Myanmar sparks hope for dialogue at landmine meet
AFP News – 2 hours 25 minutes ago

Myanmar’s rare participation in a global anti-landmine summit on Tuesday was hailed by campaigners as a sign that the country was ready for dialogue on its stubborn use of the deadly weapons.

In its maiden address to delegates at the annual meeting, attended by over 100 nations and held in the Cambodian capital this week, Myanmar defended the use of landmines but said the issue deserved “careful consideration”.

Myanmar “believes that the legitimate right of every state to self-defence in matters of its national security must be recognised and respected,” said U Win Naing, deputy director-general of Myanmar’s foreign affairs ministry.

Campaigners said that while the statement itself revealed “nothing new”, the fact that Myanmar spoke at all was significant.

“We hope it’s a little first step that can open the door to a dialogue,” Kasia Derlicka, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), told AFP.

The week-long Phnom Penh gathering is a chance for the 158 states that have joined the 1997 anti-personnel mine ban convention to take stock of the eradication of the weapons.
Myanmar has not signed the treaty but is attending as an observer.

“We understand Myanmar is not ready to sign the treaty but we’d like to see interim steps such as renouncing landmines, engaging in landmine education, mine clearance and victim assistance, all of which is almost non-existent,” said Derlicka.

The country has been plagued by decades of civil war between government forces and ethnic minority rebels and both sides continue to lay the deadly explosives, according to ICBL.

“We should be optimistic that Myanmar has come to hear how the vast majority of the world’s states feel about this weapon,” said organiser Kerry Brinkert, director of the convention’s secretariat.

“We are hopeful that Myanmar’s participation this week is an expression of openness on the part of Myanmar to enter into a dialogue with the states parties on the question of anti-personnel mines,” he added.

Myanmar’s leaders began a new round of peace talks with several ethnic groups this month amid tentative signs of change in the repressive state as it seeks to improve its standing internationally.

It was the only country recorded as laying new landmines last year, but ICBL said it has since been joined by Israel, Syria and Libya, bringing the current global use of landmines to its highest level since 2004.

Meanwhile, Burundi told summit delegates on Monday it had cleared its territory of landmines, becoming the 18th state party to do so.

New York Times – Reforms Welcomed in Myanmar, but Fears Persist
By The International Herald Tribune
Published: November 29, 2011

Automatic teller machines, ubiquitous in the world’s major cities but absent here during years of economic stagnation, are now being installed at a handful of banks.

Street vendors hawk coffee mugs, key chains and posters adorned with pictures of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s opposition leader, whose name and image were taboo during two decades of military dictatorship.

The government’s reforms, rapid and unexpected, are winning over some of the country’s deepest skeptics.

“What has happened in these last few months is a miracle for us,” said Daw Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, an opposition politician and former political prisoner whose family suffered years of persecution by the military.

“To be frank, in the very beginning, I didn’t believe a word of what they were saying,” she said of the new government, which came to power in March. “Now I believe what is happening is for the good of the people.”

Outside Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s house, workers have laid a fresh layer of sod and repainted the gates in anticipation of a visit by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state, who arrives in Myanmar on Wednesday in a significant vote of confidence for the new government.

Making the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state since 1955, Mrs. Clinton will be touring a country in the midst of transformation from military dictatorship to nascent democracy. The changes have been so sudden that many people, scarred by years of crackdowns and surveillance by the secret police, are not sure whether to trust the sincerity of a government that is largely made up of former generals.

Daw Thandar, the middle-aged owner of a clothing shop in Yangon’s bustling city center, said she sensed optimism in the air. “Politics used to be an evil word, but now people are talking about it, even on the sidewalks,” she said.

But in a sign of the fear that still lingers here, she did not want her full name in print.

“I’m not 100 percent sure yet the changes are real,” she said. “One of my cousins was in prison for 10 years for talking about politics.”

Since his inauguration in March, President Thein Sein has worked with the country’s newly established Parliament to pass a raft of new laws and regulations. Labor unions have been legalized, the Internet has been mostly freed of the heavy censorship imposed during military rule, and proposals are being drawn up to overhaul the country’s dysfunctional banking system. In Parliament, legislators are debating changes to British colonial-era laws. (One example: The 1894 Prison Manual is being replaced.)

As the pace of reform accelerated in recent months, observers debated why a military government with nearly absolute power would pursue democratic changes and embrace dissidents it has persecuted for decades. Mr. Thein Sein was a member of the junta that repeatedly crushed dissent before becoming president.

The answer, according to one of the president’s advisers, is that Mr. Thein Sein realized that the country could no longer ignore the world around it.

“The president was convinced about the global situation — he saw where the global stream was heading,” said U Nay Zin Latt, the adviser, a businessman who had no experience in politics when he was recruited by the president.

After years of socialist-style control over the economy — everything from soap to jeeps was produced by state-owned companies — Mr. Thein Sein chose to push the country toward a market economy, Mr. Nay Zin Latt said in an interview.

Crucially for the legitimacy of both the new government and the entire political system, Mr. Thein Sein has successfully courted Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. Her party, the National League for Democracy, recently said it would officially reregister and contest upcoming by-elections.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s views carry significant weight inside and outside the country. President Barack Obama called her before announcing Mrs. Clinton’s visit. Inside Myanmar, she is a mother figure whose decade and a half of house arrest earned her deep credibility and loyalty.

“When I talk to Aung San Suu Kyi, she says, ‘Forget the past,”’ said Ms. Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, who is the general secretary of the Democratic Party. “She says have faith in Thein Sein. If she says that, we must have faith in him.”

Ms. Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, who was imprisoned for seven years for opposing the military, has ample reasons to mistrust a government that remains backed by the military. Her father, a former deputy prime minister who was in power during the last visit by a U.S. secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, was also jailed for seven years. Her mother was detained for three years, her former husband for three and her brother for seven.

Last year, she ran in elections and lost to a military-backed candidate. She sued the government, arguing that the election was rigged: The military-backed candidate’s brother-in-law was the local election commissioner and ballots were improperly removed from the voting center, she argued. She lost the case.

But in an interview on Tuesday, she said she was very excited about the visit of Mrs. Clinton and her much-anticipated meeting with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Let the two smart women talk,” she said. “It’s unbelievable that Mrs. Clinton is visiting us.”

Not everyone in Myanmar is so enthusiastic or convinced of the government’s sincerity. Sitting in the back room of his grocery store in Yangon, U Ko Ko Gyi, also a former political prisoner, criticizes the government for the continued detention of other proponents of democracy.

Mr. Ko Ko Gyi was released on Oct. 12 as part of an amnesty that the government offered as an olive branch to the opposition — and a way to bolster Myanmar’s image abroad. But hundreds of political prisoners remain in detention.

A recent comment at a news conference by Mr. Thein Sein that there are “no political prisoners — all prisoners have broken the law” rankled Mr. Ko Ko Gyi and other former political prisoners, who meet regularly and have a prominent place in the country’s opposition movement.

“He is denying reality,” Mr. Ko Ko Gyi said of the president. “If the government is really democratic, why aren’t they releasing the people who were sent to prison for advocating democracy?“

The government keeps track of political prisoners after their release, but the police are now much more subtle than the authorities he dealt with during the previous military government, Mr. Ko Ko Gyi said.

“They are very respectful,” he said.

The new, gentler face of the Myanmar government has helped win it a measure of international respectability. Earlier this month the country successfully lobbied for the chairmanship in 2014 of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a rotating responsibility that Myanmar was previously pressured into skipping because of its human rights record.

One of the main tasks in 2014 will be to guide the organization’s 10 member countries into fully implementing their plans for a single market. That job may add urgency to Myanmar’s reforms. The country’s once moribund economy, neglected during decades of military rule, is finally showing early signs of the dynamism evident in the countries that surround it.

Yangon’s 170 or so hotels are filled with potential investors, foreign government delegations and tourists. The country is seeking to privatize its railroads and is continuing its program to sell off state-owned real estate, including a dozen old government buildings in Yangon that have been earmarked as future hotels.

The government says it will issue licenses for car showrooms — there are almost none in the country — and has begun a program to allow the owners of the decades-old cars plying the country’s roads to import newer models. Shipments of secondhand cars have been arriving from Japan in recent weeks, to much fanfare. But in a measure of Myanmar’s disparity with its neighbors, most of the “new” cars imported into the country are more than 10 years old.

Myanmar’s financial system overall remains one of the most rudimentary in Asia. Most transactions are carried out in cash. The country has no credit cards (partly because of Western sanctions, which ban financial dealings by Western companies). The handful of A.T.M.’s in the capital were installed after the government’s recent decision to lift a nine-year ban on them.

In recent months, the government has shone a few glimmers of daylight into what has been very opaque economic management. But this new openness has had the perverse effect of revealing the deep economic problems the country is facing.

