US, Myanmar officials meet at security forum
Wed Jul 22, 11:24 pm ET
PHUKET, Thailand (AFP) – US officials held a rare meeting with a delegation from Myanmar focusing on UN sanctions against North Korea and the treatment of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, an official said Thursday.
The meeting happened late Wednesday on the eve of Asia's biggest security conference in the Thai resort island of Phuket, which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attending, a senior State Department official said.
Clinton did not attend the meeting with the representatives from the reclusive, junta-ruled nation.
The State Department said the US officials urged Myanmar to implement the terms of a UN Security Council resolution that imposed sanctions on North Korea over its recent missile and nuclear tests.
Clinton had raised concerns earlier Wednesday over the possible transfer of nuclear technology from Kim Jong-Il's communist regime to military-ruled Myanmar.
The US officials also "noted that the outcome of the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi would affect our willingness and ability to take positive steps in our bilateral relationship."
Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is currently on trial for breaching the terms of her house arrest after an incident in which an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside house in Yangon in May.
She faces up to five years in jail and is being held in the city's notorious Insein prison.
Clinton said on Wednesday that if Myanmar frees Aung San Suu Kyi "that would open up opportunities at least for my country to expand our relationship with Burma, including investments in Burma," she said, referring to Myanmar by its former name.
Wed Jul 22, 11:24 pm ET
PHUKET, Thailand (AFP) – US officials held a rare meeting with a delegation from Myanmar focusing on UN sanctions against North Korea and the treatment of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, an official said Thursday.
The meeting happened late Wednesday on the eve of Asia's biggest security conference in the Thai resort island of Phuket, which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attending, a senior State Department official said.
Clinton did not attend the meeting with the representatives from the reclusive, junta-ruled nation.
The State Department said the US officials urged Myanmar to implement the terms of a UN Security Council resolution that imposed sanctions on North Korea over its recent missile and nuclear tests.
Clinton had raised concerns earlier Wednesday over the possible transfer of nuclear technology from Kim Jong-Il's communist regime to military-ruled Myanmar.
The US officials also "noted that the outcome of the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi would affect our willingness and ability to take positive steps in our bilateral relationship."
Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is currently on trial for breaching the terms of her house arrest after an incident in which an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside house in Yangon in May.
She faces up to five years in jail and is being held in the city's notorious Insein prison.
Clinton said on Wednesday that if Myanmar frees Aung San Suu Kyi "that would open up opportunities at least for my country to expand our relationship with Burma, including investments in Burma," she said, referring to Myanmar by its former name.
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Myanmar grants lawyers access to Aung San Suu Kyi
(AP) – 1 hour ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - The legal team of Myanmar's jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was given access to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Thursday, a day before her trial is to resume for final arguments, her lawyer said.
Authorities in the military-ruled country denied permission for Suu Kyi's lawyers to meet her Wednesday, according to Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's defense lawyers as well as spokesman for her party.
Nyan Win said the legal team was allowed to meet her for over two hours Thursday to finalize their 23-page closing argument.
Suu Kyi, 64, is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest by harboring an uninvited American man who swam secretly to her lakeside home and stayed for two days. She is being detained at Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison.
Suu Kyi, who was been under house arrest for nearly 14 of the last 20 years, faces a possible five-year prison term.
The decision to allow legal access to Suu Kyi came as U.S., European and Asian officials — including the top diplomat from Myanmar — wound up a conference in neighboring Thailand at which Myanmar's human rights record was in the spotlight.
The trial has drawn condemnation from the international community and Suu Kyi's local supporters, who worry the ruling junta has found an excuse to keep her detained through elections planned for next year. The verdict is expected sometime next month.
Also on trial, and facing the same charges as Suu Kyi, are two female members of her party who were her sole companions under house arrest. The American, John Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Missouri, is charged with trespassing.
Yettaw has pleaded not guilty and explained in court that he had a dream that Suu Kyi would be assassinated and he had gone to warn her.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962.
Suu Kyi's opposition party won national elections in 1990, but Myanmar's generals refused to relinquish power.
(AP) – 1 hour ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - The legal team of Myanmar's jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was given access to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Thursday, a day before her trial is to resume for final arguments, her lawyer said.
Authorities in the military-ruled country denied permission for Suu Kyi's lawyers to meet her Wednesday, according to Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's defense lawyers as well as spokesman for her party.
Nyan Win said the legal team was allowed to meet her for over two hours Thursday to finalize their 23-page closing argument.
Suu Kyi, 64, is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest by harboring an uninvited American man who swam secretly to her lakeside home and stayed for two days. She is being detained at Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison.
Suu Kyi, who was been under house arrest for nearly 14 of the last 20 years, faces a possible five-year prison term.
The decision to allow legal access to Suu Kyi came as U.S., European and Asian officials — including the top diplomat from Myanmar — wound up a conference in neighboring Thailand at which Myanmar's human rights record was in the spotlight.
The trial has drawn condemnation from the international community and Suu Kyi's local supporters, who worry the ruling junta has found an excuse to keep her detained through elections planned for next year. The verdict is expected sometime next month.
Also on trial, and facing the same charges as Suu Kyi, are two female members of her party who were her sole companions under house arrest. The American, John Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Missouri, is charged with trespassing.
Yettaw has pleaded not guilty and explained in court that he had a dream that Suu Kyi would be assassinated and he had gone to warn her.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962.
Suu Kyi's opposition party won national elections in 1990, but Myanmar's generals refused to relinquish power.
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ASEAN appeals for aid for Myanmar cyclone recovery
7/23/2009, 8:38 a.m. EDT
MICHAEL CASEY - The Associated Press
PHUKET, Thailand (AP)- The head of a regional grouping of Southeast Asian nations called Thursday for governments to do more to help rebuild areas hit by last year's deadly cyclone in Myanmar, saying only a third of the $300 million needed has been raised.
Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, said Myanmar's neighbors need to take the lead in financing new schools, homes and other infrastructure projects.
"The ASEAN member states themselves pledged they would come forward to help and contribute," Surin said at the end of an ASEAN conference in Thailand.
"Some have allocated funds and budgets but have not released it. Now is the time," he said. "With ASEAN taking the lead, there will be more international support coming through."
He dismissed suggestions that the funding problems were due to the Myanmar junta's poor human rights record and suppression of democracy. He attributed the lack of funds to the global financial crisis and competing humanitarian disasters around the world.
The May 2008 cyclone crashed into Myanmar's southwestern coast, sweeping away entire farming villages. Some 140,000 were killed or left missing.
A study released this month in the journal Nature Geoscience described it as one of the deadliest storms to hit the Bay of Bengal, producing waves of 16 feet (5 meters) high and a storm surge that reached 30 miles (50 kilometers) inland.
The study found that in the hardest-hit areas, up to 80 percent of villagers were killed. All survivors interviewed in the Irrawaddy Delta for the study said they ignored
warnings about the impending storm due to a lack of awareness about cyclones and evacuation plans.
More than a year after the disaster, survivors are still struggling to rebuild their lives.
The Tripartite Core Group-which includes Myanmar, ASEAN and the United Nations-is hoping to spend $300 million on reconstruction over the next year but so far has raised only $100 million.
In the early days of the disaster, Myanmar came under fire for barring international relief workers from the disaster zone and making it difficult for them to bring much-needed equipment into the country. It later allowed international assistance and personnel into the delta.
Surin acknowledged red tape continues to be a problem.
"We need the Myanmarese to make it more comfortable for everyone to come forth," he said. "That is why if the process of visa applications is expedited that would be good. Donors and partners who would want to participate would need to be sure there is close international participation in the recovery period."
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. It refused to relinquish power after pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a 1990 election. Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for nearly 14 of the last 20 years, is now on trial for allegedly violating the conditions of her detention and faces up to five years in prison.
7/23/2009, 8:38 a.m. EDT
MICHAEL CASEY - The Associated Press
PHUKET, Thailand (AP)- The head of a regional grouping of Southeast Asian nations called Thursday for governments to do more to help rebuild areas hit by last year's deadly cyclone in Myanmar, saying only a third of the $300 million needed has been raised.
Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, said Myanmar's neighbors need to take the lead in financing new schools, homes and other infrastructure projects.
"The ASEAN member states themselves pledged they would come forward to help and contribute," Surin said at the end of an ASEAN conference in Thailand.
"Some have allocated funds and budgets but have not released it. Now is the time," he said. "With ASEAN taking the lead, there will be more international support coming through."
He dismissed suggestions that the funding problems were due to the Myanmar junta's poor human rights record and suppression of democracy. He attributed the lack of funds to the global financial crisis and competing humanitarian disasters around the world.
The May 2008 cyclone crashed into Myanmar's southwestern coast, sweeping away entire farming villages. Some 140,000 were killed or left missing.
A study released this month in the journal Nature Geoscience described it as one of the deadliest storms to hit the Bay of Bengal, producing waves of 16 feet (5 meters) high and a storm surge that reached 30 miles (50 kilometers) inland.
The study found that in the hardest-hit areas, up to 80 percent of villagers were killed. All survivors interviewed in the Irrawaddy Delta for the study said they ignored
warnings about the impending storm due to a lack of awareness about cyclones and evacuation plans.
More than a year after the disaster, survivors are still struggling to rebuild their lives.
The Tripartite Core Group-which includes Myanmar, ASEAN and the United Nations-is hoping to spend $300 million on reconstruction over the next year but so far has raised only $100 million.
In the early days of the disaster, Myanmar came under fire for barring international relief workers from the disaster zone and making it difficult for them to bring much-needed equipment into the country. It later allowed international assistance and personnel into the delta.
Surin acknowledged red tape continues to be a problem.
"We need the Myanmarese to make it more comfortable for everyone to come forth," he said. "That is why if the process of visa applications is expedited that would be good. Donors and partners who would want to participate would need to be sure there is close international participation in the recovery period."
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. It refused to relinquish power after pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a 1990 election. Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for nearly 14 of the last 20 years, is now on trial for allegedly violating the conditions of her detention and faces up to five years in prison.
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U.S. nudges Myanmar on North Korea, Aung San Suu Kyi
Wed Jul 22, 11:28 pm ET
PHUKET, Thailand (Reuters) – U.S. officials urged Myanmar officials to implement U.N. Security Council 1874 on North Korea in a face-to-face meeting on Wednesday, a senior State Department official said on Thursday.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition he not be named, said Washington's willingness and ability to take positive steps toward the military-ruled former Burma will depend in part on the outcome of a trial against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Security Council resolution 1874 bans all North Korean arms exports, authorizes U.N. member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo and requires them to seize and destroy any goods transported in violation of the sanctions.
Wed Jul 22, 11:28 pm ET
PHUKET, Thailand (Reuters) – U.S. officials urged Myanmar officials to implement U.N. Security Council 1874 on North Korea in a face-to-face meeting on Wednesday, a senior State Department official said on Thursday.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition he not be named, said Washington's willingness and ability to take positive steps toward the military-ruled former Burma will depend in part on the outcome of a trial against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Security Council resolution 1874 bans all North Korean arms exports, authorizes U.N. member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo and requires them to seize and destroy any goods transported in violation of the sanctions.
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Jul 23, 2009 | 11:02AM
NASDAQ - Clinton Lauds 'Positive' Myanmar Stance On North Korea
PHUKET (AFP)--U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that Myanmar's pledge of support for sanctions against North Korea showed the junta- ruled nation was moving in a "positive" direction.
But she said the United States would remain "vigilant" about cooperation between the two states after she expressed concerns that they were working together over nuclear weapons and are both subject to U.S. sanctions.
