Senior US diplomat to visit Myanmar this week: official
1 hr 33 mins ago

YANGON (AFP) – A senior US official will visit Myanmar this week for talks with government figures and democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest
last month, an official said Monday.

Joseph Y. Yun, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, is due to arrive on Tuesday for the first high-level talks between the two countries since Myanmar’s election and Suu Kyi’s release.

Yun “will come here to talk with the government as well as to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi,” said the Myanmar official, declining to be named.

“They will discuss matters between the US and Myanmar,” he told AFP, adding that the trip was scheduled for December 7 to 10.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), confirmed the opposition leader would meet the US official.

“We haven’t set the exact time and date yet. But they will meet for sure during the visit,” he said.

A US embassy spokesman in Yangon was not available to comment.

Suu Kyi was freed from detention on November 13, days after a rare election which has been widely panned by international observers including US President Barack Obama, who said Myanmar’s “bankrupt regime” had stolen the vote.

His administration launched dialogue with Myanmar’s military rulers last year after concluding that Western attempts to isolate the regime had produced little success.

Nobel Peace Laureate Suu Kyi, who spent 15 of the last 21 years locked up, has welcomed this engagement but warned against “rose-coloured glasses”, saying greater human rights and economic progress were still needed.

She told CNN in an interview last month that Washington must be “keeping your eyes open and alert and seeing what is really going on, and where engagement is leading to and what changes really need to be brought about”.

In November 2009 and May this year, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Kurt Campbell travelled to Myanmar to meet government officials and Suu Kyi, while she was still under house arrest.

Rights abuses show China will not be a true leader: sources
By Wojciech Moskwa – Sat Dec 4, 7:09 pm ET

OSLO (Reuters) – China will not be a true world leader until it stops human rights abuses at home and support for ‘brutal’ regimes, former Czech President Vaclav Havel and Nobel Peace prize winner Desmond Tutu wrote in an editorial.

The veteran pro-democracy activists also urged Beijing to free Peace Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo from jail and his wife from house arrest before next Friday’s Nobel awards ceremony in Oslo.

“China’s support for abusive regimes and the brutal force with which it crushes dissent within its own borders demonstrates that substantial reform is needed if China is to be viewed within the international community as a true leader,” Havel and Tutu wrote in UK newspaper the Observer on Sunday.

They said the world should strenuously object to the Chinese model for development which asserted “that anything, including domestic and international oppression, can be justified if it is viewed to enable economic growth.”

They added that international scrutiny of Chinese human rights violations was not meddling in its internal affairs. “It flows from its (China’s) legal commitments to respect the inherent dignity and equality of every person.”

The article said that governments in Burma, Sudan and North Korea “remain free to commit mass atrocities against its peoples” and remain an international threat to security and peace due to China’s support and weapon supplies.

EMPTY CHAIR

China is furious at the Norwegian Nobel Committee for awarding what many consider the world’s top accolade to Liu, who is serving an 11-year sentence for “subverting state
power” after he helped write a 2008 manifesto calling for strengthened human rights and multi-party rule in China.

Liu’s manifesto was based on a letter by Havel and other Czechoslovak intellectuals in the 1970s protesting against the communist government. Havel also nominated Liu for the Nobel Peace prize.

Archbishop Tutu won the 1984 Nobel Peace prize for efforts to end South Africa’s apartheid system by peaceful means.

The pair are also honorary co-chairs of Freedom Now, a group which represents Liu as his international legal counsel.

Beijing has pressured diplomats to boycott the December 10 award ceremony, denounced the award to Liu as an “obscenity” and suspended talks with Norway over a free trade agreement.

China has kept Liu’s wife and scores of other dissidents under house arrest to prevent them coming to Oslo for the lavish ceremony, where the laureate will be represented by an empty chair.

“The first step (for China) must be the unconditional release of Liu Xiaobo and his wife,” wrote Havel and Tutu.

4 December 2010 Last updated at 12:08 ET
BBC News – Burma undergoing political change – UN envoy

The UN envoy to Burma has said it is clear that political change is taking place in the country, despite UN criticism of last month’s poll there.

Vijay Nambiar told the BBC that parliamentary by-elections could now open up “opportunities” for broadening the political spectrum.

The party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi boycotted the election, won by the biggest military-backed party.

She was not released from house arrest until after the poll.

“Government formation is taking place (in Burma). I think there will be new spaces, new slots in the parliament which will open up for by-elections,” Mr Nambiar, who visited Burma last week, told the BBC Burmese Service.

He described the by-elections as “small opportunities for increasing the political space for a broader, inclusive involvement”.

Mr Nambiar’s comments come despite strong criticism of Burma’s poll by the UN, which said they were neither free nor fair.

The elections on 7 November – the first to be held in Burma in 20 years – were won by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

Six days later, Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest. Her now-disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD) won the last election in 1990, but was never allowed to take power.

She has urged her followers not to give up hoping for change and has also said she is willing to talk to Western nations about lifting sanctions on Burma, which she previously supported.

Asian Correspondent – More Human Rights violations to be continued in Burma’s Shan State
Dec. 06 2010 – 10:10 pm
Zin Linn

The Burma’s junta has notified the 7th Brigade of Shan State Army (SSA) North to consider the option returning to the armed-struggle if the group disagreed transforming itself into Burma Army-controlled Home Guard Force (HGF).

The Eastern Region Command Brig-Gen San Oo told the Shan State Army (SSA) North’s 7th Brigade to make a clear-cut decision whether it will be a troop under the Burmese army or return to the jungle, quoting a reliable source Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.) said.

The group was told by Brig-Gen San Oo while he was on a tour to oversee security for Deputy Senior General Maung Aye and director of the Burma Army Artillery to inspect the sites in Mongzang, Monghsu Township and Kunhing-Takaw motor road for setting up artillery bases on 30 November.

The commander said if the group decided to be Burma Army’s controlled unit, it must totally abide by the army’s directive. If not, it is free to join its former sister unit, the 1st Brigade of SSA. The 1st Brigade was reported to be still behaving as an independent armed group enjoying ceasefire agreement with the junta, Shan Herald Agency for News said.

The 7th Brigade and 3rd Brigade transformed themselves into junta run home guard force in April. The 1st, which is regarded as the strongest SSA unit, with an estimated strength of 4,000, has refused to accept the demand. It had since October already fought 4 times against attacking Burma Army units.

Moreover, a military checkpoint between the town of Mongla on the Sino-Burmese border and Kengtung in eastern Shan State has been closed since 22 November, terminating the transportation of goods in the area.

In last week of November, Joint Chief of Staff, Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and 3 high-ranking military officers had made a trip to areas on the Sino-Burma border facing ceasefire groups, Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’, the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and National Democratic  Alliance Army (NDAA) or Mongla group, according to local sources. They made a 3 day inspection of front line bases in Shan State East and North from 24 to 26 November.

In the meantime, a 16 year old teenage girl from Shan State South’s Langkhurh Township was raped by a local-based junta soldier and both of her parents were murdered as well, quoting local sources Shan Herald Agency for News reported.

According to villagers, the soldier was a private from Nam Oon based Light Infantry Battalion LIB-578, one of the units of Mongpan based Military Operations Command (MOC)-17. The incident took place on Saturday 20 November. The MOC commander Brig-Gen Tint Shwe was reported to have offered Nang Hla 200,000 Kyat (US$ 200) in compensation asking her not to spread the information, a local source said.

Besides, A 43 year old local man identified as Sai Swe from Quarter No.4 was shot to death at the night of 22 November, by Burma Army soldiers from the Mongnawng-based Military Operations Command (MOC)- 2, while he was on the way to buy medicine for his wife Nang Soi. However, Brig-Gen Tint Lwin, Commander of MOC-2 and G1 Lt-Colonel Wai Lin Aung apparently ordered police officer Myint Han and Chairman of Quarter No. 4 U Kyaw Lwin to tell villagers and family members not to appeal the case to the top rank and not to leak the information; otherwise the town would be leveled to the ground.

