Burma Related News - Aug 30, 2005.

**********************************************************
BURMA RELATED NEWS - AUGUST 30, 2005.
**********************************************************
HEADLINES
**********************************************************
Reuters - ASEAN leadership uncertain after Myanmar skips turn
Reuters - Bangladesh troops find ammunition dump near Myanmar
Reuters - Alienation breeds insurgency in India's Manipur
AFP - Myanmar group denies junta's claims of hand in bombings
The Pioneer - PM says 'get Myanmar pipeline right away'
IPS - Junta Stymies Millennium Development Goals
IHT - Letter from Asia: Myanmar's withdrawal: What the junta wanted?
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Couple feel call to help Burmese
UNPO - UN Prepares To "Resettle" Burma's Refugees
DVB News - British ambassador meets NLD regarding Wilton Park conference
DVB News - Burma junta gives numbers for queries but refuses to answer
questions
DVB News - Not many people believe Burma junta chairman is well
**********************************************************
Monday August 29, 8:33 PM
ASEAN leadership uncertain after Myanmar skips turn

SINGAPORE, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Myanmar's decision to forego its turn to
head the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2006 has
made the rotation of leadership within the group unpredictable, a top
ASEAN official said on Monday.

Military-ruled Myanmar, a pariah in the West, announced in July that it
would skip its turn to assume the ASEAN chair next year amid intense
pressure on the 10-member grouping from the European Union and the
United States.

"It was decided that Myanmar could come back anytime they like to resume
the chair but that has created for us, as the secretariat, an
uncertainty," said Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of regional group.

"We don't know if by 2006, the Myanmar government will come back to us
and say that they are ready to take the chair in 2007. There is no
indication of that," said Ong, who was speaking at a seminar.

The group's chairmanship is rotated in alphabetical order. Laos
currently chairs the group and the position will be passed on to the
Philippines after Malaysia finishes its stint in mid-2006.

Myanmar's decision to skip the chair next year put an end to a simmering
row between ASEAN and the West over the junta's lack of democratic
reform.

Myanmar said that it was skipping its turn to chair ASEAN next year on
the grounds that it wanted to focus on efforts at national
reconciliation and restoring democracy after more than four decades of
military rule.

But few Western governments have bought Yangon's democracy rhetoric,
especially as Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi -- whose National League
for

Democracy won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied
power by the army -- remains under house arrest after 15 years.

ASEAN is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia,
Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
**********************************************************
Bangladesh troops find ammunition dump near Myanmar
29 Aug 2005 13:58:09 GMT

DHAKA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Bangladesh troops seized thousands of rounds
of ammunition on Monday in a forest near the country's border with
Myanmar in the latest of a series of weapons and ammunition hauls,
security officials said.

"Some 15,000 ammunition rounds of AK-47 rifles were busted during an
ongoing raid to flush out clandestine militants," a security official
said.

The troops also recovered 32 German-made pistols on Saturday. A
fortnight ago soldiers seized a U.S.-made M-16 rifle, a British light
machinegun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition following a gunbattle
with militants in the same forest, 450 km (281 miles) southeast of the
capital Dhaka.

Security officials say the militants are rebels from Myanmar hiding
along the border.

Bangladesh and Myanmar share a 320-km (200-mile) border.
**********************************************************
Tuesday August 30, 10:26 AM
Alienation breeds insurgency in India's Manipur
By Simon Denyer

IMPHAL (Reuters) - Nearly five years ago, human rights activist Irom
Sharmila went on a hunger strike in the remote Indian state of Manipur.

Appalled by the shooting of 10 people by the army at a rural bus stop in
November, 2000, she said she would fast until the government repealed a
law that gives soldiers sweeping powers to kill suspects, with virtual
immunity from prosecution.

Ironically, in the country where Mahatma Gandhi made fasting such a
potent political weapon against British colonial rule, the Indian
government's reaction has been to lock Sharmila away in a prison
hospital. She lies there still, on a nasal drip.

"We have not been allowed to see her since 2003," said her brother,
Singhjit. "We are not even allowed to send books. We are just waiting
for death to take place finally."

