Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Burma/Myanmar Affairs Vol 113
အိႏၵိယအစုိးရႏွင့္ နအဖစစ္အုပ္စု
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Burma/Myanmar Affairs Vol 113
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အိႏၵိယအစုိးရႏွင့္ နအဖစစ္အုပ္စု
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INDEX:
SECRETARY
Traveling to Copenhagen / Will Attend Events for Leaders in
Advance of President's Arrival / Will Have Bilateral Meetings / Focus
Will Be Need for Strong Action Internationally to Face Challenge
No Plans for Engagement on Iran with P-5+1 While in Copenhagen
CUBA
Signatory to Vienna Convention on Consular Affairs / Requires
Timely Access to Consular Officers to Ensure Humane Treatment in
Accordance with Local Law / Requested Consular Access Via
Diplomatic Note Three Times / Expect Cuba to Live Up to Obligations
Under the Vienna Convention / Interests Section in Contact with
Cuban Government
PAKISTAN
Detained Americans Transferred to Lahore / Requested Consular
Access at New Facility / No Objections to Treatment of Detained
Americans
Have Seen Reports of Pakistan Supreme Court Decision
IRAN
Aware of Reports of Missile Tests / Undermine Iran's Claims of
Peaceful Intentions / Increase Seriousness and Resolve of
International Community in Efforts to Hold Iran Accountable
Don't Discuss Intelligence Issues / Many Reasons to Have Concerns
about Iran's Nuclear Program / Need for International Community to
Get Them to Open Up Program
GEORGIA
Recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Nauru Does Not
Underpin Legitimacy of De Facto Governments in Separatist Regions
/ U.S. and Vast Majority of Countries Support Territorial Integrity of
Georgia / Call on All Countries to Support Georgia's Territorial
Integrity and Sovereignty
AFGHANISTAN
In Close Consultation with Hamid Karzai and Advisors as They Form
BURMA
Welcome Decision by Authorities to Allow Aung San
Suu Kyi to Meet With Members of Her Party / Hope It Is
a Step Toward Meeting with Entire Central Executive
Committee of National League for Democracy / Urge
Burmese Government to Engage Democratic
Opposition and Other Stakeholders in Genuine
Dialogue
Next Round of Talks Not Scheduled / Continuing
Engagement on Embassy Level
Access to American Citizen Arrested in Burma
THAILAND
Not Aware of U.S. Law Enforcement Involvement / Applaud Thailand
for Swift Action and Referral to UN Sanctions Committee
NORTH KOREA
Confirm a Letter Was Delivered to North Korean Government / For
White House to Discuss Contents of Letter from the President / Open
and Transparent to Extent that It Advances U.S. Interests
TRANSCRIPT:
1:05 p.m. EST
MR. KELLY: Okay. Welcome to part two, welcome to the briefing room. The Secretary, I
think as you all know, is traveling to Copenhagen today. She and the President decided that
she could play a useful role in helping close gaps in the – our climate talks there by
traveling to Copenhagen and personally participating.
Tomorrow, she will also attend some of the events that are intended for leaders, such as the
gala dinner tomorrow night. And this is – she would attend these events in advance of the
President, who arrives Friday morning, of course. She will have a number of bilateral
meetings. These meetings are still being worked out and we hope to have more information
about those meetings tomorrow.
And with that, I’ll take your questions. Jill.
QUESTION: Oh, thank you, Ian. On the situation with the Cuban – the person being held
in Cuba, what is the latest on getting consular access? Because it seems kind of odd that this
is going on for quite a while.
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: Is it actually international law that he should – that he is supposed to
absolutely get – the U.S. can actually get access to him? Are the Cubans breaking
international law or what --
MR. KELLY: Well, again, I always get a little shaky when we start talking about legal
issues because I’m not a lawyer. However, there is the Vienna Convention on consular
affairs, and I believe Cuba has signed up to that convention. And under that convention, the
state that is holding a citizen of another state is required to give timely access to consular
officers to visit the individual and ensure, as I’ve said from this podium before, that they are
being treated humanely and in accordance with local law.
vrf;jyMu,fjrefrmpmMunfYwdkuf ( pifumyl ) vufa&G;pifaqmif;yg;rsm; twGJ 113 6
jynfolvlxktaygif;cHpm;ae&aom qif;&J'kuQrsdK;pHkrS vGwfajrmufatmif ppftm%m&Sifpepfudk t&ifOD;qHk;wdkufzsufjypf&rnf/
In the case of this American citizen in Cuba, we requested access via diplomatic note at
least three times – December 8, 11, and then again on December 12. And we expect that
Cuba will live up to its obligations under the Vienna Convention and permit consular
access, but unfortunately, this has not happened.
QUESTION: But are they saying – are they responding to that note? Are they saying no,
you cannot, or are they just not responding? What’s the state of play?
MR. KELLY: Well, we do have an interests section down there. We do talk to the Cuban
Government. We – as I noted, we have made multiple requests to see this individual. I
think, as we mentioned before, the Cuban Government did inform us that they had detained
this individual on December 5th, but I’m – I just – we’re just waiting for them to respond to
this request for access, and they haven’t responded.
QUESTION: So it’s only been in written form. Is there any other way that --
MR. KELLY: Oh, I’m sure it’s been in more than written form. I’m sure it’s been followed
up by many phone calls.
QUESTION: Can I follow up on this issue?
MR. KELLY: Yeah, Michele.
QUESTION: The – has USAID encouraged its contractors and subcontractors who go
down to Cuba to defer travel until – while this man is arrested?
MR. KELLY: I am not – I don’t know the answer to that question. Let me see if there has
been such an announcement.
Yeah. Charlie.
QUESTION: Has anyone from Washington talked to anyone in Cuba, aside from the
contact in the interests section? We know there have been other contact --
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- contacts on other issues, but --
MR. KELLY: Yeah. I don’t think so, so let’s let that stand and we’ll let you know if that’s
not right.
QUESTION: You’ll check and take that?
MR. KELLY: Yeah. We’ll check if – and we’ll get back to you if that’s not right, that
somebody from Washington has contacted them.
QUESTION: Can we go to other Americans detained abroad?
MR. KELLY: Yes.
QUESTION: Pakistan, what’s the situation there?
MR. KELLY: I don’t have much to update you on except to say that I believe that they’ve
been transferred to Lahore – to a new facility in Lahore. We have – and I think that just
happened a day or two ago. And because they have been transferred to a new facility, we
have asked for consular access to see them in the new facility, but I don’t have any other
information to share on that.
QUESTION: So when was the last time that they actually had a visit?
MR. KELLY: That would have been on December 11th, on Friday.
QUESTION: Do you know why they’ve been transferred?
MR. KELLY: Jill, I don’t know the exact reason why, except I know – as I think you’ve
seen the press reports that a court in Lahore asked to review their case before any action was
taken by Pakistani law enforcement authorities, such as deportation.
QUESTION: And this is okay with you?
MR. KELLY: It’s okay with us to --
QUESTION: With us – with the U.S.?
MR. KELLY: -- for them to be transferred to Lahore?
QUESTION: Well, for them – the whole situation. You haven’t had access to – it’s now
Wednesday. You didn’t have –
MR. KELLY: Yeah, but that’s not unusual. I mean, we got access within 24 hours --
QUESTION: Well, Pakistan –
MR. KELLY: -- when they first were detained.
QUESTION: Yeah, but Pakistan --
vrf;jyMu,fjrefrmpmMunfYwdkuf ( pifumyl ) vufa&G;pifaqmif;yg;rsm; twGJ 113 7
jynfolvlxktaygif;cHpm;ae&aom qif;&J'kuQrsdK;pHkrS vGwfajrmufatmif ppftm%m&Sifpepfudk t&ifOD;qHk;wdkufzsufjypf&rnf/
MR. KELLY: There will be no reason for us to see them every day. I mean, this is fairly
standard for us to not ask for additional access --
QUESTION: It’s not –
MR. KELLY: -- unless the conditions had changed, whether their health had changed or
their legal situation had changed.
QUESTION: Right.
MR. KELLY: And it hasn’t.
QUESTION: Well, you just said the conditions have changed, though, because –
MR. KELLY: Yes. We have asked to see them in Lahore, and I’m sure we will. But just to
my knowledge, it hasn’t happened.
QUESTION: And are you satisfied with the way they’ve been treated?
MR. KELLY: To the best of my knowledge, we have no objections to the way that they’ve
been treated.
Yeah, David.
QUESTION: Do you have any reaction to the missile launch, the Iranian missile launch?
MR. KELLY: Yeah, just a moment. Yes, of course we’re aware of these reports at a time
when the international community has offered Iran opportunities to begin to build trust and
confidence. These kinds of tests can only undermine Iran’s claims of peaceful intentions. I
think that these kinds of actions will only increase the seriousness and resolve of the
international community in our efforts to hold Iran accountable for its continued defiance of
international obligations on its nuclear program.
Yeah, in the back.
QUESTION: In Copenhagen, does the Secretary have any plans to meet with any of her
counterparts in the P-5+1?
MR. KELLY: I think her – I mean, her focus, really, in Copenhagen is going to be the
business at hand in Copenhagen, the need for strong action internationally to face this
challenge. If she does have meetings with her – with members of the P-5+1, the agenda is
going to be Copenhagen. As far as I know, there’s no plans for her to engage on this issue.
Of course, if she meets with one of her foreign minister colleagues, I’m sure she’ll discuss
other issues on our agenda as well, including Iran, but that won’t be the focus of the
meeting.
Matt.
QUESTION: Would you care to go further than your colleague P.J. would yesterday on the
– what he talked – what he said was the revelation of Iran working on a nuclear trigger, or a
trigger for an atomic bomb?
MR. KELLY: Well, I think what P.J. said was that this was an intelligence issue, and we
don’t care to discuss intelligence issues. I think in broad terms, there are a number of
reasons for us to have real serious concerns about the nature of Iran’s nuclear program,
which just redoubles the need for the international community to get them to open up their
program and raise confidence that it’s indeed – does have peaceful intentions with this
nuclear program.
But the reports of this particular document, no, we don’t have any --
QUESTION: Well, is – are the reports of this particular – of this particular document, are
they a reason to be concerned?
MR. KELLY: Well, again, we have a lot of reasons to be concerned about Iran.
QUESTION: Is this one of the reasons?
MR. KELLY: Well, I don’t want to get into the specific document --
QUESTION: I’m not asking you to. I’m just asking is this report – are – is this report –
MR. KELLY: I think a --
QUESTION: -- a reason to be more concerned?
MR. KELLY: I think that we would need to know – we would need to know more about
the particular document.
QUESTION: And you don’t?
နယ္စပ္တည္႓ငိမ္ေရး တ႟ုတ္ဒုတိယသမတ
ဦးစားေပးေဆၾးေႎၾးဖၾယ္ရႀိ
2009-12-16
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/chinese_vice_president_likely_focus_on_border
_stabality-12162009151024.html/story_main?textonly=1
အႎႀစ္ ၇၀ ေဴမာက္ကရင္ႎႀစ္သစ္ကူးေနႛသတင္း
2009-12-16
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/karen_new_year_festival_held_at_border-
12162009161007.html/story_main?textonly=1
ပါတီေခါင္းေဆာင္ပိုင္း ျပန္လည္ဖြဲ႔စည္းရန္
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ေျပာ
WEDNESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2009 18:32 ကိုေထြး
http://www.irrawaddy.org/bur/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2
288:2009-12-16-11-34-54&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္က အမ်ိဳးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ (NLD) ဗဟို အလုပ္အမႈေဆာင္
ေကာ္မတီ (CEC) ကို ျပန္လည္ ဖြဲ႔စည္းရန္ အတြက္ ေျပာၾကားလုိက္ေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။
ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၄ ရက္ေန႔က
ေတြ႔ရေသာ အမ်ဳိးသား
ဒီမုိကေရစီ အဖဲြ႔ခ်ဳပ္
ေခါင္းေဆာင္တခ်ဳိ႕ (ဓာတ္ပုံ -
AP)
ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕လယ္မွ
ဘတ္စ္ကား မွတ္တုိင္တခု
(ဓာတ္ပုံ - RobK)
ေမာ္ေတာ္ယာဥ္ လိုင္းေပါင္းစံု
ထိန္းသိမ္းေရး ေကာ္မတီ
(မထသ) လက္ေအာက္ရွိ
ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕တြင္း
ေျပးဆြဲေနေသာ အဆိုပါ
ခရီးသည္တင္ ကားမ်ားကို
ရန္ကုန္တိုင္း ကုန္းလမ္း
ပို႔ေဆာင္ေရး ညႊန္ၾကားမႈ
ဦးစီးဌာန (ကညန) က ကားသိမ္းသည္ အထိ အေရးယူမႈမ်ား ျပဳလုပ္ေနျခင္း ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း
မထသမွ သိရသည္။
စီးပြားေရး ႏုိဗဲလ္ဆုရွင္
မစၥတာ ဂ်ိဳးဇက္ စတစ္ဂ္လစ္ဇ္
(Joseph Stiglitz) (ဓာတ္ပုံ -
AP)
လက္ရွိ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံတြင္
ထြက္ရွိေနသည့္ ေရနံႏွင့္
သဘာ၀ ဓာတ္ေငြ႔မ်ား
ေရာင္းခ်မႈမွ ရရွိသည့္
ဘ႑ာေငြကုိ ေကာင္းမြန္စြာ
အသုံးခ် ႏုိင္ခဲ့လွ်င္
တုိင္းျပည္မွာ ေခတ္သစ္
တရပ္ ေပၚေပါက္လာမည္ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း၊ အသုံး မခ်တတ္လွ်င္ တန္ဖုိးမျဖတ္ႏုိင္ေသာ
အခြင့္အလမ္း ေကာင္းမ်ား အလဟႆ ျဖစ္သြားမည္ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း စီးပြားေရး ပညာရွင္
စတစ္ဂ္လစ္ဇ္က ေျပာသည္။
ကရင္ႏွစ္သစ္ကူး အခမ္းအနား
ျပည္တြင္းျပည္ပတြင္ စည္ကားစြာက်င္းပ
WEDNESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2009 19:13 ဇာနည္မာန္
http://www.irrawaddy.org/bur/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2
291:2009-12-16-12-16-40&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
ရိုးရာ အထည္ဆိုင္မ်ားႏွင့္ ေစ်းဆိုင္တန္းမ်ား အလြန္ရွိ ၂၇၄၉ ႏွစ္ျပည့္ ကရင္ႏွစ္သစ္ကူးေန႔
ဆိုေသာ မုခ္ဦးအ၀င္ ဆိုင္းဘုတ္ေအာက္တြင္ ကရင္အလံငယ္ ရင္ထိုးေလးမ်ားကို
တပ္ဆင္ေပးေနသည့္ ကရင္
အမ်ိဳးသမီးငယ္ေလးမ်ား
လက္မလည္ႏိုင္ေအာင္
ျဖစ္ေနၾကသည္။
ရန္ကုန္ အာလိန္ငါးဆင့္
ဘုရားပရဝဏ္အတြင္း
ကရင္ႏွစ္သစ္ကူးပြဲေတာ္
က်င္းပစဥ္
အလံတင္ အခမ္းနား
က်င္းပမည့္ ေနရာတြင္မူ
ထိုင္စရာ မဆိုထားႏွင့္၊
ေျခတေခ်ာင္း ခ်ရပ္ရန္ပင္
မလြယ္ကူႏိုင္ ေလာက္ေအာင္ လူမ်ား ျပည့္သိပ္ေနသည္။ ကရင္အမ်ိဳးသား သီခ်င္းကို သံျပိဳင္
သီဆိုရန္ ေၾကညာလိုက္ခ်ိန္တြင္မူ တိုးေ၀ွ႔ေနေသာ လူအုပ္ႀကီးမွာ ခ်က္ျခင္း ျငိမ္သက္သြားၿပီး
သီခ်င္းကို သံၿပိဳင္ သီဆိုလိုက္သည္။
စာေရးဆရာ အီၾကာေကြး
ညီညီေအာင္ လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရး
လႊတ္ေတာ္အမတ္ ေတာင္းဆုိ
WEDNESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2009 18:44 ဧရာဝတီ
အေမရိကန္ အထက္လႊတ္ေတာ္ အမတ္တဦးက အင္းစိန္ေထာင္မွ ကုိညီညီေအာင္
လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရး အတြက္ ၾကားဝင္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးရန္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီး ဟီလာရီ
ကလင္တန္ကုိ တုိက္တြန္းလုိက္သည္။
ကုိညီညီေအာင္ လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရး
တာင္းဆုိသည့္ အထက္လႊတ္ေတာ္အမတ္
Barbara A. Mikulski
အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားႏွင့္
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ယေန႔ ေတြ႔ဆုံ
WEDNESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2009 12:16 ကိုေထြး
http://www.irrawaddy.org/bur/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2
283:2009-12-16-05-20-08&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ အမ်ိဳးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ (NLD) ဗဟို အလုပ္ အမႈေဆာင္
ေကာ္မတီ (CEC) အဖြဲ႔၀င္ ၃ ဦးတို႔ ယေန႔ ေန႔လယ္ပိုင္းတြင္ ေတြ႔ဆုံေၾကာင္း NLD ကေျပာသည္။
Karen people across the world have been busy sending each other “Happy New
Year” text messages on their mobile phones on Dec. 16, the day when the Karen
celebrate their 2749th year. Yet many Karen wonder how much happiness the new
Having been in Burma for more than two millennia, ethnic Karen people can
Karen people live in fear in their home Karen State, more than 90,000 live in
government.
Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army
(DKBA), a Karen
breakaway armed
group, becomes a
Entrance to the Karen New Year Celebration in
Rangoon, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009 border guard force in
Meanwhile, as they celebrate their new year, both DKBA and KNU leaders speak of
the DKBA's special battalion 999, a DKBA source who attended the event said
DKBA leaders urged more than ten thousand Karen people who attended the
2749th Karen New Year ceremony to live in peace, even though they have different
Zipporah Sein, general secretary of the KNU, from which the DKBA broke away,
also called for unity among Karen people and for cooperation in fighting for Karen
rights.
“The Karen new year passes year by year, but our people still struggle. Karen people
have been suppressed for decades, living without freedom and rights until this day.”
“We must continue our struggle. We have to stand firmly together and fight against
the Burmese regime who rule the country by force,” she said, adding that the
coming year will bring more internally displaced persons and an influx of refugees
Many observers predict that the DKBA will attempt to overrun KNU military bases
along the Thai-Burmese border in Karen State when they become a border guard
force in 2010.
Since the DKBA split from its mother organization in late 1994, the KNU have been
losing more and more of their former military bases, including their former
In June 2009, the headquarters of the KNU's brigade 7 was seized by the DKBA,
and more than 4,000 Karen refugees fled into Thailand. Dozens of KNU and DKBA
soldiers were injured and died in fighting that pitted Karen against Karen.
Despite DKBA calls for peace among the Karen, Maj Hla Ngwe, joint secretary 1 of
the KNU said a ceasefire between the DKBA and KNU is unlikely because the DKBA
are sure to attack the remaining KNU military bases when they become a border
said: “2010 is a risky year for the Karen people because the Burmese regime—a
For most Karen, the new year can only bring foreboding. They feel only sadness as
Karen prepares to fight Karen, rending their unity, bringing Burman domination to
their homeland.
Speaking of the fighting between the DKBA and the KNU, a Karen university
student in Chiang Mai in Thailand said: “It is like brothers and sisters killing each
“It is natural that there are disagreements in a family,” she said, “yet we must
“What I want the most is a cease-fire between the DKBA and KNU. This is my
The Karen National Union (KNU) has permitted logging companies to cut down
more than 1,000 tons of timber from the two main hardwood forest reserves in
A local businessman in Three Pagodas Pass told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that
about 13 businessmen in the town were permitted unlimited logging across the
“We can log as much timber as we want if we pay a tax advance to the KNU,” he
said. “They are demanding 1,300 baht [US $40] for one ton of timber,” he said.
A source close to the KNU, however, said the KNU was charging about 4,000 baht
Sources say that logging companies also have to pay a similar tax to several other
armed groups, such as the Democratic Karen Buddhist army (DKBA), the Karen
Peace Force, the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Burmese government
One ton of ironwood in Three Pagodas Pass is currently wholesaling at 33,000 baht
[$1,000], which allows investors profits of about 35 percent after all expenditures,
A KNU military official from the KNU's Brigade 6 told The Irrawaddy on
Wednesday that the local Karen commander has allowed logging in the area
According to KNU Forestry Department data, the KNU has preserved two main
forests in Kawkareik District―Mae Kathr and Kyunchaung. Mae Kathr forest covers
some 50,000 acres while Kyunchaung covers 20,000 acres. Both forests are rich in
“All those woods are good quality because they last for a long time,” said a furniture
retailer in Three Pagodas Pass. “We can manufacture high-quality furniture to sell
in Thailand.”
The Mae Kathr forest had been undisturbed for more than 60 years. It lies in a
KNU-controlled area, Brigade 6, about nine kilometers [5.5 miles] from the
Business sources in the town said they expect the timber business in Three Pagodas
Pass will grow rapidly now that the KNU has allowed logging in the forests.
invested about 4 million baht [$120,000] into a logging business in Three Pagodas
Pass said, “I have dreamt of doing this for a long time. Today my dream came true.”
Previously, while the border crossing was closed, timber companies such as
Thailand's Sia Hook company had to bribe Burmese border guards in order to
transport logs into Thailand. The businessmen said profits were lower before,
because border guards demanded 30,000 baht [$900] per truck and each truck
Snr-Gen Than Shwe's business crony Tay Za was one of the first to become
involved, according to a member of the NMSP. Over the past year, the KNU has
permitted Tay Za's logging company to extract about 2,000 tons of hardwood from
Revenue from logging contracts is reportedly the KNU's major source of income,
from which it subsidizes its war against the Burmese army by purchasing arms.
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The local businessmen in Three Pagodas Pass said that the KNU had permitted
logging recently because they are worried about losing Brigade 6 to a joint military
force of the Burmese government troops and the DKBA when they launch a dry
season offensive.
The sources said this might have forced the KNU’s hand into accepting the quick
The KNU, one of the oldest surviving rebel groups in Southeast Asia, has been
Detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on Wednesday for a
She made the call at a meeting with three elderly and ailing NLD leaders at a
Sept. 1988 that Suu Kyi has called for a reform of the party.
“We heard from our senior members that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi told them she
Spokesman Khin Maung Swe told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. “In reply, the
senior leaders told her that they definitely agreed on the party's reorganization.”
Since the formation of the NLD, the party's generation gap has steadily grown,
adding to the difficulties it faces because of the regime's efforts to suppress its
activities.
Apart from Suu Kyi, who is 64, and Khin Maung Swe, 67, other central executive
committee members are in their 80s and 90s. Six of 11 committee members are not
The sources said Suu Kyi met NLD Chairman Aung Shwe, 91, Secretary U Lwin, 86,
Spokesman Khin Maung Swe said the issue of a reorganization of the party
Suu Kyi asked for a meeting with Aung Shwe, U Lwin and Lun Tin in a letter to
junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe on November 11. She told Than Shwe she wanted
Suu Kyi also said she wanted to hold a separate meeting at her home with other
members Win Tin, Khin Maung Swe, Than Tun, Soe Myint, Hla Pe and Nyunt Wai.
“To make the NLD’s activities more active and effective, I would like to invite and
hold a meeting with all CEC members at my house,” she said in her letter to Than
Shwe. She also asked for a meeting with Than Shwe himself, saying it would be in
The NLD wrote on Nov. 16 to the junta and the election commission saying that,
under the terms of statement No. 245 of the Burma Election Commission in 1989,
Khin Maung Swe said senior NLD leaders would first of all have to nominate
added: “At the moment, there are many difficulties in holding a nationwide
meeting.”
In its Nov. 16 letter, the NLD nominated, along with other CEC members, two —
Win Tin and Khin Maung Swe—who were released from prison in Sept. 2008.
After Wednesday's meeting, U Lwin told reporters that Suu Kyi had paid respects to
him and the other two leaders in the traditional Buddhist manner, kneeling and
Kyaw Tun, 72, a popular Burmese writer and satirist who wrote under the pen name
Danuphyu Kyaw Tun and Ei Kyar Kwe, died on Tuesday evening in Rangoon's
General Hospital.
Well-known in Burma for his poems, novels, satire and humorous literature, Kyaw
Tun was born in Danuphyu Township, Irrawaddy Division. He started his writing
career in 1954 and was chief editor of Thauk Kyar, a popular humor magazine.
name Danuphyu Kyaw Tun. He later spent 30 years as the poetry editor of Lannyun
Niipya Thint Bawa (“Your Life”) magazine, using his position to cultivate the
the Danuphyu Poets' Club in 1958. He held many literary events in his native
Danuphyu Township.
He started to use Ei Kyar Kwe as his pen name in 1957. “Ei kyar kwe” is a kind of
traditional Burmese snack made of dough that is formed into sticks, twisted and
deep fried.
Besides writing novels, stories and poems, he also wrote and directed some plays
for the Shwe Man dramatic troupe, such as “Come Back from the Poison Forest”
“Saya Kwe [Ei Kyar Kwe] earned his living only from literature and was very
humble. Although his manner was very open and humorous, he could think deeply
He added that Kyaw Tun was “very brilliant at composing Than Gyat,” a kind of
traditional satirical show popular during Thingyan, the Burmese New Year.
Now banned by the Burmese authorities, these performances offer a humorous and
NEWS ANALYSIS
The North Korean arms cargo interdicted in Bangkok seems unlikely to be bound
for Burma, despite ties between Pyongyang and the Naypyidaw military junta.
Burmese junta strongman Snr-Gen Than Shwe visited Sri Lanka in November,
reciprocating a visit made by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in June this
year.
The final destination of the cache remains unclear. The crew claim that the airplane
was to land in Sri Lanka to refuel, with the Ukraine as a final destination,
apparently after the cargo had been dropped off elsewhere. Sri Lankan officials
denied any knowledge that the embargo-breaking flight was going to land in that
country.
Thai government
spokesman Panitan
destination in the
Ilyushin-76 flight cargo, the manifest was listed as “oil drilling equipment.” The
UN arms embargo, but acquires weapons from China and Russia among others, and
has become increasingly close to states such as Iran and Burma in recent years. The
latter two are thought to be key buyers in North Korea's US $1bn per annum illicit
arms bazaar, prompting speculation that a bevy of human rights violators are
Burma are important sources of energy supply to China, which has fostered these
sanctions on both Khartoum and Naypyidaw. Sudan, like Burma, will stage
controversial elections next year, amid speculation that oil-rich southern Sudan will
later secede, a move that Khartoum is likely to resist with military force.
Jong-il's dictatorship in North Korea. Eritrea has unresolved border problems with
The US reportedly tipped off Thai authorities about the illicit cargo, according to
Thai media reports that the government and Americans have not commented on.
However it is not clear why the crew landed at Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport. If
carrying illicit weaponry from Pyongyang, this move would appear foolhardy in
extreme, given the close military and intelligence links between Thailand and the
US.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lauded the seizure, stating that it
"shows that sanctions can prevent the proliferation of weapons and it shows that
the international community when it stands together can make a very strong
statement."
an arms trader linked to Victor Bout, who is now in prison in Bangkok. It appears
the airplane was most recently registered under a company called Beibars, linked to
Serbian arms dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic. According to SIPRI and the UN, past
owners of the aircraft have trafficked arms to Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Chad. It had previously been registered
controlled by Mr Bout, labeled the “Merchant of Death” for his role in supplying
The US is trying to extradite Bout, who was arrested in Thailand in March last year,
Earlier in 2009, the US navy shadowed a North Korean ship suspected of carrying
arms to Burma, forcing it to turn back. North Korea is helping the Burmese junta
with conventional weaponry, and there is some speculation that the nuclear-armed
However, Victor Cha, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies in Washington, says that Burma is now wary of receiving arms transfers
from North Korea. The Burmese junta is not under an international arms embargo,
despite calls for one to be applied, and therefore does not have to rely on the
underground arms trade to equip its military, which is believed to be the largest in
Southeast Asia.
Cha acknowledged that precise analysis of what and how North Korea is selling, and
to who, remains impossible. The Thai seizure is likely a drop in the ocean of what is
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estimated at a $1 billion annual trade. Cha cited a recent visit by China’s Premier
Wen Jiabao to North Korea, followed by Beijing’s defense minister, as fueling fears
that North Korea may on occasion be able to send arms through China, which
shares a land border with Burma. China is thought to fear instability or economic
collapse in North Korea, and Pyongyang relies on its illicit arms trade for foreign
currency.
Rangoon's Inya Lake to the home of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, resulting in the extension of her house arrest, has been named one of the year's
“Because she let her uninvited guest rest for a couple of days before he tried to swim
back, Suu Kyi—a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been imprisoned by Burma's
of house arrest,” the magazine said, adding that the incident had made Yettaw “a
Yettaw was arrested during his return swim and sentenced to seven years in prison
by Burma's ruling junta. He was detained for three months during his trial, but was
freed soon after sentencing when US Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia negotiated an early
“He was trying to help. He's not a mean-spirited human being,” Webb said in
During his trial, Yettaw told a Burmese court that he was merely trying to save Suu
The list of fleeting celebrities is topped by Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to
octuplets in January. It also includes Tareq and Michael Salahi, the Virginia couple
who gatecrashed US President Barack Obama's first State Dinner in honor of Indian
The ban was issued through the Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, the state-
Dhamma talks are a deeply rooted tradition in Burma, and posters advertising them
A monk from Pyigyi Ta Kun township, Mandalay Division, told The Irrawaddy on
Monday: "I think the military regime wants to stop people listening to the teachings
The authorities have also banned individual monks, such as Shwe Nya War
Sayardaw, the dean of Shwe Nya War Buddhist University in Rangoon, from
A monk who studied at the Buddhist University told The Irrawaddy on Monday:
“Shwe Nya War Sayardawgyi was banned from giving dhamma talks in Rangoon
last year because he spoke about Bogyoke (General) Aung San and the essence of
independence.”
Aung Htet Lin, who helps organize dhamma talks, told The Irrawaddy on Monday:
“We have to apply to the Burmese authorities and the Sangha Maha Nayaka
Committee in advance. We have to list the name of the sangha, the title of the
Religious Affairs has stopped issuing letters of recommendation, which monks need
to travel broad.
Ashin Issariya, a founders of the All Burma Monks' Alliance (ABMA), said: “It is
clear that the military junta is challenging Burmese monks and Buddhist devotees.
The junta doesn't want monks to be popular, well-known or close to the people."
Ashin Issariya said the restrictions were an insult to monks and would have a "bad
Mandalay resident Min Ye Aung, who also helps organize dhamma talks, said the
authorities were also limiting the space allotted for the talks with the aim of
In October, the ABMA expelled junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe from the Buddhist
faith on the grounds that he had failed to issue an apology for his abuse of monks
According to official data, there are more than 400,000 monks in Burma, and its
community, the Sangha, is considered one of the strongest and most revered
Hillary Rodham Clinton in securing the release of Kyaw Zaw Lwin, a Burmese-born
American national, who was imprisoned by the military junta on charges of fraud
hunger strike.
“It is vital that the US State Department ensures the health, safety and fair
in a letter to Clinton.
Nyi Nyi Aung been tortured while being interrogated during his detention,”
(aka Kyaw
Zaw Lwin) she said.
Calling for personal intervention from Clinton, she said, “I urge you to condemn Mr
Lwin’s detention in the strongest possible terms and to ensure that the State
Until his release can be obtained, Mikulski wrote: “I ask that the State Department
Kyaw Zaw Lwin, aka Nyi Nyi Aung, was arrested by Burmese authorities on Sept. 3
upon arrival at Yangon [Rangoon] Airport and was charged with fraud and forgery.
imprisonment. “We are concerned about Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s health and are pressing
for immediate consular access to him. We were last granted consular access on
“Burmese authorities cited Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s health as the reason his scheduled
Last week, US Sen Jim Webb also expressed concerns after news reports surfaced
about the alleged mistreatment of Kyaw Zaw Lwin during his detainment in Burma,
and that he is being denied regular access to US consular visits. Webb, who earlier
this year became the first US senator to visit Burma in a decade, has asked the
“In the interim, I urge the government in Burma to afford Kyaw Zaw Lwin all the
rights guaranteed under international law,” said Webb, who serves as chairman of
the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations.
“I also trust that the government will allow him the same access to US embassy
personnel that American citizen John Yettaw, whom I escorted out of the country in
August, received during his detainment and trial earlier this year,” Webb said.
MAE SAI, Thailand—Sitting on a stool playing Chinese chess at the Operation Dawn
Rehabilitation Centre near Mae Sai, Kyaw Thura, 39, of Shan State, recalls his days
as an opium smoker.
“It used to just be a few people smoking opium in our village, but now everyone is
smoking,” he said. After 22 years of smoking opium, he finally decided to kick the
habit and journeyed many miles to this retreat for drug users located in the hills
which used to be home to Khun Sa, the Golden Triangle’s most infamous drug lord.
rehabilitation center to
give up drugs.
says that 70 percent of the men are from inside Burma and the rest from Thailand.
“My village has gone crazy, even children and old people are smoking it all day,”
said Kyaw Thura, as he slapped down a wooden chess piece in a winning move.
