Myanmar warns against protests ahead of Suu Kyi verdict
Thu Jul 30, 7:23 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Military-ruled Myanmar's state media on Thursday warned citizens against inciting protests as democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi began stockpiling supplies ahead of a possible five-year jail term.
A prison court is expected to deliver a verdict on Friday in the Nobel peace laureate's trial for breaching the terms of her house arrest by allegedly sheltering an American intruder who swam to her house.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a comment piece Thursday cautioning against anti-government factions and saying that "we have to ward off subversive elements and disruptions".
"Look out if some arouse the people to take to the streets to come to power. In reality they are anti-democracy elements, not pro-democracy activists," the English-language article said.
"They don't believe in democracy, and they don't acknowledge the people's reasoning power."
Security has been tight for all the hearings, with memories still fresh in Myanmar of massive anti-junta protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007 which ended in a bloody crackdown.
A conviction is widely expected in the two-and-a-half-month trial, which has sparked international outrage. It has been repeatedly delayed as the junta fended off criticism and calls for the release of Suu Kyi.
The 64-year-old opposition icon has asked for English and French novels and Burmese-language books including dictionaries and religious works to help her pass the time if she is jailed, her lawyer Nyan Win said.
"I think Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is preparing for the worst," Nyan Win, who is also a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD), told AFP. Daw is a term of respect in Burmese.
"She has said that if she has to stay in prison for a long time, she has only one thing to do and that is reading."
Nyan Win added however that "I hope Daw Suu will be released according to the law."
Critics say the trial is a ploy by the regime to keep Suu Kyi locked up until after elections scheduled for 2010. She has already spent almost 14 of the last 20 years in detention.
The New Light of Myammar editorial pointed out that "people who are serving their prison terms do not have the right to vote or to stand for election".
The newspaper also launched an apparent attack on the NLD, which won the country's last elections in 1990 but was prevented from taking power by the ruling generals.
It said that "a handful of politicians with excessive greed, anger and conceit are troubling the people, and millions of people are impoverished. The people... are waiting for the time they mend their ways".
The article denied that the military government was "power-craving," saying it would not have called the elections next year or held a referendum on the constitution in 2008 if that was the case.
The referendum was held just days after a cyclone devastated the south of the country, killing 138,000 people.
On Wednesday the newspaper warned against predictions of a guilty verdict in the trial and said that anticipating the ruling would amount to contempt of court.
Fears that Suu Kyi will be jailed are proving too much for some of the female supporters in her party, who said they had wept when the court announced on Tuesday that it would deliver a judgement this week.
"We cried as we feel really sorry for her in our heart. But we will remember her words that we should 'hope for the best and prepare for the worst'," Aye Aye Mar, a senior NLD member, told AFP.
John Yettaw, the US national who sparked the trial by swimming to her house, and two female assistants who lived with Suu Kyi are also on trial and face similar charges.
Yettaw has said that he embarked on his mission to warn Suu Kyi of a vision that she would be assassinated, while the opposition leader herself has said she did not report him to the authorities for humanitarian reasons.
Thu Jul 30, 7:23 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Military-ruled Myanmar's state media on Thursday warned citizens against inciting protests as democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi began stockpiling supplies ahead of a possible five-year jail term.
A prison court is expected to deliver a verdict on Friday in the Nobel peace laureate's trial for breaching the terms of her house arrest by allegedly sheltering an American intruder who swam to her house.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a comment piece Thursday cautioning against anti-government factions and saying that "we have to ward off subversive elements and disruptions".
"Look out if some arouse the people to take to the streets to come to power. In reality they are anti-democracy elements, not pro-democracy activists," the English-language article said.
"They don't believe in democracy, and they don't acknowledge the people's reasoning power."
Security has been tight for all the hearings, with memories still fresh in Myanmar of massive anti-junta protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007 which ended in a bloody crackdown.
A conviction is widely expected in the two-and-a-half-month trial, which has sparked international outrage. It has been repeatedly delayed as the junta fended off criticism and calls for the release of Suu Kyi.
The 64-year-old opposition icon has asked for English and French novels and Burmese-language books including dictionaries and religious works to help her pass the time if she is jailed, her lawyer Nyan Win said.
"I think Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is preparing for the worst," Nyan Win, who is also a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD), told AFP. Daw is a term of respect in Burmese.
"She has said that if she has to stay in prison for a long time, she has only one thing to do and that is reading."
Nyan Win added however that "I hope Daw Suu will be released according to the law."
Critics say the trial is a ploy by the regime to keep Suu Kyi locked up until after elections scheduled for 2010. She has already spent almost 14 of the last 20 years in detention.
The New Light of Myammar editorial pointed out that "people who are serving their prison terms do not have the right to vote or to stand for election".
The newspaper also launched an apparent attack on the NLD, which won the country's last elections in 1990 but was prevented from taking power by the ruling generals.
It said that "a handful of politicians with excessive greed, anger and conceit are troubling the people, and millions of people are impoverished. The people... are waiting for the time they mend their ways".
The article denied that the military government was "power-craving," saying it would not have called the elections next year or held a referendum on the constitution in 2008 if that was the case.
The referendum was held just days after a cyclone devastated the south of the country, killing 138,000 people.
On Wednesday the newspaper warned against predictions of a guilty verdict in the trial and said that anticipating the ruling would amount to contempt of court.
Fears that Suu Kyi will be jailed are proving too much for some of the female supporters in her party, who said they had wept when the court announced on Tuesday that it would deliver a judgement this week.
"We cried as we feel really sorry for her in our heart. But we will remember her words that we should 'hope for the best and prepare for the worst'," Aye Aye Mar, a senior NLD member, told AFP.
John Yettaw, the US national who sparked the trial by swimming to her house, and two female assistants who lived with Suu Kyi are also on trial and face similar charges.
Yettaw has said that he embarked on his mission to warn Suu Kyi of a vision that she would be assassinated, while the opposition leader herself has said she did not report him to the authorities for humanitarian reasons.
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Weeping Suu Kyi supporters brace for the worst
Wed Jul 29, 11:45 pm ET
YANGON (AFP) – Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi have stood resolute through two decades of resistance to Myanmar's junta -- but fears of a guilty verdict in the trial of their icon are proving too much for some.
Many female members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) wept at the party's headquarters after a court announced Tuesday that it would pass judgement on Suu Kyi at the end of the week, party sources and witnesses said.
They said they feared that she could be jailed for up to five more years on charges of abetting an American man who swam to her lakeside house -- on top of the 14 years out of the last 20 that she has already spent in detention.
"We cried as we really sorry for her in our heart. But we will remember her words that we should 'hope for the best and prepare for the worst'," Aye Aye Mar, a senior NLD party member, told AFP.
"We felt so sad when we heard the verdict will come. Our leader is always thinking for the benefit of the country. Although we know that the truth will come out one day, we can't do anything apart from pray for her release."
Judges at the court in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, where 64-year-old Suu Kyi has been held since May, closed the trial on Tuesday after lawyers finished delivering final arguments.
Suu Kyi is accused of breaching the terms of her house arrest by allowing US national John Yettaw to stay at her home after he swam in homemade flippers to her crumbling villa.
Verdicts are also expected in the simultaneous trials of two of Suu Kyi's female aides who lived with her at the property, and of Yettaw himself.
In a cruel irony, Yettaw was detained just days before the latest, six-year period of her house arrest was due to expire, giving the ruling generals a ready-made excuse to extend her detention.
Critics have accused the ruling generals of trying to keep the Nobel Peace Prize winner locked up during general elections promised by the regime some time during 2010.
They will be the first polls in Myanmar since the NLD swept to a landslide victory in 1990, a result which the junta refused to recognise before launching a massive campaign of repression against pro-democracy activists.
With many of its senior members behind bars, in ill health or simply old, the NLD's Suu Kyi has, more than ever, become the figurehead for peaceful resistance to the army's 47-year rule over the impoverished country.
She still inspires a devoted following some 21 years after taking the helm of the party, despite some questions among exiled activists and in the foreign media about her continued relevance, particularly her insistence that western nations should continue damaging sanctions against Myanmar.
Another Suu Kyi supporter, a 50-year-old housewife who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that she blamed Yettaw for the troubles faced by Suu Kyi.
"The US man is the one who should be blamed for causing this problem," she said.
"We do not understand very well about the law. But we feel pity for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as she is the daughter of our late leader Bogyoke (General) Aung San."
Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, was the country's independence hero. He was assassinated in 1947.
Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's defence lawyers and her party's spokesman has said they are "hoping for the best but preparing for the worst" on Friday, when sentencing is also expected.
Wed Jul 29, 11:45 pm ET
YANGON (AFP) – Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi have stood resolute through two decades of resistance to Myanmar's junta -- but fears of a guilty verdict in the trial of their icon are proving too much for some.
Many female members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) wept at the party's headquarters after a court announced Tuesday that it would pass judgement on Suu Kyi at the end of the week, party sources and witnesses said.
They said they feared that she could be jailed for up to five more years on charges of abetting an American man who swam to her lakeside house -- on top of the 14 years out of the last 20 that she has already spent in detention.
"We cried as we really sorry for her in our heart. But we will remember her words that we should 'hope for the best and prepare for the worst'," Aye Aye Mar, a senior NLD party member, told AFP.
"We felt so sad when we heard the verdict will come. Our leader is always thinking for the benefit of the country. Although we know that the truth will come out one day, we can't do anything apart from pray for her release."
Judges at the court in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, where 64-year-old Suu Kyi has been held since May, closed the trial on Tuesday after lawyers finished delivering final arguments.
Suu Kyi is accused of breaching the terms of her house arrest by allowing US national John Yettaw to stay at her home after he swam in homemade flippers to her crumbling villa.
Verdicts are also expected in the simultaneous trials of two of Suu Kyi's female aides who lived with her at the property, and of Yettaw himself.
In a cruel irony, Yettaw was detained just days before the latest, six-year period of her house arrest was due to expire, giving the ruling generals a ready-made excuse to extend her detention.
Critics have accused the ruling generals of trying to keep the Nobel Peace Prize winner locked up during general elections promised by the regime some time during 2010.
They will be the first polls in Myanmar since the NLD swept to a landslide victory in 1990, a result which the junta refused to recognise before launching a massive campaign of repression against pro-democracy activists.
With many of its senior members behind bars, in ill health or simply old, the NLD's Suu Kyi has, more than ever, become the figurehead for peaceful resistance to the army's 47-year rule over the impoverished country.
She still inspires a devoted following some 21 years after taking the helm of the party, despite some questions among exiled activists and in the foreign media about her continued relevance, particularly her insistence that western nations should continue damaging sanctions against Myanmar.
Another Suu Kyi supporter, a 50-year-old housewife who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that she blamed Yettaw for the troubles faced by Suu Kyi.
"The US man is the one who should be blamed for causing this problem," she said.
"We do not understand very well about the law. But we feel pity for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as she is the daughter of our late leader Bogyoke (General) Aung San."
Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, was the country's independence hero. He was assassinated in 1947.
Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's defence lawyers and her party's spokesman has said they are "hoping for the best but preparing for the worst" on Friday, when sentencing is also expected.
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Myanmar's Suu Kyi braces for worst ahead of ruling
AP - Thurday, July 30
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is bracing for Friday's ruling in Myanmar on whether she violated the terms of her house arrest by harboring an American, a decision that could send the frail icon of democracy to prison for up to five years.
The 64-year-old opposition leader was described by her lawyer Nyan Win as "physically and mentally fine, and very alert" Thursday. But he said she was also preparing for the worst, gathering medicine and several spy novels and biographies should she be given a lengthy prison term.
"She is getting ready for any result," Nyan Win said. "She is preparing for the worst."
Suu Kyi is charged with violating the terms of her lengthy house arrest when an American intruder swam across a lake and spent two nights at her home in May. Her trial in a court at Myanmar's Insein Prison has drawn international condemnation since it opened May 18 and many critics see it as a pretext to keeping her behind bars through the country's planned elections next year.
