Obama renews sanctions against Myanmar
Wed Jul 29, 5:14 am ET
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama has renewed sanctions against the junta that runs the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar.
Congress last week approved the reauthorization of sanctions, first enacted in 2003, targeting imports from Myanmar. The resolution also maintains a ban on importing jade and other gems from Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Obama signed the bill into law Tuesday.
U.S. lawmakers are pushing for the unconditional release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The detained 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate is being tried on charges that she violated the terms of her house arrest by harboring an uninvited American man, John William Yettaw, who swam to her lakeside home and stayed for two days.
Suu Kyi faces a possible five years in prison. A verdict is expected Friday.
Wed Jul 29, 5:14 am ET
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama has renewed sanctions against the junta that runs the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar.
Congress last week approved the reauthorization of sanctions, first enacted in 2003, targeting imports from Myanmar. The resolution also maintains a ban on importing jade and other gems from Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Obama signed the bill into law Tuesday.
U.S. lawmakers are pushing for the unconditional release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The detained 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate is being tried on charges that she violated the terms of her house arrest by harboring an uninvited American man, John William Yettaw, who swam to her lakeside home and stayed for two days.
Suu Kyi faces a possible five years in prison. A verdict is expected Friday.
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Myanmar's Suu Kyi says expects 'obvious' verdict
AP - Wednesday, July 29
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - The defense team for Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi have delivered their final arguments, closing the case ahead of a Friday verdict the Nobel laureate softly said will be "painfully obvious."
The high-profile trial that began in May has drawn international condemnation from rights activists, world leaders and celebrities who have called for her immediate release.
But neither outside pressure nor the possibility of closer ties with the West have deterred the ruling junta, who appeared determined to find her guilty and keep her behind bars through elections planned for next year.
Judge Thaung Nyunt said Tuesday that the court would make a ruling on Friday, according to defense attorney Nyan Win. The lawyer said he preferred not to speculate on the outcome, but that he had "never seen any defendant in a political case (in Myanmar) being set free." He did not directly label Suu Kyi's trial politically motivated.
Suu Kyi's lawyers had not been expecting a ruling until next month, and it was not immediately clear why the court moved the date for the verdict forward.
The detained 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate could be imprisoned for five years if she is convicted on charges that she violated the terms of her house arrest by harboring an American visitor _ John William Yettaw _ who swam univited to her lakeside home and stayed for two days.
Diplomats from the U.S., Japan, Singapore and Thailand were allowed to attend the last day of the trial Tuesday, one of the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity citing embassy protocol.
Suu Kyi _ who has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years _ thanked the diplomats during the hearing "for trying to promote a just outcome," but said she was not optimistic.
"I'm afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious," Suu Kyi said, according to several diplomats who heard her comments in court.
Suu Kyi's defense team delivered its final arguments in the trial Tuesday _ a day after the prosecution closed its case _ but was not allowed to put a foreign ministry official on the stand, Nyan Win said. He said the court ruled that the ministry official's testimony was "not important." The court rejected all but two of the defense's witnesses.
The opposition leader's lawyers _ who have not contested the facts of the case _ have argued all along that the law used by authorities against Suu Kyi is invalid because it applies to a constitution abolished two decades ago. They also say that government guards stationed outside Suu Kyi's compound should be held responsible for any intrusion in her property.
Suu Kyi emerged as a democracy icon during a popular uprising in 1988 that the military _ which has ruled since 1962 _ brutally suppressed. Her party won national elections in 1990, but Myanmar's generals refused to relinquish power.
Yettaw is charged as an abettor in violating the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and could also be sent to prison for five years. He has pleaded not guilty, and explained in court his aim had been to warn Suu Kyi because he feared she would be assassinated.
AP - Wednesday, July 29
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - The defense team for Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi have delivered their final arguments, closing the case ahead of a Friday verdict the Nobel laureate softly said will be "painfully obvious."
The high-profile trial that began in May has drawn international condemnation from rights activists, world leaders and celebrities who have called for her immediate release.
But neither outside pressure nor the possibility of closer ties with the West have deterred the ruling junta, who appeared determined to find her guilty and keep her behind bars through elections planned for next year.
Judge Thaung Nyunt said Tuesday that the court would make a ruling on Friday, according to defense attorney Nyan Win. The lawyer said he preferred not to speculate on the outcome, but that he had "never seen any defendant in a political case (in Myanmar) being set free." He did not directly label Suu Kyi's trial politically motivated.
Suu Kyi's lawyers had not been expecting a ruling until next month, and it was not immediately clear why the court moved the date for the verdict forward.
The detained 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate could be imprisoned for five years if she is convicted on charges that she violated the terms of her house arrest by harboring an American visitor _ John William Yettaw _ who swam univited to her lakeside home and stayed for two days.
Diplomats from the U.S., Japan, Singapore and Thailand were allowed to attend the last day of the trial Tuesday, one of the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity citing embassy protocol.
Suu Kyi _ who has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years _ thanked the diplomats during the hearing "for trying to promote a just outcome," but said she was not optimistic.
"I'm afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious," Suu Kyi said, according to several diplomats who heard her comments in court.
Suu Kyi's defense team delivered its final arguments in the trial Tuesday _ a day after the prosecution closed its case _ but was not allowed to put a foreign ministry official on the stand, Nyan Win said. He said the court ruled that the ministry official's testimony was "not important." The court rejected all but two of the defense's witnesses.
The opposition leader's lawyers _ who have not contested the facts of the case _ have argued all along that the law used by authorities against Suu Kyi is invalid because it applies to a constitution abolished two decades ago. They also say that government guards stationed outside Suu Kyi's compound should be held responsible for any intrusion in her property.
Suu Kyi emerged as a democracy icon during a popular uprising in 1988 that the military _ which has ruled since 1962 _ brutally suppressed. Her party won national elections in 1990, but Myanmar's generals refused to relinquish power.
Yettaw is charged as an abettor in violating the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and could also be sent to prison for five years. He has pleaded not guilty, and explained in court his aim had been to warn Suu Kyi because he feared she would be assassinated.
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US extends Myanmar sanctions
Wed Jul 29, 1:01 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama extended sanctions against Myanmar, including a ban on gem imports, as the military regime prepares a verdict for democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The White House in a brief statement said Obama signed into law a bill overwhelmingly approved by Congress that would prolong sanctions on all imports from Myanmar for three years. The sanctions were due to expire this week.
The measure also confirms a ban on US sales of Myanmar's gems, which had until last year still entered the US market due to a now-plugged loophole.
Congressman Joseph Crowley, who introduced the bill in the House, said that the junta in Myanmar, earlier known as Burma, "must be stopped."
"We must show the military regime currently ruling with an iron fist in Burma that there are consequences for their actions," said Crowley, a New York lawmaker from Obama's Democratic Party.
He denounced Myanmar's "brutal campaign against its own people," which has triggered a major refugee problem, along with the regime's refusal to let UN chief Ban Ki-moon even see Aung San Suu Kyi on a recent visit.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been in jail or under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years since the junta refused to recognize her party's landslide victory in Myanmar's last national elections, in 1990.
A Myanmar court on Friday will deliver a verdict on the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who faces up to five years in prison over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside house.
Myanmar, one of the world's poorest countries, is the source of some of the world's most beautiful rubies -- a key source of revenue for the junta.
The European Union, Australia, Canada and New Zealand also have slapped sanctions on Myanmar's gems, although some Asian nations continue to buy them.
Wed Jul 29, 1:01 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama extended sanctions against Myanmar, including a ban on gem imports, as the military regime prepares a verdict for democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The White House in a brief statement said Obama signed into law a bill overwhelmingly approved by Congress that would prolong sanctions on all imports from Myanmar for three years. The sanctions were due to expire this week.
The measure also confirms a ban on US sales of Myanmar's gems, which had until last year still entered the US market due to a now-plugged loophole.
Congressman Joseph Crowley, who introduced the bill in the House, said that the junta in Myanmar, earlier known as Burma, "must be stopped."
"We must show the military regime currently ruling with an iron fist in Burma that there are consequences for their actions," said Crowley, a New York lawmaker from Obama's Democratic Party.
He denounced Myanmar's "brutal campaign against its own people," which has triggered a major refugee problem, along with the regime's refusal to let UN chief Ban Ki-moon even see Aung San Suu Kyi on a recent visit.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been in jail or under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years since the junta refused to recognize her party's landslide victory in Myanmar's last national elections, in 1990.
A Myanmar court on Friday will deliver a verdict on the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who faces up to five years in prison over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside house.
Myanmar, one of the world's poorest countries, is the source of some of the world's most beautiful rubies -- a key source of revenue for the junta.
The European Union, Australia, Canada and New Zealand also have slapped sanctions on Myanmar's gems, although some Asian nations continue to buy them.
*****************************************************
Myanmar warns against predicting Suu Kyi verdict
Wed Jul 29, 7:49 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's junta-controlled media warned Wednesday against predictions of a guilty verdict in the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, as the democracy leader braced for a judgement at the end of the week.
A government mouthpiece newspaper said that anticipating Friday's ruling would amount to contempt of court, even as diplomats said they expected Suu Kyi to be convicted of charges that carry a maximum five-year jail term.
The New Light of Myanmar daily said the Nobel Peace Prize winner had indeed broken the law when she allowed an American man to stay at her home after he swam uninvited to her lakeside property in May, sparking the current trial.
But an editorial in the daily said: "There should be no prediction about who is guilty or who is not guilty until the court passes the judgement."
The two-page editorial alleged that Suu Kyi could have called for security when John Yettaw was discovered at the house but instead she "received the intruder" for two nights and provided him with food, lodging and clothes.
"Although the house and compound are regarded as restricted areas by law, one intruded and the other accepted. Doesn't it violate the law?" the newspaper said.
The two-and-a-half-month trial of Suu Kyi has unleased a wave of international condemnation and calls for her release from the notorious Insein prison, where the trial is taking place.
"We assume that the verdict will be a negative one. They could surprise us, but I don't think anyone is under any hope that they will," a British diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The diplomat said however there was "huge speculation" over the potential sentence, with critics saying that the junta merely wants to put Suu Kyi out of action until after elections that are due some time in 2010.
The opposition icon has been in detention for nearly 14 of the past 20 years since the junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in Myanmar's last polls, back in 1990.
"It's just a question of how long the sentence will be for, and whether she will be returned to house arrest in her home at the lake or given a prison sentence at Insein prison in Rangoon or somewhere else," the diplomat said.
Rangoon is the former name for the commercial hub Yangon.
Junta leader Than Shwe recently refused to allow UN chief Ban Ki-moon to see Suu Kyi during a visit to Myanmar, and diplomats were "not convinced they would be respectful of international concerns", the British official said.
Myanmar's all-powerful generals have shrugged off years of tough sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union. US President Barack Obama extended sanctions against Myanmar on Tuesday, including a ban on gem imports.
Ambassadors from the European Union and other countries have asked to be allowed to attend the final day of the trial Friday.
Her lawyer Nyan Win said on Tuesday that her defence team was "hoping for the best but preparing for the worst", a recognition of the heavy jail terms handed down by Myanmar's courts to dissidents in the past year.
Yettaw, who is on trial for breaching security laws, immigration violations and a municipal charge of "illegal swimming", also faces up to five years in jail, as do two female aides who lived with Suu Kyi at the time.
Suu Kyi has argued during the case that lax security was to blame for the visit and said that she only allowed Yettaw overnight refuge for humanitarian reasons.
Yettaw has told the court he was inspired to visit her by a divine vision that she would be assassinated.
Amnesty International this week announced that Suu Kyi was its ambassador of conscience for 2009, the international group's highest honour.
Wed Jul 29, 7:49 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's junta-controlled media warned Wednesday against predictions of a guilty verdict in the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, as the democracy leader braced for a judgement at the end of the week.
A government mouthpiece newspaper said that anticipating Friday's ruling would amount to contempt of court, even as diplomats said they expected Suu Kyi to be convicted of charges that carry a maximum five-year jail term.
The New Light of Myanmar daily said the Nobel Peace Prize winner had indeed broken the law when she allowed an American man to stay at her home after he swam uninvited to her lakeside property in May, sparking the current trial.
But an editorial in the daily said: "There should be no prediction about who is guilty or who is not guilty until the court passes the judgement."
The two-page editorial alleged that Suu Kyi could have called for security when John Yettaw was discovered at the house but instead she "received the intruder" for two nights and provided him with food, lodging and clothes.
"Although the house and compound are regarded as restricted areas by law, one intruded and the other accepted. Doesn't it violate the law?" the newspaper said.
The two-and-a-half-month trial of Suu Kyi has unleased a wave of international condemnation and calls for her release from the notorious Insein prison, where the trial is taking place.
