US senator says Suu Kyi may ease sanctions stance
By GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 17, 7:30 am ET
BANGKOK (AP) – A U.S. senator who called for a "new approach" to dealing with Myanmar said Monday that the country's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi indicated she would not oppose the lifting of some U.S. sanctions on the junta.
Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia ended an extraordinary trip to Myanmar on Sunday, during which he held a rare meeting with the Nobel Peace laureate as well as the leader of the government that has detained her for 14 of the past 20 years.
Webb also secured the release of an ailing American, who was convicted of helping Suu Kyi violate the terms of her house arrest and sentenced to seven years last week. John Yettaw, of Falcoln, Missouri, was undergoing medical tests in Bangkok on Monday.
Myanmar has borne international censure and increasing isolation since the army barred Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy from taking power even after the party won a 1990 election.
The United States and other Western nations maintain political and economic sanctions against the military regime because of its poor human rights record and failure to relinquish power.
Webb, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, maintains that the sanctions have failed to move Myanmar toward democratic reforms and is seeking to amend U.S. policy, currently under review by the Obama administration.
He said that the junta's agreement to free Yettaw into his custody and allow him a rare visit with Suu Kyi are gestures that could lead to closer engagement with Myanmar's military government. His meeting Saturday with Than Shwe was the first time the reclusive general has met with a senior U.S. political figure.
Suu Kyi is known to support Western sanctions against her country's government, although her precise position is difficult to discern because she has not been able to speak publicly since she was last taken into detention in May 2003.
Webb, in a press conference Monday in Bangkok, said he wanted to be careful not to misrepresent Suu Kyi's views, but it was his "clear impression from her that she is not opposed to lifting some sanctions," and that "there would be some areas she would be willing to look at."
He said the sanctions issue was not specifically raised in his talk with Than Shwe, "although obviously it's the elephant in the bedroom."
He declined to reveal details of his talks with Suu Kyi and Than Shwe, saying that he will report to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when he returns to Washington.
Clinton has said the U.S. is reviewing its Myanmar policy, suggesting that sanctions have not worked, though she also pointed to the trial against Yettaw and Suu Kyi as unhelpful.
Yettaw, a 53-year-old former contractor, was convicted last week of breaking the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and related charges, and given seven years' imprisonment with hard labor.
He had been apprehended in May as he was swimming away from Suu Kyi's residence, where he sheltered for two days after sneaking in uninvited.
Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor for violating her house arrest conditions, although that was reduced to 18 months under house arrest by Than Shwe.
Yettaw's intrusion into Suu Kyi's home was seen by many of the junta's critics as giving it a legal pretext to keep the Nobel laureate incarcerated through next year's general election. Yettaw testified that he had a vision that Suu Kyi was at risk from assassins, and visited her to warn her.
Yettaw's family in the United States said he was not in good health after three months in a Myanmar prison.
"Our first priority is ensuring the health of Mr. Yettaw," said Cynthia Brown, the U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Bangkok, who declined to say where Yettaw was receiving medical care or when he was expected to return home.
Myanmar state television said Sunday night that Yettaw was freed on humanitarian grounds because of his health. He suffers from diabetes and was hospitalized for a week during the trial after suffering seizures.
His ex-wife, Yvonne, said she had spoken to his current wife, Betty Yettaw, of Camdenton, Missouri, who said she talked with her husband in Bangkok.
She said Betty told her they were running medical tests on her husband in a Bangkok hospital, but did not know what for. "But he is not in good health," said Yvonne Yettaw, of Palm Springs, California.
Yvonne Yettaw also said the family has to pay for his ticket home and there have been some complications trying to schedule a flight, so it is unclear when he will be returning.
By GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 17, 7:30 am ET
BANGKOK (AP) – A U.S. senator who called for a "new approach" to dealing with Myanmar said Monday that the country's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi indicated she would not oppose the lifting of some U.S. sanctions on the junta.
Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia ended an extraordinary trip to Myanmar on Sunday, during which he held a rare meeting with the Nobel Peace laureate as well as the leader of the government that has detained her for 14 of the past 20 years.
Webb also secured the release of an ailing American, who was convicted of helping Suu Kyi violate the terms of her house arrest and sentenced to seven years last week. John Yettaw, of Falcoln, Missouri, was undergoing medical tests in Bangkok on Monday.
Myanmar has borne international censure and increasing isolation since the army barred Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy from taking power even after the party won a 1990 election.
The United States and other Western nations maintain political and economic sanctions against the military regime because of its poor human rights record and failure to relinquish power.
Webb, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, maintains that the sanctions have failed to move Myanmar toward democratic reforms and is seeking to amend U.S. policy, currently under review by the Obama administration.
He said that the junta's agreement to free Yettaw into his custody and allow him a rare visit with Suu Kyi are gestures that could lead to closer engagement with Myanmar's military government. His meeting Saturday with Than Shwe was the first time the reclusive general has met with a senior U.S. political figure.
Suu Kyi is known to support Western sanctions against her country's government, although her precise position is difficult to discern because she has not been able to speak publicly since she was last taken into detention in May 2003.
Webb, in a press conference Monday in Bangkok, said he wanted to be careful not to misrepresent Suu Kyi's views, but it was his "clear impression from her that she is not opposed to lifting some sanctions," and that "there would be some areas she would be willing to look at."
He said the sanctions issue was not specifically raised in his talk with Than Shwe, "although obviously it's the elephant in the bedroom."
He declined to reveal details of his talks with Suu Kyi and Than Shwe, saying that he will report to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when he returns to Washington.
Clinton has said the U.S. is reviewing its Myanmar policy, suggesting that sanctions have not worked, though she also pointed to the trial against Yettaw and Suu Kyi as unhelpful.
Yettaw, a 53-year-old former contractor, was convicted last week of breaking the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and related charges, and given seven years' imprisonment with hard labor.
He had been apprehended in May as he was swimming away from Suu Kyi's residence, where he sheltered for two days after sneaking in uninvited.
Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor for violating her house arrest conditions, although that was reduced to 18 months under house arrest by Than Shwe.
Yettaw's intrusion into Suu Kyi's home was seen by many of the junta's critics as giving it a legal pretext to keep the Nobel laureate incarcerated through next year's general election. Yettaw testified that he had a vision that Suu Kyi was at risk from assassins, and visited her to warn her.
Yettaw's family in the United States said he was not in good health after three months in a Myanmar prison.
"Our first priority is ensuring the health of Mr. Yettaw," said Cynthia Brown, the U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Bangkok, who declined to say where Yettaw was receiving medical care or when he was expected to return home.
Myanmar state television said Sunday night that Yettaw was freed on humanitarian grounds because of his health. He suffers from diabetes and was hospitalized for a week during the trial after suffering seizures.
His ex-wife, Yvonne, said she had spoken to his current wife, Betty Yettaw, of Camdenton, Missouri, who said she talked with her husband in Bangkok.
She said Betty told her they were running medical tests on her husband in a Bangkok hospital, but did not know what for. "But he is not in good health," said Yvonne Yettaw, of Palm Springs, California.
Yvonne Yettaw also said the family has to pay for his ticket home and there have been some complications trying to schedule a flight, so it is unclear when he will be returning.
*********************************************************
Risky rescue missions can complicate US diplomacy
By LOLITA C. BALDOR (AP) – 7 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rescue mission or diplomatic risk?
While the sight of a freed American prisoner landing on home soil is a celebrated victory, recent high-profile diplomatic rescues in North Korea and Myanmar can also complicate U.S. diplomacy.
The release Sunday of an American man from Myanmar after a visit there by Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia follows closely on the heels of a similar rescue of two journalists by former President Bill Clinton in Pyongyang earlier this month.
Both gained their public goal — the freedom of U.S. captives. But both also nudged open a diplomatic door that could either invite welcome change or slam shut on President Barack Obama's emerging foreign policy.
With their timing so close, the Clinton and Webb missions may suggest to other rogue nations that in dealings with the Obama administration, holding American hostages can be a profitable political ploy.
"They can look at this and say, there's a new game afoot," said John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "They think, we can get legitimacy and high level attention by using Americans as pawns."
Such visits, argue experts, can give regime leaders an aura of respect and recognition that may make it harder for the U.S. to press for sanctions or continue isolation policies aimed at forcing change in everything from humans rights to nuclear power.
At the same time, Bolton said, there is the risk that other would-be heroes across the Washington power spectrum may also decide that they too could wage "publicity hound diplomacy."
Still, the solo rescue missions can spawn benefits that make the risks worth taking.
First and foremost, such lower level contact that doesn't involve a sitting president or secretary of state can take the temperature for change without the added pressure of a formal engagement that is more likely to demand results.
In that way, it can be a face-saving measure, since an unsuccessful mission by an unofficial delegate is less likely to be condemned as a White House failure.
If successful, the solo sessions can lead to a long-term payoff — thawed relations between enemy nations or a shift in policy.
Obama has advocated more contact with other less-friendly nations, even including a willingness to talk with Iran.
He has said he would be willing to talk to anyone without preconditions, referring to nations with whom the Bush administration had refused to hold discussions.
Webb on Sunday said he hoped his Myanmar visit and meeting with military junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe would improve relations between the two countries.
Washington has led efforts to impose political and economic sanctions on the regime because of its poor human rights record and failure to transfer power to democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi after a 1990 election.
The senator, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, is the first member of Congress to visit Myanmar in more than a decade. He said he plans to discuss his recommendations with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when he returns.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that the White House had monitored the Myanmar situation, but he had little else to say about the Webb trip.
"Obviously this was something that he did independently," Gibbs said of Webb. He was briefed before he left by the State Department, Gibbs said.
Webb's visit to Myanmar, also called Burma, secured the freedom of John Yettaw, 53, of Missouri, who was apprehended after swimming uninvited to Suu Kyi's lakeside residence, where she is being held on house arrest.
Stephen Flanagan, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Webb's mission provides an opening for the Obama administration to begin a dialogue with Myanmar, which does not now have diplomatic relations with the U.S.
Flanagan also dismissed suggestions that the rescue missions undercuts Secretary Clinton. She has a full agenda and is clearly shaping policy, he said.
At the same time, however, he said Bill Clinton's trip to North Korea, where he won the release of two journalists, was more diplomatically risky than the Webb trip. Critics said the former president's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il gave undue legitimacy to the combative, nuclear-testing nation.
"That mission opened up problematic questions," said Flanagan, including suggestions that it undermined efforts to increase sanctions on North Korea to pressure the nation to recommit to six-nation talks on the dismantling of its nuclear weapons program.
Unofficial solo diplomatic missions by former leaders and senior lawmakers have been a diplomatic staple for decades. In the 1950s, then-Sen. Hubert Humphrey used a fact-finding trip to Russia to press for arms control in a conversation with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson went to North Korea in 1996 when he was a member of Congress, to help secure the release of an American, Evan C. Hunziker, of Tacoma, Wash., detained for three months on spy charges. Two years earlier he helped arrange the freedom of a U.S. pilot, Bobby Hall, whose helicopter had strayed into North Korean airspace. Richardson brought a tape of the American Western movie, "Maverick," as a gift for Kim Jong Il.
At times, the missions are not sanctioned by the U.S. administration. The Rev. Jesse Jackson ignored the wishes of the White House in 1999 and traveled to the former Yugoslavia to win the release of three U.S. soldiers held captive there.
By LOLITA C. BALDOR (AP) – 7 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rescue mission or diplomatic risk?
While the sight of a freed American prisoner landing on home soil is a celebrated victory, recent high-profile diplomatic rescues in North Korea and Myanmar can also complicate U.S. diplomacy.
The release Sunday of an American man from Myanmar after a visit there by Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia follows closely on the heels of a similar rescue of two journalists by former President Bill Clinton in Pyongyang earlier this month.
Both gained their public goal — the freedom of U.S. captives. But both also nudged open a diplomatic door that could either invite welcome change or slam shut on President Barack Obama's emerging foreign policy.
With their timing so close, the Clinton and Webb missions may suggest to other rogue nations that in dealings with the Obama administration, holding American hostages can be a profitable political ploy.
"They can look at this and say, there's a new game afoot," said John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "They think, we can get legitimacy and high level attention by using Americans as pawns."
