Myanmar opposition party looks beyond its closure
Thu May 6, 8:25 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Leaders of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party said Thursday they would continue working as a social movement after Myanmar's new election law forces its dissolution as a political party at midnight.
Officials at the National League for Democracy tidied their desks, locked their files in cupboards and padlocked the gate to their main office in Yangon at 4 p.m., a quiet end to a political party founded more than 20 years ago to challenge military rule.
The League won a 1990 election but the army refused to cede power. The party declined to register for elections planned sometime this year, a step that will force its dissolution at the midnight deadline. The party says the laws are undemocratic and unfair. Its non-registration is tantamount to an election boycott.
Party officials said some of them would still go to the office as usual but would not engage in political activity.
"We will continue to serve the people and carry out social activities," party vice chairman Tin Oo said before closing the gate.
Other officials confirmed the group would continue to operate, though not as a political party.
"There is no reason for us to be sad. For us, nothing has changed. We are still the party members and our leaders will continue to strive for the goal of democracy and human rights, " said Aye Tun, a member of the party's youth wing.
Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years, instructed her party not to take down the party signboard or party flag featuring the "fighting peacock" after the deadline.
It is not clear what action authorities could take against such activity. The junta is intolerant of dissent, and has long repressed its opponents. According to the U.N. and human rights groups, there are more than 2,000 political prisoners nationwide.
When asked what action the government will take after the party's dissolution, police chief Brig. Gen. Khin Yi said: "It depends to what extent the party will abide by the law."
Thu May 6, 8:25 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Leaders of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party said Thursday they would continue working as a social movement after Myanmar's new election law forces its dissolution as a political party at midnight.
Officials at the National League for Democracy tidied their desks, locked their files in cupboards and padlocked the gate to their main office in Yangon at 4 p.m., a quiet end to a political party founded more than 20 years ago to challenge military rule.
The League won a 1990 election but the army refused to cede power. The party declined to register for elections planned sometime this year, a step that will force its dissolution at the midnight deadline. The party says the laws are undemocratic and unfair. Its non-registration is tantamount to an election boycott.
Party officials said some of them would still go to the office as usual but would not engage in political activity.
"We will continue to serve the people and carry out social activities," party vice chairman Tin Oo said before closing the gate.
Other officials confirmed the group would continue to operate, though not as a political party.
"There is no reason for us to be sad. For us, nothing has changed. We are still the party members and our leaders will continue to strive for the goal of democracy and human rights, " said Aye Tun, a member of the party's youth wing.
Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years, instructed her party not to take down the party signboard or party flag featuring the "fighting peacock" after the deadline.
It is not clear what action authorities could take against such activity. The junta is intolerant of dissent, and has long repressed its opponents. According to the U.N. and human rights groups, there are more than 2,000 political prisoners nationwide.
When asked what action the government will take after the party's dissolution, police chief Brig. Gen. Khin Yi said: "It depends to what extent the party will abide by the law."
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Aung San Suu Kyi's party to be abolished
by Hla Hla Htay – Thu May 6, 4:22 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's party, for two decades the symbol of resistance against the ruling junta, is to be dissolved at midnight Thursday under laws laid down ahead of elections.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register as a political party -- a move that would have forced it to expel its own leader -- and boycotted the vote scheduled for later this year.
At the party's ramshackle headquarters in Myanmar's former capital Yangon, the "fighting peacock" flag was still flying but party workers were packing up files and mulling new plans to focus on social and development work.
"We have decided not to take down our party signboard and flags as Daw Suu has asked," said prominent NLD member Phyu Phyu Thin, using a respectful form of address for the Nobel peace laureate.
"Although we have no legal headquarters, we will continue our movement. Our people have sacrificed their lives... many of our party members and activists are still in prison," she said.
Along with Suu Kyi's lakeside home, where she has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years, the shabby wooden headquarters has been the focus of efforts to end nearly half a century of military rule.
The NLD was founded in 1988 after a popular uprising against the military junta that left thousands dead. Two years later the party won elections in a landslide but the results were never recognised by the regime.
The junta's new election laws, which forced the NLD into the difficult boycott decision and also officially nullified the 1990 poll results, have been roundly condemned by the international community.
Suu Kyi filed a lawsuit last week to try to overturn the laws but the Supreme Court turned down the bid, paving the way for her party to be automatically abolished at midnight.
"According to the law, the NLD will not be a registered party tomorrow," Myanmar police chief Khin Yi told AFP Thursday.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win said they were no ceremonies scheduled to mark the last hours of the party.
"We have no plans for today. We have no events scheduled at our party headquarters," he told AFP.
He declined to elaborate on the emotions within the party leadership, but analysts say that there has been friction between the older, hardline members and younger more moderate figures who opposed the boycott decision.
Khin Maung Swe, another senior party member, downplayed speculation that he will form a new political party out of the ashes of the NLD. The process for registration of new parties will officially begin from Friday.
"I love this party. But I have to respect the majority's decision. Today will be the last day for us. It's a very sorrowful time as we have to conclude our party this way," he told AFP.
"The NLD hasn't been able to fulfil its promise which was made to the people in 1990. So I will support those who want to continue to serve the people."
Aung Naing Oo, a Myanmar analyst and former student leader in the 1988 uprising, said the beleaguered pro-democracy movement was now moving into uncharted territory.
"It's a great loss for Burma. I don't see any organisation that can fill the vacuum created by the NLD's departure," he said, using the country's former name.
"Even if the moderates form a political party of their own they will be without their main key asset -- Aung San Suu Kyi."
"And because of the lack of an agreement to reorganise, the moderates and hardliners are likely to undermine each other."
The NLD leadership, many of whom are in their 80s and 90s, have been criticised for lacking a strategic vision, and some question whether their absolutist stance against the regime is the best way forward.
Aung Naing Oo said a new line-up of pro-democracy campaigners under a fresh banner "may have a better chance of working with the generals, compared to the NLD with all its heavy baggage".
by Hla Hla Htay – Thu May 6, 4:22 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's party, for two decades the symbol of resistance against the ruling junta, is to be dissolved at midnight Thursday under laws laid down ahead of elections.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register as a political party -- a move that would have forced it to expel its own leader -- and boycotted the vote scheduled for later this year.
At the party's ramshackle headquarters in Myanmar's former capital Yangon, the "fighting peacock" flag was still flying but party workers were packing up files and mulling new plans to focus on social and development work.
"We have decided not to take down our party signboard and flags as Daw Suu has asked," said prominent NLD member Phyu Phyu Thin, using a respectful form of address for the Nobel peace laureate.
"Although we have no legal headquarters, we will continue our movement. Our people have sacrificed their lives... many of our party members and activists are still in prison," she said.
Along with Suu Kyi's lakeside home, where she has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years, the shabby wooden headquarters has been the focus of efforts to end nearly half a century of military rule.
The NLD was founded in 1988 after a popular uprising against the military junta that left thousands dead. Two years later the party won elections in a landslide but the results were never recognised by the regime.
The junta's new election laws, which forced the NLD into the difficult boycott decision and also officially nullified the 1990 poll results, have been roundly condemned by the international community.
Suu Kyi filed a lawsuit last week to try to overturn the laws but the Supreme Court turned down the bid, paving the way for her party to be automatically abolished at midnight.
"According to the law, the NLD will not be a registered party tomorrow," Myanmar police chief Khin Yi told AFP Thursday.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win said they were no ceremonies scheduled to mark the last hours of the party.
"We have no plans for today. We have no events scheduled at our party headquarters," he told AFP.
He declined to elaborate on the emotions within the party leadership, but analysts say that there has been friction between the older, hardline members and younger more moderate figures who opposed the boycott decision.
Khin Maung Swe, another senior party member, downplayed speculation that he will form a new political party out of the ashes of the NLD. The process for registration of new parties will officially begin from Friday.
"I love this party. But I have to respect the majority's decision. Today will be the last day for us. It's a very sorrowful time as we have to conclude our party this way," he told AFP.
"The NLD hasn't been able to fulfil its promise which was made to the people in 1990. So I will support those who want to continue to serve the people."
Aung Naing Oo, a Myanmar analyst and former student leader in the 1988 uprising, said the beleaguered pro-democracy movement was now moving into uncharted territory.
"It's a great loss for Burma. I don't see any organisation that can fill the vacuum created by the NLD's departure," he said, using the country's former name.
"Even if the moderates form a political party of their own they will be without their main key asset -- Aung San Suu Kyi."
"And because of the lack of an agreement to reorganise, the moderates and hardliners are likely to undermine each other."
The NLD leadership, many of whom are in their 80s and 90s, have been criticised for lacking a strategic vision, and some question whether their absolutist stance against the regime is the best way forward.
Aung Naing Oo said a new line-up of pro-democracy campaigners under a fresh banner "may have a better chance of working with the generals, compared to the NLD with all its heavy baggage".
***************************************************
Myanmar's Suu Kyi fails to prevent party dissolution
Wed May 5, 11:05 pm ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has failed in a legal bid to prevent the dissolution of her party under a controversial new election law, the party said Thursday.
The detained Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy (NLD) party faces abolition if it fails to re-register by the end of Thursday.
Suu Kyi and her party filed lawsuits last week with Myanmar's Supreme Court against junta leader Senior General Than Shwe.
The petitions asked the court to annul the part of the election law that would have forced the party to oust her in order to participate in the first national polls to be held in two decades.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win said a court director had summoned party officials Wednesday to give its response.
"He returned our applications saying that the laws were already enacted. We have no plan yet to continue further," Nyan Win said.
The NLD decided last month to boycott the elections, which are expected to be held later this year.
The lawsuits had also called for the formation of a parliament made up of lawmakers who won in 1990 elections.
The NLD won those polls in a landslide but the junta never accepted the outcome and Myanmar's new election law nullifies the results.
In February, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her extended house arrest. She has been held in detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
The 64-year-old opposition leader had her incarceration lengthened by 18 months in August after being convicted over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home in Yangon.
Critics dismiss the planned elections as a sham designed to entrench the power of the military which has ruled since 1962.
Myanmar's prime minister and 22 other ministers retired from their military posts last week in a move seen as converting the leadership to civilian form ahead of the elections.
Wed May 5, 11:05 pm ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has failed in a legal bid to prevent the dissolution of her party under a controversial new election law, the party said Thursday.
The detained Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy (NLD) party faces abolition if it fails to re-register by the end of Thursday.
Suu Kyi and her party filed lawsuits last week with Myanmar's Supreme Court against junta leader Senior General Than Shwe.
The petitions asked the court to annul the part of the election law that would have forced the party to oust her in order to participate in the first national polls to be held in two decades.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win said a court director had summoned party officials Wednesday to give its response.
"He returned our applications saying that the laws were already enacted. We have no plan yet to continue further," Nyan Win said.
The NLD decided last month to boycott the elections, which are expected to be held later this year.
The lawsuits had also called for the formation of a parliament made up of lawmakers who won in 1990 elections.
The NLD won those polls in a landslide but the junta never accepted the outcome and Myanmar's new election law nullifies the results.
In February, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her extended house arrest. She has been held in detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
The 64-year-old opposition leader had her incarceration lengthened by 18 months in August after being convicted over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home in Yangon.
