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BURMA RELATED NEWS - FEBRUARY 12, 2008
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HEADLINES
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AP - Pro-Democracy Protest in Myanmar
AP - UN Chief Urges Talks in Myanmar
AFP - Suu Kyi's party calls for 'fair political climate' in Myanmar
AFP - Myanmar must end repression before referendum: HRW
AFP - Myanmar junta says sanctions seek to derail democracy plans
Reuters - Olympics-Nobel laureates press China over Darfur
Reuters - Myanmar says dissidents tearing country apart
Reuters - UN reacts cautiously to Myanmar political plans
Reuters - Scientists, police lift lid on fake malaria drugs
The Star - Myanmar charter vote a first step - ASEAN
AlertNet - Alliance Myanmar recognises four community members with
leader****p awards
New Kerala - Ban urges Myanmar to receive UN envoy
RIA Novosti - Moscow praises Myanmar referendum, election plans
DVB News - Commentary: Lawlessness, the stuff that binds in Burma
DVB News - Pagoda closed to Taunggok NLD members
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Pro-Democracy Protest in Myanmar
AP - Wednesday, February 13
YANGON, Myanmar - Sup****ters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
protested Tuesday to demand democracy in Myanmar, days after the
military regime said it would hold elections in 2010 under a new
constitution likely to entrench the junta's powerful position.
Some two dozen members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy,
shadowed by plainclothes police, gathered peacefully outside the
party's headquarters to complain that the junta's moves toward
democracy are insufficient. It was a rare display of public
displeasure in the tightly controlled country.
Last week, the regime said that a general election would be held in
2010 after a referendum this May to approve a constitution written
under the guidance of the junta and ensuring the military a major
future role.
It was the first time the government has set dates for specific steps
in its so-called road map to democracy, which has been widely
criticized for failing to include any input from Suu Kyi's party.
Human rights groups have already denounced the referendum and election
announced Saturday, saying they would merely prolong and
institutionalize the military's role as the country's key power
broker.
The National League for Democracy has charged that the junta was
trying to draft a constitution unilaterally, and it therefore "could
not be expected to guarantee democracy, human rights and public well-
being."
The international community has increased pressure on the junta to
hasten political reform after it violently quashed peaceful mass
protests last September _ killing at least 31 people, according to a
U.N. estimate. Thousands were detained.
The military junta, which seized power in 1988, held elections two
years later but rejected the sweeping victory of Suu Kyi's party and
began a systematic suppression of pro-democracy forces.
Tuesday's protest was watched by about 50 plainclothes policemen who
photographed and videotaped the demonstrators. The protesters carried
banners reading, "Where are the 1990 election results?" and "What is
the 1990 election?"
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been in prison or under house
arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged the
junta to hold substantive talks with Suu Kyi without delay to ensure
that the constitution it plans to put to the referendum represents all
citizens.
Ban made clear that the United Nations remains highly critical of the
constitution-drafting process.
A clause in the draft guidelines for the constitution guarantees the
military 25 percent of the seats in the country's parliament, with the
representatives nominated by the commander-in-chief.
The new constitution also disqualifies presidential candidates who are
"entitled to the rights and privileges of a ... foreign country" _
thereby barring Suu Kyi, whose late husband was British.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962
and has not had a constitution since the last one was scrapped in
1988, when the army brutally put down earlier pro-democracy
demonstrations and the current junta took power.
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UN Chief Urges Talks in Myanmar
By EDITH M. LEDERER,Associated Press Writer
AP - Tuesday, February 12
UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Myanmar's
military government on Monday to hold substantive talks with detained
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on a constitutional referendum.
He also called on the government to grant a visa to the top U.N.
envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, to visit Myanmar again in the very near
future. Gambari will visit Beijing on Feb. 18-19, then travel to
Jakarta on a date to be confirmed, and to Singa****e on Feb. 25, U.N.
spokeswoman Michele Montas said.
Ban said it was critical that the junta meets with Suu Kyi quickly to
ensure that the constitution it plans to put to a referendum
represents all people in the country.
Last week, the government announced the May referendum and a general
election in 2010. It was the first time it has set dates for specific
steps in its so-called road map to democracy, which has been widely
criticized for failing to include any input from Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy, which won the last election in 1990, and ethnic
minorities.
Scheduling the referendum for May makes it difficult for the junta's
critics to mount a campaign against it, particularly because most of
the country's leading pro-democracy activists are in jail, many
detained in connection with anti-government demonstrations held in
August and September last year.
Two of Myanmar's top dissident groups, one led by Buddhist monks and
one led by students, on Monday denounced the constitutional referendum
as an effort to perpetuate the junta's rule.
The Generation 88 Student group, most of whose leaders were arrested
during and after last year's protests, asked the U.N. Security Council
to pressure the junta for reforms and Ban should visit Myanmar as soon
as possible.
