Myanmar to build first butterfly park in border town

Myanmar to build first butterfly park in border town
www.chinaview.cn 2009-02-04 20:50:16

YANGON, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will start building its first butterfly park in a border town in Kachin state, northernmost part of the country, next month, the local weekly Yangon Times reported Wednesday.

Similar to Singapore's, the park at Putao will have some 1,500 butterflies and insects of over 50 spices.

The butterfly park will be constructed in three phases and most of the butterflies, kept in the park, are from the Kachin State, the report said, quoting project company of Tun Foundation.

The project constitutes part of the program of building the National Wildlife Park, which lies at Putao between Mularoti and Zayar mountains, to undertake conservation work with wild animals.

Wildlife and rare animals, which take sanctuary in snow-capped region, will be kept in the park, the report added.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is planning to modify the Po-Kyar elephant sanctuary into one of the attractive tourist sites of the country to boost tourism.

Po-kyar elephant sanctuary lying at a location in Bago division, 346 kilometers north of Yangon, is accommodating 86 elephants of different ages ranging from 1 year old to 68 years' as well as various kinds of rare bird species, 100-year-old-aged tress and wild butterflies.

UN News Centre - Talks with senior Government officials bring UN envoy’s Myanmar visit to close

UN News Centre - Talks with senior Government officials bring UN envoy’s Myanmar visit to close

3 February 2009 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser concluded a four-day working visit to Myanmar today, meeting with senior Government officials in the South-East Asian nation.

Ibrahim Gambari met for about an hour today with Prime Minister Thein Sein in Yangon, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York. The meeting was attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, National Planning, Information, Culture and Health.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Gambari also met for the second time with the Government Spokesperson Authoritative Team composed of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Information and Culture.

The UN envoy is expected to meet with the Secretary-General in India on Thursday to report on the overall outcome of his latest visit, during which he also held talks with opposition and other political parties, including with detained pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

This is Mr. Gambari’s fifth visit to Myanmar in the past year and a half, and is part of the good offices mandate entrusted to the Secretary-General by the General Assembly.

The Times of India - Ansari to visit Myanmar for three days

The Times of India - Ansari to visit Myanmar for three days
5 Feb 2009, 0542 hrs IST, TNN

NEW DELHI: Vice-President Hamid Ansari will go to Myanmar on a 3-day visit starting Thursday at the invitation of Vice Senior General Maung Aye. Minister of state for defence Pallam Raju and three Members of Parliament will accompany him, besides a number of senior officials and a large business delegation.

The foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the visit was taking place in the context of an increasing engagement between India and Myanmar. Ansari will visit Nay-Pyi-Taw, Yangon and Mandalay. He will call on Senior General Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and his counterpart Vice Senior General Maung Aye, vice-chairman of the SPDC.

Ties between India and its eastern neighbour have consolidated in recent years. In May last year, Indian Navy ships were the first to reach relief to Myanmar in the wake of the devastating cyclone `Nargis'. Later, the Indian Air Force also joined relief efforts.

India is helping Myanmar in building infrastructure and boosting development. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has built the 160 km-long Tamu-Kalewa-Kaylemyo road on the Indo-Myanmar border.

"The two sides inked agreements last year on bilateral investment protection while New Delhi committed $120 million line of credit for power facilities in Myanmar," said a statement issued by the government. A senior official said the two countries would sign MoU for the establishment of an industrial centre in Myanmar.

Inner City Press - With UN's Gambari In Myanmar, Than Shwe and His Money Not Questioned

Inner City Press - With UN's Gambari In Myanmar, Than Shwe and His Money Not Questioned
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, February 2 -- While UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari met with Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar on Sunday, the UN in New York declined to confirm reports that she told him that Ban Ki-moon should not come until she and other dissidents are released. Inner City Press asked if Ban will consider going before these conditions are met, but his Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe did not answer this question. Video here, from Minute 16:01. She said that Ban will meet Gambari in Asia later in the week, and decisions will be made.

Gambari has met with ministers but not Senior Leader Than Shwe. It is not clear if he has questioned the 2008 Constitution, pushed through in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, or if he has looked into the UN's acceptance of currency losses by accepting Than Shwe's exchange rate between dollars and Foreign Exchange Certificates. In response to Inner City Press' December 2008 story about Nigeria, which Gambari used to represent as UN Ambassador, giving $500,000 with no strings attached to the Than Shwe government, Gambari said he had nothing to do with it.