"We are gratified by Burma's willingness to enforce the Security Council resolution to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions," Clinton said at Asia's largest security forum, referring to Myanmar by its former name.
Suspicions about Myanmar and North Korea escalated after a U.S. Navy destroyer last month began tracking a suspect North Korean ship reportedly heading for Myanmar under UN sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear tests.
Clinton said Washington had seen a "positive direction" in Myanmar "in the already existing cooperation they showed with respect to the North Korean ship" as well as their statements saying they intend to enforce sanctions.
Myanmar's foreign minister Nyan Win pledged ahead of Thursday's forum that his country would obey the UN sanctions designed to squeeze North Korea over its nuclear program, according to Japanese officials and to Clinton.
"Obviously we have to see that unfold but that's never happened before and we're very encouraged by that," Clinton said at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in the Thai resort of Phuket.
"At the same time we know that there has been cooperation between North Korea and Burma in the past and we are going to be vigilant to make sure that it doesn't occur in the future," she said.
Clinton said North Korea had "no friends left" to offer it refuge from the nuclear sanctions, triggering vitriolic defiance from the Stalinist regime.
Clinton also reiterated calls on Myanmar for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed democracy leader facing an internationally condemned trial over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home in May.
Clinton's relatively conciliatory tone towards Myanmar comes after the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama said it was considering a policy change on the military-ruled junta earlier this year.
ASEAN meanwhile rejected Clinton's earlier suggestion that it should consider expelling Myanmar over the detention of the Nobel laureate, who is on trial in Yangon's notorious Insein prison.
"There are not enough grounds to do that," said Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, speaking as current chair of the 10-state grouping.
He said that while ASEAN and the West "have the same goal, we cannot implement the same policy," adding that the bloc had already done what it could by issuing public statements of concern about her continuing incarceration.
"If Myanmar is expelled it will further isolate (the regime) and would that solve the problem?" Abhisit said.
Myanmar has caused constant problems for ASEAN since it joined the bloc in 1997.
The ruling junta snubbed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in early July by refusing to let him visit Aung San Suu Kyi.
Obama has described the court proceedings as a "show trial".
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
NASDAQ - Clinton Lauds 'Positive' Myanmar Stance On North Korea
PHUKET (AFP)--U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that Myanmar's pledge of support for sanctions against North Korea showed the junta- ruled nation was moving in a "positive" direction.
But she said the United States would remain "vigilant" about cooperation between the two states after she expressed concerns that they were working together over nuclear weapons and are both subject to U.S. sanctions.
"We are gratified by Burma's willingness to enforce the Security Council resolution to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions," Clinton said at Asia's largest security forum, referring to Myanmar by its former name.
Suspicions about Myanmar and North Korea escalated after a U.S. Navy destroyer last month began tracking a suspect North Korean ship reportedly heading for Myanmar under UN sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear tests.
Clinton said Washington had seen a "positive direction" in Myanmar "in the already existing cooperation they showed with respect to the North Korean ship" as well as their statements saying they intend to enforce sanctions.
Myanmar's foreign minister Nyan Win pledged ahead of Thursday's forum that his country would obey the UN sanctions designed to squeeze North Korea over its nuclear program, according to Japanese officials and to Clinton.
"Obviously we have to see that unfold but that's never happened before and we're very encouraged by that," Clinton said at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in the Thai resort of Phuket.
"At the same time we know that there has been cooperation between North Korea and Burma in the past and we are going to be vigilant to make sure that it doesn't occur in the future," she said.
Clinton said North Korea had "no friends left" to offer it refuge from the nuclear sanctions, triggering vitriolic defiance from the Stalinist regime.
Clinton also reiterated calls on Myanmar for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed democracy leader facing an internationally condemned trial over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home in May.
Clinton's relatively conciliatory tone towards Myanmar comes after the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama said it was considering a policy change on the military-ruled junta earlier this year.
ASEAN meanwhile rejected Clinton's earlier suggestion that it should consider expelling Myanmar over the detention of the Nobel laureate, who is on trial in Yangon's notorious Insein prison.
"There are not enough grounds to do that," said Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, speaking as current chair of the 10-state grouping.
He said that while ASEAN and the West "have the same goal, we cannot implement the same policy," adding that the bloc had already done what it could by issuing public statements of concern about her continuing incarceration.
"If Myanmar is expelled it will further isolate (the regime) and would that solve the problem?" Abhisit said.
Myanmar has caused constant problems for ASEAN since it joined the bloc in 1997.
The ruling junta snubbed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in early July by refusing to let him visit Aung San Suu Kyi.
Obama has described the court proceedings as a "show trial".
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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Jul 23, 2009 | 11:09AM
NASDAQ - Asean Rejects Clinton's Call To Expel Myanmar - Thai PM
BANGKOK (AFP)--The Association of Southeast Asian Nations won't consider expelling Myanmar over the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, rejecting U.S. calls, Thailand's prime minister said Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Thai television Wednesday that the regional bloc should consider kicking out the military-ruled member state if it doesn't free the Nobel laureate, who is on trial in prison.
But Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, speaking as current chair of the 10-state grouping, said that while Asean and the West "have the same goal, we cannot implement the same policy."
"There are not enough grounds to do that (expel Myanmar). We have already done what we can under the Asean mechanism," said Abhisit, referring to the group's public statements expressing concern over Suu Kyi's detention.
"If Myanmar is expelled it will further isolate (the regime) and would that solve the problem?"
Myanmar - Asean's problem child since it joined the bloc in 1997 - recently sparked outrage by putting Suu Kyi on trial over an incident in which an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside house uninvited.
The ruling junta snubbed U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in early July by refusing to let him visit Suu Kyi in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, deepening concerns in the international community.
U.S. President Barack Obama has described the court proceedings as a "show trial."
The democracy icon has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention since the junta refused to recognize her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in elections in 1990.
But Abhisit has previously rejected the imposing of sanctions on Myanmar, such as those enforced by the U.S. and European Union.
"We are still insisting on our policy of constructive engagement and hope that the U.S. will understand," Abhisit added.
Abhisit's comments came on his return from the southern Thai resort island of Phuket where senior officials and ministers have held talks on Myanmar and the denuclearization of North Korea on the sidelines of Asia's biggest security forum.
NASDAQ - Asean Rejects Clinton's Call To Expel Myanmar - Thai PM
BANGKOK (AFP)--The Association of Southeast Asian Nations won't consider expelling Myanmar over the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, rejecting U.S. calls, Thailand's prime minister said Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Thai television Wednesday that the regional bloc should consider kicking out the military-ruled member state if it doesn't free the Nobel laureate, who is on trial in prison.
But Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, speaking as current chair of the 10-state grouping, said that while Asean and the West "have the same goal, we cannot implement the same policy."
"There are not enough grounds to do that (expel Myanmar). We have already done what we can under the Asean mechanism," said Abhisit, referring to the group's public statements expressing concern over Suu Kyi's detention.
"If Myanmar is expelled it will further isolate (the regime) and would that solve the problem?"
Myanmar - Asean's problem child since it joined the bloc in 1997 - recently sparked outrage by putting Suu Kyi on trial over an incident in which an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside house uninvited.
The ruling junta snubbed U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in early July by refusing to let him visit Suu Kyi in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, deepening concerns in the international community.
U.S. President Barack Obama has described the court proceedings as a "show trial."
The democracy icon has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention since the junta refused to recognize her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in elections in 1990.
But Abhisit has previously rejected the imposing of sanctions on Myanmar, such as those enforced by the U.S. and European Union.
"We are still insisting on our policy of constructive engagement and hope that the U.S. will understand," Abhisit added.
Abhisit's comments came on his return from the southern Thai resort island of Phuket where senior officials and ministers have held talks on Myanmar and the denuclearization of North Korea on the sidelines of Asia's biggest security forum.
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Thursday July 23, 2009
Malaysia Star - It's up to Asean whether Myanmar should be expelled
By MERGAWATI ZULFAKAR and YENG AI CHUN
PHUKET: The decision whether to expel Myanmar from Asean for the military junta’s continuous disregard for calls to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is the grouping’s sole decision, said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
She, however, reminded Asean to continue to convince Myanmar to stop living in isolation and treat its own people better.
“It is, of course, up to Asean but we should stay focused in trying to convince Myanmar that it has a better future by giving its own people a chance to have elections next year and help chart a new course for the people of Myanmar,” she told a press conference here on her arrival to attend the Asean-US dialogue and the Asean Regional Forum.
Clinton said that unlike other Asean members, Myanmar was moving in the opposite direction.
“We have been very clear in stating that the US would like to see changes in behaviour of the regime, and other countries in the region would as well. There are many issues that Myanmar raises for the entire region, not just the US. I think it is important to encourage the Myanmar leadership to begin to open up and pursue models that other countries are following,” she said.
Clinton reiterated the US call for the release of Suu Kyi, who is now on trial for breaching house arrest.
“If she were released, that would open up the opportunity, at least for my country, to expand its relationship with Myanmar, including investment.
“But it is up to the Myanmar leadership and we can only hope in the conversation occurring between many other countries and Myanmar that there will be progress.
“It is a matter of obvious interest and concern of the US that we have to see some evidence that Myanmar is willing to make these changes and take this action,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Japan’s Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, in a meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister Ngan Win, told his counterpart that the junta must respond positively to the issues raised by the international community and release its political prisoners.
However, Ngan Win told Nakasone that his government had done its best and believed it had responded in an appropriate manner.
Malaysia Star - It's up to Asean whether Myanmar should be expelled
By MERGAWATI ZULFAKAR and YENG AI CHUN
PHUKET: The decision whether to expel Myanmar from Asean for the military junta’s continuous disregard for calls to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is the grouping’s sole decision, said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
She, however, reminded Asean to continue to convince Myanmar to stop living in isolation and treat its own people better.
“It is, of course, up to Asean but we should stay focused in trying to convince Myanmar that it has a better future by giving its own people a chance to have elections next year and help chart a new course for the people of Myanmar,” she told a press conference here on her arrival to attend the Asean-US dialogue and the Asean Regional Forum.
Clinton said that unlike other Asean members, Myanmar was moving in the opposite direction.
“We have been very clear in stating that the US would like to see changes in behaviour of the regime, and other countries in the region would as well. There are many issues that Myanmar raises for the entire region, not just the US. I think it is important to encourage the Myanmar leadership to begin to open up and pursue models that other countries are following,” she said.
Clinton reiterated the US call for the release of Suu Kyi, who is now on trial for breaching house arrest.
“If she were released, that would open up the opportunity, at least for my country, to expand its relationship with Myanmar, including investment.
“But it is up to the Myanmar leadership and we can only hope in the conversation occurring between many other countries and Myanmar that there will be progress.
“It is a matter of obvious interest and concern of the US that we have to see some evidence that Myanmar is willing to make these changes and take this action,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Japan’s Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, in a meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister Ngan Win, told his counterpart that the junta must respond positively to the issues raised by the international community and release its political prisoners.
However, Ngan Win told Nakasone that his government had done its best and believed it had responded in an appropriate manner.
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The New York Times - Clinton Trades Gibes With North Korea
By MARK LANDLER
Published: July 23, 2009
PHUKET, Thailand — The United States and North Korea fell into an acrimonious exchange on Thursday, with the North Korean government ridiculing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a “schoolgirl” and a “pensioner,” two days after she referred to their leaders as “unruly children.”
At a meeting of Southeast Asian nations here, the war of words competed for attention with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign to marshal worldwide pressure on the North Koreans to dismantle their nuclear weapons program.