Critics dismiss the planned elections as a sham designed to entrench the power of the military which has ruled since 1962.
Myanmar's prime minister and 22 other ministers retired from their military posts last week in a move seen as converting the leadership to civilian form ahead of the elections.
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Myanmar police accuse exile group over Yangon blasts
2 hrs 6 mins ago
NAYPYIDAW (AFP) – Police in Myanmar said Thursday they had arrested a man linked to deadly grenade blasts in a Yangon park last month, blaming the attacks on a militant exile group set on disrupting upcoming polls.
A series of explosions on April 15 left 10 people dead and about 170 wounded as thousands of people gathered for water-throwing festivities to mark the Buddhist New Year, in the worst attack in five years in Myanmar's main city.
"This brutal act was committed by four terrorist murderers who are members of a group known as the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors," Myanmar police chief Khin Yi said.
One suspect was arrested while the others fled across the border into Thailand, where police are cooperating in efforts to detain them, he said at a news conference in the remote administrative capital Naypyidaw.
The movement aimed to "instill fear and unrest among the general public and eventually to disrupt the 2010 elections," Khin Yi added.
Police said that three grenades had been thrown into the crowds. Another device, made with a beer can filled with explosive powder and attached by detonation wire to a mobile telephone, failed to explode.
Khin Yi said that it was the first time that such a "high tech" detonation method had been used in Myanmar, albeit unsuccessfully.
Members of the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors movement, armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, stormed the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok in 1999 and took 38 hostages.
The police chief said the group was behind a series of blasts in recent years, although some exile activists were sceptical that the movement was responsible.
"I'm not sure this group is still even active, because we haven't encountered them for a long time," said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, a coalition of pressure groups.
"We have witnessed that the regime has many times wrongfully accused democracy activists," he told AFP in Thailand.
Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years which the junta has blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels.
The latest attacks came as the country prepares for polls planned for the end of this year, which critics have dismissed as a sham due to laws that effectively bar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating.
Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was set to be dissolved at midnight Thursday under laws laid down ahead of the elections.
The NLD refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register as a political party, which would have forced it to expel its own leader, and boycotted the vote scheduled for later this year.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, partly justifying its grip on power by the need to fend off ethnic rebellions that have plagued remote border areas for decades.
In May 2005, blasts at two Yangon supermarkets and a convention centre killed 23 people. The junta blamed those explosions on exile groups.
Armed minorities in Karen and Shan states continue to fight the government along the country's eastern border, alleging they are victims of neglect and mistreatment.
In other recent attacks, a series of bomb blasts hit a controversial dam project in remote Kachin state last month, while a series of grenades exploded at a hydropower project in Bago Division.
Myanmar's police chief said in August last year that security forces had foiled a plot by a man sent by exiled pro-democracy groups to bomb Yangon during a visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon the previous month.
Rights group Amnesty International in February called on the regime to end repression of ethnic minority groups ahead of the vote, accusing the regime of arresting, jailing, torturing and killing minority activists to crush dissent.
2 hrs 6 mins ago
NAYPYIDAW (AFP) – Police in Myanmar said Thursday they had arrested a man linked to deadly grenade blasts in a Yangon park last month, blaming the attacks on a militant exile group set on disrupting upcoming polls.
A series of explosions on April 15 left 10 people dead and about 170 wounded as thousands of people gathered for water-throwing festivities to mark the Buddhist New Year, in the worst attack in five years in Myanmar's main city.
"This brutal act was committed by four terrorist murderers who are members of a group known as the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors," Myanmar police chief Khin Yi said.
One suspect was arrested while the others fled across the border into Thailand, where police are cooperating in efforts to detain them, he said at a news conference in the remote administrative capital Naypyidaw.
The movement aimed to "instill fear and unrest among the general public and eventually to disrupt the 2010 elections," Khin Yi added.
Police said that three grenades had been thrown into the crowds. Another device, made with a beer can filled with explosive powder and attached by detonation wire to a mobile telephone, failed to explode.
Khin Yi said that it was the first time that such a "high tech" detonation method had been used in Myanmar, albeit unsuccessfully.
Members of the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors movement, armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, stormed the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok in 1999 and took 38 hostages.
The police chief said the group was behind a series of blasts in recent years, although some exile activists were sceptical that the movement was responsible.
"I'm not sure this group is still even active, because we haven't encountered them for a long time," said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, a coalition of pressure groups.
"We have witnessed that the regime has many times wrongfully accused democracy activists," he told AFP in Thailand.
Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years which the junta has blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels.
The latest attacks came as the country prepares for polls planned for the end of this year, which critics have dismissed as a sham due to laws that effectively bar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating.
Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was set to be dissolved at midnight Thursday under laws laid down ahead of the elections.
The NLD refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register as a political party, which would have forced it to expel its own leader, and boycotted the vote scheduled for later this year.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, partly justifying its grip on power by the need to fend off ethnic rebellions that have plagued remote border areas for decades.
In May 2005, blasts at two Yangon supermarkets and a convention centre killed 23 people. The junta blamed those explosions on exile groups.
Armed minorities in Karen and Shan states continue to fight the government along the country's eastern border, alleging they are victims of neglect and mistreatment.
In other recent attacks, a series of bomb blasts hit a controversial dam project in remote Kachin state last month, while a series of grenades exploded at a hydropower project in Bago Division.
Myanmar's police chief said in August last year that security forces had foiled a plot by a man sent by exiled pro-democracy groups to bomb Yangon during a visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon the previous month.
Rights group Amnesty International in February called on the regime to end repression of ethnic minority groups ahead of the vote, accusing the regime of arresting, jailing, torturing and killing minority activists to crush dissent.
***************************************************
VOA News - Burma's Supreme Court Refuses Democracy Party's Petition
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok 06 May 2010
Burma's opposition National League for Democracy says the Supreme Court has refused to hear its petition against the party's dissolution. That means the NLD will cease to exist as a political party under the military government's controversial election laws.
A spokesman for the National League for Democracy Thursday said the Supreme Court would not even consider the petition.
Nyan Win says a court director told them the election laws are clear and so the complaint about the laws has no merit. But, he says, it appears the court staff, not the judges, made the decision.
"He said the judges didn't know anything about this application. So, this is the main flaw we see," he said.
The election laws passed earlier this year require all parties to expel political prisoners from their ranks and to register to take part in elections expected later this year.
Parties that fail to do so by Thursday will legally cease to exist.
The NLD refused to comply and will be disbanded.
Its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for most of the past two decades. Scores of other NLD members have been imprisoned for opposing the military government.
The NLD won Burma's last elections in 1990 but the military ignored the results. Many opposition politicians fled to Thailand and formed a government in exile.
Zinn Lin, NLD's spokesman, says Burma's legal system is controlled by military leader General Than Shwe.
"They have to listen to General Than Shwe. He is the only one who call[s] the shot[s] at this moment. So, I think the Supreme Court is just a showcase," he said.
Burma's election plans are heavily criticized by the international community and activists as a sham designed to keep the military in power.
The election laws also require parties to ignore the 1990 elections and support the military-drafted constitution, which guarantees it a quarter of all parliamentary seats.
Scores of officers last week quit their military posts so they can run for the remaining seats.
Despite being banned from politics, NLD spokesman Nyan Win says its members will continue aiding political prisoners and others persecuted for their beliefs.
He says the party also will file an objection directly to the chief judge of the Supreme Court within a week.
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok 06 May 2010
Burma's opposition National League for Democracy says the Supreme Court has refused to hear its petition against the party's dissolution. That means the NLD will cease to exist as a political party under the military government's controversial election laws.
A spokesman for the National League for Democracy Thursday said the Supreme Court would not even consider the petition.
Nyan Win says a court director told them the election laws are clear and so the complaint about the laws has no merit. But, he says, it appears the court staff, not the judges, made the decision.
"He said the judges didn't know anything about this application. So, this is the main flaw we see," he said.
The election laws passed earlier this year require all parties to expel political prisoners from their ranks and to register to take part in elections expected later this year.
Parties that fail to do so by Thursday will legally cease to exist.
The NLD refused to comply and will be disbanded.
Its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for most of the past two decades. Scores of other NLD members have been imprisoned for opposing the military government.
The NLD won Burma's last elections in 1990 but the military ignored the results. Many opposition politicians fled to Thailand and formed a government in exile.
Zinn Lin, NLD's spokesman, says Burma's legal system is controlled by military leader General Than Shwe.
"They have to listen to General Than Shwe. He is the only one who call[s] the shot[s] at this moment. So, I think the Supreme Court is just a showcase," he said.
Burma's election plans are heavily criticized by the international community and activists as a sham designed to keep the military in power.
The election laws also require parties to ignore the 1990 elections and support the military-drafted constitution, which guarantees it a quarter of all parliamentary seats.
Scores of officers last week quit their military posts so they can run for the remaining seats.
Despite being banned from politics, NLD spokesman Nyan Win says its members will continue aiding political prisoners and others persecuted for their beliefs.
He says the party also will file an objection directly to the chief judge of the Supreme Court within a week.
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Members of Burma's Main Opposition Group to Form New Party
VOA News 06 May 2010
Leading members of Burma's main opposition party, who disagree with its boycott of an upcoming military-run election, say they are forming a breakaway faction to compete in the polls.
NLD member Than Nyien told VOA's Burmese service Thursday that he and other members have decided to form a new political party called the National Democratic Force. He says the NDF will register with Burma's military rulers to take part in the election to be held later this year.
Than Nyien says the political platform of the NDF will not be much different than that of the NLD, which is boycotting the election because it refuses to accept military terms in order to remain a legal party.
Under new election laws passed by Burma's military, the NLD had to expel political prisoners from its ranks and register for the election by Thursday or face dissolution.
There was no immediate comment from the NLD on the breakaway faction's decision to form a new party.
The NLD decided not to register for the election because doing so would have required it to expel its detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi. NLD members say their headquarters in Rangoon will continue to engage in humanitarian work but will no longer be involved in politics.
Some NLD members rolled up portraits of Aung San Suu Kyi at the headquarters Thursday before closing the office for the day.
Earlier, NLD spokesman Nyan Win told reporters in Rangoon that Burma's Supreme Court refused to hear an NLD petition seeking to overturn the military's new election laws.
Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted last August of violating the terms of her house arrest for sheltering an American who swam to her lakeside Rangoon home uninvited. The NLD leader and Nobel Peace laureate has spent 14 of the last 20 years under some form of detention.
Her party won the last democratically held election in 1990, but the military refused to accept the results.
VOA News 06 May 2010
Leading members of Burma's main opposition party, who disagree with its boycott of an upcoming military-run election, say they are forming a breakaway faction to compete in the polls.
NLD member Than Nyien told VOA's Burmese service Thursday that he and other members have decided to form a new political party called the National Democratic Force. He says the NDF will register with Burma's military rulers to take part in the election to be held later this year.
Than Nyien says the political platform of the NDF will not be much different than that of the NLD, which is boycotting the election because it refuses to accept military terms in order to remain a legal party.
Under new election laws passed by Burma's military, the NLD had to expel political prisoners from its ranks and register for the election by Thursday or face dissolution.
