http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=360868
By D. Arul Rajoo
BANGKOK, Sept 23 (Bernama) -- Over 100 heads of state who will be gathering at the High-Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in New York this week, have been asked to seriously strengthen cooperation, increase overseas development aid and provide financial assistance to the world's least developed countries.
In making the call, Dr Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under Secretary-General and the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), urged them to move much faster in reducing domestic and export subsidies on agriculture in developed countries.
"It is make-or-break time for getting the MDG targets "on track" for all, and for ensuring that MDG implementation proceeds in a gender-equitable way.
"It is time for those world leaders to seriously strengthen cooperation in order to make a difference that will contribute to achieving the MDGs," she said here today.
Heyzer said the gathering was taking place at the halfway point towards the 2015 target date for the achievement of the eight MDGs, adding that in confronting uneven progress to date, everyone should address the exclusion of vulnerable communities and segments of the population that have been left behind.
She said the leaders would review progress towards MDG implementation, identify gaps in that progress and commit to concrete efforts to bridge those gaps.
But for these to yield accelerated results and to happen effectively, Heyzer said it would be essential for them to take a hard look at the distressing conditions on the ground, citing the Asia-Pacific which has experienced unparalleled economic growth and helped keep the region on track to reach MDG targets of reducing extreme poverty by half, and achieving universal education.
"While this progress is laudable, such achievement is overshadowed by the uneven progress and disparities glaringly visible between countries in the region, within countries, and, between their men/boys and women/girls," she said.
With close to two-thirds of the world's population in the Asia-Pacific region, the persisting gender-based gaps and related gender inequalities have widespread ramifications and clear economic and social costs, not only in the region, but globally.
Heyzer said two-thirds of the estimated global total of 774 million illiterate adults lived in this region -- which also has the world's highest female adult illiteracy rate -- while an estimated 65 per cent of employed women here, or 447 million, were considered to be in vulnerable employment.
"Almost 45 per cent of all maternal deaths in the world occur here, with South Asia having the second highest maternal mortality ratio in the world. The list goes on.
"And to make matters worse... with our region being the world's most disaster-prone, more women than men die as the indirect and direct result of these natural disasters," she said.
For example, Heyzer said women accounted for approximately 61 per cent of deaths from the recent Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, and more than 70 per cent of fatalities from the Indian Ocean tsunami in December, 2004.
She said while these grim facts made for grim reading, the problems had only been worsened by the region's widespread gender disparities, citing last year's regional survey produced by the Bangkok-based Unescap that estimated persistent gender inequality cost the region between US$58 billion and US$77 billion (US$1 = RM3.4) annually.
The world, she said, must collectively commit to ensure that everyone was able to reap the benefits of progress in implementing those eight laudable commitments.
The MDG goals range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education.
-- BERNAMA
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
UN-Bound World Leaders Told To Provide More Aid, Tackle Gender Disparity
The secret arm ,A.G. NOORANI ,A well-documented expose of the CIA’s record in covert operations.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20081010252007700.htm
THE rake’s career which is the Central Intelligence Agency’s record reflects the United States’ pursuit of its interests in the Cold War. No one is better qualified to record it than John Prados. He is one of the foremost historians of national security affairs. Author of books like Presidents’ Secret Wars and The Hidden History of the Vietnam Wars, he is a senior fellow of the National Security Archive, the scourge of official secrecy and skulduggery.
This is a thoroughly researched and well-documented expose of the CIA’s record in covert operations. The book contributes important new detail to the understanding of many CIA operations, including those in Italy, Korea, Poland, Iran, Guatemala, Hungary, China, Tibet, the Philippines, Indonesia, Syria, Iraq, Cuba, Bolivia, the Congo, Ghana, Vietnam and Laos, Kurdistan, Chile, Angola, Afghanistan and Nicaragua.
It provides a first-hand view of actions in Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, and other more recent activities. All this is related to specific presidential decisions by the White House and moderated by congressional oversight procedures.
“The conclusions of this inquiry tend to bear out the critics. American undercover actions have resulted in upheavals and untold suffering in many nations while contributing little to Washington’s quest for democracy. Despite considerable ingenuity, technological wizardry, operational flexibility, and an impressively competent cadre of secret warriors, the results of covert operations have been consistently disappointing. Yet the very drive to maintain and use these capabilities has had consequences – often unforeseen – both for America’s image around the globe and for constitutional control of the United States Government by its own people.”
The record which the author sets out of the CIA’s doings over the decades in various parts of the world is riveting. From bribing and assassinating politicians to interfering in elections and the democratic process, it has left little undone.
The results are dismal. On the other hand, it has failed to provide intelligence when its masters had a right to the intelligence, on Pokhran II, for instance.
As a result, it has debased the political process at home as well and undermined democratic accountability. “The worst aspect of direct White House involvement in a covert action was the squandering of a President’s political capital on a marginal issue. The prestige of the presidency, openly committed to an effort at the very margins of legality in international relations, left Ronald Reagan damaged. Project Democracy muddied the waters further by skirting the law of the land. There are many wise reasons for eschewing such a policy.”
This, in a country where there is a statute governing the CIA and where Congressional Committees perform the duty of oversight.
The author’s conclusion is damning:
“In making the world safe for democracy, the resort to covert means almost immediately calls into question the disinterestedness and sincerity of American purpose. The United States has never felt itself able to take issues involved in a secret war to the United Nations. In those cases where matters went to the U.N. in the face of U.S. inaction – Burma, Tibet, Cuba – Washington actively discouraged public debate or even vetoed resolutions in the Security Council. The secret war in Nicaragua led Washington – for the first time in history and in violation of its own international undertakings – to reject the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. That same event led to the casting of a veto at the U.N. Security Council, again the first time in history that the veto was employed to protect a covert operation. None of this advanced the cause of democracy. In all the secret wars from 1947 to the present, no covert operation ever led to a vibrant democracy, and quite a few resulted in dictatorships. Many political actions had the effect of inhibiting the free expression of democratic beliefs.” The Court, in fact, censured the U.S. It had little effect on American behaviour.
