AFP – US Senate women urge Suu Kyi freedomCNN News – Myanmar’s Suu Kyi turns 64 in prison

The Newsweek Magazine – The Lady by the Lake

UPI – Advocates urge support for Myanmar

Wall Street Journal – Raising The Stakes In Burma

Wall Street Journal – In Myanmar, Two Hidden Worlds

Wall Street Journal – Photo Journal: Inside Yangon, Myanmar

Wall Street Journal – Myanmar’s Reclusive Leader

The Star Online – 14 Myanmar nationals detained in illegal gathering

Xinhua – Myanmar’s second top leader concludes China tour

VOA News – Human Rights Group Condemns Trial of Aung San Suu Kyi

VOV News – GMS Ministerial Conference held in Thailand

The Bangkok Post – ASEAN: Activists, academics call on grouping to suspend Burma

The Japan Times – Ban June visit to touch on North, U.N. reform; Myanmar trip sought

The Irish Times – Council calls for release of Burma’s Suu Kyi

Mizzima News – Parliamentarians seek expulsion of Burma from ASEAN

The Irrawaddy – Calling the Shots

DVB News – Loss of Karen bases a ‘strategic’ move by KNU

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US Senate women urge Suu Kyi freedom
Fri Jun 19, 7:21 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The 17 women serving in the US Senate made a joint appeal Friday for the release of Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she spent her 64th birthday in prison.

The 17 of the 50 US senators who are female issued a joint statement voicing solidarity with the Nobel Peace laureate.

“The military junta has tried for years to stifle the will of the people and silence the voice of Suu Kyi through a brutal campaign of violence and oppression,” they said.

“Yet Aung San Suu Kyi remains a beacon of hope for a future of democracy, the rule of law and human rights,” they said.

The Women’s Caucus of the US Senate is headed by Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat representing California, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican from Texas.

Activists around the world rallied Friday for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest.

The democracy icon is now on trial at Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her home.

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Myanmar’s Suu Kyi turns 64 in prison
updated 10:47 a.m. EDT, Fri June 19, 2009

(CNN) — Myanmar pro-democracy figure Aung San Suu Kyi turned 64 in prison Friday, while a judge considers when to hear her appeal to allow more witnesses at her subversion trial.

Suu Kyi, under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, had been expected to be freed by the military junta last month, until the new subversion charge was filed.

“Today is Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday and it is a tragedy that she will spend it in prison as the Burmese regime pursues its absurd and contemptible sham trial of her,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday, using the name for Myanmar preferred by many Western governments.

“On this day, I and all of Europe call again for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release,” he said. “She’s an inspiration to me and to all those that fight for human rights, for democracy, and for a better and fairer world.”

Brown was speaking in Brussels, Belgium, just after the European Council called for her immediate unconditional release.

Thousands of supporters left birthday messages of 64 words or less for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate on a Web site created for the occasion.

This message, posted late Thursday, was signed by a woman in the United Kingdom:

“This message isn’t going to be remarkable. 64 words are not enough for this injustice, not that 64 million would be; but I hope you find them heartening. I am just one of many wishing the world fairer, and you are one of so few self-sacrificing for just that outcome. You are an inspiration, a fighting soul and an aspiration; a hero. Stay strong.”

Another supporter in Norway wrote:

“People around the world have followed your fight for freedom and democracy for the people of Burma. God bless you!”

Suu Kyi is accused of violating her house arrest by offering temporary shelter to American John William Yettaw, who swam to her lakeside home on May 3. She said she doesn’t know Yettaw, didn’t know of his plans and didn’t do anything wrong.

The trial is taking place near Yangon at Insean Prison, where Suu Kyi has been held since last month.

Her supporters say the arrest is meant to keep her confined so she cannot participate in the general elections that the junta has scheduled for next year.

On Wednesday Myanmar’s highest court decided to hear her appeal for more witnesses at her trial, according to Nyan Win, spokesman for her National League for Democracy.
A hearing was set for Friday to decide when that appeal will be heard.

Her latest round of home detention — after five years of confinement — expired last month, according to her supporters at home and abroad.

Though the government said it considered releasing her at the end of the term, it said it had no choice but to try her after she met with Yettaw.

She was put under house arrest in 1989. The following year, the National League for Democracy won more than 80 percent of the legislative seats in the first free elections in the country in nearly 30 years.

But the military junta disqualified Suu Kyi from serving because of her house arrest, refused to step down and annulled the results.

Since then, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has been the face of the Myanmar pro-democracy movement.

As for the trial itself, U.N. human rights experts weighed in Tuesday, calling for Myanmar to ensure a fair trial for Suu Kyi.

“The five experts called upon the authorities of Myanmar to allow the justice system to function in an independent and impartial manner, so as to guarantee an open and fair trial for the defendants, and to grant unfettered media access,” the expert said in a statement.

“So far, 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 special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

The United Nations said the proceedings have “mostly been conducted behind closed doors and the media have been denied access to defense lawyers.”

“Transparency in the administration of justice is a pre-requisite of any state governed by the rule of law,” Despouy said.

The experts noted that the defense had only been permitted to present one witness and another was granted permission to give testimony. In comparison, the U.N. said, the prosecution has called 14 witnesses.

“The court must ensure that all witnesses who may have relevant evidence are able to testify,” Despouy said.

Benjamin Zawacki, Myanmar researcher for Amnesty International, said the issue of the fairness of the trial is a diversion. Suu Kyi, he said, should never have been seized in the first place and should be released “immediately and unconditionally. ”

He said the trial at first looked as if it would end quickly. But the regime, by extending the trial for appeals, is trying to give the impression to the outside world that it is a fair proceeding.

“They are trying to deflect international attention,” he said.

Zawacki also said they are working to persuade China — “their most effective and consistent protector” — to stave off any backlash in the U.N. Security Council.

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The Newsweek Magazine – The Lady by the Lake
A visit to Aung San Suu Kyi’s neighborhood, as an anxious country awaits justice, Burmese style.
By F. de Burgo-Naughton | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jun 19, 2009

After the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi began, I visited Rangoon. The road barriers and heavy security outside her home, which I’d seen on a previous trip, were gone. “She doesn’t live there anymore,” my taxi driver told me as we drove past her compound gate. What was once a tightly controlled thoroughfare was now just like any other potholed road in Rangoon, Burma’s biggest city and former capital (which the regime calls Yangon). A very bored-looking policeman sat outside the residence. After he ordered me to walk on the opposite side of the road, I gave him a thumbs-up in response—and got a toothy smile and a wave. Two blue police trucks were parked by the house with riot shields fastened to the sides. But the place seemed almost deserted, as if nobody expected Suu Kyi back any time soon.

What a contrast compared with the tight security I encountered in March, when Suu Kyi was still under house arrest. Back then she was due to be released on May 27, having spent 14 of the past two decades in detention, ever since her return from Britain in 1988. I took a local taxi—a beaten-up old wreck of a thing, as are most of the other cars and trucks on Rangoon’s roads—and simply asked the driver to take me near “the Lady’s house.” It wasn’t an enormously long distance to the far end of University Avenue, but the driver’s silence and my own apprehension made it seem longer.

