Recent Karen Exodus Raises Questions about UNHCR Role
China Adds ‘Democracy,’ ‘Economic Growth’ to Burma Policy
Suu Kyi Trial Plagued by ‘Flagrant’ Rights Violations, UN Says
680,000 signatures delivered to UN chief
Dig We Must
It’s not too late to rescue Burma from further tragedy
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit Myanmar in July
Burmese High Court to Hear Aung San Suu Kyi Appeal
Myanmar Supreme Court considers more witnesses in Suu Kyi case
India’s stance on Burma long overdue for change
Human trafficking in Burma ‘a major problem’
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NEWS ANALYSIS
Recent Karen Exodus Raises Questions about UNHCR Role
By SAI SOE WIN LATT     Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The latest joint attacks in Karen State by Burmese and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) forces, which began on June 7, have forced an estimated 6,000 Karen people into Thai-Burmese border areas.

The targeted areas included Ler Per Her IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp, which was shelled by mortars, according to Burma Campaign UK.

A Karen refugee mother and her three children take shelter in a Buddhist temple on the Thai-Burmese border. (Photo: Alex Ellgee/The Irrawaddy)
The slow response from the international community, including the UN, has frustrated Burma’s human right activists. Also, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has yet to take significant steps to assist the refugees, leaving them leaving at the mercy of local aid groups.

Indeed, the way the most recent Karen refugees have been assisted by the international community raises questions about the effectiveness of the refugee system itself.

The global refugee regime is based on a structure and philosophy that stems from the International Refugee Organization, the predecessor institution that provided the template for the UNHCR. As such, the current refugee system essentially serves states’ interest rather than refugees’ interest.

In other words, the presence of refugees in general is considered a challenge to a state, and the UNHCR focuses on refugee containment and repatriation, rather than recognizing refugees’ rights to settle in a country of asylum or resettlement in a third country.

More broadly, the global refugee mission is to stabilize the world order composed of individual nation-states by containing refugee movements.

In this photo taken on June 9, released by Free Burma Rangers, Karen villagers flee in the rain from the fighting between Burmese soldiers and Karen guerrillas into Thailand’s Tha Song Yag district of Tak province. (Photo: AP/Free Burma Rangers)
This philosophy is reflected in a 1993 statement by Sadako Ogata, the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Her point, which still holds true today was that, “The subject of refugees and displaced people is high on the list of international concerns today not only because of its humanitarian significance, but also because of its impact on peace, security and stability. The world cannot reach a new order without effectively addressing the problem of human displacement.”

The commissioner, significantly, describes refugees as a “problem” that destabilizes the world order. Solving the “problem” is for the ultimate purpose of the security of that order.

The painful irony is that it is this same world order with so-called sovereign nation-states that generates so many of the refugees in the world today.

Mostly minority and marginalized populations, such as the Karen, are driven out of their homes after being treated as “enemies” by a military regime that has autonomous control of the state apparatus.

While recent attacks are difficult to frame in terms of Burmese versus Karen, given the collusion of the DKBA with regime forces, it is clear that this is a struggle over economic resources as well as geographical control. Still, this is just one incident in the political hang-over of the sovereign state system that the UNHCR is mandated to protect.

In any case, Karen refugees are byproducts of a political struggle versus state oppression. Yet, the UNHCR is mandated to handle the plight of the Karen through charity work in its role as a purely humanitarian, yet “non-political,” institution. This allows the UNHCR to refrain from engagement over political issues that otherwise would implicate it in issues of sovereignty.

In addition to overriding philosophical issues, the UNHCR’s protection practices also raise problematic questions. For example, its provision of providing only minimum assistance to refugees while assuming that providing maximum assistance would attract more refugees.

In addition, there has been a recent shift towards a so-called “preventive protection” stance under a rubric of “the right to remain at home.” This is designed to prevent refugees from seeking refuge across a border by providing “safety zones” within conflict areas.

