BURMA RELATED NEWS – AUGUST 19-20, 2010
Aug 20th, 2010
Thu Aug 19, 3:44 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar pro-democracy parties on Friday praised the U.S. decision to support a U.N. war crimes commission as a milestone but cautioned it was too soon to be optimistic.
“We support and welcome the decision by the United States. However, this is just the first step and several more steps have to be taken before it is actually implemented,” said Tin Oo, vice chairman of Aung San Suu Kyi’s recently disbanded opposition party, the National League for Democracy.
The United States said Wednesday it has decided to support the creation of a U.N. commission to look into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Myanmar.
The White House said in a statement that it believes the commission could advance the cause of human rights in Myanmar, also known as Burma, by “addressing issues of accountability for responsible senior members of the Burmese regime.”
Tin Oo said he hoped such a commission would bring the junta to a dialogue table with the opposition, a long-standing demand of the international community.
“If the military government changed its mindset and talked to the country’s democratic forces, all the country’s woes will be resolved,” said Tin Oo.
By supporting the U.N. inquiry, the Obama administration is committing itself to backing an investigation of the military junta led since 1992 by Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
Than Shwe’s loyalists overturned election results in 1990 that favored Suu Kyi’s political party. Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, remains under house arrest.
Myanmar is holding elections Nov. 7 — the first in two decades — but critics say they are a sham designed to perpetuate the military’s command. Suu Kyi’s party is boycotting the elections and was disbanded after refusing to register for the polls.
The United States is almost certain to face opposition from China, a close ally of Myanmar, if it seeks to have the U.N. Security Council establish a commission. It could also ask Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon or go to the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council or the Geneva-based Human Rights Council where no country has a veto.
“We welcome the decision by the Obama administration and we regard the decision as a milestone,” said Khin Maung Swe, leader of the National Democratic Force party, formed by renegade members of Suu Kyi’s former party.
“But we have to wait and see how effective the decision will be as some countries with veto-wielding power can oppose at the Security Council,” he said.
“All big nations have to help solve the problems of immense socio-economic disparity and abject poverty the country is facing in order to prevent human rights abuses in the country,” Swe added.
Fri Aug 20, 7:34 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A political party backed by Myanmar’s ruling junta opened offices across the country Friday — months after the main opposition group was forced to close theirs — as preparations begin for a general election in November.
A spokesman for the Union Solidarity and Development Party said it had opened its headquarters in administrative capital of Naypyitaw and other branches across the country, including 50 township, district and division offices in Yangon, the country’s biggest city. The party is led by Prime Minister Thein Sein.
Myanmar will hold elections on Nov. 7, the first in two decades. The National League for Democracy party of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which won the last election in 1990 but was barred from taking power, is boycotting the polls.
The NLD was officially disbanded in May because it declined to register for the vote, though its leaders made clear they are keeping the organization together to continue its struggle for democracy.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party was formed from a junta-backed mass social organization called the Union Solidarity and Development Association, founded in 1993 and drawing much of its support from the country’s vast civil service. In April this year it was turned into a political party, just a few days after Thein Sein and 26 Cabinet colleagues in uniform resigned their military posts to make them eligible to take part in politics. It is widely expected to win the most votes in the election.
In Yangon, it was Mayor Aung Thein Linn who unveiled the party signboard, shouting “Victory” three times as he did so.
He told reporters that the USDA used to have 26 million members, but after becoming a party had its numbers reduced because it could not legally include civil servants and people under 18 years of age. Another member put the current membership at 1 million.
Aung Thein Linn dismissed international concerns that the polls will not be free and fair.
“Whether the international community accepts the result or not is not important,” Aung Thein Linn said, responding to reporters’ questions. “If the people vote for us we will win.”
Some 47 parties registered for the polls and so far 41 have been permitted.
On Thursday, the junta released its stringent election rules that candidates seek permission a week in advance to campaign and do not make speeches that “tarnish” the ruling military.
NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo explained the party’s boycott Thursday, saying the military-drafted constitution and election laws would not ensure democracy and human rights in the country. He said the NLD wanted to inform voters that they have the right not to vote.
“We strongly believe that the political parties that are contesting in the election will not be given much chance according to the electoral laws and regulations prescribed,” said Tin Oo.
Thu Aug 19, 11:34 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar published Thursday stringent rules for November’s general election that demand candidates seek permission a week in advance to campaign, do not make speeches that “tarnish” the ruling military or shout slogans at processions.
The disbanded party of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, dissolved for declining to register with the authorities, meanwhile officially declared its boycott of the upcoming polls.
The 13-point list of campaigning regulations decreed by the state Election Commission would guarantee a “free and fair” vote, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper which published the rules a week after the Nov. 7 election date was set.
The vote will be the first in impoverished Myanmar in two decades. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won the last election in 1990 but was barred from taking power,
say the junta unfairly imposed rules for this year’s vote that restrict campaigning and bar the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and other political prisoners from participating.
The junta has billed the election is as the key transitional step from five decades of military rule to civilian government. Critics say a military-initiated constitution, along with repression of the opposition, ensures the army will continue to hold commanding influence even after the polls.
Many Western governments and human right groups agree that the process is unfair and seek changes to ensure free and fair polls, including the release of Suu Kyi — who has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years — and other prisoners.
