UN Passes Strong Resolution on Burma Human Rights Abuses

The UN General Assembly in session in New York. (Photo: AFP)

Thursday, December 25, 2008
By SAW YAN NAING
Irrawady

The UN General Assembly has adopted by a vote of nearly four to one a resolution calling on Burma to free all political prisoners, including detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and criticizing the human rights record of the Burmese regime.

The resolution, which addressed the issue of human rights in Burma, was carried on Wednesday by 80 votes to 25, with 45 abstentions.

It urged the Burmese government to halt arrests of political activists and expressed concern about incidents of torture and sexual abuse and the crackdown on peaceful protesters in September 2007.

The resolution also voiced concern over the process of the junta’s so-called “seven-step roadmap” toward democracy, including the planned general election, noting the failure of the regime to include other political parties, members of Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, and representatives of ethnic political organizations.

An unnamed Burmese UN representative later rejected the resolution and accused the UN Assembly of "blatant interference" in his country’s internal political affairs. He said that although Burma would not feel bound by the resolution it would nevertheless continue to cooperate with the UN and the Secretary-General’s good offices.

The Burmese representative maintained that his country had made major political strides and was now in the process of democratization by carrying out the so-called seven-step roadmap.

Four of Burma’s Asean partners—Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand—abstained in Wednesday’s vote, while Cambodia was not present. Brunei Darussalam, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam joined China, India and Russia, together with countries ranging from Algeria to Zimbabwe, in voting against the resolution.

Burma’s top diplomat at the UN, Kyaw Tint Swe, said in a recent confidential report to his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that international pressure on Burma would increase within the UN Security Council, particularly from Western members. The envoy said Western influence within the Security Council would increase when Japan and Uganda replace Indonesia and South Africa in January.

Japan voted in favor of the resolution on Wednesday, while Uganda was not present for the vote.

In late November, Burmese junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe said in the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar that the seven-step roadmap is the only way to smooth the transition toward democratic reform in Burma.

The fifth stage of the seven-step roadmap will be the general election, scheduled for 2010.

According to human rights groups, Burma has more than 2,100 political prisoners. About 215 political activists were sentenced last month to prison terms of up to 68 years.

Asian parliamentarians urge Ban to persuade Burmese junta

Monday, 08 December 2008
By Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Over 240 parliamentarians from Asian countries on Monday renewed calls to the United Nations chief to make a fresh trip to Burma and goad the military junta to release all political prisoners including Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The 241 parliamentarians of Asian countries including those from Korea and Japan on Monday endorsed a letter by the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) which urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit Burma and press for the release of political prisoners and kick start political reforms, a call that Ban had earlier refused to make citing the junta's unwillingness to implement reforms.

Son Chhay, a legislator from Cambodia, a member state of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), told Mizzima that the UN chief should not delay in dealing with Burma's military regime but find an alternative approach to mount pressure on it.

"He [Ban Ki-moon] has a mandate of the UN to a find way out for a political process in Burma," said Son Chhay, Chairperson of Committee on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Media of the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

"He cannot be into dalliance with the regime. Otherwise, it will provide an opportunity to the junta to continue to abuse the people," he said.

The UN chief last week said he will not be making a fresh trip to Burma unless there are concrete signs of 'progress' in the military-ruled country. He felt that such a trip would yield no fruit.

Ban made the statement on Thursday, after more than 120 former presidents and prime ministers around the world sent him similar petitions urging him to visit Burma and press for the release of political prisoners including those that have been recently sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Inspite of international condemnation, Burma's military rulers in recent months have sentenced several political activists to inordinately long prison terms of up to 68 years.

Son Chhay said despite international calls "We found that there is no moving forward in the political process in Burma. On the contrary, there is a reversal."

"More and more people were arrested and sentenced to long years in prison which has only added to people's suffering," he added.

Son Chhay suggested that the UN must look out for alternative solutions to Burma's political crisis and should not allow the junta to continue to abuse and disrespect the will of the Burmese people. It must take a decision to punish the regime.

"At the same time, Ban should put pressure on Russia and China to push the regime to enter into a dialogue with opposition groups in the run up to [2010] the elections," he added.

But a Burmese observer based in Thailand said there are doubts over the UN general secretary's role in attempting to address political and human rights crisis in Burma.

