Fire hits Myanmar embassy in BangkokBANGKOK,

Thailand (AP) -- A fire destroyed a floor at Myanmar's embassy in the Thai capital on Monday. Four fire engines rushed to the embassy as plumes of smoke rose from inside the walled compound, located in a busy business district of Bangkok. The blaze was put out in about one hour. No injuries were reported. A fire brigade official, Anupon Saengdara, said the cause was not known. But a man at the embassy identifying himself only as a consular official said faulty wiring sparked the fire.Pol. Lt. Thanapat Sirawong said the blaze engulfed the second floor of the embassy's main, colonial-style building, totally damaging the floor and sections of the roof. The area outside the compound is the site of frequent but peaceful demonstrations by Myanmar activists against the military regime in their neighboring homeland. The visa section of the embassy is located in the building that caught fire. In the last three weeks, aid workers and others often crowded into the section trying to obtain hard-to-get visas to isolationist Myanmar to help victims of a devastating cyclone.

Burma 'to let in all aid workers'

Homeless Burmese children
Some 2.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone

Burma's top leader has agreed to let all foreign aid workers into the country for relief work in cyclone-hit areas, UN head Ban Ki-moon has said.

Mr Ban announced the news after talks in Burma's remote capital, Naypyidaw, with Gen Than Shwe.

Burma's military leaders had previously refused to allow a full-scale relief effort by foreign aid workers, and claimed everything was under control.

About 78,000 people died and 56,000 are missing after the 2 May cyclone.

Mr Ban said he thought Gen Than's decision was a breakthrough.

'Show camp'

It is not clear exactly whether he has agreed to give visas to foreign aid workers or let them into the delta to deliver aid.

But the BBC's Laura Trevelyan, in Burma with the secretary general, says the move does appear to be a significant breakthrough.

The senior leader had until recently failed to respond to the secretary general's letters and phone calls.

On Thursday, Mr Ban flew over flooded rice fields and destroyed villages and visited a government relief camp in the Irrawaddy delta.

A UN official privately called it a "show camp", our correspondent says.

He said he was "very upset" by the devastation he saw, adding that the international community stood ready to overcome the tragedy.

CHINESE-MADE POLICE CARS FOR BURMA POLICE FORCE

BURMA UPDATE 287
22 MAY 2008
CHINESE-MADE POLICE CARS FOR BURMA POLICE FORCE
ARRIVING AT THE SINO-BURMA BORDER
May 20, 2008
According to eye‐witness reports, Chinese‐made Mini‐Vans and light pick‐up trucks of Dong
Feng Motor Corporation brand to be used in Burma Police Force have arrived in Je‐gong.
On Sunday night, eight small cars arrived in Ruili on Sino‐Burmese border carried by a
double‐decker truck and were washed and cleaned at car‐washes, it is learnt. Two cars have
POLICE lettering on them and of blue color with Shan State (North) Police Force emblems.
Although a lot of Chinese‐made military vehicles have been supplied to Burma Army before,
this is the first time that police cars were supplied for use in Burma Police Force. While it is
not clear yet whether these vehicles are purchased or presented as a gift, analysts speculate
that they might be gifts.
China is training police officers from Burma at its Public Security Institute and Police
academies and colleges in Yunnan Province.

News Release (May-22)

15 members of National League for Democracy arrested
Around midnight of May 21, 15 members of National League for Democracy (Youth)
including Ko Tun Zaw Zaw, member of the Central Youth Working Committee, Ko Khin
Tun, a youth leader for lower Burma were arrested in their home. The place where they
were taken remained unknown. The arrest coincided with the visit of the General
Secretary of the United Nations. The names of the youths arrested were as follows;
1. Ko Tun Zaw Zaw Central Youth Working Committee
2. Ko Khin Tun Youth Leader for Lower Burma
3. U Thet Wai (a) Pauk Sa Chairperson of Sanchaung Township
4. Ko Kyaw Kyaw Moe (Kyeemyindine Township)
5. Ko Aung Thein (Kyeemyindine Township)
6. Ko Khin Hlaing (Kyeemyindine Township)
7. Ma Pa Pa (North Dagon Township)
8. Daw Shan Ma (Sanchaung Township)
9. Ma Htet Htet Oo Wai (Hlaingtharyar Township)
10. Ma Ohmmar (South Dagon Township)
11. Ma Cho (South Dagon Township)
12. Ko Lay Lwin (South Dagon Township)
13. Daw Ta Yote Ma (Hlaingtharyar Township)
14. Unknown
15. Unknown

