Myanmar vote plan clouds new US dialogue
by Shaun Tandon – Fri Nov 6, 2:25 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US envoys who paid a rare visit to Myanmar say the new dialogue will be slow and cautious, but the junta's plans to hold 2010 elections are casting a shadow that could disrupt the delicate process.
Kurt Campbell, the top US diplomat for Asia, and his deputy Scot Marciel spent two days in the country formerly known as Burma, the highest-level US visit since 1995 as part of a new policy of engagement.
The State Department duo has been at pains to temper expectations for any breakthrough and warned the junta that the United States will not ease economic sanctions without progress on democracy.
But the diplomacy could soon get trickier as the junta prepares elections next year. The last vote in 1990 was swept by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has since spent most of her time under house arrest.
Marciel, speaking in Bangkok on Thursday, called for the election -- which some observers believe could be held early in the year -- to be fair and to include Aung San Suu Kyi's participation.
But the Nobel Peace laureate's National League for Democracy has called for a boycott of the vote, fearing it would be a sham to legitimize the junta which last year pushed through a widely criticized new constitution.
"When US officials tell the regime they must include the opposition in credible, free and fair elections, they are missing the key point," said John Dale, a Myanmar expert at George Mason University.
"For a long time, the opposition has been organizing a boycott of the election and that's exactly what the regime is trying to overcome -- they want as much participation as possible," he said.
"The longer the United States engages in dialogue about international monitoring of free and fair elections, the more likely it is that we end up lending legitimacy to the election process itself," he said.
But Aung San Suu Kyi has changed tact before. As the United States opened the dialogue, she accepted that actions by the junta could eventually lead to a relaxation of sanctions, an easing of her strong past support of such economic measures.
Yet just communicating with her remains difficult. The junta allowed Aung San Suu Kyi to meet Campbell and Marciel at a Yangon luxury hotel, marking the first time she has appeared outside her home and prison since 2003.
"I think that role and the attitude of Aung San Suu Kyi is very important to a change in US policy toward Burma," said David Steinberg, a professor at Georgetown University.
Steinberg said the junta may try to release Aung San Suu Kyi just before or just after the election.
"I don't think that's acceptable to the US, because they want something more," Steinberg said.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have launched a policy of dialogue around the world, with the motto that they will extend a hand to all who "unclench their fist."
Senator Jim Webb, a leading proponent of engaging Myanmar who met in August with junta supremo Than Shwe, said he was encouraged by Campbell and Marciel's visit to Myanmar.
He said that the administration should take a "step-by-step" approach to encourage Myanmar "to become a responsible member of the world community."
"The administration?s engagement with the government of Burma is an important step toward improving both US-Burma relations and the living conditions of the Burmese people," he said.
But Aung Din, a former political prisoner who heads the US Campaign for Burma advocacy group, said that Obama needed to follow up by raising Myanmar at the highest levels on his upcoming visit to Asia.
Obama will hold a summit with Southeast Asian leaders and travel to China, which remains a close commercial and military partner of Myanmar despite the opprobrium for the junta in the West.
"I want to be optimistic. But I will wait until President Obama's visit to Asia next week," Aung Din said.
"Without strong involvement by President Obama and Secretary Clinton in organizing our neighbors to stand together on Burma, Kurt's mission would not be successful," he said.
by Shaun Tandon – Fri Nov 6, 2:25 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US envoys who paid a rare visit to Myanmar say the new dialogue will be slow and cautious, but the junta's plans to hold 2010 elections are casting a shadow that could disrupt the delicate process.
Kurt Campbell, the top US diplomat for Asia, and his deputy Scot Marciel spent two days in the country formerly known as Burma, the highest-level US visit since 1995 as part of a new policy of engagement.
The State Department duo has been at pains to temper expectations for any breakthrough and warned the junta that the United States will not ease economic sanctions without progress on democracy.
But the diplomacy could soon get trickier as the junta prepares elections next year. The last vote in 1990 was swept by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has since spent most of her time under house arrest.
Marciel, speaking in Bangkok on Thursday, called for the election -- which some observers believe could be held early in the year -- to be fair and to include Aung San Suu Kyi's participation.
But the Nobel Peace laureate's National League for Democracy has called for a boycott of the vote, fearing it would be a sham to legitimize the junta which last year pushed through a widely criticized new constitution.
"When US officials tell the regime they must include the opposition in credible, free and fair elections, they are missing the key point," said John Dale, a Myanmar expert at George Mason University.
"For a long time, the opposition has been organizing a boycott of the election and that's exactly what the regime is trying to overcome -- they want as much participation as possible," he said.
"The longer the United States engages in dialogue about international monitoring of free and fair elections, the more likely it is that we end up lending legitimacy to the election process itself," he said.
But Aung San Suu Kyi has changed tact before. As the United States opened the dialogue, she accepted that actions by the junta could eventually lead to a relaxation of sanctions, an easing of her strong past support of such economic measures.
Yet just communicating with her remains difficult. The junta allowed Aung San Suu Kyi to meet Campbell and Marciel at a Yangon luxury hotel, marking the first time she has appeared outside her home and prison since 2003.
"I think that role and the attitude of Aung San Suu Kyi is very important to a change in US policy toward Burma," said David Steinberg, a professor at Georgetown University.
Steinberg said the junta may try to release Aung San Suu Kyi just before or just after the election.
"I don't think that's acceptable to the US, because they want something more," Steinberg said.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have launched a policy of dialogue around the world, with the motto that they will extend a hand to all who "unclench their fist."
Senator Jim Webb, a leading proponent of engaging Myanmar who met in August with junta supremo Than Shwe, said he was encouraged by Campbell and Marciel's visit to Myanmar.
He said that the administration should take a "step-by-step" approach to encourage Myanmar "to become a responsible member of the world community."
"The administration?s engagement with the government of Burma is an important step toward improving both US-Burma relations and the living conditions of the Burmese people," he said.
But Aung Din, a former political prisoner who heads the US Campaign for Burma advocacy group, said that Obama needed to follow up by raising Myanmar at the highest levels on his upcoming visit to Asia.
Obama will hold a summit with Southeast Asian leaders and travel to China, which remains a close commercial and military partner of Myanmar despite the opprobrium for the junta in the West.
"I want to be optimistic. But I will wait until President Obama's visit to Asia next week," Aung Din said.
"Without strong involvement by President Obama and Secretary Clinton in organizing our neighbors to stand together on Burma, Kurt's mission would not be successful," he said.
*************************************************************
Japan pledges $5.5 bln for SEAsia's Mekong region
by Miwa Suzuki – Fri Nov 6, 7:43 am ET
TOKYO (AFP) – Japan on Friday pledged 5.5 billion dollars in aid over three years for Southeast Asia's five Mekong River nations, seeking to deepen ties with the region amid growing influence from China.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has pushed the concept of an EU-style Asian community, announced the more than 500 billion yen in loans and grants to his counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Eighty percent of the overseas development assistance would be in low-interest yen loans, for projects ranging from regional highway links to water projects and technological training, a government official said.
"The Mekong region holds the key to developing an East Asian community," said the premier, whose centre-left government took power in September. "Japan would like to contribute to the stability of the Mekong region."
Much of the region along the lower stretches of the 4,800-kilometre (2,980-mile) Mekong River was long isolated by war and political turmoil and remains poorer than many other parts of Southeast Asia.
The goal of the grouping is to enhance development through cooperation -- but the summit started under a cloud amid the latest spat between Thailand and Cambodia who on Thursday recalled their ambassadors from each others' capitals.
The neighbours have fought deadly skirmishes since July 2008 over disputed land around a temple. The latest flare-up arose when Cambodia named the fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as a government adviser.
Thailand threatened Friday to seal the border with Cambodia, accusing Phnom Penh of "a hard line and uncompromising attitude."
Another guest in Tokyo was the prime minister of military-ruled Myanmar, Thein Sein, whose country has been criticised for human rights abuses, including its long detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Hatoyama was to meet Thein Sein, Myanmar's first premier to visit Japan since 2003, on Saturday for bilateral talks.
The meeting will come days after senior US envoys travelled to Myanmar for Washington's first direct talks with the isolated regime in years -- an overture which Hatoyama said he welcomed, according to the official.
Another Japanese official earlier said engagement may bring change in the country formerly known as Burma, saying: "We need to continue to encourage the Myanmar government to take positive steps in the process of democratisation."
The Mekong summit does not include Asian giant China, which has in recent years stepped up aid and investment in the region, from rubber plantations and mines in Laos, to trade with Myanmar.
A Japanese official, speaking in a pre-summit media briefing on condition he not be named, denied Japan was competing with China for greater influence in the lucrative region of about 220 million people.
"We don't need to compete with others," the official said, arguing that Tokyo and Beijing have "very good relations" when it comes to coordinating policies on regional development.
But Takashi Inoguchi, dean of the University of Niigata Prefecture, said "the Japanese government thinks it is very important" to foster deeper ties with Southeast Asia in view of China's growing presence.
"The phrase 'big market in Asia' may bring to mind China or India, but growth is gathering momentum in ASEAN nations," he said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
by Miwa Suzuki – Fri Nov 6, 7:43 am ET
TOKYO (AFP) – Japan on Friday pledged 5.5 billion dollars in aid over three years for Southeast Asia's five Mekong River nations, seeking to deepen ties with the region amid growing influence from China.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has pushed the concept of an EU-style Asian community, announced the more than 500 billion yen in loans and grants to his counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Eighty percent of the overseas development assistance would be in low-interest yen loans, for projects ranging from regional highway links to water projects and technological training, a government official said.
"The Mekong region holds the key to developing an East Asian community," said the premier, whose centre-left government took power in September. "Japan would like to contribute to the stability of the Mekong region."
Much of the region along the lower stretches of the 4,800-kilometre (2,980-mile) Mekong River was long isolated by war and political turmoil and remains poorer than many other parts of Southeast Asia.
The goal of the grouping is to enhance development through cooperation -- but the summit started under a cloud amid the latest spat between Thailand and Cambodia who on Thursday recalled their ambassadors from each others' capitals.
The neighbours have fought deadly skirmishes since July 2008 over disputed land around a temple. The latest flare-up arose when Cambodia named the fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as a government adviser.
Thailand threatened Friday to seal the border with Cambodia, accusing Phnom Penh of "a hard line and uncompromising attitude."
Another guest in Tokyo was the prime minister of military-ruled Myanmar, Thein Sein, whose country has been criticised for human rights abuses, including its long detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Hatoyama was to meet Thein Sein, Myanmar's first premier to visit Japan since 2003, on Saturday for bilateral talks.
The meeting will come days after senior US envoys travelled to Myanmar for Washington's first direct talks with the isolated regime in years -- an overture which Hatoyama said he welcomed, according to the official.
Another Japanese official earlier said engagement may bring change in the country formerly known as Burma, saying: "We need to continue to encourage the Myanmar government to take positive steps in the process of democratisation."
The Mekong summit does not include Asian giant China, which has in recent years stepped up aid and investment in the region, from rubber plantations and mines in Laos, to trade with Myanmar.
A Japanese official, speaking in a pre-summit media briefing on condition he not be named, denied Japan was competing with China for greater influence in the lucrative region of about 220 million people.
"We don't need to compete with others," the official said, arguing that Tokyo and Beijing have "very good relations" when it comes to coordinating policies on regional development.
But Takashi Inoguchi, dean of the University of Niigata Prefecture, said "the Japanese government thinks it is very important" to foster deeper ties with Southeast Asia in view of China's growing presence.
"The phrase 'big market in Asia' may bring to mind China or India, but growth is gathering momentum in ASEAN nations," he said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
*************************************************************
Monsters and Critics - US envoy snubs pro-government party on Myanmar visit
Asia-Pacific News
Nov 6, 2009, 5:08 GMT
Yangon - A high-level US delegation visiting Myanmar on an 'exploratory' diplomatic mission this week failed to meet with representatives of the pro-junta National Unity Party (NUP), state media reported Friday.
US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and his deputy in charge of South-East Asian affairs Scot Marciel visited Myanmar on Tuesday and Wednesday on what they called an 'exploratory mission' to explain the Washington's new policy of engagement towards the country's pariah regime.
The delegation, however, failed to engage with representatives of the NUP and other pro-junta parties, according to state media reports.
'Although arrangements have been made for Mr Kurt [Campbell] to meet with central executive committee members of [the] National Unity Party at its headquarters and representatives of the remaining officially registered political parties at the hotel where he put up, he did not meet them,' The New Light of Myanmar reported.
