http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45018
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Dec 7 (IPS) - The recent judgment by Thailand’s Constitutional Court confirmed the power it has to sack a politician or party found guilty of election malpractice, even if it smacked of the kangaroo courts of neighbouring, military-ruled Burma.
On Tuesday, the nine judges on the bench found the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and two smaller parties in its coalition guilty of political crimes committed by a handful of party officials at the December 2007 general elections.
The court ruled that the three parties had to be dissolved and scores of party executives banned from politics for five years, triggering a collapse of the government. Such a stiff penalty -- to deprive people of their civic rights through a form of collective punishment -- is enshrined in the 2007 constitution, which was drafted by a committee selected by the military junta that was in power following a September 2006 coup.
While such judicial power is being cheered in some quarters as a welcome development to save Thailand’s flawed democracy, others are asking aloud if proper legal procedure is being followed in arriving at such radical verdicts.
Typical among the critics is Prasit Pivavatnapanich, who has been troubled at the speed at which the judges delivered their unanimous verdict after two of the accused parties finished giving their final statements.
‘’The court started reading out their verdict for this case within 30 minutes to an hour of the final statements,’’ says Prasit, an associate professor at the law faculty at Thammasat University, in Bangkok. ‘’I have never seen this happening anywhere in the world.’’
‘’Many Thai people are wondering why the court rushed to deliver the judgement,’’ he revealed in an interview. ‘’The court should have taken more time and adjudicated with caution, since dissolving a political party and denying its leaders the right to vote is a serious matter.’’
In fact a statement released by Prasit and four other dons from his law faculty after the ruling drew attention to other embarrassing details. ‘’After the complainants finished the closing declaration, the constitutional court read the decisions immediately with mistakes and had to correct (them) during the reading,’’ the statement noted.
Such flaws have consequently helped give rise to a view that sees this powerful court in poorer light. ‘’Some Thai people, including me, are wondering if the court had written the judgement already, before the final statements were given,’’ says Prasit. ‘’People will begin to have doubts about this judicial process.’’
Doubts arose after the judges suddenly announced on Nov. 28 that the court had no more time to listen to the witnesses and evidence of the accused parties and set Dec. 2 as the final day of the case. This abrupt decision came after the accused parties had been guaranteed time to present testimony in their defence.
The banned PPP drew attention to this about-turn in its first formal response after Tuesday’s ruling. ‘’The rush to dissolve the political parties before finishing examining witnesses makes society lose confidence in and have doubts about the courts,’’ it said, before adding a damning indictment: ‘’It can be called a judicial coup.’’
This was the second time, in fact, that the Constitutional Court had come down hard against the PPP this year, after it won the poll to succeed a military regime.
In September, the court ruled against Samak Sundaravej, then prime minister and head of the PPP-led coalition government, for the crime of receiving payment to appear on a popular cooking show as celebrity chef. Samak’s successor as prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, was banned this week by the court, along with 36 other executives of the PPP.
The fate of more parliamentarians from the PPP and its two smaller allies may soon be determined by the court. A petition being submitted by a group of appointed senators from the upper house calling for their dismissal for the way they were elected at the December 2007 poll -- as candidates representing the parties and voted as party-list parliamentarians -- than representing constituencies and being chosen by voters from a particular constituency.
The transformation of this court as a pivotal battleground to determine the future of Thai democracy grew out of a watershed moment in April 2006. That month, the country’s revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, admonished the judges to do their job properly and clean up the political ‘’mess’’ in the country.
The king’s speech to the judges came after months of public protests, drawing tens of thousands to Bangkok’s streets, targeting the powerful government of Thaksin Shinawatra, which had been elected with huge mandates since 2001 but was forced out of power in the 2006 coup. The Thaksin administration was accused of corruption, nepotism and abuse of power.
In early May that year, the then bench of the Constitutional Court delivered an unprecedented verdict, nullifying the results of a controversial election held on Apr. 2. The ruling was welcome by scholars, human rights groups and activists. It was a break from a past where the judiciary shied away from political disputes and was rarely adjudicated major electoral issues.
However the coup that deposed Thaksin’s increasingly one-party state exposed the judiciary’s principles. There were no protests when the junta formed after the country’s 18th coup tore up the existing constitution, where staging a coup was illegal and deemed an act of treason.
The judiciary was as silent when the junta appointed a Constitutional Tribunal to prosecute Thaksin’s party for political crimes based on an order given by the military leaders after grabbing power.
That special tribunal ruled against the Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai –TRT) party in May 2007, calling for it to be disbanded and 111 of its executives, including Thaksin, to be banned from politics for five years.
This week’s ruling by the Constitutional Court against the PPP, which is a successor to the TRT, drawing from the same, largely poorer vote base, was clearly shaped by that precedent.
And like it happened with the TRT verdict, human rights groups are not amused at the law that the court used to go after a few errant politicians.
‘’The constitution that was referred to by the Constitutional Court as the legal basis for the party’s dissolution and the barring of 109 party executives for five years involvement in politics, is undemocratic,’’ says Pokpong Lawansiri, a Thai activist at the Asian Forum for Human Rights, a regional rights lobby.
‘’The ouster of a constitutionally elected government may be only the beginning of trouble,'' the activist said.
(END/2008)
Sunday, December 7, 2008
POLITICS-THAILAND: Court Gains No Glory by Banning Ruling Party
Fw: [burmainfo] 今週のビルマのニュース（0838号）
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People's Forum on Burma
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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/weekly.html
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）もご利用ください。
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo
ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀
========================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2008年12月5日号【0838号】
========================================
【今週の主なニュース】
112人の元国家元首が国連事務総長に書簡、ほか
・3日付で、112人の元国家元首（50か国以上）から
国連事務総長に宛てた公開書簡が出された。2008年
末までにすべての政治囚を解放するよう、ビルマ軍政に
働きかけることを求める内容。
日本からは小泉元首相が署名した。
ほかには、ブレア元英首相、カーター元米大統領、
ゴルバチョフ元ソ連大統領、金大中元韓国大統領、
アキノ元フィリピン大統領など。
・国連事務総長は3日、ビルマを再び訪問したいが、
政治改革が進む見込みがない限り訪問はできないとし、
12月に同国を訪問する予定を取りやめたことを発表した。
・活動家や僧侶への禁固刑判決言い渡しは今週も続いた。
政治囚支援協会（AAPP）によれば、11月だけで215人の
市民や僧侶が禁固刑判決を宣告された。
【その他】
日・ASEAN包括的経済連携協定が発効、ほか
・1日、「包括的な経済上の連携に関する日本国及び
東南アジア諸国連合構成国の間の協定（日・ASEAN
包括的経済連携協定）」が、日本とビルマのほか、
シンガポール、ラオス、ベトナムとの間で発効した。
・今週初めに来日していたマーシェル米国務次官補代理は
NHKとのインタビューで、ビルマ軍政が多数の活動家ら
を非公開の裁判にかけ、禁固刑判決を宣告している
ことを厳しく批判した。また「日本はミャンマーの人権
状況に対する懸念をより強く表明するとともに、軍事
政権に対する外交的な圧力をかけ続けてほしい」と述べ、
日本が働きかけをいっそう強めることに期待を示した
（2日付NHKニュース）。
【ビルマへの政府開発援助（ODA）約束状況など】
〔草の根・人間の安全保障無償資金協力〕
12月3日
チン州、病院の医療器材整備（約480万円）
マンダレー管区、電線の設置（約710万円）
【イベントなど】
・ビルマ市民フォーラム例会
「初めての方のための『ビルマ入門講座』
-ビデオ上映と講演-根本敬」
（文京シビックセンター、12月6日18時半～）
・世界人権宣言60周年記念・世界人権デー マーチング
呼びかけ団体 在日ビルマ人共同行動実行委員会ほか
（宮下公園集合、12月10日14時半～）
・上智大学アジア文化研究所「旅するアジア08」
第4回講演会「エネルギーの本当の値段～
ビルマ（ミャンマー）の天然ガス開発と人権」
講師：秋元由紀
（四谷・上智大学、12月12日18時～）
・ビルマの会 講演会
「ビルマの民主化を求めて～草の根難民支援活動から」
講師：中尾恵子（日本ビルマ救援センター代表）
参加費1000円（全額ビルマ難民支援に寄付）
（京都・法然院、14日15時～）
・テーラワーダ仏教講演会―ミャンマーサイクロン被
災者救援活動の現場から その祈りと行動
講師：ティータグー長老（ニャーニッサラ師）
＊ミャンマーの民芸品や料理の出店、写真展、舞踊、
油絵もあり
（名古屋市熱田区の本遠寺、12月15日、昼の部13時～・夜の部18時～）
・2008年度ワン・ワールド・フェスティバル～
感じる・ふれあう・助け合う 世界につながる国際協力のお祭り
日本ビルマ救援センターによる活動紹介・ビルマ難民支援バザーあり。
映画「ビルマ、パゴダの影で」21日10時より上映・講演会
（大阪国際交流センター、20日・21日、10時～）
★ジェーン・バーキン最新アルバム『冬の子供たち』が
発売中。アウンサンスーチー氏に捧げる楽曲「アウンサンスーチー」を収録。
☆インターネット放送局「アワープラネットTV」がビルマ
でのダム開発問題を取り上げた。
ビルマ情報ネットワークの秋元由紀が解説（映像、16分）。
http://www.ourplanet-tv.org/video/contact/2008/20081008_10.html
★特定非営利活動法人メコン・ウォッチの
季刊誌「フォーラムMekong」、最新号はビルマ特集。
－ビルマ～サイクロン後の人々、軍政－
http://www.mekongwatch.org/resource/forum/FM_vol9_2_01.html
【もっと詳しい情報は】
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo/
ビルマ情報ネットワーク
http://www.burmainfo.org/
【お問い合わせ】
ビルマ情報ネットワーク 秋元由紀
====================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2008年12月5日号【0838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: BurmaInfo（ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
http://www.burmainfo.org
連絡先: listmaster@burmainfo.org
バックナンバー: http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/burmainfo/
※BurmaInfoでは、ビルマ（ミャンマー）に関する最新ニュースやイベント情報、
参考資料を週に数本配信しています。
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講演会・第14 回アジア・アフリカ研究会（12/7)山本宗補「ビルマ問題の本質を問う」ほか
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2008/12/6
People's Forum on Burma
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ＰＦＢ運営委員・山本宗補も参加いたします、講演会のお知らせをお送り
いたします。山本は「ビルマ問題の本質を問う」と題して、ビルマに
ついてお話いたします。
ぜひご来場ください。
ＰＦＢ事務局
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
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公開講演のご案内