Since 1962, the military has violently seized power and it has committed countless crimes: looting country’s natural resources by using brutal dictatorship, launching warfare against dissenting ethnic nationalities, keeping down civil and political liberties, downgrading the nation’s educational importance, neglecting public healthcare and causing the people to be starved.

In his March report to the UN Human Rights Council, Tomas Ojea Quintana said that a pattern of “gross and systematic” human rights violations in Burma had persisted over a period of many years and still continued. He suggested that given the lack of accountability for those abuses, the UN initiate a specific fact-finding mandate to investigate the possibility of international crimes.

The violations that led Ojea Quintana to recommend the convening of a UN Commission of Inquiry persist and are widespread and systematic, with the Burmese junta accelerating military attacks against ethnic civilians in Eastern Burma in current weeks.

The violations are expected to continue since the Burmese junta has guaranteed itself blanket immunity from prosecution and placed itself above the law through the 2008 constitution.

Asian Correspondent – Thailand should be a place of safety for refugees from Burma
Dec. 06 2010 – 07:43 pm
Zin Linn

The Australian Greens Party senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, has raised the alarm after visiting the Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot, a key crossing point for Burmese fleeing their country. The senator says sporadic violence is continuing in eastern Burma, near the Thai border, and says villagers are still fleeing into Thailand in their hundreds and sometimes thousands, the ABC Radio Australia reported on 3 December.

But they are often being pushed back into areas of fighting by Thai soldiers and are forced to flee again days later. The radio also said, International attention shifted to the town when fighting in eastern Burma after the first elections in 20 years saw 25,000 people flee to Thailand.

Thailand must bring to an end treating refugees running away from conflict zone in eastern Burma as “human ping pong balls” who are returned to their home country prematurely, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned in its statement dated 4 December.

Since skirmishing took place in November more than 20,000 people have escaped across the border to Thailand, and while many returned within days, refugees continue to flee renewed conflict, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

The Thai authorities have repeatedly sent back to Burma several hundred ethnic Burman and Karen civilians who fled from Palu and surrounding villages, raising concerns for their safety. For instance, refugees who fled to Thailand on November 27 and received assistance from Thai authorities were only permitted to stay in Thailand for one night before being compelled to return to Burma the next day.

In the course of heavy fighting on November 29, some victims rushed back to Thailand – and were again allowed them staying for one day before Thai authorities sent them back to Burma a second time. When fighting flared again on November 30, the cycle occurred a third time – temporary stay, and then forced return to Burma. Several refugees taking shelter in Thailand said to Human Rights Watch that they were too afraid to return to Burma under current conditions.

According to “Thailand Burma Border Consortium” TBBC’s latest IDP report, “Protracted Displacement and Chronic Poverty in Eastern Burma/Myanmar”, the main threats to human security in eastern Burma are related to militarisation. Under the guise of state building, the Burmese army’s strength grew from 180,000 soldiers in 1988 to over 400,000 soldiers currently.

The number of battalions deployed across eastern Burma has approximately doubled since 1995. In areas of ongoing conflict, Burmese Army patrols target civilians as a means of under-mining the opposition. Land confiscation and extortion are more widespread impacts of the Burmese Army’s so-called ‘self-reliance’ policy.

Increasing pressure on ceasefire groups to transform into Border Guard Forces has already resulted in the resumption of hostilities in the Kokang region of north-eastern Burma, and raised fears about Burmese Army deployments into other border areas.

The junta has announced that if ceasefire groups do not respond regarding the agreement or disagreement on the BGF program, they will automatically be recognized as insurgent groups.

Fighting broke out November 8 between the Burmese junta’s troops and Karen ethnic rebels, Thai-Burma border sources said. One day after the Burma election, a splinter group of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) seized the police station and post office in Myawaddy. The Burmese junta’s forces launched a counter-offensive immediately.

The DKBA is a ceasefire group associated with Burma’s ruling military junta, but a faction under Commander Saw Lah Pwe has risen up against the military’ demand to become a BGF under the junta’s control.  Saw Lah Pwe has reportedly said to the media that he seized positions in Myawaddy to protest the elections. The polls have been widely criticized as a ’sham’, designed to fortify the military’s rule over the country.

Due to earlier skirmishing between the military and DKBA, almost 20,000 refugees have escaped across the border into Mae Sot on the Thai-side.

Considering the current vote rigging poll scenario in Burma, armed revolution is still the only practical way to attain the final goal of self-determination.

While building good relations with Burma, Thailand’s officials should not concentrate only on the economic benefits.

Thai government, as a leading member of the ASEAN, should also see the root cause of Burma’s domestic war so as to pushing all sides to participate in meaningful political talks.
Actually, the military junta, which refuses to accept meaningful dialogue, is the culprit of the five-decade-long civil war that hurt ethnic people along Thai-Burma border as well as the neighboring Thailand’s business enterprises.

EarthTimes – Myanmar election losers attract new supporters
Posted : Sun, 05 Dec 2010 08:04:56 GMT

Yangon – Although they won few seats in last month’s parliamentary elections, Myanmar opposition parties were heartened by an upsurge in applications for party membership, a newspaper said Sunday.

The Myanmar Times quoted opposition party leaders as saying new supporters were seeking them out because they want to participate in electoral politics.

Military-ruled Myanmar held its first election in two decades on November 7 in a vote widely seen as rigged to ensure the armed forces retain their dominant position.

“The last election has made people realize that politics is not a dangerous issue and that it is relevant for every single person in the country,” U Nay Myo Wai, general secretary of the Peace and Diversity Party, was quoted as saying. “They have to participate if they want a change. As a result, our party is getting more new members.”

“When we were registering our party, we needed to have 1,000 members, and at that time, it was very hard for us to convince people to join, but now here they are, coming to us without any encouragement,” U Nay Myo Wai said.

The Peace and Diversity Party fielded seven candidates on November 7, none of whom were successful.

Parties representing Myanmar’s ethnic minorities, which tended to do better in the election, were also reported to be gaining support.

U Zaw Aye Maung from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, which won 35 of the 44 seats it contested, said he was surprised at the number of new members the party had attracted after the election.

“Many Rakhine people have come and joined up at our offices in Rakhine region,” he said. “It is such a big improvement.”

Myanmar’s best-known opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, refused to participate in the election because of harsh restrictions imposed by the ruling junta.

Suu Kyi was released from house arrest after the election and has appeared at several public gatherings, attracting large crowds of enthusiastic supporters.

Sydney Morning Herald – Day I met Aung San Suu Kyi
Kate Dennehy
December 5, 2010 – 2:09PM

Meeting Burma’s pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi was a humbling experience for former Queensland politician Ronan Lee.

He travelled to Rangoon to witness Burma’s historic elections last month but never expected Ms Suu Kyi would be released from the two-storey house where the country’s military had detained her since 2003.

On November 13, they released Ms Suu Kyi, 65, a winner of the Nobel Peace prize, who had either been imprisoned or held under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years.

“I never in a million years thought the junta would let her out,” he said by telephone last week.

“Actually meeting her was a surreal and humbling experience. I’ve met the Dalai Lama but she was even more impressive, so serene after all she and her family have been through, but incredibly confident and determined.”

Workers at her National League for Democracy (NLD) party headquarters introduced him to “The Lady”, as she is known, a few days after her release.

“We just chatted and she told me she’d spent the morning at a monastery praying for the country many political prisoners,” he said. The office was more like a half-way house full of volunteers who cook, clean and quietly spread her message of democracy.

Mr Lee held the Queensland state seat of Indooroopilly for the ALP from 2001 but defected to the Australian Greens in 2008 and lost the seat at the election last year.

He then moved to Tasmania to work as head of office for Australia’s first Greens Minister, Nick McKim, and run an environmental communications business but he said he left this year “utterly exhausted” to regain his health and “gain some work-life balance”.

Watching history unfold in Burma with about 20 locals was “confronting”, he said.

