Myanmar to chair ASEAN chair despite rights record
By NINIEK KARMINI, Associated Press – Sun May 8, 1:39 am ET
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Myanmar will likely take over the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014 despite the military-dominated country's record on human rights.
The regional grouping is supposed to rotate the post every year between its 10 member countries.
Myanmar was forced to skip its turn in 2005 after coming under heavy pressure from the international community over slow progress on national reconciliation and human rights.
A draft of the ASEAN chairman statement seen by The Associated Press — and to be issued at the close of a two-day summit later Sunday — says Southeast Asian leaders "consented to the proposal of Myanmar that it would host the ASEAN Summits in 2014."
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Southeast Asian leaders have made little headway in helping Thailand and Cambodia end deadly clashes along their disputed border.
The two sides held talks Sunday — mediated by Indonesia's president — but failed to reach an agreement.
Repeated outbreaks of fighting along the border have claimed nearly 20 lives in the last two weeks and sent 100,000 people fleeing from their homes.
The dispute is allegedly over control of ancient temples claimed by the two nations. It has stirred nationalist sentiment on both sides, but analysts say domestic politics is fanning the fire.
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told reporters after Sunday's meeting: "There's no conclusion. We'll need further talks after this."
*******************************************************
Thai, Cambodian PMs fail to end border dispute
By NINIEK KARMINI, Associated Press – Sun May 8, 9:23 am ET
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Southeast Asian leaders made little headway Sunday in helping Thailand and Cambodia end a deadly border dispute that could undermine peace and stability in the region as it pushes for economic integration.
The prime ministers of the two feuding nations held talks Sunday — mediated by Indonesia's president — as part of efforts to hammer out a lasting cease-fire.
But neither seemed in any mood to back down.
"There's no conclusion," Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told reporters after the trilateral meeting, providing few details. "We'll need further talks after this."
Other topics discussed during the two-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit included Myanmar's successful bid to take over the rotating chair of the regional grouping in 2014 and concerns about spiraling food and energy prices and maritime security.
The 10 heads of state were especially nervous about the potentially oil-rich Spratly islands, claimed in whole or in part by China and four ASEAN members — Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam.
The smaller nations, together with the U.S., worry that China may use its military might to seize the area outright or assume de facto control with naval patrols.
That could threaten one of the world's busiest commercial sea lanes.
"We deemed the South China Sea issue, in all its various dimensions, as having the potential to undermine the stability of our region," according to the final communique released after the meeting.
Member countries agreed to work toward ending a nine-year disagreement with China that has blocked completion of guidelines for an accord aimed at preventing armed conflicts over the disputed islands.
As part of that deal, the claimant nations could pursue joint development projects to ease tensions in the South China Sea region.
The annual summit was supposed to focus on developing an integrated regional economic zone by 2015.
But Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the host, said in his opening statement that little can be accomplished without peace and stability among member countries.
To that end, he agreed to mediate the talks Sunday between the Cambodian and Thai prime ministers about repeated outbreaks of fighting that have killed nearly 20 people in the last two weeks. Another 100,000 fled their homes at the peak of the clashes.
The deadly spat — allegedly over control of ancient temples claimed by the two nations — has stirred nationalist sentiment on both sides.
But analysts say domestic politics is fanning the fire, especially in Thailand, where the military that staged a coup in 2006 could be posturing ahead of elections expected as early as next month.
Neither side appeared ready to budge, however.
During the plenary session on Saturday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen called a demand by Thailand to withdraw troops from the area before it allows for the deployment of outside military observers both "irrational and unacceptable."
"It's Thailand that has to withdraw its troops from the vicinity," he said, reiterating his position to reporters following Sunday's three-way talks.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said that while "differences remain," the two sides agreed, at least, that future talks about the disputed border should include the major sticking point about where troops from each country should be deployed.
"The ultimate objective must be to achieve lasting peace" not to score "political points," he said, agreeing with Hun Sen to allow their foreign ministers to continue the dialogue on Monday.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's president, Thein Sein, who heads the military-backed party that overwhelmingly won general elections late last year, won approval for his request to chair ASEAN in 2014 despite concerns about his country's human rights record.
The regional grouping chairmanship is supposed to rotate annually among its 10 member countries.
Myanmar was forced to skip its turn in 2005, however, after heavy pressure from the international community over slow progress on human rights and other issues.
The final communique said Southeast Asian leaders "consented" to Thein Sein's proposal.
ASEAN is comprised of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
*******************************************************
Myanmar row, Thai-Cambodia spat cloud ASEAN summit
by Martin Abbugao – Sat May 7, 3:08 am ET
JAKARTA (AFP) – Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Indonesia on Saturday under the cloud of conflict on the Thai-Cambodia border and ongoing rights abuses in Myanmar.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened the two-day summit in his country's capital, which is expected to focus on long-term efforts to create a closely integrated regional economic zone by 2015.
Other issues expected to be addressed include the scourge of human trafficking in the region, food security, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and East Timor's membership bid.
But even before the presidents and prime ministers of the disparate 10-nation bloc sat down in Jakarta's cavernous convention centre, their discussions had been framed by negative news from troubled member states.
Myanmar stole the headlines on Friday when it was announced that the military-led country and serial human rights abuser had asked to chair the group in 2014.
US-based Human Rights Watch said ASEAN, already struggling for credibility, would become the "laughing stock of intergovernmental forums" if it gave the chair to such a pariah state.
ASEAN leaders are also facing mounting pressure to help end a bloody border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia which has claimed 18 lives and temporarily displaced 85,000 people in recent months.
"We realise that to ensure a peaceful and stable East Asia region, we must ensure stability and security in our region," Yudhoyono said in his opening speech.
"If conflict occurs, ASEAN must be capable of facilitating a forum for diplomacy and open dialogue with the intent of attaining common peace."
Until now, conflict resolution has been alien to a trade-focused group that works on a principle of non-interference in members' internal affairs, despite criticism over the years that it is nothing but a talking shop.
Its halting efforts to negotiate an end to the Thai-Cambodian conflict -- a move described by ASEAN chief Surin Pitsuwan as a "great leap forward" -- are being closely watched as a litmus test of its lofty ambitions to create a more integrated regional economic and security community in just four years' time.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa met his counterparts from both countries in Jakarta on Friday and said they had agreed to accept 15 Indonesian military observers on each side of the disputed frontier.
But he said the modest observer mission, which would have no power to police a ceasefire, had yet to be dispatched because of disagreements over troop locations.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a ceasefire and said the neighbours should launch "serious dialogue", while backing ASEAN's mediation role. Washington has also said it supports ASEAN's efforts.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Myanmar skipped its turn to chair ASEAN in 2006 due to international pressure for democratic reforms, but only on condition that it could ask to lead the group when it felt it was ready.
The country's president Thein Sein met President Yudhoyono -- both former generals -- in Jakarta on Thursday on what is his first trip abroad as president since he was sworn in on March 30.
Natalegawa confirmed Myanmar's request would be discussed but suggested that a decision would be deferred until the country's "readiness" for the job could be assessed.
The military-led nation is a constant source of embarrassment for ASEAN's more democratic states, trumping other problem members such as communist Vietnam and Laos, which have significant human rights issues of their own.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in November shortly after an election, the country's first in 20 years, that led to the handover of power from the military to a nominally civilian government.
Her release was welcomed worldwide, but Western governments which impose sanctions on Myanmar want the new government to do more to demonstrate its commitment to human rights.
In his opening speech, Yudhoyono warned fellow Southeast Asian states that rising food and energy prices could drive more people into poverty and urged coordinated action to fight inflation.
"History shows that the rise of food and energy prices... has always caused the increase in the number of people living in poverty," he said.
*******************************************************
EU expects to agree Singapore FTA this year, more in 2012
2011-05-06 10:24:54 GMT (Reuters)
By Andrew Marshall
JAKARTA, May 6 (Reuters) - The European Union expects to finalise its first free trade agreement with a southeast Asian country this year -- most probably a deal with Singapore -- with more to follow in 2012, Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said on Friday.