現代アジア・アフリカセンター
第14 回アジア・アフリカ研究会
■ 日時：2008年12 月7 日（日） 13:00 ～ 18:00
■ 会場：独立行政法人国際協力機構 広尾センター（JICA地球ひろば）
セミナールーム302
東京都渋谷区広尾4-2-24 電話番号：03-3400-7717（代表）
東京メトロ日比谷線 広尾駅下車（A3出口）徒歩1 分
地図：http://www.jica.go.jp/hiroba/about/map.html
■ 参加費：500円
※ 事前の申し込みは必要ありませんが、ＪＩＣＡ地球ひろばに
入館される際に、１階で受付をしていただいてから、 3階の会場に
お越し下さい。
※ なお、終了後、簡単な懇親会を予定していますので、お時間の
ある方はご参加ください。
〔プログラム〕
13：00 ～ 13：05 開会の挨拶：古沢紘造（現代アジア・アフリカセンター）
13：05 ～ 14：05 講演：吉田正紀（日本大学）
テーマ：インドネシアからの花嫁ー「インドネシア人家族の会」と
インドネシア人女性の定住への日常的実践
14：05 ～ 14：35 討論 司会：近藤富士夫（現代アジア・アフリカセンター）
14：35 ～ 14：50 休憩
14：50 ～ 15：50 講演：山本宗補（フォトジャーナリスト）
テーマ：ビルマ問題の本質を問う
15：50 ～ 16：20 討論 司会：小幡 壮（現代アジア・アフリカセンター）
16：20 ～ 閉会の挨拶
▼吉田正紀さんプロフィール
立教大学経済学部・文学研究科大学院地理学専攻終了。
イリノイ大学アーバナ・シャンペーン人類学部大学院
博士課程修了（Ph.D). 現在、日本大学国際関係学部教授・
国際関係研究所所長 著書に『民俗医療の人類学』（古今書院）、
訳書に『異文化結婚』、『ジャパンーズ・ディアスポラ」（新泉社）
などがある。
▼山本宗補さんプロフィール
アジアをおもなフィールドとするフォトジャーナリスト。
1988 年からはビルマの少数民族問題、民主化闘争の取材を行う。
ビルマの民主化運動を支援する日本のＮＧＯ「ビルマ市民フォーラム」の
運営委員を務める。主著『また、あしたー日本列島老いの風景』アートン、
2006年）、『世界の戦場からーフィリピン最底辺を生きる』（岩波書店、2003年）
『ビルマの子供たち』（第三書館、2003年）、『ビルマの大いなる幻影』
（社会評論社、1996年）、共著『フォトジャーナリスト13 人の眼』
（集英社新書、2005 年）、『見えないアジアを歩く』（三一書房、2008年）ほか。
【連絡・問い合わせ先】
女子栄養大学文化人類学研究室( 深堀）
Tel&Fax：049-284-5841 メール：takamura@eiyo.ac.jp
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NLD's Instruction to Division,State& Township level Organizations for Political Prisoners(4.12.2008)
.jpg)
The Year in Review: Lessons from 2008
http://www.realtruth.org/articles/081203-004-international.html
Elsewhere, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Pakistan have recently had governments in which the military held the reigns.
Another year passes and a new one takes its place, bringing us deeper into the 21st century. So what have we learned?
BY BRUCE A. RITTER
2008 was the year of nations assuming greater roles on the international stage of influence and prestige, as America continues its downhill slide.
Take Russia, for instance. On August 8, it sent troops into Georgia, a former Soviet satellite nation, capturing territory and crippling the Georgian military. Meantime, the European Union and the United States could do nothing other than issue strong statements.
Yet Russia’s quick and decisive clash with Georgia was in itself a strong statement. To Europe: We control the oil flowing into the continent; do not oppose our national interests. To other former Soviet satellite nations: We will not tolerate unrest on our borders. To the rest of the world: We will take matters into our own hands, when necessary.
Until the recent global financial crisis, the Russian markets boomed. The nation now has more billionaires than any country other than the U.S. Russia’s state-owned oil monopoly, Gazprom, controls the flow of oil into Europe. Its national leaders, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, are highly popular among the Russian citizens, despite fears of the democratic Russian Federal returning to totalitarianism. Largely in response to Washington’s determination to station U.S. missiles in NATO nations bordering Russia, Moscow is building strong ties with national leaders in America’s backyard, regional players such as Cuba and Venezuela who openly oppose U.S. interests. In a move analysts and government leaders view as a thumb-to-the-nose gesture to Washington, Moscow deployed its fleet to South America to conduct naval exercises, where it received a more-than-warm reception from outspoken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Russian troops on the march: A Russian soldier shows a V-sign as his tank leaves a checkpoint on the Gori-Tbilisi road near the village of Khurvaleti, on their way toward Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital (Aug. 22, 2008).
Source: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images
All this begs the question: What will the Russian bear do when—not if—America is no longer the world’s lone superpower?
Elsewhere, another emerging world power is China, which has produced fiscal success in a strange, polar opposite mixture of communism and capitalism. Having labored to change its image and improve relations with neighboring countries, China plays a tremendous role in Asia (including strengthening its ties with Taiwan), Africa and beyond. It is far easier for the typical U.S. shopper to see “Made in China” labels than “Made in the USA.”
Beijing cemented a grand, long-lasting impression before an international audience when the Chinese capital hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The developing nation of just a generation or two ago, where daily traffic was comprised of an endless sea of commuters riding bicycles instead of cars, is gone, replaced with a fast-rising economic counterweight to the United States. China’s success has proven that a nation need not follow America’s lead in embracing democracy—of “one man, one vote”—to achieve national prosperity.
And let’s not forget India. Though it still grapples with illiteracy, a stringent caste tradition, extreme poverty and other problems, India has taken moves to ensure a brighter future: pursuing peaceful ties with Pakistan—benefiting from U.S. businesses outsourcing American jobs—sending spacecraft to the moon and planting the Indian flag on the lunar surface.
We must ask: What leading international roles will China, Russia and India play once global markets no longer “catch a cold” whenever the U.S. economy “sneezes”?…
Governments in Turmoil
It was also the year of failing governments void of lasting solutions: economies on the brink of collapse; empty store shelves; clashes with rebel troops; the poor going without; the wealthy accumulating far more than they need.
Months have passed since Kenya’s presidential elections, yet opposing sides contested the results, and bloodshed ensued among the masses. While both candidates have finally agreed to work together and share power, each side is concerned with how much power the other will gain.
Zimbabwe suffers from runaway inflation and the scarcity of vital goods, foodstuffs and other necessary supplies. Decades ago, Zimbabwe was held as a beacon of hope; with the removal of colonial masters and a new government in place, prosperity and justice for all was in reach. Yet it has been a hope unfulfilled.
Elsewhere, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Pakistan have recently had governments in which the military held the reigns.
Since the Tower of Babel, governments from dictatorships to democracies become crippled with the four basic components of human nature: pride, vanity, greed and lust. Unless man’s nature changes, the problems that plague nations will always exist…
Growing Tide of Lawlessness
Teen murders in London: Girls look at floral tributes for a murdered school boy.
Source: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
A girl carries flowers in tribute of a school girl who was murdered.
Source: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
2008 was the year of disregard for law, morality and the value of life, of the strong preying upon the weak, of wanton violence and thievery both within and among nations.
In a land once known for civility, duty and protocol, of drinking afternoon tea and exhibiting bulldog resolve, Britain’s teenagers murder one another. A 15-year-old boy is stabbed the moment he opens the front door of his home. A 14-year-old girl is pummeled to death by a gang of hooligans who think nothing of ending a life. The world would expect this from the United States, home of drive-by shootings, domestic killings and school massacres—but youth murdering youth in Britain?
Now let’s step back and see an international crime becoming prevalent: piracy. Pirates exist worldwide, striking with speed and ruthlessness, particularly in the waters of Somalia. Small boats have seized tankers, freighters, cruise ships and other large vessels, holding hostages, ships and precious cargo for ransom. It’s a lucrative “business.”
But what do the escalating murder rate of British youth and piracy have in common? The unleashed desire to get, to control, to seize power at all costs.
The Bible points to the heart of all crimes, small and great: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:1-3).
Jesus Christ foretold of a day when “iniquity [lawlessness] shall abound [because] the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12). That time is now…
Consequences for Fiscal Recklessness
In search of solutions: World leaders meet during the “Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy” at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 15, 2008).
Source: Tolga Adanali/Abaca Press/MCT
Of course, 2008 was also the year of global financial crisis, leaving many wondering about the future. Housing foreclosures—the collapse of financial institutions—government bailouts—falling world markets—sluggish economies—what’s next? Many wonder, “Are we at the threshold of another Great Depression?”
While experts and analysts strive for answers to repair the physical effects, all ignore the root cause: pride, vanity, lust and greed. Lust led people to buy homes they could not afford, and greed motivated banks to provide them mortgages. Government leaders, swayed by vanity to believe they knew what was best for society, pressured banks into providing mortgages for those who had neither the credit nor the funds to provide a sizeable down payment toward buying property. And, when the financial bubble finally burst, pride kept these same leaders from accepting personal responsibility.
Perhaps our article “The Global Credit Crunch! – How You Can Protect Yourself” stated it best: “There is a cause for every effect. The scales tipped when the first set of interest rate increases (resets) kicked in. Around the same time, house prices fell slightly, resulting from the glut in the market. Suddenly, millions of homeowners were faced with much higher mortgage payments they could not pay. Loan delinquencies soared. Repossessions of homes skyrocketed. Investors backed away from risky bonds. Stuck with loans they could not sell, banks began to fail.
“The financial carnage has been sobering. Great names from the past—Bear Stearns, Countrywide Financial and now Lehman Brothers—no longer exist.
