CNN News – ‘I’m very happy to see you all again,’ Suu Kyi says after release
By the CNN Wire Staff
November 13, 2010 11:16 a.m. EST

(CNN) — Myanmar’s ruling military junta released democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest Saturday to a throng of supporters who rushed toward her house once the gates were opened.

Many tried to reach out and shake Suu Kyi’s hand as she appeared at the fence surrounding her lakeside home in Yangon.

Others handed her flowers, which she put in her hair in trademark fashion. It was a small gesture but significant in that the flowers have become a symbol of defiance in Myanmar.

“I’m very happy to see you all again,” she said, promising to address her supporters Sunday at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy party headquarters.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace Prize recipient in 1991, has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest for her dogged opposition to authoritarian rule in the nation formerly known as Burma.

Recently, she had little outside human contact except for two maids and visits from her doctor. Sometimes, she spoke to supporters over the wall of her compound.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he admired Suu Kyi’s courage.

“While the Burmese regime has gone to extraordinary lengths to isolate and silence Aung San Suu Kyi, she has continued her brave fight for democracy, peace, and change in Burma,” he said in a statement Saturday.

“She is a hero of mine and a source of inspiration for all who work to advance basic human rights in Burma and around the world. The United States looks forward to the day when all of Burma’s people are free from fear and persecution.”

This was the third time the regime has released Suu Kyi from house arrest.

Security has been stepped up in Myanmar, but it was unclear whether it was related to Suu Kyi’s release or the country’s first elections in two decades that were held last Sunday.

Though Suu Kyi has had minimal contact with the outside world, reports from her domestic lawyer indicate she is in good spirits, said Jared Genser, another one of her lawyers who is based in the United States.

“I am personally delighted for her, for her family,” Genser said.

But he tempered his joy with words of caution.

“I don’t speak on her behalf as to what comes next,” Genser said. “The challenges are enormous.”

He said it was unclear whether anything would fundamentally change in Myanmar, given the recent “sham” elections in the country.

Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar specialist, said it made “perfect sense” for the regime to free her since she was no longer an electoral threat to them.

Suu Kyi’s opposition party won the 1990 elections by a landslide but the regime never recognized those results. The election Sunday was the first since then but Suu Kyi was barred from participating because of a recent conviction.

The ruling military junta has been slowly releasing official election results, but critics say a victory for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party is all but certain.

The government has refused to allow CNN and other international news organizations into the country to cover the election and its aftermath. It has also prevented international monitors from overseeing the vote.

The Burma Campaign UK, which promotes human rights in Myanmar, accused the ruling junta of rigging the November 7 election. The group welcomed Suu Kyi’s release but warned that it should not be interpreted as a sign that democratic reform is on the way.

“The release of Aung San Suu Kyi is about public relations, not democratic reform,” said Zoya Phan, International Coordinator at Burma Campaign UK.

“I am thrilled to see our democracy leader free at last, but the release is not part of any political process, instead it is designed to get positive publicity for the dictatorship after the blatant rigging of elections on 7th November,” Phan said.

Suu Kyi’s latest house arrest came after she was found guilty of breaching the terms of her house arrest after American John Yettaw swam uninvited to house and briefly stayed there.

The regime passed a law that made her ineligible for Sunday’s elections because of that conviction.

Over the years, Suu Kyi has repeatedly challenged the junta and discouraged foreign investment in Myanmar.

In one incident in 1998, soldiers prevented her from leaving Yangon. But Suu Kyi refused to turn back and was detained in her minivan for almost two weeks.

“She is the symbol of the hope for the people of Burma. If she is out today the whole country will rise up, will follow her,” said Khin Omar of the Network for Democracy and Development.

Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi released
Sat Nov 13, 8:31 am ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar’s military government freed its archrival, democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, on Saturday after her latest term of detention expired. Several thousand jubilant supporters streamed to her residence.

A smiling Suu Kyi, wearing a traditional jacket and a flower in her hair, appeared at the gate of her compound as the crowd chanted, cheered and sang the national anthem.

“If we work in unity, we will achieve our goal. We have a lot of things to do,” she told the well-wishers, who quickly swelled to as many as 5,000. Speaking briefly in Burmese, she said they would see each other again Sunday at the headquarters of her political party.

The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, whose latest period of detention spanned 7 1/2 years, has come to symbolize the struggle for democracy in the Southeast Asian nation ruled by the military since 1962.

The release from house arrest of one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners came a week after an election that was swept by the military’s proxy political party and decried by Western nations as a sham designed to perpetuate authoritarian control.

Supporters had been waiting most of the day near her residence and the headquarters of her party. Suu Kyi has been jailed or under house arrest for more than 15 of the last 21 years.

As her release was under way, riot police stationed in the area left the scene and a barbed-wire barricade near her residence was removed, allowing the waiting supporters to surge forward.

Her release was immediately welcomed by world leaders and human rights organizations.

President Barack Obama called Suu Kyi “a hero of mine” said the United States “welcomes her long overdue release.”

“Whether Aung San Suu Kyi is living in the prison of her house, or the prison of her country, does not change the fact that she, and the political opposition she represents, has been systematically silenced, incarcerated, and deprived of any opportunity to engage in political processes,” he said in a statement.

British Prime Minister David Cameron also said the release was long overdue.

“Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiration for all of us who believe in freedom of speech, democracy and human rights,” he said in a statement.

“It is now crucial that Aung San Suu Kyi has unrestricted freedom of movement and speech and can participate fully in her country’s political process,” European Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso said.

Critics allege the Nov. 7 elections were manipulated to give the pro-military party a sweeping victory. Results have been released piecemeal and already have given the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party a majority in both houses of Parliament.

The last elections in 1990 were won overwhelmingly by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, but the military refused to hand over power and instead clamped down on opponents.

Suu Kyi’s release gives the junta some ammunition against critics of the election and the government’s human rights record, which includes the continued detention of some 2,200 political prisoners and brutal military campaigns against ethnic minorities.

It is unlikely the ruling generals will allow Suu Kyi, who drew huge crowds of supporters during her few periods of freedom, to actively and publicly pursue her goal of bringing democracy to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

But some see hope in her release.

“There is no formal opposition (in Myanmar) so her release is going to represent an opportunity to re-energize and reorganize this opposition. So in that sense, of revitalizing the opposition in some concrete way, Suu Kyi’s release is going to be very pivotal,” said Muang Zarni, an exiled dissident and Myanmar research fellow at the London School of Economics.

Suu Kyi herself earlier cautioned about optimism.

“My release should not be looked at as a major breakthrough for democracy. For all people in Burma to enjoy basic freedom, that would be a major breakthrough,” she said after her earlier release in 2002.

Suu Kyi was convicted last year of violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly sheltering an American man who swam uninvited to her lakeside home, extending a period of continuous detention that began in 2003 after her motorcade was ambushed in northern Myanmar by a government-backed mob.

Suu Kyi has shown her mettle time and again since taking up the democracy struggle in 1988.

Having spent much of her life abroad, she returned home to take care of her ailing mother just as mass demonstrations were breaking out against 25 years of military rule. She was quickly thrust into a leadership role, mainly because she was the daughter of Aung San, who led Myanmar to independence from Britain before his assassination by political rivals.

She rode out the military’s bloody suppression of street demonstrations to help found the NLD. Her defiance gained her fame and honor, most notably the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

Charismatic, tireless and outspoken, her popularity threatened the country’s new military rulers. In 1989, she was detained on trumped-up national security charges and put under house arrest. She was not released until 1995 and has spent various periods in detention since then.

