Nuclear Research in the Union of Myanmar « ေကတုမတီ
Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Union of Myanmar on cooperation in the construction of the Centre for Nuclear Research in the Union of Myanmar
The Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Union of Myanmar, hereinafter referred to as the Parties,
on the basis of the friendly relations existing between the two States, on the basis of the friendly relations existing between the two States,
Taking into account the Joint Declaration on the foundations of friendly relations between the Russian Federation and the Union of Myanmar from July 3, 2000, Taking into account the Joint Declaration on the foundations of friendly relations between the Russian Federation and the Union of Myanmar from July 3, 2000,
Recognizing the fact that both States are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of July 1, 1968, Recognizing the fact that both States are members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of 1 July 1968,
Seeking to further expand and deepen mutually beneficial economic and scientific-technical relations between the Russian Federation and the Union of Myanmar on the basis of equality, non-interference in internal affairs and full respect for national dignity and sovereignty of both nations, Seeking to further expand and deepen mutually beneficial economic and scientific - technical relations between the Russian Federation and the Union of Myanmar on the basis of equality, non-interference in internal affairs and full respect for national dignity and sovereignty of both nations,
Convinced that the expansion of cooperation between the two nations in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy contributes to the further development of relations of friendship and mutual understanding between them, Convinced that the expansion of cooperation between the two nations in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy contributes to the further development of relations of friendship and mutual understanding between them,
Have agreed as follows: Have agreed as follows:
Article 1 of Article 1
The Parties, through the appropriate Russian and Myanmar organizations cooperate in the design and construction on the territory of the Union of Myanmar Centre for Nuclear Research (hereafter - Center), composed of: The Parties, through the appropriate Russian and Myanmar organizations cooperate in the design and construction on the territory of the Union of Myanmar Centre for Nuclear Research (hereafter - Centre) consisting of:
research nuclear reactor basin type of thermal capacity of 10 MW using light water as coolant and retarder, as well as nuclear fuel enrichment to 20 percent uranium-235; research nuclear reactor basin type of thermal capacity of 10 MW using light water as coolant and retarder, as well as nuclear fuel enrichment to 20 percent uranium-235;
activation analysis laboratory; activation analysis laboratory;
laboratories for the production of medical isotopes; laboratories for the production of medical isotopes;
Installation on nuclear doping silicon, as well as the buildings and facilities engineering support, including the installation of radioactive wastes and their disposal item. Installation on nuclear doping silicon, as well as the buildings and facilities engineering support, including the installation of radioactive wastes and their disposal item.
Article 2 of Article 2
In order to implement the provisions of Article 1 of this Agreement Russian organizations: In order to implement the provisions of Article 1 of this Agreement Russian organizations:
developing a draft Centre; developing a draft Centre;
providing technical assistance in carrying out works on selecting sites for the construction of the Centre and exploration work at the chosen site; providing technical assistance in carrying out works on selecting sites for the construction of the Centre and exploration work at the chosen site;
supply equipment and materials necessary for construction of the Centre and its entry into service; supply equipment and materials necessary for construction of the Centre and its entry into service;
ensure the supply of fuel in the form of ready-complete fuel assemblies and regulators. ensure the supply of fuel in the form of ready-complete fuel assemblies and regulators.
During the entire period of operation of the Centre Russian organizations: During the entire period of operation of the Centre Russian organizations:
perform work on the installation, Commissioning and start up to the main production equipment Centre; perform work on the installation, Commissioning and start up to the main production equipment Centre;
assist in the preparation of specialists for the operation of the Myanmar key technological installations Centre; assist in the preparation of specialists for the operation of the Myanmar key technological installations Centre;
supply spare parts for the operation of the reactor and other installations Centre. supply spare parts for the operation of the reactor and other installations Centre.
Article 3 of Article 3
In order to implement the cooperation provided for by this Agreement, the Myanmar forces and their organizations at their own expense, provide timely: In order to implement the cooperation provided for by this Agreement, the Myanmar forces and their organizations at their own expense, provide a timely manner:
siting for the construction of the Centre and conducting engineering and geological surveys on the selected site; siting for the construction of the Centre and conducting engineering and geological surveys on the selected site;
the transfer of Russian institutions baseline data necessary for carrying out project works; the transfer of Russian institutions baseline data necessary for carrying out project works;
implementation of all construction work using their own materials; implementation of all construction work using their own materials;
Work on installation, Commissioning and putting into operation a set of engineering equipment Centre, except for the installation of radioactive wastes and their disposal item; Work on installation, Commissioning and putting into operation a set of engineering equipment Centre, except for the installation of radioactive wastes and their disposal item;
unloading, storage and delivery of Russian organizations supplied equipment and materials from the ports of the Union of Myanmar to the site of construction of the Centre; unloading, storage and delivery of Russian organizations supplied equipment and materials from the ports of the Union of Myanmar to the site of construction of the Centre;
the supply of electricity and drinking water quality throughout the run-time construction and installation works and for the further exploitation of the Centre as well as the construction of sewerage and sewage treatment facilities; the supply of electricity and drinking water quality throughout the run-time construction and installation works and for the further exploitation of the Centre as well as the construction of sewerage and sewage treatment facilities;
necessary conditions for living and working professionals seconded from the Russian Federation to carry out the works. necessary conditions for living and working professionals seconded from the Russian Federation to carry out the works.
