Mizzima News - Nay Thwin : The Members of Parliament in exile have agreed to reform the government in exile in principle at its meeting which concluded yesterday.

Members of Parliamentary Union (MPU) which holds its congress every four years concluded its last congress held on Thai-Burma border on Wednesday. In the congress, the MPs in exile agreed in principle to reform and enlarge the ‘National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma’ (NCGUB) led by Prime Minister Dr. Sein Win with MPs, ethnic leaders and other appropriate members. But the date to enlarge and reform the current NCGUB has not yet been fixed.

The MPU Congress was attended by 24 out of 34 MPs and Prime Minister Dr. Sein Win joined the deliberations by way of the internet. Dr. Sein Win is a cousin brother of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

For the reforms of the NCGUB to materialize, thorough discussions and deliberations will be undertaken among the coalition umbrella organization of exiled united fronts, ‘National Council for Union of Burma’ (NCUB) led by general secretary Maung Maung and border based ethnic organizations.

NCUB is comprised of four member organizations such as the ‘National League for Democracy – Liberated Area’ (NLD-LA), MPU, armed ethnic groups united front ‘National Democratic Front’ (NDF) and ‘Democratic Alliance of Burma’ (DAB).

The issue of reforming and enlarging NCGUB, which was formed in December 1990, was controversial and needs to be debated among the ethnic leaders and other democratic forces. Currently there are six members in the Council of Ministers of NCGUB, Dr. Sein Win, U Thein Oo, U Bo Hla Tint, Dr. Tint Swe, U Khun Mar Kobarn and Dr. San Aung.

Similarly NLD-LA agreed in principle to reform the NCGUB in its meeting concluded recently, but the detailed plan has not yet been fixed and discussed.

“We haven’t chosen the form of reformed NCGUB. We will seek professional opinions and suggestions on how to form and how to collect ideas when all have agreed to do so. And also we will take the opinions of ethnic leaders and then integrate all these ideas and reform the current NCGUB,” NLD-LA General Secretary Myint Soe told Mizzima.

“We will continue and implement our work. If they (junta) continue with their own plan unilaterally despite the oppositions’ repeated calls for tripartite dialogue, we must stand firmly on our position regardless of the threat of being arrested and killed. This is what the people from inside Burma are thinking of,” he added.

Khun Myint Tun, one of the MPs in exile agrees with the idea of expansion saying “Currently the NCGUB can do its work. But we will try to make the NCGUB stronger and a more effective government in exile, which can give effective leadership to the whole movement”.

A NCGUB Minister Khun Mar Kobarn objected to the expansion and said that the previous thinking of forming the ‘Federal Government’ and ‘National United Government’ is almost impossible in a pragmatic manner and is just a ‘fantasy’.

He was referring to a case in their first Council of Ministers. There were Ministers of Labour, Minister of Forest, and Minister of Mining among others. But later these ministries were reduced due to financial constraints and practical reasons.

The spokesman of the ‘Communist Party of Burma’ (CPB), said that all movements in exile should focus on enhancing domestic movements.

“It is important to build domestic infrastructures which will help the domestic movements. All other work must lead to this road,” he added.

(AFP) - Mony Chris : Cherry and Kay Kay walk into room Number Two of a Yangon karaoke bar, where a man waits alone for them on a brown leather sofa.

“Come on, girls. Sing, please,” he says, as they flick the karaoke machine to a Myanmar folk song they hope he likes.

The scene may not be uncommon in many parts of Asia, but was until recently rare here in isolated Myanmar, where economic desperation is increasingly pushing young women into a sex trade that hides behind the facade of karaoke bars and massage parlours.

At the bars, known locally as KTVs for “karaoke television,” young women in their late teens and early 20s entertain clients in private air-conditioned rooms furnished with sofas and karaoke equipment.

Waiters enter only when customers order food and drinks, or if the women ring a bell to alert the management that a client is getting out of hand.

Workers at KTVs say sex is not necessarily on offer, but they add that in the private rooms boundaries can be vague.

“It’s hard to control men in this kind of room,” 22-year-old Kay Kay says.

“They are so wild when they get drunk. I need to hold both his hands to protect myself. Sometimes I need to ring the bell to call for help from the waiters,” she says.

