Thursday, April 30, 2009

Burma Named Worst Online Oppressor


"Burma leads the dishonor roll," said the CPJ in its report. "Booming online cultures in many Asian and Middle East nations have led to aggressive government repression."

With a military government that severely restricts Internet access and imprisons people for years for posting critical material on the Internet, Burma is the worst place in the world to be a blogger, the CPJ said in the report "10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger."

The CPJ said that bloggers and online journalists were the single largest professional group unjustly imprisoned in 2008, overtaking print and broadcast journalists for the first time.

China and Vietnam, where burgeoning blogging cultures have encountered extensive monitoring and restrictions, are among Asia’s worst blogging nations, said the report.

Relying on a mix of detentions, regulations and intimidation, authorities in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Egypt have emerged as the leading online oppressors in the Middle East and North Africa.

Cuba and Turkmenistan, nations where Internet access is heavily restricted, round out the dishonor roll on the CPJ list.

Along with censorship and restrictions on print and broadcast media, Burma has applied extensive restrictions on blogging and other Internet activity, the CPJ said.

According to the Internet research group OpenNet Initiative, private Internet penetration in Burma is only about 1 percent and most citizens access the Internet in cybercafés where military authorities heavily regulate activities.

The government, which shut down the Internet altogether during a popular uprising led by Buddhist monks in 2007, has the capability to monitor e-mail and other communication methods and to block users from viewing Web sites of political opposition groups.

At least two Burmese bloggers are now serving long prison sentences.

Blogger Maung Thura, popularly known as Zarganar, is serving a 35-year prison term for disseminating video footage after Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

Nay Phone Latt, 28, is serving eight years and six months in Hpa-an Prison in Karen State for infringement of several acts governing computer use.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

NLD DECALRES (unconditionally released political prisoners) IN THE END OF CHAIR MEETING


The party of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday set stiff conditions for taking part in elections planned for 2010 by the ruling junta, including the release of the detained icon.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) issued a statement after a two-day meeting in Yangon to decide on its stance ahead of the polls, which critics have derided as a sham intended to entrench the generals' power.

The statement said that it "intends to participate in the elections" but only if all political prisoners including leaders of the NLD are "unconditionally" released from jail.

Secondly it also demanded changes to a controversial army-backed constitution approved in May 2008 -- days after Cyclone Nargis ravaged the country -- under which the vote will be held.

The constitution gives the army a major role in any future government.

The third condition set by the NLD was that the elections had to be "inclusive, free and fair" and held under international supervision.

The NLD said it also wanted to be able to study Myanmar's upcoming party registration act and the law relating to the elections.

The military, which has ruled impoverished Myanmar since 1962, has announced the polls next year under its so-called "road map to democracy". Diplomats say the junta may be aiming for a date in March 2010.

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the military never let it take office.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, who won the Nobel prize in 1991, has been detained for most of the past two decades, mostly isolated from the outside world, only receiving visits from her doctor and lawyer.

US SANCTION CONTINUES ON BURMA (VERY UPDATE)


The United States is not considering lifting sanctions against Myanmar as part of a review of policy toward the junta, a State Department official said in a letter seen by AFP on Tuesday.

The State Department presented its position in a letter to a congressman who supports strong pressure against the military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

"The sanctions that the United States and other countries maintain against the regime are an important part of our efforts to support change in Burma," Richard Verma, the assistant secretary for legislative affairs, wrote to Representative Peter King.

Verma, who handles relations between the State Department and Congress, said reports that the United States would lift sanctions were "incorrect."

US President Barack Obama has offered to reach out to US adversaries and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that she wants to find a "better way" to sway Myanmar's military leaders.

"While we are currently reviewing our Burma policy, we can assure you that we remain committed to delivering a firm message on the need for real reform, including the initiation of a credible and inclusive dialogue with the democratic opposition and the release of political prisoners," Verma said.

The junta has kept pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for nearly 20 years. The Nobel laureate led her party to victory in 1990 but the junta never allowed the election to stand.

THE CHAIR OF THE MEETING BY NLD IN RANGOON (HQ)

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONER NOW!


Some of Democratic activists are lunching Signature Campaign in Fort Wayne, Indiana to gear up the strongest pressure from international governments to free all political prisoners who are serving long prison terms without being allowed to defend for notorious Burma’s regime accusation. For the time being, Burma’s military regime is planning to hold general control election in 2010 and launching civil war on Thai-Burma border to KNLA to derail the views of international governments’ pressure. The most active activists in Indiana State of USA are trying to point the real ugly image of Burma’s regime for international societies. The Indiana activists ‘ Signature Campaign is coincident with The whole members’ conference of NLD in Rangoon under stricted control and watch by the regime.
BY ANH

Burmese, Thai Troops Clash


Two Thai soldiers and one civilian were injured and hundreds of villagers were evacuated as soldiers of the Burmese army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) launched a cross border attack along the Thai-Burmese border on Monday, according to Thai media.

The Thai News Agency (TNA) reported that two Thai soldiers and one villager were injured in the border skirmish as more than 200 Burmese troops and DKBA guerrillas engaged in a joint assault on a base of the Karen National Union (KNU) on the Burmese side of the border.

The joint operation against the KNU occurred opposite a Thai village in Phop Phra District in Tak Province near the border. During the operation, Burmese troops crossed into Thailand.

Col Padung Yingpaiboonsuk, the commander of a special task force of the 34th Infantry Regiment of the Royal Thai Army, said at least three mortar shells landed on Thai territory, and the Burmese and DKBA troops clashed with Thai troops near the border, according to the TNA report.

The TNA said that about 200 Thai villagers near the skirmish area were temporarily evacuated to a Buddhist temple.