Such visits, argue experts, can give regime leaders an aura of respect and recognition that may make it harder for the U.S. to press for sanctions or continue isolation policies aimed at forcing change in everything from humans rights to nuclear power.
At the same time, Bolton said, there is the risk that other would-be heroes across the Washington power spectrum may also decide that they too could wage "publicity hound diplomacy."
Still, the solo rescue missions can spawn benefits that make the risks worth taking.
First and foremost, such lower level contact that doesn't involve a sitting president or secretary of state can take the temperature for change without the added pressure of a formal engagement that is more likely to demand results.
In that way, it can be a face-saving measure, since an unsuccessful mission by an unofficial delegate is less likely to be condemned as a White House failure.
If successful, the solo sessions can lead to a long-term payoff — thawed relations between enemy nations or a shift in policy.
Obama has advocated more contact with other less-friendly nations, even including a willingness to talk with Iran.
He has said he would be willing to talk to anyone without preconditions, referring to nations with whom the Bush administration had refused to hold discussions.
Webb on Sunday said he hoped his Myanmar visit and meeting with military junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe would improve relations between the two countries.
Washington has led efforts to impose political and economic sanctions on the regime because of its poor human rights record and failure to transfer power to democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi after a 1990 election.
The senator, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, is the first member of Congress to visit Myanmar in more than a decade. He said he plans to discuss his recommendations with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when he returns.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that the White House had monitored the Myanmar situation, but he had little else to say about the Webb trip.
"Obviously this was something that he did independently," Gibbs said of Webb. He was briefed before he left by the State Department, Gibbs said.
Webb's visit to Myanmar, also called Burma, secured the freedom of John Yettaw, 53, of Missouri, who was apprehended after swimming uninvited to Suu Kyi's lakeside residence, where she is being held on house arrest.
Stephen Flanagan, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Webb's mission provides an opening for the Obama administration to begin a dialogue with Myanmar, which does not now have diplomatic relations with the U.S.
Flanagan also dismissed suggestions that the rescue missions undercuts Secretary Clinton. She has a full agenda and is clearly shaping policy, he said.
At the same time, however, he said Bill Clinton's trip to North Korea, where he won the release of two journalists, was more diplomatically risky than the Webb trip. Critics said the former president's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il gave undue legitimacy to the combative, nuclear-testing nation.
"That mission opened up problematic questions," said Flanagan, including suggestions that it undermined efforts to increase sanctions on North Korea to pressure the nation to recommit to six-nation talks on the dismantling of its nuclear weapons program.
Unofficial solo diplomatic missions by former leaders and senior lawmakers have been a diplomatic staple for decades. In the 1950s, then-Sen. Hubert Humphrey used a fact-finding trip to Russia to press for arms control in a conversation with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson went to North Korea in 1996 when he was a member of Congress, to help secure the release of an American, Evan C. Hunziker, of Tacoma, Wash., detained for three months on spy charges. Two years earlier he helped arrange the freedom of a U.S. pilot, Bobby Hall, whose helicopter had strayed into North Korean airspace. Richardson brought a tape of the American Western movie, "Maverick," as a gift for Kim Jong Il.
At times, the missions are not sanctioned by the U.S. administration. The Rev. Jesse Jackson ignored the wishes of the White House in 1999 and traveled to the former Yugoslavia to win the release of three U.S. soldiers held captive there.
*********************************************************
American gets medical tests after Myanmar jailing
By GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 17, 3:33 am ET
BANGKOK – An ailing American who was spared a seven-year prison sentence in Myanmar underwent medical testing in Bangkok on Monday, while the U.S. senator who secured his release called for a "new approach" in dealing with the military-ruled country.
John Yettaw's family in the United States said the 53-year-old was hospitalized in the Thai capital and not in good health after three months in a Myanmar prison, where he was held for sneaking into the home of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Our first priority is ensuring the health of Mr. Yettaw," said Cynthia Brown, the U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Bangkok, who declined to say where Yettaw was receiving medical care or when he was expected to return home.
Yettaw flew to Bangkok on Sunday with Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who held rare talks in Myanmar with the junta's reclusive Senior Gen. Than Shwe and with Suu Kyi during a high-profile, three-day trip.
Webb said he believes years of U.S. and EU sanctions have failed to move the Southeast Asian country toward democratic reforms or talks with Suu Kyi.
"My view is that we don't have any more sanctions to put on Myanmar and we need a new approach," Webb told reporters after meeting with Thailand's foreign minister.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said the administration is reviewing its policy toward Myanmar since sanctions haven't worked and serve to further isolate its people.
Webb told reporters in Bangkok he would discuss his conclusions and recommendations with Clinton and others on his return to Washington. He declined to speculate on what the Obama administration would do. Webb can rally support for changes to U.S. policy in Asia as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee.
Webb told reporters Sunday that Yettaw "is not a well man" and would be "undergoing thorough medical review" in Bangkok. Yettaw had been held at Insein Prison in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon since his arrest in early May.
Myanmar state television said Sunday night that Yettaw, from Falcon, Missouri, was freed on humanitarian grounds because of his health. He reportedly suffers from diabetes, epilepsy and asthma and was hospitalized for a week during the trial after suffering seizures.
Yettaw was apprehended May 6 as he swam away from Suu Kyi's lakeside residence, where he had sheltered for two days after sneaking in uninvited. He was convicted last week of breaking the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and related charges, and sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years, was herself sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor for violating her house arrest conditions through Yettaw's visit, although that was reduced to 18 months under house arrest by order of junta chief, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
Observers widely believe Yettaw's intrusion into Suu Kyi's home gave the junta a legal pretext to keep the Nobel laureate incarcerated through next year's general election. Yettaw testified that he had a vision that Suu Kyi was at risk from assassins, and visited her to warn her.
A pale and haggard-looking Yettaw had to be assisted as he walked off a small plane with Webb on arrival in Bangkok. He smiled and flashed "I love you" in sign language to waiting reporters. He did not respond to questions.
In the United States, Yettaw's family said they were waiting for results from the medical evaluation in Thailand.
His ex-wife, Yvonne, said she had spoken to his current wife, Betty Yettaw, of Camdenton, Missouri, who said she talked with her husband in Bangkok.
She said Betty told her they were just running tests in the Bangkok hospital, but did not know what for. "But he is not in good health," said Yvonne Yettaw, of Palm Springs, California.
"He told her he was not treated as well as everyone there and in the press had been saying," Yvonne Yettaw said.
Yvonne Yettaw also said the family has to pay for his ticket home and there have been some complications trying to schedule a flight, so it is unclear when he will be
returning.
By GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 17, 3:33 am ET
BANGKOK – An ailing American who was spared a seven-year prison sentence in Myanmar underwent medical testing in Bangkok on Monday, while the U.S. senator who secured his release called for a "new approach" in dealing with the military-ruled country.
John Yettaw's family in the United States said the 53-year-old was hospitalized in the Thai capital and not in good health after three months in a Myanmar prison, where he was held for sneaking into the home of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Our first priority is ensuring the health of Mr. Yettaw," said Cynthia Brown, the U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Bangkok, who declined to say where Yettaw was receiving medical care or when he was expected to return home.
Yettaw flew to Bangkok on Sunday with Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who held rare talks in Myanmar with the junta's reclusive Senior Gen. Than Shwe and with Suu Kyi during a high-profile, three-day trip.
Webb said he believes years of U.S. and EU sanctions have failed to move the Southeast Asian country toward democratic reforms or talks with Suu Kyi.
"My view is that we don't have any more sanctions to put on Myanmar and we need a new approach," Webb told reporters after meeting with Thailand's foreign minister.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said the administration is reviewing its policy toward Myanmar since sanctions haven't worked and serve to further isolate its people.
Webb told reporters in Bangkok he would discuss his conclusions and recommendations with Clinton and others on his return to Washington. He declined to speculate on what the Obama administration would do. Webb can rally support for changes to U.S. policy in Asia as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee.
Webb told reporters Sunday that Yettaw "is not a well man" and would be "undergoing thorough medical review" in Bangkok. Yettaw had been held at Insein Prison in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon since his arrest in early May.
Myanmar state television said Sunday night that Yettaw, from Falcon, Missouri, was freed on humanitarian grounds because of his health. He reportedly suffers from diabetes, epilepsy and asthma and was hospitalized for a week during the trial after suffering seizures.
Yettaw was apprehended May 6 as he swam away from Suu Kyi's lakeside residence, where he had sheltered for two days after sneaking in uninvited. He was convicted last week of breaking the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and related charges, and sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years, was herself sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor for violating her house arrest conditions through Yettaw's visit, although that was reduced to 18 months under house arrest by order of junta chief, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
Observers widely believe Yettaw's intrusion into Suu Kyi's home gave the junta a legal pretext to keep the Nobel laureate incarcerated through next year's general election. Yettaw testified that he had a vision that Suu Kyi was at risk from assassins, and visited her to warn her.
A pale and haggard-looking Yettaw had to be assisted as he walked off a small plane with Webb on arrival in Bangkok. He smiled and flashed "I love you" in sign language to waiting reporters. He did not respond to questions.
In the United States, Yettaw's family said they were waiting for results from the medical evaluation in Thailand.
His ex-wife, Yvonne, said she had spoken to his current wife, Betty Yettaw, of Camdenton, Missouri, who said she talked with her husband in Bangkok.
She said Betty told her they were just running tests in the Bangkok hospital, but did not know what for. "But he is not in good health," said Yvonne Yettaw, of Palm Springs, California.
"He told her he was not treated as well as everyone there and in the press had been saying," Yvonne Yettaw said.
Yvonne Yettaw also said the family has to pay for his ticket home and there have been some complications trying to schedule a flight, so it is unclear when he will be
returning.
*********************************************************
Posted on Mon, Aug. 17, 2009
Philadelphia Inquirer - Freeing American could benefit Myanmar junta
By Ambika Ahuja, Associated Press
BANGKOK, Thailand - Myanmar's military regime yesterday allowed an ailing American it freed from a prison sentence to leave the country with Sen. Jim Webb (D., Va.) in a move that might persuade Washington to soften sanctions against the junta.
Webb, who secured John Yettaw's freedom, said he believed years of sanctions had failed to move the Southeast Asian country toward democratic reforms or talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Webb can rally support for changes to U.S. policy in Asia as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs subcommittee.
He flew with Yettaw to Bangkok. Yettaw had been held at Insein Prison in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, since his arrest in early May.
Yettaw, 53, of Missouri, was apprehended as he swam away from Suu Kyi's lakeside residence, where he had been sheltered for two days after sneaking in uninvited.
He was convicted last week of breaking the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and related charges and sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years, was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor for violating the terms of her house arrest through Yettaw's visit, although that was reduced to 18 months under house arrest by Gen. Than Shwe, the junta chief.
Yettaw's intrusion into Suu Kyi's home is seen as giving the junta a legal pretext to keep the Nobel laureate incarcerated through next year's planned general election.
Yettaw testified that he had had a vision that Suu Kyi was at risk from assassins and that he visited her to warn her.
Pale and haggard, he was assisted as he walked off the small plane on arrival in Bangkok. He smiled but did not respond to questions.
In the United States, Yettaw's family said he has been hospitalized in Bangkok. He reportedly suffers from diabetes, epilepsy, and asthma.
Webb told reporters in Bangkok that Yettaw's release "was a gesture from the government of Myanmar that we should be grateful for and hopefully build upon."
He said years of Western sanctions had denied Myanmar's people "the kind of access to the outside world that is essential to their economic and political growth."
Webb was allowed a rare meeting with Suu Kyi and with the junta chief and said he had asked for her release.
Washington has been a leader in isolating the military regime because of its poor human-rights record and failure to turn over power to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy after it won a landslide election victory in 1990.
Critics of the military regime expressed disappointment at the developments.
Aung Din of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a pro-democracy group in Washington, said Yettaw's release was a gift to Webb from Than Shwe for the senator's opposition to sanctions and for promoting increased U.S. business activities there.
"This will surely make a negative impression among the people of Burma," he wrote in an e-mail, using the country's former name. "They will think that Americans are easy to satisfy with the dictators when they get their citizens back."