Ler Per Her IDP camp, which was shelled last week, is part of this strategy of “preventive protection,” which shows the fallibility of so-called “safety zones.”

The UNHCR humanitarian work cannot be isolated from a donor country’s domestic immigration policy.

That the first strategy of donor countries is to prevent refugees from resettling abroad is clearly reflected in the EU Presidency’s Declaration on Karen villagers, dated June 11, 2009, which said, “The EU reiterates its commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Burma/Myanmar. The EU calls instead for the conditions to be created that allow the return of all refugees.”

Here, insistence on “return” in theory can serve as a quick-fix but it can ignore the actual experiences and fate of refugees in much of the world, including the Karen refugees in Thailand. Seeing refugees as temporarily displaced people can serve to sentence millions of people to a life in refugee camps, supposing that they will eventually “return” to their country.

For example, Kitty McKinsey, a regional spokesperson for the UNHCR, told Spectrum magazine in an interview on the most recent wave of displaced Karen villagers, “They all say they want go back as soon as possible.” A UN spokesperson in Geneva, William Spindler, expressed a similar view.

It is understood that refugees miss their home like everyone else, but UNHCR is wrong to insist on that as a core interpretation of policy. It knows from experience that refugees often end up living in refugee centers for decades.

It should go without saying that refugees, including new arrivals, should be entitled to earn a living outside refugee camps, rather than being locked up inside, only to be turned into a modern version of “white men’s (and women’s) burdens.”

Yet, highlighting such problems with UNHCR role, we can not its role in saving people’s lives in emergency situation and providing life-sustaining aid. Neither is this to discount its heroic staffers in the field who are fighting hard for refugee rights.

Field staffers, as well as executive officers, are in a position to critically reflect on UNHCR’s limitations. Rather than reproducing UNHCR’s “depoliticized humanitarianism,” progressive members and staffers should move beyond technical-centrism and emergency management mentality to address the disruptive aspects of the nation-state system as it now exists.

Similarly, critiques of donor countries do not underplay the thousands of former refugees who are now able to earn livelihoods in these countries. Yet, donor countries that are able to effectively supplement their domestic labor force with immigrant labor must do other than part in dealing fairly with refugees who fleeing from war with little hope of stability in their lives.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org

http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=16050
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China Adds ‘Democracy,’ ‘Economic Growth’ to Burma Policy
By WAI MOE      Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has told the Burma’s No 2 leader, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, on Tuesday in Beijing that China hopes the military junta will promote democracy in Burma.

According to a Chinese language news website, www.news.qq.com, Wen said in order to achieve Burma’s national reconciliation, safeguard national stability and economic development, Beijing hoped the military government would promote democracy.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Burma’s No 2 leader, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, greet each other in Beijing on Tuesday.
Apart from the political situation in Burma, Wen also spoke of the nearly six decade long diplomatic ties between the neighboring countries as well as sustained bilateral relations.

The Chinese media reported that Maung Aye said during his meeting with Wen on Tuesday that “Paukphaw,” or deep friendship relation between Burma and China, have been deepen even more. He thanked the Chinese government for its aid for economic and social development in Burma.

Maung Aye also said Burma supported the one-China policy when he met with Premier Wen, the Chinese media reported.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst based on the Sino-Burmese border, said it was a positive step for Bejing to add democracy, national reconciliation and economic development to its old policy of “stability” in Burma.

“Wen Jiabao’s words of national reconciliation, stability and economic development to Gen Maung Aye reflected China’s current Burma policy,” he said.

However, other Burma observers are still skeptical about China’s policy on Burma, saying Beijing only focuses on its own economic and military interests in regard to Burma.

“I do not expect much out of this visit and certainly not Chinese pressure on Naypyidaw to adopt reforms,” Jeff Kingston, the director of Asian Studies at Temple University’s Japan campus, told The Irrawaddy.

“China wants stability on its border and even if it has some reservations about the SPDC’s methods and capabilities, it shows no inclination to gamble on democracy or condemn human rights abuses.”

