BNN-Worldnews

Canada renews sanctions on Burma following Su Kyi's release

2010-11-14T06:45:00.000+06:30

OTTAWA, (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Saturday that Canada will continue to keep sanctions against Burma even Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest the same day.

"I am pleased that Aung San Suu Kyi has finally been released from house arrest in Burma," Harper said in a statement."Those sanctions will remain in place."

Harper, who is in Yokohama, Japan for the APEC summit, said that Canada stands resolutely with Burma's democratic forces and like-minded members of the international community in the quest to restore civilian government to the Burmese people.

"We continue to call on the Burmese authorities to release all political prisoners and allow the meaningful political participation of all Burma's opposition and ethnic groups," he added.

Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention without trial, was freed by the government of Burma after her latest 7? years term of house arrest expired and after a general election was held in Burma.

In December, 2007, Canada granted Suu Kyi honorary Canadian citizenship and imposed the tough sanctions against Burma to " indicate its condemnation of the regime's complete disregard for human rights and its repression of the country's democratic movement."

Measures of the sanctions include a ban on all goods imported from Burma into Canada and exported from Canada to Burma, excepting only the export of humanitarian goods; a freeze on assets in Canada of any designated Burmese nationals connected with the Burmese State; a ban on new investment in Burma by Canadian persons and companies.

They also cover a prohibition on the provision of Canadian financial services to and from Burma; a prohibition on the export of any technical data to Burma; a prohibition on Canadian- registered ships or aircraft from docking or landing in Burma; a prohibition on Burmese-registered ships or aircraft from docking or landing in Canada and passing through Canada.

xinhuanet

Canadian Company Charged with Illegal Exports to Burma

2010-11-14T06:08:00.000+06:30

The Canada Border Services Agency(CBSA) has charged Kenn Borek Air Ltd and its former general manager, Stephen Penikett, with unlawfully exporting goods to Burma.

A CBSA investigation found that the company exported one de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft and 149 aircraft parts to Burma without valid export permits during Novenber 2007, according to a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The company and Penikett are charged with two counts each under the Customs Act and the Export Import Permits Act.

The maximum fine under the Customs Act is $500,000 or up to five years imprisonment or both; the maximum sentenc under the export and import permits act is 10 years imprisonment.

Goods can only be exported to Burma from Canada with an export permit issued by the Foreign Affairs office and International Trade Canada.

A court hearing for Kenn Borek Air Ltd and Penikett will be held Dec. 14.

irrawaddy

Political Leaders Want to Meet Suu Kyi

2010-11-14T06:01:00.000+06:30

A number of ethnic leaders and other politicians, including some who contested in last week's election, said they hope to meet with Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi soon after she is released from house arrest.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Saturday, Naing Ngwe Thein, the chairman of the All Mon Region Democracy Party, said that he and other ethnic leaders planned to meet with Suu Kyi as soon as possible.

“Under her leadership, we will try to call for a second Panglong-type conference,” said Naing Ngwe Thein, referring to a 1948 pre-independence agreement that guaranteed the rights of Burma's ethnic minorities.

“When we meet with her, we will discuss the Kale Declaration [an agreement signed by ethnic leaders opposed to the Nov. 7 election],” said Naing Ngwe Thein, whose party refused to take part in the polls, which were widely seen as part of an effort to cement military control over Burmese politics.

Dr Manam Tu Ja, the former vice-chairman of the Kachin Independence Organization and founder of a new party that was rejected by the junta-appointed Union Election Commission, said that ethnic leaders want to engage in a tripartite dialogue with Suu Kyi and the Burmese regime.

“The talks should focus on creating a federal system based on equality and power-sharing, which are the main desires of Burma's ethnic minorities,” he said.

Meanwhile, other political leaders, including some who broke away from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) to run in the election, also expressed an interest in meeting with her to discuss the way forward.

“We also hope to meet with her,” said Dr. Than Nyein, a leading member of the National Democratic Force, which has complained of vote-rigging in last Sunday's election.

According to sources, a number of candidates who ran in the election are now among the hundreds of people gathered outside Suu Kyi's house awaiting her release, including members of the Democratic Party (Myanmar) and independent candidates Dr Saw Naing, Dr Phone Win and Win Ko Ko Win.

“We tried to compete in the election, but this government cannot be trusted. They cheated again,” said one independent candidate.

“Aung San Suu Kyi is the only leader who can fight this nefarious dictatorship, so I will join forces with the NLD,” he added.

irrawaddy

Nobel committee invites Suu Kyi to Oslo

2010-11-14T05:43:00.000+06:30

Oslo, Nov 14 (DPA) Norway's Nobel committee Saturday invited Aung San Suu Kyi to Oslo to make a belated acceptance speech for the peace prize she won 19 years ago but did not pick up.

The Myanmar opposition icon was honoured in 1991 for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights, but was unable to travel to Scandinavia because she was under house arrest.

She also feared she would not be allowed to return to Myanmar, and asked her husband, who has since died, to accept the prize on her behalf.

The head of the Nobel committee, Thorbjrn Jagland, said he would seek a guarantee from the government in Yangon that Suu Kyi would be allowed back if she visited Oslo.

'I don't believe she would leave the country without first obtaining such a guarantee, Jagland told the Norwegian news agency NTB.

Her release Saturday after a decade-and-a-half of house arrest was good news for political prisoners all over the world, he said.

This year's peace prize was warded to Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison term in his native China for his commitment to democracy.

The Norwegian committee believes neither Liu nor his wife Liu Xia will be allowed to travel to Norway for the award ceremony Dec 10.

Brown plans to visit Burma democacy leader

2010-11-14T05:35:00.001+06:30

Greens leader Bob Brown will seek a visa to visit the newly freed Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Senator Brown said Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been released from years of house arrest, was one of his heroes and he had been pressing her case throughout his time in federal politics.

"I see the regime says she is free and unrestricted. Well one of the things I'd like to do in the next 12 months is go and see her," he told the Nine Network on Sunday.

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"The test of that very brutal regime is going to be how free the access the rest of the world is to this remarkable, fearless and courageous woman."

Senator Brown said he would test the regime's openness by seeking a visa.

"We have the (parliamentary) break coming up," he said.

"I don't want to be cavalier about it but I think seriously we have to do much more to break down the walls that the Burmese regime has put up."

Senator Brown said there should be much tougher economic sanctions against what was a military dictatorship.

"There's a lot more we can do to make sure that they get the brunt of world disapproval," he said.

smh

Australia's Opposition calls for tougher sanctions against Burma

2010-11-10T00:31:00.000+06:30

The Australian Opposition says the Government should review the sanctions it's imposing on Burma following international criticism of the junta's recent election.

Many countries have described the poll as a fraud, and the Greens are calling for heavier sanctions on the country.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd says the Government will talk with other countries about whether further steps need to be taken against the regime.

The Opposition's Foreign Affairs spokesman Julie Bishop says Burma's military regime has contempt for human rights.

"Its behaviour in rigging this election by suppressing the Opposition has reinforced its reputation as one of the worst regimes on earth, however we need to be careful sanctions target members of the regime, and don't cause unecessary additional suffering for the Burmese people."

australianetworknews

Obama: Myanmar election was neither free nor fair

2010-11-10T00:00:00.001+06:30

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Myanmar's election, won by the country's biggest military-backed party, was neither free nor fair.

Obama was speaking alongside Indonesia's president at the start of a 20-hour visit to the country.

On Monday, Obama said Myanmar's military had stolen Sunday's election, the first for 20 years in the Southeast Asian country.

Ban criticises, maintains hope for Burma polls

2010-11-09T23:59:00.001+06:30

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Amidst widespread allegations of voter coercion and rights violations, United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon has hedged his position regarding the outcome of Sunday’s election in Burma.

While critical of the process, the Secretary General nonetheless reserves hope that Burmese authorities will nurture a post-election environment conducive to national reconciliation.

Ban, through a spokesperson in New York, yesterday affirmed: “Voting was held in conditions that were insufficiently inclusive, participatory and transparent.”
However, he followed up those sentiments by calling on Burma’s authorities, heavily dominated by military and ex-military officers, “to turn the conclusion of the first election in twenty years into a new beginning for the country and its people.”

“Consistent with their commitments, the authorities must demonstrate that the ballot is part of a credible transition towards democratic government, national reconciliation and respect for human rights,” the Secretary General added.

The views of Ban will likely to little to alleviate the heavy criticism directed his way by many in the Burmese opposition camp, who find the Secretary General unwilling to take up a definitive position against the plans of Burma’s generals and see no hope in the prospect of the elections ushering in an altered political landscape.

On the subject of a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma, spokesperson Martin Nesirky responded during a question and answer session that the matter was for member states on the Human Rights Council to decide, effectively distancing the office of the Secretary General from the discussion.

Ban also reiterated his calls for the release of political prisoners and the initiation of meaningful dialogue as necessary stepping stones along any path of national reconciliation.

bni

Junta Continues to Suppress Religious Freedom: US

2009-11-04T05:12:00.000+06:30

WASHINGTON — The Burmese military junta continues to oppress people on religious grounds and actively promotes Theravada Buddhism, said a US report on religion released on Monday.

"It systematically restricted efforts by Buddhist clergy to promote human rights and political freedom," the State Department said in its annual International Religious Freedom Report 2009.

"Adherence to Buddhism remains generally a prerequisite for promotion to senior government and military ranks. Anti-Muslim violence continued, as did the close monitoring of Muslims' activities. Restrictions on Christians and other non-Buddhist minority groups also continued throughout the country," the report said.

The report examined how governments in 198 countries and territories protect or fail to protect religious freedom, calling attention to abuse and positive steps taken by many countries to promote freedom and interreligious harmony."

The Burma section of the report noted that many of the Buddhist monks arrested in the violent crackdown that followed the pro-democracy demonstrations of September 2007, including prominent activist monk U Gambira, remain in prison serving long sentences.

Noting that the Burmese military junta systematically restricted efforts by Buddhist clergy to promote human rights and political freedom, the report said the junta actively promoted Theravada Buddhism, particularly among minority ethnic groups.

"Although there were no new reports of forced conversions of non-Buddhists, the government applied pressure on students and poor youth to convert to Buddhism," it said.

This is the first report of the Obama administration on international religious freedom, which becomes in factor in the United States designating countries into various categories. Earlier this year, days before the Bush administration left office, it put Burma along with China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan under the category of "Countries of Particular Concern (CPC)."

Michael H. Posner, the assistant secretary of state for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, said a new CPC list is expected in the next few months.

"We are eager to at least get it done by January, and I'd like to say sooner. We have the ability throughout the year to make designations or remove countries," he said.

Burma was first designated a CPC in 1999 and most recently was re-designated on Jan. 16, 2009.

irrawaddy

EU pledges €35m in aid to Burma

2009-10-26T03:57:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–The European Union is set to channel €35 million to non-governmental organisations in Burma in what appears to signal a shift towards greater engagement with the country.

The pledge coincides with a visit to Burma by Sweden’s ambassador to Thailand, Lennart Linner, and EU regional ambassador David Lipman.

Speaking to DVB today, Suvi Seppalainen, press officer for Lipman, said that the five-day visit was linked to the aid pledge, but that the trip also had “a political aspect” to it.

She said that Lipman “held meetings with various stakeholders” and discussed future EU policy to Burma.

“The EU is considering opening up dialogue with Burmese officials so it was partly a fact-finding mission,” she said.

Burma’s state-run Myanmar Ahlin newspaper reported today that both Lipman and Linner met with the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).

According to the article, the USDA secretary general, Htay Oo, “explained about the USDA, its engagement in national and rural development work and about the genuine situation in Burma”.

Harn Yawnghwe, from the Brussels-based Euro-Burma Office, said that the EU “is making diplomatic moves to meet with everyone in the country, and possibly the [government].”

He added however that the meeting with the USDA was unlikely to be constructive, but just “a formality”.

The EU money will go to the new Livelihoods and Food Security Trust (LIFT) fund, which is then set to channel the money through various non-governmental organizations (NGOs). EU policy dictates that aid cannot go straight to the Burmese government.

Seppalainen said that the EU would be “putting out adverts and announcements in the public sphere [in Burma] and inviting NGOs to come forward".

Following the extension of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest in August, the EU expanded its sanctions on Burma to include members of the judiciary responsible for Suu Kyi’s sentencing.

The bloc has been criticized however for not including a ban on oil and gas companies operating in Burma.

French oil giant Total was accused last month by environmental group EarthRights International (ERI) of contributing billions of dollars to the Burmese junta from its involvement in the Yadana gas project.

The French foreign minister said in October that sanctions were “useless” and advocated direct engagement with the regime.

The EU has however provided more than half of all post-cyclone Nargis recovery funding channeled into Burma since May last year.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Qantas rejects calls to stop Burma flights

2009-10-26T03:56:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Australian airline Qantas has rejected calls from campaigners to stop subsidiary airline Jetstar from flying to Burma, claiming that it is an important service for aid workers.

Protestors dressed as “anti-Burma flight attendants” gathered outside of a building in Perth yesterday where the company’s AGM was taking place, Burma Campaign Australia (BCA) said.

“We’re urging Qantas shareholders to recognise that their investment is helping to ensure the long-term financial viability and stability of an oppressive military regime,” BCA spokesperson, Zetty Brake, said.

Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, was quoted in the Brisbane Times today as saying that the company had a “policy of constructive engagement” with the junta. He added that the executive director for World Vision charity in Australia had backed Jetstar’s operations that provide “vital access” to Burma for charity workers.

A commentator based in Thailand’s Mae Sot, close to the border with Burma, said that Singapore-based Burmese migrant workers used the airline frequently to return home.

Qantas owns a 49 percent stake in the budget airline, which runs three flights a week to Burma. There have been loud protests in many countries, including Australia, for companies to stop investing in Burma, which is seen to prop up the military regime.

Brake said that protestors would be asking Qantas “to disclose the extent of its relationship with Burmese authorities and clarify its position on the human rights atrocities in Burma”.

Both Qantas and World Vision were unavailable for comment.

Australian campaigners scored a victory earlier this month when the Australian clothing chain, Speciality Fashion Group (SFG), announced it would stop sourcing products from Burma.

Secretary of SFG, Howard Herman, cited “the continued repression of the Burmese people and the ongoing presence of military rule” as a reason for it to cease trading.

Reporting by Joseph Allchin

UN expert slams Burma impunity

2009-10-26T03:54:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Widespread government impunity in Burma has allowed the country’s “alarming” human rights situation to continue unabated, the United Nations special rapporteur for Burma said yesterday.

Little progress has been made to correct “a pattern of widespread and systematic violations” in the military-ruled country, according to Tomas Ojea Quintana, who was speaking at a press conference.

He also called for special attention to be paid to the plight of Muslim communities in Burma, who face frequent religious persecution.

Member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting in Thailand today for the start of the 15th ASEAN summit, where controversial elections in Burma scheduled for next year, are high on the agenda for discussion.

Burma’s presence in the bloc has become increasingly thorny since the imprisonment in August of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose detention was widely seen as a ploy by the government to keep her away from the elections.

An appeal drafted by ASEAN leaders that called for her release was scrapped earlier this week after critics accused it of breaching ASEAN’s non-interference policy. Quintana said that he had urged the Burmese junta on a number of occasions to ensure that the elections are fair and transparent.

“I told the Government that…freedom of speech, movement and association should be guaranteed in the country, and of course that all prisoners of conscience should be released before those elections,” he said.

He also called on the government to “take prompt measures to establish accountability and responsibility” with regard to human rights violations.

The issue of food security in Burma has made headlines in recent weeks, with a human rights group warning that Karen state in the east of the country was facing its worst food crisis in over a decade.

Quintana referred to the “starvation situation” in many regions of the country, including the Arakan, Chin, and Shan states. He also voiced concern over the “dire” social and economic conditions within the country.

Included in a four-point plan outlined by Quintana was the installation of an independent judiciary in Burma, and the reform of the military, “which needs to respect international humanitarian law in conflict areas, as well as the rights of civilians.”

Reporting by Matthew Cunningham

Obama Administration to consult India on its Burma policy

2009-10-26T02:56:00.001+06:30

As the Obama Administration moves ahead with its new policy of engaging the Burmese military junta, a top US official on Thursday said it will actively consult India along with China on its new strategy.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell told US lawmakers that he would be travelling to India in coming week to discuss with its leaders the objectives of the new Burma policy of restoration democracy in the country and protecting human rights.

Campbell was in Beijing last week and met senior Chinese officials who focus on Burma.

"I think it would be fair to say -- to characterise those discussions first by saying that the Chinese are intensely interested in our proposed dialogues. They see that the US is stepping up its overall engagement in Southeast Asia. They are watching that carefully," he said during a hearing on Burma by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

"I asked specifically for Chinese assistance particularly in terms of establishing a dialogue with internal parties in advance of the 2010 elections, and I asked for China's overall support for the US policy of engagement," he said.

hindustantimes

UN rights envoy to visit Burma in November

2009-10-26T02:51:00.001+06:30

New Delhi (Mizzima) – A United Nations human rights expert on Thursday announced he will make another visit to military-ruled Burma, whose human rights situation remains “alarming”.

Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN’s point man for human rights in Burma, during a press conference said the situation of human rights in Burma remains “alarming with a pattern of widespread and systematic violations,” while announcing he will make yet another visit to Burma at the end of November.

The Argentine lawyer said, “I urge the government to take prompt measures to establish accountability and responsibility with regard to those widespread and systematic human rights violations.”

He also called on the Burmese junta to release all political prisoners including Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi before the elections in 2010 in order that the polls are inclusive.

“I told the government that these elections should be fair and transparent, that freedom of speech, movement and association should be guaranteed in the country, and of course that all prisoners of conscience should be released before those elections,” Quintana told a news conference in New York on Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, the Special Rapporteur informed a General Assembly committee dealing with social and humanitarian issues, also known as the Third Committee, that the judiciary in Burma is not independent, sighting evidence of gross impunity and widespread systematic violations.

Quintana, in addressing the country’s legal woes, urged the Burmese government to request technical assistance in reforming the judiciary, because their seven-step road map to democracy would be incomplete without the judiciary’s independence.

However, Burma’s UN representative, Thaung Tun, told the Committee that the UN Rapporteur’s report was “less than objective”, saying anti-government groups were given a sympathetic ear while the junta’s willingness to work with the envoy went largely unacknowledged.

"It is regrettable that allegations of human rights violations from exiled groups have found their way into the report. These allegations should be taken with a grain of salt," Thaung Tun said.

"We find it perturbing, troubling, that the report focuses principally on selected individuals and groups, instead of engagement with the Myanmar [Burma] authorities to grow cooperation," he added.

He further said he is deeply disturbed over the envoy’s critical remarks concerning Burma’s judicial system and the elections to be held in 2010, reaffirming that systematic steps have been taken to hold the elections as scheduled and emphasizing there should be no doubt that the poll will be held in a free and fair manner.

Quintana will be visiting Burma for the third time since his appointment as the Special Rapporteur to Burma in May 2008.

Senior US official to Visit Next Week: Burmese Official

2009-10-26T02:38:00.001+06:30

RANGOON — A senior US official will visit Burma next week in line with Washington's new policy of engaging the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation, a Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.

The Obama administration said Wednesday that US officials plan to travel to Burma, also known as Myanmar, in the next few weeks to talk with government representatives, ethnic minority groups and the democratic opposition.

The Burmese Foreign Ministry official, who asked not to be identified by name because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said a "high-ranking US official" would visit next week as part of the new approach by Washington, which has shunned Burma in the past.

He declined to give the name of the US official.

Burma's opposition National League for Democracy party of detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said the US Embassy had informed it of an upcoming visit by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt M Campbell and that he would meet with party officials.

"We welcome the visit by a senior-level official from the US and hope that he would be allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi," party spokesman Nyan Win said.

The Obama administration is turning away from the Bush administration's policy of shunning Burma in favor of direct, high-level talks. It has said isolating the military government has failed to move it toward democratic reforms.

During testimony Wednesday to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Campbell said US officials are planning a "fact-finding mission" to Burma to continue talks he began in September in New York with senior Burmese officials, the first such high-level contact in nearly a decade.

irrawaddy

US-Burma Talks to be Tested in Coming Months

2009-10-26T02:37:00.001+06:30

WASHINGTON — The next few months will be a testing period for the US-Burma relationship, trying to determine if the generals are ready to make meaningful changes in the tightly ruled country, said the advocacy director of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“It is now up to them [the junta] to respond to the gestures that the administration has made,” Tom Malinowski, the advocacy director of HRW, told US lawmakers during a Congressional hearing here on Burma convened by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Malinowski, who was a special assistant to former US President Bill Clinton and a senior director for foreign policy speech writing at the National Security Council, said the new US Burma policy is realistic.

It doesn't place false hopes in the 2010 elections that the Burmese government is staging or in the new Constitution that it has forced on the people of the country, he said.

“I think it's realistic because the administration considered but rejected the notion that's out there in some circles that a lifting of sanctions against Burma will somehow spark the kind of economic growth and development that we've seen in places like China and Vietnam which then and might in turn over time lead to political change,” he said.

“If sanctions were lifted, essentially the only new investment I think Burma would see would be in the extractive sectors––in oil, gas, gems, timber. It would not transfer intellectual capital or create employment or lead to positive change inside the country.

“It would probably accelerate Burma's transformation into a country like the Democratic Republic of the Congo where foreign companies compete to pull stuff out of the ground in a way that just corrupts and entrenches the local authority,” he said.

He said that the next few months will be a testing period in which the administration is going to talk to the regime and see what it is willing to do.

“Are they going to be willing to allow the National League for Democracy to function more normally as a political party? Are they going to be willing to have a process in which they discuss substantive issues relating to the country's future with the political opposition? Are they going to release political prisoners? Are they going to change the manner in which they're going to organize these elections next year so that there's some chance for a vote that reflects the will of the Burmese people?” he asked.

“Are they going to pull back from the attacks on ethnic minority groups that have created such a humanitarian disaster? Will they even be willing to take small steps in those directions to build our confidence and the confidence of the opposition?” Malinowski asked.

He said there is a possibility that some of those things will happen, but he is skeptical because over the years the regime has shown that it is expert at time management.

“They're good at playing for time,” he said. “I think the more likely explanation is that they'd like to use the dialogue to give themselves the time to focus on their internal political consolidation,” he said.

He cautioned that the administration needs to be very disciplined, and it needs to have a time-bound approach.

“I believe they do need to be willing to enhance, strengthen, and adjust the implementation of the sanctions if over a reasonable period of time progress isn't made,” he said.

In his testimony, Dr Chris Beyrer, a professor of epidemiology at the International Health and Health Behavior and Society School at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said Congress needs to continue to press the administration on implementing an arms embargo.

“An international arms embargo against this regime, particularly while they continue these attacks on ethnic civilians and villages, seems to me critically important. And also the US can support the investigation of crimes against humanity and the referral to the UN Security Council,” he said.

“Whatever happens in the dialogue to come, the crimes that have been committed and the continued impunity of this junta remain a real obstacle to national reconciliation, and I think that investigation of those crimes remains an important part of reconciliation for the future,” Beyer said.

Aung Din of the US Campaign for Burma said US engagement should be carried out within a reasonable time frame.

“If the regime continues arresting democracy activists and attacking ethnic minorities, the United States must respond with tightening sanctions, organizing actions at the UN Security Council, such as the global arms embargo, and the establishment of an inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma,” he said.

irrawaddy

No Decision on Dialogue with Burma: US

2009-10-26T02:35:00.000+06:30

WASHINGTON — The administration of US President Barack Obama said on Friday that no decision has been taken on how the next round of dialogue with the Burmese authorities will be organized or who will be participating in it.

The first round of US-Burma talks were held in New York last month, and according to an unnamed Burmese official quoted in an Associated Press report, senior US officials will visit Burma for further talks next week.

“We hope that that dialogue will entail face-to-face meetings in Burma, but we still have not decided how exactly that dialogue will be organized,” US State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly told reporters during his daily press briefing on Friday.

When asked about the talks held in New York recently—the first since the administration announced its new Burma policy, which involves engaging the military junta—Kelly described them as “positive.”

“I don’t know if I would characterize it as progress. We have begun the dialogue, which is positive. But we are still working out exactly where we will go from here. As I say, we hope to be able to continue the dialogue. But nothing is confirmed at this point,” Kelly said.