Talks on a bloc-to-bloc trade deal between the EU and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) were abandoned in 2009, and the EU instead began exploring pacts with individual countries in the region.
Negotiations with both Singapore and Malaysia are under way, and the EU hopes to start discussing free trade deals with Indonesia and Vietnam, De Gucht told a briefing for reporters, as well as Thailand after it holds an election this year.
Asked for a tentative timetable for deals to be agreed, De Gucht said: "We hope to finalise one this year, more next year and the rest in 2013." Asked which country would agree an FTA this year, he said the "highest possibility" was Singapore, which opened free trade talks with the Europeans in 2010.
That would mean an agreement with Malaysia was expected in 2012, with possible deals with Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines in 2012 or 2013.
The timetable was for deals to be agreed -- ratification usually takes about another year.
On Wednesday, South Korea's parliament approved a free trade agreement with the EU, clearing the last hurdle before it takes effect in July. Talks on the deal had begun in 2007,
with the EU racing the United States to be the first to strike a deal with Seoul. The U.S. FTA remains some way from completion, although both sides say they hope to conclude it by end-year.
The deal was the most ambitious bilateral FTA ever negotiated by the EU, according to De Gucht, and could provide an impetus for other Asian countries to seek an agreement.
HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE COMPLICATE NEGOTIATIONS
De Gucht said there were two key reasons for the abandonment of efforts to strike a bloc-to-bloc deal between the EU and ASEAN -- wide differences in the level of development of different ASEAN nations that made a single deal extremely difficult; and the issue of Myanmar's membership.
The EU imposes economic sanctions on Myanmar because of the country's failure to install a legitimate civilian government. Most sanctions have remained in place despite
elections in Myanmar last year to select members of a parliament that has ostensibly taken over from the military in running the country.
The EU and other Western nations have said this process was a sham and the same people remain in charge, with real democracy still distant.
Myanmar, however, is by no means the only country in the region to have a deficit of democracy and an appalling human rights record. Laos and Vietnam are often criticised for rights violations, Thailand and Cambodia have been slipping towards greater authoritarianism, and Singapore, which holds an election on Saturday, is nevertheless effectively a one-party state.
De Gucht denied that the EU was singling out Myanmar in making that country a pariah when many of its neighbours were little better. He noted that before entering into FTA talks with any country, the EU first insisted on a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) which sets out expected standards for human rights, labour conditions and political progress.
The ASEAN bloc says it aims to become a fully integrated economic region in 2015 -- although many analysts regard this target as wildly optimistic given differing levels of development and multiple ongoing bilateral feuds, most seriously the border skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia.
De Gucht said the EU would continue negotiating trade deals with the region on a bilateral basis, and if and when an integrated ASEAN economy comes into effect, this would be the time to resume bloc-to-bloc negotiations.
*******************************************************
Reuters AlertNet - Libraries for Myanmar’s Monastic Schools
06 May 2011 16:26
Source: member // Karen Matthee
Myanmar has always had a thriving literary community. Books and magazines were available to rent for a few cents in every small township from stalls and public libraries. But access to reading materials, especially for poor children, has become severely limited.
Clear Path International aims to reignite the love of books and reading in Myanmar, and to extend children’s learning beyond the boundaries of the national curriculum. By partnering with a local nonprofit organization that promotes literacy and access to children’s books, CPI will create libraries in nine monastic schools within three years, and provide materials and support activities that encourage both children and parents to read at community-based libraries in suburbs of Yangon.
Clear Path is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that assists landmine survivors and others disabled or displaced by armed conflict in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan. The $20,000 monastic school project is an extension of CPI’s work along the border between Thailand and Myanmar, where CPI has provided prosthetic and rehabilitation care, psycho-social services, vocational training and socio-economic support to refugees and internally displaced landmine accident survivors since 2002.
The monastic school system once taught everyone from royal princes to unskilled workers and helped to give Burma a literacy rate above those of other Far Eastern countries in early 1900s. Nowadays, in Yangon and Mon State, monastic schools are limited to providing a free but basic education for orphans and children from the poorest families. Many of the parents are themselves illiterate.
CPI has found that these schools lack basic teaching materials and skills to instill a love of reading. The six schools in Yangon included in the project do not have libraries. The three schools in Mon State have areas designated for libraries but do not have appropriate, good-quality books or the skilled personnel to manage the libraries. In general, public access to reading materials, especially for children, is almost non-existent in present-day Myanmar. Bookshops charge about 5,000 Kyats per children’s book ($5.50 US), putting them out of the reach of most parents.
Only good quality books, some in Myanmar and some in English, will be donated to the monastic schools located in several townships. Each school will receive 300 new books and will allow students to enjoy dedicated library time. Teachers or volunteer librarians will be taught each term to catalogue and maintain the books, and to manage the libraries.
Additionally, representatives from CPI’s partner organization will work with teachers and parents to improve their ability to read effectively to children. Children will be encouraged to perform simple comprehension exercises through school and library-based competitions.
The project begins June 1, 2011 and is estimated to benefit 3,461 children and more than 100 teachers, as well as the families of the students.
*******************************************************
The Jakarta Post - EU to negotiate FTA with all ASEAN countries, except Myanmar
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 05/07/2011 11:16 PM | World
The European Union is looking forward to engaging in free trade agreements with ASEAN member nations. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht talked to The Jakarta Post’s Sita Winiawati Dewi and other reporters in Jakarta on Friday.
What is the progress of FTA negotiations with Indonesia?
With Indonesia, the idea last year was to have a Vision Group to assemble a report, and they have come up with their report and it will be officially presented in June in Europe. All we are waiting for are signatures from Indonesia to start the official scope exercise and subsequent negotiations. I think we have made very good progress. I don’t want to put a date on it because of the responsibility of our Indonesian counterparts. It’s up to them.
Would that be a region-to-region approach or region-to-country approach. How does it work?
We started the negotiations with ASEAN as a bloc, but we had to stop this for two main reasons. There’s a very different level of development in each of the countries, which has made negotiations very difficult.
Secondly, because of Myanmar. But even if we were to negotiate under present circumstances, region-to-region, in practice, it would be largely a discussion with each individual country, because there is no common external tariff, custom union nor internal market, which means that in any case, you would have different arrangements from one country to another. We are now negotiating to take care so that all of these negotiations have the same backbone. That’s one of the discussion [points] with Vietnam. We want them to agree on the level of ambitions that coincide with a common backbone. Once we have completed these negotiations with all of the individual member states interested in doing so, there’s where the economic community comes about. I think that would be the right moment to move into the region-to-region approach.
The whole ASEAN region has poor human rights and democracy track records. Some members are stuck, or even moving backwards. So why is Myanmar singled-out, and do you think this problem could be overcome?
First of all, I wouldn’t say that the only country that has been shaved from the region-to-region approach is Myanmar. That is certainly not true. I would say that if you were to continue a bloc-to-bloc [approach], it would take years. You would be better to take it one after another to achieve practical results. There is not only the link to Myanmar. That is not true. What is true is that the Myanmar topic is extremely sensitive in Europe. But we are also open to changes. For example, there has been a recent election and there also has been the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi. We have reacted by softening some of the sanctions. We are ready to be reactive to positive developments in that country. But much more should be done.
And by the way, I believe ASEAN is playing a positive role by putting pressure on Myanmar to walk in the right direction. Now, as you say there are human rights problems in some of these countries, I don’t want to single out any one. We are going to address it in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and also in the Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which are political angles in these kinds of agreements. And we have the policy that a PCA comes before the FTA, or at least simultaneously.
Would the EU negotiate one-by-one until the tenth country? Would there be a limitation on the number of countries that will negotiate with the EU?
We negotiate with any country that asks us to negotiate. I think it’s clear that in the moment we would not be ready to engage FTA negotiations with Myanmar. There’s no certain limitation and I hope that limitations will disappear. But for now, if Myanmar were to ask us to negotiate on a free trade agreement, we would say no.