Asked whether the secretary-general planned a visit to Myanmar, Montas
said "not at this point, but he's certainly aware of the Generation 88
statement."
Ban made clear that the United Nations remains highly critical of the
constitution-drafting process.
"The secretary-general renews his call to the Myanmar authorities to
make the constitution-making process inclusive, participatory and
transparent in order to ensure that any draft constitution is broadly
representative of the views of all the people of Myanmar," Montas
said.
"In this regard, he believes it is now all the more im****tant for the
Myanmar leader****p to engage without delay in a substantive and time-
bound dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other relevant parties to
the national reconciliation process," Montas said.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been in prison or under house
arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.
Following the junta's violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests last
year, Western nations and the U.N. pressed the country's military
leaders to hold talks with Suu Kyi to bring about democratic reform.
The junta appointed a ministerial-level official, Aung Kyi, to meet
with her, but according to a party member Suu Kyi is not satisfied
with the progress of her meetings.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962
and has not had a constitution since the last one was scrapped in
1988, when the army brutally put down earlier pro-democracy
demonstrations and the current junta took power.
The country has been in a political deadlock since the military
refused to recognize the 1990 election results, saying after the polls
that the country first needed a new constitution.
Guidelines for a new constitution were adopted by a national
convention last year, and a government-appointed commission is now
drafting the do***ent.
Critics denounced the constitutional convention process as a stage-
managed farce because the military hand-picked most delegates. The
National League for Democracy charged that the junta was trying to
draft a constitution unilaterally, and it therefore "could not be
expected to guarantee democracy, human rights and public well-being."
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Suu Kyi's party calls for 'fair political climate' in Myanmar
AFP - Tuesday, February 12
YANGON, Feb 12, 2008 (AFP) - Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy on Tuesday urged the military government to create a "fair
political climate," after the regime announced a constitutional
referendum for May.
The party did not mention the junta's plans for a referendum, which is
meant to clear the way for elections in 2010, but repeated its long-
standing call for a dialogue with the junta on national
reconciliation.
"The (junta) has the main responsibility to realise national
reconciliation, which is essential for the country," the party said in
a statement, read out by senior member Than Tun.
"Moreover, it also has the responsibility to create a fair political
climate and environment," the statement added.
The party repeated its call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who
has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, as well as her
deputy Tin Oo and the 1,800 other political prisoners believed held in
the country.
Tin Oo is also under house arrest, and the military is expected to
announce an extension of his confinement this week.
The party released the statement at its headquarters in Yangon to mark
Union Day, which commemorates a declaration of unity among Myanmar's
many ethnic groups during the struggle for independence from Britain.
The regime announced its timetable for elections amid mounting
international pressure over its crackdown on peaceful demonstrations
led by Buddhist monks in September, during which the United Nations
says at least 31 people were killed.
If held, the proposed elections would be the first since 1990, when
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide
victory that was ignored by the junta.
The generals have ignored repeated calls to free Aung San Suu Kyi and
open a political dialogue, instead sticking to their own so-called
"road map to democracy," which critics say will enshrine the
military's rule.
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Myanmar must end repression before referendum: HRW
AFP - Tuesday, February 12
BANGKOK, Feb 12, 2008 (AFP) - Myanmar must end its repression of pro-
democracy forces and allow public debate on a proposed constitution
before holding a referendum in May, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
The referendum on a new charter "should be conducted in an atmosphere
of freedom and respect for basic rights, and not as a hollow exercise
in the military's sham political reform process," it said in a
statement.
Myanmar's military announced Saturday it would hold a referendum in
May to set the stage for elections in 2010.
If held, the polls would be the first since 1990, when democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for
Democracy (NLD), swept to victory -- only for the military to refuse
to accept the result.
The announcement came amid mounting global pressure on the regime
following its bloody crackdown on peaceful protests in September 2007,
which left at least 31 people dead and 74 missing, according to the
United Nations.
The US-based rights group said the May referendum lacks credibility
due to the absence of open dialogue between the government and
opposition groups.
"The question is whether Burma's military government is willing to
change course by allowing public debate and transparent voting in this
referendum," said Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, referring to
Myanmar's former name.
"In light of its massive crackdown on protests last year, there are no
signs that the government believes in openness or debate," he said.
Human Rights Watch said last month about 100 people were killed during
the September suppression, far more than the 15 dead re****ted by the
junta.
"Burma's military leaders appear to be using this referendum as a way
of relieving international pressure on their dictator****p," Adams
said.
Analysts have argued planned elections could prove meaningless with
Aung San Suu Kyi and other top democracy leaders locked away.
The 62-year-old Nobel peace prize winner has been confined to her home
in Yangon for 12 of the last 18 years. The junta is set to extend her
house arrest for another year in late May.
