EarthTimes - HIV patients mark AIDS day at office of Myanmar opposition party
Posted : Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:28:17 GMT
Yangon - The headquarters of Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy was crowded Tuesday with 150 HIV-positive visitors to mark World Aids Day. The group was led by AIDS activist Phyu Phyu Thin, 38, who runs a treatment, medicine and counselling service for anyone infected with the HIV virus or with AIDS in Yangon.
The political situation in the country may remain unresolved, with the National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi imprisoned in her own home elsewhere in the city, but Phyu Phyu said HIV did not distinguish between political tendencies.
The 3,000 patients who go to her clinic include members of the police special branch, the army and police and the regime's own political party, she noted.
One visitor, Ma Aye Aye Khing, 39, said she was shocked to find she was HIV positive, along with her 11-year-old daughter. Her husband is a political prisoner jailed after the 2007 monk protests.
"I have read many books about HIV. If I have medicine, I know I cannot die in a short time," she said.
Phyu Phyu said she faced many difficulties in trying to help ordinary people infected by the virus, including finding enough medicine to meet the demand.
She was arrested by police in Yangon for organizing a prayer rally in 2007 to call for the release of Suu Kyi and held for a month in prison. She was also detained in 2000 at a rally in support of the opposition leader.
The government spent 191.4 million kyat (29 million dollars) in 2007 in fighting the disease. The United Nations agency UNAIDS has said AIDS cases in Myanmar dropped from 0.94 per cent of the population in 2000 to 0.67 per cent in 2007, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said Tuesday.
Posted : Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:28:17 GMT
Yangon - The headquarters of Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy was crowded Tuesday with 150 HIV-positive visitors to mark World Aids Day. The group was led by AIDS activist Phyu Phyu Thin, 38, who runs a treatment, medicine and counselling service for anyone infected with the HIV virus or with AIDS in Yangon.
The political situation in the country may remain unresolved, with the National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi imprisoned in her own home elsewhere in the city, but Phyu Phyu said HIV did not distinguish between political tendencies.
The 3,000 patients who go to her clinic include members of the police special branch, the army and police and the regime's own political party, she noted.
One visitor, Ma Aye Aye Khing, 39, said she was shocked to find she was HIV positive, along with her 11-year-old daughter. Her husband is a political prisoner jailed after the 2007 monk protests.
"I have read many books about HIV. If I have medicine, I know I cannot die in a short time," she said.
Phyu Phyu said she faced many difficulties in trying to help ordinary people infected by the virus, including finding enough medicine to meet the demand.
She was arrested by police in Yangon for organizing a prayer rally in 2007 to call for the release of Suu Kyi and held for a month in prison. She was also detained in 2000 at a rally in support of the opposition leader.
The government spent 191.4 million kyat (29 million dollars) in 2007 in fighting the disease. The United Nations agency UNAIDS has said AIDS cases in Myanmar dropped from 0.94 per cent of the population in 2000 to 0.67 per cent in 2007, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said Tuesday.
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Colombo Page - Sri Lanka Navy rescues stranded Myanmar fishermen
Tue, Dec 1, 2009, 08:38 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Dec 01, Trincomalee: Sri Lanka Navy rescued a group of 12 fishermen from Myanmar stranded in the deep sea yesterday night and brought them safely to the Trincomalee naval base.
The stranded fishermen were first spotted by a Sri Lankan multi-day fishing vessel about 150 nautical miles in the deep sea off the Eastern shores and reported to the authorities.
The Navy has dispatched two fast vessels to rescue the fishermen and brought them to safety. The men have been given emergency medical care at the Naval Hospital.
The men have been lost in the sea due to a technical failure of their vessel, reports said.
Trincomalee police are conducting further investigations into the incident.
Tue, Dec 1, 2009, 08:38 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Dec 01, Trincomalee: Sri Lanka Navy rescued a group of 12 fishermen from Myanmar stranded in the deep sea yesterday night and brought them safely to the Trincomalee naval base.
The stranded fishermen were first spotted by a Sri Lankan multi-day fishing vessel about 150 nautical miles in the deep sea off the Eastern shores and reported to the authorities.
The Navy has dispatched two fast vessels to rescue the fishermen and brought them to safety. The men have been given emergency medical care at the Naval Hospital.
The men have been lost in the sea due to a technical failure of their vessel, reports said.
Trincomalee police are conducting further investigations into the incident.
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Times of India - Ulfa rebel confirms camps in Myanmar
TNN 1 December 2009, 08:48pm
SHILLONG: A hardcore Ulfa militant on Tuesday revealed that at least three camps of the banned outfit, housing over 100 rebels, are still active in Myanmar. Not only that, they have close nexus with the NSCN (K) as well, he said.
Gobin Ojha alias Kiran Jyoti Gogoi, who has been one of the key inmates in the camps having several rebels under his command, surrendered at the BSF's Assam-Meghalaya Frontier headquarters here along with a Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF) militant, Arun Terong.
The duo, involved in extortion, bomb blasts, kidnapping and killings, handed over two pistols and a few rounds of ammunition before BSF IG Prithvi Raj on the occasion of the force's (Assam & Meghalaya Frontier) 45th Rising Day.
The Ulfa militant later told newspersons that about 110 rebels, including some women, belonging to the outfit's 28th battalion were living in a pathetic condition at the three camps in the jungles of Myanmar. "They don't get proper food and medicines. Life's very difficult there," Gobin said.
"Bijoy Das, the commander of Ulfa's 28th battalion, was also operating from one of those camps," he added. "The Khaplang faction of NSCN, too, has camps in the area and both the groups had a close nexus," said Gobin, a native of Assam's Sivasagar district who had joined Ulfa in 2005.
Incidentally, the Ulfa's 28th battalion had owned up to the recent attack on a train in Assam's Golaghat district. Sixteen wagons of the train, carrying high-speed diesel from Numaligarh Oil Refinery to Panki in Uttar Pradesh, were destroyed in the blast.
On the other hand, Terong, the KLNLF militant, was the bodyguard of the outfit's general secretary and was involved in two bomb blasts at the Diphu railway station and another in front of a temple, also in Diphu, Karbi Anglong, in November, 2007.
TNN 1 December 2009, 08:48pm
SHILLONG: A hardcore Ulfa militant on Tuesday revealed that at least three camps of the banned outfit, housing over 100 rebels, are still active in Myanmar. Not only that, they have close nexus with the NSCN (K) as well, he said.
Gobin Ojha alias Kiran Jyoti Gogoi, who has been one of the key inmates in the camps having several rebels under his command, surrendered at the BSF's Assam-Meghalaya Frontier headquarters here along with a Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF) militant, Arun Terong.
The duo, involved in extortion, bomb blasts, kidnapping and killings, handed over two pistols and a few rounds of ammunition before BSF IG Prithvi Raj on the occasion of the force's (Assam & Meghalaya Frontier) 45th Rising Day.
The Ulfa militant later told newspersons that about 110 rebels, including some women, belonging to the outfit's 28th battalion were living in a pathetic condition at the three camps in the jungles of Myanmar. "They don't get proper food and medicines. Life's very difficult there," Gobin said.
"Bijoy Das, the commander of Ulfa's 28th battalion, was also operating from one of those camps," he added. "The Khaplang faction of NSCN, too, has camps in the area and both the groups had a close nexus," said Gobin, a native of Assam's Sivasagar district who had joined Ulfa in 2005.
Incidentally, the Ulfa's 28th battalion had owned up to the recent attack on a train in Assam's Golaghat district. Sixteen wagons of the train, carrying high-speed diesel from Numaligarh Oil Refinery to Panki in Uttar Pradesh, were destroyed in the blast.
On the other hand, Terong, the KLNLF militant, was the bodyguard of the outfit's general secretary and was involved in two bomb blasts at the Diphu railway station and another in front of a temple, also in Diphu, Karbi Anglong, in November, 2007.
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Japan to help Myanmar produce energy from plastic waste
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-01 12:11:30
YANGON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Japan will help Myanmar produce energy from plastic waste disposed daily in the city of Yangon, sources with the Yangon division administration said on Tuesday.
City dwellers are being advised to dispose their plastic waste separately so as to enable burning of them for the purpose.
Myanmar has started banning use of small and thin plastic bags in a number of cities since June this year, first in the second largest city of Mandalay and then the tourist site of Bagan and the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw.
Not long after the announcement of the ban, the authorities seized and destroyed a total of 321 kg small and thin plastic bags from five townships in Mandalay and confiscated and destroyed a total of 297 kg of such bags from markets in Nay Pyi Taw.
In Yangon, although formal ban on using the small and thin plastic bags is not yet in place, the authorities have ordered plastic producers to stop such production, setting an ultimatum for the end of November.
At the request of the producers, the authorities extended the ultimatum to another four months for stopping plastic bag production under a system which will monitor if the companies will abide by the policy of reduce, reuse and recycle of plastic over the extended period.
Meanwhile, it launched a program of collecting disposed plastic bags in the city and re-using them in production of plastic pipes as part of its bid in environment conservation.
There is a total of 146 plastic industries in Yangon and disposal of used plastic bags in the city amounted to 200 tons per day.
The authorities have urged the public to re-use paper bag, cloth bag, banana leaf and tree leaf instead in packing grocery.
A total of 31 million tons of used plastic bags in the former capital city were disposed annually, the municipal authorities disclosed.
Meanwhile, the program of creating plastic-free zones is also being extended to Myitgyina and Sagaing in northwestern part of the country.
Myanmar people have been widely and traditionally using small and thin plastic bags for packing things and even food in markets and restaurants as well as packing rubbish for throwing, building up a large amount of garbage daily for disposal.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-01 12:11:30
YANGON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Japan will help Myanmar produce energy from plastic waste disposed daily in the city of Yangon, sources with the Yangon division administration said on Tuesday.
City dwellers are being advised to dispose their plastic waste separately so as to enable burning of them for the purpose.
Myanmar has started banning use of small and thin plastic bags in a number of cities since June this year, first in the second largest city of Mandalay and then the tourist site of Bagan and the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw.
