Burma Update

Gustavo Capdevila
Fri Jun 25th, 2004


The erratic process of democratisation in Burma has accelerated, given some ''interesting'' new signals, says Brazilian jurist Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, special rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the situation in this country, also known as Myanmar.

Pinheiro, who on June 1 had said he was ''disappointed with the lack of cooperation'' from the military government, told IPS that he found ''some interesting new changes'' in the National Convention process, which the junta convened to draw up a new constitution.

Since the National Convention got under way on May 17, Pinheiro has been following the events through reports from the region and in the press, because the Burmese government refused to authorise the May 31- June 13 visit to Rangoon that the UN Commission had asked the rapporteur to make.

In his latest public communiqué, June 1, Pinheiro criticised the military junta saying ''necessary steps have not been taken to ensure minimum democratic conditions'' to reconvene the National Convention sessions.

Without the participation of the National League of Democracy (NLD), the leading opposition force which won 80 percent of the vote in the 1990 elections, and without the participation of other political parties, the process is not ''genuinely free, transparent (or) inclusive,'' Pinheiro said at the time.

Cautious reaction

But the special rapporteur now believes that the National Convention has seen ''some interesting developments,'' such as the participation of ethnic groups - as many as 400. The representatives of those communities have been given the opportunity to distribute their documents and present their ideas to the assembly, he said.

Pinheiro, who has visited the country of 49 million people seven times as envoy of the UN Commission on Human Rights, has always reacted cautiously to the military junta's announcements of democratising measures.

His stance contrasted with the more accommodating attitude of former Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail, special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for tracking the evolution of Burma's political situation.

But now it is Pinheiro who is finding reasons for optimism. ''I am seeing that both on the government and NLD sides there is a space'' for loosening their tense relationship, he said.

He added that he will follow the process and ''this week will continue contacts with the Burmese authorities with sights on a future visit.''

The strategy of the Brazilian jurist is to insist to the military junta that it would benefit them to have their views included in his report to the UN.

Sources from the international human rights arena believe the pressure from Pinheiro could create a division in the Burmese government, which has already shown signs of internal differences in the way it treats the NLD, despite intransigence on the continued house arrest of the party's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate.

The Pinheiro report is to be presented in late July for inclusion in the documents for the next UN General Assembly in September.

Ongoing contacts

''I'm saying to the Myanmar government that it is in its best interest for me to hear directly the things that I am learning outside the country,'' he said.

When the rapporteur mentions information he receives on Burma, he is referring to the ongoing contacts in recent weeks in Bangkok with ambassadors and civil society groups from the region.

Pinheiro paid a courtesy call to Rangoon's ambassador in London and hopes to meet this week with junta's chief diplomat assigned to the international agencies in Geneva.

''I think it is important that the report include not only my evaluation but also the government's points of view, which would be reflected in an honest way in the document,'' he said.

The report could be more complete and detailed if he were allowed to visit Burma. Otherwise, the text will be based entirely on second-hand information, ''which I don't believe is in the country's best interest,'' he said.

Burma's military junta has held power since 1992, and the national legislature has been suspended since 1988. Since achieving independence in 1948, the country has experienced a series of authoritarian governments. - IPS

scmp - Monday, June 21, 2004

ASSOCIATED PRESS in New Manerplaw, Myanmar
The metallic clang of an M-16 round being ejected from the chamber makes everyone inside the jungle hut freeze. After 55 years of fighting in the world's longest-running insurgency, it's to be expected.

A colonel in the rebel army of Myanmar's Karen insurgents is teaching a recruit how to handle the rifle. Meanwhile, on a field outside where troops often drill, young boys play the volleyball-like game of sepak takraw.

Veterans of brutal, endless combat build simple homes on their rebel base and plant corn and tobacco.

Inside the houses, guitars and anti-personnel mines hang side by side, symbolic of insurgents who hover between a hoped-for peace and generations of warfare.

"We have not signed a formal peace agreement. What we have is a gentlemen's agreement," says Colonel Ner Dah Mya.

The rebels say the agreement amounts to an unsigned ceasefire while the two sides pursue peace talks.

The Karen National Union, which has fought for autonomy from the central government since Myanmar gained independence from Britain in 1947, is the last major rebel group not to have made formal peace with the country's military rulers.

In a country plagued by half a century of rebellion, the junta has reached ceasefire agreements with 17 armed groups since 1989 although ethnic tensions across the country persist.

