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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MARCH 05, 2008
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HEADLINES
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AP - UN envoy to return to Myanmar
AFP - Suu Kyi's party fails in bid to sue Myanmar junta
Reuters - U.N.'s Gambari set to return to Myanmar, hopes low
Reuters - Myanmar's past key to changing its future - author
Seattle Times - Family's killings jolt Myanmar's capital
Seattle Times - Bellingham retiree joins rebel cause in Myanmar
RSI - Myanmar: Past, Present & Future
Straits Times - Myanmar junta unlikely to heed UN envoy: analysts
MSF - In Myanmar, intimate HIV care is focus where isolation and
rejection is the norm
Irrawaddy - Burmese Women Activists Receive International Award
Irrawaddy - Junta Increases Pressure on Media
Irrawaddy - USDA--The Regime's Prot=E9g=E9
Mizzima News - Anti-referendum posters in Central Burma
DVB News - NLD member loses sight due to lack of treatment
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UN envoy to return to Myanmar
Wed Mar 5, 4:24 AM ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A U.N. diplomat will return to military-ruled
Myanmar on Thursday for his third attempt to coax democratic reforms
out of the junta since its deadly crackdown on protesting monks and
students last September.
Ibrahim Gambari's visit to Myanmar comes after a tour of Asian
countries last month -- his latest mission to push Myanmar's neighbors
to urge the junta to restore democracy and begin reconciliation talks
with the opposition.
Gambari met leaders in China, Indonesia, Singa****e and Japan.
Gambari "hopes to stay as long as necessary" in Myanmar and to meet
with "all the groups he was not able to see during his last visit,"
the U.N. said in a statement. It added that his itinerary was still
under discussion with the junta.
The U.N. envoy was shunned by Myanmar's leader, Sen. Gen. Than Shwe,
when he last visited in November. The junta also rejected his proposal
of a three-way meeting involving detained pro-democracy leader and
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, though Gambari did meet
privately with her.
Gambari said recently he was "frustrated" at the lack of tangible
results from his visits to Myanmar.
Myanmar's junta has been strongly criticized for sending troops to
quash peaceful demonstrations in late September, initially led by
students and then by Buddhist monks, protesting a fuel price hike.
The government said 10 people were killed, but diplomats and
dissidents say the death toll was much higher. Thousands of monks and
civilians were arrested.
The U.N. Security Council has strongly deplored the government's
crackdown and called for a "genuine dialogue" between the junta and
the pro-democracy opposition.
Gambari's latest visit follows the junta's surprise announcement last
month that it will hold a May referendum on a draft constitution and
will hold general elections in 2010 -- the first specific dates for its
so-called "roadmap to democracy."
Critics have denounced the roadmap as a sham designed to keep the
military in power. The draft constitution was completed earlier this
month but has not yet been made public.
Guidelines used to write the draft constitution effectively bar Suu
Kyi from holding national office because she was married to a
foreigner -- her late British husband, Michael Aris -- and enjoyed the
privileges of a foreign national.
Critics say that voters will not have enough time to study the
proposed constitution before the May referendum and opponents will not
be given sufficient time to mount a campaign against it. Most of the
country's leading pro-democracy activists are in jail.
The country's last election was held in 1990, but the military refused
to hand over power to the winner -- Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy party. Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest for
more than 12 of the past 18 years.
The country has been in a political deadlock since 1990 with hundreds
of Suu Kyi's sup****ters also thrown in jail.
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Suu Kyi's party fails in bid to sue Myanmar junta
AFP - Wednesday, March 5
YANGON (AFP) - The pro-democracy party of Myanmar's detained
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's said Wednesday they had failed in
a bid to sue the military government for not recognising their 1990
election victory.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) won the last polls held in
Myanmar by a landslide, but instead of letting them govern, the junta
put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and continued to rule with an
iron fist.
"We went to the Supreme Court to sue the government, as they had
failed in their responsibility to summon the people's parliament," NLD
spokesman Nyan Win told AFP.
"But it was rejected, even through we went to the highest court."
The party said in a statement that their chairman Aung Shwe went to
the Supreme Court on February 29 to make their case, but it was
rejected the same day without a hearing.
They had argued that the junta's own election laws enacted in 1989
stated that an elected parliament should convene after the polls, and
therefore the military regime had failed to abide by its own laws.
"The authorities had a responsibility to organise the people's
parliament, with the representatives, in accordance with the law," the
statement said.
Myanmar's generals February 9 made a surprise announcement that they
would bring the recently-completed constitution before the public for
approval in May, setting the stage for elections in 2010 -- the first
in two decades.
But the regime said Aung San Suu Kyi -- a Nobel peace laureate who has
been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years -- could not run.
United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari will fly to Myanmar on Thursday
to press the junta to make the process more inclusive, and Nyan Win
said they hoped to meet with the senior diplomat.
"We are expecting to meet Mr Gambari during his visit. We are ready to
meet him but we have not been informed of anything yet," he said.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962, and the current
junta scrapped a 1974 charter when it seized power in 1988, cru****ng a
pro-democracy uprising.
Two years later, the regime organised elections that the NLD won. The
NLD has said that for Myanmar to truly achieve democracy, the military
rulers must first respect their victory in those elections.