He noted that Burma’s powerful neighbors, China and India, are its largest trading partners and their dependence on natural resources and desire for a stable Burma trump their interests in a free and democratic Burma.

“The development of Burma is for their own interests,” he said.

During his China visit, Muang Aye was accompanied by ministers and seniors officials of Burma’s Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Energy as well as representatives from Burmese businesses.

According to Aung Kyaw Zaw, www.news.qq.com also recently republished an article by Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner on North Korea’s involvement in tunnel and underground facility construction in Burma.

Observers say Beijing is observing the relationship between Burma and North Korea, and does not want North Korea to help the Burmese generals achieve nuclear or missile capabilities, such as in Iran and Syria.

“Definitely, China will not want two more nuclear power countries on its northeast and southwest border,” Aung Kyaw Zaw said.

In last year, officials of Burma and North Korea exchanged a number of visits. Burmese foreign minister Nyan Win visited North Korea in October 2008. In November 2008, North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Young Il stopped in Burma before he flew to Iran. The junta’s No 3 leader, General Shwe Mann, reportedly visited Pyongyang in April 2008.

During Maung Aye visit to China, Kim Jong Un, 26, the favored youngest son of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Il, also made a secret trip from Pyongyang to Beijing last week.

“It is interesting that Maung Aye’s visit follows that by a delegation from North Korea, two pariah regimes that owe much to Beijing’s support—economic, diplomatic and military,” said Kingston.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16052
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Suu Kyi Trial Plagued by ‘Flagrant’ Rights Violations, UN Says
By Michael Heath

June 17 (Bloomberg) – The trial of Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is plagued by “flagrant violations” of her rights, United Nations legal specialists said, urging the military to allow an open and fair process.

Suu Kyi went on trial a month ago for allegedly breaching her house arrest order, a charge that triggered international condemnation. The Nobel Peace Prize winner faces a maximum sentence of five years. Two of her assistants also face trial.

“The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi and her aides has been marred by flagrant violations of substantive and procedural rights,” said Leandro Despouy, the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, according to a statement.

Suu Kyi, 63, is accused of violating her detention order by allowing an American intruder to stay for two days after he swam to her lakeside home in the former capital, Yangon, last month. Pro-democracy activists say a guilty verdict is almost inevitable in a country with more than 2,000 political prisoners.

Suu Kyi is being tried in Yangon’s Insein prison. She denies the charges and says the regime is responsible for guarding her residence.

The opposition leader’s defense team has only been allowed to present one witness and another has been granted permission to testify, compared with 14 called by the prosecution, the UN said.

“The court must ensure that all witnesses who may have relevant evidence are able to testify,” Despouy said, according to the statement published on the UN’s Web site.

House Arrest

Last month was the anniversary of the victory of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party in 1990 elections, a result rejected by the military. It was also the sixth anniversary of her latest period of detention in the nation formerly known as Burma. She has spent 13 of the 19 years since the elections under house arrest or in prison.

Myanmar’s generals, the latest in a line of military rulers for almost 50 years, last month “strongly rejected” a statement from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations calling on them to release Suu Kyi immediately. Myanmar is a member of the 10-nation bloc. President Barack Obama has called the court case a “show trial.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 16, 2009 21:07 EDT http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axkznfU9o5Io
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680,000 signatures delivered to UN chief

June 17, 2009 (DVB)–A petition carrying nearly 680,000 signatures has been delivered to the UN Secretary General demanding that he make the release of political prisoners in Burma a personal priority.

Burma currently holds upwards of 2,100 political prisoners, including journalists, activists, politicians and lawyers.

The petition, signed by signatories in around 220 countries and territories, is part of a campaign to highlight the ongoing repression faced by opposition groups and individuals in Burma.

Last week a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi is currently on trial, died in prison from a blood disease.

And on Monday, five NLD members being held in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison, where Suu Kyi is currently detained, were moved into solitary confinement.