She is widely expected to be convicted, although there has been speculation she may stay under house arrest rather than serve time in jail. Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, since leading a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 that was crushed by Myanmar's military junta.
A verdict will also be given Friday for the uninvited American visitor, John Yettaw, 53, and Khin Khin Win and her daughter Win Ma Ma who stayed with Suu Kyi during her house arrest. Yettaw is charged as an abettor in violating her house arrest and faces up to five years in prison.
Threatened by a woman who remains the country's most popular politician, the junta has repeatedly detained her. During her brief moments of freedom, she was constantly hounded by the junta and a pro-government mob attacked her caravan in 2003.
If convicted, the charismatic mother of two will return to a lonely life, her days filled with mediation, reading books and getting the occasional censored letters. Knowing she could be put behind bars, Suu Kyi provided her lawyers with a list of requested items, which they were able to bring her, Nyan Win said.
"She is collecting some medicine and many books in English, French and Burmese," he said.
Suu Kyi's lawyers have not contested the basic facts of the case but argued that the law used by authorities against her is invalid because it applies to a constitution abolished two decades ago. They also say that government security guards stationed outside Suu Kyi's compound should be held responsible for any intrusion.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York on Wednesday that he hopes the government will respond to his repeated appeals to free Suu Kyi.
But neither outside pressure nor the possibility of better economic and political ties with the West has deterred the ruling junta, which appears determined to find Suu Kyi guilty and keep her out of the public eye.
AP - Thurday, July 30
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is bracing for Friday's ruling in Myanmar on whether she violated the terms of her house arrest by harboring an American, a decision that could send the frail icon of democracy to prison for up to five years.
The 64-year-old opposition leader was described by her lawyer Nyan Win as "physically and mentally fine, and very alert" Thursday. But he said she was also preparing for the worst, gathering medicine and several spy novels and biographies should she be given a lengthy prison term.
"She is getting ready for any result," Nyan Win said. "She is preparing for the worst."
Suu Kyi is charged with violating the terms of her lengthy house arrest when an American intruder swam across a lake and spent two nights at her home in May. Her trial in a court at Myanmar's Insein Prison has drawn international condemnation since it opened May 18 and many critics see it as a pretext to keeping her behind bars through the country's planned elections next year.
She is widely expected to be convicted, although there has been speculation she may stay under house arrest rather than serve time in jail. Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, since leading a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 that was crushed by Myanmar's military junta.
A verdict will also be given Friday for the uninvited American visitor, John Yettaw, 53, and Khin Khin Win and her daughter Win Ma Ma who stayed with Suu Kyi during her house arrest. Yettaw is charged as an abettor in violating her house arrest and faces up to five years in prison.
Threatened by a woman who remains the country's most popular politician, the junta has repeatedly detained her. During her brief moments of freedom, she was constantly hounded by the junta and a pro-government mob attacked her caravan in 2003.
If convicted, the charismatic mother of two will return to a lonely life, her days filled with mediation, reading books and getting the occasional censored letters. Knowing she could be put behind bars, Suu Kyi provided her lawyers with a list of requested items, which they were able to bring her, Nyan Win said.
"She is collecting some medicine and many books in English, French and Burmese," he said.
Suu Kyi's lawyers have not contested the basic facts of the case but argued that the law used by authorities against her is invalid because it applies to a constitution abolished two decades ago. They also say that government security guards stationed outside Suu Kyi's compound should be held responsible for any intrusion.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York on Wednesday that he hopes the government will respond to his repeated appeals to free Suu Kyi.
But neither outside pressure nor the possibility of better economic and political ties with the West has deterred the ruling junta, which appears determined to find Suu Kyi guilty and keep her out of the public eye.
*****************************************************
Obama inks extension of Myanmar import ban
Published: July 29, 2009 at 5:47 PM
WASHINGTON, July 29 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law a congressional resolution extending restrictions on imports from Myanmar.
The House Joint Resolution Obama signed Tuesday renewed for one year the import restrictions contained in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, the White House said in a statement.
Myanmar was formerly known as Burma
The import ban applies to direct or third-country imports of jade and gemstones from Myanmar.
Published: July 29, 2009 at 5:47 PM
WASHINGTON, July 29 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law a congressional resolution extending restrictions on imports from Myanmar.
The House Joint Resolution Obama signed Tuesday renewed for one year the import restrictions contained in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, the White House said in a statement.
Myanmar was formerly known as Burma
The import ban applies to direct or third-country imports of jade and gemstones from Myanmar.
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In These Times - UN Tackles Forced Labor in Myanmar
Wednesday July 29, 12:39 pm
The United Nations and Myanmar haven’t agreed on most issues. The military junta’s blocking of international relief in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and the ongoing house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi are a few issues that have underscored their tense relations.
But one of the more overlooked issues is forced labor. For years, the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) has had a bone to pick with the Myanmar junta for forcing villagers to work on infrastructure projects or serve as porters for the army.
The situation in Myanmar is just a reflection of the 12.3 million individuals forced into labor around the world. The UN has pressed the Myanmar junta to put a stop to the violations in a slow yet measured process. Last Thursday, the ILO and the government of Germany signed an agreement to monitor the country formerly known as Burma for violations pertaining to forced underage military recruitment.
The agreement aims for Myanmar to follow international and national conscription laws; promote legal measures to prevent under-age recruitment; and ensure that children of forced labor are treated as victims, not perpetrators.
The agreement is just another addition to previous UN frameworks intended to ensure compliance by the notoriously reclusive Myanmar junta. In 2003, Myanmar agreed to have a UN liaison in the country’s capital of Yangon to mediate labor disputes. The process was followed by the implementation of a legal process in 2007 that allows victims of forced labor to seek reparations via the UN intermediary. The legal process has been renewed every year since by Myanmar, including another recent extension until 2010.
Myanmar’s Minister of Labour, Aung Kyi, stated that he “welcomed this continuation of the cooperation between the Government and the ILO which once again confirms the Government of Myanmar’s high-level commitment to its policy for the prohibition of forced labour.”
But despite the agreement, the ILO says Myanmar hasn’t done enough. This past June, the ILO committee on labor standards evaluated Myanmar’s progress on forced labor and determined that the steps are still “totally inadequate.”
The committee recommended that Myanmar ban forced labor through legislation; ban the constitutional provision that allows forced labor; hold civil and military perpetrators of forced labor accountable; stop harassment towards victims of forced labor; and increase publicity to ban obligatory work.
Moreover, the severe sentences of Su Su Nway and U Thet Way, two prominent labor activists, are also a source of tension. Su Su Nway, known for successfully suing local Myanmar officials for forced labor violations, was arrested for the second time in late 2007 during the pro-democracy protests. She was sentenced to 12 years. And in a sadly ironic twist, U Thet Way was sentenced to two years of forced labor in 2008 after protesting to authorities who confiscated his computer memory stick that contained information he had sent to the ILO.
Even with all the UN measures and agreements, only 63 complaints have been filed to the ILO since the redress mechanism was instituted in 2007. The good news, however, is that most of the child soldiers in the cases have been discharged.
Wednesday July 29, 12:39 pm
The United Nations and Myanmar haven’t agreed on most issues. The military junta’s blocking of international relief in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and the ongoing house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi are a few issues that have underscored their tense relations.
But one of the more overlooked issues is forced labor. For years, the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) has had a bone to pick with the Myanmar junta for forcing villagers to work on infrastructure projects or serve as porters for the army.
The situation in Myanmar is just a reflection of the 12.3 million individuals forced into labor around the world. The UN has pressed the Myanmar junta to put a stop to the violations in a slow yet measured process. Last Thursday, the ILO and the government of Germany signed an agreement to monitor the country formerly known as Burma for violations pertaining to forced underage military recruitment.
The agreement aims for Myanmar to follow international and national conscription laws; promote legal measures to prevent under-age recruitment; and ensure that children of forced labor are treated as victims, not perpetrators.
The agreement is just another addition to previous UN frameworks intended to ensure compliance by the notoriously reclusive Myanmar junta. In 2003, Myanmar agreed to have a UN liaison in the country’s capital of Yangon to mediate labor disputes. The process was followed by the implementation of a legal process in 2007 that allows victims of forced labor to seek reparations via the UN intermediary. The legal process has been renewed every year since by Myanmar, including another recent extension until 2010.
Myanmar’s Minister of Labour, Aung Kyi, stated that he “welcomed this continuation of the cooperation between the Government and the ILO which once again confirms the Government of Myanmar’s high-level commitment to its policy for the prohibition of forced labour.”
But despite the agreement, the ILO says Myanmar hasn’t done enough. This past June, the ILO committee on labor standards evaluated Myanmar’s progress on forced labor and determined that the steps are still “totally inadequate.”
The committee recommended that Myanmar ban forced labor through legislation; ban the constitutional provision that allows forced labor; hold civil and military perpetrators of forced labor accountable; stop harassment towards victims of forced labor; and increase publicity to ban obligatory work.
Moreover, the severe sentences of Su Su Nway and U Thet Way, two prominent labor activists, are also a source of tension. Su Su Nway, known for successfully suing local Myanmar officials for forced labor violations, was arrested for the second time in late 2007 during the pro-democracy protests. She was sentenced to 12 years. And in a sadly ironic twist, U Thet Way was sentenced to two years of forced labor in 2008 after protesting to authorities who confiscated his computer memory stick that contained information he had sent to the ILO.
Even with all the UN measures and agreements, only 63 complaints have been filed to the ILO since the redress mechanism was instituted in 2007. The good news, however, is that most of the child soldiers in the cases have been discharged.
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Jul 31, 2009
Asia Times Online - Farmers forgotten in oil-for-food deals
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - Southeast Asian countries took big steps towards formalizing food-for-oil deals with Gulf states at a June meeting between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Proponents of the deals cite the benefits of more foreign investment for the region's often backward agricultural industries, but the lack of transparency surrounding the investments is raising concerns about their ultimate economic impact.
A meeting in Bahrain on June 30 was notably the first between ASEAN and GCC foreign ministers, signaling growing trade ties between the regions. ASEAN secretary general and former Thai foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan summed up the commercial outlook of those attending at a press conference following the gathering. "You have what we don't have, and we have plenty of what you don't have, so we need each other."
ASEAN is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Growing population and economic pressures on land and water contributed to the 2007-2008 global food crisis, which saw prices spiral and already impoverished global populations go hungry. That prompted several food-producing nations to restrict exports of certain staples and caused governments everywhere to rethink their food security policies.
The food price scare, which has for now receded with falling commodity prices dragged down by the global economic crisis, has pushed many oil-rich and food-poor Gulf states to seek long-term lease rights to overseas farmlands.
Gulf states, which last year imported 80% of their staple foods at a cost of US$20 billion, have shown an increasing interest in Southeast Asian farmland. China, which in recent years has leased large tracts of regional land to grow rubber and crops for biofuels, is also seeking land to feed its rapidly urbanizing population. South Korea, with one of the world's highest population densities, and India, the second-most populous country, are both challenged by shrinking agricultural areas and are also in the hunt.
The deals brokered so far have been substantial. According to an October 2008 briefing paper by GRAIN, a Spain-based grassroots organization that promotes sustainable agriculture, Cambodia had at that time as much as US$3 billion in agriculture-related foreign investment under negotiation, apparently involving millions of hectares of land.
Agreements signed or under consideration included a $546 million loan from Kuwait for agricultural projects, a $200 million venture with Qatar, the lease of 1.6 million hectares to Saudi Arabia, a similar lease arrangement for 1.2 million hectares to China and another for 20,000 hectares to South Korea.
In the Philippines, Saudi Arabia announced it would allocate $238.6 million to establish fruit plantations and support aquaculture and halal food processing projects. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo opened talks with Qatar in December to lease around 100,000 hectares of agricultural land.
Bahrain agreed in March to set up a $500 million joint agri-business venture and around 10,000 hectares have already been allocated to grow rice, corn, sugarcane, pineapple and various vegetables. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been granted 3,000 hectares for agriculture projects. A South Korean company was granted a 25-year lease in April for 94,000 hectares of farmland on Mindoro Island for growing feed corn.