Laura Bush: India, China must help on Myanmar Tue Sep 23, 4:55 PM ET
Burmese monk U Kovida (2ndR) speaks with US President George W. Bush (2ndL) and First Lady Laura Bush (C) during a meeting with dissidents on Governor's Island in New York.
(AFP/Jim Watson)
NEW YORK (AFP) - Against the backdrop of the sun-washed Statue of Liberty, US First Lady Laura Bush on Tuesday implored China and India to help push for democratic reforms in military-ruled Myanmar.
"I want to urge all the neighbors of Burma -- China and India and other neighbors -- to continue trying to talk to the Burmese General, Than Shwe, to see if he can't do what all the world, the international community wants him to do," she said.
The junta must "start respecting the rights of the people of Burma, start a real dialogue for a transition to democracy" and talk with opposition leaders including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, said the US first lady.
"Bring everyone to the table so that the country can start to rebuild and be the country that the people of Burma want," said Bush. Washington does not recognize the country's name change.
Laura Bush spoke as US President George W. Bush met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with critics of the governments of Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea, Myanmar and other countries.
Among them was a monk from Myanmar who helped lead who helped lead massive anti-government protests in September last year, drawing a government crackdown.
At the event in New York, chess legend turned Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov gave the US president his book on chess and leadership, entitled "How Life Imitates Chess."
Other attendees included Lodi Gyari, special envoy of the Dalai Lama; Cuban journalist Omar Pernet Hernandez; and Sang Hak Park, president of "Fighters for Free North Korea," according to the White House.
Other guests included Gameela Ismail, wife of jailed Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour; Belarus opposition leader Alexander Kozulin; former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky; and Sierra Leone Foreign Minister Zainab Hawa Bangura.
Radio Caracas Television chief Marcel Granier of Venezuela; Ausama Monajed for the Movement for Justice and Development in Syria; and founder of the outlawed China Democracy Party Xu Wenli also were on hand.
Myanmar author beats censors after decade-long battle By Gillian Murdoch
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080924/lf_nm_life/us_books_myanmar_yi_1
Wed Sep 24, 1:17 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters Life!) -
Nu Nu Yi, the first author living in army-ruled Myanmar to have a book published outside the country, battled censors for more than a decade to get her voice heard. Now, she wants other Myanmar writers to follow her.
Yi, whose book "Smile as They Bow" was nominated for the Asian Booker prize last year, is determined to help create a canon of Burmese literature that will fill its own shelves at English-language bookshops, and not be filed under Thailand.
She spoke to Reuters after the publication of the English translation of her novel, a gritty portrayal of the raucous week-long Taungbyon festival, which celebrates spirits known as "nats" who are believed to shower luck on people they favor.
Q: "Smile as They Bow" is the first book by a writer living in Myanmar to be translated into English. Is this a milestone?
A: When I was at Oxford in 1998, I saw Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's "Letters from Burma" at Blackwell's bookstore. It was the only book from Myanmar -- on the Thailand bookshelf -- they didn't even have a Burma bookshelf.
No one knows the tears I shed there at Blackwell's. I wanted to see Myanmar writers and Myanmar bookshelves in international bookstores. There are many writers, and even more unpublished manuscripts. But there are very few translators and no connections to foreign publishers.
So for me personally, and for Myanmar literature, the U.S. publication of "Smile As They Bow" is very important.
Q: Can you explain why the book took three years to research and write -- and then 12 years to be published?
A: Initially, the censors totally banned the novel. I remember the reason they gave was that it was "unsuitable for the times," a phrase they often use.
Q: Why was the story, set at one Myanmar's most famous spirit festivals, deemed so sensitive?
A: One very funny thing I remember, they said my mentioning the two Taungbyon Brothers, younger and elder, was obviously aimed at Secretary One and Secretary Two of the Military Council.
They also disallowed all references to homosexuality, which are in the English version, and did not even permit a beggar character. I tried to appeal that she's a singer, not a beggar.
Q: But you feel secure, as a writer, despite this?
A: I feel perfectly safe, because I am not political. Risk largely comes from writing open provocation. Most writers are experts at hidden meanings.
There are other writers with more government leanings, who definitely do no like the fact that I was translated and nominated for an international prize. They even say an American should not have translated it. But I do have a popular following and somehow manage to make a living.
Q: Why do spirits and superstition loom so large in your book, and other accounts of life in Myanmar?
A: Myanmar is largely pre-modern and such beliefs are very traditional. As the situation inside the country gets more and more dire, people grasp for quick desperate solutions, they want to believe in some kind of hope, anything.
Many authors write about the supernatural to escape from censorship because so many things are prohibited, both explicitly and by unwritten rules. One cannot write about poverty, beggars, sex, rape, and, of course, politics or anything positive about other countries.
Q: Do you read foreign books and reports about Myanmar?
A: We get almost no news from other countries inside Burma, except via BBC and VOA radio. I only can read journalism about my country when I am abroad. Of course such journalism is inaccurate and oversimplified to black-and-white. The situation is very complex, with many shades of gray.
Q: What do you hope overseas readers take from your work?
A: I want to give my country a human face. A real place with real people, not just an exotic tourist postcard.
(Writing by Gillian Murdoch; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
US, UN welcome Burma prisoner release
Article from: Agence France-correspondents in Washington
September 24, 2008 05:05am
THE US today welcomed the release of Burma's longest serving political prisoner but said it would press for the freedom of all jailed dissidents.
"We hope it's a first step in a process," Robert Wood, a spokesman for the US State Department, said, adding it was "long overdue".
