Include NLD, Ethnic Minorities in Dialogue: US Sen

Include NLD, Ethnic Minorities in Dialogue: US Sen
By LALIT K JHA Friday, October 30, 2009

WASHINGTON — A key US senator has called for the National League for Democracy (NLD) and ethnic minority groups to be included in the US-Burma talks.

"I believe that this interaction should not be limited to talks merely with the SPDC but should also include discussions with the National League for Democracy and representatives from Burma's ethnic minorities," Sen. Mitch McConnell said on the floor of the Senate.
Sen. Mitch McConnell

He said he is "not sanguine" about the prospects for engagement with the Burmese regime, because the military junta has not shown any ability to compromise on any issues that might jeopardize its hold on power.

"According to news reports, in July of this year, just weeks before the unveiling of the new Burma policy, the state department at the highest levels offered to drop the US investment ban against Burma if the regime released Aung San Suu Kyi," he said.

"This was a major test of how the regime would respond to diplomatic engagement, providing a golden opportunity for the SPDC to demonstrate that it had indeed changed its spots. Instead of accepting this offer and freeing Suu Kyi, the regime promptly sentenced her to an additional 18 months of imprisonment. That does not augur well for diplomatic engagement," he said.

He said there are three significant tests of whether or not the junta's relationship with the US has improved to the degree that it should consider moving away from a sanction policy: first, the release of all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi; second, a free and fair 2010 elections; and third, Burma's compliance with its international obligations to end any prohibited relationships with North Korea.

"Short of tangible and concrete progress in these areas, the removal of sanctions seems to make little sense,” said Sen. McConnell. “It is after all the most significant leverage our government has over the SPDC. Sanctions make clear that the military junta has not achieved legitimacy in the eyes of the West."

He said the 2010 Burmese elections are fraught with problems. As a preliminary matter, for the elections to be meaningful, the new Constitution should be amended to provide for a truly open electoral competition and democratic governance, he said.

"As it stands now under the junta's charter, if Suu Kyi's party, the NLD, won 100 percent of the contestable parliamentary seats in next year's election, it would still not control the key government ministries: defense and home affairs. No matter what, they will remain firmly under military control. Moreover, the NLD cannot amend the Constitution to improve the charter because the military is guaranteed a quarter of the parliament's seats," he said.




"That means the junta can block any Constitutional change. Finally, Suu Kyi may not even hold a position in the government. She is excluded from office by the charter. I would say to my Senate colleagues, this is hardly a prescription for democratic governance," McConnell said.

He said there would need to be a profound change in the political environment in Burma for the 2010 election to be meaningful.

"With respect to next year's balloting, the NLD, the clear winner of the 1990 elections which the regime abrogated, faces a Hobson's choice,” he said. “It can either participate in the elections which are almost certain to be unfair and thereby legitimize the flawed Constitution or boycott the elections and be treated as a member of an unlawful organization," he said.

"Participation means casting aside its 1990 victory. Nonparticipation means becoming outlaws. I am likely to support the NLD in whatever decision the party makes in this regard though I am not blind to the profound dilemma it faces," McConnell said.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org

http://www.irrawadd y.org/article. php?art_id= 17100

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3D Fund annual review meeting held

3D Fund annual review meeting held
By Aye Aye Myo

GAINING trust and improving people’s lives – these are the accomplishments of the Three Diseases Fund (3DF) over the past year, donors heard last week.
The fund held its 2009 Annual Review Meeting at Sedona Hotel on October 14 to describe its fight against HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.

In 2008, partner agencies provided 6804 people living with HIV with antiretroviral therapy (ART), representing 45 percent of ART treatment in the country. They successfully treated some 27,800 TB patients and around 712,600 malaria cases. HIV prevention reached some 633,500 people and behaviour change communication on TB 131,610 clients.

“The main achievement of the fund is that it proved it worked effectively and contributed to improving and saving the lives of thousands,” Mr Bengt Ekman, chair of the Fund Board and representative of Sweden in the Donor Consortium, said.

Doctors implementing the project have to solve a lot of problems such as transparency and language barriers. “When we survey peoples’ behaviour for HIV/AIDS among sex workers and young people, victims talk only to people they trust. So we have to work through people they are familiar with so that we can know true facts about risk percentage and mis-behaviour,” Dr Aye Sandar Aung from World Vision told The Myanmar Times.




According to Dr Aye Mar Lwin from Malteser International, the only difficulty is the language barrier. Patients talk to the doctors through interpreters. But surprisingly, people in remote areas do not shun clinics as they used to and attend when they feel ill. Only the ethnic minorities in hilly regions rarely come, she said, adding that the organisation is trying to extend their reach further into remote areas.

3DF describes itself as the biggest single-pooled fund in the health sector in Myanmar, with a commitment of US$114 million over the five-year period that began in October 2006 and will end in 2011. Donor contributions have amounted to $71.5 million on behalf of the European Commission, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
http://www.mmtimes. com/no494/ n003.htm

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'Jungle girl' gives voice to oppressed

'Jungle girl' gives voice to oppressed
Zoya Phan is the face of the Karen people

Peter Goodspeed, National Post Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009

Zoya Phan may be destined to become as famous as Burma's detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The tiny, soft-spoken refugee is rapidly becoming the best known spokeswoman for the Karen people, Burma's second-largest ethnic group.

The author of a best-selling autobiography, Little Daughter, she has been a guest speaker at British political conventions and is a regular panelist on news shows, where she calls for international pressure to topple a military dictatorship that has ruled Burma since 1962.

Journalists and book reviewers describe Ms. Phan, 28, as "an icon of a suffering land" and "the voice of an enslaved nation."

This week she is touring Canada as the guest of Montrealbased Rights & Democracy.

Like Ms. Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burmese independence hero Aung San, Ms. Phan is the daughter of freedom fighters. Her father, Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, was secretary general of the Karen National Union, before he was assassinated last year at his home in a refugee camp inside Thailand.

"He was my hero, my leader," she says.




"He was humble, a man of principle, committed to human rights and democracy. He was killed because they feared him and what he stood for."

Her mother, a gentle woman who constantly "adopted" needy children, was a former guerrilla who told her children she once killed and skinned a python to feed her platoon.

For most of her childhood Ms. Phan lived an idyllic life in bamboo huts by the banks of the Moei River.

"I was a jungle girl," she says.

Life was simple but harsh. The closest medical clinic was kilometres away and she foraged for food in the forest with her brothers and sister to supplement a diet of rice and fish paste.

But danger lurked in the shadows.

In her book Ms. Phan describes the day she discovered the bloated corpse of a slave labourer floating in the river. A Karen tribesman, forced to act as a porter for the Burmese Army, had been beaten till his back was shredded and thrown into the water.

When she was 14, the war that had raged between the Burmese Army and Karen nationalist guerrillas since 1947 finally caught up to her. Soldiers attacked her village, torched its houses and destroyed crops.

She ran for her life as mortar shells crashed nearby, then spent two years hiding in the jungle with thousands of other displaced people.

Ultimately, they ended up in a refugee camp inside Thailand.

"The camps are like prisons," she says. The Karen are not allowed to leave, to work or to farm. There is little education and food is rationed.

Ms. Phan won a scholarship from a foreign aid agency and went to university in Bangkok and later to the University of East Anglia in Britain.

"I am very lucky," she says. "Many of my friends in Burma and in neighbouring countries have had to work as prostitutes in the sex industries."

After her mother died, and she and her father escaped two separate assassination attempts, she fled to Britain, where she claimed political asylum.

"It was a big shock," she says. "A girl from the jungle stepped into the big city. It was a cultural shock, a language problem, a technology shock. I didn't even know how to use a kettle."

The change had benefits. Ms Phan learned more about Burma.

"Under the military dictatorship the practice was to divide and rule," she says. "The state owns and operates all the news media, and the people of Burma know very little of what is going on in their own country."

"It sounds strange, but I knew almost nothing about Aung San Suu Kyi," she says. "I had heard about her and seen her picture but I didn't know who she really was."

Now, Ms Suu Kyi is her hero. "She's a role model not just for women, but for the people of Burma," she says. "The strongest army in southeast Asia is afraid of her because she represents freedom; freedom of fear; freedom from ethnic cleansing; freedom from rape as a weapon of war ..."

While attending a Free Burma demonstration outside the Burmese embassy three years ago in London, Ms. Phan, dressed in traditional Karen costume, was plucked from the audience to give a speech.

Her eloquence endeared her to the news media and she became an overnight sensation.

She met Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, and addressed the British Conservative party's annual conference in 2006 and 2007.

In the absence of Ms. Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 14 years, she has become the voice of Burma's opposition movement.

But she says, "I just see myself as a refugee and I just want to go home. I want to see peace in my homeland."

pgoodspeed@national post.com

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BurmaInfo] RFA「ビルマの友だち」のご紹介

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　　　　ビルマ市民フォーラム　メールマガジン　　　　　2009/10/28
People's Forum on Burma　　　
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以下、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 　宮澤
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/


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米国のビルマ国内向けラジオ放送Radio Free Asia（ＲＦＡ）は、2009年6月から新
コーナー「Friends of Burma」（ビルマの友だち）をスタートしました。

このコーナーは、ビルマ民主化運動を支援する外国人をインタビューして、関わるよ
うになった経緯や、考えていることなどについて聞く短い番組です。

2009年9月14日放送分に、ビルマ情報ネットワークの秋元由紀が出演しました。
ビルマ情報ネットワークのウェブサイトに、音声ファイルを掲載しましたのでご案内
いたします。以下のページからどうぞ。なお音声はビルマ語です。ご了承ください。

「ビルマの友だち」秋元由紀（2009年9月14日放送）
http://www.burmainfo.org/article/article.php?mode=2&articleid=496



ちなみに、第一回（2009年6月29日）には、ビルマ情報ネットワークでもエッセイを
掲載している田辺寿夫さんが出演しました。

「ビルマの友だち」田辺寿夫さん（2009年6月29日放送）
http://www.burmainfo.org/article/article.php?mode=1&articleid=494


ビルマ情報ネットワーク (http://www.burmainfo.org)
箱田徹


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配布元 ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo） http://www.burmainfo.org
連絡先 listmaster@burmainfo.org
バックナンバー http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/burmainfo/
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▽転載について

・ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）のメールマガジンの転載・再配布は、必ず出典を明記したうえで行ってください。

・不特定多数に配付する印刷物や、新聞、雑誌、機関紙（誌）などに掲載の際は、必ずご連絡ください。

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
▽メーリングリストの参加・退会・アドレス変更について

　以下のＵＲＬをご覧ください。
　http://www.burmainfo.org/about/mailmagazine.php

※原則として手動での変更手続は行っておりませんが、どうしても解決できない
　問題があるときや、疑問点がある場合は管理者宛にご連絡ください。
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Playing With Super Powers

Playing With Super Powers
By AUNG ZAW Wednesday, October 28, 2009

If ever the Burmese regime made it clear it preferred “Made in America” to “Made in China,” it would be no surprise to see relations between China and Burma suffer a severe hiccup.

China is now keenly observing Washington’s new policy toward the Burmese regime and Burma’s opposition movement. At the same time, Beijing is observing the unpredictable Naypyidaw regime’s paukphaw (kinship) commitment to China.

Burmese military officers familiar with Western standard weaponry employed this arsenal to counter Chinese-backed insurgents in the past. They have long memories of Chinese chauvinism and Beijing’s former plan to export Communism to Burma and install there a government sympathetic to Mao Zedong’s cCommunist ideology.

Those days are long gone. China became Burma’s staunchest ally after the regime brutally crushed the pro-democracy uprising in 1988. For the past 21 years, China has adopted a paukphaw policy toward Burma and played an influential role there.

Burma has always firmly supported a “One China” policy and expressed its sympathy to Beijing at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Burma hastily issued a statement condemning the West when the Chinese embassy in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, was hit in a NATO air strike in 1999.

Perhaps Burmese leaders have had little choice but to embrace Beijing since 1988 in view of worsening relations with the West. However, it can be argued that the strength of ties between Burma and China is perhaps grossly overstated and may be just an anomaly.

Former dictator Gen Ne Win, who fought British and Japanese occupiers, was always fearful of imperialists. During his reign from 1962 to 1988 and throughout the Cold War, he played safe with world powers.

Ne Win and his top commanders were well aware of their country’s geopolitical importance, strategically located between China and India.

Ne Win’s neutralist balancing act didn’t prevent him, however, from seeking military aid from the US and Europe when Burma faced a serious threat from Communist China in the late 1960s.

Four years after coming to power in the 1962 military coup, Ne Win visited the US and had lunch at the White House in Washington with then President Lyndon Johnson.

A few months earlier, Ne Win had received US Senator Mike Mansfield, the first high-ranking US official or legislator to visit Burma since the coup.

Ne Win’s visit to Washington caused some apprehension in Beijing, although the Burmese dictator never gave cause for real Chinese concern. He was clever enough to appease and exploit Beijing.

At a Chinese National Day reception in Beijing, Burmese communist leader Ba Thein Tin was mentioned second only to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot among distinguished guests at the main table in Beijing.

In December 1977, Ne Win made a surprise visit to Phnom Penh to meet Pol Pot, the first foreign leader welcomed to Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge takeover two years previously.

The visit was intended to break the Khmer Rouge’s international isolation. It certainly paid off, as Beijing increased its economic assistance to Burma and also ordered Burmese communists to relocate their clandestine radio station to Burmese territory.

One year after the US visit, anti-Chinese riots broke out in Burma, causing Ne Win to placate Beijing and steadily repair strained relations, while still adhering to his country’s neutralist foreign policy.

Burma’s current military strongman, junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, was then an army captain temporarily serving with the Light
Infantry Division 101. He was undoubtedly an interested observer of how Ne Win was handling internal and external challenges.

Than Shwe was later assigned to lead Light Infantry Division 88 in northern Burma in countering a communist threat there in the 1980s.