"Ban Ki-moon knows that his trip to Burma won't make any difference. It will only mean disgrace for him. That's why he is refusing to go," Aung Thu Nyein, a Burmese analyst said.

Aung Thu Nyein also said only UN Security Council member countries will be able to persuade the regime to bring about change in Burma.

But the AIPMC in its letter said the UN chief needs new initiatives on Burma as calls by the United Nations Security Council, General Assembly, and Human Rights Council have all failed to yield any political break through.

U.N. must try Burmese leaders for genocide

Burma's ruling generals - including Than Shwe, Maung Aye and Thura Shwe Mann [Reuters]

Sunday, June 1, 2008
JOEL BRINKLEY
Posted by the San Francisco Chronicle (California, USA)

Almost 30 years ago, my editor dispatched me to Cambodia to cover the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime and the resulting refugee holocaust. The images of babies with swollen bellies and only a few days left to live, emaciated and lethargic adults dying from typhoid, cholera or worse have hung with me to this day.

Now, three decades later, the United Nations and the Cambodian government are staging a genocide tribunal for several surviving Khmer Rouge leaders. Nearly 2 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge reign - most of them from disease and starvation.

One country away, in Burma, more than 1 million survivors of Cyclone Nargis have now gone without food, medicine, clean water or sanitation services for more than four weeks. Though Burma's military dictators won't allow anyone to see, babies' bellies are beginning to swell, and listless adults are slipping away, victims of cholera, dysentery or worse. Tens of thousands are likely to die - most of them from disease and starvation.

The fault for all of this lies squarely on Gen. Than Shwe's shoulders. It's past time that the United Nations started planning a genocide tribunal for Shwe, the Burmese leader, and his fellow thugs. The case is clear, the verdict already known.

In Cambodia, prosecutors are digging through musty, incomplete records and relying on testimony from feeble, octogenarian witnesses. In Burma, all the evidence prosecutors would need is in the newspapers and on TV. Put together, it displays a callous disregard for human life so stunning that it would probably embarrass Kim Jung Il, Robert Mugabe - perhaps even Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan.

Here's the dossier: On May 20, Shwe promised Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary-general, he would finally allow aid workers to deliver food and medicine to cyclone victims - three weeks after the storm.

The next day, Shwe ordered his troops to sweep through the Irrawaddy Delta and evict cyclone victims from the few buildings that remained standing so they could be used as polling places. Then soldiers pushed and prodded hungry and sick Burmese to vote in a sham referendum intended to extend Shwe's time in office - and sometimes filled in their ballots for them.

Last Sunday, soldiers ordered cyclone victims to dismantle makeshift shelters they had put up near main roads to escape the floodwaters. The soldiers said they were unsightly.

Meanwhile, the International Red Cross reported that rivers and ponds in the delta remained clotted with corpses. On Tuesday, UNICEF noted that Burmese children were drinking from these fetid ponds. They had no other source of water. Even before the storm, Save the Children said it had identified 30,000 malnourished children in the affected areas. Many of them, the group said a few days ago, "may already be dying for lack of food."

In Rangoon, meanwhile, when Ban proposed a donors conference for reconstruction aid, Shwe's government suddenly perked up and said Burma would be delighted to host it. Save our people, no; give us money - sure!

Representatives from more than 50 countries attended the conference last Sunday. Gen. Thein Sein, the Burmese prime minister, told them he would happily take their money. As for finally allowing aid workers in, he said, "we will consider allowing them in if they wish to engage in rehabilitation and reconstruction work."

The government's relief operations have come to an end, he insisted. Burma is shifting its focus to rebuilding and reconstruction. So much for Shwe's promise to Ban. So much for 100,000 sick and dying people. Last week, Burma admitted about 40 more aid workers - while throwing up onerous restrictions on their work.

For weeks, Shwe had refused even to take Ban's phone calls. Finally, Ban decided simply to show up. So the military set up a Potemkin refugee camp complete with crisp green tents and shiny new cookware. When Sein took Ban there a week later, reporters noticed that cooking oil jars remained sealed and store labels were still affixed to the frying pans.

The New York Times reported that soldiers had used dynamite to rid the streams of unsightly corpses in the areas Ban visited.

Now, a month after the storm, the United Nations estimates that fewer than half of the sick and starving cyclone victims have received even the first dollop of aid, while the generals insist that it's time to give up on the victims and start putting up new buildings.