“We heard about her release watching a television in a roadhouse along the bus route to Mandalay,” he said. “The room was completely silent except for the noise of the television report that had more pictures than commentary. It was clear she was free but there was no cheering, no noise at all; just people staring at the television, looks were exchanged but no words spoken. Dissenting opinions are not safe to share in public so are kept for small conversations with trusted friends.”

After he met Ms Suu Kyi last week he became aware he was being followed. “A couple of guys dressed in civilian clothes would pretend their car had broken down every time we got out of our car. When we got back in, they’d close the bonnet and jump in again.”

He said Ms Suu Kyi has a security team that follows her everywhere for fear she will be assassinated like her father, Aung San, the independence general who was murdered by a political rival.

Ms Suu Kyi joined the NLD as its secretary-general in 1988 and pushed for political reforms including freedom and democracy. Despite her being under house arrest in 1990, the NLD won 82 per cent of the seats in parliament but the military regime refused to recognise the results.

During her detention her husband died in Britain, her two children have grown into adults and she has become a grandmother of children she has never seen. The junta would have allowed her to visit her husband but it was unlikely she’d ever be granted entry back into Burma so she stayed to fight for democracy and the release of more than 2000 political prisoners.

One of her sons, Kim Aris, 33, who lives in Britain, visited her after her release.

Her supporters fear Suu Kyi might be rearrested at any time but the outpouring of good wishes from world leaders could prevent that for now. – kdennehy@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Morning Star Online – Steps towards freedom?
Sunday 05 December 2010
by Kenny Coyle

Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from more than seven years of house arrest by the Myanmar government has taken place after the military regime concluded a farcical general election on November 7.

While few will be taken in by the State Peace and Development Council’s electoral ploys, freeing Suu Kyi is a high-profile gamble for military leader Than Shwe.

As leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Suu Kyi has been a courageous and outspoken critic of the military junta that has ruled Myanmar, formerly Burma, in various guises since 1962.

Having led her party to overwhelming victory in a 1990 election, in which the NLD was estimated to have won around 80 per cent of the vote, she has spent most of the past two decades in detention. The boycott of the regime’s November 7 election by the NLD strips the results of any meaning.

Nonetheless, Suu Kyi has called for dialogue with Than Shwe and the release of all remaining political prisoners, estimated at just over 2,000.

While the NLD’s programme for political democracy would represent an enormous step forward for the long-suffering Myanmar people, its economic programme outlined in a 2009 Proposal for National Reconciliation drafted with its allies is fraught with danger.

The proposals call for opening the country up to foreign capital in areas such as banking, a free floating national currency, the establishment of a stock exchange, privatisation of unprofitable state concerns, the reduction of import tariffs and the lifting of virtually all restrictions on the activities of private banks.

These policies sit rather uneasily alongside positive proposals to support farmers, reduce poverty, develop national minority areas and modernise infrastructure.

One of the most powerful arguments against the junta has been its failure to develop the country and lift its people out of poverty.

According to figures from the Asian Development Bank from 2009, agriculture dominates the economy contributing 44 per cent and services sector 36 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

While Myanmar has formidable natural resources in minerals, oil, gas and timber, its real value to outside powers has simply been its location.

Britain fought three bloody wars in the 19th century to subjugate Myanmar. Resistance was protracted and the British response murderous. The brother of Suu Kyi’s own grandfather was among those beheaded for their defiance.

The Tory secretary for India Viscount Cranbourne, later Lord Salisbury, said in the 1860s: “It is of primary importance to allow no other European power to insert itself between British Burma and China. Our influence in that country ought to be paramount.

The country itself is of no great importance, but an easy communication with the multitudes who inhabit western China is an object of national importance. No influence superior to ours must be allowed to gain ground in Burmah.”

Much of Suu Kyi’s status derives from her father Aung San – the most revered political figure in modern Myanmar history. She was just two years old when the independence leader was assassinated by a right-wing death squad.

Aung San belonged to a generation of eager radical nationalists.

He was the first leader of the fledgling Communist Party of Burma, soon breaking with the CPB to work with the Japanese against the British only to later turn against the Japanese and build the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League – an alliance that included communists and right-wing socialists.

Although Suu Kyi acknowledges her father’s radicalism, she disavows his communism as merely a passing phase.

She may be right that her father’s own communism was mercurial, but this glosses over the deep roots the CPB had in resistance and post-war Myanmar.

Her uncle Thakin Than Tun took over the leadership of the CPB and was for a time the general secretary of the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League.

Suu Kyi’s long family connections with the CPB have often been used by the military regime to portray her and the democracy movement as a tool of communist subversion.
In the post-war period Aung San attempted to bridge the gulf between the communists and the socialists as well as to integrate the many national minorities in an inclusive and democratic Union of Burma.

Had it not been for the assassin’s bullets, this could have provided the country with a progressive framework for development.

As it turned out, the loss of Aung San as a mediator emboldened the right-wing socialists to attack the CPB, burning its offices, raiding its press and smashing their legal mass organisations.

The forerunner of the current regime nationalised almost all businesses following a 1962 military coup against the civilian socialists.

However, far from creating the conditions for socialism, the state-run economy provided the basis for the creation of a bureaucratic bourgeoisie – a parasitic stratum that did little to stimulate the country’s development but which enriched itself on the back of government contracts and state monopolies.

In truth there was little progressive about the junta. During the 1960s, illusions were rife that the sole ruling party the Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSSP) was genuine about its “Burmese Way to Socialism.”

Soviet scholars compared the BSSP’s ideology, a hodge-podge of quasi-socialist rhetoric, virulent anti-communism and nationalism tinged with Burmese chauvinism, with currents such as Nasserism and Ba’athism.

Today the socialist rhetoric has been jettisoned and state-owned assets are being steadily transferred into private hands, hands connected to the country’s crony capitalists.

Much has also changed in the balance of forces in Asia and it is no longer Victorian Britain’s fear of France or cold war paranoia about Soviet influence, but the West’s discomfort with China.

Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs Senator Jim Webb recently told Foreign Policy magazine that there was a “big division” within the US State Department on how to deal with Myanmar.

“We are in a situation where if we do not push some sort of constructive engagement, Burma is going to basically become a province of China,” Webb was quoted as saying.

“We all respect Suu Kyi and the sacrifices she has made. On the other hand … how does the US develop a relationship that could increase the stability in the region and not allow China to have dominance in a country that has strategic importance to the region?” Webb said.

Western media coverage often focuses on Chinese trade relations with Myanmar, presenting China as single-handedly responsible for shoring up the military regime.

The two countries are building a major oil pipeline from the Myanmar port of Sittwe to the Chinese city of Kunming. The port will unload oil tankers from the Middle East and Africa to feed China’s energy-hungry economy.

Today’s Chinese foreign policy is largely guided by two principles – non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and mutually beneficial trade. This would not change if the NLD was in power.

However, it is not only China that takes such a position. Most of Myanmar’s Asian neighbours have flouted the US sanctions. Thailand, Malaysia and Japan all have economic interests in Myanmar.

French oil company Total owns 31 per cent of a project in the Yadana gas fields in the Andaman Sea, along with Thailand’s PTT and Myanmar’s state-run Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. The fourth partner is US oil giant Chevron, which owns 28 per cent of the project.

Chevron, whose recent former directors include Republican Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Barrack Obama’s former National Security Adviser James L Jones, has been given special dispensation by the US government to continue operations in the country.

Business and geostrategic interests may yet dictate a “constructive engagement” between the West and the regime. Clearly Than Shwe feels confident enough that the NLD will be unable to bring out the same numbers of people that nearly toppled the junta before. This is a high-risk strategy given the resilient popularity of Suu Kyi.

Claiming the mantle of a martyred parent, or being the biological child of the father of a nation, is a powerful political platform in many Asian societies – think of Indonesia’s Megawati Sukarnoputri or India’s Nehru-Gandhis. Turning that paternal link into an effective social and economic programme is something altogether different.