But while the move was a "positive step", it remained unclear if the release signalled a shift in Burma government's approach to dissent, he said.
The comments came after Burma's junta today released Win Tin, a 79-year-old journalist and prominent dissident, who had been behind the bars of Rangoon's feared Insein prison since 1989.
He was released along with a handful of other dissidents as part of an amnesty granted by the junta to more than 9000 inmates.
State media announced today the 9002 prisoners would be freed so they could take part in elections promised by the ruling generals for 2010. The move also comes on the one year anniversary of massive anti-junta protests.
Human rights groups estimate that about 2000 political prisoners are locked away in Burma, including the country's most prominent dissident, Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy - who has been detained for most of the last 19 years.
Mr Wood said the United States wanted to see the release of Suu Kyi and all imprisoned dissidents.
"We continue to call for the release of political prisoners."
Also today, the United Nations independent human rights expert on Burma on welcomed as a "positive sign of cooperation" the release of political prisoners.
Myanmar overnight released its longest-serving political prisoner as part of an amnesty for more than 9000 inmates, but he immediately vowed to continue to fight the ruling generals.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the special rapporteur on Burma appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, said six other veteran prisoners had also been released: May Win Myint, Aung Soe Myint, Khin Maung Swe, Win Htain, Than Nyein and Thein Naing.
The releases "marked a positive sign of cooperation from the Government of Myanmar," Quintana said.
BOOK REVIEW | The Burma Chronicles
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A52203
Lost in Translation: Guy Delisle's new graphic memoir recalls heat and oppression in Rangoon
BY ERIC LIEBETRAU
A few weeks ago, I read a fascinating article in The New Yorker by George Packer (The Assassins' Gate), in which he revealed the near-incomprehensible government corruption that plagues the country of Burma (or Myanmar, as it's called by the United Nations since the "official" name change in 1989).
"When I asked a Burmese journalist to describe the regime's philosophy," Packer writes, "he suggested the word sit-padaytharit, or 'military feudalism.' The generals regard the population as unruly children incapable of taking responsibility for themselves; they believe that they alone can prevent Burma from dissolving."
The Burma Chronicles, Guy Delisle's latest work of graphic memoir/reportage, doesn't necessarily paint a rosier picture, but it does offer punctuated moments of hope and a neat delineation of life in the third-world country.
In 2005-2006, Delisle moved to the oppressed nation with his wife, an administrator for Doctors Without Borders. As she traveled to various rural outposts, the author stayed home with their toddler, Louis, chronicling life in Rangoon.
Like he did in Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China, Delisle eagerly explored his surroundings, attempting to experience as much native culture and tradition as possible. He learned early on that the censorship and secrecy of the military regime would make things exceedingly difficult.
"In Myanmar, all magazines go through the censorship bureau," he writes. "Articles that are unflattering to the country are systematically removed."
Left with only mangled magazines and very few books, Delisle ventured into the neighborhood, taking Louis to play groups and mingling with locals to grasp the local customs.
One of Burma's oldest traditions is Buddhism. As Delisle casually explains many of its central tenets — including alms-giving, karma, and merits — he wryly notes the sanctimonious practice of many of the country's leaders.
"Merits can be obtained in any number of ways: by making temple offerings, helping to maintain a pagoda or, better yet, building one. As did Win, the first in a long line of generals who have ruled the country with an iron fist since 1962. After spending one whole lifetime oppressing a nation, he wanted to avoid coming back as a rat or a frog in the next."
I found these moments of understated humor to be welcome respites from Delisle's constant struggles with the suffocating heat, rampant power outages, health threats, unreliable transportation, and confounding government bureaucracy.
It was his new role as father, though, that seemed to pose the biggest challenge.
"Louis' latest game involves letting small objects fall into hard-to-reach places. And then crying for them," he writes. "And the harder it is for me to get at the object, the more he laughs."
Louis is probably the most charming character in the narrative — his bulbous head and clueless innocence remind me of Ike, Kyle's little brother on South Park — and he proves especially useful to the author when they are invited to join the Australian club, which features a pool and other rare amenities.
Delisle's drawings are rendered in clean, spare lines, and the wordless vignettes are well-placed throughout the story. The material is often depressing — aside from the repressive regime, Burma is also plagued with widespread prostitution and heroin abuse — but the author's tangential, Everyman approach deflects some of the impact of the harsh reality.
The author also takes a few appropriate shots at failed American foreign policy in Burma.
"There's still an embassy, but no ambassador," he writes. "The U.S. is now represented by an attaché. The building, situated downtown, has turned into a bunker since September 11. The street is blocked to traffic and cameras are prohibited.
"Strangely enough, they've begun building a new embassy on the south side of the lake. And not a little one — we're talking $50 million. It's one of the mysteries of American diplomacy: Why build a gigantic embassy in a country you don't recognize and that you've put under embargo?"
In the end, Delisle finds plenty of common humanity, and his three-day stint in a Buddhist monastery is an appropriately humbling experience.
"After 42 hours of meditation in three days, I feel more peaceful than ever before, but also very alert," he writes. "How long can this state of grace last? It could be a hard landing."
The Burmese will continue to face countless hard landings in the years to come. Hopefully, Burma Chronicles will open a few eyes to a government's reprehensible behavior.
Man held over scam tied to journalist slain in Myanmar
Kyodo News
A man was arrested for allegedly trying to extort cash from a reporter after the suspect claimed to have access to video footage taken by journalist Kenji Nagai, who was killed by Myanmar security troops last September, the Metropolitan Police Department said Tuesday.
The man, identified as Maung Win Min Htun, a Myanmar national who lives in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo, had denied the allegation, according to police.