“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that losses by U.S. banks could reach as high as $1 trillion; some industry experts believe this number could even reach as high as $2 trillion. Since the beginning of 2008, over ten U.S. banks have gone bankrupt, and it is believed that number could exceed 100 financial institutions within the next 12 months (Daily Telegraph). Famous investor Wilbur Ross has placed the figure at 1,000 (Reuters)!
“A grim scenario is rapidly unfolding, a financial catastrophe of epic proportions. Millions of people in Europe, the United States and the rest of the world will likely lose their homes, jobs and savings. This could include you!”
No one knows what will be the outcome of the global credit crunch, but one thing is certain: Until man’s nature changes, we can expect worst things to come…
New Leadership, High Expectations
A decisive victory: President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden, along with their wives, Michelle and Jill, wave to supporters after Mr. Obama gave his acceptance speech at his Election Night Rally in Grant Park, Chicago, Ill. (Nov. 4, 2008).
Source: Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT
Throughout his long, grueling, yet ultimately successful, campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly delivered a message of unity, hope and determination, and addressed accusations of being a “hope-monger” full of “blind optimism,” of speaking “eloquent but empty” words.
He told voters, “Change only happens because of you. So this campaign is about you. About your dreams, your hopes, your courage, your readiness for change.”
Mr. Obama freely expressed his desire to change America’s tarnished global image, beginning with pulling U.S. troops from Iraq as soon as possible, and “sitting down with” enemies of the United States.
After 20 years of Bush-Clinton-Bush presidencies, a majority of American citizens voted for something new, different—“change.”
Now that he has decisively won the election, the inspirational messages of “hope” and “change” have brought not just the eyes of the nation, but also Europe and the rest of the world to fall upon President-elect Obama.
Will they expect the new president to heal the problems of America and the world—addressing not just the effects, but also the root causes, which are ultimately spiritual in nature? Will they expect him to turn back the growing tide of lawlessness and bring order, unity and peace to governments in turmoil?
Such towering expectations are unfair of any human being, but they are longed for nonetheless.
Behind Myanmar's Bluster, Gas Deals for Daewoo, China and India, UN's Ban No Comments
http://www.innercitypress.com/ban1daewoo120508.html
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, December 5 -- As Myanmar has stepped up the pace of its imprisonment of political opponents, bloggers and journalists, the UN's Ban Ki-moon met Friday with his "Group of Friends on Myanmar." Afterwards he told the Press that he will only go to Myanmar if there are some positive moves by the Than Shwe government, including release of political prisoners. Inner City Press asked him about the responsibility of private corporations doing business in Myanmar, giving the specific example of South Korea's Daewoo and its deal with Myanmar Oil and Gas. I cannot comment on specifics, Ban said, adding that "whoever has influence" should try to convince Myanmar to improve its record.
Along with India and corporations like Daewoo and Total, a major influence is China, whose foreign minister visited with Than Shwe just this week. The problem is that all of these parties want natural resources from Myanmar. Inner City Press' analysis is that these resources make Myanmar feel impervious to outside pressure; its business partners however prefer having the fig leaf that Ban Ki-moon's involvement and visits provide. This is the small leverage that the UN is trying to use: no photo opportunity with Ban until a few political prisoners are released. "They can just be locked back up later," one cynic said.
After Ban's spokesperson had tried to say that the query -- about the Congo -- before Inner City Press' was the "last question," Inner City Press had asked if Myanmar's oil and gas deals with China and India were helpful, or made Myanmar more intransigent. Ban to his credit waved off his spokesperson and took the question, although ultimately he did not answer it. Standing behind Ban was his Indian chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar. Sources tell Inner City Press that the United Kingdom is putting pressure on this position, previously held under Kofi Annan by the UK's Mark Malloch Brown. While incongruous, as Inner City Press asked the UN's British humanitarian coordinator John Holmes earlier on December 5, the UK's minister for international development Gareth Thomas this week criticized the current UN as unworthy of leading the fight against poverty, click here for that.
Footnote: Ban's "no comment" on whether and how responsible businesses would do deal with Myanmar right now seems incongruous given his attendance, earlier on December 5, at a forum of educators for responsible management. Two of these educators told Inner City Press that, as regards Myanmar, the UN should have disclosed when it was losing up to 25% of value to Than Shwe through government-required currency exchange, as only revealed after an internal UN memo was leaked to Inner City Press.
* * *
These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
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Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com -
Technology and protest in Myanmar
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/tswi-081206-internet-myanmar
By Dheera Sujan
05-12-2008
An ordinary telephone SIM card costs just two US dollars in Bangkok. In Myanmar, less than an hour away by plane, it costs 1800 US dollars. This in a country where a surgeon is lucky to take home 100 US dollars a month.
Yet there are more mobile phones in the towns and cities of this closed country than its army led government would like. And mobile phones were key instruments in the organisation and news dissemination of last September's pro democracy protests led by monks - illustrating exactly why the leading Junta fear the access to the outside world that technology offers.
The September protests were caught by the countless mobile phones of ordinary people or shot at great risk by the hidden video cameras of undercover reporters and sent out of the country within minutes through the internet. Smuggled video tapes found their way to mainstream media around the world.
Mobile video footage of a Japanese journalist shot at close range
Scenes of violence shown on Al-Jazeera
Unprecedented coverage
For a few days Burmese monks led civilian protesters on the streets of Yangon, and the international community watched, electrified by the unprecedented images of a country that had remained behind its own bamboo curtain for years. At first, the Myanmar government was paralysed with indecision. Then it did what most feared it would - it called in the troops.
And still the cameras rolled, still the images were loaded onto YouTube. A Japanese cameraman, shot at point blank range by a soldier, troops shooting into crowds of civilians, police beating monks with iron bars, and dragging off peaceful demonstrators holding banners.
Having their story told
The world was watching Myanmar for the first time in decades and the Burmese people, forcibly isolated for so long, were exultantly aware that they were not forgotten. "It's almost an existential desire for the Burmese to have their story told," says one journalist who has written and reported from the country for more than 20 years. She was there during the protests last year, and she was there when the retribution came.
Just a few weeks ago, the government of Myanmar apprehended leaders of the protests, monks, journalists, and bloggers and sentenced them to up to 65 years in prison. The bloggers were accused of violating the Electronics Act which regulates electronic communications.
The sentences are breathtakingly harsh, and they send a clear message from the government - that it will brook no opposition from within during the run-up to the elections planned for 2010. But there is also a hidden message in the single-minded way people who sent images of human rights violations out of the country have been hunted down: that the government too can use technology to its own benefit. People have been traced through their email and mobile phones and internet servers have been examined for "improper use".
Cat and mouse
The government has even mined the very same images of the violent put-down of the demonstrators to locate the shops, doorways and homes where people may have taken the footage and then made group arrests to find the photographers.
But as the journalist says, "it's a cat and mouse game. The government blocks the technology in one way and people find alternatives to go around it. There are proxy servers springing up all the time...it won't stop. The people will always find a way of making their voice heard. It's always been that way in Burma."
Tags: Burma
UN Role “Not Enough”: Ban -IRRAWADDY
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=14760
By LALIT K JHA Saturday, December 6, 2008
UNITED NATIONS — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday his direct involvement was "not enough" to resolve the current political stalemate in Burma and all its neighbors must play a more assertive role.
"My good offices should not be seen as an end in itself, or as a justification for inaction,” he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. “In order to be able to pursue this role in an effective manner, it is necessary for all concerned parties across the spectrum to step up efforts to help my good offices move forward."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, seen here, has expressed growing frustration at the failure by Myanmar's military regime to restore democracy and said the time was not right for him to pay a return visit to the country. (Photo: AFP)
After attending a meeting of the Secretary General's Group of Friends on Burma, Ban told reporters: "While I will continue my good offices role as mandated by the General Assembly, all the countries of the membership, particularly the Group of Friends countries, should use their influence, they should use whatever available leverage and tools to impress upon the Government of Myanmar [Burma] to implement their commitment."
Ban created the Group of Friends on Burma last year to aid and advise him on the various issues related to Burma, in particular how to proceed on a path of democratization and national reconciliation.
Members are Australia, China, the European Union, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Britain, the US and Vietnam.
The meeting was convened in the aftermath of a letter written to Ban by more than 100 former presidents and prime ministers urging him to work for the release of all political prisoners in Burma by the end of the year.
Ban said since the last meeting: "I sense not only a higher expectation but also a growing frustration that our efforts have yet to yield the results we all hope for. I share this sense of expectation and frustration."
Referring to a statement from the Burmese government that cooperation with the UN is a cornerstone of their foreign policy, he said: "We welcome it, and we look forward to continue, and we expect a concrete action by them to implement their commitment."
Giving a sense of the discussions during the meeting, Ban said: "I have taken note of the group's concern that recent actions by the Government of Myanmar risk undermining the prospects of inclusive national reconciliation, democratic transition, and respect for human rights, and more generally at the lack of sufficient response to the concerns of the United Nations and the international community."
The secretary-general urged the Burmese junta to "respond positively without further delay" to specific UN suggestions, as endorsed by the Group of Friends, in particular the release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the initiation of a genuine dialogue with the opposition.
Ban reiterated that he would visit Burma only if there is a real expectation of tangible progress.
"I am ready to visit Myanmar again, to continue our consultations on various issues—humanitarian issues, and also political issues,” he said. “At this time, I do not think that the atmosphere is ripe for me to undertake my own visit there.
"But I am committed, and I am ready to visit any time when I can have reasonable expectations my visit will be productive and meaningful,” he said.
Chevron’s hypocritical ad campaign
http://takizen.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/chevrons-hypocritical-ad-campaign/
Posted by takizen under Burma and oil, Human Rights | Tags: Burma, chevron, Myanmar |
By JOHN P. GAMBOA
The Daily Aztec
San Diego State University newspaper
Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: State of Mind
A new TV commercial includes shots of oceans, blue skies, loving
families, cuddly animals, rising suns, people of all nationalities and
amputees running sprints.
What could it be for?
Greenpeace? No.
Life insurance? No.
It’s an advertisement for the multi-national mega corporation Chevron.
Its new two-and-a-half-minute TV spot, part of its “Power of Human
Energy” campaign and shot and directed by the cinematographer of “Lost
in Translation” and “Being John Malkovich,” boasts that Chevron is not
a “corporate titan” but “human beings doing our share.”