Suu Kyi’s freedom had been a key demand of Western nations and groups critical of the military regime’s poor human rights record. The military government, seeking to burnish its international image, had responded previously by offering to talk with her, only to later shy away from serious negotiations.

Suu Kyi — who was barred from running in this month’s elections — plans to help probe allegations of voting fraud, according to Nyan Win, who is a spokesman for her party, which was officially disbanded for refusing to reregister for this year’s polls.

Such action, which could embarrass the junta, poses the sort of challenge the military has reacted to in the past by detaining Suu Kyi.

Awaiting her release in neighboring Thailand was the younger of her two sons, Kim Aris, who is seeking the chance to see his mother for the first time in 10 years. Aris lives in Britain and has been repeatedly denied visas.

Her late husband, British scholar Michael Aris, raised their sons in England. Their eldest son, Alexander Aris, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on his mother’s behalf in 1991 and reportedly lives in the United States.

Michael Aris died of cancer in 1999 at age 53 after having been denied visas to see his wife for the three years before his death. Suu Kyi could have left Myanmar to see her family but decided not to, fearing the junta would not allow her back in.

Myanmar crowds await Nobel-winner Suu Kyi release
Sat Nov 13, 4:25 am ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Supporters of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi gathered near her home and at her party’s headquarters Saturday, hoping to see the Nobel Peace Prize laureate taste freedom after seven years of detention by the country’s ruling generals.

Colleagues have said that an order to set her free has already been signed by the military government. Legally, the period of her latest house arrest expires Saturday.

However, there have been no official announcements by the secretive junta, so there were concerns that a last-minute hitch could keep her detained.

Her reported refusal to allow conditions to be attached to her freedom poses a dilemma for the junta, which fears her ability to rally supporters. But failing to free her could undo whatever credit the isolated regime has gained in the international community for finally holding elections last Sunday — the country’s first in 20 years.

Jailed or under house arrest for more than 15 of the last 21 years, Suu Kyi has become a symbol for a struggle to rid the Southeast Asian country of decades of military rule.

Crowds returned to their vigil Saturday near her house and party headquarters, after going home disappointed Friday after rumors of her release first began flying.

Adding to the expectant atmosphere was a sharply stepped-up security presence in Yangon, with truckloads of riot police cruising the streets and parked at major junctions — a familiar sight to city residents during times of political tension.

Critics allege the Nov. 7 elections were manipulated to give a pro-military party a sweeping victory. Results have been released piecemeal and already have given the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party a majority in both houses of Parliament.

The last elections in 1990 were won overwhelmingly by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, but the military refused to hand over power and instead clamped down on opponents.

Suu Kyi, 65, was convicted last year of violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly sheltering an American man who swam uninvited to her lakeside home, extending a period of continuous detention that began in 2003 after her motorcade was ambushed in northern Myanmar by a government-backed mob.

Some 200 supporters on Saturday made occasional forays up to the barbed-wire barricades blocking the road to Suu Kyi’s home to shout “Good health, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi!” Daw is a term of respect used for older women.

“We are here to show our support to Daw Suu,” said 29-year-old Kyaw Win, who drove Friday from Bago, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Yangon, along with a friend.

British Ambassador Andrew Heyn made a short stop outside Suu Kyi’s house but did not enter. He said he had no information on her possible release.

“We’re just keeping our fingers crossed like everybody else,” he said.

Another 500 party members and supporters gathered at the NLD’s ramshackle headquarters, laying flowers before posters of Suu Kyi and her late father, revered independence hero Gen. Aung San.

Some wore T-shirts reading “We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi” and “Freedom from Fear,” a title of one of her books. Undercover police were present in force, taking photographs.
Suu Kyi has shown her mettle time and again since taking up the democracy struggle in 1988.

Having spent much of her life abroad, she returned home to take care of her ailing mother just as mass demonstrations were breaking out against 25 years of military rule. She was quickly thrust into a leadership role, mainly because she was the daughter of Aung San, who led Myanmar to independence from Britain before his assassination by political rivals.

She rode out the military’s bloody suppression of street demonstrations to help found the NLD. Her defiance gained her fame and honor, most notably the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

Charismatic, tireless and outspoken, her popularity threatened the country’s new military rulers. In 1989, she was detained on trumped-up national security charges and put under house arrest. She was not released until 1995 and has spent various periods in detention since then.

Suu Kyi’s freedom has been a key demand of Western nations and groups critical of the military regime’s poor human rights record. The military government, seeking to burnish its international image, has responded previously by offering to talk with her, only to later shy away from serious negotiations.

Suu Kyi — who was barred from running in this month’s elections — plans to help probe allegations of voting fraud, according to Nyan Win, who is a spokesman for her party, which was officially disbanded for refusing to reregister for this year’s polls.

Such action, which could embarrass the junta, poses the sort of challenge the military has reacted to in the past by detaining Suu Kyi.

Awaiting her release in neighboring Thailand is the younger of her two sons, Kim Aris, who is seeking the chance to see his mother for the first time in 10 years. Aris lives in Britain and has been repeatedly denied visas.

Her late husband, British scholar Michael Aris, raised their sons in England. Their eldest son, Alexander Aris, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on his mother’s behalf in 1991 and reportedly lives in the United States.

Michael Aris died of cancer in 1999 at age 53 after having been denied visas to see his wife for the three years before his death. Suu Kyi could have left Myanmar to see her family but decided not to, fearing the junta would not allow her back in.

Obama welcomes release of ‘hero’ Aung San Suu Kyi
2 hrs 37 mins ago

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) – US President Barack Obama welcomed the release of Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, calling her “a hero of mine” and saying it was time for the Myanmar junta to free all political prisoners.

“While the Burmese regime has gone to extraordinary lengths to isolate and silence Aung San Suu Kyi, she has continued her brave fight for democracy, peace, and change in Burma,” he said in a statement.

“She is a hero of mine and a source of inspiration for all who work to advance basic human rights in Burma and around the world,” said Obama, using the country’ former name.

“The United States welcomes her long overdue release,” added the president, who is in Japan for a Pacific Rim summit.

“It is time for the Burmese regime to release all political prisoners, not just one. The United States looks forward to the day when all of Burma?s people are free from fear and persecution.”

Aung San Suu Kyi, who like Obama is a Nobel Peace laureate, walked free Saturday from the lakeside home that has been her prison for most of the past two decades, to the delight of huge crowds of waiting supporters.

“Whether Aung San Suu Kyi is living in the prison of her house, or the prison of her country, does not change the fact that she, and the political opposition she represents, has been systematically silenced, incarcerated, and deprived of any opportunity to engage in political processes that could change Burma,” Obama said.

“Following Aung San Suu Kyi?s powerful example, we recommit ourselves to remaining steadfast advocates of freedom and human rights for the Burmese people, and accountability for those who continue to oppress them.”

Nobel laureates celebrate Suu Kyi release
1 hr 2 mins ago

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP) – Nobel laureates attending a peace summit in Hiroshima on Saturday celebrated with toasts the news of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s release.

The freed dissident was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her “non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights” and past winners greeted news of her release at an annual gathering.

“It’s wonderful,” said former South African president F.W. de Klerk, who won the Peace Prize in 1993 with Nelson Mandela for efforts to end apartheid in the country. “We would like to have her next year with us.”

