Burma Related News - May 19, 2007.

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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY 19, 2007.
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HEADLINES
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The Times of India - India boosts military aid to Myanmar
IHT - Supporters of Myanmar's junta harass activists praying for pro-
democracy leader's freedom
The Star Online - 'Mini immigration dept' busted
Planet Out - 25 countries block Web sites
AsiaNews - Pressure to rebuild Stilwell Road, from Assam to Yunnan
Bernama - Sarawak Takes Cue From Myanmar, India For Potential Biofuel
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The Times of India
India boosts military aid to Myanmar
20 May, 2007 l 0139 hrs ISTlRajat Pandit/TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NEW DELHI: India has further stepped up military aid to Myanmar to
counter China's strong influence in Yangon as well as to get its
military junta's continuing support in flushing out Indian insurgent
groups operating from its soil.

After selling three naval Islander aircraft to Myanmar at "friendship
prices", India transferred another one of them to Yangon during Navy
chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta's trip there last week, said officials.

In fact, plans are afoot to give Myanmar even more Islanders, bought
from UK in the late-1970s, since the Indian Navy is phasing them out
due to its Rs 726-crore acquisition of 11 new Dornier-228s for medium-
range maritime reconnaissance and patrolling.

Moreover, apart from technical support and training, the transfer of
105mm light artillery guns, T-55 tanks, naval gun-boats, mortars,
grenade-launchers, rifles and other small arms to Myanmar is already
underway.

India also plans to provide Myanmar with some armaments and electronic
equipment, including radars manufactured by Bharat Electronics Ltd,
for its warships like frigates and corvettes.

With India shrugging aside western concerns about supplying military
equipment to Myanmar due to real politik reasons, the level of
bilateral military engagement and cooperative mechanisms has also been
bolstered to a high degree.

In fact, Admiral Mehta's visit was just the latest in the series of
high-level visits to Myanmar, with external affairs minister Pranab
Mukherjee, Army chief General J J Singh and defence secretary Shekhar
Dutt, among others, travelling to the country in recent times.

This has come after several years of supporting the democratic
movement led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.
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The International Herald Tribune
Supporters of Myanmar's junta harass activists praying for pro-
democracy leader's freedom
The Associated Press
Published: May 19, 2007

BANGKOK, Thailand: About 30 activists holding a prayer vigil for the
release of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi Saturday
said they were harassed by supporters of the ruling junta and
prevented from entering a Buddhist temple.

Suu Kyi's supporters planned to hold prayer vigils every day this
month until May 27, when the detention order under which she is being
held expires. The military has given no indication that it intends to
release the Nobel peace laureate from house arrest, and the order is
likely to be renewed.

Over the past week, some 40 people attending the vigils have been
arrested and accused of using religion as a pretext to incite unrest.
Others have been harassed or threatened.

The activists found the gates of the Maha Thakyamuni temple in western
Yangon closed to them Saturday, so they prayed outside, said Kyi Kyi
Win, a youth member of Suu Kyi's party, the National League for
Democracy.

As they did so, members of the Union Solidarity and Development
Association, a government-backed group, splashed soapy water and swept
the sidewalk where they were, according to Kyi Kyi Win and other
activists who preferred to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity
of the situation.

The association was set up by the military government, and critics say
its members sometimes attack or intimidate pro-democracy activists.

Suu Kyi has been held continuously since May 30, 2003, when her
motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob during a political tour of
northern Myanmar. She has spent more than 11 of the last 17 years in
detention.

Suu Kyi's party won a general election in 1990, but the military
junta, which seized power in 1988, refused to recognize the result and
instead persecuted members of the pro-democracy movement.

In a letter Monday to Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the head of the junta, 59
former world leaders called for Suu Kyi to be released when her
current term of house arrest ends. The U.N., the European Union and
many countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,
and Japan, have also urged Myanmar to free her.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday told the U.S. Congress that
he intended to continue U.S. economic and political sanctions against
Myanmar because of concern over what was described as the deepening
deterioration of freedom in the military-ruled country.

The White House, in a statement, said Myanmar's generals have in
recent weeks increased attacks on ethnic groups, arrested students and
harassed democracy activists.
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The Star Online - Sunday May 20, 2007
'Mini immigration dept' busted

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Police have busted an illegal "mini immigration
department" which used fake rubber stamps to extend the permitted
length of stay for illegals.