Like many infantry commanders, Than Shwe and his No 2, Dep Snr-Gen Maung Aye, are known to harbor no great love for China.

Beijing somehow miscalculated the eccentric, nationalistic, independent- minded and battle-hardened Burmese army leaders. China had backed the wrong horse by wooing intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt, only to see him abruptly removed in 2004, thus losing one of Beijing’s most valuable friends.

Than Shwe, like many Burmese nationalists, was reluctant to see Burma becoming too dependent on China, even for the armaments his regime so badly needed. When Chinese-made jet fighters began to malfunction and crash at an alarming rate, the Burmese regime went looking for reliable arms manufacturers in Russia and Eastern Europe.

The Chinese have always found the Burmese difficult to deal with.

When Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Burma in December 2001 on a mission to strengthen economic and strategic ties Than Shwe reportedly upset the Chinese leader by not signing an agreement allowing Chinese vessels to travel to the Bay of Bengal along the Bhamao and Irrawaddy Rivers.

The Burmese regime knows full well the extent of China’s economic and strategic interest in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal.

Two years before Jiang Zemin’s visit, Than Shwe had been reinforcing ties with Russia, India and Pakistan, demonstrating to uneasy senior military officers that his regime is no puppet of China.

Despite Burma’s cautionary stand, China remains a staunch ally, ready to defend the regime whenever it finds itself in a corner­including at the UN Security Council. In return, the regime has agreed to sell gas to China and build oil and gas pipelines.



Depending solely on China is not an option for the regime, however­and for that reason alone the junta may find the new US policy appealing at some level, as it could counterbalance China’s growing influence.

It is safe to say that the regime will cooperate with the US in the areas of drug control, health, environmental protection and the continuing search for the remains of US servicemen registered as missing in action in World War II.

This could provide an entry point for the US to further engage with the regime if pro-US engagement officers in the armed forces became powerful in the future.

However, it is doubtful that the current regime will deliver any substance in the political arena. It is highly unlikely that the regime will agree to Washington’s request for inclusive, free and fair elections and the release of all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.

In any case, although the new US-Burma policy outlined in Washington definitely creates a space for the repressive regime in Burma to engage more with its most vocal critic it is still uncertain whether direct engagement would yield any positive outcome.

It is interesting to note that Washington’s new Burma policy received a cautious welcome from dissidents inside and outside the country.

The policy is undoubtedly a smart one. However, Than Shwe and his junta are not only smart­like North Korea’s leaders, they are also manipulative and often skillfully employ pressure and dialogue to deceive the domestic and international communities.

Washington is well aware of Burmese deception, and Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has made it clear that the US administration will not lift sanctions unless the regime makes concrete changes.

Campbell told a Senate sub-committee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs that the US will maintain existing sanctions until it sees concrete progress in Burma and will continue to work with the international community to ensure that those sanctions are effectively coordinated.

This means that Than Shwe will not see any lifting of sanctions any time soon. The regime doesn’t share US human rights and democracy values­and, as a result, the new US policy may not reach any meaningful stage in coming years because of the regime’s resistance to change.

However, the US gesture to the Burmese has set alarm bells ringing in Beijing. As in the past, Burmese leaders will have more room to play one super power against the other.

This article appears in the November issue of The Irrawaddy.
http://www.irrawadd y.org/opinion_ story.php? art_id=17082

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NLD Elder Holds Out for Constitutional Review

NLD Elder Holds Out for Constitutional Review
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

U Win Tin is a founding member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which was formed in 1988. He is also a well-known journalist in Burma. He was detained in 1989 and served 19 years in prison. He was released in September 2008. He spoke to The Irrawaddy on the issues of international economic sanctions, the 2010 election, the regime’s 2008 Constitution and the current position of the NLD.

Question: How much does the lifting of Western economic sanctions on Burma relate to national reconciliation?

Answer: In our politics, these two factors are related. If there is a US dialogue, the military regime is involved in the process. The sanctions now control them somewhat. Even if the sanctions can’t be said to strengthen us [the NLD], it is at least a rein on the junta. It’s something like tying down a brutal giant with many ropes so that we can survive.

I think there are three kinds of sanctions. First, there are sanctions that can affect ordinary people. For example, the US sanction [on the importation of Burmese textile products] caused unemployment in the garment factories. Second, there are sanctions that can directly affect the military generals and their cronies. Third, there are many countries that imposed arms embargos on Burma. Among these three kinds, we don’t have anything to say about the sanctions affecting the military and its generals, but we will step in to talk about easing the sanctions that affect the people.

I think if there is an ease in sanctions, it can probably lead to national reconciliation. The new US policy will be carried out while maintaining the existing sanctions. It is a drama which will include a variety of scripts, such as sadness, pleasure, and Nhit Par Thwar [a dance with a main actor and actress]. The last script of the drama, we expect, will be Zat Paung Khan [a peaceful end]. Therefore, we can’t predict now the role of sanctions in political dialogue and reconciliation. Things will unfold more before the 2010 election.

Q: What is your opinion on the announcement of the regime to hold the election as scheduled, and their preparations?

A: on March 27, Snr-Gen Than Shwe said he will not review the Constitution. Recently, he again declared that the Constitution has already been approved by the people and the elections will be held systematically. He said that political parties must respect the Constitution, and parties that work responsibly will be protected by the government. It means that if they believe some political parties are not responsible in their work, they will take action against the parties. These two facts are significant.

His words can be translated into these points: Political parties must keep quiet. All the principles have been set out for the pre-election campaigns: don’t talk about the demands from [the NLD’s] Shwegondine Declaration. I think he also warned other politicians, including from the National Unity Party (NUP) [transformed from the former ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party], who said the Constitution can be amended in the future. It looks like the parties must follow their way.

Q: What do you think the democratic forces and ethnic organizations should do in regard to the election?

A: There is still a way out. Although they denied a review of the Constitution, I still have hope for a political dialogue. If we demand it with a united stand, I think we have a way left. I think Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s words are related to the new US Burma policy. He bluntly responded to the US demands on the election and its relations with the opposition groups. But politics is an unending process no matter how decisive the general is in his words. The situation is changing. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi also asked the US to engage with both sides. Whatever Snr-Gen Than Shwe says, I expect the US policy will open a way for relations with the regime.

Q: What are your views on some politicians who want to take part in the election?

A: Regarding this election, my stand is even a bit different from the NLD. I accept the NLD’s stand on the Shwegondine Declaration. The statement demands a release of all political prisoners, a review of the Constitution and to hold a free and fair election under international supervision. What we mainly want is political dialogue.

U Thu Wai and U Khin Maung Gyi of the NUP said that the situation will change in the next 10 to 15 years. They will take part in the election. They didn’t consult with us. I don’t agree that we should take part in the election.

We must create a situation conducive to the participation of all parties. We believe that all the parties should demand a more flexible Constitution at the outset. If the Constitution is amended, we can have a democratic space to some extend and can talk and work in parliament. If we accept the current situation, no amendments can be made, and there will be no rights for democratic forces or ethnic nationalities.

Yes, the Constitution offers a parliament where we can have a political platform from which to talk. But we must understand that under this Constitution, we can’t make any decision or move forward. That’s why I say we must demand a review of the Constitution before the election.

Q: What do you want to amend in the 2008 constitution?

A: There are about a dozen things that should be amended. What I can say now is we can’t accept the sixth basic principle of the Constitution: “the national political leadership role” of the military. The fact that more than 75 percent of the parliamentary vote is needed to amend the Constitution should be amended. Regarding the rights of ethnic nationalities, the fact that the President will appoint the chairmen of the Hluttaws (Parliament) in the Regions and States should be amended. That is important for the ethnic nationalities.

Q: What are your thoughts on the debate inside the NLD over whether the party should take part in the election?

A: Our leaders have their roots in the democratic struggle. I led a Burmese media union and spent about 20 years in jail. Therefore, I have evaluated the situation in terms of the goals of our democratic struggle. I think and talk in this way.

A central issue is the results of the 1990 election [a landslide win for the NLD]. We can’t throw away the results like a piece of paper or a leaf. In the NLD, there are people who have safeguarded the party for the past 20 years. For me, I do things based on the spirit I had during the democratic struggle in 1988. Some party leaders base their thinking on rationality. There are differences in our ways of thinking and working.

Some in the party think the regime can change its attitude, but I don’t think so. We have different views in this respect. They think the regime can become flexible and take positive steps and make some compromises. But the regime is stubborn, and it tries to do all that it can to hold on to power.

The youth organizations, monks, democratic forces and ethnic nationalities outside the country are all talking about a boycott of the election. Inside the country, there are some political groups that talk about contesting the election, but they are not a strong force even though they have important leaders.

Democratic and ethnic forces inside and outside the country are decisively saying “No” to the election. On the other hand, some so-called third forces and a few cease-fire armed ethnic groups are willing to take part.

The NLD won the election in 1990, but to date the party hasn’t been allowed to carry out the election results. At this point, if we turn our back on the 1990 election results and talk about taking part in the new election, the NLD will be shamed. In the future, the political scenario will be clearer, after the NLD finally decides whether to contest the election or not.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org

http://www.irrawadd y.org/article. php?art_id= 17083

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Statement from FWUBC concern about arriving of Burmese refugees in Japan

28-September-2010
Statement from FWUBC concern about arriving of Burmese refugees in Japan

(1) First of all, we would like to thank Japanese government and Japanese people
for accepting refugees from Burma (Myanmar) under the military junta.
(2)We welcome our brothers and sisters refugees from Burma (Myanmar).
We will help them by any means.
(3)We want to explain that without solving problems inside Burma politically,
refugee problems in Burma will not end .It is already two millions internally
displaced people inside Burma , if we cannot solve the problem immediately,
Burma will become the biggest exporter of refugee in the world in near future.
(4)We also believe that Japan is sending the message to Burma military regime
without telling any word that Japan does not believe that coming 7 November
elections is the answer to the political and ethnic problems in Burma under current
conditions by accepting Burmese refugees in this particular time.
(5)We also want to explain that coming 7 November elections based on 2008 constitution
(This is written single handedly by military junta’s cronies to form puppet civilian
government under military control) is not the answer to Burmese people’s desire for democracy, peace and equality among ethnic nationalities.
(6)Burmese military regime has been committing
(a)Human rights violations (b)War crimes (c)Genocides
systematically ,brutally and ruthlessly for a long times.
(7)So we would like to ask Japanese government
to accept more refugees form Burma,
pressure the Burmese regime more( including selected sanctions)
support to form the committee in United Nations to investigate human rights violations in Burma.
do not accept the 7 November election results.
F W U B C
Federation of Workers’ Union of Burmese Citizens(in Japan)
Contacts- Phone Hlaing-vice president-FWUBC-662-90-5318-5054
Myint Swe -General Secretary-FWUBC-662-80-4005-7098

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Civil Society Unwelcome at Asean Summit

Civil Society Unwelcome at Asean Summit
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By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER Monday, October 19, 2009

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BANGKOK — A summit of regional leaders due to begin in Thailand on Oct. 23 has brought into relief a rift within the 10-member bloc about the space that should be given to civil society voices at such a gathering.

This political faultline comes at a time when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations moves ahead to reinvent itself as a rules-based, people-centered regional body by 2015. An Asean charter came into force in December last year in this effort to create a body that closely resembles the European Union (EU) in some ways.

Asean, whose members include Brunei, Burma (or Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, was initially established in 1967 at the height of the Cold War to serve as a bulwark against the spread of communism.

Thailand, as the host of the 15th Asean summit in Cha-am, a resort town south of Bangkok, was hoping to cement a permanent place for an encounter between government leaders and representatives of the region’s non- governmental organizations, said a diplomatic source.



For now, the summit’s agenda still says so. A meeting between the two groups is still on the cards from 11:50 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. On the opening day of the Cha-am meeting.

Yet the reality is otherwise, the diplomatic source from a Southeast Asian country revealed to IPS. "Objections have been raised by Laos, echoing the concerns already expressed by Myanmar and Cambodia," the diplomat added. "The relevance of this engagement between Asean leaders and civil society is to be downgraded."

A well-informed Thai columnist on Southeast Asian affairs has shed more light on what appears to be a move by countries that have no semblance of a democracy—or ones that come down strongly on critical voices at home—to convert this NGO-Asean leaders engagement into an informal exchange.

"Thailand’s long-standing plan to institutionalize the interface between Asean leaders and representatives of the more than 70 Asean civil society organizations (CSO) are crumbling," wrote Kavi Chongkittavorn in a commentary this week in The Nation, an English-language daily.

"Last week, at the Asean Joint Coordinating Meeting in Bangkok, a landlocked member proposed any such meeting in the future, including the forthcoming Cha-am summit, should be optional," he wrote. "Asean senior officials quickly took up Vientiane’s idea, which reflected the high anxiety held by their leaders since the historic event last February during the 14th Asean summit."

When pressed if this move did signify a "downgrading" of this meeting at future summits, a senior Thai foreign ministry official offered a diplomatic response. "We would like to see civil society participation at the Asean summit as a permanent pillar," said Vitavas Srivihok, director general of the Asean affairs department. "But we have to take a realistic approach, respecting the political development and internal process of each Asean country."

"Next year this meeting may come in the form of a seminar, a dinner or a reception," he adds, referring to the 16th summit to be hosted by Vietnam, one of the two Asean countries governed by communist parties. Laos, the region’s poorest country, is the other.

But that is not all that exposes a reluctance by Asean leaders to meet NGO representatives at the summit. A selection criteria of who speaks on behalf of civil society has been introduced, giving authority to the foreign ministry from, say, military-ruled Burma to approve who makes up the NGO delegation from its country.

"All the names of civil society representatives have to be sent through foreign ministries. Our colleagues from Myanmar, in particular, wanted this," Vitavas confirmed. "But this is not true with all countries. Thailand will give our civil society the full freedom to nominate their names."

