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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MARCH 01- 03, 2008
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HEADLINES
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AFP - Shooting in Yangon near Suu Kyi's home: police
AFP - UN chief urges rights body to be open and impartial
Reuters - UN envoy Gambari to arrive in Myanmar Thursday
AP - Sri Lanka navy rescues 71 Myanmar, Banglade**** nationals at sea
AP - US says Myanmar remains No. 2 in opium poppies but far below
previous level
AP - The number of women parliamentarians creeps up _ but equality is
a long way off
EarthTimes - UN envoy to visit Myanmar for more talks on democratic
reform
PD - Chief U.S. nuclear envoy stresses Myanmar, Korean nuclear issue
PD - Myanmar calls for long-term precaution against bird flu
Asian Tribune - Olympic Games or Burma
The Nation - Gambari's light touch in Burma crisis unwelcome
Irrawaddy - Three People Arrested for Comments on Referendum
Irrawaddy - House Arrest of Deposed Prime Minister Relaxed
DVB News - ILO says forced labour increasing in the military
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Shooting in Yangon near Suu Kyi's home: police
AFP - Monday, March 3
YANGON, March 3, 2008 (AFP) - A rare shooting incident has taken place
late Monday in the leafy Yangon neighbourhood where Myanmar's
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest, police said.
Police said the shooting happened near the State Guesthouse, a
military facility that has been the venue for recent talks between the
Nobel peace prize winner and a liaison officer for the military
government.
The facility is in the same neighbourhood as Aung San Suu Kyi's home
on University Avenue, which is under constant guard.
One resident near the guesthouse, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said five people at a neighbouring home had been killed. Police
declined to comment on casualties.
"Five people were killed by the gun shots -- a couple, their two
daughters, and a maid," the resident told AFP.
Although Myanmar has been at civil war for about six decades,
shootings in the nation's commercial hub are extremely rare.
Ordinary citizens are not allowed to own weapons, and firearms are
strictly controlled by the regime.
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UN chief urges rights body to be open and impartial
AFP - Monday, March 3
GENEVA, March 3, 2008 (AFP) - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-
moon on Monday urged the Human Rights Council to be transparent and
impartial, amid criticism it is too focused on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
"The question for the Council... is whether you are fully meeting the
high expectations which the international community has of you," Ban
said in opening remarks to the Council's seventh session.
Chief among these expectations is that the Council will stand up for
human rights "without favour, without selectivity, without being
impacted by any political machinations around the world," Ban said.
Late January, the Council slammed Israel for its siege of Gaza, in a
resolution that EU member states on the council abstained from voting
on, citing a lack of balance.
The 47-member UN council was formed in late 2006 to replace its
discredited predecessor, the Human Rights Commission. But like the
commission, the HRC has come under fire by mainly Western countries
for focusing too much on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It has criticised Israel four times in special sessions during the
first year of its existence.
"Your power gathers strength and resonance from the respect you enjoy
among nations around the world. Your power must be exercised at all
times, in the face of all threats to human rights, wherever they
occur," Ban said.
Human Rights Watch in a statement urged the Council to focus equally
on other abuses in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri
Lanka and Myanmar.
"The Human Rights Council has a unique responsibility to address the
desperate situations" in such countries, HRW official Juliette de
Rivero said.
"Otherwise the council will be complicit in the neglect of human
rights crises across the globe."
Ban is also to address an executive session of the UN Conference on
Trade and Development in Geneva before flying back to New York on
Tuesday.
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UN envoy Gambari to arrive in Myanmar Thursday
Reuters - Monday, March 3
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. special envoy for Myanmar Ibrahim
Gambari will arrive there on Thursday for his third visit since a
September crackdown by the ruling junta on pro-democracy protests, the
United Nations said.
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Monday that Gambari "hopes to
stay as long as necessary and to consult with a broad range of
representatives of Myanmar society, including all the groups which he
was not able to see during his last visit."
Details of the program were being discussed with the Myanmar
authorities, Montas said, adding: "Mr. Gambari looks forward to the
continued cooperation of the Myanmar government."
Gambari has been seeking the release of detained opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners as well as a dialogue
between the government and opposition.
The junta had originally proposed a mid-April date for Gambari's visit
but he had been lobbying to go sooner.
The junta made a surprise announcement last month of a referendum on a
new, as yet unfinished, constitution in May to be a followed by a
general election in 2010. But opposition figures and some Western
countries have voiced skepticism that the vote will be free or fair.
Gambari said in an interview with Reuters in Tokyo last week he would
be urging Myanmar's military government to take steps to make its
roadmap to democracy "credible and inclusive".
Any sort of violence near Aung San Suu Kyi's home or the guesthouse is
unusual because the area is under constant surveillance by
authorities.
