Myanmar’s Suu Kyi and UN chief Ban speak by phone
1 hr 11 mins ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Myanmar opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi and UN chief Ban Ki-moon spoke by telephone Thursday and renewed demands for her country’s ruling generals to release all remaining political prisoners.

“Aung San Suu Kyi expressed her support for an early visit by the secretary general’s special advisor for Myanmar to Yangon and her desire to engage with him for pushing ahead in addressing the challenges facing the people of Myanmar,” a UN statement said.

The UN advisor, Vijay Nambiar, had been pressing to visit Myanmar before the country’s contested national election on November 7. But diplomats said the junta had only agreed for him to go there after the vote.

Ban visited Myanmar last year but was not allowed to see Suu Kyi, who was released from almost two decades of detention and house arrest on Saturday.

The National League for Democracy leader has told diplomats that the release of the estimated 2,100 political prisoners still in Myanmar jails is her top campaign issue.

“The secretary general and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi both stressed the need for the Myanmar authorities to release all remaining political prisoners as a matter of priority so that all citizens of Myanmar are free to contribute to advancing the prospects of national reconciliation and democratic transition in Myanmar,” said the statement.

Ban told Suu Kyi “he was encouraged by the spirit of reconciliation emanating from her statements and appeals for dialogue and compromise following her release.”

The UN leader reiterated the United Nations’ commitment “to uphold the cause of human rights and support all efforts by the government, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all other stakeholders to build a united, peaceful, democratic and modern future for their country.”

It was not immediately clear whether Ban called Suu Kyi or the other way around.

Suu Kyi and UN chief make call for prisoner release
1 hr 48 mins ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar on Thursday while a UN committee condemned human rights in Myanmar despite Chinese opposition.

China also vociferously defended the Myanmar junta in UN Security Council consultations held to discuss the release of Suu Kyi and the much criticized national election held on November 7.

Ban and Suu Kyi held their first talks by telephone, the UN said.

They “stressed the need for the Myanmar authorities to release all remaining political prisoners as a matter of priority so that all citizens of Myanmar are free to contribute to advancing the prospects of national reconciliation and democratic transition in Myanmar,” said a UN statement.

The Nobel Peace Prize winning opposition leader has made the estimated 2,100 political prisoners still in Myanmar jails her campaign priority, according to diplomats.

Forty-six nations — European countries, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand — presented a resolution in the UN General Assembly’s main human rights committee which expressed “gravest concern” at Myanmar’s rights record and saying the November 7 election was not “free and fair”.

The resolution, which highlighted political prisoners, the use of torture and inhuman treatment, child soldiers and attacks on civilians, was backed by 96 nations and opposed by 28 with 60 abstaining.

China strongly attacked the motion. “Finger pointing does not protect human rights,” China’s representative told the committee meeting.”

He said the resolution “does not recognize the progress that has been made,” added the diplomat praising the election from which Aung San Suu Kyi’s party was banned and most seats went to pro-junta groups.

Russia also opposed the resolution. Myanmar’s ambassador Than Swe called the resolution “seriously flawed”.

Suu Kyi expressed support for a visit by the secretary general’s special advisor on Myanmar “and her desire to engage with him for pushing ahead in addressing the challenges facing the people of Myanmar,” the UN statement said.

UN advisor, Vijay Nambiar, had pressed for a visit to Myanmar before the election. But the junta had only agreed for him to go after the vote and Nambiar turned this down, diplomats said.

The Security Council also discussed whether Nambiar could meet the junta. It could not agree a general statement for the press, with China again praising the election and defending the junta against Western criticism, diplomats said.

Ban visited Myanmar last year but was not allowed to see Suu Kyi, who was released from almost two decades of detention and house arrest on Saturday.

Ban told Suu Kyi “he was encouraged by the spirit of reconciliation emanating from her statements and appeals for dialogue and compromise following her release.”

The UN leader reiterated the United Nations commitment “to uphold the cause of human rights and support all efforts by the government, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all other stakeholders to build a united, peaceful, democratic and modern future for their country.”

Myanmar democracy icon calls her detention illegal
22 mins ago

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said Thursday that her recent release from seven years of detention did not signal a softening in the military’s harsh, decades-long rule of the Southeast Asian nation.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Suu Kyi called her detention illegal and said she was released simply because the decreed period of her house arrest had ended.

“I don’t think there were any other reasons,” she said in her small, Spartan office, decorated with little except a vase of flowers and a black and white photograph of her late father, Aung San, who helped lead colonial Burma to independence from Britain. “My detention had come to an end, and there were no immediate means of extending it.”

The 65-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, set free from her lakeside residence Saturday, has made it clear she plans to pursue her goal of a democratic Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, but has been careful not to verbally challenge the junta or call for its overthrow.

Her most recent detention began in 2003 after she was blamed for an attack by government thugs on her convoy. It was extended in 2009 when she briefly sheltered an American man who swam uninvited to her decaying villa.

“I never should have faced detention,” she said.

Since Saturday, though, the generals and their longtime archrival have had no contact.

“I haven’t seen any sign of the junta at all since I came out. They haven’t made any move to let us know what they feel about the situation,” said Suu Kyi, an unflappable and deeply charismatic woman who speaks with an upper-class British accent.

She added, though, that her goals would not change: “I had better go on living until I see a democratic Burma,” she said, laughing.

She has called for face-to-face talks with junta leader Gen. Than Shwe to reach national reconciliation.

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon telephoned Suu Kyi and the pair had a “warm and cordial conversation,” Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky said. The world body leader expressed his admiration for Suu Kyi’s “courage and dignity as a source of inspiration for millions of people around the world,” according to Nesirky.

Suu Kyi has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years but has remained the dominant figure of Myanmar’s battered pro-democracy movement. More than 2,200 political prisoners remain behind bars.

A week before her release, a military-backed political party swept the first elections in 20 years amid widespread accusations that the balloting was rigged. Final results have yet to be announced, but some military candidates took 90 percent and more of the votes in their constituencies.

Many observers believe her release was timed to shift attention from the elections and the international condemnation of them.

“It’s a public relations maneuver to appease domestic opinion as well as the international community, and to deflect attention from the fraudulent Nov. 7 election,” Bertil Lintner, a prominent writer on Myanmar, said in an e-mail.

Suu Kyi acknowledged in the interview that her years of political work had been difficult for her family.

“I knew there would be problems,” she said of her mid-life decision to go into politics. “If you make the choice you have to be prepared to accept the consequences.”

Suu Kyi, who was largely raises overseas, married the British academic Michael Aris and raised their two sons, Kim and Alexander, in England.

But in 1988, at age 43, she returned home to take care of her ailing mother as mass demonstrations were breaking out against military rule. She was quickly thrust into a leadership role, mainly because she was the daughter of Aung San.

The personal costs have been staggering. She was unable to see her husband before he died of cancer in 1999. She has not seen her sons in a decade, and has never met her two grandchildren.

She refuses to leave Myanmar, even during her brief periods of freedom, fearing she would not be allowed to return.

While her family supported her, she said her sons had suffered particularly badly.

“They haven’t done very well after the breakup of the family, especially after their father died, because Michael was a very good father,” she said. “Once he was no longer there, things were not as easy as they might have been.”

Little is known about her sons, who largely avoid the media. Kim lives in England with his family and Alexander resides in the United States.