Denied her opportunity to amass the experience of actually running her country, Suu Kyi is already 65 and there is no comparable leader of similar stature within the opposition.

While the current economic orientation of the dominant opposition forces offers little hope for the transformation that the Myanmar people need, a successful struggle for political freedom might nonetheless revive a mass movement for the democratic, independent and socially just Myanmar that her father fought and died for.

Khaleej Times Online – EDITORIAL: Makeover in Myanmar
6 December 2010,

Myanmar, it seems, is poised to witness a unique transition of power. If United Nations envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar, is to be believed, one can hope for ‘new’ opportunities for the liberal democrats who had boycotted the polls at the outset last month in protest against the reigning military junta.

Hinting at by-elections for the vacant seats, the diplomat perhaps has just furthered the impression that a host of pro-democracy politicians and activists can now make their way into the parliament, which at the moment is loaded with military-backed elected nominees. This new political space for persons of repute that had struggled for civilian supremacy is a welcome development, and can go a long way in uplifting Myanmar from the throes of backwardness and iron-fisted governance.

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, on the other hand, has also sent in the right signals. By offering to walk an extra mile with the generals, she has in fact stressed on an evolutionary process, rather than seeing through a stage-managed revolution of sorts. However, secluded she may be and in wilderness her party in the present power decorum, one thing is for sure: a credible government cannot come into existence without being endorsed by Suu Kyi and her comrades. This silver lining in the political process makes the generals feel jittery and inadvertently come to terms with the very concept of sharing power with the genuine representatives of the people. This is no small achievement on the part of Suu Kyi to make the adamant generals fall in line, irrespective of the fact that they continue to wield power by ?hook or crook.

A peaceful transition of power in Yangon can have lessons for many such societies elsewhere in Asia and Africa. The very fact that Suu Kyi and other pro-democracy elements have not called for annulling the results of the charade November vote, irrespective of their severe reservations on its fairness, is real accommodation. Moreover, the UN envoy’s proposition that the newly elected parliament can find credibility with the introduction of new faces from the rank and file of democrats’ is a novel idea to keep the fragile boat of representative government sailing. The large turnout itself was a proof that people want to register their protest with the junta at work, and make use of an opportunity to exhibit their flair for democracy. Now Suu Kyi and Nambiar’s synopsis make it a perfect case for the Myanmarites to feel the change in the air. The junta has no option but to supplement the world body’s efforts of broadening the government’s base for the collective good of its people and the region. Yangon’s junta is once again the dock.

World Headlines – Suu Kyi Set Free but Media Still Held Captive in Burma
Simon Roughneen
December 5, 2010

Burma has in recent weeks been one of the top world news stories. The country’s November 7 general election was followed less than a week later by the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the world’s best-known political dissidents, whose appearance at her front gate on November 13 was carried on news networks around the world.

However, getting news out of Burma is no easy task. Foreign journalists were banned from entering the country to cover the elections. Though an estimated 30 to 40 managed to sneak in on tourist visas, seven were deported after being detained by the police. Fourteen media workers are currently behind bars, some serving sentences of up to 35 years.

There are a total of around 2,200 political prisoners who remain locked up, despite the release of Suu Kyi.

Still, high-profile reporters such as BBC’s John Simpson managed to interview Suu Kyi after her release, with no apparent retaliation or punitive measures by the ruling junta. One reporter in Rangoon, who asked to remain anonymous due to the restrictions on foreign journalists operating in Burma, told me the apparent indifference to the journalists-posing-as-tourists was more due to ineptitude on the part of the police, rather than newfound tolerance.

Telecom backwater

Chinese correspondents are the only foreign press permitted to work in Burma on a full-time basis; news agencies and wire services such as Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse are allowed only to deploy Burmese stringers.

The information challenge was heightened in the week before the November 7 election, when a moratorium on new SIM cards was imposed by the junta, pushing the price of black-market SIMs to well over $1,000. Economics are another form of censorship in Burma, as the average wage is a little over $200 per year. Even if the release of Suu Kyi somehow galvanized the public into another confrontation with the junta, there is little prospect of seeing the SMS-organized mass protests that emerged a decade ago elsewhere in Southeast Asia, such as when tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Manila to demand the ouster of President Joseph Estrada.

All told, only four percent of the population is wired up to telephone networks, one of the world’s lowest telephone usage rates. There are rumors that various multinational telecommunications companies are seeking ways into the market, trying to get around U.S., E.U. and Australian sanctions by setting up shell companies in Singapore and Hong Kong. However, the privatization of various state assets over the past year appears to have benefited only a narrow cabal of Burmese businessmen affiliated with the ruling junta. There are 1.3 million mobile phones and 866,084 landlines in Burma, according to statistics released by Myanmar Post and Telecommunications. The country has a population of roughly 50 million people. In contrast, over half the population of neighboring Thailand has mobile phones.

The country has been deemed “an enemy of the Internet” by Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), and Vincent Brossell, RSF’s Asia representative, told me that “it is so risky to try to work with people inside Burma.”

When it comes to the Internet, foreign news and social networking sites are blocked, though tech-savvy Internet users and Internet cafe owners in Rangoon and Mandalay can find ways around the wall using various proxies. However, just one in 455 Burmese were Internet users in 2009, according to the International Telecommunications Union. Internet cafes in Rangoon and Mandalay charge around $0.40 an hour for access, which is far too expensive for ordinary Burmese.

Enhanced online surveillance

A new ISP regime is being implemented by the ruling State Peace and Development Council, the official title for the junta. The planned “national web portal” will split the military, government and general ISPs into separate services, meaning that the publicly available Internet can be closed down or slowed without impinging on the government or army’s web access. Critics say the new plan will enhance surveillance and online snooping, and make the country’s few bloggers more vulnerable than ever to arrest.

During the monk-led mass protests in September 2007, citizens used the web to send reports and video to the outside world, circumventing the ban on foreign media. Blogger Nay Phone Latt was a central figure in that effort, but he was given a 12-year jail term for his efforts—a harsh reminder of what happens to those who use the Internet to speak out against the ruling junta.

Any hope that the release of Suu Kyi signals even a tentative loosening-up appears to be misplaced. The military censors have stuck to the old ways, as evidenced by the fact that only ten of the country’s 100-plus privately owned publications were sanctioned to offer coverage of the release of Suu Kyi. All publications in Burma must have their content approved in advance by the Press Scrutiny Board. Speaking at a seminar on post-election Burma in Bangkok on November 23, Aung Zaw, the editor of Irrawaddy, a news magazine based in Thailand but run by Burmese journalists, told me that “media in Burma are trying to push the envelope with the censor, since the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Shawn Crispin, southeast Asia representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told me there is a “yawning news gap” caused by heavy censorship and intimidation inside Burma. Burmese exiles try to fill the void, operating mainly from India and Thailand. Clandestine reporters inside the country take great risks to funnel information to editors in Chiang Mai, New Delhi and beyond.

Late in 2009, Hla Hla Win, a reporter for the Norway-headquartered Democratic Voice of Burma, was sentenced to a total of 27 years in jail for violating the Electronics Act, another draconian lever used by the junta to stop information from getting around the country or to the outside.

First Eleven’s cover

However, since the release of Suu Kyi, even the state-watched media in Burma have shown daring creativity to get their message out, risking the wrath of the regime in the process.

Sports journal First Eleven led with a front-page story on the Tuesday after Suu Kyi’s release that was a combination of headlines ostensibly about English Premier League soccer matches, but that also used colored lettering to discuss Suu Kyi’s release. Three innocuous-looking headlines—”Sunderland Freeze Chelsea,” “United Stunned by Villa” and “Arsenal Advance to Grab Their Hope”—read as “Su Free Unite and Advance to Grab The Hope.”

First Eleven got the ruse past the censors by submitting the advance copy of the page in black and white, but were subsequently hit with a two-week publishing ban after the military realized that they had been fooled.