There was no immediate comment from the NLD on the breakaway faction's decision to form a new party.
The NLD decided not to register for the election because doing so would have required it to expel its detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi. NLD members say their headquarters in Rangoon will continue to engage in humanitarian work but will no longer be involved in politics.
Some NLD members rolled up portraits of Aung San Suu Kyi at the headquarters Thursday before closing the office for the day.
Earlier, NLD spokesman Nyan Win told reporters in Rangoon that Burma's Supreme Court refused to hear an NLD petition seeking to overturn the military's new election laws.
Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted last August of violating the terms of her house arrest for sheltering an American who swam to her lakeside Rangoon home uninvited. The NLD leader and Nobel Peace laureate has spent 14 of the last 20 years under some form of detention.
Her party won the last democratically held election in 1990, but the military refused to accept the results.
***************************************************
EarthTimes - Last day for Myanmar opposition party, NLD official says
Posted : Thu, 06 May 2010 03:35:23 GMT
Yangon - Myanmar's main opposition party is expected to be closed down as a legal entity Thursday, the final day of registration for parties to contest a general election planned some time this year, opposition sources said.
"This is going to be the last day for us," National League for democracy (NLD) executive committee member Win Tin said.
The NLD has refused to register for the upcoming polls to protest against the junta's condition that it must expel its secretary general, democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to qualify as a political party.
Myanmar's military rulers in March promulgated a party registration act which bans people who are currently serving a jail sentence from being a member of a political party contesting the polls.
The stipulation forced the NLD to choose between expelling Suu Kyi, who is currently serving an 18-month house detention sentence, or refusing to contest the election, planned at an unspecified date this year. It chose the latter, bringing about its dismantlement.
Earlier this week, Myanmar's Supreme Court rejected a case submitted by Suu Kyi against junta chief Senior General Than Shwe that argued the registration rules were illegal.
"We got our message yesterday when the Supreme Court refused to accept our case against the shutting down of the party," Win Tin said. "That means that they are going to shut down the party."
The NLD, which won Myanmar's last election in 1990 by a landslide, but was barred from power by the junta, has more than 300 party offices nationwide.
The party, soon to be defunct, has called on their followers to boycott the upcoming polls. It has not thrown its support behind any of the parties that have registered to contest the election.
"Up to now we haven't got any local parties we can support," Win Tin said.
Posted : Thu, 06 May 2010 03:35:23 GMT
Yangon - Myanmar's main opposition party is expected to be closed down as a legal entity Thursday, the final day of registration for parties to contest a general election planned some time this year, opposition sources said.
"This is going to be the last day for us," National League for democracy (NLD) executive committee member Win Tin said.
The NLD has refused to register for the upcoming polls to protest against the junta's condition that it must expel its secretary general, democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to qualify as a political party.
Myanmar's military rulers in March promulgated a party registration act which bans people who are currently serving a jail sentence from being a member of a political party contesting the polls.
The stipulation forced the NLD to choose between expelling Suu Kyi, who is currently serving an 18-month house detention sentence, or refusing to contest the election, planned at an unspecified date this year. It chose the latter, bringing about its dismantlement.
Earlier this week, Myanmar's Supreme Court rejected a case submitted by Suu Kyi against junta chief Senior General Than Shwe that argued the registration rules were illegal.
"We got our message yesterday when the Supreme Court refused to accept our case against the shutting down of the party," Win Tin said. "That means that they are going to shut down the party."
The NLD, which won Myanmar's last election in 1990 by a landslide, but was barred from power by the junta, has more than 300 party offices nationwide.
The party, soon to be defunct, has called on their followers to boycott the upcoming polls. It has not thrown its support behind any of the parties that have registered to contest the election.
"Up to now we haven't got any local parties we can support," Win Tin said.
***************************************************
EarthTimes - Myanmar sailors to go home after fatal accident
Posted : Thu, 06 May 2010 01:20:18 GMT
Wellington - Ten Burmese sailors will be repatriated after two crewmen died on a Korean carrier loading logs in New Zealand, following a negotiated agreement, the Maritime Union of New Zealand said Thursday.
A Korean officer and a Burmese rating died Monday, reportedly asphyxiated by fumes in a hold of the TPC Wellington, as it was being loaded at Marsden Point in Northland, though investigations are continuing.
Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood said the Burmese crew members would return with the vessel to Korea, where the company would pay them off with a bonus and pay for their repatriation to Myanmar.
The agreement was negotiated with the help of the International Transport Workers Federation, whose inspector Grahame McLaren was quoted in Thursday's New Zealand Herald as saying, "They are adamant they want to get off the ship. Morale is rock bottom. They just feel unsafe, unhappy and depressed."
The New Zealand union gave permission for the boat to sail Thursday, saying the agreement allowed the crew to refuse to carry out work they felt was unsafe.
New Zealand police named the men who died as Korean Deogchil Oh, 56, the ship's first mate, and able rating Thi Ha Aung, 33, from Myanmar.
News reports said Aung died after trying to rescue Oh, who appeared to have breached safety protocols by entering a confined space without breathing apparatus. A third man who went to their aid was released after hospital treatment.
Posted : Thu, 06 May 2010 01:20:18 GMT
Wellington - Ten Burmese sailors will be repatriated after two crewmen died on a Korean carrier loading logs in New Zealand, following a negotiated agreement, the Maritime Union of New Zealand said Thursday.
A Korean officer and a Burmese rating died Monday, reportedly asphyxiated by fumes in a hold of the TPC Wellington, as it was being loaded at Marsden Point in Northland, though investigations are continuing.
Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood said the Burmese crew members would return with the vessel to Korea, where the company would pay them off with a bonus and pay for their repatriation to Myanmar.
The agreement was negotiated with the help of the International Transport Workers Federation, whose inspector Grahame McLaren was quoted in Thursday's New Zealand Herald as saying, "They are adamant they want to get off the ship. Morale is rock bottom. They just feel unsafe, unhappy and depressed."
The New Zealand union gave permission for the boat to sail Thursday, saying the agreement allowed the crew to refuse to carry out work they felt was unsafe.
New Zealand police named the men who died as Korean Deogchil Oh, 56, the ship's first mate, and able rating Thi Ha Aung, 33, from Myanmar.
News reports said Aung died after trying to rescue Oh, who appeared to have breached safety protocols by entering a confined space without breathing apparatus. A third man who went to their aid was released after hospital treatment.
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MYANMAR: Female-headed households struggle in cyclone-affected area
KAWAT VILLAGE, 6 May 2010 (IRIN) - About 14 percent of households in Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis-affected region are headed by women, mostly widows, according to a report published in March entitled Women's Protection Assessments: Post Nargis.
The report said female-headed households make up the highest percentage of low income groups, and more than 80 percent of the women surveyed were in debt, having borrowed money from relatives, friends or moneylenders.
Sixty percent of female-headed households live in unsatisfactory shelters, it said, while children from these families often drop out of school for lack of cash.
"They face the additional burden of being the only adult in the family and are therefore more vulnerable in terms of poverty and protection compared with households with two adults," Joern Kristensen, manager of the Recovery Coordination Centre, which oversees humanitarian and rehabilitation efforts in the delta, told IRIN.
"The main problem for women is that usually they can only engage in secondary income generating activities which do not generate enough income for the whole household to survive,” said Andrew Kirkwood, Myanmar country director of Save the Children.
Kirkwood said job opportunities were fewer than before Nargis because employers lacked the funds to pay casual workers.
Furthermore, the fishing and agriculture sectors, which used to support the area, have not fully recovered, so day labourers have limited job opportunities.
Health care is another pressing need for women heads of household, especially older women, said Samantha Chattaraj of the Myanmar operations of HelpAge International.
"When their health is not good, it can affect their livelihoods, so it's also important to give health care to the female-headed households," Chattaraj said.
In an effort to help women heads of household rebuild their lives, humanitarian agencies have prioritized them for assistance, and established nearly 1,300 women’s self-reliance groups and seven women-friendly centres offering psychosocial support, humanitarian kits, and skills training.
"There is a need to conduct further research and understand what sorts of jobs and livelihoods women heads of household - especially older women - prefer, so that we can help them effectively,” Chattaraj said.
Many women heads of household are in financial crisis and deep debt, and have had to sell their property to pay back moneylenders.
Kyin Myaing, 56, sold her land to appease her debtor, but has more to pay.
"Soon, we'll sell this house to pay back all the debt, and then move to Yangon for whatever jobs are available there. We have to do this to survive," said the mother of three, as she looked around her wood-and-bamboo house.
Those who have already sold their land or houses are being evicted by moneylenders.
"We're now being forced to dismantle this house and vacate the land," said 58-year-old Mya Aye, the matriarch in a family of six. Surrounded by her grandchildren, she sighed heavily and asked: “Where should we go then?”
KAWAT VILLAGE, 6 May 2010 (IRIN) - About 14 percent of households in Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis-affected region are headed by women, mostly widows, according to a report published in March entitled Women's Protection Assessments: Post Nargis.
The report said female-headed households make up the highest percentage of low income groups, and more than 80 percent of the women surveyed were in debt, having borrowed money from relatives, friends or moneylenders.
Sixty percent of female-headed households live in unsatisfactory shelters, it said, while children from these families often drop out of school for lack of cash.
"They face the additional burden of being the only adult in the family and are therefore more vulnerable in terms of poverty and protection compared with households with two adults," Joern Kristensen, manager of the Recovery Coordination Centre, which oversees humanitarian and rehabilitation efforts in the delta, told IRIN.
"The main problem for women is that usually they can only engage in secondary income generating activities which do not generate enough income for the whole household to survive,” said Andrew Kirkwood, Myanmar country director of Save the Children.
Kirkwood said job opportunities were fewer than before Nargis because employers lacked the funds to pay casual workers.
Furthermore, the fishing and agriculture sectors, which used to support the area, have not fully recovered, so day labourers have limited job opportunities.
Health care is another pressing need for women heads of household, especially older women, said Samantha Chattaraj of the Myanmar operations of HelpAge International.
"When their health is not good, it can affect their livelihoods, so it's also important to give health care to the female-headed households," Chattaraj said.
In an effort to help women heads of household rebuild their lives, humanitarian agencies have prioritized them for assistance, and established nearly 1,300 women’s self-reliance groups and seven women-friendly centres offering psychosocial support, humanitarian kits, and skills training.
"There is a need to conduct further research and understand what sorts of jobs and livelihoods women heads of household - especially older women - prefer, so that we can help them effectively,” Chattaraj said.
Many women heads of household are in financial crisis and deep debt, and have had to sell their property to pay back moneylenders.
Kyin Myaing, 56, sold her land to appease her debtor, but has more to pay.
"Soon, we'll sell this house to pay back all the debt, and then move to Yangon for whatever jobs are available there. We have to do this to survive," said the mother of three, as she looked around her wood-and-bamboo house.
Those who have already sold their land or houses are being evicted by moneylenders.
"We're now being forced to dismantle this house and vacate the land," said 58-year-old Mya Aye, the matriarch in a family of six. Surrounded by her grandchildren, she sighed heavily and asked: “Where should we go then?”
