Weekly Diary, No. 330 (29 November – 5 December 2008)

• CHINESE VIPS IN BURMA!
• MORE BURMESE MIGRANTS LOSING JOBS!
• CHEAPER SIM CARDS, COSTLY CALLS!
• BANGLADESH-BURMA BORDER TRADE RETURNS TO NORMAL!

Cartoon
Tips for the Opposition
 

Think Piece
With around $ 4 billion in reserves, Burma is no longer a country without the financial wherewith to meet the pressing health, education and social needs of its people.
_{Professor Sean Tunnell, Burma economy expert, Macquaire University in Australia, speaking on the Burmese junta disregard for its people, spending 70 cents per person per year on health care, Bangkok Post, 30 November 2008}

The World
30 November 2008
_{James Hansen}
The Arctic ice cap is integrating much faster than Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) estimates, says climatogist James Hansen of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. (AFP)
 
1 December 2008

The waxing crescent moon in juxtaposition with Jupiter and Venus appears like a smiling face in the sky. (Bangkok Post)

International Relations
1 December 2008
Anders Ostergaard’s Barma VJ-Reporting from a closed country, describing Burma’s citizen reporters, takes top prize at the film festival in Amsterdam. (Varity USA)
 
3 December 2008
112 former presidents and prime ministers send letter to UN Secretary General urging him to press for release of all political prisoners in Burma by the end of 2008, one of UN’s benchmark for the year. The junta has increased the number of political prisoners from 1,200 in June 2007 to over 2,100 today, it says. (Oslo Center and Freedom Now)
 
3 December 2008
_{Barack Obama}
Barack Obama’s paternal grandfather Hussein Onyango Obama, served as a cook with the British Army in Burma during the second world war. (Times/Mizzima)
 
4 December 2008

Zarganar and blogger Nay Phone Latt, both of who are serving lengthy prison sentence, awarded Cyber-dissident prize by Reporters without Borders. (DVB)

4 December 2008
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says 29 countries have jailed journalists:
1st       China               28
2nd      Cuba                21
3rd       Burma             14
4th       Eritrea             13
5th       Uzbekistan      6
(Mizzima)

 
4-5 December 2008
_{FM Yang Jiechi}
Chinese FM Yang Jiechi is in Burma on a two-day visit. He meets his Burmese counterpart Nyan Win on the first day. He met the Senior General on the next day. (Xinhua)

Thai-Burma Relations
25 December 2008
The Kanbauk-Myaing Galay gas pipeline to Thailand bursts in Ye township. There is no ignition. (IMNA)
 
2 December 2008
_{Somchai Wongsawod}
Thai Rak Thai Party’s successor People’s Power Party is dissolved by the constitutional court. The PPP has already established Puea Thai Party (PTP) for that eventuality. As a result, the PPP’s leader and prime minister Somchai Wongsawod becomes history. (Agencies)
 
2 December 2008
Thailand postpones Asean summit scheduled for 15-18 December to March. (AFP)
 
4 December 2008
Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production PCL says it had not found enough natural gas in its Janaka #1 well in Burma’s offshore M7 block. (Reuters)
 
4 December 2008
Many migrant workers have been laid off, says Migrant Karen Labor Union. “It is happening in factories across Thailand.” 3,000 workers lost their jobs in Maesod last month. (IMNA)

Politics/ Inside Burma
27 November 2008
Zagana gets another 14 years bringing his total sentence to 59 years. (Mizzima)
 
28 November 2008
Thet Zin, editor of Myanmar Nation, and Sein Win Maung, his manager, sentenced to 7 years each for undermining the ruling generals after a copy of UN human rights report was seized from them. (AP)
 
1 December 2008
Convicted activists sent to remote prisons:

• Reverend Gambira (68 years sentence) to Hkamti
• Aung Kyaw Kyaw                  to Taunggyi
• Wunna Aung                           to Pegu
• Thiha Thet Zin                        to Myitkyina
• Thein Zaw                               to Kengtung
• Tun Oo                                    to Toungoo
• Tin Tu Aung                            to Hkamti