'Instead, he separately met some persons who are still being scrutinized at the residence of charge d' affairs of [the] US embassy on their own arrangements,' the government mouthpiece said.
One NUP executive complained that they waiting all day for Campbell to show up.
In Bangkok on Thursday, Marciel acknowledged that the USA's new policy of engaging with the notoriously uncooperative Myanmar junta was unlikely to bear swift results.
'We're going in to this with our eyes wide open,' Marciel said. 'Success is far from guaranteed.'
Past diplomatic efforts to persuade Myanmar's generals to mend their dictatorial ways, either through sanctions as imposed by the US and the European Union, or through the tact of 'constructive engagement' as pursued by Asian governments, have failed.
The country has been under military rule since 1962, and has kept opposition leader and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi under house detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
Campbell and Marciel met with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, Suu Kyi and numerous other government and opposition leaders on their two-day visit. It as not immediately clear why they gave the NUP leaders a miss.
Asia-Pacific News
Nov 6, 2009, 5:08 GMT
Yangon - A high-level US delegation visiting Myanmar on an 'exploratory' diplomatic mission this week failed to meet with representatives of the pro-junta National Unity Party (NUP), state media reported Friday.
US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and his deputy in charge of South-East Asian affairs Scot Marciel visited Myanmar on Tuesday and Wednesday on what they called an 'exploratory mission' to explain the Washington's new policy of engagement towards the country's pariah regime.
The delegation, however, failed to engage with representatives of the NUP and other pro-junta parties, according to state media reports.
'Although arrangements have been made for Mr Kurt [Campbell] to meet with central executive committee members of [the] National Unity Party at its headquarters and representatives of the remaining officially registered political parties at the hotel where he put up, he did not meet them,' The New Light of Myanmar reported.
'Instead, he separately met some persons who are still being scrutinized at the residence of charge d' affairs of [the] US embassy on their own arrangements,' the government mouthpiece said.
One NUP executive complained that they waiting all day for Campbell to show up.
In Bangkok on Thursday, Marciel acknowledged that the USA's new policy of engaging with the notoriously uncooperative Myanmar junta was unlikely to bear swift results.
'We're going in to this with our eyes wide open,' Marciel said. 'Success is far from guaranteed.'
Past diplomatic efforts to persuade Myanmar's generals to mend their dictatorial ways, either through sanctions as imposed by the US and the European Union, or through the tact of 'constructive engagement' as pursued by Asian governments, have failed.
The country has been under military rule since 1962, and has kept opposition leader and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi under house detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
Campbell and Marciel met with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, Suu Kyi and numerous other government and opposition leaders on their two-day visit. It as not immediately clear why they gave the NUP leaders a miss.
*************************************************************
Washington presses Myanmar to open rule
Published: Nov. 5, 2009 at 5:41 PM
YANGON, Myanmar, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Washington is willing to thaw relations with Myanmar if its ruling military junta takes tangible steps toward democracy, a U.S. official said Thursday.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel said he and Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell stressed the need for a more open government Tuesday and Wednesday when they talked with senior government officials, including the Southeast Asian country's prime minister, Gen. Thein Sein, and opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, during a rare trip to Mayanmar, formerly known as Burma.
The U.S. officials did not speak with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the country's ruler, CNN reported.
"We reaffirmed our commitment to a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Burma," Marciel said. "We stressed the importance of genuine dialogue between the government and ethnic minorities. Fundamentally, the main problem is a lack of an inclusive political process."
But he said he did not know if the junta would take meaningful steps such as freeing Suu Kyi ahead of next year's elections, Myanmar's first since 1990.
Washington would demand such measures before it would consider removing its longstanding sanctions against the country, he said.
"We're willing to move in terms of our bilateral relationship, but we're only going to do it if there's real progress," he said.
The trip was part of a new U.S. policy intended to restore U.S. influence there, reversing the Bush administration's shunning of Myanmar.
The country's military regime, which seized power in 1962, is widely criticized for human rights violations.
More discussions are expected, including a possible meeting between President Barack Obama and senior Myanmar officials during an economic summit in Singapore this month, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Published: Nov. 5, 2009 at 5:41 PM
YANGON, Myanmar, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Washington is willing to thaw relations with Myanmar if its ruling military junta takes tangible steps toward democracy, a U.S. official said Thursday.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel said he and Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell stressed the need for a more open government Tuesday and Wednesday when they talked with senior government officials, including the Southeast Asian country's prime minister, Gen. Thein Sein, and opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, during a rare trip to Mayanmar, formerly known as Burma.
The U.S. officials did not speak with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the country's ruler, CNN reported.
"We reaffirmed our commitment to a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Burma," Marciel said. "We stressed the importance of genuine dialogue between the government and ethnic minorities. Fundamentally, the main problem is a lack of an inclusive political process."
But he said he did not know if the junta would take meaningful steps such as freeing Suu Kyi ahead of next year's elections, Myanmar's first since 1990.
Washington would demand such measures before it would consider removing its longstanding sanctions against the country, he said.
"We're willing to move in terms of our bilateral relationship, but we're only going to do it if there's real progress," he said.
The trip was part of a new U.S. policy intended to restore U.S. influence there, reversing the Bush administration's shunning of Myanmar.
The country's military regime, which seized power in 1962, is widely criticized for human rights violations.
More discussions are expected, including a possible meeting between President Barack Obama and senior Myanmar officials during an economic summit in Singapore this month, The Wall Street Journal reported.
*************************************************************
Myanmar generals targeting rebel area
Published: Nov. 5, 2009 at 4:21 PM
YANGON, Myanmar, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Military generals in Myanmar say rebel forces should disband along the country's rugged border with China to pave the way for national unification.
The International Herald Tribune reported Thursday that Myanmar military leaders are targeting members of the Wa ethnic group in Mong Hpen as part of the government's ongoing attempts to achieve national unity.
Military leaders said they are hopeful a new constitution and elections in 2010 could help Myanmar enjoy national consolidation.
With Wa rebels unresponsive to the military's call for complete subjugation to the central government, forces on both sides are preparing for an armed conflict.
"We were told to be ready and to keep a careful watch," United Wa State Army soldier Ai Yee said.
The Myanmar region along the Chinese border is regularly visited by Chinese residents looking to satisfy vices and China has remained a staunch supporter of peace talks for the area.
The Wa rebels are greatly outnumbered by the military forces, led by Myanmar's top military commanders, Senior Gen. Than Shwe and Vice Senior Gen.Maung Aye.
The Herald Tribune said the rebels, meanwhile, have the advantage of knowing the region better as well as a fearsome reputation stemming from their history of severing rival tribal members' heads.
Published: Nov. 5, 2009 at 4:21 PM
YANGON, Myanmar, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Military generals in Myanmar say rebel forces should disband along the country's rugged border with China to pave the way for national unification.
The International Herald Tribune reported Thursday that Myanmar military leaders are targeting members of the Wa ethnic group in Mong Hpen as part of the government's ongoing attempts to achieve national unity.
Military leaders said they are hopeful a new constitution and elections in 2010 could help Myanmar enjoy national consolidation.
With Wa rebels unresponsive to the military's call for complete subjugation to the central government, forces on both sides are preparing for an armed conflict.
"We were told to be ready and to keep a careful watch," United Wa State Army soldier Ai Yee said.
The Myanmar region along the Chinese border is regularly visited by Chinese residents looking to satisfy vices and China has remained a staunch supporter of peace talks for the area.
The Wa rebels are greatly outnumbered by the military forces, led by Myanmar's top military commanders, Senior Gen. Than Shwe and Vice Senior Gen.Maung Aye.
The Herald Tribune said the rebels, meanwhile, have the advantage of knowing the region better as well as a fearsome reputation stemming from their history of severing rival tribal members' heads.
*************************************************************
Women's eNews - Burmese Traveler Showed Her a Country's Fear
By Stephanie Guyer-Stevens
WeNews correspondent
Friday, November 6, 2009
As the U.S. changes strategy on Myanmar, Stephanie Guyer-Stevens wonders about what it will mean for the country's women. Last summer, a young Burmese woman next to her on a plane was afraid to even say the name Aung San Suu Kyi.
(WOMENSENEWS)--A few weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's office said it would change strategy on Burma, backing off U.S. economic sanctions of Burma in favor of "engagement" with the military regime, which calls the country Myanmar.
Clinton is doing so with the support of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically-elected leader of Burma, who marked the 14th anniversary of her term of house arrest on Oct. 24.
As human rights organizations alternately express concern and hope about the new policy--hope that it could create the foundation for real stability in Burma--I can't help recalling a plane trip I took last summer, when I was flying home from Bangkok to California.
I sat next to a young woman from Burma, or Myanmar, depending on which name you want to use.
As it turns out, this was her first trip ever outside her country. "Had I heard about Myanmar?" she asked me.
When I told her I knew about Aung San Suu Kyi she visibly recoiled and said "I'm not interested in anything political."
I changed the subject.
Later, as our dinner was served, she confided in a low voice, "I really love Aung San Suu Kyi."
I told her I could understand that.
Circling Back to Politics
We went on to talk about more personal topics, our families and lives back home. I answered her questions about life in the United States as best I could. She knew about President Lincoln. Then we discussed President Obama and soon we circled back to politics.
I picked up a copy of Asia Week from the magazine pocket of the seat in front of me. It fell open to a photograph of a crowd of Aung San Suu Kyi supporters staging a demonstration, all wearing masks bearing her image.
The young woman recoiled again. Eventually her wave of concern seemed to pass and she looked around the crowded plane. Finally she told me, "In Myanmar we are not even allowed to look at her picture. We will be put in jail if we are found with a picture of her."
She said that she sometimes discusses politics with her friends, "but we have to be very careful, because people get put in jail for talking about politics."
I told her that now that she was on a plane headed for the United States, and no longer in Myanmar, no one would do anything to her if she wanted to have an opinion. She nodded, but obviously was not completely ready to trust that idea--or me.
She told me she had never been in a place where she could express her opinions freely. I told her I have never lived somewhere where I wasn't able to have opinions.
She had opened up as far as she felt she could. She went to sleep.
Asking Hard Questions
Reflecting on my conversation with the young woman from Burma posed some hard questions for me. If this woman's family had enough money to send her to the U.S., then she must be from a very wealthy family. Yet even she is intimidated to speak about politics, much less consider entering politics herself.
Aung San Suu Kyi has shown unfathomable courage through years of house arrest, following the military coup that robbed her of a landslide victory as prime minister.
I want to think that women in Myanmar are inspired by this show of courage and not slowed down by the rulers who stand in the way of their freedoms.
But women in Burma, and Southeast Asia in general, have a difficult road ahead. Their countries are young democracies at best, some more truthfully dictatorships, muddied with deeply entrenched corruption. In most areas the education system is extremely limited. Too many women live in fear of speaking their minds, similar to that of my seatmate's fears.
What are the options for a young woman in Burma? How can she begin to think of becoming a leader when Aung San Suu Kyi, her own leader, has been so forcefully, and effectively, silenced?
As the United States moves to engagement with Myanmar, it's hard to be hopeful.
But last summer, Sam Rainsy, the leader of the Opposition Party in Cambodia, did give me hope. He told me that women, because of their firsthand experience of oppression, have a fundamental role in challenging dictatorships.
He called women "the spearhead of any fight to bring about democracy and restore human dignity." Let's hope he's right.
Stephanie Guyer-Stevens is executive producer of Outer Voices. She has been documenting female leaders in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands since 2003.
By Stephanie Guyer-Stevens
WeNews correspondent
Friday, November 6, 2009
As the U.S. changes strategy on Myanmar, Stephanie Guyer-Stevens wonders about what it will mean for the country's women. Last summer, a young Burmese woman next to her on a plane was afraid to even say the name Aung San Suu Kyi.
(WOMENSENEWS)--A few weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's office said it would change strategy on Burma, backing off U.S. economic sanctions of Burma in favor of "engagement" with the military regime, which calls the country Myanmar.
Clinton is doing so with the support of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically-elected leader of Burma, who marked the 14th anniversary of her term of house arrest on Oct. 24.
As human rights organizations alternately express concern and hope about the new policy--hope that it could create the foundation for real stability in Burma--I can't help recalling a plane trip I took last summer, when I was flying home from Bangkok to California.