Customers vary from teenagers to adults. Sometimes they come with friends, occasionally even with family, to venues that blur the line between casual entertainment and brothels.

Cherry and Kay Kay are among 20 girls working in their KTV bar, located near Yangon’s landmark Shwedagon Pagoda, one of the Buddhist country’s holiest shrines. Ostensibly they are hostesses, paid to keep customers company, encourage them to buy drinks, and to sing for them.

Prostitution is illegal in Myanmar, but it began to take root underground after the ruling junta abandoned socialism for a market economy in 1996.

Myanmar is one of the world’s poorest countries, where even urban professionals scrape out a living on less than a dollar a day. Salaries for civil servants, for example, start at about 20,000 kyats (16 dollars).

Many industries have been decimated by decades of economic mismanagement by the military, coupled with the effects of Western sanctions imposed over the regime’s failure to make good on promises of democratic reforms.

Cherry says she decided to work in the karaoke bar after quitting her low-wage job at a garment factory.

The eldest daughter in her family, Cherry was taken out of school before she reached her teens so her family could afford to send her brothers to school.

She then started working in the factory, but quit after discovering that she could earn more in tips in one night at the karaoke bar than she earned in a month at her old job.

Cherry and Kay Kay say they both grew up in broken families, and have not told any of their relatives about their new jobs.

“I didn’t tell my mum that I’m working at KTV. She thinks that I’m working as a sales girl in a supermarket,” Cherry says.

– ‘Our girls even include university graduates’ –

Many of the girls working in Yangon’s KTV bars have come from Myanmar’s impoverished countryside in search of better opportunities in the city.

The bar that employs Cherry and Kay Kay provides them with free room and board, and a base salary of 20,000 kyats, or about 18 dollars.

“The basic salary is similar to what I earned at the factory, but here we get tips from customers,” Cherry says. “Sometimes we earn 30,000 kyats (25 dollars) in one night just from the tips.”

The women are not allowed to leave the bar before its 2:00 am closing time, and then they are driven back to the hostel.

In a nation that prides itself on the glories of its past and its literary culture, the growth of the entertainment industry has caused some public soul-searching.

One poet, who wrote about the trend in a poem called “Yangon Nights,” said poverty was not the only culprit driving young women to their after-hours jobs.

“As many of them are uneducated and don’t value their life, so they eventually end up in this community,” he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But Wine, who worked as a cashier in a music restaurant, said that even some professional women are turning to the nightlife for second jobs to help make ends meet.

“The girls working in our shop include schoolgirls, nurses who are available to work at night and university graduates,” Wine said, adding that she started working at the restaurant after twice failing her high school graduation exam and being unable to find any other job.

“Many friends of mine work in KTVs or music pubs while also taking university correspondence courses,” she said.

The stigma attached to the bar girls remains strong, and many parents would rather see their children join the millions of Myanmar migrants heading overseas to search for work.

“My youngest daughter wanted to work in a KTV bar. I did not allow her, because once she takes the step of working there, it becomes very easy for her to become a commercial sex worker. It’s very hard to control,” said Ei, a 59-year-old mother of two daughters.

Ei says that like many families here, hers is struggling to survive. But she would rather see her daughters try to find work overseas than let them work in a karaoke bar.

Cherry and Kay Kay say they are happy they make enough money to support their families without having to leave the country.

“I can support my family well. One of my brothers will graduate from university very soon,” says Cherry.

“I don’t need to work very hard like I did in the factory but you know customers treat us just as bar girls, they look down on us. The reputation of a bar girl is not so good in this community.”

DVB – Aye Nai : 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.

“We were not allowed to hold the celebration under the title of Chin national day, so we just called it a welcome party for new university students,” he said.

“But we always knew we were celebrating Chin national day, and we talked about it that way to each other.”

Celebrations also took place at the Win Place hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where around 250 people from Chin and other ethnic groups came to watch the day’s events, including traditional Chin and Lahu dance.

One of the event’s organisers said he was disappointed they could not celebrate the day fully in Burma.

“Chin national day is a special day for us, but it is sad that we can’t celebrate our national day freely,” the organiser said.