The news reached Hiroshima as the city hosts the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, with six past Nobel Peace laureates including exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Former Italian football player Roberto Baggio, who has been picked for this year’s World Peace Award bestowed by Nobel Peace Prize laureates, also joined the celebration.

“Just very happy, absolutely,” he said as he got off a cruise ship on a tour given on an invitation of Hiroshima governor.

De Klerk and Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace recipient and a lawyer promoting human rights in Iran, also heard the news and toasted on the ship.

“I will go to Burma (Myanmar), or rather I hope to be able to go because I tried in the past without results,” Baggio said.

He was singled out for his long-time charity work, particularly in Myanmar in trying to win freedom for Suu Kyi and also his fund-raising for victims of the Haiti earthquake, according to the office of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.

Baggio, a convert to Buddhism, is to receive his accolade here on Sunday.

Suu Kyi walked free after seven years as a prisoner in her own home, calling on a sea of jubilant supporters to unite in the face of repression.

Waving and smiling, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner appeared outside the crumbling lakeside mansion where she had been locked up by the military rulers, to huge cheers and clapping from the waiting crowds.

The 2010 peace summit calls for a global nuclear disarmament in Hiroshima, the city obliterated by a US atomic bomb attack in 1945.

Those who could not attend the summit include this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who is imprisoned in China.

US President Barack Obama, who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize partly for his commitment to nuclear disarmament, missed the meeting due to a scheduling conflict with the Group of 20 meeting in Seoul and an APEC meeting in Japan.

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who received the prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War, cancelled for health reasons.

UN chief hails ‘inspiration’ Aung San Suu Kyi
2 hrs 24 mins ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the Myanmar junta to follow Saturday’s release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by freeing all political prisoners, a UN spokesman said.

Ban, a longtime critic of the Myanmar generals, hailed Aung San Suu Kyi as “an inspiration” to the world.

He said no more restrictions must be placed on the Nobel Peace Prize winner who was greeted by huge crowds in the capital Yangon when she was freed earlier Saturday.

“Notwithstanding the welcome news of her release, it is deeply regrettable that Daw Aung Suu Kyi was effectively excluded from participating in the recent elections,” Ban said in a statement released by his spokesman.

“The secretary general expects that no further restrictions will be placed on her, and he urges the Myanmar authorities to build on today?s action by releasing all remaining political prisoners,” the statement added.

“Democracy and national reconciliation require that all citizens of Myanmar are free to participate as they wish in the political life of their country.”

UN Human Rights commissioner Navi Pillay also called the release “a positive signal” that the Myanmar junta is “willing to move forward with the serious challenge of democratic transition.”

“Clearly, Aung San Suu Kyi can make a major contribution to this process,” she said.

Ban expressed his “deep admiration and heartfelt best wishes today to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi” for her release.

He added that “her dignity and courage in the face of injustice have been an inspiration to many people around the world.”

Ban, criticized by rights groups for not raising the case of detained Chinese Nobel prize winner Liu Xiaobo during a recent meeting with the country’s president, has expressed growing frustration at the UN’s dealings with the Myanmar junta since he became UN leader four years ago.

He visited the country in 2009 but was refused a meeting with the detained National League for Democracy leader.

Ban slammed Myanmar’s November 7 national election as “insufficiently inclusive, participatory and transparent.”

Atomic bomb legacy haunts Hiroshima families
by Shingo Ito – Fri Nov 12, 11:58 am ET

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP) – The US atomic bombs that killed and wounded half a million people in Japan 65 years ago continue to haunt generations of families who live in fear of inheriting radiation-damaged genes.

Katsuhiro Hirano is among hundreds of thousands of descendants from the “hibakusha” or survivors of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed more than 200,000 people instantly or in the radioactive aftermath.

“Everyone who is second generation ‘hibakusha’ has the same fear — that we may be struck by cancer at anytime,” said Hirano, whose late mother barely survived the 1945 bomb in Hiroshima in the final days of World War II.

Many hibakusha have since suffered diseases such as leukemia and cancer, and despite a lack of conclusive evidence showing these illnesses being passed down to new generations, families live in fear of the worst.

“Some experts say there is no effect on our second generations, but I don’t believe that,” said Hirano, whose mother suffered two miscarriages which he believes were a result of her exposure to radiation from the attack.

Around 240,000 people are officially recognised as hibakusha and are granted free medical treatment, but many more in the two cities suffering from illnesses they say are related to the attacks are seeking the recognition.

“The fear is of the unknown, as radiation is invisible, you cannot sense it,” 52-year-old Hirano, a school teacher who is also secretary-general of the Japan second-generation atomic bomb sufferers’ association, told AFP.

The health and welfare ministry has no plans to offer free cancer screening to the second generation, citing a lack of evidence linking older family members’ radiation exposure and the emergence of diseases in their children.

Hiroshima is back in the spotlight this week as Nobel Peace laureates gather there to call for the end of nuclear weapons in the city obliterated in the world’s first ever nuclear attack.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is among the guest speakers.

US President Barack Obama, who was awarded the 2009 Peace Prize in part for his efforts to pursue nuclear disarmament, is in Seoul for the G20 summit before attending a meeting of Pacific-rim leaders in Yokohama at the weekend.

An estimated 140,000 people died instantly in Hiroshima or succumbed to burns and radiation sickness soon after the blast, and over 70,000 perished as a result of the Nagasaki attack three days later.

Kazue Sato, an 82-year-old survivor, still worries if her son or grandchildren may suffer cancer or leukemia as the result of their potential inheritance of abnormal genes.

“I felt relieved when I saw my son born with no physical defects, but I am constantly worried that symptoms will develop in the future,” said Sato, who lives in a nursing home for atomic bombing sufferers in Hiroshima.

The Radiation Effects Research Foundation, run by both Japan and the United States, will launch a clinical survey later this month targetting some 12,000 children of atomic bomb survivors in the two cities.

“We have decided to begin the survey as the second generation reaches the age where they are more susceptible to such diseases,” said foundation director Takanobu Teramoto. The foundation will continue the survey permanently.

While welcoming the upcoming medical check-up, the children of the hibakusha are calling on the government to expand medical support for them, including free cancer screening tests which are otherwise costly.

“I would like them to begin cancer screening for us as quickly as possible as we are getting older now,” said Nobuhito Hirano, another second generation “hibakusha” in Nagasaki. “Our fear will never be erased.”

N.Korea ‘giving nuclear material to Iran, Syria’
(AFP) – 1 day ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — North Korea is supplying banned nuclear and ballistic equipment to Iran, Syria and Myanmar using “surreptitious” means to avoid international sanctions, according to a UN report released Friday.

China had blocked publication of the report which has been ready for six months, diplomats said.

North Korea is involved with “the surreptitious transfer of nuclear-related and ballistic missile-related equipment, know-how and technology” to countries including Iran, Syria and Myanmar, said the report.

A UN sanctions committee panel of experts called for heightened vigilance to stop the nuclear trade and for more detailed investigation into the sophisticated means used by North Korea to circumvent sanctions.

North Korea, known officially as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, “employs a broad range of techniques to mask its transactions, including the use of overseas entities, shell companies, informal transfer mechanisms, cash couriers and barter arrangements,” said the investigators.

Since the last sanctions were imposed in June 2009, four “non-compliance cases involving arms exports” had come to light, the report said.

It did not give details but said North Korea used “masking techniques” including mislabelling containers, falsifying ships’ manifests and destination details “and use of multiple layers of intermediaries, shell companies, and financial institutions.”

