American claims mistreatment in Myanmar prison
2 hrs 4 mins ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – The U.S. Embassy said Friday it has made a formal complaint to Myanmar's military government after a Myanmar-born American claimed he was mistreated in prison.
Kyaw Zaw Lin was secretly arrested Sept. 3 on arrival at Yangon airport. Dissident groups reported his disappearance but his whereabouts were unknown until he was allowed a U.S. consular visit Sept. 20 at Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison.
Myanmar authorities on Wednesday accused Kyaw Zaw Lwin of seeking to incite political unrest, according to reports on state radio and television. They claimed he had confessed to plotting with dissident groups outside the country, and accused him of being linked to several activists inside Myanmar who planned to set off bombs.
"The embassy early this week submitted an official complaint to the government, protesting mistreatment of the American citizen," embassy spokesman Drake Weisert said Friday. He declined to disclose details about the alleged mistreatment.
"He is a U.S. citizen and we will continue to give him consular access and provide assistance anyway we can," Weisert said. According to dissident groups, Kyaw Zaw Lin is a resident of Maryland.
Myanmar's government does not have an official spokesman and there was no immediate official reaction to the embassy's complaint.
Another American, 53-year-old John Yettaw, said he was not mistreated during the three months he spent in Insein Prison after being arrested for sneaking into the house of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Yettaw, of Falcon, Missouri, was sentenced to seven years in prison but was released on humanitarian grounds and deported on Aug. 16.
Wednesday's official news report said Kyaw Zaw Lwin entered Myanmar to stir up protests by Buddhist monks, who earlier spearheaded pro-democracy demonstrations in 2007 that were brutally suppressed by the junta.
The report said Kyaw Zaw Lwin is a member of the dissident group the All Burma Students' Democratic Front.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin's mother is serving a five-year jail term for political activities and his sister was sentenced to 65 years in prison for her role in the 2007 pro-democracy protests, activist groups and family members said.
2 hrs 4 mins ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – The U.S. Embassy said Friday it has made a formal complaint to Myanmar's military government after a Myanmar-born American claimed he was mistreated in prison.
Kyaw Zaw Lin was secretly arrested Sept. 3 on arrival at Yangon airport. Dissident groups reported his disappearance but his whereabouts were unknown until he was allowed a U.S. consular visit Sept. 20 at Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison.
Myanmar authorities on Wednesday accused Kyaw Zaw Lwin of seeking to incite political unrest, according to reports on state radio and television. They claimed he had confessed to plotting with dissident groups outside the country, and accused him of being linked to several activists inside Myanmar who planned to set off bombs.
"The embassy early this week submitted an official complaint to the government, protesting mistreatment of the American citizen," embassy spokesman Drake Weisert said Friday. He declined to disclose details about the alleged mistreatment.
"He is a U.S. citizen and we will continue to give him consular access and provide assistance anyway we can," Weisert said. According to dissident groups, Kyaw Zaw Lin is a resident of Maryland.
Myanmar's government does not have an official spokesman and there was no immediate official reaction to the embassy's complaint.
Another American, 53-year-old John Yettaw, said he was not mistreated during the three months he spent in Insein Prison after being arrested for sneaking into the house of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Yettaw, of Falcon, Missouri, was sentenced to seven years in prison but was released on humanitarian grounds and deported on Aug. 16.
Wednesday's official news report said Kyaw Zaw Lwin entered Myanmar to stir up protests by Buddhist monks, who earlier spearheaded pro-democracy demonstrations in 2007 that were brutally suppressed by the junta.
The report said Kyaw Zaw Lwin is a member of the dissident group the All Burma Students' Democratic Front.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin's mother is serving a five-year jail term for political activities and his sister was sentenced to 65 years in prison for her role in the 2007 pro-democracy protests, activist groups and family members said.
***************************************************************
Myanmar's Suu Kyi gives backing to U.S. engagement
By Aung Hla Tun – Fri Sep 25, 4:39 am ET
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar's detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will support U.S. plans to engage with the isolated nation but only if opposition groups are involved in any dialogue, her party said.
Suu Kyi's backing followed U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement that Washington wanted dialogue with the country's military rulers but would not lift its tight sanctions on them.
"(Suu Kyi) said she had always supported the idea of engagement. However, that engagement should be done with both the military government and the democratic forces," said Nyan Win, spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
Nyan Win met with Suu Kyi on Thursday after U.S. embassy officials in Yangon briefed the NLD about the rapprochement plans. Nyan Win gave no details about what was discussed.
Analysts said the development was positive for both sides although it was far from clear what the two sides could agree on.
Speaking in New York on Wednesday, Clinton did not elaborate on the engagement plans, giving no indication about a timeframe, who would lead talks and what demands would be made in order for sanctions to be lifted.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Myanmar since 1988, when an estimated 3,000 people were killed in an army crackdown on pro-democracy activists.
U.S. ties with Myanmar appear to be less frosty than in recent years and last month's visit by U.S. Senator Jim Webb -- the first by a senior U.S. official in more than a decade -- was hailed by the junta as a big success.
Clinton said in July that the United States would help Myanmar if its army rulers held free, fair and inclusive elections and released Suu Kyi, who has been in detention, or "protective custody," for 14 of the past 20 years.
POSITIVE STEP
Suu Kyi was given another 18 months under house arrest last month for letting an American intruder stay at her home for two nights. Critics said that ruling was designed to keep her out of elections next year, the first in the former Burma since 1990.
Analysts said the change in approach was a positive step that could eventually lead to reforms in a country crippled by five decades of economic mismanagement and oppressive army rule.
"The regime wants to normalize relations with the U.S. to convince the world and the Burmese people that their elections will be legitimate," said Win Min, a Burmese exile and lecturer at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
"This engagement will be a gradual process. We shouldn't expect too much, but it's a lot better than the previous policy."
Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo said dialogue would be advantageous for both sides. Engagement could eventually bring big benefits to Myanmar, while allowing the United States to gain a strategic foothold in a country traditionally allied with its powerful neighbor China.
"What's most significant is that there's a willingness from both sides. They know they have to talk and they know they need to build trust," said Aung Naing Oo.
"Although it's a positive and pragmatic move, the biggest stumbling block will be the negotiations. For this to work, there needs to be patience, compromise and a real understanding of the mindset of both parties."
By Aung Hla Tun – Fri Sep 25, 4:39 am ET
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar's detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will support U.S. plans to engage with the isolated nation but only if opposition groups are involved in any dialogue, her party said.
Suu Kyi's backing followed U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement that Washington wanted dialogue with the country's military rulers but would not lift its tight sanctions on them.
"(Suu Kyi) said she had always supported the idea of engagement. However, that engagement should be done with both the military government and the democratic forces," said Nyan Win, spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
Nyan Win met with Suu Kyi on Thursday after U.S. embassy officials in Yangon briefed the NLD about the rapprochement plans. Nyan Win gave no details about what was discussed.
Analysts said the development was positive for both sides although it was far from clear what the two sides could agree on.
Speaking in New York on Wednesday, Clinton did not elaborate on the engagement plans, giving no indication about a timeframe, who would lead talks and what demands would be made in order for sanctions to be lifted.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Myanmar since 1988, when an estimated 3,000 people were killed in an army crackdown on pro-democracy activists.
U.S. ties with Myanmar appear to be less frosty than in recent years and last month's visit by U.S. Senator Jim Webb -- the first by a senior U.S. official in more than a decade -- was hailed by the junta as a big success.
Clinton said in July that the United States would help Myanmar if its army rulers held free, fair and inclusive elections and released Suu Kyi, who has been in detention, or "protective custody," for 14 of the past 20 years.
POSITIVE STEP
Suu Kyi was given another 18 months under house arrest last month for letting an American intruder stay at her home for two nights. Critics said that ruling was designed to keep her out of elections next year, the first in the former Burma since 1990.
Analysts said the change in approach was a positive step that could eventually lead to reforms in a country crippled by five decades of economic mismanagement and oppressive army rule.
"The regime wants to normalize relations with the U.S. to convince the world and the Burmese people that their elections will be legitimate," said Win Min, a Burmese exile and lecturer at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
"This engagement will be a gradual process. We shouldn't expect too much, but it's a lot better than the previous policy."
Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo said dialogue would be advantageous for both sides. Engagement could eventually bring big benefits to Myanmar, while allowing the United States to gain a strategic foothold in a country traditionally allied with its powerful neighbor China.
"What's most significant is that there's a willingness from both sides. They know they have to talk and they know they need to build trust," said Aung Naing Oo.
"Although it's a positive and pragmatic move, the biggest stumbling block will be the negotiations. For this to work, there needs to be patience, compromise and a real understanding of the mindset of both parties."
***************************************************************
China raps Myanmar after recent border unrest
Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:21pm IST
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - China rapped erstwhile ally Myanmar on Friday over violence along the border that pushed tens of thousands of refugees into China last month, as state media reported Myanmar had ordered Chinese citizens to leave the area.
In August, Myanmar's army overran Kokang, a territory that lies along the border with the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan and was controlled for years by an ethnic Chinese militia that paid little heed to the central government.
Many of the refugees were ethnic Chinese, some of whom were Chinese citizens, and complained their houses and businesses had been sacked and looted during the violence.
Earlier this week, Wei Wei, the head of China's foreign ministry's consular affairs department, summoned a Myanmar diplomat to complain about the treatment of Chinese citizens in the area during the clashes, the Foreign Ministry said.
Wei "made representations about harm caused to the rights of Chinese citizens in Myanmar, restated China's position, demanded Myanmar rapidly investigate, punish law-breakers and report the results to China," the ministry said in a statement on its website (www.mfa.gov.cn).
Myanmar should "take prompt measures, earnestly protect the legal rights of Chinese citizens in Myanmar, and make sure similar incidents do not happen again," it added.
Separately, Chinese state media reported Myanmar has asked Chinese citizens to leave the part of the border where August's fighting erupted.
Myanmar has ordered at least 10,000 Chinese citizens who are in the Kokang enclave but have no legal credentials to leave by Monday, the Global Times said, citing local sources.
Rumours spread among Chinese in the border area that fighting could restart soon in areas hit by unrest, the report added.
China's foreign ministry declined immediate comment on the latest reports, but on Thursday it had issued a statement warning its citizens about the dangers of Kokang.
"The Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Myanmar remind Chinese citizens and companies who are already in Northern Myanmar to pay attention to security risks," said the statement, also posted on the ministry's website.
The statement suggested Chinese citizens planning to go to the norther part of the former Burma should suspend their trips.
Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:21pm IST
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - China rapped erstwhile ally Myanmar on Friday over violence along the border that pushed tens of thousands of refugees into China last month, as state media reported Myanmar had ordered Chinese citizens to leave the area.
In August, Myanmar's army overran Kokang, a territory that lies along the border with the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan and was controlled for years by an ethnic Chinese militia that paid little heed to the central government.
Many of the refugees were ethnic Chinese, some of whom were Chinese citizens, and complained their houses and businesses had been sacked and looted during the violence.
Earlier this week, Wei Wei, the head of China's foreign ministry's consular affairs department, summoned a Myanmar diplomat to complain about the treatment of Chinese citizens in the area during the clashes, the Foreign Ministry said.
Wei "made representations about harm caused to the rights of Chinese citizens in Myanmar, restated China's position, demanded Myanmar rapidly investigate, punish law-breakers and report the results to China," the ministry said in a statement on its website (www.mfa.gov.cn).
Myanmar should "take prompt measures, earnestly protect the legal rights of Chinese citizens in Myanmar, and make sure similar incidents do not happen again," it added.
Separately, Chinese state media reported Myanmar has asked Chinese citizens to leave the part of the border where August's fighting erupted.
Myanmar has ordered at least 10,000 Chinese citizens who are in the Kokang enclave but have no legal credentials to leave by Monday, the Global Times said, citing local sources.
Rumours spread among Chinese in the border area that fighting could restart soon in areas hit by unrest, the report added.
China's foreign ministry declined immediate comment on the latest reports, but on Thursday it had issued a statement warning its citizens about the dangers of Kokang.
"The Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Myanmar remind Chinese citizens and companies who are already in Northern Myanmar to pay attention to security risks," said the statement, also posted on the ministry's website.
The statement suggested Chinese citizens planning to go to the norther part of the former Burma should suspend their trips.
***************************************************************
Suu Kyi changes stance on Myanmar sanctions
updated 11:36 a.m. EDT, Fri September 25, 2009
(CNN) -- Myanmar's imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is prepared to work with the nation's military leaders in order to get economic sanctions against the country lifted, a spokesman for her political party said Friday.
Previously, Suu Kyi has staunchly opposed lifting any sanctions against the current regime in Myanmar.
But now, Suu Kyi has drafted a direct letter to Myanmar's military leader, Senior General Than Shwe, in which she says she will cooperate on getting the sanctions lifted, said her spokesman and lawyer U Nyan Win.
He said he spent about an hour working with her on the letter describing her "new thinking" toward sanctions.
The letter will be officially submitted to the military leader in few days.
Suu Kyi wants to know how many sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar and how many of them are having a negative impact on the people, Nyan Win said. In the drafted letter, she also said she wants to hear the opinions of other countries through their ambassadors based in Myanmar.
Her opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won the last election in 1989, has not decided whether it will participate in the election next year. Suu Kyi wants to know from her fellow NLD members whether the party should take part, Nyan Win said.
Suu Kyi's attempt to reach out to the military junta comes as the United States announced a new shift in its policy toward Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday that the United States will try to engage directly with Myanmar's leaders without abandoning its existing sanctions on the southeast Asian country.
Suu Kyi said Thursday that she accepted the new shift in U.S. policy but stressed that any U.S. engagement must also happen with the opposition, her spokesman said.
In announcing the shift in policy, Clinton acknowledged that the sanctions may not be working as planned.
"We believe that sanctions remain important as part of our policy, but by themselves, they have not produced the results that had been hoped for on behalf of the people of Burma," Clinton said after discussing the issue at the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
Clinton said her announcement is part of a policy review announced in February, and she would provide more details in the coming days.
That policy review was slowed down in May when Suu Kyi was placed under fresh house arrest, according to a senior State Department official who talked to reporters on Wednesday after Clinton spoke. The official spoke on the condition that he was not named.
Clinton stressed that the United States is not changing its goals with regards to Myanmar.
"We want credible, democratic reform; a government that respond to the needs of the Burmese people; immediate, unconditional release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi; serious dialogue with the opposition and minority ethnic groups," she said.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was sentenced to 18 months of house arrest after John Yettaw, an American man, swam uninvited to Suu Kyi's home in Yangon earlier this year.
She is appealing her sentence, and a court in Yangon is expected to decide on that appeal next week.
Suu Kyi has been under house arrest there for 14 of the past 20 years.
