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Reuters – Myanmar’s Suu Kyi ill, court delays trial
Reuters – Myanmar must solve Rohingya problems – Bangladesh
AFP – Concern for health of Aung San Suu Kyi
AP – Myanmar: Suu Kyi’s lawyers optimistic about case
The Guardian – Aung San Suu Kyi is an opportunity for Burma’s leaders, not a threat
Xinhua – Int’l organization helps cyclone-affected Myanmar in food security
IRIN – MYANMAR: Calls to extend aid partnership
Asia Times Online – ASEAN, EU lock horns over Myanmar
The Hindu – FAO to begin $ 5.2 mn prog cyclone Nargis families
Bdnews24 – Myanmar pledges to take back Rohingyas
Bernama – Myanmar national jailed for gun possession
Scoop – Myanmar: UN-Italian Plan To Boost Livelihoods
The Financial Times – Crises test resilience of Burma’s farmers
The Times of India – EDITORIAL COMMENT | Free Her
Deccan Herald – Is this Myanmar junta’s end game?
The Nation – Asean must reprimand Burma over Suu Kyi
The Nation – Burma should listen to the world: FM
The Nation – Opinion: China, India and Thailand must pressure junta
The Nation – Opinion: Suspend Burma from Asean immediately
Mizzima News – Junta rejects UN Security Council’s demand
Mizzima News – Yettaw’s testimony throws a wrench into junta’s plans
The Irrawaddy – “We are Facing a Crisis of Constitution,” Suu Kyi Tells Lawyer
The Irrawaddy – More Asean MPs Call for Suu Kyi’s Release
DVB News – Italy backs $5 million food aid package to Burma
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Myanmar’s Suu Kyi ill, court delays trial
By Aung Hla Tun – Fri May 29, 9:09 am ET

YANGON (Reuters) – The party of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed “grave concern” on Friday for her health while she is in prison facing charges that carry a jail term of up to five years.

“It is learnt that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has not been able to sleep well at night because she gets cramps in her legs day after day,” the National League for Democracy (NLD) said.

Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, said the court decided to delay final arguments in the case until June 5. The final hearing was to be held on Monday.
“They did not give us a reason,” he told Reuters.

The 63-year-old Suu Kyi was moved from her home to a guest house in Yangon’s notorious Insein Central Prison on May 14 to face charges of violating her house arrest. Only days earlier, she had been treated for low blood pressure and dehydration.

The NLD said she “is in desperate need of proper medical treatment and we are very much concerned about her health.”

Suu Kyi has spent more that 13 of the past 19 years in some form of detention, and activists fear for her health if she is convicted, as is widely expected.

She faces a three to five year prison term if found guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing an American intruder to stay for two days after he swam to her home on May 4.

The case has been condemned by the West as a “show trial” to keep Suu Kyi detained during the regime’s promised elections next year, dismissed by critics as a ploy to entrench nearly a half century of military rule.

Myanmar’s Southeast Asian neighbors have warned the trial threatened the military government’s “honor and credibility,” but rejected calls for tough action against the ruling generals.

The regime lashed out at its critics on Thursday, accusing them of meddling in its affairs and denying the prosecution of Suu Kyi was a political or human rights issue.

The American intruder, John Yettaw, has told the court that God sent him to warn Suu Kyi that she was going to be assassinated by “terrorists.”

Suu Kyi has denied any prior knowledge of his plans and blamed the incident on a security breach, for which no officials have been punished.

Suu Kyi is accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest under a draconian state security law. Her lawyers argue she was charged under a section of the law that is no longer valid because it is based on the 1974 constitution abolished years ago.

Suu Kyi’s two female housemates and Yettaw are charged under the same security law. The American is also accused of immigration violations and breaking a municipal law that bans swimming in Inya Lake where Suu Kyi’s home is located.

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Myanmar must solve Rohingya problems – Bangladesh

29 May 2009 07:57:17 GMT
By Nizam Ahmed

DHAKA, May 29 (Reuters) – Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said the flow of Rohingya Muslims into Myanmar’s neighbours would not stop unless the former Burma removed problems that compelled them to leave their homeland.

“The Rohingya problem has been lingering for more than 30 years, and Myanmar must take steps to solve that,” Moni told a news conference on Friday.

Her remarks came a week after a fresh influx of Rohingyas was reported in Bangladesh, prompting the authorities to step up vigilance at its border with Myanmar.

“The issue has been raised prominently among the countries affected by Rohingya refugees and we hope Myanmar will do the needful to retain their people within its territory,” Moni said.

Rohingyas, not recognised as an ethnic minority by Myanmar, allege human rights abuse by its authorities, saying they deprive Rohingya of free movement, education and rightful employment.

Moni said Bangladesh was in touch with Myanmar and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to stop further inflows and get Myanmar to take back those who have already left.

Rohingyas have been leaving Myanmar and heading mainly into impoverished Bangladesh since the late 1970s. The biggest influx occurred in 1992.

Rohingya refugees have created problems for several other countries in the region in recent months, with reports of Thailand putting those who come by boat back to sea, and others reaching Malaysia and Indonesia and trying to work illegally.

More than 21,000 living in two camps the U.N. runs near the southeastern resort of Cox’s Bazar are not willing to go back, alleging persecution by the military junta ruling Myanmar.

They are the remnants of some 250,000 Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh in 1992. The rest were repatriated through UNHCR.

“It is (against) U.N. principle to force any refugee to go back home from exile if he does not want” to do so, a UNHCR official said, requesting not to be identified.

Cox’s Bazar officials say more then 200,000 Rohingyas live outside the camps, mixing with local Muslims who have an almost common language.

Muslims are a minority in Myanmar, where most of the population is Buddhists. Bangladesh is overwhelmingly Muslim.

The countries share a 320 km (200 mile) border.

On a separate refugee issue, Foreign Minister Moni said Bangladesh would take back so-called “boat people” from Indonesia if their particulars and identities were authenticated.

Indonesia said early this week it would return 114 Bangladeshis who arrived in Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island earlier this year in rickety wooden boats. The status of nearly 280 others was still being considered.

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Concern for health of Aung San Suu Kyi
1 hr 16 mins ago

YANGON (AFP) – The party of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Friday it was “very concerned” for the health of the Nobel Laureate, who has been detained in a notorious prison while facing trial.

The 63-year-old had suffered a series of health scares in recent months before she was charged with breaching her house arrest in early May over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home.

“We are very much concerned for her health situation. Because of frequent leg cramps at night she has to walk around,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD), told AFP.

“The chief of the (prison) medical team is also trying to find out the reason. Aung San Suu Kyi has said that the chief of the medical team is taking care of her,” he added.

Myanmar’s state-controlled media reported last week that medical specialists had visited her at Yangon’s Insein Prison and she was receiving daily health care at the jail.

Nyan Win also said that final arguments in the internationally condemned trial had been pushed back from Monday until Friday next week. Aung San Suu Kyi faces five years if convicted.

“The court informed her main lawyer Kyi Win this evening about the postponement of the final arguments until June 5. We don’t know the reason,” Nyan Win said.

He said that he would go to Insein Prison on Saturday to meet Aung San Suu Kyi after her legal team applied to the court to be able to consult with her.