For the first time, Myanmar’s government has released a host of economic statistics to the public: The country’s deficit this year is unsustainably large, tax collection is extremely low (at less than 3 percent of the country’s economic output), defense spending makes up at least one-quarter of the government’s budget, while health and education comprise less than 6 percent.

Local newspapers, unshackled after years of censorship, are covering these issues. In July the country had 28 licensed weekly newsmagazines. By November there were 54. While newspapers suffer in many parts of the world, journalists are witnessing a renaissance in Myanmar, with rising circulation numbers and bidding wars for reporters.

But journalists say there are limits to the burgeoning freedoms. The censors still ban articles about Gen. Than Shwe, the dictator who stepped down in March. And articles about businesspeople tied to the old military regime — a group here colloquially called “cronies,” and who remain very powerful — are taboo.

“We can’t write about the cronies,” the editor of a weekly journal said in an interview. “We had a couple of paragraphs. They said, ‘Take it out.”’

Longtime observers of Myanmar say there is potential resistance to change among hard-liners in the government. Reforms in large part depend on the personality and personal inclinations of individual ministers, these observers say.

Mr. Nay Zin Latt, the president’s adviser, said Myanmar was no different from any other countries undergoing radical transformation.

“Everywhere, you will have resistance to change,” he said. “I don’t see hard-liners and soft-liners, just different points of view.”

“Some people don’t want faster change,” he said. Others “say we are very much behind other countries and we should go fast.”

New York Times – In Myanmar, Government Reforms Win Over Some of the Country’s Skeptics
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: November 29, 2011

YANGON, Myanmar — The waves of change sweeping Myanmar are trickling down to the broken sidewalks and potholed streets of this dilapidated city.

Automatic teller machines, ubiquitous in the world’s major cities but absent here during years of economic stagnation, are now being installed at a handful of banks.

Street vendors hawk coffee mugs, key chains and posters adorned with pictures of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s opposition leader, whose name and image were taboo during two decades of military dictatorship.

The government’s reforms — rapid and unexpected, though still far from complete — are winning over some of the country’s deepest skeptics vetting each step made by the civilian, military-backed leaders who came to power in March.

“What has happened in these last few months is a miracle for us,” said Daw Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, an opposition politician and former political prisoner whose family suffered years of persecution by the military.

“To be frank, in the very beginning, I didn’t believe a word of what they were saying,” she said of the new government. “Now I believe what is happening is for the good of the people.”

Outside Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s house, workers have laid a fresh layer of sod and repainted the gates in anticipation of a visit by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the American secretary of state, who arrives in Myanmar on Wednesday in a significant vote of confidence for the new government after years of international ostracism.

Making the first visit by a secretary of state since 1955, Mrs. Clinton will be touring a country in the midst of a historic transformation to nascent democracy, and at a time when the United States is eager to court the resource-rich nation that has counted China as an ally.

Since his inauguration in March, President Thein Sein has worked with the country’s newly established Parliament to pass a raft of new laws and regulations. Labor unions have been legalized, the Internet has been mostly freed of the heavy censorship imposed during military rule, and proposals are being drawn up to overhaul the country’s dysfunctional banking system. The government has also freed a number of political prisoners.

As the pace of reform accelerated in recent months, observers debated why a military government with nearly absolute power would pursue democratic changes and embrace dissidents it has persecuted for decades. Mr. Thein Sein was a member of the junta that repeatedly crushed dissent before becoming president.

The answer, according to one of the president’s advisers, is that Mr. Thein Sein realized that the country could no longer ignore the world around it.

“The president was convinced about the global situation; he saw where the global stream was heading,” said U Nay Zin Latt, the adviser, a businessman who had no experience in politics when he was recruited by the president.

Crucially for the legitimacy of the new government, Mr. Thein Sein has successfully courted Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. Her party, the National League for Democracy, recently said it would officially re-register and contest upcoming elections for some open parliamentary seats.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s views carry significant weight inside and outside the country. President Barack Obama called her before announcing Mrs. Clinton’s visit. Inside Myanmar, she is a mother figure whose decade and a half of house arrest earned her deep credibility and loyalty.

“When I talk to Aung San Suu Kyi, she says, ‘Forget the past,’ ” said Ms. Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, who is the general secretary of the Democratic Party. “She says have faith in Thein Sein. If she says that, we must have faith in him.”

Ms. Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, who was imprisoned for seven years for opposing the military, has ample reasons to mistrust a government that remains backed by the military. Her father — a former deputy prime minister who was in power during the last visit by a United States secretary of state, John Foster Dulles — was jailed for seven years. Her mother was detained for three years, as was her former husband.

But in an interview on Tuesday, she said she was very excited about Mrs. Clinton’s visit and her much-anticipated meeting with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Let the two smart women talk,” she said. “It’s unbelievable that Mrs. Clinton is visiting us.”

Not everyone in Myanmar is so enthusiastic about a visit that will grant the government some legitimacy, nor are they convinced of the leadership’s sincerity. Sitting in the back room of his grocery store in Yangon, U Ko Ko Gyi, also a former political prisoner, criticizes the government for the continued detention of other proponents of democracy.

Mr. Ko Ko Gyi was released on Oct. 12 as part of an amnesty that the government offered as an olive branch to the opposition — and a way to bolster Myanmar’s image abroad. But hundreds of political prisoners remain in detention.

A recent comment at a news conference by Mr. Thein Sein that there are “no political prisoners — all prisoners have broken the law” rankled Mr. Ko Ko Gyi and some other former political prisoners, who meet regularly and have a prominent place in the country’s opposition movement.

“He is denying reality,” Mr. Ko Ko Gyi said of the president. “If the government is really democratic, why aren’t they releasing the people who were sent to prison for advocating democracy?”

Others who question the country’s ability to change quickly have focused on continuing ethnic strife, particularly on the borders with China and Thailand, and on the difficulties of overhauling the deeply dysfunctional economic system.

Many of the government’s reforms focus on the economy, which after decades of neglect under military rule and years of Western sanctions, is finally showing early signs of the dynamism evident in the countries that surround it.

Yangon’s 170 or so hotels are filled with potential investors, foreign government delegations and tourists. The country is seeking to privatize its railroads and is continuing its program to sell off state-owned real estate, including a dozen old government buildings in Yangon that have been designated as future hotels.

The government says it will issue licenses for car showrooms — there are almost none in the country — and has begun a program to allow the owners of the decades-old cars plying the country’s roads to import newer models. Shipments of used cars have been arriving from Japan in recent weeks, to much fanfare. But in a measure of Myanmar’s disparity with its neighbors, most of the “new” cars imported into the country are more than 10 years old.

Myanmar’s financial system remains one of the most rudimentary in Asia. Most transactions are carried out in cash. The country has no credit cards (partly because of Western sanctions, which ban financial dealings by Western companies). The handful of automatic teller machines in the capital were installed after the government’s recent decision to lift a nine-year ban on them.

Longtime observers of Myanmar also worry about potential resistance to change among hard-liners in the government as changes begin to transform the country. Reforms in large part depend on the personality and personal inclinations of individual ministers, these observers say.

Mr. Nay Zin Latt, the president’s adviser, said in an interview that Myanmar was no different from any country undergoing radical transformation.

“Everywhere, you will have resistance to change,” he said. “I don’t see hard-liners and soft-liners, just different points of view.”

“Some people don’t want faster change,” he said. Others “say we are very much behind other countries and we should go fast.”

CNN – Clinton visit presents opportunity in Myanmar
By Suzanne DiMaggio, Special to CNN
updated 9:24 AM EST, Tue November 29, 2011
Editor’s note: Suzanne DiMaggio is vice president of Global Policy Programs at the Asia Society and the director of the Society’s Task Force on U.S. Policy toward Burma. Follow her on Twitter.

(CNN) — Hillary Clinton’s upcoming trip to Myanmar — the first visit by a U.S. Secretary of State in half a century — is poised to produce a breakthrough moment in U.S.-Burma relations.

Some worry that such a high-level visit is premature. Given that government’s long history of authoritarian rule and systematic violations of human rights, vigilance is in order. But, to its credit, the Obama administration understands that this is not the time to stand on the sidelines and wait for change to happen.

How this transition plays out in Myanmar, historically known as Burma, is a story that hasn’t been written yet. The United States should actively test the new government’s credibility and commitment to reform and do all that it can to encourage, prod, and push for positive change.

The pace of change in Myanmar over recent months has stunned even the most skeptical observers.

Following deeply flawed elections one year ago, the shift from a ruling junta to a nominally civilian government has led to democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest and the official return of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to the political scene. Her meetings with President Thein Sein represent a welcome signal that Myanmar’s new government is reaching out to its opponents. The NLD recently announced that Suu Kyi would likely run for Parliament.