"We assume that the verdict will be a negative one. They could surprise us, but I don't think anyone is under any hope that they will," a British diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The diplomat said however there was "huge speculation" over the potential sentence, with critics saying that the junta merely wants to put Suu Kyi out of action until after elections that are due some time in 2010.
The opposition icon has been in detention for nearly 14 of the past 20 years since the junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in Myanmar's last polls, back in 1990.
"It's just a question of how long the sentence will be for, and whether she will be returned to house arrest in her home at the lake or given a prison sentence at Insein prison in Rangoon or somewhere else," the diplomat said.
Rangoon is the former name for the commercial hub Yangon.
Junta leader Than Shwe recently refused to allow UN chief Ban Ki-moon to see Suu Kyi during a visit to Myanmar, and diplomats were "not convinced they would be respectful of international concerns", the British official said.
Myanmar's all-powerful generals have shrugged off years of tough sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union. US President Barack Obama extended sanctions against Myanmar on Tuesday, including a ban on gem imports.
Ambassadors from the European Union and other countries have asked to be allowed to attend the final day of the trial Friday.
Her lawyer Nyan Win said on Tuesday that her defence team was "hoping for the best but preparing for the worst", a recognition of the heavy jail terms handed down by Myanmar's courts to dissidents in the past year.
Yettaw, who is on trial for breaching security laws, immigration violations and a municipal charge of "illegal swimming", also faces up to five years in jail, as do two female aides who lived with Suu Kyi at the time.
Suu Kyi has argued during the case that lax security was to blame for the visit and said that she only allowed Yettaw overnight refuge for humanitarian reasons.
Yettaw has told the court he was inspired to visit her by a divine vision that she would be assassinated.
Amnesty International this week announced that Suu Kyi was its ambassador of conscience for 2009, the international group's highest honour.
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US experts set rules for swine flu vaccines
Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:39am EDT
* U.S. securing vaccine supply ahead of immunizations
* Pregnant women, health workers likely get first shots
* CDC presumes vaccination to start mid-October
By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA, July 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has taken delivery of 20 million doses of a vaccine against the new pandemic H1N1 swine flu, and should be ready to start an immunization campaign in October, officials said on Wednesday.
Vaccine advisers meeting in Atlanta may follow World Health Organization guidelines that put healthcare workers, pregnant women and patients with asthma and diabetes at the front of the line to get vaccinated.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices may also examine ways to manage a complicated U.S. flu season, with people getting seasonal influenza immunizations alongside swine flu vaccines.
Robin Robinson of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told the meeting the government has contracted to buy around 200 million doses of vaccine and that 20 million have been delivered.
Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it still was not clear when vaccination could begin. But she told the meeting, "We want people to plan as though we will be able to go in mid-October."
Data from human trials of the new vaccine, which have just begun, will not be available until late September, officials told the meeting.
H1N1 swine flu is now so widespread that the World Health Organization has stopped counting individual cases. Health experts are afraid it could worsen, especially when the Northern Hemisphere's influenza season starts in the autumn.
Five companies are making H1N1 vaccine for the U.S. market -- AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) MedImmune unit, Australia's CSL Ltd (CSL.AX), GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L), Novartis AG (NOVN.VX) and Sanofi-Aventis SA (SASY.PA).
UNCERTAIN SUPPLY
It is not clear how much vaccine is going to be available. Some companies have reported this particular virus does not grow well in eggs, limiting the yield.
Most experts agree that people are likely to need two doses of H1N1 vaccine to get full immunity because very few have been exposed to the virus. That means the United States needs 600 million doses.
So the advisers must decide who will be vaccinated first while manufacturers work to make more vaccines.
Pregnant women may be near the front of the line. A report published earlier on Wednesday showed that pregnant women were four times more likely than others to have serious illness from H1N1 -- requiring long hospital stays - or to die. [ID:nN29265188]
The CDC's Dr. Denise Jamieson said the most recent figures show the death rate is about 6 percent in pregnant women, who make up just 1 percent of the population.
Dr. Wellington Sun of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the agency was working with companies to find the quickest and best way to license an H1N1 vaccine for use. The easiest route would be to make the new vaccine supplemental to the annual seasonal flu vaccine, he said.
But this would require keeping the same ages and dosing regimen as seasonal flu -- which is given as one dose, and with preference to the elderly and people with chronic conditions.
H1N1 appears to spare the elderly more, and affects many previously health young adults and older children, unlike seasonal influenza.
Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:39am EDT
* U.S. securing vaccine supply ahead of immunizations
* Pregnant women, health workers likely get first shots
* CDC presumes vaccination to start mid-October
By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA, July 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has taken delivery of 20 million doses of a vaccine against the new pandemic H1N1 swine flu, and should be ready to start an immunization campaign in October, officials said on Wednesday.
Vaccine advisers meeting in Atlanta may follow World Health Organization guidelines that put healthcare workers, pregnant women and patients with asthma and diabetes at the front of the line to get vaccinated.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices may also examine ways to manage a complicated U.S. flu season, with people getting seasonal influenza immunizations alongside swine flu vaccines.
Robin Robinson of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told the meeting the government has contracted to buy around 200 million doses of vaccine and that 20 million have been delivered.
Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it still was not clear when vaccination could begin. But she told the meeting, "We want people to plan as though we will be able to go in mid-October."
Data from human trials of the new vaccine, which have just begun, will not be available until late September, officials told the meeting.
H1N1 swine flu is now so widespread that the World Health Organization has stopped counting individual cases. Health experts are afraid it could worsen, especially when the Northern Hemisphere's influenza season starts in the autumn.
Five companies are making H1N1 vaccine for the U.S. market -- AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) MedImmune unit, Australia's CSL Ltd (CSL.AX), GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L), Novartis AG (NOVN.VX) and Sanofi-Aventis SA (SASY.PA).
UNCERTAIN SUPPLY
It is not clear how much vaccine is going to be available. Some companies have reported this particular virus does not grow well in eggs, limiting the yield.
Most experts agree that people are likely to need two doses of H1N1 vaccine to get full immunity because very few have been exposed to the virus. That means the United States needs 600 million doses.
So the advisers must decide who will be vaccinated first while manufacturers work to make more vaccines.
Pregnant women may be near the front of the line. A report published earlier on Wednesday showed that pregnant women were four times more likely than others to have serious illness from H1N1 -- requiring long hospital stays - or to die. [ID:nN29265188]
The CDC's Dr. Denise Jamieson said the most recent figures show the death rate is about 6 percent in pregnant women, who make up just 1 percent of the population.
Dr. Wellington Sun of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the agency was working with companies to find the quickest and best way to license an H1N1 vaccine for use. The easiest route would be to make the new vaccine supplemental to the annual seasonal flu vaccine, he said.
But this would require keeping the same ages and dosing regimen as seasonal flu -- which is given as one dose, and with preference to the elderly and people with chronic conditions.
H1N1 appears to spare the elderly more, and affects many previously health young adults and older children, unlike seasonal influenza.
*****************************************************
Jul 31, 2009
Asia Times Online - There's military logic to Suu Kyi's trial
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK - The trial of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has ended amid heightened security around the area near the court, with hundreds of trucks full of armed soldiers stationed around Insein prison where the proceedings took place. The prison court is expected to announce its highly anticipated verdict on Friday, according to one of the opposition leader's lawyers, Nyan Win.
The junta's plan to hold democratic elections next year - the first since Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) overwhelmingly won May 1990 polls that were annulled by the military - has been put on hold pending the trial's result. People familiar with the situation say that junta leader Senior General Than Shwe will announce in the wake of the verdict the formation of a civilian-led interim government that will hold administrative power until elections are held next year. It's a move, analysts say, designed to deflect growing international criticism.
In the meantime, international pressure is expected to mount, with high-pitched calls for Suu Kyi's and an estimated 2,100 other political prisoners' immediate release from detention. Several Western countries, including the United States and the European Union, have threatened to up their current economic and financial sanctions against the military regime if the pro-democracy leader is sentenced to a new prison term. Suu Kyi was first arrested in 1989 and has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. For the past five years she has been held in virtual solitary confinement and allowed only occasional visits from her doctor and lawyer.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at a regional meeting held last week in Thailand, dangled the prospect of US investment in exchange for freeing Suu Kyi and a move towards genuine democracy. President Barack Obama's administration had earlier hinted it would review US policy towards Myanmar, but according to Clinton that review has been put on hold because of the Suu Kyi trial.
Suu Kyi, a former Nobel Peace Prize winner, is on trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest by harboring an uninvited US veteran, John William Yettaw, who swam across the lake behind her house and into her back garden. Yettaw has said that he was motivated by a vision that Suu Kyi would be assassinated and he swam to her residence to warn her. The state-controlled media has accused him of being an American agent.
Suu Kyi's la
wyers have argued that the law used to charge her to a possible five years in prison, which is based on the 1974 constitution, is no longer valid. They have also argued that the military appointed security guards posted around her residence should be held responsible for any intrusion onto her property.
She was also not officially under detention according to the government's own wording - meaning she could not have violated the terms of her house arrest, according to Nyan Win,. Rather she has officially been held in her Yangon residence since 2003 for "security reasons".
"We are confident that we will win the case if things go according to the law," Nyan Win told reporters outside the court on Tuesday. But, he added, the judges in the case may make their decision based on other considerations. She is already guilty, according to the state-run newspaper the New Light of Myanmar, which published an editorial arguing against her innocence on the weekend. "This may influence the judges," Nyan Win said.
Kangaroo court
Many critics and observers see the trial as a sham aimed at influencing the upcoming election results in the military's favor. While the prosecution was allowed 23 witnesses, of whom 14 took the stand, the defense was only permitted two of the four witnesses they requested to appear in court, underscoring rights groups' criticism that Myanmar's judiciary lacks independence.
"The trial has been entirely scripted and the end already decided beforehand," Mark Canning, the British ambassador in Yangon told Asia Times Online in an interview. Canning based that assessment on his recent attendance at one of the trial's closed-to-the-public hearings.
Regime critics have echoed that assessment. "The junta fears Aung San Suu Kyi and wants to keep her locked up forever," said Zin Linn, a spokesman for the Burmese opposition abroad and a former political prisoner now based in Thailand. "With elections planned for 2010, they cannot afford to have her free to campaign against them," he said.
"The trial is all about keeping all voices of dissent silent in the run-up to the rigged elections planned for next year," said Aung Din, a leading Burmese pro-democracy activist based in the US. "No one is in any doubt about the outcome," said Moe Moe, a taxi driver in the country's main commercial city. "Those men in green in Naypyidaw [the new capital some 400 kilometers north of Yangon] know she is the people's hero and the real leader of this country," he added.
While locals anxiously await the trial's verdict, few analysts believe that a guilty verdict will spark major public protests similar to those in 2007, which started as complaints against fast-rising food and fuel prices and later brought thousands out onto the streets in broad anti-government demonstrations led by Buddhist monks. That failed attempt at people's power regime change became known around the world as the Saffron Revolution.
"There is no doubt people are angry at the regime and they will be even angrier if they sentence Daw Suu [Kyi], but they also feel powerless against the authorities, especially after the military crackdown against the saffron revolt two years ago," a Western diplomat based in Yangon told Asia Times Online. Local journalists agree that most local people are too worried and pre-occupied with day-to-day survival to take to the streets. Yet there has been a storm of international protest ever since the opposition leader was put on trial more than two months ago. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon left Myanmar in a huff earlier this month when Than Shwe declined his request to meet with the detained pro-democracy leader.
Some believe the UN could soon table a resolution against Myanmar's military regime through the Security Council, after reports emerged that a North Korean ship was angling to deliver either missile parts or nuclear technology to Myanmar in violation of a resolution passed against Pyongyang. Myanmar allies China and Russia have blocked with their veto powers recent attempts at Security Council censure against the regime's abysmal rights record led by the US.
Last week, many Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries at a high-level meeting at the Thai beach resort of Phuket called for her release. US Secretary of State Clinton promised important changes in relations with the military regime if Suu Kyi was freed. "If she was released, that would open up opportunities ... to expand our relationship with [Myanmar], including investments," she told reporters.
The regime has reacted angrily to what it regards as outside interference in its internal affairs and said that international bullying would not influence the judicial process. The call for Suu Kyi's and other prisoners' release is "nonsense and unreasonable", said the New Light of Myanmar at the weekend in response to the US and ASEAN calls for her release. "She must face punishment in accordance with the law: the court will hand down a reasonable term to her if she is found guilty, and it will release her if she is found not guilty," the paper said.
"It is not a question of whether the proceedings are fair or not, she should never have gone on trial in the first place - it's a form of political and legal theater," said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Bangkok-based Myanmar researcher. "As a prisoner of conscience, she should be released immediately." Amnesty earlier this week awarded Suu Kyi its "Ambassador of Conscience" award, which was accepted on her behalf by the Irish rock musician Bono, who has long campaigned for her release.