On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang issued a statement criticizing remarks Mrs. Clinton had made earlier this week to ABC News, in which she said the best response to Pyongyang’s behavior would be to ignore it, as one would a child clamoring for attention.
“We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community,” the North Korean statement said. “Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.”
North Korea said it would defend its sovereignty against an America that it accuses of aiming nuclear weapons at it.
The ill-will surfaced vividly during a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, at this Thai resort, when the North Korean delegation turned up at a hotel podium to deliver a scheduled statement.
The officials were told that Mrs. Clinton was due to speak soon, though she was running late, as she has often this week.
After huddling, they stalked away and held a press conference nearby, at which they reiterated North Korea would never return to multiparty talks with South Korea, Japan, Russia, China, and the United States, aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions.
For her part, Mrs. Clinton said she was encouraged by the international support for pressuring Pyongyang. Even Myanmar, she said, had responded to requests by China and other countries to track a North Korean freighter this month that American officials suspect was carrying illicit cargo.
“The international community’s response to North Korea’s actions has been unequivocal and nearly unanimous, leading to a new consensus,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference, during which she read out a lengthy statement restating the American policy on North Korea.
She said there was a commitment to carry out the sanctions foreseen in a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted after Pyongyang’s recent arms tests. Among its measures, the resolution bans weapons shipments to North Korea and seeks to squeeze the sources of financing for its nuclear and missile programs.
Mrs. Clinton singled out China, an influential neighbor, for asking officials in Myanmar to help in dealing with the North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam 1, which was steaming toward Myanmar. The vessel eventually turned around on is own and she called China’s pressure a “proximate cause.”
She said she would discuss further steps in pressing North Korea with senior Chinese officials during consultations with China next week in Washington. Mrs. Clinton is co-chairing the strategic and economic dialogue with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.
The United States has talked to China and other countries about a package of incentives, including economic and energy aid, which could be offered to North Korea in return for dismantling its nuclear program.
But even before Thursday’s vitriolic statements from North Korea, American officials said they were more focused for now on inflicting pain on Pyongyang than on luring it back to the bargaining table.
“We are not interested in half measures,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We have no desire to pursue protracted negotiations that will only lead us right back to where we have already been.”
Mrs. Clinton said the Koreans had been intransigent in their public statements during the conference. Other senior American officials said the tone of the North’s statements was openly hostile.
Still, Mrs. Clinton may have contributed to the chilly atmosphere in her remarks just before the meeting. “Maybe it’s the mother in me,” she said to ABC News, “the experience I’ve had with small children and teenagers and people who are demanding attention: Don’t give it to them.”
By MARK LANDLER
Published: July 23, 2009
PHUKET, Thailand — The United States and North Korea fell into an acrimonious exchange on Thursday, with the North Korean government ridiculing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a “schoolgirl” and a “pensioner,” two days after she referred to their leaders as “unruly children.”
At a meeting of Southeast Asian nations here, the war of words competed for attention with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign to marshal worldwide pressure on the North Koreans to dismantle their nuclear weapons program.
On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang issued a statement criticizing remarks Mrs. Clinton had made earlier this week to ABC News, in which she said the best response to Pyongyang’s behavior would be to ignore it, as one would a child clamoring for attention.
“We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community,” the North Korean statement said. “Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.”
North Korea said it would defend its sovereignty against an America that it accuses of aiming nuclear weapons at it.
The ill-will surfaced vividly during a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, at this Thai resort, when the North Korean delegation turned up at a hotel podium to deliver a scheduled statement.
The officials were told that Mrs. Clinton was due to speak soon, though she was running late, as she has often this week.
After huddling, they stalked away and held a press conference nearby, at which they reiterated North Korea would never return to multiparty talks with South Korea, Japan, Russia, China, and the United States, aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions.
For her part, Mrs. Clinton said she was encouraged by the international support for pressuring Pyongyang. Even Myanmar, she said, had responded to requests by China and other countries to track a North Korean freighter this month that American officials suspect was carrying illicit cargo.
“The international community’s response to North Korea’s actions has been unequivocal and nearly unanimous, leading to a new consensus,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference, during which she read out a lengthy statement restating the American policy on North Korea.
She said there was a commitment to carry out the sanctions foreseen in a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted after Pyongyang’s recent arms tests. Among its measures, the resolution bans weapons shipments to North Korea and seeks to squeeze the sources of financing for its nuclear and missile programs.
Mrs. Clinton singled out China, an influential neighbor, for asking officials in Myanmar to help in dealing with the North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam 1, which was steaming toward Myanmar. The vessel eventually turned around on is own and she called China’s pressure a “proximate cause.”
She said she would discuss further steps in pressing North Korea with senior Chinese officials during consultations with China next week in Washington. Mrs. Clinton is co-chairing the strategic and economic dialogue with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.
The United States has talked to China and other countries about a package of incentives, including economic and energy aid, which could be offered to North Korea in return for dismantling its nuclear program.
But even before Thursday’s vitriolic statements from North Korea, American officials said they were more focused for now on inflicting pain on Pyongyang than on luring it back to the bargaining table.
“We are not interested in half measures,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We have no desire to pursue protracted negotiations that will only lead us right back to where we have already been.”
Mrs. Clinton said the Koreans had been intransigent in their public statements during the conference. Other senior American officials said the tone of the North’s statements was openly hostile.
Still, Mrs. Clinton may have contributed to the chilly atmosphere in her remarks just before the meeting. “Maybe it’s the mother in me,” she said to ABC News, “the experience I’ve had with small children and teenagers and people who are demanding attention: Don’t give it to them.”
*****************************************************
U.S. Can Thwart Any North Korea Threat, Keating Says
By Jeff Bliss and Tony Capaccio
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is “not alarmed” by recent missile launches and military activity by North Korea and could counter any threat from the reclusive regime, the commander of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region said today.
“We have the capability to defend the U.S.” in case of attack, Admiral Timothy Keating said in an interview in Washington.
North Korea launched a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile in April in what the country said was an attempt to put a satellite in orbit. The first stage of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan, while a second stage landed in the Pacific Ocean, according to Japan. Keating said he saw no evidence that North Korea is planning another long-range missile launch. North Korea could surprise the U.S., “but I think it’s unlikely,” he said.
U.S. officials have been focusing more attention on the danger of North Korea selling nuclear technology to other countries, possibly including Myanmar’s military government. Keating said the U.S. Navy is prepared to track and inspect any North Korean vessel suspected of carrying such cargo, using new authority granted by the United Nations Security Council.
Army General Walter Sharp, the top commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, said on July 14 a North Korean ship suspected of carrying weapons technology created concern before it turned back for home. Such shipments are illegal under UN Resolution 1874, passed after North Korea defied an earlier UN prohibition and detonated a nuclear device in a May 25 test.
‘United Front’
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is in Thailand to confer with Southeast Asian counterparts, said today the U.S. is concerned by reports of Myanmar and North Korea cooperating on nuclear technology. She called on Asian countries to present a “united front against that ever happening.”
China recently increased its efforts to coordinate an international response to North Korea, Keating said. “China is being more helpful today than they would have been a year ago in dealing with North Korea,” he said.
Keating touched on other issues in his command area, which stretches over half of Earth’s surface.
“We are vitally interested in the partnership” with India “and it goes beyond just military to military relationship,” Keating said. The U.S. wants to expand humanitarian and disaster relief exercises with the Indian military, he said.
India Contacts
The U.S. Pacific Command is engaging with a cross-section of Indian society, including its business leaders, Keating said.
Clinton’s announcement this week during her visit to India of an agreement allowing U.S. monitoring of defense technology sold to the country was a sign of “significant progress,” the admiral said.
Keating said last week’s suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta don’t indicate that efforts to curb terrorism in the region are flagging.
The U.S. and its allies are improving coordination and information to thwart attacks by Islamic militants, Keating said. “There is progress being made,” he said. “I’m encouraged but not satisfied.”
By Jeff Bliss and Tony Capaccio
July 22 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is “not alarmed” by recent missile launches and military activity by North Korea and could counter any threat from the reclusive regime, the commander of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region said today.
“We have the capability to defend the U.S.” in case of attack, Admiral Timothy Keating said in an interview in Washington.
North Korea launched a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile in April in what the country said was an attempt to put a satellite in orbit. The first stage of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan, while a second stage landed in the Pacific Ocean, according to Japan. Keating said he saw no evidence that North Korea is planning another long-range missile launch. North Korea could surprise the U.S., “but I think it’s unlikely,” he said.
U.S. officials have been focusing more attention on the danger of North Korea selling nuclear technology to other countries, possibly including Myanmar’s military government. Keating said the U.S. Navy is prepared to track and inspect any North Korean vessel suspected of carrying such cargo, using new authority granted by the United Nations Security Council.
Army General Walter Sharp, the top commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, said on July 14 a North Korean ship suspected of carrying weapons technology created concern before it turned back for home. Such shipments are illegal under UN Resolution 1874, passed after North Korea defied an earlier UN prohibition and detonated a nuclear device in a May 25 test.
‘United Front’
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is in Thailand to confer with Southeast Asian counterparts, said today the U.S. is concerned by reports of Myanmar and North Korea cooperating on nuclear technology. She called on Asian countries to present a “united front against that ever happening.”
China recently increased its efforts to coordinate an international response to North Korea, Keating said. “China is being more helpful today than they would have been a year ago in dealing with North Korea,” he said.
Keating touched on other issues in his command area, which stretches over half of Earth’s surface.
“We are vitally interested in the partnership” with India “and it goes beyond just military to military relationship,” Keating said. The U.S. wants to expand humanitarian and disaster relief exercises with the Indian military, he said.
India Contacts
The U.S. Pacific Command is engaging with a cross-section of Indian society, including its business leaders, Keating said.
Clinton’s announcement this week during her visit to India of an agreement allowing U.S. monitoring of defense technology sold to the country was a sign of “significant progress,” the admiral said.
Keating said last week’s suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta don’t indicate that efforts to curb terrorism in the region are flagging.
The U.S. and its allies are improving coordination and information to thwart attacks by Islamic militants, Keating said. “There is progress being made,” he said. “I’m encouraged but not satisfied.”
*****************************************************
Washington Examiner - Security conference to focus on 'two devils,' US to stress its Asian role
By: DENIS D. GRAY - Associated Press
07/23/09 10:10 AM EDT
BANGKOK — The United States is expected to trumpet its comeback onto the Asian scene after years of neglect as a major security conference tackles the seemingly intractable issues of North Korea's nuclear threat and political repression in Myanmar.
Asia's "two devils" will hold center stage at the annual Asian Regional Forum that begins Wednesday amid hopes that a united front could be forged among enough of the 27 forum members to exert meaningful pressure on North Korea and Myanmar.
Terrorism may also feature, sparked by suicide bombings Friday at American-owned luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital Jakarta that left eight people dead and wounded more than 50 others. The bombings ended a four-year lull in attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
"The presence of Asian countries, especially China, may help the U.S. communicate its concern more effectively to North Korea. Even if there is no breakthrough, this is a good opportunity to have a discussion that goes beyond condemnation," says Chaiwat Khamchoo, an international relations expert at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
The United States, represented by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will join foreign ministers of Asian nations, plus Russia and the European Union. North Korea is sending a lower-level official to the meeting on the Thai resort island of Phuket.
Security also looms as a concern at the conference itself and an anxious Thai government has dispatched some 10,000 security forces to Phuket to insure that the upcoming international conference is not disrupted.
