http://www.bangladeshnews.com.bd/2008/11/03/myanmar-brings-warships-to-explore-bangladesh-waters/
Escorted by two naval warships, Myanmar has arbitrarily deployed four ships for exploring oil and gas in Bangladesh maritime territory Saturday ignoring Bangladesh Navy warnings. Bangladesh Navy has also positioned three ships at the spot.
As Myanmar ignored the warnings, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Towhid Hossain yesterday handed over a protest letter to Myanmar’s ambassador in Dhaka Yu Fae Than U demanding withdrawal of the ships from the area until the maritime boundary is clearly demarcated through mutual understanding as per the UN guideline.
According to a press note, the Myanmar ambassador was requested to convey the protest note to his government. Bangladesh requested Myanmar to stop all its activities there as per Bangladesh Government’s 1974 Territorial Water and Maritimes Zones Act and added that the government has the right to protect its interest.
Sources said Myanmar’s ships started the exploration 50 nautical miles southwest of St Martin’s Island. A South Korean company was awarded the oil and gas exploration contract there.
Three naval ships of Bangladesh–BNS Abu Bakar, BNS Madhumati and BNS Nirvoy–went to the spot challenging the Myanmarese ships but the Myanmar Navy responded by alleging that the Bangladesh Navy ships are trespassing.
The commanding officer of BNS Abu Bakar is currently in a dialogue with the officers of Myanmar’s naval ships there, sources said.
“The Myanmar Navy told Bangladesh Navy that they have instructions from their government to come to these waters and they suggested that our navy should talk to our high-ups,” said a source quoting Bangladesh Navy.
At least 50 people were working in the four exploration ships, two of which are registered in the Bahamas, one in Belize and one in India.
A competent government source said the spot was “well inside” Bangladesh maritime boundary.
Foreign Secretary Md Touhid Hossain told the press yesterday that the dispute could be resolved through dialogue as Bangladesh has very good relations with Myanmar.
Additional Foreign Secretary MAK Mahmood, who led the Bangladesh-Myanmar maritime delimitation talks in Dhaka in September, said the matter will be raised at the upcoming talks with Myanmar on November 16 and 17.
Mahmood pointed out that Bangladesh would also ask the South Korean company not to conduct the exploration work in the disputed area.
He added that Bangladesh would also sit with India on the maritime boundary issue later this month.
The Bay of Bengal has become very important, especially after India’s discovery of 100 trillion cubic feet of gas in 2005-06 and Myanmar’s discovery of seven trillion cubic feet of gas during the same time. India also discovered oil.
The Bay in Bangladesh’s territory promises huge natural resources, experts say. The Daily Star reported in 2006 discovery of sedimentary rock oolite that promises oil and gas there.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Myanmar brings warships to explore Bangladesh waters
Bangladesh mobilizes warships over Burma gas tensions
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=8960&icid=4&d_str=20081103
Bangladesh mobilized three warships and said it would take ''all possible measures'' to protect its territory on Monday after accusing neighboring Burma of encroaching on its seawaters to hunt for gas.
Bangladesh will also send a high-level delegation to Burma to ''defuse'' tensions between the two countries, according to a statement issued by the foreign ministry.
Bangladesh's foreign minister Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said he had warned Myanmar's envoy to Dhaka that ''all steps would be taken to protect the sovereignty and territory of Bangladesh.''
The Bangladesh Navy warships took up position near disputed waters in the Bay of Bengal to face off with the Burmese exploration fleet, top navy officials said in southeastern port city of Chittagong.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Four Bangladeshis killed in Burma as gas row escalates
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=8934&icid=4&d_str=20081103
11-03 17:12)
Four Bangladeshi woodcutters were shot dead after trespassing into neighboring Burma, a security official said, amid an escalating row over gas and oil between the two nations.
Bangladesh border security force commanding officer Colonel Naim said the woodcutters' mutilated bodies had been found late Sunday by relatives two kilometers inside Burma at the foot of a hilly pass.
The two countries share a 90-kilometer unfenced border along hilly and porous terrain.
Naim said the bodies were badly disfigured and officials in Bangladesh would be contacting border forces in Burma as part of their investigation into the killings.
On Saturday, Bangladesh accused Burma of exploring for gas in disputed waters of the Bay of Bengal.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Junta Invites Gambari to Visit Burma Again -IRRAWADDY
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=14554
By LALIT K JHA Monday, November 3, 2008
UNITED NATIONS — Burma’s military junta has invited United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari to visit the country either in the last week of November or early next month, according to UN sources.
The sources told The Irrawaddy that decision makers at the UN’s headquarters in New York have yet to make a call on whether to accept the invitation, as they want to make sure that Gambari’s next visit doesn’t end as abysmally as the last one in August.
During his August visit, Gambari met neither the country’s military ruler, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, nor the popular leader of the country’s pro-democracy movement, Aung San Suu Kyi, whose refusal to appear for talks with the envoy was seen as a sign that his efforts have lost the confidence of the opposition.