All indications are that the generals, unless pushed by their main patrons in Beijing, will as in the past ignore international calls for Suu Kyi's release and genuine political change. "They have completely ignored all international concerns, and gone on with their devastating, shattering repression of all dissent, with extremely heavy sentences being handed down for the crimes of democratic protest," said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN's former special rapporteur on human rights to Myanmar.
Than Shwe is believed to be waiting for the trial's verdict to further marginalize Suu Kyi and her NLD political party before announcing plans to transfer power to a civilian administration which would oversee next year's elections, say some analysts and regime insiders. "The whole country will really be surprised to see how power is handed over," Than Shwe reportedly told a high-ranking visiting foreign official according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Myanmar military sources confirm that the creation of an interim government is the next step in the junta's roadmap towards "discipline democracy". In an apparent move in that direction, all government ministries have been ordered to complete all of their outstanding work by the end of August, including the preparation of statistical information. Aung Thaung, Minister of Industry-1 and a close confidante to Than Shwe, recently told his deputies that there would soon be a new government and that he may no longer be a minister.
"According to Than Shwe's plans, all the current ministers will have to resign if they are to join a political party and fight the forthcoming elections," said the Thailand-based independent Burmese academic Win Min. So far, he says, there have been no hints as to who will make up the interim administration. Myanmar-based diplomats are skeptical that any move towards a civilian interim administration would be mostly cosmetic and still be controlled by the military. "There have been abundant signals that the roadmap is not an inclusive process and the referendum [in May last year] dispelled any remaining doubts," said Pinheiro. "This is a hyper-flawed process that will not lead anywhere - it's simply a consolidation of the military's control of the state."
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
Asia Times Online - There's military logic to Suu Kyi's trial
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK - The trial of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has ended amid heightened security around the area near the court, with hundreds of trucks full of armed soldiers stationed around Insein prison where the proceedings took place. The prison court is expected to announce its highly anticipated verdict on Friday, according to one of the opposition leader's lawyers, Nyan Win.
The junta's plan to hold democratic elections next year - the first since Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) overwhelmingly won May 1990 polls that were annulled by the military - has been put on hold pending the trial's result. People familiar with the situation say that junta leader Senior General Than Shwe will announce in the wake of the verdict the formation of a civilian-led interim government that will hold administrative power until elections are held next year. It's a move, analysts say, designed to deflect growing international criticism.
In the meantime, international pressure is expected to mount, with high-pitched calls for Suu Kyi's and an estimated 2,100 other political prisoners' immediate release from detention. Several Western countries, including the United States and the European Union, have threatened to up their current economic and financial sanctions against the military regime if the pro-democracy leader is sentenced to a new prison term. Suu Kyi was first arrested in 1989 and has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. For the past five years she has been held in virtual solitary confinement and allowed only occasional visits from her doctor and lawyer.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at a regional meeting held last week in Thailand, dangled the prospect of US investment in exchange for freeing Suu Kyi and a move towards genuine democracy. President Barack Obama's administration had earlier hinted it would review US policy towards Myanmar, but according to Clinton that review has been put on hold because of the Suu Kyi trial.
Suu Kyi, a former Nobel Peace Prize winner, is on trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest by harboring an uninvited US veteran, John William Yettaw, who swam across the lake behind her house and into her back garden. Yettaw has said that he was motivated by a vision that Suu Kyi would be assassinated and he swam to her residence to warn her. The state-controlled media has accused him of being an American agent.
Suu Kyi's la
wyers have argued that the law used to charge her to a possible five years in prison, which is based on the 1974 constitution, is no longer valid. They have also argued that the military appointed security guards posted around her residence should be held responsible for any intrusion onto her property.
She was also not officially under detention according to the government's own wording - meaning she could not have violated the terms of her house arrest, according to Nyan Win,. Rather she has officially been held in her Yangon residence since 2003 for "security reasons".
"We are confident that we will win the case if things go according to the law," Nyan Win told reporters outside the court on Tuesday. But, he added, the judges in the case may make their decision based on other considerations. She is already guilty, according to the state-run newspaper the New Light of Myanmar, which published an editorial arguing against her innocence on the weekend. "This may influence the judges," Nyan Win said.
Kangaroo court
Many critics and observers see the trial as a sham aimed at influencing the upcoming election results in the military's favor. While the prosecution was allowed 23 witnesses, of whom 14 took the stand, the defense was only permitted two of the four witnesses they requested to appear in court, underscoring rights groups' criticism that Myanmar's judiciary lacks independence.
"The trial has been entirely scripted and the end already decided beforehand," Mark Canning, the British ambassador in Yangon told Asia Times Online in an interview. Canning based that assessment on his recent attendance at one of the trial's closed-to-the-public hearings.
Regime critics have echoed that assessment. "The junta fears Aung San Suu Kyi and wants to keep her locked up forever," said Zin Linn, a spokesman for the Burmese opposition abroad and a former political prisoner now based in Thailand. "With elections planned for 2010, they cannot afford to have her free to campaign against them," he said.
"The trial is all about keeping all voices of dissent silent in the run-up to the rigged elections planned for next year," said Aung Din, a leading Burmese pro-democracy activist based in the US. "No one is in any doubt about the outcome," said Moe Moe, a taxi driver in the country's main commercial city. "Those men in green in Naypyidaw [the new capital some 400 kilometers north of Yangon] know she is the people's hero and the real leader of this country," he added.
While locals anxiously await the trial's verdict, few analysts believe that a guilty verdict will spark major public protests similar to those in 2007, which started as complaints against fast-rising food and fuel prices and later brought thousands out onto the streets in broad anti-government demonstrations led by Buddhist monks. That failed attempt at people's power regime change became known around the world as the Saffron Revolution.
"There is no doubt people are angry at the regime and they will be even angrier if they sentence Daw Suu [Kyi], but they also feel powerless against the authorities, especially after the military crackdown against the saffron revolt two years ago," a Western diplomat based in Yangon told Asia Times Online. Local journalists agree that most local people are too worried and pre-occupied with day-to-day survival to take to the streets. Yet there has been a storm of international protest ever since the opposition leader was put on trial more than two months ago. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon left Myanmar in a huff earlier this month when Than Shwe declined his request to meet with the detained pro-democracy leader.
Some believe the UN could soon table a resolution against Myanmar's military regime through the Security Council, after reports emerged that a North Korean ship was angling to deliver either missile parts or nuclear technology to Myanmar in violation of a resolution passed against Pyongyang. Myanmar allies China and Russia have blocked with their veto powers recent attempts at Security Council censure against the regime's abysmal rights record led by the US.
Last week, many Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries at a high-level meeting at the Thai beach resort of Phuket called for her release. US Secretary of State Clinton promised important changes in relations with the military regime if Suu Kyi was freed. "If she was released, that would open up opportunities ... to expand our relationship with [Myanmar], including investments," she told reporters.
The regime has reacted angrily to what it regards as outside interference in its internal affairs and said that international bullying would not influence the judicial process. The call for Suu Kyi's and other prisoners' release is "nonsense and unreasonable", said the New Light of Myanmar at the weekend in response to the US and ASEAN calls for her release. "She must face punishment in accordance with the law: the court will hand down a reasonable term to her if she is found guilty, and it will release her if she is found not guilty," the paper said.
"It is not a question of whether the proceedings are fair or not, she should never have gone on trial in the first place - it's a form of political and legal theater," said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Bangkok-based Myanmar researcher. "As a prisoner of conscience, she should be released immediately." Amnesty earlier this week awarded Suu Kyi its "Ambassador of Conscience" award, which was accepted on her behalf by the Irish rock musician Bono, who has long campaigned for her release.
All indications are that the generals, unless pushed by their main patrons in Beijing, will as in the past ignore international calls for Suu Kyi's release and genuine political change. "They have completely ignored all international concerns, and gone on with their devastating, shattering repression of all dissent, with extremely heavy sentences being handed down for the crimes of democratic protest," said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN's former special rapporteur on human rights to Myanmar.
Than Shwe is believed to be waiting for the trial's verdict to further marginalize Suu Kyi and her NLD political party before announcing plans to transfer power to a civilian administration which would oversee next year's elections, say some analysts and regime insiders. "The whole country will really be surprised to see how power is handed over," Than Shwe reportedly told a high-ranking visiting foreign official according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Myanmar military sources confirm that the creation of an interim government is the next step in the junta's roadmap towards "discipline democracy". In an apparent move in that direction, all government ministries have been ordered to complete all of their outstanding work by the end of August, including the preparation of statistical information. Aung Thaung, Minister of Industry-1 and a close confidante to Than Shwe, recently told his deputies that there would soon be a new government and that he may no longer be a minister.
"According to Than Shwe's plans, all the current ministers will have to resign if they are to join a political party and fight the forthcoming elections," said the Thailand-based independent Burmese academic Win Min. So far, he says, there have been no hints as to who will make up the interim administration. Myanmar-based diplomats are skeptical that any move towards a civilian interim administration would be mostly cosmetic and still be controlled by the military. "There have been abundant signals that the roadmap is not an inclusive process and the referendum [in May last year] dispelled any remaining doubts," said Pinheiro. "This is a hyper-flawed process that will not lead anywhere - it's simply a consolidation of the military's control of the state."
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
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CommonDreams.org - Prison Looms for Aung San Suu Kyi as Burma Show Trial Draws to a Close
by Richard Lloyd Parry
Published on Wednesday, July 29, 2009
by The Times Online/UK
The Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is facing an almost certain criminal conviction and a sentence of up to five years in prison when a Rangoon court delivers its verdict at the end of this week, her defence team said yesterday.
Wrapping up her two-and-a-half-month trial, Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers gave their reply to the prosecution's final arguments in a court in Insein prison, Rangoon. She is accused of violating the terms of her lengthy house arrest by giving shelter to an eccentric American who entered the lakeside home where she has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.
Speaking softly, Ms Suu Kyi stood and turned to diplomats attending the hearing and said: "I'm afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious."
"She thanked us for trying to promote a just outcome," said an Asian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. Only diplomats from the US, Japan, Singapore and Thailand were allowed to attend the last day of the trial.
Her lawyers held out little hope of an acquittal when the verdict is delivered. "We have a good chance according to the law but we cannot know what the court will decide because this is a political case," said Nyan Win, a lawyer for Ms Suu Kyi and the spokesman for her party, the National League for Democracy. "I have never seen any defendant in a political case being set free. We have done our best and she is prepared for the worst."
Ms Suu Kyi and two of her companions have been on trial since May for giving shelter to John Yettaw, who swam uninvited to her heavily guarded home in central Rangoon. She says that she did nothing wrong in giving food and shelter to Mr Yettaw, and that she refrained from handing him over to the authorities to avoid bringing trouble on him and on the police who were supposed to have been guarding her house.
Many critics of Burma's military dictatorship accuse it of using the bizarre incident as a pretext for continuing to deprive her of her freedom until after the elections that it is promising to hold next year. Her lawyers argue that, even according to its own regulations, Ms Suu Kyi's house arrest was due to expire this year.
The defence lost its attempt to put a Foreign Ministry official on trial after the court said that his testimony was "not important". All but two witnesses summoned by the defence had been rejected. But the generals may have misjudged the strength of international sympathy provoked by the case. Even Burma's neighbours in the Association of South-East Asian Nations, who generally avoid any criticism of one another's internal affairs, expressed dismay at the trial. Yesterday the junta postponed a visit to Burma by Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai Prime Minister, who was especially critical of the regime, apparently because the trip coincided with Friday's verdict on Ms Suu Kyi.
Burma's senior general, Than Shwe, has shown no sign of relenting to the pressure. When Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, visited the regime's isolated new capital, Naypyidaw, early this month, he suffered the humiliation of being refused the opportunity to meet Ms Suu Kyi.
The state media, which are firmly under the control of the Government, have rejected criticisms of the trial. "Suu Kyi is not a political prisoner but the person who is on trial for breaching an existing law," the New Light of Myanmar said in an editorial last week. "Demanding release of Daw Suu Kyi means showing reckless disregard for the law.
The court will hand down a reasonable term to her if she is found guilty, and it will release her if she is found not guilty."
Given this intransigence, and the regime's record of locking up political prisoners, more than 2,000 of whom are in detention, it seems unlikely that she will be acquitted. Diplomats in Rangoon speculate that she may eventually be pardoned by General Than Shwe in an attempt to appear magnanimous. Even if she is released from jail, it will be to the continuing confinement of house arrest.
A diplomat present in the court last week said that Ms Suu Kyi appeared healthy during the three-hour hearing. "She was joking with her defence team and smiling," the diplomat said. "She was 100 per cent engaged with what was going on, ramrod-straight, and resplendent in a yellow skirt."
