U.N. rights envoy seeks Myanmar war crimes inquiry
Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:37pm IST
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights investigator for Myanmar called on Thursday for an international inquiry into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the ruling junta.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said a pattern of gross and systematic violations of fundamental freedoms continued in the country formerly known as Burma which has promised elections this year.
"According to consistent reports, the possibility exists that some of these human rights violations may entail categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes under the terms of the statute of the International Criminal Court," Ojea Quintana said in a 30-page report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Activist groups welcomed his recommendation, calling it unprecedented since the United Nations established a mandate to look into human rights violations in Myanmar in 1992.
Violations included mass arrests of dissidents, deaths and torture of detainees, lack of freedom of assembly, religion and expression, and forced labour, according to the Argentine lawyer who made his third trip to Myanmar last month.
As Myanmar had failed to investigate the abuses, "U.N. institutions may consider the possibility to establish a commission of inquiry with a specific fact-finding mandate to address the question of international crimes," he said.
There were indications that the violations were "the result of a state policy that involves authorities in the executive, military and judiciary at all levels," he said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS DOUBLE
Ojea Quintana called for the release of 2,100 political prisoners -- including monks, students, lawyers, journalists and dissidents -- that he said were being detained in Myanmar. They had nearly doubled in number in the past two years.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years and was sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest last August, is among them.
He called for the end of her house arrest, saying it violated both international and domestic law, and voiced regret that he was not allowed to visit her on his latest mission.
Myanmar's military government has allowed her National League for Democracy party to reopen regional branch offices that have been closed since May 2003, a party spokesman said in Yangon on Thursday.
"The elections cannot be free, fair, transparent and inclusive, in accordance with international standards, without the freedom of expression, opinion, association and assembly," Ojea Quintana declared.
Noting there was still no election date, he said that the delay raised serious doubts about the possibility of providing adequate time for all parties to fairly contest the elections.
Dissenting voices are not tolerated in Myanmar and there are at least 12 journalists and many more bloggers in prison, according to the independent investigator.
Ojea Quintana voiced concern at reports about an "alarmingly high number of deaths in prison". Deprivation of food and water, as well as denial of medical care, are used as punishment. Up to 130 political prisoners are said to be in poor health, he said.
Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:37pm IST
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights investigator for Myanmar called on Thursday for an international inquiry into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the ruling junta.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said a pattern of gross and systematic violations of fundamental freedoms continued in the country formerly known as Burma which has promised elections this year.
"According to consistent reports, the possibility exists that some of these human rights violations may entail categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes under the terms of the statute of the International Criminal Court," Ojea Quintana said in a 30-page report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Activist groups welcomed his recommendation, calling it unprecedented since the United Nations established a mandate to look into human rights violations in Myanmar in 1992.
Violations included mass arrests of dissidents, deaths and torture of detainees, lack of freedom of assembly, religion and expression, and forced labour, according to the Argentine lawyer who made his third trip to Myanmar last month.
As Myanmar had failed to investigate the abuses, "U.N. institutions may consider the possibility to establish a commission of inquiry with a specific fact-finding mandate to address the question of international crimes," he said.
There were indications that the violations were "the result of a state policy that involves authorities in the executive, military and judiciary at all levels," he said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS DOUBLE
Ojea Quintana called for the release of 2,100 political prisoners -- including monks, students, lawyers, journalists and dissidents -- that he said were being detained in Myanmar. They had nearly doubled in number in the past two years.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years and was sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest last August, is among them.
He called for the end of her house arrest, saying it violated both international and domestic law, and voiced regret that he was not allowed to visit her on his latest mission.
Myanmar's military government has allowed her National League for Democracy party to reopen regional branch offices that have been closed since May 2003, a party spokesman said in Yangon on Thursday.
"The elections cannot be free, fair, transparent and inclusive, in accordance with international standards, without the freedom of expression, opinion, association and assembly," Ojea Quintana declared.
Noting there was still no election date, he said that the delay raised serious doubts about the possibility of providing adequate time for all parties to fairly contest the elections.
Dissenting voices are not tolerated in Myanmar and there are at least 12 journalists and many more bloggers in prison, according to the independent investigator.
Ojea Quintana voiced concern at reports about an "alarmingly high number of deaths in prison". Deprivation of food and water, as well as denial of medical care, are used as punishment. Up to 130 political prisoners are said to be in poor health, he said.
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Myanmar's Suu Kyi urges response to 'unjust' law
Thu Mar 11, 8:00 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday called on Myanmar's people to give a united response to an "unjust" election law, her lawyer Nyan Win told AFP.
"The people and political forces have to respond united to such an unjust law," Suu Kyi said, according to Nyan Win, after he visited the democracy icon at her house. "She didn't think such a repressive law would come out."
Under new election legislation Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi faces exclusion from her own National League for Democracy (NLD) party and is not allowed to stand in elections this year on the grounds that she is a serving prisoner.
Thu Mar 11, 8:00 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday called on Myanmar's people to give a united response to an "unjust" election law, her lawyer Nyan Win told AFP.
"The people and political forces have to respond united to such an unjust law," Suu Kyi said, according to Nyan Win, after he visited the democracy icon at her house. "She didn't think such a repressive law would come out."
Under new election legislation Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi faces exclusion from her own National League for Democracy (NLD) party and is not allowed to stand in elections this year on the grounds that she is a serving prisoner.
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Myanmar junta appoints election commission
Thu Mar 11, 6:00 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's military junta has appointed the country's new election commission ahead of this year's polls, just days after announcing electoral laws, state media said on Thursday.
Government-run television and radio said the regime had issued an order appointing a 17-member commission, naming the chairman as Thein Soe, although it gave no further details.
It is the commission that will announce dates for upcoming elections promised by the ruling generals some time this year. Analysts say the most likely time for the polls is October or November.
Thu Mar 11, 6:00 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's military junta has appointed the country's new election commission ahead of this year's polls, just days after announcing electoral laws, state media said on Thursday.
Government-run television and radio said the regime had issued an order appointing a 17-member commission, naming the chairman as Thein Soe, although it gave no further details.
It is the commission that will announce dates for upcoming elections promised by the ruling generals some time this year. Analysts say the most likely time for the polls is October or November.
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Myanmar annuls Suu Kyi's 1990 election win
Thu Mar 11, 1:20 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's ruling junta has used new election laws to officially annul the result of polls in 1990 that were won by Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, state media said Thursday.
The regime is planning to hold elections later this year, the first in the country since Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy swept to victory two decades ago.
The NLD was prevented from taking power by the military at the time but the result has not been formally cancelled until now. Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the subsequent 20 years in detention.
"The result of the multi-party democracy elections, held under a deleted law, is automatically abolished as it is not in accordance with the constitution," said a clause in one of the laws printed in state newspapers.
The junta enacted the long-awaited new electoral laws on Monday and details have emerged during the week.
The most controversial of them says that the NLD must expel Suu Kyi from its ranks or be dissolved on the grounds that a person serving a prison term cannot be a party member.
Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years' jail in August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home, but her sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
Another law says that the junta itself will hand-pick members of the country's new electoral commission.
No date for this year's elections has been set but they are expected to be in October or November.
Thu Mar 11, 1:20 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's ruling junta has used new election laws to officially annul the result of polls in 1990 that were won by Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, state media said Thursday.
The regime is planning to hold elections later this year, the first in the country since Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy swept to victory two decades ago.
The NLD was prevented from taking power by the military at the time but the result has not been formally cancelled until now. Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the subsequent 20 years in detention.
"The result of the multi-party democracy elections, held under a deleted law, is automatically abolished as it is not in accordance with the constitution," said a clause in one of the laws printed in state newspapers.
The junta enacted the long-awaited new electoral laws on Monday and details have emerged during the week.
The most controversial of them says that the NLD must expel Suu Kyi from its ranks or be dissolved on the grounds that a person serving a prison term cannot be a party member.
Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years' jail in August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home, but her sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
Another law says that the junta itself will hand-pick members of the country's new electoral commission.
No date for this year's elections has been set but they are expected to be in October or November.
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Govt. concerned over new Myanmar election laws
Wed Mar 10, 3:31 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Britain expressed "regret" Wednesday that Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi faces exclusion from her own party and is barred from standing in polls this year under new election laws.
"We are concerned at the implications of the laws we've seen so far, and regret that they are not based on genuine and inclusive dialogue between the regime, opposition and ethnic groups," said Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis.
"Our position remains that elections in (Myanmar) will not be credible unless such dialogue takes place."
He further demanded that "all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are released and allowed to participate fully in the political process" for a vote to be acceptable.
In a law printed for the first time Wednesday in state newspapers, Myanmar's military junta said that anyone serving a prison term cannot be a member of a political party.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) -- which won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 but was stopped from taking power by the junta -- would in turn be abolished if it failed to obey the rules.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years' jail in August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. Suu Kyi's sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
The Political Parties Registration Act also gives the NLD just 60 days from Monday, when the law was enacted, to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, or else face dissolution.
The NLD has yet to announce whether it will take part in the polls promised by the junta, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.
Wed Mar 10, 3:31 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Britain expressed "regret" Wednesday that Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi faces exclusion from her own party and is barred from standing in polls this year under new election laws.
"We are concerned at the implications of the laws we've seen so far, and regret that they are not based on genuine and inclusive dialogue between the regime, opposition and ethnic groups," said Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis.
"Our position remains that elections in (Myanmar) will not be credible unless such dialogue takes place."
He further demanded that "all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are released and allowed to participate fully in the political process" for a vote to be acceptable.
In a law printed for the first time Wednesday in state newspapers, Myanmar's military junta said that anyone serving a prison term cannot be a member of a political party.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) -- which won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 but was stopped from taking power by the junta -- would in turn be abolished if it failed to obey the rules.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years' jail in August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. Suu Kyi's sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
The Political Parties Registration Act also gives the NLD just 60 days from Monday, when the law was enacted, to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, or else face dissolution.
The NLD has yet to announce whether it will take part in the polls promised by the junta, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.
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U.S. calls Myanmar election laws "a mockery"
Wed Mar 10, 5:52 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New laws enacted by Myanmar's military government make a mockery of democracy and ensure that elections due later this year will be a farce, the United States said on Wednesday.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the election measures, which set strict limits on political participation, undercut U.S. efforts to improve ties with the country formerly known as Burma.
"Given the tenor of the election laws that they've put forward, there's no hope that this election will be credible," Crowley told a news briefing.
"This is a step in the wrong direction," Crowley said, adding that the set of laws published this week "makes a mockery of the democratic process."
A spokesman for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed concern over the new laws.
"The indications available so far suggest that they do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process," spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.
The measures are being released in advance of Myanmar's first elections in 20 years. No date has yet been set for polls already regarded with deep skepticism by many political observers.
Crowley said the United States would continue to seek dialogue with Myanmar, which remains under economic sanctions first imposed in 1988 after the military junta cracked down on student-led protests.
But he conceded that overtures made last year by President Barack Obama to encourage democratic reforms had so far failed to achieve progress.
"Our engagement with Burma will have to continue so we can make clear that the results thus far are not what we expected and they're going to have to do better," Crowley said.
Under the new laws, Myanmar's military government is requiring several parties including the National League for Democracy (NLD), the opposition group headed by detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to re-register with officials within 60 days or face closure.
Parties that register will be required to exclude members serving prison terms. This would include Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention and is now serving 18 months in house detention for breaching security laws.
Many other senior NLD members are among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to rights activists, and the party has not said whether it intends to participate in the elections.
Wed Mar 10, 5:52 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New laws enacted by Myanmar's military government make a mockery of democracy and ensure that elections due later this year will be a farce, the United States said on Wednesday.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the election measures, which set strict limits on political participation, undercut U.S. efforts to improve ties with the country formerly known as Burma.
"Given the tenor of the election laws that they've put forward, there's no hope that this election will be credible," Crowley told a news briefing.
"This is a step in the wrong direction," Crowley said, adding that the set of laws published this week "makes a mockery of the democratic process."
A spokesman for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed concern over the new laws.
"The indications available so far suggest that they do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process," spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.