Little wonder why NGO leaders are alarmed at this turn of events, marking a slide backwards from the benchmark that was set in February, when Thailand hosted the 14th Asean summit in Cha-am.

Using deft diplomacy, the hosts succeeded in holding for the first time in Asean’s 42-year-history a formal, face-to-face meeting between government leaders and NGO representatives that lasted 20 minutes. Strong protests by Burmese Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Sen—both of whom threatened to walk out of that meeting—had to be accommodated, denying the presence of the Burmese and Cambodian NGO delegates at this interface.

"We were hopeful that the success of the last Asean summit would be repeated. We wanted the interface to be institutionalized," said Yuyun Wahyuningrum, the East Asia program manager of the Asia Forum for Human Rights and Development, a regional lobby group. "But we are disappointed at what we are hearing. Making this meeting optional will be downgrading its importance."

"The new selection criteria is also a problem," she said in an interview. "It is creating a climate of fear among civil society activists coming from countries like Burma and Laos."

"Why are the Asean leaders afraid of us?" she asked. "We are trying to build a dialogue. This interface is important to make civil society visible as our commitment to the people-centered Asean mentioned in the charter."

A watered-down civil society encounter with the region’s leader will expose the credibility of Asean, added Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, who moderated the dialogue between government leaders and NGO representative at the last summit. "It comes at a critical moment when Asean is trying to make itself an inclusive, people-friendly body, than a club for government leaders and bureaucrats."

"The Asean charter is being violated by this effort to ignore the importance of civil society," he told IPS. "It will end up bankrupt if it keeps doing more of this."


Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org

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JAM会報、第13号(20091025)

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メータオ・クリニック支援の会より JAM会報、第13号(20091025)
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いつもご支援していただき誠にありがとうございます。
JAMの会報メールをお送りします。

※会報メールは、PDF形式で配信してまいります。

http://www.japanmaetao.org/mag/20091025_report-supporters-013.pdf

JAM は2008年3月に発足されたNGOです。
ビルマ／ミャンマーからタイへ貧困や戦火を逃れてきた人々の
病院、メータオ・クリニックの活動を支援する目的で設立されました。

支援者の皆様へJAM の最新の活動をできるだけ毎月
お伝えさせていただきたいと思います。

今後ともどうぞよろしくお願いいたします。

メータオ・クリニック支援の会
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
発行：メータオ・クリニック支援の会
WEBサイト：http://www.japanmaetao.org/
MAIL：support@japanmaetao.org
※このメールは送信専用メールアドレスから配信されております。このまま
ご返信いただいてもお答えできませんのでご注意ください。
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Fw: ビルマを荒廃させる「シュエ・ガス・オイル・プロジェクト」阻止を！世界一斉アクションへの参加のお願い

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
　　　　ビルマ市民フォーラム　メールマガジン　　　　　2009/10/26
People's Forum on Burma　　　
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
在日ビルマ人の団体、アラカン民主連盟（亡命・日本）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 　宮澤
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION
"No Blood for Gas"

On October 28,2009 Join Activists from Around the World
Stop the Shwe Gas and Oil Pipeline Project in Burma


ビルマを荒廃させる「シュエ・ガス・オイル・プロジェクト」を阻止する
世界一斉アクションへの参加をお願い致します。


きたる10月28日、ミャンマー軍事政権と中国政府が手を組んで
進めている「シュエ・ガス・オイル・プロジェクト」を阻止する、
世界一斉アクションを実施致します。このプロジェクトによる
ビルマ国内への深刻な影響への皆様のご理解と、我々と共に、
中国政府へプロジェクト中止を呼びかけるアクションへの参加を
お願い致します。

「シュエ・ガス・オイル・プロジェクト」は、エネルギー不足に頭を
抱える中国政府が主導して、ビルマ南部のヤカイン州沖合の
天然ガス田から、ビルマ国内を横切って、中国まで、天然ガスと
石油を届けようとするプロジェクトです。天然ガスと石油の輸送
パイプラインの建設によって、ビルマ国内への与える影響は、
深刻かつ甚大なものが予想されております。

我々ALD（アラカン民主連盟）は、中国政府等にプロジェクトの
中止を要請するべく、世界一斉に、各国にある中国大使館前で、
抗議アクションを実施致します。

　　このビルマの置かれている深刻な現実に目を向けて頂けますよう、
皆様のご理解とご協力をお願い致します。



★日本における抗議活動

日時：2009年10月28日 （水）14:00～16:00

場所：中国大使館前（中華人民共和国駐日本国大使館前）
　　　　東京都港区元麻布3-4-33
　　　　　（地下鉄日比谷線六本木駅・広尾駅から徒歩15分）

目的：「シュエ・ガス・オイル・プロジェクト」への
　　　　世界一斉抗議アクション

主催：アラカン民主連盟（亡命・日本）

問合先：090-2525-1966、090-1779-6028、090-6310-4461、
090-4296-3490、080-3310-4233、090-4268-4367
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Fw: [BurmaInfo] 今週のビルマのニュース（0939号）人権状況について国連での報告 制裁について米政府の認識は？ イェタグン田さらに開発 ほか

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　　　　ビルマ市民フォーラム　メールマガジン　　　　　2009/10/26
People's Forum on Burma　　　
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）からのメール2009年10月23日付を転送
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 　宮澤
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/


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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/news/this_week.php?mode=3

「きょうのビルマのニュース」もご利用ください。
http://www.burmainfo.org/news/today.php?mode=2


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
2009年10月23日【0939号】
========================================

【ビルマの人権状況について、国連の専門家が報告】

・国連のキンタナ特別報告者（ビルマの人権問題担当）は22日、
国連総会第３委員会で報告をした。ビルマの人権状況は「非常に悪く」、
「広範で組織的な人権侵害の傾向が見られる」と述べた。
人権状況に改善が見られないのは侵害行為をしても罰せられない
ためだとし、政府に対応を求めた。また、民族居住地域を中心に
国内各地で深刻な食料危機が起きていることも指摘した。
キンタナ氏は11月末までにビルマを訪問したいとのこと
（22日国連ニュース）。

【キャンベル氏「経済状態は制裁のせいではない」】

・米議会下院外交委員会は21日、米国のビルマ政策に
関するヒアリングを開き、キャンベル国務次官補やビルマ
民主化支援団体職員らが証言した。キャンベル氏は、米国の
制裁はビルマ国民ではなく軍政や政商を対象にしており、
経済成長の遅れは軍政の政策によるもので、投資環境も
制裁が科される前から悪かったと述べた。また米政府が
近くビルマに代表団を派遣し、軍政や民主化勢力、少数
民族団体と会談する予定であると述べた（ヒアリング記録）。

【軍政と対立中のカチン民族団体が新たな提案】

・軍部のあり方をめぐり軍政と対立しているカチン独立機構（KIO）
が軍政側に新たな提案を出した。少数民族に自治権を認めた
パンロン協定（1947年）を軍政が守るなら、武装解除するというもの。
打開策となるかは不明（21日カチン・ニュース）。

【背景】新憲法は国軍をビルマで唯一の武装勢力と定める。
このため軍政は十数の停戦団体に対し、軍部を国境警備隊に
改編し国軍の指揮下に入れるよう求めていた。軍政は8月、
要求に応じなかったコーカン軍を武力攻撃により制圧した。
KIOも軍政の要求を拒否しており、緊張状態が続いている。

【新日鉄がビルマ沖ガス田の追加建設工事を受注】

・新日鉄のタイ子会社が、ビルマ沖のイェタグン天然ガス田の
海洋プラットフォーム（第四フェーズ）建設工事を受注した。
2012年に完成予定（21日付アップストリーム・オンライン）。

【腐敗認識度と報道の自由度、ワースト2位と5位】

・汚職・腐敗問題に取り組む国際団体トランスペアレンシー・
インターナショナルが22日、世界の180か国の腐敗認識指数
を発表した。ビルマはソマリアに次いでワースト2位（イラクと同位）だった。

・国境なき記者団は21日、世界175か国の報道の自由度を発表した。
ビルマは171位だった。

【ビルマへの政府開発援助（ODA）約束状況など】

新たな発表はなし

【イベント情報】

・在日ビルマ人共同行動実行委員会ほか
国連事務総長に対しスーチーさんを含むすべての政治囚の
釈放と対話の促進を軍政に働きかけるよう要請するアピール行動
（国連大学前、19日～23日15～16時）

・ビルマ応援の会
「アウンサンスーチーと彼女を支えた家族の写真展」
（ギャラリー「やさしい予感」、21～26日。
25日14時から宇田有三氏の無料トークイベント。
当日整理券配布、先着40名）

・日本ビジュアル・ジャーナリスト協会
写真展2009 「世界187の顔」～生命の現場から～
（キッド・アイラック・アート・ホール、11月3日～15日11～20時。
11月5日18時半から佐藤文則と在日ビルマ人のトークイベント
「陰に追いやられる難民申請者」。予約先着順、有料＞

・第1回移民映画祭　マレーシアのビルマ難民が受けた
人権侵害の証言記録『HOME』上映、
リム・デズリ監督と根本敬上智大教授との対談
　(上智大学10号館講堂、11月8日上映12時10分、対談13時)

・山本宗補＆野田雅「ビルマ（ミャンマー）・チベット」
写真展とスライド＆トーク
（国立市公民館1階ロビー、11月17日～22日9～21時。
但し初日11時から、最終日は19時終了。
山本宗補と野田雅也によるスライド＆トークは21日13時半～）


【もっと詳しい情報は】

「きょうのビルマのニュース」
http://www.burmainfo.org/news/today.php?mode=2

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
2009年10月23日【0939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
====================================




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配布元 ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo） http://www.burmainfo.org
連絡先 listmaster@burmainfo.org
バックナンバー http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/burmainfo/
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
▽転載について

・ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）のメールマガジンの転載・再配布は、必ず出典を明記したうえで行ってください。

・不特定多数に配付する印刷物や、新聞、雑誌、機関紙（誌）などに掲載の際は、必ずご連絡ください。

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
▽メーリングリストの参加・退会・アドレス変更について

　以下のＵＲＬをご覧ください。
　http://www.burmainfo.org/about/mailmagazine.php

※原則として手動での変更手続は行っておりませんが、どうしても解決できない
　問題があるときや、疑問点がある場合は管理者宛にご連絡ください。
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[info_ngo_hrn] HRNは「スリランカの人権状況に関する共同書簡」に賛同しました。Monday, 26 October, 2009 20:14

ヒューマンライツ・ナウ　メールマガジン購読者の皆さま

このたびヒューマンライツ・ナウではスリランカの人権問題に関する
共同書簡に賛同いたしました。詳細はヒューマンライツ・ナウのウェブ
サイト< http://hrn.or.jp/activity/topic/post-44/ >　よりご確認ください。
共同書簡は先週22日、岡田外務大臣および各副大臣、大臣政務官宛てに
ファックスにて送付致しました。 賛同団体は以下となります。

アクティブ・ミュージアム「女たちの戦争と平和資料館」(wam)
/事務局長　渡辺美奈

アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本
/事務局長　寺中誠

反差別国際運動日本委員会(IMADR-JC)
/理事長　武者小路公秀

反差別国際運動(IMADR)
/事務局長　原由利子

ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ
/アジア局長　ブラッド・アダムズ　東京ディレクター　土井香苗

特定非営利活動法人ヒューマンライツ・ナウ
/事務局長　伊藤和子
（団体名50音順）

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Asean appeal blocked-(BY BURMA JUNTA)

Oct 20, 2009


SINGAPORE - MYANMAR has scuttled a plan by fellow Asean members to issue a public appeal seeking amnesty for detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, a diplomatic source said Tuesday.

'They rejected it two months ago. They rejected the idea,' the South-east Asian diplomat told AFP just days before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders hold their annual summit in Thailand this weekend.

The source, who asked not to be named, said that while Ms Suu Kyi's plight could not be put on the formal Asean agenda, Myanmar could still be discussed during a closed-door 'retreat' in which some of the leaders could call for her release.

They could also ask that her party be allowed to contest elections planned for next year, the diplomat added.

The diplomat said he understood that a number of other countries backed Myanmar's position that a public appeal for amnesty for Ms Suu Kyi would amount to interference in its domestic affairs. Myanmar had vetoed previous efforts to use Asean meetings to openly discuss Suu Kyi's fate.

Asean senior officials who met in Jakarta in August had agreed to work on an amnesty call for the Nobel Peace laureate convicted in August for allowing an American man stay in her lakeside home after he swam uninvited to the compound. -- AFP http://www.straitst imes.com/ Breaking% 2BNews/SE% 2BAsia/Story/ STIStory_ 444407.html

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Burmese Pro-democracy Leaders Visit US Sen. Webb

Burmese Pro-democracy Leaders Visit US Sen. Webb
By LALIT K JHA Wednesday, October 21, 2009

WASHINGTON — A delegation of pro-democracy leaders met US Sen. Jim Webb to present their views on the current situation in Burma and their perspective on the way forward, in particular with regard to sanctions and restoration of democracy in Burma.

The delegation was led by Maung Maung, the general secretary of the exiled National Council of the Union of Burma, and Bo Hla Tint, the foreign minister of the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma. They were accompanied by legal advisers from the Public International Law and Policy Group.

Webb, who recently became the first US law maker to visit Burma in a decade, has emerged as a key player in the Obama administration in shaping America’s Burma policy. He met with Snr-Gen Than Shwe and the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit.




Maung Maung said the meeting helped them to understand each other’s points of view, and they learned that they share the same goals.

“He [Webb] clarified that his stand on sanctions was not lessening sanctions. He emphasized that he was misquoted by the media,” Maung Maung told The Irrawaddy. “He is not for the lifting of sanctions right now, at the moment. This is what we learnt from him.”