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U.N.'s Gambari set to return to Myanmar, hopes low
By Aung Hla Tun
Wed Mar 5, 3:39 AM ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) - U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari is due to
arrive in Myanmar on Thursday amid waning optimism about his mission
to get the ruling military junta to start talks with the opposition on
political reform.
"We cannot expect an immediate change for the better out of his
visit," Nyan Win, a spokesman for the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD), told Reuters on Wednesday.
It will be Gambari's fifth visit to the former Burma since he was
appointed in early 2006 and his third since a crackdown on monk-led
protests in September last year.
It will also be his first chance to hold face-to-face talks with the
generals since their shock announcement last month of a constitutional
referendum to be held in May, to be followed by a general election in
2010.
The continued house arrest of NLD leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi, and the opposition's boycott of the constitution-drafting
process, have led many foreign governments to reject the charter and
election timeline as a sham.
The NLD has criticized it, but stopped short of calling on sup****ters
to vote no in the referendum.
"Our leaders will tell him some bare essentials we would like of the
referendum to be held by the regime in May when we meet him," Nyan Win
said, without elaborating.
Gambari's message to the junta on his previous visits has been to
release all political prisoners, Suu Kyi included, and include the
opposition and Myanmar's host of ethnic groups in the constitution-
drafting process.
His requests appear to have fallen deaf ears, as has his push to get
the generals to engage in direct talks with Suu Kyi, whom Gambari is
expected to meet during his visit. The rest of his itinerary remains
unclear.
However, in a sign of the fractious nature of Myanmar's opposition
forces, Pu Chin Sian Thang, a prominent ethnic minority politician,
expressed annoyance at Gambari's failure to meet non-NLD politicians
during his previous trips.
"He has not met at all with other democratic activists besides the NLD
since he became the special envoy," Pu Chin Sian Thang said.
"He pledged during his first visit to meet the ethnic groups but he
hasn't so far."
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Myanmar's past key to changing its future - author
Wed Mar 5, 2008 8:02am IST
By Gill Murdoch
SINGA****E, (Reuters Life!) - A pariah state led by generals who have
oppressed their people for more than 40 years: Myanmar is a black and
white story to most writers.
But understanding how history has shaped Southeast Asia's most
stubborn military junta not only adds accuracy to debate about the
former Burma, it is key to changing the country's future, argues
historian Thant Myint-U.
In his latest book "The River of Lost Footsteps", the grandson of U.N.
Secretary-General U Thant draws on history and his personal
experiences to analyse the prospects for change.
He spoke to Reuters Life! while on a visit to Singa****e.
Q: Many writers struggle to make sense of Myanmar. Some romanticise it
as a forgotten tragedy, others characterise it as on the cusp of
revolution. What do you make of these depictions?
A: An old but still current way of seeing Burma is as a sort of
tyranny that can be stripped away -- that underneath there's a
timeless, peaceful, Buddhist country. That was the paradigm through
which the British saw it in the 1880s before their invasion. That's
why they thought that the removal of the king would change everything
very quickly for the better. The results were a disaster.
A sort of contem****ary version is to see Burma as a sort of a Eastern
European-style democratic revolution in the making. That if enough
people took to the streets then the regime would collapse, but
everything else would stay intact and you would have a very peaceful
and stable transition to democracy and a free-market economy.
The two kind of reinforce each other: this older sense that Burma is a
tyranny over an otherwise peaceful Buddhist society, and this more
contem****ary sense of this Eastern European uprising in the making.
Q: Is either a good fit? What's a more accurate analogy?
A: If you look at Burma as a country that has been in civil war, armed
conflict, for 60 years, with more than two dozens different
insurgencies and only tentative ceasefires; (then) you might think of
more parallels with countries in sub-Saharan Africa; which are very
poor, which have experienced sustained conflict, and which have huge
problems with governance and need all kinds of outside help.
Q: How does taking this view inform strategies for change?
A: You wouldn't necessarily think that isolating (the country) as part
of a push towards democracy would be the answer. Very few people would
think that for the poorest [and most conflict-ridden countries in
Africa a sudden transition to democracy is the only answer, yet that
is the kind of sense that people have for Burma.
Q: Your book argues that understanding Myanmar's past is the key to
understanding its present. How does history explain the stalemate
between the military government and democracy movement?
A: (One example is) this myth about the way in which Burma became
independent and the way to think about it.
In 1946 there was a political crisis in Burma because the independence
movement was pu****ng for immediate independence, led by General Aung
San, and the (British) Labour government of the time was thinking of a
much more gradual transition.
In this nationalist narrative, the idea is that these independence
heroes, by standing firm, by uniting "the people", by stubborn and
focused determination, forced the British to leave. In fact by 1946
Britain was exhausted by the war. It had many other things to think
about. Even in terms of Empire they were thinking much more about
India and Palestine. Burma was a sideshow. They came to their own
conclusion that their future in the East lay in Malaya and Singa****e,
and that Burma was expendable.
At most, the independence movement forced the timing a bit, and got
the British to leave a few years earlier. But there's this myth that
by standing firm Burma's nationalist heroes forced out the British
empire.
Q: And that rhetoric is still in play today?
A: It feeds into all sides of the Burmese political debate, this
looking up to this model of stubborn-ness, determination, and not
wavering from a principled position. There's little celebration of any
sort of compromise, or pragmatism.
Even within the democracy movement, it resonates. Aung San Suu Kyi
herself has called the democracy movement the second struggle for
independence. I can see why she does it, but I think it's reading the
wrong lessons from 1946. I'm sure there are times in Burmese history
when people have had to make painful compromises, but those examples
are ignored.