According to the regulations, candidates must seek permission to campaign a week in advance from the local Election Commission, providing details such as place of assembly, date, time and duration. Holding flags and shouting slogans in processions is forbidden, as is making speeches or distributing publications that “tarnish the image” of the military and any “activities that can harm security.”
Candidates found in violation of the regulations face a fine and a jail term of one year.
It was still unclear when the official campaign period begins. The Election Commission will finish its scrutiny of candidates by Sept. 10.
The NLD was officially disbanded earlier this year after it declined to register for the vote, though its leaders made clear they are keeping the organization together to continue its struggle for democracy. Party vice chairman Tin Oo on Thursday spelled out why the party was boycotting the election.
“We decided to officially boycott the election because we believe that the 2008 constitution and the electoral laws do not guarantee democracy and human rights in the country,” said Tin Oo, contacted by phone after an emergency meeting of party leaders at his house.
“We have no interest in the election and we want to give a clear message to the voters that they have the right not to vote in the upcoming elections,” he said.
There are no penalties for not voting.
Taken together, the NLD positions constitute a strong but apparently legal challenge to the legitimacy of the polls, especially in the absence of any unified opposition to the junta.
Separately, the New Light of Myanmar reported an ethnic Karen group allied to the government — the Democratic Karen Buddhist Association — agreed to transform its guerrilla fighters into the Border Guard Forces.
Integrating ethnic rebel groups into government-supervised border forces is a key part of the government’s plans to pacify border areas, which are dominated by minority groups that have long striven for autonomy, sometimes though armed struggle.
The junta in the 1990s reached cease-fire agreements with many, but compromised by allowing them to keep their arms. Five of the groups have now agreed to integrate themselves into the national border force, but others, such as the Kachin Independence Army and the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army, are still resisting the transformation of their militias.
Thu Aug 19, 6:52 am ET
MANDALAY, Myanmar (AFP) – The Myanmar opposition party formed by ex-members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy opened a new office in Mandalay Thursday to drum up support ahead of November elections.
Watched by plain-clothes police and military intelligence personnel, about 100 people attended the inaugural ceremony in the central city, where members of the National Democratic Force cut a ribbon and released balloons.
“We cannot avoid the coming election, whether we assume it is fair or not,” NDF chairman Than Nyein said in a speech.
“People might have expected in the past they would vote again for the NLD as they had done before. But, unexpectedly, the NLD does not exist any more as it is not participating in the election.”
He said NDF members felt they would be failing in their duties if they did not stand in the country’s first polls in two decades when people are ready to cast their votes.
“We will not go backwards nor run away…. We are not people who will retreat because of difficulties,” he said.
The NDF’s decision to contest the election has put it at odds with other former members of the NLD — including Suu Kyi — who opted to boycott the poll because of “unjust” election laws.
The vote has been widely condemned by activists and the West as a sham aimed at shoring up almost half a century of military rule.
The NLD, which was founded in 1988 after a popular uprising against the junta that left thousands dead, won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the military rulers never allowed it to take office.
Critics say the ruling generals are taking no chances this time, reserving one quarter of the seats in parliament for the military and crafting election rules to ensure that junta-backed parties have the advantage.
Opposition parties are facing serious financial and time constraints signing up candidates by an August 30 deadline. Anyone who wants to run in the election must pay a non-refundable registration fee of about 500 US dollars.
While the NDF — whose headquarters is in Yangon — is expected to struggle to fill the NLD’s shoes, it is managing to win over some Suu Kyi fans.
Suu Kyi, who has spent much of the past 20 years in detention and is seen as the biggest threat to the junta, is barred as a serving prisoner from standing. The poll date falls about a week before Suu Kyi’s current house arrest is due to expire on November 13.
“We want democracy and we must participate in the election. As I liked the NDF’s statements, I became a member,” said 37-year-old trader Nan Hteik Zaw.
by Shaun Tandon – Thu Aug 19, 6:35 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Critics of Myanmar are voicing hope for intensified global pressure on the military regime after the United States signaled it would support a UN inquiry into alleged war crimes.
President Barack Obama’s administration last year opened a new policy of engagement with Myanmar, also known as Burma, concluding that longstanding Western efforts to isolate the junta had failed to bear fruit.
But the administration has voiced growing dismay over the junta, which has faced allegations it is pursuing nuclear weapons and has stepped up efforts to marginalize democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi ahead of rare elections.
An administration official said the United States has opened discussions on how to set up a war crimes probe, a longstanding demand of activists as it could lead to the eventual indictment of junta leaders.
“The United States supports establishing an international commission of inquiry to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma,” the official said.
While most global attention on Myanmar focuses on Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s only detained Nobel Peace laureate, activists point out that millions more have suffered in the country’s ethnic conflicts.
In a report to the Human Rights Council in March, UN envoy Tomas Quintana accused Myanmar of “systematic violation of human rights.”
“According to consistent reports, the possibility exists that some of these human rights violations may entail categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes under the terms of the statute of the International Criminal Court,” Quintana said.
Representative Joseph Crowley, who led calls in the US Congress for a war crimes probe, welcomed the White House decision.
“It is long overdue that the world acknowledges that the Burmese regime is guilty of heinous and brutal acts against its own people,” said Crowley, a Democrat.