If the world were a just place, then the first building project would be a prison to hold Shwe and his fellow thugs - after their genocide trial.

Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford University and a former foreign policy correspondent for the New York Times. E-mail him at brinkley@foreign-matters.com. Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com.

Disaster may loosen junta's grip in Burma (Myanmar)

Relief: Residents collect water in Rangoon, Burma, where relief groups have been distributing supplies and foreign aid has been trickling in. (Photo: AP)

A May 10 poll could underscore how unpopular the regime is, as it slowly opens to foreign aid.

May 8, 2008
By David Montero
Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - The first test of how the people of Burma (Myanmar) view their government's slow response to the devastating May 3 cyclone could come Saturday.

A previously scheduled vote on a new constitution will be held nationwide, except in the hardest-hit areas. While recent natural disasters in Indonesia and Pakistan have altered the political landscapes in those nations, few analysts expect cyclone Nargis to significantly shake – let alone topple – the military regime. But the Burmese government's reliance on outside assistance could lessen its diplomatic isolation, and popular resentment over how the regime has handled the disaster could further undermine its legitimacy – and even push it to compromise with opposition groups.

"This is an opportunity for opposition groups to make limited gains," says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, head of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "There will be mounting pressures on the government because of its inadequacies. Opposition groups have the upper hand." The disaster could also foster political reconciliation between Burma's government and the outside world, following a pattern from other natural disasters from Pakistan to Indonesia, experts say.

"It could be quite catalytic, like the [2004] tsunami in Aceh," says John Virgoe, the International Crisis Group's Southeast Asia project director in Jakarta, Indonesia. "Indonesia does show how game-changing these disasters can be: The tsunami allowed both sides to say, 'Let's put aside our differences,' " he adds, referring to a cease-fire that ended a running conflict between the Indonesian Army and rebel separatists in Aceh.

Mr. Virgoe and others, however, are quick to caution against drawing a direct parallel to Burma, which has shown disdain for dialogue with political opponents and sent mixed signals about even accepting foreign aid workers.

On Wednesday, as the death toll topped 22,500, relief agencies said they had still not received visas to enter Burma, despite a preliminary agreement from Burma allowing foreign aid workers.

"We have a team of five emergency relief members in Thailand. And they have applied for visas. But they are on standby," says Elizabeth Byrs, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva.

With the UN declaring cyclone Nargis "a major disaster," saying up to 1 million may now be homeless, any delays in international aid could add to the death toll. More than 60,000 have been declared missing and are presumed dead.

Relief groups in the country have begun distributing aid, but road damage and flooding are blocking access to many of the victims.

Speaking from the Thai-Burmese border, Nyo Myint, head of foreign affairs for the main opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, says many survivors in the Irrawaddy delta lack drinking water and food. "Some wells have been filled up with dead bodies. [People] are trying to get drinking water from small ponds, but they are also covered with bodies," he says. "Transportation is a problem because the jetties and the ferryboats are gone.... The only way is to have an airlift supported by the US or [others]."

Since receiving its first international shipment from Thailand Tuesday, Burma has accepted aid from longtime friends China, India, and Indonesia. The US upped its aid pledge to $3 million Wednesday.

The visa holdup for foreign aid workers underscores Burma's dilemma: The Army cannot respond adequately, but allowing outside aid will invite unprecedented scrutiny. "This government is paranoid about foreigners coming in and establishing contacts with the people of Burma," says Aung Zaw, editor of Irrawaddy Magazine, an opposition publication based in Thailand.

Since taking power in a military coup in 1962, Burma's government has positioned itself as one of the world's most authoritarian and isolated. Though the NLD won a landslide election in 1990, the junta rejected the results. And last September's protesters were quickly suppressed.

Many believe the cyclone has created an opportunity for change. "People who I've spoken to in Yangon [Rangoon] are very upset with the government," says Mr. Zaw. "Soldiers who came out against the protesters are nowhere to be seen now."

Mr. Myint, of the NLD, says the government has been unable to prevent looting or provide the basics. "Even in big towns with 100,000, there's only a hundred people receiving government handouts," he says. "They're trying their best, but they can only cover about 5 percent of what is really badly needed."

Still, state television played up images of soldiers clearing debris and conducting rescue operations, the Associated Press reported.

