http://www.bangkokpost.com/301108_News/30Nov2008_news18.php
Six months ago I decided to visit the PAD protests in Bangkok. I took my 15-year-old daughter along because she showed a strong political and social interest in what was going on at the time. I thought it would be an interesting lesson for her on democracy and freedom of speech.
Scenes at the rally were friendly, safe and educated. The mob was outside _ represented in red T-shirts, clubs in their hands and drunk. The protesters in yellow (PAD) were all polite and sober.
Now my daughter asks me what happened to make the formerly peaceful PAD protests turn so disgusting and ugly. We both shake our heads in disbelief when we think of six months ago.
Now Thailand is wrecked, brought down by those who claim to love their nation and their King. My daughter has learned the lesson she had six months ago, and today we both ask the same question: When will Thailand become a peaceful country again, with 65 million smiles for every tourist and their King?
Armin Hermann
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The PAD is damaging not only the government, economy and image of Thailand but also Thai families abroad and Thailand as a whole.
Exports of Thai vegetables and spices have been stopped to countries around the world. Thai restaurants around the world are very important to the Thai economy. Farmers, distributors and export companies benefit from the success of fine Thai food worldwide. Employees and owners at Thai restaurants around the world are often the first Thai people foreigners met, and we are the first channel to promote Thailand as a fantastic tourist destination, with great food and great tourist sights, superb Thai hotels and resorts. Now we have to tell our customers that we cannot serve Thai food with the original ingredients. Will they stay or choose another restaurant?
Protest is the right of everybody, but it should be done with common sense. Why not demonstrate around government sites? The PAD is looking for a conflict which will hurt Thai people in Thailand and all around the world for a very long time.
The tourists stranded in Bangkok will probably reconsider helping Thai people if there is another major disaster like the tsunami. In my country millions and millions of euros were collected to rebuild Thailand after the tsunami and help the survivors.
I feel really sorry for all the hard-working, nice and smiling people of Thailand, such as farmers, taxi drivers, hotel employees, waiters, shop owners, restaurant owners and many more people who make Thailand the place I love to visit. What a pity.
Sonny Buter
www.ThaiFood.nl
-----
THE BAD NEIGHBOUR
The mess that Thailand has brought upon itself is fundamentally a domestic problem. But the reckless and unacceptable seizure of the Suvarnabhumi airport is taking a number of neighbouring countries hostage.
Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma and the Chinese province of Yunnan all depend on Bangkok as the transport hub of the region. They all see their tourism arrivals dwindle due to a matter in which they have no part.
It is essential that Southeast Asia not depend on a single hub for all traffic, but rather spread the risk. Vietnam is an obvious potential rival; some more long-haul flights and simpler visa regulations would make it an attractive alternative to Bangkok. China should be able to connect Yunnan province to the rest of the world via its hubs. Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos can also easily be reached from KL and Singapore. Voila, the Thai monopoly is broken.
As long as the PAD is a factor in Thai politics we cannot consider Thailand a stable and reliable economic partner. The damage done is beyond repair.
Eskil Sorensen
Luang Prabang
-----
THE LAND OF HATRED
Today, an export customer cancelled orders worth in excess of 10 million baht over the next couple of months. Unfortunately this means that staff are not going to receive salaries unless we can find another customer to take over their air shipments. Does the PAD not realise they are hurting their Thai friends by not allowing the country to operate?
Vietnam is welcoming us with open arms; maybe it is time to change because the land of smiles has turned into the land of hatred and there doesn't seem any way of going back to the true values of Thailand!
Matt Christie
-----
LET'S RUMBLE!
Watching the Bangkok Post try to offer criticism of the increasingly criminal activities of the PAD without offending its readers, most of whom presumably support the PAD, is like watching a man trying to pluck up the courage to saw off his own leg.
Your editorial (Bangkok Post, Nov 26, ''PAD wrong to shut airport'') rightly criticises the PAD.
Unfortunately, however, the editorial stops short of calling on the government and the nation's security forces to take decisive action and restore order at the capital's two civilian airports.
The truth is that the government is unwilling to order the police to take action because it knows that this will lead to violence and that the media will then start to scream, untruthfully, that the government has lost the credibility to rule.
The result then will be that the army will then feel able to get away with another coup.
It is high time the media behaved responsibly and urge the government and the police to reclaim national property and to give it the backing to use as much force as necessary _ including the possibility of using firearms against those PAD people who could be seen on the BBC the other morning firing handguns.
The police should be made aware that the media expects access to any action they take and will be on the alert for any unwarranted violence. But they should also be aware that their primary duty is to restore order.
Dom Dunn
Sunday, November 30, 2008
THE WIND OF CHANGES-(THAILAND)
ဂ်ပန္ႏိုင္ငံ တိုက်ိဳျမိဳ့ တြင္ ေထရ၀ါဒဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီးေက်ာင္းျဖစ္ေျမာက္ျပီ။
CREDIT-U THAN WIN
ေထရ၀ါဒ ဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီးေက်ာင္းကို Tobu tojo Line -Naka Idabashi ဘူတာတြင္
ယန္းေသာင္းသံုးေထာင္ငါးရာနွင့္
၀ယ္ယူရာတြင္ လက္ရွိမတည္ေငြ ယန္းေသာင္းတေထာင္ငါးရာသာရွိျပီး
လိုေငြ ယန္းေသာင္းႏွစ္ေထာင္ကို ၂ လအတြင္းေငြေခ်ရန္လိုအပ္ပါေသာေႀကာင့္
ဘုရားတကာေက်ာင္းတကာျဖစ္ရန္အတြက္အျမန္ဆံုး ကုသိုလ္ ပါ
ဝင္ႀကပါရန္ေမတၱာရပ္ခံအပ္ပါသည္။ ဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီးေက်ာင္းျဖစ္ေျမာက္ေရးေကာ္မီတီ။
ဖံုး-၀၃ ၃၉၁၆ ၁၉၅၆ .
Fingerprint screening stops 846-JAPAN
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20081129a1.html
Justice minister praises contentious biometric scanning regime for catching undesirables
By MINORU MATSUTANI
Staff writer
The new biometric system that fingerprints and photographs all incoming foreigners at airports and seaports prevented 846 undesirables from entering the country over the past year, the Immigration Bureau said Friday.
All were forced to leave Japan immediately, immigration official Aiko Oumi said.
The number accounts for 8.5 percent of about 10,000 foreigners whom immigration officers at airports and seaports expel every year after learning, through questioning and other measures, they had criminal records or were involved in illegal acts.
Despite complaints from foreigners who say mandatory fingerprinting, which resumed in November last year, makes them feel like they are being treated as criminals and violates their human rights, Justice Minister Eisuke Mori praised the system for helping to block illegal entries.
"As we can see, the new monitoring system can stop those with fake passports from entering," Mori said at a news conference. "I think it is very efficient."
The new system was launched on Nov. 20, 2007, after the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law was revised to require all non-Japanese aged 16 and older, including those with permanent resident status, to provide biometric data upon entering the country to help keep terrorists out of Japan.
Incoming foreigners must place their index fingers on a scanner at the immigration booth, where the biometric data are checked against the Justice Ministry's list of international terrorists and foreigners with criminal records.
Of the 846, 748 were ordered to leave Japan and 98, most of whom used fake passports, were expelled from Japan and banned from entering the country for the next five years.
Of the 748, 290 were South Koreans, 137 were Filipinos and 83 were Chinese. The other 98 included 18 Filipinos, 16 Iranians, 10 Sri Lankans and 54 others.
The number of foreigners who entered Japan for the one-year period ending Nov. 19 rose 3.6 percent to 9.37 million from the previous year.
The Immigration Bureau, which is run by the Justice Ministry, also said the system reduced waiting times at airport immigration booths.
European envoy urges Myanmar opposition to contest polls - Summary
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/243936,european-envoy-urges-myanmar-opposition-to-contest-polls--summary.html
Yangon- A visiting European diplomat urged the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) to participate in the upcoming 2010 elections, political sources said Saturday. Attilio Massimo Iannucci, Asia-Pacific chief of Italy's foreign ministry, met Friday with senior NLD party members including veteran journalist Win Tin at the ambassador's residence in Yangon.
During the two-hour discussion, Iannucci urged the NLD to participate in 2010 election because there would be a chance to win again for them, Win Tin said.
"He said at present the military occupied 100 per cent of the government and after 2010, there would be only 25 per cent. It is much better than current situation," Win Tin told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The Italian diplomat also said the international community could if NLD joins election.
"We told him that 25 percent would be just a word and in practice the military would be dominating. We said the constitution must be amended before the election," Win Tin said.
But he did not say whether the NLD would join election or not.
"There are two different approaches on the election within the NLD. Some want to participate and some do not," Win Tin said.
Myanmar's ruling junta is expected to field at least two pro-military parties to contest the 2010 elections, forming them out of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).
The USDA was formed on September 15, 1993, as a popular support base for the military.
The association now claims to have 24 million members out of Myanmar's 56 million population, and has been cultivated to become the military's political arm for contesting elections.
"We will form two political parties for the 2010 elections," said a USDA member after attending their annual meeting in Naypyitaw, the military's new capital, on Friday.
The movement is an essential competent in the military's plans to introduce "democracy" to Myanmar.
Initial steps included drafting a new constitution having it approved by a national referendum in May.
Both processes were dubbed shams by many international observers because the charter-drafting process was controlled by the military, and the referendum supervised by the army resulted in an absurdly high approval rate exceeding 90 per cent.
The referendum drew intense criticism from Western democracies as it was pushed through in mid-May in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis that devastated the Irrawaddy delta region, leaving almost 140,000 people dead or missing.
The constitution has cemented the military's dominant role in future governments by guaranteeing it a high percentage of appointed senators who can block all controversial legislation.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, when army strongman General Ne Win overthrew the country's first post-independence prime minister U Nu with a coup.
Although the military bowed to international pressure to hold an election in 1990, it refused to acknowledge the outcome.
The NLD, the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won the 1990 polls by a landslide, but the military junta blocked it from taking office by claiming that a new constitution would be needed before civilian rule could work.
The junta took 18 years to come up with a new charter, and Suu Kyi - a Nobel peace laureate - has spent 13 of those years under house arrest.
Copyright, respective author or news agency
Mumbai Terrorist Siege Over, India Says
Arko Datta/Reuters
Flames and smoke poured from the Taj hotel in Mumbai, India, on Saturday. More Photos >
Permalink
By SOMINI SENGUPTA and KEITH BRADSHER
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/world/asia/30mumbai.html?ref=world
A Day of Reckoning as India Toll Tops 170
Arko Datta/Reuters
By SOMINI SENGUPTA and KEITH BRADSHER
Published: November 29, 2008
MUMBAI, India — Death hung over Mumbai on Saturday.
Back Story With Keith BradsherBodies were extracted from the ruins of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in the hours after the standoff with militants there ended on Saturday in a gunfight and fire. At the main city hospital morgue, relatives came, clutching one another in grief, to identify their dead. By midafternoon, the morgue was running out of body bags, and by evening the death toll had risen to at least 172. Funerals, among them ceremonies for two policemen and a lawyer, went on throughout the day.
As the reckoning began after the three-day siege here, troubling questions arose about the apparent failure of the Indian authorities to anticipate the attack or respond to it more swiftly.
