News & Articles on Burma, Monday, 15 June 2009
Jun 15th, 2009
Over 100 former political prisoners call for Suu Kyi’s release
Burmese junta cracks down on Suu Kyi’s party
Junta Dismisses EU Concerns over Karen Refugees
International effort calls for release of Myanmar dissident
Enforcing the charter against rogue members
Zoya Phan: My People Still on the Run in Eastern Burma
Myanmar second top leader Maung Aye leaves on official visit to China
Julia tweets for Suu Kyi release
Woman’s brave dissent merits our recognition
Myanmar-China trade reaches 2.6 billion dollars in 2008
Myanmar signs two agreements with Sri Lanka
EU ignorant of facts over ethnic row: Myanmar
Online visa on arrival system introduced in Myanmar
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Over 100 former political prisoners call for Suu Kyi’s release
by Mizzima News
Monday, 15 June 2009 15:31
New Delhi (mizzima) – More than 100 former political prisoners world wide, have put their signatures on a statement calling for the release of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and urged the UN Security Council to impose a global arms embargo on Burma.
The former political prisoners from over 20 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe have signed a special “64 words to Aung San Suu Kyi”, a campaign that urges Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters to tweet, write text messages, send videos and photographs to a Website – 64forsuu.org, launched by campaigners on May 27 to mark the Nobel Peace Laureate’s 64th birthday on June 19.
The former political prisoners in their 64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi said, “The continued denial of your freedom unacceptably attacks the human rights of all 2,156 political prisoners in Myanmar. As those also incarcerated for our political beliefs, we share the world’s outrage. We call on the United Nations Security Council to press the Myanmar Government to immediately release all political prisoners, and to restrict weapons that strengthen its hand through a global arms embargo.”
Kim Dae-jung, South Korea’s former President and Nobel Peace Laureate in his words said, “Aung San Suu Kyi’s continued detention shames Asia.”
Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to scrap its policy of non-interference saying, “ASEAN cannot continue its policy of non-intervention. It’s time to work together for regional stability and prosperity.”
Several signatories are themselves under house arrest including Yuan Weijing and Zeng Jinyan of China.
Others who signed their names include Anwar Ibrahim, former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Ingrid Betancourt, former Senator and Nobel Peace Prize nominee kidnapped by the Colombian FARDC, Kim Dae-jung, former President of South Korea and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Lech Walesa, former President of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Nelson Mandela.
The others are Shirin Ebadi, lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Shao Jiang, a survivor of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Terry Waite, the British humanitarian and author, Vaclav Havel, writer and former President of the Czech Republic, and Yuri Feodorovich Orlov, nuclear physicist and former Soviet dissident.
The ‘64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi’ campaign, dedicated to her 64th birthday and the 14th time that she will celebrate it in solitary confinement, has been signed by several prominent personalities including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and British soccer player David Beckham.
http://mizzima.com/news/world/
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Burmese junta cracks down on Suu Kyi’s party
June 15, 2009 (DVB)–Three members of the National League for Democracy were arrested last week on unspecified charges while another elderly member had his property vandalised by men armed with slingshots.
Members of the NLD, whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi is currently on trial for alleged breach of house arrest conditions, suffer frequent harassment and intimidation from Burmese authorities.
The two cases, both of which occurred last Friday, coincided with a police raid on the house of Thi Han, an NLD youth member involved in a photo campaign to raise public awareness of the Suu Kyi trial.
“Some government officials showed up, claiming they need to check for [unregistered] guests at his house on evening of June 12,” said fellow NLD member Win Naing.
“They said they had some information about his house and searched thoroughly before leaving without finding anything.”
Meanwhile, a teashop owned by the financial director of the NLD in Mandalay division was damaged when unknown men fired slingshot pellets.
“They came in the deep of night on June 12…and broke some florescence light sticks in the teashop,” said 60-year-old Ko Ko Gyi, who was also involved in the photo campaign.
“We found out that the pellets they used were made hard by baking them in the fire – this shows that the attack was well-prepared.”