Article 4 of Article 4
Moving expenses Russian organizations related to the activities provided for in Article 2 of this Agreement, shall Myanmanskoy Party in freely convertible currency as the supplies, works and services in the manner determined by treaties between authorized organizations. Moving expenses Russian organizations related to the activities provided for in Article 2 of this Agreement, shall Myanmanskoy Party in freely convertible currency as the supplies, works and services in the manner determined by treaties between authorized organizations.
Article 5 of Article 5
For the implementation of this Agreement, the Parties shall designate an executive bodies: For the implementation of this Agreement, the Parties shall designate an executive bodies:
with the Russian side - the Russian Federation Ministry of Atomic Energy; with the Russian side - the Russian Federation Ministry of Atomic Energy;
with Myanmanskoy Party - The Ministry of Science and Technology of the Union of Myanmar. with Myanmanskoy Party - The Ministry of Science and Technology of the Union of Myanmar.
The executive bodies authorized to drive the organization to carry out cooperation within the framework of this Agreement. The executive bodies authorized to drive the organization to carry out cooperation within the framework of this Agreement.
Article 6 of Article 6
The activities of Russian organizations in Myanmar and under this Agreement shall be in accordance with the concluded agreements, which define the content, volume, time-frame for implementation, cost, payment terms and other necessary facilities. The activities of Russian organizations in Myanmar and under this Agreement shall be in accordance with the concluded agreements, which define the content, volume, time-frame for implementation, cost, payment terms and other necessary facilities.
Article 7 of Article 7
1. In accordance with this Agreement shall not exchange information containing state secrets Russian Federation and the Union of Myanmar. In accordance with this Agreement shall not exchange information containing state secrets Russian Federation and the Union of Myanmar.
2. The information transmitted in accordance with this Agreement or created as a result of its implementation and to review any of the parties as confidential information or proprietary information limited distribution, clearly defined and designated as such. The information transmitted in accordance with this Agreement or created as a result of its implementation and to review any of the parties as confidential information or proprietary information limited distribution, clearly defined and designated as such.
3. The treatment of confidential information is in conformity with the law of the State Party receiving such information, and this information is not disclosed and are not transferred to a third party without the written permission of the Party transmitting such information. The treatment of confidential information is in conformity with the law of the State Party receiving such information, and this information is not disclosed and are not transferred to a third party without the written permission of the Party transmitting such information.
In accordance with Russian legislation with that information be treated as proprietary information with limited distribution. In accordance with Russian legislation with that information be treated as proprietary information with limited distribution. Such information is given adequate protection. Such information is given adequate protection.
In accordance with the laws of the Union of Myanmar to such information be treated as proprietary information with limited distribution. In accordance with the laws of the Union of Myanmar to such information be treated as proprietary information with limited distribution. Such information is given adequate protection. Such information is given adequate protection.
4. Issues of legal protection and distribution of intellectual property rights or scientific and technical products, transferred or created by Russian and Myanmar organizations in the implementation of cooperation under this Agreement, shall be governed in accordance with the laws of the States Parties and treaties concluded by the organizations in accordance with article 6 of this Agreement. Issues of legal protection and distribution of intellectual property rights or scientific and technical products, transferred or created by Russian and Myanmar organizations in the implementation of cooperation under this Agreement, shall be governed in accordance with the laws of the States Parties and treaties concluded by the organizations in accordance with article 6 of this Agreement.
Article 8 of Article 8
In order to implement the cooperation provided for by this Agreement, Myanmanskaya Party accepts the obligations that posed from the Russian Federation nuclear materials, technology, equipment, installation, special non-nuclear materials, as well as made on that basis or as a result of their use of nuclear and special non-nuclear materials , Plant and equipment: In order to implement the cooperation provided for by this Agreement, Myanmanskaya Party accepts the obligations that posed from the Russian Federation nuclear materials, technology, equipment, installation, special non-nuclear materials, as well as made on that basis or as a result of their use of nuclear and special non-nuclear materials, Plant and equipment:
are not used for the production of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, as well as achieving any military purpose; are not used for the production of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, as well as achieving any military objective;
under the control of (guarantees) IAEA for the duration of their stay or actual use of the territory or under the jurisdiction of the Union of Myanmar (IAEA, INFCIRC/477, 20.04.95); under the control of (guarantees) IAEA for the duration of their stay or actual use of the territory or under the jurisdiction of the Union of Myanmar (IAEA, INFCIRC/477, 20.04.95);
provided physical protection measures at a level not below the level recommended by the IAEA; provided physical protection measures at a level not below the level recommended by the IAEA;
are not exported and not transferred from the jurisdiction of the Union of Myanmar, if not between the Parties will be reached another agreement. are not exported and not transferred from the jurisdiction of the Union of Myanmar, if not between the Parties will be reached another agreement.
Its from the Russian Federation equipment and dual-use materials and technologies used in nuclear purposes: Its from the Russian Federation equipment and dual-use materials and technologies used in nuclear purposes:
not used to create nuclear explosive devices; not used to create nuclear explosive devices;
not used in the field of nuclear fuel cycle, not under the control of the (guarantees) IAEA; not used in the field of nuclear fuel cycle, not under the control of the (guarantees) IAEA;
not re-exported to anyone without the written permission of the Russian Party. not re-exported to anyone without the written permission of the Russian Party.