The measures are being released in advance of Myanmar's first elections in 20 years. No date has yet been set for polls already regarded with deep skepticism by many political observers.
Crowley said the United States would continue to seek dialogue with Myanmar, which remains under economic sanctions first imposed in 1988 after the military junta cracked down on student-led protests.
But he conceded that overtures made last year by President Barack Obama to encourage democratic reforms had so far failed to achieve progress.
"Our engagement with Burma will have to continue so we can make clear that the results thus far are not what we expected and they're going to have to do better," Crowley said.
Under the new laws, Myanmar's military government is requiring several parties including the National League for Democracy (NLD), the opposition group headed by detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to re-register with officials within 60 days or face closure.
Parties that register will be required to exclude members serving prison terms. This would include Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention and is now serving 18 months in house detention for breaching security laws.
Many other senior NLD members are among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to rights activists, and the party has not said whether it intends to participate in the elections.
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Myanmar lets Suu Kyi's party reopen offices
By Aung Hla Tun – Thu Mar 11, 7:44 am ET
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar's military government has allowed the party of detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to reopen regional branch offices that have been closed since May 2003, a party spokesman said on Thursday.
"So far as we have heard, about 100 branch offices have been reopened across the country, effective Wednesday," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD).
The government closed down NLD branch offices after an attack on Suu Kyi's convoy by pro-regime elements on May 30, 2003. Scores of NLD followers were killed, according to her supporters.
Nyan Win gave a guarded welcome to the government's move.
"Yes, it's a positive step," he said. "I think they want us to take part in the election, but we still haven't made up our mind about this. We still need to talk it over among the top leaders, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi."
The junta plans elections at an unspecified date this year, although the poll has been widely derided in advance as a sham to make the country appear democratic, with the military retaining control over key ministries and institutions.
This week it began publishing a series of election laws in state media, including one mentioning for the first time that the result of the last nationwide polls in 1990 -- won by the NLD but ignored by the junta -- was annulled because they failed to comply with a law enacted on Monday.
The NLD won 392 of the 485 seats in parliament in the 1990 election but was never allowed to rule.
The second election law, published on Wednesday, obliges the NLD and some other parties to re-register within 60 days with a new election commission.
Failure to do so means they will have to fold.
In order to register, they have to exclude party members who are serving prison terms.
PARTY LAW "SHAMEFUL"
That would include Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in some form of detention and is now serving 18 months in house detention for breaching security laws.
Suu Kyi described the law excluding political prisoners as "shameful" and was intended to sideline her.
"This law seems to have been drawn up for a particular person," Nyan Win quoted her as saying after meeting her on Thursday afternoon at her lakeside home in Yangon.
"A law should have been meant for all, not a particular person like this. It's very shameful and I am very disappointed."
Regardless of the law, a clause in both the current and previous constitutions would have prevented Suu Kyi from standing because of her marriage to a foreigner -- the late British academic Michael Aris -- and British citizenship of her children.
Many other senior NLD members are among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to rights activists. All would effectively be barred from taking part in the election.
Nyan Win described some of the provisions of the new law as "completely unacceptable."
Parties wanting to register also have to give a written commitment to uphold the constitution passed in 2008, which the NLD rejects and campaigned against. "It's completely impossible for us," he said.
The United States said on Wednesday the restrictions were "a step in the wrong direction" that made a mockery of democracy, while rights group Amnesty International urged the government to overturn the law, saying political prisoners should be allowed to take part in the polls.
"Instead of passing laws that strip away more of their rights, the Myanmar authorities should immediately release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and remove restrictions on their political activity," Amnesty said.
By Aung Hla Tun – Thu Mar 11, 7:44 am ET
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar's military government has allowed the party of detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to reopen regional branch offices that have been closed since May 2003, a party spokesman said on Thursday.
"So far as we have heard, about 100 branch offices have been reopened across the country, effective Wednesday," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD).
The government closed down NLD branch offices after an attack on Suu Kyi's convoy by pro-regime elements on May 30, 2003. Scores of NLD followers were killed, according to her supporters.
Nyan Win gave a guarded welcome to the government's move.
"Yes, it's a positive step," he said. "I think they want us to take part in the election, but we still haven't made up our mind about this. We still need to talk it over among the top leaders, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi."
The junta plans elections at an unspecified date this year, although the poll has been widely derided in advance as a sham to make the country appear democratic, with the military retaining control over key ministries and institutions.
This week it began publishing a series of election laws in state media, including one mentioning for the first time that the result of the last nationwide polls in 1990 -- won by the NLD but ignored by the junta -- was annulled because they failed to comply with a law enacted on Monday.
The NLD won 392 of the 485 seats in parliament in the 1990 election but was never allowed to rule.
The second election law, published on Wednesday, obliges the NLD and some other parties to re-register within 60 days with a new election commission.
Failure to do so means they will have to fold.
In order to register, they have to exclude party members who are serving prison terms.
PARTY LAW "SHAMEFUL"
That would include Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in some form of detention and is now serving 18 months in house detention for breaching security laws.
Suu Kyi described the law excluding political prisoners as "shameful" and was intended to sideline her.
"This law seems to have been drawn up for a particular person," Nyan Win quoted her as saying after meeting her on Thursday afternoon at her lakeside home in Yangon.
"A law should have been meant for all, not a particular person like this. It's very shameful and I am very disappointed."
Regardless of the law, a clause in both the current and previous constitutions would have prevented Suu Kyi from standing because of her marriage to a foreigner -- the late British academic Michael Aris -- and British citizenship of her children.
Many other senior NLD members are among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to rights activists. All would effectively be barred from taking part in the election.
Nyan Win described some of the provisions of the new law as "completely unacceptable."
Parties wanting to register also have to give a written commitment to uphold the constitution passed in 2008, which the NLD rejects and campaigned against. "It's completely impossible for us," he said.
The United States said on Wednesday the restrictions were "a step in the wrong direction" that made a mockery of democracy, while rights group Amnesty International urged the government to overturn the law, saying political prisoners should be allowed to take part in the polls.
"Instead of passing laws that strip away more of their rights, the Myanmar authorities should immediately release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and remove restrictions on their political activity," Amnesty said.
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Channel NewsAsia - UN urges Myanmar to let Aung San Suu Kyi contest polls
Posted: 11 March 2010 1022 hrs
UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday renewed his appeal to Myanmar rulers to let detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi take part in upcoming polls after new election laws disqualified her.
"The Secretary General reiterates his call for the Myanmar authorities to ensure an inclusive political process leading to fair, transparent and credible elections in which all citizens of Myanmar, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, can freely participate," his office said in a statement.
In a law printed for the first time Wednesday in state newspapers, Myanmar's military junta said that anyone serving a prison term cannot be a member of a political party.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) - which won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 but was stopped from taking power by the junta - would in turn be abolished if it failed to obey the rules.
The United Nations said it was carefully studying the new laws, adding: "the indications available so far suggest that they do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process."
Myanmar's Political Parties Registration Act also gives the NLD just 60 days from Monday, when the law was enacted, to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, or else face dissolution.
The NLD has yet to announce whether it will take part in the polls promised by the junta, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.
The 64-year-old Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since the previous elections.
She was already barred from standing as a candidate under a new constitution approved in a 2008 referendum that stipulates that those married to foreigners are ineligible. Her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years' jail last August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. Suu Kyi's sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
Posted: 11 March 2010 1022 hrs
UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday renewed his appeal to Myanmar rulers to let detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi take part in upcoming polls after new election laws disqualified her.
"The Secretary General reiterates his call for the Myanmar authorities to ensure an inclusive political process leading to fair, transparent and credible elections in which all citizens of Myanmar, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, can freely participate," his office said in a statement.
In a law printed for the first time Wednesday in state newspapers, Myanmar's military junta said that anyone serving a prison term cannot be a member of a political party.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) - which won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 but was stopped from taking power by the junta - would in turn be abolished if it failed to obey the rules.
The United Nations said it was carefully studying the new laws, adding: "the indications available so far suggest that they do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process."
Myanmar's Political Parties Registration Act also gives the NLD just 60 days from Monday, when the law was enacted, to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, or else face dissolution.
The NLD has yet to announce whether it will take part in the polls promised by the junta, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.
The 64-year-old Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since the previous elections.
She was already barred from standing as a candidate under a new constitution approved in a 2008 referendum that stipulates that those married to foreigners are ineligible. Her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years' jail last August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. Suu Kyi's sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
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EarthTimes - Philippines calls on Myanmar to rescind law disqualifying Suu Kyi
Posted : Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:32:09 GMT
Manila - The Philippines Thursday urged Myanmar to rescind a new election law that disqualifies democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in national polls planned this year. Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo also reiterated the Philippines' call for Myanmar's ruling generals to free Suu Kyi ahead of the elections.
"Unless they release Suu Kyi and allow her party to participate in the elections, it's a complete farce and therefore contrary to their road map to democracy," he said.
As the new regulation was simply imposed by the ruling junta, revoking it would not involve complicated procedures, he said, adding "they can remove the law anytime."
The new election law, announced by Myanmar on Wednesday, prohibits anyone convicted of a crime from being a member of a political party or a candidate in the elections.
The law makes Suu Kyi, who was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest in August 2009, ineligible to run in the elections expected later this year.
The new decree would also prevent Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy opposition party from contesting the elections, even with another candidate, as long as she remains on its membership rolls, party spokesman Nyan Win explained.
The Philippines and Myanmar are both members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, which has often been criticized for failing to exert more pressure on Yangon to implement democratic reforms.
Posted : Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:32:09 GMT
Manila - The Philippines Thursday urged Myanmar to rescind a new election law that disqualifies democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in national polls planned this year. Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo also reiterated the Philippines' call for Myanmar's ruling generals to free Suu Kyi ahead of the elections.
"Unless they release Suu Kyi and allow her party to participate in the elections, it's a complete farce and therefore contrary to their road map to democracy," he said.
As the new regulation was simply imposed by the ruling junta, revoking it would not involve complicated procedures, he said, adding "they can remove the law anytime."
The new election law, announced by Myanmar on Wednesday, prohibits anyone convicted of a crime from being a member of a political party or a candidate in the elections.
The law makes Suu Kyi, who was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest in August 2009, ineligible to run in the elections expected later this year.
The new decree would also prevent Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy opposition party from contesting the elections, even with another candidate, as long as she remains on its membership rolls, party spokesman Nyan Win explained.
The Philippines and Myanmar are both members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, which has often been criticized for failing to exert more pressure on Yangon to implement democratic reforms.
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People's Daily Online - S Korean preferential tariff scheme to boost Myanmar export
16:14, March 11, 2010
South Korea has unilaterally offered duty-free quota-free tariff to 251 more exporting items of Myanmar under its preferential tariff scheme for least-developed countries, bringing as many as 85 percent of Myanmar's exporting commodities under such status up to January this year.
The status was up from 80 percent in 2009 and 75 percent in 2008.
Korea's preferential tariff scheme for the least-developed countries covers granting duty-free quota-free status for commodities of 4,074 categories at H.S 6 digital level which are outlined as agricultural produce, marine products, animal byproducts, garments, mineral, industrial products, medicine and pharmaceuticals, chemical products, handicrafts and so on.
Of these commodities covered by the scheme, there include some agricultural produce, marines and garment products of Myanmar.
South Korea had granted import duty free and quota free on 253 Myanmar goods items for 2009 to boost trade with Myanmar.
The 253 goods items include agricultural produce, marines and forestry products, textiles and traditional handicraft products.
Myanmar has urged exporters in the country to make effective use of the preferences extended by South Korea and boost export to the East Asian country.
Bilateral trade between South Korea and Myanmar is expected to grow high following the exemption of tariff on most of the goods imported from ASEAN countries.
Since 2007, 63 percent of items of goods imported by South Korea from countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been exempted from tax.
The move represented a step forward of South Korea towards establishing the South Korea-ASEAN Free Trade Area.
South Korea has become the 8th largest trading partner of Myanmar with about 3,000 items of Myanmar goods exported to South Korea which covered agricultural produce, marine and forest products, and garments, while Myanmar mainly imported from S. Korea steel, garment, electrical and electronic goods.