“But we can’t do anything about that as there is no way we could hold it inside Burma, so we make it as special as we can outside.”

Chin people in exile in other foreign countries also held celebrations to mark national day yesterday.

Chin people voted to establish Chin national day on 20 February 1948, which marks the day Sao Shwe Thike, Burma’s first president after independence, came to visit Chin state.

Celebrating Chin national day was allowed under the Ne Win government, but has since been banned by the ruling State Peace and Development Council.

The Associated Press : Myanmar will allow UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari to visit the country in early March, Indonesia’s foreign minister said Thursday.Gambari is currently on a tour of Asian nations seeking their support in helping achieve democracy in military-ruled Myanmar.

“The Myanmar government has agreed to receive Gambari in the first week of March,” Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said before meeting the UN diplomat in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Wirajuda said Myanmar’s foreign minister had informed him of the decision at a recent meeting with other Southeast Asian ministers. He gave no more details.

Earlier this month, Myanmar announced it would hold a May referendum on a constitution written under military guidance and multiparty elections by 2010, the first specific dates for steps in an earlier-announced “roadmap to democracy.”

The plans have been widely criticized for failing to include any input from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy. As they stand, Suu Kyi would not be allowed to contest the vote because she once was married to a foreigner.

Wirajuda said Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries “still had hopes” Suu Kyi would be allowed to contest the vote. He gave no more details.

Suu Kyi’s party won general elections in 1990 but was not allowed to take power.

“But what is important is all of us work together with them, within the neighbouring countries, with ASEAN and the international community, to enhance the credibility of this constitutional process and to make national reconciliation more inclusive,” he said in a brief statement after meeting with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda.

Gambari expressed hope that in his discussions with Myanmar authorities he might be able to influence them to include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in the planned general election.

“This is one of the issues I intend to discuss with the authorities in Myanmar,” he said. “They are in the process of inviting me to return to Myanmar, hopefully in the first week of March.”

Myanmar announced early this month that it will hold a referendum in May on a constitution written under military guidance, and will conduct multiparty elections by 2010.

Under the plans, Suu Kyi would not be allowed to contest the vote because she was married to a foreign citizen – a Briton, who died in 1999.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said that Jakarta and other South-East Asian countries still hope Suu Kyi would be allowed to contest the vote.

Indonesia has pushed for engagement with Myanmar, saying the country could play a significant role by sharing its experience of transition from military government to full-fledged democracy.

Suu Kyi’s NLD won a landslide victory in the presidential elections in 1990, but the military junta rejected the elections and put her under house arrest.

The UN has been calling on Myanmar to launch democratic reforms and release all political prisoners.

Reuters : The United States yesterday called Myanmar’s proposed constitution a failure over a ban on pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi running for office and urged the ruling junta to “start from scratch.”

“That is hardly the definition of free and fair elections. The junta needs to start from scratch with a real draft constitution that actually passes the laugh test,” said White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Myanmar’s military government said earlier that the democracy icon would not be allowed to run under the proposed charter, which has been drafted ahead of a May referendum.

The junta says the referendum — if approved — will clear the way for democratic elections in 2010, the first since Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party scored a victory in 1990 polls, which the junta never recognised.

Late on Tuesday on state television the junta announced that a special commission had finished the final draft of the charter.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win told a regional gathering in Singapore that the document would bar Aung San Suu Kyi from running because she had been married to a foreigner.

Suu Kyi was married to Briton Michael Aris, who died in 1999.

Her party denounced his remarks as “unjust,” saying the military appeared to be making plans for the elections before knowing the outcome of the referendum.

The Association of South East Nations said yesterday the election planned by Myanmar’s generals must be credible, adding the outcome would affect all members of the 10-nation group.

“What we are concerned about is the credibility of the process,” Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo said yesterday.

“There must be provisions for independent verification and many of us expressed the view that Myanmar cannot ignore the international dimension,” he told reporters after a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in the city-state.

DVB – Yee May Aung : Residents of Hlaing Tharyar township in Rangoon have complained that the government-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association is forcing locals to join the organisation against their will.

U Tin Yu, a resident of Hlaing Tharyar township ward 8, said the local USDA group called ward residents together for a neighbourhood meeting last week to announce that a concrete road was to be built in the ward.