Article 9 of Article 9
Differences and disputes between the Parties relating to the application or interpretation of the provisions of this Agreement shall be settled by the Parties through consultations and negotiations. Differences and disputes between the Parties relating to the application or interpretation of the provisions of this Agreement shall be settled by the Parties through consultations and negotiations.
Article 10 Article 10
This Agreement shall enter into force on the date of signing and is valid until full compliance by the obligations provided under this Agreement. This Agreement shall enter into force on the date of signing and is valid until full compliance by the obligations provided under this Agreement.
The termination of this Agreement, its provisions continue to apply to contracts entered into prior to the termination of his actions. The termination of this Agreement, its provisions continue to apply to contracts entered into prior to the termination of his actions.
In the event of termination of this Agreement provisions of Articles 7 and 8 of this Agreement shall remain in force. In the event of termination of this Agreement provisions of Articles 7 and 8 of this Agreement shall remain in force.
Posted on August 30th, 2008 under Daily New • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed
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News CalendarAugust 2008 T W T F S S M
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Nuclear Research in the Union of Myanmar « ေကတုမတီ
Myanmar Gets a Russian Nuclear Reactor « ေကတုမတီ
Myanmar Gets a Russian Nuclear Reactor « ေကတုမတီ
BANGKOK, Thailand - Though one of the world’s poorest countries, Myanmar is embarking on a nuclear-research project with the help of Russian and, possibly, Pakistani scientists. Diplomats say the development has upset China, which has heavily courted Myanmar in recent years and resents Moscow for muscling in on its turf.
Believed by Western diplomats to be the brainchild of Science and Technology Minister U Thaung, the project was initiated by Russia’s Atomic Energy Ministry, which in February announced plans to build a 10-megawatt research reactor in central Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. In July, Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung, accompanied by the military-ruled country’s ministers of defense, energy, industry and railways, traveled to Moscow to finalize the deal.
Myanmar officials decline to comment on the nuclear project, and there is little noticeable activity around the recently established Department of Atomic Energy in the capital, Yangon, residents say. But Western diplomats in Myanmar say the groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to take place at a secret location near the town of Magway in January. The equipment and reactor will be delivered in 2003. Russian diplomats say more than 300 Myanmar nationals have received nuclear technical training in Russia during the past year.
Though Myanmar suffers from chronic power shortages, it isn’t clear why it would need a research reactor, which is used mainly for medical purposes. Though there are so far no suspicions that the facility will have a direct military application, it will, like everything else in the country, be under military control.
The program drew scrutiny recently after two Pakistani nuclear scientists, with long experience at two of their country’s most secret nuclear installations, showed up in Myanmar after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Asian and European intelligence officials say Suleiman Asad and Muhammed Ali Mukhtar left Pakistan for Myanmar when the U.S. grew interested in interrogating them about their alleged links to suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, who Washington believes wants to develop a nuclear weapon. There is no clear evidence linking them to the Russia-backed project.
When the nuclear deal was finalized in Moscow in July, Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov as calling Myanmar a “promising partner in Asia and the Pacific region.” Indeed, Russia also sold 10 MiG-29 fighter aircraft to Myanmar for $130 million.
All this is starting to worry China, which has gone out of its way to cultivate ties with Myanmar, becoming its main military supplier. Beijing long ago identified Myanmar as vital to the well-being of its impoverished southwest. Just this month, Jiang Zemin became the first Chinese president to visit Myanmar since the present, widely reviled junta seized power in 1988. “China is not happy with having to compete with Russia in a country like Myanmar, which the Chinese so clearly consider theirs,” a Bangkok-based Asian diplomat says.
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said the two sides had agreed to expand cooperation in “infrastructural constructions” and other areas. Asian intelligence officials say that means China’s desire to link its three southwestern provinces - Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou, with 160 million people in total - to vital export markets by way of Myanmar. At this month’s summit, they say, Yangon appeared to accept in principle that Beijing’s proposal for a 30-year accord that would ease Chinese access to Myanmar’s river and road networks.
Meanwhile, China has also built a road linking Yunnan to Myanmar’s riverport of Bhamo on the Irrawaddy, 800 miles north of Yangon, and has given Myanmar three dredgers to clear the river for large barges carrying Chinese goods. Chinese money and technicians are building a port and shipyard near Yangon that people knowledgeable about Asian intelligence say will cater primarily to Chinese vessels.
If Russia is butting in, some in the neighborhood may not mind. India and Vietnam fear China is using Myanmar to expand its influence in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. India is itself courting Yangon, but it’s unlikely to dislodge the Chinese, who are firmly behind Myanmar’s military junta. That’s bad news for the international community, which is trying to broker a deal between the junta and the country’s democracy movement. Mr. Jiang said during his visit that Myanmar “must be allowed to choose its own development path suited to its own conditions.”