Information Department
National League for Democracy (Liberated Area)

Myanmar's Suu Kyi set for another year's house arrest

BANGKOK - MYANMAR democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi faces another year under house arrest as the junta shows no sign of easing its political agenda after the devastating cyclone, analysts said on Thursday.

The Nobel peace prize winner has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years locked inside her lakeside home in Yangon.

The order confining her to her home comes up for renewal on Monday, and analysts said its extension has become routine.

'They are going to extend her arrest just like every year,' said Win Min, a Myanmar analyst based in Thailand. 'They will use the same letter as before and just change the date - it's not a big deal for them.'

Normally the extension of her house arrest attracts global headlines - and condemnation - but this year Myanmar faces far more immediate concerns as it struggles to cope with the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.

The storm left 133,000 dead or missing when it struck nearly three weeks ago, and two million people are still in desperate need of food, shelter and medicine, according to the United Nations.

Normally, high-level UN guests would raise Ms Suu Kyi's detention with the generals, but now the issue has moved to the back-burner, said Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo.

'She has been forgotten because of the scale of the destruction,' he said.

'Politics is not a key issue now for the international community, everyone is avoiding making political statements because it's most important to get the Burmese military to accept international assistance.'

Myanmar's refusal to free the 62-year-old opposition leader has landed the country under US and European sanctions, which were tightened last year after a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy marches led by Buddhist monks.

The last time she was seen in public was during the monks' marches in September, when she appeared briefly at the gate to her home and greeted the protesters with tears in her eyes.

That moment galvanised the protests, sending more than 100,000 people into the streets in the days that followed, only to be beaten and shot by security forces.

Keeping her under house arrest has effectively silenced the woman known here simply as 'The Lady', while leaving her National League for Democracy party rudderless.

Ms Suu Kyi led the party to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but they have never been allowed to govern. -- AFP

Cambodia police seize new paper about Myanmar

PHNOM PENH, May 19, 2008 (AFP) - Cambodian police on Monday confiscated thesecond issue of what officials said was an unlicensed newspaper aboutMyanmar being unlawfully distributed inside another daily.The Burma Daily, which first hit newsstands Friday, was appearing inside theCambodia Daily -- whose publisher said the material about Myanmar was merelya supplement, and not a separate publication."They cannot publish it like this. They must get permission," InformationMinister Khieu Kanharith said. He said he had warned the paper last weekthat it needed approval before publishing."We're confiscating all copies of the Burma Daily wherever they have beendistributed," Touch Naruth, the police chief of the Cambodian capital PhnomPenh, told AFP.Publisher Bernard Krisher vowed to keep publishing the paper about Burma,now known as Myanmar, and insisted that it was only a supplement to theCambodia Daily. Both appear in English."I suspect that this action was taken at the request of the Burmesegovernment," Krisher said.Cambodia now has several English-language papers and a number of glossy newsmagazines, as well as a large and lively Cambodian-language press.

May 16, 2008

Dear Mr. President:
It is our humble request to your government to act on Burma now. We strongly believe that it is the most appropriate time to go into Burma under the banner of humanitarian intervention. The US intervention will be seen as divine intervention by the Burmese people, not only to help the cyclone victims but also to finally free the entire nation from the military yoke.
In 1988, our people demonstrated in front of the US Embassy not to oppose the US government but to show our willingness for a US invasion. Thousands of people marched every day in front of the US embassy and hoping that US army might come in and free them. It was wishful thinking, and it never did happen.