The ad first aired during a break for “60 Minutes” on CBS and gave the
distinct impression that Chevron cares for every living person on Earth
and that it’s committed to helping everyone’s needs.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Chevron is one of the few remaining corporations with ties to the
deadly regime behind Burma (also referred to as Myanmar), thereby
indirectly aiding the killing of Buddhist monks, reporters and
civilians.
In 1997, the Clinton Administration barred all new investments in the
junta-run nation. However, companies already investing inside the
country were exempted because of a grandfather clause. Chevron is one
of the companies that was exempted by the clause and continues business
in the country and pays taxes to the government.
By doing so, they are supporting the human rights violations of the
Texas-sized nation in the last few weeks and its military buildup of
the last few years. Natural gas, an important part of Chevron’s
operations in Burma, brought $2.16 billion to the military regime of
Burma through taxes and operation fees, according to the Human Rights
Watch.
It is imperative that this San Ramon-based corporation get out of Burma
if it wants to continue to call itself an American corporation. The
government is threatening the freedom of millions of people, which is
something that no citizen or user of gas should stand for.
Without the oil pipelines that run from Burma to Thailand, the military
government would not be able to have money to kill civilians.
Chevron should be the first to stop business in Burma because of the
murders of pro-Democracy protesters. Chevron should stand up for the
political ideology that allowed it to become a multi-national
corporation based in the United States.
In order to stop having an American corporation’s oil flow through
pipelines, the U.S. government needs to force Chevron out of Burma,
given its human rights violations. If the United States is willing to
go to war for freedom of itself and others, the least it could do is
prevent a U.S. corporation from financially supporting a freedom-hating
regime.
If it doesn’t want to leave, major restrictions should be imposed on
its ability to sell petroleum inside the United States until its
policies are changed.
Chevron leaving Burma, however, will not stop the violence in the
region. Thai and Chinese petroleum companies will only go in and take
over the void left by the American company, not changing the
socio-political dynamics of the region. It’s more important, though,
that an American company take responsibility to leave an embattled
region if it wants to call itself a corporation, an entity that is made
up of “human beings doing our share” for the rest of humanity.
Even if Chevron chooses to be anti-American and stay in Burma, the
least it could do is stop airing its misleading ad campaign,
championing itself as the “Power of Human Energy.”
Sadly, unless the government steps up - which is unlikely - Chevron
will not change its policies. Chevron will continue to do business how
it wants because one of its former board of directors is now the
Secretary of State of the United States: the corporate-friendly
Condoleezza Rice.
As record-high profits continue to drive the company, there is no
reason to change.
In its ad, Chevron says that humans have an ever increasing demand for
energy, and they plan to be there to help fulfill the need. If
anything, people need to decrease their need for energy, not have the
world’s 14th largest energy corporation tell them that we need to use
more.
Chevron may claim that it cares about the world and its needs, but it
only cares about its own needs: making money. As long as it continues
to spend $63 million in advertising - like it did in 2006, according to
Brandweek - it will be able to convince people that Chevron does care,
which is a very scary thought.
Because it’s unlikely that the U.S. government will step in, Americans
must help in the only way they can: Stop pumping gas at Chevron gas
stations.
-John P. Gamboa is a pre-journalism junior.
Published on Monday, October 8, 2007 by The Daily Camera (Boulder,
Colorado)
Be certain during uncertain times
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081206/TRAVEL/322417465/-1/NEWS
Last Updated: December 04. 2008 6:43PM UAE / December 4. 2008 2:43PM GMT
I am due to depart on holiday to Thailand next week. I booked my flights and accommodation in June but because of the recent disturbances in Bangkok I no longer feel like going there. The airline I am due to fly with has refused to offer me a refund. What can I do?
The political situation in Thailand is very uncertain at present. Last week large numbers of demonstrators caused the complete closure of both Suvarnabhumi International Airport and Don Muang Domestic Airport in Bangkok. As well as the chaos caused by the cancellation of flights into and out of the capital, which is also a gateway to other countries in the region including Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Burma and Malaysia, the crisis caused considerable overload at the country’s regional airports. I can fully understand your disinclination to travel.
Although the 1929 Warsaw Convention, which governs air travel, excludes airlines from any liability caused by civil insurrection, at the time of the crisis, some airlines, including Emirates, Thai Airways and British Airways, offered passengers who were due to fly the opportunity to receive a full refund or to rebook their flights for a later date, subject to availability. Etihad extended this policy to passengers booked to fly until tomorrow (Dec 7).
However, demonstrations at the airports ended on Tuesday and at the time of going to press the airport was due to re-open on Thursday. Foreign governments are not advising against travel to the country and although there is still a large backlog of flights to sort out, the situation should have eased by the time you are due to depart. The airline that you are travelling with is under no obligation to offer you a refund or allow you to postpone the date of travel but depending on the type of ticket you have purchased, it may allow you to make route or departure changes for a small fee, so you should study the terms and conditions outlined by the airline or travel agent, and contact them directly.
The good news for independent travellers is that most hotels allow you to cancel without a penalty if you give at least 48 hours’ notice. Despite the situation in Bangkok, beach destinations including Phuket and Koh Samui are unaffected and foreign governments’ travel advice units have stopped short of advising that the country is unsafe.
I have been planning a weekend break in Mumbai and would like to help support India after the recent terrorist attacks. However, I have heard that the British and other foreign governments are advising that the threat from terrorism is still high. Should I travel or not?
Because the recent deadly attacks in Mumbai seemingly targeted at westerners, the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office temporarily warned against all but essential travel to Mumbai. This has now been lifted but it still advises that there is a high threat from terrorism throughout the country. However, there are few countries in the world these days where there is no threat from terrorism at all, and flights and other services are now operating normally in Mumbai. It is important bear in mind that wherever you are, in most cases the risk of being caught up in a terrorist attack is extremely small. That said, you should be aware that most travel insurance policies will not cover losses or medical expenses resulting from acts of terrorism or civil unrest. Whether you choose to travel or not boils down to personal choice, but there is a lot to be said for showing solidarity with the people of Mumbai and refusing to have your holiday experience spoiled by extremists.
travel@thenational.ae
ဦးသန္႔ ရာျပည့္တံဆိပ္ေခါင္း ကုလသမဂၢမွ ထုတ္ေဝမည္
္ မိုးမခအေထာက္ေတာ္ ၀၀၅ ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၅၊ ၂၀၀၈
http://moemaka. com/index. php?option= com_content&task=view&id=2918&Itemid=1
လာမည့္ ၂ဝဝ၉ ခုႏွစ္ ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၂၂ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ အသက္ ၁ဝဝ ျပည့္မည့္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသား ကမၻာ့ကုလသမဂၢ အတြင္းေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္ေဟာင္း ဦးသန္႔၏ ရာျပည့္အထိမ္းအမွတ္အျဖစ္ တံဆိပ္ေခါင္း ၃ မ်ဳိး ကုလသမဂၢက ထုတ္ေဝမည္ဟု သတင္း ထုတ္ျပန္ထားသည္။ ဦးသန္႔၏ ရုပ္ပံုျဖင့္ ထုတ္ေဝမည့္ အေမရိကန္ ဝ.၉၄ ေဒၚလာ (၉၄ ျပား)တန္၊ ဆြစ္ဇာလန္ေငြေၾကး ၁.၃ဝ ဆြစ္ဖရန္႔စ္တန္၊ ဥေရာပသမဂၢ ေငြေၾကး ၁.၁၅ ယူရို တန္ တံဆိပ္ေခါင္းမ်ားကို ၂ဝဝ၉ ခုႏွစ္ ေဖေဖာ္ဝါရီလ ၆ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ ထုတ္ေဝမည္ဟု ကုလသမဂၢ စာတိုက္ဌာန၏ အဆိုပါ ထုတ္ျပန္ခ်က္တြင္ ေဖာ္ျပထားသည္။
ကမၻာ့ကုလသမဂၢအေနျဖင့္ ကုလသမဂၢ၏ တတိယေျမာက္ အတြင္းေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္ျဖစ္သည့္ ဦးသန္႔၏ ရုပ္ပံုျဖင့္ ထုတ္ေဝသည့္ တံဆိပ္ေခါင္း ယခင္က ထုတ္ေဝခဲ့ဖူးျခင္း မရွိဘဲ အတြင္းေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္မ်ား၏ ရာျပည့္အထိမ္းအမွတ္အျဖစ္ ထုတ္ေဝျခင္းမွာလည္း ပထမဆံုး ျဖစ္သည္ ဟု နယူးေယာက္ၿမိဳ႔ရွိ တံဆိပ္ေခါင္း စုေဆာင္းသူ ျမန္မာတစ္ဦးက ေျပာျပခဲ့သည္။ ဦးသန္႔ မတိုင္မီ ရာျပည့္ပုဂၢဳိလ္မ်ားျဖစ္သည့္ ကုလသမဂၢ အတြင္းေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္ေဟာင္းမ်ားမွာ ပထမဆံုး အတြင္းေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္ ေနာ္ေဝႏိုင္ငံသား ထရိဗီလီး (၁၈၉၆-၁၉၆၈) ႏွင့္ ဒုတိယ အတြင္းေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္ ဆီြဒင္ႏိုင္ငံသား ဒက္ဟမ္းမားရႈိးလ္ (၁၉ဝ၅-၁၉၆၁) တို႔ျဖစ္သည္။
ဦးသန္႔ကို ဧရာဝတီတိုင္း ပန္းတေနာ္ၿမိဳ႔တြင္ အဖ ဦးဖိုးႏွစ္၊ အမိ ေဒၚနန္းေသာင္ တို႔က ၁၉ဝ၉ ခုႏွစ္၌ ဖြားျမင္ခဲ့သည္။ ပန္းတေနာ္ အမ်ဳိးသားအထက္တန္းေက်ာင္း၊ ရန္ကုန္တကၠသိုလ္တို႔တြင္ ပညာသင္ယူခဲ့ၿပီး အထက္တန္းျပ ေက်ာင္းဆရာ၊ ထိုမွ ေက်ာင္းအုပ္ႀကီးအျဖစ္ တာဝန္ထမ္းေဆာင္ခဲ့သည္။ ေက်ာင္းသံုးစာအုပ္ ပံုႏွိပ္ထုတ္ေဝေရးေကာ္မတီ၊ အမ်ဳိးသားပညာေရးေကာင္စီ၊ ဗမာ့သုေတသနအဖြဲ႔တို႔တြင္ ပါဝင္ေဆာင္ရြက္ခဲ့ၿပီး စာသင္ေက်ာင္းမ်ားဦးစီးအဖြဲ႔ အမႈေဆာင္၊ ဂ်ပန္ေခတ္ ပညာေရးျပန္လည္ထူေထာင္ေရးအဖြဲ႔ အတြင္းေရးမွဴး၊ ဖဆပလအဖြဲ႔၏ လူထုေရးရာတာဝန္ခံ စသျဖင့္ တာဝန္မ်ားထမ္းေဆာင္ခဲ့ၿပီး ၁၉၆၁ ခုႏွစ္ ႏိုဝင္ဘာလ ၃ ရက္ေန႔မွစ၍ ကုလသမဂၢ အတြင္းေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္ ျဖစ္လာခဲ့သည္။