Human rights groups say the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,
introduced only in northeast India in 1958, has given the army licence
to kill, torture and rape.

Sharmila's protest has been a peaceful one. Some people in Manipur have
reacted more violently. Instead of controlling separatist insurgents in
northeast India, the law -- and the abuses committed under it -- may
have swelled rebel ranks.

"When you touch an innocent person, their first reaction is to defy
authority, to retaliate," said lawyer and activist R.K. Anand. "This is
why a lot of people have joined the underground."

But abuses are just one reason why thousands of Manipuris have joined an
insurgency demanding independence for this ancient Hindu kingdom on the
border with Myanmar.

PROUD HISTORY

The Meitei people of Manipur are thought to be of Tibeto-Burman origin,
tracing their kingdom back through 74 kings to 33 A.D. Around Imphal,
the bright green paddy fields and lush hills are more reminiscent of
Indonesia than India.

But Meiteis do share the Hindu religion with hundreds of millions of
Indians, and many Manipuris were happy to be associated with the newly
independent nation of India in 1947.

The first stirrings of discontent came in 1949, when the Maharaja of
Manipur was pressured into signing its full accession to India. But
armed insurgency did not take off until the 1960s.

By then, Manipuris say, India had shown it did not care about this
remote land 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from Delhi and far from the national
consciousness.

India's economic development since independence has largely passed
Manipur by. There are no industries to speak of here, and few jobs
outside government service to employ school leavers and graduates. To
get those jobs, you have to bribe, locals say.

New Delhi does send money -- 90 percent of the state government's budget
is funded by the central government -- but does not seem to care if it
is spent or stolen, critics say.

Corruption is rampant.

"We have developed a culture of dependency which has been manufactured
by the government of India," said Manipur University professor Nubakumar
Singh. "It is the life of a beggar."

Economics professor Bijoykumar Singh says 2,000 students graduate in
Manipur every year. Expectations, fuelled by television and travel, have
risen faster than opportunities.

"Because of the gap between what they want and what the economy can
offer, dissatisfaction has been growing for some time," he said. "This
has been feeding the insurgency."

LOOKED DOWN UPON

Many Manipuris also feel looked down upon by their fellow Indians. Human
rights activist Babloo Loitongbam was brought up as an Indian, and says
his father wept when the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal
Nehru, died. But he describes his first stay in Delhi, at university
there, as a traumatic one.

"Nobody recognises you as an Indian, people say 'you Chinky' because we
look Chinese," he said. "They treat you as a secessionist, and as
morally lax."

But whatever grievances Manipuris have against New Delhi, many still see
their future within India. The army may be widely hated, but the rebels
are not entirely popular either.

At Manipur's university, some students indignantly insisted the rebels
were "freedom fighters" rather than terrorists. Others were not so sure.
"They are in insurgent groups because they are lazy, they want easy
money," said one female student.

Pradip Phanjoubam, editor of the English-language Imphal Free Press,
says there is some sympathy for the rebels' demand for independence,
some sympathy for their anger at Delhi, "but plenty of distaste for
their methods".

"Part of me is there (with the rebels). In their anger is a bit of
society's anger, and that is why they survive. But I don't like them at
all. They extort money, they kill people."

Phanjoubam says Delhi needs to change its approach to Manipur, from
suspicion to trust, from the stick to the carrot, offering development
instead of repression.

"You have to be seriously interested at making this place
self-sustaining, and not fear it is going to ask for secession," he
said. "Look seriously at development here and a lot of issues will be
solved."

In theory, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government is moving in just
this direction, promising a plan by the middle of next year to develop
the entire northeast and its seven states.

Singh has also promised to make sure there are no more human rights
violations under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. But those
promises may not be enough for 33-year-old Sharmila.

"Making it more humane means continuing with the Act," said Singhjit.
"What Sharmila wants, and what all the people of Manipur want, is
complete repeal of the Act."
**********************************************************
Inter Press Service
BURMA: Junta Stymies Millennium Development Goals
Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Aug 28 (IPS) - Who says the Millennium Development Goals or
MDGs can be boring? Not if a military regime comes in the way of one of
the global targets prescribed by the United Nations--halting the spread
of AIDS by 2015.

