To: Desmond Ball and Phil Thornton-Your articles this past weekend in the Sydney Morning Herald and Bangkok Post about Burma’s nuclear program contained some new information and one new source (“Tin Min”). However, they also included more than ten pieces of information that Dictator Watch first reported.

DICTATOR WATCH
(www.dictatorwatch.org)

Contact: Roland Watson, roland@dictatorwatch.org

PLAGIARISM IN THE BURMA NUCLEAR “SCOOP”

August 3, 2009

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To: Desmond Ball and Phil Thornton

Is it too much to ask to be given a little credit, when credit is due? Your articles this past weekend in the Sydney Morning Herald and Bangkok Post about Burma’s nuclear program contained some new information and one new source (“Tin Min”). However, they also included more than ten pieces of information that Dictator Watch first reported.

In the primary SMH article, Burma’s Nuclear Secrets:

For the defector “Moe Jo,” we had first access to his interrogation debriefing, by border-based groups upon his arrival in Thailand; we asked him follow-up questions; and we published his claims (among other intel) that the SPDC wanted a nuclear bomb by 2020 (published in August 2008), and that there was a large State Scholar program with Russia in support of this (which info we first published in November 2006, from other sources). In our Moe Jo-sourced articles, we did not reveal that he was a defector – we were trying to protect his family.

In the SMH article on your work by Hamish McDonald, Revealed: Burma’s nuclear bombshell:

You say: “Another Moscow-trained Burmese Army defector was picked up by U.S. intelligence agencies last year.” We had access to, and published intelligence from, this defector’s border debriefing as well.

This article further states that “Burma protested to Thailand about overflights by unmanned surveillance drones that were apparently launched across the Thai territory by U.S. agencies.” Dictator Watch was the first to reveal the use of the drones (in November 2008).

In the BP article, Burma’s nuclear bomb alive and ticking:

You mention that the SPDC has a uranium milling and enrichment facility at Tha Beik Kyin. We first disclosed this information (November 2006), although we view the enrichment claim at this point as unconfirmed (evidence for it, though, is building). We also first disclosed that there were at least two uranium mills (January 2007). We further believe that there may be a reactor at Tha Beik Kyin. In any case, there are three suspected reactor sites: Myaing in Magwe; Tha Beik Kyin; and the Setkhya Mountains (which many people have been speculating about for years, including Dictator Watch starting in January 2007, and which you identify as Naung Laing, which location we previously identified in November 2008).

You mention the SPDC’s five uranium deposits listed on its Ministry of Energy website. After extensive Internet research, I was the one who found this website, and publicized its existence (in January 2007).

You talk about the Google Earth photos of the suspected Myit Nge uranium operation. An associate of Dictator Watch scanned all the non-cost satellite imagery available for Burma, and identified this site (among others), which photos we published (in March 2007).

You mention plutonium reprocessing at Naung Laing. We first disclosed that the SPDC’s nuclear program might extend to plutonium (in August 2008).

You also talk about weaponization research at Naung Laing, which we also disclosed earlier (in November 2006).

Detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said the verdict on her trial and three other defendants will test the “Rule of Law” and the judicial system of Burma, a country ruled by military dictators since 1962.

Court verdict will test constitution, judiciary: Suu Kyi
by Mungpi
Monday, 03 August 2009 22:09

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said the verdict on her trial and three other defendants will test the “Rule of Law” and the judicial system of Burma, a country ruled by military dictators since 1962.

The National League for Democracy, in a statement released on Monday, published comments on the trial made by party leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the last day of the hearing of final arguments on Friday.

The Burmese pro-democracy leader said the verdict on her trial and her two live-in party mates and the uninvited American visitor, will test Burma’s constitution and the judiciary.

“Without first investigating whether the law, that allows detaining me for over five years under house arrest, is legal or illegal, I do not believe that the verdict of the current trial can be given rightly,” she said.

“Equally critical is the principle that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done, clearly and unequivocally,” she said.

The Burmese democracy icon’s comments came as the judge on Friday postponed the verdict on her trial to August 11. It is widely believed that the postponement of the verdict is to deflect pressure – international and domestic.

But Aung San Suu Kyi told her lawyer and party spokesperson Nyan Win that she is ready to face the verdict.

Generation Waves – DASSK 64 Birthday Song-Video

Sittwe: The Burmese military junta authorities went into a huddle in meetings on Friday in several towns in Arakan state to tighten security in major towns, apprehending trouble in the wake of the verdict in the trial of democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Heightened security measures in Arakan

8/3/2009
Sittwe: The Burmese military junta authorities went into a huddle in meetings on Friday in several towns in Arakan state to tighten security in major towns, apprehending trouble in the wake of the verdict in the trial of democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi), said sources close to the authorities.

The authorities held the meetings on Friday, when the verdict was meant to be pronounced. The verdict was, however, postponed to August 11. The regime aims to prevent any untoward incidents if Daw Suu is sentenced to a prison term, the source said.

The meetings were held in several towns of Arakan on the directives of the junta brass in Naypyidaw, the new capital of Burma.

The military authorities are concerned about people’s protests against the regime throughout Burma if Daw Suu is sentenced to a prison term by the court. Naypyidaw instructed Arakan state authorities to beef up security.