KNU sources said that since earlier April, Burmese troops along with the DKBA have undertaken a major assault on Valeki, a Burmese camp of the Karen rebel military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).

More than a dozen persons have reportedly died in the clashes, including a KNLA colonel identified as Saw Jay.

Last week, a rumor of a potential attack by the Burmese army and the DKBA spread through Karen refugee camps along the border.

During a visit by the Thai foreign minister to Burma in March, Burmese officials asked Thailand to serve in a mediation role in peace talks with Karen officials. The KNU has fought for Karen autonomy for more than six decades.

On April 6, a meeting in Burma between the Thai foreign minister and KNU representatives occurred in which a letter from Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein was given to the KNU, offering to meet for peace negotiations.

The KNU said at the meeting that any peace talks should be held in a third country.

KNU sources said that the offer could be related to the 2010 Burmese elections in an effort to give more legitimacy to the junta’s election in the eyes of the international community.

However, the KNU said in a statement on Sunday that the election would not be free or fair and renewed its call for the release of all political prisoners and the halt of all military offensives against ethnic minorities.

“We are working for a peaceful, stable, federal Burma,” said the KNU statement. “We stand ready to enter into a genuine tripartite dialogue, as facilitated by the United Nations at any time.”

NLD HOLDS PARTY CONFERENCE IN TWO DECADES UNDER WATCH BY REGIME


Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the regime never let it take office. Critics say the 2010 polls are a sham aimed at entrenching the military's power.

NLD chairman Aung Shwe said in an opening speech that the meeting would discuss the "political situation prevailing in the country" and an army-backed constitution approved in May 2008, under which the vote will be held.

"The result of the discussions will decide whether the NLD will participate in the upcoming national elections," Aung Shwe told the meeting, which was attended by several western diplomats.

He said the NLD wanted a commission of people's representatives to review the constitution, the approval of which came just days after Cyclone Nargis lashed Myanmar last May and left 138,000 people dead or missing.

"The present draft constitution has many flaws. The constitution's main objective is for the propagation of perpetual military rule in this country and therefore is not acceptable," Aung Shwe said.

Party officials said a decision on the elections was likely on Wednesday.

Around 50 security officers in plainclothes were deployed at the party's headquarters. Some filmed or photographed people as they arrived.

The military, which has ruled impoverished Myanmar since 1962, has announced the polls next year under its so-called "roadmap to democracy". Diplomats say the junta may be aiming for a date in March 2010.

The NLD meeting comes a day after the European Union extended sanctions against Myanmar for another year, but said they were ready to ease them and hold talks if there was democratic progress.

The United Nations also has tough sanctions in place against Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Burmese Refugees 'Treated Like a Commodity'



PLEASE READ FULL STORY
Burmese Refugees 'Treated Like a Commodity'
After receiving disturbing reports of trafficking in 2007, committee staff conducted a year-long review of the allegations. The report, "Trafficking and Extortion of Burmese Migrants in Malaysia and Southern Thailand," is based on first person accounts of extortion and trafficking in Malaysia and along the Malaysia-Thailand border. Committee information comes from experiences of Burmese refugees resettled in the United States and other countries.

Many Burmese migrants, escaping extensive human rights abuses perpetrated by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the Burmese military junta, travel to Malaysia to register with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for resettlement to a third country, according to the report.

Once in Malaysia, Burmese migrants are often arrested by Malaysian authorities, whether or not they have registered with the UNHCR and have identification papers. Burmese migrants are reportedly taken by Malaysian government personnel from detention facilities to the Malaysia-Thailand border for deportation.

Upon arrival at the Malaysia-Thailand border, human traffickers reportedly take possession of the migrants and issue ransom demands on an individual basis. Migrants state that freedom is possible only once money demands are met. Specific payment procedures are outlined, which reportedly include bank accounts in Kuala Lumpur to which money should be transferred.

It has become commonplace for the authorities to use the vigilante RELA force to periodically arrest and "deport" Rohingyas, a Muslim minority, but since Burma does not recognize them as citizens, the practice is to take them to the Bukit Kayu Hitam area on the Thai-Malaysia border and force them to cross over into Thailand.

Migrants state that those unable to pay are turned over to human peddlers in Thailand, representing a variety of business interests from fishing boats to brothels.

Human rights activists have long charged that immigration, police and other enforcement officials, have been "trading" Rohingyas to human traffickers in Thailand who then pass them on to deep sea fishing trawler operators in the South China Sea.

"People seeking refuge from oppression in Burma are being abused by Malaysian government officials and human traffickers," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The committee has received numerous reports of sexual assaults against Burmese women by human traffickers along the border. One non-profit organization official states that "Most young women deported to the Thai border are sexually abused, even in front of their husbands, by the syndicates, since no one dares to intervene as they would be shot or stabbed to death in the jungle." Women are generally sold into the sex industry.

"(The Burmese refugees) are treated as a commodity and frequently bought and sold and we have been condemning this practice for a long time," Irene Fernandez, executive director of Tenaganita, a non-profit group that protects migrant workers, told IPS in January. "Our demands have always fallen on deaf ears despite the accumulating evidence of the involvement of uniformed officials in the trade."

The report, the first of three, states that Malaysia does not officially recognize refugees, due in part to concern by the government that official recognition of refugees would encourage more people to enter Malaysia, primarily for economic reasons. Also, Malaysian officials view migrants as a threat to Malaysia's national security.

"Malaysia does not recognize key international agreements on the protection of refugees and foreign nationals. Nor does it apply to foreign migrants the same rights and legal protections given to Malaysian citizens," Fernandez said.

Foreign labor is an integral building block of Malaysia's upward economic mobility.
While Malaysia's total workforce is 11.3 million, there are approximately 2.1 million legal foreign workers and an additional one million illegal workers, though no accurate information is available.