Other “flickers of progress,” as President Barack Obama put it, are also under way. The government has created a nominally independent human rights body, invited the International Monetary Fund to engage in dialogue on currency reforms, called on armed ethnic groups to hold peace talks and lifted some restrictions on the media.

While the recent release of 200 or so activists falls far short of the estimated 2,100 political prisoners believed to be languishing in Burmese jails, it’s a movement that should be further pushed.

So far, the U.S. government has responded by lifting travel restrictions on some officials — including Wunna Maung Lwin, Myanmar’s foreign minister, who met with U.S. officials in Washington and New York in September and on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Hawaii earlier in November. Derek Mitchell, the U.S. special envoy to Myanmar, has visited the Southeast Asian nation twice during the past two months

Clinton’s visit represents the clearest signal yet that the Obama administration is ready to begin a new era in U.S.-Myanmar relations.

The visit is also a strong signal to China that the United States is seeking to contain Beijing’s influence in Myanmar. While the U.S. sanctioned itself out of playing a role in resource-rich Myanmar over the past few decades, China has been aggressively pursuing its commercial interests, and today China is the country’s main trading partner and arms supplier.

But Myanmar’s recent decision to suspend the construction of the controversial Myitsone Dam project, which was to provide electricity to China, is a strong indication that the government is ready to say no to China when it is in its interest to do so.

Clinton’s visit to Myanmar, which comes on the heels of Obama’s recent Asian tour that culminated at the East Asia Summit in Indonesia, also represents a reassertion of American leadership in the wider Asia-Pacific region.

While in Asia, Obama shored up trade, diplomatic and military interests in the region, announced plans to station U.S. troops in Australia and pursued a multilateral approach to resolving territorial and energy disputes in the South China Sea — a set of issues that Beijing prefers to deal with bilaterally. Re-engaging Myanmar is part of this strategic reorientation.

U.S.-Myanmar re-engagement could open the way to clarifying the military’s nuclear ambitions, which have become all the more disturbing in light of U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar’s recent disclosure that he received information several years ago that Myanmar’s government planned to develop nuclear weapons with North Korea’s assistance.

While in Myanmar, Clinton should vigorously press leaders to allow the visit of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) fact-finding team to investigate any questions related to nuclear cooperation from Pyongyang and sign on to the voluntary Additional Protocol, a safeguards agreement that would provide IAEA greater rights of access.

An expansion in official U.S.-Myanmar ties also could help to address a range of issues beyond Myanmar’s internal situation. The nation is the source of a number of transnational concerns related to instability and conflict along its borders as a result of military efforts to rein in insurgent groups, as well as the continuing export of disease and refugees.

Myanmar’s porous borders, combined with its status as the second-largest opium poppy grower in the world after Afghanistan, have allowed for rampant drug smuggling throughout and beyond Asia.

The recent endorsement by the Association of South East Asian Nations of Myanmar’s bid to assume the chairmanship of the regional grouping in 2014 offers a significant point of leverage. The United States would be well-served to coordinate its policies toward Myanmar with ASEAN governments to ensure that leaders in the capital of Naypyidaw enact meaningful reforms that bring about national reconciliation and improve the everyday lives of the Burmese people.

With a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) between $1 to $3 a day, the conditions in Myanmar are among the most dire of any country. This moment of change is an opportunity to help move Myanmar away from authoritarian rule and into the world community.

China urgers closer Myanmar military ties
Published: Nov. 28, 2011 at 11:18 PM

BEIJING, Nov. 28 (UPI) — Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, meeting with Myanmar’s military chief, urged deeper military cooperation, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported.

The China trip by Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of Myanmar defense services, comes ahead of the planned state visit this week to Myanmar, formerly called Burma, by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Xi, in line to succeed Hu Jintao as China’s next president and general secretary of the Communist party, received Min Aung Hlaing in Beijing Monday. Xi currently is also vice chairman of China’s Central Military Committee.

Xi proposed the two military forces enhance exchange and deepen cooperation to contribute to bilateral ties.

“The friendship, forged by leaders of the older generations, has endured changes in the international arena,” Xi said.

He said China will always support Myanmar’s efforts in preserving national unity, promoting economic development and improving people’s livelihoods.

“China will work with Myanmar to further bolster the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation,” he said.

Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying the armed forces of the two countries share traditional friendship and new opportunities, and pledged to strengthen military exchanges and cooperation with China.

Myanmar, which had been under brutal military rule for decades, now has a civilian government led by President Thein Sein.

The new government has made some changes, including the suspension of a China-aided hydroelectric dam project under public protest, freeing about 200 political prisoners and changing the rules to allow leaders such as democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi to participate in politics.

The changes encouraged U.S. President Barack Obama to ask Clinton to visit Myanmar.

BigPond News – Hillary Clinton prepares for Burma trip
Monday, November 28, 2011 » 01:55pm

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarks on a historic visit to Burma this week that aims not only to pry open the closed nation but to shake up the battle for global influence right on China’s doorstep.

Clinton on Wednesday will become the top US official to visit the nation in more than 50 years as she tests the waters after dramatic – but tentative – reforms by the military-backed government.

Clinton is expected to meet both President Thein Sein and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

She has said she will press for greater progress on human rights and democracy, without offering any let-up in biting US sanctions.

The United States has been careful not to raise expectations for a breakthrough. But Clinton’s visit carries unmistakable symbolism as it seeks to advance US priorities in one of the countries most closely aligned with China.

Burma’s ’strategic importance to the United States is closely connected to concerns about rising Chinese influence,’ said John Ciorciari, an expert on South-East Asia at the University of Michigan.

‘To Beijing, Burma offers the possibility of natural resources and warm-water ports on the Indian Ocean that could be crucial in expanding China’s naval reach,’ he said.

‘Successful US engagement would lessen the likelihood of a strong Sino-Myanmar (Burma) alignment in years ahead.’

Beijing has provided the main diplomatic cover for Burma’s leaders but the relationship is complicated, with some in the South-East Asian nation resentful over China’s overwhelming economic influence and historic border conflicts.

Burma recently defied China by shutting down work on an unpopular dam that would supply power across the border.

Burma’s leaders, known for deep distrust of the outside world, have reached out in recent years to India, South-East Asian nations and, now, the United States.

For the United States, progress on Burma could help resolve a main stumbling block inside the Association of South-East Asian Nations, giving new influence to the fast-growing – and mostly US-friendly – 10-nation bloc.

A stronger ASEAN would allow ‘China to grow and be secure but not use its new economic might to force neighbours’ hands on issues related to sovereignty,’ said Ernie Bower of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

US President Barack Obama’s administration, while saying it wants a co-operative relationship with a rising China, has recently gone on the offensive amid suspicions over Beijing’s intentions.

Obama recently announced the stationing of US troops in Australia’s Northern Territory and has pushed ahead a trans-Pacific free trade agreement that for now excludes China.

Burma’s military seized power in 1962 but since last year has held elections, nominally handed power to civilians and freed Suu Kyi from house arrest.

The new government has opened a dialogue with the opposition and ethnic minorities.

While the United States and the opposition were at first cynical about the moves, Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy recently said it will re-enter mainstream politics. The party won 1990 elections but was never allowed to take power.

November 29, 2011
VOA News – US Outreach to Burma May Prompt Fuller Disclosure of North Korea Ties
Steve Herman | Seoul

A historic visit by the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Burma is seen as a prelude to improving relations between Washington and Naypyidaw. But, for that to happen, the Burmese government may need to reveal details of past covert dealings with North Korea.

President Barack Obama has said he is sending his secretary of state to Burma to see how the United States can help the country support progress on political reform, human rights and national reconciliation. But Mr. Obama also has said Burma’s relationship with North Korea is a major issue that needs to be addressed.

U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, from the state of Indiana, who is the ranking Republican member on the Foreign Relations Committee, is calling for any re-engagement with Naypyidaw to include a full disclosure of “the extent and intent of the developing Burmese nuclear program.

The senator says his committee received information, five years ago, that the Burmese government intended to develop nuclear weapons, with the help of North Korea.

A year ago, United Nations investigators released a report accusing North Korea of supplying prohibited nuclear and ballistic equipment to Burma, Iran and Syria, surreptitiously, to avoid international sanctions.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency.  According to International Crisis Group senior analyst Daniel Pinkston, that means the Burmese must come clean on any previous dealing with the North Koreans.

“If there’s clear evidence of nuclear cooperation – then, to improve ties with the U.S. and the rest of the international community, Burma would have to fulfill its obligations under the NPT and under its safeguards agreement with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency].  And, that would mean disclosing any past nuclear cooperation with the DPRK [North Korea], any acquisition of materials, technologies, components and so forth,” Pinkston said.