Not long after the announcement of the ban, the authorities seized and destroyed a total of 321 kg small and thin plastic bags from five townships in Mandalay and confiscated and destroyed a total of 297 kg of such bags from markets in Nay Pyi Taw.
In Yangon, although formal ban on using the small and thin plastic bags is not yet in place, the authorities have ordered plastic producers to stop such production, setting an ultimatum for the end of November.
At the request of the producers, the authorities extended the ultimatum to another four months for stopping plastic bag production under a system which will monitor if the companies will abide by the policy of reduce, reuse and recycle of plastic over the extended period.
Meanwhile, it launched a program of collecting disposed plastic bags in the city and re-using them in production of plastic pipes as part of its bid in environment conservation.
There is a total of 146 plastic industries in Yangon and disposal of used plastic bags in the city amounted to 200 tons per day.
The authorities have urged the public to re-use paper bag, cloth bag, banana leaf and tree leaf instead in packing grocery.
A total of 31 million tons of used plastic bags in the former capital city were disposed annually, the municipal authorities disclosed.
Meanwhile, the program of creating plastic-free zones is also being extended to Myitgyina and Sagaing in northwestern part of the country.
Myanmar people have been widely and traditionally using small and thin plastic bags for packing things and even food in markets and restaurants as well as packing rubbish for throwing, building up a large amount of garbage daily for disposal.
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S Korean scholarship winners in Myanmar to form association
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-01 12:06:06
YANGON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- An old South Korean scholarship winners in Myanmar will form an association to work for promoting Myanmar-South Korea friendship and carry out social undertakings, sources with the resident (South) Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) said on Tuesday.
Funded by the KOICA, the association will perform voluntary works in urgently-needed poor villages in various parts of Myanmar, the sources said, adding that such move will help boost bilateral friendship between the two countries.
According to the KOICA, during this year, more than 120 Myanmar outstanding students were sent to S. Korea under the country's scholarship program, bringing the total number of such students to over 1,000.
Meanwhile, the South Korean government is also sending more overseas volunteers to work in Myanmar's agricultural, technical and health sectors during the year, it said.
The KOICA disclosed that South Korea has sent a total of 104 volunteers to Myanmar since 1997, while Myanmar dispatched a total of 1,000 state employees to S. Korea for undergoing training since1991.
As part of the two countries' technical cooperation in the irrigation sector, the KOICA is also building an irrigation-related laboratory center in country's second largest city of Mandalay.
The KOICA has stationed in Myanmar since 1991 providing the technical expertise and equipment needed for social service organizations as well as training in related fields.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-01 12:06:06
YANGON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- An old South Korean scholarship winners in Myanmar will form an association to work for promoting Myanmar-South Korea friendship and carry out social undertakings, sources with the resident (South) Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) said on Tuesday.
Funded by the KOICA, the association will perform voluntary works in urgently-needed poor villages in various parts of Myanmar, the sources said, adding that such move will help boost bilateral friendship between the two countries.
According to the KOICA, during this year, more than 120 Myanmar outstanding students were sent to S. Korea under the country's scholarship program, bringing the total number of such students to over 1,000.
Meanwhile, the South Korean government is also sending more overseas volunteers to work in Myanmar's agricultural, technical and health sectors during the year, it said.
The KOICA disclosed that South Korea has sent a total of 104 volunteers to Myanmar since 1997, while Myanmar dispatched a total of 1,000 state employees to S. Korea for undergoing training since1991.
As part of the two countries' technical cooperation in the irrigation sector, the KOICA is also building an irrigation-related laboratory center in country's second largest city of Mandalay.
The KOICA has stationed in Myanmar since 1991 providing the technical expertise and equipment needed for social service organizations as well as training in related fields.
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Business Standard - India-Myanmar gas pipleline may take shape in 2-3 yrs
Press Trust of India / Kolkata December 01, 2009, 18:47 IST
The tri-nation gas pipeline between India, Bangaladesh and Myanmar may take shape in two to three years time, Myanmar Ambassador U Kyi Thein said here today.
"Something can happen in two to three years with Indian companies like GAIL, Essar Oil, ONGC, IOC exploring gas in Myanmar," Thein told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session.
Bilateral trade between India and Myanmar was expected to touch $1 billion in 2009-10 from the present $951 million, the ambassador said.
India is the fourth-largest trading country in Myanmar after Thailand, China and Singapore.
Thein said his country has signed an oil pipeline pact with China early this year which envisaged a 1,100 km pipeline from Myanmar’s west coast port of Kyaukryu which would enter China at Ruili and extend to Kunming city, the capital of Yunnan province
Press Trust of India / Kolkata December 01, 2009, 18:47 IST
The tri-nation gas pipeline between India, Bangaladesh and Myanmar may take shape in two to three years time, Myanmar Ambassador U Kyi Thein said here today.
"Something can happen in two to three years with Indian companies like GAIL, Essar Oil, ONGC, IOC exploring gas in Myanmar," Thein told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session.
Bilateral trade between India and Myanmar was expected to touch $1 billion in 2009-10 from the present $951 million, the ambassador said.
India is the fourth-largest trading country in Myanmar after Thailand, China and Singapore.
Thein said his country has signed an oil pipeline pact with China early this year which envisaged a 1,100 km pipeline from Myanmar’s west coast port of Kyaukryu which would enter China at Ruili and extend to Kunming city, the capital of Yunnan province
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Dec 2, 2009
Asia Times Online - US's Myanmar initiative falters
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK - Recent attempts by the United States to coax Myanmar's reclusive ruling generals to open talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi have so far failed to gain traction and could indicate that Senior General Than Shwe has gone cold towards the prospect of a rapprochement with Washington.
In recent months, US President Barack Obama's administration has opened talks with Myanmar's top generals, representing a shift from previous US administrations that relied singularly on punitive economic and financial sanctions to push for democratic change in the military-run and impoverished country.
Senior US diplomats have held a series of high-level meetings with Myanmar government ministers, including with Prime Minister General Thein Sein, in both Myanmar and the US. The meetings include the highest level contact between the two countries since relations were downgraded in 1988 when Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel visited the country in early November.
Campbell and Marciel were allowed to meet Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, but security forces also symbolically detained at least two journalists and several others believed to be involved with an unsanctioned relief organization just days before their arrival. While hopes are still rising that Suu Kyi may be released in the run-up to next year's elections, there is no indication yet that the junta plans to release the more than 2,100 political prisoners being held across the country.
Obama's administration has been careful to portray its new position as a policy realignment rather than a shift, one where sanctions will be maintained but supplemented with dialogue that offers the junta a chance to improve relations in return for concessions.
Obama called for Suu Kyi's immediate release at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting held last month in Singapore. He and Thein Sein sat at the same table during events, though they did not talk. Obama's envoys meanwhile have called on the junta for assurances that next May's elections are free, fair and inclusive of the political opposition, including Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
"The [forthcoming] elections in [Myanmar] could be an opportunity for the country to end its international isolation, but only if these elections are inclusive, with the full participation of all political parties," Scot Marciel, who also serves as the US ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), told a press conference in Bangkok the day after leaving Yangon last month. "That includes creating the conditions in the run-up to the elections which make the process credible."
"We feel that there are more than 50 million people in the country who deserve the efforts of the international community to try to help bring about progress and we're very committed to that," he added. "Dialogue is not an end in itself. There has to be concrete results."
There are still few signs that the junta would consider opening a genuine dialogue with Suu Kyi, though some Myanmar watchers believe they may release her just before next year's elections. Others acknowledge some tentative gestures, including the junta allowing her to talk directly with Labor and Liaison Minister Aung Kyi and to meet various diplomats in Yangon.
"The ball is now very much in [Myanmar's] court," said Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Macquarie University in Australia after the US-ASEAN summit in Singapore two weeks ago. "Obama's hand has been extended. Will they respond in kind or with the clenched fist?"
Past failures
This is where previous efforts to engage the regime, including those led by the United Nations, have come undone. Far too often, the key aim of those efforts was to free Suu Kyi from detention, with lip service given to the release of all political prisoners. UN envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail saw Suu Kyi's short-lived release in May 2002, in which he played an instrumental role behind the scenes, as the main point of his mission.
If the US follows the same strategy, their efforts to start a dialogue between Suu Kyi and the generals are unlikely to fare any better than the numerous attempts largely led by the UN over the past two decades. "The US must decide whether their intervention is to free Aung San Suu Kyi, or help make the situation for the vast majority better than it was," a senior editor at a news journal in Yangon said on condition of anonymity.
"The two sides are on entirely different wavelengths and there is a huge amount of mutual distrust," said Thant Myint U, a former UN official and author of the award-winning book on Myanmar, A River of Lost Footsteps. "At best we're at a confidence-building stage. If we aim for a breakthrough on the most difficult issues - such as relations between the junta and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi - I'm afraid we're bound for a big disappointment."
Time for a breakthrough is running short, with elections to be held next year, and changes to the constitution approved in last year's sham referendum are apparently out of the question. Unless there are significant incentives for the junta leaders to appease the Americans, analysts say, it may be too late to influence what happens in the months ahead.
"Than Shwe may feel there is no need to make any concessions, unless he wants to please the Americans," according to former British ambassador to Thailand and Vietnam and now Myanmar watcher, Derek Tonkin.
For her part, Suu Kyi continues to try to entice the reclusive generals into direct talks. In her latest letter to Than Shwe, she requested a meeting with him to explore ways that she may be able help the national conciliation process.
"It shows she has changed and is prepared to be flexible and compromise," said Justin Wintle, the British writer and biographer of Aung San Suu Kyi. "This process, encouraged by the US's change of policy, is the most exciting thing to happen in [Myanmar] for years. There is now a real possibility of dialogue," he added.
Others are less sanguine. "[Suu Kyi's] latest letter is unlikely to mollify Than Shwe all that much," said Tonkin. "It is set at the 'we are equals' level where Than Shwe unfortunately has all the power and is operating from a position of strength not weakness." So far Than Shwe has not responded to the letter, according to Nyan Win, a spokesman for the NLD.
Election maneuvers
International attention is expected to refocus on the forthcoming elections and Than Shwe's promised transition towards a "discipline flourishing" democracy. There is an emerging measure of unanimity in the international community, one where the West, which has previously been preoccupied with Suu Kyi's release, and Asia, which has opted for more engagement, has found common ground.
