Burma Related News – June 01, 2009
Jun 1st, 2009
Burma Related News - June 01, 2009
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Reuters – Dhaka, Bangkok to take up refugee issue with Yangon
AFP – Suu Kyi lawyers prepare final arguments in trial
NASDAQ – Myanmar Overshadows ASEAN As It Tries To Focus On Trade
AP – Malaysia denies claim of Myanmar human trafficking
IOL – Citizens voice outrage over Suu Kyi trial
EarthTimes – Thai foreign minister: Change in Myanmar would stabilize region
The Jakarta Post – ASEAN nuclear ambitions alarm the West
The Jakarta Post – Suu Kyi trial sparks helpless outrage in Myanmar
Bangkok Post – Suu Kyi lawyers prepare final arguments in trial
The Manila Times – Lawyers for Myanmar democracy icon scramble for trial
The Guardian – The EU must start squeezing Burma
The Guardian – With barriers to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house gone, is she not coming home?
Press Gazette – Guardian apology for error-filled Aung San Suu Kyi piece
New Europe News – World pulls together to free Suu Kyi
eTaiwan News – ?Malaysia denies claim of Myanmar human trafficking
Bernama – Myanmar Media Stress Control Of Tobacco Consumption
VOVNews – ?Vietnam boosts cooperation with Brunei, the Philippines, Myanmar
Mizzima News – Junta’s police raid True News Weekly Journal office
Mizzima News – Celebrity takes France’s Total to task over Burma interests
The Irrawaddy – Insein Prison Trial is a One-Way Street
The Irrawaddy – Soldiers Commit Gang rape in Karen State: Villagers
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Dhaka, Bangkok to take up refugee issue with Yangon
Mon Jun 1, 2009 9:14pm IST
DHAKA, June 1 (Reuters) – Thailand and Bangladesh agreed on Monday to take up with Myanmar the issue of the flow of Rohingya Muslims into Myanmar’s neighbours, the Thai foreign minister said.
The Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority from army-ruled Myanmar, have been leaving Myanmar and heading mainly into impoverished Bangladesh since the late 1970s.
Rohingya refugees have also 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.
Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya, who speak a Bengali dialect, as an ethnic group.
“We have discussed the refugee problems extensively and have agreed to take up jointly with Myanmar for a tripartite solution,” Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told a news conference during a visit to Bangladesh.
More than 21,000 Rohingya refugees living in two U.N.-run camps near the southeastern resort of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh 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.
Muslims are a minority in Myanmar, where most of the population is Buddhist.
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Suu Kyi lawyers prepare final arguments in trial
May 31, 2009 9:05pm ET
YANGON (AFP) – Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi said they were working on the final arguments in her trial, a day after Myanmar’s junta accused her of covering up the presence of an American man in her home.
The pro-democracy icon’s legal team said they hoped to meet with her this week at the jail where she is being held, before the prosecution and defence present closing arguments to the court on Friday.
The Nobel laureate faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest following an incident last month in which former US army veteran John Yettaw swam to her lakeside house.
“We will prepare this week for the final arguments in the case. We are still working on whether we will meet Daw Suu again,” Nyan Win, one of her lawyers and also the spokesman for her opposition party, told AFP.
No hearings are expected in her trial at the notorious Insein Prison until Friday, but Yettaw is due back in court on Monday on separate charges including immigration violations, a Myanmar official said.
On Sunday Myanmar’s deputy defence minister, Major General Aye Myint, rejected foreign criticism of the trial and said Aung San Suu Kyi was facing normal legal procedures.
“It is no doubt that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has committed a cover-up of the truth by her failure to report an illegal immigrant to the authorities concerned,” he told a security forum in Singapore.
Opposition party spokesman Nyan Win said he could not comment on the general’s remarks as the trial was ongoing, adding: “He (Aye Myint) is talking about court matters. The court has not given any decision yet.”
A guilty verdict is widely expected as Myanmar’s courts have a track record of handing down tough sentences to dissidents, often in secret hearings.
Aung San Suu Kyi said last week that the charges against her were “one-sided.”
The 63-year-old accused Myanmar authorities of failing to provide proper security despite the fact that she informed them of a previous intrusion by Yettaw in November 2008.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention, mostly in virtual isolation at her home. Her party won Myanmar’s last elections, in 1990, but the result was never honoured by the junta.
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Jun 1, 2009 | 1:16PM
NASDAQ – Myanmar Overshadows ASEAN As It Tries To Focus On Trade
SEOGWIPO (AFP)–Military-ruled Myanmar and its treatment of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi are casting a cloud over the ASEAN bloc as it tries to focus on strengthening international trade links.
Analysts said trade, investment and the threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea were the dominant themes at a summit of Southeast Asian leaders with their South Korean host on the island of Jeju.
But the Association of Southeast Asian Nations can’t brush aside new questions about its credibility after its most troublesome member, Myanmar, brought fresh charges
against Suu Kyi, they said.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the current ASEAN chair, was trying to convene a meeting of its leaders later Monday on the sidelines of the ASEAN- Korea Summit, diplomatic sources said.
Abhisit said in Bangkok Sunday that Suu Kyi’s trial, which has drawn strong international condemnation, would be discussed.
Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest after an uninvited American swam to her lakeside home. She has been under various forms of detention without trial for more than 13 of the past 19 years.
“ASEAN was bogged down (by Myanmar) last week in its meeting with Europe,” said Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia specialist at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.
She was referring to last week’s gathering in Hanoi of Asian and European foreign ministers.
“The failure of ASEAN to take a strong stand on Myanmar has seriously undermined the credibility of the organization. ASEAN as an organization cannot evolve without Myanmar taking steps to show it genuinely respects the norms of the international community,” she said.
Analysts and diplomats said the problem has become especially acute since ASEAN members including Myanmar signed a charter, or mini-constitution, which came into force last year.
Under the charter, they commit themselves “to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and the rule of law, and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Myanmar, however, is “behaving as if it has not signed the charter at all,” said a Southeast Asian diplomat.
“Even with Myanmar on its back, ASEAN is doing quite well expanding its trade ties. Imagine what it can do without having to deal with the baggage of Myanmar, ” he said on condition of anonymity.
“ASEAN members are fed up with Myanmar, and although they are not saying so publicly, many would like Myanmar to leave,” said Welsh.
“Its intractable failure to respect basic human rights stains ASEAN and every ASEAN country indirectly.”
She said, however, that expelling Myanmar from the 10-nation grouping was not the solution.
“More pressure on Myanmar to act responsibly is essential. ASEAN needs to work with all the Asian countries to send a consistent message that their treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi is not acceptable,” Welsh added.
Negotiations for a region-to-region free trade pact between ASEAN and the European Union have failed to make significant progress due largely to European concerns over human rights abuses and lack of democracy in Myanmar.