***************************************************
May 7, 2010
Asia Times Online - Call to open Myanmar's books
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - A new international campaign aims to encourage oil and gas giants Total and Chevron to reveal the extent of payments they have made to the Myanmar government over the past 18 years. New oil and gas pipelines are slated to come online in the next few years and rights groups allege Myanmar's oil and gas industry serves to prop up the rights-abusing military regime.
EarthRights International (ERI), a Washington DC-based human-rights and environmental organization, announced the campaign at a press conference in Bangkok on April 27. A statement for the campaign was signed by more than 160 labor unions, investmentfirms, academics, non-government organizations and policy makers, including former Irish president and head of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Mary Robinson, as well as former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.
The statement calls for France-based Total, Chevron of the United States, and Thai state oil company Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production (PTTEP), to reveal the amounts paid to the junta in fees, taxes, royalties and benefits since the start of the Yadana Gas project in 1992. EarthRights says transparency of these payments would set a good example for other oil and gas companies now working in Myanmar.
Total, in response to a report by ERI in September 2009, disclosed in October 2009 that its portion of the Yadana gas project had generated US$254 million for the junta in 2008. Economists say this data will be important for the policies, including taxation, interest rates and exchange rate management, of the government that comes into power after the elections that are expected to be held this year.
Total, Chevron and PTTEP are part of a consortium, together with Myanmar state gas firm Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), in the Yadana gas field in the Andaman sea as well as a gas pipeline that feeds two power plants that provide electricity to Bangkok. Total signed an initial profit-sharing contract with MOGE in 1992 and remains the primary shareholder. Chevron became involved when it bought UNOCAL in 2005. Sales of gas from the pipeline to PTT Public Company Ltd, Thailand's state-owned oil and gas company, began in 2000.
The project came in for criticism over well-documented human-rights abuses in the area directly related to construction of the pipeline between 1996-1999 and ongoing security measures maintained along its route. A lawsuit brought against UNOCAL in the United States by villagers from the pipeline area was settled for an undisclosed sum in 2005.
Despite this, Total and Chevron - which inherited UNOCAL's liabilities in the merger - deny responsibility for the negative impacts of the project, including human-rights abuses. They have even made claims that rights abuses have been eradicated in the project area, statements that ERI and other human-rights groups contest.
The Yadana field is the military regime's single-largest revenue earner. ERI estimates the field earned $1.7 billion in 2008, of which an estimated $1.02 billion went directly to the regime. The group believes that from 2000, when gas sales began, through 2008, the junta earned a total of $7.58 billion in revenues.
Fast cash flows
Another field in the Andaman Sea, the Yetagun, is run by Malaysia's Petronas, Thai Nippon Steel, PTTEP and MOGE. Petronas took over the stake of a British energy company that pulled out of the project under pressure in 2002 and is now its largest shareholder. A natural gaspipeline from the field joins with the Yadana pipeline at the Thai border. According to ERI's research, the amount of revenue earned from the Yetagun project is only slightly less than that generated by the Yadana project.
Another much more ambitious oil and gas pipeline project in western Myanmar is projected to at least double these annual earnings. The Shwe Gas project encompasses natural gas extraction from a field off the coast of Arakan Division and a 2,806-kilometer pipeline that will run the length of Myanmar to Kunming in southwestern China and onto Nanning, the capital of Guangxi province.
The consortium involves Daewoo International and Korean Gas of South Korea, Oil and Gas Corporation (ONCG-Videsh) and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) and MOGE. Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea was contracted by Daewoo in February to construct related offshore and onshore gas production facilities.
China's state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) secured its place as the sole buyer of the Shwe natural gas reserves in 2008. In June 2009, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and Myanmar deputy leader Vice Senior General Maung Aye signed a memorandum of understanding for the development, operation and management of the pipeline, which will have a capacity to transport 12 billion cubic meters of natural gasannually.
Conservative estimates indicate that Myanmar's government will earn $1 billion per year from the pipeline over the next 30 years, with the first gas transfers expected to begin in 2013. This is in addition to the $2.5 billion to $3 billion already paid to the regime for bonuses and contract exploration rights related to the project.
Supplementing the project is the construction of a deep-sea port and crude oil storage facilities on Maday Island, near the town of Kyaukpyu, on the Arakan coast. The port will allow Chinese oil tankers to unload at the facility and pump the oil through a 771-kilometer pipeline being built alongside the natural gas pipeline to Kunming.
The oil pipeline will have the capacity to transport 22 million tonnes of crude oil annually. The port and pipeline will also allow China to avoid sending oil, by some estimates over 80% of its fuel shipments, from the Middle East and Africa through the pirate-infested and easily blocked Malacca Strait. While the port and storage facilities are scheduled to be completed this year, the pipeline is not expected to be up and running until 2013.
Blacklisted bosses
Contracts for the construction of the port facilities and some of the pipeline infrastructure have been given to Asia World and IGE. Asia World is owned by Steven Law, also known as Tun Myint Hlaing, the son of alleged drug trafficker Lo Hsing Han. Both Law and his father have been on a US visa blacklist since 1996 for suspected drug trafficking and their company is on the US Treasury Department's sanctions list for their financial connections to the regime.
IGE, which is registered in Singapore, is owned by the sons of Myanmar Minister of Industry-1, Aung Thaung. The company is on a European Union sanctions list against junta members and their associated businesses. Aung Thaung and his sons are barred from entering the European Union and Australia under the sanctions.
The dual pipeline project has come under criticism from rights groups. They claim the deal has contributed to increased militarization along the pipeline route, land confiscation and forced labor. A Myanmar army offensive against the Kokang ethnic group along the border with China last year may have also been connected to the pipeline project. Both the military government in the Myanmar capital in Naypyidaw and officials in Beijing are keen to make sure that continued tensions between the junta and ethnic groups along the border do not cause security problems for the pipeline.
Although India will not receive any of the Shwe Gas field's output, it is still interested in Myanmar's offshore oil and gas potential. In February, the Indian government authorized ONCG Videsh and GAIL to move forward with their stakes in the gas pipeline to China. It also authorized a reported $1 billion investment by the companies in continued development of offshore gas fields operated by Daewoo.
Rights groups claim the profits earned by the junta from the Yadana and Yetagun gas projects already provide the means for the regime to ignore international criticism and purchase more weapons and equipment for its military. They claim the $3 billion earned annually from oil and gas projects would be better spent to improve the country's abysmally underfunded health and education sectors.
The generals have been criticized for under-reporting their earnings from the gas projects, which are believed to make up over 60% of national income. Instead of accurately including gas revenues in its national budget, the cash received is recorded at the 30-year-old fixed exchange rate of six kyat to the dollar; the current black market rate is over 1,000 kyat to the greenback.
In a September 2009 report entitled "Total Impact", ERI claimed that the funds not recorded went into offshore accounts at two banks in Singapore - the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and the DBS Group. Both banks have officially denied the accusation.
Although oil and gas revenues fell last year due to a decline in global prices, the revenues were still significant. A MOGE representative told the ASEAN Council on Petroleum at a trade fair in November that Myanmar expected to double its output of natural gas in the next 10 years, largely from the Shwe project.
Economist Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate for economics and former World Bank head, suggested to Myanmar's leaders in a rare seminar with a foreign expert in December 2009 that oil and gas revenues could, if used wisely, open up a new era for the impoverished country. Sean Turnell, an Australian expert on Myanmar's economy, has suggested that oil and gas revenues could be used to shore up other parts of the economy, including initiatives that establish credit systems for farmers. So far this foreign advice has fallen on deaf ears.
Oil and gas prices and revenues are a contentious issue in Myanmar. Rapidly rising fuel prices were one of the chief factors that sparked the anti-government street demonstrations in 2007 that later became known around the world as the Buddhist monk-led "Saffron" revolution. As part of a recent move to privatize many of the junta's business holdings, tycoon and junta favorite Tay Za has moved to secure contracts for state-run gas stations, a move that has apparently provoked anger in some Yangon business circles.
The government announced in February it would sell 256 gas stations to private companies. Tay Za, who is the chairman of the recently formed Fuel Oil Importers and Distributors Association (FOIDA) and already has the contract to operate state-run stations in northern Myanmar, is well placed to buy the stations. The vice chairman of the FOIDA is Aung Thet Mann, son of junta number three and armed forces joint chief of staff General Thura Shwe Mann.
It is unlikely however that the privatizations will extend to the state-owned MOGE and it remains unclear how the oil and gas operations will be operated under the new government that will take over after elections late this year. Analysts believe it is unlikely that the generals would allow a new minister to drastically alter the current revenue arrangements. This will be a problem for any new regime as it bids to manage more effectively - and hopefully transparently - the economy.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
Asia Times Online - Call to open Myanmar's books
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - A new international campaign aims to encourage oil and gas giants Total and Chevron to reveal the extent of payments they have made to the Myanmar government over the past 18 years. New oil and gas pipelines are slated to come online in the next few years and rights groups allege Myanmar's oil and gas industry serves to prop up the rights-abusing military regime.
EarthRights International (ERI), a Washington DC-based human-rights and environmental organization, announced the campaign at a press conference in Bangkok on April 27. A statement for the campaign was signed by more than 160 labor unions, investmentfirms, academics, non-government organizations and policy makers, including former Irish president and head of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Mary Robinson, as well as former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.
The statement calls for France-based Total, Chevron of the United States, and Thai state oil company Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production (PTTEP), to reveal the amounts paid to the junta in fees, taxes, royalties and benefits since the start of the Yadana Gas project in 1992. EarthRights says transparency of these payments would set a good example for other oil and gas companies now working in Myanmar.
Total, in response to a report by ERI in September 2009, disclosed in October 2009 that its portion of the Yadana gas project had generated US$254 million for the junta in 2008. Economists say this data will be important for the policies, including taxation, interest rates and exchange rate management, of the government that comes into power after the elections that are expected to be held this year.
Total, Chevron and PTTEP are part of a consortium, together with Myanmar state gas firm Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), in the Yadana gas field in the Andaman sea as well as a gas pipeline that feeds two power plants that provide electricity to Bangkok. Total signed an initial profit-sharing contract with MOGE in 1992 and remains the primary shareholder. Chevron became involved when it bought UNOCAL in 2005. Sales of gas from the pipeline to PTT Public Company Ltd, Thailand's state-owned oil and gas company, began in 2000.
The project came in for criticism over well-documented human-rights abuses in the area directly related to construction of the pipeline between 1996-1999 and ongoing security measures maintained along its route. A lawsuit brought against UNOCAL in the United States by villagers from the pipeline area was settled for an undisclosed sum in 2005.
Despite this, Total and Chevron - which inherited UNOCAL's liabilities in the merger - deny responsibility for the negative impacts of the project, including human-rights abuses. They have even made claims that rights abuses have been eradicated in the project area, statements that ERI and other human-rights groups contest.
The Yadana field is the military regime's single-largest revenue earner. ERI estimates the field earned $1.7 billion in 2008, of which an estimated $1.02 billion went directly to the regime. The group believes that from 2000, when gas sales began, through 2008, the junta earned a total of $7.58 billion in revenues.