“We hope we will be allowed to see her,” he said.

Myanmar’s military junta has kept Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for 13 of the last 19 years, most of them in virtual isolation at her tightly guarded home by Yangon’s Inya Lake.

She was twice placed on an intravenous drip at her house earlier this month because she could not eat, had low blood pressure and was dehydrated. Doctors also administered a drip last year.

In November 2006, Aung San Suu Kyi had an ultrasound, which is used to screen for a variety of ailments including heart and gynaecological problems, but was given a clean bill of health by her personal physician.

The Myanmar junta’s case against her has drawn fierce international condemnation, with US President Barack Obama describing it as a “show trial”.

Myanmar hit back at a conference of Southeast Asian and European leaders in Cambodia on Thursday, rejecting foreign “pressure and interference” and insisting that the trial was not political or a matter of human rights.

An international media rights group urged Myanmar Friday to lift the restrictions on coverage of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial, which has been held behind closed doors for all but two days since it started on May 18.

Diplomats and local reporters for Myanmar and foreign news organisation were allowed into the trial on May 20 and 26 only.

“Burmese journalists are or are not allowed into the trial at the military?s whim while foreign journalists are carefully kept away,” said Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), referring to the country by its former name.

“Even with this limited access, the Burmese public is not being properly informed as the military?s prior censorship prevents any independent coverage. The lack of transparency makes a fair verdict even more unlikely,” it added.

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Myanmar: Suu Kyi’s lawyers optimistic about case
Thu May 28, 11:28 pm ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Lawyers for Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed optimism about her case after the only witness allowed to testify for the defense addressed the court in her trial on charges of violating house arrest.

Closing arguments in a case that could send the Nobel Peace laureate to prison for five years are set to be heard Monday. The defense has argued that there is no legal basis for the charge that Suu Kyi had violated the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American swam secretly to her home.

Suu Kyi’s supporters fear that she may be found guilty because the courts are under the influence of the ruling junta and usually mete out harsh punishment for political dissidents.

But one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, Nyan Win, said Thursday night he was “very confident of victory if the trial is carried out according to law.”
The court was in recess Friday.

The trial has drawn outrage from the international community and Suu Kyi’s local supporters, who worry that the military junta has found an excuse to keep her detained through next year’s elections. Her party won the last elections in 1990 but was not allowed to take power by the military, which has run the country since 1962.

Suu Kyi’s defense team acknowledges that 53-year-old John W. Yettaw swam to and entered her lakeside home, where he stayed for two days. They argue, however, that it was the duty of government guards outside her closely watched house to prevent any intruders.

Yettaw was taken to Suu Kyi’s residence Thursday, accompanied by dozens of police, to re-enact before court officials how he entered and left her compound, said state-run newspapers Friday, which also published photos of the re-enactment.

Kyi Win, the defense witness who is a legal expert and a member of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, highlighted what appears to be the defense’s main argument, that the charge against Suu Kyi is unlawful.

The charge against Suu Kyi cites a 1975 state security law, not the more narrowly defined confinement order for her house arrest.

The 1975 law sets out broader penalties and refers to the 1974 constitution, which was annulled when the military took power in 1988. The country adopted a new charter last year.

Prosecutors seemed very unhappy at his testimony, Kyi Win told reporters outside the courtroom after the trial’s ninth day. Accounts of testimony have generally come only from the state press and defense lawyer Nyan Win, because reporters have been barred from all but two of the sessions.

Nyan Win, a lawyer for Suu Kyi, said the defense team would submit a letter Friday seeking permission for a private meeting with their clients on Saturday. Yettaw and two female party members who live with Suu Kyi face the same charge as Suu Kyi and have also pleaded not guilty.

Yettaw, of Falcon, Missouri, told the court Wednesday he had been sent by God to warn Suu Kyi of his premonition that she would be assassinated by terrorists, Nyan Win said. Suu Kyi acknowledges that she allowed him to stay for two days because he said he was too tired and ill to leave immediately.

Yettaw also secretly went to her house late last year but did not meet Suu Kyi. He testified that security personnel observed him during both of his visits but did not try to stop him, Nyan Win said.

Suu Kyi’s case and North Korea’s recent nuclear test were major topics at a meeting of foreign ministers from the European Union and the 10-nation Association of Southeast Nations in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

The meeting’s closing statement Thursday made no direct demand for Suu Kyi’s immediate release.

But Jan Kohout, deputy prime minister of the Czech Republic and the meeting’s co-chairman, said that “we are still deeply concerned over Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention and (urge) that she should be released immediately.”

Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint said it was inappropriate for the meeting to take up Suu Kyi’s cases, because it breached the region’s traditional policy of noninterference in each other’s affairs.

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29 May 2009
The Guardian – Aung San Suu Kyi is an opportunity for Burma’s leaders, not a threat

The British ambassador in Burma, Mark Canning, is one of the few outsiders to have been allowed into the courtroom to witness parts of the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi. In the second part of a series on her trial, he recounts his experiences

Burma’s leaders have been pursuing their road map towards a “disciplined democracy” for so long that few people could tell you what stage they’ve reached. But the pace is picking up: an election is to be held next year, although in what form nobody yet knows. That is why the events in the courtroom at Insein are unfolding.

So why is Aung San Suu Kyi important to the future of Burma? Nobody – and certainly not the lady herself – pretends she is the answer to all of its myriad problems. But she’s perhaps the only person capable of bridging the yawning political divides between opposition, ethnic nationalities and government. Unless she is allowed to play that sort of role, the task will become immeasurably more difficult.

Suu Kyi has repeatedly made clear her willingness to work with the military government in a process of political reconciliation. She is viewed by them as a threat. But she’s actually an opportunity, to the extent that she’s declared herself willing to work with them towards the sort of future that the current direction of travel will never deliver.

Sitting in the decrepit courtroom this week reminded me of how far this country is sliding: not a computer or modern aid in evidence, the torches confiscated from the American intruder looked as though they might have been left by alien intruders. It was a scene with which George Orwell, from his days here, would have been entirely familiar. In the midst of a region that has delivered unparalleled benefits to its population, it’s sad to see a country being taken in the opposite direction.

A campaign has been launched at 64forsuu.org allowing visitors to leave a message of support for Suu Kyi in the run up to her 64th birthday on 19 June. We all hope it will draw the world’s attention to her plight and shame the generals into doing something about it.

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Int’l organization helps cyclone-affected Myanmar in food security
www.chinaview.cn  2009-05-29 20:43:24

YANGON, May 29 (Xinhua) — Italy has provided 5.2 million U.S. dollars to Myanmar to assist in food security for cyclone-affected people through the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the local weekly Myanmar Times reported Friday.

The aid will be used in implementing three projects on sustainable small-scale fisheries and aquaculture livelihood in coastal mangrove ecosystem, support to special rice production and support to the immediate rehabilitation of farming, coastal fisheries and aquaculture livelihood in the cyclone Nargis-affected areas of Myanmar.

More than 32,000 poor fishermen in cyclone-hit Ayeyawaddy division will be benefited, the report said.

