Rebels kill 20 Myanmar troops in Shan State ambush
Fri Mar 19, 7:48 am ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Ethnic rebels killed 20 Myanmar troops in an ambush aimed at deterring the military government from launching an offensive against them ahead of elections this year, a rebel spokesman said on Friday.
The incident took place on March 13 in Nam Zam township of Shan State, a remote region bordering Thailand and China under control of armed ethnic Chinese groups for decades.
Troops were ambushed by rebels from the southern wing of the Shan State Army (SSA), spokesman Sao Lao Seng said by telephone. The firefight lasted about three hours and no rebel troops were killed, he said, adding it was the third such clash this year.
"The ambush was planned after the regime has been threatening to launch offensives against us," he said. Eight soldiers were wounded.
The report could not be immediately verified. Myanmar's state newspapers, mouthpieces for the media-shy junta, have made no mention of the incident.
Activists and ethnic groups say tens of thousands of troops have been mobilized in the mountainous region ahead of an impending offensive to flush out rebel armies resisting demands to disarm, transfer their fighters to a state-run Border Guard Force and join the political process.
But most groups, which have a deep distrust of Yangon and have enjoyed de facto independence for decades, have refused the junta's "offer," saying they have nothing to gain from polls.
Analysts say Myanmar's government wants all groups to take part in elections, the first in two decades, to show the country is fully behind the political process.
The election, a date for which has not yet been set, has been widely derided as a sham to entrench the army's rule over the resource-rich Southeast Asian nation.
The cooperation of ethnic groups would allow the junta to take control of the rebellious region for the first time since it took power in 1962.
It would also appease energy-hungry China, its economic lifeline, which is concerned about security along its border with Myanmar, particularly concerning a vital oil pipeline it is constructing.
Generals from the regime have repeatedly held talks with leaders of the ethnic groups, six of which have agreed to disarm. However, it is unlikely the bigger armies will follow suit.
"The negotiation process appears to be over. Both sides have refused each others' proposals," said an official in the SSA's political wing, who asked not to be identified because he is not permitted to speak to the media.
"We're preparing for an attack by the Burmese government. When this will happen, we don't know," he said.
Fri Mar 19, 7:48 am ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Ethnic rebels killed 20 Myanmar troops in an ambush aimed at deterring the military government from launching an offensive against them ahead of elections this year, a rebel spokesman said on Friday.
The incident took place on March 13 in Nam Zam township of Shan State, a remote region bordering Thailand and China under control of armed ethnic Chinese groups for decades.
Troops were ambushed by rebels from the southern wing of the Shan State Army (SSA), spokesman Sao Lao Seng said by telephone. The firefight lasted about three hours and no rebel troops were killed, he said, adding it was the third such clash this year.
"The ambush was planned after the regime has been threatening to launch offensives against us," he said. Eight soldiers were wounded.
The report could not be immediately verified. Myanmar's state newspapers, mouthpieces for the media-shy junta, have made no mention of the incident.
Activists and ethnic groups say tens of thousands of troops have been mobilized in the mountainous region ahead of an impending offensive to flush out rebel armies resisting demands to disarm, transfer their fighters to a state-run Border Guard Force and join the political process.
But most groups, which have a deep distrust of Yangon and have enjoyed de facto independence for decades, have refused the junta's "offer," saying they have nothing to gain from polls.
Analysts say Myanmar's government wants all groups to take part in elections, the first in two decades, to show the country is fully behind the political process.
The election, a date for which has not yet been set, has been widely derided as a sham to entrench the army's rule over the resource-rich Southeast Asian nation.
The cooperation of ethnic groups would allow the junta to take control of the rebellious region for the first time since it took power in 1962.
It would also appease energy-hungry China, its economic lifeline, which is concerned about security along its border with Myanmar, particularly concerning a vital oil pipeline it is constructing.
Generals from the regime have repeatedly held talks with leaders of the ethnic groups, six of which have agreed to disarm. However, it is unlikely the bigger armies will follow suit.
"The negotiation process appears to be over. Both sides have refused each others' proposals," said an official in the SSA's political wing, who asked not to be identified because he is not permitted to speak to the media.
"We're preparing for an attack by the Burmese government. When this will happen, we don't know," he said.
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Myanmar guerrilla chief warns of war ahead of vote
By DENIS D. GRAY,Associated Press Writer - Saturday, March 20
BANGKOK (AP) – The head of Myanmar's largest guerrilla army warned Friday that the risk of armed conflict between powerful ethnic minority groups and the military regime is at its highest level in more than two decades as contentious national elections loom on the horizon.
The junta has been in negotiations with semiautonomous minorities for months as it attempts to bring them under its control before holding elections later this year. But with talks deadlocked, most of the groups have stepped up military preparations in the event of a renewed conflict, which would likely envelop vast regions of the country and probably spark a mass refugee exodus.
"(There is the) greatest possibility of renewed conflict between large, cease-fire armed groups and (the military regime) in over two decades," said Zipporah Sein, general secretary of the Karen National Union, which has been fighting the central government for more than 60 years.
The Karen joined more than 150 activist groups Friday in urging the international community to denounce the elections and refuse to recognize the results. They say the vote is a sham designed to perpetuate military rule.
The junta has tenuous control of many parts of the country where minority groups are strongest. It has reached cease-fire agreements with 17 ethnic minority rebel groups since 1989 _ though not the Karen _ and most have been allowed to keep their weapons and maintain some autonomy over their regions.
But in the lead-up to the election, the date of which has yet to be announced, the junta has asked the groups to turn their armed forces into a border guard force under virtual Myanmar military leadership. Most have refused.
There is concern the military could try to force the issue.
"The military is sending troops to the areas of the cease-fire groups and they are ready to fight if attacked. So the tension is rising between them," Zipporah Sein, the first woman leader of the KNU, told a news conference in the Thai capital.
Military preparations have recently been reported among the largest of the cease-fire groups, the Wa State Army, which fields some 20,000 troops, and the Kachin Independence Army, said to have about 4,000 under arms.
"The Wa are ready," the KNU chief said.
The Irrawaddy Magazine, a Thailand-based journal run by Myanmar exiles, said Thursday that the New Mon State Party, another cease-fire group, was moving its weapons stockpiles and some of its departments to an undisclosed location in case war breaks out.
The Karen leader said the military has been holding talks with more than half a dozen groups _ both cease-fire groups and those still fighting the junta. However, all such earlier efforts at forging an alliance have failed.
"These elections will only compound the suffering of our ethnic people," she said.
She said the country's new Constitution _ which passed in 2008 and insures the military will retain a controlling say in the future government _ "centralizes military control over ethnic areas and grants blanket immunities for the regime's crimes against humanity."
International human rights group have long documented massive human rights abuses by the Myanmar military against ethnic minorities, including killings, rape, torture, the burning of villages and forced labor. The junta has denied such charges.
The setup of the elections has been widely criticized, both by opposition groups at home and activists abroad. Recently published election laws _ such as one that would bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in the vote _ have received international condemnation.
By DENIS D. GRAY,Associated Press Writer - Saturday, March 20
BANGKOK (AP) – The head of Myanmar's largest guerrilla army warned Friday that the risk of armed conflict between powerful ethnic minority groups and the military regime is at its highest level in more than two decades as contentious national elections loom on the horizon.
The junta has been in negotiations with semiautonomous minorities for months as it attempts to bring them under its control before holding elections later this year. But with talks deadlocked, most of the groups have stepped up military preparations in the event of a renewed conflict, which would likely envelop vast regions of the country and probably spark a mass refugee exodus.
"(There is the) greatest possibility of renewed conflict between large, cease-fire armed groups and (the military regime) in over two decades," said Zipporah Sein, general secretary of the Karen National Union, which has been fighting the central government for more than 60 years.
The Karen joined more than 150 activist groups Friday in urging the international community to denounce the elections and refuse to recognize the results. They say the vote is a sham designed to perpetuate military rule.
The junta has tenuous control of many parts of the country where minority groups are strongest. It has reached cease-fire agreements with 17 ethnic minority rebel groups since 1989 _ though not the Karen _ and most have been allowed to keep their weapons and maintain some autonomy over their regions.
But in the lead-up to the election, the date of which has yet to be announced, the junta has asked the groups to turn their armed forces into a border guard force under virtual Myanmar military leadership. Most have refused.
There is concern the military could try to force the issue.
"The military is sending troops to the areas of the cease-fire groups and they are ready to fight if attacked. So the tension is rising between them," Zipporah Sein, the first woman leader of the KNU, told a news conference in the Thai capital.
Military preparations have recently been reported among the largest of the cease-fire groups, the Wa State Army, which fields some 20,000 troops, and the Kachin Independence Army, said to have about 4,000 under arms.
"The Wa are ready," the KNU chief said.
The Irrawaddy Magazine, a Thailand-based journal run by Myanmar exiles, said Thursday that the New Mon State Party, another cease-fire group, was moving its weapons stockpiles and some of its departments to an undisclosed location in case war breaks out.
The Karen leader said the military has been holding talks with more than half a dozen groups _ both cease-fire groups and those still fighting the junta. However, all such earlier efforts at forging an alliance have failed.
"These elections will only compound the suffering of our ethnic people," she said.
She said the country's new Constitution _ which passed in 2008 and insures the military will retain a controlling say in the future government _ "centralizes military control over ethnic areas and grants blanket immunities for the regime's crimes against humanity."
International human rights group have long documented massive human rights abuses by the Myanmar military against ethnic minorities, including killings, rape, torture, the burning of villages and forced labor. The junta has denied such charges.
The setup of the elections has been widely criticized, both by opposition groups at home and activists abroad. Recently published election laws _ such as one that would bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in the vote _ have received international condemnation.
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Myanmar credits US ties for freeing American
Fri Mar 19, 3:42 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar's ruling military junta decided to release a naturalized American citizen from prison because of its friendship with the U.S. government, state media said Friday.
Nyi Nyi Aung, a pro-democracy activist originally from Myanmar, was freed Thursday, a month after a court sentenced him to three years in prison with hard labor.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the junta, said the government pardoned and deported Nyi Nyi Aung after giving "special consideration to bilateral friendship in accordance with the request made by the U.S. State Department" to free him.