Maung Maung said Webb told the delegation that he wants more economic development, peace and prosperity in Burma. “He wants to help us,” he said.

He said they advised Webb that the present US policy of not lifting sanctions but working to increase diplomatic contacts is a sound policy.

“We are in support of the present Burma policy,” he said, adding that it needs to be continued with consistent and concentrated effort on the part of the US.

The delegation gave the senator reports on the issues of national reconciliation and ethnic nationalities.
http://www.irrawadd y.org/article. php?art_id= 17033

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[info_ngo_hrn] ビルマ・NHKラジオにHRNのピースローアカデミーの活動が取り上げられます。Wednesday, 21 October, 2009 23:11

ヒューマンライツ・ナウ　メールマガジン購読者のみなさま

(ビルマ・ピースローアカデミー関係のご報告・お知らせとお願い)

目次
1) 講師派遣とラジオ放送のお知らせ
2 ) お願い。パソコンを学校に送りましょう！
&み らいの法律家基金

1) ピースローアカデミーへの講師派遣とラジオ放送のお知らせ

おかげさまで、HRNが運営しております、ビルマ・タイ国境の人権のための法律学校、ピースローアカデミーでの授業は順調に進んでおります。
8月の伊藤事務局長の講義につづき、9月には矢花公平会員(弁護士)、10月には渡辺彰悟会員(弁護士)、田辺寿夫氏(ジャーナリスト、元NHK国際局
チーフディレクター)がピースローアカデミーで教壇にたって国際人権法や日本の憲法、日本の人権活動の経験、難民問題などについて講義をしてきまし
た。

　その様子がこのたび、ラジオ番組でとりあげられることになりました。




１０月２３日（金）　放送
ラジオ第二では１４：００～（３０分番組）
Japan and World Update
海外向けは下記のアドレスでご確認ください
http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/program/index.html
また一週間だけですが、番組もインターネットで聴くことができます。
宜しくお願いします。

　みなさま、ぜひこの機会に講義の様子や学生たちの生の声・民主化と自由を求める思いなどを
聴いていただけると幸いです。

ピースローアカデミーでの活動についてはぜひ
http://hrn.or.jp/activity/topic/post-39/

をご参照ください。

2 【お願い。パソコンを学校に送りましょう！
& み らいの法律家基金】

　ピースローアカデミーでは学生たちが勉強するためのノートパソコンが不足しています。学生たちには25人のところ８台しかパソコンがなく、時間割を決
めて順番に使用していますが、勉強に不便をきたしています。HRNでは、学生にパソコンを提供したいと思います。みなさまの周囲でいらなくなった中古の
パソコンなどがありましたら、ぜひHRNに御提供ください。
　これまでもHRNの会員から送られたパソコンを学校に寄贈、とても喜ばれています。

　必要な性能は以下のようになります。

・出来ればwindows xpが入っていたもの。あるいはwindows meか2000が入っていたもの。
・機械的にはCPU pentium3 800MHz メモリ256MB ハードディスク15GB 以上くらいのもの。
・訪問者が手持ちで運ぶので出きれば軽量小型のもの。
・メーカーは出来ればdellのものがいいです。2000年以降のものであれば大丈夫です。

　※内部の個人情報は寄贈前に削除しておいて下さい。
　　ただ現地でビルマの学生が使うため事前に中身を英語のソフトに入れ替えるので、もし個人情報が残っていた場合も流出の心配はありません。

11月の第四弾講師派遣にあわせて持っていきますので、ぜひご協力をお願いします。

★ご連絡・ご相談は、info@ngo-hrn.orgまたは、電話03-3835-2110までお願いします。

また、教育資金を支える、みらいの法律家基金にみなさまのご寄附をよろしくおねがいいたします。
http://hrn.or.jp/activity/area/cat2/post-34/

■「 ビルマ・みらいの法律家基金 」への寄付の方法■
お近くの郵便局よりお振込みください。(新しく専用口座を開設しました)

郵便振替口座
　口座番号：00160-1-429367
　口座名称（漢字）：ヒューマンライツ・ナウ　みらいの法律家
　口座名称（カナ）：ヒューマンライツ　ナウ　ミライノホウリツカ（スペースは不要です）
※銀行等からの振込口座はこちらになります。
　銀行名：ゆうちょ銀行　金融機関コード：0099
　店　名：〇一九店（ゼロイチキユウ店）　店番：019
　口座番号：（当座）0429367
　口座名称：ヒューマンライツ　ナウ　ミライノホウリツカ


◎◎　　ビルマでの人権回復のために希望をともす、ピースローアカデミーのプロジェクトへ、
　　みなさんの御支援をよろしくお願いいたします。

　　　ヒューマンライツ・ナウ事務局

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[info_ngo_hrn] HRNは法務大臣、外務政務官に要請を行いました。Tuesday, 20 October, 2009 22:35

ヒューマンライツ・ナウ　メールマガジン購読者のみなさまへ

本日は二通目のメールマガジンとなりますが、HRNの新政権への働きかけについて
ご紹介させていただきます。

ヒューマンライツ・ナウでは、新政権発足とともに、新政権の人権政策に
対する働きかけを行ってきました。
HRNでは政権発足前に、
【政策提言】日本の新政権誕生にあたり、 国内外の人権政策の推進のために要望すること
(http://hrn.or.jp/activity/topic/post-40/をご参照ください)
を発表、人権政策の転換を訴えてきました。

新政権発足後は、まず、9月30日、ヒューマンライツ・ナウとして、
西村智奈美外務政務官と一時間にわたり懇談、
を提出、また、国連人権理事会で議論が行われていた
ガザ問題に関する緊急の要請を行いました
(要請書は、http://hrn.or.jp/activity/topic/post-41/をご参照ください)。

西村政務官からは、アジア人権機構やスリランカODAなどに関する
質問のほか、自らが関わった人身売買禁止立法についての経験が披露され、
「外交における人権というのはこれから議論してつくりあげていく課題」であるとして、
今回の提案も参考にしながら議論を続けていきたいと話されました。
特に、人身売買、アジア地域に国際刑事裁判所の批准を求めていく活動に
ついては意欲的な発言をいただきました。
今回は新政権のもとでの外務省と初めての意見交換となりましたが、今後、さらに新政権の外交・
援助方針における人権の主流化について対話を重ねていく予定です。



また、10月9日には、ヒューマンライツ・ナウも所属する
「国際人権NGOネットワーク」として千葉景子法務大臣を表敬訪問、
ヒューマンライツ・ナウ、アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本、
市民外交センター、自由人権協会の代表が
千葉法務大臣となごやかに懇談しました。
ヒューマンライツ・ナウからは、法務大臣が就任以来表明してきた、
取調べの全面可視化、政府から独立した人権擁護機関の設置、
人権条約の条約機関への個人通報制度の実現、選択的夫婦別姓を
含む女性差別等を解消する民法改正、死刑制度について国民的議論をすること
について支持をし、その実現について技術的な面などでNGOとして
貢献・協力していきたい旨表明し、改革の推進にあたってNGOの
情報と提言を聞き、ぜひ活用してほしい、と述べました。
この間人権条約機関や、国連人権理事会から日本が様々な勧告を
受けているにも関わらず、長きにわたって実現していない問題が多く、
こうした国際人権スタンダードと日本の人権状況のギャップをうめる
ためのフォローアップが必要であること、そのフォローアップの
過程でもNGOとの対話が重要であることを強調しました。
ヒューマンライツ・ナウからは、2008年の国連人権理事会による
日本の人権状況審査を受けての政府への要請書
(http://hrn.or.jp/activity/product/report/200895/をご参照ください)
を改めて提出、さらに、日本の人権状況について国連などから受けている
勧告の一覧表を提出しました。
　また、国際人権NGOネットワークからは、これまで外務省人権人道課との
間などで、コンサルテーションを実施してきたが、法務省がNGOとの
対話に消極的で実現してこなかったこと、今後は千葉大臣の就任を機会に、
外務省とならんで法務省もNGOとの定期的な対話・協議の機会をつくってほしい、
との要請がなされました。

千葉大臣からは、それぞれの課題について積極的に取り組んでいく旨の
積極的な発言と共に、NGOとの協議をこれからも進めていくとの姿勢を
示していただき、NGOに対する励ましの言葉もいただきました。

　ヒューマンライツ・ナウは、国内の人権状況につき、国際人権基準との
ギャップを埋めるために政策提言などの活動を推進することにしており、
今後も、法務省に対しても様々な働きかけと対話を進め、国際人権の
スタンダードや各国のグッドプラクティスなどの情報提供
を行い、日本の人権状況の改善に貢献していく予定です。
　千葉大臣が表明した人権課題の実現の道筋はまだ明らかにされていませんが、
市民社会が声をあげ、発信していくことが、人権課題の実現を後押しすることに
なることは間違いありません。
　みなさんのこの分野でのご協力もぜひよろしくお願いいたします。

以上、ご報告とさせていただます。

　　　　　　ヒューマンライツ・ナウ事務局長　伊藤和子

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[info_ngo_hrn] ガザ紛争：ゴールドストーン勧告の実現報告書に関する共同要請書

ヒューマンライツ・ナウメールマガジン購読者の皆さま

10月2日の時点でパレスチナ自治政府の申し出により
国連人権理事会における決議が見送られたゴールドストーン勧告ですが、
パレスチナ自治政府がすぐに立場を覆し特別勧告を招集いたしました。

10月15日、16日と特別会期が行われ、この勧告を是認する決議に至り、
賛成多数により承認されました。
投票の内訳は、25カ国が賛成、6カ国が反対、11カ国が棄権、5カ国が投票拒否です。
アメリカは反対、英仏は無投票、日本は棄権しています。

この賛成決議により、これから舞台はジュネーブからニューヨークに移り、
国連総会そして安全保障理事会で議論されることになります。

そのため、ヒューマンライツ・ナウ及び、日本国内で活動するパレスチナ関係の
NGO有志が集まり、

・日本政府の国連人権理事会決議での棄権理由の開示と
・総会、安保理でのGoldstoneレポート支持

を求める下記の要請書を本日10月20日、日本政府に提出いたしました。
詳細につきましては、本日発表いたしました以下の共同要請書をご確認ください。

ヒューマンライツ・ナウ事務局





＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

ガザ紛争：ゴールドストーン勧告の実現報告書に関する共同要請書

外務大臣
岡田 克也 殿

日本政府に対し、パレスチナ・ガザ地区における人権侵害の責任追及と
人権の回復のために、ゴールドストーン報告書を支持し、その勧告が
実現するように力を尽くすことを要請します。

2008年12月以降ガザ地区は、イスラエルによって攻撃を受け、約3週間で
1400名余の人々が犠牲になり、その多くが子どもや女性を含む民間人でした。
また、食糧、水、建設資材などに関係する非軍事施設も多数破壊されました。
これだけの民間人の犠牲が出ているにも関わらず、イスラエル及びパレスチナ
側の両者は適切な調査及び責任追及を行っておらず、深刻な人権侵害が不処罰
のまま放置されています。

国連人権理事会の委任に基づくゴールドストーン判事率いる国連独立調査団は、
イスラエルの完全非協力のもとで、現地調査を含む国際人道・人権法違反に
関する徹底した調査を行いました。同調査団は2009年9月15日、イスラエル
及びパレスチナ武装勢力双方の行為が戦争犯罪に相当する(人道に対する罪に
該当する可能性もあると指摘)と結論付ける報告書を国連人権理事会に提出しまし
た。

10月16日に行われた国連人権理事会第12回特別セッションは、同報告書を歓迎し、
報告書に記載されたすべての勧告を支持するとともに、国連機関を含む関連機関
に対して勧告をすみやかに実施するよう求める決議を賛成多数により採択しました。
日本政府はこの決議に棄権しており、私たちは、日本政府が棄権したことに対し
遺憾の意を表明します。イスラエル・パレスチナの紛争において、最も深刻な
問題である人権侵害を放置したまま、真の和平を実現することはできません。
これから行われる国連安全保障理事会及び国連総会では、日本政府は人権理事会で
採択された決議を尊重し、より国際社会と協調し、国際法に基づく平和の実現を
推し進める役割を期待されています。


同報告書は、国連安全保障理事会に対して、以下の勧告をしています。

　・国連安全保障理事会が、イスラエル政府に対し、同報告書の指摘する
　国際人権・人道法違反を３ヶ月以内に国際基準に則り調査し、その後
　３ヶ月以内に安全保障理事会に報告するように要求する。
　（報告書パラグラフ1969 (a)(i)(ii)）

　・国連安全保障理事会が専門家委員会を設置し、イスラエルによる調査の
　進捗状況をモニターし、報告する。（報告書パラグラフ1969 (b)）

　・イスラエルが上記の調査を６ヶ月以内に行わない場合は、国連安全保障理事会
は、
　この問題を国際刑事裁判所に付託する。（報告書パラグラフ1969 (c)）


また、同報告書は国連総会に対しても、以下の勧告をしています。

　・安全保障理事会が講じた同報告書の指摘する国際人権・人道法違反の責任追及
　に関する対策を、国連総会に報告するように要請する。
　（報告書パラグラフ1971 (a)）

国連総会は、平和のための結集決議377(V)における措置を含む、
正義のために必要な追加措置を取る必要性を検討する。
（報告書パラグラフ1971 (a)）
10月16日の人権理事会決議は、特に、現在行われている国連総会において、
ゴールドストーン報告について議論が行われるよう求めています。

イスラエル・パレスチナにおける国際法による正義の実現と、
それに基づく平和への道を確実なものとするためには、上記勧告の
速やかな履行が必要です。
日本は、国連総会の一員、そして安保理の非常任理事国として、
問題の解決に積極的な役割を果たしうる立場にあります。