Earlier this week, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, who recently led talks with Burmese military leaders, confirmed that the US intended to pursue further dialogue with the junta.

Appearing before a Congressional panel early this week, Campbell said: “We intend to go to Burma in the next few weeks for a fact-finding mission.”

The Associated Press reported from Rangoon that a “high-ranking US official” would visit next week as part of the new approach by Washington, which has shunned Burma in the past. The name of the US official was not released by the unnamed Burmese official quoted in the report.

irrawaddy

Australian fashion group halts trade with Burma

2009-10-14T03:45:00.000+06:30

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Australia’s Speciality Fashion Group, which owns fashion brands including Millers, Katies and four others has announced a halt to trading with companies in Burma given its appalling human right records.

Speciality Fashion Group was among eight firms named last month in a report by the Burma Campaign Australia, which says the companies are providing millions of dollars to the military regime that rules the Southeast Asian nation.

Zetty Brake, spokesperson for Burma Campaign Australia on Monday told Mizzima that they were notified by the Speciality Fashion Group in early October that it had decided not to continue sourcing products from Burma and stop dealing with companies that are trading in Burma.

“We made a group decision to cease trading with Burma due to the continued repression of the Burmese people and the ongoing presence of military rule,” Howard Herman, Secretary of Speciality Fashion Group, said in a statement released through the BCA.

Speciality Fashion Group owns popular fashion brands such as Millers, Crossroads, Katies, Autograph, City Chic and Queenspark and has 843 stores across Australia with annual sales of up to US $560.6 million.

Zetty said the Speciality Fashion Group mainly imports women’s dresses from Burma.

The BCA last month compiled a report listing the names of Australian companies including Jetstar airline and Twinza Oil Company that have business interests in Burma and urged them to stop trading saying the revenue props up the Burmese military regime.

Zetty said, investments by Australian companies is estimated to fund around US $ 2.8 billion annually to the Burmese regime in revenue, which enables the regime to fund 727 soldiers each year.

While welcoming the Australian fashion group’s decision to stop trading with Burma, BCA called on other Australian Companies to stop investments.

“We support the withdrawal from Burma and encourage all other Australian companies to take responsibility for their involvement in Burma and helping the Burmese military,” Zetty told Mizzima on Monday.

Despite Speciality Fashion Group shedding its business deals in Burma, Zetty said, seven other Australian companies are still investing and doing business in the country.

The BCA in its report last month said, Australian companies such as Andaman Teak Supplies Pty Ltd, Chevron, Gecko’s Adventure, Jetstar, Lonely Planet, Millers, Sri Asia Tourism and Twinza Oil have business interests in Burma and are propping up the military junta.

In September the Campaign urged Jetstar airlines, which has a partnership with Burma’s state-owned Myanmar Airways International (MAI), which operates four flights per week from Singapore to Rangoon, to withdraw from Burma.

The BCA said Jetstar airline’s tax payment to the department of civil aviation under the Burmese Ministry of Transport is estimated to be over US $ 170,000 per year.

mizzima

US senator against lifting Burma sanctions

2009-10-02T04:24:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–The United States should wait for major concessions from Burma’s ruling junta before considering whether to lift sanctions on the country, a top US senator said yesterday.

The “release of all political prisoners…and the conduct of free and fair elections in 2010” are the key factors that the Washington must demand, said US senate republican leader Mitch McConnell.

"[These] remain two significant tests of whether or not Burma's relationship with the United States has improved to the degree that we should even consider moving away from a policy of sanctions,” he said.

“The United States must also insist that Burma comply with its international obligations and end any prohibited military or proliferation related cooperation with North Korea."

The remarks coincided with a meeting between top US diplomats, headed by secretary of state for Asia, Kurt Campbell, and senior members of the Burmese government in New York yesterday.

Campbell, who said last week that the US was taking a “measured approach” to the 2010 elections, met with Burmese minister for science and technology, U Thaung.

The Burmese delegation arrived in New York last week for the United Nations General Assembly, the first such visit to the US in 14 years.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement last week that the US will maintain sanctions but look also to engage directly with the ruling junta, following years of a failed isolationist policy on Burma, has drawn controversy.

The pro-sanctions lobby has said that the move is akin to rewarding the junta despite gaining no concessions, while those who favour greater engagement point to the apparent lack of results from past US policy.

In recent months the US has expressed concern about Burma’s nuclear ambitions, following an apparent warming of relations between the generals and North Korea.

Burma’s prime minister, Thein Sein, told the General Assembly on Monday that “it is our hope that all nations of the world will continue to work together to eliminate nuclear weapons” and that Burma “supports the establishment of nuclear weapons free zones”.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Burma immune to ‘soft’ US approach

2009-10-02T04:23:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–Burma’s ruling junta may be immune to the ‘soft’ approach of engagement announced by the United States last week, according to a senior Burmese opposition party member.

The new US approach mirrors policy advocated by Burma’s regional neighbours, according to National League for Democracy (NLD) party member, Win Tin.

“I don’t think [Burma’s] situation could be handled by this soft diplomacy method,” he said.

“As we have experienced before, the junta plays games, makes lies, breaks promises and then says whatever it wants to say through state-run newspapers.”

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced last week that Washington will look to engage directly with the Burmese government, whilst maintaining sanctions, after years of a failed isolationist policy.

Win Tin said however that the US was “stepping onto the same path” as members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc, who have shunned sanctions in favour of engagement.

“What has ASEAN managed to achieve?” he said. “There is nothing to show that the engagement trend initiated by the [former Singaporean prime minister] Lee Kuan Yew found success.”

The spokesperson for the NLD, Nyan Win, said that any engagement with Burma must include opposition groups in the country.

“The interaction must be started locally,” he said. “Internal relations also play an important role.

“International engagement without engagement within the country would not be very effective.”

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon came under fire during a trip to Burma in July after only being allowed to meet with the NLD for two minutes, despite holding a number of meetings with government officials.

Win Tin said that the US must fall into the same trap where every aspect of engagement is dictated by the government.

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw

US officials meet with Burma junta

2009-10-02T04:21:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–The US has reiterated its stance on continuing sanctions to Burma, despite high-level talks between both sides yesterday aimed at kick-starting direct engagement.

Senior Burmese government delegates met with State Department officials in New York yesterday for the first high-level talks between the countries in over a decade.

State Department deputy spokesperson Philip Crowley characterised it as an “introductory” meeting, and a “cautious beginning”.

He said that US officials and the Burmese delegation, which included minister for science and technology, U Thaung, and UN representative Than Swe, discussed matters ranging from the release of political prisoners to Burma’s relationship with North Korea.

The meeting came a day after the Obama administration formally announced that it will increase engagement with Burma after years of an isolationist policy that many regard as a failure.

In a statement prior to the talks, however, State Department official Kurt Campbell said that the “lifting or easing sanctions at the outset of a dialogue without meaningful progress on our concerns would be a mistake.”

Washington has down played the importance of the meeting, labeling it as an initial first step towards potential greater engagement with the regime.

It is unclear, however, if this response was tempered by Burma’s decision to send its minister of technology and science, perhaps signaling a lack of resolve by the junta.

When asked about the decision, Crowley said that he would be “careful” with any response he gives on the issue.

“This was the individual that they designated for this first meeting. I’m not suggesting that he will be the interlocutor for future meetings. It’s up to the Burmese.”

Reporting by Matt Cunningham

US’s Burma policy; Is it flawless?

2009-10-02T04:20:00.001+06:30

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Accepting the failure of sanctions to usher in political change, the Burmese opposition and analysts said, the new US policy on the Southeast Asian nation could be the right approach but warned that the military junta could use it to its advantage, as it is not flawless.

The United States on Monday said, under its new Burma policy, it would seek direct engagement with the military rulers of Burma, but would continue with sanctions that can be phased out or tightened based on events inside Burma.

“In principle, this is a good policy. As sanctions or engagement alone have failed to bring change, we would like to hope that the combination of both might bring some change,” Win Min, an academic at the Chiang Mai University in Thailand and a long time Burma observer, said.

Similarly, a senior member of the National League for Democracy, Win Tin, said, while the US decides its policy, the new approach seems to be on the right track as it strikes a balance between engagement and punishment.

“We, the NLD, have been proposing engagement with the junta for the past 20 years, and so we welcome the US’s policy of engagement. We believe things could change through engagement,” Win Tin, a central executive committee member of the NLD, said.

Following US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s preview of the Burma policy at the United Nations, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, through her party spokesperson, said she welcomed the policy of engagement but urged the US to engage both the junta and the opposition, including ethnic minorities.

Win Tin said while he agrees with party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, “I would like to add that the US should demand that the junta start a dialogue with us - the opposition.”

He said the US’s engagement with the junta is not enough because if political change is to come to Burma, dialogue between internal players must be the starting point and the US should see that the junta is on the right track for conducting such dialogues as the start of the process of national reconciliation.

While the new US policy garners some support as it incorporates the ‘Carrot and Stick’, method, Win Tin warned the US not to allow the junta to take advantage of the engagement and to court them in their playground but to stand firm on its principles.

“The junta, as we have seen in the past, is very smart in playing so the US must stand firm on its principles and not allow the junta to play with them,” he said.

He said, even if the sanctions are to be lifted, the list of targeted people such as the generals, their close relatives and business cronies should be kept as the last card to be cast on the table.

“Because sanctions do have an impact, as it is obvious, the junta really wants to come out of sanctions, and this is a good point for the US to push the generals to implement change,” he added.

Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein, in his speech at the UN General Assembly on Monday, said sanctions are ‘unjust’ and that certain countries are using sanctions as a political tool. He urged the international community to pressurize countries imposing sanctions on Burma to lift it.

Aware of the Generals’ fear, Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday sent a letter to Snr. Gen Than Shwe, offering to work with him in order to help ease the sanctions imposed by the West.

In her letter, she requested a meeting with the Charge d’Affairs of the US embassy, Ambassadors of the European Union and Australia, to discuss the sanctions and to understand their stance on Burma.

However, Nyan Win, her party spokesperson, said, so far there has been no response from Naypyitaw on Aung San Suu Kyi’s proposal.

According to Win Min, the junta is currently looking ahead of the 2010 elections and its legitimacy, which can be gained if the international community endorses it. The US sanctions, therefore, remain a big obstacle for it and the regime is trying all it can to ease this pressure.

“We will have to wait and see how the junta responds to the new US policy. But there is always a possibility that the junta would want to use the US to support them in their plan,” Win Min said.

“Though nothing is clear, one thing is certain that the junta does not want to give up its rule and wants to legitimize its role through the road-map,” he added.

According to the junta’s seven-step roadmap to democracy, the general elections scheduled for 2010 is the fifth step and will give life to the 2008 constitution, which according to the junta was approved by over 90 per cent of voters.

The elections would be followed by convening of the Parliament and forming the cabinet, all of which will be based on the 2008 constitution, which critics said will legitimize the role of the military.

“The junta wants to see the 2010 elections going through smoothly, as it is an important step in legitimizing the role of the military,” said Win Tin. He added that winning the support of the US plays an important role for the success of the elections.

Besides, the junta’s interest in wanting the US to endorse its planned roadmap, it is also widely seen that the junta wants to use the US to balance China. Win Tin said, this could give the junta a much larger space to play in as it already has India to pit against China.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) report titled “China’s Myanmar Dilemma” released in mid-September, Burma’s failure to implement socio-political changes has become a burden for China, which as the closest ally had defended the Burmese military junta in the international fora.

The Burmese junta, according to analysts, is also aware of the Chinese attitude towards it and understands that it cannot forever remain under the protection of China. The junta needs alternative support base, including neighbouring countries such as India.

“In the larger context, the junta might want to pit China against the US. And diversify its support and not depend only on the Chinese,” Win Tin said.

“Now with India already backing it, the junta would want the US to have a good relationship with it,” he added.

Direct Talks Will Test Junta’s Intentions: US

2009-10-02T04:17:00.001+06:30

Better US-Burma relations will require real progress on democracy and human rights, or there will be no lifting of sanctions, a top US official said on Wednesday.

“Our intent is to use our dialogue with the Burmese authorities to facilitate that process (restoration of democracy and protection of human rights). Only if the government of Burma makes progress towards these goals will it be possible to improve our bilateral relationship in a step-by-step process,” Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell said in a Congressional hearing.

Campbell told the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Sub Committee of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs that despite changes in US policy towards Burma, the Obama administration will continue to press for the unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, an end to conflicts with ethnic minority groups, accountability of those responsible for human rights violations, and the initiation of a genuine dialogue between the Burmese government, the democratic opposition and the ethnic minorities.

On Wednesday, Campbell led a US delegation in talks with the Burmese minister of science and technology. The meeting in New York lasted for several hours.

“The Burmese permanent representative to the United Nations also participated in the discussion, as well as a few other individuals who came in from the capital for these sessions,” he said.

“These were substantive talks over several hours that lasted into the evening. We laid out very clearly our views, and I stressed to U Thaung that this is an opportunity for Burma, if it is ready to move forward,” he said.

Characterizing this as an introductory meeting, Campbell said: “It will take more than a single conversation to resolve our differences, and we have not yet scheduled a second session and no decisions have been made about venue or level for the next set of talks.

“In parallel to the dialogue on our core democracy, human rights and nonproliferation concerns, we hope to identify some initial positive steps the Burmese could take in other areas that would help build momentum in the talks and could potentially allow the United States to respond in an appropriate manner,” he said.

“There are a number of areas in which we've had a tentative discussion. We might be able to improve cooperation to our mutual benefit, such as in the area of counternarcotics, health issues, environmental protection, the recovery of World War II missing-in-action remains and the potential provision of humanitarian assistance.”

Lifting or easing sanctions at the outset of a dialogue without meaningful progress would be a mistake and would send the wrong message, he said.

“We will maintain our existing sanctions until we see concrete progress and continue to work with the international community to ensure that those sanctions are effectively coordinated. We believe any easing of sanctions now would send the wrong signal to those who have been striving for so many years for democracy and progress in Burma, to our partners in the region and elsewhere and to the Burmese leadership itself,” he said.

“Through our dialogue, we also will make clear to the Burmese leadership that relations with the United States can only be improved in a step-by-step process if the Burmese government takes meaningful actions that address our core concerns. Moreover, we will reserve the option of tightening sanctions on the regime and its supporters to respond to events in Burma.”

Responding to a question from Sen. Jim Webb, who chaired the hearing, Campbell said that Suu Kyi, in a recent letter, has indicated a desire to begin a dialogue on sanctions.

“We would like to see her have the opportunity to interact more freely with visitors, both outside of the country, like yourself, but also members of her own party and other groups inside Burma, and more dialogue between the government and herself,” he said.

“We think that this is an appropriate next step in terms of domestic developments inside the country. And we've communicated that very clearly to our interlocutors,” Campbell said.

Referring to the direct US-Burma talks in New York on Wednesday, he said: “I wouldn't want to characterize them; certainly no breakthroughs, but a very clear determination that dialogue was possible on the side of Burma. I think the United States, we prepared intensively. We laid out what our goals were and how we would want to go about a dialogue.”

Responding to a question on the 2010 Burmese election, Campbell said: “We think there needs to be much greater clarity on behalf of the government about what their expectations are. They've been very unclear about certain aspects and manifestations of the 2010 elections.

There's a clear desire for a greater dialogue inside the country.”

Campbell said that during the process of consultations there was great distrust from opposition and ethnic groups about the coming election.

“They viewed the referendum as being illegitimate and that concerns were that unless some significant changes were made in the constitution that this would follow on in a similar path,” he said.

In his opening remarks, Sen. Webb said that sanctions on Burma had not worked so far.

“Our isolation of Burma has resulted in a lack of attention to the region's strategic dynamics. Burma remains flanked by India and China and is widely seen as being increasingly under China's sphere of influence,” he said.

“I believe that the political motivations behind our isolation of Burma were honorable, based on a desire to see democratic governance and a respect for human rights inside that country. At the same time, the situation we face with Burma is an example of what can happen when we seek to isolate a country from the rest of the world but the rest of the world does not follow.

“Through the limits of our diplomatic and commercial ties we have also limited our connections with the people of Burma and prevented them from seeing the best that a free society can offer. We limit aid for their development and intellectual exploration; moreover, we limit opportunities to push for positive change because we do not talk directly to the government in charge.

“So the question, quite frankly, is whether this approach has brought Burma closer to democracy than when sanctions were first imposed,” Webb said.

irrawaddy

Burmese Women Welcome UN Resolution

2009-10-02T04:16:00.001+06:30

The Women’s League of Burma (WLB) says it welcomes the resolution adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on Wednesday criticizing sexual violence in war zones in Africa, Europe and Asia.

WLB is a Thailand-based nongovernmental organization comprised of 12 Burmese ethnic women’s groups.

The joint general-secretary of the WLB, Tin Tin Nyo, said, “It is urgently needed that action is taken effectively against perpetrators who commit crimes against women and children in armed conflict zones.”

The US-led initiative, passed by a 15-0 vote, includes the creation of a UN special envoy to coordinate efforts in the fight against the use of rape as a weapon of war, and directs UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to dispatch a team of experts to advise governments on how best to prosecute offenders, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.

Thousands of ethnic women in eastern Burma have been targeted for decades by Burmese government troops for human rights abuses, including torture, rape, sexual abuse and murder, according to women’s rights and human rights groups.

The government soldiers use systematic rape against ethnic women as a weapon and as a strategy to terrorize the ethnic peoples, said the groups.

According to a report titled “State of Terror,” released by the Karen Women’s Organisation in 2007, more than 4,000 cases of abuse, rape, murder, torture and forced labor by the Burmese regime’s forces had been recorded in recent years in about 200 Karen villages. Many of the human rights violations occurred from late 2005 through 2006.

Another ethnic women’s group, Shan Women’s Action Network, released a report titled “License to Rape” in 2002, which documented over 600 rapes and sexual assaults committed by Burmese troops in Shan State over six years.

“It is time for all of us to assume our responsibility to go beyond condemning this behavior to taking concrete steps to end it, to make it socially unacceptable, to recognize it is not cultural, it is criminal,” said the presiding chairperson at the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to AP.

“We must act now to end this crisis,” she added.

Recently, international and regional rights groups, such as the International Federation for Human Rights, Altsean-Burma, and Burma Lawyers’ Council, have urged the European Union to support the establishment of a UN Security Council Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Burma.

Since 1997, the Burmese regime has destroyed over 3,000 villages and displaced over half a million civilians in eastern Burma, according to the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, an umbrella organization responsible for the distribution of aid at the Thai-Burmese border.

Karen groups claim that since 1949 there have been many unreported abuses, displacements and destroyed villages in Karen State alone. Many cases of abuse among internally displaced persons in eastern Burma go unreported, they said.

irrawaddy

'Friends of the Regime' Meet in New York

2009-10-01T04:43:00.000+06:30

While Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein’s speech at the United Nations assembly was nothing earth-shattering, his meetings on the sidelines should not be overlooked.

At the invitation of UN Under-Secretary-General Ambassador Joseph Verner Reed, Thein Sein met with US Sen. Jim Webb on Monday.

The Burmese premier and Webb met in Naypyidaw in August during the US senator’s controversial trip to Burma, soon after which the US agreed to a policy of engagement with the Burmese junta.

“I appreciate Ambassador Reed's initiative in arranging this meeting, and I look forward to continuing the dialogue with Prime Minister Thein Sein that was begun last month,” Webb said in a statement prior to the meeting.

Ambassador Reed, for his part, is not unfamiliar with the Burmese regime. As a special adviser to former UN chief Kofi Annan and now to Ban Ki-moon, the high-ranking UN official is known to be close to some senior junta officers.

Sources said that Reed met with Gen Maung Aye in 1995 at the UN General Assembly and, in 2002, he attended an event marking United Nations Day in Rangoon as the guest of then Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt.

Ambassador Reed has a Burmese assistant working for him and his strong ties to the regime “cannot be discounted,” warned Maj Aung Lynn Htut, a former intelligence officer who was the second highest ranking Burmese official at the Burmese embassy in Washington until he defected in 2005.

During Aung Lynn Htut’s tenure in Washington, the Burmese embassy agreed to provide a visa to Sen Webb and an American businessman to visit Burma in 2001. Webb visited the country as a private citizen soon after.

Aung Lynn Htut defected to the US after Khin Nyunt was purged by Snr-Gen Than Shwe. He said he feared for his life if he returned to Burma.

He has since revealed that as soon as US President George W Bush came to power in 2001, Burmese and Americans who were sympathetic to the regime hired lobby firms in the US capital to improve the regime’s souring ties with the new US administration.

However, when the regime’s thugs attacked and ambushed Aung San Suu Kyi’s convoy in May 2003 in Depayin, the US tightened sanctions instead.

The former intelligence officer said the Burmese military government sent several unofficial delegations to the US in 2001 and 2002 to lobby for an easing of sanctions.

He said that many of the trips were sponsored by Burmese business tycoon Khin Shwe.

In 1997, Khin Shwe hired an American public relations company, Bain and Associates Inc, to improve relations with the US. Khin Shwe’s daughter is married to the younger son of junta no 3 Gen Thura Shwe Mann. In 2007, Khin Shwe was placed on the US sanctions list for his close ties to the regime.

Over the next few years, the ruling Burmese generals also hired lobby groups Jefferson Waterman International and the DCI Group in 1997 and 2001 respectively, in an attempt to soften their public image abroad, in particular by steering the Bush administration away from criticism of the regime’s human rights abuses and the continued detention of Suu Kyi, and to push for lifting US sanctions.

Aung Lynn Htut revealed that around 2001 and 2002 in Washington, the Burmese embassy and intelligence faction hosted several Burmese businessmen, former activists, and foreign scholars, including David Steinberg, Thant Myint-U (the grandson of U Thant), Aye Aye Thant (U Thant’s daughter), Professor Kyaw Yin Hlaing, former CIA officers stationed in Rangoon, and several US businessmen and representatives of oil companies, including UNOCAL.

He said the agenda was always the same—to lift US sanctions and to sideline Suu Kyi.

The regime also invited Japanese diplomats who harbored negative feelings toward the detained opposition leader.

“We knew that Japanese diplomats and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi didn’t have good relations, so we exploited it,” said Aung Lynn Htut.

When asked why the regime had chosen to align itself with Ambassador Reed, he told The Irrawaddy in January: “We gathered information that he didn’t like Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Aung Lynn Htut said that the propaganda against Suu Kyi was subtle and aimed to demonstrate to the international community that Suu Kyi was stubborn and was an obstacle to progress in Burma.

Another old friend on the delegation to the US is Minister for Science and Technology and former Burmese ambassador to Washington U Thaung, who has previously worked with Reed in efforts to improve the regime’s brutal image.

As they gather for closed door talks once again, this time the old friends can pat each other on the back—now that the new US administration has pledged to engage directly with the junta in Naypyidaw.

irrawaddy

US Begins Dialogue with Junta

2009-10-01T04:36:00.000+06:30

WASHINGTON — Within days of the United States announcing its new policy of engagement with the Burmese military junta, a top official of the Obama administration on Tuesday initiated the US-Burma dialogue process at the United Nations in New York.

The meeting was led by the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, and the Burmese Minister of Science and Technology, U Thaung.

Officials, however, were reluctant to discuss the nature of the talks on the first meeting. However, prior to the meeting, Campbell said it would be a long, drawn-out process.

A day earlier, Campbell had announced in Washington the decision of the US government to hold talks with the Burmese military junta, even though he insisted that its goals have not changed—the protection of human rights and establishment of democracy in Burma.

Although the policy of engagement marks a major diversion from the past, Campbell said sanctions would not be lifted immediately. “The lifting of sanctions would send a wrong signal,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a letter to Sen. Jim Webb, the International Burmese Monks Organization (IBMO) expressed its disappointment that monks from neither inside or outside Burma had been invited to the Congressional hearing on Wednesday.

In its written testimony submitted to the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the IBMO said that Burma’s military regime has shown expertise in manipulating the international community with hollow promises and false hopes over the years.

The Obama administration should be aware of the regime’s tricks and must stay focused on the goals stated by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the letter said.

“US direct diplomacy with the regime should not be an open-ended process, but should take place within a reasonable timeframe and with clear benchmarks. We also urge the US government to try to reach out to those in the regime that make all major decisions,” it said.