“Because there is a lot more opium growing in the area, and a lot more people
smoking, our village has many problems now, like stealing, sickness and no one
Having seen the effects opium has had on his village, he said he felt compelled to
travel to Thailand so he could “give up” and then return to help his friends and
According to a survey released on Monday by the United Nations Office for Drugs
and Crime, opium cultivation in Burma has increased by nearly 50 percent since
2006 and 11 percent since last year, and it could have been a lot higher if weather
Gary Lewis, the regional director of UNODC, warned that previous efforts to
contain poppy cultivation and opium production are “unraveling” and that “the
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The economic pressures come in the form of lower prices for alternative crops to
opium, a result of the global economic crisis, and the drop in demand for maize and
The UN survey says most of the drug production comes from areas controlled by
ethnic armies, with a 40 percent increase in Shan State and a slight increase in the
Kachin and Karen areas. There’s also a concern that ethnic armies are selling their
drug stocks quickly now in order to buy weapons in the face of a growing risk of
conflict with the government regime, as a result of its order for ethnic armies to
drugs to buy weapons and they are moving drug stock to avoid detection,” said
While the UN blames ethnic and cease-fire groups for the increase in drug
titiled “Poisonous Hills,” says that the Burmese government is also playing a larger
The PWO says that police “anti-drug teams” extort opium growers by demanding
bribes to turn a blind eye and to fill out eradication reports incorrectly to show that
Because Burmese police have formed illicit relationships and are able to profit from
illegal drug production, the PWO says in its report that “this is enabling drug abuse
to flourish. In one village surveyed in Mantong, it was found that that the
percentage of men aged 15 and over addicted to opium increased from 57 percent in
A survey in Nam Kham and Mantong townships during 2007-2009, two townships
heavily controlled by the junta’s army, found that the total area of opium cultivated
increased almost five-fold, from 964 hectares in the 2006-7 season to 4,549
“It is untrue. We never try to make our budget by selling opium and other drugs,”
Lapai Naw Din, the editor with the Thailand-based Kachin News Group, said that
Wa and Kachin cease-fire groups began to plant more opium as the junta regime
placed more restrictions on border trade after the fall of former Burmese premier
Gen Khin Nyunt in 2004. More opium is grown in order to fund their armies, he
said.
According to the “Neither War Nor Peace” report by the Transnational Institute,
armed cease-fire groups have sought various illegal avenues, such as logging,
The increase in drug cultivation and production is not only a concern people inside
Burma but also for neighboring countries, such as Thailand, where large quantities
of drugs cross its border on a daily basis, making local communities susceptible
“The police try to stop the drugs coming through here, but it’s not working, more
and more are coming” said Ning, 19, who lives on the street. He told The Irrawaddy
that he was addicted, as he inhaled the smoke from a burning purple ya-ba pill he
“The problem is Burma? We’re right next door. It doesn’t matter how much they
try, we’re swimming in the stuff” he said, as he exhaled the vanilla smelling fumes.
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“I know it [drugs] make me crazy,” he said. “I can’t sleep or eat well, but I carry
drugs around so much that it’s hard to stop. Every time I do a job I take drugs to
Tempted by the money, many street children are lured into working as drug
carriers, or “mules,” for drug traders. Fetching the drugs from the Burmese side,
they carry it across the border to Thai dealers who avoid the risk of going through
customs.
“Many of the children end up in very dangerous situations because of the drug
trade,” said Kru Ngaow, the founder and director of Child Life, a center for children
“If the drug trade increases, then the children will suffer and more of them will
work as drug mules, which gives them money to buy drugs and they also steal from
the packages.”
Opium finds it way all along the Thai border, entering refugee camps in Mae Sot
“Our opium comes from Shan State, and it's destroying my village” said a 49-year-
old lady, who had travelled on foot for hours to the DARE Clinic on the edge of Mae
Set up in 2001, the DARE network is the only organization on the border that
provides refugees with a comprehensive service that helps combat the affects of
“By neglecting the issue, the Burmese government has used drugs as a tool to
suppress ethnic people’s minds. By enabling them to give up drugs, we free their
“Despite the massive progress we've made, the overall situation continues to
deteriorate as more drugs are produced and more people become addicts inside
Another concern along the border is the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA),
and its growing control of the region. With Karen National Liberation Army
(KNLA) territory diminishing, there will be a rise in drugs coming through the Mae
Sot area. The KNLA strickly prohibted drug trade in its area.
With the combination of the regime-backed DKBA assuming control of the drug
trade in its area, drug cultivation increasing in many ethnic cease-fire group areas
in the north, and the Burmese army exploiting ways to profit from the eradication
effort, the concerns of law enforcement agencies, the UN and other groups are
justified.
As the drugs are shipped to locations around the world, it's the communities in
Burma and along the border that will pay the highest price, perhaps, because of the
growing presence of drugs and a lack of resources to fight the problem at the local
level.
NEWS ANALYSIS
Will Burma’s detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi resolve the
opposition’s “generation crisis” when she meets with the aging leaders of her party,
In late November, NLD sources told The Irrawaddy that in response to Suu Kyi’s
requests, the ruling authorities had agreed to grant her a meeting with members of
be on Wednesday,
which is a national
holiday in Burma,
Year.
meeting with three CEC members—Aung Shwe, U Lwin and Lun Tin— two of whom
Along with other political issues, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate is expected to talk
with her colleagues about party reform, particularly the replacement of aging and ill
“Currently there are 11 CEC members within the party. Six out of the 11 are now
over 80 and not very well,” said Khin Maung Swe, 67, a CEC member and an NLD
spokesman.
In fact, with the exception of Suu Kyi, who is 64, and Khin Maung Swe, all the other
The NLD's most prominent other figurehead, Vice Chairman Tin Oo, who was
arrested in May 2003 following an ambush on Suu Kyi’s convey and sentenced to
“Even if a total overhaul of the party cannot take place, the replacement of those
who are ill within the NLD leadership should be possible,” said Aye Thar Aung, an
Due to Chairman Aung Shwe’s health, two CEC members, Win Tin, 80, and Than
Tun, 87, are reportedly acting chairmen of the party, according to NLD sources.
Relative youngsters, such as Than Nyein, who is in his 70s, and Nyan Win, who is in
Political observers inside Burma have said the NLD needs to strengthen its
presence in the country to maintain its popularity ahead of the 2010 general
election.
The pertinent question is how the leading opposition party can hope to bridge the
spectrum of society when even its second row of leaders are all over 60 years of age.
The NLD has not held nationwide party meetings for at least a decade because of
harassment by the authorities and other setbacks. Although young members of the
party recently called for party meetings across the country, the CEC have stalled.
“The NLD has to call national party meetings at least once every four years to
resolve the generation gap in its leadership,” Aye Thar Aung said. “Then younger
While the NLD finds itself in a generation dilemma, the military junta, headed by
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, organizes its hierarchy from the top down using military rank.
Although Than Shwe is 76 and his No 2, Deputy Snr-Gen Maung Aye, is 72, the
other top generals are in their early 60s and some are still in their 50s.
“Since early 2009, the USDA has nominated potential candidates who are young
and well-respected with good names to avoid a repeat of the 1990 election,” said a
In the 1990 election, the NLD and its allies won a landslide victory over the junta-
Twenty years later, the NLD lacks young candidates, but has a surplus of members
who were active in the 1988 democratic uprising against military rule.
Kyi, Pyone Cho and Htay Kywe, are now in their 40s and are reported to be ready to
cooperate or join Suu Kyi’s party in the greater interest of supporting the cause of
“We have many young emerging prospects across the country,” said Khin Maung
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with three senior
leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party this week, an NLD
The meeting will probably take place on Wednesday morning, said Khin Maung
On Monday, Police Brig-Gen Khin Yi and other police officials went to the homes of
the NLD party chairman and two senior members to ask if they would agree to meet
The meeting is in response to a letter Suu Kyi sent to junta Snr-Gen Than Shwe in
which she requested to be allowed to visit the three ailing party leaders in their
homes to pay respect to them. Suu Kyi is serving an 18-month sentence under
house arrest.
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Chairman Aung Shwe is 92 years old, and U Lwin and Lun Tin are octogenarians.
All three are former high-ranking military officers who served under former
“The party chairman, Aung Shwe, responded to the police official that even though
he prefers Aung San Suu Kyi's request for separate meetings [in their homes], he
has no objection if Suu Kyi accepts meeting the three of them together,” Khin
Gen Khin Yi told Aung Shwe that he would also meet with Suu Kyi to ask if she
would accept the government's arrangement for a single meeting with all three
In her letter, Suu Kyi also requested to meet with Sen-Gen Than Shwe and
Asked if Suu Kyi would be allowed to meet with the executive members anytime
soon, Khin Maung Swe said, “The government never directly contacts the CEC. It
On Dec. 9, Suu Kyi and the government's liaison officer, Aung Kyi, had a 45-minute
Some analysts speculated that Suu Kyi may intend to reform the party and wants
Meanwhile, on Tuesday afternoon, Suu Kyi met with her lawyers who have been
trying to appeal against her 18-month sentence, said Nyan Win, one of the lawyers.
Thailand will open four more trade checkpoints on its border with Burma next year,
including one that was closed in 2007 after Thai border security guards were
kidnapped by an armed group allied to the Burmese junta, according to the Thai
press.
The Nation newspaper reported on Tuesday that the four checkpoints will be at
Huay Ton Nun in Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province; Ban Nam Khao and Three
Pagodas Pass in Kanchanburi Province; and Dan Singkhon in Prachuap Khiri Khan
Province.
At present there are three border trade checkpoints linking Thailand and Burma.
The four new checkpoints will facilitate trade, investment and tourism between the
two countries and will open as soon as possible, Thailand's Deputy Commerce
Meanwhile, Thailand and Burma have agreed to build a second “friendship bridge”
linking Mae Sot, Tak Province, and Myawaddy, in Burma's Karen State.
Irrawaddy in March that a new bridge is necessary because the existing one is
getting old and is not suitable for large trucks. He added that the new bridge would
Thailand earns around 1 billion baht (US $28 million) monthly from the bilateral
border
trade between Myawaddy and Mae Sot, according to the Tak Chamber of
Commerce.
The two countries began official border trade in Mae Sot after the Thai-Burma
The Three Pagodas Pass checkpoint that will open next year was once one of four
official border crossing points, until it was closed after soldiers from the Democratic
According to Thu Rein, a local businessman in Three Pagodas Pass, the Burmese
authorities have told businessmen in the town that the border will reopen soon.
“It is good news for us. We hope the border business will grow again,” he said.
He said that trade in the town declined about 70 percent after the border shut
BANGKOK — Thai authorities are still trying to unravel the mystery of the ultimate
destination of a plane that landed in Bangkok with a huge cache of weapons from
state.
Military analysts said on Monday that the arms were likely destined for African
Thai officials
impounded the
explosives, rocket-
The plane's manifest had described the cargo as oil-drilling equipment, and the
crew said the plane was supposed to deliver its cargo to Sri Lanka.
The United States, which is particularly concerned about North Korea selling
weapons and nuclear technology in the Middle East, reportedly tipped off Thai
authorities to the illicit cargo, according to Thai media reports that the government
Gen. Walter "Skip" Sharp, the top US military commander in Korea, said in
Washington that he was "not going to give away any of the intelligence as far as how
year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries such as Iran,
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised the seizure, saying it "shows
that sanctions can prevent the proliferation of weapons and it shows that the
statement."
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Experts in the illicit arms trade said circumstantial evidence suggested the weapons
were meant for Africa, which is a ready market rife with conflict.
The flight plan turned over to Thai police said the plane was registered to Air West,
a cargo transport company in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, said Somsak
He said the men, four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus, insisted they were
A Thai court on Monday allowed police to hold them for at least 12 more days
the plane belongs to Air West but said it was leased last month to the SP Trading, a
A Russian deputy foreign minister, Alexei Borodavkin, praised the weapons seizure
"As shown by this case with the plane, which was detained in Thailand, these
Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the flight plan indicated
the aircraft was headed for the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
a flight plan "doesn't mean anything," said Siemon Wezeman, a senior fellow for the
defend against planes and tanks, which are usually in the arsenal of government
that they could be headed for an African rebel group, Wezeman said.
Christian LeMiere, editor of the London-based Jane's Intelligence Weekly, said the
range of the Il-76 and its apparent flight path suggested it may have been headed to
Africa, where there are groups ready to buy North Korean weapons.
They included Sudan, which might pass the weapons to rebel groups in Chad, and
Eritrea, which might keep them for its own arsenal or pass them on to warring
factions in Somalia.
Wezeman doubted that Sri Lanka was the destination, because it already has a huge
development, was an unlikely buyer because it makes its own weapons of the type
seized, he said. But he acknowledged it was possible that the shipment was ordered
In August, the United Arab Emirates seized a Bahamas-flagged cargo ship bound
for Iran with a cache of banned rocket-propelled grenades and other arms from
North Korea, the first seizure since UN sanctions were ramped up.
Burma, also known as Myanmar, a pariah state known to have military links to
In July, a North Korean ship believed to be bound for burma and carrying
suspicious cargo, possibly illicit weapons, changed course and headed home after it
imposed in June after the reclusive communist regime conducted a nuclear test and
test-fired missiles. They are aimed at derailing North Korea's nuclear weapons
program, but also ban North Korea's selling any conventional arms.
Smuggling weapons into African combat zones became a booming business in the
1990s, with warring groups funding their purchases through the sale of rare
One of the biggest alleged figures behind the illicit arms trade in Africa is now in a
Thai jail.
Russian national Viktor Bout was arrested in March 2008 in Bangkok after US
agents posed as arms buyers for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
A Thai court in August rejected the extradition request, but Thai prosecutors have
Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Jane Fugal in Bangkok, Foster Klug in
report.
Friday to attend the graduation of the 52nd Intake of the Defense Services Academy
The following day, a photograph of Than Shwe’s extended family appeared in The
New Light of Myanmar, the country's only state-run newspaper in English. In the
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photo, Nay Shwe Thway Aung sits on a sofa alongside Than Shwe's wife wearing
Described quietly by
pictorial sections of
Nay Shwe Thway Aung (white suit and state-run newspapers
sunglasses) sits alongside Than Shwe's wife
Kyaing Kyaing at the DSA graduation on Dec. 11, with the following
2009. (Photo: MNA)
pages covering senior
The New Light of Myanmar featured separate photos of Shwe Mann and Tin Aung
Myint Oo––who reportedly dislike each other––at the event. Whether intentionally
or not, Tin Aung Myint Oo, the No 4 general in the military hierarchy and
in the newspaper. Such details are frequently said to portray underlying messages,
observers say.
The day before the military academy event, Than Shwe visited Yadanabon Cyber
City, the country's largest IT center, which is also in Pyin Oo Lwin. Again, he was
Pictures of Nay Shwe Thway Aung appeared again in the state-run mouthpieces
along with Than Shwe and other top generals. One photo showed Than Shwe's
center.
The media reported that Than Shwe was met at Yadanabon Cyber City by Ne Aung,
a son of Industry-1 Minister ex- Lt Col Aung Thaung. One of the richest
businessmen in Burma and a close crony of the military elite, Ne Aung is managing
Maung Aye, and is also an executive of the IGE company, which is registered in
Singapore.
successful new
permitted by
government
authorities to expand
into agriculture,
Snr-Gen Than Shwe (center) tours Yadanabon steel, chemicals,
Cyber City on Dec. 10 with his grandson, Nay
Shwe Thway Aung (left), and Gen Shwe Mann electronics, and the
(right) just behind him. (Photo: MNA)
oil and gas
industries, including a stake in the offshore natural gas project in Arakan State.
Another well-known business crony who met up with Than Shwe on his visit to
Yadanabon Cyber City was family friend Tay Za, whose vast range of business
interests include an airline, Air Bagan, logging, jade mining, import/ export, and a
retail outlet in the IT sector. Burma watchers have speculated that Than Shwe's
Both Tay Za and Ne Aung are on the blacklist of sanctioned Burmese business
“Burma is a patronized system,” said Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst
based in Thailand. “Therefore the way Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan
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directs the setting of photographs within the state media reflects the ranking of
dictatorship, family members of the ruling generals and their cronies get business
Seoul Searching
http://www.irrawaddy.org/print_article.php?art_id=17396
By ALEX ELLGEE / MAE SAI Monday, December 14, 2009
women stand in a clearing on the roadside next to the Mekong River where Burma,
Clutching cheap bags to their chests, their eyes dart about on the lookout for any
policemen coming down the road which links Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle.
“We need to get to a market quickly to pick up our money,” one of the women said,
then screamed at the rest of the group to run as fast as they could and not turn
back.
“We didn’t cross the river to talk to people. We just came to get our money from
someone at the market and be on our way,” she added as the rest of the group
Later that day, the women reportedly received their money from one of the brokers
who had facilitated their journey, and immediately began the next stage of their
The women are part of an increasing influx into Thailand of North Korean refugees
who have traveled great distances to escape a life of suffering at the hands of Kim
Jong-il’s regime.