“We know that a lot of political prisoners are dying in prison, we need the United Nations to take action before many more die,” said Bo Kyi, sectretay of Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma.

“Without action, we expect many more to die.”

Conditions in Burmese prisons are dire, with prisoners often suffering from preventable diseases and subject to torture at the hands of prison officials.

The 28-year-old leader of the All Burma Monks Alliance, U Gambira, who is serving a 69-year sentence following his role in the September 2007 protests, was on Monday said to be suffering from migraines and had been tortured by guards.

A number of other high-profile political prisoners, including the comedian Zarganar, and 88 Generation Student leader Min Ko Naing, are reportedly in poor health and frequently denied healthcare.

Reporting by Francis Wade http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2635
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Dig We Must

June 17, 2009: North Korea doesn’t have much of an economy, and few exports. Some of those exports, like illegal drugs and counterfeit currency, are under constant attack by other nations and international police. Ballistic missile exports are threatened by new sanctions. That leaves nuclear weapons technology, and expertise in building tunnels and bunkers. This last item has been a staple for over a decade. North Korea engineers have been seen at many underground construction projects. This has been observed in Iran, Syria and Myanmar (Burma). The North Koreans are very good at building things underground, and will help you, for a price, in cash or trade.

Going underground has long been used to protect military installations. The French built the Maginot Line in the 1930s, and the Nazis built factories and command bunkers underground during World War II. After World War II, the Soviet Union began building vast underground facilities (mainly to help survive a nuclear war.). It was during this Soviet construction effort that the North Koreans began digging.

North Korean skill at with tunneling was first noticed during the 1950-1953 Korean War. The North Koreans, and their Chinese allies, were hard pressed by American airpower and artillery, and quickly discovered that the most reliable protection from observation, and the bombs, was by digging. Over the next half century, this led to a tunneling effort that resulted in over 8,000 underground facilities. A little over half of them are are combat positions near the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea ), where artillery and rocket launchers were kept, ready to be rolled out and fired at targets in South Korea. Other tunnels were used as headquarters, bases for military units and factories.

One of the few underground efforts that attracted much media attention were the tunnels dug beneath the DMZ. Between 1974 and 1990 four tunnels were detected by American and South Korea forces. Investigation revealed that these structures were up to 3,000 meters in length and were capable of infiltrating up to 30,000 troops an hour, including light armored vehicles and artillery. South Korean intelligence believes that up to 20 more tunnels may be lying dormant beneath the DMZ. Efforts to find these tunnels continues. Some North Koreas tunnels were dug along the shore, to shelter small combat ships and submarines. These tunnels are up to a kilometer long and 14-22 meters wide.

With this track record, the North Koreans peddle their tunneling services to whoever is willing to pay cash, be discreet and can keep secrets. Thus Iran provided North Korean tunneling expertise to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The Myanmar tunneling efforts, mostly under the newly constructed capital of Naypyidaw, 460 kilometers north of Rangoon, have largely been kept secret. That’s not difficult to do, as Myanmar has been a police state for decades.

North Korea has thousands of experienced tunnel engineers and technicians. They still have plenty of work at home, but as long as there are tyrants living in fear, the North Korean tunnel experts will always have plenty of travel opportunities.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htproc/articles/20090617.aspx
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It’s not too late to rescue Burma from further tragedy
Benedict Rogers
Published: 10:49AM BST 17 Jun 2009
It is time to treat Than Shwe as the war criminal that he is, and hold a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity, writes Benedict Rogers.

Within the past month, two new shocking chapters of misery have opened up in Burma’s decades-long tragedy.

The first is the trial, on ludicrously fabricated charges, of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who marks her 64th birthday this coming Friday. Now in the notorious Insein Prison, after over 13 years of house arrest, her trial is a blatant attempt by the regime to keep her locked up. Her continued detention is illegal under both international and Burmese law, according to the UN – which is why the regime has gone to such absurd lengths to find fresh charges.