I sat next to a young woman from Burma, or Myanmar, depending on which name you want to use.
As it turns out, this was her first trip ever outside her country. "Had I heard about Myanmar?" she asked me.
When I told her I knew about Aung San Suu Kyi she visibly recoiled and said "I'm not interested in anything political."
I changed the subject.
Later, as our dinner was served, she confided in a low voice, "I really love Aung San Suu Kyi."
I told her I could understand that.
Circling Back to Politics
We went on to talk about more personal topics, our families and lives back home. I answered her questions about life in the United States as best I could. She knew about President Lincoln. Then we discussed President Obama and soon we circled back to politics.
I picked up a copy of Asia Week from the magazine pocket of the seat in front of me. It fell open to a photograph of a crowd of Aung San Suu Kyi supporters staging a demonstration, all wearing masks bearing her image.
The young woman recoiled again. Eventually her wave of concern seemed to pass and she looked around the crowded plane. Finally she told me, "In Myanmar we are not even allowed to look at her picture. We will be put in jail if we are found with a picture of her."
She said that she sometimes discusses politics with her friends, "but we have to be very careful, because people get put in jail for talking about politics."
I told her that now that she was on a plane headed for the United States, and no longer in Myanmar, no one would do anything to her if she wanted to have an opinion. She nodded, but obviously was not completely ready to trust that idea--or me.
She told me she had never been in a place where she could express her opinions freely. I told her I have never lived somewhere where I wasn't able to have opinions.
She had opened up as far as she felt she could. She went to sleep.
Asking Hard Questions
Reflecting on my conversation with the young woman from Burma posed some hard questions for me. If this woman's family had enough money to send her to the U.S., then she must be from a very wealthy family. Yet even she is intimidated to speak about politics, much less consider entering politics herself.
Aung San Suu Kyi has shown unfathomable courage through years of house arrest, following the military coup that robbed her of a landslide victory as prime minister.
I want to think that women in Myanmar are inspired by this show of courage and not slowed down by the rulers who stand in the way of their freedoms.
But women in Burma, and Southeast Asia in general, have a difficult road ahead. Their countries are young democracies at best, some more truthfully dictatorships, muddied with deeply entrenched corruption. In most areas the education system is extremely limited. Too many women live in fear of speaking their minds, similar to that of my seatmate's fears.
What are the options for a young woman in Burma? How can she begin to think of becoming a leader when Aung San Suu Kyi, her own leader, has been so forcefully, and effectively, silenced?
As the United States moves to engagement with Myanmar, it's hard to be hopeful.
But last summer, Sam Rainsy, the leader of the Opposition Party in Cambodia, did give me hope. He told me that women, because of their firsthand experience of oppression, have a fundamental role in challenging dictatorships.
He called women "the spearhead of any fight to bring about democracy and restore human dignity." Let's hope he's right.
Stephanie Guyer-Stevens is executive producer of Outer Voices. She has been documenting female leaders in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands since 2003.
*************************************************************
New York Times - The Latest on Myanmar; An Uprising Crushed
Updated: Oct. 23, 2009
Overview
Myanmar, a southeast Asian country of about 50 million people that was formerly known as Burma, has been under military rule in one form or another since 1962, when General Ne Win staged a coup that toppled a civilian government. The current junta, formed in 1988, threw out the results of a democratic parliamentary election in 1990 that was overwhelmingly won by the party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Aung San, one of the heroes of the nation's independence from the British Empire in 1948.
The junta has weathered popular unrest in 2007, which it put down violently, and the death and destruction unleashed by Cyclone Nargis in 2008. A multiparty election, the country's first since 1990, is planned for 2010 and the generals are hoping to gain a measure of international legitimacy.
Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel laureate, has been under house arrest for most of past two decades. She remains powerful symbol for the pro-democracy movement in her nation.
After six decades of independence from Britain, much of that time marked by civil war, Myanmar is still a long way from controlling all of its borders. Karen militants continue to occupy camps along the Salween River, north of the border with Thailand. The Kachin and Wa ethnic groups, among others, have troops stationed on the border with China.
An Uprising Crushed
In August 2007 a decision by the government to sharply raise fuel prices led to street protests. After small demonstrations by students, the situation turned more serious when large numbers of Buddhist monks, who are widely revered, joined in. Some monks chanted "Release Suu Kyi." Over 100,000 participated in processions led by the monks, who marched to the gate of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's home where she greeted them. It was the first time she had been seen in public for four years.
The resulting government crackdown, witnessed abroad in smuggled photographs and on videotape, drew worldwide condemnation. Although the government acknowledged the deaths of a dozen people, the United Nations said it confirmed at least 31 deaths.
Cyclone Nargis
On May 3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis ripped through the Irrawaddy Delta and Myanmar's main city, Yangon. Nearly 85,000 people died and 54,000 are still listed as missing.
The cyclone was one of the deadliest storms in recorded history. It blew away 700,000 homes in the delta. It killed three-fourths of the livestock, sank half the fishing fleet and damaged a million acres of rice paddies with seawater. The magnitude of the disaster forced the regime to react to outside pressure. The secretive and xenophobic junta, which fears an invasion by Western powers, agreed to accept air shipments of foreign aid after international outrage at their initial failure to help victims.
The Junta Prepares for Elections
In May 2009 Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was charged with violating the terms of her house arrest after a bizarre event in which an American man swam across a lake and spent two days at her villa, claiming that he had come to save her from assassination. A court sentenced her to 18 months of additional house arrest, ensuring that she would remain in detention, with limited communications, through a parliamentary election that is scheduled for 2010.
A successful offensive against the Karen militants in June 2009 brought the Myanmar junta closer to its goal of national consolidation before the elections. The junta said the multiparty election will usher in the first civilian government in almost five decades.
Obama Administration Response
In September 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the United States would pursue engagement but maintain the economic sanctions that have been put in place to punish the government of Myanmar for its human rights abuses and restrictions on political freedom.
The shift in policy was the result of a review that was first announced by Mrs. Clinton in February when she said neither the sanctions imposed by Western countries nor the “constructive engagement” of Myanmar’s Asian neighbors had succeeded in affecting the government’s behavior.
It represented the most significant modification of administration policy toward Myanmar in decades. But analysts said it was likely to face opposition in Congress, where many members strongly support an unflinchingly antagonistic approach to the junta.
Updated: Oct. 23, 2009
Overview
Myanmar, a southeast Asian country of about 50 million people that was formerly known as Burma, has been under military rule in one form or another since 1962, when General Ne Win staged a coup that toppled a civilian government. The current junta, formed in 1988, threw out the results of a democratic parliamentary election in 1990 that was overwhelmingly won by the party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Aung San, one of the heroes of the nation's independence from the British Empire in 1948.
The junta has weathered popular unrest in 2007, which it put down violently, and the death and destruction unleashed by Cyclone Nargis in 2008. A multiparty election, the country's first since 1990, is planned for 2010 and the generals are hoping to gain a measure of international legitimacy.
Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel laureate, has been under house arrest for most of past two decades. She remains powerful symbol for the pro-democracy movement in her nation.
After six decades of independence from Britain, much of that time marked by civil war, Myanmar is still a long way from controlling all of its borders. Karen militants continue to occupy camps along the Salween River, north of the border with Thailand. The Kachin and Wa ethnic groups, among others, have troops stationed on the border with China.
An Uprising Crushed
In August 2007 a decision by the government to sharply raise fuel prices led to street protests. After small demonstrations by students, the situation turned more serious when large numbers of Buddhist monks, who are widely revered, joined in. Some monks chanted "Release Suu Kyi." Over 100,000 participated in processions led by the monks, who marched to the gate of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's home where she greeted them. It was the first time she had been seen in public for four years.
The resulting government crackdown, witnessed abroad in smuggled photographs and on videotape, drew worldwide condemnation. Although the government acknowledged the deaths of a dozen people, the United Nations said it confirmed at least 31 deaths.
Cyclone Nargis
On May 3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis ripped through the Irrawaddy Delta and Myanmar's main city, Yangon. Nearly 85,000 people died and 54,000 are still listed as missing.
The cyclone was one of the deadliest storms in recorded history. It blew away 700,000 homes in the delta. It killed three-fourths of the livestock, sank half the fishing fleet and damaged a million acres of rice paddies with seawater. The magnitude of the disaster forced the regime to react to outside pressure. The secretive and xenophobic junta, which fears an invasion by Western powers, agreed to accept air shipments of foreign aid after international outrage at their initial failure to help victims.
The Junta Prepares for Elections
In May 2009 Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was charged with violating the terms of her house arrest after a bizarre event in which an American man swam across a lake and spent two days at her villa, claiming that he had come to save her from assassination. A court sentenced her to 18 months of additional house arrest, ensuring that she would remain in detention, with limited communications, through a parliamentary election that is scheduled for 2010.
A successful offensive against the Karen militants in June 2009 brought the Myanmar junta closer to its goal of national consolidation before the elections. The junta said the multiparty election will usher in the first civilian government in almost five decades.
Obama Administration Response
In September 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the United States would pursue engagement but maintain the economic sanctions that have been put in place to punish the government of Myanmar for its human rights abuses and restrictions on political freedom.
The shift in policy was the result of a review that was first announced by Mrs. Clinton in February when she said neither the sanctions imposed by Western countries nor the “constructive engagement” of Myanmar’s Asian neighbors had succeeded in affecting the government’s behavior.
It represented the most significant modification of administration policy toward Myanmar in decades. But analysts said it was likely to face opposition in Congress, where many members strongly support an unflinchingly antagonistic approach to the junta.
*************************************************************
New York Times - Thai Border on Guard for Drugs From Myanmar
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: November 6, 2009
FANG, Thailand — The heroin and methamphetamine traffickers carry assault weapons and walk briskly through the night, crossing the border in small groups and traveling down a spider’s web of footpaths and dirt roads.
So says Ja Saw, a wiry man in his 20s who should know: Two years ago, he was one of them.
Mr. Ja Saw spent a year in a Thai prison for trafficking. Now he works as an undercover agent for the Thai military. In his native Myanmar, where he travels periodically to glean intelligence, he is known by another name.
“They would kill me immediately if they knew I was a spy,” Mr. Ja Saw, who is from the Wa ethnic group, said in an interview at a remote location several kilometers from the Myanmar border.
Thailand’s northern borderland region is ground zero in the country’s efforts to interdict the tons of illicit drugs manufactured in the freewheeling northern reaches of Myanmar. Thailand is also the main international gateway for heroin bound for the streets of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney and other major cities in the region, counternarcotics officials said.
Sending the drugs through China would be the most geographically direct route to Hong Kong, Tokyo and other points north. But the Thai and United States counternarcotics authorities said they believed that most of the drugs move south through Thailand.
“It’s more convenient,” said a senior Thai police official, who estimated that around 90 percent of illicit drugs produced in northern Myanmar come through Thailand, sometimes via Laos or down the Mekong River. He did not want to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Economic development in Thailand has facilitated trafficking, officials said, because evading the police is easier through the growing network of roads leading to Bangkok and places farther south, including Malaysia.
The armed ethnic groups in northern Myanmar such as the Wa and Kachin are wary of antagonizing China because of their reliance on the Chinese for cross-border business and, in years past, weapons.
“Since the early 1990s, the Chinese have delivered very stern warnings: Send your powder anywhere else but here,” said Michael Black, an expert on the Wa and a security writer for Jane’s Intelligence Review. The ethnic groups, he said, “can’t afford to anger the Chinese.”
China stepped up pressure on the Wa to shut down trafficking routes across the mainland in the late 1990s when H.I.V. was identified as a growing problem spread in large part by intravenous heroin users.
The illicit drugs produced near the Chinese border take a circuitous route, often shipped down to the southern stronghold of the United Wa State Army, a group that the Thai and American governments say is responsible for the lion’s share of the drug trade in Myanmar. Wa Army camps, perched on hilltops like fortresses from another era, are visible from the Thai side of the border.
The drug trade has helped turn the poorly delineated border between Myanmar and Thailand into a treacherous killing zone.
An increase in trafficking this year, related to tensions between the Myanmar military and the Wa, has left 15 suspected traffickers dead in the Fang area alone, said Master Sgt. Somsak Taengorn, a member of a plainclothes counternarcotics unit. Some of those killed were wearing Wa Army uniforms, he said.
The drugs are often stored near the border and divided into parcels. But traffickers are so worried that the drugs will be pilfered by their competitors that they put them in unusual storage facilities. “Sometimes they dig a hole and bury it,” Sergeant Somsak said.