Critics also pointed to the regime’s refusal to make any concessions on the UN’s demands for political reform and the protection of human rights as evidence of Gambari’s faltering performance.
The invitation was extended to Gambari during a recent luncheon meeting with Kyaw Tint Swe, the Burmese regime’s ambassador to the UN. No fixed dates were set for the proposed visit.
Reliable sources said that Gambari’s trip, if it goes ahead, will be used by the UN to prepare for a visit to Burma by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was initially scheduled to travel to the country in December.
A December visit by the UN chief looks unlikely, however, as the regime has given no indication that it will meet the world body’s demands for democratic change and the release of political prisoners.
Ban lasted visited Burma in May, several weeks after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy delta, to break a deadlock over the regime’s refusal to allow foreign aid workers into the country.
It is believed that Gambari and top UN decision makers are demanding that the junta make a firm commitment to achieving substantive progress before deciding on exact dates for his next visit.
UN officials believe that a repeat of the August debacle would be a major setback to the world body’s efforts in this Southeast Asian nation, which has been ruled by the military for nearly half a century.
Officials said that the Burmese junta and the UN are currently engaged in negotiations over various aspects of Gambari’s visit. Prominent among these are the list of leaders and officials Gambari would have access to during his trip, and assurances from the regime that it is willing to take new steps in the right direction.
Pope to visit Burma
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=122&id=16616&t=Pope+to+visit+Burma
The pope indicated during a recent visit by Archbishop Bo of Burma that he is ready to make a stopover in the totalitarian country on his way to another Asian country.
Monday, November 03, 2008By UCA News
Pope Benedict XVI says he is ready to make a stopover in Myanmar if he visits another Asian country, Archbishop Charles Maung Bo of Yangon told UCA News in Rome.
Archbishop Bo met the pope privately on Oct. 23.
The previous week, the Salesian prelate, general secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, issued a surprise invitation to Pope Benedict during the archbishop's five-minute intervention at the Synod on the Word of God.
Looking at the pope on Oct. 14, he concluded with the words: "Holy Father, from the time of St. Peter till today, no Holy Father has visited Myanmar. Our warmest welcome to Myanmar!" The synod burst into spontaneous applause when he finished, participants recalled.
Nine days later, Archbishop Bo was in the pope's private library as part of the ad limina visit every bishop is expected to make once in five years to report to the pope and Vatican officials on the situation in his diocese and country.
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"The Holy Father at once pointed out that I had invited him to Myanmar during my synod intervention," Archbishop Bo said. During their private conversation, he recalled, Pope Benedict made it clear "he would be ready to make a short visit to Myanmar if he chooses to visit one of the countries in Asia."
The archbishop found the pope's calmness and "clear mind" impressive amid a busy schedule with numerous visitors. The pontiff was interested in the rehabilitation work the Church was involved in after cyclone Nargis, as well as the general situation in Myanmar.
The Yangon archbishop had not been able to join the other bishops from Myanmar when they made their ad limina visits as a group at the end of May, because he was leading the Church relief efforts in the aftermath of the cyclone that he says killed nearly 150,000 people. He estimated Nargis displaced another 2 million people.
Myanmar has a population of 53 million people, 85 percent of whom are Buddhists, 6 percent Christians and 4 percent Muslims. Of the 3 million Christians, about 700,000 are Catholics. The military has been running the country since 1962 and has suppressed pro-democracy movements.
A Vatican official told UCA News, "It should be stated clearly that there is no persecution against Christianity or Catholics in Myanmar." He also pointed out that even though the Holy See and Myanmar do not have diplomatic relations, the Bangkok-based apostolic delegate to Myanmar can freely visit the country and meet bishops, who also are allowed to travel to the Vatican.
A Church source clarified that Myanmar's Catholic Church enjoys freedom to worship but is not allowed to work freely in the fields of education and health care. "Nor can it express its position on sociopolitical questions in accord with the Church's social teaching," the source said in Rome.
Pope Benedict has made 10 foreign trips since his election in April 2005 -- six European countries and Turkey, which straddles Europe and Asia, as well as Australia, Brazil and the United States. At the close of the synod on Oct. 26, he announced a plan to visit the African countries of Angola and Cameroon in March 2009.
Asia, excepting Turkey, is thus the only continent Pope Benedict has not visited or announced plans to visit, but his remark about being ready to visit Myanmar were he to go to another Asian country suggests he is considering this possibility.
Earlier this year, Cardinal Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh said he hoped Pope Benedict would visit Vietnam in 2010, for the 350th anniversary of its first two apostolic vicariates and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the local Church hierarchy.
Like Myanmar, Vietnam does not have diplomatic relations with the Holy See. A Vatican official said this alone does not present a problem. He cited Pope John Paul II's visit to Mexico in 1979, when that country and the Holy See had no diplomatic ties.
According to Vatican diplomatic sources, a papal visit requires an invitation from the local bishops' conference and the national government's invitation or willingness to receive him, since he is a head of state.
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