Meanwhile, with the support of the Japanese government, the FAO is making arrangement to donate 800 more draught cattle and poultry to the cyclone survivors in the division for agricultural re-cultivation.

The cattle will be distributed to 400 farmers in Bogalay, Laputta, Mawlamyaing Gyun and Ngaputaw, while other chickens, ducks and pigs will be brought to the 2,800 farmless households in the regions, according to earlier local media reports.

Earlier in February this year, FAO had donated 15,000 chickens, ducks and pigs to 16 villages in Laputta township as well as 600 cows and cattle and 80,000 chickens and ducks in December last year to seven storm-hit areas.

Deadly tropical Cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states of Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin in May last year, of which, Ayeyawaddy and Yangon were inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.

The storm has killed 84,537 people, leaving 53,836 others missing and 19,359 others injured, according to the official death toll.

Altogether 300,000 cows and cattle died and 323,246 chickens and 1.247 million ducks were lost in the cyclone-hard-hit Ayeyawaddy and Yangon divisions, according to the statistics.

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MYANMAR: Calls to extend aid partnership

BANGKOK, 29 May 2009 (IRIN) – One year after the establishment of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) to coordinate the international response to Cyclone Nargis, many aid officials favour its extension to help the Rohingya in Myanmar.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) -led mechanism, which brought together the regional body, UN agencies and the government of Myanmar, proved invaluable in ensuring an effective relief effort after Nargis, which left some 140,000 people dead and affected more than two million.

In the first weeks after the disaster, the group was instrumental in facilitating access to the Ayeyarwady Delta for relief workers and providing visas for international staff with NGOs and the UN.

“Without the TCG the humanitarian impasse may have dragged on,” Andrew Kirkwood, head of Save the Children-UK in Myanmar, said. “It provided the government with a counterpart to deal with the rest of the international community; and donors would certainly not have provided assistance on the scale that they did without it.”

But one year on, many aid workers now believe it could be used to address other important humanitarian challenges in the country, including the plight of the Rohingya, an ethnic, linguistic and religious, de jure stateless minority in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State.

Earlier this year, more than 1,000 Rohingya made international headlines after they were allegedly pushed out to sea by Thai authorities after fleeing to Thailand and Malaysia in search of a better life.

Hundreds ended up in Indonesia and India, as well as in Thailand. Others reportedly died at sea.

Their status has become a contentious regional issue. At its summit in Thailand in February, ASEAN decided the Bali Process, established in 2002 to deal with human trafficking and other crimes in the region, should consider the issue.

At the same time the countries of the region proposed that ASEAN coordinate a census of Rohingyas in Indonesia and Thailand.

This raised the prospect of a TCG-type mechanism to deal with the issue, particularly as the Southeast Asian nations endorsed the idea that the Rohingya question had to be dealt with at source, including the reason for the mass exodus, as well as their repatriation.

“The TCG could have an enormous benefit if it could be extended to the rest of the country or to specific areas like Northern Rakhine state,” Luke Arend, deputy head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières in Myanmar, told IRIN.

Lessons from Nargis

Other senior humanitarian officials in Myanmar, meanwhile, believe the lesson from the TCG experience is the co-operation and coordination that the TCG established between those involved.

“During the past year, the cooperation between the TCG partners … has worked well, and the UN hopes that the parties can have an open dialogue and joint efforts in facilitating delivery of humanitarian and development assistance also in other parts of the country,” Bishow Parajuli, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, told IRIN.

That is also the view of the ASEAN Secretary-General, Surin Pitsuwan, who played a key role in the TCG’s establishment.

“An ASEAN kind of initiative, whether it’s the same as the humanitarian taskforce, or the TCG, at this point doesn’t matter,” the ASEAN chief told IRIN.

“Neither Myanmar nor ASEAN has the resources necessary to help the humanitarian needs of the people… in northern Rakhine State. So an ASEAN-led mechanism of some sort could be helpful.”

But so far Myanmar’s government has made no comment and the subject has not even been discussed with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the lead agency in Rakhine, according to Raymond Hall, the agency’s regional head in Bangkok.

“Technically, it would be feasible to use the TCG model for assistance in Rakhine,” Hall told IRIN in Bangkok. “Whether it is practically feasible would depend, of course, on the agreement of ASEAN and the Myanmar government,” he said.

At the ASEAN summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, in February, the TCG’s mandate was extended for one year.

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May 30, 2009
Asia Times Online – ASEAN, EU lock horns over Myanmar
By Stephen Kurczy

PHNOM PENH – Minutes into the first session of the 17th ministerial meeting between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) this week in Phnom Penh, and Myanmar’s deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint had already told all delegates to keep out of the junta’s internal affairs.

The trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which entered its ninth day on Thursday, is purely a legal matter and of no concern to the outside world, Maung Myint said on Thursday. “It is not political, it is not a human-rights issue. So we don’t accept pressure and interference from abroad.”

European delegates summarily rejected Maung Myint’s statement, sparking a back-and-forth discussion that lasted hours and sidelined hopes for substantial progress in other areas. Myint declined to elaborate on his comments when approached by Asia Times Online, saying, “I already expressed myself at the meeting this morning.”

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout told delegates that Myanmar had taken “a big step backwards” and Suu Kyi’s trial could not be treated as merely an internal issue. Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb added that “it is an old-fashioned way of thinking” to talk about “not meddling in internal affairs”.

The EU was created to do exactly that within Europe, Stubb said, and ASEAN should consider doing likewise. Later, during their lunch of shrimp cocktail, grilled lamb and caramel flan, a French diplomat reportedly delivered a 15-minute lecture on human rights directed at Myanmar.

ASEAN, however, maintained a softer stance towards its embattled member. The 10-nation bloc [1] repeatedly attempted to steer the discussion away from Myanmar and asked that the 27-nation EU focus on enhancing cooperation and not just the junta’s human-rights record.

At the meeting the two blocs signed two declarations enabling the EU to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, a non-aggression pact, and agreed to seek ways to give new impetus to negotiations on an ASEAN-EU Free Trade Area.

“The Myanmar issue is one, but there are other issues that need to be addressed,” ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan said on Thursday. “Let us not just let one or two issues become the obstacle [to] all the cooperation that we have been having together.”

“We’re not saying we shouldn’t discuss Myanmar, but it’s not the only issue affecting ASEAN and the EU,” added Enrique Manalo, the Philippines’ under secretary of state for policy and head of delegation, between meetings Thursday. “It doesn’t mean we don’t want to discuss it, but we don’t want to spend a whole hour just discussing Myanmar.”

In a 30-minute speech on Thursday morning that addressed a host of issues from climate change to cyber crimes, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen avoided any mention of Myanmar or the trial of Suu Kyi, saying, “We should not lose sight of the broader and longer-term interests of the two regions.”

The ministerial meeting began on Wednesday evening, with 110 ASEAN delegates and 161 European delegates in attendance. Most arrived directly from the Asian-EU summit in Hanoi, where North Korea’s nuclear tests and Myanmar’s human rights abuses had dominated talks. At the end of the meeting, diplomats released a joint statement calling for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Cambodian Foreign Minister and event co-chair Hor Namhong attempted to start the Phnom Penh summit on a different note, proposing “not a working dinner, but a relaxing dinner”. As food was served, Myanmar’s Maung Myint and the chief Estonian delegate heeded the advice, discussing rock music at their end of the dinner table.