And tensions were high, as well, between India and Pakistan, where officials insisted that their government had nothing to do with assisting the attackers and promised that they would act swiftly if any connection was found within their country.
Perhaps the most troubling question to emerge Saturday for the Indian authorities was how, if official estimates are accurate, just 10 gunmen could have caused so much carnage and repelled Indian police officers, paramilitary forces and soldiers for more than three days in three different buildings.
As the investigation continued, it was unclear whether the attackers had collaborators already in the city, or whether others in their group had escaped. All told, the gunmen struck 10 sites in bustling south Mumbai.
Amid the cleanup effort in this stricken city, the brutality of the gunmen became plain to see, as accounts from investigators and survivors portrayed a wide trail of destruction and indiscriminate killing wherever the terrorists went.
At a gas station near the Taj hotel, attackers opened fire on two waiting cars on Wednesday, critically injuring two occupants. When a married couple in their 70s went to their third-floor window to see what was happening, the terrorists blazed away with assault rifles, killing both and leaving shards of glass that still hung in the window on Saturday.
Down the road, when the gunmen seized Nariman House, the headquarters here of a Jewish religious organization, neighbors mistook the initial shots on Wednesday night for firecrackers to celebrate India’s cricket victory over England.
But when drunken revelers in a nearby alley began throwing bottles and stones, two attackers stepped onto a balcony of Nariman House and opened fire on passers-by, killing a 22-year-old call center worker who was the sole support of his widowed mother; five others were injured. A teenage boy who stepped out onto his balcony and came within firing range was swiftly shot and killed, a witness said.
“We still don’t know why they did this,” said Rony Dass, a cable television installer who lives across the street from the gas station. He lost a lifelong friend, a tailor who was locking up his store for the night on Wednesday, only to be killed by a gunman.
At the Oberoi hotel, the second luxury hotel to be assaulted, the gunmen called guests on hotel phones; some of those who picked up were then attacked, their doors smashed open and the guests shot. At the Taj, terrorists broke in room by room and shot occupants at point blank range. Some were shot in the back.
“I think their intention was to kill as many people as possible and do as much physical damage as possible,” said P.R.S. Oberoi, the chairman of the Oberoi Group, which manages the adjacent Oberoi and Trident Hotels, both of which were attacked.
Evidence unfolded that the gunmen killed their victims early on in the siege and left the bodies, apparently fooling Indian security forces into thinking that they were still holding hostages. At the Sir J.J. Hospital morgue, an official in charge of the post-mortems, not authorized to speak to the press, said that of the 87 bodies he had examined, all but a handful had been killed Wednesday night and early Thursday. By Saturday night, 239 people had been reported injured.
Contrary to earlier reports, it appeared that Westerners were not the gunmen’s main targets: they killed whoever they could. By Saturday evening, 18 of the dead were confirmed as foreigners; an additional 22 foreigners were injured, said Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra State, where Mumbai is located.
Page 2 of 2)
The State Department has said at least five Americans died in the attacks. Consular officials from Britain, the Netherlands and Israel went to morgues on Saturday to see if their missing citizens had turned up there.
Back Story With Keith BradsherThere were reports on the first night of the attacks that gunmen had rounded up holders of American and British passports at the Oberoi and herded them upstairs. But Rattan Keswani, the president of Trident Hotels, said he had found no basis for such reports.
“Nothing seems to suggest that,” he said, noting that a range of nationalities was represented among the 22 hotel guests who died, in addition to the 10 staff members, all Indian.
The city’s police chief, Hasan Gafoor, said nine gunmen were killed, the last of whom fell out of the terrace of the Taj hotel on Saturday morning as the siege ended. His body was charred beyond recognition when it was taken to the hospital. A 10th suspected terrorist was arrested; the police say he is a 21-year-old Pakistani, Ajmal Amir Kasab.
A senior Mumbai police inspector, Nagappa R. Mali, said the suspect and one of his collaborators, who was slain by the police, had killed three top police officials, including the head of the antiterrorist squad, Hemant Karkare.
Mr. Karkare was cremated Saturday morning in a crowded and emotional farewell.
The bodies of four other suspected terrorists were at the morgue at the Sir J.J. Hospital in Mumbai. Officials there put their ages between 20 and 25. All four were men.
Around dawn on Saturday, gunfire began to rattle inside the Taj Mahal hotel, one of about a dozen sites that the militants attacked beginning Wednesday night. They never issued any manifestoes or made any demands, and it seemed clear from their stubborn resistance at the Taj that they intended to fight to the last.
It was not long before flames were roaring through a ground-floor ballroom and the first floor of the Taj, a majestic 105-year-old hotel in the heart of southern Mumbai.
But by midmorning, after commandos had finished working their way through the 565-room hotel, the head of the elite National Security Guards, J. K. Dutt, said the siege at the Taj was over. Three terrorists, he said, had been killed inside.
By afternoon, busloads of elite commandos, fresh from the siege of the hotel, sat outside the nearby Gateway of India and shook hands with elated spectators.
“There were so many people and we wanted to avoid any civilian casualties,” one of the commandos told a private television station, CNN-IBN. He said they were firing from various parts of the hotel. By the end of the siege, he said, the gunmen had holed up in one room and barricaded the door with explosives.
The siege may have been over, but new tensions within the region were on the rise, particularly after India’s foreign minister on Friday blamed “elements” within Pakistan for the attack.
In an attempt to defuse the situation on Saturday, the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, told an Indian television channel in a live telephone interview that he supported a thorough investigation “no matter where it may lead.”
“My heard bleeds for India,” Mr. Zardari said. “As president of Pakistan, if any evidence points to anyone in my country,” Pakistan will take action, he said.
Mr. Zardari said he did not rule out the possibility of the top official of the Pakistani intelligence agency working with Indian officials on the case. But it was too early in the investigation for the top official to meet with his Indian counterpart to share information, Mr. Zardari said.
Soon after Mr. Zardari’s interview on Indian television, the Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said the Pakistani government was not involved in the attack.
“Our hands are clean,” Mr. Qureshi told a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, after a lengthy cabinet meeting called to discuss the rising tensions between the two rival countries. “We have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Mr. Qureshi also stressed that the Indian government had not blamed the Pakistani government for the attacks.
“They are suspecting, perhaps suspecting, groups or organizations that could have a presence here,” he said. “We have said if they have evidence they should share it with us.”
[Comment] MEPs can shore up human rights at the UN-(EU)
http://euobserver.com/9/27197
RICHARD GOWAN AND FRANZISKA BRANTNER
28.11.2008 @ 18:03 CET
EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - Next week, the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee votes on a report on the EU's role in the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). This comes at an embarrassing moment. The UN has been mocked for spending €18 million on a colourful ceiling for the HRC chamber in Geneva. But the European Union faces bigger problems than weird decorations.
Darfur - Sudan uses the "EU" as a pejorative tag at the HRC (Photo: wikipedia)
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Comment article
The HRC is a testing-ground for the EU's commitment to effective multi-lateralism. It was launched in 2006 with European support despite American objections that its membership rules did not exclude human rights abusers. EU members had tried to promote such rules, but their efforts were misconceived or mishandled. The US currently boycotts the HRC.
Some European diplomats wish they could stay away too. The EU and its allies on human rights are typically stuck in a minority on the 47-member Council, and lose close to two-thirds of votes in each session. China and Russia, along with hard liners like Egypt and Pakistan, enjoy considerable support and have worked hard to halt or limit UN monitoring of human rights in cases like Belarus.
It is too soon to despair. The EU still scores victories on human rights in the UN system. This week it won important votes on Iran, Burma and North Korea in the General Assembly in New York. But it remains on the defensive in the HRC.
The EU clashes with Islamic states over religious values and individual rights. African and Latin American governments that share European concerns over crises such as Darfur feel that the EU ignores their concerns on issues like poverty and migration.
Europe versus the world
"It's not the West versus the rest," says one European official of the HRC, "it's Europe versus the world." When Sudan wanted to discredit the UN's rapporteur on Darfur, a respected Afghan doctor and politician, it called her "an agent of the European Union."
But the EU is not an innocent victim at the HRC. Its members do not always seem to take the body seriously, ensuring that it doesn't probe into human rights inside Europe.
Perhaps because they are so often on the defensive, they have failed to develop a positive agenda of their own in the HRC, most obviously around the Durban Process on racism. As elsewhere in the UN system and far beyond, their diplomats spend too much in intra-EU talks and too little listening to others.
So the European Parliament is right to look into how the EU performs in Geneva. Their intervention is particularly timely for two reasons. Firstly, the financial crisis will almost certainly make the EU's job harder at the HRC: "Western values" suddenly look like very easy targets. If the EU and its allies don't start talking about how the economic crisis affects people's basic rights, Cuba and Venezuela will do so - once again leaving the Europeans on the defensive.
Secondly, the election of Barack Obama offers a challenge. European diplomats expect his administration to at least partially re-engage with the HRC. But it will not do so without preconditions. American diplomats will want some evidence that their friends have a plan to make the HRC work better. Otherwise they won't bother getting involved.
If the European Parliament can agree on a half-decent plan, therefore, it might just help persuade the US to re-connect with the UN. Fortunately, the report currently being discussed in the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee is a good one, with a sound analysis of the HRC's problems - and awareness of the EU's own failings.
Additionally, a number of MEPs have put forward amendments that would strengthen the report further.
Four proposals
As authors of a recent analysis of the EU's influence on human right across the UN system, we believe that four of these proposals deserve special attention.
Firstly, it is important that the European Parliament calls on the EU High Representative Javier Solana and his personal representative on human rights, Riina Kionka, to become more closely involved in the HRC.
The bulk of day-to-day diplomacy at the HRC must still be done by national diplomats. But this inevitably distracts from broader thinking about how to define the human rights agenda.
Mr Solana and Mrs Kionka - and potentially additional envoys selected for this purpose - should work on developing pioneering new HRC initiatives, visiting African, Asian and Latin American capitals to listen and consult on possible resolutions.
Solana and his staff have shown that they can articulate new ideas for the EU's members, most obviously in the creation of the 2003 Security Strategy. They can now play a similar role over the HRC.
A second important amendment involves the role played by the European Commission.
Again, the commission's office in Geneva cannot usurp the role of member-states at the HRC. But it can play a facilitating role by coordinating with its offices elsewhere on important resolutions, especially as it has better networks in the developing world than many member-states.
Unfortunately, the commission is short on staff in Geneva, and does not even have a full-time human rights staffer there. The European Parliament should push for this to be remedied, with a number of human rights specialists (possibly seconded lawyers) monitoring the HRC.
Thirdly, the European Parliament should call for greater European support to civil society worldwide to scrutinise UN affairs. The commission and member-states should find money to support NGOs in developing countries promote human rights at the UN.
That should be part of a far wider effort to ensure that Europe is part of a global debate about human rights at the HRC, rather than just talking (unhappily) to itself.
To monitor progress, we believe that the European Parliament should also request that the competent EU institutions prepare an annual report breaking down voting patterns at the HRC, and evaluating European policy there.
By definition, MEPs understand the need for public debate about international institutions. If they stimulate the discussions of the HRC, they may save it from paralysis.