Diplomats and intelligence analysts also point to unconfirmed reports of hundreds of North Korean engineers and scientists visiting or working at Burmese military or other facilities.  But South Korean government officials, speaking to VOA on the condition they not be identified, say they have seen no concrete evidence of that level of cooperation between North Korea and Burma.

Former IAEA director general Hans Blix, who now chairs the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, concurs with that assessment, in regards to a purported Burmese nuclear weapons development program.

“The world has reasons to be worried and inquire about it. There was some defector who spoke about it, but others who discounted it pretty solidly. And, my experience was that they [North Korea] had not come very far,” Blix said.

Burmese officials have also denied any pursuit of nuclear weapons, although acknowledging they have considered trying to use atomic technology to produce electricity.  Earlier this year, Burmese officials stated their country was too poor to pursue any type of nuclear program.

Evidence of conventional arms trafficking between Burma and North Korea over the years is more concrete.  On numerous occasions, The U.S. Navy has prevented North Korean ships, suspected of carrying weapons, from reaching Burmese ports.  Analysts say the North Koreans appear to have helped Burma advance its missile capabilities.

Analysts note that any successful previous deliveries could pose diplomatic complications for Burma as it seeks to normalize relations with the international community.  Under the United Nations Security Council resolutions imposed on Pyongyang, all exports and purchases of North Korean weapons, including conventional arms, are also banned.

Burma-North Korean relations have had a rocky history since their establishment in 1962. Burma cut ties with Pyongyang, in 1983, after North Korean agents in Burma tried to assassinate South Korea’s president.  The bombing killed 18 high-ranking South Korean officials.

Military ties between Burma and North Korea appear to have resumed in the early 1990s, but the diplomatic relationship was not officially restored until four years ago.

For decades, both countries have been isolated from much of the diplomatic community and global trade because of their repressive governments.

November 29, 2011
VOA News – Clinton in S. Korea Ahead of Historic Burma Visit

United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has arrived in South Korea on the first leg of a two-nation tour that includes the first visit to Burma by a U.S. secretary of state in 50 years.

Clinton meets Wednesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and attends the opening of a key international forum on global aid in the port city of Busan, before traveling to Burma later in the day for her landmark three-day visit.

U.S. President Barack Obama said earlier this month he was sending Clinton to Burma in response to what he called “flickers of progress” from the new, nominally civilian Burmese government, which took office earlier this year after more than four decades of military rule.

Obama cited steps by Burma to open a dialogue with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the release of some political prisoners and a general opening of the country’s political environment. He said Clinton will explore what the U.S. can do to support progress on political reform, human rights and national reconciliation in Burma.

It is the most significant U.S. policy move on Burma in years. The U.S. and other western nations imposed sanctions on the military government in response to its widespread human rights abuses and failure to enact democratic reforms.

A Burmese presidential aide said that recent developments in diplomatic ties could lead to the end of U.S. sanctions against Burma. The aide also cited exchanges of visits by officials from both countries.

Obama said Burma can forge a new relationship with Washington if it continues down the road of democratic reform, but warned of continued sanctions if the government fails to do that.

The Christian Science Monitor – What will happen to China as Burma (Myanmar) gets closer with Vietnam, US?
A senior Chinese military official said Monday that China cherishes friendly relations with Burma, though it appears to be in the midst of a major change now.
By Peter Ford, Staff writer / November 29, 2011

For decades, each time a new Burmese military chief of staff was appointed, like clockwork, he would make his first foreign trip to Beijing, his nation’s firmest diplomatic ally and longtime economic bulwark.

But Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, currently on a visit here, was busy in some unusual places before he came to China. Earlier this month he was talking to the special US envoy to Burma, Derek Mitchell. Then he went to Vietnam. He will be back home later this week when Hillary Clinton makes the first visit to Burma by a US Secretary of State since 1955.

The fact that General Hlaing chose Vietnam, a near neighbor building closer military ties with Washington and making no secret of its nervousness about China’s regional ambitions, has not gone unnoticed in Beijing.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping welcomed Hlaing to Beijing with a reminder that the two countries’ friendship had “endured the test of time through sudden international changes.”

Burma appears in the midst of such a change now, as the new nominally civilian government that took over the reins from the military last March releases political prisoners, reaches out to ethnic minorities to end years of violence, and tests a political opening in talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

China has been a lifeline for Burma, ruled by military dictatorships since 1962 and especially isolated since most nations slapped sanctions on the government after it cracked down brutally on a pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

Now “we want to have a regular relationship” with the United States, the powerful speaker of the Burmese parliament and former member of the military junta Shwe Mann told reporters on Friday.

The government’s foreign policy would be based on “peaceful coexistence with all nations,” Mr. Mann said, insisting that “there is no reason to have worse relations between Myanmar and China when Myanmar and US relations get better.” Myanmar is the government’s official name for Burma.

Such a policy would mark a return to Burma’s traditional neutrality, an understandable approach given the country’s sensitive geographical location, squeezed between Asia’s two giants, India and China, and flanked by Thailand, a strong US ally.

Since international sanctions isolated the country, Burmese governments have had little option but to depend on China for trade, weaponry, and diplomatic support in the United Nations. Chinese businesses, private and state owned, have poured $12.3 billion into Burma, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese have settled in Burma.

There had been signs even before the military stood down that nationalist generals were unhappy with this state of affairs. Now the new government, dominated by former senior military men who have swapped their uniforms for suits, has stepped away from China in symbolic ways.

Most notable was the decision last September to suspend a $3.6 billion Chinese dam construction project in northern Burma that had sparked considerable local opposition. Of the hydropower due to be generated by the Myitsone dam, 90 percent was to be sent to China.

Though the new Burmese authorities appear keen to re-orient the country’s foreign policy, few observers expect them to cast off ties with their powerful and influential leader. Rather, they will walk a tightrope between Washington and Beijing.

“It would be insane to think that Burma needs to choose one over the other,” prominent Burmese historian Thant Myint-U recently told The Irawaddy, an independent online newspaper published by Burmese exiles. “Burma is the last country that can afford to have bad relations with either the US or China.”

To solidify and strengthen practical cooperation among the law enforcement and security authorities of the four countries, combat transnational crime and safeguard international shipping security along the Mekong River and in accordance with the spirit of solidarity, friendship and cooperation, the Participants agreed to conduct cooperation in patrol and law enforcement along the Mekong River as early as possible, in accordance with the Joint Statement on Law Enforcement Cooperation along the Mekong River among the four countries adopted on 31 October 2011, and reached consensus on the following matters:

I. The Participants agreed to further strengthen the cooperation on international shipping security and transnational crime, in particular, on drug trafficking and human trafficking along the Mekong River on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, and to resolve problems and differences through consultations.

II. The Participants agreed on cooperation in law enforcement along the Mekong River to maintain and guarantee security and stability, and promote economic and social development and friendly people-to-people exchanges along the River from mid December 2011.

III. The Participants agreed to hold the ceremony of the inaugural voyage for cooperation in patrol and law enforcement at China’s Guanlei dock before 15 December 2011.

IV. The Participants agreed to establish a combined operation center for cooperation in patrol and law enforcement at China’s Guanlei dock. The four countries will send officers and liaison officers to coordinate, share intelligence and information subject to its own jurisdiction and domestic laws, and jointly consult and coordinate matters relating to vessels and personnel for cooperation in patrol and law enforcement.

V. The Participants agreed that the Chinese side will send expert teams to Laos and Myanmar to assist law enforcement vessel driving and extend ship operating training upon request.

VI. The Participants from Laos and Myanmar agreed to ensure the security of the vessels, personnel of cooperation in patrol and law enforcement and liaison teams and facilitate the provision of logistic support for them.

The Participants from Thailand agreed to provide above assistance as requested and as necessary on a case by case basis, in accordance with relevant domestic laws.

VII. The Participants agreed to organize cooperative cooperation to eradicate transnational crimes endangering the security along the Mekong River, after the four countries reach consensus.

VIII. The Participants agreed, in principle, to establish a working team on safeguarding the security along the Mekong River to further carry out field study on major crimes, and consult and formulate suggestions for improving security condition along the river which could be handed over to law enforcement and security authorities of the four countries for approval and implementation.

IX. The Participants agreed to develop ways and means to foster social economy development along the Mekong River with a view to promote sustainable development and well-beings of the peoples along the Mekong River.

X. The Participants agreed to take efforts under the coordination of the combined operation center, to improve cooperation mechanism and facilitate the consultations on the early signing of the Agreement on Law Enforcement Cooperation along the Mekong River on the ground of practice.

XI. With a view to bringing to fruition this Joint Statement, the Participants from Thailand shall strive to complete its internal procedures.