While Malaysia accepts the presence of Burmese and others from outside of the country for the purpose of contributing to the work force, persons identified as refugees and asylum seekers on their way to a third country are viewed as threats to national security.

In an interview with The New York Times, RELA's director-general, Zaidon Asmuni, said, "We have no more Communists at the moment, but we are now facing illegal immigrants. As you know, in Malaysia, illegal immigrants are enemy No. 2."

Many of the approximately 40,000 Burmese refugees who have resettled in the United States since 1995 have come via Malaysia.

In August 2008, committee staff met separately with officials in Malaysia's immigration department and the prime minister's office, to convey the committee's concern regarding the extortion and trafficking allegations. Immigration Director-General Datuk Mahmood Bin Adam and long-time immigration enforcement official Datuk Ishak Haji Mohammed denied the allegations of mistreatment against Burmese migrants at the hands of immigration and other Malaysian officials.

As reported recently in the Malaysia Star, "Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar also denied claims that thousands of illegal foreigners held at detention centres were 'being sold off' to human trafficking syndicates. 'I take offence with the allegation because neither the Malaysian Government nor its officials make money by selling people.'"

However, according to the report, on April 1, 2009, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan stated that an investigation has been launched.

The flow of refugees from Burma to Thailand, Malaysia and other countries has cost Burma's neighbors millions of dollars in food and humanitarian assistance. The committee calls on officials of impacted Asean countries to measure the financial cost of hosting refugees displaced from Burma, and to request financial compensation from Burma's military junta for costs incurred in caring for the refugees.

It asks the government of Malaysia to address the trafficking, selling and slavery of Burmese and other migrants within Malaysia and across its border with Thailand. As a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Malaysia is urged to consider alternatives to detention for refugees and asylum seekers, especially for women and children.

"Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak should act on this US Senate report to protect the rights of refugees and victims of human trafficking," said HRW's Pearson.

The report advises the US, in coordination with other donor countries, to continue providing funds to facilitate sharing of information on human trafficking among authorities of Thailand and Malaysia; and to provide technical and other assistance to the governments of Malaysia and Thailand so that the trafficking of Burmese and other migrants may be more actively pursued and prosecuted.

Friday, April 24, 2009

BURMA'S LOST YEAR


Myanmar is a country of uncommon beauty, full of dilapidated colonial structures slowly crumbling amid the damp swelter of the tropics, each surface and crevice losing ground to the organic pastels of mosses and molds. At night, on low stools beneath the crowded umbrellas of Yangon’s downtown teashops, men sit closely and strum loud acoustic folk melodies, their songs filled with tradition rather than protest. Usually, the only things exploding are the stall piles of papayas, pineapples and mangoes in the heat.
One year ago a social upheaval, sparked by a rise in fuel prices, inspired hope that a chapter would be closing on the world’s longest-running military regime. But the Buddhist clergy and common citizens were quickly beaten back with batons and bullets, and the world moved on.


Two years ago — 11 months before the monks’ rebellion — I sat in one of the few, cramped Internet cafes in Yangon, the former capital, and glanced at my neighbors’ screens — all soft-core porn and foreign news Web sites. When I returned this summer, I found the cafes had become diverse and diffuse, packed with young people gabbing away on G-talk, checking out the social-networking sites Orkut, Hi5 and Friendster. Signs posted openly, even in small towns, explained how to circumvent government censors through proxy servers hosted at www.yoyahoo.com and www.bypassany.com.

Myanmar is like that. Change perspectives and its lost-in-time quality suddenly shifts as well, with a lurch forward. As always against the backdrop of the 2,500-year-old golden Swedegon Pagoda, teenagers now post photos on Facebook while Korean soap operas compete with English Premier League soccer for people’s attention. Cellphone stores proliferate, despite the cost of new connections — $1,500 — from the single, government-owned provider, Myanma Post and Telecommunications. (Black market connections start at about $2,500.)

But the spirit of protest is almost silent.

In fact, the State Peace and Development Council, as the military government renamed itself in 1997, is stronger now than a year ago, having profited from high global food and fuel prices. A few signs of conspicuous consumption by the small urban middle class — satellite TV dishes, hip-hop music and fashions — are seeping down from the much smaller class of multimillionaire businessmen directly tied to the junta’s chairman, Than Shwe.

Meanwhile, the broad mass of 50 million people remain among the poorest in the world. Myanmar ranks 132 out of 177 countries in the 2007 United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index. Most experts, who doubt the government’s statistics, think the reality is worse.

Myanmar is also one of the only countries to be publicly denounced for human rights abuses by the otherwise confidential and neutral International Committee of the Red Cross. According to Amnesty International, more than 2,100 political prisoners languish in Myanmar’s jails, about 1,000 having been locked up in the past year.

But more than ever, satellite TV and the Internet are making people aware of their government’s glacial pace of progress. One young woman told me that during last year’s uprisings, she was on the streets one day, shouting antigovernment slogans, and the next day stayed in, fearing a stray bullet, as she watched the blood-soaked crackdown live on Al Jazeera television.

Democracy advocates in exile hold out hope that China, which is Myanmar’s largest trading partner and its ally on the United Nations Security Council, could become the linchpin for changes in the regime.

But most Burmese I spoke with on my two-week visit didn’t think China would ever yield to Western pleading for it to play such a role. Business with China is booming, in fact, partly because tighter Western sanctions have made the junta more dependent on China for diplomatic support, as well as arms and consumer goods.

Despite being awash in foreign currency, Myanmar’s government has yet to invest heavily in manufacturing. Instead, Myanmar’s big-ticket industries are based on extracting natural resources. Last year, sales of natural gas brought in about $3 billion, sales of jade an estimated $400 million. But the major enterprises operate in deep secrecy, and recently Transparency International once again listed Myanmar as one of the world’s most corrupt countries.