As we drew close to barricades and security personnel, with several military-transport vehicles not far away, the driver slowed down and then stopped. “Go past the barricades—if you can—and it’s up on your left,” the driver muttered. I got out and, heart pounding, walked up to the barbed-wire fencing and barrier gates that blocked the entire road.

A policeman came up and asked, “Can I help you?” I blurted, “I’d like to see Aung San Suu Kyi’s house.” After some perfunctory questions (designed to determine I wasn’t a journalist) and perusal of my passport, he said, “OK, follow me.”

The policeman walked beside me and launched into some surreal, mundane questions in broken English. Did I like Arsenal or Manchester United football teams? What did I think of David Beckham? Will I be here for the Water Splashing Festival national holiday? I should stay because it is good fun. Will I go to Bagan, the ancient capital, with its ruined temples and pagodas? I should go, because it is very beautiful there. He kept up this banter the whole way, watching me carefully, actively distracting me.

Coming to a nondescript, closed compound gate, I had to stop and ask, “So this is her house?” He answered, “Yes, yes. Come, it’s getting late”—and then pointedly laid his palm on my left elbow. I wasn’t going to push my luck; I allowed him to escort me away from the gate to the barricades at the far end of the road. There the policeman said goodbye. Some soldiers leaning against a truck stopped chatting as I walked past, then guffawed loudly at my back.

Her residence has been a longtime rallying point for the nation’s democracy activists. A year after the military’s bloody suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations in August 1988, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for the first time. From the gates of her compound she’s addressed thousands of supporters over the years. It was from this vantage point, in September 2007, that she greeted hundreds of assembled Buddhist monks during the biggest antigovernment protests since 1988.

Sparked by the junta’s decision to allow fuel prices to rise almost 60 percent, the monk-led demonstrations were joined by thousands of locals voicing dissatisfaction with the military government. Protest marches sprang up in other cities, but they ended in bloodshed. The regime’s official death toll was 13; the real figure is believed to be much higher.

After my close encounter with Suu Kyi’s closed gate, I wound up in a noisy restaurant in Rangoon’s Chinatown, where I met Mo. His full name cannot be printed for fear of recrimination. Mo came from Kachin, a state in the northeast of the country, and was visiting family in Rangoon. We chatted over cold Myanmar beers and a feast of fried peanuts, shrimp and pickled tea leaves. I asked him what it meant to be Burmese and where he thought Burma was heading. “I am a person first, Burmese second and a Muslim last,” he said, looking at the Buddhist rosary beads wrapped around my wrist, which I’d picked up at the Shwedagon Pagoda. His burly body shook in merriment at the thought of a white-skinned Buddhist.

But Mo’s eyes suddenly narrowed as his gaze settled on a young couple sitting nearby; he had figured out that the man was from the military. “But people like him, the Army, I hate them … We cannot be people because of them. I hate them,” he repeated. Then he laughed. I asked about the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the elections promised for next year. “With the Lady in prison, what can we do? She is everything to us. Without her, she …” Mo’s words broke off. He winced; his eyes reddened and began to tear. “I’m sorry … the smoke in here,” he said calmly. And laughed again.

These days the roads of Rangoon are filled with motorbikes, Chinese-made bicycles converted to trishaws and ancient Japanese rustbuckets. Occasionally, nearly invisible drivers behind the black tinted windows of brand-new Mercedeses—official cars—roar past as if, well, as if they own the place. As in any dictatorship, only the upper echelons of the military gain from stripping the country of its natural resources. Burma exported US$2.49 billion worth of gas alone in 2008, mainly to member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus South Korea, Japan and China, the latter of which is currently working on a US$2.5 billion cross-border oil and gas pipeline. Little of that money trickles down. Every shop and market in Rangoon’s city center appears to survive hand-to-mouth, while the suburbs languish in a state of decay.

During my current visit, I stopped at a “beer station” restaurant where University Avenue meets the southeastern tip of Inya Lake. Many cops stationed in the area come here for a pint of Myanmar beer and a bite to eat; some slightly more officious-looking men in smart shirts and silk longyis knock back Johnnie Walker Red by the bottle. Just beyond my table a taxi driver, who said his name was Tin, leaned against the door of his car chewing betel nut—a local stimulant—and spitting the blood-red juices onto the road. I asked him about the lifting of the roadblocks. “Oh, yes, they did that last week or so,” Tin said. “Aung San Suu Kyi is in prison now, so no need [to block the road].”

Very little seems to be known here about the American named John Yettaw, who is also standing trial, except for the fact that he was arrested for illegally entering Suu Kyi’s compound by swimming across Inya Lake. As a result of his actions, she will most likely now be sentenced to another prison term. And without a leader, the pro-democracy opposition party will face serious challenges come election time. Grassroots Burmese are puzzled and disappointed by Yettaw’s actions. “When I read about the American swimming to her house I didn’t believe it; they often say bad things about her in the newspapers,” Min, a university student from Mandalay studying in Rangoon, told me. “I don’t understand how anyone would do that.”

Min is 25 and says he’ll vote for the NLD in the elections next year—if they take place. He said many students are angry about Suu Kyi’s fate. “She is the daughter of Gen. Aung San [Burma's postwar independence leader]. He wanted freedom for the people, and so does she,” he said emphatically. “I hate our government.”

People talk about her final court hearing and sentencing—which could come as soon as the end of the month—as a foregone conclusion. In a downtown teahouse, I asked a retired schoolteacher how he thinks Suu Kyi’s trial will affect the elections slated for 2010. “Well, the government was going to win anyway,” said the teacher, who’d been educated by Christian missionaries. Asking not to be named in print because he feared retaliation, he said he was an NLD member, but sees very little hope for change in the wake of the 2007 crackdown, and especially now. “That American did no good,” he said. “But now it’s too late.”

Suu Kyi, her two live-in aides and Yettaw await the verdicts. A decade ago, two British pro-democracy activists were arrested in Burma. In 1999, Rachel Goldwyn was suddenly released after serving two months of a seven-year sentence; in 2000, James Mawdsley was released after serving 14 months of a 17-year sentence. Yettaw may face a similar fate.

As for Suu Kyi and her aides, it’s more than likely they’ll receive prison sentences. Burma watchers guess she could get five years. But with mounting international pressure, that may be reduced by the military government to show its “magnanimity. ” However, one thing seems more than certain: if the regime goes ahead with elections in 2010, it will try to ensure yet another vote in which Aung San Suu Kyi, and the National League for Democracy that she heads, have virtually no chance at victory.

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Advocates urge support for Myanmar
Published: June 20, 2009 at 4:47 PM

YANGON, Myanmar, June 20 (UPI) — The future of Myanmar may lay in the hands of international powers willing to negotiate with the troubled country’s military regime, advocates say.

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that human rights advocates are urging Western governments to become more actively involved with the Myanmar government in order to improve the quality of life for the country’s residents.

The advocates, along with U.S. congressional leaders and dissidents, also support increased pressure on Myanmar’s trading partners, such as China and Singapore, to push the military regime toward making wholesale changes.

U.S. and European officials have attempted to bring about change in Myanmar with a decade of sanctions, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in February such efforts were not working.

The Journal said another key concern for the international community regarding Myanmar are analysts’ predictions the country could soon become a nuclear power.

Russia and Myanmar reached an agreement in 2007 paving the way for a nuclear research center and reactor in the southeastern Asian country formerly known as Burma.