Richard Gowan and Franziska Brantner are the authors of the European Council on Foreign Relations report on "A Global Force for Human Rights? An Audit of European Power at the UN" (September 2008)
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Angry young men-CHINA
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081128/REVIEW/843636163/-1/NEWS
Man the barricades: Protestors shout anti-French slogans outside a Carrefour supermarket in Chongqing municipality, lashing out against French criticism of China. Today many Chinese youths not only support the Beijing regime, they believe it needs to become stronger at home and abroad. AFP
Updated: November 27. 2008 5:35PM UAE / November 27. 2008 1:35PM GMT
The China Fantasy: Why Capitalism Will Not Bring Democracy to China
James Mann
Penguin
Dh48
Chinese Cyber Nationalism: Evolution, Characteristics, and Implications
Xu Wu
Lexington Books
Dh148
When I first started working in China and was still accustomed to the cozy shopping malls of American suburbia, the ferocity of Chinese shoppers shocked me – I often waited what seemed like hours to pay for groceries as one older Chinese woman after another shoved me aside to reach the cash register. But nothing prepared me for my first visit to a Carrefour in China, in 2005. Superficially, the French supermarket looked much the same as its European outlets – there were the same wide aisles full of endless rows of produce, fresh fish, breads, canned goods. But the resemblance ended there. In the Chinese aisles, shoppers pushed and shoved as they scrambled for products, ramming their carts into one another. At the checkout counter, mobs of shoppers formed a large scrum, which occasionally disgorged one person with a shopping cart who, like a rugby runner, would make a dash for an open cash register.
A few years later, in the spring of 2008, a different kind of crowd gathered at Carrefours across China. But these mobs weren’t there to shop. In response to Western criticism of China’s treatment of Tibetan and Western protests against the Beijing Olympics, angry young Chinese nationalists lashed out. With French President Nicolas Sarkozy voicing particularly tough criticism of China, some demanded that Carrefour must pay. Across the country, demonstrators gathered outside Carrefour outlets, angrily chanting for a boycott.
These two shopping mall scenes illustrate China’s modern-day split-personality disorder. Across urbanised, eastern China, young middle class men and women drape themselves in Western brands and whip out the latest Nokia phones. While China’s industrial sector continues to supply a huge percentage of the world’s manufactured goods, its youths increasingly consume the same products and browse some of the same websites as do their peers around the world. But despite many Western leaders’ predictions that economic growth and increased cultural openness would push China toward political change, China’s teenagers and twentysomethings have not become more politically progressive. In many ways, they are far more nationalist and conservative than their older peers, the men and women who pushed for reform in the 1980s and ultimately failed at Tiananmen Square.
Today, many Chinese youths not only support the Beijing regime, they believe it needs to become stronger at home and abroad. They are pushing Beijing to become more nationalist than the Chinese government itself desires. And if these youths ultimately inherit power in China, they might turn the country, now beginning to work with the international community, in a far more dangerous direction.
Xu Wu, a former journalist at Xinhua, China’s state news agency, chronicles one aspect of China’s new nationalism in his new book, Chinese Cyber Nationalism : Evolution, Characteristics, and Implications. Many of the most strident young Chinese, known as fenqing (angry youth) blog or contribute to websites known for their nationalism, like the “Strong Country” forum linked to the website of the People’s Daily newspaper. Some forums trade in racist images of Japanese, while others call for China to modernise its military and ready itself for battle with America (even as many fenqing apply for higher education in the US). The hatred spills offline, too. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, some Chinese students told pollsters: “When the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, I really felt very delighted.” In a broader study of September 11 opinion, researchers found that “most Chinese college students ... were immediately excited because the United States, an abhorrent, overbearing, and arbitrary country in their minds, suffered an unprecedented heavy strike.” Recent polls of Chinese reveal the same trends in antipathy toward the US, Japan and other nations.
Many older professors I’ve met seem shocked at their students’ anger, xenophobia and fervent nationalism. That’s partly because these internet-savvy nationalists are too young to remember the worst moments in China’s own past. The generation of urban Chinese between the ages of 15 and 35, removed from the era of the Cultural Revolution, have never seen their country weak, poor or in total chaos; under this government, they realize, they have become wealthier than any previous generation in modern China. By comparison, older Chinese, who’ve experienced terror at the hands of their own leaders, generally remain more wary of Beijing.
China’s youth been also been carefully weaned on a diet of government spoon-fed nationalism. After the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, Beijing realised it needed to shore up domestic support, as Peter Hays Gries notes in his extensive study, China’s New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy. Revamped school textbooks have stoked anti-Japanese and anti-Western feelings by emphasising the pre-1949 period, when outsiders carved up China, by highlighting Japan’s war crimes in the Second World War and by portraying Western criticism of China today, on issues like human rights, as red herrings meant to keep China down. Television dramas and other state media celebrate China’s long history and tacitly portray the country as ready to blossom as an international power once again.
Meanwhile, Beijing rolls out state policies designed to keep young Chinese close to the regime, taking measures to bring businessmen into the Party, for instance, while simultaneously cracking down on some anti-government activists. According to my colleague Minxin Pei of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an American think tank, the government has smartly increased salaries for professors and other opinion leaders as well in recent years. In the 1980s, those academics, angry at the regime’s corruption and at their own poor standards of living, led some of the 1989 protests.
Beijing has reaped its fruit. According to one recent survey by the Pew organisation, a leading American polling group, Chinese citizens express some of the highest degrees of satisfaction with their lives of any people in the world. (The survey concentrated primarily on urban areas; in rural areas, where the economic reforms have produced far less growth, satisfaction with the government is far lower.) Some young Chinese I’ve met deride the country’s remaining pro-democracy protestors as foolish to believe that democracy could work in such a large and potentially chaotic nation – exactly the line many Beijing officials espouse. Other young Chinese simply seem not to care, preferring to focus on exploiting their economic freedoms and enjoying the fruits of wealth. As several professors have told me, campus interest in once-popular liberal arts disciplines like political science now pales in comparison to the droves of students studying business and computing. “There’s nothing we can do about politics,” one young Shanghainese told a reporter in an article in Time magazine entitled China’s Me Generation. “So there’s no point in talking about it or getting involved.”
To be fair, Shanghai’s rich kids do not represent an entire young generation. Pro-democracy activists still stand up across China (and are quickly shut down). But without broader public interest in their actions, there have been no large-scale pro-democracy movements in China since the Tiananmen era.
If the prospect of Chinese democratisation seems more remote than it did even just a decade ago, it is partly because the government has also become more sophisticated in its techniques of surveillance and control. Unlike in the Maoist era, when the regime tried to control virtually every facet of people’s lives, today the average Chinese person is free to do virtually whatever they like in the privacy of their own homes. But the state has set certain invisible lines that average citizens may not cross. Working to form a national movement is one such line, and Beijing responds harshly when it is crossed. After the Falun Gong spiritual movement attempted, in the late 1990s, to build a national political presence, Beijing allegedly arrested, tortured and even killed thousands of Falun Gong practitioners.
Meanwhile, other invisible lines criss-cross cyberspace, granting Chinese internet users only a skewed and partial view of the Web. Beijing has developed the most sophisticated Internet firewall and monitoring system in the world. The “Great Firewall of China” screens millions of websites for certain words, like “Dalai Lama”, and allows censors to block content without most Chinese users even knowing what they are missing. Of course, people who understand how to use remote servers can get around the firewall, but this takes a relatively high degree of computer savvy.
Just because they don’t openly support democracy, the new nationalists don’t necessarily avoid political discourse, nor do they even shy away from criticising Beijing. Over the past five years, nationalist young Chinese have taken to the streets repeatedly to protest perceived international slights against China. In 2005, after Japan published its own school history textbook that downplayed some of its nastier deeds in the Second World War, thousands of middle class Chinese rampaged through downtown Shanghai, chanting “Japanese pigs get out,” attacking Japanese nationals and stoning Japanese restaurants. The riots soon spread to other Chinese cities. Similar demonstrations have erupted against the US in times of poor US-China relations, as when a US military surveillance plane crashed into a Chinese fighter jet in 2001, killing the Chinese pilot.
Though Beijing sometimes turns a blind eye to these demonstrations (a pass other types of protests would never be granted), China’s leaders are clearly becoming worried as the demonstrations grow in size and ferocity. During the anti-Japanese riots of 2005, for instance, the Chinese police initially stood aside as the protests grew, but eventually took a harder line, stopping all demonstrations.
The government is right to worry. As Xu Wu notes, fenqing often take to the internet to blast Beijing – for not being tough enough. They have demanded that Chinese authorities take harder lines on Tibet and on Taiwan, deriding Beijing’s recent policy of rapprochement with the Island government. Moreover, Xu Wu believes that the cybernationalists, once regarded as a radical fringe group, are gaining a wider audience. Earlier this year, according to a story in the New Yorker magazine, a nationalist online video called “2008 China Stand Up!”, which entreated China to confront Western nations encircling it in a new Cold War, drew over a million hits in the first week and a half it was online.
In the future, too, the fenqing may become even more bitter. If the global economic crash hits Beijing any harder – it has already resulted in the closings of thousands of factories that produce consumer goods for the West – the fenqing could become harder to handle. As jobs become scarce, the government’s leading means of keeping them quiet – providing solid economic growth – will falter. Worse, China has one of the most skewed sex imbalances in the world. The rising generation of young Chinese men will struggle to find wives, and many will fail to build a family. And as scholars Valerie Hudson and Andrea M de Boer find in their book Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population, a generation of unmarried young men is a recipe for disaster. Already, gangs of male youths have been recruited as thugs by crooked developers and other businesspeople and have been used to violently quell protests against illegal land evictions.
In the future, angry young men with loose personal ties, fired up by nationalism and furious at a government they see as too soft could turn against Beijing itself. It has happened before. In the late 19th century, unequal sex ratios in China left men idle and contributed to widespread armed rebellions in the countryside. Eventually, those rebellions coalesced in the overthrow of the last Chinese emperor – surely a precedent Beijing’s leaders keep in mind.
Many of these trends, however, barely seem to have registered in other countries, where leaders still simply assume that economic growth will eventually produce democracy in China. As James Mann writes in The China Fantasy, a short, incendiary polemic, Western leaders have relied for years on this article of faith to sell ever-closer relations with Beijing to their own, skeptical publics. They promise that deepening trade relations will eventually catalyse political reform, despite there being little evidence to support this theory. By touting this line, Western leaders gamble on Chinese democratisation, preventing their governments from preparing for an alternative future, one in which China becomes an aggressive, nationalist power, perhaps like Japan before the Second World War.
Yet even if China did develop a freer political system, this might not guarantee a smooth relationship with the rest of the world. “We don’t really know what would happen if China were a democracy,” one Bush administration official, herself a prominent democratization advocate, admitted to me. “Maybe all the public pressure would force a democratically elected government to invade Taiwan.” As Western leaders publicly denounce the Beijing government for its human rights abuses, the slow pace of its economic reforms and its coddling of dictators from Zimbabwe to Burma, many in the West are beginning to whisper behind closed doors that Beijing’s leadership may actually be more moderate than the Chinese middle class.
Joshua Kurlantzick is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power is Transforming the World.
Japanese man among the slain
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20081128a1.html
By JUN HONGO
Staff writer
A Japanese businessman was among the scores of people killed in Mumbai by multiple terrorist attacks on major landmarks in India's financial capital, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
Hisashi Tsuda, 38, was shot during an assault on his hotel. A Muslim militant group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen has allegedly claimed responsibility for the 13 coordinated attacks on the city.
