News & Articles on Burma

Sunday, 21 August, 2011
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UN envoy visits Myanmar
21 August 2011
Agence France-Presse

NAYPYIDAW (Myanmar), 21 AUG: A UN rights envoy arrived in Myanmar today for the first time in more than a year for talks with senior government officials, amid signs the regime is seeking to engage its critics.

Mr Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, was due to meet the foreign and home ministers in the capital here before attending parliament tomorrow, officials said.

The envoy has been a vocal critic of Myanmar's rulers, enraging the generals after his last trip by suggesting that human rights violations in the country may amount to crimes against humanity and could warrant a UN inquiry.

The international community has called for a number of reforms in Myanmar including the release of around 2,000 political prisoners. UN spokesman Mr Aye Win in Yangon confirmed that Mr Quintana had arrived in Myanmar today and would stay for five days. He is scheduled to meet Opposition leader Ms Aung San Suu Kyi in the former capital Yangon on Wednesday, a spokesman for her party said, in what would be the first talks between the Argentinian lawyer and the democracy icon.

Mr Quintana last visited Myanmar in February 2010 but was not allowed to see Ms Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest at the time. His subsequent requests to return had been rejected until now.

Mr Quintana's latest visit comes after Ms Suu Kyi met President Thein Sein in the capital on Friday for the first time, in the Nobel laureate's highest-level dialogue with the government since her release from detention.

An apparent thawing of relations with Ms Suu Kyi saw the 66-year-old travel unhindered outside Yangon earlier this month on her first overtly political trip since being freed, addressing thousands of supporters.

In a statement ahead of his visit, Mr Quintana said his mission “takes place in a somehow different political context, with a new government in place since April, following last year's elections, and my main objective is to assess the human rights situation from that perspective”. http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=380500&catid=37
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S Korea to help Myanmar build disease research laboratory
English.news.cn 2011-08-21 11:40:43

YANGON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea will help Myanmar build a laboratory for research on communicable diseases under a cooperation program with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), a state media reported Sunday.

According to the agreement signed between Myanmar's Medical Research Department and the South Korean Embassy in Yangon on Saturday, the project will be funded by the KOICA with 3 million U. S. dollars, the New Light of Myanmar said.

Myanmar and South Korea are stepping up cooperation in the health sector. Their bilateral cooperation program covers medical research, upgrading laboratories in Myanmar, sending health staff to South Korea to study special medical subjects and providing healthcare to the people in Myanmar by Korean medical teams.

The KOICA has stationed in Myanmar since 1991 extending the technical expertise and equipment needed for social service organizations as well as training in related fields. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-08/21/c_131063865.htm
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EU's Ashton gives cautious welcome to Suu Kyi Myanmar talks
20 August 2011, 21:33 CET

(BRUSSELS) - EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton gave a cautious welcome on Saturday to first talks between democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar President Thein Sein.

"We welcome this very important step -- national reconciliation is important for all the people of Burma-Myanmar," said Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union high representative Ashton.

"We very much hope that these discussions bear fruit," he told AFP after the Nobel laureate said Friday's one-hour meeting with the former general in the capital Naypyidaw had gone well.

"I am glad to see him and I am encouraged," Suu Kyi said of the talks with one of the members of the junta who kept her locked up for much of the past two decades.

The latest example of contacts between the government and its most renowned critic, a Myanmar official said the closed-doors meeting was "quite good and quite open" without detailing the nature of discussions.

Government mouthpiece the New Light of Myanmar said both sides sought "potential common grounds to cooperate in the interests of the nation and the people, putting aside different views".

Text and Picture Copyright 2011 AFP. All other Copyright 2011 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable. http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/myanmar-politics.bu6
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Myanmar regime prepared to 'tolerate' opposition
Agence France-Presse/ Bangkok, August 21, 2011
First Published: 11:16 IST(21/8/2011)

Myanmar is seeking to shed its pariah image by reaching out to democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other critics, analysts say, but more concrete reforms from the new regime remain elusive. The opposition leader was invited to the remote capital for her first talks with President Thein
Sein on Friday, in the latest move by the nominally civilian administration to foster warmer ties with its most famous opponent.

Few details have emerged of the one-hour meeting between the Nobel laureate and former general, but experts said it represented a major step for the government, which took power after a controversial election last November.

The new rulers -- many of whom shed their military uniforms to contest the vote -- want to show that "they are in charge, rather than the army," said Aung Naing Oo, a Thailand-based analyst at the Vahu Development Institute.

"They want to be seen doing something good for the country, and above all, that they are a civilian government," he said.

Overtures towards Suu Kyi, which apparently even took the dissident by surprise, were "extremely important" for reconciliation, no matter what the underlying motivation, he added.

Suu Kyi was released from seven straight years of house arrest just days after the November elections in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The polls, marred by cheating and the absence of Suu Kyi's party, were criticised by Western governments as a sham.

The government told Suu Kyi in June to stay out of politics and warned that her plans for a national political tour could spark chaos and riots, but it has since softened its stance.