But in response to Inner City Press' reporting, picked up in Nigeria, the Human Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria has "carpeted the Federal Government for the recent reported gift of a whooping sum of $500,000 to the military regime in Myanmar (former Burma). The group demanded an immediate explanation from the President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to Nigerians and the sack of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ojo Maduekwe, for what it called total breach of several pro-democracy sections of the 1999 Constitution." Click here for that.

The UN's humanitarian chief John Holmes was asked on January 19 by Inner City Press about such contributions made outside the structure of the UN's formal appeals -- but, in this case, made inside the UN building, in the penumbra as it were of the UN. We prefer it through us, he said, so it can be tracked. Video here. It appears clear that Nigeria never informed the UN about the contribution. And now that they know?

Footnote: at UN headquarters last week during a press conference on the Responsibility to Protect - Engaging Civil Society project, Inner City Press asked a speaker from Mindanao in the Philippines about the application of "R2P" to Myanmar. He said he favored it; another speaker said that a natural disaster should not be used as a pretext.

Suu Kyi's party downbeat after UN Myanmar visit

Suu Kyi's party downbeat after UN Myanmar visit
by Hla Hla Htay
Wed Feb 4, 10:22 am ET

YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's opposition party said Wednesday it saw little progress from a visit by a top UN envoy, as the junta accused democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi of setting impossible conditions for talks.

UN diplomat Ibrahim Gambari left military-run Myanmar Tuesday after a four-day visit aimed at nudging the regime toward dialogue with the democratic opposition, but he failed to secure a meeting with the top junta leadership.

"I must say I do not see any development yet overall of the UN envoy visit," Nyan Win, spokesman for detained Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, told AFP.

"It is very difficult to predict the political situation in the future. I would like to say that the country will be harmed if it continues like this."

Aung San Suu Kyi, whom the junta has kept locked away under house arrest for most the past 19 years, met Gambari on Monday. She had refused to see him on his previous visit to Myanmar in August last year.

"Aung San Suu Kyi said when she met Mr Gambari that she is willing to meet (the regime) for dialogue. But she just does not want to accept the situation if there will be no benefits from a meeting," Nyan Win said.

Myanmar's ruling generals have shunned UN-led pleas to include Aung San Suu Kyi in their plans for reform, instead pushing ahead with their own "Roadmap to Democracy," which excludes her from elections planned for 2010.

Less than a day after Gambari flew out the country, Myanmar state media accused Aung San Suu Kyi of being unrealistic, leaving little room for the diplomatic manoeuvring the UN envoy has been pushing for.

"A dialogue will be practical and successful only if the discussions are based on the reality of the prevailing conditions," the state-run New Light of Myanmar quoted Information Minister Kyaw Hsan as saying.

"I would like to emphasise that there will be no success if it is based on idealism and unrealistic conditions."

During their meeting with Gambari, Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD said that they would only sit down for dialogue if all political prisoners were released and results of 1990 elections won by the NLD were honoured.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Thein Sein, who met Gambari on Tuesday, told the envoy that real political reform would not be possible until the US and Europe lift economic sanctions imposed on the regime.

Another topic raised during Gambari's visit was a possible mission to Myanmar by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, although the NLD said any trip should be conditional on the release of political prisoners.

London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International says more than 2,000 political prisoners are languishing in Myanmar's jails.

More than 270 activists were also handed harsh prison sentences at the end of last year, which rights groups said was an effort to suppress any dissenting voices ahead of the 2010 elections.

While the junta claims the polls will usher in multi-party democracy, critics say it is simply a mechanism for the military to legitimise their nearly five-decade grip on power.
Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD have so far refused to discuss the polls -- which they deride as a sham -- with Gambari or the military.

Win Min, a Myanmar analyst based in Thailand, said that with no apparent breakthrough from Gambari, expectations would fall on the shoulders of Ban Ki-moon if he does visit Myanmar.

"Both sides are still entrenched in their opinions," Win Min told AFP in Bangkok.

"(Gambari) not seeing Than Shwe is bad. That shows that on the one hand they wanted him to come, but they don't want to make any concessions at this time," Win Min added, referring to the reclusive head of state.