The second is the attacks within the past week on Ler Per Hur , a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Karen State, Burma. Situated on the banks of the Moie river, opposite Thailand, Ler Per Hur has been home to more than 1,200 Karen IDPs who had fled the Burma Army’s attacks on their villages deeper inside Burma. Although it has twice been attacked before, it has for the past seven years provided a place of sanctuary and relative peace for those escaping the junta’s policies of forced labour, rape, torture, destruction of villages, crops and livestock, extrajudicial killings and conscription of villagers as human minesweepers.

I know Ler Per Hur well. I have visited many times. The people there are my friends. I have ridden in their boats, walked through their vegetable patches, played with their children and talked with new arrivals. I have brought British and Irish politicians, including John Bercow , perhaps the next Speaker of the House of Commons, there. My mother has visited, and my sister , a professional musician, has played her violin there. Now, the inhabitants of Ler Per Hur and the surrounding area have had to flee for their lives.

Over 5,000 Karen civilians are now encamped on the Thai side of the river, in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter, surrounded by the sound of mortars and RPGs. As Rainbow, a school teacher and a friend of mine, told the BBC : “Last week government troops attacked our camp. They were shelling every day … We can’t go back because the military has taken over our camp. But we can’t stay here for long either. We are illegal here … We can only hope that we’ll be able to go home soon.”

That hope, that they and the several million other Burmese refugees around the world will be able to go home soon, requires the international community to wake up. In recent years, abundant evidence has been provided of the extraordinary inhumanity of Burma’s ruling military dictator, Senior General Than Shwe. In 2007, his military beat, arrested, imprisoned and killed Buddhist monks and civilians participating in peaceful protests. Last year, he rammed through a rigged referendum on a new constitution, while denying humanitarian aid to the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

Yet rather than jolting the international community into serious action, these events appear to have increased muddled thinking among some. There are those in academia, diplomacy and major aid agencies who, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, argue that the regime shows signs of reasonableness and that all we need to do is lift sanctions and engage unconditionally. Perhaps, in some of their minds, a round of golf with the Generals would do the trick. It is as if the wind and rain of Cyclone Nargis swept through their brains – not removing the cobwebs that previously existed, but instead leaving a soggy mess behind. It gives a whole new meaning to the concept of ‘water on the brain’.

The farcical trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, combined with the intensification of the offensive against Karen civilians, must surely be a wake-up call for those who have not previously heard the sirens ring. Than Shwe is not a man with whom we can simply have a nice chat. Significant pressure, far from being a cause of his intransigence, is the only language he understands. Sanctions, rather than being lifted, need to be tightened and more carefully targeted, to hit Than Shwe and his cronies. The United Nations Security Council must impose a universal arms embargo, and the European Union – which has at last issued a statement condemning the offensives in eastern Burma – should lead the charge. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should make the release of political prisoners in Burma his personal priority, as called for in a petition signed by almost 700,000 people . And it is time to treat Than Shwe as the war criminal that he is, and hold a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity , as called for by two previous UN special rapporteurs. Such steps should be given the sense of urgency the situation deserves, by invoking the UN’s ‘Responsibility to Protect’ mechanism. That would be the most appropriate way of marking Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday.

Moreover, humanitarian aid – both within the country and especially to the IDPs on the run in the border areas – must be increased. Those who criticize pressure accuse campaigners of opposing aid. It is time to nail that lie once and for all. I know of no Burma activist who has opposed humanitarian aid, provided it is properly channeled and reaches those who need it most, without benefiting the regime. Indeed, the Burma Campaign UK and Christian Solidarity Worldwide fought hard to get the British government to increase aid to Burma in 2007, a battle we won in the face of stiff opposition from some civil servants. So while we can debate the merits of other policies, I urge those who perpetuate the lie about aid to put away their childish games and accept that on the humanitarian issue, at least, there is significant common ground. Furthermore, if they really do care about the humanitarian crisis in Burma, I hope they will join me in calling for significant emergency aid to the IDPs and refugees newly displaced as a result of the current eastern Burma crisis.

