Myanmar junta stage-manages visit by UN chief
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jul 6, 4:18 pm ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar's ruling junta wanted Ban Ki-moon to go into a grandiose drug museum through the back door to prevent the U.N. secretary-general from making a rock-star entrance.
Ban eventually did walk through the front door — a small victory after he had lost far bigger battles, notably a hoped-for meeting with jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced ong sahn SUE CHEE).
After a two-day visit in which the generals tried to stage-manage the world's top diplomat at every step, Ban left the country with few prospects of even slightly loosening the iron grip on power held by military regime and its junta chief, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
If people saw Ban acting independently in Myanmar "that would cause Than Shwe to lose face," said Donald Seekins, a Myanmar expert at Japan's Meio University. "So they want to manipulate him."
By snubbing Ban, the country's military rulers lost an opportunity to improve its standing among many of the world's nations that view the struggling country with rich reserves of gas and minerals as a pariah.
Inside Myanmar, Suu Kyi's opposition party said Than Shwe (pronounced TAHN SHWAY) showed he is unwilling to permit real change ahead of the 2010 elections, which would be the first in two decades.
Ban had asked to make his closing speech to diplomats and humanitarian groups Saturday at a hotel, but the junta refused and forced him to instead speak at the government's Drug Elimination Museum.
Ban's staff didn't want his presence there — where a wax figure depicts a military intelligence chief chopping opium poppies, which Myanmar views as a scourge introduced by colonialists — to appear like another prop furthering the government's agenda
"They fought us over every last detail," said a U.N. official who took part in organizing the trip, speaking anonymously and out of protocol because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Ban — whose mild-mannered facade belies a toughness and occasional temper — would have preferred a tete-a-tete with Than Shwe to having note-taking aides around, an example of his belief in his ability to sway recalcitrant world leaders if only he can get them alone in a room.
But Than Shwe's idea of a tete-a-tete was to pit himself and the other four generals who together make up the ruling State Peace and Development Council against Ban and some high-ranking U.N. deputies in the rarely visited capital of Naypyitaw, according to U.N. officials.
The 76-year-old Than Shwe suggested that Ban might not be invited back until after the elections.
Ban said Than Shwe promised to hand over power to civilians after the elections. But the generals refused to follow U.N. recommendations intended to prevent sham elections, including publishing an election law and freeing Suu Kyi and 2,200 other political prisoners to ensure general participation.
"Only then will the elections be seen as credible and legitimate," Ban told reporters Monday in Geneva, Switzerland.
The government refused to honor the results of the 1990 elections after Suu Kyi's party won in a landslide. The junta tolerates no dissent and crushed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in September 2007.
At the end of the trip, Ban tried to defuse the notion he was returning empty-handed.
He said the visit was an opportunity to plant seeds that could blossom later and that he was dutifully relaying the international community's message the elections must be seen as credible.
In the meantime, Ban said he will keep talks alive with Than Shwe through the so-called Group of Friends on Myanmar.
That approach hasn't nudged Myanmar on key issues. Nor have eight previous visits by Ibrahim Gambari, Ban's top envoy to Myanmar, produced many results.
"Than Shwe is using the United Nations as a way of buying time or distracting people from the main issues, so it isn't very constructive," Seekins said. "I don't think Than Shwe is willing to make political concessions, especially concerning Aung San Suu Kyi. I think he would really like to put her away in jail and not have to worry about her."
In the absence of Suu Kyi, it was left to Ban to deliver unusually stinging remarks about the government, its pummeling of human rights and the urgent need to set a new course.
When he took the stage at the museum, it was a rarity in the military's half-century of dominance — an outside political figure allowed to say what he wants.
And after much haggling, Ban's black Mercedes was allowed to pull up to the front door of the museum. There, his motorcade disgorged a small entourage of aides and a half-dozen international journalists. Local press awaited him inside.
That also ensured an audience for him in Myanmar and beyond — another small victory.
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jul 6, 4:18 pm ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar's ruling junta wanted Ban Ki-moon to go into a grandiose drug museum through the back door to prevent the U.N. secretary-general from making a rock-star entrance.
Ban eventually did walk through the front door — a small victory after he had lost far bigger battles, notably a hoped-for meeting with jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced ong sahn SUE CHEE).
After a two-day visit in which the generals tried to stage-manage the world's top diplomat at every step, Ban left the country with few prospects of even slightly loosening the iron grip on power held by military regime and its junta chief, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
If people saw Ban acting independently in Myanmar "that would cause Than Shwe to lose face," said Donald Seekins, a Myanmar expert at Japan's Meio University. "So they want to manipulate him."
By snubbing Ban, the country's military rulers lost an opportunity to improve its standing among many of the world's nations that view the struggling country with rich reserves of gas and minerals as a pariah.
Inside Myanmar, Suu Kyi's opposition party said Than Shwe (pronounced TAHN SHWAY) showed he is unwilling to permit real change ahead of the 2010 elections, which would be the first in two decades.
Ban had asked to make his closing speech to diplomats and humanitarian groups Saturday at a hotel, but the junta refused and forced him to instead speak at the government's Drug Elimination Museum.
Ban's staff didn't want his presence there — where a wax figure depicts a military intelligence chief chopping opium poppies, which Myanmar views as a scourge introduced by colonialists — to appear like another prop furthering the government's agenda
"They fought us over every last detail," said a U.N. official who took part in organizing the trip, speaking anonymously and out of protocol because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Ban — whose mild-mannered facade belies a toughness and occasional temper — would have preferred a tete-a-tete with Than Shwe to having note-taking aides around, an example of his belief in his ability to sway recalcitrant world leaders if only he can get them alone in a room.
But Than Shwe's idea of a tete-a-tete was to pit himself and the other four generals who together make up the ruling State Peace and Development Council against Ban and some high-ranking U.N. deputies in the rarely visited capital of Naypyitaw, according to U.N. officials.
The 76-year-old Than Shwe suggested that Ban might not be invited back until after the elections.
Ban said Than Shwe promised to hand over power to civilians after the elections. But the generals refused to follow U.N. recommendations intended to prevent sham elections, including publishing an election law and freeing Suu Kyi and 2,200 other political prisoners to ensure general participation.
"Only then will the elections be seen as credible and legitimate," Ban told reporters Monday in Geneva, Switzerland.
The government refused to honor the results of the 1990 elections after Suu Kyi's party won in a landslide. The junta tolerates no dissent and crushed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in September 2007.
At the end of the trip, Ban tried to defuse the notion he was returning empty-handed.
He said the visit was an opportunity to plant seeds that could blossom later and that he was dutifully relaying the international community's message the elections must be seen as credible.
In the meantime, Ban said he will keep talks alive with Than Shwe through the so-called Group of Friends on Myanmar.
That approach hasn't nudged Myanmar on key issues. Nor have eight previous visits by Ibrahim Gambari, Ban's top envoy to Myanmar, produced many results.
"Than Shwe is using the United Nations as a way of buying time or distracting people from the main issues, so it isn't very constructive," Seekins said. "I don't think Than Shwe is willing to make political concessions, especially concerning Aung San Suu Kyi. I think he would really like to put her away in jail and not have to worry about her."
In the absence of Suu Kyi, it was left to Ban to deliver unusually stinging remarks about the government, its pummeling of human rights and the urgent need to set a new course.
When he took the stage at the museum, it was a rarity in the military's half-century of dominance — an outside political figure allowed to say what he wants.
And after much haggling, Ban's black Mercedes was allowed to pull up to the front door of the museum. There, his motorcade disgorged a small entourage of aides and a half-dozen international journalists. Local press awaited him inside.
That also ensured an audience for him in Myanmar and beyond — another small victory.
**********************************************************
Myanmar rebuilding uneven a year after the cyclone
AP - Tuesday, July 7
By JOHN HEILPRIN
KYON DA VILLAGE, Myanmar (AP) — As the U.N. helicopter skimmed above the Irrawaddy Delta, the world's top diplomat was haunted by the memory of a baby girl he encountered here a year ago.
"She was only one day old," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon mused aloud on a trip on Saturday to the area devastated by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.
He had seen the mother living in a tent with the girl, hours after her birth. He'd seen another girl, too, just 19 days old, sick and clinging to life, but lacking medical support. He'd told the mothers not to lose hope, the United Nations was there to help.
On a brief visit carefully scripted by Myanmar's government, the U.N. chief wasn't able to determine the whereabouts of those fledgling lives. Instead, he and his entourage — top aides and two journalists — got a snapshot that showed some improvements while masking remaining problems.
The angry waters that swallowed 138,000 lives have receded. Seen from above, where there had been a monolith of shimmering water was now a patchwork of rice field and border, river and shoreline, muddy pond and gray cloud.
Gone were the endless stretches of flooded rice fields and islands of destroyed homes with a few people standing on the rooftops. It affected more than two million, leaving a quarter-million homeless.
Many Western nations haven't fully opened their wallets to the U.N.'s three-year, $691 million recovery plan, lacking trust in Myanmar or not wanting to provide too much help to an authoritarian regime, a senior U.N. humanitarian official said on condition of anonymity to protect his relationship with Myanmar authorities.
The World Food Program, which has operated in Myanmar for 15 years, still cannot muster 44 percent of the $79 million it says is needed over three years. The World Health Organization still lacks 57 percent of $42 million in projected needs for 325 townships.
The biggest health threats remain HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, according to the International Organization for Migration, which began partnering with Myanmar's government in 2005.
Local medical officials at first began to explain to a reporter last Saturday how the clinics were all busy, with the village and the broader Irrawaddy Delta region suffering from a high number of respiratory infections, replacing diarrhea as the leading cause of illnesses.
But after government minders began listening in, the medical officials suddenly seemed to lose their ability to speak English. End of conversation.
In the past year IOM-led medical teams treated 110,613 people in 858 cyclone-hit villages.
Nearly a quarter-million people in remote villages rely on boat deliveries of clean drinking water, rice fields remain bare or contaminated with salt from the floodwaters, and food handouts are increasingly scarce.
Schools are rebuilt but short of teachers, and a half-million people still live in the most basic of shelters.
Ban, who carried the same message as last year that the U.N. was there to help and keep hope alive, said he was satisfied "the government has taken necessary measures."
A year ago, the single-family plastic tents through which Ban strode had covered neat stacks of supplies that seemed flown in for the occasion.
This year, the tents were replaced by small wooden homes on stilts and families with painted faces and kids sporting freshly starched and ironed white linen garb.
Some improvements were obvious, but this was the camp that the xenophobic junta that rules Myanmar, also known as Burma, wanted the world to see.
Ban's first trip helped overcome the reluctance for which the junta was widely condemned in granting foreign aid agencies access in the first weeks after the disaster, which almost certainly added to the death toll.
"His job is to carry the message of the international community," a senior U.N. official said of Ban as his entourage, for a second year in a row, picked their way along the muddy walkways and throngs of villagers.
"Clearly, they are living in their own world," the official said of Myanmar's ruling junta, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering authorities.
AP - Tuesday, July 7
By JOHN HEILPRIN
KYON DA VILLAGE, Myanmar (AP) — As the U.N. helicopter skimmed above the Irrawaddy Delta, the world's top diplomat was haunted by the memory of a baby girl he encountered here a year ago.
"She was only one day old," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon mused aloud on a trip on Saturday to the area devastated by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.
He had seen the mother living in a tent with the girl, hours after her birth. He'd seen another girl, too, just 19 days old, sick and clinging to life, but lacking medical support. He'd told the mothers not to lose hope, the United Nations was there to help.
On a brief visit carefully scripted by Myanmar's government, the U.N. chief wasn't able to determine the whereabouts of those fledgling lives. Instead, he and his entourage — top aides and two journalists — got a snapshot that showed some improvements while masking remaining problems.
The angry waters that swallowed 138,000 lives have receded. Seen from above, where there had been a monolith of shimmering water was now a patchwork of rice field and border, river and shoreline, muddy pond and gray cloud.
Gone were the endless stretches of flooded rice fields and islands of destroyed homes with a few people standing on the rooftops. It affected more than two million, leaving a quarter-million homeless.
Many Western nations haven't fully opened their wallets to the U.N.'s three-year, $691 million recovery plan, lacking trust in Myanmar or not wanting to provide too much help to an authoritarian regime, a senior U.N. humanitarian official said on condition of anonymity to protect his relationship with Myanmar authorities.
The World Food Program, which has operated in Myanmar for 15 years, still cannot muster 44 percent of the $79 million it says is needed over three years. The World Health Organization still lacks 57 percent of $42 million in projected needs for 325 townships.
The biggest health threats remain HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, according to the International Organization for Migration, which began partnering with Myanmar's government in 2005.
Local medical officials at first began to explain to a reporter last Saturday how the clinics were all busy, with the village and the broader Irrawaddy Delta region suffering from a high number of respiratory infections, replacing diarrhea as the leading cause of illnesses.
But after government minders began listening in, the medical officials suddenly seemed to lose their ability to speak English. End of conversation.
In the past year IOM-led medical teams treated 110,613 people in 858 cyclone-hit villages.
Nearly a quarter-million people in remote villages rely on boat deliveries of clean drinking water, rice fields remain bare or contaminated with salt from the floodwaters, and food handouts are increasingly scarce.
Schools are rebuilt but short of teachers, and a half-million people still live in the most basic of shelters.
Ban, who carried the same message as last year that the U.N. was there to help and keep hope alive, said he was satisfied "the government has taken necessary measures."
A year ago, the single-family plastic tents through which Ban strode had covered neat stacks of supplies that seemed flown in for the occasion.
This year, the tents were replaced by small wooden homes on stilts and families with painted faces and kids sporting freshly starched and ironed white linen garb.
Some improvements were obvious, but this was the camp that the xenophobic junta that rules Myanmar, also known as Burma, wanted the world to see.
Ban's first trip helped overcome the reluctance for which the junta was widely condemned in granting foreign aid agencies access in the first weeks after the disaster, which almost certainly added to the death toll.
"His job is to carry the message of the international community," a senior U.N. official said of Ban as his entourage, for a second year in a row, picked their way along the muddy walkways and throngs of villagers.
"Clearly, they are living in their own world," the official said of Myanmar's ruling junta, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering authorities.
**********************************************************
US admiral lauds NKorean ship surveillance effort
AP - Tuesday, July 7
By KELLY OLSEN
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The impending return home of a North Korean ship suspected of possibly carrying illicit cargo shows that efforts are working to enforce U.N. sanctions imposed against the country after its nuclear and missile tests, the chief of U.S. Naval operations said Monday.
The U.N. Security Council punished the North after its May nuclear test with a resolution and tough sanctions to clamp down on alleged trading of banned arms and weapons-related material, including authorizing searches of suspect ships.
The reclusive nation has engaged in a series of provocative acts this year and increased tensions Saturday, firing seven ballistic missiles into the ocean off its east coast in violation of three U.N. resolutions. It was the North's biggest display of missile firepower in three years.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council issued a condemnation of North Korea's recent missile tests after a closed meeting Monday in New York.
Uganda U.N. Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda, who holds the council's rotating presidency, said members "condemned and expressed grave concerns" at the missile launches, which violate U.N. resolutions and "pose a threat to regional and international security."
Japan requested Monday's Security Council meeting. Japanese U.N. Ambassador Yukio Takasu said the council should act "calmly and responsibly" and focus on enforcing existing resolutions.
"Those are very effective measures if everyone implements them," Takasu said.
Japan has asked all Southeast Asian nations, except junta-ruled Myanmar, to enforce the U.N.'s North Korea resolutions, he said. Takasu also credited the new resolutions with forcing the North Korean ship to turn back.
The cargo vessel Kang Nam 1 was tracked by the U.S. Navy after it left port last month. The ship, which was believed destined for Myanmar, suddenly turned back on June 28. South Korean defense officials said it had entered North Korean waters and should reach port late Monday.
"I think that's an indication of the way the international community came together," Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of Naval operations, said of the ship's reversal.
Speaking to reporters in Seoul, he called the monitoring of the Kang Nam I "a very effective way" of stopping proliferation, and said the Navy will continue to "conduct operations" that support the effort to sanction the North.
The Kang Nam 1, which has drawn attention in the past for suspected proliferation activities, was the first ship to be monitored under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 passed last month.
It bans North Korea from selling a range of arms and weapons-related material, and allows other countries to request boarding and inspection of suspected ships, though the vessels do not have to give permission.
North Korea has said it would consider interception of its ships a declaration of war.
It remains unclear, however, exactly why the Kang Nam 1 turned back or what kind of cargo was on board. Speculation has included the possibility it was carrying weapons, possibly to Myanmar. The ship has been suspected of transporting banned goods to the Southeast Asian country in the past.
Separately, Akitaka Saiki, Japan's envoy to the stalled six-nation nuclear negotiations with North Korea, said that efforts to implement the U.N. resolution will yield results.
"We expect numerous effects through consistent implementation," he told reporters in Seoul after meeting with South Korean officials.
Malaysia, meanwhile, pledged Monday to work with the United States to block the North from using the Southeast Asian nation's banks to fund any weapons deals. Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said his government "does not condone" any illegal activities.
The assurance came as Philip Goldberg, a U.S. envoy in charge of coordinating the implementation of sanctions against Pyongyang, met with Malaysian officials.
South Korean media have reported that North Korea sought payment through a bank in Malaysia for the suspected shipment of weapons to Myanmar via the Kang Nam I.
U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey is also traveling to China and Hong Kong this week to gain support for U.S. efforts to keep North Korea from using banks and businesses to buy and sell missile and nuclear technology. He arrives Monday and will meet with government officials and private sector executives Wednesday through Friday.
The Naval operations chief denounced North Korea for its volley of weekend missile tests, calling them "very unhelpful and clearly counter to the desires of the international community for a peaceful and stable region."
The tests added fuel to tensions already running high after the May 25 underground nuclear test blast.
