http://weaponsoutofwarwick.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/26/
There are a number of arms companies attending the “Engineering and Technology Fair” on the 8th of November. The University careers service recommends that you find out as much about the companies attending as you can, we feel that this is a very reasonable suggestion therefore to help out with information on the arms companies attending the careers fair that the companies and the careers service probably will not include in their recruitment pitch. For this leaflet an arms company has been defined as company who designs or manufactures products specifically for the military application.
BAE systems
3rd Largest Arms Manufacturer in the World. Largest UK arms Company. £13.7 billion sales, £11.8 billion military sales, 83% military[1]. 6 Ongoing Corruption investigations in the UK (not including the Serious Fraud Office inquiry into the Al Yamamah Saudi deal, stopped by the government). Less than 20% of BAE’s sales are to the UK[2]. In September 2003 The Sunday Times reported that BAE had hired a private security contractor to collate information about individuals working at the Campaign Against Arms Trade and their activities. In February 2007, it again obtained private confidential information from CAAT. In September 2005 The Guardian alleged that banking records showed that BAE paid £1 million to Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator.
Products include: Assault rifles and handguns (H&K), Combat Aircraft, Nuclear weapons (via MBDA), Missiles, Artillery Guns, Munitions, Armoured Vehicles, Tanks, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Warships, Radar Systems, Nuclear Submarines and shackles used in Guantanamo Bay and Saudi Arabia (from their subsidiary Hiatts[3]).
Military customers of note include the UK, US, Israel, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia (Hawk Jets sold during the violent repression of East Timor), India, Pakistan, Tanzania, Lebanon, Poland, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Romania, Chile, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Columbia, Egypt, Ghana, Afghanistan, Brazil, Columbia, Qatar, Algeria (via Qatar)[4], Malaysia, Kenya, Czech Republic, Sweden, Morocco (including attempting to secure a deal in the conflict area of Western Sahara), Greece, Germany, Italy, Austria, Australia, Finland, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Nepal, Uruguay, Vietnam,
Park Air Systems (Northrop Grumman)
4th Largest Arms Manufacturer in the World1. Total sales for 2006 US$30.1 billion, 90% military sales[5]. A 1999 lawsuit accuses Northrop of knowingly giving the Navy defective drones from 1988 to 1998 and seeks $210 million in damages. A 1992 case filed in Illinois questions how Northrop accounted for “scrap” parts, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. That suit seeks $113 million in damages. Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, Vice-Presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis Libby, Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim, and Sean O’Keefe, director of NASA all former Northrop officials, consultants, or shareholders currently holding positions in the Bush administration[6]. Also Northrop recently lost a previously acquired $35bn refuelling tanker contract with the US Air Force after complaints of illegal bidding practices[7].
Products include: Advanced Radar Systems, Missile Defence Systems, High-Energy Laser Systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Ship Systems, Mission Systems. Specific work include: managing, operating and providing infrastructure support for the Nevada nuclear testing site, B2 Stealth Bomber, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, Kinetic Energy inceptor missile shields, Military Satellites, Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, Fire scout unmanned attack helicopter, F-5 Freedom Fighter, T-38 Talon, 25% of the Parts for the F-35 Lightning, Zumwalt class destroyer, Nimitz class aircraft carrier, Virginia class attack submarine, Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier, Aegis Class guided missile destroyer, numerous amphibious assault vessels, Night Vision Goggles[8], Northrop’s subsidiary Vinnell Corporation was replaced after failing to fulfil its $48 million contract to train the Iraqi Army.
Military customers include US, China, Israel, Russia, Iran, Morocco, Chile, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Libya , Venezuela , Brazil, Kenya , Turkey , Jordan, Singapore, , Kuwait, Ethiopia, Malaysia, , Bahrain, South Korea, , Germany, Portugal, Philippines, Mexico, Thailand, Tunisia, Yemen, Vietnam, Australia, Canada and the UK.
Thales
11th Largest Arms Manufacturers in the World, second largest UK Arms Company. Approximately $7 million in military sales, 50% of business is Military.[9]
Military Products include: Air Defence Systems, Missile Systems, Surveillance Systems, Submarines, Helicopters, Communication Systems, Patrol Vessels, Combat Systems, Radar Systems and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Thales also specialises in electronics for many types of military vehicles including tanks, aircraft and warships. Thales claims to be ‘present on all types of air, sea and ground military platforms’.[10] On a side note Thales has also won contracts for the National Identity Card system in the UK.
Thales is prime contractor for the Sawari 2 programme, which involves supplying three frigates to Saudi Arabia equipped with the Arabel multi-function anti-air fire control radar and Aster missile system.[11] In Indonesia and Japan Thales has won contracts for maritime patrol systems. Thales is prime contractor for electronic warfare systems for naval vessels and was selected by Brunei for its Waspada ships and by the UK for “Type 45” destroyers.[12] Shorts Missile Systems, which is now owned by Thales, has delivered over 60,000 missiles to 56 armed forces worldwide[13].[14] Thales is also implicated (as well as EADS) in selling the “Advanced Light Helicopter” to Burma (via India)13 and licensed production of night-vision equipment to China (despite an EU embargo), Thales has also allegedly sold arms to Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Columbia.
QinetiQ
27th Largest arms manufacturer in the world, 3rd Largest UK arms company. £1 billion arms sales per year, 83% Military sales.
Products include: Combat Vehicle Systems (vehicle sensors, displays, power systems), Ballistic missile defence systems (navigation, guidance, detection systems), aircraft maintenance & repair, pilot Equipment (Helmets), Missile Systems, Close Combat Systems (small arms, cannons, infantry systems), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Communication Systems, Surveillance Systems[15]
Military sales include the US, UK, Israel (Joint Strike Fighter), Turkey, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands and the Philippines.[16]
AWE
AWE makes and maintains the UK’s nuclear weapons. AWE is 1/3 owned by the US company Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest arms company, 1/3 by the UK firm Serco, and 1/3 by the UK government owned BNFL. The BNFL 1/3 is currently in the process of being sold to either the US firm Jacobs or Fluor. AWE was in the news in 2006 by its attempts to circumvent nuclear testing treaties by developing a new “Reliable Replacement Warhead”, according to Matrix Chambers; this may be a material breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. By continuing to possess and make new nuclear weapons, Britain is failing to comply with its obligations to disarm under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which it signed in 1968. The Trident replacement programme to build a new generation of nuclear deterrents is thought to cost the UK taxpayer £75bn over 50 years[17].
MBDA
Part of 8th Largest Arms Manufacturer in the World (owned by EADS, BAE and Marconi), 100% Military, Largest manufacturers of guided missiles in the world. Products include Air to air, Surface to air, Air to surface, Anti-ship and Anti-Tank missile. MBDA missiles are also manufactured to carry nuclear warheads.
MBDA boasts over 70 customers worldwide including the US, UK, Israel, Saudi Arabia, China, Chile, Indonesia, Iran, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Morocco, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Iraq (to Saddam), Kuwait, Libya, Venezuela, Ecuador, Singapore, Columbia, South Africa, France, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Zambia, Oman, Turkey, South Korea, Poland.
DSTL
DSTL is owned and operated by the Ministry of Defence; it is a hugely secretive organisation that works on high tech military products.
DSTL specialise in biological and chemical warfare, working with anthrax and highly toxic poisons. Their Porton Down site is notorious for testing LSD on armed forces volunteers without their permission and testing the effects of mustard gas on people from different nationalities to study the damage on those with different ethnicities.
Airbus
Airbus is a subsidiary of EADS, the 7th largest arms company worldwide. Airbus also manufactures military products itself, mainly transport and refuelling aircraft.
Products include the A400M tactical transport aircraft, the Multi-Role Tanker Transport and the KC-45 refuelling aircraft.
Customers include the US, United Arab Emirate, Turkey, UK, Spain, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium.
Jaguar Land-Rover
Land Rover’s Defender 4×4 is used for both civilian and military purposes around the world. Land Rover claims to have 70,000 of its vehicles in use around the world[18]. Land Rovers can be found with the militaries and security forces in Zimbabwe, Sudan[19], Israel and UK.
Detica
Detica is owned by BAE systems (92% controlling stake. Detica provides consultancy, customized technology, and knowledge management services to government and corporate clients in the defence, homeland security, counterterrorism, intelligence, and Federal markets sectors. BAE believes the UK ‘homeland security and resilience market’ will double to more than £3bn by 2011 and looks to cash in on this[20].
Atkins
£100m in yearly revenues from military contracts. Atkins provides consultancy services to private arms companies and the MoD. Atkins’ projects include the Rolls Royce made Nuclear reactors for submarines, “Type 45 Destroyer” warships made by BAE systems, military aircraft with QinetiQ and Boeing and armoured vehicles made working with DSTL. The Type 45 Destroyer is sold to Saudi Arabia.[21]
Amec
Provides project management services for military services around the world. AMEC has worked with the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston and has interests in nuclear weapons. AMEC has many contracts building and maintaining military facilities around the world regardless of their usage. Military customers include the UK, US, Iraq, Canada, Eastern Europe, Pacific rim and the Middle East.
Tessella
Tessella produces bespoke products for numerous arms companies including working on systems in the new “Type 45 Anti-Air Warfare destroyers” working directly for BAE systems. Tessella is also involved in nuclear experimentation with contract for the JET fusion reactor and Sellafield.
Tessella’s clients include BAE systems, EADS, AWE, British Nuclear Group, Lockheed Martin, MOD, Thales and various Oil companies including Total (Currently Operating in Burma).
IPL
IPL specialises in software products for arms companies and the MoD. IPL products include software for the Merlin Helicopter used for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare roles. IPL supplies EADS with bespoke software (EADS is the 7th largest arms manufacturer in the world[22]).