“While keeping current sanctions in place, the United States should prepare to increase pressure on the regime if the regime refuses to negotiate with the democratic opposition and conducts more abuses against the people of Burma, including ethnic minorities,” IBMO said.

The US should support and lead a campaign calling on the United Nations Security Council to impose a global arms embargo on Burma and establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the military regime, the testimony said.

“The US should also extend current targeted financial and banking sanctions against the regime’s officials and Burmese business cronies who are partners of the regime. Finally, the US also should coordinate with the European Union in imposing financial sanctions against targeted individuals in Burma,” it said.

The IBMO, in its testimony, said it supports the Obama administration’s decision to use a combination of sanctions and diplomacy.

irrawaddy

UN to resume work in northeastern Burma

2009-09-18T04:09:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–A United Nations relief agency is to resume work in the Kokang region of northeastern Burma after fierce fighting last month caused dozens of aid workers to flee.

All non-local staff of the World Food Programme (WFP) were withdrawn from Kokang in Shan state following fighting between Burmese troops and an armed Kokang ceasefire group.

“We cannot fully run our operation with the number of our local staff there, but we are aiming to go fully operational again next week,” said WFP official Swe Swe Win told DVB yesterday.

The WFP have been distributing aid in Kokang since 2003 in collaboration with partner organisations such as World Vision and the Asia Medical Doctor Association.

Around 20 staff from WFP and partner organisations had been temporarily blocked by Burmese troops from leaving Laogai.

Roads had been shut and the aid workers were being kept in a UN compound in the town. WFP staff had been distributing food and helping Laogai locals in a poppy substitution programme.

State-run media in Burma has said that the situation has returned to normal in the region, with fighting brought to a halt. Around 37,000 refugees had fled across the border into China, but many were reportedly returning.

A local from the regional capital Laogai said however that the town is deserted and shops remain closed, despite local authorities urging people to return.

“Teachers are urging students to come back to school. People from the mainland Burma, who ran businesses in town, have gone back to their regions,” he said, adding that businesses were suffering considerably.

“It’s going to take time before everything is up and running again. Because the town is so empty, there has been looting taking place in unattended houses and shops.”

The fighting pushed China to issue a rare rebuke to Burma, urging it to "properly deal with its domestic issue to safeguard the regional stability in the China-Myanmar [Burma] border area".

Reporting by Nan Kham Kaew

Australia to tackle human trafficking in Burma

2009-09-18T04:08:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Burma has been named as one of six countries that will receive funding from the Australian government to tackle human trafficking, Canberra announced on Tuesday.

More than $AUS10 million will be provided to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to fund three projects in the country over the next four years.

Other countries targeted in the programme are Laos, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Australia’s minister for immigration and citizen, Chris Evans.

According to a statement on the Australian government website, the first of the three projects will focus on computer-based training for border staff “to detect and stop people smuggling activities”.

The second will “finance the creation of a coordination and analysis unit to gather, examine and distribute statistics on people smuggling across the region”, while the third is aimed at strengthening cross-border cooperation.

According to International Labour Organisation (ILO) figures, at least 12.3 million people worldwide are in forced labour, bonded labour or commercial sexual exploitation.

A US State Department report released in June this year said that human trafficking within Burma remains “significant”, whist trafficking of young women into forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation is a “major problem”.

Many Burmese women and children are being trafficked to Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Korea, China and Malaysia, the latter two often for forced marriage.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the phenomenon as “modern slavery”.

“[It] weakens legitimate economies, fuels violence, threatens public health and safety, shatters families, and shreds the social fabric that is necessary for progress.”

Reporting by Francis Wade

China and West need coordinated approach on Burma: ICG

2009-09-15T04:24:00.000+06:30

New Delhi (Mizzima) - With Beijing having limited influence over Burma’s military rulers, the West needs to find a way to work together with China to push for changes in the Southeast Asian nation, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a new report.

The ICG, a non-profit group working in conflict areas around the world, in a new report “China’s Myanmar Dilemma” said Beijing’s influence over Burma is often overstated while it is limited, and may not be able to deter the junta from attacking ethnic armed rebels along its border with China.

“The insular and nationalistic generals do not take orders from anyone, including Beijing,” said Robert Templer, ICG’s Asia Program Director, in a statement on Monday.

“By continuing to simply expect China to take the lead in solving the problem, a workable international approach to Myanmar will remain elusive,” Templer added.

The ICG also warned that China, which is known to have influence over Burmese generals, might not be able to deter the junta from launching yet another attack on ethnic armed rebels long its border with China.

The late August offensive against the Kokang rebels in Burma’s North-eastern Shan State, which resulted in the influx of about 30,000 refugees into China, according to the ICG, is an indication of the limited influence of China on the Burmese junta.

“Beijing was not even forewarned about the late August raid against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Kokang ceasefire group,” the ICG said.

Should the junta launch attacks against the Wa and the Kachin rebels, China would have to deal with another humanitarian crisis on its border, and “yet it is unclear whether Beijing will be able to dissuade the generals from undertaking further offensive,’ the ICG said.

“Both Chinese and international policies towards Myanmar [Burma] deserve careful reassessment,” said Donald Steinberg, ICG’s Deputy President for Policy in the statement.

“An effective international approach also requires a united front by regional actors as well as multilateral institutions such as ASEAN and the UN,” he added.

Stephanie T. Kleine-Ahlbrandt, North East Asia Project Director of the ICG, in an email interview with Mizzima said, the Burmese junta balances the influence of China as well as other countries with its non-alignment foreign policy and multilateralism.

“It is not a matter of simply using one country to check the influence of another. The [Burmese] government uses this relationship just as it uses its ties with other Asian countries - to prevent any one country from gaining too much influence,” Kleine-Ahlbrandt said.

But in the absence of coordinated regional or UN response, Kleine-Ahlbrandt said, the stalemate will continue and “from China's perspective, not only is instability on the border a serious concern, but if this situation continues, it will certainly negatively impact Yunnan’s trade and economic development.”

While China shares the aspiration for a stable and prosperous Burma, it differs from the West on how to achieve these goals. The ICG said, in order to bring Beijing on board, the international community will need to pursue a plausible strategy that takes advantage of areas of common interest as well as China’s actual level of influence.

“The West should emphasise to China the unsustainable nature of its current policies and continue to apply pressure in the Security Council and other fora,” the group said, adding that at the same time, international pressure should not exclude other regional states pursuing their own narrowly defined self interests in Burma.

US Embassy investigates arrest of American citizen in Burma

2009-09-10T03:44:00.000+06:30

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The United States Embassy in Rangoon said it is talking to the Burmese government regarding an American, arrested at the Yangon International Airport on September 3.

Burma born American citizen, Kyaw Zaw Lwin a.k.a Nyi Nyi Aung, was arrested at the Mingalardon International Airport on September 3, on arrival from Bangkok on a TG flight.

An embassy official told Mizzima on Wednesday that they are talking to Burmese authorities on Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s arrest but refused to provide further details, citing diplomatic protocol.

“We are aware of Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s arrest. We are investigating the case,” the official said adding that “Our priority is to provide assistance to American citizens, so, yes we are reaching out to the government here.”

Kyaw Zaw Lwin was a student activist during Burma’s 1988 popular uprising and fled to Thailand to escape the military crackdown on protesters. Later he was resettled in US and has been living in Washington DC, where he was neutralized as a US citizen.

According to a letter of request sent to Collin P. Furst, Consul of the US Embassy in Rangoon, by his friends, Kyaw Zaw Lwin had a valid social visit Visa obtained from the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok.

The embassy official said they do not have any information so far on the whereabouts of Kyaw Zaw Lwin.

The Burmese-born US citizen’s sister and mother are serving a jail term for their role in the ‘Saffron Revolution’, in which monks led thousands of protesters on the streets of Rangoon in September 2007.

Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s sister, Thet Thet Aung (35), was sentenced to 65 years in prison, while his mother is serving a five-year prison term.

US Should Complete Policy Review

2009-09-10T03:08:00.000+06:30

(New York, September 9, 2009) – The Obama administration should promptly conclude its Burma policy review and adopt initiatives to make its policies on diplomacy, sanctions and humanitarian aid more effective, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton released today.

“Delays in announcing a new Burma policy could encourage Burmese military leaders to believe the US is weakening its commitment to human rights and pluralism,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Although the situation in Burma seems intractable, an energetic and revitalized approach to Burma from the Obama administration could help bring positive change.”

Human Rights Watch recommended that the United States appoint its own special envoy on Burma, who would have a direct line to the secretary of state and specific instructions to engage in a principled way with the Burmese government and key bilateral and multilateral actors. Vigorous diplomacy is specifically needed with China, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan.

Human Rights Watch also recommended the establishment of a Burma Contact Group or similar form of multilateral grouping to meet and regularly discuss diplomatic engagement with the Burmese government on a range of issues. This could have the effect of converging the views and policies of China, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, the European Union, and the United Nations, and gradually minimize the ability of Burma to play states off against each other. There is considerable common ground on a range of issues, including the need for political reform and credible elections involving the political opposition, concern over Burma’s trafficking in heroin and methamphetamines, and the need for a regional approach to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Such a grouping would demand that the US remain firm on fundamental human rights principles and not engage in diplomatic horse-trading on core issues of reform.

As the UN has long been the focal point for diplomacy on Burma, Human Rights Watch urged the US to support the continuation of a special envoy of the secretary-general. It is crucial that the secretary-general and the special envoy not accept access or high-level meetings as the goal or a sign of progress in Burma, as they have in the past. The envoy should be an individual with the principles, skills, and backing of the international community to make an impact.

“More high-level diplomacy is welcome, so long as the US stands by its principles to uphold the basic rights of the Burmese people and work for a genuine and credible process of political reform,” said Adams. “But there should be no wishful thinking or illusions that more conciliatory talk from the US and others will somehow cause Burma’s generals to alter their plans.”

Human Rights Watch said that generalized sanctions on Burma that have had little or no impact and have not been targeted on key decision-makers and human rights abusers should be reconsidered and phased out at an appropriate time. At the same time, properly imposed, targeted sanctions – such as financial sanctions on individuals and entities, investment and trade sanctions that are specifically focused on companies or economic sectors of greatest concern, arms embargoes, restrictions on military assistance, and travel bans on individuals –should be tightened, as they can be effective in bringing about improvements in human rights.

Human Rights Watch particularly urged the United States to expand, strengthen, and fully implement financial sanctions. The US should take the lead in coordinating efforts among the US, EU, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada to target key individuals, both military and civilian, who bear responsibility for abuses; their business interests; and the individuals and entities whose considerable financial support of the Burmese government could undermine these sanctions. These individuals are at the apex of the system inside Burma and susceptible to this kind of pressure. More effective coordination could also lead to greater support from other key states, such as Japan and Singapore. EU states have been noticeably slow to implement full financial sanctions; the US should take the lead and then press European countries to follow suit. Slow implementation by the US and poor coordination internationally have undermined financial and other sanctions, and kept them from realizing their potential.

“The US has legal tools it is not yet using – for example, to deny foreign banks access to the US financial system if they are holding targeted Burmese accounts or otherwise undermining US measures, and going after transactions by the oil and gas authority, the key revenue-generating entity in Burma,” said Adams. “This requires the dedication of intelligence resources and continual monitoring and adjustment by US officials.”

Human Rights Watch has long called for increased assistance to deal with acute humanitarian needs in Burma. US and other donor funding should increase, but in a coordinated and realistic manner. The military government spends next to nothing on the welfare of its people. Combined social spending is estimated to be a paltry 0.8 percent of GDP for 2008-2009, making public expenditures on health and education in Burma among the lowest in the world. Huge numbers of Burmese live in grinding poverty, resulting from decades of government economic mismanagement and corruption. Donors will need to stress the importance of transparency and accountability in the delivery of humanitarian aid, including the need for approaches that strengthen civil society rather than existing corrupt power structures and that respond to the views and needs of ordinary people.

“The US and other donors offer to provide more humanitarian aid with appropriate oversight, but they should also insist that their contributions are matched by a genuine commitment from the military government to use its vast revenues from natural resources to help the Burmese people,” said Adams.

hrw

UN aid workers leave Burma conflict zone

2009-09-07T04:58:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–United Nations staff have been allowed to leave the Kokang region in northeastern Burma after being blocked by Burmese troops during recent fighting with an armed ethnic group.

Aid workers had been distributing food and helping locals in a poppy substitution programme in the town of Laogai in Shan state.

Heavy fighting broke out in the region between Burmese troops and a Kokang ceasefire group on 27 August, which caused some 37,000 civilians to flee to China.

Sources close to the UN’s World Food Programme staff in Kokang region said that WFP staff in Laogai, along with aid workers from six other oganisations, had been prevented from leaving the region.

Authorities reportedly feared that they might leak news about the situation there and report human rights abuses committed by the military.

“When the fight started, all the roads and transportation routes in the region were blocked so they were trapped in a UN compound and couldn’t travel into town for next two or three days until the fight was over,” said a WFP source.

The blockade has reportedly been eased now and 22 WFP staff have been allowed to leave the region.

Other organizations with staff in Kokang include the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), World Vision and Association of Medical Doctors of Asia.

The WFP has suspended its operations in the region following the outbreak of fighting.

Reporting by Nam Khan Kaew

UN fears violence in Wa region

2009-09-07T04:57:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–The United Nations refugee agency today called on China to allow it access to Burmese refugees in the country’s southern border region fearing additional displacement from northern Burma.

Nearly 10,000 of the estimated 37,000 refugees who fled last week’s fighting in northeastern Burma between Burmese troops and an armed ethnic group have returned from China.

A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today asked for access to those remaining in China, and expressed concern that refugee numbers could swell in the event of fighting in Shan state’s Wa region.

“UNHCR has called on the Chinese authorities to allow us access to the border area and has proposed a joint needs assessment so as to offer support for any possible unmet needs,” said spokesperson Andrej Mahecic.

“We hope this request will be positively considered as additional displacement may occur in the region should the situation deteriorate in the Wa State of Myanmar [Burma].”

Burmese army troops have moved into the Wa region near Kokang, where last week’s fighting erupted.

The region is home to the 30,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burma’s largest ceasefire group.

“Our people and the Kokang are on alert because they are right at our doorstep, perhaps, to set up temporary camps. People are afraid and some have fled,” said a UWSA officer.

The leader of the Kokang ceasefire group, whose clash with Burmese troops last week ended a 20-year truce with the government, has reportedly fled to the Wa region.

He is said to be close be close to UWSA leader Bai Youxiang, Around 500 UWSA troops supported the Kokang group during the fighting.

According to the UNHCR, at least 13,000 people remain in seven camps on the Chinese side of the border and are being supported by the Chinese government.

“Although we have not been able to visit these locations, the reports we have been receiving have been consistent” said Mahecic.

The Chinese government, Burma’s strongest ally, issued a rare rebuke to the ruling junta last week following the exodus of refugees across its border, urging it to "properly deal with its domestic issue”.

A subsequent statement from the foreign ministry appeared to placate growing tension between the Beijing and Naypyidaw, stressing that border issues were the joint responsibility of the two countries.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Australia neglecting needs of IDPs in Eastern Burma

2009-08-28T03:33:00.001+06:30

Australia is neglecting what the Australian people want and what the right thing to do is for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in eastern Burma, said Dr John Kaye, NSW Greens MP.

During the last week about 10,000 people from Shan State fled from their homes after the military attacked and burned down the villages.

Burma advocacy campaigners Nang Charm Tong and her colleagues from the Thai-Burma border have urged the Australian government to change its foreign aid policy to assist Shan, Karen and other ethnic IDPs.

They met Mr Bob McMullan, the parliamentary secretary for international development assistance on 19 August to press AusAid to change its policy.

“Mr McMullan was sympathized and said that he will talk with his government colleagues but the result is unlikely to come overnight.

“This is our first step on this advocacy campaigning. We will continue to lobby until the Australian government changes its cross-border aid policy,” said Charm Tong.

Australian foreign aid has increased from $A16 million to 29 million for Burma but none of this money will assist the IDPs and last year, only $A1.2 million went to refugees who live in refugee camps at the Thai-Burma border.

The Burmese community in Australia, surprised by the AusAid policy, has asked questions why the Australian government does not assist the cross-border people who urgently need assistance for health care and food.

“The Australian government is quite reluctant to provide aid assistance to the IDPs in eastern Burma saying it has to respect the sovereignty of Thailand and Burma. They are also worried about the risk factor on the ground if they provide cross-border assistance to the IDPs.”

“In addition, they want to focus the humanitarian assistance through Rangoon,” said Dr Myint Cho, the director of Australia Burma Office.

However, Dr John Kaye believes that AusAid can also fund cross-border programs to IDPs without affecting their programs already being funded in Burma.

“If we look at countries like Canada, Norway, Denmark and US who do give funds to IDPs, they have also continued to operate their programs through Rangoon without problems from the military regime,” he said.

shanland

Australia Says ‘No’ to Cross-border Relief

2009-08-28T03:10:00.000+06:30

CANBERRA/Australia—Dr Cynthia Maung knows what pain looks like. Since 1988, her Mae Tao clinic has served as a crucial sanctuary for Burmese refugees and migrant workers seeking health care and emergency treatment at the Thai-Burmese border.

“Over the past 20 years, the civil war has been ongoing,” said Dr Cynthia. “And so has the displacement of villagers from their homes.

“Today more than 500,000 people are internally displaced in Burma, and another 2 million are living in Thailand. We try to address this crisis as best we can,” she told a conference in Sydney, Australia, last week.

One of the world’s longest running yet least reported conflicts has turned the mountainous jungles of the Thai-Burmese border region into a lethal game of hide and seek for generations of villagers from ethnic groups such as Mon, Karen, Karenni and Shan.

Since independence in 1948, the Burmese military has battled the various insurgent armies of the ethnic minorities, which have refused to accept subjugation to the central government.

The conflict has left thousands dead and a steady wave of refugees continues into Thailand to this day—a recent escalation of fighting in Shan and Karen states the latest catalyst for another surge in numbers fleeing the conflict zones.

Those who have made it across the border to jungle refugee camps or towns such as Mae Sot are by bureaucratic definition mostly “illegal.”

Unable to obtain official papers from the Thai authorities and therefore under constant threat of deportation, their personal limbo has by default created a ready source of sweatshop labor readily exploited by Thai manufacturers.

“Those [Burmese living in Thailand] without papers go into hiding if Manchester United loses a game of football,” said Burma expert Dr Jane Ferguson rather cryptically at last week’s Burma Update Conference at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Then she explained how Thai police generally support Manchester United and have a syndicate betting on the team. If their team loses, they often feel aggrieved and have gambling debts, so they “threaten the [Burmese] workers with deportation if they don't pay up,” she said.

The main objective of Dr Cynthia’s visit last week to Australia as part of a delegation of prominent humanitarian workers was to seek a government review of Australia’s aid commitment to Burma. More specifically, her presence boosted a request for a moderate increase in the funding received by the cross-border organizations (CBOs) in Thailand.

“The Australian government has committed $29 million dollars [Australian] in aid to Burma this year, but of that less than 1 million will make it to the eastern border region—the region that needs it the most,” said Zoe Bedford of Union Aid Abroad (APHEDA), who helped bring the delegation to Australia for a series of conferences and meetings with Australian government authorities.

It is believed that the Burmese junta provides about US 70 cents per person each year for health care, and little if any of that nominal sum makes it to the conflict zones in the volatile eastern region.

“It is very difficult to take any official numbers too seriously,” said Dr Sean Turnell, the head of Burma Economic Watch at Macquarie University in Sydney. “At best 70 cents is making it to the people of Burma not in these conflict zones. You need to remember we are dealing with officially the second most corrupt country in the world … [therefore] the work done by these CBOs is crucial.”

The establishment in 1997 of the Backpacker Health Worker teams in Mae Sot is a clear example of the sheer determination to help that exists on the border.

The teams receive training at Dr Cynthia’s clinic from medical trainers before crossing the border—often at great risk to their personal safety and in defiance of the Burmese military—with backpacks of medical supplies to provide primary health care to those in need.

In the wake of last year’s Cyclone Nargis disaster, the Backpack group had teams providing relief in the disaster areas within days, while the international aid community was held up by Burmese red tape at the airport in Bangkok.

The parallels with official aid policy are reflective of this situation.

With a clear lack of transparency, international aid money may get little mileage once reaching official channels inside Burma. The shady money-changing practices of the regime aside, the multilateral aid organizations that receive most of the Australian aid money have no access to eastern Burma and therefore have no way of providing support. Again, stuck at the gate.

It is this very point the delegation was striving to make.

“If you want to talk bang for your buck, the work being done on the border, compared to, say, the salaries of UN staff, well it just doesn’t make sense not to put more money in this direction,” said delegation member Dr Voravit Suwanvanichkij. “Burma was once the rice basket of Southeast Asia, yet the literal disinvestment in the country by the junta has seen it become the region’s basket case.”

Assistant Director-General (Southeast Asia Branch) of AusAID Michael Wilson made Australia’s position clear in Canberra last week. “Burma is not number one; is probably not even number two—but it is high on the list of countries we need to try and work with despite the unique challenges presented,” he said.

Despite acknowledging the need to keep working closely on Burma, Wilson’s line was echoed throughout Canberra, where despite positive support for his group’s work, no change in the direction of Australian aid would occur due to some supposed issues of geopolitics.

Canberra’s message came despite the USA, UK, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Ireland and Canada all committing significant funding to the Thai-Burmese border region this year.

“Mr McMullan [Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance] appeared sympathetic to the dire needs of the internally displaced in eastern Burma, but as AusAID has already prioritized aid through Rangoon, his kind words won’t help or stop the suffering for thousands of our people,” said Dr Cynthia, adding: “AusAID money will be going where it cannot reach any of Burma’s most vulnerable people.”

In light of the recent worldwide media coverage of the trial and conviction of Burma’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi—who shared the 2008 Catalonia International Prize with Dr Cynthia—the delegation may have hoped for better results, but in the end left Australia at the weekend empty-handed.

However, the delegates said they were committed to continue their push with APHEDA for a funding review.

Hardly the international face of Burma, yet revered to an almost saintly status for her tireless work by those in the know, Dr Cynthia Maung returns to Mae Sot to continue supporting desperate people—malaria patients, landmine victims, malnourished children and many more—who are often too easily forgotten about.

After 20 years, she must be wondering if the help will ever arrive.

Alex Lewis is freelance Australian journalist living in Sydney.

irrawaddy

Critics Challenge Sen Webb’s Views on Burma

2009-08-28T03:02:00.000+06:30

The Burma engagement policy advocated by Sen James Webb, as presented in an op-ed article in The New York Times on Tuesday, has been challenged by Burma experts and the Burmese prime minister in exile.

Webb, who recently became the first US lawmaker to visit Burma in a decade, during which he achieved a rare meeting with both Sen-Gen Than Shwe and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in an opinion piece urged the Obama administration to ease economic sanctions on Burma and to adopt a policy of engagement with the military junta.

However, his arguments show his poor understanding of military-ruled Burma, critics and Burma watchers told The Irrawaddy. Critics said his approach would only help in further legitimizing and strengthening the military government.

“The problem with the senator’s case is not the specific policy prescriptions he offers, but its faulty assumptions,” said Walter Lohman, the director of The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, a Washington-based think tank.

On Webb’s argument that sanctions have failed and engagement should be tried, Lohman said there is no denying that sanctions have not brought about change in Burma.

“But the answer lies in building the necessary international consensus to pressure it [the military government], not abandoning the effort.” he said. “Besides, engagement by Burma’s neighbors has been no more effective.”

He said Webb should understand that Asean’s engagement has failed for good reason. It was never intended to bring about democratic change in Burma, he said. That goal has always been its rationalization for doing business with an odious regime.

“As for the Chinese, there is at least integrity in their position,” he said. “It has never argued for engagement on the basis of bringing democratic change to Burma. But for that reason, Sen Webb is barking up the wrong Chinese tree—as, in fact, he acknowledges may be the case. The truth is the Chinese will never bring meaningful pressure to bear on the junta. They proved that with a veto in the Security Council in 2007. And they have proven it by watering down every statement the Security Council makes when called to act.”

On Webb’s argument that if the US can engage China and Vietnam, why not Burma, Lohman said there is a fundamental difference.

“Vietnam made a strategic decision in 1986 to reform its economy and open up to the world. Without this decision, the subsequent normalization could not have happened,” he said, adding it is the same regarding US normalization with China.