The U.S. Embassy confirmed the release and said, "We welcome that development."
Ties between the two countries actually are strained and tense. In the past, Myanmar's state media have referred to the U.S. as a "loudmouthed bully."
The United States recently modified its strict policy of isolating the junta in the hope that increased engagement would encourage change. However, the Obama administration has said it will not lift sanctions on Myanmar unless its sees concrete progress toward democratic reform — notably the release of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and freedom for her party to participate in elections expected later this year.
Election laws recently announced by the junta effectively bar Suu Kyi from participating in the balloting and were viewed as a setback to Myanmar-U.S. relations.
Nyi Nyi Aung, 40, also known as Kyaw Zaw Lwin, was arrested when he arrived at Yangon's international airport Sept. 3 and was accused of plotting to stir political unrest, which he denied. He was convicted in February of forging a national identity card, possessing undeclared foreign currency, and failing to renounce his Myanmar citizenship when becoming an American citizen.
He was escorted aboard a flight to Thailand accompanied by a U.S. consular official, said his aunt, Khin Khin Swe.
His fiancee, Wa Wa Kyaw, released a statement thanking the U.S. State Department and members of Congress for helping secure his release. The couple live in Maryland.
As a teenager in Myanmar, Nyi Nyi Aung helped organize students during the country's 1988 pro-democracy uprising, which was violently suppressed by the military, and later fled to the United States. His reason for returning to Myanmar was not clear, though there has been speculation he hoped to see his mother and sister, both of whom are serving jail terms for political activities.
Fri Mar 19, 3:42 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar's ruling military junta decided to release a naturalized American citizen from prison because of its friendship with the U.S. government, state media said Friday.
Nyi Nyi Aung, a pro-democracy activist originally from Myanmar, was freed Thursday, a month after a court sentenced him to three years in prison with hard labor.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the junta, said the government pardoned and deported Nyi Nyi Aung after giving "special consideration to bilateral friendship in accordance with the request made by the U.S. State Department" to free him.
The U.S. Embassy confirmed the release and said, "We welcome that development."
Ties between the two countries actually are strained and tense. In the past, Myanmar's state media have referred to the U.S. as a "loudmouthed bully."
The United States recently modified its strict policy of isolating the junta in the hope that increased engagement would encourage change. However, the Obama administration has said it will not lift sanctions on Myanmar unless its sees concrete progress toward democratic reform — notably the release of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and freedom for her party to participate in elections expected later this year.
Election laws recently announced by the junta effectively bar Suu Kyi from participating in the balloting and were viewed as a setback to Myanmar-U.S. relations.
Nyi Nyi Aung, 40, also known as Kyaw Zaw Lwin, was arrested when he arrived at Yangon's international airport Sept. 3 and was accused of plotting to stir political unrest, which he denied. He was convicted in February of forging a national identity card, possessing undeclared foreign currency, and failing to renounce his Myanmar citizenship when becoming an American citizen.
He was escorted aboard a flight to Thailand accompanied by a U.S. consular official, said his aunt, Khin Khin Swe.
His fiancee, Wa Wa Kyaw, released a statement thanking the U.S. State Department and members of Congress for helping secure his release. The couple live in Maryland.
As a teenager in Myanmar, Nyi Nyi Aung helped organize students during the country's 1988 pro-democracy uprising, which was violently suppressed by the military, and later fled to the United States. His reason for returning to Myanmar was not clear, though there has been speculation he hoped to see his mother and sister, both of whom are serving jail terms for political activities.
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Protesters smash, paint Myanmar Embassy in India
AP - Saturday, March 20
NEW DELHI (AP) – Dozens of protesters from Myanmar hurled rocks and insults at their country's embassy in the Indian capital Friday in a show of disdain for upcoming elections called by the nation's military rulers.
The New Delhi-based protesters sprayed anti-junta slogans on the embassy's outer wall, smashed its nameplate, defaced posters of Myanmar's military leader and padlocked the gate and doused it with red paint before being taken away by police.
A spokesman for the Burmese Pro-Democracy Movement in India, which organized the protest, said police had detained 68 people, though they were likely to be released later Friday.
This year's elections in Myanmar, also known as Burma, are part of the ruling junta's long-announced "roadmap to democracy," which critics deride as a sham designed to cement the military's power. A military-backed constitution was approved by a national referendum last May, but the opposition charges that the vote was unfair.
Recently released election laws prevent democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in the vote because she was convicted of violating her house arrest. Suu Kyi _ whose party won the last election in 1990 but was stopped from taking power by the military _ has been jailed or under detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
India has established deep economic and military ties with Myanmar's generals over the past decade and has said it believes talking quietly is a better approach than sanctions.
India shifted its policy from supporting Suu Kyi to engaging the junta's generals in the early 1990s, partly because of a desire for access to Myanmar's large natural gas reserves.
A date for this year's election in Myanmar has yet to be set.
AP - Saturday, March 20
NEW DELHI (AP) – Dozens of protesters from Myanmar hurled rocks and insults at their country's embassy in the Indian capital Friday in a show of disdain for upcoming elections called by the nation's military rulers.
The New Delhi-based protesters sprayed anti-junta slogans on the embassy's outer wall, smashed its nameplate, defaced posters of Myanmar's military leader and padlocked the gate and doused it with red paint before being taken away by police.
A spokesman for the Burmese Pro-Democracy Movement in India, which organized the protest, said police had detained 68 people, though they were likely to be released later Friday.
This year's elections in Myanmar, also known as Burma, are part of the ruling junta's long-announced "roadmap to democracy," which critics deride as a sham designed to cement the military's power. A military-backed constitution was approved by a national referendum last May, but the opposition charges that the vote was unfair.
Recently released election laws prevent democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in the vote because she was convicted of violating her house arrest. Suu Kyi _ whose party won the last election in 1990 but was stopped from taking power by the military _ has been jailed or under detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
India has established deep economic and military ties with Myanmar's generals over the past decade and has said it believes talking quietly is a better approach than sanctions.
India shifted its policy from supporting Suu Kyi to engaging the junta's generals in the early 1990s, partly because of a desire for access to Myanmar's large natural gas reserves.
A date for this year's election in Myanmar has yet to be set.
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EarthTimes - Philippine activists denounce new Myanmar election laws
Posted : Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:20:57 GMT
Manila - Philippine activists marched to the Myanmar embassy in Manila Friday to denounce a new election law that disqualifies pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running in a planned election this year.
More than 100 protestors urged the United Nations and other countries not to recognize the new law, which they described as "one of the tragic results of the junta's sham roadmap to democracy."
"Unless the military rulers of Burma seriously initiate tangible reforms, the 2010 elections will be widely perceived as incredible and undemocratic," said Egoy Bans, a spokesman for the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines that organized the protest.
"Instead of employing an all-inclusive process, the regime opted to bypass all norms of decency by creating an election law in a very secretive and exclusive manner," he added.
The new Myanmar election law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime from being a member of a political party or a candidate in the elections, which are not yet scheduled but expected to be held later in the year.
Under the new law, Suu Kyi - who has spend 14 of the past 21 years under house arrest - is ineligible to run, since she was recently convicted by a Myanmar court of violating the terms of her house arrest.
The new decree would also prevent Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party from contesting the elections, even with another candidate, as long as she remains on its membership rolls, according to a party spokesman.
Posted : Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:20:57 GMT
Manila - Philippine activists marched to the Myanmar embassy in Manila Friday to denounce a new election law that disqualifies pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running in a planned election this year.
More than 100 protestors urged the United Nations and other countries not to recognize the new law, which they described as "one of the tragic results of the junta's sham roadmap to democracy."
"Unless the military rulers of Burma seriously initiate tangible reforms, the 2010 elections will be widely perceived as incredible and undemocratic," said Egoy Bans, a spokesman for the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines that organized the protest.
"Instead of employing an all-inclusive process, the regime opted to bypass all norms of decency by creating an election law in a very secretive and exclusive manner," he added.
The new Myanmar election law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime from being a member of a political party or a candidate in the elections, which are not yet scheduled but expected to be held later in the year.
Under the new law, Suu Kyi - who has spend 14 of the past 21 years under house arrest - is ineligible to run, since she was recently convicted by a Myanmar court of violating the terms of her house arrest.
The new decree would also prevent Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party from contesting the elections, even with another candidate, as long as she remains on its membership rolls, according to a party spokesman.
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IANS
Sify News - Myanmar opposition party to sue junta over election laws
2010-03-19 20:50:00
Myanmar's main opposition party decided Friday to sue the military-run government for issuing unfair election laws, opposition sources said.
An executive meeting of the National League for Democracy (NLD) - which is headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi - decided to sue the government over election laws promulgated last week, NLD Rakhine member Aye Tha Aung said.
He said the NLD found clauses that excluded the participation of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners from the election process as unlawful.
Under the Political Party Registration Law promulgated last week, the junta has prohibited people currently serving prison terms from being members of political parties.
Suu Kyi, who is serving an 18-month house detention sentence, must be dropped form the NLD party rolls should they wish to registered to contest this year's election, which they must do within the next 60 days.
The NLD has yet to decide whether or not to register to contest the election, a date for which has not yet been set, Aye Tha Aung said.
Sify News - Myanmar opposition party to sue junta over election laws
2010-03-19 20:50:00
Myanmar's main opposition party decided Friday to sue the military-run government for issuing unfair election laws, opposition sources said.
An executive meeting of the National League for Democracy (NLD) - which is headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi - decided to sue the government over election laws promulgated last week, NLD Rakhine member Aye Tha Aung said.
He said the NLD found clauses that excluded the participation of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners from the election process as unlawful.
Under the Political Party Registration Law promulgated last week, the junta has prohibited people currently serving prison terms from being members of political parties.
Suu Kyi, who is serving an 18-month house detention sentence, must be dropped form the NLD party rolls should they wish to registered to contest this year's election, which they must do within the next 60 days.
The NLD has yet to decide whether or not to register to contest the election, a date for which has not yet been set, Aye Tha Aung said.