The United States currently has an embassy and a charge d'affaires in Yangon, and Myanmar has a top diplomat in Washington.
updated 11:36 a.m. EDT, Fri September 25, 2009
(CNN) -- Myanmar's imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is prepared to work with the nation's military leaders in order to get economic sanctions against the country lifted, a spokesman for her political party said Friday.
Previously, Suu Kyi has staunchly opposed lifting any sanctions against the current regime in Myanmar.
But now, Suu Kyi has drafted a direct letter to Myanmar's military leader, Senior General Than Shwe, in which she says she will cooperate on getting the sanctions lifted, said her spokesman and lawyer U Nyan Win.
He said he spent about an hour working with her on the letter describing her "new thinking" toward sanctions.
The letter will be officially submitted to the military leader in few days.
Suu Kyi wants to know how many sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar and how many of them are having a negative impact on the people, Nyan Win said. In the drafted letter, she also said she wants to hear the opinions of other countries through their ambassadors based in Myanmar.
Her opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won the last election in 1989, has not decided whether it will participate in the election next year. Suu Kyi wants to know from her fellow NLD members whether the party should take part, Nyan Win said.
Suu Kyi's attempt to reach out to the military junta comes as the United States announced a new shift in its policy toward Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday that the United States will try to engage directly with Myanmar's leaders without abandoning its existing sanctions on the southeast Asian country.
Suu Kyi said Thursday that she accepted the new shift in U.S. policy but stressed that any U.S. engagement must also happen with the opposition, her spokesman said.
In announcing the shift in policy, Clinton acknowledged that the sanctions may not be working as planned.
"We believe that sanctions remain important as part of our policy, but by themselves, they have not produced the results that had been hoped for on behalf of the people of Burma," Clinton said after discussing the issue at the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
Clinton said her announcement is part of a policy review announced in February, and she would provide more details in the coming days.
That policy review was slowed down in May when Suu Kyi was placed under fresh house arrest, according to a senior State Department official who talked to reporters on Wednesday after Clinton spoke. The official spoke on the condition that he was not named.
Clinton stressed that the United States is not changing its goals with regards to Myanmar.
"We want credible, democratic reform; a government that respond to the needs of the Burmese people; immediate, unconditional release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi; serious dialogue with the opposition and minority ethnic groups," she said.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was sentenced to 18 months of house arrest after John Yettaw, an American man, swam uninvited to Suu Kyi's home in Yangon earlier this year.
She is appealing her sentence, and a court in Yangon is expected to decide on that appeal next week.
Suu Kyi has been under house arrest there for 14 of the past 20 years.
The United States currently has an embassy and a charge d'affaires in Yangon, and Myanmar has a top diplomat in Washington.
***************************************************************
New currency note in Myanmar raises concerns
updated 1:48 p.m. EDT, Thu September 24, 2009
(CNN) -- The 5,000 kyat note, which is worth less than US$5, will be the largest bank note that the southeast Asian country has ever had. It will be released into circulation on October 1, according to an announcement on Myanmar's state-run MRTV.
There was no explanation for the government's decision to introduce the new bill. Currently, the largest note is the 1,000 kyat bill, which is worth less than $1
The announcement has raised concerns that Myanmar's economy is not faring well, said a veteran independent journalist who lives in Yangon. He declined to be named citing security concerns.
Myanmar is a closed country whose military rulers have a tight grip on information and do not tolerate dissent or criticism.
The journalist said the cost of living is already high for the average person in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. The decision to introduce the 5,000 kyat bill could depreciate the value of the country's currency and have broader economic repercussions, he said.
The sudden cancellation of some Burmese currencies in 1987 sparked anger and led to a mass demonstration in August 1988.
At that time, people's savings were diminished overnight.
updated 1:48 p.m. EDT, Thu September 24, 2009
(CNN) -- The 5,000 kyat note, which is worth less than US$5, will be the largest bank note that the southeast Asian country has ever had. It will be released into circulation on October 1, according to an announcement on Myanmar's state-run MRTV.
There was no explanation for the government's decision to introduce the new bill. Currently, the largest note is the 1,000 kyat bill, which is worth less than $1
The announcement has raised concerns that Myanmar's economy is not faring well, said a veteran independent journalist who lives in Yangon. He declined to be named citing security concerns.
Myanmar is a closed country whose military rulers have a tight grip on information and do not tolerate dissent or criticism.
The journalist said the cost of living is already high for the average person in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. The decision to introduce the 5,000 kyat bill could depreciate the value of the country's currency and have broader economic repercussions, he said.
The sudden cancellation of some Burmese currencies in 1987 sparked anger and led to a mass demonstration in August 1988.
At that time, people's savings were diminished overnight.
***************************************************************
Washington Post - Burma's Junta Intensifies Bid For Unification
Bringing Autonomous Ethnic Enclaves Back Into Fold Poses Major Challenges
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 25, 2009
MONG LA, Burma -- The maps say that the town of Mong La is in Burma, but to the casual observer, it could be China. The shop names are in Chinese. The shopkeepers are mostly Chinese, and they accept only the Chinese yuan. A suggestion of a meeting at 4 o'clock is met with a question: "Burma time or China time?"
Mong La is the capital of an area known as Shan Special Region No. 4, one of 13 autonomous enclaves carved out of Burma's mountainous east over the past 20 years as part of cease-fire deals that armed rebel ethnic groups have signed with the generals who run the country.
While central Burma has been driven into penury by economic mismanagement and sanctions, areas such as Mong La have thrived, along with the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State, which controls it. The region has over the years profited from drugs -- it lies at the heart of the opium-producing Golden Triangle -- and more recently from gambling.
In rebel territory, late-model Japanese sedans ferry Chinese punters from Mong La to the neon oasis of Mong Ma, 12 miles away, where they sip French brandy and play baccarat with stacks of 10,000-yuan chips. On the way, they pass the neoclassic pile that Sai Leun, commander of the National Democratic Alliance Army, has built for himself, complete with a golf course.
But Mong La's days as a tributary to the river of China's economic growth could be ending. Last month, a few hours to the north of Mong La, government troops attacked Special Region No. 1, which was run by the Kokang militia, driving about 37,000 residents over the border into China. Today, 80 percent of the shops in Mong La are shuttered, and their owners, taking refuge in China, are waiting to see whether Special Region No. 4 will be the government's next target.
Areas such as Mong La lie at the heart of the strategic conundrum that is Burma.
"Without a political settlement that addresses ethnic minority needs and goals, it is extremely unlikely there will be peace and democracy in Burma," the Transnational Institute, an Amsterdam-based research organization, said in a recent report.
For 15 years, the United Nations has advocated a three-way dialogue among the military government, the democratic opposition and the country's ethnic minorities, but given many of the groups' history of drug involvement, it has been a hard policy to promote in Western capitals.
In recent months, the world has focused on the role of Aung San Suu Kyi, the imprisoned opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, but although she is a key figure, her freedom is unlikely to solve Burma's long-standing political problems on its own.
Ethnic minorities make up about 40 percent of the country's 60 million people, dominating the mountainous regions that surround the flood plains where most of the majority-Burman population live. The minorities have no faith in the government and resent the majority's domination of politics. Several young Shan professionals used the same word -- "tricky" -- to describe the Burmans.
The Burmese government has been trying to unify the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1948, a crusade that has taken precedence over all other concerns, including democracy, and is still the driving force behind the current government led by Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
"When Than Shwe wakes up at night, he isn't worrying about democracy or international pressure," said a Western diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "He's worrying about the ethnic groups."
But the generals who run the country cannot afford to anger China, their most significant ally and investor, in the process.
Over the past 20 years, the Burmese authorities have signed cease-fire agreements with 27 key opposition groups, most of which are ethnically based.
China played a key role in persuading the groups to talk to the government. Many were part of the Beijing-sponsored Burma Communist Party, which controlled most of the territory along the Chinese border until it imploded in the late 1980s. At the time, Beijing's interests lay in keeping the groups as a buffer, but that policy came at a cost as many Burmese warlords established mini-states, funding themselves through drugs and gambling and spreading addiction, disease and crime into China's southern borderlands.
Many analysts now say that the Chinese are eager to see Burma reunified under a central government, pointing out that Beijing wants to build pipelines through Burma to import oil and gas from the Andaman Sea to the populous but relatively poor province of Yunnan and to open trade routes to the lucrative markets of India.
Signs are growing that the groups China used to see as a strategic buffer it now regards as a barrier to trade. When the Burmese army moved against the Kokang militia, one of the weaker groups, the Chinese government rebuked it over the refugees who were driven across the border. Beijing urged the junta to "properly deal with its domestic issues to safeguard the regional stability of its bordering area with China." Some analysts say, however, that the rebuke reflected displeasure over how the takeover was handled rather than the takeover itself.
Bringing Mong La and other cease-fire areas back into the Burmese fold poses significant challenges for the Burmese as well as the Chinese.
The Burmese authorities have called on the cease-fire groups to disband their militias and take part in elections set for next year, but the groups, which have received little assistance from the central government, are loath to give up the leverage provided by their armed wings, although many have said they are not intrinsically opposed to participating in the elections.
The groups seem more inclined to maintain their militias and use them to help force a better deal from the new government. The biggest cease-fire group, the United Wa State Army, is estimated to maintain 20,000 men under arms.
However, with their move against the Kokang militia, the generals have ratcheted up the pressure, and many residents of the border areas, like the Chinese traders in Mong La, think the authorities could move against other groups, picking them off one by one.
The stakes are high. As the Transnational Institute points out, if the cease-fire groups are not defeated decisively, they will simply retreat to the mountainous border territory, where they are likely to resume wholesale narcotics trading to fund a renewed guerrilla campaign, intensifying regional instability.
Bringing Autonomous Ethnic Enclaves Back Into Fold Poses Major Challenges
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 25, 2009
MONG LA, Burma -- The maps say that the town of Mong La is in Burma, but to the casual observer, it could be China. The shop names are in Chinese. The shopkeepers are mostly Chinese, and they accept only the Chinese yuan. A suggestion of a meeting at 4 o'clock is met with a question: "Burma time or China time?"
Mong La is the capital of an area known as Shan Special Region No. 4, one of 13 autonomous enclaves carved out of Burma's mountainous east over the past 20 years as part of cease-fire deals that armed rebel ethnic groups have signed with the generals who run the country.
While central Burma has been driven into penury by economic mismanagement and sanctions, areas such as Mong La have thrived, along with the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State, which controls it. The region has over the years profited from drugs -- it lies at the heart of the opium-producing Golden Triangle -- and more recently from gambling.
In rebel territory, late-model Japanese sedans ferry Chinese punters from Mong La to the neon oasis of Mong Ma, 12 miles away, where they sip French brandy and play baccarat with stacks of 10,000-yuan chips. On the way, they pass the neoclassic pile that Sai Leun, commander of the National Democratic Alliance Army, has built for himself, complete with a golf course.
But Mong La's days as a tributary to the river of China's economic growth could be ending. Last month, a few hours to the north of Mong La, government troops attacked Special Region No. 1, which was run by the Kokang militia, driving about 37,000 residents over the border into China. Today, 80 percent of the shops in Mong La are shuttered, and their owners, taking refuge in China, are waiting to see whether Special Region No. 4 will be the government's next target.
Areas such as Mong La lie at the heart of the strategic conundrum that is Burma.
"Without a political settlement that addresses ethnic minority needs and goals, it is extremely unlikely there will be peace and democracy in Burma," the Transnational Institute, an Amsterdam-based research organization, said in a recent report.
For 15 years, the United Nations has advocated a three-way dialogue among the military government, the democratic opposition and the country's ethnic minorities, but given many of the groups' history of drug involvement, it has been a hard policy to promote in Western capitals.
In recent months, the world has focused on the role of Aung San Suu Kyi, the imprisoned opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, but although she is a key figure, her freedom is unlikely to solve Burma's long-standing political problems on its own.
Ethnic minorities make up about 40 percent of the country's 60 million people, dominating the mountainous regions that surround the flood plains where most of the majority-Burman population live. The minorities have no faith in the government and resent the majority's domination of politics. Several young Shan professionals used the same word -- "tricky" -- to describe the Burmans.
The Burmese government has been trying to unify the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1948, a crusade that has taken precedence over all other concerns, including democracy, and is still the driving force behind the current government led by Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
"When Than Shwe wakes up at night, he isn't worrying about democracy or international pressure," said a Western diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "He's worrying about the ethnic groups."
But the generals who run the country cannot afford to anger China, their most significant ally and investor, in the process.
Over the past 20 years, the Burmese authorities have signed cease-fire agreements with 27 key opposition groups, most of which are ethnically based.
China played a key role in persuading the groups to talk to the government. Many were part of the Beijing-sponsored Burma Communist Party, which controlled most of the territory along the Chinese border until it imploded in the late 1980s. At the time, Beijing's interests lay in keeping the groups as a buffer, but that policy came at a cost as many Burmese warlords established mini-states, funding themselves through drugs and gambling and spreading addiction, disease and crime into China's southern borderlands.
Many analysts now say that the Chinese are eager to see Burma reunified under a central government, pointing out that Beijing wants to build pipelines through Burma to import oil and gas from the Andaman Sea to the populous but relatively poor province of Yunnan and to open trade routes to the lucrative markets of India.
Signs are growing that the groups China used to see as a strategic buffer it now regards as a barrier to trade. When the Burmese army moved against the Kokang militia, one of the weaker groups, the Chinese government rebuked it over the refugees who were driven across the border. Beijing urged the junta to "properly deal with its domestic issues to safeguard the regional stability of its bordering area with China." Some analysts say, however, that the rebuke reflected displeasure over how the takeover was handled rather than the takeover itself.
Bringing Mong La and other cease-fire areas back into the Burmese fold poses significant challenges for the Burmese as well as the Chinese.
The Burmese authorities have called on the cease-fire groups to disband their militias and take part in elections set for next year, but the groups, which have received little assistance from the central government, are loath to give up the leverage provided by their armed wings, although many have said they are not intrinsically opposed to participating in the elections.
The groups seem more inclined to maintain their militias and use them to help force a better deal from the new government. The biggest cease-fire group, the United Wa State Army, is estimated to maintain 20,000 men under arms.
However, with their move against the Kokang militia, the generals have ratcheted up the pressure, and many residents of the border areas, like the Chinese traders in Mong La, think the authorities could move against other groups, picking them off one by one.
The stakes are high. As the Transnational Institute points out, if the cease-fire groups are not defeated decisively, they will simply retreat to the mountainous border territory, where they are likely to resume wholesale narcotics trading to fund a renewed guerrilla campaign, intensifying regional instability.
***************************************************************
EarthTimes - Myanmar opposition leader ready to talk sanctions with junta
Posted : Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:35:21 GMT
By : Sofie Desot
Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is ready to cooperate with the ruling junta in order to get the West to lift economic sanctions imposed on the country, as long as three conditions are met, a key spokesman said Friday. "Daw (Madame) Aung San Suu Kyi has written a letter to Senior General Than Shwe regarding the sanctions issue," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi. Than Shwe is Myanmar's current military strongman.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, met with Nyan Win at her house-cum-prison in Yangon for an hour Friday to spell out her views on economic sanctions following indications that the administration of US President Barack Obama is seeking to "engage" with the military regime.