This article was originally published by PBS MediaShift: www.pbs.org/mediashift/.

The Malaysian Insider - Asia learns painful lessons from euro zone crisis
December 06, 2010

BEIJING, Dec 6 – One more victim can be added to the casualty list from the fallout of the euro zone debt crisis: the cause of currency integration in Asia.

The idea that countries as different as Japan and Laos, or Singapore and Myanmar, might share the same money has always been a vision for future generations, not the here and now.

But policymakers have at least been heading in the direction of closer cooperation by formalising the network of emergency central bank loans they set up in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2000 to try to prevent a repeat of the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.

Any notion, though, that the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) could form a springboard to more ambitious monetary coordination looks doomed since the bailouts of Greece, and now Ireland, have exposed the frailties of a common currency area with infinitely deeper economic and institutional roots than Asia can offer.

“The key message from Europe for Asia is that it undermines any argument that currency union is a sensible way forward towards closer integration,” said Peter Drysdale, emeritus professor of economics at Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.

“That was never a persuasive argument, but it has close to zero credibility now,” Drysdale added.

The nations of Europe painstakingly knitted together their economies, and then their exchange rates, over the course of nearly half a century before they were ready to create the euro.

Even then, as the current crisis has exposed, the fathers of the single currency left gaping institutional holes that they are now scrambling to fill by creating mechanisms to enforce fiscal discipline and, as a last resort, enable sovereign debt restructuring.

Governments in Asia, by contrast, pride themselves in not poking their nose into their neighbours’ business.

It took the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations along with China, Japan and South Korea – Asean Plus Three – a decade to turn the CMI’s complex web of bilateral currency swap agreements into a single, uniform facility.

The US$120 billion, ungainly named Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation agreement finally took effect in March.

But don’t expect leaders to conclude that the moral from Europe’s debt mess is to get a move on. The opposite is more likely.

“There is a bit of concern about what has been going on in Europe and what it means for Asia,” said Jay Menon, an economist in the Office of Regional Economic Integration at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila.

Menon said the first lesson to be learned was the need for greater institutionalisation to ensure the success of regionalism; second, admitting countries to a single currency before they were ready and without a means of enforcing fiscal discipline could lead to disastrous consequences.

“This implies that the deepening of Asian regionalism is likely to take even longer than before the euro zone crisis erupted,” he said. “It was a long way away before, but it’s even further away now.”

Some would say that is not a bad thing. Asia should concentrate on getting the basics right before reaching for the stars.

Razeen Sally, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy, a Brussels think tank, said the logic for the European Union to integrate trade in goods and services as well as investment capital flows was reasonably clear.

But the economies of Europe do not have enough in common to constitute an optimal currency area, he argued. So monetary integration was a bridge too far.

Speaking in Beijing, Sally said: “If there is a big lesson to draw in this part of the world, it is that trade and investment integration should be secured incrementally without a leap into Utopian projects.

“Because if you do make a leap into Utopian projects, the risk is not only will these projects themselves self-destruct but they will lead to an unravelling of the kind of trade integration that Asia has already achieved.”

Specifically, Sally said, if the euro were to crack, the risk of controls on capital flows within Europe could not be excluded, and that could spill over to protectionism in the 27-nation single market.

Drysdale, the ANU professor, also said the demise of Asia’s dream of a single currency should not prevent governments from forging closer links in other areas.

“All the other arguments for commodity and capital market opening remain intact, and are reinforced by a sense that it is necessary to promote regional growth and integration in the face of continuing weakness in Europe and north America,” he said.

The argument in favour of keeping a close eye on economic and financial performance in the region has not gone away either, especially as currencies across Asia are moving increasingly in tandem, in the orbit of the yuan.

“I think that the crisis can have a salutary effect on Asian integration by highlighting the importance of surveillance,” said Willem Thorbecke, a researcher in Tokyo at the ADB Institute and the Research Institute of Economy Trade and Industry.

Indeed, the 13 parties to the CMIM intend to do just that.

Although diplomats say Asean Plus Three showed no interest at recent meetings in developing a coordinated approach to tackling capital inflows, the group is due to open an Asian Macroeconomic Research Office in Singapore next May.

“Asian countries are considering holding each other’s currencies as part of their foreign exchange reserves. If they do, they will have an incentive to monitor economic fundamentals in neighbouring countries and to use peer pressure to advocate policies to mitigate vulnerabilities,” Thorbecke said.

New York Times – Rights Group Says Caning in Malaysia Is Torture
By LIZ GOOCH
Published: December 6, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Amnesty International is calling on Malaysia to halt the practice of judicial caning, a punishment the rights group says amounts to torture and violates international law.

In a report to be released on Monday, Amnesty says that the number of offenses subject to caning under Malaysian criminal law has increased to more than 60 in recent years.

“Caning in Malaysia has hit epidemic proportions,” Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director, said in a statement.

Based on interviews with 57 people, including drug users, Burmese refugees and Indonesian migrant workers, the report found that some inmates had been left with permanent scars and physical disabilities after being hit with the meter-long cane used in Malaysian prisons.

“The pain inflicted by caning is so severe that victims often lose consciousness,” states the report.

In what it calls a “rough estimate,” Amnesty claims that as many as 10,000 people are caned each year in Malaysia, many of them foreigners who violate immigration laws. That estimate is based on “statistical sampling” compiled by Amnesty through interviews with prisoners, the report states.

The group did not investigate caning carried out under Shariah, or Islamic law, which only covers Muslims, who make up 60 percent of Malaysia’s population.

In neighboring Singapore, where about 30 offenses are punishable by caning, 6,404 men were sentenced to be caned in 2007, according to the U.S. State Department.

The Amnesty report found that the number of people caned under Malaysian criminal law has increased since 2002, when the government made more immigration offenses, like illegal entry, punishable by caning.

A refugee from Myanmar, who was sentenced to three months in prison and two strokes of the cane after being found guilty of entering Malaysia illegally, said he was left bleeding and could not sit down for three weeks after he was caned on the buttocks last year.

In an interview in Kuala Lumpur, the man, who did not want to be identified because of fears for his family’s safety in Myanmar, described how he was taken from a detention center to a nearby prison. He waited in a hall with about 70 other men until his name was called.

“We could hear them screaming. When they came out they were very weak,” he said of the prisoners caned before him. “When my name was called, I was very afraid.”

The man, aged 28, said he had to strip off his clothes, and his hands were tied to a bar. He believed he blacked out for a couple of minutes after the second stroke. “I cannot describe how painful it was,” he said.

The man has since been granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

He is awaiting resettlement in another country, and said he had been shocked to discover that Malaysia practiced caning.

“I feel that Malaysia is a democratic country and they have better human rights compared to Burma. In this kind of country, they should not have this kind of punishment,” he said.

A statement issued by the prime minister’s office said that the government could not comment on the accuracy of the report because it had not had adequate time to review its findings.

“Caning sentences are carried out in Malaysia, as they are in other countries, in connection with serious offenses, including violent crimes, rape and drug trafficking,” the statement said. “These judicial canings are sentenced, alongside prison terms, at the discretion of the presiding judge.”

Malaysia restricts caning to men aged 18 to 50, although men older than 50 may be caned for sexual offenses. Women are only subject to caning under Shariah.

“We regularly review our criminal justice system practices to ensure that punishments are effective and fit the crime,” the statement said.

The Amnesty report states that prison officers were paid bonuses to carry out caning and that some officers took bribes to intentionally “miss strokes.”

Amnesty argues that doctors involved in the process — who certify prisoners as being eligible for caning and resuscitate them if they lose consciousness — are violating medical ethics.

In calling on the government to abolish the practice, the report states that “caning violates the absolute prohibition against torture and ill-treatment under international law.”