In essence, the country runs like a mafia, from the languid tea shops of Yangon to the remote jungle areas of Kachin state in Upper Burma, where the mining town of Hpakant provides much of the world’s jade. There I met Sai Joseph, a gregarious and entrepreneurial family man who manages one midsize jade company. “There are only a few wealthy people in Myanmar,” he told me, “those who get in with the political people, the authorities who have power.”

Hpakant is connected to the outside world by a single crumbling road, 16 hours through the jungle to the closest transport hub during the rainy season. Along the way abandoned wooden oxcarts litter the road between shuttered towns. Red road signs announce, like a cruel joke, “Government has arranged for road repair from each company in Hpakant.”
Hpakant itself is set among denuded hills that are slowly eaten away by the mining town machinery. Green plant life bursts forth where it can among these scars, but most of the landscape is an excavation site, undulating for miles, with perhaps 3,000 separate mines. More than 450 private companies operate there, as well as about 100 joint ventures, most of them owned by Burmese of Chinese heritage. Like many once-illegal activities, jade mining now enjoys the full support of the junta, which takes a cut of the profits while leaving miners diseased and destitute. As I tried, without success, to confirm reports that jade miners are paid in heroin, I was quickly apprehended, marched back to the regional capital and eventually deported.
In one sense, things have improved in recent years. Once a scene from Dante’s hell — the few outsiders who visited sometimes described thousands upon thousands of half-naked men, women and children clawing into the rock in search of jade — the mining is now a largely mechanical process executed by industrial backhoes and dump trucks. A few mines still employ human diggers, and earlier this year one such site collapsed, killing 20.

Just before the Beijing Olympics, President Bush signed the Burma Jade Act, adding Myanmar’s jade and rubies to the long list of goods that cannot be imported legally to the United States. But jade sellers in Yangon largely shrugged off the ban, citing booming business with China, India, Thailand, Singapore and Arab Gulf states.

Late last month, Earth Rights International, a Thailand-based environmental and human rights organization, issued a report detailing the investments of 69 Chinese multinationals in 90 hydropower, oil, gas and mining projects. “The regime has successfully convinced these companies that nothing will compromise its grip on political power,” says Matthew Smith, an Earth Rights project coordinator.

So for now, Myanmar’s people struggle with their daily lives, negotiating the labyrinth of power and money. New gadgets and fashions filter through to a few people in the main cities, but even they, like the bulk of Burmese, simply work and wait, patient and passive.

Who, after all, could be expected to choose the immediate prospects of a firing squad over the distant promise of an MP3?

EU HAS TO GEAR UP SANCTION ON REGIME FOR ONE MORE YEAR


EU foreign ministers are set on Monday to prolong sanctions against Myanmar, while expressing their readiness to ease them and hold high-level talks if there is "genuine progress".

The European Union "deems it necessary to extend the current EU common position by another year, including the restrictive measures," reads a draft text to be adopted by the foreign ministers when they meet Monday in Luxembourg.

The 27-nation bloc "underlines its readiness to revise, amend or reinforce the measures it has already adopted in light of developments on the ground," the draft text adds.

The EU member states will also renew their perennial call for the immediate release of all political prisoners -- especially opposition leader and Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi --- and for "a peaceful transition to a legitimate civilian system of government.

The Myanmar military seized power in 1962 and maintains virtually total control on every aspect of life in the nation, formerly known as Burma.

The EU sanctions -- in place since 2006 -- include a travel ban and the freezing of assets of Myanmar's leaders and their relatives, as well as a ban on arms exports to Yangon.

The sanctions also limit diplomatic relations between the Southeast Asian nation and the European bloc.

The decision to renew the sanctions puts paid to any lingering hopes of a rapprochement which were fostered last month when the EU's senior Myanmar envoy said the European Union could consider easing its sanctions in April if it sees democratic progress.

Those sanctions were increased in 2007, due to a crackdown on Buddhist protests, to include a ban on timber, metals, minerals, precious stones from Myanmar and a ban on new investment in Myanmar companies operating in these sectors.

European and other nations are now looking forward to a general election to be held in Myanmar next year as a chance for the junta to ease its grip on power.

However the Myanmar authorities "have still to take the steps necessary to make the planned 2010 elections a credible, transparent and inclusive process based on international standards," the EU document said.

The text stresses that "the EU stands ready to respond positively to genuine progress in Burma/Myanmar," offering the possibility of ministerial level dialogue on their margins of an ASEM foreign ministers meeting in Hanoi next month.

US NEEDS MORE TIGHTEN ON BURMA (SPECIAL UPDATE)

POSTED BY ANH
Burma Expert Urges US to Tighten Sanctions

Accusing the Burmese regime of looting the country, a prominent world expert on Burma urged the US on Thursday to tighten its economic sanctions policy against the junta.

Further financial sanctions were necessary to protect Burma against the wholesale theft of its financial and natural resources, Dr Sean Turnell, an Associate Professor of Economics at MacQuarie University in Australia, told a US congressional hearing.

Turnell charged that foreign exchange revenue from Burma’s exports of natural gas were being disposed of offshore in ways that brought about the least advantage to the Burmese people.

Testifying before a hearing by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on “Human Rights Abuses in Burma,” Turnell said: “Now is decidedly not the time to lift the economic sanctions levied against a regime that, for nearly fifty years, has impoverished as it has abused in other ways, the people of Burma.” If sanctions were lifted, he said, it would only help the regime increase its stranglehold on the country.

Turnell, who also heads “Burma Economy Watch,” reminded the panel that Burma remained a centre of “prime money laundering concern,” according to the OECD and other international agencies.