Q: You sup****ted sanctions in the early 90s, but have changed your
position to a more pragmatic policy of "opening up". What would ending
sanctions achieve?
A: Normal relations with the outside world, and especially to the
West, will do more to facilitate political change very quickly, than a
situation in which the government and the economy is increasingly
dependent on natural gas ex****ts, and its only significant opening to
the outside world is China.
Q: You have said Myanmar's political story is often reduced to black
and white -- bad military government and good Aung San Suu Kyi. How
would a more nuanced vision of the country help it?
A: Burma is often seen as a country of 55 million victims whose lives
are awful. And the only thing they're waiting for is democracy. Or
Rambo coming. There's an element of truth in this, there are people
who are unhappy, people are unsatisfied with the government, people
who do want change. If you ask the average person if they want
democracy or dictator****p they'd say democracy.
But it's a cycle.
=46rom the outside world there's this constant stream of international
condemnation and calls for democratic change. It feeds a tendency to
think that the U.N. Security Council or Wa****ngton, if convinced of
how bad things are, can just push a button and the government would
suddenly collapse. It's not been a very helpful expectation to have
fostered.
Q: So it stifles debate?
A: It prevents people from thinking more realistically about change
and about other ways that the outside world might engage with the
country, that is separate from the question of who's in charge at the
top. Everything shouldn't just be about politics.
=46rom the outside, there are a lot of op****tunities for reducing
poverty, building up social services and strengthening civil society
that are being missed.
Q: What's your take on the latest debate, over the military's move to
set a 2010 election date?
A: It's good they set some sort of timetable. But I think it's wrong
to get too caught up in the constitutional reforms.
For the government it's more a way of moving towards some sort of
civilian government, even if those civilians are largely ex-military
people. And it's a vehicle to get many ceasefire groups to disarm and
co-opt them into that framework.
That's what you're going to get, some sort of civilian government, and
some sort of way in which some of these armed groups will come into
the political process.
For me it's not the main thing. For me what's more im****tant are the
actual policy changes that will help improve people's lives. It's
possible some people are better off now than they were 20 years ago,
[it's not all gloom and doom, but there's a lot of acute poverty and
kids growing up desperately poor ill-educated, and dying needlessly
from curable diseases.
Changing policy, bringing Burma back into the international
mainstream, and exposing the new generation to all kinds of new
influences and ideas, is key.
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The Seattle Times - Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Family's killings jolt Myanmar's capital
By The Associated Press
YANGON, Myanmar -- A family of four and their maid were fatally shot at
their house in a rare violent attack in Myanmar's capital, just down
the street from the home of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, police and relatives said Tuesday.
The shooting happened Monday night inside the home of a wealthy
couple, who were found dead along with their two daughters and the
family's maid, a relative said.
"They were killed by gunshots and the safe was found empty," said the
relative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns.
Police said empty shell casings were found in the home, which was
sealed for an investigation.
Shootings are unusual in Myanmar and particularly rare in Suu Kyi's
neighborhood, which is kept under constant surveillance.
The area is close to the State Guesthouse, a military facility where
the junta has allowed the detained Nobel Peace Prize winner to meet
visiting dignitaries from the United Nations. Suu Kyi has been in
prison or under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years.
U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who last year met Suu Kyi twice at the
guesthouse, is due to return to Myanmar on Thursday.
Gambari has led the U.N.'s mission to push the junta toward democratic
reforms after its deadly September crackdown on pro-democracy
protesters.
Suu Kyi's pro-democracy opposition party, the National League for
Democracy, has vocally criticized the ruling junta's plans to hold a
constitutional referendum in May ahead of general elections in 2010.
The constitution bars Suu Kyi from contesting elections and has been
widely denounced as a sham designed to perpetuate the military's rule.
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The Seattle Times
Bellingham retiree joins rebel cause in Myanmar
By Anna Sussman and Jonathan Jones
Special to The Seattle Times
KAREN STATE, Myanmar -- Shortly after Christmas, Oscar Baaye packed 50
pounds of books and a hammock into a suitcase and left Bellingham for
a remote jungle outpost in the heart of this rebel-controlled
territory in eastern Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Baaye, a retired engineer, went to sup****t the Karen National Union
(KNU), an armed ethnic resistance movement that has been fighting the
Myanmar government for more than 60 years.
A resident of Bellingham since 1988, Baaye is a member of the Karen
tribe. He says his people are being ethnically cleansed by the Myanmar
military regime, and it was time for him to leave Wa****ngton state and
help.
Now, he spends his days in a bamboo army barracks, alongside KNU
resistance fighters.
The insurgents say they are fighting for control over their land, a
swath of mountains and valleys they claim on the eastern border of the
country. The Karen run their own schools, supply their own electricity
and have their own government. They say they are fighting for autonomy
for the Karen people, one of the largest ethnic groups in Myanmar, as
well as freedom for all the country's people from the brutal military
regime.
Since the British left Burma in 1948, as many as 20 different armed
groups have fought the government, and all have failed. Most come from
eastern Myanmar, a politically im****tant region on the Thai border
rich with teak wood, oil and heroin.
Nearly all the ethnic resistance movements fighting for autonomy have
signed cease-fire agreements with the junta. The KNU, the largest and
longest-running armed resistance in the country, is the only group
that continues to fight.