Japan's defense chief called the North's launches "a serious act of provocation" that poses a threat to his country. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada also said Pyongyang may fire more missiles.
The recent launches on July 4 — the U.S. Independence Day holiday — appeared to be a poke at Washington as it moves to enforce U.N. sanctions as well as its own against North Korea.
Despite speculation that the North might try to launch a long-range missile toward Hawaii, U.S. defense officials said there have been no imminent signs of such a move.
AP - Tuesday, July 7
By KELLY OLSEN
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The impending return home of a North Korean ship suspected of possibly carrying illicit cargo shows that efforts are working to enforce U.N. sanctions imposed against the country after its nuclear and missile tests, the chief of U.S. Naval operations said Monday.
The U.N. Security Council punished the North after its May nuclear test with a resolution and tough sanctions to clamp down on alleged trading of banned arms and weapons-related material, including authorizing searches of suspect ships.
The reclusive nation has engaged in a series of provocative acts this year and increased tensions Saturday, firing seven ballistic missiles into the ocean off its east coast in violation of three U.N. resolutions. It was the North's biggest display of missile firepower in three years.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council issued a condemnation of North Korea's recent missile tests after a closed meeting Monday in New York.
Uganda U.N. Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda, who holds the council's rotating presidency, said members "condemned and expressed grave concerns" at the missile launches, which violate U.N. resolutions and "pose a threat to regional and international security."
Japan requested Monday's Security Council meeting. Japanese U.N. Ambassador Yukio Takasu said the council should act "calmly and responsibly" and focus on enforcing existing resolutions.
"Those are very effective measures if everyone implements them," Takasu said.
Japan has asked all Southeast Asian nations, except junta-ruled Myanmar, to enforce the U.N.'s North Korea resolutions, he said. Takasu also credited the new resolutions with forcing the North Korean ship to turn back.
The cargo vessel Kang Nam 1 was tracked by the U.S. Navy after it left port last month. The ship, which was believed destined for Myanmar, suddenly turned back on June 28. South Korean defense officials said it had entered North Korean waters and should reach port late Monday.
"I think that's an indication of the way the international community came together," Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of Naval operations, said of the ship's reversal.
Speaking to reporters in Seoul, he called the monitoring of the Kang Nam I "a very effective way" of stopping proliferation, and said the Navy will continue to "conduct operations" that support the effort to sanction the North.
The Kang Nam 1, which has drawn attention in the past for suspected proliferation activities, was the first ship to be monitored under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 passed last month.
It bans North Korea from selling a range of arms and weapons-related material, and allows other countries to request boarding and inspection of suspected ships, though the vessels do not have to give permission.
North Korea has said it would consider interception of its ships a declaration of war.
It remains unclear, however, exactly why the Kang Nam 1 turned back or what kind of cargo was on board. Speculation has included the possibility it was carrying weapons, possibly to Myanmar. The ship has been suspected of transporting banned goods to the Southeast Asian country in the past.
Separately, Akitaka Saiki, Japan's envoy to the stalled six-nation nuclear negotiations with North Korea, said that efforts to implement the U.N. resolution will yield results.
"We expect numerous effects through consistent implementation," he told reporters in Seoul after meeting with South Korean officials.
Malaysia, meanwhile, pledged Monday to work with the United States to block the North from using the Southeast Asian nation's banks to fund any weapons deals. Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said his government "does not condone" any illegal activities.
The assurance came as Philip Goldberg, a U.S. envoy in charge of coordinating the implementation of sanctions against Pyongyang, met with Malaysian officials.
South Korean media have reported that North Korea sought payment through a bank in Malaysia for the suspected shipment of weapons to Myanmar via the Kang Nam I.
U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey is also traveling to China and Hong Kong this week to gain support for U.S. efforts to keep North Korea from using banks and businesses to buy and sell missile and nuclear technology. He arrives Monday and will meet with government officials and private sector executives Wednesday through Friday.
The Naval operations chief denounced North Korea for its volley of weekend missile tests, calling them "very unhelpful and clearly counter to the desires of the international community for a peaceful and stable region."
The tests added fuel to tensions already running high after the May 25 underground nuclear test blast.
Japan's defense chief called the North's launches "a serious act of provocation" that poses a threat to his country. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada also said Pyongyang may fire more missiles.
The recent launches on July 4 — the U.S. Independence Day holiday — appeared to be a poke at Washington as it moves to enforce U.N. sanctions as well as its own against North Korea.
Despite speculation that the North might try to launch a long-range missile toward Hawaii, U.S. defense officials said there have been no imminent signs of such a move.
**********************************************************
Myanmar earns $292 million from jade sales
Despite US import ban, Myanmar earns $292 million from jade sales, mostly from Chinese buyers
On Tuesday July 7, 2009, 5:15 am EDT
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Military-ruled Myanmar earned more than 209 million euros ($292 million) from the sale of jade at a government-sponsored gems show despite a U.S. ban on their import, a merchant said Tuesday.
Nearly 5,500 lots of jade were sold through competitive bidding at the 13-day auction, with most of the buyers from China, said one of the participants, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal. The event was attended by more than 5,000 local and foreign gem merchants, the participant said.
The military regime, which normally trumpets the annual emporium, has made no announcement about the June 22-July 4 event.
Myanmar is one of the world's biggest producers of jade and other gems, as well as the source of up to 90 percent of its rubies.
The United States last year signed legislation banning the import of gems from Myanmar as part of sanctions against the country. Because of U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar in July 2003, which froze all U.S. dollar remittances to the country, international business transactions -- including gem sales -- are carried out in euros.
"Despite the gems ban and (world) economic crisis, 72 percent of jade lots displayed at the emporium were sold," said the merchant.
The largest contingent of buyers, nearly 3,000, came from China, the main market for Myanmar jade.
Most of the jade belongs to private businesses and the government takes a 10 percent tax from sales.
Organized by the Mines Ministry, gem auctions are a major revenue earner for the ruling junta, which faces International condemnation because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.
Despite US import ban, Myanmar earns $292 million from jade sales, mostly from Chinese buyers
On Tuesday July 7, 2009, 5:15 am EDT
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Military-ruled Myanmar earned more than 209 million euros ($292 million) from the sale of jade at a government-sponsored gems show despite a U.S. ban on their import, a merchant said Tuesday.
Nearly 5,500 lots of jade were sold through competitive bidding at the 13-day auction, with most of the buyers from China, said one of the participants, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal. The event was attended by more than 5,000 local and foreign gem merchants, the participant said.
The military regime, which normally trumpets the annual emporium, has made no announcement about the June 22-July 4 event.
Myanmar is one of the world's biggest producers of jade and other gems, as well as the source of up to 90 percent of its rubies.
The United States last year signed legislation banning the import of gems from Myanmar as part of sanctions against the country. Because of U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar in July 2003, which froze all U.S. dollar remittances to the country, international business transactions -- including gem sales -- are carried out in euros.
"Despite the gems ban and (world) economic crisis, 72 percent of jade lots displayed at the emporium were sold," said the merchant.
The largest contingent of buyers, nearly 3,000, came from China, the main market for Myanmar jade.
Most of the jade belongs to private businesses and the government takes a 10 percent tax from sales.
Organized by the Mines Ministry, gem auctions are a major revenue earner for the ruling junta, which faces International condemnation because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.
**********************************************************
Landslide caused by rain kills 30 in Myanmar
Wed Jul 8, 2009 2:21pm IST
YANGON (Reuters) - A landslide caused by torrential rain killed about 30 people in northern Myanmar at the weekend when it swept away their homes, which were built on a mine dump, people in contact with the area said on Wednesday.
The accident occurred at Lonkhin Jade Mine near Phakant, in an area about 1,500 km (930 miles) north of Yangon known as Jade Land.
"So far as we heard from our field offices, about 30 people were killed when their houses built on the mine dump were swept away in the flash flood caused by torrential rain on July 4," said a Yangon-based jade merchant, who has offices in Lonkhin and Phakant.
A government official from Myitkyina, about 80 km (50 miles) east of Phakant, confirmed the accident.
"We also heard there were some casualties in the landslide, which came last Saturday after it had rained heavily for about four days," said the official, who asked not to be identified as talking to the media is prohibited.
"The road between Lonkhin and Phakant remains blocked and inaccessible."
Such accidents are common in the rainy season in that area, known for Myanmar's famous ruby and jade.
At least 20 people were killed in flash floods in Moegok and Phakant in June and July last year.
Wed Jul 8, 2009 2:21pm IST
YANGON (Reuters) - A landslide caused by torrential rain killed about 30 people in northern Myanmar at the weekend when it swept away their homes, which were built on a mine dump, people in contact with the area said on Wednesday.
The accident occurred at Lonkhin Jade Mine near Phakant, in an area about 1,500 km (930 miles) north of Yangon known as Jade Land.
"So far as we heard from our field offices, about 30 people were killed when their houses built on the mine dump were swept away in the flash flood caused by torrential rain on July 4," said a Yangon-based jade merchant, who has offices in Lonkhin and Phakant.
A government official from Myitkyina, about 80 km (50 miles) east of Phakant, confirmed the accident.
"We also heard there were some casualties in the landslide, which came last Saturday after it had rained heavily for about four days," said the official, who asked not to be identified as talking to the media is prohibited.
"The road between Lonkhin and Phakant remains blocked and inaccessible."
Such accidents are common in the rainy season in that area, known for Myanmar's famous ruby and jade.
At least 20 people were killed in flash floods in Moegok and Phakant in June and July last year.
**********************************************************
ANALYSIS - The world is running out of options on Myanmar
Wed Jul 8, 2009 12:47pm IST
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The international community has few options left for Myanmar after the U.N. secretary-general's failure last week to engage the recalcitrant military regime.
Having risked his reputation by accepting an invitation to visit the isolated southeast Asia state, analysts believe Ban Ki-moon left with nothing to show for his efforts.
Denying Ban even a meeting with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta, more than ever, seemed impervious to criticism and comfortable in its isolation.
"The U.N. secretary-general card has (now) been played, Ban has lost and we're not very surprised," said Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador to Thailand, now a Myanmar analyst.
"I don't know where the international community can go from here."
The situation is likely to be discussed at the regional forum of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phuket, Thailand, later this month, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in attendance.
But even if they have recently broken with tradition and ventured criticism, the smaller neighbours of Myanmar, the former Burma, are unlikely to achieve much and ASEAN's strategy of granting the generals membership as a way of getting them to accept regional norms on democracy will once again be shown up as a failure.
A statement reiterating demands for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners is expected, but is likely to fall on deaf ears.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the weekend that the world was preparing to "respond robustly" to the junta, but Myanmar's snub of Ban and previous U.N. special envoys suggests diplomacy is futile and a tougher approach is needed.
DEALING WITH GENERALS, NOT DIPLOMATS
"Everyone has tried diplomacy, but these are army generals we're dealing with, not diplomats," said Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK.
"The generals are impervious to criticism, but not to pressure. They're scared of real pressure and it's a myth they think they're invulnerable."
Although not yet on the table, a U.N. Security Council resolution is an option, but risks opposition from China -- the closest Myanmar has to a major ally -- and Russia, who are among the five veto-wielding permanent members able to block action.
Some analysts suggest the U.N. should test the regime by threatening legal action over its poor human rights record, by way of an International Commission of Enquiry or referral to the International Court of Justice.
Increasingly, China could hold the key.
It has shown more diplomatic flexibility of late and supported two resolutions on sanctions against neighbouring North Korea for its nuclear weapons programme.
As in North Korea, Beijing is concerned about instability in Myanmar and might be willing to act to forestall that, lest it interfere with its considerable commercial interests.
"The generals feel they can get away with anything because China will give them blanket protection, but that may not be the case," said Debbie Stothard from the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma.
"It's time for a U.N. resolution and time for Ban to take off the kid gloves regarding Burma. The regime is afraid of the Security Council, but if it doesn't act, the generals will continue to do whatever they like," she said.
Wed Jul 8, 2009 12:47pm IST
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The international community has few options left for Myanmar after the U.N. secretary-general's failure last week to engage the recalcitrant military regime.
Having risked his reputation by accepting an invitation to visit the isolated southeast Asia state, analysts believe Ban Ki-moon left with nothing to show for his efforts.
Denying Ban even a meeting with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta, more than ever, seemed impervious to criticism and comfortable in its isolation.
"The U.N. secretary-general card has (now) been played, Ban has lost and we're not very surprised," said Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador to Thailand, now a Myanmar analyst.
"I don't know where the international community can go from here."
The situation is likely to be discussed at the regional forum of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phuket, Thailand, later this month, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in attendance.
But even if they have recently broken with tradition and ventured criticism, the smaller neighbours of Myanmar, the former Burma, are unlikely to achieve much and ASEAN's strategy of granting the generals membership as a way of getting them to accept regional norms on democracy will once again be shown up as a failure.
A statement reiterating demands for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners is expected, but is likely to fall on deaf ears.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the weekend that the world was preparing to "respond robustly" to the junta, but Myanmar's snub of Ban and previous U.N. special envoys suggests diplomacy is futile and a tougher approach is needed.
DEALING WITH GENERALS, NOT DIPLOMATS
"Everyone has tried diplomacy, but these are army generals we're dealing with, not diplomats," said Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK.
"The generals are impervious to criticism, but not to pressure. They're scared of real pressure and it's a myth they think they're invulnerable."
Although not yet on the table, a U.N. Security Council resolution is an option, but risks opposition from China -- the closest Myanmar has to a major ally -- and Russia, who are among the five veto-wielding permanent members able to block action.
Some analysts suggest the U.N. should test the regime by threatening legal action over its poor human rights record, by way of an International Commission of Enquiry or referral to the International Court of Justice.
Increasingly, China could hold the key.
It has shown more diplomatic flexibility of late and supported two resolutions on sanctions against neighbouring North Korea for its nuclear weapons programme.
As in North Korea, Beijing is concerned about instability in Myanmar and might be willing to act to forestall that, lest it interfere with its considerable commercial interests.
"The generals feel they can get away with anything because China will give them blanket protection, but that may not be the case," said Debbie Stothard from the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma.
"It's time for a U.N. resolution and time for Ban to take off the kid gloves regarding Burma. The regime is afraid of the Security Council, but if it doesn't act, the generals will continue to do whatever they like," she said.
**********************************************************
The Guardian - Facing down persecution
Behind Aung San Suu Kyi stand hundreds of lesser known writers and activists paying the price for speaking out
Melissa Benn
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 July 2009 16.17 BST
There was a powerful moment at the end of a recent vigil held to mark the 64th birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi and to call for an end to her decades long detention. One of the demonstrators pinned a photograph of General Than Shwe, the head of Burma's ruling military junta, to the doorway of the silent but watchful Burmese embassy, across the portal from a picture of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The juxtaposition of the two faces highlighted, far more forcefully than a dozen speeches or articles, the gaping moral gap between a regime responsible for brutal and systematic persecution and a profoundly human opposition.
Aung San Suu Kyi's dignity and beauty are undoubtedly powerful tools in the campaign against the junta and one of the many reasons that the ongoing campaign for democracy has supporters right up to the highest level, including our own prime minister who is said to telephone the UN's Ban Ki Moon, just returned from an apparently fruitless mission to Burma, twice a week to discuss the situation there.
But we must not forget the many hundreds of lesser known writers and activists who live in daily fear of assault or assassination or are wasting away for lack of medical help in some of the world's most notorious jails.
In some cases, there are only one or two photographs of them in existence – grainy snaps of their younger, more hopeful selves – for us to look upon and mobilise around.
That is why tomorrow, English PEN, with the help of comedian Jo Brand and poet Ruth Padel among many others, will be highlighting the situation of imprisoned and persecuted writers around the world.
Those like Mexican writer, Lydia Cacho, author of several books on the child pornography trade who lives in fear of having her throat slit by shadowy forces who want to stop her work. Or the Saudi Arabian author and journalist Wajeha al-Huwaider who has been arrested and harassed repeatedly for her human rights writing and activism.
The tomorrow's main focus will be on Burma. We will hear the words of Aung San Suu Kyi whose trial on trumped up charges begins again on Friday. But there will also be readings form the work of the Burmese comedian and poet Zargana who was sentenced last year to 59 years in prison, commuted to 35, for leading a private relief effort to deliver aid to victims of the Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.
Many other writers have been rounded up during recent crack downs; those like journalist Zaw Thet Htwe, sentenced to 19 years for helping Zargana in the relief effort or the Burmese musician and Win Maw, arrested in a Rangoon tea shop and charged with "threatening national security" after sending news reports and video footage to the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma radio station during the protests in August and September 2007. Win Maw is now serving six years in the infamous Insein prison in Rangoon.
It is for these brave individuals just as much as Aung San Suu Kyi, that we need far more decisive international action against the junta. Her global fame offers a level of protection.
The lesser known must live in fear of the worst fate of all; that they will become just one of the many faceless disappeared.
Behind Aung San Suu Kyi stand hundreds of lesser known writers and activists paying the price for speaking out
Melissa Benn
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 July 2009 16.17 BST
There was a powerful moment at the end of a recent vigil held to mark the 64th birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi and to call for an end to her decades long detention. One of the demonstrators pinned a photograph of General Than Shwe, the head of Burma's ruling military junta, to the doorway of the silent but watchful Burmese embassy, across the portal from a picture of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The juxtaposition of the two faces highlighted, far more forcefully than a dozen speeches or articles, the gaping moral gap between a regime responsible for brutal and systematic persecution and a profoundly human opposition.
Aung San Suu Kyi's dignity and beauty are undoubtedly powerful tools in the campaign against the junta and one of the many reasons that the ongoing campaign for democracy has supporters right up to the highest level, including our own prime minister who is said to telephone the UN's Ban Ki Moon, just returned from an apparently fruitless mission to Burma, twice a week to discuss the situation there.