“Burma’s military regime has destroyed or forced the abandonment of 3,500 villages, raped countless ethnic minority women and recruited thousands of child soldiers.”
The US Campaign for Burma, led by exiled activists, said that Australia, Britain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have also supported an inquiry.
It pledged to shift attention to persuading the European Union as a whole and Canada to offer support.
China, the main commercial and political partner of Myanmar, wields veto power on the UN Security Council, meaning any effort to establish an inquiry would likely come instead at
the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Former US president George W. Bush’s administration, while determined to isolate Myanmar, would have been in an awkward position to press for a war crimes panel.
Under Bush, the United States shunned the Human Rights Council — considering it ineffectual and tainted by poor membership — and staunchly opposed the International Criminal Court.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the Obama administration was committed to using a “range of tools” on Myanmar, including dialogue.
“Our strategy has always envisioned not only direct engagement, but also using tools like sanctions to put pressure on the Burmese government,” said Crowley, who is not related to the congressman.
The State Department spokesman said the United States hoped to press the junta to “open up political space in its society for broader participation, to have a credible dialogue with minority and ethnic groups (and) to improve its human rights record.”
The junta last week announced elections on November 7, but the United States has voiced doubt the vote would be “inclusive or credible.”
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won the last election in 1990 but was never allowed to take power. It is boycotting the upcoming vote, viewing it as a sham to cement the junta’s power.
by Ian Timberlake – Fri Aug 20, 8:22 am ET
HANOI (AFP) – A “bold” plan for a railway system connecting more than 300 million people who live around one of the world’s great rivers, the Mekong, was approved Friday, officials said.
Ministers from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam adopted the plan which they called “a significant first step toward the development of an integrated… railway system”.
The six nations’ national railway systems do not link up except for a line that connects China and Vietnam, and Laos has no rail network at all.
The plan cites four possible ways of connecting the railways but it says the most viable route would stretch from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, then Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and finally up to Nanning and Kunming, largely using existing lines or those already under construction.
“We think it’s realistic to do one of the routes by 2020,” said Lawrence Greenwood, a vice-president with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“Having said that, it is certainly bold and ambitious,” he told reporters.
The only missing link on that route would be between Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh, the 25-page railway plan says, estimating a cost of 1.09 billion dollars for completion.
This does not include roughly seven billion dollars in additional funding needed to upgrade the existing lines.
By 2025, an estimated 3.2 million passengers and 23 million tonnes of freight are forecast for the completed route, the document says.
The goal coincides with an effort by Mekong nations to develop “economic corridors” around new road links, which would help to reduce poverty and would be complemented by railway connections, the ADB said.
Creating the corridors of investment and development will require a smoothing of procedures for cross-border transport and trade, the ministers said in a joint statement.
Business leaders and other experts have said there are still too many bureaucratic hurdles to a free flow of regional goods.
Greenwood said ministers at the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) conference “very importantly” agreed on a plan to smooth cross-border movement, which is supported by six million dollars in funding from Australia.
GMS is an ADB-supported programme that began 18 years ago to promote development through closer economic links between Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, as well as China’s Yunnan province and the Chinese Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Cambodian minister Cham Prasidh said the rail link would be a cheap way of transporting goods to the Mekong nations and beyond, to other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
But he said that while the nations around the Mekong are tightening transport and other links they have neglected the region’s very heart — the river itself.
Cham Prasidh, Senior Minister and Minister of Commerce, said the potential of the 4,800-kilometre (2,976-mile) river has not been fully tapped as the region develops economic corridors, which he likened to arteries.
“But we forget the heart and the Mekong River is the heart. We need to develop the heart first,” he told AFP after making his suggestion to the conference.
Vo Hong Phuc, Vietnam’s Minister of Planning and Investment who co-chaired the meeting with Greenwood, said ADB was asked to prepare a working group “to appropriately assess the use of the Mekong River.”
But he said water resources are under the jurisdiction of another body, the Mekong River Commission.
Although they are growing fast, the Mekong nations — except for Thailand — have the lowest per capita gross domestic product among the 10 ASEAN members.
Straits Times – Protests greet Myanmar minister
DILI (EAST TIMOR) – HUMAN rights activists clashed with police in East Timor on Friday as they protested the visit of Myanmar’s foreign minister and demanded the release of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Dozens of protesters gathered at Dili airport as Foreign Minister U Nyan Win arrived ahead of talks with East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta and other senior officials, organisers said.
Scuffles broke out as police seized banners and other written material condemning human rights abuses in military-ruled Myanmar, where Nobel laureate and democracy leader Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for years.
‘We are here to bring support to our friends in Burma in their struggle to release political prisoners and to stop continuous human rights violations there,’ rally coordinator Carolino Marques said, using Myanmar’s old name.
‘Aung San Suu Kyi must be released immediately and the military junta must be toppled as soon as possible.’ A tightly controlled election scheduled in Myanmar on November 7 has been been condemned by activists and the West as a sham aimed at cementing decades of military rule.
Suu Kyi, who has spent much of the past 20 years in detention, is barred as a serving prisoner from standing. Her National League for Democracy – which won the last election in 1990 but was not allowed to take power – it is boycotting the vote. Nyan Win is expected to leave East Timor on Sunday. — AFP
YANGON, 20 August 2010 (IRIN) – Myanmar’s government surprised the international aid community this week by ending centralized coordination of the response to Cyclone Nargis, which in 2008 devastated the Delta region, leaving tens of thousands of families without adequate shelter two years later.