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Sri Lanka navy rescues 71 Myanmar, Banglade**** nationals at sea
By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI,Associated Press Writer
AP - Tuesday, March 4
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - The Sri Lankan navy said Monday it rescued 71
Myanmar and Banglade**** nationals aboard a vessel found drifting in
the Indian Ocean after an engine failure.
Another 20 people died due to a lack of water and food, said navy
spokesman Cmdr. D.K.P. Dassanayake, citing survivor's accounts.
The vessel was drifting about 275 kilometers (170 miles) away from the
eastern coast when naval troops found it around 7:30 a.m. (0200 GMT)
after being tipped off by fishermen, Dassanayake said.
The survivors _ 50 Myanmar nationals and 21 Banglade****s _ were
treated by navy medical teams and are out of danger, he said.
According to survivors' accounts, the 15-meter (50-foot) vessel left
Myanmar on Feb. 9 with 91 people and developed an engine defect on
Feb. 20 before it started drifting, Dassanayake said.
He said the navy suspects the vessel could be linked to a human
smuggling operation as initial investigations have revealed the
passengers were heading for Malaysia or Thailand seeking employment.
Sri Lanka navy conducts routine patrols off the country's eastern
coast to prevent separatist Tamil rebels from smuggling in weapons and
explosives to fight government forces.
The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland
for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority after decades of discrimination by the
Sinhalese majority.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
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US says Myanmar remains No. 2 in opium poppies but far below previous
level
AP - Friday, February 29
WA****NGTON (AP) - Myanmar remains the world's second-largest producer
of opium poppies, but its share has dropped from 55 percent in 1998 to
just over 5 percent a decade later, a global U.S. State Department
re****t said Friday.
The re****t said despite the reductions, the Myanmar government still
failed to reach full compliance with its international anti-drug
commitments.
``This large pro****tional decrease is due to both decreased opium
poppy cultivation in Burma and increased cultivation in Afghanistan,''
the re****t said, referring to Myanmar by its other name. The re****t
identified Afghanistan, where farmers illegally grew record amounts of
the plant in 2007, as far and away the largest supplier to the world's
addicts with 93 percent of the crop.
Thanks to a 10-year reduction plan undertaken by Myanmar's ruling
junta in 1998, production had fallen to just 5 percent of the world's
supply by 2006 but moved slightly higher last year, the re****t said.
Thus, the re****t said, ``The Golden Triangle region in Southeast Asia
no longer reigns as the world's largest opium poppy cultivating
region.''
In its place, however, ``production and ex****t of synthetic drugs
(amphetamine-type stimulants, crystal methamphetamine and Ketamine)
from Burma continued unabated,'' the re****t said.
In one area, populated by the Wa ethnic group, which had been a
traditional major source of illegal poppies, the United Wa State Army
announced in 2005 that it was implementing a long-delayed ban on opium
production and trafficking. The re****t said poppy cultivation indeed
decreased there in 2006-2007, but surveys by the United States and the
United Nations found indications that Wa leaders replaced opium
cultivation with the manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs.
Also, it noted that the reduction in Myanmar's pill production
abruptly turned around last year to a 29 percent increase, largely in
regions that had produced lesser amounts earlier.
``Whether this represents a sustained reversal in poppy cultivation in
Burma, which remains far below levels of 10 years earlier, remains to
be seen,'' the re****t said. ``An increased number of households in
Burma were involved in opium cultivation in 2007.''
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The number of women parliamentarians creeps up _ but equality is a
long way off
AP - Friday, February 29
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The number of women serving in parliaments
around the world crept up to a new record this year _ but women aren't
even half way to achieving equality with men in national legislative
bodies, the Inter-Parliamentary Union said in its annual re****t card.
IPU Secretary-General Anders Johnsson told a news conference that on
Jan. 1, 17.7 percent of the legislators in parliaments were women, up
from 16.3 percent at the end of 2005 and 15.7 percent in December
2004.
``It is progress, but if you ask me it is very slow progress,''
Johnsson said Friday. ``If you try to look beyond, down the road to
see when do we reach gender equality in parliament, it is still very,
very far off into the distant future, unfortunately.''
At the current rate, he said, ``we will not achieve parity in
parliament before 2050.''
The 1995 U.N. women's conference in Beijing noted that little progress
had been made in achieving a target endorsed by the U.N. Economic and
Social Council of having a minimum of 30 percent women lawmakers in
all parliaments by 1995.
According to the IPU, there are just 20 countries today where women
hold over 30 percent of the seats in the lower house or single
legislative chamber, the same number as at the end of 2005. Four of
those countries have reached 40 percent or more.
According to the IPU, there are just 20 countries today where women
hold over 30 percent of the seats in the lower house or single
legislative chamber, the same number as at the end of 2005. Four of
those countries have reached 40 percent or more.
Rwanda remains at the top of the list with 48.8 percent women members
followed by Sweden with 47 percent, Finland with 41.5 percent and
Argentina with 40 percent, the IPU said.