Posted on August 30th, 2008 under Daily New • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed
Appeal of Singapore-based Burmese Patriots
http://singabloodypore.rsfblog.org/archive/2008/08/30/appeal-of-singapore-based-burmese-patriots.html
http://jg69.blogspot.com/2008/08/solidarity-groups-urge-singapore-to.html
Solidarity groups urge Singapore to renew activists travel and work documents
H.E. Mr George Yong-Boon Yeo
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Singapore
Your Excellency:
We, the undersigned groups supporting human rights and democracy in Burma, urge the Government of Singapore to promptly renew the work and travel permits of six Burmese activists who were studying and working there.
It is our belief that the six individuals were targeted because of their efforts to advocate for human rights and democratic transition in their home country. The Singaporean government’s actions contradict the spirit and content of its own statements made at the United Nations and other international forums on the situation in Burma since September 2007.
The actions and statements of the Burmese nationals in question were fully consistent with public statements made by you and other Singaporean leaders. They have cooperated with the Singapore authorities in working within the constraints of local laws.
The actions taken by the six, in response to the crises caused by the Saffron Revolution in September as well as Cyclone Nargis and the sham referendum in May, were peaceful and constructive. Their desire for democratic transition in Burma is consistent with Singapore’s foreign policy. Fundamental political and economic reforms which constitute the main focus of the Burmese activists, also serves the regional security and economic interests of Singapore and ASEAN.
Singapore was the first country to ratify the ASEAN Charter, and bears a responsibility to promote its spirit and content. It has committed to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and the rule of law, and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. These six activists were working to promote and defend these goals. We understand three of them have been forced to leave Singapore but are anxious to return.
We call upon the Singaporean government to treat Burmese citizens working and studying in Singapore equitably and with fairness. Allowing Burmese in Singapore to strengthen their knowledge of human rights and democracy is a vital contribution to Burma’s transition to democracy.
We look forward to Singapore’s timely renewal of the work and travel documents of these six activists. We trust that Singapore’s commitment to progress in transition to democracy will continue, and that Singapore will desist from restricting the opportunities of Burmese working and studying in Singapore.
Thank you for your kind attention,
1. Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma
2. Burma Campaign Australia
3. Burma Partnership
4. Burma Today
5. Burma Workers’ Rights Protection Committee
6. Burmese Women’s Union (Japan Branch)
7. Committee for Asian Women
8. Forum for Democracy in Burma
9. Foundation for Media Alternatives (Philippines)
10. Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women
11. Hong Kong Coalition for a Free Burma
12. Network for Democracy and Development
13. Nonviolence International Southeast Asia
14. Palaung State Liberation Front
15. Shan Women’s Action Network
16. Suara Rakyat Malaysia
cc:
H.E. Lee Hsieng Loong
Prime Minister
Orchard Road, Istana Annexe
Singapore 238823
H.E. Surin Pitsuwan
Secretary General
ASEAN
The ASEAN Secretariat, 70 Jl. Sisingamangaraja
Jakarta, Indonesia 12110
09:35 Posted by soci | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this | Tags: Appeal, Singapore, Burma
On Myanmar, ASEAN Diplomat Predicts Gambari's Replacement,ミャンマーで、ASEAN外交官はGambariの取り替えを予測する , Road Talk at BIMTEC
Gambari and Ban brain trust, now under Turin's shroud Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations
http://www.innercitypress.com/unsc3myanmar083008.html
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN:
News Analysis UNITED NATIONS, August 30 -- Having left Myanmar six days about, after not seeing either Aung San Suu Kyi or General Than Shwe, UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari still had no comment about what if anything his trip had accomplished, despite critical words so far from at least two of the Security Council's five permanent members. Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Marie Okabe on Friday if there was any response or explanation yet, but Ms. Okabe said "Mister Gambari wants to speak to you directly." Video here.
国際連合、8月30日 -- 左のミャンマーをについての、彼の旅行が達成した何でも安全保障理事会5の永久的なメンバーの少なくとも2からずいぶん遠くの重大な単語にもかかわらず何についてのAung San Suu Kyiに会わなかった後6日持っていてまたはShweより一般的、国連公使イブラヒムGambariにまだコメントがなかった。 都心部の出版物はまだ応答または説明があったらが、Okabe氏は"を言った金曜日の国連スポークスマンに尋ねたMarie Okabe; Gambari氏はあなたにdirectly."を話したいと思う; ここのビデオ。
Meanwhile, as Inner City Press has inquired throughout the diplomatic community about the reasons for Aung San Suu Kyi having declined to meet with Gambari, a Permanent Representative of an ASEAN member state, asking to be identified as such, told Inner City Press that word is Mr. Gambari will be replaced as UN envoy to Myanmar. "I don't blame Aung San Suu Kyi," the ASEAN diplomat said. "If I were her, I also wouldn't meet with an envoy who's about to be replaced."
その間、都心部の出版物がGambariに会うことを断っていたAung San Suu Kyiの理由について外交コミュニティ中尋ねたのでそれ自体識別されることを頼むASEAN加盟州の常任代表は単語がミャンマーへの国連公使として氏取り替えられるであるGambariことを都心部の出版物に告げた。 " 私はAung San Suu Kyiの"の責任にしない; ASEAN外交官は言った。 彼女、私はまた取り替えられることを約ある公使に会わない。
We will be watching Gambari's belated briefing of Ban Ki-moon in Turin, and how the UN finally responds, more than a week late, to the questions that are swirling. The problems are deeper than Gambari, going to the bottom of this UN's commitment to human rights, and the way it let the military government dictate UN currency losses of 20 and even 25.