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JUNE 19, 2009, 8:08 P.M. ET
Wall Street Journal – Raising The Stakes In Burma
(From THE FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW)
By Ian Holliday

On May 18, a closed court inside Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison assembled for the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, opposition leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and repository of hope for Burmese near and far. The charge was violation of the terms of the house arrest to which the democratic icon has been subjected on and off for nearly 14 of the past 20 years. The circumstance that provoked it was a nocturnal swim across Inya Lake by American adventurer John Yettaw, who washed up at Daw Suu’s dilapidated University Avenue villa on May 3. He was grudgingly allowed to recuperate for a day or two before returning across the lake into the custody of what pass for the forces of law and order in Burma. The sentence, should a guilty verdict be found, could be a prison term of up to five years. Also arraigned alongside Aung San Suu Kyi in Criminal Case No. 47/2009 were her two female companions for her period of house arrest and the stranger in the night.

The initial reaction to this latest twist in the long-running Burma saga was outrage. Close to Insein Prison, brave huddles of largely silent witnesses gathered under the watchful eye of a heavy security presence. In downtown Rangoon and some other cities, small scale acts of protest were launched. In the world outside a wave of revulsion gained expression in street marches, an ongoing signature campaign, celebrity sound bites, and official rebukes from the United Nations Security Council and numerous governments. Unusually, some states in Burma’s neighborhood also issued condemnations, though the key Asian powers, China and India, maintained their customary silence on Burma’s internal affairs. The common call sent up by all voices was for paramount leader Senior General Than Shwe and the ruling State Peace and Development Council to free both Aung San Suu Kyi and a further 2,100 political prisoners so that national reconciliation talks and a genuine transition to democracy might take place.

Alongside this storm of indignation and protest, there was also a broad feeling that the pretext for Than Shwe to move against Aung San Suu Kyi was unbelievably and unbearably ill-timed. Even by its own laws, the junta appeared to have no legal mechanism for extending the house arrest of the National League for Democracy leader.

Imposed following the Depayin massacre of May 2003, when around 100 NLD supporters were murdered in a premeditated attack on Aung San Suu Kyi’s convoy, and customarily extended at the end of May each year, this was widely believed to have an immutable six-year expiry date of May 27. The appearance, from nowhere, of an American intruder bearing gifts, Mormon books and prayers looked to be a heaven-sent opportunity for the junta to press fresh charges and reset the clock on its famous captive. With a tightly choreographed general election scheduled for 2010, and Aung San Suu Kyi still a potent political threat, most analysts predicted a perfunctory trial, a premeditated verdict and a harsh sentence. “Everyone is very angry with this wretched American,” said NLD lawyer Kyi Win. “He is the cause of all these problems. He’s a fool.”

By May 20, the third day of the trial, however, it was already clear that locking up the opposition leader and throwing away the key for another five years was not going to be easy. On this day, the junta sought to still the raging storm of global protest by briefly opening the trial to 29 foreign diplomats and 10 Burmese journalists. “I hope to meet you again in better times,” Daw Suu said as she was led back to her cell. But this minor concession did little to placate the junta’s critics. In a BBC interview, British Ambassador Mark Canning denounced the proceedings as a “show trial.” On CNN, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon decried an “unacceptable situation” and pledged to visit Burma “as soon as possible” to “urge again the release of political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.” The consequence was that by May 21, day four of the trial, it was not the opposition but rather the junta that was lamenting Mr. Yettaw’s unanticipated intervention in Burmese politics. According to Foreign Minister Nyan Win, this was “synchronized foul play” by “internal and external antigovernment elements” designed to embarrass and distract the regime.

At a time when all can see that the stakes have been raised in Burmese politics, what then might be the fallout from the Yettaw incident? For years, Than Shwe and Aung San Suu Kyi have engaged in an almost ritualistic stand-off, with the paramount leader projecting xenophobic nationalism and condemning all foreign influence, and the democratic siren appealing to universal values and demanding that her country rejoin the global society of nations. As one holds Weber’s monopoly on violence and exhibits few qualms about exploiting it, and the other occupies the moral high ground and shows no sign of vacating it, an established routine plays itself out. Little ever changes. Will this time be any different? Some 20 years on from Aung San Suu Kyi’s first confinement under house arrest in July 1989, might an end game finally ensue?

On the side of the ruling SPDC, the attempt to break free from the moral shackles in which Aung San Suu Kyi has long encased it resides above all in the 2010 general election. This is the culmination of a two-decade junta search for political legitimacy that, as a result of global pressure, is informed by the dominant liberal view that legitimacy flows from democratic elections. In the immediate aftermath of a September 1988 coup, which saw a formal junta seize control from a collapsing military-backed regime and quickly crush the mass movement associated with the 8-8-88 revolt, senior generals promised to hold elections and transfer power to an elected government.

However, their first attempt to deliver on this promise did not go to plan and, long before the May 1990 general election was won in a landslide by the NLD, junta leaders had substituted for their pledge a commitment to convene a constitutional convention. In the event, they did not even do that until 1993, and then they stuffed the assembly with cronies and denied seats to many NLD members elected in 1990.

Nevertheless, the convention labored through an NLD boycott and a lengthy suspension of activity to produce a constitution that was put to a national referendum soon after Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008. The declared result, an implausible 92% support on a yet more implausible 98% turnout, enabled the junta to move to the general election that since August 2003 has formed the centerpiece of a seven-stage roadmap to democracy. That election, scheduled for an as yet unspecified date next year, is widely expected to produce a handsome victory for junta-backed parties. Then a formal power transfer will take place, and a constitutional government will take office. In this scenario, the end game is a transition to what the junta calls discipline-flourish ing democracy, in which discipline is generated by ample constitutional safeguards for military control, and democracy is guided down a very narrow path. Implicit in it will be a final laying to rest of the specter of 1990.

On the side of the opposition, the attempt to overturn the monopoly of violence long held by Than Shwe is in key respects the obverse of junta strategy. Possessed of a moral mandate ever since the brutal crushing of the 1988 mass uprising, and of a popular mandate ever since the landslide victory in 1990, the opposition has for nearly 20 years appealed for implementation of its electoral triumph. It thus demanded a swift transfer of power in 1990, majority representation in the constitutional convention in 1993 and the convening of the 1990 parliament at many points thereafter. More recently, it has sought national reconciliation talks designed to bring together democratic forces, ethnic minority leaders and the military junta in a shared quest for genuine democratic reform. By extension, leading figures in the opposition movement are widely expected to call for a boycott of the 2010 general election, which they regularly denounce as a sham.

Furthermore, finding that typically their demands are not even partially met, leading opposition figures have frequently supported external measures designed to force the junta to fall in line with their agenda. Chief among these are sanctions, applied comprehensively by the United States and no more than half-heartedly by some of its allies. In this scenario, the end game is a suspension of plans for a 2010 general election. In place of the generals’ roadmap will emerge an elite-led national debate about liberal democracy in a Burmese setting, and possibly an interim government formed from the 1990 election result and charged with overseeing a full transition to democracy. Implicit in it will be not a slaying of the dragon of 1990, but rather its revival through an inclusive national reconciliation process.