International Business Times – Myanmar’s junta leader wanted to buy Manchester United: Wikileaks
By SreeRam Banda | December 6, 2010 10:32 AM EST

The leader of Myanmar’s military junta considered bidding for the popular Manchester United Football Club, US diplomatic cables revealed. Military leader Than Shwe was urged by his grandson to invest $1bn to acquire the club. Quoting a ‘well connected source’ of the Junta, US officials stated that Than Shwe, after contemplation, rejected the proposal.

“The Senior General thought that sort of expenditure could look bad, so he opted to create for Burma a league of its own,” diplomats told Washington.

In the cable published by whistle-blower site Wikileaks, Larry M. Dinger, the Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Yangon (Rangoon) stated that upon orders of the Junta leader, the Myanmar Football Federation launched the Myanmar National Football League on May 16, 2009.

Dinger in his report also maintained that a group of Burmese businessmen that Than Shwe had ‘chosen’ were announced as the owners of the new professional soccer teams.

“XXXXXXXXXXXX said the owners are responsible for paying all costs, including team salaries, housing and transportation, uniform costs, and advertising for the new league. In addition, owners must build new stadiums in their respective regions by 2011, at an estimated cost of USD one million per stadium,” he added.

Myanmar’s officials reportedly told Dinger that the businessmen would in return receive incentives from the regime, such as construction contracts, new gem and jade mines, and import permits, which will more than offset their costs.

US officials also believed that the league was Junta’s ploy to distract the people from ongoing political and economic crisis, or to divert their attention from criticism of the 2010 elections.

E-Pao.net – Further boost to Indo-Myanmar relation
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Mangang Moreh

Imphal, December 05 2010: In the continued attempt to enhance neighbourly relations and to help in developmental work, India presented earth moving, surface transport, information transport and various communication equipments to the Myanmar government in a simple function held today at Sunrise Youth Club at Moreh Town.

Speaking on the occasion, Lt General NK Singh, GOC 3 Corps, who was present on behalf of the country’s army chief, said that it was a matter of great honour to present all the materials on behalf of the chief of the army staff.

He further said that it was his belief that such actions will strengthen relationship and cooperation in future and that all possible help will be extended to Myanmar army and to the people of Myanmar.

In his speech, Brigadier General Soe Lwin said that it was the fifth time that India has extended such help.

Over and above this, the neighbouring country has helped in developing road and transport infrastructure, he said.

All the help extended by India would be utilised in remote area development and border area development.

Lt General NK Singh handed over four bull dozers, two motor graders received from the ministry of defence, one Bolero, three motor cycles, three computer sets, one six KV generator, six walkie talkies to Myanmar army’s Brigadier General Soe Win.

The other representatives from the Indian side were Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Dr VS Seshadri, GOC 57 Mountain Division Major General DS Hooda, IGAR (South) Major General C Krishnan and Brigadier SK Bhanot.

From Myanmar side Brigadier General Soe Lwin, Commander North Western Command and his staff took part in the function.

Posted: Dec. 5, 2010
Detroit Free Press – Is Chrysler ready to stick its neck out for another prisoner?
BY MARK PHELAN
DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

The automaker got a lot of attention last year for a TV commercial that called on Burma’s military government to free Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner the junta had imprisoned for 14 of the previous 20 years.

The commercial showed other Peace Prize winners — including icons of freedom Lech Walesa and Mikhail Gorbachev — being chauffeured around Berlin in Chrysler 300s at a summit that coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall.

After the other laureates had arrived, an empty 300 pulled up to the conference center. Text identified it as the car for “Aung San Suu Kyi. Prime minister-elect of Burma. Nobel Peace Laureate.”

The commercial ended with a powerful image: A poster calling for Suu Kyi’s freedom hung on a wall the 300 had crashed through. The narrator said: “This film is dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, still prisoner in Burma.” She was released last month.

It was a stroke of marketing genius. The ad was incredibly economical. It cost almost nothing to make, aired a few times and drew disproportionate attention on the Internet and in the news.

Chrysler hadn’t made a scrap of positive news in months as it went through bankruptcy and formed an alliance with Fiat. The uplifting, emotional images cast the company in a positive new light.

Calling for Suu Kyi’s freedom isn’t exactly a profile in courage, though. An automaker doesn’t risk much by annoying the generals who run Burma, officially now known as Myanmar. With a per capita GDP of $1,100, the Burmese people don’t buy many Town & Country minivans or Lancia Delta luxury cars.

Chrysler got the commercial courtesy of Fiat’s Lancia brand, which shot a nearly identical ad. Lancia has a history of supporting human rights. It publicly promotes gay rights and opposes violence against women. Because of that track record, the conference asked Lancia to provide cars for the laureates.

Lancia had earned that honor. It risked alienating buyers with controversial ads that spoke for the oppressed. China is the world’s largest market for new cars, but before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Lancia aired a commercial in which Richard Gere delivered a subtle but effective “Free Tibet” message by driving a Delta from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre Hollywood to a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas. The Chinese government went into orbit. Fiat apologized, but the ad lives on in cyberspace.

The 2010 Nobel Peace laureate will be in a Chinese prison rather than at the award ceremony in Oslo this Friday. Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese writer and dissident credited with saving hundreds of lives during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, is serving his fourth prison term for pro-democracy efforts.

Chrysler is establishing a new identity, much like it’s rebuilding its model line with cars like the new 200 and 300. It wants to emulate Lancia as a brand associated with human rights and social responsibility. The Suu Kyi commercial and this year’s auction of a celebrity-autographed 300 to raise money for Haitian earthquake relief were a good start.

Companies don’t have souls; they have profit and loss statements. But when a company decides that taking a moral stance is good for its bottom line, that company accepts a higher responsibility. It must take stands based on principle, not just the bottom line.

Otherwise, its acts are empty publicity stunts.

Chrysler’s good deeds so far have been risk-free. If social responsibility is going to be one of the brand’s cornerstones, this is the time to stand for something more controversial than motherhood and apple pie.

Chrysler should take on somebody its own size — China — and call for the freedom of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

Myanmar strives for promotion of development of traditional medicine
English.news.cn   2010-12-05 11:36:15
by Feng Yingqiu

YANGON, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) — The 11th Traditional Medicine Practitioners Conference of Myanmar is due to open in the country’ s new capital of Nay Pyi Taw later on Sunday, aimed at promoting the development of the country’s traditional medicines and its medical practices.

The practitioners from various regions will discuss at the event development and propagation of Myanmar traditional medicine, training, research development, prevention and treatment and extensive use of the medicine in various fields, official media said.

Myanmar has sponsored traditional medicine practitioners conference annually since 2000.

Myanmar traditional medicine is recognized as one of the principal contributors to the public health and a genuine legacy left by ancestors.

As the Myanmar traditional medicine is playing a more and more important role in treating diseases in the country, the government places more emphasis on the aspects, calling on traditional medicine practitioners to protect and preserve them from depletion and extinction and to ensure their perpetual existence.

At the same time, the practitioners are also urged to harmoniously strive for the promotion of the standard of Myanmar traditional medicine to reach international level.

According to the health authorities, Myanmar has made arrangements for the development of the traditional medicine in line with the set standards, opening diploma courses and practitioner courses to train out skilled experts in the field.

A decade before, Myanmar’s Institute of Traditional Medicine conferred diplomas on traditional medicine to those who had completed two-year theoretical course and one-year practical course.

In 2001, Myanmar established its University of Traditional Medicine in Mandalay, the second largest city, where traditional medicine, anatomy and physiology, microbiology and medicine and Chinese acupuncture are taught.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has set up the first national herbal park in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw to grow herbal and medicinal plants used in producing medicines for treating various diseases.

The 81-hectare National Herbal Park, aimed at becoming an international-level one, was established by the Ministry of Progress of Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs.

Over 20,000 herbal and medicinal plants of over 700 species from some 10 states and divisions for producing medicines used in treating diseases like cholera, diarrhoes, dysentery, hypertension, diabetes, malaria and tuberculosis are being grown in the park.