Right now, after Nargis cyclone, people are desperate to get help from western countries. The US is their first priority; we look up to your government.
Our people have suffered enough under the cruel military generals who never respect human lives, religion and their own promise.

The following is why we believe it is necessary for the US, France, Britain or UN to lead the divine intervention.

Many victims are still not getting food and medical assistance. Many people and children now have sickness and disease.
The UN said the World Food Program is getting in 20 per cent of the food needed because of the restrictions imposed by the government. Most of the food and medicine donated from foreign countries are stored in the government warehouse and still waiting for distribution.
Instead of helping the victims, the regime is giving ultimatums to the victims. They are ordering the victims to leave from their respected shelters in public schools in Rangoon Division of North Dagon, South Dagon and Daw bon. Even in a big city like Rangoon, in front of everybody they are pushing out all the victims from the shelters. They will do more harm in the remote places in Irrawaddy delta region where the cyclone hit hard. The reason is they want to vacate the schools for the referendum. Their motive proved that their first priority is to approve the referendum, whatever it takes, not to save the lives of the citizens. They are not interested in saving lives because they worry that it will be the beginning of the end of their military rule.
In delta region, they are closing down the roads and do not allow the people who live in other divisions or states to come in and donate food and medicine. They are confiscating cameras and video cameras from people who enter the storm hit areas. What is the meaning of this? Because they are worried that all these photos will prove that many lives are in ruins and that the regime is not helping the people.
Similarly, they do not allow reporters. The reason is the same as above; the reporters will report to the world about not only the cyclone victims, but also the cruelty of the government. The generals do not want it; they want to hide as much as they can. Now the officials are saying that the country is already coping with the disaster and coming back to normal. If the situation has come back to normal, why do they not allow people to go in?
An estimated more than one hundred thousand lives were perished and millions became homeless but we never heard a word from Senior General Than Shwe that he has sympathy for the victims’ families or his encouragement for the people. Any country, when there is a disaster the head of state visited there and encourages people to overcome the tragedy. Than Shwe never speak about the cyclone victims in the past 17 days, until May 20, 2008. However, the Chinese Premier visited the earthquake victims and lowered the Chinese flag for showing its sympathy for three days. Than Shwe followed the Chinese footstep and ordered to mourn three day. The reason is he never cares about the Burmese people or the victims. His guilt makes him quiet. Because of the pressure from the EU and the USA now he is following the Chinese step
ASEAN will send their team members to help cyclone victims; we welcome the move made by the ASEAN, which is based on the SPDC request. However, we do not believe ASEAN’s team has enough capacity to help the two million cyclone victims. We strongly believe that the US, France, and the Great Britain have full capacity to help the victims immediately and effectively. Time is running out and we are desperate to wait for your decision.

Dear Mr. President,
If you wait for Burma regime’s approval, they will give false hope and buy time for themselves to find a solution which will favor their overcoming the situation. ASEAN involvement is their first step to avoid the US and EU to enter Burma. We love our neighbors but some ASEAN leaders are corrupt and willing to favor the regime instead of helping victims. If the regime successfully block the US and EU to enter Burma, Burmese people will be enslave for another fifty to hundred years.

Please do not compare Burma with Iraq because Buddhist monks, students, Burmese patriots, and we will happily assist you with whatever you need to go inside Burma and help the cyclone victims and entire nation. We are willing to go together with whoever enters Burma first. We will recruit translators, doctors, and nurses. Many concerned Burmese citizens are willing to join the intervention. Please do not waste the precious time that we have now to enter Burma under the name of “Humanitarian Assistance.”

With much hope and wishes,
Contact numbers
Sasana Moli International Burmese Monks Organization 718-426-3959
88 Generation Students (Exile) 630-728-4349
Joint Action Committee for Democracy In Burma. (Thailand) 66-894896424
Burma Caucus (Singapore) 65-97988862
Burma Caucus (Malaysia) 017-2071-353
Burma Caucus (Japan) 090-1506-2893
Burma Bureau (Germany) 491735347534