On the opposite side of the room, however, Stubb was assuring Asia Times Online that Myanmar’s human-rights situation would soon be addressed. Suu Kyi “should be freed and she should be freed immediately”, he said.

Suu Kyi, 63, is being tried at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest when, on May 4, she allowed an American man who swam across a lake to her house to sleep overnight. Though she was due to be released on Wednesday, she now faces up to five years in prison. (See The fool and The Lady of the lake, Asia Times Online, May 15)

US President Barack Obama has called the hearing a “show trial”. When asked on Thursday if any ASEAN or EU delegates expected Suu Kyi’s release, an Irish diplomat burst out laughing. That the court will find Suu Kyi guilty is considered a near certainty, although it remained unclear at the end of the EU-ASEAN ministerial meeting how either regional bloc would respond to this verdict.

“Let’s wait and see,” said Namhong. The EU has threatened to tighten sanctions against Myanmar if the pro-democracy icon is convicted. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, who co-chaired the meeting as the Czech Republic now holds the rotating EU presidency, also refrained from identifying any repercussions. “We have to wait,” he said.

Myanmar was not the only target of international disapproval during the ministerial meeting. The group also condemned North Korea’s recent underground nuclear test and missile launches, calling for the denuclearization of the peninsula. As with Myanmar, European delegates came down harder on North Korea than their ASEAN counterparts. After an hour of wrangling over the phrasing of a joint statement, at the behest of ASEAN, EU delegates agreed to soften their wording from “strongly” condemning to only condemning North Korea.

According to one European diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity, ASEAN resisted stronger criticisms of North Korea and Myanmar because it wants to maintain regional alliances, particularly with China. He said that being Myanmar’s biggest supporter and principal arms supplier (See China drawn into Myanmar’s border strife, Asia Times Online, May 28), China could exert more control over its southern neighbor if ASEAN loses influence in Yangon.

Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo said during the meeting on Thursday that Myanmar’s long border with China and India automatically turns the nation into a potential flashpoint between the world’s two most populous countries. “Having good relations with China, having good relations with India, helping them interact with each other in a way that is advantageous to us, all that is at the core of ASEAN foreign policy,” Yao said, cautioning that Myanmar could easily isolate itself further.

“Myanmar has been a place of contest between China and India. And I believe it more is in your interest in Europe to have Myanmar integrated into Southeast Asia than for it to be left isolated on its own. I am not making a defense of what the present government is doing … [but] you have your position, we have our position, and our Myanmar friends have their position, which we should respect.”

The European diplomat said ASEAN’s softer stance toward North Korea and Myanmar is understandable, and the EU would not penalize the organization for its policy.

“We have to keep in mind that Burma [Myanmar] should not be isolated, the diplomat said after the summit. “If we let Burma [Myanmar] go, then it will be, politically, strongly influenced by either India or China or maybe both. And then we will have nothing to say.”

Notes
1.) The Association of Southeast Asian Nations consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Stephen Kurczy is an Asia Times Online contributor based in Cambodia. He may be reached at kurczy@gmail.com.

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The Hindu – FAO to begin $ 5.2 mn prog cyclone Nargis families

New York (PTI): The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Italian Government have agreed on a USD 5.2 million programme to improve long-term food security to 32,000 poor Myanmar families hit by Cyclone Nargis.

The Italian-sponsored, FAO-managed programme would help small-scale farming and fishing communities to improve production through the introduction of modern technology, the Rome-based UN agency said.

In addition, new employment would be generated and income improved by increasing the availability of quality seeds and community-based water management and reviving ecosystems.

“The 32,000 families would join the 112,000 households whom FAO helped between June 2008 and May 2009, as part of its USD 17 million cyclone Nargis assistance project, and hundreds of thousands of other families in various parts of Myanmar that FAO is working with and has worked with during its 30 years in this country,” said Shin Imao, FAO’s representative in Myanmar.

Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in May last year killing nearly 150,000 people, and leaving many more homeless and without livelihoods.

Giuseppe Cinti, Italian Ambassador in Myanmar, said Italy had already contributed USD 8 million to Myanmar’s recovery effort, with USD 6 million going to FAO-implemented projects. The new programme “will be implemented with the aim of giving the people of Myanmar the tools for their empowerment,” he said.

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Myanmar pledges to take back Rohingyas
Fri, May 29th, 2009 1:12 pm

Dhaka, May 29 (bdnews24.com)-Foreign minister Dipu Moni has said the Myanmar leaders during her latest trip to that country told her that they would take the Rohingya refugees back.

She told reporters at the foreign ministry on Friday that Myanmar authorities in December last year said Rohingyas were not Myanmar citizens but Bangladeshis.

“At a meeting on trafficking in persons in Bali, I presented historical data and necessary evidence on Rohingyas’ Myanmarese identity.

“During my Myanmar visit (May 16-17), its leaders admitted that they are Myanmarese and agreed to take them back,” the foreign minister.

She said Myanmar government sought a list from Dhaka on the number of Rohingyas living in Bangladesh as part of the repatriation process.

She observed that the influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar was not a new development, rather the Arakan people were continuously intruding into Bangladesh for long.
Her rather candid comments came as Bangladesh media reported massive intrusion of Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban districts.

Dipu Moni said the refugee flow would not stop unless Myanmar authorities guaranteed “qualitative change” in its Arakan state-Rohingyas’ motherland.

“Rohigya influx is always there. They have been coming continuously.

“A small number of them are in the (UNHCR) camp. Huge numbers of them are outside the camp,” Dipu Moni told reporters at foreign ministry on Friday.

“If there was no qualitative change in the place they come from, the influx would be continuing even though we send them back or Myanmar shows interest in taking them back,” she said.

Foreign secretary Md Touhid Hossain said, “So far, there is no change in the environment they live in.”

The foreign secretary made it clear that Dhaka would not accept any foreign national as its citizen.

Around 30,000 residual Rohigya refugees, Myanmar Muslims from the northern Rakhain state, have been living in camps in Cox’s Bazar district as they are unwilling to return to Myanmar.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas fled into Bangladesh as the military junta in the former Burma cracked down on them to avert the international focus on its domestic affairs including power handover to democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Muslim Rohingyas are the minority in the Buddhist Myanmar.

As per a tripartite agreement with the UNHCR, most of the Rohingyas returned to their homeland, but they later intruded for better life in Bangladesh.

The military leadership, following a mass upsurge in 1988, gave national election in which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy had landslide victory.

But the ruling generals refused to hand over power and put her in jail and finally on trial.

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Myanmar national jailed for gun possession
Bernama – Friday, May 29

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 (Bernama) — The Sessions Court today sentenced a wholesale market employee of Myanmar nationality to six years’ jail and six strokes of whipping after he pleaded guilty to possessing a .38 revolver and three bullets without a licence about three years ago.

Judge Mohamad Sekeri Mamat ordered the sentence on Netagi, 24, on the first charge and four years’ jail on the second charge, the jail sentences to run concurrently from July 8, 2006, the day of his arrest.