Fast cash flows
Another field in the Andaman Sea, the Yetagun, is run by Malaysia's Petronas, Thai Nippon Steel, PTTEP and MOGE. Petronas took over the stake of a British energy company that pulled out of the project under pressure in 2002 and is now its largest shareholder. A natural gaspipeline from the field joins with the Yadana pipeline at the Thai border. According to ERI's research, the amount of revenue earned from the Yetagun project is only slightly less than that generated by the Yadana project.
Another much more ambitious oil and gas pipeline project in western Myanmar is projected to at least double these annual earnings. The Shwe Gas project encompasses natural gas extraction from a field off the coast of Arakan Division and a 2,806-kilometer pipeline that will run the length of Myanmar to Kunming in southwestern China and onto Nanning, the capital of Guangxi province.
The consortium involves Daewoo International and Korean Gas of South Korea, Oil and Gas Corporation (ONCG-Videsh) and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) and MOGE. Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea was contracted by Daewoo in February to construct related offshore and onshore gas production facilities.
China's state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) secured its place as the sole buyer of the Shwe natural gas reserves in 2008. In June 2009, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and Myanmar deputy leader Vice Senior General Maung Aye signed a memorandum of understanding for the development, operation and management of the pipeline, which will have a capacity to transport 12 billion cubic meters of natural gasannually.
Conservative estimates indicate that Myanmar's government will earn $1 billion per year from the pipeline over the next 30 years, with the first gas transfers expected to begin in 2013. This is in addition to the $2.5 billion to $3 billion already paid to the regime for bonuses and contract exploration rights related to the project.
Supplementing the project is the construction of a deep-sea port and crude oil storage facilities on Maday Island, near the town of Kyaukpyu, on the Arakan coast. The port will allow Chinese oil tankers to unload at the facility and pump the oil through a 771-kilometer pipeline being built alongside the natural gas pipeline to Kunming.
The oil pipeline will have the capacity to transport 22 million tonnes of crude oil annually. The port and pipeline will also allow China to avoid sending oil, by some estimates over 80% of its fuel shipments, from the Middle East and Africa through the pirate-infested and easily blocked Malacca Strait. While the port and storage facilities are scheduled to be completed this year, the pipeline is not expected to be up and running until 2013.
Blacklisted bosses
Contracts for the construction of the port facilities and some of the pipeline infrastructure have been given to Asia World and IGE. Asia World is owned by Steven Law, also known as Tun Myint Hlaing, the son of alleged drug trafficker Lo Hsing Han. Both Law and his father have been on a US visa blacklist since 1996 for suspected drug trafficking and their company is on the US Treasury Department's sanctions list for their financial connections to the regime.
IGE, which is registered in Singapore, is owned by the sons of Myanmar Minister of Industry-1, Aung Thaung. The company is on a European Union sanctions list against junta members and their associated businesses. Aung Thaung and his sons are barred from entering the European Union and Australia under the sanctions.
The dual pipeline project has come under criticism from rights groups. They claim the deal has contributed to increased militarization along the pipeline route, land confiscation and forced labor. A Myanmar army offensive against the Kokang ethnic group along the border with China last year may have also been connected to the pipeline project. Both the military government in the Myanmar capital in Naypyidaw and officials in Beijing are keen to make sure that continued tensions between the junta and ethnic groups along the border do not cause security problems for the pipeline.
Although India will not receive any of the Shwe Gas field's output, it is still interested in Myanmar's offshore oil and gas potential. In February, the Indian government authorized ONCG Videsh and GAIL to move forward with their stakes in the gas pipeline to China. It also authorized a reported $1 billion investment by the companies in continued development of offshore gas fields operated by Daewoo.
Rights groups claim the profits earned by the junta from the Yadana and Yetagun gas projects already provide the means for the regime to ignore international criticism and purchase more weapons and equipment for its military. They claim the $3 billion earned annually from oil and gas projects would be better spent to improve the country's abysmally underfunded health and education sectors.
The generals have been criticized for under-reporting their earnings from the gas projects, which are believed to make up over 60% of national income. Instead of accurately including gas revenues in its national budget, the cash received is recorded at the 30-year-old fixed exchange rate of six kyat to the dollar; the current black market rate is over 1,000 kyat to the greenback.
In a September 2009 report entitled "Total Impact", ERI claimed that the funds not recorded went into offshore accounts at two banks in Singapore - the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and the DBS Group. Both banks have officially denied the accusation.
Although oil and gas revenues fell last year due to a decline in global prices, the revenues were still significant. A MOGE representative told the ASEAN Council on Petroleum at a trade fair in November that Myanmar expected to double its output of natural gas in the next 10 years, largely from the Shwe project.
Economist Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate for economics and former World Bank head, suggested to Myanmar's leaders in a rare seminar with a foreign expert in December 2009 that oil and gas revenues could, if used wisely, open up a new era for the impoverished country. Sean Turnell, an Australian expert on Myanmar's economy, has suggested that oil and gas revenues could be used to shore up other parts of the economy, including initiatives that establish credit systems for farmers. So far this foreign advice has fallen on deaf ears.
Oil and gas prices and revenues are a contentious issue in Myanmar. Rapidly rising fuel prices were one of the chief factors that sparked the anti-government street demonstrations in 2007 that later became known around the world as the Buddhist monk-led "Saffron" revolution. As part of a recent move to privatize many of the junta's business holdings, tycoon and junta favorite Tay Za has moved to secure contracts for state-run gas stations, a move that has apparently provoked anger in some Yangon business circles.
The government announced in February it would sell 256 gas stations to private companies. Tay Za, who is the chairman of the recently formed Fuel Oil Importers and Distributors Association (FOIDA) and already has the contract to operate state-run stations in northern Myanmar, is well placed to buy the stations. The vice chairman of the FOIDA is Aung Thet Mann, son of junta number three and armed forces joint chief of staff General Thura Shwe Mann.
It is unlikely however that the privatizations will extend to the state-owned MOGE and it remains unclear how the oil and gas operations will be operated under the new government that will take over after elections late this year. Analysts believe it is unlikely that the generals would allow a new minister to drastically alter the current revenue arrangements. This will be a problem for any new regime as it bids to manage more effectively - and hopefully transparently - the economy.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
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May 06, 2010 17:55 PM
Myanmar To Introduce Anti-terrorism Law Soon: Police Chief
NAY PYI TAW, May 6 (Bernama) -- Myanmar will enact an anti-terrorism law in the next two or three months to combat terrorist activities in the country, police chief brigadier-general Khin Yi told the press here on Thursday.
Khin Yi made the remarks when he briefed the status of investigation into the bomb explosion at a water festival pandal in Yangon in April.
He said the bomb blast was aimed to undermine the country's stability and the coming general election and to create panic among people.
He revealed that the authorities have captured Wai Phyo Aung (also named Thet Khine), one of the four bombers who belong to an anti-government organisation -- the Vigorous Burmese Students Warriors (VBSW) -- and the incident was masterminded by the Kayin National Union (KNU), the largest anti-government ethnic armed group.
The VBSW was declared by the government as a terrorist group in 2006.
Khin Yi added that investigation into bomb blasts in other places in the country is also underway.
A series of three bomb blasts in front of a water throwing pandal on Mingala Taung Nyunt township's Kandawkyi Ring Road in Kandawkyi lake park area on April 15 killed 10 people and injured 168 others.
The Myanmar authorities have earlier verified that the three blasts were caused by grenades, while a time bomb unexploded.
The other bomb explosions occurred at the compound of a check point in southeastern Kayin state's Kawkareik on April 14, injuring three persons, and on April 17 at four worksites of the Myitsone hydropower dam project in the upper reaches of the Ayeyawaddy River in northernmost Kachin state on April 17, injuring one person and destroying two temporary buildings and six motor vehicles.
Several unexploded bombs were also found at the hydropower project sites.
Moreover, another series of three grenade attacks on the Thaukyegat hydropower project in Myanmar's Bago division on April 27 injured at least four people.
Myanmar To Introduce Anti-terrorism Law Soon: Police Chief
NAY PYI TAW, May 6 (Bernama) -- Myanmar will enact an anti-terrorism law in the next two or three months to combat terrorist activities in the country, police chief brigadier-general Khin Yi told the press here on Thursday.
Khin Yi made the remarks when he briefed the status of investigation into the bomb explosion at a water festival pandal in Yangon in April.
He said the bomb blast was aimed to undermine the country's stability and the coming general election and to create panic among people.
He revealed that the authorities have captured Wai Phyo Aung (also named Thet Khine), one of the four bombers who belong to an anti-government organisation -- the Vigorous Burmese Students Warriors (VBSW) -- and the incident was masterminded by the Kayin National Union (KNU), the largest anti-government ethnic armed group.
The VBSW was declared by the government as a terrorist group in 2006.
Khin Yi added that investigation into bomb blasts in other places in the country is also underway.
A series of three bomb blasts in front of a water throwing pandal on Mingala Taung Nyunt township's Kandawkyi Ring Road in Kandawkyi lake park area on April 15 killed 10 people and injured 168 others.
The Myanmar authorities have earlier verified that the three blasts were caused by grenades, while a time bomb unexploded.
The other bomb explosions occurred at the compound of a check point in southeastern Kayin state's Kawkareik on April 14, injuring three persons, and on April 17 at four worksites of the Myitsone hydropower dam project in the upper reaches of the Ayeyawaddy River in northernmost Kachin state on April 17, injuring one person and destroying two temporary buildings and six motor vehicles.
Several unexploded bombs were also found at the hydropower project sites.
Moreover, another series of three grenade attacks on the Thaukyegat hydropower project in Myanmar's Bago division on April 27 injured at least four people.
***************************************************
Scoop - Myanmar: UN Expert Urges Government to ‘Keep Its Promises’ on Elections
Thursday, 6 May 2010, 3:33 pm
Press Release: United Nations
New York, May 5 2010 3:10PM A United Nations independent human rights expert today urged Myanmar’s Government to “keep its promise” to ensure that upcoming national elections in the Asian country are transparent and inclusive enough to be considered credible.
“The Government of Myanmar has not yet responded to pleas from inside and outside the country for conditions that allow credible elections,” the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said in a statement released today, on the eve of a key deadline for political party registration.
“Now is the time that the Government could show its sincerity in achieving peace and progress for the people of Myanmar by freeing all prisoners of conscience, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to take part in these momentous elections.
“Such a release of prisoners of conscience would allow political parties that have decided against participation to reconsider, and would facilitate the active participation of all citizens in this landmark process.”
Ms. Suu Kyi, leader of the party known as the National League for Democracy (NLD), was sentenced last August to an additional 18 months of house arrest, effectively barring her from taking part in the polls. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was reportedly convicted of violating State security laws after an uninvited United States citizen gained access to her home.
A date for the national elections – the first in Myanmar in two decades – has yet to be announced, but the Government issued election laws in early March.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that the laws do not seem to measure up to the international community’s expectations of what is needed for an inclusive process.
Mr. Quintana noted that they include some provisions for fair elections, such as the counting of votes in each polling station in the presence of the candidates or their nominated agents and members of the public.
However, he voiced concerns that the powers granted to the Electoral Commission could impede the activities of political parties unless the Government made guarantees to allow full freedom of expression and assembly.