An Asian summit in April at the Thai seaside resort of Pattaya was shut down when protesters seeking the ouster of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government overran the hotel where the meeting was taking place. Regional leaders and delegates fled the venue by helicopter and speedboat.
The 15-year-old forum is likely to see declarations of stepped-up U.S. involvement in Asia. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel recently told reporters in Washington that Clinton would stress how focused the U.S. administration is on improving its relationship with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN foreign ministers are holding a two-day meeting this weekend before the forum begins.
"We have started by reinvigorating our bedrock alliances, which did fray in recent years," she said in a recent speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. "We are both a trans-Atlantic and a trans-Pacific nation."
She cited strengthening bilateral relations with Japan, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as trans-Pacific institutions. She is in India prior to the Thailand conference.
The Thai hosts say Clinton will probably sign ASEAN's seminal Treaty of Amity and Cooperation to which more than a dozen countries outside the bloc have already acceded.
"The U.S.'s love for the region was lost during the Bush administration. But it is not the case now that President (Barack) Obama is in power. Therefore, more active engagement with the region is anticipated," says Pavin Chachavalpongpun a political scientist at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state under President George W. Bush, skipped the forum twice in three years, and did not show up at several major ASEAN conferences.
Such renewed engagement, Pavin says, would not only prove useful as a strategy "against the two regional devils — Myanmar and North Korea — but would be good for the U.S. in the long run as it seeks to counter the growing military strength of China."
Marciel would not rule out the possibility of talks with the North Koreans at Phuket, "but at this point, there's nothing set." More likely, he said, would be bilateral meetings with China, South Korea, Russia and Japan — the other participants in stalled talks with Pyongyang aimed at ending its nuclear program.
Coming after a failed mission to Myanmar by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the conference is unlikely to budge the impoverished country's junta from pursuing the trial of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi or releasing some 2,100 other political prisoners.
But the region could move closer to a consensus on Myanmar, also known as Burma.
ASEAN, which includes Myanmar, has recently issued some sharp criticism in sharp contrast to its earlier soft-pedaling, and even China, Myanmar's closest ally, has backed the U.N.'s call for Suu Kyi's release.
The U.S. delegation at the forum may well seek counsel from Asian countries as the Obama administration pursues a review of its Myanmar policy which began in February.
Clinton and other top Obama officials have indicated that past U.S. Myanmar policy, grounded in tough economic sanctions, has not yielded results in easing the military's iron-fisted rule.
Irrespective of what is voiced at Phuket, Suu Kyi is likely to be found guilty for violating the terms of her house arrest by harboring an uninvited American man who entered her residence. The Noble Peace Prize laureate faces up to five years in prison.
By: DENIS D. GRAY - Associated Press
07/23/09 10:10 AM EDT
BANGKOK — The United States is expected to trumpet its comeback onto the Asian scene after years of neglect as a major security conference tackles the seemingly intractable issues of North Korea's nuclear threat and political repression in Myanmar.
Asia's "two devils" will hold center stage at the annual Asian Regional Forum that begins Wednesday amid hopes that a united front could be forged among enough of the 27 forum members to exert meaningful pressure on North Korea and Myanmar.
Terrorism may also feature, sparked by suicide bombings Friday at American-owned luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital Jakarta that left eight people dead and wounded more than 50 others. The bombings ended a four-year lull in attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
"The presence of Asian countries, especially China, may help the U.S. communicate its concern more effectively to North Korea. Even if there is no breakthrough, this is a good opportunity to have a discussion that goes beyond condemnation," says Chaiwat Khamchoo, an international relations expert at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
The United States, represented by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will join foreign ministers of Asian nations, plus Russia and the European Union. North Korea is sending a lower-level official to the meeting on the Thai resort island of Phuket.
Security also looms as a concern at the conference itself and an anxious Thai government has dispatched some 10,000 security forces to Phuket to insure that the upcoming international conference is not disrupted.
An Asian summit in April at the Thai seaside resort of Pattaya was shut down when protesters seeking the ouster of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government overran the hotel where the meeting was taking place. Regional leaders and delegates fled the venue by helicopter and speedboat.
The 15-year-old forum is likely to see declarations of stepped-up U.S. involvement in Asia. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel recently told reporters in Washington that Clinton would stress how focused the U.S. administration is on improving its relationship with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN foreign ministers are holding a two-day meeting this weekend before the forum begins.
"We have started by reinvigorating our bedrock alliances, which did fray in recent years," she said in a recent speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. "We are both a trans-Atlantic and a trans-Pacific nation."
She cited strengthening bilateral relations with Japan, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as trans-Pacific institutions. She is in India prior to the Thailand conference.
The Thai hosts say Clinton will probably sign ASEAN's seminal Treaty of Amity and Cooperation to which more than a dozen countries outside the bloc have already acceded.
"The U.S.'s love for the region was lost during the Bush administration. But it is not the case now that President (Barack) Obama is in power. Therefore, more active engagement with the region is anticipated," says Pavin Chachavalpongpun a political scientist at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state under President George W. Bush, skipped the forum twice in three years, and did not show up at several major ASEAN conferences.
Such renewed engagement, Pavin says, would not only prove useful as a strategy "against the two regional devils — Myanmar and North Korea — but would be good for the U.S. in the long run as it seeks to counter the growing military strength of China."
Marciel would not rule out the possibility of talks with the North Koreans at Phuket, "but at this point, there's nothing set." More likely, he said, would be bilateral meetings with China, South Korea, Russia and Japan — the other participants in stalled talks with Pyongyang aimed at ending its nuclear program.
Coming after a failed mission to Myanmar by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the conference is unlikely to budge the impoverished country's junta from pursuing the trial of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi or releasing some 2,100 other political prisoners.
But the region could move closer to a consensus on Myanmar, also known as Burma.
ASEAN, which includes Myanmar, has recently issued some sharp criticism in sharp contrast to its earlier soft-pedaling, and even China, Myanmar's closest ally, has backed the U.N.'s call for Suu Kyi's release.
The U.S. delegation at the forum may well seek counsel from Asian countries as the Obama administration pursues a review of its Myanmar policy which began in February.
Clinton and other top Obama officials have indicated that past U.S. Myanmar policy, grounded in tough economic sanctions, has not yielded results in easing the military's iron-fisted rule.
Irrespective of what is voiced at Phuket, Suu Kyi is likely to be found guilty for violating the terms of her house arrest by harboring an uninvited American man who entered her residence. The Noble Peace Prize laureate faces up to five years in prison.
*****************************************************
Nepal seeks resumption of direct air link with Myanmar
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-23 11:41:06
YANGON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Nepal is seeking resumption of direct air link with Myanmar in a bid to promote tourism between the two countries over two decades after such direct link was suspended, the local Yangon Times reported Thursday.
The move would strengthen the two countries' bilateral friendship and introduce Nepal to Myanmar, sources with the Nepali Embassy was quoted as saying.
Myanmar and Nepal once established direct air link in 1970 but due to the internal affairs of Nepal, the direct flight between the two countries was halted in 1988.
In February 2001, Nepali Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola visited Myanmar and had discussions with his then Myanmar counterpart U Win Aung on maintenance of friendly relations between the two countries and mutual cooperation.
There were almost no economic and trade activities between the two countries except maintenance of cultural exchange.
Nepal, along with Bhutan, joined the seven-member Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in 2004 as the last two members of the grouping, the five original members being Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand sharing the Bay of Bengal.
The BIMSTEC, first founded in 1997, is aimed at promoting multi-sectoral cooperation for economic and social progress of the region.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-23 11:41:06
YANGON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Nepal is seeking resumption of direct air link with Myanmar in a bid to promote tourism between the two countries over two decades after such direct link was suspended, the local Yangon Times reported Thursday.
The move would strengthen the two countries' bilateral friendship and introduce Nepal to Myanmar, sources with the Nepali Embassy was quoted as saying.
Myanmar and Nepal once established direct air link in 1970 but due to the internal affairs of Nepal, the direct flight between the two countries was halted in 1988.
In February 2001, Nepali Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola visited Myanmar and had discussions with his then Myanmar counterpart U Win Aung on maintenance of friendly relations between the two countries and mutual cooperation.
There were almost no economic and trade activities between the two countries except maintenance of cultural exchange.
Nepal, along with Bhutan, joined the seven-member Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in 2004 as the last two members of the grouping, the five original members being Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand sharing the Bay of Bengal.
The BIMSTEC, first founded in 1997, is aimed at promoting multi-sectoral cooperation for economic and social progress of the region.
*****************************************************
Japanese fashion show to be held in Myanmar next month
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-23 15:20:31
YANGON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A Japanese fashion show, featuring Japan-Mekong culture exchange program, will be held in former capital of Yangon next month, sources with the Japanese embassy said on Thursday.
The fashion show, highlighting Japanese life style and culture, is jointly organized by the designer Junko Koshino, Japan foundation and the Japanese embassy.
The show is scheduled to hold on Aug. 23 at the Strand Hotel, the sources said.
Another Japan-Mekong cultural exchange year program of Ekabana flower decoration show, Karatedo, Judo and Ikido demonstration shows will also be held in the second largest city of Mandalay on Aug. 28, it added.
Meanwhile, Myanmar non-professional directors have been invited to take part in a Mekong three-minute short film contest, which was prescribed the participants must be under 25 years and designated to be shot by home video cameras.
The other five Mekong member countries of China, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam are also invited to join the event.
The 20 winners' video feature films will be shown as part of the program of the Children Day Festival in Kagoshima, Japan scheduled for Dec. 5 this year.
Moreover, Myanmar professional photographers have also been invited to take part in Mekong photo contest, organized by the Mekong Tourism Coordination Office (MTCO).
Under the title of "Explore Mekong", the contest aimed at exploring the beauty and culture of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), boosting the region's tourism sector as well as enhancing the world's impression over the cultural heritage of the GMS member countries.
The GMS-Economic Cooperation has worked out a plan for development of tourism as part of its economic cooperation in the sub region, designating the year 2009-2010 as GMS tourism year.
Under the Japan-Mekong exchange year program, music concert, film festival, get-together party, and Japanese speech contest have also been introduced every month since January this year.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-23 15:20:31
YANGON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- A Japanese fashion show, featuring Japan-Mekong culture exchange program, will be held in former capital of Yangon next month, sources with the Japanese embassy said on Thursday.
The fashion show, highlighting Japanese life style and culture, is jointly organized by the designer Junko Koshino, Japan foundation and the Japanese embassy.
The show is scheduled to hold on Aug. 23 at the Strand Hotel, the sources said.
Another Japan-Mekong cultural exchange year program of Ekabana flower decoration show, Karatedo, Judo and Ikido demonstration shows will also be held in the second largest city of Mandalay on Aug. 28, it added.
Meanwhile, Myanmar non-professional directors have been invited to take part in a Mekong three-minute short film contest, which was prescribed the participants must be under 25 years and designated to be shot by home video cameras.
The other five Mekong member countries of China, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam are also invited to join the event.
The 20 winners' video feature films will be shown as part of the program of the Children Day Festival in Kagoshima, Japan scheduled for Dec. 5 this year.
Moreover, Myanmar professional photographers have also been invited to take part in Mekong photo contest, organized by the Mekong Tourism Coordination Office (MTCO).
Under the title of "Explore Mekong", the contest aimed at exploring the beauty and culture of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), boosting the region's tourism sector as well as enhancing the world's impression over the cultural heritage of the GMS member countries.
The GMS-Economic Cooperation has worked out a plan for development of tourism as part of its economic cooperation in the sub region, designating the year 2009-2010 as GMS tourism year.