According to the investigation, he contacted the 33-year-old reporter for Tokyo-based APF News Inc., the same service Nagai was working for, in December, saying he could obtain video footage Nagai had taken but he would need money.
After the reporter refused the deal, the suspect allegedly attempted to extort money from the reporter at a Tokyo restaurant Jan. 14. He is quoted as saying he would resort to taking some action unless he was paid around ¥500,000.
The man said he was sounded out by the reporter and he did not try to extort anything from him.
The lonely death of Cycle Maung Maung
Whether Maung Maung shared the reluctance shown by some police officers to charge the crowd or whether he eagerly plunged into the fray is unknown. What is known is that the regime's efforts to quell the protests turned violent, fatally so. Police, army and the Swan-ar-Shin engaged the peaceful protestors with fists, kicks, batons and, in some instances, bullets. According to people from his neighborhood, Cycle Maung Maung, armed with a baton, brutally battered a monk, who later died.
The lonely death of Cycle Maung Maung
By Norman Robespierre
YANGON - Although the Buddhist monks and thousands of ordinary citizens who marched in last September's "Saffron" revolution seemed powerless against its brutal suppression by the Myanmar military junta, the cautionary tale of one belated casualty hints that karmic retribution may yet prevail. This is the story of Maung Maung.
Maung Maung passed away late last year while just in his late 40s, leaving behind a wife and a couple of grown children. Premature deaths are hardly news in Myanmar, which consistently ranks at the bottom in global health care rankings. But Maung Maung was not an ordinary citizen; and his was not an ordinary death.
Unlike most Myanmar citizens, Maung Maung was an ardent
supporter of the military regime, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). He befriended policemen and soldiers and dutifully attended pro-regime rallies. He became a member of the "Swan-ar-Shin", a civilian extension of the regime's uniformed forces that assists in controlling the populace.
Maung Maung's ties with the police and loyalty to the regime brought him some perks. One was that he could drive a motorcycle in Yangon, a privilege reserved for a select few, mostly military, police and intelligence officials, and Maung Maung wore the privilege as a badge of honor. He was often seen on his motorcycle, earning him the moniker, "Cycle Maung Maung" from his neighbors in the dusty working-class Paukan ward of Insein Township.
Aside from the motorcycle, catchy nickname and the modest wage of a Swan-ar-Shin member, Maung Maung received other special considerations from the authorities. Cell phones were issued to select Swan-Ar-Shin, a benefit beyond the reach of most ordinary citizens, and one Maung Maung conspicuously enjoyed. Approval for a new cell phone line can take months and cost over US$2,000, a hefty sum in a country with a gross domestic product per capita of only $1,900.
The selective enforcement of the law in favor of regime supporters allowed him to avoid the difficulties and bribes that others without strong government connections habitually endure. He avoided forced conscription into work parties for road repair and other manual labor often demanded by the authorities from ordinary citizens.
He also readily received recommendations from the ward and township that, among other things, allowed his family members to apply for phone lines and receive the necessary police certification to process paperwork through the bureaucracy - recommendations that others would find nearly unobtainable without an obligatory bribe.
These benefits did not come without a cost, however. Cycle Maung Maung was, as a member of the Swan-ar-Shin, frequently required to carry out orders in support of the regime. In September 2007, as part of the regime's combined force to suppress popular demonstrations, Cycle Maung Maung found himself in the middle of the government's battle against protesting monks. He and other Swan-ar-Shin members in civilian clothes and armed with clubs and truncheons formed a rank immediately behind policemen wielding police batons and riot shields.
Immediately behind the Swan-ar-Shin was the backbone of the force, soldiers with automatic weapons and sharpened bayonets. While numerous police in the front ranks, because of their Buddhist upbringing, hesitated to physically engage the monks, the politically motivated Swan-ar-Shin and members of the army - perhaps believing themselves to be true defenders of the nation - were more eager to attack.
Whether Maung Maung shared the reluctance shown by some police officers to charge the crowd or whether he eagerly plunged into the fray is unknown. What is known is that the regime's efforts to quell the protests turned violent, fatally so. Police, army and the Swan-ar-Shin engaged the peaceful protestors with fists, kicks, batons and, in some instances, bullets. According to people from his neighborhood, Cycle Maung Maung, armed with a baton, brutally battered a monk, who later died.
Karmic justice
There are no official accounts of the violence, and if there were, it's unlikely Maung Maung would have ever been tried or convicted in Myanmar's military-controlled courts. Nobody has ever been brought to trial for the government-orchestrated attacks on hundreds of unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988, or the assault on opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade and her supporters that left scores dead in 2003.
The violent act widely attributed to Maung Maung, however, propelled him from local obscurity. People from his neighborhood said his notoriety even gained international stature through a satellite television news clip which apparently showed him beating Buddhist monks. Overseas Myanmar activists based in South Korea who saw the footage promised justice for the "monk beater" should they ever gain power.
At home, notoriety brought social isolation. In fervently Buddhist and often superstitious Myanmar, he was viewed by neighbors who spoke with this reporter as a pariah for allegedly killing a monk. His social network quickly deteriorated to immediate family and other ardent supporters of the military regime, whose numbers grew even scarcer following the outrages against the monks.
Neighbors in his district found it difficult to comprehend how a fellow Buddhist could kill an unarmed monk. Rumors spread to explain his alleged actions: he was possessed by a demon, or the regime gave drugs to the police, soldiers and Swan-ar-Shin to make them more violent and the narcotics fueled Maung Maung's cruelty. True or false, his neighbors avoided him and few set foot into his house after the Saffron revolution crackdown.
But Cycle Maung Maung was not ostracized for long. Nearly six weeks after he killed the monk, either tormented by guilt or, as neighbors believe, haunted by ghosts, Cycle Maung Maung fell ill. He felt dogs biting him and yelled at them to leave him alone; those who were by his bedside saw no dogs.