The North is increasingly using foreign-owned ships and modern air freight jets which can now easily get from North Korea’s main airports to the Middle East without refuelling and so avoid checks.

The experts said the Security Council should consider ordering North Korea to declare all air cargos before countries give overflight clearance.

The experts “expressed concern that certain countries, such as the Syrian Arab Republic, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Myanmar, continue to be associated with the Democratic People?s Republic of Korea in regard to proscribed activities and believes that special attention should be taken by all member states to inhibit such activities.

North Korea staged one nuclear test in 2006 and claims it set off another nuclear device in 2009, when the last sanctions were imposed. The UN Security Council has banned trade in nuclear and ballistic material.

The UN has named eight entities and five individuals for asset freezes and travel bans. The report said the number involved was much higher and called on countries to name other banks and other entitities that should be added to the list.

North Korea had been involved in nuclear talks with China, the United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea. But the last talks were in late 2008 and the isolated North pulled out of the negotiations the following year.

International Atomic Energy Agency director Yukiya Amano said this week that the stand-off with North Korea was now “very bad”.

The UN report said there were no signs that North Korea “is ready to move forward on denuclearization or to step back from its other existing weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile development programmes.”

The North “has continued to engage in activities proscribed by the relevant Security Council resolutions and has continued to boycott the six-party talks. It continues to market and export its nuclear and ballistic technology to certain other states.

China has been the North’s main ally on the international stage and it had blocked the report since it was prepared in May, diplomats said.

Factbox: Key facts about Myanmar
Sat Nov 13, 2010 10:05am EST

(Reuters) – Myanmar’s military rulers freed long-detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday after her house arrest term expired.

Here are some key facts about Myanmar, a resource-rich former British colony that has spent most of its post-independence history under authoritarian military dictatorships.

COUNTRY NAME: It was changed last month to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Previously it was the Union of Myanmar, having been changed from the Union of Burma in 1989 in what the junta said was to appease minority non-Burman ethnic groups. A new flag and national anthem were also introduced last month.

POPULATION: About 50 million: estimates vary from 48 million to 58 million. The biggest ethnic group is Burman (about 68 percent), followed by Shan (9 percent) and Karen (7 percent). The population is mostly Theravada Buddhist (89 percent), the rest being Christian, Muslim, Hindu and animist.

AREA: At approximately 678,000 sq km (261,800 sq miles), it is the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Less than two percent of land is under permanent crops and pasture. About 15 percent is arable. Forests make up nearly 50 percent.

BORDERS: Myanmar has borders with Bangladesh (193 km, 120 miles), China (2,185 km, 1,360 miles), India (1,463 km, 910 miles), Laos (235 km, 145 miles) and Thailand (1,800 km, 1,120 miles). It also has nearly 2,000 km (1,240 miles) of coastline on the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal.

CAPITAL: Naypyitaw. In 2005, the military government moved the capital 390 km (240 miles) north from colonial-era Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) to remote, purpose-built Naypyitaw. However, Yangon remains the economic hub.

ARMED FORCES: Active forces estimated at 375,500 in 2006, making the country’s military one of Asia’s largest after China and India. The military relies mostly on older Russian and Chinese technology and enjoy a huge slice of the national budget.

ECONOMY: Long-isolated Myanmar joined the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), comprising its major trade partners, in 1997. It embarked on a market economy in 1988 after 26 years of central planning. Though impoverished, Myanmar is rich in natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, timber, tin, zinc, copper and precious stones.

The economy relies heavily on the export of natural gas, agricultural, marine and forest products and textiles. Its biggest trade partners are Thailand, China and India.

The country’s proven gas reserves doubled in the past decade to 570 billion cubic meters, equivalent to almost a fifth of Australia’s, according to the BP Statistical Review.

Revenues from those reserves are tightly held among the ruling military elite whose cronies dominate other businesses.

There are few accurate economic statistics available and the country has a large black-market economy. Independent economists say decades of corruption and mismanagement by the military have left Myanmar with negligible growth, rampant inflation and a currency, the kyat, considered worthless outside the country. Myanmar has undergone a big sell off of hundreds of state assets in recent months, but the process has been highly opaque and it appears most have ended up in the hands of junta cronies.

POLITICS: Myanmar has faced political and economic isolation since the military refused to recognize the results of a democratic election in 1990, won by Suu Kyi pro-democracy National League for Democracy.

Last Sunday it held its first election since then. The parliamentary poll was won convincingly by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, whose victory will ensure the armed forces has control of the new legislature. Critics say the poll was hugely flawed and the political process is a facade of democracy that will bring no real change to the status quo.

Foreign donors are reluctant to help Myanmar, saying its human rights record is abysmal. Many Western countries, including members of the European Union, the United States and Australia, maintain economic and military sanctions on the country, but they could be reviewed now that Suu Kyi, who has reversed her pro-sanctions stance, has been released.

Neighboring China is its biggest political and economic ally and has capitalized on the West’s reluctance to trade with the junta. It relies heavily on Myanmar for its energy needs and has ensured the regime has its backing in the international arena.

People’s Daily Online – Two Australian journalists deported from Myanmar
08:40, November 12, 2010

Australian authorities on Friday raised concerns with Myanmar about the deportation of two Australian journalists from the country.

Australia Associated Press (AAP) reported that despite having long-stay visas, an Australian film crew have been arrested and taken to Myanmar airport by local authorities to be deported on Thursday night.

The crew were working on a documentary about independent media in South-East Asia, including the Myanmar Times newspaper and its Australian editor Ross Dunkley.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), urgent efforts were being made to locate them.

“The Australian embassy in Rangoon has been making urgent inquiries overnight in regards to the whereabouts of the film crew, ” a DFAT spokesman told AAP.

Deported journalist, film-maker Hugh Piper has made many documentaries that have screened in Australia and overseas. He was working with producer Helen Barrow.

Piper, who is now in Bangkok of Thailand, told ABC News that he and his crew were deported from Burma because of the sensitivity over foreign reporting on the country’s election.

A number of journalists have been arrested and deported over the election period in Myanmar, including a Japanese reporter who was jailed for a number of days.

Inquirer.net – Aquino asks Myanmar to open up ahead of Suu Kyi release
Agence France-Presse First Posted 08:55:00 11/13/2010

YOKOHAMA — President Benigno Aquino III said that although Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi appears set for release, the ruling junta must open up and permit all groups to participate in politics.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader who has been detained for most of the past two decades, could be just hours away from freedom as her current term of house arrest is due to end on Saturday.

“They said that they were giving it up to the courts to decide the fate of Madam Aung San Suu Kyi. So if her term is over, I assume that they will be releasing her,” Aquino told reporters late Friday.”

“But we made so many appeals before their elections and unfortunately that did not happen,” he said on the eve of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit being held in the Japanese city of Yokohama.

Aquino echoed criticism from other governments and rights groups that although Suu Kyi’s release is welcome, it comes after elections a week ago that were widely derided as neither free nor fair.

Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, did not participate as it was forcibly disbanded earlier this year after it said it would boycott the vote.

“I have said it to them directly, I have said it publicly through various media and again we will just reiterate that we appeal that stability in Myanmar comes from an inclusive election,” Aquino said.

“All parties involved [must be] allowed to participate fully, which will undoubtedly result in the stability of the region.”

“And we make that appeal again on behalf of Madam Aung San Suu Kyi and we also make the appeal on behalf of the entire region that we continue [on] the road to progress and not have these avoidable situations that promote instability.”