The administration of President Barack Obama has announced it is reviewing US policy on Burma, and there have also been moves within the EC for a review of European sanctions against Burma.

Western opponents of sanctions argue they hit innocent Burmese people harder than the regime, but Turnell challenged this view.

“Sanctions are not the cause of Burma’s poverty, nor do they obstruct the country’s military regime from engaging in economic reform or from applying policies conducive to economic growth,” he argued.

“The most significant ‘sanctioner’ on Burma is none other than the country’s ruling regime itself, which has created an environment in which genuine transformative economic activity is scarcely possible, let alone similarly efficacious foreign investment or trade.”

Burma’s internal political-economy denied the country access to the international economy, and from the potential gains from the international division of labour so effectively exploited by its neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and by countries such as China, Turnell said.

Claiming that Burma’s state is almost wholly predatory, and is not so much parasitic of its host as all-consuming, he said: “If in other countries ruling regimes behave occasionally as racketeers in skimming a ‘cut’ from prosperous business, then Burma’s is more like a looter—destroying what it can neither create nor understand.”

Financial sanctions, Turnell said, are extraordinarily well-targeted. The average person in Burma has no access to a bank account, much less a need or desire to engage the international financial system.

This is not true for the members of the SPDC or the elite connected to them, said Turnell. As such, the denial of access to the US financial system to this group sends precisely the right signal, to precisely the right people, he added.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

UK AMBASSADOR'S VIEW AND CHILD SOLDIER IN BURMA (BY THE UN REPORT)


Citing the ruling junta’s intensifying crackdown on dissent over the past two years, Canning described Burma as “one of the most repressive places in the world,” with more than 2,100 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

At the panel discussion to discuss developments in Burma since Cyclone Nargis hit the country almost exactly one year ago, Canning said that the international response to the deadly cyclone has done little to change the regime’s attitude, but there is still hope that it could have some positive effect in the long run.

However, the ambassador said that the signs are not encouraging as the junta prepares for national elections to be held sometime next year. Critics say that polling is unlikely to be free and fair because the junta is intent on eliminating any genuine opposition ahead of the vote, which will be based on a constitution approved last year in a referendum widely dismissed as a sham.

Although he stressed the need for a political solution to ease the country’s deepening social and economic woes, the ambassador also said that it was important for the international community to continue assisting people inside Burma.

Canning, who has served as the UK’s ambassador to Burma since 2006, was joined on the panel by Chris Kaye, the World Food Program’s country director for Burma, and Frank Smithius, the country director and medical coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (Holland).

The panel discussion was recorded for broadcast by the BBC program “Question Time” to mark the one-year anniversary of Cyclone Nargis. Organizers said that Burmese aid workers declined an invitation to take part in the discussion after learning that it would air on the BBC.

**********Child Soldiers Still Common in Burma: UN Report *****************

The report accuses both the Burmese junta and an array of armed ethnic groups, including ceasefire groups and active anti-government forces, of continuing to engage in the practice of recruiting child soldiers.
Apart from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the Karenni Army (KA) and the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), all of the armed ethnic groups singled out in the report have signed ceasefire agreements with the Burmese regime.

The ceasefire groups implicated in the report include the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), the Karen National Union-Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council (KNU/KNLA PC), the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the Karenni National People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the United Wa State Army (UWSA).

The non-ceasefire KNLA and KA are the only groups that have sought to conclude an action plan with the UN to end recruitment of child soldiers, according to the report. But the report, authored by Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, adds that the UN has been prevented from establishing a formal dialogue with these groups by the Burmese military junta.

The 51-page report, which documents recruitment of child soldiers around the globe, further alleges that the Burmese military junta has denied humanitarian access to children during the reporting period.

The report also refers to a meeting between UNICEF officials and Wa authorities in early 2008, during which the UN officials visited two military camps where the UWSA was managing and running four primary schools. “This is worrisome, given the allegations of their recruitment and use of child soldiers,” the report said.

The Wa denied that the students were given military training and explained that the children were dressed in military uniforms because they were orphans, street children or children from poor families who could not afford other clothing. No further assessment was carried out and there has been no further contact with the Wa authorities, the report said.

Reports from camps along the Thai-Burmese border found one case of a child recruited by the KNU and three cases of children associated with the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the political wing of the KA, the UN report said. A monitoring and reporting mechanism has been established in all nine refugee camps along the border in order to improve the verification of cases and raise awareness of the issue of child soldiers among camp residents, it said.

Referring to official reports shared by the junta, the UN report said the Burmese government continues to screen and release underage children found in its armed forces during the training process. The junta reported that 68 children were detected in various military training schools and were released to their parents and guardians.

The 68 cases included 12 children who were released through the International Labor Organization (ILO) mechanism, one released and reported to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and two released and reported to the ILO and ICRC.

The ILO, through its mechanism to eliminate the use of forced labor, has verified the release of 23 children, mostly from involuntary military enrolment, based on complaints filed by parents and relatives.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Chinese military official says to enhance co-op with Myanmar


China is willing to maintain and enhance friendly military cooperation with Myanmar, said Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army Chen Bingde in Beijing Monday.

Chen made the remarks in a meeting with Tin Aye, member of Myanmar's State Peace and Development Council.

Chen said that China and Myanmar, with a long-term traditional friendship and comprehensive interests, have great promise for cooperation. Both countries should maintain close communication and cooperation to safeguard the security of their nations and regional stability.

China, as a good neighbor and friend of Myanmar, sincerely hoped that Myanmar could achieve social stability, economic development and national reconciliation, said Chen.

"China is willing to further maintain and strengthen friendly military cooperation with Myanmar," he added.

Tin Aye said that Myanmar and China had always respected and supported each other.

Myanmar appreciated China's support for its economic and social progress and hoped to further cement and develop friendly bilateral relations.