Infosys
Infosys provides consultancy on manufacturing, design and information technology areas of the defence industry.
Special Metals Wiggin
Special Metals is a world leader in the invention, production and supply of the high-nickel, high-performance alloys used for the difficult jobs in engineering. Its high strength alloys are specified for military supersonic aircraft, helicopters and spacecraft as well as marine applications for military ships and submarines.
Lloyd’s Register
Lloyds Register provides management and technical consultancy services to navies around the world, Lloyds register also consults on defence procurement[23]. Lloyds Register has provided consultancy for arms companies such as Thales[24]. Lloyds Register provides maintenance services for marine vessels including military craft as well as advising on technical design issues.
Morgan Professional Services
Morgan Professional Services provides design, engineering and project management services. Projects include a floating submarine jetty for the MOD at Faslane nuclear submarine base and home of the UK’s nuclear arms.
For more information see weaponsoutofwarwick.wordpress.com
Or the facebook group Weapons out of Warwick
Please recycle this leaflet
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[1] World Rank is from the 2006 top 100 taken from Defense News Top 100 July 2007
[2] CAAT Publications – Arms Fairs, DSEI (2003), http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/armsfairs/dsei-2003-report/baes.php, Accessed 5/11/07
[3] As used on the famous Nelson Mandela, Thomas, 2006, Ebury Press pp212-222
[4] CorporateWatch – BAE systems, A corporate Profile 2003, http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=182
[5] Publications – Northrop Grumman, http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/companies/northrop.php, Accessed 1/11/08
[6] Corpwatch: Northrop Gumman, http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=11 accessed 1/11/08
[7] The Times 11/9/08
[8] Northrop Grumman capabilities brochure
[9] CAAT Publications – Thales, http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/companies/thales.php , Accessed 7/10/07
[10] www.thalesgroup.com/ga/business_zone/defence/home.htm , Accessed 24/8/03
[11] www.thalesgroup.com/ga/business_zone/defence/naval.htm, accessed 24/08/03
[12] www.thalesgroup.com/ga/business_zone/defence/airborne.htm, accessed 24/08/03
[13] www.thalesgroup.co.uk/ga/business_zone/defence/AirDefence.htm, accessed 13/08/03
[14] http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/companies/thales2003.php, accessed 7/10/07
[15] CAAT Publications – QinetiQ, http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/companies/qinetiq.php , Accessed 5/11/07
[16] QinetiQ Annual report 2007, http://www.investis.com/reports/qntq_ar_2007_en/report.php? , Accessed 5/11/07
[17] Time for a real review of defence spending, Robert Fox, Guardian Comment is free, 4/9/08
[18] Army Technology Website – Land Rover http://www.army-technology.com/contractors/vehicles/ landrover/accesssed 1/10/08
[19] “British firm breaks Sudan arms boycott” Jon Swain & Brian Johnson Thomas Sunday Times, 22/4/2007
[20] Financial Times 29/7/08
[21] “UK seek £2bn Saudi destroyer contract”, Michael Harrison, The Independent, Published 9/3/2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2341426.ece , Accessed 14/10/07
[22] CAAT Publications –EADS, http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/companies/eads.php , Accessed 14/10/07
[23] Lloyds Register Website – “Sectors We Serve – Defence”, http://www.lr.org/Industries/Defence, Accessed 5/11/07
[24] LRQA Website – Case Studies, Thales, http://www.lr.org/Industries/LRQA/Case+studies/Thales.htm, Accessed 5/11/07
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This entry was posted on November 3, 2008 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Arms Trade, Warwick University. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Arms Companies at the Engineering Fair
Burmese women stop wearing long hair after deadly Nargis
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/11/04/regional/regional_30087583.php
By Deutsche Presse Agentur
Rangoon//Singapore - Many young women in Burma's Irrawaddy delta region have stopped wearing their hair traditionally long, word goes.
Too many of them died in the metre-high floods brought on by Cyclone Nargis, because their hair got entangled in tree branches, or were strangled by their own hair as it wrapped around their neck.
Whether that is true or not is hard to verify. But hundreds of thousands were traumatised by the worst natural catastrophe the country has ever seen.
More than 138,000 lives were lost during the cyclone in May, and some 2.4 million people lost their belongings, while about 800,000 homes were destroyed.
The world community reacted with outrage over the heartlessness of Burma's military regime, which delayed deployment of troops to the affected area so they could instead conduct a highly criticised public referendum on the country's constitution.
Thousands of foreign relief workers were stranded outside the country's borders because the paranoid regime denied them entry visas.
Now, six months after the disaster, life is improving all over the delta.
The next rice harvest is due, families are able again to feed themselves, and field work provides income opportunities.
"The situation is now under control," said Chris Kaye, a representative of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Rangoon.
"While we still have to provide food for 740,000 people, we hope to reduce this figure to about half after the upcoming harvest has been brought in," he added.
But relief aid is still lacking in some remote regions to this day.
"Many families in remote areas of the Irrawaddy delta still only live in badly repaired huts, and children are malnourished and sick," said Helga Stamm-Berg of the non-governmental relief organisation World Vision.
But in its hour of greatest need and largely cut off from foreign aid, Burma's society has showed enormous selflessness, compassion and resilience.
"It was an incredible solidarity. My neighbour sold his wife's jewelry, bought drinking water and noodles with the money and simply started distributing the goods," recounted a woman in Yangon.
"A unique culture of solidarity emerged during the cyclone's aftermath" agreed Kaye.
"People not only raised some money for the cyclone's survivors and then moved on, but they deployed all their resources for weeks and months," he explained.
Only four long weeks after the disaster and only after numerous appeals by the United Nations did the junta finally open the country to large-scale foreign aid.
Since then, a plethora of foreign relief organisations has started working in Burma.
They build schools and latrines, pump salt water out of contaminated pools, educate farmers about new farming methods and bring new working animals and livestock into the country.
Still, Kaye estimates that the impending rice harvest of some 8 million tonnes will be about one third smaller than the usual yield.
"Due to the disaster the rice paddies could only be planted four to six weeks later than normal," said Klaus Lohmann of Germany's Welthungerhilfe (World Hunger Aid), who currently is in Burma together with 60 co-workers.
Then the paddies were invaded by freshwater crabs who started eating the young rice plants.
"The crabs come every year, but usually the plants are already stronger and less vulnerable by that time," he explained, adding that in some areas up to one quarter of paddies were lost to crabs.
Vocal outrage against the delayed aid from the military government has been heard nowhere.
"The cyclone was the best thing that could have happened to the junta," said a local journalist in Rangoon.
"After Nargis nobody had time to become outraged, and today the junta has consolidated its power more securely than ever before," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity.
A former political prisoner even defended the ruling generals.
"US first lady Laura Bush called the disaster an opportunity for a possible regime change, and then foreign warships appeared off Myanmar's coast allegedly carrying relief goods. One really couldn't blame the generals for becoming suspicious," he said.
Some of the foreign aid workers in the country also speak with respect for the junta.
"One thing became clear: The government is not a monolithic block," said one of them who often has to deal with high-ranking officials about aid programmes.
"Some of them recognise that the country can profit from cooperating with the international community. But between these technocrats and the leading generals there still exists a concrete wall several metres thick," he admitted.
Pressurise insurers to cease operations in Burma!
http://aussgworldpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/pressurise-insurers-to-cease-operations-in-burma/
Posted by Charles on November 4, 2008
According to Aavaz, one of the world’s oldest and most respected secretive insurers, Lloyd of London, is the umbrella overseer of insurers for the Burmese junta’s ventures including in aviation and shipping. Its chairman, Lord Levene is also on the board of oil corporation, TOTAL which operates in Burma. Talk about conflict of interest!
Aavaz has set up a campaign microsite urging concerned people to email Peter Levene, asking him to cease as well as disclose its operations in Burma.
According to a Guardian commentary by Mathiason, the Foreign Office (of UK) has written a letter to the Baron, ‘reminding him of the UK government’s official position of discouraging business with the country’. Levene has also said he would not resign from TOTAL and that his position has no impact on his reputation nor that any of his business dealings support the junta.
In another news report, other insurance companies that are still operating in Burma include Hannover Re, Catlin, Atrium Underwriting, Tokio Marine, Sompo Japan, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, QBE, ACE, Labuan Re, OCBC Bank, Pana Harrison, Target Insurance Broker and AI Wasl.
The list, which came from a report, ‘Insuring Repression’ by the Burma Campaign UK surveyed over 500 global insurance companies and professionals. They discovered that companies in London, Antwerp, Singapore, Thailand, Germany, Bermuda, Japan and Malaysia continue to provide insurance services which support the Burmese junta.
According to the list, companies based in Singapore who have sold insurance to other companies in Burma include:
. OCBC Bank which stated that it ‘provides insurance services to Singapore owned companies in Burma;
. Pana Harrison, a Singaporean based insurance broker, who is ‘active in the aviation sector, providing insurance services for regime owned airlines’;
.Target Insurance Broker, ‘a Singaporean broker which works in the Lloyd’s, Australian and European markets’ and ‘provides insurance brokerage services for companies in Burma’;
Singaporean companies on the ’shame list’ refer to entities who have either not replied to correspondence from the campaign group or openly stated that they do not ‘provide insurance to foreign companies operating in Burma’. They include:
.China Insurance Co. (Singapore) Pte. Ltd
.Manulife (Singapore) Pte Ltd
.MSIG Insurance (Singapore) Pte Ltd
.Partner Reinsurance Co Ltd, Singapore Branch
.R + V Versicherung AG, Singapore Branch
.Sime Insurance Brokers (Singapore) Pte Ltd
.Singapore Aviation and General Insurance Co (Pte) Ltd
.Singapore Reinsurance Corporation Limited
.TM Asia Insurance Singapore Ltd.
