A large "BEEP 4 BURMA. BOYCOTT TOTAL" banner was displayed for the heavy traffic along the Marylebone Road. Many vehicles beeped in support showing that they had not forgotten the suffering in Burma.

The protesters also handed out leaflets and passers-by also gave their support in signing a petition.


Murder of Karen Leader Padoh Mahn Sha

Last week the father of Zoya Phan, one of the Burma Campaign UK's staff members, was murdered by agents of the military regime. Two gunmen came to his house in Thailand and shot him in the chest in a cowardly cold-blooded assassination.

Padoh Mahn Sha was General Secretary of the Karen National Union, which represents the Karen ethnic group in Burma in their struggle for democracy and human rights.

He was a greatly respected leader who had dedicated his life for the struggle for freedom. He was killed because of his effective and principled stand against the regime.

His assassination is yet more evidence, as if it were needed, that the regime is determined to cling on to power, no matter what. They see leaders, such as Padoh Mahn Sha, who speak out for freedom and justice, as a threat to their survival.

Zoya and her brothers and sister have set up a fund in memory of their father. Donations can be made online at  http://www.zoyaphan.com. The fund will be used to tackle poverty and provide education in Karen state, two issues very close to Padoh Mahn Sha's heart. Please visit  http://www.zoyaphan.com. You can donate by credit card from any country or you can send a cheque made out to Burma Campaign UK and post it to Padoh Mahn Sha Fund, care of Burma Campaign UK, 28 Charles Square, London N1 6HT, UK.



Total and Burma

A detailed report on Total Oil's involvement in Burma, written by Burma Campaign UK, can be downloaded at  http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/total.html

Total is in a joint venture with the dictatorship in the Yadana gas project in southern Burma. [1]

The gas project funds the junta with hundreds of millions of dollars a year and represents a major source of foreign currency for the regime to buy weapons and finance the army.

Over 40% of Burma's GDP is spent on the military in a war against its own people.

Burma has the world's worst health care [2], the most corruption [3] and the most child soldiers [4].



Protests in London next week:

Wednesday 20th February

Meet at Burma Embassy for normal daily Burmese protest
12:00-1pm
Myanmar/Burma Embassy 19A, Charles St, London W1J 5DX.
Tube: Green Park | Map:  http://preview.tinyurl.com/2vnnbh
then go to
Total London HQ, 33 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0PW
1.30pm-3:00pm
Tube: Oxford Circus | Map:  http://preview.tinyurl.com/2tylug

Thursday 21st February

5.00pm - 7.00pm
Protest at Raven Total station, 372 Goldhawk Road, Hammersmith W6 0XF
Tube: Stamford Brook. Map:  http://preview.tinyurl.com/29w9lu


Protests are held weekly but locations may change. For information and reports on protests in London and around the country please see
 http://totaloutofburma.org


Petitions
Make sure you've signed:

- The Burma Campaign UK e-action to TOTAL:
 http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/total.html
- The Avaaz.org global pledge:  http://www.avaaz.org/en/burma_corporate
- Don't Forget Burma - send a photo message to the regime:
 http://www.dontforgetburma.org


Burma Videos

Burma Campaign UK's video channel on YouTube:

- New to Burma? Watch these videos for a brief introduction
- This is Burma Music - U2, REM, Damien Rice, KT Tunstall...
- This is Burma: News and Documentaries - including Burma's Secret War
and Inside The Crackdown

 http://www.youtube.com/burmacampaignuk


Get TOTAL OIL out of Burma group on Facebook:
 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6833508763



Recent Burma news: (see  http://myamarnews.blogspot.com)


 http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=10471

Burmese Exiles to Petition Congress on Chevron

The Burmese exiled community in the United States is collecting signatures on a petition urging the US Congress to pass legislation asking the multinational company Chevron to end its investment in Burma.

“There is an overwhelming response from the people, both Burmese and friends of Burma,” said Moe Chan, one of the organizers of the campaign, which was launched at the initiative of the National Council of the Union of Burma. Moe Chan is executive director of the Committee for International Movement of Burma Point.

Two draft bills relating to investment in Burma are presently before the US Congress. One of them, being considered by the House of Representatives, would pressure Chevron to ends its investment in Burma.