ဦးသန္႔၏ ဇနီးမွာ ေဒၚသိန္းတင္ျဖစ္ၿပီး သားသမီး ၃ ဦး ထြန္းကားခဲ့သည္။ ဦးသန္႔သည္ ၁၉၇၄ ခုႏွစ္ ႏိုဝင္ဘာလ ၂၅ ရက္ အသက္ ၆၅ ႏွစ္ တြင္ ကင္ဆာေရာဂါျဖင့္ အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စု နယူးေယာက္ၿမိဳ႔၌ ကြယ္လြန္ခဲ့သည္။ ၎၏ ရုပ္ကလာပ္ကို ျမန္မာျပည္သို႔ ျပန္လည္သယ္ယူခဲ့ေသာ္လည္း ထိုစဥ္က မဆလ အစိုးရ၏ ဂရုတစိုက္ မရွိမႈေၾကာင့္ ရန္ကုန္တကၠသိုလ္ေက်ာင္းသားမ်ား အံုၾကြကာ ‘ဦးသန္႔ စ်ာပနအေရးအခင္း’ ေပၚေပါက္ခဲ့သည္။
ဦးသန္႔၏ ရာျပည့္ အထူးအစဥ္ကို မိုးမခ က တင္ဆက္သြားမည္ျဖစ္ပါ၍ ဦးသန္႔ႏွင့္ပတ္သက္ၿပီး တင္ျပလိုေသာ အေၾကာင္းအရာမ်ား ရွိပါက မိုးမခ သို႔ ဆက္သြယ္ေပးပို႔ပါရန္ ဖိတ္ေခၚအပ္ပါသည္။
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Burma’s Nuclear Temptation-Bertil Lintner
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=11673
Rich with uranium and desperate for control, the Burmese junta may find a nuclear option attractive
Bertil Lintner
YaleGlobal, 3 December 2008
Power salute: Burmese strongman General Than Shwe; reports of Burmese search for nuclear technology are a cause of regional concern. Enlarge image
CHIANG MAI: Over the past year, Southeast Asia’s diplomatic community has tried to sort fact from fiction in a stream of unconfirmed reports from Burma, the region's most isolated and secretive country. Burma’s fledgling nuclear program with Russian assistance and its mysterious connections with North Korea raise concern in the region about its purpose.
According to Burmese exiles in Thailand, the Russians and North Koreans assist the Burmese in developing nuclear capability. But wary of similar reports by Iraqi exiles a few years ago, which turned out to be false, the international community remains skeptical. In a research paper for Griffith University, for example, Australian scholar Andrew Selth, dismisses the reports.
Nevertheless, certain facts are not in doubt. Burma first initiated a nuclear research program as early as 1956, when its then-democratic government set up the Union of Burma Atomic Energy Center, UBAEC, in then-capital Rangoon. Unrelated to the country's defense industries, it came to a halt when the military seized power in 1962. New power-holders, led by General Ne Win did not trust UBAEC head Hla Nyunt.
In February 2001, Burma's present junta, the State Peace and Development Council decided to revitalize the country's nuclear program, and Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry announced plans to build a 10-megawatt nuclear research reactor in central Burma. In July 2001, Burma established a Department of Atomic Energy, believed to be the brainchild of the Minister of Science and Technology, U Thaung, a graduate of Burma's Defense Services Academy and former ambassador to the United States. US-trained nuclear scientist Thein Po Saw was identified as a leading advocate for nuclear technology in Burma.
At a press conference in Rangoon on January 21, 2002, Vice-Chief of Military Intelligence Major-General Kyaw Win issued a statement: “Myanmar's consideration of building a nuclear research reactor is based on the peaceful purposes getting modern technologies needed for the country, availability of radioisotopes being used peacefully, training technicians and performing feasibility study for generation of electricity from nuclear power."
While Burma suffers from chronic power shortages, the need for a research reactor, used mainly for medical purposes, is unclear. Radioisotopes allow imaging of the brain, bones, organs, lungs and blood flow, advanced technology for Burma's basic health services.
However, observers pointed out the Russian-made nuclear-research reactor that the Burmese authorities sought to acquire is similar to the 5-megawatt research reactor that the then–Soviet Union installed at Yongbyon in North Korea in 1965, from which North Korea later extracted plutonium for a nuclear device. Burma’s military leaders couldn’t help but notice how North Korea stood up to the US, a harsh critic of the Burmese regime, mainly due to its nuclear program.
Reports have been murky since. In April 2007, days after the restoration of diplomatic ties between Burma and North Korea – broken since North Koreans detonated a bomb in Rangoon in 1983 – a North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam I, docked at Thilawa port. Burmese officials claimed that the ship sought shelter from a storm. But two Burmese reporters working for a Japanese news agency were briefly detained when they went to the port to investigate, indicating possible other, more secret reasons for the visit.
According to the July 2007 issue of the Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based publication by Burmese exiles: "by a strange coincidence, the 2,900-ton North Korean cargo vessel MV Bong Hoafan...sought shelter from a storm and anchored at a Burmese port last November. The Burmese government reported that an on-board inspection had 'found no suspicious material or military equipment.' But journalists and embassies in Rangoon remained skeptical."
At about the same time, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported "a North Korean ship under US surveillance was believed to have unloaded self-propelled artillery at a Myanmar port."
The deal with Russia was stalled for several years, but in May 2007, Russia's atomic energy agency, Rosatom, announced construction of the nuclear-research reactor. According to Rosatom, the reactor would use low-enriched uranium, not plutonium. Up to 350 Burmese nationals, most military personnel, already trained in Russia under the initial 2001 agreement, and since then several hundred more trained at Russian institutions.
Signatories of the agreement reached in Moscow on May 15, 2007 were U Thaung and Rosatom head Sergey Kiriyenko. According to Rosatom's press release: " The sides have agreed to cooperate on the establishment of a center for nuclear studies in the territory of Myanmar (the general contractor will be Atomstroyexport). The center will comprise a 10-megawatt light water reactor working on 20 per cent-enriched uranium-235, an activation analysis laboratory, a medical isotope production laboratory, silicon doping system, nuclear waste treatment and burial facilities. The center will be controlled by IAEA."
Despite that claim, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on May 17, 2007, that Burma had not reported plans to build a nuclear reactor. As a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Burma is required to allow inspections of any nuclear facilities.
The agreement does not mention North Korea, but in November 2003 the Norway-based broadcasting station Democratic Voice of Burma, run by Burmese exiles, reported that 80 Burmese military personnel had departed for North Korea to study "nuclear and atomic energy technology."
The report remains unconfirmed, its source unclear. If Burmese military personnel traveled to North Korea, it’s more likely for training in maintenance of missiles, which Burma then wanted to buy from North Korea but could not yet afford.
Alarm bells rang in August 2008, after India withdrew permission for a North Korean plane to overfly its airspace on route to Iran, just before taking off from Mandalay in Burma where it had made a stopover. The Ilyushin-62 carried unidentified cargo, and it’s destination after the stopover was unclear.
Reports of some cooperation between Burma, Russia, North Korea and Iran have also come from two Burmese nationals, an army officer and a scientist, who recently left the country. According to them, a Russian-supplied 10-megawatt research reactor is being built, at Myaing, north of Pakokku, said to be for peaceful research. But according to the defectors, another facility exists south of the old hill station of Myin Oo Lwin, formerly known as Maymyo. Three Russians supposedly work there while a group of North Koreans are said to engage in tunneling and constructing a water-cooling system. The defectors also assert that in 2007 an Iranian intelligence officer, identified only as "Mushavi," visited Burma. Apart from sharing nuclear knowledge, he reportedly provided advice on missile systems using computer components from Milan.
Burma has uranium deposits, and the Ministry of Energy has identified five sources of ore in the country, all low-grade uranium unsuitable for military purposes. But the defectors claim that two more uranium mines in Burma are not included in official reports: one near Mohnyin in Kachin State and another in the vicinity of Mogok in Mandalay Division. The ore is supposedly transported to a Thabeikkyin refinery, conveniently located between the two alleged mines.
Until such reports can be verified, or refuted, speculations remain. But a nuclear-powered Burma would be a nightmare for all neighbors and would upset the balance of power in the region. All that is certain is that Burma has a nuclear program. It may be years, if not decades, away from developing nuclear-weapons capability. But the fact that the country's military leadership experiments with nuclear power is cause for concern.
Bertil Lintner is a Swedish journalist based in Thailand and the author of several works on Asia, including “Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld of Asia” and “Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North Korea under the Kim Clan.”
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© 2008 Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
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Ban Rules Out Visit to Burma
ဘာမွ မထူးျခားဘူးဆိုရင္ မသြားဘူးလို ့မစၥတာဘန္ကီမြန္းကေျပာပါတယ္။
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=14751
By LALIT K JHA Thursday, December 4, 2008
NEW YORK — The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on Wednesday ruled out a visit to Burma until such time as he is assured that his presence in the country will help to move it closer to the goal of establishing a genuine democracy.
The onus for this lies on the Burmese military junta, said Ban’s spokesperson, Michele Montas.
“The secretary-general has consistently said that the primary responsibility lies with the government to deliver substantive results, including freeing political prisoners and including having a dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi,” Montas said.