Tsuda, employed by Tokyo-based Mitsui Marubeni Liquefied Gas Co., was in Mumbai, also known as Mumbai, on business when he was shot in the chest and leg in the lobby of the hotel. One of his colleagues was also wounded.
"We express strong resentment that many lives, including that of a Japanese, were taken because of the attacks," Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said, adding that no act of terrorism can be justified.
Local media have reported that the gunmen were specifically hunting Westerners. Some of the terrorists had reportedly taken hostages and were holed up in a hotel after the attacks.
Later in the day, the Foreign Ministry said it had confirmed the safety of all 268 local Japanese residents and 28 businesspeople in the area.
According to the Foreign Ministry, there have been six major terrorist campaigns in the last six months, including simultaneous bombings in Delhi in September and in Guwahati, Assam, in October.
Following the attacks, the Foreign Ministry issued warnings to Japanese nationals and travelers bound for India, advising them to stay away from crowded public places and to stay alert. It also set up special task forces in both Mumbai and in Tokyo.
Kawamura strongly condemned the attacks.
"We are determined to join hands on the fight against terrorism with our friends in India, the U.S. and other countries," he said.
Analysis: a new tactic by Islamist militants
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5240621.ece
From The TimesNovember 27, 2008
Jeremy Page in Delhi
It felt like India's 9/11 | Co-ordinated attacks | Terrorist 'spectacular' expected | Islamist group suspected | City's history of violence | MEP fears | US promises united front | Cricket tour in doubt
The group that claimed to be behind last night’s attacks on Bombay -- the Deccan Mujahideen — has not hitherto been heard of in India, let alone in the outside world. But it could be an offshoot of the Indian Mujahideen, an Islamist group that was also unknown until it said it had caused a series of multiple bomb attacks on Indian cities in the past year.
Last night’s attacks also appear to fit into a new campaign to hit busy urban targets, popular with foreigners and wealthy Indians, to cause maximum damage to India’s economy and international reputation. Many of last night’s targets — especially the Taj and Oberoi hotels — are frequented by tourists, diplomats and foreign business people as well as the city’s own wealthy elite.
The Taj is one of India’s best-known colonial buildings and is next to the Gateway of India, which was built in 1911 to mark a visit by George V and is one of India’s most popular tourist sites.
Related Links
Terrorists bring carnage to Bombay
Multiple bombs rock India's Assam state
Terrorist attacks in Bombay: hour by hour so far
India has blamed most of the recent terrorist attacks on Islamist militant groups based in Pakistan or Bangladesh which, it says, have links to Pakistan’s intelligence service. Other alleged culprits include Maoist rebels and separatist groups in India’s remote northeast, on the borders of
China, Bangladesh and Myanmar. But this year, the Indian Mujahideen has said that it has carried out multiple bomb attacks that have killed more than 130 people in the cities of Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.
In September the group threatened to attack Bombay, accusing the city’s Anti-Terrorism Squad of harassing Muslims. It is also reported to have threatened British and US targets in India.
Some terrorism experts say the Indian Mujahideen is a front for an older group called the Students Islamic Movement of India, which they say has links to Pakistan.
Others decribe it as the first homegrown terrorist group to have emerged from India’s 151 million strong Muslim population.
India’s Muslims have long complained of discrimination at the hands of its Hindu majority. Many also object to Indian rule in Kashmir, the Muslim majority region claimed by both india and Pakistan.
Al-Qaeda has repeatedly threatened to attack India in revenge for its policies in Kashmir, although Indian security officials maintain that the group has no active presence within the country.
The picture has this month been complicated by the arrest of a senior military intelligence officer on suspicion of involvement in a bomb attack by Hindu extremists in western India in September. Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit is the first serving officer in India’s Army — seen as a bastion of secularism since the country won independence in 1947 — to be arrested on terrorism charges.
Police are now investigating whether he and other members of Abhinav Bharat (New India), a Hindu nationalist organisation, were behind other recent bomb attacks. Abhinav Bharat’s president is Himani Savarkar, the niece of the Hindu radical who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948.
Indian officials said that it was too early to say which of these groups carried out last night’s attacks, but the scale, complexity and targets suggested that it was the work of an Islamist group.
Rakesh Patel, a British citizen who was staying in the Oberoi, said that the gunmen had asked specifically for British and American passport-holders. “They were looking for foreigners,” he told India’s NDTV channel.
Islamic militants have been blamed for all the recent attacks on Bombay, including multiple bombings of trains and railways stations that killed more than 180 people in 2006. In 2001 an assault on the Indian parliament by Islamic militants left 12 people dead and almost led to war between India and Pakistan.
If India accuses Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of masterminding this attack, it will almost certainly cause another crisis in already tense bilateral relations.
Pressure will now increase on the Indian Government to overhaul its counter-terrorism infrastructure in time for the national elections, due before May.
Behind the Mumbai Massacre: India's Muslims in Crisis
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862650,00.html
Behind the Mumbai Massacre: India's Muslims in Crisis
By Aryn Baker Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008A gunman walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai
Sebastian D'souza / AP / Mumbai Mirror
Facebook Yahoo! Buzz Mixx Permalink Reprints Related The disembodied voice was chilling in its rage. A gunman, holed up in Mumbai's Oberoi Trident hotel where some 40 people had been taken hostage, told an Indian news channel that the attacks were revenge for the persecution of Muslims in India. "We love this as our country but when our mothers and sisters were being killed, where was everybody?" he asked via telephone. No answer came. But then he probably wasn't expecting one.
The roots of Muslim rage run deep in India, nourished by a long-held sense of injustice over what many Indian Muslims believe is institutionalized discrimination against the country's largest minority group. The disparities between Muslims, which make up 13.4% of the population, and India's Hindu population, which hovers around 80%, are striking. There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking Muslim Indians have shorter life spans, worse health, lower literacy levels, and lower-paying jobs. Add to that toxic brew the lingering resentment over 2002's anti-Muslim riots in the state of Gujarat. The riots, instigated by Hindu nationalists, killed some 2000 people, most of them Muslim. To this day, few of the perpetrators have been convicted. See pictures of the terrorist shootings in Mumbai.
The huge gap between Muslims and Hindus will continue to haunt India's, and neighboring Pakistan's, progress towards peace and prosperity. But before inter-communal relations can improve there is an even bigger problem that must first be worked out: the schism in subcontinental Islam, and the religion's place and role in modern India and Pakistan. It is a crisis 150 years in the making.
The Beginning of the Problem
On the afternoon of March 29, 1857, Mangal Pandey, a handsome, mustachioed soldier in the East India Company's native regiment, attacked his British lieutenant. His hanging a week later sparked a subcontinental revolt known to Indians as the first war of independence and to the British as the Sepoy Mutiny. Retribution was swift, and though Pandey was a Hindu, it was the subcontinent's Muslims, whose Mughal King nominally held power in Delhi, who bore the brunt of British rage. The remnants of the Mughal Empire were dismantled, and five hundred years of Muslim supremacy on the subcontinent was brought to a halt.
Muslim society in India collapsed. The British imposed English as the official language. The impact was cataclysmic. Muslims went from near 100% literacy to 20% within a half-century. The country's educated Muslim élite was effectively blocked from administrative jobs in the government. Between 1858 and 1878, only 57 out of 3,100 graduates of Calcutta University — then the center of South Asian education — were Muslim. While discrimination by both Hindus and the British played a role, it was as if the whole of Muslim society had retreated to lick its collective wounds.
From this period of introspection two rival movements emerged to foster an Islamic ascendancy. Revivalist groups blamed the collapse of their empire on a society that had strayed too far from the teachings of the Koran. They promoted a return to a more pure form of Islam, modeled on the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Others embraced the modern ways of their new rulers, seeking Muslim advancement through the pursuit of Western sciences, culture and law. From these movements two great Islamic institutions were born: Darul Uloom Deoband in northern India, rivaled only by al-Azhar University in Cairo for its teaching of Islam, and Aligarh Muslim University, a secular institution that promoted Muslim culture, philosophy and languages, but left religion to the mosque. These two schools embody the fundamental split that continues to divide Islam in the subcontinent today. "You could say that Deoband and Aligarh are husband and wife, born from the same historical events," says Adil Siddiqui, information coordinator for Deoband. "But they live at daggers drawn."
The campus at Deoband is only a three-hour drive from New Delhi through the modern megasuburb of Noida. Strip malls and monster shopping complexes have consumed many of the mango groves that once framed the road to Deoband, but the contemporary world stops at the gate. The courtyards are packed with bearded young men wearing long, collared shirts and white caps. The air thrums with the voices of hundreds of students reciting the Koran from open-door classrooms.
See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
【日刊ベリタ】ジェーン・バーキンが新曲「アウンサンスーチー」
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2008/11/28
People's Forum on Burma
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
今週11月26日、フランスの歌手・女優である、ジェーン・バーキンさんが
新作アルバム『冬の子供たち』を発売しました。
その中には、アウンサンスーチーさんやビルマの民主化活動家、
僧侶、子どもたちへ捧げる曲「アウンサンスーチー」も収録されています。
ビルマ情勢に強い関心を持つジェーン・バーキンさんは、昨年
来日された際に、在日ビルマ人の民主化活動家の皆さんとも会い、
ビルマ情勢についてお話されたそうです。
▼新曲「アウンサンスーチー」のビデオクリップ（日本語字幕版）はこちらの
サイトでご覧いただけます。
http://jp.youtube.com/user/AIJapan
以下、関連記事とともに、紹介させていただきます。
ビルマ市民フォーラム事務局
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
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【日刊ベリタ】 ビルマ民主化：2008年11月12日19時46分掲載
----------------------------------------------------- ジェーン・バーキンが新曲「アウンサンスーチー」
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
フランスの歌手、女優、映画監督と多彩な活動をくりひろげる、
ジェーン・バーキンが新作アルバム『冬の子供たち』で「アウン
サンスーチー」というビルマ（ミャンマー）の民主化運動指導者に
捧げる曲を歌っている。アルバムは１１月２６日にEMIミュー
ジックから発売される。日本にも多くの熱心なファンがいる
ジェーンは、スーチーさんの解放への支援を日本の人びとに訴える
メッセージも寄せている。またフランスのアムネスティと作った
「アウンサンスーチー」のビデオもYouTubeで公開されている。
（ベリタ通信）
人権活動に熱心なジェーン・バーキンはビルマの民主化問題に
強い関心をもち、昨年９月に僧侶が中心となった反政府デモが
軍政に弾圧されたことに衝撃を受けこの曲を書いたという。
事件の直後、彼女は米国にあるビルマ亡命政府のセインウィン
首相とともにサルコジ仏大統領に会い、軍政への圧力を強化する
よう訴えた。また、パリのビルマ大使館前で行われた国際人権団体
アムネスティの抗議行動にも参加した。
スーチーさんとは、旧首都ヤンゴンのフランス大使館で会ったことがある。
「アウンサンスーチー」の歌詞の一部は以下のとおり。
アウンサンスーチーさんは死んで
よく売れるＴシャツの絵柄になるでしょう
僧侶たちは死にかけ
少年兵たちは泣いている
私たちは４年越しの行ったり来たりを続けながら
実体のない計画をもてあそんでいるばかり
拷問 麻薬取引が
私たちの夢に資金を出しているのよ
どうして私たちは
株式市場の利益なんて気にしなきゃならないの？
（訳・沼崎敦子）
「この曲をアウンサンスーチーさん、国民民主連盟、僧侶や学生の
皆さん、ビルマの皆さん、子供たちに捧げます」と題して、
ジェーンは以下のメッセージを寄せている。
日本の皆さん、あなたがたは世界から尊敬も友情もそそがれる
民主主義の国の人です。しかも、軍事政権下にあるビルマ（ミャンマー）と
非常に深い関係を持っています。そういう日本が、ビルマの人たちを
助けるために何をするのか、それとも何もしないのか。どちらにしても、
ビルマへの影響はとても大きいのです。世界中があなた方の行動を
見守っています。―――ジェーン・バーキン
「アウンサンスーチー」のYouTube
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv3qad2jg8s
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
★ジェーン・バーキン最新アルバム
『冬の子供たち』発売中
TOCP-66841 \2,500 (税込)
★EMIミュージック ジェーン・バーキン公式ホームページ
http://intl.jp/jb/
新曲「アウンサンスーチー」のビデオ、日本語字幕版完成！
国際人権団体アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本のYouTube
動画サイトでは、アムネスティとジェーンが合同制作したビデオ
「アウンサンスーチー」の日本語字幕版（制作：アムネスティ・
フランス支部、提供：アムネスティ日本）が公開されています。
ぜひご覧下さい。
http://jp.youtube.com/user/AIJapan
Myanmar comedian sentenced to 14 years
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/27/myanmar.dissident.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- A court inside Myanmar's notorious Insein prison sentenced a comedian who has criticized the government's cyclone response to 14 more years Thursday, bringing his total prison term to 59 years, his lawyer said.