Jeera Sak, the deputy chief of Mae Sai immigration office, where many of the
refugees arrive and are detained before they are processed in Bangkok, told The
Irrawaddy how this year 1,019 North Korean refugees have been documented,
With only a handful of possessions, a growing number are flooding through the
surprisingly porous border to China. Having bribed the underpaid border guards,
“the deserters,” as the North Korean government calls them, either find work in
It’s not always so easy though, and many of the girls find themselves victims of sex
trafficking or being sold as wives to Chinese men. At the same time, there is always
the danger of being arrested by the Chinese authorities and repatriated to North
China’s treatment of North Korean refugees was a major part of the discussion at
The conference ended with a statement which called on the Chinese government to
end the deportation of North Korean refugees and to respect their human rights in
light of the fact that 100 had already been sent back this year alone, including an
82-year-old man.
“When my brother was sent back to North Korea by the Chinese, he was sent to the
worst prison in the world––worse than where murderers would go. It’s not
comparable to any other country,” said a defector whose brother, a Christian, was
The danger of being repatriated by the Chinese authorities deeply worries many
refugees, who may need to stay and work in China to make enough money for their
trip to Thailand.
“The journey takes around one month and requires between 150,000 to 200,000
baht [US $4,500 to $6,000], so they need to either leave North Korea with savings
Having worked to raise the necessary funds the refugees travel down through
Yunnan Province, through Myanmar [Burma] and then into Laos and over the
“Most of these refugees have no recollection of their trip through Myanmar as they
are mainly locked up in a car,” a staff member of Liberty in North Korea (LINK), a
In December 2008, 19 North Korean refugees were caught and detained by the
In a surprise move, the Burmese authorities decided to release them despite their
warming relations with Pyongyang. The group, which included 15 women and a
seven-year-old child, was released to the Thai authorities in order to pave the way
For those who do make it to Thailand, Chatsra says that some 80 percent of North
Korean refugees walk into his police station in order to get themselves arrested.
“The moment they cross the river they just walk straight into the police station and
turn themselves in,” he said while 14 new arrivals were being interviewed in the
background.
“They know that the sooner they turn themselves in, the sooner they can get down
Having been arrested at Chiang Saen police station they are kept in a detention
center for two to seven days, and interviewed by police officers and a translator who
When there are enough refugees to fill an immigration truck they are driven to the
South Korean embassy where they are detained further till they are sent over to
However, not all the refugees hand themselves over to the police. The women who
were standing in the clearing by the road at the Golden Triangle decided they would
They said they did not want to be held in detention or pay the customary 2,000
baht [$60] fine. However, even for those without money, the fine can quickly be
met because the police will deduct 200 baht [$6] for every day spent in detention.
The North Korean women said they had worked in China for between one to two
years and then handed over their hard-earned savings to brokers to transport them
to Thailand where another broker was to meet them at the market to pass over the
Chatsra said that there is a growing number of middle-class people who are seeking
refuge in Thailand. Many, he claims, come directly from North Korea and are able
However, the majority of North Korean refugees face untold dangers and hazards at
One Christian NGO worker who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity
of her work in Thailand told The Irrawaddy that many of the refugees arrive in bad
shape.
“They have to travel so far, often in bad conditions, and get exploited along the way.
“It can sometimes be very difficult for us because they are so disoriented and don’t
trust anyone. It takes time for us to build their confidence and get them to believe
that we really just want to help them – this is because of the way that horrible
regime [North Korean] has brainwashed them not to trust outsiders,” she said.
With North Korea in a political deadlock it looks unlikely that the situation will
change any time soon for the citizens of North Korea. Refugees will undoubtedly
continue to pour across their northern border and begin the long journey to
Thailand and ultimately to what they hope is a better life in South Korea.
The exile media anticipates that citizen-journalists inside Burma will again join
about the general election in 2010, as they did in the monk-led protests in 2007 and
At the Mekong Media Forum in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Friday, Kyaw Zwa Moe,
the managing editor of The Irrawaddy, a Chiang Mai-based print and online
magazine, said, “Citizen-journalists will play a key role in the future, especially in
2010. They will come back again to contribute information and photos to the
media.”
“We got a lot of photos and information from Rangoon and other cities during
protest in 2007,” Kyaw Zwa Moe said. “Sometimes we didn't even know who sent in
the reports.”
The year 2007 saw the birth of the Burmese citizen-journalist, he said. People from
first-hand accounts.
Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon Division, killing more than 130,000
people.
Citizen-journalists work at great risk if the regime's Internet censors learn of their
efforts, said Kyaw Zwa Moe. They could be charged under Article 33 (A) of the
During 2007 and 2008, Burmese authorities arrested many dissidents, monks,
journalists and sentenced them to long prison terms. Zaw Thet Htwe, a sports
writer, was jailed for 19 years for helping cyclone survivors and a Burmese blogger
in Rangoon; Nay Phone Latt was sentenced to 15 years after authorities found an
After the monk-led uprising, many predicted another civic uprising, but so far it
has not happened, one factor being the heavy restrictions and monitoring of
Burmese dissidents and monks by the military authorities, said Kyaw Zaw Moe
As the regime moves toward the 2010 election, analysts expect it to step up its
Internet surveillance and take highly publicized legal action against anyone who
However, exile journalists said the Burmese regime can not stop the flow of out-
photographs and video footage about Burma's top-secret weapons projects and
underground tunnels. Dozens of military personnel and civil servants who allegedly
leaked the secrets to exile media were arrested last month and put on trial.
Roby Alampay, the executive director of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Press
“The more there are [citizen-journalists], the more difficult it will be for the
to American national Kyaw Zaw Lwin (aka Nyi Nyi Aung), who is currently on a
“We have heard reports that Kyaw Zaw Lwin has been on a hunger strike since Dec.
“We understand that Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s Dec. 11 court hearing was postponed. No
new date has been announced. Burmese authorities said that the postponement was
The US Embassy in Rangoon has been granted consular access to Kyaw Zaw Lwin
six times since his arrest on Sept. 3, most recently on Dec. 3. In addition to this, US
consular officers have been present at all eight of his court hearings.
Meanwhile, US Sen. James Webb, who traveled to Burma earlier this year to secure
the release of another US citizen imprisoned by the Burmese junta, urged the
regime to grant Kyaw Zaw Lwin all rights guaranteed under international law.
Webb expressed concern about news reports that Kyaw Zaw Lwin had been
mistreated during his detainment and that he is being denied regular access to US
consular visits.
Webb, who in August became the first US senator to visit Burma in more than a
decade, asked the US State Department to provide him with updates on the status
“In the interim, I urge the government in Burma to afford Kyaw Zaw Lwin all the
rights guaranteed under international law,” said Webb, who serves as chairman of
the East Asia and Pacific Affairs subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations.
“I also trust that the government will allow him the same access to US Embassy
personnel that American citizen John Yettaw, whom I escorted out of the country in
August, received during his detainment and trial earlier this year,” Webb said.
Schwanke, said that she was “extremely concerned” about the “seriously
“We are gravely concerned for [Kyaw Zaw Lwin's] health and welfare,” said Jared
prisoners. “The Burmese junta must provide the US Embassy with immediate
A well-known democracy activist, Kyaw Zaw Lwin was arrested by the Burmese
authorities on Sept. 3 while entering the country in an attempt to visit his mother,
Burmese national identity card, despite being the holder of an American passport.
Freedom Now said he is currently on trial for these violations and is being detained
A senior Chinese army officer traveled to the Burmese capital, Naypyidaw, this
week for talks that were reported to center on efforts to ensure stability on the Sino-
Burmese border.
The Chinese officer, Lt-Gen Ai Husheng, is chief of staff of the Chengdu Military
Region of the People’s Liberation Army. He met his Burmese counterpart, Lt-Gen
was carried by Burma's state-run media on Friday, one day after Ai Husheng
As the chief of BSO-2, which oversees the Northeast, East and Triangle Regional
Military Commands of Burma's armed forces, Min Aung Hlaing is responsible for
The offensive heightened the border tensions that have arisen because of the
Most of the larger groups are resisting the proposal, which was put forward by the
regime in April.
Even before the proposal was announced, Kachin and Wa leaders wrote to the
Chinese government in Dec. 2008 appealing for Beijing's support for Burma's
Because of the opposition to the border guards force proposal, the Burmese regime
has postponed on several occasions the deadline for accepting it. The latest deadline
Ceasefire groups in north and northeast Burma last met government negotiator Lt-
Gen Ye Myint in November. Ye Myint, who is also chief of Military Affairs Security
border guard force from groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
Some four months after the Kokang clashes, the situation in the region has returned
almost to normal, according to local aid workers in the capital, Laokai. During the
conflict, about 37,000 Kokang- Chinese refugees fled to China. Most have now
returned to Burma.
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Kokang areas after withdrawing to the northern Shan State town of Lashio because
of the conflict. Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut, commander of the Northeast Regional
During his five day stay in Burma from Dec. 5 to Dec.10, Ai Husheng also traveled
The UWSA and its allies, the Mong-La army and National Democratic Alliance
Army (NDAA), and a non-ceasefire group, the Shan State Army (South), are
mobilizing in the region. The UWSA and the NDAA are still engaged in talks on the
During the meeting with Ye Myint in November, the UWSA and the NDAA
reportedly accepted the proposal provided the Wa and Mong-la political leadership
retained control of their troops. The compromise was reportedly rejected by the
regime, however.
Ai Husheng also visited Mandalay and the Defense Services Technological Academy
in Phin Oo Lwin, the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported on
Friday.
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Burma in the near future, the
the Burmese junta's No.2, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye. The Chinese leader will also
လြယ္ဂ်ယ္နယ္စပ္ဂိတ္က
ေငြေၾကးပိုမိုေတာင္းယူ
ေပါက္ေပါက္/ ၁၆ ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၂၀၀၉
http://www.khitpyaing.org/news/Dec09/161209b.php
စီးပြားေရးပညာရွင္ စတစ္ဂလစ္
ေနျပည္ေတာ္တြင္ ေဆြးေႏြး
စိုးမိုး/ ၁၆ ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၂၀၀၉ http://www.khitpyaing.org/news/Dec09/161209c.php
အိႏၵိယအစုိးရႏွင့္ နအဖစစ္အုပ္စု
NEJ / ၁၇ ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၂၀၀၉
ပါတီတြင္း ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈလုပ္ရန္
အန္အယ္ဒီ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ၾကီးမ်ား သေဘာတူ
ဖနိဒါ | ဗုဒၶဟူးေန႔၊ ဒီဇင္ဘာလ ၁၆ ရက္ ၂၀၀၉ ခုႏွစ္ ၁၁ နာရီ ၃၇ မိနစ္
http://www.mizzimaburmese.com/news/inside-burma/4394-2009-12-17-05-19-
51.html
ခ်င္းမုိင္(မဇိၩမ)။ ။ အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမုိကေရစီ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္အား ျပဳျပင္ ေျပာင္းလဲရန္
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ႏွင့္ ပါတီ ဗဟို အလုပ္အမႈေဆာင္ သက္ၾကီး ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားအၾကား
ယေန႔ သေဘာတူလိုက္ၾကသည္။
with Burma's junta, US President Barack Obama warned in his Nobel Peace Prize
one of the countries where there is systematic abuse of human rights by the
government and honored opposition leader and fellow Nobel laureate Aung San
an open door.”
The same principle applies to those who violate international laws by brutalizing
“Yes, there will be engagement; yes, there will be diplomacy—but there must be
consequences when those things fail. And the closer we stand together, the less
likely we will be faced with the choice between armed intervention and complicity
in oppression.”
Obama also rejected the notion that governments must chose between promoting
human rights and narrowly pursuing national interests, noting that “neither
America's interests nor the world's are served by the denial of human aspirations.”
Peace, he said, “is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or
worship as they please; choose their own leaders or assemble without fear.”
“America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal,” said
Obama.
“We will bear witness to the quiet dignity of reformers like Aung Sang Suu Kyi; to
the bravery of Zimbabweans who cast their ballots in the face of beatings; to the
hundreds of thousands who have marched silently through the streets of Iran,”
Obama said.
“It is telling that the leaders of these governments fear the aspirations of their own
people more than the power of any other nation. And it is the responsibility of all
free people and free nations to make clear that these movements—these movements
On Oct. 9, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee announced that it had awarded the
Obama said in a statement soon after the announcement that he would accept the
award as “a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of
“To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the
transformative figures who've been honored by this prize, men and women who've
inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of
issued on International Human Rights Day that the Obama administration would
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, also said that the world
needed US leadership to deal with human rights abuses noting that violations and
genocide continue without resolution in Darfur, while in Burma, Suu Kyi still
languishes in detention.
Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the US must never lose sight of the plight of
those living under dictatorial regimes in China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Burma,
crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma and to impose a global arms
There was no immediate reaction from either the office of the UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon or the Security Council president for the month of December,
New York that the Obama administration will continue its discussions at the UN
here and in Geneva at the Human Rights Council on what actions might be
The letter urging the Security Council to establish an investigative body was
Such UN action is long due, said the letter, which was initiated by two members of
parliament from Japan, Azuma Konno, and Tadashi Inuzuka, both members of the
The letter charged that the Burmese military regime has carried out deadly attacks
on its own people for decades and asked the Security Council to address the issue in
an emergency meeting.
eyes of the world are on Burma, and that we will call attention to the continued
“The destruction of villages and ethnic cleansing must stop,” the statement said. “I
am proud to stand with so many freely elected leaders from around the world to call
for the regime to respect the rights of the people of Burma and to cease the
senseless violence.”
The appeal follows similar calls made earlier this year by lawmakers from the
CHIANG MAI — A promised election in military-ruled Burma next year will be held
in a vastly different media culture compared to the last general election in 1990,
That election was won convincingly by the opposition, but the junta refused to
Burma will be held against the backdrop of an abundance of media outlets run by
exiled Burmese journalists that have mushroomed in the last two decades, says
Kyaw Zwa Moe, managing editor of ‘The Irrawaddy’, a popular current affairs
"In the run-up to the1990 (election), no publications inside the country were free to
cover elections, and there was no exiled Burmese media," he told participants
Thursday at the Mekong Media Forum, which runs here from Dec. 9-12. "The media
Consequently, the "exiled media has an important role to play," he told more than
100 participants at a session on ‘Burma 2010’ during the forum. "It has grown
‘The Irrawaddy’ has thus far set up a special series under the theme ‘Election
Watch’ to cover different aspects of the elections before, during and after the vote.
Burma’s junta has said the nationwide vote is part of its agenda to create a
"We need to watch every step of the elections," political activist Moe Zaw Oo,
another panelist on the session, said about exploring how the media inside and
outside the country will cover elections that will have not the usual ways of ensuring
transparency and openness of popular votes. "It will be very tricky and
complicated," given that independent media will not be inside the country to report
on the vote.
Kachin journalists exiled in Thailand, are also preparing for the vote. "A new form
of people’s groups have been set up in the Kachin area," says Naw Din Lahpai,
editor of the publication. "A brand new office of the (pro-junta) Kachin State
The junta is also trying to rope in the churches in the Kachin area in northern
Burma, majority of whom are Christians. "Churches have been gifted with rice,
cooking oil and small cash donations," Naw Din said. "A campaign based on
Already, the exiled media are hammering away at the uncertain and oppressive
political landscape that prevails, producing stories that ask how free and fair the
South-east Asian nation’s upcoming poll will be. The election is only the 15th in the
But in truth, the military leaders of Burma, officially called Myanmar, have still to
formally announce two important laws that will make the promised poll a reality,
namely, those for the 2010 elections and the law governing political parties that will
The reasons to worry about the poll are ample. In May 2008, days after Burma’s
Irrawaddy Delta was flattened by the powerful Cyclone Nargis, which killed close to
150,000 people and displaced some two million others, the junta conducted a
referendum riddled with fraud. The junta hailed this plebiscite to approve the new
How the 1990 elections turned out—where some 15 million voters turned out—also
feed media concerns. The National League for Democracy, led by Nobel Peace
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, secured over three-fourths of the seats in the national
has not had since the 1962 military coup – is reflected in the constitution that, the
regime said, is part of its seven-point roadmap towards political reform and
democracy.
"The constitution is totally flawed. It favors military supremacy," said Moe Zaw Oo,
who writes for 'the Irrawaddy.' "The military has the power to stage a coup at any
time they want. They can do so using the state of emergency, and this act is not
illegal."
The regime’s attempt to retain its grip on power has also been cemented by another
constitutional provision that guarantees the military a fourth of all the seats in the
For Burma’s ethnic minorities, which account for over 40 percent of the country’s
elections meaningless," said Charm Tong, a leading figure of the Shan Women’s
Action Network, which has produced reports exposing alleged war crimes
committed by the Burmese military, including the systemic use of rape as a weapon
of war.