The spokesperson confirmed that the secretary-general has received a letter from more than 100 former prime ministers and presidents from over 50 countries, urging him to press for the release of political prisoners before the end of the year.
Ban also received a phone call from the former prime minister of Norway, Kjell Magne Bondevik, who had taken the lead in bringing the former world leaders together on one platform.
“They discussed the letter, asking the secretary-general to visit Myanmar [Burma] and to urge the release of political prisoners by the end of this year,” Montas said, adding: “The secretary-general once more reiterated his pledge to remain fully engaged, both personally and through his personal envoy in Myanmar.”
Ban said he would like to visit Burma again to discuss a broad range of issues.
“However, he will not be able to do so without reasonable expectations of a meaningful outcome, which is what we have been saying all along,” Montas said.
Montas also said that Ban’s special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, would not visit Burma unless he too was sure of achieving some tangible results.
“Gambari himself will not go unless there is some chance that this will move forward. He will not just go for the sake of going, in other words,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, having guided America’s foreign policy on Burma during the last eight years, the US first lady, Laura Bush, said on Wednesday that she would continue to raise her voice on behalf of the people of Burma even after she leaves the White House on January 20.
“I will continue that,” Bush said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday.
“The president is going to build a Freedom Institute with his presidential library, and so it’ll be a really good vehicle for me, as well, to continue to talk about Burma, to meet with dissidents from Burma like the young Buddhist monk that I had the chance to meet with when we were in New York earlier this fall,” she said.
Inspired by Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy icon, Bush has been instrumental in pushing for US sanctions against the Burmese military junta and its cronies. The US has led the world in initiating action against the Burmese regime.
Bush, who has met with a number of Burmese pro-democracy leaders, is often the first internationally recognized figure to issue statements on issues related to Burma.
India angry as 'never before' over attacks: PM
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081205/afp/081205124036asiapacificnews.html
MUMBAI (AFP) - India has been angered "as never before" by the attacks in Mumbai, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday, as his new home minister hinted at growing evidence of Pakistani involvement.
"We have told the world that the people of India have felt a sense of hurt and anger as never before due to the Mumbai terror strikes," Singh said following talks here with visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The attacks by Islamist gunmen against multiple targets in India's financial capital nine days ago killed 163 people, including 26 foreigners. Nine militants were killed, while one was captured alive.
"It is the obligation of all concerned that perpetrators of this horrible crime are brought to book," Singh said.
India says all 10 gunmen involved in the assault came from Pakistan, and has handed Islamabad a list of 20 terror suspects, with demands for their arrest and extradition.
Suspicion has focused on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group which has fought Indian control of divided Kashmir. Lashkar was blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001, which pushed the two nations to the brink of war.
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Earlier Friday, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram clearly had Pakistani groups in mind when he spoke of proof that elements outside the country were responsible.
"There is ample evidence to show that the source of the terrorist attack was clearly linked to organisations which have in the past been identified as being behind terrorist attacks in India," Chidambaram said.
"There are one or two countries which have broadly confirmed our preliminary conclusions," he added.
The United States has been sharing intelligence with India in the wake of the Mumbai bloodshed.
Chidambaram acknowledged there had been some security and intelligence "lapses" prior to the attacks.
"These are being looked into and I will do my utmost ... to overcome the causes of these lapses and try to improve the effectiveness of the security system," he said.
CNN and other US networks reported that the United States had warned India in October that hotels and business centres in Mumbai would be targeted by attackers coming from the sea.
One US intelligence official even named the Taj Mahal hotel, one of 10 sites hit in the 60-hour siege by gunmen, as a specific target, ABC television said.
Several Indian newspapers on Friday cited unidentified intelligence sources as saying that Pakistan's powerful spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was involved in training the gunmen.
The Indian Express said intercepts of conversations between the gunmen and their handlers showed the use of communication pathways often used by the ISI.
"We are 100 percent convinced that the ISI is involved," the India Abroad News Service quoted a highly placed intelligence source as saying.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Islamabad Thursday in an effort to defuse tension in the region after visiting New Delhi the previous day.
Rice said it was crucial for the Pakistani government to provide full and transparent cooperation with the Indian investigations.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said he was determined that his country would not be used to orchestrate attacks or shelter terrorists and vowed "strong action" against any Pakistani elements involved.
Indian jitters following the attacks saw New Delhi's international airport locked down for about 40 minutes overnight Thursday after security guards heard what they thought were gunshots.
The incident was finally dismissed as a false alarm.
Security was tightened across India after the Mumbai attacks, and the alert level at several airports was raised even higher Thursday after Defence Minister A.K. Antony warned of possible "terror strikes from the air."
Tourists flood out of Thailand but turmoil remains
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081205/afp/081205075003asiapacificnews.html
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thousands of stuck travellers were preparing to leave Bangkok's main airport as it resumed full operations, but political uncertainty dragged on after the king cancelled his annual birthday speech.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej turned 81 on Friday but pulled out of his customary birthday address the previous day due to illness, ending hopes that he might offer guidance on a way out of the nation's long-running political crisis.
A mid-morning ceremony complete with puppet shows and classical dance officially reopened Suvarnabhumi international airport, after an eight-day siege by anti-government protesters ended on Wednesday.
"Suvarnabhumi has officially resumed operations. All of the staff here are so happy to return to work," an Airports of Thailand spokeswoman said.
"Thai Airways TG971 bound for Moscow officially marked the full and smooth resumption of the airport."
The siege of Suvarnabhumi and the smaller Don Mueang domestic airport left an estimated 350,000 travellers stranded in Thailand, and cost the kingdom billions of dollars in lost revenue.
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Frustrated holiday-makers have been struggling to get out of a naval base southwest of the capital and a handful of regional airports, but there is a huge backlog of people waiting to fly out of the "Land of Smiles."
Suvarnabhumi can handle 700 flights and 100,000 passengers a day, although the spokeswoman said she expected up to 80,000 travellers and 550 flights to pass through the hub Friday.
Tourists in sunglasses and shorts milled around the futuristic steel-and-glass terminal, where there was little sign that one week ago thousands of protesters were setting up makeshift food stalls and tents.
Dozens of flights had already left the two-year-old hub since a court dissolution of the ruling party gave demonstrators a face-saving way to leave, but check-in and immigration were not up and running until Friday.
The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) decided to abandon its blockade of the airports after Tuesday's Constitutional Court ruling forced premier Somchai Wongsawat from office -- a key demand of their movement.
The PAD launched their campaign in May, accusing the government of acting as a puppet for Thaksin Shinawatra, the premier ousted in a 2006 coup who is living in exile to escape corruption charges.
Analysts say there is now a pause in the turmoil as Thais celebrate the king's birthday with reverential ceremonies, but warn that protests could erupt again.
Allies of Somchai have vowed to regroup under new names and simply re-form the government, since they still have a majority.
They are set to name a likely successor on Sunday, although a parliamentary session early next week when MPs would have voted for a new premier has been cancelled and has not been rescheduled.
The PAD, which draws its support from the urban elite and elements in the military and palace, has warned that it will resume protests if the new premier is too close to Thaksin. Somchai is Thaksin's brother-in-law.
"Any effort to nominate another proxy of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to lead a new administration will only result in another crisis," an editorial in the Bangkok Post said Friday.
King Bhumibol -- the world's longest reigning monarch -- pulled out of his highly anticipated address to the nation at the last minute on Thursday as millions of Thais were tuning in to hear it.
Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn said that the king was "mildly sick" in a brief broadcast, while Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn said in the same broadcast he "has a blockage in his throat and has poor appetite."
The announcement prompted speculation that the king did not want to get involved in the turmoil that has rocked Thailand since Thaksin was ousted, and sparked concerns for the health of the monarch, adored as semi-divine here.
Ex-PoWs deserve apology, says professor
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=371390
A JAPANESE professor who lectures on her country's role in the Second World War says Cambridgeshire's former prisoners of war deserve a full apology for the way they were treated.
Prof Tomoyo Nakao, who teaches at Okayama University in Japan, has interviewed many ex-prisoners about the cruelty they suffered at the hands of her countrymen.
Many hundreds of men from the Cambridgeshire Regiment were locked up by the Japanese army in Singapore prison camps in the early 1940s, and were beaten, starved and forced to work as slaves building the Burma railway.
In the News last week, some of the surviving veterans spoke about how they had never received a "proper" apology from the Japanese government or Japan's emperor - and claimed they probably would never get one.
Prof Nakao, who has visited Cambridge to speak to former prisoners and has written a book about the issue of reconciliation, said: "There are young ones as well as veterans who are concerned.
"I teach my students about the PoW issue, and I quite agree that the PoWs have not been given proper words of apology.
"I have just published a book about the failure of post-war Japan-Anglo reconciliation, in which I tried to explain why those Japanese 'apologies' issued by our prime ministers and emperor were not sufficient, and did not work, in spite of the fact that the Japanese are made to believe - by some books and in the media - that they were successful."
She added: "One of my students told me that after we discussed the issue in class, she had come to understand the importance and weight of the word of apology.
She said to me: 'I do believe that we need to apologise, and that we know what we are apol-ogising for.'
"It sounds easy but I know it is difficult. However, it is most necessary to do so. And it is important that we do not simply issue an apology, but that we make an effort to obtain forgiveness in the real sense of the word."
Prof Nakao said: "In Japan, many are made to believe that reconciliation has been achieved, and that the PoWs are now satisfied. For me, that is hard to believe."
She is a member of the International Oral History Association and has just started a website focusing on dialogue between the UK and Japan - http://powow.asia
Kyaw Zaw urges perseverance against Burmese regime
http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1984
Dec 4, 2008 (DVB)General Kyaw Zaw, a veteran politician and one of the Thirty Comrades, has urged the people of Burma to keep on fighting against the military dictatorship and not to give in to pressure from the regime.
Kyaw Zaw, speaking on the occasion of his 89th birthday yesterday, called for unity and perseverance.
"I am 89 years old today, I am now a geriatric, as [Burmese revolutionary icon] Sayagyi Thakhin Ko Daw Hmine often described himself,・Kyaw Zaw said.
I am so proud and delighted to see our people are still fighting relentlessly against the military dictatorship through over the generations with no fear in the face of the various pressures from the government," he said.
"I would like to urge everyone to keep on fighting and not to give up," he continued.