Comedian Zarganar offers a meal to Buddhist monks in Yangon during last year's protests in Myanmar.
Comedian and activist Zarganar was given a 45-year prison sentence last week after he was convicted on charges related to interviews he gave to foreign media outlets.
In the interviews, he said the government was too slow in responding to a May cyclone that killed more than 84,000 people.
Myanmar's military, which has held power since 1962, tolerates no dissent. It frequently arrests artists and entertainers regarded as opposing the regime.
It has further ramped up its crackdown on dissent since Buddhist monks led pro-democracy protests in September 2007
The government holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 in June 2007, before the demonstrations, according to international human rights groups.
The military government's wave of harsh sentences has been condemned worldwide by Western governments and human rights groups. They contend that the sentences make a mockery of the ruling junta's professed plan to restore democracy with a 2010 election.
Zarganar's lawyer, Khin Htay Kywe, said he was convicted Thursday for causing public alarm, a reference to his interviews with foreign media, and for communicating with exiled dissidents, among other charges.
Zarganar, whose birth name is Maung Thura, was among at least 100 people to receive sentences of two to 65 years since early November. Many of the trials were held in closed sessions, sometimes without defense lawyers or family present.
He has been imprisoned several times before, including a three-week stint for providing aid to those who demonstrated last year.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
All About Myanmar • Human Rights Policy
Fw: [burmainfo] 今週のビルマのニュース（0837号） 草の根無償資金協力が５件／FW: 講演会「ミャンマーサイクロン被災者救援活動の現場から その祈りと行動」(12月15日、名古屋市熱田区)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2008/11/28
People's Forum on Burma
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）からのメール、以下２つを転送させていただき
ます。
（重複の際は何卒ご容赦ください。）
①今週のビルマのニュース（0837号） 草の根無償資金協力が５件
②講演会「ミャンマーサイクロン被災者救援活動の現場から
その祈りと行動」(12月15日、名古屋市熱田区)
ＰＦＢ事務局
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ情報ネットワークの「今週のビルマのニュース」をお送りします。
「今週のビルマのニュース」バックナンバー
http://www.burmainfo.org/weekly.html
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）もご利用ください。
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo/
ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀
========================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2008年11月28日号【0837号】
========================================
【今週の主なニュース】
民主化活動家らへの判決続く
・今月半ばに始まった多数の市民や僧侶への長期の
禁固刑判決言い渡しは今週も続き、これまでに少なく
とも150人が刑を宣告された。サイクロン被災者救援
活動をして逮捕された人気コメディアンのザガナー氏は
45年と14年の禁固刑判決を宣告された。判決を受けた人
の多くは遠隔地の刑務所に移送され、家族などが食糧や
薬を差し入れるのが困難になっている。軍政が2010年に
予定している総選挙を前に、反対意見を徹底的に抑え
込む姿勢を打ち出したとみられる（27日付イラワディ誌ほか）。
【その他】
国連総会決議案が委員会を通過、ほか
・国連総会第3委員会（人道問題）は21日、ビルマの人権状況
を非難する決議案を賛成多数で採択した。日本など89か国が
決議案に賛成、インドや中国など29か国が反対、タイなど
63か国が棄権した（22日付毎日新聞、24日付ミジマ）。
・国境なき医師団（MSF）は26日、ビルマでのエイズ治療薬
（ARV薬）の深刻な不足を指摘した。MSFによれば、
同国にいるとされるHIV感染者約24万人のうち7万6000人が
緊急にARV薬を必要としているが、実際に入手できる患者は
2割未満。軍政の医療保健分野への支出はGDP の0.3％
（2007年には国民1人当たり0.7ドル）にすぎず、2008年度
のHIV・エイズ関連予算は合計20万ドルだった。MSFは、
軍政は天然ガス輸出によりますます大きな収入を得ており、
医療保健分野への出資を増やすべきだとした。
【ビルマへの政府開発援助（ODA）約束状況など】
〔草の根・人間の安全保障無償資金協力〕
11月24日
ヤンゴン管区、小学校建設（約824万円）
同
エヤワディー（イラワジ）管区、サイクロンで壊れた僧院付属学校の再建（約841万
円）
11月20日
マンダレー管区、病院の医療器材整備（約840万円）
11月18日
シャン州、僧院付属学校の建設（約745万円）
11月17日
カイン（カレン）州、健康センター建設（約353万円）
【イベントなど】
・アジアと日本のつながりを考える国際セミナー
「100人の村 あなたもここに生きています」
ヒューライツ大阪ほか主催
秋元由紀がパネリストとして参加
（大阪市阿倍野区民ホール・小ホール、12月5日14時～）
・ビルマ市民フォーラム例会
「初めての方のための『ビルマ入門講座』
-ビデオ上映と講演-根本敬」
（文京シビックセンター、12月6日18時半～）
・世界人権宣言60周年記念・世界人権デー マーチング
呼びかけ団体 在日ビルマ人共同行動実行委員会ほか
（宮下公園集合、12月10日14時半～）
・上智大学アジア文化研究所「旅するアジア08」
第4回講演会「エネルギーの本当の値段～
ビルマ（ミャンマー）の天然ガス開発と人権」
講師：秋元由紀
（四谷・上智大学、12月12日18時～）
・テーラワーダ仏教講演会―ミャンマーサイクロン被
災者救援活動の現場から その祈りと行動
講師：ティータグー長老（ニャーニッサラ師）
＊ミャンマーの民芸品や料理の出店、写真展、舞踊、
油絵もあり
（名古屋市熱田区の本遠寺、12月15日、昼の部13時～・夜の部18時～）
★ジェーン・バーキン最新アルバム『冬の子供たち』が
発売中。アウンサンスーチー氏に捧げる楽曲「アウンサンスーチー」を収録。
☆インターネット放送局「アワープラネットTV」がビルマ
でのダム開発問題を取り上げた。
ビルマ情報ネットワークの秋元由紀が解説（映像、16分）。
http://www.ourplanet-tv.org/video/contact/2008/20081008_10.html
★特定非営利活動法人メコン・ウォッチの
季刊誌「フォーラムMekong」、最新号はビルマ特集。
－ビルマ～サイクロン後の人々、軍政－
http://www.mekongwatch.org/resource/forum/FM_vol9_2_01.html
【もっと詳しい情報は】
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo/
ビルマ情報ネットワーク
http://www.burmainfo.org/
【お問い合わせ】
ビルマ情報ネットワーク 秋元由紀
====================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2008年11月28日号【0837号】
作成： ビルマ情報ネットワーク
協力： ビルマ市民フォーラム
====================================
以下、ご紹介させていただきます。
ビルマ情報ネットワーク (http://www.burmainfo.org)
箱田徹
----
【テーラワーダ仏教講演会のお誘い】
―ミャンマーサイクロン被災者救援活動の現場から その祈りと行動―
日時：2008年12月15日（月）
昼の部13：00～15：30
夜の部18：00～20：30
※講演開始前20分間ほど、被災地の映像を映し出して犠牲者追悼のセレモニーを
行います。
※ミャンマーの民芸品、シャンラーメン、エスニックカレーなどの出店、写真展、
ロウソクの光と共に踊る舞踊、有名な画家・ウ・グェカインの油絵なども楽しめ
ます。
《長老の講演はプロの通訳が付きます》
場所：本遠寺 熱田区白鳥町2-3-20 (Tel: 052-682-2865)
地下鉄名城線 神宮西口下車3番出口 徒歩8分
講演者：ティータグー長老（ニャーニッサラ師）
プロフィール
1937年、ミャンマー中央部の小さな町で生まれ、7歳で学習のために地元の寺に
入り、20歳までに僧侶になる。マンダレー大学でパーリ仏典を専門的に研究。テー
ラワーダ仏教僧の習いに従い、1970年代の3年間を、森の中で瞑想修行をしてす
ごす。1979年、自身の僧院を建て、ほどなく、住民のための大規模な水の供給施
設を造り、人々の生命を守る社会活動に乗り出す。以来、貧しい人々のための病
院や、テーラワーダ仏教を修学するための国際仏教アカデミーなどを開設し、国
民の篤い支持を得ている。
************************************
ティータグー長老ことニャーニッサラ師は、今年5月、下ビルマのデルタ地帯
を襲った巨大サイクロン・ナルギスによる被災者の、救援活動を精力的にしてお
られます。この間の貴重な経験を、仏教僧としての立場から自由闊達にお話しし
ていただきます。
長老は救援物資を届けるため、被災直後から被災地域に入られました。おびた
だしい数の被災者たちに食物やテント、衣類や医薬品を提供し続けています。ま
た、避難民たちの肉体的および精神的な回復と生活の再建のための、長期的な支
援についても計画しておられます。
ミャンマーデルタ地帯の最も困難な状況にある地域で、具体的にどんな支援活
動がなされているのか、あるいは、今後どのような支援が必要なのかを知る、ま
たとない機会です。そしてまた、今回の講演を通じて、ティータグー長老の幅広
い活動の中心にある、テーラワーダ仏教についても、認識を新たにしていただけ
るものと思います。
主 催：ミャンマーサイクロン災害支援名古屋グループ
協 賛：日蓮宗名古屋宗務所、アーユス東海、ビルマ難民救援センター☆名古屋
連絡先：ナインナイン（090-9939-3096）、馬島（090-3958-3743）
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
配布元: BurmaInfo（ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
http://www.burmainfo.org
連絡先: listmaster@burmainfo.org
バックナンバー: http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/burmainfo/
※BurmaInfoでは、ビルマ（ミャンマー）に関する最新ニュースやイベント情報、
参考資料を週に数本配信しています。
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Bell Tolls for Burma -IRRAWADDY
http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=14709
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By YENI Friday, November 28, 2008
The latest insult to the intelligence of the Burmese people was the excessive sentences handed down recently to pro-democracy activists—including Buddhist monks, social workers, lawyers and women—by the Burmese military authorities under the guise of "national reconciliation" between the regime and the opposition movement.