Slipping in to Karenland
To reach the KNU headquarters, Baaye, 67, first traveled to eastern
Thailand, then boarded a small wooden boat to cross the Moei River
illegally into Karen State, or, as he calls it, Karenland.
A KNU soldier looks out from behind a rocket launcher in a small
thatched guard post overlooking the river. Beside it, a wooden sign
reads, "Welcome to Karen National Liberation Army Headquarters."
The decades of fighting have played out on the land of the Karen
people, mostly farmers. The Myanmar army continues to burn down Karen
villages and rice fields each month. Women are routinely raped and
children captured for use as child soldiers and ****ters.
As a light rain begins to fall on the mountainside encampment, Baaye
ties his hammock between two trees.
Around him, skinny teenage boys patrol the camp with semiautomatic
weapons slung over their shoulders. In flip-flops and fake U.S. Army
gear, the ragtag Karen army is outnumbered 25-to-1 by better-equipped
Myanmar troops.
But Baaye and the Karen resistance still believe they have a chance.
"Soon we will have an autonomous Karen State," he says. "Dictator****ps
never last. Stalin, gone. Idi Amin, gone. Hitler, gone. Dictator****ps
never last."
Late arrival to the cause
Although he is Karen, Baaye grew up far from the fighting, in
Myanmar's capital city, Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon). He says he
lived a privileged life, the son of a shop owner, and knew very little
of the struggles in the eastern region.
He moved to the United States in 1968, and came to Wa****ngton state in
1988, but he didn't learn about the Karen struggle until he retired in
2003. "I began meeting Karen refugees in Wa****ngton and all over the
U.S.," he says. "They told me their stories and I was horrified. I
took up Karen awareness as my full-time mission."
He began wearing Karen dress, a red or pink woven tunic adorned with
braids, as a way to open conversations about the Karen struggle.
"Everyone will have noticed a man in Bellingham in the last two or
three years wearing this traditional dress," he says. "It's not a
costume; I don't wear it for special occasions. It is my clothing."
This is his first trip to Karenland, and he describes it as a personal
odyssey. When friends and family asked why he was leaving the comfort
of Bellingham for the jungles of Myanmar, "I joked and gave the same
reason Emerson and Thoreau gave when they went to jail. Why are you
not going? Why are you not sup****ting the Karen cause?"
Baaye takes his breakfast of beef stew, boiled greens and rice in the
canteen, a long bamboo hut with a blue tarp roof. Soldiers wash their
tin plates in the fast-moving river and young women stir massive pots
over open fires on the sandy riverbank. Today is the first day of a
unity seminar, and Karen leaders from across the globe have traveled
to the remote camp to discuss the future of the movement.
After breakfast, roughly 100 of the visitors gather in an open-air
bamboo hall and salute the Karen national flag. The leaders speak in
Karen language about strategies and challenges, and recite the
movement's four principles in English:
"Surrender is out of the question. We shall retain our arms. The
recognition of Karen State must be complete. We shall decide our own
political destiny."
Locked in violence
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962 and has not had a
constitution since 1988, when the army violently suppressed pro-
democracy protests and the current junta took power.
In September, the junta crushed peaceful protests that were triggered
by rising food prices but expanded to include demands for democratic
reforms. The U.N. estimates the crackdown killed at least 31 people,
and thousands more were detained. Under intense international
pressure, the junta has announced plans for a referendum in May on a
proposed new constitution written under military guidance, to be
followed by general elections in 2010.
The junta's domestic and international critics, however, say the plans
are undemocratic because they do not involve open debate and bar Aung
San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from taking part in the
elections.
Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, won the last
elections in 1990, but the military refused to hand over power.
Suu Kyi's party is sympathetic to the Karen cause, although not
sup****tive of its violent methods. The KNU has been criticized for
planting landmines and enlisting child soldiers into its ranks, and
for continuing to pursue a seemingly unwinnable war in a heavily
populated area.
Baaye says he will take up arms only as a last resort. He is
interested in developing the educational arm of the KNU. That's why he
brought 50 pounds of books to the jungle.
"I have a revolutionary spirit," he says, "and education is at the
heart of any real revolution." He wants to open a library and develop
the schools in Karen State.
The fighting in Karen State has heated up in recent weeks, as the
annual dry-season offensive spreads across the region and Myanmar
troops take hold over Karen villages deep in the jungle.
KNU Secretary-General Padoh Mahn Sha, a close friend and mentor to
Baaye, was shot and killed in broad daylight Feb. 14.
Still, Baaye says he is confident he is doing what is right for his
people.
"It is about upholding simple human rights," he says. "We are all
brothers in this world. If we allow for dignity of one group of men to
be trampled, it will have a ripple effect on all of us."
Baaye plans to return to Bellingham next month to continue his
solidarity work. But one day, he hopes to move to "Karenland" for good
-- "once our country is free."
Anna Sussman and Jonathan Jones are freelance print, radio and video
journalists, and founders of backpackjournalist.org. They currently
live in Bangkok.
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Radio Singa****e International
Myanmar: Past, Present & Future
March 5, 2008
It's been almost six months since a military crackdown by the Myanmar
government put an end to widespread, monk-led protests.
Since then, the country has inched towards democratic reforms, with
the recent announcement of a referendum on a new constitution, to be
followed by general elections in 2010.