私達は渦巻いている質問に国連が最終的にいかに答えるかトゥーリンのBan Ki-moonのGambariの遅れて報告を、遅の週以上、見て。 問題は人権にこの国連責任の底に行く20の軍事政権の命令国連通貨の損失および25%を可能にした方法およびGambariより深い。
Meanwhile on August 29 Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win was in India for the BIMTEC meeting with representatives of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. Earlier in the year, Myanmar's Vice Senior General Maung Aye was in India and signed several business deals including, for transit, the $100 million Kaladan Multi-project with Indian leaders.
その間8月29日ミャンマーの外相のNyanに勝利はバングラデシュ、ブータン、ネパール、スリランカ、タイおよびインドの代表とのBIMTECの会合のためのインドにあった。 年の初めに、Maung Ayeミャンマーの副年長大将はインドにい、複数の商売上の取引にを含む、運輸のために、インドのリーダーとの$100,000,000 Kaladanの多プロジェクト署名した。
Now, Bangladesh is proposing road connections with Myanmar, while India pushes for roads that pass straight through Bangladesh. Complaints have been filed with the UN, but a former UN presence, Bangladesh's Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury who is also in charge of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, tried to calm things down by saying Bangladesh's sovereignty will always be respected. This is the regional context and dynamic in which Myanamar's military government gets over...
今度は、バングラデシュはインドはバングラデシュをまっすぐに通る道のために押すが、ミャンマーが付いている道の関係を提案している。 不平は国連とファイルされたが、前の国連存在、チッタゴンの丘地域を管理してまたある事を静めるためにバングラデシュの主権の発言によって試みられたバングラデシュIftekharアーメドChowdhuryは常に尊重される。 これはどのMyanamarを軍事政権が…乗り越えるかで地方文脈そして動的である
Earthquake rattles Sichuan, Yunnan provinces - GoKunming: Kunming news, events, travel, business, living
Earthquake rattles Sichuan, Yunnan provinces - GoKunming: Kunming news, events, travel, business, living
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter
scale shook southwest China this afternoon at 4:30 pm. According to initial reports, the earthquake's epicenter was located 50 kilometers south of Panzhihua (攀枝花), Sichuan province.
As of 6:30 pm Beijing time no reports of damage or injuries have emerged. Panzhihua, a city of slightly more than 1 million, is located near Sichuan's southern border with Yunnan roughly 350 kilometers north of Kunming. The tremor was able to be felt in high buildings throughout Kunming.
Today's earthquake is the second episode of major seismic activity to hit southwest China in the past month - on August 19 and 21, two quakes hit Yunnan's Yingjiang County (盈江县) near the Myanmar border, measuring 5.0 and 5.9 in magnitude, respectively.
The first Yingjiang quake was quickly followed by two aftershocks measuring less than 5.0, while the second quake killed at least three and left 106 injured, 24 of which were considered serious injuries.
Today's quake also hits Sichuan as it was recovering from the devastating earthquake in Wenchuan County on May 12, which killed nearly 70,000 people.
GoKunming will provide more updates as they become available.
UPDATE: At least 22 are confirmed dead - 17 in Sichuan and five in Yunnan - and more than 100 are injured from Saturday's quake, according to Xinhua reports. At least 1,000 homes were destroyed by the tremor.
Related article: Hope during dark times: Witnessing the earthquake's aftermath
The ungiven gift
(Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)
Australian and US personnel transported food aid to a helicopter bound for villages on Aceh's tsunami-hit west coast in January 2005. The US response to the catastrophe cleared the path to renewed cooperation from Indonesia on terrorism.
Three years ago, the world was ready to mount a new attack on poverty - The Boston Globe
JUST THREE YEARS ago, at the G-8 summit of industrialized nations, it looked like the world of foreign aid was about to change. As the 2005 conference ended, British Prime Minister Tony Blair ascended the steps of a resort in the quaint Scottish village of Gleneagles and announced that rich nations would double their aid to Africa by 2010, giving some $50 billion annually. "It is progress - real and achievable progress," he concluded.
Around the rich world, it seemed, millions of people had finally begun to pay attention to global poverty. Time magazine had recently featured on its cover economist Jeffrey Sachs, who offered solutions for "how to end poverty." Celebrities jumped on the aid bandwagon. Angelina Jolie traveled to Africa to receive weighty briefings on the future of the continent. And a consensus appeared to be building among donor nations like Britain and the United States on how to address endemic poverty. Working together, donors would use aid not just as a bandage, but as a lever - rewarding good government in poor countries, and pressing them toward long-term reforms.
Today, however, those hopes have all but evaporated. A collision of factors, from politics to shifting global wealth, has unraveled the consensus among rich countries and allowed poorer nations to ignore their calls for reform. Western nations have failed to deliver the money promised at Gleneagles, casting doubt on the entire experiment - and leaving development veterans deeply pessimistic about the future.