Half the countries above 30 percent are from the developing world
including Costa Rica, Cuba, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, Burundi
and Tanzania.
Regionally, the Nordic countries retain their dominance, but the IPU
said significant strides have been made in Latin America where the
average number of women in parliament was over 20 percent.
The United States ranked 71st _ below the average _ with women
comprising 16.8 percent of the House of Representatives and 16 percent
of the Senate.
At the bottom of the list are seven countries where women represent
less than 3 percent of parliament members, including Egypt, Bahrain,
Kuwait and Yemen.
Eight countries have no women legislators at all, including Saudi
Arabia, Qatar and the Pacific island nations of Micronesia, Nauru,
Oman, Palau, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Looking at the countries with high female representation, Johnsson
said, the common denominator is that most have introduced some sort of
quota system.
Johnsson said all but three countries where more than 30 percent of
parliamentarians are women have introduced quotas. The three that
didn't have quotas are Finland, Denmark and Cuba, he said.
``All men and women politicians agree that quotas is just a tem****ary
measure _ it is just to get us ... over the hump so to speak,''
Johnsson said.
Hilary Armstrong, a member of Britain's parliament from the governing
Labor party, said all-women shortlists used by the party to choose
candidates to run for some seats in the House of Commons have been
declared legal _ and of the 126 women MPs, 96 are Labor members.
The opposition Conservatives and Liberal Democrats ``have now been
deeply embarrassed by their lack of getting women into positions,''
she said, and they are scrambling to find ways to increase the
representation of women in winnable seats without all-women shortlists
which they criticized.
Armstrong said the fact that constituencies with women candidates
showed about a 1.5 percent extra vote ``was very powerful'' and
demonstrated that the electorate sup****ts more women in parliament.
Johnsson lamented that only 7 of the 150 elected heads of state, and 8
of the 192 elected heads of government are women.
But the IPU re****ted a growing number of countries with more women in
ministerial positions.
Finland topped the list with 57.9 percent of ministerial positions
filled by women followed by Norway with 55.6 percent, Grenada with 50
percent, and Sweden, France, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and
Chile, all with more than 40 percent.
Thirteen countries did not have a single female minister _ including
Bosnia, Libya, Myanmar, Romania, Singa****e, North Korea and several
Pacific island nations.
Sharon Hay Webster, a member of Jamaica's parliament, noted that 91
women are ministers of social affairs while only 19 are ministers of
economy and development and just 17 are ministers of finance and
budget.
``I wish I was dyslexic and that we could see a ****ft,'' she said.
``We need to focus on turning that table. I think when we get more
women appointed in the executive at that decision-making level
(dealing with finance and the economy), we can change the face of
poverty.''
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EARTHtimes.org
UN envoy to visit Myanmar for more talks on democratic reform
Posted : Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:00:14 GMT
New York - The UN envoy for Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, will make his
third visit to the southeast Asian nation this week for talks with
groups he had not met with previously, a spokesperson said Monday.
Gambari will leave New York and plans to arrive in Yangon Thursday
after the military government there gave the authorization for his
return visit.
Michelle Montas said Gambari will remain in Myanmar "as long as
necessary. He intends to meet all groups he had not met during his
last visits."
Gambari began last fall his diplomatic efforts at convincing the
military junta to implement democratic reform, hold national
reconciliation talks and release political prisoners, including Aung
San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy.
She has been placed under house arrest for more than 10 years by the
government for challenging their authority.
Gambari recently visited Beijing, Tokyo, Singa****e and Jakarta as part
of a campaign to gain sup****t from Asian capitals for democratic
reform in Myanmar.
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People's Daily Online
Chief U.S. nuclear envoy stresses Myanmar, Korean nuclear issue
+-14:13, March 01, 2008
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill Friday highlighted
the im****tance for Asia and the whole world of making Myanmar "a good
member of ASEAN" and resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue
through cooperation of related parties.
When delivering a speech at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University,Hill
said the United States wants a formal and regular diplomatic
relation****p with Myanmar.
The senior U.S. diplomat said he wanted to see Myanmar become a "good"
and "positive productive member" of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), on the premises that Myanmar change its attitude and
respond.
Though admitting that imposing sanctions is not the best choice, he
still urged more countries to get involved in the process to pressure
Myanmar's military regime to open political dialogue with opposition
figures and facilitate UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari's free access
to parties concerned in the country.
The United States would also continue to work closely with ASEAN and
other countries like China to "promote harmony" in Myanmar, as well as
for further progress on the Korean nuclear issue.
Hill, who is also chief U.S. nuclear envoy, reiterated that the Korean
nuclear issue is not only a challenge to the United States, but also a
problem to the whole neighborhood in Asia and the world.
He also stressed the im****tance of a well-working U.S.-China
relation****p to the other countries.