And more so if that regime happens to be the dictatorship that has for
over 40 years dominated life in Burma, a once prosperous South-east
Asian country, now reduced to poverty.

Rangoon?s junta appears to have preferred retaining the iron grip with
which it represses its people over plans by a leading international
funding agency to help Burma combat the threat of a worsening spread of
HIV.

The outcome was an unprecedented decision by the Global Fund to fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It cancelled all its grants to Burma and
quit in August. ''This is the first time that the Global Fund has
cancelled grants,'' Jon Liden, spokesman for the Geneva-based body, told
IPS.

It is a move that places the Burmese regime as one of the world?s worst
dictatorships since the Global Fund finances programmes on AIDS, TB and
malaria in other countries ruled by dictators.

Even Burma's regional neighbours that have communist regimes, Vietnam
and Laos, are still part of this recently-created initiative to pour in
new money to help developing countries stop millions of people dying due
to AIDS, TB and malaria.

The three-year-old fund has approved grants to 127 countries to scale-up
the drive against the three pandemics worldwide. Close to 3.1 billion US
dollars were distributed for the Global Fund-approved programmes during
the first two years, states a background note.

''Of the 3.1 billion committed over the first two years, 56 percent goes
to fight HIV/AIDS, while 13 percent goes to fight TB and 31 percent to
malaria,'' adds the note. ''Of the HIV/AIDS grants, one half of the
money is dedicated towards treatment and care, while the other half is
for financing prevention activities and HIV testing''.

These funds to combat the three pandemics are deemed pivotal for
countries to achieve the MDG target of halting the spread of the three
killer diseases by 2015.

The other seven time-bound targets governments pledged, as part of the
MDGs, included halving the number of people living in extreme poverty,
achieving gender equality in schools and reducing child mortality.

''The Global Fund-financed programmes can function in any country as
long as the government doesn't actively try to obstruct them,'' says
Liden.

Burma's junta, however, proved the exception even after this fund had
approved grants totalling 98.4 million dollars for a five-year period.
Over half that amount, some 54.3 million dollars, was earmarked for
combating AIDS.

Among the programmes the Global Fund was to support in Myanmar, as the
junta has renamed Burma, were those designed to reduce the spread of HIV
through education, care and support services. Groups identified drug
users, sex workers, people with HIV, youth between 15-24 years in towns,
and sections of the general population.

But little of that could get underway due to travel restrictions that
Rangoon has imposed on all U.N. agencies and international humanitarian
groups. Nearly every aspect of the treatment scale-up in Myanmar
required travel and the restrictions imposed resulted in ''weeks of
delay'' to get permits, says Liden.

The fund's decision to terminate its relationship with Rangoon has
raised questions about the space available for humanitarian work in a
climate of oppression. ''Because of the complications of complexity in
Myanmar, a sufficient amount of flexibility is needed to deal with
problems as they come up,'' says Charles Petrie, United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative in Burma.

''The Global Fund was very strict because of the time-bound nature of
the grants, and so I understand the decision they made,'' he explained
during an interview by phone from Rangoon. '' But humanitarian action is
possible in Myanmar,'' he added.

The void left by the fund comes at a time when Burma has emerged as a
country on the verge of exploding with HIV rates that could undermine
its already weak efforts to contain the pandemic in the region.

Currently, there are an estimated 170,000 to 620,000 people living with
HIV in Burma, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). And the infection rate among its 50 million people is
1.3 percent, second in South-east Asia only to Cambodia, which has
infection rates of over two percent.

In July, a report by the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based
think tank, painted a bleaker picture -- that Burma is the main source
of all strains of HIV that have spread across Asia, from Kazakhstan on
one end to southern Vietnam, on the other.

In some northern parts of the country, HIV infection rates were ''as
high as 77 percent,'' the report revealed, and added further that heroin
routes originating from Burma and crossing the region have been the
''greatest contributor of new types of HIV in the world''.