.TM Asia Life Singapore Ltd.
Australian based insurance company, QBE, has two correspondent offices in Burma.
This entry was posted on November 4, 2008 at 9:52 am and is filed under Human Rights, Politics (Asia). Tagged: Burma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Lloyd's: Stop Underwriting The Junta-
http://www.avaaz.org/en/shame_lloyds_on_burma/?cl=142191118&v=2358
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Lloyd's: Stop Underwriting The Junta
EMAIL/CALL LLOYD'S INSURERS NOW - CONTACTS AND TALKING POINTS BELOW
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Who to Contact What to say - suggestions
We need to put pressure on both Lloyd's as a whole, and the syndicates we know to be involved. Suggestions about what to say can be found at right. First, email Lloyd's of London chairman Lord Levene, chief executive Richard Ward and key board and staff members -- just copy the list of addresses below and paste it into your email "To" field:
peter.levene@lloyds.com, richard.ward@lloyds.com, Jose.Ribeiro@lloyds.com, luke.savage@lloyds.com, rolf.tolle@lloyds.com, louise.shield@lloyds.com, nicholas.furlonge@beazley.com, andrew.kendrick@ace-ina.com, jim_stretton@wisegroup.co.uk, edward.creasy@kilngroup.com, graham.white@argentaplc.com, alan.lovell@infinis.com, ewen.gilmour@lloyds.com, rupert.atkin@talbotuw.com, chrisharman@hwsltd.com, dshipley@mapunderwriting.co.uk, dermot.odonohoe@xlgroup.com, barbara.merry@hardygroup.co.uk, nick.marsh@atrium-uw.com
Switchboard: +44 (0)20 7327 1000
___________________________________
Then if you have time, email or telephone contacts at Atrium, Catlin and Kiln -- three syndicates confirmed to be involved in underwriting the military dictators' aviation interests (scroll down for contact details):
CATLIN
david.ibeson@catlin.com, richard.clapham@catlin.com, chris.mauduit@catlin.com
Switchboard: +44 (0)20 7626 0486
ATRIUM
nick.marsh@atrium-uw.com, kevin.wilkins@atrium-uw.com, john.monsell@atrium-uw.com
Switchboard: +44 (20) 7327 3206
KILN
edward.creasy@kilngroup.com, robert.chase@kilngroup.com, peter.haynes@kilngroup.com, charles.franks@kilngroup.com, Richard.Lewis@kilngroup.com, keith.grant@kilngroup.com, morag.thornton@kilngroup.com
Switchboard: +44 (0)20 7886 9000
Below are the points likely to have the most impact on getting Lloyd's to stop insuring junta-linked companies. Please do frame it in your own words, while focusing on these rational points (insults won't help!). After you have called or emailed contacts at Lloyd's of London and the syndicates tied to the Burmese junta, please share your experience and any responses from them here.
_____________________________________________
TO LORD LEVENE AND LLOYD'S OF LONDON:
1. Lloyd's must tell its syndicates clearly to stop insuring any risk linked to the Burmese junta. They may object that Lloyd's is only a market, but this is no excuse: Lloyd's is responsible for everything that flows through it.
2. Will Lord Levene meet with Burma campaigners to hear their arguments and explain his position?
3. Lloyd's should disclose all Burma-linked risks that are insured through it, particularly those that go beyond shipping and aviation.
4. Lloyd's should disclose whether it is the conduit for insuring any of the Burma-related risks of oil company TOTAL, which channels over $2m a day to the junta. Given that Lord Levene also sits on the board of TOTAL, if there is any conflict of interest how will it be resolved?
5. We will be writing to the media about this, including the insurance press.
(Note that Lloyd's of London has no connection to the Lloyds TSB bank.)
______________________________
TO CATLIN, ATRIUM AND KILN:
(The syndicates known to be involved in insuring the junta's aviation interests)
They should immediately stop insuring risks linked to the interests of the Burmese military dictatorship, including on aviation. This part of their business is propping up an oppressive regime, making it possible for it to defy international calls to open up and release political prisoners. We will notify the media, including the insurance press, and won't stop the public pressure until they stop insuring junta-related risks.
IF YOU ARE IN LONDON OR CAN GET THERE: A protest outside Lloyd's of London is also being organised in the coming weeks -- if you'd like to express interest in joining it, email demo@burmacampaign.org.uk
Don't forget to share any feedback or responses you receive from Lloyds -- click here to tell us about it!
Tell Your Friends
Below is a short note you can send to tell people about this campaign. Please only send it to people you know
personally. Spam won't help our cause!
Click here to open a new email and invite your friends, family and colleagues to get involved.
Or cut and paste the text below into an email to friends and family
Enter your name here
Enter your email here
Subject
Language English
Hi,
I've just heard about this important campaign to pressure Lloyd’s of London to stop insuring the military dictators of Burma.
Burma's military junta has been hanging on to power for years using repressive tactics - jailing monks and opposition leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, and denying their citizens relief after last year's devastating cyclone. One way to push for change is to cut off the businesses that prop them up by shaming western companies that are supporting them.
Lloyd’s of London is one of their lifelines -- so please join me now by emailing them, the media furore is growing and Lloyd’s could be pushed to terminate its Burmese contracts to save face. If you click on the link below a page will come up which provides key numbers, email addresses and suggestions for what to say. It will only take a few minutes. Please follow the link below to take action:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/shame_lloyds_on_burma/98.php
For the full Avaaz campaign read below:
Dear friends,
A year after their crackdown, Burma's military dictators remain entrenched, propped up by dealings with Western companies. But the Burmese democracy movement has found a powerful pressure point -- the insurers who underwrite the generals' economic stranglehold -- exposing them one by one, and forcing big companies to pull out.[1]
Now information has leaked that Lloyd's of London, one of the world's oldest, most respected and secretive insurers, is the ultimate channel for insurance on the generals' venturesincluding aviation and shipping: yesterday, news broke that Lloyd's chairman Lord Levene also sits on the board of the junta-linked oil giant TOTAL![2]
Bad publicity is growing as deals come up for renewal -- if enough of us email and call key Lloyd's decision-makers this week, we can shame them into pulling out of this dirty trade, undermining the hardliners and creating leverage for the release of political prisoners like rightfully elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/shame_lloyds_on_burma/98.php
The Burmese people's struggle is long and tough. But as in South Africa, international pressure on the regime's exploitative ventures could tip the balance. Because it's hard or impossible for them to continue without insurance, this is an effective and wide-reaching approach for citizens everywhere to have a real impact.
Lloyd's of London is the umbrella and overseer for hundreds of specialist insurance syndicates, the last option for many junta-linked companies, and it can stop this dirty trade if it so chooses. We'll ramp up the pressure by alerting the media to our campaign, specialist insurance publications included. Even the British government has begun to ask Lloyd's to cease its business with the Burmese military junta.[3]
We can win this campaign, so let's flood Lloyd's with emails and phone calls all this week -- on the campaign page we provide key numbers, email addresses and suggestions for what to say -- just follow the link below now to take action:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/shame_lloyds_on_burma/98.php
If we win, the regime will be thrown onto the back foot, Burma's people who see none of the benefits of this dirty trade will be immensely heartened, and the UN Secretary-General will have a greater chance of securing the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other prisoners this December. Together, our individual small acts are becoming irresistible. We can't forget Burma.
With hope and determination,
Paul, Alice, Iain, Graziela, Ricken, Pascal, Paula, Brett, Veronique, Milena -- the entire Avaaz team
For updates on Avaaz campaigns: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2/
You can also view reports on our campaigns in support of the Burmese democracy movement and the$2 million of aid Avaaz members provided in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
Sources:
1. Reinsurance Magazine: Big insurers including Marsh, Swiss Re, AON pull out: http://www.reinsurancemagazine.com/public/showPage.html?page=787739
Arab Insurance Group and XL also pull out:
http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/962-campaigners-hail-arigs-decision-to-pull-out-of-burma.html
2. The Observer: "The baron who holds Burma's purse strings", 2 November 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/02/oil-total-burma-lloyds-levene1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/28/insurance.foreignpolicy
4. Asia-Europe summit in Beijing calls for release of political prisoners:
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/independent/2008/10/release-aung-sa.html Import automatically from my personal address book. Select this option to load contacts from your Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, or AOL email account.
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Burma
Just received this from Avaaz:
Dear friends,
Burma is far from the headlines - but we’ve found a real pressure point, the insurers who prop up the junta’s economic interests. Read the email and take action now!
(Meanwhile a new US president is about to be elected — watch out for our post-election campaign…)
A year after their crackdown, Burma’s military dictators remain entrenched, propped up by dealings with Western companies. But the Burmese democracy movement has found a powerful pressure point — many of the Generals’ West-linked business ventures depend on one insurer: Lloyd’s of London.[1]
Lloyd’s is the world’s oldest, most respected insurer, and cares a great deal about its global reputation — by pointing out Lloyd’s blameworthiness as key insurance deals come up for renewal, we can shift their cost-benefit calculations on support to the Burmese regime.
If enough of us email and call key decision-makers at Lloyd’s this week, we could shame them into pulling out of this dirty trade, undermining the hardliners and creating pressure for human rights and the release of political prisoners like democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Follow the link below to lend a hand to the Burmese people:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/shame_lloyds_on_burma
The Burmese people’s struggle is long and tough. But as in South Africa, international pressure on the regime’s exploitative ventures could tip the balance. Because it’s hard or impossible for them to continue without insurance, this is an effective and wide-reaching approach for citizens everywhere to have a real impact. Burma’s democracy movement decided on this strategy because the benefit of these ventures flows overwhelmingly to the generals, while the Burmese people have grown ever poorer.