But she added that she always had their support: “My sons are very good to me,” she said. “They’ve been very kind and understanding all along.”

UN: Drug-resistant malaria spreading in Asia
1 hr 20 mins ago

GENEVA (AP) – The World Health Organization says countries are not doing enough to detect drug-resistant malaria, which is spreading in Southeast Asia.

The U.N. health agency says there is evidence that type of malaria has now spread from Thailand’s western border with Myanmar to its southeastern Cambodian border.

WHO says a strain of the mosquito-borne infectious disease resistant to the most effective antimalarial drugs emerged on the Myanmar border two years ago.

It warned that resistance to the malaria drug artemisinin could spread to African countries, just like it did with previous malaria treatments in the 1960s and 1970s.

Drug-resistant malaria feared in Southeast Asia
By Stephanie Nebehay – 29 mins ago

GENEVA (Reuters) – A form of malaria resistant to the most powerful drugs available may have emerged along the Thai-Myanmar border as well as Vietnam, and containment measures are planned, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

Clinical trials are due to begin soon in Myanmar and if they confirm artemisinin-resistant malaria in some patients, it means millions living in the border area could be potentially exposed to the longer-to-treat form, a WHO official told Reuters.

Artemisinin-resistant malaria first broke out in the Mekong region along the Thai-Cambodian border by early 2007, raising fears that a dangerous new form of the mosquito-borne disease could be spreading across the globe.

“We have some early warning signals that apart from the border of Thailand and Cambodia, we could have some problems emerging at the border between Myanmar and Thailand and also in one province of Vietnam,” Dr. Pascal Ringwald of the WHO’s global malaria program told a news briefing.

Malaria infects about 243 million people a year and causes an estimated 863,000 deaths, making it a major killer, especially among African children.

Myanmar authorities are holding a meeting on a proposed strategy to contain its spread in the military-ruled country, expected in December or January. Vietnam also wants help to contain suspect cases in its Binh Phouc province, Ringwald said.

Insecticide-treated mosquito nets would be distributed so people can protect themselves while sleeping or at work in the forests, and free screening and treatment would be offered.

A similar plan used along the Thai-Cambodian border to protect 4 million people, including seasonal rubber workers, led to a “drastic reduction” in cases, according to Ringwald.

Artemisinin, derived from the sweet wormwood, or Artemisia annua, plant, is the best drug available against malaria, especially when used in artemisinin combination therapy (ACT), which combines it with other drugs that finish off the parasite.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis of France make the most widely-used ACTs, expected to treat 80 million and 50 million patients this year, respectively, said Tim Wells of the Medicines for Malaria Venture.

FACTBOX – Myanmar’s economy and investment
Thu Nov 18, 2010 3:47pm IST

REUTERS – Military-ruled Myanmar, one of the world’s most isolated states, appears to be taking steps to attract more investment after a new government was formed following the first election in 20 years on Nov. 7.

The resource-rich country has been hurt by decades of economic mismanagement and deep-rooted corruption. Western sanctions in place because of the regime’s poor human rights record have squeezed investment and Myanmar has no access to loans from major financial institutions.

Analysts say it is possible sanctions could be reviewed when a new government is formed and if Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest on Nov. 13, leads a campaign to have them scrapped.

Following are details about Myanmar’s economy, trade and investment.

ECONOMY

Official statistics from Myanmar’s secretive military government are notoriously unreliable and it claims to have achieved growth of between 10-13 percent annually from 2004-2009.

Economists believe this is exaggerated. The Asian Development Bank estimates growth of 7 percent in 2006, 5.5 percent in 2007, 3.6 percent in 2008 and 4.4 percent last year.

The ADB said exports surged 47 percent in 2006 before declining annually, with export growth of 4.4 percent last year.

Myanmar was not affected by the global economic crisis because of its limited trade and financial links with the West. However, the devastating Cyclone Nargis in 2008, which claimed as many as 140,000 lives, did major damage to its rice fields.

Agriculture forms the backbone of Myanmar’s economy, accounting for about 40 percent of GDP and employing over 50 percent of the workforce.

TRADE AND INVESTMENT

Myanmar’s biggest trade partners are its immediate neighbours and other Asian countries. Forty-two percent of its exports go to Thailand, 21 percent to China, 13 percent to India and 9 percent to Singapore. Five percent of its exports go to Africa.

According to government data, China has pumped $8.17 billion into Myanmar in the current fiscal year, accounting for two thirds its total investment over the past two decades. Energy projects formed the bulk of the investment, with $5 billion in hydropower and $2.15 billion in the oil and gas sector.

Total foreign direct investment (FDI) for the 2009-10 fiscal year was almost $315 million compared to nearly $985 million a year earlier, although independent economists dispute this data.

EXPORTS

Gas is by far Myanmar’s biggest and most lucrative resource for export and most of it is consumed by Thailand. When construction of a huge pipeline from the Bay of Bengal to China’s southwestern Yunnan province is complete, gas and oil exports are expected to surge.

Teak and hardwood is also a major export area, with China its main customer, as are garments, although the sector has been hard hit in recent years by regional competition.

Agriculture and commodities like beans and pulses, fish and seafood are lucrative areas for Myanmar. Rice is seen as an area with huge potential if the government carries out much-needed reforms to its rice sector.

Under British colonial rule, Myanmar was the world’s biggest rice exporter and shipped 3.4 million tonnes in 1934. It shipped 1.09 million tonnes in 2009, up from 547,000 tonnes in 2008. Industry officials say Myanmar is planning to become a major rice exporter in the next few years.

PRIVATISATION DRIVE

Private sector reforms have accelerated over the last year in Myanmar with the selloff of about 300 state assets, from real estate, gas stations and toll roads to ports, shipping companies and an airline.

The privatisation process was seen as a move to strengthen the hand of businessmen with close ties to the ruling junta. The sales were highly opaque and many were not advertised to ensure only cronies of the military took part in the bidding process.

Four new banks set up this year are owned by close allies of the generals. Banking in Myanmar is seen as a largely dysfunctional sector and the private sector’s share of credit has fallen 25 percent in the last five years.

INVESTMENT POTENTIAL?

The reclusive junta has formed the Myanmar’s Business Council to promote investment opportunities. It says “Myanmar is not a ‘maybe market’, it will be a ‘must have’ market”. It has tried this before, with limited success.

It is seeking to attract investment in its energy sector, promoting its offshore oil and gas reserves and potential for hydropower and downstream industries. It is also pushing its tourism potential and is promoting its culture, landscape, beaches, lakes rivers and mountains as magnets for visitors.

Foreigners, including Western companies held back by sanctions, are showing increased interest in investing in Myanmar, particularly in its telecommunications sector and in construction materials.

However, the country remains an unknown quantity. Corruption and cronyism are rife and regulation is a grey area. Economists say the government’s fiscal policies are destructive to the country’s prospects and the economy is unbalanced and unstable. While investment consultants believe the country has huge potential, they also warn of massive risks.

MSNBC News – Myanmar junta not easing up, Suu Kyi says
‘I had better go on living until I see a democratic Burma’
updated 11/18/2010 5:53:22 AM ET 2010-11-18T10:53:22

Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said Thursday that her recent release from seven years of detention did not signal a softening in the military’s harsh, decades-long rule of the Southeast Asian nation.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Suu Kyi called her detention “illegal” and said she was released simply because the decreed period of her house arrest had ended.