This Joint Statement was adopted in Beijing on 26 November 2011.

eTurboNews – Could tourism become a Pandora box for Myanmar?
By Luc Citrinot, eTN | Nov 29, 2011

BAGAN (Myanmar), eTN- Imagine a young and beautiful girl. Looking at the mirro for the first time, she suddenly discovers how pretty she is. She has then two choices: nurturing and enhancing her inner natural beauty. Or just use her power of seduction to attract anyone. Myanmar looks like this young girl in front of the mirror. Over 50 years of isolation has preserved the genuine beauty of its people and its landscapes. With its will to open up to tourism, the country however acknowledges the risks it might take. “We can destroy our social fabric just for the sake of tourism development. We have to be very careful on our future strategies,” explained Ohn Thwin, Assistant Hotel Manager of the Aureum Palace Hotel in Bagan, the venue to Myanmar first international tourism event, GMS Travel Leaders’ Symposium on Sustainable Tourism.

After three days of debates and workshop, there was unanimity among the 100 participants. Myanmar’s political and economic isolation has been a blessing in disguise. “With Myanmar, we are experiencing one of the most exciting events in Asian tourism today. Opening Myanmar is to let travelers discovering one of the most fabulous destinations on the continent and still completely unspoilt. With its rich cultures, its amazing natural and historical heritage, its mountains or its coastline, Myanmar has all the ingredients to turn into a major world destination. Plus an unbeatable plus over some other countries: its authenticity,” told Mason Florence, Executive Director of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office, the driving force behind the event with Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism and Myanmar Tourism Board.

Over the last two days, the Symposium looked at examples of sustainable tourism in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, especially with the empowerment of communities in the development of tourism products. Over the last 12 to 15 years, community-based initiatives have blossomed not only in Thailand but also in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos with home-stay programs, agricultural or fishing tourism as well as craft tourism. “It is one of the best way to help alleviating poverty for local population. Providing support and facilitate cooperation among stakeholders from grassroots to international levels can then be done in order to strengthen the capacity of communities to manage tourism sustainably,” explained Pradech Phayakvichien from Thailand Community-Based Tourism Institute.

There is a serious concern for Myanmar to avoid mistakes done by some of its neighbours. “We realize that quick tourism growth goes often on pair with a dilution of our cultural heritage from a human or from a landscape point of view. We will go step by step, going from 300,000 air arrivals to 400,000 then to 500,000. Our government is conscious that will be the way to prevent an over-commercialization of our assets and the destruction of our social and cultural fabric,” said Htay Aung, Deputy Minister for Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism during the symposium.

Most participants could not agree more. They fully endorse the government’s initiative to publish a tourism masterplan and to make sure that future developers will abide to the rules. “Zoning is a key to tourism. State overnance is incredibly important to respect the fragile balance of eco-tourism and cultural tourism. It can also answer to a growing demand of travellers for sustainable tourism products,” highlighted Pradech Phayakvichien. “business community is the one who can invest into the country but this is true that they will not regulate themselves. This is then to the government to create the right balance to the benefits of all,” indicated PATA CEO Martin Craigs.

Myanmar hopes to also receive the support of international institutions. For more than two decades, the Asian Development Bank has accompanied the development of the Greater Mekong Sub-region and is likely to play a pro-active role in Myanmar tourism quest, once political and economic sanctions are loosen up. According to Htay Aung, informal talks between Myanmar Ministry of Culture and UNESCO are already set to take place by next month to see in which way the country could prevent a commercial and physical deterioration of its heritage. Another major issue will be he training of people to high quality tourism standards. “There is no institute for tourism so far. This is an urgent issue we must address quickly if we don’t want to be left along the way,” added Mr. Htay Aung.

Although the government is likely to simplify visa procedures in a near future and open up more cross-border points, Myanmar’s government seems to be conscious that they will be
limits if they want to nurture the country’s authentic appeal.

November 29, 2011, 4:14 PM SGT
Wall Street Journal (blog) – Myanmar: Dissidents’ New Model for Freedom?
By Patrick Barta and Celine Fernandez

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

As Myanmar’s leaders push through more reforms, dissidents elsewhere in Southeast Asia are starting to hold up the country as something of a new model for the region—mainly to embarrass their own governments.

The latest example: At a press conference late last week, Malaysian activist Ambiga Sreenevasan singled out Myanmar’s latest change—a law allowing public protests—for going beyond what her country’s leaders have proposed in the overhaul of internal-security laws introduced last week.

The Myanmar law, passed last week, guarantees citizens the right to protest, so long as they seek permission five days in advance, provide details of speakers and don’t interrupt activities at factories, hospitals and government offices.

An ally of Ms. Sreenevasan’s at the press conference summed up those rules up “six times more democratic than ours”—the Malaysian proposal, while it would lift police officials’ power to ban political demonstrations, would still prevent people from demonstrating at many locations, notably including the street, and would require providing police 30 days’ notice.

“Obviously they (in Myanmar) are far more liberal in their bill than we have been,” Ms. Sreenevasan said. “More importantly, they don’t prohibit street protests. It is so shameful that even Myanmar can come up with a more liberal bill than we can.”

In short, she said, “it shows how paranoid” Malaysian officials are.

Malaysian officials dismissed her comments.

“It is a totally baseless claim that our laws are more draconian than Myanmar’s and all kinds of rubbish they’re saying,” Prime Minister Najib Razak said during a press conference Monday, according to the state Bernama news agency. “These people are out to confuse the public,” he said, adding that advance notice could be given in just 10 days instead of 30 and only applied to nondesignated areas.

He said the country’s proposed law was in line with international norms, and that the reason street demonstrations would not be allowed is that they inconvenience the public. Still, on
Tuesday About 500 lawyers representing Malaysia’s Bar Council and rights activists marched to Parliament in a rare protest, chanting “Freedom to assembly” and “Freedom to the people.”

Few dissidents really believe Myanmar is a model for freedom. Despite its latest reforms, which have also eased press restrictions and permitted labor unions, the country still ranks poorly on international indexes measuring civil rights, and advocacy groups believe human-rights violations are still occurring in much of the country. Some dissidents question whether the recent changes are permanent. And even with press freedom enlarged, reporters must still submit articles to a censorship board before publication.

But if the changes underway in Myanmar continue, they could keep putting other Asian leaders in a tricky spot. For example, Myanmar recently lifted blocks on a number of international websites, including YouTube, giving Web surfers access to more information online than in some other Asian countries. Meanwhile, rules such as Thailand’s famous lèse majesté law that forbids comments considered offensive to the monarchy could draw more criticism for being out-of-date if the reform march in Myanmar continues.

Indeed, activists have recently accused a number of Southeast Asian nations—including also Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore and to a lesser degree Indonesia—of human-rights violations or rules that restrict civil liberties. It’s a safe bet that if Myanmar passes more reforms, activists in those countries will be taking notes.

IHB – Myanmar and Malaysia cooperate on timber production
November 28, 2011
Source: ITTO’s Tropical Timber Market Report

The Myanmar Timber Merchants Association (MTMA) and the Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB) are working on areas of collaboration and are drafting a memorandum of understanding between the two bodies. The MTIB commented that Malaysia, with its experience of the complex supply chain in the timber industry, will be able to offer advice and training to the Myanmar timber industry to enhance efficiency and productivity in the sector.

Malaysia export RM3.2 million worth of timber and timber products to Myanmar in 2010, an increase from RM1.7 million in 2009. Exports of Malaysian furniture to Myanmar in 2010 stood at RM2.4 million, with particleboard at RM648, 000 and fibreboard at RM80, 000 in the same year.

Likewise in 2010, Malaysia imported RM75.9 million worth of timber and timber products from Myanmar, a 41% increase over 2009, of which RM48.5 million was for sawnwood and RM211, 000 was for furniture.

The Washington Post – After seeking U.S. asylum, Kyaw Win describes former life as Burmese diplomat
By Bruce Wallace, Published: November 18

Kyaw Win was 22 years old when he first glimpsed the world outside Burma. It was 1975, and he’d traveled to his country’s eastern border, where short bridges cross a river from the Burmese town of Tachilek to Mae Sai in Thailand. “The bridges, I quite remember, are not more than 100 or 200 feet, but life there was totally different,” Kyaw Win recalls.

On the Thai side, you could dial phones directly, televisions were common and bus travel was easy. None of this was true in Burma (also known as Myanmar).

These memories — never far from Kyaw Win’s mind — helped inform his decision at the beginning of July to resign his diplomatic post in Burma’s embassy in Washington after spending 31 years serving a government he now says he cannot tolerate. He sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton saying that his conscience would no longer allow him to work for the government of Burma.