According to his neighbors, in the middle of the November night before Cycle Maung Maung died, screams were heard from his house. He cried out, "M'kou net!" "M'kou net!", which translates as, "Don't come for me! Don't come for me!" The next morning he was found dead in his bed.
There were no marks on his body and there was no readily apparent cause for his death, according to those familiar with his last earthly night; his neighbors assume his demise was related to his alleged slaying of the Buddhist monk.
His family sought monks from the local monastery to perform traditional rites and ceremonies for his cremation and seven days after his cremation, but the monks at the monastery would not preside. The family tried in vain at several other monasteries, but Maung Maung's notoriety was too widespread.
After days of searching, the family finally found monks from a monastery in a distant township willing to perform the ceremonies, apparently because they were unaware of his history. Unlike most Myanmar funerals, which are attended by virtually the entire neighborhood, Cycle Maung Maung's funeral crowd was sparse.
He died a lonely soul, based on the accounts of his passing and the isolation he endured during the last month of his life.
While Cycle Maung Maung's death didn't bring back the life of the monk he purportedly murdered, it did have a positive upshot. In a land where the population lives under institutionalized injustice, those aware of the circumstances surrounding Cycle Maung Maung's passing sensed that karmic justice had prevailed.
One year after the government's brutal crackdown on Buddhist monks, there at least remains faint hope that the same karmic force that some believe took Maung Maung's life will eventually also visit SPDC Senior General Than Shwe and other senior members of his military regime.
Norman Robespierre, a pseudonym, is a political scientist specializing in Southeast Asian affairs. He may be reached at normanrobespierre@gmail.com.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
North Korea bars nuclear inspectors from Yongbyon: watchdog
Photo: AFP
Wednesday September 24, 7:07 PM
VIENNA (AFP) - North Korea has kicked out inspectors at its reprocessing plant in Yongbyon and plans to reintroduce nuclear material there, the UN atomic watchdog said Wednesday, adding its surveillance equipment had also been removed.
In a sign that the country was increasingly taking a tough line toward six-party nuclear disarmament talks, the hard-line communist state had asked the IAEA on Monday to remove seals and cameras from the Yongbyon reprocessing plant, the most sensitive part of the nuclear facility there.
Updating the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board of governors here, deputy director general Olli Heinonen said that the process had now been completed.
The removal of seals and cameras "was completed today," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters.
"There are no more IAEA seals and surveillance equipment in place at the reprocessing facility."
IAEA inspectors themselves removed around 100 seals and 20-25 cameras, diplomats close to the agency told AFP.
The work had started on Tuesday and was completed on Wednesday, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The reprocessing plant is the most sensitive part of the Yongbyon nuclear facility. But seals and cameras were still in place at other parts of the site, the diplomats said.
North Korea "has also informed the IAEA inspectors that they plan to introduce nuclear material to the reprocessing plant in one week's time" and that inspectors would be barred from the plant, spokeswoman Fleming said.
Diplomats specified that the inspectors were only being denied access to the reprocessing plant, but three inspectors remained in Yongbyon.
The latest development comes just days after North Korea confirmed it was working to restart the Yongbyon reactor and no longer wanted US concessions promised under the landmark agreement in return for its denuclearisation.
The six-nation aid-for-disarmament deal is deadlocked by a dispute over verification of the declaration of North Korea's nuclear programme, which it delivered in June as part of the agreement.
The hardline communist state, which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006, began disabling its ageing reactor and other plants at Yongbyon last November under the six-country pact with South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
But it announced last month it had halted work in protest at Washington's refusal to drop it from the US blacklist of countries supporting terrorism, as promised under the deal.
Washington says North Korea must first accept strict outside verification of the nuclear inventory that Pyongyang handed over in June.
In South Korea, Seoul expressed its deep concern at the latest developments. "The government is very concerned about North Korea's continued move to restore nuclear facilities in Yongbyon," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The government urges North Korea to resume work on disablement at an early date and actively cooperate for an agreement on the verification protocol.
"The government is paying keen attention to the situation and is in close cooperation with other countries involved in six-party negotiations".
The United States was similarly concerned.
"North Korean moves to halt and reverse disablement and, most recently, remove IAEA seals and cameras from the reprocessing facility, are unsettling," said US envoy Gregory Schulte.
Aso takes charge of Japan
Photo: AFP
Wednesday September 24, 3:29 PM
TOKYO (AFP) - Taro Aso took charge as Japan's new prime minister Wednesday, lining up his cabinet with like-minded conservatives to help his mission to revive the economy and win upcoming elections.
The divided parliament voted along party lines to install the flamboyant former foreign minister, who was expected to fly a day later to New York for the UN General Assembly.
Aso bowed four times and shook hands with fellow lawmakers after the more powerful lower house approved him.
"When I look at the financial situation and other things, I feel like we're in a turbulent period -- not in peacetime," Aso told reporters before the vote, referring to the crisis over bad debts hitting global markets.
"Frankly speaking, I am once again feeling the gravity of my responsibilities."
Aso replaced Yasuo Fukuda, a mild centrist whose ratings dived after he raised medical costs for the elderly.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) picked Aso on Monday as its new leader by an overwhelming majority, placing its trust in a crowd-pleasing -- though gaffe-prone -- campaigner.
Analysts expect him to call a general election as early as late October in a bid to hold off gains by the rising opposition, which has pounded away at the LDP's traditional strongholds in the countryside.
"The final battle has begun. The autumn of elections -- the autumn to change the government -- is coming," said opposition chief Ichiro Ozawa, whose bloc controls one house of parliament.
The LDP has been in power for all but 10 months since 1955, but Aso will be its fourth prime minister in the past two years as the party struggles over a raft of scandals and, more recently, a faltering economy.