Mr Yettaw has been charged with immigration violations and with swimming in an unauthorised place, as well as with abetting Ms Suu Kyi in violating the terms of her house arrest. Like her, he could be sentenced to five years in jail if convicted, along with Ms Suu Kyi's two female companions.
by Richard Lloyd Parry
Published on Wednesday, July 29, 2009
by The Times Online/UK
The Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is facing an almost certain criminal conviction and a sentence of up to five years in prison when a Rangoon court delivers its verdict at the end of this week, her defence team said yesterday.
Wrapping up her two-and-a-half-month trial, Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers gave their reply to the prosecution's final arguments in a court in Insein prison, Rangoon. She is accused of violating the terms of her lengthy house arrest by giving shelter to an eccentric American who entered the lakeside home where she has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.
Speaking softly, Ms Suu Kyi stood and turned to diplomats attending the hearing and said: "I'm afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious."
"She thanked us for trying to promote a just outcome," said an Asian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. Only diplomats from the US, Japan, Singapore and Thailand were allowed to attend the last day of the trial.
Her lawyers held out little hope of an acquittal when the verdict is delivered. "We have a good chance according to the law but we cannot know what the court will decide because this is a political case," said Nyan Win, a lawyer for Ms Suu Kyi and the spokesman for her party, the National League for Democracy. "I have never seen any defendant in a political case being set free. We have done our best and she is prepared for the worst."
Ms Suu Kyi and two of her companions have been on trial since May for giving shelter to John Yettaw, who swam uninvited to her heavily guarded home in central Rangoon. She says that she did nothing wrong in giving food and shelter to Mr Yettaw, and that she refrained from handing him over to the authorities to avoid bringing trouble on him and on the police who were supposed to have been guarding her house.
Many critics of Burma's military dictatorship accuse it of using the bizarre incident as a pretext for continuing to deprive her of her freedom until after the elections that it is promising to hold next year. Her lawyers argue that, even according to its own regulations, Ms Suu Kyi's house arrest was due to expire this year.
The defence lost its attempt to put a Foreign Ministry official on trial after the court said that his testimony was "not important". All but two witnesses summoned by the defence had been rejected. But the generals may have misjudged the strength of international sympathy provoked by the case. Even Burma's neighbours in the Association of South-East Asian Nations, who generally avoid any criticism of one another's internal affairs, expressed dismay at the trial. Yesterday the junta postponed a visit to Burma by Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai Prime Minister, who was especially critical of the regime, apparently because the trip coincided with Friday's verdict on Ms Suu Kyi.
Burma's senior general, Than Shwe, has shown no sign of relenting to the pressure. When Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, visited the regime's isolated new capital, Naypyidaw, early this month, he suffered the humiliation of being refused the opportunity to meet Ms Suu Kyi.
The state media, which are firmly under the control of the Government, have rejected criticisms of the trial. "Suu Kyi is not a political prisoner but the person who is on trial for breaching an existing law," the New Light of Myanmar said in an editorial last week. "Demanding release of Daw Suu Kyi means showing reckless disregard for the law.
The court will hand down a reasonable term to her if she is found guilty, and it will release her if she is found not guilty."
Given this intransigence, and the regime's record of locking up political prisoners, more than 2,000 of whom are in detention, it seems unlikely that she will be acquitted. Diplomats in Rangoon speculate that she may eventually be pardoned by General Than Shwe in an attempt to appear magnanimous. Even if she is released from jail, it will be to the continuing confinement of house arrest.
A diplomat present in the court last week said that Ms Suu Kyi appeared healthy during the three-hour hearing. "She was joking with her defence team and smiling," the diplomat said. "She was 100 per cent engaged with what was going on, ramrod-straight, and resplendent in a yellow skirt."
Mr Yettaw has been charged with immigration violations and with swimming in an unauthorised place, as well as with abetting Ms Suu Kyi in violating the terms of her house arrest. Like her, he could be sentenced to five years in jail if convicted, along with Ms Suu Kyi's two female companions.
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Special Broadcasting Service (Australia)
SBS - Suu Kyi expects to stay imprisoned
29 July 2009 | 11:09:18 AM | Source: AAP
The defence team for Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi have delivered their final arguments, closing the case ahead of a verdict the Nobel laureate called "painfully obvious".
The high-profile trial that began in May has drawn international condemnation from rights activists, world leaders and celebrities who have called for her immediate release.
But neither outside pressure nor the possibility of closer ties with the West have deterred the ruling junta, who appeared determined to find her guilty and keep her behind bars through elections planned for next year.
Judge Thaung Nyunt said on Tuesday that the court would make a ruling on Friday, according to defence lawyer Nyan Win. The lawyer said he preferred not to speculate on the outcome, but that he had "never seen any defendant in a political case (in Burma) being set free." He did not directly label Suu Kyi's trial politically motivated.
Suu Kyi's lawyers had not been expecting a ruling until next month, and it was not immediately clear why the court moved the date for the verdict forward.
The detained 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate could be imprisoned for five years if she is convicted on charges that she violated the terms of her house arrest by harbouring an American visitor - John William Yettaw - who swam uninvited to her lakeside home and stayed for two days.
Diplomats from the US, Japan, Singapore and Thailand were allowed to attend the last day of the trial on Tuesday, one of the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity citing embassy protocol.
Suu Kyi - who has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years - thanked the diplomats during the hearing "for trying to promote a just outcome," but said she was not optimistic.
"I'm afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious," Suu Kyi said, according to several diplomats who heard her comments in court.
Suu Kyi's defence team delivered its final arguments in the trial on Tuesday - a day after the prosecution closed its case - but was not allowed to put a foreign ministry official on the stand, Nyan Win said. He said the court ruled that the ministry official's testimony was "not important." The court rejected all but two of the defence's witnesses.
The opposition leader's lawyers - who have not contested the facts of the case - have argued all along that the law used by authorities against Suu Kyi is invalid because it applies to a constitution abolished two decades ago. They also say that government guards stationed outside Suu Kyi's compound should be held responsible for any intrusion in her property.
Suu Kyi emerged as a democracy icon during a popular uprising in 1988 that the military - which has ruled since 1962 - brutally suppressed. Her party won national elections in 1990, but Burma's generals refused to relinquish power.
Yettaw is charged as an abettor in violating the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and could also be sent to prison for five years. He has pleaded not guilty, and explained in court his aim had been to warn Suu Kyi because he feared she would be assassinated.
SBS - Suu Kyi expects to stay imprisoned
29 July 2009 | 11:09:18 AM | Source: AAP
The defence team for Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi have delivered their final arguments, closing the case ahead of a verdict the Nobel laureate called "painfully obvious".
The high-profile trial that began in May has drawn international condemnation from rights activists, world leaders and celebrities who have called for her immediate release.
But neither outside pressure nor the possibility of closer ties with the West have deterred the ruling junta, who appeared determined to find her guilty and keep her behind bars through elections planned for next year.
Judge Thaung Nyunt said on Tuesday that the court would make a ruling on Friday, according to defence lawyer Nyan Win. The lawyer said he preferred not to speculate on the outcome, but that he had "never seen any defendant in a political case (in Burma) being set free." He did not directly label Suu Kyi's trial politically motivated.
Suu Kyi's lawyers had not been expecting a ruling until next month, and it was not immediately clear why the court moved the date for the verdict forward.
The detained 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate could be imprisoned for five years if she is convicted on charges that she violated the terms of her house arrest by harbouring an American visitor - John William Yettaw - who swam uninvited to her lakeside home and stayed for two days.
Diplomats from the US, Japan, Singapore and Thailand were allowed to attend the last day of the trial on Tuesday, one of the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity citing embassy protocol.
Suu Kyi - who has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years - thanked the diplomats during the hearing "for trying to promote a just outcome," but said she was not optimistic.
"I'm afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious," Suu Kyi said, according to several diplomats who heard her comments in court.
Suu Kyi's defence team delivered its final arguments in the trial on Tuesday - a day after the prosecution closed its case - but was not allowed to put a foreign ministry official on the stand, Nyan Win said. He said the court ruled that the ministry official's testimony was "not important." The court rejected all but two of the defence's witnesses.
The opposition leader's lawyers - who have not contested the facts of the case - have argued all along that the law used by authorities against Suu Kyi is invalid because it applies to a constitution abolished two decades ago. They also say that government guards stationed outside Suu Kyi's compound should be held responsible for any intrusion in her property.
Suu Kyi emerged as a democracy icon during a popular uprising in 1988 that the military - which has ruled since 1962 - brutally suppressed. Her party won national elections in 1990, but Burma's generals refused to relinquish power.
Yettaw is charged as an abettor in violating the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and could also be sent to prison for five years. He has pleaded not guilty, and explained in court his aim had been to warn Suu Kyi because he feared she would be assassinated.
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July 29, 2009
The Straits Times - Driven to do good
BANGKOK - HE HAS been called a fool and a madman, an American innocent abroad who swam a lake to meet Myanmar's most famous dissident and barged into the midst of her 20-year struggle of wills with the country's military dictatorship.
More than two months after John William Yettaw's strange late-night swim to the home of Nobel Peace laureate Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, he stands beside her on trial, facing up to five years' imprisonment if found guilty on Friday.
Such a penalty would keep Ms Suu Kyi incarcerated through next year's general election. If so, say her supporters, it is 53-year-old Yettaw who gave the generals the pretext by exposing her to charges that she violated her house arrest by harboring the uninvited guest.
Ms Suu Kyi, who has already spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention for her nonviolent promotion of democracy, has pleaded not guilty. So have Yettaw and two women who live with Ms Suu Kyi at her lakeside house.
Some Suu Kyi supporters suspect he's a pawn of the regime; the regime insinuates he is being used by its exiled opponents.
Associated Press interviews with people who know Yettaw reveal a man with a troubled past, strong Christian beliefs and a compulsion to comfort the afflicted.
For this Mormon from Missouri, the road to Asia was paved with his own misfortunes - an unhappy childhood, serious injuries during military service, and the loss of a teenage son - his wife, Betty, said in an e-mail interview.
She said her husband aspired to write about 'forgiveness as a component of resiliency in overcoming the effects of trauma, whether it be natural disaster, torture, abuse, imprisonment or bereavement.' His former wife, Yvonne, said he set out for Asia about a year ago intending to visit China's Sichuan province for 'humanitarian purposes' after its devastating earthquake. It was not clear if he made it to the quake zone.
In Vietnam, he traveled to an orphanage and a village of victims of Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant the US sprayed during the Vietnam War.
In Thailand, he visited Mae Sot, on the border with Myanmar, also known as Burma. The town is home to exiled Myanmar activists, refugees and anti-government guerrillas of the Karen ethnic minority, humanitarian workers and spies for the junta.
He 'became interested in the plight of the Karen people and the Burmese people in general, and then Ms Aung San Suu Kyi,' said Ms Betty Yettaw. 'He has great respect for her and merely wanted to interview her.'
The Straits Times - Driven to do good
BANGKOK - HE HAS been called a fool and a madman, an American innocent abroad who swam a lake to meet Myanmar's most famous dissident and barged into the midst of her 20-year struggle of wills with the country's military dictatorship.
More than two months after John William Yettaw's strange late-night swim to the home of Nobel Peace laureate Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, he stands beside her on trial, facing up to five years' imprisonment if found guilty on Friday.
Such a penalty would keep Ms Suu Kyi incarcerated through next year's general election. If so, say her supporters, it is 53-year-old Yettaw who gave the generals the pretext by exposing her to charges that she violated her house arrest by harboring the uninvited guest.
Ms Suu Kyi, who has already spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention for her nonviolent promotion of democracy, has pleaded not guilty. So have Yettaw and two women who live with Ms Suu Kyi at her lakeside house.
Some Suu Kyi supporters suspect he's a pawn of the regime; the regime insinuates he is being used by its exiled opponents.
Associated Press interviews with people who know Yettaw reveal a man with a troubled past, strong Christian beliefs and a compulsion to comfort the afflicted.
For this Mormon from Missouri, the road to Asia was paved with his own misfortunes - an unhappy childhood, serious injuries during military service, and the loss of a teenage son - his wife, Betty, said in an e-mail interview.
She said her husband aspired to write about 'forgiveness as a component of resiliency in overcoming the effects of trauma, whether it be natural disaster, torture, abuse, imprisonment or bereavement.' His former wife, Yvonne, said he set out for Asia about a year ago intending to visit China's Sichuan province for 'humanitarian purposes' after its devastating earthquake. It was not clear if he made it to the quake zone.
In Vietnam, he traveled to an orphanage and a village of victims of Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant the US sprayed during the Vietnam War.
In Thailand, he visited Mae Sot, on the border with Myanmar, also known as Burma. The town is home to exiled Myanmar activists, refugees and anti-government guerrillas of the Karen ethnic minority, humanitarian workers and spies for the junta.