How, then, does the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi impact on these contending strategies and end games? In proceeding against the NLD leader, the junta has upped the ante on what has always been a dual bet. Internally, it figures that putting its nemesis behind bars for a lengthy period will minimize the risk of nasty surprises on the road to 2010. Externally, it assumes that key regional players will once again be sufficiently tolerant, indifferent or craven to ensure that the chorus of disapproval raining down from the U.S. and its allies will fall on deaf ears in its neighborhood, and allow it to continue to unfold its roadmap to discipline-flourish ing democracy.

On both counts, the junta’s bet could be shrewd. On the first, it has long been clear to the generals that Aung San Suu Kyi is a far more potent domestic force when free than when incarcerated, and that almost any amount of foreign censure is worth tolerating to keep her out of the public arena. On the second, with China and India vying for strategic influence and many regional players seeking access to abundant resource holdings and preferring not to see instability in Burma, the junta’s strategy has invariably been winning. It is true that following harsh military repression of the saffron uprising in September 2007, China allowed some criticism to flow from the U.N. Security Council and worked behind the scenes to open up a modicum of access for a U.N. envoy. Also, in the wake of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations prevailed upon the SPDC to join it in forming a trilateral partnership with the U.N. to facilitate humanitarian access to affected regions. On the whole, however, the junta has not been forced outside its comfort zone.

Faced with the junta’s raised stakes on this dual wager, opposition forces both inside and outside Burma thus have their work cut out to ensure that the patent nonsense of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial backfires and exposes the SPDC for what it is: power-hungry, paranoid and corrupt. To bring this beguiling prospect into sharper and closer relief, they must seize the chance the show trial has given them.

Inside Burma, a lengthy prison term for the NLD leader could trigger some protest. While always fraught with immense danger in the SPDC’s garrison state of fear, renewed street demonstrations cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, any action in the democracy arena could have repercussions elsewhere. At present, the junta is enmeshed in delicate negotiations with minority ethnic groups aimed at incorporating their militias into the national army as border patrols, and channeling all political activity into parties contesting the 2010 election.

However, the challenges it faces on this front may not be containable, particularly if unrest is building in other parts of the polity. Indeed, at that point even an army revolt is conceivable. Knock-on impacts that could undermine the junta’s carefully scripted political development and force it to compromise with the pro-democracy movement and minority ethnic groups are no longer unthinkable.

Outside Burma, the critical task is to build real pressure on the SPDC to pull back from its unyielding pursuit of a self-serving political agenda. Here, the key issue remains unchanged: convincing China of the need for substantive reform. It is now well understood that this will not be done by documenting human-rights violations in extrajudicial killings, forced labor and pervasive repression, denouncing Burma’s democratic deficit, or exposing the endemic corruption of a kleptocratic regime. What could trigger a rethink in Beijing is, however, the looming prospect of unrest, disorder and violence on China’s southwestern frontier.

Moreover, following a series of troubling events, such as the abrupt and unexplained shift of the Burmese capital to Naypyidaw in November 2005, the crude crushing of the saffron uprising in September 2007, and the callous early response to the humanitarian emergency created by Cyclone Nargis, it is possible that Beijing could be persuaded to look for alternative ways forward. It is already said that Chinese leaders do not share the junta’s view of Aung San Suu Kyi as a stooge of foreign powers bent on imposing neoimperialist control on Burma. From here it is not such a large step to a gradual process of mediated change that allows the junta to retain control in the medium term, but also sees opposition forces and minority ethnic groups incorporated into the political process.

For Western powers publicly committed to reformulating their Burma policies, and for Asian powers more than usually discomfited by the odious junta in their midst, a critical phase is thus opening up. The treatment meted out to Aung San Suu Kyi means that Western states cannot be expected to dismantle their political and economic sanctions. In fact, they are now being augmented. At the same time, however, sanctions can be partnered by fresh initiatives.

In the political realm, the aggressive diplomacy increasingly advocated in the U.S. would be welcome. Such diplomacy should seek to bring China and other Asian powers into a united front designed to engage not only Burma’s generals, but also its people led by the democratic opposition and minority ethnic groups, in a national debate about substantive political reform. Also urgently needed is a total rethink of aid policies aimed at enhancing humanitarian access to a population with less support than any needy citizenry on earth. Ultimately, once key way markers have been reached, economic sanctions must also be dismantled, and enlightened global corporations advertising a broad commitment to social responsibility must be encouraged to invest in Burma to help build an economic foundation for sustainable democracy.

None of this will be easy, for isolationist policies crafted over two decades by states in the U.S. orbit have had the intended effect of severing contact between Burma and key parts of the outside world. Indeed, at the end of so much separation and stalemate, Burma’s most probable political future may well be more of the same. It remains entirely possible that the junta will succeed in extending its incarceration of Aung San Suu Kyi, rolling out its general election, manipulating the vote and the outcome, and installing in power a civilian version of itself. While this would represent some change, and put in place a set of political institutions with the potential for further growth, it would not be the paradigm shift sought by so many. Equally, however, by raising the stakes in its titanic struggle with the NLD leader, the junta has exposed itself to the risk that events could finally spiral out of control.

Either way, building bridges into Burma remains the essential task, both to open a closed and fettered nation to diverse voices and influences, and to provide a helping hand for what is only ever going to be a difficult transition to democracy.
—
Mr. Holliday is dean of social sciences at the University of Hong Kong.

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ASIA NEWS – JUNE 20, 2009, 10:20 A.M. ET
Wall Street Journal – In Myanmar, Two Hidden Worlds
Amid privations, its regime prospers by trading with China and India
By WALL SREET JOURNAL REPORTERS

This grandiose new city has four-lane highways that are largely empty, a gems museum with sapphires and a zoo with air-conditioned Arctic habitats for penguins. Government officials reside in high-security compounds that can’t be visited by foreigners.

A five-hour drive to the south, residents in Yangon get by with hours at a time of no electricity. Their once-grand city is filled with collapsing Victorian mansions and abandoned colonial administrative buildings. Roads are often impassable during monsoon rains, and most cars date to the 1980s or early 1990s. Some taxis are so worn out that they have holes in the floorboards that allow passengers to see the road rushing by underneath.

In her home outside Yangon, a woman says she makes 75 cents a day selling firewood. Meanwhile, villages like Monywa are doing well due to trade with Asia.

The divide between Myanmar’s shining new capital, home to much of its military elite, and its commercial capital underscores the failure of a decade of U.S. and European sanctions, efforts to break the country’s military regime by cutting it off from doing business with much of the Western world. Instead, the country’s leaders and top businessmen have survived and even thrived by replacing Western buyers with Asian ones. Trade with China has more than doubled over the past five years, and sales of natural gas and other resources to Thailand, India and other Asian powers are also growing quickly. In the process, the regime has only tightened its grip.

All that is leading dissidents, human rights advocates and congressional leaders to an increasingly widespread conclusion: It’s time for a new approach. Many believe it will require a far greater effort by Western governments to engage directly with the secretive regime. It will also require exerting more pressure on Asian trading partners, including China and Singapore, to pressure the junta to curb human rights abuses and make other changes. Many advocates are calling for more radical approaches, including offering to dismantle some of the sanctions —albeit with threats of more serious actions, such as arms embargoes or criminal tribunals like ones in Rwanda or Sudan, if the regime doesn’t reform.