“The Burmese junta has not made such a strategic decision. They reach out piece meal for means of securing their grip on power. That’s why they joined Asean in 1997. There was a time in the 1990s when the Burmese were open to foreign visitors with critical perspectives. They are much more discerning nowadays,” he said.

“Sen Webb was granted his historic meeting with Than Shwe because the senator is an opponent of current American policy and his presence could be used—as it was—to send a signal of regime stability to the long suffering people of Burma,” Lohman said.
Noting that Webb rests much of his case on Burma’s 2010 elections, Lohman said by focusing on “what is possible” instead of “free and fair elections,” the senator leaves little doubt that what he intends is to accept the junta’s terms.

Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist who has covered Burma for more than two decades and published several books on Burma, said that he disagreed with Webb’s views.

“Westerners who think they can ‘engage’ the Burmese generals clearly overestimate their own importance,” he said. “The Burmese generals don't listen to them; they just use them.

He said America’s influence on Burma is often overestimated.

“Burmese foreign policy is guided by a ‘three-circle concept,’” he said. “The first circle consists of Burma's immediate neighbors, countries with which Burma shares a common border. Circle No 2 is the region (Asean). No 3, the rest of the world. Circle No 3 is important to the generals only insofar as it may affect circle 1 and to a somewhat lesser degree circle 2.

Otherwise, the US doesn't matter, engagement, sanctions or whatever.

There is no way the US by being a bit friendlier is going to woe Burma away from its dependence on China—that's naive and wishful thinking.”

Dr Sein Win, the cousin of Suu Kyi and prime minister in exile, said that as long as the regime oppresses its own people, there should be no normalization of its relationship with other countries, including the US.

Selective sanctions should be imposed on the military junta, he said, and there is no reason to lift the sanctions. Because human rights violations in Burma continue, he said, “You have to maintain the present form of sanctions.”

Some Burma observes inside the country think that Than Shwe has shrewdly manipulated the US senator. After the visit, many ordinary Burmese thought the US was going to normalize its relationship with the regime.

An editor who runs an influential weekly journal in Burma observed: “Burmese people thought the US was going to betray the democracy cause. I hope this is not the case.”

One cautious NGO worker said, “From my reading of the press and the commentators, those who lean towards engagement thought the visit was a breakthrough and those who lean towards sanctions think Webb played into the regime's hands.”

The US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks forward to a meeting with Webb.

“We are expecting to complete our policy review,” he said. “I am not going to put a time limit on it. But I think that that’s going to be something we’re going to be looking at. And before we actually conclude that review, I’m not going to prejudge how it will come out.”

Correspondents in Rangoon and Chiang Mai also contributed reporting to this story.

irrawaddy

UN Rights Commissioner joins Int’l condemnation on Burma

2009-08-16T00:59:00.001+06:30

by Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - The United Nation’s Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay on Wednesday lent her voice to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call for the immediate release of political prisoners in Burma including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Navi Pillay, in a statement on Wednesday condemned the Burmese military rulers for extending the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi to another 18 months and joined the UN Chief in calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

“I deplore the ongoing persecution of a democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for almost a quarter of a century,” Navi Pillay said.

“I am seriously disturbed by her arbitrary detention and the basis of charges against her, an event that was clearly beyond her control, with the court failing to properly review the legitimacy of her house arrest in the first instance,” she added.

Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday also expressed his disappointment over the verdict of Aung San Suu Kyi and strongly condemned the Burmese regime for the unjust trial.

“The Secretary-General urged the Burmese government to immediately and unconditionally release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and to engage with her without delay as an essential partner in the process of national dialogue and reconciliation,” Michele Montas, the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General said.

Ban also reminded the junta that without releasing Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and allowing them to participate in free and fair elections, the credibility of the political process will remain in doubt.

UNSC Fails to Take Strong Action

2009-08-16T00:35:00.000+06:30

The UN Security Council on Thursday expressed “concern” at the conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi this week and called on the Burmese regime to release all political prisoners in order to achieve national reconciliation.

However, the world body once again failed to achieve consensus to take stronger measures against the military junta, disappointing pro-democracy and human rights groups, some of which were demanding at least an arms embargo against the junta.

After nearly two days of formal and informal deliberations, the 15-member Security Council issued a statement, originally drafted by the United States.

Sentenced to another 18 months under house arrest, the verdict against the leader of the pro-democracy movement has drawn condemnation from leaders across the globe, with France calling for an arms embargo. However, in the absence of consensus, the Security Council could only issue a statement similar to ones issued during the past two years.

“Members of the Security Council express serious concern at the conviction and sentencing of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and its political impact,” said John Sawers, the British ambassador to the UN, who is the Security Council president for the month of August.

“The members of the Security Council note the decision of the Government of Myanmar to reduce Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence and urge the Government of Myanmar to take further measures to create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all concerned parties and ethnic groups in order to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation,” Sawers said.

Reading from the statement, Sawers said: “Members of the Security Council reaffirm their statements of 11 October 2007, 2 May 2008 and 22 May 2009 on Myanmar, and reiterate the importance of the release of all political prisoners.”

The statement continued: “The members of the Security Council affirm their commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar, and in that context, reiterate that the future of Myanmar lies in the hands of all of its people.”

Following the sentencing by a Rangoon court early this week, the first meeting of the Security Council was held on Tuesday at the request of France. A proposed draft statement was circulated by the United States to respective capitals. Members of the Security Council agreed on the wording of the statement on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said Aung San Suu Kyi’s conviction is a violation of universal principles of human rights. “The Burmese regime should immediately and unconditionally release her and the more than 2,100 other political prisoners currently being held,” she said.

“Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentencing also precludes her from taking part in the elections scheduled for next year, and thus undermines the legitimacy of those elections,” Rice said.

Rice said: “Rather than using this moment to create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue and inclusive political process with all actors, the Burmese authorities have now moved further away from national reconciliation and deepened their isolation from the rest of the world.”

US President Barack Obama earlier this week issued a statement saying “suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.”

irrawaddy

Washington Hopes Webb Can Clarify Its Policy to Junta

2009-08-16T00:31:00.002+06:30

Burma's military junta led by Snr-Gen Than Shwe is set to meet an American senator at its administrative capital, Naypyidaw, this weekend just days after pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted and returned to house arrest.

The meeting will be the first between a senior US official and the secretive leader of Burma's ruling military government. US Sen Jim Webb, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, also plans to meet representatives of Burma’s leading opposition, the National League for Democracy.

The senator’s visit to Burma has been described as non-official, and The New York Times, quoting senior US officials, said he is "not carrying a message from the administration." But US officials say they welcome the visit, which they viewed as affording an opportunity for Washington clarify its policy to Burma's top leader directly.

“It is important for the Burmese leadership to hear of the strong views of American political leaders about the path it should take toward democracy, good governance and genuine national reconciliation,” said Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

“The recent conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi, which was a serious step backward, indicates the magnitude of the challenge the international community faces in persuading the Burmese leadership to embark on that path,” he said. “Sen Webb can convey American views effectively on such subjects.”

Although a member of President Obama’s Democratic Party, Webb is known for his strong criticism of the administration’s Burma sanctions, arguing that isolating Burma has strengthened China's grip, weakened US influence and done nothing to improve the junta's behavior.

Currently, the US administration says its policy on Burma is still very much under review. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made clear that the US could expand its relationship with Burma and allow US investment there if Suu Kyi were released. But the sentencing of Suu Kyi to a further term of house arrest seems have made any forward movement difficult.

Webb’s Burma trip has also led to speculation that he might negotiate the release John W Yettaw, the US citizen tried alongside Suu Kyi and sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labor. Yettaw triggered the case against Suu Kyi by staying illegally at her home after penetrating security around the property.

Observers following the Yettaw case point to the visit to North Korea last week by former President Bill Clinton, who secured the release of two American women journalists after weeks of quiet negotiations between the US State Department and North Korea. The North Korean regime hailed the release as a sign of its "humanitarian and peace-loving policy."

Aung Naing Oo, a Thailand-based Burmese political analyst, told The Irrawaddy he saw no sign that Webb’s visit to Burma would secure the release of Yettaw.

"Webb's visit is posed as just a point of entry to start the lines of communication between the United States and Burma, “he said. “So far, I don't see any indication that Webb would secure the release of Mr Yettaw. But I guess that the result might depend on how bad Mr Yettaw's health is."

Concern is growing over Yettaw's health after he spent several days in hospital being treated for epileptic seizures. Yettaw suffers from diabetes and other medical conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder from his time serving in the US military.

"How is he going to do hard labor if he is so ill?" a former wife, Yvonne Yettaw, asked in a telephone interview with The Associated Press after hearing the verdict.

"Maybe they'll realize he won't make seven years, and they'll send him home."

A spokesman for the US embassy in Rangoon said the issue had "not been officially discussed."

The meeting between Webb and the regime leaders is seen by some observers as an effort by the junta to exploit the different reactions by international and regional governments to Suu Kyi's conviction and her return to house arrest.

The UN Security Council released a press statement heavily influenced by Burma's biggest ally, China, which inserted indirect praise for Than Shwe's act of "mercy" by halving Suu Kyi's sentence and allowing her to return home.

A tougher US draft would have condemned Suu Kyi’s conviction but ran into opposition not only from China but also from Russia, Vietnam and Libya.

Explaining why the Security Council statement had been watered down, Britain’s UN Ambassador John Sawers, the council chair this month, said: “I think we all know that different members of the Security Council have different views on the situation there and that the strong views in various Western capitals are not entirely shared in countries elsewhere."

Applauding the regime's policy line, the regime’s official mouthpiece The New Light of Myanmar said on Friday that Than Shwe's intervention in the Suu Kyi verdict was "designed to ensure a win-win situation." It gave the opposition "good opportunities to accept the situation and keep on carrying out political activities," the newspaper said.

Naypyidaw had made a giant step towards change, the newspaper said—adding: "We should show loving kindness in return when someone shows loving-kindness for us. Only then will there be a change."

irrawaddy

EU Sanctions Target Burmese State-run Media

2009-08-16T00:26:00.000+06:30

The European Union has added four state-run media outlets to its list of Burmese sanctions targets in response to the court ruling against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Four media enterprises—the Myanmar News and Periodicals Enterprise, which publishes three state-run newspapers; the Tatmadaw Telecasting Unit, which runs Myawaddy Television; Myanmar Radio and Television; and the Myanmar Motion Picture Enterprise—were added to the revised sanctions list published on Friday.

The EU stated that it put the media organizations on the list because they have been involved in promoting the regime’s policies and propaganda.

Responding to the move, journalists in Rangoon noted that the listed enterprises were not the only ones used by the regime to promote its policies. Private journals and magazines owned by the junta’s associates also play a similar role, they said.

“Like the state-run media, these privately owned journals and magazines run by associates of the ruling generals also play a significant role in spreading the regime’s propaganda,” said a Rangoon-based journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Also added to the sanctions list were judges and government prosecutors from the Northern District Court, which sentenced Suu Kyi on August 11.

The EU sanctions on Burma includes visa bans, an arms embargo, limiting diplomatic contacts, freezing officials’ offshore accounts, and suspending non-humanitarian aid or development programs.

The European bloc first introduced sanctions on Burma in 1996. The sanctions have been updated, renewed and extended every year since then, and are set to expire on April 30, 2010, if they are not renewed.

On August 13, two days after Suu Kyi’s conviction, the Council of the European Union announced the adoption of additional sanctions against the Burmese regime to condemn “the unjustified trial of and the verdict against” the pro-democracy leader.

“Under the new restrictive measures, members of the judiciary responsible for the verdict are added to the existing list of persons and entities subject to a travel ban and to an assets freeze,” the EU council said in a press release on Thursday.

“Moreover, the persons and entities subject to the restrictive measures is extended to cover the assets freeze to enterprises that are owned and controlled by members of the regime in Burma/Myanmar or by persons or entities associated with them,” the council added.

Forty Burmese enterprises owned by cronies of the junta are included on the EU sanctions list.

irrawaddy

UN to tackle Burma’s child soldier problem

2009-08-11T17:33:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–A United Nations team will visit Burma to pressure the ruling junta and armed ethnic groups to end use of child soldiers, as concern remains about the prevalence of the practice in the country.

The announcement follows a report issued in June by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which said there had been "grave violations" against children in Burma, with both the Burmese military and ethnic rebel militias guilty of recruitment.

The report accused the junta of failing to provide proof of measures it said it was taking to end use of child soldiers, and of blocking UN access to rebel groups.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN special representative for children and armed conflict, said on Tuesday that there had been some positive developments and that the Burmese government had been demobilising some children.

"We still are not sure how comprehensive that is and the extent of it," she told Reuters. "And so I am dispatching a team [to Burma] at the end of this month."

Human rights groups have criticised the government for not doing enough to tackle the problem, which they say is being masked over.

“The current situation seems to be pretty much the same; recruitment of child soldiers is still continuing but more underground,” said David Matheson from Human Rights Watch.

“Even though the [government] has taken some steps, it is woefully insufficient to the scale of the problem and is just not good enough.”

He went on to explain that the difficulty with the UN is that they have to work through the ruling State Peace and Development Council, which in 2004 constructed a committee ostensibly to address the problem.

But, says, Mathieson, it is a “public relations exercise to assuage the concerns of the international community that they’re actually doing anything.”

“I think any investigative mission by the UN has to see through those efforts and realise that a couple of token announcements and returns of some children which have been demobilised are way below the scale of the problem which we think there is,” he said.

Recrutiment of children under 15 into the army has been recognised as a war crime by the International Criminal Court.

Burmese law states that no child under the age of 18 shall be recruited into the army.

However, in a Human Rights Watch report, ‘Sold to be Soldiers’, it is reported that commanders rarely check documentation.

Furthermore, army generals place ambitious recruitment targets on commanders who are faced with the dilemma of either losing their job or recruiting children.

The punishment for recruiting children is small in the face of being demoted to a lower rank.

In July, one of Burma’s main rebel groups, the Shan State Army (SSA), signed a memorandum of understanding with Abolish Slavery and International Operations Centre for Children (IOCC), vowing to prevent the use of child soldiers in return for outside aid to increase their international credibility.

The United Wa State army, Burma’s largest rebel force, is reported to have the most child soldiers, second to the Burmese national army.

The Kachin Independence army is the only armed group to recruit girls, while the SSA and the Karen National Liberation Army have policies against recruiting children under 18, but do not turn away children who actively seek to join.

Yesterday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a landmark resolution 1882 on Children and Conflict.

The council called upon the Secretary General to expand his “list of shame” beyond recruitment and use of children.

The list will now include countries that are responsible for the killing and maiming of children as well as those who perpetrate grave sexual violence against children in wartime.

Reporting by Alex Ellgee

UN tables high-level Burma talks

2009-08-11T17:31:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–The United Nations will hold a high-level meeting on the sidelines of next month’s General Assembly to discuss the political crisis in Burma, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said yesterday.

Speaking at a Group of Friends on Myanmar [Burma] meeting, Ban Ki-moon stressed that the international community remains committed to pressuring for the release of political prisoners in Burma.

Last week he said he hoped the Burmese government “will give careful consideration to the implications of any verdict in the [current] trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and use this opportunity to exercise its responsibility to ensure her immediate release.”

On Burma’s future, he said, the "active and united support of the international community is as important and necessary as ever before".

The Suu Kyi trial has provoked international condemnation, and was the main focus of Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Burma last month.

During the visit he was twice denied a meeting with the imprisoned opposition leader, who will on Monday hear the verdict in a trial in which she is accused of breaching conditions of her house arrest.

The verdict was delayed last Friday following a meeting between Ban Ki-moon and Burma’s permanent representative to the UN, Than Swe, although the courtroom said it need to further review the case.

The Group of Friends comprises 14 countries and one regional bloc, including China, Russia, and South Korea, which met yesterday at the UN headquarters in New York.

The Group will be meeting again in September on the sidelines of the annual opening of the General Assembly, Ban Ki-moon told reporters yesterday.

Reporting by Francis Wade

US Voices Concern over Burma, N Korea Nuclear Nexus

2009-08-05T05:31:00.000+06:30

WASHINGTON — The United States expressed concern on Monday over news reports that North Korea may be helping the Burmese military regime to achieve its nuclear ambitions.

“It is an issue of concern and it is an issue that we continue to focus on intensively,” the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, Philip J Crowley, told reporters at the State Department headquarters.

Although he refrained from making any comment on the alleged underground nuclear facility being developed by North Korea inside Burma, Crowley said the US was concerned about “the nature of cooperation between North Korea and Burma.”

“We do have concerns about the nature of cooperation between both Burma and North Korea, and North Korea and any other country. As the Secretary [of State Hillary Clinton] did during her recent trip, she argued quite forcefully that all countries have responsibilities regarding the UN sanctions and we are [working] hard at implementing them,” Crowley said.

“I think over time, we would like to clarify with Burma more precisely the nature of its military cooperation,” he said.

“The Secretary was encouraged that Burma said that it would abide by its responsibilities under the sanctions that were recently passed by the UN, and we will be looking to see them implement those sanctions,” Crowley said.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s National Security Council chief Thawil Pliensri has ordered intelligence officials to verify reports the Burmese military regime is building a nuclear reactor with a plan to make a nuclear bomb within five years, as reported in the English-language daily, The Bangkok Post.

But Thawil was quoted as saying that so far no evidence has been found that points to a Burmese nuclear program.

On Saturday, the Australian newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, reported that Burma appears to be establishing nuclear facilities with help from North Korea and Russia, possibly with the intent of producing nuclear weapons.

The newspaper, citing two Burmese defectors who were interviewed in-depth over two years by Australian strategic studies analyst Desmond Ball and Thailand-based journalist Phil Thornton, claimed that Burma has secretly constructed a nuclear reactor that would encompass reprocessing technology designed to extract weapons-grade plutonium.

irrawaddy

US journalist upsets Burma exiles

2009-07-27T04:41:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–An article published in the US and reprinted in a Burmese state-run newspaper that appeared to criticise Aung San Suu Kyi’s political tactics has been met with alarm by Burmese politicians and exiled activists.

The Huffington Post, a liberal online magazine based in New York, last week carried an opinion piece entitled ‘The Future of Burma Cannot Be Tied to Aung San Suu Kyi’.

The author, Virginia M Moncrieff, said that Suu Kyi’s imprisonment has only added to her “near-secular saint status”, a tactic that is “self-defeating”.

She followed by saying that her policy of sanctions “is fundamentally flawed” and that isolating the regime “only helps the junta reverse further into mad "behind-the-wall" strategies”.

The result, according to Moncrieff, was that “she is penalizing the very people she aims to assist”.

Sections of the article were republished yesterday in the government mouthpiece Myanma Ahlin newspaper, although Moncrieff’s attempts to balance the piece with criticism and praise became the victim of underhand editing.

Sentences such as “what has happened to this extraordinary woman is of course criminal”, were changed to “this woman has broken the law”, while the ending, which called for Suu Kyi’s release, was absent.

Yet the article still provoked a reaction from some members of the Burmese exile community, who are closely following the Suu Kyi trial, which ends today.

“There are groups and individuals working to bring democracy to the country and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is a leading role model for all these people,” said Aye Thar Aung, secretary of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP).

Khin Omar, head of the Network for Democracy and Development who read both versions of the article, said that she “completely disagreed” with the criticisms of Suu Kyi, particularly those that claim she doesn’t favour negotiation with the regime.

“In reality, she was the one holding a non-violence policy and has been fighting to find an answer to the problems through dialogue with all [political and ethnic] groups participating,” she said.

It is widely expected that Suu Kyi’s trial will end in a guilty verdict, and the charges brought against her carry a maximum five year sentence.

The past six years of Suu Kyi’s house arrest have seen restrictions on movement and communication increasingly tightened, and this will likely continue in the lead-up to the 2010 elections.

Reacting to whether her imprisonment will cripple the future of Burma’s democracy movement, the coordinator of advocacy network ALTSEAN-Burma, Debbie Stothard, said that Suu Kyi’s role “goes beyond being a prisoner”.

“She’s a prisoner because she’s been an effective campaigner and leader of this movement,” she said.

“If she was no longer effective, the regime would no longer see her as a threat and she would not be imprisoned.”

Reporting by Thurein Soe

United States approves new Burma sanctions

2009-07-27T04:40:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–The US Senate has approved a one-year renewal of sanctions banning the import of Burmese goods to the US, and will now look to Congress for an extension to the boycott.

The decision belonged to the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over United States’ international trade.

The current resolution on Burma, contained in the 2003 Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, authorizes Congress to renew the import ban each year through to 2012.

"As long as the Burmese junta continues to engage in gross human rights violations and govern its people with an iron fist, the United States should continue to stand in support of human rights, and on behalf of the Burmese people," said Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus.

"These international trade sanctions, together with the sanctions imposed by several of our trading partners, put necessary pressure on the junta so they, in turn, stop the mistreatment of their own people."

The renewal of US sanctions has been a likely decision since May, when Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was brought to court on charges of breaching conditions of her house arrest.

The trial marked a return to the prevailing US attitude towards Burma, which had deviated slightly in February when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of the need to rethink policy in light of the failure of sanctions.

Clinton however again fueled speculation on Wednesday that a new dawn was approaching in US-Burma relations when she spoke of the potential for the US to engage and invest in Burma if Suu Kyi were to be released.

The US has also expressed concern about the potential for Burma and North Korea to trade in nuclear material and information, following strengthening ties between the two pariah states.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, which ends today in Thailand, Burmese foreign minister Nyan Win reportedly told Clinton that Burma would adhere to a UN resolution requiring member states to search suspicious North Korea cargo.

Clinton had earlier urged the 10-member ASEAN bloc, which follows a path of non-interference in domestic affairs of member states, to expel Burma if it fails to carry out democratic reforms.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Burma’s nuclear nexus with Russia

2009-07-24T03:53:00.000+06:30

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - The Burmese military junta’s overt nuclear ambitions are out in the open, in a leaked document from the junta’s military establishment, which reveals that Burma’s number two strongman second Vice-Senior General Maung Aye, during a visit to Russia in 2006, had sought assistance in constructing a 10 million megawatt nuclear reactor.

The document, which is a top-secret memo, details the overseas travels of Maung Aye and Thura Shwe Mann, third in the military hierarchy.

The leaked document, a copy of which is in Mizzima’s possession, says Maung Aye during his trip to Russia sought assistance to build a nuclear reactor. He also sought military cooperation from the Russians.

At the invitation of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Maung Aye led a 60-member delegation on a five-day visit, April 2 to 6 2006, to Russia. He met the Russian Prime Minister as well as the Russian Army’ Chief of Staff Yury Baluyevksy, and Chief of Staff of the Navy and Air Force.

Maung Aye received positive response from Russia during the meetings, regarding his “special request” for assistance in constructing a 10 million megawatt nuclear reactor and to allow Burmese students in Russia to learn nuclear technology and aeronautical engineering.

Besides, he also got a nod for increased purchase of Russian-made MIG 29 and MIG 27 jet fighters, providing technical assistance in producing Guided Missiles and for purchase of ships.

As Russia, a veto wielding country at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), has blocked attempts by western countries to pass a resolution on Burma over its appalling human rights conditions, the delegation promised that Burma will back Russia’s effort to establish stronger ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The secret documents with Mizzima also reveal details of meetings between Russia’s Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army Lt-General Evnevich Valery G, who visited Burma in February 2008, with Maung Aye.

The meeting was also attended by General Thura Shwe Mann, the junta’s secretary (1), Commander-in-Chief (Navy), Commander-in-Chief (Air), Military Affairs Security Chief, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Defence and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Kyaw Thu.

The Russian delegation led by Lt-General Evnevich Valery G, was accompanied by the Ambassador of the Russian Federation Dr Mikhail Mgeladze and Military Attache' Colonel Alexander V Svinitsovskiy.

The document also reveals that the Deputy Minister of the Defence Ministry Maj-Gen Aye Myint led delegation and the Russian delegates formed a group for “cooperation in military technology.”

Similarly, documents with details of General Thura Shwe Mann led delegation’s visit to North Korea, following a visit to China in November 2008 was also leaked.

According to the leaked document, a copy of which is in Mizzima’s possession, North Korean and Burma agreed on military cooperation and military training. Besides, North Korea also agreed to build underground buildings including tunnels to hide warships and fighter planes.