A good U.S.-China relation****p would be very helpful to all the
countries in the region and the world, he said, adding "I assure you
that we're going to make it work ... in no one's expense."
Hill said the United States welcomes China's role in Southeast Asia,
and would like to work with China as well as other parties such as
ASEAN to solve regional issues, like the one with Myanmar and the
Korean nuclear issue.
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People's Daily Online
Myanmar calls for long-term precaution against bird flu
+-14:50, March 03, 2008
The Myanmar livestock authorities Monday called on the country's
people to exercise a long-term precaution against the recurrence of
deadly H5N1 bird flu.
The call on livestock breeders, traders and consumers was made by the
Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department in the wake of
intermittent occurrence of the avian influenza in some neighboring
countries.
Despite absence of outbreak of the disease for already two months
since the last in December, precaution should continuously be made in
cooperation with the authorities for effective prevention, said a
notification of the department to the public carried in the local-
language state newspaper Myanmar Alin.
The notification outlined some precaution measures to be taken against
the probable re-strike of the H5N1 which cover stepping up of bio-
security measures during the bird-flu-sensitive season, change of
livestock breeding system, avoidance of illegal im****t, trans****t and
trading of chickens and its products, and prompt re****t of suspected
bird flu case.
The notification recalled that the numerous outbreaks of the avian
influenza in Myanmar since February 2006 until the last in December
2007 happened in the country's 25 town****ps of six states and
divisions.
All of the occurrences were attributed to the infection from abroad
especially that the virus was carried into the country by migratory
birds from the cold regions in the world infecting local birds,
according to the notification..
There occurred two bird flu cases in a latest series in Myanmar border
area near the end of last year. The prior was on Nov. 18 when H5N1 was
detected on some chickens and ducks of local species which died
unusually at a village farm in Kengtung, eastern Shan state.
The local authorities culled 14,889 chickens, ducks, geese and Muscovy
ducks within a week after such unusual deaths were found on the fowls
traded in the area.
The latter, which was a human-infected case, was detected in December
in the state's Mongphyat town****p following unusual deaths of domestic
chickens in the Yankham village. It was *****sed that the Nov. 18 bird
flu had spread to the area, infecting a seven-year-old girl, Ma Nan
Kham Tha, who was later discharged from a local hospital in Kengtung
on Dec. 12 after treatment.
The girl was infected with bird flu virus among four suspected of
carrying the virus during the November outbreak in Kengtung and she
was kept in quarantine and given a dosage of timiflu pills at a local
People's Hospital since Nov. 27 until her discharge.
However, there re****ted no infection on other people after monitoring
the close contact persons for 10 days.
Myanmar re****ted outbreak of bird flu in the country for the first
time in some poultry farms in Mandalay and Sagaing divisions in early
2006, followed by those in Yangon division in early 2007, in Mon
state's Thanbyuzayat and western Bago division's Letpadan in July and
in eastern Bago division's Thanatpin and in Yangon division's Hmawby
in October the same year.
During 2006's first outbreak of bird flu cases in the two divisions of
Mandalay and Sagaing, altogether 342,000 chickens, 320,000 quails and
180,000 eggs as well as 1.3 tons of feedstuff were destroyed at 545
poultry farms, official statistics show.
During the early 2007 outbreak of the disease from Feb. 28 to March 31
at seven poultry farms in Yangon's five town****ps -- Mayangon,
Hlaingtharya, North Okkalapa, Mingaladon and Hmawby, nearly 2,000
fowls died of the virus with 65,812 poultry from the affected farms
and those nearby culled.
In July 2007 occurrence of the H5N1, all chickens of the two farms in
Thanbyuzayat and about 4,000 broilers raising at a poultry farm in
Letpadan, totaling over 5,000 were culled for risk prevention under
then Early Detection and Containment Program.
In its fight against the disease, Myanmar has been cooperating with
experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization and USAID.
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Asian Tribune
Olympic Games or Burma
Sun, 2008-03-02 03:45
By Prof. Kanbawza Win
It was a present surprised when the news flashed that China has urged
an activist group in Burma to have a "correct understanding" of
Beijing's policy towards Burma with no explanation, whatsoever. Why
did China suddenly turn to the Burmese pro democracy movement when
Burma is not of life-and-death interest to Beijing, nor to the West,
but just a little strife torn, obscure hell in the remote backwaters?
It is not realistic to think that Beijing will listen to any voice
from Burma, much less from the rank of the opposition, as it even view
the Burmese Junta as rude, crude, rustic pipsqueak of little
consequence, when every body knows that the dragon men are very
pragmatic and happy with the status quo in Burma and elsewhere. The
Chinese elites in Beijing do not nowadays want to change the world,
but only their silk socks and satin jocks daily wrote the late Chao
Tzang Yawnghwe.