South Korea is reported to continue to cut or exempt tariff up to 95 percent of items of goods imported from ASEAN nations including Myanmar, while expecting Myanmar to reduce or exempt tariff on goods imported from South Korea beginning 2018.
According to the official statistics, Myanmar-S. Korea bilateral trade amounted to 252 million U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2008-09, of which Myanmar's export to Korea took 63.7 million dollars, while its import from Korea stood at 188.48 million dollars.
In the investment sector, South Korea's investment in Myanmar reached 240 million U.S. dollars up to November last year since 1988, standing as the 10th largest foreign investor in the country, according to official statistics.
The East Asian country's investment in 37 projects accounted for 1.52 percent of Myanmar's total foreign investment of over 15 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, a total of seven Myanmar companies and 70 Korean companies have sought investment and trade worth of 31 million U.S. dollars in Myanmar, according to reports.
16:14, March 11, 2010
South Korea has unilaterally offered duty-free quota-free tariff to 251 more exporting items of Myanmar under its preferential tariff scheme for least-developed countries, bringing as many as 85 percent of Myanmar's exporting commodities under such status up to January this year.
The status was up from 80 percent in 2009 and 75 percent in 2008.
Korea's preferential tariff scheme for the least-developed countries covers granting duty-free quota-free status for commodities of 4,074 categories at H.S 6 digital level which are outlined as agricultural produce, marine products, animal byproducts, garments, mineral, industrial products, medicine and pharmaceuticals, chemical products, handicrafts and so on.
Of these commodities covered by the scheme, there include some agricultural produce, marines and garment products of Myanmar.
South Korea had granted import duty free and quota free on 253 Myanmar goods items for 2009 to boost trade with Myanmar.
The 253 goods items include agricultural produce, marines and forestry products, textiles and traditional handicraft products.
Myanmar has urged exporters in the country to make effective use of the preferences extended by South Korea and boost export to the East Asian country.
Bilateral trade between South Korea and Myanmar is expected to grow high following the exemption of tariff on most of the goods imported from ASEAN countries.
Since 2007, 63 percent of items of goods imported by South Korea from countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been exempted from tax.
The move represented a step forward of South Korea towards establishing the South Korea-ASEAN Free Trade Area.
South Korea has become the 8th largest trading partner of Myanmar with about 3,000 items of Myanmar goods exported to South Korea which covered agricultural produce, marine and forest products, and garments, while Myanmar mainly imported from S. Korea steel, garment, electrical and electronic goods.
South Korea is reported to continue to cut or exempt tariff up to 95 percent of items of goods imported from ASEAN nations including Myanmar, while expecting Myanmar to reduce or exempt tariff on goods imported from South Korea beginning 2018.
According to the official statistics, Myanmar-S. Korea bilateral trade amounted to 252 million U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2008-09, of which Myanmar's export to Korea took 63.7 million dollars, while its import from Korea stood at 188.48 million dollars.
In the investment sector, South Korea's investment in Myanmar reached 240 million U.S. dollars up to November last year since 1988, standing as the 10th largest foreign investor in the country, according to official statistics.
The East Asian country's investment in 37 projects accounted for 1.52 percent of Myanmar's total foreign investment of over 15 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, a total of seven Myanmar companies and 70 Korean companies have sought investment and trade worth of 31 million U.S. dollars in Myanmar, according to reports.
********************************************************
Rigging Myanmar's election Belt, braces and army boots
The generals leave nothing to chance
Mar 11th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
THE junta ruling Myanmar has had 20 years to digest the lessons from the country’s most recent election. It was trounced by the National League for Democracy, even though the opposition’s charismatic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was already under house arrest. This year on an unnamed date (perhaps its astrologers cannot agree) the junta will hold another election. It will not lose this one.
Election laws published this week do not quite spell out the result. But a “political-parties registration law” bars Miss Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, of whom there are more than 2,000, from belonging to a party because of their criminal convictions. Cut off from politics by her house arrest, Miss Suu Kyi is anyway barred from office as the widow of a foreigner. Her party now has to expel her and other detainees. The law also bans civil servants from joining parties, along with monks, who led anti-government protests in 2007.
The dilemma the opposition faces has become sharper. It has long had to worry about whether to add legitimacy to a sham electoral process by taking part, or risk further marginalisation by boycotting it. Now the League has been allowed to reopen branch offices closed since 2003. But it has 60 days to decide, in effect, between taking part in the election and abolition as a legal party. In 1995 it pulled out of a farcical “national convention” drafting a new constitution. The constitution that emerged in 2008 duly enshrines the role of the army. This time the League may feel compelled to take part, but find that just as ineffectual.
The election, nonetheless, does come at a time of some sort of change, if only generational. Than Shwe, the “senior general” (pictured), is 77. He and his comrades are preparing to pass on the baton. Western diplomats hope that, having cut their teeth fighting a Chinese-backed communist insurgency, they are uneasy with Myanmar’s isolation from the West and loth to bequeath their successors a regime so reliant on China. The election, one stop on a “road map” to democracy, in this analysis, is one way of opening up.
In another change the junta has started a remarkable if stealthy process of selling state assets: ports, buildings in Yangon vacated by its shift of capital in 2005, petrol stations, telecoms firms and a share in the national airline. This is hardly a gesture to economic reform—the sales are cooked-up deals benefiting junta cronies. But nor does it seem just the desperation of a cash-strapped regime. Rather, in the analysis of Yeni, of Irrawaddy, a magazine published by émigrés in Thailand, it is the “formal transfer of the nation’s wealth into the hands of an entrenched elite”, ahead of an election and the implementation of a new constitution which, in theory, should allow greater competition for assets. This elite is “pre-emptively buying up everything in sight”. It has a similar attitude to competition of the democratic kind.
The generals leave nothing to chance
Mar 11th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
THE junta ruling Myanmar has had 20 years to digest the lessons from the country’s most recent election. It was trounced by the National League for Democracy, even though the opposition’s charismatic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was already under house arrest. This year on an unnamed date (perhaps its astrologers cannot agree) the junta will hold another election. It will not lose this one.
Election laws published this week do not quite spell out the result. But a “political-parties registration law” bars Miss Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, of whom there are more than 2,000, from belonging to a party because of their criminal convictions. Cut off from politics by her house arrest, Miss Suu Kyi is anyway barred from office as the widow of a foreigner. Her party now has to expel her and other detainees. The law also bans civil servants from joining parties, along with monks, who led anti-government protests in 2007.
The dilemma the opposition faces has become sharper. It has long had to worry about whether to add legitimacy to a sham electoral process by taking part, or risk further marginalisation by boycotting it. Now the League has been allowed to reopen branch offices closed since 2003. But it has 60 days to decide, in effect, between taking part in the election and abolition as a legal party. In 1995 it pulled out of a farcical “national convention” drafting a new constitution. The constitution that emerged in 2008 duly enshrines the role of the army. This time the League may feel compelled to take part, but find that just as ineffectual.
The election, nonetheless, does come at a time of some sort of change, if only generational. Than Shwe, the “senior general” (pictured), is 77. He and his comrades are preparing to pass on the baton. Western diplomats hope that, having cut their teeth fighting a Chinese-backed communist insurgency, they are uneasy with Myanmar’s isolation from the West and loth to bequeath their successors a regime so reliant on China. The election, one stop on a “road map” to democracy, in this analysis, is one way of opening up.
In another change the junta has started a remarkable if stealthy process of selling state assets: ports, buildings in Yangon vacated by its shift of capital in 2005, petrol stations, telecoms firms and a share in the national airline. This is hardly a gesture to economic reform—the sales are cooked-up deals benefiting junta cronies. But nor does it seem just the desperation of a cash-strapped regime. Rather, in the analysis of Yeni, of Irrawaddy, a magazine published by émigrés in Thailand, it is the “formal transfer of the nation’s wealth into the hands of an entrenched elite”, ahead of an election and the implementation of a new constitution which, in theory, should allow greater competition for assets. This elite is “pre-emptively buying up everything in sight”. It has a similar attitude to competition of the democratic kind.
********************************************************
AsiaOne News - Myanmar law shows "contempt" for democracy: rights group
Thu, Mar 11, 2010
AFP
WASHINGTON, US - A new Myanmar law preventing anyone serving a prison term from running for office, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, shows the ruling junta's "contempt for the democratic process," Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
The law, printed for the first time Wednesday in state newspapers, has been widely condemned outside Myanmar as a new attempt to exclude Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) from running in elections this year.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said the law would effectively exclude over 2,100 political activists and some 429 members of the NLD believed to be imprisoned in Myanmar, previously known as Burma.
"The new law's assault on opposition parties is sadly predictable," Human Rights Watch Asia director, Brad Adams, said in a statement.
"It continues the sham political process that is aimed at creating the appearance of civilian rule with a military spine."
The new Political Parties Registration Act also gives the NLD just 60 days from Monday, when the law was enacted, to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, or else face dissolution.
"The Burmese government is demonstrating contempt for the democratic process, the people of Burma, and international opinion, including its friends in China, India, and ASEAN, who have asked for an inclusive political process," Adams said.
The NLD has yet to announce whether it will take part in the polls promised by the junta, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.
Suu Kyi, 64, has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since the previous elections.
She was already barred from standing as a candidate under a new constitution approved in a 2008 referendum that stipulates that those married to foreigners are ineligible. Her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years in prison last August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. Suu Kyi's sentence was commuted by junta leader Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
Thu, Mar 11, 2010
AFP
WASHINGTON, US - A new Myanmar law preventing anyone serving a prison term from running for office, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, shows the ruling junta's "contempt for the democratic process," Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
The law, printed for the first time Wednesday in state newspapers, has been widely condemned outside Myanmar as a new attempt to exclude Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) from running in elections this year.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said the law would effectively exclude over 2,100 political activists and some 429 members of the NLD believed to be imprisoned in Myanmar, previously known as Burma.
"The new law's assault on opposition parties is sadly predictable," Human Rights Watch Asia director, Brad Adams, said in a statement.
"It continues the sham political process that is aimed at creating the appearance of civilian rule with a military spine."
The new Political Parties Registration Act also gives the NLD just 60 days from Monday, when the law was enacted, to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, or else face dissolution.
"The Burmese government is demonstrating contempt for the democratic process, the people of Burma, and international opinion, including its friends in China, India, and ASEAN, who have asked for an inclusive political process," Adams said.
The NLD has yet to announce whether it will take part in the polls promised by the junta, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.
Suu Kyi, 64, has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since the previous elections.
She was already barred from standing as a candidate under a new constitution approved in a 2008 referendum that stipulates that those married to foreigners are ineligible. Her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years in prison last August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. Suu Kyi's sentence was commuted by junta leader Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
********************************************************
UN News Centre - Myanmar: Secretary-General voices concern at new electoral laws
10 March 2010 – New electoral laws unveiled by authorities in Myanmar do not meet international expectations of what is required for an inclusive political process in the Asian country, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today.
The United Nations is carefully studying the laws as they are being published by the Government in preparation for planned national elections later this year, Mr. Ban said in a statement issued by his spokesperson.
According to media reports, the new laws relate to the registration of political parties and prohibit anyone with a criminal conviction from being a member of an official party.
“The indications available so far suggest that they do not measure up to the international community’s expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process,” Mr. Ban said.
“The Secretary-General reiterates his call for the Myanmar authorities to ensure such an inclusive political process leading to fair, transparent and credible elections in which all citizens of Myanmar, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, can freely participate.”
Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), a prominent opposition leader, has been under house arrest for much of the past two decades. In August last year she was sentenced to an additional 18 months of detention after being convicted of violating State security laws.
Last month Mr. Ban expressed disappointment that Ms. Suu Kyi’s appeal against her house arrest was rejected and reiterated his call for her release.
Myanmar is slated to later this year conduct its first elections in over 20 years as part of a Government-designed timetable towards greater democratization.
10 March 2010 – New electoral laws unveiled by authorities in Myanmar do not meet international expectations of what is required for an inclusive political process in the Asian country, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today.