Burma and North Korea severed diplomatic relationship in 1983, after North Korean agents attempted to assassinate the visiting South Korean President Chun Du-hwan. But both countries officially announced resumption of diplomatic relations in 2007.

Russia and Burma have maintained over 60 years of diplomatic relations.

mizzima

US close to renewing Burma sanctions

2009-07-24T03:43:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–The US House of Representatives has approved the renewal of sanctions on Burma and will now wait for confirmation from the Senate as to whether to continue with current US policy to the country.

The United States had said in April that it may look for a different angle in its approach to pressuring the military government to end human rights violations and imprisonment of opposition members.

This followed a comment in February by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who said that the US needed to review its sanctions policy in light of their failure.

Any hope of a softening of the embargo and increased engagement with the regime was dashed in May however following the charges brought against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose trial is now close to a verdict.

Current US sanctions ban countries from importing certain goods from Burma, and places tight restrictions on investment in the country.

Observers have said however that continued trade with a number of neighbouring countries is lessening the impact of the embargo.

“Sanctions aren’t having much effect in Burma because of China and other countries doing business with the regime,” said Burmese political analyst Naing Ko Ko.

China is Burma’s third largest investor, and recently signed a deal that will see it capitalizing on Burma’s vast natural gas reserves.

In spite of sanctions, the Burmese government claimed last week that foreign investment in the country leapt from $US172.7 million in the 2007/08 fiscal year to $US984.9 million last year.

“You need diplomatic sanctions and arms embargoes as well, not only financial sanctions,” said Naing Ko Ko, adding that the US should also now pressure ASEAN countries to apply economic sanctions.

The issue of Burma, in particular the Suu Kyi trial, will likely feature highly on the agenda of the ASEAN Regional Forum, which begins today on the Thai island of Phuket.

Reporting by Francis Wade

US urges Burma to boycott North Korea

2009-07-24T03:42:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–The United States has said that Burma should implement a UN resolution imposing an arms embargo on North Korea as one precursor of increased US engagement with Burma.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is currently in Thailand at the 27-state ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which is also attended by North Korea and China.

An anonymous US State Department official told Reuters today that the US had urged Burma to become party to a United Nations resolution that bans all North Korean arms exports.

The resolution was adopted following North Korea’s nuclear test in May, and includes an authorization allowing member states to inspect all transportation carrying North Korean exports.

The comments follow concerns voiced by Clinton yesterday that strengthening ties between Burma and North Korea could include trade in nuclear material and information.

Fears over Burma’s nuclear ambitions stem largely from an incident last month in which a North Korean ship being tracked by the US navy on suspicion that it was carrying weaponry appeared to be heading towards Burma, before turning around.

Both Burma and North Korea are likely to feature highly on the agenda of the ARF, which is now in its second day on the Thailand island of Phuket.

Clinton yesterday met with students and social assistance groups in Bangkok prior to traveling to Phuket.

Dr Cynthia Maung, who operates the Mae Tao charity clinic in the Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot, was among the activists attending the meeting.

According to Cynthia Maung, Clinton said that there should be greater awareness of the links between North Korea and Burma, and their potential dealings in nuclear weaponry.

“[Clinton] said that China, which is close to North Korea, should help bring this under control,” she said.

“She also pointed out that the Southeast Asian nations have a responsibility on tackling human right abuses in Burma, and that the US will be cooperating with [regional countries]."

Reporting by Francis Wade and Khin Hnin Htet

US close to renewing Burma sanctions

2009-07-23T05:06:00.001+06:30

Free Suu Kyi and the US May Invest in Burma: Clinton

2009-07-23T05:05:00.001+06:30

PHUKET, Thailand—If the Burmese military junta releases Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the United States of America wants to expand its relations, including investments, with Burma, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday in Phuket.

“We are calling for release of Aung San Suu Kyi, which we believe is very important. It is so critical that she be released from prosecution she has been under,” she told reporters at press conference.

“And if she is released, there is an open up opportunity, at least for my country, to expand relations with Burma, including investment in Burma. But it is up to the Burmese leadership,” Clinton added.

The Clinton administration has imposed economic sanctions on Burma since 1997, preventing new US investment in the military-ruled country. However, the US set tighter economic sanctions that banned importing goods from Burma in 2003, following the attack on Suu Kyi’s convoy by regime-backed thugs at Depayin.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Clinton repeated US concerns over the military cooperation between Burma and North Korea, and the pursuit of “offensive weapons including nuclear weapons.”

“There are a lot of issues that Burma raises for the entire region, not just the United States,” she said. “I think it is important to encourage the Burmese leadership to begin to open up, to pursue the model other Asean countries are following.”

Clinton told reporters at the press conference in Bangkok on Tuesday that the Obama administration is concerned about the increasing military ties between the two tyrant led countries, North Korea and Burma.

“We know that there are also growing concerns about military cooperation between North Korea and Burma, which we take very seriously. It would be destabilizing for the region,” Clinton said. “It would pose a direct threat to Burma’s neighbors. And it is something, as a treaty ally of Thailand, that we are taking very seriously.”

Clinton, who is now attending the Asean Regional Forum in Phuket, said that Burma is moving in the opposite direction from other Southeast Asian countries, which, like the United States, want the Burmese military government to change their behavior.

Clinton added that the Burmese junta would have a better future by turning away from isolation and treating their own people better.

During an interview on “The Nation” Thai television network, Clinton said Asean should consider expelling Burma from the regional bloc if the junta fails to release pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi.

Before flying to Phuket, Clinton met several activists in Bangkok, including well-known Burmese activist and Magsaysay award winner, Dr Cynthia Maung.

After fleeing the 1988 uprising, Cynthia Maung set up a clinic in Mae Sot where she and her medical workers treat refugees and migrant workers. The US former first lady Laura Bush visited her clinic in August 2008.

irrawaddy

United Nations warned on Burma engagement

2009-07-17T04:45:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–The United Nations should be prudent in its expectations for progress in Burma or otherwise risks “misleading” the international community, said a number of prominent politically active Burmese groups.

The UN Secretary General’s visit to Burma two weeks ago has received mixed reviews, with some claiming that his inability to gain concessions despite apparently praising the government merely handed legitimacy to the junta.

A joint statement released by The 88 Generation Students, the All Burma Monks’ Alliance (ABMA) and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) acknowledged the “limit” of the UN’s mandate in Burma in the face of China and Russia’s power of veto but warned against expectations of change in the country.

“Without unanimous support from the Security Council, your mandate is not strong enough to make the ruling generals in Burma agree to your request,” the statement said.

It also warned the UN to “stop expecting” a positive response from Burma’s ruling generals in the face of 20 years of failed UN diplomacy with the regime.

“If you continue to believe the empty assertions of Burma’s generals, you will be fulfilling the desire of [junta leader] Than Shwe and his generals, who want to buy time to finish their plan of legitimising military rule in Burma through a sham election,” it said.

The leader of 88 Generation Students, Htun Myint Aung, expressed his concern that such action would cause complacency within international policy to Burma.

“We worry that [Ban] will say things that can cause delay on the international community’s practical action on Burma,” he said, adding that the UN chief should “think deeply” about what he relays.

Ban Ki-moon is due to brief the Security Council today on his trip to Burma, and is expected to address the issue of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial and his denial of a meeting with her.

The UN has recently been criticized as being relatively powerless and lacking authority in Burma, particularly given China and Russia’s power of veto, and a track record of disinclination on behalf of the junta to abide by UN suggestions.

“The UN’s point of view on Burma is totally opposite from the reality and we want Mr Ban Ki-moon to put in more effort when dealing with Burma and get the [Security Council] involved, rather than making requests to the junta,” said a spokesperson for the ABSFU, Zarni.

So far it is unclear what steps will now be taken by the UN, although both the United States and European Union, particularly Britain, have tabled the possibility of tougher sanctions on the regime.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

Ban Ki-moon talks of ‘a major lost opportunity’ for Burma

2009-07-17T04:38:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–The UN chief yesterday briefed the Security Council on what had been “a major lost opportunity” for the Burmese junta to commit to terms set out by him on a recent visit that would kick-start democratic reform.

Ban Ki-moon delivered the verdict to Security Council members in New York following his two-day trip to Burma earlier this month, in which he came away with few concessions from an unwavering military government.

Reporting back on the visit, he said his three principal expectations, which included the release of all political prisoners and calls for free and fair elections next year, were “conveyed in the clearest terms”.

“The choice for Myanmar’s [Burma] leaders in the coming days and weeks will be between meeting that responsibility in the interest of all concerned, or failing their own people and each one of you,” he said.

Although the speech was littered with suggestions on what steps the Burmese government should take in order to meet the UN’s demands, it remains unclear what action will now be taken by the UN the apply pressure on the regime.

Spokesperson for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Nyan Win, said that current diplomatic efforts by the UN were “bearing no fruit”.

“We expect the UN Security Council, those who have the authority, to come out with a decision in unison and be able to adopt a binding resolution [on Burma],” he said.

During the briefing, Burma’s ambassador to the UN, Than Swe, said that “the utmost had been done” to accommodate Ban Ki-moon’s requests.

He also said that the Burmese government “is processing to grant amnesty to prisoners on humanitarian grounds and with a view to enabling them to participate in the 2010 general elections."

It was not, however, explicitly stated however that the prisoner amnesty would include political prisoners.

The exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma’s (NCGUB) ambassador to the UN said the Burma should not rely wholeheartedly on pressure form the UN.

“The UN will do what they need to do but its role in bringing change [to Burma] is only a part of the whole process – more relies on activity from inside the country,” said Dr Thaung Htun.

“We have to fight for our own rights. We have to keep this in our minds and work on what we need to do individually or as a group.”

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw and Francis Wade

United Nations warned on Burma engagement

2009-07-13T18:00:00.001+06:30

G8 leaders respond to Burma intransigence

2009-07-13T17:56:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Leaders of the world’s major industrialised nations have expressed concern about Burma’s unwillingness to respond to UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s diplomatic efforts during his recent visit to Burma.

The issue was brought up between Ban Ki-moon and British prime minister Gordon Brown on the sidelines of the annual Group of Eight (G8) summit, currently underway in Italy.

In a statement the G8 leaders “welcomed” Ban Ki-moon’s visit last week, which observers have said seemingly achieved little in the face of Burma’s unwavering military junta.

The statement spoke of shared concerns about the intransigence of the Burmese government, and said that G8 nations “will closely consult on our collective and individual response”.

No further details have been given, although Gordon Brown said following the UN chief’s visit that further sanctions on the regime were “on the international agenda”.

There has been no suggestion yet that the Burmese junta will meet any of Ban Ki-moon’s three principal requests, including the release of political prisoners and instigation of dialogue between the government and opposition groups.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is due back in the courtroom today for resumption of a trial that many believe will result in her being imprisoned beyond the elections next year.

Ban Ki-moon was twice denied a meeting with Suu Kyi, who is being held in a special unit inside Rangoon’s Insein prison where the trial is taking place.

“We reiterate our call on the Government of Myanmar [Burma] to release all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose continued detention would undermine the credibility of elections planned for 2010,” the G8 statement said.

Reporting by Francis Wade

US ‘concerned’ about North Korea-Burma nuclear trade

2009-07-13T17:52:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–The United States has expressed concern over the possibility of an emerging nexus between North Korea and Burma that would see the two countries trade in material for nuclear proliferation.

The issue of Burma’s nuclear ambitions, and North Korea’s role in achieving these, has been thrown into the spotlight over the past month following an incident in which a North Korean ship carrying suspect cargo was thought to be heading toward Burma, before making a U-turn last week.

A network of underground tunnels constructed throughout Burma with the help of North Korean advisers was also recently exposed by DVB, with intercepted intelligence documents revealing the possibility of them accommodating heavy weaponry.

A senior US State Department official during a press briefing yesterday was questioned about whether strengthening ties between North Korea and Burma were related to respective nuclear ambitions.

“I think we're concerned about trade and cooperation between countries that have undertaken nuclear programs, but I don't want to go much further than that,” he said.

On the subject of the North Korean ship, the Kang Nam 1, the official said that its decision not to arrive in Burma was perhaps a result of “a combination of sharing information with many of the countries in the region” about obligations to inspect and warn on suspect ships.

The US navy had been closely monitoring the Kang Nam 1, which arrived back in North Korea yesterday, following new UN sanctions on Pyongyang that banned the export of any weapons material.

Burma is also under far-reaching sanctions from both the US and European Union.

Journalist and North Korea expert Bertil Lintner said last month that the two incidences are a sign that ties between the countries are strengthening.

“Even China is reluctant to sell certain types of equipment to Burma but North Korea will be willing to sell anything they want,” he said, adding that “Burma has absolutely no interest in supporting an arms embargo”.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Ban to Brief UN Security Council on Burma

2009-07-13T17:47:00.001+06:30

WASHINGTON — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will brief the Security Council on Monday on his recent visit to Burma, during which he was not allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader now on trial.

The Security Council meeting comes amidst growing calls from the international community that the 15-member body should take a tougher stand against the authoritarian military government, including imposing an arms embargo.

Supporters of the pro-democracy movement hope that Ban will call for a stronger Security Council role.

"It is time for Ban Ki-moon to ask the UN Security Council to pass a global arms embargo against Burma's military regime while at the same time initiating an inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Than Shwe's regime,” said Aung Din, the executive director of the US Campaign for Burma.

The first meeting of the Security Council after the recent visit by the secretary-general has been preceded by statements by Special Envoy for Burma Ibrahim Gambari, who has called the ongoing trial of Aung San Suu Kyi “unjustified.”

The issue of Suu Kyi’s trail is expected to be brought up by Ban, who after his Burma visit expressed disappointment that the junta denied him permission to meet with the popular Burmese leader.

The Obama Administration, which is currently reviewing its Burma policy, is likely to indicate its new policy after the trial is concluded, a State Department official told The Irrawaddy.

Meanwhile, several members of the US Congress said in a letter to US President Barack Obama that the Security Council should set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the Burmese regime’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“The regime must be held accountable on behalf of the millions of people of Burma who have no other course for redress,” said the letter.

irrawaddy

US Expresses Concern over Burma

2009-07-09T02:58:00.000+06:30

WASHINGTON — The United States expressed concern on Tuesday over the state of democracy in Burma, and urged the military junta to release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.

“I think our concerns with the state of democracy are very well known. We, of course, have called for the release of the 2,100 political prisoners in Burma,” the State Department spokesman, Ian C Kelly, told reporters at his daily press briefing.

Kelly said the Obama Administration has called very specifically for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest.

The spokesman said the Obama Administration is currently reviewing its Burma policy. “We have a new Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell. So I would suspect that we will have more to say when we will begin to wrap up this policy review and have more to say at that time,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, announced in Bangkok on Saturday that Ibrahim Gambari, the Special UN Envoy for Burma, would convene a meeting of the Group of Friends on Burma for a briefing upon his return to New York.

irrawaddy

Ban Ki-moon delivers on low expectations

2009-07-09T02:56:00.002+06:30

Francis Wade

July 6, 2009 (DVB)–Perhaps all too predictably, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came away from Burma yesterday with nothing to show for a visit characterised by high ambitions but low expectations.

Perhaps the first mistake was to arrive with the bar set so high, hoping in two days to catalyse change in a country that has steadily worsened over nearly half a century. His three key demands – that all political prisoners be released, that dialogue be resumed between the junta and opposition groups, and that elections next year be free and fair – were ambitious, to say the least. The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi is a clear sign that the regime has no interest in having a viable opposition, while the UN chief would have to overturn a constitution that guarantees continuation of military rule to achieve the latter.

The visit, however, did not even begin well. He entered the country hounded by warnings that his presence there could lend legitimacy to the regime, and within hours these were vindicated. In his opening address to Senior General Than Shwe, the man orchestrating the Suu Kyi trial, Ban dropped a bombshell, the reverberations of which will be felt across the whole of Burma and much of the world with even rudimentary knowledge of Burmese affairs: “I appreciate your commitment to moving your country forward,” he said.

The UN chief would not be there in the first place if this were the case. Burma is in political, economic and social ruin. It has one of the world’s highest counts of political prisoners relative to population, its economy is near collapse, and the social fabric of society has been torn to pieces by half a century of unwavering military rule. “Than Shwe has steadily moved his country backwards,” Brad Adams, Burma specialist at Human Rights Watch, told the Guardian. “It's just what we implored him not to say, to make these diplomatic gaffes.”

It may have been that Ban Ki-moon was looking to soften the generals before his formal request to meet with Suu Kyi. Even that, however, failed, twice. He asked Than Shwe both on the Friday and Saturday for permission, and was both times snubbed. Prior to the visit, senior National League for Democracy member Win Tin warned that, without the meeting, Ban risked “only making friends with the junta” and rendering the trip “meaningless”.

In some respects it is surprising the meeting was denied; it could have been useful for the junta’s own propaganda purposes, and would have impacted little on the trial. Her fate belongs to the government, not Ban, and contrary to the image they project, any sense of credibility for the generals would be welcomed. Furthermore, a brief meeting between the world’s most senior diplomat and the world’s most famous political prisoner may temporarily appease international critics and buy time for the regime while the world speculates over what it means for Suu Kyi.

By his own admittance, Ban left Burma “bitterly disappointed”, and he will have to report back to the UN Security Council on what steps to take next. There is a foreboding sense, however, that the international community is running out of options. Western sanctions have failed to force change from the junta, while the policy of engagement favoured by its Asian neighbours has lacked any substance. Ban Ki-moon’s last gasp effort at rescuing Suu Kyi from another five years imprisonment fell flat on its face, and the UN’s credibility and influence in Burma will have been significantly damaged by it. Few people seem to have an answer as to what to do with the country, but all will be agreed that praise for the junta without achieving substantial concessions is a whole-hearted step in wrong direction.

UN chief’s reputation ‘shattered’ by Burma visit

2009-07-09T02:56:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Burma was “even worse” than predicted, according to a senior member of Burma’s main opposition party who lamented a fruitless trip.

Ban Ki-moon left Burma on Saturday after a two-day visit in which he seemingly achieved none of the concessions he had sought in the face of unwavering military generals.

The UN chief was under enormous pressure to achieve results, which would have included a meeting with imprisoned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, although he said on Saturday his failure to meet with Suu Kyi “should not be the benchmark of success or failure” of the trip.

A senior member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) said yesterday that the Burmese junta was seeing Ban Ki-moon’s failure to make any headway in Burma as an achievement for them.

“Maybe the junta is seeing this as a triumph and if they really do, there is a chance the election planned in 2010 could be held earlier,” said Win Tin.

“I said earlier that it would be embarrassing for Mr Ban Ki-moon to leave Burma empty handed but now it turned out even worse in reality; Ban left with his reputation shattered.”

Four representatives from the NLD’s Central Executive Committee - Than Htun, Hla Pe, Nyunt Wei and Soe Myint - were allowed to meet with Ban.

The NLD spokesperson, Nyan Win, said that groups due to meet with Ban were given two minutes each for discussion with him, although following complaints this was extended to 15 minutes.

Nyo Ohn Myint, foreign affairs coordinator of the National League for Democracy-Liberated Areas, said that the UN is now likely to increase pressure on the junta given the poor result from Ban’s trip.

“I see the reconciliation effort in Burma is now at a greater distance following the junta’s refusal to accept Ban’s assistance,” he said, adding that the visit showed “how stubborn the [junta] is”.

“The UN has always been hesitant to take action when it comes to Burma but I assume there will be more pressure on Burma in the future as the junta has dumped Ban’s suggestions and opinions.”

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw and Yee May Aung

US clothing association calls for Burma imports ban

2009-07-09T02:52:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–The United States should immediately renew an expiring ban on imports from Burma due to ongoing human rights abuses in the country, the American Apparel and Footwear Association said on Monday.

A series of letters were sent by AAFA to the US Congress urging them to renew the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, which will expire on 26 July.

The trade association was the first business organisation to call for the implementation of the Act in 2003.

“AAFA once again calls on Congress to follow through on U.S. commitments to human rights and renew economic sanctions against Burma,” said AAFA President and CEO Kevin M Burke.

“AAFA strongly supports this renewal because it will send a clear and unmistakable message that the United States is not interested in doing business with regimes like the one that brutally enslaves the people of Burma.”

Blake added, however, that a unilateral approach would only have a “limited effect” on Burma.

“I hope the world community will join the United States in implementing economic sanctions to demonstrate that there is no room for oppression in the global marketplace.”

While it is predominantly Western countries, including the US and European Union, that support sanctions on Burma, a number of Asian countries continue to trade with the regime.

According to Burma’s Weekly Eleven journal, total foreign investment in Burma now stands at $US15 billion, the majority of which is chanelled into Burma’s oil and gas sector.

China recently signed a deal to import gas from Burma’s vast offshore reserves, while Thailand relies on Burma for much of its energy needs.

Thailand’s prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said last week that the economic boycott of the country was “not useful” as Thailand looked to continue investment in the country.

British prime minister Gordon Brown on Saturday told the BBC that the lack of a sign of change from the regime “has put increased isolation - including the possibility of further sanctions - on the international agenda”.

Reporting by Francis Wade

50,000th Burmese border refugee resettled in US

2009-07-03T18:44:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–The UN’s refugee agency announced yesterday that it had resettled the 50,000th Burmese refugee from Thailand’s nine border refugee camps as part of the world’s largest refugee resettlement programme.

Currently there are around 112,000 registered Burmese refugees in Thai border camps. Added to the many that are not registered, the figure nears 140,000.

The ongoing conflict in Burma’s western Karen state, which borders Thailand, has forced another 4000 refugees into Thailand in the last month, although few of these have ended up in camps.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been operating the programme since 2004, with the number of resettlements rising dramatically in 2005 when the US opened its doors to refugees from the camps.

UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler said yesterday that resettlement in a third country had become the only viable option for Burmese refugees in Thailand’s camps, given problems settling permanently in Thailand and the dangers of returning to Burma.

“So for them, resettlement in a third country is the best option,” he said.

“For this reason we are very grateful to countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden for offering refugees a chance to begin new lives.”

The UNHCR expects to resettle another 6000 to 7000 refugees from the camps over the coming year.

Thailand is home to around 3.5 million stateless persons, the vast majority of which are thought to be Burmese. Cambodia and Laos also contribute significant numbers.

The total number of stateless Burmese living abroad is unknown, although inside the country there are around 500,000 internally displaced persons, and around 700,000 stateless persons denied citizenship by the Burmese government.

Reporting by Francis Wade

UN chief to urge reform in Burma

2009-07-03T18:40:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Ban Ki-moon will pressure the military government in Burma to release all political prisoners and pave the way for democratic elections next year during a visit that observers are considering highly risky.

The UN Secretary General arrives in Burma tomorrow for what many see as a make or break visit, with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi due to resume her court trial the same day.

Ban has said he will urge the release of all political prisoners in Burma and press the junta to make elections next year free and fair, points that he will raise “in the strongest possible terms.”

A UN spokesperson in Rangoon said that the itinerary of the trip was still being worked out, but that the Secretary General “will see all the political actors during his visit”, although no-one has confirmed whether a meeting with Suu Kyi will go ahead.

Members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, who claim they will meet with Ban during the trip, have voiced concern however that little will come up this most senior of diplomatic visits.

Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), have argued that the trip could be used for propaganda by the regime.

“There is a real danger that Burma's generals will try to use Ban's visit to legitimise the 2010 elections," HRW executive director Kenneth Roth told Reuters.

"If no commitments for reform are made, Ban should clearly and publicly state that a process that mocks the very idea of fundamental freedoms and democracy will have no legitimacy."

Earlier this week an appeal to allow two of Suu Kyi’s witnesses to testify in her defence, following their disqualification in May, was rejected.

Reporting by Francis Wade

UN chief handpicks reporters for Burma trip

2009-07-03T18:38:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Coverage of the UN Secretary General’s visit to Burma will be provided by five reporters handpicked by Ban Ki-moon himself, a news agency revealed yesterday.

Ban Ki-moon arrives in Burma today amid widespread concern that the trip will achieve little of its intended aim whilst lending valuable legitimacy to an increasingly pilloried regime.

The itinerary of the trip has not been released, although members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party have said they will be meeting with the UN chief.

It remains unclear whether he will meet with the imprisoned NLD leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who today resumes her trial over the incident in which US citizen John Yettaw swam to her lakeside compound where she is held under house arrest.