Some European countries are now proposing that the E.U. negotiate trade pacts with individual ASEAN states rather than with the bloc as a whole.
Analysts said Myanmar will also be a sticking point should ASEAN and the U.S. seek a free trade pact.
“The continued imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese regime is a reminder that we cannot take for granted the institution of democracy,” Ann Taylor, Britain’s Minister for International Defense and Security, told a security forum in Singapore Sunday.
Myanmar has rejected the international condemnation, saying it will resist interference in its domestic affairs.
Panitan Wattayanagorn, spokesman for Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, said discussions about Aung San Suu Kyi at international forums involving ASEAN could not be sidestepped.
“You cannot avoid this issue,” he said, adding however that Myanmar needs more time to put reforms in place.
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Malaysia denies claim of Myanmar human trafficking
By JULIA ZAPPEI,Associated Press Writer – Tuesday, June 2
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) – Malaysia has found no evidence to support claims that thousands of deported Myanmar migrants were handed over to human traffickers in Thailand, an official said Monday.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said in a report made public in April that illegal Myanmar migrants deported from Malaysia were forced to work in brothels, fishing boats and restaurants across the border in Thailand if they had no money to buy their freedom.
The report was based on a yearlong review by committee staff who spoke to migrants from military-ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, and human rights activists.
But Malaysian Home Ministry Secretary General Mahmood Adam said the government had “already set up a few internal investigations, but it’s baseless.”
The U.N. refugee agency has registered more than 48,000 refugees in Malaysia, most from Myanmar. Myanmar community leaders estimate the number of people from
Myanmar living in Malaysia is about twice that. Those caught staying illegally face arrest and can be whipped as punishment before being deported.
Mahmood said those who flee persecution in Myanmar and are registered by the U.N.’s refugee agency are generally not deported.
The U.S. Senate committee report said “a few thousand” Myanmar migrants in recent years might have become victims of extortion and trafficking once deported across Malaysia’s northern border with Thailand.
The report quoted one unidentified migrant as saying women “are sold at a brothel if they look good. If they are not beautiful, they might sell them at a restaurant or housekeeping job.”
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IOL – Citizens voice outrage over Suu Kyi trial
June 01 2009 at 06:45PM
Yangon – The spray-painted demands appear overnight: “Free Aung San Suu Kyi” read the scrawls on walls across this city – only to be whitewashed by security forces as soon as they are discovered.
Since the trial of Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader began two weeks ago, these small signs of defiance hint at the undercurrent of anger over the treatment of a woman considered to be a living icon by many of her compatriots.
But out in public, under the watchful gaze of the military regime, supporters feel helpless to do more as the trial winds to an end, with closing arguments scheduled for Friday.
There is little sign that private anguish will explode into the mass protests – all violently suppressed – that have marked the history of Myanmar, also known as Burma, since the military began its rule in 1962.
“I’m so upset about what has happened in my country,” said Zin, a 28-year-old housewife who, like most Burmese, won’t give her full name for fear of retaliation. “People are angry and people are sad, but we can’t do anything for her. We have no power.”
Suu Kyi, 63, a Nobel Peace laureate, is being tried on charges of violating her house arrest after an American, John W. Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeshore home and stayed for two days.
She has already been held in detention for 13 of the past 19 years, including the past six years. Closing arguments have been delayed until Friday, but expectations are high that she will be found guilty since Myanmar’s courts operate under the command of the ruling military.
Lawyers for Suu Kyi met Monday to prepare for the trial’s closing arguments, said Nyan Win, one of her defence team and a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party.
“We are very confident that we will win the case if everything goes according to law,” said Nyan Win. The defence has not contested the basic facts of the case, but argues instead that the relevant law has been misapplied by the authorities.
The trial has drawn condemnation 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 elections planned for next year.
But with memories of the government’s bloody crackdown against the Buddhist monk-led uprising in 2007 still vivid, few people are willing to challenge a regime with no qualms about using violence against its own citizens. At least 31 people were killed that September, including a Japanese journalist, the United Nations says.
Aung, a 55-year-old businessman who witnessed the military’s response to the protests two years ago, said the Burmese learned a bitter lesson from that experience. Thousands were detained in the aftermath of demonstrations that drew 100 000 people into Yangon’s streets. Hundreds of activists were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
“The person who becomes involved in protests, their whole family is persecuted. If you want to be brave, okay, but do you think all your family must be brave too?” he said. “Nobody wants to risk that now.”
Longtime observers say it is unlikely that major public demonstrations will follow Suu Kyi’s sentencing.
“If Suu Kyi is found guilty and jailed, there will be much popular anger, but it won’t make a real difference because (the government) is well-equipped and experienced in dealing with the people’s protests,” said Donald Seekins, a Myanmar expert at Japan’s Meio University.
Seekins said the regime has already posted soldiers throughout Yangon, the largest city, “and can suppress demonstrations with little difficulty.”
For a nation still recovering from the devastation of Cyclone Nargis last year, which left at least 138 000 dead, the ongoing economic hardship makes coping day-to-day – not politics – the priority for many Burmese, said Aung.
“People are so disturbed, so angry” about Suu Kyi, he said, clenching his fist for emphasis. “But Nargis was a big hit. Everybody’s suffering and when people suffer, they don’t have time to think about anything.”
In the streets of Yangon this past week, there was little evidence of heightened tension, with businesses operating normally.
However, increased security could be seen around Suu Kyi’s gently decaying lakeshore home as well as near her party’s headquarters as a key anniversary was marked – 19 years since Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory at the ballot box but were prevented from taking office.
A few political stalwarts have still managed to keep the faith. At a small celebration Wednesday attended by foreign diplomats, senior party members wore T-shirts calling for Suu Kyi’s freedom and then released a total of 64 doves and balloons into the air at the dilapidated party offices. She will turn 64 on June 19.
Meanwhile, several dozen faithful, including 80-year-old former political prisoner Win Tin, have been holding daily vigils in the rain outside the gates of Insein prison, where Suu Kyi is being held, despite the presence of plainclothes security videotaping their movements and recording their identities.
Acknowledging the difficulties faced by regular Burmese, Win Tin said last week that “everyone is angry, but people are concerned with earning their daily bread. They are afraid, and there is no leadership”.
Even if people wanted to talk about the incarceration of “The Lady”, as Suu Kyi is known, the dangers of criticising the ruling regime too openly are known to everyone, said Thein, a 48-year-old English teacher.