The drug trade here is lucrative, and Sergeant Somsak said many families in otherwise impoverished areas have brand-new pickup trucks and nicely furnished houses made of sturdy materials.
Two years ago, Mr. Ja Saw was paid 10,000 baht, about $300, to carry 20,000 methamphetamine tablets, known in Thailand as ya ba, or “crazy drugs.” He dropped off the drugs at a Thai village and was paid on arrival. On his third trafficking run, he was ambushed by the Thai military and arrested.
Once delivered to the Thai side, the drugs are sent to Bangkok, to the resort island of Phuket (where yachts are sometimes used to smuggle the drugs to other countries) and to the provinces bordering Malaysia, depending on the final destination.
The drugs are shipped using a variety of ruses, some of them creative, some more pedestrian. Often they are packed inside shipments of corn, lettuce or other agricultural goods, Sergeant Somsak and other officials said. In May 2008, Sergeant Somsak helped seize thousands of methamphetamine pills packaged in condoms and hidden in the vaginas of eight hill-tribe women who tried to board a plane for Bangkok before they were arrested.
In September, a Taiwanese trafficker was arrested in Thailand with boxes of bicycle pedals stuffed with heroin.
The strangest smuggling scheme? Manachai Pongsanae, commander of a checkpoint on a major road in northern Thailand, remembers stopping a woman in her 50s with methamphetamine tablets wrapped in plastic and secreted inside a packet of fermented fish paste.
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: November 6, 2009
FANG, Thailand — The heroin and methamphetamine traffickers carry assault weapons and walk briskly through the night, crossing the border in small groups and traveling down a spider’s web of footpaths and dirt roads.
So says Ja Saw, a wiry man in his 20s who should know: Two years ago, he was one of them.
Mr. Ja Saw spent a year in a Thai prison for trafficking. Now he works as an undercover agent for the Thai military. In his native Myanmar, where he travels periodically to glean intelligence, he is known by another name.
“They would kill me immediately if they knew I was a spy,” Mr. Ja Saw, who is from the Wa ethnic group, said in an interview at a remote location several kilometers from the Myanmar border.
Thailand’s northern borderland region is ground zero in the country’s efforts to interdict the tons of illicit drugs manufactured in the freewheeling northern reaches of Myanmar. Thailand is also the main international gateway for heroin bound for the streets of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney and other major cities in the region, counternarcotics officials said.
Sending the drugs through China would be the most geographically direct route to Hong Kong, Tokyo and other points north. But the Thai and United States counternarcotics authorities said they believed that most of the drugs move south through Thailand.
“It’s more convenient,” said a senior Thai police official, who estimated that around 90 percent of illicit drugs produced in northern Myanmar come through Thailand, sometimes via Laos or down the Mekong River. He did not want to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Economic development in Thailand has facilitated trafficking, officials said, because evading the police is easier through the growing network of roads leading to Bangkok and places farther south, including Malaysia.
The armed ethnic groups in northern Myanmar such as the Wa and Kachin are wary of antagonizing China because of their reliance on the Chinese for cross-border business and, in years past, weapons.
“Since the early 1990s, the Chinese have delivered very stern warnings: Send your powder anywhere else but here,” said Michael Black, an expert on the Wa and a security writer for Jane’s Intelligence Review. The ethnic groups, he said, “can’t afford to anger the Chinese.”
China stepped up pressure on the Wa to shut down trafficking routes across the mainland in the late 1990s when H.I.V. was identified as a growing problem spread in large part by intravenous heroin users.
The illicit drugs produced near the Chinese border take a circuitous route, often shipped down to the southern stronghold of the United Wa State Army, a group that the Thai and American governments say is responsible for the lion’s share of the drug trade in Myanmar. Wa Army camps, perched on hilltops like fortresses from another era, are visible from the Thai side of the border.
The drug trade has helped turn the poorly delineated border between Myanmar and Thailand into a treacherous killing zone.
An increase in trafficking this year, related to tensions between the Myanmar military and the Wa, has left 15 suspected traffickers dead in the Fang area alone, said Master Sgt. Somsak Taengorn, a member of a plainclothes counternarcotics unit. Some of those killed were wearing Wa Army uniforms, he said.
The drugs are often stored near the border and divided into parcels. But traffickers are so worried that the drugs will be pilfered by their competitors that they put them in unusual storage facilities. “Sometimes they dig a hole and bury it,” Sergeant Somsak said.
The drug trade here is lucrative, and Sergeant Somsak said many families in otherwise impoverished areas have brand-new pickup trucks and nicely furnished houses made of sturdy materials.
Two years ago, Mr. Ja Saw was paid 10,000 baht, about $300, to carry 20,000 methamphetamine tablets, known in Thailand as ya ba, or “crazy drugs.” He dropped off the drugs at a Thai village and was paid on arrival. On his third trafficking run, he was ambushed by the Thai military and arrested.
Once delivered to the Thai side, the drugs are sent to Bangkok, to the resort island of Phuket (where yachts are sometimes used to smuggle the drugs to other countries) and to the provinces bordering Malaysia, depending on the final destination.
The drugs are shipped using a variety of ruses, some of them creative, some more pedestrian. Often they are packed inside shipments of corn, lettuce or other agricultural goods, Sergeant Somsak and other officials said. In May 2008, Sergeant Somsak helped seize thousands of methamphetamine pills packaged in condoms and hidden in the vaginas of eight hill-tribe women who tried to board a plane for Bangkok before they were arrested.
In September, a Taiwanese trafficker was arrested in Thailand with boxes of bicycle pedals stuffed with heroin.
The strangest smuggling scheme? Manachai Pongsanae, commander of a checkpoint on a major road in northern Thailand, remembers stopping a woman in her 50s with methamphetamine tablets wrapped in plastic and secreted inside a packet of fermented fish paste.
*************************************************************
Nov 7, 2009
Asia Times Online - US gives Myanmar a tentative embrace
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - Senior United States representatives returned from a two-day fact-finding trip to Myanmar on Thursday without any major breakthroughs, but then they were not planning on any. In Myanmar, the United States appears to be opting for a long-term strategy of dialogue leading to gradual improvements in rights and democracy rather than demands for instant change.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, US ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Scot Marciel, stressed the need for dialogue within Myanmar. At the same time, he expressed little confidence in next year's planned general elections and emphasized that the US will continue to use sanctions as a powerful tool in its diplomacy.
Despite the wishful thinking that accompanies high-level diplomatic visits to Myanmar, the November 3-4 visit by Marciel and US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell was designed to be "exploratory". The visit aimed at explaining the Barack Obama administration's new policy on Myanmar to various parties involved, including the government, democratic opposition and ethnic groups.
The US delegation met several ministers and government officials, including Prime Minister Major General Thein Sein, Foreign Affairs Minister Nyan Win, Minister for Information Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan and Minister of Science and Technology U Thaung. It was also allowed to hold separate meetings with ethnic representatives, and central committee members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as its general secretary, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The visit built on the US announcement in September of a new pro-engagement policy. An initial exchange occurred on the sidelines of the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 29 between Campbell and U Thaung. During the recent discussions, according to Marciel, it was made clear to both the nation's military leadership and the opposition that despite the new emphasis on diplomatic engagement the US stance on Myanmar remains unchanged.
Marciel also stated that the new policy has not changed the US commitment to a peaceful, prosperous, stable, unified and democratic Myanmar that respects the rights of it citizens. He said the US is hoping that diplomatic engagement will lead to greater dialogue between the government, the democratic opposition and ethnic groups, resulting in change from within. The US, Marciel said, "is willing to move ahead but there must be progress in the country".
Marciel stressed the need for dialogue between the regime, the democratic opposition and the ethnic groups to move any process forward. "Fundamentally, the problem is a lack of inclusive dialogue," he said. Dialogue should lead to national reconciliation and a fully inclusive political process that should allow for Suu Kyi to be free to meet with her party and others, he said.
Linking dialogue to next year's scheduled general elections, Marciel said he would not consider the elections credible or legitimate without an inclusive dialogue and the participation of key parties from the annulled 1990 elections. Although Marciel said the US does not yet have a position on next year's election, he also made it clear on several occasions during the press conference that without the opposition, the elections would not be considered credible "no matter how they were conducted". Marciel said the government "could lose a huge opportunity if the elections are not inclusive".
The ruling military junta's notion of inclusiveness has proven to be selective. Although the US delegation was allowed to meet some of the ethnic-based political parties, including the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, Arakan League for Democracy and the Mon National Democracy Party, none of the large groups that have ceasefire agreements with the government, or the so-called national race leaders, were invited.
Instead of the United Wa State Army or the Kachin Independence Army - both of which have thousands of armed soldiers and large areas under their control, as well as the general support of their populations - the Americans were met by Kachin, Pa-O, Karenni and Karen who, except for the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), number only in the hundreds and are hardly representative of their ethnic groups. Those groups, however, have agreed to go along with the junta's plan to incorporate ethnic armies into a border guard force while political wings from the ethnic groups compete in the elections.
The NLD won the 1990 elections in a landslide, but the regime annulled the results claiming a constitution must first be drafted. That constitution was finally "approved" in what was widely viewed as a rigged national referendum last year. The US and dissident groups have repeatedly voiced disapproval of the new constitution. Myanmar's main opposition party has said it wants an amendment of the constitution before it is willing to take part in the 2010 elections. Marciel said this again showed the need for dialogue.
Sanctions debate
There has been much contention that the US may be moving towards dropping economic sanctions against Myanmar that were first imposed in the late 1990s, in a bid to counterbalance China's influence in the country. However, Marciel yesterday reaffirmed the US's stance that sanctions remain a valuable tool in dealing with the regime. His statement was tempered by acknowledgement that sanctions had not worked.
This echoes statements made by both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Campbell during the announcement of the new policy and in hearings before the US Senate on September 30 and the House Foreign Affairs Committee on October 21. The US has also made it clear in previous statements that it reserves the right to increase sanctions should Myanmar's rulers increase their repression, as they did during the violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in September 2007.
In announcing the policy, Campbell said that sanctions would remain in place until concrete progress is made towards democratic reform. Although a direct line has not been drawn, it is clear that if the regime wants any movement on the removal of sanctions it will have to open serious talks with both the democratic opposition and the ethnic minority groups.
Marciel noted that new armed offensives against ethnic minority groups would be a step in the wrong direction. However, he did not say whether renewed attacks on groups active along the Chinese border would necessarily warrant increased sanctions.
The Myanmar army was involved in attacks on ethnic Karen insurgents in eastern Myanmar in July and carried out an offensive against the ethnic Kokang in August that resulted in some 35,000 refugees fleeing to China.
America's dialogue, of course, is not based solely on improved human rights and nudging the generals towards an inclusive political process and democracy; it also aims to check growing strategic cooperation between Myanmar and North Korea and the strong inroads China has made in the country.
Marciel reiterated that reports of military and nuclear cooperation between Myanmar and North Korea necessitated a need for information sharing and dialogue. The US previously thanked Myanmar for turning back a North Korean cargo ship in July carrying probable military hardware in violation of United Nations resolutions.
China's involvement in Myanmar received no mention during the press conference. However, many security analysts believe that a new emphasis on countering Chinese influence in Southeast Asia may be behind the US's engagement gambit with Myanmar.
Some China watchers have commented that there is a belief among some Chinese officials that the August meeting between US Senator Jim Webb and Myanmar leaders may have motivated the assault on the Kokang later that month. Although that was unlikely, Chinese officials are worried that engagement with the US could empower the junta to take less notice of Chinese concerns.
Myanmar's generals have so far appeared eager to engage with the US, but it is unclear yet how far that will go. Since the US policy announcement in September, there has been plenty of saber-rattling in the north of Myanmar to force ethnic ceasefire groups to agree to the border guard force plan. This plan, however, threatens to push Myanmar back into a large-scale civil war, even at the risk of angering China, which has supported the ceasefire groups.
In eastern Myanmar, Karen relief officials claim army operations have resulted in the displacement of 2,500 Karen villagers since early October. Speculation is rife along the Thai-Myanmar border of another offensive by the Myanmar Army and its ally the DKBA later this year against Karen guerillas.
There has also been little movement on the political front. Around 7,000 prisoners were released in August, but only about 200 had been detained for political offenses. According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) the total number of political prisoners has increased by forty-nine in the past month to 2,168.