Philadelphia Inquirer - Freeing American could benefit Myanmar junta
By Ambika Ahuja, Associated Press
BANGKOK, Thailand - Myanmar's military regime yesterday allowed an ailing American it freed from a prison sentence to leave the country with Sen. Jim Webb (D., Va.) in a move that might persuade Washington to soften sanctions against the junta.
Webb, who secured John Yettaw's freedom, said he believed years of sanctions had failed to move the Southeast Asian country toward democratic reforms or talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Webb can rally support for changes to U.S. policy in Asia as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs subcommittee.
He flew with Yettaw to Bangkok. Yettaw had been held at Insein Prison in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, since his arrest in early May.
Yettaw, 53, of Missouri, was apprehended as he swam away from Suu Kyi's lakeside residence, where he had been sheltered for two days after sneaking in uninvited.
He was convicted last week of breaking the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and related charges and sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years, was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor for violating the terms of her house arrest through Yettaw's visit, although that was reduced to 18 months under house arrest by Gen. Than Shwe, the junta chief.
Yettaw's intrusion into Suu Kyi's home is seen as giving the junta a legal pretext to keep the Nobel laureate incarcerated through next year's planned general election.
Yettaw testified that he had had a vision that Suu Kyi was at risk from assassins and that he visited her to warn her.
Pale and haggard, he was assisted as he walked off the small plane on arrival in Bangkok. He smiled but did not respond to questions.
In the United States, Yettaw's family said he has been hospitalized in Bangkok. He reportedly suffers from diabetes, epilepsy, and asthma.
Webb told reporters in Bangkok that Yettaw's release "was a gesture from the government of Myanmar that we should be grateful for and hopefully build upon."
He said years of Western sanctions had denied Myanmar's people "the kind of access to the outside world that is essential to their economic and political growth."
Webb was allowed a rare meeting with Suu Kyi and with the junta chief and said he had asked for her release.
Washington has been a leader in isolating the military regime because of its poor human-rights record and failure to turn over power to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy after it won a landslide election victory in 1990.
Critics of the military regime expressed disappointment at the developments.
Aung Din of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a pro-democracy group in Washington, said Yettaw's release was a gift to Webb from Than Shwe for the senator's opposition to sanctions and for promoting increased U.S. business activities there.
"This will surely make a negative impression among the people of Burma," he wrote in an e-mail, using the country's former name. "They will think that Americans are easy to satisfy with the dictators when they get their citizens back."
*********************************************************
Washington Post - Burmese Opposition Leader Not Opposed to Lifting Sanctions
By Tim Johnston
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 17, 2009; 9:22 AM
BANGKOK, Aug. 17 -- Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained Burmese opposition leader, might support the lifting of some sanctions against the regime, according to a U.S. senator who met her Saturday.
"It was my clear impression from her that she is not opposed to lifting some sanctions," Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) told journalists on Monday.
Webb met with Suu Kyi for 40 minutes at her home in Rangoon during a weekend trip to Burma, but he declined to comment further for fear of misrepresenting her position.
Suu Kyi has always been represented as a staunch supporter of sanctions, but given that she has been held almost incommunicado for most of the past six years, there is little consensus on whether her position might have changed.
The senator supports modifying the tough sanctions that the United States has imposed on Burma, also known as Myanmar, not least because they have given free rein to China, Burma's northern neighbor and one of the junta's few remaining supporters.
China is about to start building a gas pipeline from the Andaman Sea to the impoverished Chinese province of Yunnan.
"My personal view is that sanctions only work when you have all the countries potentially involved participating," Webb said Sunday. "The sanctions that have taken place in this situation have essentially driven Myanmar more towards China, making their country more vulnerable in my view and cutting off contact from the Western world."
There is growing sentiment among policymakers in the United States and Europe that the current sanctions regime has failed to bring democratic change in Burma and that new policies need to be discussed.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said earlier this year that the country's sanctions policy would be reviewed, with potential incentives for the Burmese if they were willing to modify the way they run the country.
Proponents of sanctions say that any loosening of the embargo would entail rewarding the regime for its intransigence, a view Webb does not share.
"This does not mean that we should in any way abandon our goal of trying to bring fairness and democracy to Myanmar and to other countries as well, but we should be looking for ways to change the formula to develop a way that can assist the people of Burma in bettering their daily lives," he said.
Western analysts say there are some faint signs that the Burmese regime is becoming more flexible, as evidenced by its decision to allow Webb to meet both Suu Kyi and the leaders of her National League for Democracy without supervision.
But one Burma-based analyst, who declined to be named, said it was still unclear whether the generals who run the country are genuinely interested in a limited rapprochement with the outside world, or if they are grudgingly making concessions to international pressure, particularly from China.
Webb also said he brought up the recent allegations that Burma might be pursuing some kind of military nuclear capability, perhaps with assistance from North Korea.
"It was communicated to me early on that there was no truth to that," he said.
By Tim Johnston
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 17, 2009; 9:22 AM
BANGKOK, Aug. 17 -- Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained Burmese opposition leader, might support the lifting of some sanctions against the regime, according to a U.S. senator who met her Saturday.
"It was my clear impression from her that she is not opposed to lifting some sanctions," Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) told journalists on Monday.
Webb met with Suu Kyi for 40 minutes at her home in Rangoon during a weekend trip to Burma, but he declined to comment further for fear of misrepresenting her position.
Suu Kyi has always been represented as a staunch supporter of sanctions, but given that she has been held almost incommunicado for most of the past six years, there is little consensus on whether her position might have changed.
The senator supports modifying the tough sanctions that the United States has imposed on Burma, also known as Myanmar, not least because they have given free rein to China, Burma's northern neighbor and one of the junta's few remaining supporters.
China is about to start building a gas pipeline from the Andaman Sea to the impoverished Chinese province of Yunnan.
"My personal view is that sanctions only work when you have all the countries potentially involved participating," Webb said Sunday. "The sanctions that have taken place in this situation have essentially driven Myanmar more towards China, making their country more vulnerable in my view and cutting off contact from the Western world."
There is growing sentiment among policymakers in the United States and Europe that the current sanctions regime has failed to bring democratic change in Burma and that new policies need to be discussed.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said earlier this year that the country's sanctions policy would be reviewed, with potential incentives for the Burmese if they were willing to modify the way they run the country.
Proponents of sanctions say that any loosening of the embargo would entail rewarding the regime for its intransigence, a view Webb does not share.
"This does not mean that we should in any way abandon our goal of trying to bring fairness and democracy to Myanmar and to other countries as well, but we should be looking for ways to change the formula to develop a way that can assist the people of Burma in bettering their daily lives," he said.
Western analysts say there are some faint signs that the Burmese regime is becoming more flexible, as evidenced by its decision to allow Webb to meet both Suu Kyi and the leaders of her National League for Democracy without supervision.
But one Burma-based analyst, who declined to be named, said it was still unclear whether the generals who run the country are genuinely interested in a limited rapprochement with the outside world, or if they are grudgingly making concessions to international pressure, particularly from China.
Webb also said he brought up the recent allegations that Burma might be pursuing some kind of military nuclear capability, perhaps with assistance from North Korea.
"It was communicated to me early on that there was no truth to that," he said.
*********************************************************
Webb: New push to secure Suu Kyi's release
updated 3:37 a.m. EDT, Mon August 17, 2009
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- There is a new push to free Myanmar's pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, Sen. Jim Webb told CNN's "American Morning" Monday.
Webb spoke after a weekend visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, in which he secured the release of an American man who was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for visiting Suu Kyi.
ASEAN, a powerful economic and political bloc of Southeast Asian nations, may petition Myanmar to release Suu Kyi on the grounds of amnesty, according to Webb.
"(That) would be a major step forward in resolving this situation," the Virginia Democrat said.
ASEAN -- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- has been reluctant in the past to address Suu Kyi's detention in Myanmar, one of its 10 member nations.
But it has been under increased pressure to suspend Myanmar after the country's military junta convicted Suu Kyi last week for violating the terms of her house arrest.
That conviction stemmed from a May 3 incident in which American John Yettaw swam to her house, uninvited, and stayed for two days. Webb secured Yettaw's release, and he is currently being treated at a hospital in Bangkok. Yettaw suffers from diabetes.
Some Burmese exile groups criticized Webb for traveling to the heavily-sanctioned country to secure the release of the American.
"This will surely make a negative impression among the people of Burma," said Aung Din, executive director of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma. "They will think that Americans are easy to satisfy with the dictators when they get their citizens back."
But Webb, who has expressed regret for Yettaw's actions, stressed that his visit to Myanmar was not "specifically to obtain his release."
"I think that he may have been well-intentioned, but he hurt a lot of people including the very woman he was thinking he was going to help," Webb told CNN.
Many analysts saw Suu Kyi's latest detention as the junta's attempt to keep the Nobel laureate from participating in next year's elections.
On Saturday, Webb -- who chairs the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- held separate meetings with Suu Kyi and Myanmar's top official, junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
Webb is the first member of Congress to visit Myanmar in more than a decade -- and the first American official ever to meet with Than Shwe.
He said he asked Myanmar's leaders to consider Suu Kyi's release because "no future elections process would have any credibility with the outside world unless she were able to participate in the political debate."
Webb's trip was part of a new approach by the Obama administration "to find different ways of working to open up Myanmar for the benefit of the people."
Suu Kyi may agree to support lifting some economic sanctions against Myanmar's current regime if the issue of restoring democracy is properly addressed, Webb said.
Those sanctions, according to Webb, have failed.
"What they've done is they've allowed the Chinese to increase their level of investment and their level of influence in a country that is vitally important to the future security of the United States," Webb said, referring to economic sanctions on Myanmar.
"Sanctions don't work if you have a country like China that (is) pouring billions of dollars into places like Myanmar. (The sanctions) have shut off the contact with the very people who can raise the level of consciousness among the Burmese citizens and actually assist in the evolution of the political process."
updated 3:37 a.m. EDT, Mon August 17, 2009
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- There is a new push to free Myanmar's pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, Sen. Jim Webb told CNN's "American Morning" Monday.
Webb spoke after a weekend visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, in which he secured the release of an American man who was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for visiting Suu Kyi.
ASEAN, a powerful economic and political bloc of Southeast Asian nations, may petition Myanmar to release Suu Kyi on the grounds of amnesty, according to Webb.
"(That) would be a major step forward in resolving this situation," the Virginia Democrat said.
ASEAN -- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- has been reluctant in the past to address Suu Kyi's detention in Myanmar, one of its 10 member nations.
But it has been under increased pressure to suspend Myanmar after the country's military junta convicted Suu Kyi last week for violating the terms of her house arrest.
That conviction stemmed from a May 3 incident in which American John Yettaw swam to her house, uninvited, and stayed for two days. Webb secured Yettaw's release, and he is currently being treated at a hospital in Bangkok. Yettaw suffers from diabetes.
Some Burmese exile groups criticized Webb for traveling to the heavily-sanctioned country to secure the release of the American.
"This will surely make a negative impression among the people of Burma," said Aung Din, executive director of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma. "They will think that Americans are easy to satisfy with the dictators when they get their citizens back."
But Webb, who has expressed regret for Yettaw's actions, stressed that his visit to Myanmar was not "specifically to obtain his release."
"I think that he may have been well-intentioned, but he hurt a lot of people including the very woman he was thinking he was going to help," Webb told CNN.
Many analysts saw Suu Kyi's latest detention as the junta's attempt to keep the Nobel laureate from participating in next year's elections.
On Saturday, Webb -- who chairs the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- held separate meetings with Suu Kyi and Myanmar's top official, junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
Webb is the first member of Congress to visit Myanmar in more than a decade -- and the first American official ever to meet with Than Shwe.
He said he asked Myanmar's leaders to consider Suu Kyi's release because "no future elections process would have any credibility with the outside world unless she were able to participate in the political debate."
Webb's trip was part of a new approach by the Obama administration "to find different ways of working to open up Myanmar for the benefit of the people."
Suu Kyi may agree to support lifting some economic sanctions against Myanmar's current regime if the issue of restoring democracy is properly addressed, Webb said.