This week in 25 Minutes, learn about the historical background behind
the recent unrest in Myanmar.
Professor Maitrii Aung-Thwin teaches History at the National
University of Singa****e.
Born in the American mid-west to an English-Burmese father and a
Spanish-Filipino mother, Dr. Aung-Thwin describes himself as having a
deep interest in the history of Southeast Asia and Myanmar in
particular, with a focus on colonialism.
When monk-led protests first broke out in Myanmar in July 2007, media
outlets approached the Professor for a historical perspective to the
events unfolding in the country.
He also used the op****tunity to turn a critical eye on how the media
were re****ting events in Myanmar.
Dr. Aung-Thwin went on to explain that many of his views were at odds
with popular opinion.
Tune in to find out why.
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The Straits Times - March 5, 2008
Myanmar junta unlikely to heed UN envoy: analysts
BANGKOK - UNITED Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari returns on Thursday to
Myanmar to press the junta to include opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi in its election plans, but analysts say the military will likely
turn him a deaf ear.
Professor Gambari is making his third trip to the military-ruled
country since police and soldiers used deadly force to break up anti-
government protests led by Buddhist monks in September.
At least 31 people died according to the United Nations, although
Human Rights Watch has put the toll at more than 100.
The junta agreed to allow Prof Gambari to visit in hopes of soothing
international outrage over the crackdown, which crushed the biggest
challenge to military rule in nearly 20 years.
On his two earlier trips, Prof Gambari tried to open a dialogue
between the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate and
pro-democracy leader who has been under house arrest for 12 of the
last 18 years.
But on this trip, Prof Gambari faces a changed political landscape.
After months of sitting on the defensive over their bloody crackdown,
the junta has reclaimed the initiative by proposing a constitutional
referendum in May and multi-party elections in 2010.
'Gambari will be in a very difficult situation this time,' said
Myanmar analyst Win Min, who is based in neighbouring Thailand.
With their new constitution in hand, the military will be less likely
to heed western calls for reform - especially demands that Aung San
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) be brought into
the process, he said.
Although the final version of the constitution has not been released,
the regime has already announced that Aung San Suu Kyi will be barred
from running in elections.
The military appears unwilling to reopen the charter for discussion,
meaning Prof Gambari will have to try to secure whatever small
concessions he can get to ensure the voting is free and fair, Mr Win
Min said.
'He will try to ask them to negotiate to include Aung San Suu Kyi in
the process, to allow the NLD to debate on the constitution at the
referendum, and also to run in elections in 2010,' he said.
'It is likely that the regime will say no,' he added.
Under a law enacted last month, speaking publicly about the referendum
or distributing leaflets is punishable by up to three years in
prison.
Mr Aung Naing Oo, another analyst based in Thailand, said Prof Gambari
has very little room in which to manoeuvre.
'If he had been allowed in earlier... he might have been able to talk
to the military about the referendum. Now the laws are out,' he said.
'If you are a member of the opposition groups, and you want to go
against (the constitution), you can't do it. It's against the law.'
The junta's election plan has also created divisions in the
international community, which had previously made coordinated demands
for reform in the wake of last year's bloody crackdown.
'They have succeeded in dividing the international community - with
the (South-east Asian) countries, Russia and China saying that the
referendum is a step in the right direction,' while the United States
and western countries dismiss the process as a sham, said one diplomat
based in Yangon.
The United States has tightened sanctions on the leader****p since the
announcement of the referendum, but no other countries have followed
suit.
The lack of an international consensus will make it difficult for
Gambari to apply pressure on the ruling generals for any changes,
analysts said.
'He has a pretty weak hand to play as an outsider representing a world
that doesn't have a lot of interests in Myanmar,' said Mr John Virgoe,
of the Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group.
'They're not very responsive to outside pressure.'
********************************************************
Medecins Sans Frontieres
Information dated 05.03.2008
In Myanmar, intimate HIV care is focus where isolation and rejection
is the norm
"Unfortunately many of our patients are alone or rejected by their
families and society and this can be very depressing. Therefore it was
very nice to see how much love and sup****t this girl was getting from
her mother through all the difficult times, and how this helped her to
stay positive." Isolated from the outside world, the people of Myanmar
are suffering from the consequences of repression and neglect. The
crackdown on monks marching for democracy in September brought
international attention to this long-suffering population, but it did
not expose what ordinary Burmese go through every day.
Faced with high malaria and HIV rates, the impoverished population is
provided with little healthcare from the government: only 1.4 percent
of the regime's budget sup****ts healthcare services.
The 8,000 of HIV/AIDS patients who come for treatment at the five MSF
clinics in Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar, receive an extremely
high level of care. The MSF staff are split into small teams
consisting of a doctor, nurse and counsellor. Patients therefore get
to know their carers - which is very im****tant for building trust and
helping people to stick to a lifetime's course of treatment.
HIV/AIDS in Myanmar
The slow response to Myanmar's HIV/AIDS pandemic has fuelled the
spread of the disease. While there is little independent information
to shed light on the number of Burmese in clinical need of life-
prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, of the UN-estimated 360,000
people who are living with HIV/AIDS, only 10,000 are believed to be
receiving ARVs. MSF provides ARV therapy to 8,000 of them, in several
regions of the country.