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People's Daily Online - Group of Friends on Myanmar to meet at UN headquarters
11:01, March 19, 2010
UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has requested a meeting of the Group of Friends of Myanmar at the United Nations headquarters in New York on March 25, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Thursday.
An emergency meeting had been requested by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was quoted in a government press release on Tuesday saying he sent a letter to Ban requesting a meeting to discuss Myanmar's new electoral laws for the first nationwide election to be held in 20 years.
However, the secretary-general told reporters on Tuesday that he had not received the letter.
Brown was also quoted as saying that he intends "to seek international support to impose an arms embargo" against the South Asian country.
"Burma has ignored the demands of the UN Security Council, the UN secretary-general, the U.S., EU (European Union) and its neighbors by imposing restrictive and unfair terms for the elections," Brown's statement said, using Myanmar's former name." The targeting of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD is particularly vindictive and callous. We will also seek international support to impose an arms embargo against Burma."
The United Nations is a member of the "Group of Friends on Myanmar," which includes the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
The ruling Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which has not yet set a date for nationwide elections, enacted five electoral laws, the state Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) reported last week.
However, the UN secretary-general told reporters after the announcement that the new electoral laws "do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process. "Source: Xinhua
11:01, March 19, 2010
UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has requested a meeting of the Group of Friends of Myanmar at the United Nations headquarters in New York on March 25, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Thursday.
An emergency meeting had been requested by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was quoted in a government press release on Tuesday saying he sent a letter to Ban requesting a meeting to discuss Myanmar's new electoral laws for the first nationwide election to be held in 20 years.
However, the secretary-general told reporters on Tuesday that he had not received the letter.
Brown was also quoted as saying that he intends "to seek international support to impose an arms embargo" against the South Asian country.
"Burma has ignored the demands of the UN Security Council, the UN secretary-general, the U.S., EU (European Union) and its neighbors by imposing restrictive and unfair terms for the elections," Brown's statement said, using Myanmar's former name." The targeting of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD is particularly vindictive and callous. We will also seek international support to impose an arms embargo against Burma."
The United Nations is a member of the "Group of Friends on Myanmar," which includes the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
The ruling Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which has not yet set a date for nationwide elections, enacted five electoral laws, the state Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) reported last week.
However, the UN secretary-general told reporters after the announcement that the new electoral laws "do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process. "Source: Xinhua
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Spero News - Bangladesh: Myanmar: Dhaka: no mistreatment Rohingya. But "non registered" risk starvation
The government denies harassment or bullying towards the Burmese Muslim minority. Bangladesh Minister: media slander, we help them. AsiaNews sources: compared to 25 thousand with the status of refugees, "non registered” can not receive aid and risk dying of hunger."
Friday, March 19, 2010
By Asia News
Dhaka - Food Minister Abdur Razzaque has returned to the controversy concerning the mistreatment to the Burmese Rohingya refugees arguing that "there is no" harassment or bullying, as reported by international media. AsiaNews sources in Bangladesh, who work with refugees, however, explain that "there are two different categories" and the second, non-registered, "suffers from hunger and can not receive assistance" from international organizations.
"Despite being a poor country - says the minister - Bangladesh provides aid and assistance to the Rohingya for humanitarian reasons”. Abdur Razzaque denies that there is "repression, although the international media use that despicable word." He also adds a regularization of illegal refugees, would be an invitation to all to illegally enter the country with the illusion of receiving support from international organizations or on transit to other nations.
The Rohingya are one of several ethnic minorities that make up the Union of Myanmar. Of Muslim religion, they live in Rakhine State, north-west of the country and the military regime does not recognize their right to citizenship, ownership of land, freedom to travel or wed without a "special permit" issued by the authorities. Tens of thousands seek refuge abroad, mainly in Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Dhaka has granted approximately 28 thousand Rohingya refugee status, who live in a United Nations refugee camp in Kutupalong. However, different estimates speak of 200 thousand - or maybe 300 thousand - other members of the minority who live illegally in Bangladesh.
A local source - anonymous for security reasons - who works closely with the refugees, confirms to AsiaNews that the humanitarian emergency involves the "unregistered". Against 28 thousand "officially registered" Rohingya who live in camps set up by the government, there are many more left on their own. "The first - says the source - may receive aid from the UN World Food Program and other organizations, with the approval of the government." The "unregistered" by contrast, are considered "undocumented" or illegal, they do not have the status of refugees and "international agencies are not allowed to help them."
The illegal Rohingya "do not receive food or medicine" and are likely to die of starvation, the source confirmed to AsiaNews. They also "do not have freedom of movement" even if a party "is working and has a minimum wage." "They have very limited opportunities to receive a salary - he concludes - and this is also why they are at risk from hunger."
The government denies harassment or bullying towards the Burmese Muslim minority. Bangladesh Minister: media slander, we help them. AsiaNews sources: compared to 25 thousand with the status of refugees, "non registered” can not receive aid and risk dying of hunger."
Friday, March 19, 2010
By Asia News
Dhaka - Food Minister Abdur Razzaque has returned to the controversy concerning the mistreatment to the Burmese Rohingya refugees arguing that "there is no" harassment or bullying, as reported by international media. AsiaNews sources in Bangladesh, who work with refugees, however, explain that "there are two different categories" and the second, non-registered, "suffers from hunger and can not receive assistance" from international organizations.
"Despite being a poor country - says the minister - Bangladesh provides aid and assistance to the Rohingya for humanitarian reasons”. Abdur Razzaque denies that there is "repression, although the international media use that despicable word." He also adds a regularization of illegal refugees, would be an invitation to all to illegally enter the country with the illusion of receiving support from international organizations or on transit to other nations.
The Rohingya are one of several ethnic minorities that make up the Union of Myanmar. Of Muslim religion, they live in Rakhine State, north-west of the country and the military regime does not recognize their right to citizenship, ownership of land, freedom to travel or wed without a "special permit" issued by the authorities. Tens of thousands seek refuge abroad, mainly in Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Dhaka has granted approximately 28 thousand Rohingya refugee status, who live in a United Nations refugee camp in Kutupalong. However, different estimates speak of 200 thousand - or maybe 300 thousand - other members of the minority who live illegally in Bangladesh.
A local source - anonymous for security reasons - who works closely with the refugees, confirms to AsiaNews that the humanitarian emergency involves the "unregistered". Against 28 thousand "officially registered" Rohingya who live in camps set up by the government, there are many more left on their own. "The first - says the source - may receive aid from the UN World Food Program and other organizations, with the approval of the government." The "unregistered" by contrast, are considered "undocumented" or illegal, they do not have the status of refugees and "international agencies are not allowed to help them."
The illegal Rohingya "do not receive food or medicine" and are likely to die of starvation, the source confirmed to AsiaNews. They also "do not have freedom of movement" even if a party "is working and has a minimum wage." "They have very limited opportunities to receive a salary - he concludes - and this is also why they are at risk from hunger."
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Posted by David Virtue on 2010/3/19 11:50:00 (69 reads)
Virtue Online - Myanmar Diocese asks for Help Fighting Famine
Anglican Church in North America
March 19, 2010
The Anglican Diocese of Sittwe needs help purchasing rice for more than 1,000 families in nine parishes who are facing starvation after the rats consumed both the local bamboo and their crops.
According to the Rt. Rev. James Min Dein, bishop of Sittwe, the diocese is providing rice for families affected by the famine. A family of five people needs approximately 100 kilograms of rice to survive. A thousand families need approximately 100,000 kilograms of rice each month. Currently, 100,000 kilograms of rice cost about $30,000 on the local market.
"On behalf of the hungry in our church, we do earnestly pray for your kind attention and concern... I assure you that every single dollar can make a difference in the lives of the hungry at this time," wrote Bishop Min Dein in a recent letter about the situation.
Beginning in 2006 the constituent bodies that became the Anglican Church in North America began to cooperate with the (Anglican) Church of the Province of Myanmar in joint ministry in both their country and the United States. Archbishop Stephen Than, bishop of Yangon (Rangoon) and Primate heads a province of 70,000 communicants in six diocese that cover all of the country.
The Province of Myanmar recognized the Anglican Church in North America and is serving in North America by assisting with some 12 congregations of which Myanmar people are part. Archbishop Stephen has assigned one of his priests, Father Samuel Lynn, to work with the Anglican Church here to teach and empower Anglican Myanmar communities here.
In addition, the Anglican Church in North America has begun to partner with the Church of the Province of Myanmar to develop self-sustaining businesses for Christians and parishes in Myanmar where discrimination prevents many Anglican Christians from have jobs. We are also cooperating and providing training so that the Church there is better equipped to share the gospel message with other citizens of Myanmar.
The Anglican Relief and Development Fund provided $38,000 in 2005 to train 110 healthcare workers and provide basic health care treatment and preventions for 55,000 people in the remote dioceses of Sittwe and Toungoo. In 2009, following Cyclone Nargis, ARDF sent $25,000 to the Province to rebuild the provincial health care clinic serving the densely populated city of Yangoon, the headquarters of the Church of the Province of Myanmar.
You can help by donating easily and securely online through the Anglican Relief and Development Fund at this link:
http://anglicanaid.net/?/main/page/23
Checks can be sent to:
The Anglican Relief and Development Fund
PO Box 3830
Pittsburgh, PA 15230-3830
...with the words "Myanmar Famine" in the memo line.
Virtue Online - Myanmar Diocese asks for Help Fighting Famine
Anglican Church in North America
March 19, 2010
The Anglican Diocese of Sittwe needs help purchasing rice for more than 1,000 families in nine parishes who are facing starvation after the rats consumed both the local bamboo and their crops.
According to the Rt. Rev. James Min Dein, bishop of Sittwe, the diocese is providing rice for families affected by the famine. A family of five people needs approximately 100 kilograms of rice to survive. A thousand families need approximately 100,000 kilograms of rice each month. Currently, 100,000 kilograms of rice cost about $30,000 on the local market.
"On behalf of the hungry in our church, we do earnestly pray for your kind attention and concern... I assure you that every single dollar can make a difference in the lives of the hungry at this time," wrote Bishop Min Dein in a recent letter about the situation.