An additional 1.5 million hectares is to be made available to foreign and domestic investors for agricultural projects, the Philippine Department of Agriculture announced on May 7.
In Indonesia, China has paid for the rights to 1.24 million hectares of land. That lags only Saudi Arabia's agricultural investments, which encompass 1.6 million hectares across the country. A planned $4.3 billion investment in rice production on 500,000 hectares by the Bin Laden Group of Saudi Arabia was recently put on hold for undisclosed reasons.
Even political pariah and agricultural laggard Myanmar is in on the Gulf action. Chinese companies are investing in contract farming of rice for export in the country's northern regions. In September 2008, Myanmar's ruling generals signed a deal with New Delhi to produce pulses exclusively for export to India. Kuwaiti officials visited Myanmar in September last year to finalize an agreement to produce rice and palm oil on a contract farming basis.
Estimates of land leased to foreigners in Laos now runs as high as 15% of total viable agricultural land - although some non-governmental workers dispute that figure as excessively high. GRAIN's figures in 2009 indicate that China has leased some 70,000 hectares in Laos for food, rubber and biofuel crops. Kuwaiti firms were reported by the Vientiane Times earlier this year to be interested in investing in rice and agarwood production.
Thailand and Vietnam, the world's two leading rice exporters, have also cut Gulf state deals. A big Thai exporter signed a memorandum of understanding in 2008 with Bahrain to secure rice supplies for the next two years. Earlier this month, Thai ambassador Suphat Chitranukroh told the Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News that Bahrain had been selected as a hub for the distribution of Thai food across the Gulf, with plans to build a Thai food distribution center in the country.
Meanwhile, Vietnam agreed in September 2008 to establish a $1 billion investment fund in cooperation with Qatar, funds from which will be earmarked for investment in food production for export. Talks held with Saudi Arabia in June were aimed at exchanging food for energy supplies.
Capital-starved lands
Proponents of the deals say they could help capital-starved Southeast Asian countries faster develop their often backward agriculture industries and in the process bridge the yawning wealth gap between urban and rural areas. They say rural-focused investments will result in more jobs, better infrastructure and improvements in agricultural techniques and technology. Foreign funds could also provide much-needed capital for small farmers, particularly as they face funding difficulties amid the current global credit crunch.
Cambodia has said it hopes foreign investment will improve its average rice yields from 2.5 tonnes per hectare to levels comparable to neighboring Thailand's 3.5 tonnes. The government is also eager to increase rice exports, which lag due to quality control problems caused by a shortage of storage and milling facilities. The Philippines says it expects an agreement with Bahrain will create 20,000 new jobs on the impoverished and insurgency-prone southern island of Mindanao.
At the same time, activists and food-security experts express concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding deals cut between Southeast Asian governments and their Gulf area suitors. Details of land areas, locations, lengths of leases and amounts invested have been scant in government statements, and news reports on the deals often present contradictory information. That, they venture, could open the way for abuse and corruption.
Jacques Diouf, the head of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), warned in August that a new kind of "neo-colonialism" could emerge from land deals where poor Southeast Asian countries produce food for export to rich Gulf states at the expense of their own underfed people.
Figures for deals brokered between Cambodia, Kuwait and Qatar, which media reports indicate could involve hundreds of millions of dollars, have not been publicly disclosed. Despite a string of prime ministerial visits and the official announcement last year of a $546 million loan for an agricultural land-related deal between Cambodia and Kuwait, official statements have been devoid of exact financial details.
In Laos, there is widespread suspicion that government officials are lining their own pockets from foreign-invested land deals. Many rural Lao are known to be upset by the ease with which foreign firms have been able to buy rights to farmland long worked by their families. There has been no public debate about Lao land deals in the state-dominated media. At least one Lao businessman who protested against China-invested rubber plantations mysteriously disappeared in 2007.
Loose laws
Land rights throughout the region are largely customary rather than secured through legal title deeds. Land entitlement and reform has been slow in coming in most Southeast Asian nations. In many villages across the region, land ownership is recognized by agrarians and village headmen, but formal legal titles provided by the central government are seldom granted. In Vietnam and Myanmar, land is formally owned by the state with farmers holding only land-use rights.
Land ownership laws that do exist are often inadequate, with vague language and numerous loopholes that are frequently exploited by businessmen and corrupt politicians to justify land seizures. In other countries laws are simply ignored by local elites and corrupt government officials with links to influential agriculture corporations.
Numerous reports have detailed heavy-handed expropriation in Cambodia and the Thai press regularly carries stories of land scandals involving politicians, businessmen and high-ranking army and police officers. Land-grabbing in Cambodian rural areas is rampant, human-rights groups allege, despite a land law that limits economic concessions to less than 10,000 hectares. LICADHO, a Cambodia-based rights group, estimated in a May report that over 250,000 people in 13 provinces had been adversely affected by land-grabbing and forced evictions since 2003.
British-based rights group Amnesty International said last year that on top of those already evicted another 150,000 Cambodians across the country were at risk of forced relocation. The Cambodian government's recently brokered and opaque deal with Kuwait for farmland in Kampong Thom province has farmers concerned that their eviction may be part and parcel of the deal, according to rights activists.
In the Philippines, which has a history of farmer demands for land redistribution and agrarian reforms, an agreement with China to lease 1.4 million hectares of agricultural land worth an estimated $4 billion was suspended in 2007 after protests by local farmers' groups, politicians and the Roman Catholic Church. Fishing and agricultural groups last month came out in opposition to the government's recent deal with Bahrain, calling it "unlawful and immoral" at a time when millions of Filipinos are landless.
In Myanmar, the government often uses the legal justification that the state owns all lands to forcibly remove peasants from their land for development projects. Human rights groups have for years documented forced relocations of whole villages and the seizure of farmland for commercial agriculture projects linked to the ruling military junta. Refugees arriving in Thailand have claimed that they were forcibly removed from their land to make way for rubber plantations, including deals cut with Chinese companies.
In export-geared Thailand, agribusiness giant Charoen Pokphand Foods (CP) signed a deal on June 22 with the Bahrain-based Islamic Bank, al-Salam, to jointly invest in agricultural businesses. According to CP Group vice chairman Eam Ngamdamronk, "Investment in any project will be supplied by Bahrain, while the CP Group will provide knowledge and expertise to support them." The group is apparently looking at investment opportunities not only in Thailand but throughout the region.
What troubles activists is that land seized and committed to growing food for export may drive up prices in domestic markets and crowd out small farmers. Several regional countries, including Myanmar and Laos, receive food aid from the World Food Program (WFP) due to chronic agricultural production shortfalls.
Last year, Cambodia requested $35 million in food aid from the WFP at the same time as it was negotiating deals to lease large tracts of farmland to Kuwait and Qatar. The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture said last October that as many as 100,000 Cambodian families suffered from insufficient food.
Food security experts, including the UN's special rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, have called for a "code of conduct" over land-lease deals to better protect host countries and local farmers. At an April 6 forum in New York, de Schutter said, "States all too often are led to make such deals because they are attracted to immediate rewards. But they should look at the long-term consequences."
The US-based International Food Policy Research Institute has similarly called for the creation of a code of conduct to govern commercial relations between foreign investors, whether corporate or governmental, and host countries which also protects the interests of small farmers and the environment.
In an April 2009 policy brief, the institute said that such a code of conduct should include transparency in negotiations, respect for existing land rights, shared benefits, environmental sustainability, adherence to national trade policies and strong enforcement mechanisms. Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
Asia Times Online - Farmers forgotten in oil-for-food deals
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - Southeast Asian countries took big steps towards formalizing food-for-oil deals with Gulf states at a June meeting between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Proponents of the deals cite the benefits of more foreign investment for the region's often backward agricultural industries, but the lack of transparency surrounding the investments is raising concerns about their ultimate economic impact.
A meeting in Bahrain on June 30 was notably the first between ASEAN and GCC foreign ministers, signaling growing trade ties between the regions. ASEAN secretary general and former Thai foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan summed up the commercial outlook of those attending at a press conference following the gathering. "You have what we don't have, and we have plenty of what you don't have, so we need each other."
ASEAN is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Growing population and economic pressures on land and water contributed to the 2007-2008 global food crisis, which saw prices spiral and already impoverished global populations go hungry. That prompted several food-producing nations to restrict exports of certain staples and caused governments everywhere to rethink their food security policies.
The food price scare, which has for now receded with falling commodity prices dragged down by the global economic crisis, has pushed many oil-rich and food-poor Gulf states to seek long-term lease rights to overseas farmlands.
Gulf states, which last year imported 80% of their staple foods at a cost of US$20 billion, have shown an increasing interest in Southeast Asian farmland. China, which in recent years has leased large tracts of regional land to grow rubber and crops for biofuels, is also seeking land to feed its rapidly urbanizing population. South Korea, with one of the world's highest population densities, and India, the second-most populous country, are both challenged by shrinking agricultural areas and are also in the hunt.
The deals brokered so far have been substantial. According to an October 2008 briefing paper by GRAIN, a Spain-based grassroots organization that promotes sustainable agriculture, Cambodia had at that time as much as US$3 billion in agriculture-related foreign investment under negotiation, apparently involving millions of hectares of land.
Agreements signed or under consideration included a $546 million loan from Kuwait for agricultural projects, a $200 million venture with Qatar, the lease of 1.6 million hectares to Saudi Arabia, a similar lease arrangement for 1.2 million hectares to China and another for 20,000 hectares to South Korea.
In the Philippines, Saudi Arabia announced it would allocate $238.6 million to establish fruit plantations and support aquaculture and halal food processing projects. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo opened talks with Qatar in December to lease around 100,000 hectares of agricultural land.
Bahrain agreed in March to set up a $500 million joint agri-business venture and around 10,000 hectares have already been allocated to grow rice, corn, sugarcane, pineapple and various vegetables. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been granted 3,000 hectares for agriculture projects. A South Korean company was granted a 25-year lease in April for 94,000 hectares of farmland on Mindoro Island for growing feed corn.
An additional 1.5 million hectares is to be made available to foreign and domestic investors for agricultural projects, the Philippine Department of Agriculture announced on May 7.
In Indonesia, China has paid for the rights to 1.24 million hectares of land. That lags only Saudi Arabia's agricultural investments, which encompass 1.6 million hectares across the country. A planned $4.3 billion investment in rice production on 500,000 hectares by the Bin Laden Group of Saudi Arabia was recently put on hold for undisclosed reasons.
Even political pariah and agricultural laggard Myanmar is in on the Gulf action. Chinese companies are investing in contract farming of rice for export in the country's northern regions. In September 2008, Myanmar's ruling generals signed a deal with New Delhi to produce pulses exclusively for export to India. Kuwaiti officials visited Myanmar in September last year to finalize an agreement to produce rice and palm oil on a contract farming basis.
Estimates of land leased to foreigners in Laos now runs as high as 15% of total viable agricultural land - although some non-governmental workers dispute that figure as excessively high. GRAIN's figures in 2009 indicate that China has leased some 70,000 hectares in Laos for food, rubber and biofuel crops. Kuwaiti firms were reported by the Vientiane Times earlier this year to be interested in investing in rice and agarwood production.
Thailand and Vietnam, the world's two leading rice exporters, have also cut Gulf state deals. A big Thai exporter signed a memorandum of understanding in 2008 with Bahrain to secure rice supplies for the next two years. Earlier this month, Thai ambassador Suphat Chitranukroh told the Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News that Bahrain had been selected as a hub for the distribution of Thai food across the Gulf, with plans to build a Thai food distribution center in the country.
Meanwhile, Vietnam agreed in September 2008 to establish a $1 billion investment fund in cooperation with Qatar, funds from which will be earmarked for investment in food production for export. Talks held with Saudi Arabia in June were aimed at exchanging food for energy supplies.