Apart from Aung San Suu Kyi and senior NLD members, the junta has also
arrested top student leaders who rallied against it in 1988 in a far
larger uprising that resulted in more than 3,000 deaths.
Many leaders of that uprising had been released over the last four
years and returned to political activism, only be thrown back into
prison.
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Myanmar junta says sanctions seek to derail democracy plans
AFP - Tuesday, February 12
YANGON, Feb 12, 2008 (AFP) - Myanmar's junta leader on Tuesday accused
western countries of using sanctions to derail the military's "road
map" to democracy, as the regime prepares for a constitutional
referendum.
After years of delays, the junta on Saturday unexpectedly announced
that it would ask voters to approve a new constitution in May, setting
the stage for multiparty elections in 2010.
The United States, which last week tightened sanctions against the
regime, denounced the junta's plan as a "sham" vote that makes a
mockery of global calls for democratic reforms.
"They are imposing sanctions against the nation to create a large-
scale disruption to national progress," Senior General Than Shwe said
in a statement read out by another military official on national
television.
The regime's foes are "driving a wedge among national races,
misleading the people, and aiding and abetting anti-government groups
to weaken and break up the union," it said.
Than Shwe's statement also said that the people of Myanmar were
"pursuing the state's seven-step road map with a solemn determination
in harness with the government for a transition to a modern, developed
democratic nation with flouri****ng discipline."
The statement was read during a ceremony in the remote capital
Naypyidaw to mark Union Day, which commemorates a declaration of unity
among Myanmar's many ethnic groups during the struggle for
independence from Britain.
Than Shwe did not attend the ceremony himself. The 74-year-old
military supremo, whose health is believed to be weakening, is rarely
seen in public.
He also missed celebrations last month marking the 60th anniversary of
independence.
If held, the proposed elections would be the first since 1990, when
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide
victory that was ignored by the junta.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18
years, while other key democracy leaders are in prison.
The regime announced its timetable for elections amid mounting
international pressure over its crackdown on peaceful demonstrations
led by Buddhist monks in September, when the United Nations says at
least 31 were killed.
But the generals have ignored calls to free Aung San Suu Kyi and open
a political dialogue, instead sticking to their own "road map" plan,
which critics say will enshrine the military's rule.
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Olympics-Nobel laureates press China over Darfur
Reuters - Wednesday, February 13
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
WA****NGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - A group of Nobel Peace laureates sent a
letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday urging the Beijing
Games host to uphold Olympic ideals by pressing its ally Sudan to stop
atrocities in Darfur.
"As the primary economic, military and political partner of the
Government of Sudan, and as a permanent member of the United Nations
Security Council, China has both the op****tunity and the
responsibility to contribute to a just peace in Darfur," said the
letter.
"Ongoing failure to rise to this responsibility amounts, in our view,
to sup****t for a government that continues to carry out atrocities
against its own people," said the letter, released on a day of events
by the Save Darfur Coalition.
The letter was signed by Nobel Peace laureates Bishop Carlos Belo,
****rin Ebadi, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Rigoberta Menchu, Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Betty Williams and Jody Williams. Other
signatories included Western politicians, former Olympic athletes and
entertainers, including actress Mia Farrow.
Farrow has spearheaded the coalition's global campaign to press China
to change its policies in Sudan. Beijing sells weapons to the Sudanese
government and buys oil from it.
In more than four years of conflict in Sudan's western region of
Darfur, 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from
their homes, according to estimates from international experts.
Khartoum says 9,000 people have died.
LEAD MEDAL AWARD
The letter to Hu acknowledged Chinese sup****t for a U.N. Security
Council resolution calling for the deployment of a U.N.-African Union
peacekeeping force to Darfur and other diplomatic efforts.
"However, we note with dismay that the Chinese government worked to
weaken the resolution before it passed," it said. The letter said
China doubled its trade with Sudan in 2007 and continued its military
relation****p with the African country.
Jody Williams, a U.S. citizen who won the prize in 1997 for her
campaign against landmines, said she and fellow female laureates had
formed the Nobel Women's Initiative in 2006 to focus on conflicts and
particularly their impact on women.
Mass rape has been a weapon of warfare in Darfur and in Myanmar, the
former Burma, another Chinese-backed regime.
"In Darfur and in the case of Burma, China is the eight-jillion-ton
elephant in the room and needs to use some of its weight in a positive
way," Williams said by telephone from Virginia.
The Save Darfur Coalition said it will stage similar events in
Senegal, Nigeria, France, Italy, Australia and other countries.
The Wa****ngton protest will feature a mock ceremony near China's
Embassy, in which Chinese officials will receive a "lead medal for
their complicity in Sudan's campaign of violence," the coalition said
in a statement.
The campaign has utilized the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics official
slogan, "One World, One Dream.