Suu Kyi has indicated that she is not opposed to Western sanctions against Myanmar, one of her major bargaining chips against the regime, be lifted, as long as there is "engagement" on both sides.
In her letter to Than Shwe, Suu Kyi said it was necessary to discuss three points - which countries have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar, the impact of the sanctions and why they were imposed.
Economic sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar since 1988, when the military brutally cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations, leaving an estimated 3,000 people dead.
The US and European Union stepped up their sanctions over the years as the junta first refused to acknowledge Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) victory at the 1990 polls and then proceeded to arrest critics and squash all forms of dissent.
Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest, where she remains today.
Earlier this year, junta chief Than Shwe hinted that he would be willing to open a political dialogue with Suu Kyi if she agreed to cooperate in making the West lift the sanctions.
To date, Than Shwe has refused to talk to Suu Kyi. Discussing why the sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar, would amount to a discussion of NLD's demands.
Most western nations have demanded that Than Shwe release Suu Kyi and some 2,000 other political prisoners as a first step towards democratization in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962. Suu Kyi and the NLD demand the same thing.
On Wednesday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told journalists on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the US administration decided on a double-pronged approach of both engagement and continued sanctions.
"We believe that sanctions remain important as part of our policy, but by themselves, they have not produced the results that had been hoped for on behalf of the people of Burma," Clinton s
Posted : Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:35:21 GMT
By : Sofie Desot
Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is ready to cooperate with the ruling junta in order to get the West to lift economic sanctions imposed on the country, as long as three conditions are met, a key spokesman said Friday. "Daw (Madame) Aung San Suu Kyi has written a letter to Senior General Than Shwe regarding the sanctions issue," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi. Than Shwe is Myanmar's current military strongman.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, met with Nyan Win at her house-cum-prison in Yangon for an hour Friday to spell out her views on economic sanctions following indications that the administration of US President Barack Obama is seeking to "engage" with the military regime.
Suu Kyi has indicated that she is not opposed to Western sanctions against Myanmar, one of her major bargaining chips against the regime, be lifted, as long as there is "engagement" on both sides.
In her letter to Than Shwe, Suu Kyi said it was necessary to discuss three points - which countries have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar, the impact of the sanctions and why they were imposed.
Economic sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar since 1988, when the military brutally cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations, leaving an estimated 3,000 people dead.
The US and European Union stepped up their sanctions over the years as the junta first refused to acknowledge Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) victory at the 1990 polls and then proceeded to arrest critics and squash all forms of dissent.
Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest, where she remains today.
Earlier this year, junta chief Than Shwe hinted that he would be willing to open a political dialogue with Suu Kyi if she agreed to cooperate in making the West lift the sanctions.
To date, Than Shwe has refused to talk to Suu Kyi. Discussing why the sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar, would amount to a discussion of NLD's demands.
Most western nations have demanded that Than Shwe release Suu Kyi and some 2,000 other political prisoners as a first step towards democratization in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962. Suu Kyi and the NLD demand the same thing.
On Wednesday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told journalists on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the US administration decided on a double-pronged approach of both engagement and continued sanctions.
"We believe that sanctions remain important as part of our policy, but by themselves, they have not produced the results that had been hoped for on behalf of the people of Burma," Clinton s
***************************************************************
MYANMAR: Community awareness key in TB fight
YANGON, 25 September 2009 (IRIN) - From her bed in the Aung San TB Hospital on the outskirts of Yangon, the former Burmese capital, 17-year-old Aye Aye Aung waited to hear if her tuberculosis (TB) had worsened.
Though her symptoms first emerged in late 2007, neither she nor her family knew enough about the infectious respiratory disease to seek help.
Instead, she took a barrage of over-the-counter drugs to control her coughing, and only learned she was infected after finally visiting her local clinic in Sittwe, capital of Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine State.
By that time, it was too late. The clinic was unable to help her, and she was referred to the Aung San TB Hospital, one of only two TB hospitals in the country.
"We should have been better informed about how important early treatment was. That would have helped her,” said one of Aye Aye Aung’s sisters.
Lack of awareness
Like most Burmese, Aye Aye Aung had little or no knowledge about TB and how to treat it, even though the disease is one of Myanmar’s major public health problems.
TB sufferers are also often unaware that free, public treatment is available through the National TB Programme (NTP), and end up spending money they can ill afford at private clinics.
"Community awareness is crucial in fighting TB,” an official from NTP told IRIN. "Not knowing to get early treatment and to take the drugs on a regular basis can worsen the patient’s prognosis, as well as increase the risk of infecting others.”
While government and international health agencies are undertaking education campaigns, public awareness is still low, say health workers.
Agencies lack the funds for widespread information campaigns, while few people have access to the mass media or own televisions in the impoverished nation, which also suffers from a severe electricity shortage.
“A lack of awareness of the disease among the public helps the high prevalence [of TB],” said Ye Myint, a TB consultant with the UN World Health Organization (WHO), adding that public awareness needed to be promoted nationwide.
Controlling TB a challenge
In Myanmar, TB ranks as a priority disease in the national health plan, along with malaria and HIV/AIDS.
The country is among 22 nations in the world with the highest TB burden, and among 27 countries worldwide with the highest burden of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), which is immune to treatment by standard frontline drugs.
According to the WHO’s Health in Myanmar 2009 Report, estimates suggest that 1.5 percent of the population of about 57.5 million become infected with the TB bacilli every year.
Of these infections, about 130,000 people develop tuberculosis, and half of these are smear-positive cases, which means they are the most infectious.
The WHO’s recommended strategy for the detection and cure of TB is directly observed treatment short course (DOTS), whereby the patient is monitored to ensure they take their medication regularly and in the right combination.
While Myanmar achieved near-nationwide DOTS coverage by the end of 2003, problems remain, according to medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières.
"Often there is a lack of financial resources and a shortage of staff in public health facilities, and providing information to patients is often overlooked," MSF medical supervisor, Myo Set Aung, told IRIN.
Other health workers report that some patients fail to take their drugs on schedule or to complete treatment, often stopping when they feel better. As a result, some TB patients are not able to fight the disease successfully or they spread it to their communities, while others develop MDR-TB, which is more expensive and difficult to treat.
In addition, access to treatment is a challenge, especially in rural areas, where 70 percent of the population live. Travel to health clinics can be difficult and expensive and sometimes takes days.
"If health structures are far away, people may turn to self-medication instead. You can find all sorts of TB drugs and purchase them without prescription, which poses a risk of treatment failure," said Myo Set Aung.
YANGON, 25 September 2009 (IRIN) - From her bed in the Aung San TB Hospital on the outskirts of Yangon, the former Burmese capital, 17-year-old Aye Aye Aung waited to hear if her tuberculosis (TB) had worsened.
Though her symptoms first emerged in late 2007, neither she nor her family knew enough about the infectious respiratory disease to seek help.
Instead, she took a barrage of over-the-counter drugs to control her coughing, and only learned she was infected after finally visiting her local clinic in Sittwe, capital of Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine State.
By that time, it was too late. The clinic was unable to help her, and she was referred to the Aung San TB Hospital, one of only two TB hospitals in the country.
"We should have been better informed about how important early treatment was. That would have helped her,” said one of Aye Aye Aung’s sisters.
Lack of awareness
Like most Burmese, Aye Aye Aung had little or no knowledge about TB and how to treat it, even though the disease is one of Myanmar’s major public health problems.
TB sufferers are also often unaware that free, public treatment is available through the National TB Programme (NTP), and end up spending money they can ill afford at private clinics.
"Community awareness is crucial in fighting TB,” an official from NTP told IRIN. "Not knowing to get early treatment and to take the drugs on a regular basis can worsen the patient’s prognosis, as well as increase the risk of infecting others.”
While government and international health agencies are undertaking education campaigns, public awareness is still low, say health workers.
Agencies lack the funds for widespread information campaigns, while few people have access to the mass media or own televisions in the impoverished nation, which also suffers from a severe electricity shortage.
“A lack of awareness of the disease among the public helps the high prevalence [of TB],” said Ye Myint, a TB consultant with the UN World Health Organization (WHO), adding that public awareness needed to be promoted nationwide.
Controlling TB a challenge
In Myanmar, TB ranks as a priority disease in the national health plan, along with malaria and HIV/AIDS.
The country is among 22 nations in the world with the highest TB burden, and among 27 countries worldwide with the highest burden of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), which is immune to treatment by standard frontline drugs.
According to the WHO’s Health in Myanmar 2009 Report, estimates suggest that 1.5 percent of the population of about 57.5 million become infected with the TB bacilli every year.
Of these infections, about 130,000 people develop tuberculosis, and half of these are smear-positive cases, which means they are the most infectious.
The WHO’s recommended strategy for the detection and cure of TB is directly observed treatment short course (DOTS), whereby the patient is monitored to ensure they take their medication regularly and in the right combination.
While Myanmar achieved near-nationwide DOTS coverage by the end of 2003, problems remain, according to medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières.
"Often there is a lack of financial resources and a shortage of staff in public health facilities, and providing information to patients is often overlooked," MSF medical supervisor, Myo Set Aung, told IRIN.
Other health workers report that some patients fail to take their drugs on schedule or to complete treatment, often stopping when they feel better. As a result, some TB patients are not able to fight the disease successfully or they spread it to their communities, while others develop MDR-TB, which is more expensive and difficult to treat.
In addition, access to treatment is a challenge, especially in rural areas, where 70 percent of the population live. Travel to health clinics can be difficult and expensive and sometimes takes days.
"If health structures are far away, people may turn to self-medication instead. You can find all sorts of TB drugs and purchase them without prescription, which poses a risk of treatment failure," said Myo Set Aung.
***************************************************************
SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
Wall Street Journal - Warnings Greet Latest Obama Overtures
Plan to Engage Myanmar Brings Calls For U.S. to Champion Rights, Democracy
By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS
UNITED NATIONS -- The Obama administration's recent overtures to regimes with blemished records on human rights and democracy have potential long-term rewards but must first endure shorter-term risks, according to policy experts, leaders and activists.
Washington's outreach to nations such as Iran and Myanmar -- on display here this week -- could leave the administration open to criticism that it is naïve or soft, while appearing to sideline human-rights concerns and legitimize uncooperative governments, they said.
"With constructive engagement...what you find is countries going for construction projects and no engagement," said Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, in an interview in New York on Thursday. Mr. Anwar said "constructive intervention" was required.
Mr. Anwar said the U.S. is still the only country that can stand up to many countries on issues such as the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel laureate who has been under house arrest for much of the past two decades.
Southeast Asian leaders and opposition figures were broadly supportive of the U.S. overture toward Myanmar, which came Wednesday evening when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at the U.N. General Assembly that the U.S. would combine existing economic sanctions with new efforts to engage the country's reclusive military leaders.
Nyan Win, spokesman for Ms. Suu Kyi, said her National League for Democracy supported Mrs. Clinton's plans, but only "as long as the U.S. continues to maintain the pressure" with sanctions.
Some Republicans and democracy advocates have criticized the Obama administration for increasing engagement with nations that have been accused of human-rights abuses, particularly China, Russia and Iran.
U.S. officials have defended outreach to those countries as part of an effort to achieve broad national-security goals: in Russia and Iran, preventing the spread of nuclear weapons; in China, shoring up the global economy and curtailing global warming.
In the case of Myanmar, also known as Burma, U.S. officials said human rights remained the top priority. "The goals of our Burma policy remain the same: a democratic, peaceful, prosperous Burma that respects the rights of its people," said a senior State Department official. "We have heard from the Burmese fairly clearly over the last several months, for the first time in many years, an interest in engaging with us and improving relations with us, so it seems to us useful to see if we can use that interest to advance our goals."
Tangible results can take time, leaving the administration open to rebuke, said I. William Zartman, professor emeritus of international conflict at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
"Engagement softens up and releases tensions in the international sphere, so that's good," said Mr. Zartman. "On the other hand, the overture is usually initially rejected, so you've exposed yourself to being weak and then might not do it again. Only in the long run can you get improved mutual understanding."
The approach emerging under the Obama administration -- combining the threat of sanctions with renewed engagement -- has been used effectively in various forms over the decades, from Apartheid-era South Africa to Communist Poland.
Myanmar is showing some signs now that it's trying to reach out to the rest of the world. For the first time in 14 years, the military regime has sent a senior member, Gen. Thein Sein, the prime minister to the U.N. assembly. The country also released around 7,000 prisoners last week in an apparent effort to reduce international criticism of its human-rights record, including approximately 100 political prisoners. Human-rights groups estimate there are still around 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar.
The moves have raised questions whether the Obama administration will reach out to North Korea, a country the U.S. penalized with stronger, more coordinated sanctions following its test of a nuclear explosive in June, but that has been seeking direct talks with Washington since August.
For months, U.S. diplomats have said they will deal with North Korea only in the context of a multilateral diplomatic process that began in 2003. U.S. diplomats are scarred by the experience of North Korea's pattern of making and breaking deals.
In South Korea and Japan, concerns that North Korea's demand for talks with the U.S. could lead to a softening -- and compromise their security -- has dominated headlines and talk shows for several weeks.
A big risk of reaching out to leaders of repressive regimes is that it legitimizes their leaders, while undermining moderate or opposition elements. Ms. Suu Kyi on Thursday insisted that pro-democracy forces be part of the engagement process, her spokesman told the Associated Press.
In Iran, activists worry that if the U.S. and the West engage Iran over its controversial nuclear program, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and his supporters will be marginalized and compromises will be made on human-rights matters.
Mr. Obama has condemned the regime's harsh crackdowns on opposition supporters but at the same time refrained from making human-rights issues such as the release of the American-Iranian scholar Kian Tajbakhsh a condition for talks.
Akbar Ganji, a prominent dissident and former journalist who was jailed in Iran and then fled to New York, says human rights should be the primary focus and condition for talks.
"We are very worried that if the U.S. sits down to negotiate with Iran they will only address the nuclear program for their own political gains and forget about human rights.
Then the people of Iran will feel abandoned by the international community and lose hope," Mr. Ganji said.
Others argue the U.S. will be more effective if it has an open channel for dialogue with Iran. "Then the U.S. has an active mechanism to put pressure on Iran's government," said Omid Memarian of Human Rights Watch.
Wall Street Journal - Warnings Greet Latest Obama Overtures
Plan to Engage Myanmar Brings Calls For U.S. to Champion Rights, Democracy
By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS
UNITED NATIONS -- The Obama administration's recent overtures to regimes with blemished records on human rights and democracy have potential long-term rewards but must first endure shorter-term risks, according to policy experts, leaders and activists.