Yet Rangoon?s junta chose to keep the country's AIDS crisis under wraps
till late 2003, when Khin Nyunt, a high ranking general who was
appointed prime minister, broke the silence on the subject, consequently
enabling humanitarian agencies to pursue anti-AIDS programmes openly.

The substantial amount pledged by the Global Fund was seen as welcome
relief for voluntary agencies such as World Vision. ''The Fund provided
a great deal of hope for the people who were going to benefit, including
those with HIV,'' Roger Walker, head of World Vision's office in Burma,
told IPS.

''If we cannot find replacement funds, the hopes of these people will be
dashed,'' he added.

Rangoon has displayed concern at the Global Fund quitting Burma, but
there is hardly a hint of its own role for circumstance leading to that
decision. The junta?s HIV/AIDS Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM)
issued a statement describing the cancellation of funds as ''unjust''.

''The CCM concludes that this termination is against the values and
principles embodied in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, to
which the Global Fund also owes its existence,'' said the statement.
**********************************************************
Myanmar group denies junta's claims of hand in bombings
Agence France-Presse
Bangkok, August 29, 2005|20:17 IST

A Myanmar dissident group accused by the ruling military junta of
involvement in deadly May bombings in the capital Yangon denied the
charges on Monday.

The junta said Sunday that the All Burma Students' Democratic Front
(ABSDF) was one of three political groups that would be outlawed because
they intended to disrupt the country's stability. An ethnic rebel army
would also be banned.

The junta also accused the ABSDF of involvement in the May 7 bomb
attacks that killed 23 people and injured 162 at two shopping malls and
a convention hall in Yangon.

"All of the accusations are nonsense, groundless and meaningless," ABSDF
chairman Than Khe told AFP by telephone from the Myanmar-Thailand
border.

Than Khe also denied the junta's claim that his group worked with Maung
Maung, alias Pyithit Nyunt Wai. Yangon said Maung Maung had masterminded
the bombings with the help of a large foreign government.

Previous reports incorrectly said that the junta blamed two men for the
attacks, not one man using an alias.

"We the opposition groups are never involved in terrorist action against
the people," Than Khe said. "Even though we have taken up arms, we never
attack people."

Than Khe said the ban would have no effect on the group or its struggle
to bring democracy to the former Burma.

Only dialogue coupled with the release of pro-democracy icon Aung San
Suu Kyi and other opposition figures would bring stability to Myanmar,
he added.

The junta also outlawed the US-based National Coalition Government of
the Union of Burma, which comprises parliamentarians elected in a 1990
ballot that was won by the National League for Democracy but never
recognised by the junta.

The US-based Federation of the Trade Union of Burma and the northeastern
Shan State Army, which in May merged with the Shan State National Army
to fight the military government, were also outlawed.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.
**********************************************************
The Pioneer - Tuesday, August 30, 2005
PM says 'get Myanmar pipeline right away'
Bhagyashree Pande / New Delhi

Pipeline talks between India- Bangladesh-Myanmar has taken a different
dimension with the Indian Prime Minister stating his concerns over the
delay in laying the pipeline from the eastern region.

The Prime Minister has expressed his displeasure over the delay in
getting the pipeline from Myanmar through Bangladesh clearly indicating
that energy security is way above petty regional politics. In a recent
meeting held between the Prime Minister along with the Petroleum
Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and Minister of External Affairs Natwar
Singh the PM stated that he wants the Myanmar- Bangladesh-India pipeline
right away.

The intervention of the Prime Minister was sought because there was a
virtual deadlock on part of the Indian establishment in sorting issues
of bilateral concerns raised by Bangladesh while signing the MOU in
January. Not only were the issues raised by Bangladesh the reason for
delay but it was also the reluctance on the part of the Indian
establishment which made no effort to solve the problem.