The Nation – Freed Suu Kyi ready to fight
By Nation, AFP
Published on November 14, 2010

Burma’s democracy icon to speak at her party’s headquarters today

Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi walked free yesterday after seven years as a prisoner in her own home, calling on a sea of jubilant supporters to unite in the face of repression.

Waving and smiling, the Nobel Peace Prize winner appeared outside the crumbling lakeside mansion where she had been locked up by the military rulers, to huge cheers and clapping from the waiting crowds.

“We must work together in unison,” she told thousands of waiting people, suggesting she has no intention of giving up her long fight for democracy in what is one of the world’s oldest dictatorships.

Many people hugged each other with joy at the sight of the 65-year-old dissident, known in Burma simply as “The Lady”. She wore a pale purple top and appeared in good health after her latest stretch of detention.

“I’m so glad to see her in person, but she looks older than before. The last time I saw her was in 2002,” said one supporter, Htein Win.

Suu Kyi asked the crowd to come to her party’s headquarters at noon today to hear her speak after she struggled to make herself heard over the roar of cheers, then went back inside her home as the crowds lingered outside.

World leaders were quick to welcome her release, with US President Barack Obama hailing her as “a hero of mine” and said it was time for the Burma junta to free all political prisoners.

Asean chief Surin Pitsuswan said yesterday in Yokohama, Japan he was “very, very relieved” at the release of Suu Kyi and hoped she will not be detained again. “I hope that this will contribute to true national reconciliation in Myanmar and that Aung San Suu Kyi will be able to play a role in bringing national reconciliation,” Surin said. The Philippines, the most outspoken Asean member in calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release, also welcomed her freedom but said more needed to be done.

“This is a positive step toward the right path for Myanmar. But the question remains ” will all of her political rights be restored, will they take more substantive steps toward democratisation?” said Ricky Carandang, spokesman for President Benigno Aquino.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said her release was “long overdue”, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned any restrictions on her freedom would “constitute a new unacceptable denial of her rights”.

Burma’s most famous dissident has been under house arrest since 2003 ” just one of several stretches of detention at the hands of the ruling generals. Her sentence was extended last year over a bizarre incident in which an American swam uninvited to her lakeside home, sparking international condemnation and keeping her off the scene for the first election in 20 years.

Some fear that junta chief Than Shwe will continue to put restrictions on the freedom of his number one enemy. But her lawyer Nyan Win has suggested she would refuse to accept any conditions on her release, as in the past when she tried in vain to leave Rangoon in defiance of the regime’s orders.

Her struggle for her country has come at a high personal cost: her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999, and in the final stages of his battle with cancer the junta refused him a visa to see his wife.

She has not seen her two sons for about a decade and has never met her grandchildren.

Her youngest son Kim Aris, 33, arrived in Bangkok ahead of her release but it was unclear whether he would be allowed to visit his mother.

The Nation – HRW calls for release of political prisoners
Published on November 14, 2010

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Thailand will issue a statement calling on the Burmese government to release 2,000 political prisoners after democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from seven years of house arrest, Sunai Pasuk, HRW adviser in Thailand said yesterday.

Sunai said Burma is walking onto the path of democracy and the Burmese government should allow political opponents the right to play their role. He said otherwise the release of Suu Kyi would be seen only as a move to divert the world community’s attention from the sham elections in Burma.

He said since Suu Kyi had been released, the Burmese government would face its biggest challenge because she would join forces with the National League for Democracy Party to check electoral frauds.

“I believe a number of Burmese would join her in the fight against election fraud, especially the silent force,” he said.

“What should be more worrisome for the Burmese government is the fact that it has failed to negotiate with the armed minorities. It is now facing war from two sides ?” with the public, and the armed minorities,” he added.

Meanwhile, seven Burmese soldiers were killed and five injured in a clash with KNU Karen rebels at Ban Mae Sari, 20 kilometres from the Thai border in Kanchanaburi’s Sankhlaburi District.

The Burmese soldiers were travelling to reinforce their troops on the border.

A number of Burmese fled the fighting to seek refuge under the care of the Mon army.

Torod, Mon district deputy chief, said the Mon army is providing safety for 500 Burmese refugees on humanitarian grounds. He said Mon would stay neutral and would not interfere in the conflict between the Burmese government and Karen rebels.

The Thai soldiers are reinforcing security on the Burmese-Thai border to prevent the influx of Burmese refugees.

After Suu Kyi’s Release, Dangerous Time Sets In
By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Nov 13, 2010 (IPS) – A dilapidated colonial villa on the banks of the Inya Lake in Rangoon, Burma’s largest city, has regained its identity as a home – instead of a prison – following the Saturday release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the icon of the military-ruled country’s democracy movement.

Yet it is not the first time that this change of identity has taken place. The 65-year-old Nobel Peace laureate’s release from house arrest by the junta brought to an end her seven-year stretch of political isolation, which began after pro-regime thugs attacked Suu Kyi and her supporters in central Burma in May 2003.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burma’s independence hero Aung San, has been granted freedom twice before since her first imprisonment in her ancestral home in July 1989. The freedoms granted to her by the military leaders of Burma, or Myanmar, were never permanent.

Thus, this early, as Suu Kyi takes her first tentative steps as a free Burmese citizen after spending 15 of the past 21 years as a prisoner in her home, concern is already being expressed about whether her freedom will be short- lived.

“This is a very dangerous period,” says Khin Ohmar, chairwoman of the Network for Democracy and Development in Burma, a umbrella organisation of Burmese political activists in exile. “The regime is not releasing her out of respect that she has an important role to play in Burma’s political process and national reconciliation.”

The regime’s record over the past two decades feeds such worries. The junta’s reclusive strongman, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, has strengthened the military’s numbers and issued an order that has crushed any hint of political freedom and democratic sentiment.

“In the last 20 years, every single move by the regime has been to its benefit,” Khin Ohmar explained during a telephone interview from the Thai- Burma border. “It has always been a part of their control strategy. They have never changed.”

Some former political prisoners even worry for Suu Kyi’s life now that she has the liberty to go around in public. “We are concerned that she may be rearrested on some charge or attacked by government thugs,” said Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPP), a group that campaigns for the rights of jailed political dissidents. “She has been attacked before.”

Suu Kyi’s long spells as a political prisoner and how she has been treated once free have shaped these deep doubts about the junta’s motives. “There is no rule of law in Burma,” Bo Kyi, himself a former political prisoner, told IPS. “The regime’s motives are never sincere.”

Suu Kyi has been a thorn in the side of Burma’s military rulers since her return to the country in early 1988 to take care of her ailing mother. Her arrival after a long absence abroad coincided with a pro-democracy uprising that year against a military regime that had been in power since a 1962 coup.

The political neophyte was soon propelled into being a star of the country’s young democracy movement, drawing hundreds of thousands of supporters to a mass political rally she addressed in late 1988 in Rangoon. Soon after, she helped found the National League for Democracy (NLD) to contest the 1990 general election, the first multi-party poll in 28 years.

Yet her freedom was short-lived as the military leaders — who had already crushed the 1988 pro-democracy uprising where 3,000 people were killed — discovered the power of Suu Kyi’s message of democracy and non-violence. She was forced off the streets and imprisoned in her home almost a year before the 1990 elections, beginning her first stretch under house arrest that lasted six years.

But Burmese voters had other ideas. They gave the NLD a thumping majority, some 82 percent of the seats in the national legislature, in that 1990 poll. But the junta refused to recognise the results, setting into motion a long acrimonious relationship between those armed with the guns and those who derived strength from non-violent democratic sentiments.