He added that he had filed a complaint with local authorities but would not be notifying police.
“I’m not going to bother opening a case with the police as we all know who is backing the attackers,” he said.
Two prominent NLD members called to testify in Suu Kyi’s defence were disqualified by the court last month for reasons unknown.
According to the Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), around 450 NLD members are currently serving jail sentences in Burma.
Reports emerged last week that five political prisoners, including an NLD member, were transferred to solitary confinement after prison authorities got wind that they were planning a protest against Suu Kyi’s trial.
Reporting by Yee May Aung http://english.dvb.no/news.
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Junta Dismisses EU Concerns over Karen Refugees
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Monday, June 15, 2009
RANGOON — Burma dismissed European Union concerns about military operations against Karen rebels as political meddling Sunday, even after thousands of ethnic minorities fled the country to escape the fierce fighting.
A counterinsurgency offensive in eastern Burma has forced more than 4,000 ethnic Karen to abandon their villages and cross into Thailand this month, according to the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, the key aid provider to border refugees.
The EU last week expressed “serious concern” over the mounting offensive in the military-ruled nation and the exodus of refugees, and called for an immediate truce.
A Foreign Ministry statement carried in state-run newspapers Sunday said the EU’s criticism was “unwarranted,” ”politically motivated” and based on “inaccurate information originating from the insurgent groups and biased media reports.”
The ministry characterized the ongoing fighting as “scuffles” that it blamed on Thailand-based Karen rebels trying to prevent one Karen faction from laying down its arms and joining the government side.
The Karen National Union has been fighting for more than 60 years for greater autonomy from Burma’s central government. It is the country’s largest ethnic rebel group and the only major one that has yet to sign a cease-fire with the junta.
The Karen refugees have taken shelter at several points about 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Mae Sot, a Thai border town that lies about 240 miles (380 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Bangkok.
Aid agencies have been providing the refugees with emergency food, shelter and other basics.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees office said Friday that many of the refugees were Karen villagers who fled in fear of conscription or forced labor as porters for the Burma army.
Some 100,000 mostly ethnic Karen refugees already shelter in camps in Thailand after fleeing counterinsurgency operations, while aid agencies say nearly half a million others are internally displaced inside eastern Burma.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/
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International effort calls for release of Myanmar dissident
By DENIS D. GRAY
Associated Press
Updated: 06/15/2009 01:31:36 AM PDT
BANGKOK, Thailand — Hollywood star Julia Roberts and detained Chinese activists are among celebrities and political prisoners tweeting and signing petitions for the release of Myanmar’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she approaches her 64th birthday — her 14th spent in detention — organizers said Sunday.
Suu Kyi will spend her 64th birthday Friday in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison, facing charges of violating terms of her house arrest by harboring an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home.
The ruling junta is widely expected to deliver a guilty verdict, which could put the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in prison for up to five years. She has already spent more than 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest.
“We must not stand by as she is silenced again. Now is the time for the international community to speak with one voice,” Roberts wrote as part of a campaign — “64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi” — organized by a coalition of human rights and activist groups.
Similar campaigns on Suu Kyi’s past birthdays and other milestones generated some global publicity for her cause but have failed to change the military junta’s harsh attacks on all signs of dissent. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been dominated by the military since 1962.
“Burma’s generals think they can act with impunity. We’ll have to wait until after the trial verdict to see if this time will be any different,” said Mark Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK,
one of the organizers.
Actress Demi Moore, actor Kevin Spacey, artist Yoko Ono and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were among the contributors to the Web site. Director James Cameron wrote, “While my heroes are fictional, Aung San Suu Kyi is a real-life hero and she needs help from you.”
In a parallel campaign, the organizers have gathered the signatures of 107 former or current political prisoners from more than 20 countries calling for the release of political prisoners in Myanmar and calling on the U.N. Security Council to impose a global arms embargo on the Southeast Asian nation.