Gambari to brief UN's Ban on Myanmar visit

Gambari to brief UN's Ban on Myanmar visit
Wed Feb 4, 2:12 am ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) – UN envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari will brief Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New Delhi on his latest attempt to nudge the military-ruled nation towards democracy, an official said Wednesday.

Gambari ended a four-day visit to Myanmar on Tuesday, during which he met detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi but failed to secure a meeting with Myanmar's head of state Senior General Than Shwe.

"Mr Gambari will be here for a few hours tomorrow (Thursday) when he will brief the UN Secretary General, who will be in New Delhi for an international conference on climate change," the UN official told AFP.

Gambari was appointed as the top UN troubleshooter dealing with Myanmar in 2006 but his three visits to the country have produced few results.

During a meeting with Gambari on Tuesday, Myanmar's prime minister Thein Sein demanded he push Western nations to end sanctions if they wanted to see political reform, Myanmar's state media reported.

The United States and Europe have a raft of economic sanctions in place against the military-ruled nation to protest against human rights abuses and the long-running detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.

India, which shares a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border with Myanmar, was a supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi but has recently cultivated ties with the junta as it sees the country as a source of energy to power its fast economic growth.

India's vice president Hamid Ansari was to begin a four-day visit to the reclusive nation on Thursday.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. Aung San Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy to election victory in 1990, but the junta ignored the results.

Slate - Come Hell or High Water, the Burmese Junta Endures

Slate - Come Hell or High Water, the Burmese Junta Endures
Aung San Suu Kyi is the world's most effectively sidelined leader.
By Jacob Baynham
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009, at 1:05 PM ET

In a rare outing from the Rangoon home in which she is imprisoned, democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with U.N. special envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari on Monday to discuss the possibility of political reform in her country.

This marks Gambari's seventh trip to Burma, a country locked in a military dictatorship since 1962. His efforts have had little effect. During Gambari's last visit, Suu Kyi refused to meet with him at all, in apparent protest over the ineffectiveness of the United Nations' diplomatic brokerage between her and the military.

In their meeting, Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party leaders trotted out their steadfast demands: that all political prisoners be released, the new constitution be reviewed, and Suu Kyi's 1990 election victory be acknowledged.

It must have been painfully evident to everyone that the elephant in the room was sighing. As long as the recalcitrant generals are at the helm in Burma, none of these demands is likely to be met anytime soon.

Suu Kyi's own history is evidence enough. She is nearing her 14th year of detention because of the political threat she poses to Burma's 47-year-old military junta.

Since her first imprisonment 19 years ago, Suu Kyi has received dozens of major international awards she could not collect personally, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In January, Queen Noor of Jordan gave her the Trumpet of Conscience Award for her continued nonviolent fight for freedom. Perhaps most disappointing of all was the election she and the NLD won by a landslide in 1990. The military annulled the results, locked up the party leaders, and plunged the country into another devastating era of martial law.

Military-ruled Burma is not a nation to which change comes quickly. In North Korean fashion, the xenophobic generals have isolated their country in a time warp to buttress their power. Pre-World War II commuter buses grumble along the streets of Rangoon. Political change in Burma comes slowest of all. Today, 16 months after crushing the monk-led pro-democracy uprisings in Rangoon and eight months after sabotaging the international aid effort to help the millions affected by Cyclone Nargis, the Burmese military junta has proved that neither hell nor high water can shake it from power.

Nor, apparently, can Aung San Suu Kyi, who at 63 remains the most effectively marginalized political leader in the world. Daughter of Aung San, Burma's independence hero, Suu Kyi has symbolized Burma's greatest hopes for democracy for the last 20 years. Educated at Oxford, Suu Kyi is a devout Buddhist, an artful writer, and a charismatic orator. To most Burmese, she is known simply as "The Lady."

The closest I got to Suu Kyi was in a paddleboat offshore from her lakeside home in Rangoon. Ironically, her house lies just opposite the crumbling residence of the late Gen. Ne Win, who founded Burma's military regime in 1962. Guards keep watch over her house at all hours, and nine Burmese were recently arrested for venturing too close. But though Suu Kyi's physical presence is limited to her family's compound, The Lady was seldom far from the minds of the Burmese I spoke with.