“I don’t think there were any other reasons,” she said in an interview in her small, Spartan office, decorated with little beyond a vase of flowers and a black and white photograph of her late father, Aung San, who helped lead colonial Burma to independence from Britain.

“My detention had come to an end and there were no immediate means of extending it,” she said.

The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, set free from her lakeside residence Saturday, has made it clear she plans to pursue her goal of a democratic Myanmar — also known as Burma with the name in dispute.

But she has been careful not to verbally challenge the junta or call for its overthrow.

No contact with junta

Since Saturday, though, the generals and their longtime arch-rival have had no contact.

“I haven’t seen any sign of the junta at all since I came out. They haven’t made any move to let us know what they feel about the situation,” she said.

She added, though, that her goals would not change. “I had better go on living until I see a democratic Burma,” she said, laughing.

She has called for face-to-face talks with junta leader Gen. Than Shwe to reach national reconciliation.

Suu Kyi has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years but has remained the dominant figure of Myanmar’s battered pro-democracy movement.

More than 2,200 political prisoners remain behind bars.

A week before her release, a military-backed political party swept the first elections in 20 years amid widespread accusations that the balloting was rigged.

Final results have yet to be announced, but some military candidates grabbed 90 percent and more of the votes in their constituencies.
Country open for business

Myanmar’s military rulers have moved quickly to attract investors, declaring that the isolated country is open for business.

Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein gave a rare speech at a regional summit Wednesday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to promote the country’s business credentials and trumpet plans for an investment-friendly regulatory framework.

“We encourage participation from the private sector,” Thein Sein told leaders and business executives from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos packed into a conference room. “We are creating a pro-business environment in order to work together to get much more business and investment in the region.”

Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar’s economy at Sydney’s Macquarie University, cautioned that Myanmar was vastly different from other Asian frontier markets such as Vietnam, whose communist government opened to foreign investment in the 1990s.

Since then, multinationals have piled into Vietnam, keen to break ground on factories and hire some of Asia’s cheapest workers. Today, Vietnam boasts gleaming shopping malls, a $33 billion stock market and a surplus of foreign-run factories.

“In Vietnam, there may be problems with democracy, but that country has latched onto the Southeast Asian ‘tiger’ economy model which is about identifying external markets and investing in manufacturing with a view to employing lots of people and getting into the global production chain,” Turnell said.

“But in Burma, it has been about dividing up the domestic economy rather than any sort of outward projection. The regime lacks that developmental mindset. That explains a lot their decisions, which don’t make any economic sense. That is what separates them from Vietnam,” he added.

CNN News – A new role for Aung San Suu Kyi?
By Justin Wintle, Special to CNN
November 18, 2010 8:50 a.m. EST

Editor’s note: Justin Wintle is a London-based writer whose books include Perfect Hostage, a life of the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, published in the USA by Skyhorse, and by Arrow in the UK.

(CNN) — What happened in Yangon’s University Avenue as the light began to fade last Saturday took many serious Myanmar watchers by surprise.

Not only was Aung San Suu Kyi released from house arrest at the very point the military regime’s containment order expired, but within a very short space of time some tens of thousands of her supporters had gathered at her gates, among them many young people who had had no exposure to her before.

Any idea that Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, has been successfully sidelined in Burmese politics by her uniformed oppressors evaporated. Even so, harping on the occasion as a “Mandela moment.” the international media provided a distorted picture.

With some deft camera work and biased reporting it would be perfectly possible to sell a lie, say, that everyone in the United Kingdom is a Manchester United football fan. Not true, of course, just as any suggestion that the whole of the Burmese people, except for the senior military, is squarely behind Aung San Suu Kyi would be a misrepresentation. There are those doing quite nicely under the regime, thank you very much, there are ethnic minority members whose principal dream is autonomy, not national democracy, and there are those with little or no interest in politics.

Ms. Suu Kyi is not about to assume the reins of government. Even so, it has become obvious that, politically, Aung San Suu Kyi does still command perhaps a greater following inside Myanmar than any other person or entity, whatever the outcome of the sham elections conducted a week earlier.

So the question is, what will she do with such momentum behind her?

The only certainty is she must tread carefully. While rebuilding her badly fractured party, the National League for Democracy, may seem a priority, how she goes about it could decide whether or not she remains at liberty.

Any idea that the State Peace and Development Council (the military junta’s formal title) is running out of steam is misbegotten. Senior General Than Shwe and his colleagues have, over the last few years, expended enormous energy shoring up their position — promulgating a new constitution and choreographing the first elections in 20 years as well as building themselves a brand new and secure capital at Naypyidaw.

The generals and the generals alone hold all the actual power. Should Aung San Suu Kyi resume where she left off in 2003 and campaign against the regime, addressing mass rallies up and down the country, then the generals’ patience will snap, and the gates of her lakeside villa will once again be locked. Or something worse could occur.

Conversely, if Aung San Suu Kyi, once she has recuperated her physical strength, does not return to the hustings, then that would seem to some like moral cowardice, as she would be the first to admit.

There is perhaps another way. To remain at liberty and to stand any chance of effecting real change within Myanmar (something she has singularly failed to do thus far), Aung San Suu Kyi might be well advised to step back from the cut-and-thrust of daily politics and begin taking on the role of eminence grise, for which her personality is well suited.

Let others rebuild the NLD (if such is to be permitted) while she operates as an intermediary between all the parties concerned, including the “international community” and the junta itself.

Critics of this view will say that while Suu Kyi has always sought dialogue with the generals, they have never wanted to talk to her. But I suspect there may have been a meaningful sea change.

Everything revolves around the trade sanctions imposed on Myanmar by the United States and the European Union (including Britain, the former colonial power). Sanctions have failed, driving the junta into the arms of China. The generals, however, would rather be beholden to no one at all, East or West, and they will be aware that Aung San Suu Kyi has revised her opinions, to the chagrin of some activists.

Whereas when sanctions were introduced in the 1990s she countenanced them, now it seems, from recent statements she has made, she has swung to the view that sanctions hurt the ordinary people of Myanmar far more than their rulers.

Could it be that the room for maneuvering improbably extended to Suu Kyi at the present time is tied to this? If anyone could persuade the West to drop sanctions, then that person is Aung San Suu Kyi.

And, on the premise that politics follow economics, that would be good news indeed. A more prosperous Myanmar achieved through inward investment and all the values that come with that could also be a Myanmar where actual social and political change finally becomes a possibility.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Justin Wintle.

Thursday November 18, 2010
The Star Online – After freeing Suu Kyi, Myanmar courts investors
By Martin Petty and Jason Szep

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Just days after releasing Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, Myanmar’s military rulers have a message for investors with a steely appetite for risk: their isolated country is open for business.

After entering a new era of military-managed democracy following a Nov. 7 election, the secretive junta is courting investment and touting the potential of a country rich in natural gas, timber and minerals with urgent infrastructure needs.

Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein gave a rare speech at a regional summit on Wednesday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to promote the former Burma’s business credentials and trumpet plans for an investment-friendly regulatory framework.

“We encourage participation from the private sector,” Thein Sein told leaders and business executives from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos packed into a conference room. “We are creating a pro-business environment in order to work together to get much more business and investment in the region.”

After decades off the investment radar, Myanmar appears ready to open its doors to foreign businesses, a step analysts say is easier said than done in a country blighted by decades of economic mismanagement and closed off by Western sanctions.

Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar’s economy at Sydney’s Macquarie University, cautions that Myanmar is vastly different from other Asian frontier markets such as Vietnam, whose communist government opened to foreign investment in the 1990s.

Since then, multinationals have piled into Vietnam, keen to break ground on factories and hire some of Asia’s cheapest workers. Today, Vietnam boasts gleaming shopping malls, a $33 billion stock market and a surplus of foreign-run factories.

“In Vietnam, there may be problems with democracy, but that country has latched onto the Southeast Asian ‘tiger’ economy model which is about identifying external markets and investing in manufacturing with a view to employing lots of people and getting into the global production chain,” said Turnell.

“But in Burma, it has been about dividing up the domestic economy rather than any sort of outward projection. The regime lacks that developmental mindset. That explains a lot their decisions, which don’t make any economic sense. That is what separates them from Vietnam,” he said.

U.S., European, and Australian sanctions, imposed in response to human rights abuses, have stifled Western investment in the country of 50 million people that just over 50 years ago was the world’s biggest rice exporter and major energy producer.

The embargoes, however, have not stopped the flow of money. China, Thailand and India are big investors. Official data show China pumped $8.2 billion into Myanmar January to May, including $5 billion in hydropower and $2.2 billion in oil and gas.

RECALIBRATING SANCTIONS?

But Saturday’s release of Suu Kyi may offer a chance to recalibrate those sanctions, which critics say have hurt ordinary people by allowing the junta to monopolise the economy.

Some diplomats expect the pro-democracy leader to play a pivotal role in pushing for a relaxing of embargoes. She hinted at such a day after her release. “If people really want sanctions to be lifted, I will consider this,” she told reporters.

The military junta rarely comments on sanctions. But diplomats in Myanmar say growing dependence on China is a concern for the generals, who also want an end to arms embargoes that limit their access to modern weapons technology, say analysts.

Washington is wasting no time and said on Monday it was ready to engage with the new government, but made no mention of sanctions.

The recently formed Myanmar Business Council handed out glossy pamphlets this week to investors in a ballroom of the Cambodiana Hotel after its director delivered a PowerPoint presentation on investment opportunities in Myanmar.

“After 50 years of isolation, Myanmar’s doors have been unlocked” read one pamphlet. “Myanmar is not a ‘maybe market’, it will be a ‘must have’ market.”

“Unfavourable” Western sanctions offer opportunities for its closest neighbours, the Council added, encouraging Thai investors to use the baht currency instead of dollars. It said Myanmar was “just like Thailand 20 years ago”, offering tax breaks.

But analysts, diplomats and executives with experience in Myanmar identify a host of risks for those trying to get in on the ground floor: corruption, fiscal mismanagement, poor infrastructure, cronyism, a rudimentary banking system, an unclear regulatory framework and opaque foreign investment laws.

“The major problem is political uncertainty. We never know what those generals want and if they will change their mind. It’s very risky,” said a trader at a leading Thai sugar miller who declined to be identified.

This year, the junta set up the Myanmar Sugarcane Enterprise, a think tank, ahead of a free-trade zone in the Association of South East Asian Nations, whose newest members — Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar — must eliminate tariffs by 2015.

Asked how Myanmar is preparing for competition, Yi Yi Mon, the organisation’s general manger, told Reuters: “We are planning to increase sugar production.” But she declined to elaborate.

While neighbouring Thailand is the world’s biggest sugar exporter, producing about 7 million tonnes a year, Myanmar produces just 800,000 tonnes from 6 major millers mostly run or held by the military. Unlike nearby Cambodia and Laos, it has done little to attract foreign investment.

Some analysts see hints of change. The government sold off more than 300 state assets in the last year in areas like shipping, aviation, banking and real estate.

Although the deals are likely to favour businessmen close to the regime, they could also generate interest among U.S. and European investors willing to take a hit on their reputation to pursue gains in a country long seen as an international pariah because of its poor human rights record.

EarthTimes – Myanmar’s Suu Kyi wants talks with United Nations – Summary
Posted : Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:52:20 GMT

New York – Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday called for an “early visit” by a United Nations envoy and for talks on the challenges facing people in the country, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

Ban conferred by telephone with Suu Kyi for the first time since her release from house arrest last week by the ruling military government.

Suu Kyi expressed her “desire to engage with him (UN envoy) for pushing ahead in addressing the challenges facing the people in Myanmar. She also suggested an early meeting with the head of the UN office in Yangon,” Ban said in a statement about the conversation.

Ban said he reiterated his and the UN’s commitment “to continue to uphold the cause of human rights and support all efforts by the government, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all other stakeholders to build a united, peaceful, democratic and modern future of their country.”

The two were said to have held a “warm and cordial conversation” during which Ban expressed his respect for Suu Kyi’s “courage and dignity as a source of inspiration for millions of people around the world.”

Ban and Suu Kyi said the release of all political prisoners is a matter of priority so they can freely take part in the process of national reconciliation and democratic transition in Myanmar.

The military government won re-election earlier this month, based on a new constitution that barred Suu Kyi from running for public office. Following its victory, the government set her free from house arrest, where she had spent most of the past two decades in confinement.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won the country’s 1990 election, but the results were disqualified by the military government. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for demanding democracy in her country.

Ban last visited Myanmar in 2009, and was criticized by human rights groups after he offered positive words about the country’s ruling generals, while failing to gain access to meet with Suu Kyi.

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on the situation in Myanmar on Thursday, condemning the continued violations of human rights and detention of political prisoners.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the resolution was an improvement over last year’s, but it failed to focus on the “sham” election and release of Suu Kyi.

It said Suu Kyi’s release was “cynically designed to divert attention from the continued military rule and the detention of more than 2,200 other political prisoners,” said Philippe Bolopion, UN advocacy director for the organization.

“While we applaud this resolution, given the military junta’s history of ignoring past demands of the General assembly, we urge the UN system to start working towards the creation of an international commission of inquiry to look into possible crimes against humanity committed in the country,” Bolopion said.

News.com.au – Freed democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi tells of her years under house arrest in Burma
From: NewsCore
November 18, 2010 6:27PM

NEWLY freed democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi gave an insight Wednesday into the daily routine and inner strength that enabled her to endure years under house arrest in Burma.

“It wasn’t all that difficult,” she told London’s The Times.

“I was in my own home. What was I going through? I was simply sitting in my house. I’ve never been one for going out a lot. I listened to music. I like sketching a bit and so on. I’m a very indoors sort of person, if you like, so it was no great hardship.”

She expressed surprise at any perception that she had gone through great hardship, comparing her treatment with those of the estimated 2100 other political prisoners in Burma.

“What do you think it would be like for those who have been imprisoned for years and years and years?” she asked.

“I had regular meditation sessions. I had a lot to do. Really. People seem to be surprised. You want to keep your house clean and tidy – you have to spend some time doing that. And then, of course, reading takes up time and listening to the radio took up a lot of hours every day because I didn’t want to miss any of the news about Burma.

“I listened to the Burmese service on the BBC, VOA [Voice of America], RFA [Radio Free Asia], that was about five or six hours every day. It was a big chunk out of my day but I couldn’t afford to miss it. Because any news I missed, I missed – no one was going to come in and fill the gaps for me. So that was a duty.”

The 65-year-old said she had produced no prison memoir or volume of political writing, explaining: “I didn’t write a lot at all because I don’t like to — how shall I put it? — I don’t like to keep writing which might fall into other people’s hands.”