Beginning in 2006 the constituent bodies that became the Anglican Church in North America began to cooperate with the (Anglican) Church of the Province of Myanmar in joint ministry in both their country and the United States. Archbishop Stephen Than, bishop of Yangon (Rangoon) and Primate heads a province of 70,000 communicants in six diocese that cover all of the country.
The Province of Myanmar recognized the Anglican Church in North America and is serving in North America by assisting with some 12 congregations of which Myanmar people are part. Archbishop Stephen has assigned one of his priests, Father Samuel Lynn, to work with the Anglican Church here to teach and empower Anglican Myanmar communities here.
In addition, the Anglican Church in North America has begun to partner with the Church of the Province of Myanmar to develop self-sustaining businesses for Christians and parishes in Myanmar where discrimination prevents many Anglican Christians from have jobs. We are also cooperating and providing training so that the Church there is better equipped to share the gospel message with other citizens of Myanmar.
The Anglican Relief and Development Fund provided $38,000 in 2005 to train 110 healthcare workers and provide basic health care treatment and preventions for 55,000 people in the remote dioceses of Sittwe and Toungoo. In 2009, following Cyclone Nargis, ARDF sent $25,000 to the Province to rebuild the provincial health care clinic serving the densely populated city of Yangoon, the headquarters of the Church of the Province of Myanmar.
You can help by donating easily and securely online through the Anglican Relief and Development Fund at this link:
http://anglicanaid.net/?/main/page/23
Checks can be sent to:
The Anglican Relief and Development Fund
PO Box 3830
Pittsburgh, PA 15230-3830
...with the words "Myanmar Famine" in the memo line.
********************************************************
VOA News - Burma's Election Preparations Undemocratic, say Rights, Exile Groups
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok 19 March 2010
Members of Free Burma Coalition display posters of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi (R) during a protest in front of Burmese embassy in Manila, 19 Mar 2010 to denounce Burma's recently announced election law.
Burma rights and exile groups want the international community to denounce the government's preparations for elections this year, saying they are undemocratic and are increasing ethnic tensions.
A coalition of rights groups and political exiles on Friday said election laws released last week confirm that Burma's military government intends to use the elections to legitimize its rule.
The coalition, called Burma's Movement for Democracy and Ethnic Rights, wants foreign governments to reject the elections.
The election laws require parties to purge political prisoners from their ranks, including detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The rules also require allegiance to the controversial 2008 constitution, which reserves a quarter of all parliamentary seats for the military.
Khin Ohmar is with the Forum for Democracy in Burma, which is part of the coalition. She says military rule would ensure continued ethnic oppression and human rights abuses.
"And, it's not only us here on the border but also the people in the country, whose voice cannot be raised and heard freely, are saying the same thing - this is the constitution forced by the regime to adopt in 2008. And this is the constitution that has actually given a sole power, overarching power, to the military regime in all three branches of the government," she said.
The United States has called the laws a mockery that will ensure the elections lack credibility. The U.S. and several other governments have imposed sanctions on Burma because of its poor human rights record.
But Burma's closest neighbors have said little, preferring diplomatic engagement.
The coalition Friday also expressed concern about increased hostilities against ethnic militias, including those that have cease-fire agreements with the government.
Ahead of the elections Burma's military has been trying to force the militias to consolidate as a border security force.
Zipporah Sein is general secretary of the Karen National Union, which has been fighting authorities in eastern Burma for decades.
"They [militias] do not accept the 2010 election, they do not accept to become the border guard force," she said. "So, the regime also sends troops to their areas. And, for their part, it is possible when they were forced and when they were attacked, so it surely that the fighting will be broke [will break] out again," said Sein.
Burma has yet to announce a date for the elections, the first in two decades, but says they will take place this year.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won Burma's last elections but the military refused to hand over power and has kept her under house arrest for most of the time since.
The coalition Friday stopped short of calling for an election boycott and acknowledged that some opposition politicians, including within the NLD, want to take part in the elections.
The NLD is to announce later this month if it will participate.
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok 19 March 2010
Members of Free Burma Coalition display posters of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi (R) during a protest in front of Burmese embassy in Manila, 19 Mar 2010 to denounce Burma's recently announced election law.
Burma rights and exile groups want the international community to denounce the government's preparations for elections this year, saying they are undemocratic and are increasing ethnic tensions.
A coalition of rights groups and political exiles on Friday said election laws released last week confirm that Burma's military government intends to use the elections to legitimize its rule.
The coalition, called Burma's Movement for Democracy and Ethnic Rights, wants foreign governments to reject the elections.
The election laws require parties to purge political prisoners from their ranks, including detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The rules also require allegiance to the controversial 2008 constitution, which reserves a quarter of all parliamentary seats for the military.
Khin Ohmar is with the Forum for Democracy in Burma, which is part of the coalition. She says military rule would ensure continued ethnic oppression and human rights abuses.
"And, it's not only us here on the border but also the people in the country, whose voice cannot be raised and heard freely, are saying the same thing - this is the constitution forced by the regime to adopt in 2008. And this is the constitution that has actually given a sole power, overarching power, to the military regime in all three branches of the government," she said.
The United States has called the laws a mockery that will ensure the elections lack credibility. The U.S. and several other governments have imposed sanctions on Burma because of its poor human rights record.
But Burma's closest neighbors have said little, preferring diplomatic engagement.
The coalition Friday also expressed concern about increased hostilities against ethnic militias, including those that have cease-fire agreements with the government.
Ahead of the elections Burma's military has been trying to force the militias to consolidate as a border security force.
Zipporah Sein is general secretary of the Karen National Union, which has been fighting authorities in eastern Burma for decades.
"They [militias] do not accept the 2010 election, they do not accept to become the border guard force," she said. "So, the regime also sends troops to their areas. And, for their part, it is possible when they were forced and when they were attacked, so it surely that the fighting will be broke [will break] out again," said Sein.
Burma has yet to announce a date for the elections, the first in two decades, but says they will take place this year.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won Burma's last elections but the military refused to hand over power and has kept her under house arrest for most of the time since.
The coalition Friday stopped short of calling for an election boycott and acknowledged that some opposition politicians, including within the NLD, want to take part in the elections.
The NLD is to announce later this month if it will participate.
********************************************************
Mar 19, 2010
The Straits Times - Jailed for mistreating maid
By Khushwant Singh
SOON after Peck Choon Khim hired a maid in 2008 to help take care of her two adopted children, she started hitting the Myanmar national.
The abuse continued for the next five months and on Friday, Peck, 41, was sentenced to four months' jail.
A district court heard she had mistreated Ms Moe Thandar Lin, on 15 occasions from November 2008. Ms Lin only complained to her agent, after Peck slammed a kettle of hot water against her left arm on March 15 last year.
The agent called the police who found the list of all the incidents listed in the maid's diary.
At the last hearing in January, Peck's lawyer Lim Kim Hong asked the court to be lenient to her client as the maid had been defiant and disrespectful from the very start. The maid was also no help in taking care of the children, aged 18 months and three years.
All the more reason for Peck to get a new maid, said District Judge Ronald Gwee. He added: 'The correct thing to do is to terminate her employment but in this case, there were repeated occasions of abuse. Physical punishment is not allowed. It's a line no employer should cross.'
The maximum sentence is a jail term of three years and a $7,500 fine on each of the four charges.
The Straits Times - Jailed for mistreating maid
By Khushwant Singh
SOON after Peck Choon Khim hired a maid in 2008 to help take care of her two adopted children, she started hitting the Myanmar national.
The abuse continued for the next five months and on Friday, Peck, 41, was sentenced to four months' jail.
A district court heard she had mistreated Ms Moe Thandar Lin, on 15 occasions from November 2008. Ms Lin only complained to her agent, after Peck slammed a kettle of hot water against her left arm on March 15 last year.
The agent called the police who found the list of all the incidents listed in the maid's diary.
At the last hearing in January, Peck's lawyer Lim Kim Hong asked the court to be lenient to her client as the maid had been defiant and disrespectful from the very start. The maid was also no help in taking care of the children, aged 18 months and three years.
All the more reason for Peck to get a new maid, said District Judge Ronald Gwee. He added: 'The correct thing to do is to terminate her employment but in this case, there were repeated occasions of abuse. Physical punishment is not allowed. It's a line no employer should cross.'
The maximum sentence is a jail term of three years and a $7,500 fine on each of the four charges.
********************************************************
Bangkok Post - BURMA:A five-prong action plan to push for regime change
Published: 19/03/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
I grew up in military circles in Burma and lived 25 years of my life under the first military rule of the late General Ne Win prior to going to the United States for further studies.
I myself would have been a military officer by age 20, if it weren't for my father, who told me to keep my admission letter to the Officers Training Corps as a souvenir.
For the past two decades, I have ended up studying the institution of my childhood "career choice" professionally, while politically engaging with its members.
When the junta's bizarre "election laws" hit recent news headlines, I heard the Burma policy mantra which is in vogue: "Neither sanctions nor engagement has worked."
As a Burmese dissident who has embraced sanctions and engagement approaches, alternately, over the past two decades, I have grown rather tired of the "neither-nor" policy mantra.
This discourse of "policy defeatism" fails to ask the crucial question: "What type of sanctions, or engagement, under what circumstances, and for what purpose, one is talking about?"
This "neither-nor" view is not so much a sign of the absence of policy or political alternatives, as a symptom of the paralysis of strategic imagination, a typically insufficient understanding among Burma - and even Burmese - experts of the real conditions within Burma's armed forces, and a lack of political resolve on the part of external players who purport to want reconciliation or clamour for real change in my country.
The crucial policy question is what approaches - notice the plural here - should be formulated in order to change the Burmese leadership and its overstretched system. Upon closer look, the regime in Naypyidaw has created a large-scale perpetual crisis situation whereby its orientation, decisions and policies only amplify Burma's pre-existing problems such as armed conflicts, ethnic inequality, the absence of civil liberties, troubled foreign relations, ecological crises and ever-deepening poverty.
