Burma Update
News and updates on Burma21 August 2009
[ReadingRoom] News on Burma - 21/8/09
Suu Kyi clarifies her sanctions policy - Wai Moe Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi told US Senator Jim Webb on Saturday that "interaction" must first be established inside the country, according to her lawyer. The comment was made in response to Webb's assertion that, with regard to sanctions, Burma "needs interaction with the international community," the lawyer said. A pro-democracy activist holds a portrait of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest in New Delhi in August. (Photo: Reuters) "Daw Suu told me that when she met with Senator Webb on Saturday she reiterated the need for the Burmese regime to first interact 'inside the country.' She said only when that happens 'will Burma benefit from relations with the international community,'" said Nyan Win, Suu Kyi's lawyer, who met her for about one hour on Monday afternoon. Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Nyan Win said he asked Suu Kyi about the recent reports in several British newspapers that she had agreed to an overturn of the international tourism boycott on Burma. "She replied that she had not discussed the issue with anyone recently," Nyan Win said. According to the lawyer, who is also a spokesperson for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Suu Kyi's stance on sanctions has not changed since she issued a statement in 2007. "Suu Kyi said that as she was not the one who imposed sanctions against the Burmese regime, she is not in a position to lift those sanctions," he said. The NLD leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate has in the past, however, offered an olive branch to the ruling generals. In November 2007, following the crackdown on monk-led demonstrations, she said, "In the interest of the nation, I stand ready to cooperate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success …" Suu Kyi said she explained to Webb that despite some early agreements with Maj-Gen Aung Kyi, the minister of relations, who was appointed by the government to liaise with her after the monk-led protests, nothing ultimately transpired from the meetings. Nyan Win said that one of topics raised during Suu Kyi's conversation with Webb was China's influence within the Burmese regime. The US senator apparently referred to Beijing's involvement in Burma as a "fearful influence." "However, Daw Suu told Webb that she rejects such terminology with regard to China, and she wants Burma to be on good terms with all its neighboring countries as well as the international community at large," Nyan Win said. "She said China is Burma's neighbor and wants to be a good friend of Burma. She said she did not see China as a fearful influence." Another issue raised by Webb on Saturday was about the participation of her party, the NLD, in the coming elections in 2010. She told Webb that she needed to discuss the matter with members of her party thoroughly, her lawyer said. Suu Kyi met with the Democratic senator in Rangoon on Saturday. On Monday, Webb told reporters at a press conference in Bangkok that Suu Kyi favors the removal of some of the international sanctions applied by the US and EU. "I don't want to misrepresent her views, but my clear impression is that she is not opposed to the lifting of some sanctions," Webb said. Webb is known for his strong criticism of the US 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. According to Nyan Win, Suu Kyi made no comment on whether she considered the US senator's trip to Burma to have been beneficial. Myanmar junta's media lauds US senator's visit Myanmar's government-controlled newspapers on Tuesday lauded the visit of U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, who secured the high-profile release of a jailed American, as "the first step" toward improving relations with Washington. The full-page commentary titled, "The first step of a long journey," was published in all three state-run newspapers that serve as mouthpieces for the junta. The tone was highly uncharacteristic for Myanmar media, which typically blast the U.S. as a "neocolonialist," a "loudmouthed bully," and the "superpower nation" that has imposed harsh economic and political sanctions against the country. The Virginia senator's three-day visit, which ended Sunday, and the junta's concessions have fueled questions over whether this could mark a turning point in relations between the two countries and lead to a softening of longtime sanctions. "The visit of Mr. Jim Webb is a success for both sides as well as the first step to promotion of the relations between the two countries," said the article published in the Myanma Ahlin and Kyemon newspapers and the English-language New Light of Myanmar. "It is indeed the first step toward marching to a 1,000-mile destination," said the commentary, which said the junta "enthusiastically cooperated with (Webb) because of its stance to deepen the bilateral relations and relieve the disagreements between the countries." Webb's visit included rare meetings with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe. It was the reclusive general's first meeting with a senior U.S. political figure. Webb also won the release of John Yettaw, who a week earlier was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for sneaking into Suu Kyi's home. Webb told reporters in Bangkok on Monday that it was time for "a new approach" to dealing with the junta, since sanctions have failed to win the release of Suu Kyi or move the junta closer to democratic reforms. His comments echo similar remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. During his meeting with Suu Kyi, he got the "clear impression from her that she is not opposed to lifting some sanctions," Webb said Monday. Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Relations with Washington have been strained since the junta crushed pro-democracy protests in 1988. The military government called elections in 1990 but refused but refused to honor the results when Suu Kyi's party won overwhelmingly. SPDC prepares military training program for civilians The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) authorities have been preparing a military training programme for civilians of Matupi Township, in Chin State, western Burma. According to a report, nine villages near the Lensin-based military camp, Matupi Township, were supposed to undergo military training from August 7, by the order of Mr. Zaw Myint Oo, Second Chief Tactical General of Chin State, northwestern Burma. The list of participants has been prepared. Military personnel under the Matupi-based IB 304 camp have taken photographs and bio-data of 70 people from the nine villages for the training, which means each village, has at least eight participants, who will undergo the training. Although it is uncertain when the training will actually begin, the army personnel have prepared everything in order to start when the time comes. "The authorities have ordered each village to send at least eight trainees and they have to get ready before the training starts. So the military personnel have collected all data relating to the participants," a local from Lensin village said. The nine villages in the area of the Lensin-based military camp are Valangpi, Kala, Valangte, Thibuai, Lesin, Wankai, San ta, Lalui and Tadom. Ethnic Kachins banned from having cultural symbols in their state in Burma In a fresh repressive measure the Burmese military junta has banned Kachins, an ethnic nationality, from constructing its cultural symbols - the "Manau Pole and Manau House" in their State, said Kachin cultural leaders. In Bhamo, the second largest city in Kachin State, the ban comes in the way of construction of the cultural Manau Pole and House on the 13-acre wide Bhamo (also called Manmaw in Kachin) Kachin Literature and Culture compound (BKLC) in Aung Ta village in Two Miles. It was bought from the Bhamo Zonal Kachin Baptist Church in 1996, BKLC committee members said. Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of Northern Regional Command (Ma Pa Kha) and the junta's most powerful man in Kachin State thrice rejected the official request for permission to construct the Manau Pole and House this year by the BKLC committee, a committee member told KNG today. Last July, some committee members met commander Maj-Gen Soe Win in the Kachin State's capital Myitkyina in its latest effort. However the commander rejected their request saying "Looking at genuine peace in Kachin State, the construction of Bhamo Kachin Manau Pole and House was banned," said committee members. Earlier, the military authorities of Kachin State had twice rejected BKLC's letters to the junta's Bhamo District Administrative Office, called Bhamo District Peace and Development Council (or Kha-Ya-Ka) on March 31 and Kachin State Administrative Office, called Kachin State Peace and Development Council (or Pa-Ya-Ka) on May 19, according to the BKLC committee. Committee members said, both rejection letters came up with the same reasons - - first, the Kachins already have the cultural venue with Manau Pole and House in Myitkyina indicating "Kachin Traditional Manau Park" in Shatapru quarter in the town, which was constructed in early 2002. Secondly, there are different ethnic nationalities in Bhamo and constructing Kachin traditional symbols may harm unity among them because the Kachin Manau Pole and House represent ethnic Kachins, alone. BKLC committee members disagreed with Commander Soe Win's rejection notes. They believe that the construction of the Kachin cultural Manau Pole and House will not harm the ethnic unity in Bhamo and Kachins have to build their cultural symbols in every Kachin village, said committee members and Kachin cultural leaders. On June 22, five BKLC committee members of a total of 40 members were made to forcibly sign in the Bhamo District Administrative Office (Kha-Ya-Ka) to abandon construction of Kachin cultural buildings by the Kha-Ya-Ka chairman Col. Khin Maung Myint, said committee members. According to Article 22 and 27 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to show, develop and protect their culture and literature. There are Kachins (also spelled Jinghpaw in Kachin language or Jingpho-su in China and Singpho in India) in three of Burma's neighboring countries like China, India and Thailand and they are authorized to build their cultural symbols - Manau Pole and House. Don't relax Burma sanctions SENATOR JIM WEBB of Virginia was acting as an advocate for a more accommodating US policy toward Burma's despotic junta during his weekend visit to that country. But the folly of his project became obvious when the regime's numero uno, General Than Shwe, rewarded Webb with the release of an American who received a seven-year sentence for swimming to the house where Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has long been held under house arrest - but not the freedom of that brave and dignified woman. Webb has argued that sanctions have failed to alter the generals' behavior. But there was a telling irony to his audience with Than Shwe and his rare, 40-minute meeting with Suu Kyi. The junta's decision to grant Webb these two interviews was plainly in response to worldwide denunciations of the 18-month sentence of renewed house arrest imposed on Suu Kyi - but also to expanded European Union sanctions on the junta and US financial sanctions that President Obama signed into law at the end of last month. The narco-trafficking generals are guilty of using rape as a weapon of war, forced labor on a massive scale, and the razing of thousands of ethnic minority villages. They want to keep Suu Kyi incarcerated until they conduct rigged elections next year under a constitution that will preserve military rule under a veneer of civilian participation. The time to end sanctions is after Suu Kyi and her 2,100 fellow political prisoners are freed, and the junta enters a genuine political dialogue with ethnic minorities and Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, winners of Burma's last free election in 1990. Webb may mean well, but he risks playing the dupe to a vicious dictatorship. Irrawaddy: The junta's new balancing act - Htet Aung Filed under: News, Opinion, Other John William Yettaw has been released from Burma's notorious Insein Prison, where hundreds of the country's political prisoners are currently detained while dozens sacrificed their lives in the past two decades. The Aung San Suu Kyi intruder is now able to return home, crossing thousands of miles of ocean, not by swimming, but in the comfort of a jet, leaving the innocent victim, Suu Kyi, to serve out her fourth house arrest for another18 months. The dismal end to the drama couldn't be more frustrating to the Burmese people who desperately want to see their beloved democracy leader free. She is their hope for freedom under the ruthless military dictatorship. US Sen Jim Webb may be satisfied with his mission: he accomplished two of his three requests: the release of Yettaw and a meeting with Suu Kyi. But Sen-Gen Than Shwe is smiling too, because he can now safely carry out the 2010 elections with Suu Kyi safely locked away under house arrest. Now the junta chief can fully concentrate on a major issue that has the potential to unravel the smooth path to national elections - the unruly ethnic armed ceasefire groups. Than Shwe has two goals: to transform the ethnic ceasefire groups into a Border Guard Force and to persuade the groups to form political parties in their respective areas and to field candidates in the upcoming election. So far, Than Shwe has convinced only one group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, to transform into a Border Guard Force, under the command of government officers. The task must be done in line with the new constitution and its Section 338, which states: "All the armed forces in the Union shall be under the command of the Defense Services." However, the most powerful ethnic ceasefire groups have not signed on to the plan, especially the largest groups along Burma's frontier bordering with China. The United Wa State Army and the Kachin Independence Army, the strongest of the armed ethnic groups, have rejected the government's order. They don't trust the junta. Their common position is they want to deal with this issue after a parliamentary government is formed following the 2010 election. Although the junta enjoys China's political support in keeping international pressure at bay, it hasn't received its neighbor's support on the border guard issue. Instead, China has pressured the junta to tackle the issue carefully and not to destabilize the border area. Having successfully drawn India, at one time a strong supporter of Burma's democracy movement, into its camp by playing a balancing act with China, the junta can now play the same diplomatic game between China and the United States. If the US decides to practice a more flexible engagement policy, the threat of UN Security Council might be reduced, meaning that it may not need to rely so much on China's veto in opposing anti-Burmese junta resolutions. That could give the junta more bargaining power in tackling the issue of the armed ethnic groups along the border with China. If the Obama administration sees Webb's achievement as a positive step and an opportunity for engagement with the junta, it means the junta has more leverage in playing the two superpowers off one another. Furthermore, it means a significant diplomatic triumph for the junta to win the official recognition of the US, the generals' major foe that is often accused of neo-colonialist meddling in the country's internal affairs. If not, the junta has nothing to lose. The more it delays the release of Suu Kyi, the more the US might feel responsible for Suu Kyi's fourth detention, which was triggered by the actions of an American. But for the time being, the Democratic senator can bask in his accomplishment of snatching Yettaw from the hands of a ruthless junta. The author is an independent researcher and a graduate in International Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Irrawaddy: Tue 18 Aug 2009 John William Yettaw has been released from Burma's notorious Insein Prison, where hundreds of the country's political prisoners are currently detained while dozens sacrificed their lives in the past two decades. The Aung San Suu Kyi intruder is now able to return home, crossing thousands of miles of ocean, not by swimming, but in the comfort of a jet, leaving the innocent victim, Suu Kyi, to serve out her fourth house arrest for another18 months. The dismal end to the drama couldn't be more frustrating to the Burmese people who desperately want to see their beloved democracy leader free. She is their hope for freedom under the ruthless military dictatorship. US Sen Jim Webb may be satisfied with his mission: he accomplished two of his three requests: the release of Yettaw and a meeting with Suu Kyi. But Sen-Gen Than Shwe is smiling too, because he can now safely carry out the 2010 elections with Suu Kyi safely locked away under house arrest. Now the junta chief can fully concentrate on a major issue that has the potential to unravel the smooth path to national elections - the unruly ethnic armed ceasefire groups. Than Shwe has two goals: to transform the ethnic ceasefire groups into a Border Guard Force and to persuade the groups to form political parties in their respective areas and to field candidates in the upcoming election. So far, Than Shwe has convinced only one group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, to transform into a Border Guard Force, under the command of government officers. The task must be done in line with the new constitution and its Section 338, which states: "All the armed forces in the Union shall be under the command of the Defense Services." However, the most powerful ethnic ceasefire groups have not signed on to the plan, especially the largest groups along Burma's frontier bordering with China. The United Wa State Army and the Kachin Independence Army, the strongest of the armed ethnic groups, have rejected the government's order. They don't trust the junta. Their common position is they want to deal with this issue after a parliamentary government is formed following the 2010 election. Although the junta enjoys China's political support in keeping international pressure at bay, it hasn't received its neighbor's support on the border guard issue. Instead, China has pressured the junta to tackle the issue carefully and not to destabilize the border area. Having successfully drawn India, at one time a strong supporter of Burma's democracy movement, into its camp by playing a balancing act with China, the junta can now play the same diplomatic game between China and the United States. If the US decides to practice a more flexible engagement policy, the threat of UN Security Council might be reduced, meaning that it may not need to rely so much on China's veto in opposing anti-Burmese junta resolutions. That could give the junta more bargaining power in tackling the issue of the armed ethnic groups along the border with China. If the Obama administration sees Webb's achievement as a positive step and an opportunity for engagement with the junta, it means the junta has more leverage in playing the two superpowers off one another. Furthermore, it means a significant diplomatic triumph for the junta to win the official recognition of the US, the generals' major foe that is often accused of neo-colonialist meddling in the country's internal affairs. If not, the junta has nothing to lose. The more it delays the release of Suu Kyi, the more the US might feel responsible for Suu Kyi's fourth detention, which was triggered by the actions of an American. But for the time being, the Democratic senator can bask in his accomplishment of snatching Yettaw from the hands of a ruthless junta. The author is an independent researcher and a graduate in International Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. US Senator: Burma denies nuclear plans - Heda Bayron U.S. Senator Jim Webb, who recently held talks with Burma's military leaders, says the government denies reports that it is trying to acquire nuclear technology. The senator also says Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has indicated a willingness to see some sanctions on Burma lifted. Senator Jim Webb says he did not directly raise the issue of whether Burma has a covert nuclear program during talks with the country's leader, General Than Shwe. Webb met with the reclusive leader on Saturday, the first high-ranking U.S. official to do so. However, he said Monday that the Burmese government denied having a nuclear program. "But it was communicated to me earlier on that there was no truth to that, from a very high level in their government," Webb said. Earlier this month, Australian researchers said interviews with defectors from Burma revealed that the government has a secret nuclear program, allegedly aided by North Korea. In June, a North Korean ship believed to be headed to Burma with a suspicious cargo turned back under international pressure. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that any military ties between Burma and North Korea pose a security threat to the region. In an unprecedented gesture toward the United States, Webb was allowed to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon Saturday. He also was able to win the release of a U.S. citizen, John Yettaw, jailed for illegally visiting Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in May. That visit led to the government extending her house arrest by 18 months. Webb says it appears Aung San Suu Kyi might not oppose easing sanctions on Burma. The U.S, the European Union and other Western governments have imposed economic sanctions over the years to punish the repressive military government. Webb favors the eventual lifting of sanctions on Burma, which he and others argue only increased the isolation of its people. "I don't want to take the risk of misrepresenting her views," Webb said. "But I would say to you that it was my clear impression from her that she is not opposed to lifting some sanctions." In the late 1990s, Aung San Suu Kyi expressed some support for economic sanctions as a way to pressure the government to recognize her party's election victory in 1990 and allow it to form a government. But in recent years, she has not publicly commented on sanctions. She has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest. On Sunday, Webb said Washington needs to develop new ways to end Burma's isolation and bring about political and economic change. Webb, a Democrat, spoke with Secretary Clinton Sunday and will brief her again upon his return to Washington. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs is on a five-nation tour of Southeast Asia. From Bangkok, he will fly to Cambodia Tuesday and from there, to Vietnam. Burmese villagers 'forced to work on Total pipeline' - Rajeshree Sisodia and Andrew Buncombe French energy giant accused of profiting as new testimony gives shocking insight into junta's labour regime The French energy giant Total is at the centre of allegations that Burmese villagers are being used as forced labour to help support a huge gas pipeline that is earning the country's military regime hundreds of millions of dollars. Testimony from villagers and former soldiers gathered by human rights workers suggests that Burmese soldiers, who provide security for the Yadana pipeline on behalf of Total, are forcing thousands of people to work portering, carrying wood and repairing roads in the pipeline area. They have also been forced to build police stations and barracks. One villager, identified pseudonymously as Htay Win Oo, told researchers from the Thailand-based human rights group EarthRights International (ERI): "Since early 2009 I've [witnessed] Burmese soldiers … that are stationed near our village ask our village to build a new police camp. The soldiers ordered villagers to build a new camp in late March. The land where they set up the new camp belongs to local villagers … the soldiers ordered villagers to help build it. Villagers had to cut bamboo, wood, and leaves for the building and at the same time they had to build it." Burma's junta, the State Peace and Development Council, officially outlawed the use of forced labour in 1999. However, campaigners say troops routinely force civilians to work for them and those who refuse are often beaten, tortured or sometimes killed. Total insists that forced labour is not used around the pipeline. On its website, the company states: "The local inhabitants around the Yadana pipeline say that they are happy to have us there. They are, above all, grateful that there is no forced labour in the area around our pipeline." Yet such claims are not supported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN agency that works in Burma to try and stop forced labour. Steve Marshall, an ILO spokesman, said: "It would be unfair and inaccurate to say that the pipeline area is forced-labour free. Total does not control the area, it operates it. In terms of the pipeline area, there are big areas that are outside its control. As we understand it, forced labour is still being used there by other entities, though to a much lesser extent [than in some areas]." The evidence collected by ERI and due to be published next month suggests that villagers are routinely forced to work in various guises. One former soldier from the 273 battalion said: "We were told it was a 30-year project and the country got half and the foreigners got half of the benefit … We ask [the villagers] to carry shell ammunition, food and supplies. "During the portering the soldiers treat porters not so good. I do not want to mention about these bad things so much since I myself I have done it to these people as well at that time." Matthew Smith, of the ERI, said that Total was misleading the public, shareholders and investors about its impact in Burma and said the company was responsible for the abuses committed by troops guarding its project. "The evidence is unassailable that the Yadana project ushered in the Burmese army and that the Burmese army continues to provide security for the companies and the project," he said. "The company has been complicit in abuses." The question of whether foreign companies, with an eye on Burma's riches of oil and gas, should invest in one of the world's most repressive regimes, has come into sharper focus following this week's decision by the regime to detain opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for a further 18 months under house arrest and the subsequent demand for tougher sanctions from campaigners. Yet projects such as the Yadana pipeline, which transports gas from fields in the Andaman Sea through south-east Burma into Thailand, are hugely attractive to both the investors and the junta. Research suggests the regime earned $969m (£585m) from the Yadana project in 2007. Total has declined to say how much it earns. It is not the first time Total has been at the centre of forced labour allegations in Burma. In 2005 it paid $6.12m in an out-of-court settlement after a group of villagers living near the Yadana pipeline alleged the company was involved in human rights abuses. Last night a spokeswoman for Total said: "We are reviewing [ERI's allegations] and intend to adjust our website in the coming weeks so that it can publicly address the issues, whenever possible. It should also be noted that people in the villages around the pipeline are grateful for the fact that systematic recourse to forced labour in the area where Total operates has stopped. Such acknowledgements have been consistently repeated in front of independent experts commissioned to periodically evaluate the impact of our activities." Regime rides above sanctions - Simon Roughneen Bangkok - Despite some buffeting by the global economic downturn, revenues from gas, oil, hardwood and gemstones continue to flow into Myanmar's coffers, helping junta leader Senior General Than Shwe to maintain Southeast Asia's largest standing army. An estimated 50% of the state's revenues go towards maintaining the country's 400,000-strong military. While Western countries impose economic sanctions against the junta, including new measures imposed last week by the European Union against members of Myanmar's judiciary and 58 other enterprises, Asian states are fiercely competing for oil and gas concessions. That promises even greater wealth for the ruling military junta, even as its international reputation plummets in the wake of last week's sentencing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail, later reduced to 18 months of house arrest. Thailand and China were estimated to have provided US$850 million of the $980 million total that was invested in the country last year, in everything from oil and gas, to roads, along with gems and timber extraction. As of 2007, both countries accounted for over half of Myanmar's exports and imports. Those figures should rise as new hydroelectric projects and a port-pipeline facility linking the Myanmar coast to western China get underway later this year. When Myanmar has faced intense international criticism, including in reaction to its slow response last year to the Cyclone Nargis disaster, China, its main ally, has provided the regime with political cover through its seat on the United Nations Security Council. This was replicated in China's public response to the Suu Kyi verdict, saying that the international community should respect Myanmar's "judicial sovereignty" and that it would not support any United Nations-sponsored sanctions linked to the verdict. With China, India , South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) averse to any form of sanctions on the junta, there is a case to be made that Western restrictions merely drive business elsewhere. "Chinese investment is imperative for [Myanmar] amid the US and European Union sanctions," said Arpitha Bykere, Asia Analyst at the Roubini Global Economy (RGE) Monitor, a US-based research center. "Economic ties with Asia help [Myanmar] show to the world that despite sanctions, it can attract trade and investment from several countries. This boosts [Myanmar's] political leverage to resist global calls for political reform." Little of the largesse from recent foreign investments has gone towards much-needed health, education, and agriculture sector spending. A 2006 estimate of the child mortality rate in eastern Myanmar was 221 per 1,000, higher than the 205 recorded in the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the nation's health system as the second worst on the planet, while according to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fun, more than 25% of the population lacks access to potable water. These abysmal statistics figure largely in the debate over whether Western countries should maintain their sanctions or move towards more engagement with Myanmar's rights abusing regime. Engagement advocates note that Myanmar received 20 times less per-capita from donor countries than other countries with similar poverty levels. According to the US Central Intelligence Agency yearbook, 32.7% of Myanmar's people lived under the poverty line in 2007 while the population endured inflation of 27.3% in 2008. The junta's foreign minister, Nyan Win, described economic sanctions as "immoral" in a September 2008 address to the UN General Assembly, adding that they "are counter-productive and deprive countries of their right to development". Prime Minister Thein Sein made much the same argument in presentations in February to UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari. There were earlier indications of a possible policy rethink in Washington. In the run-up to the Suu Kyi verdict, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered to consider renewed US investment in exchange for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party being allowed to participate in elections scheduled for next year. The State Department had earlier said it would consider a review of US policy towards Myanmar, an acknowledgement that past policies and sanctions had failed to influence the junta. That debate was expected to stall after the junta spurned US and UN calls against extending Suu Kyi's detention. However, Than Shwe's meeting over the weekend with US Democratic senator Jim Webb, which also allowed the Amercian an hour-long meeting with Suu Kyi, has raised new questions about diplomatic next steps. The EU's tightened sanctions added members of Myanmar's judiciary responsible for the Suu Kyi verdict to a list of some 500 Myanmar government officials whose assets in the EU are frozen and who are banned from travel to the EU's 27-member bloc. In contrast, China, Russia, Vietnam and Libya watered-down a US-drafted UN Security Council statement on the Suu Kyi verdict to express "concern" rather than outright condemnation. The counter-sanctions argument promoted by many Asian nations suggests that restrictions fail to influence the junta and only keep the nation's poor downtrodden. Given that the majority of Myanmar's population - 70% of the people - are employed in the agriculture sector and benefit neither from the regime's resource extraction activities nor its trade and investment links with neighboring countries, the sanctions debate is something of a red herring. Myanmar economy expert and Macquarie University economist Sean Turnell told Asia Times Online that the majority of Myanmar's people "might never have seen a bank, much less have anything to do with the type of institutions and links targeted by sanctions". Moreover, upgrading the amount of donor aid sent to Myanmar would amount to a free pass for the junta on development-related spending it should be undertaking itself. The junta's concern about the impact of sanctions suggests either one of two things: Myanmar's military rulers have turned a new leaf and want to help their people, or they do in fact feel the pinch of sanctions and are worried that if replicated closer to home, the impact on the elites would be devastating. If the former is indeed true, it is not reflected in junta policy. On May 11, the Financial Times quoted an unreleased annual International Monetary Fund report that said Myanmar's foreign exchange reserves are at a record $3.6 billion, but that the ruling junta has not used them to help the impoverished population and that the country's economic prospects remain "bleak". Vigorous rolling of the monetary presses has contributed to an inflation rate of around 30%, the report said. The junta has boasted that its international isolation would help it weather the global economic downturn, at least compared with its more export-oriented counterparts in ASEAN, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Other members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar. This hasn't been the case, however. RGE Monitor's Bykere said that "Myanmar has taken a hit due to a global commodity [price] correction. Production and export of natural gas, mining products, food products and several other commodities have been severely affected." Although the junta's official statistics claim that the economy is growing at around 10% annually, Turnell said that various indicators, including weak domestic energy consumption, suggest that the economy is actually contracting. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest report on Myanmar, the country's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2009 is projected to be only 1%. According to Turnell, Burma's problems can be traced to the state's commanding control of the economy, which squeezes the life out of private-sector activities. Disproportionate budgetary allocations to the military means that no rural credit is available, even though 70% of the national workforce are subsistence farmers. Meanwhile, foreign revenues are understated on the national accounts because of exchange rate manipulations. For instance, revenue from gas exports is added to the budget at the fixed official exchange of six kyat to the dollar rather than the 1,000-kyat to the greenback floating black market rate. Recorded at the official rate, Myanmar's gas earnings represent less than 1% of overall budget receipts; if the same gas earnings were recorded at the market exchange rate, their contribution would be more than double total official state receipts. Turnell says the rationale behind the dual exchange rates "is probably to 'quarantine' [Myanmar's] foreign exchange from the country's public accounts, thereby making them available to the regime and its cronies. This accounting is facilitated by [Myanmar's] state-owned Foreign Trade Bank and some willing offshore banks." These complicit offshore banks are known to be in neighboring states, implying that a broader Western sanctions regime that hit certain Asian banks might have a greater impact on the junta's finances. The Asian states most critical of the ineffectiveness of Western sanctions are often the same ones that undermine them by offering Myanmar's junta alternative financial, trade and investment options. If Myanmar were a democratic state, the Myanmar people would be the rightful sovereign owners of the country's resources and revenues and would have some say in how they were spent. But as the country gears up for democratic elections next year, all indications - including Suu Kyi's continued detention - are that the military intends to extend its political and economic dominance via a civilian veneer. Simon Roughneen is a roving freelance journalist. He has reported from over 20 countries and is currently based in Southeast Asia. Webb visit a success? - Debbie Stothard Senator Webb's visit to Burma has been considered "successful" because he was able to tick three items off his checklist: "rescuing" John Yettaw from seven years in jail with hard labor; meeting Snr-Gen Than Shwe; and meeting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In the eyes of international stakeholders who have gotten accustomed to the Burmese junta's intransigence, the visit was a coup. This has been the biggest stride forward since former UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail secured Suu Kyi's release in 2002 and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon was able to persuade the generals to accept lucrative aid in 2008. How ironic. Sen Webb's "success" stems from the leverage enjoyed by the US's significant (and effective) sanctions - a ban on imports from Burma and a ban on financial services - that were imposed in 2003 on top of the 1997 ban on new investment. The US's previous willingness to "put their money where their mouth is" has gained the respect of the Burmese regime. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has invested millions of dollars over the past decade to woo the US into greater engagement, compared to its cavalier treatment of Asean. Than Shwe respects power by the extent to which is exercised. He recognizes that the US has traditionally backed its statements with action. Remember Asean's great achievement of persuading the SPDC to open up to Cyclone Nargis aid? Well, it wouldn't have been possible without the USS Essex-led carrier group and other foreign navies on standby off the Burmese coast. Than Shwe was given the impression he had to make the choice of cooperating with Asean or deal with the US navy. The junta has generally responded to the relatively hollow diplomatic overtures made by the UN, EU and Asean with empty promises and bizarre statements, comfortable in the knowledge that these stakeholders are unlikely to hit them where it hurts. A global arms embargo and a UN Security Council Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma will make this junta sit up and pay attention. It will be the catalyst for a type of engagement that is based on dialogue and negotiation. While Sen Webb basks in the glory - and I don't grudge him that - let's not forget that the essential problems in Burma have not dissipated in any way. Over 2,000 political prisoners, Suu Kyi included, remain imprisoned. The military has stepped up its brutal atrocities in Eastern Burma, terrorizing hundreds of villages with rape, torture, forced labor and death. Since July 27, over 10,000 civilians have been forcibly displaced from 500 villages in central Shan State. Attacks in Karen State forced over 6,000 civilians to seek refuge in Thailand. Refugees continue to flee their homes every day. This prolongation of one of the world's longest-running wars is likely to get worse as the regime tightens the screws on ethnic ceasefire and non-ceasefire groups in an effort to completely control the 2010 elections. Oh, and let's not forget the chilling evidence of this regime's chummy cooperation with North Korea: tunnels, long-range ballistic missile technology and a nuclear program. Sen Webb must seriously consider: if this is the damage the regime can do without access to US resources, what would be possible if sanctions are dismantled willy-nilly? It's time to refocus our energies on the original checklist for Burma: the unconditional release of all political prisoners; the cessation of military hostilities in ethnic areas; and a tripartite review of the 2008 constitution. * Debbie Stothard is coordinator of Alternative Asean Network on Burma (Altsean). Bad deal on Burma In exchange for the release of John Yettaw, the American who provided Burma's ruling junta an excuse to extend the house arrest of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, Senator Jim Webb provided the junta an opportunity for saturation media coverage of what will pass there as US endorsement of its rule. This was a simple transaction. Junta chief Than Shwe got what he wanted, and he gave up something (someone) that had already served the regime's purpose. It will not lead to a new opening in US-Burma relations - unless of course, the US is prepared to pare its objectives in a way that ensures the regime meets them. As Senator Webb has indicated before, this would entail accepting elections next year under a sham constitution. And, as things now stand, a lowered standard would also have to allow for the continued detention of Suu Kyi, detention of more than 2000 other political prisoners, and Suu Kyi's prohibition from competing in the elections. That is not a road map. It is capitulation. The Obama Administration claims it simply gave Senator Webb the customary support the State Department gives to any traveling Senator. Maybe so. But it may also be a no-lose effort to facilitate a change in policy without really taking a stand in favor of it. "Engagement" and meetings with dictators do not constitute policy unto themselves; they are diplomatic tools. In the most recent expression of policy, the House, Senate, and White House just weeks ago renewed sweeping sanctions against Burma. Until the Administration takes a clear stand on a new policy, Burma, the world, and concerned Americans can only assume that the policy of bringing maximum pressure to bear on Burma's ruling generals stands. The Administration has amply demonstrated that it can secure the release of Americans in difficult circumstances abroad. The verdict is still out on whether it can secure American national interests in the process. Deals like this are a bad sign. Either it is allowing others to drive US policy or it is confusing what is essentially consular work with foreign policy. It is time for the Administration to lay its cards on the table, complete its review of America's Burma policy and let Washington fight it out. http://blog.heritage.org/2009/08/17/bad-deal-on-burma/ 500 Shan houses burned in scorched earth campaign The Burmese junta's latest scorched earth campaign in Shan state has in the last three weeks destroyed 500 homes and uprooted around 10,000 civilians, according to a data released today. Burma's eastern Shan state has long been a site of conflict between the Burmese army and armed opposition groups, driven in part by its abundance of opium poppy plantations. Data compiled by Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), the Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN) and other Shan community-based organizations show that since 27 July, around 40 villages have been relocated by the army. According to the groups, it is the single largest forced relocation in Shan state since a campaign from 1996 to 1998 saw the uprooting of 300,000 villagers, many of whom fled to Thailand. Much of the campaign has focused on Laikha township, where over 100 villagers, including women, have been arrested and tortured, and three have died. Many of these were displaced by the previous campaign. "One young woman was shot while trying to retrieve her possessions from her burning house, and her body thrown into a pit latrine," said a joint press release. "Another woman was gang-raped in front of her husband by an officer and three of his troops." The groups have called on the UN Security Council to set up a Commission of Enquiry to investigate what they believe to be crimes against humanity. They have also demanded that members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) "seriously review their engagement with this pariah nation". "The regime brazenly committed these crimes even as the whole world was watching them during the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," said Charm Tong of SWAN. "They are thumbing their noses at the international community." China tough with junta on Kokang China may well be backing Naypyitaw, when it comes to democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and the over 2,000 political prisoners in Burma, but it has adopted a tough stance, twice in a week, when the Burmese Army tried to impose itself on one of the former communist armies, according to sources on the Sino-Burma border. On August 8, it had successfully convinced the Burmese Army, which had entered the Kokang territory "without our permission" to carry out an inspection on a location suspected to have an arms factory. "Due to China's intervention, the Burmese Army pulled out," said a local source. Three days later on August 11, Maj-Gen Aung Than Tut, Commander of the Lashio-based Northeastern Region Command, summoned five officers of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), as the Kokang ceasefire group prefers to call itself, to his headquarters. Two were later dispatched to Laogai, the Kokang capital, to persuade its top leader Peng Jiasheng to have an audience with him. Peng, who had already refused to meet Aung Than Tut on August 8, did not show up. As a result, the situation that had almost returned to normal on August 9 became tense again, forcing people to flee across the border yet again. They were however stopped by the Chinese. "We are doing what we can to ease the situation," a border official was quoted as saying. "Of course, we will not refuse admission if bullets start flying. But in the meanwhile, you should trust us and go back." Only Chinese citizens were allowed to cross the border, said a border source. The remaining three were allowed to return the next day, thus somewhat cooling things. "There isn't any doubt why the junta backed down," said a knowledgeable source. "There could even have been a trade-off between Naypyitaw and China: Ditching Suu Kyi in exchange for peace along the border." China was the only country which supported Naypyitaw's decision to continue Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest on August 11. The situation nevertheless is still worrisome, according to a Thai-Burma watcher. "The release of the Kokang officials did not resolve the issues between the two sides," he said. "Naypyitaw still wants Kokang and their allies to become border security battalions under the control of the Burmese Army and they keep saying no to it." In addition, according to several sources, any conflict with Kokang will certainly lead to a full-scale war with its allies, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA) and the Shan State Army (SSA) "North", which accounts for a grand total of 45,000 to 50,000 strong well armed opposition. Naypyitaw has fixed October as the deadline for the ceasefire groups to transform into what it terms as the Border Guard Forces (BGFs). After Suu Kyi verdict, should the West engage Myanmar? - Nopporn Wong-Anan - Analysis Singapore - Myanmar's reduced sentence for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi may be an indication the junta is becoming more sensitive to international pressure as it prepares a transition to civilian rule next year, analysts say. A Myanmar court on Tuesday sentenced Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, to three years in jail - which the junta then immediately reduced to 18 months of house arrest at her lakeside home in Yangon. The West reacted in outrage, with the European Union preparing a fresh round of sanctions, while China and Myanmar's other neighbors took a more measured response. The trial came at a time when Western capitals were questioning their strategy toward the generals, given their ineffectiveness in trying to ostracize them or Asia's attempts at engagement. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a visit to Jakarta in February, expressed frustration at the failure of both approaches. "Imposing sanctions has not influenced the junta… Reaching out and trying to engage has not influenced them either." Myanmar is a resource-rich country that lies strategically between China and India. The 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, worries that isolating Myanmar will merely shove it into China's orbit. "Such sanctions don't seem to have much effect on Myanmar because it is a resource-rich country" where Asian neighbors compete for everything from timber to oil and gas, said Antonio Rappa, political analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Singapore is among the top three biggest trading partners and investors in Myanmar, whose ruling generals are believed to park their money and send their children to study in the island-state. Analysts saw other signs of the junta beginning to become more engaged with the world, such as its acceptance of international aid - and foreign aid workers - to help rebuild after a cyclone hit the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008, killing 140,000 people. "What Myanmar needs is more international contact rather than less," said former ASEAN Secretary General Rodolfo Severino, adding the junta had shown a "degree of openness" to the international community in the wake of the cyclone that made 2.4 million people destitute. KANGAROO TRIAL Debbie Stothard of the anti-junta Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma said the repeated delays in handing down the Suu Kyi verdict, and then the commuted sentence, showed the regime could be swayed by international pressure. "I think what's interesting is we could see that from a fast kangaroo trial, the regime had to delay the trial and impose a lighter sentence because of international pressure," Stothard told Reuters Television. That would appear to argue for brandishing a stick at the regime, and analysts said it was unlikely the Obama administration would soften its stance following the verdict. "If anything, the result will be to solidify the American policy toward Burma," said Walter Lohman of the Washington-based think-tank, the Heritage Foundation. The U.S. Campaign for Burma, which has called for a full U.N. arms embargo on the country as a way to press China to stop its support for the junta, and isolate the regime to get it to talk to the opposition, said it wanted both sanctions and engagement. "ASEAN has been reaching out to the regime now for 10 years, the U.N. has sent envoys on some 40 trips - but clearly engagement without sticks is not working," Campaign's Jeremy Woodrum said. The junta's move to extend Suu Kyi's house arrest was clearly aimed at keeping her sidelined until the end of next year's planned election. Her ability to mobilize thousands of people for rallies helped her party win 392 of the 485 seats in the 1990 election that was annulled by the military. The junta is on the final stage of its road map to democracy, culminating in next year's vote, and with a constitution that enshrines a powerful role for the military. The junta might have become more responsive to international pressure because it may want its new cabinet - an ostensibly elected civilian one but likely filled with retired generals - to be acceptable to the outside world, analysts said. Instead of calling for an election with Suu Kyi's participation, the international community should shift its focus to deal with a post-election Myanmar, they said. "From now until the elections, Aung San Suu Kyi won't be in the picture," said Pavin Chatchavalpongpun of the Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore. "Why don't we sit down and try to think of policies of the next government? "Than Shwe may be thinking about leaving his legacy behind," Pavin said referring to the junta supremo. "Whether he already has a political successor in his mind, we don't know. But I am sure he has been thinking about that." (Additional reporting by Prapan Chankaew in Bangkok and Paul Eckert in Washington; Editing by Bill Tarrant) NLD protests court verdict on Aung San Suu Kyi - Myint Maung The National League for Democracy (NLD) reacted sharply in a statement on Wednesday to the court's sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in prison with hard labour saying it is a violation of human rights and not in consonance with the provisions of the law. The charge of violating the terms of her house arrest was made on the basis of fundamental rights provisions in the 1974 Constitution, which was suspended and is not in force any longer, making it null and void, the statement said. "The statement said the court's verdict is not in accordance with the provisions of the law and the NLD strongly protests against the human rights violation. Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers will take the next step after meeting her," NLD spokesman Dr. Win Naing told Mizzima. In another statement issued by the NLD on the same day, the party urged the military junta to grant amnesty to all political prisoners and release them unconditionally at the earliest. In the second statement the NLD said Aung San Suu Kyi has earned the trust and credibility of all ethnic people and pro-democracy forces. Moreover she has been consistently striving for a dialogue and national reconciliation. She is capable of making compromises and usher in reforms, the statement added. "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi told diplomats in court on the day the verdict was delivered that she hoped she could work for peace and tranquillity in Burma. She added that she hoped to get a chance to work for world peace and development," the statement said. After an American sneaked into her home in early May this year when Aung San Suu Kyi was being held under house arrest, she was charged with violating the terms of her house arrest under section 22 of the 'Law safeguarding the State from the Danger of Destructive Elements'. She was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour. But the Junta's head Senior Gen. Than Shwe commuted half of the sentence while the rest of the sentence was suspended. She is to serve the sentence in her home. Aung San Suu Kyi was put on trial on May 18, this year and was held in Insein prison before the sentence was pronounced by the court. Now she is again under house arrest. Burma's blood money Residents of Mandalay say that patients needing transfusions at a main public hospital in the Burmese cultural capital are routinely asked for money for donated blood. "You have to pay money at the hospital," a member of the Aung Pin-leh district blood donors' association said. "If you don't, they don't give you blood at all. This is how they operate." He said that a patient named U Thaung Tun, who suffers from a circulatory disorder, had recently asked the voluntary group for blood because he had traveled all the way from the remote state of Kachin to seek treatment and needed a transfusion. "The blood donation association from the neighborhood gave as much blood as they had," the donor said. "The social organization donated three bottles. For the rest, they would have to find a lot of money to receive blood at the hospital," he added. "They would have to find about 40,000-50,000 kyat (U.S. $50)." Mandalay residents said that people who can afford to pay are often asked for U.S. $10 for a bottle of blood, while poorer patients might be expected to pay half that amount. Routine practice One man with close ties to Mandalay General Hospital, the facility at the center of the allegations, said that the selling of blood is tied to corruption among hospital staff. "Normally, if a patient needs blood while in the hospital, the patient has to look for a donor himself," the man said. "But if the patient is from out of town and does not have any contacts in the city, and he needs a blood transfusion, then it is quite difficult for him," he added. "It is not easy for that sort of patient to get blood from the blood bank immediately." He said that while the sale of donated blood isn't endorsed by official policy, payment would still ensure a swift procurement of blood for those needing a transfusion. While there doesn't appear to be a wide-scale black market in blood sales in Burma, patients are routinely asked for money to speed up the process of transfusion. "Depending on the how much the patient can afford to pay, the price of payment for the blood increases and decreases," the resident familiar with the Mandalay General Hospital said. "If one can give money, one can get the blood quickly and efficiently…There have been cases where they will get the blood type needed in exchange for payment." Charge denied Sources close to the hospital's administration say, however, that payment is required only for the basic cost of blood transfusions, and not for the blood itself. An employee who answered the phone at the Mandalay General Hospital denied the allegations. "We don't take money for that at all," he said. "Don't go around [saying] these things." "If you want to ask, ask our department head. Ask [the Ministry of Health in] Naypyidaw, OK?" But the employee declined to provide a telephone number for high-ranking health officials, and then hung up. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens who donate blood said that asking payment for transfusions is inappropriate, especially for poorer patients. "They shouldn't do that," the Aung Pin-leh blood donor said. "The donor donated out of charity, and they are then selling it. Actually, they shouldn't ask for money from those who cannot afford it." Donor groups A youth member of the emergency blood donor group Uni Fellas, based in Burma's former capital Rangoon, said that while that city's hospitals experience similar instances of corruption tied to blood transfusions, the problem has been worse in the past. "A number of citizen-run organizations have sprung up in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, with donor groups obtaining blood for blood banks," the youth member said. "Instead of [donating] once every four months, youths are gathering together to build up a supply for the blood bank instead of just for emergencies," he said. "It's easy to obtain blood as long as you have a slip of paper from the hospital saying you need it. You can simply go to the bank and get it." The youth member said corruption in Rangoon, a city of nearly 4 million residents, is not as prevalent as in Mandalay, which is one-fourth Rangoon's size. "Most of the related costs go to testing and other equipment. If the blood is a rare type then you would need to pay more for it," the youth member said. He added that is impossible to guarantee that blood will be clean, even with citizen groups monitoring the donation process. "We can't always guarantee that blood will be clean. Donors are made to answer a questionnaire before they give blood, but they have to be truthful about whether they have any diseases. And sometimes they don't know," the youth member said. "In the case of donors selling blood directly to recipients, sometimes they could be lying to make money." He added that while donor groups are compensated for their work, there is no fixed amount and payments often "aren't much." * Original reporting in Burmese by Ko Ye Htet, Kyaw Kyaw Aung, and Kyaw Min Htun. Translated by Soe Thinn. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. UN Security Council approves watered-down Myanmar statement The UN Security Council has agreed a watered-down statement expressing "serious concern" about the extended detention of Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, diplomats said Thursday. The sources, who spoke on condition anonymity, said the agreement was reached following bilateral consultations Thursday. Britain's UN Ambassador John Sawers, who chairs the 15-member council this month, was to read the statement to reporters at 1:00 pm (1700 GMT), his office said. A court at Yangon's notorious Insein Prison on Tuesday sentenced Suu Kyi to three years' imprisonment and hard labor for breaching the terms of her house arrest following an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside residence in May. Than Shwe, head of the ruling junta, commuted the sentence to 18 months under house arrest but the trial and the verdict have created international outrage. "The members of the Security Council express serious concern at the conviction and sentencing of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and its political impact," according to the council statement, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. It noted the decision by the Myanmar government to reduce Suu Kyi's sentence and urged the military regime "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." The statement also affirmed the council's "commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar" and reiterated that "the future of Myanmar lies in the hands of all its people." The agreed text waters down an earlier US-drafted version that "condemns the conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi and expresses grave concern about the political impact this action has on the situation in Myanmar." The earlier draft would also have called on the Myanmar government "to release Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners." But veto-wielding council member China - a key ally and major military supplier of Myanmar's ruling junta - urged the international community to "fully respect Myanmar's judicial sovereignty." Suu Kyi has been confined for 14 of the past 20 years, ever since the military regime refused to recognize her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in the last elections held in 1990. Seven steps to freedom - Ko Bo Kyi The verdict has been handed down: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is "guilty" as charged. The scenes in court have been very dramatic. First, the long expected three-year sentence with hard labor was read out. Next, Burma's home minister read out the order commuting the sentence from Senior General Than Shwe, stating that Aung San Suu Kyi would instead serve an 18-month sentence under house arrest. But Gen. Than Shwe - a psychological warfare expert - was not recasting himself as a lenient or benevolent leader. He was simply attempting to placate some of his would-be critics; but not necessarily those in the West. This was a conciliatory gesture aimed at China, India, Asean, and possibly even some of his own generals who were reportedly divided on how best to deal with the problem of Aung San Suu Kyi. A statement from Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whilst expressing disappointment at the guilty verdict, said: "We are however happy that the Myanmar government has exercised its sovereign prerogative to grant amnesty for half her sentence and that she will be placed under house arrest rather than imprisoned." And so there is almost a return to the status quo, with Aung San Suu Kyi back under house arrest. But not quite: She now has a criminal record. The regime has consistently denied the existence of political prisoners in Burma, stating simply that there are only criminals who have broken the laws of the country. Now they can firmly place Aung San Suu Kyi in that category. Burma's political prisoners have long been pawns in an elaborate chess game of "saving face" with the international community. In July, the Burmese permanent representative to the U.N., U Than Swe, indicated a planned gesture of mercy. "The Myanmar 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," he told reporters. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described this development as "encouraging," but in reality it was simply another hollow promise by the regime. Since November 2004, there have been five separate amnesties for prisoners in Burma. According to the SPDC's own publicly released figures, a total of 38,681 prisoners have been released. Yet just over 1% of them were political prisoners. Such releases are always a cynically timed gesture to coincide with Asean meetings or other international gatherings that matter to the junta. Of course, recent developments have already cast doubt on the credibility of U Than Swe's promise. The guilty verdicts in the case of Aung San Suu Kyi and her two live-in National League for Democracy (NLD) party members Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma are only part of the story. In recent weeks at least 40 NLD members have been arrested. There are now around 500 NLD members in Burma's jails - the largest single group of political prisoners. The international community and the U.N. recognize the release of all Burma's political prisoners as the key benchmark towards democratic progress in Burma. But how does this fit with the regime's own so-called Road Map to Democracy, of which the 2010 elections are the seventh step? The international community should demand the practical implementation of a concrete timeframe for the rapid release of all of Burma's political prisoners as a first step in a long process to prove that the 2010 elections will be fair and inclusive. This can be considered an alternative to the regime's seven-step plan. Step one would be for the regime to publicly acknowledge the very existence of political prisoners. Step two would be to immediately release the 137 estimated political prisoners in bad health. Step three would be to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to resume its impartial mandate to inspect prisons, suspended since early 2006 because the regime wanted to accompany ICRC staff during their confidential interviews with prisoners. Step four would be to cease the practice of prison transfers to remote jails, and return all political prisoners to facilities in their home towns, to allow family members to visit easily. These steps would cover the humanitarian grounds referred to by U.N. Ambassador U Than Swe. The remaining steps should relate to participation in the 2010 elections. The U.N. and the international community need to sharpen up on the concept of "participation." Participation must not simply mean the right to vote in an election many analysts predict will be rigged. There are at least 2,190 political prisoners in detention centres, labor camps and prisons across Burma today, and some former 10,000 political prisoners in the country. Those 12,000 votes will not make much of a difference. But 12,000 pro-democracy election candidates could fundamentally change the political landscape in Burma, if the elections were truly free and fair. History has shown us that former political prisoners, such as South Africa's Nelson Mandela and the Czech Republic's Vaclav Havel, have a vital role to play in bringing national reconciliation to their countries. Step five would be to unconditionally release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. She has repeatedly stressed the importance of political dialogue to bring about national reconciliation in Burma. Step six would be for the regime to publicly declare a concrete timeframe for the release of all political prisoners before the end of 2009. And step seven would be to allow all political prisoners and former political prisoners to freely participate in the country's democratization process, without restrictions. This should include participation in a review of the 2008 constitution; dialogue for national reconciliation; and the right to stand in independently-monitored free and fair elections. Only with the practical implementation of a concrete time-frame for the rapid release of all of Burma's political prisoners can the regime prove that it is truly committed to the democratization process. For the sake of its own credibility, the U.N. must support total release of all political activists as a necessary prerequisite to any engagement with the SPDC's draconian road map. Bo Kyi spent seven years as a political prisoner in Burma. He is co-founder of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) and a recipient of the 2008 Human Rights Defender Award from Human Rights Watch. The Burmese road to ruin Once a model for Myanmar's generals of successful autocracy, Indonesia now has even more to teach them. IF THERE was ever a role model for Than Shwe, Myanmar's vicious, nutty, reclusive "senior general", it was Suharto, Indonesia's late kleptocrat. Suharto was the senior general who had everything. His fabulous wealth made the greedy Burmese generals look like paupers. His children parcelled out the economy as if it were the family vegetable plot. Feted rather than shunned, he was dubbed "father of development" by his fan club, and even many foreigners agreed: development banks needed him more than he needed them. And he held power for 32 years. No wonder the Burmese junta gazed admiringly at Indonesia. The two countries do have much in common. Both are fabulously rich in resources - hydrocarbons, minerals, timber. Both reached postcolonial independence by way of Japanese occupation. Both are multiethnic states haunted by the twin spectres of racial tension and a separatist periphery. And both have armies with inflated views of their importance to national survival. A fine recent book on Indonesia by Marcus Mietzner of the Australian National University* highlights five features of the Indonesian armed forces. Four are also shown by Myanmar's. First is the army's (debatable) view of itself as the main bringer of independence. Second is its disdain for periods of civilian rule in the 1950s, dismissed as chaotic, corrupt and, through the spread of regional rebellions, dangerous to the country's integrity. Out of this disdain grew a third feature, a doctrine known in Indonesia as dwifungsi, or dual function, of running the country as well as defending it, and a fourth, the entrenchment of the armed forces in the infrastructure of the state. Last year Myanmar's benighted people were forced to endorse a dwifungsi constitution in a referendum. Under it, ludicrously undemocratic elections are to be held in 2010, giving some veneer of legitimacy to the soldiers' unbudgeable heft in parliament and government. The fifth point, too, may yet apply to Than Shwe. What Mr Mietzner terms the "increasingly sultanistic character" of the ageing Suharto's rule opened up a rift with his fellow generals. When the economy collapsed in 1998 and the threat of anarchy loomed, Suharto looked over his shoulder and found nobody was following him. In the end, dictators, however unpopular, despotic and incompetent, rarely fall because they have too many enemies. They fall because they have too few friends left. Fall, however, Suharto did, in 1998, disqualifying Indonesia's recent history as a serviceable model for Than Shwe. But what has happened there since Suharto fell should still interest him for two reasons. The first is that there has been almost total impunity both for the grasping dynasty and the torturing soldiers who guarded it. One obstacle to political reform in Myanmar is the generals' fear of war-crimes trials, truth-and-justice commissions, or perhaps lynch-mobs. Indonesia should offer them hope that political change need not inevitably bring retribution. But Indonesia is an encouraging example for Myanmar for a better reason, too. Facing multiple long-lived insurgencies, Myanmar's generals fear for their country's unity. In the late 1990s, Indonesians also worried about national disintegration and communal strife. Yet except for tiny East Timor, the country remains in one piece. Moreover, under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, just re-elected president, it is politically stable, economically resilient and largely peaceful. All political transitions are bumpy. But Indonesia's has been surprisingly free of turbulence. And the country is showing signs of some political self-confidence. This week it reverted to the timid, "non-interfering traditions" of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), curtailing a gathering in Jakarta of exiled Burmese opposition leaders. But at ASEAN's summit in July, it spoke out for more robust regional human-rights standards and against the Burmese junta. There are two ways, however, in which the Burmese dictatorship differs crucially from Suharto's. The first is that, whereas Suharto faced only insipid opposition leaders, Than Shwe has a nemesis, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is hugely popular at home and internationally revered. There was something personally vindictive about the Alice in Wonderland trial to which his junta has just subjected her. Not just the proceedings ("sentence first - verdict afterwards") but the supposed crime itself - in effect, being poorly guarded - were beyond ridicule. His intervention to show "clemency" by cutting her sentence was salt in her wounds. The whole farce speaks of Than Shwe's determination at all costs to keep her incarcerated during next year's election. The army will never forget its embarrassment in 1990 when her party trounced the army's candidates. She was already in detention. The Pyongyang consensus Second, Suharto's claim to paternity over development was not all hot air. Under him Indonesia achieved average annual economic growth of over 6% for three decades. Inequality was stark, but the benefits of growth were felt by most Indonesians. In Myanmar, a tiny, pampered middle class enjoy luxury hotels, golf and shopping malls in Yangon; the generals bask in comfort in the mountain fastness of Naypyidaw, their absurdist capital. But most of Myanmar's people still toil away as subsistence farmers. Economic collapse is not a risk. There is nothing to collapse. In this respect, perhaps Than Shwe has, after all, found a new role model. That other vicious, nutty recluse, Kim Jong Il, shows the same almost infinite capacity to let his people suffer to keep him in power and cognac, and has an appealing knack for nukes. However, he exudes neither the durability nor the respectability commanded by Suharto in his pomp - let alone by the popularly elected Mr Yudhoyono, who, Than Shwe's underlings might like to recall, used to be one of Suharto's generals. Burmese justice - Editorial Smarter sanctions against the Burmese generals after their latest sentence of Suu Kyi. Tuesday's sentencing by a Burmese court of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years of hard labor is a fresh reminder of the ruling junta's cruelty. That the sentence was then magnanimously reduced to an 18-month extension of her house arrest is a reminder of its cynicism. Ms. Suu Kyi is Burma's rightful prime minister, having been elected in a vote overturned by the junta in 1990. The latest verdict ensures that the regime will get through parliamentary elections scheduled for next year without her participation. The junta's hope is to generate a chimera of democracy on the model of Hun Sen's regime in neighboring Cambodia. The ploy might even work. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hinted last month at the possibility of "investment" and "other exchanges" for Burma in exchange for Ms. Suu Kyi's freedom. Later this week, Virginia Democrat Jim Webb will travel to Burma, the first visit by a U.S. Senator in over a decade. Not a bad photo-op for a regime that last year impounded humanitarian aid for the more than 100,000 victims of Cyclone Nargis. Burma's junta has mostly shrugged off Western sanctions thanks to billions in sales of natural gas to China and Thailand, along with sales of timber and gems. Some of those sanctions have achieved little except to further impoverish the Burmese people and should be lifted. But financial sanctions targeting the junta and its associated businesses are more effective and could be tightened. No less valuable are Burmese language broadcasts of Radio Free Asia, which are vital in breaking the regime's monopoly on information. The revelation earlier this year that North Korea is supplying arms to Burma while Russia is supplying nuclear technology means that the junta is becoming a menace to more than its own people. For the sake of Ms. Suu Kyi and every other imprisoned Burmese dissident, we hope the Obama Administration doesn't conclude from this that engagement is the best policy. No surprise at Suu Kyi's latest punishment - Editorial Jail term is simply a ruse to keep Burma's opposition leader out of the scheduled election next year. As expected the internationally condemned trial of Burma's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has ended with a guilty verdict and an 18-month sentence handed down to her for violating the terms of her previous house arrest. Suu Kyi will now have to remain under house arrest for a further 18 months, just long enough for her to be unable to take part in the general election set for next year. While it is generally agreed the so-called democratisation process in Burma is a sham, Suu Kyi's participation would have lent a degree of legitimacy to the process. Despite tilting the ground rules for the election absurdly on the side of the military junta, the generals still do not want her anywhere near the process. If anything, this illustrates the enormous fear these men in uniform have of this lady. The sentence has naturally provoked anger in countries all around the world, including some Asean members who are fed up with Burma continually dragging the regional grouping into controversy. The court at Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison sentenced Suu Kyi to a three-year jail term plus hard labour for breaching the terms of her house arrest following an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside residence in May. John Yettaw got three years for breaching security laws, three years for immigration violations, and one year for a municipal charge of illegal swimming. Burma's Senior General Than Shwe reduced Suu Kyi's sentence to 18 months' house arrest. Is he trying to show the world that he has a heart? Two female aides who live with Suu Kyi also had their sentences reduced to 18 months. In a statement, Than Shwe said he had reduced Suu Kyi's sentence because she is the daughter of Burma's independence hero General Aung San. The aim is to preserve peace and stability in Burma and to ensure the country goes along its "democratic path". The 18-month sentence will ensure that Suu Kyi is not free during the period leading up to Burma's planned general election next year, probably in May. "I felt bad about the trial but did not want to interfere with the legal process," Than Shwe said in his message. Well, whoopdi-doo! General Than Shwe feels bad! Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years, since Burma's ruling military junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in the election of 1990. Burma's state-run newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, has had the audacity to tell the world to keep out of it and also warned its own citizens not to cause trouble. "The people who favour democracy do not want to see riots and protests that can harm their goal," the government mouthpiece said. The military has ruled the impoverished nation with an iron fist since 1962. |
11 August 2009
[ReadingRoom] News on Burma - 18/8/09
Suu Kyi gets 18 months under house arrest Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years' jail and hard labour by a Burmese court today, but the head of the ruling junta commuted the punishment to 18 months' house arrest, a minister said. The court sentenced her on charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest after a bizarre incident in which an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside house in May, an AFP correspondent in court said. But Home Affairs minister General Maung Oo said outside the court that military ruler Than Shwe had signed a special order suspending the sentence and ordered that Suu Kyi should spend 18 months under house arrest. Earlier there were speculations that the Burmese democracy icon faced a possible five-year jail term. Officials said the release from hospital late Monday of a US man who sparked the trial by swimming to the Nobel peace laureate's house meant the judgment may now go ahead as scheduled at Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison. Diplomats and Burma authorities had warned that American John Yettaw's treatment for a series of epileptic fits could cause the latest in series of delays in the nearly three-month-old trial. Security was heavy around the prison late Monday but the status of Tuesday's hearing remained unclear overnight, despite the confirmation by an official source that Yettaw had been discharged from hospital after a week of treatment. The 64-year-old Suu Kyi stands charged with breaching the conditions of her house arrest following the bizarre incident in which former US military veteran Yettaw swam across a lake to reach her heavily secured villa in May. The court is widely expected to hand down a guilty verdict but the sentence remains a matter of speculation, with many diplomats in Rangoon predicting that she will be jailed or placed under house arrest for up to three years. She has already been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since Burma's ruling military junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in elections in 1990. International pressure The case is proving to be a major headache for Burma's powerful generals, caught between growing international pressure to free Suu Kyi and what critics say is its determination to keep her locked up during elections due in 2010. UN chief Ban Ki-moon last week pressed the regime to free political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, after convening a meeting of the "Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar". A visit to Burma later this week by Democratic US Senator Jim Webb - the first US lawmaker to visit the country in more than 10 years - could further complicate the timing of the verdict, diplomats said. Suu Kyi's lawyers have hailed the repeated delays as a sign that the judges have "serious legal problems" - but analysts say the real decisions are being made by reclusive junta leader Than Shwe from the bunker capital Naypyidaw. Yettaw's illness after what the national police chief said was a campaign of religiously inspired fasting since his arrest in May made fresh delays possible in the case. Burmese officials said at the weekend that Yettaw's health was improving and that he was "eating well". The former US military veteran also faces up to five years in jail on charges of abetting Suu Kyi's breach of security laws, immigration violations and a municipal charge of illegal swimming. Diplomats said at the weekend that Burma's regime was listening closely to its allies China and Russia, which have so far steered clear of saying that the trial is an internal matter and thereby granting the junta a free hand. State media at the weekend warned "power-craving" opportunists to abandon their plans of "trying to incite riots under the pretext of Daw Suu Kyi's case". -AFP Regime reportedly divided over Suu Kyi sentence - Min Lwin The delays in the court proceeding against Aung San Suu Kyi are caused by disagreements within the military regime over how severely to punish her, according to Burmese army sources. Some generals - notably Gen Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, Secretary 1 of the ruling military council - are said to want to see her imprisoned. Others are reportedly in favor of a more lenient sentence for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who was being held in house detention until the start of her trial in May. Among those who appear to be reluctant to commit Suu Kyi to prison is Gen Thura Shwe Mann, Coordinator of Special Operations, Army, Navy and Air Force, according to the army source - who told The Irrawaddy he wanted to see Suu Kyi sentenced "within the framework of the law." Htay Aung, a Burmese military researcher based in Thailand, also said that some senior military generals are divided over the trial, with one faction keen to see Suu Kyi sentenced to a term of imprisonment, isolating her from the general election planned for 2010, and others wanting to apply the due process of law. "The trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was postponed because some military generals wanted to consider it from a legal point of view," said Htay Aung. He thought international pressure on the regime also played a part in the postponements. Tin Aung Myint Oo is close to paramount leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe, who promoted the battle-hardened hardliner to the rank of four-star general in late March. The general is also close to Aung Thaung, minister for Industry (1), an extreme nationalist believed to be one of the masterminds of the Depayin massacre in May 2003, when Suu Kyi's motorcade was ambushed in central Burma. He is said to harbor a deep hatred of Suu Kyi. Military sources suggest the rise of Tin Aung Myint Oo has intimidated a faction headed by the regime's No 3, Gen Shwe Mann, who has been groomed to succeed Than Shwe. Lately, the general has been in charge of national security and the coordination of army, navy and air force. Shwe Mann so far is loyal to Than Shwe but rivals are closely watching his relationship with business tycoons and some Burmese scholars, army sources told The Irrawaddy. The sources also disclosed that Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, a close ally of Shwe Mann, has been sidelined in the power struggle with the Tin Aung Myint Oo faction. But so far Shwe Mann has saved the information minister from the sack. Observers inside Burma say Aung Thaung and Tin Aung Myint Oo are working together with the police and ministry of interior to influence the outcome of Suu Kyi's trial. Police Chief Gen Khin Yi and Minister of Home Affairs Maung Oo are close to the Tin Aung Myint Oo faction, and Khin Yi had been holding press briefings on Suu Kyi. It is believed that hardliners have instructed the police chief to concoct the case against Suu Kyi. Last Friday, Gen Khin Yi claimed in comments to reporters that John William Yettaw, the American whose intrusion into Suu Kyi's home initiated the case against her, had connections with Burmese exiled groups. The police chief also denied media reports that the regime had plotted with Yettaw. Speculation continues to circulate in Rangoon that Yettaw had received a large sum of money from regime leaders to intrude into Suu Kyi's home in May. It's also speculated that Aung Thaung collaborated with Than Shwe and Tin Aung Myint Oo to concoct the case against Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi supporters consider new tactics With Myanmar's military government expected to sentence famed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi to further detention as early as Tuesday, some of her exiled supporters are considering new tactics to break a decades-old political stalemate in the troubled Southeast Asian nation. Ms. Suu Kyi faces up to five years in prison for allegedly violating the terms of a government-imposed house arrest in May, when she allowed an uninvited American well-wisher to visit her lakeside home without state approval. Myanmar officials have said a verdict will come Tuesday, though some analysts believe the decision may be delayed due to the poor health of John Yettaw, the American visitor, who is also on trial and has reportedly suffered from epileptic seizures recently. The verdict was delayed once before, after authorities in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, said they needed more time to review the facts in the case. Whatever happens Tuesday, analysts and exiles expect the court to eventually find Ms. Suu Kyi guilty, resulting in further detention for the 64-year-old Nobel laureate after she already spent nearly 14 of the past 20 years under arrest. Such an outcome, combined with Myanmar's miserable economic conditions and the likelihood that Ms. Suu Kyi won't be able to participate in elections the government is planning for 2010, are prodding exile groups to contemplate new strategies, including seeking negotiations with Myanmar's military regime and possibly dropping some earlier demands that have blocked rapprochement in the past. Ms. Suu Kyi's supporters have traditionally taken a hard-line approach towards talking with the junta, unless the regime agrees to free hundreds of political prisoners and recognize the results of a 1990 election won overwhelmingly by Ms. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party. The military ignored that vote and subsequently tightened its grip on the country, locking away opponents and drawing widespread condemnation for its alleged human rights abuses. Last week, a group of senior opposition leaders including Sein Win, head of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which describes itself as Myanmar's government-in-exile, announced plans for a new "proposal for national reconciliation" that involves negotiations with the regime. The proposal reiterates older goals such as the release of political prisoners and a review of the country's constitution, but acknowledges the need for dialogue with the military to make those goals a reality. Other dissidents are pressing exile leaders to go farther and possibly drop calls for the military to honor the 1990 vote, if it helps advance the dissidents' other agendas, such as getting Ms. Suu Kyi freed. A wide array of exile groups including members of the NLD and the government-in-exile are holding a convention in Jakarta - a rare gathering of its kind - on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss further details. "We're not only thinking about what we want, but what the regime can and cannot accept. It's a move back to the center," said Nyo Ohn Myint, a senior opposition figure who has been in exile in Thailand and the U.S. for 20 years. He said a majority of senior NLD leaders now support some form of compromise with Myanmar's military government, including possibly writing off the 1990 vote. Mr. Nyo Ohn Myint said he believes Ms. Suu Kyi is also willing to compromise, including accepting some kind of role for the military in government, though it is difficult to confirm Ms. Suu Kyi's feelings so long as she is under arrest. Many dissidents are focusing special attention on the regime's elections planned for next year. Initially, opposition groups vowed to boycott the election because they believed that no vote overseen by the military could be free and fair. But some dissidents have softened their positions in the belief that participating in a flawed election may be better than sitting out entirely. "There is the danger that the main political activists or stakeholders like the NLD and major ethnic groups will be sidelined" if they don't in some way participate in the election, says Thaung Htun, the government-in-exile's representative to the United Nations. "We need to publicly propose an alternative." Some analysts are skeptical that any new approaches from exiles will yield results. Dialogue requires participation on both sides, and the junta has given little indication in the past that it wants to negotiate, though some dissidents believe that may change if the regime is given face-saving options that allow it to claim the 2010 election is legitimate. The regime rarely speaks to the foreign media, Western diplomats or high-ranking dissidents, making it difficult to divine its intentions. Myanmar's myriad exile groups have struggled to reach consensus in the past, and the latest discussions could easily break down over the details of how far to go with any national reconciliation plan. Many hard-liners still view any form of rapprochement as totally unacceptable, and they worry that any participation in the 2010 election could legitimize a government widely viewed as a military dictatorship. "The Burmese are too divided to suddenly put all their history behind them," said retired Rutgers University professor and Myanmar expert Josef Silverstein in an email message. Still, some analysts who follow Myanmar say the new approach at least offers hope of a fresh start after more than two decades of worsening economic and social conditions in the country. Many leading dissidents are now in their 70s and 80s, and a new generation of intellectuals, including some based in Myanmar, have been highly critical of their elders' refusal to negotiate with the regime in the past. The Jakarta conference was planned in part "to stay relevant to meet the criticism" that older dissident groups are too inflexible, said Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Macquarie University in Sydney. Dissidents are considering new approaches "probably because things are looking so dire" in the country, with little change in recent years, forcing exiles to look "for a new way," said Monique Skidmore, a Myanmar expert at the University of Canberra in Australia. "I'm pleased it's happening," she said. In Burma, carefully sowing resistance; Fragile opposition wary of confrontation Dreams of revolution die hard in the silences of this city's monsoon-soaked streets. Under cover of night, on a wet, deserted strip of jetty, a young opposition activist gazed toward the ragged lights on the opposite bank of the Rangoon River and talked into the wind that blew through a pair of coconut trees. "I am not afraid, but I do not want to be arrested, not at this time," said the activist, 27, who had fled Rangoon days earlier, trailed by an intelligence agent. A flickering neon bar sign caught the contours of his disguise - a baggy anorak, a pair of glasses, a hairnet to mask his thick, dark mane. "If I'm arrested, I cannot take part in demonstrations or campaigns." On the run or under watch, Burma's semi-clandestine opposition activists have