Suu Kyi has already called for a “non-violent revolution” in Burma as she knuckles down to the task of rebuilding her weakened opposition movement and attempting to open a dialog with the ruling junta.

“I have to confess that I have not really thought that they [the military government] want to talk to me very much but that does not mean that we have to stop trying,” she says.

“For me revolution means change, either physical or spiritual or intellectual. It starts in the mind … and it has to come from the people first. I am immensely touched and honored by the trust that they have in me. But they have to understand that I am not the one who is going to bring about change. They are the ones who are going to help me bring about change.”

Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest Saturday, less than a week after a controversial election cemented the junta’s decades-long grip on power.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner had been locked up by the regime for 15 of the past 21 years.

VOA News – Aung San Suu Kyi Warns Release is Not Evidence of Political Freedom
Kate Woodsome | Washington, D.C. 18 November 2010

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi pauses during an interview with the Associated Press as a portrait of her father, independence hero Gen. Aung San, hangs on the wall at the National League for Democracy headquarters in Rangoon, Burma, 18, Nov. 2010.

“I’d better go on living until we have a democratic Burma.” Aung San Suu Kyi

Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has wasted little time slipping back into her role as Burma’s most outspoken democracy activist since being released from house arrest last week.

In her first week of freedom, Aung San Suu Kyi has called for reconciliation talks with military leader General Than Shwe. But she said in an interview with the Associated Press Thursday that the government has not contacted her.

Some analysts have suggested Burma’s military rulers freed the opposition leader for public relations purposes, to lend credibility to recent elections and a civilian-led parliament. In her interview, Aung San Suu Kyi declined to speculate why the military government permitted her release.

“I don’t think there was any other reason for releasing me rather than one the legal term of detention had come to an end, and there were no immediate means of extending it,” she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi called her house arrest illegal. Still, the 65-year-old said she does not regret staying in Burma, rather than avoiding detention by going to England to be with her family.

“I made a choice, and when I made the choice, I knew that there would be problems,” she said. “If you make a choice, then you have to be prepared to accept the consequences. I think I believe a lot in accountability and a sense of responsibility.”

Aung San Suu Kyi chose to to take up the democracy struggle in 1988, when mass demonstrations broke out against nearly three decades of military rule. As the daughter of Burma’s independence leader from Britain, Aung San Suu Kyi was quickly seen as being one with the people, and democracy activists adopted her as their leader.

A year later, the military detained her, and kept her under house arrest until 1995. She chose to stay in Burma for fear she would not be let back in. She was detained again in 2003.

By choosing the role of democracy activist, she gave up the role of mother. In her interview Thursday, Aung San Suu Kyi reflected on that decision.

“My sons are very good to me. They haven’t done very well after the breaking up of the family, especially after their father died because Michael was a very good father,” she said.

Despite the personal challenges, Aung San Suu Kyi said she will not change her political agenda.

“I’d better go on living until we have a democratic Burma,” she said.

Since her release, Aung San Suu Kyi has been careful not to call for an overthrow of the government, but she has also not wavered in her demand for a change.

Japan Today – UNHCR wishes Myanmar refugees’ successful resettlement in Japan
Friday 19th November, 03:15 AM JST

TOKYO – Visiting U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres met Thursday in Tokyo with some 25 refugees from Myanmar who recently arrived in Japan from a camp in Thailand under a U.N.-promoted program, and expressed his wish that they be successfully resettled.

Guterres, a former Portuguese premier, greeted the refugees belonging to five ethnic Karen families at the Shinjuku Ward Office and said he expected them to ‘‘finally find a new hope’’ in Japan.

Shinjuku Ward Mayor Hiroko Nakayama also expressed hope that the refugees, who began arriving in Japan in late September, will get accustomed to life in Japan as soon as possible. She also said she expects children of the families will contribute to Japanese society when they grow up.

‘‘I am so glad to see you today. We will support you together with people in this community,’’ Nakayama said. The refugees currently live in Shinjuku Ward and have been receiving a six-month orientation funded by the Japanese government to learn basic Japanese as well as the country’s customs.

Representing the families, a male refugee thanked the United Nations and the Japanese government for helping them. The group then sang a Karen song accompanied by guitar.

The song was meant to encourage those without a homeland and with separated families to unite together, according to a UNHCR official.

Rigzone – Sinopec Makes Gas Discovery in Myanmar – Official
by  Wan Xu
Dow Jones Newswires
Thursday, November 18, 2010

China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec Group, has found gas during exploration work in central Myanmar, but the extent of reserves there isn’t clear yet, a Myanmar energy official said Thursday.

Sinopec has been exploring for oil and gas near Monyma, which is some 140 kilometers northwest of the city of Mandalay, said Win Myint, engineering director of the country’s state-owned national energy group, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

The news is another sign of China’s growing role in developing resource-rich Myanmar’s extensive reserves of raw materials, at a time many Western countries are obliged to sit on the sidelines due to their restrictions on economic ties to the country.

A spokesman for Sinopec Group said he had no information about the gas discovery.

Also, China Oilfield Services, a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corp., or Cnooc Group, is carrying out offshore gas exploration in a shallow water block in southwest, close to Sittwe, the official said.

“There’s lots of exploration being made by Chinese companies in Myanmar. All are in the exploration stage,” he told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of an energy conference in Beijing.

The official said China was pushing ahead with its twin gas and oil pipeline projects in Myanmar and the pipelines were due to be completed by May 2013, on schedule.

In June, China National Petroleum Corp. said it had started work on the pipelines, which are intended to transport gas from Myanmar’s large offshore oil fields, and imported crude oil, to southwestern China.

The 793-kilometer gas pipeline and 771-km crude oil pipeline will be important elements in China’s diversification of energy supply, CNPC said on its website.

CNPC started building a large-scale crude oil port in Kyaukpyu in western Myanmar late year to handle imports from the Middle East and elsewhere.

The crude pipeline from there to China will have an initial transmission capacity of around 240,000 barrels a day, which in the second phase will be expanded to 440,000 barrels a day.

China’s economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, has said the port will be capable of handling vessels of up to 300,000 deadweight tons and that an oil tank with a storage capacity of 600,000 cubic meters will also be built there.

The Myanmar energy official said Wednesday work was now under way on five separate crossing points where the pipelines needed to bridge rivers or go through tunnels.

The Myanmar section of the natural gas pipeline will cost $2.15 billion, while the crude oil pipeline and the port will cost $2.45 billion, he said.

Work in Myanmar on the second phase crude pipeline would begin in 2012, with this expected to be completed by 2015, he said.

Last Updated: Thursday, November 18, 2010, 20:32
Irishtimes.com – UN condemns Burma election

A UN General Assembly committee today condemned Burma’s recent election that pro-democracy parties said was rigged to preserve authoritarian rule in the Southeast Asian country.

Burma’s biggest military-backed party earlier this month won the first election in the country in 20 years by a landslide.

The General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with human rights, approved the resolution on the rights situation in Burma with 96 votes in favor, 28 against and 60 abstentions. This year’s resolution received four more yes votes than a similar declaration garnered in 2009.

The resolution, which was sponsored by the United States, European Union and Western powers, said UN member states were “deeply regretting that the Government of Burma did not take the necessary steps to ensure a free, fair, transparent and inclusive electoral process.”