(Irrawaddy)
 
1 December 2008
Police give riot control training in Rangoon’s Syriam and Thaketa townships 4 days a week. (DVB)
 
1 December 2008
Burma is to privatize another 36 state-owned enterprises. A total of 254 state-owned enterprises have been privatized since 1995. (Xinhua) Observers say it could be part of the junta’s fund-raising for the elections. (Irrawaddy)
 
2 December 2008
DPA reported on 29 November an Italian diplomat Attilio Massimo Ianucci urging NLD to participate in the election. At present, the military occupies 100% of the government, but after 2010, there will only be 25%, he was reported as saying. The NLD told him the 25% would be “just a word” for the military would continue to dominate. (Irrawaddy)
 
4 December 2008
_{Aung San Suu Kyi}
Dr Tin Myo Win and assistant visit detained Aung San Suu Kyi for about 4 hours. (AFP)
 
4 December 2008
The ruling junta has yet to announce any details about when the 2010 elections will be held:

• Some USDA members say the election law could be promulgated by the end of 2008 or early next year
• According to others, it will be announced next June
• Political analysts think the campaign period would likely be much shorter than in 1990

(Irrawaddy)
 
4 December 2008
Maj Gen Saw Lwin, Minister for immigration and population, urged officials to complete the issuing of Citizenship Scrutiny Cards in time. (NLOM/Irrawaddy)

4 December 2008
_{Win Tin}
Win Tin, 79, who was released 23 September after serving 19 years, hospitalized after suffering from low blood pressure and difficult breathing. (New Kerala)
 
5 December 2008
Zarganar is believed to have been moved from Insein to Kachin State. (BBC)

Shans/ Shan State
26-28 November 2008

Shan New Year’s Day festival opens in Taunggyi attended by regional commander Ya Pyay, wife and son. (SHAN)
Others:

• Yawnghwe
• Inlay
• Taung Laylone
• Taung Ni
• Nawngmawn
• Hopong
• Muse
• Kengtung
• Hsengkeow, Hsipaw

(DVB)

Economy/ Business
2 December 2008
Hundreds of Burmese are returning home after losing their jobs due to the economic downturn. Hundreds of others face dismissal before the Chinese New Year. (Irrawaddy)
 
3 December 2008
Foreign investment hits over $ 15 billion in September this year, reports 7 Day News journal:

• 29 countries,    422 projects
• $ 7 billion        Thailand
• $ 1 billion        Britain and Singapore

(Xinhua)
 
3 December 2008
Burma on 12 December will slash the cost of owning a mobile phone but increase call charges ten-fold, reports 7 Day News:

• SIM cards       50 FEC from 1,250 FEC
• Outgoing call  30 cents per minute from 3 cents
• Incoming call  5 cents/per minute

(AP)

Human Rights
1 December 2008
_{Ramesh Shrestha}
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative Ramesh Shrestha says:

• 240,000 people in Burma living with HIV
• Two-thirds of them under 24
• 100,000 of them women

(AFP)

1 December 2008
GRET, and NGO that has been developing food security and agriculture in northern Arakan since 1995, banned as of today. Reason: GRET was distributing for free fertilizers that are being sold at high prices by the Army. (Kaladan)

Environment
1 December 2008
Fire in Moulmein’s second biggest market engulfs nearly 1,000 shops. (IMNA)
 
2 December 2008
Led by China Power Investment Cooperation (CPI), and Asia World Company (AWC), work has begun on the dam project 70 miles, north of Myitkyina. (Mizzima)

Drugs
21-25 November 2008
Wa authorities launch “War on Drugs” in its own capital Panghsang, 138 netted, more than 30 of them Chinese. No big fish among them. (SHAN)

War
29 November 2008
_{Thura Shwe Mann}
Gen Thura Shwe Mann and his counterpart Chen Bingde agree to enhance “military and state-to-state exchanges,” including joint military exercises. (Mizzima)
 
3 December 2008
The Burma-Bangladesh border trade returned to normal since last week following tension over maritime boundary dispute. (Narinjara)