He 'became interested in the plight of the Karen people and the Burmese people in general, and then Ms Aung San Suu Kyi,' said Ms Betty Yettaw. 'He has great respect for her and merely wanted to interview her.'
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MYANMAR: Agencies optimistic about water supplies
YANGON, 29 July 2009 (IRIN) - In a significant improvement on the situation a year ago, survivors of Cyclone Nargis will have sufficient access to potable water during the next dry season, specialists say.
During the critical dry season - running from November to April - residents depend on whatever water they have been able to store during the rainy season.
"We are not expecting a water shortage in the next dry season," Daniel Collison, director of emergencies for Save the Children in Myanmar, told IRIN in Yangon, the former Burmese capital.
Access to potable water was a key health concern in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which killed some 140,000 people and affected two million more when it struck southern Myanmar in May 2008.
Traditional water sources, including ponds, tube and open wells, were either polluted or completely destroyed after a 3m high tidal surge inundated much of the low-lying area with sea-water and debris in the country’s worst natural disaster.
According to the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report, almost 1,500 ponds - 13 percent of those Yangon Division and 43 percent in the badly affected Ayeyarwady Delta - were contaminated.
Concerns were heightened during the last dry season, when water shortages were reported.
For some affected communities, river water and water trucking became the main source of drinking water.
Few people in the delta have access to piped water, with most residents reliant on home rainwater harvesting systems, communal rainwater ponds, open wells, tube wells and rivers.
In July last year, the UN reported that 74 percent of people in the affected areas had inadequate access to clean water, with rainwater collection regarded as critical in reducing the risk of disease outbreaks.
Successful interventions
But thanks to successful interventions by international agencies, the authorities and local communities, the situation has improved.
“Cyclone survivors will have sufficient water because the contaminated water ponds have been rehabilitated, and in addition, some new water ponds have been constructed,” Waldemar Pickardt, chief of water and sanitation for the UN Children’s Fun (UNICEF), said.
“The possibility of water shortages in the coming dry season has been reduced to the barest minimum,” Morie Amadu, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) adviser for the Nargis response programme with Action against Hunger (ACF) in Myanmar, echoed.
To date, UNICEF has constructed 40 ponds in Kunchangone, Dedaye and Bogale townships, with some 50 more under construction in Labutta Township, one of the hardest-hit areas.
For its part, ACF has rehabilitated 19 ponds and constructed 12 in the Bogale area, while at the same time distributing some 6,000 ceramic jars. With a capacity of 250 litres each and four per household, each family is assured a water storage capacity of 1,000 litres.
“With frugal use, this storage capacity will last a minimum of three months into the dry season for an average household of five,” Amadu said.
Safety first
But while aid workers are more confident than before, there is still no room for complacency.
“Now our focus should be on water quality,” Pickardt said, noting that residents continue to have limited knowledge of various water purification systems, including chlorine use or water filters.
As a result, the risk factors for a host of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea or dysentery, still exist, health specialists say.
“Fortunately, there were no serious reports of waterborne diseases, thanks to intervention measures taken by aid agencies,” an official from Myanmar’s Department of Health, who requested anonymity, told IRIN, citing the distribution of chlorine and water filters in affected communities.
“Just providing water purification things such as chlorine or water filters is not enough,” the official noted, however. “They [cyclone survivors] should [also] be educated why safe water is important to them, which would surely take time and money,” he added.
YANGON, 29 July 2009 (IRIN) - In a significant improvement on the situation a year ago, survivors of Cyclone Nargis will have sufficient access to potable water during the next dry season, specialists say.
During the critical dry season - running from November to April - residents depend on whatever water they have been able to store during the rainy season.
"We are not expecting a water shortage in the next dry season," Daniel Collison, director of emergencies for Save the Children in Myanmar, told IRIN in Yangon, the former Burmese capital.
Access to potable water was a key health concern in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which killed some 140,000 people and affected two million more when it struck southern Myanmar in May 2008.
Traditional water sources, including ponds, tube and open wells, were either polluted or completely destroyed after a 3m high tidal surge inundated much of the low-lying area with sea-water and debris in the country’s worst natural disaster.
According to the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report, almost 1,500 ponds - 13 percent of those Yangon Division and 43 percent in the badly affected Ayeyarwady Delta - were contaminated.
Concerns were heightened during the last dry season, when water shortages were reported.
For some affected communities, river water and water trucking became the main source of drinking water.
Few people in the delta have access to piped water, with most residents reliant on home rainwater harvesting systems, communal rainwater ponds, open wells, tube wells and rivers.
In July last year, the UN reported that 74 percent of people in the affected areas had inadequate access to clean water, with rainwater collection regarded as critical in reducing the risk of disease outbreaks.
Successful interventions
But thanks to successful interventions by international agencies, the authorities and local communities, the situation has improved.
“Cyclone survivors will have sufficient water because the contaminated water ponds have been rehabilitated, and in addition, some new water ponds have been constructed,” Waldemar Pickardt, chief of water and sanitation for the UN Children’s Fun (UNICEF), said.
“The possibility of water shortages in the coming dry season has been reduced to the barest minimum,” Morie Amadu, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) adviser for the Nargis response programme with Action against Hunger (ACF) in Myanmar, echoed.
To date, UNICEF has constructed 40 ponds in Kunchangone, Dedaye and Bogale townships, with some 50 more under construction in Labutta Township, one of the hardest-hit areas.
For its part, ACF has rehabilitated 19 ponds and constructed 12 in the Bogale area, while at the same time distributing some 6,000 ceramic jars. With a capacity of 250 litres each and four per household, each family is assured a water storage capacity of 1,000 litres.
“With frugal use, this storage capacity will last a minimum of three months into the dry season for an average household of five,” Amadu said.
Safety first
But while aid workers are more confident than before, there is still no room for complacency.
“Now our focus should be on water quality,” Pickardt said, noting that residents continue to have limited knowledge of various water purification systems, including chlorine use or water filters.
As a result, the risk factors for a host of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea or dysentery, still exist, health specialists say.
“Fortunately, there were no serious reports of waterborne diseases, thanks to intervention measures taken by aid agencies,” an official from Myanmar’s Department of Health, who requested anonymity, told IRIN, citing the distribution of chlorine and water filters in affected communities.
“Just providing water purification things such as chlorine or water filters is not enough,” the official noted, however. “They [cyclone survivors] should [also] be educated why safe water is important to them, which would surely take time and money,” he added.
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UNICEF (press release) - UNICEF rebuilds a child-friendly school in cyclone-affected Myanmar
By Anna K. Stechert
DIDIER, Myanmar, 28 July 2009 – Aye Nandar Win enjoys attending fifth grade at the rebuilt Sinku Primary School here in cyclone-affected Didier Township. "I love this school!" she exclaimed. "I love the space, the colours, my desk – everything."
The township's original school was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis, which swept through Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta region in May 2008.
"Our village suffered heavily," said the village head, U Chit. "The school was gone; and out of 350 houses, only 4 were still standing after the cyclone."
In order to allow children to continue their studies while the parents rebuilt the village, UNICEF provided a temporary safe-learning space and school materials for all students.
While learning conditions were not ideal, the school Principal, Daw Hlar Hlar Nwe, said the sense of structure and the interaction with other children helped students regain some sense of normalcy.
Building back better
Now, students and teachers are in their brand-new school, which was constructed by UNICEF in close cooperation with Myanmar's Ministry of Education.
"The change in the children is already immense," observed the principal. "The children are motivated; they participate, are active and seem so happy."
As a child-friendly school, Sinku features well-lit and ventilated classrooms, a teachers' office, a library, water and sanitation facilities, access ramps for students with disabilities, and a large playground. The school was built to resist earthquakes up to 5.0 on the Richter scale and to withstand strong winds.
And to prevent flooding, the building was raised above the highest surge level in the area.
In addition to teaching and study materials, UNICEF provided all of the school's furniture and playground equipment. UNICEF also conducted training for teachers, school authorities and local residents to improve the quality of education and ensure proper school management and community involvement.
'It makes me very proud'
"In the old school, all four grades were taught in one room, which made it really difficult for us to teach and for the children to concentrate because of the noise," said Daw Hlar Hlar New.
Student numbers have almost doubled, from 72 to 136, since the new school opened its doors in June.
"Parents in nearby villages are sending their children here because they know that the school is safe and good," said U Chit. "It makes me very proud. We know our children are safe, and we have a shelter in case of another bad storm."
Community support
The local villagers have shown their support from the beginning. Before construction began, they pooled their money to buy a big enough lot to fit all the new facilities. And they know it is their responsibility to keep the school in good condition.
"We have agreed to check the school grounds every day and to report any problem to the Parent Teacher Association," said the principal. "The PTA will then be in charge of any repairs."
U Chit knows he can count on the support of his community: "They are as proud of this school as I am. I assure you that we will keep this school maintained and in excellent shape."
Overall, UNICEF is planning to construct a total of 46 schools in five cyclone-affected townships in Myanmar.
By Anna K. Stechert
DIDIER, Myanmar, 28 July 2009 – Aye Nandar Win enjoys attending fifth grade at the rebuilt Sinku Primary School here in cyclone-affected Didier Township. "I love this school!" she exclaimed. "I love the space, the colours, my desk – everything."
The township's original school was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis, which swept through Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta region in May 2008.
"Our village suffered heavily," said the village head, U Chit. "The school was gone; and out of 350 houses, only 4 were still standing after the cyclone."
In order to allow children to continue their studies while the parents rebuilt the village, UNICEF provided a temporary safe-learning space and school materials for all students.
While learning conditions were not ideal, the school Principal, Daw Hlar Hlar Nwe, said the sense of structure and the interaction with other children helped students regain some sense of normalcy.
Building back better
Now, students and teachers are in their brand-new school, which was constructed by UNICEF in close cooperation with Myanmar's Ministry of Education.
"The change in the children is already immense," observed the principal. "The children are motivated; they participate, are active and seem so happy."
As a child-friendly school, Sinku features well-lit and ventilated classrooms, a teachers' office, a library, water and sanitation facilities, access ramps for students with disabilities, and a large playground. The school was built to resist earthquakes up to 5.0 on the Richter scale and to withstand strong winds.
And to prevent flooding, the building was raised above the highest surge level in the area.
In addition to teaching and study materials, UNICEF provided all of the school's furniture and playground equipment. UNICEF also conducted training for teachers, school authorities and local residents to improve the quality of education and ensure proper school management and community involvement.
'It makes me very proud'
"In the old school, all four grades were taught in one room, which made it really difficult for us to teach and for the children to concentrate because of the noise," said Daw Hlar Hlar New.
Student numbers have almost doubled, from 72 to 136, since the new school opened its doors in June.
"Parents in nearby villages are sending their children here because they know that the school is safe and good," said U Chit. "It makes me very proud. We know our children are safe, and we have a shelter in case of another bad storm."
Community support
The local villagers have shown their support from the beginning. Before construction began, they pooled their money to buy a big enough lot to fit all the new facilities. And they know it is their responsibility to keep the school in good condition.
"We have agreed to check the school grounds every day and to report any problem to the Parent Teacher Association," said the principal. "The PTA will then be in charge of any repairs."
U Chit knows he can count on the support of his community: "They are as proud of this school as I am. I assure you that we will keep this school maintained and in excellent shape."
Overall, UNICEF is planning to construct a total of 46 schools in five cyclone-affected townships in Myanmar.
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Myanmar-China border trading point to be reopened next month
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-29 16:17:39
YANGON, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Kambaiti, a Myanmar-China border trading point in the northernmost Kachin state suspended about two years ago, will be reopened early next month for normal trading activities, the local weekly Yangon Times reported Wednesday.
The reopening of the Kambaiti border trading point will facilitate export of eel from the Myanmar side.
The Kambaiti and Laizar trading point were temporarily closed in June 2006.
Myanmar has five main border trading points with China, namely Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti.
Myanmar mainly exports agricultural and marine products to China.
According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar bilateral trade amounted to 2.626 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 26.4 percent.
Till the end of 2008, China's contracted investments in Myanmar reached 1.331 billion dollars, of which mining, electric power and oil and gas respectively took 866 million dollars, 281 million dollars and 124 million dollars. China has become Myanmar's 4th largest foreign investor.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-29 16:17:39
YANGON, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Kambaiti, a Myanmar-China border trading point in the northernmost Kachin state suspended about two years ago, will be reopened early next month for normal trading activities, the local weekly Yangon Times reported Wednesday.
The reopening of the Kambaiti border trading point will facilitate export of eel from the Myanmar side.
The Kambaiti and Laizar trading point were temporarily closed in June 2006.
Myanmar has five main border trading points with China, namely Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti.
Myanmar mainly exports agricultural and marine products to China.
According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar bilateral trade amounted to 2.626 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 26.4 percent.