Burma's dictator-in-chief, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has forced the populace to accept his "seven-step road map" political process, whereby he calls the shots and locks up any opposition while at the same time saying he wants "to build a peaceful, modern and developed new democratic nation with flourishing discipline."
The response from the international community has been weak and fractious.
The United Nations General Assembly's Third Committee last week passed a resolution critical of human rights conditions in Burma. However, it was only approved by a vote of 89 in favor, 29 against and 63 abstentions after an intense round of disagreement among its members. Hardly a strong and united message.
While the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which includes Burma, has nothing to say about the recent judicial crackdown on the Burmese opposition, China and India are free to move in again and secure their business ties with the Burmese junta, exploiting both the country’s economy and its natural resources.
China recently announced that the project to build an oil and gas pipeline from Yunnan Province in southwestern China to the bay of Bengal on Burma's Arakan coast would go ahead as planned, starting in early 2009.
For its part, India won a concession for the construction and operation of a multi-modal transit and transport facility on the Kaladan River connecting the port of Sittwe, capital of Arakan State, with the Indian state of Mizoram.
Although the US and the EU countries routinely condemn the regime and maintain economic sanctions, it is clear the White House is preoccupied with the ongoing financial crisis, the transition to Barack Obama’s administration and its disastrous military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some US lobbyists have suggested that the serious human rights abuses in Burma should be prioritized in Obama's foreign policy with bipartisan support from the US Congress and Senate. We shall see.
But when the political pundits can only shrug and utter comments like “Something is better than nothing,” you know Burma is facing its darkest night.
Many of them have criticized the politicking of detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the leaders of 88 Generation Students, calling it a "strategic failure."
Those so-called experts have also come to believe that a "space" would open up following the 2010 election and the subsequent realization of provisions under the constitution.
However, in Naypyidaw’s eyes, there isn’t even enough space in the government for the existing junta and its emerging ranks, never mind allowing civilians into the club.
Meanwhile those "pragmatics" say there are different approach between the "insiders" and "outsiders" of the country, and the exiles can only criticize but they don’t face the stark reality of daily life in the country.
Certainly the pro-democracy activists who were recently sentenced to 65 years in prison know the difference between "insiders" and "outsiders" in the struggle for liberty. They will wake up to it every day in dark, dirty cells.
In fact, there is no alternative. To break the political deadlock, we must follow the path of dialogue and compromise.
Burmese people know that the dawn of democracy is not tomorrow—in the words of UN Special Rapporteur Tomás Ojea Quintana, the "restoration of democracy cannot happen overnight. It will take generations."
In today’s world, the new generation is looking toward young, energetic leaders such as US President-elect Obama. The word "change" rings out like a bell tolling hope for people around the world.
But Burma has already sacrificed generations in this struggle—young people shot in the streets, imprisoned or forced to flee the country.
Perhaps that's why Min Zeya, a leading member of the 88 Generation Students group, openly ridiculed the Burmese court when his sentenced was pronounced. “What? only 65 years?” he shouted.
The world is moving forward. It must not neglect the brave political prisoners of Burma, nor allow them to die forgotten in remote prison cells.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thailand’s regional divide
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JK29Ae01.html
By Brian McCartan
(See also Thailand crashes and burns Asia Times Online, November 27, 2008.)
CHIANG MAI, Thailand - Amid rumors of a possible military coup and rocked by anti-government protesters' closure of the country’s main airport, Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat has apparently taken the
extraordinary step of moving the seat of his government from Bangkok to the northern city of Chiang Mai.
Somchai opted on Wednesday to land in Chiang Mai rather than Bangkok on his return from an international meeting in Peru, shifting his itinerary after the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest group laid siege to Thailand's main aviation facility. From Chiang Mai he declared a state of emergency on Thursday, empowering Thai police along with the air force and navy to retake the closed facilities.
Some observers believe Somchai's decision was influenced by the risk he might be detained by the military on his arrival in Bangkok. Despite the emergency decree's provisions banning gatherings of more than five individuals, army commander Anupong Paochinda has shown no indication yet he intends to call on his troops to move against the protestors.
The embattled prime minister's choice of Chiang Mai, the country’s second city, was no accident. As the hometown of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Somchai’s brother-in-law, Thailand's northern provinces voted overwhelmingly in favor of the ruling People's Power Party (PPP) at last December’s general elections. That factored into the government's recent decision to move the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting scheduled for mid-December to Chiang Mai from Bangkok.
While Somchai's move may have bought the prime minister some time and space amid the escalating political crisis in Bangkok, it also risks enflaming regional passions based on history, culture and political allegiances that could extend the conflict beyond Bangkok and into the provinces.
On Wednesday, a pro-government group known as "Khon Rak Chiang Mai '51" shot and killed the father of a local PAD supporter who runs a popular community radio station. The PAD threatened to send on Thursday a group of its supporters to Chiang Mai in response to the attack, but no violence was reported.
In building the country into a modern nation-state, a region split by ethnic and historical tensions, successive Thai governments have taken great pains to erase regionalism and create a united sense of "Thainess", with the country's central regions around Bangkok as the model.
Historical texts emphasize the role of the central Thai kingdoms of Sukhothai, Ayudaya and Bangkok, while downplaying the roles of other Thai or non-Thai kingdoms that existed within the borders of modern Thailand. These included the northern kingdom of Lanna, the southern Malay sultanate of Pattani and the strong influence of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang, which once held dominion over much of the northeast.
Beyond whitewashing history, Bangkok governments have systematically bid to erase vestiges of these former independent states. Lanna, for example, was only annexed to Thailand in 1899, and the last of its kings passed away in 1939. The only remaining royal palace currently serves as Chiang Mai city's women’s prison. All the others have over the years been razed on the orders of Bangkok.
Meanwhile growing separatist movements in Isan in the early 1950s were suppressed after several leading local politicians were killed in Bangkok-sanctioned murders. The movement was later absorbed into the Communist Party of Thailand, which fought and ideological battle on regional lines against Bangkok into the 1980s.
To be Thai has over the years come to mean speaking the central Thai dialect and adopting central Thai cultural norms. Thais from other regions of the country, especially northeasterners and mountain-dwelling ethnic minorities in the north, are often denigrated as backward and crude - a perception reinforced in popular nationally televised soap operas.
Despite the government's best attempts, regional dialects are still commonly used outside of centrally-run schools and government offices. Political parties, including the ruling PPP and its predecessor, the now banned Thai Rak Thai party, have played on these regional differences and resentments to their political advantage, allowing them to establish strong regional voter bases.
The ruling PPP derives most of its power from the northeastern region, while the main opposition Democrat Party, which has loosely aligned itself with the PAD's protest call, has its stronghold in the south. The northern region is somewhat divided, but has tended to lean towards the PPP and formerly the TRT in recent elections. Bangkok has vacillated, but voted strongly in favor of the Democrats at the most recent polls, including the recent governor poll.
It is thus no accident that the prior seizure of airports in support of the PAD's protest movement occurred in the south, namely at Phuket and Had Yai. A majority of the protestors at Government House and now at Suvanabhumi and Don Muang airports hail from the south. In statements in the lead up to the airport seizures, the PAD said that it would assemble 100,000 protestors it would draw from the country’s southern regions.
The south in this context does not include the ethnic-Malay Muslims, where ethnic and religious divisions have frequently flared into insurgent rebellions, including the current battle which flared up in 2004, against central Bangkok's rule. Although the predominantly Muslim three southernmost provinces did not vote at the last polls for the PPP, nor did they do for the Democrats.
Until now Thailand’s political problems have largely centered on Bangkok, but Somchai’s apparent move to establish a government base in Chiang Mai threatens to widen the conflict into the provinces. While both the PAD and pro-government groups bused supporters - both real and paid - from outlying regions into Bangkok, most people in the provinces debated the issues privately and quietly.
Several hundred red-shirted, pro-government supporters came out to show support and guard the Chiang Mai provincial hall on Thursday when Somchai held an emergency cabinet meeting there. Many brandished iron bars and wooden clubs in case PAD supporters attempted to disrupt the meeting.
It's possible the trend spreads across the country, with the disenfranchised northeastern farmer to use his support for the PPP as a vehicle to fight for greater rights vis-a-vis Bangkok. Given the increasing tensions, it would not be much of a stretch for a Bangkok or southern PAD supporter to fight back to preserve his or her perceived rights or privileges. And as both sides to the conflict continue to play on and accentuate these regional and ethnic divisions, the risk of a wider conflict rises.
Brian McCartan is a Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Myanmar: Unfinished Burmas Jail News; Popular Burmese Comedian Gets Total 59 Years
By Ashin Mettacara
A popular Burmese comedian, film actor, and a film director Zarganar was sentenced today to another 14 years imprisonment. He has already been sentenced to 45 years imprisonment on November 21st. His case is now closed with total of 59 years imprisoment for helping Nargis cyclone victims and speaking to foreign media about the situation of millions of people left homeless in Cyclone devastated Irrawaddy delta.
An editor in chief of the sports magazine First Eleven Ko Zaw Thet Htwe and journalist Ko Thant Zin Aung who were sentenced to 15 years each on November 21st, received today further years. Ko Zaw Thet Htwe was given 4 years and Ko Thant Zin Aung was given 3 years. They all had been jailed for helping people in need in Cyclone devastated Irrawaddy delta.
MYANMAR: Salt farmers battling to rebuild livelihoods
http://www.the-united-nations.com/myanmar-salt-farmers-battling-to-rebuild-livelihoods/b
NGA PU DAW Thursday, November 27, 2008 (IRIN) - Salt farmers across southern Myanmar are slowly returning, but still need assistance almost seven months after Cyclone Nargis struck, leaving close to 140,000 people dead or missing.
Thai leader declares emergency to clear airports
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081127/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_political_unrest;_ylt=AgbVdn3C1uqy0StTDzrSCGis0NUE
By AMBIKA AHUJA, Associated Press Writer Ambika Ahuja, Associated Press Writer – 52 mins ago Play Video Reuters – Thai PM declares state of emergency
Slideshow: Thailand Protests Play Video Video: Thailand airport shutdown enters 3rd day AP Play Video Video: Gleaming Bangkok airport becomes protest camp AFP AP – Sleeping anti-government protesters are reflected on roof of the Suvarnabhumi airport Thursday, Nov. … BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand's government prepared to crack down Thursday on protesters occupying the capital's two airports, but called on the public not to panic as rumors of a coup swept through the city.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat declared a state of emergency around the capital's two main airports, which would allow security forces to oust thousands of anti-government protesters from the terminals.
Somchai accused the protesters of "holding the country hostage and the public hostage."
"I do not have any intention to hurt any members of the public," he added, though the imposition of the measures raised the possibility that violent clashes could break out as authorities moved on Suvarnabhumi international airport and the city's older, smaller Don Muang airport.