“It is asymmetrical politics that you started to see in Burma after Suu Kyi arrived on the scene,” said a Rangoon-based political analyst. “You had the powerful, heavily armed military against a woman leading a movement that stood for peaceful political change through democracy.”

“She deserves credit for making the democracy movement in Burma a non- violent one and helping to keep it that way,” the analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told IPS. “The anti-regime forces could have easily turned violent out of frustration and years of suppression.”

Her stature in the past two decades has also gone beyond the country’s majority Burman ethnic community and reached the country’s patchwork of ethnic minority communities that have been at war and have endured decades of oppression under the grip of a Burman-dominated military.

Analysts have credited Suu Kyi and the NLD for getting the ethnic minorities to feel part of the movement for political change, though their push for tripartite talks between the regime, the pro-democracy movement and the ethnic minorities.

Among these groups are the Karen, one of the largest ethnic nationalities whose rebel forces have been waging a separatist struggle for six decades. “We are very happy to see Aung San Suu Kyi freed after so many years,” said Zipporah Sein, general secretary of the Karen National Union. “She is very important for the ethnic groups and for the people of Burma because of her struggle for rights.”

Ottawa Citizen – Harper welcomes Suu Kyi’s release
AFP November 13, 2010 12:03 PM

MONTREAL, Nov 13, 2010 (AFP) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper welcomed the release of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar Saturday and called on the country’s military leaders to release all political prisoners.

“Canada stands resolutely with Burma’s democratic forces and like-minded members of the international community in the quest to restore civilian government to the Burmese people,” he said.

“We continue to call on the Burmese authorities to release all political prisoners and allow the meaningful political participation of all Burma’s opposition and ethnic groups.”

He said sanctions imposed by Canada on Myanmar in 2007 will remain in place.

The 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner walked free from her home Saturday to greet crowds of supporters for the first time since she was placed under house arrest in May 2003.

“She is an unwavering champion of peace, democracy and respect for human rights in Burma, despite being held in detention for 15 of the past 21 years,” Harper said.

“Neither her trial nor appeal process were conducted in line with international standards. She was not granted due process and should never have been detained,” he said.

Canada has granted Suu Kyi honorary citizenship,

Associated Press of Pakistan – President welcomes release of Aung San Suu Kyi

ISLAMABAD, Nov 13 (APP): President  Asif Ali Zardari who is also Co-chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party has welcomed the release of Myanmar’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In a message, he said release of the long detained leader will help usher in a new era of democracy and fundamental freedoms in Myanmar.

He said the sacrifices of Aung San Suu Kyi will remain etched on the minds of all those who believe in democracy and human rights.

He said release of the Burmese leader will strengthen democracy in the region and also in other countries of world.

South African Broadcasting Company – SA welcomes release of Suu Kyi
November 13 2010 , 7:52:00

The South African government welcomed the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar pro-democracy leader who was released today after an 18-month long house arrest.

“We hope her release opens space for the release of many more political prisoners and the unbanning of many other activists and that they will be afforded an opportunity to partake in the political life of their country,” chief director for public diplomacy, Saul Kgomotso Molobi said in a statement.

Suu Kyi was serving an 18-month house arrest handed down by a criminal court for breaking the terms of her previous incarceration by allowing an uninvited United States national to swim to her lakeside home.

The sentence expired today. She has spent 15 out of the last 20 years under some form of detention or house arrest – ever since her party, the National League for Democracy, won the 1990 elections.

There are 2,200 political prisoners behind bars in the impoverished nation, which the junta has ruled with an iron fist for nearly five decades.

The Irrawaddy – Suu Kyi Still Burmese Idol
By WAI MOE Saturday, November 13, 2010

Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s popularity appears to be increasing in the wake of a general election widely rejected as a sham and her release from house arrest on Saturday after a total of 15 years and 20 days in detention out of the past 21 years and four months.

When she appeared above the wall of her guarded compound, at least 3,000 supporters had come out to her lakeside house in the hope of catching a glimpse of her. It was an iconic moment in Burma’s history.

Members of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and journalists who came to see her said more and more people were heading in the direction of her house as word spread that she was to be released. Observers said more Suu Kyi supporters turned out on Saturday than on the occasions of her two previous releases, in 1995 and 2002.

“I was there when she was released in May 2002,” Yar Zar, an NLD youth member said. “There weren’t the number of people then that are here today. It’s not only NLD members, but other people have come today as well.”

Suu Kyi, 65, was released at around 5 pm on Saturday while thousands of her supporters waited outside her house. Observers realized she was about to be released when three vehicles entered her compound and riot police began dismantling the barbed wire from around her compound. Then, executive members of the NLD went into the compound.

A few minutes later, the riot police withdrew and thousands of her supporters ran toward the gate to await their leader.

“I have been waiting for this day for seven years,” said one supporter. “I am so happy that she is now freed. She is like my mother. She is our mother.”

Suu Kyi’s latest term of detention term began back in May 2003 when her convoy was brutally ambushed by junta-backed thugs who were members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) which was transformed for the election into the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

Shortly after her release was confirmed, Suu Kyi greeted the crowd and gave her first public speech in years. “We must work together to achieve our goal,” she began. “We have not seen each other for so long. We have so much to talk about,” she added. “Come to the office [of the NLD] tomorrow at 12:00 pm,” she concluded after a few minutes.

This evening, she is expected to meet with party leaders and then to meet with foreign diplomats at the lakeside home, said NLD sources. One of the NLD’s leaders, Ohn Kyaing, said earlier the party had been organizing for her release since Friday.

NLD sources also said Suu Kyi will visit party secretary U Lwin at his home on Saturday evening as his wife passed away on Friday.

Even after she went back into her house, the crowd waited, others turned up, and people cheered.

“She is the Burmese people’s leader. She is our leader. I am also glad to know she has been released this afternoon,” said Khin Maung Swe, a leader of the National Democratic Force, the splinter group of the NLD. He added that the junta released Suu Kyi only after they manipulated the election.

A day before Suu Kyi’s release, Burma’s state-run media reported that the USDP had won the Nov. 7 election.

Representatives of several ethnic armed groups, such as the United Wa State Army and the Kachin Independence Organization, said they welcomed Suu Kyi’s release and hoped she would play a significant role for ethnic minorities’ rights in the country.

Ironically, even military sources in Naypyidaw and Rangoon expressed delight that the Nobel laureate was finally free.

Mizzima News – ‘The Lady’ retains potent political role
Friday, 12 November 2010 22:32 Benedict Rogers

London – Tomorrow, Aung San Suu Kyi will have spent a total of 15 years and 20 days in detention. Under Burmese law, she should be released, and it is looking increasingly likely that she will be. Although the regime has a poor track record of keeping its word or upholding its own laws, the regime will want to divert attention away from last Sunday’s sham elections which perpetuate military rule, and give the international community a fig leaf.

The regime has played it well from their point of view – legally they should have released her when her period of house arrest expired last year, but then, conveniently, American Mormon John Yettaw came to the junta’s aid, swam across the lake, and landed Suu Kyi with three years’ hard labour. In an act designed to appear compassionate, Than Shwe reduced this to 18 months’ house arrest – conveniently timing her release for six days after the sham elections.

On paper, Suu Kyi appears to have been sidelined from Burmese politics. The new constitution prohibits her from running in elections, and the election laws required political parties contesting the elections to expel any prisoners among their members. Unsurprisingly, her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), could not expel their leader, a Nobel Peace laureate and a most powerful symbol of the struggle for freedom in Burma, and so the NLD boycotted the polls and was banned as a party by the regime.