よって、私たちは、日本政府に対し、10月16日の国連人権理事会第12回
特別セッションにおいて日本政府が同報告書に関わる決議採択にあたり
棄権した理由の開示を求めると共に、ゴールドストーン報告書とその勧告を
討議する国連安全保障理事会及び国連総会において、
上記勧告が適切に履行されるように積極的に働きかけることを要請します。

また、ゴールドストーン報告書はイスラエル政府による今回の軍事作戦以前から
続くガザ地区の封鎖を「集団的懲罰」に相当するとし、
ジュネーブ条約に違反すると結論づけています（第4条約第23条及び第33条）。
さらに、同報告書はイスラエル政府がガザ地区の封鎖を解除し、家屋の再建、
住民に必要なサービスおよび経済活動のために必要な物流を許可し、
国際人権基準に則ってガザ地区を含む被占領パレスチナ地域の移動の自由を
認めるよう勧告しています（報告書パラグラフ1972（a)(d)）。

したがって私たちは、日本政府が、早急にガザ地区の封鎖を解除するよう
イスラエル政府に働きかけることを要請します。


2009年10月20日

共同要請団体

社団法人アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本
特定非営利活動法人　アーユス仏教国際協力ネットワーク
特定非営利活動法人 日本国際ボランティアセンター（ＪＶＣ）
日本聖公会東京教区「エルサレム教区協働委員会」
日本ＹＷＣＡ
特定非営利活動法人パレスチナ子どものキャンペーン
パレスチナの子供の里親運動
ピースボート
特定非営利活動法人ヒューマンライツ・ナウ


複写送付：
鳩山由紀夫内閣総理大臣
外務省中東アフリカ局中東第一課
外務省総合外交政策局人権人道課



**********************************************
特定非営利活動法人ヒューマンライツ・ナウ
〒110-8605 東京都台東区東上野1-20-6 丸幸ビル3F
電話 03-3835-2110　Fax 03-3834-2406
連絡先 info@ngo-hrn.org
ウェブサイト http://hrn.or.jp/
**********************************************

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Obama and Suu Kyi

Monday, October 19, 2009
Obama and Suu Kyi
Pradip Das, A novelist, Dhaka

It is great news that US President Barack Obama has been awarded Nobel Prize. Though it is very early, there is no denying the fact that he really deserved this prize. This achievement would definitely encourage him to take more fruitful steps in establishing peace all over the world. The shining eyes of Obama who is also a follower of Mahatma Gandhi raise hope in the hearts of millions.

While Obama is enjoying the facilitations from his well wishers, a woman named Aung San Suu Kyi is leading an imprisoned life. As a fan of Obama, I strongly believe that I have the right to express my expectations from him. It would be great if he takes some bold steps to rescue Aung San Suu Kyi , an icon for all democracy lovers of the world. It is really sad to see an innocent lady suffering imprisonment.

At present the two most talked about persons of the world are Obama and Aung San Suu Kyi. If the former becomes conscious about the latter, then no jail would exist for her. None but Obama can do this. I am sure the liberation of Suu Kyi would give a new dimension to his popularity. It must be noted that both Barack Obama and Aung San Suu Kyi are Nobel Prize winners.

If they work together to establish peace in the world, then human civilization will watch a “new sun”.
http://www.thedaily star.net/ newDesign/ news-details. php?nid=110279

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Fw: ドキュメンタリー版「HOME」上映のお知らせと署名のお願い

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
　　　　ビルマ市民フォーラム　メールマガジン　　　　　2009/10/19
People's Forum on Burma　　　
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

11月7日～8日に開催される、第１回移民映画祭(http://www.mffj.org)にて、
在マレーシアのビルマ難民を描いたドキュメンタリー映画『HOME』が上映
されます。

上映後、13時からは リム・デズリ監督とＰＦＢ運営委員でもある
根本敬教授（上智大学外国語学部）の対談も行われます。


なお、映画の上映とあわせて、マレーシア政府に対し、難民に対する人権侵害に抗議し、

国際人権条約にしたがって難民を保護するように求める署名運動も行われています。
ご協力、どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。
http://www.petitiononline.com/9002emoh/petition.html


その他、映画祭ではたくさんの映画が上映されます。
ぜひお誘い合わせの上、ご来場ください。



ビルマ市民フォーラム（ＰＦＢ）
事務局 　宮澤
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/


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＊＊＊以下、転送大歓迎＊＊＊




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ついに完成！ドキュメンタリー『HOME』上映会＆トークショー
11月8日（日）12：10～　第1回移民映画祭にて

軍事政権が支配するビルマから、ジャングルを越え必死の思いで脱出した難民た
ちが、ようやくたどり着いたマレーシアでさらに逮捕・監禁・暴力・人身売買の
被害にあっている。――この現実に衝撃を受けたリム・デズリ監督が、ビルマ難
民や彼らを支援するマレーシアの人権活動家と協力して撮影したドキュメンタリー
映画『HOME』がついに完成。第1回移民映画祭では、上映とあわせて根本 敬教授
との対談も行われます。
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急速な経済発展を遂げてきたマレーシア。その繁栄には、数十万人にのぼる外国
人労働者の力が欠かせなかった。その中には数多くのビルマ難民も含まれている。
毎年、数千人のビルマ難民が軍事政権の迫害を受け、ジャングルや山を越えて、
隣国のタイやマレーシアに逃れている。しかし、ようやくマレーシアにたどりつ
いても、そこに安全や希望はない。彼らを待っているのは、汚職まみれの警察に
よる逮捕・監禁・暴力・人身売買だ。多くの危険に晒されても、ビルマ難民たち
は生きのびるためにマレーシアにやってくる。マレーシア政府は国連の難民条約
に加入しておらず、国連や国際人権団体の訴えにもかかわらず、難民の待遇に改
善は見られていない。
『HOME』は、これまで数多くの映像作品を手がけてきたリム・デズリ監督が、生
まれ故郷のマレーシアで起きている人権侵害に衝撃を受け、難民たちやその支援
に携わる人権活動家とともに作り上げた、初のドキュメンタリー作品だ。

《日時》11月8日（日）
　　12：10-13：00 「HOME（ドキュメンタリー版）上映
　　13：00-13：30 リム・デズリ監督と根本敬教授（上智大学外国語学部）
　　との対談

《会場》上智大学・10号館講堂（ＪＲ中央線・丸の内線・南北線、四ツ谷駅徒歩5
分）
《入場料》一日券１５００円　（前売・学生１０００円）


第１回移民映画祭に関する詳細はこちらから。
http://www.mffj.org
問い合わせ：info@mffj.org　tel:03-5759-1061
カトリック東京国際センター気付け（平日10：00-18：00）


■Project HOME について

マレーシア人として、ビルマ難民に対する人権侵害がマレーシアで横行している
ことを傍観できないと感じて立ち上がった2人がこのプロジェクトを始めました。
リム・デズリは、マレーシア生まれで東京在住の映像作家。メリー・チュアは、
マレーシアを拠点に活動している人権活動家です。

難民たちが受けている差別・迫害を映像作品として記録し、世界の人々に関心と
行動を呼びかけるために、ドキュメンタリー版と「HOME」ドラマ版、2つの「HOME」
が今年3月に撮影されました。
「HOME」ドキュメンタリー版では、マレーシアのビルマ難民たちが、自分たちが
受けている人権侵害の実態を証言しています。一方、「HOME」ドラマ版は、ある
一人のビルマ難民女性が、自分の「HOME」を探し求める物語です。ビルマ難民と
マレーシア人のボランティアが協力して撮影されました。
予告編はこちらから見ることができます。
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAo5bM7840g （ドキュメンタリー版）
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8EGmIOnQYo（ドラマ版）


映画の上映とあわせて、マレーシア政府に対し、難民に対する人権侵害に抗議し、
国際人権条約にしたがって難民を保護するように求める署名運動を行っています。
下記のリンクから簡単に署名をすることができますので、どうぞご協力ください。
http://www.petitiononline.com/9002emoh/petition.html

プロジェクト・ホームに関するさらに詳細はこちらから。
http://www.projecthomemalaysia.com/

お問合せは　desireelimfilms@gmail.com

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Burma's ploy to escape sanctions

Burma's ploy to escape sanctions
By Zin Linn
Column: Burma Question
Published: October 15, 2009
Bangkok, Thailand —

Last week Burmese leader Than Shwe allowed detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet Western diplomats, at her request, to talk about the sanctions imposed on the military regime.

The Nobel Prize winner, who remains under house arrest, was driven to a government guesthouse on Oct. 9 to meet acting U.S. Charge d'Affaires Thomas Vajda, British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, who represented the European Union, and Australian Deputy Head of Mission Simon Christopher Starr for an hour to discuss the possible lifting of sanctions on Burma.

It was no surprise that the junta agreed to Suu Kyi’s request, as the sanctions are hurting the regime, said a Burmese journalist on condition of anonymity. Senior General Than Shwe would like to improve relations with Western countries, both to improve the country’s economic condition and increase his legitimacy, he said.

“However, people do not believe the affair is an honest move,” he said, pointing out that the junta’s supreme commander wanted to get the international community to support his so-called “discipline-flourish ing democracy.”

The surprise meeting with diplomats followed two consultation sessions this month between Suu Kyi and the junta's liaison and Labor Minister Aung Kyi, to discuss her Sept. 25 proposal to help end sanctions against the regime.

On the same day, Oct. 9, Than Shwe spoke at military headquarters in the capital, Naypyitaw, confirming the launch of general elections as scheduled in 2010. He said he would not yield to demands from domestic and international critics who say that the country’s military-sponsored Constitution should be revised ahead of next year’s elections.

The 2008 Constitution, the junta said, was “approved” by more than 90 percent of eligible voters during a referendum in May 2008, just a few days after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country. The outcome of the referendum was widely dismissed as a sham, but the regime has ignored calls from the international community and Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, to review the Constitution.




Although there are 10 registered political parties in Burma, most are inactive. An electoral law should be put in place to allow new parties to form and register to contest the elections. The international community, led by the United Nations, has constantly urged that the election be all-inclusive, free and fair.

In April the NLD set forth the conditions for its participation in the 2010 elections. It requested that all provisions in the Constitution that are not in accord with democratic principles be amended, and that the poll be all-inclusive, free and fair under international supervision.

Rights groups have also said that the regime must release all 2,100 political prisoners, including NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, if it wants the elections to be regarded as legitimate.

The elections, which promise to be neither free nor fair in a country long condemned for human rights abuses, were planned following the 2008 Constitution, which in effect reinforces military control over any democratically elected administration.

The Western democracies and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have warned that the world community would not recognize the election results unless the NLD participates in the polls and Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from house arrest, where she has been kept for 14 of the past 20 years.

International sanctions have been imposed on Burma since 1988, when the military mercilessly cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations, leaving an estimated 3,000 people dead. The United States and the European Union increased their sanctions after the junta refused to acknowledge the NLD's victory in 1990 elections and then arrested opponents and suppressed every type of opposition. Most of the sanctions target the top generals in particular.

In addition to the U.S. and EU sanctions, the regime is presently suffering assorted sanctions from Australia, Canada and Japan. The regime has been left without development assistance from international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asia Development Bank.

Than Shwe hinted this year that he would be willing to open a political dialogue with Suu Kyi if she agreed to cooperate on the sanctions issue. However, in his speech to the War Veterans Organization, Than Shwe said that some powerful nations were trying to force and influence Burma under various pretexts.

“However, the military government of Myanmar does not get scared whenever intimidated and will continue to work relentlessly for a better future of the state and the people by overcoming any difficulties,” Than Shwe said.

There is a contradiction between allowing the Lady to meet with Western diplomats and the heartless tone of Than Shwe’s speech at the meeting with war veterans. People are concerned that the Lady is being exploited by the crooked military chief. The purpose of allowing her to meet with the diplomats seems to be to get the sanctions eased and to persuade the world to support Burma’s version of democracy.

According to some analysts, there has been no improvement at all in the junta’s treatment of its citizens. In 2009 there have been more acts of aggression, more restrictions toward media and civil society, more control over Internet users, more arrests, more political prisoners and more military attacks in ethnic minority areas.

Sanctions are not likely to be lifted until the junta takes positive steps such as ending aggression against the NLD and ethnic parties and allowing freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.

The best option would be for the junta’s supreme commander to agree to dialogue with Suu Kyi in pursuit of national reconciliation. The 2008 Constitution and the junta's unyielding adherence to its seven-step roadmap toward the 2010 elections will create a highly unstable political climate. Without an agreement of national reconciliation, the elections will achieve nothing.