The declaration, which applies only to the two terminals, empowers the government to suspend some civil liberties, including restricting the movement of people and prohibiting mass assembly in certain locations.
The People's Alliance for Democracy, which has been demanding the resignation of Somchai and his government, seized control of Suvarnabhumi international airport on Tuesday, forcing the cancellation of all flights in and out of the capital and sending thousands of tourists to hole up in Bangkok hotels.
The standoff, which began three months ago when the group occupied the prime minister's office compound, has paralyzed the government, battered the stock market, spooked foreign investors and dealt a serious blow to the tourism industry.
Some Thai economists have estimated that tourism losses alone in the remainder of this year could run to 150 billion baht ($4.2 billion), equal to 1.5 percent of gross domestic product.
Government Spokesman Nattawut Sai-kua earlier called the seizure of the airports "a terrorist act."
"The prime minister says we have to use peaceful means," he said. "(Security officials) will negotiate first and we will go step by step, adhering to international standard and the law."
Somchai said navy personnel would help police in clearing Suvarnabhumi international airport. The air force will assist at Don Muang. He did not say when the authorities would act.
Amid the standoff, coup rumors swirled around the capital after Thailand's powerful army commander Gen. Anupong Paochinda suggested Wednesday that Somchai call new elections, and the prime minister rejected the idea. The rumors were further fueled by press reports of tank movements that the military later said were only a training exercise.
"The government is asking all troops to remain in position and not to move anywhere in order to quell a rumor" of a coup, said Nattawut. "We ask the public not to panic or to worry about the situation."
Army spokesman Col. Sansern Khaewkamnerd also denied the rumor.
"As the army chief has said many times, a coup will not resolve anything, and there is no planning going on to stage one," he told The Associated Press.
In September 2006, the military staged a bloodless coup to oust former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra after months of protests staged by the same group that is demanding the resignation of the current government. The protest alliance says the prime minister, who is Thaksin's brother-in-law, is merely the former leader's puppet.
They accuse Thaksin and his allies of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin is in exile, a fugitive from a conviction for violating a conflict of interest law.
Despite assurances that there would be no coup this time, government supporters called on their faithful to resist any military takeover attempt against Somchai.
Vipu Talang, a leading pro-government activist, said Somchai's supporters were moving to gather at a large open field in Bangkok.
"We will not accept, and the people will resist, any attempt by the army to take power," he said.
The Nation newspaper reported on its Web site that several businesses in the capital sent their employees home early in anticipation of a possible coup, which could be accompanied by a curfew and other limitations on movement. Several government offices also closed early.
Thailand's long-running political crisis began to boil over Tuesday when the protest group took over Suvarnabhumi, just outside Bangkok, forcing virtually all flights to be canceled and stranding 4,000 travelers.
At the same time, a number of violent confrontations erupted between government supporters and opponents. At least one person was killed, according to police.
The government is drawing up plans to begin flying out thousands of tourists with "urgent needs" from one or two military bases in the next 48 hours. That could include parents with young children and people with medical conditions, said Weerasak Kowsurat, Thailand's tourism minister.
They would be flown on Thai Airways flights to Singapore or Malaysia. The planes could then return with incoming passengers, Weerasak said. The government also may use buses and trains to transport tourists to other airports in Thailand.
A Thai Airways flight from Los Angeles landed Thursday at U-Tapao air force base, 140 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Bangkok, the airline said.
Fw: [BRCJ]タイ・ビルマ国境医療機関支援のお願い
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ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2008/11/27
People's Forum on Burma
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
日本ビルマ救援センター（ＢＲＣＪ）からのお知らせを転送させていただき
ます。
（重複の際は何卒ご容赦ください。）
ＰＦＢ事務局
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
皆さま、
日頃より日本ビルマ救援センター（BRCJ)の活動にご理解とご協力を賜り
ありがとうございます。
BRCJはタイ・ビルマ国境のビルマ難民、移民支援の活動を行う際に、現地の支援
機関やNGOと連携を取っています。この度下記の医療機関関係者よりその現状
報告と支援依頼をいただきました。皆さまには、これらの医療機関に頼らずをえ
ないビルマ難民、移民の状況をご理解いただき、活動維持の基金にご協力いただ
きますようにお願い申し上げます。
１．メータオ・クリニック （メソット地区）
http://www.maetaoclinic.org/(英文）
メータオ・クリニックは、1988年、軍事政権による民主化運動弾圧のさなか、
ビルマ/ミャンマー国内からのがれてくる人々を救うためにタイの国境のメソッ
トという町の、小さな掘立小屋から始まりました。その設立者である、カレン族
出身の女性医師シンシア先生は当時また20代でした。
現在、このクリニックは内科、外科、産婦人科、小児科病棟を備え、患者の治
療を行うほか、移民や難民など、多岐にわたる活動を積極的に実施し、15万人以
上にも及ぶビルマ・タイの国境住む人々を支え続けてきました。
しかし、サイクロン被害、孤児の流入等、クリニックを取り巻く状況はますます
深刻化してます。
シンシア先生は、その功績により、欧米、日本からも数々の賞を受賞しています。
2005年には、ノーベル平和賞にもノミネートされています。
（NGOメータオ・クリニック支援の会HPより）
http://www.japanmaetao.org/about.shtm
メータオ・クリニックは長年国際NGOの支援により、難民や移民への医療活動を
無償で行ってきました。また、難民キャンプでは孤児の支援、移民学校の支援も
行っています。しかし、昨今の経済状況から、国際的な支援を継続して受けるこ
とが難しくなりました。今後もメータオ・クリニックの活動を続けるために、日
本の皆さまに支援のご提供を心よりお願いいたします。
◆支援金送金方法
ご支援を希望されるかたは
NGOメータオ・クリニック支援の会（JAM)のHPから会員登録をお願いします。
JAMから送金の方法をご案内させていただきます。
http://www.japanmaetao.org/index.shtm
２．クリスチャン病院 (サンクラブリ地区）
クワイリバークリスチャン病院は１９６１年当院開設当時より実施してきた貧困
移民・難民に対する無料診療提供を継続しています。患者の財政状況に関わらず、
医療ケアを必要とするすべての患者に、医療サービスが行き届き、同地区住民の
健康が確保され、貧困により医療サービスを受けることが困難であることが原因
による罹患・死亡を減らすことを目指しています。ビルマ国内情勢の悪化により、
移民・難民数の増加と無料診療を必要とする患者の増大により圧迫された経営の
運営を建て直し、同時に低賃金で十分な数のタイ人医療スタッフの確保が難しい
現状によりおきている人員不足を解消するため、ビルマ人医療スタッフの雇用を
積極的に進めたいと思っています。
一日平均７０人の外来患者、５０人の入院患者が当病院の医療を受けていますが、
毎月約１５０人の患者が貧困のため医療費を払うことができないため、彼らに対し
無料診療を提供しています。医療費免除を必要とする患者のほとんどが、家計に
余裕がないため病状が深刻になってから病院を訪れるため、医療費が高額になる
傾向にあります。２００７年５月から１０月までの半年の間で、計９１９人の患
者、総額約１７８万バーツ（５４０万円）が無料診療の対象になりました。年間
総支出の約２８％が無料診療による負担になっています。また、最近起こったビ
ルマ内での紛争により移民・難民者の数が増加傾向にあり、今後も無料診療の対
象となる患者の数が増加することが予測されます。今現在財政が厳しいため、現
地医療スタッフの賃金は、平均収入の約３分の一程であり、低賃金と労働条件の
悪化、疎外地・居住環境の貧しさのため、必要な数の人員を確保することができ
ていません。現在奨学金制度にて、住民から医師・看護師を育てることに力を入
れていますが、彼らが職につくことができるようになるまで、今の状況で経営を
続けることは困難であり、病院の縮小もしくは閉鎖を検討し始めたところです。
どうか、皆さんのお力をお借りして、この危機を乗り越えていきたいと考える次
第です。ご協力をどうぞよろしくお願いいたします。
◆支援金送金先
１）郵便振替：００９３０－０－１４６９２６ ＢＲＣ－Ｊ
通信欄に「クリスチャン病院支援」とお書きください
２）りそな銀行 金剛支店（普通）６５５３９２８ 日本ビルマ救援センター
※ご住所とお名前をお知らせ下さい。領収書を送付させていただきます。
皆さまのご協力をお願い申し上げます。
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◇■日本ビルマ救援センター（ＢＲＣＪ）事務局■◇
￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
E-Mail:brcj@syd.odn.ne.jp
URL:http://www.burmainfo.org/brcj
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-- Burmese Relief Center-Japan
Voting pattern on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar-UN
http://www.burmareview.org/2008/11/india-china-russias-voting-with-junta.html
(Document: GA/SHC/3940)
Voting pattern on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar (GA THIRD COMMITTEE DRAFT RESOLUTIONS HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATIONS, Sixty-third General Assembly, 44th & 45th Meetings, dated 21st of November 2008.
The draft resolution on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (document A/C.3/63/L.33) was approved by a recorded vote of 89 in favour to 29 against, with 63 abstentions, as follows:
In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Saint Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vanuatu.
Against: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brunei Darussalam, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Libya, Malaysia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Oman, Russian Federation, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe.
Abstain: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Barbados, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Dominica, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Yemen, Zambia.
Absent: Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Gabon, Madagascar, Micronesia (Federated States of), Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, and Tunisia.
India, China & Russia’s Voting with Junta in UN General Assembly Third Committee Meeting: Right or Wrong?
http://www.burmareview.org/2008/11/india-china-russias-voting-with-junta.html
On 21st of November 2008, in another historic 44th & 45th Meetings of United Nations General Assembly Third Committee on the draft resolution concerning situation of human rights in Burma (document A/C.3/63/L.33), three important nations of world community – India, China & Russia once again sided with Burma’s ruling military junta. However despite siding with junta as usual by India, China and Russia, the draft resolution which attempts to restore situation of dialogue and human rights with Burma’s infamous military regime got approved and passed with a recorded vote of 89 in favour to 29 against, and 63 abstentions. The countries which abstained and remain absent also helped diplomatically the resolution passed smoothly and should be considered as a sympathetic to the cause of freedom of Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi suffering more than thirteen years in house arrest. Most importantly, it also raises the question to debate that the argument of Junta or the decision of India, China and Russia going with that argument by voting with Junta is right or wrong or the argument of USA, EU etc. are right in proposing the human rights resolution concerning Burma?
India, China, Russia, and Burma’s official Argument:
While participating in the debate, India officially said that, “his country had consistently emphasized the importance of the promotion of human rights through dialogue and cooperation. Initiatives on the human rights situation in Myanmar should begin from a “forward-looking” standpoint and be conducted in a ‘non-confrontational manner’. Additionally, recent steps taken by the Government of Myanmar, specifically in terms of progress in political reforms, must be recognized. The draft resolution did not reflect those positive steps taken, nor was it in line with the Secretary-General’s mission to develop his good offices, with a view to improving the situation on the ground. Instead, it seemed to have a tone of condemnation about it and, as such, his delegation had voted against the resolution.” China repeating the same argument of previous year said that, “her delegation had always opposed to the practice of using country-specific resolutions to exert pressure on a developing country. With the Human Rights Council and its Universal Periodic Review mechanism in operation, countries concerned about violations of human rights in particular regions should refrain from introducing country-specific resolutions in the Third Committee. In addition, she noted that the co-sponsors had generated strong doubt over their desire to build consensus and real dialogue, because of the exclusive nature with which they conducted consultations on the draft.” Russian Federation said that, “drafts of “selective, politicized and one-sided” country-specific resolutions often led to confrontations among Member States. The creation of the Human Rights Council and the establishment of the Universal Periodic Review offered new opportunities now to establish better international cooperation on human rights. With that in mind, the consideration of country-specific situations should now be conducted within the framework of the Universal Periodic Review, and not the Third Committee.”