“The continued denial of your freedom unacceptably attacks the human rights of all 2,156 political prisoners in Myanmar. As those also incarcerated for our political beliefs, we share the world’s outrage,” the 64-word message said.
The signatories include Kim Dae-jung, a former South Korean president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights campaigner who also won the prize; former Czech President Vaclav Havel; and two female Chinese activists currently under house arrest, Yuan Weijing and Zeng Jinyan.
“Aung San Suu Kyi’s continued detention shames Asia,” wrote Kim.
Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to lift its policy of nonintervention in Myanmar, which is a member of the 10-nation bloc.
Organizers of the campaign include Human Rights Watch, the U.S. Campaign for Burma, Burma Info Japan, Open Society Institute, France’s Info Birmanie and Amnesty International.
http://www.montereyherald.com/
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REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Enforcing the charter against rogue members
By Kavi Chongkittavorn
The Nation
Published on June 15, 2009
HERE LIES THE DILEMMA: Asean’s old members want a new Asean while new Asean members want an old Asean. For the former, the new Asean means a more open and dynamic grouping that would not hesitate to embrace broader international norms, protect human rights and promote democratic values. For the latter, the old Asean means the preservation of status quo at all costs citing the mantra of non-interference, including the non-peer reviews.
Over the weeks, the contradiction within Asean has deepened and has been made more visible through Asean responses to the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and the drafted term of reference of the Asean human rights body (TOR-AHRB). In the past four decades, Asean members were pretty good in hiding their dirty linen. They could do so simply because their leaders were willing to keep their mouths zipped and were protected by their colleagues. Every agreement or protocol of Asean was done in good faith – non-biding without any provision for sanctions. Members’ commitment and moral responsibility were the only enforcers, abstract as they were. That helped explain why only 30 per cent of some 220 plus agreements were ratified or implemented. The rest have been mired in the whirlpool of Asean bureaucratic polity.
From now on, the only instrument that can unite Asean is the Asean Charter as all members were involved in the drafting at every step. During the drafting process, the new members (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma) spearheaded the debates and eventually shaped the charter’s substance and idealism. Imperfect as it is, the charter is now considered a tool kit that would take the grouping to the next level. The huge challenge ahead is how to enforce and interpret the charter. Such an endeavour could either further divide or consolidate the 10-member grouping.
WARINESS TO COMMIT
Strange but true, even though the charter was the outcome of consensus and compromise, quite a few Asean members are having problems committing to objectives and norms therein which they approved earlier. Burma and Laos have emerged as two prominent members that constantly invoke the principle of non-interference. Vietnam and Cambodia, while still valuing the concept, are more willing to accommodate with a more liberal interpretation. This will be immediately put to the test when Vietnam assumes the Asean chair next year, and Cambodia in January 2012.
Asean was founded in 1967 with only five members, and in 1976 they jointly drafted the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, which turned out to be Asean’s most important document and widely-accepted regional code of conduct (the US plans to accede to the treaty next month in Bangkok). They did so enthusiastically as they were determined to prevent outside interference, especially from the major powers. They did not want to be pawns in the power struggles during the Cold War. However, the principle of non-interference was not meant to serve as a panacea to hide members’ incompetence and oppression of citizens.
NON-INTERFERENCE IS PIVOTAL
That explains why the non-interference in internal affairs is one of the 14 principles contained in the charter’s Article 2.2. The oft-quoted principle can no longer be used in isolation without considering other mandates entailing shared commitment and collective responsibility among members. Equally pivotal are the enhanced consultations on matters related to peace and prosperity and issues seriously affecting the common interest of Asean. The Asean chair’s statement on the situation in Burma and Suu Kyi on May 19 was the outcome of such a realisation. The statement was reaffirmed by Asean foreign ministers when they met in Phnom Penh at the end of May on the sidelines of the Asean-EU ministerial meeting.