Chevron has a 28 percent stake in the Yadana gas pipeline, the country’s largest. Total of France has the major stake (31 percent), while Thailand’s PTTP has 25 percent and Burma Oil and Gas Exploration about 15 percent.


 http://www.shanland.org/environment/2008/ethnic-armed-groups-condemn-dam-projects-on-the-salween

Ethnic armed groups condemn dam projects on the Salween

When asked about the Shan State Army (SSA) South’s view on the dam projects which the Junta is implementing in cooperation with companies from Thailand as well as from China, through an interpreter, Col Yawd Serk, Chairman of the group’s political wing Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) said, “We are opposed to any project that will destroy the environment and livelihood of people in Shan State".

KNPP General Secretary, Khu Rimond Htoo said, “If the construction goes ahead, Karenni will be the most hard hit region because most people reside along the river plain. After they built (in 1960s) Lawpita hydro electric power plants in Karenni State (Kayah State), Karenni people do not even get electricity in their houses. From the past experience, we can say that the proposed dams won’t benefit civilians and therefore, I don’t wish it to go ahead”.

report, “Dammed by Burma’s Generals” by the Karenni Development Research Group (KDRG) wrote, Lawpita hydropower resulted on water shortage, destructive floods that destroy crops, disrupted fish habitats, thousands of Burma soldiers come and occupied the area causing human rights abuses such as forced labor, displacements of people and laying of landmines on farm fields, sexual violence and extrajudicial killings.


 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/Myanmars_wild_elephants_help_cut_down_their_forest_habitat_/articleshow/2794317.cms

Myanmar's wild elephants help cut down their forest habitat

But as Myanmar's ruling junta expands logging in the country's teak forests, more wild elephants are being captured and trained for clear-cutting operations that destroy the very habitats in which they roamed freely, activists and industry insiders say.

As logging operations have dramatically expanded, especially in remote regions of northern Myanmar near the Chinese border, some companies are turning to private entrepreneurs to capture and train elephants, business owners said.

"Deforestation would not be occurring if we used the selective-felling system, adhering to the forestry law," he said on condition of anonymity.

"But the advice of experts is ignored by orders from the government." According to the most recent estimates, some 1.5 million cubic metres (53 million cubic feet) of timber worth $ 350 million was exported from Myanmar to China in 2005, most of it illegal, according to Britain-based forestry watchdog Global Witness.

That was a 12 percent gain over the year before, and roughly double the amount exported in 2000, the group said.

Much of the logging takes place in remote areas of the country where it's impossible for outside experts to assess the extent of the environmental damage, but activists have long warned of the devastating consequences.

"This is a particularly destructive approach to logging that causes huge environmental damage," said Mike Davis of Global Witness.

For the elephants working in logging, the clear cutting means they are assisting in the destruction of their own habitat, Uga said.


 http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=985

Authorities restrict Chin national day celebrations

Feb 21, 2008 (DVB)–An event to mark Chin national day was held yesterday at the Lion City Hall in Kamaryut township, Rangoon, despite government restrictions.

Around 10,000 people reportedly attended the colourful celebration, which began at 1pm and included speeches, music and food.

An ethnic Chin who attended the event said that the government would not allow them to celebrate Chin national day so they had to find a way around it.


 http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=986

Military forces out villagers in Mon state

Feb 21, 2008 (DVB)–Residents of Klone Kanyar village were given orders by State Peace and Development Council troops on 1 February to leave their village within 15 days.

Around 250 villagers were ordered to relocate from the eastern part of Klone Kanyar village, which is in Khaw Za sub-township, part of Mon state’s Yay township.

The order to relocate has caused major difficulties for the villagers, particularly as many rely on the village’s fishing industry for their livelihoods.


 http://www.monnews-imna.com/newsupdate.php?ID=920

Tractor-trailer owners forced to buy sand for golf-field

The Thanphyuzayart Township Peace and Development Council in Mon state has forced tractor-trailer owners to buy sand at a cost of 4,000 Kayt for each tractor load in order to revamp the Shwe Phyu Yatana golf-field in town, said locals.

Tractor-trailer owners in every village of Thanphyuzayart Township have no option except sending money to the VPDC office in the township, said a resident tractor-trailer owner. They started paying 4,000 Kyat for each load since the beginning of this month, he said.


 http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=1640

Demonstration Against Senior Burmese Monks in Bangladesh

Dhaka: Burmese monks and democratic activists in Bangladesh staged a protest on Wednesday in the border town of Cox's Bazar against senior monks visiting from Burma.