"If China's dream of one world is where they sup****t brute and thug
regimes so they can extract resources, that's not a dream I share,
thank you very much," said Jody Williams.
Last month, the ruling Chinese Communist Party's flag****p newspaper
said China would never submit to pressure from groups trying to use
the Olympics to change Chinese policy.
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Myanmar says dissidents tearing country apart
Reuters - Wednesday, February 13
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta accused pro-
democracy and dissident groups on Tuesday of trying to tear the
country apart, and urged the public to back its "roadmap to democracy"
in a referendum on a new constitution in May.
"Subversive elements with negative attitude are resorting to diverse
means and ways such as driving a wedge among the national races,
misleading the people, and aiding and abetting anti-government groups
to weaken and break up the Union," Senior General Than Shwe said in a
national "Union Day" address.
The former Burma's official name is the "Union of Myanmar".
The 75-year-old military supremo's message was carried in all official
newspapers and broadcast on television from the new capital,
Naypyidaw, although a power blackout in the old capital, Yangon,
ensured few people there got to see it.
His exhortation to the nation's 53 million people to "make endeavours
for the emergence of an enduring State Constitution" comes three days
after the announcement of a referendum on the army-drafted charter in
May and elections in 2010.
The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a 1990
election only to be denied power by the military, boycotted a
constitution-drafting National Convention while its leader, Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is under house arrest.
The NLD is expected to make its position clear on the referendum later
on Tuesday.
Although not yet completed, snippets of the new charter in state-
controlled media suggest the army commander-in-chief will be the most
powerful figure in the country, able to appoint key ministers and
assume power "in times of emergency".
It also gives the military a quarter of seats in parliament and a veto
over decisions made by legislators.
The "88 Generation Students", a group of leading dissidents from a
failed 1988 uprising, have already dismissed the charter as an attempt
by the generals to legitimise their iron grip on power, and have urged
people not to endorse it.
It was also rejected by the underground All Burma Monks Alliance,
which played a role in last September's pro-democracy protests which
evolved from small demonstrations against shock fuel price rises and
were crushed by the regime.
The group vowed to "keep on fighting by all means in order to help the
entire people get over poverty and destitution".
IT'S A START, SAYS ASEAN
The United States says the referendum will be a sham conducted in a
"pervasive climate of fear". The United Nations, which is trying to
foster talks between the generals and Suu Kyi, has been more cautious
in its criticism.
The 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which
has been frustrated at the generals' foot-dragging on reform since
they joined in 1997 but refused to get tough with Myanmar, called it a
"clear, definite beginning".
"We have to begin somewhere. I personally welcome it," ASEAN Secretary-
General Surin Pitsuwan told Reuters in Bangkok.
"We have to see how things transpire and whether that direction of
development is going to meet the expectation of the people of
Myanmar."
The Feb. 12 "Union Day" dates back to a 1947 agreement between the
Burmese majority and minority groups to demand independence from
Britain.
The country has been under military rule since 1962 and has been riven
by dozens of guerrilla conflicts with ethnic militias, mostly in the
mountainous border areas abutting Thailand, China, Bangladesh and
India.
More than 1,100 people are imprisoned on account of their political or
religious beliefs, the United Nations says, and hundreds more have
fled persecution to neighbouring countries.
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UN reacts cautiously to Myanmar political plans
Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:02pm EST
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The United Nations reacted
cautiously on Monday to Myanmar's announcement of a constitutional
referendum and elections, saying the political process there needs to
include a range of parties.
The Asian country's ruling military government said on Saturday that
it would hold the referendum in May and elections in 2010, prompting
skepticism from opposition politicians and abroad.
The United States on Monday dismissed the plan, which did not spell
out who would be allowed to take part in the elections, as "not
satisfactory."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokeswoman, Michele Montas,
noted that the announcement gave the first timeframe for putting into
effect what the junta has called its "political roadmap process."
But she said Ban "renews his call to the Myanmar authorities to make
the constitution-making process inclusive, participatory and
transparent in order to ensure that any draft constitution is broadly
representative of the views of all the people of Myanmar."
He believed it was now all the more im****tant for Myanmar's
authorities to "engage without delay in a substantive and time-bound
dialogue" with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi "and other
relevant parties to the national reconciliation process," Montas said.
Since the junta cracked down last September on monk-led pro-democracy
protests, sparking a worldwide outcry, a junta representative has held
several meetings with Suu Kyi, but with few visible results.
Montas said Ban considered the announcement made it essential that his
special U.N. envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, be allowed to pay "without
further delay" what would be his third visit to the country since the
crackdown.
The junta has suggested mid-April for the visit, but Gambari, who has
been trying to set up a broad political dialogue in Myanmar and get
political prisoners freed, has been pu****ng for a sooner date.