It is of course clear that Burma’s regional neighbours, notably China, India, Japan and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), have a crucial role to play. Thailand in particular must see the offensives on its border, which may amount to attempted genocide, as the last straw. China should recognize that its reputation is seriously at risk if it continues to provide economic and diplomatic support for Than Shwe’s barbaric regime. They must join the US and the EU in urging UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to increase his efforts to bring change to Burma, and supporting initiatives at the Security Council. Burma’s political and humanitarian crisis surely ranks in the same category as North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe, and as such it must receive the attention it deserves and has for so long been denied. It is not too late to rescue Burma from further tragedy, nor is the international community’s already much-tarnished moral record irredeemable – but both hang in the balance.

Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist working for Christian Solidarity Worldwide , which recently launched the Change for Burma! campaign. He is the author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma’s Karen people (Monarch Books, 2004). He has travelled almost 30 times to Burma and its borderlands, and is currently writing a biography of Senior General Than Shwe.

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit Myanmar in July
Asia-Pacific News
Jun 17, 2009, 11:12 GMT

Yangon – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Myanmar in early July to promote democratization in the country ruled by a military junta, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

‘So far as we know, the Myanmar government has generally accepted a request by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his visit is highly possible in earlier July,’ said an Asian diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous.

‘I heard that his visit is likely to be in first week of July,’ a government official said, who also requested anonymity.

Ban told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York on June 11 that he was ready to visit Myanmar and was working on the matter.

‘Promoting democratization, including the release of Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, has been one of my top priorities and it will continue to be my top priority,’ Ban said then. ‘When the time is appropriate and conditions are ripe, as I said many times, I’m ready to visit Myanmar. I’m working on that now.’

His visit could prove pivotal to Myanmar’s future democratization process, observers said.

The ruling junta has scheduled a general election in 2010, the first since 1990, but has meanwhile put opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on trial for breaking the terms of her house detention last month by allowing an American to swim into her lakeside home-cum-prison.

If found guilty, Suu Kyi may face a five-year prison term, preventing her from participating in the election process.

Her National League for Democracy party, which won the 1990 polls, has vowed not to enter the 2010 election unless Suu Kyi is freed and steps are taken to amend the military-drafted 2008 constitution that essentially cements the generals’ control over any future elected government.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1484092.php/UN_Secretary-General_Ban_Ki-moon_to_visit_Myanmar_in_July_#ixzz0IgdA4j5U&D
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Burmese High Court to Hear Aung San Suu Kyi Appeal
By VOA News
17 June 2009

Burma’s highest court says it will allow lawyers for jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to make a final appeal for the reinstatement of two defense witnesses in her trial for violating the terms of her house arrest.

Security was heavy around the courthouse Wednesday’s session as the court held a hearing on the request for an appeal.

Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest by allowing an American to stay at her lakeside home after he swam there uninvited last month.   The lower court hearing her case initially banned all but one of her witnesses from testifying on her behalf.

An appeals court reinstated one of the witnesses last week, but upheld the ban on the other two, both of them senior members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

Nyan Win, one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers, said the high court has yet to set a date to hear the appeal, which means a further delay in her trial is likely.  The next session was scheduled to for June 26.

The Nobel Peace laureate faces five years in prison if convicted on the charges.  The international community has condemned the trial, calling it a pretext for the military junta to keep her in detention through next year’s elections.

On Tuesday, five United Nations human rights investigators denounced the trial for ignoring basic standards of justice.

A petition signed by over 670,000 people from 220 countries, including several former political prisoners, has been delivered to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  The petition urges him to make it his “personal priority’ to secure the release all 2,100 Burmese political dissidents, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

The pro-democracy leader turns 64 years old this Friday.  She has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest, and is currently being held at Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison, where her trial is taking place.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962.  Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won elections in 1990, but the military refused to recognize the results.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-17-voa12.cfm
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Myanmar Supreme Court considers more witnesses in Suu Kyi case
Asia-Pacific News
Jun 17, 2009, 10:40 GMT

Yangon – Myanmar’s Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted an appeal by lawyers acting for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to consider allowing two more witnesses at her trial for breaking the terms of her household detention.