The election was held with Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in detention and her party disbanded for refusing to take part in a vote it said was unfair. Suu Kyi had urged supporters to boycott the poll.

Suu Kyi, who was released on Saturday, has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention. The 65-year-old pro-democracy leader’s National League for Democracy (NLD) beat an army-backed party by a landslide in a 1990 election, but that result was ignored by the country’s military junta.

The resolution welcomed her release from “the most recent period of her arbitrary house arrest” and urged the junta to ensure that no restrictions are placed on the exercise of her human rights.

The resolution also said the assembly “strongly condemns the ongoing systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Burma.”

The Third Committee adopted a resolution condemning North Korea as well and will consider one on Iran later today. Resolutions criticising the human rights situations in Burma, Iran and North Korea have become an annual ritual at the United Nations.

The 192-nation General Assembly is expected to formally adopt all human rights resolutions in December.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon spoke with Suu Kyi by telephone today.

“The secretary-general and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi both stressed the need for the Burmese authorities to release all remaining political prisoners as a matter of priority,” the UN press office said in a statement.

The UN Security Council also discussed Burma behind closed doors today but failed to agree on any kind of statement.

One diplomat said that China — Burma’s neighbour, close trading partner and protector on the 15-nation council — told the group that the junta had organised “a wonderful election” and everyone should support the government.

Although the United States, Britain, France and other Western powers have urged council action on Burma over its human rights record, China has made clear it would use its veto power to block any punitive measures by the Security Council.

Inner City Press – At UN Council, Nothing Is Said on Myanmar While Russia & Nigeria Oppose Guinea Meeting, Elements to the Press Are Issued
By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 18, updated — After a military dominated election in Myanmar, when the UN Security Council met about the country on November 18, some expected at least a statement to result, perhaps mixing diplomatic critique of the election with praise for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

But when the Council session ended at 1:30 on Thursday, there was no statement. The UK presidency of the Council did not emerge to say anything, even informally. Inner City Press is told that when China said there would be no statement, even if the Council waited all afternoon, the UK and US backed down “meekly,” as the source put it.

Inner City Press asked Chinese Permanent Representative Li Baodong as he left if there would be a statement. They are still discussing it, he replied. He said China has a long border with Myanmar and wants stability, through development. As Reuters reports, Than Shwe is already beating the drum for more investment after releasing ASSK.

Just after the election, a representative of the Kachin National Organization Gum San Nsang told Inner City Press of problems along the border with China, which he perhaps diplomaticlly called a “good neighbor.” When Inner City Press asked about this, standing with Japanese media, Li Baodong smiled and said, “China is a good neighbor to everyone.” Then he left to host of lunch of the Council’s Permanent Five members.

Thursday afternoon, the Council has scheduled a closed door briefing about Guinea by UN envoy Said Djinnit. Inner City Press is told that not only Russia but also Nigeria opposed the idea of the Guinea meeting, Nigeria because “ECOWAS is doing something there,” one source put it.

Therefore despite the state of emergency in Guinea, the source said, France may not even be proposing a statement, only the briefing. And so far nothing on the coup attempt in Madagascar. “It was a weird session,” the source said. “Everything got blocked.” And so it goes at the UN.

Update of 4:30 pm — to some’s surprise, there were “Elements to the Press” read out by UK Deputy Permanent Representative Philip Parham. A source tells Inner City Press that during the consultations, Uganda referred back to the Council’s November 16 stand off on Western Sahara and said it would have been good to have had the same enthusiasm and comity being shown on Guinea. After reading the element, Parham rushed from the microphone, taking not a single question. Maybe it’s a UK thing?

Mainichi Daily News – U.S. accuses China, N. Korea, Myanmar of repressing religious freedom
November 18, 2010

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) — The United States criticized China, North Korea and Myanmar as well as Iran for restricting religious freedom by persecution and urged them to improve the situation in a report released Wednesday.

In the “Annual Report on International Religious Freedom,” the State Department designated eight countries — the four above plus Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan — as “countries of particular concerns,” unchanged from the previous year.

“We do not intend to act as a judge of other countries or hold ourselves up as a perfect example. But the United States cares about religious freedom,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference.

“We want to see religious freedom available universally,” she said.

In the report, which covers the year to June 30, 2010, the department said that meetings of unregistered religious groups were disrupted and members of such groups were imprisoned on charges of conducting “illegal religious activities” in some areas of China.

The Chinese government’s strong opposition to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama led to severe restrictions on Tibetan Buddhist religious practice, the report added.

The annual report noted there were “some positive developments,” saying that Chinese authorities allowed some foreign faith-based groups to provide social services.

The previous report, released in October 2009, also made similar comments on improvement in some aspects of religious freedom in China.

The U.S. report also drew attention to the situation in North Korea, where it says “genuine religious freedom does not exist” despite its Constitution providing for freedom of religious belief.

“The government severely restricted religious freedom, including organized religious activities, except that which officially recognized groups linked to the government supervised tightly,” it said.

Quoting defectors’ reports, the State Department said the North Korean government has increased its investigation, repression and persecution of members of unauthorized religious groups in recent years.

On Myanmar, the report said that the government of the Southeast Asian nation systematically restricted efforts by Buddhist clergy to promote human rights and political freedom.

“Many of the Buddhist monks arrested in the violent crackdown that followed the pro-democracy demonstrations of September 2007…remained in prison serving long sentences,” it said.

On Iran, the department said that Tehran “severely restricted freedom of religion and reports of government imprisonment, harassment, intimidation and discrimination based on religious beliefs continued.”

The Guardian – Aung San Suu Kyi: I was both prisoner and maintenance woman
Burma’s pro-democracy leader talks about her life in captivity, her first days of freedom and the fight ahead
Jack Davies in Rangoon
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 November 2010 21.19 GMT

Finally free from the clutches of Burma’s ruling generals and the lonely life of house arrest they subjected her to, Aung San Suu Kyi now finds she cannot escape from herself.

At the headquarters of her currently-outlawed political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), images of her are everywhere: on posters, calendars and pamphlets, T-shirts, necklaces and earrings.

As she poses politely for photos, the Guardian asks who the golden bust behind her represents. “It’s supposed to be me,” she says. “I wish people wouldn’t make busts or posters of me, it is a very strange thing to be looking at yourself all the time. It’s not like this at my house, I promise you. I have pictures of my children.”

The building is filled to overflowing; the noise of a hundred conversations reverberate off the peeling wars and concrete floors. Today, there are more people than chairs, and those left without crouch against walls.

Across the road, perched on conspicuous orange motorbikes, the government’s spies are kept busy, watching her party headquarters through camera lenses and binoculars. But Aung San Suu Kyi is unconcerned about the attention from the military’s special branch. They will be her companion every day she is free.

“That is for them to worry about. I can only do what I feel I need to do, what I can do for the people of Burma,” she says. “They will follow me, I cannot stop that. I cannot worry.”

Aung San Suu Kyi is 65, but looks 20 years younger. A hint of grey at her temples is the only physical sign of the strains of two decades spent resisting a brutal military regime. She has a piercing gaze, which rarely moves from her interrogator, and her response is deliberate when pushed about the government’s overt, hostile attention. She is not frightened that she could be detained again – a fate that has befallen her for 15 of the last 21 years.

“It is not a fear, it’s a possibility that I live with. I understand that is the situation, and I have to accept it. They have done it before, and it is very possible they will do it again, but it is not something I fear every day. It is my situation.”