Under the Japan-Mekong exchange year program, music concert, film festival, get-together party, and Japanese speech contest have also been introduced every month since January this year.
*****************************************************
The Lady should be for turning
Jul 23rd 2009
From The Economist print edition
Aung San Suu Kyi is remarkable. But Myanmar’s problems are more than just those of democracy denied
JULY 20th marked the 20th anniversary of the day when military rulers first placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. The leader of Myanmar’s democracy movement has since spent more than 13 years detained at home or, as now, in a Yangon prison. She awaits the verdict of a sham trial in which she was charged with breaking the terms of her detention after an uninvited American, a nut, swam across to her lakeside home. Miss Suu Kyi plays a long game. But so does the military. It seized power in 1962. It has used force to put down two extraordinarily brave sets of pro-democracy protests, in 1988 and 2007. And it has ignored the result of free elections in 1990, convincingly won by Miss Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
Miss Suu Kyi, 64 and frail, has not wavered in her call for the junta to respect the election result and free what are now thought to be 2,100 political prisoners. She has long argued for countries to apply pressure by forbidding companies to trade with Myanmar or invest in it. The West has responded with sanctions regimes. Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, recently called for even tougher financial measures against Myanmar.
There is no doubting Miss Suu Kyi’s courage. A decade ago she turned down the generals’ offer to leave the country (presumably, for good) to care for her dying husband. She never saw him again. Two sons have not seen their mother for years. Miss Suu Kyi’s moral stature puts her on a level with other imprisoned or exiled symbols of quiet resistance, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. She keeps democratic hopes alive in Myanmar; and around the world she inspires campaigners for freedom in the face of thuggish regimes. Elegant and dignified, she is the person any engaged liberal at Harvard or Oxford most wants to invite to dinner but can’t. This year garden parties at British embassies celebrating the Queen’s birthday were decorated with portraits of Miss Suu Kyi. At the embassy in Jakarta, a picture of her is projected onto an outside wall. She is, literally, democracy’s poster girl.
For weeks the military regime has delayed pronouncing a verdict in its trial, perhaps so as not to embarrass fellow members of the ten-country Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), meeting for its annual summit this week in Thailand. Yet few doubt but that Miss Suu Kyi will be put away for even longer. Her house, which has become a shrine to the democracy movement’s living deity, may be confiscated and razed. Myanmar’s leaders have called for elections next year, but on terms that ensure the military is the force behind civilian rule. Having Miss Suu Kyi to stand and fight is not part of the programme.
An even longer game, then, for Miss Suu Kyi and her supporters. But is it the right one? A growing body of opinion thinks not. It follows a tedious ritual. The world calls for freedom and democracy. The United Nations dispatches a representative to Yangon. He is fobbed off. The Lady continues in detention. The UN’s most recent big cheese was none other than the secretary-general. Ban Ki-moon left Yangon earlier this month without being allowed to meet Miss Suu Kyi.
This costs more than just wasted journeys. Myanmar is rich in natural gas, timber and gems. China and India, strategic rivals to east and west, chummy up to the junta. The Burmese elite has second homes and bank accounts in Thailand. Russia sells the generals arms, as does China, and both provide cover for the generals on the Security Council. So Myanmar does now in fact engage with the world—but its engagement takes the ugly form of a rapacious capitalism with amoral partners. Hillary Clinton, on her first trip to Asia as secretary of state, admitted that isolation “hasn’t influenced the junta”. An American review of Myanmar policy is under way, but official silence over Miss Suu Kyi’s trial hints at a certain confusion. Because there is no engagement, America’s soft power has no traction.
Worse, everyone from the UN down views Myanmar through the lens of democracy above all else—even development. For a desperate country with shocking rates of disease and mortality such a priority is dubious at best, shameful at worst. If nothing else, it fails to acknowledge how development can improve local governance. In the Irrawaddy delta in the wake of cyclone Nargis, which struck last year killing 140,000, deciding how humanitarian aid should be spent has increased civic participation and local autonomy in the face of an uncaring regime. Yet apart from Japan, official aid levels to Myanmar are pitiful compared even with other poor countries.
Icon or obstacle?
Lastly, depicting Myanmar as a kind of velvet revolution gone wrong, as Thant Myint-U, a historian of Burma, points out, is to ignore a big part of the picture. The paranoid regime’s inward-looking cast is conditioned by centuries of invasions, among them by the British and, after independence in 1948, by American-backed Chinese Nationalists. Since independence, the military has faced dozens of communist and ethnic insurgencies. It is true that since the 1990s, ceasefires have been signed in all but two. But independent Burma did not emerge as a unified state and, under early democratic rule, insurgencies flourished. The remaining conflicts, financed by drugs trafficking, are the longest-running wars in the world. They cannot simply be ignored.
Sanctions have helped bring about no democratic transition in Asia—on the contrary. So imagine if the West reversed policy, dropped sanctions and pursued engagement. The generals have already looked at the development paths blazed by China and Vietnam and said they want to follow. In comparison to the regimes in those two countries, Myanmar’s badly lacks legitimacy. So Mr Thant says that development could bring about swift changes to the political landscape, as eventually happened in Indonesia. Development, in other words, could be the fastest path to democracy. Will the courageous Lady admit as much?
Jul 23rd 2009
From The Economist print edition
Aung San Suu Kyi is remarkable. But Myanmar’s problems are more than just those of democracy denied
JULY 20th marked the 20th anniversary of the day when military rulers first placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. The leader of Myanmar’s democracy movement has since spent more than 13 years detained at home or, as now, in a Yangon prison. She awaits the verdict of a sham trial in which she was charged with breaking the terms of her detention after an uninvited American, a nut, swam across to her lakeside home. Miss Suu Kyi plays a long game. But so does the military. It seized power in 1962. It has used force to put down two extraordinarily brave sets of pro-democracy protests, in 1988 and 2007. And it has ignored the result of free elections in 1990, convincingly won by Miss Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
Miss Suu Kyi, 64 and frail, has not wavered in her call for the junta to respect the election result and free what are now thought to be 2,100 political prisoners. She has long argued for countries to apply pressure by forbidding companies to trade with Myanmar or invest in it. The West has responded with sanctions regimes. Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, recently called for even tougher financial measures against Myanmar.
There is no doubting Miss Suu Kyi’s courage. A decade ago she turned down the generals’ offer to leave the country (presumably, for good) to care for her dying husband. She never saw him again. Two sons have not seen their mother for years. Miss Suu Kyi’s moral stature puts her on a level with other imprisoned or exiled symbols of quiet resistance, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. She keeps democratic hopes alive in Myanmar; and around the world she inspires campaigners for freedom in the face of thuggish regimes. Elegant and dignified, she is the person any engaged liberal at Harvard or Oxford most wants to invite to dinner but can’t. This year garden parties at British embassies celebrating the Queen’s birthday were decorated with portraits of Miss Suu Kyi. At the embassy in Jakarta, a picture of her is projected onto an outside wall. She is, literally, democracy’s poster girl.
For weeks the military regime has delayed pronouncing a verdict in its trial, perhaps so as not to embarrass fellow members of the ten-country Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), meeting for its annual summit this week in Thailand. Yet few doubt but that Miss Suu Kyi will be put away for even longer. Her house, which has become a shrine to the democracy movement’s living deity, may be confiscated and razed. Myanmar’s leaders have called for elections next year, but on terms that ensure the military is the force behind civilian rule. Having Miss Suu Kyi to stand and fight is not part of the programme.
An even longer game, then, for Miss Suu Kyi and her supporters. But is it the right one? A growing body of opinion thinks not. It follows a tedious ritual. The world calls for freedom and democracy. The United Nations dispatches a representative to Yangon. He is fobbed off. The Lady continues in detention. The UN’s most recent big cheese was none other than the secretary-general. Ban Ki-moon left Yangon earlier this month without being allowed to meet Miss Suu Kyi.
This costs more than just wasted journeys. Myanmar is rich in natural gas, timber and gems. China and India, strategic rivals to east and west, chummy up to the junta. The Burmese elite has second homes and bank accounts in Thailand. Russia sells the generals arms, as does China, and both provide cover for the generals on the Security Council. So Myanmar does now in fact engage with the world—but its engagement takes the ugly form of a rapacious capitalism with amoral partners. Hillary Clinton, on her first trip to Asia as secretary of state, admitted that isolation “hasn’t influenced the junta”. An American review of Myanmar policy is under way, but official silence over Miss Suu Kyi’s trial hints at a certain confusion. Because there is no engagement, America’s soft power has no traction.
Worse, everyone from the UN down views Myanmar through the lens of democracy above all else—even development. For a desperate country with shocking rates of disease and mortality such a priority is dubious at best, shameful at worst. If nothing else, it fails to acknowledge how development can improve local governance. In the Irrawaddy delta in the wake of cyclone Nargis, which struck last year killing 140,000, deciding how humanitarian aid should be spent has increased civic participation and local autonomy in the face of an uncaring regime. Yet apart from Japan, official aid levels to Myanmar are pitiful compared even with other poor countries.
Icon or obstacle?
Lastly, depicting Myanmar as a kind of velvet revolution gone wrong, as Thant Myint-U, a historian of Burma, points out, is to ignore a big part of the picture. The paranoid regime’s inward-looking cast is conditioned by centuries of invasions, among them by the British and, after independence in 1948, by American-backed Chinese Nationalists. Since independence, the military has faced dozens of communist and ethnic insurgencies. It is true that since the 1990s, ceasefires have been signed in all but two. But independent Burma did not emerge as a unified state and, under early democratic rule, insurgencies flourished. The remaining conflicts, financed by drugs trafficking, are the longest-running wars in the world. They cannot simply be ignored.
Sanctions have helped bring about no democratic transition in Asia—on the contrary. So imagine if the West reversed policy, dropped sanctions and pursued engagement. The generals have already looked at the development paths blazed by China and Vietnam and said they want to follow. In comparison to the regimes in those two countries, Myanmar’s badly lacks legitimacy. So Mr Thant says that development could bring about swift changes to the political landscape, as eventually happened in Indonesia. Development, in other words, could be the fastest path to democracy. Will the courageous Lady admit as much?
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July 23, 2009 23:07 PM
Malaysia Asks Asean To Set Up Development Fund For Myanmar
By D. Arul Rajoo
PHUKET, July 23 (Bernama) -- Malaysia said Thursday it was time for Asean to engage directly with the Myanmar leadership and set up a development fund to assist the country, instead of just asking it to free political prisoners and embark on the path to democracy.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman said the issue of Myanmar had been raised time after time at regional meetings in the past one decade, including by almost every participant at the gathering of 26 countries and the European Union (EU) at the 16th Asean Regional Forum (ARF) here, but little change had taken place there.
He suggested instead that the 10-member Asean take the initiative to engage with the country's military leadership by either nominating an envoy, tasking a country such as the current Asean chair Thailand, or setting up a working group to come with an incentive package, combined with a road map towards democracy.
Citing the post-Cyclone Nargis efforts established by the United Nations, Asean and the Myanmar government to help the 2.4 million victims of the disaster since May 2008, Anifah said Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan could be given the task.
"Indonesia and Singapore pointed out that Myanmar is the least developed country in Asean. I told my counterparts we have to do something to help Myanmar, such as giving aid to build infrastructure or for agriculture ... but some felt that we should not be too ambitious," he said after attending the ARF meeting, here.
This, he said, was better than continuing with sanctions or merely asking the military junta to release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, an effort futile so far.
According to him, Malaysia also emphasised that Asean needed to understand the situation in Myanmar better and play a more prominent role in assisting the country in its process of democratisation and economic development in line with Malaysia's "prosper thy neighbour" policy.