"I ask everyone to stand together in unity and show understanding towards each other; also I would like to urge the SPDC and all the troops in the military to show respect to the people as their mentors and not to treat them like their enemies."
Kyaw Zaw, along with Ye Htut, is one of the two surviving members of the Thirty Comrades, who travelled to Japan in 1941 for military training, founded the Burmese Independence Army and returned to Burma to fight against British colonial rule.
He was dismissed from the army in 1957 after being accused of leaking information on the army movements to the Communist Party of Burma, of which he was a senior member.
He went on to stand for parliament in 1960 but was unsuccessful.
Since going in to exile, Kyaw Zaw has called for dialogue between the military regime and the National League for Democracy and urged the people of Burma to continue their struggle against the junta.
Kyaw Zaw now lives in exile in China.
Reporting by Aye Nai
China's cold war on Tibet
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?fecvnodeid=59999&v5=59999&fecvid=5&lng=en&id=94401
By rejecting the Dalai Lama's call for autonomy for Tibet, Beijing could face greater upheaval in the future that would also affect ties with other countries, Sudeshna Sarkar writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Sudeshna Sarkar in Kathmandu for ISN Security Watch
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Less than a week before the scheduled start of a critical China-EU Summit in Lyon on 1 December, the Chinese government has asked for the talks to be postponed indefinitely after learning that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the rotating president of the Council of the European Union, would meet the Dalai Lama after the session.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the meeting between the exiled Tibetan leader and Sarkozy, scheduled for this Saturday, had aroused "strong dissatisfaction of the Chinese government and people."
"The Tibet issue is related to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and [has bearing on] China's core interest," a Ministry spokesperson said in a statement. "We resolutely oppose [the] Dalai's separatist activities in any [country] in whatever capacity, and the contact between foreign leaders with him in whatever form."
Almost as soon as Beijing decided to shelve the Lyon meeting, it sent Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who was to visit Myanmar this week, to Nepal first - the communist republic's southern neighbor, which is now emerging as an important factor in the battle over Tibet.
Yang's three-day visit to Kathmandu ended in a bounty comprising both usual and unusual offers. While China signed the usual technical and economic cooperation agreement worth 100 million yuan (over US$14 million) and agreed to look into the possibilities of extending the Beijing-Lhasa railway to its border with Nepal to boost bilateral trade and tourism, it also, unusually, offered security assistance. The latter comes at the cost of annoying India (the other South Asia giant), which contends that per old treaties, Nepal must consult New Delhi over security agreements with other countries.
Nepali Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav, who signed the agreement with his Chinese counterpart in Kathmandu on Wednesday, parried media questions on what the security assistance entailed. "It's training and equipment," Yadav said. "The details would be decided by the appropriate channels of both countries."
Nepal is currently ruled by the Maoist party, consisting of former guerrillas who laid down arms two years ago and agreed to support a competitive multi-party democracy. When the then-coalition government, which included the Maoists, received unspecified military supplies from India in March, the former guerrillas called a general strike and set police posts on fire.
Devendra Poudel, a regional leader of the Maoists, was quoted at that time as saying that India's move was "a conspiracy to sabotage" the March national elections.
The re-emergence of a security assistance offer by Beijing less than nine months later is fueling speculation over the catalyst, especially with a renewed shoring up of Sino-Nepali military ties. In September, less than a month after he assumed office, Nepal Defense Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa visited Beijing. The trip resulted in the communist republic offering once again unspecified military assistance.
In November, a high-level Chinese military delegation headed by a major-general visited Kathmandu. A second delegation, led by a lieutenant-general, is scheduled to arrive Saturday.
The Dharamshala factor
These activities are most likely related to the six-day meeting of exiled Tibetan leaders held last month in Dharamshala, India, the seat of the Dalai Lama's government in exile. The group gathered to decide the future strategy of the diaspora, which remains scattered since China's invasion and annexation of the Buddhist kingdom of Tibet in 1951.
With the Dalai Lama finally admitting that talks with Beijing - begun in 2002 to seek greater autonomy for Tibet - had failed, there was fear that the younger generations of Tibetans, who advocate a push for independence, would assume leadership and begin a new movement that could lead to confrontation and bloodshed.
Though the special meeting averted an immediate crisis by endorsing the Dalai Lama's leadership and his advocacy of the "Middle Way" approach - seeking greater autonomy within the framework of the Chinese republic in a peaceful way - Beijing still can't afford to relax.
The meeting, for one, has set the clock ticking. The nearly 500 representatives present at the Dharamshala gathering also agreed that they might be forced to seek independence if results of further engagement with China were not evident "in the near future."
Also, while the diaspora awaits results of engagement it has launched a Charter for Engagement in the Future of Tibet - an attempt to "engage directly with the challenges facing Tibetans on the plateau" and build a new consensus.
Beijing wants to stop such engagements at any cost and suppress any eventual attempt at freedom, which has led to its increased focus on Nepal. The border between Tibet and Nepal, though dominated by high Himalayan ranges, is the traditional route used for decades by Tibetans trying to escape from China-controlled Tibet or re-enter the heavily guarded territory. If the border can be controlled, contacts between Tibetans at home and abroad as well as future independence movements can also be controlled.
With this in mind, China has not just stepped up deployment of soldiers along the border but is also pressuring Nepal to regulate its border with India further southward. India and Nepal share an 1,800-km open border, which can be crossed by the nationals of both countries without passports or visas. China suspects that Tibetans from Dharamshala, or even the US and other countries, have been using this border to cross into Nepal to stoke anti-China protests in Kathmandu for nearly seven months.
The protests, with images of unarmed monks and women being subjected to brute force by security personnel, embarrassed Beijing before, during and after the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
The Chinese government considered the protests so grave an affront that it asked the then-Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Zheng Xianglin, to urge the Nepal government to adopt harsher measures that would deter the protesters. When the suggestion was not heeded by Nepal, Zheng was recalled after completing only half of his three-year term.
The new Maoist-led government of Nepal has pledged to uphold Beijing's "One China" policy that considers Tibet and Taiwan inalienable parts of the communist republic. It has also pledged not to allow Nepal's soil to be used for anti-China activities.
Though the earlier government made the same pledge, the Maoists have been able to implement it more effectively. The Tibetan protests have died down under Maoist rule and the threat of deportation hangs over future protesters.
Though successful with is neighbor, Beijing has been unable to convince other governments to adopt its views about Tibet and the Dalai Lama. China, which went to war with India in 1962, is displeased with New Delhi for allowing the Dalai Lama's "government in exile" to function from Dharamshala. It is also angered by repeated US intervention on behalf of Tibetans.
Washington had offered to Kathmandu to resettle 5,000 Tibetan refugees living in Nepal. However, the offer was blocked by an angry Beijing, which says there are no Tibetan refugees, only "illegal immigrants" who should be dealt with accordingly.
China: EU also to blame
The EU, especially France, is now on Beijing's peeve list as being the cause for the postponed summit.
"The current situation is not caused by China, nor should China be held responsible for it," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. "Nevertheless, China has not changed its determination and policy to actively develop its ties with the European Union. China is still willing to work together with the EU from the long term perspective, to push forward the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations on the basis of mutual respect on an equal footing."
Vincent Metten, EU policy director of International Campaign for Tibet, a New York-based Tibet rights organization, said in a statement that Beijing's "disproportionate action" was counterproductive to its own interests and may damage Europe's confidence in China as a responsible partner.
"Beijing cannot escape the reality that the EU, the US and the United Nations all have serious concerns about the political and human rights situation in Tibet," Metten said. "[All of them] respect the Dalai Lama's leadership and his willingness to engage with China."
Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years
အေမရိကားမွာဒီနွစ္ နိုဝင္ဘာလ တလထဲမွာ အလုပ္ျပဳတ္တဲ့သူ ငါးသိန္းသုံးေသာင္းေက်ာ္ရိွပါတယ္
ဒါဟာ ၃၄ နွစ္အတြင္းမွာအမ်ားဆုံးျဖစ္ပါတယ္၊ အခုအလုပ္လက္မဲ့ရာခိုင္နႈန္း
ဟာ ေျခာက္ဒႆမ ခြန္နွစ္ရိွပါတယ္ ။
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081205/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown/print
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer Jeannine Aversa, Ap Economics Writer
9 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Skittish employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession.
The new figures, released by the Labor Department Friday, showed the crucial employment market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid clip, and handed Americans some more grim news right before the holidays.
As companies throttled back hiring, the unemployment rate bolted from 6.5 percent in October to 6.7 percent last month, a 15-year high.
"These numbers are shocking," said economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economics Advisors. "Companies are sharply reacting to the economy's problems and slashing costs. They are not trying to ride it out."
The unemployment rate would have moved even higher if not for the exodus of 422,000 people from the work force. Economists thought many of those people probably abandoned their job searches out of sheer frustration. In November 2007, the jobless rate was at 4.7 percent.
The U.S. tipped into recession last December, a panel of experts declared earlier this week, confirming what many Americans already thought.
Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, the number of unemployed people increased by 2.7 million and the jobless rate rose by 1.7 percentage points.
Job losses last month were widespread, hitting factories, construction companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality, and others industries. The few places where gains were logged included the government, education and health services.
The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. The rise in the unemployment rate, however, wasn't as steep as the 6.8 percent rate they were expecting. Taken together, though, the employment picture was dismal.
The job reductions were the most since a whopping 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, when the country was in a severe recession.
All told, 10.3 million people were left unemployed as of November, while the number of employed was 144.3 million.
Job losses in September and October also turned out to be much worse. Employers cut 403,000 jobs in September, versus 284,000 previously estimated. Another 320,000 were chopped in October, compared with an initial estimate of 240,000.
Employers are slashing costs to the bone as they try to cope with sagging appetites from customers in the U.S. and in other countries, which are struggling with their own economic troubles.
The carnage — including the worst financial crisis since the 1930s — is hitting a wide range of companies.
In recent days, household names like AT&T Inc., DuPont, JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. announced layoffs.
Fighting for their survival, the chiefs of Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. will return Friday to Capitol Hill to again ask lawmakers for as much as $34 billion in emergency aid.