A sugarcoated concept like “discipline-flourish ing democracy” cannot be sold in this information age. Citizens have enough knowledge to differentiate between sham and genuine freedom. http://www.upiasia. com/Politics/ 2009/10/12/ burmas_ploy_ to_escape_ sanctions/ 4736/

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ミンコーナインを忘れない～ビルマの民主化運動リーダー、ミンコーナイン 獄中で迎える47歳の誕生日に～

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　　　　ビルマ市民フォーラム　メールマガジン　　　　　2009/10/15
People's Forum on Burma　　　
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
在日ビルマ人民主化活動家のみなさんから、以下、ミンコーナインの
47歳の誕生日に行う会合のお知らせをいただきました。

ぜひご参加ください。



ＰＦＢ事務局 　宮澤
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/


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【転送・転載　歓迎】
*****************************************************
　ミンコーナインを忘れない　　2009.10.18(日）18時～・池袋

～ビルマの民主化運動リーダー、ミンコーナイン　獄中で迎える47歳の誕生日に～
*****************************************************

みなさま、

いつもビルマの民主化運動へのご支援、どうもありがとうございます。
2008年11月、ビルマ民主化運動リーダー、ミンコーナイン氏は軍事
政権により懲役65年の刑に処せられました。

ミンコーナイン氏は1988年ビルマ全土に拡がった民主化運動の主役を
担った学生たちのリーダーです。1989年3月、軍事政権により逮捕され、
17年以上の獄中生活を送りました。2004年11月に釈放されましたが、
「88世代学生グループ」の主要メンバーとして2007年8~9月の反軍政
デモの口火を切ったのち再び逮捕・投獄されました。
現在は、ビルマ北東部シャン州のケントン刑務所に一人、収容されています。
視力の低下や心臓病を患っていますが、当局は適切な治療を許可していません。

今月10月18日、ミンコーナイン氏は47歳の誕生日を迎えます。
彼は家族から遠く離れた塲所にある刑務所の小さな独房の中で一人、
47歳の誕生日を迎えるのです。

刑務所の極めて不健康な環境の中、病状の悪化も進み、苛酷な毎日を
過ごしていることでしょう。
世界の仲間はあなたを忘れない、ミンコーナインは一人ぼっちではない、
世界の人々もあなたと共にビルマ民主化のために闘っている：私たちは、
みなさんと共にこのメッセージを獄中の彼に届けたいと思い、
「ミンコーナインを忘れない」というタイトルの下、彼の４７歳の誕生日会を
開催します。

そして、ミンコーナイン氏を含むすべての政治囚一人ひとりに思いをはせ、
一刻も早く刑務所から釈放されるよう、アピールしたいと思います。

ぜひご参加ください。皆さまのご協力をよろしくお願いいたします。



■日時：　2009年10月18日（日）　18時～21時

■場所：　池袋　豊島区民センター　4階
http://www.toshima-mirai.jp/center/a_kumin/
　　　　　東京都豊島区東池袋1-20-10　
　　　　　JR山手線池袋駅東口下車　徒歩約5分

■入場：　無料

■プログラム（予定）：　
　　・ミンコーナインを含む全ての政治囚の釈放を求めるお祈り
（仏教、キリスト教、イスラム教）　
・ミンコーナイン　その活動を振り返る（映像）
　　・ミンコーナインへのメッセージ（各支援団体より）
　　・その他


■主催：　
全ビルマ学生連盟（外交委員会）ほか在日ビルマ人民主化活動家のみなさん

■賛同団体：　
（社）アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本
ビルマ市民フォーラム
ビルマ情報ネットワーク
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ
アーユス仏教国際協力ネットワーク
ヒューマンライツ・ナウ

■問合せ先（日本語可）：
ポーンミントゥン 090-4221-1988


ミャットゥ 080-3424-2759
ゾーミントゥン 080-1137-0672
*****************************************************

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Burmese activists repose faith on new Japanese government

Burmese activists repose faith on new Japanese government
by Salai Pi Pi
Wednesday, 14 October 2009 21:14

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Burmese pro-democracy activists on Wednesday met Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister in Tokyo and urged the Japanese government to pressurize Burma’s military rulers to implement change in the Southeast Asian nation.

The meeting held in the Deputy Foreign Minister’ office is the first ever after the Japanese opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) swept to a historic victory in elections in August this year.

Burmese pro-democracy activists led by Maung Maung, General Secretary of the National Coalition Union of Burma (NCUB) in exile, a coalition of political organisations, met Mr. Tesuro Fukuyama for about half an hour.

“We discussed issues related to Burmese opposition groups’ efforts to push the ruling junta to kick-start a process of national reconciliation in the country,” Dr. Min Nyo, representative of the NCUB for Japan, who was also present in the meeting, told Mizzima.

Dr. Min Nyo said, during the meeting, NCUB’s delegates also requested the Japanese government to support an effort to file a lawsuit against Than Shwe and the military leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their crimes against humanity.

Along with Fukuyama, Mr Sue Matsu, Secretary of the Japanese Members of Parliament Union, and Japan’s Labour Unions’ President Mr. Koga were also present in the meeting.



Dr. Min Nyo said Fukuyama was interested in a proposal made by the NCUB delegates to have a permanent envoy in Japan in order help Burmese opposition get access to the Japanese government on matters related to Burmese affairs.

He said the Democratic Party of Japan, which came to power after defeating the Liberal Democratic Party, is likely to shift its approach on Burma and take a stronger stand in pushing the regime to begin national reconciliation.

Japan, under LDP rule, had been soft and was into quiet diplomacy in the past. It has avoided rhetorical condemnation and criticism of the Burmese regime.

“The present Japanese Prime Minister understands Burma’s problem. He has even talked to Aung San Suu Kyi and long supported the democracy movement,” Dr. Min Nyo said.

“The DPJ has also included supporting democracy in Burma as part of its policy,” he added.

Japan has stopped new aid to Burma since opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in 2003 but it continues funding emergency health projects and provides training and technological assistance.

Japan, which sided with China and Russia against US’s proposed UN Security Council resolution on Burma in 2006, threatened to suspend about 500 million Yen aid to Burma after a Japanese photojournalist, Kenji Nagai, was shot dead by a Burmese soldier during the crack down on monk-led protesters in September 2007.

However, Japan resumed relief aid to Burma after the deadly Nargis Cyclone lashed Burma’s delta areas, leaving over 130,000 people dead and missing and about 2.4 million people devastated in May 2008.

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မဲေဆာက္က ျမန္မာတို႔၏ ကထိန္ပြဲ ၿခိမ့္ၿခိမ့္သဲက်င္းပ

http://www.irrawaddy.org/bur/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1971:2009-10-13-11-46-52&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
မဲေဆာက္က ျမန္မာတို႔၏ ကထိန္ပြဲ ၿခိမ့္ၿခိမ့္သဲက်င္းပ
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 18:43 ဘေစာတင္
ထိုင္းႏိုင္ငံ မဲေဆာက္ၿမိဳ႕ရွိ ေရႊ ့ေျပာင္း ျမန္မာအလုပ္သမားမ်ား စုေပါင္း၍ မဟာဘံုကထိန္ သကၤန္း ကပ္လွဴ ပြဲကို ယမန္ေန႔ နံနက္ပိုင္းက စည္ကားသိုက္ၿမိဳက္စြာ က်င္းပခဲ့ၾကေၾကာင္း သတင္းရရွိသည္။

မဲေဆာက္ၿမိဳ႕ ေတာရေက်ာင္းတြင္ ယမန္ေန႔က ျမန္မာအလုပ္သမားမ်ားႏွင့္ ေဒသခံ ထိုင္းလူမ်ိဳးမ်ား စုေပါင္း ၿပီး မဲေဆာက္ရွိ ေက်ာင္းေပါင္း ၂၀ ၊ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ျမဝတီၿမိဳ႕ဘက္ရွိ ေက်ာင္းေပါင္း ၂၀ တို႔မွ သံဃာ အပါး ၇၀ ေက်ာ္ႏွင့္ သီလရွင္ အပါး ၅၀ ေက်ာ္တို႔ကို ဘုံကထိန္ခင္း၍ အေကြ်းအေမြးျဖင့္ လွ်ဴဒါန္းၾကေၾကာင္း ေတာရ ေက်ာင္း ေဂါပက အဖြဲ႕အက်ိဳးေဆာင္ ဦးခ်စ္တင္က ေျပာသည္။

“စက္ရံုေတြ၊ ျမန္မာစာသင္ေက်ာင္းေတြက ပေဒသာပင္ေတြကို အိုးစည္ ဒိုးပတ္၀ိုင္းေတြနဲ ့လာပို ့ၾကတယ္၊ အိမ္ေတြမွာလည္း တႏိုင္တပိုင္စုၿပီး လွဴၾကတာေတြ၊ က်ေနာ္တို႔ေက်ာင္းကို ကုိးကြယ္ၾကတဲ့ ထိုင္းေတြ ျမန္မာ ေတြက ဒီကထိန္ပြဲႀကီး အတြက္ ၀ိုင္းလွဴၾကတယ္၊ ဒါႏွစ္တုိင္းပဲ”ဟု ၎က ေျပာဆိုသည္။



မဲေဆာက္ ေရာင္ျခမ္းစက္ရံုုမွ မသဇင္က“က်မတို႔အရမ္းၾကည္ႏူးရပါတယ္၊ ေပ်ာ္လည္း အရမ္းေပ်ာ္တယ္၊ ကထိန္ပြဲမွာ က်မတို႔ စက္ရံုက အစ္မတေယာက္က မမိုးအကကိုကတယ္၊ ဦးေရႊရိုးအကေတာ့ အျခားက ငွား တာ၊ လူေတြအမ်ားႀကီးပဲ ေထာင္နဲ ့ခ်ီရွိမယ္ထင္တယ္၊ အလွဴလိုက္ခံတုန္းကလည္း ကမ္းနားအထိသြားၿပီး က်မတို႔အလွဴခံခဲ့ၾကတာ၊ ရြာမွာဆို ကထိန္ခင္းခ်င္ေတာင္ မလြယ္ဘူး၊ လွဴခ်င္လည္း အဆင္မေျပလို႔ မလွဴရ ဘူး၊ တခါ အလွဴႀကီး လုပ္မယ္ဆို ဘယ္သူ ကို တိုင္ရ ခြင့္ျပဳခ်က္ယူရနဲ ့လွဴတာေတာင္ ေပ်ာ္ေပ်ာ္ မလွဴရဘူး၊ အေမတို႔ကို ျမင္ေစခ်င္တယ္၊ သမီးတို ့ဒီမွာ စုေပါင္းလုပ္ ၾကတာကို”ဟုေျပာသည္။

၎ အသက္ (၁၉)ႏွစ္ ဝန္းက်င္ရွိ မသဇင္သည္ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ရန္ကုန္တိုင္း လႈိင္သာယာ ၿမိဳ႕နယ္မွ လာေရာက္ ၍ အလုပ္လုပ္ေနေသာ ေ႐ႊ႕ေျပာင္းအလုပ္သမား တဦးျဖစ္ၿပီး ထိုင္းႏုိင္ငံတြင္ ေရာက္ရွိေနသည္မွာ ၆ လခန္႔ရွိ ၿပီ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။

ကထိန္ပြဲသို႔ လာေရာက္သည့္ မဲေဆာက္ၿမိဳ႕ဘန္႔ ေစာင္ကြဲ စက္ရံုမွ ျမန္မာျပည္သား ကိုမင္းမင္းက လည္း“ဒီမွာအလွဴလုပ္ရတာက လြတ္လပ္တယ္၊ ဘာမွ အေႏွာင့္အယွက္မရွိဘူး၊ ကိုယ့္ရိုးရာကုိယ္ လုပ္ၾကတယ္၊ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ျမန္မာ ျပည္သားေတြက အလွဴဆို အားလံုးက တက္ညီလက္ညီပဲ၊ လွဴၾကတယ္၊ ေပ်ာ္တယ္၊ တကယ္ပဲ ၀မ္းသာတယ္္၊ တတ္ႏိုင္သမွ် စုေပါင္းလွဴၾကတာပဲ၊ စက္ရံုေတြ မွာလည္း လူငယ္ေတြမ်ားေတာ့ လိုက္ၿပီးေဆာ္ၾသရတာ မခက္ဘူး”ဟု ေျပာဆိုသည္။

ယမန္ေန႔က ကထိန္ပြဲတြင္ ကထိန္တရားကို ျမ၀တီၿမိဳ ့မွ ကိုးန၀င္းေက်ာင္း ဆရာေတာ္ က ႂကြေရာက္ ခ်ီးျမႇင့္ၿပီး ကထိန္ပြဲသို႔ လူပရိသတ္အနည္းဆံုး ၁၅၀၀ ခန္ ့လာေရာက္ေၾကာင္း ေဂါပက အက်ိဳးေဆာင္ ဦးခ်စ္တင္ က ေျပာဆိုသည္။

ဗုဒၶဘာသာ အစဥ္အလာအရ ဝါတြင္း သုံးလပတ္လုံး ဝါမက်ိဳးမပ်က္ဘဲ ပဝါရဏာျပဳေသာ ရဟန္းရွိရာ ေက်ာင္းတိုက္တြင္ သီတင္းကြ်တ္ လျပည့္ေက်ာ္ ၁ ရက္ေန႔မွ တန္ေဆာင္မုန္း လျပည့္ေန႔အထိ ကထိန္ ခင္းၾကျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။

ယင္းသို႔ ကထိန္ခင္း၍ သံဃာေတာ္မ်ားအား ကထိန္သကၤန္း ကပ္လွဴျခင္းကို ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံတြင္ ပုဂံေခတ္က ပင္ အစျပဳခဲ့ၾကေၾကာင္း က်န္းစာမ်ားအရ သိရသည္။

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An Historian Looks at Rohingya

An Historian Looks at Rohingya
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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

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Dr. Aye Kyaw has written books on education and culture in Burma. He was born in Lwe Chaung village in Taungok Township in Arakan State. He has a BA in history and religion, an MA in Asian history and a BA in law from Rangoon University. He earned a Ph.D in Southeast Asia History at Monash University in Australia.



Dr. Aye Kyaw taught at universities in Burma, Thailand and the US. Now retired, he lives in New York city.

While visiting Bangkok, he was interviewed by Ba Saw Tin on his views on Arakan history, politics in Burma and the debate over Rohingya history and their troubled relationship with the Burmese military government.


Question: Describe Arakan politics before Burma's independence?

Answer: Arakan leaders always joined in Burma's struggle for independence. They participated at the forefront in the struggle against British colonial rule and the Japanese invasion. If someone asks why they participated, it was because the Arakan wanted to rule themselves. The prominent Arakan leaders during British rule were Monk U Seinda, monk U Pyinnya Thiha, U Nyo Tun, U Aung Zan Wai, U Kyaw Min, U Ba Saw and others. These leaders were prominent figures in the Arakan resistance movement and Arakan politics. Monk U Ottama was one of the first leaders in Burmese politics.

If you look at the situation of the Arakan under British rule, there were two groups. One group worked with the British, and one group joined in the independence struggle led by Gen. Aung San.