Instead, he said, political discussions are reduced to furtive whisperings in neighbourhood teashops and small gatherings in private homes. – Sapa-AP
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EarthTimes – Thai foreign minister: Change in Myanmar would stabilize region
Posted : Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:07:26 GMT
Author : DPA
Dhaka – Thailand’s foreign minister urged the creation of an “open society” in neighbouring Myanmar, saying that an end to repressive government in the military-run nation would help “stabilize” the south-east Asian region. Kasit Priyoma said during an official visit to Bangladesh that “change in Myanmar is very much needed. It is not only a necessity for the security of Myanmar, but also for all the neighbouring countries.”
The minister is on a two-day official visit to Dhaka, where he met Monday with his Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni.
The Thai diplomat said that many south-east and south Asian nations had had military dictatorships, and had now emerged into democratic rule.
Myanmar is widely seen as an international pariah for its harsh government, as well as its treatment of human-rights activists such as Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The question has to be posed (regarding) Myanmar. Why can’t they also emerge from that to an open society? It would be good for the whole region. It would be good for all of us,” he said.
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ASEAN nuclear ambitions alarm the West
Lilian Budianto , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 06/01/2009 6:41 PM | World
As North Korea’s recent nuclear test raises tensions in Asia, ASEAN members’ nuclear programs are ringing alarm bells in the Western world already irritated by Myanmar’s military junta.
Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines have already notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of their intention to operate nuclear power plants in the near future as an alternative to non-renewable energy resources.
Indonesia relies on coal, oil and gas to generate electricity for its population of 240 million. Along with the rise in industrial production, the government has sought to develop four nuclear plants that could support 2 percent of its electricity demands by 2017.
Similarly, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam all aim to either build or operate nuclear power plants by 2020, while the Philippines has plans to revive its closed Bataan nuclear power plant.
Myanmar’s notorious junta, which has been subject to Western economic sanctions because of its poor human rights record, has attracted the most criticism over its plan to develop nuclear reactors. In 2002 it was reported that the Russian government had agreed to help the military junta build a nuclear research facility that would be used to develop reactors for medical and electricity resources.
The US has shunned Myanmar’s nuclear plans, saying Yangon has neither the legal framework nor the provisions that would safeguard its nuclear program from posing a security threat.
“Nuclear power and nuclear arms are different sides of the same coin. Every nuclear-power-wielding state can turn into a nuclear-armed nation,” said Tessa de Ryck, an anti- nuclear campaigner from Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
“North Korea is an example. Once a country possesses a nuclear power plant, it is hard for the international community to restrict ambitions to develop nuclear weapons.”
The global community has failed to persuade North Korea from nuclear testing, and big powers like China have ensured economic support for Pyongyang. China has also provided economic support for Myanmar undermining economic sanctions imposed by the West.
Ten ASEAN members signed the 1995 Bangkok Treaty that outlined a nuclear-free zone and an agreement not to abuse nuclear technology. However, precedents have shown the bloc has no leverage in meddling in the domestic affairs of member countries in case of any standoffs.
Myanmar has become the center of attention recently over the fresh trial of opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 out of the 19 years since her party won a landslide victory in 1990. ASEAN leaders have come under fire for their leniency toward Myanmar at a time when the West has been considering imposing yet more sanctions on Myanmar.
“No one can ask Myanmar to adhere to the human rights commitment they have made under the ASEAN Charter that entered into force last year,” said Bantarto Bandoro, the chairman of the Indonesian Institution for Strategic Studies. “If Myanmar later abuses the nuclear plant to produce arms, there would be no one that could ask them to stop.”
Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia have signed the United Nations’ Non-Proliferation Treaty, but so far, only Jakarta has ratified it.
Greenpeace has predicted that nuclear power plants in the ASEAN region would be able to produce up to 200 nuclear bombs a year, considering it takes only 5 kilograms of plutonium to make a nuclear warhead.
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Suu Kyi trial sparks helpless outrage in Myanmar
The Jakarta Post , Yangon | Mon, 06/01/2009 8:57 PM | Headlines
The spray-painted demands appear overnight: “Free Aung San Suu Kyi” read the scrawls on walls across this city – only to be whitewashed by security forces as soon as they are discovered.
Since the trial of Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader began two weeks ago, these small signs of defiance hint at the undercurrent of anger over the treatment of a woman considered to be a living icon by many of her compatriots.
But out in public, under the watchful gaze of the military regime, supporters feel helpless to do more as the trial winds to an end, with closing arguments scheduled for Friday.
There is little sign that private anguish will explode into the mass protests – all violently suppressed – that have marked the history of Myanmar, also known as Burma, since the military began its rule in 1962.
“I’m so upset about what has happened in my country,” said Zin, a 28-year-old housewife who, like most Burmese, won’t give her full name for fear of retaliation. “People are angry and people are sad, but we can’t do anything for her. We have no power.”
Suu Kyi, 63, a Nobel Peace laureate, is being tried on charges of violating her house arrest after an American, John W. Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeshore home and stayed for two days.
She has already been held in detention for 13 of the past 19 years, including the past six years. Closing arguments have been delayed until Friday, but expectations are high that she will be found guilty since Myanmar’s courts operate under the command of the ruling military.
Lawyers for Suu Kyi met Monday to prepare for the trial’s closing arguments, said Nyan Win, one of her defense team and a spokesman for her National League or Democracy party.
“We are very confident that we will win the case if everything goes according to law,” said Nyan Win. The defense has not contested the basic facts of the case, but argues instead that the relevant law has been misapplied by the authorities.
The trial has drawn condemnation from te international community and Suu Kyi’s local supporters, who worry that the military junta has found an excuse to keep her detained through elections planned for next year.
But with memories of the government’s bloody crackdown against the Buddhist monk-led uprising in 2007 still vivid, few people are wiling to challenge a regime with no qualms about using violence against its own citizens. At least 31 people were killed that September, including a Japanese journalist, the U.N. says.
Aung, a 55-year-old businessman who witnessed the military’s response to the protests two years ago, said the Burmese learne a bitter lesson from that experience.
Thousands were detained in the aftermath of demonstrations that drew 100,000 people into Yangon’s streets. Hundreds of activists were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
“The person who becomes involved in protest, their whole family is persecuted. If you want to be brave, OK, but do you think all your family must be brave too?” he said. “Nobody wants to risk that now.”
Longtime observers say it is unlikely that major public demonstrations will follow Suu Kyi’s sentencing.
“If Suu Kyi is found guilty and jiled, there will be much popular anger, but it won’t make a real difference because (the government) is well-equipped and experienced in dealing with the people’s protests,” said Donald Seekins, a Myanmar expert at Japan’s Meio University.
Seekins said the regime has already posted soldiers throughout Yagon, the largest city, “and can suppress demonstrations with little difficulty.”
For a nation still recovering from the devastation of Cyclone Nargis last year, which left at least 138,000 dead, the ongoing economic hardship makes coping day-to-day – not politics – the priority for many Burmese, said Aun.