The government inherited its coordination role from the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) at the end of July.
On 16 August, Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare Relief and Resettlement (MoSWRR) told international NGOs and UN agencies that the post-Nargis Delta recovery should be “mainstreamed into development activities, and the responsibility of coordinating those activities will therefore no longer fall to the MoSWRR, but the respective line ministries, and will therefore require new memorandums of understanding.”
The Ministry of Social Welfare will continue in its traditional role as line ministry for disaster risk reduction activities.
The ministry furthermore announced that no Nargis-related visas would be extended, and no new visas would be granted under the old arrangement, which allowed humanitarian aid workers fairly easy access to the affected areas to support post-Nargis recovery efforts. More than 90 humanitarian workers with international NGOs or UN agencies now have an uncertain visa status.
“It comes as a surprise, but we are appealing for an interim period with extensions of agreements and visas, during which the agencies can apply for their new memorandums of understanding,” Bishow Parajuli, UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar, told IRIN.
“With the election period coming up, we know everyone will be very busy, so we are concerned that it might take too long to get new memorandums of understanding, and assistance might be interrupted, which would have negative consequences for the people in need of continued assistance,” Parajuli said.
Recent assessments conducted in the delta, including Periodic Review 4 and Social Impacts Monitoring 3, concluded that some areas of Labutta and Bogale are still in an emergency state, more than two years after Nargis hit the Ayeyarwady Delta in May 2008.
“There is still a great need for assistance in the Delta, and the ministry made it clear that they welcomed continued assistance at the meeting. We had very good cooperation with the MoSWRR and TCG, people were benefitting, and it is possible to deliver aid effectively in Myanmar,” Parajuli said.
On 18 June, at the Third Recovery Forum held in the capital Nay Pyi Taw, the humanitarian community was assured by ministries present that recovery would continue beyond the TCG, suggesting that the decision was made by more senior members of the government.
The Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (PoNREPP), recovery plan approved by the government, is a three-year programme that has reached its halfway mark.
Cyclone Nargis claimed more than 138,000 lives and affected 2.4 million people, leaving nearly half needing assistance.
The TCG’s mandate, whose duration was stipulated by the government, ended on 31 July. The TCG – comprising the government, the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – was established after Nargis to facilitate access to the country’s Ayeyarwady Delta, assess the needs, and develop a recovery plan.
BBC News – Fringe backs Burmese comedian
Thousands of comedians perform every year at the Edinburgh Fringe hoping for fame and fortune. But, a group of them are performing at Amnesty International’s Stand Up For Freedom event for a comedian in prison on the other side of the world. Burmese comic Zarganar was given a 35-year jail sentence for speaking out against the government.
13:07, August 20, 2010
India is coordinating with Myanmar on some road projects under the two countries’ agreements and the coordination was made between Myanmar’s Construction Ministry and India’s project coordinator, IWAI Co, in Nay Pyi Taw over the last two days.
The meeting focused on construction of the road from Paletwa to Meikwa planning in Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, maintenance of Kyekon-Kalewa road section on Kale-Tamu road and upgrading of Reed-Tiddim road, according to Friday’s official report.
Myanmar and India have been cooperating in transport and the upgradation work of a Myanmar-India border road stretching as Kalewa-Kale-Tamu on the Myanmar side is targeted to complete by this year.
The 160-kilometer Myanmar-India Friendship Road, built in 1999 by India’s border road task force in cooperation with Myanmar and opened in February 2001, is being upgraded by Myanmar engineers and skilled workers of the two countries as some sections have been damaged.
The border road, which forms an important link from the India- Myanmar border to central Myanmar and the commercial and cultural center of Mandalay, also constitutes part of the Asian highway and plays an important role for Myanmar in trading with India and member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN).
During the World War-II, the border road extending from India was part of a highway known as the Burma Road crossing into Myanmar’s Tamu from India’s Moreh and from Tamu the road leads to Monywa and Mandalay through Kalewa and Kale respectively.
In addition, India is helping Myanmar upgrade the country’s western port of Sittway in Rakhine state under a revised system of Build, Transfer, Use (BTU) instead of that of Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) of a multi-modal Kaladan river transport project.
During a visit to New Delhi of Vice-Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Vice Senior-General Maung Aye in April last year, India and Myanmar signed a framework agreement along with two other documents on the construction and operation of a 120-million-USD multi-modal transit and transport facility on the Kaladan River connecting the Sittway Port in Myanmar with the Indian state of Mizoram.
The framework agreement includes upgrading of Sittway Port of Myanmar, improvement tasks for running of vessels along the route of Kaladan from Sittway Port to Sitpyitpyin and construction of roads from Sitpyitpyin to the border region.
Specifically, the project will cover upgrading of both motor roads and waterways in those parts in northwestern Chin state to enable Indian cargo vessels along the Kaladan river in Sittway’s eastern bank to berth at Paletwa where a high-standard port is to be built through which a highway will also be built to enable access to the border area of Myeikwa in the state for commodity flow to India’s Mizoram state.
Meanwhile, proposed by India, Myanmar is also making feasibility study to build a deep-sea port in the country’s southern coastal Tanintharyi division to facilitate maritime trade with neighboring countries.