“Hlaing Tharyar ward 8’s USDA official Thant Sin called us into a meeting and said the association was going to build a concrete road in our ward,” Tin Yu said.

“We were all happy until they told us we had to join the USDA in exchange for their efforts.”

Tin Yu said people from other wards had also been forced to enrol in the USDA at similar meetings in their neighbourhoods.

Rangoon residents have speculated that the authorities’ forced enrolment of people in the USDA could be in order to gain as many supporting votes as possible in the upcoming national referendum.

Mizzima News – Maung Dee : A domestic passenger carrier flight broke down at an airport in Northern Burma on Tuesday afternoon after failing to take-off due to engine failure.

The Air Bagan flight, scheduled to take off for Myit Kyi Na to Putao town in Burma’s northern state of Kachin, broke down after overrunning the airport’s runway for nearly three hundred feet as it fail to take-off, a source close to the airline said.

“It happened as the plane can’t take off despite running on high speed. It overruns the runway for three hundred feet,” the source said.

The source said the pilot broke his arm, but none of the 57 passengers on board were killed, adding that the plane was damage on left wind and on the main body.

This is the second time that Air Bagan had technical problems. In 2007, the airline’s ATR 42 plane landed with its engine on fire at Heho Airport in Shan State. While there were no casualties and major injuries, a foreign tourist was reported suffering from slight injury as he was leaving the Aircraft from an emergency exit

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.

“Fishery items are the largest import sector to Japan, with textiles and footwear the second largest,” Eitaro Kojima, managing director of Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), told the newspaper.

The JETRO chief added that in the near future Japanese companies may shift to garment imports from Myanmar as suppliers in southern China are becoming more expensive.

“The cost of production and labour is getting higher and higher in China, so Japanese investors are trying to shift their factories into other countries in Asia that will be more cost effective, such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam,” Kojima told The Myanmar Times.

Myanmar’s garment and textile exports to Japan have nearly doubled in the last three years, as have the exports of footwear, he said.

Kojima acknowledged that some Japanese investors had put their Myanmar plans on hold after September, last year, when Yangon was rocked by monk-led protests against the oppressive ruling regime, but opined that the incident would have little affect on overall trade.

The US and the European Union tightened their economic sanctions against Myanmar after the September incidents that left more than 30 people dead.

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.

Reuters : UN envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari expressed optimism on Monday as he started his latest round of visits to Asian capitals seeking a solution to the former Burma’s political problems.

“I look forward to a very constructive and, as usual, frank exchange of views,” Gambari told Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing.

“So that by the end of my round of consultations, which will take me to Indonesia, Singapore and Japan, I’ll be able to report to the Secretary General that we are moving forward and adding to (a) kind of positive development… in Myanmar [Burma],” he added.

Gambari sees regional powers as central to pushing Burma into political concessions, but they have been reluctant to agree to sanctions or other tough measures.

That is especially true of China, one of the military-ruled country’s few foreign friends.

The junta made a surprise announcement earlier this month of a referendum on a new, as yet unfinished, constitution in May to be a followed by a general election in 2010.

But opposition figures and some Western countries have voiced skepticism the junta will be willing to let the opposition compete in the vote or to relinquish power.

“I believe we are now in a critical phase in terms of development(s) in Myanmar, in terms of Burma’s relations with neighbouring countries, with Asean, with the international community,” Gambari said.

Burma carried out a bloody crackdown on monk-led pro-democracy demonstrators in September.

Beijing joined Western powers in deploring Burma’s crushing of the protests in a statement by the UN Security Council.

But China has stressed the statement did not mean it would stomach harsher action or legally binding UN resolutions against Burma, where it has major economic and strategic stakes.

Xinhua : No casualties has been reported in a series of four bomb blasts in Myanmar’s border town of Tachilek in eastern Shan state, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.

The first bomb went off Monday before dawn near the Paradise Hotel in Tachilek, damaging the hotel’s staff quarter, while the other three bombs exploded in five minutes’ intervals at the foot of a tree near a tea shop and the mangrove near the tree respectively, the report said.