‘They have accepted our appeal but we still need to wait for a hearing date,’ Nyan Win, one of the Suu Kyi’s lawyers said.

Suu Kyi’s defence lawyers have fought to overturn a ruling by the Insein Prison court that rejected three out of four of their witnesses in Suu Kyi’s case, while allowing 14 for the prosecution.

Suu Kyi, her two household helpers and US national John William Yettaw have been accused of breaking the terms of her detention by allowing the American to swim to her Yangon lakeside home-cum-prison on May 3 and stay there until swimming away on May 5.

The Yangon Division Court on June 9 partly reversed the Insein Prion decision, allowing attorney Khin Moh Moh to appear as a witness, but barred the defence from calling senior NLD members Tin Oo and Win Tin as witnesses.

But Suu Kyi’s lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court to allow Tin Oo and Win Tin appear as witnesses. ‘We expect the high court will accept at least one of our witnesses, probably Win Tin,’ Nyan Win said.

Tin Oo, who is currently under house arrest, is vice chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which is led by Suu Kyi.

Win Tin is a central executive member of the NLD and a veteran journalist. Both men have spent much of the past 19 years in jail.

Suu Kyi was held under house arrest for six years before being transferred to Insein Prison on May 9 to stand trial for breaking the terms of that detention.

The court case against Suu Kyi is scheduled to resume on June 26 to hear the testimony of defence witness Khin Moh Moh.

Myanmar’s judiciary has little or no independence from the country’s ruling military junta, observers note. The country has been under military rule since 1962.

Suu Kyi’s trial began May 11. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.

Yettaw, a Mormon who claims to have wanted to warn Suu Kyi of an assassination attempt he had dreamt of, faces several charges, including immigration violations for visiting a prisoner while on a tourist visa and local laws for swimming illegally in Inya Lake.

The junta’s critics have accused it of using the case as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year.

The NLD won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar’s junta for the past 19 years.

The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year house detention expired May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even statements of concern from its regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1484079.php/Myanmar_Supreme_Court_considers_more_witnesses_in_Suu_Kyi_case_#ixzz0IgcJbvDL&D
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EDITORIAL
India’s stance on Burma long overdue for change
By The Nation
Published on June 17, 2009

New Delhi’s shocking silence on developments in its neighbour, particularly the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi, could come back to haunt it

It is amazing how India can be so blind towards developments in its western neighbour, Burma, and the ongoing political oppression there. The world’s largest democracy is doing a big disservice with its silence. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a man of virtue when it comes to Burma. He sounds like an accomplice with the Burmese military junta. It is beyond the regional and international community’s understanding why India keeps defending Burma – even though the junta leaders are thugs.

The conventional wisdom is that New Delhi is protecting its turf inside Burma, which has been won through drastic changes of its position 15 years ago. Lest we |forget, India used to be one of the biggest supporters of Burmese pro-democratic movements and students in exile. Then, the Indian leaders saw China’s southward influence kept expanding and spreading. Instead of helping to accelerate positive changes inside Burma, they decided to play the trade-off game plan devised by Burma.

Today, India believes that it has struck a deal with Burma along with an energy plan and the use of sea ports inside Burma. It is an open secret that India wants to counter China’s growing economic clout in the Bay of Bengal. But it will be a wasteful exercise. Just look at how wrong Asean was when Burma was admitted into the group as a way to balance the Chinese influence. Look at what has transpired in the past decade. China’s presence inside Burma, not to mention the rest of Southeast Asia, has increased rapidly and permeated the social fabric there. The best way is to manage the relations with China and play on Beijing’s growing international responsibility. Joint statements from the UN Security Council and the ministerial conference of Asia-Europe Meeting in Hanoi last month on Burma and the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi showed the adroitness of Beijing’s diplomacy and the international sentiment.