DECIDING ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Another challenge would be the future direction of TOR-AHRB. Next month the Asean foreign ministers will vet the final draft of TOR-AHRB in Bangkok. The contentious point remains whether the AHRB prime objective is to promote or protect human rights. Some members like Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand commonly wish the human rights body to provide maximum protection for Asean citizens. They have been trying to push for country visits, cross-border investigation of human rights abuses and periodic reviews to be included in the TOR-AHRB.
Obviously, the opponents want to protect governments in power and pay lip service to human-rights protection. To them, human-rights promotion is more palatable.
Ironically, all Asean members are subjected to the UN Human Rights Council’s norms and standards. Each Asean member, like the rest of its UN colleagues, has to go through periodic reviews on human rights at the global level. It remains a mystery why Asean nations refuse to do the same within the regional human rights body. This kind of double standard policy is quite prevalent within Asean. The same was true for the aborted plan to set up an Asean peacekeeping force, initiated by Indonesia, back in 2003. Seven out of 10 Asean members, involving more than 3,000 troops, have participated in various capacities and forms with 19 UN peacekeeping operations around the world. None of them has joined together to keep peace under the Asean flag. Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines took part in the peacekeeping operations in East Timor in 2000.
Under the 2005 Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response, Asean, Burma and UN agencies are currently working together to coordinate plans to help the rehabilitation of Cyclone Nargis’ victims. Asean can only deliver humanitarian assistance but without helping the Burmese victims directly.
Asean leaders should go a step further, demanding more engagements with the victims directly in the future. No provisions under this agreement prevent Asean members from doing so.
In the past few months, Asean leaders have been discussing ways and means to maintain the so-called Asean centrality in grappling with new challenges and establishing strong partnership with global players.
To do so, Asean members understand they must comply faithfully with the charter’s objectives and norms through new flexibility and pragmatism, even if they have to go against rogue members.
http://www.nationmultimedia.
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Zoya Phan: My People Still on the Run in Eastern Burma
by Guest Blogger
Zoya Phan
The U.S Government and United Nations have remained silent about a new military offensive in Karen State, Burma, which has forced around 6,000 people to flee their homes.
At the beginning of June the Burmese army and its allies, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) began a new attack in Karen State, Burma. Attacks on my people are nothing new, and sadly, neither is the silence from the UN.
For sixty years the Karen have been under attack by the central government. These attacks escalated when an even more brutal dictatorship took power in September 1988, following a pro-democracy uprising in which thousands were killed when troops opened fire. In the past 15 years more than 3,300 villages in Eastern Burma have been destroyed. Half a million are internally displaced, and almost 150,000 live in refugee camps on the Thailand Burma border. Tens of thousands of people have been used as slave labor by the Burmese army, many used as human minesweepers, forced to walk in front of army columns as they keep no record of where they lay mines. Rape is used as a weapon of war by the regime; women taken as slaves can expect to be raped by soldiers every night, even girls as young as five. Extortion, torture, mutilations–the list of abuses goes on and on.
“Tens of thousands of people have been used as slave labor by the Burmese army, many used as human minesweepers, forced to walk in front of army columns as they keep no record of where they lay mines.”
The dictatorship tries to justify its action by saying it is a counter-insurgency operation, and that the Karen are fighting for an independent state, and want to break up Burma. It simply isn’t true. Karen people want a Federal Burma, we stopped campaigning for our own state as long ago as 1976. In a grand offensive in 2006, the Burmese army added days to their journey by avoiding bases of the Karen National Liberation Army on their way to attack defenseless villages. The United Nations has confirmed this, accusing the generals of breaching the Geneva Conventions.
Now thousands more of my people are fleeing for their lives. I know the fear, and the sadness of leaving everything you know behind, carrying just a few possessions, and not knowing if you will ever go home again. I went through the same thing when I was 14 and the Burmese Army attacked my village.
The fact that 14 years later the same thing is still going on, and nothing is being done to stop it, fills me with anger and despair.
Last week, the European Union broke the years of silence and called for an end to the attacks in Eastern Burma. I suppose half the battle is trying to get people to take notice of what is going on, but the lack of concrete action, and silence from the rest of the world, is still frustrating.