Here three of MSF's Burmese staff explain their involvement in one
patient's treatment:
Medical Doctor La La Aye*
"Khin May Tway* is 24. Her husband died of HIV/AIDS. After his death
she was confirmed as HIV positive in July 2007. She also tested
positive for tuberculosis (TB). Khin used to live in a village 40
miles outside Yangon, but to be eligible for antiretroviral (ARV)
treatment patients have to stay in Yangon for proper monitoring. She
had no other choice if she wanted to survive so together with her
mother she decided to move to Yangon. Renting a house was a huge
burden on the family. Her father was not well and therefore not
working, so Khin's sister paid to sup****t her.
"Because of her weak state and low immune resistance she was very
vulnerable to op****tunistic infections. In October she developed
severe symptoms of a rare blood disorder, and was sent to the
government hospital where she received blood transfusions.
"Two weeks later, however, the lesions reappeared and she also
developed symptoms of severe bowel obstruction with a very swollen
belly. She only weighed 32 kg, and was not able to walk on her own any
more. We suspected that her TB drugs were failing, and decided to
change her TB treatment. In the meantime the father at home in the
village had become very ill and the mother could not cope with two
dying family members at the same time.
"They were very scared of another long stay in the hospital and did
not have money to pay for it. We decided to treat Khin as an
outpatient at the MSF clinic, where she needed to come every day for
two months to receive her injections, infusions, etc. After changing
the TB drugs, she started to improve. But in the meantime her father
had died. Her mother did not dare to tell her until much later because
she was so sick.
"She has now been on ARV treatment for five months and on the new TB
drugs for four months. Her situation has improved dramatically. She
weighs 53 kg and is able to walk again and function normally. She
expects eventually to move back to her village and start to work
again."
Counsellor Whin Maye*
"I started counselling sessions with Khin after she moved to Yangon.
Before being started on ARVs, patients receive five counselling
sessions to make sure that they know what they are getting into.
Patients need to understand how the drugs work, that they really have
to take all of them and not just half and sell or share the other
half. They need to understand that they will always have to continue
taking the drugs even when they start to feel much better.
"Initially adherence and social counselling sessions are once a week.
When the patient is stable and is taking the drugs properly,
counselling is reduced to one session a month and then to once every
three months.
"I remember the period when Khin became so sick, we all feared for her
life. She could not walk by herself and had to be carried into the
clinic, she was very weak and could not remember things well. But even
under these cir***stances she was very motivated and eager to get
information and to receive treatment.
"During this period she received daily treatment at our clinic and I
had counselling sessions with her on a daily basis. We became close,
like friends during this period. She was very open with me. I was
afraid that she would not survive and did not want her to give up
hope. We are the same age as well, and she has already been through so
much.
"Luckily she is a very strong person. Even after all the difficult
hospital treatments and the pain and later when she heard that her
father had died, she still wanted to survive and get better. I was
very happy and relieved when the treatment worked and she improved so
much. She is now so stable that we decided to reduce the counselling
visits from every week to once every month."
Nurse Soe Soe Chan*
"I treated this patient from the first day she arrived. We had to send
her to the hospital twice for treatment but she did not get better.
When she had the abdominal obstruction and a very swollen belly she
became very wasted and was in a lot of pain. I was very upset at that
time because I thought the girl would die. We treated her in the MSF
clinic and I remember that she had to be carried into the treatment
room every day, where I gave her the injections.
"Her mother was very sup****tive. She wanted it to work. We don't see
patients with that much sup****t very often. Unfortunately many of our
patients are alone or rejected by their families and society and this
can be very depressing. Therefore it was very nice to see how much
love and sup****t this girl was getting from her mother through all the
difficult times, and how this helped her to stay positive."
Dr La La Aye
"I think this particular girl made a big impression on all of us who
treated and cared for her because of her positive outlook, her
eagerness to get better and the sup****t and kindness she gave and
received from her surroundings. It is very rewarding to treat a
patient like this and it makes me happy that she now has a future in
front of her."
*names changed
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Burmese Women Activists Receive International Award
By AYE LAE
Three Burmese women activists, either now in hiding or in prison, have
received the Homo Homini award from the People in Need organization
for their fight for democracy and human rights.
Labor activist Su Su Nway, HIV/AIDS activist Phyu Phyu Thin and social
activist Nilar Thein received the international award from the Czech-
based group for their promotion of democracy, human rights and
nonviolent solutions to political conflicts.
"When I head that we were given the award, I thought of all my
colleagues who are in prison and the monks and laypeople who
sacrificed their lives on the streets, and I felt sad," Nilar Thein
told The Irrawaddy from her hiding place in Rangoon on Wednesday.
"I feel that all the people who struggle for freedom are being honored
by a foreign country."
In past years, all three women have been imprisoned by the junta for
their work in human rights and democracy.
Nilar Thein, 35, has been in hiding from security forces since August
when she led pro-democracy demonstrations with her colleagues,
including Phyu Phyu Thin and Su Su Nway.
Nilar Thein, a member of the 88 Generation Students group, was one of
the prominent leaders of a demonstration against the rise in fuel
prices in Rangoon in 2007. She was imprisoned twice following the 1988
pro-democracy uprising. Starting in 1996, she spent eight years in
Insein Prison and Tharrawaddy jails.
Nilar Thein entered the democracy movement as a high school student in
1988 as a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions.