“People are so disturbed, so angry” about Suu Kyi, he said, clenching his fist for emphasis. “But Nargis was a big hit. Everybody’s suffering and when people suffer, they don’t have time to think about anything.”
In the streets of Yangon this past week, there was little evidence of heightened tesion, with businesses operating normally.
However, increased security could be seen around Suu Kyi’s gently decaying lakeshore home as well as near her party’s headquarters as a key anniversary was marked – 19 years since Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory at the ballot box but were prevented from taking office.
A few political stalwarts have still managed to keep the faith. At a small celebration Wednesday attended by foreign diplomats, senior party members wore T-shirts calling for Suu Kyi’s freedom and then released a total of 64 doves and balloons into the air at the dilapidated party offices. She will turn 64 on June 19.
Meanwhile, several dozen faithful, including 80-year-old former political prisoner Win Tin, have been holding daily vigils in the rain outside the gates of Insein prison, where Suu Kyi is being held, despite the presence of plainclothes security videotaping their movements and recording their identities.
Acknowledging the difficulties faced by regular Burmese, Win Tin said last week that “everyone is angry, but people are concerned with earning their daily bread. They are afraid, and there is no leadership.”
Even if people wanted to talk about the incarceration of “The Lady,” as Suu Kyi is known, the dangers of criticizing the ruling regime too openly are known to everyone, said Thein, a 48-year-old English teacher.
Instead, he said, political discussions are reduced to furtive whisperings in neighborhood teashops and small gatherings in private homes.
“People have been frustrated a long time,” Thein said. “We don’t trust anything. We don’t trust each other. Always we think, ‘Is he a spy?’ The rule is: ‘Don’t talk politics.”‘
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009
The Manila Times – Lawyers for Myanmar democracy icon scramble for trial
YANGON: Lawyers for Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi worked Monday to prepare the closing statements for her trial, a day after the ruling junta accused her of covering up an American’s visit to her home.
The Nobel laureate’s legal team said they hoped to meet with her this week at the jail where she is being held, before the prosecution and defense present final arguments on Friday.
The 63-year-old faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest following an incident last month in which former US Army veteran John Yettaw swam to her lakeside house.
“We will prepare this week for the final arguments in the case. We are still working on whether we will meet Daw Suu again,” Nyan Win, one of her lawyers and also the spokesman for her opposition party, told Agence France-Presse.
No hearings are expected in her trial at Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison until Friday, but Yettaw is due back in court on Monday on separate charges including immigration violations, a Myanmar official said.
On Sunday Myanmar’s deputy Defense minister, Major General Aye Myint, rejected foreign criticism of the trial and said Aung San Suu Kyi was facing normal legal procedures.
“It is no doubt that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has committed a cover-up of the truth by her failure to report an illegal immigrant to the authorities concerned,” he told a security forum in Singapore.
Her spokesman Nyan Win said he could not comment on the general’s remarks, as the trial was ongoing, adding: “The court has not given any decision yet.”
A guilty verdict is widely expected as Myanmar’s courts have a track record of handing down tough sentences to dissidents, often in secret hearings.
Aung San Suu Kyi said last week that the charges against her were “one-sided.”
She accused Myanmar authorities of failing to provide proper security despite the fact that she informed them of a previous intrusion by Yettaw in November 2008.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention, mostly in virtual isolation at her home. Her party won Myanmar’s last elections, in 1990, but the junta never honored the result.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Myanmar is a member, was likely to meet later Monday on the issue as the trial cast a cloud over the bloc while it tries to focus on strengthening international trade.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the current Asean chair, was trying to convene a meeting of its leaders on the sidelines of an ASEAN-Korea Summit in the South Korean island of Jeju.
The group rebuked Myanmar last month in a rare step for the group, which has faced international calls to use its influence on Myanmar since the country joined Asean in 1997.
“The failure of Asean to take a strong stand on Myanmar has seriously undermined the credibility of the organisation,” Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia specialist at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, told Agence France-Presse.
US President Barack Obama has described the case against Aung San Suu Kyi as a “show trial” while the European Union has reiterated calls for her immediate release.
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The Guardian – The EU must start squeezing Burma
Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial should inspire concrete European action against Burma’s junta, not just a collective venting of wind
Monday 1 June 2009 17.30 BST
As the latest trial of Aung San Suu Kyi draws to its inevitable close, Burma’s most famous political prisoner does not lack high-profile vocal support. Gordon Brown has joined showbiz and sporting celebrities in an online campaign to mark her 64th birthday on 19 June. Barack Obama cannily suggested that by dropping the “spurious” charges, Burma’s military junta could win political rewards. Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu are also on the case.
But all this noise and fury signifies little more than a collective venting of wind in the absence of concrete measures to squeeze the regime, pro-democracy campaigners say. As in the past, the junta’s defiance of international opinion is unbending. Suu Kyi was being dealt with according to the law, said Major-General Aye Myint, deputy defence minister, at the weekend. And he warned that meddling in Burma’s internal affairs could be counter-productive.
A feeble attempt to lean on the generals at last week’s meeting of EU and Association of South-East Asian Nations foreign ministers in Phnom Penh predictably went nowhere. Their call for Suu Kyi’s release, the release of all of Burma’s more than 2,000 political prisoners and free elections next year was contemptuously batted away. The trial “is not political. It’s not a human rights issue, so we don’t accept pressure from abroad,” the regime’s representative said.
Thus the most likely outcome is that Suu Kyi will be found guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest when the trial resumes later this week and will receive a further period of detention. She may not get the maximum five-year sentence, as a sop to Asian opinion; but the court will ensure she can play no part in next year’s polls, which British diplomats believe was the object of the whole tawdry exercise. And with that, the international furore will gradually subside.
It doesn’t have to be that way, said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. There were many ways to bring decisive pressure to bear, not only over political freedoms but over the persecution of Burma’s minority populations and accompanying, systematic abuses of human rights, he said. “We cannot have another ‘groundhog day’ for Aung San Suu Kyi, where once again she is detained, once again the international community expresses outrage, and once again the generals get away with it.”
In calling for a combination of new economic, legal and diplomatic measures, campaigners are pushing in particular for more concerted action by the EU. The US imposed a complete investment ban on Burma in 1997, introduced financial and banking restrictions in 2003 and has begun to actively monitor a ban of Burmese imports to ensure that gems and timber do not slip through. Canada has put similar, swingeing sanctions in place.
In comparison, the EU has been tentative to the point of weak-kneed. This is partly because effective, concerted foreign policy action on any issue is problematic under current institutional arrangements; if Ireland finally accepts the Lisbon treaty, that may change. But EU timidity is also the result of divisions between countries such as Britain and Denmark that have sought a tougher line and those, such as Germany, Austria and Italy, that have tended to put their Asian business interests first.