“It has always been my hope that democratic reform could finally be realized in my country,” he wrote in the letter. “The truth is that .?.?. the military continues to hold uncontested power and democratic change under this system will not happen in the foreseeable future.” A few days after sending the letter, he applied to the United States for asylum. He has been living in a friend’s apartment in Gaithersburg since then.

A week and a half ago, when the White House announced that Clinton will visit Burma on Thursday — the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in more than 50 years — Kyaw Win’s reaction was mixed. “It’s a good thing,” he says with no hesitation. But are recent events in the country a sign of real reform? We’ll know in another year, he says.

Kyaw Win is one of a small group of foreign diplomats who have sought asylum here — the phenomenon was more common during the Soviet era. A recent case with some striking parallels is that of Aung Lynn Htut. Six years ago, he held the same post at the same embassy; he resigned and sent a letter to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice detailing why he feared returning to Burma. His request for asylum was denied but deportation was deferred. He’s been living in a District suburb since, publishing periodic screeds against the Burmese government he used to serve, part of a small Washington subculture of disaffected former foreign diplomats.

Kyaw Win looks back on his career in the service of one of the world’s most repressive and inscrutable regimes as a time of quiet revolts and fleeting hope. He laughs ruefully when he thinks about its beginnings at the Public Service Training School outside Rangoon, where his preparation seemed more appropriate for a career in the military than diplomacy.

He and his class of trainees spent their days drilling in identical blue uniforms (blue, he quips, because that’s what the Burmese imagined the proletariat wearing) and memorizing arcane regulations. “Later on, we realized they just taught us how to obey the orders,” he says. “No complaints, no questions; just follow orders.” This type of thinking would surround Kyaw Win for the next three decades.

His first job with the ministry was on the Latin America desk. He was sent to Madrid for two years to learn Spanish — a language no one on the Latin America desk spoke. Shortly after, Kyaw Win was posted to Geneva.

It was from there that he watched the popular uprisings that swept Burma in 1988. The government cracked down, then promised to hold open elections — one of many moments when Kyaw Win believed Burma was changing for the better. One U.N. staffer in Geneva told Kyaw Win, “After the election, your country will be good.”

The optimism was for naught. The opposition National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, easily won the 1990 elections. The government ignored the results. “After the election, when the power was not transferred, nobody would talk to us. We were just like outcasts,” Kyaw Win recalls.

These events also began a shift within the Foreign Ministry. Animated by new distrust for civilians, Burma’s government started filling the ministry’s ranks with military personnel. With them came a new level of subservience to Burma’s leaders.

Kyaw Win ran up against this new brand of military official after being assigned to the embassy in Brasilia in 2002. Burma’s ambassador to Brazil, who was a military officer and has since become the mayor of Rangoon, told him “that in the military, they only have two versions: friend or enemy, that’s all,” Kyaw Win says. “I told him in our diplomatic circles we are in gray areas. Everybody is not an enemy, everybody is not a friend. We need to talk; we need to exchange ideas.”

Kyaw Win got a reputation for being willing to talk to dissidents, government critics, nonprofits and think tanks. As this reputation became known back home, he says, his career stalled. “The big problem with me was I could not keep my mouth shut,” he says with a laugh.

In March 2008, he brought his willingness to engage to his job at the Burmese Embassy in Washington. “He [was] basically the guy at the embassy that one talks to,” says one Burma expert who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of doing research on the country. And Kyaw Win quickly found himself with a lot of people to talk to.

In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed nearly 150,000 people in Burma. Among many rushing to Burma’s embassy in Washington were aid groups trying to get into the country. Kyaw Win’s orders were to avoid giving visas to aid groups, even those aiming to provide humanitarian aid. Groups with strictly medical objectives were sometimes allowed visas, though, so Kyaw Win began recommending that any nonprofit plan, on arriving in Rangoon with a few boxes of medicine, hand them over at the airport and go about their business.
* * *

Apparently more troubling to his superiors was his willingness to meet with exiled dissidents and members of opposition political parties in the Washington area. He regularly attended services with them at the Mingalarama Buddhist monastery in Silver Spring.

“He is unusually friendly to the community,” Tin Thaw, the monastery’s vice president, says, contrasting Kyaw Win with other embassy officials he’d met in his 30 years in the area. “He was a little outspoken and very frank.”

Ministry colleagues told Kyaw Win that his meetings with dissidents were raising hackles in Burma. When he received notice in May that he was to return to Burma in 45 days, he knew he had a decision to make.

If he went back to Burma with his wife and two sons, he’d have one more year until he turned 60 and would be forced to retire. He would face a life hemmed in by official displeasure: a meager pension, few job prospects and the likelihood of losing his passport and with it his ability to visit his daughter, who lives in New York. More forceful reprisals were also a possibility.

On July 3, the eve of his scheduled return to Burma, he e-mailed his letter to the State Department and faxed his resignation to Burma’s embassy.

A week after that, he applied for asylum for himself, his wife and two sons. A few weeks later, another diplomat at the embassy resigned and applied for asylum after being ordered to return to Burma, apparently to be questioned about Kyaw Win’s resignation.

The Burmese Embassy didn’t respond to phone calls or e-mails about Kyaw Win’s case. The State Department won’t comment aside from acknowledging that it received Kyaw Win’s letter to Clinton.

At the end of October, Kyaw Win learned that his application for asylum had been accepted. Now begins the work of figuring out what’s next.

But this latest chapter in Kyaw Win’s story has unfolded in the midst of increasing diplomatic engagement between the United States and Burma. Mike Green, a former National Security Council director under George W. Bush who was nominated to be the State Department’s special envoy to Burma but never confirmed, says Kyaw Win’s case “could put a chill on the discussions, because the harder-line elements in Naypyidaw [Burma’s new administrative capital] don’t trust their diplomats or military officials to talk to the Americans.”

Wallace is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn.

SPECIAL REPORT
The Irrawaddy – Burma-US Relations: From Mindon to Clinton
By BA KAUNG Tuesday, November 29, 2011

On Nov 30, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make the first visit to Burma by the top US diplomat in more than 50 years. The move, announced by President Barack Obama on Nov 18, is seen as an attempt to encourage further reforms in Burma and ease the country’s diplomatic isolation from the West.

For the past two decades, Burma’s rulers have been regarded as pariahs by Washington, but relations have not always been so strained. As the country’s new military-backed government seeks to restore “normal” ties with the world’s most powerful nation, the following chronology of key events in Burma-US relations offers some sense of what this might mean.

Burma-US Relations: A Chronology

1856 : Burma’s King Mindon writes to US President James Buchanan, indicating his interest in forging close ties with the US.

1857: Buchanan sends a letter of reply to King Mindon, saying he wants peace and friendship between the US and Burma and assuring the Burmese ruler he does not want to see Burma’s sovereignty abused. The US president also sends books and a model steam locomotive to the king.

1947: The US recognizes Burmese independence, establishes an embassy in Rangoon and appoints the first ambassador to Burma in October.

1948-53: The US provides economic assistance to Burma and covert support to Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) forces inside the country. This aid is terminated in 1953-54 and most KMT forces are repatriated to Taiwan.

1950: Burma condemns North Korea’s invasion of South Korea in June and in July votes to support the United Nations’ response. Also in June, the British Commonwealth agrees to lend Burma £6 million, but Burma turns instead to the US and receives aid from the Technical Cooperation Administration (TCA) in September.

1953: US Vice President Richard Nixon makes a two-day visit to Burma and is met by anti-American demonstrations on his arrival in Rangoon. According to The New York Times, in Pegu Nixon was greeted by demonstrators carrying signs with such slogans as: “Burma not a place for Yankee warmongers.”

1955: In February, US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles visits Rangoon and meets with Prime Minister U Nu and senior Burmese officials.

1955: In June U Nu makes an official visit to Washington and  addresses the US joint congress.

According to a joint statement,

US President Dwight Eisenhower and the Burmese prime minister noted “the salutary influence of religion as exemplified by the Sixth Buddhist Synod presently being held in Rangoon” and reviewed the issue of imprisoned American fliers in Communist China. They also discuss the “complex economic problems” caused by the two countries’ substantial surpluses of exportable rice.

1957: President U Win Maung of Burma makes a private visit to the US to obtain medical treatment and meets with Eisenhower on Dec 23.

1956-64: US aid to Burma, mainly in foodstuffs, is resumed in 1956 and later halted by Gen Ne Win. Training of Burmese military officers in the US reaches about 1,000 personnel by 1962, when Ne Win seizes power in a coup d’etat.

1966: In September, Ne Win pays a state visit to the US and meets with President London B Johnson.

According to an official statement, the US president expressed his understanding of Burma’s non-alignment policy, and both leaders affirmed their determination to strengthen friendly relations “in the mutual interest of their two peoples and in the service of the cause of peace and international understanding.”