Encouragement has also been made to set up large traditional medicine industries with the private sector to produce potent drugs for common diseases, herbal gardens for medicinal plant conservation and find means to treat patients with the combined potency of the Western and Myanmar traditional medicine.

There are 12 traditional medicine hospitals and 214 such clinics in the country with services provided by nearly 10,000 practitioners, earlier statistics show.

The Myanmar traditional medicine, composed of such ingredients as roots, tubers, bulbs, natural items and animal products, has in a historical perspective, represented the typical Myanmar culture and traditional value and norms.

Meanwhile, practitioners in the country are also being urged to make efforts for the promotion of Myanmar traditional medicines through cooperation with the international community.

Myanmar took part in the Congress of Traditional Medicine of the World Health Organization (WHO) held in Beijing, China in November 2008.

The Myanmar delegation discussed matters on Myanmar traditional medicine including measures being taken for conducting research on treatment of six major diseases — diabetes, hypertension, malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoea and dysentery through traditional medicine.

ReliefWeb – Once again, fleeing Myanmar
Source: International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Date: 03 Dec 2010

It is early morning in Wat Maha Wong, a Buddhist temple overlooking the muddy Moei River on the Thailand side of the border with Myanmar. Hundreds of ragged and exhausted people huddle on straw mats waiting for food and medical care. They are among some one thousand people who have fled a fresh outbreak of fighting in eastern Myanmar, formerly Burma, between an ethnic rebel group and government troops. In earlier clashes three weeks ago some 20,000 people fled across the volatile border into Thailand.

I am here with a medical team from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) that is taking part in a humanitarian effort to provide health services and distribute clean water and emergency supplies to the refugees from Myanmar.

“People are dehydrated and exhausted and some sustained injuries as they were fleeing,” says Dr. Nyunt Naing, who is overseeing the IRC’s relief effort at the temple. “Many were unable to bring vital medicines with them and we are replacing them.”

The refugee crisis broke out following armed clashes on November 8, the day after national elections in Myanmar. Although the election was Myanmar’s first in 20 years, some armed factions are unwilling to accept a new constitution and attempts to bring them under control of the military. As thousands of people moved across the border into Thailand, teams of IRC aid workers in Tak Province distributed medicine, clothing, milk, blankets and other items to the refugees.

From the temple compound scattered gunfire can occasionally be heard as anti-government militias fight the army on the Myanmar side of the border. The recent clashes underline long-simmering tensions between the government and Myanmar’s many ethnic groups, some of which have been fighting for autonomy for decades.

One refugee, Htay Htay, tells me that earlier this day she was at home in the hamlet of Phaluu when a mortar round landed 500 meters from her house.

“It was a very loud explosion,” she says. “It landed by the village well. A big tree collapsed and there was a huge hole in the ground. I quickly gathered some clothes and ran for the border with my children.”

The people of Phaluu, who grow peanuts, beans, corn and other crops, now fear that their harvests will be destroyed along with their houses.

As the sun begins to set over the temple’s gilded pagodas, a fresh group of refugees arrive. With the very real prospect of the conflict spreading across eastern Myanmar, they will certainly not be the last to seek shelter here and elsewhere along the border.

“This is the first time I have ever been forced from my home,” says Aung Zaw Moe, clutching her one-year-old baby. “My home is so near, just across the river. But it feels very far away today.”

The Irrawaddy – Imprisoned Student Leader Warns of Second Depayin
By KO HTWE Saturday, December 4, 2010

Htay Kywe, one of the imprisoned leaders of the 88 Generation Students group, said he is worried that Aung San Suu Kyi could face another attack like the one that killed many of her supporters in May 2003, according to his brother-in-law, Phyo Min Thein.

Phyo Min Thein, who is also a prominent political activist and former member of the Union Democratic Party, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Htay Kywe spoke of his concerns during a 45-minute family visit at Buthitaung Prison in Arakan State on Dec. 2.

He said that Htay Kywe, who is currently serving a 65-year sentence for his political activities, asked him to convey his concerns to Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest on Nov. 13.

“He said he is worried that she could face another situation similar to the one at Depayin and asked me to warn her about that,” Phyo Min Thein said.

On May 30, 2003, around 5,000 armed thugs recruited by the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) ambushed Suu Kyi’s convoy in Depayin, Sagaing Division, killing an estimated 100 people.

Htay Kywe also expressed his continuing support for Suu Kyi as the leader of Burma’s pro-democracy movement.

“He said that all political forces need to cooperate under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi to achieve national reconciliation,” said Phyo Min Thein, adding that they also discussed the lack of progress in reaching this goal.

According to Phyo Min Thein, Htay Kywe appeared to be thinner than usual and was suffering from a stomach ailment. He added that members of Burma’s Special Branch police force monitored them throughout the visit.

Concerning prison conditions, Htay Kywe said that he is able to write and draw, but wants the authorities to move political prisoners serving their sentences in remote areas closer to their families.

The Burmese regime often forces its imprisoned opponents to serve long sentences in relatively inaccessible parts of the country, making it difficult for them to receive regular family visits.

In a recent interview with United Press International, Suu Kyi described conditions in Burma’s prisons as “brutal.”

During another visit in August, Htay Kywe told family members that Burma’s Nov. 7 election would be meaningless without the participation of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy and called on the army, political forces, pro-democracy parties and ethnic groups to work together toward an “all-inclusive” solution to the country’s political problems.

Htay Kywe was first arrested in 1991 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for violating Burma’s draconian security laws. Initially held in Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison, he was transferred to Tharrawaddy Prison in Pegu Division in 1995.

He was released in July 2001, but was subsequently arrested on several occasions under Section 10 A of the 1975 State Protection Law, which allows the military authorities the right to detain suspects arbitrarily.

In 2005, Htay Kywe co-founded the 88 Generation Students group along with other prominent leaders of the nationwide pro-democracy uprising of August 1988, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Min Zeya and Pyone Cho.

From 2005 to 2007, the group engaged in nonviolent activities, including group visits to political prisoners’ homes and holding Buddhist ceremonies at Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon to commemorate political prisoners still behind bars.

On Nov. 11, 2007, Htay Kywe and other members of the 88 Generation group were given 65-year prison sentences for their alleged involvement in massive monk-led pro-democracy protests in September of that year.

Most of the imprisoned 88 Generation leaders are serving their sentences in remote areas, including Buthitaung Prison in Arakan State, Kengtung Prison in Shan State, Loikaw Prison in Karenni State, Kawthaung Prison in Tenasserim Division, Kalaymyo Prison in Sagaing Division, and Myitkyina and Putao prisons in Kachin State.

Buthitaung Prison is notorious for its harsh treatment of political prisoners and its severely cold weather.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, there are 2,203 political prisoners in prisons across Burma.

The Irrawaddy – Socially-active Artists Banned from State TV, Radio
By KO HTWE Monday, December 6, 2010

The Burmese regime has ordered a blackout on news about several socially-engaged personalities from the country’s arts and entertainment scene.

The blackout was ordered by regime censors after a group led by Kyaw Thu, founder of the Free Funeral Services Society and one of Burma’s best-known actors, visited the HIV/AIDS shelter in Rangoon’s Dagon Myothit (South) Township,run by the National League for Democracy.
Accompanying Kyaw Thu were along writer Than Myint Aung, film director Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, popular vocalist Than Thar Win, punk-rock singer Kyar Pauk (aka Han Htoo Lwin) and rapper Annaga. They donated food and clothing.

According to sources close to the state-owned television station MRTV, the Ministry of Information presented MRTV and the state-run Cherry FM radio station with a list of their names and instructed the two establishments not to broadcast news about them.

“We received a letter from the ministry with a list of the artists [who visited the shelter] and were told not to air any program mentioning them,” said a Cherry FM official.

“It’s an abuse of human rights,” said Kyaw Thu. “We are doing social work, not politics. We went there to encourage the patients and hand out donations.”

Kyaw Thu and his wife were arrested at the time of the September 2007 demonstrations after giving food and water to the monks who participated.