Last, week Pro-democracy activists in Burma called for the world to
boycott the Beijing Olympics for China's continuing sup****t of Burmese
military dictator****p and seem to poke the side the Chinese. The
entire people of Burma have joined Olympic boycott over complaints
ranging from Beijing's human rights record to its failure to more
actively press Sudan in the Darfur region that has killed at least
200,000 people. Currently Burma's military regime has burned down or
otherwise destroyed 3,200 ethnic minority villages, forcing 1.5
million refugees to flee their homes, while the Chinese slyly
encouraged it by letting its arms and ammunition to continue to flow
in. Beijing has closed its eyes as Burma recruited more child soldiers
than any other country in the world. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's
only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, is locked up in prison
along with 2,000 other political dissidents.
Despite its huge influence on the Burmese Junta, China refuses to call
for her release. But the most im****tant aspect is that the United
Nations has been completely paralyzed, unable to take any action to
prevent genocide in Burma, only because China has used its veto at the
UN Security Council to block any meaningful actions on Burma, as a
result, the UN is making the same mistakes it made on Darfur and
Rwanda. In short China is partly responsibility for what is happening
in Burma.
China not only graciously funds the dictator but also is the
diplomatic protector for Burma's military regime. Adding insult to
injury, the Olympics are scheduled to begin on August 8, 2008 -- the
anniversary of a major massacre in Burma. On the same date in 1988,
thousands of peaceful protesters were massacred by the regime during
Burma's largest democracy uprising. Each year, thousands of people
around the world commemorate this slaughter and honor those who spoke
out for human rights and justice.
What a mockery for the world to witness that the most populated
country of the world to celebrate the Olympics on that day. Like the
Berlin Olympics in 1936 that wrongly brought world acclaim to Adolf
Hitler, the Beijing Olympics in 2008 are becoming a monument of
suffering. We recollect how the English soccer team, in Berlin's
Olympic Stadium, giving a Nazi salute of Hail Hitler the picture of
impressionable footballers obeying orders from mutton-headed
apparatchiks went round the world and became a lasting source of shame
as even now Britain kow tow to the Chinese demand forbidding any of it
athlete from making any political comment about countries staging the
Olympic Games. The US President George W. Bush said he would go to
China for the Olympics but would not talk publicly there about
Beijing's policies. Because the two arsenals of democracy has bowed
down to the men in the Dragon throne Beijing seems to construe that we
Burmese activist should also do likewise?
Although China is not the only country engaged in Burma and did not
carry sole responsibility for the emerging crisis, it is a member of
the UN Security Council and thereby indirectly accountable for any
actions that are, or are not, taken. In view of a regime that
unscrupulously mistreats its citizens and spurns with impunity all
standards of civility, Beijing clearly lacks a sense of urgency.
Faced with the current crisis, however, China has reverted to its
traditional stance of non-interference in another country's internal
affairs. In doing so, Beijing is not only arguably damaging its
international image, but also squandering a unique op****tunity to take
an active and moral role in influencing Burma's leader****p.
Globally, it could enhance its image considerably by acting as a
responsible stakeholder. It could also distinguish itself from
regional rival India, which so far has similarly preferred to deal
with Burma's crisis by looking the other way.
China's policymakers understand that the effectiveness of US-led
sanctions has been undermined by Beijing's willingness to economically
engage the regime. In the current situation, change can only come from
within the military and China could use its channels, contacts and
influence to convince the regime that now is the time to change.
However, China has in reality been interfering in Burma's internal
affairs for at least half a century. During much of the Cold War,
Beijing overtly sup****ted the Communist Party of Burma, which fought
against government-led forces. China has invested heavily in Burma's
infrastructure, business and natural resources and has tacitly
sup****ted the waves of migration of Chinese citizens into that
country. This kind of interference is no different from Western
approaches to maintaining influence in their former colonies, and
without a change in policy, China will continue to be subjected to
accusations of neo-colonialism.
The latest round of protests in Rangoon has highlighted the futility
of previous international democracy campaigns and non violent
struggle. Some human-rights advocates have turned their eyes to China
-- to see if it would force reform in Burma, but China just made a
feeble attempt to call on the Burmese regime to "show restraint."
Obviously it was more concerned about stability than democracy. Thus,
human-rights activists and pundits are now urging Wa****ngton to
threaten a boycott August Olympic Games. Wa****ngton Post columnist
Fred Hiatt recently said: "Tell China that, it can have its Olympic
Games or Burma (which also stands for Darfur and Rawanda) It can't
have both. If a threat to those Games ... could help tip the balance,
then let the Games not begin. Some things matter more," The message is
loud and clear, either stops using your veto on the UN Security
Council or do something to make this regime understand this can't go
on any longer or we will boycott the Olympics.