"Sanctions do not constitute real problems for them [junta], as it does not hurt them much but creates slight difficulties in their relationship with the international community. But the elections are very important to them," said Win Tin, a senior member of the NLD central executive who was recently released after 19 years in prison.
The joint statement after the US-ASEAN summit, in which neither Suu Kyi nor political prisoners were expressly mentioned but instead mentioned the need for free and fair elections, indicated a new emerging international consensus, prompted largely by the US's change in policy tact.
ASEAN leaders, led by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as the current chairman of the regional grouping, have led overtures to convince the junta that the elections must be credible. "The elections must be an inclusive and transparent process if they are to be credible," ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told Asia Times Online. ASEAN stands ready to help the regime in anyway they want, including by providing election monitors, he added.
China, too, is seemingly on board with this approach. "China adheres to the principle of national reconciliation and unity, by promoting political dialogue and consultation between the Government and the opposition," said Chinese academic and Myanmar watcher, Li Xuecheng, at the Chinese Institute of Strategic Studies. "China is willing to work together with all the relevant parties, including opposition political parties, to make the 2010 elections a success."
While there is a general agreement that an inclusive election is essential for Myanmar to ease from international isolation, there is no consensus as to what would constitute a credible result. Even Washington has not given details of what they expect from the polls.
"The Obama administration has yet to spell out what they mean by free and fair elections," said David Steinberg, a professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University in Washington and author of numerous books and academic articles on Myanmar told Asia Times Online.
"Does that mean Aung San Suu Kyi being allowed to run or campaign? The NLD being able to contest the elections? Fair campaigning and the open printing and distributing of campaign literature?" asked Steinberg. "Unfortunately everything still remains open to interpretation."
For years, Suu Kyi has said her freedom was far less important than establishing a genuine dialogue between the pro-democracy movement and the junta. The US may now have also signed up to this approach.
But some analysts inside Myanmar believe that the process will be fruitless unless Suu Kyi is able to offer Than Shwe something tangible which would allay his fears that she was not intent on running in the forthcoming elections. Some suggest that she should resign from the NLD as a gesture of goodwill and follow in the footsteps of South Africa's Nelson Mandela and Timor Leste's Xanna Gusmao by assisting reconciliation and the transition to a civilian administration as a national figure.
Others point towards India's Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born wife of the assassinated Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who succeeded him as the Congress party's leader. She later declined to take the premiership or any ministerial post after her party won national elections to avoid a constitutional wrangle with the Hindu nationalist opposition. However, she remained the party's leader and a powerful influence behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, a major shake-up is expected inside the army, with hundreds of officers set to retire to make way for a new generation of military leaders. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) held its quarterly meeting in the capital, Naypyidaw, last week, and the aligned United Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) just held its annual congress.
The USDA is expected to announce the formation of its political party shortly and will provide a transitional vehicle for soldiers to become civilian politicians.
An electoral law that will set the rules for campaigning and party registration is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks. An interim cabinet is also to be announced before the end of the year, according to Myanmar government sources.
Some observers believe that Suu Kyi may be released coinciding with, or soon after, the announcement, if Than Shwe feels she is no longer a potent threat to the elections. It's a move that would push forward Myanmar's new engagement with the US, and depending on the terms of her release would be seen by many as a positive step towards reconciliation.
"Whatever happens will be down to Than Shwe," said Turnell. "He wants to have nothing to do with [Suu Kyi], but may be prepared to go through the motions if it buys him time."
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
Asia Times Online - US's Myanmar initiative falters
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK - Recent attempts by the United States to coax Myanmar's reclusive ruling generals to open talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi have so far failed to gain traction and could indicate that Senior General Than Shwe has gone cold towards the prospect of a rapprochement with Washington.
In recent months, US President Barack Obama's administration has opened talks with Myanmar's top generals, representing a shift from previous US administrations that relied singularly on punitive economic and financial sanctions to push for democratic change in the military-run and impoverished country.
Senior US diplomats have held a series of high-level meetings with Myanmar government ministers, including with Prime Minister General Thein Sein, in both Myanmar and the US. The meetings include the highest level contact between the two countries since relations were downgraded in 1988 when Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel visited the country in early November.
Campbell and Marciel were allowed to meet Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, but security forces also symbolically detained at least two journalists and several others believed to be involved with an unsanctioned relief organization just days before their arrival. While hopes are still rising that Suu Kyi may be released in the run-up to next year's elections, there is no indication yet that the junta plans to release the more than 2,100 political prisoners being held across the country.
Obama's administration has been careful to portray its new position as a policy realignment rather than a shift, one where sanctions will be maintained but supplemented with dialogue that offers the junta a chance to improve relations in return for concessions.
Obama called for Suu Kyi's immediate release at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting held last month in Singapore. He and Thein Sein sat at the same table during events, though they did not talk. Obama's envoys meanwhile have called on the junta for assurances that next May's elections are free, fair and inclusive of the political opposition, including Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
"The [forthcoming] elections in [Myanmar] could be an opportunity for the country to end its international isolation, but only if these elections are inclusive, with the full participation of all political parties," Scot Marciel, who also serves as the US ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), told a press conference in Bangkok the day after leaving Yangon last month. "That includes creating the conditions in the run-up to the elections which make the process credible."
"We feel that there are more than 50 million people in the country who deserve the efforts of the international community to try to help bring about progress and we're very committed to that," he added. "Dialogue is not an end in itself. There has to be concrete results."
There are still few signs that the junta would consider opening a genuine dialogue with Suu Kyi, though some Myanmar watchers believe they may release her just before next year's elections. Others acknowledge some tentative gestures, including the junta allowing her to talk directly with Labor and Liaison Minister Aung Kyi and to meet various diplomats in Yangon.
"The ball is now very much in [Myanmar's] court," said Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Macquarie University in Australia after the US-ASEAN summit in Singapore two weeks ago. "Obama's hand has been extended. Will they respond in kind or with the clenched fist?"
Past failures
This is where previous efforts to engage the regime, including those led by the United Nations, have come undone. Far too often, the key aim of those efforts was to free Suu Kyi from detention, with lip service given to the release of all political prisoners. UN envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail saw Suu Kyi's short-lived release in May 2002, in which he played an instrumental role behind the scenes, as the main point of his mission.
If the US follows the same strategy, their efforts to start a dialogue between Suu Kyi and the generals are unlikely to fare any better than the numerous attempts largely led by the UN over the past two decades. "The US must decide whether their intervention is to free Aung San Suu Kyi, or help make the situation for the vast majority better than it was," a senior editor at a news journal in Yangon said on condition of anonymity.
"The two sides are on entirely different wavelengths and there is a huge amount of mutual distrust," said Thant Myint U, a former UN official and author of the award-winning book on Myanmar, A River of Lost Footsteps. "At best we're at a confidence-building stage. If we aim for a breakthrough on the most difficult issues - such as relations between the junta and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi - I'm afraid we're bound for a big disappointment."
Time for a breakthrough is running short, with elections to be held next year, and changes to the constitution approved in last year's sham referendum are apparently out of the question. Unless there are significant incentives for the junta leaders to appease the Americans, analysts say, it may be too late to influence what happens in the months ahead.
"Than Shwe may feel there is no need to make any concessions, unless he wants to please the Americans," according to former British ambassador to Thailand and Vietnam and now Myanmar watcher, Derek Tonkin.
For her part, Suu Kyi continues to try to entice the reclusive generals into direct talks. In her latest letter to Than Shwe, she requested a meeting with him to explore ways that she may be able help the national conciliation process.
"It shows she has changed and is prepared to be flexible and compromise," said Justin Wintle, the British writer and biographer of Aung San Suu Kyi. "This process, encouraged by the US's change of policy, is the most exciting thing to happen in [Myanmar] for years. There is now a real possibility of dialogue," he added.
Others are less sanguine. "[Suu Kyi's] latest letter is unlikely to mollify Than Shwe all that much," said Tonkin. "It is set at the 'we are equals' level where Than Shwe unfortunately has all the power and is operating from a position of strength not weakness." So far Than Shwe has not responded to the letter, according to Nyan Win, a spokesman for the NLD.
Election maneuvers
International attention is expected to refocus on the forthcoming elections and Than Shwe's promised transition towards a "discipline flourishing" democracy. There is an emerging measure of unanimity in the international community, one where the West, which has previously been preoccupied with Suu Kyi's release, and Asia, which has opted for more engagement, has found common ground.
"Sanctions do not constitute real problems for them [junta], as it does not hurt them much but creates slight difficulties in their relationship with the international community. But the elections are very important to them," said Win Tin, a senior member of the NLD central executive who was recently released after 19 years in prison.
The joint statement after the US-ASEAN summit, in which neither Suu Kyi nor political prisoners were expressly mentioned but instead mentioned the need for free and fair elections, indicated a new emerging international consensus, prompted largely by the US's change in policy tact.
ASEAN leaders, led by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as the current chairman of the regional grouping, have led overtures to convince the junta that the elections must be credible. "The elections must be an inclusive and transparent process if they are to be credible," ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told Asia Times Online. ASEAN stands ready to help the regime in anyway they want, including by providing election monitors, he added.
China, too, is seemingly on board with this approach. "China adheres to the principle of national reconciliation and unity, by promoting political dialogue and consultation between the Government and the opposition," said Chinese academic and Myanmar watcher, Li Xuecheng, at the Chinese Institute of Strategic Studies. "China is willing to work together with all the relevant parties, including opposition political parties, to make the 2010 elections a success."
While there is a general agreement that an inclusive election is essential for Myanmar to ease from international isolation, there is no consensus as to what would constitute a credible result. Even Washington has not given details of what they expect from the polls.
"The Obama administration has yet to spell out what they mean by free and fair elections," said David Steinberg, a professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University in Washington and author of numerous books and academic articles on Myanmar told Asia Times Online.
"Does that mean Aung San Suu Kyi being allowed to run or campaign? The NLD being able to contest the elections? Fair campaigning and the open printing and distributing of campaign literature?" asked Steinberg. "Unfortunately everything still remains open to interpretation."