Those sanctions, according to Webb, have failed.
"What they've done is they've allowed the Chinese to increase their level of investment and their level of influence in a country that is vitally important to the future security of the United States," Webb said, referring to economic sanctions on Myanmar.
"Sanctions don't work if you have a country like China that (is) pouring billions of dollars into places like Myanmar. (The sanctions) have shut off the contact with the very people who can raise the level of consciousness among the Burmese citizens and actually assist in the evolution of the political process."
*********************************************************
Aug 18, 2009
Asia Times Online - Realpolitik revealed in Myanmar release
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - United States Senator Jim Webb's trip to military ruled Myanmar highlights again the difficulties of dealing with the ruling generals and brings into focus the debate over the usefulness of sanctions and the perceived growing influence of China in the region.
Webb flew into the capital of Myanmar, Naypyidaw, on Friday and held two days of discussions with senior regime leaders. The visit marked the second time Webb has traveled to Myanmar; he went previously as a private citizen in 2001. His trip as chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Sub-committee is part of a five-country fact-finding tour to explore opportunities for expanding US interests in the region. The visit made Webb the first US congressman in a decade to visit Myanmar.
At a press conference in Bangkok on Sunday, Webb said he made three requests of the generals: consider the release of John Yettaw on humanitarian grounds; grant permission for a meeting with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi; and consider his "strong recommendation" to free Suu Kyi and allow her full participation in the political process.
To the surprise of some in the exile community, Webb was successful on the first two counts, but as expected Webb received, as he said, "no communication yet on number three". He secured the release of American citizen John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years of jail and hard labor for swimming across a Yangon lake and entering Suu Kyi's compound.
The international community, particularly among Western countries, was quick to condemn last week's verdict against Suu Kyi, which sentenced her to 18 months under house arrest. The European Union stepped up sanctions by including judges and some government-owned publications on its list of officials and members of the regime banned in the EU.
The verdict came amid a review of Myanmar policy by the Barack Obama administration. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented during a February visit to the region that sanctions had not brought the expected results and that the US was seeking ways to move forward. Much speculation has ensued since about the possible outcome of the review.
There have been signs that the US is considering closer engagement with the generals. During his confirmation hearings in June, new Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell said that the US was "prepared to reach out" to Myanmar, but the arrest of Suu Kyi made it "difficult to go forward". Clinton last month during a call for the release of Suu Kyi said, "This would open up, at least for my government, a lot of opportunities for engagement, and that includes investment and other forms of exchange."
With the arrest and sentencing of Suu Kyi, there are seemingly few options for the US but to continue with its sanctions regime. In May, Obama renewed the 1997 Investment Ban for American companies wishing to do business in Myanmar and in July he renewed the Burma Freedom and Democracy Act, which bans for another three years the importation of goods from Myanmar. Both Obama and Clinton condemned the verdict against Suu Kyi, labeling it an injustice and demanding her release. Clinton had also called for the release of Yettaw.
Some analysts see parallels in Webb's visit to conciliatory moves the Obama administration has made with other totalitarian regimes. In an overture to Iran in January, Obama said in an interview with al-Arabiya, "If countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us." The most recent example is former president Bill Clinton's visit to North Korea, which secured the release of two detained American journalists and sparked hopes of a thaw in US-North Korean relations.
The Obama administration gave its blessing to Webb's trip to Myanmar, leaving the impression his was a similar attempt to foster goodwill. Webb, while hopeful some confidence and goodwill had been built by the trip, made it clear at the press conference that he was acting only as a US senator and not as an envoy of the Obama administration. He claims he only offered the regime his own thoughts and perspectives on how the outside world views Myanmar.
However, he did "strongly offer" the suggestion that the US wanted to be involved in Myanmar's electoral process scheduled for next year. "I believe it is impossible for the rest of the world to believe elections are free and fair if Aung San Suu Kyi is not released and the NLD [National League for Democracy] should be included [in the election process]," he told the regime.
Special access
Webb may have been acting in his capacity as chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Sub-committee and not as a diplomatic official, but he was granted access to both Senior General Than Shwe, the country's reclusive leader, and surprisingly Suu Kyi. In comparison, United Nations special rapporteur to Myanmar, Ibarahim Gambari, had been consistently denied an audience with Than Shwe, and has consistently been denied access to Suu Kyi since August last year. Even UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon was rebuffed in attempts to hold a meeting with Than Shwe in the wake of last year's destructive Cyclone Nargis.
Some observers think intense international and regional pressure led to the Webb meetings, while others believe it is because of Webb's known anti-sanctions and pro-engagement stance. Still others say it is part of an attempt by the regime to court better relations with the US, possibly at the urging of China. Webb claims the meetings were a result of several months of negotiation with the government.
Webb called the regime's release of Yettaw and their granting of meetings with Suu Kyi and members of her NLD party, "a hopeful gesture". However, many analysts and members of the exile political community are not as hopeful. They say Webb is simply playing into the hands of the regime, particularly in consideration of the timing of the visit directly after the Suu Kyi verdict, and will be used to validate the junta's position. A letter sent to Webb from three groups inside Myanmar expressed amazement that he would travel to Myanmar at this time.
Yettaw's release was not a major diplomatic breakthrough. Several foreigners have been arrested in Myanmar for involvement in politics in the past 20 years, including Briton Rachel Goldwyn, who was arrested for singing pro-democracy songs in central Yangon in 1999, and another Briton, James Mawdsley, who was arrested three different times between 1997 and 1999. Almost all of them were released within days or weeks, usually accompanied by statements from the regime about its leniency and hopeful statements from governments of new windows of opportunity.
Critics claim the release of Yettaw and discussions between Myanmar government officials and Webb are a way for the regime to deflect international criticism in the wake of the Suu Kyi verdict. According to Aung Din, executive director of the US Campaign for Burma (Myamnar), "This is just Senior General Than Shwe giving an award to Senator Webb for his efforts on US engagement with the regime, increasing US business opportunities in [Myanmar] and his opposition to sanctions."
Webb said his trip had "laid a foundation of goodwill and confidence building so we can have a better solution in the future". He predicated that "solution", however, on the goal of bringing freedom and democracy to Myanmar. Webb's stance on Myanmar seems to hinge on increased diplomatic engagement and the eventual removal of sanctions.
Webb is a vocal opponent of economic and financial sanctions against Myanmar, claiming that they only serve to isolate the regime while denying the country's people exposure to outside political and economic ideas that could help bring change. Sanctions, he has argued, have denied opportunities to American businesses and undercut US influence in the country. In March, Webb called sanctions "counter-productive in terms of our ability to affect the difficulties faced by the [Myanmar] people".
At Sunday's press conference in Bangkok, Webb said governments should speak more directly and individually and collectively to put pressure on China, Myanmar's main patron and ally. "Those calling for sanctions should now be encouraging China to join in finding a solution to Myanmar's internal stalemate," he said. "China has an obligation to end its silence and assist in ending the Aung San Suu Kyi situation."
Critics of sanctions have noted that neighbors Thailand, India and especially China have increased their investments while the West attempts to isolate the country. Judging from his comments, Webb seems to think that increased Chinese influence in Myanmar is dangerous both to the country and the larger region. "My own idea is that sanctions only work when you have all the countries involved participating," Webb said.
He said growing Chinese influence "affects the balance in Southeast Asia" and is "unhealthy to the region". It is necessary, he said, to preserve the vital balance of power among the nations of Southeast Asia as the region continues to evolve. China and Southeast Asia analysts often view China's deployment of "soft power" initiatives in the region as diminishing US influence, particularly after Washington prioritized post September 11, 2001, counter-terrorism policies in the region.
Webb's views on Myanmar are not popular with Myanmar's exile community, despite his careful wording of ending sanctions and isolation for "the Myanmar people". Its clear to most that Webb and the Obama administration have larger realpolitik goals of containing China in mind.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
Asia Times Online - Realpolitik revealed in Myanmar release
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - United States Senator Jim Webb's trip to military ruled Myanmar highlights again the difficulties of dealing with the ruling generals and brings into focus the debate over the usefulness of sanctions and the perceived growing influence of China in the region.
Webb flew into the capital of Myanmar, Naypyidaw, on Friday and held two days of discussions with senior regime leaders. The visit marked the second time Webb has traveled to Myanmar; he went previously as a private citizen in 2001. His trip as chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Sub-committee is part of a five-country fact-finding tour to explore opportunities for expanding US interests in the region. The visit made Webb the first US congressman in a decade to visit Myanmar.
At a press conference in Bangkok on Sunday, Webb said he made three requests of the generals: consider the release of John Yettaw on humanitarian grounds; grant permission for a meeting with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi; and consider his "strong recommendation" to free Suu Kyi and allow her full participation in the political process.
To the surprise of some in the exile community, Webb was successful on the first two counts, but as expected Webb received, as he said, "no communication yet on number three". He secured the release of American citizen John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years of jail and hard labor for swimming across a Yangon lake and entering Suu Kyi's compound.
The international community, particularly among Western countries, was quick to condemn last week's verdict against Suu Kyi, which sentenced her to 18 months under house arrest. The European Union stepped up sanctions by including judges and some government-owned publications on its list of officials and members of the regime banned in the EU.
The verdict came amid a review of Myanmar policy by the Barack Obama administration. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented during a February visit to the region that sanctions had not brought the expected results and that the US was seeking ways to move forward. Much speculation has ensued since about the possible outcome of the review.
There have been signs that the US is considering closer engagement with the generals. During his confirmation hearings in June, new Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell said that the US was "prepared to reach out" to Myanmar, but the arrest of Suu Kyi made it "difficult to go forward". Clinton last month during a call for the release of Suu Kyi said, "This would open up, at least for my government, a lot of opportunities for engagement, and that includes investment and other forms of exchange."
With the arrest and sentencing of Suu Kyi, there are seemingly few options for the US but to continue with its sanctions regime. In May, Obama renewed the 1997 Investment Ban for American companies wishing to do business in Myanmar and in July he renewed the Burma Freedom and Democracy Act, which bans for another three years the importation of goods from Myanmar. Both Obama and Clinton condemned the verdict against Suu Kyi, labeling it an injustice and demanding her release. Clinton had also called for the release of Yettaw.
Some analysts see parallels in Webb's visit to conciliatory moves the Obama administration has made with other totalitarian regimes. In an overture to Iran in January, Obama said in an interview with al-Arabiya, "If countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us." The most recent example is former president Bill Clinton's visit to North Korea, which secured the release of two detained American journalists and sparked hopes of a thaw in US-North Korean relations.
The Obama administration gave its blessing to Webb's trip to Myanmar, leaving the impression his was a similar attempt to foster goodwill. Webb, while hopeful some confidence and goodwill had been built by the trip, made it clear at the press conference that he was acting only as a US senator and not as an envoy of the Obama administration. He claims he only offered the regime his own thoughts and perspectives on how the outside world views Myanmar.
However, he did "strongly offer" the suggestion that the US wanted to be involved in Myanmar's electoral process scheduled for next year. "I believe it is impossible for the rest of the world to believe elections are free and fair if Aung San Suu Kyi is not released and the NLD [National League for Democracy] should be included [in the election process]," he told the regime.
Special access
Webb may have been acting in his capacity as chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Sub-committee and not as a diplomatic official, but he was granted access to both Senior General Than Shwe, the country's reclusive leader, and surprisingly Suu Kyi. In comparison, United Nations special rapporteur to Myanmar, Ibarahim Gambari, had been consistently denied an audience with Than Shwe, and has consistently been denied access to Suu Kyi since August last year. Even UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon was rebuffed in attempts to hold a meeting with Than Shwe in the wake of last year's destructive Cyclone Nargis.
Some observers think intense international and regional pressure led to the Webb meetings, while others believe it is because of Webb's known anti-sanctions and pro-engagement stance. Still others say it is part of an attempt by the regime to court better relations with the US, possibly at the urging of China. Webb claims the meetings were a result of several months of negotiation with the government.