The incidents, which are under investigation, took place two days after the authorities warned against more possible sabotage in the country in the wake of bomb blasts earlier this year.

There have been a number of bomb blasts in Myanmar since January this year. The Jan. 11 blast in the new capital of Nay PyiTaw rocked a public toilet in the compound of staff quarters near Pyinmana Railway Station, killing the bomber herself.

A second blast in Phyu, Bago division on the same day took place when a circus show was being held at a football ground, killing a man and wounding three women and a child. The dead, allegedly a member of the anti-government ethnic armed group — Kayin National Union (KNU), blew himself off when he was waiting for his partner to plant the bomb, according to earlier official report.

A bomb explosion hit a women latrine in the Yangon Railway Station on Jan. 13, injuring one woman. And a bomb went off on the rear part of a highway passenger bus on Jan. 16, claiming the life of a bus conductor.

Irrawaddy-William Boot: Burma uses Singapore banks to dodge sanctions.Burmese businesses are exporting large quantities of rice to neighboring Bangladesh using a payment system through Singapore that seeks to avoid economic sanctions, according to reports.

The military regime has given the green light to the export of up to 400,000 tones of rice. Much of it will be transported by sea from Sittwe on the Arakan coast to the Bangladesh port of Chittagong.

Burma is cashing in on the ongoing food shortages suffered by its neighbor in the wake of the devastating cyclone which wrecked large swathes of Bangladeshi rice cropland.

However, the exporters have told Bangladeshi buyers they will not accept letters of credit as payment, according to The Nation newspaper in Dhaka. This is because they fear interference from extended financial sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union countries, the paper said.

Burma’s ministry of commerce has told the Bangladeshi authorities that payments for rice should be made by bank transfers via Singapore—illustrating that the squeaky clean city state is still condoning business with the Burmese junta.

Bangladesh has recently made overtures to the Burmese regime to improve relations, including business links. Dhaka last month approached Naypyidaw about buying Burmese gas to make up for looming energy shortages in Bangladesh and said in return it could barter agricultural fertilizer.

Money Laundering Warning Issued on Tay Za

Reports that Burmese tycoon Tay Za may have been buying ships in South Korea have surfaced as a leading regional anti- money laundering expert urged caution in dealing with the businessman or his companies.

No one should deal with Tay Za—labeled by the U.S. Treasury Department as a “key financial front man” for the Burmese regime—without “seeking appropriate professional advice as a matter of some urgency” says Peter Gallo, who heads Pacific Risk, a Hong Kong-based consultancy on countering money laundering activities.

Tay Za heads up a list of businesses and associates put on a sanctions list earlier this month by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The new sanctions against Tay Za, who heads up the Htoo Group, and seven other Burmese named as close to the military regime—including Khin Lay Thet, the wife of the No.3 in the hierarchy, Gen. Shwe Mann—”could have further implications for any companies continuing to deal with Tay Za’s known associates, particularly in relation to his interests in aviation and the supply of aircraft parts.”

Thai Govt Moving Forward on Burma Hydro Dams

Suggestions that Thailand’s new government is having second thoughts about supporting major hydro-electric projects on key Burmese rivers are “rather unlikely,” according to energy industry analysts.

The Bangkok Post and some news agencies reported that the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej had “put on hold” two large controversial hydroelectric schemes on the Salween River in northeast Burma.

The multibillion dollar projects, involving Chinese companies, have been mired in controversy over environmental damage risks and human rights abuses including forced evictions of people. Most of the anticipated 8,000 megawatt generating capacity— more than five times Burma’s current total capacity—is earmarked for Thailand.

“Thailand has already programmed these projects into its future energy needs,” said industry analyst Sar Watana in Bangkok this week. “And this government is more pro-business and less environmentally concerned than its predecessor.

The new prime minister has already stirred environmental controversy by proposing to siphon off water from the Mekong River to irrigate Thailand’s northeast.

Gold Prospectors Probe Deeper into Kachin

Along with news of yet another gems auction planned for Rangoon—the third in the last six months—comes disclosure that elements of the Burmese military are expanding gold mining in northern Kachin state.