For years, Suu Kyi has said her freedom was far less important than establishing a genuine dialogue between the pro-democracy movement and the junta. The US may now have also signed up to this approach.
But some analysts inside Myanmar believe that the process will be fruitless unless Suu Kyi is able to offer Than Shwe something tangible which would allay his fears that she was not intent on running in the forthcoming elections. Some suggest that she should resign from the NLD as a gesture of goodwill and follow in the footsteps of South Africa's Nelson Mandela and Timor Leste's Xanna Gusmao by assisting reconciliation and the transition to a civilian administration as a national figure.
Others point towards India's Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born wife of the assassinated Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who succeeded him as the Congress party's leader. She later declined to take the premiership or any ministerial post after her party won national elections to avoid a constitutional wrangle with the Hindu nationalist opposition. However, she remained the party's leader and a powerful influence behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, a major shake-up is expected inside the army, with hundreds of officers set to retire to make way for a new generation of military leaders. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) held its quarterly meeting in the capital, Naypyidaw, last week, and the aligned United Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) just held its annual congress.
The USDA is expected to announce the formation of its political party shortly and will provide a transitional vehicle for soldiers to become civilian politicians.
An electoral law that will set the rules for campaigning and party registration is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks. An interim cabinet is also to be announced before the end of the year, according to Myanmar government sources.
Some observers believe that Suu Kyi may be released coinciding with, or soon after, the announcement, if Than Shwe feels she is no longer a potent threat to the elections. It's a move that would push forward Myanmar's new engagement with the US, and depending on the terms of her release would be seen by many as a positive step towards reconciliation.
"Whatever happens will be down to Than Shwe," said Turnell. "He wants to have nothing to do with [Suu Kyi], but may be prepared to go through the motions if it buys him time."
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
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AsiaOne News - Malaysia probes human trafficking ring
V. Vasudevan, Sajahan Waheed and Lydia Gomez
Tue, Dec 01, 2009
New Straits Times
ONE government officer has been taken to court for trafficking in Myanmar refugees, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday.
He said the ministry is investigating the issue which has been cited as one of the main reasons for Malaysia being blacklisted by the US State Department in its Trafficking in Persons Report this year.
Malaysia and 16 other countries were placed on Tier 3 of the report which analysed efforts taken to combat human trafficking in 173 countries.
In a written reply to Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut), Hishammuddin said the government officer was among the 39 human trafficking cases prosecuted so far.
He said since the Anti-Human Trafficking Act was enforced in February last year, 88 people have been arrested and five were charged and convicted.
Other efforts to tackle the problem include a five-year National Anti-Human Trafficking Strategic Action Plan; setting up more shelters for victims, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, including one shelter for male victims; working with Australia, United States and the Netherlands to carry out awareness programmes for enforcement officers and improving the cooperation network in neighbouring and sender countries.
"The Myanmar refugee problem is not something that can be handled by Malaysia alone because this is a regional and international problem.
"This issue has to be dealt with carefully by rectifying the root cause."
He said the Attorney-General's Chambers was reviewing the act to resolve any ambiguity and to study whether human smuggling should be included in the law.
During question time in the house, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop said there were 64,731 people Malaysia-born people holding red identity cards.
He said Sabah had the highest number of red IC holders with 12,000 people, followed by Selangor (11,307), Perak (6,589) and Johor (5,509).
He said this in reply to a question by Tan Tee Beng (PKR-Nibong Tebal) who wanted to know how many Malaysians were still red IC holders.
Tue, Dec 01, 2009
New Straits Times
ONE government officer has been taken to court for trafficking in Myanmar refugees, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday.
He said the ministry is investigating the issue which has been cited as one of the main reasons for Malaysia being blacklisted by the US State Department in its Trafficking in Persons Report this year.
Malaysia and 16 other countries were placed on Tier 3 of the report which analysed efforts taken to combat human trafficking in 173 countries.
In a written reply to Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut), Hishammuddin said the government officer was among the 39 human trafficking cases prosecuted so far.
He said since the Anti-Human Trafficking Act was enforced in February last year, 88 people have been arrested and five were charged and convicted.
Other efforts to tackle the problem include a five-year National Anti-Human Trafficking Strategic Action Plan; setting up more shelters for victims, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, including one shelter for male victims; working with Australia, United States and the Netherlands to carry out awareness programmes for enforcement officers and improving the cooperation network in neighbouring and sender countries.
"The Myanmar refugee problem is not something that can be handled by Malaysia alone because this is a regional and international problem.
"This issue has to be dealt with carefully by rectifying the root cause."
He said the Attorney-General's Chambers was reviewing the act to resolve any ambiguity and to study whether human smuggling should be included in the law.
During question time in the house, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop said there were 64,731 people Malaysia-born people holding red identity cards.
He said Sabah had the highest number of red IC holders with 12,000 people, followed by Selangor (11,307), Perak (6,589) and Johor (5,509).
He said this in reply to a question by Tan Tee Beng (PKR-Nibong Tebal) who wanted to know how many Malaysians were still red IC holders.
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November 30, 2009
Worldfocus - Outsiders wonder why Myanmar built brand new capital
Michael Lwin, a research fellow at Georgetown University, recently traveled to Myanmar to research Burmese law, culture and religion. He writes about his experiences in the new capital.
Roughly five years ago the Burmese military junta decided to move Myanmar’s capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw, meaning “city of kings.”
At the time of the move, Naypyidaw was a rural backwater, a small township comprised of thatched huts inhabited by subsistence farmers.
In contrast to Yangon’s preexisting infrastructure, the lack of modernity in Naypyidaw five years ago meant that the junta had to commit substantial resources to transform the bucolic setting into a governmental metropolis.
According to economist Sean Turnell in a 2008 New York Times article, a “consensus estimate” by Myanmar experts totaled the construction expenditures at $4 billion to $5 billion.
Western observers have speculated that Senior-General Than Shwe, the Commander-in-Chief of the Burmese military (Tatmadaw), chairman of the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), and the de facto ruler of Myanmar, may have moved the capital out of fear of a naval invasion by the United States and a fear of surveillance by satellites and Western spies.
The Burmese government line is not so paranoid. Myanmar has had a long history of issues with insurgents along its geographic periphery, and movement to the center of the country allows the military to strategically deploy armed forces to deal with conflicts anywhere. The central location is also economically advantageous in facilitating communication and trade with the troubled northern region.
The drive to Naypyidaw from Yangon takes about 4 to 5 hours. The smooth highway, which is nearly complete, has few cars. Residents of nearby villages walk on the roadside, wearing khamauk and longyis while digging shallow ditches to fill with the alternating red-and-white lane blocks. Many of these workers are children.
Occasionally we passed donkey carts. Hunched women were sitting among toddy palm trees and rice paddies. We snaked up the well-paved, modern highway that cuts through agricultural fields still harvested by yoked buffalo and farmers wielding rusted scythes.
There are several checkpoints along the way, resembling the average E-Z Pass tollbooth on the way to New York City (except for the near-total lack of cars).
A military official or young lady sitting in front of a LCD screen collected 2,500 Burmese kyats (roughly $2.50). The other checkpoints are for monitoring suspicious activity and charging Naypyitaw-bound voyagers who originate from other villages along the way.
Signs saying “Welcome to Nay Pyi Taw” in English and Burmese greet travelers. The fruits of the construction have resulted in broad, multiple-lane avenues, potted-plant roundabouts, color-coded apartments for government personnel relocated from other towns, and tourist attractions like the Water Park and Zoological Gardens.
However, the lack of conspicuous signage flustered our tour guide, who has a degree in nuclear physics and has lived in the city since its inception five years ago. He got lost several times and had to reorient himself via landmarks.
As with the highways on the trip up to Naypyidaw, there were precious few people in the city, which does not seem to square with official statistics that place the new capital’s population at around one million. But this may be a matter more of density than quantity, as Naypyidaw is a sprawling, immense city.
Worldfocus - Outsiders wonder why Myanmar built brand new capital
Michael Lwin, a research fellow at Georgetown University, recently traveled to Myanmar to research Burmese law, culture and religion. He writes about his experiences in the new capital.
Roughly five years ago the Burmese military junta decided to move Myanmar’s capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw, meaning “city of kings.”
At the time of the move, Naypyidaw was a rural backwater, a small township comprised of thatched huts inhabited by subsistence farmers.
In contrast to Yangon’s preexisting infrastructure, the lack of modernity in Naypyidaw five years ago meant that the junta had to commit substantial resources to transform the bucolic setting into a governmental metropolis.
According to economist Sean Turnell in a 2008 New York Times article, a “consensus estimate” by Myanmar experts totaled the construction expenditures at $4 billion to $5 billion.
Western observers have speculated that Senior-General Than Shwe, the Commander-in-Chief of the Burmese military (Tatmadaw), chairman of the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), and the de facto ruler of Myanmar, may have moved the capital out of fear of a naval invasion by the United States and a fear of surveillance by satellites and Western spies.
The Burmese government line is not so paranoid. Myanmar has had a long history of issues with insurgents along its geographic periphery, and movement to the center of the country allows the military to strategically deploy armed forces to deal with conflicts anywhere. The central location is also economically advantageous in facilitating communication and trade with the troubled northern region.
The drive to Naypyidaw from Yangon takes about 4 to 5 hours. The smooth highway, which is nearly complete, has few cars. Residents of nearby villages walk on the roadside, wearing khamauk and longyis while digging shallow ditches to fill with the alternating red-and-white lane blocks. Many of these workers are children.
Occasionally we passed donkey carts. Hunched women were sitting among toddy palm trees and rice paddies. We snaked up the well-paved, modern highway that cuts through agricultural fields still harvested by yoked buffalo and farmers wielding rusted scythes.
There are several checkpoints along the way, resembling the average E-Z Pass tollbooth on the way to New York City (except for the near-total lack of cars).
A military official or young lady sitting in front of a LCD screen collected 2,500 Burmese kyats (roughly $2.50). The other checkpoints are for monitoring suspicious activity and charging Naypyitaw-bound voyagers who originate from other villages along the way.