Montas said that as part of his efforts to garner regional sup****t,
Gambari would visit Beijing on Feb. 18-19, then Jakarta at a date to
be confirmed, and Singa****e on Feb. 25.
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Scientists, police lift lid on fake malaria drugs
Reuters - Tuesday, February 12
By Ben Hirschler
LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Scientists and police have exposed a major
Asian trade in life-threatening fake malaria drugs, resulting in the
seizure of hundreds of thousands of tablets and the arrest of a dealer
in southern China.
Details of the unique collaboration, made public on Tuesday, highlight
the growing threat posed by the trade in counterfeit medicines and the
difficulty of tracing the suppliers.
The problem is acute in Southeast Asia, where researchers have
identified counterfeit versions of the malaria drug artesunate as a
problem since 1998.
An investigation coordinated by Interpol, with input from
international researchers, found as many as half of the malaria
tablets sampled in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and on the Thai/
Myanmar border were counterfeit.
They were disguised with authentic-looking packaging, including 16
different types of fake holograms.
Artesunate forms an essential part of artemisinin-based combination
therapy, recommended as the mainstay of malaria treatment by the World
Health Organisation (WHO) since 2001.
Most of the counterfeits examined contained no active drug and some
had potentially toxic ingredients, including banned pharmaceuticals
and even the raw material for making ecstasy.
Worryingly, some tablets also contained small amounts of artesunate,
possibly to foil screening tests.
The doses were too low to be effective but high enough to contribute
to the development of resistance in malaria parasites, adding to the
problems of fighting the mosquito-borne disease, which still claims
more than a million lives a year.
Writing in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine,
scientists said they traced the origin of the bogus medicines using
pollen traces and chemical analysis.
At least some of the counterfeit supply came from southern China,
leading Chinese authorities to arrest a suspect in Yunnan Province in
2006.
He is alleged to have traded 240,000 blisterpacks, each with 12
tablets, although only a tenth of this stash was seized.
Dr Paul Newton of the Wellcome Trust-University of Oxford SE Asian
Tropical Medicine Research Programme, the main author of the PLoS
re****t, fears this case is just the tip of the iceberg.
"There are probably other similar problems with other life-saving
medicines we are unaware of," he said in a telephone interview.
*************************************************************
The Star Online
Tuesday February 12, 2008 MYT 6:31:03 PM
Myanmar charter vote a first step - ASEAN
By Nop**** Wong-Anan
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar's ruling generals should be given the
benefit of the doubt if they are serious about moving the country
toward democracy, Surin Pitsuwan, chief of Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN), said on Tuesday.
"It has to begin somewhere and now it has a clear, definite
beginning," Surin said of the junta's planned May referendum on an
army-written constitution, followed by elections in 2010.
"I think it is a development in the right direction," the former Thai
foreign minister told Reuters on the sidelines of a business seminar
in Bangkok.
The announcement by the military, which has ruled the former Burma in
various guises since 1962, has been derided as a "sham" by the United
States and pro-democracy activists who say the vote will be held in a
"climate of fear".
Surin said the international community's growing frustration at
Myanmar's intransigent generals was understandable, but he said they
should be given a chance to fulfil their pledges.
"Everybody has their own agenda on the issue," said Surin, who leads
one of the few international groupings that allow Myanmar into the
club.
"We have to wait and see how things are going to develop and unfold.
Whether these steps are going to lead to true national reconciliation
which is what people inside have been asking for and the international
community has been waiting for," he said.
The army held elections in 1990, but refused to hand over power to
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which boycotted the
constitution-drafting process while its leader remained under house
arrest.
Although not yet completed, snippets of the charter revealed in state-
controlled media suggest the army commander-in-chief will be the most
powerful figure in the
country, able to appoint key ministers and assume power "in times of
emergency".
Surin said Myanmar's announcement would be discussed by ASEAN foreign
ministers meeting in Singa****e later this month.
"I am sure they will be very keen to ask some questions and to consult
among themselves how they can contribute or help," said Surin, who was
critical of Myanmar when he served as Thailand's foreign minister from
1997-2000.
Western governments have called on Myanmar's neighbours -- ASEAN,
India and China -- to put pressure on the generals after they ordered
the army to crush the biggest pro-democracy protests in 20 years last
September.
Despite rare expressions of discomfort at last September's crackdown,
in which at least 31 people were killed, Myanmar's neighbours refuse
to contemplate sanctions, saying words are more effective tools.
*************************************************************
AlertNet
Alliance Myanmar recognises four community members with leader****p
awards
12 Feb 2008 11:26:00 GMT
Source: International HIV/AIDS Alliance - UK
International HIV/AIDS Alliance
Website: http://www.aidsalliance.org
Four community members were presented with leader****p awards for their
dedication to civil society and the HIV response at a partners' forum
organised by Alliance Myanmar in November 2007. The four were chosen
as examples of this year's World AIDS Day theme as they have 'taken
the lead' in their communities.