From that high point in Gleneagles, today the aid industry stands on the brink of disaster. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, net aid from most of the wealthiest nations actually dropped, year on year, in 2006 and again in 2007. If the new push for foreign aid collapses completely, it could do just as much damage to the West as it does to the countries that need its benefits. Indeed, the crisis in foreign aid could not only prolong the world's human suffering, but could spark one of the biggest security challenges we face in the coming decades.
. . .
Foreign aid as we know it today is a relatively recent invention, born after World War II with the creation of new global institutions and the emergence of independent but poor states in Africa. By the 1960s, the world's major donors - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the rich industrialized nations of the West and Japan - had all created aid programs designed to help poorer regions, primarily in Africa and South Asia.
As the donations increased, foreign aid developed into an industry of its own, filled with consultants, contractors, and organizations that arose to channel the huge sums of money moving across borders. Over time, these became as entrenched as the government aid bureaucracies themselves.
Although its goals were laudatory, the aid industry had serious flaws. Donor governments tolerated massive graft by recipient nations, if these countries served strategic purposes - the West poured vast sums into kleptocratic Zaire, for instance, as a bulwark against communism. Leading global advocacy groups criticized aid providers for their stinginess and for directing some of their limited aid budgets to support the overseas operations of rich first-world companies such as agribusinesses. Some conservatives questioned the need for aid at all - the late Senator Jesse Helms memorably compared it with throwing money down a rat hole.
In his 2006 book "The White Man's Burden," former World Bank economist William Easterly issued a sweeping critique of the whole prevailing approach to aid, detailing how, for decades, aid providers had come up with massive plans to help poor nations and then, Soviet-style, attempted to impose them from outside, to little effect. Lacking local input and insensitive to local needs, these megaproposals often failed to make a real dent in the problems they were spending millions of dollars to address.
Earlier this decade, however, the aid industry seemed poised for a meaningful shift, fueled by an infusion of new money and optimism about what it could accomplish. The attacks of 9/11 seemed to convince skeptical conservatives that boosting foreign assistance would make America safer by increasing its global influence. "For at least a year into 2002 and 2003, there was a lot of pressure coming down from the White House to develop new aid programs," says one former top American aid official.
Between 2001 and 2005, the amount of foreign aid given by governments more than doubled. Britain's then-chancellor Gordon Brown proposed a kind of Marshall Plan for developing countries that would combine a doubling of aid to poor nations, a write-off of all their debts, and a vow by all rich countries to spend 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product on aid.
At the same time, the aid industry was developing a new model of assistance, one that emphasized accountability on the part of the governments receiving aid. This also pleased conservatives concerned about waste. The White House launched a new aid program in 2002 called the Millennium Challenge Corporation. The MCC, which received a new stream of aid money, used 16 indicators - on civil liberties, political rights, corruption, and other key factors - to determine whether nations were worthy of assistance. The World Bank and European nations also began to press, in cases, for reforms as a condition for aid money.
Massive global campaigns by celebrities like U2's Bono and Bob Geldof, organizer of the Live 8 concerts, brought poverty and aid greater public awareness. Days before the Gleneagles Summit, some 40 million people in 36 countries participated in an awareness campaign called the Global Call to Action Against Poverty.
But just three years later, that apparent wave of change is looking more and more like a mirage.
Rather than working with proven local programs and existing aid groups, leaders of the rich world simply created entirely new programs. The United States created the MCC and an HIV/AIDS funding bureaucracy called PEPFAR; Britain built a program to transform aid by giving cash directly to poor people in African nations. These new initiatives often duplicated projects that already existed, says Carol Lancaster, an aid expert at Georgetown University. The result adds to the confusion in recipient nations, who already have few trained officials to deal with the proliferation of aid groups. On my own trips to Malawi, one of the poorer nations in Africa, I found that health officials spent a vast percentage of their time simply catering to donors and consultants.
Many conservatives who backed aid now have turned against it, or have reconceived "aid" in ways that serve other interests. The Bush administration now routes nearly one-quarter of its aid money through the Pentagon, up from less than 10 percent in 2002, and much of that "aid" goes to Iraq and Afghanistan. In the 2008 budgeting cycle, Congress slashed funds for the MCC by half, partly because of conservative anger and partly because Democrats view it as a failed Bush administration program.
Despite promises to help the poorest and best-governed countries, rich nations have continued lavishing money on key strategic countries. The White House has continued to send the majority of foreign assistance to allies like Egypt, still run by a corrupt, authoritarian regime. Britain continued funneling aid to Russia - hardly an impoverished state, but one that London wants to build a stronger link with.
Unlike Bush, who made aid a centerpiece of his presidency, John McCain has spent his time in the Senate trying to cap the aid budget. Though McCain, in his presidential campaign, has declared that aid "really needs to eliminate many of the breeding grounds for extremism," he's offered no concrete plans for boosting or reforming assistance. (In comparison, Barack Obama has pledged to double American foreign aid by 2012.)
Public enthusiasm, too, seems to have ebbed. One comprehensive study, by Harris polling, found twice as many Americans think the government spends too much to help prevent disease and improve public health abroad as think it spends the right amount.