Burma said that, “the draft resolution was flawed procedurally and in terms of substance, and was part of a ‘yearly ritual’ meant to put political pressure on his country under the pretext of promoting and protecting human rights. Compared to last year, it was a harsher text, which attested to the desire of its co-sponsors to maintain that political pressure. It had even attempted to politicize the tragic humanitarian disaster resulting from Cyclone Nargis.”
The gist of Indian, Chinese, Russian and Burmese Argument’s:
From the positions taken by India, China, Russia and Burma following points emerges to vote with Junta in UN General Assembly third committee meeting, which also emerged in the same manner last year in UN Security Council meeting against Anglo-US resolution.
First, it should be through ‘dialogue and cooperation and begin from a forward looking stand point’. Second, it should be in a ‘non-confrontational manner’ and ‘consensus’ based. Third, indicating towards the constitutional referendum held in May 2008, it also stressed to recognize the recent positive steps taken by Junta. Fourth, it should go with Secretary General’s good office initiatives and avoid condemnation. Fifth, the resolution should be not country specific and exert pressure on developing country but utilize the offices of Human Rights Council and its universal periodic review mechanism (both Chinese and Russian argument). Sixth, it should not be “selective, politicized and one-sided” country-specific resolutions, which often led to confrontations among Member States.
Opposition to the Resolution: Right or Wrong?
Now, we come to the first point of argument of voting with Junta on the theme of ‘dialogue and cooperation’ and ‘forward looking stand point’. The proposer’s of this argument misses the point that, how a real dialogue could take place, when you put the leader of NLD and most of its executive members behind prison bars? Any political party in any nation and its leader functions taking opinions of its key executive working committee members, whereas in Burma; the leader of NLD – Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is in house arrest for more than thirteen years and restricted to meet her fellow party members. In May 2008, during the referendum month, the junta extended her house arrest for another term despite appeals of freedom made by UN Secretary General and many ASEAN ministerial meetings official resolutions giving a strong psychological message of suppression to the Burmese people of result of even non-violent political protest. Burmese people knew that what would be their fate by going against referendum, when even world’s celebrated personality could suffer in a prolong house arrest, so the outcome of referendum could be well assumed? Moreover, the referendum had been held when Burma was suffering with worst gigantic scale natural disaster – Cyclone Nargis. Last year when Junta extended the house arrest, the honourable foreign minister of Burma- Mr. Nyan Win said to his Japanese counterpart – Taro Aso in Hamburg, Germany during the ASEM (Asia Europe Meeting) that, ‘it had been a very difficult decision’ to neutralize the criticism in ASEM. But this year in May 2008, they extended the house arrest a day after Junta’s Supremo General Than Shwe met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon making mockery of the office and prestige of the UN Secretary General’s office.
Moreover, the said extension even violated the Junta framed country’s state protection law, enacted in 1975, which allows one year extensions of a house arrest only for up to five years. In addition the choice of ‘dialogue and forward looking stand point’ doesn’t rest with Daw Suu Kyi, who is in a prolonged house arrest. And junta started the so called dialogue after the September 2007 mass uprising of monks by appointing Labour Minister –Mr. Aung Kyi as a liaison minister and the schedule of meeting with concerned liaison minister doesn’t rests with Daw Suu kyi but on the whims of Junta without ‘any fixed time frame’. In addition till now only five meetings had taken place and the last one being held in January 2008. So the forward looking point can’t be achieved without the freedom of Daw Suu Kyi and her political co-workers. The military regime which considers – Daw Suu Kyi and Min Ko Naing as a ‘bubble political leaders’ has got any attitude of political dialogue could be well understood (please see article written by Yebaw Tin Shwe entitled, “For successful completion of National Convention, The New Light of Myanmar, 20 May 2007, p.7)?
The Second point of debate revolves around the ‘confrontational’ attitude of west and USA and should be consensus based. This point has been a hot issue since long relating even with economic sanction policy of west and some even went to writing in ‘The Guardian’ newspaper of UK recently that, Daw Suu and NLD took confrontational attitude due to the western nations support. This point is also related with the sixth point of argument of Russia. Although, every time I read this argument, I felt surprised that how a lady who has been said in Junta’s mouthpiece – ‘The New Light of Myanmar’ that, “The restrictions will never be lifted until she abandons her practice of liberal policy. Even if the restrictions on her are lifted in such a situation, the release will bring no changes…today Myanmar is practicing the national politics, not liberal policy. So, she should give the first priority to the national cause and the second priority to democracy,” holds confrontational attitude and who are actually confrontational? (The New Light of Myanmar, 18 October 2006 also published earlier on 5th of July 2006, two times repeat publication of the same article written by Maung Cetana entitled, “She Who Turned Alien or Danger to the Nation” reflects the secondary priority towards democracy of the regime).”
Moreover, the USA started imposing economic sanctions on Burma’s military regime after the enactment of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 pursuant to section 8 (b) (3) of PL 108-61, long years after the May 1990 elections, in which NLD of Daw Suu won landslide victory and Burmese military regime’s refusal to start a dialogue with NLD and Daw Suu Kyi. In addition, Daw Suu is not controlling the sanctions issue, its decision rests with EU and US house of Congress and Senate. The confrontation issue which has been projected by Russia and China had been creation of China & Russia itself by which military gets emboldened to refuse release of political prisoners in Burma. The regime which doesn’t recognize political prisoners in Burma itself reflects who wants confrontation?
The confrontation issue is also related with referendum issue and NLD’s refusal in accepting the results, which is also related with the third point of the argument of India, China Russia and Burma. But neutral observers should also took note of the point that, how can NLD or Daw Suu accept the so called referendum results as a positive steps by Junta, when it was conducted against the many resolution of the same Human Rights Council, UN General Assembly resolution and official ASEAN resolutions, which specifically asked first for the release of all political prisoners including Daw Suu Kyi and taking view of different political groups and ethnic communities?
The fourth point that, “it should go with Secretary General’s good office initiatives and avoid condemnation” is a sarcastic joke on Secretary General’s good office itself. Does Russia and China forgot or intentionally attempted to forget that few days before the concerned meeting of GA third committee, on 12th of November 2008, the UN Secretary General – Ban Ki-moon, “expressed his deep concern at reports that authorities in Myanmar have issued lengthy jail terms to some participants in last year’s peaceful demonstrations in the Asian country” and he called, “once again for the release of all political prisoners and all citizens of Myanmar to be allowed to freely participate in their country’s political future as part of an inclusive national reconciliation process (please see UN SG Press Release of 12th November 2008).” Again on 18th of November 2008, the five independent United Nations experts on human rights demanded that, “authorities in Myanmar hold fair and open re-trials for dozens of prisoners of conscience sentenced to lengthy prison terms and immediately release their jailed defence counsels, but instead of listening to the voice of UNSG and UN experts, the junta continued with awarding long prison terms to non-violent political protestors including Burma’s famous artists and comedian’s.” Now it clearly reflects that how much Junta regards the institution of UNSG? Junta might feel great by thinking that they have succeeded in getting votes of India, China and Russia in UNGA third committee but they foolishly missed the great golden diplomatic opportunity of freeing Daw Suu Kyi, when it was announced that UNSG would visit Burma in December 2008 and welcoming in advance for his journey to the golden land.
The argument of fifth point by Junta’s supporters that it should be not country specific is in utopian paradigm. If any problem exists with particular country then naturally concerned country’s specific name will emerge. And it is not the first time that UN bodies have taken a country specific resolution concerning Burma. There are numerous examples in which even Russia and China took the country specific resolution in UN history. And particularly here in Burma, the ruling military council had been given temporary role to play by then Prime Minister – Mr. U Nu having faith on his military commanders but military snatched the power in 1962, and later exploited to remain in power even after achieving the concerned goal and May 1990 elections. The tactics of attaching developing word in country’s name by China is an old Chinese diplomatic tactics of cajoling developing nations since the time of Chou-en-Lai. As far as the Human Rights Council mechanism and its Universal periodic review mechanism are concerned. One should not forget that, Burma’s military regime, which hasn’t taken a notice of UNSG appeals a few days back and repeated appeal by earlier UN Secretary General – Mr. Kofi Annan and many ASEAN and UN official resolutions due to the Chinese and Russian instigation to Junta, how could work with Universal Periodic review mechanism? Russia and China knows that more the restoration of democracy problem remains’ in Burma in the guise of Human Rights Council and its Universal Periodic Review meetings of delaying tactics, which also avoids the road of UN Security Council resolutions, the more they will get the opportunity in grazing the economic fields of Burma?
The sixth point of confrontation issue has been already explained and regarding “selective, politicized and one-sided” agenda point of Russia. It is one sided because West and USA etc. are raising the important issue of house arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi against ethos of Human Rights Charters. Whether Russia and China can refuse that they had also demanded release of Daw Suu but Junta’s refusal doesn’t harm their economic interest, so it fits their diplomatic maneuverings?
However, unfortunately Junta emboldened by these supports feel that they have been successful in cornering Western Bloc’s initiatives without realizing that Burmese ethos rests with individual freedom & democracy and denigrating their own world’s celebrated personality like - Daw Suu Kyi will ultimately harm Burma’s long term prestige. Because Daw Suu Kyi is not less patriotic than any Burmese soldiers. Junta may think about - Daw Suu Kyi as her enemy but they should also accept the fact that Daw Suu Kyi’s vision of non-violent political struggle for the restoration of democracy has saved lives of many talented Burmese people, soldiers and military leaders. Likewise, Burma’s ethnic leaders involved with futile arms struggle should also misses the point that, a united and strong Burma will serve better for all and they should give an open call to world media / press that, they are ready to surrender their arms before Daw Aung San Suu Kyi defeating the propaganda of certain military commanders that, they are the saviors’ of Burma. India, which could have diplomatically avoided going with Junta by even abstaining (even if it has not reached to the point of abandoning constructive engagement with Junta by voting against the military) as world’s largest democracy like – Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, South Africa etc. and ASEAN Members like – Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia or followed absent like – Cambodia, but India unfortunately voted with Junta. If ASEAN+1 and BIMSTEC prevent India to oppose the Junta then they should have taken note that only – LAO PDR, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei from ASEAN went with Junta and Sri Lanka’s going with Junta is after the emergence of new honeymoon with China after the recent criticisms of Sri Lanka on Tamil issues by Prime Minister – Dr. Manmohan Singh’s due to the internal politics and DMK pressure. There are many instances in Modern Indian history that, Gandhi ji used to always keep with himself his worst critics to resolve his own mistakes and preventing himself to fall into wrong path of his experiments but probably Burma’s ruling military council prefers sycophants’ foreign policy experts to get more and more exploited of their resources?
(By: Rajshekhar, Burma Review)
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