He was charged with committing both offences at Ramnad Restaurant, Jalan 2/3 Pusat Bandar Selayang, at 11.30pm on July 7, 2006.

Meanwhile, in the same court, Netagi’s friend, also from Myanmar, was sentenced to six years’ jail and seven strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to two charges.

Sathiya, 23, admitted to being an accomplice although he knew Netagi illegally had a gun and he also admitted to carrying a knife.

Mohamad Sekeri sentenced Sathiya to six years’ jail and six strokes of the cane on the first charge, and two years’ jail and one stroke of whipping on the second change, both jail sentences to run concurrently from July 8, 2006.

The prosecution was carried out by Deputy Public Prosecutor Syaiful Nazrin Mohd Rahim, while Netagi and Sathiya were represented by counsel A. Vasudevan.

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Scoop – Myanmar: UN-Italian Plan To Boost Livelihoods
Friday, 29 May 2009, 1:49 pm
Press Release: United Nations
Myanmar Cyclone Victims To Benefit From UN-Italian Plan To Boost Livelihoods

New York, May 28 2009 10:10AM The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Italian Government have agreed on a $5.2 million programme to improve long-term food security for 32,000 poor fishing and farming families in Myanmar whose livelihoods were disrupted by last year’s Cyclone Nargis.

The Italian-sponsored, FAO-managed programme will help small-scale farming and fishing communities improve production through the introduction of modern technology, according to a news release issued by the Rome-based UN agency.

In addition, new employment should be generated and incomes improved by increasing the availability of quality seeds and community-based water management and reviving ecosystems. “These households join the over 112,000 households that FAO assisted between June 2008 and May 2009, as part of its $17 million cyclone Nargis assistance project and the hundreds of thousands of other families in various parts of Myanmar that FAO is working with and has worked with during its 30 years in this country,” said Shin Imao, FAO’s Representative in Myanmar.

Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on 2 May 2008, killing nearly 150,000 people, and leaving many more homeless and without livelihoods. Giuseppe Cinti, Italy’s Ambassador in Myanmar, said Italy had already contributed $8 million to Myanmar’s recovery effort, with $6 million going to FAO-implemented projects. The new programme “will be implemented with the aim of giving the people of Myanmar the tools for their empowerment,” he said.

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The Financial Times – Crises test resilience of Burma’s farmers
By Amy Kazmin in Pay Chaung Gyi, Burma
Published: May 29 2009 18:14
For the villagers of Pay Chaung Gyi – deep in Burma’s rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta – the past year has been one of catastrophes of biblical proportions.

First, Cyclone Nargis swept away their homes, rice stocks, water pots and animals last May, leaving them with little to their names – except outstanding debts.

Within weeks, villagers managed to plant a monsoon rice crop, with seeds donated or salvaged after the storm, and fresh loans taken from local rice millers, fertiliser dealers, and other rural moneylenders. But at the November harvest, their rice yields were much lower than normal, due to late planting, soil salinity from the cyclonic tidal surge, and poor seed quality.

Then they planted summer paddy, hoping a bountiful harvest would restore their financial stability. But their fields – like many across the cyclone delta – were affected by a devastating infestation of brown plant hopper, a pest that destroyed their crops.

All the while, interest on their outstanding loans has accumulated at about 10 per cent a month. Unable to fulfil skyrocketing obligations, villagers are now losing some of their precious few remaining assets – including livestock and land – to creditors, pushing them ever closer to the edge.

“I can’t even think about why all this is happening to us,” said 53-year-old Sein Than, who lost four of his eight acres this month. “I feel I have no help.”

That sense of isolation is not surprising. Burma’s military rulers – holed up in their remote new capital, Naypitaw – are obsessed with ideas of self-reliance, not only for themselves, but also for their 52m mostly impoverished people. While the ruling junta profits from selling Burma’s natural gas and other valuable resources to Asian neighbours, they have spent little of this cash on improving the health and welfare of their struggling people, who have been left to fend almost entirely for themselves.

Even after Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy Delta last year – killing about 140,000 people and displacing some 500,000, the generals initially refused to grant international aid agencies access to the afflicted areas, and instead publicly touted the ability of Burma’s resilient peasants to cope with hardships. An international outcry finally prised the area open.

Than Htun Oo, a 35-year-old with eight acres, owed about $100 (€70, £62) to moneylenders before the cyclone. Since then, his two paddy crops have been abysmal. He recently surrendered one of his three buffalo to cancel some of his debt, which had soared to about $220. Yet even then, he still owes about $70, and needs fresh loans for the next planting season now under way. “I can only hope this coming monsoon harvest is better,” he says.

Apart from the cyclone victims, millions of other small farmers are struggling to stay afloat, with mounting obligations to the private moneylenders that flourish in the absence of a strong, state-run rural credit system.

A 50 per cent fall in farm-gate rice prices last November hurt farmers badly. Many families sold their entire crop – without keeping any rice reserves to eat or plant this season. Even then, they could not clear all their debts.

As the next season’s planting starts, experts fear many distressed farmers will try to reduce production costs which could sharply reduce yields and total output.

“The natural resilience of farmers that the government has always relied on is just at the breaking point,” said one expert on Burmese agriculture. “And you can’t have economic growth with an unprofitable farm sector.”

Burma has the natural potential to be an important global rice producer, on a par with Thailand or Vietnam, but today is only a marginal participant on world markets, exporting about half a million tons of low-quality rice each year. However, the US Department of Agriculture this month forecast Burma will harvest “a near-record crop” this year, up 6 per cent from 2008-09.

Although Burma’s total rice production has risen in recent decades, the increase is due mainly to an expansion of cultivated acreage, rather than improved yield.
Given their high capital costs, Burmese farmers cannot afford to invest much in fertiliser or other yield-enhancing inputs. The government’s agricultural bank does provide some low-interest loans to farmers, but only $8 per acre for up to 10 acres. Paddy costs about $80 to $100 per acre to produce.

Even when world rice prices are high, Burmese farmers reap little benefit, as their rice is discounted on world markets, and they receive a far lower percentage of the export price than their Thai or Vietnamese counterparts. “It’s not a healthy farming sector that can absorb many shocks,” the rice expert said.

In a village north of Rangoon, Blu Say, 42, frets that he could soon lose his 10 acres. His harvest last autumn was down by 25 per cent, and with prices also depressed, he could only repay half his $200 debt. Now, he spends his days trapping rats to sell in order to buy food for his family.

He will soon take out fresh loans for the next crop, praying for a good harvest to save him. “I have to face this – there is no choice,” he says.

In the cyclone area – where the military guards manning the numerous checkpoints only sporadically stop foreigners to verify they possess the clearances required to travel in the area, Sein Than is resigned to an uphill struggle to retain his remaining four acres. “If no one comes to help, we farmers need to stand on our own feet as much as we can,” he says. “We can only think of fate. It is up to the mercy of God.”

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The Times of India – EDITORIAL COMMENT | Free Her
29 May 2009, 0000 hrs IST

Myanmar cares a damn about what the world says. Its deputy foreign minister has highlighted this once more. In response to international calls

for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is on trial on charges of hosting an American man at her home, therefore allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest, Maung Myint said, “It is not political, it is not a human rights issue. So we don’t accept pressure and interference from abroad.”