The prospective Dawei deep-sea port project stands one of the priorities among future programs of the seven-member Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation ( BIMSTEC) which now comprises Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
Moreover, Myanmar is also conducting survey to build still another deep-sea port on the Maday Island in Kyaukphyu, western coastal Rakhine state, to serve as a transit trade center for goods destined to port cities of Chittagong, Yangon and Calcutta.
According to official statistics, Myanmar-India bilateral trade reached 1.19 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2009-10, increasing by 26.1 percent from the previous year and standing as Myanmar’s fourth largest trading partner after Thailand, China and Singapore.
Of the total, Myanmar’s export to India amounted to 1 billion U. S. dollars, while its import from India was valued at 194 million dollars, the Central Statistical Organization said.
Agricultural produces and forestry products led in Myanmar’s exports to India whereas medicines and pharmacutical products topped its imports from India.
Myanmar has opened two border trade points with India, the first one opened was Tamu in April 1995, while the second was Reedkhawdhar in January 2004.
Meanwhile, India’s contracted investment in Myanmar reached 189 million U.S. dollars as of May 2010 since the government opened to foreign investment in 1988, of which 137 million U.S. dollars were drawn into the oil and gas sector in September 2007, the statistics show.
18:45, August 20, 2010
The 16th Greater Mekong Subregion ( GMS) Ministerial Meeting opened on Friday, drawing six countries along Asia’s Mekong River including Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
In his opening speech, Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Hong Phuc said GMS cooperation has gained remarkable achievements in the past two decades with the support of ADB and other development partners.
However, Phuc said that GMS cooperation still faced a lot of challenges. Most GMS countries still suffer from backward economies. Many programs and projects have been established but the financial assistance is limited. Besides, big gap in legal and political systems exists among GMS countries.
Laurence Greenwood, vice president of ADB said at the meeting that despite the global financial crisis, East Asia and Southeast Asia are showing a strong V-shaped recovery with the estimated economic growth rates of 8.1 percent and 6.7 percent respectively in 2010.
As GMS program enters a new decade, under the theme of “New Frontiers of Cooperation”, Greenwood urged representatives at the meeting to endorse a plan of action to help bolster economic growth.
The meeting was expected to pass five documents including The Strategic Framework for Connecting GMS Railways, Strategic Directions for the Development of the Second Phase of the Core Environment Program Biodiversity Corridor Initiative, The Reason Enough To Act (RETA) for Promoting Renewable Energy, Clean Fuels and Energy Efficiency in the GMS, The Core Agricultural Support Program II (2011-2105) and The Program of Actions for Transport and Trade Facilitation in the GMS.
Since 1992, the six GMS countries have participated in a comprehensive program of economic cooperation with the assistance of the ADB and other development partners.
2:01pm Friday 20th August 2010
By Louise Robertson
A big-hearted rock group will hold a special benefit concert in Kingston to raise money for Burmese democracy.
On Saturday, August 21, Kingston-based rock group, Bommerillo, will hold a special benefit gig at the Grey Horse pub in Richmond Road, to raise money for Amnesty Kingston’s campaign to bring democracy to Burma.
Kingston Amnesty member Hugh Sandeman said: “We have already purchased a number of radios that are sent to Burmese people so they can hear independent broadcasts.
“One radio could help a family or community learn about their rights and show them the international solidarity that Burma’s military regime works so hard to silence.”
Ben Trevor, the band’s lead singer, said: “We are very excited to be playing at the Grey Horse again, knocking out some of our usual great songs, and knowing that the proceeds will go directly to giving a democratic voice to Burmese people.”
For more information visit grey-horse.co.uk.
Lilian Budianto, , Jakarta | Fri, 08/20/2010 11:27 AM | World
Several local Myanmar watchers, including academics and a House legislator, have thrown weight behind the US in its push for the UN to investigate crimes against humanity in the country.
House of Representatives Myanmar caucus head Eva K. Sundari said the Indonesian government should support the proposal since all other options have been exhausted to democratize the restive country.
“The US approached Myanmar during a visit by its special envoy, Kurt Campbell, last year. However, [its] soft approach did not bring much change and it is high time we change strategy to ensure that Myanmar carries out democratization,” he said.
The Associated Press reported that Myanmar’s pro-democracy parties praised the US’ decision to support a UN war crimes commission as a milestone but cautioned it was too soon for optimism.
“We support and welcome the decision by the United States. However, this is just the first step and several more steps have to be taken before it is actually implemented,” said Tin Oo, vice chairman of Aung San Suu Kyi’s recently disbanded opposition party, the National League for Democracy, as quoted by the Associated Press.
The US said Wednesday it would support the creation of a UN commission to look into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Myanmar. There has been no decision whether the commission mandate would come under the UN’s Security Council, Human Rights Council or its secretary-general.
A source closely connected to ASEAN issues in Indonesia said the proposed commission would have the most power if its mandate came from the Security Council. The source, who declined to be identified, said, however, China would possibly veto any plan submitted to the Security Council due to its close economic relations with Myanmar.
“The concern is that ASEAN will have no role in the commission, despite that we have worked out ways to engage the country democratically,” the source said.
Jakarta is a strong advocate for democratization in Myanmar, although it has rejected sanctions and refrained from intervening in Myanmar’s domestic politics.