Workers with jobs saw modest wage gains. Average hourly earnings rose to $18.30 in November, a 0.4 percent increase from the previous month. Over the year, wages have grown 3.7 percent, but paychecks haven't stretched that far because of high prices for energy, food and other items.
Worn-out consumers battered by the job losses, shrinking nest eggs and tanking home values have retrenched, throwing the economy into a tailspin. As the unemployment rate continues to move higher, consumers will burrow further, dragging the economy down even more, a vicious cycle that Washington policymakers are trying to break.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected ratchet down a key interest rate — now near a historic low of 1 percent — by as much as a half-percentage point on Dec. 16 in a bid to breathe life into the moribund economy. Bernanke is exploring other economic revival options and wants the government to step up efforts to curb home foreclosures.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, whose department oversees the $700 billion financial bailout program, also is weighing new initiatives, even as his remaining days in office are numbered.
President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for a massive economic recovery bill to generate 2.5 million jobs over his first two years in office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vowed to have a package ready on Inauguration Day for Obama's signature.
The measure, which could total $500 billion, would bankroll big public works projects to create jobs, provide aid to states to help with Medicaid costs, and provide money toward renewable energy development.
At 12 months and counting, the recession is longer than the 10-month average length of recessions since World War II. The record for the longest recession in the postwar period is 16 months, which was reached in the 1973-75 and 1981-82 downturns. The current recession might end up matching that or setting a record in terms of duration, analysts say.
The 1981-82 recession was the worst in terms of unemployment since the Great Depression. The jobless rate rose as high as 10.8 percent in late 1982, just as the recession ended, before inching down.
Given the current woes, the jobless rate could rise as high as 8.5 percent by the end of next year, some analysts predict. Projections, however, have to be taken with a grain of salt because of all the uncertainties plaguing the economy. Still, the unemployment rate often peaks after a recession has ended. That's because companies are reluctant to ramp up hiring until they feel certain the recovery has staying power.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Online journalists now jailed more than others
အခုအခါမွာ အြန္လိုင္းဂ်ာနယ္လစ္ေတြကမၻာတလႊားမွာ တျခားနယ္ပယ္က ဂ်ာနယ္လစ္ေတြထက္ပိုျပီး
မတရားဖမ္းဆီးအေရးယူခံေနရပါတယ္ ၊ ဒီထဲမွာကၽြန္ေတာ္တို ့ ကို ေရႊ နအဖ ကလဲအားက်မခံ ထိပ္တန္းကပါဝင္ေနပါတယ္။
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8321
December 4, 2008
By Our Correspondent
NEW YORK - A total of 23 journalists remained jailed in connection with their work in Sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds held without charge, according to an annual report released today by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Thirteen journalists were held in Eritrea, which was the fourth jailer of journalists worldwide behind China, Cuba and Burma. The survey found more Internet journalists jailed worldwide today than journalists working in any other medium.
CPJ’s survey found 125 journalists in all behind bars on December 1, a decrease of two from the 2007 tally. (Read detailed accounts of each imprisoned journalist.) China continued to be world’s worst jailer of journalists, a dishonor it has held for 10 consecutive years. Cuba, Burma, Eritrea, and Uzbekistan round out the top five jailers from among the 29 nations that imprison journalists. Each of the top five nations has persistently placed among the world’s worst in detaining journalists.
Eritrea’s secret prisons held but four of at least 17 journalists worldwide held in secret locations. Eritrean authorities have refused to disclose the whereabouts, legal status, or health of any of the journalists they have been detaining for several years. Unconfirmed reports have suggested the deaths of at least three of these journalists while in custody, but the government has refused to even say whether the detainees are alive or dead.
Two other Eritrean journalists were being held in secret in neighboring Ethiopia, while the government of The Gambia has declined to provide information on the July 2006 arrest of journalist “Chief” Ebrima Manneh. Many international observers, from the U.S. Senate to the West African human rights court, have called on authorities to free Manneh, who was jailed for trying to publish a report critical of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.
About 13 percent of jailed journalists worldwide, including those imprisoned in Eritrea, Ethiopia and The Gambia, face no formal charge at all. Countries as diverse as Israel, Iran, the United States, and Uzbekistan also used this tactic of open-ended detention without due process. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 out of 23 journalists were behind bars without charge.
Antistate allegations such as subversion, divulging state secrets, and acting against national interests are the most common charge used to imprison journalists worldwide, CPJ found. About 59 percent of journalists in the census are jailed under these charges, many of them by the Chinese and Cuban governments, but also by countries like Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast.
The survey found that 45 percent of all media workers jailed worldwide are bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors. Online journalists represent the largest professional category for the first time in CPJ’s prison census. At least 56 online journalists are jailed worldwide, according to CPJ’s census, a tally that surpasses the number of print journalists for the first time.
This trend applied in Sub-Saharan Africa where at least one online journalist remained imprisoned as of December 1, 2008.
“Online journalism has started to change the media landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa and eased access to communication,” said CPJ’s Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “But some governments have reacted adversely to this trend and a growing pattern of harassment of online journalists has developed.”
The number of imprisoned online journalists has steadily increased since CPJ recorded the first jailed Internet writer in its 1997 census. Print reporters, editors, and photographers make up the next largest professional category, with 53 cases in 2008. Television and radio journalists and documentary filmmakers constitute the rest.
“Online journalism has changed the media landscape and the way we communicate with each other,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “But the power and influence of this new generation of online journalists has captured the attention of repressive governments around the world, and they have accelerated their counterattack.”
In October, CPJ joined with Internet companies, investors, and human rights groups to combat government repression of online expression. After two years of negotiations, this diverse group announced the creation of the Global Network Initiative, which establishes guidelines enabling Internet and telecommunications companies to protect free expression and privacy online. Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have joined the initiative.
Illustrating the evolving media landscape, the increase in online-related jailings has been accompanied by a rise in imprisonments of freelance journalists. Forty-five of the journalists on CPJ’s census are freelancers; most of them work online. These freelancers are not employees of media companies and often do not have the legal resources or political connections that might help them gain their freedom. The number of imprisoned freelancers has risen more than 40 percent in the last two years, according to CPJ research.
“The image of the solitary blogger working at home in pajamas may be appealing, but when the knock comes on the door they are alone and vulnerable,” said CPJ’s Simon. “All of us must stand up for their rights—from Internet companies to journalists and press freedom groups. The future of journalism is online and we are now in a battle with the enemies of press freedom who are using imprisonment to define the limits of public discourse.”
Nowhere is the ascendance of Internet journalism more evident than in China, where 24 of 28 jailed journalists worked online. China’s prison list includes Hu Jia, a prominent human rights activist and blogger, who is serving a prison term of three and a half years for online commentaries and media interviews in which he criticized the Communist Party. He was convicted of “incitement to subvert state power,” a charge commonly used by authorities in China to jail critical writers. At least 22 journalists are jailed in China on this and other vague antistate charges.
Cuba, the world’s second worst jailer, released two imprisoned journalists during the year after negotiations with Spain. Madrid, which resumed some cooperative programs with Cuba in February, has sought the release of imprisoned writers and dissidents in talks with Havana. But Cuba continued to hold 21 writers and editors in prison as of December 1, all but one of them swept up in Fidel Castro’s massive 2003 crackdown on the independent press. In November, CPJ honored Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, who at 65 is the oldest of those jailed in Cuba, with an International Press Freedom Award.
Burma, the third worst jailer, is holding 14 journalists. Five were arrested while trying to spread news and images from areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis. The blogger and comedian Maung Thura, who uses the professional name Zarganar, was sentenced to a total of 59 years in prison during closed proceedings in November. Authorities accused Maung Thura of illegally disseminating video footage of relief efforts in hard-hit areas, communicating with exiled dissidents, and causing public alarm in comments to foreign media.
Uzbekistan, with six journalists detained, is the fifth worst jailer. Those in custody include Dzhamshid Karimov, nephew of the country’s president. A reporter for independent news Web sites, Karimov has been forcibly held in a psychiatric hospital since 2006.
Here are other trends and details that emerged in CPJ’s analysis:
In about 11 percent of cases, governments have used a variety of charges unrelated to journalism to retaliate against critical writers, editors, and photojournalists. Such charges range from regulatory violations to drug possession. In the cases included in this census, CPJ has determined that the charges were most likely lodged in reprisal for the journalist’s work.
Violations of censorship rules, the next most common charge, are applied in about 10 percent of cases. Criminal defamation charges are filed in about 7 percent of cases, while charges of ethnic or religious insult are lodged in another 4 percent. Two journalists are jailed for filing what authorities consider to be “false” news, including Senegalese journalist El Malick Seck. (More than one type of charge may apply in individual cases.)
Print and Internet journalists make up the bulk of the census. Television journalists compose the next largest professional category, accounting for 6 percent of cases. Radio journalists account for 4 percent, and documentary filmmakers 3 percent.
The 2008 tally reflects the second consecutive decline in the total number of jailed journalists. That said, the 2008 figure is roughly consistent with census results in each year since 2000. CPJ research shows that imprisonments rose significantly in 2001, after governments imposed sweeping national security laws in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Imprisonments stood at 81 in 2000 but have since averaged 128 in CPJ’s annual surveys.
The United States, which is holding photographer Ibrahim Jassam without charge in Iraq, has made CPJ’s list of countries jailing journalists for the fifth consecutive year. During this period, U.S. military authorities have jailed dozens of journalists in Iraq - some for days, others for months at a time - without charge or due process. No charges have ever been substantiated in these cases.
CPJ does not apply a rigid definition of online journalism, but it carefully evaluates the work of bloggers and online writers to determine whether the content is journalistic in nature. In general, CPJ looks to see whether the content is reportorial or fact-based commentary. In a repressive society where the traditional media is restricted, CPJ takes an inclusive view of work produced online.
The organization believes that journalists should not be imprisoned for doing their jobs. CPJ has sent letters expressing its serious concerns to each country that has imprisoned a journalist.
CPJ’s list is a snapshot of those incarcerated at midnight on December 1, 2008. It does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year; accounts of those cases can be found at www.cpj.org. Journalists remain on CPJ’s list until the organization determines with reasonable certainty that they have been released or have died in custody.
Journalists who either disappear or are abducted by non-state entities, including criminal gangs, rebels, or militant groups, are not included on the imprisoned list. Their cases are classified as “missing” or “abducted”.
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