"From the outside, we can see the junta has so many limitations. But this will be the first time that they will have to admit that they have limitations," says Pornpimon Trichot, of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. "[They] may realize ... you cannot only have strong men and advanced weapons."

Many analysts point to the referendum, which the government says will go ahead on May 10, except in 47 hard-hit townships, which will vote May 24. The Army drafted the constitution, saying it will devolve authority, but critics say the generals will retain their power monopoly. With resentment running high against the government, experts say many citizens could vote "no" and force the regime to make compromises with opposition groups.

It would not be the first time a disaster brought change. For example, the Pakistani Army's inept response to a 1970 cyclone spurred Bangladesh's breaking away.

Still, if protests could not shake them, a storm is unlikely to either, analysts say. "There were huge protests and that didn't weaken the regime. The regime has an apparatus to keep itself in power by coercion," says Tim Huxley, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia in Singapore.

But following Pakistan's deadly earthquake in 2005, an influx of foreign aid workers dramatically improved perceptions of the West and strengthened ties between the US and Pakistani military.

Burma's opening up to aid could open a door to more dialogue, experts say. "You could develop a long-term humanitarian program that opens up other forms of dialogue," says Charles Perry, of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis in Cambridge, Mass.

Analysts caution that the junta is too calculating not to see that foreign governments view the disaster as an opportunity. And there are no guarantees that, once they've received aid, the generals won't shut down again, analysts say.

But "the cyclone could trigger social unrest in Burma," says Zaw. "I do think there's going to be a political upheaval."

• Christopher Johnson contributed from Tokyo.

Smart sanctions target Myanmar tycoon

Feb 21, 2008
By Brian McCartan
Asia Times (Hong Kong)

CHIANG MAI - The United States Treasury Department announced earlier this month that it will expand the personal and business sanctions it imposed on individual family members of Myanmar's ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) last year. Those included among the newly blacklisted were members and individuals associated with businessman Tay Za's state-linked commercial empire.

The recent sanctions are part of Washington's new so-called "smart sanctions" regime, designed to target specific generals and their associated business interests rather than the entire population. Before this month's announcement, the US had imposed sanctions on 30 individuals and seven businesses connected to the junta.

Designed in response to the junta's continued human rights abuses and political repression, including last year’s brutal crackdown on anti-government street protests, the sanctions in effect freeze any assets of targeted individuals or companies which might have parked them in US financial institutions and prohibits any financial or commercial transactions between American individuals and Myanmar firms named in the sanctions order. The persons named are also barred from entering the US .

The latest set of sanctions specifically target Tay Za's Htoo Trading Company Limited, also known as the Htoo Group of Companies. Tay Za was described by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as "an arms dealer and financial henchman of Burma's [Myanmar’s] repressive regime". In announcing the latest sanctions, White House press secretary Dana Perino said on February 4 that "the actions of [junta leader] Than Shwe and his associates remain unacceptable to all those who value freedom."

Tay Za, his wife, Thida Zaw, his eldest son Pye Phyo Za and five of his companies were previously named in the US sanction order of October 18, 2007. The new sanctions add Tay Za partners Aung Thet Mann, Thiha and U Kyaw Thein, as well as the Htoo Group of Companies, which includes Ayer Shwe Wah Company Ltd, Myanmar Avia Export Company Ltd and Pavo Aircraft Leasing Company Ltd, to the list.

Aung That Mann, the son of General Thura Shwe Mann who is the Joint Chief of Staff of the Myanmar armed forces and the third-ranking member of the SPDC, is also a director of Ayer Shwe Wah Co Ltd and Htoo Trading Company Ltd. Thiha, meanwhile, is Tay Za's brother and business partner, as well as a director of the Htoo Group of Companies and Htoo Trading Co Ltd.

U Kyaw Thein is a Singapore resident and known to manage Tay Za's business offices there. He currently serves as a director for Air Bagan Holdings Company Ltd, Htoo Wood Products Company Ltd, Pavo Aircraft Leasing Co Ltd and Pavo Trading Co Ltd. Also named in the new sanctions order were Khin Lay Thet, wife of General Thura Shwe Mann, Myint Myint Ko, wife of Construction Minister Mon Saw Tun, Tin Lin Myint, wife of Lieutenant General Ye Myint, the head of Military Affairs Security, and Myint Myint Soe, wife of Foreign Minister Nyan Win.