In honouring them, the Alliance hopes to inspire others in the
community to expand their work and to show examples of how people have
learnt to work effectively in the Myanmar context.
Alliance Myanmar organised the forum for its 31 community-based
partner organisations to discuss their work and look at ways to forge
ahead.
One of the key messages coming out of the forum was that community-
based organisations are adept at finding strategies to overcome the
challenges they face in Myanmar, and despite the many operating
challenges that civil society faces in Myanmar, there is room for
organisations to manoeuvre and grow. One of the reasons for this is
that the on-the-ground experiences of their members make them the best
advocates to overcome local barriers.
The forum was also a chance to thank those who continue to work with
their own community-based organisations, despite the many
op****tunities their new skills open up to them. Alliance Myanmar
emphasised that the four award winners were just a few of the many
invaluable community leaders in Myanmar. Through their work, they are
inspiring others to take the lead.
Find out more about the leader****p award winners, Htay Lwin Oo, Tin
Tin Htwe, Thi Ha Kyaing, and Edward Nyein:
Htay Lwin Oo Htay Lwin Oo holds a prominent position in the city of
Kyaukpadaung's society as the city's foremost event planner and
philanthropist. He has used his influence to sup****t the community of
men who have *** with men and has invested his own funds to initiate
prevention programmes. The organisation he founded, Mee Ein ****n Lay
Myar (Lamp Holders Sharing the Light), provides not only HIV
prevention programmes and testing, but also vocational training to
help men who have *** with men sup****t themselves. With the limited
funds that he has received from the Alliance combined with his own, he
founded a beauty salon and catering service to train and employ
members of this group. Part of the income generated by these
businesses is invested in ongoing HIV sup****t programmes.
Despite discrimination against men who have *** with men, Htay Lwin Oo
refuses to deny his ***ual identity. He was nominated for a
prestigious national award based on his generous donations to pagodas
and for religious endeavours. When the committee came to see his
contributions, he also showed them the work he had been doing on
behalf of men who have *** with men, knowing full well that he could
lose the op****tunity to receive the award if his ***ual identity was
revealed. He was not presented with the award after this meeting, but
he demonstrated his dedication and perseverance in the face of
discrimination. His refusal to turn his back on his community
demonstrates his value as a leader.
Tin Tin Htwe Tin Tin Htwe is a peer educator for Mawlamyine's ***
worker community and a facilitator for non-governmental organisations
working there. She has become the leading contact for international
NGOs working with *** workers in Mawlamyine. Her sensitivity to
confidentiality has earned her this position and helped her establish
a strong network among *** workers.
Through her work with Mahaythi Myitta ****n (Loving Kindness for
Women), Tin Tin Htwe has helped the NGO community to reach *** workers
and enabled *** workers to share their experiences more easily with
NGOs. It is difficult for outsiders to understand the cir***stances of
a *** worker's life, including the constant threat of harassment by
authorities or the inability to have a 9 to 5 work schedule. This
misunderstanding has hampered some of the outreach programmes there.
Tin Tin Htwe, however, knows the intricacies of her work, both as a
*** worker and peer educator. By taking the initiative to explain the
reality of a *** worker's life, she has corrected unrealistic
expectations of organisations, allowing them to better serve the
community. She has also convinced other *** workers of the benefits of
these programmes and to participate without any material compensation.
The key quality that she possesses is her trustworthiness. She has
established herself as a reliable voice for all sides and because of
this has been able to shape the programmes aimed at *** workers into
more efficient models for her community, making her a true leader. has
been able to shape the programmes aimed at *** workers into more
efficient models for her community, making her a true leader.
Thi Ha Kyaing Thi Ha Kyaing is one of the founders of the Yangon-based
HIV positive sup****t group, Phoenix. He learnt he was HIV positive in
2000 as he was completing medical examinations for a sailor position.
Many in Myanmar believe that HIV is a death sentence, but not Thi Ha
Kyaing. This became his calling, a re-birth. After trying
unsuccessfully to treat himself with traditional medicines, he
returned to the M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res - Holland (AZG) clinic to
receive treatment in 2004. Unfortunately, the clinic was unable to
give Thi Ha Kyaing free treatment because he lived in a different
district. In order to help offset his costs, AZG hired him to work as
a lab assistant.
After looking into it, Thi Ha Kyaing found there was a great need for
programming for people living with HIV. He had always had family
sup****t, but his research made him realise that this sup****t network
did not exist for many of those living with HIV. As a result he
founded Phoenix.