The time for a global arms embargo against Burma is long overdue. There should also be a UN commission of inquiry into the crimes against humanity being committed in Eastern Burma. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon must also demand an immediate ceasefire when he visits Burma in July.
When I arrived in Thailand as a refugee I thought the international community would come to our aid and stop the attacks on our people. I was wrong. I know the new refugees in Thailand will be thinking the same thing. I hope that this time, they won’t be wrong.
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Zoya Phan.jpgZoya Phan is international co-ordinator at Burma Campaign UK. Her autobiography Little Daughter: A Memoir of Survival in Burma and the West, has been published in the UK and Canada. It will be published in April as ‘Undaunted’ in the USA .
http://www.guernicamag.com/
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Myanmar second top leader Maung Aye leaves on official visit to China
www.chinaview.cn 2009-06-15 13:33:02
YANGON, June 15 (Xinhua) — Myanmar’s second top leader Vice Senior-General Maung Aye left Nay Pyi Taw Monday for Beijing to begin a six-day official visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping.
Aimed at promoting neighborly, friendly and cooperative ties with China, Maung Aye, who is Vice-Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), is paying his third visit to China in six years.
Maung Aye, is also Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, traveled to China in August 2003 and in April 2006.
There were also exchange of visits between other leaders of the two countries over the last two years. In January 2007, Vice-Chairman of the Chinese National People’s Congress Standing Committee Li Tieying visited Myanmar, while SPDC Member General Thura Shwe Mann and Prime Minister General Thein Sein visited China in the same year.
In 2008, Thein Sein attended the Beijing Olympic Games, while Shwe Mann toured China again.
In March this year, Li Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited Myanmar, during which four documents were signed.
In April the same year, Thein Sein attended the “Boao Forum for Asia” in Boao, southern China’s Hainan province.
On that occasion, Thein Sein also met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and the two leaders discussed fruitful results of bilateral economic cooperation, oil and gas, energy, electric power, rail transportation, agriculture and human resource sectors.
Over his five-day China trip, Thein Sein also met a number of Chinese industrialists and entrepreneurs investing in Myanmar and had discussions with them on bilateral economic cooperation.
According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar trade amounted to 2.626 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 26.4 percent. Of the total, China’s export to Myanmar took 1.978 billion dollars.
Up to the end of 2008, China’s contracted investment in Myanmar reached 1.331 billion dollars, of which that in mining, electric power and oil and gas respectively took 866 million dollars, 281 million dollars and 124 million dollars.
China has risen from the 6th position to the 4th in Myanmar’s foreign investment line-up.
Editor: Deng Shasha
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
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Julia tweets for Suu Kyi release
Bangkok: Hollywood star Julia Roberts and detained Chinese activists are among celebrities and political prisoners tweeting and signing petitions for the release of Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she approaches her 64th birthday, her 14th spent in detention, organisers said on Sunday. Suu Kyi will spend her 64th birthday on Friday in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison, facing charges of violating terms of her house arrest by harbouring an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home.
The ruling junta is widely expected to deliver a guilty verdict, which could put the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in prison for up to five years. She has already spent more than 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest.
“We must not stand by as she is silenced again. Now is the time for the international community to speak with one voice,” wrote Roberts as part of a campaign, “64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi,” organised by a coalition of human rights and activist groups.
The campaign, launched on May 27, asks Suu Kyi’s supporters to tweet, write text messages or send video and photos to its website, http://64forsuu.org. Similar campaigns on Suu Kyi’s past birthdays and other milestones generated some global publicity but have failed to change the junta’s harsh attacks on all signs of dissent. —AP
http://www.asianage.com/
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Woman’s brave dissent merits our recognition
San Antonio Express-News: June 15, 2009
A newspaper editorial written in a city thousands of miles away from a show trial won’t alter the verdict. We are under no delusions that a few words in this space will do what nearly 20 years of international outrage and sanctions have failed to do: force Burma’s military dictatorship to free Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and relinquish power to the pro-democracy movement she embodies.