While most other experts on Burma see the staying power of the military regime, I see emerging possibilities for formulating more effective and strategic policies in order to induce change. Those wishing to see genuine change in Burma should remind themselves of the spectacular failures of most Sovietologists to anticipate the collapse of the "Evil Empire". Based on my first-hand engagement with the military and my own communications with the regime insiders, I offer a five-point strategy to facilitate and
accelerate genuine change:
- First, the Western governments that have stood by Aung San Suu Kyi and her fellow dissidents need to close ranks and solidify their support for the opposition. Despite talk of a "third force" - that is political independents who claim they are neither regime proxies nor NLD supporters - there is no organisation or individual leader that can match her mass appeal, the NLD's dormant grassroots base, mobilising power, and international support. Regardless of its legal standing, the NLD will continue to exist as a political movement.
- Second, the type of engagement with Burma will need to be strategically calibrated. Specifically, all those governments and organisations, both Asian and Western, need to shift the focus of their engagement away from the intransigent and backward leadership of the regime, towards its second and third-line leaders.
In addition to this government-to-regime engagement at lower notches, international efforts should be expanded to include various sectors of Burmese economy, cultural organisations, educational institutions and community organisations and informal networks.
- Third, pro-sanctions governments and political NGOs should intensify their campaigns for targeted financial sanctions, asset-freeze, travel bans, international legal actions, all singling out Senior General Than Shwe, his top deputies and cronies. For starters, these pressure groups should rally solidly behind UN Human Rights Special Envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana's official call for setting up an international investigation of Than Shwe's war crimes.
- Fourth, opposition-backing governments, such as Washington and London, need to pay attention to the ever-declining morale, material conditions, and anti-regime attitudinal changes within the rank-and-file of the armed forces which compel an ever-increasing number of new generation officers between the ages of 20-40 to desert the armed forces. Many officers are deserting out of a sense of outrage against intra-military injustices. Many of these officers as well as their comrades, who chose not to desert the institution, wish to contribute to genuine change in the country and leadership change within the armed forces. But they are finding there is little support coming from foreign governments.
- Finally, all governments that may be concerned about Burma's balkanisation and resultant regional instability should take note of pent-up frustrations which could boil over in the near future. There is a deepening sense of injustice due to decades of repression of non-Burman ethnic communities. It would be short-sighted for regional powers to allow the junta to maintain domestic stability at gunpoint, as opposed to firmly pushing the regime for peace and reconciliation. Sixty years after a series of ethnic-driven armed revolts, all minority groups are ready to work together as ethnic equals within a union. Even the few that publicly clamour for independence are doing so as a bargaining strategy, rather than as a realisable goal. It is the junta, not the country's ethnic diversity, that is creating regional volatility. The sooner Asian powers come to terms with this empirical reality the better for peace, stability and cross-border prosperity in the region.
The writer is Visiting Senior Fellow, Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, and Research Fellow on Burma, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Published: 19/03/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
I grew up in military circles in Burma and lived 25 years of my life under the first military rule of the late General Ne Win prior to going to the United States for further studies.
I myself would have been a military officer by age 20, if it weren't for my father, who told me to keep my admission letter to the Officers Training Corps as a souvenir.
For the past two decades, I have ended up studying the institution of my childhood "career choice" professionally, while politically engaging with its members.
When the junta's bizarre "election laws" hit recent news headlines, I heard the Burma policy mantra which is in vogue: "Neither sanctions nor engagement has worked."
As a Burmese dissident who has embraced sanctions and engagement approaches, alternately, over the past two decades, I have grown rather tired of the "neither-nor" policy mantra.
This discourse of "policy defeatism" fails to ask the crucial question: "What type of sanctions, or engagement, under what circumstances, and for what purpose, one is talking about?"
This "neither-nor" view is not so much a sign of the absence of policy or political alternatives, as a symptom of the paralysis of strategic imagination, a typically insufficient understanding among Burma - and even Burmese - experts of the real conditions within Burma's armed forces, and a lack of political resolve on the part of external players who purport to want reconciliation or clamour for real change in my country.
The crucial policy question is what approaches - notice the plural here - should be formulated in order to change the Burmese leadership and its overstretched system. Upon closer look, the regime in Naypyidaw has created a large-scale perpetual crisis situation whereby its orientation, decisions and policies only amplify Burma's pre-existing problems such as armed conflicts, ethnic inequality, the absence of civil liberties, troubled foreign relations, ecological crises and ever-deepening poverty.
While most other experts on Burma see the staying power of the military regime, I see emerging possibilities for formulating more effective and strategic policies in order to induce change. Those wishing to see genuine change in Burma should remind themselves of the spectacular failures of most Sovietologists to anticipate the collapse of the "Evil Empire". Based on my first-hand engagement with the military and my own communications with the regime insiders, I offer a five-point strategy to facilitate and
accelerate genuine change:
- First, the Western governments that have stood by Aung San Suu Kyi and her fellow dissidents need to close ranks and solidify their support for the opposition. Despite talk of a "third force" - that is political independents who claim they are neither regime proxies nor NLD supporters - there is no organisation or individual leader that can match her mass appeal, the NLD's dormant grassroots base, mobilising power, and international support. Regardless of its legal standing, the NLD will continue to exist as a political movement.
- Second, the type of engagement with Burma will need to be strategically calibrated. Specifically, all those governments and organisations, both Asian and Western, need to shift the focus of their engagement away from the intransigent and backward leadership of the regime, towards its second and third-line leaders.
In addition to this government-to-regime engagement at lower notches, international efforts should be expanded to include various sectors of Burmese economy, cultural organisations, educational institutions and community organisations and informal networks.
- Third, pro-sanctions governments and political NGOs should intensify their campaigns for targeted financial sanctions, asset-freeze, travel bans, international legal actions, all singling out Senior General Than Shwe, his top deputies and cronies. For starters, these pressure groups should rally solidly behind UN Human Rights Special Envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana's official call for setting up an international investigation of Than Shwe's war crimes.
- Fourth, opposition-backing governments, such as Washington and London, need to pay attention to the ever-declining morale, material conditions, and anti-regime attitudinal changes within the rank-and-file of the armed forces which compel an ever-increasing number of new generation officers between the ages of 20-40 to desert the armed forces. Many officers are deserting out of a sense of outrage against intra-military injustices. Many of these officers as well as their comrades, who chose not to desert the institution, wish to contribute to genuine change in the country and leadership change within the armed forces. But they are finding there is little support coming from foreign governments.
- Finally, all governments that may be concerned about Burma's balkanisation and resultant regional instability should take note of pent-up frustrations which could boil over in the near future. There is a deepening sense of injustice due to decades of repression of non-Burman ethnic communities. It would be short-sighted for regional powers to allow the junta to maintain domestic stability at gunpoint, as opposed to firmly pushing the regime for peace and reconciliation. Sixty years after a series of ethnic-driven armed revolts, all minority groups are ready to work together as ethnic equals within a union. Even the few that publicly clamour for independence are doing so as a bargaining strategy, rather than as a realisable goal. It is the junta, not the country's ethnic diversity, that is creating regional volatility. The sooner Asian powers come to terms with this empirical reality the better for peace, stability and cross-border prosperity in the region.
The writer is Visiting Senior Fellow, Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, and Research Fellow on Burma, London School of Economics and Political Science.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - China Comes to Junta's Rescue Again
By WAI MOE - Friday, March 19, 2010
Beijing has once again come to the defense of Burma's ruling junta, using its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to block a move by the UK to raise the issue of the regime's recently announced electoral laws.
“A number of council members support the idea of discussing Burma and getting an update on the situation there. It’s the subject of negotiations with the Chinese at the moment, who are always reluctant on these matters,” a Western diplomat told Reuters on Friday.
Following the announcement of new electoral laws on March 8 that ban Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other dissidents from contesting this year's planned election, Burma's ruling generals have faced a fresh wave of international condemnation.
In an effort to apply pressure on the junta to review the laws, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country is also a permanent member of the UNSC, sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this week requesting an emergency meeting to discuss the matter.
“Burma has ignored the demands of the UN Security Council, the UN Secretary-General, the US, EU and its neighbors by imposing restrictive and unfair terms on elections,” Brown said on Monday, adding that the UK would seek international support to impose an arms embargo against Burma.
According to The Inner City Press, a news agency focusing on UN affairs, Mark Lyall Grant, London’s Permanent Representative to the UN, walked into the UNSC meeting on Tuesday morning to talk about Brown’s letter.
Instead of agreeing to a UNSC meeting on Burma, however, Ban requested a meeting of the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar [Burma] on March 25.
The Group of Friends includes Australia, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the UK, the US, Vietnam and the president of the EU, a position currently occupied by Spain.
It was formed in December 2007 as part of a renewed effort to find an international consensus to deal with Burma following the junta's crackdown on monk-led mass demonstrations in September of that year.
On Monday, Beijing also offered its support to the junta at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. China's representative to the council, Luo Cheng, said there has been an improvement in Burma human rights situation.
He added that China appreciated the regime’s efforts to achieve political reconciliation.
China also prevented the UNSC from taking up the subject of Burma in October 2009, when the matter was raised by the US and its allies. At the time, China said the council should focus on civilian casualties in Afghanistan instead of Burma.
Despite this show of public support for the regime, however, some Chinese experts on Burma said policy makers in Beijing were also disappointed by Naypyidaw’s election laws, which rejected international calls for inclusive elections.
A Chinese scholar on Burma who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the laws were not just a source of concern for the West, but also for China.
China is also worried about ethnic issues along the Sino-Burmese border. Tensions between Naypyidaw and border-based armed ceasefire groups have been growing since last year over the regime's demands for the groups to transform themselves into border guard forces. A return to open hostilities on the border could affect stability and impact on Chinese’s interests in Burma.
In addition to the billions of dollars invested by Chinese state-owned companies in Burma’s oil and gas and hydropower industries and Beijing's major role in developing trade routes to South and Southeast Asia through the country, Chinese businessmen are involving in a wide array of legal and illegal businesses in Burma, from border trade and jade mining to drug smuggling and human trafficking.
This week, officials from both countries held a regular meeting of a Sino-Burmese border committee in Tangyan, near areas controlled by the United Wa State Army, the largest ethnic ceasefire group. The tension over the border guard force issue was reportedly among the subjects discussed, as part of China's efforts to maintain stability on the border.