Junta's helping hand

Tay Za and his business empire have long been in the US's sights, due to the tycoon's extraordinary wealth and perceived influence with Myanmar's ruling Senior General Than Shwe and General Thura Shwe Mann, as well as other high-ranking members of the military regime. Born in 1964, the 43-year-old Tay Za originally aimed at a career in the military, for which he attended the Defense Services Academy .

He dropped out before completing his studies in 1987 to elope with his girlfriend, Thida Zaw, and subsequently took over her family's rice milling business. He eventually set up his own company in 1990 to export timber with an initial capital investment of US$333,333. By cultivating connections with senior generals and government officials, some of whom he met during his time at the academy, Tay Za gained logging rights to vast swathes of virgin hardwood forest, including areas of the Karen State, Pegu Division and Tenasserim Division which previously were under the control of the rebel Karen National Union (KNU).

According to opposition groups, Tay Za reportedly maintains most of his wealth in Singapore bank accounts. He is known to own several luxury apartments in the city-state, where his sons, Pye Phyo Za and Htet Tay Za, both live and attend elite private schools. Htet Tay Za attends the United World College of South East Asia, one of Singapore's most expensive.

The 19-year-old Htet Tay Za caused a stir in the aftermath of last year's pro-democracy protests in Myanmar and the brutal crackdown that ensued when an e-mail attributed to him and reviewed by Asia Times Online announced, "US bans us, we're still fucking cool in Singapore. We're sitting on the whole Burma GDP. We've got timber, gems and gas to be sold to other countries like Singapore, China, India and Russia."

The eldest of Tay Za’s privileged sons is apparently "rocking" in his "red brand-new Lamborghini with hot sexy Western chicks" while the younger one needs "another Ferrari to rock on", according to the e-mail, which has been posted widely on blogs and referred to in exile media reports. Tay Za himself lives in a large neo-classical mansion in the old capital of Yangon on the corner of Inya Road and University Avenue, where he parks his Bentley, Ferrari, Mercedes and Lexus, all of which he has had shipped in from Singapore.

Apart from expensive tastes, Tay Za is also possessed by keen business acumen. The businessman has greatly diversified his business empire since his initial investment in timber exports. Through the Htoo Trading Company Ltd, his first company and the group's flagship, his business interests now encompass property development, construction, palm oil production, arms dealing and aviation.

He is also now bidding to move into telecommunications and banking. Htoo Trading is currently Myanmar's fifth largest exporter, with official earnings of US$65.1 million in the 2006-2007 fiscal year. The Ministry of Commerce's website lists the company as the second largest in export earnings of the top 20 import-export companies in Myanmar in 2006-2007.

Htoo Trading was one of two main companies granted contracts for the construction of Naypyidaw, the new capital city where in late 2005 the junta abruptly moved all government offices from the old capital of Yangon. Another controversial Htoo Trading construction project was the 60-meter-high tower and nearby 150-room hotel in Bagan, the site of a famous temple complex and renowned international tourist attraction. The tower came under harsh international criticism by UNESCO and others for damaging the aesthetics of the site.

The company's timber business has also been criticized for causing the large-scale destruction of Myanmar's forests. A 2002 report by environmental watchdog Global Witness stated that the Htoo Trading Company's logging operations were largely responsible for much of the environmental degradation in the country. The company has also been known to provide heavy machinery to smaller logging operations, which in turn sell their logs to Htoo Trading for exports. (The company also has one of the few government-granted export licenses for raw timber.)

Since 2006, Htoo Trading has become increasingly involved in jade mining in the Hpakant area of the northern Kachin State. The move has been done on the quiet with the company gaining mining blocks through cooperative agreements with other smaller mining companies. In a move similar to his logging business deals, Htoo Trading provides the smaller operators with heavy machinery in exchange for stones. In what may be designed to show a degree of corporate social responsibility, according to the Kachin News Agency, Tay Za has provided each family displaced by the mining operation one million kyat (US$755) in compensation.

More recently, Htoo Trading has negotiated a concession from Alcatel Shanghai Bell to cooperate on projects in the new Yadanabon cyber-city, currently under construction in the vicinity of the new capital. The company has submitted a proposal to acquire four acres of land for GSM telecom services and recently submitted a proposal with Russia's CBOSS to acquire an "incubation center for prepaid software", also in Yadanabon.