Still, it’s important to not allow Suu Kyi’s name to slip away from our conscience and to continue to bear a distant but not silent witness to the plight and struggle of this small, dignified 63-year-old woman with the moral authority of a Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel and Václav Havel.
The dictatorship of Burma (which calls the country Myanmar) will resume its trial of Suu Kyi on charges that she violated the terms of her house arrest by allowing an American, who had swam across a lake to her house, to sleep on the floor. If convicted, she will face up to five years of prison, which is the point of a trial whose charges, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has rightly called, “baseless.”
The daughter of the founding father of Burma, Suu Kyi returned to her home in 1988 to care for her ailing mother and emerged as the leader of the burgeoning pro-democracy movement. She was placed under house arrest from 1989-1995 and cut off from her husband and two sons in England.
During that time, her party won 80 percent of the vote in the 1990 national elections — a result that’s never been honored — and she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Although “released” in 1995, she has remained under house arrest for most of the past 14 years. When her husband was dying of prostate cancer in 1999, he was denied a visa to see his wife for one last time. Suu Kyi could have traveled to Great Britain to see him but didn’t, knowing she wouldn’t have been allowed back into Burma.
As this courageous dissident, whose nickname is “The Lady,” continues to fight an oppressive power that has been unable to crush her, the least we can do is honor her by not forgetting her.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/
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Myanmar-China trade reaches 2.6 billion dollars in 2008
Business News
Jun 15, 2009, 3:05 GMT
Yangon – Myanmar-China trade reaced 2.6 billion dollars in 2008, and is expected to increase slightly this year thanks to efforts by Beijing to support the South-East Asian country, The Myanmar Times reported Monday.
‘We attach great importance to trade between China and Myanmar,’ Tang Hai, economic and commercial counsellor at China’s embassy in Yangon, told The Myanmar Times, a weekly.
‘If we continue to work together, trade volume will not decline,’ he said.
China is Myanmar’s second-largest trade partner after only Thailand, which buys Myanmar’s main export, natural gas.
Myanmar’s main exports to China include fisheries, agricultural products, minerals, teak and precious stones, while it imports electronics, machinery, fertiliser, clothing and medicines from China. The two countries share a 2,000 kilometres long border.
China is one of Myanmar’s few political allies, having repeatedly blocked past efforts to have the ruling junta’s atrocities brought up for examination by the United Nations Security Council.
‘We always support Myanmar both politically and economically in the face of the sanctions imposed by western countries,’ Tang said. ‘We also support Myanmar in international meetings,’ he added.
Myanmar faces various economic sanctions imposed by western democracies, including a freeze on most bilateral aid to the country since 1988, an investment ban for US companies and visa bans for travel to Europe by the junta’s top generals.
No similar economic sanctions are imposed by Asian countries.
China is now Myanmar’s fourth largest foreign investor, following Thailand, the United Kingdom and Singapore, respectively.
China had invested a total of 1.33 billion dollars in Myanmar as of March 31, 2009, mainly in the mining sector, hydropower, and oil and natural gas, Tang said.
http://www.monstersandcritics.
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Myanmar signs two agreements with Sri Lanka
Asia-Pacific News
Jun 15, 2009, 3:36 GMT
Yangon – Myanmar and Sri Lanka strengthened diplomatic relations over the weekend with the signing of two agreements that eased visa restrictions and pledged cooperation in the tourism sector, media reports said Monday.
The two agreements were signed Sunday when Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa paid an state visit to Myanmar’s new capital of Naypyitaw at the invitation of junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, The New Light of Myanmar, a government mouthpiece, reported.
The two leaders discussed means of furthering cooperation in ‘religion, trade, economy, education, agriculture, forest, hotels and tourism, transport, as well as in regional and international arenas,’ the newspaper reported.
Sri Lanka and Myanmar are predominantly Buddhist countries. Both countries have also been widely criticized by Western democracies for human rights abuses in their offensives against rebel groups – the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and the Karens in Myanmar.