Lloyd’s of London is the umbrella and overseer for hundreds of specialist insurance syndicates, and it can stop their dirty trade if it so chooses. Already many big global insurers have stopped insuring junta-linked businesses – after Lloyd’s, the generals will start to run out of options. We’ll ramp up the pressure by alerting the media to our campaign, specialist insurance publications included. Even the British government has begun to ask Lloyd’s to cease its business with the Burmese military junta.[2]
We can win this campaign, so let’s flood Lloyd’s with emails and phone calls all this week — on the campaign page we provide key numbers, email addresses and suggestions for what to say — just follow the link below now to take action:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/shame_lloyds_on_burma
If we win, the regime will be thrown onto the back foot, Burma’s people will be immensely heartened, and the UN Secretary-General will have a greater chance of securing the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other prisoners this December.[3] Together, our individual small acts are becoming irresistible. We can’t forget Burma.
With hope and determination,
Paul, Alice, Iain, Graziela, Ricken, Pascal, Paula, Brett, Veronique, Milena — the entire Avaaz team
For updates on Avaaz campaigns: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2/
You can also view reports on our campaigns in support of the Burmese democracy movement and the $2 million of aid Avaaz members provided in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
Sources:
1. The Observer: “The baron who holds Burma’s purse strings”, 2 November 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/02/oil-total-burma-lloyds-levene1
Reinsurance Magazine: Big insurers including Marsh, Swiss Re, AON pull out: http://www.reinsurancemagazine.com/public/showPage.html?page=787739
Arab Insurance Group and XL also pull out:
http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/962-campaigners-hail-arigs-decision-to-pull-out-of-burma.html
2. “Foreign Office warns Lloyd’s over Burma”:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/28/insurance.foreignpolicy
3. As Ban Ki-Moon prepares to visit, Asia-Europe summit in Beijing calls for release of political prisoners:
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/independent/2008/10/release-aung-sa.html
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ABOUT AVAAZ
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Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns.
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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Stand With The Burmese People
SOLIDARITY: Burma (4); Free Burma Campaign 4th Oct
words are only words when blood is on our hands
Written by bigcircumstance
November 3, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Posted in Current Affairs
Tagged with Aung San Suu Kyi, avaaz, Burma, Lloyd's, Myanmar
North Korea, Russia, Iran, Myanmar Nukes and US Elections
http://baganland.blogspot.com/2008/11/n-korea-russia-iran-myanmar-nukes-and.html
Source: TurtHugger]
So, how many current US news stories have informed you about the connection between N Korea and Myanmar/Burma exchange of nuclear technology? As far back as 2002: US Warns Myanmar On Nuclear Reactor Aspirations
Myanmar activists staged a protest Tuesday outside the Russian Embassy in Malaysia, calling on Moscow to scrap plans to help build a nuclear research centre in the military-ruled country.
But, today the US economic meltdown, assisted by unrestrained spending on an obsession, credit disaster, and campaign personality wars distract us from the task of altering that path leading to the wall we just crashed in to. The rest of the globe is positioning itself for advantage on the world stage. Respect is measured by how dangerous you ‘appear’ to be. Making deals to acquire nuclear capability is a crucial step toward credibility. Appearances are everything. Dictators of poor countries want to be respected by the ‘big boys’ and counted among the worthy in the nuclear street gang. Street gang mentality is ‘I have a gun, too’ … Can you picture Myanmar with nuclear capability, beyond energy? More attention should be directed to the pathway these capabilities are taking and more teeth are needed for the IAEA.
Nuclear bond for North Korea and Myanmar
YANGON - A recent flurry of high-level contacts between North Korea and Myanmar raises new nuclear proliferation concerns between the two pariah states, one of which already possesses nuclear-weapon capabilities and the other possibly aspiring.
At least three delegations led by flag-level officers from Myanmar’s army have traveled to Pyongyang in the past three months, hot on the heels of the two sides’ re-establishment last year of formal diplomatic relations. According to a source familiar with the travel itineraries of Myanmar officials, Brigadier General Aung Thein Lin visited North Korea in mid-September.
Before that, other Myanmar military delegations visited North Korea, including a group headed in August by Lieutenant General Tin Aye, chief of the Office of Chief Defense Industries, and another led in July by Lieutenant General Myint Hlaing, the chief of Air Defence.
The rapid-fire visits have gone beyond goodwill gestures and the normal diplomatic niceties of re-establishing ties. Rather, the personalities involved in the visits indicate that Myanmar is not only seeking weapons procurements, but also probable cooperation in establishing air defense weaponry, missiles, rockets or artillery production facilities.
The secretive visits are believed to entail a Myanmar quest for tunneling technology and possible assistance in developing its nascent nuclear program. Tin Aye and Myint Hlaing, by virtue of their positions as lieutenant generals, are logical choices to head official delegations in search of weapons technology for Myanmar’s military, while Brigadier General Aung Thein Lin, current mayor of Yangon and chairman of the city’s development committee, was formerly deputy minister of Industry-2, responsible for all industrial development in the country.
Constrained reaction
The United States’ reaction to Myanmar’s nuclear developments has been somewhat constrained, despite the George W Bush administration referring to the military-run country as an “outpost of tyranny”.
… common interests have brought the two secretive nations back together. The famine in North Korea in the late 1990s and Myanmar’s military expansion ambitions, including a drive for self-sufficiency in production, have fostered recent trade flows. While Myanmar has the agricultural surplus to ease North Korean hunger, Pyongyang possesses the weapons and technological know-how needed to boost Yangon’s military might. There is also speculation Myanmar might provide uranium, mined in remote and difficult-to-monitor areas, to North Korea.
As testament to Pyongyang’s willingness to supply weapons to the military regime, more North Korean ship visits have been noted at Thilawa port in Yangon, one of the country’s primary receipt points for military cargo.
… Myanmar has publicly stated it seeks nuclear technology only for peaceful purposes, such as developing radio-isotopes for agricultural use and medical research. Yet two well-placed sources told this reporter that North Korean and Iranian technicians were already advising Myanmar on a possible secret nuclear effort, running in parallel to the aboveboard Russia-supported program. Asia Times Online could not independently confirm the claim.
The regime is also known to be interested in North Korea’s tunneling technology (see Myanmar and North Korea share a tunnel vision, Asia Times Online, July 19, 2006) in line with the ruling junta’s siege mentality and apparent fears of a possible US-led pre-emptive military attack.
As the true nature of the budding bilateral relationship comes into closer view, the risk is rising that Pyongyang and Yangon are conspiring to create a security quandary in Southeast Asia akin to the one now vexing the US and its allies on the Korean Peninsula.
UN CONCERN
There has been widespread speculation, and some skepticism, among U.N. diplomats about whether a nation such as Iran which is subject to U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program should — or could — win a seat on the same council that approved the sanctions.
The council voted unanimously as recently as Saturday to approve a resolution pressing Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium and comply with efforts to monitor its nuclear development program. The resolution contained no new sanctions, but reaffirmed existing ones.
On Myanmar, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who traveled to the southeast Asian nation in May, has expressed deep frustration at the failure of its military junta to agree to efforts aimed at reforming itself.
Ban has been trying to encourage Myanmar to take real steps to include opponents led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been under house arrest since her party overwhelmingly won a general election in 1990 but was not allowed to take power by the military.
Ibrahim Gambari, a special envoy for Ban, visited Myanmar in August but failed to see Suu Kyi, who declined to meet with him. Gambari has met with Suu Kyi seven times before.
“All the members of the council support the mediation efforts,” Zhang said after the council finished meeting privately to set its monthly agenda.
He expressed hope that Myanmar “will continue its close communication” with Gambari to agree on a date for a visit.
Zhang was also asked about North Korea, which began disabling its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon under an aid-for-disarmament pact negotiated by six nations, but abruptly stopped in mid-August and has started to restore its disabled reactor.
North Korea cited Washington’s refusal to remove it from a terrorism blacklist. The U.S. maintains that the pact requires North Korea to submit to a thorough verification of its nuclear accounting — a demand rejected by the North.
Burma’s Nuke Take Away
Wrapped with
Mr Khan, Kim Jong II and Kremlin
Myanmar Gets a Russian Nuclear Reactor
Deal Vexes China’s Efforts To Expand Its Influence By Courting Yangon
On state sovereignty, disarmament matters, world leaders urge solidarity over selectivity, as Assembly continues general debate
India ruling party hails historic nuclear deal
US Envoy Briefs China on North Korea Nuclear Talks
This is not a new development. Somehow this nuclear relationship has not been worthy of US Mainstream Media. Myanmar has been newsworthy only because of it’s cyclone disaster, it’s President under house arrest, it’s Buddhist Monks slaughtered, its horrible junta.
Some blogs may have mentioned this concern, but right now, the focus is on the entertainment of US elections and personality bashing.
Enter another headache for the next US President. If we just print more money and start a bonfire, we can forget the reason we are no longer Americans. We are silent lambs who prefer to ignore where we are headed. We can watch the pretty fire, roast marshmallows and ignore the noisemakers trying to put the fire out.
Small dictatorships pose bigger threats to world security than Russia, China, India and Pakistan. Israel and Iran are the most likely to pull the trigger first, using nukes as an excuse.
France urges Israel not to attack Iran
But NO, America is suffering from the consequences of a mis-directed administration.
Print this post
Posted by Baganland at 5:40 AM
Labels: Analysis
2 comments:
Anonymous said...
Myanmar (Burma) has large deposits of Uranium and undoubtedly supplied uranium ores to North Korea.
Recently a North Korean ship supplied Uranium from Myanmar to Syria via a Singaporean shipping agent.
This led to two airstrikes on Syria in late 2007. First by the Isreali Air force and the second allegedly by the US Air Force.
Myanmar may well be supplying Uranium to Iran, or enriching uranium for Iran in Myanmar to fool IAEA inspectors.