Washington's outreach to nations such as Iran and Myanmar -- on display here this week -- could leave the administration open to criticism that it is naïve or soft, while appearing to sideline human-rights concerns and legitimize uncooperative governments, they said.
"With constructive engagement...what you find is countries going for construction projects and no engagement," said Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, in an interview in New York on Thursday. Mr. Anwar said "constructive intervention" was required.
Mr. Anwar said the U.S. is still the only country that can stand up to many countries on issues such as the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel laureate who has been under house arrest for much of the past two decades.
Southeast Asian leaders and opposition figures were broadly supportive of the U.S. overture toward Myanmar, which came Wednesday evening when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at the U.N. General Assembly that the U.S. would combine existing economic sanctions with new efforts to engage the country's reclusive military leaders.
Nyan Win, spokesman for Ms. Suu Kyi, said her National League for Democracy supported Mrs. Clinton's plans, but only "as long as the U.S. continues to maintain the pressure" with sanctions.
Some Republicans and democracy advocates have criticized the Obama administration for increasing engagement with nations that have been accused of human-rights abuses, particularly China, Russia and Iran.
U.S. officials have defended outreach to those countries as part of an effort to achieve broad national-security goals: in Russia and Iran, preventing the spread of nuclear weapons; in China, shoring up the global economy and curtailing global warming.
In the case of Myanmar, also known as Burma, U.S. officials said human rights remained the top priority. "The goals of our Burma policy remain the same: a democratic, peaceful, prosperous Burma that respects the rights of its people," said a senior State Department official. "We have heard from the Burmese fairly clearly over the last several months, for the first time in many years, an interest in engaging with us and improving relations with us, so it seems to us useful to see if we can use that interest to advance our goals."
Tangible results can take time, leaving the administration open to rebuke, said I. William Zartman, professor emeritus of international conflict at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
"Engagement softens up and releases tensions in the international sphere, so that's good," said Mr. Zartman. "On the other hand, the overture is usually initially rejected, so you've exposed yourself to being weak and then might not do it again. Only in the long run can you get improved mutual understanding."
The approach emerging under the Obama administration -- combining the threat of sanctions with renewed engagement -- has been used effectively in various forms over the decades, from Apartheid-era South Africa to Communist Poland.
Myanmar is showing some signs now that it's trying to reach out to the rest of the world. For the first time in 14 years, the military regime has sent a senior member, Gen. Thein Sein, the prime minister to the U.N. assembly. The country also released around 7,000 prisoners last week in an apparent effort to reduce international criticism of its human-rights record, including approximately 100 political prisoners. Human-rights groups estimate there are still around 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar.
The moves have raised questions whether the Obama administration will reach out to North Korea, a country the U.S. penalized with stronger, more coordinated sanctions following its test of a nuclear explosive in June, but that has been seeking direct talks with Washington since August.
For months, U.S. diplomats have said they will deal with North Korea only in the context of a multilateral diplomatic process that began in 2003. U.S. diplomats are scarred by the experience of North Korea's pattern of making and breaking deals.
In South Korea and Japan, concerns that North Korea's demand for talks with the U.S. could lead to a softening -- and compromise their security -- has dominated headlines and talk shows for several weeks.
A big risk of reaching out to leaders of repressive regimes is that it legitimizes their leaders, while undermining moderate or opposition elements. Ms. Suu Kyi on Thursday insisted that pro-democracy forces be part of the engagement process, her spokesman told the Associated Press.
In Iran, activists worry that if the U.S. and the West engage Iran over its controversial nuclear program, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and his supporters will be marginalized and compromises will be made on human-rights matters.
Mr. Obama has condemned the regime's harsh crackdowns on opposition supporters but at the same time refrained from making human-rights issues such as the release of the American-Iranian scholar Kian Tajbakhsh a condition for talks.
Akbar Ganji, a prominent dissident and former journalist who was jailed in Iran and then fled to New York, says human rights should be the primary focus and condition for talks.
"We are very worried that if the U.S. sits down to negotiate with Iran they will only address the nuclear program for their own political gains and forget about human rights.
Then the people of Iran will feel abandoned by the international community and lose hope," Mr. Ganji said.
Others argue the U.S. will be more effective if it has an open channel for dialogue with Iran. "Then the U.S. has an active mechanism to put pressure on Iran's government," said Omid Memarian of Human Rights Watch.
***************************************************************
SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
Wall Street Journal - Embracing Burma's Generals
Burma's ruling junta is killing ethnic minorities, preparing a sham election and possibly cooperating with North Korea on a nuclear program. So what better time for the United States to elevate talks to a higher diplomatic level?
Welcome to the Obama Administration's "new" Burma policy, announced Wednesday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "Engagement versus sanctions is a false choice in our opinion," Mrs. Clinton told reporters. "Going forward we will be employing both of those tools." The White House also welcomed Burma's foreign minister last week in a little publicized visit.
This is diplomatic repackaging, par excellence. The U.S. has an embassy in Rangoon and the chargé d'affaires there talks to Burmese officials. The Bush Administration tried high-level chats with the junta, too. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Eric John flew to Beijing in June 2007 to ask for the release of Burma's rightful leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The Burmese refused.
The Bush Administration's innovation was to push for higher-level, multilateral pressure on Burma at the United Nations Security Council, coupled with targeted financial sanctions against the junta's top brass. Former First Lady Laura Bush also spearheaded a public relations war, visiting refugee camps and speaking directly to the Burmese people through radio broadcasts.
Those efforts gave hope to Burma's democrats, who were brutally silenced in 1988 and again in 2007, when government forces shot into crowds of monks marching peacefully through the streets of Rangoon, calling for democracy.
The generals haven't changed their behavior since then. They later sat on their hands—or worse—while Cyclone Nargis claimed an estimated 100,000 victims. This year they put Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi through a sham trial, then threw her back under house arrest. They are now preparing for a sham election next year.
Mrs. Clinton justifies higher-level talks by claiming that sanctions "have not produced the results that had been hoped for." That is often—though not always—the case with sanctions, though it is particularly strange coming from an administration that only two months ago signed the Burma Sanctions Renewal Act. As it is, Burma is one place where wealth is so concentrated in the hands of its authoritarian elite that focused sanctions can work. The Bush-era sanctions, which targeted specific junta leaders and companies, have only recently started to bite, because it takes time to gather enough evidence to implement them.
Elevating talks with the junta to higher levels and welcoming the generals to the U.S. may look like smart diplomacy. But it is a blow to Burma's democrats, the very people the Obama Administration should care the most about.
Wall Street Journal - Embracing Burma's Generals
Burma's ruling junta is killing ethnic minorities, preparing a sham election and possibly cooperating with North Korea on a nuclear program. So what better time for the United States to elevate talks to a higher diplomatic level?
Welcome to the Obama Administration's "new" Burma policy, announced Wednesday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "Engagement versus sanctions is a false choice in our opinion," Mrs. Clinton told reporters. "Going forward we will be employing both of those tools." The White House also welcomed Burma's foreign minister last week in a little publicized visit.
This is diplomatic repackaging, par excellence. The U.S. has an embassy in Rangoon and the chargé d'affaires there talks to Burmese officials. The Bush Administration tried high-level chats with the junta, too. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Eric John flew to Beijing in June 2007 to ask for the release of Burma's rightful leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The Burmese refused.
The Bush Administration's innovation was to push for higher-level, multilateral pressure on Burma at the United Nations Security Council, coupled with targeted financial sanctions against the junta's top brass. Former First Lady Laura Bush also spearheaded a public relations war, visiting refugee camps and speaking directly to the Burmese people through radio broadcasts.
Those efforts gave hope to Burma's democrats, who were brutally silenced in 1988 and again in 2007, when government forces shot into crowds of monks marching peacefully through the streets of Rangoon, calling for democracy.
The generals haven't changed their behavior since then. They later sat on their hands—or worse—while Cyclone Nargis claimed an estimated 100,000 victims. This year they put Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi through a sham trial, then threw her back under house arrest. They are now preparing for a sham election next year.
Mrs. Clinton justifies higher-level talks by claiming that sanctions "have not produced the results that had been hoped for." That is often—though not always—the case with sanctions, though it is particularly strange coming from an administration that only two months ago signed the Burma Sanctions Renewal Act. As it is, Burma is one place where wealth is so concentrated in the hands of its authoritarian elite that focused sanctions can work. The Bush-era sanctions, which targeted specific junta leaders and companies, have only recently started to bite, because it takes time to gather enough evidence to implement them.
Elevating talks with the junta to higher levels and welcoming the generals to the U.S. may look like smart diplomacy. But it is a blow to Burma's democrats, the very people the Obama Administration should care the most about.
***************************************************************
Friday September 25, 2009
The Star - Myanmar asks Chinese to leave border area - media
BEIJING (Reuters) - Myanmar has asked Chinese citizens to leave a border area where fighting between government troops and rebel militias pushed tens of thousands of refugees into China last month, Chinese state media reported on Friday.
Myanmar has ordered at least 10,000 Chinese citizens who are in the Kokang enclave but have no legal credentials to leave by Monday, the Global Times said, citing local sources.
Rumours spread among Chinese in the border area that fighting could restart soon in areas hit by unrest, the report added.
In August, Myanmar's army overran Kokang, a territory run for years by an ethnic Chinese militia that paid little heed to the central government.
China's foreign ministry declined immediate comment on the latest reports, but on Thursday it had issued a statement warning its citizens about the dangers of Kokang.
"The Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Myanmar remind Chinese citizens and companies who are already in Northern Myanmar to pay attention to security risks," said the statement, posted on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn).
The statement also suggested Chinese citizens planning to go to Northern Myanmar should suspend their trips.
The Star - Myanmar asks Chinese to leave border area - media
BEIJING (Reuters) - Myanmar has asked Chinese citizens to leave a border area where fighting between government troops and rebel militias pushed tens of thousands of refugees into China last month, Chinese state media reported on Friday.
Myanmar has ordered at least 10,000 Chinese citizens who are in the Kokang enclave but have no legal credentials to leave by Monday, the Global Times said, citing local sources.
Rumours spread among Chinese in the border area that fighting could restart soon in areas hit by unrest, the report added.
In August, Myanmar's army overran Kokang, a territory run for years by an ethnic Chinese militia that paid little heed to the central government.
China's foreign ministry declined immediate comment on the latest reports, but on Thursday it had issued a statement warning its citizens about the dangers of Kokang.
"The Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Myanmar remind Chinese citizens and companies who are already in Northern Myanmar to pay attention to security risks," said the statement, posted on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn).
The statement also suggested Chinese citizens planning to go to Northern Myanmar should suspend their trips.
***************************************************************
POLITICS: U.S. Policy Shift on Burma Gets Mixed Reactions
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK, Sep 25 (IPS) - The shift in the United States policy towards Burma has been met with mixed reactions, with few believing it will have an impact. But the South-east Asian state’s detained opposition leader has already endorsed Washington’s move to start talks with the reclusive regime.
"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said that direct engagement is good," said her lawyer and spokesman for her party, the National League for Democracy, Nyan Win. "She accepts it, but she says that engagement must be with both sides," he told local journalists in Rangoon.
Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed Washington’s change in policy towards the junta, and that now the U.S. government would pursue a policy of engagement as well as sanctions to help bring democratic change to Burma.
"Engagement versus sanctions is a false choice in our opinion," she announced Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. "So, going forward we will be employing both of these tools ... to help achieve democratic reform, we will be engaging directly with the Burmese authorities."
"We want credible, democratic reform, a government that responds to the needs of the Burmese people, the immediate, unconditional release of political prisoners ... (and) serious dialogue with the opposition and minority ethnic groups," Clinton said.
The pro-democracy movement abroad reacted cautiously. "We must warily welcome it," said a spokesman for the exiled democratic opposition based in Thailand, Zin Linn. "We cannot expect much, but if it helps get Aung San Suu Kyi released, then it is certainly a very good move."
Inside Burma, most people are more sceptical. "Nothing can budge them (the military junta), they don’t listen to anyone, and they don’t care about anything other than themselves," a small stall holder in Rangoon, told Inter Press Service.
Most people don’t think it will work, said a Burmese journalist on condition of anonymity. "It’s an OK approach, but it’s too late – what can be done now with elections planned next year? There’s not enough time to change the generals’ minds," he said.
But for many analysts and diplomats who follow Burmese affair closely, this may be a case of the U.S. trying to have its cake and eat it. "It’s a change of style rather than substance – Mr Obama is doing the same with Pyongyang, Damascus, Havana and Tehran," said the former British ambassador to Thailand and Vietnam, Derek Tonkin. "The policy is likely to produce better results than Bush's unilateralism."
The U.S. has been reviewing its policy towards Burma ever since the new administration took office in January. In fact, state department officials say the review was ordered almost within days of Obama winning the elections. The general conclusion, though, was heavily hinted at as early as February, when Clinton told Indonesian president Susilo Yudhono on a visit to Jakarta that sanctions against Burma had not worked and a more nuanced policy towards it was needed.
The U.S. held high-level talks directly with senior representatives of the Burmese government in Beijing in July 2007, brokered by the Chinese government. A future meeting, tentatively planned for November, was scotched when the junta violently cracked down on the mass anti-government protests in Rangoon led by Buddhist monks.
"This is nothing new – it’s a return to the ‘carrot and stick’ approach of the ‘90s," said Sein Kyaw Hlaing, an editor of the Burmese dissident news website, ‘Hitpyaing’ or ‘The New Era Journal’. Then it was the World Bank and the U.N. that took the initiative and offered aid and investment incentives in return for political concessions. "It did not work then and it won’t work now," he said.
There is no doubt that in recent months the Burmese junta has begun to court the West, especially the U.S. The recent high-profile visit of the American senator Jim Webb clearly showed the junta’s interest in engaging Washington. His reception in the capital, Naypyidaw, was on par with that which is strictly reserved for visiting heads of state, according to diplomats based in Rangoon. And his welcome was even more enthusiastic than that given to the U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, when he visited Burma in July.
Burma’s neighbours and fellow members of the regional grouping ASEAN have also been encouraging the junta to seize the opportunity to reach out to Washington as it reviewed its overall policy and strategy towards the military regime. Singapore, in particular, has been at the forefront of this move. But while the generals may be keen to improve relations with the U.S., they are also keen to have sanctions lifted. As the international economic crisis and credit crunch begins to bite, they are anxious to reduce the impact sanctions have had on the country.
What Washington offers for talks with the regime may yet determine how successful this shift in U.S. policy will be. "Words are not enough," said Tonkin. "The U.S. needs to make some concrete gesture, like removing sanctions which seriously affect the people, like the embargo on garment exports."
But it is a start, according to some analysts. The sanctions policy largely failed because it was purely punitive – ratcheted up when the regime did anything unacceptable – cracking down on the monks, arresting more and more political activists, and sentencing Aung San Suu Kyi to another 18 months under house arrest on trumped-up charges – but never finding ways of reducing them.