The following month, his HIV/AIDS awareness film, “Absolutely safe” (A-Kywin-Mè Longyon-Ya), was banned by the government censorship board.

The censorship board has also banned news about the popular satirical troupe “Forever Rose” (Htar Wa Ya Ninsee), directed by Maung Myo Min (Yintwin-Phyit), Burma’s most popular film director. News about another troupe, “New Year Rose” (Nit Thit Ninsee), has also been blacked out, said Maung Myo Min.

The Irrawaddy – COMMENTARY: Lifting US Sanctions Won’t be Easy
By HTET AUNG Thursday, December 2, 2010

US economic sanctions against Burma’s military junta have again become a much-discussed issue since the release of the country’s democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Within days of being freed, Suu Kyi faced a barrage of questions about her stance on this issue, as if she  held the master key to unlocking Washington’s ban on doing business with Burma.

This view was recently given some support by a recent article by The Washington Times (“Suu Kyi seeks to review sanctions on Myanmar”), which quoted an unnamed congressional source as saying that “several members of Congress are looking to Mrs Suu Kyi for guidance” on the issue of sanctions. “If they see her taking a more pragmatic and conciliatory approach, it would create a lot more space for a more flexible position,” the source said.

However, Suu Kyi has already indicated that her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), is willing to review its policy on sanctions, especially if they are found to be, as critics contend, more damaging to ordinary Burmese than to the regime.

“If we find that the sanctions are only hurting the people and that there is no positive outcome as a result of the sanctions, then certainly we would consider calling on those who have imposed sanctions to think whether it is not time to stop them,” she said in a phone interview for the article.

But she also noted that “it is not as easy as saying, ‘Well, we think that it’s time for sanctions to be lifted.’”

As Suu Kyi is well aware, it is entirely up to the US government to decide what changes, if any, it will make to its sanctions policy. Her own party’s decision on the matter will be just one consideration in determining whether the President Barack Obama and US lawmakers chose to stop blocking bilateral and multilateral assistance to the regime  and start allowing US corporations to begin investing in Burma again.

Although Burma’s pro-democracy movement enjoys strong support from both parties in Congress,  where a number of laws have been enacted since 1996 to put pressure on the Burmese regime, US lawmakers are not going to change their position overnight. The laws that are already in place set clear benchmarks for lifting the sanctions imposed on Burma, and both Congress and the Obama Administration are obliged to use them as the basis for any decision they may make.

The toughest of these laws, the “Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003,” states that all political prisoners in Burma must be released before sanctions can be lifted. The law, which was a response to a deadly attack on NLD supporters by junta-backed thugs in Depayin in May 2003, also requires that the regime respect the basic freedoms of Burmese citizens, such as freedom of speech, association and assembly, and restore press freedom. To date, none of these benchmarks have been met.

Another major hurdle to lifting the sanctions is found in Section 3 of the 2003 Act, the “Ban Against Trade That Supports the Military Regime of Burma.” Among the targets of this section is the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and any successor entity. Therefore, according to this law, the leaders of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won nearly 80 percent of the elected seats in parliament in the Nov. 7 election, are subject to the US sanctions.

The act gives the president the power to waive the enforcement of the provisions included in the law, but this can only be done if it is deemed to be in US national interests, and only after notifying the relevant congressional committees. Therefore, the withdrawal of any US economic sanctions, partially or fully, will be based on the national interests of the US, not on Suu Kyi’s request.

Suu Kyi clearly understood this when she sent two personal letters to junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe in 2009, expressing her willingness to cooperate with him on the issue of lifting the economic sanctions. However, her requests to discuss the matter with the regime were ignored.

Lifting the sanctions will also require the president to withdraw the executive order, first enacted by former President Bill Clinton in 1997 and subsequently renewed by his successors, declaring that the regime’s “large-scale repression of the democratic opposition in Burma … constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

This order is subject to regular reviews by the US State Department and is renewed on an annual basis. If these reviews showed a significant improvement in the situation in Burma, the president could chose not to renew the order, thus setting the stage for a fundamental shift in policy.

However, since there has been no improvement in the regime’s treatment of the opposition, there is no basis for taking this first step toward lifting sanctions.

Even if Suu Kyi decides that lifting the sanctions would be in Burma’s best interests, there will be little she can do about it without the cooperation of those at whom the sanctions are directed.

Myanma’s Chinese aircraft take off
Friday, 03 December 2010 19:40 Salai Han Thar San

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Two Xian MA60s entered service on Wednesday for domestic carrier Myanma Airways to mark Burma’s National Day after it bought them from their Chinese manufacturer, according to a source close to the airline.

Purchased in September last year, they replaced two Fokker F27 Friendships that ended service after 40 years of use with the airline.

“The two aircraft entered into services yesterday,” a person close to Myanma Airways said yesterday.

The MA60 has a capacity of 60 passengers and is made by Xian Aircraft Industrial Corporation, a subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Corporation 1 since 2000. The estimated unit price is about US$12.5 million.

Myanma Airways in July sent 12 pilots, eight aeronautical engineers, two flight attendants and two navigators to China to gain experience on the MA60.

Although they were trained in China, the pilots and engineers were still unfamiliar with the MA60’s design, a former Myanma Airways aeronautical engineer said.

“Xian MA60 uses ATR engines and the switch layout is very unfamiliar for pilots and aeronautical engineers from Burma,” he said, referring to French-Italian ATR aircraft, which with the MA60, also uses modified Pratt & Whitney Canada turboprop engines.

The aircraft is widely used in China and developing countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Three incidents involving the plane occurred last year; two at the Godofredo P. Ramos Airport in the Philippines and one at Harare International Airport when an Air Zimbabwe MA60 hit five warthogs on take-off.

Myanma Airways now have two ATR72s, an ATR42, three F28s, and three Xian MA-60s for local services.

DVB News – Student army to join Karen fighting
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 6 December 2010

A Burmese student army that rose to prominence following the 1988 uprising is preparing to fight alongside Karen troops in the volatile eastern state.

The decision was confirmed today by a senior official in the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) who asked to remain anonymous. The group, which at its peak had more than 10,000 troops, will join sides with a breakaway faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) as fighting against Burmese forces continues close to the Thai border.

A delegation from the ABSDF met with DKBA commander Na Kham Mwe shortly after 8 November, the official said, when the group took key government positions in Karen state’s Myawaddy. “We are ready to cooperate with Na Kham Mwe’s group which is fighting the [Burmese army],” he added.

Than Khe, chairperson of the ABSDF, said that the group, whose numbers have now significantly diminished since the mid-1990s, approved with Na Kham Mwe’s decision to defect from the pro-junta DKBA faction which has now become a government-backed Border Guard Force (BFG).

“We can support this motive because the timing is very good,” he told DVB. “At the same time the objective is also very meaningful: it shows the people that we do not accept the 2010 elections. We show our solidarity and support to him and those men who were fighting in Myawaddy.”

The ABSDF has been linked with the Karen struggle ever since its formation in the late 1980s, when thousands of students fled to the jungle and were sheltered by the Karen National Union (KNU) and it armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).

When the DKBA split from the KNLA in the mid-1990s and allied itself with the junta, the ABSDF was “caught in the middle”, according to its former foreign affairs spokesperson, Aung Naing Oo.

As a result of the new dominance of the pro-junta faction, and due to splits within the ABSDF, its fighting capabilities diminished. But the breakaway faction of the DKBA has given added hope that an inter-ethnic and organisational alliance is possible.

“This is part of the national reconciliation process,” said Than Khe. “Without working practically we cannot get the understanding needed for reconciliation.”

The junta’s quest to transform all 17 ceasefire groups into border militias has stumbled: few have accepted the demands, and tensions are now high in the border regions where the Kachin Independence Army and the United Wa State Army are also preparing for possible attacks.

“We can co-operate with any groups who have the basic principle of restoring democracy and the federal union to Burma and freeing the people from dictatorship,” added Than Khe.