*******************************************************
The Jakarta Post - Myanmar ‘must continue progress’ before taking lead
Dina Indrasafitri and Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 05/09/2011 11:22 PM | World
Myanmar’s bid to chair ASEAN in 2014 remains open amid controversies surrounding the country.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Sunday after closing of the 18th ASEAN Summit that the leaders of ASEAN “do not object to the idea” of Myanmar assuming the position.
“However, Myanmar must continue its democratization progress to avoid negative perceptions from other nations,” he said.
It recently held its first elections in 20 years and released political prisoner and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. However, the UN question the fairness of the polls.
Myanmar was expected to chair ASEAN in 2005, but the plan was scuttled after the nation skipped the grouping’s summit in Vientiane, Laos, in 2004 following pressure from the international community on its slow progress on national reconciliation and human rights issues.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the matter was discussed “quite thoroughly” at the summit. “Some member states conveyed their support openly, some nations, such as Indonesia, stated that the matter required certain processes,” he said.
As current chair of ASEAN, Indonesia was requested to conduct a visit to analyze Myanmar’s current development, Marty added.
Ade Padmo Sarwono, the Foreign Ministry’s director for ASEAN cooperation in politics and security, said the matter would be discussed more deeply at the ministerial level and could be on the agenda in November’s summit.
He said that to become chair, both infrastructure and political development were required.
Indonesia expects a “genuine democracy and reconciliation that involves all parties in Myanmar,” Ade said.
Human rights activist Indah Suksmaningsih welcomed the idea, saying it could benefit the people of Myanmar. She said there existed a culture among ASEAN member states that they liked to dress themselves up when expecting honorable guests. Assuming that this is also true with Myanmar, she said, the country will have a lot of its infrastructure built ahead of hosting the summit.
“This could benefit the people,” Indah, the director of the Institute for Global Justice, said.
She expressed hope that Myanmar would not just mend and improve its physical infrastructure, but also its record on human rights and allow engagement of society in the policy-making process.
*******************************************************
The Malaysian Insider - Asean to agree to Myanmar as 2014 chairman
May 08, 2011
JAKARTA, May 8 — Southeast Asian leaders will agree today to allow Myanmar to chair the 10-member Asean group in 2014, a draft statement seen by Reuters said, a move likely to spur protests from Western nations and rights groups.
Myanmar held elections earlier this year to switch from military to civilian rule, leading the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) to push the United States and Europe to drop sanctions against it.
But many observers dismissed the election as a sham that has kept the generals in power behind the scenes.
“(We) consented to the proposal of Myanmar that it would host the Asean summits in 2014, in view of its firm commitment and dedication to implement the Asean community building as well as to Asean solidarity,” said the draft statement to be released today.
The draft added that Asean leaders supported the “steady progress and political developments in Myanmar” after it held general elections and formed a new government in March, calling the ballot “successful”.
Asean has in the past, along with Western nations, called on Myanmar to include pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in any political solution, and so the decision appears to be a change of stance.
Rights group Human Rights Watch slammed the Asean decision.
“This is unfortunately a decision of political convenience over political principle, and indicates once again that human rights is not a priority for Asean,” Phil Robertson, the HRW’s Asia deputy director, told Reuters.
*******************************************************
Bangkok Post - Burma not confirmed as chair in 2014
Published: 9/05/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
JAKARTA : Asean failed to resolve the issue of Burma's chairmanship yesterday, the last day of the bloc's 18th summit in Jakarta.
A statement from the current chair, Indonesia, only reiterated support for the steady progress and political development in Burma following a general election and the formation of a new government.
"We considered the proposal of Myanmar to host the Asean summit in 2014, based on its commitment to the principles of Asean," the statement said.
While the news was welcomed by some exiled Burmese dissidents, their concerns have not yet been rebutted as the majority of Asean members including Thailand have expressed support for Naypyidaw.
Previously, senior officials and foreign ministers had consented to Burma's request to assume the rotating chair, which it agreed not to take up in 2005 to pursue domestic political reform.
However, Indonesia reasserted that the question of Burma as chair was not urgent and could be discussed at the next Asean summit in October in Bali, sources said.
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Thailand had no objection to Burma assuming the chair as its November election was a critical turning point.
Asean has also stipulated that whenever Burma had a new government, it could resume the chair, he added.
However, Burma should also undertake appropriate steps including the release of political prisoners, freer mobility for the people and liberalisation towards democracy, Mr Kasit said.
"These components could seal Burma's stronger chairmanship of Asean. It's like a score-card," he said.
Khin Ohnmar, from Burma Partnership, said it was a huge relief that Burma's formal request for the chair of Asean was not approved.
But she noted that Asean should not fall into the same trap as when they accepted Burma as a member in the hope that engagement would help bring about democratic change.
"Asean should start engaging with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, ethnic representatives, the National League for Democracy and others to support the national reconciliation process," she said.
Aung Myo Min, director of the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, said allowing Burma to take the chair of Asean in 2014 would jeopardise the bloc's community goal in 2015.
"How can a country with no respect for dialogue, for political and peaceful solutions, strengthen regional peace as a whole?" he said.
*******************************************************
The Australian - In Burma, reporting is a crime
Elizabeth Hughes
May 09, 2011 12:00AM
IT'S a Burmese tragedy with a cast of 17 brave characters. They are all journalists with the Democratic Voice of Burma -- the exiled media organisation that broadcasts uncensored television and radio into Burma. And, for the crime of reporting the news, they have been immured in some of the nation's most isolated prisons, mostly for years on end, and sometimes for decades.
Last week, one day after the UN's World Press Freedom day, DVB launched a Free Burma VJ (video-journalists) campaign in an attempt to push for their release, publicly conceding for the first time that the total of DVB reporters behind bars had reached the alarming total of 17. The new information means Burma is the third-most oppressive jailer of journalists in the world, after China and Iran, with a total of about 25 incarcerated.
Only five of the DVB 17 have been named, because the Burmese authorities usually treat journalists even more harshly than other prisoners. DVB wants to maintain some discretion to avoid even more punitive conditions. It remains unclear how the unnamed 12 were captured, what they were charged with and how long their prison sentences were.
DVB's video-journalists are a trained and dedicated group, says DVB's Thailand bureau chief Toe Zaw Latt. "In Burma, if Big Brother is watching you, OK, your small brother is watching you back with a small camera," he adds.
But critics say not all the journalists are professionally trained, and they wonder if the risk of lengthy jail terms is worth the rewards. They note that although DVB maintains it is now an independent and professional organisation, with an audience of as many as 10 million people, it grew from political roots. DVB employs more than 100 journalists in various locations in Burma, Toe Zaw Latt says, and as well as providing the raw material for DVB broadcasts, their footage is sometimes used by foreign media organisations, and even in an Oscar-nominated documentary titled Burma VJ.
Two of the DVB journalists most recently arrested are a young man and his father. Sithu Zeya, 21, was arrested in April last year while filming the aftermath of a grenade attack that left nine dead and hundreds injured in Rangoon.
DVB says he was interrogated for five days, tortured and denied food for two days. He was finally sentenced last December to eight years in prison, for having ties to an unlawful organisation.
"Sithu Zeya had been forced to reveal under torture that his father, Maung Maung Zeya, also served as an undercover DVB reporter," the organisation says.
Maung Maung Zeya, 57, who also worked with DVB, was arrested at his home in Rangoon, soon after his son was detained.
A poet and essayist, he was eventually sentenced to 13 years in prison, and is now incarcerated in Hsipaw prison, hundreds of kilometres from Rangoon. Toe Zaw Latt says Maung Maung Zeya was doped during his interrogation, and another of his sons has been forced to flee.
Military intelligence officers arrested 48-year-old Win Maw in November 2007, in a Rangoon tea shop, soon after he had visited an internet cafe. DVB says he was accused of being the "mastermind" of DVB's news coverage of the 2007 anti-government Saffron revolution led by Buddhist monks and students. Win Maw was originally sentenced in 2008 to seven years in prison for sending "false" information to DVB. The next year, he was sentenced to an extra 10 years for violations of the Electronics Act. He is in the remote Sandoway prison in Arakan state.