Capital-starved lands
Proponents of the deals say they could help capital-starved Southeast Asian countries faster develop their often backward agriculture industries and in the process bridge the yawning wealth gap between urban and rural areas. They say rural-focused investments will result in more jobs, better infrastructure and improvements in agricultural techniques and technology. Foreign funds could also provide much-needed capital for small farmers, particularly as they face funding difficulties amid the current global credit crunch.
Cambodia has said it hopes foreign investment will improve its average rice yields from 2.5 tonnes per hectare to levels comparable to neighboring Thailand's 3.5 tonnes. The government is also eager to increase rice exports, which lag due to quality control problems caused by a shortage of storage and milling facilities. The Philippines says it expects an agreement with Bahrain will create 20,000 new jobs on the impoverished and insurgency-prone southern island of Mindanao.
At the same time, activists and food-security experts express concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding deals cut between Southeast Asian governments and their Gulf area suitors. Details of land areas, locations, lengths of leases and amounts invested have been scant in government statements, and news reports on the deals often present contradictory information. That, they venture, could open the way for abuse and corruption.
Jacques Diouf, the head of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), warned in August that a new kind of "neo-colonialism" could emerge from land deals where poor Southeast Asian countries produce food for export to rich Gulf states at the expense of their own underfed people.
Figures for deals brokered between Cambodia, Kuwait and Qatar, which media reports indicate could involve hundreds of millions of dollars, have not been publicly disclosed. Despite a string of prime ministerial visits and the official announcement last year of a $546 million loan for an agricultural land-related deal between Cambodia and Kuwait, official statements have been devoid of exact financial details.
In Laos, there is widespread suspicion that government officials are lining their own pockets from foreign-invested land deals. Many rural Lao are known to be upset by the ease with which foreign firms have been able to buy rights to farmland long worked by their families. There has been no public debate about Lao land deals in the state-dominated media. At least one Lao businessman who protested against China-invested rubber plantations mysteriously disappeared in 2007.
Loose laws
Land rights throughout the region are largely customary rather than secured through legal title deeds. Land entitlement and reform has been slow in coming in most Southeast Asian nations. In many villages across the region, land ownership is recognized by agrarians and village headmen, but formal legal titles provided by the central government are seldom granted. In Vietnam and Myanmar, land is formally owned by the state with farmers holding only land-use rights.
Land ownership laws that do exist are often inadequate, with vague language and numerous loopholes that are frequently exploited by businessmen and corrupt politicians to justify land seizures. In other countries laws are simply ignored by local elites and corrupt government officials with links to influential agriculture corporations.
Numerous reports have detailed heavy-handed expropriation in Cambodia and the Thai press regularly carries stories of land scandals involving politicians, businessmen and high-ranking army and police officers. Land-grabbing in Cambodian rural areas is rampant, human-rights groups allege, despite a land law that limits economic concessions to less than 10,000 hectares. LICADHO, a Cambodia-based rights group, estimated in a May report that over 250,000 people in 13 provinces had been adversely affected by land-grabbing and forced evictions since 2003.
British-based rights group Amnesty International said last year that on top of those already evicted another 150,000 Cambodians across the country were at risk of forced relocation. The Cambodian government's recently brokered and opaque deal with Kuwait for farmland in Kampong Thom province has farmers concerned that their eviction may be part and parcel of the deal, according to rights activists.
In the Philippines, which has a history of farmer demands for land redistribution and agrarian reforms, an agreement with China to lease 1.4 million hectares of agricultural land worth an estimated $4 billion was suspended in 2007 after protests by local farmers' groups, politicians and the Roman Catholic Church. Fishing and agricultural groups last month came out in opposition to the government's recent deal with Bahrain, calling it "unlawful and immoral" at a time when millions of Filipinos are landless.
In Myanmar, the government often uses the legal justification that the state owns all lands to forcibly remove peasants from their land for development projects. Human rights groups have for years documented forced relocations of whole villages and the seizure of farmland for commercial agriculture projects linked to the ruling military junta. Refugees arriving in Thailand have claimed that they were forcibly removed from their land to make way for rubber plantations, including deals cut with Chinese companies.
In export-geared Thailand, agribusiness giant Charoen Pokphand Foods (CP) signed a deal on June 22 with the Bahrain-based Islamic Bank, al-Salam, to jointly invest in agricultural businesses. According to CP Group vice chairman Eam Ngamdamronk, "Investment in any project will be supplied by Bahrain, while the CP Group will provide knowledge and expertise to support them." The group is apparently looking at investment opportunities not only in Thailand but throughout the region.
What troubles activists is that land seized and committed to growing food for export may drive up prices in domestic markets and crowd out small farmers. Several regional countries, including Myanmar and Laos, receive food aid from the World Food Program (WFP) due to chronic agricultural production shortfalls.
Last year, Cambodia requested $35 million in food aid from the WFP at the same time as it was negotiating deals to lease large tracts of farmland to Kuwait and Qatar. The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture said last October that as many as 100,000 Cambodian families suffered from insufficient food.
Food security experts, including the UN's special rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, have called for a "code of conduct" over land-lease deals to better protect host countries and local farmers. At an April 6 forum in New York, de Schutter said, "States all too often are led to make such deals because they are attracted to immediate rewards. But they should look at the long-term consequences."
The US-based International Food Policy Research Institute has similarly called for the creation of a code of conduct to govern commercial relations between foreign investors, whether corporate or governmental, and host countries which also protects the interests of small farmers and the environment.
In an April 2009 policy brief, the institute said that such a code of conduct should include transparency in negotiations, respect for existing land rights, shared benefits, environmental sustainability, adherence to national trade policies and strong enforcement mechanisms. Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
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AHN - ASEAN Chronicles Recovery Role In Post-Cyclone Myanmar With Double Book Release
July 30, 2009 6:21 a.m. EST
Chelsea Milko - Celebrity News Service CNS Reporter
Phuket, Thailand (CNS) - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is fleshing out its earnest relief efforts and pan-Asian leadership in the wake of Cyclone Nargis which pelted the military junta-controlled country of Myanmar in 2008. Two books titled "A Bridge to Recovery: ASEAN's Response to Cyclone Nargis" and "Myanmar: Life After Nargis" serve as detailed accounts of the organization's heavy involvement in the mammoth stabilization and rebuilding process.
Cyclone Nargis, an apocalyptic natural forces which wrought a country-wide humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, demanded the concerted efforts of numerous NGOs, regional governments and international donors.
ASEAN played an all-important part in providing immediate on-site relief as well as coordinating a multinational humanitarian agenda.
"A Bridge to Recovery: ASEAN's Response to Cyclone Nargis" is a play-by-play narrative of the recovery assistance and development initiatives undertaken by ASEAN and its network of parters.
"Myanmar: Life After Nargis" examines the months following the urgent call to action heard around the world. Jointly published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, the book documents ASEAN's execution of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA).
ASEAN Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan is banking on the two books to "share our first ever ASEAN-wide regional engagement on humanitarian mission, our high and lows in 'building back better' for both Myanmar and ASEAN."
"At the same time," Pitsuwan cautions, "the lessons documented in these publications will also serve as a reminder on what has been done, what should have been done better, and how we can do better in our responses to any future humanitarian challenges."
July 30, 2009 6:21 a.m. EST
Chelsea Milko - Celebrity News Service CNS Reporter
Phuket, Thailand (CNS) - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is fleshing out its earnest relief efforts and pan-Asian leadership in the wake of Cyclone Nargis which pelted the military junta-controlled country of Myanmar in 2008. Two books titled "A Bridge to Recovery: ASEAN's Response to Cyclone Nargis" and "Myanmar: Life After Nargis" serve as detailed accounts of the organization's heavy involvement in the mammoth stabilization and rebuilding process.
Cyclone Nargis, an apocalyptic natural forces which wrought a country-wide humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, demanded the concerted efforts of numerous NGOs, regional governments and international donors.
ASEAN played an all-important part in providing immediate on-site relief as well as coordinating a multinational humanitarian agenda.
"A Bridge to Recovery: ASEAN's Response to Cyclone Nargis" is a play-by-play narrative of the recovery assistance and development initiatives undertaken by ASEAN and its network of parters.
"Myanmar: Life After Nargis" examines the months following the urgent call to action heard around the world. Jointly published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, the book documents ASEAN's execution of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA).
ASEAN Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan is banking on the two books to "share our first ever ASEAN-wide regional engagement on humanitarian mission, our high and lows in 'building back better' for both Myanmar and ASEAN."
"At the same time," Pitsuwan cautions, "the lessons documented in these publications will also serve as a reminder on what has been done, what should have been done better, and how we can do better in our responses to any future humanitarian challenges."
*****************************************************
Ceylon Daily News - Myanmar Foreign Minister to visit Sri Lanka
Thursday, 30 July 2009
A delegation headed by Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win will be visiting Sri Lanka for the meeting of the Second Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation to be held on August 3 and 4, 2009. The First Joint Commissions held during the State visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Myanmar last month it was decided to improve, strengthen and promote tourism, trade, religious and cultural affairs between the two countries.
A group of 20 leading businessmen will also arrive with the delegation to promote and establish new business links. They are expected to hold discussions with Trade and Export Promotion Ministers and also Chamber of Commerce officials.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
A delegation headed by Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win will be visiting Sri Lanka for the meeting of the Second Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation to be held on August 3 and 4, 2009. The First Joint Commissions held during the State visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Myanmar last month it was decided to improve, strengthen and promote tourism, trade, religious and cultural affairs between the two countries.
A group of 20 leading businessmen will also arrive with the delegation to promote and establish new business links. They are expected to hold discussions with Trade and Export Promotion Ministers and also Chamber of Commerce officials.
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July 30, 2009
Times Online - Aung San Suu Kyi 'resigned to jail sentence'
Richard Lloyd Parry , Asia Editor
The novels of John le Carré and biographies of Winston Churchill are among the books that Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Prize winner, is assembling in anticipation of a long prison sentence when a court in Rangoon delivers its verdict on her tomorrow.
Her lawyers say that she has resigned herself to a guilty verdict, after her two-and-half-month trial for allegedly breaking the terms of her house arrest. If her fears are realised, she will be confined, not in the large house where she was formerly detained, but in one of Burma’s jails, where more than 2,000 other political prisoners also languish.
“I think Daw [Madam] Aung San Suu Kyi is preparing for the worst,” said her lawyer, Nyan Win, who is also spokesman for her political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). “She has said that if she has to stay in prison for a long time, she has only one thing to do and that is reading.
“She is collecting many books in English, French and Burmese.”
Ms Suu Kyi and two of her companions have been on trial since May for giving shelter to John Yettaw, an eccentric American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home in central Rangoon. She gave him food and allowed him to stay overnight after he complained of exhaustion. The prosecutors argue that this violated the rules of the house arrest to which Ms Suu Kyi has been confined for almost 14 of the past 20 years.
Her lawyers argue that she did not hand him over to the authorities to avoid bringing trouble on him and on the police who were supposed to have been guarding her house.
They also argue that the law under which she is charged was invalidated 21 years by the same military government that has kept her locked up for so long.
However, Burma’s courts are firmly under the control of the ruling junta, and almost never find in favour of political prisoners. The likely outcome of the case was hinted at in a commentary in the government newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar. “A handful of politicians with excessive greed, anger and conceit are troubling the people, and millions of people are impoverished,” it wrote, in an obvious reference to the NLD which won a general election in 1990 but has been denied power ever since.
“We have to ward off subversive elements and disruptions. Look out if some arouse the people to take to the streets to come to power. In reality they are anti-democracy elements, not pro-democracy activists.”
Even if Ms Suu Kyi were acquitted or, more likely, pardoned by Burma’s senior general, Than Shwe, she would remain under house arrest and activist groups are warning against rewarding the regime for acquitting her of charges that should never have been brought against her in the first place.
“Even if Aung San Suu Kyi were released, there would still be war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by the dictatorship in Burma,” Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK said. “Ethnic women and girls would still be being raped and killed, there would still be more than 2,100 political prisoners. There would still be no freedoms, no rule of law and no respect for human rights.”