The United Nations is carefully studying the laws as they are being published by the Government in preparation for planned national elections later this year, Mr. Ban said in a statement issued by his spokesperson.
According to media reports, the new laws relate to the registration of political parties and prohibit anyone with a criminal conviction from being a member of an official party.
“The indications available so far suggest that they do not measure up to the international community’s expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process,” Mr. Ban said.
“The Secretary-General reiterates his call for the Myanmar authorities to ensure such an inclusive political process leading to fair, transparent and credible elections in which all citizens of Myanmar, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, can freely participate.”
Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), a prominent opposition leader, has been under house arrest for much of the past two decades. In August last year she was sentenced to an additional 18 months of detention after being convicted of violating State security laws.
Last month Mr. Ban expressed disappointment that Ms. Suu Kyi’s appeal against her house arrest was rejected and reiterated his call for her release.
Myanmar is slated to later this year conduct its first elections in over 20 years as part of a Government-designed timetable towards greater democratization.
********************************************************
BURMA: Despite Loss at Oscars, Film A Testament to Courage
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Mar 11, 2010 (IPS) - It may have not won an Oscar, but its having been a final contender for the prestigious statue at the U.S. Academy Awards on Mar. 7 has taken ‘Burma VJ’ to heights never achieved by previous films depicting the oppression and courage in military-ruled Burma.
‘Burma VJ’ was beaten by ‘The Cove’, a film about the brutal hunting of dolphins in a Japanese fishing town, for Best Documentary Feature of 2009 at the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, and watched by millions of television viewers across the world.
Yet Sunday’s disappointment for ‘Burma VJ’ comes on the back of the remarkable story behind a documentary that was released in May 2009 in a single theatre in the United States to little applause and few earnings.
It then blazed its way through the international film festival circuit, winning 40 awards by the night of the Oscars, including for a prize for documentary film editing at the Sundance Film Festival and the Vaclav Havel prize at the Czech Republic’s One World Festival.
"This film made the world aware of the brutality inside Burma," Aung Zaw, editor of ‘The Irrawaddy’, a magazine on Burma produced by exiled journalists, says of the pulsating, edgy work of cinematography that captures the violent crackdown of anti-government protests led by unarmed Buddhist monks three years ago.
It is a film "about courage," he told IPS, of not just the thousands of saffron- robed monks who rose up against the oppressive South-east Asian junta in September 2007 but also "the courage of the citizen journalists who were on the streets, filming this uprising to show the world about military oppression."
The documentary by Danish filmmaker Anders Ostergaard tells the story through the voice of Joshua, one of the many video journalists (or VJs, as appearing in the film’s title) who have been working clandestinely for the Oslo-based broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) in the country.
Joshua’s soft-voiced narrative draws the viewers into the brazen acts of defiance, as does the raw, in-your-face footage in ‘Burma VJ’. The unfolding scenes show chanting monks march through the city of Rangoon, the former capital, cheered on by hundreds of people, some marching behind them, some clapping from the sides of the streets, and many more encouraging them from balconies and windows of buildings.
The palpable anger toward the military dictatorship is understandable. The September 2007 show of public outrage came nearly 20 years after a pro- democracy uprising in August 1988 in Burma, also known as Myanmar, where over 3,000 protesters were killed in a brutal military crackdown.
A repeat was inevitable, and the tension mounts as the cameras pan to capture troops appearing on the streets. Then the final assault begins; no monks are spared.
Yet ‘Burma VJ’ also achieves its dramatic tension through another creative means of filmmaking. Based in Thailand after fleeing the crackdown at home, Joshua is constantly online with his DVB team on the ground, talking to them via mobile phones or chatting through the Internet, to discuss and direct coverage tactics.
Such moments, intended to get the best images for DVB’s audiences in the country and the world, reveal the bravery of the ‘undercover’ or citizen journalists who dared to expose themselves by holding out their small, hand- held cameras in pursuit of documenting the truth.
"Never underestimate the power of the handycam," says one of the DVB’s video journalists, who goes by the name of Aung Htun. "It is the little eye of the oppressed people."
"Our job was to capture this historic event," he continues of his dangerous assignment during the ‘Saffron Revolution’, the footage of which was used in ‘Burma VJ’. "I never thought about risks, danger, as I worked."
"Taking pictures in public has only been done by the military intelligence and the authorities. What we did raised suspicion, but we had to do it and win the trust of the public and the monks," the slightly built 30-year-old, now in Bangkok, told IPS. "We knew something was happening in the mood of the people and some monks before September. And we knew we had to record it."
While the footage of Aung Htun and four other DVB VJs were used in the film, the nearly 60 VJs in the country were making waves elsewhere during the 2008 protests. Their images broke through the cloak of secrecy imposed on the country by the junta.
Little wonder why a ranking police officer does not mince his words in the final scenes of ‘Burma VJ’. "DVB are the worst," rages a visibly angry Maj Gen Khin Yi, Rangoon’s police chief, who then goes on to accuse the non-profit media outlet of being "the ones who broadcast most of the false news about us."
Until the insight into Burma provided by ‘Burma VJ’, the only documentaries that had offered a window to the country’s suffering had been a British Broadcasting Corp production after the 1988 crackdown called ‘Inside Burma Land of Fear’, done by Australian journalist John Pilger, and the more recent ‘Orphans of the Storm’ about the children who survived the powerful Cyclone Nargis in 2008.
"There is no doubt that ‘Burma VJ’ has had the most impact of any documentary made on Burma," says David Scott Mathieson, Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch, the New York-based global rights lobby. "It captured the bravery and the ingenuity of the Burmese journalists working under trying conditions to get their story out."
"The September 2007 protests were a defining moment of the undercover journalists, who have been working for years building up their networks," he told IPS. "They continue to do so knowing the risks, a jail term from two to 20 years."
DVB, in fact, has paid such a price. At least two of its known undercover reporters are languishing in Burmese jails, where at least 13 journalists and bloggers are imprisoned. Among them is 25-year-old Hla Hla Win, who was given a 20-year prison sentence at the end of 2009.
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Mar 11, 2010 (IPS) - It may have not won an Oscar, but its having been a final contender for the prestigious statue at the U.S. Academy Awards on Mar. 7 has taken ‘Burma VJ’ to heights never achieved by previous films depicting the oppression and courage in military-ruled Burma.
‘Burma VJ’ was beaten by ‘The Cove’, a film about the brutal hunting of dolphins in a Japanese fishing town, for Best Documentary Feature of 2009 at the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, and watched by millions of television viewers across the world.
Yet Sunday’s disappointment for ‘Burma VJ’ comes on the back of the remarkable story behind a documentary that was released in May 2009 in a single theatre in the United States to little applause and few earnings.
It then blazed its way through the international film festival circuit, winning 40 awards by the night of the Oscars, including for a prize for documentary film editing at the Sundance Film Festival and the Vaclav Havel prize at the Czech Republic’s One World Festival.
"This film made the world aware of the brutality inside Burma," Aung Zaw, editor of ‘The Irrawaddy’, a magazine on Burma produced by exiled journalists, says of the pulsating, edgy work of cinematography that captures the violent crackdown of anti-government protests led by unarmed Buddhist monks three years ago.
It is a film "about courage," he told IPS, of not just the thousands of saffron- robed monks who rose up against the oppressive South-east Asian junta in September 2007 but also "the courage of the citizen journalists who were on the streets, filming this uprising to show the world about military oppression."
The documentary by Danish filmmaker Anders Ostergaard tells the story through the voice of Joshua, one of the many video journalists (or VJs, as appearing in the film’s title) who have been working clandestinely for the Oslo-based broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) in the country.
Joshua’s soft-voiced narrative draws the viewers into the brazen acts of defiance, as does the raw, in-your-face footage in ‘Burma VJ’. The unfolding scenes show chanting monks march through the city of Rangoon, the former capital, cheered on by hundreds of people, some marching behind them, some clapping from the sides of the streets, and many more encouraging them from balconies and windows of buildings.
The palpable anger toward the military dictatorship is understandable. The September 2007 show of public outrage came nearly 20 years after a pro- democracy uprising in August 1988 in Burma, also known as Myanmar, where over 3,000 protesters were killed in a brutal military crackdown.
A repeat was inevitable, and the tension mounts as the cameras pan to capture troops appearing on the streets. Then the final assault begins; no monks are spared.
Yet ‘Burma VJ’ also achieves its dramatic tension through another creative means of filmmaking. Based in Thailand after fleeing the crackdown at home, Joshua is constantly online with his DVB team on the ground, talking to them via mobile phones or chatting through the Internet, to discuss and direct coverage tactics.
Such moments, intended to get the best images for DVB’s audiences in the country and the world, reveal the bravery of the ‘undercover’ or citizen journalists who dared to expose themselves by holding out their small, hand- held cameras in pursuit of documenting the truth.
"Never underestimate the power of the handycam," says one of the DVB’s video journalists, who goes by the name of Aung Htun. "It is the little eye of the oppressed people."
"Our job was to capture this historic event," he continues of his dangerous assignment during the ‘Saffron Revolution’, the footage of which was used in ‘Burma VJ’. "I never thought about risks, danger, as I worked."
"Taking pictures in public has only been done by the military intelligence and the authorities. What we did raised suspicion, but we had to do it and win the trust of the public and the monks," the slightly built 30-year-old, now in Bangkok, told IPS. "We knew something was happening in the mood of the people and some monks before September. And we knew we had to record it."
While the footage of Aung Htun and four other DVB VJs were used in the film, the nearly 60 VJs in the country were making waves elsewhere during the 2008 protests. Their images broke through the cloak of secrecy imposed on the country by the junta.
Little wonder why a ranking police officer does not mince his words in the final scenes of ‘Burma VJ’. "DVB are the worst," rages a visibly angry Maj Gen Khin Yi, Rangoon’s police chief, who then goes on to accuse the non-profit media outlet of being "the ones who broadcast most of the false news about us."
Until the insight into Burma provided by ‘Burma VJ’, the only documentaries that had offered a window to the country’s suffering had been a British Broadcasting Corp production after the 1988 crackdown called ‘Inside Burma Land of Fear’, done by Australian journalist John Pilger, and the more recent ‘Orphans of the Storm’ about the children who survived the powerful Cyclone Nargis in 2008.
"There is no doubt that ‘Burma VJ’ has had the most impact of any documentary made on Burma," says David Scott Mathieson, Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch, the New York-based global rights lobby. "It captured the bravery and the ingenuity of the Burmese journalists working under trying conditions to get their story out."
"The September 2007 protests were a defining moment of the undercover journalists, who have been working for years building up their networks," he told IPS. "They continue to do so knowing the risks, a jail term from two to 20 years."
DVB, in fact, has paid such a price. At least two of its known undercover reporters are languishing in Burmese jails, where at least 13 journalists and bloggers are imprisoned. Among them is 25-year-old Hla Hla Win, who was given a 20-year prison sentence at the end of 2009.
********************************************************
Asia News Network
ANN - Not much to expect in Burma polls
Editorial Desk
The Straits Times
Publication Date: 11-03-2010
Expectations of real political change in Burma are so low that any electoral preparations appear as a sign of movement. Election laws the regime announced this week point to an election taking place some time this year. It would be the first in two decades. The best that can be said is that, without elections, the country will not be able to start moving forward. It is one of many conditions to fulfil before transition to any political normalcy can begin. Is the military government setting the stage for, in United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's exhortative words, the "most credible, inclusive and transparent" polls?
Not by a long shot. One of the election laws seems aimed specifically at opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It requires her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to expel her as she is serving a suspended sentence under house arrest. Without her participation, the vote cannot have much credibility. She remains a symbol of resistance, a political force whose exclusion cannot be justified. Neither can elections be seen as inclusive if the other 2,000 political prisoners are unable to contest the polls. With her and them off the ballot, voters' choice will be drastically limited, if not largely predetermined. An election commission will have "final and conclusive" say on all electoral matters, according to the authorities, but its five members have to be approved by the junta. So much for fairness and transparency.