In reality, however, Suu Kyi retains the most extraordinarily potent political role. She is as central and relevant to Burma’s politics as ever. No one else has the capacity to inspire, mobilise and unite people. On my visits to Burma in recent years, ordinary people of all generations have spoken with immense respect and affection for “The Lady”. This year, I stood on one side of Inya Lake and looked straight across at the dilapidated house in which she had been confined for most of the past two decades.

The few people who have been able to meet her in recent years, particularly British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, have spoken of her continuing physical and mental energy and total commitment to her country’s struggle. Among the ethnic nationalities, she is the only Burman whom people speak of with genuine love and respect. Indeed, to those who say she is no longer relevant, I would ask: well then why has the regime kept her locked up for all these years?

If she steps out from her house in the next few hours, it will be as visually momentous as Nelson Mandela’s walk out of prison in South Africa. There is, however, one key difference. Mandela was freed because South Africa’s apartheid regime was crumbling, and F.W. de Klerk knew he had to reform. He engaged with Mandela to chart a peaceful transition to democracy, and Mandela’s release was part of a process of change. Mandela and de Klerk worked hand-in-hand. In Burma, if the generals have their way, there will be no change.

That is why it is essential that the international community make it clear that Suu Kyi’s release, while welcome, is by itself no measure of progress. She herself said when she was last released in 2002: “My release should not be looked at as a major breakthrough for democracy. For all people in Burma to enjoy basic freedom – that would be the major breakthrough.”

Pressure must be increased on the regime to seize the moment of her release, and engage in a genuine dialogue with her, the democracy movement and the ethnic nationalities. If it wants to show it is serious, the regime must release the more than 2,100 political prisoners currently in jail, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Mya Aye, Ko Ko Gyi and Hkun Htun Oo. The military must declare a nationwide ceasefire, and end its offensives against ethnic civilians. Rape, forced labour, torture, the forcible recruitment of child soldiers and the destruction of villages must stop.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon must deploy all the resources available to him to revive a UN-led initiative to encourage dialogue in Burma. Dialogue is the one policy that unites everyone. The UN Security Council, General Assembly, Human Rights Council and office of the Secretary General; the European Union, the United States, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and even China, have called for dialogue. Suu Kyi and the ethnic nationalities have both indicated their readiness to talk – indeed, dialogue and national reconciliation is the centrepiece of their platform.

The alternative to dialogue is continued, perhaps increased ethnic conflict and political instability. That is the regime’s choice. Its record does not inspire hope, but with targeted high-level pressure from the international community led by Ban Ki-moon, if Suu Kyi is freed, there is an opportunity to be seized. Last Sunday’s elections failed to bring about Burma’s freedom – but let this Sunday mark a new dawn for Burma.

Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist working with Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a group based in London. He has made more than 30 visits to Burma and its borderlands, and is the author of Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant (Silkworm Books, 2010).

DVB News – Depayin and The Driver
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 12 November 2010

It was May 2003 and a young law student named Kyaw Soe Lin was on a very special mission. As an organiser and legal aid for the National League for Democracy, he had been given the job of driving Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on her tour of the country. And as the stretch of detention that began in the bloody aftermath of this event comes to an end, DVB spoke exclusively to the driver at a house in Mandalay.

Suu Kyi had only been free for about a year when she set off from Rangoon. Her tour with other NLD members, including party secretary U Tin Oo, would take in the hoards of disenfranchised voters who had backed her and her party in such numbers 13 years prior.

The trip began in mid-April and the first stop was Monywa. As it progressed, the convoy received minor harassment from stone-throwing thugs and other intimidating behaviour.
But as it drove from Moegaw in Sagaing division back to Mandalay on 29 May, the first signs of real trouble came. What followed was a political crime of terrible proportions and a harrowing indictment of the newly-victorious Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

On 29 May, Kyaw Soe Lin recalls that the convoy came under attack from stones and catapults, with a number of NLD members left injured. Despite this, it continued and made it to Mandalay. The next day the party headed to Depayin district, and as they passed through the small village of Kyiwa, up ahead in the road were two monks who stopped the convoy, asking if Suu Kyi could address a gathering.

“I told Aunty [Aung San Suu Kyi] that we shouldn’t stop as we usually get harassed around dusk time. But the monks said they have been waiting for Aung San Suu Kyi since the evening before and requested that she give them a speech and greet them. They were two elderly monks sitting and waiting, so Aunty said we should stop for them.”

The two monks turned out to be imposters, and as the car stopped for Suu Kyi to consider the proposal, the wrath of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a civilian proxy of the military, was turned upon the convoy.

That day some 70 NLD members were killed by thugs from the party who last week committed perhaps the greatest fraud the country has known.

“When we stopped the convoy, [NLD] youth securities surrounded our car…and we were informed by the NLD members who protected our rear that a mob, including fake monks armed with sticks and other melee weapons, were approaching us in four or five buses,” said Kyaw Soe Lin.

“Then we heard they were attacking our convey and the villagers waiting for us. Then they came to us and started beating people up – some villagers and our members at the scene fought back. But Aunty told them not to retaliate. The attackers, clad in monk robes, arrived at our car carrying sticks and blades. They were all wearing white armbands. They started beating – their way of attack wasn’t actually chaotic but quite tactical/”

As they came under attack, Kyaw Soe Lin pleaded with the mob, protesting that The Lady was in the car. This made no difference, and, he suspects, probably only encouraged the mob, whom it is thought were trying to assassinate the Nobel laureate. And if it weren’t for Kyaw Soe Lin, it could have been that Daw Suu’s fate would have mirrored that of her father, General Aung San. He was gunned down in a political assassination in Rangoon in 1947, shortly after gaining independence for Burma.

“They carried on attacking the car and beat to death the youths [NLD members] protecting it,” he said, eyes twitching with the tension of the heinous memory. “Some just collapsed right on the spot.

“My anger then exploded and I was going to run over the attackers with the car. I stomped on the lever three times and reversed the car. The attackers had slipped a wooden stick into the car – I didn’t know when they did it. The stick was jamming the steering mechanism so that the car would flip when driven forward and it would look just like an accident. So I reversed the car and the wooden stick broke. It was stuck between a wheel and another part.

“As I reversed, they broke the windows on my side and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s side, and also on the side where Ko Htun Zaw Zaw was sitting next to me. They also broke the car’s headlights and the back mirrors were shredded to pieces. The car’s body was also smashed up.”

He tells the story in the gloom of a rainy Mandalay evening, lights flickering above. “I reversed but then I saw our youth members and the students who came with us all lying on the ground and I was worried that I’d run them over too. So I drove away to avoid them. We went a bit forward in the car and saw that three other trucks were blocking the road. I told Aunty there was something wrong with the car and drove towards them without turning away. The trucks looked like six-wheel Hino trucks.

“I pulled onto the side of the road when we were really close to those cars and slipped past them, only to reach to the area the attackers had designated as the “kill zone”. There were about 30 trucks with their headlights shining behind the attackers, who were armed with sticks.”

“There were about 200 or 300 people dressed in USDA uniforms holding posters. The attackers were so many.

“As our car got near there, they watched us in surprise. There were [NLD security] clinging onto the sides of our car and I worried that the attackers might pull them off if they got near us. So I pretended I was going to run into the crowd and they scattered away. Then I pulled the car back up onto the road and kept on driving. Then we saw there were road blocks set up all the way across the road. I knew that we all, including Aunty, would die if we didn’t leave there, so I kept on driving.”