November 4, 2008 5:38 PM
Axil said...
Well, Burma's certainly deserved access to the "Axis of Evil" for some time now, sad that it took this and a Ramb film to put them on centre stage.
November 4, 2008 5:41 PM
Post a Comment
Vote for Than Shwe
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JK04Ae02.html
By Muhammad Cohen
HONG KONG - Despite the record voter turnout forecast for Tuesday in the United States presidential elections, it's easy to understand why Americans may be tired of the campaign. After all, it began way back when US stocks and property seemed like good investments. The campaign blew in with the political fresh air of a woman and an African-American each making appealing bids for the presidency but concludes with too much focus on a fringe female who'd do for women what Clarence Thomas has done for blacks.
Perhaps you've grown fatigued with the candidates, even though Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain flashed real allure to overcome standing-room-only fields to capture their
party nominations. Obama beat Hillary Clinton, whose anointment seemed inevitable. Now he's acquired some of Clinton's air of inevitability, losing freshness that made him so appealing initially.
McCain has always been the straight-talker, the guy who would rather be right than liked, and the torture victim who stood up against torture. But he's been stretching the truth with tortured readings of his opponents' positions since January, now calling Obama un-American for supporting progressive taxation. He also keeps insisting Sarah Palin is ready to be president. Perhaps it's unavoidable that candidates who spend nearly two years on the campaign trail sound and act like candidates.
Two wars and more
If you don't like the candidates, consider the issues. The US is fighting two wars on the other side of the world that cost taxpayers nearly US$500 million a day, plus priceless respect and admiration. The world's only superpower faces a nuclear armed rogue dictator in North Korea; nuclear armed neighbors India and Pakistan that have fought four wars in 60 years and both now believe they have backing in Washington; gas-rich Russia is looking to regain influence over former Soviet satellites; Iran is anxious to produce weapons-grade nuclear fuel, and China is holding so many billions in US Treasury securities that its financial power is a political weapon.
At home, America is mired in its worst financial crisis in 80 years and exporting its toxins worldwide. Healthcare costs threaten to bankrupt business, government and families. Fully 35 years after the first Arab oil embargo, this year's oil price spike finally renewed concern over America's energy and greenhouse gas profligacy. On these issues and more, from taxation to education, McCain and Obama offer radically different solutions.
Maybe you've soured on the campaigning. The race began with a frontrunner trying to extend one political dynasty and ends with an underdog desperately distancing himself from another. Since its winning streak in February that clinched the nomination, the Obama side has played defense. It broke a promise to accept public financing and has used its groundbreaking Internet reach not to stir the public imagination for Obama, but to raise funds in huge amounts, supporting a relentless television assault that includes negative advertising, outspending not just McCain but some of America's top brands. If the election doesn't pan out, the Illinois senator is positioned to launch a clothing line or travel website - "Your Obama holiday includes ... "
Kitchen sinking
The McCain campaign picked up the Clinton strategy of throwing the kitchen sink at Obama, with Joe the Plumber added to connect the faucet. It's also picked up that campaign's lack of discipline and unity, and added even more name calling and half-truths about its opponents and, lately, the other half of the ticket. While Clinton eventually found a successful voice as a fighter for working people, McCain goes to polling day still searching.
Although racism and ageism have raised their heads - as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin does over Alaska, according to Governor Palin - things could have gotten much uglier. To the credit of all, the enduring phrases of this campaign will be: "the 3am phone call", "Yes, we can, "You betcha" and "Spread the wealth", rather than "God damn America" and f-bombs on the Senate floor. Still, you may be reluctant to vote for a candidate who picked Palin as his vice president or who has shown himself more ready to duck a tough scrap than fight the good fight.
So if you're having trouble bringing yourself to vote for McCain or Obama, then vote for Than Shwe. In case you don't recognize the name, Than Shwe is the head of Myanmar's military junta, once known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC. I'm not suggesting that you write in Than's name on your presidential ballot. Instead, if you're thinking of skipping the voting booth on Tuesday, please consider Than.
Thought W was bad?