While in Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Yangon, Rajapaksa and Than Shwe witnessed the signing of an agreement between the two countries’ foreign ministries that allows visa exemptions for all holders of diplomatic and official passports.
Also signed was a memorandum of understanding to boost tourism cooperation between Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
http://www.monstersandcritics.
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EU ignorant of facts over ethnic row: Myanmar
Web posted at: 6/15/2009 6:59:39
Source ::: DPA
YANGON: Myanmar’s foreign Ministry yesterday accused the European Union of ignorance about the “true facts” behind the ethnic Karen conflict which forced thousands of Karen villagers to flee into Thailand this month. The ministry statement published in state-run media yesterday came in response to a June 11 declaration by the EU presidency expressing its concern over an army offensive against the Karen National Union (KNU) that has forced some 3,000 Karen villagers into Thailand.
“The tone and tenor of the declaration obviously reflects the total ignorance of the EU Presidency on the true facts and main causes of the clashes between the two factions of the armed groups,” the foreign ministry statement said.
It first blamed the ongoing conflict with the Karen, a minority group that has been fighting for autonomy of the Karen State in eastern Myanmar for the past six decades, on British colonialists’ tactics while they ruled the country prior to independence in 1948. “The internal insurgency problem that plagued the Union of Myanmar …since its regaining of independence in 1948, was in fact resulted from the ill legacies of the divide and rule administrative policy of the colonialists in the past history,” said the junta.
The foreign ministry noted that since 1989, the junta has signed peace pacts with 17 out of 18 Myanmar rebel groups, with only the KNU refusing to “enter the legal fold.”
It went on to blame the recent “scuffles” in the Karen State, which the regime has renamed the Kayin State, on disputes between the KNU and the pro-government Democratic Karen Buddhist Association (DKBA).
“As a matter of fact, the fighting took place between the two armed groups DKBA and KNU,” the statement said. “Members of the government armed forces had no role whatsoever in the recent scuffles. Therefore, the allegations mentioned in the EU’s declaration that government troops were mounting offensive against the Kayin ethnic minority were untrue and unfounded.”
Human rights groups monitoring the Karen conflict from the Thai-Myanmar border have claimed that more than 3,000 Karen villagers were forced to flee a fresh offensive this month in the Ler Per Her refugee camp.
Thailand-based analysts believe the Myanmar junta is using the DKBA to crush the KNU prior to the planned general election in 2010, which other ethnic groups have vowed to boycott to protest the government’s plans to disarm them after the polls. http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.
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Online visa on arrival system introduced in Myanmar
Posted: 2009/06/15
From: MNN
YANGON, June 12 (Xinhua) — A private travel company has introduced an online visa on arrival service system in Myanmar, designed to expedite arrival visa and other services for the promotion of the country’s tourism industry, the state newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Friday.
As part of Myanmar’s plan to introduce a 100-percent visa-on-arrival system for the promotion, the Diamond Palace and Travel and Tour Co. Ltd will practise the system with the permission of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, the report said.
The visa-on-arrival system will be applicable to international visitors with those of some countries be covered in the pilot phase, other report said.
At present, international travelers applying entry visas into Myanmar through Myanmar embassies abroad have to take four days in Beijing, 24 hours in Jakarta, five days in Paris and Tokyo, three days in London and two days in Bangkok and Singapore, according to the Myanmar Foreign Ministry earlier.
Domestic travel and tour companies are set to apply for their customers entry visas 15 days in advance with the presentation of their personal data.
Myanmar’s tourism business started to drop near the end of 2007and continued in 2008 during which deadly cyclone Nargis was experienced and the global financial crisis, which sparked in late2008, also delayed Myanmar’s tourism development.
The tourism authorities have stressed the need to promote the country’s international tourism market for the revival of its tourism industry.
According to official statistics, tourist arrivals in Myanmar in 2008 totaled over 260,000.
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?
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June 16th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
[...] Several signatories are themselves under house arrest including Yuan Weijing and Zeng Jinyan of China. [continues...] [...]