But we must not forget the many hundreds of lesser known writers and activists who live in daily fear of assault or assassination or are wasting away for lack of medical help in some of the world's most notorious jails.
In some cases, there are only one or two photographs of them in existence – grainy snaps of their younger, more hopeful selves – for us to look upon and mobilise around.
That is why tomorrow, English PEN, with the help of comedian Jo Brand and poet Ruth Padel among many others, will be highlighting the situation of imprisoned and persecuted writers around the world.
Those like Mexican writer, Lydia Cacho, author of several books on the child pornography trade who lives in fear of having her throat slit by shadowy forces who want to stop her work. Or the Saudi Arabian author and journalist Wajeha al-Huwaider who has been arrested and harassed repeatedly for her human rights writing and activism.
The tomorrow's main focus will be on Burma. We will hear the words of Aung San Suu Kyi whose trial on trumped up charges begins again on Friday. But there will also be readings form the work of the Burmese comedian and poet Zargana who was sentenced last year to 59 years in prison, commuted to 35, for leading a private relief effort to deliver aid to victims of the Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.
Many other writers have been rounded up during recent crack downs; those like journalist Zaw Thet Htwe, sentenced to 19 years for helping Zargana in the relief effort or the Burmese musician and Win Maw, arrested in a Rangoon tea shop and charged with "threatening national security" after sending news reports and video footage to the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma radio station during the protests in August and September 2007. Win Maw is now serving six years in the infamous Insein prison in Rangoon.
It is for these brave individuals just as much as Aung San Suu Kyi, that we need far more decisive international action against the junta. Her global fame offers a level of protection.
The lesser known must live in fear of the worst fate of all; that they will become just one of the many faceless disappeared.
**********************************************************
VOA News - Burma's Military Government Distances Itself From International Community
By Daniel Schearf, Bangkok
08 July 2009
Burma's defiant reception of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week underscored the military government's self-isolation from the international community. At the same time, Burma's improved relations with another isolated nation, North Korea have raised eyebrows. Burma's military rulers appear to be digging in more than just their heels to maintain their grip on power.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had high hopes that his visit to Burma would help win the release of political prisoners and push the military government to allow democratic elections next year.
Mr. Ban sought the release of more than 2,000 jailed for opposing military rule, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But after twice meeting with Burma's ruling general Than Shwe, Mr. Ban was told he would not even be allowed to meet with the democracy leader, let alone see her released.
The U.N. chief expressed his frustration. He said Burma's government failed to take an opportunity to show a new era of political openness.
"I am deeply disappointed that Senior General Than Shwe refused my requests," Ban said. "Allowing a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an important symbol of the government's willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen as credible."
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won Burma's last elections in 1990, but the military did not allow the NLD to take power.
The Nobel Prize winner has been held under house arrest for most of the time since.
Disregard for international community
Rights activists say the government's dismissal of Mr. Ban's request has demonstrated its disregard for the United Nations and the international community.
Debbie Stothard is the coordinator for the Alternative ASEAN network on Burma, a regional rights group.
"We really do hope that this is a wake-up call that diplomacy is not going to work on this brutal dictatorship," Stothard said. "It's pressure, and it's leverage. And, it's time the regime was held accountable for their crimes. That's what they are afraid of. They are afraid of economic sanctions and they are afraid of prosecution for their crimes."
Rights groups say the U.N. should investigate Burmese authorities for crimes against humanity and move for a global arms embargo.
But China, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, rejects sanctions against Burma.
Relations with N. Korea improving
While Burma's dealings with the international community appear to be slipping, Burmese exiles and analysts say its relations with North Korea are improving.
Burma cut off relations with Pyongyang in 1983 after North Korean agents bombed a South Korean delegation visiting Rangoon, killing more than 20 people.
But, the two countries have found themselves drawn back together.
Bertil Lintner is a journalist and author in Bangkok who has followed Burma for more than 20 years.
"The leaders of the two countries discovered that they had a similar mindset," Lintner said. "They were both worried about the outside world, about being pariah states, about being condemned by the United Nations. They felt that they were more or less alone in a hostile world. And so, it was not surprising that they sort of began a much closer cooperation in a number of fields, including military matters, way back in the late 1990s."
Lintner says the two countries have become close allies.
He says Burma's military leaders are particularly impressed with North Korea's nuclear diplomacy.
"They do admire the North Koreans because the North Koreans, because they have a bomb, have been able to stand up to the United States. And, Burma would like to be able to do the same," he noted.
Nuclear ambitions?
Lintner says it would take years for Burma to develop its own nuclear threat, even if North Korea defied U.N. sanctions by helping.
But, North Korea does appear to be helping Burma's military government prepare for survival.
Photos leaked by dissidents appear to show North Korean experts giving advice on the construction of massive underground tunnels in Burma's capital, Naypyidaw.
In addition to meeting and storage rooms, the photos, dated a few years ago, show underground parking spaces for tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Lintner says the tunnel network appears designed for the military to protect itself from attack.
By Daniel Schearf, Bangkok
08 July 2009
Burma's defiant reception of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week underscored the military government's self-isolation from the international community. At the same time, Burma's improved relations with another isolated nation, North Korea have raised eyebrows. Burma's military rulers appear to be digging in more than just their heels to maintain their grip on power.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had high hopes that his visit to Burma would help win the release of political prisoners and push the military government to allow democratic elections next year.
Mr. Ban sought the release of more than 2,000 jailed for opposing military rule, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But after twice meeting with Burma's ruling general Than Shwe, Mr. Ban was told he would not even be allowed to meet with the democracy leader, let alone see her released.
The U.N. chief expressed his frustration. He said Burma's government failed to take an opportunity to show a new era of political openness.
"I am deeply disappointed that Senior General Than Shwe refused my requests," Ban said. "Allowing a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an important symbol of the government's willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen as credible."
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won Burma's last elections in 1990, but the military did not allow the NLD to take power.
The Nobel Prize winner has been held under house arrest for most of the time since.
Disregard for international community
Rights activists say the government's dismissal of Mr. Ban's request has demonstrated its disregard for the United Nations and the international community.
Debbie Stothard is the coordinator for the Alternative ASEAN network on Burma, a regional rights group.
"We really do hope that this is a wake-up call that diplomacy is not going to work on this brutal dictatorship," Stothard said. "It's pressure, and it's leverage. And, it's time the regime was held accountable for their crimes. That's what they are afraid of. They are afraid of economic sanctions and they are afraid of prosecution for their crimes."
Rights groups say the U.N. should investigate Burmese authorities for crimes against humanity and move for a global arms embargo.
But China, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, rejects sanctions against Burma.
Relations with N. Korea improving
While Burma's dealings with the international community appear to be slipping, Burmese exiles and analysts say its relations with North Korea are improving.
Burma cut off relations with Pyongyang in 1983 after North Korean agents bombed a South Korean delegation visiting Rangoon, killing more than 20 people.
But, the two countries have found themselves drawn back together.
Bertil Lintner is a journalist and author in Bangkok who has followed Burma for more than 20 years.
"The leaders of the two countries discovered that they had a similar mindset," Lintner said. "They were both worried about the outside world, about being pariah states, about being condemned by the United Nations. They felt that they were more or less alone in a hostile world. And so, it was not surprising that they sort of began a much closer cooperation in a number of fields, including military matters, way back in the late 1990s."
Lintner says the two countries have become close allies.
He says Burma's military leaders are particularly impressed with North Korea's nuclear diplomacy.
"They do admire the North Koreans because the North Koreans, because they have a bomb, have been able to stand up to the United States. And, Burma would like to be able to do the same," he noted.
Nuclear ambitions?
Lintner says it would take years for Burma to develop its own nuclear threat, even if North Korea defied U.N. sanctions by helping.
But, North Korea does appear to be helping Burma's military government prepare for survival.
Photos leaked by dissidents appear to show North Korean experts giving advice on the construction of massive underground tunnels in Burma's capital, Naypyidaw.
In addition to meeting and storage rooms, the photos, dated a few years ago, show underground parking spaces for tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Lintner says the tunnel network appears designed for the military to protect itself from attack.
**********************************************************
As Security Council Meets on N. Korea, Malay Bank, Ban and Kang Nam 1 in UN Penumbra
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, July 6, updated -- As the UN Security Council mechanically convened days after North Korea fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan, the mystery grew around the Kang Nam 1 ship with its reputed cargo of weapons for Myanmar, and the unnamed Malaysian bank reportedly pegged to process Burmese payments.
The place of a middleman between the regimes in North Korea and Myanmar is called by some the vortex of evil. Others apparently call it good business.
"five Burmese companies – Htoo Trading, Kambawza, Asia World, Aden and Shwe Thanlwin – are known however to have provided machinery for the digging of the tunnels... A secret visit by General Thura Shwe Mann, the Burmese regime’s third-in-command, along with 18 other high ranking military officials to North Korea in November 2008, is another indicator of how the two countries have been cooperating. During the visit, Shwe Mann and North Korean Army Chief General Kim Gyok-sik signed an Memorandum of Understanding on further cooperation plans. The Burmese delegation also visited an underground military hardware factory near Pyongyang."
But it is Pyongyang's threats to Japan and Seoul which trigger UN action. Myanmar gets a free pass.
In front of the Security Council late Monday afternoon, Japanese media converged as they did after the last launch by Pyongyang. South Korea's Ambassador came and said they expect the Council to react. Inner City Press asked a Council diplomat when Ban Ki-moon's envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari is slated to brief the so-called Group of Friends on Myanmar.
This is what Ban said when empty handed he left Myanmar: that Gambari would return to New York and brief the Friends while he traveled on to Geneva -- click here for Inner City Press' UNCTAD story -- Ireland and then the G-8 meeting in Italy.
The diplomat said Ban would have been expected to do the briefing himself, but perhaps with so little accomplished, Gambari would have to do.
A strange theory justifying Ban's apparently fruitless trip to Myanmar began to circulate in the UN on Monday: that it was due to Ban's presence that the Kang Nam 1 did not dock in Myanmar. Since Ban has already claimed on the Charlie Rose television program that he saved 500,000 people in Myanmar, taking credit for the Kang Nam 1's return to North Korea may not be far off.
While the Malaysian bank at issue has so far gone unnamed, one wonders if the UN committee set to finger companies for sanctions this coming Friday might not name the Malay bank. Watch this space.
Update of 5:40 p.m. -- the Council has "suspended" its consultations on North Korea until 6 p.m..
Update of 6:06 p.m. -- a Council diplomat tells the Press that whatever will happen today will happen soon. The crowd of mostly Japanese media expresses a collective desire to leave.
Update of 7:05 p.m. -- First, the Chinese delegation strode out, telling the Press, the President will have a statement for you. Then the U.S. squad, with Susan Rice, Alejandro Wolff and at least two bodyguards, came out, the bodyguards between Ms. Rice and the press. Finally the Ugandan Ambassador, Council president for July, emerged and read out what he called an "oral statement," that the Council condemns the missiles, finding them a violation of resolutions. He was followed by Japan's Ambassador Yukio Takasu, who called the "oral statement" -- less even than a formal Press Statement, which in turn is less than a Presidential Statement which is less than a resolution -- "clear and strong."
Inner City Press asked Amb. Takasu to comment on the Kang Nam ship. Takasu said that Japan had spoken with other neighboring countries about their duty to search such North Korea ships if they came to port. Inner City Press asked, did Japan speak to Myanmar, and what does Japan think of Ban Ki-moon's recent two day trip to Myanmar: success or failure?
Takasu said Japan spoke "bilaterally" to countries in Asia "but not necessarily to Myanmar." He said it was too early to judge Ban's trip, she spoke with Ban and Gambari "during" the trip and would be briefed upon Ban's return to New York. He called the current outcome of the Kang Nam trip a demonstration of the value of UN resolutions. But the Ugandan Ambassador told Inner City Press that the Kang Nam didn't even come up during the consultations, and another Council diplomat confirmed this.
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, July 6, updated -- As the UN Security Council mechanically convened days after North Korea fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan, the mystery grew around the Kang Nam 1 ship with its reputed cargo of weapons for Myanmar, and the unnamed Malaysian bank reportedly pegged to process Burmese payments.
The place of a middleman between the regimes in North Korea and Myanmar is called by some the vortex of evil. Others apparently call it good business.
"five Burmese companies – Htoo Trading, Kambawza, Asia World, Aden and Shwe Thanlwin – are known however to have provided machinery for the digging of the tunnels... A secret visit by General Thura Shwe Mann, the Burmese regime’s third-in-command, along with 18 other high ranking military officials to North Korea in November 2008, is another indicator of how the two countries have been cooperating. During the visit, Shwe Mann and North Korean Army Chief General Kim Gyok-sik signed an Memorandum of Understanding on further cooperation plans. The Burmese delegation also visited an underground military hardware factory near Pyongyang."
But it is Pyongyang's threats to Japan and Seoul which trigger UN action. Myanmar gets a free pass.
In front of the Security Council late Monday afternoon, Japanese media converged as they did after the last launch by Pyongyang. South Korea's Ambassador came and said they expect the Council to react. Inner City Press asked a Council diplomat when Ban Ki-moon's envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari is slated to brief the so-called Group of Friends on Myanmar.
This is what Ban said when empty handed he left Myanmar: that Gambari would return to New York and brief the Friends while he traveled on to Geneva -- click here for Inner City Press' UNCTAD story -- Ireland and then the G-8 meeting in Italy.
The diplomat said Ban would have been expected to do the briefing himself, but perhaps with so little accomplished, Gambari would have to do.
A strange theory justifying Ban's apparently fruitless trip to Myanmar began to circulate in the UN on Monday: that it was due to Ban's presence that the Kang Nam 1 did not dock in Myanmar. Since Ban has already claimed on the Charlie Rose television program that he saved 500,000 people in Myanmar, taking credit for the Kang Nam 1's return to North Korea may not be far off.
While the Malaysian bank at issue has so far gone unnamed, one wonders if the UN committee set to finger companies for sanctions this coming Friday might not name the Malay bank. Watch this space.
Update of 5:40 p.m. -- the Council has "suspended" its consultations on North Korea until 6 p.m..
Update of 6:06 p.m. -- a Council diplomat tells the Press that whatever will happen today will happen soon. The crowd of mostly Japanese media expresses a collective desire to leave.
Update of 7:05 p.m. -- First, the Chinese delegation strode out, telling the Press, the President will have a statement for you. Then the U.S. squad, with Susan Rice, Alejandro Wolff and at least two bodyguards, came out, the bodyguards between Ms. Rice and the press. Finally the Ugandan Ambassador, Council president for July, emerged and read out what he called an "oral statement," that the Council condemns the missiles, finding them a violation of resolutions. He was followed by Japan's Ambassador Yukio Takasu, who called the "oral statement" -- less even than a formal Press Statement, which in turn is less than a Presidential Statement which is less than a resolution -- "clear and strong."
Inner City Press asked Amb. Takasu to comment on the Kang Nam ship. Takasu said that Japan had spoken with other neighboring countries about their duty to search such North Korea ships if they came to port. Inner City Press asked, did Japan speak to Myanmar, and what does Japan think of Ban Ki-moon's recent two day trip to Myanmar: success or failure?
Takasu said Japan spoke "bilaterally" to countries in Asia "but not necessarily to Myanmar." He said it was too early to judge Ban's trip, she spoke with Ban and Gambari "during" the trip and would be briefed upon Ban's return to New York. He called the current outcome of the Kang Nam trip a demonstration of the value of UN resolutions. But the Ugandan Ambassador told Inner City Press that the Kang Nam didn't even come up during the consultations, and another Council diplomat confirmed this.
**********************************************************
EarthTimes - Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi gets honorary degree in Northern Ireland
Posted : Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:41:42 GMT
London - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was Tuesday awarded an honorary degree by the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. The democracy campaigner was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws for services to human rights during a ceremony at the Millennium Forum in Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second city.
Her representative Mra Razam Linn told 500 new graduates the recipient was a "great hero" who had sacrificed her life in the struggle for democracy for 50 million people.
"I do believe that the peoples of Ireland support our non-violence movement for democracy in their heart and soul, and recognize non- violent activists who are struggling for the peace, justice and human rights in Burma," she said.
Posted : Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:41:42 GMT
London - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was Tuesday awarded an honorary degree by the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. The democracy campaigner was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws for services to human rights during a ceremony at the Millennium Forum in Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second city.
Her representative Mra Razam Linn told 500 new graduates the recipient was a "great hero" who had sacrificed her life in the struggle for democracy for 50 million people.
"I do believe that the peoples of Ireland support our non-violence movement for democracy in their heart and soul, and recognize non- violent activists who are struggling for the peace, justice and human rights in Burma," she said.
**********************************************************
EarthTimes - Aung San Suu Kyi ready for resumption of her trial, lawyer says
Posted : Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:14:40 GMT
Yangon - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was briefed for two hours by her defence team Wednesday and is well prepared for her trial which is scheduled to resume on Friday, one of her lawyers said. Suu Kyi's defence team met with the Nobel peace laureate in Insein Prison in preparation for the continuation of her trial Friday, when defence witness Khin Moe Moe will testify, Nyan Win, one of her lawyers, said Wednesday.
"Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi is fully prepared for whatever happens at the trial," Nyan Win said.
Nyan Win, who is the official spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, also informed Suu Kyi that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had been denied a meeting with her by the junta during his brief trip to Myanmar on Friday and Saturday.
"She made no remark on that," Nyan Win said.
Myanmar's military regime refused Ban's request to meet Suu Kyi on the grounds that she was currently on trial, and such a visit might prejudice the judiciary.
The excuse was deemed ridiculous since it is well-known that Myanmar's judiciary does not operate independently of the junta.
Ban said he was "very disappointed" by the refusal, and described it as "missed opportunity" for the regime.