Than leads the State Peace and Development Council cabal that keeps Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and refuses to recognize her party's landslide victory in Myanmar's 1990 elections. Since then, the junta has imprisoned thousands, moved the national capital to a remote site to insulate itself from the pesky populace, conscripted an estimated 800,000 civilians into forced labor projects, brutally suppressed anti-government demonstrations, including beating Buddhist monks last year, and prevented international and internal aid from reaching victims of Typhoon Nargis last May, a calamity that left more than 130,000 people dead and up to a million homeless.
When you don't vote, you're agreeing with Than Shwe and dictators all over the world who proclaim democracy is a farce. Shamefully, while ordinary Burmese, Chinese, Cubans, Saudis, Syrians, North Koreans, Yemenis and Zimbabweans take big risks to express their dissent and can only dream of electing their leaders, millions of Americans can't be bothered to exercise their franchise. Turnout in the 2004 US presidential election was 60.7%, the highest figure since 1968. According to the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, that robust turnout meant 78 million eligible voters stayed away from the polls on Election Day 2004.
Each one of those 78 million no-shows bolsters arguments that democracy doesn't work, that Than Shwe or his political bedfellow North Korea's Dear Leader Kim Jong-il is right and Thomas Jefferson is wrong. After all, even in America, the dictators and their cronies laugh, 78 million people don't vote. No-shows have outnumbered the votes for any candidate ever, meaning the real winner of every presidential election in America history has been "I don't care" in a rout.
So if you're having trouble convincing yourself to cast a ballot that says Obama or McCain is right, then vote to prove Than Shwe wrong, and relegate "I don't care" to a richly deserved last place finish in the 2008 tally. Oppressed people everywhere will thank you.
Former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen told America's story to the world as a US diplomat and is author of Hong Kong On Air (www.hongkongonair.com), a novel set during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, high finance and cheap lingerie.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Flag this message【映像】いとうせいこうさん+沢知恵さん「ミャンマー軍事政権に抗議するポエトリー・リーディング ＱＵＩＥＴ」Tuesday, 4 November, 2008 12:41
【転送・転載歓迎】
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ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2008/11/4
People's Forum on Burma
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10月17日に行った『ビルマ（ミャンマー）サイクロン被災者救援チャリティ・コンサート』で
いとうせいこうさん、ダブマスターＸさん、そして沢知恵さんがみせてくださった
「ミャンマー軍事政権に抗議するポエトリー・リーディング ＱＵＩＥＴ」がYouTubeにて
ご覧いただけます。
沢知恵さんのピアノをバックに、いとうせいこうさんの言葉がさらに力強く胸に響きます。
サイクロン被災者へ、ビルマの人々へ、軍事政権へ、そして私たちへのメッセージ。
ぜひご覧ください！お知り合いなどにもぜひ紹介していただければ幸いです。
【YouTube】１０分
「ミャンマー軍事政権に抗議するポエトリー・リーディング ＱＵＩＥＴ」
FREE BURMA WE ARE BUDDHIST,TOO Poetry Reading QUEIT
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=XQeStlWaeuI
大型サイクロン「ナルギス」がビルマ南西部を襲ってから、丁度、半年が
経過しました。被災地ではまだまだ支援が必要な状況です。
引き続き、皆様のご支援をどうぞ宜しくお願いいたします。
PFB事務局 宮澤
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
★いとうせいこうさんのブログ
http://ameblo.jp/seikoito
★沢知恵さんのウェブサイト
http://www.comoesta.co.jp/index.html
▼いとうせいこうさん、ビルマ民主化支援Ｔシャツ（カタログハウス）
http://www.cataloghouse.co.jp/cat_order/tsuhan/burma/index.html
▼いとうせいこうさん：「ミャンマー軍事政権に抗議するポエトリー・リーディング」
アースデイ東京@代々木公園（2008年4月19日）
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Hj-GwkH2I&feature=related
-------------------------------------------------------
■サイクロン被災から丁度半年が経過しました。
PFBが支援金を送るEAT-Burma（ビルマ緊急救援チーム）からの報告に
よると、未だ日々の食料や生活物資が必要な被災者も多く、引き続き
支援が必要な状況です。
http://pfbkatsudo.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post_5252.html
先日の沢知恵さんといとうせいこうさんのチャリティ・コンサートでの
収益金とカンパも、EAT-Burma（ビルマ緊急救援チーム）へ届けます。
引き続き、皆様のご協力をどうぞ宜しくお願いいたします。
●支援金振込先 郵便振替（ゆうちょ銀行）●
加入者名：ＰＦＢ－ビルマ・サイクロン被災者支援基金
口座番号： ００１６０－０－３３６６１３
------------------------------------------------------
■ビルマのことをもっと知ろう！
ビルマ情報ネットワーク
www.burmainfo.org
きょうのビルマのニュース
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo
アムネスティ・インターナショナル
http://www.amnesty.or.jp/
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ
http://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=news_japanese
ヒューマンライツ・ナウ
http://www.ngo-hrn.org/
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以上
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◇ ビルマ市民フォーラム事務局 ◇
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
〒160-0004 東京都新宿区四谷一丁目18番地6 四谷1丁目ウエストビル4階
いずみ橋法律事務所内
電話０３－５３１２－４８１７（直）／ FAX:０３―５３１２－４５４３
E-mail： pfb@izumibashi-law.net
ホームページ： http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
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ျမန္မာျပည္ စာနယ္ဇင္းေလာကႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ သတင္းစာဆရာႀကီး ဦးဝင္းတင္ႏွင့္ ေတြ႕ဆံုျခင္း-FROM "Tom Brown"
လက္ရွိ ျမန္မာျပည္စာနယ္ဇင္းေလာက ဖိႏွိပ္ခံရမႈႏွင့္ ယခင္စာနယ္ဇင္းေလာက
အေျခအေနကြာျခားခ်က္မ်ား၊ မီဒီယာ၏ အခန္းက႑ အေရးပါပံုတို႔ကို
ဧရာဝတီမဂၢဇင္းက သတင္းစာဆရာႀကီး ဦးဝင္းတင္အား ေမးျမန္း၍ ေဖာ္ျပလိုက္ပါသည္။
ဦးဝင္းတင္ (ဓာတ္ပုံ - ျမတ္မိုးေမာင္)
ေမး။ ။ အက္ရွင္တိုင္းမ္စ္ဆိုတဲ့ ျပည္တြင္းထုတ္ ဂ်ာနယ္တေစာင္မွာ
ဆရာ့ အေၾကာင္း တပုိဒ္ပါလို႔ အပိတ္ခံရတယ္ ၾကားတယ္။ အဲဒီေပၚမွာ ဘာေျပာခ်င္
လဲဆရာ။
ေျဖ။ ။ သူတို႔ (အာဏာပိုင္ေတြ) က ရွင္းရွင္းေျပာရရင္ေတာ့ ႀကံဖန္ၿပီး