"With this change in policy, the U.S. will have more leverage, and not just rely on pressure," Win Min, a Burmese academic at Chiang Mai University, told IPS. "It’s important to be able to talk directly to the junta, and tell them what they expect."
"Direct engagement is very important, and more effective, I think," said Nyan Win.
But so far the U.S. does not seem to be suggesting anything practical. State department officials are coy when questioned about what sort of contact and at what level was planned. Suggestions that senior U.S. diplomats, and even Clinton herself, might meet the Burmese prime minister himself when he is in New York have been dismissed. Privately, though, some government officials admit that at the moment anything is possible.
"If we (the U.S.) made any – were to make any adjustments going forward, it would be based on tangible progress by Burma," a senior U.S. state department official told journalists after the policy change was announced. So far, the most concrete step seems to be the proposed appointment of special envoys by both countries to be responsible for taking the engagement process forward.
The change in the U.S. position has been overwhelmingly welcomed in the region. Singapore foreign minister George Yeo supported the move when he spoke at the U.N. "Singapore sees the army as being part of the problem but also as a necessary part of the solution," he said. "What is required is a process of national reconciliation."
For some analysts, the change in the U.S. policy will also give Washington more influence in Asia, which has largely protected Burma from sanctions and international pressure. "With this shift in policy towards talking with the region, the U.S. will find it can rally support around the Burma issue within Asia," said Win Min. "In the past there has been a major divide between them, largely over the issue of the U.S. sanction policy – which all Asian countries oppose," believing in a policy of engagement.
Over the past 21 years since the military seized power in a bloody coup, there have been frequent attempts to find ways to get the junta to respect human rights and introduce democratic change. In the past it was the United Nations and Asia that took the initiatives – especially ASEAN and Japan. Most of these have proved to be abject failures because the regime was not interested in engaging the outside world. They were happy with their isolation.
Things have changed now and Burma’s generals realise that they must open up. The U.S.’s policy shift may just be the incentive that helps produce real change in Burma. The first test will be whether the top generals can bite the bullet and free Aung San Suu Kyi in the near future – as that is what would be seen as a real sign of progress.
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK, Sep 25 (IPS) - The shift in the United States policy towards Burma has been met with mixed reactions, with few believing it will have an impact. But the South-east Asian state’s detained opposition leader has already endorsed Washington’s move to start talks with the reclusive regime.
"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said that direct engagement is good," said her lawyer and spokesman for her party, the National League for Democracy, Nyan Win. "She accepts it, but she says that engagement must be with both sides," he told local journalists in Rangoon.
Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed Washington’s change in policy towards the junta, and that now the U.S. government would pursue a policy of engagement as well as sanctions to help bring democratic change to Burma.
"Engagement versus sanctions is a false choice in our opinion," she announced Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. "So, going forward we will be employing both of these tools ... to help achieve democratic reform, we will be engaging directly with the Burmese authorities."
"We want credible, democratic reform, a government that responds to the needs of the Burmese people, the immediate, unconditional release of political prisoners ... (and) serious dialogue with the opposition and minority ethnic groups," Clinton said.
The pro-democracy movement abroad reacted cautiously. "We must warily welcome it," said a spokesman for the exiled democratic opposition based in Thailand, Zin Linn. "We cannot expect much, but if it helps get Aung San Suu Kyi released, then it is certainly a very good move."
Inside Burma, most people are more sceptical. "Nothing can budge them (the military junta), they don’t listen to anyone, and they don’t care about anything other than themselves," a small stall holder in Rangoon, told Inter Press Service.
Most people don’t think it will work, said a Burmese journalist on condition of anonymity. "It’s an OK approach, but it’s too late – what can be done now with elections planned next year? There’s not enough time to change the generals’ minds," he said.
But for many analysts and diplomats who follow Burmese affair closely, this may be a case of the U.S. trying to have its cake and eat it. "It’s a change of style rather than substance – Mr Obama is doing the same with Pyongyang, Damascus, Havana and Tehran," said the former British ambassador to Thailand and Vietnam, Derek Tonkin. "The policy is likely to produce better results than Bush's unilateralism."
The U.S. has been reviewing its policy towards Burma ever since the new administration took office in January. In fact, state department officials say the review was ordered almost within days of Obama winning the elections. The general conclusion, though, was heavily hinted at as early as February, when Clinton told Indonesian president Susilo Yudhono on a visit to Jakarta that sanctions against Burma had not worked and a more nuanced policy towards it was needed.
The U.S. held high-level talks directly with senior representatives of the Burmese government in Beijing in July 2007, brokered by the Chinese government. A future meeting, tentatively planned for November, was scotched when the junta violently cracked down on the mass anti-government protests in Rangoon led by Buddhist monks.
"This is nothing new – it’s a return to the ‘carrot and stick’ approach of the ‘90s," said Sein Kyaw Hlaing, an editor of the Burmese dissident news website, ‘Hitpyaing’ or ‘The New Era Journal’. Then it was the World Bank and the U.N. that took the initiative and offered aid and investment incentives in return for political concessions. "It did not work then and it won’t work now," he said.
There is no doubt that in recent months the Burmese junta has begun to court the West, especially the U.S. The recent high-profile visit of the American senator Jim Webb clearly showed the junta’s interest in engaging Washington. His reception in the capital, Naypyidaw, was on par with that which is strictly reserved for visiting heads of state, according to diplomats based in Rangoon. And his welcome was even more enthusiastic than that given to the U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, when he visited Burma in July.
Burma’s neighbours and fellow members of the regional grouping ASEAN have also been encouraging the junta to seize the opportunity to reach out to Washington as it reviewed its overall policy and strategy towards the military regime. Singapore, in particular, has been at the forefront of this move. But while the generals may be keen to improve relations with the U.S., they are also keen to have sanctions lifted. As the international economic crisis and credit crunch begins to bite, they are anxious to reduce the impact sanctions have had on the country.
What Washington offers for talks with the regime may yet determine how successful this shift in U.S. policy will be. "Words are not enough," said Tonkin. "The U.S. needs to make some concrete gesture, like removing sanctions which seriously affect the people, like the embargo on garment exports."
But it is a start, according to some analysts. The sanctions policy largely failed because it was purely punitive – ratcheted up when the regime did anything unacceptable – cracking down on the monks, arresting more and more political activists, and sentencing Aung San Suu Kyi to another 18 months under house arrest on trumped-up charges – but never finding ways of reducing them.
"With this change in policy, the U.S. will have more leverage, and not just rely on pressure," Win Min, a Burmese academic at Chiang Mai University, told IPS. "It’s important to be able to talk directly to the junta, and tell them what they expect."
"Direct engagement is very important, and more effective, I think," said Nyan Win.
But so far the U.S. does not seem to be suggesting anything practical. State department officials are coy when questioned about what sort of contact and at what level was planned. Suggestions that senior U.S. diplomats, and even Clinton herself, might meet the Burmese prime minister himself when he is in New York have been dismissed. Privately, though, some government officials admit that at the moment anything is possible.
"If we (the U.S.) made any – were to make any adjustments going forward, it would be based on tangible progress by Burma," a senior U.S. state department official told journalists after the policy change was announced. So far, the most concrete step seems to be the proposed appointment of special envoys by both countries to be responsible for taking the engagement process forward.
The change in the U.S. position has been overwhelmingly welcomed in the region. Singapore foreign minister George Yeo supported the move when he spoke at the U.N. "Singapore sees the army as being part of the problem but also as a necessary part of the solution," he said. "What is required is a process of national reconciliation."
For some analysts, the change in the U.S. policy will also give Washington more influence in Asia, which has largely protected Burma from sanctions and international pressure. "With this shift in policy towards talking with the region, the U.S. will find it can rally support around the Burma issue within Asia," said Win Min. "In the past there has been a major divide between them, largely over the issue of the U.S. sanction policy – which all Asian countries oppose," believing in a policy of engagement.
Over the past 21 years since the military seized power in a bloody coup, there have been frequent attempts to find ways to get the junta to respect human rights and introduce democratic change. In the past it was the United Nations and Asia that took the initiatives – especially ASEAN and Japan. Most of these have proved to be abject failures because the regime was not interested in engaging the outside world. They were happy with their isolation.
Things have changed now and Burma’s generals realise that they must open up. The U.S.’s policy shift may just be the incentive that helps produce real change in Burma. The first test will be whether the top generals can bite the bullet and free Aung San Suu Kyi in the near future – as that is what would be seen as a real sign of progress.
***************************************************************
All hotels in beach resort to reopen in Myanmar next month
www.chinaview.cn 2009-09-25 18:50:16
YANGON, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- All hotels in a famous beach resort in Myanmar's southwestern Ayeyawaddy division will reopen next month after it has been closed for non-tourism season, hotel sources said on Friday.
As it is approaching the open season with public holidays falling and packed with traditional festivals, the opening date of Ngwe Saung resort hotel is set for Oct. 1, the sources said, adding that, unlike the previous years, the beach resort will add more interesting entertainment programs for local and foreign travelers as it coincides with the 10th anniversary of the opening of the beach.
Meanwhile, an airport at Ngwesaung is being planned to facilitate the visitors the tourist site which is 46 km from Pathein, capital city of the division.
On completion of the airport project, a three-hour drive from Yangon to reach Ngwesaung will be replaced by minutes' flight.
With a coast of extending as about 14 kilometers, the Ngwesaung stands the nearest beach resort from Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar, attracting a large number of foreign visitors rather thanlocal's, hoteliers said, revealing that the number of tourists coming to Ngwesaung exceeded that arriving at Ngapali, another famous resort in western Rakhine state.
Once the airport is built, the Ngwesaung beach resort will become the second which is accessible by air after Ngapali.
There is also other famous resort, which is Chaungtha in the same Ayeyawaddy division.
Myanmar's tourism business started to drop near the end of 2007and continued in 2008 during which deadly cyclone Nargis was experienced. Moreover, the global financial crisis, which sparked in late 2008, also delayed Myanmar's tourism development.
According to official statistics, tourist arrivals in Myanmar in the fiscal year 2008-09, which ended in March, totaled over 255,280.
The country targets a tourist arrival of 1 million in the present 2009-10 fiscal year which began in April.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-09-25 18:50:16
YANGON, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- All hotels in a famous beach resort in Myanmar's southwestern Ayeyawaddy division will reopen next month after it has been closed for non-tourism season, hotel sources said on Friday.
As it is approaching the open season with public holidays falling and packed with traditional festivals, the opening date of Ngwe Saung resort hotel is set for Oct. 1, the sources said, adding that, unlike the previous years, the beach resort will add more interesting entertainment programs for local and foreign travelers as it coincides with the 10th anniversary of the opening of the beach.
Meanwhile, an airport at Ngwesaung is being planned to facilitate the visitors the tourist site which is 46 km from Pathein, capital city of the division.
On completion of the airport project, a three-hour drive from Yangon to reach Ngwesaung will be replaced by minutes' flight.
With a coast of extending as about 14 kilometers, the Ngwesaung stands the nearest beach resort from Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar, attracting a large number of foreign visitors rather thanlocal's, hoteliers said, revealing that the number of tourists coming to Ngwesaung exceeded that arriving at Ngapali, another famous resort in western Rakhine state.
Once the airport is built, the Ngwesaung beach resort will become the second which is accessible by air after Ngapali.
There is also other famous resort, which is Chaungtha in the same Ayeyawaddy division.
Myanmar's tourism business started to drop near the end of 2007and continued in 2008 during which deadly cyclone Nargis was experienced. Moreover, the global financial crisis, which sparked in late 2008, also delayed Myanmar's tourism development.
According to official statistics, tourist arrivals in Myanmar in the fiscal year 2008-09, which ended in March, totaled over 255,280.
The country targets a tourist arrival of 1 million in the present 2009-10 fiscal year which began in April.
***************************************************************
The Nation - PTT exports lubricants to Burma
September 25, 2009
PTT Plc has appointed a lubricant distributor in Burma, through the 5-year agreement signed yesterday with Tunn Star Co Ltd.
It is expected lubricant sale volume would reach 5 million litres per annum in 2010.
PTT first started exporting its lubricant products in 2005 and the products are now available in the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Greece, Pakistan, Nigeria, New Zealand and China.
PTT Plc has appointed a lubricant distributor in Burma, through the 5-year agreement signed yesterday with Tunn Star Co Ltd.
It is expected lubricant sale volume would reach 5 million litres per annum in 2010.
PTT first started exporting its lubricant products in 2005 and the products are now available in the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Greece, Pakistan, Nigeria, New Zealand and China.
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FMs of Japan and Mekong countries to meet in Cambodia
By Rasmei Kampuchea
Asia News Network
September 25, 2009
Ministers from Mekong countries and Japan will meet for the second time from October 2 to 3 in Siem Reap following the first meeting in Tokyo last year, according to Cambodian Foreign Ministry's press release.
Foreign ministers from Japan, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam are going to revise the progress of cooperation between the Mekong countries and Japan which started in 2007.
The press release of Cambodia's foreign ministry said that the second meeting will focus on the cooperation of the emerald triangle between three countries: Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. "At the same time, they will define the new cooperation in order to achieve the reduction policy and sustainable development", said the statement.
The meeting will be organized at a time when the Mekong River Commission countries (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos) have built a lot of hydro power dams. In fact, the dam construction generates economic benefit, but environmentalists worry about the negative impact on the environment.
By Rasmei Kampuchea
Asia News Network
September 25, 2009
Ministers from Mekong countries and Japan will meet for the second time from October 2 to 3 in Siem Reap following the first meeting in Tokyo last year, according to Cambodian Foreign Ministry's press release.
Foreign ministers from Japan, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam are going to revise the progress of cooperation between the Mekong countries and Japan which started in 2007.
The press release of Cambodia's foreign ministry said that the second meeting will focus on the cooperation of the emerald triangle between three countries: Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. "At the same time, they will define the new cooperation in order to achieve the reduction policy and sustainable development", said the statement.
The meeting will be organized at a time when the Mekong River Commission countries (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos) have built a lot of hydro power dams. In fact, the dam construction generates economic benefit, but environmentalists worry about the negative impact on the environment.
***************************************************************
SILive - 6 Myanmar migrants die in Malaysia detention
9/24/2009, 10:49 p.m. EDT
JULIA ZAPPEI, The Associated Press
(AP) — KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - An official says six Myamnar migrants have died while in detention in Malaysia because of a suspected waterborne disease caused by rat urine.
The immigration department official says the six men-detained for being in Malaysia illegally-fell ill last month. They died in hospital days later. All six had complained of severe internal aches.
The official said Friday the detainees were believed to have contracted leptospirosis, a disease from water contaminated by rat urine.
He said the detainees likely contracted the disease in another center. They were transferred together with some 700 others after a riot there.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.