“We have been very soft so far. Our so-called constructive engagement has failed to bear any fruit,” said Eva, adding that she was optimistic Jakarta would be tougher on Myanmar after assuming ASEAN’s rotating chairmanship next year.
University of Sanata Dharma history professor Baskara T. Wardaya said a UN inquiry would pressure Myanmar ahead of elections on Nov. 7, the nation’s first in two decades.
“We have to support the UN inquiry because we cannot ignore the injustices and the crimes occurring in Myanmar,” he said.
He said the inquiry should be carried out before the election so that the junta could not exploit the poll to legitimize a new “elected” government.
“The military may use the election as false legitimation to block any foreign pressure. It will be more effective if the inquiry can start before the elections,” he said.
August 13, 2010
AAP Australia has expressed “grave reservations” about Burma’s plan to hold its first election in 20 years on November 7.
The country’s ruling military junta named the date on Friday.
But concerns have been raised that the poll will be neither free nor fair.
Amnesty International says the regime has prevented more than 2000 political prisoners – including high-profile activist Aung San Suu Kyi – from contesting the election.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was also concerned about the election’s legitimacy.
“We have grave reservations about the election process and the country’s highly restrictive political environment,” he said in a statement.
Mr Smith said Australia had repeatedly urged Burma to allow freedom of speech and assembly, and to work with the UN to make the election transparent.
But he said he hoped the elections would mark the beginning of a return to democracy, and it was up to the Burmese people to decide whether to vote or not. Some are boycotting the poll.
Mr Smith supported sending observers to monitor the poll, although he did not say if they would come from Australia.
Amnesty called on Australia to use its regional influence to press Burma to make the election free and fair.
Jenny Leong, Burma campaign co-ordinator for Amnesty International Australia, said Australia should encourage Burma’s South-East Asian neighbours to press for a free election.
“Obviously Australia is a key player in the region (and) has a specific role to play,” she told AAP.
Australia should call for the immediate release of all political prisoners and watch closely for any more crackdowns, she said.
Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide majority in Burma’s 1990 election, but the junta did not honour the result.
A senior U.S. official told BBC that the move was consistent with previous U.S. policy of engagement with Burma. The U.S. said in 2009 that it would engage diplomatically with Burma, and in March, a UN special rapporteur released a critical report that showed a “systematic violation of human rights” for years within the country.
The Obama administration’s goal was the put Burma on track toward reform, credible elections, and national reconciliation. However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that efforts haven’t resulted in any positive change in the country, ahead of general elections scheduled to take place on November 7.
“Diplomatic engagement is not a reward – it is a tool designed to facilitate and encourage positive change,” a U.S. State Department official said. “We have been clear all along this did not preclude us from taking steps to increase pressure when warranted.”
The U.S. also hinted that it may impose further sanctions against Burma, saying that the U.S. sanctions policy is dynamic and constantly being surveyed for efficiency. The move was welcomed by human rights organizations like the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
Asia Times Online – US joins calls for Myanmar war-crimes trial
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK – An international campaign seeking a war crimes inquiry into the alleged systematic abuses by Myanmar’s military regime finally has a strong ally in United States President Barack Obama.
Washington revealed on Tuesday that the Obama administration was throwing its weight behind the creation of a United Nations (UN) commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes, reported the Washington Post. “[It is] a sign of a tougher US policy against a regime long accused of murdering and raping its political foes,” it commented.
“What is important here is that this [tribunal] is not aimed at the people of Burma [Myanmar] but at its leadership, particularly [Senior General] Than Shwe,” a senior administration official was quoted as having told the US daily, referring to Myanmar’s 77-year-old strongman leader.
Myanmar’s government is preparing to hold the first general election in 20 years on November 7 in an attempt to win political legitimacy and deflect criticism of its oppressive rule.
The Obama administration’s tougher stance against Myanmar, whose regime has targeted ethnic minorities along the borders of the Southeast Asian nation, comes more than two weeks after a bipartisan group of US senators made a similar case in a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“While your administration continues along the path of sanctions and pragmatic engagement with Burma, we believe that such a commission will help convince Burma’s military regime that we are serious about our commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law for the people,” stated the letter signed by 32 senators from the Republican and Democratic parties.
Myanmar activists have welcomed Washington’s stance. “This is the right and timely action by the Obama administration in response to the power-thirsty and brutal generals in Naypidaw,” said Aung Din, executive director of the US Campaign for Burma, a Washington DC-based lobby. “[They] are expecting to delete their dirty crimes by putting a sham constitution into effect through a sham election.”
Naypidaw, the new capital located in central Myanmar, is where the new parliament is being built. The junta nullified the results of the last parliamentary election in 1990, denying Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party the right to govern after it won a landslide victory.
Washington’s position is expected to be backed by Australia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which have endorsed a call by UN human rights investigator for Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Qunitana, for the world body to appoint an inquiry panel into war crimes in Myanmar. Quintana made his views known in March while presenting a scathing 30-page report on Myanmar to the UN Human Rights Council.
Quintana’s push added to an appeal for a UN inquiry made in a 2009 report done by the International Human Rights Clinic at the law school of the US-based Harvard University.