Investigative news agency Inner City Press reported yesterday however that Ban had said he wants “only particular reporters who cover him at the UN” to cover the Burma trip.

Reporters from newswires Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP) and Reuters, as well as a journalist from the New York Times and one from South Korean agency Yonhap, have been selected to accompany him.

When questioned on the selection process by Inner City Press reporters, the UN chief’s spokesperson, Michele Montas, said, although in the past all UN correspondents could request to accompany him on trips, in this case they were refused.

Ban Ki-moon is under huge pressure to deliver results from his two-day visit. Since coming to office in January 2007 he has had a rocky ride with the media, with many accusing him of being too soft.

Speculation about reasons for the selection process for the trip will likely focus whether Ban Ki-moon is indulging in damage limitation during a visit that could also prove costly for the UN’s credibility in Burma, and thus his authority in office.

Ban Ki-moon has said he will strongly urge the junta to release all political prisoners and create and environment for free and fair elections next year, although rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, and members of the NLD have said that it is quite possible he will come away with nothing.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Ban Says He’ll Urge Junta to Free Suu Kyi

2009-07-01T17:49:00.000+06:30

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon assured reporters on Tuesday during a Tokyo stopover on his way to Burma that he will urge the Burmese military junta to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, when he visits the country this week.

Speaking after talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, he said he was aware of concerns about his July 3-4 visit coinciding with the trial of Suu Kyi, the main opposition leader, who has been under house arrest for a total of more than 13 years.

The UN Information Center in Rangoon said on Wednesday that it could not provide any details about Ban Ki-moon’s Burma schedule.

Suu Kyi, 64, is on trial in Rangoon on a charge of breaking the terms of her house arrest.

“It may be the case that the trial may happen during my visit in [Burma]. I am very much conscious of that. At the same time, to find the most appropriate timing has been a challenge for me, too,” Ban told reporters.

"I try to use this visit as an opportunity to raise in the strongest possible terms and convey the concerns of the international community of the United Nations to the highest authorities of the [Burmese] government," he added.

“We have received no notification yet from the Burmese authorities regarding a meeting with Ban Ki-moon.” said Ohn Kyaing, a member of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

Ban said he would press the Burmese government to carry out a range of political reforms.

"I consider that three of the most important issues for [Burma] cannot be left unaddressed at this juncture," Ban told reporters. “The first [is the] release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi."

“This is the commitment and concerns and aspiration of the international community. I am going to convey this strongly to Snr-Gen Than Shwe and other leaders,” he said.

Ban also plans to meet with political parties and ethnic groups and travel to the Irrawaddy delta region that was devastated by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.

He visited Burma shortly after the cyclone, the first UN chief in 44 years to go there.

irrawaddy

U2 to launch tour with Suu Kyi in audience

2009-06-30T04:37:00.003+06:30

Mizzima News - Internationally acclaimed Irish band U2 is poised to commence their latest tour tomorrow, with attendees encouraged to don Aung San Suu Kyi masks during the playing of 'Walk On'.

"U2 believe the world must not be allowed to forget Aung San Suu Kyi and on the 360 Tour fans are being invited to wear the mask when the band play 'Walk On', which was written for her," explains the iconic pop/rock band on their website.

Dedicated to Burma's detained opposition leader, a portion of the lyrics for 'Walk On' read:

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

The band, and front singer Bono in particular, is well recognized for their interest and social activism in politics and humanitarianism across the world.

"U2 wrote the song Walk On to honor this amazing woman," elucidated Bono in a 2004 article written for Time Magazine's 100 Heroes and Icons, "who put family second to country, who for her convictions made an unbearable choice — not to see her sons grow and not to be with her husband as he lost his life to a long and painful cancer. Suu Kyi, with an idea too big for any jail and a spirit too strong for any army, changes our view — as only real heroes can — of what we believe to be possible."

At the height of the crackdown against protesters in Burma in late September 2007, Bono remarked, "When you are a monk in Burma this very week, barred from entering a temple because of your gospel of peace ... well, then none of us are truly free."

Originally released as a single in 2001, 'Walk On', off the 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind, went on to win record of the year at the Grammys.

The mask is available for download on U2's website, www.u2.com. The reverse side contains a brief quote by Aung San Suu Kyi: "Fear is a habit. I am not afraid."

Opening tomorrow in Barcelona, Spain, the 360 Tour is scheduled to visit 14 European and 16 North American cities en route to its finale in Vancouver, British Colombia, at the end of October.

U2-WALK ON (LIVE )
Geüpload door pierrot77. - Muziek video's, interviews met artiesten, concerten en meer.

UN envoy discusses Ban Ki-moon’s Burma trip

2009-06-30T04:23:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari yesterday ended his two-day trip to Burma with state media reporting that talks with senior government officials centered on the pending visit of UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

It remains unclear what the exact purpose of the trip was, although the UN’s concern over the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, along with the issue of the suspect North Korean ship heading towards Burma, will likely have been raised.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper yesterday reported that Gambari met with Foreign Minister Nyan Win on 26 and 27 June and “held discussions about the programme” for the UN chief’s visit.

Ban was invited by the country’s ruling generals to visit Burma in early July, although he is said to be concerned that his trip will be used for propaganda purposes by the regime.

Human rights groups have echoed Ban’s concerns, although the opposition National League for Democracy says that a visit should go ahead prior to the scheduled 2010 elections.

Dr Thaung Htun, National Coalition Government for the Union of Burma's representative to the UN, said that he accepts Ban's visit "in principle". "We think Ban Ki Moon’s visit could be to study the situation in Burma to see how far the progress [the UN] suggested [to the junta] has reached" regarding release of political prisoners and participatory elections, he said.

Regarding the Karen refugees fleeing to Thailand, however, he said that Ban "should put in more diplomatic effort in dealing with Burma".

Observers believe that the North Korean ship, which is being closely monitored by the US navy, is carrying small arms.

If it does dock in Burma and, as suspected, offload its cargo, then Burma would become party to a breach of new UN sanctions imposed earlier this month on North Korea following its underground nuclear test.

The situation would undoubtedly skew the focus of Ban Ki-moon’s visit, which was likely set up to engage the regime over the trial of Suu Kyi, which the UN chief last month said he was “deeply concerned” about.

Reporting by Francis Wade and Htet Aung Kyaw

UK Threatens Tighter Sanctions

2009-06-26T03:55:00.001+06:30

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown reiterated on Wednesday that his government would tighten sanctions against Burma and condemned the Burmese military junta’s actions as completely unacceptable.

A Dow Jones Newswire report quoted Brown as saying: "At the last meeting of the European Council we sent a very powerful message that unless action is taken in Burma to free Aung San Suu Kyi, then we are prepared to take further sanctions against the regime."

Soe Aung, a spokesman for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that: “The United Kingdom (UK) can tighten insurance regulations in its powerful insurance industry. Companies operating in Burma must take out insurance via third-party countries like Thailand and Singapore. If the UK put stricter controls on getting insurance, countries which provide insurance for operations in Burma would be seriously affected and would exert more pressure on Burma.”

The European Union agreed to step up sanctions on Burma and released a statement on Friday after a two-day EU summit in Brussels.

In the 64-word statement issued on Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday, the EU said: "The European Council calls for the immediate unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has tirelessly defended the universal values of freedom and democracy."

"We urge [Burma] to embark on a genuine transition to democracy bringing peace and prosperity to its people," the EU statement said.

At a press conference after the EU summit, Brown said, "That means we are prepared to look at further sanctions.”

Brown called for an end to Suu Kyi's "absurd and contemptible sham trial," and for her immediate and unconditional release.

Brown also expressed the hope that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon would visit Burma soon.

Suu Kyi is being held on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man swam to her lakeside house.

irrawaddy

Russia Rejects Pressuring Burma

2009-06-24T04:42:00.001+06:30

The Russia Foreign Ministry Department in Moscow has rejected using political and economic pressure to influence the Burmese government, said Moscow’s Itar-Tass Russian News Agency on Sunday.

According to the news website, www. itar-tass.com, the Russia Foreign Ministry Department said that Russia opposed attempts to internationalize the internal situation in Burma as it did not endanger peace and security in the region or in the world at large.

“In our opinion, the political and economic pressure on that country is counterproductive, as it enhances isolationist feelings of the Myanmar military and exacerbates the [poor] socioeconomic position of citizens,” the department said.

A Russian diplomat in Thailand, who participated at the forum on Burma held at Chulalongkorn University on the anniversary of Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday on Friday, June 19, said, “We don’t see Burma as a threat and danger to world security.”

He also rejected Burmese activists’ calls on the UN to isolate the Burmese military government from the world.

The Russian Foreign Ministry Department said that they hoped the trial of Burma’s opposition leader Suu Kyi would be unbiased and strictly comply with national laws and humanitarian standards, and that it would take into account international opinion.

Suu Kyi is being charged by the Burmese government and held in Rangoon’s Insein prison on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man swam to her lakeside home. If she is found guilty, she could be sentenced to five years in prison. She has already served more than 13 years in detention under house arrest.

Meanwhile, Burmese activists and the international community have called on the UN to put more pressure on the Burmese government to release Suu Kyi. The activists have also called for Asean to suspend Burma as a member of the organization.

Russia has kept a strong relationship with the Burmese military, and several thousand Burmese military officials and technicians have studied in Russia.

In 2007, Russia’s federal nuclear agency, Rosatom, announced they were collaborating in the construction of a 10 megawatt nuclear reactor in Burma. According to the Russians and the Burmese, the small reactor could only be used for the production of isotopes for use in the medical, agricultural and industrial sectors.

Russia and China, who are permanent members of the UN Security Council, have opposed putting the Burma issue on the agenda at the UN Security Council.

The two countries have kept strong relationships with the Burmese government and have rarely criticized the Burmese government.

However, China recently told Burmese junta No.2 Gen Maung Aye to promote democracy in the country when he visited China last week.

irrawaddy

Paul McCartney and U2 call for Suu Kyi’s release

2009-06-22T04:47:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Paul McCartney, U2 and Yoko Ono have joined the ranks of international celebrities marking the birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi with personal messages of support and renewed calls for her immediate release.

Today the Burmese opposition leader turns 64. It is the fourteenth consecutive year that she has marked her birthday in detention.

Message of support from celebrities and international figures have been published on the 64forsuu.com website.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiration to her country and to the rest of the world,” said Paul McCartney, while Yoko Ono published a poem that included the lyrics “Your heart beats with my heart. My eyes see what you see. My belief is your belief.”

Other celebrities that have supported the 64forsuu campaign include David Beckham, Julia Roberts and Steven Fry.

The renowned Indian musician and conductor Zubin Mehta added his voice to calls for Suu Kyi’s release.

“As a proud neighbour of Burma, being an Indian…I am extremely hopeful that the authorities in Burma will not judge Aung San Suu Kyi and will release her as soon as possible on this [sixty-fourth] birthday,” he said.

“I know I speak for hundreds of thousands of Indians who say that she is a shining light in our part of the world, and we pray for her quick release.”

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today called for the toughening of sanctions against Burma.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Brown praised Burma’s neighbours for [leading] the world in calling for Ms Suu Kyi's release”, while adding that the UN Security Council should “back the Secretary-General's efforts to bring about political progress through an early visit to Burma”.

Ban Ki-moon was yesterday invited to visit Burma by the country’s ruling generals, although he is yet to make a decision due to suspicion that the trip may be used by the junta for propaganda purposes.

Brown also offered his willingness to “extend the hand of friendship” were the military government to “rethink their ways”.

Reporting by Francis Wade

US Tells Suu Kyi She Inspires All who Love Freedom, Democracy

2009-06-22T04:38:00.001+06:30

WASHINGTON — In a message marking Friday’s birthday of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the US State Department says the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate inspires all who support freedom and democracy.

Politicians, human rights activists and personalities from across the United States joined the State Department in congratulating Suu Kyi and calling on the regime to halt her trial and release her.

“We call on the Burmese authorities to drop those charges and release Aung San Suu Kyi immediately,” said State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly.

Sadly, though, she will once again spend her birthday in confinement–isolated from her family, friends and the Burmese people–as Burmese authorities pursue unjustified and indefensible charges against her, Kelly said.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the continued detention of Suu Kyi deserved the full condemnation of the international community.

“A clear message must be sent that Aung San Suu Kyi and all other prisoners of conscience in Burma must be released, immediately and unconditionally,” she said.

“Aung San Suu Kyi has made every conceivable sacrifice that could be asked from any leader. She has seen her supporters beaten, tortured and killed yet she has never responded to hatred and violence in kind. All she has ever asked for is peaceful dialogue and to play a role in the future of her country,” Pelosi said.

In a 64-word message posted on the Web site www.64forsuu.org, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, along with actors Drew Barrymore, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig and football star David Beckham said: “We must not stand by as she is silenced again. Now is the time for the international community to speak with one voice: Free Aung San Suu Kyi.”

In another message on the newly-created site, women who have also won the Nobel Peace Prize—Maired Maguire, Betty Williams, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi and Wangari Maathai—demanded Suu Kyi’s immediate release.

“Detained against Burma’s own laws, your imprisonment and trial are a stark illustration of the brutality and lawlessness of the Burmese military regime, which holds over 2,000 democracy activists in prison,” they wrote. “We look forward to a day when you are finally free.”

Canada’s Foreign Minister, Lawrence Cannon, also sent a birthday message to Suu Kyi, saying: “Aung San Suu Kyi, your continued, unjust and unwarranted detention illustrates the complete disregard that the Burmese military junta has for human rights and democratic freedoms.

“On your 64th birthday, Canada commends you on your ongoing struggle to promote freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and commits to continue advocating for your release and that of all political prisoners in Burma.”

Meanwhile European Union leaders are set to make a 64-word call Friday for the release of Burma's pro-democracy icon as she celebrates her 64th birthday behind bars.

"The European Council calls for the immediate unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has tirelessly defended the universal values of freedom and democracy," said the statement, to be released at the end of a two-day summit in Brussels.

"Unless she is released, the credibility of the 2010 elections will be further undermined and the EU will respond with appropriate measures," said the statement.

"We urge Myanmar (Burma) to embark on a genuine transition to democracy bringing peace and prosperity to its people."

irrawaddy

680,000 signatures delivered to UN chief

2009-06-19T03:23:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–A petition carrying nearly 680,000 signatures has been delivered to the UN Secretary General demanding that he make the release of political prisoners in Burma a personal priority.

Burma currently holds upwards of 2,100 political prisoners, including journalists, activists, politicians and lawyers.

The petition, signed by signatories in around 220 countries and territories, is part of a campaign to highlight the ongoing repression faced by opposition groups and individuals in Burma.

Last week a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi is currently on trial, died in prison from a blood disease.

And on Monday, five NLD members being held in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison, where Suu Kyi is currently detained, were moved into solitary confinement.

"We know that a lot of political prisoners are dying in prison, we need the United Nations to take action before many more die,” said Bo Kyi, sectretay of Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma.

“Without action, we expect many more to die.”

Conditions in Burmese prisons are dire, with prisoners often suffering from preventable diseases and subject to torture at the hands of prison officials.

The 28-year-old leader of the All Burma Monks Alliance, U Gambira, who is serving a 69-year sentence following his role in the September 2007 protests, was on Monday said to be suffering from migraines and had been tortured by guards.

A number of other high-profile political prisoners, including the comedian Zarganar, and 88 Generation Student leader Min Ko Naing, are reportedly in poor health and frequently denied healthcare.

Reporting by Francis Wade

UN Secretary General invited to visit Burma

2009-06-19T03:22:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–Burma’s ruling junta has invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit the country in early July, although Ban is thought to be wary of the visit being used as propaganda by the junta.

Western diplomats speaking under condition of anonymity said yesterday that Ban, who is yet to accept the invitation, is concerned the visit could be used to deflect mounting criticism over the trial of Burma’s opposition leader.

"He doesn't want his trip to be seen as giving any kind of legitimacy to the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi," one of the diplomats told Reuters.

But, said the diplomat, pressure from Ban could be the last chance to ensure the release of Suu Kyi.

"Ban can put pressure on them to let her go," he said. "We don't have many options apart from the secretary general."

The UN chief said in May that he was keen to visit Burma “as soon as possible”, particularly in light of the Suu Kyi trial, which he labeled “unacceptable”.

Last week British campaigners demanded that the release of political prisoners be made a UN priority “before they die”, following news that a number of high-profile detainees were in poor health.

And yesterday, a petition carrying nearly 680,000 signatures delivered to Ban Ki-moon further highlighted international dismay at the plight of Burma’s political prisoners.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Ban ‘Wants Suu Kyi Freed before Visiting Burma again’

2009-06-19T03:07:00.000+06:30

The Burmese military junta has invited United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit Burma next month, but UN sources say he is unlikely to accept if opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment or a further term of house arrest.

The sources say said Ban wants to make sure that any visit to Burma produces tangible results and is not used for propaganda purposes by the military junta.

Ban’s spokesperson, Michele Montas, told reporters that no decision had yet been taken on the junta’s invitation.

The UN sources said Ban would consult members of the Security Council and his Group of Friends on Burma before deciding whether to accept the invitation.

A team of UN officials is discussing with Burmese authorities details of a Ban visit to Burma.

If Ban decides to go, he will be preceded by UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari. Sources say that despite the low profile Gambari has been maintaining, he has been in close communication with the Burmese authorities.

Ban last visited Burma after Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, and he has since shown keen interest in returning, this time to discuss political issues with the junta—including moves towards democracy and the release of political prisoners.

Ban and Gambari are reported to have both written letters to the junta expressing their concerns about the trial of Suu Kyi. However, the response has been “opaque,” officials said.

Gambari, on behalf of Ban, has been insisting that any visit by the secretary general should result in tangible results, including progress in restoring democracy and the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

The junta on the other hand has been seeking firm assurances from the members of the Security Council—specially the US, Britain and France—that economic sanctions against Burma would be lifted. These countries, however, want the junta to take the first step and release Suu Kyi, before they lift at least some of the sanctions.

irrawaddy

Burmese Activists Ask Ban Ki-moon for Help

2009-06-18T05:38:00.000+06:30

Former Burmese political prisoners have delivered a petition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling on him to seek the release of all Burmese political prisoners including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The request comes after 48-year-old Salai Hla Moe, a member of the National League for Democracy, died in a Burmese prison in May.

Family members of Salai Hla Moe were informed by prison authorities almost three weeks after his death. He leaves behind a wife and four children, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP).

Approximately 680,000 signatures were collected within 10 weeks in one the largest global coordinated actions ever for Burma.

Tate Naing, the secretary of the AAPP, said, “How many more political prisoners have to die before the UN will act? I urge Mr. Ban Ki-moon to accept nothing less than the immediate and unconditional release of all of Burma's political prisoners in his current negotiations with the regime.”

“He must not allow any more delay. Political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, are the hope for democracy and the future leaders of our country. Their lives are at stake," said Tate Naing.

About 140 political prisoners have died in prison since 1988 while more than 2,100 political prisoners are held in Burmese prisons and in labor camps.

A delegation member, Nyi Nyi Aung, who has relatives currently in prison, said, “To Ban Ki-moon, my message is simple: ‘Your words show you take this issue seriously. But now I want to see what action you will take to secure the release of my family and all of Burma's political prisoners.’”

Nyi Nyi Aung’s mother and two cousins are serving jail terms of up to 65 years for their pro-democracy activities.

irrawaddy

US Burma policy could be changed

2009-06-12T05:43:00.001+06:30

By Tun Kyaw, Dhaka: The United States under the rule of President Barack Obama may ease its long- standing policy of isolation against military-ruled Burma, a top US diplomat in East Asia said on Wednesday. However, the outcome of Suu Kyi’s trial will be a major consideration as the Obama administration reviews U.S. policy on Burma.

Kurt Campbell told U. S. law makers at his senate confirmation hearing that the Burmese junta’s attitude towards detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi hinders any U. S. effort to change its policy on the regime.

But, he said, the junta’s trial of Suu Kyi on charges that could put her in prison for five years is “deeply, deeply concerning, and it makes it very difficult to move forward.” Expectations are that democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi will be found guilty by the Burmese court, which operates under the influence of the military junta and almost always deals harshly with political dissidents.

To force the Burmese junta to respect human rights and release political prisoners the U.S. imposed sanctions against it.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State Department, while visiting some member countries of ASEAN in last February, said that the U.S. administration’s dilemma with the Burmese junta is that neither tough U.S. sanctions nor engagement by the Asean’s countries have persuaded the junta to embrace democracy or release Suu Kyi.

Jeremu Woodrum, co-founder of the U.S. Campaign for Burma said regional talks similar to the six-nation North Korean nuclear disarmament negotiation could be used with the junta.

If the Burmese generals were to make substantial changes, pressure could be lifted at that time, but sanctions have been important tools in confronting the junta, said Woodrum.

Observers say SuuKyi is charged with flouting conditions of her house arrest because an American, John W. Yettaw intruded into her house that was closely guarded by security forces. No one but one who was permitted by the junta entered her house.

Opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi gave her testimony in the special court in Insein prison outside Rangoon. She said that she had not seen any security guards inside her compound when Yettaw arrived and when he left the house.

Suu Kyi is on trial from last month and it has created outrage and anger internationally, Supporters say, the junta is using the bizarre case of an American intruder as an excuse to keep Suu Kyi detained during the election the government has planned for next year.

Critics say no one but Aung San Suu Kyi “can cease gun-fire” in Burma bringing “lasting peace and tranquility” for all the nationalities of Burma. The 2008 constitution can’t bring peace but only fuel ongoing civil war in Burma.

narinjara

France, Germany in joint appeal for Aung San Suu Kyi

2009-06-12T05:20:00.001+06:30

PARIS (AFP) — The leaders of France and Germany expressed grave concern Thursday for Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been put on trial by Myanmar's junta, and appealed to China and India to intervene on her behalf.

During a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had sought to speak by phone to the pro-democracy leader but the military government denied his request.

"We are asking our Chinese and Indian friends for help and to take into account the concern that we have for the Nobel Peace Prize winner ahead of a conviction that appears, unfortunately, unavoidable," said Sarkozy.

The 63-year-old opposition leader faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest after an eccentric American man swam to her lakeside house in Yangon and stayed the night.

"Madame Merkel and I are very concerned by the plight of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi," said Sarkozy after holding talks with Merkel at the Elysee palace.

France has expressed strong concern over Suu Kyi's health, and last month French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy made a public appeal for her release, saying that a jail sentence would be "life-threatening" for her.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been in detention for 13 of the past 19 years since her National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in 1990 polls but was not allowed to take power.

A jail sentence could keep her locked up far beyond controversial elections promised by the ruling generals next year, which critics have dismissed as a sham because Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from standing.

British MPs vow to support democracy-human rights in Burma

2009-06-12T05:16:00.001+06:30

New Delhi (Mizzima) - British Members of Parliament on Tuesday discussed Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial, calling it an ‘injustice’ and vowed to continue to strongly support the restoration of democracy and human rights in Burma.

Initiated by Alistair Carmichael MP and Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma (APPB), the debate was held in the main Chamber of the House of Commons. The meeting acknowledged the need to provide more support to Burma.

Carmichael said the charge against the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate is that of flouting the conditions of her house arrest. “This illegality heaped on illegality is a particular feature of Aung San Suu Kyi’s position, and of the loathsome regime by which she is being oppressed in Burma.”

Nang Seng, Parliamentary Officer of the Burma Campaigns UK said, Ivan Lewis, British Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth has particularly expressed his strong commitment for the restoration of democracy in Burma.

“Ivan Lewis has expressed his commitment to support the development of human rights and democracy in Burma and his willingness to urge neighbouring countries to pressure military-ruled Burma,” said Nang Seng.

The British government, in the ensuing European Council meeting in June, is likely to raise the issue of Aung San Suu Kyi to be discussed as one of the main agendas of the meeting.

“They have even said they are willing to impose financial sanctions on Burma,” said Nang Seng.

The British government is likely to call on the EU to impose a visa ban on all members of the military regime, their families, their business cronies and also lawyers and judges, who are conducting the trial and sentencing of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, she added.

“We are greatly encouraged with their [MP] commitment. However, we want to see more action,” she added.

The Burmese pro-democracy leader, who has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest, is currently facing trial for violating her detention law by allowing an American citizen, John William Yettaw, who sneaked into her lakeside house, to stay.