The regime obviously has not formulated the laws for an open referendum on its legitimacy. Burma is one of the longest standing examples of countries habituated by military rule and the excesses that usually go with it. Regime survival remains paramount. The military has learnt from the 1990 NLD election landslide how easily it can be supplanted. Yet, the generals have evidently felt the need to appear to the people as well as the international community as moving in the desired direction. Some of the pressure comes from its Asean fellow members. Together with the United States' willingness to give engagement a chance, there is also some opportunity for flexibility. At the same time, to rely on the US as a counterweight against growing Chinese influence, the regime has to appear palatable to Western opinion.
Long though the wait has been, more time has to pass and more persuasion is needed before the regime will dare to embark on substantive reforms. If what it takes is for elections to be weighted overwhelmingly in its favour for it to gain confidence in bringing change, then the upcoming exercise, if it happens, may be of some worth. Beyond that, expectations have to be realistic, if not as low as before.
ANN - Not much to expect in Burma polls
Editorial Desk
The Straits Times
Publication Date: 11-03-2010
Expectations of real political change in Burma are so low that any electoral preparations appear as a sign of movement. Election laws the regime announced this week point to an election taking place some time this year. It would be the first in two decades. The best that can be said is that, without elections, the country will not be able to start moving forward. It is one of many conditions to fulfil before transition to any political normalcy can begin. Is the military government setting the stage for, in United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's exhortative words, the "most credible, inclusive and transparent" polls?
Not by a long shot. One of the election laws seems aimed specifically at opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It requires her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to expel her as she is serving a suspended sentence under house arrest. Without her participation, the vote cannot have much credibility. She remains a symbol of resistance, a political force whose exclusion cannot be justified. Neither can elections be seen as inclusive if the other 2,000 political prisoners are unable to contest the polls. With her and them off the ballot, voters' choice will be drastically limited, if not largely predetermined. An election commission will have "final and conclusive" say on all electoral matters, according to the authorities, but its five members have to be approved by the junta. So much for fairness and transparency.
The regime obviously has not formulated the laws for an open referendum on its legitimacy. Burma is one of the longest standing examples of countries habituated by military rule and the excesses that usually go with it. Regime survival remains paramount. The military has learnt from the 1990 NLD election landslide how easily it can be supplanted. Yet, the generals have evidently felt the need to appear to the people as well as the international community as moving in the desired direction. Some of the pressure comes from its Asean fellow members. Together with the United States' willingness to give engagement a chance, there is also some opportunity for flexibility. At the same time, to rely on the US as a counterweight against growing Chinese influence, the regime has to appear palatable to Western opinion.
Long though the wait has been, more time has to pass and more persuasion is needed before the regime will dare to embark on substantive reforms. If what it takes is for elections to be weighted overwhelmingly in its favour for it to gain confidence in bringing change, then the upcoming exercise, if it happens, may be of some worth. Beyond that, expectations have to be realistic, if not as low as before.
********************************************************
Hong Kong Standard - Casino boss guilty of Burma cash racket -
Diana Lee
Thursday, March 11, 2010
A Hong Kong gaming entrepreneur has been convicted of laundering the illicit proceeds of an an online casino business he ran along the Burma border through the SAR bank accounts of his staff.
Tam Hung, 58, had pleaded not guilty to three charges of money laundering but was found guilty in the District Court yesterday.
Deputy District Court Judge Rickie Chan Kam-cheong said he based his decision on the testimony of a Burmese official that it was illegal to operate casinos in the country.
The fact that Tam had used his staff's accounts in Hong Kong to handle millions of dollars, instead of hiring a financial controller or accountant, also indicated he was aware the money was obtained through illegal means, the judge added.
Chan adjourned sentencing to March 23 pending a background report and remanded Tam in custody.
According to evidence produced in court, the bank accounts in Hong Kong were used to handle HK$314.1 million generated from the New Oriental Casino, which Tam and his family operated between October 2005 and March 2007 in Burma.
The casino was set up after Tam's illegal gambling dens were moved from the border city of Ruili, in Yunnan province, in 2004.
The bank accounts were mainly used to facilitate the remittance of funds by gamblers for betting.
Tam and his family were accused of arranging for clients to gamble by entering and leaving Burma without a permit or to place bets online.
Tam was arrested on January 31, 2008, after he appeared in a local bank.
The court was told Tam was president of the New Oriental Casino group and two of his sons, Tam Chi-wei and Tam Chi-moon, were vice presidents.
In August 2008, Tam's two sons were jailed for eight and five years by Kunming Intermediate People's Court for running illegal online casinos - said to be the biggest internet gambling case in the mainland at that time.
The brothers were also fined 25 million yuan (HK$28.41 million).
Tam's mistress, Sit Hon-lan, and her younger brother were also involved. Sit was reportedly arrested by mainland police several years ago.
Diana Lee
Thursday, March 11, 2010
A Hong Kong gaming entrepreneur has been convicted of laundering the illicit proceeds of an an online casino business he ran along the Burma border through the SAR bank accounts of his staff.
Tam Hung, 58, had pleaded not guilty to three charges of money laundering but was found guilty in the District Court yesterday.
Deputy District Court Judge Rickie Chan Kam-cheong said he based his decision on the testimony of a Burmese official that it was illegal to operate casinos in the country.
The fact that Tam had used his staff's accounts in Hong Kong to handle millions of dollars, instead of hiring a financial controller or accountant, also indicated he was aware the money was obtained through illegal means, the judge added.
Chan adjourned sentencing to March 23 pending a background report and remanded Tam in custody.
According to evidence produced in court, the bank accounts in Hong Kong were used to handle HK$314.1 million generated from the New Oriental Casino, which Tam and his family operated between October 2005 and March 2007 in Burma.
The casino was set up after Tam's illegal gambling dens were moved from the border city of Ruili, in Yunnan province, in 2004.
The bank accounts were mainly used to facilitate the remittance of funds by gamblers for betting.
Tam and his family were accused of arranging for clients to gamble by entering and leaving Burma without a permit or to place bets online.
Tam was arrested on January 31, 2008, after he appeared in a local bank.
The court was told Tam was president of the New Oriental Casino group and two of his sons, Tam Chi-wei and Tam Chi-moon, were vice presidents.
In August 2008, Tam's two sons were jailed for eight and five years by Kunming Intermediate People's Court for running illegal online casinos - said to be the biggest internet gambling case in the mainland at that time.
The brothers were also fined 25 million yuan (HK$28.41 million).
Tam's mistress, Sit Hon-lan, and her younger brother were also involved. Sit was reportedly arrested by mainland police several years ago.
********************************************************
Mar 12, 2010
Asia Times Online - China lassoes its neighbors
By Walden Bello
With the Doha Round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization in limbo, the heavy hitters of international trade have been engaged in a race to sew up trade agreements with smaller partners. China has been among the most aggressive in this game, a fact underlined on January 1, when the China-ASEAN Free-Trade Area (CAFTA) went into effect.
Touted as the world's biggest free-trade area, CAFTA will bring together 1.7 million consumers with a combined gross domestic product of US$5.9 trillion and total trade of $1.3 trillion. Under the agreement, trade between China and Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore has become duty-free for more than 7,000 products. By 2015, the newer members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar - will join the zero-tariff arrangement.
The propaganda mills, especially in Beijing, have been trumpeting the free-trade agreement as bringing "mutual benefits" to China and ASEAN. In contrast, there has been an absence of triumphal rhetoric from ASEAN. In 2002, the year the agreement was signed, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo hailed the emergence of a "formidable regional grouping" that would rival the United States and the European Union. ASEAN's leaders, it seems, have probably begun to realize the consequences of what they agreed to: that in this FTA, most of the advantages will probably flow to China.
At first glance, it seems like the China-ASEAN relationship has been positive. After all, demand from a Chinese economy growing at a breakneck pace was a key factor in the Southeast Asian growth that began around 2003 after the low growth following the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and 1998.
For Asia as a whole, in 2003 and the beginning of 2004, "China was a major engine of growth for most of the economies in the region", according to a UN report. "The country's imports accelerated even more than its exports, with a large proportion of them coming from the rest of Asia." During the present international recession ASEAN governments, much like the United States, are counting on China - which registered an annualized growth rate of 10.7 percent in the last quarter of 2010 - to pull them out of the doldrums.
A more complex picture
But is the Chinese locomotive really pulling the rest of East Asia along with it, on the fast track to economic nirvana? In fact, China's growth has in part taken place at Southeast Asia's expense. Low wages have encouraged local and foreign manufacturers to phase out their operations in relatively high-wage Southeast Asia and move them to China.
China's devaluation of the yuan in 1994 had the effect of diverting some foreign direct investment away from Southeast Asia. The trend of ASEAN losing ground to China accelerated after the financial crisis of 1997. In 2000, foreign direct investment in ASEAN shrank to 10% of all foreign direct investment in developing Asia, down from 30% in the mid-nineties.
The decline continued in the rest of the decade, with the UN World Investment Report attributing the trend partly to "increased competition from China". Since the Japanese have been the most dynamic foreign investors in the region, much apprehension in the ASEAN capitals greeted a Japanese government survey that revealed that 57% of Japanese manufacturing transnational corporations found China to be more attractive than the ASEAN-4 (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines).
Snags in a trade relationship
Trade has been another and perhaps greater area of concern. Massive smuggling of goods from China has disrupted practically all ASEAN economies. For instance, with some 70-80% of shoe shops in Vietnam selling smuggled Chinese shoes, the Vietnamese shoe industry has suffered badly.
In the case of the Philippines, a recent paper by Joseph Francia and Errol Ramos of the Free Trade Alliance claims that the local shoe industry has also been hit hard by smuggling of Chinese goods. Indeed, the range of goods negatively affected is broad, including steel, paper, cement, petrochemicals, plastics, and ceramic tiles. "Many Philippine companies, even those that are competitive globally, had to close shop or reduce production and employment, due to smuggling," they write.
Because of this smuggling, the official trade figures with China released by the Chinese embassy in Manila, which show the Philippines enjoying a positive trade balance in manufacturing and industrial commodities, are questionable.
CAFTA may simply legalize all this smuggling and worsen the already negative effects of Chinese imports on ASEAN industry.
The Thai 'early harvest' debacle
When it comes to agriculture, the trends are clearer. Even without the free-trade agreement, for instance, the Philippines already has a $370 million deficit with China. I recently visited Benguet, a key vegetable and fruit producing area of the country. The farmers were despondent, almost resigned to being destroyed by the expected deluge of Chinese goods. A national government official warned them that their only chance of survival lay in invoking trade restrictions, based on complaints that Chinese imports did not meet sanitary standards - a risky move that could invoke retaliatory measures. The governor of the province complained that the CAFTA sneaked up on them, with most farmers not knowing that the Philippines had signed the agreement as far back as 2002.
Similar bitter complaints have emerged in Thailand, where the impact of the "early harvest" agreement with China under CAFTA has been better documented.
Under the agreement, Thailand and China agreed to eliminate immediately tariffs on more than 200 items of vegetables and fruits. Thailand would export tropical fruits to China, while winter fruits from China would be eligible for the zero-tariff deal. The expectations of mutual benefit evaporated after a few months, however. Thailand got the bad end of the deal.
As one assessment put it, "despite the limited scope of the Thailand-China early harvest agreement, it has had an appreciable impact in the sectors covered. The "appreciable impact" has been to wipe out northern Thai producers of garlic and red onions and to cripple the sale of temperate fruit and vegetables from Royal projects". Thai newspapers pointed to officials in southern China refusing to bring down tariffs as stipulated in the agreement, while the Thai government brought down the barriers to Chinese products.
Resentment at the results of the China-Thai early harvest agreement among Thai fruit and vegetable growers contributed to widespread disillusionment with the broader free-trade agenda of the Thaksin Shinawatra government. Opposition to free trade was a prominent feature of the popular mobilizations that culminated in a military coup that ousted that regime in September 2006.