The illegals are charged RM30 to RM300 depending on the duration of
extension they want to stamp on their passports.

Central Seberang Prai deputy OCPD Supt Mohan Singh said a police team
led by Insp Che Sham Rus raided a house at Taman Selamat here on
Friday night and detained four Myanmar nationals aged between 23 and
50.

He said police seized eight fake rubber stamps bearing the print of
the Sadao Immigration and Bukit Kayu Hitam checkpoints.

"The team also seized an Indonesian passport, a Malaysian passport,
four Myanmar passports, and 14 Thai passports.

"Also seized were 238 photo copies of various documents, including
embarkation cards and several bottles of cough mixtures," he told a
press conference at the district police headquarters yesterday.

The police were now investigating the extent of the operations.

In another raid on a house in Permatang Janggus, police detained a
man, aged 37, and seized 17.2gm of heroin and RM200 from him at 9pm
the same day.

Supt Mohan Singh said police also seized 1,580 ponorgraphic VCDs and
DVDs, 2,390 pirated DVDs and VCDs and 2,900 pirated CDs from a house
at Kampong Baru.
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Planet Out
Study: 25 countries block Web sites
Sat May 19, 12:21 AM ET

SUMMARY: Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the Emirates and
Yemen are strictest on LGBT sites, says OpenNet Initiative in a survey
of 40 countries.

At least 25 countries around the world block Web sites for political,
social or other reasons as governments seek to assert authority over a
network meant to be borderless, according to a study out Friday.

The actual number may be higher, but the OpenNet Initiative had the
time and capabilities to study only 40 countries and the Palestinian
territories. Even so, researchers said they found more censorship than
they had initially expected, a sign that the Internet has matured to
the point that governments are taking notice.

"This is very much the revenge of geography," said Rafal Rohozinski, a
research fellow at the University of Cambridge in England.

China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam had the most
extensive filters for political sites. Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia,
Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest
social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and gay and
lesbian sites.

In some countries, censorship was narrow. South Korea, for instance,
tends to block only information about its neighboring rival, North
Korea.

Yet researchers found no filtering at all in Russia, Israel or the
Palestinian territories despite political conflicts there.

Governments generally had no mechanism for citizens to complain about
any erroneous blocking, with Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab
Emirates being among the exceptions.

The OpenNet Initiative, a collaboration between researchers at
Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the
University of Toronto, has previously published reports detailing
censorship in specific countries. The latest study was its attempt to
compare filtering worldwide.

The study did not attempt to chronicle the effectiveness of the
efforts. Some technical approaches are better than others in blocking
sites, but all can be bypassed with enough technical know-how to use
''proxy'' techniques or special software.

The organization said the regions chosen for review should not be
considered comprehensive. It didn't include any countries in North
America or Western Europe on grounds that filtering practices there
have been better known than elsewhere. It also excluded North Korea
and Cuba for fear of risks to collaborators it would need in those
countries.

The group supplied software to volunteers in each of the countries
tested. Web sites checked include those for gambling, pornography and
human-rights abuses.

Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet governance and regulation at
Oxford, said filtering appeared to occur most widely in countries
where Internet penetration is higher, possibly explaining the lack of
any censorship efforts in Russia and Egypt. (Anick Jesdanun, AP)
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AsiaNews - 05/19/2007 13:59
CHINA - INDIA - MYANMAR
Pressure to rebuild Stilwell Road, from Assam to Yunnan
1.736 kilometres long, the road was built during Second World War by
the allies to bring supplies to China at war with Japanese invaders.
Today it would save time and money in transporting goods from North
East India to China and South East Asia. But Political problems block
the way.

New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Industrial groups from India and China
are pressing to have a 1.736 kilometre road which connects Ledo in
(North East India) to Kunming, capital of Yunnan, passing through
Myanmar. But political divisions will first have to resolved rather
than technical ones.

Goods from India's northeast headed for China or Southeast Asian
countries are currently shipped via Kolkata, the nearest port, through
the Strait of Malacca and on to China. It takes at least a couple of
weeks for goods to reach China. "If they go via the Stilwell Road our
goods would reach Yunnan in two days," said Pradyut Bordoloi, Assam's
commerce and industries minister. It would reduce transport costs by
more than 30%. The Stilwell Road will link north-eastern India not
just with Yunnan but with other parts of China and Southeast Asia as
well. Beijing has already constructed a network of roads connecting
Yunnan with other provinces.