Su Su Nway has been detained in Insein Prison since November 2007,
following a peaceful demonstration. A member of the main opposition
National League for Democracy, she received the 2006 Humphrey Freedom
Award from the Canada-based group Rights and Democracy for her human
rights activities. She was arrested in 2005 and 2007 for her
activities.
Many Burmese people know of her work in behalf of people conscripted
into forced labor, and her sup****t for farmers whose land has been
confiscated by local authorities.
Phyu Phyu Thin has been in hiding from military authorities since the
2007 uprising. A well-known HIV/AIDS activist and member of the
National League for Democracy, she was unable to attend her father's
funeral because she has been in hiding since September 2007. She has
worked extensively with AIDS patients, providing them with medicines,
places to stay and psychological sup****t.
On behalf of the three activists, a former political prisoner, Lae Lae
Nwe, accepted the award in Prague on Wednesday.
The secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners--
Burma, Tate Naing, noting the awards, said, "They are all leaders of
the Burmese women activists' struggle for democracy and human rights
and they all sup****ted the monks' peaceful demonstrations, so the
prize really honors all the activists."
In 2001, the Homo Homini award was given to Burmese student leader Min
Ko Naing, who is currently detained in Insein Prison.
People in Need has sup****ted Burma's pro-democracy movement on a long-
term basis, trying to raise awareness of the Burma issue among the
Czech public.
According to AAPP, there are more than 154 women political prisoners
in Burma, including an estimated 10 Buddhist nuns.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Junta Increases Pressure on Media
By VIOLET CHO
Only two weeks after the Burmese military government closed the
offices of the Myanmar Nation, the military authorities appear to be
offering the publishers of the Rangoon-based weekly news journal the
op****tunity to start printing again, on condition that it toe the
junta's line and counter the exiled Burmese media.
According to a source close the Myanmar Nation, the government's press
scrutiny board director, Maj Tint Shwe, has been putting pressure on
the Myanmar Nation's publisher to restart operations by acting as a
mouthpiece for the military regime and confronting exiled media groups
which continuously expose the junta's wrongdoings.
"The military government is pressuring Myat Soe, the Myanmar Nation
publisher, to print a journal that counters the exiled Burmese media,"
said the source. "Myat Soe would become editor in chief and his
daughter would be appointed a member of the editorial board if he
would agree to start publi****ng again under the government's
conditions."
The authorities recently arrested former Myanmar Nation editor in
chief Thet Zin and the office manager after a police raid on the
journal's office on February 15. During the raid, police seized
footage of last year's monk-led demonstrations and a copy of UN
Special Rap****teur for Human Rights to Burma Paulo Sergio Pinheiro's
recent re****t. The authorities then ordered the journal to cease
publi****ng.
The case against the two arrested men is still unclear, according to
former employees of the Myanmar Nation, because the journal was only
published after the approval of the military government's censor****p
board. In the meantime, the journalists are being detained in
Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison.
Media right groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists,
have condemned the arrests and say that the government's ongoing
suppression of journalists makes a mockery of its recent announcement
to hold a referendum and introduce seemingly democratic reforms in the
country.
Burma was recently ranked as among the worst countries in the world
for press freedom by Wa****ngton-based pro-democracy organization
Freedom House.
According to journalists in Rangoon, the military authorities have
banned re****ters from covering a number of governmental meetings
which, in the past, they were free to attend. The re****ters, who were
questioned intensively, were recently prohibited from attending
meetings of the Myanmar Construction Entrepreneurs Association, the
Myanmar Info-Tech Meeting, and the Myanmar Forest Products & Timber
Merchants Association.
Authorities later rescinded the order, but enforced a strict
registration of all re****ters who wished to attend the meetings.
According to sources close to Burmese journalists working in Rangoon,
a staff member at weekly journal The Voice is being forced to
apologize to current Rangoon mayor Brig-Gen Aung Thein Lin for
strongly challenging him during a recent press conference.
The press conference was re****tedly called by the mayor himself.
During the meeting, The Voice's re****ter contradicted statements the
mayor had made about the recent crackdown on street vendors, which it
is a hot issue in Rangoon at the movement. The question apparently
infuriated the mayor and he threatened the journalist with
imprisonment.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Wednesday, March 5, 2008
NEWS ANALYSIS
USDA--The Regime's Prot=E9g=E9
By WAI MOE
"A central secretary of the USDA, the minister of Industry 1, U Aung
Thaung, attended a ceremony at a monastery in Myothit Town****p in
upper Burma." This re****t, which ran in the Burmese newspaper, Myanma
Alin, on Tuesday, is typical of a journalistic trend that has been
appearing more and more frequently in the state-run press.
The writing style is not unusual for a press dictated by a
totalitarian regime. But what is new in Burma--and something the
Burmese public was not exposed to before March 1--is the deferential
re****ting of activities related to members of the Union Solidarity and
Development Association (USDA).
Every word in Burmese newspapers and journals is written or edited by
officials from the Information Ministry. And, reading between the
lines in Burma's state-run media of late, one gets the distinct
impression that members of the USDA are being held in higher esteem
than most cabinet members.
Analysts say that this kind of news re****ting was prevalent in the
state media of communist regimes, especially after World War II in
Eastern Europe.
Burma's junta seems to be following Stalin's lead in paying homage to
his front line against the public, the thuggish USDA.
Since March 1, the state-run newspapers in Burma have led with
articles marking the activities of USDA members ahead of government
ministers, clearly placing their roles in pole position.