Tin Aye stressed that Myanmar would firmly support China's stance on issues relating to Taiwan and Tibet.

UNHAPPY ASEAN SUMMIT TO BE HOLD


************Asian summit to be held in Phuket********************************

Published: 21/04/2009 at 03:36 PM Pattaya mayor Itthiphol Khunpluem failed to convince Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to give the eastern seaboard tourist city a second chance to host the aborted summit of Asian nations on Tuesday.

Mr Itthiphol went cap in hand to see Mr Abhisit on Tuesday morning and asked him to reschedule the summit in Pattaya as soon as possible.


The visit was seen as a bid to restore Pattaya's image as a safe tourist destination, despite the red-shirt rampage which caused the cancellation of the 14th Asean Summit at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort Hotel there on April 11.

Mr Itthiphol emerged from the meeting and informed reporters Mr Abhisit told him it was not possible to resume the summits anywhere at the moment because of the political situation.


But Mr Abhisit later attended a cabinet meeting and afterwards announced the
the cabinet favoured holding the rescheduled regional meeting on the southern resort island of Phuket, a major competitor to Pattaya in the tourist stakes.


He said Asean leaders accepted the need for a resumption of the summits, and had expressed no preference where they should be held.




"We expect the summits to be held in June, possibly in Phuket," he said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said Thailand was consulting the other nine members of Asean as well as dialogue partners China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and the United Nations, on a new date for the postponed meetings.

"It could be at the end of May, or in June," Mr Tharit said. "There are several alternatives
It will be Thailand's third attempt to host the Asian leaders' meetings. The first, in Chiang Mai was cancelled before it occured because of the political turmoil.


The Pattaya meetings collapsed after most leaders had already arrived.


The Pattaya mayor said he also informed the prime minister that the management of the Royal Cliff Beach hotel plans to sue the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, which institgated the red-shirt protests, for 10 million baht in damages because of the cancellation of the regional meeting.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

REGIME INVITES CHINESE BUSSINESS MORE AND MORE



Myanmar PM invites more Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Myanmar

Myanmar's Prime Minister Thein Sein Sunday expressed thanks for the help the Chinese government has offered to Myanmar and hoped more Chinese entrepreneurs would make investment in Myanmar.

Thein Sein made the comments during his visit in Xiamen, capital city of southeast China's Fujian Province, from April 18 to 20.

China and Myanmar have carried out cooperation in the fields of oil and gas, hydropower and mining, which not only brought benefits to the two countries but also promoted the friendship between the two nations, Thein Sein said.

Fujian governor Huang Xiaojing said there were plenty of room to promote wide-ranging cooperation in areas including mining, infrastructure, hydropower and agriculture between Fujian and Myanmar. Huang hoped the two sides would enhance exchange and cooperation in the future.

Thein Sein led a group of 34 people to Xiamen after attending the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia in Boao, Hainan Province. The group was to fly to Kunming on Monday morning.

Friday, April 17, 2009

PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT APPEALS TO FREE DAW SUU AND BURMA CYCLONE WARNING


Myanmar weather officials issued a cyclone warning Friday, urging residents in the western coastal region to stay away from the sea for two days until the storm passed.

The military-run government's meteorological department issued the advice on its website following updates from the United Nations' weather monitoring centre.

"All vessels... in Myanmar waters along the Rakhine coast are advised to take precautionary measures by navigating away from the area exposed to the threat from rough seas and strong winds until 18 April 2009," it said.

The UN World Meteorological Organisation said that Cyclone Bijli was currently located over the Bay of Bengal "and is likely to intensify further."

"The current forecast indicates that the tropical depression will seriously affect the coasts of India, Bangladesh and northern Myanmar," it warned.

A Myanmar radio report said tidal surges six to eight feet (about two metres) high were expected and put the threat from the cyclone at "orange," which is medium-level.

"When the cyclone crosses, the surface wind speed could reach 60 to 75 miles per hour and the sea will be rough," the radio announcer said.

Myanmar was hit by a severe cyclone one year ago that left an estimated 138,000 people dead or missing and affected some 2.4 million people, mostly in the southwest delta region.

But despite a huge international relief push, the secretive ruling junta stalled on issuing visas to foreign aid workers and blocked some humanitarian supplies from entering the country, drawing worldwide condemnation.


*************Philippines urges Myanmar to free Suu Kyi******************************
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made the appeal in a meeting last week with Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein on the sidelines of an aborted Asian summit in Thailand, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said Friday.

Arroyo urged Myanmar to release Suu Kyi in May, when the extension of her house arrest expires, saying it would create "tremendous goodwill for Myanmar from the international community," the department said in a statement.

Arroyo, who has survived four coup attempts and three impeachment bids, suggested that the junta consider following her approach of reaching out to the opposition "in the spirit of reconciliation and national unity," it said.

"As a neighbor of Myanmar, the Philippines has a deep sense of friendship with the people of Myanmar. We only have your country and your people's welfare at heart. This is the single, most concrete piece of advice and experience I can share with you," the statement quoted Arroyo as saying.

It said Thein Sein expressed appreciation for Arroyo's suggestions and said his government would take them into account.

He said his government is committed to its program of democratization and reconciliation, citing the adoption of a new constitution last year as a "critical first step." The government also is preparing for general elections next year, he added.

The constitution, drafted under the junta's influence without input from the pro-democracy movement, was passed by a national referendum last May, but the opposition charges that the vote was unfair.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing pro-democracy demonstrations and killing as many as 3,000 people.

It called elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results when Suu Kyi's party won overwhelmingly. Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest.