The Thai early harvest experience created consternation not just in Thailand but throughout Southeast Asia. It stoked fears of ASEAN becoming a dumping ground for China's extremely competitive industrial and agricultural sectors, which could drive down prices because of China's cheap urban labor and even cheaper labor coming to the cities from the countryside. These fears at the grassroots have, however, fallen on deaf ears as ASEAN governments have been extremely reluctant to displease Beijing.
The Chinese view
For Chinese officials, the benefits to China of an FTA with ASEAN are clear. The aim of the strategy, according to Chinese economist Angang Hu, is to more fully integrate China into the global economy as the "center of the world's manufacturing industry". A central part of the plan was to open up ASEAN markets to Chinese manufactured products. China views Southeast Asia, which absorbs only around 8% of China's exports, as an important market with tremendous potential to absorb even more goods, which is particularly important given the growing popularity of protectionist sentiments in the United States and European Union.
China's trade strategy is a "half-open model," argues Hu: It's "open or free trade on the export side and protectionism on the import side."
ASEAN a beneficiary?
Despite the brave words from Arroyo and other ASEAN leaders in 2002, when the agreement was signed, it's much less clear how ASEAN will benefit from the ASEAN-China relationship. The benefits will certainly not come in labor-intensive manufacturing, where China enjoys an unbeatable edge because of its cheap labor. Nor would benefits come from high tech, since even the United States and Japan are scared of China's remarkable ability to move very quickly into high-tech industries even as it consolidates its edge in labor-intensive production.
ASEAN's agriculture ASEAN will also not be net beneficiary. As the early-harvest experience with the Philippines and Thailand has shown, China is clearly super-competitive in a vast array of agricultural products, from temperate crops to semi-tropical produce, as well as in agricultural processing. Vietnam and Thailand might be able to hold their own in rice production, Indonesia and Vietnam in coffee, and the Philippines in coconut and coconut products, but there may not be many more products to add to the list.
Moreover, even if, under CAFTA, ASEAN were to gain or retain competitiveness in some areas of manufacturing and trade, China will not likely depart from what Hu calls its "half open" model of international trade. The Thai early-harvest experience underlines the effectiveness of administrative obstacles that can act as non-tariff barriers in China.
In terms of raw materials, Indonesia and Malaysia have oil that is in scarce supply in China, Malaysia has rubber and tin, and the Philippines has palm oil and metals. China, however, is largely reproducing the old colonial division of labor, whereby it receives low-value-added natural resources and agricultural products and sends to the Southeast Asian economies high-value added manufactured goods.
With multilateral trade negotiations stuck at the World Trade Organization, the big trading countries have been engaged in a race to sew up trade agreements with weaker partners. China is turning out to be the most successful at this game, having managed to create the world's largest free-trade area.
For China, the benefits are clear. For its Southeast Asian partners, the benefits are less clear. Indeed, with the likely erosion of local industry and agriculture, Southeast Asia will be paying a big price for a bad deal.
Walden Bello is a Foreign Policy In Focus columnist, a senior analyst at the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, and a professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines.
Asia Times Online - China lassoes its neighbors
By Walden Bello
With the Doha Round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization in limbo, the heavy hitters of international trade have been engaged in a race to sew up trade agreements with smaller partners. China has been among the most aggressive in this game, a fact underlined on January 1, when the China-ASEAN Free-Trade Area (CAFTA) went into effect.
Touted as the world's biggest free-trade area, CAFTA will bring together 1.7 million consumers with a combined gross domestic product of US$5.9 trillion and total trade of $1.3 trillion. Under the agreement, trade between China and Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore has become duty-free for more than 7,000 products. By 2015, the newer members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar - will join the zero-tariff arrangement.
The propaganda mills, especially in Beijing, have been trumpeting the free-trade agreement as bringing "mutual benefits" to China and ASEAN. In contrast, there has been an absence of triumphal rhetoric from ASEAN. In 2002, the year the agreement was signed, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo hailed the emergence of a "formidable regional grouping" that would rival the United States and the European Union. ASEAN's leaders, it seems, have probably begun to realize the consequences of what they agreed to: that in this FTA, most of the advantages will probably flow to China.
At first glance, it seems like the China-ASEAN relationship has been positive. After all, demand from a Chinese economy growing at a breakneck pace was a key factor in the Southeast Asian growth that began around 2003 after the low growth following the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and 1998.
For Asia as a whole, in 2003 and the beginning of 2004, "China was a major engine of growth for most of the economies in the region", according to a UN report. "The country's imports accelerated even more than its exports, with a large proportion of them coming from the rest of Asia." During the present international recession ASEAN governments, much like the United States, are counting on China - which registered an annualized growth rate of 10.7 percent in the last quarter of 2010 - to pull them out of the doldrums.
A more complex picture
But is the Chinese locomotive really pulling the rest of East Asia along with it, on the fast track to economic nirvana? In fact, China's growth has in part taken place at Southeast Asia's expense. Low wages have encouraged local and foreign manufacturers to phase out their operations in relatively high-wage Southeast Asia and move them to China.
China's devaluation of the yuan in 1994 had the effect of diverting some foreign direct investment away from Southeast Asia. The trend of ASEAN losing ground to China accelerated after the financial crisis of 1997. In 2000, foreign direct investment in ASEAN shrank to 10% of all foreign direct investment in developing Asia, down from 30% in the mid-nineties.
The decline continued in the rest of the decade, with the UN World Investment Report attributing the trend partly to "increased competition from China". Since the Japanese have been the most dynamic foreign investors in the region, much apprehension in the ASEAN capitals greeted a Japanese government survey that revealed that 57% of Japanese manufacturing transnational corporations found China to be more attractive than the ASEAN-4 (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines).
Snags in a trade relationship
Trade has been another and perhaps greater area of concern. Massive smuggling of goods from China has disrupted practically all ASEAN economies. For instance, with some 70-80% of shoe shops in Vietnam selling smuggled Chinese shoes, the Vietnamese shoe industry has suffered badly.
In the case of the Philippines, a recent paper by Joseph Francia and Errol Ramos of the Free Trade Alliance claims that the local shoe industry has also been hit hard by smuggling of Chinese goods. Indeed, the range of goods negatively affected is broad, including steel, paper, cement, petrochemicals, plastics, and ceramic tiles. "Many Philippine companies, even those that are competitive globally, had to close shop or reduce production and employment, due to smuggling," they write.
Because of this smuggling, the official trade figures with China released by the Chinese embassy in Manila, which show the Philippines enjoying a positive trade balance in manufacturing and industrial commodities, are questionable.
CAFTA may simply legalize all this smuggling and worsen the already negative effects of Chinese imports on ASEAN industry.
The Thai 'early harvest' debacle
When it comes to agriculture, the trends are clearer. Even without the free-trade agreement, for instance, the Philippines already has a $370 million deficit with China. I recently visited Benguet, a key vegetable and fruit producing area of the country. The farmers were despondent, almost resigned to being destroyed by the expected deluge of Chinese goods. A national government official warned them that their only chance of survival lay in invoking trade restrictions, based on complaints that Chinese imports did not meet sanitary standards - a risky move that could invoke retaliatory measures. The governor of the province complained that the CAFTA sneaked up on them, with most farmers not knowing that the Philippines had signed the agreement as far back as 2002.
Similar bitter complaints have emerged in Thailand, where the impact of the "early harvest" agreement with China under CAFTA has been better documented.
Under the agreement, Thailand and China agreed to eliminate immediately tariffs on more than 200 items of vegetables and fruits. Thailand would export tropical fruits to China, while winter fruits from China would be eligible for the zero-tariff deal. The expectations of mutual benefit evaporated after a few months, however. Thailand got the bad end of the deal.
As one assessment put it, "despite the limited scope of the Thailand-China early harvest agreement, it has had an appreciable impact in the sectors covered. The "appreciable impact" has been to wipe out northern Thai producers of garlic and red onions and to cripple the sale of temperate fruit and vegetables from Royal projects". Thai newspapers pointed to officials in southern China refusing to bring down tariffs as stipulated in the agreement, while the Thai government brought down the barriers to Chinese products.
Resentment at the results of the China-Thai early harvest agreement among Thai fruit and vegetable growers contributed to widespread disillusionment with the broader free-trade agenda of the Thaksin Shinawatra government. Opposition to free trade was a prominent feature of the popular mobilizations that culminated in a military coup that ousted that regime in September 2006.
The Thai early harvest experience created consternation not just in Thailand but throughout Southeast Asia. It stoked fears of ASEAN becoming a dumping ground for China's extremely competitive industrial and agricultural sectors, which could drive down prices because of China's cheap urban labor and even cheaper labor coming to the cities from the countryside. These fears at the grassroots have, however, fallen on deaf ears as ASEAN governments have been extremely reluctant to displease Beijing.
The Chinese view
For Chinese officials, the benefits to China of an FTA with ASEAN are clear. The aim of the strategy, according to Chinese economist Angang Hu, is to more fully integrate China into the global economy as the "center of the world's manufacturing industry". A central part of the plan was to open up ASEAN markets to Chinese manufactured products. China views Southeast Asia, which absorbs only around 8% of China's exports, as an important market with tremendous potential to absorb even more goods, which is particularly important given the growing popularity of protectionist sentiments in the United States and European Union.
China's trade strategy is a "half-open model," argues Hu: It's "open or free trade on the export side and protectionism on the import side."
ASEAN a beneficiary?
Despite the brave words from Arroyo and other ASEAN leaders in 2002, when the agreement was signed, it's much less clear how ASEAN will benefit from the ASEAN-China relationship. The benefits will certainly not come in labor-intensive manufacturing, where China enjoys an unbeatable edge because of its cheap labor. Nor would benefits come from high tech, since even the United States and Japan are scared of China's remarkable ability to move very quickly into high-tech industries even as it consolidates its edge in labor-intensive production.
ASEAN's agriculture ASEAN will also not be net beneficiary. As the early-harvest experience with the Philippines and Thailand has shown, China is clearly super-competitive in a vast array of agricultural products, from temperate crops to semi-tropical produce, as well as in agricultural processing. Vietnam and Thailand might be able to hold their own in rice production, Indonesia and Vietnam in coffee, and the Philippines in coconut and coconut products, but there may not be many more products to add to the list.
Moreover, even if, under CAFTA, ASEAN were to gain or retain competitiveness in some areas of manufacturing and trade, China will not likely depart from what Hu calls its "half open" model of international trade. The Thai early-harvest experience underlines the effectiveness of administrative obstacles that can act as non-tariff barriers in China.
In terms of raw materials, Indonesia and Malaysia have oil that is in scarce supply in China, Malaysia has rubber and tin, and the Philippines has palm oil and metals. China, however, is largely reproducing the old colonial division of labor, whereby it receives low-value-added natural resources and agricultural products and sends to the Southeast Asian economies high-value added manufactured goods.
With multilateral trade negotiations stuck at the World Trade Organization, the big trading countries have been engaged in a race to sew up trade agreements with weaker partners. China is turning out to be the most successful at this game, having managed to create the world's largest free-trade area.
For China, the benefits are clear. For its Southeast Asian partners, the benefits are less clear. Indeed, with the likely erosion of local industry and agriculture, Southeast Asia will be paying a big price for a bad deal.
Walden Bello is a Foreign Policy In Focus columnist, a senior analyst at the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, and a professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines.
********************************************************
The Nation - US won't accept legitimacy of Burma's elections
Published on March 11, 2010
Washington - The United States will not recognize the outcome of Burma's elections scheduled for later this year because of new laws that ban political prisoners and the country's leading democratic activist from participating, the US State Department said Wednesday.
The military junta that runs Burma, published a law on Wednesday that stated 2,000 imprisoned dissidents cannot participate, effectively sidelining jailed activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy.
"We made clear that, given the tenor of the election laws that they've put forward, there's no hope that this election will be credible," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said, adding the laws make the election a "mockery of the democratic process."
The regime has yet to announce a date for the election, the last of which took place 20 years ago before the military junta seized power and began rounding up democratic activists. Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest for years.
The United States has applied sanctions to Burma to keep pressure on the regime for democratic reforms, and the Obama administration had reached out to Myanmar hoping to encourage change. But those efforts do not appear to be working.