More than 3,000 villages that were home to Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have been burnt to the ground by the military regime, said that report, which was written by international jurists from Britain, Mongolia, South Africa, the United States and Venezuela. “The world cannot wait while the military regime continues its atrocities against the people.”
The calls for a UN inquiry are significant given that sanctions and international pressure, whether by Asian governments or those in Europe or the United States, have not made much headway in pushing Myanmar’s generals toward political reform.
Looking into the rights abuses in Myanmar in the context of war crimes makes these an international concern, denting the argument by the regime and its allies that they are internal matters.
It also highlights the learning curve of 10 years that it has taken activists among Myanmar’s ethnic minorities and the majority Myanmar community to hold the junta accountable for war crimes.
“This change is a significant landmark,” says Debbie Stothard, coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network On Burma, a human-rights watchdog. “Southeast Asian governments will have to acknowledge and understand that these are serious international crimes being committed. They cannot be described any more as domestic affairs not subject to international scrutiny.”
Calls for a war crimes inquiry have gathered pace only in the past three years, she told Inter Press Service (IPS). “Till then, most people among the Burmese human-rights movement had not realized that the systematic nature of the violations were war crimes.”
“The Burmese and the ethnic minorities had seen the violations happening in their midst as normal part of Burmese life because they had been going on for so long,” Stothard added. “Now they are not afraid to publicly acknowledge and name the violations as war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
A 2002 report by women in the ethnic Shan minority in northeastern Myanmar, where the military is locked in a separatist battle with Shan rebels, helped pave the way for this shift in describing the scale of violence in Myanmar.
“License to Rape” by the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN), exposed in chilling detail the Myanmar military’s use of rape as a weapon of war in its operations in Shan villages.
“What matters for us is there has to be change on the ground,” Hseng Noung, a SWAN founder, told IPS. “The day-to-day life that women in the Shan state face today, the fear of abuse, is still the same as they faced when we researched License to Rape.”
But while Washington’s stamp on a UN war crimes inquiry may raise hopes, diplomats urge caution given the role that power politics plays in decisions by the world body.
“The US must know that China is going to block this effort [at the UN],” a European diplomat who covers Myanmar said on condition of anonymity. “It may be counter-productive in the broader scheme of things, because it will drive the Burmese closer to the Chinese.”
Friday, August 20, 2010
THE EVIDENCE against Burma’s junta has been piling up for many years. Thousands upon thousands of girls and women raped as a tactic of war by the Burmese army; children press-ganged to serve as porters; 3,500 villages burned to the ground in recent years; millions of people forced from their homes — these are some of the crimes against humanity sponsored by the generals who rule their Southeast Asian nation of 50 million people.
Now, by deciding to support a United Nations commission of inquiry into these misdeeds, the Obama administration has acknowledged the weight of the evidence and has testified to the urgency of holding criminals accountable for their crimes. It is a major step forward. The U.N. special envoy for Burma (also known as Myanmar), Tom?s Ojea Quintana, has called for such an inquiry, citing the “the gross and systematic nature of human rights violations in Myanmar over a period of many years.” In Congress there is strong bipartisan backing for such an inquiry. Most important, Burmese human rights activists and dissidents both inside and outside the country have supported such an inquiry, sometimes at great personal risk.
Backing a U.N. commission does not supplant previous U.S. policy. It’s not a substitute for economic sanctions, which should be extended and targeted more precisely at the nation’s leaders. Nor does it replace the administration’s policy of engagement, which has yet to bear fruit but need not be discarded. Had Burmese leader Than Shwe responded more positively to administration outreach, investigation into his crimes would nonetheless have been appropriate. Conversely, an inquiry need not discourage the administration from reaching out in a pragmatic way.
What an inquiry can do, however, is signal to the younger officers around Than Shwe, 77, that their futures may be brighter if they do not hitch themselves to his policies of mass rape and ethnic cleansing (not to mention his deepening ties with North Korea). It can provide a ray of hope and moral support to the unimaginably brave fighters for democracy inside Burma, who will carry on their struggle with or without such encouragement. And it can signal to the most offensive dictators around the world that they cannot escape justice by selling off their nations’ timber and natural gas, or by scheduling (as has Than Shwe) fraudulent elections aimed at civilianizing their authoritarian regimes.
If its support of a commission of inquiry is to be more than a gesture, the Obama administration now must engage in hard-headed diplomacy. That means making clear to China, the European Union, Canada, India, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and others that justice for Burma is a priority and not an afterthought. It will take work. But, as President Obama said when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, “When there is genocide in Darfur; systematic rape in Congo; or repression in Burma — there must be consequences. . . . And the closer we stand together, the less likely we will be faced with the choice between armed intervention and complicity in oppression.”
By BA KAUNG – Friday, August 20, 2010
Burma’s Election Commission (EC) told four leaders of the National Democratic Force (NDF) to make a second appeal to the government to clear their past acts of “treason” before they would be allowed to take part in this year’s election.
Last month, the EC told the four leaders that they would have to submit letters of appeal to the regime for attempting to form a parallel government in late 1990—cases for which each has served a jail term.
Each leader has since submitted an appeal letter to the commission.
“In our first letters, we wrote that we want to run in the election as citizens and that we have served our prison terms for our past cases,” said NDF leader Khin Maung Swe.