Webb called the regime's release of Yettaw and their granting of meetings with Suu Kyi and members of her NLD party, "a hopeful gesture". However, many analysts and members of the exile political community are not as hopeful. They say Webb is simply playing into the hands of the regime, particularly in consideration of the timing of the visit directly after the Suu Kyi verdict, and will be used to validate the junta's position. A letter sent to Webb from three groups inside Myanmar expressed amazement that he would travel to Myanmar at this time.
Yettaw's release was not a major diplomatic breakthrough. Several foreigners have been arrested in Myanmar for involvement in politics in the past 20 years, including Briton Rachel Goldwyn, who was arrested for singing pro-democracy songs in central Yangon in 1999, and another Briton, James Mawdsley, who was arrested three different times between 1997 and 1999. Almost all of them were released within days or weeks, usually accompanied by statements from the regime about its leniency and hopeful statements from governments of new windows of opportunity.
Critics claim the release of Yettaw and discussions between Myanmar government officials and Webb are a way for the regime to deflect international criticism in the wake of the Suu Kyi verdict. According to Aung Din, executive director of the US Campaign for Burma (Myamnar), "This is just Senior General Than Shwe giving an award to Senator Webb for his efforts on US engagement with the regime, increasing US business opportunities in [Myanmar] and his opposition to sanctions."
Webb said his trip had "laid a foundation of goodwill and confidence building so we can have a better solution in the future". He predicated that "solution", however, on the goal of bringing freedom and democracy to Myanmar. Webb's stance on Myanmar seems to hinge on increased diplomatic engagement and the eventual removal of sanctions.
Webb is a vocal opponent of economic and financial sanctions against Myanmar, claiming that they only serve to isolate the regime while denying the country's people exposure to outside political and economic ideas that could help bring change. Sanctions, he has argued, have denied opportunities to American businesses and undercut US influence in the country. In March, Webb called sanctions "counter-productive in terms of our ability to affect the difficulties faced by the [Myanmar] people".
At Sunday's press conference in Bangkok, Webb said governments should speak more directly and individually and collectively to put pressure on China, Myanmar's main patron and ally. "Those calling for sanctions should now be encouraging China to join in finding a solution to Myanmar's internal stalemate," he said. "China has an obligation to end its silence and assist in ending the Aung San Suu Kyi situation."
Critics of sanctions have noted that neighbors Thailand, India and especially China have increased their investments while the West attempts to isolate the country. Judging from his comments, Webb seems to think that increased Chinese influence in Myanmar is dangerous both to the country and the larger region. "My own idea is that sanctions only work when you have all the countries involved participating," Webb said.
He said growing Chinese influence "affects the balance in Southeast Asia" and is "unhealthy to the region". It is necessary, he said, to preserve the vital balance of power among the nations of Southeast Asia as the region continues to evolve. China and Southeast Asia analysts often view China's deployment of "soft power" initiatives in the region as diminishing US influence, particularly after Washington prioritized post September 11, 2001, counter-terrorism policies in the region.
Webb's views on Myanmar are not popular with Myanmar's exile community, despite his careful wording of ending sanctions and isolation for "the Myanmar people". Its clear to most that Webb and the Obama administration have larger realpolitik goals of containing China in mind.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
*********************************************************
Aug 18, 2009
Asia Times Online - Regime rides above sanctions
By Simon Roughneen
BANGKOK - Despite some buffeting by the global economic downturn, revenues from gas, oil, hardwood and gemstones continue to flow into Myanmar's coffers, helping junta leader Senior General Than Shwe to maintain Southeast Asia's largest standing army. An estimated 50% of the state's revenues go towards maintaining the country's 400,000-strong military.
While Western countries impose economic sanctions against the junta, including new measures imposed last week by the European Union against members of Myanmar's judiciary and 58 other enterprises, Asian states are fiercely competing for oil and gas concessions. That promises even greater wealth for the ruling military junta, even as its international reputation plummets in the wake of last week's sentencing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail, later reduced to 18 months of house arrest.
Thailand and China were estimated to have provided US$850 million of the $980 million total that was invested in the country last year, in everything from oil and gas, to roads, along with gems and timber extraction. As of 2007, both countries accounted for over half of Myanmar's exports and imports. Those figures should rise as new hydroelectric projects and a port-pipeline facility linking the Myanmar coast to western China get underway later this year.
When Myanmar has faced intense international criticism, including in reaction to its slow response last year to the Cyclone Nargis disaster, China, its main ally, has provided the regime with political cover through its seat on the United Nations Security Council. This was replicated in China's public response to the Suu Kyi verdict, saying that the international community should respect Myanmar's "judicial sovereignty" and that it would not support any United Nations-sponsored sanctions linked to the verdict.
With China, India , South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) averse to any form of sanctions on the junta, there is a case to be made that Western restrictions merely drive business elsewhere.
"Chinese investment is imperative for [Myanmar] amid the US and European Union sanctions," said Arpitha Bykere, Asia Analyst at the Roubini Global Economy (RGE) Monitor, a US-based research center. "Economic ties with Asia help [Myanmar] show to the world that despite sanctions, it can attract trade and investment from several countries. This boosts [Myanmar's] political leverage to resist global calls for political reform."
Little of the largesse from recent foreign investments has gone towards much-needed health, education, and agriculture sector spending. A 2006 estimate of the child mortality rate in eastern Myanmar was 221 per 1,000, higher than the 205 recorded in the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the nation's health system as the second worst on the planet, while according to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fun, more than 25% of the population lacks access to potable water.
These abysmal statistics figure largely in the debate over whether Western countries should maintain their sanctions or move towards more engagement with Myanmar's rights abusing regime. Engagement advocates note that Myanmar received 20 times less per-capita from donor countries than other countries with similar poverty levels. According to the US Central Intelligence Agency yearbook, 32.7% of Myanmar's people lived under the poverty line in 2007 while the population endured inflation of 27.3% in 2008.
The junta's foreign minister, Nyan Win, described economic sanctions as "immoral" in a September 2008 address to the UN General Assembly, adding that they "are counter-productive and deprive countries of their right to development". Prime Minister Thein Sein made much the same argument in presentations in February to UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari.
There were earlier indications of a possible policy rethink in Washington. In the run-up to the Suu Kyi verdict, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered to consider renewed US investment in exchange for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party being allowed to participate in elections scheduled for next year.
The State Department had earlier said it would consider a review of US policy towards Myanmar, an acknowledgement that past policies and sanctions had failed to influence the junta. That debate was expected to stall after the junta spurned US and UN calls against extending Suu Kyi's detention. However, Than Shwe's meeting over the weekend with US Democratic senator Jim Webb, which also allowed the Amercian an hour-long meeting with Suu Kyi, has raised new questions about diplomatic next steps.
The EU's tightened sanctions added members of Myanmar's judiciary responsible for the Suu Kyi verdict to a list of some 500 Myanmar government officials whose assets in the EU are frozen and who are banned from travel to the EU's 27-member bloc. In contrast, China, Russia, Vietnam and Libya watered-down a US-drafted UN Security Council statement on the Suu Kyi verdict to express "concern" rather than outright condemnation.
The counter-sanctions argument promoted by many Asian nations suggests that restrictions fail to influence the junta and only keep the nation's poor downtrodden. Given that the majority of Myanmar's population - 70% of the people - are employed in the agriculture sector and benefit neither from the regime's resource extraction activities nor its trade and investment links with neighboring countries, the sanctions debate is something of a red herring.
Myanmar economy expert and Macquarie University economist Sean Turnell told Asia Times Online that the majority of Myanmar's people "might never have seen a bank, much less have anything to do with the type of institutions and links targeted by sanctions". Moreover, upgrading the amount of donor aid sent to Myanmar would amount to a free pass for the junta on development-related spending it should be undertaking itself.
The junta's concern about the impact of sanctions suggests either one of two things: Myanmar's military rulers have turned a new leaf and want to help their people, or they do in fact feel the pinch of sanctions and are worried that if replicated closer to home, the impact on the elites would be devastating. If the former is indeed true, it is not reflected in junta policy.
On May 11, the Financial Times quoted an unreleased annual International Monetary Fund report that said Myanmar's foreign exchange reserves are at a record $3.6 billion, but that the ruling junta has not used them to help the impoverished population and that the country's economic prospects remain "bleak". Vigorous rolling of the monetary presses has contributed to an inflation rate of around 30%, the report said.
The junta has boasted that its international isolation would help it weather the global economic downturn, at least compared with its more export-oriented counterparts in ASEAN, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Other members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar. This hasn't been the case, however. RGE Monitor's Bykere said that "Myanmar has taken a hit due to a global commodity [price] correction. Production and export of natural gas, mining products, food products and several other commodities have been severely affected."
Although the junta's official statistics claim that the economy is growing at around 10% annually, Turnell said that various indicators, including weak domestic energy consumption, suggest that the economy is actually contracting. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest report on Myanmar, the country's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2009 is projected to be only 1%.
According to Turnell, Burma's problems can be traced to the state's commanding control of the economy, which squeezes the life out of private-sector activities. Disproportionate budgetary allocations to the military means that no rural credit is available, even though 70% of the national workforce are subsistence farmers. Meanwhile, foreign revenues are understated on the national accounts because of exchange rate manipulations. For instance, revenue from gas exports is added to the budget at the fixed official exchange of six kyat to the dollar rather than the 1,000-kyat to the greenback floating black market rate.
Recorded at the official rate, Myanmar's gas earnings represent less than 1% of overall budget receipts; if the same gas earnings were recorded at the market exchange rate, their contribution would be more than double total official state receipts.
Turnell says the rationale behind the dual exchange rates "is probably to 'quarantine' [Myanmar's] foreign exchange from the country's public accounts, thereby making them available to the regime and its cronies. This accounting is facilitated by [Myanmar's] state-owned Foreign Trade Bank and some willing offshore banks."
These complicit offshore banks are known to be in neighboring states, implying that a broader Western sanctions regime that hit certain Asian banks might have a greater impact on the junta's finances. The Asian states most critical of the ineffectiveness of Western sanctions are often the same ones that undermine them by offering Myanmar's junta alternative financial, trade and investment options.
If Myanmar were a democratic state, the Myanmar people would be the rightful sovereign owners of the country's resources and revenues and would have some say in how they were spent. But as the country gears up for democratic elections next year, all indications - including Suu Kyi's continued detention - are that the military intends to extend its political and economic dominance via a civilian veneer.
Simon Roughneen is a roving freelance journalist. He has reported from over 20 countries and is currently based in Southeast Asia.
Asia Times Online - Regime rides above sanctions
By Simon Roughneen
BANGKOK - Despite some buffeting by the global economic downturn, revenues from gas, oil, hardwood and gemstones continue to flow into Myanmar's coffers, helping junta leader Senior General Than Shwe to maintain Southeast Asia's largest standing army. An estimated 50% of the state's revenues go towards maintaining the country's 400,000-strong military.
While Western countries impose economic sanctions against the junta, including new measures imposed last week by the European Union against members of Myanmar's judiciary and 58 other enterprises, Asian states are fiercely competing for oil and gas concessions. That promises even greater wealth for the ruling military junta, even as its international reputation plummets in the wake of last week's sentencing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail, later reduced to 18 months of house arrest.
Thailand and China were estimated to have provided US$850 million of the $980 million total that was invested in the country last year, in everything from oil and gas, to roads, along with gems and timber extraction. As of 2007, both countries accounted for over half of Myanmar's exports and imports. Those figures should rise as new hydroelectric projects and a port-pipeline facility linking the Myanmar coast to western China get underway later this year.
When Myanmar has faced intense international criticism, including in reaction to its slow response last year to the Cyclone Nargis disaster, China, its main ally, has provided the regime with political cover through its seat on the United Nations Security Council. This was replicated in China's public response to the Suu Kyi verdict, saying that the international community should respect Myanmar's "judicial sovereignty" and that it would not support any United Nations-sponsored sanctions linked to the verdict.
With China, India , South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) averse to any form of sanctions on the junta, there is a case to be made that Western restrictions merely drive business elsewhere.
"Chinese investment is imperative for [Myanmar] amid the US and European Union sanctions," said Arpitha Bykere, Asia Analyst at the Roubini Global Economy (RGE) Monitor, a US-based research center. "Economic ties with Asia help [Myanmar] show to the world that despite sanctions, it can attract trade and investment from several countries. This boosts [Myanmar's] political leverage to resist global calls for political reform."