Khin Moe Moe, an NLD member and professional attorney, was originally scheduled to testify on Friday, but the court session was postponed until July 10, shortly after UN chief Ban arrived in Yangon.
A special court has been set up at Insein Prison to try Suu Kyi for breaking the terms of her detention by allegedly permitting US national John William Yettaw to swim to her lakeside home-cum-prison on May 3 and stay until May 5.
Suu Kyi's trial began May 11. While the prosecution was allowed to present 14 witnesses in the first week, the defence was initially allowed only one. Later a second witness, Khin Moe Moe, was permitted.
Critics have accused the military junta of using the case as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year.
Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.
Suu Kyi's NLD won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta for the past 19 years.
The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year house detention sentence expired May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even statements of concern from its regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.
Posted : Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:14:40 GMT
Yangon - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was briefed for two hours by her defence team Wednesday and is well prepared for her trial which is scheduled to resume on Friday, one of her lawyers said. Suu Kyi's defence team met with the Nobel peace laureate in Insein Prison in preparation for the continuation of her trial Friday, when defence witness Khin Moe Moe will testify, Nyan Win, one of her lawyers, said Wednesday.
"Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi is fully prepared for whatever happens at the trial," Nyan Win said.
Nyan Win, who is the official spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, also informed Suu Kyi that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had been denied a meeting with her by the junta during his brief trip to Myanmar on Friday and Saturday.
"She made no remark on that," Nyan Win said.
Myanmar's military regime refused Ban's request to meet Suu Kyi on the grounds that she was currently on trial, and such a visit might prejudice the judiciary.
The excuse was deemed ridiculous since it is well-known that Myanmar's judiciary does not operate independently of the junta.
Ban said he was "very disappointed" by the refusal, and described it as "missed opportunity" for the regime.
Khin Moe Moe, an NLD member and professional attorney, was originally scheduled to testify on Friday, but the court session was postponed until July 10, shortly after UN chief Ban arrived in Yangon.
A special court has been set up at Insein Prison to try Suu Kyi for breaking the terms of her detention by allegedly permitting US national John William Yettaw to swim to her lakeside home-cum-prison on May 3 and stay until May 5.
Suu Kyi's trial began May 11. While the prosecution was allowed to present 14 witnesses in the first week, the defence was initially allowed only one. Later a second witness, Khin Moe Moe, was permitted.
Critics have accused the military junta of using the case as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year.
Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.
Suu Kyi's NLD won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta for the past 19 years.
The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year house detention sentence expired May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even statements of concern from its regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.
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Date : Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Tehran Times - In Myanmar, expectations were low for UN visit
By Charles McDermid
BANGKOK (The Los Angeles Times) — Aging former political prisoner Win Tin says he wasn't surprised that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Myanmar to plead for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi ended in failure.
Ban said Saturday he was “deeply disappointed” that Senior Gen. Than Shwe refused to allow him to see Suu Kyi, adding that she should be released “without delay.” He said Myanmar's human rights record was a matter of serious concern.
But Win Tin, 80, a former journalist and founding member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, said he didn't expect a breakthrough.
“I am not being cynical, but I expected nothing much from the visit. Even though he came at the invitation of the regime, it can be seen as the regime's response to worldwide pressure due to Aung San Suu Kyi's trial,” he said by telephone Saturday from Myanmar, also known as Burma. “If there is no real political progress, we will see Burma under a military dictatorship for many years.”
Since Win Tin was released in September after 19 years in Yangon's Insein Prison, he has worn his prison uniform as a sign of defiance. Last month, he was barred from testifying on Suu Kyi's behalf.
Suu Kyi has been detained for nearly 14 of the last 20 years. She was charged with violating her house arrest after an American swam uninvited to her home and stayed there for two days. The American, John Yettaw of Falcon, Mo., is also being held.
Ban said his two-day visit, which ended Saturday, would be used to call for the release of Myanmar's estimated 2,100 political prisoners, promote dialogue between the regime and the opposition, and assure a credible vote in general elections scheduled for next year.
Historian Thant Myint-U, grandson of U Thant, secretary-general of the UN from 1961-1971, said it was unfair to blame Ban for the trip's failure.
“Many governments were pushing him to go, the same governments that can't agree among themselves on what to do about Burma,” he said. “As long as the big powers are deadlocked, it's easy to push the UN secretary-general into the limelight, and then blame him for not producing results.”
Pro-democracy opposition and exile groups were left with the largely ineffectual tools they started with: international outcry and economic sanctions.
“The trouble with sanctions is that they are easy to put into effect and very difficult to get rid of. If you want to achieve an objective, sometimes you have to give people a way out,” said David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert at Georgetown University.
Meanwhile, Win Tin says he is practically homeless. His property was seized by the government when he went to jail on July 4, 1989, and his friends have been denied the government approval needed to house him.
Born into a poor family in north Yangon, also known as Rangoon, Win Tin dreamed of joining Myanmar's struggle for independence from the British. When he was a teenager, he met Aung San, the nation's independence hero and father of Aung San Suu Kyi. Win Tin asked if he could join the resistance and was rebuffed.
“Aung San plainly said 'Stick with your studies. There are many people to fight. The time will come for you,' “ Win Tin said.
When an uprising broke out in 1988, he became a founding member of NLD and a close aide to Suu Kyi. He was arrested a year later and jailed, and his sentence was extended when he managed to smuggle out a report to a United Nations official about torture and other human-rights violations rampant in Myanmar's jails.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Win Tin had repeatedly refused to sign a letter promising to give up his political activities as a condition of his release. Local media have reported that Win Tin could be jailed for refusing to return his prison-issue dungarees. He says he will continue to wear the prison blues until Myanmar is free.
“I remember Daw Suu Kyi's response to this kind of warning about her security. She said, 'If a quack shoots me with a pistol, then the whole world will know where this bullet comes from,' “ he said
Tehran Times - In Myanmar, expectations were low for UN visit
By Charles McDermid
BANGKOK (The Los Angeles Times) — Aging former political prisoner Win Tin says he wasn't surprised that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Myanmar to plead for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi ended in failure.
Ban said Saturday he was “deeply disappointed” that Senior Gen. Than Shwe refused to allow him to see Suu Kyi, adding that she should be released “without delay.” He said Myanmar's human rights record was a matter of serious concern.
But Win Tin, 80, a former journalist and founding member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, said he didn't expect a breakthrough.
“I am not being cynical, but I expected nothing much from the visit. Even though he came at the invitation of the regime, it can be seen as the regime's response to worldwide pressure due to Aung San Suu Kyi's trial,” he said by telephone Saturday from Myanmar, also known as Burma. “If there is no real political progress, we will see Burma under a military dictatorship for many years.”
Since Win Tin was released in September after 19 years in Yangon's Insein Prison, he has worn his prison uniform as a sign of defiance. Last month, he was barred from testifying on Suu Kyi's behalf.
Suu Kyi has been detained for nearly 14 of the last 20 years. She was charged with violating her house arrest after an American swam uninvited to her home and stayed there for two days. The American, John Yettaw of Falcon, Mo., is also being held.
Ban said his two-day visit, which ended Saturday, would be used to call for the release of Myanmar's estimated 2,100 political prisoners, promote dialogue between the regime and the opposition, and assure a credible vote in general elections scheduled for next year.
Historian Thant Myint-U, grandson of U Thant, secretary-general of the UN from 1961-1971, said it was unfair to blame Ban for the trip's failure.
“Many governments were pushing him to go, the same governments that can't agree among themselves on what to do about Burma,” he said. “As long as the big powers are deadlocked, it's easy to push the UN secretary-general into the limelight, and then blame him for not producing results.”
Pro-democracy opposition and exile groups were left with the largely ineffectual tools they started with: international outcry and economic sanctions.
“The trouble with sanctions is that they are easy to put into effect and very difficult to get rid of. If you want to achieve an objective, sometimes you have to give people a way out,” said David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert at Georgetown University.
Meanwhile, Win Tin says he is practically homeless. His property was seized by the government when he went to jail on July 4, 1989, and his friends have been denied the government approval needed to house him.
Born into a poor family in north Yangon, also known as Rangoon, Win Tin dreamed of joining Myanmar's struggle for independence from the British. When he was a teenager, he met Aung San, the nation's independence hero and father of Aung San Suu Kyi. Win Tin asked if he could join the resistance and was rebuffed.
“Aung San plainly said 'Stick with your studies. There are many people to fight. The time will come for you,' “ Win Tin said.
When an uprising broke out in 1988, he became a founding member of NLD and a close aide to Suu Kyi. He was arrested a year later and jailed, and his sentence was extended when he managed to smuggle out a report to a United Nations official about torture and other human-rights violations rampant in Myanmar's jails.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Win Tin had repeatedly refused to sign a letter promising to give up his political activities as a condition of his release. Local media have reported that Win Tin could be jailed for refusing to return his prison-issue dungarees. He says he will continue to wear the prison blues until Myanmar is free.
“I remember Daw Suu Kyi's response to this kind of warning about her security. She said, 'If a quack shoots me with a pistol, then the whole world will know where this bullet comes from,' “ he said
**********************************************************
Jul 8, 2009
Asia Times Online - Another UN failure in Myanmar
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon's failure to win the release of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi - or any other conciliatory concession - from Myanmar's intransigent military rulers came as no surprise to observers.
Senior General Than Shwe reaffirmed over the weekend his unwillingness to accept outside mediation of his country's grinding political deadlock, crucially at a time his State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) regime is bidding to win international recognition for 2010 democratic elections few believe will be free and fair.
During his two-day visit, Ban met twice with Than Shwe at the remote capital of Naypyidaw and was twice denied permission to visit pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi, who is currently on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest. His requests for the release of over 2,000 political prisoners and the resumption of dialogue towards reconciliation with the political opposition were also refused out-of-hand.
Ban made the unusual move of publicly criticizing the junta on its home turf, expressing his "deep disappointment" and railing against the junta's poor human-rights record to a crowd of assembled diplomats, aid workers and government officials. "Allowing a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an important symbol of the government's willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen as credible," he said.
With most of the major political activists imprisoned or in exile, and the democratic opposition led by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy repressed and cowed, Myanmar's generals see little reason to negotiate. With general elections set to solidify their rule under a "discipline democracy" banner, allowing Suu Kyi's and political prisoners' release would only complicate, and potentially disrupt, their planned transition to nominally civilian rule.
A succession of UN envoys has failed to make headway with the reclusive military regime, which has weathered 38 different UN resolutions since cracking down on pro-democracy street protestors in 1988. The UN's most punitive effort to date has come from its affiliated International Labor Organization, which through a series of investigations and threats of sanctions has forced the regime to reduce, although not entirely eliminate, forced labor.
The United States and European Union have also put in place a series of economic sanctions against Myanmar since 1988 over the regime's abysmal human-rights record. Opinion is divided among analysts and diplomats about the effectiveness of sanctions and United States policy towards Myanmar is currently under review by President Barack Obama's administration.
Many argue the UN should also consider a strategic rethink. Ibrahim Gambari, the UN's latest special rapporteur to Myanmar, has visited the country eight times and never met with Than Shwe. Ban's previous visit in May 2008 - which was billed as a humanitarian mission rather than a political one - was touted as a success after Than Shwe agreed to allow foreign humanitarian agencies and aid supplies into Myanmar in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.
However, that access was circumscribed to the worst-hit Irrawaddy Delta region and remained limited to that area despite UN and humanitarian aid organization hopes they would be allowed to establish programs in other parts of the country. Relief agencies have reported in recent months that the visa process has reverted to pre-cyclone arrangement which required foreigners to wait weeks before receiving visas.
Complex psychology
The SPDC's collective psychology is complex and often incomprehensible to outside observers. On one hand, they feel compelled to legitimize their rule - both domestically and internationally - through tightly managed democratic elections most of the opposition will boycott. On the other, they are fully cognizant of how loathed they are by their own population and ridiculed in the international community for stage-managing what are expected to be sham polls.
The generals believe that once elections are held and the SPDC hands power to a civilian government that national reconciliation will be accomplished.
The junta has also ensured that through a new constitution passed by a referendum last year that it will remain the real power at both national and local levels. That includes provisions mandating a quarter of regional assembly members and each region's chief minister be appointed by the central government, while the military also retains the discretionary powers to intervene in the event of undefined emergencies.
Despite the rough diplomatic treatment, Ban continues to give the junta the benefit of the doubt. "I believe they will seriously consider my proposals and I believe they got the message," he said at a press conference in Bangkok on Saturday. "[Than Shwe] was saying that after [the election] he will hand over power to civilians. He said when I come back he may be a civilian ... That means he's committed to hand over all power."
Representatives of ethnic ceasefire groups were allowed to meet with Ban during his visit. However, all were members of groups that have agreed to merge with the Myanmar army and participate in the general elections. None of the major ceasefire groups, including the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army or the 10,000-strong Kachin Independence Organization, were present at the meetings.
Until now, the UN has largely paid only lip service to Myanmar's ethnic problems and has shown little effort to address the political implications of ethnic insurgency beyond the human-rights issue. Ethnic groups are a crucial part of Myanmar's political tapestry and their continued resistance will provide the junta a convenient excuse to hold onto real power after the 2010 elections and promised political transition.
International condemnation led by the United States and last year's veiled threat to force aid on Myanmar by invoking the so-called "right to protect" principle has intensified the junta's siege mentality. A glimpse of that bunker mindset was seen recently through images published of the underground tunnels and bunkers the generals have dug, with North Korean help, under their new capital and major military headquarters.
The near universal call for Suu Kyi's release will have only entrenched the regime's paranoid attitude towards the international community. Whether or not the generals can be pushed into reform action through behind-the-scenes overtures from China or even Russia is yet to be seen. Some have suggested the establishment of a multilateral negotiation forum similar to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program for Myanmar, though Ban made no mention of such a body after his visit.
The UN has imposed strict sanctions on North Korea and with Ban's spurned mission to Myanmar there will likely be pressure for a tougher Security Council resolution against the regime. Myanmar has so far escaped serious Security Council censure due to allies China's and Russia's support, though an exception was the council's call in May for the release of all political prisoners. With or without such measures, and with Ban's inability to manage a breakthrough, the UN clearly needs to rethink its Myanmar strategy.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
Asia Times Online - Another UN failure in Myanmar
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon's failure to win the release of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi - or any other conciliatory concession - from Myanmar's intransigent military rulers came as no surprise to observers.
Senior General Than Shwe reaffirmed over the weekend his unwillingness to accept outside mediation of his country's grinding political deadlock, crucially at a time his State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) regime is bidding to win international recognition for 2010 democratic elections few believe will be free and fair.
During his two-day visit, Ban met twice with Than Shwe at the remote capital of Naypyidaw and was twice denied permission to visit pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi, who is currently on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest. His requests for the release of over 2,000 political prisoners and the resumption of dialogue towards reconciliation with the political opposition were also refused out-of-hand.
Ban made the unusual move of publicly criticizing the junta on its home turf, expressing his "deep disappointment" and railing against the junta's poor human-rights record to a crowd of assembled diplomats, aid workers and government officials. "Allowing a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an important symbol of the government's willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen as credible," he said.
With most of the major political activists imprisoned or in exile, and the democratic opposition led by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy repressed and cowed, Myanmar's generals see little reason to negotiate. With general elections set to solidify their rule under a "discipline democracy" banner, allowing Suu Kyi's and political prisoners' release would only complicate, and potentially disrupt, their planned transition to nominally civilian rule.
A succession of UN envoys has failed to make headway with the reclusive military regime, which has weathered 38 different UN resolutions since cracking down on pro-democracy street protestors in 1988. The UN's most punitive effort to date has come from its affiliated International Labor Organization, which through a series of investigations and threats of sanctions has forced the regime to reduce, although not entirely eliminate, forced labor.
The United States and European Union have also put in place a series of economic sanctions against Myanmar since 1988 over the regime's abysmal human-rights record. Opinion is divided among analysts and diplomats about the effectiveness of sanctions and United States policy towards Myanmar is currently under review by President Barack Obama's administration.
Many argue the UN should also consider a strategic rethink. Ibrahim Gambari, the UN's latest special rapporteur to Myanmar, has visited the country eight times and never met with Than Shwe. Ban's previous visit in May 2008 - which was billed as a humanitarian mission rather than a political one - was touted as a success after Than Shwe agreed to allow foreign humanitarian agencies and aid supplies into Myanmar in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.
However, that access was circumscribed to the worst-hit Irrawaddy Delta region and remained limited to that area despite UN and humanitarian aid organization hopes they would be allowed to establish programs in other parts of the country. Relief agencies have reported in recent months that the visa process has reverted to pre-cyclone arrangement which required foreigners to wait weeks before receiving visas.
Complex psychology
The SPDC's collective psychology is complex and often incomprehensible to outside observers. On one hand, they feel compelled to legitimize their rule - both domestically and internationally - through tightly managed democratic elections most of the opposition will boycott. On the other, they are fully cognizant of how loathed they are by their own population and ridiculed in the international community for stage-managing what are expected to be sham polls.
The generals believe that once elections are held and the SPDC hands power to a civilian government that national reconciliation will be accomplished.
The junta has also ensured that through a new constitution passed by a referendum last year that it will remain the real power at both national and local levels. That includes provisions mandating a quarter of regional assembly members and each region's chief minister be appointed by the central government, while the military also retains the discretionary powers to intervene in the event of undefined emergencies.
Despite the rough diplomatic treatment, Ban continues to give the junta the benefit of the doubt. "I believe they will seriously consider my proposals and I believe they got the message," he said at a press conference in Bangkok on Saturday. "[Than Shwe] was saying that after [the election] he will hand over power to civilians. He said when I come back he may be a civilian ... That means he's committed to hand over all power."
Representatives of ethnic ceasefire groups were allowed to meet with Ban during his visit. However, all were members of groups that have agreed to merge with the Myanmar army and participate in the general elections. None of the major ceasefire groups, including the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army or the 10,000-strong Kachin Independence Organization, were present at the meetings.