These journalists are just a few among the crowds of political prisoners locked up by the Burmese regime: activists, lawyers, writers, poets -- anyone, in short, with the temerity to express a view or which differs from the official line.
Nearly 2100 prisoners of conscience remain incarcerated in Burma, despite international diplomatic efforts to wrangle an amnesty from the nation's new and nominally civilian government.
"Reporting the truth is not a crime," said Toe Zaw Latt. "Someone should not be jailed 20 years for being a journalist."
*******************************************************
New Kerala - Myanmarese students learn in English in Moreh
Moreh (Imphal), May 7 : With the opening of formal border trade between India and Myanmar through Moreh and Tamu, a number of Myanmarese students are flocking to Moreh in Manipur to learn English.
Over 100 students are currently taking English lessons in about 20 private schools in Moreh from nursery to class tenth. .
"We need good infrastructure, library, game materials and many things to take help from the government," Lalrintluonga, headmaster, Lorraine English Junior High School, Moreh.
"I would like to request the government of India and Burma to take initiative for English education at Moreh. If it happens then it will be very helpful and I can expect and ensure that there will be a lot of improvement," Mangzagin Zou, teacher, Bethsaida Academy Moreh.
Moreh is popular with the Myanmarese students, as they do not get an opportunity to study English in their country.
Students coming here are mostly the wards of cultivators and businessman. They are very serious about their studies and at times even when the border between the two countries is closed they still manage to land up at the schools.
Over the years both India and Myanmar have been working to build stronger ties. And the arrival of students from Myanmar to India can only help speed up this process.
*******************************************************
The New York Times - Southeast Asia Talks Leave Two Key Issues Unresolved
By AUBREY BELFORD
Published: May 8, 2011
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A meeting of Southeast Asian leaders ended here on Sunday with two significant issues unresolved, which led some analysts to question the leaders’ ability to confront entrenched problems.
The meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations failed to make progress in resolving the deadly border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia. In addition, the meeting ended with the question left open of whether Myanmar would assume the organization’s rotating chairmanship.
Myanmar, formerly Burma, had asked to take up the chairmanship in 2014, which would end an arrangement in which the nation has been skipped over because of concerns over its authoritarian government and poor human rights record.
Civic groups and some elected officials in the region have criticized the proposal. Human Rights Watch said last week that a chairmanship for Myanmar would reduce the regional bloc, known as Asean, to “the laughingstock of intergovernmental forums.”
Bantarto Bandoro, a professor of international relations at Indonesia Defense University, said the failure to move forward on either issue reflected a broader pattern in which Asean members had been unwilling to tackle contentious issues. This, he said, has blunted the organization’s ambitious plans to create a regional political and economic community that would include free trade by 2015.
“The problem is that Asean has a limitation in solving the problems that its members have because of the principle of noninterference,” Mr. Bantarto said. “If Asean continues to keep this so-called sacred principle of noninterference, then I have some pessimism that Asean will be able to solve problems in the future.”
In an attempt to resolve the border dispute, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Sen, met on the sidelines of the meeting in talks facilitated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia.
The negotiations appeared to yield little other than an agreement for the two countries’ foreign ministers to remain in Jakarta for one more day of talks. The dispute, which centers on competing land claims near the ancient temple of Preah Vihear, has cast doubt on efforts toward greater political and economic integration.
Sporadic clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops in recent weeks have left 20 people dead and forced 100,000 to flee their homes. It is the deadliest recent flare-up in the long-running dispute. After their meeting, each prime minister accused the other of standing in the way of a resolution.
The tensions between the two nations largely overshadowed the two-day talks among leaders of the 10-member regional bloc. Issues like food security, territorial disputes in the South China Sea and the admission of East Timor as a member were on the agenda.
A spokesman for Mr. Yudhoyono, Teuku Faizasyah, said the agreement for another day of talks between Cambodia and Thailand showed the relevance of Asean as a forum. “They will sit together to hammer out some possible breakthroughs — not really breakthroughs, the way I see it, but how to make progress on the stalemate between them,” he said.
*******************************************************
The New Straits Times - Pact gives refugees protection
2011/05/08
By Rozanna Latiff, news@nst.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: The agreement to transfer asylum seekers between Malaysia and Australia drew mixed reactions from different quarters yesterday.
However, while the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Malaysia, the Bar Council and non-governmental organisation Suara Rakyat Malaysia found the move to be generally a good one, they said certain things needed to be done first.
Meanwhile, Tenaganita said Australia should not have been a party to the agreement, accusing Canberra of "passing the buck" since Australia was a signatory of the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees while Malaysia was not.
UNHCR said the agreement could have a positive role in encouraging greater cooperation between countries in the region.
Its spokesman, Yante Ismail, said the agreement could also contribute to better cooperation and burden-sharing between Malaysia and Australia.
However, she said more discussion on the specifics of the agreement was needed.
"We understand that the agreement already contains important safeguards to protect the people being transferred from Australia to Malaysia but we need more details on how these safeguards will work in practice," she said.
Under the agreement, jointly announced on Saturday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Australian counterpart, Julia Gillard, up to 800 asylum seekers who try to reach Australia will be taken immediately to Malaysia instead, with their claims to be processed by the United Nations.
In return, Australia will resettle 4,000 refugees currently residing in Malaysia over a period of four years.
Yante said the key safeguards that would have to be provided for the refugees sent to Malaysia include protection against being returned to their country of origin; the possibility of legal stay while protection needs are assessed; community-based and supported reception arrangements entailing access to basic services; and stay outside detention.
She said it was understood that under the agreement, UNHCR's role would be similar to its current role in Malaysia which includes registering asylum seekers, conducting refugee status determination and processing the resettlement of recognised refugees.
"These systems are already in place for refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, and any of the 800 asylum seekers transferred here will be integrated into the existing arrangements to the extent possible."
As of end March this year, there were some 93,500 refugees and asylum seekers registered with UNHCR in Malaysia.
Of these, 86,000 are from Myanmar, comprising some 36,300 Chins, 20,400 Rohingyas, 9,400 Myanmar Muslims, 3,900 Mon, 3,400 Kachins and other ethnicities from Myanmar.
There are some 7,500 refugees and asylum seekers from other countries, including some 4,000 Sri Lankans, 1,080 Somalis, 730 Iraqis and 590 Afghans.
Seventy per cent of refugees and asylum seekers are men, 30 per cent are women while some 18,000 children are below the age of 18.
Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee, meanwhile, said the agreement was an opportunity for Malaysia to become a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
This, he said, would in turn place Malaysia in a better position to deal with conflicts and frictions between origin and hosting governments over refugee issues.
"It will also be consistent with the leadership role that Malaysia is taking in the region as a member of the UNHCR and its recent ratification of the Rome Statute (to join the International Criminal Court, in March)."
*******************************************************
The New Straits Times - Asean leaders to speak as one on global issues
2011/05/08
THE two-day Asean Summit closed yesterday with its leaders issuing three joint statements.
They agreed on the establishment of an Asean Community for the region to have a common platform for global issues by 2022.
They also agreed to cooperate in averting human trafficking across member states and on the setting up of the Asean Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Asean leaders noted that there were significant and meaningful progress in the implementation of the Asean Charter and its roadmap towards creating an Asean Community by 2015.
Member nations, he said, also acknowledged that the region was facing challenges, including food and energy security, terrorism, human trafficking as well as natural disasters that needed solutions across the borders of its members.
In strengthening Asean as a community and ensuring that efforts toward this aim were people-centred, Malaysia proposed the facilitation of credit transfers where university students could complete their final year at higher-learning institutions in another Asean country.
On connectivity, Najib said aside from efforts to set up an Asean Infrastructure Fund valued at US$480 million (RM1.44 billion), Malaysia also proposed that air travel using low-cost carriers be expanded to allow better access to Asean destinations.