struggled to rouse action while their leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, languishes in Rangoon's Insein Prison. She is being tried on charges that she broke the terms of her house arrest when a U.S. citizen swam across a lake in May to visit her in the compound where she has been confined for 14 of the past 20 years. For an issue as emotive as the fate of the leader whom Burmese refer to in whispers simply as the Lady, the general inaction has in many ways revealed the fragility of long-cherished visions of toppling the junta from the streets, born of memories from the mass pro-democracy protests of 1988. Some, such as the young activist, have ventured from remote village hideouts back into the cities to launch protests. In the past two months, dozens have defied barriers and a heavy police presence to hold a vigil outside Insein Prison, where Suu Kyi is being held. Others have distributed pamphlets or photos of her, and some have tried to trigger spontaneous marches with what they call "flash strikes" - unfurling banners in crowded markets in the hope that people will follow. But the disparate networks of the opposition have tried in vain to forge a united strategy, and their attempts to prompt a mass movement have fizzled in a society frozen by decades of oppression and poverty. Although Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, won elections in a landslide in 1990, the ruling military junta invalidated the results, imprisoned opposition leaders and solidified its grip on power. Two decades later, faith in the NLD's ability to bring the country closer to democracy has waned under its octogenarian caretakers. A few smaller groups have emerged from among groups of Buddhist monks, students or the aging leaders of the 1988 protests, with a shared goal of bringing change through nonviolent resistance to the one of the world's most repressive governments. But with many of their leaders arrested after the failed, monk-steered uprising in September 2007, the remaining activists operate illegally and from the shadows. "All the organizations, they should be united. Some want to make strikes, some do not," said the deputy of a leading opposition network, a former political detainee who faces retaliation from authorities if his name is published. "We need more people; 100 to 200 people is not enough to make the whole country strike." Wearing a starched shirt and longyi, the cloth wrap that substitutes for trousers, the leader sat in a downtown coffee shop, digging into a plate of fries. "I have so many different identity cards," he said with a grin. "Sometimes I am a teacher. Sometimes I am a student. Today, I am a teacher." In the past year, 338 dissidents have been handed multi-decade sentences and have been scattered across Burma's network of prisons and detention camps, according to the Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors the Burmese detention system. Many were celebrated figures in the 2007 protests. Still, some remain undeterred. With his torn jeans, red-streaked hair and silver jewelry, Moe Thway, 28, blends easily into the crowd of young people sipping iced lattes at a Rangoon cafe. Thway is a founder of Generation Wave, one of the most shadowy of the country's underground opposition networks. The trial of Suu Kyi prompted him to risk his first trip back to Burma from Thailand since security forces raided his house in March 2008. He stayed only a few days to meet with his members. Even his mother did not know he was in town, because he was afraid he would endanger her. "We cannot push the people. We cannot pull. We must lead if we want success," he said. His trip back to Rangoon in June, at the height of Suu Kyi's trial, proved disillusioning. "I see the depression. The eyes - they are hopeless," he said. Since fleeing, Moe Thway has largely run the group's operations out of Mae Sot, a Thai border town. Two of his co-founders are behind bars. Another is in exile. Members still in Burma are subject to arrest at any moment. Authorities raided Thway's house in March 2008, arresting his younger brother and sentencing him to six months for charges that included illegal possession of "Rambo IV," a film that depicts Sylvester Stallone mowing down Burmese soldiers. But working from Mae Sot allows Thway to coordinate operations in ways impossible inside Burma, also called Myanmar, where potential informers swarm, news is heavily curtailed and Internet cafes are ridden with spy software. Even with the widespread use of proxy servers to bypass censors, electricity regularly cuts out or the government shuts down the country's main Internet server as a tool of control. Land-line telephones are often tapped, and cellphones are used to track activists' movements. Many opposition leaders say they see themselves as urban intellectuals with a duty to educate the wider population about civic engagement, particularly ahead of 2010 elections. The elections are nominally intended to implement a new constitution, but many critics have dismissed them as a sham. The opposition leader who poses as both teacher and student talked of his members melting into villages and factories, dressed as laborers and workers. "We talk to them about democracy. We talk to them about globalization, about human rights," he said. Members of Generation Wave have encouraged friends and neighbors to head to workshops held on the Thai border that address issues such as human rights. The workshops, sponsored by foreign human rights groups or Burmese exiles, have yielded 1,000 graduates in the past five years, Moe Thway said. The challenge, he said, is getting graduates to overcome their fear and act back home on the lessons learned. Patience Growing Thin One night two weeks before he fled the city, the young activist on the jetty met with another activist in their usual spot - a cubicle-size, lockable back room at a nightclub plastered with fluorescent planets. The elder activist, 48, said he had spent the better part of 20 years posing as a fish farmer or rice-paddy laborer. All the while, he has been recruiting opposition activists, spreading ideas about political rights and, in recent months, encouraging a signature campaign against the junta. "I go to where the people are oppressed," he said. "It is impossible for them to express themselves." Wispy-thin, he sat stiffly in a large red anorak and railed about the need to educate the rural population. He was back among the fish farmers when news of Suu Kyi's trial prompted him to travel 50 miles south to Rangoon. The young activist knew him from his teenage years as one of several regulars at a tea shop who would lend him books that eventually converted him into a professional activist. The older man's patience is now growing thin. In next year's elections, he said, "we need to use an armed struggle. . . . They use violence, and they don't care about international pressure." On another day, the young activist and three others from separate youth networks talked about sources of inspiration - Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, the anti-Slobodan Milosevic student movement in Serbia, South Africa's Nelson Mandela and India's Mahatma Gandhi. The conversation, which took place at a restaurant, quieted whenever a waiter hovered. "To face a very powerful enemy, we need to be clever, we need to be peaceful and we need international support," said one, who introduced himself with a pseudonym. Two weeks later, the activist returned to Rangoon smuggled in the cargo hold of a truck. He hoped to help coordinate the launch of a "yellow campaign," which aims to encourage Burmese to wear a color favored by Suu Kyi. This time, he said, he was resolved. "I won't leave," he said. "I will stay here and fight." The Lady lives Twenty years after she was first put under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi is still the inspiration of Burma's would-be opposition. On my first trip to Burma about a year ago, a young lawyer, in the cramped safety of an apartment that she shared with her aging parents, handed me a thumb-sized, silvery mug shot of a youthful Aung San Suu Kyi. "I could be arrested for carrying this," she said, with a touch with mischief. Then she buried the photo back into her cloth bag as fast as it had shot out. Dissidence, visitors to Burma learn quickly, often begins with reverence for the embattled opposition leader whom Burmese refer to, in whispers, simply as "the Lady." Aung San Suu Kyi burst onto the political stage almost by chance in the midst of 1988's mass student-led pro-democracy protests as the charismatic, eloquent daughter of Burma's martyred independence hero. In the years since, she has grown into a lone object of trust among Burmese, repeatedly credited as the sole figure capable of bridging deep divides - one fomented since a 1962 coup between the military and the civilian population, and the another between the Burmese majority and the country's restive ethnic minorities. Far from diminishing her star, the military junta's two-decades-old tactic of repeatedly isolating her from the masses by confining her to house arrest has only served to amplify her status as a beacon of resistance. Perhaps, paradoxically, that begins to explain the general inaction in the streets in response to a protracted trial that is part farce and part tragedy, a reminder both of the military junta's penchant for Kafkaesque distortions of justice and its intransigence in the face of widespread international condemnation. To the outside world, small glimmers of hope appeared in the rare invitations meted out on a select few days to a handful of foreign diplomats and well-connected local journalists to sit in on the proceedings. The verdict was due in late July but instead has been adjourned to August 11, a decision that comes as little surprise to Burmese who long ago learned to turn their gaze away from the repeatedly stalled proceedings in disgust. Burmese, in short, haven't been fooled. A small crowd of stalwarts from Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), have braved security forces and the likely risk of future arrest to hold a silent vigil outside the blackening walls of Insein prison, where the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has languished on trial for the past 2½ months. They are the most visible sign of activists in the ragged and diffuse semi-underground opposition who have otherwise struggled to foment demonstrations in the streets or spark small campaigns of symbolic protest. Some have distributed pamphlets or photos of Aung San Suu Kyi, and some have tried to trigger spontaneous marches with what they call "flash strikes," unfurling banners in crowded markets in the hopes that people will follow. But a visitor would be hard-pressed to find these rare moments of defiance amid the silent, scarred streets of Burma's cities. "People won't demonstrate because they are too afraid. But if you ask people who do they believe? Aung San Suu Kyi," a 27-year-old clandestine activist, code-named Sun Ray, told me. He had recently returned to Rangoon from his rural hide-out to launch a "yellow campaign" - in honor of a color he said was favored by the Lady - through his own semi-underground network. A few months earlier, he had splintered off from the youth branch of the NLD in part because of his belief that the party lacked force. The NLD won a landslide victory in a 1990 election, but the ruling junta denied the NLD's right to take power, consolidating its stranglehold on the country, imprisoning NLD politicians, harassing NLD members and their families, and banning all other opposition parties. Two decades later, faith in the NLD's power to effect change has crumbled under the aging octogenarian caretakers who run the party from their headquarters in Rangoon. In the past two years, Burmese have watched them fail to take initiative or react fast during September 2007's failed monk-led protests and in the aftermath of last year's Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated 140,000 people while the junta dragged its feet. But Aung San Suu Kyi's staying power manifests in the inspiration she offers to a new generation of activists who are tired of the stagnant politics of a rump NLD that in the past 20 years has brought them no closer to democracy. In her absence from the scene, she has endured as the rallying point for diffuse networks who have begun to displace dreams of toppling the junta from the streets with a bid to prepare the population for a day when the junta falters, through scores of projects in the cities and rice paddies that tread a fine line between social work and politics. That sentiment echoed throughout my recent travels across the country, where the trial has otherwise met with a mixture of anguish and deep cynicism. The Lady might get five years or another year, Burmese residents told me, often with a shrug; she might be punished with another period of house arrest or a prison sentence (where exactly she might be sent if convicted is the subject of intense speculation in the Rangoon rumor circuit). They've grown accustomed to expecting the worst. "The whole country is like a jail," a 60-year-old Buddhist abbot told me over tea one recent afternoon, as he wiped off the dust from his spectacles in the dry heat of his Mandalay monastery. "The trial is just political. We don't know about it." To Burmese, he said, it means very little. Scarred by the memories of past street protests that ended in brutal crackdowns, and empowered last year in the aftermath of the cyclone, when countless Burmese took it upon themselves to dispatch aid to survivors, Burmese have come to accept a new pragmatism. Change, when it comes, will depend on a schism within the military leadership. And the day the junta falters, "the Lady will lead. But we will lead too. We will organize at the township level," said a Rangoon doctor who recently founded an unofficial nonprofit organization that gathers a shifting crowd of 12 physicians for regular weekend trips to dispatch medicine and free clinical services in ramshackle villages on the outskirts of the city. "For me, I still see her as my leader," added a 28-year-old woman who works as a teacher for a Rangoon nonprofit that runs courses on civic engagement and governance, "But I don't believe there is only one leader. There will be many individuals. I'm not just waiting for her." Asked for her thoughts on Aung San Suu Kyi, however, she shut her eyes tightly and said: "Her dedication, her commitment. She left her life for it. I tried it. One day, to be in her shoes - I stayed in my room. On her birthday. It was too difficult." Amid the shifting caprices of a regime that lacks any legitimacy in the eyes of its people, Aung San Suu Kyi endures as a constant whose ideas on nonviolent protest and what she calls "loving kindness" carry weight in a culture that is deeply intertwined with Buddhist philosophy. Activists, from the most hard-bitten firebrands to aging intellectuals, long ago assimilated that lesson. On a recent afternoon, Sun Ray and three activists from separate youth networks traded talk about change at a restaurant. They spoke of inspiration coming from Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution; of Otpor, a Serbian student movement that opposed Slobodan Milosevic; of Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. Conversation hushed whenever a waiter hovered. Ironically, Burmese acknowledge that Aung San Suu Kyi has yet to be tested beyond the burnishing confines of her prison compound. "If your only influence depends on you being a prisoner," she once said, in a conversation with Alan Clements recorded in The Voice of Hope, "then you have not much to speak of." I learned of her inspirational power best on a dusty street of mango vendors in the city of Mandalay, where a physician brought out file after file filled with the records of patients he had treated through a nonprofit that has been closely watched by agents since 2004. Inside were snapshots of patients who might once have been sent to a carnival freak show - a baby with an eye the size of a football, a girl with an overgrown arm, a man lacerated with skin diseases. All were advanced cases of easily treatable diseases that had been left to run their course too far, he said, a sign of the degeneration of healthcare and the terrible poverty of rural Burmese who rarely think to see a doctor until they near death. The files, which fill an entire room, were the best assurance the group had to survive, said the doctor. After a long conversation about the pathological distress of the country that carefully sidestepped direct political discussion, he walked me to the gate of his villa, and then stopped suddenly. Across the road, a sunset-drenched monk stepped gingerly into a crumbling pagoda. "Have you read anything by Aung San Suu Kyi?" the doctor asked, fixing me hard. "She says to use your freedom to help the Burmese become free," he said. His eyes filled with tears. "We do what we can." The author is a reporter who is working on a book about the struggle for Burma. She blogs at dawbobopwint.blogspot.com. Burmese Army equipped with new arms - Lawi Weng The 400,000-strong Burmese army is now almost fully armed with locally manufactured MA-series weapons, according to several sources within the armed forces and rebel groups. The sources told The Irrawaddy that the Burmese army - known as the "Tatmadaw" - had equipped all frontline battalions with MA1, MA2, MA3 or MA4 automatic assault rifles. According to a weapons Web site, securityarms.com, the MA series was manufactured with the help of arms contractor Israeli Military Industries, and was designed similar to the Israeli Galil rifle. The weapons are expected to be used in conflicts with ethnic rebel groups, in particular the Karen National Union, as the Tatmadaw seeks to extinguish the country's 60-year-plus insurgency. The Burmese armed forces have one of the world's most notorious records for atrocities and human rights abuses, such as killing civilians, raping women and conscripting children. Since the 1950s, the Tatmadaw has traditionally employed German-made G-3 weapons. However, the G-3 assault rifle was considered too heavy for use in jungle warfare and, as the Burmese generals had endured decades of conflict with ethnic groups in Burma's mountainous border regions, they began manufacture of the MA series in 2002, presumably after signing a license agreement with Israel Military Industries. The MA1 and MA2 assault rifles are shorter and lighter than the G3, but not as powerful, said the sources. The MA3 is an assault carbine, basically an MA1 with a side-folding stock, and the MA4 is a grenadier weapon, essentially an MA1 equipped with a single-shot grenade launcher. Sources told The Irrawaddy that the weapons were manufactured at several factories in Burma, but the main factory is reportedly called Ka Pa Sa No 1, and is situated near Rangoon's Inya Lake. Sai Sheng Murng, the deputy spokesman of the rebel Shan State Army-South (SSA), said, "The MA1 and MA2 assault rifles are not heavy, so they are good for carrying to the frontlines. But they are not powerful like the G-3." "The MA1s and MA2s are similar to our M16s. In fact, we can use their ammunition in our M16 rifles, but they cannot use our ammunition in their rifles," he said. The Burmese army is one of the most battle-hardened forces in Asia, having fought almost continuously against ethnic insurgents and communist guerillas for more than six decades. However, following the brutal suppression of student-led demonstrations in 1988, the United States and later the European Union imposed an arms embargo on the Burmese regime. At the time, Burmese democracy activists and international sympathizers lobbied the West German government to prevent sales of G-3 weapons from the Fritz Werner arms manufacturing company going to the Burmese junta. The German arms manufacturers registered themselves in Burma in the 1990s as Myanmar Fritz Werner Industries Co Ltd, an electrical and electronics company. However, the photograph of a Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai, being shot during protests in 2007 by a Burmese soldier holding what would appear to be a G-3 rifle, raised doubts as to whether local production of the German assault rifle was ongoing. Despite the Western arms embargo, the Burmese military regime has no shortage of arms suppliers - Israel, Russia, Ukraine and China are reportedly the main players. Meanwhile, recent reports have indicated that Burma has purchased nuclear material from North Korea and harbors ambitions of creating a nuclear arsenal. Suu Kyi is 'part of the problem': Goh Chok Tong - Wai Moe Goh Chok Tong, Singapore's former prime minister and current senior minister, said on Thursday that Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is "part of the problem" facing the military-ruled country. Goh told reporters at the Asia-Middle East Media Roundtable in Singapore that while the West sees Suu Kyi as the solution to Burma's problems, she is also "part of problem" because she believes she is the government, according to Singapore's Channel NewsAsia news network. He also suggested Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), needed to seek a fresh mandate in the 2010 elections, saying that Suu Kyi should not dwell on the fact that her party's victory in the 1990 elections was not recognized by the junta. "That was 19 years ago, that's history. If she realizes she has to be part of the solution, she has to offer some concessions, such as to publicly say that she would be in favor of the lifting of sanctions," Goh was quoted as saying in The Malaysian Insider on Friday. On Burma's scheduled elections for next year, Goh said the junta should make sure that the elections were "fair, free and legitimate." He added: "The process must involve parties that oppose you as well. Aung San Suu Kyi must be allowed to participate." The senior minister from the most developed country in Southeast Asia also said that military-ruled Burma's economy has enormous growth potential. "Myanmar [Burma] has the potential to boom in the next 10 years and it can be like Thailand's today in 20 years' time," Goh said. Responding to Goh's comments, Aye Thar Aung, the secretary of the Committee Representing the People's Parliament (CRPP), an umbrella group consisting of parties elected in 1990, rejected the idea that Suu Kyi is part of Burma's problem. "I disagree with Mr Goh Chok Tong because Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has openly said since 1988 that she could negotiate with the generals for the benefit of the country. She has also said that believes the military is needed to resolve the problems in Burma," said Aye Thar Aung. "Significantly, she also recognizes the importance of resolving ethnic issues. So she is still a key player in efforts to reach a resolution," he added. The argument that Suu Kyi is "part of the problem" is not new. In early 2003, a number of Burma analysts, citing claims in the country's state-run media that Suu Kyi was not willing to negotiate with the military, began to suggest that she had become an obstacle to political progress. At the time, these analysts argued that Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt, a relative moderate among the ruling generals, should be regarded as the most important force for political change in Burma, not Suu Kyi. Khin Nyunt's ouster in October 2004 put an end to that idea. But the debate over Suu Kyi's role in Burmese politics has recently been revived, with some Burma experts and international aid agencies saying that greater attention should be paid to the needs of ordinary Burmese citizens, rather than the plight of its most famous political prisoner. With the US and the European Union threatening tougher sanctions in response to Suu Kyi's trial on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest, the debate has intensified. In a recent interview with Asia Times online, Burmese historian Thant Myint-U, a former UN diplomat who is currently a visiting fellow with the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, called Suu Kyi's strategy for reform "a gamble" that has not paid off. He added that Suu Kyi's approach has come at "the increasing cost of other roads not tested and opportunities lost as well as the enormous effect sanctions and aid cut-offs have had on ordinary people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable in the country." Meanwhile, Singaporean leaders, who are vocal advocates of engagement with the regime, have come under fire for being fundamentally ill-informed about Burma's political realities. In an interview last Sunday with The online Citizen, Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo incorrectly stated that Burma had been ruled by the military since its independence in 1948 and that Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, had created the law that a Burmese citizen married to a foreign national could not take political office. "The statements made by Singaporean leaders this week are undermining their own credibility," said Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of Altsean, the Alternative Asean Network. The CRPP's Aye Thar Aung said that while regional leaders were welcome to play a role in resolving Burma's political standoff, they should try to learn more about the country to get a better understanding of the roots of its problems. Burma isn't broke - Sean Turnell The drawn-out show trial of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has once again focused attention on Burma and sparked discussion on how to engage the regime. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently suggested development aid as a carrot to coax the generals to talk. But contrary to popular belief, the junta isn't as poor as it claims to be. Burma has emerged as a major regional supplier of natural gas in Asia-Pacific. At present, most of this gas is sold to Thailand, but new fields will shortly provide for vast sales to China. Rising gas prices and increasing demand have caused the value of Burma's gas exports to soar, driving a projected balance-of-payments surplus for this fiscal year of around $2.5 billion. Burma's international reserves will rise to over $5 billion-worth by the end of the year. These revenues make next to no impact on the country's official fiscal accounts, however. The reason is simple: Burma's U.S. dollar gas earnings are recorded in the government's published accounts at the local currency's "official" exchange rate of around six kyat to a dollar. This rate overvalues the currency by nearly 200 times its market value and undervalues the local-currency value of Burma's gas earnings by an equivalent amount. Recorded at the official rate, Burma's gas earnings translate into less than 1% of budget receipts. By contrast, if the same gas earnings are recorded at the market exchange rate, their contribution would more than double total state receipts, and largely eliminate Burma's fiscal deficit. The motivation for this sleight of hand is probably to "quarantine" Burma's foreign exchange earnings from the country's public accounts, thereby making them available to the regime and its cronies. This accounting is facilitated by Burma's state-owned Foreign Trade Bank and some willing offshore banks. Flush with these funds, Burma's military rulers have embarked upon a spending binge of epic proportions, including indulging themselves in the creation of a new administrative capital named Naypyidaw, or "abode of kings." They are also buying nuclear technologies of uncertain use from Russia and possibly from North Korea. This kind of behavior is par for the course in Burma. The military junta took power in a 1962 coup and has consistently expropriated the country's output while dismantling its basic market institutions. There are no effective property rights in Burma, and the rule of law is weak. Macroeconomic policy making is capricious, unpredictable and ill-informed. The regime spends greatly in excess of its revenue and resorts to the printing presses to finance its spending, creating inflation. Most of Burma's prominent corporations are owned by the military, and the country is judged by Transparency International as the second most corrupt in the world. Burma's fall from grace has been incredible to watch. The country was once one of the richest in Southeast Asia and the world's largest rice exporter. Today, Burma can barely feed itself. In 1950, the per capita of GDP of Burma and its neighbor, Thailand, were virtually identical. Today, Thailand's GDP is seven times that of its former peer, despite very similar religious, cultural and physical endowments. The people of Burma are poor, but the regime that oppresses them is not. Changing this equation is the true key to economic development in Burma, and the outcome to which the efforts of the rest of the world should be directed. * Mr. Turnell is the editor of Burma Economic Watch and an associate professor in economics at Macquarie University in Sydney. It's time for the United Nations to take strong action on Burma Women's Groups around the World Call on the UNSC to Prosecute Senior General Than Shwe at the International Criminal Court 7 August 2009 The Women's League of Burma (WLB) joined by sixty four leading women's organizations sent a letter to the Secretary General and members of the United Nations Security Council calling for the prosecution of Senior General Than Shwe at the International Criminal Court (ICC), and an immediate end to the longstanding impunity that has been afforded to the brutal military junta in Burma. The letter states that: Well-documented reports of past violations, continued systematic repression, and an incapacitated judicial system stand as solid witness to the necessity of strong international intervention. We call for the UN Security Council to start with a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the horrific campaign of terror by the military regime and to refer Senior General Than Shwe and his cronies to the international Criminal Court for all crimes including for the imprisonment of Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in violation of international law. The Secretary General's historic Report on July 15, 2009 on Security Council resolution 1820 makes clear that gender crimes by the military in are covered by the firm legal mandates of Security Council resolution 1820. These include the rights to criminal accountability, the prohibition of any amnesty for the military, and in this case an ICC referral. The report discusses in two places and these words speak volumes. In Myanmar, recent concern has been expressed at discrimination against the minority Muslim population of Northern Rakhine State and their vulnerability to sexual violence, as well as the high prevalence of sexual violence perpetrated against rural women from the Shan, Mon, Karen, Palaung and Chin ethnic groups by members of the armed forces and at the apparent impunity of the perpetrators. In , women and girls are fearful of working in the fields or traveling unaccompanied, given regular military checkpoints where they are often subject to sexual harassment. Furthermore, in countries such as Afghanistan, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sierra Leone, the Sudan and Timor-Leste, the effective administration of justice is hampered not only by a lack of capacity, but also by the fact that some justice officials do not give serious consideration to reports of sexual violence. In truth, although there has been documentation and identification of military personnel who have committed sexual violence, including relevant dates and battalion numbers, disciplinary or criminal action is yet to be taken against the alleged perpetrators. Accordingly, UN Security Council resolution 1820 affirms the urgent need to end impunity and protect civilians in conflict and post conflict situations. Impunity for sexual violence committed during conflict perpetuates impunity and WLB calls on the Security Council to act on the mandate of UN Security Council resolution 1820 and halt the systemic use of rape and other sex crimes against the ethnic women of who have been brutalized for decades with no redress or reparations. This letter is being issued to coincide with the open debates at the Security Council on the Secretary General's Report, and underscores that for the women of debate must lead to immediate action and the only access for justice for them is the ICC. CSW urges international community to intensify efforts on Burma on 21st anniversary of regimes suppression of pro-democracy protests Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is calling on the international community to unite to bring change to Burma, on the 21st anniversary of the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests. On 8 August, 1988 several thousand Burmese pro-democracy demonstrators, led by students, were killed by the military as it launched a brutal crackdown on a movement that had grown throughout that year. Since 1988, the regime has continued to perpetrate gross violations of human rights, including the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, the widespread use of forced labour, forcible conscription of child soldiers, the use of human minesweepers, religious persecution and extrajudicial killings. Over 2,100 political prisoners remain in jail while Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has already spent over 13 years under house arrest, waits to hear the final verdict from her latest trial on 11 August, possibly leading to further years spent in prison. As campaigners mark the 21st anniversary of the crackdown known as "8888″, CSW is calling on the United Nations, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Union (EU), China, India, Japan, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom to work together to intensify pressure on Burma's military regime. CSW's East Asia Team Leader Benedict Rogers said: "It is essential that we do not simply remember this anniversary as yet another in Burma's tragic history of brutal oppression. The most fitting tribute the world could pay to those who sacrificed their lives would be to unite and take concrete steps to support the brave Burmese people in their struggle for freedom. We call on the international community, working through the UN Security Council, to prioritise the release of all political prisoners in Burma, including Aung San Suu Kyi. We urge countries with influence on the regime, such as China, India, Russia and members of ASEAN, especially Singapore and Thailand, to recognize the severity of the political and humanitarian crisis in Burma, which affects the whole region, and to act to bring about change. We call on the EU, including the United Kingdom, and the United States to work with Burma's neighbours to secure the release of political prisoners, the introduction of a universal arms embargo and the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma. These are the steps that are required if we are to prevent another 21 years of torture, rape and murder with impunity in Burma." Russia taking raw Uranium from Burma since 2007 A Russian firm has been taking raw Uranium from Hpakant areas in Burma's northern Kachin State since 2007, said reliable local sources. Victorious Glory International Private Ltd. of Russia is taking the raw Uranium from the company's Uranium mines in Tarmakhan, Hongpa near Katai Taung, under tight security provided by the ruling junta, said eyewitnesses. A local eyewitness told KNG today, the company's mining areas are fenced off with opaque covers and the Uranium is mined inside the mountain with sophisticated digging machines. The raw Uranium is specially packed in sacks, which look like cement sacks. It is then transported to Hopin railway station in large trucks. Then the Uranium is transported to Rangoon sea port by trains for delivery to Russia, said sources close to the company and eyewitnesses. According to eyewitnesses in Hpakant, the company has been excavating the raw Uranium from these areas since 2007. The company signed an agreement with the ruling junta in Naypyitaw on February 15, 2007 for exploration of gold and associated minerals along Uru Hka River (or Uru Hka in Kachin) between Hpakant in Kachin State and Homalin in Sagaing Division. One year before the two sides reached an agreement, Russian Uranium explorers arrived in the area, said residents of Hpakant. The movements of Russian miners are specially secured in the mines and outside by security forces of the junta, said residents of Hpakant. The junta is constructing a nuclear plant in caves after tunneling into a mountain in Naung Laing in northern Burma, some 600 kilometres north of Rangoon. Five North Koreans worked there, according to South Korean media reports. A nuclear reactor from which plutonium can be extracted is also allegedly being built. Two defectors from the Burmese Army testified recently that the junta has a secret nuclear weapons programme, which is being supported by North Korea and Russia. Burma Army beheads woman - Hseng Khio Fah A local woman in Mongkeung Township, southern Shan State was beheaded by the Burma Army troops that have been launching a four-cut campaign since 27 July , according to villagers who recently fled to Thailand. In the morning of 3 August, Nang Hsoi, 29, from Wan Kart village, Ho Khai village tract was arrested in her village by soldiers from Mongkeung based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB)#514 after falsely accusing her as the wife of a Shan State Army (SSA) 'South' fighter and collaboration with the SSA, said a local villager who asked not to be named. "In the evening they [soldiers] took her to a bridge nearby the village, cut her head down and threw it into the creek," he said. Two days before her death, over 10 villagers from Wan Kart, Wan Kawng and Wan Long village were detained on suspicion of being SSA spies at the army base. The Burma Army