On Aug. 7, party leader received a response from the commission saying that their first letters were incomplete and a second appeal would be necessary. In their second appeal letters, they were required to make pledges that they would protect the 2008 Constitution, would not oppose the government and would make no contact with illegal associations.
“We made those pledges in our party registration. I don’t know why we are told to do it again. There is some sort of dishonesty in this,” Khin Maung Swe said, adding that he has not yet decided to run in the election as a candidate pending the appeal process.
“Since the commission said it would report to ’superiors’ about our appeal letters, this shows that the commission itself is not independent,” he said. “So I don’t expect that I will be allowed to run.”
The NDF was formed by former members of the the National League for Democracy (NLD), who have said that the coming election would bring some positive change to the country even though it would not be free and fair. The party is expected to become the largest pro-democracy party in the election.
The party’s founder, Khin Maung Swe, and three other leading members—Tin Aung, Tha Saing and Sein Hla Oo—have all served long prison sentences on charges of treason for their role in efforts to form a government after winning a landslide victory in Burma’s last election in 1990. The four men were all elected in 1990. The regime never acknowledged the outcome of that election and it arrested many of the winning NLD candidates.
NLD officials said on Thursday that the party will boycott the election.
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Burmese government has banned Nargis-related visas for humanitarian relief workers ahead the general election, according to relief news agency.
The move has surprised the international aid community because the three-year program, called the Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan, was approved by the government and has only reached its halfway mark, according to NGO workers in Rangoon.
Bishow Parajuli, the UN resident coordinator in Burma, told a relief news network, Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN), “It comes as a surprise, but we are appealing for an interim period with extensions of agreements and visas, during which the agencies can apply for their new memorandums of understanding.”
According to a report by the IRIN, a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on Friday, Burma’s Ministry of Social Welfare Relief and Resettlement told international NGOs and UN agencies on Aug. 16 that the post-Nargis delta recovery effort should be “mainstreamed into development programmes.”
The ministry said: “The responsibility of coordinating those activities will therefore no longer fall to the Ministry of Social Welfare Relief and Resettlement, but the respective line ministries and will therefore require new memorandums of understanding.”
No Nargis-related visas would be extended, and no new visas would be granted under the old arrangement which allowed humanitarian aid workers fairly easy access to the affected areas, according to the report.
The report also said that more than 90 humanitarian workers with international nongovernmental organizations or UN agencies in Burma now have uncertain visa status.
“With the election period coming up, we know everyone will be very busy, so we are concerned that it might take too long to get new memorandums of understanding and assistance might be interrupted, which would have negative consequences for the people in need of continued assistance,” Parajuli was quoted by IRIN as saying.
According to recent assessments conducted in the delta by relief agencies, hard-hit areas such as Labutta and Bogalay townships are still in an emergency state two years after the disaster in May 2008, in which 138,000 people died and 2.4 million people were affected.
An NGO worker in Kamaryut Township in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy that the government banned international NGO visas, especially for Westerners, because it fears that foreigners may enter Burma to observe the upcoming general election on Nov. 7.
According to the Rangoon-based Eleven Media Group, Mandalay International Airport and Yangon International Airport will stop issuing visas on arrival to tourists on Sept. 1.
Friday, 20 August 2010 01:41 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, today announced an official boycott of the nation’s first general elections in 20 years, scheduled last week for November 7, a party spokesman said.
The decision was reached at a meeting attended by top leaders including seven central executive committee members and eight central committee members at the residence of vice-chairman Tin Oo. They said the party would encourage the exercise of voters’ right of free choice over voting as stipulated in the Union Election Commission Law, released in March this year.
“We decided to boycott this election as the 2008 Constitution and the 2010 electoral laws will not lead to the restoration of democracy and human rights in Burma”, party spokesman Ohn Kyaing said.
Consent however was not sought from party general secretary Aung San Suu Kyi in advance of taking this decision, he told Mizzima.
In a letter to party leaders on March 23, Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi – who remains a prisoner in her own house at the orders Burma’s ruling military junta – had said she would abide by decisions taken by both leadership committees, he said. She has been tipped for release released six days after the polls are held in November.
Also, Suu Kyi last month said voters could exercise their franchise by their free will – to vote or refrain from voting.
The electoral laws stipulate that rights include the right to stand in elections, not to stand, the right to withdraw from the candidate list and to vote or refrain from voting.
NLD leaders said discussions would continue on how the public could be encouraged to participate in the boycott.
“We are still discussing how to release our appeal to the people, how to respond to the people, how not to cast the vote, or not to cast votes by simply saying nothing … After our discussions, we have to get the approval of Daw Suu”, a senior party leader, Win Tin, told Mizzima, using the Burmese female honorific.
The party will urge the public to reject the elections by not going to polling stations or casting their votes on polling day, as the Union Election Commission Law permitted, he said.
“If the government responds to our action and takes action against our party we would respond … in no other way than legal action against the government. The free choice to exercise our franchise that we are advocating is in accordance with the electoral laws,” Win Tin said.
The meeting was also attended by senior leaders Than Tun, Hla Pe, Nyunt Wei, and Win Myint.
The NLD decided unanimously against contesting in the polls at the committees’ plenary meeting held on March 29, citing unfairness of the junta’s electoral laws that were widely condemned for their effective barring of Suu Kyi and at least 2,100 prisoners of conscience.