Farmaner said the EU should revive the sanctions proposed after the 2007 Burmese uprising but never fully implemented. They include a US-style ban on all investment, monitored curbs on lucrative imports, an expanded programme of visa restrictions and asset freezes and a ban on issuing insurance to companies doing business in Burma. He also urged the EU to seek a UN-backed global arms embargo covering the junta’s chief weapons suppliers – China, India, Russia, Ukraine and Israel.
Diplomatic efforts to alter the junta’s behaviour should be stepped up simultaneously, Farmaner suggested, with a promise of aid and assistance should the generals respond positively. But EU countries also had a duty to explore legal action against the regime for its many documented breaches of the Geneva conventions, for its use of ethnic cleansing, torture and forced labour and for its defiance of the UN security council. Prosecutions could be mounted through the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and national courts.
If Europe’s leaders really wanted it, Suu Kyi’s show trial could be a beginning rather than another depressing dead end. “We’ve had a lot of fine words but not much practical action,” Farmaner said. “It’s time that changed.”
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1 June 2009
The Guardian – With barriers to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house gone, is she not coming home?
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 third part of a series on her trial, he recounts his experiences
30 May
Burma was invited into ASEAN for all the right reasons. Membership would open up this isolated country and have a positive impact. But things haven’t worked out that way. There’s been a wave of editorial comment in the regional press to the effect that the neighbourhood should no longer have to tolerate the embarrassment the situation here is causing them.
University Avenue, where Aung San Suu Kyi has spent so many years in detention, has always been a telling indicator of the generals’ mood. At times of tension, access is blocked by barbed wire barricades: when the junta is feeling more assured, down they come and traffic flows. Within hours of her transfer to the grounds of Insein prison, the authorities removed all the barricades. The street now looks pretty much like any other and many think this means she’s not coming back.
31 May
Perhaps because they sense their own day of judgement will come, Burma’s generals have tended to favour house arrest over more draconian punishments where their principal adversaries are concerned. So dotted around town are not only political opponents such as Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy deputy, Tin Oo, but colleagues who have fallen from grace, such as the former Burmese prime minister Khin Nyunt and family members of the dictator Ne Win. The conditions under which they are held vary. Suu Kyi has been allowed occasional visits from her doctor, but no other contact with the outside world. Also she has been barred from receiving mail or visits that would be allowed were she charged for theft or murder. Others are said to have a more relaxed regime, indeed there is the occasional Elvis-type sightings of Khin.
The vast majority of Burma’s 2100 political prisoners are held in Burma’s network of jails and work camps, often in remote locations where families find it difficult to deliver the food and medical supplies on which loved ones depend. One woman told me recently of how, after a two-day trip see her brother, she wasn’t allowed in.
The outcry the trial has caused has forced the junta to make minor concessions. Diplomats have been allowed into the courtroom twice. Detailed accounts of the proceedings have appeared in the government controlled press. But these have served only to confirm how flimsy the case is. They’ve also provided intriguing hints to suggest the authorities might have become aware of the first break-in to Suu Kyi’s compound in November. If so, it’s curious that the individual at the centre of all this should experience no visa difficulties when he returned the second time.
We’re told by the lawyers that final arguments will no longer take place today and that the trial is adjourned until Friday. No explanation, but the general feeling is that the government is wanting the furore to subside before they make their next move.
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Press Gazette – Guardian apology for error-filled Aung San Suu Kyi piece
1 June 2009
By Dominic Ponsford
The Guardian today published a lengthy apology and correction over an article about Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi which contained more than a dozen errors.
The original 2,800-word piece by freelances Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy appeared in G2 in November last year and was strongly critical of Suu Kyi, who is one of the most famous political prisoners in the world and has spent most of the past 20 years in prison or under house arrest.
It was originally headlined: “Not such a hero after all”. But, after a legal complaint, the headline online has been changed to “Can Aung San Suu Kyi lead while captive?”
Guardian reader’s editor Siobhain Butterworth has written a 22,000-word decision dealing with 64 allegations of inaccuracy and other issues raised by Suu Kyi’s legal representative Jared Jenser, from DLA Piper in the US.
A summary of that decision appears on The Guardian website. In addition to today’s apology, The Guardian has agreed to print a 1,000-word response to the piece from Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Among the points corrected in the original piece are the statement that Suu Kyi has been “mute since 2003″ when in fact she has spoken out on the need for political reform in Burma.
It also incorrectly stated that she had been “unable or unwilling to meet with the ruling Burmese junta or anyone else”.
The article wrongly quoted an anonymous source as saying that Suu Kyi had called for NGOs to quit Burma.
Butterworth also said that some of the eight anonymous quotes in the article were pejorative, so should have been approved by a duty editor, or paraphrased.
In her decision describes the article as “polemical” and says: “In usual circumstances a political figure is expected to take even harsh criticism as part of the job but this situation is exceptional.
“ASSK is under house arrest and she was extremely unlikely to be in a position to respond to the article herself either before or after publication.
“Given these circumstances the tone of the article (which was extremely hard hitting) and the headline (which was sensational) were misjudged.
“These matters should have been addressed in the editing process.”
The Guardian issued a statement today saying: “The readers’ editor is appointed by the Scott Trust and is therefore entirely independent of the newspaper. It was a long and complex complaint to resolve.
“We entirely accept the readers’ editor’s findings and will be reviewing our editorial processes to see what we might do to try to ensure such a mistake does not happen again.The Guardian is the only daily national newspaper to have an independent system to deal with complex editorial complaints.”
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New Europe News – World pulls together to free Suu Kyi
Leaders call for Burmese to be just, online
31 May 2009 – Issue : 836
A new website calling for the release of Burma’s democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and all of Burma’s political prisoners, launched on May 27 with the backing of major celebrities and a coalition of NGOs and trade unions. The website will become the global hub of the international campaign to release Aung San Suu Kyi.
The launch coincides with the day that, according to the Burmese regime, Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest expires. The United Nations (UN) has already ruled that her detention is illegal. More than 2,100 political prisoners are being held in Burma’s jails. www.64forSuu.org allows anyone to upload video, text, image or twitter messages of support to Burma’s imprisoned democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. www.64forSuu.org aims to demonstrate the scale of outrage over her continued detention by encouraging high profile individuals and the public around the world to write a 64 word message, a “64″, that will be delivered on Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday on June 19.
Organisations supporting the website include; Burma Campaign UK, Amnesty International, the Trades Union Congress, Not On Our Watch, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Society Institute and Avaaz. The site will launch with messages from high-profile supporters including George Clooney, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Vaclav Havel, David Beckham, Daniel Craig, and the British Prime Minster, Gordon Brown.
A few hours after the site was launched the White House, also made a public statement with President Barack Obama releasing a much longer text than 64 words of harsh criticism on the Burmese government.