Others go so far as to propose that the West should accept a diminished role for Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s leading opposition figure. The Nobel laureate is arguably the world’s most revered prisoner of conscience since Nelson Mandela, but she has drawn criticism for her inflexibility in dealing with the regime. It’s unclear when, or if, she’ll be able to lead the opposition again. The 64-year-old is on trial for letting an American well-wisher visit her home this May in violation of a longstanding house arrest, and faces up to five more years in jail.

In February, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that past strategies including sanctions weren’t working, and promised the U.S. would conduct a thorough review—still incomplete—of its policies towards Myanmar. Top officials in the Obama administration are also hoping to significantly increase humanitarian aid, according to people familiar with the matter, which many Myanmar experts hope will be a step towards rebuilding a civil society that could mature into a new opposition movement to supplement or replace Ms. Suu Kyi.

Myanmar has suffered decades of economic decay under the rule of a secretive military regime cut off from the Western world. Advocates say the West needs to find new ways to engage the regime to speed up reform.

Once dismissed as a backwater, Myanmar has seen its profile rise dramatically in recent years because of its position between China and India, the world’s two biggest emerging superpowers. Both are jockeying for Myanmar’s natural gas, copper and other resources, and Myanmar offers China a potential alternate overland route for oil and gas, bypassing the crowded Strait of Malacca near Singapore that handles much of East Asia’s supply today.

Trade with China jumped to more than $2.6 billion in 2008 from about $630 million in 2001, according to Chinese government data. Analysts say the official numbers vastly understate the full extent of China’s investments in Myanmar. In downtown Yangon, its commercial capital, trucks laden with massive logs or other goods—sometimes with Chinese characters painted on the side of the vehicles—are a common sight.

Monywa, once a relatively minor village in central Myanmar, has emerged as a major trading center for beans and other legumes, commodities in heavy demand across Asia, especially India. Myanmar is now the world’s second biggest exporter of the crops after Canada, and Monywa has reaped the rewards. It has quadrupled in size to 400,000 people over the past two decades. The number of traders has grown to roughly 1,000 from 200 in the 1990s and multistory homes with Greek columns are commonplace, as are imported SUVs, which can cost $100,000 in Myanmar.

In places like Monywa, “it’s easy to make money,” says one local trader in his 20s.

Some analysts and U.S. congressional leaders fear Myanmar could become a nuclear threat. Russia has acknowledged signing an agreement with Myanmar in 2007 to help build a nuclear reactor and a center for nuclear research there, reportedly for medical research purposes, but Russian officials have said no concrete projects ever materialized. Others point to growing ties between Myanmar and North Korea.

Any new diplomatic initiative from the U.S. would require finding a way to deal with one of the world’s most reclusive regimes. Top officials—including the country’s senior-most general, a psychological warfare expert in his 70s named Than Shwe—are ensconced in Naypyitaw. Members of the inner circle rarely meet with Western ambassadors, who remain in Yangon.

Attempts to reach the regime for this article were unsuccessful. The generals typically make their views known through state-run newspapers. In recent weeks they have blasted foreign countries for interfering in Myanmar’s internal affairs and defended the imprisonment of Ms. Suu Kyi as necessary for public security.

The government usually prohibits foreign journalists from entering. Authorized guests, including aid workers, often must get permission to travel outside Yangon. Residents can be imprisoned if caught aiding international journalists.

In the 1800s, British soldiers conquered what used to be known as Burma. It became the world’s biggest rice exporter and a major source of timber. In the late 1940s, nationalists led by Ms. Suu Kyi’s father, Aung San, secured independence. Aung San was assassinated and in 1962 the military took over for good, implementing a series of disastrous socialist policies that sent the economy into a tailspin.

Anger boiled over in 1988 student protests, in which more than 3,000 were killed, and the government agreed to hold national elections. When Ms. Suu Kyi’s party won, the military ignored the result.

The U.S. banned new American investments in Myanmar in 1997, and in 2003 it outlawed imports of Myanmar goods and restricted American banks from doing business there. The Bush administration added additional targeted sanctions against members of the regime.

The practical effect of the sanctions, though, has been to push the regime deeper into the arms of China and other Asian powers, while leaving much of the rest of society to suffer the consequences. Per capita gross domestic product is about $1,200, only slightly higher than Rwanda, and far below Singapore’s $52,000 and $47,000 in the U.S.
In Yangon, U.S. trade restrictions ripped apart the garment industry earlier this decade, throwing as many as 80,000 young women out of work, according to economists.

Trucks filled with soldiers are seen often, as are signs with pro-government messages such as one that exhorts residents to “Crush all internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy.”

In Yangon’s central business district there are offices or billboards for many of Asia’s biggest brand names, including Mitsubishi and Canon, but almost no sign of Western companies. Thai oil and gas producer PTT Exploration & Production PCL has Myanmar investments that provide about one-third of Thailand’s natural gas needs, worth $2 billion or more in recent years. Cnooc Ltd. is exploring for oil and a number of Chinese resources and engineering firms are involved in hydropower and mining ventures.

Much of the money flows directly to the regime and its allies. According to the U.S. government, the military owns a majority stake in virtually all enterprises responsible for extracting natural resources. The government is now sitting on more than $3 billion in foreign exchange reserves, compared to just $30 million in 1988. Wealthier residents, including businessmen linked by U.S. intelligence reports to the military, have access to art galleries, pricey French restaurants and shopping trips to Singapore.

Adding to the frustration is evidence that Ms. Suu Kyi’s opposition is in tatters. Leaders of Ms. Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy, are in their 70s and 80s, and the junta has imprisoned most of the younger blood, exiles and human rights groups say, with more than 2,000 political prisoners now under lock and key. The government has also pressured monasteries to purge monks involved in 2007 street protests, and it routinely blocks blogs and Web sites, such as youtube, that it deems to be subversive.

“Almost no one is willing to join the (opposition) party for fear of being arrested,” said one resident. Party leaders meet regularly at their headquarters, a modest house surrounded by shops on a busy street in central Yangon; it’s widely assumed the building and its occupants are monitored by the government.

Another resident said she started attending meetings at NLD headquarters when Ms. Suu Kyi’s trial began, but stopped because she felt they were going nowhere. “They were old, they were like aunties and uncles,” said the young woman, who thought the meetings felt “like a reunion” for old dissidents. Without Ms. Suu Kyi, “there is no one,” she said.

Even some dissidents who support sanctions say additional tactics are needed, including more direct engagement with the regime. Others believe the sanctions would be more effective if fine-tuned to focus only on the junta members themselves, or backed up with more potent punishments, including arms embargoes or criminal tribunals.

More than 50 U.S. congressmen signed a letter in recent weeks calling for a U.N. Security Council inquiry into alleged crimes against humanity in Myanmar, similar to what occurred in Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan. The United Nations’ former special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, has issued similar calls in the past six weeks, as has a team of leading jurists in conjunction with Harvard Law School.

Those efforts may well be blocked at the U.N. by nations that have defended Myanmar in the past, notably China and Russia. But backers say the U.S. hasn’t been willing to press hard enough to get Asian nations to get tough on Myanmar.

Another option gaining popularity in Washington: significantly boosting humanitarian aid, partly to build stronger groups to counter the military.