Until now, the UN has largely paid only lip service to Myanmar's ethnic problems and has shown little effort to address the political implications of ethnic insurgency beyond the human-rights issue. Ethnic groups are a crucial part of Myanmar's political tapestry and their continued resistance will provide the junta a convenient excuse to hold onto real power after the 2010 elections and promised political transition.
International condemnation led by the United States and last year's veiled threat to force aid on Myanmar by invoking the so-called "right to protect" principle has intensified the junta's siege mentality. A glimpse of that bunker mindset was seen recently through images published of the underground tunnels and bunkers the generals have dug, with North Korean help, under their new capital and major military headquarters.
The near universal call for Suu Kyi's release will have only entrenched the regime's paranoid attitude towards the international community. Whether or not the generals can be pushed into reform action through behind-the-scenes overtures from China or even Russia is yet to be seen. Some have suggested the establishment of a multilateral negotiation forum similar to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program for Myanmar, though Ban made no mention of such a body after his visit.
The UN has imposed strict sanctions on North Korea and with Ban's spurned mission to Myanmar there will likely be pressure for a tougher Security Council resolution against the regime. Myanmar has so far escaped serious Security Council censure due to allies China's and Russia's support, though an exception was the council's call in May for the release of all political prisoners. With or without such measures, and with Ban's inability to manage a breakthrough, the UN clearly needs to rethink its Myanmar strategy.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
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Myanmar excludes A/H1N1 virus from cause of pig deaths
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-08 12:28:27
YANGON, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar health authorities have confirmed that the recent death of nine pigs in a pig farm in a Yangon's suburban township was due to food poison and not because of swine flu, the local weekly 7-Day News reported Wednesday.
According to examination of the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department, the nine pigs bred in the South Okkalapa township died of the food poison on June 28 for being fed with littered rotten food.
The nine pigs out of 23 died on the spot, while three others were rescued after the case was reported to the authorities.
There has been so far no case of swine flu infected to pigs in Myanmar but a single girl who was infected with new influenza A/H1N1.
However, the new flu A/H1N1 case has been under control in the country, according to Wednesday's announcement of the Health Ministry which also confirmed that none of the 203 persons coming into contact with a new flu girl victim were found further infected with the A/H1N1 virus.
Myanmar reported the first case of new flu A/H1N1 in the country on June 27 with a 13-year-old girl who developed the symptoms after coming back home from Singapore a day earlier.
The girl patient is now reported to be in the stage of gradual recovery after she was hospitalized.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-08 12:28:27
YANGON, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar health authorities have confirmed that the recent death of nine pigs in a pig farm in a Yangon's suburban township was due to food poison and not because of swine flu, the local weekly 7-Day News reported Wednesday.
According to examination of the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department, the nine pigs bred in the South Okkalapa township died of the food poison on June 28 for being fed with littered rotten food.
The nine pigs out of 23 died on the spot, while three others were rescued after the case was reported to the authorities.
There has been so far no case of swine flu infected to pigs in Myanmar but a single girl who was infected with new influenza A/H1N1.
However, the new flu A/H1N1 case has been under control in the country, according to Wednesday's announcement of the Health Ministry which also confirmed that none of the 203 persons coming into contact with a new flu girl victim were found further infected with the A/H1N1 virus.
Myanmar reported the first case of new flu A/H1N1 in the country on June 27 with a 13-year-old girl who developed the symptoms after coming back home from Singapore a day earlier.
The girl patient is now reported to be in the stage of gradual recovery after she was hospitalized.
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Myanmar gem merchants to take part in ASEAN gem show in China
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-07 17:35:45
YANGON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's gem merchants will take part in the ASEAN gem show to be held in China this month to expand international market, according to the Myanmar Gems Merchants Thursday.
The nine-day show is scheduled for July 10 to 18 at International Gem Center in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunan Province, the source said.
The ASEAN gem show has been held annually since 2003 and this year 50 entrepreneurs from Myanmar will attend the event.
A special gem emporium was held in Myanmar last month, attracting more than 3,000 foreign gem traders from several Asian countries and regions, including China's mainland, China's Hong Kong and Taiwan regions, and Singapore.
Myanmar sponsors regular gem shows annually in March, adding mid-year one in October and special one occasionally on the basis of competitive bidding.
Myanmar is not only striving for the development of its gem industry in the country but also endeavoring to expand new foreign market to the United Arab Emirates and Oman, planning to launch Myanmar gem shows there within three years.
Commenting on Myanmar's gem market in Asia, some traders said that Myanmar seemed to have not been much affected by the global economic downturn as the country's gems and jewelry stand high in demand among the Asian countries.
Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.
The government's Central Statistical Organization also revealed that in the fiscal year 2007-08, Myanmar produced 20,235 tons of jade and 22.668 million carats of gems which include ruby, sapphire, spinel and peridot, as well as 225,661 mommis (846 kilograms) of pearl.
China's Kunming and Myanmar's Yangon established friendship-city relationship in December last year.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-07 17:35:45
YANGON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's gem merchants will take part in the ASEAN gem show to be held in China this month to expand international market, according to the Myanmar Gems Merchants Thursday.
The nine-day show is scheduled for July 10 to 18 at International Gem Center in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunan Province, the source said.
The ASEAN gem show has been held annually since 2003 and this year 50 entrepreneurs from Myanmar will attend the event.
A special gem emporium was held in Myanmar last month, attracting more than 3,000 foreign gem traders from several Asian countries and regions, including China's mainland, China's Hong Kong and Taiwan regions, and Singapore.
Myanmar sponsors regular gem shows annually in March, adding mid-year one in October and special one occasionally on the basis of competitive bidding.
Myanmar is not only striving for the development of its gem industry in the country but also endeavoring to expand new foreign market to the United Arab Emirates and Oman, planning to launch Myanmar gem shows there within three years.
Commenting on Myanmar's gem market in Asia, some traders said that Myanmar seemed to have not been much affected by the global economic downturn as the country's gems and jewelry stand high in demand among the Asian countries.
Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.
The government's Central Statistical Organization also revealed that in the fiscal year 2007-08, Myanmar produced 20,235 tons of jade and 22.668 million carats of gems which include ruby, sapphire, spinel and peridot, as well as 225,661 mommis (846 kilograms) of pearl.
China's Kunming and Myanmar's Yangon established friendship-city relationship in December last year.
**********************************************************
San Jose Mercury News - Volunteers help refugees assimilate in the South Bay
By Mayra Flores De Marcotte
Posted: 07/06/2009 01:27:50 PM PDT
For the past seven months, Santa Clara County has served as a makeshift classroom for volunteers teaching Po Chris (pronounced Po-Kri) and his family how to assimilate into American life — including such basics like how to flush a toilet, flip on a light switch and ride a bus.
The transition from the family's small Burmese jungle village with no electricity or running water to an apartment in the city of Campbell has been a challenging, but welcome, change for the refugees who arrived in California last November by charter plane from Melee, one of nine Burmese refugee camps in Thailand.
The 81-year-old has already accomplished what most from his village have not. He has surpassed the national average life span by 21 years, and traveled overseas to begin a new life along with his daughter, 31-year-old Naw Naw, her husband Wah Wah and their children, 13-year-old Thar Hto Lay, 9-year-old Sa Hay Mu and 6-year-old Hser Hser.
Po Chris and his family are among the first group of refugees to be resettled in the South Bay through the San Francisco-based nonprofit Refugee Transitions program's new Sunnyvale location. So far, program volunteers at the new location have helped 30 refugees learn English, find jobs and start a new life in Santa Clara County. The group is the only of its kind in the Bay Area, providing mentors to assist families with day-to-day living skills.
Mina Quintarelli, one of two volunteers who has been visiting Po Chris weekly since his family's arrival, says as a Russian native, she knows what it's like to be a foreigner.
"I've been in their shoes. I know exactly how it feels to not know the language and not know anyone," says Quintarelli, who is now teaching the family how to speak English.
"When I arrived in the country, I didn't know where to start. I just know that when you arrive to a country that's so different than yours, you have to get help from somewhere to get adjusted. You have to be exposed to someone who knows the culture and that can speak with you and be more accepting and tolerant."
Refugee Transitions works with the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program that grants the right of asylum to legally defined refugees each year. The federal government program allows refugees from around the globe to resettle in a U.S. city and learn how to assimilate into American culture within a year. In return, new Americans are expected to be self-sustaining as well as pay back the cost of their plane tickets to the government program.
Laura Vaudreauil, executive director of Refugee Transitions, says this means the nonprofit group has about four to eight months to get families on their feet and participating in society.
Within the first 30 days, the group makes sure that refugees have already filled out Social Security applications, opened their first bank accounts and been given their resettlement checks through state benefits.
For Po Chris and his family, the mentors have been invaluable in teaching them day-to-day living skills, especially in a fast-paced area where finding the simple comforts of home can be difficult.
Culture Shock
In Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, there are no last names, so one of the first things that happens while filling out paperwork is that each individual's names is separated into two names.
"It's strange," says 25-year-old Bu Doh, Wah Wah's younger sister. "My name was Budoh and had meaning. Now it is Bu. That means nothing." In her native language, Budoh means good fortune.
This was a small change that both Bu Doh and her family are willing to make in order to give the youngest in the family a chance to be educated and have better opportunities in life.
Bu Doh, along with the rest of the family, grew up in the rural jungles of Myanmar in the 1990s. The people lived in aluminum or straw huts they constructed themselves.
"There, we had everything we ate smelling in the street," she says. "There were no refrigerators." In the villages, Bu Doh says they would hunt wild boar together and, if successful, share the prize.
A violent military regime took over the country in the 1990s, forcing many citizens to relocate. The largest exodus from the country came between 1995 and 1997 following military offensives against many of the local ethnic groups.
"America was like a dream," says Bu Doh, who lived in a refugee camp in Thailand after leaving Myanmar. In 2007, she was the first in her family to move to the United States. "When we see in the movies [in Thailand], America is always the big city filled with tall people with white skin. We can never imagine we would be here one day. Then we get here, and there are many skins and many languages. It's very different from what we are thinking."
American 101
During a recent tutoring session with Quintarelli, the smell of starchy rice filled the apartment. Rice is among the familiar comforts of Po Chris' home — even if the texture is different and it is now made in an electric cooker on a dining table.
His daughter Naw Naw concentrates on the sentence in front of her while Po Chris watches behind his bifocals in silence.
He wears a short-sleeved shirt, exposing his weathered skin and an old tattoo. His legs cross at the ankles under his lou gyia, a traditional Burmese woven wrap.
When he speaks, his voice is muffled and his puckered cheeks relax: "My name is Po Chris." Refugee Transitions assigned two tutors to the family — Quintarellli and Ryan Finigan, who has been working with Thar Hto Lay (pronounced Thar-toe-lay) on sentence construction over the past two months.
"I'm helping him gain the confidence to put his own sentences together. It helps him formulate sentences and teaches me about who he is," says Finigan, 20, who worked with refugees in Thailand in 2008 with missionaries along the border and wanted to continue his work when he came back to the states.
The two worked on a lesson plan on the Native Americans, and Thar Hto Lay's eyes grew big as he looked at the pictures of tepees and bow and arrows.
"Do you know what a bow and arrow is?" asks Finigan.
The teenager just looks up at him and shakes his head.
"They are used to hunt. Do you hunt back in Burma? Or do they use guns?" he ask.
"They use guns," Thar Hto Lay says quietly.
Finigan has been working with Thar Hto Lay since January, coming to his home once a week for two hours at a time. The two talk about favorite movies and food to break the ice and move on to the lesson plan of the day.
Thar Hto Lay is enrolled in school and enjoys learning. Already, his report card has A's and B's.
The only thing he misses of his home at the refugee camps is the food.
His aunt explains that the rice in Burma is harder and the one the family is eating now in the United States is softer.
"The rice here is different," Thar Hto Lay says in a quiet voice.
For more information about Refugee Transitions, call 408.701. 8251. The Santa Clara County office is located at 728 W. Fremont Ave., Sunnyvale.
By Mayra Flores De Marcotte
Posted: 07/06/2009 01:27:50 PM PDT
For the past seven months, Santa Clara County has served as a makeshift classroom for volunteers teaching Po Chris (pronounced Po-Kri) and his family how to assimilate into American life — including such basics like how to flush a toilet, flip on a light switch and ride a bus.
The transition from the family's small Burmese jungle village with no electricity or running water to an apartment in the city of Campbell has been a challenging, but welcome, change for the refugees who arrived in California last November by charter plane from Melee, one of nine Burmese refugee camps in Thailand.
The 81-year-old has already accomplished what most from his village have not. He has surpassed the national average life span by 21 years, and traveled overseas to begin a new life along with his daughter, 31-year-old Naw Naw, her husband Wah Wah and their children, 13-year-old Thar Hto Lay, 9-year-old Sa Hay Mu and 6-year-old Hser Hser.
Po Chris and his family are among the first group of refugees to be resettled in the South Bay through the San Francisco-based nonprofit Refugee Transitions program's new Sunnyvale location. So far, program volunteers at the new location have helped 30 refugees learn English, find jobs and start a new life in Santa Clara County. The group is the only of its kind in the Bay Area, providing mentors to assist families with day-to-day living skills.
Mina Quintarelli, one of two volunteers who has been visiting Po Chris weekly since his family's arrival, says as a Russian native, she knows what it's like to be a foreigner.
"I've been in their shoes. I know exactly how it feels to not know the language and not know anyone," says Quintarelli, who is now teaching the family how to speak English.
"When I arrived in the country, I didn't know where to start. I just know that when you arrive to a country that's so different than yours, you have to get help from somewhere to get adjusted. You have to be exposed to someone who knows the culture and that can speak with you and be more accepting and tolerant."
Refugee Transitions works with the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program that grants the right of asylum to legally defined refugees each year. The federal government program allows refugees from around the globe to resettle in a U.S. city and learn how to assimilate into American culture within a year. In return, new Americans are expected to be self-sustaining as well as pay back the cost of their plane tickets to the government program.
Laura Vaudreauil, executive director of Refugee Transitions, says this means the nonprofit group has about four to eight months to get families on their feet and participating in society.
Within the first 30 days, the group makes sure that refugees have already filled out Social Security applications, opened their first bank accounts and been given their resettlement checks through state benefits.
For Po Chris and his family, the mentors have been invaluable in teaching them day-to-day living skills, especially in a fast-paced area where finding the simple comforts of home can be difficult.
Culture Shock
In Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, there are no last names, so one of the first things that happens while filling out paperwork is that each individual's names is separated into two names.
"It's strange," says 25-year-old Bu Doh, Wah Wah's younger sister. "My name was Budoh and had meaning. Now it is Bu. That means nothing." In her native language, Budoh means good fortune.
This was a small change that both Bu Doh and her family are willing to make in order to give the youngest in the family a chance to be educated and have better opportunities in life.
Bu Doh, along with the rest of the family, grew up in the rural jungles of Myanmar in the 1990s. The people lived in aluminum or straw huts they constructed themselves.
"There, we had everything we ate smelling in the street," she says. "There were no refrigerators." In the villages, Bu Doh says they would hunt wild boar together and, if successful, share the prize.
A violent military regime took over the country in the 1990s, forcing many citizens to relocate. The largest exodus from the country came between 1995 and 1997 following military offensives against many of the local ethnic groups.
"America was like a dream," says Bu Doh, who lived in a refugee camp in Thailand after leaving Myanmar. In 2007, she was the first in her family to move to the United States. "When we see in the movies [in Thailand], America is always the big city filled with tall people with white skin. We can never imagine we would be here one day. Then we get here, and there are many skins and many languages. It's very different from what we are thinking."
American 101
During a recent tutoring session with Quintarelli, the smell of starchy rice filled the apartment. Rice is among the familiar comforts of Po Chris' home — even if the texture is different and it is now made in an electric cooker on a dining table.
His daughter Naw Naw concentrates on the sentence in front of her while Po Chris watches behind his bifocals in silence.
He wears a short-sleeved shirt, exposing his weathered skin and an old tattoo. His legs cross at the ankles under his lou gyia, a traditional Burmese woven wrap.
When he speaks, his voice is muffled and his puckered cheeks relax: "My name is Po Chris." Refugee Transitions assigned two tutors to the family — Quintarellli and Ryan Finigan, who has been working with Thar Hto Lay (pronounced Thar-toe-lay) on sentence construction over the past two months.
"I'm helping him gain the confidence to put his own sentences together. It helps him formulate sentences and teaches me about who he is," says Finigan, 20, who worked with refugees in Thailand in 2008 with missionaries along the border and wanted to continue his work when he came back to the states.
The two worked on a lesson plan on the Native Americans, and Thar Hto Lay's eyes grew big as he looked at the pictures of tepees and bow and arrows.
"Do you know what a bow and arrow is?" asks Finigan.
The teenager just looks up at him and shakes his head.
"They are used to hunt. Do you hunt back in Burma? Or do they use guns?" he ask.
"They use guns," Thar Hto Lay says quietly.
Finigan has been working with Thar Hto Lay since January, coming to his home once a week for two hours at a time. The two talk about favorite movies and food to break the ice and move on to the lesson plan of the day.
Thar Hto Lay is enrolled in school and enjoys learning. Already, his report card has A's and B's.
The only thing he misses of his home at the refugee camps is the food.
His aunt explains that the rice in Burma is harder and the one the family is eating now in the United States is softer.
"The rice here is different," Thar Hto Lay says in a quiet voice.
For more information about Refugee Transitions, call 408.701. 8251. The Santa Clara County office is located at 728 W. Fremont Ave., Sunnyvale.