ခ်ဳပ္ခ်ယ္ဖို႔ကို နည္းမ်ိဳးစံုနဲ႔။ တလ ပိတ္မယ္၊ ၂ လပိတ္မယ္ ဆိုတာမ်ိဳး၊
ဒီဟာ လုပ္ျခင္းအားျဖင့္ တျခားလူေတြကိုပါခ်ဳပ္ခ်ယ္ၿပီးျဖစ္သြားတယ္
ဆိုတာမ်ိဳး လုပ္ၾကတာပဲဗ်။ ဒါက စာေစာင္တေစာင္ခ်င္းစီကို ပိတ္တာ။
ေနာက္တခုကေတာ့ စာနယ္ဇင္း လြတ္လပ္ခြင့္ကို တားျမစ္ထားတယ္ ဆိုတာကို ျပတာ။
ဒီဟာနဲ႔ ပတ္သက္တာကေတာ့ ႀကံဳေနရမွာပဲ။ ႀကံဳလည္းႀကံဳခဲ့ရတာပါပဲ။
ေမး။ ။ မ ဆ လ ေခတ္မွာ ဆရာသတင္းစာ အယ္ဒီတာလုပ္တုန္းကနဲ႔ ခုနဲ႔
စိစစ္ေရး ကိစၥေတြ၊ သတင္းစာ ေလာကေတြနဲ႔ ဘယ္လိုကြာဟလဲ ေျပာပါဦး။
ေျဖ။ ။ မကြာပါဘူး။ တူတူပါပဲ။ မထူးပါဘူး။ ဒီခ်ိန္မွာစာေစာင္ ၂
ေစာင္ကို ပိတ္တယ္။ မဆလ ေခတ္တုန္းက စာေစာင္ ေတြ အားလံုးပိတ္ပစ္ခဲ့တာပဲ။
ေနာက္တခါ စီးပြားေရးအရ ညစ္တာတို႔ တခုခ်င္း စာနယ္ဇင္း လြတ္လပ္ခြင့္ကို
ပိတ္တဲ့ ေနရာမွာေတာ့ သီးျခား လုပ္ေဆာင္မႈေတြ မတူေပမယ့္ မ်က္စိပိတ္
နားပိတ္ေအာင္ လုပ္ထားတာကေတာ့ ဦးတည္ခ်က္က ဘာမွ မကြာဘူး။
က်ေနာ္ေျပာခ်င္တာကေတာ့ စာနယ္ဇင္းေတြအေနနဲ႔ ႐ုန္းကန္ရမယ္။ အခ်င္းခ်င္း
ညႇိလုပ္တာပဲ ျဖစ္ျဖစ္ တေစာင္ခ်င္းစီပဲ ျဖစ္ျဖစ္ ငံု႔ခံေနတာမ်ိဳး
မဟုတ္ဘဲနဲ႔ တတ္ႏိုင္သေလာက္ အေၾကာင္းအရာ တခုခ်င္းစီေပၚမွာ ႐ုန္းကန္မႈ
ရွိရမယ္။ အဲလိုပဲ က်ေနာ္က ယူဆတယ္။
က်ေနာ္ကေတာ့ သတင္းစာေတြ မလုပ္ႏို္င္ေတာ့ဘူး။ သတင္းစာက မ်ားမ်ားလုပ္ရတယ္၊
ျမန္ျမန္ လုပ္ရတယ္၊ က်ယ္က်ယ္ လုပ္ရတယ္။ က်ုယ္က်ယ္ လုပ္ရတယ္ ဆိုတာက
ေတာေရာ၊ ၿမိဳ႕ေရာ၊ ကမၻာေရာ၊ ျမန္မာေရာ။ စီးပြားေရး၊ ႏိုင္ငံေရး၊ လူမႈ
ေရးေတြ လုပ္ရတယ္။ မ်ားမ်ားလုပ္ရမယ္ဆိုတာက အေၾကာင္းအရာ မ်ားႏိုင္သမွ်
မ်ားေအာင္ ထည့္ရတယ္၊ စံုႏိုင္သေလာက္ စံုေအာင္ လူမႈဘဝကို
လႊမ္းၿခံဳႏိုင္ေအာင္ အဲလိုေပါ့။ ၿပီးေတာ့ ျမန္ျမန္လုပ္ရတယ္။ အရင္ေခတ္ကဆို
တယ္လီဖုန္းေလာက္ပဲ ရွိတဲ့ၾကားက ျဖစ္ေအာင္ လုပ္ရတယ္။ ဒီဟာေတြေလာက္ကို
က်ေတာ္ မလုပ္ႏိုင္ေတာ့ဘူး။ ခု ဂ်ာနယ္ေတြ ႀကိဳးစားၾကတယ္ ေကာင္းပါတယ္။
မွားၾကတာေတြ ရွိမွာပဲ။ မွားပါေစ။ အေရးမႀကီးပါဘူး။ မွားတယ္ မွန္တယ္ဆိုတာ
တေခတ္နဲ႔ တေခတ္ စံခ်င္းမွမတူတာ။ မွားတာကို ဂ႐ုစိုက္စရာမလိုပါဘူး။
တခုပဲ ေဝဖန္ခ်င္တာက ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔မွာ ရုန္းကန္တာနည္းနည္း နည္းတယ္ထင္တယ္ဗ်။
က်ေနာ္တို႔ တုန္းကလည္း ဖိႏွိပ္မႈက အတူတူပဲ။ မထူးဘူး။ ဒီေခတ္မွာ
ဖိႏွိပ္ခံရတာလည္း တူတူပဲ မထူးဘူးဗ်။ တခ်ိဳ႕ကထင္ၾကတယ္ ဒီေခတ္မွာမွ
ပိုဖိႏွိပ္ခံရတယ္ လုိ႔ … ။ အဲဒါမဟုတ္ဘူး။ တူတူပါပဲ။ သူတို႔မႀကိဳက္တာ
တခုခု လုပ္မိရင္၊ ပါလာရင္ ဘယ္ေခတ္ပဲျဖစ္ျဖစ္ ပိတ္ပစ္တာပဲေလ။
ဖိႏွိပ္ခ်ဳပ္ခ်ယ္မႈက ဒီလိုပဲ ရွိေနမွာပဲ။ အဲဒီၾကားကေန
႐ုန္းကန္ၾကရလိမ့္မယ္။
အဲဒီမွာ က်ေနာ္က ဘာဥပမာ ျပခ်င္လဲဆိုေတာ့ လြန္ခဲ့တဲ့ ႏွစ္ေပါင္း ၃၀ ေက်ာ္က
ကာတြန္းဆရာေတြကို မိန္႔ခြန္းတခုေျပာ ရတယ္။ အဲဒါေလး ေျပာခ်င္တယ္။
အဲဒီတုန္းက သူတို႔ကို ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔ ကာတြန္းေတြ သိပ္ေကာင္းတယ္ဗ်ာ။ ေရးတာေတြ
လည္း ေျပာင္ေျမာက္တယ္ ဒါေပမယ့္ ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔မွာ ငံု႔ခံေနၾကတာေလးေတြ
ရွိတယ္။ ဒီလိုေရးလို႔မရရင္ ဟိုလိုေလးလွည့္ ေရးရမယ္။ ဥပမာေျပာရရင္
အဲဒီတုန္းက တိရစၦာန္႐ံုမွာ ကေလးတေယာက္ က်ားကိုက္တယ္ဗ်ာ။ အဲဒီသတင္းကို
ထည့္လို႔ မရဘူး။ ဘယ္လိုမွကို ထည့္ခြင့္ မေပးဘူး။ ဒါေပမယ့္ အဲဒီမွာ
က်ေနာ္တို႔ အနည္းဆံုးငံု႔မခံဘူးဆိုတာ ျပခ်င္တယ္။ ျဖစ္ခ်င္ ေတာ့
အဲဒီေန႔မွာ ႏိုင္ငံျခား သတင္းတပုဒ္က တိုက္တိုက္ဆိုင္ဝင္လာတယ္။
ျခေသၤ့ကိုက္တဲ့သတင္းဗ်။ အဲဒါကို မ်က္ႏွာဖံုးမွာ အႀကီးႀကီး ထည့္လိုက္တယ္။
ျခေသၤ့နဲ႔ က်ားနဲ႔ကေတာ့ မတူဘူးေပါ့ဗ်ာ။ ဒါေပမယ့္ အာဏာပိုင္ေတြကေတာ့ ဟာ
ဒီေကာင္ ေတြ ေရးျပန္ပလား ဆိုတာမ်ိဳးျဖစ္သြားတယ္။ ဒီျခေသၤ့ကိုက္တာကို
အေၾကာင္းျပဳၿပီး က်ားကိုက္တဲ့ သတင္းကလည္း လူေတြၾကားထဲမွာ ျပန္႔ေနတယ္။
ဆိုလိုတာက ဂ်ာနယ္လစ္ေတြက အဲဒီပံုစံနဲ႔ေတာ့ လႈပ္ရွား ႏိုင္တယ္။
႐ုန္းကန္ပါ။ သူတို႔က ဒီလိုမေရးရဘူးဆိုရင္ ရႏိုင္တဲ့နည္းနဲ႔ ေရးပါ။
သူတို႔ကဒီလိုလုပ္ပါဆိုရင္ မလုပ္ႏိုင္ဘူး တနည္းနည္းနဲ႔ လွည့္လုပ္ပါ။
ဟုိေခတ္နဲ႔ ဒီေခတ္ ဖိႏွိပ္ပံု ဖိႏွိပ္နည္း မတူတာပဲရွိတယ္ ဖိႏွိပ္တာကေတာ့
ဖိႏွိပ္တာပါပဲ။ ဂ်ာနယ္ တေစာင္ခ်င္းကို အေရးယူ ပံုခ်င္းေတာ့
တူခ်င္မွတူမယ္။ ဟိုတုန္းကေတာ့ သိမ္းက်ံဳးၿပီး အေရးယူတယ္။ ဒါပဲကြာတယ္။ ခု
ဂ်ာနယ္ ေတြ အမ်ားႀကီး ရွိတယ္။ ဘာေတြ ေရးႏိုင္လဲ။ ဘာမွ မေရးႏိုင္ဘူး။
က်ေနာ္တို႔နာမည္ေတြကို လံုးဝေဖ်ာက္ထား ရာကေန အခုနာမည္ေလး ေတြ ပါလာတယ္။
မ်ားမ်ား မသံုးႏိုင္ဘူး။ တခ်ိဳ႕ဂ်ာနယ္ေတြဆို က်ေနာ့္ကို အင္တာဗ်ဴး
လုပ္တယ္။ အဲဒါေတြ က်ေနာ္ဖတ္ ရတယ္။ စာေပစိစစ္ေရးကို တင္တဲ့ မူေတြေပါ့။
ဒါပဲဗ်။ ဘာမွမထူးဘူး။
ထူးတာက ႐ုန္းကန္မႈ နည္းတယ္။ က်ေနာ္တို႔ လုပ္ခဲ့တာပဲ။ က်ေနာ္ဟံသာဝတီ
သတင္းစာ လုပ္ခဲ့တယ္။ က်ေနာ့္ကို ဖိႏွိပ္ တာက ဒီေခတ္ ဂ်ာနယ္ေတြကို
ဖိႏိွပ္တာထက္ ပိုတယ္လည္း မေျပာလိုဘူး လိုတယ္လည္း မေျပာဘူး တူတူပါပဲ။
က်ေနာ့္ အသက္အရြယ္နဲ႔ က်ေနာ့္ရာထူးနဲ႔ ပင္စင္နီးတာနဲ႔ ဒါေတြငဲ့ၿပီး
က်ေနာ္ ေအးေအး ေနရင္ ရတာပဲ။ ဒါေပမယ့္ က်ေနာ္မေန ႏိုင္ဘူး တတ္ႏိုင္သေလာက္
႐ုန္းတယ္။ အဲဒီမွာ သူတို႔မေက်နပ္ဘူး က်ေနာ့္လည္း ျဖဳတ္ပစ္၊
က်ေနာ့္သတင္းစာလည္း ပိတ္ပစ္တာပဲ။
နမူနာေလးတခု ေျပာျပမယ္။ တခါက ဝန္ႀကီးကေနၿပီး အမိန္႔နဲ႔ လာတယ္။
ေပၚလစီလားဘာလားေတာ့မသိဘူးဗ် သတင္း စာမွာ ဘုန္းႀကီးတရားပြဲေတြထည့္ရမယ္တဲ့၊
ရန္ကုန္မွာလည္း ထည့္တယ္။ က်ေနာ္ကမထည့္ဘူးလို႔ မႏၱေလးက ဘုန္းႀကီး ၿမိဳ႕၊
ဟိုဘုန္းႀကီး တရားေဟာတာထည့္ေပး၊ ဒီဘုန္းႀကီးေဟာတာ ထည့္ေပးတာနဲ႔
ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔သတင္းစာ ဘာမွပါရေတာ့မွာ မဟုတ္ဘူး
ထည့္ရမွာလားလို႔ေျပာလိုက္ေတာ့မွ ေနာက္ ဝန္ႀကီးကလည္း မထည့္ပါနဲ႔ေတာ့လို႔
ေျပာတယ္။ အဲလိုေပါ့ဗ်ာ။ အဲလိုလုပ္ရတာပဲ။
ေနာက္ ဦးေနဝင္းက တ႐ုတ္ဝန္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္ ခ်ဴအင္လိုင္း ေသေတာ့ သူ႔မိန္႔ခြန္းကို
ေခါင္းႀကီးနဲ႔ မ်က္ႏွာဖံုးမွာ ထည့္ရမယ္လို႔ ေျပာတယ္။ က်ေနာ္ထည့္မယ္ဆို
မီတာေပါ့။ က်ေနာ္မထည့္ဘူး။ မႏၱေလးနဲ႔ ရန္ကုန္ အျပန္ျပန္ အလွန္လွန္
ဖုန္းဆက္တယ္။ ထည့္ရမယ္ေပါ့။ က်ေနာ္ကလည္း မထည့္ဘူး တင္းခံေနတယ္။ အဲဒီမွာ
ညေန ၄ နာရီ ၅ နာရီျဖစ္လာတယ္။ က်ေနာ္က မ်က္ႏွာဖံုးကို ျပန္ဖ်က္ရေတာ့မွာ
မလုပ္ႏုိင္ဘူး။ လုပ္ရင္ ကုန္မယ့္ စာစီခေတြ စာရြက္ဖုိးေတြ ဘယ္လိုလုပ္မလဲ
ဆိုေတာ့ သူတို႔က အကုန္ခံမယ္ ထည့္တဲ့။ အဲဒါနဲ႔ က်ေနာ္က ဒါဆို နက္ျဖန္
သတင္းစာ မထုတ္ႏိုင္ဘူးေျပာလိုက္တယ္။ အဲဒီေတာ့မွ ဒါဆိုလည္း မ်က္ႏွာဖံုးမွာ
မလုပ္ပါနဲ႔ေတာ့ အတြင္းက စာမ်က္ႏွာ ၃ တို႔ဘာတုိ႔မွာပဲ ထည့္ပါေတာ့
ျဖစ္သြားတယ္။ ႐ုန္းကန္ရတာေတာ့ နည္းနည္း ရွိတာေပါ့ဗ်ာ။