"In Burma, human rights, no," a man named Nyein told me one afternoon in a tea shop, using all the English he had. Worried about being overheard by a government spy (one in four residents of Rangoon is thought to be a government informant), Nyein edged his stool closer to mine and looked away. "All people like Aung San Suu Kyi," he said. He folded his hands at the wrists under the table. "But talking, danger." And then he left.

As their lives go from bad to worse and the international community fails to put any meaningful pressure on their government, many Burmese are beginning to lose hope that the military will ever be vanquished. In Burma, little could be more dangerous than the status quo.

The majority of the population here lives on less than $1 a day while almost half of the national budget is spent on the military. Underneath the government's propaganda billboards, beggars ply the streets by day. Prostitutes take their turf at night, dolled-up and doe-eyed outside the cinemas and under the bypasses, trawling for a livelihood in a country that is the source of four unique strains of HIV, according to a Council on Foreign Relations report. In Burma, 360 children die of preventable diseases every day because the junta puts only 3 percent of the budget into health care.

It's a situation so dire and persistent that Suu Kyi's vision of nonviolent resistance unraveling the generals' power can seem naively optimistic. ("There will be change," she has said, "because all the military have are guns.")

For the few remaining armed resistance groups fighting the military in remote swaths of jungle near the borders of India, China, and Thailand, the concept of nonviolent revolution is an idealistic luxury reserved for the cities. Here among the country's ethnic minorities, Burmese soldiers have been burning and looting villages and raping and killing their inhabitants for decades. In the age-old counterinsurgency tactic, they are trying to kill the fish by draining the sea.

When I sneaked across the Thai border to visit the Shan State Army, a threadbare rebel militia in northeastern Burma, I met a man who had been a monk for 20 years but recently exchanged his robes for a gun. He told me what he thought of the pacifism enshrined by Suu Kyi and the protesting monks in Rangoon. "Here, if you have no gun, it's like you're sticking your neck out for them to cut it," he said. "Without a gun, you will not see peace in Burma."

The key to the generals' longevity is keeping people fearful, whether in the jungle or on the city streets. Fear of government spies ensures that public conversations in the city never stray too far into politics. That fear is well-founded. The junta's draconian courts regularly impose massive sentences for petty crimes—just talking to a foreign journalist can earn a Burmese seven years in lockup.

Recently, a famous Burmese comedian known as Zarganar was sentenced to 59 years in prison after mounting an independent relief effort to aid the cyclone victims in the Irrawaddy Delta. In the raid on his home, police found several banned DVDs, including a film of the jewel-encrusted wedding of Senior Gen. Than Shwe's daughter and a copy of Rambo 4, in which Sylvester Stallone guns down the Burmese military in the eastern jungles single-handedly. U Gambira, one of the monks who organized the September 2007 protests, was sentenced to 68 years. A student activist in his 20s was given 104 years for his anti-military political activities.

In this way, thousands in Burma can directly relate to Suu Kyi's plight. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 2,162 prisoners of conscience sit in Burma's jails as of Jan. 1, 2009. Thousands more came before them.

I gave the AAPP's office a call when I was reporting from Mae Sot, a town on the Thai side of the Burmese border. I asked the man on the phone if he would be able to put me in touch with a former political prisoner.

"Maybe I can help," he said. "I was in jail for 14 years." I walked to the office and met Aung Kyaw Oo. Aung Kyaw was a frail man with a tired face. Like many Burmese in Mae Sot, he had escaped his homeland and was living illegally in Thailand. Aung Kyaw had been a student activist and was arrested three years after his role in the massive pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988, during which the military killed thousands of people on the streets and Aung San Suu Kyi emerged as a national icon.

Aung Kyaw was abused and starved in prison. He wasn't allowed outside. "They treated me like a slave," he told me. "Like an animal." He survived by controlling his mind through meditation and learning English from scraps of newspaper smuggled in by the kinder prison guards. He read about the Internet and computers and told himself that one day he would learn about them, too.

Aung Kyaw was finally released in 2005. By that time he was very sick, and the free life offered him little consolation. "People were still poor," he said, "still working all day and not having enough to eat. I knew I had to do something to change my country." Fearing a return to jail, Aung Kyaw fled to the Thai border where he works with AAPP, keeping track of political prisoners back in Burma.

At the top of that list is Aung San Suu Kyi, still awaiting her "Mandela moment" when she will step out of her house and lead her country out of oppression. For many of Burma's disheartened, it won't come a second too soon.