Suu Kyi’s supporters believe that this latest trial is an excuse for the junta to prevent her release which was due and subsequent participation in elections scheduled for next year. There are fears that the trial is loaded against Suu Kyi and there’s no way of verifying what’s really going on. We really never know what happens in Myanmar, tightly controlled as it is by a draconian military junta.

Outraged by what is widely perceived as an unfair trial, the international community has strongly condemned the junta’s latest move. US president Barack Obama has called for Suu Kyi’s “immediate” release, a call made by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and British prime minister Gordon Brown, among others. Celebrities like film actors George Clooney and Daniel Craig, and football star David Beckham, are among those who have signed petitions calling for international pressure on Myanmar’s military rulers to secure Suu Kyi’s release. In short, the democratic world is putting its weight behind one of democracy’s bravest soldiers.

India’s stand, as is often the case, is ambivalent. We have just concluded a spectacular democratic exercise and are still showing it off to the world. But, unfortunately, when it comes to speaking up for the defenders of democracy in Myanmar, our voice drops to a whisper. To put it bluntly, India’s foreign policy with regard to Myanmar is caught in a trap. We chose to play footsie with the military regime in the hope of getting access to Myanmar’s natural resources and to secure our north-east from infiltration. We have achieved a degree of understanding on border infiltration but have been well eclipsed by China as far as exerting influence in Myanmar is concerned. We have, meanwhile, let down the people of Myanmar in their quest for democracy. If India is to make amends, this new government must redraw India’s approach map to Myanmar. Given our aspiration towards a greater global role, New Delhi, under the foreign ministry, would do well to recalibrate its approach towards our neighbours, especially towards ruthless dictators whom nobody in the world particularly likes.

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Deccan Herald – Is this Myanmar junta’s end game?
By Simon Tisdall,The Guardian Friday, May 29, 2009, 1:32 [IST]
This trial highlights the plight of San Suu Kyi as well as other prisoners brutally treated in Myanmar.

Generally speaking, the more depraved a military dictator is, the stupider his actions. This rough rule of thumb certainly seems to hold true for Than Shwe whose decision to place Myanmar’s much-persecuted pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on trial on trumped-up charges has backfired.

If Burma’s senior general hoped to sideline Suu Kyi ahead of next year’s state-managed elections, the trial now under way in Insein prison is having the opposite effect. After a period in which her leadership of the National League for Democracy was increasingly questioned, Than Shwe has managed in the space of a week to re-unite the opposition and galvanise the international community in furious support of her.

What foreign secretary David Miliband calls the “show trial” in Yangon has also drawn the spotlight back to the egregious human rights violations perpetrated by the regime in the wake of the failed 2007 uprising, known as the saffron revolution. Of grave concern is the plight of Burma’s more than 2,000 political prisoners who are held in a gulag of about 100 jails and labour camps spread across the country.

A report entitled ‘Myanmar’s Silent Killing Fields’, published last week by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a group comprising exiled activists and former prisoners, paints a horrific, case-by-case picture of systematic abuse including torture, deaths in custody, denial of medical assistance and a deliberate policy of transferring prisoners to remote regions to prevent family access and support.

Most of the abuse thus takes place far from the public eye, not least, because the International Committee of the Red Cross was forced to suspend prison visits in 2006.
Among 127 prisoners said to be suffering from dangerously poor health are Htay Kywe, a leader of the pro-democracy 88 Generation movement held in Buthidaung prison in Arakan state.

Also highlighted are the cases of Hla Myo Naung of 88 Generation, held at Myitkyina prison in Kachin state, blinded in one eye, at risk of total blindness, but denied medical treatment; Su Su Nway, an NLD activist held at Kale prison in Sagaing division, who has a heart condition and cannot walk unaided.

Family members told the AAPP, the policy of transfers to remote parts of the country meant they could not see or aid their imprisoned relatives due to the cost of travel and the denial of necessary permits. “We could not meet her for nearly two months. Now we are worried about her health after hearing she is vomiting almost daily,” said the mother-in-law of Nilar Thein who is held at Thayet prison in Magwe division.

Other ongoing abuses include lack of treatment or protection from rampant malaria (the prisoners are allowed no mosquito nets), TB and HIV; imprisonment in labour camps, which is ‘tantamount to a death sentence’; and torture.

Torture, a state policy

“Torture is state policy in Burma and common practice at interrogation centres and prisons. Common forms include sleep deprivation, beatings and stress positions … Punishments such as solitary confinement exacerbate existing injuries,” the report states. Combined with poor nutrition and hygiene, these conditions have “a severely detrimental impact on prisoner’s overall health.” Such practices, it concludes, are designed to ensure that political prisoners never leave prison.

According to Burma Campaign UK, 300,000 people so far have signed a petition calling on Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, to secure the release of all Myanmar’s political prisoners. But the UN, like the Association of South-East Asian Nations, appears powerless to stop the horror. So, too, despite their angry protests over Suu Kyi’s ordeal, do Britain, the EU and the US – although activists say western countries, and neighbouring China and India, could do much more if they really wanted to.

For many, it is already too late. Thet Win Aung, a member of the Basic Education Students Union, was jailed for 60 years, the AAPP said. He was very badly tortured under interrogation. He was first held in Kale prison, in Sagaing, where he took part in a hunger strike calling for political prisoners’ rights. He was then transferred to Khamti prison, where he contracted cerebral malaria.

He was denied medical treatment for a long time. Eventually he was transferred to Mandalay prison for treatment but it was too late. He died there in October, 2006.

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The Nation – Asean must reprimand Burma over Suu Kyi
Published on May 30, 2009

Grouping needs to remain united in its stance and transcend mantra of non-interference

It is not very often that Asean countries, together, take a strong stand against one of their own members. At the special meeting in Phnom Penh early this week every member apart from Burma expressed solidarity with the Thai chairman’s statement.

The chair had issued a statement expressing grave concern about the deteriorating health of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the problems she is facing. Asean foreign ministers know deep within their hearts that Burma cannot get away scot-free this time by citing the principle of non-interference. Burma has been using this mantra since it joined Asean 12 years ago.

The ongoing trial of Suu Kyi is making the country and its junta leaders a laughing stock. It is also adversely affecting Asean’s reputation. For the past decade the junta leaders have had their own way of doing things, and this time too they think they can get what they want.

Well, after all, the world is in an economic crisis; and worse, Thailand, as the Asean chair, has been in disarray for the past few months, having being forced to postpone a couple of summits. So the junta leaders obviously thought it was time to strike and create confusion again with the aim of marginalising Suu Kyi further by putting her through a ridiculous trial.

It is interesting that Asean has been supportive of Thailand’s chairmanship, and if it remains steadfast in its position against Burma, it will be heralding a new era. After all, this is not the old Asean, which operated on a strictly volunteer basis. Back then any member could discard obligations and dump agreements it had signed without having to undergo any sanctions. However, that was brought to a stop in December, when the Asean Charter came into force.