Aso said his first priority would be to pump stimulative spending into the economy, the world's second largest but teetering on the brink of recession , clashing with LDP free-market reformists who in recent years have pushed to tame a ballooning public debt.
Newspapers said Aso would tap as his finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa who, echoing the incoming premier, said he would make "full use of all sorts of policies" to invigorate the economy.
"Some people label us as freespenders or old-guard cronies as we say we are not hesitant on fiscal spending," Nakagawa, a former industry minister, wrote in a newspaper column. "But we do not intend to backtrack on reforms."
Nakagawa -- who was shunned by the more dovish Fukuda -- has raised controversy through strong criticism of China and calls for Japan, the only nation to have suffered atomic attack, to study developing nuclear weapons.
"This is the lineup aimed at avoiding any political scandals ahead of the imminent general elections," said Shujiro Kato, professor of politics at Toyo University.
"Nobody reported to be appointed as minister is a fresh face."
Newspapers said the foreign minister would be Fumihiro Nakasone, the son of one of Japan's best-known premiers, Yasuhiro Nakasone, who led Japan in the 1980s and was a close ally in US president Ronald Reagan's anti-communist campaign.
Like Aso, Nakasone was uneasy with some of the free-market reforms during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, who was popular with the public but blamed by some LDP members for alienating rural voters by cutting services.
However, in a bid to ensure party unity, Aso was expected to keep in place Fiscal and Economic Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano, who had challenged him for the top job arguing that Aso's economic policies were irresponsible.
Another rival, Shigeru Ishiba, was tipped to be farm minister, a position that has frequently been hit by scandal. Ishiba survived resignation calls as he managed crises as Fukuda's defence minister.
Aso promises a return both at home and abroad to some of the more flamboyant ways of Koizumi, who would regale summits by singing Elvis Presley songs, after a two-year gap of drier leaders.
Known for his love of comic books, as foreign minister Aso entertained summits by doing a Humphrey Bogart impersonation and dancing in the costume of a samurai.
Myanmar opposition vows to continue fight for Aung San Suu Kyi
Photo: AFP
Wednesday September 24, 2:58 PM
YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's pro-democracy party on Wednesday vowed to continue pushing for their leader Aung San Suu Kyi's release after several of her close confidants were freed from prison by the ruling junta.
Seven dissidents from the Nobel peace laureate's party were among the 9,002 prisoners freed Tuesday in an amnesty that state media said was ordered so they could take part in elections promised by the ruling generals for 2010.
The most prominent was 79-year-old journalist and activist Win Tin, Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner, who spent nearly two decades behind the bars of Yangon's feared Insein prison.
National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman Nyan Win said that although they welcomed the amnesty, they would continue to fight for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the last 19 years under house arrest.
"We will send an appeal for her release from detention this week to the cabinet in Naypyidaw," Nyan Win told AFP, referring to the nation's capital.
"We are always hoping for her release. There are still many long-serving political prisoners ... All should also be released," he added.
The release of Win Tin and the six other NLD members was immediately hailed by the United Nations, the United States and rights groups around the world.
"We worked together to defend Win Tin's innocence and we are immensely relieved that he has finally been freed," press freedom organisations Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association said in a joint statement.
"We hope other journalists and prisoners of conscience will also be freed and that Win Tin will be able to resume his peaceful struggle for press freedom and democracy in Burma," they added, using Myanmar's former name.
Win Tin was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment on July 4, 1989 for acting as an adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi and writing letters to the then-United Nations envoy to Myanmar.
Upon his release Tuesday, Win Tin, still dressed in a blue prison-issue outfit but looking strong and healthy, vowed to journalists that he would continue to fight the ruling generals.
Human rights groups estimate that about 2,000 political prisoners are locked away in Myanmar.
Aung Naing Oo, a Myanmar analyst based in Thailand, welcomed the release of Win Tin and other colleagues of Aung San Suu Kyi but said the move showed the junta believed its hold on power was secure.
"I think the military is more confident now than before by releasing some key prisoners, including the longest-serving prisoner," Aung Naing Oo told AFP in Bangkok.
"Maybe they think he's no longer relevant or can no longer muster support," he added.
Myanmar's military government has said it will hold multi-party elections in 2010 but critics say the polls are just a way for the generals to solidify and legitimise their power.
Other dissidents confirmed released Tuesday were Aye Thein, Khin Maung Swe, Win Htein, Than Nyein, Aung Soe Myint and May Win Myint.
All are senior NLD members arrested for political activities and many were elected to Myanmar's legislature in 1990.
Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a sweeping election victory in 1990 but the junta never allowed her to take office, instead keeping her locked away in her Yangon lakeside home.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Kidneys Surgically Stolen from India's Poor in Kidney Transplant Racket
NaturalNews) Indian police have raided a clinic where a team of doctors ran an illegal kidney-trading ring - removing kidneys from the poor, often by force, in order to sell them to wealthy locals or foreigners.
"We suspect around 400 or 500 kidney transplants were done by these doctors over the last nine years," said Mohinder Lal, the police commissioner of Gurgaon, where the clinic was located.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024288.html
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 by: David Gutierrez
Key concepts: Doctors, Natural health and Renewable energy
(NaturalNews) Indian police have raided a clinic where a team of doctors ran an illegal kidney-trading ring - removing kidneys from the poor, often by force, in order to sell them to wealthy locals or foreigners.
"We suspect around 400 or 500 kidney transplants were done by these doctors over the last nine years," said Mohinder Lal, the police commissioner of Gurgaon, where the clinic was located.
Lal said that four doctors, five nurses, 20 paramedics, 10 pathology clinics, five diagnostic centers and three private hospitals were involved in removing and transplanting the kidneys and covertly caring for many of the donors afterward.