Signs saying “Welcome to Nay Pyi Taw” in English and Burmese greet travelers. The fruits of the construction have resulted in broad, multiple-lane avenues, potted-plant roundabouts, color-coded apartments for government personnel relocated from other towns, and tourist attractions like the Water Park and Zoological Gardens.
However, the lack of conspicuous signage flustered our tour guide, who has a degree in nuclear physics and has lived in the city since its inception five years ago. He got lost several times and had to reorient himself via landmarks.
As with the highways on the trip up to Naypyidaw, there were precious few people in the city, which does not seem to square with official statistics that place the new capital’s population at around one million. But this may be a matter more of density than quantity, as Naypyidaw is a sprawling, immense city.
*************************************************************
DECEMBER 1, 2009, 1:01 P.M. ET
Wall Street Journal - A Burma Policy for India
Prime Minister Singh can support democracy and engage the regime, too.
By BENEDICT ROGERS
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh had a largely successful summit with President Barack Obama last week. There is, however, one issue which remains cause for concern: India's Burma policy.
India has a particular historical responsibility for Burma, in part because in colonial times the two countries were ruled by the British as one. Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of Burma's opposition party, went to school in New Delhi, for instance, where she became childhood friends with Jawaharlal Nehru's grandchildren. Past Indian governments have honored this link: During the 1998 prodemocracy protests, Rajiv Gandhi's government expressed support for Ms. Suu Kyi.
India's policy has shifted in recent years, thanks to concerns about the need to counterbalance China's influence and a wish to increase trade. In 2004, Burma agreed to sell India some 80% of the power generated from a dam in Sagaing Division in return for Indian construction assistance. India also sought a military alliance with the regime, including an agreement to provide arms and military training to the Burmese army, in the hopes of getting help in crushing insurgents in northeastern India.
On balance the expected benefits have not materialized. In 2006, the Burmese regime awarded China a huge natural gas contract, even though India had offered a higher bid and Burma's generals had earlier promised the deal to India. Meanwhile, Burma's assistance in fighting Indian insurgents has been minimal, and the arms India sold have instead been used to suppress Burma's own people. The energy projects resulted in land confiscation, the displacement of thousands of people, and accompanying human-rights violations including rape, torture and forced labor.
India is mistaken if it believes it can really compete with China's influence in Burma. China's annual bilateral trade with Burma is already one-and-a-half times India's, and Beijing has become one of the regime's closest friends. It is very likely that as Burma's regime starts to engage with the U.S. and continues to depend on China for protection, India will find itself squeezed out.
India has also remained silent on Burma's human-rights violations in a bid to curry favor with the regime. India joined Belarus, China, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe last month in voting against a resolution on Burma's human-rights abuses at the United Nations General Assembly.
It is not too late for India to revise its position and develop its own distinctive Burma policy supportive of democracy. Mr. Singh and his government could raise concerns more robustly with the regime; support Burma resolutions at the U.N.; seek regular meetings with Ms. Suu Kyi; and press the regime to review the new constitution and engage in meaningful dialogue with all political parties ahead of next year's elections. On the military front, an immediate and complete end to the provision of arms and military training to Burma's regime would be welcome. India might also be consider permitting international humanitarian aid cross-border to victims of famine and severe poverty in western Burma, and funding Burma's civil-society groups.
A senior official in India's Ministry of External Affairs told me recently that "our hearts are still with the democracy movement in Burma, but our heads are with the generals." India needs to combine head and heart and realize that in the long-run it is in its own national interest to promote democracy in Burma.
Mr. Rogers, East Asia team leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide in London, is author of "Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma's Tyrant," forthcoming from Silkworm Books.
Wall Street Journal - A Burma Policy for India
Prime Minister Singh can support democracy and engage the regime, too.
By BENEDICT ROGERS
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh had a largely successful summit with President Barack Obama last week. There is, however, one issue which remains cause for concern: India's Burma policy.
India has a particular historical responsibility for Burma, in part because in colonial times the two countries were ruled by the British as one. Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of Burma's opposition party, went to school in New Delhi, for instance, where she became childhood friends with Jawaharlal Nehru's grandchildren. Past Indian governments have honored this link: During the 1998 prodemocracy protests, Rajiv Gandhi's government expressed support for Ms. Suu Kyi.
India's policy has shifted in recent years, thanks to concerns about the need to counterbalance China's influence and a wish to increase trade. In 2004, Burma agreed to sell India some 80% of the power generated from a dam in Sagaing Division in return for Indian construction assistance. India also sought a military alliance with the regime, including an agreement to provide arms and military training to the Burmese army, in the hopes of getting help in crushing insurgents in northeastern India.
On balance the expected benefits have not materialized. In 2006, the Burmese regime awarded China a huge natural gas contract, even though India had offered a higher bid and Burma's generals had earlier promised the deal to India. Meanwhile, Burma's assistance in fighting Indian insurgents has been minimal, and the arms India sold have instead been used to suppress Burma's own people. The energy projects resulted in land confiscation, the displacement of thousands of people, and accompanying human-rights violations including rape, torture and forced labor.
India is mistaken if it believes it can really compete with China's influence in Burma. China's annual bilateral trade with Burma is already one-and-a-half times India's, and Beijing has become one of the regime's closest friends. It is very likely that as Burma's regime starts to engage with the U.S. and continues to depend on China for protection, India will find itself squeezed out.
India has also remained silent on Burma's human-rights violations in a bid to curry favor with the regime. India joined Belarus, China, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe last month in voting against a resolution on Burma's human-rights abuses at the United Nations General Assembly.
It is not too late for India to revise its position and develop its own distinctive Burma policy supportive of democracy. Mr. Singh and his government could raise concerns more robustly with the regime; support Burma resolutions at the U.N.; seek regular meetings with Ms. Suu Kyi; and press the regime to review the new constitution and engage in meaningful dialogue with all political parties ahead of next year's elections. On the military front, an immediate and complete end to the provision of arms and military training to Burma's regime would be welcome. India might also be consider permitting international humanitarian aid cross-border to victims of famine and severe poverty in western Burma, and funding Burma's civil-society groups.
A senior official in India's Ministry of External Affairs told me recently that "our hearts are still with the democracy movement in Burma, but our heads are with the generals." India needs to combine head and heart and realize that in the long-run it is in its own national interest to promote democracy in Burma.
Mr. Rogers, East Asia team leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide in London, is author of "Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma's Tyrant," forthcoming from Silkworm Books.
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Myanmar junta says fighting spread of AIDS
Posted: 01 December 2009 1650 hrs
YANGON (Channel NewsAsia) - Myanmar's military junta said on Tuesday that it was doing its best to fight the spread of the disease, as sufferers gathered at the country's opposition headquarters to mark World AIDS Day.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper gave details of government spending on combating HIV and said that cases in the Southeast Asian nation had dropped in recent years.
"The government is fighting AIDS with the use of manpower and financial power," the English-language daily said.
The newspaper said Myanmar spent 191.4 million Kyats (US$190,000) in 2007 in fighting AIDS. It added that UNAIDS figures showed that cases fell from 0.94 per cent of the population in 2004 to 0.67 per cent in 2007.
But it did not give any further information or more recent figures.
In the former capital Yangon, about 150 people living with HIV gathered for World AIDS Day at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters of opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Phyu Phyu Thin, an NLD member who helps to take care of people with HIV and AIDS, said that cases were increasing in Myanmar.
"The virus is spreading. We need antiretroviral medicine urgently. And we have to continue our preventative work, although we have many difficulties," Phyu Phyu Thin said.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and the impoverished nation's healthcare system is in poor condition.
Posted: 01 December 2009 1650 hrs
YANGON (Channel NewsAsia) - Myanmar's military junta said on Tuesday that it was doing its best to fight the spread of the disease, as sufferers gathered at the country's opposition headquarters to mark World AIDS Day.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper gave details of government spending on combating HIV and said that cases in the Southeast Asian nation had dropped in recent years.
"The government is fighting AIDS with the use of manpower and financial power," the English-language daily said.
The newspaper said Myanmar spent 191.4 million Kyats (US$190,000) in 2007 in fighting AIDS. It added that UNAIDS figures showed that cases fell from 0.94 per cent of the population in 2004 to 0.67 per cent in 2007.
But it did not give any further information or more recent figures.
In the former capital Yangon, about 150 people living with HIV gathered for World AIDS Day at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters of opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Phyu Phyu Thin, an NLD member who helps to take care of people with HIV and AIDS, said that cases were increasing in Myanmar.
"The virus is spreading. We need antiretroviral medicine urgently. And we have to continue our preventative work, although we have many difficulties," Phyu Phyu Thin said.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and the impoverished nation's healthcare system is in poor condition.
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01 Disember, 2009 11:18 AM
Myanmar Takes More Measures To Prevent Human Flu Infection
YANGON, Dec 1 (Bernama) -- People with cough and running nose symptoms are prohibited for admittance in cinemas in Myanmar as part of the authorities' measures to prevent human flu infection, China's Xinhua news agency reported quoting sources with the health department as saying on Tuesday.
Entrance tickets will not be sold to audience with such symptoms, a cinema manager in Yangon said.
Public posters on such prohibition have been set up in some cinemas in the former capital to warn people of the ban.
Meanwhile, the authorities continue to take preventive measures against the possible spread of the global human flu pandemic, advising all private clinics in the country to report or transfer all flu- suspected patients, who returned from abroad, to local state-run hospitals or health departments for increased surveillance.
According to official reports, a total of 64 new influenza A/ H1N1 cases have so far been confirmed in Myanmar since the outbreak of the disease in the world in April this year,
Of the total, 62 patients have been discharged from the hospitals after recovering from the illness, the department said, adding that, the two remaining patients are under special medical treatment at hospital with their conditions improving.
There is no flu death cases reported in the country.
Myanmar reported the first case of new flu A/H1N1 in the country on June 27 with a 13-year-old girl who developed the symptoms after coming back home from Singapore a day earlier.
Myanmar Takes More Measures To Prevent Human Flu Infection
YANGON, Dec 1 (Bernama) -- People with cough and running nose symptoms are prohibited for admittance in cinemas in Myanmar as part of the authorities' measures to prevent human flu infection, China's Xinhua news agency reported quoting sources with the health department as saying on Tuesday.