Arakan state played an active role in the anti government demonstrations in September in 2007 and 2008. So the authorities are closely monitoring the state, according to the source.

In Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, the authorities held the meetings on security matters at two places – one in the district office and another in the office of the Military Supervisor Command.

The Western Command Commander General Thaung Aye attended the meeting, which was held in the office of the Military Supervisor Command in Sittwe. Many other army officials attended the meet.

A source close to military authorities in Buthidaung cantonment said that in Buthidaung, 80 miles north of Sittwe, the army authorities held the meeting at the Saka Kha hall of the Military Operation Bureau in English, at 7 am on the day.

Many army officers including Lt. Colonel Aung Naing, Commander of Saka Kha and Commander of Military Planning Bureau, the district chairman and local administrative officers, including the township chairmen of Buthidaung and Maungdaw attended the meeting.

Similar meetings were held in Kyauk Pru, Taungup and Thandwe, Minby and Rambree.

The authorities are likely to beef up security in Arakan state, especially before the 8888 annual uprising day on 8 August 2009 till the end of September.
Narinjara

Burma declares 13 H1N1 victims, numbers increase

Mon 03 Aug 2009, IMNA,
Three more cases of H1N1 have been diagnosed in Burma, bringing the total number of victims of the virus to 13, according to an article published in the Burmese government controlled newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.

A program of the Health Ministry Department has been underway at the Rangoon International Airport to check travelers who are visiting Burma, and those Burmese who are returning from other countries.

The latest victims were 3 men who had just returned from a trip to Malaysia, according to sources, where they became infected with H1N1. The patients have been hospitalized and are being monitored closely.

In the recent wave of Health Ministry testing, designed to detect travelers infected with H1N1 at the airport, 172 travelers from flight TG -303 and 151 travelers from flight MH – 740 were checked. Due to the risk of possible exposure the department also tested 138 airport employees who had been working at Rangoon International, according to the New Light of Myanmar. In addition 17 family members of the 3 patients have also been watched closely by the Rangoon Health Ministry Department.

Of the 13 victims of H1N1 now officially diagnosed in Burma, 4 patients have recovered and been allowed to return home. The remaining patients are still receiving treatment at Way Bar Gi Hospital, Insein General Hospital, Rangoon General Hospital, Rangoon Eastern Hospital and Children’s Hospital.

Shan army has say on cross-border road

The Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ has warned a Thai firm to seek its cooperation with regards to a cross-border road project to be constructed between Thailand’s Chiangrai and Burma’s Shan State.

“We have nothing to say about the road construction plan inside Thailand,” said Col Yawd Serk, Chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), the political arm of the SSA.

“But nothing should be carried out inside Shan State without our prior consent.”
Saraburi Coal Mining, a subsidiary of Ital-Thai had been granted concession by Burmese authorities to extract coal from Shan State East’s Mongkok sub-township, Monghsat township, 70km north of Chiangrai border towards the end of 2008.

Sentence Suspense in Burma by ISN Security Watch

The postponement of a verdict in the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi is more likely due to the junta’s fear of unrest rather than any second thoughts about a guilty verdict,
It has been dismissed as a “show trial” by US President Barack Obama.Even the normally reticent heads of state in ASEAN – the Southeast Asian regional bloc which includes Burma as a member-state – have chimed in, saying that the release of Aung San Suu Kyi is imperative if elections due to be held next year are to be free and fair.

Suu Kyi is on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest, after a US citizen swam – undetected by the military security that keeps a close watch on her residence – across Rangoon’s Lake Inya to reach her lakefront bungalow. The man, John Yettaw, is on trial separately, after being picked up by police after swimming back across the lake.

Two weeks ago, Suu Kyi’s defense team said that they did not expect a verdict until mid-August. Then, on 28 July, the Burmese Supreme Court announced a decision would come as early as 31 July. With pro-Suu Kyi crowds gathering in Rangoon, and increased security on the streets, officials in Napyidaw reportedly phoned the Court last Friday morning to compel a delay in announcing the verdict.

That telling and unsurprising insight into the absence of judicial independence in Burma aside, the rationale for all the suspense and uncertainty is unclear, as is the case with much of what the secretive, astrology-obsessed generals ruling Burma do on a day-to-day basis.

They have repeatedly said they care little for what the “international community” thinks – though this likely refers to the western countries that have imposed sanctions on the junta. When UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Burma recently, General Than Shwe refused him access to Suu Kyi.

-pattanikujana2009

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Mg Too tv report 310709 Rural Jail

Just days after the massive drugs haul of heroin and amphetamines in Tachilek, a further 150,000 amphetamine tablets have been seized in the town by Burmese anti-drugs forces.

The illegal drugs were found at a local football field; the owners of the stash have not yet been traced.
Recently, seizures of illegal drugs in the Tachilek/Mae Sai area of the border have increased considerably. Tachilek town is a major departure point from Burma, with large numbers of Burmese migrant workers crossing daily to seek work in Thailand. Earlier this year, 89 kilogrammes of heroin were found in a container on the Singaporean-flagged ship Kota Tegap, berthed at the city’s Asia World Port Terminal.
According to a report from the US State Department, the majority of illegal drugs produced in Burma are destined for Thailand, with experts from United Nations and the USA stating that Burma is listed as the second largest producer of heroin in the world after Afghanistan.
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