One group is Myanmar Egress, a local think tank set up in 2006 by young intellectuals with the goal of trying to end the stalemate between the government and Ms. Suu Kyi’s backers. Egress has produced studies for the government outlining its vision for reform. In one, co-founder and former Yale student Nay Win Maung suggested that Ms. Suu Kyi propose to contest only 50% of the seats in an election planned by the regime in 2010. In return for effectively conceding the vote, the government would end her house arrest and release political prisoners.

Mr. Maung’s approach has angered some Myanmar exiles, who are suspicious of engaging with the state and distrust Mr. Maung, whose parents were in the military and taught at Myanmar’s version of West Point. His approach, though, has made him a useful mediator between foreign aid groups like Oxfam and the generals, local aid workers say. The U.K.’s Department for International Development, for example, is funding an Egress project to train Myanmar citizens in managing aid projects.

The junta could block or limit aid if it suspects it’s being used to undermine the regime, as it did temporarily last year after Cyclone Nargis, which killed 135,000 people or more. Currently, development aid to Myanmar totals less than $3 per person, compared with about $50 in Sudan.

Whatever happens, “if people want to punish the regime, they need to find ways to do it that don’t punish the people,” says Andrew Kirkwood, Myanmar country director for Save the Children, the aid organization.

Mr. Pinheiro, the former U.N. special rapporteur, who is pressing for an inquiry into human rights violations, says, with a new administration in Washington and interest rising in Myanmar, “I think there is a space here to have something new, something more flexible” that ultimately will bring some results.

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JUNE 19, 2009, 4:46 P.M. ET
Wall Street Journal – Photo Journal: Inside Yangon, Myanmar

Yangon was the capital of Myanmar until the government moved it about 320 km to Naypyitaw in 2005. The economic crisis and neglect of the military junta has left much of the city in disrepair.

http://blogs. wsj.com/photojou rnal/2009/ 06/19/inside- yangon-myanmar/

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ASIA NEWS – JUNE 20, 2009
Wall Street Journal – Myanmar’s Reclusive Leader
By WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTERS

Few countries outside North Korea are more beholden to the whims of a single man than Myanmar. But unlike Kim Jong Il, the subject of recent Western biographies, very little is known about Myanmar’s paramount leader, Senior General Than Shwe.

A reclusive hardliner who often refuses to speak with Western leaders, he has presided over Myanmar’s disintegration into one of Asia’s most dysfunctional economies and a nation plagued by human rights abuses, including the use of forced labor to enrich the military and its allies, according to human rights groups around the world. His hatred of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi , Myanmar’s leading opposition figure, is said to be so intense that he will not allow her name to be spoken in his presence.

The general is rumored to suffer from a number of medical ailments, and some analysts believe he may be looking for a way to retire without exposing himself to international human rights judicial proceedings. The regime unveiled a “roadmap to democracy” several years ago that includes plans for a national election next year. That said, provisions in the country’s constitution all but guarantee the military or its allies will maintain control. Even so, some foreign observers are hopeful that a change of power will at least bring some more reform-minded generals to the fore, and create an opening for more engagement with the West.

His public appearances, mainly on state-run television, are stage-managed and typically involve stiff greetings of visiting foreign dignitaries or reviews of military parades; in photographs, he is seen as a slightly portly figure with slick black hair in military uniforms draped in medals.

The few military personnel with access to “Number One,” as he is referred to by some Myanmar residents, rarely bring up contentious issues for fear of displeasing him, and his decisions in policymaking are final, say people who work with the government including diplomats and aid workers.

That helps explain why it took so long for the government to allow foreign aid after last year’s Cyclone Nargis, which killed 135,000 people, despite support from a number of senior generals. In the days following the disaster, letters and phone calls to Gen. Than Shwe from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon went unanswered, though the two did eventually meet several weeks after the disaster.

Borrowing the traditions of earlier powerful Myanmar emperors who conquered large parts of Southeast Asia, Gen. Than Shwe built his own capital, Naypyitaw, which means “Abode of Kings,” on a remote plain, spending hundreds of millions of dollars. His wife, Kyaing Kyaing , regularly visits the country’s most prominent Buddhist monasteries to curry favor with monks, and in March this year, Gen. Than Shwe and his wife attended a ceremony to consecrate a huge, gold leaf-covered pagoda in Naypyitaw, according to local news reports. At the event, Ms. Kyaing Kyaing threw banknotes into the air and donated money to thousands of local people, the reports said.

Born in a central Myanmar town in 1933, the future supreme leader worked briefly as a postal clerk before joining the army, according to a biography published in the 1990s by Myanmar’s Ministry of Information and translated for The Wall Street Journal. He trained in the military’s psychological warfare unit and participated in its campaigns against ethnic minority rebels. He entered senior ranks of the government by 1988. Student riots rocked the country that year; after a change in leadership and several years of political uncertainty, he emerged in 1992 as the country’s top leader.

His government’s bloody crackdown on monks who led peaceful protests in 2007, and his refusal to hand power to Ms. Suu Kyi, whose party won national elections in 1990, led the U.S. and Europe to impose progressively tough economic sanctions over the past decade.

Myanmar citizens enjoy one of the lowest standards of living in Asia, and many expressed outrage a few years ago when video of his daughter’s lavish wedding leaked to outside news organizations. In the video, she is seen decked out in diamond-encrusted jewelry while family and friends sip from glasses of champagne.

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Saturday June 20, 2009
The Star Online – 14 Myanmar nationals detained in illegal gathering

PETALING JAYA: Police last night arrested 14 Myanmar nationals for taking part in an illegal gathering to celebrate the 64th birthday of Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Petaling Jaya OCPD ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed said some 30 Myanmar nationals had begun gathering near the Taman Jaya lake at about 8pm.

Police at the scene ordered the crowd to disperse. They also arrested 14 Myanmar nationals who did not possess any valid travel documents.

“All of those who were arrested have been brought to the Petaling Jaya police headquarters and will be handed over to the Immigration Department,” he said, adding the remaining crowd dispersed at 8.30pm.

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Myanmar’s second top leader concludes China tour
www.chinaview. cn  2009-06-20 20:03:55

NANNING, June 20 (Xinhua) — Myanmar’s second top leader Maung Aye concluded a week-long visit to China and returned home Saturday afternoon.

Maung Aye, vice-chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), arrived in Nanning, capital city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, from east China’s Zhejiang Province Friday night.

Guo Shengkun, the Communist Party chief of Guangxi, met him Saturday noon.

Guo said Guangxi and Myanmar have complementary economies, and the two should promote cooperation in agricultural, trade, mining and cultural areas.

Maung Aye said Myanmar hopes to expand cooperation with China in resources exploration, and will actively participate in the China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Expo in Nanning this October.

Nanning was Maung Aye’s last leg of China tour. He also visited Beijing, Shaanxi and Zhejiang.

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VOA News – Human Rights Group Condemns Trial of Aung San Suu Kyi
20 June 2009

A rights group has accused Burma’s military government of prosecuting opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in order to keep her in custody through the planned 2010 general election, which the group said would be neither free nor fair.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission issued a statement Friday saying charges against Aung San Suu Kyi for violating the terms of her house arrest have no basis in law whatsoever.

The group said the trial is being motivated by purely political considerations, and it urged concerned United Nations agencies and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to take action.