**********************************************************
MYANMAR: Lack of cash slows Nargis recovery
YANGON, 8 July 2009 (IRIN) - A three-year recovery plan for survivors of Cyclone Nargis remains severely underfunded: of the US$691 million requested under the post-Nargis recovery and preparedness plan (PONREPP), just $100 million has been pledged.
"Only a limited amount has been released," Bishow Parajuli, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, told IRIN in Yangon, the former capital.
"On behalf of the humanitarian community working in the cyclone-affected communities, I call upon the continued support from the international community to help us help the people, as a supplement to the efforts undertaken by the authorities," he said.
Of the nine sectors outlined in the plan - aimed at ensuring a smooth transition from emergency relief and early recovery to sustainable medium-term recovery - agriculture and shelter remain the least funded.
Of the $174 million requested for shelter, $50 million has been received, while for agriculture virtually nothing has been paid out, against a $189 million request for livelihoods.
"We have received hardly anything," Tesfai Ghermazien, a senior emergency and rehabilitation coordinator with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Myanmar and leader of the agriculture cluster, told IRIN.
NGOs are already struggling, with some, such as Help from Germany, having no choice but to leave altogether; more are likely to follow unless cash is forthcoming.
According to FAO, inadequate funding means insufficient productive inputs, technical support, adaptive post-harvest technology and less capacity building - with repercussions for food and nutrition security as well as income.
"Agriculture is the main source of livelihoods in the delta and possibly close to 90 percent of the population relies directly or indirectly on agricultural activities," Ghermazien told IRIN.
Despite efforts over the past year, assistance for livelihoods has been far less than needed just to bring farming households back to pre-Nargis levels, he said: "Many farming households are trapped in a vicious debt cycle. There are pockets of food-insecure areas and the poverty level is far [greater] than desired."
Comparative disasters
Following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, a disaster on a similar scale to Nargis in terms of impact on the population of Aceh in Indonesia, Aceh received more than $5 billion in international assistance in the first three years.
The PONREPP's cost, together with the initial emergency response already delivered, represents only about a fifth of the international community's response to Aceh.
PONREPP averages $230 million per year for three years, representing $31 per capita per year for the delta's population (about 7.35 million people).
"Myanmar receives very little humanitarian support per capita," Mark Canning, Britain's ambassador to Myanmar, said. "The UK has contributed substantially to the Nargis response and in other areas like health, education and livelihoods, and would like to see more donors working in the country," the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) quoted him as saying in May.
And while he underlined that as a major donor the UK was committed to keeping its humanitarian activity and political views separate, he added that, like it or not, political developments inevitably affected donor perceptions.
The PONREPP - prepared by the TCG - comprising the Myanmar government, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and UN - runs from January 2009 through December 2011.
YANGON, 8 July 2009 (IRIN) - A three-year recovery plan for survivors of Cyclone Nargis remains severely underfunded: of the US$691 million requested under the post-Nargis recovery and preparedness plan (PONREPP), just $100 million has been pledged.
"Only a limited amount has been released," Bishow Parajuli, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, told IRIN in Yangon, the former capital.
"On behalf of the humanitarian community working in the cyclone-affected communities, I call upon the continued support from the international community to help us help the people, as a supplement to the efforts undertaken by the authorities," he said.
Of the nine sectors outlined in the plan - aimed at ensuring a smooth transition from emergency relief and early recovery to sustainable medium-term recovery - agriculture and shelter remain the least funded.
Of the $174 million requested for shelter, $50 million has been received, while for agriculture virtually nothing has been paid out, against a $189 million request for livelihoods.
"We have received hardly anything," Tesfai Ghermazien, a senior emergency and rehabilitation coordinator with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Myanmar and leader of the agriculture cluster, told IRIN.
NGOs are already struggling, with some, such as Help from Germany, having no choice but to leave altogether; more are likely to follow unless cash is forthcoming.
According to FAO, inadequate funding means insufficient productive inputs, technical support, adaptive post-harvest technology and less capacity building - with repercussions for food and nutrition security as well as income.
"Agriculture is the main source of livelihoods in the delta and possibly close to 90 percent of the population relies directly or indirectly on agricultural activities," Ghermazien told IRIN.
Despite efforts over the past year, assistance for livelihoods has been far less than needed just to bring farming households back to pre-Nargis levels, he said: "Many farming households are trapped in a vicious debt cycle. There are pockets of food-insecure areas and the poverty level is far [greater] than desired."
Comparative disasters
Following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, a disaster on a similar scale to Nargis in terms of impact on the population of Aceh in Indonesia, Aceh received more than $5 billion in international assistance in the first three years.
The PONREPP's cost, together with the initial emergency response already delivered, represents only about a fifth of the international community's response to Aceh.
PONREPP averages $230 million per year for three years, representing $31 per capita per year for the delta's population (about 7.35 million people).
"Myanmar receives very little humanitarian support per capita," Mark Canning, Britain's ambassador to Myanmar, said. "The UK has contributed substantially to the Nargis response and in other areas like health, education and livelihoods, and would like to see more donors working in the country," the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) quoted him as saying in May.
And while he underlined that as a major donor the UK was committed to keeping its humanitarian activity and political views separate, he added that, like it or not, political developments inevitably affected donor perceptions.
The PONREPP - prepared by the TCG - comprising the Myanmar government, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and UN - runs from January 2009 through December 2011.
**********************************************************
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
The Asian Age - Opinion: Can UN wrest control from US and Other 4?
S. Nihal Singh
July.09 : At the midway point of his term, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is facing a stern test, with murmurs in New York and world capitals growing about his eligibility for the traditional second term. The rebuff he received from the ruling military junta in Burma in turning down his request for a meeting with the Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi facing trial has done nothing to enhance his reputation.
The UN Secretary-General’s post is one of the most impossible jobs in the world, but the understated personality of Mr Ban and his propensity for globetrotting have compounded his difficulties. He has received low marks in reforming the gargantuan UN set-up in New York and has invited criticism for his inability to forcefully articulate the problems his organisation faces and in conceptualising the crises around the world.
Looking back on the year 2008 last December, Mr Ban said it was a "year of multiple crises" and described his organisation’s record as mixed. He said it was up to the member states to decide whether he should have a second term, declaring, "It’s just impossible. I need more support. I need more resources of the member states".
One problem is that the United States as the pre-eminent power and the largest contributor to UN resources wants a pliable man in the Secretary-General’s post. The experiences of Mr Ban’s two predecessors are instructive. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, perhaps the most brilliant of recent Secretaries-General, was blackballed by the Clinton administration because, although willing to give the US its due, he refused to run the organisation for the benefit of one member.
Kofi Annan, a UN insider, was the American favourite to succeed Mr Boutros-Ghali and he repaid the debt not merely by favouring the American approach to then Balkans crisis but also endorsed the problematic concept of "humanitarian intervention" unveiled by Washington before the 11-week bombing run over Yugoslavia without UN sanction.
But Mr Annan did have a presence, appeared unflappable and developed a spine towards the end of his second term knowing that he had nothing to lose. Washington chose Mr Ban as his successor precisely because of his personality traits and his pliability, belonging to a country that was a military ally. It was foolish of India to endorse Shashi Tharoor, who was losing his job of under-secretary general, and was seeking a parachute to return to home ground after a long spell abroad.
The contradictions in the UN Secretary-General’s job description are apparent. When UN member states at a summit famously asked Mr Boutros-Ghali to frame a bold vision for the future, he took them at their word and gave an admirable blueprint proposing, among other things, that the Secretary-General should have funds and earmarked national forces quickly to respond to crises. The permanent members poured cold water over the proposals and nothing changed. And in an inimitable description of the job, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, commenting on Mr Ban’s failed Burma visit, called him the "international figurehead who best embodies them (UN principles)".
Indeed, a Secretary-General has as much power as he can wrest from zealous member states (those who count) and speak over the heads of the P-5, as his wide international community knows the five permanent members. The paradox is that no man in the post can be effective without the cooperation, however grudging, of Washington and yet he must outmanoeuvre the US to be faithful to all member states, particularly the smaller and weaker members.
Before he set out for Burma, the UN Security Council was split between those against the visit (the US and France) and Russia and China supporting the venture. Perhaps Mr Ban was betting on the fact that a high-profile visit while Ms Suu Kyi was standing trial would force the military junta’s hand, opening a window for the Opposition leader to the outside world. In the end, the sceptics were proved right, and Mr Ban ended up looking like a supplicant to the State Peace and Development Council. His previous Burma visit after Cyclone Nargis did yield results in persuading the junta to allow international aid to mitigate a natural catastrophe.
Mr Ban’s Burma setback comes after his much-criticised visit to Sri Lanka following the defeat of the Tamil Tigers on the battlefield. Many in the West, including non-governmental organisations, criticised him for not visiting the displaced Tamils in camps outside of symbolic conducted tours and being lenient towards the government in Colombo over the controversial civilian deaths.
Left to them, the United States and, to a lesser extent, the other permanent members always prefer what Mr Brown calls a figurehead. If an effective Secretary-General appears, it is so only by stealth. Consider the two greatest Secretaries-General, Dag Hammarskjoeld and Boutros-Ghali. In the first case, Washington thought it was voting for a safe Scandinavian bureaucrat who would do its bidding on important matters only to discover when it was too late that the bureaucrat had a will of his own and a vision for an international organisation with immense possibilities. Hammarskjoeld’s untimely death cut short the promise of the United Nations taking the high road.
Mr Boutros-Ghali too appeared a safe pair of hands to Washington, belonging as he did to a country beholden to the United States for brokering a peace treaty with Israel and receiving some $2 billion a year in annual assistance. In office, Mr Boutros-Ghali sought to do his job conscientiously and honestly, taking the interests of all member states into account. In his memoir, he has made amply clear how Madeleine Albright, then the US representative, struck up attitudes instead of arguing her case. Although he was willing to defer to America’s special status, he refused to be bound head and foot by Washington’s interests negating the interests of all other members.
Perhaps Mr Ban will write his own memoirs at the end of his term, but he faces a difficult time during the remainder of his first term to convince the world that he can surmount the built-in constraints of his office to wrest the initiative from Washington and other heavyweights.
The Asian Age - Opinion: Can UN wrest control from US and Other 4?
S. Nihal Singh
July.09 : At the midway point of his term, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is facing a stern test, with murmurs in New York and world capitals growing about his eligibility for the traditional second term. The rebuff he received from the ruling military junta in Burma in turning down his request for a meeting with the Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi facing trial has done nothing to enhance his reputation.
The UN Secretary-General’s post is one of the most impossible jobs in the world, but the understated personality of Mr Ban and his propensity for globetrotting have compounded his difficulties. He has received low marks in reforming the gargantuan UN set-up in New York and has invited criticism for his inability to forcefully articulate the problems his organisation faces and in conceptualising the crises around the world.
Looking back on the year 2008 last December, Mr Ban said it was a "year of multiple crises" and described his organisation’s record as mixed. He said it was up to the member states to decide whether he should have a second term, declaring, "It’s just impossible. I need more support. I need more resources of the member states".
One problem is that the United States as the pre-eminent power and the largest contributor to UN resources wants a pliable man in the Secretary-General’s post. The experiences of Mr Ban’s two predecessors are instructive. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, perhaps the most brilliant of recent Secretaries-General, was blackballed by the Clinton administration because, although willing to give the US its due, he refused to run the organisation for the benefit of one member.
Kofi Annan, a UN insider, was the American favourite to succeed Mr Boutros-Ghali and he repaid the debt not merely by favouring the American approach to then Balkans crisis but also endorsed the problematic concept of "humanitarian intervention" unveiled by Washington before the 11-week bombing run over Yugoslavia without UN sanction.
But Mr Annan did have a presence, appeared unflappable and developed a spine towards the end of his second term knowing that he had nothing to lose. Washington chose Mr Ban as his successor precisely because of his personality traits and his pliability, belonging to a country that was a military ally. It was foolish of India to endorse Shashi Tharoor, who was losing his job of under-secretary general, and was seeking a parachute to return to home ground after a long spell abroad.
The contradictions in the UN Secretary-General’s job description are apparent. When UN member states at a summit famously asked Mr Boutros-Ghali to frame a bold vision for the future, he took them at their word and gave an admirable blueprint proposing, among other things, that the Secretary-General should have funds and earmarked national forces quickly to respond to crises. The permanent members poured cold water over the proposals and nothing changed. And in an inimitable description of the job, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, commenting on Mr Ban’s failed Burma visit, called him the "international figurehead who best embodies them (UN principles)".
Indeed, a Secretary-General has as much power as he can wrest from zealous member states (those who count) and speak over the heads of the P-5, as his wide international community knows the five permanent members. The paradox is that no man in the post can be effective without the cooperation, however grudging, of Washington and yet he must outmanoeuvre the US to be faithful to all member states, particularly the smaller and weaker members.
Before he set out for Burma, the UN Security Council was split between those against the visit (the US and France) and Russia and China supporting the venture. Perhaps Mr Ban was betting on the fact that a high-profile visit while Ms Suu Kyi was standing trial would force the military junta’s hand, opening a window for the Opposition leader to the outside world. In the end, the sceptics were proved right, and Mr Ban ended up looking like a supplicant to the State Peace and Development Council. His previous Burma visit after Cyclone Nargis did yield results in persuading the junta to allow international aid to mitigate a natural catastrophe.
Mr Ban’s Burma setback comes after his much-criticised visit to Sri Lanka following the defeat of the Tamil Tigers on the battlefield. Many in the West, including non-governmental organisations, criticised him for not visiting the displaced Tamils in camps outside of symbolic conducted tours and being lenient towards the government in Colombo over the controversial civilian deaths.
Left to them, the United States and, to a lesser extent, the other permanent members always prefer what Mr Brown calls a figurehead. If an effective Secretary-General appears, it is so only by stealth. Consider the two greatest Secretaries-General, Dag Hammarskjoeld and Boutros-Ghali. In the first case, Washington thought it was voting for a safe Scandinavian bureaucrat who would do its bidding on important matters only to discover when it was too late that the bureaucrat had a will of his own and a vision for an international organisation with immense possibilities. Hammarskjoeld’s untimely death cut short the promise of the United Nations taking the high road.
Mr Boutros-Ghali too appeared a safe pair of hands to Washington, belonging as he did to a country beholden to the United States for brokering a peace treaty with Israel and receiving some $2 billion a year in annual assistance. In office, Mr Boutros-Ghali sought to do his job conscientiously and honestly, taking the interests of all member states into account. In his memoir, he has made amply clear how Madeleine Albright, then the US representative, struck up attitudes instead of arguing her case. Although he was willing to defer to America’s special status, he refused to be bound head and foot by Washington’s interests negating the interests of all other members.
Perhaps Mr Ban will write his own memoirs at the end of his term, but he faces a difficult time during the remainder of his first term to convince the world that he can surmount the built-in constraints of his office to wrest the initiative from Washington and other heavyweights.
**********************************************************
The Independent - Burma: Even though I'm free I'm not.
Posted by Andrew Buncombe
Wednesday, 8 July 2009 at 01:56 pm
Earlier this year I was at Bangkok's main coach station catching an overnight ride up to the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot. I was going primarily to interview some Karen war veterans who had fought with the British but who were now forced to live in refugee camps with little more than hand-outs.
As I took my large, reclinable seat at the back of the bus I noticed a westerner, half asleep in the seat next to me. I assumed he was a backpacker heading out of town. But barely after a minute after sitting down I discovered, the snoozing traveller was a volunteer activist heading up to Mae Sot, to work on a project in some of the very same camps that I was due to visit. His name was James Mackay.
James and I quickly got talking and it emerged he worked with some of the fine folk at Burma Campaign UK. James was friendly and enthusiastic and was clearly utterly dedicated to the cause of trying to raise the profile of the ongoing struggle for democracy in Burma and of the lives of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who now live in camps in Thailand. What particularly impressed me about James, a freelance documentary filmmaker who studied at St Martin's, was that in his downtime he helped fund his passion and activism by working as a builder. He's is proof that you do not need a fancy title (or even a full time activist's job) to make a difference in this world.
What I did not know about James was just what a terrific photographer he is as well. As it turns out he has just won second place in the well-considered PX3 photography competition organised in Paris. Suitably enough, he was chosen for his work on former Burmese political prisoners, a project that is still ongoing. His entry was entitled Even though I am free I am not. You can learn more about James's work at his website here.
Today I called him on his mobile to congratulate him on his success (and to ask permission to use one of his images to go on this blog). There was something of a pause on the line that suggested he was not at home in the UK.
As it was he had just arrived back in Thailand to carry on working at the camps along the border. He is hoping his project will be completed by next year. "It's going to be massive," he laughed. Talk about dedication.
Posted by Andrew Buncombe
Wednesday, 8 July 2009 at 01:56 pm
Earlier this year I was at Bangkok's main coach station catching an overnight ride up to the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot. I was going primarily to interview some Karen war veterans who had fought with the British but who were now forced to live in refugee camps with little more than hand-outs.
As I took my large, reclinable seat at the back of the bus I noticed a westerner, half asleep in the seat next to me. I assumed he was a backpacker heading out of town. But barely after a minute after sitting down I discovered, the snoozing traveller was a volunteer activist heading up to Mae Sot, to work on a project in some of the very same camps that I was due to visit. His name was James Mackay.
James and I quickly got talking and it emerged he worked with some of the fine folk at Burma Campaign UK. James was friendly and enthusiastic and was clearly utterly dedicated to the cause of trying to raise the profile of the ongoing struggle for democracy in Burma and of the lives of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who now live in camps in Thailand. What particularly impressed me about James, a freelance documentary filmmaker who studied at St Martin's, was that in his downtime he helped fund his passion and activism by working as a builder. He's is proof that you do not need a fancy title (or even a full time activist's job) to make a difference in this world.
What I did not know about James was just what a terrific photographer he is as well. As it turns out he has just won second place in the well-considered PX3 photography competition organised in Paris. Suitably enough, he was chosen for his work on former Burmese political prisoners, a project that is still ongoing. His entry was entitled Even though I am free I am not. You can learn more about James's work at his website here.