In the meeting held last week the Prime Minister said that there is
hardly any cause of concern on part of India as regards the
conditionalties mentioned by Bangladesh and that work should start right
away on building the pipeline from Mynamar via Bangladesh. The PM also
said that the issues raised by the Bangladeshi governmnet will be
addressed bilaterally in the continuation of the SAARC spirit.

The delay in getting the pipeline was due to the differences between the
External Affairs Ministry and the Petroleum Ministry over how the issues
raised by Bangladesh would be solved. The External Affairs Ministry on
its part does not want to solve the deadlock by solving the issues with
Bangladesh due to its reluctance to solve bilateral issues in a
trilateral agreement , while the Petroleum Ministry wants the pipeline
through Bangladesh because it wants to tap the gas available in the
Tripura region. The MEA has suggested that India should get the pipeline
around Bangladesh instead of bringing through it , a suggestion that
would cost around $ 5bn to build the pipeline as against the $ 2.5 bn
that it would cost getting through it.

The MEA has also suggested to the Petroleum Ministry that it should get
gas in the form of LNG from Myanmar instead of getting it through the
piped route. This is also an expensive option and will raise the cost of
gas and will also involve setting up a LNG terminal in the East which is
still a far cry.

While the External Affairs Ministry has been idling time over the issue
the Myanmar government has threathened to sell the gas to other buyers
like Thailand and Korea .The Myanmar government is quite upset with
Indian government due to lack of progress on its part on acting upon the
pipeline with urgency.

The Petroleum Ministry on its part had given alternative formula to the
MEA to sort the issues that were raised by Bangladesh like extending the
hours of transit route , and a dialogue between the two countries
involving the repective Chambers of Commerce to sort the power and
commercial issues the External Affairs Ministry has failed to act upon
the same.
**********************************************************
The International Herald Tribune
Letter from Asia: Myanmar's withdrawal: What the junta wanted?
By Seth Mydans International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005

BANGKOK Were the generals really pushed, or did they jump?

Myanmar appeared to be in agony a month ago as it gave in to pressure
from countries it thought were its friends and renounced its turn next
year in the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations.

It was an obvious humiliation for this pariah nation that had gained a
shot at respectability eight years ago when it was allowed to join the
10-member regional club, known as Asean.

Now came the crowning honor when Myanmar's generals could, as it were,
squeeze into frock coats and stand tall as international statesmen.

It took months of arm-twisting by their smiling neighbors to force their
withdrawal under the threat of a boycott by the United States of any
Asean meetings chaired by Myanmar.

The announcement, at an Asean meeting in Laos, was an excruciating
exercise in face-saving. The ruling junta, it said, needed "to focus its
attention on the ongoing national reconciliation and democratization
process" and would just be too busy.

Gotcha.

The emerging analysis now is that it was all a trick. The Myanmar
generals were in fact desperate to wriggle out of a situation they
couldn't handle, the theory goes. Crying crocodile tears, they
manipulated their so-called friends into doing it for them.

And suddenly, according to this logic, they were free - free from all
that pressure to civilize themselves in time for next year's conference,
to release political prisoners, to liberate the pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

They could breathe a sigh of relief over what would have been a huge
task upgrading their airport, preparing conference centers, finding
competent translators and staff and organizing secret surveillance of
masses of interlopers.

These leaders are people who block United Nations representatives from
visiting, who hold foreign diplomats at bay, who bar most foreign
journalists - because they do not want to be looked at too closely.

They weren't ready to demonstrate to the world that they are a normal
nation, the analysis goes, because they are not a normal nation.

And so they played victim to international pressure. "Once more they
showed how clever they are," said Robert Taylor, a London-based scholar
on Myanmar, speaking recently at a conference in Singapore.

Their neighbors will have to stop criticizing them because the generals
did them a favor by stepping aside, Taylor said. And they have been
saved the headaches of invasions by hordes of diplomats and journalists.

Josef Silverstein, an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University, said he
had expected the junta to back out.

"I don't think they had any alternative," he said. "I don't think they
could have managed it. They are shorthanded and couldn't have devoted
the kind of time and personnel and money they would need."

At the Asean meeting in Laos last month, officials from Myanmar took up
the theme, whispering to journalists that the international community
"played right into our hands."