“I call on the Burmese government to release National League for Democracy Secretary General and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi from detention immediately and unconditionally. I strongly condemn her house arrest and detention, which have also been condemned around the world. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued opinions affirming that the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi dating back to 2003 is arbitrary, unjustified, and in contravention of Burma’s own law, and the United Nations Security Council reaffirmed on May 22 their concern about the situation and called for the release of all political prisoners,” President Obama said.
He went on to emphasise on the statement released to the site that “Aung San Suu Kyi’s continued detention, isolation, and show trial based on spurious charges cast serious doubt on the Burmese regime’s willingness to be a responsible member of the international community. This is an important opportunity for the government in Burma to demonstrate that it respects its own laws and its own people, is ready to work with the National League for Democracy and other ethnic and opposition groups, and is prepared to move toward reconciliation.
“By her actions, Aung San Suu Kyi has represented profound patriotism, sacrifice, and the vision of a democratic and prosperous Burma. It is time for the Burmese government to drop all charges against Aung San Suu Kyi and unconditionally release her and her fellow political prisoners. Such an action would be an affirmative and significant step on Burma’s part to begin to restore its standing in the eyes of the United States and the world community and to move toward a better future for its people,” Obama said.
A selection of the 64’s from the site:
British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown’s “64″: “I add my voice to the growing chorus of those demanding your release. For too long the world has failed to act in the face of this intolerable injustice. That is now changing. The clamour for your release is growing across Europe, Asia, and the entire world. We must do all we can to make this Birthday the last you spend without your freedom.”
Not On Our Watch:
“Nineteen years ago, the Burmese people chose Aung San Suu Kyi as their next leader. For most of those 19 years she has been kept under house arrest by the military junta that runs the country. We must not stand by as she is silenced again. Now is the time for the international community to speak with one voice: Free Aung San Suu Kyi.”
Signed by: George Clooney, Sec. Madeleine Albright, Wes Anderson, Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Bono, Matthew Broderick, Sandra Bullock, James Carville, Michael Chabon, Daniel Craig, John Cusack, Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Dave Eggers, Jake Gyllenhaal, Václav Havel, Helen Hunt, Anjelica Huston, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman, Ashton Kutcher, Norman Lear, Madonna, Mary Matalin, Sen. John & Cindy McCain, Rose McGowan, Orhan Pamuk, Sarah Jessica Parker, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Robert Rodriguez, Meg Ryan, Liev Schreiber, George Soros, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Naomi Watts, Prof. Elie Wiesel, Owen Wilson.
About Aung San Suu Kyi:
Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced Ong San Soo Chee), Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, symbolises the struggle of Burma’s people to be free. She has been detained for over 13 years by the Burmese regime for campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma.
On May 18 Aung San Suu Kyi was put on trial, charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest after an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her house and refused to leave. The dictatorship are using the visit as an opportunity to extend her detention, which was expected to expire this month. Her trial is ongoing and she could face a further five years in detention.
In 1990 she led her party to win 82 percent of seats in national elections in Burma, despite being placed under house arrest. She has been in and out of detention ever since. She was held under house arrest from 1989-1995, and again from 2000-2002. She was again arrested in May 2003 after the Depayin massacre, during which up to 100 of her supporters were beaten to death by the regime’s militia. Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Rangoon. Her phone line has been cut, her post is intercepted and National League for Democracy volunteers providing security at her compound were removed in December 2004.
She has won numerous international awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament and the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom. She has called on people around the world to join the struggle for freedom in Burma, saying “Please use your liberty to promote ours.”
About the campaign:
Sarah Brown, Stephen Fry, Eddie Izzard and Kevin Spacey will all be twittering about the campaign. Other celebrities such as those behind the ‘Not On Our Watch’ campaign have also contributed. But we need more to sign up, so please do help maintain the momentum where possible, said the UK government’s press office regarding this campaign.
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June 01, 2009 14:56 PM
Myanmar Media Stress Control Of Tobacco Consumption
YANGON, June 1 (Bernama) — Myanmar official media Monday warned of the danger of tobacco, calling on the people to actively participate in the control of tobacco consumption, reports Xinhua news agency quoting a local daily.
According to the New Light of Myanmar, Health Minister Dr Kyww Myint stressed the need to organize the citizens to know the danger of tobacco and to join in tobacco consumption control.
He made these remarks in the wake of the warning by the World Health Organization (WHO) that consumption of tobacco and tobacco products killed over five million people yearly and the use of tobacco remained the main factor of causing diseases in the year 2020.
The WHO has designated the motto “Tobacco Health Warning” for this year with a view to enabling the people to understand the danger of tobacco by printing the health warning on packages of tobacco.
According to the paper, Myanmar marked the World No Tobacco Day- 2009 in Nay Pyi Taw ceremonially on Sunday.
The Myanmar authorities occasionally reiterated the ban on advertisements of cigarette as well as liquor, warning that such advertisement billboards erected will be removed if found, reports China’s Xinhua news agency.
The ban aims at preventing immatured youths from being absorbed in smoking and drinking, and from leading a wrong path of life.
Myanmar has prohibited smoking on university campuses in the country since December 2006 in an effort to create tobacco-smoke- free environment for the health of the university students.
The ban also applied to a wide range of public accessible areas such as school, stadium and mart but not in some specific areas under a smoking and tobacco product consumption control law promulgated in 2006.
The law introduces some strict restrictions with regard to sale and production of cigar and totally bans all forms of tobacco advertisement including advertising through sponsoring sports matches.
Meanwhile, the Myanmar health authorities also stressed the need to expand the country’s anti-tobacco campaign to rural areas where smokers, especially women, are high in number.
Noting that most women smokers are poor and uneducated, health officials pointed out that smoking is more prevalent among women in rural areas than in urban ones.
Myanmar has been committed to controlling tobacco consumption by ratifying the International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It became a signatory to the convention in September 2003 and was the 11th out of 192 countries to ratify the convention.
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RADIO THE VOICE OF VIETNAM
Updated : 8:32 PM, 06/01/2009
VOVNews – ?Vietnam boosts cooperation with Brunei, the Philippines, Myanmar
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on June 1 had separate meetings with the Brunei King, the Filipino President and the Myanmar Prime Minister on the sidelines of the ASEAN-RoK Commemorate Summit on Jeju island.
PM Dung and King Haji Hassanal Bolkiah expressed their pleasure at the rapid development of the friendly and cooperative ties between the two countries. They noted that Brunei now ranks 10th among 90 foreign investors in Vietnam, with 67 projects valued at more than US$4.5 billion.
They agreed to boost bilateral cooperation in economics, trade, investment, health care and education, and assigned their relevant agencies to discuss and prepare to sign a memorandum of understanding on labour cooperation.