Also, Suu Kyi, although allowed to meet several foreign diplomats and the American delegation, remains under house arrest. An offer by the junta this week to allow her to meet with her NLD party was declined since the party's chairman, U Tin Oo, also under house arrest, would not be allowed to attend.
Marciel claimed that while the Obama administration's new engagement with Myanmar has been criticized partly on the basis of past failed diplomatic efforts, the US was going into the process under "no illusions". He said the US could either not try at all and maintain a policy based largely on sanctions, or try discussions but with a clear eye to the failures of the past.
He said he expected a "series of conversations" between US and Myanmar officials to take place in the future. Initial discussions have been carried out by Campbell and Marciel, but US legislation introduced in 2007 and known as the Tom Lantos JADE Act calls for the appointment of a special envoy to Myanmar.
The envoy has yet to be named; Marciel indicated that the process was in hand. He made it clear that Secretary of State Clinton would not meet Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein on the sidelines of the upcoming APEC summit in Singapore later this month, without ruling out lower level meetings. The summit will also be attended by Obama.
Marciel said talks with Myanmar were in their early days and he refused to speculate on their impact on future actions of the regime. "It will take time to see how they respond," he said. "I don't want to predict progress."
With the 2010 elections only months away and the NLD's participation doubtful, and threatening postures being taken against the ethnic groups, immediate progress seems unlikely in the near future.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
Asia Times Online - US gives Myanmar a tentative embrace
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - Senior United States representatives returned from a two-day fact-finding trip to Myanmar on Thursday without any major breakthroughs, but then they were not planning on any. In Myanmar, the United States appears to be opting for a long-term strategy of dialogue leading to gradual improvements in rights and democracy rather than demands for instant change.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, US ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Scot Marciel, stressed the need for dialogue within Myanmar. At the same time, he expressed little confidence in next year's planned general elections and emphasized that the US will continue to use sanctions as a powerful tool in its diplomacy.
Despite the wishful thinking that accompanies high-level diplomatic visits to Myanmar, the November 3-4 visit by Marciel and US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell was designed to be "exploratory". The visit aimed at explaining the Barack Obama administration's new policy on Myanmar to various parties involved, including the government, democratic opposition and ethnic groups.
The US delegation met several ministers and government officials, including Prime Minister Major General Thein Sein, Foreign Affairs Minister Nyan Win, Minister for Information Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan and Minister of Science and Technology U Thaung. It was also allowed to hold separate meetings with ethnic representatives, and central committee members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as its general secretary, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The visit built on the US announcement in September of a new pro-engagement policy. An initial exchange occurred on the sidelines of the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 29 between Campbell and U Thaung. During the recent discussions, according to Marciel, it was made clear to both the nation's military leadership and the opposition that despite the new emphasis on diplomatic engagement the US stance on Myanmar remains unchanged.
Marciel also stated that the new policy has not changed the US commitment to a peaceful, prosperous, stable, unified and democratic Myanmar that respects the rights of it citizens. He said the US is hoping that diplomatic engagement will lead to greater dialogue between the government, the democratic opposition and ethnic groups, resulting in change from within. The US, Marciel said, "is willing to move ahead but there must be progress in the country".
Marciel stressed the need for dialogue between the regime, the democratic opposition and the ethnic groups to move any process forward. "Fundamentally, the problem is a lack of inclusive dialogue," he said. Dialogue should lead to national reconciliation and a fully inclusive political process that should allow for Suu Kyi to be free to meet with her party and others, he said.
Linking dialogue to next year's scheduled general elections, Marciel said he would not consider the elections credible or legitimate without an inclusive dialogue and the participation of key parties from the annulled 1990 elections. Although Marciel said the US does not yet have a position on next year's election, he also made it clear on several occasions during the press conference that without the opposition, the elections would not be considered credible "no matter how they were conducted". Marciel said the government "could lose a huge opportunity if the elections are not inclusive".
The ruling military junta's notion of inclusiveness has proven to be selective. Although the US delegation was allowed to meet some of the ethnic-based political parties, including the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, Arakan League for Democracy and the Mon National Democracy Party, none of the large groups that have ceasefire agreements with the government, or the so-called national race leaders, were invited.
Instead of the United Wa State Army or the Kachin Independence Army - both of which have thousands of armed soldiers and large areas under their control, as well as the general support of their populations - the Americans were met by Kachin, Pa-O, Karenni and Karen who, except for the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), number only in the hundreds and are hardly representative of their ethnic groups. Those groups, however, have agreed to go along with the junta's plan to incorporate ethnic armies into a border guard force while political wings from the ethnic groups compete in the elections.
The NLD won the 1990 elections in a landslide, but the regime annulled the results claiming a constitution must first be drafted. That constitution was finally "approved" in what was widely viewed as a rigged national referendum last year. The US and dissident groups have repeatedly voiced disapproval of the new constitution. Myanmar's main opposition party has said it wants an amendment of the constitution before it is willing to take part in the 2010 elections. Marciel said this again showed the need for dialogue.
Sanctions debate
There has been much contention that the US may be moving towards dropping economic sanctions against Myanmar that were first imposed in the late 1990s, in a bid to counterbalance China's influence in the country. However, Marciel yesterday reaffirmed the US's stance that sanctions remain a valuable tool in dealing with the regime. His statement was tempered by acknowledgement that sanctions had not worked.
This echoes statements made by both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Campbell during the announcement of the new policy and in hearings before the US Senate on September 30 and the House Foreign Affairs Committee on October 21. The US has also made it clear in previous statements that it reserves the right to increase sanctions should Myanmar's rulers increase their repression, as they did during the violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in September 2007.
In announcing the policy, Campbell said that sanctions would remain in place until concrete progress is made towards democratic reform. Although a direct line has not been drawn, it is clear that if the regime wants any movement on the removal of sanctions it will have to open serious talks with both the democratic opposition and the ethnic minority groups.
Marciel noted that new armed offensives against ethnic minority groups would be a step in the wrong direction. However, he did not say whether renewed attacks on groups active along the Chinese border would necessarily warrant increased sanctions.
The Myanmar army was involved in attacks on ethnic Karen insurgents in eastern Myanmar in July and carried out an offensive against the ethnic Kokang in August that resulted in some 35,000 refugees fleeing to China.
America's dialogue, of course, is not based solely on improved human rights and nudging the generals towards an inclusive political process and democracy; it also aims to check growing strategic cooperation between Myanmar and North Korea and the strong inroads China has made in the country.
Marciel reiterated that reports of military and nuclear cooperation between Myanmar and North Korea necessitated a need for information sharing and dialogue. The US previously thanked Myanmar for turning back a North Korean cargo ship in July carrying probable military hardware in violation of United Nations resolutions.
China's involvement in Myanmar received no mention during the press conference. However, many security analysts believe that a new emphasis on countering Chinese influence in Southeast Asia may be behind the US's engagement gambit with Myanmar.
Some China watchers have commented that there is a belief among some Chinese officials that the August meeting between US Senator Jim Webb and Myanmar leaders may have motivated the assault on the Kokang later that month. Although that was unlikely, Chinese officials are worried that engagement with the US could empower the junta to take less notice of Chinese concerns.
Myanmar's generals have so far appeared eager to engage with the US, but it is unclear yet how far that will go. Since the US policy announcement in September, there has been plenty of saber-rattling in the north of Myanmar to force ethnic ceasefire groups to agree to the border guard force plan. This plan, however, threatens to push Myanmar back into a large-scale civil war, even at the risk of angering China, which has supported the ceasefire groups.
In eastern Myanmar, Karen relief officials claim army operations have resulted in the displacement of 2,500 Karen villagers since early October. Speculation is rife along the Thai-Myanmar border of another offensive by the Myanmar Army and its ally the DKBA later this year against Karen guerillas.
There has also been little movement on the political front. Around 7,000 prisoners were released in August, but only about 200 had been detained for political offenses. According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) the total number of political prisoners has increased by forty-nine in the past month to 2,168.
Also, Suu Kyi, although allowed to meet several foreign diplomats and the American delegation, remains under house arrest. An offer by the junta this week to allow her to meet with her NLD party was declined since the party's chairman, U Tin Oo, also under house arrest, would not be allowed to attend.
Marciel claimed that while the Obama administration's new engagement with Myanmar has been criticized partly on the basis of past failed diplomatic efforts, the US was going into the process under "no illusions". He said the US could either not try at all and maintain a policy based largely on sanctions, or try discussions but with a clear eye to the failures of the past.
He said he expected a "series of conversations" between US and Myanmar officials to take place in the future. Initial discussions have been carried out by Campbell and Marciel, but US legislation introduced in 2007 and known as the Tom Lantos JADE Act calls for the appointment of a special envoy to Myanmar.
The envoy has yet to be named; Marciel indicated that the process was in hand. He made it clear that Secretary of State Clinton would not meet Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein on the sidelines of the upcoming APEC summit in Singapore later this month, without ruling out lower level meetings. The summit will also be attended by Obama.
Marciel said talks with Myanmar were in their early days and he refused to speculate on their impact on future actions of the regime. "It will take time to see how they respond," he said. "I don't want to predict progress."
With the 2010 elections only months away and the NLD's participation doubtful, and threatening postures being taken against the ethnic groups, immediate progress seems unlikely in the near future.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
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New Straits Times - Myanmar woman pleads not guilty to bribery
2009/11/06
JOHOR BARU, Fri: A Myanmar woman pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court here today to offering a RM862 bribe to a police officer last April.
Mariyam Hatu Nur Ahmad, 33, who is six-months pregnant and residing in Kulaijaya, is charged with offering the bribe to ASP Roslan Abdullah, from the Narcotics Crime Investigation Division, Kulaijaya, as an inducement for him not to detain her husband, S. Murugan @ Mohd Ali Abdullah, for a drug offence.
The offence was allegedly committed in front of the Al-Raudah Mosque, Jalan Saleng, Kulaijaya, about 10.20am on April 19 this year.
Judge Ab Rahmad Adol set bail at RM3,000 in one surety and fixed Jan 12 for mention.
Prosecuting officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Mohd Taufik Khamis prosecuted.
2009/11/06
JOHOR BARU, Fri: A Myanmar woman pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court here today to offering a RM862 bribe to a police officer last April.
Mariyam Hatu Nur Ahmad, 33, who is six-months pregnant and residing in Kulaijaya, is charged with offering the bribe to ASP Roslan Abdullah, from the Narcotics Crime Investigation Division, Kulaijaya, as an inducement for him not to detain her husband, S. Murugan @ Mohd Ali Abdullah, for a drug offence.
The offence was allegedly committed in front of the Al-Raudah Mosque, Jalan Saleng, Kulaijaya, about 10.20am on April 19 this year.
Judge Ab Rahmad Adol set bail at RM3,000 in one surety and fixed Jan 12 for mention.
Prosecuting officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Mohd Taufik Khamis prosecuted.
*************************************************************
Storm-hit regions in Myanmar return to normal, Myanmar official media
www.chinaview.cn 2009-11-06 12:02:55
YANGON, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar official media claimed on Friday that the country's storm-hit regions have returned to normalcy within one year after these regions were struck by cyclone Nargis in early May last year, citing the hardest-hit Ayeyawaddy delta areas.
"The government made utmost efforts for enabling storm-ravaged regions to enjoy new conditions and new life and to stand on their own strength," said the New Light of Myanmar.
The newspaper also said the state is placing emphasis on the development of agricultural, fishery, marine and transport sector of seaside regions and has built necessary infrastructural buildings including transport ones in order that rescue and relief tasks can be launched in time if there is natural disaster.
It disclosed that a total of 20 cyclone shelters are being built in the areas of Letkhokkon, Phyapon, Pathein and Laputta, saying that these cyclone shelters are designed to be used as schools in normal times, and in times of natural disaster they can be used as shelters.
Over the last four days since Monday, Myanmar top leader Senior-General Than Shwe, who is Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, made an inspection tour to view the progress of rehabilitation and reconstruction in storm-ravaged regions of the Ayeyawaddy delta covering areas of Bogalay, Phypon, Laputta, Pinsalu, Mawlamyinegyun, Haigyigyun, Pathein and Hinthada, and arrived in Yangon on Thursday evening.
Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis hit five divisions and states - Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on May 2 and 3 last year, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-11-06 12:02:55
YANGON, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar official media claimed on Friday that the country's storm-hit regions have returned to normalcy within one year after these regions were struck by cyclone Nargis in early May last year, citing the hardest-hit Ayeyawaddy delta areas.