Till the end of 2008, China's contracted investments in Myanmar reached 1.331 billion dollars, of which mining, electric power and oil and gas respectively took 866 million dollars, 281 million dollars and 124 million dollars. China has become Myanmar's 4th largest foreign investor.
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Influenza cases increase to 9 in Myanmar
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-29 11:26:46
YANGON, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Two more patients have been found infected with new influenza A/H1N1 in Myanmar, bringing the total number of such cases to nine in the country, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.
The two new patients, a 23-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man, arrived back from India and Malaysia on July 20 and 27 on flight No. TG 303 and BM 502 respectively.
A total of 222 passengers, who were together with the patients on the same flights, are under surveillance and seven of their family members are also kept under home quarantine, the report said.
Of Myanmar's nine flu patients, the prior four have recovered and were discharged from hospital, the report added.
Myanmar reported the first case of new flu A/H1N1 in the country on June 27 with a 13-year-old girl who developed the symptoms after coming back home from Singapore a day earlier.
So far, the authorities have given medical check up to over 2 million people at airports, ports and border check points and examined those suspicious of the deadly disease since the outbreak in Mexico on April 28, it said.
The authorities claimed that the seven human flu cases are all imported ones.
The authorities continue to take preventive measures against the possible spread of the global human flu pandemic, advising all private clinics in the country to report or transfer all flu-suspected patients, who returned from abroad, to local state-run hospitals or health departments for increased surveillance.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-29 11:26:46
YANGON, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Two more patients have been found infected with new influenza A/H1N1 in Myanmar, bringing the total number of such cases to nine in the country, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.
The two new patients, a 23-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man, arrived back from India and Malaysia on July 20 and 27 on flight No. TG 303 and BM 502 respectively.
A total of 222 passengers, who were together with the patients on the same flights, are under surveillance and seven of their family members are also kept under home quarantine, the report said.
Of Myanmar's nine flu patients, the prior four have recovered and were discharged from hospital, the report added.
Myanmar reported the first case of new flu A/H1N1 in the country on June 27 with a 13-year-old girl who developed the symptoms after coming back home from Singapore a day earlier.
So far, the authorities have given medical check up to over 2 million people at airports, ports and border check points and examined those suspicious of the deadly disease since the outbreak in Mexico on April 28, it said.
The authorities claimed that the seven human flu cases are all imported ones.
The authorities continue to take preventive measures against the possible spread of the global human flu pandemic, advising all private clinics in the country to report or transfer all flu-suspected patients, who returned from abroad, to local state-run hospitals or health departments for increased surveillance.
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East Asian energy ministers call for closer regional energy co-op
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-29 23:11:45
MANDALAY, July 29 (Xinhua) -- The East Asian energy ministers at a series of meetings held in Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay Wednesday called for deeper and closer regional energy cooperation and integration.
The ministers from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia and India attended the one-day meetings of the 27th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM), the 6th ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, Korea) Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM+3) and the 3rd East Asia Summit of Energy Ministers' Meeting (EAS-EMM).
In the joint statement issued by the AMEM+3, the ministers stressed the importance of enhancing regional cooperation and appropriate regional actions to build a secure, stable and sustainable energy future.
It also said that the ministers agreed to strengthen the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Energy (SOME)+3 Energy Cooperation in the present five for a on energy security, oil market, oil stockpiling, natural gas, and new and renewable energy (NRE) and energy efficiency and conservation (EEC).
The ministers also expressed their serious concerns that the highly volatile oil prices which pose a great challenge to the global economy and are against the interest of both consuming and producing countries, emphasizing the need to strengthen cooperation among those responsible for energy policy, energy supplies, oil market and transport routes.
The ministers commended the on-going activities and preparations for future activities under the SOME+3 Energy Cooperation and look forward to review further updates and recommendations at the next ASEAN+3 Ministers on Energy Meeting in Vietnam in 2010, according to the joint statement.
The other joint statement issued by the 3rd EAS-EMM stated that the ministers stressed the importance of international cooperation under the EAS process to ensure greater security and sustainability of energy for sustainable economic growth, adding that the ministers reiterated their strong commitment to intensify on-going efforts and cooperation in order to improve energy efficiency, to increase the use of cleaner energy, including renewable and alternative sources of energy such as bio-fuels, and to promote energy market integration in the region.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-29 23:11:45
MANDALAY, July 29 (Xinhua) -- The East Asian energy ministers at a series of meetings held in Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay Wednesday called for deeper and closer regional energy cooperation and integration.
The ministers from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia and India attended the one-day meetings of the 27th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM), the 6th ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, Korea) Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM+3) and the 3rd East Asia Summit of Energy Ministers' Meeting (EAS-EMM).
In the joint statement issued by the AMEM+3, the ministers stressed the importance of enhancing regional cooperation and appropriate regional actions to build a secure, stable and sustainable energy future.
It also said that the ministers agreed to strengthen the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Energy (SOME)+3 Energy Cooperation in the present five for a on energy security, oil market, oil stockpiling, natural gas, and new and renewable energy (NRE) and energy efficiency and conservation (EEC).
The ministers also expressed their serious concerns that the highly volatile oil prices which pose a great challenge to the global economy and are against the interest of both consuming and producing countries, emphasizing the need to strengthen cooperation among those responsible for energy policy, energy supplies, oil market and transport routes.
The ministers commended the on-going activities and preparations for future activities under the SOME+3 Energy Cooperation and look forward to review further updates and recommendations at the next ASEAN+3 Ministers on Energy Meeting in Vietnam in 2010, according to the joint statement.
The other joint statement issued by the 3rd EAS-EMM stated that the ministers stressed the importance of international cooperation under the EAS process to ensure greater security and sustainability of energy for sustainable economic growth, adding that the ministers reiterated their strong commitment to intensify on-going efforts and cooperation in order to improve energy efficiency, to increase the use of cleaner energy, including renewable and alternative sources of energy such as bio-fuels, and to promote energy market integration in the region.
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The Irrawaddy - Security Increased for Suu Kyi Verdict
By SAW YAN NAING, Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Security was strengthened around Insein Prison in Rangoon on Wednesday morning, and shopkeepers nearby have been ordered to close on Friday, the day the verdict is scheduled in the trial of detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Two police battalions have joined security forces stationed around the prison in preparation for a possible crackdown on protests, according to the sources in Rangoon, who said the authorities were worried about possible protests.
Dozens of Suu Kyi’s supporters have regularly gathered outside Insein Prison on each day of the trial.
Prominent opposition leader Win Tin, an executive of the opposition National League for Democracy, has joined the gatherings.
On Tuesday, Win Tin said he went outside Insein Prison and stayed for about 40 minutes to show his support for his colleague, Suu Kyi.
The final arguments for Suu Kyi’s trial ended on Tuesday, and the verdict is to be announced on Friday.
Diplomats said they heard Suu Kyi comment, “I'm afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious,” in court, according to an Associated Press report.
After Tuesday’s final session, Suu Kyi told her lawyer, Nyan Win, that the proceedings would show “whether or not the rule of law exists in the country.”
Suu Kyi could be sentenced up to five years in prison if convicted. She is charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest.
Her trial began on May 18 and has been interrupted by several adjournments.
Suu Kyi has spent nearly 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. Her latest term of detention began in May 2003.
By SAW YAN NAING, Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Security was strengthened around Insein Prison in Rangoon on Wednesday morning, and shopkeepers nearby have been ordered to close on Friday, the day the verdict is scheduled in the trial of detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Two police battalions have joined security forces stationed around the prison in preparation for a possible crackdown on protests, according to the sources in Rangoon, who said the authorities were worried about possible protests.
Dozens of Suu Kyi’s supporters have regularly gathered outside Insein Prison on each day of the trial.
Prominent opposition leader Win Tin, an executive of the opposition National League for Democracy, has joined the gatherings.
On Tuesday, Win Tin said he went outside Insein Prison and stayed for about 40 minutes to show his support for his colleague, Suu Kyi.
The final arguments for Suu Kyi’s trial ended on Tuesday, and the verdict is to be announced on Friday.
Diplomats said they heard Suu Kyi comment, “I'm afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious,” in court, according to an Associated Press report.
After Tuesday’s final session, Suu Kyi told her lawyer, Nyan Win, that the proceedings would show “whether or not the rule of law exists in the country.”
Suu Kyi could be sentenced up to five years in prison if convicted. She is charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest.
Her trial began on May 18 and has been interrupted by several adjournments.
Suu Kyi has spent nearly 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. Her latest term of detention began in May 2003.
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The Irrawaddy - Hydropower Projects on Agenda at Mandalay Meeting
By LAWI WENG, Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Thailand plans to discuss the progress of the Hat Gyi and Tasang hydropower dams with Burma’s military regime at the Asean+3 Ministers on Energy Meeting, to be held in Mandalay on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Thai officials.
A spokesperson for the Thai energy ministry, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, said that the Thai delegation would raise the subject of the dams with the junta because of concerns that China will take over both projects if work on them does not resume soon.
“We are worried that if we don’t get back to work on the Hat Gyi project with Burma, China will take over. This is why we have set up a subcommittee to consider and study the effects from building the Hat Gyi hydropower dam,” said the spokesperson.
Thailand is a major investor in Burma’s energy sector, and is planning to spend about US $1 billion on the Hat Gyi project. It also has a major stake in the Tasang dam.
However, efforts to address concerns about the environmental impact of the projects have caused delays in construction. Environmental activists say that the dams will displace thousands of local people and adversely the affect the livelihoods of many more.
Meanwhile, Burmese human rights groups released a statement on Tuesday urging an end to investment in Burma’s oil and gas sector, which they said was helping to keep the ruling junta in power by providing it with a long-term source of income.
Thailand imports over 50 percent of Burma’s gas, which the French energy conglomerate Total extracts from the Yadana gas field in the Andaman Sea.
The two-day energy ministers’ meeting in Burma is an important one for Thailand. Thai Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul is attending the meeting in Mandalay, where the Thai delegation will emphasize the country’s strengths as a regional hub of alternative energy.
The Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday that Thailand has finished drafting the Asean Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation in 2010-2015, which highlights cooperation in seven areas, including clean-coal technology, the regional power transmission grid, gas pipelines, energy conservation, recyclable energy and nuclear power.
Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and their regional partners Japan, China and South Korea will also discuss plans to develop oil reserve systems to cope with increasing demand in the Asian region and future rises in the price of oil.
Burma, with its abundant offshore oil and natural gas reserves, has attracted a great deal of interest from foreign investors. The country is estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil.
The oil and gas sector receives the second-largest share of foreign investment in Burma, after hydropower projects. China is scheduled to start building a new gas pipeline in Shan State in September.
By LAWI WENG, Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Thailand plans to discuss the progress of the Hat Gyi and Tasang hydropower dams with Burma’s military regime at the Asean+3 Ministers on Energy Meeting, to be held in Mandalay on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Thai officials.
A spokesperson for the Thai energy ministry, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, said that the Thai delegation would raise the subject of the dams with the junta because of concerns that China will take over both projects if work on them does not resume soon.
“We are worried that if we don’t get back to work on the Hat Gyi project with Burma, China will take over. This is why we have set up a subcommittee to consider and study the effects from building the Hat Gyi hydropower dam,” said the spokesperson.
Thailand is a major investor in Burma’s energy sector, and is planning to spend about US $1 billion on the Hat Gyi project. It also has a major stake in the Tasang dam.
However, efforts to address concerns about the environmental impact of the projects have caused delays in construction. Environmental activists say that the dams will displace thousands of local people and adversely the affect the livelihoods of many more.
Meanwhile, Burmese human rights groups released a statement on Tuesday urging an end to investment in Burma’s oil and gas sector, which they said was helping to keep the ruling junta in power by providing it with a long-term source of income.
Thailand imports over 50 percent of Burma’s gas, which the French energy conglomerate Total extracts from the Yadana gas field in the Andaman Sea.
The two-day energy ministers’ meeting in Burma is an important one for Thailand. Thai Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul is attending the meeting in Mandalay, where the Thai delegation will emphasize the country’s strengths as a regional hub of alternative energy.
The Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday that Thailand has finished drafting the Asean Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation in 2010-2015, which highlights cooperation in seven areas, including clean-coal technology, the regional power transmission grid, gas pipelines, energy conservation, recyclable energy and nuclear power.
Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and their regional partners Japan, China and South Korea will also discuss plans to develop oil reserve systems to cope with increasing demand in the Asian region and future rises in the price of oil.
Burma, with its abundant offshore oil and natural gas reserves, has attracted a great deal of interest from foreign investors. The country is estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil.
The oil and gas sector receives the second-largest share of foreign investment in Burma, after hydropower projects. China is scheduled to start building a new gas pipeline in Shan State in September.
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The Irrawaddy - EDITORIAL:Clinton’s Flawed Burma Message
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s insistence on her innocence, the learned support of her lawyers and the international community, it’s clear that the generals are determined to keep her locked up.