To promote energy security, Kuala Lumpur asked for cooperation between resource and capital-rich nations to develop energy-generation projects that could be transmitted to at least two Asean nations.
Najib said the Asean secretariat would also study how the concept of moderates could be developed.
On the Cambodia-Thailand dispute, Najib said Asean leaders agreed that the conflict must be addressed through talks in the spirit of friendship and were confident of Indonesia's mediation efforts as the Asean chair.
On the possibility of Myanmar taking over as the next chair, Najib said the Indonesian president would be visiting the country to make the necessary assessments.
"We will wait for his assessment. Many Asean leaders feel Myanmar has undergone a big change and we always encourage them to continue with their reconciliation agenda and principles of democracy."
On the inclusion of Timor Leste as a member, Najib said many of the leaders agreed that the country was within the region and it qualified to become a member.
Asean foreign ministers, he said, had been asked to study Timor Leste's capacity and the significance of its entry to the Asean community.
Read more: Asean leaders to speak as one on global issues http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/02asen/Article/index_html#ixzz1Lofmw6Vz
*******************************************************
SteelGuru - TCL denies Myanmar and rare earth magnesium alloy rumors
Sunday, 08 May 2011
TCL Corporation has denied market rumors that it is involved in mining projects in Myanmar and that it has invested in rare earth magnesium alloys in Shanxi province.
According to TCL, its chairman was invited to visit Myanmar, along with government officials, to test the water for investment.
The firm is exploring the possibility of establishing home appliance industrial facilities and investing in energy projects in the country.
Shanxi United Magnesium Industry, in which TCL holds a 25% stake, engages in the production of magnesium and its alloys, not rare earth magnesium alloys.
*******************************************************
iNewsOne - India building international-level checkposts along borders
Agartala, May 6 (IANS) India is developing 13 international-standard integrated check posts (ICPs) along its borders with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal for boosting trade and economy with its neighbours, besides facilitating trans-border passenger traffic, an official report says.
‘In the first phase, seven ICPs would be set up at Raxaul and Jogbani (in Bihar) along the border with Nepal, Attari (in Punjab) along the border with Pakistan, Moreh (in Manipur) along the border with Myanmar and Akhaurah (in Tripura), Dawki (in Meghalaya) and Petrapole (in West Bengal) – all along the border with Bangladesh,’ the union home ministry report said.
‘Work for construction of ICPs at Attari, Raxaul and Jogbani has begun and would be completd by August this year and work for the remaining ICPs would be taken up soon,’ the report stated.
The ICPs are being commissioned ‘to secure India’s borders against interests hostile to the country and to put in place systems that would interdict such elements while facilitating legitimate trade and commerce and as a part of an overall strategy for more improved border management,’ the report said.
The ICPs, being built at expenditure ranging from Rs.35 crore to Rs.170 crores – with a total outlay of Rs.635 crore – would be sanitised zones with dedicated passenger and cargo terminals and space for regulatory agencies besides the necessary modern facilities under one roof.
Besides passenger terminal buildings, adequate customs and immigration facilities, weigh bridges, security and scanning equipment, currency exchange booths, internet facility, cargo process building, cargo inspection sheds, warehouse and cold storage, health and quarantine facilities, clearing agents, banks, scanners, close circuit television, public address systems,isolation bay,parking,cafeteria, hotels and other public utilities would be available at the ICPs.
The foundation stone for the Akhaurah ICP, two km west of Tripura capital Agartala, will be laid May 17.
‘Union home minister P. Chidambaram would lay the foundation stone,’ Tripura Industries and Commerce Minister Jitendra Chowdhury told IANS.
‘The Akhaurah ICP will cost Rs.60 crore,’ he added of the first such facility in the northeastern region and falling within the area of the Agartala Municipal Council.
The Akhaurah check post is one of the most important international trading land ports in eastern India, along with the Petrapole check post, with an average of 200 Bangladeshi trucks loaded with goods for export coming to Tripura every day.
‘The setting up of 13 ICPs along India’s international border is a major initiative which the centre has undertaken as part of a scheme envisaged during the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12) at a cost of Rs 635 crores.’
A Land Ports Authority of India is also being established under the department of border management of the union home ministry to supervise the construction work, maintenance and control of the ICPs.
India shares a 4,097 km border with Bangladesh, 3,323 km with Pakistan, 1,751 km with Nepal and 1,643 km with Myanmar.
*******************************************************
Myanmar endeavors for promotion of development of traditional medicine
English.news.cn 2011-05-06 10:25:36
by Ding Lingling
YANGON, May 6 (Xinhua) -- A five-day Myanmar traditional medicine exhibition is underway in Myanmar's former capital of Yangon beginning Thursday, aimed at promoting the development of the country's traditional medicines and disseminating medical knowledge to the public.
With over 120 booths, traditional medicine producing companies are displaying their traditional medicine products and producing accessories as well as giving traditional treating service and medical education talks.
As the Myanmar traditional medicine is playing a more and more important role in treating diseases in the country, the government urges traditional medicine practitioners to protect and preserve them from depletion and extinction and to ensure their perpetual existence.
Myanmar is conducting research on treatment of major diseases -- diabetes, hypertension, malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhea and dysentery through traditional medicine.
To do research more effectively and on a wider scale to have the Myanmar traditional medicine standardized, the country holds traditional medicine practitioners conference every year to introduce the country's traditional medicines and its medical practices and the last conference, which was the 11th, took place in Nay Pyi Taw in December 2010.
At the same time, the practitioners are also urged to strive for the promotion of the standard of Myanmar traditional medicine to reach international level.
Encouragement has also been made to set up large traditional medicine industries with the private sector to produce potent drugs for common diseases, herbal gardens for medicinal plant conservation and find means to treat patients with the combined potency of the Western and Myanmar traditional medicine.
According to the health authorities, Myanmar has made arrangements for the development of the traditional medicine in line with the set standards, opening diploma courses and practitioner courses to train skilled experts in the field.
A decade before, Myanmar's Institute of Traditional Medicine conferred diplomas on traditional medicine to those who had completed two-year theoretical course and one-year practical course.
In 2001, Myanmar established University of Traditional Medicine in Mandalay, the second largest city, where traditional medicine, anatomy and physiology, microbiology and medicine and Chinese acupuncture are taught.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has set up the first national herbal park in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw to grow herbal and medicinal plants used in producing medicines for treating various diseases.
Myanmar traditional medicine is recognized as one of the principal contributors to the public health and a genuine legacy left by ancestors.
*******************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Prisoners' Relatives Flock to Prison Gates Amid Amnesty Rumors
By KO HTWE Friday, May 6, 2011
Dozens of relatives of political prisoners have been waiting near Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison since May 4 amid rumors that Burma's new military-backed government is planning to release an unspecified number of prisoners in an amnesty.
One of them is 50-year-old Daw Aye, who spent two days waiting in front of the prison in the expectation that her son, political prisoner Min Min, could be among those who are freed.
“I wanted to go back there again today, but I can't because I'm feeling sick after I got caught in the rain while I was waiting,” she said. Her son was detained for participating in a campaign for the release of Burma’s pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Wednesday, there were more security forces near the prison and family visits had been suspended for half a day, adding to the air of anticipation.
“I'm absolutely sure that the news I heard is true. Whenever a new government takes power, an amnesty is granted for prisoners. I told my younger son to wait in front of the prison,” said Daw Aye, pointing to a photo of her son on a wall in her house.
Su Su Kyi, the mother of Thet Thet Aung, a member of the 88 Generation Students group, said that her daughter's children had also heard about the amnesty, but are not expecting their mother to be released. They do, however, have some hope that their father, who is also imprisoned, could be freed.
“They said they don’t expect their mother to be freed because her sentence is longer than their father's. They also know that the government is doing this just for show,” said Su Su Kyi.