"We now have 600,000 internally displaced people inside Burma," she told the
forum, referring to the plight of the country’s ethnic minorities. "The Shan state has
over 150 battalions stationed out of Burma’s 500 battalions, which is a fourth of the
military strength."
Many of the Shan political leaders have been jailed, including some who won
convincingly at the 1990 poll, added the activist from the Shan ethnic minority that
lives along Burma’s north-eastern border. "These stories cannot be ignored ahead of
the elections."
Some NLD members are voicing cautious optimism about negotiations between the
Burmese junta and Aung San Suu Kyi, following the third meeting in three
months between her and the junta's liaison officer, Aung Kyi, on Wednesday.
State-run media on Thursday reported that they met in the regime's Seinle Kantha
No official details of the meeting were made available. However, senior National
League for Democracy (NLD) members told The Irrawaddy that the meeting
probably was in response to Suu Kyi's Nov. 11 letter to Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
NLD spokesman Khin Maung Swe said, “The topic of the meeting might be related
to economic sanctions, which she mentioned in her letter, and it shows that the
Suu Kyi sent letters to the junta leader in September and November. In both letters,
she said she wanted to cooperate with the junta in working toward the lifting of
international economic sanctions against Burma. In the November letter, she also
commentary article in state-run newspapers that criticized Suu Kyi and the NLD for
providing details about her two letters to the media, describing it as “dishonesty.”
The newspaper commentary said that Suu Kyi and the NLD used “the media as a
“It is acceptable that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi sent a letter to the Head of State.
However, they should not have passed the buck to the government after disclosing
the letter to the media with an ulterior motive,” said the article.
Khin Maung Swe said the media regularly runs stories critical of Suu Kyi and the
“We can say there could be some parties on both sides who do not want to see a
It's not surprising that the military regime and the NLD reflect different
While transparency and accountability to the public is an important value for pro-
the first priority. As a result, he said, the generals might see any public
Such views are reflected in the recent commentary article, where it said: “It should
be taken into consideration that the attempt of one side to force the other into a
corner by making dishonest use of the media might delay the other side's
response.”
Regardless of the commentary, relations between the junta and the NLD seem to be
NLD sources noted that, in spite of some difficulties, the authorities allowed an
November, at the same time an application for reopening a party office in Rangoon
Also, the NLD relief committee for Cyclone Nargis recently completed a trip to the
Irrawaddy delta, since the two-month detention in 2008 of committee head Ohn
Kyaing.
Ohn Kyaing told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday: “During previous trips to the delta,
all the guest houses there would not accept our team because of restrictions by the
On Thursday, the NLD marked the 61st Human Rights Day at its party headquarter
in Rangoon with a public talk on human rights issues in the country chaired by Win
However, some political observers inside Burma still voiced skepticism about any
“I won't get excited about U Aung Kyi meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi until I
see a genuine outcome,” said Aye Thar Aung, an Arakanese leader who is secretary
Parliament. “For any real change in Burma, there are many more steps that need to
be taken.”
Journalists who have been arrested and questioned by the Burmese military regime
say they are unable to return to their jobs because they have lost the support of their
Thant Zin Soe, the editor of "Foreign Affairs" (FA) magazine, was arrested by
"Eco Vision” journal have also been let go from their media groups.
Kyaw Kyaw Than told The Irrawaddy, “Now I am no longer on the staff of 'Weekly
Eint Khine Oo said, “My office won't take me back. I read books now, and I may
freelance.”
Analysts said that most leading media groups will not rehire journalist who are
arrested and detained by the government under the pressure—both direcly and
The censorship authorities, however, say the decision to rehire journalists is not
clear they don't want detained journalists rehired or their writing published. The
authorities monitor the publications carefully and as a result most articles by these
“If they want to work for a newspaper or magazine, writers must submit resumes in
Some released journalist still manage to write regularly for some publications by
using psedonyms. We should admire and appreciate their creativity and courage.”
San Moe Wai, the secretary of the exile Burma Media Association, a partner
organization of Reporteurs Sans Frontiers said, “The media is not like other
and be courageous. Although there are many limitations and restrictions in Burma,
the owners should not give up their professional standards because of fear of the
government.”
“The owners of press houses also should not run the business solely with the idea of
making money," he said. "They must understand the position of reporters and
editors and support them. Actually, all of us should support and help every
journalist.”
on journalists imprisoned around the world. Burma, which has jailed nine
journalists, was ranked in the top five nations for imprisoning journalists, along
“The days when journalists went off on dangerous assignments knowing they had
the full institutional weight of their media organizations behind them are receding
into history,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Today, journalists on the
front lines are increasingly working independently. The rise of online journalism
has opened the door to a new generation of reporters, but it also means they are
vulnerable.”
Burma is one of the countries worst affected by extreme weather resulting from
climate change, according to a new report that assesses the impact of global
report, the Global Climate Risk Index, says that Bangladesh, Burma and Honduras
were the countries most affected by extreme weather events from 1990 to 2008.
The report was launched in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, where the United
In addition to Burma and Bangladesh, four other Asian countries were in the 10
worst-hit list: Vietnam, India, the Philippines and China. The other region most
adversely affected was Central America, where Nicaragua, Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, along with Honduras, were among the 10 most vulnerable countries.
The group noted that poor countries had suffered the worst from the effects of
“Poorer developing countries are often hit much harder. These results underscore
the particular vulnerability of poor countries to climate risks, despite the fact that
the absolute monetary damages are much higher in richer countries,” the group
said.
The report also ranked Burma as the worst-hit country in the world in 2008 due to
the impact of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated the Irrawaddy delta in early May,
“The huge number of fatalities in Myanmar [Burma] were caused by Cyclone Nargis
and revealed the low adaptive capacity of the country which, however, is also a
result of the political failure to embark upon serious disaster preparedness,” the
report said.
The report puts the death toll from the disaster at a relatively low figure of 85,000,
organizations, including the UN, have said that the cyclone killed as many as
The report notes that during the 18-year period it covers, almost 600,000 people
died in more than 11,000 extreme weather events, causing losses of $1.7 trillion.
As one of the world's least developed countries, Burma’s carbon footprint is not as
Although forests covered 344,237 km2, or 50.9 percent, of the country in 1989,
Burma's forest area is now 322,218.6 km2, or 47.62 percent of the total land area,
according to official statistics—a loss of more than 3 percent over the past two
decades.
result of unsustainable logging, particularly during the early years of the current
military regime's rule in the 1990s. At the time, the junta sold Burma’s forests
The regime first noticed the risk of deforestation in 1992, when then Forestry
Minister Lt-Gen Chit Swe announced the Forest Law, which designated reserved
forests for environmental and biodiversity conservation. At the same time, Burma
In the following years, the regime adopted legislation for sustainable forests such as
the “Protection of Wildlife and Wild Plant and Conservation of Natural Areas Law”
in 1994, the “Myanmar Forest Rules” in 1994, the “Myanmar Forest Policy” in 1995,
and the “Protection of Wildlife and Wild Plant and Conservation of Natural Areas
Rules” in 2002.
Burma ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2003 and authorized the National
But deforestation in the country is ongoing, despite forest protection laws. Burmese
including dams projects, and excessive consumption of firewood are challenges for
regime, such as Tay Za’s Htoo Trading, are permitted sell timber to foreign
companies, while cease-fire groups are doing the same in territories under their
control.
“The use of firewood by the public causes both deforestation and the release of
cooking.”
issues. Awpi Kyal, a well-known cartoonist who often focuses on the environment,
and magazines, but they are very academic and not written for the general public.”
Addressing a forum at the Bangkok Sheraton Grande Hotel, the Democrat Party
deputy secretary-general and former deputy foreign minister said, “A major source
[Burmese] government.”
than 500,000 and is thought to be the largest standing army in Southeast Asia.
Commenting on the Burmese junta's attempts to upgrade and expand its military,
Paribatra said, “Myanmar [Burma] has been modernizing [its military] for a long
Thailand spends less than 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on
Accurate figures for Burma's military spending are not available, but several
spending as a proportion of GDP has declined relative to the rest of southeast Asia
in recent years.
The increasingly close relationship between the Burmese junta and the Communist
regime in North Korea is also causing concern in Thailand. Both sides are
Focusing on domestic Burmese politics, Paribatra said that the lack of national
in the borderlands where ethnic minorities live. This would lead to more
to the north. More than 130,000 Burmese refugees already live in camps along
The Burmese junta's armed forces attacked the ethnic Kokang militia in northern
Shan State close to the Chinese border in late August, causing 37,000 refugees to
flee to China. It was suggested that this was a prelude to a wider assault on ethnic
minority groups.
Militias representing the 17 “cease-fire groups” have been ordered to become border
guard forces that would be part of the junta state security apparatus. However, most
have either refused or ignored the request, prompting speculation that the junta's
growing and well-equipped forces will attack the recalcitrant ethnic militias before
western Darfur region, where government forces and allied militias have carried out
Another source of concern for Thailand is the Burmese drug trade, he said. UN
figures show Burma produced an estimated 410 tons of opium in 2008 (enough to
make 40 tons of heroin), making the country the world's second-largest producer
after Afghanistan, which accounts for 90 percent of world output. Burma is also a
Economists believe the Thai economy depends on cheap Burmese labor provided by
He said gas piped from the Shwe Field helps meet Thailand's electricity needs even
though Burmese citizens frequently go without power, and this despite long-
standing allegations that junta forces have perpetrated atrocities and human rights
violations in the vicinity of the Yadana Pipeline, which carries the gas south to
Thailand.
Salween River, less than 50 km from the Thai-Burma border–though this has been
hit by recent fall-off in Thailand electricity needs. The drop in demand of 2,000
megawatts over the past year is more than the entire generating capacity in Burma.
He said Thailand's Burma policy appears contradictory and lacks a coherent overall
strategy, according to observers, who suggest Burma's ruling military are siphoning
off the revenues from Burma's natural resource exports for both personal use and to
finance the same massive military budget that is now causing concern in Bangkok.
Similarly, many of the Burmese refugees and migrants in Thailand have been
displaced by forced clearances and rights abuses carried out by junta forces.
On Nov. 23, a petition signed by 189 organizations was presented to Thai Prime
Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva which outlined the potential impacts of the Salween
project. It warned that while Thailand may benefit from greater electricity, it is also
likely to face another influx of Burmese refugees escaping human rights abuses at
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi had a 45-minute meeting on
Wednesday with the regime's specially appointed Relations Minister, Aung Kyi, at a
The reports, carried by AP and AFP, gave no details on the previously unannounced
meeting.
cooperate with the government in the national interest and with the aim of ending
The state-run media on Tuesday criticized Suu Kyi and her party, the National
Leagues for Democracy (NLD), for making public the text of her letters to Than
Shwe.
“The leak of Aung San Suu Kyi's letters to the media before they were received by
the leader of the government is intended to damage the image of the ruling
government, and this might delay the processes of the other side [the military
The two letters were sent by Suu Kyi to Than Shwe on Sept 28 and Nov 11. In the
first letter, Suu Kyi said she wanted to cooperate with the military government to
achieve an end to sanctions by the US and other Western countries. In the second
letter, she said she was willing to cooperate with the government in the national
interest.
The article in the state media also also faulted Suu Kyi's offer to cooperate with the
“She is the one who called for sanctions,” the article said. “Instead of clearly stating
her position on sanctions, her offer of wishing to cooperate with the government
only when the United States announced to practice both sanctions and direct
NLD spokesman Khin Maung Swe said the criticism was not necessarily an official
government reaction to the letters. “This is merely opinion of a columnist, not the
official response,” he said. “Yet I understand this would never have come to press
Khin Maung Swe described the article's accusations as cynical. Suu Kyi and her
party's central executive members did not intend to leak the text of the letters,
According to inquiries by The Irrawaddy, Suu Kyi's letters came into the
possession of some young party members before reaching the NLD central
executive members. They were asked to photocopy them, and the copies were
An initial investigation into the leak was subsequently suspended on Suu Kyi's
Than Shwe has no wish to talk to Suu Kyi, according to Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese
political analyst. “For Snr-Gen. Than Shwe, Aung San Suu Kyi is not included in his
Rumors have been circulating in Rangoon that Suu Kyi maybe released before long.
The speculation was fueled by the acceptance last month of a plea by Suu Kyi's
lawyers to lodge an appeal against her current sentence of 18 months house arrest.
more than $93 million worth of methamphetamine tablets and other illicit drugs
Myanmar, produced an
neighboring Thailand where abuse of the drug is rampant. Shan State is one of the
country's centers of drug production and trafficking. The drugs destroyed Tuesday
were seized over the past six months, and included several large hauls captured in
the Burmese-Thai border town of Tachilek, according to National Police Chief Brig-
Gen Khin Yi, who is also Secretary of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse
Control.
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Speaking at the ceremony, he said Burma did not produce the precursor chemicals
from neighboring countries. Recently, he added, the drug producers have been
smuggling in pharmaceutical drugs from which they extract ephedrine, the major
precursor.
Khin Yi said Burma is working closely with other countries in the region in the fight
against drugs and vowed to achieve the country's 15-year drug elimination plan,
Nyi Nyi Aung, the Burmese-American arrested in September, has been on a hunger
strike in Insein prison since Friday in protest against prison injustices, family
“He is demanding authorities deal with injustices and repression facing political
prisoners,” said Nyi Nyi Aung's aunt, Khin Khin Swe, who met him during
“He will not stop his hunger strike until and unless he sees better health care for
Since Nyi Nyi Aung, 40, launched his hunger strike, his family members have
“He still looks fine. But we are very worried about him,” said Khin Khin Swe.
Nyi Nyi Aung, a Burmese political activist who resettled in the United States as a
According to the Burmese state-run newspapers, Nyi Nyi Aung entered Burma eight
activities, he is now charged with using fake documents and carrying excessive
amounts of foreign currency into Burma, according to a press statement from the
According to AAPP, Nyi Nyi Aung was brutally tortured during the interrogation,
and his mother, 61, and a female cousin, 32, are serving long sentences in separate
“Hunger strikes sporadically take place inside Burma's prisons. The authorities
Hunger strikes usually happen when restrictions on prisoners are too severe.
Prisoners usually demand basic rights and better health care and food, according to
a former political prisoner, Bo Bo Oo, who was released last September after 20
years in jail.
Bo Bo Oo launched two hunger strikes, one lasting five days and another eleven
days while he was living in Myingyan prison, demanding journals and newspapers
to read and better food. Bo Bo Oo said the authorities later acceded to his demands.
But the authorities can sometimes be quite tough in handling prisoners' demands,
Bo Kyi said. “We have the case of Aung Kyaw Moe, a political prisoner who died in
Tharrawaddy Prison during a hunger strike calling for his release, which was long
overdue, in 1998.”
“Aung Kyaw Moe was ordered to halt his hunger strike and was beaten to death
when he refused to do so,” said Bo Kyi. “Sometimes, if the authorities do not wish to
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negotiate with the hunger-striking prisoners, they deprive them of water upon
A total of 2,173 political prisoners are being held in prisons throughout Burma.
Despite repeated calls by the international community for the release of political
Thousands of new refugees from eastern Burma are expected to seek shelter in
Thailand once the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) becomes a border
guard force under the Burmese military regime, says the Thailand Burma Border
Sally Thompson, the TBBC deputy director, noted that the joint offensive by the
DKBA and Burmese government troops forced some 4,000 refugees, mostly Karen,
to flee to Thailand when they attacked the Karen National Union (KNU) Brigade 7
area in June.
instigated partly in
order to reinforce
troop levels in
Karen refugees walk along a path on the Thai-
Burmese border in June. (Photo: Getty Images) preparation to become
“If they [the DKBA] decide to continue such recruitment, then we would expect to
Once the DKBA becomes a border guard force, it is expected that it will join the
Jack Dunford, the executive director of the TBBC, said refugee numbers will also
increase because many internally displaced people have sought safe sanctuary in
Another factor is whether the junta decides to wage military campaigns against the
ethnic cease-fire groups that refuse to disarm and transform their troops into a
border guard force, Dunford said. The regime has said border guard forces should
In the TBBC's latest survey on Oct. 31, it said more than 3,500 villages and
temporary gathering points in Karen, Karenni, Shan and Mon states in eastern
Burma as well as Pegu and Tenasserim divisions have been destroyed or forcibly
relocated since 1996, including 120 communities between August 2008 and July
2009.
About 75,000 people have been forced to leave their homes during the past year
and more than 500,000 Burmese are internally displaced, according to the survey.