9/24/2009, 10:49 p.m. EDT
JULIA ZAPPEI, The Associated Press
(AP) — KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - An official says six Myamnar migrants have died while in detention in Malaysia because of a suspected waterborne disease caused by rat urine.
The immigration department official says the six men-detained for being in Malaysia illegally-fell ill last month. They died in hospital days later. All six had complained of severe internal aches.
The official said Friday the detainees were believed to have contracted leptospirosis, a disease from water contaminated by rat urine.
He said the detainees likely contracted the disease in another center. They were transferred together with some 700 others after a riot there.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.
***************************************************************
Asian Tribune - Features: Will the US Forsake Burma?
Fri, 2009-09-25 01:34 — editor
Kanbawza Win
Will America betrayed the Burmese cause, is the big question in the minds of every Burmese even though they may not speak out? A review of US policy announce by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that Obama administration has decided to engage directly with Junta as part of international efforts to promote democracy, but sanctions will remain employing both tools.
The very fact that the announcement of the new American policy towards Burma takes more than nine months proves that there was a heated debate among helm of the American policy makers. The ethno-democratic forces are not opposed to a direct talk as only with mixture of dialogue and pressure through sanctions and public criticism will nudge these Burmese men in uniform to a right direction.
One can see the writings on the walls when for the first time in nine years, the U S allowed Burma's Foreign Minister Nyan Win to come to Washington, a sign of softening U.S. policy toward the military Junta that has trampled the country for half a century. He met with U.S.-Asian business council and Sen. James Webb, the Virginia Democrat who has advocated closer ties to the Junta. Nyan Win's 24-hour sojourn appears to be part of a new policy by the Obama administration towards Burma of warmly shaking the hands soak with blood.
It is already known that Gen. Thein Sein, is schedule to appear at the ongoing U.N. G. A. In New York, and is expected to meet there with Kurt M. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs. The Junta has responded by releasing 120 political prisoners out of 2,000 and is rumoured to be looking for a new effective lobbying firm for lobbying was taken seriously by the Burmese regime six years ago, when the junta paid the Washington-based DCI Group $348,000 to lobby on its behalf. This time they are ready to give millions of dollars to any successful firm and maybe Webb can help them find one.
James Webb, a one-man blur of diplomatic activity usually considered as a bull in a China shop, gallivanting around Asia upsetting the delicate balance the Washington foreign-policy, did not even comprehend the difference between the words “Myanmar” and “Burma.” For clarity sake let me emphasis that the word MyAnMar originated from the South Indian word “Mramar” if originality is to be emphasised, later in the Burmese language it was known as Myanmah ending with “h”. The ending “mah” is pronounced softly as in the second syllable of the word “mother” in the English language. Literally translated it should be Myanma Naing Ngan, meaning the country of Myanma. The Generals, quite illiterate in the English language put “r” at the end to please their fancies. Even in the contemporary history of Burma, Bogyoke Aung San, the architect of modern Burma, (father of the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) that initiated the independence movement founded Doh Bama Asaiyone and not the Do Myanmar Asaiyone.
The Romanized version of the Burmese Generals in changing the fair name of the country by decree and forcing everyone within its clutch to comply stems from the illusion that names in English could be changed by dictators. Sweden calls itself, as Severige, Germany as Deutschland, Spain as Espania, China as Chung Gao and so forth but the world recognizes them in their English names. So why should the free world now acquiesce to the crassness of these narco generals? Besides the Union of Burma is made up of so many tribes and national ethnic races that came to consensus in 1947 (Panglong Agreement) to found the Union of Burma, and does not belong only to the Myanma race only but to every ethnic nationalities residing in the country.
Most of the Burmese Generals belong to this major race called Myanmar and Myanmarnization over the other ethnic races is seen as a prelude to help justify their grip to power. This is the embryo and crux of why ethnic cleansing is still going on. It is somewhat similar to the Khmer Rouge changing the name of Cambodia to Kampuchea, or the Sinhalese chauvinist who changed from Ceylon to Sri Lanka leaving out the Tamils with tragic consequences. Hence the word MyAnMar is both phonetically and politically wrong. So when Webb (describe by his supporters as extensive experience in Asia) acquiesce to the theory that dictators can change the name of the country, the only conclusion is that he is indirectly encouraging the Generals in their ethnic cleansing policy.
He is schedule to hold a hearing on 1st Oct to evaluate the effectiveness of the US approach. Webb's office said the hearing "will examine Burma’s current economic and political situation and discuss how the country’s long history of internal turmoil and ethnic conflicts has affected the development of democracy," One wonders whether the English saying of ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ will come true that Burma is not a monolithic whole but a cluster of principalities before it become part of the British empire. The ethnic nationalities join the Myanmar group to gain independence from Britain known as the Panglong Agreement in Feb.
1947 to form the Union of Burma as a test case and if not satisfactory can secede from the Union was explicitly written in the Union Constitution. It was initiated by General Aung San the father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi whose family tradition the people trusted. Hence the country belongs not only to the Myanmar group but also the non Myanmar. If Webb has known this I am quite positive that he would get the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi instead of Yetaw.
Senator Webb`s writings in the “New York Times” China has dramatically increase its economic and political influence in Myanmar, furthering a dangerous strategic imbalance in the region, clearly indicates engagement with the egregious Burmese regime through economic opening because sanctions have failed. Even though it proves that his advocacy is rough riding shod over the Burmese people’s struggle for genuine democracy and human rights it hurt the core of American values founded by the Great American leaders as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. No doubt apologist Professor David Steinberg of Georgetown University applauded him when he wrote in the “Asia Times”We should applaud the modest beginning Sen. Webb’s visit has created, and explore its positive ramifications and blamed leading Burmese freedom fighters U Win Tin and U Pyinya Zawta who have risk their lives for freedom and democracy -- of “missing the point of Webb’s visit.” The one irrefutable conclusion from these critics is that nobody can shake their theory of their business overruling their conscious.
Webb has surprised Burma-watchers around the world when he declared that Suu Kyi was on board with his plan to coddle Burma's repressive regime by dropping U.S. sanctions. But later it was discovered that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had not discussed the sanctions with anyone. Yet Webb still stands by his "impression and comment “Only the people who were in the meeting know what was said." Imagine if South Africa's apartheid regime had granted segregationist Senator James Eastland access to an imprisoned Nelson Mandela only to have Eastland emerge and declare that Mandela was a strong advocate for closer relations between their two countries.
Why Senator Webb is shilling for the Junta (and some of his friends in the business community) and trying to leverage Suu Kyi's moral authority to get sanctions dropped.
Perhaps “Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason, than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear.” if I were to quote Hannah Arendt words. In the current American political landscape, truth is not merely misrepresented or falsified; it is overtly mocked.
As is well known, the Bush administration repeatedly lied to the American public, furthering a legacy of government mistrust while carrying the practice of distortion to new and almost unimaginable heights, such as Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, Iraq was making deals with al-Qaeda and, perhaps the most infamous of all, the United States did not engage in torture. All these are still fresh in the Burmese minds.
“Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings." For instance, when the government wasn't lying to promote dangerous policies, it willfully produced and circulated fake news reports in order to provide the illusion that the lies and the policies that flowed from them were supported by selective members of the media and the larger public. The previous US administrations deceits and lies were almost never challenged by right-wing media "patriots," who were too busy denouncing as un-American anyone who questioned Bush's official stream of deception and deceit.
While lying, misrepresentation and the deliberate denial of truth become acceptable practices firmly entrenched in the Wild West of talk radio, cable television and the dominant media. Fact finding, arguments bolstered by evidence and informed analysis have always been fragile entities, but they risk annihilation in a culture in which it becomes difficult to distinguish between an opinion and an argument. Knowledge is increasingly controlled by a handful of corporations and public relations firms and is systemically cleansed of any complexity. Lying and deceitfulness are all too often viewed as just another acceptable tactic in what has become most visibly the pathology of politics and a theater of cruelty dominated by a growing chorus of media hate mongers inflaming an authoritarian populist rage laced with a not too subtle bigotry.
Lying and deception have become so commonplace in the dominant press that such practices appear to have no moral significance and provoke few misgivings, even when they have important political consequences.
I thought that, “Lying the very concept of truth” is the monopoly of the Burmese Junta but was surprised when I discovered that Lying as common sense and deceit as politics-as-usual joins the embrace of provocation in a coupling that empties politics and agency of any substance and feeds into a corporate state and militarized culture in which matters of judgment, morality, thoughtfulness, and compassion seem to disappear from public view. What is the social cost of such flight from reality, if not the death of democratic politics, critical thought and civic agency? When a society loses sight of the distinction between fact and fiction, truth-telling and lying, what happens is that truth, critical thought and fact finding as conditions of democracy are rendered trivial and reduced to a collection of mere platitudes, which in turn reinforces moral indifference and political impotence. Under such circumstances, language actually becomes the mechanism for promoting political powerlessness.
Webb’s version of Truth and his hypothesis vis a vis China will drive the people of Burma more into the Chinese arms as they would see that China is the lesser evil if compared to the United States that has a good record of betraying democracy and human rights. The people of Burma remembers that Dick Cheney, who has invested in Burma once referred to torture as "enhanced interrogation" so as to sugarcoat its brutality, and then appeared on national television in 2009 only to defend torture by arguing that if such practices work, they are perfectly justified, even if they violate the law. This is the same Cheney who, appearing on the May 31, 2005, "Larry King Live" show, attempted to repudiate charges of government torture by claiming, without irony, that the detainees "have been well treated, treated humanely and decently." This type of discourse recalls George Orwell's dystopian world of "1984" in which the Ministry of Truth produces lies and the Ministry of Love tortures people. In such an atmosphere will the people of Burma placed their hope on the US?
Fri, 2009-09-25 01:34 — editor
Kanbawza Win
Will America betrayed the Burmese cause, is the big question in the minds of every Burmese even though they may not speak out? A review of US policy announce by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that Obama administration has decided to engage directly with Junta as part of international efforts to promote democracy, but sanctions will remain employing both tools.
The very fact that the announcement of the new American policy towards Burma takes more than nine months proves that there was a heated debate among helm of the American policy makers. The ethno-democratic forces are not opposed to a direct talk as only with mixture of dialogue and pressure through sanctions and public criticism will nudge these Burmese men in uniform to a right direction.
One can see the writings on the walls when for the first time in nine years, the U S allowed Burma's Foreign Minister Nyan Win to come to Washington, a sign of softening U.S. policy toward the military Junta that has trampled the country for half a century. He met with U.S.-Asian business council and Sen. James Webb, the Virginia Democrat who has advocated closer ties to the Junta. Nyan Win's 24-hour sojourn appears to be part of a new policy by the Obama administration towards Burma of warmly shaking the hands soak with blood.
It is already known that Gen. Thein Sein, is schedule to appear at the ongoing U.N. G. A. In New York, and is expected to meet there with Kurt M. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs. The Junta has responded by releasing 120 political prisoners out of 2,000 and is rumoured to be looking for a new effective lobbying firm for lobbying was taken seriously by the Burmese regime six years ago, when the junta paid the Washington-based DCI Group $348,000 to lobby on its behalf. This time they are ready to give millions of dollars to any successful firm and maybe Webb can help them find one.
James Webb, a one-man blur of diplomatic activity usually considered as a bull in a China shop, gallivanting around Asia upsetting the delicate balance the Washington foreign-policy, did not even comprehend the difference between the words “Myanmar” and “Burma.” For clarity sake let me emphasis that the word MyAnMar originated from the South Indian word “Mramar” if originality is to be emphasised, later in the Burmese language it was known as Myanmah ending with “h”. The ending “mah” is pronounced softly as in the second syllable of the word “mother” in the English language. Literally translated it should be Myanma Naing Ngan, meaning the country of Myanma. The Generals, quite illiterate in the English language put “r” at the end to please their fancies. Even in the contemporary history of Burma, Bogyoke Aung San, the architect of modern Burma, (father of the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) that initiated the independence movement founded Doh Bama Asaiyone and not the Do Myanmar Asaiyone.
The Romanized version of the Burmese Generals in changing the fair name of the country by decree and forcing everyone within its clutch to comply stems from the illusion that names in English could be changed by dictators. Sweden calls itself, as Severige, Germany as Deutschland, Spain as Espania, China as Chung Gao and so forth but the world recognizes them in their English names. So why should the free world now acquiesce to the crassness of these narco generals? Besides the Union of Burma is made up of so many tribes and national ethnic races that came to consensus in 1947 (Panglong Agreement) to found the Union of Burma, and does not belong only to the Myanma race only but to every ethnic nationalities residing in the country.
Most of the Burmese Generals belong to this major race called Myanmar and Myanmarnization over the other ethnic races is seen as a prelude to help justify their grip to power. This is the embryo and crux of why ethnic cleansing is still going on. It is somewhat similar to the Khmer Rouge changing the name of Cambodia to Kampuchea, or the Sinhalese chauvinist who changed from Ceylon to Sri Lanka leaving out the Tamils with tragic consequences. Hence the word MyAnMar is both phonetically and politically wrong. So when Webb (describe by his supporters as extensive experience in Asia) acquiesce to the theory that dictators can change the name of the country, the only conclusion is that he is indirectly encouraging the Generals in their ethnic cleansing policy.
He is schedule to hold a hearing on 1st Oct to evaluate the effectiveness of the US approach. Webb's office said the hearing "will examine Burma’s current economic and political situation and discuss how the country’s long history of internal turmoil and ethnic conflicts has affected the development of democracy," One wonders whether the English saying of ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ will come true that Burma is not a monolithic whole but a cluster of principalities before it become part of the British empire. The ethnic nationalities join the Myanmar group to gain independence from Britain known as the Panglong Agreement in Feb.
1947 to form the Union of Burma as a test case and if not satisfactory can secede from the Union was explicitly written in the Union Constitution. It was initiated by General Aung San the father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi whose family tradition the people trusted. Hence the country belongs not only to the Myanmar group but also the non Myanmar. If Webb has known this I am quite positive that he would get the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi instead of Yetaw.
Senator Webb`s writings in the “New York Times” China has dramatically increase its economic and political influence in Myanmar, furthering a dangerous strategic imbalance in the region, clearly indicates engagement with the egregious Burmese regime through economic opening because sanctions have failed. Even though it proves that his advocacy is rough riding shod over the Burmese people’s struggle for genuine democracy and human rights it hurt the core of American values founded by the Great American leaders as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. No doubt apologist Professor David Steinberg of Georgetown University applauded him when he wrote in the “Asia Times”We should applaud the modest beginning Sen. Webb’s visit has created, and explore its positive ramifications and blamed leading Burmese freedom fighters U Win Tin and U Pyinya Zawta who have risk their lives for freedom and democracy -- of “missing the point of Webb’s visit.” The one irrefutable conclusion from these critics is that nobody can shake their theory of their business overruling their conscious.