As a country that is determined to achieve its "peaceful evolution" or
"peaceful development, it is crucial to take the non-military option
at all point, in order to consolidate its soft power. Therefore,
earning the world's positive affection and attention are crucial to
China's resurrection as a responsible power in the eyes of global
public opinion. US actress Mia Farrow has apparently understood this
point very well, and threatened to have the Beijing Olympics in 2008
potentially classified as a "genocide game," if China does not try to
use its seeming influence on Sudan to put an end to the humanitarian
tragedy in Burma and Darfur. By threatening to expose the Beijing
Olympics in a negative light, Mia has got the leaders' attention. In
the same vein, with the Olympics literally months away, China cannot
afford the world to believe that it sup****ts the brutal crackdown of
the monks in Burma too. Isn't the Olympic a non military weapon to
force China to see to reason?
Last week, the American Hollywood director Steven Speilberg withdrew
from his role as an artistic adviser to the opening and closing
ceremonies of the Summer Games, accusing China of not doing enough to
press for peace in the troubled areas of the world. The Chinese state-
run media and the public responded with a groundswell of criticism. In
newspaper commentaries and lively Internet forums, they have expressed
outrage, scorn and bewilderment that China's Olympics have come under
international criticism from Spielberg and others. A biting front-page
editorial Wednesday in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the
Communist Party's official newspaper, blasted Spielberg for his
decision. "A certain Western director was very naive and made an
unreasonable move toward the issue of the Beijing Olympics. This is
perhaps because of his unique Hollywood characteristics," An editorial
in the China Youth Daily was equally scathing. "This renowned film
director is famous for his science fiction. But now it seems he lives
in a world of science fiction and he can't distinguish a dream from
reality," All these clearly revealed of how the Chinese were not
informed of the uttermost tragedies of Burma, Dafur and Rawanda and
could not comprehend the civilized norms of the world and the
international bodies.
Without a doubt, the Beijing Olympics are im****tant to China. Steven
Spielberg, who is one of the artistic directors of the games, has even
written to President Hu to hold China to better standards in
governance. Such pressures, in drips and drabs, can see China being
more sensitive to security and environmental issues in the months to
come. Obviously Rights groups on Wednesday praised Hollywood director
Steven Spielberg's decision to shun involvement with the Beijing
Olympics simply China was not doing enough to help end the crisis in
Darfur and Burma. Spielberg's move marked a high-profile setback for
Beijing and its efforts to keep at bay a months-long campaign by
activists to spotlight the authoritarian communist regime's human
rights record. Spielberg, who won an Oscar for his 1993
Holocaust film "Schindler's List," said that while China's
representatives have conveyed that they are working to end the
terrible tragedy in Darfur and Burma, the grim realities of the
suffering continue unabated.
China have influence over the Islamic regime because it buys two-
thirds of the country's oil ex****ts while selling it weapons and
defending it in the United Nations. China is blaming activists with
"ulterior motives" for linking the Beijing Olympics to the nation's
involvement in Sudan Burma and Rawanda. "Spielberg decision to quit
regretful," said the Shanghai Daily. It was startling news for the
people of China because it came totally out of the blue. "I have never
heard of this before," said a young university graduate who would only
give her family name, Zhou. "I know Burma and Sudan but I had not
heard there was any connection to the Olympics."
The Mandarin-language Global Times said Chinese people were
"disgusted" by talk of an Olympic boycott, but admitted they were also
expressing "bafflement" at the link between Burma-Darfur and the
Beijing Games. The China Daily, the government's English-language
mouthpiece, interview Renmin University professor Jin Canrong "Whoever
uses this humanitarian issue to criticize China and put pressure on
China gains something of a halo," Jin said.
For months and years, pressure groups have been trying to use China's
fixation on the success of the Olympics as leverage to force Beijing
to act on pressing human rights issues inside China and on Darfur, but
the results have been negligible. China's highly effective Internet
firewall prevents the people of China to know these Olympics-linked
efforts are underway. That makes it easier for Beijing to keep
ignoring its critics. Nobody apart from the International Olympic
Committee seems to believe the Chinese government will make
significant human rights concession before the Games start. Every time
a journalist or blogger is released, another goes into prison, China's
dissidents will probably be having a hard time this summer.
"Yes, the Olympics are going to be a huge success and will demonstrate
to the world that China is a modern, developed nation." Deviations
from that line are not always received well and sometimes elicit
outright hostility. PRC ideology and the minds of the Chinese people
"the West" seek to undermine China's development to satisfy their own
selfish strategic goals, and finally, barely smoldering resentment
born out of a history of foreign imperialism in China.
Educated Chinese who speak out against their own government in the
foreign media are pilloried on electronic bulletin boards as hanjian,
traitors to their race, an epithet to which Chinese nationals working
for foreign media organizations are also frequently subjected. The
Chinese media is also fond of parroting government officials who label
the US and West as human rights hypocrites, citing the usual suspects
(slavery, imperialism, policy toward indigenous peoples) as well as
tossing out a few new ones (weatherboarding, the invasion of Iraq).