"Our engagement with Burma will have to continue until we can make clear that the results thus far are not what we had expected and that they're going to have to do better," Crowley said.
Published on March 11, 2010
Washington - The United States will not recognize the outcome of Burma's elections scheduled for later this year because of new laws that ban political prisoners and the country's leading democratic activist from participating, the US State Department said Wednesday.
The military junta that runs Burma, published a law on Wednesday that stated 2,000 imprisoned dissidents cannot participate, effectively sidelining jailed activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy.
"We made clear that, given the tenor of the election laws that they've put forward, there's no hope that this election will be credible," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said, adding the laws make the election a "mockery of the democratic process."
The regime has yet to announce a date for the election, the last of which took place 20 years ago before the military junta seized power and began rounding up democratic activists. Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest for years.
The United States has applied sanctions to Burma to keep pressure on the regime for democratic reforms, and the Obama administration had reached out to Myanmar hoping to encourage change. But those efforts do not appear to be working.
"Our engagement with Burma will have to continue until we can make clear that the results thus far are not what we had expected and that they're going to have to do better," Crowley said.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Ethnic Leaders To Boycott Election
By LAWI WENG - Thursday, March 11, 2010
Several ethnic leaders who were elected in 1990 election in Burma reaffirmed they will not participate in the election without a review of the 2008 Constitution and the release of all political prisoners, even if the junta disbands their political parties.
The leaders said their political parties will continue to exist if their people wish them to carry on with political activities and they said they will continue to support the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the Shwegondaing Declaration.
The Shwegoindaing Declaration, released by the NLD in April 2009, calls for a review of the controversial Constitution, political dialogue and the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Sai Leik, the spokesperson of Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) told The Irrawaddy, on Thursday: “We will not participate in the election as our leaders have been detained in prison. No matter whether the government recognizes our party or not, our party will exist if our people wish us to carry on with our duties.”
“This election law is biased. It is not based on the people's wishes. If this were a move to real democracy, then Aung San Suu Kyi and the ethnic leaders who were elected by the people should be able to participate,” he said.
Pu Cin Sian Thang, a spokesman for the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), a coalition of 12 ethnic parties that contested and won 67 seats in the 1990 elections, said, “The UNA will not participate at election.”
He said they will hold a meeting with all members this week and discuss how they are going to work together in the future for their party.
In February last year, the UNA issued a statement condemning the Constitution as a means to make Burma's ethnic nationalities subordinate to the Burman majority and because it hands “supreme power” to the military's commander in chief.
Aye Thar Aung, the secretary of the Committee Representing the Peoples' Parliament (CRPP) and the acting chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy said: “Our CRPP principle is to recognize the 1990 election result. Accordingly we will keep to our principle and not join this election.”
“Elections are just part of the democratic process. If there is no political space to practice democracy in this election, there will be no democratic or ethnic rights afterward,” he said.
The ethnic leaders expressed disappointment at the government's March 8 election law that said someone who has been sentenced in prison cannot be involved in a political party and the election, thereby banning all political prisoners from political parties.
“There is discrimination in this election law unlike the 1990 election law,” said Pu Cin Sian Thang.
“The election law is terrible. It bans Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in her political party and the election,” said Aye Thar Aung.
According to the election law, the NLD and other currently legal parties have to apply for registration to the election commission. If they fail to do so within 60 days from the date of announcement (March 8), they will automatically cease to exist as legal entities.
The NLD would have to expel Suu Kyi if it decides to register at the election commission.
The junta election laws are designed to make sure that the detained leaders like Suu Kyi, the 88 generation students and Khun Htun Oo of the SNLD, which won the most seats in the 1990 election after the NLD, will be excluded from Burma's election.
If the NLD and SNLD expel their leaders and register at the election commission before May 7 to avoid dissolution, they must participate in the election or again face dissolution, according to the new party registration law.
By LAWI WENG - Thursday, March 11, 2010
Several ethnic leaders who were elected in 1990 election in Burma reaffirmed they will not participate in the election without a review of the 2008 Constitution and the release of all political prisoners, even if the junta disbands their political parties.
The leaders said their political parties will continue to exist if their people wish them to carry on with political activities and they said they will continue to support the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the Shwegondaing Declaration.
The Shwegoindaing Declaration, released by the NLD in April 2009, calls for a review of the controversial Constitution, political dialogue and the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Sai Leik, the spokesperson of Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) told The Irrawaddy, on Thursday: “We will not participate in the election as our leaders have been detained in prison. No matter whether the government recognizes our party or not, our party will exist if our people wish us to carry on with our duties.”
“This election law is biased. It is not based on the people's wishes. If this were a move to real democracy, then Aung San Suu Kyi and the ethnic leaders who were elected by the people should be able to participate,” he said.
Pu Cin Sian Thang, a spokesman for the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), a coalition of 12 ethnic parties that contested and won 67 seats in the 1990 elections, said, “The UNA will not participate at election.”
He said they will hold a meeting with all members this week and discuss how they are going to work together in the future for their party.
In February last year, the UNA issued a statement condemning the Constitution as a means to make Burma's ethnic nationalities subordinate to the Burman majority and because it hands “supreme power” to the military's commander in chief.
Aye Thar Aung, the secretary of the Committee Representing the Peoples' Parliament (CRPP) and the acting chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy said: “Our CRPP principle is to recognize the 1990 election result. Accordingly we will keep to our principle and not join this election.”
“Elections are just part of the democratic process. If there is no political space to practice democracy in this election, there will be no democratic or ethnic rights afterward,” he said.
The ethnic leaders expressed disappointment at the government's March 8 election law that said someone who has been sentenced in prison cannot be involved in a political party and the election, thereby banning all political prisoners from political parties.
“There is discrimination in this election law unlike the 1990 election law,” said Pu Cin Sian Thang.
“The election law is terrible. It bans Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in her political party and the election,” said Aye Thar Aung.
According to the election law, the NLD and other currently legal parties have to apply for registration to the election commission. If they fail to do so within 60 days from the date of announcement (March 8), they will automatically cease to exist as legal entities.
The NLD would have to expel Suu Kyi if it decides to register at the election commission.
The junta election laws are designed to make sure that the detained leaders like Suu Kyi, the 88 generation students and Khun Htun Oo of the SNLD, which won the most seats in the 1990 election after the NLD, will be excluded from Burma's election.
If the NLD and SNLD expel their leaders and register at the election commission before May 7 to avoid dissolution, they must participate in the election or again face dissolution, according to the new party registration law.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - NLD Faces Problems Reopening Offices
By KYAW THEIN KHA - Thursday, March 11, 2010
The news that the offices of National League for Democracy can be reopened should be a happy one for its members. But Aye Kyu, vice chairman of the NLD office in Laputta Township, didn't feel content.
“Though we are allowed to reopen our offices, I am not very happy because we have no leader,” Aye Kyu told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, referring to party leader Aung San Suu Kyi who remains under house arrest.
On Thursday morning, local authorities summoned Aye Kyu to tell him he can reopen the NLD office in Laputta, Irrawaddy Division. He went there with his NLD members.
But Aye Kyu has a more immediate problem than his feelings for Suu Kyi since the house where the office was located has been sold. He said he and his colleagues have started looking for a new office, preferably in a good location downtown.
Many NLD offices started being active on Thursday morning after they got permission to reopen the previous night.
Government authorities in relevant townships are arranging for the NLD offices in townships in Burma to reopen after Dr. Than Nyein, the coordinator of Rangoon Division's NLD, was informed by authorities that NLD offices banned from operating in Rangoon and Mandalay can be reopened.
The permission came two days after the ruling junta started issuing election laws on March 9 (announced on March 8). Ironically, the laws ban Suu Kyi from being a member of the party and contesting the upcoming elections as she has been convicted and under detention.
Many NLD branch offices across the country had been closed after the junta organized an ambush on Suu Kyi's motorcade in which several dozen NLD supporters were killed in Depayin in upper Burma in 2003.
Unable to open for seven years, most NLD offices have been damaged by weather. Some offices can no longer be used as landlords have sold the property, according to NLD members in the townships.
“We saw bats' nests in our old office as soon as we reopened it,” said Myint Thein of Chauk NLD. “The wooden floor had been eaten by termites so I doubt they ignored the documents.”
The wooden floor in the old NLD branch office was broken and had collapsed due to leaks in the roof, he said.
There are also problems between the NLD as tenants and landlords as all the old branch offices are being opened around the country.
“Our landlord told us he had demolished our office and sold the remains off in February,” said Thein Hlaing, the vice secretary for NLD party activities in Sittwe in Arakan State, adding that they are
preparing to make a legal claim against the State Commission responsible in the case.
The government began publishing the election laws daily in state newspapers, and on Thursday they abrogated the 1990 election laws.
Nyan Win, the spokesperson for the NLD headquarters said the new election law targets the NLD but then the authorities let it reopen its offices, adding that the authorities' actions seemed contrary.
Aye Kyu, meanwhile, said he is determined to carry out his responsibility under any circumstances. He said he will quickly find a place to reopen the office.
By KYAW THEIN KHA - Thursday, March 11, 2010
The news that the offices of National League for Democracy can be reopened should be a happy one for its members. But Aye Kyu, vice chairman of the NLD office in Laputta Township, didn't feel content.
“Though we are allowed to reopen our offices, I am not very happy because we have no leader,” Aye Kyu told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, referring to party leader Aung San Suu Kyi who remains under house arrest.
On Thursday morning, local authorities summoned Aye Kyu to tell him he can reopen the NLD office in Laputta, Irrawaddy Division. He went there with his NLD members.
But Aye Kyu has a more immediate problem than his feelings for Suu Kyi since the house where the office was located has been sold. He said he and his colleagues have started looking for a new office, preferably in a good location downtown.
Many NLD offices started being active on Thursday morning after they got permission to reopen the previous night.
Government authorities in relevant townships are arranging for the NLD offices in townships in Burma to reopen after Dr. Than Nyein, the coordinator of Rangoon Division's NLD, was informed by authorities that NLD offices banned from operating in Rangoon and Mandalay can be reopened.
The permission came two days after the ruling junta started issuing election laws on March 9 (announced on March 8). Ironically, the laws ban Suu Kyi from being a member of the party and contesting the upcoming elections as she has been convicted and under detention.
Many NLD branch offices across the country had been closed after the junta organized an ambush on Suu Kyi's motorcade in which several dozen NLD supporters were killed in Depayin in upper Burma in 2003.
Unable to open for seven years, most NLD offices have been damaged by weather. Some offices can no longer be used as landlords have sold the property, according to NLD members in the townships.
“We saw bats' nests in our old office as soon as we reopened it,” said Myint Thein of Chauk NLD. “The wooden floor had been eaten by termites so I doubt they ignored the documents.”
The wooden floor in the old NLD branch office was broken and had collapsed due to leaks in the roof, he said.
There are also problems between the NLD as tenants and landlords as all the old branch offices are being opened around the country.
“Our landlord told us he had demolished our office and sold the remains off in February,” said Thein Hlaing, the vice secretary for NLD party activities in Sittwe in Arakan State, adding that they are
preparing to make a legal claim against the State Commission responsible in the case.
The government began publishing the election laws daily in state newspapers, and on Thursday they abrogated the 1990 election laws.
Nyan Win, the spokesperson for the NLD headquarters said the new election law targets the NLD but then the authorities let it reopen its offices, adding that the authorities' actions seemed contrary.
Aye Kyu, meanwhile, said he is determined to carry out his responsibility under any circumstances. He said he will quickly find a place to reopen the office.
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The Irrawaddy - USDA Political Party-spinoff Expected Soon
By BA KAUNG - Thursday, March 11, 2010
Key leaders of the junta-sponsored Union of Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) will form a new political party within days, according to sources in Rangoon.
One week ago, a number of military officers holding ranks of full army general and brigadier-general resigned their posts and handed over to the government all state-owned properties such as cars and real estate which they had been granted, sources said.
The junta's election laws stipulate that members of political parties are not allowed to use state-owned property.