"We were let off the hook, thanks to the Americans," an unidentified
official told Agence France-Presse.

But are the generals really that clever?

These are people who so misread their countrymen that they held free and
fair parliamentary elections in 1990 fully expecting to win. When Aung
San Suu Kyi's party won more than 80 percent of the seats there was
nothing subtle about the junta's response: it annulled the result and
clung to power.

Again in 2002 they were totally unprepared for her huge popularity when
they experimented with a longer leash, freeing her from house arrest to
tour the country. Huge, rock-concert-style crowds mobbed her.

Nothing subtle about their response this time either. They turned loose
a mob on her convoy, beating to death scores of people. She narrowly
escaped serious injury and was locked back up again under house arrest.

Repression, imprisonment and invective seem to be the extent of the
junta's notions of dealing with a popular opposition.

Their international diplomacy also seems to follow a rather simple
formula: keep promising and promising; it's amazing how far empty
promises will get you.

Unless they were playing a sophisticated game of bait and switch, they
did appear ready and eager for the big time before the meeting in Laos.

They had already begun making expensive repairs and expansions to the
airport at the capital, Yangon. And official newspapers were filled with
previews of the generals' important international role and of the flood
of dollars these Asean meetings would bring in.

After Laos, the papers fell silent, offering only a whisper about the
deflation of the plans they had trumpeted.

"It's clear that Than Shwe did not come out looking very good," said
Debbie Stothard, coordinator of Altsean-Burma, a regional human rights
group, speaking of the general who leads the junta.

"This was his chance to shine as chairman of Asean," she said. "He
probably saw the chair of Asean as more of the throne than anything
else, and he missed out on that chance."

Finally, if this was a tactical retreat by the generals, it is not clear
how much they gained from it.

The official statement, in fact, did not take them off the hook. "We
agreed that once Myanmar is ready to take its turn to be the ASEAN chair
it can do so," the Asean foreign ministers said.

The possible timetable is fuzzy. Some analysts say Myanmar could get
another shot next year. Some say it could be five years, when the
current rotation of chairmanships is completed.

That still leaves open the question of what "ready" means, and of who
would be the judge. The threat of an American boycott remains.

Whatever the timing, and whatever the standard, it's clear that the
junta's good friends in Asean will still be watching.

It seems unlikely that they will offer Myanmar a second chance until the
gates to Aung San Suu Kyi's house swing open and they are permitted to
join her for tea when they travel to meet the generals. E-mail:
pagetwo@xxxxxxx
**********************************************************
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Posted on Mon, Aug. 29, 2005
Couple feel call to help Burmese
The Sowardses help sponsor and resettle refugees in Fort Wayne.
By Nicole Lee, nlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Neil Sowards doesn?t think of himself as a missionary. That?s what his
parents, Erville and Genevieve, were for more than four decades in the
country of Burma (officially called Myanmar). Erville Sowards? work with
the Burmese people kept him away from the family, and Neil felt his
absence.

?I understand it now, but I felt abused then,? said Neil Sowards. ?I
never wanted to be a missionary. Being a missionary is a very demanding
job, and it?s very hard on the children.?

Sowards, 67, now works in the same Burmese communities traversed by his
father, and loves every minute of it. Through the nonprofit group,
Friends of Burma, he started with his wife, Diana, 66, in 1985, the
couple works with social service agencies and individuals to sponsor and
resettle refugees in Fort Wayne and provide humanitarian aid in the
country. The group also works to give annually 650 scholarships in
Myanmar for young people who want to prepare for full-time Christian
service in the country.

They?ve raised money to build media centers, clinics, college
dormitories, faculty housing and classrooms there.

?I just feel called by God to help them and to be a window to the
world,? Neil Sowards said.

Although the Sowards have two children, a photo frame on their living
room wall holds more than 30 pictures of Vietnamese, Indian and Burmese
people who have lived with them. The Sowards met as students on an
archaeological dig in Israel in 1961, and married two years later. They
have the ease of a couple who have shared a lifetime of experiences
together, and their home is filled with oil paintings, dolls and other
artifacts of their work in Myanmar.