Entrance tickets will not be sold to audience with such symptoms, a cinema manager in Yangon said.
Public posters on such prohibition have been set up in some cinemas in the former capital to warn people of the ban.
Meanwhile, the authorities continue to take preventive measures against the possible spread of the global human flu pandemic, advising all private clinics in the country to report or transfer all flu- suspected patients, who returned from abroad, to local state-run hospitals or health departments for increased surveillance.
According to official reports, a total of 64 new influenza A/ H1N1 cases have so far been confirmed in Myanmar since the outbreak of the disease in the world in April this year,
Of the total, 62 patients have been discharged from the hospitals after recovering from the illness, the department said, adding that, the two remaining patients are under special medical treatment at hospital with their conditions improving.
There is no flu death cases reported in the country.
Myanmar reported the first case of new flu A/H1N1 in the country on June 27 with a 13-year-old girl who developed the symptoms after coming back home from Singapore a day earlier.
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Vietnam News Agency - GMS aims to reduce red tape
(01-12-2009)
HA NOI — Participants from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, China and Viet Nam discussed ideas and shared experiences at the Mekong Development Co-operation Forum and Mekong International Trade and Investment Fair yesterday in Ha Noi.
According to the Chairman of the Viet Nam-Laos-Cambodia Association for Economic Co-operation Development, Hoang Viet Khang, all six countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) worked closely with each other at the meeting and benefited from the co-operation.
Delegates at the meeting also discussed the region’s hydro-electric potential. According to Khang, with strategic plants built along the Mekong, the river could produce up to 16,700MW by 2020.
With a massive amount of natural resources and more than 400 million people in the area, trade promotion activities needed to be carried out in order to turn potential into reality, said Vo Hong Phuc, Minister of Planning and Investment.
To date, the subregion has advanced 160 priority projects and 11 priority programmes. These projects and programmes have mobilised more than US$10 billion in investment capital, according to the deputy chairman of the Viet Nam-Laos-Cambodia Association for Economic Co-operation Development Bui Tuong Lan.
Oudet Souvannavong, Secretary General of the GMS Business Forum, said the economic crisis had challenged the region. He said that Cambodia, Viet Nam, Laos and Myanmar needed to improve their standards for enterprises. He also said that transport facilities and infrastructure needed to be improved in order to make trade more efficient in the region.
Ngo Tuan Dung, chief representative of Saigon Invest Group in Ha Noi, suggested the creation of a common currency for the region so that local enterprises would no longer have to depend on a third currency. He also asked for more support from the private sector in vocational training and human resources development.
Viet Nam joined GMS in 1992 and is currently carrying out five major projects within the GMS. The projects include upgrading the Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai road, improving the Dong Ha-Lao Bao section of National Road 9, the development of the GMS tourism infrastructure, the development of a coastal traffic system from Ca Mau to Kien Giang provinces, and the construction of the Ha Noi-Lao Cai expressway.
Since 2004, Viet Nam has proposed 52 sub-projects in the East-West Economic Corridor and 44 sub-projects in the Southern Economic Corridor. It has also signed two GMS co-operation agreements, the GMS Cross-Border Transport Agreement (GMS Agreement) and the Intergovernmental Agreement for Power Trade in the GMS (IGA).
The GMS is an initiative created by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1992. The GMS member states are Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, and Yunnan and Guangxi provinces of China. — VNS
(01-12-2009)
HA NOI — Participants from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, China and Viet Nam discussed ideas and shared experiences at the Mekong Development Co-operation Forum and Mekong International Trade and Investment Fair yesterday in Ha Noi.
According to the Chairman of the Viet Nam-Laos-Cambodia Association for Economic Co-operation Development, Hoang Viet Khang, all six countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) worked closely with each other at the meeting and benefited from the co-operation.
Delegates at the meeting also discussed the region’s hydro-electric potential. According to Khang, with strategic plants built along the Mekong, the river could produce up to 16,700MW by 2020.
With a massive amount of natural resources and more than 400 million people in the area, trade promotion activities needed to be carried out in order to turn potential into reality, said Vo Hong Phuc, Minister of Planning and Investment.
To date, the subregion has advanced 160 priority projects and 11 priority programmes. These projects and programmes have mobilised more than US$10 billion in investment capital, according to the deputy chairman of the Viet Nam-Laos-Cambodia Association for Economic Co-operation Development Bui Tuong Lan.
Oudet Souvannavong, Secretary General of the GMS Business Forum, said the economic crisis had challenged the region. He said that Cambodia, Viet Nam, Laos and Myanmar needed to improve their standards for enterprises. He also said that transport facilities and infrastructure needed to be improved in order to make trade more efficient in the region.
Ngo Tuan Dung, chief representative of Saigon Invest Group in Ha Noi, suggested the creation of a common currency for the region so that local enterprises would no longer have to depend on a third currency. He also asked for more support from the private sector in vocational training and human resources development.
Viet Nam joined GMS in 1992 and is currently carrying out five major projects within the GMS. The projects include upgrading the Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai road, improving the Dong Ha-Lao Bao section of National Road 9, the development of the GMS tourism infrastructure, the development of a coastal traffic system from Ca Mau to Kien Giang provinces, and the construction of the Ha Noi-Lao Cai expressway.
Since 2004, Viet Nam has proposed 52 sub-projects in the East-West Economic Corridor and 44 sub-projects in the Southern Economic Corridor. It has also signed two GMS co-operation agreements, the GMS Cross-Border Transport Agreement (GMS Agreement) and the Intergovernmental Agreement for Power Trade in the GMS (IGA).
The GMS is an initiative created by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1992. The GMS member states are Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, and Yunnan and Guangxi provinces of China. — VNS
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The Irrawaddy - Suu Kyi Rated Top Global Thinker
By ARKAR MOE - Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has received high praise from Foreign Policy, a well-known US-based magazine featuring essays written by world leaders and thinkers.
In the magazine's first-ever annual list of the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" published in its December issue, Aung San Suu Kyi is ranked 26th, appearing alongside such globally-renowned figures as US President Barack Obama (ranked 2nd), British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (74th) and Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton (6th).
The magazine praises her for “being a living symbol of hope in a dark place,” while Obama comes second for "reimagining America's role in the world."
Foreign Policy said: “Taking inspiration from Mohandas Gandhi and Buddhist principles of nonviolence, Aung San Suu Kyi built a mass movement in opposition to the Burmese junta and has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest since winning a general election in 1989.
“In a famous 1990 speech, Aung San Suu Kyi argued that when 'fear is an integral part of everyday existence,' political leaders inevitably give in to corruption, and called for a 'revolution of the spirit' in Burma.
“She was thrown in prison and today is rarely able to communicate with the outside world," the magazine said. "[She] changed her stance on the international sanctions against Burma this year, offering to help the junta's leaders get the sanctions lifted.”
Veteran Burmese politician and journalist Win Tin, 80, confirmed Suu Kyi's prominence in a conversation with The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
“We should appreciate her political ideas and morality because she not only inspires the older generations but youth as well," he said. "She is a very kind and courageous leader. She has said, ‘If we need democracy, we need discipline and responsibility.’ She practices what she preaches.
“Her ideas are like a pure lotus in the fire, and her noble thoughts and morality influence her character and methods. She has great metta [goodwill] and kindness for other people,” Win Tin said.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Naing Naing, a prominent Burmese dissident and member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), supported Foreign Policy's asssessment, saying, “Like other martyrs, Suu Kyi is a beacon in the darkness Burmese people have lived in since Gen Ne Win's coup in 1962.”
“There is no doubt that she deeply believes in non-violence, and she faces any problem with great skill. She has shown she is ready to cooperate with anyone for the welfare of country.
“She said we all should fear doing misdeeds. She cannot bear untruth and will not tolerate unfairness. She reacts without hesitation to any situation with wise words. She represents an ideal and is an inspiration for us all,” he said.
Other southeast Asians rated as top thinkers by the magazine include Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (32nd) and Indonesian political analyst Rizal Sukma (92nd).
Suu Kyi is the pro-democracy leader of the NLD and the only daughter of Burmese national leader General Aung San.
Currently under house arrest having spent more than 14 of the past 20 years in some form of dentention under Burma's military regime, Suu Kyi has received more that 80 international awards, including India’s Gandhi Award (2009), the Jawaharlal Nehru Award (1993) and the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
With several famous books such as "Freedom from Fear" (1991), "Aung San Of Burma: a Biographical Portrait by his Daughter" (1991), "The Voice of Hope" (1997) and "Letters from Burma" (1997) to her name, she has expressed her ideology and beliefs in writing and in speech.
She wrote in "The Voice of Hope" that: “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”
In her famous "Freedom from Fear" speech in 1990, she said: “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
Awarding Suu Kyi the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, the Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Francis Sejested, said she is "an outstanding example of the power of the powerless."
By ARKAR MOE - Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has received high praise from Foreign Policy, a well-known US-based magazine featuring essays written by world leaders and thinkers.
In the magazine's first-ever annual list of the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" published in its December issue, Aung San Suu Kyi is ranked 26th, appearing alongside such globally-renowned figures as US President Barack Obama (ranked 2nd), British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (74th) and Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton (6th).
The magazine praises her for “being a living symbol of hope in a dark place,” while Obama comes second for "reimagining America's role in the world."
Foreign Policy said: “Taking inspiration from Mohandas Gandhi and Buddhist principles of nonviolence, Aung San Suu Kyi built a mass movement in opposition to the Burmese junta and has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest since winning a general election in 1989.
“In a famous 1990 speech, Aung San Suu Kyi argued that when 'fear is an integral part of everyday existence,' political leaders inevitably give in to corruption, and called for a 'revolution of the spirit' in Burma.
“She was thrown in prison and today is rarely able to communicate with the outside world," the magazine said. "[She] changed her stance on the international sanctions against Burma this year, offering to help the junta's leaders get the sanctions lifted.”
Veteran Burmese politician and journalist Win Tin, 80, confirmed Suu Kyi's prominence in a conversation with The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
“We should appreciate her political ideas and morality because she not only inspires the older generations but youth as well," he said. "She is a very kind and courageous leader. She has said, ‘If we need democracy, we need discipline and responsibility.’ She practices what she preaches.