It is nearly a week since military officials came to her door at 54 University Avenue, Rangoon, and told her she was free, noting perversely, her good behaviour.

Since then, she has been almost constantly in meetings of one sort or another. Diplomats and journalists from every corner of the globe have formed a queue at the bottom of the stairs leading to her door. She has taken phone calls from presidents and prime ministers. She has met with NLD party elders to discuss strategy and legal challenges and sanctions policy.

But she has stopped too, amid the throng of admirers, to talk to people on the street, old women who claim kinship, children who have a flower for her.

She has spoken with her sons by phone every day – something she could never do before, though there is no word on when she will be allowed to see them – she has visited the high court to lodge an appeal against her party’s disbanding, and visited an HIV/AIDS shelter. Everywhere she goes, she is mobbed.

She is happy, “because now I am free”.

She talks candidly about her years under house arrest, saying it was “far, far easier” than the time currently being served by Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners. They must be freed before any real progress will be made, she insists.

Reluctantly, she concedes that there were moments of pessimism. “Despair is not the right word, but there were times that I would worry … a lot, not so much for myself, for my situation, but for the future of the country.”

But she has little time for introspection and none for self-pity. The overwhelming feeling during the last seven-and-a-half years she spent confined to her damp, two-storey home was, she says, that “there weren’t enough hours in the day”.

“As unbelievable as it may sound, it’s true. When I tell you that I had to listen to the radio for six hours every day, that is a big chunk of time, and that was solid work, just to make sure I caught all of the Burmese programs, just so I could keep up with what was going on. Because if I missed something, there was no one to come around to tell me ‘did you hear about’. I needed to keep myself informed.”

She says she read, for work and pleasure, biographies and spy novels were favourites at the end of the day, and she meditated regularly. “And then there was the house to run and to maintain, there really was a lot to do.”

She laughs at the ridiculous lengths the junta went to in its ad hoc imprisonment. “I was both prisoner and maintenance woman,” she says, mimicking a feeble effort with a hammer.
“No one was allowed to come to fix the house. I had to fix everything that went wrong around the place. The two people I was with (her live-in maids, a mother and daughter) were completely non-mechanical and non-electrical, so I had to learn with great difficulty how to do these things.”

She was not always successful. For several days following cyclone Nargis in 2008, the trio lived by candlelight.

But she is less interested in reflecting on the years of isolation than on what happens next in her country.

Internationally, Aung San Suu Kyi’s release has been described as Burma’s “Mandela moment”, comparing it to the day in 1990 when Nelson Mandela walked free from prison in South Africa. She hopes it may one day prove so, but is wary of the comparison now.

“I think that our situation is much more difficult than South Africa’s. South Africa had already made some movement towards democracy when Mandela was released. Here in Burma, we are nowhere near that. We haven’t even begun.”

“And I feel our case is a lot more difficult than South Africa.”

South Africa’s fault line was clear-cut, apartheid was based on race, she says. “Colour is something that everyone can see straight away. Here, it is less obvious who is who, because we are all Burmese. It is Burmese discriminating and oppressing Burmese.

“I have often thought everything would be much easier if all the NLD supporters were coloured purple. Then it would be obvious who is being jailed and who is being discriminated against. And the international community would be angered more easily, they could easily say ‘you cannot discriminate against the purples’.”

Where Burma goes from here is unclear, she says, “we are a country in limbo”.

She realises the power of her freedom to the people of Burma, though she is always conscious that there are many others in her movement, and thousands still in prison. “I don’t believe in one person’s influence and authority to move a country forward. I am honoured by the trust people have in me, but one person alone can not bring democracy to a country.

“Change is going to come from the people. I want to play my role … I want to work in unison with the people of Burma, but it is they who will change this country.”

Jack Davies is a Guardian reporter writing under a pseudonym

MYANMAR Sanctions
European Voice – Ministers to discuss situation in Myanmar
By Toby Vogel
18.11.2010 / 05:14 CET
Policy to be reviewed in wake of release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The EU’s foreign ministers will next week review the Union’s policy on Myanmar (Burma) following the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the country’s opposition, on Saturday (13 November).

Ministers are not expected to change the sanctions policy, which has been in place since 1996, when they meet on Monday (22 November). The review will, however, help determine the preconditions for a change of course.

As yet, it is unclear what stance Suu Kyi will take on the continuation of sanctions and what prospects there are of the military loosening its grip on the country.

The sanctions include measures targeted at members of the country’s military leadership, such as an asset freeze and travel restrictions. Other sanctions are broader, restricting trade in the natural resources of Myanmar, one of the world’s poorest countries.

Political prisoners

The ministers will also have to decide next year whether the EU’s special envoy for Myanmar, currently Piero Fassino, should be integrated into the EU’s new diplomatic service.

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has called on Myanmar’s rulers to free all remaining political prisoners. “This would allow for a truly inclusive dialogue and for the beginning of a credible transition to democracy,” she said.

? At Monday’s meeting, the ministers will prepare for EU summits with Africa (29-30 November), Russia (7 December) and India (10 December). They will also discuss the situation in Sudan, ahead of a referendum in January on independence for the south.

Asian Tribune – Suu Kyi mulls use of internet for her “People’s Network”, wants genuine change
Fri, 2010-11-19 04:04 — editor
By Zin Linn

After logging onto internet for the first time in her life on Wednesday, Aung San Suu Kyi was expected to meet the foreign media on Thursday 18 at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD).

She is considering the internet tech’s possibilities to forge “what she calls a ‘people’s network’ both inside and outside the country to bring about democratic change in Burma” Rangoon sources said.

Burma’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi returned to work on 15 November at her National League for Democracy (NLD) party headquarters after being freed over the weekend.The 65-years Nobel Peace laureate spent 15 of the past 20 years under house arrest. Thousands of supporters thronged outside the NLD headquarters in Rangoon last Saturday to hear Suu Kyi’s first public speech since her arrest on 30 May 2003, in which she vowed to continue struggling for democracy, reconciliation and human rights.

“I think we all have to work together. I wish to work in unison with the people of Burma,” Suu Kyi said. She stressed she alone could not guide the country to become a democratic state after 50 years of military rule.

“I don’t believe in one person’s authority and power to move a country forward,” she said. “One human only cannot do something as important as bringing democracy to a country.”
Her first assignment will be to make the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)) party a legal body again, according to the NLD sources.

Another mission Suu Kyi is expected to undertake will be to evaluate the result of the November 7 polls, which many Western critics condemned as a sham. The junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party claimed that it won an estimated 80 percent of the 1,159 seats in the three chambers of parliament. The party has been accused of vote rigging, buying votes and threatening voters.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she would wait to observe the testimony on the election compiled by a committee established by the NLD before commenting.

In the disputable recent polls, the pro-military National Unity Party won 63 seats while the National Democratic Force, a breakaway from the NLD, won only 16 seats. Two parties representing ethnic minorities did well in their states. The Shan Nationalities Democratic Party secured 57 seats, while the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party won 35.

A group of legislators has urged the government to denounce Burma’s recent general elections as undemocratic, according to the Jakarta Post. “We call upon the Indonesian government and members of ASEAN to neither recognize nor acknowledge Myanmar’s elections,” Eva K. Sundari, a legislator from House Commission III and a member of the Asian Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), said.