It is sad that India remains the only country – among those who matter on Burma – which still keeps quiet. More than a 100 Indian politicians have called on their government to intervene and help to free the opposition party leader and bring democracy there. Indeed, their demands were a bit too far-fetched. What India can do best is to behave like China – respond to the outcries and international sentiment. Certainly, India behaves uniquely in global affairs. But on this particular issue, the newly established government must take heed of what is going on with the farcical trial and the plight of other political prisoners. Furthermore, international solidarity is needed if there are going to be changes in Burma.

Burma has been able to get away scot-free playing one power against the other, using its rich energy and natural resources as baits. India, China as well as other countries are subjected to manipulation by Burma’s energy diplomacy. Somehow all of them, except India, do come out and express their outrage over the latest developments. But it is a shame that India continues its silence.

The time has come for India to change its soft approach to Burma. Indeed, several countries are reviewing their foreign policy towards Burma in view of the current situation. India will be a loser in the future if it continues to entertain the idea that silence is golden at this junction. New Delhi is wrong to think that it will be rewarded for its continued inaction. Like it or not, India’s international image and reputation has been tarnished greatly.

Apparently, India has not learned from its bitter history with Southeast Asia. Back in 1979, India was the only Asian odd ball that recognised the Vietnam-backed Heng-Samrin regime in Phnom Penh, much to the chagrin of Asean. Bilateral ties with the region were downgraded and took over a decade for India to catch up with Asean. When India became flexible and pragmatic, it produced great results. Look at Asean-India relations now, they have progressed tremendously.

At the moment, the very least India can do is to break its silence and support Asean’s position and the chair’s statement on Suu Kyi and call for inclusive election next year that is free and fair. Failure to do so would be a huge sham.
http://www.asianewsnet.net/news.php?id=6347&sec=3

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/06/17/opinion/opinion_30105334.php
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Human trafficking in Burma ‘a major problem’

June 17, 2009 (DVB)–Human trafficking within Burma remains “significant”, whilst trafficking of young women into forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation is a “major problem”, according to a US state department report.

The Trafficking in Persons report cited statistics released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that estimate that at least 12.3 million people worldwide are in forced labour, bonded labour or commercial sexual exploitation.

Many Burmese women and children are being trafficked to Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Korea, China and Malaysia, the latter two often for forced marriage.

Within Burma, however, the problem was “significant”. Trafficking of girls for the purpose of prostitution “persisted as a major problem, particularly in urban areas”, and was seen to drive Burma’s reputation as “a destination country for child sex tourism”.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the phenomenon as “modern slavery” that “weakens legitimate economies, fuels violence, threatens public health and safety, shatters families, and shreds the social fabric that is necessary for progress.”

The report also highlighted the ongoing phenomenon of forced recruitment of children into armed ethnic groups and the Burmese army, the latter largely as a result of increasing cases of desertion of adult soldiers.

The recruitment of child soldiers is often seen as a means of maintaining the Burmese army’s troop levels, with children often bearing the brunt of its frequent recruitment drives.

“The military junta’s gross economic mismanagement, human rights abuses, and its continued widespread use of forced labor are among the top causal factors for Burma’s significant trafficking problem,” the report said.

Complainants of forced labour are ostensibly protected under the ‘supplementary understanding’ agreement the ILO has with the Burmese government, although in 15 of the 152 cases reported to the ILO since 1997, the organization has received information alleging harassment or reprisals by government authorities.

Earlier this month the ILO called a revision of a clause in the Burmese constitution that justified use of forced labour “in duties assigned by the Union in accord with the law in the interest of the public”.

In 2002 Human Rights Watch named the Burmese government as the world’s leading recruiter of child soldiers.

The US report did note however that the regime had made “significant efforts” with regards to tackling commercial sexual exploitation, although overall the government “is not making significant efforts to comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking”.

Reporting by Francis Wade http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2634

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