Webb has surprised Burma-watchers around the world when he declared that Suu Kyi was on board with his plan to coddle Burma's repressive regime by dropping U.S. sanctions. But later it was discovered that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had not discussed the sanctions with anyone. Yet Webb still stands by his "impression and comment “Only the people who were in the meeting know what was said." Imagine if South Africa's apartheid regime had granted segregationist Senator James Eastland access to an imprisoned Nelson Mandela only to have Eastland emerge and declare that Mandela was a strong advocate for closer relations between their two countries.
Why Senator Webb is shilling for the Junta (and some of his friends in the business community) and trying to leverage Suu Kyi's moral authority to get sanctions dropped.
Perhaps “Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason, than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear.” if I were to quote Hannah Arendt words. In the current American political landscape, truth is not merely misrepresented or falsified; it is overtly mocked.
As is well known, the Bush administration repeatedly lied to the American public, furthering a legacy of government mistrust while carrying the practice of distortion to new and almost unimaginable heights, such as Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, Iraq was making deals with al-Qaeda and, perhaps the most infamous of all, the United States did not engage in torture. All these are still fresh in the Burmese minds.
“Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings." For instance, when the government wasn't lying to promote dangerous policies, it willfully produced and circulated fake news reports in order to provide the illusion that the lies and the policies that flowed from them were supported by selective members of the media and the larger public. The previous US administrations deceits and lies were almost never challenged by right-wing media "patriots," who were too busy denouncing as un-American anyone who questioned Bush's official stream of deception and deceit.
While lying, misrepresentation and the deliberate denial of truth become acceptable practices firmly entrenched in the Wild West of talk radio, cable television and the dominant media. Fact finding, arguments bolstered by evidence and informed analysis have always been fragile entities, but they risk annihilation in a culture in which it becomes difficult to distinguish between an opinion and an argument. Knowledge is increasingly controlled by a handful of corporations and public relations firms and is systemically cleansed of any complexity. Lying and deceitfulness are all too often viewed as just another acceptable tactic in what has become most visibly the pathology of politics and a theater of cruelty dominated by a growing chorus of media hate mongers inflaming an authoritarian populist rage laced with a not too subtle bigotry.
Lying and deception have become so commonplace in the dominant press that such practices appear to have no moral significance and provoke few misgivings, even when they have important political consequences.
I thought that, “Lying the very concept of truth” is the monopoly of the Burmese Junta but was surprised when I discovered that Lying as common sense and deceit as politics-as-usual joins the embrace of provocation in a coupling that empties politics and agency of any substance and feeds into a corporate state and militarized culture in which matters of judgment, morality, thoughtfulness, and compassion seem to disappear from public view. What is the social cost of such flight from reality, if not the death of democratic politics, critical thought and civic agency? When a society loses sight of the distinction between fact and fiction, truth-telling and lying, what happens is that truth, critical thought and fact finding as conditions of democracy are rendered trivial and reduced to a collection of mere platitudes, which in turn reinforces moral indifference and political impotence. Under such circumstances, language actually becomes the mechanism for promoting political powerlessness.
Webb’s version of Truth and his hypothesis vis a vis China will drive the people of Burma more into the Chinese arms as they would see that China is the lesser evil if compared to the United States that has a good record of betraying democracy and human rights. The people of Burma remembers that Dick Cheney, who has invested in Burma once referred to torture as "enhanced interrogation" so as to sugarcoat its brutality, and then appeared on national television in 2009 only to defend torture by arguing that if such practices work, they are perfectly justified, even if they violate the law. This is the same Cheney who, appearing on the May 31, 2005, "Larry King Live" show, attempted to repudiate charges of government torture by claiming, without irony, that the detainees "have been well treated, treated humanely and decently." This type of discourse recalls George Orwell's dystopian world of "1984" in which the Ministry of Truth produces lies and the Ministry of Love tortures people. In such an atmosphere will the people of Burma placed their hope on the US?
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Pittsburgh Tribune Review - Religious groups rally around Pittsburgh
By staff writers Chris Ramirez, Jill King Greenwood and Carl Prine
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Religious groups gathered in the North Side and Strip District this morning to protest human rights violations in Asia as the group of 20 economic summit prepared to begin.
More than 100 people gathered in the Strip District this morning to demand freedom to practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. Their peaceful protest, which started about 8 a.m., was held in the shadow of the Senator John Heinz History Center near 12th and Smallman streets.
The protesters, wearing yellow shirts that said "Falun Dafa is Good," spent much of their time in meditation, seated with their arms and legs crossed in a hotel parking lot.
Aside from the protesters, a small group of journalists was on hand to observe the demonstration.
Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice with more than 100 million followers, most of them in China, where followers face government persecution, according to the Falun Dafa Association. It draws on elements of both Buddhism and Taoism.
Meanwhile, 15 Burmese monks and about 40 supporters gathered in the Mexican War Streets to protest human rights conditions in Myanmar.
The monks wore reddish-orange robes and held signs — some read "Free Burma" while others displayed photos of jailed leader Aung San Suu Kyi — as they marched from Sampsonia Street through West Park toward Point State Park.
"We want to give a voice to the world leaders," said U Kovida, a leader in the Saffron Rangoon Revolution and a Buddhist monk. "Obama says change. We don't need change in Washington D.C. We need change and help in Burma."
In the Strip District, demonstrators quietly held up banners faced toward the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, separated from the Chinese delegation inside by steel fences, a phalanx of police officers and a curtain that was drawn so that no one inside could see the protesters holding their vigil.
"They know that we are here, even if they refuse to look at us," said Dr. Crystal Fang, a Philadelphia psychiatrist who said she is blacklisted by the Chinese government.
Spokespeople for the Chinese delegation attending the G-20 conference declined comment.
Anna Dong and her 9-year-old son held a blue and white banner reading "Stop Persecuting Falun Gong" under an overcast sky. She spoke of sexual brutality committed by Chinese secret police against her while she was imprisoned for two years.
"I became a practitioner in 1994," recalled Dong, a refugee from Anhui Province living in Philadelphia. "In the beginning, everyone said that Falun Dafa was good, even the government. But that changed."
Dong said she incurred the wrath of communist authorities in 2001, six years after a nationwide crackdown on the religion. She said she spent a year in jail. A former restaurant manager, she said she's concerned about her neighbors in Anhui Province.
"Look, in China I held up a banner and I was arrested," she said. "I didn't have the opportunity to peacefully say, 'Falun Dafa is good.' Here, in Pittsburgh, I'm in a democracy. I can hold up a banner and say, 'Falun Dafa is good.' "
By staff writers Chris Ramirez, Jill King Greenwood and Carl Prine
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Religious groups gathered in the North Side and Strip District this morning to protest human rights violations in Asia as the group of 20 economic summit prepared to begin.
More than 100 people gathered in the Strip District this morning to demand freedom to practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. Their peaceful protest, which started about 8 a.m., was held in the shadow of the Senator John Heinz History Center near 12th and Smallman streets.
The protesters, wearing yellow shirts that said "Falun Dafa is Good," spent much of their time in meditation, seated with their arms and legs crossed in a hotel parking lot.
Aside from the protesters, a small group of journalists was on hand to observe the demonstration.
Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice with more than 100 million followers, most of them in China, where followers face government persecution, according to the Falun Dafa Association. It draws on elements of both Buddhism and Taoism.
Meanwhile, 15 Burmese monks and about 40 supporters gathered in the Mexican War Streets to protest human rights conditions in Myanmar.
The monks wore reddish-orange robes and held signs — some read "Free Burma" while others displayed photos of jailed leader Aung San Suu Kyi — as they marched from Sampsonia Street through West Park toward Point State Park.
"We want to give a voice to the world leaders," said U Kovida, a leader in the Saffron Rangoon Revolution and a Buddhist monk. "Obama says change. We don't need change in Washington D.C. We need change and help in Burma."
In the Strip District, demonstrators quietly held up banners faced toward the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, separated from the Chinese delegation inside by steel fences, a phalanx of police officers and a curtain that was drawn so that no one inside could see the protesters holding their vigil.
"They know that we are here, even if they refuse to look at us," said Dr. Crystal Fang, a Philadelphia psychiatrist who said she is blacklisted by the Chinese government.
Spokespeople for the Chinese delegation attending the G-20 conference declined comment.
Anna Dong and her 9-year-old son held a blue and white banner reading "Stop Persecuting Falun Gong" under an overcast sky. She spoke of sexual brutality committed by Chinese secret police against her while she was imprisoned for two years.
"I became a practitioner in 1994," recalled Dong, a refugee from Anhui Province living in Philadelphia. "In the beginning, everyone said that Falun Dafa was good, even the government. But that changed."
Dong said she incurred the wrath of communist authorities in 2001, six years after a nationwide crackdown on the religion. She said she spent a year in jail. A former restaurant manager, she said she's concerned about her neighbors in Anhui Province.
"Look, in China I held up a banner and I was arrested," she said. "I didn't have the opportunity to peacefully say, 'Falun Dafa is good.' Here, in Pittsburgh, I'm in a democracy. I can hold up a banner and say, 'Falun Dafa is good.' "
***************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Campbell to Lead US Burma Engagement
By LALIT K JHA, Friday, September 25, 2009
WASHINGTON—The Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, will be leading US policy for Burma as of now, and more interlocutors would be announced in the coming days to engage with the military junta and Burmese people, Ian Kelly, the spokesman for the US State Department, said on Thursday.
“Right now, it’s Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell [leading the Burma policy],” said Kelly. “I think that there will be other interlocutors who will be named soon as well.”
The new Burma Policy, which was previewed by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before the 14-member UN Secretary General’s Friends on Burma at the UN headquarters in New York, entails both sanctions and engagement simultaneously.
The details of the policy are expected to be announced by Campbell on Friday.
“The end goal for our policy has not changed. Our goal is credible democratic reform in Burma,” Kelly said.
“We want a government that responds to the needs of its people; a government that frees political prisoners unconditionally, including Aung San Suu Kyi; and the start of a dialogue, of a constructive dialogue, with the political opposition there,” he said.
Reiterating that sanctions would continue to be part of the new policy, Kelly said: “But sanctions or isolation has not, in and of themselves, produced the kind of result that we’ve been looking for.”
Referring to the statement made by Clinton at the UN on Wednesday, Kelly said: “We believe this dichotomy, this sanctions versus engagement, is a false dichotomy, that we shouldn’t have to choose between one or the other.”
The US administration, Kelly said, wants to employ both pressure and engagement dealing with the Burmese government.
“As I said before, what we want is what the international community wants, and that’s genuine democratic reform in Burma,” he said.
By LALIT K JHA, Friday, September 25, 2009
WASHINGTON—The Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, will be leading US policy for Burma as of now, and more interlocutors would be announced in the coming days to engage with the military junta and Burmese people, Ian Kelly, the spokesman for the US State Department, said on Thursday.
“Right now, it’s Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell [leading the Burma policy],” said Kelly. “I think that there will be other interlocutors who will be named soon as well.”
The new Burma Policy, which was previewed by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before the 14-member UN Secretary General’s Friends on Burma at the UN headquarters in New York, entails both sanctions and engagement simultaneously.
The details of the policy are expected to be announced by Campbell on Friday.
“The end goal for our policy has not changed. Our goal is credible democratic reform in Burma,” Kelly said.
“We want a government that responds to the needs of its people; a government that frees political prisoners unconditionally, including Aung San Suu Kyi; and the start of a dialogue, of a constructive dialogue, with the political opposition there,” he said.
Reiterating that sanctions would continue to be part of the new policy, Kelly said: “But sanctions or isolation has not, in and of themselves, produced the kind of result that we’ve been looking for.”
Referring to the statement made by Clinton at the UN on Wednesday, Kelly said: “We believe this dichotomy, this sanctions versus engagement, is a false dichotomy, that we shouldn’t have to choose between one or the other.”
The US administration, Kelly said, wants to employ both pressure and engagement dealing with the Burmese government.
“As I said before, what we want is what the international community wants, and that’s genuine democratic reform in Burma,” he said.
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Mizzima News - ICRC should revisit Burmese jails: AHRC
by Salai Pi Pi
Friday, 25 September 2009 20:32
New Delhi (Mizzima) - The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has urged the international community to mount pressure on Burma’s ruling junta to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to resume visits to detention centres, where widespread torture and abuses have been reported.
The Hong Kong-based, Rights group, in a statement on Thursday said maximum efforts are needed to renew the mandate of the ICRC in getting access to detention centres across Burma without delay, as some detainees have been tortured during interrogation.
“The physical and mental injuries caused in this period were either not adequately treated or not treated at all during the detainees' incarceration, causing some of them lifelong damage,” AHRC said.
AHRC’s call came following the release of about 120 political prisoners, as part of the Burmese military regime’s amnesty granted to 7,114 prisoners, on humanitarian grounds. The AHRC’s statement was supported by several political prisoners, who are among those released.
Myo Yan Naung Thein, a student activist, who was arrested in September 2007 and released as part of the amnesty told Mizzima he was severely beaten while questioning and was insulted.
“I was blind folded and was taken somewhere. As soon as I reached the interrogation centre, they all started kicking me,” he said.
A former Rangoon Technological Institute (RIT) student, Myo Yan Naung Thein, was released from Sittwe Prison, and is currently unable to walk properly as a result of lack of adequate treatment in prison.
“I was kept in a closed dark room. Sometimes, the prison authorities slapped and tortured me without asking any questions. But sometimes they questioned me the whole night without giving me any food,” he recalle.
He said, he was often tied behind and was given electric shocks.
Similarly, Katty Aung, a pregnant woman arrested for her husband Tun Tun’s involvement in September 2007 protests and sentenced to 25 years in prison, said she suffered a miscarriage after being detained and suffered heart attacks, but did not receive adequate treatment.
“When I was arrested, I was pregnant. But because of low blood pressure and insufficient food, I had a miscarriage,” she said.
AHRC said cases of ill-treatment and torture in the prisons across Burma are rampant but the situation has deteriorated after a halt to ICRC’s prison visits in 2005.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP-B), there are at least 2200 political prisoners including Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma.
AHRC said the renewal of ICRC’s prison visits, would be “a practical and quickly-implementable step to reduce the incidence of abuse and ameliorate some of its worst consequences.”
“If then this much cannot be done, what good can be said of the release of a few thousand shattered bodies, while tens of thousands more continue to have the same type of abuses heaped upon them daily?,” asked the group.
The ICRC carried out regular visits to detainees in prisons and labour camps from 1999 to the end of 2005 but suspended it when members of the junta-backed civil organisation –the Union Solidarity and Development Association - insisted on accompanying them in their prison visits, which is against the ICRC’s internationally-recognized conditions.