Wealthy countries have closed their wallets. In Japan, the government has slashed aid budgets dramatically. In 2006, the United States cut development aid by over 18 percent, and it dropped again the next year. Despite the promises of Gleneagles, net aid handouts from the G-7 group of powerful nations fell by 1 percent in 2007, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a monitoring group. The nongovernmental organization Oxfam projects that by 2010, wealthy nations will fall short of their pledges by some $30 billion - more than the United States' entire annual aid expenditures.
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In the long run, this stinginess will backfire on everyone involved. It will have a disastrous impact on the citizens of poor nations, both because of reduced aid and less pressure on their governments for real political reforms. And aid has benefits for the rest of the world as well. It can prevent the kinds of failed states that harbor terrorism, crime, and other serious dangers.
President Bush in 2002 admitted as much: In his National Security Strategy, he, like McCain, made the link between combating poverty and reducing global extremism. "The events of September 11, 2001, taught us that weak states, like Afghanistan, can pose as great a danger to our national interests as strong states," the strategy declared. Other long-isolated, poor nations, like Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia, also have proven staging grounds for militancy.
Given correctly and designed to produce reforms, aid money can help strengthen weak states before they disintegrate into total failure. In Cambodia, a nation destroyed by decades of civil war, effective aid in the 1990s helped build a real civil society and restore the nation's social fabric to some extent. While hardly an idyll today, the country has strong nongovernmental organizations, an independent media, and some degree of stability, despite continued poor senior leadership.
Failed states can turn into breeding grounds for threats that dwarf even terrorism. In Burma, for example - a country isolated by sanctions and its rulers' own obstinacy - poverty, prostitution, and a brutal human rights climate have created not only a flourishing narcotics trade, but an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has affected all of Southeast Asia. According to Laurie Garrett of the Council on Foreign Relations, an expert on pandemic disease, all the HIV strains in Southeast Asia actually originated in Burma. The country "may be the greatest contributor of new types of HIV in the world," she wrote in a report on the crisis.
Some states' problems can spill directly over into Western democracies. Haiti, a country with many of the same longstanding problems as Burma, has become a major conduit for HIV and drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere. Thousands of Haitians try to flee its chaos by coming to the United States, causing repeated refugee crises.
Eventually, many of these failed states actually wind up requiring more direct Western intervention, which can be yet more expensive and deadly. The United States has intervened in Haitian politics repeatedly over the past two administrations; similarly, both the Clinton and Bush White Houses felt compelled to intervene in Somalia, with disastrous results.
As Western countries' aid falls short, the door opens wider for new donors. In the past four years, middle-income authoritarian nations like China, Russia, and Venezuela, many fattened on higher oil profits or trade surpluses with the United States, have begun increasing their aid programs in a bid for regional or global influence. Venezuela already dwarfs US aid in Latin America, and China has become the largest lender to Africa.
These new donors care little about promoting better governance. In Angola, the government shunned a deal with the International Monetary Fund - which asks for accounting of the money spent and real reform - in favor of a massive financing agreement with China, which holds Angola to no conditions and provides aid with little transparency.
"We used to just listen to what they [the donors] said," said one aid expert I met in Phnom Penh, who also worked in the Cambodian government. "But we don't have to anymore." He pointed to other parts of the capital, where Chinese financing supported new construction. "We have China now. China will help."
Even from the most parochial point of view, the collapse of the new push for foreign aid matters to America. Aid clearly improves images of donor nations, critical at a time when anti-American sentiment is rife worldwide, and the country's military "hard power" remains tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Focus groups in the Muslim world conducted for the Council on Foreign Relations showed that well-advertised, targeted American assistance actually helped swing public opinion toward the United States in Morocco, a Muslim nation where, after 9/11, local images of the United States had soured. Similarly, the US response to the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia helped restore American influence there and opened the door for renewed US-Indonesia counterterrorism cooperation. "That was a dramatic change," Puji Pujiono, an Indonesian relief specialist, told me. "People saw the US military on the ground helping here, and their image of America immediately turned around."
Despite the discouraging news, a bright spot may be emerging in another corner of the aid world. The private sector, increasingly wealthy, is adopting some of the lessons that nations seem determined to ignore, like funding smaller projects that have already enjoyed success on the ground. The Gates Foundation - with an endowment of nearly $40 billion, the largest foundation in the world, and a major private donor in Africa and India - has launched an initiative to focus on microfinance, the providing of small loans to poor borrowers to give them start-up capital. Such private groups may be impressive for their vats of money, but in the long term they may be even more important for their example.
Joshua Kurlantzick is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of "Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power is Transforming the World." He can be reached at jkurlantzick@ceip.org.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
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China eyeing base in Bay of Bengal?-India-The Times of India
China eyeing base in Bay of Bengal?-India-The Times of India
NEW DELHI: Is China marking space for itself in Myanmar's Coco Islands again? India is suddenly up and alert after senior Chinese naval officers recently visited the islands to “upgrade” facilities there.
On June 25, according to reports reaching India, in an unpublicised visit, a Chinese naval delegation led by Col Chi Ziong Feng, accompanied a Myanmarese delegation headed by Brig Gen Win Shein, into the Coco Islands.
According to sources, Brig Gen Shein is commander of Ayeyarwaddy (Irrawaddy) naval headquarters, which controls the island.