They said they are happy at the effective cooperation between the two countries regarding East Sea issues and agreed to increase cooperation in oil and gas exploitation, including the implementation of a project between the Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation and the Brunei National Petroleum Company.
In a meeting with Filipino President Gloria Arroyo, PM Dung acknowledged the two countries’ efforts in raising two-way trade in 2008 to US$2.2 billion, surpassing the US$2 billion target set for 2010. He thanked the Philippine government for rationally addressing the issue of Vietnamese people accidentally fishing on the Philippine seas, demonstrating the spirit of friendship and neighbourliness between the two countries.
President Arroyo affirmed that the Philippines wants to develop cooperative ties with Vietnam. She thanked the Vietnamese government for facilitating the shipment of its rice to the Philippines under export contacts, as well as coordinating closely with her country in regional and international forums.
The two leaders praised the result of their countries’ cooperation in sea-related issues. They agreed to early sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence and the Philippine Department of Defence, including conducting joint patrols at sea between their navies.
While meeting with Myanmar PM Thein Sein, Mr Dung proposed that the Myanmar government create favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to invest in telecommunications, mining, the automobile industry and agriculture in his country.
Mr Dung affirmed that Vietnam supports Myanmar’s roadmap for democracy and national reconciliation as well as the initial results the country has obtained in implementing this roadmap.
PM Thein Sein expressed his desire to boost cooperation with Vietnam in trade and share experiences in agricultural development. He said Myanmar welcomes Vietnamese businesses to explore opportunities for investment and cooperation in his country. He thanked Vietnam for supporting Myanmar in regional and international forums, including the United Nations.
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Mizzima News – Junta’s police raid True News Weekly Journal office
by Phanida
Monday, 01 June 2009 20:42
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burmese military junta authorities raided the office of the True News (Thitsa) Weekly Journal after sales of the journal picked up among supporters of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi waiting outside Insein prison on May 25, sources said.
On May 25 about 10 officials including police and intelligence personnel raided the office of True News Journal in Botataung Township of Rangoon Division.
Sources said, the Production Manager of the Journal had gone to sell the paper to the people assembled outside Insein prison on May 25, the day Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was produced in court. The raid was carried out in the evening of the same day.
“They sold the copies of the journal to the people outside Insein prison monitoring news of the trial. The journal office was searched the same evening by police and the intelligence unit,” a Rangoon-based editor, who has close relations with the Journal, told Mizzima.
An official of the Journal office confirmed of the raid but declined to elaborate.
Reportedly, authorities arrested a person staying in the office of the journal. But he was released the next day.
True News Journal, in its latest issue, carried an article by veteran journalist Ludu Sein Win as a cover story. The next day the censor board summoned an official of the journal and reportedly warned him.
“They changed the content of the journal, which was different from the draft copy permitted by the censor board. In the original copy, there was an article written by Maung Wuntha, which had been cleared by the censor board,” the editor said.
Reportedly the journal changed it with Ludu Sein Win’s article without permission but they were called and reprimanded and had to sign a pledge not to repeat in the future, the editor added.
But when contacted by Mizzima, the journal official refused to confirm the signing of the pledge saying, “We cannot answer this question for the time being. The person who was arrested is now with us.”
True News (Thitsa) Journal is popular among readers for its quality articles, which are its main features.
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Mizzima News – Celebrity takes France’s Total to task over Burma interests
by Celeste Chenard
Monday, 01 June 2009 20:55
Highly committed to the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi’s for many years, British-born actress and singer Jane Birkin, a resident of France who met Aung San Suu Kyi in 1999, has asked Total CEO Christophe de Margerie to accept United Nations control over the the French oil firm’s benefits accrued from business with Burma’s ruling junta.
In an open letter dated May 26th to Margerie, published in the French daily Le Monde, Birkin underlines the responsiblity of the oil firm to the ongoing hardship and fight of Aung San Suu Kyi and her political party. She enjoins Margerie not to stand in the way of the creation of an escrow account, a system that would place the company’s vast earnings from Burma under the serveillance of the international body.
“This is a cry of despair for Aung San Suu Kyi. If something bad happens to her, I mean by those words her death, because her health condition is getting worth each day, you need to know that I hold you responsible for supporting the Burmese junta at the expense of one million dollars a day, and this, over 15 years,” she wrote in her letter.
“After years of reaping monumental benefit from gas and petrol exploitation and pipeline construction, isn’t it time to buy back your conscience? Isn’t it time to act in favor of Aung San Suu Kyi? You, who have a huge influence on the junta with your dollars?” asked Birkin.
“Today, I beg you to intercede with the influential people of this country to stop her detention,” she added.
Christophe de Margerie, in his response dated May 30th, justified the role of Total in Burma, though refraining from addressing the proposed escrow account. He argued that a withdrawal of Total, far from helping to solve Burma’s ills, would only serve to aggravate the situation of thousands of Burmese dependent on Total for their living.
“Why advocate for the withdrawal of Total, that will just impoverish more of the population? It seems to me urgent to reflect, all together, about new solutions,” he said in responding to Birkin’s missive.
He further challenged that if Total leaves Burma, other companies “much less watchful about human rights and the labor conditions of their employees,” would take the French company’s position in Burma – leading only to an increase in the amount of money pouring into the generals’ coffers.
“We try to use all of our influence every time we can, but this influence in Burma is still very limited,” he admitted, before ending his letter by stating, “We sympathize with Aung San San Suu Kyi’s lot, but also with the thousands of Burmese who rely more on Total than on the state.”
According to Birkin, even if such a sanction as the proposed escrow account were exposed to a Chinese or Russian veto in the United Nations Security Council, the measure would still be far from useless as it would prove that the benefits the junta accrues from Total’s business in the country without question impact the interests of Burma’s generals.
Meanwhile, European governments are currently reflecting on possible new sanctions against Burma that could deny the French energy giant the ability to continue its Burmese operations.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner previously acknowledged on May 20th in Brussels that “the only serious economic lever” against Burma to obtain the liberation of Aung San Suu Kyi “would obviously be Total.”
He gave notice that “Total presents us with a problem that we are going to try to solve.”
Total, France’s largest and most profitable company, has been a major investor in Burma’s Yadana gas field since 1992. Production from Yadana represents 60 percent of Burma’s gas exports to Thailand.
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The Irrawaddy – Insein Prison Trial is a One-Way Street
By AUNG ZAW, Monday, June 1, 2009
Burma’s detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi believes she is innocent and will continue to defend herself against the charge she faces in the Insein Prison court, according to her lawyers.
One of her lawyers, Kyi Win, told The Irrawaddy that, according to the evidence, “we have a very good case because she has not breached any conditions and restrictions imposed upon her.”