Now the grouping is an intergovernmental organisation with a legal identity. The charter clearly expects members to follow the principles and regulations contained therein.

Respect for human rights and democratic values are the key principles of the charter. If Burma’s military regime does convict the opposition-party leader, Asean should stand up and ensure that Suu Kyi and other political prisoners are treated fairly. The international community has been pushing Burma to release all the political prisoners incarcerated across the country.

This is a defining moment for Asean. Now the grouping must have the moral courage to deal with Burma’s growing intransigence and show that it can no longer afford to behave in such a way. Otherwise it has to pay the price of non-compliance under the charter. As chair, Thailand can initiate a discussion on ways to respond to Burma’s non-compliance. The charter has given Asean leaders the leeway to take up any issues related to membership at their summits. In the past a consensus had to be reached within the decision-making hierarchy before such requests reached the leaders. This time around, in fact at the very next summit, Thailand could bring up this subject.

If Asean leaders see eye to eye, there are several options. The most dramatic, and perhaps the most difficult, would be to suspend Burma’s membership temporarily until things get better. When Burma skipped the chairmanship in 2005, it did so on its own initiative. If pressure from Asean and the international community continues unabated, Burma may resort to the same tactic: boycotting Asean by pulling out. After all, the junta has mapped out steps to set up a new government after the planned elections next year.

If Asean remains firm and unified, other countries, especially China and India, will proffer their support in the near future. These two Asian giants can get away with their own approach at the moment because Asean does not have a common position. However, with the current solidarity, China and India would be expected to show moral courage. Failure to do so would only jeopardise their ties with the grouping in the future.

China, which joined the UN Security Council in expressing concern over Burma’s action last week, should do more. Unfortunately, India is still an oddball as far as Burma is concerned. New Delhi remains tight-lipped on Rangoon’s action against Suu Kyi, which is a shameful thing for the world’s largest democracy to do.

Now that a new government is in place in India, it should review and readjust its policy on the junta. Also, the international community, including the EU and the US, should converge and galvanise into a bulwark of opposition against Burma’s oppressive rulers. Hopefully, the international community can jointly end Burma’s inhumane treatment of its own people.

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The Nation – Burma should listen to the world: FM
Published on May 30, 2009

The Burmese military junta should respond in positive to international pleas to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said yesterday.

Burma should take into consideration seriously as the international community unanimously called the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners for national reconciliation, he said.

It is very rare the international community from the United Nations Security Council, the United States, the European Union, the Asean and countries in East Asia took the same stance on the Burma, he said.

“Now the ball is in their court, I think Burma is thinking about the call seriously,” Kasit told reporters.

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The Nation – Opinion: China, India and Thailand must pressure junta
Published on May 29, 2009

The international community must do more to secure Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from prison and intimidation from the Burmese junta. Sanctions already imposed by the US and the EU are not enough, since Thailand, China and India are maintaining lively trade and investment relationships with the Burmese regime.

As Burma’s immediate neighbours, these three countries can play a leading role in an effort to stop the madness there. Thailand must look to its northern neighbour’s democratic development as being of more importance than trade relations; China must show it has enough respectability to lead this part of the world; and India must do the same in order to have a share of that respect.

CHAVALIT VAN
CHIANG MAI
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The Nation – Opinion: Suspend Burma from Asean immediately
Published on May 29, 2009

The statements made by PM Abhisit and Asean about the atrocious way Aung San Suu Kyi is being treated are laudable, if a little belated. PM Abhisit reportedly said that in the eyes of the international community the honour and credibility of Burma’s government were at stake. This is an overly generous statement since, in the eyes of most countries, Burma’s government has absolutely no honour or credibility.

A counter statement from Burma’s foreign minister that Thailand as Asean’s chair “failed to preserve the dignity of Asean, the dignity of Burma and the dignity of Thailand” underscores the lack of dignity of the junta’s leaders and makes a mockery of the way they operate. Indeed, Thailand and Asean have gained in both stature and dignity by making the bold statements regarding the continued detention of Burma’s true representative of democracy as well as all other political prisoners. The only dignity Burma retains is that of Aung San Suu Kyi and the long suffering Burmese people. They deserve the praise, respect and support of the world community. The generals have neither dignity nor respect from the world community.

Since Asean appears to be showing a unified stance in opposing the actions of the junta, it is clear that it should now take action to suspend Burma’s membership until Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners are released. This decision must be fully supported by all Asean members, obviously excluding any input from Burma and regardless of membership protocol, and be conveyed to the junta by PM Abhisit as the chair.

Consolidated action is needed from Asean and all world leaders if reconciliation and fair treatment for the Burmese people is ever to be achieved.

CHRIS KAYE
CHONBURI

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Mizzima News – Junta rejects UN Security Council’s demand
Thursday, 28 May 2009 00:00

Despite the United Nations Security Council urging implementation of an all inclusive political dialogue including Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and other stake-holders and initiate reconciliation, Burma’s military government has said it will continue with its planned 2010 election as part of its roadmap to democracy.

Following the trial against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the UNSC issued a statement on May 22 expressing its concern over developments in Burma. In response to the UNSC’s statement, the junta, in the state-run newspaper on Thursday, said Burma now has a new constitution and under its guidelines will hold a multi-party general election in 2010.

The UNSC, in its press statement, called on the junta to create necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all concerned parties and ethnic groups in order to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation with the support of the United Nations.

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Mizzima News – Yettaw’s testimony throws a wrench into junta’s plans
by Nem Davies
Friday, 29 May 2009 13:52

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Yesterday’s state-run media, weary of potential implications, omitted some facts revealed during the court testimony on Wednesday of American John William Yettaw, who disclosed that he encountered security personnel while trying to sneak into Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s residence.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Yettaw testified that he met with armed security personnel upon leaving her house after his first visit, in November of last year, with the security detachment aiming their guns at him and asking, “What are you doing here?” Apart from that, he reportedly faced no trouble and harassment by security deployed at Suu Kyi’s compound and managed to leave the area, according to his testimony.

Then, in his second visit, he again testified he encountered five security personnel while trying to sneak into her house by swimming across Inya Lake. On this occasion security personnel threw some stones at him but did not do anything to block his entry.

However, yesterday’s state-run media failed to report any of these proceedings.

In his testimony, Yettaw repeatedly justified entry into the house because “God sent him here to convey a message of imminent danger to the life of Daw Suu unleashed by a terrorist outfit.”

The court’s reported earlier plan of handing down a verdict today, Friday, was jeopardized by Yettaw’s testimony, a leading police officer told Mizzima.

The court instead fixed the date for final arguments for Monday, June 1, said Kyi Win, who testified yesterday as the sole defense witness.

As with all but two days of the trial, Wednesday being the 8th day of the proceedings, the court was closed for Yettaw’s testimony to journalists, the diplomatic community and other interested parties not directly involved in the case.

On a day when Aung San Suu Kyi’s presence was not required at the court, Yettaw’s testimony on Wednesday lasted approximately three hours with the judges also hearing for about half an hour from Suu Kyi’s two live-in colleagues, Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, who are also being charged.