The Karen fighters were not invited to a constitution-drafting convention being held in the capital of Yangon, far from the rugged Thai-Myanmese borderlands that are the heartland of the Karen. Many of the Karens are Christians and racially different from the Buddhist Myanmese, who form the majority.

"We do not want to play their game," said the colonel, echoing criticism in the west and inside the country that the convention was being stage-managed by the military.

The convention, billed by the junta as a first step towards democracy, began on May 17 without the participation of the main opposition party, headed by detained pro-democracy activist and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the gentlemen's agreement between the junta and rebels is holding. Many of the war-weary Karen hope a permanent peace can be solidified after more talks.

However, distrust of the government runs deep, and Karen soldiers have not put their weapons aside.

"We are not sure what will happen. We have to be ready," says Second Lieutenant Yo Awe Lah as he lights a cheroot.

With his right arm disabled in a battle eight years earlier, the lieutenant would have been discharged from most armies, but the thin ranks of the Karen National Liberation Army are filled with everyone from old veterans to fighters barely in their teens.

A base near the Thai border serves as their headquarters and until recently carried a distinctly military air. But prospects for peace have somewhat softened its martial edge and more families have moved in to set up permanent residence.

Malaysiakini.com
Athi Veerangan
4:54:52 PM Jun 21, 2004


Asean must suspend Burma’s membership and mount pressure on its military regime to carry out democratic reforms and free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said an international youth movement.

During a three-day meeting in Penang last week, the International Union of Socialist Youth (Iusy) said by severing ties with Burma, Asean will be able to convey a strong message to the military leaders.

"The suspension is timely. If Asean severs political and trade links with Burma, it will seriously weaken the regime," said Iusy president Fikile Mbalula.

Iusy's Asia Pacific Committee has also drafted a memorandum calling for the immediate suspension. Signed by six organisations that took part in the meeting, the memorandum will be submitted to Asean member states.

Among those who inked the document were DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy), New Zealand Young Labour, Australia Youth Labour, Nepal Students Union, Nepal Tarun Dal and Philippines Akbayan Youth.

Economic growth

Iusy said although Asean maintains a policy of non-interference, the regional body however has a responsibility towards the Burmese people.

"The Asean-link has spurred Burma’s economic growth which in turn has strengthened the military junta. The economic boost has failed to coerce the military regime to bring about political changes and stability, as expected by Asean.

"Indeed Burma's membership only strengthens international view that Asean legitimises Rangoon’s undemocratic leadership," said Mbalula when deliberating the memorandum.

Meanwhile, Iusy also welcomed the recent formation of Malaysian parliamentary caucus on Burma, which is chaired by Barisan Nasional MP Zaid Ibrahim.

Next on Iusy’a agenda is the issue of refugees.

"We will send a strong message to the regimes which prosecute their citizens forcing them to become refugees. Today our message is to Rangoon's junta," said vice president (Asia Pacific region) Jacinda Ardern.

Iusy has 143 member organisations from 100 countries. Among others, the movement espouses democracy, racial and gender equality and the eradication of poverty.

Also present at the meeting were Iusy secretary general Enzo Amendola, vice president (Asia Pacific region) Jonas Bagan, Dapsy national deputy chairperson Tan Hun Wooi and its international affairs secretary John Chung.

SCMP - Wednesday, June 16, 2004

PETER KAMMERER, Foreign Editor
Fresh pressure by western nations for democratic change in military-ruled Myanmar has soured relations with Asia.

The European Union has cancelled two meetings with Asian counterparts over Myanmar's attendance, and pressure came from the United States after its House of Representatives renewed economic sanctions.

Similar action last year led Asean to break a rule of non-intervention in the affairs of fellow members to criticise Myanmar's detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Objections have since been officially muted.

Rudolfo Severino, former secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said western countries had their views on Myanmar, but should not exert influence to sway opinion.

He said Myanmar was problematic for Asean mostly in that it was not economically integrated with the region. Western criticism meant further difficulties "in the operational sense".

"Then, it is a problem in that once in a while, it gets mentioned and sidetracks the discussion," he said shortly before delivering a speech at the University of Hong Kong on Monday. "In that sense, it's disruptive."

The EU on Monday cancelled a finance ministers' session of the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) dialogue scheduled to be held in Brussels next month, and a September gathering of Asem economy ministers in Rotterdam. Myanmar's attendance was cited as one reason, but Asean and the European Union have also been at loggerheads over Asem's enlargement since the EU's expansion to 25 members.