that has been the four-cut campaign (cutting food, funds, intelligence and recruits to the armed resistance by local populace) had ordered villagers in Mongkeung, Kehsi and Laikha townships to leave their homes within 5 days, from 1 to 5 August. Since then, at least 300 houses in the three townships were razed to the ground and more than 300 villagers were forcibly relocated to the town, said a source. The campaign drive was led by the Mongnawng - based Military Operations Command (MOC) #2 command: Loilem based IB#9, and #12, Laikha based IB#64 and LIB#515, Namzang based IB#66 , #247 and LIB#516, Mongnai based IB#248 and LIB#518, Panglong based LIB#513, Mongkeung based LIB#514 and Mongpawn based LIB#517. To date, 21 villages from Panghsang village tract and 9 villages from Wan Htee village tract in Laikha township alone were forced to resettle in Marklang quarter of the town. During the drive some were beaten and some were reportedly killed, forcing many others to hide in the jungle, said another villager who is seeking asylum on the Thai-Burma border. "There were some people who are hiding in the jungle preparing to seek refuge in Thailand," she said, "Many people will be coming soon." Currently, about 10 people are seeking asylum in areas near Thailand. During the last engagement on 15 July, the Burma Army's LIB 515 suffered 11 killed, 1 captured and 5 assorted weapons lost. During the 1996-98 campaign against the SSA, 1,500 villages were destroyed and more than 300,000 in southern and eastern Shan State were forcibly relocated, a third of which had escaped into Thailand. More Karen refugees flee to Thailand - Naw Noreen Around 200 Karen refugees have fled across the border to Thailand's refugee camps in recent weeks with many reporting continued forced recruitment into the Burmese army and militias. According to a refugee who recently arrived in Thailand's Nu Poh camp, villagers were given the choice of either paying 150,000 kyat ($US150) or joining the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) militia, who have been fighting alongside Burmese troops. "We have been already struggling for food and we can't afford to pay them," said the refugee. "And we couldn't go out to work for food as there are landmines surrounding our villages." A spokesperson from the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP) said that 200 more refugees have recently arrived at three camps located in Thailand's Tha Song Yang district, in Tak province. "Some said there was forced recruitment and labouring as well as extortion of money [from the villagers]," he said. Some of the newly arrived refugees said the DKBA's Battalion 999 has been recruiting villagers in Karen state's Nabu township, citing security for the villages as the reason. An official from Battalion 999 said that new recruits are essential, although it is done on a voluntary basis. "During the 15-year-long standing of our group, we have had our people injured or dying, and in order to replace those soldiers, we have to find new recruits," he said. "We are not forcing them to join; we are only asking for their help, for their own people." "Since we are short on troop numbers, they can help us fight for at least three years…and then they can resign if they are not happy with us. "Those who have money can pay us to hire mercenaries but we are not collecting money from anyone as we have our orders not to." Many of the refugees who have entered Thailand had fled from the Ler Per Har camp for internally displaced people in eastern Karen state, which became a focal point of the fighting and has now been overrun by the DKBA. Last month the Bangkok-based Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) said that while fighting had eased, reports of the forced labour, portering and exortion of money, food and livestock from villagers by the DKBA continued. Reports have surfaced today that the DKBA is preparing to attack the KNU Brigade 6 base, following their loss of the strategically important Brigade 7 base in June. Burma's deadly course - Greg Sheridan BURMA is a bugger of a problem. And it's getting worse. Last weekend, Fairfax papers reported testimony from two Burmese defectors which suggested Rangoon had progressed some distance towards building clandestine nuclear facilities with North Korean assistance. Burma is a rogue state. Rogue states, like failed states (such as Somalia), are beyond international norms and almost by definition do not care about international opinion, with the exception generally of their one or two sponsors. Burma is a particularly difficult case. If ever there was an example ofthe need for some new thinking, it's Burma. Just establishing the facts is extremely challenging. The defector testimony said Burma was constructing tunnels in which it had also begun constructing nuclear reactors, with North Korean help. This was a valuable story, not because what the defectors say is necessarily true, but because it is useful to know what defectors are saying. After Iraq, everyone is very careful about defector testimony regarding nuclear matters. Defectors don't always tell you the truth. Sometimes they say what they believe their interrogators want to hear. Sometimes they say what will maximise their value. Sometimes they don't know the truth. On the other hand, defectors have on occasions given critically important and accurate testimony. It was dissident testimony that revealed Iran's secret nuclear programs. I have been following this Burmese story a long time. In 2006, I reported that US intelligence harboured deep concerns about Burma's ambitions to acquire nuclear material and expertise from North Korea. At that time, the best US analysis was that no nuclear material had yet passed from North Korea to Burma. Having talked to some extremely well-informed Asian analysts, I'm inclined to think the Burmese defector testimony was exaggerated. No one knows for sure. The stakes are so enormous that we need to make a serious effort, though, to find out all we can. Much of the defector testimony seems to hinge on North Korean assistance in building tunnels. It is true that tunnels can be used to hide reactors. However, there is also significant evidence that North Korea has been helping the paranoid Burmese regime build tunnels as elaborate air raid shelters for the ruling junta in the event of US attack. A US air attack on Burma is almost inconceivable but Than Shwe's military junta is intensely paranoid. It moved its capital from Rangoon to an inland city apparently because it feared Rangoon was susceptible to military attack. There is no doubt there is a deep relationship between the Burmese and North Korean militaries. The two countries have a strange history. For more of this article, please visit: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25888588-7583,00.html Censor Board alters requirements for presenting draft copy - Nem Davies New Delhi - Burma's Censor Board under the Ministry of Information has imposed a new time limit and altered requirements for weekly journals in presenting their draft copies. Starting from the first of this month, the Censor Board directed weekly journals to present draft journal copies no later than 12 noon. "Power in Rangoon is unpredictable and unreliable. If the power is not available when we need it, it will be inconvenient for us. So, we are unlikely to finish before their deadline," said one Rangoon-based journal editor. However, an editor of a best selling weekly journal welcomed the new scheme. "This new system is long overdue. It is very much convenient for all media persons," he said, indicating that workload would be lightened. Previously, weekly journals had to present their draft copies in hard copy, printed on A3 and A4 paper. But, starting last month, they could present their draft copies in soft copy form, stored on a CD after being converted to PDF format, along with a paper copy. Now, only the CD form will be required. Additionally, journals were also directed to deposit censor fees at the rate of 200 kyat (1 USD = 1,100 kyat) per page, not significantly different from former fee rates. "Even so, it is still cheap for us in comparison with the previous system of presenting in hard copy printed on paper", commented one journal editor. Some journals estimate they can save over 30,000 kyat per issue from this new system, as a blank CD costs only 150 kyat, in contrast to the old system of presenting on A3 and A4 paper. Monks question gov't use of personal photographs - Lawi Weng Buddhist monks in Rangoon and Pegu divisions were ordered to attach a personal photograph to their government information form, which were collected by local authorities in July. A monk in Pegu said, "I feel it is unusual because I had to attach my picture this time. Last year, I only had to provide information - no photo." He said members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a government-backed volunteer group, collected the information forms from the monasteries. Pegu, one of the main locations of Buddhist unrest during the 2007 monk-led uprisings, has an estimated 10,000 monks. "They told me they have to send my personal file to the Southern Command in Pegu," said the monk. "But they didn't explain the reason. I want to know, because I don't want the military to have my photograph." An abbot in Pegu said, "They believe we'll start another uprising. This is why they collected the pictures with the information forms - in order to make us afraid of them." "I am waiting for another uprising, because we didn't win the last round," he said. "They (the authorities) used baton and guns. For us, we only had our fists." In Pegu, the authorities have ordered Buddhist monasteries to keep a guest record, said the abbot. "Even our supporters who come to meditate on Buddhist holidays, I have to keep a record of them." The abbot said he recently had to pay a 2,000 kyat fine (US $1.50) for failure to keep good records. "I'm angry because they dare to take money from monks," he said. "They are evil people - those who killed monks. There will be a time they will be held accountable for the bad things they have done to monks. I am waiting to see it. In accordance with the Buddhist religion, they can't outrun karma." Meanwhile, the authorities continue to place more restrictions on the activities of monks including traveling abroad, giving Dhamma talks and political activities. In June, the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Rangoon prohibited monks from traveling abroad by refusing to issue letters of recommendation, even for health reasons, according to monks in Rangoon. The government tightened restrictions on monks traveling within Burma following the monk-led uprisings of August-September 2007. A number of leading monks also have been warned during the past year about speaking out on politics or prominent government figures during Dhamma talks. According to official statistics, there are more than 400,000 monks in Burma. Its community, the Sangha, is considered one of the most influential bodies in the country. Su Su Nway put in solitary - Lawi Weng A prominent Burmese labor rights activist, Su Su Nway, was placed in solitary confinement for three days after participating in a ceremony to mark the 62nd anniversary of Martyrs' Day on June 19 in Kalay Prison, in Sagaing Division, according to her sister. Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, her sister, Htay Htay Kyi, said, "She was put in solitary confinement because she stood up and sang an independence anthem composed by Min Ko Naing to mark Martyrs' Day." Htay Htay Kyi said she visited her sister on July 21 when she delivered medicine to Su Su Nway who said she had been denied medical care by the prison authorities. Su Su Nway, 37, suffers from hypertension and heart disease. In 2006, she won the John Humphrey Freedom Award for promoting human rights. She was arrested together with two colleagues after they pasted anti-government posters on a billboard in downtown Rangoon during the monk-led uprising of 2007. She was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison. Su Su Nway is among other 2,100 political prisoners who are currently being detained by the Burmese military authorities. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in July called on the Burmese junta to release all political prisoners before the national elections in 2010. Burmese permanent representative at the UN, Than Swe reportedly told Ban that Burma will release prisoners before the election; however, he did not specify if political dissidents would be among the prisoners released. Increase in child labour in Arakan There has been a quantum leap in child labour in Arakan State after the state started facing severe economic crisis, said a social worker in Sittwe. "If we compare child labour with last year, there has been an increase this year. Most child labourers are waiters in restaurants and teahouses, pavement vendors, newsvendors, plastic collectors everywhere in Arakan state," he said. Most children in Arakan state could not attend schools this year because of financial crisis in the family. "Most children in rural areas could not attend schools in this academic session. Only 10 per cent of children from some villages in rural areas attended schools because most could not afford the expensive school fees," he said. A parent from Maungdaw said a student in a primary level school has to pay 5000 kyats for entrance and stationery fees in Maungdaw Township. A traveller, who shuttles between Sittwe and Buthidaung by ship, said, "Yes, it is true many children in rural areas in Arakan could not join schools this year. Many aged between 10 and 15 are working in many places as child workers." On the ferry ships plying between Sittwe and Buthidaung, there are many children who sell food items in packages to passengers. "I have never seen children selling food on the ships in the past. Now many children are seen selling foods packages on the ships," the traveller said. The number of child workers has increased in places like jetties and bus stations in major towns of Arakan including Kyauk Taw, Mrauk U, Sittwe, Ann, Minbya, kyauk Pru, Taungup and Thandwe. A woman in Sittwe told Narinjara over telephone that the number of beggars has also increased since the onset of the monsoons in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan state. Among them, three fourths are children. Thailand to import gas from Myanmar's M9 late 2013 Thailand plans to import natural gas from offshore Block M9 in the Gulf of Martaban in Myanmar in late 2013, Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul said on Tuesday. Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) (PTTE.BK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was expected to sign a gas sales agreement with parent company PTT PCL PTT.BK by the fourth quarter of this year, Wannarat told reporters. "The two sides will discuss some details and then propose the issue to governments of both countries for approval," he said. PTTEP is expected to supply an initial 300 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) from M9, of which 240 mmcfd would be delivered to Thailand and the rest to Myanmar, Wannarat said. PTTEP's subsidiary owns 100 percent of Block M9, located about 300 km (185 miles) south of Yangon. It is expected to have petroleum reserves of 1.5 trillion cubic feet per day and needs at least $1 billion for investment, he said. (Reporting by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Alan Raybould) Total Chief: Critics can 'go to hell' The CEO of the French energy giant Total said critics of the company's operations in Burma "can go to hell," according to an interview published by Newsweek magazine on August 3. "I am bringing gas to Thailand. Bangkok was the world's most polluted city. They switched from oil fuel to gas. Bangkok is clean now. We are proud of being part of this," Christophe de Margerie, CEO of Total, told the US weekly magazine. Thailand pipes about one billion cubic feet of gas per day from Burma's offshore reserves in the southeastern Andaman Sea through the controversial Yadana gas pipeline, which human rights campaigners say has been a site of widespread abuses since its inception. Total has been involved in the Yadana project since the 1990s, working in partnership with the US-based Unocal (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron), Burma's state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production Co. Total and its partners have long been accused of turning a blind eye to serious human rights abuses committed by Burmese security forces guarding the pipeline, including forced labor, land confiscation, forced relocation, rape, torture and murder. A brutal crackdown on monk-led protests in 2007 and the current trial of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi have brought renewed pressure on investors in Burma's gas and oil sector, the single largest source of hard currency for the ruling regime. Burmese pro-democracy activists say energy companies should think twice about their investments in Burma. "Today, [rights campaigners] are trying to tell us you have no right to speak. They can go to hell. If you want to ask somebody, don't ask Total. Ask the government of Thailand, which buys Burmese gas," de Margerie said. "Or ask the government of India why they have companies investing in Burma, when we froze investment. Why is South Korea, ally of the United States of America, investing in Burma? Why Total?" he added. However, de Margerie's claims that Total has been unfairly singled out ignores actions taken against other major investors in Burma's energy industry. Recently, US-based NGO EarthRights International (ERI) filed a 43-page complaint to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calling for an investigation of the South Korean government's respect for OECD guidelines. The complaint, made on behalf of the Shwe Gas Movement and nine Korean-based organizations, is related to investments in Burma by Daewoo International and the Korea Gas Corporation. Complaining that "Total is a punching bag while other companies invest without criticism is simply untrue," said ERI project coordinator Matthew Smith, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. "He (de Margerie) claims that Total is proud to provide natural gas to Bangkok but at the same time he tries to deflect negative criticism to Thailand. This strategy is consistent with the way Total has handled most of the negative outcry about its presence in Burma: deny and reject any and all negative criticism. "Total's project has generated billions of dollars for the military regime from the peoples' natural resources. It's dubious at best to claim that is a positive thing for the country," Smith said. "Elsewhere Total has touted respect for fiscal transparency but at the same time it has not published the payments it has made to the Burmese regime - that raises serious questions," he added. |
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