“These elections are important for the people of Myanmar and provide an opportunity for real improvement in the human rights situation. However, the Government needs to ensure that these elections are credible – they must be open to full participation, they must be transparent, and they must be conducted in a manner that allows for free and fair choice by the people of Myanmar.”
Mr. Quintana reports to the UN Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva, in an independent and unpaid capacity.
Thursday, 6 May 2010, 3:33 pm
Press Release: United Nations
New York, May 5 2010 3:10PM A United Nations independent human rights expert today urged Myanmar’s Government to “keep its promise” to ensure that upcoming national elections in the Asian country are transparent and inclusive enough to be considered credible.
“The Government of Myanmar has not yet responded to pleas from inside and outside the country for conditions that allow credible elections,” the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said in a statement released today, on the eve of a key deadline for political party registration.
“Now is the time that the Government could show its sincerity in achieving peace and progress for the people of Myanmar by freeing all prisoners of conscience, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to take part in these momentous elections.
“Such a release of prisoners of conscience would allow political parties that have decided against participation to reconsider, and would facilitate the active participation of all citizens in this landmark process.”
Ms. Suu Kyi, leader of the party known as the National League for Democracy (NLD), was sentenced last August to an additional 18 months of house arrest, effectively barring her from taking part in the polls. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was reportedly convicted of violating State security laws after an uninvited United States citizen gained access to her home.
A date for the national elections – the first in Myanmar in two decades – has yet to be announced, but the Government issued election laws in early March.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that the laws do not seem to measure up to the international community’s expectations of what is needed for an inclusive process.
Mr. Quintana noted that they include some provisions for fair elections, such as the counting of votes in each polling station in the presence of the candidates or their nominated agents and members of the public.
However, he voiced concerns that the powers granted to the Electoral Commission could impede the activities of political parties unless the Government made guarantees to allow full freedom of expression and assembly.
“These elections are important for the people of Myanmar and provide an opportunity for real improvement in the human rights situation. However, the Government needs to ensure that these elections are credible – they must be open to full participation, they must be transparent, and they must be conducted in a manner that allows for free and fair choice by the people of Myanmar.”
Mr. Quintana reports to the UN Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva, in an independent and unpaid capacity.
***************************************************
NLD party makes parting gesture for pupils
Thursday, 06 May 2010 20:37 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The National League for Democracy made a final goodwill gesture towards jailed colleagues as a party by providing scholarships to children of political prisoners a day before the party re-registration deadline under the Burmese ruling junta’s electoral laws announced in March.
Bursaries of 23,000 Kyats (US$23) each were given to 127 children from 14 townships in Rangoon Division from the final balance of party funds during a ceremony at NLD party headquarters in Shwegondine Street, Rangoon, on Wednesday night.
The ceremony was usually held on party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday on June 19 but this year she had suggested holding it before the expiry date for party re-registration and the party’s abolition by the authorities, party vice-chairman Tin Oo said.
NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election but the junta refused to honour the results and clung to power by force. The party decided against re-registering in protest at electoral laws apparently targeted by the junta at excluding it from participating in upcoming national elections. Under the laws, May 6 is the last date by which old parties registered for the 1990 polls can re-register. If they fail to do so they will be deregistered.
Party women’s wing chief Dr. May Win Myint said this was the ninth time stipends were given to students of classes from primary to university level. NLD Rangoon Division branch gave these stipends to family members of political prisoners in the division after their requests to the party’s social aid group. Similar awards were made to students in other states and divisions, she said.
“We have no provisions or appropriations for the cost of educating these students, per head per year”, Tin Oo said.
More than 2,100 political prisoners remain behind bars and they too are barred under the electoral laws from contesting the forthcoming elections.
Tin Oo said the party intended to provide more educational stipends to such students if the organisation continued to receive donations.
The NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi had presented applications for an injunction and a lawsuit for declaration with the Supreme Court, seeking deletion of some sections of the Political Parties Registration Law last week, but the court dismissed the bids yesterday.
Thursday, 06 May 2010 20:37 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The National League for Democracy made a final goodwill gesture towards jailed colleagues as a party by providing scholarships to children of political prisoners a day before the party re-registration deadline under the Burmese ruling junta’s electoral laws announced in March.
Bursaries of 23,000 Kyats (US$23) each were given to 127 children from 14 townships in Rangoon Division from the final balance of party funds during a ceremony at NLD party headquarters in Shwegondine Street, Rangoon, on Wednesday night.
The ceremony was usually held on party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday on June 19 but this year she had suggested holding it before the expiry date for party re-registration and the party’s abolition by the authorities, party vice-chairman Tin Oo said.
NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election but the junta refused to honour the results and clung to power by force. The party decided against re-registering in protest at electoral laws apparently targeted by the junta at excluding it from participating in upcoming national elections. Under the laws, May 6 is the last date by which old parties registered for the 1990 polls can re-register. If they fail to do so they will be deregistered.
Party women’s wing chief Dr. May Win Myint said this was the ninth time stipends were given to students of classes from primary to university level. NLD Rangoon Division branch gave these stipends to family members of political prisoners in the division after their requests to the party’s social aid group. Similar awards were made to students in other states and divisions, she said.
“We have no provisions or appropriations for the cost of educating these students, per head per year”, Tin Oo said.
More than 2,100 political prisoners remain behind bars and they too are barred under the electoral laws from contesting the forthcoming elections.
Tin Oo said the party intended to provide more educational stipends to such students if the organisation continued to receive donations.
The NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi had presented applications for an injunction and a lawsuit for declaration with the Supreme Court, seeking deletion of some sections of the Political Parties Registration Law last week, but the court dismissed the bids yesterday.
***************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Quintana Says Conditions Not Present for Credible Elections
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said on Wednesday that the Burmese military government has not established the conditions necessary for a credible election and urged the junta to release all political prisoners in advance of the election.
“The Government of Myanmar [Burma] has not yet responded to pleas from inside and outside the country for conditions that allow credible elections,” Quintana said in a UN press release.
“These elections are important for the people of Myanmar [Burma] and provide an opportunity for real improvement in the human rights situation. However, the government needs to ensure that these elections are credible—they must be open to full participation, they must be transparent, and they must be conducted in a manner that allows for free and fair choice by the people of Myanmar [Burma],” he said.
One of the main obstacles to a free and fair election with full participation is the fact that more than 2,000 political prisoners—including Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and members of the 88 Generation Students—are held in prisons across Burma, and the election laws forbid all of them from taking part in the election.
Quintana said that the release of prisoners of conscience would allow political parties that have decided against participation to reconsider, and would facilitate the active participation of all citizens in Burma's first election since 1990.
After his last visit to Burma earlier this year, however, Quintana reported to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that political prisoners in Burma are not expected to be released ahead of the polls.
Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, agreed that prisoners should be released but is not optimistic.
“All the political prisoners should be released so that they can take part in the political process,” Bo Kyi said. “I don't anticipate general amnesty for the prisoners before the elections. But perhaps only a small number of prisoners who have almost served their terms would be freed just for show.”
Quintana said in the UN press release that the election laws do include some provisions for fair elections, such as the counting of votes in each polling station in the presence of the candidates, or their nominated agents, and members of the public.
But election commission decisions regarding political party activity are unchallengeable in any court of law, and Quintana expressed concern that the absolute powers granted to the election commission could impede the activities of political parties unless the Government guaranteed it would allow full freedom of expression and assembly.
The UN press release came the day before the Burmese election registration deadline, after which any political party that does not register will be dissolved. The NLD has already decided to face party dissolution rather than accept the Burmese regime's controversial election laws and 2008 Constitution.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said on Wednesday that the Burmese military government has not established the conditions necessary for a credible election and urged the junta to release all political prisoners in advance of the election.
“The Government of Myanmar [Burma] has not yet responded to pleas from inside and outside the country for conditions that allow credible elections,” Quintana said in a UN press release.
“These elections are important for the people of Myanmar [Burma] and provide an opportunity for real improvement in the human rights situation. However, the government needs to ensure that these elections are credible—they must be open to full participation, they must be transparent, and they must be conducted in a manner that allows for free and fair choice by the people of Myanmar [Burma],” he said.
One of the main obstacles to a free and fair election with full participation is the fact that more than 2,000 political prisoners—including Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and members of the 88 Generation Students—are held in prisons across Burma, and the election laws forbid all of them from taking part in the election.
Quintana said that the release of prisoners of conscience would allow political parties that have decided against participation to reconsider, and would facilitate the active participation of all citizens in Burma's first election since 1990.
After his last visit to Burma earlier this year, however, Quintana reported to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that political prisoners in Burma are not expected to be released ahead of the polls.
Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, agreed that prisoners should be released but is not optimistic.
“All the political prisoners should be released so that they can take part in the political process,” Bo Kyi said. “I don't anticipate general amnesty for the prisoners before the elections. But perhaps only a small number of prisoners who have almost served their terms would be freed just for show.”
Quintana said in the UN press release that the election laws do include some provisions for fair elections, such as the counting of votes in each polling station in the presence of the candidates, or their nominated agents, and members of the public.
But election commission decisions regarding political party activity are unchallengeable in any court of law, and Quintana expressed concern that the absolute powers granted to the election commission could impede the activities of political parties unless the Government guaranteed it would allow full freedom of expression and assembly.
The UN press release came the day before the Burmese election registration deadline, after which any political party that does not register will be dissolved. The NLD has already decided to face party dissolution rather than accept the Burmese regime's controversial election laws and 2008 Constitution.
***************************************************
The Irrawaddy - We Must Deny the Military Regime in Burma the Legitimacy it Craves
By MITCH MCCONNELL - Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Today I rise to introduce a bill that would renew sanctions against the Burmese junta. As in years past, I am joined in this effort by my good friend, Senator Feinstein.
Senators McCain, Durbin, Gregg and Lieberman are original cosponsors of this bipartisan legislation and continue to be leaders on the issue.
Renewing sanctions against the military regime in Burma is as timely and important as ever. Over the past year, the regime has not only made clear that it has no intention of reforming; it is also trying to stand up a new sham constitution and to legitimize itself in the eyes of the world through a sham election. In my view, the US must deny the regime that legitimacy.
By way of background, a little history is in order. For nearly half a century, Burma has been under some kind of military rule and every popular effort to reverse that situation has failed. In 1988, military authorities violently put down a popular uprising. Two years later, the Burmese people went to the polls and handed an overwhelming victory to the pro-democracy opposition, and the junta ignored the results. It never seated these popularly elected candidates. It jailed pro-democracy leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi. And it has maintained its brutal rule ever since.
In response to these events, the United States established on a bipartisan basis various sanctions against the Burmese regime. These include a 1997 executive order; the annual import ban which has been renewed annually since 2003; and restrictions on Burmese jade, which were enacted in 2008.
On a number of occasions since 1990 the U.S. and the UN have attempted to engage Burma diplomatically.
These include, during the Clinton Administration, a delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Hubbard; various efforts by former U.S. ambassador to the UN, Madeleine Albright; and two trips to Burma by then Congressman Bill Richardson in the mid-1990s.