Last week's Asian summit in Thailand was canceled when anti-government demonstrators stormed the seaside venue.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

US women senators urge UN pressure on Myanmar/ And KNLA Fights Burmese Army and DKBA


A group of women US Senators urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon in a letter released Tuesday to step up pressure on Myanmar's ruling junta to scrap elections plans and free democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The lawmakers, 10 of the chamber's 17 women, urged the secretary general to publicly urge the military regime to end human rights abuses, "eliminate rape as an instrument of war" and bring violators to justice.

"We must not allow this regime to continue to commit such dire crimes unabated while the people of Burma continue to suffer," they wrote in the letter, which was dated April 9.

The senators urged Ban to call on the junta in Myanmar, which Washington refers to as Burma, to "release Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally."

They also pressed him to ask the military to "abandon plans" to hold elections in 2010 under a much-criticized new constitution approved in May 2008, after Cyclone Nargis devastated southern parts of the country and left 138,000 people dead or missing.

"The upcoming election is based on a unilaterally drafted constitution that violates international law and entrenches gender discrimination in Burma," the US senators wrote.

"The constitution in its current form precludes women from holding high-level government positions and attempts to give amnesty to the military junta and thus deny access to justice for the victims of the military regime's systematic sexual violence against ethnic minority women," they said.

And they said Ban should urge the junta to "facilitate" a "dialogue towards national reconciliation" grouping Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the military regime, and ethnic nationality representatives.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and is under tough sanctions by the US and European countries because of its human rights records and continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose opposition party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections that the junta set aside.

The letter was signed by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Patty Murray, Olympia Snowe, Blanche Lincoln, Maria Cantwell, Susan Collins, Barbara Boxer, Amy Klobuchar, Barbara Mikulski, and Lisa Murkowski.


**************KNLA fights Burmese Army and DKBA *****************************

Wednesday, 15 April 2009 00:46

- Fighting broke out tonight at the Karen National Liberation Army's base camp in Wah Lay Kee between the KNLA’s 201st Brigade, the Burma Army and its allies the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

Speaking at a border location at about 7.15 pm Colonel Nerdah Mya said the fighting was expected to carry on into the night.

For months now the camp has been on tenterhooks, with both DKBA and junta troops maintaining forward positions nearby.

The KNLA lost the camp once last year, but reclaimed it within a matter of days.

Colonel Nerdah said the Burmese Army and DKBA troops were now maintaining forward posts armed with heavy armour that was capable of hitting the main base camp at any time.

THE ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION OF US STATE DEPARTMENT NAD SEVERAL BURMESE DEMOCRATIC ACTIVISTS



PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Monday, April 13, 2009

Burma junta presses military for support/ The Festival under Watch


The whisky has flowed since early morning and teens in water-soaked clothing dance to pulsating music in the streets. A typically reserved woman good-naturedly takes a foreigner by the shirt collar and pours a bottle of water down the back of his neck.

"It's water festival. Best time of year," a man in his early 20s explains in stilted English, jiggling in his hand a plastic bottle of whiskey although it is only midmorning.

Many Buddhists who frown on excessive drinking make a spectacular exception during the four-day water festival known as Thingyan _ a celebration of public disorder that Myanmar's ruling junta has learned it must warily endure.

Myanmar, like its neighbors Thailand and Laos, ushers in the Buddhist New Year with the water fights _ held annually during the hottest month of the year.

Although the holiday, which began Monday, was once celebrated with the gentle sprinkling of scented water, it now see battles with high-powered hoses and revelers dancing en masse to hip-hop music.

Every year, the government warns that misbehavior and immodest dress will not be tolerated, but the warnings are ignored by a repressed, socially conservative people who are determined to let their hair down.

"Rules come out every year, but who cares about rules," said Thin Thiri, a 17-year-old girl who dyed her hair red for the occasion. "Thingyan comes only once a year and we won't let regulations ruin such fun."

Police officers in sodden trousers battle to keep traffic flowing through flooded streets. The military are tolerant but nervous. Soldiers waiting in the backs of parked trucks wear combat helmets and are armed with automatic rifles.

Young children love it and so do the teens and 20-somethings who often use the occasion to dress like rock and roll rebels. It is a marked departure from the regularly conservative dress code of Yangon's streets.

"We let go of the bad things that have happened and look forward to a better year," said a saturated man in his 20s, who gave his name only as Nandar.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing pro-democracy demonstrations and killing as many as 3,000 people. It called elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results when pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party won overwhelmingly. Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest.
**************************
*********************Myanmar junta presses military for support*********************
Myanmar's junta deputy leader General Maung Aye has urged military officers to take responsibility for the success of elections planned for next year, a state newspaper said.

In a speech at a graduation ceremony for new officers, the general told recruits that it was their job to ensure the country's transition to a mature democracy, the New Light of Myanmar reported.

"I would say you are responsible for the democratic transition, in cooperation with the people, to ensure the successful completion of 2010 elections," Maung Aye told the gathering in the military town of Bahtoo in Shan State.

"Some countries have faced instability and electoral violence because political parties attacked one another in canvassing for votes... because their democracy had not been mature enough," he was quoted as saying.

The military government has announced the polls next year under its so-called "roadmap to democracy" but critics have denounced the vote as a sham designed to entrench the generals' rule.

The elections are to be held under a new constitution that was approved in May last year, days after Cyclone Nargis devastated southern regions of the country and left 138,000 people dead or missing.

Officials estimate there are at least 500,000 members of the armed forces in this nation of 57.5 million people.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and is under tough sanctions by the US and European countries because of its human rights records and continued detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta did not allow it to take office.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

PHILIPPINES URGE REGIME TO PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS AND US IS FINDING FOR NEW WAY TO APPROACH TO BURMA


The Association of Southeast Asian Nations plans to launch a landmark human rights body in October during an annual summit. But diplomats have acknowledged it will have no power to investigate and punish violators.