Organized by British Members of Parliament, a meeting between UK-based Burmese organizations and their supporters held discussions for providing more aid to Burma.

“They have promised to donate more aid to Burma,” Nang Seng said.

UK was one of the biggest donor countries providing £ 45 million for relief efforts, when Burma’s Irrawaddy delta was lashed by Cyclone Nargis on May 2 and 3, 2008, which left at least 140,000 dead or missing and devastated the lives of more than 2.4 million people.

mizzima

EU “concern” over mounting military offensive in eastern Burma

2009-06-12T05:15:00.001+06:30

New Delhi (Mizzima) - European Union on Thursday expressed “serious concern” over the mounting military offensive by the Burmese army and its allies against the Karen National Liberation Army, which results in large number of civilians in eastern Burma fleeing to neighboring Thailand.

The Presidency Declaration, issued on behalf of the EU on Thursday, calls on the Burmese army to ceasefire and request military operators to ensure the safety of civilians and to comply with international humanitarian and human rights law.

“The EU is strongly concerned about the humanitarian situation of the thousands of newly displaced persons in Thailand,” said the declaration, affirming that the EU is ready to “provide more assistance where possible.”

The declaration came following reports that a fresh offensive have been launched by the Burmese Army and its allies, Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a Karen splinter group, against the Karen National Liberation Army, an armed wing of the Karen National Union, Burma’s longest running armed resistant group.

Sources at the Thai-Burmese border said, at least 3,500 Karen villagers have fled their homes in eastern Burma to Thailand, due the fresh military offensive launched against the KNLA by the Burmese Army since last week.

The KNU said, the fresh offensive were part of the Burmese junta’s effort to eliminate the KNU, which is one of the largest armed groups that has no ceasefire agreement with the junta.

David Takarpaw, vice-chairman of the KNU, earlier told Mizzima that the Junta is using their brother Karen in the DKBA, an armed group that broke away from the KNU, to fight against them.

While acknowledging the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Burma, the EU declaration said, “Generally, the authorities should refrain from seeking military solutions against the ethnic minorities; this only fosters instability, long-term divisions and hatred.”

The EU instead, calls on the Junta to create necessary conditions that will allow the return of all refugees and to kick-start an “inclusive and time-bound process of political dialogue leading to national reconciliation.”

mizzima

Where Pariah States Meet

2009-06-12T05:07:00.000+06:30

It is arguable whether democratic countries are currently working together in a spirit of cooperation to protect global human rights; however it is quite clear that two of the world’s pariah states are united in protecting each other’s interests.

A case in point was the announcement on Wednesday in North Korea’s state-run mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency, which proclaimed that “a meeting, film show and photo exhibition were held in Myanmar and a news briefing and film show in Russia from June 1 to 3 ...”

The article went on to say that both countries were hosting the events to mark the 45th anniversary of the date when leader Kim Jong Il joined the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

Despite the obscurity of the occasion, Htay Oo, the secretary-general of the Burmese junta’s loyal organization, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), addressed the assembled audience at the Burmese event, effusing: “One of the feats performed by Kim Jong Il in leading the Party and revolution to a shining victory, shouldering upon himself the destiny of the country and nation is that he has strengthened and developed the WPK into a guiding force of the Songun revolution,” according to the North Korean media.

“Songun” is North Korea's "Military First" policy that grants the Korean People's Army a leading role in the affairs of state and allocates national resources to the army before civilians.

Apart from the slavish compliments bestowed on the Korean premier by the USDA leader, the other notable point about the announcement was that it was published one week late by the state press in North Korea, indicating that, perhaps, it had been held back to coincide with the date the United Nations Security Council announced it had agreed on more tightened sanctions against Pyongyang due to the country’s recent nuclear and missile testing.

The draft of the resolution on North Korea also included calls on all UN member states to carry out inspections of North Korean ships that may be carrying equipment related to weapons of mass destruction and toincrease vigilance over financial dealings with Pyongyang.

In the case of Burma’s military authorities, directives from the UN generally fall on deaf ears.

The North Korean press was reminding the world that it still had one friend—even it was only basket-case Burma.

Official diplomatic relations between Burma and North Korea were restored in April 2007 after a political row some 14 years before when Burma cut diplomatic ties with Pyongyang following the assassination on Burmese soil of four members of a South Korean delegation, including the deputy prime minister, under the government of President Chun Doo Hwan.

Although the two countries shook hands in 2007, Burma experts say the junta has enjoyed military relations with the North Korean regime since the early 2000s when the Koreans provided the junta bunker and tunnel technology, as well as truck-mounted, multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles.

“North Korean technicians have helped them [the Burmese junta] construct underground facilities where they can survive any threats from their own people as well as the outside world,” wrote Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist who has written on Burma for many years, adding that an extensive network of underground installation was built near the Burmese junta’s remote capital, Naypyidaw.

“It is not known if the tunnels are linked to Burma’s efforts to develop nuclear technology—in which the North Koreans allegedly are active as well,” he noted.

Kavi Chongkittavorn of Thailand’s The Nation newspaper has also said that the Burmese military regime were developing bunker and tunnel warfare and that the materials were provided by the North Koreans.

According to Burmese military sources, the ruling generals have stated at meetings with senior officials that, in reference to the Pyongyang model, if Burma had nuclear weapons, then powerful countries could not threaten them.

On Sunday, the press in North Korea scrambled to bring home the headlines that Kim Jong Il is likely to elect his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, to succeed him as the next head of the communist state.

Two days later, the Burmese state-run-media published a news report about the Burmese leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s favorite grandson opening a school canteen in Rangoon.

The word in the street in both Burma and North Korea is that the leaders want their rule to become a dynasty.

irrawaddy

UN Urges Focus on Education, as Donors Express Misgivings

2009-06-12T05:05:00.001+06:30

The United Nations has called on Burma’s military junta to cooperate with the international community to improve the state of education in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta, but international donors are warning that the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi could complicate efforts to raise money for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

At a UN-organized donors meeting in Rangoon on Tuesday, a senior UN official highlighted the dire need for improved access to education in the region, where few schools escaped the devastation wrought by Burma’s worst-ever natural disaster.

“The international community should increase its efforts, in cooperation with the government of [Burma] and local organizations, in order to promote quality education for all children and youth,” said Bishow Parajuli, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Rangoon.

Around 60 participants, including heads of diplomatic missions, UN agencies and national and international nongovernmental organizations, attended the meeting, at which the acute shortage of learning materials and qualified teachers and the lack of opportunities for further education in the delta region were highlighted.

The donor meeting was followed by a field visit to several villages in the Irrawaddy delta on Wednesday. The donor representatives witnessed the limited progress that has been made over the past year in rebuilding schools. They also observed children in overcrowded classrooms in schools with nothing but plastic sheeting as walls.

“Over half a million children in the affected areas have benefited from education support since Cyclone Nargis destroyed and damaged over 4,000 schools, of which 1,255 completely collapsed,” said the UN Children’s Fund deputy representative, Juanita Vasquez.

“More efforts are required to increase education opportunities to children, not only in the delta, but also in the rest of the country,” she added.

According to the Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan, some US $157 million will be needed by the education sector over the next three years.

Meanwhile, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which has played a key role in the humanitarian response to the disaster, said that some countries considering increasing their contribution to the recovery effort are seeking reassurances of cooperation from the Burmese authorities.

Representatives from Asean met with donor countries and international organizations in Bangkok on Wednesday.

After the meeting, Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told journalists, “We would like to seek clarification and new assurance from the government of [Burma] that from now onward we will have full support, full access, and we will have full coordination in order to deliver our international assistance into [Burma] or into the delta.”

Surin also said that the Burmese regime’s prosecution of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was affecting donor sentiment.

“They certainly mentioned the fact that it has not helped the enthusiasm of their constituencies to engage more actively, more fully,” said Surin. “There might be some delay, there might be some reservation, that the issue is not separate from the deliberation and the consideration on further engagement.”

However, Surin said that donors did not make the release of Suu Kyi, who is facing a sentence of up to five years in prison, a condition for further aid.

The trial against Suu Kyi, who is charged with violating the conditions of her house arrest, has provoked a strong outcry from a number of countries that would be expected to be major contributors to the ongoing effort to rebuild the Irrawaddy delta.

So far, about $300 million in relief aid has been sent to the region, and agencies are seeking another $700 million for recovery efforts.

Aid groups have been struggling to raise money to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Burma in May 2008. The cyclone killed at least 140,000 people and left 2.4 million homeless.

Burma already receives scant overseas development assistance—a meager $2.85 per head, compared with nearly $50 for Sudan and neighboring Laos.

“It would be really silly to penalize the people of this country for actions taken by the current military regime,” said Andrew Kirkwood, the country director for Save the Children UK.

irrawaddy

Suu Kyi Trial Complicates US Burma Policy Review

2009-06-12T04:59:00.000+06:30

WASHINGTON — The Obama Administration is finding it difficult to move forward in engaging Burma because of the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, Obama’s choice for top diplomat in East Asia said on Wednesday.

“The recent events with Aung San Suu Kyi are just deeply, deeply concerning, and it makes it very difficult going forward,” said Kurt Campbell, the Obama nominee for assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told US lawmakers during his confirmation hearing.

“We're in the midst of a very sensitive review,” he said. “We are looking at the situation of the trial and what the junta is considering going forward. It will play into our review.” Campbell appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Referring to a statement made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her maiden tour to Asia this year, Campbell said, “What she said out in the region stands for itself. I think she was very clear about what—the approach the administration has taken. And as a general practice, we're prepared to reach out, not just in Burma but in other situations as well.”

When asked about the administration’s view on the 2010 Burmese elections, Campbell said: “Well, some of the discussions that we have had to date surround whether recent actions of the junta are designed to create a different domestic context for the upcoming 2010 elections. The truth is that we have an embassy there, we have sources of information.”

“I think at the current juncture, given that I'm unconfirmed and that I am not privy to some of the most sensitive deliberations, I would simply say that we are looking closely at all developments inside Burma, and this is very high on Clinton’s list of issues in Southeast Asia.”

He termed it as “hypothetical” to assume that “Burma would honor the items that are in its proposed constitution, which move, however imperfectly, toward a multi-party system and open elections.”

Observing that the developments inside Burma have implications for Suu Kyi's party, Campbell said: “All I can tell you is that I think in the past there has been a determination that not much could be done; let us live with our sanctions. I think there is a very high-level degree of interest in seeing what is possible going forward and a deep sense of disappointment in the recent steps that the junta's taken towards Aung San Suu Kyi.”

In remarks before the committee, Sen James Webb said for the number of years he has advocated a different approach in Burma.

“I have had some good discussions with Sec Clinton about this over the past couple of years, before she became secretary of State and afterwards. Aung San Suu Kyi's ongoing trial is the latest incident in a cycle that's been virtually unchanged for 60 years, actually, not 20, as some people comment.”

In that time, particularly over the past 10 years, the United States' ability to influence events in Burma has steadily waned. Businesses, NGOs, government groups have been ousted, he argued.

“Meanwhile, other countries, not only China but most notably China, are more engaged than ever, with infrastructure projects, mineral resources. China just signed a large oil deal,” he pointed out.

“On the one hand, I would like to say very clearly, as someone who has advocated a different approach, the situation presently with Aung San Suu Kyi is unacceptable to any of us who have advocated varying approaches with respect to Burma. But on the other, we need to look at a different way of doing things,” Webb said.

Earlier in his prepared statement, Campbell said the people of Burma deserve better than what they now have.

“As secretary Clinton said in Jakarta, neither our sanctions-based approach nor Asean’s engagement approach have worked, so the Administration is reviewing policy options with the goal of finding more effective ways to encourage dialogue among the military, the opposition, and the ethnic nationalities, release of political prisoners and broad-based reform,” he said.

“The recent actions by the Burmese Junta against Aung San Suu Kyi are deeply troubling, and we are factoring these developments into our ongoing policy review,” he said.

“While I cannot prejudge the outcome of the policy review, I can say that my approach— if confirmed—will be to engage widely with Congress, with our partners in the region, and with people who know Burma in order to come up with practical, realistic ideas on how we can best encourage Burma to move in a more positive direction,” Campbell said.

irrawaddy

Release of political prisoners ‘a UN priority’

2009-06-11T01:46:00.000+06:30

DVB)–Campaigners in Britain have called on United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon to make the release of political prisoners in Burma, many of whom are being denied healthcare, an urgent priority “before they die”.

Burma currently holds around 2,100 political prisoners in jails across the country. Many are deliberately imprisoned far from their families who, in the absence of sufficient in-prison healthcare, are relied upon to supply medicines.

Conditions in jails are often squalid, and torture by prison officials on political prisoners widespread.

A statement released yesterday by Burma Campaign UK (BCUK) detailed conditions for four high-profile political prisoners, including Min Ko Naing, who was last year sentenced to 65 years for his role in the September 2007 protests, and is said to be suffering from heart disease.

A leader of 88 Generation Students, Htay Kywe, who is held in the remote Buthidaung prison, is suffering from gastric problems and high blood pressure.

The prison has no electricity and he is reportedly not allowed to receive visitors or food parcels from his family.

“There is a deliberate policy of mistreating political prisoners and denying them healthcare and adequate food to stay healthy,” said Wai Hin from BCUK.

“This is a crisis, and should be treated as one. It is not the time for the usual soft and slow diplomacy from the UN, which has totally failed for the past 20 years.”

The statement coincides with news that a member of the National League for Democracy, Salai Hla Moe, who was held in central Burma’s Myingyan prison, died last month from a blood disease, although his family were only told recently.

“He has been in prison nearly seven years and suffering from [the disease] for more than two years,” said a relative, Salaung, who discovered his death a fortnight ago on a visit to the prison.

“Drinking and washing water in the prison is not clean. He has to use water that looks like water in the gutter.”

“He was only treated in the prison clinic and when his condition worsened they didn't allow him to receive treatment at an outside hospital.”

The strain on the families of political prisoners is considerable. Relatives of those held in remote prisons are forced to travel for days to visit the prisoners, and then often only allowed to meet for a matter of minutes.

"At the moment, [Hla Moe’s wife] is suffering from mental illness and she is not living at home, but wandering on the streets - she has gone mad,” said Salaung.

“There is no future hope for their family as there is no one to look after their children."

Reporting by Khin Maung Soe Min and Francis Wade

UN staff sent to assess Karen refugees

2009-06-11T01:43:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–The United Nations has sent its staff to five sites along the Thai-Burma border where Karen villagers have stationed themselves after fleeing a Burmese army offensive against the Karen National Union.

Following a series of offensives over the past week by Burmese government troops against the KNU, up to 6,400 Karen villagers, many of whom are women and children, have now fled into Thailand.

Reports have emerged of Burmese troops shelling the populous Ler Per Har refugee camp in Burma’s eastern state, while the junta-allied Democratic Karen Buddhist Army have allegedly being forcibly recruiting Karen villagers to act as army porters.

According to the Karen Human Rights Group, some are being forced to walk in front of army patrols as minesweepers.

A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner on Refugees, William Spindler, said yesterday that staff had been sent to a villages and a cave in northern Thailand where villagers were hiding.

In one case, he said, villagers were holed up in a cave “accessible only by river and by a 40-minute climb up a steep mountain which is very slippery right now because it is raining heavily”.

A number of those who had fled were from the Ler Per Har camp, home to refugees of Burma’s internal conflict.

“Most of the new arrivals say they want to stay as close to their villages as possible in order to go home quickly once the situation calms down because they left cattle behind and because it is time to begin planting rice,” Spindler said.

The conflict between the KNU and the Burmese government began in 1948 and is thought to be the world’s longest running.

Several attempts at building a ceasefire agreement have taken place but so far without success.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Ban Praises U Thant

2009-06-08T04:03:00.001+06:30

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid tribute on Wednesday to the memory of one of his predecessors, Burma’s U Thant, who held the secretary-general position from 1961 to 1971.

The centenary of U Thant’s birth was marked at the UN headquarters in New York. The event was organized by the U Thant Institute, the UN Office for Partnerships and the UN Department of Public Information.

Ban said, “It is a sad irony that U Thant’s vision of democracy has not been realized in his own country. That is why I would like to visit Burma again this year. This quiet diplomat worked hard for the principles of the United Nations.”

Ban recalled he took the opportunity to visit the U Thant mausoleum in Rangoon to pay respects during his mission to Burma last year.

Ban said U Thant oversaw the organization’s growth and helped lay the foundations for what is now known as “sustainable development.”

He said U Thant provided the seeds for the UN University and the institute that bears his name, which is built on the concept of “One World.”

“The crises of the past year—the food crisis, the energy crisis, the financial crisis and the economic crisis—emphasized the interconnections of our “One World,” said Ban.

Ban praised U Thant, the first Asian to hold the position of UN secretary-general, for his commitment toward world peace and his efforts in defusing Cold War tensions.

As the third secretary-general of the UN, U Thant established many of the world body’s development and environmental agencies, funds and programs, including the UN Development Program (UNDP), the UN University, the UN Institute for Training and Research, and the UN Environmental Program.

He died of lung cancer in New York on November 25, 1974.

Former Burmese Ambassador to China Thankin Chan Htun knew U Thant personally. “To become a good diplomat, one needs to be well-read, polite, calm, and be able to negotiate with others peacefully,” he said. “If diplomats act wrongly, it reflects badly on the country. So, the authorities need to select them specially.”

Veteran Burmese journalist Win Tin said that U Thant was a successful UN head who solved problems peacefully and astutely. “He kept on good terms with people, and spoke calmly and sincerely,” he said.

“We should keep him in our memory. We should be proud of him and we should take example from his character and skill,” he added.

irrawaddy

US ‘will not impose solutions’ on Burma

2009-06-05T04:22:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–The United States has said it will not impose its own measures to solve Burma’s problems but that the military government should “promote the exchange of information” and empower its own people.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Phillip Crowley, said that Burma’s problems, with reference to the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, “are fundamental issues of importance”.

“They're really about how nations will govern themselves in the 21st century. It's not for the United States to impose these solutions on countries such as Burma,” he said.

The US has long been the fiercest critic of the Burmese government, and holds the toughest sanctions against the military regime, who are notoriously fearful of foreign interference and see sanctions as an attempt by the West to sap power from its generals.

The trial of Suu Kyi seems to have dashed any signs of a change in tack by the new Obama administration, who had recently suggested the sanctions policy might be softened in favour of greater engagement in light of the lack of its tangible success.

The new US President has promised to “reach out a hand” to countries that were shunned by the previous Bush administration.

“We are going to engage the world, and we're willing to engage…any nation of the world in pursuit of our national interest,” said Crowley, adding that the Burmese junta should “empower [its] people”.

“You can't be fearful of your people. You should find ways to promote the exchange of information, not find ways to hide it or to restrict it,” he said.

Burmese political analyst Aung Thu Nyein said however that the US could go further with engagement.

“They [the US] are just using sanctions and pressure as a tool to make change in Burma [but] I think they should buy some room for engagement - they have to talk more with the generals.

“At this moment the military regime seems really insecure and they don’t want to move and change.

“They propose the 2010 elections as a controlled change. They want to make some changes but they want to control the process,” he said.

Elections have been tentatively scheduled for March next year. Many observers see the trial of Suu Kyi as a pretext to keep her in detention beyond the elections.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Burma Locked Out of Region’s Prosperity, Says Gates

2009-06-01T19:33:00.002+06:30

Burma is “one of the isolated, desolate exceptions to the growing prosperity and freedom of the region,” according to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Gates made his comment at a security conference in Singapore, where
Burma’s deputy defense minister, Maj-Gen Aye Myint, tried to deflect criticism of his government and its latest action against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma’s state-run-newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported on Monday that Aye Myint told the conference that Suu Kyi’s trial in Rangoon was an internal Burmese affair.

“Thus, if any country interferes in the internal affairs of another country, that particular act may possibly affect the mutual understanding and friendly relation between countries,” he said.

Gates, however, repeated calls for Suu Kyi’s release. He said, “We need to see real change in Burma—the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the institution of meaningful dialogue between the junta and the opposition.”

Gates said, “We saw Burma's resistance to accept basic humanitarian aid last year following the cyclone, a decision indicative of that country's approach to the rest of the world.”

The Singapore conference, the 8th Shangri-La Dialogue, organized by the city-state’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, brought together defense ministers or their deputies from 27 countries. The situation in Burma and the trial of Suu Kyi were raised by several participants, despite Aye Myint’s objections.

Burma is facing mounting international pressure, also from within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

At an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of foreign ministers in Phnom Penh last week, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win opposed any consideration of the Burma issue, complaining that the gathering “has overlooked the important issue of non-interference.”

Nyan Win declared, “This is an internal legal issue and it is not a human rights issue.”

Despite Nyan Win’s objections, ministers from the European Union and Asean discussed Suu Kyi’s trial and called on the Burmese government to free her and other political prisoners.

Burma’s traditional allies, China and India, are also reportedly concerned about the impact of Suu Kyi’s trial.

The trial is also expected to be an issue at an Asean meeting in South Korea next week.

“Asean leaders will meet and discuss an issue that has received international attention —about a neighboring country—for further cooperation,” said Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose country is currently chairman of the regional grouping.

One human rights expert, Sriprapha Petcharamesree, of Bangkok’s Mahidol University said three Burmese issues—the junta’s response to Cyclone Nargis, refugees, Suu Kyi and other political prisoners—are real threats for the Asean Charter.

irrawaddy

Pinheiro Calls for UN Commission of Inquiry

2009-05-29T04:37:00.000+06:30

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the United Nations special reporteur on human rights in Burma from 2000 to 2008, has called for the Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity by the Burmese junta with a potential indictment by the International Criminal Court.

In a column in The New York Times on Wednesday, Pinheiro said the action could deter future crimes against humanity and address the widespread culture of impunity in Burma.

The UN official said Aung San Suu Kyi should be released immediately along with all of the country's political prisoners as part of a process of national reconciliation.

During the past 15 years, the Burmese Army has destroyed more than 3,300 villages
in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups, Pinheiro said. UN reports indicate that Burmese soldiers have recruited child soldiers, used civilians as minesweepers and forced thousands of villagers into slave labor.

He said in December 2008 a Burmese soldier went into an ethnic Karen village in eastern Burma and abducted, raped and killed a 7-year-old girl.

A UN report in 2000 said that an estimated 625 women were systematically raped in Burma's Shan State over a five-year period.

Pinheiro said that since 1990, UN representatives have visited Burma 37 times in an attempt to facilitate dialogue with the political opposition and promote human rights.

The UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council have passed more than 35 resolutions on Burma, he said, but the UN Security Council has yet to pass a single critical resolution. Permanent members of the Security Council have the right of veto, easily preventing the Security Council from taking critical actions against the Burmese government. China, Russia and India are frequent supporters of Burma.

Meanwhile, a global internet campaign was launched on Tuesday with support from world celebrities for detained pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi (www.64forSuu .org). Video, text, images and twitter messages are available.

Also, human rights campaigners are encouraging well-wishers to enter 64-word messages of support for Suu Kyi before her June 19 birthday on the "64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi" Web site (www.64forsuu.com).

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sent birthday wishes to Suu Kyi on Wednesday, joining the online campaign.

Brown wrote: "I add my voice to the growing chorus of those demanding your release. For too long the world has failed to act in the face of this intolerable injustice. That is now changing. The clamor for your release is growing across Europe, Asia and the entire world. We must do all we can to make this birthday the last you spend without your freedom.”

The online campaign, launched on Wednesday, has already received more than 1,400 messages of support for the pro-democracy leader, Web designer Rachel Collinson told Reuters.

Critics have denounced Suu Kyi's trial as a legal charade designed to keep her in detention during the 2010 national election.

Eleven Nobel Prize Peace laureates appealed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in an open letter on May 18, urging him to take immediate action against the imprisonment of fellow laureate Suu Kyi.

irrawaddy

Obama to Junta: Release Suu Kyi

2009-05-28T00:41:00.000+06:30

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Tuesday called on the Burmese military government to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi unconditionally.

“It is time for the Burmese government to drop all charges against Aung San Suu Kyi and unconditionally release her and her fellow political prisoners,” Obama said, adding that by her actions, “Aung San Suu Kyi has represented profound patriotism, sacrifice and the vision of a democratic and prosperous Burma.”