Today I called him on his mobile to congratulate him on his success (and to ask permission to use one of his images to go on this blog). There was something of a pause on the line that suggested he was not at home in the UK.
As it was he had just arrived back in Thailand to carry on working at the camps along the border. He is hoping his project will be completed by next year. "It's going to be massive," he laughed. Talk about dedication.
**********************************************************
RINF Alternative News - UN Chief Speaks Out Against Lack of Human Rights
Marwaan Macan-Markar
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
Using the power of his office, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon achieved a rare diplomatic feat during his recent visit to military-ruled Burma. He broke a taboo by delivering a public speech about the lack of democracy and human rights in the country.
So far, the notoriously prickly regime, which controls the South-east Asian nation with an iron grip, has accepted Ban’s verbal thrust without an outburst. But Burma watchers wonder how long that silence will last, given the regime is known to lash out at U.N. officials who have made public statements in the country about the debilitating effects of ignoring political and civil liberties.
“Neither peace nor development can thrive without democracy and respect for human rights,” the world body’s top diplomat said over the weekend to an audience of diplomats, U.N. officials and staff from aid agencies in Rangoon, the former capital. “Peace, development and human rights are closely inter-related.”
“Myanmar’s human rights record remains a matter of grave concern,” Ban added, using the name of the country that the junta opts for, instead of Burma. “Myanmar’s way forward must be rooted in respect for human rights.”
Ban’s speech, on the last of his two-day stay in Burma, also touched on the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader who has spent over 14 years either under house arrest or in Rangoon’s Insein Prison. He called for the release of the Nobel Peace laureate and the over 2,100 political prisoners languishing in Burmese jails.
“Aung San Suu Kyi must be allowed to participate in the political process without further delay,” Ban said after being denied a chance to meet the 64-year-old Suu Kyi, currently being held in the Insein Prison as part of a bizarre trial after a U.S. citizen showed up as an uninvited guest in her home in early May after he swam there across a lake.
Little wonder why Ban’s critical comments - which shatter the illusion being created by the regime that it is on the right track as part of its “roadmap to democracy,” including a planned general election in 2010 - is being welcomed in some quarters.
In the past, the junta has not been kind to the far less provocative and milder comments about the shortcomings of the regime’s model for democracy and the humanitarian situation made by Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. special envoy to Burma, and Charles Petrie, the former U.N. humanitarian coordinator in the country.
Gambari was given a dressing down by Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan in March last year for comments the Nigerian diplomat made about flaws in the “democratic” political process being pushed by the junta. Gambari said that the U.N. wanted this push, including the new constitution, to be inclusive, accommodating the opposition.
Petrie paid a different price for speaking his mind in a press release issued in October 2007. The junta refused to renew his visa, prompting an early departure from his post, after the head of the United Nations Development Programme deplored the “deteriorating humanitarian situation” in the country
The regime described that statement as “unprecedented” and “very negative.”
But by going many steps further, Ban’s speech is being described as “encouraging” by the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the democratically elected government forced into exile after the regime refused to recognised the results of the 1990 general elections.
“This is the first time that someone has been so openly critical about the reality in Burma,” says Bo Hla Tint, the foreign minister of the NCGUB. “It was important for Mr. Ban to tell the regime how the U.N. sees the problem in Burma.”
“The U.N. secretary-general’s role is important to bring change in Burma,” the minister in the exile government told IPS. “It has to be part of a long serious political process, and not just a one-time event.”
The personal commitment shown by Ban to usher in an open and inclusive democratic culture in Burma is being well received by the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-member regional bloc of which Burma is a member.
“The prime minister, as the chair of ASEAN, supports the U.N. secretary-general’s trip to Myanmar and he wants to ensure that the U.N. keeps engaging the Myanmar government,” said Panitan Wattanayagorn, the acting spokesman for the Thai government. “We will see from this point onwards what more can be done now that the U.N. secretary-general has delivered his message.”
Such a regional response marks a departure from the harsh comments by Western governments that saw Ban’s trip as a failure, achieving barely any concessions from the junta. A key to this dismissive stance was Ban being denied access to meet Suu Kyi.
“Although we know that expectations among some in the international community was very high and they wanted the secretary-general to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, it is not fair to say the mission was a failure because the meeting did not take place,” added Panitan in an interview. “The issues are much more complex and beyond this single issue.”
But for the current U.N. engagement to achieve political reform in Burma more is required, say human rights groups that have continued to expose the litany of abuse in a country that has been under the grip of successive military regimes since a 1962 coup.
“Setting the standards through a speech is the easiest thing to do; achieving the standards is the difficult part,” says David Scott Mathieson, Burma consultant for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based global rights watchdog. “That is where the hard work and effort is going to be.” “The average person in Burma will find Ban’s speech patronising,” Mathieson told IPS. “They expect more from the U.N.”
Marwaan Macan-Markar
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
Using the power of his office, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon achieved a rare diplomatic feat during his recent visit to military-ruled Burma. He broke a taboo by delivering a public speech about the lack of democracy and human rights in the country.
So far, the notoriously prickly regime, which controls the South-east Asian nation with an iron grip, has accepted Ban’s verbal thrust without an outburst. But Burma watchers wonder how long that silence will last, given the regime is known to lash out at U.N. officials who have made public statements in the country about the debilitating effects of ignoring political and civil liberties.
“Neither peace nor development can thrive without democracy and respect for human rights,” the world body’s top diplomat said over the weekend to an audience of diplomats, U.N. officials and staff from aid agencies in Rangoon, the former capital. “Peace, development and human rights are closely inter-related.”
“Myanmar’s human rights record remains a matter of grave concern,” Ban added, using the name of the country that the junta opts for, instead of Burma. “Myanmar’s way forward must be rooted in respect for human rights.”
Ban’s speech, on the last of his two-day stay in Burma, also touched on the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader who has spent over 14 years either under house arrest or in Rangoon’s Insein Prison. He called for the release of the Nobel Peace laureate and the over 2,100 political prisoners languishing in Burmese jails.
“Aung San Suu Kyi must be allowed to participate in the political process without further delay,” Ban said after being denied a chance to meet the 64-year-old Suu Kyi, currently being held in the Insein Prison as part of a bizarre trial after a U.S. citizen showed up as an uninvited guest in her home in early May after he swam there across a lake.
Little wonder why Ban’s critical comments - which shatter the illusion being created by the regime that it is on the right track as part of its “roadmap to democracy,” including a planned general election in 2010 - is being welcomed in some quarters.
In the past, the junta has not been kind to the far less provocative and milder comments about the shortcomings of the regime’s model for democracy and the humanitarian situation made by Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. special envoy to Burma, and Charles Petrie, the former U.N. humanitarian coordinator in the country.
Gambari was given a dressing down by Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan in March last year for comments the Nigerian diplomat made about flaws in the “democratic” political process being pushed by the junta. Gambari said that the U.N. wanted this push, including the new constitution, to be inclusive, accommodating the opposition.
Petrie paid a different price for speaking his mind in a press release issued in October 2007. The junta refused to renew his visa, prompting an early departure from his post, after the head of the United Nations Development Programme deplored the “deteriorating humanitarian situation” in the country
The regime described that statement as “unprecedented” and “very negative.”
But by going many steps further, Ban’s speech is being described as “encouraging” by the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the democratically elected government forced into exile after the regime refused to recognised the results of the 1990 general elections.
“This is the first time that someone has been so openly critical about the reality in Burma,” says Bo Hla Tint, the foreign minister of the NCGUB. “It was important for Mr. Ban to tell the regime how the U.N. sees the problem in Burma.”
“The U.N. secretary-general’s role is important to bring change in Burma,” the minister in the exile government told IPS. “It has to be part of a long serious political process, and not just a one-time event.”
The personal commitment shown by Ban to usher in an open and inclusive democratic culture in Burma is being well received by the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-member regional bloc of which Burma is a member.
“The prime minister, as the chair of ASEAN, supports the U.N. secretary-general’s trip to Myanmar and he wants to ensure that the U.N. keeps engaging the Myanmar government,” said Panitan Wattanayagorn, the acting spokesman for the Thai government. “We will see from this point onwards what more can be done now that the U.N. secretary-general has delivered his message.”
Such a regional response marks a departure from the harsh comments by Western governments that saw Ban’s trip as a failure, achieving barely any concessions from the junta. A key to this dismissive stance was Ban being denied access to meet Suu Kyi.
“Although we know that expectations among some in the international community was very high and they wanted the secretary-general to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, it is not fair to say the mission was a failure because the meeting did not take place,” added Panitan in an interview. “The issues are much more complex and beyond this single issue.”
But for the current U.N. engagement to achieve political reform in Burma more is required, say human rights groups that have continued to expose the litany of abuse in a country that has been under the grip of successive military regimes since a 1962 coup.
“Setting the standards through a speech is the easiest thing to do; achieving the standards is the difficult part,” says David Scott Mathieson, Burma consultant for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based global rights watchdog. “That is where the hard work and effort is going to be.” “The average person in Burma will find Ban’s speech patronising,” Mathieson told IPS. “They expect more from the U.N.”
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The Guardian - Burma rebels vow to stop using child soldiers
Shan insurgents get foreign aid in return for halting use of children in country with highest number of underage conscripts
Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 7 July 2009 16.14 BST
One of Burma's main rebel groups has pledged to stop using child soldiers in return for outside aid in an effort to enhance its international credibility.
Leaders of the Shan State army (SSA), one of several ethnic insurgent groups battling the country's military junta, have signed a memorandum of understanding with Abolish Slavery and International Operations Centre for Children (IOCC), two western non-governmental organisations, to prevent minors serving in its forces.
Burma has the highest number of child soldiers in the world – about 70,000. A Human Rights Watch report in 2002 found widespread forced recruitment of boys as young as 11. Subsequent reports say the number of child soldiers in Burma is largely unchanged despite international condemnation.
International law prohibits the recruitment of children under 15 and the use of child soldiers has been recognised as a war crime under the statute for the international criminal court.
In Burma, the national army is the biggest culprit. Flouting the country's own laws that prohibit any recruitment of under 18s, the army apprehends boys at public places such as markets and bus stations, using threats and violence to force them to join. Once trained, children as young as 12 have been sent to fight against ethnic insurgent groups.
Rebel groups also forcibly conscript children. The United Wa State army, the biggest rebel force, has the largest number. The Kachin Independence army is the only armed group to recruit girls. The SSA and the Karen National Liberation army have policies against recruiting children under 18, but do not turn away children who actively seek to join.
Christian Elliott, of the IOCC, who signed the agreement with Lieutenant Colonel Kon Jern, a SSA commander, said the reason behind the insurgents' anti-child soldiers pledge was international credibility.
"They are looking for brownie points any way they can and in return we will provide them with educational material for teachers and children, including books writing materials, computers and distant education opportunities," Elliott said.
The Shan area once used to be a major producer of heroin but the rebel groups have made an effort to stamp out production as part of the drive for international respectability.
Elliott, who made the arduous trek into Burma to sign the agreement, said the SSA has between 2,000 and 3,000 soldiers aged 16-18.
The rebel group has also agreed to provide evidence of human rights abuses by the Burmese army in the form of video and photographs. The material is to be displayed on the Abolish Slavery website in support of the SSA's to help the people of the Shan state, in the east of the country.
Home to several ethnic armed groups, Shan remains largely outside central government control.
Shan insurgents get foreign aid in return for halting use of children in country with highest number of underage conscripts
Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 7 July 2009 16.14 BST
One of Burma's main rebel groups has pledged to stop using child soldiers in return for outside aid in an effort to enhance its international credibility.
Leaders of the Shan State army (SSA), one of several ethnic insurgent groups battling the country's military junta, have signed a memorandum of understanding with Abolish Slavery and International Operations Centre for Children (IOCC), two western non-governmental organisations, to prevent minors serving in its forces.
Burma has the highest number of child soldiers in the world – about 70,000. A Human Rights Watch report in 2002 found widespread forced recruitment of boys as young as 11. Subsequent reports say the number of child soldiers in Burma is largely unchanged despite international condemnation.
International law prohibits the recruitment of children under 15 and the use of child soldiers has been recognised as a war crime under the statute for the international criminal court.
In Burma, the national army is the biggest culprit. Flouting the country's own laws that prohibit any recruitment of under 18s, the army apprehends boys at public places such as markets and bus stations, using threats and violence to force them to join. Once trained, children as young as 12 have been sent to fight against ethnic insurgent groups.
Rebel groups also forcibly conscript children. The United Wa State army, the biggest rebel force, has the largest number. The Kachin Independence army is the only armed group to recruit girls. The SSA and the Karen National Liberation army have policies against recruiting children under 18, but do not turn away children who actively seek to join.
Christian Elliott, of the IOCC, who signed the agreement with Lieutenant Colonel Kon Jern, a SSA commander, said the reason behind the insurgents' anti-child soldiers pledge was international credibility.
"They are looking for brownie points any way they can and in return we will provide them with educational material for teachers and children, including books writing materials, computers and distant education opportunities," Elliott said.
The Shan area once used to be a major producer of heroin but the rebel groups have made an effort to stamp out production as part of the drive for international respectability.
Elliott, who made the arduous trek into Burma to sign the agreement, said the SSA has between 2,000 and 3,000 soldiers aged 16-18.
The rebel group has also agreed to provide evidence of human rights abuses by the Burmese army in the form of video and photographs. The material is to be displayed on the Abolish Slavery website in support of the SSA's to help the people of the Shan state, in the east of the country.
Home to several ethnic armed groups, Shan remains largely outside central government control.
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Scoop - Burmese Generals Show Their Hand
Tuesday, 7 July 2009, 9:46 am
Press Release: Terry Evans
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leaving Burma empty-handed, having failed to meet with imprisoned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi or win any concessions from General Than Shwe, the head of the ruling junta.
“I pressed as hard as I could,” Ban told reporters after the meeting. “I had hoped that he would agree to my request, but it is regrettable that he did not,” he said, adding that he was “deeply disappointed” with the situation.
The UN chief does not seem to grasp that Burma's hardliner generals fear Aung San Suu Kyi, whose NLD party won a convincing 82 percent of the seats in the 1990 general election. The Burmese generals refused to recognise the results, over-ruling the popular mandate of the Burmese people, and prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from forming a civilian government.
The junta is now determined to avoid a repeat of the Aung San Suu Kyi's 1990 election victory. They have pushed through a new constitution with conditions that favour the military, and they continue to detain Aung San Suu Kyi. It is expected that she will be prevented from participating in the 2010 election.
The Burmese generals have shown that they have no intention of negotiating away their hold on power.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009, 9:46 am
Press Release: Terry Evans
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leaving Burma empty-handed, having failed to meet with imprisoned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi or win any concessions from General Than Shwe, the head of the ruling junta.
“I pressed as hard as I could,” Ban told reporters after the meeting. “I had hoped that he would agree to my request, but it is regrettable that he did not,” he said, adding that he was “deeply disappointed” with the situation.
The UN chief does not seem to grasp that Burma's hardliner generals fear Aung San Suu Kyi, whose NLD party won a convincing 82 percent of the seats in the 1990 general election. The Burmese generals refused to recognise the results, over-ruling the popular mandate of the Burmese people, and prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from forming a civilian government.
The junta is now determined to avoid a repeat of the Aung San Suu Kyi's 1990 election victory. They have pushed through a new constitution with conditions that favour the military, and they continue to detain Aung San Suu Kyi. It is expected that she will be prevented from participating in the 2010 election.
The Burmese generals have shown that they have no intention of negotiating away their hold on power.
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The Nation - Opinion: Everyone is complicit in propping up the evil Burmese regime
Published on July 8, 2009
Re: "Burmese junta does not respect anyone", Editorial, July 7.
You rightly address the visit of the secretary-general of the United Nations to Burma in your Tuesday editorial as it is of regional and international importance, and you are rightly dismissive, in general, towards the effectiveness of this visit. I share your feelings but mine are far more extreme as they are simply derision.
This man in his toadying to a regime which everyone seems to have conveniently forgotten is totally illegitimate - having acted to prevent a democratically elected government taking office and removing its leader from society and keeping her in total isolation - has yet again given it credibility and legitimacy.
He, his office and the United Nations have been comprehensively ridiculed by a murderous thug parading as the leader of Burma. This is a man who ruthlessly suppresses the people of Burma, murders monks, and while the country starves happily organises a wedding for his daughter that made the excesses of the American soap operas "Dallas" and "Dynasty" look small beer.
Yet Thai ministers merrily trot off to this vile regime, along with an endless collection of others, to, in their words, "engage" with the generals in the hope of encouraging them to have a Pauline conversion and happily move the country to a democracy.
In what drug-fuelled fantasy do these sycophants live? It does not take the intellect of Einstein nor the reasoning power of Euclid to deduce this is as likely to occur as Kim Jong-il seeing the errors of his ways next Tuesday, closing down all his nuclear facilities and inviting McDonald's to open a chain of stores throughout the country.
The world in general and the UN, Asean and those countries bordering Burma specifically have brazenly betrayed the people of Burma under the cruelly fatuous nonsense of engagement.
China's behaviour of not caring a jot can be expected as it has little concern for its people, having cheerfully announced that Western style democracy would never be allowed to be established in the communist dictatorship. It simply wants raw materials at any cost to keep the juggernaut of economic progress rolling, as any blip in that might unseat communist control.
India, despite being a democracy, does no better, being presumably motivated by base greed and jealousy of China's gains in resources from Burma, and happily looks the other way while trying to feed from the trough.
The UN is regretfully an excessively expensive, impotent irrelevance, and Asean but a callous collection of dictatorships and faux democracies trying to play on a world stage. All lack the ability, motivation or intention to right this grotesque aberration that blights the modern world.