Environmentally damaging gold prospecting has been going on around the town of Putao, but reports now say that possible rogue officers of the Northern Command have sanctioned digging higher up the Kasang River.

Methods of gold prospecting in Burma generally cause water and land pollution through the use of mercury to flush out the precious metal.

A report last year said that the number of gold mining sites in Kachin’s Hugawng Valley had increased to 31.

Now, new sites are being prospected within about 60 kilometers of the Chinese border in the vicinity of Naw Mung, says the Kachin News Group.

The report named a Col. Khaing Soe as heading up what it termed “illegal prospecting.”

The human rights NGO Alternative Asean Network on Burma says in an earlier report: “Large areas of land are deforested in order to make way for mining and building necessary infrastructure. The gold mining industry exposes local people to serious long-term risks from mercury poisoning.”

Irrawaddy – Violet Cho : Hundreds of mourners, including Karen and members of Burma’s other ethnic groups, attended the funeral on Monday of Mahn Sha, the leader of the country’s largest ethnic resistance organization. The funeral was held near the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot.

Mahn Sha, the highly respected general secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU), was shot dead by two gunmen at his Mae Sot home on Thursday. The Irrawaddy’s special correspondent at the funeral, Wai Moe, said several KNU leaders failed to attend the Buddhist funeral, probably for security reasons.

Some members of Mahn Sha’s family were also absent.

KNU Chairman Ba Thin Sein and Vice Chairman Tamla Baw and Mahn Sha’s three children did not attend the funeral. Ba Thin Sein and Tamla Baw have been in poor health for several months.

Mahn Sha’s two daughters showed up earlier to pay their respects to their father but they did not attend the funeral ceremony, according to KNU sources.

The widow of the late Karen leader Gen Saw Bo Mya and his favorite son, Nerdah Mya, were also not seen among the mourners.

Karen leaders who did attend included Gen Mu Tu, commander in chief of the Karen National Liberation Army, the military wing of KNU. The large crowd that followed the rites also included Burmese opposition members in exile, and some foreigners.

Gen Mu Tu said in a funeral address that Mahn Sha had been assassinated by unidentified “enemies.” No one has claimed responsibility for the killing, although many observers, journalists and Mae Sot police have said it could have been carried out by breakaway Karen factions.

Meanwhile, two US congressmen, Joe Pitts and Trent Franks, offered eulogies of the slain Karen leader.

“Mahn Sha gave his life to protect the Karen from the incomprehensible genocide committed against them by the military regime,” said Trent Franks, who is co-chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Task Force on International Religious Freedom.

Xinhua : Top leaders of Myanmar and Russia Monday exchanged messages of felicitation on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, appraising the friendship and cooperation of the two nations over the past six decades, according to the official newspaper New Ligth of Myanmar.

Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, in his message to his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir V Putin, said that in this new millennium there are many challenges that both of the countries have to face, expressing Myanmar’s desire to jointly work with the Russian Federation in resolving the common challenges bilaterally as well as mulitlaterally in the spirit of mutual understanding, confidence and active cooperation.

Than Shwe also expressed Myanmar’s belief that the two countries’ common endeavors would assist in quest for peace, security and prosperity not only among the two countries but also the region as a whole.

Putin, in his message to Than Shwe, also expressed confidence that fruitful interaction will be the basis for further development of bilateral relations, broadening of contacts and strengthening of mutual understanding between the two peoples.

Putin wishes Myanmar success in the implementation of large-scale political changes as well as well being and prosperity to all citizens of Myanmar.

On the occasion, Myanmar Prime Minister General Thein Sein, in his message to his Russian counterpart Viktor Zubkov also said Myanmar looks forward to working closely with Russia to further consolidate and develop the existing friendly relations through frequent contacts and exchange of visits between leaders of the two countries as well as officials at various levels and to enhance cooperation in the areas of mutual interest in the spirit of equality and mutual benefit.

The Russian Prime Minister, in the message to his Myanmar counterpart, hopes for continuation of close interaction between the two governments with the aim of further enhancing and diversification of Russia-Myanmar relations, especially in trade and investment.

Similarly, the two countries’ foreign ministers also exchanged such messages of felicitation on the occasion.

Myanmar and Russia forged diplomatic link in 1948.