Constrained by the 10-member bloc's bedrock policy of noninterference in each other's domestic affairs, the body cannot force compliance. Still, its creation has been hailed as a milestone for a region with a long history of human rights atrocities.

Romulo singled out military-ruled Myanmar for its dismal rights record and said ASEAN must recognize that it has human rights problems and think about how it can protect "basic freedoms" to give the regional rights body "an auspicious beginning."

Myanmar has long been a source of embarrassment for ASEAN, which has repeatedly criticized its ruling generals but chose to engage it politically rather than ostracize it. The Philippines, along with Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, is among the most vocal critics of the junta within the grouping, which was founded in 1967.

"Since its acceptance into the ASEAN family in 1997, Myanmar has stated its commitment to democracy and to embark on a national reconciliation process," Romulo said in a statement. "Fulfilling these commitments would be showing true progress."

Carrying out its promise before the rights body's launch would make the body "credible not only to the world community but more importantly to our own peoples," said Romulo

Romulo also reiterated his call for Myanmar's ruling junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and allow the unconditional participation of her party, the National League for Democracy, in free national elections.

ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It admitted Myanmar in 1997, despite strong opposition from Western nations.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
U.S. advocates for a common approach to Burma

During the conference, organized by the think-tank National Bureau of Asian Research and entitled Engaging Asia 2009: Strategies for Success, senior policy leaders and advisors offered analyses of the economic and strategic trends in Asia - with a special focus on implications for the development of effective U.S. policy.

"Viewing relations with a notorious authoritarian regime like Burma as a zero-sum game is in no nation's interest," Steinberg told the National Bureau of Asian Research.

"We want to discuss a common approach with ASEAN, with China, with India and with Japan to find a policy that will improve the lives of the people of Burma and promote stability in this key region," he iterated.

Steinberg said that despite the U.S. reviewing its Burma policy, American "core objectives" would remain unaltered, including the continued search for a "more open" Burma that respects the rights of its people and is integrated into the global economy.

"We all have a common interest in working together to reach a constructive solution that convinces the junta that the path they are pursuing is not in their interest," he prospered.

He said Burma was an issue on which the United States was open to setting up new "flexible" frameworks similar to the six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program.

"The solution to many global problems will not always be in creating new formal institutions or new bureaucracies," he said.

ASEAN countries have historically pursued a policy of “constructive engagement” regarding Burma, focusing on efforts to build economic and political ties. Such an approach has to date been diametrically opposed to U.S. policy, which seeks to pressure Burma's government into political reform through economic sanctions and political ostracism.

For some two decades, Congress and various administrations have imposed economic sanctions and aid restrictions against Burma's military junta. However, persistent questions have arisen as to whether a policy of isolation and pressure has resulted in any lessening of the junta's iron grip over the impoverished country.

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, during her Asian tour last month hinted that the Obama administration is rethinking its policy on Burma, as it is clearly proven that economic sanctions on the military regime have not yielded the desired result.

The first visible signal of a potential reorientation in U.S. policy towards Burma came last week with the rare visit of a U.S. diplomat to Burma's administrative capital of Naypyitaw, where he met with senior members of the junta, including Foreign Minister Nyan Win.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

BURMA REGIME OFFICIAL INVOLVED IN HUMAN TRCFFICKING BUSINESS : SHOWN UP BY INVESTIGATORS


Maungdaw District PDC Chairman U Than Tin and local Immigration Department Chief Major Aung Gyi took No. 5 Ward PDC Chairman U Nidalan to their headquarters in Maungdaw Township on March 24th for questioning.

"For the time being only the Ward No. 5 Chairman is being interrogated. However, we have heard that the crime was not committed by him alone. The local immigration chief and District PDC Chairman are also involved in the case. These people will be interrogated later," a clerk from the Maungdaw PDC office told Mizzima.

U Nidalan is reputed to have taken 20,000 kyat (approx. US$ 20) from each of about 70 Rohingya on January 10, 2009, before sending them across the border to Teknaf in Bangladesh, he added.

However, the accused was later released following questioning.

MD Kamal Hossion from Nyaungchaung village said that the human trafficking victims consisted of 30 people from Musa village, 15 each from Maungnipyin and Shwesa villages and 5 from Maungdaw's No. 5 Ward. They had planned to travel to Malaysia via Bangladesh.

Similarly, a local resident of Sittwe close to the Yechanpyin naval base told Mizzima that another case of extortion occurred on March 9. In this instance, 40 Rohingya were in exchange reportedly told that Sittwe security forces would turn a blind eye to their illegal migration to a foreign country.
"Electrical technician Ko Than Maung, working with the Garrison Engineer Unit in Sittwe, extorted money from these victims by telling the refugees they would let them cross the sea and go to Malaysia if they agreed to pay 200,000 kyat (US$ 200) each," he said.

The 40 Rohingya victims in the latter case, 25 of whom were women, hailed from Thetkepyin, Thechaung and Tapaing villages of Sittwe Township.

After taking a 100,000 kyat advance payment from each victim, the case was exposed and Ko Than Maung later fled Sittwe after police officer Bo Toe Nyunt of the No. 2 Sittwe Police Station began searching for him based on a tip off, a local resident from Sittwe added.

None of the money was recovered.

Moreover, since March 25, local authorities have been conducting a door to door campaign of checking national ID cards and household registration cards in some wards in Maungdaw Township.

"They checked the families against the household registration. They inquired and investigated and they made note if there were some discrepancies in the list and the actual family members. Families had to pay a 3,000 kyat (US$ 3) fine each if they wished to change their household registration card," a local resident of Maungdaw, Ko Tun Kyaw, explained.

The exodus to foreign countries, by all possible means, of Muslims living in Rakhine state of western Burma, has in recent months led to heightened tensions and problems throughout the region.