"The government made utmost efforts for enabling storm-ravaged regions to enjoy new conditions and new life and to stand on their own strength," said the New Light of Myanmar.
The newspaper also said the state is placing emphasis on the development of agricultural, fishery, marine and transport sector of seaside regions and has built necessary infrastructural buildings including transport ones in order that rescue and relief tasks can be launched in time if there is natural disaster.
It disclosed that a total of 20 cyclone shelters are being built in the areas of Letkhokkon, Phyapon, Pathein and Laputta, saying that these cyclone shelters are designed to be used as schools in normal times, and in times of natural disaster they can be used as shelters.
Over the last four days since Monday, Myanmar top leader Senior-General Than Shwe, who is Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, made an inspection tour to view the progress of rehabilitation and reconstruction in storm-ravaged regions of the Ayeyawaddy delta covering areas of Bogalay, Phypon, Laputta, Pinsalu, Mawlamyinegyun, Haigyigyun, Pathein and Hinthada, and arrived in Yangon on Thursday evening.
Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis hit five divisions and states - Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on May 2 and 3 last year, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.
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World Security Network - Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh look at nuclear option
written by: Priyanka Bhardwaj, 05-Nov-09
NEW DELHI: Some call it the bandwagon effect, the impact of India’s growing nuclear energy program, is being felt in neighboring countries, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Post the signing of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal last year and other international approvals, India has announced major nuclear energy generation initiatives backed by countries such as France, Russia, Japan, apart from America.
Given the paramount space that India occupies in the South Asian region, others nations are following suit, though not without misgivings by the global community that dual use nuclear technology could be pilfered for clandestine nuclear weapons programs.
India has drawn a mid-term plan to generate 25,000 MW of nuclear power and wants it to be an important cog in the energy mix that is skewed towards coal based thermal power.
While India’s nuclear energy business is estimated over US$100 billion, some observers say that Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan could account for more than US$30 billion, if the plans are implemented.
US companies such as General Electric and Westinghouse Electric, Japan’s Toshiba and Hitachi, France’s ‘Areva’, and Russia’s atomic energy agency ‘Rosatom,’ are among the top players seeking to play their part.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh has been looking at nuclear energy for sometime now.
Although it was almost five decades back that the first initiative to install a nuclear power plant was taken in Bangladesh there are signs of substantial progress now, with the help of countries such as China, South Korea, Russia, India and America.
Unlike India and Pakistan, Bangladesh is a signatory to the Non proliferation Treaty (NPT) and feels that it has every right to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
The country has decided to build a 600-1000MW nuclear power plant at Roopur in Pabna by 2015 to meet acute electricity shortages that cause frequent riots. There is political and popular support for the plant.
The plan has been approved by the International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog.
Dhaka has sought the help of Russia.
In May 2009, the two countries concluded a MoU to build the Pabna nuclear plant. Scientists from Russia’s Rosatom atomic energy agency are scheduled to visit the site from October, as per reports.
The plant will cost up to US$2 billion, with South Korea also offering to finance a part of the project.
Bangladesh and China signed an agreement in 2005 for cooperation in exploration of nuclear materials and construction of a new nuclear power plant.
Last year, Pakistan offered to help Bangladesh in its nuclear energy efforts, though the country is not a signatory of NPT.
Bangladesh has also secured a grant from IAEA to train 40 personnel.
Pakistan
Pakistan was not offered a nuclear deal by America due to its record of sheltering terrorists and nuclear know how pilferage to countries such as North Korea, Libya and Iran that the western world views with suspicion.
The dubious role of A Q Khan who has led Pakistan’s nuclear program in this is well known.
However, the country, under democratic rule today is looking at the nuclear energy option closely, given its crippling energy crisis.
China has been helping Pakistan run its main nuclear power generation facility at Chashma in Punjab province and also build a second nuclear power plant. The Chashma complex should thus generate 600 MW.
Recently, the Chinese foreign minister backed Pakistan’s ``right’’ to produce nuclear energy.
Last month, Pakistan Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Assef Ahmed Ali said that USA and Pakistan are negotiating transfer of civil nuclear technology.
Assef Ahmed said Pakistan would welcome a civil nuclear deal with US similar to the one offered to India.
In May this year, the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said that France and Pakistan had agreed cooperate on ‘nuclear energy and safety.’
The news was initially received with a bit of surprise.
While French President Nicolas Sarkozy did not comment, a spokes person said that Paris was ready, within the framework of its international agreements, to cooperate with Pakistan in the field of nuclear safety.
Myanmar
Myanmar’s nuclear efforts are viewed with suspicion due to the ruling military junta. There are fears that the country is pushing a nuclear-weapons program, with the support of North Korea.
In August, Indian authorities intercepted a North Korean ship suspected to be transporting radioactive material to Myanmar. Analysts say North Korea could be looking at Myanmar as a safe haven for its nuclear expertise should Western forces destroy its own sites.
Yangon, however, has said that as a member of the NPT, it has the right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, regardless of its record on human rights.
Moscow has clarified that its nuclear cooperation with Myanmar is in compliance the NPT and IAEA requirements.
Russian technicians are known to be helping Myanmar in the excavation and refining of uranium in 10 locations apart from ``teaching plutonium re-processing.’’
In 2007, Rosatom, tried to help Myanmar set up a 10 MW nuclear reactor.
Indonesia has also aired its support to Myanmar in its nuclear energy program for civilian use.
(Priyanka Bhardwaj is a journalist based in New Delhi. She can be reached at priyanka2508@yahoo.co.in)
written by: Priyanka Bhardwaj, 05-Nov-09
NEW DELHI: Some call it the bandwagon effect, the impact of India’s growing nuclear energy program, is being felt in neighboring countries, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Post the signing of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal last year and other international approvals, India has announced major nuclear energy generation initiatives backed by countries such as France, Russia, Japan, apart from America.
Given the paramount space that India occupies in the South Asian region, others nations are following suit, though not without misgivings by the global community that dual use nuclear technology could be pilfered for clandestine nuclear weapons programs.
India has drawn a mid-term plan to generate 25,000 MW of nuclear power and wants it to be an important cog in the energy mix that is skewed towards coal based thermal power.
While India’s nuclear energy business is estimated over US$100 billion, some observers say that Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan could account for more than US$30 billion, if the plans are implemented.
US companies such as General Electric and Westinghouse Electric, Japan’s Toshiba and Hitachi, France’s ‘Areva’, and Russia’s atomic energy agency ‘Rosatom,’ are among the top players seeking to play their part.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh has been looking at nuclear energy for sometime now.
Although it was almost five decades back that the first initiative to install a nuclear power plant was taken in Bangladesh there are signs of substantial progress now, with the help of countries such as China, South Korea, Russia, India and America.
Unlike India and Pakistan, Bangladesh is a signatory to the Non proliferation Treaty (NPT) and feels that it has every right to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
The country has decided to build a 600-1000MW nuclear power plant at Roopur in Pabna by 2015 to meet acute electricity shortages that cause frequent riots. There is political and popular support for the plant.
The plan has been approved by the International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog.
Dhaka has sought the help of Russia.
In May 2009, the two countries concluded a MoU to build the Pabna nuclear plant. Scientists from Russia’s Rosatom atomic energy agency are scheduled to visit the site from October, as per reports.
The plant will cost up to US$2 billion, with South Korea also offering to finance a part of the project.
Bangladesh and China signed an agreement in 2005 for cooperation in exploration of nuclear materials and construction of a new nuclear power plant.
Last year, Pakistan offered to help Bangladesh in its nuclear energy efforts, though the country is not a signatory of NPT.
Bangladesh has also secured a grant from IAEA to train 40 personnel.
Pakistan
Pakistan was not offered a nuclear deal by America due to its record of sheltering terrorists and nuclear know how pilferage to countries such as North Korea, Libya and Iran that the western world views with suspicion.
The dubious role of A Q Khan who has led Pakistan’s nuclear program in this is well known.
However, the country, under democratic rule today is looking at the nuclear energy option closely, given its crippling energy crisis.
China has been helping Pakistan run its main nuclear power generation facility at Chashma in Punjab province and also build a second nuclear power plant. The Chashma complex should thus generate 600 MW.
Recently, the Chinese foreign minister backed Pakistan’s ``right’’ to produce nuclear energy.
Last month, Pakistan Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Assef Ahmed Ali said that USA and Pakistan are negotiating transfer of civil nuclear technology.
Assef Ahmed said Pakistan would welcome a civil nuclear deal with US similar to the one offered to India.
In May this year, the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said that France and Pakistan had agreed cooperate on ‘nuclear energy and safety.’
The news was initially received with a bit of surprise.
While French President Nicolas Sarkozy did not comment, a spokes person said that Paris was ready, within the framework of its international agreements, to cooperate with Pakistan in the field of nuclear safety.
Myanmar
Myanmar’s nuclear efforts are viewed with suspicion due to the ruling military junta. There are fears that the country is pushing a nuclear-weapons program, with the support of North Korea.
In August, Indian authorities intercepted a North Korean ship suspected to be transporting radioactive material to Myanmar. Analysts say North Korea could be looking at Myanmar as a safe haven for its nuclear expertise should Western forces destroy its own sites.
Yangon, however, has said that as a member of the NPT, it has the right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, regardless of its record on human rights.
Moscow has clarified that its nuclear cooperation with Myanmar is in compliance the NPT and IAEA requirements.
Russian technicians are known to be helping Myanmar in the excavation and refining of uranium in 10 locations apart from ``teaching plutonium re-processing.’’
In 2007, Rosatom, tried to help Myanmar set up a 10 MW nuclear reactor.
Indonesia has also aired its support to Myanmar in its nuclear energy program for civilian use.
(Priyanka Bhardwaj is a journalist based in New Delhi. She can be reached at priyanka2508@yahoo.co.in)
*************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Burmese Rally against Then Sein in Tokyo
By SAW YAN NAING - Friday, November 6, 2009
About 200 Burmese dissidents demonstrated outside Japan’s Parliament House in Tokyo on Friday, the second of three planned protests against Burma’s military government during a visit by Prime Minster Gen Thein Sein who arrived in the Japanese capital on Thursday to attend the first Mekong-Japan Summit.
Burmese pro-democracy demonstrators also launched a protest outside the New Otani Hotel, where the Burmese premier is staying during the summit.
Ko Ko Aung, a Burmese dissident living in Tokyo, said that the aim of the protest was to decry the upcoming election in Burma as a government ploy to hold onto power in accordance with the sham 2008 constitution.
“We want to give a message to the Japanese government that we don’t accept the 2010 election or the junta’s Constitution. So, they should not support the Burmese military government,” he said.
Ko Ko Aung called for the Japanese government to investigate the details of the current political situation in Burma. Japan’s support of the Burmese regime will not help the Burmese people, he said.
He said that the demonstrators have also scheduled a protest outside the Burmese embassy in Tokyo, which Thein Sein will visit on Friday evening.
Jeff Kingston, the director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan Campus, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Japan wants to step up human security efforts in the region and sees the Mekong-Japan Summit as a vehicle for doing so in a coordinated way.
“Japan will promote human security, natural disaster alleviation, pandemic control and climate initiatives for the nations along the Mekong,” he said. “It is a safe way for limited engagement with Burma that allows the [Japanese] government to plausibly deny re-engaging while at the same time getting some traction in Burma.”
Kingston noted that Japan’s new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada were both well-informed about and sympathetic to the plight of the Burmese and political prisoners and said the current government has expressed stronger support for human rights than previous administrations.
Burma is a member of the six-country Greater Mekong Subregion -Economic Cooperation Program, along with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and China.
Japan is traditionally Burma’s largest donor nation.
Japan has invested US $216.76 million in 23 projects since 1988, according to a Xinhua news agency report on Thursday.
By SAW YAN NAING - Friday, November 6, 2009
About 200 Burmese dissidents demonstrated outside Japan’s Parliament House in Tokyo on Friday, the second of three planned protests against Burma’s military government during a visit by Prime Minster Gen Thein Sein who arrived in the Japanese capital on Thursday to attend the first Mekong-Japan Summit.
Burmese pro-democracy demonstrators also launched a protest outside the New Otani Hotel, where the Burmese premier is staying during the summit.
Ko Ko Aung, a Burmese dissident living in Tokyo, said that the aim of the protest was to decry the upcoming election in Burma as a government ploy to hold onto power in accordance with the sham 2008 constitution.