“Such an action would be an affirmative and significant step on Burma’s part to begin to restore its standing in the eyes of the United States and the world community and to move toward a better future for its people,” Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.

“I call on the Burmese government to release National League for Democracy secretary general and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi from detention immediately and unconditionally,” he said.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued opinions this week affirming that the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, dating back to 2003, is arbitrary, unjustified and in contravention of Burma’s own law. The UN Security Council reaffirmed on May 22 its concern about Suu Kyi in a statement and called for the release of all political prisoners, Obama noted.

Obama said Suu Kyi’s continued detention, isolation and show trial based on spurious charges cast serious doubt on the Burmese regime’s willingness to be a responsible member of the international community.

“This is an important opportunity for the government in Burma to demonstrate that it respects its own laws and its own people, is ready to work with the National League for Democracy and other ethnic and opposition groups, and is prepared to move toward reconciliation,” he said.

Meanwhile, The Elders—a group of eminent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela —on Tuesday repeated its call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi as her latest six-year period of house arrest is due to expire on May 27.

The chair of The Elders, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said: “Despite the latest efforts to exclude and silence our sister Aung San Suu Kyi, she remains a symbol of hope for her nation and the world.”

Former US President Jimmy Carter said Aung San Suu Kyi is a hero for those who believe in human rights and democracy. “Her ongoing detention is a further reflection on the integrity of the government,” he said.

The Elders are currently meeting in Morocco and have kept an empty chair for Aung San Suu Kyi, as they always do. Their discussions covered a range of global issues, including events in Burma. They also urged Asean countries in particular to make it clear to Myanmar’s leaders that their current actions are jeopardizing the legitimacy of elections due in 2010 and the results will not be recognized unless minimum conditions are met.

The conditions are release of all political prisoners, an inclusive national process to review the 2008 constitution and participation by the NLD and other parties in the 2010 election. International observers must also be allowed to supervise the 2010 poll, they said.

irrawaddy

South Africa wishes to send delegation to Burma

2009-05-26T20:44:00.001+06:30

South Africa’s Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Ebrahim Ebrahim on Monday met the Ambassador Designate for Burma, Mr Tin Oo Lwin, and proposed to send a delegation to Burma to facilitate a process of negotiation.

He also expressed South Africa’s continued concern about the rearrest of the leader of the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi and called on her immediate and unconditional release.

Mr Ebrahim said the South African government would like to see Burma returning to civilian rule, with a multi-party and functioning democracy and urged the creation of a normal political climate conducive to free and fair elections.

mizzima

UN Receives Petition with 600,000 Signatures

2009-05-26T20:35:00.000+06:30

A petition with 600,000 signatures in support of the release of all political prisoners in Burma has been sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, accordingly to the
Campaign Committee of the Free Burma’s Political Prisoners (CCFBPP).

The signatures were gathered from more than 150 countries and by more than 200 groups in support of Burma over a 10-week period.

The CCFBPP held a press conference in Bangkok on Tuesday to announce the petition, on this the seventh day of the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese military government.

International condemnation of the trial has been widespread, including unprecedented criticism from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

The petition campaign has been led by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP) and the Forum for Democracy in Burma, representing former political prisoners and pro-democracy activists.

Since October 2008, more than 350 Burmese political activists have been sentenced to harsh sentences of up to 104 years. Burma now has 2,100 political prisoners, according to the AAPP.

Bo Kyi, a co-founder and joint-secretary of the AAPP, said, “We intend to urge the secretary-general to take more measures in the Security Council. It’s time for the international community and for the Burmese people to demand more from the UN.”

A broad-based consortium of Burmese exiles and solidarity groups around the world worked to secure the petition signatures, including Avaaz, an online community of activists.

Avaaz executive director Ricken Patel said, "Aung San Suu Kyi is Burma's Nelson Mandela. The UN secretary-general must insist that her release be the condition for any further international engagement with the Burmese junta."

Since the campaign launched on March 13, commemorating Burma's Human Rights Day, one person has signed the petition every 10 seconds.

irrawaddy

South Africa Urges Burma to Adopt Civilian Rule

2009-05-26T20:34:00.000+06:30

The South African government has called on the Burmese military regime to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saying it wants to see Burma adopt civilian rule under a democratic multiparty system.

The South African stand was delivered by Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ebrahim Ebrahim at a meeting on Monday with Burma’s ambassador designate to Pretoria, Tin Oo Lwin.

Ebrahim said South Africa was ready to assist Burma in a transition to democracy, and he proposed the dispatch to Burma of a delegation tasked with facilitating “a negotiation process among the various political parties."

Ebrahim’s department issued a statement on Friday expressing the South African government’s grave concern at the arrest and trial of Suu Kyi.

The statement called for a free, fair and all-inclusive general election in 2010. It urged the Burmese regime to free all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, to allow them to participate in the electoral process.

“The South African government reiterates its position that the solution to the current challenges facing the people of Burma lies in a negotiated political solution between the government and the opposition, culminating in an all-inclusive free and fair elections,” the statement said.

South Africa was one of the few countries at the UN which voted in January 2007
against an attempt initiated by the US and Britain to raise the Burma issue before the UN Security Council. China and Russia, Security Council permanent members, used their veto powers to block the attempt.

Suu Kyi is a popular figure in South Africa, and her fate has often been likened to Nelson Mandela’s. The South African freedom fighter served many years in prison before the repressive policy of apartheid was abandoned and he became the country’s first black president.

This year, South Africa’s Mahatma Gandhi Foundation awarded its Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Justice to Suu Kyi.

irrawaddy

Unified international approach needed for Burma

2009-05-26T04:15:00.001+06:30

United Nations intervention on the Burma front, supported by regional countries, is desperately needed to implement an inclusive process directed at cracking the existing political impasse, as the ruling junta and opposition groups have yet to be able to chart a path forward themselves.

Mainly because of their own wrongdoings, the ruling generals are frightened of their own people as well as of Aung San Suu Kyi, increasingly feeling insecure about their future and believing in no one.

The junta has already created a state within the state, selfishly misusing the country's natural resources. It is an approach that has found favor with China which, like a vulture, has feasted off a country victimized by its ruling generals for more that four decades. Beijing has said it will not interfere with the country's affairs, observing that events in Burma should be decided by its own people. But how irresponsible and unreasonable is such a stance?

The main barrier to the country's progress is the military government, whose life is primarily supported by the Chinese government, another notorious authoritarian regime. China's long-term interest in Burma is access to the Indian Ocean, through which it is expecting such strategic benefits as a military presence and enhanced trade.

The government-to-government interests of Beijing and Naypyitaw are well matched on the basis of self-interest, resulting in a deadlock in Burma's political progress and a lack of domestic economic opportunities. Exploiting Burma's natural resources such as gas, timber and minerals, Beijing has provided options for the military rulers of its impoverished neighbor.

Burma has become a vassal state of China, realpolitik dooming Burma to existence within the Chinese sphere of influence. The generals understand this and play the China card very well.

The natural wealth of Burma is a curse on the civilians. If Burma were an economic basket case bereft of all natural resources, no country would bother to come in and the military would not be able to fund itself to buy off the loyalty of rank and file soldiers.

The monolithic structure of the Army, which is maintained by Machiavellian-styled generals, rewards the loyal and mercilessly punishes dissenters. For the soldiers, the Army is their benefactor, without which they are like fish out of water. For them it is a case of hanging together or being hanged separately.

Time and again soldiers have fired on opposition elements, including monks, while China, India, ASEAN and all neighboring countries keep on standing by them, hiding behind the political fig leaf of not interfering in the internal affairs of Burma.

Meanwhile, in the capacity of alternate ASEAN chairmanship, Thailand’s recent statement is welcomed as a “policy of engagement with the ruling military." The statement expressed "grave concern" over Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial, also noting that the trial is testing the honor and credibility of the military regime.

But the junta lashed out at the statement, retorting that Thailand was meddling in its internal affairs. It is apparent that the military dictatorship is like a dying man who is unresponsive to any voice or touch, starkly rejecting even international overtures of constructive engagement. It also fears the international community.

Wresting power from military dictators, no matter how corrupt and hated, is a messy thing, and rarely if ever can be successfully pulled off without some form of support from governments abroad.

According to a Burma critic, “It is even more difficult when the rulers are willing and able to use brutal force. Unfortunately, Burma falls squarely into this situation.”

At the end of the day everything lies in the willingness of the ruling clique to enter into talks with the civilians, regardless of their political or ethnic composition.

As long as the soldiers think they alone know what is best for the country and are mired in their fear of retribution, nothing will move forward.

The military is expected to accept civilians as fellow countrymen and not as enemies bent on stringing them up from the nearest lampposts. The biggest obstacle block is the ingrained mentality of the soldiers who see the whole political process in Burma in black and white terms.

Although vocal in exile, the actual strength of the opposition lies inside Burma. However, they need a rallying point and cause for hope.

The best hope lies in trying to get zealous "Young Turk", reform-minded military officers to come around and start to think there is a way, a peaceful and more inclusive way, out of the present structural crisis.

Aung San Suu Kyi is perhaps the only person who can instill this group with the idea that we can all work together for a better tomorrow.

The message should be: “Talk to us. We are not here to destroy you [the generals]. We want you to be involved and be part of building a new nation out of these ashes.”

A recent statement by the U.N. Security Council is also noteworthy, “The future of Burma lies in the hands of its entire people.” However, the people need the practical support of their neighbors as well.

The time is now for Burma's neighbors to fully support the U.N.’s positive intervention – such as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s planned visit – in the Burma issue.

China and Russia veto ‘denies’ Burma progress

2009-05-26T03:58:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–China and Russia’s power of veto in the United Nations Security Council has impeded pressure on progress towards democracy in Burma, said an exiled government official reacting to a UN statement on Burma last week.

On Thursday the UN Security Council (UNSG) released a press statement “expressing concern about the political impact of recent developments relating to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi”.

The statement was read out by the current UNSG president, Vitaly Churkin of Russia.

Russia currently holds the revolving chair of the UNSG.

Critics of the Burmese government, who hold close ties with Russia, have said that the statement is rhetorically too soft in its demand for Suu Kyi’s release.

“We all have seen Russia, throughout time, clinging onto a belief that human rights violations and other issues about Burma are not the Security Council’s concern,” said Dr Thaung Htun, National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma’s (NCGUB) representative to the UN.

The NCGUB is coalition of Burmese political parties, including Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, based in the United States.

“Our…agenda regarding Burma is not reaching point it is supposed to due to denial by China and Russia; the two nations that hold veto power whenever it comes to that,” he said.

China, a key trading partner with Burma and widely regarded as the ruling junta’s closest ally, has so far refused to intervene in the Suu Kyi trial.

“[Burma’s] issue should be decided by the people of [Burma],” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu last week.

Thaung Htun added that he was still waiting for the UNSG to come up with a “solid decision” regarding Suu Kyi’s trial.

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw

France wavers over full EU sanctions on Burma

2009-05-24T20:09:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–France has voiced concerns that the proposed ramping-up of EU sanctions on Burma would hit French oil company Total and therefore a significant proportion of the Burmese population who depend on it for natural gas.

Speaking to French parliament on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Benard Kouchner warned that imposing new sanctions on the regime could have far-reaching consequences.

"The only serious economic lever would obviously be Total," he said, adding that any decision would be decided at the “highest level of state”.

“That would mean cutting off gas supplies to a good part of the Burmese population, not to mention the city of Bangkok, since the gas goes to Thailand.”

The current package of European Union sanctions on Burma do not include bans on investing in Burma’s vast offshore natural gas reserves.

Discussions on sanctions have gathered pace recently, particularly in light of the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with some EU members arguing that sanctions should be toughened.

Yet the comments were countered by advocacy group EarthRights International (ERI), who have a special project set up to monitor the oil and gas industry in Burma. ERI do not advocate either for or against sanctions.

“I think it is accurate to say that nearly all of the gas is exported from Burma, so very little…stays in the country,” said Burma Project coordinator Matthew Smith, adding that it would also have only a minor impact on supplies to Bangkok.

Total is France's most profitable company, and has been a major investor in Burma’s Yadana gas field since 1992.

ERI have called the Yadana pipeline project a “human rights disaster” and “one of the world’s most controversial natural gas development projects”.

Cases of torture, rape, forced labour and murder by security forces guarding the pipeline are well documented.

Kouchner added that a “firm stand” on Total should be taken, but did not specify whether or not the French government wanted the company to leave Burma.

Reporting by Rosalie Smith and AFP

UN Security Council Issues a Statement on Suu Kyi

2009-05-24T20:00:00.000+06:30

WASHINGTON — The 15-member UN Security Council on Friday expressed its concern about the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the current political situation in Burma in a council statement.

The Security Council president for the month of May Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia said: “The members of the Security Council express their concern about the political impact of recent developments relating to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Reaffirming the sentiments of the previous two statements issued by the Security Council in 2007 and 2008, Churkin said the council reiterated the importance of the release of all political prisoners.

However, unlike previous statements of concern, the statement was downgraded from a presidential statement to a statement issued to the press “The members of the Security Council reiterate the need for the Government of Myanmar [Burma] to create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all concerned parties and ethnic groups in order to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation with the support of the United Nations,” he said.

Churkin said the Security Council members affirmed their commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar [Burma] and, said the future of Burma lies in the hands of all of its people.

Talking to reporters outside the Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York, US Alternate Representative for Political Affairs Rosemary A. DiCarlo expressed satisfaction that the statement was issued by the Security Council.

During the past two days, the United States, Britain and France had consulted with other members of the Security Council on the Burma issue.

Because of stiff opposition from two veto-wielding members, the council was only able to issue a council statement on this occasion, she said. The Burmese military junta in the past has simply ignored such statements from the UN.

Asked if she thought the council statement would have any impact on the Burmese military government, DiCarlo said: “We will continue speaking out to get that impact that we need. We know Rome wasn't built in a day, and one statement isn't necessarily going to do the trick. But we will continue to do so.”

Noting that countries who normally do not want to comment on such issues felt the need to comment this time around, the US diplomat said the US-led group obtained some good support from the Asian region.

“As I said, we've worked very collaboratively with other members of the Council. And we've made a very clear statement and tied it very clearly to the developments surrounding Aung San Suu Kyi,” DiCarlo said.

“The Council needed to speak out on this issue and speak with one voice. We've expressed our concern about the political impact of the recent developments related to Aung San Suu Kyi,” she said.

“We've reaffirmed our previous statements and called again for the release of all political prisoners, and made very clear that the Burmese regime needs to create the right conditions for a genuine dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and with other concerned parties,” she said.

Talking to reporters, the British ambassador to the UN, Sir John Sawers, said the recent developments in Burma have “put the spotlight on the inhumanity of the regime” and “their failure” to follow the guidance not just from their neighbors and Asean, but also from all members of the UN Security Council that they should pursue a genuine national reconciliation and should create conditions for that.

“It is inconceivable that the trial and imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi can in any way contribute to that,” he said.

“She is the most prominent of the opposition leaders in Myanmar. She heads the party that won the only credible elections in recent memory in Myanmar and the regime needs to comes to terms with that, but has failed to do so,” Sawers said.

The British ambassador said the statement issued by the Security Council is an important expression of its concern on the recent developments in Burma.

irrawaddy

UN Fails to Investigate War Crimes in Burma: Harvard Report

2009-05-24T19:41:00.000+06:30

A human rights report released by Harvard Law School criticized the United Nations for failing to take effective actions against the Burmese regime and urged the Security Council to set up a commission to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

The report, titled Crimes in Burma, by five of the world’s leading jurists said the UN has not done enough to take action against the Burmese regime for its human right abuses and crimes compare to actions taken in Darfur and Rwanda and called for the UN Security Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

The report came in the wake of renewed international attention on Burma, with the ongoing trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

One of the authors of the report, Tyler Giannini, who is the clinical director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, said in the report, “The UN Security Council has taken action regarding Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sudan when it identified information strongly suggesting the existence of crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

“As our research shows, UN documents clearly and authoritatively suggest that the human rights abuses occurring in Burma are not isolated incidents—they are potential crimes against humanity and war crimes. Failure by the UN Security Council to take action and investigate these crimes could mean that violations of international criminal law will go unchecked,” Giannini said.

The report blamed the UN Security Council of failing to investigate human rights violations and war crimes in Burma for more than fifteen years.

The five jurists wrote in the report’s introduction, “Over and over again, UN resolutions and Special Rapporteurs have spoken out about the abuses that have been reported to them in Burma. The UN Security Council, however, has not moved the process forward as it should and has in similar situations such as those in the former Yugoslavia and Darfur.”

The report is based on an analysis of scores of UN documents, including UN General Assembly and Commission on Human Rights resolutions, as well as reports from several diverse special rapporteurs assigned to Burma.

The reports indicated that human rights abuses in Burma are widespread, systematic and part of the military regime’s policy—legal terms that justify further investigation and strongly suggest Burma’s military regime may be committing crimes against humanity and war crimes prosecutable under international law.

The five jurists who commissioned the report are Judge Richard Goldstone (South Africa), Judge Patricia Wald (United States), Judge Pedro Nikken (Venezuela), Judge Ganzorig Gombosuren (Mongolia) and Sir Geoffrey Nice (United Kingdom).

irrawaddy

EU discusses Burma with China

2009-05-22T04:10:00.000+06:30

New Delhi (Mizzima) - The European Union has talked to China about military ruled Burma, which was one of the regional issues in the bilateral summit held in Prague, capital of Czech Republic on Wednesday.

Burma was among the many issues ranging from global challenges including the financial crisis, climate change, and international affairs which EU officials and Chinese representatives discussed for nearly two hours, according to a Joint Press communique of the 11th China-EU Summit released on May 20.

“Discussions focused on China-EU relations, the global economic and financial crisis, climate change and energy security as well as an exchange of views on regional issues [Korean Peninsula, Myanmar, Iran, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan],” said joint statement of China-EU Summit.

It did not reveal the details of the discussion on Burma by China’s Premier Wen Jiabao led delegates and EU officials represented by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, the rotating EU presidency.

Meanwhile, Harn Yawnghwe, Director of the Brussels based Euro-Burma office said, the main issues in the discussions on Burma in yesterday’s summit could be the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial and seeking the help of China to pressurize the Burmese military regime for political change in Burma.

“Possibly, regarding Burma, they had talked of Aung San Suu Kyi and China’s help to pressurize Burma,” Yawnghwe told Mizzima on Thursday.

However, Deutsche Presse Agentur, on Wednesday reported that EU and China failed to bridge the difference on areas including Myanmar, North Korea, Taiwan, climate change, trade liberalization and minority rights.

Wen Jiabao called on the 27 countries bloc to expand "practical cooperation" instead of pushing China to change its position on international as well as internal affairs, the report said.

EU, which imposed measures such as economic sanctions, an arms embargo and visa ban on Burmese military officials and their family members, on Monday said it is looking for possibilities of applying fresh sanctions against the Burmese regime after Noble Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was put on a trial for an allegedly harbouring a US citizen, John William Yettaw, who swam to her house on May 3 and stayed there for two nights.

The Burmese regime charged Aung San Suu Kyi for violating the terms of detention and accepting Yettaw and providing him food. If she is convicted, she is likely to face up to five years in prison.

Last week, the EU and its foreign minister strongly urged the junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi and engage in an inclusive process of national reconciliation.

Besides, in a bid to make its restriction on Burma effective, the EU foreign ministers and officials said they are looking forward to Burma's giant neighbours, China and India to increase pressure on the regime.

"I don't think additional sanctions will help because you have seen they have not helped," reports quoted the EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner as saying.

“We have to reinforce dialogue with Burma's neighbours ... I think that is the way forward it should always be a subject of discussion with China, India and others,” Waldner said.

However, China, which is a major trading partner and close ally of Burma, holds the view that Burma’s problem should be best addressed internally.

In a press briefing, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu said, "I'd like to point out that the affairs of Myanmar [Burma] should be decided by the people of Myanmar [Burma].”

“As a neighbour of Myanmar [Burma], we hope that the relevant sides in Myanmar[Burma] will use dialogue to achieve reconciliation, stability and development," Ma added.

International reaction

Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial has also triggered criticism of the junta by the international community, including United Nations, United States and ASEAN leaders.

On Tuesday, the Israeli government also joined the call for her release and expressed hope for the restoration of democracy and national reconciliation in Burma.

On May 18, Japan’s foreign minister Hirofumi Nakasone make a personal telephone call and had a conversation with Burmese foreign minister Nyan Win on the matter related to the charges against Aung San Suu Kyi.

Nakasone conveyed Japan’s deep anxiety over the charges brought against Aung San Suu Kyi and warned that the charges would have a great impact on the junta’s ensuing election in 2010.

Similarly, Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State on Wednesday told the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on State and Foreign Affairs that Burma’s 2010 election will be illegitimate if the junta kept treading the same path.

She also said the charge against Aung San Suu Kyi was “baseless.”

Israel concerned over charges against Aung San Suu Kyi

2009-05-21T19:29:00.001+06:30

Israel on Wednesday said it is “deeply concerned” over the new charges against Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her transfer to Insein prison.

The Foreign Ministry of Israel, in a statement on May 20, called on the Burmese government to “release Aung San Suu Kyi immediately” and expressed hopes for the restoration of the democratic and national reconciliation process in the country.

mizzima

Harvard report claims Burma comparable to Darfur!

2009-05-21T19:19:00.000+06:30

May 21, 2009 (DVB)–Human rights atrocities in Burma are comparable to those of Darfur and Yugoslavia and should be addressed more thoroughly through a UN Security Council commission, said a report by the Harvard Law School.

Amid the furore that has erupted this week over the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, the report, entitled ‘Crimes in Burma’, maintains that the underreported situation for Burma’s child soldiers and victims of forced labour and torture warrants significant attention from the UN Security Council (UNSG).

“For too many years, the world has done little to address these human rights abuses,” the report states, adding that the UNSG has been more thorough with their investigations into Dafur, for example, despite elements of the situation in Burma being comparable.

‘Crimes in Burma’ proffers a Commission of Inquiry into Burma by the UN, which has so far relied on a special rapporteur as its main point of contact on human rights abuses.

“[The Commission of Inquiry] would be different from the special rapporteur which is one individual who comes not very often and doesn’t have the same amount of resources that a [Commission] would have,” said Tyler Giannini, Clinical Director from Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, who co-authored the report.

The purpose of the report, written by five prominent international judges, is to present a comprehensive study of UN documents on Burma to the UN Security Council.

The finding of the UN do not exclude the possibility that war crimes are taking place in Burma, said the report.

“So that means, in a legal perspective, that it triggers the possibility of international criminal law violations,” Giannini said.

“Because [the reports] are using legal language such as ‘widespread’ and ‘systematic’, that means that they [the UNSC] should look and see if, in fact, these are violations on the level of war crimes.”

Reporting by Rosalie Smith

Ban says to visit Burma 'as soon as possible'

2009-05-21T19:18:00.001+06:30

(AFP)–United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply concerned" by the trial of Burma democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and would visit Burma as soon as possible to urge the junta's chief to release her.

Ban spoke out as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate faced five years in jail over an incident last month when an American man swam across a lake to her prison home where she has been held for most of the last 19 years.

"I'm going to visit Burma as soon as possible. Now I am very serious in discussing with (the) government of Burma when I could be able to visit Burma," Ban told CNN in an interview filmed on Wednesday.

"I'm deeply concerned about what has been happening in Burma, in terms of democratisation and I'm going to urge again the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi," he said.

"When I go there in person, I'll discuss with senior General Than Shwe and other government officials on this matter," he said, referring to the head of the military regime.

Ban said the UN resident coordinator in Burma, Bishow Parajuli, had attended the third day of Aung San Suu Kyi's trial on Wednesday when the junta briefly opened the hearing up to diplomats and journalists.

"In procedural matters he met Aung San Suu Kyi and he had found that Aung San Suu Kyi was in good, healthy conditions. But, we are again deeply concerned about the detention."

Ban said that it was "unacceptable" for a Nobel Peace Prize winner to be kept in one of Burma's most notorious prisons.

"She's a democracy believer. We have a full support and trust in her. And also, she is indispensable patron for reconsidering the dialogue in Burma," the UN chief added.

The UN says there are more than 2,100 political prisoners still being held in Burma.

The regime refused to recognise a landslide victory by Aung San Suu Kyi's party in the last elections to be held in Burma in 1990. The military has ruled Burma since 1962.