Thet Thet Aung, who is serving a 65-year sentence at Myingyan Prison, about 640 km from Rangoon, is the mother of three boys, aged 11, nine and six. The youngest was still being breastfed when his mother was arrested in 2007.
Thet Thet Aung's husband, Chit Ko Lay, who is also a member of the pro-democracy group, was sentenced to 11 years and is serving his term at Pakokku Prison in Magwe Division. Thet Thet Aung’s aunt, San San Tin, and her cousin, Noe Noe, are also members of the 88 Generation Students group and were sentenced to a minimum of six years imprisonment.
“I'm hoping my 60-year-old husband, who is not in good health, will be freed, but I don’t expect much from this new government,” said the wife of Tin Yu, who is serving a nine-and-a-half year prison term in Kale, Sagaing Division.
Recently, the Burmese Democracy Network, an unofficial network formed following Suu Kyi's release from house arrest last November, launched a petition drive urging the new government to release all political prisoners unconditionally and to create an environment where Burmese people living abroad, organizations in exile and refugees can return home safely.
Among those who signed the petition were Kyaw Thu, the former actor and influential founder of the Free Funeral Services Society, and some 324 journalists, writers and artists.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), based in Mae Sot, Thailand, there are 2,061 political prisoners being held in prisons across Burma, 156 of whom are women. The group says 159 of the political prisoners are in bad health and 146 have died in custody since 1987.
In 2009, 6,313 prisoners were freed in an amnesty, although only a handful were political prisoners.
“Every new government releases a few political prisoners to lessen international pressure and to make a show of goodwill,” said Tate Naing, the secretary of AAPP.
*******************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Karen Refugees Sent Back to Burma
Friday, May 6, 2011
MAE SOT, Thailand—More than 1,000 refugees who fled to Thailand earlier this week due to armed conflict in Karen State, Burma were reportedly forced back to the conflict areas, refugees said.
“Since Thursday afternoon, Thai authorities told us to go back, saying the fighting is over. But actually fighting continues around our village. Therefore, we choose to hide in the jungle instead of going back home,” said a villager from Kyar Inn Seik Gyi Township, Karen State.
He added that forcing refugees back to the conflict area puts them at risk.
Following fresh armed conflict in Kyar Inn Seik Gyi township between government troops and an alliance between the Karen National Union and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, hundreds of refugees crossed the border into Thailand.
The refugees sought safety in Umphang Township, Thailand, which is about 210 km from Mae Sot, which sits opposite Burma’s border town of Myawaddy.
The number of refugees exceeded 1,000 on Thursday, according to aid workers in Mae Sot.
An officer in the Thai border patrol force, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “Skirmishes are far from the border. The situation is not very concerning for the refugees. That why they have to go back.”
Since the beginning of the conflict, the Thai authorities have tightened border security and increased troops. NGO workers in Mae Sot said that except for UNHCR and the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, NGOs have been barred from assisting the refugees.
*******************************************************
The Irrawaddy - I've Retired, Says Than Shwe
By HSET LINN Friday, May 6, 2011
RANGOON — Burmese military supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe reportedly denied having an influence over the new government, and expressed concern for his family's future security at a recent private meeting with retired high-ranking military officials.
Than Shwe, who renounced his post as commander-in-chief of the armed forces last month and has since disappeared from public life, recently invited a group of former high-ranking military officials, including ex-Gen Than Tin, ex-Gen Khin Maung Kyaw, ex-Gen Hla Oo and ex-Lt-Gen Chit Swe, for an informal meeting at his home in Naypyidaw, according to a family member of one of the attendees.
With the exception of Chit Swe, who served as minister of forestry until 1997, the other officials were senior to Than Shwe in the army, and were former ministers and regional military commanders during the rule of late dictator Gen Ne Win.
According to the source, Than Shwe said in the meeting that he was no longer involved in state affairs, and said that he “permitted” current president Thein Sein to choose his own government ministers.
He said that Than Shwe admitted to the group that he offered some advice in the forming of the new government, but was very worried about his family members being prosecuted, jailed, punished or even hanged after he died.
Although it remains unclear whether Than Shwe still holds any formal position either in the government or in the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, many believe that the 78-year-old dictator continues to wield influence over the army and the new government, and has kept himself in a position to call the shots from behind the scenes.
Photographs of Than Shwe in his army uniform as a senior general still adorn the walls of administrative offices around the country.
According to an inside source, Than Shwe's wife, Kyaing Kyaing, keeps busy by consulting astrologers, soothsayers and mediums.
A local resident in Mingaladon Township, where Than Shwe's daughter Thandar Shwe owns a spacious compound, said that he spotted individuals in the compound, some of whom looked like hermits while others were unshaven with the appearance of bogus Buddhist monks.
“In that compound, there are numerous temples with piles of animal heads,” he said. “They frequently have ceremonies for spirits and nats.”
Although Than Shwe has completely disappeared from the spotlight and his daily sojourns have not been published in the state media for over a month, his deputy Maung Aye was seen at a pavilion during last month's water festival in Mandalay in Upper Burma and is reportedly now ordained as a Buddhist monk in his native Kanbalu Township in Sagaing Division.
“Maung Aye has donated his ancestral homes to the meditation centers and just spends his days meditating,” said a resident of Kanbalu Township. “However, he is always surrounded and watched by four or five plainclothes security guards.”
*******************************************************
Court sets another hearing for Ross Dunkley on May 12
Friday, 06 May 2011 18:37 Te Te
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The prosecutor in the case of the Australian cofounder of the Myanmar Times took ill at a hearing on Friday and another hearing was scheduled for May. 12.
The prosecutor, Khaing Zar Lin, suffered from a hemorrhage and was sent to the Dufferin Women’s Hospital, Aung Than Soe, one of lawyers for journalist Ross Dunkley, who is free on bail, told Mizzima.
On April 27, Khaing Zar Lin and another state prosecutor failed to appear for a scheduled hearing because they were traveling at the time, lawyers said.
The hearing started around 10:30 a.m. and was attended by staff members of the newspaper.
Dunkley has been charged with violating the Emergency Immigration Act, assaulting a woman, giving her drugs and holding her against her will. The woman earlier had reportedly asked for the charges to be dropped but the judge denied the request.
On March 29, Dunkley was released on 10 million kyat (US $11,600) bail, which was guaranteed by Dr. Tin Tun Oo, the chief executive officer of the newspaper, and Wai Lwin, another colleague. Dunkley, who was imprisoned in Insein Prison for more than one month, resume his duties as managing director of the English language Myanmar Times upon his release.
*******************************************************
Journalists receive media law training in Rangoon
Friday, 06 May 2011 20:51 Tun Tun
New Delhi (Mizzima) – New Burmese media laws are being studied by journalists in classes in Rangoon to avoid breaching laws while covering the news.
The teacher, Khin Zaw, is a columnist for the ‘Crime Journal’ and chairman of the Mayangon Township branch of the Writers and Journalists Association.
The classes are being conducted on weekends from May 1 to May 29, attended by reporters, lawyers and some interested businessmen, totaling more than 100 people. Classes are held at Building No. 1, No. 4 Ward, Mayangon Township, near the 8-mile junction.
News coverage can violate laws if a person’s reputation is damaged by information that is false, if published information prevents a fair trial, or if photographs of a child are used inappropriately, to name just a few examples, said Kin Zaw, whose class also covers the Official Secrets Act.
Aspects of the Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Civil Law, Evidence Act and the Contract Act are also subjects which he teaches.
Penalties in Burma vary, he said. If a journalist is guilty of Contempt of Court, the offence is punishable up to 6 months, a fine, or both. If prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, the offence could be punishable up to 14 year imprisonment, Khin Zaw said.
Previously, reporters had very few restrictions in covering the news, said veteran journalist Win Tin.
‘In our time, we had to take care of some restrictions, for instance, defamation and libel, and not to disturb the national unity, etc. That’s all. The restrictions were very general. Generally, the reporters didn’t notice the restrictions’, he said.