The Burmese generals already indicated their reliance on the USDA in
announcing that the one-million member organization would organize and
oversee the upcoming referendum in May and the national elections in
2010.
Sein Hla Oo, a veteran journalist in Rangoon, told The Irrawaddy on
Wednesday that re****ting in Burma's state-run-newspapers is directed
by the authorities. "Everything in the newspapers is the regime's
propaganda," he said.
"Under the Burma Socialist Program Party era, newspapers had to re****t
on leading party members in order of their ministerial title," he
said. "Now there is a similar situation--except that it's the USDA that
is the focus, not the party. People are saying that the USDA will be
transformed into the junta's political party in the future. But nobody
knows exactly when."
On Tuesday, Myanma Alin re****ted that "A member of the central
executive committee of the USDA and minister of national planning and
economic development, Soe Thar, visited a monastery in Rangoon
Division on March 3." Observers noted that his USDA position was put
before his ministerial role in the government.
Other examples followed in the state newspapers on Tuesday: "USDA
executive member and minister of forestry, Brig-Gen Thein Aung,
inspected the forest around Naypyidaw region"; "An executive member of
the USDA and minister of railways, Maj-Gen Aung Min, went to Rangoon
to inspect train engines which were im****ted from India."
The USDA was formed in 1993 by the military junta. The Central Panel
of Patrons of the USDA are top generals: Snr-Gen Than Shwe, vice
deputy Snr-Gen Maung Aye, Gen Shwe Mann, Gen Thein Sein and Lt-Gen Tin
Aung Myint Oo.
Dissidents and human rights groups accuse the USDA of involvement in
the crackdown on peaceful demonstrators last year, as well as the
brutal ambush on Aung San Suu Kyi and her convoy in May 2003.
Htay Aung, a Burmese researcher in Thailand, said that the junta's
fresh promotion of the USDA in the newspapers indicates the ruling
generals want to notify readers, including members of the armed
forces, that the USDA is the most im****tant organization in the
country.
"The junta may openly highlight the USDA as its political wing," said
Htay Aung. "In late 2005, U Htay Oo, secretary general of the USDA,
said at a press conference that if it were necessary, the USDA would
run as a political party.
"More recently, U Khin Maung Kyi of the National Unity Party [which
was backed by the junta in the 1990 election] said the USDA would run
as a political party in the next election."
********************************************************
Mizzima News - March 5, 2008
Anti-referendum posters in Central Burma
New Delhi - In a fresh act of defiance against the Burmese military
junta, several anti-referendum and 'Free Burma' campaign posters were
found in Amarapura town****p of Mandalay in central Burma, local
residents said.
'Free Burma', 'Free Aung San Suu Kyi' and 'Free Dr. Zaw Myint Maung',
MP from Amarapura constituency, who is serving a long prison term,
were written with spray guns in palm sized red coloured letters,
locals said.
Anti-referendum posters were also seen pasted on the walls of the
State High School in Laysu Ward, opposite the Taungthaman Bridge and
on the main street, the local said.
The ruling junta has announced holding a constitution approval
referendum in May.
"The posters urged the people to boycott the forthcoming referendum
and oppose the constitution for the future generation to be free from
46-years of military dictator****p," a local woman, who saw the
posters, told Mizzima.
"I saw these posters on March 3 in the morning and they were stuck in
an aluminum pot shop to Taungthaman Bridge. We heard that the posters
were found elsewhere in Amarapura," another local resident said.
On the same day, a policeman along with three members of Union
Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), the junta backed civil
organization, came by on two motorcycles and removed all the posters
and white washed the sprayed letters, the locals added.
"Despite white wa****ng, the words 'Free Burma' can still be seen
faintly. The letters say 2-3-2008 written by a spray gun," the second
local resident said.
Calendar size ****traits of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wearing her party
election campaign logo - bamboo hat - were also seen pasted in front
of the State High School at the main gate and were also removed by the
local authorities later.
********************************************************
NLD member loses sight due to lack of treatment
Mar 5, 2008 (DVB)-A detained Mandalay division National League for
Democracy member has gone blind in his left eye due to lack of
treatment for problems arising after an attack last year, his wife
said.
U Than Lwin, an NLD member and elected member of parliament from
Maddaya town****p, was sent to Mandalay hospital from prison on 23
February to undergo an operation on his left eye, which was severely
damaged during a knuckle-duster attack by an unknown assailant in
mid-2007.
But doctors at the hospital said that it was already too late for them
to save his sight in that eye, and he was sent back to prison on 29
February.
Than Lwin's wife, Daw Khin Thi, said that an earlier intervention
could have saved Than Lwin's sight.
"The doctors said it was already about two months late to treat his
eye and there was nothing they could do to help him," Khin Thi said.
"Specialist eye doctors said all the nerves in his eye had been
destroyed due to the growth of cataracts," she said.
"It has been a long time since we found out he was suffering from
cataracts and needed immediate medical assistance. We requested
permission for treatment from the prison authorities and government
leaders in Naypyidaw, but they only approved it about two months later
and it was already too late by that time."
Than Lwin was attacked in June last year by a man with a knuckle-
duster, who fled into the Union Solidarity and Development Association
office after the attack.
He suffered harassment from USDA members while in hospital recovering
from the attack, and was arrested on 2 September, allegedly in
connection with commodity price protests.
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