The rights group also called for the International Committee of the Red Cross go be given access to detention facilities throughout Burma.

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RADIO THE VOICE OF VIETNAM

Updated : 7:01 PM, 06/19/2009
VOV News – GMS Ministerial Conference held in Thailand

The 15th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Ministerial Conference was held in Thailand on June 19 to establishing closer links amongst the six nations of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and China and Vietnam.

At the conference, ministers discussed ways of promoting a cooperation programme on transport, trade, energy, telecommunications, agriculture, tourism and the environment during the time of global economic downturn.

The focus was also on a roadmap for expanding cooperation in energy, a strategy for human resource development to ensure the safe transport of workers, intensifying the control of infectious diseases and improving educational and training skills.

Since the implementation of the programme, exports from GMS countries have posted a four-fold increase, from US$37 billion in 1992 to US$211 billion in 2007.

The number of international tourists has also doubled, from 10 million in 1995 to 26 million in 2008 while foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region has risen from US$3 billion in 1992 to US$20 billion in 2008.

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The Bangkok Post – ASEAN: Activists, academics call on grouping to suspend Burma
By: ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT
Published: 20/06/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

A group of senators, activists and academics has called for Burma to be suspended from Asean in protest against the ruling junta’s oppression of pro-democracy movements.

The group includes Senator Jon Ungphakorn and academics such as Nidhi Eowseewong from Chiang Mai and Charnvit Kasetsiri.

Their open letter was issued yesterday to mark the 64th birthday of Burma’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

They called on Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan to suspend Burma as an Asean member country for one year until Mrs Suu Kyi is released from jail.

She is being tried by the junta and held in Rangoon’s Insein prison on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man swam to her lakeside home.

They also urged other Asean member countries to expel Rangoon from the grouping if the Burmese regime fails to bring about democracy and political reform in the country within three years.

But Aung Zaw, editor of Irrawaddy magazine, said despite international pressure on the junta over Mrs Suu Kyi, a fine-tuned approach is also needed.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon needed to rethink the organisation’ s pol icy towards Burma and take a more holistic approach, he said.

”The international community should realise Aung San Suu Kyi has never asked for her own release but the release of all political prisoners and a real political dialogue in her country, no matter how and where she is locked up or for how long,” said the Chiang Mai-based editor.

The UN, he said, needed a skilful and talented negotiator, and to do more homework and consultation with regional governments and various pressure groups, to improve their strategy.

Aung Naing Oo, a Chiang Mai-based independent analyst, said a long-term realistic and sustainable international strategy towards Burma had yet to be developed beyond dealing with next year’s election. If the present approach continued Burma would be reviled and isolated like North Korea which would only benefit the junta and put Asean in an even weaker position to effect change.

Thailand needed to rethink its Burma policy, taking a more balanced approach, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Security and International Studies.

”Burma needs a smooth transition from military to civilian government and Thailand certainly does not want to see the neighbouring country become a Yugoslavia,’ ‘ he said.

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Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Japan Times – Ban June visit to touch on North, U.N. reform; Myanmar trip sought

NEW YORK (Kyodo) U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is expected to visit Japan at the end of June before possibly traveling to Myanmar in early July, U.N. diplomatic sources said Thursday.

During Ban’s trip to Japan, which will be his third visit to the country since taking the lead at the world body, he is expected to meet with Prime Minister Taro Aso and other Japanese leaders in Tokyo and discuss a broad range of issues, including North Korea, climate change and U.N. reform.

But the possible visit to Myanmar is “still under consideration, ” though it could take place in early July, one of the sources said.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported out of Yangon Thursday that a Western diplomat was quoted as confirming that the junta is ready to host Ban for a “very brief visit” early next month.

A potentially sensitive issue at the moment is the fact that democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is currently on trial on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest after a man swam to her guarded compound uninvited and stayed two days.

If found guilty she will face up to five years in prison.

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Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Irish Times – Council calls for release of Burma’s Suu Kyi
PATRICK SMYTH in Brussels

FOREIGN POLICY: THE EUROPEAN Council yesterday called “for the immediate unconditional release of [Burmese opposition leader] Aung San Suu Kyi, who has tirelessly defended universal values of freedom and democracy”. Unless she is released, the summit statement said, “the credibility of the 2010 elections will be further undermined”, and the leaders pledged to respond with additional targeted sanctions..

The EU renewed visa bans and an asset freeze in May for a year.

Suu Kyi yesterday spent her 64th birthday in Rangoon’s Insein jail awaiting a verdict that could see her confined for another five years for allowing unwanted intruder John Yetaw to stay in her home for two days in May.

Expressing concern about the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, leaders welcomed the increasing dialogue between the respective governments. “The EU welcomes Pakistan’s resolve to step up counter-terrorism efforts and recognises the sacrifices which the Pakistani people and armed forces are making, notably during ongoing operations in North-West Frontier Province,” the declaration said.

The EU “underlines the importance of an immediate humanitarian response to the crisis in Swat and stands ready to provide further assistance, in order to enable displaced persons to return to their homes.”

EU leaders said they “attach the greatest importance to the holding of credible, inclusive and secure presidential and provincial elections in Afghanistan [in August] in line with international standards”. They urged the Afghan leadership to give particular emphasis to improving the rule of law and good governance and pledged to support the Afghan police service.

And the summit condemned the recent nuclear test by North Korea and welcomed the imposition by the UN of additional sanctions and called on the North Koreans “to engage in dialogue and co-operation, including the early resumption of the six-party talks”.

On illegal immigration, the leaders stressed the urgency of strengthening efforts to prevent and combat illegal immigration at the EU’s southern maritime borders to prevent future human tragedies. The leaders called for the co-ordination of voluntary measures for internal reallocation of asylum seekers in the member states and urged both the council and the European Parliament to reach agreement allowing for the rapid establishment of the European Asylum Support Offic

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Mizzima News – Parliamentarians seek expulsion of Burma from ASEAN
by Usa Pichai
Saturday, 20 June 2009 22:01

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Representatives from regional Parliaments have urged ASEAN to reconsider Burma’s membership in the bloc, while activists, academics and civic groups in Thailand organized several activities calling for the release of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Kraisak Chunhavan, President of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) said in a conference on Friday at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University that it is time for ASEAN to revise the status of Burma in the group because Burma’s military government has failed to respond to repeated calls by the international community to improve the human right situation in the country.

“ASEAN is in a difficult time because it is pursuing a progressive and developed image by trying to set up a charter to protect human rights in the region. However, Burma’s problems have limited dialogue with other regional blocs because the counterparts are unlikely to talk at the same table as the Burmese regime.”

Kraisak also said more than 3,000 ethnic Karen villagers have fled to Thailand in the wake of recent fighting in the east of Burma between government forces and their allies and the Karen National Army.

“We are ashamed of Thai companies operating and investing in Burma, particularly in the energy sector, leading to a worsening of the situation and allowing the Burmese junta to further suppress ethnic people such as with the forced relocation of villagers in Karen State to build dams on the Salween River,” he added.

Additional attendees at the conference calling for ASEAN countries to take a stronger stance regarding the Burmese junta were AIPMC chairs Loretta Ann P. Rosales from the Philippines, Charles Chong from Singapore and Wan Azizah Wan Ismail from Malaysia. The AIPMC representatives were joined by several hundred academics, activists and interested parties.