‘In parliament sessions too, we had a room reserved for media persons exclusively. We could witness the proceedings of parliament sessions and could cover that news. Moreover, we could meet MPs outside the parliament chamber, say in a cafeteria, we could ask them questions such as, why did you move this motion, why did you raise this question, etc’.
Even under the rule of dictator Ne Win, the media had a reserved newsroom in the 1074 parliament building, he said.
Currently, in the new Parliament sessions, which are now over, reporters were barred from the Parliament building, and had an almost impossible task of covering what was occurring inside the chambers. Even some of the motions made in Parliament were rejected on the grounds that they had been given to the media prior to being introduced in Parliament.
Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has listed Burma as among the world’s worst countries for freedom of the press.
In most countries, reporters can ask lawmakers questions, cover lawmaking sessions and freely report news and information, according to U Myo of the Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC) Law Analyzing Department.
‘They can claim their right to report Parliament news. They can take news photos and videos of parliamentary sessions as the law permits. In many countries, the governments use these media to release and disseminating its news’, he said.
In his inaugural address to Parliament, President Thein Sein said that media reporting must be respected because it was the fourth pillar of democracy and that lawmakers should listen to the opinions of the people. However, many media critics say Burma has no free press, and no way to know what people are thinking about governmental issues and other matters.
‘The current problem for the media is the sweeping ban on our reporting, imposing so many restrictions on our journalists, and exercising censorship on what we can report’, journalist Win Tin said.
If the new government doesn’t allow more press freedom and listen to public opinion as expressed through the media, there will be no improvement in Burmese society, he said.
*******************************************************
NLD disturbed by Austrian embassy’s promoting defense firm in Burma
Friday, 06 May 2011 14:06 Thomas Maung Shwe
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – NLD cofounder Win Tin told Mizzima that he found it ‘very disturbing’ that the Austrian ambassador to Burma and Thailand Dr Johannes Peterlik accompanied representatives of an Austrian defence firm as part of a recent trade and investment delegation visit to Rangoon.
The March 16-18 trade delegation visit was organized by the commercial attachés at the Austrian Embassy in Bangkok and the Austrian Economic Chamber of Commerce. A PowerPoint presentation prepared by the delegation, which Mizzima has obtained, reveals that at least 19 firms were represented including P & P Consulting, a self-described defense and security consulting firm, two of Austria’s leading banks and Swarovski, described in the presentation as ‘one of the world's leading producers of cut crystal, genuine gemstones and created stones’.
Win Tin said he was particularly concerned by the inclusion of a defense firm in the delegation and called for the EU to ‘investigate these matters and explain to the public this kind of action’.
There is little publicly available information about P&P Consulting. The firm’s website is not working presently and calls by Mizzima to P&P’s telephone number listed on the Website of the Austrian Foreign Trade Promotion Organization were not returned. Austrian newspaper reports show that the firm’s owner is the organization’s primary employee, arms dealer Alfred Plattner.
In 2007, Plattner was asked to appear before an Austrian parliamentary inquiry investigating secret payments his business partner, jet fighter lobbyist Erhard Steininger, made to the wife of the head of the Austrian air force. The Austrian inquiry revealed that in 2002 Plattner and P&P received Euros 200,000 from Steininger for lobbying work and that P&P had the same address as an Austrian pizzeria, whose owner was also under scrutiny for his association with Steininger.
Win Tin told Mizzima he was concerned other European defense firms will follow P&P’s lead and send delegations to Burma. The close ally of Aung San Suu Kyi said he was extremely disappointed that the Austrian government assisted P&P in going to Burma. In addition to Ambassador Peterlik, two other diplomats from the Austrian Embassy in Bangkok accompanied the delegation to Rangoon, Dr. Gustav Gressel, the commercial attaché, and Gerhard Schlattl, the commercial counselor.
‘Austria is one of the EU members and the EU still has sanctions in place on Burma’, said Win Tin, a veteran political prisoner. ‘So to send an Austrian trade delegation to Burma headed by the Austrian ambassador, we don’t understand how it could happen because really it’s a violation of EU sanctions on Burma’.
In a statement sent to Mizzima, Peter Launsky-Tiefenthal, a spokesman for the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denied that the delegation, which he termed an ‘economic fact finding trip', violated EU sanctions.
‘There are no broad EU trade or investment sanctions on Burma/Myanmar, but sectoral prohibitions which Austria fully supports––in line with respective EU sanctions’.
Launsky-Tiefenthal’s statement also claimed that the delegation’s trip consisted of ‘no government contacts, but only business-to-business contacts with companies not affected by EU sanctions’.
Despite repeated requests, Launsky-Tiefenthal and his colleagues refused to answer any follow up questions about the delegation which also included representatives from two Austrian banks and one of the world’s largest gem buyers. These firms were included in the delegation although EU sanctions target both Burma’s gem industry and banking sector. Roxel RMG, a firm that, according to the presentation, trades in ‘forest products’, was also included in the delegation despite the fact that EU sanctions also target the importing of Burmese wood to Europe.
A story published last week in The Independent newspaper in London quoted P&P Consulting’s Plattner claiming that his firm’s interests in Burma are focused on ‘security rather than defence’. Plattner also said that P&P consulting wants to ‘provide security for airports in Burma’.
It is unclear how P&P consulting could provide security for Burma’s airports without dealing with Burma’s government which along with the military operates airports throughout the country. Many of the airports that have been recently privatized in Burma like Rangoon International Airport are now operated by Pioneer Aerodrome Services, a subsidiary of Asia World. Asia World is controlled by Stephen Law and his father Lao Sit Han, aka Lo Hsing Han, whom the US government calls a ‘narco kingpin’. Asia World, Stephen Law and his father are on both the EU and US sanctions list.
Austria along with Germany has been the target of intense criticism from Burma activists in Europe who blame Vienna for helping to weaken EU sanctions against the Burmese regime. Such criticism is bolstered by a recently leaked US diplomatic cable from 2008 disclosed by WikiLeaks which quotes a British official telling American diplomats that in contrast to the UK and other EU members who support sanctions, ‘At the far end opposing sanctions are the Germans and Austrians’.
Reached for comment Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK told Mizzima that he wasn’t surprised by the actions of the Austrian diplomats in assisting the delegation. According to Farmaner, ‘Austria has been one of the countries which has worked to ensure EU sanctions are mostly toothless, and now they are taking their companies to Burma to exploit the fact that tough EU sanctions simply don’t exist. It is revolting to see the Austrian government and Austrian companies rushing to put money in the pockets of war criminals and torturers’.
Austrian bank wants to renew ties with blacklisted junta bank
The delegation’s presentation noted that the Austrian Control bank, or Die Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG, ‘is interested in the resumption of relations with the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank’, a junta-controlled bank that is one of the few banks in Burma not included on the EU sanctions list. However, the bank, which is also known as the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, is on the US Treasury department’s office of Foreign Assets control’s sanctions blacklist. Dealings between the Austrian Control bank and the bank could put the Austrian firm in violation of US sanctions if funds are sent to Burma via the US. In 2009, Credit Suisse was fined for similar transactions which violated US but not EU and related Swiss sanctions on Burma.
The Burmese regime is known to force international NGO’s and aid groups to send funds to Burma through its Foreign Trade Bank where funds are transferred at artificial rates that greatly favor the bank. In July 2008, then UN Humanitarian Chief John Holmes admitted that as much as US $10 million of the funds provided by donors to help Burmese victims of Cyclone Nargis may have been lost due to the flawed exchange rate system demanded by the Burmese regime.
The other bank included in the delegation was Bank Austria, described in the presentation as a member of the European-wide bank group UniCredit since 2005 and the ‘undisputed market leader in trade finance in Austria’. According to the presentation, the bank’s goal in Burma is ‘intensifying relationships to local authorities/banks/importers’.
Delegation also visited notorious golf course
In addition to meeting members of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), the trade delegation to Burma also met with Burmese real estate tycoon Serge Pun at his Pun Hlaing golf course designed by South African pro Gary Player on land allegedly expropriated from Burmese rice farmers who were not compensated.