“We want to give a message to the Japanese government that we don’t accept the 2010 election or the junta’s Constitution. So, they should not support the Burmese military government,” he said.
Ko Ko Aung called for the Japanese government to investigate the details of the current political situation in Burma. Japan’s support of the Burmese regime will not help the Burmese people, he said.
He said that the demonstrators have also scheduled a protest outside the Burmese embassy in Tokyo, which Thein Sein will visit on Friday evening.
Jeff Kingston, the director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan Campus, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Japan wants to step up human security efforts in the region and sees the Mekong-Japan Summit as a vehicle for doing so in a coordinated way.
“Japan will promote human security, natural disaster alleviation, pandemic control and climate initiatives for the nations along the Mekong,” he said. “It is a safe way for limited engagement with Burma that allows the [Japanese] government to plausibly deny re-engaging while at the same time getting some traction in Burma.”
Kingston noted that Japan’s new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada were both well-informed about and sympathetic to the plight of the Burmese and political prisoners and said the current government has expressed stronger support for human rights than previous administrations.
Burma is a member of the six-country Greater Mekong Subregion -Economic Cooperation Program, along with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and China.
Japan is traditionally Burma’s largest donor nation.
Japan has invested US $216.76 million in 23 projects since 1988, according to a Xinhua news agency report on Thursday.
*************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - US Mission's Meeting with Burmese Ethnics Signals Hope
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
Thursday, November 5, 2009
BANGKOK — The United States government's diplomatic foray into military-ruled Burma made early inroads into an area sealed off to United Nations envoys in recent years—meeting the country's oppressed ethnic minorities.
"We met with seven to eight representatives of ethnic minority groups in Rangoon," Scot Marciel, US deputy assistant secretary of state, said Thursday during a meeting with diplomats, academics and journalists at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "They expressed their concerns about (the 2010) elections and how the government will treat them militarily."
"We are committed to begin a dialogue with the government, the (Burmese) opposition and ethnic groups," added Marciel, shortly after he and US assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell ended a two-day visit to Burma, also known as Myanmar. "The purpose of such dialogue is to move towards national reconciliation."
The visit by Campbell and Marciel, from Nov. 3 to 4, was the first in 14 years by high-ranking officials from Washington. Madeline Albright, then US ambassador to the UN, was the last to do so in 1995.
The US government's approach towards Burma is in keeping with the new tone in Washington under President Barak Obama's administration. Engagement with oppressive regimes to spur political change is one pillar. It is a contrast to the policies of the former US administration under George W Bush, where a tough line was the norm.
Yet the Obama administration will follow the Bush position on the punitive economic sanctions that Washington has imposed on Burma since the mid-1990s. "We would maintain the existing sanctions pending progress," said Marciel.
Marciel played down high expectations of change so early in an "exploratory mission," which also resulted in meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's opposition leader, who has spent over 14 years under house arrest, and with Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein.
"We are going into this with eyes wide open. We do not have any illusions," said Marciel, whose delegation did not meet Burma's all-important strongman, Senior General Than Shwe. "We did not anticipate our trip to Burma would solve all of Burma's problems."
But the encounter with representatives of ethnic minorities—who account for nearly 40 percent of the Southeast Asian nation's 56 million population and occupy 57 percent of the land area—is winning early praise as a "sign of hope." The hour-long meeting in Burma's former capital included representatives from the ethnic Shan, Chin, Mon, Arakan and Kachin.
"It was an important meeting for us; we are very hopeful,” said Chin Sian Thang, spokesman for the United Nationalities' Alliance (UNA), an umbrella group representing 12 ethnic political parties. ”We have never had a meeting like this before.”
"For the last two years we were prohibited from meeting UN envoys," added the spokesman, a member of the Chin ethnic minority, during a telephone interview from Rangoon. "This is a sign of hope that we can pursue national reconciliation that involves our communities."
The last UN envoy permitted by the oppressive Burmese junta to meet ethnic representatives of significance was Razali Ismail, a former Malaysian diplomat. But his successor as the UN special envoy to Burma, Nigerian diplomat Ibrahim Gambari, has been barred from such encounters since he took over the job in late 2006.
The ethnic grievances that were discussed with the U.S. envoys ranged from Burma's 2008 constitution, approved during a flawed referendum, and a planned election in 2010 to the pressure by the junta for the armed ethnic groups to be reduced to border guards under the wing of the country's powerful military.
"We said we do not agree with the 2008 constitution because the referendum was a sham," Chin Siang Thang revealed. "The new constitution does not have a single article that offers protection of ethnic groups."
"Political reconciliation in Burma leading up to next year's election must include ethnic minorities," said Soe Aung, spokesman for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, an umbrella group of Burmese political exiles. "We have always made this case to the UN and to other foreign envoys."
Denying ethnic minorities a place at the 2010 poll "will undermine the military regime's need towards legitimacy," added Soe Aung in an interview. "At the last general elections in 1990, which the regime refused to recognize, the ethnic parties won 67 seats in the parliament."
Burma's patchwork of ethnic communities offers a daunting challenge to Washington's diplomatic adventure.
The country has over 130 ethnic communities, the largest of them being the Chin, Kachin, Karen, Mon, Rakhine and Shan, who have been victims of gross human rights violations perpetrated by the Burmese military.
Burma's military has been waging wars with ethnic rebel groups since it gained independence from the British colonizers in 1948. Ceasefire agreements have been signed by 17 rebel groups two decades ago, while five of the larger separatist rebels, like the Karen, have refused to cave in to the junta's quest to bring the country under its complete control.
"Ethnic relations have been an incredibly complex issue," says Thant Myint-U, a Burmese historian who authored the widely acclaimed book The River of Lost Footstep. "It will be central in any reconciliation process."
The meeting with ethnic representatives during this first US mission reveals that "the US administration is mindful of this," Thant told IPS. "It will be a challenge to address the ethnic grievances and ending the armed conflicts."
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
Thursday, November 5, 2009
BANGKOK — The United States government's diplomatic foray into military-ruled Burma made early inroads into an area sealed off to United Nations envoys in recent years—meeting the country's oppressed ethnic minorities.
"We met with seven to eight representatives of ethnic minority groups in Rangoon," Scot Marciel, US deputy assistant secretary of state, said Thursday during a meeting with diplomats, academics and journalists at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "They expressed their concerns about (the 2010) elections and how the government will treat them militarily."
"We are committed to begin a dialogue with the government, the (Burmese) opposition and ethnic groups," added Marciel, shortly after he and US assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell ended a two-day visit to Burma, also known as Myanmar. "The purpose of such dialogue is to move towards national reconciliation."
The visit by Campbell and Marciel, from Nov. 3 to 4, was the first in 14 years by high-ranking officials from Washington. Madeline Albright, then US ambassador to the UN, was the last to do so in 1995.
The US government's approach towards Burma is in keeping with the new tone in Washington under President Barak Obama's administration. Engagement with oppressive regimes to spur political change is one pillar. It is a contrast to the policies of the former US administration under George W Bush, where a tough line was the norm.
Yet the Obama administration will follow the Bush position on the punitive economic sanctions that Washington has imposed on Burma since the mid-1990s. "We would maintain the existing sanctions pending progress," said Marciel.
Marciel played down high expectations of change so early in an "exploratory mission," which also resulted in meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's opposition leader, who has spent over 14 years under house arrest, and with Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein.
"We are going into this with eyes wide open. We do not have any illusions," said Marciel, whose delegation did not meet Burma's all-important strongman, Senior General Than Shwe. "We did not anticipate our trip to Burma would solve all of Burma's problems."
But the encounter with representatives of ethnic minorities—who account for nearly 40 percent of the Southeast Asian nation's 56 million population and occupy 57 percent of the land area—is winning early praise as a "sign of hope." The hour-long meeting in Burma's former capital included representatives from the ethnic Shan, Chin, Mon, Arakan and Kachin.
"It was an important meeting for us; we are very hopeful,” said Chin Sian Thang, spokesman for the United Nationalities' Alliance (UNA), an umbrella group representing 12 ethnic political parties. ”We have never had a meeting like this before.”
"For the last two years we were prohibited from meeting UN envoys," added the spokesman, a member of the Chin ethnic minority, during a telephone interview from Rangoon. "This is a sign of hope that we can pursue national reconciliation that involves our communities."
The last UN envoy permitted by the oppressive Burmese junta to meet ethnic representatives of significance was Razali Ismail, a former Malaysian diplomat. But his successor as the UN special envoy to Burma, Nigerian diplomat Ibrahim Gambari, has been barred from such encounters since he took over the job in late 2006.
The ethnic grievances that were discussed with the U.S. envoys ranged from Burma's 2008 constitution, approved during a flawed referendum, and a planned election in 2010 to the pressure by the junta for the armed ethnic groups to be reduced to border guards under the wing of the country's powerful military.
"We said we do not agree with the 2008 constitution because the referendum was a sham," Chin Siang Thang revealed. "The new constitution does not have a single article that offers protection of ethnic groups."
"Political reconciliation in Burma leading up to next year's election must include ethnic minorities," said Soe Aung, spokesman for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, an umbrella group of Burmese political exiles. "We have always made this case to the UN and to other foreign envoys."
Denying ethnic minorities a place at the 2010 poll "will undermine the military regime's need towards legitimacy," added Soe Aung in an interview. "At the last general elections in 1990, which the regime refused to recognize, the ethnic parties won 67 seats in the parliament."
Burma's patchwork of ethnic communities offers a daunting challenge to Washington's diplomatic adventure.
The country has over 130 ethnic communities, the largest of them being the Chin, Kachin, Karen, Mon, Rakhine and Shan, who have been victims of gross human rights violations perpetrated by the Burmese military.
Burma's military has been waging wars with ethnic rebel groups since it gained independence from the British colonizers in 1948. Ceasefire agreements have been signed by 17 rebel groups two decades ago, while five of the larger separatist rebels, like the Karen, have refused to cave in to the junta's quest to bring the country under its complete control.
"Ethnic relations have been an incredibly complex issue," says Thant Myint-U, a Burmese historian who authored the widely acclaimed book The River of Lost Footstep. "It will be central in any reconciliation process."
The meeting with ethnic representatives during this first US mission reveals that "the US administration is mindful of this," Thant told IPS. "It will be a challenge to address the ethnic grievances and ending the armed conflicts."
*************************************************************
Mizzima News - Additional charge against Burmese-American
by Mungpi
Friday, 06 November 2009 20:24
New Delhi (Mizzima) - A new charge was added to the existing ones against Burmese born American, Kyaw Zaw Lwin (alias) Nyi Nyi Aung by a district court in Rangoon on Friday, his attorney said.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin, who was charged with fraudulence and forgery under article 420 and 468 of the Criminal Code, has been additionally charged under the Foreigner Exchange Regulation Act Section 24, his lawyer Kyi Win told Mizzima.
“We don’t yet know the details of the new charge against Nyi Nyi Aung. We don’t know for what reason this charge has been added,” Kyi Win said.
The Burmese born American was arrested on September 3, on arrival at the Rangoon international airport and has been detained since then. He was later charged for fraudulence and forgery – cheating the immigration and possessing a fake Burmese national identity card.
While he was charged and was being tried by the Minglardon Township court, whose jurisdiction covers the Rangoon International airport, last week authorities transferred his case to the Southern District Court without any official reason given.
Kyi Win last week told Mizzima that while transferring the case is not out of procedure, he expressed his fear that the District court, which is a step higher than the Township court, would add extra charges.
“We will be collecting the files of Nyi Nyi Aung from the district court next week. Only then we will know about the additional charge,” Kyi Win said, adding that the court has scheduled the next hearing of the prosecution witness for November 13, Friday.
“Today we heard testimonies of the two witnesses, who had testified in the Township court. Because the case is not being handled by a new judge, the trial is required to start all over again,” Kyi Win added.
According to his attorney, if found guilty, Nyi Nyi Aung could be sentenced to 14 years in prison, seven each on charges of fraudulence and forgery. But Kyi Win said he still does not have any idea what the new charge is all about.
Nyi Nyi Aung was a student activist in the 1988 nation-wide uprising. But he fled from Burma for neighbouring Thailand in the wake of the ruling junta’s crackdown on protesters. He later resettled in the United States, where he was naturalized as a citizen.