The former military officers are expected to be appointed to chairman positions in states and divisions, where they will direct the affairs of the new political party. They will also stand as candidates under the banner of the new party in the election, according to sources.
One reliable source said that soon after the election commission is formed, the USDA-backed party will register.
Also, at least 18 government ministers will resign their posts and join the political wing of the USDA, according to a senior official of the National League for Democracy (NLD).
According to several interviews with USDA officials on Thursday, the organizers from a number of townships in Rangoon, including Yankin, North Okkalapa, South Okkalapa, South Dagon and Pegu townships, were ordered to attend meetings in the township government offices on Thursday.
Organized by the junta in 1993, the USDA began as a social organization under the direction of high-ranking military officials. Its patron is military chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe. During the 1990s, government employees in Burma and students were either forced or coerced into joining the USDA.
In 2005, Maj-Gen Htay Oo, a government minister as well as the USDA secretary-general, said at a press conference that the USDA would be transformed into a political party.
“We think that a USDA-affiliated political party is on the way,” said a Rangoon resident. “There is a lot of confusion here, and some people are now even asking people where they can register as a political party.”
According to the junta's election laws, all political parties must register at the election commission within 60 days from March 8, when the regime announced the new election laws. The election laws have come under heavy criticism by opposition groups as being deliberately designed to exclude pro-democracy leader Aung Sann Suu Kyi, jailed ethnic leaders and 88 Generation students leaders from the upcoming election.
By BA KAUNG - Thursday, March 11, 2010
Key leaders of the junta-sponsored Union of Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) will form a new political party within days, according to sources in Rangoon.
One week ago, a number of military officers holding ranks of full army general and brigadier-general resigned their posts and handed over to the government all state-owned properties such as cars and real estate which they had been granted, sources said.
The junta's election laws stipulate that members of political parties are not allowed to use state-owned property.
The former military officers are expected to be appointed to chairman positions in states and divisions, where they will direct the affairs of the new political party. They will also stand as candidates under the banner of the new party in the election, according to sources.
One reliable source said that soon after the election commission is formed, the USDA-backed party will register.
Also, at least 18 government ministers will resign their posts and join the political wing of the USDA, according to a senior official of the National League for Democracy (NLD).
According to several interviews with USDA officials on Thursday, the organizers from a number of townships in Rangoon, including Yankin, North Okkalapa, South Okkalapa, South Dagon and Pegu townships, were ordered to attend meetings in the township government offices on Thursday.
Organized by the junta in 1993, the USDA began as a social organization under the direction of high-ranking military officials. Its patron is military chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe. During the 1990s, government employees in Burma and students were either forced or coerced into joining the USDA.
In 2005, Maj-Gen Htay Oo, a government minister as well as the USDA secretary-general, said at a press conference that the USDA would be transformed into a political party.
“We think that a USDA-affiliated political party is on the way,” said a Rangoon resident. “There is a lot of confusion here, and some people are now even asking people where they can register as a political party.”
According to the junta's election laws, all political parties must register at the election commission within 60 days from March 8, when the regime announced the new election laws. The election laws have come under heavy criticism by opposition groups as being deliberately designed to exclude pro-democracy leader Aung Sann Suu Kyi, jailed ethnic leaders and 88 Generation students leaders from the upcoming election.
********************************************************
Burma’s election laws amorphous on Diaspora
Thursday, 11 March 2010 18:27 Mizzima News
(Mizzima) - The Burmese military junta’s election laws have conveniently failed to address the fundamental issues of millions of Burmese in Diaspora, residing outside the country for years due to political and economic upheaval.
“Many migrant workers are concerned about the political situation in their country because that is one of the reasons that they came out as migrant workers,” said Debbie Stothard, Coordinator for Altsean-Burma. “It is very clear that there is not going to be any change to get jobs…so all the economic management and the systematic human rights abuses that forced people to leave Burma are still likely to continue.”
The law vaguely mentions that the Foreign Ministry is directed to organize advanced voting for those who live outside the country.
Millions of Burmese citizens are living in neighbouring countries such as Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore. In Thailand alone, it is estimated that at least two million Burmese live and work as migrant workers. This is in addition to some 150,000 refugees in camps along the Thai-Burma border region, who have fled Burma due to the ongoing civil war.
In India there are an estimated 50,000 odd Burmese in Mizoram State alone living as illegal migrant workers; while Malaysia has more than 150,000 Burmese workers staying legally, with the illegal number of Burmese residents in Malaysia estimated to easily match the legal figure.
According to the Parliamentary Election Law (for House of Representatives) announced today, an eligible candidate has to live in the country for a minimum of at least 10 consecutive years in the run-up to the election.
Thousands of Burmese pro-democracy activists left Burma in the years following the 1988 popular uprising.
The new law also says that the military will hold 25 per cent of parliamentary seats, 110 out of a total 440 in the House of Representatives. Further, the country's Commander-in-Chief will select and nominate the 110 members to represent the military. And in the Nationalities Parliament, the military is to have 56 out of a total 224 representatives encompassing the 14 States and Divisions of the country.
At the same time, the government is prepared to crack down on any anti-election and anti-voting activities under the guise of a clause detailing that anyone who speaks, writes or rallies against voting can be sentenced to a maximum of one year in jail or Kyat 100,000 or both.
“I think it is very clear from the election law that the polls are not going to improve the situation in Burma,” Stothard said and added “so the international community has to understand that it is actually unsafe to force refugees and migrant workers back to Burma under such conditions.”
Since 1962, when the military took over power by a coup, at least five million Burmese are believed to have sought a better living throughout the world. According to official statistics of 2008, there are nearly 28 million eligible voters in the country of around 55 million people.
Estimates from human rights groups working along the border and inside Burma say there are about two million internally displaced persons in Burma, especially in Karen and Shan States.
Despite repeated calls by the National League for Democracy to recognize the results of the 1990 elections, Burma’s military regime has now officially annulled the 1990 results through its new election laws. The law for the Parliamentary Election clearly states that the results of the 1990 elections have been canceled as of March 8 this year.
Reports circulating inside Burma and abroad say that the regime will hold the 2010 elections on October 10, although the government is yet to announce the official date.
Thursday, 11 March 2010 18:27 Mizzima News
(Mizzima) - The Burmese military junta’s election laws have conveniently failed to address the fundamental issues of millions of Burmese in Diaspora, residing outside the country for years due to political and economic upheaval.
“Many migrant workers are concerned about the political situation in their country because that is one of the reasons that they came out as migrant workers,” said Debbie Stothard, Coordinator for Altsean-Burma. “It is very clear that there is not going to be any change to get jobs…so all the economic management and the systematic human rights abuses that forced people to leave Burma are still likely to continue.”
The law vaguely mentions that the Foreign Ministry is directed to organize advanced voting for those who live outside the country.
Millions of Burmese citizens are living in neighbouring countries such as Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore. In Thailand alone, it is estimated that at least two million Burmese live and work as migrant workers. This is in addition to some 150,000 refugees in camps along the Thai-Burma border region, who have fled Burma due to the ongoing civil war.
In India there are an estimated 50,000 odd Burmese in Mizoram State alone living as illegal migrant workers; while Malaysia has more than 150,000 Burmese workers staying legally, with the illegal number of Burmese residents in Malaysia estimated to easily match the legal figure.
According to the Parliamentary Election Law (for House of Representatives) announced today, an eligible candidate has to live in the country for a minimum of at least 10 consecutive years in the run-up to the election.
Thousands of Burmese pro-democracy activists left Burma in the years following the 1988 popular uprising.
The new law also says that the military will hold 25 per cent of parliamentary seats, 110 out of a total 440 in the House of Representatives. Further, the country's Commander-in-Chief will select and nominate the 110 members to represent the military. And in the Nationalities Parliament, the military is to have 56 out of a total 224 representatives encompassing the 14 States and Divisions of the country.
At the same time, the government is prepared to crack down on any anti-election and anti-voting activities under the guise of a clause detailing that anyone who speaks, writes or rallies against voting can be sentenced to a maximum of one year in jail or Kyat 100,000 or both.
“I think it is very clear from the election law that the polls are not going to improve the situation in Burma,” Stothard said and added “so the international community has to understand that it is actually unsafe to force refugees and migrant workers back to Burma under such conditions.”
Since 1962, when the military took over power by a coup, at least five million Burmese are believed to have sought a better living throughout the world. According to official statistics of 2008, there are nearly 28 million eligible voters in the country of around 55 million people.
Estimates from human rights groups working along the border and inside Burma say there are about two million internally displaced persons in Burma, especially in Karen and Shan States.
Despite repeated calls by the National League for Democracy to recognize the results of the 1990 elections, Burma’s military regime has now officially annulled the 1990 results through its new election laws. The law for the Parliamentary Election clearly states that the results of the 1990 elections have been canceled as of March 8 this year.
Reports circulating inside Burma and abroad say that the regime will hold the 2010 elections on October 10, although the government is yet to announce the official date.
********************************************************
Burmese regime discloses Election Commission members
Thursday, 11 March 2010 18:00 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Burma's state-run television announced today the names of the 17 appointed members of the newly created national Election Commission. The commission will organize and oversee Burma's upcoming and highly controversial national election.
The announcement signed by the ruling State Peace Development Council's (SDPC) secretary #1, indicated that Thein Soe, Vice Chief justice of Burma's Supreme Court will be Commission Chairman and that two other members Dr. Myint Kyi and Khin Hla Myint are women. The rest of the members are Zaw Naw, Khin Maung Nu, Soe Ba Hlaing, Dr. Ba Maung, Nyunt Tin, Maung Tha Hla, Dr. Sai Khum Hlaing, Aung Myint, Myint Naing, Dr. Tin Aung Aye, Tha Oo, Dr. Maung Htoo, Tha Htay and Win Kyi.
Before becoming a civilian judge Thein Soe served in Burma's armed forces as a Major General and was a military Judge Advocate General. Little is known about any of the other new nominees except that Dr. Tin Aung Aye is also a judge. Recent media reports indicate that both Thein Soe and Dr. Tin Aung Aye are still serving as judges and not yet retired.
Last week Burma's Supreme Court turned down Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal of her conviction for violating the terms of house arrest. The "violation" occurred after a deranged American tourist secretly swam to Suu Kyi's place of house arrest and tried to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Aung San Suu Kyi's legal team is again appealing the sentence and it is expected that Thein Soe will head the panel of judges in Naypyidaw who will rule on the case.
This week Burma's military regime issued several new election related laws that give election authorities broad and sweeping powers that severely restrict the opposition parties ability to compete.
Thursday, 11 March 2010 18:00 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Burma's state-run television announced today the names of the 17 appointed members of the newly created national Election Commission. The commission will organize and oversee Burma's upcoming and highly controversial national election.
The announcement signed by the ruling State Peace Development Council's (SDPC) secretary #1, indicated that Thein Soe, Vice Chief justice of Burma's Supreme Court will be Commission Chairman and that two other members Dr. Myint Kyi and Khin Hla Myint are women. The rest of the members are Zaw Naw, Khin Maung Nu, Soe Ba Hlaing, Dr. Ba Maung, Nyunt Tin, Maung Tha Hla, Dr. Sai Khum Hlaing, Aung Myint, Myint Naing, Dr. Tin Aung Aye, Tha Oo, Dr. Maung Htoo, Tha Htay and Win Kyi.
Before becoming a civilian judge Thein Soe served in Burma's armed forces as a Major General and was a military Judge Advocate General. Little is known about any of the other new nominees except that Dr. Tin Aung Aye is also a judge. Recent media reports indicate that both Thein Soe and Dr. Tin Aung Aye are still serving as judges and not yet retired.
Last week Burma's Supreme Court turned down Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal of her conviction for violating the terms of house arrest. The "violation" occurred after a deranged American tourist secretly swam to Suu Kyi's place of house arrest and tried to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Aung San Suu Kyi's legal team is again appealing the sentence and it is expected that Thein Soe will head the panel of judges in Naypyidaw who will rule on the case.
This week Burma's military regime issued several new election related laws that give election authorities broad and sweeping powers that severely restrict the opposition parties ability to compete.
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