She said in the interview, published on the BBC website, that she wanted peaceful end to military rule.

“I think we also have to try to make this thing happen… Velvet revolution sounds a little strange in the context of the military, but a non-violent revolution. Let’s put it that way,” she said.

Recently released Burma’s Democracy Icon, Daw Aung San Su Kyi said, when meeting with ethnic representatives from United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) that the release of imprisoned ethnic leaders is one of her main concerns as well quoting to meeting participants, says Shan Herald Agency for News.

The Irrawaddy – ‘We Must Help the Most Needy’
By HSAT LIN Thursday, November 18, 2010

RANGOON — A crowd of several thousand people waited in front of a house for HIV/AIDS patients in Ward 18 of South Dagon Township in Rangoon on Wednesday afternoon. Aung San Suu Kyi was scheduled to arrive soon, to visit the 120 patients, in one of her first stops after her release from house arrest.

Thousands of people stood on both sides of the street, waiting. NLD youth members were among the crowd.

HIV/AIDS activist Phyu Phyu Thin, who coordinates the HIV/AIDS house as a National League for Democracy project, told the people that Suu Kyi would speak to the people on the street. A ripple of comments ran through the crowd—people in trees, on  roof tops and even on perched on lampposts.

The HIV/AIDS patients in the house were waiting anxiously. Shortly after 2 p.m., the crowd began to stir and people started shouting, “Be well, Aung San Suu Kyi!”

A white sedan had stopped, and she was getting out of the car.  She wore a traditional Burmese dress— a white blouse and a red sarong, with a spray of white roses in her hair.

She was jostled among security guards as the crowd pressed in to see her, but she never stopped smiling.

“Stop it! Or she will fall down,” warned a concerned voice in the crowd. “The reporters are out of control too,” said an NLD youth member, referring to 40 to 50 domestic reporters who vied for her attention.

Inside the house, HIV/AIDS patients presented flowers to Suu Kyi and her close, senior colleagues Tin Oo and Win Tin. It looked like some of the patients seemed to forget about their suffering while looking at Suu Kyi, who talked with and encouraged each patient individually.

She asked about the conditions in the house. At one point, she went over to talk to patients who were too sick to stand or sit up.

As she passed out flowers, Suu Kyi said they were the flowers given to her upon her release.

After visiting with the patients, she went outside and launched into a speech to thousands of people waiting for her words.

She talked about exchanging flowers with the patients inside and pointed out how everyone should help each other.

“When I was freed, people gave me flowers,” she said. “I received many more flowers than what I have given out today. I thought that today I could get much in turn by giving back. Try to give others a little but not with any expectation for a return! Try to give with empathy! You may not get anything back, but you will gain much satisfaction.”

Speaking about giving, she said, “I want you to help others who are poorer than you. Many people only  focus on self-interest. But I want you to have the desire to help and work for others. Such desire has to be built up. This is called altruism. I want you to build it up.”

Suu Kyi talked about how she will work to provide more food and medicine donations for the HIV/AIDS patients living in the house.

“First, we will try our best to get as much medicine as we can for the patients here,” she said. “Everybody should give a hand as much as possible.”

A woman next to me said, “She is very smart. She didn’t say a word about politics. She only talked about love and altruism. I was about to cry while listening to her.”

Talking directly to the patients, Suu Kyi looked at them and said, “You should be mentally strong. Morale matters. There are many people who want to take care of you. You have to bear in mind that there are many people who value you.”

“Human beings have basic dignity and values. Those are recognized by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So, don’t loose heart! Remember that everybody has value,” said Suu Kyi.

A man in his 30s said, “I have never heard a Suu Kyi speech in my life. It’s so good to hear her. We now know what we should be doing.”

Suu Kyi concluded by telling the people why she had come to visit the HIV/AIDS patients on one of her first stops after her release.

“Because they are the people needing the most help,” she said. “We must help the most needy people first. It doesn’t mean that I have forgotten others or I don’t value them. Those who need more help should be given more. This is a moral value everybody should keep.”

38 DKBA splinter troops rejoin armed wing of KNU
Friday, 19 November 2010 00:27 Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – About three dozen soldiers with weapons from a Democratic Karen Buddhist Army splinter brigade yesterday rejoined the Karen National Union army, both sides said. Saying “we can’t stand the junta anymore”, the defectors’ act ends months of speculation over whether any “renegade” troops aligned with the junta would rejoin the Karen National Liberation Army.

The 38 soldiers from DKBA battalion 909 yesterday morning joined the Karen National Union, officers on both sides confirmed.

The 38 troops with the Wawlay-based battalion 999 led by Lieutenant Saw Steel under Brigade 5 led by Colonel Saw La Pwe, aka Bo Moustache, formally joined KNLA battalion 101 at around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Steel said.

“We can’t stand the junta anymore. We cannot accept the junta’s Border Guard Force [BGF] plan. And they cheated in the recent election. That’s why we decided to join the KNU,” Steel said.

The unit brought AK-47 and M-16 rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 60 millimetre guns with them, which they presented to KNLA Colonel Ner Dah Mya and other officers yesterday.

“We are very glad to accept them. We can achieve reconciliation with them because of our common goals. So we will work together”, Ner Dah Mya said.

It was unclear how many troops remained at the jungle base of DKBA battalion 101 but KNU sources said a number were left behind.

The rejoining DKBA troops were being deployed near Kyarinnseikkyi Township in Karen State, said a KNLA commander.

According to the DKBA defectors, they had captured Burmese Army Captain Thet Naing on November 8, a junior command-level officer from Military Operations Command Eight, but released him after five days.

Myeingyingu, the Buddhist monk and influential patron of the DKBA had told his followers, now members of the junta’s Border Guard Force, to return to the jungle as proper DKBA but the bid it failed after intervention by the Burmese Army’s Southeastern Command chief on Saturday, a senior BGF officer said.

Observers pointed out DKBA troops within the BGF must be feeling the pain of a substantial loss of income, as a lot of the taxes on cross-border trade they previously charged would now have to be remitted to the junta.

Some DKBA leaders met KNU leaders to discuss reuniting before they were transformed into the BGF by Naypyidaw.
The DKBA took control of some areas near the Thai-Burmese border after it signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese junta in 1995. The lands had previously been under KNU control.

Civil servants express high hopes now Suu Kyi is free
Thursday, 18 November 2010 16:45 Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – After Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest, Mizzima sought the opinions of public servants, including servicemen, in Naypyidaw, the seat of government and the new capital city. Here are a few of their responses:

Senior officer at the Ministry of Energy

“My main feeling on her release is gladness. We expect she will do something for a change in our country after her release.”

Female officer from Immigration Department

“Her release is not only for our public servants, not only for her party, but also for the freedom of the whole country. We expect a lot of her. I trust her too.”

Officer at Military Hospital No. 2 in Naypyidaw

“For us, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the real public leader. I support her. I believe she is the only one who can make our country develop and progress. We shall welcome her if she visits Naypyidaw on either a personal visit or for any other purpose.

“Very young officers and Defence Services Academy (DSA) graduates are well trained and brainwashed. They see Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as the housewife of a foreigner, a stooge of foreign powers and the like. As for senior top brass in the armed forces, they have the attitude that a woman must not be a leader. That’s their attitude.

“Moreover, border region and city development departments and staff from the Home Affairs Ministry also said they welcomed her release but could not praise her and express their feelings openly and freely.”