Little of the largesse from recent foreign investments has gone towards much-needed health, education, and agriculture sector spending. A 2006 estimate of the child mortality rate in eastern Myanmar was 221 per 1,000, higher than the 205 recorded in the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the nation's health system as the second worst on the planet, while according to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fun, more than 25% of the population lacks access to potable water.
These abysmal statistics figure largely in the debate over whether Western countries should maintain their sanctions or move towards more engagement with Myanmar's rights abusing regime. Engagement advocates note that Myanmar received 20 times less per-capita from donor countries than other countries with similar poverty levels. According to the US Central Intelligence Agency yearbook, 32.7% of Myanmar's people lived under the poverty line in 2007 while the population endured inflation of 27.3% in 2008.
The junta's foreign minister, Nyan Win, described economic sanctions as "immoral" in a September 2008 address to the UN General Assembly, adding that they "are counter-productive and deprive countries of their right to development". Prime Minister Thein Sein made much the same argument in presentations in February to UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari.
There were earlier indications of a possible policy rethink in Washington. In the run-up to the Suu Kyi verdict, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered to consider renewed US investment in exchange for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party being allowed to participate in elections scheduled for next year.
The State Department had earlier said it would consider a review of US policy towards Myanmar, an acknowledgement that past policies and sanctions had failed to influence the junta. That debate was expected to stall after the junta spurned US and UN calls against extending Suu Kyi's detention. However, Than Shwe's meeting over the weekend with US Democratic senator Jim Webb, which also allowed the Amercian an hour-long meeting with Suu Kyi, has raised new questions about diplomatic next steps.
The EU's tightened sanctions added members of Myanmar's judiciary responsible for the Suu Kyi verdict to a list of some 500 Myanmar government officials whose assets in the EU are frozen and who are banned from travel to the EU's 27-member bloc. In contrast, China, Russia, Vietnam and Libya watered-down a US-drafted UN Security Council statement on the Suu Kyi verdict to express "concern" rather than outright condemnation.
The counter-sanctions argument promoted by many Asian nations suggests that restrictions fail to influence the junta and only keep the nation's poor downtrodden. Given that the majority of Myanmar's population - 70% of the people - are employed in the agriculture sector and benefit neither from the regime's resource extraction activities nor its trade and investment links with neighboring countries, the sanctions debate is something of a red herring.
Myanmar economy expert and Macquarie University economist Sean Turnell told Asia Times Online that the majority of Myanmar's people "might never have seen a bank, much less have anything to do with the type of institutions and links targeted by sanctions". Moreover, upgrading the amount of donor aid sent to Myanmar would amount to a free pass for the junta on development-related spending it should be undertaking itself.
The junta's concern about the impact of sanctions suggests either one of two things: Myanmar's military rulers have turned a new leaf and want to help their people, or they do in fact feel the pinch of sanctions and are worried that if replicated closer to home, the impact on the elites would be devastating. If the former is indeed true, it is not reflected in junta policy.
On May 11, the Financial Times quoted an unreleased annual International Monetary Fund report that said Myanmar's foreign exchange reserves are at a record $3.6 billion, but that the ruling junta has not used them to help the impoverished population and that the country's economic prospects remain "bleak". Vigorous rolling of the monetary presses has contributed to an inflation rate of around 30%, the report said.
The junta has boasted that its international isolation would help it weather the global economic downturn, at least compared with its more export-oriented counterparts in ASEAN, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Other members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar. This hasn't been the case, however. RGE Monitor's Bykere said that "Myanmar has taken a hit due to a global commodity [price] correction. Production and export of natural gas, mining products, food products and several other commodities have been severely affected."
Although the junta's official statistics claim that the economy is growing at around 10% annually, Turnell said that various indicators, including weak domestic energy consumption, suggest that the economy is actually contracting. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest report on Myanmar, the country's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2009 is projected to be only 1%.
According to Turnell, Burma's problems can be traced to the state's commanding control of the economy, which squeezes the life out of private-sector activities. Disproportionate budgetary allocations to the military means that no rural credit is available, even though 70% of the national workforce are subsistence farmers. Meanwhile, foreign revenues are understated on the national accounts because of exchange rate manipulations. For instance, revenue from gas exports is added to the budget at the fixed official exchange of six kyat to the dollar rather than the 1,000-kyat to the greenback floating black market rate.
Recorded at the official rate, Myanmar's gas earnings represent less than 1% of overall budget receipts; if the same gas earnings were recorded at the market exchange rate, their contribution would be more than double total official state receipts.
Turnell says the rationale behind the dual exchange rates "is probably to 'quarantine' [Myanmar's] foreign exchange from the country's public accounts, thereby making them available to the regime and its cronies. This accounting is facilitated by [Myanmar's] state-owned Foreign Trade Bank and some willing offshore banks."
These complicit offshore banks are known to be in neighboring states, implying that a broader Western sanctions regime that hit certain Asian banks might have a greater impact on the junta's finances. The Asian states most critical of the ineffectiveness of Western sanctions are often the same ones that undermine them by offering Myanmar's junta alternative financial, trade and investment options.
If Myanmar were a democratic state, the Myanmar people would be the rightful sovereign owners of the country's resources and revenues and would have some say in how they were spent. But as the country gears up for democratic elections next year, all indications - including Suu Kyi's continued detention - are that the military intends to extend its political and economic dominance via a civilian veneer.
Simon Roughneen is a roving freelance journalist. He has reported from over 20 countries and is currently based in Southeast Asia.
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Heritage - Bad Deal on Burma
Posted August 17th, 2009 at 10.35am in American Leadership.
In exchange for the release of John Yettaw, the American who provided Burma’s ruling junta an excuse to extend the house arrest of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, Senator Jim Webb provided the junta an opportunity for saturation media coverage of what will pass there as US endorsement of its rule.
This was a simple transaction. Junta chief Than Shwe got what he wanted, and he gave up something (someone) that had already served the regime’s purpose. It will not lead to a new opening in US-Burma relations - unless of course, the US is prepared to pare its objectives in a way that ensures the regime meets them. As Senator Webb has indicated before, this would entail accepting elections next year under a sham constitution. And, as things now stand, a lowered standard would also have to allow for the continued detention of Suu Kyi, detention of more than 2000 other political prisoners, and Suu Kyi’s prohibition from competing in the elections. That is not a road map. It is capitulation.
The Obama Administration claims it simply gave Senator Webb the customary support the State Department gives to any traveling Senator. Maybe so. But it may also be a no-lose effort to facilitate a change in policy without really taking a stand in favor of it. “Engagement” and meetings with dictators do not constitute policy unto themselves; they are diplomatic tools. In the most recent expression of policy, the House, Senate, and White House just weeks ago renewed sweeping sanctions against Burma. Until the Administration takes a clear stand on a new policy, Burma, the world, and concerned Americans can only assume that the policy of bringing maximum pressure to bear on Burma’s ruling generals stands.
The Administration has amply demonstrated that it can secure the release of Americans in difficult circumstances abroad. The verdict is still out on whether it can secure American national interests in the process. Deals like this are a bad sign. Either it is allowing others to drive US policy or it is confusing what is essentially consular work with foreign policy. It is time for the Administration to lay its cards on the table, complete its review of America’s Burma policy and let Washington fight it out.
Posted August 17th, 2009 at 10.35am in American Leadership.
In exchange for the release of John Yettaw, the American who provided Burma’s ruling junta an excuse to extend the house arrest of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, Senator Jim Webb provided the junta an opportunity for saturation media coverage of what will pass there as US endorsement of its rule.
This was a simple transaction. Junta chief Than Shwe got what he wanted, and he gave up something (someone) that had already served the regime’s purpose. It will not lead to a new opening in US-Burma relations - unless of course, the US is prepared to pare its objectives in a way that ensures the regime meets them. As Senator Webb has indicated before, this would entail accepting elections next year under a sham constitution. And, as things now stand, a lowered standard would also have to allow for the continued detention of Suu Kyi, detention of more than 2000 other political prisoners, and Suu Kyi’s prohibition from competing in the elections. That is not a road map. It is capitulation.
The Obama Administration claims it simply gave Senator Webb the customary support the State Department gives to any traveling Senator. Maybe so. But it may also be a no-lose effort to facilitate a change in policy without really taking a stand in favor of it. “Engagement” and meetings with dictators do not constitute policy unto themselves; they are diplomatic tools. In the most recent expression of policy, the House, Senate, and White House just weeks ago renewed sweeping sanctions against Burma. Until the Administration takes a clear stand on a new policy, Burma, the world, and concerned Americans can only assume that the policy of bringing maximum pressure to bear on Burma’s ruling generals stands.
The Administration has amply demonstrated that it can secure the release of Americans in difficult circumstances abroad. The verdict is still out on whether it can secure American national interests in the process. Deals like this are a bad sign. Either it is allowing others to drive US policy or it is confusing what is essentially consular work with foreign policy. It is time for the Administration to lay its cards on the table, complete its review of America’s Burma policy and let Washington fight it out.
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VOA News - US Senator: Burma Denies Nuclear Plans
By Heda Bayron, Bangkok
17 August 2009
U.S. Senator Jim Webb, who recently held talks with Burma's military leaders, says the government denies reports that it is trying to acquire nuclear technology. The senator also says Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has indicated a willingness to see some sanctions on Burma lifted.
Senator Jim Webb says he did not directly raise the issue of whether Burma has a covert nuclear program during talks with the country's leader, General Than Shwe. Webb met with the reclusive leader on Saturday, the first high-ranking U.S. official to do so.
However, he said Monday that the Burmese government denied having a nuclear program.
"But it was communicated to me earlier on that there was no truth to that, from a very high level in their government," Webb said.
Earlier this month, Australian researchers said interviews with defectors from Burma revealed that the government has a secret nuclear program, allegedly aided by North Korea. In June, a North Korean ship believed to be headed to Burma with a suspicious cargo turned back under international pressure. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that any military ties between Burma and North Korea pose a security threat to the region.
In an unprecedented gesture toward the United States, Webb was allowed to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon Saturday. He also was able to win the release of a U.S. citizen, John Yettaw, jailed for illegally visiting Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in May. That visit led to the government extending her house arrest by 18 months.
Webb says it appears Aung San Suu Kyi might not oppose easing sanctions on Burma. The U.S, the European Union and other Western governments have imposed economic sanctions over the years to punish the repressive military government. Webb favors the eventual lifting of sanctions on Burma, which he and others argue only increased the isolation of its people.
"I don't want to take the risk of misrepresenting her views," Webb said. "But I would say to you that it was my clear impression from her that she is not opposed to lifting some sanctions."
In the late 1990s, Aung San Suu Kyi expressed some support for economic sanctions as a way to pressure the government to recognize her party's election victory in 1990 and allow it to form a government. But in recent years, she has not publicly commented on sanctions. She has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest.
On Sunday, Webb said Washington needs to develop new ways to end Burma's isolation and bring about political and economic change. Webb, a Democrat, spoke with Secretary Clinton Sunday and will brief her again upon his return to Washington.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs is on a five-nation tour of Southeast Asia. From Bangkok, he will fly to Cambodia Tuesday and from there, to Vietnam.
By Heda Bayron, Bangkok
17 August 2009
U.S. Senator Jim Webb, who recently held talks with Burma's military leaders, says the government denies reports that it is trying to acquire nuclear technology. The senator also says Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has indicated a willingness to see some sanctions on Burma lifted.
Senator Jim Webb says he did not directly raise the issue of whether Burma has a covert nuclear program during talks with the country's leader, General Than Shwe. Webb met with the reclusive leader on Saturday, the first high-ranking U.S. official to do so.
However, he said Monday that the Burmese government denied having a nuclear program.
"But it was communicated to me earlier on that there was no truth to that, from a very high level in their government," Webb said.
Earlier this month, Australian researchers said interviews with defectors from Burma revealed that the government has a secret nuclear program, allegedly aided by North Korea. In June, a North Korean ship believed to be headed to Burma with a suspicious cargo turned back under international pressure. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that any military ties between Burma and North Korea pose a security threat to the region.