1974: The US and Burmese governments sign an agreement for fighting against the production and trafficking of narcotic drugs. The US agrees to supply Rangoon with Bell 205 helicopters for this purpose.

1982: The US assistant secretary of state for Asia and Pacific affairs visits Rangoon and assures the government of continued support for Burma’s anti-narcotics program.

1988: In September, in the wake of a nationwide pro-democracy uprising, US Congressman Stephen J Solarz, the chairman of the House of Representatives Sub-committee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, visits Rangoon and meets the new Burmese president, Dr Maung Maung. He also meets opposition leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

1988: In November, US representative-elect Dana Rohrabacher visits Thay Baw Bo student camp near the Thai-Burmese border and promises moral and political support to exiles who have fled the Burmese military crackdown on student-led protests.

1990: The US cuts off economic and military aid to Burma and downgrades diplomatic relations after   Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) wins the country’s first elections in 30 years by a landslide and the ruling junta refuses to recognize the results.

1994: In February, US Congressman Bill Richardson is allowed to visit Suu Kyi at her Rangoon home, where she is held under house arrest. Richardson gives her a letter from US President Bill Clinton. He also meets Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, the then head of Military Intelligence. At a press conference in Bangkok, he says the future of Burma will be decided by two people—Suu Kyi and Khin Nyunt.

1995: In September, the US ambassador to the UN (and later secretary of state), Madeleine Albright, visits Burma and meets Khin Nyunt, who tells her that his government enjoys broad popular support. The following day, Albright meets Suu Kyi.

1997: The US strongly objects to Burma being granted membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

1997: Clinton imposes a ban on all new US investment in Burma by US individuals or entities.

The US imposed countermeasures on the country due to its inadequate measures to eliminate money laundering and restricted issuing visas for certain Burmese military officers and their families.

2003: In July, following a brutal attack on an NLD convoy in Depayin in central Burma on May 30, the administration of President George W Bush imposes new sanctions on Burma. The Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act and Executive Order 13310 ban the import of products from Burma and the export of financial services to Burma, and freeze the assets of the military junta and three designated Burmese foreign trade financial institutions. The sanctions also require the US government to vote against the extension of any financial assistance to Burma by international financial institutions.

2005: Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s nominee for secretary of state, calls Burma one of six “outposts of tyranny” around the world.

2007: Following a brutal crackdown on mass protests in Rangoon and elsewhere caused by the sudden removal of government fuel subsidies, Bush issues Executive Order 13348, expanding sanctions to include asset freezes against individuals designated as responsible for human rights abuses and public corruption and individuals and entities that provide financial or material support to those designated.

2008: Bush signs into law the Burma Jade Act, restricting the import of precious Burmese gems and stones and extending existing import sanctions on Burma. As many as 10 Burmese companies are added to the sanction’s list.

2008: The US Aircraft Carrier Essex, carrying helicopters and tons of water and food, waits off Burma’s coast for more than three weeks in May, waiting for permission from the Burmese junta to start ferrying its cargo inland to victims of Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy Delta.

The Burmese junta rejects the mission, but allows the US to coordinate the delivery of nearly $1.2 million of US relief commodities on 185 DOD C-130 flights to Rangoon.
2009: In August, US Senator Jim Webb meets Snr-Gen Than Shwe, becoming the most senior official to have direct contact with the reclusive leader of the Burmese regime in decades.
.
Webb strongly advocates US engagement with Burma, citing growing Chinese influence in the country. He also meets with Suu Kyi, who is still being held under house arrest.

2009: The administration of US President Barack Obama announces in September that it will try to directly engage with the military leaders of Burma, without abandoning existing sanctions on the country.

2009: Obama meets and shakes hands with then Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein at the US-Asean meeting in Singapore in November.

Obama offers better ties if Burma pursues democratic reforms and frees political prisoners, including Suu Kyi.

US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell visits Burma, as the highest-ranking American diplomat to travel to the county in 14 years, as part of  the Obama administration’s efforts to implement its new policy of engagement with Burma.

2010: Obama condemns Burma’s first parliamentary election in 20 years, held on Nov 7, as “neither free nor fair.” The elections resulted in a power transfer from a military junta to a nominally civilian government led by former military officials.

2011: In April, Obama appoints Derek Mitchell as a special envoy to Burma to work as the US main interlocutor with the country’s rulers.

2011: on Sept 29, Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin meets with senior US officials at the State Department’s headquarters in Washington. The next day, Burmese
President Thein Sein announces the suspension of work on a massive Chinese-backed hydroelectric dam project in the country’s north—a move welcomed by Washington as significant and positive.

2011: In November, Burma envoy Mitchell makes his third trip to the country in less than two months to meet with Burmese rulers and Suu Kyi. The US announces it will reciprocate further positive changes in Burma.

2011: on Nov 18, citing “flickers of progress” in Burma, Obama announces he will send Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit the country in December to explore “what the United States can do to support progress on political reform, individual rights and national reconciliation.” The Burmese government welcomes the announcement, saying it signals US
recognition of positive changes in Burma.

The Irrawaddy – Suu Kyi Lauded as Global Thinker
By LALIT K JHA Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi figures 31st in a list of the world’s top 100 global thinkers released by the prestigious magazine Foreign Policy.

“If Burma finally throws off the junta’s yoke, it will be in no small part due to The Lady’s political dexterity—and her backbone of steel,” it said.

The top 10 includes the former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei from Egypt, and Ali Ferat, the Syrian human rights lawyer and cartoonist. The US president, Barack Obama, is ranked 11th.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been agitating for democracy in Burma for more than 20 years, 15 of which she spent in confinement, the magazine said, adding that since her latest release, in November, she has refused to back down—and after nearly 50 years of military rule, the country finally appears to be moving toward her.

Since taking over this spring, Burmese President Thein Sein has relaxed restrictions on the media, allowed some economic liberalization, and released hundreds of political prisoners, it noted.

Although the origins of this shift remain largely unclear and skeptics have their doubts, the government’s actions have coincided with several recent meetings with Suu Kyi.

Known to her devoted followers simply as “The Lady,” the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has also sought to broaden her audience this year, using the Internet to reach international
supporters and—despite government warnings—traveling outside Rangoon to spread her message in other Burmese cities, said Foreign Policy.

Burmese government and KIO meet in China
Tuesday, 29 November 2011 22:49 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A Burmese government peace delegation and top Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) leaders met for two hours on Tuesday in Shweli in China’s Yunnan Province to seek a cease-fire.

No details of the talks were disclosed, but KIO officials said it was noteworthy that the KIO chairman attended the meeting.

A spokesman, Hting Nan Aslos, said: “Our chairman went to the meeting because we would like to show that we want a political dialogue. We’re showing that we want to hold peace talks.”

On the other hand, KIO spokesman La Nang said that government troops on Tuesday set fire to 60 houses in two Shan villages in Daw Phung Yang sub-township in Kachin State.

Meanwhile, the government has reinforced its troops in Kachin State, said KIO officials. Nearly every day, fighting breaks out in Mansi and Momauk townships in Kachin State and the areas controlled by Brigade No. 4 of Shan State Army-North, officials said.

There were 709 clashes between the KIO and government troops from June until November 28, according to La Nang.

The government peace delegation included Rail Transportation Minister Aung Min; Thein Zaw, the chairman of the Lower House National Race Affairs and Internal Peace-making Committee; and Aung Thaung, the chairman of the Lower House banking and financial development sub-committee. They met with a KIO delegation of six leaders including KIO chairman Zawng Hra at a hotel in Shweli in Yunnan Province.

Upper House Speaker Hkyet Hting Nan of the Unity and Democracy Party of Kachin State (UDPKS), who is also a member of the Kachin State Peace and Stability, accompanied the central government delegation.

Also attending the meeting were representatives of the Kachin people including Jade Land Company owner Yup Zaw Khaung, Iamai Gum Ja, Ing Sin San Aung and singer Hkabya Hkung Aung.

KIO officials said that they hoped U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Burma, which starts on Wednesday, would change Burma political climate.

“The U.S. government should recognize our ethnic people. I would like to tell the U.S. government to put the Burmese government under pressure to protect ethnic people’s rights and to hold a political dialogue,” La Nang said.

On November 19 and 20, Minister Aung Min met with three KIO leaders as a preliminary step in Mae Sai, Thailand.

Burma’s NLD to let five 88-student activists run as candidates
Tuesday, 29 November 2011 14:16 Ko Wild

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – 88-generation student activists say the National League for Democracy (NLD) has agreed that if they join the NLD, they can run in five constituencies in the coming by-election under the NLD banner.

Phyo Min Thein, one of the student group’s leaders, said that Aung San Suu Kyi told him on Friday that the NLD would let the students contest in the elections as NLD-backed candidates.