Times Online - Aung San Suu Kyi 'resigned to jail sentence'
Richard Lloyd Parry , Asia Editor
The novels of John le Carré and biographies of Winston Churchill are among the books that Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Prize winner, is assembling in anticipation of a long prison sentence when a court in Rangoon delivers its verdict on her tomorrow.
Her lawyers say that she has resigned herself to a guilty verdict, after her two-and-half-month trial for allegedly breaking the terms of her house arrest. If her fears are realised, she will be confined, not in the large house where she was formerly detained, but in one of Burma’s jails, where more than 2,000 other political prisoners also languish.
“I think Daw [Madam] Aung San Suu Kyi is preparing for the worst,” said her lawyer, Nyan Win, who is also spokesman for her political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). “She has said that if she has to stay in prison for a long time, she has only one thing to do and that is reading.
“She is collecting many books in English, French and Burmese.”
Ms Suu Kyi and two of her companions have been on trial since May for giving shelter to John Yettaw, an eccentric American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home in central Rangoon. She gave him food and allowed him to stay overnight after he complained of exhaustion. The prosecutors argue that this violated the rules of the house arrest to which Ms Suu Kyi has been confined for almost 14 of the past 20 years.
Her lawyers argue that she did not hand him over to the authorities to avoid bringing trouble on him and on the police who were supposed to have been guarding her house.
They also argue that the law under which she is charged was invalidated 21 years by the same military government that has kept her locked up for so long.
However, Burma’s courts are firmly under the control of the ruling junta, and almost never find in favour of political prisoners. The likely outcome of the case was hinted at in a commentary in the government newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar. “A handful of politicians with excessive greed, anger and conceit are troubling the people, and millions of people are impoverished,” it wrote, in an obvious reference to the NLD which won a general election in 1990 but has been denied power ever since.
“We have to ward off subversive elements and disruptions. Look out if some arouse the people to take to the streets to come to power. In reality they are anti-democracy elements, not pro-democracy activists.”
Even if Ms Suu Kyi were acquitted or, more likely, pardoned by Burma’s senior general, Than Shwe, she would remain under house arrest and activist groups are warning against rewarding the regime for acquitting her of charges that should never have been brought against her in the first place.
“Even if Aung San Suu Kyi were released, there would still be war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by the dictatorship in Burma,” Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK said. “Ethnic women and girls would still be being raped and killed, there would still be more than 2,100 political prisoners. There would still be no freedoms, no rule of law and no respect for human rights.”
*****************************************************
The Guardian - Desmond Tutu: my tribute to Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi
In the week when Amnesty International awarded Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi its highest accolade, Ambassador of Conscience, a fellow Nobel laureate pays tribute
This article was written in response to a feature about Aung San Suu Kyi by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark which was published on 11 November 2008
Desmond Tutu
The Guardian, Thursday 30 July 2009
I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed. Every day I ask myself: have I done everything I can try to end the atrocities being committed in Burma? And I pray that world leaders will ask themselves the same question. For if they did, the answer would be "no", and perhaps their conscience will finally force them to act.
Humankind has the ability to live in freedom and in peace. We have seen that goodness has triumphed over evil; we have witnessed political transitions in South Africa, and elsewhere, evidencing that we live in a moral universe. Our world is sometimes lacking wise and good leadership or, as in the case of Burma, the leadership is forbidden to lead.
Aung San Suu Kyi has now been detained for more than 13 years. She recently passed her 5,000th day in detention. Every one of those days is a tragedy and a lost opportunity. The whole world, not just the people of Burma, suffers from this loss. We desperately need the kind of moral and principled leadership that Aung San Suu Kyi would provide. And when you add the more than 2,100 political prisoners who are also in Burma's jails, and the thousands more jailed in recent decades, the true scale of injustice, but also of lost potential, becomes heartbreakingly clear.
Like many leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi has had to make great personal sacrifices. It is cruel enough to deprive an innocent person of her freedom. Burma's generals are crueller still. They try to use her as leverage to make her submit to their will. They refused to allow her husband to visit one last time when he was dying of cancer. She has grandchildren she has never even met. Yet her will and determination have stayed strong despite her being kept in detention for so many years.
More than anything, the new trial and detention of Aung San Suu Kyi speaks volumes about her effectiveness as a leader. The only reason the generals need to silence her clarion call for freedom is because they fear her and the principles she stands for. She is the greatest threat to their continuing rule.
The universal demand for human freedom cannot be suppressed forever. This is a universal truth that Than Shwe, the dictator of Burma, has failed to understand. How frustrated must he be that no matter how long he keeps Aung San Suu Kyi in detention, no matter how many guns he buys, and no matter how many people he imprisons, Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma will not submit. The demands for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners of Burma grow louder and echo around the world, reaching even his new capital hidden in central Burma. Words, however, are not enough. Freedom is never given freely by those who have power; it has to be fought for.
The continuing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's other political prisoners is a crime and an indictment of an international community that often substitutes the issuance of repeated statements of concern for effective diplomacy. The UN treats the situation in Burma as if it is just a dispute between two sides, and they must mediate to find a middle ground. The reality is that a brutal, criminal and illegal dictatorship is trying, and failing, to crush those who want freedom and justice. The international community cannot be neutral in the face of evil. That evil must be called what it is, and confronted.
Change is overdue to the framework within which the international community approaches Burma. Twenty years of trying to persuade Burma's generals to reform has not secured any improvement. Forty visits by UN envoys have failed to elicit any change. The warm embrace of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) did not improve the behaviour of the regime towards Burma's citizens whether Christian, Buddhist or Muslim. The regime rules with an iron fist and those under its rule have suffered long enough.
Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters have time and again offered to dialogue with the regime. They offered a path of reconciliation and non-violent transition. Even as Aung San Suu Kyi stood before the regime's sham court, facing five years' imprisonment, we heard her voice loud and strong. She said: "There could be many opportunities for national reconciliation if all parties so wished."
Burma's generals must now face the consequences of their actions. The detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is as clear a signal as we could get that there will be no chance of reform and that the regime's "road map to democracy", including the call for elections, in 2010, is an obstacle to justice.
A new report from Harvard Law School, Crimes in Burma, commissioned by some of the most respected jurists in international law, has used the UN's own reports to highlight how Burma's generals have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Burma's generals are criminals, and must be treated as such. Than Shwe should be held accountable for abominable atrocities: his soldiers rape ethnic women and children, they torture, mutilate and murder at will. In eastern Burma, more than 3,300 ethnic villages have been destroyed, more than in Darfur. Civilians are deliberately targeted and shot on sight.
Than Shwe spurned the compassion of those willing to provide assistance following Cyclone Nargis. Instead, he conducted a referendum and he declared his undemocratic constitution the victor while victims perished from the cyclone's devastation. These are war crimes and crimes against humanity. Than Shwe and the rest of the generals cannot be allowed to go unpunished. The UN must establish a commission of inquiry, with a view to compiling evidence for prosecution. Failure to do so amounts to complicity with these crimes.
An international arms embargo must also be imposed immediately. Those countries supplying arms to Burma are facilitating these atrocities. Countries across the world must declare their support for a global arms embargo, making it impossible for China to resist such a move at the Security Council.
Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma deserve nothing less than our most strenuous efforts to help them secure their freedom. Every day we must ask ourselves: have we done everything that we can? I pledge that I will not rest until Aung San Suu Kyi, and all the people of Burma, are free. Please join me.
Desmond M Tutu is the former Archbishop of Cape Town and recipient of the Nobel peace prize
In the week when Amnesty International awarded Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi its highest accolade, Ambassador of Conscience, a fellow Nobel laureate pays tribute
This article was written in response to a feature about Aung San Suu Kyi by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark which was published on 11 November 2008
Desmond Tutu
The Guardian, Thursday 30 July 2009
I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed. Every day I ask myself: have I done everything I can try to end the atrocities being committed in Burma? And I pray that world leaders will ask themselves the same question. For if they did, the answer would be "no", and perhaps their conscience will finally force them to act.
Humankind has the ability to live in freedom and in peace. We have seen that goodness has triumphed over evil; we have witnessed political transitions in South Africa, and elsewhere, evidencing that we live in a moral universe. Our world is sometimes lacking wise and good leadership or, as in the case of Burma, the leadership is forbidden to lead.
Aung San Suu Kyi has now been detained for more than 13 years. She recently passed her 5,000th day in detention. Every one of those days is a tragedy and a lost opportunity. The whole world, not just the people of Burma, suffers from this loss. We desperately need the kind of moral and principled leadership that Aung San Suu Kyi would provide. And when you add the more than 2,100 political prisoners who are also in Burma's jails, and the thousands more jailed in recent decades, the true scale of injustice, but also of lost potential, becomes heartbreakingly clear.
Like many leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi has had to make great personal sacrifices. It is cruel enough to deprive an innocent person of her freedom. Burma's generals are crueller still. They try to use her as leverage to make her submit to their will. They refused to allow her husband to visit one last time when he was dying of cancer. She has grandchildren she has never even met. Yet her will and determination have stayed strong despite her being kept in detention for so many years.
More than anything, the new trial and detention of Aung San Suu Kyi speaks volumes about her effectiveness as a leader. The only reason the generals need to silence her clarion call for freedom is because they fear her and the principles she stands for. She is the greatest threat to their continuing rule.
The universal demand for human freedom cannot be suppressed forever. This is a universal truth that Than Shwe, the dictator of Burma, has failed to understand. How frustrated must he be that no matter how long he keeps Aung San Suu Kyi in detention, no matter how many guns he buys, and no matter how many people he imprisons, Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma will not submit. The demands for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners of Burma grow louder and echo around the world, reaching even his new capital hidden in central Burma. Words, however, are not enough. Freedom is never given freely by those who have power; it has to be fought for.
The continuing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's other political prisoners is a crime and an indictment of an international community that often substitutes the issuance of repeated statements of concern for effective diplomacy. The UN treats the situation in Burma as if it is just a dispute between two sides, and they must mediate to find a middle ground. The reality is that a brutal, criminal and illegal dictatorship is trying, and failing, to crush those who want freedom and justice. The international community cannot be neutral in the face of evil. That evil must be called what it is, and confronted.
Change is overdue to the framework within which the international community approaches Burma. Twenty years of trying to persuade Burma's generals to reform has not secured any improvement. Forty visits by UN envoys have failed to elicit any change. The warm embrace of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) did not improve the behaviour of the regime towards Burma's citizens whether Christian, Buddhist or Muslim. The regime rules with an iron fist and those under its rule have suffered long enough.
Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters have time and again offered to dialogue with the regime. They offered a path of reconciliation and non-violent transition. Even as Aung San Suu Kyi stood before the regime's sham court, facing five years' imprisonment, we heard her voice loud and strong. She said: "There could be many opportunities for national reconciliation if all parties so wished."
Burma's generals must now face the consequences of their actions. The detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is as clear a signal as we could get that there will be no chance of reform and that the regime's "road map to democracy", including the call for elections, in 2010, is an obstacle to justice.
A new report from Harvard Law School, Crimes in Burma, commissioned by some of the most respected jurists in international law, has used the UN's own reports to highlight how Burma's generals have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Burma's generals are criminals, and must be treated as such. Than Shwe should be held accountable for abominable atrocities: his soldiers rape ethnic women and children, they torture, mutilate and murder at will. In eastern Burma, more than 3,300 ethnic villages have been destroyed, more than in Darfur. Civilians are deliberately targeted and shot on sight.
Than Shwe spurned the compassion of those willing to provide assistance following Cyclone Nargis. Instead, he conducted a referendum and he declared his undemocratic constitution the victor while victims perished from the cyclone's devastation. These are war crimes and crimes against humanity. Than Shwe and the rest of the generals cannot be allowed to go unpunished. The UN must establish a commission of inquiry, with a view to compiling evidence for prosecution. Failure to do so amounts to complicity with these crimes.
An international arms embargo must also be imposed immediately. Those countries supplying arms to Burma are facilitating these atrocities. Countries across the world must declare their support for a global arms embargo, making it impossible for China to resist such a move at the Security Council.
Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma deserve nothing less than our most strenuous efforts to help them secure their freedom. Every day we must ask ourselves: have we done everything that we can? I pledge that I will not rest until Aung San Suu Kyi, and all the people of Burma, are free. Please join me.
Desmond M Tutu is the former Archbishop of Cape Town and recipient of the Nobel peace prize
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Foreign Policy - Sound the Alarm
How to stop Burma from getting nukes.
BY CATHERINE COLLINS | JULY 24, 2009
When senior Chinese officials arrive in Washington on Monday for bilateral talks on strategy and the economy, they will find a new item near the top of the agenda: U.S. concerns that North Korea is supplying nuclear weapons technology to Burma. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of this possibility speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations forum this week in Thailand -- a threat she said the United States takes "very seriously." So seriously, in fact, that Clinton will raise the topic when she meets with her Chinese counterpart, State Councilor Dai Bingguo, on Monday, according to officials at the State Department and in Congress. As one official involved in preparations told me, "Burma is very much on the agenda."
The evidence of malfeasance so far is slight: a North Korean ship bound for Burma that turned back when shadowed by the U.S. Navy, photos of tunnels being excavated near the new Burmese capital, and a handful of suspicious export cases. But the motive is there, a government official who monitors the country told me. "Burma's leaders are paranoid and it makes sense that they might look for security in a nuclear weapon," he said. And if the history of proliferation teaches us anything, it is that the best way to stop a covert nuclear program is by ringing the alarm bells early and often.
Indeed, the early stages of what might be Burmese nuclear attempts look eerily familiar. The first leaks about Israel's nuclear program in the late 1950s, which involved several dubious explanations for a suspicious construction site in the desert, were ignored -- and Israel eventually developed the bomb. The same story held true for both India and Pakistan, where results might have been different had the international community reacted to suspicious procurement activities. Then, of course, there is Iran, where the desire for a nuclear weapon dates back to the mid-70s and now it may be too late to stop them. Signs that the present rulers of Iran were buying nuclear technology on the black market in the late 1980s were dismissed because U.S. intelligence thought a bomb was beyond Iran's capabilities.
Today in Burma, some of the basic elements for a nuclear program are, in fact, already in place. After several years of discussions, Russia signed a deal in 2007 to provide Burma with a light-water nuclear reactor, facilities for processing and storing nuclear waste, and training for 300 to 350 Burmese scientists set to work there. While the proposed reactor is not suitable for a weapons program, the deal is still a foot in the nuclear door for one of the world's most repressive and reclusive regimes. Rosatom, Russia atomic agency, told the Associated Press recently that there has been no progress on the deal.
But it's Burma's relationship with North Korea that is causing heartburn now. North Korea has been selling conventional weapons like artillery and small arms to Burma for years; the Burmese tend to pay in badly needed rice. But worries that the relationship moved into the nuclear arena surfaced two years ago after North Koreans were spotted unloading large crates and heavy construction equipment near the site for the planned Russian reactor. Concerns increased in June when photographs and videos appeared in the press showing that North Korean helped dig hundreds of vast tunnels in Burma between 2003 and 2006, in an operation codenamed "Tortoise Shells." The purpose of the tunnels, which were built outside the new Burmese capital of Nay Pyi Taw, remains unknown.
It all might seem like thin gruel for accusing the two countries of embarking on a nuclear weapons program, no matter how obliquely Clinton leveled the charge. And there is very little chance that Burma is anywhere near having the bomb. But if these tiny clues add up to nuclear ambitions, there is indeed cause for alarm -- not least because the world is simply not well-organized to contain nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty provides no punishment for signatories who are caught, and U.N. resolutions do not carry sufficient force to deter would-be proliferators. Iran is Exhibit A for the failure of the NPT and U.N. sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency? It's hardly equipped to deal with smuggling activities and procurement networks. Smuggling by Pakistan's rogue scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, eluded the IAEA for nearly three decades, during which time he helped his own country, North Korea, Iran, and Libya all obtain nuclear material.
So given the gaps in the international system, cooperation among key countries, particularly nuclear-weapons states, is essential for deterring nuclear aspirants. In this case, the United States and China are the lucky ones who will have to sort out how to keep North Korea from giving Burma nukes.
Fortunately, no country has more leverage with North Korea than China, which supplies much of the food and oil that keep the regime in Pyongyang afloat. So far, China has been reluctant to exercise its influence because Beijing fears that destabilizing North Korea will send a massive wave of refugees streaming across the border. But Clinton will try to persuade China that the time for diplomatic timidity is over. Kim JongI Il, the ailing North Korean dictator, needs to understand that helping Burma's military junta obtain nuclear weapons technology is a step too far. The two countries should share intelligence between them and with the IAEA. Tough sanctions and interdiction should be on the table to punish and isolate the transgressors.
There is reason to be hopeful that early efforts can do the trick. Past attempts to stop proliferation have been successful when the United States and others have acted on the first intelligence warnings about nuclear aspirations in Taiwan, South Korea and Ukraine. "None of these countries completed the programs it began; all were quietly nipped in the bud," Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center and a former Pentagon counter-proliferation official, wrote in 2004 in The Weekly Standard. Quiet U.S. diplomacy and threats of exposure helped prevent those threats from ever materializing.
For the Obama administration, early success with Burma would have another silver lining, on top of keeping Burma nuke-free: The effort could serve as an example for what might happen to Iran should it fail to turn back from its own nuclear ambitions. And while a nuclear weapon may be merely a mirage in Burma, it is a tangible possibility for Iran. That makes the test case all the more urgent.
Cathy Collins is coauthor of The Man from Pakistan: The True Story of the World's Most Dangerous Nuclear Smuggler
How to stop Burma from getting nukes.
BY CATHERINE COLLINS | JULY 24, 2009
When senior Chinese officials arrive in Washington on Monday for bilateral talks on strategy and the economy, they will find a new item near the top of the agenda: U.S. concerns that North Korea is supplying nuclear weapons technology to Burma. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of this possibility speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations forum this week in Thailand -- a threat she said the United States takes "very seriously." So seriously, in fact, that Clinton will raise the topic when she meets with her Chinese counterpart, State Councilor Dai Bingguo, on Monday, according to officials at the State Department and in Congress. As one official involved in preparations told me, "Burma is very much on the agenda."
The evidence of malfeasance so far is slight: a North Korean ship bound for Burma that turned back when shadowed by the U.S. Navy, photos of tunnels being excavated near the new Burmese capital, and a handful of suspicious export cases. But the motive is there, a government official who monitors the country told me. "Burma's leaders are paranoid and it makes sense that they might look for security in a nuclear weapon," he said. And if the history of proliferation teaches us anything, it is that the best way to stop a covert nuclear program is by ringing the alarm bells early and often.
Indeed, the early stages of what might be Burmese nuclear attempts look eerily familiar. The first leaks about Israel's nuclear program in the late 1950s, which involved several dubious explanations for a suspicious construction site in the desert, were ignored -- and Israel eventually developed the bomb. The same story held true for both India and Pakistan, where results might have been different had the international community reacted to suspicious procurement activities. Then, of course, there is Iran, where the desire for a nuclear weapon dates back to the mid-70s and now it may be too late to stop them. Signs that the present rulers of Iran were buying nuclear technology on the black market in the late 1980s were dismissed because U.S. intelligence thought a bomb was beyond Iran's capabilities.
Today in Burma, some of the basic elements for a nuclear program are, in fact, already in place. After several years of discussions, Russia signed a deal in 2007 to provide Burma with a light-water nuclear reactor, facilities for processing and storing nuclear waste, and training for 300 to 350 Burmese scientists set to work there. While the proposed reactor is not suitable for a weapons program, the deal is still a foot in the nuclear door for one of the world's most repressive and reclusive regimes. Rosatom, Russia atomic agency, told the Associated Press recently that there has been no progress on the deal.
But it's Burma's relationship with North Korea that is causing heartburn now. North Korea has been selling conventional weapons like artillery and small arms to Burma for years; the Burmese tend to pay in badly needed rice. But worries that the relationship moved into the nuclear arena surfaced two years ago after North Koreans were spotted unloading large crates and heavy construction equipment near the site for the planned Russian reactor. Concerns increased in June when photographs and videos appeared in the press showing that North Korean helped dig hundreds of vast tunnels in Burma between 2003 and 2006, in an operation codenamed "Tortoise Shells." The purpose of the tunnels, which were built outside the new Burmese capital of Nay Pyi Taw, remains unknown.
It all might seem like thin gruel for accusing the two countries of embarking on a nuclear weapons program, no matter how obliquely Clinton leveled the charge. And there is very little chance that Burma is anywhere near having the bomb. But if these tiny clues add up to nuclear ambitions, there is indeed cause for alarm -- not least because the world is simply not well-organized to contain nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty provides no punishment for signatories who are caught, and U.N. resolutions do not carry sufficient force to deter would-be proliferators. Iran is Exhibit A for the failure of the NPT and U.N. sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency? It's hardly equipped to deal with smuggling activities and procurement networks. Smuggling by Pakistan's rogue scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, eluded the IAEA for nearly three decades, during which time he helped his own country, North Korea, Iran, and Libya all obtain nuclear material.
So given the gaps in the international system, cooperation among key countries, particularly nuclear-weapons states, is essential for deterring nuclear aspirants. In this case, the United States and China are the lucky ones who will have to sort out how to keep North Korea from giving Burma nukes.
Fortunately, no country has more leverage with North Korea than China, which supplies much of the food and oil that keep the regime in Pyongyang afloat. So far, China has been reluctant to exercise its influence because Beijing fears that destabilizing North Korea will send a massive wave of refugees streaming across the border. But Clinton will try to persuade China that the time for diplomatic timidity is over. Kim JongI Il, the ailing North Korean dictator, needs to understand that helping Burma's military junta obtain nuclear weapons technology is a step too far. The two countries should share intelligence between them and with the IAEA. Tough sanctions and interdiction should be on the table to punish and isolate the transgressors.
There is reason to be hopeful that early efforts can do the trick. Past attempts to stop proliferation have been successful when the United States and others have acted on the first intelligence warnings about nuclear aspirations in Taiwan, South Korea and Ukraine. "None of these countries completed the programs it began; all were quietly nipped in the bud," Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center and a former Pentagon counter-proliferation official, wrote in 2004 in The Weekly Standard. Quiet U.S. diplomacy and threats of exposure helped prevent those threats from ever materializing.
For the Obama administration, early success with Burma would have another silver lining, on top of keeping Burma nuke-free: The effort could serve as an example for what might happen to Iran should it fail to turn back from its own nuclear ambitions. And while a nuclear weapon may be merely a mirage in Burma, it is a tangible possibility for Iran. That makes the test case all the more urgent.
Cathy Collins is coauthor of The Man from Pakistan: The True Story of the World's Most Dangerous Nuclear Smuggler
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The New Kerala - Two Myanmar nationals held along IB in Jammu
Jammu, Jul 30 (: The troops of Border Security Force (BSF) arrested two Myanmar nationals while they were trying to ex-filtrate into the Pakistan territory via forward village Makwal of Jammu and Kashmir International Border in Satwari area of the winter capital.
''The BSF troops yesterday noticed a suspicious movement along International Border in Makawal Border Outpost and chased the suspects,'' official sources told UNI.
The sources said two people were arrested and during preliminary investigations, they were ascertained as Myanmar nationals namely Saad-Ullah, 20, son of Awaan and Said-Ul-Din, 22, son of Shaeed Ahmad.
However, they disclosed that few days back they entered the Indian Territory with an intention to reach Pakistan.
''An amount of Rs 270 was recovered from their possession and they were later handed over to the police,'' sources added.
Jammu, Jul 30 (: The troops of Border Security Force (BSF) arrested two Myanmar nationals while they were trying to ex-filtrate into the Pakistan territory via forward village Makwal of Jammu and Kashmir International Border in Satwari area of the winter capital.