The project could also favour the development of northeast India and
bordering states, which are immersed in poverty. Ninety-eight percent
of the northeast's borders are with other countries, and only 2% with
India. Yet this region's trade with other countries is minuscule,
limited to informal trade. Experts say that even if 10% of India's
shipment to China and Southeast Asia were to be routed through the
Stilwell Road, its impact on the northeast would be dramatic.

61km of the Stilwell Road runs through India, 1,035km through Myanmar
and 640km into China. It was a vital lifeline for the Allies during
the war, as it was through this road that supplies were sent to the
Chinese battling Japanese occupation. But within a few months of its
opening, the Japanese surrendered and the war ended. After the war,
the road fell into disuse.

Many parts of the Stilwell Road -which crosses thick jungle - no
longer exist or are dirt track.

Yet the greatest obstacles are proving to be political rather than
technical. Relations between India and China, which have been hostile
for decades, have only in recent years begun to warm slowly. India's
relations with Myanmar have also not been warm. Bureaucracies and
military issues in all three countries are standing in the way.
Beijing has in fact already transformed its stretch of the road into a
modern six-lane expressway. But officials in New Delhi say India has
"security concerns": The northeast is an insurgency-racked region and
there are "valid fears" that the road would facilitate movement of
insurgents, arms and drugs. Then there is the concern that reopening
the road would result in the Chinese swamping the northeast with cheap
goods, undermining the local economy. These concerns are roundly
rejected by north easterners as "unfounded, who point out that the
goods will trade both ways.

But experts studying the project say that Myanmar is the linchpin of
the project. This is partly because of the military junta's
traditional wariness of opening the country to outsiders and because
the area to be crossed is controlled by rebels from the Kachin ethnic
group.
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May 17, 2007 14:17 PM
Sarawak Takes Cue From Myanmar, India For Potential Biofuel

KUCHING, May 17 (Bernama) -- The Sarawak Land Development Ministry is
looking to Myanmar and India for an alternative commercial cash crop,
Jatropha, to be developed as potential biodiesel fuel, Assistant Land
Development Minister Naroden Majais said today.

He said the state government was studying the viability following a
recent request by Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to gather
as much information on any possible crop that could be an alternative
to oil palm.

"The Jatropha oil is used widely in making biodiesel fuel and is being
promoted as an easily-grown crop in hundreds of projects throughout
India and Myanmar, which have each cultivated one million acres for
commercial purpose," he said when replying to Vincent Goh (BN-Pelawan)
at the State Legislative Assembly sitting in Petra Jaya here.

Traditionally, the Jatropha plant which grows up to six metres high,
has medicinal uses, with the seeds used to treat constipation, the sap
from the stems for healing wounds, the leaves as tea against malaria,
oil from the seeds as antispetic for coughs, skin diseases and as pain
reliever from rheumatism.

"One hectare can take 1,600-2,200 Jatropha plants and produce 1,892
litres of fuel and it is a one-stage conversion to biofuel, meaning
the conversion process is much simpler and cheaper compared to
converting crude palm oil (CPO) into biodiesel," Naroden said.

He said oil palm might be stable as an edible oil, with production
confined mainly to the tropical Asian region, but the supply of CPO
could not meet the increasing demand for biofuel from China and
Europe.

As such, he said, although oil palm could be sustained in terms of
economic impact on the state and socio-economic well-being of the land
owners, workers, contractors and populace at large, such optimitism
might not be lasting due to new researches and findings as well as
global economic changes.

In the last five years, however, he said oil palm had enjoyed its
status as the "best planted crop" in the region, recording incremental
returns annually with export value from RM0.9 billion in 2002 to RM2.3
billion last year, an increase of 250 per cent.

During the same period, the revenue earned by the state through sales
tax also saw an increase of 380 per cent from RM20.5 million in 2002
to RM79.3 million last year.

Based on the annual incremental trends in the value of export
earnings, he said the projected income from the industry for Sarawak
was RM2.58 billion with sales tax of RM91.06 million for this year and
RM3.70 billion (RM138.10 million) for 2011.
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