U Nyo Tun was a famous student leader in the 1936 student strike, and he was quite well-known in both the Arakan and Burmese community. While Burmese acknowledge March 27 as marking the beginning of the resistance movement against Japan, the Arakan had already started their resistance against Japan earlier, around Feb. 12 or 13.

Q. What happened to the Arakan after the independence struggle?

A. The main reason they fought was to get their own state and self rule. Unfortunately, when Burma won independence, nothing came of it. They asked Prime Minister U Nu to grant them a state, but U Nu evaded the issue.

Q. How did politics development during the following years?

A. During U Nu's Anti Fascist Peoples' Freedom League (AFPFL) rule, there were two powerful political parties in Arakan State: The AFPFL and the Arakan Unity Party (AUP). U Kyaw Min led the AUP. U Aung Zan Wai and Taung Koke U Kyaw Tin led the AFPFL in the Arakan region.

Then the AFPFL split into two factions: the "stable" AFPFL and the “clean” AFPFL. The clean AFPFL faction leader, prime minister U Nu, set up Mayu District in Arakan State. He registered Bengali as citizens through national registration and allowed them to vote. During the Colonial era, the Bengali started coming into Arakan to work. They mostly worked in the agricultural sector, and then returned when the work was done. One of the prominent leaders among Bengali was Sultan Mahmud. The AFPFL was weak in a sense. When U Nu allowed Bengalis to enter Mayu District that was the beginning of today’s Rohingya problem.

Q. Do you know when the use of the term "Rohingya" began?

A. I think it appeared during the 1960s. Because even the Bengali leader, Sultan Mahmud, when he became a member of parliament, I don’t think he used the word "Rohingya." In earlier Burmese history and in Arakan history, I haven’t seen the word Rohinhya. Even after independence, there was no such word.

Q. What does "Rohingya” mean?

A. When Sayagyi U Tha Tun was in good health, we visited whenever he was in Rangoon. We had conversations on several themes: literature, history and other social matters. Once, he explained to me the meaning of Rohingya. The word derived from an Arakan word, Lwintja.

Lwintja in Arakan means leaves falling from trees and blowing around without any purpose. The word basically means anything or anyone wandering around without a cause. I analyzed the word in the linguistic sense, and I once wrote an academic article in the Pyinnya Padesa journal, published by Rangoon University.

Q. Nowadays, many Arakans see the Rohingya as a threat. Why?

A. The underlying reason was the emergence of the Mujahids, who started an armed insurrection in Arakan State to try to acquire their own land. Originally, they were Bengali from Bangladesh. In earlier days, they came to work in Arakan and returned to their homes when the work was done. Then they faced difficulties living in Bangladesh because it was so crowded. Afterward, the Mujahids attempted to set up a Muslim State in Buthee Taung, Maung Daw and Yathei Taung townships of Mayu District, where U Nu had granted them the right to live. When the Mujahids began to prosper, the Arakans didn't accept the idea. The Arakans see them as a danger, threatening their land, national identity and religion, and that is why the Arakans are so allergic to the word, Rohingya.

Q. What is the background situation of Rohinja's emergence?

A. That is a good question. The Rohingya issue is just a problem on the surface. The underlying problem is the idea of "Islamization" and the expansion of Islam. The Rohingya movement is funded by countries in North Africa and the Middle East. These countries have donated large amount of money and weapons. In Southeast Asia, organizations in Malaysia support them. They support the expansion of Islam. They operate as “Burmese nationals” and “Arakan citizens” by using the name of Rohingya. Actually, Rohinja are not a race, and they are not Burmese citizens.

Q. The Rohingya are not acknowledged by the military junta as an ethnic nationality in Burma. But the Rohingya are seeking a position on the Ethnic Nationalities Council (in exile). The Arakan representatives oppose them. How do you define an ethnic nationality?

A. In 1978, while under the Burma Socialist Programme Party rule, me, Dr. Maung Maung (the late President), and U San Thar Aung discussed a law on ethnic nationality. Dr. Maung Maung was an academic on law, I am an historian and U San Thar Aung was director general of the higher education department at that time. We discussed the matter in a room in the State Council office.

I said that for recognizing an ethnic nationality in Burma, there was a census record during the Bodaw Phaya reign, made in the 18th century. It listed all nationalities living in Burma, and it mentioned Arakans, Karens and Mons (Talaings) in the survey. The document can be taken as a base, I suggested.

Dr. Maung Maung said that survey was too early. Then I suggested the year of 1824, a turning point in Burmese history when the British annexed lower Burma. Dr. Maung Maung agreed on that date, and we drafted a law that people living in Burma during 1824 were recognized as ethnic nationalities. We found no such word as Rohingya in that survey.


Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org

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ေဒၚစု ဒီမုိကေရစီေရး သႏၷိ႒ာန္ ခုိင္မာမႈ ႏုိဘယ္လ္ဆုလက္ခံမိန္႔ခြန္းမွာ အုိဘားမား ေျပာ

http://www.voanews.com/burmese/2009-10-10-voa1.cfm?rss=topstories

ေဒၚစု ဒီမုိကေရစီေရး သႏၷိ႒ာန္ ခုိင္မာမႈ ႏုိဘယ္လ္ဆုလက္ခံမိန္႔ခြန္းမွာ အုိဘားမား ေျပာ

10 October 2009



၂၀၀၉ ခုႏွစ္ႏိုဘယ္လ္ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးဆုရွင္ အေမရိကန္သမၼတ အိုဘားမား ပံုကို ကိုင္ေဆာင္ထားသည့္ ေနာ္ေ၀ႏိုင္ငံ ႏိုဘယ္လ္ေကာ္မတီ ဥကၠဌ Thorbjoern Jagland (ေအာက္တိုဘာ ၉၊ ၂၀၀၉)

ဒီႏွစ္အတြက္ ႏုိဘယ္လ္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးဆုရွင္ အျဖစ္ ေရြးခ်ယ္ခံလုိက္ရတဲ့ အေမရိကန္ သမၼတ ဘရက္ခ္ အုိဘားမား ကေတာ့ သူ႔လုိပဲ ဆုရွင္တဦးျဖစ္ေပမဲ့ အခုအခ်ိန္အထိ ဆက္လက္ဖမ္းဆီးခံေနရတဲ့ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမုိကေရစီေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ လုိ ပုဂၢိဳလ္ေတြ အားလုံးနဲ႔ ဒီဆုဟာ သက္ဆုိင္ပါတယ္လုိ႔ ေျပာဆုိလုိက္တာပါ။ တခ်ိန္တည္းမွာပဲ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ နဲ႔ ႏုိင္ငံေရး အက်ဥ္းသားေတြ အားလုံး ျပန္လည္လြတ္ေျမာက္ လာတာကုိ ျမင္ေတြ႔လုိတဲ့ အေၾကာင္းကုိလည္း အေမရိကန္ အစုိးရက ထပ္ၿပီး ေျပာခဲ့တာပါ။ အေၾကာင္းစုံကုိေတာ့ ကုိေအာင္လြင္ဦးက တင္ျပထားပါတယ္။

ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ႏုိဘယ္လ္ ဆုရွင္ေတြထဲက တဦးတည္းေသာ ဖမ္းဆီး ထိန္းသိမ္း ခံေန ရ သူ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ရဲ႕ ဒီမုိကေရစီေရး စြမ္းေဆာင္မႈေတြကုိ အခုႏွစ္အတြက္ ဆုရွင္ျဖစ္လာတဲ့ အေမရိကန္ သမၼတ ဘရက္ခ္ အုိဘားမား က အေလးထား ေျပာဆုိလုိက္တာပါ။ သမၼတက ဆုခ်ီးျမႇင့္ခံရေၾကာင္း သိရၿပီးတဲ့ ေနာက္ ေျပာဆုိလုိက္တဲ့ ေနရာမွာ ဒီဆုဟာ သူ႔အစုိးရကုိ ဂုဏ္ျပဳတာထက္ အဓိပၸာယ္ ပုိတဲ့အေၾကာင္း ေျပာဆုိခဲ့တာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

"ဒီဆုဟာ က်ေနာ့္အစုိးရရဲ႕ ႀကိဳးပမ္းခ်က္ သက္သက္ကုိသာ ဆုခ်ီးျမႇင့္တာ မဟုတ္ပါဘူး။ ကမာၻတလႊားက ရဲရဲရင့္ရင့္ ႀကိဳးပမ္း ႐ုန္းကန္ေနၾကသူေတြ အတြက္လည္းျဖစ္ပါတယ္။"

သမၼတ အုိဘားမား က သူ႔အေနနဲ႔ ဒီဆုလက္ခံရခဲ့ၾကသူေတြနဲ႔စာရင္ ထုိက္ထုိက္တန္တန္ ရခဲ့တာလုိ႔ေတာင္ မခံစားမိတဲ့ အေၾကာင္းလည္း ေျပာခဲ့တာပါ။ တကယ္ေတာ့ ဒီ ႏုိဘယ္လ္ ၿငိ္မ္းခ်မ္းေရးဆုဟာ ကမာၻတ၀န္းက လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ဒီမုိကေရစီေရးေတြ အတြက္ စြမ္းစြမ္းတမံ ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈေတြေၾကာင့္ ၁၉၉၁ ခုႏွစ္က ဆုရရွိခဲ့သူ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ လုိ ပုဂၢိဳလ္မ်ဳိးေတြနဲ႔လည္း သက္ဆုိင္ပါတယ္လုိ႔ သမၼတက မေန႔တုန္းကပဲ မွတ္ခ်က္ေပး ေျပာသြားခဲ့တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

"ဒါေၾကာင့္လည္း တရားမွ်တမႈနဲ႔ လူ႔ဂုဏ္သိကၡာအတြက္ ႀကိဳးပမ္းေနသူေတြ အားလုံးဟာလည္း ဒီဆုနဲ႔ သက္ဆုိင္ပါတယ္။ ႐ုိက္ႏွက္မႈေတြ က်ည္ဆံေတြကုိ ရင္ဆုိင္ၿပီး လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးအတြက္ လမ္းေပၚမွာ ခ်ီတက္ခဲ့တဲ့ အမ်ဳိးသမီးငယ္တဦးလုိ၊ ဒီမုိကေရစီေရး အတြက္ သႏၷိဌာန္ေတြကုိ စြန္႔လႊတ္ဖုိ႔ ျငင္းဆန္ရင္း ကုိယ့္အိမ္မွာ အက်ဥ္းက်ခံေနရတဲ့ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ တေယာက္၊ ကမာၻႀကီးရဲ႕ တျခားတဖက္မွာ လွည့္လည္ တာ၀န္ထမ္းေနရတဲ့ စစ္သည္ေတြ၊ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးအတြက္ ကုိယ့္ရဲ႕ လုံၿခံဳမႈ၊ လြတ္ေျမာက္မႈနဲ႔ အသက္ကုိပါ စြန္႔လႊတ္ခဲ့ၾကသူ ကမာၻတ၀န္းက အမ်ဳိးသား အမ်ဳိးသမီးေတြ အားလုံး အတြက္လည္း ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။"

တခ်ိန္တည္းမွာပဲ အေမရိကန္ ျပည္ေထာင္စု အေနနဲ႔ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ႏုိဘယ္လ္ ဆုရွင္တဦးျဖစ္တဲ့ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ အပါအ၀င္ ႏုိင္ငံေရး အက်ဥ္းသားေတြ ျပန္လည္လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရး အတြက္လည္း ထပ္မံတုိက္တြန္းမႈေတြ လုပ္ခဲ့တာပါ။ သမၼတရဲ႕ ႏုိဘယ္လ္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးဆုရတဲ့အေၾကာင္း မွတ္ခ်က္ေပးစကားကုိ ကုိးကားၿပီး အေမရိကန္ အစုိးရရဲ႕ ရပ္တည္ခ်က္ သေဘာထားကုိ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဌာန လက္ေထာက္ ေျပာခြင့္ရပုဂၢိဳလ္ P J Crowley က မေန႔တုန္းက ျပဳလုပ္တဲ့ သတင္းစာရွင္းလင္းပဲြအတြင္း ေျပာဆုိခဲ့တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

"က်ေနာ္တုိ႔ ဦးစားေပးထားတာကေတာ့ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ နဲ႔ ႏုိင္ငံေရး အက်ဥ္းသားေတြအားလုံး ျပန္လႊတ္ေပးဖုိ႔ပါ။ သမၼတရဲ႔ ႏုိဘယ္လ္ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးဆု ေၾကညာခ်က္မွာလည္း ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ကုိ ကုိးကားၿပီး ေျပာသြားတာကုိ ခင္ဗ်ားတုိ႔ သတိထားမိၾကမွာပါ။"

မေန႔တုန္းကပဲ ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕မွာရွိတဲ့ အေမရိကန္သံ႐ုံး ယာယီ တာ၀န္ခံအပါအ၀င္ ၿဗိတိန္နဲ႔ ၾသစေၾတးလ်ႏုိင္ငံက သံတမန္ ေတြနဲ႔ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ က ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ အစုိးရဧည့္ေဂဟာမွာ ျမန္မာစစ္အစုိးရအေပၚ ပိတ္ဆုိ႔ဒဏ္ခတ္ အေရးယူမႈ ကိစၥေတြနဲ႔ ပတ္သက္လုိ႔ ေတြ႔ဆုံေဆြးေႏြးမႈေတြ လုပ္ခဲ့တာပါ။ အေမရိကန္ အစုိးရအေနနဲ႔ ျမန္မာစစ္အစုိးရ အေပၚ ပိတ္ဆုိ႔ ဒဏ္ခတ္ အေရးယူမႈေတြ ခ်မွတ္ ထားေပမဲ့ စစ္အစုိးရ အေနနဲ႔ ႏုိင္ငံေရး ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈေတြ လုပ္ရင္ ဆက္ဆံေရးေတြ တုိးျမႇင့္သြားဖုိ႔ ေျပာဆုိထားတာပါ။ ဒီလုိ ေျပာင္းလဲမႈေတြ လုပ္ေဆာင္တဲ့ေနရာမွာ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ နဲ႔ ႏုိင္ငံေရး အက်ဥ္းသားေတြ လႊတ္ေပးၿပီး ႏုိင္ငံေရးလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္ေတြမွာ ပါ၀င္ခြင့္ျပဳဖုိ႔လည္း အေမရိကန္ အစုိးရက တစုိက္မတ္မတ္ ေတာင္းဆုိေနခဲ့တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ မေန႔တုန္းက ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ နဲ႔ အေမရိကန္အပါအ၀င္ သံတမန္ေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႔ခြင့္ ရတဲ့အေပၚ အေကာင္းျမင္ သေဘာထားရွိေပမဲ့ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ လႊတ္ေပးေရးဟာ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံအတြက္ အေရးပါတဲ့ ေျခလွမ္းအျဖစ္ အေမရိကန္ အစုိးရက ႐ႈျမင္ထားဆဲ ျဖစ္တဲ့အေၾကာင္း ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဌာန လက္ေထာက္ ေျပာခြင့္ရပုဂၢိဳလ္ P J Crowley က ဆုိခဲ့တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