“Her ideas are like a pure lotus in the fire, and her noble thoughts and morality influence her character and methods. She has great metta [goodwill] and kindness for other people,” Win Tin said.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Naing Naing, a prominent Burmese dissident and member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), supported Foreign Policy's asssessment, saying, “Like other martyrs, Suu Kyi is a beacon in the darkness Burmese people have lived in since Gen Ne Win's coup in 1962.”
“There is no doubt that she deeply believes in non-violence, and she faces any problem with great skill. She has shown she is ready to cooperate with anyone for the welfare of country.
“She said we all should fear doing misdeeds. She cannot bear untruth and will not tolerate unfairness. She reacts without hesitation to any situation with wise words. She represents an ideal and is an inspiration for us all,” he said.
Other southeast Asians rated as top thinkers by the magazine include Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (32nd) and Indonesian political analyst Rizal Sukma (92nd).
Suu Kyi is the pro-democracy leader of the NLD and the only daughter of Burmese national leader General Aung San.
Currently under house arrest having spent more than 14 of the past 20 years in some form of dentention under Burma's military regime, Suu Kyi has received more that 80 international awards, including India’s Gandhi Award (2009), the Jawaharlal Nehru Award (1993) and the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
With several famous books such as "Freedom from Fear" (1991), "Aung San Of Burma: a Biographical Portrait by his Daughter" (1991), "The Voice of Hope" (1997) and "Letters from Burma" (1997) to her name, she has expressed her ideology and beliefs in writing and in speech.
She wrote in "The Voice of Hope" that: “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”
In her famous "Freedom from Fear" speech in 1990, she said: “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
Awarding Suu Kyi the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, the Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Francis Sejested, said she is "an outstanding example of the power of the powerless."
*************************************************************
The Irrawaddy - 95 Trafficking Victims Freed
By LAWI WENG - Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Ninety-five Burmese migrants, who were trafficked into Thailand from Burma by gangs, were freed from captivity this week when police and human rights activists raided houses in southern Thailand. The migrants are currently being held at a military base while Thai authorities try to round up members of the trafficking gang.
Fifty-one men who had been forced to work on fishing boats were rescued from Trang Province in southern Thailand on Nov. 23, while 44 women who had been trafficked into Ranong Province to work in brothels were freed after a raid on Nov. 27.
Nai Harry, a social worker who is involved with an anti-human trafficking group based in Mahachai, near Bangkok, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that after following a tip-off from one of the trafficked fishermen in Trang, his group rescued the 51 men.
“We went early in the morning after we got a phone call from someone. We thought there would only be a few people, but when we got there we found there were many men on the boat who had been locked in their cabins,” he said.
Nai Harry, who declined to name his organization because of security fears, said the 51 victims were from the Irrawaddy delta, Pegu, Mon State and Tenasserim Division. They were forced to work on Thai fishing boats, some working for 18 months without pay, others working for three years without pay. He said that the trafficked Burmese men were forbidden from going ashore and were locked in their cabins when they were not working.
In Ranong, 44 women were rescued by the anti-human trafficking group after the organization fixed a price to buy the women's freedom, a group member said on Monday. Many of the women are ethnic Mon from eastern Burma.
A member of the anti-human trafficking group in Ranong said that they first rescued 12 women who were severely ill with AIDS and who had been dumped in a local house and left to die. The other 32 women were allowed to leave after the group agreed a price with the traffickers.
The NGO member said 28 women were trafficked to work at the brothel last year while the other four just arrived two weeks ago.
Naing Naing, one of the trafficking victims in Trang, told Nai Harry that he is from Tavoy Township in Tenasserim Division. He said he was forced to work for seven months on the boat, during which time his salary was used to pay back his trafficking fees––some 25,000 baht (US $750).
Naing Naing said that he had requested to be set free after seven months working on the boat, but the boat owner refused. However, he managed to sneak ashore and telephone the anti-trafficking group in Mahachai.
According to Naing Naing, if trafficked migrants on the boat argued with the owner they were routinely killed and thrown overboard, and some were sold on to another fishing boat owner in Indonesia.
According to Nai Harry, the 51 fishermen were paid nothing for their labor. The 300 baht ($9) monthly salary the boat owner paid went directly to the trafficking broker.
Although several members of the trafficking gang have reportedly been arrested, others escaped. Two of the brokers are said to be ethnic Mon men from Burma. The Thai authorities are reportedly investigating the case.
Most victims said that they were trafficked by road to Myawaddy Township on the Thai-Burmese border. They were reportedly told they would get work on a construction site and receive good salaries.
In October, Thai police and human right activists in Mahachai raided two brokers' houses and rescued 18 people who had been detained on a fishing boat.
The human trafficking problem has led to an estimated 1,000 fishermen jumping ship and living on islands in Indonesia to escape the ill-treatment of boat captains, according to human rights activists in Mahachai.
By LAWI WENG - Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Ninety-five Burmese migrants, who were trafficked into Thailand from Burma by gangs, were freed from captivity this week when police and human rights activists raided houses in southern Thailand. The migrants are currently being held at a military base while Thai authorities try to round up members of the trafficking gang.
Fifty-one men who had been forced to work on fishing boats were rescued from Trang Province in southern Thailand on Nov. 23, while 44 women who had been trafficked into Ranong Province to work in brothels were freed after a raid on Nov. 27.
Nai Harry, a social worker who is involved with an anti-human trafficking group based in Mahachai, near Bangkok, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that after following a tip-off from one of the trafficked fishermen in Trang, his group rescued the 51 men.
“We went early in the morning after we got a phone call from someone. We thought there would only be a few people, but when we got there we found there were many men on the boat who had been locked in their cabins,” he said.
Nai Harry, who declined to name his organization because of security fears, said the 51 victims were from the Irrawaddy delta, Pegu, Mon State and Tenasserim Division. They were forced to work on Thai fishing boats, some working for 18 months without pay, others working for three years without pay. He said that the trafficked Burmese men were forbidden from going ashore and were locked in their cabins when they were not working.
In Ranong, 44 women were rescued by the anti-human trafficking group after the organization fixed a price to buy the women's freedom, a group member said on Monday. Many of the women are ethnic Mon from eastern Burma.
A member of the anti-human trafficking group in Ranong said that they first rescued 12 women who were severely ill with AIDS and who had been dumped in a local house and left to die. The other 32 women were allowed to leave after the group agreed a price with the traffickers.
The NGO member said 28 women were trafficked to work at the brothel last year while the other four just arrived two weeks ago.
Naing Naing, one of the trafficking victims in Trang, told Nai Harry that he is from Tavoy Township in Tenasserim Division. He said he was forced to work for seven months on the boat, during which time his salary was used to pay back his trafficking fees––some 25,000 baht (US $750).
Naing Naing said that he had requested to be set free after seven months working on the boat, but the boat owner refused. However, he managed to sneak ashore and telephone the anti-trafficking group in Mahachai.
According to Naing Naing, if trafficked migrants on the boat argued with the owner they were routinely killed and thrown overboard, and some were sold on to another fishing boat owner in Indonesia.
According to Nai Harry, the 51 fishermen were paid nothing for their labor. The 300 baht ($9) monthly salary the boat owner paid went directly to the trafficking broker.
Although several members of the trafficking gang have reportedly been arrested, others escaped. Two of the brokers are said to be ethnic Mon men from Burma. The Thai authorities are reportedly investigating the case.
Most victims said that they were trafficked by road to Myawaddy Township on the Thai-Burmese border. They were reportedly told they would get work on a construction site and receive good salaries.
In October, Thai police and human right activists in Mahachai raided two brokers' houses and rescued 18 people who had been detained on a fishing boat.
The human trafficking problem has led to an estimated 1,000 fishermen jumping ship and living on islands in Indonesia to escape the ill-treatment of boat captains, according to human rights activists in Mahachai.
*************************************************************
Court charges four women activists
by Myint Maung
Tuesday, 01 December 2009 23:07
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Four women activists, who were arrested on October 3 for offering alms to Buddhist monks, had been charged by a district court on Monday under section 505(b) of the Penal Code (disturbing public tranquillity).
The activists including popular woman activist Naw Ohn Hla were arrested on October 3, for offering alms to monks at the Magwe monastery in Dagon satellite township of Rangoon, on the eve of Thadingyut festival.
The four are being tried at a special tribunal held inside Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison presided by the judge of the Rangoon east district court.
“the court framed charges against Naw Ohn Hla for offering 42 leaves of Buddhist scriptures (Kammawa) to the abbot of Magwe monastery with the intention of inciting public unrest,” Kyaw Hoe, the defence lawyer of the activists told Mizzima.
Kyaw Hoe said, the other three were charged under section 505(b) of the Penal Code as these Buddhist scriptures were not found in their possession.
Disagreeing with the court’s charges Kyaw Hoe said, “There is no sufficient ground to presume that the accused had committed the said offence because the abbot U Permaukha did not appear before the court as a prosecution witness.”
He added that this ‘Kammawa’ is a Buddhist scripture preached by Lord Buddha and offering this Buddhist scripture does not tantamount to violation of law.
“I don’t think we can presume that the accused had committed the crime,” he added.
The four activists - Naw Ohn Hla of Hmawbi Township, Myint Myint San of Dallha Township, Cho Cho Lwin of Thingangyun Township and Ma Cho of South Dagon Township – had regularly prayed every Tuesday at the popular shrine Shwedagon Pagoda for the release of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The four, following their arrest, were reportedly taken to interrogation centre and later transferred to Insein prison.
The judge Aung Thein fixed the next hearing of the case for December 7.
On October 3, when the Buddhist celebrated Thadingyut full moon festival, clandestine monk organizations in Burma, called on all monks to boycott and ex-communicate the junta and its military officials, which is the highest means of protests by Buddhist monks against the government or rulers.
The monks group, in a statement, called all fellow monks in Burma to boycott the junta and ex-communicate them, unless they release all detained monks.