Other diplomatic efforts included Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's “road map” in 2006; and overtures made by the US through China in 2007. And in 2008, Admiral Timothy Keating met with Burmese officials as part of US efforts to provide humanitarian assistance in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
The UN, for its part, has dispatched a human rights envoy to Burma 15 times and special envoys 26 times over the past two decades. And UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has visited Burma on two occasions.
None of these efforts has yielded anything in the way of reform. Indeed, when Burmese citizens, led by Buddhist monks, took to the streets in peaceful protest against the government and its policies in the fall of 2007, these pro-democracy protestors, much like their predecessors, were brutally suppressed.
Nonetheless, the regime has sought at various times to save face internationally. In response to this last major challenge to its authority in the fall of 2007, for example, the regime unveiled a proposed constitution.
But a quick look at the document shows that it could scarcely have been less democratic. It precluded Suu Kyi from participating in the electoral process and ensured that the charter may not be amended without the military's blessing. The noted constitutional law professor, David Williams, of Indiana University, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year it was one of the worst constitutions [he has] ever seen.
What's more, the vote to adopt this constitution took place two years ago in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, the worst natural disaster in modern Burmese history, and international election observers were not permitted access to the country during the vote. If the regime was really interested in legitimacy, holding a vote like this in the middle of a natural disaster without election observers is not the way to do it.
So the results of this vote were roundly condemned, and for good reason. Still, despite widespread condemnation of this constitution and the circumstances surrounding its adoption, some held out hope that a subsequent election law might lead to democratic reform. But those hopes were dashed earlier this year when the regime actually issued the long-awaited election law. Among other things, the law would force the Democratic opposition, the National League for Democracy, to expel Suu Kyi if the party chose to enter any of its candidates in the upcoming national election and it forbids political prisoners and Buddhist monks from political participation.
The deadline for registering candidates and political parties under the new law is later this week, and parties that fail to register before then will be deemed illegal.
In other words, the law's practical effect would be to sideline Burma's most prominent Democratic reformer and force its leading opposition party out of business.
We also get periodic press reports of ties between Burma and North Korea, including a particularly alarming report in recent days about an alleged weapons transfer from Pyongyang.
Now, last year, the Obama Administration initiated a review of US policy with respect to Burma. As a result of that review, the administration decided it was time for the US to take another run at engaging the regime. That's why last summer, Secretary Clinton reportedly proposed to her Burmese counterpart at an international conference in Southeast Asia that the U.S. remove its investment ban on Burma in exchange for the unconditional release of Suu Kyi. Whatever the merits of this overture, this was a serious offer from a high-ranking US official aimed at improving bilateral relations.
Yet not only was Secretary Clinton's offer ignored and Suu Kyi not freed, the regime actually extended Suu Kyi's detention for another year and a half. And several months later the junta denied her appeal. It was shortly after that that the regime released the anti-democratic election law I just referred to. So however well intentioned, the administration's policy of engagement has unfortunately met with the same fate as earlier engagement efforts, notwithstanding the fig leaves the regime occasionally holds out as supposed proof of its willingness to reform.
Clearly, the regime craves legitimization of its rule. Why else would it suddenly move to finalize the constitution it had been working on intermittently for 14 years after its rule was challenged by the nonviolent Saffron Revolution in the fall of 2007? They did it for the same reason they trotted out a transparently flawed election law earlier this year: they wanted to provide the appearance of reform where there was none. But they can't have it both ways. If the regime wants legitimization, it must show real progress.
Secretary Clinton's policy review toward Burma concluded that engagement along with sanctions might produce results where sanctions alone had failed. Although we have yet to see any positive results from engagement, the administration itself concedes that sanctions should remain in place. But the administration, to its credit, has been quite candid about the lack of tangible progress by the regime.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell acknowledged as much after the release of the Burmese election law. The US approach, he said, was to try to encourage domestic dialogue between the key stakeholders and the recent promulgation of the election criteria doesn't leave much room for such a dialogue. It should be noted parenthetically the absence of any tangible result from engagement has nothing to do with work of American diplomats. It has everything to do with the type of regime we're dealing with in Burma. But again, the fact remains that no progress has been made.
Legitimacy is the one thing the regime cannot impose by force. But if legitimacy is what it wants, a first step would be credible elections. And at this point there is no reason to believe that that's even possible under the current constitution, under the current election law, and in the current political climate in Burma.
So renewing sanctions is important because it denies the junta the legitimacy it so craves. A sanctions regime says to the junta and the world in no uncertain terms that the United States does not view this government as having the support of its citizenry. It says that the United States will not be a party to recognizing the junta's attempt to overturn the democratic elections of 1990, the last true expression of the Burmese voters. Sanctions should remain in place against the junta for the same reason the term Burma is used by friends of democracy instead of the junta's chosen name of Myanmar because Myanmar is the name of a government that has not been chosen by its people.
In short, sanctions should remain in place because lifting sanctions would give the regime precisely what it wants; namely, legitimacy.
I strongly urge my colleagues to support sanctions renewal against the Burmese regime. And I ask unanimous consent that the text of the joint resolution be printed in the Record.
By MITCH MCCONNELL - Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Today I rise to introduce a bill that would renew sanctions against the Burmese junta. As in years past, I am joined in this effort by my good friend, Senator Feinstein.
Senators McCain, Durbin, Gregg and Lieberman are original cosponsors of this bipartisan legislation and continue to be leaders on the issue.
Renewing sanctions against the military regime in Burma is as timely and important as ever. Over the past year, the regime has not only made clear that it has no intention of reforming; it is also trying to stand up a new sham constitution and to legitimize itself in the eyes of the world through a sham election. In my view, the US must deny the regime that legitimacy.
By way of background, a little history is in order. For nearly half a century, Burma has been under some kind of military rule and every popular effort to reverse that situation has failed. In 1988, military authorities violently put down a popular uprising. Two years later, the Burmese people went to the polls and handed an overwhelming victory to the pro-democracy opposition, and the junta ignored the results. It never seated these popularly elected candidates. It jailed pro-democracy leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi. And it has maintained its brutal rule ever since.
In response to these events, the United States established on a bipartisan basis various sanctions against the Burmese regime. These include a 1997 executive order; the annual import ban which has been renewed annually since 2003; and restrictions on Burmese jade, which were enacted in 2008.
On a number of occasions since 1990 the U.S. and the UN have attempted to engage Burma diplomatically.
These include, during the Clinton Administration, a delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Hubbard; various efforts by former U.S. ambassador to the UN, Madeleine Albright; and two trips to Burma by then Congressman Bill Richardson in the mid-1990s.
Other diplomatic efforts included Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's “road map” in 2006; and overtures made by the US through China in 2007. And in 2008, Admiral Timothy Keating met with Burmese officials as part of US efforts to provide humanitarian assistance in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
The UN, for its part, has dispatched a human rights envoy to Burma 15 times and special envoys 26 times over the past two decades. And UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has visited Burma on two occasions.
None of these efforts has yielded anything in the way of reform. Indeed, when Burmese citizens, led by Buddhist monks, took to the streets in peaceful protest against the government and its policies in the fall of 2007, these pro-democracy protestors, much like their predecessors, were brutally suppressed.
Nonetheless, the regime has sought at various times to save face internationally. In response to this last major challenge to its authority in the fall of 2007, for example, the regime unveiled a proposed constitution.
But a quick look at the document shows that it could scarcely have been less democratic. It precluded Suu Kyi from participating in the electoral process and ensured that the charter may not be amended without the military's blessing. The noted constitutional law professor, David Williams, of Indiana University, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year it was one of the worst constitutions [he has] ever seen.
What's more, the vote to adopt this constitution took place two years ago in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, the worst natural disaster in modern Burmese history, and international election observers were not permitted access to the country during the vote. If the regime was really interested in legitimacy, holding a vote like this in the middle of a natural disaster without election observers is not the way to do it.
So the results of this vote were roundly condemned, and for good reason. Still, despite widespread condemnation of this constitution and the circumstances surrounding its adoption, some held out hope that a subsequent election law might lead to democratic reform. But those hopes were dashed earlier this year when the regime actually issued the long-awaited election law. Among other things, the law would force the Democratic opposition, the National League for Democracy, to expel Suu Kyi if the party chose to enter any of its candidates in the upcoming national election and it forbids political prisoners and Buddhist monks from political participation.
The deadline for registering candidates and political parties under the new law is later this week, and parties that fail to register before then will be deemed illegal.
In other words, the law's practical effect would be to sideline Burma's most prominent Democratic reformer and force its leading opposition party out of business.
We also get periodic press reports of ties between Burma and North Korea, including a particularly alarming report in recent days about an alleged weapons transfer from Pyongyang.
Now, last year, the Obama Administration initiated a review of US policy with respect to Burma. As a result of that review, the administration decided it was time for the US to take another run at engaging the regime. That's why last summer, Secretary Clinton reportedly proposed to her Burmese counterpart at an international conference in Southeast Asia that the U.S. remove its investment ban on Burma in exchange for the unconditional release of Suu Kyi. Whatever the merits of this overture, this was a serious offer from a high-ranking US official aimed at improving bilateral relations.
Yet not only was Secretary Clinton's offer ignored and Suu Kyi not freed, the regime actually extended Suu Kyi's detention for another year and a half. And several months later the junta denied her appeal. It was shortly after that that the regime released the anti-democratic election law I just referred to. So however well intentioned, the administration's policy of engagement has unfortunately met with the same fate as earlier engagement efforts, notwithstanding the fig leaves the regime occasionally holds out as supposed proof of its willingness to reform.
Clearly, the regime craves legitimization of its rule. Why else would it suddenly move to finalize the constitution it had been working on intermittently for 14 years after its rule was challenged by the nonviolent Saffron Revolution in the fall of 2007? They did it for the same reason they trotted out a transparently flawed election law earlier this year: they wanted to provide the appearance of reform where there was none. But they can't have it both ways. If the regime wants legitimization, it must show real progress.
Secretary Clinton's policy review toward Burma concluded that engagement along with sanctions might produce results where sanctions alone had failed. Although we have yet to see any positive results from engagement, the administration itself concedes that sanctions should remain in place. But the administration, to its credit, has been quite candid about the lack of tangible progress by the regime.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell acknowledged as much after the release of the Burmese election law. The US approach, he said, was to try to encourage domestic dialogue between the key stakeholders and the recent promulgation of the election criteria doesn't leave much room for such a dialogue. It should be noted parenthetically the absence of any tangible result from engagement has nothing to do with work of American diplomats. It has everything to do with the type of regime we're dealing with in Burma. But again, the fact remains that no progress has been made.
Legitimacy is the one thing the regime cannot impose by force. But if legitimacy is what it wants, a first step would be credible elections. And at this point there is no reason to believe that that's even possible under the current constitution, under the current election law, and in the current political climate in Burma.
So renewing sanctions is important because it denies the junta the legitimacy it so craves. A sanctions regime says to the junta and the world in no uncertain terms that the United States does not view this government as having the support of its citizenry. It says that the United States will not be a party to recognizing the junta's attempt to overturn the democratic elections of 1990, the last true expression of the Burmese voters. Sanctions should remain in place against the junta for the same reason the term Burma is used by friends of democracy instead of the junta's chosen name of Myanmar because Myanmar is the name of a government that has not been chosen by its people.