In an unprecedented gesture toward the United States, Webb was allowed to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon Saturday. He also was able to win the release of a U.S. citizen, John Yettaw, jailed for illegally visiting Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in May. That visit led to the government extending her house arrest by 18 months.
Webb says it appears Aung San Suu Kyi might not oppose easing sanctions on Burma. The U.S, the European Union and other Western governments have imposed economic sanctions over the years to punish the repressive military government. Webb favors the eventual lifting of sanctions on Burma, which he and others argue only increased the isolation of its people.
"I don't want to take the risk of misrepresenting her views," Webb said. "But I would say to you that it was my clear impression from her that she is not opposed to lifting some sanctions."
In the late 1990s, Aung San Suu Kyi expressed some support for economic sanctions as a way to pressure the government to recognize her party's election victory in 1990 and allow it to form a government. But in recent years, she has not publicly commented on sanctions. She has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest.
On Sunday, Webb said Washington needs to develop new ways to end Burma's isolation and bring about political and economic change. Webb, a Democrat, spoke with Secretary Clinton Sunday and will brief her again upon his return to Washington.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs is on a five-nation tour of Southeast Asia. From Bangkok, he will fly to Cambodia Tuesday and from there, to Vietnam.
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Mizzima News - Veteran opposition leader in hospital
by Phanida
Monday, 17 August 2009 18:47
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Win Tin, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the National League for Democracy, who was hospitalised on Saturday and underwent a cardiac surgery, is recovering and will be discharged soon, a relative said.
The 80-year old opposition leader was admitted to ‘Asia Taw Win’ special clinic in Rangoon’s San Chaung Township on Saturday and was operated upon on Sunday.
“We took him to the clinic on Saturday evening. The operation was performed on Sunday afternoon. Doctors inserted a pace maker as they found that his heart beats were slow,” his relative, Thet Naing Oo, told Mizzima.
Thet Naing Oo said the veteran journalist’s health is improving and he is likely to be discharged from the clinic on Tuesday. But doctors have forbidden use of electronic equipment including telephones near him.
Win Tin, after serving a 19-year prison sentence, was released on September 2008. But ever since his release, he has been complaining of various health problems including eye problems.
Win Tin earlier told Mizzima that he had problems with his eyesight, and an operation is needed. But doctors dare not carry out an operation as his pulse rate is below normal.
“When I had my eyes checked up, doctors said I need an operation but they dare not do it because when they checked my pulse rate it was much below normal. My pulse rate is only about 40-50 beats per minute, where as the normal rate is about 80-90,” Win Tin told Mizzima in an earlier interview.
The former editor served as an advisor to the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1989.
In 1996, he received an additional seven-year sentence for writing a testimonial to the United Nations on torture and the lack of medical treatment in Insein Prison.
In 2001, he was awarded the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize of UNESCO and the World Association of Newspapers also named him winner of the Golden Pen of Freedom Award.
by Phanida
Monday, 17 August 2009 18:47
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Win Tin, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the National League for Democracy, who was hospitalised on Saturday and underwent a cardiac surgery, is recovering and will be discharged soon, a relative said.
The 80-year old opposition leader was admitted to ‘Asia Taw Win’ special clinic in Rangoon’s San Chaung Township on Saturday and was operated upon on Sunday.
“We took him to the clinic on Saturday evening. The operation was performed on Sunday afternoon. Doctors inserted a pace maker as they found that his heart beats were slow,” his relative, Thet Naing Oo, told Mizzima.
Thet Naing Oo said the veteran journalist’s health is improving and he is likely to be discharged from the clinic on Tuesday. But doctors have forbidden use of electronic equipment including telephones near him.
Win Tin, after serving a 19-year prison sentence, was released on September 2008. But ever since his release, he has been complaining of various health problems including eye problems.
Win Tin earlier told Mizzima that he had problems with his eyesight, and an operation is needed. But doctors dare not carry out an operation as his pulse rate is below normal.
“When I had my eyes checked up, doctors said I need an operation but they dare not do it because when they checked my pulse rate it was much below normal. My pulse rate is only about 40-50 beats per minute, where as the normal rate is about 80-90,” Win Tin told Mizzima in an earlier interview.
The former editor served as an advisor to the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1989.
In 1996, he received an additional seven-year sentence for writing a testimonial to the United Nations on torture and the lack of medical treatment in Insein Prison.
In 2001, he was awarded the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize of UNESCO and the World Association of Newspapers also named him winner of the Golden Pen of Freedom Award.
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Mizzima News - Government employees to lose incentives in Naypyitaw
by Ni Moe Myint
Monday, 17 August 2009 18:10
Naypyitaw (Mizzima) – Authorities will begin collecting five different bills including house rent, electricity and water bills, from government employees they were earlier exempted from in Naypyitaw.
In July, the authorities collected Kyat 2,000 from each flat or houses as electricity bill up to July 2009. They, were however, told that they would be charged at the rate of Kyat 25 per unit next time.
Government employees have to pay rent at a flat rate of 10 per cent of their monthly salary regardless of the type of houses occupied, either with the family in flats or if they are staying together in dormitories, a staff from the Ministry of Forest told Mizzima.
“The monthly electricity bill may touch five digits as power is available here 24x7. Then we have to pay rent and Kyat 6,000 per month for cable TV. After deducting all these expenses from our monthly salary of just over Kyat 20,000, I wonder how much will be left for us to eat,” a low ranking staff from the Ministry of Economics and Commerce told Mizzima.
In Burma, where there has been military rule since 1962, the monthly salaries of low ranking government employees range from 15,000 kyat (USD 12 approximately) to 30,000 kyat.
In late 2005 and in early 2006, employees in various government ministries were ordered to move to Naypyitaw, as the military junta announced shifting of its capital to the jungle city. There was a lot of resentment among employees, habituated to living in urban areas. Some even toyed with the idea of resigning.
To persuade the employees to accept the transfer to the new jungle capital, authorities thought up incentives including one-step promotion, free housing in modern flats, round the clock free electricity and free cable for state-run TV.
However, there was a nasty shock in store for employees after they began settling down in their new homes. The regime began withdrawing the concessions one by one.
To make matters worse, government employees are forced to plant saplings and plants in their housing complexes and are given points on it. Those who fail to get 25 points are asked to explain.
“The authorities come and check our kitchen garden every week. A sapling of gourd fetches one point. It receives five points when it begins to bear gourds. So we dare not pluck our own gourd from our plants for fear of losing points. Five mango trees get one point,” a staff from the Ministry of Industry (1) living at the Bugwe Housing told Mizzima.
“And if we fail to collect 25 points, we have to explain to the minister. The minister is known to threaten employees with transfer to factories,” the staff complained.
Under pressure government employees have to attend office on holidays in rotation. Worse their families have to tag along when they need to do tiring work like planting trees, cleaning offices among other chores.
The ministries including Central government offices moved to Naypyitaw near Pyinmana in central Burma, as of November 2005 from the former capital Rangoon.
by Ni Moe Myint
Monday, 17 August 2009 18:10
Naypyitaw (Mizzima) – Authorities will begin collecting five different bills including house rent, electricity and water bills, from government employees they were earlier exempted from in Naypyitaw.
In July, the authorities collected Kyat 2,000 from each flat or houses as electricity bill up to July 2009. They, were however, told that they would be charged at the rate of Kyat 25 per unit next time.
Government employees have to pay rent at a flat rate of 10 per cent of their monthly salary regardless of the type of houses occupied, either with the family in flats or if they are staying together in dormitories, a staff from the Ministry of Forest told Mizzima.
“The monthly electricity bill may touch five digits as power is available here 24x7. Then we have to pay rent and Kyat 6,000 per month for cable TV. After deducting all these expenses from our monthly salary of just over Kyat 20,000, I wonder how much will be left for us to eat,” a low ranking staff from the Ministry of Economics and Commerce told Mizzima.
In Burma, where there has been military rule since 1962, the monthly salaries of low ranking government employees range from 15,000 kyat (USD 12 approximately) to 30,000 kyat.
In late 2005 and in early 2006, employees in various government ministries were ordered to move to Naypyitaw, as the military junta announced shifting of its capital to the jungle city. There was a lot of resentment among employees, habituated to living in urban areas. Some even toyed with the idea of resigning.
To persuade the employees to accept the transfer to the new jungle capital, authorities thought up incentives including one-step promotion, free housing in modern flats, round the clock free electricity and free cable for state-run TV.
However, there was a nasty shock in store for employees after they began settling down in their new homes. The regime began withdrawing the concessions one by one.
To make matters worse, government employees are forced to plant saplings and plants in their housing complexes and are given points on it. Those who fail to get 25 points are asked to explain.
“The authorities come and check our kitchen garden every week. A sapling of gourd fetches one point. It receives five points when it begins to bear gourds. So we dare not pluck our own gourd from our plants for fear of losing points. Five mango trees get one point,” a staff from the Ministry of Industry (1) living at the Bugwe Housing told Mizzima.
“And if we fail to collect 25 points, we have to explain to the minister. The minister is known to threaten employees with transfer to factories,” the staff complained.
Under pressure government employees have to attend office on holidays in rotation. Worse their families have to tag along when they need to do tiring work like planting trees, cleaning offices among other chores.
The ministries including Central government offices moved to Naypyitaw near Pyinmana in central Burma, as of November 2005 from the former capital Rangoon.
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The Irrawaddy - Villagers Fear September Offensive
By SAW YAN NAING, Monday, August 17, 2009
EI TU HTA—After overrunning the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 7 headquarters in southern Karen State, a joint Burmese army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) force plans to resume its offensive in northern Karen State in September, and take over the remaining KNLA bases along the Thai-Burmese border.
The targeted areas are KNLA Brigade 5 and KNLA military bases along the Salween River on the border with northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son Province.
The Commander of KNLA Brigade 5, Baw Kyaw, said his soldiers will defend the area and its villages to the best of their ability. He expects the offensive will come soon.
“If the DKBA follows the orders of the Burmese army, they are our enemy,” Baw Kyaw told The Irrawaddy in a KNLA controlled area on the border. The KNLA is the military wing of the Karen National Union.
Many Karen villagers in Papun District in northern Karen State and along the Salween River on the Thai-Burmese border are on alert against the joint Burmese and DKBA force, Karen villagers at the border said.
If the offensive succeeds, thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in northern Karen State and more than 4,000 Karen refugees in Ei Tu Hta, a temporary camp on the Salween River, will be forced to flee to Thai soil, Karen sources said.
Wah Eh Htoo, secretary of Ei Tu Hta refugee camp told The Irrawaddy: “Villagers fear the DKBA plan to take over the border.”
Ei Htu Ta camp is located on the Burmese bank of the Salween River in Karen State.
“We told the refugees to pack their pots and plates after meals and be ready to flee with other belongings at any time,” said Wah Eh Htoo.
Due to Burmese attacks, about 10,000 IDPs are currently hiding in the jungle in Nyaunglebin District in Pegu Division and Luthaw Township in Papun District, northern Karen state, said local villagers and relief groups who met with The Irrawaddy at the border on August 12.
Saw T’kwel, leader of Ei Tu Hta’s zone 6 said if the camp is attacked, the villagers will face problems getting food supplies, medical care and education for their children.
The IDPs dare not return home and fear that if they flee to Thailand, the Thai authorities will not permit them to stay long, he said.
“We live in fear of being caught on the battlefield,” Saw T’kwel said. “The expected offensive is the most common topic of conversation between businessmen and villagers.”
One anonymous DKBA source said DKBA forces will be stationed along the Salween River after the offensive against Brigade 5 is complete.
The DKBA will take control of logging, border trade taxation and security around dam construction sites on the Salween and Moei rivers, he said.
If the DKBA gains control along along the Salween, Karen relief groups will find it difficult to transport supplies by boat from the Thai border to areas still under KNLA control, sources said.
Border traders also expressed fears about restrictions if the DKBA gains control.
The Salween River is one of the main conduits for Thai-Burmese trade, which decreased after the DKBA split from KNU in 1995. Trade has increased in recent years, however.
Burmese forces stationed in some areas along the river said they will withdraw and be replaced by the DKBA over the next year.