Anifah said attaching conditions to aid offered to Myanmar would not help the country, and pointed to the post-Cyclone Nargis reconstruction effort where only US$100 million has been raised so far by the international community out of the required US$691 million as the United States, the EU and Japan wanted Suu Kyi to be released first.
Myanmar has become a sticky issue for Asean since it joined the grouping in 1997, especially with the continued detention of Suu Kyi and her ongoing trial for "harbouring" an American while under house arrest.
Early this month, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon visited Myanmar but was not allowed to meet Suu Kyi.
"Once development reaches the people, the Myanmar government would be in a better position and more confident to face voters in the general election, as well as address the issue of illegal immigrants and the Rohingya minorities," Anifah said.
He did not rule out the possibility of bringing up the proposal to set up the fund at the 15th Asean Summit here in October.
Malaysia Asks Asean To Set Up Development Fund For Myanmar
By D. Arul Rajoo
PHUKET, July 23 (Bernama) -- Malaysia said Thursday it was time for Asean to engage directly with the Myanmar leadership and set up a development fund to assist the country, instead of just asking it to free political prisoners and embark on the path to democracy.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman said the issue of Myanmar had been raised time after time at regional meetings in the past one decade, including by almost every participant at the gathering of 26 countries and the European Union (EU) at the 16th Asean Regional Forum (ARF) here, but little change had taken place there.
He suggested instead that the 10-member Asean take the initiative to engage with the country's military leadership by either nominating an envoy, tasking a country such as the current Asean chair Thailand, or setting up a working group to come with an incentive package, combined with a road map towards democracy.
Citing the post-Cyclone Nargis efforts established by the United Nations, Asean and the Myanmar government to help the 2.4 million victims of the disaster since May 2008, Anifah said Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan could be given the task.
"Indonesia and Singapore pointed out that Myanmar is the least developed country in Asean. I told my counterparts we have to do something to help Myanmar, such as giving aid to build infrastructure or for agriculture ... but some felt that we should not be too ambitious," he said after attending the ARF meeting, here.
This, he said, was better than continuing with sanctions or merely asking the military junta to release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, an effort futile so far.
According to him, Malaysia also emphasised that Asean needed to understand the situation in Myanmar better and play a more prominent role in assisting the country in its process of democratisation and economic development in line with Malaysia's "prosper thy neighbour" policy.
Anifah said attaching conditions to aid offered to Myanmar would not help the country, and pointed to the post-Cyclone Nargis reconstruction effort where only US$100 million has been raised so far by the international community out of the required US$691 million as the United States, the EU and Japan wanted Suu Kyi to be released first.
Myanmar has become a sticky issue for Asean since it joined the grouping in 1997, especially with the continued detention of Suu Kyi and her ongoing trial for "harbouring" an American while under house arrest.
Early this month, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon visited Myanmar but was not allowed to meet Suu Kyi.
"Once development reaches the people, the Myanmar government would be in a better position and more confident to face voters in the general election, as well as address the issue of illegal immigrants and the Rohingya minorities," Anifah said.
He did not rule out the possibility of bringing up the proposal to set up the fund at the 15th Asean Summit here in October.
*****************************************************
The Business Mirror - Editorial: How about Burma?
Thursday, 23 July 2009 21:51
SEVERAL months ago, while speaking to a close relative of former President Cory Aquino, a journalist asked that relative at the other end of the line to tell the widely admired leader to “fight on, stay alive,” because, the editor quipped, “the Burmese junta is still very much in power and your friend, Aung San Suu Kyi, is still in prison.”
The relative said Mrs. Aquino, who a few years ago delivered a very strong speech in support of the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate at a global forum, weakly smiled.
On hindsight, the burden of helping the eternally beleaguered pro-democracy leader of the Southeast Asian nation should not rest on individuals like Mrs. Aquino—powerful though they may be in their voice and resolve—but on the neighbors of Burma, who have already formalized their Charter after four decades of existence, with much attention given to a human-rights mechanism to resolve issues raised by citizens of the 10 member-states. As expected, much of the debates since the efforts began to craft the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) charter had focused on Burma—where deepening, widespread poverty despite an abundance of natural resources underscores the perils of living under unelected leaders like the junta.
Ironically, while senior Asean ministers and their dialogue partners met recently in Phuket, Burma was once more drawing attention to itself—not just because of its insistence to let Ms. Suu Kyi undergo another sham trial for a ridiculous charge that could land her in prison for another five years, but because it has become increasingly clear that the junta, desperate to maintain its leverage, was cooperating militarily with North Korea.
What did the world expect from a regime that has been accused of using child and slave labor for megaprojects that benefited only the elite in the military and their cronies; of wholesale marginalization of ethnic tribes; of hijacking a fragile democracy by refusing Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy to sit in parliament despite winning by landslide the 1990 elections?
Much of the hubris of the junta owes to its knowledge that the most its own Asean partners can do is give it a mild slap on the wrist for even the most serious rights violations, because, despite the creation of the regional bloc’s human-rights body, non-interference will remain the basic policy.
It also draws strength from knowing that, despite its bad-boy image, the countries and companies that gain so much from exploiting its vast resources will keep propping it up no matter what everyone else says.
Since its founding almost 42 years ago, Asean’s gravest challenges have been in the sphere of human rights, according to activist groups. Among its members, Asean counts one absolute monarchy, one dictatorship and two communist states.
They hope, albeit with guarded optimism, that slowly but surely the human-rights envelope can be pushed farther after the adoption of the terms of reference for the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, which paves the way for the formal launch of the rights body late this year during the Asean Summit.
Will the regional body finally find a way to undo the long years of neglect and damage from just a simple constructive engagement? The Burmese hope so. As Ms. Suu Kyi’s poignant chapter title in a book on Burma put it so well, “Our time will come.” It’s for her we all must pray for as well.
Thursday, 23 July 2009 21:51
SEVERAL months ago, while speaking to a close relative of former President Cory Aquino, a journalist asked that relative at the other end of the line to tell the widely admired leader to “fight on, stay alive,” because, the editor quipped, “the Burmese junta is still very much in power and your friend, Aung San Suu Kyi, is still in prison.”
The relative said Mrs. Aquino, who a few years ago delivered a very strong speech in support of the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate at a global forum, weakly smiled.
On hindsight, the burden of helping the eternally beleaguered pro-democracy leader of the Southeast Asian nation should not rest on individuals like Mrs. Aquino—powerful though they may be in their voice and resolve—but on the neighbors of Burma, who have already formalized their Charter after four decades of existence, with much attention given to a human-rights mechanism to resolve issues raised by citizens of the 10 member-states. As expected, much of the debates since the efforts began to craft the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) charter had focused on Burma—where deepening, widespread poverty despite an abundance of natural resources underscores the perils of living under unelected leaders like the junta.
Ironically, while senior Asean ministers and their dialogue partners met recently in Phuket, Burma was once more drawing attention to itself—not just because of its insistence to let Ms. Suu Kyi undergo another sham trial for a ridiculous charge that could land her in prison for another five years, but because it has become increasingly clear that the junta, desperate to maintain its leverage, was cooperating militarily with North Korea.
What did the world expect from a regime that has been accused of using child and slave labor for megaprojects that benefited only the elite in the military and their cronies; of wholesale marginalization of ethnic tribes; of hijacking a fragile democracy by refusing Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy to sit in parliament despite winning by landslide the 1990 elections?
Much of the hubris of the junta owes to its knowledge that the most its own Asean partners can do is give it a mild slap on the wrist for even the most serious rights violations, because, despite the creation of the regional bloc’s human-rights body, non-interference will remain the basic policy.
It also draws strength from knowing that, despite its bad-boy image, the countries and companies that gain so much from exploiting its vast resources will keep propping it up no matter what everyone else says.
Since its founding almost 42 years ago, Asean’s gravest challenges have been in the sphere of human rights, according to activist groups. Among its members, Asean counts one absolute monarchy, one dictatorship and two communist states.
They hope, albeit with guarded optimism, that slowly but surely the human-rights envelope can be pushed farther after the adoption of the terms of reference for the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, which paves the way for the formal launch of the rights body late this year during the Asean Summit.
Will the regional body finally find a way to undo the long years of neglect and damage from just a simple constructive engagement? The Burmese hope so. As Ms. Suu Kyi’s poignant chapter title in a book on Burma put it so well, “Our time will come.” It’s for her we all must pray for as well.
*****************************************************
Vietnam, Myanmar hold annual political consultation
10:08' 23/07/2009 (GMT+7)
VietNamNet Bridge - The fifth annual political consultation between the two foreign ministries of Vietnam and Myanmar was held in Nay Pyi Taw the capital of Myanmar on July 20-21.
The Vietnamese delegation was headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dao Viet Trung and the Myanmar delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint.
Both sides agreed that the sixth consultation will be held in Vietnam in 2010. Their political consultation aimed to strengthen the traditional friendship and mutual trust between the two countries, as well as between the two ministries.
During his time in Myanmar, Deputy Minister Trung met with the Myanmar Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Htay OO and Minister of National Planning and Economic Development Thurein Zaw.
The two sides will step up visits, exchange experiences between the ministries and other organisations, strengthen economic, trade and investment co-operation and encourage businesses from both countries to co-operate in agriculture, forestry, fish-farms, energy, oil and gas, telecommunications, tourism and training.
They agreed to boost coordination and co-operation in ASEAN as well as in other international forums, such as the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), the Ayeyawady - Chao Phraya - Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) and other international forums.
10:08' 23/07/2009 (GMT+7)
VietNamNet Bridge - The fifth annual political consultation between the two foreign ministries of Vietnam and Myanmar was held in Nay Pyi Taw the capital of Myanmar on July 20-21.
The Vietnamese delegation was headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dao Viet Trung and the Myanmar delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint.
Both sides agreed that the sixth consultation will be held in Vietnam in 2010. Their political consultation aimed to strengthen the traditional friendship and mutual trust between the two countries, as well as between the two ministries.
During his time in Myanmar, Deputy Minister Trung met with the Myanmar Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Htay OO and Minister of National Planning and Economic Development Thurein Zaw.
The two sides will step up visits, exchange experiences between the ministries and other organisations, strengthen economic, trade and investment co-operation and encourage businesses from both countries to co-operate in agriculture, forestry, fish-farms, energy, oil and gas, telecommunications, tourism and training.
They agreed to boost coordination and co-operation in ASEAN as well as in other international forums, such as the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), the Ayeyawady - Chao Phraya - Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) and other international forums.
*****************************************************
The Nation - ARF offers to help Burma promote democracy
Published, July 23, 2009
Phuket - The Asean Regional Forum (ARF) Thursday offered to help Burma promote democracy, human rights and the wellbeing of its people but stopped short of mentioning the controversy involving Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Asean as well as members of the ARF would like to work with Myanmar and are ready to assist Myanmar in its efforts to promote democracy, human rights and wellbeing of her people," said Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, calling Burma by its new name given by the military regime.
"We have asked the Myanmar foreign minister to convey this sentiment to the Myanmar leadership. It was hoped that Myanmar would also be responsive to the international community's concerns," said Kasit, in his capacity as chairman of the 16th Asean Regional Forum, which concluded Thursday.
Published, July 23, 2009
Phuket - The Asean Regional Forum (ARF) Thursday offered to help Burma promote democracy, human rights and the wellbeing of its people but stopped short of mentioning the controversy involving Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Asean as well as members of the ARF would like to work with Myanmar and are ready to assist Myanmar in its efforts to promote democracy, human rights and wellbeing of her people," said Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, calling Burma by its new name given by the military regime.