The company was recently granted a license to import fuel directly as a part of the SPDC's efforts to privatize the fuel industry. In pursuit of that plan, the junta rolled back fuel subsidies last August, which set in motion the mass anti-government protests the junta cracked down on with brutal force.

Another of Tay Za's business concession gems is Air Bagan, Myanmar's first privately invested airline and currently the country's third largest after Air Mandalay and Yangon Airways. The budget airline initially flew only domestically; it added international flights in 2007, first in May to Bangkok, then in September to Singapore. Since then it has added routes to China, Cambodia, and South Korea and has announced interest in establishing routes to Osaka, Dhaka and Chennai.

Tay Za has several businesses in Singapore. Htoo Wood Products sells furniture and other wood products. Pavo Trading is involved in the selling of wholesale cut timber and plywood products and is involved in the frozen seafood business, which one business listing site claims has annual sales in the US$10 million to US$50 million range and is seeking distributors in China.

In Myanmar, Tay Za's other companies include Htoo Transportation Services, which specializes in heavy duty land and marine transport, and he has built the high-class Myanmar Shopping Center in Yangon, which sells top international brands to Myanmar's military elite. Together with a French businessman, Tay Za opened the Le Moliere French restaurant in Yangon in October 2004.

Controversial dealings

Tay Za has over the years endeavored to put a friendly face on many of his business activities. He has claimed publicly that his companies have over the past decade donated US$6 million to various social causes, including outlays for schools, hospitals and pagodas. Funds have also gone to the sponsorship of athletics and sports competitions and to scholarships for students to study overseas. Air Bagan reportedly puts aside US$1 from each international ticket and 500 kyat from each domestic ticket to fund future social projects.

On the other hand, several of his businesses have also propped the military government which continues to enrich itself at the population's expense. In particular his Yangon-based Myanmar Avia Export Company Ltd has come under scrutiny and criticism. Tay Za apparently began the company in 1993 in order to supply spare parts to the military for their aircraft. The US Treasury, along with many independent Myanmar analysts, claim that Tay Za has since used the company to buy aircraft and helicopters for the Myanmar Armed Forces.

Through Myanmar Avia Export Co Ltd, Tay Za is Myanmar's representative for Russia's major state-owned military aircraft manufacturer MAPO, of which MiG is a subsidiary, and for Russian helicopter company Rostvertol, which in 2006 merged with Mil and Kamov to become Oboronprom Corporation. Opposition groups and military analysts say Tay Za’s position at Avia Export made him instrumental in the military's purchase in 2001 of 10 MiG 29 jet fighters valued at US$130 million. Tay Za was also included in a delegation headed by SPDC number two and head of the army, General Maung Aye, when he visited Russia to reportedly discuss arms purchases in 2006. Tay Za, for his part, has consistently denied having any role as an arms broker for the SPDC.

Tay Za is known to have especially close ties to junta leader General Than Shwe and has more recently cultivated a personal relationship with SPDC No 3 and Joint Chief of Staff, General Thura Shwe Mann. General Shwe Mann is widely seen as being groomed as Than Shwe's eventual successor and he currently holds a position on the board of directors of Htoo Trading, as does his son, Aung Thet Mann. Aung Thet Mann's company, Ayer Shwe Wah, came under the wing of Htoo Trading in 1997 and the commercial relationship has been profitable for both parties.

Tay Za's rise to prominence, however, has not come without controversy. Many Myanmar businessmen are known to resent his close relations to senior junta members - especially Generals Than Shwe and Shwe Mann - and the exclusive business opportunities he has allegedly cornered in various sectors through those personal ties. At the same time, he also has a potentially formidable foe in General Maung Aye, the SPDC’s second-ranking official.

In 2006, Maung Aye used his position as chairman of the Trade Policy Council to instruct the Minister of Finance and Revenue to raise taxes on several businesses owned by Tay Za. A move to examine the accounts of Tay Za's companies by state auditors, however, was apparently blocked by friends in high places. Prior to this, in 2005, Tay Za's offices were searched, though no wrongdoing was uncovered. It's unclear how his businesses might be affected if Maung Aye rather than Shwe Mann takes power after the ailing Than Shwe fades from the scene.