“The scale of displaced villages is comparable to the situation in Darfur and has
The TBBC provides food and shelter to some 150,000 Burmese refugees in nine
According to the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar, the course was
of Recruiting Minors for Military Service, headed by Maj-Gen Ngwe Thein, and the
The New Light of Myanmar reported that the opening ceremony was attended by
officials from UNICEF, the office of the UN High Commissioner on Refugees and
However, another international body that concerns itself with the issue of child
soldiers, the International Labour Organization was not present on the list of those
attending.
The training program was initiated after a UN Security Council Working Group on
Children and Armed Conflict called in October for the establishment of courses,
children.
An estimated 70,000 child soldiers are reported to be serving in the Burmese army
and with armed cease-fire groups. Some are said to be as young as 11.
said the New York-based Human Rights Watch in its World Report 2009. “Non-
to the armed forces to recruits aged over 18, under the Myanmar (Burma) Defense
The current training program is the third to be held this year. The ICRC has
although the Burmese government had announced that nine military recruitment
officers had been discharged for violating the national military recruitment law, no
Human Rights Watch has said the UN Security Council had failed to act effectively
“The Security Council’s failure—in large part due to efforts by China to block a more
consider arms embargoes and other targeted measure against parties that
repeatedly recruit and use child soldiers,” Human Rights Watch said.
Saturday that Burma's military junta must be held accountable for human rights
“We have said over and over that there must be accountability for these human
rights violations,” she said, adding that those guilty of crimes against women should
be prosecuted.
happening [in Burma],” she said, adding that the US is committed to helping
Burmese women activists working both inside the country and in border areas.
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At the meeting, the activists talked about issues facing women in Burma, including
Another issue affecting women in Burma is the regime's practice of imprisoning its
Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the junta is currently holding 179
Tate Naing, the secretary of the AAPP, said many female prisoners in Burma are
interrogation. Some have also died in prison after suffering physical or mental
abuse.
Her Thailand visit and meeting with Burmese women activists was part of her Asian
tour to learn more about the state of women's rights in the region. She came to
Thailand from Malaysia and is scheduled to head to South Korea and Japan.
In Malaysia, Verveer met with victims of human trafficking, including two Burmese
women who were victims of sexual violence. “One had been gang-raped, and the
other was suffering terribly from trauma,” she said, adding that human trafficking
Asked about efforts to address the issue of human trafficking through cooperation
with regional governments, she said: “We should be doing more together. We have
to find solutions together.” However, she provided no details about specific actions
Verveer’s trip is also part of the UN's 16-day Global Campaign to End Violence
Against Women. Many organizations across the world have set up programs as part
of the campaign.
As ambassador for women's issues, Verveer has called on governments to follow the
women.
RANGOON — Many young people in Burma say they won't go to the polling booths
The poll asked people who were too young to vote in the 1990 general election
whether they would cast a ballot in the election slated to take place next year. The
results showed that many would stay away unless they felt that citizen's interests
were represented.
workers, four lawyers, seven manual laborers and a graduate from a military
academy.
Many of the respondents said they considered the 2010 election to be the official
conclusion of the prolonged period of military rule in Burma, but added that they
concerns.
Many said they expected junta-backed parties and organizations, such as veterans
associations and the the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a
pro-military mass organization, to compete in the election, but saw little likelihood
participate.
“The junta's USDA organization has engaged in many pre-election activities, such
bridge-building and other social welfare activities. They have been campaigning
quite extensively, well in advance of the election laws that will officially begin the
With less than a month to go before the start of 2010, the junta has yet to give any
indication when it will hold the election, except to say that it will take place
sometime next year. Many of those who responded to the poll said that the election
law, whenever it is announced, would likely make it difficult for political parties to
form and would also set many restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression
"The junta promulgated the Constitution as it liked and I am pretty sure they will
impose more restrictions to choke political parties with the coming election laws
Critics of the 2008 Constitution say that it contains many clauses that are contrary
parliament for the military. It also reserves more power for the commander-in-chief
of the armed forces than for the president and allows the top general to legally seize
"The constitution starts with a clause stating that the union must practice a
represents people's aspirations,” said a female lawyer who took part in the survey.
"Everyone should assist the military government with good will to transform from
military rule to civilian rule peacefully and smoothly. The 2010 election is only the
first step to a new democratic system without any bloodshed,” said a youth trainee
A 26-year-old military academy graduate also said that he strongly believed the
nation would change its administrative system after the 2010 election.
"It's not only our people who eager to see change. The army servicemen are also
hungry for change. Junior officers like us in the Burmese army are looking for
Some other respondents to the poll also expressed enthusiasm, even if they were
"Many young people are excited about the 2010 election, because it will give them a
chance to see what role they can play in the future of the nation,” said one IT
professional.
Some young people who are struggling to make ends meet expressed hope that the
"It is important for a household to be able to survive and live in well-being,” said a
factory worker who spoke with The Irrawaddy. “I will vote for whoever can create
For some respondents, however, the way the election is conducted matters more
Although the junta leaders have promised to hold the 2010 election in a free and
fair manner, there is every indication that the regime will continue to impose strict
"We haven't been allowed to freely publish news relating to the election until now.
The censorship board has actually increased its restrictions on news related to
politics and the election,” said a 27-journalist, adding that the election could not be
"If even journalists, who are regarded as the eyes and ears of a nation, can't express
their opinions freely, ordinary citizens will find it hard to make informed decisions.
But I don't see any prospect of media freedom in 2010," another local journalist
said.
Burma's military despot Snr-Gen Than Shwe surprised and confused his fellow
ignoring pressing political issues and instead devoting his speech to the
Than Shwe reportedly told his fellow generals at the meeting on Nov. 23-28 that
Burma is ready for a new government in line with his vision of a “disciplined
democracy,” and addressed numerous economic developments and projects for the
future.
normally dwells on petty internal matters, and methods of quelling political dissent
Than Shwe instead spoke of establishing solid business foundations in the country
During the meeting, sources say Than Shwe spoke confidently about the
development of the national economy and effused about the prospects of billions of
projects and the development of the Kyaukpyu deep sea port off the Arakan coast
related to oil and gas exploration and production. He also alluded to the Dawei deep
sea port project in southern Burma, spoke of expanding the shipping industry and
services sector, and predicted the Burmese economy would soon be “booming,” the
source said.
The military dictator reportedly went on to pledge that Burma will furthermore be
According to the military sources, the fact that Than Shwe did not address the
upcoming election and pending political concerns, such as Aung San Suu Kyi's
request for a meeting, suggests he is confident that his current strategy is working
The Euro-Burma Office (EBO) will focus funding on Burmese migrant workers and
internally displaced persons (IDPs) in ethnic areas where armed conflicts are active,
The decision came after the meeting between the Brussels-based EBO and Burmese
opposition, civil society groups and ethnic groups in Chiang Mai in northern
Yawnghwe said his organization wants to strengthen civil society groups assisting
Any group wanting to assist migrant workers or IDPs in armed conflict zones in
“Euro Burma want to set up committees to assist these groups and want to give
funds to them. Those who are interested are asked to submit proposals,” said Dr.
Thiha Maung, who attended the meeting and is the director of the National Health
It is likely that the EBO will secure some funding for exile-based aid groups as
Founded in 1997, the Brussels-based EBO helps the Burmese democracy movement
“International donor countries such as Sweden, Norway, Canada and Australia are
hoping for change in Burma in 2010 and want to focus aid directly inside Burma if
Harn Yawnghwe also said the EBO will provide financial supports to opposition
parties or ethnic groups that will contest in the general elections in 2010 if they
need support. This should not be misconstrued as EBO support for the Burmese
The aim of supporting those groups is to let them strive for democracy and ethnic
rights within any political space that might be opened up by the Burmese regime, he
added.
assistance directly inside Burma after they identified problems with cross-border
aid.
However, observers said both internally-based aid and cross-border aid are needed
since both reach different target populations, whether deep inside Burma or on the
Thai-Burmese border.
Due to international donors reducing their funding and distancing themselves from
cross-border aid projects, Mae Sot-based Mae Tao Clinic is concerned about
The number of outpatients coming to the clinic has grown by about 20 percent per
year, however.
The clinic, which treats Burmese migrants, refugees and Burmese people who cross
the border for medical treat, is struggling with a “major funding crisis.” It faces a
operating budget, according to Dr Cynthia Maung writing on the clinic's Web site
on Oct. 27.
Other border-based NGO aid groups are also struggling with the funding crisis,
Mon State being provided for by funding from donors such as the NHEC, for
Some leaders from European Union member states will probably meet with
A meeting between EU leaders and the Burmese prime minister could signal a shift
in the EU “no contact” policy with Burma that coincides with the new US policy of
The official from Sweden, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, told
The European Voice online, “There is an ongoing debate on whether and which EU
Harn Yawnghwe, the executive director of the Euro-Burma Office in Brussels, told
The Irrawaddy on Friday that a meeting between EU leaders and Thein Sein would
be positive.
“If you want to solve a problem, you need to meet the person you have a problem
with. This meeting will be good if they have in mind that they are willing to work to
The European Commission might not change its sanctions policy on Burma, he
said, but it might be willing to meet with Burmese officials, like the US. EU foreign
Some EU member states have voiced support for engaging with the junta. One of
the most vocal EU countries, France, has significant economic interests in Burma
through multinational companies, most notably the energy firm Total. Other
businesses are involved in the country in the areas of natural gas, timber and gems.
Burmese human rights activists have supported the new US policy, which keeps in
The EU extended economic sanctions one more year on April 27 after EU foreign
progress in meeting the international community’s calls for political change and to
The EU's stated goals in Burma are a peaceful transition to a legitimate civilian
Meanwhile, the EU has called for the ruling junta to hold the 2010 election in “a
also called for the release of all political prisoners including pro-democracy leader
Since 1996, the EU has held a common position on Burma. Following the junta’s
included a travel ban on top Burmese officials, an arms embargo and a freezing of
the assets in Europe of selected Burmese officials and their business partners.
It's official: Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special envoy to Burma, is leaving the job
that he has held since May 2007. According to recent reports, the former Nigerian
foreign minister, who has occupied various high-level positions at the world body
since serving as his country's permanent representative there in the 1990s, is slated
to become the head of the UN-African Union peacekeeping force in the conflict-hit
What will this mean for the people of Burma, who have lived through some of the
most tumultuous events of their recent history during Gambari's tenure? Alas,
precious little. Gambari—who liked to tell critics who faulted him for a lack of
results that his mission was “a process, not an event”—often seemed a hapless
demonstrations in 2007, and again when it was appalled by the generals' callous
response to Cyclone Nargis in 2008, Gambari proved wholly unequal to the task of
Last May, when Burma experienced the worst natural disaster in its recorded
history, Gambari was forced to step aside and let his boss, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, do the job of pressuring the regime to open the country's doors to
international aid. Then, when he finally visited Burma a few months later,
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's frustration with his perfunctory “process”
came to a head and she refused to meet with him. This was an unprecedented and
highly uncharacteristic rebuff from a person who has become virtually the
embodiment of the UN's professed values, and probably a sign that Gambari should
It was at this low point in his role as special envoy, in August 2008, that Burma
Campaign UK noted that from the time Gambari assumed his position,
• More than 130,000 people in eastern Burma had been forced from their homes as
• Political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, had been routinely denied access to doctors
Now, nearly a year and a half later, the situation is hardly any better. Indeed, if
anything, the regime has become even more repressive and disdainful of the
earlier this year and its continuing roundup of dissidents ahead of next year's
election.
It would, of course, be grossly unfair to lay responsibility for all of this entirely at
Gambari's feet. But the obvious shortcomings of his approach should serve as a
warning to his successor, who will need to actually achieve something if the UN's
efforts to end oppression in Burma are not to lose what little credibility they have
left.
The most important lesson to be learned from Gambari's failure is that it doesn't
In November 2007, the UN envoy earned some rare praise when he released a
statement from Suu Kyi that she had given him during their meeting earlier in the
month. Coming soon after Burma's worst political crisis in nearly two decades, the
protocol to accuse the UN of taking sides. When he returned to Burma the following
March, he was roundly scolded by the regime's propaganda minister and denied an
Sadly, this experience appears to have stayed with Gambari, weakening his resolve
to broach sensitive issues with the regime. By allowing himself to be cowed, he lost
the confidence of the Burmese people, who began to feel that he was merely going
through the motions. If, however, he had been prepared to take more flak for the
sake of fulfilling his stated mission, he would at least have given them some hope
that the UN was taking the country's problems seriously, and might even have stood
Now that he is leaving Burma, we can only wish him the best of luck with his new
posting. The people of Darfur, like the people of Burma, certainly need all the
support the international community can give them. But if all he is doing is adding
should consider leaving the job to someone who has the passion to do it properly.
COMMENTARY
Despite questions about the timing of his Nobel Peace Prize award, US President
Obama went to Oslo and accepted the honor. As expected in his acceptance speech,
the US president defended his earlier decision to order an additional 30,000 troops
to Afghanistan and the continuation of his war against the al Qaeda terrorist
movement.
Then he added: “To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism, it
is a recognition of history.”
In his speech, Obama mentioned Burma as one of the countries where there is
systematic abuse of human rights by a brutal and corrupt military regime. He paid
tribute to opposition leader and fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for her
Obama’s administration has changed the course of the official US policy on Burma,
been made so far. Burma’s paramount leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe doesn’t blink.
can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door.”
Defending his policy of engaging rogue regimes, Obama said: “Yes, there will be
those things fail. And the closer we stand together, the less likely we will be faced
Fine. We know that peace could not be attained without a fight. Suu Kyi’s father,
Gen Aung San, understood that independence from British colonialists and
Japanese occupiers could not be achieved without armed struggle. Burma’s ethnic
minorities took up arms against military leaders to fight for equal rights and
autonomy.
Since 1988, Burma’s urban nonviolent movement has made world headlines. But
despite the world's admiration, non-violence failed because of the regime's brutal
It's bitterly ironic that when students and activists in 1988 took up arms against the
regime in the jungle they were named “terrorists.” International donors refused to
Suu Kyi’s repeated calls to open meaningful political dialogue has fallen on deaf
ears. Monks and activists who marched peacefully on the streets of Burma's cities or
who involved themselves in the nonviolent struggle are now behind bars.
nonviolent movement could not have halted Burmese armies. Negotiations cannot
convince Burmese feudal warlords and thugs to lay down their arms.
COMMENTARY
During his visit to Asia, US President Barack Obama told Burmese military leaders
to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and urged the regime to ensure that
the 2010 elections are held in a “free, fair and transparent manner.”
Officials traveling with Obama also reiterated calls for a national dialogue involving
all political stakeholders in Burma, especially the opposition led by Suu Kyi and
ethnic groups.
junta to begin “a dialogue with all stakeholders to ensure that the process is fully
inclusive.”
The joint statement and Obama’s appeal to the recalcitrant regime to open up
Burma and free political prisoners were just symbolic gestures. They all know that
Burma, saying: “We have no illusions that any of this will be easy or quick.”
Let’s be clear: the new US policy on Burma is comprehensive and it has received
Burmese opposition inside and outside the country continues to count on the US
and many believe Washington has a negotiating role to play in Burma’s political
deadlock.
remains.
Recent history has indeed shown that engagement with the regime in Burma has
special envoys and regional leaders hoping to find a political solution. All left
Burma’s paramount leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe rarely makes any concessions
because he feels he doesn’t have to. There is no reason for him to act differently this
time.
After learning of the new US policy, Than Shwe is said to have told his subordinates
that the US and the international community now want to engage Naypyidaw
because they have finally realized the positive achievements of his regime.
It should come as no surprise that Than Shwe thinks this way. The world has
changed its approach to the regime, but it hasn’t changed its ways at all. No wonder
Nevertheless, after sending its first high-level mission to Burma in November, the
If Than Shwe doesn’t heed Obama’s call to free Suu Kyi and hold a free and fair
election, the new US administration’s engagement policy will look weak and
supplicatory.
Than Shwe should not be deluded into thinking that the US has unlimited patience
The plain fact is that Burma is no North Korea, where the US has a strategic interest
in containing the threat posed by the rogue regime in Pyongyang. The US will
continue its engagement with North Korea and even support the revival of the six-
party talks.
In the case of Burma, the new US administration has adopted a carrot and stick
approach and has offered a small window of opportunity that Than Shwe should not
ignore. It is highly unlikely, however, that Than Shwe will respond—he simply lacks
At the end of the day, the US doesn’t want to be embarrassed before the
Engagement could thus be rather short-lived. Washington could lose its patience
In the meantime, nothing changes for the oppressed people of Burma, who must be
asking themselves why the world has altered its tone and approach towards Burma
COMMENTARY
The recent rise in the value of the Burmese kyat against the US dollar is giving not
only currency traders cause for thought. Financial experts and market observers are
also looking into the likely reason for the newly won strength of the kyat, which has
appreciated from around 1,200 kyat to the dollar in mid-November to the current
Since 2005, when a dollar cost just 880 kyat, the Burmese currency steadily
declined in value, hitting a three-year low of 1,190 kyat to the dollar in January this
year. Since then, however, the downwards trend has reversed, and today the
currency trades on the black market at around 995 kyat to the dollar.