The couple worked with the president of the Myanmar Institute of
Theology to establish the four-year bachelor of arts in religious
studies program at the facility. Though the curriculum has a spiritual
connotation, what?s actually taught is business management,
small-business management and entrepreneurship. Neil Sowards is writing
a book on entrepreneurship for the program that he plans to get
translated from English to Burmese.

There are religious courses taught at the school, but Sowards said other
subjects also must be couched within a religious context to satisfy
government regulations in Myanmar. Without explanation, the military-led
government closed several universities, and many Burmese freedom
fighters have fled to refugee camps in Thailand for protection. To
escape incarceration and death, others have come to the United States.
Fort Wayne has more than 2,000 Burmese refugees, more than any other
city in the nation.

Min Vipala, a 21-year-old Burmese refugee, has lived with the couple for
about three years. He came to Fort Wayne at age 18 with a distant
cousin, homeless and with no parents to speak of, said Diana Sowards,
who dedicated herself to improving Min?s education.

Min recently graduated from South Side High School and is now a freshman
at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. ?(Min) basically
didn?t have any formal education? he never had any idea he would go to
college,? she said proudly.

The Sowards are ?very valuable? in the Burmese community in Fort Wayne
and overseas, said the Rev. James Keller, pastor of New Life Lutheran
Church. Keller and his wife tutor Burmese high school students six
nights a week. Keller traveled with the Sowards to Burma in 2003 to work
on a project sponsored by the Myanmar Bible Society to translate the
Bible from English into Burmese.

?I can?t keep track of all the things they?ve got their fingers in,? he
said.

After spending years in church ministry, Neil Sowards said he was
?called by God? to go into business for himself in order to have the
financial resources to help others. So, he opened up the A-Z Coin Shop
in 1976 at Glenbrook Square with partner Barry Krumlauf. He has since
retired from the business, but Sowards said much of his profit from the
shop has gone to his work in Myanmar.

?Neil really opened my eyes about charitable giving,? said Diana
Sowards, formerly a psychiatric nurse at Lutheran Hospital. ?It never
crossed my mind. I have discovered the fun of giving money away.?

Visit Myanmar

The Sowardses lead an annual 14-day Christian Fellowship Tour in Myanmar
to acquaint Americans with the country. The trip costs $1,500, not
including airfare. The next trip will be Jan. 9-23. For more
information, call the Sowards at 745-3658.
**********************************************************
United Nations and Peoples Organisation
Karenni State: UN Prepares To "Resettle" Burma's Refugees
Mon Aug 29 2005

Initially about 500 Karenni refugees will be selected to be settled in
Finland and New Zealand in the coming five months by the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), followed by another 100 in
Canada, England and Australia "as second move", said the Karenni Refugee
Committee (KRC).

The developments came just days after BosNewsLife reported on the plight
of up to 60-thousand refugees at the overcrowded Mae La refugee camp
near the Burmese border, where seemingly never ending rain changed the
slippery, rocky, roads into rivers this season.

Most of them are members of the pre-dominantly Christian Karen
community, which is now fighting a fierce battle in nearby jungles of
Burma, a country the military rulers call Myanmar.

MISERY DECADES

"Tens of thousands of mainly Christian Karen and Karenni refugees have
been living in camps along the Burma/Thai border, some for more than 20
years, never able to leave the camps," said Jim Jacobson, president of
Christian Freedom International (CFI), an advocacy group supporting
persecuted believers in the region.

"CFI has been working for many years for the resettlement of stateless
Karen and Karenni refugees to the United States, Canada, and other free
nations to order to start new, free lives for themselves and their
families."

However Jacobson warned that "it doesn't appear that the United States
will participate in the resettlement." He said that "although countries
like Finland, New Zealand, England and others have initially agreed to
accept some of the refugees, they will probably not act unless the
United States is involved-as it should be."