Also on Monday, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution renewing a one-year ban on all imports from Myanmar. An identical Senate resolution is expected to be voted on soon.

The EU and the US already have other visa and trade embargoes against Myanmar in place.

Mr Severino said resolving Myanmar's economic problems was crucial.

"The economic development of Myanmar is primarily its own business," he said, "but the economic development of countries in the region depends increasingly on their ability to integrate markets." He advocated dialogue, an option also favoured by Indonesia.

According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa, Asean had "never believed in the utility of imposing sanctions and other punitive actions against Myanmar".

"We believe dialogue and engagement is more likely to bring a positive outcome," he said yesterday. Indonesia is now chairing Asean.

Such approaches are rejected by Myanmar opposition groups.

Former secretary-general and now adviser to the exiled National Council of the Union of Burma, Aung Moe Zaw, said Asean's most fruitful option would be to call for Ms Suu Kyi's immediate release from house arrest.

scmp - Friday, June 11, 2004

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Bangkok
Updated at 5.06pm:
More than half the world's quarter-billion child labourers work in Asia, often under appalling conditions, facing sexual abuse and even slavery, the International Labour Organisation said on Friday.

"More than half of all child labourers - 127 million children - are under the age of 14 and live here in the Asia-Pacific region," the ILO said in a statement to mark World Day Against Child Labour on Saturday.

The United Nations agency also released a report focusing on the plight of children employed as domestic helpers, often heavily exploited.

"Away from their families, often labouring long hours, with little or no pay, these children are routinely denied their right to attend school and are vulnerable to physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of their employers," the ILO said.

ILO senior specialist on child labour Panudda Boonpala called the findings "depressing".

The state of affairs in which millions of youths are trafficked often across borders would only get worse if urgent steps are not taken, she said.

"In most countries this remains a problem," said Ms Boonpala, who is co-editor of the report.

"They go through all kinds of exploitation, in terms of working hours, little or no pay, no support services, and no access to education. The problem is very serious, and international governments need to take more concerted action."

Ms Boonpala said the ILO found no cases of child domestic workers being paid at or above the country's minimum wage.

"Sometimes it's no wage at all, or merely work in exchange for boarding," she said.

At least 20 percent of all child labourers toil as domestic workers, with girls by far the most likely to enter the sector and be exploited, she said.

The ILO report did not point to any specific country in Asia as being most in breech of child labour conventions.

In 1999, several ILO member states including the mainland, Indonesia, Iran, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam approved the Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour.

It committed signatories to act immediately to eliminate such forms of child labour including forced work or slavery, prostitution, pornography or labour under "hazardous" conditions.

Afghanistan, Australia, India and Myanmar are among the handful of Asian nations that have not signed the convention.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 (Bernama) -- Malaysian parliamentarians, Tuesday formed a committe comprising backbenchers and opposition member to plan concrete and substantive action to persuade the Myanmar military government to move towards democracy in that country.

Chaired by Minister in Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, the commitee will discuss ways to help the Malaysian government persuade the government of Myanmar to restore the democratic rights of the Myanmar people.

"Once we have discussed this, I hope to come out with some concrete and substantive action to ensure that we can help the government to persuade the present leadership in Myanmar to go towards the democratic process in their country," Nazri said at a meeting on the formation of the committee, here.

Present were opposition leader Lim Kit Siang and Keadilan president Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Nazri said he would ask United Nations Rapporteur to Myanmar Tan Sri Razali Ismail to brief the committee on what he had done and what he had achieved so far in his mediation between leader of National League of Democracy (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi and the military government.

"I was approachsd by Tan Sri Razali two weeks ago and he was very happy that we support his effort to democratise Myanmar, he said, adding that the committee will meet again on July 5.

He said were also suggestions that the committee hold discussions with Myanmar ambassador to Malaysia so that he could explain his side of the story.

"Through this, we can gather information from all sides concerned to indicate that we are not just concerned on the NLD side but also on the Myanmar government's point of view," he added.

Nazri said that eventually the committe hoped to make a one-week trip to Myanmar and meet Suu Kyi.

The committee urged the Myanmar government to immediately and unconditionally release Suu Kyi from house arrest, release all political detainees, allow leaders of the NLD to participate in Myanmar's National Constitutional Convention and immediately begin the process of handing over authority to the legitimately elected Parliament.

The commitee also called on the Myanmar government to respect Asean and international opinion and return to the mainstream of responsible international norms and behaviour.

-- BERNAMA