JOHN SYMONS, BANGKOK
Published on July 8, 2009
Re: "Burmese junta does not respect anyone", Editorial, July 7.
You rightly address the visit of the secretary-general of the United Nations to Burma in your Tuesday editorial as it is of regional and international importance, and you are rightly dismissive, in general, towards the effectiveness of this visit. I share your feelings but mine are far more extreme as they are simply derision.
This man in his toadying to a regime which everyone seems to have conveniently forgotten is totally illegitimate - having acted to prevent a democratically elected government taking office and removing its leader from society and keeping her in total isolation - has yet again given it credibility and legitimacy.
He, his office and the United Nations have been comprehensively ridiculed by a murderous thug parading as the leader of Burma. This is a man who ruthlessly suppresses the people of Burma, murders monks, and while the country starves happily organises a wedding for his daughter that made the excesses of the American soap operas "Dallas" and "Dynasty" look small beer.
Yet Thai ministers merrily trot off to this vile regime, along with an endless collection of others, to, in their words, "engage" with the generals in the hope of encouraging them to have a Pauline conversion and happily move the country to a democracy.
In what drug-fuelled fantasy do these sycophants live? It does not take the intellect of Einstein nor the reasoning power of Euclid to deduce this is as likely to occur as Kim Jong-il seeing the errors of his ways next Tuesday, closing down all his nuclear facilities and inviting McDonald's to open a chain of stores throughout the country.
The world in general and the UN, Asean and those countries bordering Burma specifically have brazenly betrayed the people of Burma under the cruelly fatuous nonsense of engagement.
China's behaviour of not caring a jot can be expected as it has little concern for its people, having cheerfully announced that Western style democracy would never be allowed to be established in the communist dictatorship. It simply wants raw materials at any cost to keep the juggernaut of economic progress rolling, as any blip in that might unseat communist control.
India, despite being a democracy, does no better, being presumably motivated by base greed and jealousy of China's gains in resources from Burma, and happily looks the other way while trying to feed from the trough.
The UN is regretfully an excessively expensive, impotent irrelevance, and Asean but a callous collection of dictatorships and faux democracies trying to play on a world stage. All lack the ability, motivation or intention to right this grotesque aberration that blights the modern world.
JOHN SYMONS, BANGKOK
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The Irrawaddy - Meeting with Ban “Unsatisfactory”: NLD
By SAW YAN NAING, Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Burmese opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD) said a meeting between the party leaders and UN chief Ban Ki-moon during his two-day trip to Burma was “unsatisfactory” because of the severe time limitation.
Win Naing, a spokesperson for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that his party will release a statement on Thursday about the details of the meeting with Ban in Naypyidaw on July 3.
Four central committee executives of the NLD, Hla Pe, Soe Myint, Nyunt Wai and Than Tun, met with the UN general secretary in Burma’s new capital.
Win Naing said his party leaders were firstly allowed to meet and talk with Ban for only two minutes. The party leaders were then given ten minutes after they asked for more time.
“We are not satisfied with the time limit. We wanted to discuss current events far more and submit our proposals, but we had no choice,” said Win Naing.
During the meeting with Ban, the NLD’s executive members talked about the release of political prisoners, calls for dialogue and a review of the current constitution, said sources in Rangoon.
During his two-day visit, Ban also talked with Burma’s No 1, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, and urged him to release an estimated 2,100 political prisoners and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and embark on democratization ahead of multi-party elections scheduled for next year.
Ban also asked for a meeting with the detained opposition leader Suu Kyi. Than Shwe rejected his request, reasoning that the opposition leader was under trial.
Ban ended his visit to Burma on July 4 as Burmese observers were commenting that his trip had been “a failure” due to his failure to meet with Suu Kyi.
Before he left Rangoon, the UN general-secretary said he was "deeply disappointed" that junta chief Than Shwe had refused his requests to visit the detained pro-democracy leader.
Journalists in Rangoon, however, said that hough Ban had been humiliated by junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe, his frank message to the generals would have irked them.
The NLD also stated that the failure of Ban’s trip was due to the Burmese generals’ unwillingness to move forward to democratization in Burma and not the efforts by the UN secretary general.
Win Naing said, “Ban Ki-moon tried his best. But, he failed to achieve what he wanted because of decisions by the Burmese government.”
“We recognize what the UN has tried to do for Burma, on the contrary,” he added.
Nyan Win, the main spokesperson for the NLD, also said that the failure was due to "a lack of willingness and genuine goodwill on the part of the government.”
Ban’s first trip to Burma was in May 2008 after Cyclone Nargis had slammed into Burma’s Irrawaddy and Rangoon Divisions. During his first trip, he eased the junta’s tight control over the inflow of international humanitarian aid to parts of the country affected by the cyclone.
By SAW YAN NAING, Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Burmese opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD) said a meeting between the party leaders and UN chief Ban Ki-moon during his two-day trip to Burma was “unsatisfactory” because of the severe time limitation.
Win Naing, a spokesperson for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that his party will release a statement on Thursday about the details of the meeting with Ban in Naypyidaw on July 3.
Four central committee executives of the NLD, Hla Pe, Soe Myint, Nyunt Wai and Than Tun, met with the UN general secretary in Burma’s new capital.
Win Naing said his party leaders were firstly allowed to meet and talk with Ban for only two minutes. The party leaders were then given ten minutes after they asked for more time.
“We are not satisfied with the time limit. We wanted to discuss current events far more and submit our proposals, but we had no choice,” said Win Naing.
During the meeting with Ban, the NLD’s executive members talked about the release of political prisoners, calls for dialogue and a review of the current constitution, said sources in Rangoon.
During his two-day visit, Ban also talked with Burma’s No 1, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, and urged him to release an estimated 2,100 political prisoners and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and embark on democratization ahead of multi-party elections scheduled for next year.
Ban also asked for a meeting with the detained opposition leader Suu Kyi. Than Shwe rejected his request, reasoning that the opposition leader was under trial.
Ban ended his visit to Burma on July 4 as Burmese observers were commenting that his trip had been “a failure” due to his failure to meet with Suu Kyi.
Before he left Rangoon, the UN general-secretary said he was "deeply disappointed" that junta chief Than Shwe had refused his requests to visit the detained pro-democracy leader.
Journalists in Rangoon, however, said that hough Ban had been humiliated by junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe, his frank message to the generals would have irked them.
The NLD also stated that the failure of Ban’s trip was due to the Burmese generals’ unwillingness to move forward to democratization in Burma and not the efforts by the UN secretary general.
Win Naing said, “Ban Ki-moon tried his best. But, he failed to achieve what he wanted because of decisions by the Burmese government.”
“We recognize what the UN has tried to do for Burma, on the contrary,” he added.
Nyan Win, the main spokesperson for the NLD, also said that the failure was due to "a lack of willingness and genuine goodwill on the part of the government.”
Ban’s first trip to Burma was in May 2008 after Cyclone Nargis had slammed into Burma’s Irrawaddy and Rangoon Divisions. During his first trip, he eased the junta’s tight control over the inflow of international humanitarian aid to parts of the country affected by the cyclone.
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The Irrawaddy - US Expresses Concern over Burma
By LALIT K JHA, Wednesday, July 8, 2009
WASHINGTON — The United States expressed concern on Tuesday over the state of democracy in Burma, and urged the military junta to release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.
“I think our concerns with the state of democracy are very well known. We, of course, have called for the release of the 2,100 political prisoners in Burma,” the State Department spokesman, Ian C Kelly, told reporters at his daily press briefing.
Kelly said the Obama Administration has called very specifically for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest.
The spokesman said the Obama Administration is currently reviewing its Burma policy. “We have a new Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell. So I would suspect that we will have more to say when we will begin to wrap up this policy review and have more to say at that time,” he said.
Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, announced in Bangkok on Saturday that Ibrahim Gambari, the Special UN Envoy for Burma, would convene a meeting of the Group of Friends on Burma for a briefing upon his return to New York.
By LALIT K JHA, Wednesday, July 8, 2009
WASHINGTON — The United States expressed concern on Tuesday over the state of democracy in Burma, and urged the military junta to release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.
“I think our concerns with the state of democracy are very well known. We, of course, have called for the release of the 2,100 political prisoners in Burma,” the State Department spokesman, Ian C Kelly, told reporters at his daily press briefing.
Kelly said the Obama Administration has called very specifically for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest.
The spokesman said the Obama Administration is currently reviewing its Burma policy. “We have a new Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell. So I would suspect that we will have more to say when we will begin to wrap up this policy review and have more to say at that time,” he said.
Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, announced in Bangkok on Saturday that Ibrahim Gambari, the Special UN Envoy for Burma, would convene a meeting of the Group of Friends on Burma for a briefing upon his return to New York.
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Mizzima News - US concern over state of democracy in Burma
by Mungpi
Wednesday, 08 July 2009 22:35
New Delhi (mizzima)– The US State Department has given vent to its concern with the political developments in Burma and has specifically called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained opposition leader currently facing trial.
Ian Kelly, the State Department spokesperson on Tuesday told reporters, “I think our concerns with the state of democracy are very well known. We have of course called for the release of the 2,100 political prisoners in Burma.”
“We’ve called very specifically for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi,” Kelly added.
Aung San Suu Kyi is currently standing trial on charges of violating her detention rules. She could be sentenced up to five years, if found guilty..
Kelly also said that the Obama administration is currently into a review of its Burma policy.
“We have a new Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Mr. Kurt Campbell. So I would suppose that we will have more to say when we begin to wrap up this policy review,” he added.
The State Department’s message came after the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was not allowed to meet the detained Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi during his two-day visit to the country last weekend.
Ban said he was ‘deeply disappointed’ over the junta’s refusal to allow a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, saying Burma has lost a precious opportunity.
by Mungpi
Wednesday, 08 July 2009 22:35
New Delhi (mizzima)– The US State Department has given vent to its concern with the political developments in Burma and has specifically called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained opposition leader currently facing trial.
Ian Kelly, the State Department spokesperson on Tuesday told reporters, “I think our concerns with the state of democracy are very well known. We have of course called for the release of the 2,100 political prisoners in Burma.”
“We’ve called very specifically for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi,” Kelly added.
Aung San Suu Kyi is currently standing trial on charges of violating her detention rules. She could be sentenced up to five years, if found guilty..
Kelly also said that the Obama administration is currently into a review of its Burma policy.
“We have a new Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Mr. Kurt Campbell. So I would suppose that we will have more to say when we begin to wrap up this policy review,” he added.
The State Department’s message came after the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was not allowed to meet the detained Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi during his two-day visit to the country last weekend.
Ban said he was ‘deeply disappointed’ over the junta’s refusal to allow a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, saying Burma has lost a precious opportunity.
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Mizzima News - India urged to stop helping Burmese junta
by Salai Pi Pi
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 21:00
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Indian government has been exhorted to stop helping the Burmese military regime by student leaders and journalists from Northeast Indian states, who in a show of solidarity, demanded the unconditional release of Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Dr Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya, advisor of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Tuesday said he supports restoration of democracy in Burma and urges India to initiate a move for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, currently being tried in Rangoon’s Insein prison court.
“We want democracy to be restored there and at the same time, the leader [Aung San Suu Kyi] should be released,” Samujjal Bhattacharya told Mizzima.
Journalists and student leaders from Northeast India voiced their demand as India continues to be silent about the trial of Augn San Suu Kyi and has steadfastly refused to join the global outcry against the junta.
Nava Thakuria, a Guwahati-based Assamese journalist said, India as the largest democracy in the world should review its ‘Look East’ policy, which claims to be based on its national interest.
Thakuria said the focus of India’s foreign policy on Burma is to counter China’s influence in Burma and flush out all Northeast militants based in Burma’s northern Kachin state and North-Western Sagaing division with the help of the military regime.
“But we can say this policy has failed, as there are still many Northeast militants sheltered on Burmese soil,” he added.
In a show of solidarity, Indian journalists, social activists and student leaders of Northeast India on July 4, held a round-table meeting highlighting ‘India’s policy on Burma: A northeast Perspective’, in Guwahati, capital of Assam state.
Indian students, journalists and activists called on India to stop supporting the Burmese regime especially with the sale of military hardware.
“India has sold military hardware including helicopters and tanks to the Burmese military regime earlier. We urge them not to sell more armaments in the future because they are used for repressing the people,” said Thakuria, who also acted as the contact person for the Roundtable discussion in Guwahati.
He said, while New Delhi has boosted bilateral trade with Burma, it should also accommodate Burmese pro-democracy activists in exile to help their political cause.
India and Burma, in recent years, have stepped up bilateral trade relationship. The Indo-Burmese bilateral trade for the fiscal year 2007-08 stood at US $ 901.3 million with Burma's export to India standing at US $ 727.85 million.
by Salai Pi Pi
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 21:00
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Indian government has been exhorted to stop helping the Burmese military regime by student leaders and journalists from Northeast Indian states, who in a show of solidarity, demanded the unconditional release of Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Dr Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya, advisor of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Tuesday said he supports restoration of democracy in Burma and urges India to initiate a move for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, currently being tried in Rangoon’s Insein prison court.
“We want democracy to be restored there and at the same time, the leader [Aung San Suu Kyi] should be released,” Samujjal Bhattacharya told Mizzima.
Journalists and student leaders from Northeast India voiced their demand as India continues to be silent about the trial of Augn San Suu Kyi and has steadfastly refused to join the global outcry against the junta.
Nava Thakuria, a Guwahati-based Assamese journalist said, India as the largest democracy in the world should review its ‘Look East’ policy, which claims to be based on its national interest.
Thakuria said the focus of India’s foreign policy on Burma is to counter China’s influence in Burma and flush out all Northeast militants based in Burma’s northern Kachin state and North-Western Sagaing division with the help of the military regime.
“But we can say this policy has failed, as there are still many Northeast militants sheltered on Burmese soil,” he added.
In a show of solidarity, Indian journalists, social activists and student leaders of Northeast India on July 4, held a round-table meeting highlighting ‘India’s policy on Burma: A northeast Perspective’, in Guwahati, capital of Assam state.
Indian students, journalists and activists called on India to stop supporting the Burmese regime especially with the sale of military hardware.
“India has sold military hardware including helicopters and tanks to the Burmese military regime earlier. We urge them not to sell more armaments in the future because they are used for repressing the people,” said Thakuria, who also acted as the contact person for the Roundtable discussion in Guwahati.
He said, while New Delhi has boosted bilateral trade with Burma, it should also accommodate Burmese pro-democracy activists in exile to help their political cause.
India and Burma, in recent years, have stepped up bilateral trade relationship. The Indo-Burmese bilateral trade for the fiscal year 2007-08 stood at US $ 901.3 million with Burma's export to India standing at US $ 727.85 million.
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US clothing association calls for Burma imports ban
July 8, 2009 (DVB)–The United States should immediately renew an expiring ban on imports from Burma due to ongoing human rights abuses in the country, the American Apparel and Footwear Association said on Monday.
A series of letters were sent by AAFA to the US Congress urging them to renew the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, which will expire on 26 July.
The trade association was the first business organisation to call for the implementation of the Act in 2003.
“AAFA once again calls on Congress to follow through on U.S. commitments to human rights and renew economic sanctions against Burma,” said AAFA President and CEO Kevin M Burke.
“AAFA strongly supports this renewal because it will send a clear and unmistakable message that the United States is not interested in doing business with regimes like the one that brutally enslaves the people of Burma.”
Blake added, however, that a unilateral approach would only have a “limited effect” on Burma.
“I hope the world community will join the United States in implementing economic sanctions to demonstrate that there is no room for oppression in the global marketplace.”
While it is predominantly Western countries, including the US and European Union, that support sanctions on Burma, a number of Asian countries continue to trade with the regime.
According to Burma’s Weekly Eleven journal, total foreign investment in Burma now stands at $US15 billion, the majority of which is chanelled into Burma’s oil and gas sector.
China recently signed a deal to import gas from Burma’s vast offshore reserves, while Thailand relies on Burma for much of its energy needs.
Thailand’s prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said last week that the economic boycott of the country was “not useful” as Thailand looked to continue investment in the country.
British prime minister Gordon Brown on Saturday told the BBC that the lack of a sign of change from the regime “has put increased isolation - including the possibility of further sanctions - on the international agenda”.
Reporting by Francis Wade
July 8, 2009 (DVB)–The United States should immediately renew an expiring ban on imports from Burma due to ongoing human rights abuses in the country, the American Apparel and Footwear Association said on Monday.
A series of letters were sent by AAFA to the US Congress urging them to renew the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, which will expire on 26 July.
The trade association was the first business organisation to call for the implementation of the Act in 2003.
“AAFA once again calls on Congress to follow through on U.S. commitments to human rights and renew economic sanctions against Burma,” said AAFA President and CEO Kevin M Burke.
“AAFA strongly supports this renewal because it will send a clear and unmistakable message that the United States is not interested in doing business with regimes like the one that brutally enslaves the people of Burma.”
Blake added, however, that a unilateral approach would only have a “limited effect” on Burma.
“I hope the world community will join the United States in implementing economic sanctions to demonstrate that there is no room for oppression in the global marketplace.”
While it is predominantly Western countries, including the US and European Union, that support sanctions on Burma, a number of Asian countries continue to trade with the regime.
According to Burma’s Weekly Eleven journal, total foreign investment in Burma now stands at $US15 billion, the majority of which is chanelled into Burma’s oil and gas sector.
China recently signed a deal to import gas from Burma’s vast offshore reserves, while Thailand relies on Burma for much of its energy needs.
Thailand’s prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said last week that the economic boycott of the country was “not useful” as Thailand looked to continue investment in the country.
British prime minister Gordon Brown on Saturday told the BBC that the lack of a sign of change from the regime “has put increased isolation - including the possibility of further sanctions - on the international agenda”.
Reporting by Francis Wade
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