As he drove through the mob, objects were hurled at the car, smashing more of the remaining windows and hitting him. But he drove on.

“Aunty asked me if I was okay. I said I was fine and kept on driving; if I stopped at the blockage, they’d beat us to death. So I ran over it and found that there was another layer of trucks blocking the way about four to five feet after the blockage. There was a gap left between the cars and I drove through there – luckily the car fitted right in the space. Then there was a line of policemen with their guns pointed at the car. I went through them but didn’t hit anyone, as they jumped to the side. As I drove on, I saw people with guns that looked like soldiers. Aunty said we should only stop when we reach Depayin.”

But Kyaw Soe Lin was lost, and having never been to Depayin before, didn’t know the route. Soon he stopped in a forest to try and mend the vehicle, which was packed with fellow NLD members, including The Lady. After making improvised repairs, he drove on and came to the town of Yea-U. But as he entered the town, security personnel stopped the vehicle and asked who was in the car. They were told to wait, and about half an hour later a large number of military personnel arrived.

“They came out carrying guns and surrounded us. About 15 minutes later, an army official – apparently a battalion commander – arrived and put a gun to my temple and asked us to go with them. Aunty nodded us to go, so we did. We were taken to Yea-U jail.

“We got there around 9pm and saw people apparently giving witness accounts of the incident. They were all wearing the same armbands worn by the attackers. Aunty told the police and intelligence officials there that she would cooperate with them if they promised to abide by legal procedures; otherwise they would just kill us all if they wanted. They promised to abide by the law and took Aunty with them.

“I was held for two days at the Yea-U detention centre”; two days in which the authorities intentionally denied Kyaw Soe Lin and his comrades food, only giving them water. After two days he was transferred to Shwebo prison and thrown in with the common criminals. He said that he was given worse food than the thieves and rapists who were now his co-habitants.

Soon he was on the move again – hooded and shackled, he was driven to a plane and flown to Hkamti.

“When we reached Hkamti, we were not fed. In the evening, they took away the egg and good rice given us from Shwebo jail, saying that they would feed us in the evening. They
gave us a handful of un-husked rice with rotting fish paste which some people could not eat. Some people vomited.”

They were kept there and soon the interrogation began. They were told to say that the people in the villages who had welcomed them had been the ones who attacked the convoy. This, needless to say, they refused because, as Kyaw Soe Lin points out, the tour was officially sanctioned. “We took this trip in harmony with them [the authorities]. For this reason, if they beat us, let them do it; if they killed us, we have to die, she said to us. Because of that, we did not say what they wanted us to say.”

On refusal of their demands to cover up the violent political intimidation, the authorities began the torture, “stripped naked and candle wax dropped all over the body,” he recounts. “They forced us to sit on our haunches and one after another, kicked us like a football. The face was kicked too. And as soon as they entered the detention centre, they punch your face with fists. This is not a special detention centre’s interrogation – they carried out the torture because I drove Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s car. I was deliberately tortured.”

He continues in harrowing detail: “They had drunk before interrogating us. They stank of alcohol as they tortured us. And having tortured us, they went away again. Then they threatened us – they said they will electrify us; will keep us in the pouring rain. Not me alone, but all of those with me were beaten up. The sounds of ‘I am scared’ and smashing – I heard these. It wasn’t that painful when I was beaten up; it was more painful in my heart when [other people] were beaten.”

The appalling conditions were also part of the punishment. “My detention cell was slightly higher than standing height. On the floor, because it is rainy season, water was above knee-level. You can’t sleep, can’t sit. They handcuffed us behind our back from the day we arrived, and it lasted this way for exactly a month, day and night. They also came to interrogate at midnight and in the morning, and for the whole day.”

His detention was ‘only’ six months as there was no crime. This was not a judicial detention in any sense of the word; they couldn’t even conjure a vague law to detain the members of the convoy.

But like so many prisoners of conscience, Kyaw Soe Lin’s troubles did not end with his release. “When I came out of the prison, I resumed my studies. But they were following from behind relentlessly when I attended classes. Then I told one intelligence agent that we were doing nothing bad, nothing improper. ‘You released me because I am innocent. As it is so, I do not like the way you are stalking me now’, I said. Only then did they stop following me from behind. There was some stalking but no other harassment.”

He adds that it took him years longer than a normal law student to receive his licence to practice.

And so as Suu Kyi is finally released after more than seven years under house arrest, the immense injustice that she is fighting is almost visible on the troubled face of one of the closest witnesses to the harrowing events that put her back in detention in 2003, Kyaw Soe Lin.

And as the authorities – perhaps in an effort to divert attention from their fraudulent election and to appease a rightfully sceptical international community – release their most famous prisoner, that reconciliation and justice will be hard to find where impunity springs eternal from the hands of the military to its chosen minions.

“All those beaten up were imprisoned, but for those who carried out the beating, not one. No one knows who was behind the attack. And in the prison, we were beaten up for one reason or another. It was a deliberate way to torture. It is not like interrogation, just torture.”

DVB News – Voting infractions ‘wouldn’t alter result’
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 12 November 2010

Despite breaches of standard election procedures being witnessed at polling booths last week, they were not significant enough to drastically alter the result, a recent report claims.

The report, drawn up on 8 November and titled Preliminary Findings Report, uses surveys from 175 election observers who witnessed proceedings at polling stations last week. The document is anonymous, but bills the authors as an “independent and politically neutral local association” based in Burma.

“The administration of the poll was generally smooth and most regulations were followed: 71 percent of observers reported that the voting process was efficiently handled,” it says.
“Infractions were observed in many polling stations, though probably not on a scale that would significantly shift the overall result of the election.”

It comes as anger at Burma’s first elections in 20 years continues to boil, with various opposition parties accusing the junta-appointed Election Commission of using poorly-scrutinised advance votes to ensure victory for its proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

“Concern about the conduct of advance voting is widespread,” the report acknowledged. “How it has been carried out varies significantly from place to place. Voters have expressed worry that the secrecy of their advance votes was not guaranteed.”

Restrictive election laws announced in March this year ensured that the USDP would emerge as the strongest contender: its bottomless war chest meant it could field candidates in 1112 of the 1158 constituencies, as well as entice voters with the incentive of low-interest loans. Smaller parties on the other hand struggled to offer any significant competition.

Much of the pre-election media coverage in state-run outlets was reserved exclusively for the USDP, which is headed by Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein, despite there being 37 parties competing in total.

A survey by the Slovakian-based media watchdog, MEMO 98, said that between 4 and 31 August, when it carried out a study of political bias in both state-run and independent media outlets, Thein Sein accounted for 56 percent of coverage on the MRTV, Burma’s main television broadcaster. On MRTV 4, he received 77 percent.

The USDP was also given clandestine access to state resources, and reportedly held party events in state-owned buildings such as schools, which is banned under Burmese law.
The report said that the “abuse of state resources was one of the most widespread problems during the campaign period”.

It said that “97 percent of observers reported that the state’s financial and material resources were not equally used by political parties and candidates for campaign activities. This is primarily a reflection of the longstanding close relationship between USDP and the government.”

It added however that “the extent to which voters were actually swayed by the USDP’s greater resources is not yet known”.

The election results so far announced by the Burmese government put the USDP in a clear lead, with nearly 400 seats across the three parliaments. The next closest party, the National Unity Party (NUP), which is also considered pro-junta, has won only 18 seats.