''The BSF troops yesterday noticed a suspicious movement along International Border in Makawal Border Outpost and chased the suspects,'' official sources told UNI.
The sources said two people were arrested and during preliminary investigations, they were ascertained as Myanmar nationals namely Saad-Ullah, 20, son of Awaan and Said-Ul-Din, 22, son of Shaeed Ahmad.
However, they disclosed that few days back they entered the Indian Territory with an intention to reach Pakistan.
''An amount of Rs 270 was recovered from their possession and they were later handed over to the police,'' sources added.
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The Irrawaddy - Is China Playing Safe with its Burma Pipeline Plan?
By WILLIAM BOOT, Thursday, July 30, 2009
BANGKOK—China appears to be making alternative plans in case its Middle East oil transshipment port and pipeline project in Burma fails because of regime change.
The Chinese state-owned oil and gas conglomerate China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is spending at least US $1.5 billion to use Burma as a conduit for oil shipments from the Middle East and Africa. But as a backup in case this scheme has to be abandoned it is now also investing in a multibillion dollar oil project in northern Malaysia.
The CNPC is to play a central role in a regional oil processing and transshipment hub link between the Middle East and China on the northwest coast of Malaysia facing the Indian Ocean just like the port development at Kyaukpyu on Ramree Island on the central Burma coast.
Crude oil from Saudi Arabia and probably also Iran will be shipped to a $10 billion refinery on reclaimed land at Yan in Malaysia’s Kedah state close to the border with southern Thailand.
The refinery will have a capacity of 350,000 barrels a day and CNPC will take at least 200,000 bpd.
The chief Malaysian developer, Merapoh Resources Corporation, says the Chinese are likely to become major shareholders. Industry reports suggest that one of the chief financiers of the Yan project, Hong Kong-based equity procurers Beijing Star, is in fact acting as a proxy for CNPC.
This new plan involving Chinese investment revives a Malaysian idea that rose briefly two years ago and then sank without trace, Bangkok-based oil industry consultant-analyst Sar Watana told The Irrawaddy.
In 2007, Malaysia was looking for financial backing for a west coast transshipment port and cross-country pipeline. The main beneficiary would have been China, but the Chinese seemed to lose interest as the Burma pipeline possibility grew.
The re-emergence of this project with China closely involved implies that the Chinese are not going to rely solely on the Burma transshipment scheme.
Both projects short-cut the long sea journey tankers heading for China’s south and east coasts from north Africa and the Middle East currently have to make via the Malacca Strait and Singapore at the bottom of the Malaysian peninsula. More than 60 percent of China’s oil imports pass through the strait.
China has not disclosed how much crude oil it plans to transship through Burma, but the deep-draught port on Ramree Island will be able to handle the biggest bulk tankers. Oil will be pumped 1,200 kilometers in unprocessed form to a refinery in Kunming, capital of neighboring Yunnan province.
There has been speculation that further pipelines inside China will move some of the oil deeper into China to other provinces.
Work on the Burma oil pipeline is supposed to begin before the end of this year, according to Chinese media reports, and be operational by 2012.
The Malaysian refinery at Yan is scheduled to be completed in 2014.
Another Chinese state company, China National Overseas Oil Corporation, had reportedly been involved in Malaysia’s 2007 oil transshipment plans.
According to Malaysia’s Merapoh Resources Corporation, 40 percent of the Yan project will be owned by Beijing Star of Hong Kong.
Beijing Star chairman Li Feng Yi was quoted by The Star newspaper in Malaysia as saying his firm will sell its share in the finished Yan refinery to CNPC.
From a commercial point of view it doesn’t seem to make sense for China to be involved in two major oil transshipment schemes in fairly close proximity of Southeast Asia, says Collin Reynolds, another industry analyst in Bangkok.
But these Chinese state oil-gas giants have very, very deep pockets, and their primary purpose is supply, not cost, Reynolds told The Irrawaddy.
It begins to look as though China is hedging its bets. Burma is very much a client state right now, with Beijing able to manipulate the military junta for its own ends.
By WILLIAM BOOT, Thursday, July 30, 2009
BANGKOK—China appears to be making alternative plans in case its Middle East oil transshipment port and pipeline project in Burma fails because of regime change.
The Chinese state-owned oil and gas conglomerate China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is spending at least US $1.5 billion to use Burma as a conduit for oil shipments from the Middle East and Africa. But as a backup in case this scheme has to be abandoned it is now also investing in a multibillion dollar oil project in northern Malaysia.
The CNPC is to play a central role in a regional oil processing and transshipment hub link between the Middle East and China on the northwest coast of Malaysia facing the Indian Ocean just like the port development at Kyaukpyu on Ramree Island on the central Burma coast.
Crude oil from Saudi Arabia and probably also Iran will be shipped to a $10 billion refinery on reclaimed land at Yan in Malaysia’s Kedah state close to the border with southern Thailand.
The refinery will have a capacity of 350,000 barrels a day and CNPC will take at least 200,000 bpd.
The chief Malaysian developer, Merapoh Resources Corporation, says the Chinese are likely to become major shareholders. Industry reports suggest that one of the chief financiers of the Yan project, Hong Kong-based equity procurers Beijing Star, is in fact acting as a proxy for CNPC.
This new plan involving Chinese investment revives a Malaysian idea that rose briefly two years ago and then sank without trace, Bangkok-based oil industry consultant-analyst Sar Watana told The Irrawaddy.
In 2007, Malaysia was looking for financial backing for a west coast transshipment port and cross-country pipeline. The main beneficiary would have been China, but the Chinese seemed to lose interest as the Burma pipeline possibility grew.
The re-emergence of this project with China closely involved implies that the Chinese are not going to rely solely on the Burma transshipment scheme.
Both projects short-cut the long sea journey tankers heading for China’s south and east coasts from north Africa and the Middle East currently have to make via the Malacca Strait and Singapore at the bottom of the Malaysian peninsula. More than 60 percent of China’s oil imports pass through the strait.
China has not disclosed how much crude oil it plans to transship through Burma, but the deep-draught port on Ramree Island will be able to handle the biggest bulk tankers. Oil will be pumped 1,200 kilometers in unprocessed form to a refinery in Kunming, capital of neighboring Yunnan province.
There has been speculation that further pipelines inside China will move some of the oil deeper into China to other provinces.
Work on the Burma oil pipeline is supposed to begin before the end of this year, according to Chinese media reports, and be operational by 2012.
The Malaysian refinery at Yan is scheduled to be completed in 2014.
Another Chinese state company, China National Overseas Oil Corporation, had reportedly been involved in Malaysia’s 2007 oil transshipment plans.
According to Malaysia’s Merapoh Resources Corporation, 40 percent of the Yan project will be owned by Beijing Star of Hong Kong.
Beijing Star chairman Li Feng Yi was quoted by The Star newspaper in Malaysia as saying his firm will sell its share in the finished Yan refinery to CNPC.
From a commercial point of view it doesn’t seem to make sense for China to be involved in two major oil transshipment schemes in fairly close proximity of Southeast Asia, says Collin Reynolds, another industry analyst in Bangkok.
But these Chinese state oil-gas giants have very, very deep pockets, and their primary purpose is supply, not cost, Reynolds told The Irrawaddy.
It begins to look as though China is hedging its bets. Burma is very much a client state right now, with Beijing able to manipulate the military junta for its own ends.
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The Irrawaddy - Doctors Criticize Burmese Junta Flu Policy
By ARKAR MOE, Thursday, July 30, 2009
Burmese physicians have criticized the military regime over their handling of the outbreak of swine (H1N1) flu in Burma, and they are calling for greater public participation in the fight against the disease.
Dr Thiha Maung, director of the Thailand-based National Health and Education Committee told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “From a medical point of view, swine flu is dangerous because it so easily transmitted.”
Burmese authorities have called the H1N1 influenza outbreak “human flu” in the Burmese language, and the official press has called it an imported disease, according to the doctor.
“This is a mistake. What we are seeing is the tip of the iceberg. We must have a health awareness campaign,” he said.
Dr Zaw Ye Myint, a veterinary surgeon in Rangoon, told The Irrawaddy: “The authorities are only making a show of fighting influenza. Instead they should be raising health awareness and encouraging the public to cooperate with health authorities.
“People have little faith in the regime’s health care system, and because they fear the authorities they are not willing to cooperate with the regime’s health officials,” he said.
State-run media have reported that authorities are taking preventive measures against the possible spread of the global “human flu” pandemic, advising all private clinics in the country to report or transfer patients suspected of influenza.
Dr Thiha Maung said, “Border areas are important, and the government should be helping people take precautionary measures against the flu.”
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Dr Cynthia Maung, who runs the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border, said on Thursday: “To be more effective combating swine flu, the Burmese authorities must cooperate with neighboring countries and international health organizations.”
The New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, reported on Thursday that a 57-year-old man who returned from Singapore on flight MI-512 on July 20 was infected with H1N1 influenza, bringing the number of reported cases in Burma to 10.
Seventy-four passengers on the flight and 131 airport staff are under surveillance at their homes, the newspaper said.
Four of the 10 flu patients diagnosed with flu have recovered and were discharged from hospital, the report added.
By ARKAR MOE, Thursday, July 30, 2009
Burmese physicians have criticized the military regime over their handling of the outbreak of swine (H1N1) flu in Burma, and they are calling for greater public participation in the fight against the disease.
Dr Thiha Maung, director of the Thailand-based National Health and Education Committee told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “From a medical point of view, swine flu is dangerous because it so easily transmitted.”
Burmese authorities have called the H1N1 influenza outbreak “human flu” in the Burmese language, and the official press has called it an imported disease, according to the doctor.
“This is a mistake. What we are seeing is the tip of the iceberg. We must have a health awareness campaign,” he said.
Dr Zaw Ye Myint, a veterinary surgeon in Rangoon, told The Irrawaddy: “The authorities are only making a show of fighting influenza. Instead they should be raising health awareness and encouraging the public to cooperate with health authorities.
“People have little faith in the regime’s health care system, and because they fear the authorities they are not willing to cooperate with the regime’s health officials,” he said.
State-run media have reported that authorities are taking preventive measures against the possible spread of the global “human flu” pandemic, advising all private clinics in the country to report or transfer patients suspected of influenza.
Dr Thiha Maung said, “Border areas are important, and the government should be helping people take precautionary measures against the flu.”
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Dr Cynthia Maung, who runs the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border, said on Thursday: “To be more effective combating swine flu, the Burmese authorities must cooperate with neighboring countries and international health organizations.”
The New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, reported on Thursday that a 57-year-old man who returned from Singapore on flight MI-512 on July 20 was infected with H1N1 influenza, bringing the number of reported cases in Burma to 10.
Seventy-four passengers on the flight and 131 airport staff are under surveillance at their homes, the newspaper said.
Four of the 10 flu patients diagnosed with flu have recovered and were discharged from hospital, the report added.
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Mizzima News - Lawyers oppose sale of Suu Kyi’s plot
by Phanida
Thursday, 30 July 2009 20:27
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The sale of a plot of land in detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house compound has been opposed by her lawyer through an official letter on Thursday.
“We have sent our opposition to the two lawyers, whose names were in the announcement. We said the plot of land cannot be sold as it is owned by our client. We have sent a letter opposing it,” Nyan Win, Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer told Mizzima.
The July 24, issue of the state-run newspaper “Mirror” carried an announcement stating that a plot of land in the compound of House No 54 in Rangoon’s University Avenue has been sold and anybody, who objects to the sale, can oppose it within seven days.
The announcement said, a plot of land – 40 A, 41, 42, 42 A, 44 B, 44 C, and 64 C – 200 feet in length and 70 feet wide in Rangoon’s Bahan township has been sold-off by Khin Maung Aye and that any objection can be lodged within a week.
But following the announcement, Khin Maung Aye’s wife Daw Tin Tin Oo, living separately, made an announcement objecting to the sale of the plot of land and the constructions on the land.