"IMPORTANT STEP"

Yet other officials suggested it was an important step. "It came to my
surprise. This is the first time that I've ever heard allowing our
Karenni people to settle in third countries," said KRC Secretary
Alexandra Pauk Pauk.

But the KRC also noted in a statement that "most nominees are still
wondering whether they should" go as they expect an "insecure time and
[have] no experience or knowledge of settling in third countries" and
fear they "will loss all their identities culturally, socially, and even
morally."

The number of refugees increased in recent years as forces of Burma?s
ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), a group of generals
who govern the Asian nation by decree since 1988, stepped up attacks
against Christian Karen people.

BUDDHISTS ANGRY

They also managed to convince militant Karen Buddhists to establish
their own military group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), and
help them in their offensive against the mainly Christian Karen National
Liberation Army (KNLA).

Human rights activists say the Karen community, one of the largest
ethnic minorities within Burma, and its blend of Christianity are seen
as a threat to the military regime?s powerbase and ideology.

The ongoing fighting has forced 200,000 refugees, most of them Karen, to
flee to neighboring Thailand where they are scattered across several
camps. An additional 1.5 million Karen people are believed to be
displaced within Burma.

Aid workers have criticized the UN for allegedly not doing enough to
help Burmese refugees.
**********************************************************
British ambassador meets NLD regarding Wilton Park conference

Aug 29, 2005 (DVB) - The British ambassador in Rangoon, on 29 August,
met Burma?s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy
(NLD) leaders to clarify matters relating to the conference on the
future of Burma, to be held at Wilton Park in southern England.

The ambassador explained that no political matter will be discussed but
only social and economical problems will be concentrated on, and urged
the NLD to send representatives to the conference.

NLD spokesman U Lwin told DVB that the problems of Burma could not be
solved without tackling political problems first. When asked about the
US-led economic sanctions on Burma, Lwin said that Burma?s current
problems started with the mismanagement of the country?s economy by Gen
Ne Win?s government and lack of political stability, rather than
sanctions on Burma.

The conference, organised by renowned Wilton Park Academic Council will
be held from 4 to 6 September.
**********************************************************
Burma junta gives numbers for queries but refuses to answer questions

Aug 29, 2005 (DVB) - During a news conference on 28 August in Rangoon,
Burma?s military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
information minister gave journalists telephone numbers for queries on
news reports.

The minister, Brig-Gen Kyaw San told journalists to ring the office
numbers of Nyan Lin of Foreign Affairs Ministry or Police commander
Myint Thein of Interior Affairs Ministry or Soe Win of Information
Ministry, if they have queries or want to confirm news reports.

But when DVB contacted the office of Myint Thein to find out more about
the 7 May bomb blasts in Rangoon and the death of Aung Hlaing Win at an
interrogation centre in Rangoon, after several attempts, an official on
duty said that he knew nothing about the matters.

Similarly, when DVB contacted the office of Soe Win about Than Win
Hlaing who was imprisoned for writing a biography of Burma?s national
hero Gen Aung San and a private tuition teacher, Aung Pe from Rangoon
Twante, who was imprisoned for saluting and talking about Aung San, a
staff on duty repeatedly told DVB that Soe Win hadn?t returned from
meetings.
**********************************************************
Not many people believe Burma junta chairman is well

Aug 29, 2005 (DVB) - Although Burma?s military junta, State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), insisted that its chairman is well and has
been carrying out his duties at the military HQs in Rangoon full-time,
not many people believe what were said at the news conference held on 28
August in Rangoon.

Normally, when there were new diplomatic appointments, the SPDC chairman
himself used to accept and entertain them in the past. But political
circles in Rangoon insisted it was extraordinary that the vice-chairman
Gen Maung Aye accepted the new Russian military attachés last week.
Although all people accepted that the rumour of internal coup was not
true, they find it harder to accept that Than Shwe is well.

A journalist who attended the news conference told DVB that the junta
spokesmen didn?t answer questions on whether the junta is moving its
military HQs to Pyinmana in central Burma, or whether Burma is leaving
the International Labour organisation or not, very precisely.
**********************************************************


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
.

Quantcast