One of the strongest ethnic ceasefire groups in Burma, the DKBA is the only force that agreed with the Burmese regime’s order to transform its troops into a border guard force. Other strong armed groups such as the United Wa State Army and the Kachin Independence Organization rejected the order.
According to the Burmese regime, the DKBA is among 17 ethnic ceasefire groups that signed ceasefire agreements with the Burmese regime since 1995.
The joint Burmese DKBA force overran KNLA Brigade 7 in southern Karen State in July after three weeks of fighting. Since then, some border trade including logging and surveying for dam construction has resumed, border sources said.
By SAW YAN NAING, Monday, August 17, 2009
EI TU HTA—After overrunning the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 7 headquarters in southern Karen State, a joint Burmese army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) force plans to resume its offensive in northern Karen State in September, and take over the remaining KNLA bases along the Thai-Burmese border.
The targeted areas are KNLA Brigade 5 and KNLA military bases along the Salween River on the border with northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son Province.
The Commander of KNLA Brigade 5, Baw Kyaw, said his soldiers will defend the area and its villages to the best of their ability. He expects the offensive will come soon.
“If the DKBA follows the orders of the Burmese army, they are our enemy,” Baw Kyaw told The Irrawaddy in a KNLA controlled area on the border. The KNLA is the military wing of the Karen National Union.
Many Karen villagers in Papun District in northern Karen State and along the Salween River on the Thai-Burmese border are on alert against the joint Burmese and DKBA force, Karen villagers at the border said.
If the offensive succeeds, thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in northern Karen State and more than 4,000 Karen refugees in Ei Tu Hta, a temporary camp on the Salween River, will be forced to flee to Thai soil, Karen sources said.
Wah Eh Htoo, secretary of Ei Tu Hta refugee camp told The Irrawaddy: “Villagers fear the DKBA plan to take over the border.”
Ei Htu Ta camp is located on the Burmese bank of the Salween River in Karen State.
“We told the refugees to pack their pots and plates after meals and be ready to flee with other belongings at any time,” said Wah Eh Htoo.
Due to Burmese attacks, about 10,000 IDPs are currently hiding in the jungle in Nyaunglebin District in Pegu Division and Luthaw Township in Papun District, northern Karen state, said local villagers and relief groups who met with The Irrawaddy at the border on August 12.
Saw T’kwel, leader of Ei Tu Hta’s zone 6 said if the camp is attacked, the villagers will face problems getting food supplies, medical care and education for their children.
The IDPs dare not return home and fear that if they flee to Thailand, the Thai authorities will not permit them to stay long, he said.
“We live in fear of being caught on the battlefield,” Saw T’kwel said. “The expected offensive is the most common topic of conversation between businessmen and villagers.”
One anonymous DKBA source said DKBA forces will be stationed along the Salween River after the offensive against Brigade 5 is complete.
The DKBA will take control of logging, border trade taxation and security around dam construction sites on the Salween and Moei rivers, he said.
If the DKBA gains control along along the Salween, Karen relief groups will find it difficult to transport supplies by boat from the Thai border to areas still under KNLA control, sources said.
Border traders also expressed fears about restrictions if the DKBA gains control.
The Salween River is one of the main conduits for Thai-Burmese trade, which decreased after the DKBA split from KNU in 1995. Trade has increased in recent years, however.
Burmese forces stationed in some areas along the river said they will withdraw and be replaced by the DKBA over the next year.
One of the strongest ethnic ceasefire groups in Burma, the DKBA is the only force that agreed with the Burmese regime’s order to transform its troops into a border guard force. Other strong armed groups such as the United Wa State Army and the Kachin Independence Organization rejected the order.
According to the Burmese regime, the DKBA is among 17 ethnic ceasefire groups that signed ceasefire agreements with the Burmese regime since 1995.
The joint Burmese DKBA force overran KNLA Brigade 7 in southern Karen State in July after three weeks of fighting. Since then, some border trade including logging and surveying for dam construction has resumed, border sources said.
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The Irrawaddy - Burmese Puzzled and Angered by Yettaw’s Release
By WAI MOE, Monday, August 17, 2009
The release of John W Yettaw, the American who got Aung San Suu Kyi into trouble by intruding into her home, has puzzled and angered many Burmese.
Bo Kyi, joint-secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Burmese human rights group based on the Burmese-Thai border, said Yettaw’s release came as no surprise. “I think the regime just wanted to use him. Everybody knows that the regime wanted Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, not Yettaw.”
Bo Kyi was accused by the regime of sending the American to Burma, where he entered Suu Kyi’s home illegally at the beginning of May and gave the regime a pretext for arresting her and putting her on trial. She was sentenced to three years hard labor, but had her sentence cut to 18 months house arrest.
Yettaw was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, but a US senator, Jim Webb secured his release after a meeting with junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
Several Burmese, both within the country and in exile, likened the drama to a Hollywood farce.
One wrote on the Web site of The Irrawaddy: “Webb’s performance reminds me of Patti Page's song ‘How much is that (Yankie) doggie in the window” and [a] ‘Saving Private Yettaw’ movie directed by Than Shwe. Perhaps, they might win Oscars next year.”
A Rangoon physician said it was “unreasonable that the main culprit in the case was released but Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is totally innocent, is still detained.”
Win Tin, a prominent opposition leader said the Burmese were interested not in the release of Yettaw but in Suu Kyi’s fate.
Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese analyst based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said the junta killed two birds with one stone by freeing Yettaw. “Now the regime successfully keeps Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under arrest and then they may reopen engagement with Washington.”
A veteran Rangoon journalist speculated that Webb’s success in securing Yettaw’s release was “part of the packages from America to restore a normal relationship with the regime.”
Speculation continued that Yettaw’s venture had been orchestrated—also with help from the US—to create a legal case against Suu Kyi. There were suggestions, not supported by hard evidence, that Yettaw had been paid by the regime to undertake it.
Yettaw claimed he entered Suu Kyi’s home to warn her after dreaming that she was in danger of assassination.
For his part, Senator Webb said in Rangoon: “I believe he (Yettaw) was probably motivated by good intentions but he committed a very serious violation in this country.”
Webb found good words to say to the regime about its role in the drama. “It was a good gesture from your country to our country for humanitarian reasons to allow him [Yettaw] to return to his family,” he told the junta.
Not only Yettaw’s family rejoiced at his release. One source at Insein Prison, where Yettaw spent the past three months—much of the time in the prison hospital—told The Irrawaddy anonymously: “He complained all the time.”
By WAI MOE, Monday, August 17, 2009
The release of John W Yettaw, the American who got Aung San Suu Kyi into trouble by intruding into her home, has puzzled and angered many Burmese.
Bo Kyi, joint-secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Burmese human rights group based on the Burmese-Thai border, said Yettaw’s release came as no surprise. “I think the regime just wanted to use him. Everybody knows that the regime wanted Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, not Yettaw.”
Bo Kyi was accused by the regime of sending the American to Burma, where he entered Suu Kyi’s home illegally at the beginning of May and gave the regime a pretext for arresting her and putting her on trial. She was sentenced to three years hard labor, but had her sentence cut to 18 months house arrest.
Yettaw was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, but a US senator, Jim Webb secured his release after a meeting with junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
Several Burmese, both within the country and in exile, likened the drama to a Hollywood farce.
One wrote on the Web site of The Irrawaddy: “Webb’s performance reminds me of Patti Page's song ‘How much is that (Yankie) doggie in the window” and [a] ‘Saving Private Yettaw’ movie directed by Than Shwe. Perhaps, they might win Oscars next year.”
A Rangoon physician said it was “unreasonable that the main culprit in the case was released but Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is totally innocent, is still detained.”
Win Tin, a prominent opposition leader said the Burmese were interested not in the release of Yettaw but in Suu Kyi’s fate.
Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese analyst based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said the junta killed two birds with one stone by freeing Yettaw. “Now the regime successfully keeps Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under arrest and then they may reopen engagement with Washington.”
A veteran Rangoon journalist speculated that Webb’s success in securing Yettaw’s release was “part of the packages from America to restore a normal relationship with the regime.”
Speculation continued that Yettaw’s venture had been orchestrated—also with help from the US—to create a legal case against Suu Kyi. There were suggestions, not supported by hard evidence, that Yettaw had been paid by the regime to undertake it.
Yettaw claimed he entered Suu Kyi’s home to warn her after dreaming that she was in danger of assassination.
For his part, Senator Webb said in Rangoon: “I believe he (Yettaw) was probably motivated by good intentions but he committed a very serious violation in this country.”
Webb found good words to say to the regime about its role in the drama. “It was a good gesture from your country to our country for humanitarian reasons to allow him [Yettaw] to return to his family,” he told the junta.
Not only Yettaw’s family rejoiced at his release. One source at Insein Prison, where Yettaw spent the past three months—much of the time in the prison hospital—told The Irrawaddy anonymously: “He complained all the time.”
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Burmese troops kill DKBA deserter
Aug 17, 2009 (DVB)–A deserter from a pro-junta militia wanted for the killing of two government soldiers was last week shot dead by Burmese troops and members of his former group.
A former lieutenant in the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Saw Pha-Htaw (also-known-as Ashaygyi) had been on the run since his desertion on 10 August following an argument with a senior official, Aung Chit.
Following the argument, he opened fire on two soldiers from the government’s Military Operation Command 12, and two local policemen, killing all four.
According to DKBA official, three days later DKBA troops stopped a Rangoon-bound bus in eastern Burma that he was riding on and a gun battle broke out.
“After four or five shots were fired into the truck, Ashaygyi, apparently worried that passengers might get caught in the crossfire, came out of the bus carrying a pistol and two grenades,” said the official. “He was shot dead on the spot.”
An associate of Ashaygyi was also shot and seriously wounded after attempting to flee the battle, while a 30-year-old pregnant woman was hit by a stray bullet and killed. One DKBA troop and one Burmese army soldier were also killed.
The DKBA official said the group had made contact with the woman’s husband in Bangkok, offering an apology and compensation for her death, but no response had yet been received.
“We kept her body in Kawkerit for three days and made contact with her husband,” he said.
“We told him to come here so we can explain to him what happened and give compensation but he never replied,” he said.
A funeral for Ashaygyi was held on Saturday.
DKBA troops and government soldiers had recently allied in an offensive against the opposition Karen National Union (KNU), which caused around 4000 Karen civilians to flee into neighbouring Thailand.
The DKBA split from the KNU in 1994 and have since enjoyed a ceasefire agreement and close association with the ruling junta.
Reporting by Naw Noreen
Aug 17, 2009 (DVB)–A deserter from a pro-junta militia wanted for the killing of two government soldiers was last week shot dead by Burmese troops and members of his former group.
A former lieutenant in the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Saw Pha-Htaw (also-known-as Ashaygyi) had been on the run since his desertion on 10 August following an argument with a senior official, Aung Chit.
Following the argument, he opened fire on two soldiers from the government’s Military Operation Command 12, and two local policemen, killing all four.
According to DKBA official, three days later DKBA troops stopped a Rangoon-bound bus in eastern Burma that he was riding on and a gun battle broke out.
“After four or five shots were fired into the truck, Ashaygyi, apparently worried that passengers might get caught in the crossfire, came out of the bus carrying a pistol and two grenades,” said the official. “He was shot dead on the spot.”
An associate of Ashaygyi was also shot and seriously wounded after attempting to flee the battle, while a 30-year-old pregnant woman was hit by a stray bullet and killed. One DKBA troop and one Burmese army soldier were also killed.
The DKBA official said the group had made contact with the woman’s husband in Bangkok, offering an apology and compensation for her death, but no response had yet been received.
“We kept her body in Kawkerit for three days and made contact with her husband,” he said.
“We told him to come here so we can explain to him what happened and give compensation but he never replied,” he said.
A funeral for Ashaygyi was held on Saturday.
DKBA troops and government soldiers had recently allied in an offensive against the opposition Karen National Union (KNU), which caused around 4000 Karen civilians to flee into neighbouring Thailand.
The DKBA split from the KNU in 1994 and have since enjoyed a ceasefire agreement and close association with the ruling junta.
Reporting by Naw Noreen
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