Analysts believe, however, that the regime is likely to extend her detention, pointing to the latest official statement on the case. Burmese Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen Aye Myint told a security conference in Singapore, “If offenders are not [prosecuted], anarchy will prevail, and there will be breach of peace and security.”
Breach of peace and security? What can the man mean?
Kyi Win was firm in saying that the Nobel Peace Prize winner broke no law or any of the restrictions imposed upon her during her current term of house arrest, which expired last week.
First, the restrictions bar Suu Kyi or anybody else condemned to house arrest from communicating with any foreign embassy or any political party or connected persons.
House arrest restrictions also bar any postal or telephone communication with the outside world.
Suu Kyi strictly followed these regulations, addressing the regime leaders in Naypyidaw through her lawyers. Their legal appeal against an extension of her house arrest was rejected by the regime, indicating that the military leaders had already made up their minds to keep her in detention.
According to Kyi Win, the American who gained access to Suu Kyi’s home, John William Yettaw, had been guilty of breaching security, not she. “John W Yettaw came into her compound without her knowledge or invitation and he was the one who was breaching the security cordon placed around her house,” he said.
Suu Kyi asked Yettaw to leave but he begged to stay, promising to leave soon. Suu Kyi gave him the benefit of the doubt, the lawyer said.
Consequently, it’s Yettaw who should be on trial for breaches of security, not Suu Kyi. Yet, to the surprise of her lawyers, Suu Kyi said last week that she wanted to offend no one, including the regime, at her trial.
During the court proceedings, Suu Kyi is careful not to make accusations or jump onto the bandwagon of those who suggest that the case was set up by the regime to extend her detention.
“Suu Kyi herself does not suspect the government of that kind of set-up and that’s her attitude,” Kyi Win told The Irrawaddy.
“I lost my words [after hearing Suu Kyi's remarks],” Kyi Win said.
“I was astonished to hear that kind of attitude from her,” he added with evident admiration.
During the three weeks she has now been held in Insein Prison, Suu Kyi has been denied even the limited access to outside news that she had in her home.
At home she at least had a radio and is believed to have kept herself well up to date with news on Burma and the rest of the world. Visiting UN officials were often surprised to learn how well informed she was.
In Insein Prison, however, she has no access to a radio and very limited access to news from outside. She did meet some diplomats who were allowed to attend two sessions of her trial last week, but journalists who were also present were not allowed to talk to her.
Through her lawyers, though, Suu Kyi has learned about the international outcry against her trial and the overwhelming support she commands.
Kyi Win said, “I conveyed sentiment and support from world leaders including [British Prime Minister] Gordon Brown, [US President] Obama and many other leaders. She expressed her sincere thanks to them.”
Moral support alone is not enough, however.
Another of her lawyers, Nyan Win, who is also spokesman of her National League for Democracy, questioned the country’s judicial system and its independence.
It is believed that the details of the court proceedings have been submitted to the top leaders in Naypyidaw. Diplomats have said they believe that the verdict has already been written, ready to be read out on the final day of the trial.
There is no doubt that junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe holds the key to the final decision. Political observers in Rangoon believe that the decision to postpone the trial until Friday also came from Than Shwe. The judges exercise no power in the Insein Prison court.
Although they know the verdict has already been decided, Suu Kyi’s lawyers say they cannot afford to lose hope. “We will always have hope,” Kyi Win said.
Kyi Win and Nyan Win did not want to comment on why the regime has suddenly postponed the trial until Friday.
Has Than Shwe perhaps had second thoughts as international pressure mounts? Analysts say that he still can still exercise one option-placing Suu Kyi under house arrest with a suspended sentence-hoping with such a gesture to reduce at least some of the pressure.
The regime is unpredictable, however, and defendants who appear before special courts in Insein Prison rarely receive any mercy from the military authorities.
There are plenty of examples, including 88 Generation Students leader Min Ko Naing, Shan leader Hkun Htun Oo and prominent journalist and activist Win Tin, all sentenced by these courts to long jail sentences.
Whoever is unfortunate enough to be brought to trial before a special court in Insein Prison stands in a one-way street, where there is no U-turn. Suu Kyi is probably no exception, despite Kyi Win’s note of optimism.
Suu Kyi undoubtedly knows where she stands. “She is aware that there is no rule of law in the country,” according to Nyan Win.
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The Irrawaddy – Soldiers Commit Gang rape in Karen State: Villagers
By SAW YAN NAING, Monday, June 1, 2009
A gang rape against an ethnic Karen woman committed by Burmese soldiers has been reported in Karen State in eastern Burma
Villagers in Kawkareik Township claimed that a 30-year-old Karen woman was taken from her farm hut to the jungle and raped by soldiers of Infantry Battalion 283 led by Capt Htay Win on May 25, according to the Karen Information Center, a Karen news organization.
In his article at The New York Times newspaper on May 27, the former UN human rights special rapporteur to Burma, Sergio Pinheiro, urged the UN Security Council to undertake an investigation into crimes against humanity in Burma committed by the Burmese military regime.
Pinheiro said that for the past two decades, ethnic minorities in Burma-more than one-third of the population-have not received enough of the world’s attention, adding that, “For Burma’s process of national reconciliation to be successful, the plight of the minorities must also be addressed.”
In 2007, the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) released a report titled: “State of Terror,” highlighting the campaign of abuse against women in Karen State, including rape, torture and forced labor.
The KWO said it documented more than 4,000 cases of abuse, including rape, murder, torture and forced labor over the past few years in more than 190 villages by troops from more than 40 Burmese Army battalions. Many of the human rights violations were from late 2005 through 2006.
Many of the abuses took place during o¬ngoing military offensives in eastern Burma since early 2006, which have displaced more than 25,000 civilians and have forced thousands of refugees to seek safety along the Thai-Burmese border.
The former UN human rights envoy also advocated that the UN Security Council form a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and impunity in Burma.
Meanwhile, Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of the ethnic Karen National Union, said that it is time for the UN Security Council to take action against the Burmese regime’s use of systematic rape in ethnic minority areas.
Pinheiro also said that he received a report in 2000 estimating 625 women were systematically raped in Burma’s Shan State over a five-year period. However, there was not a single account of a successful prosecution.
The former UN special rapporteur said in December 2008 a Burmese soldier went into an ethnic Karen village in eastern Burma and abducted, raped and killed a 7-year-old girl. Authorities refused to arrest the soldier; instead, officers threatened the parents with punishment if they did not accept a cash bribe to keep quiet.
During the past 15 years, the Burmese Army has destroyed more than 3,300 villages
in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups, Pinheiro said. UN reports indicate that Burmese soldiers have recruited child soldiers, used civilians as minesweepers and forced thousands of villagers into slave labor, he said.
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