“Keeping the border area between China and Myanmar [Burma] stable is the most important task for the Chinese government,” the scholar said. “But what Beijing will do if instability occurs is a big secret in China.”
He added that Beijing is concerned that the Burmese regime's handling of the election law issue, which reflects its disregard for international opinion, could also be an indication of how it intends to deal with the ethnic ceasefire groups.
By WAI MOE - Friday, March 19, 2010
Beijing has once again come to the defense of Burma's ruling junta, using its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to block a move by the UK to raise the issue of the regime's recently announced electoral laws.
“A number of council members support the idea of discussing Burma and getting an update on the situation there. It’s the subject of negotiations with the Chinese at the moment, who are always reluctant on these matters,” a Western diplomat told Reuters on Friday.
Following the announcement of new electoral laws on March 8 that ban Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other dissidents from contesting this year's planned election, Burma's ruling generals have faced a fresh wave of international condemnation.
In an effort to apply pressure on the junta to review the laws, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country is also a permanent member of the UNSC, sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this week requesting an emergency meeting to discuss the matter.
“Burma has ignored the demands of the UN Security Council, the UN Secretary-General, the US, EU and its neighbors by imposing restrictive and unfair terms on elections,” Brown said on Monday, adding that the UK would seek international support to impose an arms embargo against Burma.
According to The Inner City Press, a news agency focusing on UN affairs, Mark Lyall Grant, London’s Permanent Representative to the UN, walked into the UNSC meeting on Tuesday morning to talk about Brown’s letter.
Instead of agreeing to a UNSC meeting on Burma, however, Ban requested a meeting of the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar [Burma] on March 25.
The Group of Friends includes Australia, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the UK, the US, Vietnam and the president of the EU, a position currently occupied by Spain.
It was formed in December 2007 as part of a renewed effort to find an international consensus to deal with Burma following the junta's crackdown on monk-led mass demonstrations in September of that year.
On Monday, Beijing also offered its support to the junta at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. China's representative to the council, Luo Cheng, said there has been an improvement in Burma human rights situation.
He added that China appreciated the regime’s efforts to achieve political reconciliation.
China also prevented the UNSC from taking up the subject of Burma in October 2009, when the matter was raised by the US and its allies. At the time, China said the council should focus on civilian casualties in Afghanistan instead of Burma.
Despite this show of public support for the regime, however, some Chinese experts on Burma said policy makers in Beijing were also disappointed by Naypyidaw’s election laws, which rejected international calls for inclusive elections.
A Chinese scholar on Burma who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the laws were not just a source of concern for the West, but also for China.
China is also worried about ethnic issues along the Sino-Burmese border. Tensions between Naypyidaw and border-based armed ceasefire groups have been growing since last year over the regime's demands for the groups to transform themselves into border guard forces. A return to open hostilities on the border could affect stability and impact on Chinese’s interests in Burma.
In addition to the billions of dollars invested by Chinese state-owned companies in Burma’s oil and gas and hydropower industries and Beijing's major role in developing trade routes to South and Southeast Asia through the country, Chinese businessmen are involving in a wide array of legal and illegal businesses in Burma, from border trade and jade mining to drug smuggling and human trafficking.
This week, officials from both countries held a regular meeting of a Sino-Burmese border committee in Tangyan, near areas controlled by the United Wa State Army, the largest ethnic ceasefire group. The tension over the border guard force issue was reportedly among the subjects discussed, as part of China's efforts to maintain stability on the border.
“Keeping the border area between China and Myanmar [Burma] stable is the most important task for the Chinese government,” the scholar said. “But what Beijing will do if instability occurs is a big secret in China.”
He added that Beijing is concerned that the Burmese regime's handling of the election law issue, which reflects its disregard for international opinion, could also be an indication of how it intends to deal with the ethnic ceasefire groups.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Opposition: International Community Must Reject Election
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN - Friday, March 19, 2010
More than 150 organizations representing the Burmese opposition, ethnic minority groups and overseas supporters call for the international community to denounce the planned Burmese election and refuse to recognize the results.
The recently announced electoral laws should serve as “a wake-up call” for those who thought that the election represented a potential opening for change in Burma, according to U Thein Oo, an MP-elect for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the 1990 election.
“Parties cannot campaign or participate when the law obliges them to kick out their leadership or many of their key members in advance,” he said. “With more than 2,100 political prisoners in Burma, many activists and politicians will be excluded, though some queries were raised as to whether the law prevents former prisoners from remaining in a political party. We are not clear on that.”
The opposition groups want to renegotiate the 2008 Constitution, which they regard as fundamentally flawed and an attempt by the junta to revamp military rule with a civilian veneer. This should be done via a “genuine and inclusive political dialogue,” they say, as called for by Australia, the UK and the US in recent months.
Other “minimum benchmarks” include the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi and the end of attacks against ethnic communities and democracy activists.
Ethnic minority groups are being urged to boycott the election, as the 2008 Constitution does not recognize ethnic diversity, according Karen National Union (KNU) head Zipporah Sein.
She said that the junta's pressure on ethnic militias to form a junta-led border guard force has worked with some of the smaller groups.
“They then adopt regime-style policies and tactics toward the local population,” she said, “committing the same atrocities as the army, such as forced displacement, rape, killing and more.”
Ma Khin Ohmar, the foreign affairs secretary at the Forum for Democracy in Burma, said that the UN Security Council should support the recent recommendation made by UN Special Rapporteur on Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, that an international commission of inquiry be set up to look into possible war crimes in Burma, adding “We call for a global arms embargo on a regime that uses its arsenal against its own people.”
Asked by The Irrawaddy about ethnic parties that are fielding candidates in the election, or have joined with junta-backed parties, Zipporah Sein and Khin Ohmar both said that people and groups can choose to join whichever groups they want, but warned, “They will not have any rights or opportunity under this system. We ask them to join with us, rather than endorse the 2008 Constitution, which they are doing by agreeing to participate in this military election.”
Asked about a possible split among ethnic voters, Zipporah Sein said, “Our message to the Karen and the other ethnic groups is that we do not accept the 2008 Constitution or the proposed 2010 elections.
The regime is using the election to cause divisions within the NLD and the ethnic groups.”
However, none of the speakers could point to any possible pan-opposition or pan-ethnic alliance, with a common position on opposing the election, as outlined in the campaign launched today.
“There is a network in place, but there is no plan for a summit to discuss a unified front,” said Zipporah Sein.
Burma watchers who remember the 1990 election recalled that although that election was not free and fair, on polling day the vote count resulted in a surprise landslide win for NLD candidates.
Asked if a similar outcome was possible in 2010, Khin Ohmar said that Burma is different now, with many of opposition leaders in jail or in exile and ethnic groups are under greater pressure from the junta, which has a vastly stronger military backed by increased oil and gas revenues.
“In 1990, the opposition was harassed, but it could carry out some work before election day,” she said. “This time the regime has done its homework, and the USDA and other groups are working ahead of time backed by massive spending resources and corrupt business cronies of the regime.”
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN - Friday, March 19, 2010
More than 150 organizations representing the Burmese opposition, ethnic minority groups and overseas supporters call for the international community to denounce the planned Burmese election and refuse to recognize the results.
The recently announced electoral laws should serve as “a wake-up call” for those who thought that the election represented a potential opening for change in Burma, according to U Thein Oo, an MP-elect for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the 1990 election.
“Parties cannot campaign or participate when the law obliges them to kick out their leadership or many of their key members in advance,” he said. “With more than 2,100 political prisoners in Burma, many activists and politicians will be excluded, though some queries were raised as to whether the law prevents former prisoners from remaining in a political party. We are not clear on that.”
The opposition groups want to renegotiate the 2008 Constitution, which they regard as fundamentally flawed and an attempt by the junta to revamp military rule with a civilian veneer. This should be done via a “genuine and inclusive political dialogue,” they say, as called for by Australia, the UK and the US in recent months.
Other “minimum benchmarks” include the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi and the end of attacks against ethnic communities and democracy activists.
Ethnic minority groups are being urged to boycott the election, as the 2008 Constitution does not recognize ethnic diversity, according Karen National Union (KNU) head Zipporah Sein.
She said that the junta's pressure on ethnic militias to form a junta-led border guard force has worked with some of the smaller groups.
“They then adopt regime-style policies and tactics toward the local population,” she said, “committing the same atrocities as the army, such as forced displacement, rape, killing and more.”
Ma Khin Ohmar, the foreign affairs secretary at the Forum for Democracy in Burma, said that the UN Security Council should support the recent recommendation made by UN Special Rapporteur on Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, that an international commission of inquiry be set up to look into possible war crimes in Burma, adding “We call for a global arms embargo on a regime that uses its arsenal against its own people.”
Asked by The Irrawaddy about ethnic parties that are fielding candidates in the election, or have joined with junta-backed parties, Zipporah Sein and Khin Ohmar both said that people and groups can choose to join whichever groups they want, but warned, “They will not have any rights or opportunity under this system. We ask them to join with us, rather than endorse the 2008 Constitution, which they are doing by agreeing to participate in this military election.”
Asked about a possible split among ethnic voters, Zipporah Sein said, “Our message to the Karen and the other ethnic groups is that we do not accept the 2008 Constitution or the proposed 2010 elections.
The regime is using the election to cause divisions within the NLD and the ethnic groups.”
However, none of the speakers could point to any possible pan-opposition or pan-ethnic alliance, with a common position on opposing the election, as outlined in the campaign launched today.
“There is a network in place, but there is no plan for a summit to discuss a unified front,” said Zipporah Sein.
Burma watchers who remember the 1990 election recalled that although that election was not free and fair, on polling day the vote count resulted in a surprise landslide win for NLD candidates.
Asked if a similar outcome was possible in 2010, Khin Ohmar said that Burma is different now, with many of opposition leaders in jail or in exile and ethnic groups are under greater pressure from the junta, which has a vastly stronger military backed by increased oil and gas revenues.
“In 1990, the opposition was harassed, but it could carry out some work before election day,” she said. “This time the regime has done its homework, and the USDA and other groups are working ahead of time backed by massive spending resources and corrupt business cronies of the regime.”