"ေတြ႔ဆုံမႈေတြျဖစ္ခဲ့တာကုိ က်ေနာ္တုိ႔ ေက်နပ္မိပါတယ္။ သိတဲ့အတုိင္း သူဟာ ျမန္မာျပည္ရဲ႕ လက္ရွိကာလနဲ႔ အနာဂတ္ အတြက္ အင္မတန္မွ အေရးပါတဲ့ ပုဂၢိဳလ္ တေယာက္ပါ။ ဒါေၾကာင့္မုိ႔ က်ေနာ္တုိ႔အေနနဲ႔ သူ႔ကုိ ျပန္လႊတ္ေပးဖုိ႔ သင့္တယ္လုိ႔ လည္း ယုံၾကည္ ထားပါတယ္။"

အေမရိကန္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဌာန လက္ေထာက္ ေျပာခြင့္ရပုဂၢိဳလ္ P J Crowley ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ေရွ႔လအတြင္း စကၤာပူႏုိင္ငံမွာ က်င္းပမယ့္ APEC အာရွ ပစိဖိတ္ေဒသ ပူးေပါင္း ေဆာင္ရြက္ေရးအဖြဲ႔ စီးပြားေရး ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြရဲ႔ အစည္းအေ၀း အတြင္း အာဆီယံ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲ႔ သီးျခားေတြ႔ဆုံဖို႔ စီစဥ္ထားပါတယ္။ ဒါေပမဲ့လည္း သမၼတ အုိဘားမား ရဲ႕ အာဆီယံ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲ႔ ပထမဆုံးအႀကိမ္ ေတြ႔ဆုံမယ့္ ဒီအစည္းအေ၀းပဲြအတြင္း စစ္အစုိးရ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႔ဆုံစကား ေျပာျဖစ္မယ္ မေျပာျဖစ္ဘူးဆုိတာေတာ့ ရွင္းရွင္းလင္းလင္း မရွိေသးပါဘူး။

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Golden Triangle 'clearance sale'

Traffickers rush to convert stocks into cash to buy arms

Thai anti-narcotic officials are seeing a flood of heroin and methamphetamine as traffickers slash their inventories in a panicked sell-off to convert their drug stocks into cash to buy weapons. - ST PHOTO: FRANCIS ONG

DOI CHANG MOOB (THAILAND) - A MILITARY crackdown by Myanmar's government on armed ethnic groups along the borders with Thailand, Laos and China has led to a 'clearance sale' of drugs in the area.

UNPRECEDENTED
'There was nothing on that scale last year. This year has been quite unusual.'

Mr Leik Boonwaat, the representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, on recent drug busts in Thailand and Myanmar
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Thai anti-narcotic officials are seeing a flood of heroin and methamphetamine as traffickers slash their inventories in a panicked sell-off to convert their drug stocks into cash to buy weapons.

'Some dealers at the border are buying on credit. They don't even need to pay in cash,' said Mr Pornthep Eamprapai, director of the northern branch of the Thai Office of Narcotics Control.

This new development has also led to more heroin seizures by the police in northern Thailand - up by more than twentyfold. From October last year to August this year, the authorities seized 1,270 kg of heroin, up from 57kg a year earlier, according to the Office of Narcotics Control.

On the other side of the border, Myanmar has reported enormous drug seizures in recent months, including one in August of more than 725kg, anti-narcotic officials said. Several million methamphetamine pills were also seized in the Myanmar border town of Tachilek.

'There was nothing on that scale last year,' said Mr Leik Boonwaat, the representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime based in Laos. 'This year has been quite unusual.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS-NEW YORK TIMES

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.
http://www.straitst imes.com / Breaking% 2BNews/SE% 2BAsia/Story / STIStory_ 439630.html

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Burma constitution 'provides impunity' for abuses

Burma constitution 'provides impunity' for abuses

Oct 9, 2009 (DVB)-Burma 's redrafted 2008 constitution provides impunity for human rights abuses and should not be the bedrock for elections next year, a damning report has claimed.

Many of the provisions of the constitution suggest that "instead of being a true catalyst for lasting change, it further entrenches the military within the government and the associated culture of impunity," the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) said.

Its report, Impunity Prolonged: Burma and its Constitution, says that within the constitution, the regime has granted itself impunity for sexual violence, forced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Burma, it says, is "one of the most difficult challenges in the world in relation to making progress toward combating impunity."

Khin Omar, coordinator of the Thailand-based Burma Partnership, said the constitution will "force military rule on Burma forever".

"[It is] the most problematic element as to whether we move further toward being a failed state or whether we move towards national reconciliation," she said.

The report says that "officers and troops systematically use rape and other forms of sexual abuse as a strategy of war."

It then cites a clause within the constitution stating that: "No proceeding shall be instituted against the said Councils (the military) or any member thereof or any member of the Government, in respect to any act done in the execution of their respective duties. "

Burma expert Robert H Taylor told DVB however that "No one has proven that [rape] is public policy," adding that "we don't know how the military deals with instances of rape".

He cited anonymous sources that claim the government has action against people accused of assault and rape, but added that the constitution "has its problems, but which doesn't?"

In a sign that the regime responds to international pressure, the report cited an agreement between the junta and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to address forced labour and child soldiers.

The 2008 constitution was ratified in the weeks following cyclone Nargis last May, in which 140,000 people were killed and millions of acres of land destroyed. Despite the cyclone, the government claimed a 99 percent turnout, with 92.4 percent voting in favour.

A report released last year by Hong Kong-based constitutional expert, Professor Yash Ghai, said that "the cynicism with which the regime held the referendum and manipulated the results was on a par with the cynicism and coercion by which the draft was prepared".

The ICTJ have called on the international community to withhold support for elections in Burma next year. Khin Omar echoed the calls, and said that a constitutional review must take place before the elections do.

Reporting by Joseph Allchin http://english. dvb.no / news. php? id = 2940

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Fw: [BurmaInfo] 今週のビルマのニュース（0938号）スーチー氏が軍政や西側外交官と会談 岡田外相の発言についてマイケル・グリーン氏は ODA1件 ほか

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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/news/this_week.php?mode=3

「きょうのビルマのニュース」もご利用ください。
http://www.burmainfo.org/news/today.php?mode=2


ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀


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今週のビルマのニュース　Eメール版
2009年10月9日【0938号】
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【アウンサンスーチー氏が軍政や西側外交官と会談】

・民主化指導者アウンサンスーチー氏は今週、軍政の
連絡担当相と2度会談した。氏が軍政トップ・タンシュエ将軍
に書簡を出したことを受けてのもの（下記参照）。
氏が率いる国民民主連盟（NLD）はこれらの会談を歓迎したが、
「ビルマの政治・経済危機を解決するにはスーチー氏と
タンシュエ将軍の直接対話が必要」と述べた
（8日イラワディ）。

・アウンサンスーチー氏はまた、9日に英国大使、
米国臨時代理大使、オーストラリア公使と会談した。
詳しい内容は不明だが、米大使館によれば、制裁について
も話し合われた。三か国ともビルマに制裁を課している
（9日AFPほか）。

【背景】スーチー氏は9月末にタンシュエ将軍に書簡を出し、
「制裁を解除するために軍政と協力する用意がある」と表明。
また、制裁を課している国から既存の制裁の効果等について
説明を受け、国民民主連盟（NLD）の幹部らと協議したいとしていた。


【日メコン外相会議～ビルマ関連の発言など】

・カンボジアで3日、第二回日メコン外相会議が開かれた。
ビルマに関する主な表明は以下の通り。

・［2010年総選挙］軍政のニャンウィン外相との会談で岡田外相は
「欧米の政策が変わってきている今はミャンマーにとってチャンス
であって、総選挙は国際社会がミャンマーに理解を示せるかどうか
のきっかけとなる」と述べた。
現在自宅軟禁されているアウンサンスーチー氏について
ニャンウィン外相は「氏の行動次第で自宅軟禁の期限内で
あっても恩赦を行う可能性がある」と述べた（3日外務省）。

・［北朝鮮と核兵器開発］同じ会談で岡田外相がビルマの
北朝鮮との関係や核兵器開発疑惑について問うたところ、
ニャンウィン外相はビルマは「原子力の平和利用については
関心があるが、核兵器を持つべき理由はない」と述べた（同上）。

・［長井健司氏］さらに同じ会談で岡田外相は、2007年9月に
映像ジャーナリストの長井健司氏が殺害された事件の
真相究明と、カメラ等の遺留品の返還に協力してほしいと述べた。
これに対しニャンウィン外相は「同事件は多くの人が集まり
混乱した中で起きた。遺留品については全国で捜索を
行っているが未だ見つかっていない」と述べた（同上）。

・［米国の政策転換］タイのカシット外相との会談で岡田外相は、
「最近米国の［ビルマ］政策は日本のアプローチに近づいて
きており、日タイで緊密に協力したい」と述べた（同上）。

【注目記事】

マイケル・グリーン（CSIS上級顧問・日本部長）
「オバマ政権のアジア政策について」（フォーリン・ポリシー誌ブログ、英語）
＊上記岡田外相の「米国の［ビルマ］政策は日本のアプローチに近づいてきている」
発言に言及。

http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/blog/12381


【ビルマへの政府開発援助（ODA）約束状況など】

10月7日　草の根無償資金協力
サイクロン被災地域に消防・救急車両7台

【イベント情報】

・在日ビルマ人共同行動実行委員会ほか
国連事務総長に対しスーチーさんを含むすべての
政治囚の釈放と対話の促進を軍政に働きかけるよう
要請するアピール行動
（国連大学前、6日～9日15～16時）

・アウンサンスーチーさんと全ての政治囚の釈放を求めるデモ行進
主催：在日ビルマ人民主化活動家のみなさん
（大塚台公園集合、11日17時出発）

・日本ビルマ救援センター
月例ビルマ問題学習会 「マウンマウンティンの世界」
（大阪ボランティアセンター、16日19時～）

・在日ビルマ難民たすけあいの会主催ワークショップ
聞くことからはじめるビルマ難民ソーシャルワーク
第一回「証言・軍事政権下での生活と民主化デモ～ビルマ難民の原因」
（南大塚地域文化創造館、18日18時）★要申込


【もっと詳しい情報は】

「きょうのビルマのニュース」
http://www.burmainfo.org/news/today.php?mode=2

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
2009年10月9日【0938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
====================================




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▽メーリングリストの参加・退会・アドレス変更について

　以下のＵＲＬをご覧ください。
　http://www.burmainfo.org/about/mailmagazine.php

※原則として手動での変更手続は行っておりませんが、どうしても解決できない
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Gen. Than Shwe Ousts from Buddha Sasana (VOA Burmese)

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Burma's Suu Kyi discusses US sanctions

Burma's Suu Kyi discusses US sanctions
October 9, 2009 - 6:54PM

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has discussed sanctions against military-ruled Burma in a rare meeting with Western diplomats, the US embassy in Rangoon says.

The Nobel Laureate met with the heads of the US, UK and Australian embassies for one hour at a government guesthouse on Friday, following a letter she wrote to the junta chief, embassy spokesman Drake Weisert told AFP.

"The meeting follows Aung San Suu Kyi's request in a letter to Senior General Than Shwe to meet representatives of the US and other countries to discuss their respective policies on sanctions," he said.

"We can confirm that sanctions were discussed at the meeting. However, we do not want to pre-empt Aung San Suu Kyi's discussions with the authorities by discussing the details of the meeting," he added.

© 2009 AFP http://news. smh.com.au/ breaking- news-world/ burmas-suu- kyi-discusses- us-sanctions- 20091009- gqml.html



Aung San Suu Kyi on 'remarkable form,' says British envoy
Posted : Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:53:10 GMT
By : dpa



Category :
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London - Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was on "remarkable form" and "very engaged" during a meeting with Western diplomats, British ambassador Andrew Heyn said Friday. "She was in remarkable form for someone who has been through what she has been through. She was very, very engaged in the subject, very interested in going into the detail of what she wanted to talk about, and she seemed, as ever, very eloquent and very, very engaged," Heyn told the BBC in an interview.

The British ambassador represented the European Union (EU) at the meeting in which US acting Charge d'Affaires Thomas Vajda and Australian Deputy Head of Mission, Simon Christopher Starr, also took part.

Asked about the prospect of sanctions against the regime in Myanmar being lifted, Heyn said the British government believed that sanctions were sending a "strong political message to the Burmese authorities about our real determination to see genuine democratic reform."

The fact that the regime was making a point of complaining about sanctions were proof that they were having an effect, said the British envoy.

"But what we have also made clear is that we will respond to substantive progress towards democracy in respect of human rights but we have to see concrete progress on the ground," he said.

Copyright DPA

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