At present, the ICRC continues to support family visits to detainees and works to enhance the effectiveness of the Myanmar Red Cross Society.
by Salai Pi Pi
Friday, 25 September 2009 20:32
New Delhi (Mizzima) - The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has urged the international community to mount pressure on Burma’s ruling junta to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to resume visits to detention centres, where widespread torture and abuses have been reported.
The Hong Kong-based, Rights group, in a statement on Thursday said maximum efforts are needed to renew the mandate of the ICRC in getting access to detention centres across Burma without delay, as some detainees have been tortured during interrogation.
“The physical and mental injuries caused in this period were either not adequately treated or not treated at all during the detainees' incarceration, causing some of them lifelong damage,” AHRC said.
AHRC’s call came following the release of about 120 political prisoners, as part of the Burmese military regime’s amnesty granted to 7,114 prisoners, on humanitarian grounds. The AHRC’s statement was supported by several political prisoners, who are among those released.
Myo Yan Naung Thein, a student activist, who was arrested in September 2007 and released as part of the amnesty told Mizzima he was severely beaten while questioning and was insulted.
“I was blind folded and was taken somewhere. As soon as I reached the interrogation centre, they all started kicking me,” he said.
A former Rangoon Technological Institute (RIT) student, Myo Yan Naung Thein, was released from Sittwe Prison, and is currently unable to walk properly as a result of lack of adequate treatment in prison.
“I was kept in a closed dark room. Sometimes, the prison authorities slapped and tortured me without asking any questions. But sometimes they questioned me the whole night without giving me any food,” he recalle.
He said, he was often tied behind and was given electric shocks.
Similarly, Katty Aung, a pregnant woman arrested for her husband Tun Tun’s involvement in September 2007 protests and sentenced to 25 years in prison, said she suffered a miscarriage after being detained and suffered heart attacks, but did not receive adequate treatment.
“When I was arrested, I was pregnant. But because of low blood pressure and insufficient food, I had a miscarriage,” she said.
AHRC said cases of ill-treatment and torture in the prisons across Burma are rampant but the situation has deteriorated after a halt to ICRC’s prison visits in 2005.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP-B), there are at least 2200 political prisoners including Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma.
AHRC said the renewal of ICRC’s prison visits, would be “a practical and quickly-implementable step to reduce the incidence of abuse and ameliorate some of its worst consequences.”
“If then this much cannot be done, what good can be said of the release of a few thousand shattered bodies, while tens of thousands more continue to have the same type of abuses heaped upon them daily?,” asked the group.
The ICRC carried out regular visits to detainees in prisons and labour camps from 1999 to the end of 2005 but suspended it when members of the junta-backed civil organisation –the Union Solidarity and Development Association - insisted on accompanying them in their prison visits, which is against the ICRC’s internationally-recognized conditions.
At present, the ICRC continues to support family visits to detainees and works to enhance the effectiveness of the Myanmar Red Cross Society.
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Mizzima News - Webb’s hearing on Burma to feature prominent Burma experts
by Mungpi
Friday, 25 September 2009 17:33
New Delhi (Mizzima) - United States Senator James Webb, a strong advocate of engagement with Burma, will have four Burma experts including Professor David I. Steinberg testifying on the importance of engagement with Burma, during the senate hearing he will chair on September 30.
The hearing, entitled “U.S. Policy Toward Burma: Its Impact and Effectiveness” will also have Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Department of State, Mr. Thant Myint-U, Burmese historian, Professor David C. Williams, and John S. Hastings Professor of Law at Indiana University Bloomington.
The hearing will review the current US policy of sanctions and discuss the role the US should adopt in promoting democratic changes in Burma, according to Webb’s office in a statement.
Secretary Hillary Clinton on Wednesday gave a preview of the Burma Policy, which she said is under review for over six months. She said the US has come up with a new policy of applying both sanctions and engagement with the Burmese regime.
While the fundamental objectives of achieving democratic changes in Burma remain the same, Clinton said, US will directly engage the Burmese military generals in order to open new channels of communication that will contribute in promoting change.
She had earlier in February said, the current US policy of imposing sanctions as well as the engagement policy of neighbouring countries, including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), China and India have missed the target.
US State department spokesperson Ian Kelly, during a regular press briefing on Thursday, said Kurt Campbell will be leading the Burma policy along with several other interlocutors, who will be named soon.
Earlier the Senate Committee hearing was scheduled for October 1, but Webb’s office confirmed that the dates have been changed to September 30, at 3 p.m. (local time).
by Mungpi
Friday, 25 September 2009 17:33
New Delhi (Mizzima) - United States Senator James Webb, a strong advocate of engagement with Burma, will have four Burma experts including Professor David I. Steinberg testifying on the importance of engagement with Burma, during the senate hearing he will chair on September 30.
The hearing, entitled “U.S. Policy Toward Burma: Its Impact and Effectiveness” will also have Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Department of State, Mr. Thant Myint-U, Burmese historian, Professor David C. Williams, and John S. Hastings Professor of Law at Indiana University Bloomington.
The hearing will review the current US policy of sanctions and discuss the role the US should adopt in promoting democratic changes in Burma, according to Webb’s office in a statement.
Secretary Hillary Clinton on Wednesday gave a preview of the Burma Policy, which she said is under review for over six months. She said the US has come up with a new policy of applying both sanctions and engagement with the Burmese regime.
While the fundamental objectives of achieving democratic changes in Burma remain the same, Clinton said, US will directly engage the Burmese military generals in order to open new channels of communication that will contribute in promoting change.
She had earlier in February said, the current US policy of imposing sanctions as well as the engagement policy of neighbouring countries, including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), China and India have missed the target.
US State department spokesperson Ian Kelly, during a regular press briefing on Thursday, said Kurt Campbell will be leading the Burma policy along with several other interlocutors, who will be named soon.
Earlier the Senate Committee hearing was scheduled for October 1, but Webb’s office confirmed that the dates have been changed to September 30, at 3 p.m. (local time).
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Mizzima News - NUP to contest election with fresh blood
by Ni Moe Myint
Friday, 25 September 2009 19:47
Rangoon (Mizzima) – The National Unity Party (NUP) will contest the 2010 election with new blood rather than elders, party Joint Secretary Khin Maung Gyi said at a press conference this morning.
“It’s time to induct fresh blood into our party. We will contest the election with youths,” Khin Maung Gyi said at the 21st party founding anniversary held at its headquarters on University Avenue.
NUP has shortlisted 500 youths across the country who will contest in about 300 constituencies.
But Khin Maung Gyi did not disclose what role the elder leaders will play.
“The Divisional Party Committees concerned will decide which constituencies and townships they would contest. But we can say we will mainly contest in townships in proper Burma (plain areas) rather than in areas inhabited by ethnic nationalities,” a CEC member and political movement committee secretary Thein Tun said.
Among the 10 registered political parties, like the main opposition NLD, NUP has branch offices across the country, but it has been silenced for the last two decades.
After the 1988 popular uprising, late dictator Ne Win’s ‘Burma Socialist Programme Party’ was transformed to NUP.
Thein Tun claimed that they had three million party sympathisers who would vote in the election for their party which believed in the Burmese way to Socialism.
“The official party membership was 550,000 when political parties were banned from doing party organizational work in 1992 by the government. Now these new forces are being organized as our core force. We can issue party membership cards to these people only when the election law is announced,” Thein Tun said.
When asked to comment on the 2008 constitution, which is largely controversial among the international community, former Trade Minister Khin Maung Gyi replied, “We have no comment on the constitution as it has been approved by over 90 per cent of ‘YES’ votes. The constitution has an essential and important role in all countries”.
He also said that they would forge an alliance with any party, which wanted it if they had the same policy and attitude as that of the NUP.
The parties formed in the pre-2010 election period are the Democratic Party led by U Thu Wei, Independent Candidates Network, Union Democratic Alliance led by veteran ethnic Shan politician U Shwe Ohn, some Third Force organizations, Kachin State Progressive Party, and ceasefire New Mon Land Party.
The military regime has announced the election would be held in 2010 and under the controversial constitution there would be 498 constituencies in Burma.
But the NLD, which won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections, but were not allowed to form the government and is still banned from undertaking party activities, demanded the regime make amendments in the constitution.
by Ni Moe Myint
Friday, 25 September 2009 19:47
Rangoon (Mizzima) – The National Unity Party (NUP) will contest the 2010 election with new blood rather than elders, party Joint Secretary Khin Maung Gyi said at a press conference this morning.
“It’s time to induct fresh blood into our party. We will contest the election with youths,” Khin Maung Gyi said at the 21st party founding anniversary held at its headquarters on University Avenue.
NUP has shortlisted 500 youths across the country who will contest in about 300 constituencies.
But Khin Maung Gyi did not disclose what role the elder leaders will play.
“The Divisional Party Committees concerned will decide which constituencies and townships they would contest. But we can say we will mainly contest in townships in proper Burma (plain areas) rather than in areas inhabited by ethnic nationalities,” a CEC member and political movement committee secretary Thein Tun said.
Among the 10 registered political parties, like the main opposition NLD, NUP has branch offices across the country, but it has been silenced for the last two decades.
After the 1988 popular uprising, late dictator Ne Win’s ‘Burma Socialist Programme Party’ was transformed to NUP.
Thein Tun claimed that they had three million party sympathisers who would vote in the election for their party which believed in the Burmese way to Socialism.
“The official party membership was 550,000 when political parties were banned from doing party organizational work in 1992 by the government. Now these new forces are being organized as our core force. We can issue party membership cards to these people only when the election law is announced,” Thein Tun said.
When asked to comment on the 2008 constitution, which is largely controversial among the international community, former Trade Minister Khin Maung Gyi replied, “We have no comment on the constitution as it has been approved by over 90 per cent of ‘YES’ votes. The constitution has an essential and important role in all countries”.
He also said that they would forge an alliance with any party, which wanted it if they had the same policy and attitude as that of the NUP.
The parties formed in the pre-2010 election period are the Democratic Party led by U Thu Wei, Independent Candidates Network, Union Democratic Alliance led by veteran ethnic Shan politician U Shwe Ohn, some Third Force organizations, Kachin State Progressive Party, and ceasefire New Mon Land Party.
The military regime has announced the election would be held in 2010 and under the controversial constitution there would be 498 constituencies in Burma.
But the NLD, which won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections, but were not allowed to form the government and is still banned from undertaking party activities, demanded the regime make amendments in the constitution.
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Farmers’ helper jailed for two years
Sept 25, 2009 (DVB)–A Burmese opposition party member has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment after pledging to help two farmers facing charges of damaging government property.
Aye Myint, vice-chairperson of Magwe division’s National League for Democracy (NLD) branch, was sentenced yesterday on charges of threatening a civil servant.
His arrest on 17 September followed an announcement made in a teashop owned by a forestry department official that he would assist two farmers whose land had been confiscated by the forestry department.
He had said that he would help the two file a complaint to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Rangoon.
The two farmers, Nyan Myint and Thura Aung, were accused by police of cutting down a tree on the confiscated land, bringing charges of damaging public property.
Aye Myint told DVB on 23 September, the day prior to his sentencing, that he was expecting to be imprisoned.
“I have many reasons to think like that. My family has been under watch by authorities,” he said.
On two occasions he said members of the government proxy Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) had come to his house and thrown rocks.
Yesterday’s sentencing coincided with a visit to the town by ILO’s Burma liaison officer, Steve Marshall, regarding a land dispute between 108 local farmers and local authorities.
Marshall was denied a meeting with Nyan Myint and Thura Aung, reportedly because he had missed visiting hours.
Reporting by Nan Kham Kaew
Sept 25, 2009 (DVB)–A Burmese opposition party member has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment after pledging to help two farmers facing charges of damaging government property.
Aye Myint, vice-chairperson of Magwe division’s National League for Democracy (NLD) branch, was sentenced yesterday on charges of threatening a civil servant.
His arrest on 17 September followed an announcement made in a teashop owned by a forestry department official that he would assist two farmers whose land had been confiscated by the forestry department.
He had said that he would help the two file a complaint to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Rangoon.
The two farmers, Nyan Myint and Thura Aung, were accused by police of cutting down a tree on the confiscated land, bringing charges of damaging public property.
Aye Myint told DVB on 23 September, the day prior to his sentencing, that he was expecting to be imprisoned.
“I have many reasons to think like that. My family has been under watch by authorities,” he said.
On two occasions he said members of the government proxy Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) had come to his house and thrown rocks.
Yesterday’s sentencing coincided with a visit to the town by ILO’s Burma liaison officer, Steve Marshall, regarding a land dispute between 108 local farmers and local authorities.
Marshall was denied a meeting with Nyan Myint and Thura Aung, reportedly because he had missed visiting hours.
Reporting by Nan Kham Kaew
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Thai nationals sentenced to death
Sept 25, 2009 (DVB)–Two Thai nationals found guilty of the murder of four Burmese men in western Thailand have been sentenced to death by a court in the town of Mae Sot, close to the Burmese border.
The four men, all of whom were migrant labourers, had been working on a corn plantation in Ban Jaidee Koh, near to Mae Sot, when in September 2007 they were handcuffed and taken to a nearby village.
They were then shot dead. A fifth man who had also been taken was shot, but managed to escape to another village, where he was then taken to hospital.
The two Thai men, identified as Nai Payom, 45, and Nai Phalom, were sentenced on Tuesday. They have been given a month to appeal the verdict.
Speaking to DVB yesterday, the aunt of one of the victims, 35-year-old Ah Htun, expressed her continued anger at the murder. “I feel like eating those guys alive,” she said.
The exact number of Burmese migrants living in Thailand is unknown, although estimates range up to two million.
Many of these are have no legal status in Thailand, and therefore struggle to acquire the same labour rights that registered workers do.
A system set up by the Thai government was put into action in July this year that would see the verification of Burmese migrants at various centres along the Thai-Burma border.
Reporting by Maung Too
Sept 25, 2009 (DVB)–Two Thai nationals found guilty of the murder of four Burmese men in western Thailand have been sentenced to death by a court in the town of Mae Sot, close to the Burmese border.
The four men, all of whom were migrant labourers, had been working on a corn plantation in Ban Jaidee Koh, near to Mae Sot, when in September 2007 they were handcuffed and taken to a nearby village.
They were then shot dead. A fifth man who had also been taken was shot, but managed to escape to another village, where he was then taken to hospital.
The two Thai men, identified as Nai Payom, 45, and Nai Phalom, were sentenced on Tuesday. They have been given a month to appeal the verdict.
Speaking to DVB yesterday, the aunt of one of the victims, 35-year-old Ah Htun, expressed her continued anger at the murder. “I feel like eating those guys alive,” she said.
The exact number of Burmese migrants living in Thailand is unknown, although estimates range up to two million.
Many of these are have no legal status in Thailand, and therefore struggle to acquire the same labour rights that registered workers do.
A system set up by the Thai government was put into action in July this year that would see the verification of Burmese migrants at various centres along the Thai-Burma border.
Reporting by Maung Too
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