********************************************************
DVB News - US activist was denied sleep ‘for 14 days’
By AYE NAI
Published: 19 March 2010
The US rights activist released yesterday from a Burmese prison has described how he was tortured during interrogation by intelligence agents last year.
Burmese-born Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, arrived in Bangkok airport yesterday after being held in detention since September last year.
He told DVB that he had been taken to Rangoon’s Insein prison from another prison on the evening of 17 March and informed by prison authorities that he was going to be released the next morning.
“I began to realise I was going to be released. As my [mother and cousins] are imprisoned I was met by my relatives in Insein prison’s guest room,” he said.
A diplomat at the US embassy in Rangoon officially announced his release yesterday. Kyaw Zaw Lwin was asked to sign an agreement “vowing that I acknowledge that I will have to serve my remaining prison sentence if I get charged again in Burma”.
The activist’s aunt, Khin Khin Swe, said that he was accompanied to the plane by the US embassy counsellor.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin went on to describe how he was “mentally and physically tortured” after being arrested at Rangoon airport on 3 September, following which he was convicted on charges of fraud and forgery and sentenced to three years with hard labour.
“I was punched and had my fingers bent and also threatened with a knee to the face. I wasn’t allowed to lie down for 12 days in a row [during interrogation] and then another 14 days before I was sent to the prison,” he said.
Critics of the ruling junta in Burma said that he was being punished for his high-profile activist work, which included delivering a petition with 600,000 signatures to UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling for the release of political prisoners in Burma.
“I was arrested without a warrant as some as I came out of the plane. I believe it was politically motivated; I was detained for a reason I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t break any law – I am a person working to bring about a change for Burma and its people’s freedom.”
The reason for his early release remains unclear. His arrest and sentencing drew international condemnation, and the US has repeatedly called for his release, although there had been little inkling prior to Wednesday that this would take place.
Both his mother and two cousins remain in prison in Burma following their role in the September 2007 monk-led uprising. One cousin was given a 65-year sentence.
“In our country the administrative, the legal and the justice pillars have no independence,” he told DVB. “These are merely surviving under the rulers of the country.”
By AYE NAI
Published: 19 March 2010
The US rights activist released yesterday from a Burmese prison has described how he was tortured during interrogation by intelligence agents last year.
Burmese-born Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, arrived in Bangkok airport yesterday after being held in detention since September last year.
He told DVB that he had been taken to Rangoon’s Insein prison from another prison on the evening of 17 March and informed by prison authorities that he was going to be released the next morning.
“I began to realise I was going to be released. As my [mother and cousins] are imprisoned I was met by my relatives in Insein prison’s guest room,” he said.
A diplomat at the US embassy in Rangoon officially announced his release yesterday. Kyaw Zaw Lwin was asked to sign an agreement “vowing that I acknowledge that I will have to serve my remaining prison sentence if I get charged again in Burma”.
The activist’s aunt, Khin Khin Swe, said that he was accompanied to the plane by the US embassy counsellor.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin went on to describe how he was “mentally and physically tortured” after being arrested at Rangoon airport on 3 September, following which he was convicted on charges of fraud and forgery and sentenced to three years with hard labour.
“I was punched and had my fingers bent and also threatened with a knee to the face. I wasn’t allowed to lie down for 12 days in a row [during interrogation] and then another 14 days before I was sent to the prison,” he said.
Critics of the ruling junta in Burma said that he was being punished for his high-profile activist work, which included delivering a petition with 600,000 signatures to UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling for the release of political prisoners in Burma.
“I was arrested without a warrant as some as I came out of the plane. I believe it was politically motivated; I was detained for a reason I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t break any law – I am a person working to bring about a change for Burma and its people’s freedom.”
The reason for his early release remains unclear. His arrest and sentencing drew international condemnation, and the US has repeatedly called for his release, although there had been little inkling prior to Wednesday that this would take place.
Both his mother and two cousins remain in prison in Burma following their role in the September 2007 monk-led uprising. One cousin was given a 65-year sentence.
“In our country the administrative, the legal and the justice pillars have no independence,” he told DVB. “These are merely surviving under the rulers of the country.”
********************************************************
DVB News - Karen refugees leave Thai camp
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 19 March 2010
Nearly 300 Karen refugees in a makeshift camp in western Thailand have left due to difficult living conditions, according to a camp official.
The number of people who have left the Nong Bua camp in Thailand’s Tha Song Yang district is more than half of the total camp population. The refugees arrived there after fleeing fighting between Burmese troops and the opposition Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in June last year.
“It was too hot for them to live under the tarpaulin sheets and the water supply was insufficient,” said the official. “It is difficult for the refugees to find jobs outside [the camp] so they finally decided to leave and find work.”
He added that the remaining families in the camp are also likely to make their departure before end of this month.
The remaining families have requested for three months’ worth of food rations from the aid group Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) and will be ready to leave the camp when they get it, said one refugee.
“However, we’re not sure if many of us will be left here by the time we get the aid from TBBC,” he said.
Sally Thompson, deputy director of TBBC, said that a number of refugees had come forward to say they wished to return to Karen state in eastern Burma, and that the UN refugee agency was to interview them.
“The interview is to determine whether they are willing to return, and are not being pushed back,” she said.
In February a furore erupted after the Thai army suggested it would force a number of Karen back into Burma, although the repatriation has been suspended.
“We will only provide them with food to take back on the condition that UNHCR has access to them beforehand to conduct interviews to ensure they are willing to return,” Thompson added.
Nearly 40 British MPs on Wednesday called on the Thai government to stop pressuring the Karen refugees to return to Burma.
They alleged that any forced repatriation would be inhumane and illegal under international law, and would be effectively sending them to their death as the border area remains littered with landmines.
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 19 March 2010
Nearly 300 Karen refugees in a makeshift camp in western Thailand have left due to difficult living conditions, according to a camp official.
The number of people who have left the Nong Bua camp in Thailand’s Tha Song Yang district is more than half of the total camp population. The refugees arrived there after fleeing fighting between Burmese troops and the opposition Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in June last year.
“It was too hot for them to live under the tarpaulin sheets and the water supply was insufficient,” said the official. “It is difficult for the refugees to find jobs outside [the camp] so they finally decided to leave and find work.”
He added that the remaining families in the camp are also likely to make their departure before end of this month.
The remaining families have requested for three months’ worth of food rations from the aid group Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) and will be ready to leave the camp when they get it, said one refugee.
“However, we’re not sure if many of us will be left here by the time we get the aid from TBBC,” he said.
Sally Thompson, deputy director of TBBC, said that a number of refugees had come forward to say they wished to return to Karen state in eastern Burma, and that the UN refugee agency was to interview them.
“The interview is to determine whether they are willing to return, and are not being pushed back,” she said.
In February a furore erupted after the Thai army suggested it would force a number of Karen back into Burma, although the repatriation has been suspended.
“We will only provide them with food to take back on the condition that UNHCR has access to them beforehand to conduct interviews to ensure they are willing to return,” Thompson added.
Nearly 40 British MPs on Wednesday called on the Thai government to stop pressuring the Karen refugees to return to Burma.
They alleged that any forced repatriation would be inhumane and illegal under international law, and would be effectively sending them to their death as the border area remains littered with landmines.
********************************************************
DVB News - It is too early to condemn the elections
By LARRY JAGAN
Published: 18 March 2010
The Burmese junta never fully reveals its hand. And the main thrust of any announcement or policy is to keep the opposition and, to a lesser extent, the international community guessing. The junta supremo, Than Shwe is a master of psychological warfare; and he has certainly used the rolling out of the electoral laws, bit by bit, to keep the opposition on the back-foot.
Unfortunately the international community has reacted predictably by totally rejecting the laws that have been unveiled – even before all of them were published – and confidently pre-determining that the election would be neither free nor fair. The US and the UK both took a very hard line without looking carefully at the regulations. For them there is only one issue – the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi must be freed and allowed to contest the elections for the process to be credible and inclusive.
So far, few of the real nuts and bolts of the forthcoming election have actually been revealed, especially the campaign conditions. So it is a little premature to already completely condemn the election. Except for the players – those political parties and politicians inside the country who may be considering contesting the elections – it would be prudent to take a deeper look at the electoral laws.
“These laws laid down relatively fair conditions for the election,” said a senior member of a party that plans to register candidates to contest the election. The registration fee for each party – 300,000 kyat or $US300 – is comparatively cheap, and more crucially the fee for candidates to register to run in the elections is 500,000 kyat (or $US500); far below what was being predicted. Many politicians preparing for the elections believed it would be over $US2,000 and possibly as high as $US5,000.
“The most important condition is that the counting will take place at the polling stations, and the result announced there,” said a Burmese political pundit, who cannot be
identified as it is still against the law in the country to comment on the election. The count will also take place in front of local scrutinizers as representatives of all candidates will be allowed to watch the count and make sure there are no irregularities.
This means that that it will be harder for the regime to manipulate the results, like in the 2008 referendum, according to many analysts inside Burma. But the junta has made it abundantly clear that no international election monitors will be allowed in the country. Only last month, the interior minister, attorney general and the chief justice, all told the UN envoy on human rights Tomas Ojea Quintana in no uncertain terms that international observers were not needed. So doubts about the transparency of the process will remain, particularly as seems highly unlikely that foreign journalists will be allowed into the country to cover the campaign or the polls.
“Compared to many other international examples, these laws would not be judged as particularly unfair,” a Western diplomat based in Rangoon told DVB on condition of anonymity. “But it’s the context that matters – a heavily controlled constitution-drafting process, a constitution in favour of the military, a sham referendum result, and 20 years of determined deterrence to would-be political actors,” she said.
Within in this context, it is not unexpected that most analysts, diplomats and observers are reluctant to give the regime the benefit of the doubt. So much in practice may in fact depend on the group of individuals who have been selected by the junta to oversee the election – the new Election Commission.
“The election commission has, as in many democratic elections elsewhere, been given a large degree of authority,” said a Western diplomat who covers Burma. “The difference here is that the authority they have is superficial – their authority will be limited to issuing decisions made behind the scenes at a higher level.”