At a similar gathering at Bangkok’s Thammasat University, Sriprapa Petchmisri from Mahidol University commented that the human rights problem in Burma is not only about political rights and freedom of the people but also concerns other problems such as accessing food, water and other supplies.

She added that the failure of regional countries such as China, Russia and Indonesia to support U.N. Security Council Resolutions on the crisis in Burma is troublesome.

“This is a worrisome comment from Burma’s neighboring countries,” she conjectured.

The events were timed to coincide with the 64th birthday of the detained Burmese opposition leader.

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The Irrawaddy – Calling the Shots
By ALEX ELLGEE, Saturday, June 20, 2009

MAE SOT —Intense fighting along Burma’s border with Thailand forced more than 3,000 Karen villagers to flee their homes and livelihood for the safety of refugee camps in Thailand in May and June.

The decision to flee rests with the village leader—and it wasn’t an easy one.

“We are so sad to have left our village” said the leader of Ponyacho village, resting from his journey in a Thai monastery in Mae Salit. “But we had to leave. Now the fighting is more dangerous than ever.”

He recalled that as he was struggling with the decision to abandon their village, the sound of mortar and machine gun fire echoed through the mountains, which have acted as a last line of defense for the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) for more than 60 years.

Hearing the nearby gunfire, he quickly made up his mind.

The village leader ordered people to pack up what they could carry and to leave immediately. Many of the village men had been conscripted as porters in earlier armed clashes, and they were unwilling to risk capture again.

“If we stayed, we would have been forced to be porters,” said a villager who had previously been forced to carry the bed of a Burmese commander through the jungle. “The Burmese commanders want to live like kings, and they want us to live like animals.”

Villagers also feared the Burmese forces would need extra soldiers on the front line and they would eventually be forced to participate in the fighting.

“How can the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) expect me to fight for the Burmese army and kill my Karen brothers?” asked one angry villager.

In the past, villagers conscripted by the Burmese army have been used as human mine sweepers—forced to walk in front of Burmese soldiers to set off any potential land mines.

“One Burmese soldier used me as a human shield,” said one villager. “As we advanced towards Karen soldiers, he hid behind me and held his gun over my shoulder. If anyone had fired at him, I would have surely died.”

Many of the fleeing villagers had been working hard on their farms and were waiting to enjoy their harvests. “We had been waiting for the mangoes to be ripe for eating” said the leader. “We’ve had to leave it all behind.”

Many of the Karen population retain their animist beliefs despite decades of Christian missionary work. As animists, every mountain, tree and river around a village has a name and spiritual presence.

“They have worshiped the spirits all their lives for protection” explained a Karen Youth Organization worker. “Outside of their village area, they wouldn’t know the spirits as well and for people who believe that spirits can kill, this can be terrifying.”

Some villagers hiked through the jungle for three days, traveling slowly to avoid detonating land mines planted by both sides of the conflict.

“Even if we don’t detonate a mine we are still faced with the risk of catching malaria or being bitten by a snake,” said the village leader. “When you travel with women and young babies, the decision to leave is not an easy one.”

When they finally arrived at the river, the refugees crossed over on boats belonging to the KNLA’s 7th Brigade into the Thai village of Mae Salit. On arrival, they spread out, locating and staying with Karen families who had settled in the area in previous years.

They arrived in torn and ragged clothing. The Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) told the recent arrivals to congregate at a local monastery, where they were given new clothes supplied by a foreign donor, and interviewed by members of various Karen organizations.

“There are so many mothers with young babies here,” said Blooming Night, joint secretary of the KWO. “It’s not right that they should suffer in this way.”

For the children, this latest offensive will have long lasting affects on their lives. The school year had just started and all teaching material was left behind in the schools.

School children actually came under attack in Pa-an District, forcing 89 students and seven teachers to flee through the jungle. In the rush, they had no time to contact their parents. They travelled through the jungle, eventually arriving at Safe Haven Orphanage where nine children were diagnosed with malaria which they contracted on the journey.

None of the children have received information about their parents’ whereabouts, or whether they are even alive.

“It’s very tragic. Most of the children’s parents have probably been taken as porters,” said Tasanee, the director of Safe Haven Orphanage, who goes by one name.

Tasanee’s mother established the orphanage in 1994 to look after children in the area who had been orphaned. Located near the Moei River, the orphanage is still close to the fighting and the sound of mortar fire often interrupts the children’s English lessons.

“When the mortars begin, the children stop singing,” said a volunteer English teacher. “They just sit there glazed over and silently terrified. They know what the noises are, and they know what they mean. Sometimes they come and hug us but mostly they just retreat within themselves. It’s like they’re shell shocked.”

The mortar fire worsened on June 10 when four rounds landed in Mae Salit, only meters from the monastery where the villagers had received aid. One round landed near Mae Salit Luang School.

Many villagers were concerned the fighting would spill over onto Thai soil. The Karen Human Rights Group reported that a DKBA officer had sent a villager from the Ler Per Her area as a messenger to contact the recently arrived refugees. The messenger said the DKBA demanded 3,000 baht (US $100) per village to reimburse it for the cost of hiring porters to carry supplies during their offensive.

In response to the security concerns, Thai authorities have strengthened several checkpoints entering Mae Salit and army jeeps with armed soldiers patrol the main road.
Observers say the recent clashes are designed to allow the DKBA to secure its new role as a border guard force under the Burmese army, and the KHRG reported that DKBA officials are already referring to themselves as the Border Guard Force.

If the DKBA and Burmese army succeed in their mission to eliminate the KNLA from the border area, many Karen villagers will be displaced and the survivors will be forced into refugee camps for a long period of time, where they will be restricted.

Fully aware of the present dangers, the Karen villagers still managed to laugh and smile as they sat around the grounds of the Thai monastery.

“Our villagers feel lost and confused, but we are just happy to be away from the Burmese army—nothing can be as bad as living in a village under their control,” said the village leader.

“If I didn’t make the right decision, all our brothers and sisters would have perished in the village,” he said.

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DVB News – Loss of Karen bases a ‘strategic’ move by KNU

June 19, 2009 (DVB)–The Burmese army is increasingly susceptible to ambushes from the Karen National Union following the overthrow of a number of Karen bases in recent days, says the Union’s joint-secretary.

The offensive between the Burmese army, backed by Karen splinter group the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), and the Karen National Union (KNU), has been raging since 2 June.

Thousands of Karen villagers have fled to Thailand to escape the crossfire and reported forced recruitment into the army.

The KNU has admitted to the loss of three bases to Burmese troops in recent days, although said yesterday that the move was partly tactical.

A base located near to the grave of the late KNU leader, General Mya, was overtaken by the Burmese army last week.

“We opened that spot [for SPDC troops to enter] about three to four days ago and maybe they will arrive today,” said Saw Hla Ngwe.

“That place is a good target for artillery firing and we can ambush them when they enter.”

He added that the offensive was being used by the government to distract attention from the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi and a warning to ceasefire groups who are failing to comply with government requests to transform in border patrol militias.

So far around 4000 Karen refugees have arrived in Thailand, with many reporting instances of forced recruitment into the army either as porters or to act as minesweepers.

The UN has sent staff to the area to assess the fallout of a conflict that has attracted international attention.

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw

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