Phoenix's social project rebuilt 60 houses in 2007, provided funds for
school fees and funerals, and trained caretakers who are required for
HIV positive people to be admitted for treatment in the hospitals
here. Phoenix was the first group to provide care in hospitals and the
success of the programme has prompted other groups to provide the
service as well. The group also has a garment workshop and has
provided small loans for people to start their own businesses. Thi Ha
Kyaing has planned for the future by securing private funding for the
organisation through fundraising activities like donation boxes at the
Summit Parkview, one of Yangon's premiere hotels.
One of Thi Ha Kyaing's beliefs is that there are very many HIV
positive people who are great leaders and have great ideas but they
are afraid to come out because of their status. He is trying to change
that by making sure others are participating in his programmes and
encouraging them to act on their ideas. He works to actively involve
the whole group in decision-making, instead of choosing on behalf of
the group. It is this inclusive decision-making process and his
dedication to the community of people living with HIV that prompted
the Alliance to recognize him with a leader****p award.
Edward Nyein In Pyay, Edward Nyein works as the care and sup****t
project manager for Karuna, a Catholic faith-based organisation.
Working through a religious organisation can present many challenges,
especially when working with *** workers or men who have *** with men.
Edward Nyein has found a way to work around that. He has organised the
church as a venue for NGOs working with these communities, providing
them shelter from outside scrutiny.
The first project he took on involved care and sup****t for people
living with HIV. His potential as a leader quickly became evident and
it was decided that the programme would expand to include educating
*** workers. Edward agreed despite knowing that the church might not
be comfortable with the approach. He was able to convince the leaders
that the programme was needed and also was able to find a way for
condoms to be distributed to the *** workers. He has learnt how to
effectively negotiate terms and conditions so that Karuna can continue
to produce positive results and expand the vision of those around
him.
Through this work, he has played a critical role in training ***
workers to be peer educators in the community. He has also advocated
on their behalf with local police and lawyers. This can be a very
risky role for someone linked with the church, but Edward Nyein has
found a way to work with all these communities, maintain his good
reputation, and stay within the limitations set up by the tenets of
his religion.
*************************************************************
New Kerala
Ban urges Myanmar to receive UN envoy
New York, Feb 12: The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on
Myanmar's military government to receive the UN's envoy Ibrahim
Gambari "without delay" and hold talks with opposition leaders before
the planned general elections in 2010.
Ban acknowledged the decision by the junta last week to set dates for
a constitutional referendum in May and multi-party democratic
elections in 2010. The junta also said it would free opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi six months before the elections.
Ban called on the junta Monday to engage in substantive and time-bound
talks with Suu Kyi and other political parties to advance the process
of national reconciliation. Suu Kyi, leader of the National League of
Democracy, has been under house arrest for more than a decade.
Gambari has been seeking to make a third visit to Yangon to pursue
discussions on democratic reform in Myanmar. His previous visits took
place after the military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in
August and September.
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Moscow praises Myanmar referendum, election plans
17:59|12/ 02/ 2008
MOSCOW, February 12 (RIA Novosti) - A national referendum on Myanmar's
State Constitution will defuse international tensions around the
Southeast Asian country and set it on the path to democracy, Russia's
Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
Myanmar announced last week plans to hold a nationwide referendum in
May 2008 and general multiparty parliamentary elections in 2010.
"Setting a clear timeframe for political reform in Myanmar, as laid
out in the well-known roadmap [to democracy] and designed to ensure a
transition to civilian rule, will alleviate tensions that are being
ratcheted up by certain countries around the so-called Myanmar issue,"
the ministry said.
However, the United States said the referendum idea pointed to a "lack
of seriousness."
"The Burmese junta's announcement that it will hold a referendum on a
new Constitution in May demonstrates its lack of seriousness about an
open and fair process for the restoration of democracy," said White
House spokeswoman, Dana Perino.
She said the drafting process for the Constitution did not incor****ate
the views of opposition parties or all ethnic groups, "nor does this
timeframe allow for adequate debate on the pros and cons of the
proposed Constitution, which has not yet been shared with the Burmese
public."
The country's ruling military junta said in December it had started
writing a national Constitution, as part of Myanmar's "roadmap to
democracy," which has been dismissed by Western powers as a scheme to
keep the regime in power.
Myanmar's Constitution was suspended almost 20 years ago when the
military junta seized control of the country.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, came under intense international
pressure in September over the junta's violent crackdown on protests
in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) led by Buddhist monks. At least 15 people
were killed by security forces, and thousands were arrested in the
weeks following the protests.
*************************************************************
Commentary: Lawlessness, the stuff that binds in Burma
Basil Fernando
Feb 12, 2008 (DVB)-Last week, the Asian Human Rights Commission issued
three appeals on cases of concern from Burma which illustrate the "un-
rule of law" that pervades in the country.
The first described how Paing Hpyo Aung, a boy of less than 14, was
recruited into the armed forces. He was 15 when in 2005 a military
tribunal sentenced him to ten years for desertion.