Traditionally, one of the most important factors that influence the exchange rate of
the kyat is the constant change in restrictions on imports and exports. When the
restrictions are tight on imports, there is less demand for US dollars in the market,
and the value of the kyat rises. When the import restrictions are relaxed, demand
for the US dollar rises and the value of the kyat falls. But this factor has not
Although Burma has no official currency market, the US dollar is always subject to
dollars in order to push up the value of the greenback, tricking other investors into
buying large amounts of the US currency. In the volatile market conditions that
In Burma, the US dollar holds sway in the street markets, although the Thai baht
and Chinese yuan are also often accepted, particularly in border trade, while such
convertible currencies as the Euro, the Japanese yen and Australian dollar are
shunned.
Large amounts of dollars change hands daily at Rangoon's Bogyoke Aung San
The market's currency dealers, who set the black market rate for the US dollar,
agree that the worldwide depreciation in the value of the greenback could be a
Dealers say a rise in the number of tourists visiting Burma is also contributing to
the rise in the value of the kyat. An official with Myanmar [Burma] Travels and
Tours, run by Burma's Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, has announced that tourist
numbers are up by at least 30 percent on last year. The 260,000-plus tourists who
visited the country during the past year contributed US $165 million to state coffers.
dealers, is the contribution in earnings from the trade in opium and amphetamines
The rise in the kyat coincided with the start of the cold season, when most opium
farmers harvest their crops. A currency dealer in Rangoon said: “The rate this time
the Chinese currency versus the kyat at the border has affected Rangoon.”
This theory finds support in a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
Stimulants and Other Drugs in East and South-East Asia,” UNODC representative
Gary Lewis told the reporters in Bangkok that Burma's armed ethnic groups—
stocks of illegal drugs in expectation of a junta crackdown. The regime has in recent
months stepped up its pressure on the ethnic groups ahead of the elections planned
for 2010.
If this theory stands, the main reasons for the kyat's appreciation seem to be
coming from events outside Naypyidaw’s control and are no indicator of the
But who knows? Like the US, Britain or any of the countries of the G8 that printed
money to get out of recession, Burma's ruling generals, who aren't known for their
skill in managing the country's economy, might be tempted to create more kyat
COMMENTARY
The regime in Burma is like climate change—if you don’t contain it now, it could be
catastrophic.
Seeing Burma going nowhere over the past decades, friends and foes of the regime
have reached the consensus that the country needs to make meaningful progress.
shakeup.
Washington’s new Burma policy is indeed shaking things up. However, we must be
realistic—external forces can only inject a dose of fresh air into political dynamism
in Burma. The plain fact is that change must come from within. So we’d better not
Burma and the briefing he gave on his talks there received positive feedback not
the need for national reconciliation and political dialogue, the problem of narcotics
and security questions. More importantly, the US has no plans to lift sanctions until
The new policy no doubt injected positive energy and some rare hope in Burma. The
visit of two high ranking US diplomats also created a good impression, although we
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that there is a lot of work to do
on Burma, saying: “We have no illusions that any of this will be easy or quick.”
We all know that no one has the magic pill to cure Burma’s ills.
Shwe and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, Clinton said Burma’s problems
It could be a win-win situation if Than Shwe and Suu Kyi wanted to make the most
of the positive energy released by the new US initiative and its policy of direct
engagement.
It is understandable that many are deeply skeptical about the sincerity of Than
Shwe and the slow pace of political progress in Burma. If Than Shwe took a
pragmatic approach, however, he could make the next move and strike a deal with
Suu Kyi.
The paramount leader of the regime has delivered little of substance in the past two
decades. Nonetheless, we all know that the election in 2010 will be his personal exit
This can be an opportunity for Suu Kyi. She could demonstrate that she is
pragmatic and a deal-maker, too. She could show that she is ready to help the
Since the mockery trial earlier this year, Suu Kyi is back in the political limelight.
She has won enormous support from the international community and her
There are reports in Rangoon that Suu Kyi, who has held talks with Than Shwe in
the past, is now asking for further meetings. Recently, she expressed her gratitude
Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), is planning to release an
important statement for the nation soon, the party spokesman said. How important
Political pundits say the NLD statement may include Suu Kyi’s stance on western
sanctions and the 2010 election. This indicates that Suu Kyi may make a
meaningful and pragmatic offer to Burma’s paramount leader, who wants the Lady
A statement by Suu Kyi and her next moves should spell out her own “climate
change” policy.
There is a wide belief among democratic forces that the 2010 general election will
be good for Burma—but are these optimists really aware of how the regime will
organize it?
Fourteen prime ministers for states and divisions will be selected by the president
and will select their own cabinet ministers. Elected or selected members of
parliament will play no role in the state’s cabinet. Parliament will convene
The only viable event in the whole process is the election of the president. As things
stand, only the regime's No 3, Thura Shwe Mann, is eligible for the post.
Like the 2008 referendum that paved the way for the 2010 election, the poll is
The aftermath, however, is uncertain. Nobody knows what will happen after the
Junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s instruction is to change the system but not the
The charade is nothing new in Burmese politics. In 1974, for instance, Gen Ne Win’s
ballot boxes but against the wishes of the majority of the people.
The 1974 election left the ruling council intact, with the chairmen of the townships
The slogan was democratic socialism but corruption became institutionalized. The
representatives.
Than Shwe is now following the same course. The players and the timeframe have
changed but the basic plot and aims are the same.
Public opinion is the last thing on the minds of Than Shwe and the other junta
generals. Their plan and its execution do not call for the participation of the citizens
The generals have their lackeys, minions and paid workers who will act according to
General Ne Win realized that he made mistakes, discovering in 1987 that he had
been badly deceived by his subordinates all along. Realizing his errors and believing
he could manipulate the situation, Ne Win abandoned his lieutenants and turned to
multiparty democracy.
But his deputies refused to enact his program for change, the Burmese Socialist
A wave of oppression followed, seriously damaging the people's morale. Then came
the events of 1988 and Than Shwe's unexpected assumption of power. By then, all
Ne Win began his failed campaign in 1974 but realized his failures only in 1987. He
chose to abandoned his colleagues and the party, which was badly misguided and
His attempt to change the system without changing the people behind it was a
failed endeavor from the start. Subordinates lied to him for fear of losing their
positions.
Than Shwe—who has also failed to recognize the true situation and has
The governing council thinks that 13 percent growth is a reality. Now that US $4
billion in natural gas revenue is sitting in the banks, it doesn't care any more. The
With increasing wealth and with nobody challenging his authority, Than Shwe
Now that US President Obama is proposing dialogue and a new policy on Burma,
Than Shwe might recognize the price he paid for friendship with China, which has
Technology, sending many young officers for training in the former communist
Gaining US friendship would have been a dream two years ago, but today it's a
reality. There is only factor in the way of making this friendship a lasting one—the
Until recently, Than Shwe recoiled at the very mention of Suu Kyi's name. Today he
realizes that his only chance of escaping without a scratch depends on her.
Suu Kyi’s cooperation is not possible, however, without real change. Political
prisoners must be freed and the unresolved 1990 election has to be settled. The new
The animosity towards Suu Kyi harbored over the years has also taken hold of Than
Shwe's followers, who are like-minded people. Now Than Shwe needs to win over
The hatred Than Shwe cultivated within the junta makes it difficult to change his
direction. He has to convince his own people how badly he needs her friendship to
This is the critical time for Than Shwe to seize his opportunity. He has to go against
the flow and reverse the trend he himself created. The obstacles won't be easy to
There is still enough time if Than Shwe wants to make the election really
This is the only way that he can emerged as a hero and escape Ne Win's fate. If he
With Suu Kyi's help, Than Shwe could be a savior of the nation. A truly democratic
government would provide a fresh start, with Than Shwe's influence still intact. The
The first step Than Shwe must take is to talk to Suu Kyi. Progress would then
naturally follow.
CONTRIBUTOR
Over the past month, Burma's military regime has arrested and put on trial dozens
of regime officials, civilian and military, for allegedly leaking top secrets to the
opposition and media. The alleged secrets included information about weapons
included Col Kyaw Kyaw Win, director general of the office of the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), and ex-Maj Win Naing Kyaw, former personal staff
Some of them face execution for treason. Others are likely to be sentenced to long
terms of imprisonment.
So why are opposition groups and global human rights campaigners failing to speak
out on the fate of these courageous military officers and their fellow insider-
dissidents?
dissident Aung San Suu Kyi and junta supremo Than Shwe, economic sanctions or
The typical lack of any sustained attention to the below-the-radar dynamic within
the military's power structure is perhaps the cardinal sin on the part of the
mainstream Burmese opposition and its Western supporters. This is not the first
time that the arrest and persecution of potentially mutinous regime insiders has
caught the opposition (and its worldwide web of human rights supporters,
As the unfolding story of these subversive insiders attests, there are, and will always
be, those who would want to push for change in their own ways. Evidently, chronic
purges and severe punishment of any potential mutineers within the system over
the past half-century have not killed off the desire for change on the part of some
members of the army's rank and file, just as long years of imprisonment and exile
Still, “rational”• Burma experts and civil society stakeholders have shown
Only five years ago, Than Shwe's regime purged the entire intelligence apparatus
preempt a potential mutiny by the clique that wished to work with Suu Kyi and
Now the same regime is putting on trial another group of officials and ex-officials,
this time for treason. The defendants are reportedly charged with leaking State
The regime views the leakage as a highly treasonous attempt to “nuclearize”• the
Burma issue in order to convince Western powers to take regime change seriously
Once again, the opposition and its human rights supporters globally are looking on
idly, showing no signs of solidarity with or empathy for these accused officials and
their families.
ignored the recurring pattern of resistance, revolt and mutiny, however small the
scale, on the part of those who eventually come to share our goal of undermining,
historical memories, may not be black and white. But in terms of power abuse,
usurpation and political repression there is no shade of gray. There are parties who
are categorically in the wrong. And they need to be removed, electorally or by any
means necessary.
No one understands and appreciates this more than successive waves of regime
less heroic and deserving of recognition and support than any card-carrying
dissident, from Suu Kyi and Win Tin down to the other lesser known non-violence
proponents.
Whatever their past wrongs against the NLD leader and her party, it was Gen Khin
Nyunt and his deputies in the military intelligence who actually saved Suu Kyi's life
when she and her supporters came under attack from the Than Shwe-orchestrated
mob who meant to kill her and her senior colleague ex-Gen Tin Oo in 2003.
Since the 1988 uprisings, the Burmese opposition, both inside the country and in
exile, has categorically failed to develop any political and strategic platform to
identify, recognize, support and cultivate ties with potentially enlightened soldiers.
In terms of lost opportunity, crying victim in the West and reciting the mantra of
Empirically speaking, these “few good men” chronically emerge from within the
cracks of the power structures, but only to be crushed, in large part because of a
Two major obstacles exist in the way of embracing and supporting soldier-
One is the inherent Western liberal bias against cultivating contacts with the
military and, conversely, in favor of western educated dissidents who utter well-
worn liberal buzz words such as “civil society,” “human rights,” “democracy,”
Speaking from my own experience, any civilian dissident trying to reach out to the
other camp is widely ostracized by the very same liberals and human rights
door between home and prison, who defies the junta on the street with great
courage and dignity. The greater the personal sacrifice, the greater their moral
capital.
Obviously reformist Burmese soldiers, from Capt Ohn Kyaw Myint, the1976 coup
leader who was hanged in Insein Prison, ex-General Tin Oo and the late Colonel Kyi
Maung of the NLD party, to Captain Khin Maung Nyunt (Defense Services
Academy/DSA In-take 1), Captain Thant Zin Myaing (DSA 11), Lt-Colonel Aye
Myint (Officers Training School Batch-25), Major Aung Lin Htut (DSA-20), and
Captain Sai Win Kyaw, all in exile, would not feign liberalism or calculatingly talk
the liberal talk in order to please Western ears or draw support from the media,
liberal governments,
understand what it would take to do the job of installing a more enlightened system
of governance.
Without recognizing, encouraging and supporting the heroic side of our soldiers
and their sense of duty to the country, no amount of democracy chants, human
I for one find it pathetically unprincipled that human rights campaigners have been
thunderously silent over the plight of hundreds of jailed military officers from Gen
these soldiers who are serving lengthy prison sentences ranging from 45 years to
150 years.
In fact, their trials were even more Kafkaesque than the partially televised trial of
Suu Kyi. The regime didn't even bother to give the world the impression of due-
process and judicial fairness when it was jailing its own officers left and right.
One of them, Foreign Minister Win Aung, a former major, died in Insein prison
only recently. Not one card-carrying human rights defender, Burmese or western,
has called attention to these systemic injustices, simply because these men are not
their average dissident. So much for the liberal principles of justice, fairness and
The other obstacle is a lack of a full understanding and appreciation of the crucial
role pro-change members of the security apparatuses play in shifting the balance of
group—has ever genuinely welcomed security and military veterans into their
networks, let alone seek the latter's strategic input or share resources, limelight and
There is much support for the victims of Burma's militarized state—fleeing refugees
and persecuted civilian dissidents, for instance—in the form of moral backing,
sympathetic media templates, sustained funding and organizational aid. But there
support for the soldiers who have risked their lives or positions of influence to
The first step towards mending this structural, strategic and ideological flaw is for
both the Burmese public at large and civilian dissidents in particular to start
their strategic push for change from within the very power structures of Burma's
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repressive state that is the single most crucial component of any strategy for
In our midst, there have been many unrecognized martyrs and unsung heroes who
necessity and a morally right thing to do. It's overdue—but certainly better late than
never.
Dr Zarni is a columnist for The Irrawaddy and Research Fellow on Burma at the
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ဖြဲ႔စည္းသင့္ပါသလဲ။ အန္အယ္ဒီပါတီ လက္ရွိ ဗဟိုအလုပ္အမႈေဆာင္တဦးျဖစ္တဲ့ ဦးဝင္းတင္ကို
ဘီဘီစီက ဆက္သြယ္ၿပီး ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစု ၾကည္ စတင္ေျပာဆိုလာၿပီျဖစ္တဲ့
ပါတီေခါင္းေဆာင္မႈ ေျပာင္းလဲမယ့္ကိစၥနဲ႔ပတ္သက္ၿပီး ဘယ္လိုသေဘာထားရပါလဲလို႔
ေမးၾကည့္ေတာ့ …
သတင္းမီဒီယာမ်ားက နအဖ၏
ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားထက္ လက္ဦးမႈရေန
မိုးမခ အေထာက္ေတာ္၊ ရန္ကုန္
ဟု အဆိုပါကားပြဲစားကေျပာသည္။
အဖဲြ႔ခ်ဳပ္ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ပုိင္း
အေျပာင္းအလဲလုပ္မည္
ဓာတ္ပုံသတင္း
အီၾကာေကြး ကြယ္လြန္
မုိးမခအေထာက္ေတာ္ အမွတ္ ဝ၁ဝ
ဴပည့္တန္ဆာ အလုပ္ႎႀင့္
အသက္ေမၾးဝမ္းေဳကာင္းဴပႂသူ ပိုမို မဵားဴပားလာ
ရန္ကုန္ရႀိ ႓မိႂႚနယ္အခဵိႂႚမႀာ ဴပည့္တန္ဆာအလုပ္နဲႛ အသက္ေမၾးဝမ္းေဳကာင္းဴပႂသူေတၾ ပိုမို
မဵားဴပားလာလ႖က္ ရႀိပၝတယ္။ မာဆက္ - အႎိႀပ္ခန္းလိုႛ ေခၝင္းစဥ္တပ္ထားတဲ့ ဇိမ္ခန္းေတၾနဲႛ
လူစည္ကားရာ ေနရာေတၾမႀာ ေဖာက္သည္ရႀာ လုပ္ကိုင္ေနဳကပၝတယ္။
Myanmar activists, resident in Japan, hold portraits of Myanmar democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi in Tokyo
High-ranking officers from the Myanmar military watch an armed forces parade in the
administrative capital of Naypyidaw
YANGON — Myanmar's junta allowed detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to
meet with three elderly senior members of her party Wednesday in a rare concession by the
military regime.
The democracy icon was taken to a state guesthouse in Yangon for the talks with 92-year-
old party chairman Aung Shwe, secretary Lwin, 85, and executive committee member Lun
Tin, 89, all of whom are in poor health.
"The authorities allowed us to meet Aung San Suu Kyi privately at the guesthouse. She paid
her respects to us and gave presents and fruit baskets," said Lwin after the meeting, which
lasted about 45 minutes.
"Aung San Suu Kyi asked us to allow her to reorganise the central executive committee. We
accepted her request," he added. Most of the party's current 11-member committee are very
old.