Whether one feels this is a valid defense or not, the salient point is
that many in China accept the government line as unequivocal proof
that foreign critics cannot be trusted
In this case with Olympics sponsors, there is no such contradiction --
these multinational cor****ations have no cor****ate credo about not
doing evil, promoting free speech, or any other idealistic principle
about furthering the human community. Instead, their own credo is
maximum profits and maximum returns for their shareholders. Therefore,
we are not surprised at all to hear that apparently, the vast majority
of them consider activist protests against their participation in the
Chinese Olympics as a mere public relations nuisance. Cor****ate
sponsors, governments and National Olympic Committees should urge
Beijing to improve human rights is very dear to our hearts. If so why
did we award China, the Olympics with this record of human rights
abuses, when the Chinese administration is evil and dangerous? Perhaps
we are taking risk hoping against hope that China would see to reason
in Burma and elsewhere, in the world without knowing that the sleeping
dragon sleeps with its eyes wide open
On the other hand, with the power of the Internet and its ability to
facilitate communication and coordination of activism, these
cor****ations may be in for a rude awakening if calls for boycotts and
other actions against them reach a critical mass, due to their
implicit sup****t of Chinese repression. Public revolts against
oppression -- and those implicitly sup****ting oppression -- are real
and in many cases, are effective. The Burmese people inside and
outside he country should make every available effort to highlight the
situation as this is one of the best way to compel China to see to
reason.
Prof. Kanbawza Win is former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Prime
Minister of Burma has served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at
the Menno Simons College of University of Winnipeg and later as a
Senior Research Fellow at the European Institute of Asian Studies,
Brussels is now the in***bent Dean of the Students of the AEIOU
Programme, Chiangmai University Thailand and an Adjunct Professor of
the School of International Studies, Simon Fraser University, of
British Columbia, Canada.
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The Nation
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Gambari's light touch in Burma crisis unwelcome
Published on Mar 4, 2008
UN envoy Ibraham Gambari is not really welcome in Burma because he was
part of a failed plan to resume UN aid without restoring freedom and
democracy in Burma. I found out about this plan when Than Shwe ordered
foreign minister Nyan Win to bring former UN ambassador Win Mra out of
retirement.
Foreign minister Nyan Win and deputy foreign minister Maung Myint did
not like Win Mra and let him retire when he reached the official
retirement age. But Win Mra had developed close ties to an influential
Burmese family with UN connections, and they needed him to facilitate
Gambari's mission to resume UN aid to Burma without securing the
unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
This plan was disclosed to senior US officials who made it clear to UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and also to UN envoy Gambari that UN aid
to Burma cannot be discussed until Suu Kyi is released and a political
settlement is secured in Burma.
Than Shwe is now worried since the national referendum on the sham
constitution will spin out of control and become a national referendum
on him and his illegitimate military government. If the "No" vote wins
by a big margin, it will force Than Shwe to resign.
Myint Thein
Senior Adviser to the Burmese Resistance
Dallas, Texas
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The Irrawaddy
Three People Arrested for Comments on Referendum
By WAI MOE , Monday, March 3, 2008
Three Rangoon men were arrested on Friday for casual comments they
made about the Burmese referendum and general election, according to
sources.
A businessman who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Irrawaddy
on Monday that three car brokers at the Rangoon car market were taken
away by Burmese special police after they made casual comments in
sup****t of the main opposition National League for Democracy.
"Members of the USDA [Union Solidarity and Development Association,
the pro-junta mass organization] came and talked about the new
constitution and referendum at the car market on Friday," said the
source.
"Then the brokers told the USDA members in joking that they 'should
not waste their time' because in the final days people would vote as
recommended by the NLD [led by Aung San Suu Kyi]. Later the special
police came and arrested three of them."
The Burmese military government has scheduled a referendum on a draft
constitution in May and a general election in 2010, as the fourth and
fifth step of its "road map to democracy" process.
Aung Thein, a lawyer in Rangoon, said the arrests may be the first
such cases since the junta passed a new decree on February 26
forbidding negative comments about the referendum, which allows a
sentence of up to three years imprisonment.
"But we don't know if the people arrested will be charged under that
decree," he said.
He said that authorities have an option to charge people who speak out
against the constitutional process under emergency acts 3 and 4 under
decree 5/96 announced in 1996, barring negative comments. Anyone found
guilty under that decree could receive up to 20 years in prison.
Meanwhile, five people, mostly family members of 88 Generation
Students group members, were arrested last week.
They are Thanda Win, the wife of Mya Aye, a leader of the 88
Generation Students group; Hla Moe, the husband of 88 group member
Mie Mie; Kanet, the brother of Marky, an 88 group member; and Naing
Htwe and May Mie Lwin.