Recent weeks have seen her hold two rounds of talks with the labour minister in Yangon, meet the president at his office in the jungle capital and address thousands of supporters on an overtly political day trip outside Yangon.

The authorities have also encouraged Suu Kyi to legally register her National League for Democracy, which was officially dissolved last year for boycotting the election and left with no voice in the new parliament.

The party won a 1990 vote but was never allowed by the junta to take power.

The new government has also called for peace talks with ethnic rebels and is allowing UN rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana to visit this week for the first time in more than a year for talks with senior government officials.

While there have been recent improvements in the regime's dealings with the opposition and other actors, it is too early to say whether it is "a fresh start or empty gestures", said US-based Myanmar academic Win Min.

He said Myanmar's new leadership is prepared to "tolerate certain activities of the opposition and cooperate with them on development issues to get more regional and international acceptance".

Western nations that impose sanctions on Myanmar have called for a number of reforms including the release of around 2,000 political prisoners and an end to rights abuses, particularly against ethnic minorities.

Thein Sein's government has set its sights on being allowed to hold the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2014 -- a year before the country's next scheduled election.

The military's political proxies -- who claimed an overwhelming victory in last year's poll -- want the prestige of the ASEAN role before holding the next vote, said a Myanmar expert who asked not to be named.

But for a country dominated by authoritarian army rule for nearly half a century, deeper reforms like political freedom and an end to long-running conflicts with ethnic rebel groups could take much longer, he said.

"We should be very careful in imagining that the reform of a country like Burma will happen overnight but it is moving in the right direction faster than one could have imagined," the expert said. http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/myanmar/Myanmar-regime-prepared-to-tolerate-opposition/Article1-735692.aspx
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UN envoy enters Myanmar for first time in more than a year
Posted: 21 August 2011 1614 hrs

NAYPYIDAW: A UN rights envoy arrived in Myanmar on Sunday for the first time in more than a year for talks with senior government officials, amid signs the regime is seeking to engage its critics.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, was due to meet the foreign and home ministers in the capital Naypyidaw before attending parliament on Monday, officials said.

The envoy has been a vocal critic of Myanmar's rulers, enraging the generals after his last trip by suggesting that human rights violations in the country may amount to crimes against humanity and could warrant a UN inquiry.

The international community has called for a number of reforms in Myanmar including the release of around 2,000 political prisoners.

UN spokesman Aye Win in Yangon confirmed that Quintana had arrived in Myanmar on Sunday and would stay for five days.

He is scheduled to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the former capital Yangon on Wednesday, a spokesman for her party said, in what would be the first talks between the Argentinian lawyer and the democracy icon.

Quintana last visited Myanmar in February 2010 but was not allowed to see Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest at the time. His subsequent requests to return had been rejected until now.

Quintana's latest visit comes after Suu Kyi met President Thein Sein in the capital on Friday for the first time, in the Nobel laureate's highest-level dialogue with the government since her release from detention.

An apparent thawing of relations with Suu Kyi saw the 66-year-old travel unhindered outside Yangon earlier this month on her first overtly political trip since being freed, addressing thousands of supporters.

In a statement ahead of his visit, Quintana said his mission "takes place in a somehow different political context, with a new government in place since April, following last year's elections, and my main objective is to assess the human rights situation from that perspective".

Suu Kyi's release by the junta after seven straight years of house arrest came just days after a November election that was marred by allegations of cheating and which was won by the military's political proxies.

A civilian administration is now nominally in charge of Myanmar but its ranks are dominated by former generals.

-AFP/ac http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1148251/1/.html
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Myanmar passports issued to workers in Thailand quadruple
Aug 21, 2011, 6:16 GMT

Yangon - The number of temporary passports issued to Myanmar nationals working in Thailand has quadrupled over the past 12 months, media reports said Sunday.

Some 530,000 temporary passports were issued to Myanmar migrant labourers in Thailand during the period ending August 15, compared with only 118,000 during the previous 12 months, the Myanmar Times reported.

The increase was attributed to the government's decision to allow registration offices in the border towns of Ranong and Tachilek to facilitate passports for citizens seeking to be registered as legal workers in Thailand.

There are an estimated 2 million registered migrant labourers in Thailand, and an estimated 1 million still unregistered.

'The Ranong office has issued the highest numbers of passports even though it's only been open about a year because it's more convenient for Myanmar workers in Thailand,' an official told the weekly newspaper.

In July 2011, the validity of the temporary passports was extended from three to six years.

Despite Thailand's efforts to register its migrant workers, and adopt laws that protect them from exploitation, there are reports of widespread abuses of foreign labourers.

'Corruption, coupled with the infamous brokerage system, has diluted the efficacy of government policies and programmes to combat human trafficking,' UN special rapporteur on human trafficking Joy Ezeilo said in Bangkok Friday after a 12-day tour of the country.

'There is widespread occurrence of sexual exploitation, including child prostitution, pornography and sex tourism,' Ezeilo said, adding that she had found evidence of increased trafficking of forced labour in agriculture, construction and the fishing industry.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1658158.php/Myanmar-passports-issued-to-workers-in-Thailand-quadruple