The final verdict in her bizarre trial in Rangoon’s Insein Prison will be announced on Friday, and security around Rangoon is being beefed up in readiness for possible protests.
Suu Kyi is charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest order by giving refuge to an American trespasser, John William Yettaw, and faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment if convicted.
Suu Kyi told her lawyers on the final day of the trial that the proceedings would show “whether or not the rule of law exists in the country.” The sad fact, however, is that Suu Kyi is fighting a losing battle in a country where the basic rule of law is not respected.
Analysts say the trial is politically motivated and is an attempt to exclude Suu Kyi from future politics and the 2010 election.
It is certain that the regime plans to hand out punishment to the Nobel Peace Prize winner and perhaps drag the court proceedings out still further.
High-ranking US officials recently said that Suu Kyi’s trial has complicated the Obama administration’s policy review on Burma. It is increasingly obvious that it’s a wrong strategy to tie the trial to a policy review and to a decision on whether to increase or renew sanctions on Burma.
Last week, at the Asean Ministerial Meeting in Phuket, Thailand, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made contradictory statements on Burma. She had earlier said that Burma’s relationship with North Korea would destabilize the region, and she offered incentives to the regime.
Clinton also said that if Suu Kyi were released, “this would open up doors for investment and for other exchanges that would help the people of Burma.”
It is naïve to expect that the regime would exchange Suu Kyi’s freedom in return for cash and investment. The regime leaders won’t compromise and such a deal is far from their thoughts.
It is safe to assume that the regime leaders are quite confident that they can weather the international pressure with the support of such friends as China.
According to a recent report from Burma’s Ministry of National Planning and Development, foreign investment jumped from $172.7m in the 2007- 2008 fiscal year to a current peak of $984.9m. The ministry said China accounted for 87 per cent of total investments—mainly in energy and natural resources.
With this level of Chinese support, Burmese rulers and their armed forces are assured of the financial and political backing to continue their crimes in the ethnic regions for decades to come. The oppressed people of Burma will continue to live in extreme poverty.
The regime’s ultimate goal is to remain in power as long as it can. Suu Kyi poses a real threat to the Than Shwe’s road map and his grip on power—and so do more than 2,000 political prisoners held by his regime.
Secretary of State Clinton should have learnt from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who had earlier delivered a firm message to the generals, telling them to free Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, to make the road map inclusive, to work for national reconciliation and to ensure that the 2010 election is credible.
Clinton and Ban were each acting as temporary negotiators in Burma’s hostage drama, where the Burmese feel themselves prisoners in their own country. Clinton’s message, however, failed to strike the correct tone.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s insistence on her innocence, the learned support of her lawyers and the international community, it’s clear that the generals are determined to keep her locked up.
The final verdict in her bizarre trial in Rangoon’s Insein Prison will be announced on Friday, and security around Rangoon is being beefed up in readiness for possible protests.
Suu Kyi is charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest order by giving refuge to an American trespasser, John William Yettaw, and faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment if convicted.
Suu Kyi told her lawyers on the final day of the trial that the proceedings would show “whether or not the rule of law exists in the country.” The sad fact, however, is that Suu Kyi is fighting a losing battle in a country where the basic rule of law is not respected.
Analysts say the trial is politically motivated and is an attempt to exclude Suu Kyi from future politics and the 2010 election.
It is certain that the regime plans to hand out punishment to the Nobel Peace Prize winner and perhaps drag the court proceedings out still further.
High-ranking US officials recently said that Suu Kyi’s trial has complicated the Obama administration’s policy review on Burma. It is increasingly obvious that it’s a wrong strategy to tie the trial to a policy review and to a decision on whether to increase or renew sanctions on Burma.
Last week, at the Asean Ministerial Meeting in Phuket, Thailand, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made contradictory statements on Burma. She had earlier said that Burma’s relationship with North Korea would destabilize the region, and she offered incentives to the regime.
Clinton also said that if Suu Kyi were released, “this would open up doors for investment and for other exchanges that would help the people of Burma.”
It is naïve to expect that the regime would exchange Suu Kyi’s freedom in return for cash and investment. The regime leaders won’t compromise and such a deal is far from their thoughts.
It is safe to assume that the regime leaders are quite confident that they can weather the international pressure with the support of such friends as China.
According to a recent report from Burma’s Ministry of National Planning and Development, foreign investment jumped from $172.7m in the 2007- 2008 fiscal year to a current peak of $984.9m. The ministry said China accounted for 87 per cent of total investments—mainly in energy and natural resources.
With this level of Chinese support, Burmese rulers and their armed forces are assured of the financial and political backing to continue their crimes in the ethnic regions for decades to come. The oppressed people of Burma will continue to live in extreme poverty.
The regime’s ultimate goal is to remain in power as long as it can. Suu Kyi poses a real threat to the Than Shwe’s road map and his grip on power—and so do more than 2,000 political prisoners held by his regime.
Secretary of State Clinton should have learnt from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who had earlier delivered a firm message to the generals, telling them to free Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, to make the road map inclusive, to work for national reconciliation and to ensure that the 2010 election is credible.
Clinton and Ban were each acting as temporary negotiators in Burma’s hostage drama, where the Burmese feel themselves prisoners in their own country. Clinton’s message, however, failed to strike the correct tone.
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Mizzima News - Junta faces mounting pressure as Aung San Suu Kyi awaits fate
by Larry Jagan
Wednesday, 29 July 2009 15:46
Bangkok (Mizzima) - The special court in the notorious Insein prison will pronounce the verdict on the trial of Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday as international pressure on the junta mounts to release her.
On Monday night in the Irish capital of Dublin, Bono lead singer of the famous British rock band U2, announced that Aung San Suu Kyi had been awarded Amnesty International's most prestigious honour – she had been made the organization’s “Ambassador of Conscience” for 2009.
“As powerful a voice and as strong a leader in these times, as Dr. King and Nelson Mandela were in theirs... is Aung San Suu Ky,” he told some 80,000 cheering fans, as the band played 'Walk On' -- a track written especially for Aung San Suu Kyi in 2001. Every night during the rest of the group’s current on the 360 tour, U2 plans to highlight her plight during their performances and play 'Walk On'.
U2 has been a long-time campaigner on Aung San Suu Kyi’s behalf. Their lead singer, Bono has been associated with many human rights causes in the past, and the group was previously awarded the title, which was introduced by Amnesty six years ago. Past winners of the award include Vaclav Havel (former Czech president and political prisoner), Nelson Mandela (former South African leader and political prisoner) and the former Irish president and head of the UN’s human rights body, Mary Robinson.
It was inspired by a poem written for Amnesty International by the Nobel Laureate for Literature Seamus Heaney, the award aims to promote the organisation through the life, work and example of its 'Ambassadors'.
Amnesty International’s award and U2’s renewed campaign comes at time when the pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Laureate faces a further term in detention. She has been charged with flouting the conditions of her house arrest, when she gave food and shelter to an uninvited and unwanted visitor, an American Vietnam war veteran, John William Yettaw who swam across the lake behind her residence to get entry to her compound.
While the trial has been anything but free, Amnesty insists the real issue is she should never have been arrested in the first place – not have ever been in detention. “It is not a question of whether the proceedings are fair or not, she should never have gone on trial in the first place – it’s a form of political and legal theatre,” Amnesty’s Bangkok-based Burma researcher, Benjamin Zawacki said in an interview with Mizzima. “As a prisoner of conscience she should be released immediately.”
Amnesty International’s campaign for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi has been endorsed by hundreds of the world’s political leaders, human rights advocates, writers and entertainment personalities. One of those who have joined the campaign is the former UN human rights rapporteur for Burma, Professor Paulo Pinheiro. “These current charges are a complete and crude fabrication, a pretext to keep Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for as long as possible,” he recently told Mizzima.
Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. Her latest detention began in May 2003, after she and her supporters were attacked by pro-junta thugs while travelling in central Burma. She was first arrested in July 1989 and spent six years under house until she was released in 1995.
For the past five years she has been in virtual solitary confinement, being allowed only very occasional visits by her doctor and lawyer. The UN’s special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari has been able to see her six times in the past few years, but the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was not permitted to see her during his two-day visit to the country earlier this month.
“It is appropriate that she should be given this award [Amnesty’s Ambassador of Conscience] almost 20 years since she began her long fight for human rights in Myanmar,” said Benjamin Zawacki. “Twenty years on and still in detention, she remains a beacon of hope for all Burmese people and the world as a whole,” he added.
As Bono poignantly pointed out as he accepted the award on Aung San Suu Kyi’s behalf earlier this week: “She has been under house arrest in her native Burma for most of the last 20 years.
Her crime is that if she was to participate in elections she would win.”
Within a matter of few days now, Aung San Suu Kyi will know her fate. "We are confident that we will win the case if things go according to the law,” her defence lawyer Nyan Win told reporters outside the court on Tuesday.
But of course in Burma the courts are not free of government interference, and it will certainly be political considerations which determine her future.
However few people – inside Burma and abroad -- believe there will any other verdict than guilty. “The trial has been entirely scripted and the end already decided before-hand,” the British Ambassador in Rangoon, Mark Canning told Mizzima after a rare occasion when he was allowed to attend the court hearing. Public sentiment echoes that of the diplomats.
“No one is in any doubt about the outcome,” said Moe Moe, a taxi driver in the country’s main commercial city. “Those men in green in Naypitdaw [the new capital some 400 kilometres north of Rangoon] know she is the peoples’ hero and the real leader of this country,” he added.
While international pressure is set to mount if she is found guilty, it is unlikely to have any impact on the top generals. “They have completely ignored all international concerns – and gone on with their devastating, shattering repression of all dissent – with extremely heavy sentences being handed down for the crimes of democratic protest,” said Mr Pinheiro.
Nevertheless Aung San Suu Kyi remains Burma’s beacon of hope for the future. And the international campaign supporting her and the democratic cause in Burma will continue to remind the junta, that while they may lock her up, try to silence her and prevent her from seeing visitors, the Burmese people and the world as a whole will not forget her and her heroic efforts on behalf of Burma’s fight for democracy and human rights. We are proud to announce … that Amnesty International has chosen Aung San Suu Kyi as the recipient of their Ambassador of Conscience Award 2009. Thank God for Amnesty International,” said Bono. “May God keep Aung Sang Suu Kyi safe.”
by Larry Jagan
Wednesday, 29 July 2009 15:46
Bangkok (Mizzima) - The special court in the notorious Insein prison will pronounce the verdict on the trial of Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday as international pressure on the junta mounts to release her.
On Monday night in the Irish capital of Dublin, Bono lead singer of the famous British rock band U2, announced that Aung San Suu Kyi had been awarded Amnesty International's most prestigious honour – she had been made the organization’s “Ambassador of Conscience” for 2009.
“As powerful a voice and as strong a leader in these times, as Dr. King and Nelson Mandela were in theirs... is Aung San Suu Ky,” he told some 80,000 cheering fans, as the band played 'Walk On' -- a track written especially for Aung San Suu Kyi in 2001. Every night during the rest of the group’s current on the 360 tour, U2 plans to highlight her plight during their performances and play 'Walk On'.
U2 has been a long-time campaigner on Aung San Suu Kyi’s behalf. Their lead singer, Bono has been associated with many human rights causes in the past, and the group was previously awarded the title, which was introduced by Amnesty six years ago. Past winners of the award include Vaclav Havel (former Czech president and political prisoner), Nelson Mandela (former South African leader and political prisoner) and the former Irish president and head of the UN’s human rights body, Mary Robinson.
It was inspired by a poem written for Amnesty International by the Nobel Laureate for Literature Seamus Heaney, the award aims to promote the organisation through the life, work and example of its 'Ambassadors'.
Amnesty International’s award and U2’s renewed campaign comes at time when the pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Laureate faces a further term in detention. She has been charged with flouting the conditions of her house arrest, when she gave food and shelter to an uninvited and unwanted visitor, an American Vietnam war veteran, John William Yettaw who swam across the lake behind her residence to get entry to her compound.
While the trial has been anything but free, Amnesty insists the real issue is she should never have been arrested in the first place – not have ever been in detention. “It is not a question of whether the proceedings are fair or not, she should never have gone on trial in the first place – it’s a form of political and legal theatre,” Amnesty’s Bangkok-based Burma researcher, Benjamin Zawacki said in an interview with Mizzima. “As a prisoner of conscience she should be released immediately.”
Amnesty International’s campaign for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi has been endorsed by hundreds of the world’s political leaders, human rights advocates, writers and entertainment personalities. One of those who have joined the campaign is the former UN human rights rapporteur for Burma, Professor Paulo Pinheiro. “These current charges are a complete and crude fabrication, a pretext to keep Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for as long as possible,” he recently told Mizzima.
Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. Her latest detention began in May 2003, after she and her supporters were attacked by pro-junta thugs while travelling in central Burma. She was first arrested in July 1989 and spent six years under house until she was released in 1995.
For the past five years she has been in virtual solitary confinement, being allowed only very occasional visits by her doctor and lawyer. The UN’s special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari has been able to see her six times in the past few years, but the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was not permitted to see her during his two-day visit to the country earlier this month.
“It is appropriate that she should be given this award [Amnesty’s Ambassador of Conscience] almost 20 years since she began her long fight for human rights in Myanmar,” said Benjamin Zawacki. “Twenty years on and still in detention, she remains a beacon of hope for all Burmese people and the world as a whole,” he added.
As Bono poignantly pointed out as he accepted the award on Aung San Suu Kyi’s behalf earlier this week: “She has been under house arrest in her native Burma for most of the last 20 years.
Her crime is that if she was to participate in elections she would win.”
Within a matter of few days now, Aung San Suu Kyi will know her fate. "We are confident that we will win the case if things go according to the law,” her defence lawyer Nyan Win told reporters outside the court on Tuesday.
But of course in Burma the courts are not free of government interference, and it will certainly be political considerations which determine her future.
However few people – inside Burma and abroad -- believe there will any other verdict than guilty. “The trial has been entirely scripted and the end already decided before-hand,” the British Ambassador in Rangoon, Mark Canning told Mizzima after a rare occasion when he was allowed to attend the court hearing. Public sentiment echoes that of the diplomats.
“No one is in any doubt about the outcome,” said Moe Moe, a taxi driver in the country’s main commercial city. “Those men in green in Naypitdaw [the new capital some 400 kilometres north of Rangoon] know she is the peoples’ hero and the real leader of this country,” he added.
While international pressure is set to mount if she is found guilty, it is unlikely to have any impact on the top generals. “They have completely ignored all international concerns – and gone on with their devastating, shattering repression of all dissent – with extremely heavy sentences being handed down for the crimes of democratic protest,” said Mr Pinheiro.
Nevertheless Aung San Suu Kyi remains Burma’s beacon of hope for the future. And the international campaign supporting her and the democratic cause in Burma will continue to remind the junta, that while they may lock her up, try to silence her and prevent her from seeing visitors, the Burmese people and the world as a whole will not forget her and her heroic efforts on behalf of Burma’s fight for democracy and human rights. We are proud to announce … that Amnesty International has chosen Aung San Suu Kyi as the recipient of their Ambassador of Conscience Award 2009. Thank God for Amnesty International,” said Bono. “May God keep Aung Sang Suu Kyi safe.”
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Mizzima News - Predicting Suu Kyi’s trial is “contempt of court”: Junta’s mouthpiece
by Mungpi
Wednesday, 29 July 2009 20:19
New Delhi (Mizzima) – With speculation rife that the court will pronounce pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi “guilty”, Burma’s state-run newspaper on Wednesday warned against predicting the outcome saying it amounts to ‘contempt of court’.
A commentary in the New Light of Myanmar, the junta’s mouthpiece, on Wednesday justified the trial against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her two live-in party mates and John William Yettaw, the American man, who swam across a lake and sneaked into Aung San Suu Kyi’s home, saying they have violated the law.
The newspaper while justifying the charges and trial said, “Everyone who breaches the law shall face a lawsuit and obey the court decision.”
On Tuesday, the court heard final arguments by the defence attorneys, formally ending the over two-month long trial. Now the court’s verdict is awaited on Friday.
Nyan Win, one of the defence lawyers, told Mizzima on Tuesday that legally the trial has proved Aung San Suu Kyi’s innocence and there is not sufficient ground to find her guilty. But he refused to comment on the possible outcome of the trial.
But many observers including senior leaders of the National League for Democracy, Win Tin, said the court will find her “guilty” and sentence her to a prison term.
However, the newspaper on Wednesday warned against such comments saying, “biased writings about the trial in progress, writings about which side will win or lose in that trial, predicted writings about the possibility of the defendant’s conviction and writings about tendency to give instructions to the judgment of the judge” amounts to contempt of court.
But Win Tin said the trial itself is unfair and there are no grounds to charge the pro-democracy leader as it is not her fault in a stranger forcing his way into her house, as she had not invited him.
He said the court is not acting independently in filing a lawsuit against the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate and even in the trial, stating instances of the court dismissing two out of the four defence witnesses while allowing several prosecution witnesses.
He said even in the last stage of the trial – submission of final arguments by lawyers of both sides – the court has shown partiality towards the prosecution by setting a two-day gap after the defence had submitted their arguments.
“Daw Suu had told her lawyer that she was not happy with the two-day gap between the defence and prosecution’s submission of their final arguments,” Win Tin said.
The trial, which began on May 18, has attracted the attention of human rights activists, politicians, world leaders and celebrities calling for her immediate release along with other political prisoners in Burma.
The commentary on Wednesday also attacked such calls saying calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release while she is facing a court trial amounts to contempt of court.
Despite the newspaper’s claim that Aung San Suu Kyi would be released if she is found not guilty, Win Tin said it is obvious that the junta is all set to continue detaining her.
“It seems to me that the junta is all set to detain her in anyway. But it may possibly buy-time in doing so if the pressures mount,” Win Tin said.
He added that with the kind of international as well as internal pressure mounting over the trial, the Insein prison court might not pass a strong verdict on Aung San Suu Kyi.
“But it is likely that the prosecution will go to a higher court and appeal and then they will sentence her,” he added.
According to him, it is unlikely that the Insein prison court will sentence her heavily at the moment to ease the mounting pressure, but that does not mean Aung San Suu Kyi will be acquitted.
“In anyway, they will detain her,” he added.
He also said, Wednesday’s commentary in the New Light of Myanmar might be a warning that the junta intends to crackdown on opposition figures, who are commenting on the trial and speculating on the junta’s possible plans.
by Mungpi
Wednesday, 29 July 2009 20:19
New Delhi (Mizzima) – With speculation rife that the court will pronounce pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi “guilty”, Burma’s state-run newspaper on Wednesday warned against predicting the outcome saying it amounts to ‘contempt of court’.
A commentary in the New Light of Myanmar, the junta’s mouthpiece, on Wednesday justified the trial against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her two live-in party mates and John William Yettaw, the American man, who swam across a lake and sneaked into Aung San Suu Kyi’s home, saying they have violated the law.
The newspaper while justifying the charges and trial said, “Everyone who breaches the law shall face a lawsuit and obey the court decision.”
On Tuesday, the court heard final arguments by the defence attorneys, formally ending the over two-month long trial. Now the court’s verdict is awaited on Friday.
Nyan Win, one of the defence lawyers, told Mizzima on Tuesday that legally the trial has proved Aung San Suu Kyi’s innocence and there is not sufficient ground to find her guilty. But he refused to comment on the possible outcome of the trial.
But many observers including senior leaders of the National League for Democracy, Win Tin, said the court will find her “guilty” and sentence her to a prison term.
However, the newspaper on Wednesday warned against such comments saying, “biased writings about the trial in progress, writings about which side will win or lose in that trial, predicted writings about the possibility of the defendant’s conviction and writings about tendency to give instructions to the judgment of the judge” amounts to contempt of court.
But Win Tin said the trial itself is unfair and there are no grounds to charge the pro-democracy leader as it is not her fault in a stranger forcing his way into her house, as she had not invited him.
He said the court is not acting independently in filing a lawsuit against the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate and even in the trial, stating instances of the court dismissing two out of the four defence witnesses while allowing several prosecution witnesses.
He said even in the last stage of the trial – submission of final arguments by lawyers of both sides – the court has shown partiality towards the prosecution by setting a two-day gap after the defence had submitted their arguments.
“Daw Suu had told her lawyer that she was not happy with the two-day gap between the defence and prosecution’s submission of their final arguments,” Win Tin said.
The trial, which began on May 18, has attracted the attention of human rights activists, politicians, world leaders and celebrities calling for her immediate release along with other political prisoners in Burma.
The commentary on Wednesday also attacked such calls saying calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release while she is facing a court trial amounts to contempt of court.
Despite the newspaper’s claim that Aung San Suu Kyi would be released if she is found not guilty, Win Tin said it is obvious that the junta is all set to continue detaining her.
“It seems to me that the junta is all set to detain her in anyway. But it may possibly buy-time in doing so if the pressures mount,” Win Tin said.
He added that with the kind of international as well as internal pressure mounting over the trial, the Insein prison court might not pass a strong verdict on Aung San Suu Kyi.
“But it is likely that the prosecution will go to a higher court and appeal and then they will sentence her,” he added.
According to him, it is unlikely that the Insein prison court will sentence her heavily at the moment to ease the mounting pressure, but that does not mean Aung San Suu Kyi will be acquitted.
“In anyway, they will detain her,” he added.
He also said, Wednesday’s commentary in the New Light of Myanmar might be a warning that the junta intends to crackdown on opposition figures, who are commenting on the trial and speculating on the junta’s possible plans.
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Mizzima News - Army Directorate restricts entry of Chinese travellers
by Myo Gyi
Wednesday, 29 July 2009 20:11
Ruili (Mizzima) – As of now Chinese travellers wanting to visit Burma through the border entry points must get prior approval of the Chief of Staff (Army) Office.
The new rule has come into effect from July 16 for Chinese travellers to Burma.
“It is mandatory from now on for Chinese tourists to send the advisory letter to the Chief of Staff (Army) Office before entering Burma. Their tour guide must escort them to Lashio first. If the persons in the list do not match with the persons at the exit point and someone is missing, the guide will be responsible for the missing person(s) and he or she will be interrogated. The guide must take full responsibility for all his guests,” a person close to Chinese traders told Mizzima.
An official of the Mya Padamya Travel Agency in Muse and a resident from Jie Gong, which is near the Sino-Burma border gate, confirmed the new immigration rules.
Chinese tourists have to first apply for approval from the CS (Army) office at Naypyitaw through the Immigration Department on the Sino-Burma border. They can enter Burma only after getting approval from the CS (Army) Office. Previously they could enter Burma easily with the help of travel agencies.
The restriction on visits by Chinese travellers with tour visas is because of visits by the tourists to restricted areas, the person close to Chinese traders said.
“Earlier, they visited Mandalay with ordinary travel permits. Then they visited restricted areas such as Pha Kant and the gold mines. Now the government has restricted their movement inside Burma,” he said.
Eyewitnesses on the border, however, said Chinese jade traders are still entering Burma as they did earlier.
Those who wish to visit Burma for other purposes need invitation letters from their concerned companies and departments.
“If they receive invitation letters from concerned departments for specific purposes such as visiting mining sites, exploratory visits, checking plots owned by their company, economic seminars, then they can get entry permits as either individuals or as part of a package tour. Such visitors must apply for visa at the Burmese embassies. As for border visits, these formalities are not needed. Tourism companies from both countries can arrange it themselves,” he added.
Moreover, illegal import of Chinese goods has been banned since early this month.
by Myo Gyi
Wednesday, 29 July 2009 20:11
Ruili (Mizzima) – As of now Chinese travellers wanting to visit Burma through the border entry points must get prior approval of the Chief of Staff (Army) Office.
The new rule has come into effect from July 16 for Chinese travellers to Burma.
“It is mandatory from now on for Chinese tourists to send the advisory letter to the Chief of Staff (Army) Office before entering Burma. Their tour guide must escort them to Lashio first. If the persons in the list do not match with the persons at the exit point and someone is missing, the guide will be responsible for the missing person(s) and he or she will be interrogated. The guide must take full responsibility for all his guests,” a person close to Chinese traders told Mizzima.
An official of the Mya Padamya Travel Agency in Muse and a resident from Jie Gong, which is near the Sino-Burma border gate, confirmed the new immigration rules.
Chinese tourists have to first apply for approval from the CS (Army) office at Naypyitaw through the Immigration Department on the Sino-Burma border. They can enter Burma only after getting approval from the CS (Army) Office. Previously they could enter Burma easily with the help of travel agencies.
The restriction on visits by Chinese travellers with tour visas is because of visits by the tourists to restricted areas, the person close to Chinese traders said.
“Earlier, they visited Mandalay with ordinary travel permits. Then they visited restricted areas such as Pha Kant and the gold mines. Now the government has restricted their movement inside Burma,” he said.
Eyewitnesses on the border, however, said Chinese jade traders are still entering Burma as they did earlier.
Those who wish to visit Burma for other purposes need invitation letters from their concerned companies and departments.
“If they receive invitation letters from concerned departments for specific purposes such as visiting mining sites, exploratory visits, checking plots owned by their company, economic seminars, then they can get entry permits as either individuals or as part of a package tour. Such visitors must apply for visa at the Burmese embassies. As for border visits, these formalities are not needed. Tourism companies from both countries can arrange it themselves,” he added.
Moreover, illegal import of Chinese goods has been banned since early this month.
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