According to sources monitoring developments, China decided to help Myanmar upgrade systems in the island.
Myanmar would increase its naval troop strength on the island, while China would help in building two more helipads and storage systems for arms. What was of greater interest to India was that China reportedly agreed to "upgrade" communication facilities on the island.
Interestingly, this was also around the time that Indian minister of state for power Jairam Ramesh was in Myanmar adding to India's development presence there by signing four economic cooperation agreements with the Myanmar government.
The Coco Islands have always been part myth, part Indian and Chinese jostling in the Indian Ocean. But there have never been a stop to reports of China building a listening post in the Great Coco Island, which is close enough to the Andamans and the Straits of Malacca to be of concern to India.
In fact, after much persuasion, India managed to get the Myanmarese to take some officials to Coco Islands in 2006 to see the island for themselves as well as a couple of other islands of concern to India like Hangyii and Kyakpu. Indian representatives were allowed to tour the island. They did not find much.
Even the radar was rudimentary, bought off some ship and not working. The Indian government came to the conclusion that the Myanmarese are either too clever by half or they're not showing everything to India or they had been correct all along. Whatever it was, India stopped its public cribbing about Coco.
The issue was, however, never buried. After the recent visit, India's assessment says the possibility of more helipads on Coco Islands might indicate a Chinese interest in air surveillance of Indian aircraft, ships or facilities.
It took a visit like this to get the Indians to sit up. As of now, Indian officials say they are "concerned, but not alarmed".
After all, despite India ramping up its own presence in Myanmar, China remains its biggest friend, philosopher and guide. For the moment, India remains in a "watch and wait" mode, particularly since its own relations with China are very complex at the present moment.
But it wants to watch out for activity, particularly on the construction of helipads and building more communication posts that will signal danger. India's Far East Command, which operates out of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is well situated to inderdict vessels passing through Malacca Straits.
Burmese opposition in exile challenge Burma's credentials at UN
Burmese opposition in exile challenge Burma's credentials at UN
Solomon
Saturday, 30 August 2008 20:09
New Delhi - In a campaign that seeks to challenge the legitimacy of the Burmese military junta's membership of the United Nations, opposition political parties in exile said they will send letters urging the UN to reconsider the junta's representation at the General Assembly.
An umbrella Burmese opposition group, the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), said it will send the letter to the UN in early September urging rejection of the Burmese junta's representation as a member state, since it is ruling the country illegally.
"It has already been planned and we will send the letter early next month," Myo Win, Joint General Secretary (2) of the NCUB.
"We have begun this campaign a long time ago and have been discussing with member countries from the UN," Myo Win added.
The group said, it had announced its challenge campaign since last year but wanted to wait for the junta to resolve the question of legitimacy through peaceful dialogue. But since the junta failed to implement effective political dialogue and continued with its seven-step roadmap, the group had begun the challenge campaign.
In May, the junta forced its way ahead with a 'rigged' constitutional referendum, claiming 98 percent approval by voters. The NCUB said this has forced the groups to call on the UN to review the legitimacy of the junta.
"By this campaign we hope to achieve a genuine democracy in Burma that will guarantee the rights of all ethnic groups as well," said Nyo Ohn Myint, Foreign Affairs in-charge of the National League for Democracy – Liberated Area exile, which is a member of NCUB.
The exiled political groups said, through this campaign they will explain to the international communities as well as member states of the UN about the true intentions of the junta, and prevent them from rigging the declared 2010 general elections.
"We hope this campaign will result in regional countries, who defend the junta, and the international community to come for discussions with us," said Nyo Ohn Myint.
Despite repeated calls by Burmese opposition groups to kick start a political dialogue, the junta had declared it is implementing a reform through its seven-step roadmap, which excludes major opposition groups including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD.
As the first step of its roadmap, the junta took 14 years to complete its National Convention to draft a constitution, and in May held a referendum to approve it. The junta then announced that the constitution was approved overwhelmingly. But the opposition and critics said the process of the referendum was not 'free and fair' and accused the junta of rigging it.
The NCUB said it is ready to put on hold its campaign, if the junta considers talking with detained Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic leaders in a tripartite dialogue and possibly find a solution to Burma's long political impasse.
"We are into this campaign because we want to put our country on the right political track," said Nyo Ohn Myint.
He added that the campaign will be able to put pressure on the junta, as member states of the UN including the five permanent Security Council members, have no power to veto the Credential Challenge Committee.
However, if the junta and other regional countries fail to respond, the NUCB said it will work closely with member states of the UN and challenge the credential of the Burmese junta at the UN General Assembly.
Meanwhile, Burma's opposition parties including the NLD said they are not satisfied with UN's current engagement with the generals as the UN' special envoy Ibrahim Gambari failed to convert his visits into concrete results.
He failed to meet San Suu Kyi so they want the UN to review its policy on Burma.
Nang Yain, General Secretary of Women's League of Burma (WLB), a Thailand based umbrella group of Burmese women, said it also agrees with the campaign that feels the military government does not deserve a place at the UN as it is not popularly elected by the people.
"It will be good if the campaign is successful because that is what should happen," said Nang Yain.
But the WLB was unable to join the NCUB as they are focusing on bringing the Burmese generals to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
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