"We have asked the Myanmar foreign minister to convey this sentiment to the Myanmar leadership. It was hoped that Myanmar would also be responsive to the international community's concerns," said Kasit, in his capacity as chairman of the 16th Asean Regional Forum, which concluded Thursday.
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VOA News - ASEAN Meetings End With Promises of Closer Integration
By Daniel Schearf - Phuket, Thailand
23 July 2009
The annual gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its dialogue partners has ended with host Thailand saying it will lead to greater regional integration. But on two regional issues - Burma and North Korea - very little was accomplished.
At the end of four days of meetings between ASEAN and its key partners, Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said the delegates agreed on key issues.
He said the agreements would pave the way for a more effective and rules-based ASEAN and better regional cooperation.
"Cooperation will continue to be enhanced so that ASEAN can respond more effectively to all pressing challenges, be it in financial and economic crisis, food and energy security and pandemic diseases," said Kasit.
He said ASEAN welcomed the renewed American commitment to the region after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation.
Kasit also said the ASEAN's agreement to form the group's first human rights body would serve as a platform to promote and protect rights.
The rights body will have no power to punish violators, but is expected to develop more authority in the future.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said many of the 27 governments represented at the meetings brought up concerns about North Korea and Burma, also known as Myanmar.
Burma has put democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest and may jail her for up to five years. The military government has more than 2,000 political prisoners.
North Korea is refusing to negotiate an end to its nuclear programs.
Smith said although both countries stubbornly ignore the international community's wishes, the foreign ministers made their message clear.
"This international community pressure adds weight and does put pressure on both those countries," said Smith. "And, what we now want to see on both fronts is a response to that, both in terms of North Korea engaging in the six-party talks and the Myanmar authorities allowing Aung San Suu Kyi to take part fully in an election process."
China's Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi said the six-party talks, which involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the U.S., should not be ruled out entirely.
"Although the talks have come across some difficulties, one must not ignore the fact that major progress was achieved some time ago so one should take a long-term and strategic point of view and work for the early resumption of the Six Party Talks," said China stays in close touch with all the parties concerned because this is a good cause, this is a very important cause," said Yang.
North Korea's spokesman at the meetings declared the talks to end its nuclear programs "dead" and blamed Washington for what it called a "hostile" policy.
By Daniel Schearf - Phuket, Thailand
23 July 2009
The annual gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its dialogue partners has ended with host Thailand saying it will lead to greater regional integration. But on two regional issues - Burma and North Korea - very little was accomplished.
At the end of four days of meetings between ASEAN and its key partners, Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said the delegates agreed on key issues.
He said the agreements would pave the way for a more effective and rules-based ASEAN and better regional cooperation.
"Cooperation will continue to be enhanced so that ASEAN can respond more effectively to all pressing challenges, be it in financial and economic crisis, food and energy security and pandemic diseases," said Kasit.
He said ASEAN welcomed the renewed American commitment to the region after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation.
Kasit also said the ASEAN's agreement to form the group's first human rights body would serve as a platform to promote and protect rights.
The rights body will have no power to punish violators, but is expected to develop more authority in the future.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said many of the 27 governments represented at the meetings brought up concerns about North Korea and Burma, also known as Myanmar.
Burma has put democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest and may jail her for up to five years. The military government has more than 2,000 political prisoners.
North Korea is refusing to negotiate an end to its nuclear programs.
Smith said although both countries stubbornly ignore the international community's wishes, the foreign ministers made their message clear.
"This international community pressure adds weight and does put pressure on both those countries," said Smith. "And, what we now want to see on both fronts is a response to that, both in terms of North Korea engaging in the six-party talks and the Myanmar authorities allowing Aung San Suu Kyi to take part fully in an election process."
China's Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi said the six-party talks, which involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the U.S., should not be ruled out entirely.
"Although the talks have come across some difficulties, one must not ignore the fact that major progress was achieved some time ago so one should take a long-term and strategic point of view and work for the early resumption of the Six Party Talks," said China stays in close touch with all the parties concerned because this is a good cause, this is a very important cause," said Yang.
North Korea's spokesman at the meetings declared the talks to end its nuclear programs "dead" and blamed Washington for what it called a "hostile" policy.
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The Irrawaddy - US Offer Won’t Lead to Suu Kyi’s Freedom: Opposition Leaders
By SAW YAN NAING - Thursday, July 23, 2009
Opposition leaders on Thursday expressed doubt that a US offer of economic investment in Burma in return for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from prison would lead to the pro-democracy leader’s freedom.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday in Phuket, Thailand, that the US would expand relations with Burma if the military government released opposition leader Suu Kyi, who is now on trial.
“If she [Suu Kyi] were released, that would open up opportunities, at least for my country, to expand our relationship with Burma, including investments in Burma. But it is up to the Burmese leadership,” Clinton said while attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Burmese political opposition leaders urged the military regime to consider the offer as a way to encourage national reconciliation.
Khin Maung Swe, a spokesperson for Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), said that Clinton’s statement shows how much the international community supports the release of the detained opposition leader, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.
If the Burmese generals followed up on the US offer, it would be a win-win situation with both Burma and the US benefiting from better economic and diplomatic cooperation between the two countries, said Khin Maung Swe.
“The Burmese generals should consider this carefully,” he said.
He said regional leaders should not only talk but also take actions to bring the Burmese regime to the “table of negotiation.”
Win Tin, the most prominent Burmese opposition politician after Suu Kyi, told The Irrawaddy that the Clinton’s statement displayed the weakness of US policy on Burma.
“What about reconciliation dialogue, the election [in 2010] and ethnic issues?” Win Tin asked. “Don’t they know that they would detain her again?”
Win Tin himself spent 19 years in prison and was unexpectedly released late last year.
Chan Htun, a Rangoon-based, veteran politician and former ambassador to China, said Clinton’s statement was positive.
“I would like to urge the Burmese generals to seriously consider the future of the country and cooperate with the offer,” Chan Htun said. “But, that’s only my wish. The Burmese regime will do whatever it wants and will listen to nobody.”
He said he doesn’t believe Burma’s No 1 general, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, will consider the offer.
A prominent Mon politician, Nai Ngwe Thein, who is vice president (1) of the Mon National Democratic Front in Mon State in southern Burma, said, “It is a good offer. But, I don’t think they [the generals] will follow up on it.”
At a press conference on Wednesday, Clinton said the US is seriously concerned about the closer military cooperation between Burma and North Korea, and Burma’s possible pursuit of “offensive weapons including nuclear weapons.”
The US imposed economic sanctions on Burma in 1997, preventing new US investment in the military-ruled country. It tightened economic sanctions that banned importing goods from Burma again in 2003, following an attack on Suu Kyi's convoy by regime-backed thugs in northern Burma.
A veteran journalist who works at a foreign wire service in Rangoon said that he doesn’t believe the regime will consider the US offer.
“You can’t go and bribe the regime [in exchange for Suu Kyi’s release],” he said.
But the correspondent said that there has been growing optimism among the Burmese people that Suu Kyi’s prison sentence might be reduced because of the pressure from the international community.
“People are saying that the regime will put her back under house arrest with a three-year sentence,” he said. “They [the junta] still want to take her out of the election in 2010.” If convicted, she could receive up to a five-year prison sentence.
Asked to predict whether the regime might consider freeing Suu Kyi anytime soon, he said, “We are dealing with a very peculiar regime. They are unpredictable.”
By SAW YAN NAING - Thursday, July 23, 2009
Opposition leaders on Thursday expressed doubt that a US offer of economic investment in Burma in return for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from prison would lead to the pro-democracy leader’s freedom.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday in Phuket, Thailand, that the US would expand relations with Burma if the military government released opposition leader Suu Kyi, who is now on trial.
“If she [Suu Kyi] were released, that would open up opportunities, at least for my country, to expand our relationship with Burma, including investments in Burma. But it is up to the Burmese leadership,” Clinton said while attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Burmese political opposition leaders urged the military regime to consider the offer as a way to encourage national reconciliation.
Khin Maung Swe, a spokesperson for Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), said that Clinton’s statement shows how much the international community supports the release of the detained opposition leader, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.
If the Burmese generals followed up on the US offer, it would be a win-win situation with both Burma and the US benefiting from better economic and diplomatic cooperation between the two countries, said Khin Maung Swe.
“The Burmese generals should consider this carefully,” he said.
He said regional leaders should not only talk but also take actions to bring the Burmese regime to the “table of negotiation.”
Win Tin, the most prominent Burmese opposition politician after Suu Kyi, told The Irrawaddy that the Clinton’s statement displayed the weakness of US policy on Burma.
“What about reconciliation dialogue, the election [in 2010] and ethnic issues?” Win Tin asked. “Don’t they know that they would detain her again?”
Win Tin himself spent 19 years in prison and was unexpectedly released late last year.
Chan Htun, a Rangoon-based, veteran politician and former ambassador to China, said Clinton’s statement was positive.
“I would like to urge the Burmese generals to seriously consider the future of the country and cooperate with the offer,” Chan Htun said. “But, that’s only my wish. The Burmese regime will do whatever it wants and will listen to nobody.”
He said he doesn’t believe Burma’s No 1 general, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, will consider the offer.
A prominent Mon politician, Nai Ngwe Thein, who is vice president (1) of the Mon National Democratic Front in Mon State in southern Burma, said, “It is a good offer. But, I don’t think they [the generals] will follow up on it.”
At a press conference on Wednesday, Clinton said the US is seriously concerned about the closer military cooperation between Burma and North Korea, and Burma’s possible pursuit of “offensive weapons including nuclear weapons.”
The US imposed economic sanctions on Burma in 1997, preventing new US investment in the military-ruled country. It tightened economic sanctions that banned importing goods from Burma again in 2003, following an attack on Suu Kyi's convoy by regime-backed thugs in northern Burma.
A veteran journalist who works at a foreign wire service in Rangoon said that he doesn’t believe the regime will consider the US offer.
“You can’t go and bribe the regime [in exchange for Suu Kyi’s release],” he said.
But the correspondent said that there has been growing optimism among the Burmese people that Suu Kyi’s prison sentence might be reduced because of the pressure from the international community.
“People are saying that the regime will put her back under house arrest with a three-year sentence,” he said. “They [the junta] still want to take her out of the election in 2010.” If convicted, she could receive up to a five-year prison sentence.
Asked to predict whether the regime might consider freeing Suu Kyi anytime soon, he said, “We are dealing with a very peculiar regime. They are unpredictable.”
*****************************************************
Mizzima News - NLD at a 'critical stage': Win Tin
by Myint Maung
Thursday, 23 July 2009 15:16
New Delhi (mizzima) – A leader of Burma’s opposition party – National League for Democracy (NLD) – said the party’s leadership has reached a 'critical stage' as most members of the party’s executive committee are aging and faced with worsening health.
Win Tin, a veteran journalist and member of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the NLD, said with most CEC party members over the age of 80 and confronting severe health problems, the party is at a crossroads.
“The leaders are already at the age of retirement from party work, but with so many things yet to be done it is difficult for them to retire. They are also facing severe health problems, so the party is at a crossroads,” Win Tin said.
He said with Aung San Suu Kyi and Vice-Chairman Tin Oo still under detention, the party cannot renew its registration and inject young blood into the party’s leadership, as it would essentially remove Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo from the committee.
“With Daw Aung San Suu Kyi still under detention we cannot renew our party registration. And we cannot include more people in the committee, as we would like to do, because the election commissioner will check and we can only renew the registration with the people they approved,” Win Tin explained.