His mother and sister are currently serving prison terms for their political activism.
by Mungpi
Friday, 06 November 2009 20:24
New Delhi (Mizzima) - A new charge was added to the existing ones against Burmese born American, Kyaw Zaw Lwin (alias) Nyi Nyi Aung by a district court in Rangoon on Friday, his attorney said.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin, who was charged with fraudulence and forgery under article 420 and 468 of the Criminal Code, has been additionally charged under the Foreigner Exchange Regulation Act Section 24, his lawyer Kyi Win told Mizzima.
“We don’t yet know the details of the new charge against Nyi Nyi Aung. We don’t know for what reason this charge has been added,” Kyi Win said.
The Burmese born American was arrested on September 3, on arrival at the Rangoon international airport and has been detained since then. He was later charged for fraudulence and forgery – cheating the immigration and possessing a fake Burmese national identity card.
While he was charged and was being tried by the Minglardon Township court, whose jurisdiction covers the Rangoon International airport, last week authorities transferred his case to the Southern District Court without any official reason given.
Kyi Win last week told Mizzima that while transferring the case is not out of procedure, he expressed his fear that the District court, which is a step higher than the Township court, would add extra charges.
“We will be collecting the files of Nyi Nyi Aung from the district court next week. Only then we will know about the additional charge,” Kyi Win said, adding that the court has scheduled the next hearing of the prosecution witness for November 13, Friday.
“Today we heard testimonies of the two witnesses, who had testified in the Township court. Because the case is not being handled by a new judge, the trial is required to start all over again,” Kyi Win added.
According to his attorney, if found guilty, Nyi Nyi Aung could be sentenced to 14 years in prison, seven each on charges of fraudulence and forgery. But Kyi Win said he still does not have any idea what the new charge is all about.
Nyi Nyi Aung was a student activist in the 1988 nation-wide uprising. But he fled from Burma for neighbouring Thailand in the wake of the ruling junta’s crackdown on protesters. He later resettled in the United States, where he was naturalized as a citizen.
His mother and sister are currently serving prison terms for their political activism.
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Mizzima News - Junta’s projects destroy lives, environment: report
by Mungpi
Thursday, 05 November 2009 20:58
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese military junta’s so-called developmental projects including dam constructions, gas explorations and mining of natural resources have severely harmed the environment and caused mass relocation, uprooting communities, a new report said.
A new report by a coalition of Environmental Groups, Burma Environment Working Group (BEWG) said the natural environment in Burma has been severely affected by the junta’s developmental projects and caused mass relocation, generating refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).
The report: “Accessible Alternatives: Ethnic Communities’ Contribution to Social Development and Environmental Conservation in Burma”, reveals the harsh impacts inflicted on the environment and the livelihoods of ethnic people by junta’s current development goals.
Saw Paul Sein Twa, a spokesperson for the BEWG, on Thursday told Mizzima that the destruction of the natural environment in Burma is rapid as the ruling regime continues to embark on various projects, which they dub as developmental projects.
“The junta’s so-called developmental projects are becoming the main source of destruction of the environment and course of human livelihood because they are not interested in the people and the environment but are only concerned about their benefits,” Paul said.
He said such developmental projects comes at the cost of the lives of ethnic communities as the junta relocates villages, confiscate their lands for the projects and cause rampant human rights violations.
“But the return from these projects are not entitled to the local communities but are used to strengthen the military rulers,” he added.
The report, which includes nine case studies on issues related to natural resource management in different parts of Burma including Arakan, Karen, Kachin and Shan States, said while each case study describes a variety of issues, they all describe a pattern: Communities have had their own systems of natural resource management that supported their lives and that also ensured that the resources were not depleted.
“But inevitably, militarization and development projects in the area have destroyed the environment and made it impossible for the local people to continue their traditional way of life,” the report said.
Unless there is a change in the pattern, and if the Burmese junta continues with its rampant developmental projects, Paul said, grave danger awaits future generations.
“The international community including neighbouring countries should come out of the ‘macro’ aspect and look into matters in Burma in the micro level and urge the Burmese junta to stop their ongoing environmental destruction,” Paul said.
The BEWG, a coalition of environmental organizations and activists, in its report takes the cases of the destruction of mangrove forests and oil explorations in Arakan State, forest reservation in Kachin State, logging and environmental protection in Karen state and building the Tasang dam on the Salween river in Shan State.
“We wanted to draw attention to the knowledge and practices of ethnic communities that ensure sustainable natural resource management,” said Saw Paul Sein Twa.
“If we want to preserve Burma’s rich environment for our children, the value of traditional natural resource management methods should be recognized widely, and serious efforts should be made now to restore them where they have been destroyed,” he added.
by Mungpi
Thursday, 05 November 2009 20:58
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese military junta’s so-called developmental projects including dam constructions, gas explorations and mining of natural resources have severely harmed the environment and caused mass relocation, uprooting communities, a new report said.
A new report by a coalition of Environmental Groups, Burma Environment Working Group (BEWG) said the natural environment in Burma has been severely affected by the junta’s developmental projects and caused mass relocation, generating refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).
The report: “Accessible Alternatives: Ethnic Communities’ Contribution to Social Development and Environmental Conservation in Burma”, reveals the harsh impacts inflicted on the environment and the livelihoods of ethnic people by junta’s current development goals.
Saw Paul Sein Twa, a spokesperson for the BEWG, on Thursday told Mizzima that the destruction of the natural environment in Burma is rapid as the ruling regime continues to embark on various projects, which they dub as developmental projects.
“The junta’s so-called developmental projects are becoming the main source of destruction of the environment and course of human livelihood because they are not interested in the people and the environment but are only concerned about their benefits,” Paul said.
He said such developmental projects comes at the cost of the lives of ethnic communities as the junta relocates villages, confiscate their lands for the projects and cause rampant human rights violations.
“But the return from these projects are not entitled to the local communities but are used to strengthen the military rulers,” he added.
The report, which includes nine case studies on issues related to natural resource management in different parts of Burma including Arakan, Karen, Kachin and Shan States, said while each case study describes a variety of issues, they all describe a pattern: Communities have had their own systems of natural resource management that supported their lives and that also ensured that the resources were not depleted.
“But inevitably, militarization and development projects in the area have destroyed the environment and made it impossible for the local people to continue their traditional way of life,” the report said.
Unless there is a change in the pattern, and if the Burmese junta continues with its rampant developmental projects, Paul said, grave danger awaits future generations.
“The international community including neighbouring countries should come out of the ‘macro’ aspect and look into matters in Burma in the micro level and urge the Burmese junta to stop their ongoing environmental destruction,” Paul said.
The BEWG, a coalition of environmental organizations and activists, in its report takes the cases of the destruction of mangrove forests and oil explorations in Arakan State, forest reservation in Kachin State, logging and environmental protection in Karen state and building the Tasang dam on the Salween river in Shan State.
“We wanted to draw attention to the knowledge and practices of ethnic communities that ensure sustainable natural resource management,” said Saw Paul Sein Twa.
“If we want to preserve Burma’s rich environment for our children, the value of traditional natural resource management methods should be recognized widely, and serious efforts should be made now to restore them where they have been destroyed,” he added.
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Imprisoned female activist ‘too weak to speak’
Nov 6, 2009 (DVB)–The health of a female activist serving a five-year prison sentence in central Burma is rapidly deteriorating, according to family members who visited her last week.
Nemo Hlaing is one of more than 150 political prisoners in Burma suffering from poor health, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners – Burma (AAPP).
Her sister, Su Su Hlaing, told DVB yesterday that she had been ill since 6 October but that the family was notified only last week.
“We tried to visit her as soon as we got the telegraph on 27 October but we could not make it there until 31 October,” said Su Su Hlaing.
The 88 Generation Students group and National League for Democracy (NLD) party member was sentenced in June 2008 on four separate charges.
She had initially been treated by a prison doctor but was barred from leaving her cell. The doctor had reportedly given her antibiotics to treat a gastric complaint but with no result.
“After three days of no improvement, the doctor changed the diagnosis and gave her six injections for typhoid but her fever never went down,” said Su Su Haling, whose mother had visited the prison.
“My sister doesn’t know what is happening to her; she asked the doctor but was not given an answer. She is now too weak to speak.”
Nemo Hlaing had previously suffered from gout and heart disease, her sister said, and the family was anxious to get her treated.
41 political prisoners were sentenced in October, bringing the total number of detained activists, journalists, politicians and lawyers in Burma to 2,168, AAPP said.
On Wednesday it was announced that former Burmese foreign minister Win Aung, who had served until 2008 under the ousted prime minister, General Khin Nyunt, had died in Rangoon’s Insein prison. The 65-year-old is the only former government official to have died in detention.
Only basic health care is provided inside Burmese prisons, and prisoners have complained of having to bribe doctors to give them treatment.
Visiting family members are often the only providers of medication, and illnesses such as diarrhea and malaria spread easily in the dirty and humid conditions.
Reporting by Naw Say Phaw
Nov 6, 2009 (DVB)–The health of a female activist serving a five-year prison sentence in central Burma is rapidly deteriorating, according to family members who visited her last week.
Nemo Hlaing is one of more than 150 political prisoners in Burma suffering from poor health, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners – Burma (AAPP).
Her sister, Su Su Hlaing, told DVB yesterday that she had been ill since 6 October but that the family was notified only last week.
“We tried to visit her as soon as we got the telegraph on 27 October but we could not make it there until 31 October,” said Su Su Hlaing.
The 88 Generation Students group and National League for Democracy (NLD) party member was sentenced in June 2008 on four separate charges.
She had initially been treated by a prison doctor but was barred from leaving her cell. The doctor had reportedly given her antibiotics to treat a gastric complaint but with no result.
“After three days of no improvement, the doctor changed the diagnosis and gave her six injections for typhoid but her fever never went down,” said Su Su Haling, whose mother had visited the prison.
“My sister doesn’t know what is happening to her; she asked the doctor but was not given an answer. She is now too weak to speak.”
Nemo Hlaing had previously suffered from gout and heart disease, her sister said, and the family was anxious to get her treated.
41 political prisoners were sentenced in October, bringing the total number of detained activists, journalists, politicians and lawyers in Burma to 2,168, AAPP said.
On Wednesday it was announced that former Burmese foreign minister Win Aung, who had served until 2008 under the ousted prime minister, General Khin Nyunt, had died in Rangoon’s Insein prison. The 65-year-old is the only former government official to have died in detention.
Only basic health care is provided inside Burmese prisons, and prisoners have complained of having to bribe doctors to give them treatment.
Visiting family members are often the only providers of medication, and illnesses such as diarrhea and malaria spread easily in the dirty and humid conditions.
Reporting by Naw Say Phaw
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500 migrant workers sue Thai employersNov 6, 2009 (DVB)–Hundreds of Burmese migrant workers in a Thai border town have filed a lawsuit against their employers for allegedly failing to pay salaries, a migrant organisation said.
The migrant workers in Mae Sot, across the border from Burma’s eastern Karen state, claim that employers failed to abide by regulations laid down by Thailand’s Ministry of Labour.
“More than 500 workers from 12 factories have filed their case but the number of complainants from each factory is as high as 185,” said Ko Aye, workers’ affairs manager of Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) Foundation in Mae Sot.
“This 500 is only for this year. There have been 138 similar cases since 2001 with 2,077 workers involved. The number of women is greater than that of men.”
In the past, workers filed their complaints at a local labour liaison office and court, and in some cases, the judges have ruled in favour of compensation.
Ko Aye said however that the employees had to go on trial whenever their employers failed to fully abide by the court decision.
MAP Foundation, together with its lawyers, has been conducting awareness education programmes for workers, focusing on responses to arbitrary dismissals and closure of factories without prior warning.
Employees from a knitting factory in Mae Sot on Wednesday appeared in court to testify that they had been denied wages. The employer had agreed to compensate for six and a half months’ wages but later shut the factories without prior notice, leaving the workers jobless.
“The complaint includes less than standard, overtime fees and weekend charges,” a workers’ rights activist told DVB. The workers had received only 50 Thai baht ($US1.50) out of an eligible 150 Thai baht ($US4.50).
“They should be compensated about 100,000 Thai baht ($US2,995) each but they said they would be satisfied with 30,000 ($US900). The trial was adjourned until 21 December.”
Around two million Burmese migrants are estimated to work in Thailand, the majority in the agricultural, fishery and construction sectors.
According to organisations working on migrant issues, complaints about denial of wages for migrant workers are common throughout Thailand.
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