Khin Muang Aye is the foster son of late Thakhin Than Tun and Daw Khin Gyi, who was the sister of detained Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother Daw Khin Kyi. He is a retired army officer and also a writer.
Though the announcement, signed by High Grade Pleaders Cho The May and Wai Wai Aung said opposition to the transfer can be made, it made no mention of the buyer.
“The plot of land mentioned in the notice is the area that has not been divided. But the notice does not name the buyer. They have hidden the name of the buyer. We are worried about the notice. We cannot divulge what we will do but we have our plans,” Nyan Win said.
The sale of the plot of land comes at a time when Aung San Suu Kyi, who lived in the compound, is awaiting a verdict at the Insein prison court.
Earlier, Aung San Suu Kyi’s brother Aung San Oo, claiming to be the rightful heir to the compound of House No. 54, filed a lawsuit.
by Phanida
Thursday, 30 July 2009 20:27
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The sale of a plot of land in detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house compound has been opposed by her lawyer through an official letter on Thursday.
“We have sent our opposition to the two lawyers, whose names were in the announcement. We said the plot of land cannot be sold as it is owned by our client. We have sent a letter opposing it,” Nyan Win, Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer told Mizzima.
The July 24, issue of the state-run newspaper “Mirror” carried an announcement stating that a plot of land in the compound of House No 54 in Rangoon’s University Avenue has been sold and anybody, who objects to the sale, can oppose it within seven days.
The announcement said, a plot of land – 40 A, 41, 42, 42 A, 44 B, 44 C, and 64 C – 200 feet in length and 70 feet wide in Rangoon’s Bahan township has been sold-off by Khin Maung Aye and that any objection can be lodged within a week.
But following the announcement, Khin Maung Aye’s wife Daw Tin Tin Oo, living separately, made an announcement objecting to the sale of the plot of land and the constructions on the land.
Khin Muang Aye is the foster son of late Thakhin Than Tun and Daw Khin Gyi, who was the sister of detained Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother Daw Khin Kyi. He is a retired army officer and also a writer.
Though the announcement, signed by High Grade Pleaders Cho The May and Wai Wai Aung said opposition to the transfer can be made, it made no mention of the buyer.
“The plot of land mentioned in the notice is the area that has not been divided. But the notice does not name the buyer. They have hidden the name of the buyer. We are worried about the notice. We cannot divulge what we will do but we have our plans,” Nyan Win said.
The sale of the plot of land comes at a time when Aung San Suu Kyi, who lived in the compound, is awaiting a verdict at the Insein prison court.
Earlier, Aung San Suu Kyi’s brother Aung San Oo, claiming to be the rightful heir to the compound of House No. 54, filed a lawsuit.
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Mizzima News - Opposition lawyer hounded by authorities
by Myint Maung
Thursday, 30 July 2009 18:05
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Nyi Nyi Htwe, a lawyer belonging to the opposition camp, recently released from jail and forced out of his profession, alleged he is finding it difficult to continue with his present calling of selling government lottery tickets because he is being hounded by authorities.
The 33 year-old lawyer from Pegu town has been selling government lottery tickets to eke out a livelihood, after his bar license was revoked. He alleged that authorities had warned lottery dealers not to franchise him nor hire out a push-cart to him for selling lottery tickets.
“Since my bar license has been revoked, there is nothing that I can do to survive. I have no other business, but my wife sells lottery tickets. Since we lack capital, we have to procure tickets from bigger agents on credit. We also cannot afford to hire a permanent push-cart. The authorities have been creating obstacles,” he told Mizzima.
His business associates have been warned against dealing with him. He is currently finding it extremely difficult to franchise government lottery tickets and hiring a push-cart, given the harassment by the authorities.
Nyi Nyi Htwe was sentenced to a six-month prison term on October 30, 2008 by the northern District Court in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison on charges of ‘contempt of court’. He was, at the time, defending three National League for Democracy members including Yan Naing Tun, who were arrested and were facing trial for praying at the Pagoda for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
During the trial, the judge told Nyi Nyin Htwe to tell his three clients to change their sitting postures, where they had turned their backs to the judge. But the young lawyer said “they have their rights to sit the way they want.”
The judge charged him with ‘contempt of court’ and under Article 288 and sentenced him to six-months in prison.
While he served the prison term, authorities revoked his bar license. He was released on April 28, after he completed his six-month term.
by Myint Maung
Thursday, 30 July 2009 18:05
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Nyi Nyi Htwe, a lawyer belonging to the opposition camp, recently released from jail and forced out of his profession, alleged he is finding it difficult to continue with his present calling of selling government lottery tickets because he is being hounded by authorities.
The 33 year-old lawyer from Pegu town has been selling government lottery tickets to eke out a livelihood, after his bar license was revoked. He alleged that authorities had warned lottery dealers not to franchise him nor hire out a push-cart to him for selling lottery tickets.
“Since my bar license has been revoked, there is nothing that I can do to survive. I have no other business, but my wife sells lottery tickets. Since we lack capital, we have to procure tickets from bigger agents on credit. We also cannot afford to hire a permanent push-cart. The authorities have been creating obstacles,” he told Mizzima.
His business associates have been warned against dealing with him. He is currently finding it extremely difficult to franchise government lottery tickets and hiring a push-cart, given the harassment by the authorities.
Nyi Nyi Htwe was sentenced to a six-month prison term on October 30, 2008 by the northern District Court in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison on charges of ‘contempt of court’. He was, at the time, defending three National League for Democracy members including Yan Naing Tun, who were arrested and were facing trial for praying at the Pagoda for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
During the trial, the judge told Nyi Nyin Htwe to tell his three clients to change their sitting postures, where they had turned their backs to the judge. But the young lawyer said “they have their rights to sit the way they want.”
The judge charged him with ‘contempt of court’ and under Article 288 and sentenced him to six-months in prison.
While he served the prison term, authorities revoked his bar license. He was released on April 28, after he completed his six-month term.
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Energy investments ‘at expense’ of Burma population
July 29, 2009 (DVB)–Civil society groups have criticised ASEAN’s energy investments in Burma that only benefit neighbouring countries whilst leaving the majority of the Burmese population in the dark.
A joint statement released by three groups coincides with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministers for Energy Meeting which is underway in Burma’s second city of Mandalay this week.
The Burma Rivers Network (BRN), the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM) and the Ethnic Community Development Forum (ECDF) in their statement addressed the lack of electricity being provided to the Burmese population.
The groups highlight that the electricity consumption rate of Burma is only 5 percent of that in Thailand yet the Burmese government continues to export energy to its energy hungry neighbours.
“Burma’s military regime is steaming ahead with plans to export even more energy resources to its neighbors,” said the statement.
“These include plans for over 20 large hydroelectric dams to power Thailand, China and ASEAN power grid, and trans-Burma oil and gas pipelines to China set to begin in September this year.”
It is reported that exported gas from Burma’s controversial Yadana and Yetagun fields’ fuels 20 percent of Thailand’s electricity needs while none fuels its own households.
The statement voices concerns that more energy investments will only increase human rights violations and make the population angrier at the lack of electricity.
“Energy projects in Burma should be for the benefit of Burmese people and not at their expense,” the statement said.
Wong Aung, from the Shwe Gas Movement, said that the ASEAN energy meeting will only “further enrage” the Burmese population.
“The generals are pocketing huge amounts from the projects but we are left in the dark,” he said.
Oilwatch Southeast Asia, a network of Southeast Asian environmental NGOs, has similarly expressed concern that previous projects have led to the loss of livelihood as fishing communities face fishing restrictions.
The organisation states that oil projects increase human rights abuses due to the presence of soldiers safeguarding the sites, who have reportedly used forced labour and forced relocation. Instances of rape by soldiers have also been reported.
“It’s very important that the ASEAN Energy Ministers review their investment policies with Burma,” Penchom Tang, spokesman of Oilwatch SEA said.
“They must wait for a democratically elected government so that investments are beneficial for the local people and the environment”.
Reporting by Alex Ellgee
July 29, 2009 (DVB)–Civil society groups have criticised ASEAN’s energy investments in Burma that only benefit neighbouring countries whilst leaving the majority of the Burmese population in the dark.
A joint statement released by three groups coincides with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministers for Energy Meeting which is underway in Burma’s second city of Mandalay this week.
The Burma Rivers Network (BRN), the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM) and the Ethnic Community Development Forum (ECDF) in their statement addressed the lack of electricity being provided to the Burmese population.
The groups highlight that the electricity consumption rate of Burma is only 5 percent of that in Thailand yet the Burmese government continues to export energy to its energy hungry neighbours.
“Burma’s military regime is steaming ahead with plans to export even more energy resources to its neighbors,” said the statement.
“These include plans for over 20 large hydroelectric dams to power Thailand, China and ASEAN power grid, and trans-Burma oil and gas pipelines to China set to begin in September this year.”
It is reported that exported gas from Burma’s controversial Yadana and Yetagun fields’ fuels 20 percent of Thailand’s electricity needs while none fuels its own households.
The statement voices concerns that more energy investments will only increase human rights violations and make the population angrier at the lack of electricity.
“Energy projects in Burma should be for the benefit of Burmese people and not at their expense,” the statement said.
Wong Aung, from the Shwe Gas Movement, said that the ASEAN energy meeting will only “further enrage” the Burmese population.
“The generals are pocketing huge amounts from the projects but we are left in the dark,” he said.
Oilwatch Southeast Asia, a network of Southeast Asian environmental NGOs, has similarly expressed concern that previous projects have led to the loss of livelihood as fishing communities face fishing restrictions.
The organisation states that oil projects increase human rights abuses due to the presence of soldiers safeguarding the sites, who have reportedly used forced labour and forced relocation. Instances of rape by soldiers have also been reported.
“It’s very important that the ASEAN Energy Ministers review their investment policies with Burma,” Penchom Tang, spokesman of Oilwatch SEA said.
“They must wait for a democratically elected government so that investments are beneficial for the local people and the environment”.
Reporting by Alex Ellgee
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A(H1N1) cases in Burma reach 10
July 30, 2009 (DVB)–The Burmese government today confirmed the tenth case of the A(H1N1) swine flu virus, that of a 57-year-old man who had recently returned from Singapore.
The latest victim was transferred to Rangoon General Hospital on Tuesday after he displayed flu-like symptoms, and was confirmed as carrying the virus.
The case mirrors that of Burma’s first A(H1N1) victim who was hospitalized after returning from a trip to Singapore last month. The 13-year-old girl has since been released.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper today said that 13 people related to the latest victim have been quarantined, while health authorities are keeping a close eye on the 74 passengers who were on the flight returning from Singapore.
Only six of the ten cases remain in hospital, and no deaths from the virus have yet been reported in Burma.
“So far, the National Health Laboratory has examined 107 suspected patients and only ten were found A (H1N1) positive,” said the newspaper.
In its most recent update, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday that 816 deaths from the virus had been reported worldwide, a 50 percent increase from the three weeks prior.
The total number of cases worldwide has reached 134,503, with the United States reporting the most.
Reporting by Francis Wade
July 30, 2009 (DVB)–The Burmese government today confirmed the tenth case of the A(H1N1) swine flu virus, that of a 57-year-old man who had recently returned from Singapore.
The latest victim was transferred to Rangoon General Hospital on Tuesday after he displayed flu-like symptoms, and was confirmed as carrying the virus.
The case mirrors that of Burma’s first A(H1N1) victim who was hospitalized after returning from a trip to Singapore last month. The 13-year-old girl has since been released.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper today said that 13 people related to the latest victim have been quarantined, while health authorities are keeping a close eye on the 74 passengers who were on the flight returning from Singapore.
Only six of the ten cases remain in hospital, and no deaths from the virus have yet been reported in Burma.
“So far, the National Health Laboratory has examined 107 suspected patients and only ten were found A (H1N1) positive,” said the newspaper.
In its most recent update, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday that 816 deaths from the virus had been reported worldwide, a 50 percent increase from the three weeks prior.
The total number of cases worldwide has reached 134,503, with the United States reporting the most.
Reporting by Francis Wade
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