There is little known about the seventeen members of the electoral commission who were recently appointed, except from the president U Thein Soe. He was a vice chief justice of Burma’s supreme court and former military judge advocate general – very much a military man, though no longer actually in uniform. Among the other members are also former military officers, judges, professors and a retired ambassador. Academics, civil servants and the judiciary have not all been severely cowed under the repressive military regime so are unlikely to try to be independent and much more likely to follow the instructions of the junta leaders.
Since 1962, and particularly since 1988, no court judgement in Burma has gone against the military regime. So there is no reason to assume their behaviour will change now. The previous election commission actually dismissed Aung San Suu Kyi as the National League for Democracy’s secretary general, but the party ignored the instruction and she carried on in that role – even during her long periods of house arrest.
The fact that the 1990 election results have now been formally annulled should also come as no surprise. The fact that the regime has drawn up a new constitution, rammed through a referendum and scheduled fresh elections all in essence made the 1990 elections redundant. Of course this is a disappointment for the NLD and other opposition politicians who toiled so hard to win 20 years ago – and suffered harassment, intimidation and in many cases detention ever since.
Now if they want to contest the next elections, they will have to be vetted by the new election commissioners. “The commission shall invite and interrogate any persons and examine relevant documents of anyone wishing to stand for election before accepting or rejecting their nomination,” says the election by-laws issued by the commission on Thursday, thus giving them enormous control over who is allowed to stand for election. “They will certainly closely scrutinize anyone that the regime objects to and find ways of disqualifying them,” said a senior member of the pro-democracy movement in Thailand, Zin Linn.
There are also severe limits to the amount of money a party and candidate can use in their election campaign. Each candidate can only spend up to 10 million kyat ($US10,000), either from party funds or their own finances. All parties and candidates are strictly prohibited from receiving money from abroad – which is no different from most countries, including the United States. But election finances will certainly be meticulously examined by the EC which can outlaw candidates or political parties for electoral infringements.
Of course the biggest problem with the laws remains the fact that all political activists currently in prison, including Aung San Suu Kyi – though some observers like the former British Ambassador to Thailand and Vietnam, Derek Tonkin, now a leading commentator on Burmese affairs suggests she should actually be exempted as she is under house arrest and not in jail – not only cannot run for election, but cannot be members of a political party. This undoubtedly is unfair – as these people are in prison because they were politically active. Most also have been unfairly convicted and usually on trumped-up charges.
“This [provision] is a gratuitous flouting of the junta’s authority,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty’s Bangkok-based Burma researcher. “For the election to be credible, all political prisoners must be released and allowed to participate.”
This is a crucial point that many governments and human rights groups have been making loudly all along. For if the elections are to be inclusive and transparent as representatives of the regime have been insisting, including the foreign minister Nyan Win at an Non-Aligned Movement meeting in the Philippines this week, all political prisoners must be freed.
The UN envoy for human rights told DVB that throughout his recent visit to Burma, he continued to stress the need to release all political prisoners before the elections if the process was to at all believable. “These are well-educated and capable people who could participate in the election and help make the whole process credible, I told the authorities,” he said.
While this is completely true, and the election will not be seen internationally as free and fair if they remain in detention, this does not make the election laws unacceptable. At present there are more than 2,000 political prisoners, including more than 400 NLD members. Though it is highly likely that many of them will be released in a mass amnesty once the election date is announced – it is almost certain that Aung San Suu Kyi and the imprisoned activists in the 88 group will not be among them.
But if Aung San Suu Kyi is prevented from taking part in the elections, this in itself will not make the elections unfair or unfree. They would certainly not be inclusive or credible. But what the laws reveal is that the regime is putting into place systems whereby they will can effectively control the results. The Election Commission is going to be the problem – as they can effectively determine the result and claim to be doing it on quasi-legal grounds.
By LARRY JAGAN
Published: 18 March 2010
The Burmese junta never fully reveals its hand. And the main thrust of any announcement or policy is to keep the opposition and, to a lesser extent, the international community guessing. The junta supremo, Than Shwe is a master of psychological warfare; and he has certainly used the rolling out of the electoral laws, bit by bit, to keep the opposition on the back-foot.
Unfortunately the international community has reacted predictably by totally rejecting the laws that have been unveiled – even before all of them were published – and confidently pre-determining that the election would be neither free nor fair. The US and the UK both took a very hard line without looking carefully at the regulations. For them there is only one issue – the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi must be freed and allowed to contest the elections for the process to be credible and inclusive.
So far, few of the real nuts and bolts of the forthcoming election have actually been revealed, especially the campaign conditions. So it is a little premature to already completely condemn the election. Except for the players – those political parties and politicians inside the country who may be considering contesting the elections – it would be prudent to take a deeper look at the electoral laws.
“These laws laid down relatively fair conditions for the election,” said a senior member of a party that plans to register candidates to contest the election. The registration fee for each party – 300,000 kyat or $US300 – is comparatively cheap, and more crucially the fee for candidates to register to run in the elections is 500,000 kyat (or $US500); far below what was being predicted. Many politicians preparing for the elections believed it would be over $US2,000 and possibly as high as $US5,000.
“The most important condition is that the counting will take place at the polling stations, and the result announced there,” said a Burmese political pundit, who cannot be
identified as it is still against the law in the country to comment on the election. The count will also take place in front of local scrutinizers as representatives of all candidates will be allowed to watch the count and make sure there are no irregularities.
This means that that it will be harder for the regime to manipulate the results, like in the 2008 referendum, according to many analysts inside Burma. But the junta has made it abundantly clear that no international election monitors will be allowed in the country. Only last month, the interior minister, attorney general and the chief justice, all told the UN envoy on human rights Tomas Ojea Quintana in no uncertain terms that international observers were not needed. So doubts about the transparency of the process will remain, particularly as seems highly unlikely that foreign journalists will be allowed into the country to cover the campaign or the polls.
“Compared to many other international examples, these laws would not be judged as particularly unfair,” a Western diplomat based in Rangoon told DVB on condition of anonymity. “But it’s the context that matters – a heavily controlled constitution-drafting process, a constitution in favour of the military, a sham referendum result, and 20 years of determined deterrence to would-be political actors,” she said.
Within in this context, it is not unexpected that most analysts, diplomats and observers are reluctant to give the regime the benefit of the doubt. So much in practice may in fact depend on the group of individuals who have been selected by the junta to oversee the election – the new Election Commission.
“The election commission has, as in many democratic elections elsewhere, been given a large degree of authority,” said a Western diplomat who covers Burma. “The difference here is that the authority they have is superficial – their authority will be limited to issuing decisions made behind the scenes at a higher level.”
There is little known about the seventeen members of the electoral commission who were recently appointed, except from the president U Thein Soe. He was a vice chief justice of Burma’s supreme court and former military judge advocate general – very much a military man, though no longer actually in uniform. Among the other members are also former military officers, judges, professors and a retired ambassador. Academics, civil servants and the judiciary have not all been severely cowed under the repressive military regime so are unlikely to try to be independent and much more likely to follow the instructions of the junta leaders.
Since 1962, and particularly since 1988, no court judgement in Burma has gone against the military regime. So there is no reason to assume their behaviour will change now. The previous election commission actually dismissed Aung San Suu Kyi as the National League for Democracy’s secretary general, but the party ignored the instruction and she carried on in that role – even during her long periods of house arrest.
The fact that the 1990 election results have now been formally annulled should also come as no surprise. The fact that the regime has drawn up a new constitution, rammed through a referendum and scheduled fresh elections all in essence made the 1990 elections redundant. Of course this is a disappointment for the NLD and other opposition politicians who toiled so hard to win 20 years ago – and suffered harassment, intimidation and in many cases detention ever since.
Now if they want to contest the next elections, they will have to be vetted by the new election commissioners. “The commission shall invite and interrogate any persons and examine relevant documents of anyone wishing to stand for election before accepting or rejecting their nomination,” says the election by-laws issued by the commission on Thursday, thus giving them enormous control over who is allowed to stand for election. “They will certainly closely scrutinize anyone that the regime objects to and find ways of disqualifying them,” said a senior member of the pro-democracy movement in Thailand, Zin Linn.
There are also severe limits to the amount of money a party and candidate can use in their election campaign. Each candidate can only spend up to 10 million kyat ($US10,000), either from party funds or their own finances. All parties and candidates are strictly prohibited from receiving money from abroad – which is no different from most countries, including the United States. But election finances will certainly be meticulously examined by the EC which can outlaw candidates or political parties for electoral infringements.
Of course the biggest problem with the laws remains the fact that all political activists currently in prison, including Aung San Suu Kyi – though some observers like the former British Ambassador to Thailand and Vietnam, Derek Tonkin, now a leading commentator on Burmese affairs suggests she should actually be exempted as she is under house arrest and not in jail – not only cannot run for election, but cannot be members of a political party. This undoubtedly is unfair – as these people are in prison because they were politically active. Most also have been unfairly convicted and usually on trumped-up charges.
“This [provision] is a gratuitous flouting of the junta’s authority,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty’s Bangkok-based Burma researcher. “For the election to be credible, all political prisoners must be released and allowed to participate.”
This is a crucial point that many governments and human rights groups have been making loudly all along. For if the elections are to be inclusive and transparent as representatives of the regime have been insisting, including the foreign minister Nyan Win at an Non-Aligned Movement meeting in the Philippines this week, all political prisoners must be freed.
The UN envoy for human rights told DVB that throughout his recent visit to Burma, he continued to stress the need to release all political prisoners before the elections if the process was to at all believable. “These are well-educated and capable people who could participate in the election and help make the whole process credible, I told the authorities,” he said.
While this is completely true, and the election will not be seen internationally as free and fair if they remain in detention, this does not make the election laws unacceptable. At present there are more than 2,000 political prisoners, including more than 400 NLD members. Though it is highly likely that many of them will be released in a mass amnesty once the election date is announced – it is almost certain that Aung San Suu Kyi and the imprisoned activists in the 88 group will not be among them.
But if Aung San Suu Kyi is prevented from taking part in the elections, this in itself will not make the elections unfair or unfree. They would certainly not be inclusive or credible. But what the laws reveal is that the regime is putting into place systems whereby they will can effectively control the results. The Election Commission is going to be the problem – as they can effectively determine the result and claim to be doing it on quasi-legal grounds.
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