In short, sanctions should remain in place because lifting sanctions would give the regime precisely what it wants; namely, legitimacy.
I strongly urge my colleagues to support sanctions renewal against the Burmese regime. And I ask unanimous consent that the text of the joint resolution be printed in the Record.
***************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Naypyidaw: No More 'Military Government'
By NAYEE LIN LET - Thursday, May 6, 2010
The War Office in Napyidaw has issued a directive for state-controlled media not to describe the Burmese government as a “Tatmadaw government,” according to military sources.
Tatmadaw, in Burmese, means “military.”
A high ranking officer said that on April 26, state-owned media such as newspapers, radio, television run by the Defense Ministry and Information Ministry were given instructions not to use the term.
“This instruction is aimed at the government led by PM Thein Sein,” said the officer. “Many high-ranking army officer have already resigned from their army positions in order to set up a political party and to become candidates in the upcoming election. In that case, if you continue to use the term 'Tatmadaw government,' it won’t be relevant. So, the media must use the term 'government of the union of Burma.'”
The instruction was issued after the resignation of selected army officers who will join a state-backed political party to stand as candidates for seats in parliament, said the officer.
The term “Tatmadaw government” has been widely used in regime-controlled media after the military coup since 1988.
According to an army veteran, after April 26, there are no army officers in the structure of the current government and the military government has been transformed into a civilian government.
“If you use the term tatmadaw government, it won’t be relevant with the current government. So you are not allowed to use the term,” he said.
Under the current government, there are 38 ministries. In the cabinet, there are 39 ministers and 39 deputy ministers.
It was reported last week that Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein and other key members of the ruling junta have registered a political party to contest the upcoming general election.
Thein Sein and 26 other leaders had registered the party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), at the Union Election Commission in April.
The 26 other party leaders were not identified but are known to be current ministers and deputy ministers.
A list of army officers who resigned:
Ministers:
Gen Htay Oo, agriculture and irrigation minister
Lt-Gen Soe Thein, Industrial (2) minister
Gen Thein Swe, transportation minister
Brig-Gen Lun Thi, energy minister
Gen Aung Min, railway minister
Brig-Gen Tin Naing Thein, economy and trading minister
Gen Soe Naing, hotel and tourism minister
Gen Hla Htun, finance and taxation minister
Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, communication minister
Brig General Thuya Myint Maung, minister for religion
Gen Khin Aung Myint, minister for culture
Gen Tin Htut, minister for cooperative
Col Thein Nyunt, minister for border areas development
Col Zaw Min, minister for electricity (1)
Gen Khin Maung Myint, minister for construction and electricity (2)
Brig-GenThuya Aye Myint, sports minister
Brig-GenKyaw San, information minister
Brig-GenThein Aung, forestry minister
Gen Maung Oo, home and immigration minister
Brig Ohn Myint, minister for mining
Gen Maung Maung Swe, social affairs minister
Brig-Gen Maung Maung Thein, husbandry and fishery minister
Gen Lin Maung, auditor-general
Brig-Gen Aung Thein Lin, mayor of rangoon
Brig Phone Zaw Han, mayor of mandalay
Deputy Ministers:
Lt-Col Khin Maung Kyaw, industrial (2)
Gen Kyaw Swar Khine, industrial (2)
Col Thuyein Zaw, national planning
Col Nyan Htun Aung, transportation
Brig Tin Htun Aung, labor
Brig Aung Myo Min, education
Brig Than Htay, energy
Brig Aung Htun, economy and trading
Brig Aye Myint Kyu, hotel and tourism
Col Hla Thein Swe, finance and taxation
Gen Thein Htun, communication
Brig Thuya Aung Ko, religion
Brig Myint Thein, construction
Brig Win Sein, immigration
Col Tin Ngwe, border area development
Brig Win Myint, electricity (2)
Brig Bhone Swe, interior
Brig Kyaw Myint, social affairs
Col Maung Par, deputy mayor of Rangoon
By NAYEE LIN LET - Thursday, May 6, 2010
The War Office in Napyidaw has issued a directive for state-controlled media not to describe the Burmese government as a “Tatmadaw government,” according to military sources.
Tatmadaw, in Burmese, means “military.”
A high ranking officer said that on April 26, state-owned media such as newspapers, radio, television run by the Defense Ministry and Information Ministry were given instructions not to use the term.
“This instruction is aimed at the government led by PM Thein Sein,” said the officer. “Many high-ranking army officer have already resigned from their army positions in order to set up a political party and to become candidates in the upcoming election. In that case, if you continue to use the term 'Tatmadaw government,' it won’t be relevant. So, the media must use the term 'government of the union of Burma.'”
The instruction was issued after the resignation of selected army officers who will join a state-backed political party to stand as candidates for seats in parliament, said the officer.
The term “Tatmadaw government” has been widely used in regime-controlled media after the military coup since 1988.
According to an army veteran, after April 26, there are no army officers in the structure of the current government and the military government has been transformed into a civilian government.
“If you use the term tatmadaw government, it won’t be relevant with the current government. So you are not allowed to use the term,” he said.
Under the current government, there are 38 ministries. In the cabinet, there are 39 ministers and 39 deputy ministers.
It was reported last week that Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein and other key members of the ruling junta have registered a political party to contest the upcoming general election.
Thein Sein and 26 other leaders had registered the party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), at the Union Election Commission in April.
The 26 other party leaders were not identified but are known to be current ministers and deputy ministers.
A list of army officers who resigned:
Ministers:
Gen Htay Oo, agriculture and irrigation minister
Lt-Gen Soe Thein, Industrial (2) minister
Gen Thein Swe, transportation minister
Brig-Gen Lun Thi, energy minister
Gen Aung Min, railway minister
Brig-Gen Tin Naing Thein, economy and trading minister
Gen Soe Naing, hotel and tourism minister
Gen Hla Htun, finance and taxation minister
Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, communication minister
Brig General Thuya Myint Maung, minister for religion
Gen Khin Aung Myint, minister for culture
Gen Tin Htut, minister for cooperative
Col Thein Nyunt, minister for border areas development
Col Zaw Min, minister for electricity (1)
Gen Khin Maung Myint, minister for construction and electricity (2)
Brig-GenThuya Aye Myint, sports minister
Brig-GenKyaw San, information minister
Brig-GenThein Aung, forestry minister
Gen Maung Oo, home and immigration minister
Brig Ohn Myint, minister for mining
Gen Maung Maung Swe, social affairs minister
Brig-Gen Maung Maung Thein, husbandry and fishery minister
Gen Lin Maung, auditor-general
Brig-Gen Aung Thein Lin, mayor of rangoon
Brig Phone Zaw Han, mayor of mandalay
Deputy Ministers:
Lt-Col Khin Maung Kyaw, industrial (2)
Gen Kyaw Swar Khine, industrial (2)
Col Thuyein Zaw, national planning
Col Nyan Htun Aung, transportation
Brig Tin Htun Aung, labor
Brig Aung Myo Min, education
Brig Than Htay, energy
Brig Aung Htun, economy and trading
Brig Aye Myint Kyu, hotel and tourism
Col Hla Thein Swe, finance and taxation
Gen Thein Htun, communication
Brig Thuya Aung Ko, religion
Brig Myint Thein, construction
Brig Win Sein, immigration
Col Tin Ngwe, border area development
Brig Win Myint, electricity (2)
Brig Bhone Swe, interior
Brig Kyaw Myint, social affairs
Col Maung Par, deputy mayor of Rangoon
***************************************************
DVB News - Political parties slam ‘rule-breaking’ PM
By AYE NAI
Published: 6 May 2010
A number of parties competing in Burma’s elections this year have said the formation of a new political party by prime minister Thein Sein violates Burma’s own domestic laws.
According to the Political Party Registration Law, unveiled in March, government employees are barred from setting up their own political parties. Thein Sein, who last week stood down from his military post but remains prime minister, has announced that he will head the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which recently registered for the polls.
The USDP sounds eerily similar to the government-proxy social organisation, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), although no concrete link has yet been verified.
If there is a link, then the party would be guilty of political corruption because the USDA is financed by the government.
“During the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League era [1945 to 1962], the law prohibited government workers from setting up political parties and standing for the elections,” said Thu Wei, head of the Democracy Party. “However, the prime minister’s position back then was not recognised as a government employee, so we are not yet clear what the law now is.
He added however that it was “completely inappropriate” to use the USDA’s name. “We dislike and do not accept this,” he said. “This is unfair and cunning, and is meant to confuse people during the elections. If such a party becomes the government, lies and wrongdoings will continue.”
Ye Htun, brother of the prominent Burmese politician Aye Lwin and head of Union of Myanmar 88 Generation Student Youths party, said that Burma was dealing in “messy politics”.
“Today’s election laws were written by the current military government who are like the referee on the pitch,” he said. “Now the referee is bringing his own ball into the game, play the game himself, and he will shoot it into the goalpost that he himself positioned. This is quite pointless in politics.”
Khin Maung Swe, spokesperson for the National League for Democracy (NLD), which today marks its termination as a political after refusing to run in the elections, said that if Thein Sein was still receiving a government salary, then his new role as USDP head would be illegal.
Much of the international community has condemned the election laws, which effectively block the NLD from participating and appear to be a ploy aimed at keeping the military government in power. More than 25 parties have so far registered for the elections.
By AYE NAI
Published: 6 May 2010
A number of parties competing in Burma’s elections this year have said the formation of a new political party by prime minister Thein Sein violates Burma’s own domestic laws.
According to the Political Party Registration Law, unveiled in March, government employees are barred from setting up their own political parties. Thein Sein, who last week stood down from his military post but remains prime minister, has announced that he will head the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which recently registered for the polls.
The USDP sounds eerily similar to the government-proxy social organisation, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), although no concrete link has yet been verified.
If there is a link, then the party would be guilty of political corruption because the USDA is financed by the government.
“During the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League era [1945 to 1962], the law prohibited government workers from setting up political parties and standing for the elections,” said Thu Wei, head of the Democracy Party. “However, the prime minister’s position back then was not recognised as a government employee, so we are not yet clear what the law now is.
He added however that it was “completely inappropriate” to use the USDA’s name. “We dislike and do not accept this,” he said. “This is unfair and cunning, and is meant to confuse people during the elections. If such a party becomes the government, lies and wrongdoings will continue.”
Ye Htun, brother of the prominent Burmese politician Aye Lwin and head of Union of Myanmar 88 Generation Student Youths party, said that Burma was dealing in “messy politics”.
“Today’s election laws were written by the current military government who are like the referee on the pitch,” he said. “Now the referee is bringing his own ball into the game, play the game himself, and he will shoot it into the goalpost that he himself positioned. This is quite pointless in politics.”
Khin Maung Swe, spokesperson for the National League for Democracy (NLD), which today marks its termination as a political after refusing to run in the elections, said that if Thein Sein was still receiving a government salary, then his new role as USDP head would be illegal.
Much of the international community has condemned the election laws, which effectively block the NLD from participating and appear to be a ploy aimed at keeping the military government in power. More than 25 parties have so far registered for the elections.
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