In addition, the medical professionals employed a team of kidney scouts to recruit donors from labor markets. In many cases, poor Indians were offered $1,000 to $2,000 for a kidney, and tested on location by a specially equipped car to see if their kidneys were a match for any prospective clients.
Other donors were promised work, then driven to remote locations where they were held at gunpoint, drugged, and operated on.
Forced donor Naseem Mohammed said he was confined in a room with a number of other people. "When I asked why I had been locked inside, the guards slapped me and said they would shoot me if I asked any more questions. They told us not to speak to each other or we would pay with our lives," he said. Shakeel Ahmed, another forced donor, said the guards told him he would be shot if he ever told anyone what had happened to him.
Forced donors were not given any postoperative care or financial reimbursement.
The doctor in charge of the conspiracy has still not been captured. Known as Amit Kumar, this doctor was arrested in 1994 on suspicion of running a kidney transplant ring, but jumped bail and relocated. Apparently tipped off ahead of time, he also fled ahead of the recent raid.
Five foreigners, from Greece and the United States, were discovered in the clinic when it was raided, but were released without charge due to lack of sufficient evidence against them.
China Key To A Better Burma - Rights Campaigner
China wants to take over from America as the new super- power, in the dying days of our world. This is the opinion of environmentalist Steve Green who has just returned to Auckland from his 19 year struggle for human rights and democracy in Burma.
Green says China is supporting the Burmese military regime in order to exploit the countries’ natural resources.
China Key To A Better Burma - Rights Campaigner
Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 1:01 pm
Article: Keira Stephenson - AUT Journalism Student
Human Rights Campaigner Says China Key To A Better Burma
By Keira Stephenson
China wants to take over from America as the new super- power, in the dying days of our world. This is the opinion of environmentalist Steve Green who has just returned to Auckland from his 19 year struggle for human rights and democracy in Burma.
Green says China is supporting the Burmese military regime in order to exploit the countries’ natural resources.
It has been 20 years since the world condemned the Burmese military for opening fire and killing more than 3000 mainly student and monk protesters, but in that time, says environmentalist and Burma expert Steve Green, “not enough has changed”. Image: Burmese monks at a protest in Aotea square, asking the government to intervene in Burma.
“It is good to be back and not facing the grim reality in Burma,” says Green, who is in Auckland to visit family and “chill out”, for the first time since 2003.
Green was travelling in the Philippines in 1989 when a friend who knew he was en route to Thailand asked him to look into the situation on the Thai/Burmese border.
At this time Burmese students involved in the 1988 uprising were fleeing from Burma’s military dictators into Thailand.
What was meant to be a short trip for Green turned into almost two decades of working to improve the situation of Burmese refugees.
“I just kind of got stuck. It ended up taking a lot longer than I planned”, he says.
The Burmese rulers are “corrupt oppressors of the people”, says Green, who thinks the New Zealand Government should be doing more to influence China to stop providing funds to the Junta.
In particular he is opposed to China and Thailand building dams in Burma which will displace thousands of people while all the benefits go to Burma’s neighbours.
There are already an estimated million internally displaced people in Burma.
Green believes because New Zealand has far less of an imperialist history than the UK and US, we are in a unique position to open a dialogue with China without sounding hypocritical.
“New Zealand can make its point in a way the US, UK and even Australia can’t do,” he says.
While the US can’t afford to alienate any of its allies, New Zealand has very little vested interest in Thailand and could easily raise the issue of Thailand’s fiscal support for the Junta at Asean, says Green.
Green is giving a talk on Environmental Devastation in Burma alongside Burmese refugee and activist Naing Ko Ko on Thursday the September 25, in room 018 of the Auckland University clock tower from 6-7.30pm.
Charles Mabbett, media adviser for the Asia New Zealand Foundation, thinks it is “unlikely” that New Zealand has much influence over China or Thailand.
He believes a concentrated worldwide effort is needed to bring about change in any regime which other countries are supporting either economically or militarily and says New Zealand takes great pride in working through agencies like the UN.
At the same time he says putting pressure on the government, whether they have the power to do anything or not, prevents Burma from slipping out of the public view.
“If you are a political dissident you do what you can.”
A member of Auckland University’s Burma Support Group who prefers to be known as Rusty, describes Green as “a fascinating guy – he’s a mine of knowledge”.
Rusty has heard Green speak on several occasions and says his knowledge is such that he can tie in many separate issues to give a lucid geopolitical overview of the whole South East Asian region.
“He gives the big picture.”
Green and Naing’s talk is hosted by the New Zealand Institute of Internal Affairs.
For more: Damning the Yin Ta Lai
Ends
Public Anger As China Recalls Milk In Toxic Food Scare
BEIJING -- Chinese store shelves were emptied of some of the country's most popular dairy brands Friday, as shoppers vented their fury amid a snowballing crisis over the poisoning of the nation's milk supplies.
The government ordered a mass recall of dairy products after authorities revealed a deadly industrial chemical, initially discovered only in milk powder, had also been detected in liquid milk, yoghurt and ice cream.
Public Anger As China Recalls Milk In Toxic Food Scare
AFP
BEIJING -- Chinese store shelves were emptied of some of the country's most popular dairy brands Friday, as shoppers vented their fury amid a snowballing crisis over the poisoning of the nation's milk supplies.
The government ordered a mass recall of dairy products after authorities revealed a deadly industrial chemical, initially discovered only in milk powder, had also been detected in liquid milk, yoghurt and ice cream.
"All problem products have been banned from our stores," an unnamed executive at Jian-Mart, a popular supermarket chain, said.
Authorities initially blamed the chemical, melamine, for killing four babies and sickening more than 6,000 others with symptoms including kidney stones, difficulty in passing urine, and vomiting.
But there were fears the problem could be much worse after other dairy products were found to be at risk of contamination.
