for the country".

With the 2010 elections looming, and as yet little indication of the
future of Burmese politics, Win Tin said that regardless of who takes
power, "they must have some new ideas of how to tackle the problems of
Burma and problems of Burmese society".

He conceded that many will be troubled by Suu Kyi's conciliatory tone,
but the positivity displayed by the party on the eve of elections will
encourage hope both in Burma and abroad that dialogue and change are
possible.

"She is quite willing to work with the junta and some people are quite
surprised; they don't like the idea of co-operation," he said.

What has changed recently in the minds of western governments has been
the line that should be taken with the errant generals at the top of
Burma's political pile, one of engagement instead of isolation.

Athough the fresh approach from the international community, coupled
with developments within the NLD, have been met with enthusiasm, Khin
Maung Shwe said however that "when welcoming this, we have to do it
with great caution."

Whilst many of the senior NLD members will move aside to allow fresh
blood into the party leadership, Win Tin was in no doubt about the
ultimate leader of the party.

"She is a wonderful girl, really. She is always very enthusiastic; she
is working all the time, even alone in her house she is working very
hard, more than 10 to 15 hours a day. That letter is proof," he said.

"She is retiring the older generation, she is not just paying
respects," he said, adding that "she has got the ideas and she is well
enough in health".

Reporting by Joseph Allchin
******************************************************************