“The NLD will let five students be NLD candidates––from 88-generation students to current generation students,” Phyo Min Thein said.

Phyo Min Thein formed a political party, the Union Democratic Party (UDP), prior to the 2010 general election and served as the UDP chairman. He resigned from the party before the election, saying it would not be free and fair. He has decided to join the NLD, but it’s early to say whether he will stand as an NLD candidate, he said.

The NLD has invited various political groups to a meeting at Sayadaw Ashin Pyinnyathiha’s Monastery (Shwenyawa) in Kyimyindaing Township in Rangoon on Thursday, where prospective candidates must declare their names.

Meanwhile, a member of the 88-generation students group said they want to organize a social organization. Many group members are still in prison, and the group doesn’t want to form a political party at the present time.

“That does not mean we oppose forming political parties and the general lection. We accept it as a step. But, some political prisoners have not been released and our country has not established peace––that’s why we don’t want to contest in the elections,” said Ko Ko Gyi (Sanchaung), who was released from Buthidaung Prison on October 12.

The 88-generation students group was formed in 2005. In 2007, many of its leaders were arrested and the remaining members went underground.

“We want to transform our group from underground into a legal organization. We may open a legal office and offer training classes. And we will hold legal meetings,” said Ko Ko Gyi (Sanchaung).

Eleven of the 37 political prisoners who are 88-generation students group members were released under the presidential amnesty on October 12.

Meanwhile, former political prisoners including the comedian Zarganar will sign a letter urging the U.S. government to put presssure on Burmese leaders to release political prisoners, stop the ethnic civil war and release all political prisoners. The letter will be delivered to the U.S. embassy to coincide with the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

According to figures compiled by Ko Ko Gyi, there are 1,028 political prisoners. The government and the NLD say the number is around 500.

The Election Commission has not yet announced the date of by-election. Lower House Speaker Thura Shwe Mann said in a press conference on Friday in Naypyitaw that the by-elections would not be held until sometime after February.

Traders lodge complaint against Sein Nan Htike bean company
Tuesday, 29 November 2011 18:46 Te Te

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The owner of the Sein Nan Htike bean trading company has failed to pay more than five billion kyat for beans, according to the Myanmar Beans, Pulses and Sesame Merchants Association (MBPSMA).

The association says the owner’s whereabouts are not known, and it is making a list of bean traders who claim they are owed money.

“When the list is completed, we may find more people were not paid. Five bean exporters were not paid. Most of the people are local bean traders. Some of them are from rural areas,” Thaung Han, the joint secretary of MPBSMA, told Mizzima.

According to recently compiled figures, Zaw Nge, the Sein Nan Htike Company owner, failed to pay more than three billion kyat to bean traders in Rangoon and more than two billion kyat to traders from rural areas. The company buys and sells beans, especially mung beans. It failed to pay an estimated 30 bean traders including 15 traders in Rangoon, said association officials.

The owner closed the company office and warehouses and went to Thailand on November 24, according to the MBPSMA.

Meanwhile, MBPSMA has warned wholesalers in Bayint Naung Market not to sell beans to delivery orders in the name of the company.

Some bean traders have filed lawsuits against the company. “He left nothing, so nothing is there to put up for auction,” Thaung Han said.

“He took money in advance to sell the beans. But there are no beans,” said a trader at the Bayintnaung wholesale market.

In the past, bean traders did many deals orally and the payment was usually made at a later date. When the price of beans goes down dramatically, the fluctuation of bean prices can range from several hundred million kyat. Three bean traders were arrested and charged for failing to pay money. The Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) had to mediate between two sides in about 40 lawsuits.

In July 2010, the MPBSMA banned bean traders from buying and selling orally. The case against Sein Nan Htike does not involve buying and selling orally, but is a matter of traders believing in the company and paying money in advance.

The current price of mung beans is 450,000 kyat per ton and the export bean market is weak, said bean traders.

India is the largest buyer of Burma’s mung beans, green grams and pigeon peas. There are about 300 bean-exporting companies. According to figures compiled by MPBSMA, Burma earned US $515 million from exporting mung beans, green grams and pegion peas from April 2009 until February 2010.

DVB News – Clinton told to spotlight ethnic abuse
Published: 29 November 2011

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton must press the Burmese government on ongoing violations by its troops in the country’s border regions when she arrives tomorrow for the most senior-level US visit to Burma in more than half a century, an alliance of ethnic parties has stated.

Clinton is tipped to meet with Burmese government officials and the National League for Democracy during her two days in the country. The US has praised the slew of reforms enacted by the new government since March, but various observers have warned that state-sanctioned human rights violations persist.

A letter destined for Clinton was penned yesterday by the 12-member United Nationalities Alliance, which urges the Secretary of State not to be distracted by the ‘political’ face of recent progress in Burma.

It says that in the border regions, where ethnic armies continue to battle government forces, “women including teenagers and [the elderly] were raped, villages were burnt down, destroyed and ransacked … [and] villagers were forced to serve as porters”.

It spotlights the ongoing and grisly by-products of conflicts that have flared in the past year, resulting in tens of thousands of refugees, but which still receive little international attention.

The letter also calls on Clinton to push for the release of Burma’s estimated 1,700 political prisoners, an issue seen as a key obstacle to the west dropping sanctions on the country.

Among the signatories were the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, the Zomi National Congress and the Mon National Democratic Front party, all of whom competed in the 1990 elections.

“All armed conflicts must stop immediately,” the letter continued, urging peace talks between the government and armed groups. “Those peace negotiations must be proper, responsible, systematic and transparent by both sides.”

The details of Clinton’s visit have been kept vague, although she is likely to meet with the somewhat reclusive President Thein Sein, as well as Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday before she flies out.

It follows three visits by US envoy Derek Mitchell since September, with Washington seeking to gauge the extent of reforms, likely in a bid to build stronger ties with Burma as it looks to stem China’s influence in the country.

Much of the rhetoric coming out of Washington in the build up to the trip has praised the political reforms, which have included amendments to laws criminalising trade unions and peaceful protest, and urged a wholesale political prisoner amnesty.

Little space however has been dedicated to analysing the violence against ethnic minorities, despite it being an equally crucial component of Burma’s political malaise.

Sai Lek, spokesperson of the SNLD, said: “Mainly, we aim to make Mrs Clinton and her delegation aware during their visit that the developments occurring in Burma are not as obvious as everyone is saying, and that there aren’t any concrete changes yet.”

DVB News – Govt hopeful over end to US, EU sanctions
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 28 November 2011

Burma’s government is hopeful that western sanctions on the country will be soon removed in light of praise from the US and EU governments of apparent reforms underway in the country.

“They will consider lifting sanctions soon” because relations with the west have “improved in a short span of time,” political adviser Nay Zin Latt told Bloomberg.

These improvements prompted US President Barack Obama to hail the “flickers of progress” in Burma, which came after announcing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s landmark visit to the country, beginning Wednesday.

But France’s ambassador to Burma, Thierry Mathou, told DVB last week at the headquarters of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) that it was “too soon to be thinking about the removal of sanctions.”

His visit to the NLD came as the French secretary for Human Rights, Francois Zimeray, travelled to Rangoon and heard testimonies from former political prisoners.

The issue of sanctions is persistently linked to the reforms enacted since the Thein Sein administration came to power in March, with deputy labour minister U Myint Thein telling DVB last month that “we have changed; now the west should also.”

The continued incarceration of political prisoners remains one of the major obstacles for the removal of sanctions. Their number has also been debated, with the NLD claiming 591 are behind bars, and the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma putting the number at around 1,700.

Various promises have been made for another prisoner amnesty, following the October release of around 230 political prisoners, but these have yet to materialise. One lined up for earlier this month was reportedly blocked at the last minute by the 12-member National Defence and Security Council.

The government’s chief political adviser, Ko Ko Hlaing, earlier told Reuters that, “There is no concrete reason to delay the release of the political prisoners,” but also suggested that the government was waiting to see how newly-released prisoners behaved. “Some prisoners committed terrorist acts,” he said. “We are worried about this, that they may shake the boat.”

Concerns over the legitimacy of the upcoming by-elections are also prompting a wariness over lifting sanctions, with both UK Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell and Clinton calling for a free and fair vote. US officials said last week that Clinton’s visit would not presage an end to sanctions.

Mitchell had also warned that European energy companies, such as Royal Dutch Shell, shouldn’t pre-empt a removal of sanctions in entering Burma’s oil and gas sector.

But the Burmese will also take heart in the apparent US imperative of competing with China over influence of smaller nations in Southeast Asia. Burma’s “strategic importance to the United States is closely connected to concerns about rising Chinese influence,” John Ciorciari, an expert on Southeast Asia at the University of Michigan, told AFP earlier.