No reasons for the arrests are known at this time among the Rangoon
activist community.
************************************************************
House Arrest of Deposed Prime Minister Relaxed
By The Irrawaddy- Monday, March 3, 2008
Former Burmese Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt and his family members
have been allowed some limited freedom outside of their home where
they have been held under house arrest since 2004, according to
Rangoon sources.
The family members of Khin Nyunt and the former spy master himself
have been allowed to visit religious sites, including Shwedagon
Pagoda, and other locations, according to well-informed sources.
Eyewitnesses recently confirmed that the disgraced prime minister, who
is said to have grown a beard and a moustache, has also visited a
meditation center which he helped to built at Thanlyin (Syriam)
Town****p, believed to be his birthplace, located on the southeast side
of the Rangoon River.
Dr Khin Win Shwe, the wife of Khin Nyunt, was seen making merit at
Shwedagon Pagoda in late February. She was with a female companion,
said a source.
In October 2004, Khin Nyunt, now 69, was removed from power and placed
under house arrest on charges of insubordination and corruption.
He was convicted of all charges and given a 44-year suspended sentence
in 2005. Since then, he and his family members have been under house
arrest with heavy surveillance and security guards around their home
in a luxury housing compound in Rangoon--a very lenient punishment,
many observers said.
A source speculated that the new, limited freedom enjoyed by Khin
Nyunt and his family is a sign the regime no longer sees him as a
serious threat.
In addition, the ruling generals in Naypyidaw re****tedly offered Khin
Nyunt a role in the development of the "cyber-city" to be located near
Maymyo, also known as Pyin U Lwin. The new city's official name is
"Yadanabon Naypyidaw."
The former spy chief re****tedly asked for the freedom of his close
sup****ters who were purged with him and are now serving prison
sentences in various parts of Burma.
"The deal did not go through because Khin Nyunt asked for all his men
to be freed," the source said.
In October 2004, the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence
(OCMI) was dismantled and several of its mid and high-ranking
officials were arrested and given long prison terms. Many prominent
figures in the OCMI department were purged. Only two former top-
ranking OCMI officials--Maj-Gen Kyaw Win and Brig-Gen Kyaw Thein--
escaped the 2004 purge and continue to live in Rangoon.
Maj-Gen Kyaw Win, 63, a former deputy chief of OCMI, is believed to be
a consultant with Burma's Military Affairs Security (MAS)--renamed
after the purge in 2004.
MAS is headed by Lt-Gen Myint Swe, who is considered Snr-Gen Than
Shwe's prot=E9g=E9. The MAS department is no longer viewed to be as
powerful or as feared, according to observers.
************************************************************
ILO says forced labour increasing in the military
Mar 3, 2008 (DVB)-The International Labour Organisation has extended
its cooperation agreement with the Burmese regime, but a senior ILO
official said forced labour remains a concern in the country.
Kari Tapiola, executive director of the ILO Standards and Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work Sector, visited Naypyidaw with his team
from 25 to 28 February to discuss further cooperation with the regime.
Tapiola confirmed to DVB that the bilateral memorandum of
understanding between the ILO and the Burmese junta had been extended
for another year.
The agreement, which has been in force since February 2007, stipulates
that the government must not harass or arrest people who re****t forced
labour to the ILO or collect information on such practices.
But this was undermined by the charges made on 19 February against the
National League for Democracy chairperson in San Chaung town****p, U
Thet Wei, for possession of re****ts on forced labour to be submitted
to the ILO.
Tapiola said that the ILO had found out that Thet Wei had been
arrested shortly before the start of his mission, and called for his
immediate release.
"The government said that the charges [against Thet Wei] are not
related to forced labour but we have learned that he had information
for the ILO at the time of his arrest," Tapiola said.
"That is why we have demanded in the strongest possible terms the
government seriously reconsider the matter and release that person as
soon as possible."
The ILO team also urged the release of six young people who were
arrested after they attended May Day celebrations.
The team's request for a meeting with the six activists in prison was
denied.
Tapiola said that forced labour was continuing in the country, and in
some areas getting worse.
"I do not think the government can deny the existence of forced
labour, and we know many forced labour cases are taking place," he
said.
"Forced labour by civilian authorities might decline but the use of
forced labor by the military is getting worse," he went on.
"We did not discuss this matter with the government; we focused our
discussions on what it could do and what we should be doing."
Tapiola said the ILO had received more than 70 complaints about forced
labour in the past year, and the ILO liaison officer in Rangoon had
been able to travel widely in the country despite some restrictions.
"Although it did not go as far as we would want it to, he accomplished
quite a lot," he said.
"There is some progress but also many things to be concerned about."
Tapiola is now in Bangkok preparing a re****t for the ILO governing
council, who will discuss the situation in Burma this month.
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