Only black coffee was being served at some Starbucks outlets after the government identified one of its main suppliers, Mengniu, as having tainted milk.
A Starbucks spokeswoman in Shanghai and a waiter in one of its Beijing outlets confirmed milk wasn't on the menu.
"We had to stop serving it today because the milk is being inspected. We have to wait for the results," the unnamed waiter said.
Mengniu, Yili and Guangming -- three of the biggest dairy brands in China -- were named by the government Thursday night as having melamine in some of their milk.
The government agency in charge of product quality supervision Friday issued detailed findings from a comprehensive national check, showing 24 of the 295 batches it tested from the three dairies were contaminated.
"The manufacturers should of their own accord recall all products where melamine has been detected," the agency said on its Web site.
Officials at the firms couldn't be reached for comment.
The recall came after the government announced Wednesday that the baby milk powder from 22 dairy companies contained traces of melamine.
Melamine is normally used to make plastics but it can also allow milk and other food products to appear to have a higher protein content than they actually do.
It has become apparent in recent days that people or companies in China have been deliberately watering down the milk to cut costs, then adding in the melamine to boost apparent protein content to regular levels.
Some Chinese news reports said the scam had been ongoing for years, with China's chaotic and corrupt food safety system unable either to detect or prevent it.
Cathy Wang, a jewelry retailer in Beijing, called for the government to take the toughest action possible against those responsible.
"The criminals deserve to be sentenced to death and there should be a public trial. They are more evil than murderers," Wang said.
"And the supervisory authorities, they should be punished harshly as well for neglecting their duty."
At a Beijing supermarket, Cui Hongchun, 36, expressed concern and fury over previously buying milk for his eight-year-old son from one of the suspect brands.
"I'm very worried about the milk we bought because it claimed to contain high levels of protein," he said. "I will sue them if the milk causes any problems for my boy."
The government has already announced the arrest of 18 people for their roles in allegedly providing the melamine or mixing it into milk.
In Singapore, authorities warned consumers Friday not to eat a Chinese-made yoghurt ice bar after tests found a sample containing low levels of the toxic chemical.
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore has "advised importers and retailers to remove this product from the market and withhold them from sale immediately, pending the result of AVA's investigation and tests."
China's Quality Chief Quits Amid Milk Scare
BEIJING -- China's chief quality regulator has resigned, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday, amid a toxic milk scandal that has killed at least three children and sickened nearly 53,000.
China's Quality Chief Quits Amid Milk Scare
BEIJING -- China's chief quality regulator has resigned, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday, amid a toxic milk scandal that has killed at least three children and sickened nearly 53,000.
Earlier Monday, two people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires that Li Changjiang, the chief of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, had resigned and would be replaced by Wang Yong, deputy secretary-general for the State Council, China's Cabinet.
Xinhua confirmed Li's departure and replacement late Monday in a short report, but didn't provide any explanation.
If officially linked to the growing milk scare -- Li would be the highest political casualty to date that has already included the detention of one top milk executive and the dismissal of a local mayor.
Li didn't show up for work Monday, and staff at the quality watchdog agency were told during a morning meeting that Li had submitted his resignation and that it had been accepted, the people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires earlier Monday.
On Sunday, Premier Wen Jiabao toured a supermarket and visited sick babies in a Beijing hospital. Wen vowed to prevent future such failures, according to state media, as the official tally of children sickened by the tainted formula continued to jump.
State media have said four babies died from tainted formula, although the Health Ministry puts the current tally at three.
Wen, according to Xinhua, vowed the government would put more efforts into food security, taking the milk scandal as a warning and admitted that it "revealed inadequate government supervision and shown a lack of professional morality and social responsibility by some companies."
Children across China have been taken to hospitals after drinking milk thought to have been contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine, which is used to make plastics. The use of melamine has also been found in other China-made dairy products and has been discovered in overseas markets.
As of Monday, a total of 52,857 children have been brought to hospitals after becoming ill, a health ministry spokesman said. Most had "basically recovered," but 12,892 remained hospitalized, a government spokesman said.
---Lily Sun contributed to this story, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588-5848; lili.sun@dowjones.com
BEIJING -- China's chief quality regulator has resigned, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday, amid a toxic milk scandal that has killed at least three children and sickened nearly 53,000.
Earlier Monday, two people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires that Li Changjiang, the chief of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, had resigned and would be replaced by Wang Yong, deputy secretary-general for the State Council, China's Cabinet.
Xinhua confirmed Li's departure and replacement late Monday in a short report, but didn't provide any explanation.
If officially linked to the growing milk scare -- Li would be the highest political casualty to date that has already included the detention of one top milk executive and the dismissal of a local mayor.
Li didn't show up for work Monday, and staff at the quality watchdog agency were told during a morning meeting that Li had submitted his resignation and that it had been accepted, the people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires earlier Monday.
On Sunday, Premier Wen Jiabao toured a supermarket and visited sick babies in a Beijing hospital. Wen vowed to prevent future such failures, according to state media, as the official tally of children sickened by the tainted formula continued to jump.
State media have said four babies died from tainted formula, although the Health Ministry puts the current tally at three.
Wen, according to Xinhua, vowed the government would put more efforts into food security, taking the milk scandal as a warning and admitted that it "revealed inadequate government supervision and shown a lack of professional morality and social responsibility by some companies."
Children across China have been taken to hospitals after drinking milk thought to have been contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine, which is used to make plastics. The use of melamine has also been found in other China-made dairy products and has been discovered in overseas markets.
As of Monday, a total of 52,857 children have been brought to hospitals after becoming ill, a health ministry spokesman said. Most had "basically recovered," but 12,892 remained hospitalized, a government spokesman said.
---Lily Sun contributed to this story, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588-5848; lili.sun@dowjones.com
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