In a letter to Myanmar's military strongman Than Shwe last month, Suu Kyi requested she
be allowed to visit the three men.
"Daw Suu accepted the authorities' suggestion to meet them all in one place for security
reasons," her lawyer and NLD spokesman Nyan Win told reporters on Tuesday. Daw is a
term of respect in Myanmar.
The visit followed a meeting between Suu Kyi and junta liaison officer Aung Kyi last
Wednesday -- their third since the beginning of October -- where they discussed her letter to
Than Shwe, Nyan Win said.
In the correspondence, she also asked to meet with the junta chief himself and said she
wanted to cooperate with the government to get sanctions against Myanmar lifted for the
benefit of the country.
"Daw Suu is also expecting the rest of her requests to be fulfilled. She's optimistic about her
letter," Nyan Win said.
Suu Kyi has been locked up for 14 of the past 20 years and was ordered in August to spend
another 18 months in detention after being convicted over an incident in which an American
man swam to her house.
The country's supreme court has agreed to hear a final appeal against the 64-year-old's
house arrest next Monday, after a lower court rejected an initial appeal in October.
The extension of her detention after a trial at Yangon's notorious Insein Prison sparked
international outrage as it effectively keeps her off the stage for elections promised by the
regime some time in 2010.
In another letter to Than Shwe in September, Suu Kyi offered suggestions for getting
Western sanctions lifted and requested a meeting with senior Western diplomats in Yangon,
which she was also granted.
In recent months the United States, followed by the European Union, has shifted towards a
policy of greater engagement with Myanmar -- which has been under military rule since
1962 -- with sanctions failing to bear fruit.
In November the regime allowed Suu Kyi to make a rare appearance in front of the media
after she held talks with US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the most senior US
official to visit Myanmar in 14 years.
Despite an apparent shift in relations between Suu Kyi and the junta, state media last week
accused her of being "insincere" and "dishonest" in sending letters to Than Shwe and
accused her of leaking them to foreign media.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said her change of tack after years of favouring
sanctions was "highly questionable".
YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar's detained opposition leader was allowed out of her
home Wednesday to meet three ailing elders of her political party, with whom she discussed
a reorganization of its leadership.
Reporters were not allowed to observe the meeting, but witnessed cars driving both Aung
San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, and her National League for Democracy colleagues
to a state guest house usually used for meetings with the detained opposition leader.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, 64, met for about 45 minutes with party chairman
Aung Shwe, 91, Secretary U Lwin, 86, and Lun Tin, 88. Suu Kyi was last allowed to meet
with her party's leadership at a state guest house in January 2008.
U Lwin told reporters afterward that Suu Kyi told them she wanted to reorganize the party's
Central Executive Committee and needed their permission to do so.
He said that they agreed to the proposal and told her that they would continue "to support
and stand for the party."
Myanmar's military government has said it will hold a general election year, but has not yet
set an exact date or passed the necessary laws. Suu Kyi's party won the last election in 1990,
but the military refused to allow it to take power.
The constitution adopted last year that set up next year's polls was considered undemocratic
by the NLD, and it has not yet committed to taking part. The constitution has clauses that
U Lwin said Suu Kyi paid her respects in a traditional manner to the elders, kneeling in
front of them, and gave them gifts of baskets containing fruit and nutritional drinks and
medicine.
He said Suu Kyi was happy to see them and they felt the same way.
"We haven't seen her for a long time. She looks a bit thinner," said U Lwin.
The meeting came more than a month after Suu Kyi sent a letter to junta chief Senior Gen.
Than Shwe. In it, she sought permission to meet several elderly colleagues, and separately
with other members of her party's central executive committee. She also requested a
meeting with the junta chief to discuss how they can cooperate for the national interest.
The government's liaison with Suu Kyi, Relations Minister Aung Kyi, informed her last
week that she would be allowed to meet the elderly party leaders, though not where she
requested — at their homes — but at a place arranged by authorities.
Suu Kyi's legal team will present their arguments at the Supreme Court next Monday
appealing against this year's extension of her house arrest. She has been detained for about
14 of the past 20 years.
by Zhang Yunfei
YANGON, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The neighborly and friendly ties of China and
Myanmar continue to develop with concrete cooperation deepening in every
sector, thanks to the joint efforts by the two countries, said Chinese Ambassador
to Myanmar Ye Dabo on Thursday.
The two sides have enhanced mutual understanding, supported each other on
major issues of common concern, closely coordinated over international and
regional affairs and experienced the test of change in international climate with
Since entering into the new century, under the joint efforts of the two
countries, the Sino-Myanmar neighborly, friendly and cooperative ties have
continued to develop with frequent exchange of visits at high level, Ye said,
adding that the exchange and cooperation in sectors such as culture, education
and religion as well as combating of transnational crimes have been further
enhanced.
The cooperation of the two sides in the sectors of hydropower, oil and gas,
road and rail transport, communications, agriculture and mining has seen
continuous expansion.
On Oct. 31 this year, a cornerstone was laid to build a crude oil port of the
China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline project on in Maday island in Kyaukphyu,
Myanmar's Rakhine state, which is of great significance in further enhancing the
two countries' economic and trade cooperation, pushing the economic
development of areas along which the project lies and improving the regional
people's living standard, he said.
Ye also recalled that for the past long period, leaders of the two countries
have always maintained frequent reciprocal visits. In 2000, Vice Chairman of
Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Vice Senior-General
Maung Aye and then Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao exchanged visits, inking
a joint statement on the framework covering future bilateral cooperation.
In 2001 and 2003, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Myanmar SPDC
Chairman Senior-General Than Shwe also exchanged visits.
On the sideline of the recent series of East Asia Summits, leaders of the two
countries met again and had broad and in-depth exchange of views over the
Sino-Myanmar bilateral ties and international and regional issues of common
concern.
During the visit, Vice President Xi will meet Myanmar leadership such as
Chairman Than Shwe and Vice Chairman Maung Aye. They will exchange views
on further developing Sino-Myanmar neighborly, friendly and cooperative ties.
Besides, the two sides will also sign a series of cooperative agreements, he
revealed.
He also emphasized that Xi's Myanmar visit, which comes amid the deep
evolution of international situation, impact of international financial crisis on each
country and on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the
diplomatic relations between China and Myanmar, is bound to generate positive,
far-reaching and major influence on the bilateral ties under new situation and it
will push the bilateral ties towards a long and stable neighborly, friendly and
cooperative ones with new vigor.
Editor: Li Xianzhi
Her party won a landslide victory in national elections in 1990, and she
was elected prime minister. The election results were annulled by the
junta, which has continued to govern ever since.
Here are five facts about relations between the two countries:
* Burma, as the country was then known, was one of the first countries to
recognise the People's Republic of China in 1949. But relations soured in the
1960s following anti-Chinese riots in Rangoon (now called Yangon).
* China has invested more than $1 billion in Myanmar, primarily in the mining
sector, and is the country's fourth largest foreign investor, state media say.
Bilateral trade grew more than one-quarter last year to about $2.63 billion.
Chinese firms are also heavily involved in logging in Myanmar.
* Myanmar gives China access to the Indian Ocean, not only for imports of
oil and gas and exports from landlocked southwestern Chinese provinces,
but also potentially for military bases or listening posts.
In October, China's CNPC started building a crude oil port in Myanmar, part
of a pipeline project aimed at cutting out the long detour oil cargoes take
through the congested and strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait.
[ID:nPEK34572]
* The friendship has had rocky patches. In August, refugees flooded across
into China following fighting on the Myanmar side of the border, angering
Beijing.
vrf;jyMu,fjrefrmpmMunfYwdkuf ( pifumyl ) vufa&G;pifaqmif;yg;rsm; twGJ 113 203
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Opium production increased for the third successive year and rose by 11
percent this year, with Shan State providing 95 percent of the poppy in
Myanmar, the world's second-biggest opium producer after Afghanistan,
according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Myanmar's army has maintained a sizable presence over the past few
months in Shan State, where rebel militias are braced for an offensive that
analysts said could turn into a protracted conflict, creating a refugee crisis for
neighbouring China.
The junta wants ethnic groups to take part in a general election next year
and has told local militias to disarm and join a government-run border patrol
force or be wiped out, according to activists in Shan State.
The military overwhelmed and disarmed the Kokang group, the weakest of
the ethnic armies, in August after several days of fighting. That triggered an
exodus of more than 37,000 refugees across the border and strained ties
with China, its only real diplomatic ally.
UNODC said the amount of land dedicated to growing opium -- a thick paste
from poppy used to make heroin -- had increased by 50 percent since 2006
to 31,700 hectares in Myanmar.
Despite the rise in cultivation, the report said the potential value of opium
production in Myanmar had fallen by 15 percent to $104 million (64 million
pounds) in 2009 from $123 million.
အင္းလ်ားကန္ ေရကူးသမား
ဂြ်န္ ဝီလ်ံ ယက္ေထာ (ဓာတ္ပုံ
- AFP)
UNODC ေျပာသည့္
‘ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံဘိန္းထြက္ႏႈန္း ၂ ဆတိုး’
နအဖထိန္းခ်ဳပ္နယ္ေျမျဖစ္
ၾကာသပေတးေန႕၊ 17 ဒီဇင္ဘာလ 2009 သွ်မ္းသံေတာ္ဆင့္
ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၁၄ ရက္ ထိုင္းႏိုင္ငံဘန္ေကာက္ၿမိဳ႕UNODC ၏ သတင္းစာ႐ွင္းလင္းပြဲမွ
‘ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံဘိန္းထြက္ႏႈန္း ၂ ဆတိုး’ ေၾကာင္း ထုတ္ျပန္ေျပာဆိုရာ
သွ်မ္းျပည္မူးယစ္ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ေလ့လာေရးအဖြဲ႕က အဆိုပါဘိန္းထြက္ေဒသသည္ နအဖ
ထိန္းခ်ဳပ္နယ္ေျမျဖစ္သည္ဟု ေျပာဆိုလိုက္ပါသည္။
သွ်မ္းျပည္ထြက္ ဘိန္းမည္း
မူးယစ္ေဆး၀ါးထုတ္လုပ္ေရာင္းခ်ေရးလုပ္ငန္းဟူသည္မွာ ထုတ္လုပ္သူကိုယ္တိုင္
သယ္ယူပို႕ေဆာင္ေရာင္း၀ယ္ျခင္း ထံုးစံမ႐ွိေၾကာင္း ၀ယ္ယူမည့္သူကိုယ္တိုင္သာလွ်င္
ထုတ္လုပ္သည့္နယ္ေျမတြင္း သြားေရာက္သယ္ယူရေၾကာင္း အဆို ပါပုဂၢိဳလ္က
ဆက္ေျပာျပပါသည္။
Two ceasefire groups, since their acceptance “in principle” of the paramilitary status
under the Burma Army’s supervision, are under pressure to submit their lists of
strength and weapons.
The Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’’s meeting at Hsengkeow base in Hsipaw
township, Shan State North, held since last week, has postponed conclusion to 18
December from 15 December, as its leaders are still unable to find enough fighters
to fill the 900-1,000 quota set by junta authorities.
The Burma Army, on the other hand, has been giving the two groups’ giant ally the
United Wa State Army (UWSA) a wide berth. “We have heard nothing from
The SSA ‘North’ covers the Wa’s western flank while the NDAA its southeastern
flank.
“It appears China’s efforts to temper both belligerents with reason isn’t working,”
said a businessman who recently returned from the Sino-Burma border.
One of the Burma Army’s top commanders, Chairman of Shan State (East) Peace
and Development Council and Commander of Kengtung-based Triangle Region
Command Maj-Gen Kyaw Phyoe is now making a visit to border areas with
Thailand, where the junta-back militia units and another ceasefire group, the United
Wa State Army (UWSA)’s southern fighters are active, according to sources from
the border.
Local authorities cited that the general’s trip was only to look over improvement of
local developments and condition of the junta newly expanded militia units, said a
resident from Pongpakhem, a sub-township of Mongton township, opposite
Chiangmai.
A border watcher said that the general’s trip might be for three
reasons: to inspect militia conditions, to inspect improvement of
local hydropower plants and to keep persuading the UWSA’s
171st Military Region to transform into a Border Guard Force
(BGF).
Militias in Mongton are reported to have applied for teakwood concession from BP1
(Boundary Pillar#1), the border pass between Mongton township and Chiangdao of
Chiangmai province, to Mongton, in order to be able to buy enough supplies to
vrf;jyMu,fjrefrmpmMunfYwdkuf ( pifumyl ) vufa&G;pifaqmif;yg;rsm; twGJ 113 209
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provide and look after their men, said a resident from Nakawngmu, a village in
Pongpakhem sub-township, 29 miles north of Chiangmai border.
Mongton township militia head is Tin Win and Ja Pikoi, based in Pongpakhem and
Jakaw, based in Mongton are deputy commanders.
The general was reported to have come on 14 December, along with 8 trucks (4
six-wheels and 4 four-wheels) and went through to Mongjawd, 20 miles west
opposite Chiangmai's Wianghaeng District, where the UWSA’s 772nd brigade is
based, said the source.
On the next day, the general returned to Nakawngmu-based Infantry Battalion (IB)
#65 base and continued his trip to Pongpakhem accompanied by a Lahu militia
truck led by Ja Pikoi and another Wa truck on 16 December.
He is now said to be at Hwe Pakhee (Lahu village), 18 miles (29 km) north of BP1.
The non-ceasefire leader Yawdserk of Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ has warned
ceasefire groups opposed to the Border Guard Force (BGF) program setout by
Naypyitaw of the need to beware of who among the leadership is in favor of the
program, citing his experience with the Mong Tai Army (MTA) led by the late Khun
Sa ((1934-2007).
“Whenever the people, the officers and men were asked whether or not to
surrender, all were unanimously against surrender,” he recalled the events
preceding the MTA’s surrender on 7 January 1997. “We were completely unaware
that Khun Sa and his inner circle had already agreed to turn themselves over to the
junta. By the time we knew what was going on, it was already over.”
Following the unanticipated mutiny by Col Gunyawd on 6 June 1995 and the
resultant mass desertions to him, Khun Sa had sent trusted emissaries including
his uncle Khun Hseng to Rangoon calling for a ceasefire, the same status as other
movements that had preceded him, notably the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and
Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). Rangoon, in light of both the
international and regional blacklisting of Khun Sa as a druglord, had rejected the
offer and instead demanded total surrender, to which he quietly acquiesced.
Until then, the MTA was recognized by Rangoon as the strongest armed resistance
movement.
To date, 7 ceasefire groups including the Kokang that was attacked and subdued in
August have agreed to the BGF program. Only 6 remain defiant to the demand
which include KIO, UWSA, Mongla, SSA ‘North’, Kayan New Land Party (KNLP)
and New Mon State Party (NMSP), all of which are undergoing pressure to give in.
“By clever maneuvering by the minority, the majority could find themselves
checkmated if they are not on the lookout,” Yawdserk, 52, who had served as a
field commander in the MTA 13 years ago. “I myself was able to break out of the
cordon only after the surrender.”
vrf;jyMu,fjrefrmpmMunfYwdkuf ( pifumyl ) vufa&G;pifaqmif;yg;rsm; twGJ 113 210
jynfolvlxktaygif;cHpm;ae&aom qif;&J'kuQrsdK;pHkrS vGwfajrmufatmif ppftm%m&Sifpepfudk t&ifOD;qHk;wdkufzsufjypf&rnf/
Two days after the MTA force in Pang Maisoong, opposite Chiangmai, surrendered
on 25 January 1996, Yawdserk escaped with 300 men to form what later became
the SSA ‘South’, which together with the Karen National Union (KNU) and the
Karenni National Progress Party (KNPP), remain the principal armed opposition
movements still fighting against Burma’s military rulers.
According to him, the general detained and executed all drug dealers who used to
work with him in order to shut down information and then put the blame on Kokang
when the group refused to accept the Naypitaw’s proposal to transform their force
into Border Guard Force (BGF).
Since April, the Burmese military junta has been pressurizing all ethnic ceasefire
groups to transform into a border guard force under the regime’s control ahead of
its proposed general elections in 2010.
On 24 August, Kokang was raided by the Burma Army for allegedly having an
illegal arms factory and a drug refinery in its area. Actually, the Kokang region was
already recognized as drug free zone by the Burma Army in 2002. It two allies:
Mongla aka National Democratic Alliance Army –Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS)
and the United Wa State Army (UWSA) were also recognized as drug free in 1997
and 2005 respectively.
“It is impossible for any group to be in the trade without the junta’s helping hand,”
he said.
Prior to the August incident, the ceasefire groups, especially Kokang, Wa and
Mongla, have already been recognized by the UN and the ruling military council for
their anti-drugs efforts. “We cannot therefore take the latest report as 100%
correct,” he said.
aemufqufwGJ
Appendix