Buddhist Monks in Burma in September 2007 took a proactive role in calling on the military regime to implement changes by marching the streets and chanting ‘Metta-Sutta’, the Buddhist words on ‘Loving Kindness’. But the junta responded with a brutal crackdown, arresting and detaining hundreds of monks.
by Myint Maung
Tuesday, 01 December 2009 23:07
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Four women activists, who were arrested on October 3 for offering alms to Buddhist monks, had been charged by a district court on Monday under section 505(b) of the Penal Code (disturbing public tranquillity).
The activists including popular woman activist Naw Ohn Hla were arrested on October 3, for offering alms to monks at the Magwe monastery in Dagon satellite township of Rangoon, on the eve of Thadingyut festival.
The four are being tried at a special tribunal held inside Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison presided by the judge of the Rangoon east district court.
“the court framed charges against Naw Ohn Hla for offering 42 leaves of Buddhist scriptures (Kammawa) to the abbot of Magwe monastery with the intention of inciting public unrest,” Kyaw Hoe, the defence lawyer of the activists told Mizzima.
Kyaw Hoe said, the other three were charged under section 505(b) of the Penal Code as these Buddhist scriptures were not found in their possession.
Disagreeing with the court’s charges Kyaw Hoe said, “There is no sufficient ground to presume that the accused had committed the said offence because the abbot U Permaukha did not appear before the court as a prosecution witness.”
He added that this ‘Kammawa’ is a Buddhist scripture preached by Lord Buddha and offering this Buddhist scripture does not tantamount to violation of law.
“I don’t think we can presume that the accused had committed the crime,” he added.
The four activists - Naw Ohn Hla of Hmawbi Township, Myint Myint San of Dallha Township, Cho Cho Lwin of Thingangyun Township and Ma Cho of South Dagon Township – had regularly prayed every Tuesday at the popular shrine Shwedagon Pagoda for the release of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The four, following their arrest, were reportedly taken to interrogation centre and later transferred to Insein prison.
The judge Aung Thein fixed the next hearing of the case for December 7.
On October 3, when the Buddhist celebrated Thadingyut full moon festival, clandestine monk organizations in Burma, called on all monks to boycott and ex-communicate the junta and its military officials, which is the highest means of protests by Buddhist monks against the government or rulers.
The monks group, in a statement, called all fellow monks in Burma to boycott the junta and ex-communicate them, unless they release all detained monks.
Buddhist Monks in Burma in September 2007 took a proactive role in calling on the military regime to implement changes by marching the streets and chanting ‘Metta-Sutta’, the Buddhist words on ‘Loving Kindness’. But the junta responded with a brutal crackdown, arresting and detaining hundreds of monks.
*************************************************************
Machinery of dictatorship
by Mizzima News
Tuesday, 01 December 2009 14:39
The 'Union Solidarity and Development Association' (USDA), the Burmese military junta's strategically set up pillar of strength to help cling to power, held its annual conference in Naypyitaw in the last week of November.
The organization that has over 20 million members, accounting for over one-third of the total population of the country, held its conference in secrecy and without an announcement. Only the speech of Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the patron of USDA, on the closing day of the conference was published by the state-own media the New Light of Myanmar.
The media shy, Senior Gen. spoke with usual self-confidence and flaunted all-round development in the regime’s 21-year long tenure. The topics he touched on ranged from a variety of high yielding crops to construction, industry, electricity, education and the health sector. He compared the figures with those of 1988.
Despite the hollow figures reeled off by Than Shwe, as is his practice, he avoided mentioning the reality of the gap between the growing population and skyrocketing commodity prices and inflation, prosperity enjoyed only by a handful of the generals and their cronies, who have access to the rich and vast resources of the country, the huge budget deficits, lack of clean drinking water and electricity in most of the country, poor public heath care and appalling education standards.
A sheer lack of transparency, accountability, public access and management in state projects benefits only a handful of business tycoons and their cronies. The people, however, have to shoulder more and more burden of forced labour in state projects and put up with heavier taxation to fund it.
Though the junta formed the USDA as a social organization, the fact remains the regime used it as its repressive apparatus. The regime used it in suppressing and oppressing the opposition, all in the name of stability of the state. The USDA has not ushered in peace and stability in the country; it has ended up creating hostility, hatred and prejudice among the people.
by Mizzima News
Tuesday, 01 December 2009 14:39
The 'Union Solidarity and Development Association' (USDA), the Burmese military junta's strategically set up pillar of strength to help cling to power, held its annual conference in Naypyitaw in the last week of November.
The organization that has over 20 million members, accounting for over one-third of the total population of the country, held its conference in secrecy and without an announcement. Only the speech of Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the patron of USDA, on the closing day of the conference was published by the state-own media the New Light of Myanmar.
The media shy, Senior Gen. spoke with usual self-confidence and flaunted all-round development in the regime’s 21-year long tenure. The topics he touched on ranged from a variety of high yielding crops to construction, industry, electricity, education and the health sector. He compared the figures with those of 1988.
Despite the hollow figures reeled off by Than Shwe, as is his practice, he avoided mentioning the reality of the gap between the growing population and skyrocketing commodity prices and inflation, prosperity enjoyed only by a handful of the generals and their cronies, who have access to the rich and vast resources of the country, the huge budget deficits, lack of clean drinking water and electricity in most of the country, poor public heath care and appalling education standards.
A sheer lack of transparency, accountability, public access and management in state projects benefits only a handful of business tycoons and their cronies. The people, however, have to shoulder more and more burden of forced labour in state projects and put up with heavier taxation to fund it.
Though the junta formed the USDA as a social organization, the fact remains the regime used it as its repressive apparatus. The regime used it in suppressing and oppressing the opposition, all in the name of stability of the state. The USDA has not ushered in peace and stability in the country; it has ended up creating hostility, hatred and prejudice among the people.
*************************************************************
Burmese lawyers test the water at the ICC
Dec 1, 2009 (DVB)–Action could be taken on the Burmese junta at the International Criminal Court if a signatory to the Rome Statute is known to be cooperating with the ruling generals, the ICC prosecution chief has said.
The comments came during a discussion between Asian civil society groups and representatives from six Asia-Pacific governments at the World Forum at The Hague, Netherlands.
According to Aung Htoo, chairperson of the exiled Burma Lawyers’ Council, who represented Burma at the discussion, the UN security council (UNSC) was failing to bring the junta to the ICC, although action was still possible.
“The ICC’s Prosecution Chief said that even though Burma did not sign the Rome Statute…action could still be taken if it is proved that an individual, a group or a company in one of the court’s 110 signatory countries have been cooperating with the [junta],” he said.
The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the ICC, and was brought into force in July 2002.
Burma is one of 38 countries not to have signed it. Both the United States and Israel have “unsigned” the statute, meaning they have no legal obligations pertaining to their signature.
Aung Htoo told the forum that the UNSC had so far failed to act on the Burmese government’s revised constitution, ratified in the weeks following cyclone Nargis last May, which endorses a law of impunity in breach of two UNSC resolutions.
“The UNSC quashed the 1983 constitution in South Africa under resolution 554 because that constitution, if approved, could prolong discrimination between skin colours and thus could lead to worsening of situation in the country,” said a BLC press release.
“The same kind of consequence is likely to happen in Burma, so an approach based on international law should be made for the 2010 elections which will implement the 2008 constitution.”
A group of British MPs last week submitted a parliamentary motion calling for the UN to investigate possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.
The petition said that Burmese civilians are the targets of “widespread torture, forced displacement, sexual violence, extra-judicial killings and forced labour” by the military government.
It is one of several high profile calls for legal action to be brought against the junta, which has ruled Burma in various forms since 1962.
Earlier this year, a group of internationally renowned jurists, including Sir Geoffrey Nice, deputy prosecutor at the trial of Serbian leader Slobadan Milosevic, said that human rights violations in Burma were comparable to Dafur, and should be investigated by the UNSC.
The BLC warned that “there will be even worse cases of impunity in Burma if the 2010 elections are held without a revision of the 2008 constitution”.
Reporting by Maung Too
Dec 1, 2009 (DVB)–Action could be taken on the Burmese junta at the International Criminal Court if a signatory to the Rome Statute is known to be cooperating with the ruling generals, the ICC prosecution chief has said.
The comments came during a discussion between Asian civil society groups and representatives from six Asia-Pacific governments at the World Forum at The Hague, Netherlands.
According to Aung Htoo, chairperson of the exiled Burma Lawyers’ Council, who represented Burma at the discussion, the UN security council (UNSC) was failing to bring the junta to the ICC, although action was still possible.
“The ICC’s Prosecution Chief said that even though Burma did not sign the Rome Statute…action could still be taken if it is proved that an individual, a group or a company in one of the court’s 110 signatory countries have been cooperating with the [junta],” he said.
The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the ICC, and was brought into force in July 2002.
Burma is one of 38 countries not to have signed it. Both the United States and Israel have “unsigned” the statute, meaning they have no legal obligations pertaining to their signature.
Aung Htoo told the forum that the UNSC had so far failed to act on the Burmese government’s revised constitution, ratified in the weeks following cyclone Nargis last May, which endorses a law of impunity in breach of two UNSC resolutions.
“The UNSC quashed the 1983 constitution in South Africa under resolution 554 because that constitution, if approved, could prolong discrimination between skin colours and thus could lead to worsening of situation in the country,” said a BLC press release.
“The same kind of consequence is likely to happen in Burma, so an approach based on international law should be made for the 2010 elections which will implement the 2008 constitution.”
A group of British MPs last week submitted a parliamentary motion calling for the UN to investigate possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.
The petition said that Burmese civilians are the targets of “widespread torture, forced displacement, sexual violence, extra-judicial killings and forced labour” by the military government.
It is one of several high profile calls for legal action to be brought against the junta, which has ruled Burma in various forms since 1962.
Earlier this year, a group of internationally renowned jurists, including Sir Geoffrey Nice, deputy prosecutor at the trial of Serbian leader Slobadan Milosevic, said that human rights violations in Burma were comparable to Dafur, and should be investigated by the UNSC.
The BLC warned that “there will be even worse cases of impunity in Burma if the 2010 elections are held without a revision of the 2008 constitution”.
Reporting by Maung Too
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