Security remains tight around Insein Prison, where the court is convening, and Insein Market. Civilian organizations loyal to the junta can be seen monitoring those who come to the venue in vigil or out of keen interest in the proceedings.

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The Irrawaddy – “We are Facing a Crisis of Constitution,” Suu Kyi Tells Lawyer
By MIN LWIN, Friday, May 29, 2009

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, defense lawyer Nyan Win said that Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi privately told him that the charges against her are invalid as she was charged under the 1975 State Security law, which was annulled by the 2008 constitution.

“We are facing a crisis of constitution, not a constitutional crisis,” she reportedly told him on Thursday.

The lawyer said that Suu Kyi was referring to a 1975 law enacted under the 1974 constitution, which became invalidated when the military seized power in 1988. In addition, under the junta’s “seven-step road map,” the country approved a new constitution in May 2008 by national referendum, which would also invalidate the 1975 act.

Defense witness Kyi Win (no relation to Suu Kyi’s lawyer Kyi Win) echoed Suu Kyi’s sentiments in the courtroom on Thursday, testifying that if the 1974 constitution was still in effect, then the existing constitution was “null and void,” according to a report in the state-run The New Light of Myanmar on Friday.

Kyi Win testified on the ninth day of Suu Kyi’s trial on Thursday. He was the sole witness that the defense team was allowed to call; however, three other defense witnesses were denied the opportunity to testify, although the court gave no reason for their disqualification.

Kyi Win also questioned the junta’s claims that Suu Kyi was responsible for the intruder in her compound on May 3-5, according to The New Light of Myanmar.

Although misleading, it is believed the state-run newspaper was attempting to translate Kyi Win’s testimony to read that if the State employed guards around Suu Kyi’s property, then the security of the house was its responsibility, not Suu Kyi’s.

Although the official version of Kyi Win’s statement reads otherwise, it is believed he said that the Law to Safeguard the State against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts has already been invalidated.

Meanwhile, on Thursday afternoon after court proceedings, Rangoon Northern District Court authorities escorted defendant John William Yettaw to Suu Kyi’s lakeside residence to describe how he had entered and left the compound on May 3-5, Burma’s state-run media reported on Friday.

On the ninth day of the trial, Yettaw reportedly testified to the court that he entered Suu Kyi’s compound in the morning on May 4 and he left just before midnight on May 5, and that he had undertaken to go to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s house of his own accord.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, Nyan Win said Suu Kyi’s defense team had not been informed that court authorities intended to take the American intruder to the lakeside compound.

“The government has just done whatever they wanted,” he said. “In fact, if they want to do something regarding the trial, they must inform us.”

Yettaw reportedly confessed to the court that he accepted that he had broken Burmese immigration law and the law of Rangoon City Development Committee by secretly entering Suu Kyi’s residence at night without asking permission, even though he knew that the house was guarded by security members, the New Light of Myanmar reported.

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The Irrawaddy – More Asean MPs Call for Suu Kyi’s Release
By WAI MOE, Friday, May 29, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR-Support for Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has stepped up with about 100 more parliamentarians from Southeast Asian countries adding their voices to the growing international calls for her release.

Two Members of Parliament (MPs) from Singapore, Charles Chong and Inderjit Singh, on Friday called for the suspension of Burma from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) due to the Burmese junta’s disregard for Asean’s concerns over Suu Kyi.

Asean diplomat sources confirmed to The Irrawaddy that leading members of the regional bloc such as Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines are seriously considering suspending Burma’s membership if the junta extends Suu Kyi’s detention or sentences her to prison on trumped-up charges.

In Malaysia, 30 MPs on Tuesday joined half a million other signatories on a petition organized by an umbrella group called “Free Burma’s Political Prisoners Now!” Among the politicians was Malaysian opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“Before May 26, only three MPs had signed the petition calling for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,100 political prisoners in Burma,” said Ye Min Htun, a Burmese activist based in Kuala Lumpur. “But now, 30 MPs have joined the campaign. I am very surprised.”

However, observers have pointed out that most signatories were from opposition parties and not from the ruling National Front coalition led by new Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Aegile Fernandez, the program coordinator of Tenaganita, a well-known Malaysian human rights group, said that Malaysians are concerned about Suu Kyi’s incarceration.
She added that more politicians from the ruling party in Malaysia should show solidarity with Suu Kyi.

In the Philippines, 32 MPs called for a Filipino government resolution on May 21 denouncing her trial in Rangoon and demanding the Burmese military government release Suu Kyi.

Among the new members of Asean, 29 Cambodian MPs voiced their concern by sending a letter of protest this week to the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), which was held in the Cambodian capital on May 27-28.

According to the BBC, during the Asem in Phnom Penh this week, Burma’s Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint remarked to British Junior Foreign Minister Bill Rammell that “we [the Burmese junta] are not the enemy.” In reply, the British minister reportedly said that although the European Union and Burma are not enemies, they wanted to see freedom for Suu Kyi and positive changes in the country.

Analysts said the Burmese regime’s latest attempt to detain Suu Kyi presents a critical challenge to Asean, which has only recently implemented its first constitution, called the “Asean Charter.”

As the current chairman of Asean, Thailand called on May 19 for the immediate release of Suu Kyi. In a statement on behalf of Asean, the Thai government said it was ready to help with national reconciliation and democracy efforts in Burma.

The Burmese regime responded through its state-run newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, saying, “Alternate Asean Chairman Thailand’s statement [sic] which is not in conformity with Asean practice, [is] incorrect in facts, [and is] interfering in [Burmese] internal affairs.”

However, a source close to Thailand’s foreign ministry said that although non-interference in internal affairs is one of Asean’s basic principles, members have the “collected responsibility” for issues in the region under the Asean charter and Thailand’s statement reflected the “collected responsibility.”

In Phnom Penh, Asean members voiced their support for the Asean chairman’s statement on Burma.

Kavi Chongkittavorn, an editor at Bangkok’s The Nation newspaper, said that Burmese issues are now becoming problematic to the Asean Charter. If Asean cannot handle the issues the charter will be meaningless, he said.

Vietnam will take over the Asean chairmanship next year. Analysts say Asean could be expected to tone down its criticism of Burma under a Vietnamese chairmanship.

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DVB News – Italy backs $5 million food aid package to Burma

May 29, 2009 (DVB)-The families of fishermen affected by Burma’s cyclone Nargis last year will be the recipients of a multi-million dollar food aid programme organized by the Italian government and the United Nations.

The programme will target 32,000 fishing and farming families in the Irrawaddy delta area where the cyclone struck last May, killing 140,000 people.

Over one million acres of farmland were inundated with salt water, while many families’ farming and fishing equipment was destroyed.

The Italian government has sponsored the initiative, which is being managed by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

The Rome-based organisation has said that assistance will be given in the development of sustainable, small-scale fisheries and the improvement of rice production.

In addition, the FAO hopes that new employment will be generated.

“The 32,000 families would join the 112,000 households whom FAO helped between June 2008 and May 2009, as part of its $US17 million cyclone Nargis assistance project, and hundreds of thousands of other families in various parts of [Burma] that FAO is working with and has worked with during its 30 years in this country,” said Shin Imao,
FAO’s representative in Burma.

Reporting by Francis Wade

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