He is still in jail in Arakan State, where he has just spent his 18th
birthday. His parents have died, but his aunty, who only learnt of his
fate recently through a former inmate, has appealed for his release.
The second revealed that Htun Htun Naing, a convicted gambler, was
taken from Insein Prison in June 2006 and sent to work as an army
****ter in Karenni State.
At the end of the year a military officer came and told his family
that he had died from malaria.
They were not given death or medical certificates, but in January the
next year were sent a notice that they would be paid compensation for
his death: to the grand total of 7200 Kyat, which these days is worth
less than six US dollars. They have requested more, so far to no
avail.
The third recounted the imprisonment of Khin Sanda Win, a young woman
detained after the protests of last September and accused of carrying
illegal arms.
Although she was released from the Kyaikkasan interrogation camp in
October after signing a pledge, she was rearrested in November and
charged with endangering human life.
Inexplicably, Judge U Thaung Lwin in the Kyauktada Town****p Court
initially granted bail at an amount far beyond what should have been
set then unilaterally retracted it.
Each of these cases falls into a different conventional category of
human rights discourse: child soldiers; forced labour; political
prisoners. But in fact, each is bound to the other by a common cause:
the utter lawlessness which pervades all aspects of Burma's judicial
and political administration.
Last December, a unique study took up this feature of life in Burma.
Describing the country as suffering from "political psychosis and
legal dementia", it approached lawlessness as the symptom of an
administrative and judicial system gone mad; a condition that impinges
daily not only on the lives of those persons that are the subjects of
typical human rights interventions and media interest, such as
political leaders and prisoners of conscience, but of all persons
everywhere within its borders.
Yet despite the extent to which in Burma transactions and abuses alike
are characterised by what has been described as the "un-rule of law",
this hallmark attracts relatively little interest.
We know that the courts are not independent, but we don't properly
understand how. We know that the police are militarised and the fire
brigade has policing functions, but we have not sought to understand
these things in detail.
We know that all types of rights violations are linked to the lack of
avenues for complaint and redress yet we divide them into cl***** that
emphasise their differences rather than draw upon their similarities.
Neither Paing Hpyo Aung's aunty nor Htun Htun Naing's wife are known
to have received replies to their written requests for relief. Khin
Sanda Win's lawyer keeps pu****ng her bail petition from one court to
the next with a predictable lack of success. Whether struggling to
deal with a jailed boy, a dead husband or an irrational judge, the
consequences are the same.
Naturally, no one accepts such things happily. Out of sheer
frustration and necessity, people take to protest in even the most
adverse cir***stances. Discontent wells up and spills out, as it did
last year; and as the causes for such dissatisfaction persist, so too
will its consequences.
Those who challenge abuse and protest wrongdoing will find the ways
and means to continue to do so, as they must. For the rest of us, the
task is to understand properly why it is that they must.
This depends first upon us acknowledging that widespread unease is
born of common grievances, and second, upon our ability to comprehend
and further the struggle for change not primarily in terms of discrete
categories of rights but in terms of their universality.
Basil Fernando is Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights
Commission, based in Hong Kong, China.
*************************************************************
Pagoda closed to Taunggok NLD members
Feb 12, 2008 (DVB)-Several Taunggok National League for Democracy
members who went to Phaung Taw Oo pagoda to offer a meal to monks to
mark Union Day were denied entry by pagoda officials.
Taunggok NLD deputy chairman U Than Pe said that NLD members and
around 50 young people went to the pagoda at 8am this morning to hold
a candlelight vigil and offer food to the monks for the 61st
anniversary of Union Day.
"Upon arrival at the pagoda we found that pagoda authorities had
locked all the entrance gates," Than Pe said.
"There were about 30 government security troops, armed with ****elds,
batons and other lethal weapons, and about 20 people in civilian
clothing, led by town****p police chief Win Aung Ne, waiting at the
east entrance gates of the pagoda."
Than Pe said the group stayed there until about 8.30am trying to
convince the officials to let them in.
"We kept asking them to open the gates for us as we did not mean any
harm and were only trying to go inside to make merit," he said.
"But they said they could not let us pass as they had been given
orders by senior authorities."
The group eventually gave up trying to enter the pagoda and instead
went back to NLD chairman U Kyaw Khine's house, where they offered a
meal to about 50 monks.
But Than Pe said the security forces continued to harass them after
they returned to the house.
"Several armed policemen and government officials, led by the deputy
police chief Maung San, followed us to the house and started searching
everyone's bags and belongings," he explained.
"We asked them what they were trying to do and they said they were
searching for a camera we had used to take photos of the security
forces in front of the pagoda earlier, but we did not take any."
Union Day commemorates the signing of the Panglong Agreement in 1947,
which united the Burman people with other ethnic groups in their
struggle for independence.
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