"We have evidence that they came to Bangladesh to organize monks in Bangladesh to support the current military government, so we had to stage a demonstration against them from Bangladesh soil," the monk said.

The Burmese military authority recently sent monks abroad on missions to organize the sangha in support of the junta and to stop the monk boycott of the military.

Monks in Bangladesh are still boycotting the Burmese military government by not cooperating with the demands of the junta and by not accepting any offerings such as food from those associated with the military, after the ruthless crackdown on the monk-led protests in Burma in September 2007.

"It was first demonstration in Cox's Bazar staged by Burmese citizens and our demonstration was successful," said U Thawara

It has also been learned that local Bangladeshi officials intervened in the religious festival in Bandarban and denied the five senior monks entrance to the town after rumors spread that monks in Bangladesh would protest the festival if the senior Burmese monks attended.


 http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_wednesday_evening.shtml

[Aung San Suu Kyi's husband, Michael Aris, a British citizen, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, the Burmese government denied him an entry visa. Aung San Suu Kyi remained in Burma, and never again saw her husband, who died in March 1999.]

ASEAN:"Odd" to ban Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from standing election

Southeast Asian countries have told Burma that barring pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from elections because she once was married to a foreigner would be odd and not in keeping with the times.

An election planned by the Burmese generals must be credible, said the Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo.

He added the outcome would affect all members of the ten nation group.

The full text hasn't been released but the Burmese government confirmed on Tuesday that it would bar the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from standing for election.

Earlier, the Burmese military government says a new constitutional draft is now complete and ready to go to a referendum within months.

Although little is known of the constitution, it's thought to entrench the political supremacy of the military: the document was widely expected to bar citizens with foreign spouses, such as Aung Sang Suu Kyi, from seeking public office.

BBC coverage includes

-The main opposition party, the National League for Democracy has responded the government's statement saying the election scheme is unjust.

-The spokesperson of the Communist Party of Burma analyses that the current move by the military government is trying to diminish the role of NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi together.


 http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=978

Commentary: Junta deserves a universal arms embargo

Feb 20, 2008 (DVB)–As the Burmese military continues to use foreign-made weapons against its own people, it is time for the international community to adopt a comprehensive ban on military trade with the regime.

Military trade continues

According to the Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the key arms exporters to Burma in 2005-2006 were China, India and Serbia and Montenegro.

China was the biggest arms exporter with a value with 2.5 billion US dollars.

The military junta has not ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, and according to Jane's Intelligence Review (Vol. 12, No. 10, October 2000) has imported antipersonnel landmines from China including Chinese Types-58, -59, -69 and -72A; Russian-made POMZ-2, POMZ-2M, PMN and PMD-6; US-made M-14, M-16A1 and M-18, and Indian/British LTM-73, LTM-76.

While there are no crucial and strategic security threats from either internal or external enemies or actors, the Burmese army has doubled in size since 1988 and continues to expand, with active forces estimated at 428,250, ranking it 12th in the world, and a total force of 500,250, ranking it 26th in the world.


 http://www.abitsu.org/?p=1386

Burma-Japan trade up 33 per cent last year

Earth Times UK : Bilateral trade between Myanmar and Japan reached 322 million dollars in fiscal year 2006/07, up 33 per cent on the previous year, media reports said Tuesday. Myanmar’s fiscal year ends on March 31.

Japan’s main import items from Myanmar included fishery products, textiles, agricultural products and timber, while its main exports to Myanmar were machinery, automobiles, electronics, iron and steel, cotton and plastics, said The Myanmar Times, a weekly.

Japan has never imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar but decided to cut its aid to the pariah state in the aftermath of the September crackdown in which one Japanese photo-journalist, Nagai Kenji, was shot dead.

On Monday, a delegation from Japan’s Royal Police arrived in Yangon to investigate the death of Kenji.


Notes:

[1] Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democracy leader, has said that “Total is the biggest supporter of the military regime in Burma.” For more information about Total Oil's investment in Burma see the Burma Campaign UK website:
 http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/total.php.

[2] The World Health Organization's ranking
of the world's health systems:
 http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

[3] Burma joins Somalia in 179th place as the most corrupt countries in the world according to Transparency International 2007 index rankings:
 http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2007/cpi2007/cpi_2007_table

[4] Human Rights Watch report on Child Soldiers in Burma:
 http://hrw.org/reports/2002/burma/Burma0902-08.htm#P1672_511418