The US hopes that by targeting Tay Za's businesses it will - by association - financially hit the SPDC. So far, the biggest impact the new sanctions imposed last October have had is on Air Bagan, which was informed at the time by its Singapore bank that it will no longer deal with the company. Although Singaporean banks are not legally obliged to support US financial sanctions, they apparently preferred not to risk their international reputation to maintain relations with Tay Za.

The banking cut-off made it difficult for the airline to purchase spare parts and pay staff, according to news reports. Those troubles were compounded by falling bookings in the wake of the September crackdown in Myanmar and on November 4 the airline was forced to cancel its Singapore flights. Singapore Airlines, which had provided engineers to the airline, recalled them in November.

Tay Za, at the time condemned the sanctions as "wrongful". At a gathering for the third anniversary of Air Bagan, he claimed that they would hurt only working people and would have little effect on the government they targeted. He conceded that the sanctions had caused "myriad problems" at Air Bagan, but stated the government owned no shares in the airline. He further said Air Bagan's capital was in no way related to drug trafficking, arms sales or money laundering and went on to promise to "tackle sanctions by fair and rightful means".

Strong words, but Tay Za is on a European Union list of individuals blocked from entry or transit through the EU. His Htoo Trading was targeted by enhanced EU sanctions imposed against Myanmar in December 2007. His wife, brother and oldest son are also on the list. In addition, he and his family members are also named in a December 2007 Canadian Special Economic Measures Regulations announcement that sanctioned imports and exports from Myanmar, including investment, transfer of technical data and provisions for the freezing of assets.

Whether these will be enough to upend Myanmar's top businessman and hit the ruling junta's finances is yet to be seen. Following a June 2007 meeting between Myanmar's Minister of Transportation Major General Then Swe and top business leaders, Tay Za secured a US$10 million loan from the SPDC to buy a used freighter and a tanker to start Myanmar's first private international shipping line. He recently reportedly traveled to Pusan, South Korea, to purchase the ships. Things are even looking up again for Air Bagan, which began a new route to South Korea in December and has since announced that it will resume its cancelled Singapore route in September.

Brian McCartan is a Thailand-based freelance journalist. He may be contacted through brianpm@comcast.net.

'Prepare for the worst,' Aung San Suu Kyi advises Myanmar

Wed, 30 Jan 2008
DPA

Yangon- Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday advised the nation to "hope for the best but prepare for the worst," in a rare meeting with her National League for Democracy (NLD) party. The ruling junta allowed Suu Kyi a rare respite from house arrest to meet with members of the NLD for about two hours Wednesday afternoon at the Sein Le Kanthar State Guest House where she held talks with NLD chairman Aung Shwe and seven others and government liasion minister Aung Kyi.

Following the meeting, NLD spokesman Nyan Win told correspondents that Suu Kyi had criticized the government's so-called dialogue process for not including representatives of the various ethnic minority nationalities and failing to set a deadline.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel peace prize in 1991 for her heroic struggle for democracy in her country, cautioned Myanmar's downtrodden population "to hope for the best prepare for the worst," said Nyan Win.

Suu Kyi has been kept under house arrest in her family's Yangon compound since May, 2003.

It was not clear why Myanmar's military regime allowed her to meet with the NLD leaders but the conciliatory gesture comes at a time when the junta is under increasing pressure to show progress in its political dialogue with the opposition.

European Union special envoy for Myanmar Piero Fussino was in Bangkok earlier this week calling on all Asian governments to unite in putting pressure on Myanmar's junta.

"It is necessary to open a new phase of more constructive and more concise. We need a real dialogue between the junta and the opposition and all different sectors of Myanmar society," said Fassino.

Fassino has already visited Beijing to discuss the Myanmar issue, and plans to travel to Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Japan to solidify Asian support in what has become a fairly universal call on the military rulers of Myanmar to speed up their political dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other suppressed segments of Myanmar society.

The EU appointed Fassino as special envoy for Myanmar last year in an effort to increase pressure on the junta to bring about real political change in their country in the aftermath of a brutal crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks that shocked the world and left at least 31 people dead.

The crackdown reignited international concern about Myanmar, which has been under military rule since 1962, but the growing frustration has thus far accomplished little in terms of forcing the regime into a real political dialogue with Suu Kyi.

United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari has visited Myanmar on several occasions, with the last visit in November, to press for a genuine dialogue but with limited success.