Gary Player’s involvement in the golf course, known as the ‘pride of Myanmar’, was condemned by retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who called it ‘a playground of the ruling junta in the murderous dictatorship of Burma’. At the height of the Saffron Revolution in 2007, Tutu and fellow Burma supporters in South Africa succeeded in having Gary Player disinvited from the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund Charity Golf Tournament because of Player’s connection to the regime’s favorite golf club.
A press release issued by Pun’s SPA/FMI Group of Companies also noted that the ambassador and the trade delegation visited the private Pun Haling hospital located on the grounds of the exclusive golf club. The Irrawaddy magazine reported last August that Burma’s recently retired senior general Than Shwe’s received treatment for diabetes at the hospital.
*******************************************************
DVB News - ASEAN mulls single currency
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 6 May 2011
The prospect of a single ASEAN currency was raised at a high level ministerial meeting in Hanoi this week in a move that would ask serious questions of the regional bloc, not least its less developed economies like Burma.
A briefing paper was prepared for the ASEAN+3 meeting of deputy finance ministers and was the first time that such an idea has been studied “concretely”, according to Dow Jones financial news.
Experts suggest however that this could spell “the end of the regime” in Burma. Australian-based Burma economics expert Sean Turnell told DVB that such a move would bar the Burmese government from funding itself through printing money as it pleases. That practice, he said, has led to the “biggest divergence” between an official and unofficial currency in history.
The briefing paper was prepared by Japan’s Institute for International Monetary Affairs, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, and the University of Indonesia, with an eye to “accelerate the integration process”, the Dow Jones report said.
“As economic integration deepens further in East Asia, it would be more beneficial to East Asian countries to adopt an exchange rate regime that collectively floats against the US dollar and the euro while maintaining a stable intra-regional exchange rate.”
This could initially be achieved through what is known as a currency basket, where an average value of a group of regional currencies is worked out and traded against international currencies such as the dollar or the euro.
Burma’s dual exchange rate and massive inflation rates would be a major stumbling block, but the prospect of a single currency could alternatively be a way out of the country’s persistent currency woes.
Turnell believes that ASEAN ignoring Burma’s self-financing through printing money is a “massive problem… which would undermine any sought of single currency”. If this was prohibited, as it is in the EU, for example, which has a single currency, then the Burmese regime’s “main financing vehicle would disappear in a single stroke”.
Europe’s experience moreover, where economies such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal collapsed under the weight of enormous government debt, has warned other blocs away from seeking a single currency. And while the divergence between Greece and Germany is great, the two systems are not as alien as Singapore’s to Burma’s, for instance.
While the prospect of an ASEAN single currency or regional monetary unit (RMU) is at present a distant possibility, moves such as the China-ASEAN free trade agreement have encouraged many to look at such mechanisms as most East Asian economies continue to perform well.
*******************************************************
DVB News - Bangladesh hopeful over Burma gas
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 6 May 2011
Bilateral talks are underway over gas sales from Burma to energy-hungry Bangladesh, with an advisor to the Hasina government hopeful that a deal could be aided by the reinvigoration of a proposed tri-nation gas pipeline with India.
The pipeline, first mooted by India in 2004, would in theory carry Burmese gas through Bangladesh to India. Conflicting statements about Burma’s willingness to sell gas to Dhaka have persisted, with bilateral relations often rocky – the two nations were involved in a spat over maritime boundaries and rights to gas block in the Bay of Bengal, although things appear to have improved in the past six months.
India had initially proposed to pay for the costs of building the 1000km pipeline but lost out to China. According to a 2007 cable released by Wikileaks, Mohan Kumar from India’s foreign ministry said that “there is not enough gas for both India and China”, and that “China is going to get it [the gas]”.
This was corroborated by a former Bangladeshi government advisor in 2008, who was quoted saying that “Lun Thi [Burma's former energy minister] informed us that Myanmar [Burma] does not have enough gas now for supply to Bangladesh as it has made agreements with China and Thailand for gas supply from the existing reserve.”
Since then however both countries have elected new governments. While Burma’s is perhaps only in name, Bangladesh has seen the switch from a military caretaker government to Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party.
Hasina has worked hard on bilateral relations with both Burma and, crucially, India. India has had a fractious relationship with previous Bangladeshi administrations, but since Hasina’s rise to office, multilateral infrastructure projects such as this have now made ground, if not yet broken it.
In the past the Bangladeshis refused access to Indian freight travelling to their isolated northeast, but in this instance Bangladesh not only has a warmer relationship with India, but a genuine incentive: the Awami League has made an election promise to have an electricity generating capacity of 7,000 MW by 2013, a goal considered beatable through both domestic gas exploration, new coal plants and imports of gas from the Burmese and Russia’s Gazprom.
Furthermore, Burma’s gas reserves may have been given a boost with the government’s recent assessment that it had nearly 90 trillion cubic feet of gas. Moreover, it announced last week that it would explore for shale in eastern Karen state.
Although shale is more expensive to exploit than conventional natural gas, the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) recently announced that the world’s gas reserves could be estimated upwards by some 40 percent if one takes into account the exploitation of shale gas.
As per usual with figures from Burma, it is hard to estimate what the reality is. A tri-nation pipeline would be welcomed by all parties, but in all probability the Burmese would seek concessions from their counterparts.
Following the appointment of a new ambassador to the country, U Min Lwin, it was reported in the Bangladeshi press that “The Ambassador appreciated the government of Bangladesh as it has been playing very positive role recently in the international relations”. Such positive spin now appears a prerequisite for countries eyeing a stake in Burma’s lucrative extractive industries.
*******************************************************
DVB News - Human trafficking to China on the rise
By MAUNG TOO
Published: 6 May 2011
More than 130 cases of human trafficking of ethnic Kachin have been documented along the China-Burma borderin the past year, according to a monitoring group that lays the blame on widespread poverty in Burma brought about by decades of military rule.
Mary Laban, spokesperson of the Thailand-based Kachin Women’s Association (KWA), said that the phenomenon may be on the increase as trafficking rackets prey on vulnerable men and women.
“According to the latest information we have received, some parents are selling their own daughters to human traffickers for 12,000 to 13,000 Chinese Yuan [around $US1,800],” she continued, adding that families were resorting to ever more desperate attempts to pay off debts.
China is one of the largest recipients of trafficked Burmese, although humantrafficking.org says figures are also high for Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, South Korea, Macau, and Pakistan.
The KWA claims that the majority of ethnic Kachin taken to China, including children, are sold into the prostitution industry or as brides for Chinese men. Kachin state in the north of Burma shares a long and porous border with China.
A US State Department report in 2006 estimated the number of trafficked Burmese to be several thousand a year. N that same year, the Burmese government convicted 53 people on trafficking charges.
The former ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) had on several occasions pledged to stamp out the trade, as well as signing Memorandums of Understanding with Thailand to coordinate responses to the crisis. Evidence of success has however been slim.
Laban said that governmental education initiatives on the dangers of trafficking have been “weak”, partly because most of the material is written in Burmese, while many of the victims are from ethnic minority groups.
“Education alone will not end this problem,” she however warned. “There should be job creation for those young women” so they are not forced into exploitative industries.
Corruption has also played a major part, with Burmese officials known to be complicit in the lucrative trade.
Thailand’s labour ministry said this week that trafficking rackets will becoming the target of a crackdown by authorities as Bangkok looks to rein in the flow of illegal workers into the country.
*******************************************************
Burma Flag
ေတာ္လွန္ေရးသီခ်င္းမ်ား(Politics Song)
Monday, 9 May 2011
BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY 06-09, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
ေမ.မရေသာ ရွစ္ေလးလံုး အေရးေတာ္ပံု
ဆက္သြယ္ရန္အီေမးလ္
လာလည္ၾကေသာမိတ္ေဆြမ်ား
သင့္ IP ကိုၾကည့္ရန္
0 comments:
Post a Comment