NLD CEC Chairman Aung Shwe, Vice-Chairman U Lwin and members Lun Tin, Nyunt Wei, Hla Pe, Than Tun, Win Tin and Thakin Soe Myint are all in their 80s and 90s and reportedly experiencing increasing health concerns.
“U Aung Shwe is over 90 now. He has not been able to come to the party office for months. I don’t think he can come in the next two to three months either. U Lun Tin’s eyesight and hearing are poor too. He has to be escorted to the office. He is paralyzed and is now confined to his bed. U Hla Pe’s health is also not so good, while U Than Tun suffers from frequent headaches,” elaborated Win Tin.
He added that he himself has been suffering from a heart problem as well as a low pulse rate and low blood pressure, in addition to diabetes and arthritis. He may also have to undergo an operation to combat deteriorating eyesight.
“My heartbeat is only 48 beats per minute. The normal is about 80 beats per minute. I cannot move easily. I get exhausted after taking four or five steps. My physician instructed me not to take liver, innards, tomato and bean sprouts, and to instead take only fish and meat with other healthy foods,” said Win Tin, who has his next medical check-up scheduled for August 3rd.
Yet, despite his poor health, he said he will not forego traveling to Insein prison on Friday, where a special court is to hear final arguments relating to the ongoing trial of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
by Myint Maung
Thursday, 23 July 2009 15:16
New Delhi (mizzima) – A leader of Burma’s opposition party – National League for Democracy (NLD) – said the party’s leadership has reached a 'critical stage' as most members of the party’s executive committee are aging and faced with worsening health.
Win Tin, a veteran journalist and member of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the NLD, said with most CEC party members over the age of 80 and confronting severe health problems, the party is at a crossroads.
“The leaders are already at the age of retirement from party work, but with so many things yet to be done it is difficult for them to retire. They are also facing severe health problems, so the party is at a crossroads,” Win Tin said.
He said with Aung San Suu Kyi and Vice-Chairman Tin Oo still under detention, the party cannot renew its registration and inject young blood into the party’s leadership, as it would essentially remove Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo from the committee.
“With Daw Aung San Suu Kyi still under detention we cannot renew our party registration. And we cannot include more people in the committee, as we would like to do, because the election commissioner will check and we can only renew the registration with the people they approved,” Win Tin explained.
NLD CEC Chairman Aung Shwe, Vice-Chairman U Lwin and members Lun Tin, Nyunt Wei, Hla Pe, Than Tun, Win Tin and Thakin Soe Myint are all in their 80s and 90s and reportedly experiencing increasing health concerns.
“U Aung Shwe is over 90 now. He has not been able to come to the party office for months. I don’t think he can come in the next two to three months either. U Lun Tin’s eyesight and hearing are poor too. He has to be escorted to the office. He is paralyzed and is now confined to his bed. U Hla Pe’s health is also not so good, while U Than Tun suffers from frequent headaches,” elaborated Win Tin.
He added that he himself has been suffering from a heart problem as well as a low pulse rate and low blood pressure, in addition to diabetes and arthritis. He may also have to undergo an operation to combat deteriorating eyesight.
“My heartbeat is only 48 beats per minute. The normal is about 80 beats per minute. I cannot move easily. I get exhausted after taking four or five steps. My physician instructed me not to take liver, innards, tomato and bean sprouts, and to instead take only fish and meat with other healthy foods,” said Win Tin, who has his next medical check-up scheduled for August 3rd.
Yet, despite his poor health, he said he will not forego traveling to Insein prison on Friday, where a special court is to hear final arguments relating to the ongoing trial of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
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Mizzima News - Asean expects Burma to respond to Int’l concerns
by Mungpi
Thursday, 23 July 2009 22:06
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their dialogue partners on Thursday concluded the regional security forum, exhorting Burma to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose trial will hear the final argument on Friday.
Thailand’s Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, in his press statement as the Chairman of the Asean Ministerial Meeting, Post Ministerial Conferences and ASEAN Regional Forum reminded military-ruled Burma to be responsive to international concerns.
Kasit said the Asean as well as members of the ARF respect the sentiment of friendship and goodwill and would like to assist Burma in its efforts to promote democracy, human rights and the well-being of her people.
“At the same time, it is hoped that Myanmar would also be responsive to the international community's concerns,” Kasit said.
Delegates from Burma led by Foreign Minister Nyan Win, during the four day conference held in Thailand’s resort island of Phuket faced criticism and strong worded messages from several quarters over the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Wednesday evening, US officials met the Burmese delegation and conveyed the importance of Burma implementing the terms of the United Nations Security Council resolution 1874 on North Korea, which imposed sanctions on North Korea over its recent missile and nuclear tests.
US Secretary of State Clinton did not join the talks with the Burmese delegation.
During the talks, according to a statement by the US State Department, the US officials also pointed out their expectation from Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi and to begin a process of freeing political prisoners, and making the election scheduled for 2010 open, transparent and credible.
Clinton, during a press briefing on Thursday said, this view was not only of the US, “It was very widely and, I must say, from the heart – it was really expressed from the heart by so many people.”
On Wednesday, Clinton said Asean should consider expelling Burma from the grouping if the ruling regime sentences the detained Nobel Peace Laureate.
But later on the same day, she also said, the US would expand relations with Burma if the military junta releases Aung San Suu Kyi.
“If she [Suu Kyi] were released, that would open up opportunities, at least for my country, to expand our relationship with Burma, including investments in Burma. But it is up to the Burmese leadership,” Clinton said.
But her remarks were refuted on Thursday by Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva saying there are “insufficient grounds" to expel Burma from the 10-member bloc.
Speaking in his capacity as the current chair of Asean, Abhisit said while the west and Asean share the same goals regarding democracy in Burma, the policies cannot be the same.
He also said, expelling the military-ruled country over the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is not likely solve the problem but will only further isolate the country.
"There are not enough grounds to expel Myanmar [Burma] from ASEAN", reports quoted Abhisit as saying. "If we do that, it will further isolate Myanmar [Burma] and would not solve the problem."
But he reiterated that Asean wishes to see Burma achieve democracy and is monitoring the situation there including the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the 1990 election winning National League for Democracy party, is currently facing a trial on charges of violating her detention terms for allegedly harbouring an American man, John Yettaw, who swam to her lakeside home in early May.
If found guilty, she could be sentenced up to five years in prison.
by Mungpi
Thursday, 23 July 2009 22:06
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their dialogue partners on Thursday concluded the regional security forum, exhorting Burma to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose trial will hear the final argument on Friday.
Thailand’s Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, in his press statement as the Chairman of the Asean Ministerial Meeting, Post Ministerial Conferences and ASEAN Regional Forum reminded military-ruled Burma to be responsive to international concerns.
Kasit said the Asean as well as members of the ARF respect the sentiment of friendship and goodwill and would like to assist Burma in its efforts to promote democracy, human rights and the well-being of her people.
“At the same time, it is hoped that Myanmar would also be responsive to the international community's concerns,” Kasit said.
Delegates from Burma led by Foreign Minister Nyan Win, during the four day conference held in Thailand’s resort island of Phuket faced criticism and strong worded messages from several quarters over the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Wednesday evening, US officials met the Burmese delegation and conveyed the importance of Burma implementing the terms of the United Nations Security Council resolution 1874 on North Korea, which imposed sanctions on North Korea over its recent missile and nuclear tests.
US Secretary of State Clinton did not join the talks with the Burmese delegation.
During the talks, according to a statement by the US State Department, the US officials also pointed out their expectation from Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi and to begin a process of freeing political prisoners, and making the election scheduled for 2010 open, transparent and credible.
Clinton, during a press briefing on Thursday said, this view was not only of the US, “It was very widely and, I must say, from the heart – it was really expressed from the heart by so many people.”
On Wednesday, Clinton said Asean should consider expelling Burma from the grouping if the ruling regime sentences the detained Nobel Peace Laureate.
But later on the same day, she also said, the US would expand relations with Burma if the military junta releases Aung San Suu Kyi.
“If she [Suu Kyi] were released, that would open up opportunities, at least for my country, to expand our relationship with Burma, including investments in Burma. But it is up to the Burmese leadership,” Clinton said.
But her remarks were refuted on Thursday by Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva saying there are “insufficient grounds" to expel Burma from the 10-member bloc.
Speaking in his capacity as the current chair of Asean, Abhisit said while the west and Asean share the same goals regarding democracy in Burma, the policies cannot be the same.
He also said, expelling the military-ruled country over the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is not likely solve the problem but will only further isolate the country.
"There are not enough grounds to expel Myanmar [Burma] from ASEAN", reports quoted Abhisit as saying. "If we do that, it will further isolate Myanmar [Burma] and would not solve the problem."
But he reiterated that Asean wishes to see Burma achieve democracy and is monitoring the situation there including the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the 1990 election winning National League for Democracy party, is currently facing a trial on charges of violating her detention terms for allegedly harbouring an American man, John Yettaw, who swam to her lakeside home in early May.
If found guilty, she could be sentenced up to five years in prison.
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DVB News - Displaced in Burma lacking medical aid
July 23, 2009 (DVB)–Internally displaced persons hiding in jungles in eastern Burma are suffering from outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever with almost no medicine or medical facilities, according a Karen aid group.
Around 9000 people in Bago division’s Taung-ngu district are internally displaced (IDPs) and are having difficulty accessing food, water and medicine, said the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP).
The prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases soars during the rainy season, and is a particular threat to people living in bush areas.
“Their traditional method of making smoke to keep mosquitoes away is dangerous because the Burmese army might see [the smoke] and find them,” said Saw Eh Wah from the CIDKP.
At least two or three people in each household are infected with either malaria or dengue fever, many of whom are pregnant women and children under age of 10, he said.
No deaths have yet been reported and IDPs are said to be using traditional medicines to combat the diseases.
“There are no hospitals or clinics; sometimes they get one or two medical workers from the Karen National Union and the Free Burma Rangers [medical group],” he said, adding that the IDPs are using “herbs and tree roots” as medicine.
Burma is also home to over 500,000 internally displaced persons, the majority of which are in eastern Karen state.
Many of these have been forced out of their homes by fighting between the Burmese army and the Karen National Union.
A report released by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in June said that around 723,571 people are considered to be stateless in Burma, the world’s third highest population of stateless persons.
Reporting by Naw Noreen
July 23, 2009 (DVB)–Internally displaced persons hiding in jungles in eastern Burma are suffering from outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever with almost no medicine or medical facilities, according a Karen aid group.
Around 9000 people in Bago division’s Taung-ngu district are internally displaced (IDPs) and are having difficulty accessing food, water and medicine, said the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP).
The prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases soars during the rainy season, and is a particular threat to people living in bush areas.
“Their traditional method of making smoke to keep mosquitoes away is dangerous because the Burmese army might see [the smoke] and find them,” said Saw Eh Wah from the CIDKP.
At least two or three people in each household are infected with either malaria or dengue fever, many of whom are pregnant women and children under age of 10, he said.
No deaths have yet been reported and IDPs are said to be using traditional medicines to combat the diseases.
“There are no hospitals or clinics; sometimes they get one or two medical workers from the Karen National Union and the Free Burma Rangers [medical group],” he said, adding that the IDPs are using “herbs and tree roots” as medicine.
Burma is also home to over 500,000 internally displaced persons, the majority of which are in eastern Karen state.
Many of these have been forced out of their homes by fighting between the Burmese army and the Karen National Union.
A report released by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in June said that around 723,571 people are considered to be stateless in Burma, the world’s third highest population of stateless persons.
Reporting by Naw Noreen
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