ေမး။ ။ ဖိႏွိပ္ခံရတာ တူတူပဲဆိုရင္ အရည္အေသြးနဲ႔ပတ္သက္လို႔ေကာ
ဆရာ့အေနနဲ႔ ဘယ္လိုျမင္ပါသလဲ။ အရင္ေခတ္နဲ႔ အခုေခတ္ ဘယ္လို ကြာျခားလဲ
သိခ်င္ပါတယ္။ တိုးတက္လာတာရွိလားေပါ့။
ေျဖ။ ။ ဒါကလည္း ေတာ္ေတာ္ေျပာရခက္တာပဲဗ်။ အရည္အေသြးဆိုတာက
ဘယ္ေပၚမွာတည္တာလဲ။ အေၾကာင္းအရာ ေပၚမွာ မူတည္တာလား။ ေခတ္ကာလကိုလိုက္ၿပီး
ေျပာင္းလဲေနတဲ့၊ ေရးဖို႔ လိုအပ္တဲ့ အခ်ိန္မွာ အသိဥာဏ္ရွိတဲ့၊ ေရးႏိုင္တဲ့
သူေတြက ေရးတာျဖစ္တဲ့အတြက္ သာတာေတြလည္း ရွိတာပဲဗ်။ ဒီေခတ္မွာလည္း
တခ်ိဳ႕လူေတြ ေတာ္ေတာ္ လုပ္ၾကတာ ရွိပါတယ္။ ဒီေခတ္မွာ ေက်ာ္ဝင္းတို႔ဘာတို႔
ေတာ္ေတာ္ လုပ္ႏိုင္တာပဲဗ်။ ေလ်ာ့သြားတယ္၊ ပိုၿပီး ေကာင္းလာတယ္ ဆိုတာ
မ်ိဳးေတာ့ မရွိေသးဘူးထင္တယ္ဗ်။ ဒါကေတာ့ ခုခ်က္ခ်င္းေျပာလို႔ ရတဲ့
အေၾကာင္းအရာလည္း မဟုတ္ဘူးဗ်။ ေခတ္ တေခတ္ေက်ာ္သြားတဲ့ အခ်ိန္က်မွ
သမိုင္းဝင္ စံတင္ၿပီး က်န္ခဲ့မွသာ ေျပာလို႔ရမယ္ထင္တယ္။
အဲဒါကိုပဲ ေကာင္းတယ္ ဆိုးတယ္ ဆံုးျဖတ္ၾကမွာပဲ။ က်ေနာ္ကေတာ့ အဲဒါနဲ႔
ပတ္သက္လို႔ မေျပာခ်င္ဘူးဗ်။ မလိုဘူးေလ။ သူတို႔လုပ္ေနတာ ေကာင္းတာပဲ။
ဒါေပမယ့္ ဘယ္ေလာက္ေကာင္းတယ္ ဘယ္ေျပာလို႔ရမလဲ။ ဒီေန႔ဆံုးျဖတ္တာလည္း
မွန္ခ်င္မွ မွန္မယ္။ ဒီေန႔ ေကာင္းေနေပမယ့္လည္း ေနာက္တေန႔က်ေတာ့ လူေတြက
ေမ့သြားရင္ ဘာမွမထူးဘူးဗ်။ ဒါေပမယ့္ တခုေတာ့ ေသခ်ာေျပာလုိ႔ရတယ္။ ဒါကေတာ့
ေခတ္အလုိက္ ေခတ္အလိုက္ လုပ္ေနၾကရမွာပဲ။ ဒီေန႔လုပ္ေနတာေတြက သာမာန္စံအေနနဲ႔
ေျပာမယ္ဆိုရင္ ေခတ္တေခတ္မွာ လုပ္ေနတဲ့ စံအရ မညံ့ဘူးဗ်။ ေဆာင္းပါးေတြ
ေကာင္းတယ္ဗ်ာ။ ဗိြဳက္စ္တို႔ဘာတို႔မွာ ေရးေနတဲ့ ပံုစံေတြဆိုရင္
ပညာတတ္လူတန္းစားရဲ႕ အသံမ်ိဳးနဲ႔ အထက္စီးက ေျပာတဲ့ ေလသံမ်ိဳး ေပါက္ခ်င္
ေပါက္ေနမယ္။
ဘယ္ေလာက္ပဲ ဘာေတြ ျဖစ္ေနေန လုပ္ေနတာကေတာ့ ေကာင္းေနတာပဲဗ်။ လူေတြကို
အသိဥာဏ္ဖြင့္ေပးတဲ့ ပံုစံမ်ိဳး ေတြလည္း ေတြ႕ေနရပါတယ္။ တခုပဲဗ်။
ပိတ္ခံရလိုက္၊ ေတာ္ၾကာေၾကာက္္သြားလိုက္ ဆိုတာမ်ိဳးမဟုတ္ဘဲ အဲဒီထဲက
ေဖာက္ထြက္ၿပီး ေရးႏိုင္ဖို႔ေတာ့လိုမယ္။ ကြာလတီကိုလည္း အဲဒီေပၚမွာ
ဆံုးျဖတ္ရမယ္ထင္တယ္။
ေမး။ ။ ျပည္ပက ျမန္မာ မီဒီယာေတြရဲ႕ အခန္းက႑ကိုေကာ ဆရာ ဘယ္လို သံုးသပ္မိပါသလဲ။
ေျဖ။ ။ အဲဒါနဲ႔ ပတ္သက္လို႔ေတာ့ က်ေနာ္သိပ္မသိဘူးဗ်။
ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔ဧရာဝတီေတာင္ (ေထာင္) ေဆး႐ံုမွာ တုန္းက တခါလား ဖတ္ဖူးတယ္။
ဝက္ဘ္ဆိုက္တို႔ဘာတို႔ေတြ က်ေနာ္သိပ္နားမလည္ေတာ့ သိပ္မေျပာခ်င္ဘူး။
သို႔ေသာ္ ဘာပဲ ေျပာေျပာ ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔နဲ႔ အတြင္းနဲ႔ ကြာတဲ့ အခ်က္က
ထင္ရွားတဲ့ ထင္ျမင္ခ်က္ ေတြကို ေဖာ္ထုတ္ ႏိုင္တဲ့ အေနအထား ကေတာ့
ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔နဲ႔ သူတို႔ကြာေနတယ္ဗ်။ ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔ကလြတ္ေနတဲ့ သူေတြ ဆိုေတာ့
အတြင္းကလူေတြလို ခ်က္ခ်င္း လာပိတ္လို႔မရဘူး။ ေနာက္တခု အျပင္မွာ
ရွိတဲ့သူေတြက ကမၻာ့အျမင္က်ေတာ့ ဆို႔စ္ရယူမႈက်ေတာ့ ျပည္တြင္းထက္
အမ်ားႀကီးသာတယ္။ ဒီ ၂ ခ်က္သာေနတဲ့အတြက္ ဒီမိုကေရစီ အသြင္ ကူးေျပာင္းတဲ့
ေနရာမွာ အမ်ားႀကီး အေထာက္ကူျပဳ မယ္လို႔ ယံုတယ္။ အထဲမွာက ႐ုန္းပါ
ဆိုေပမယ့္ ႐ုန္းကန္တဲ့ ေနရာမွာ အခက္အခဲေတြ အမ်ားႀကီး ရွိေနႏိုင္ေသးတယ္။
ဒီေတာ့ ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔ အခန္းက႑က အေရးႀကီးတယ္လို႔ က်ေနာ္ျမင္တယ္။
ေမး။ ။ ဒီမိုကေရစီ လုႈပ္ရွားမႈမွာေကာ မီဒီယာရဲ႕ အခန္းက႑ကို ဆရာ
ဘယ္လို သံုးသပ္ပါသလဲ။
ေျဖ။ ။ မီဒီယာရဲ႕အခန္းက႑ကေတာ့ အေရးႀကီးတာေပါ့ဗ်ာ။ ခုမွမဟုတ္ပါဘူး။
မီဒီယာဆိုတာ တိုင္းေရး ျပည္ေရးရာ ကိစၥေတြမွာ အသံတဝက္ဝင္ေျပာတာ၊
တိုင္းျပည္ကို အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္တဲ့ ေနရာမွာ တဝက္ဝင္အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္တာ။
တိုင္းျပည္လုပ္ငန္းေတြကို ရွယ္ယာတဝက္ယူထားတဲ့ သေဘာပဲဗ်။ မီဒီယာကို
ဘယ္ေတာ့မွ ျငင္းပယ္လို႔၊ မ်က္ကြယ္ျပဳလို႔ မရဘူး။ ဒါကိုေတာ့ ႀကိဳက္
ေသာ္ရွိ၊ မႀကိဳက္ေသာ္ရွိ လက္ခံရမွာပဲဗ်။ သူတို႔ လုပ္ႏိုင္တယ္၊
မလုပ္ႏိုင္ဘူးဆိုတာကတပိုင္းပဲ။ ရွင္းရွင္းေျပာရရင္ ဒီမိုကေရစီအေရးကေတာ့
ပိုျမင့္မားတာေပါ့ဗ်ာ။ ဒီမိုကေရစီ လႈပ္ရွားမႈမွာ မီဒီယာရဲ႕ အခန္းက႑က
ပိုၿပီး အေရးပါတာ ေပါ့ဗ်ာ။ အထူးသျဖင့္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံလိုမ်ိဳး ပိတ္ထားတဲ့
ႏိုင္ငံမ်ိဳးမွာ ပိုၿပီးအေရးႀကီးတာေပါ့။ ခုအန္အယ္လ္ဒီ ရပ္တည္ေနႏိုင္ တာ
ျပည္ပမွာရွိတဲ့ မီဒီယာအား ေတြေၾကာင့္ေပါ့ဗ်ာ။ ခု က်ေနာ့္ကိစၥဆို
အမ်ားႀကီး အသံထြက္သြားတယ္ဗ်ာ။ လြန္ခဲ့တဲ့ အႏွစ္ ၂၀ ေလာက္ကဆို ဘယ္ေလာက္
ႀကီးက်ယ္တဲ့သူ ထြက္လာလာ မ်ားမ်ားစားစား မပါႏိုင္ဘူးဗ်။ ခုက်ေတာ့
အမ်ားႀကီး က်ယ္ျပန္႔သြား တယ္ဗ်။ က်ေနာ္ ဘယ္ေလာက္ပင္ပန္းပင္ပန္း
ေျပာႏိုင္သေလာက္ေျပာမယ္ ရွင္းႏို္င္သေလာက္ ရွင္းမယ္။ ဒါေတြ ေျပာႏိုင္ဖို႔
ေဖာ္ျပဖို႔က မီဒီယာက အဓိကက်တယ္ဗ်။
"ႏိုင္ငံေရးဆိုသည္မွာ ကၽြႏု္ပ္တို ့ေန ့စဥ္ႏွင့္အမွ် လူ ့ေလာကတြင္ ေတြ
့ႀကံဳေနၾကရေသာ ကိစၥပင္ျဖစ္ေပသည္။ တနည္းအားျဖင့္ဆိုေသာ္
ႏိုင္ငံေရးဆိုသည္မွာ လူ ့ကိစၥဟု ဆိုရေပမည္။ ကၽြႏ္ုပ္တို ့စားမႈ၊ ေသာက္မႈ၊
ေနမႈ၊ ထိုင္မႈ၊ သြားမႈ၊ လာမႈ အစုစုသည္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးပင္ျဖစ္၏။ ကၽြႏု္ပ္တို
့သည္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးကို မဆင္ျခင္ မေတြးေတာမိေစကာမူ ႏိုင္ငံေရးသည္ ကၽြႏ္ုပ္တို
့ႏွင့္အၿမဲတေစ ဆက္သြယ္ေန၏" (ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္း)
"မတရားမႈတခုမွာ သင္ဟာ ၾကားေနတယ္ဆုိရင္...
သင္ဟာ ဖိႏွိပ္သူဘက္က လုိက္ဖုိ႔ ေရြးခ်ယ္လုိက္တာနဲ႔ အတူတူဘဲ"
"If you are neutral in a situation of injustice,
you have chosen to side with the oppressor."
Thinking the unthinkable
http://mondediplo.com/2008/11/01unthinkable
By Serge Halimi
So, everything was possible after all. Governments could take radical action in the financial sector. The constraints of the European stability pact could be forgotten. Central banks could kowtow to governments and stimulate the economy. Tax havens could be blacklisted. Everything was possible because the banks had to be rescued.
For 30 years, any suggestion that the liberal order might be amended to improve the living conditions of ordinary people, for example, met with the same stock responses: the Berlin wall has gone, didn’t you notice?; that’s all ancient history; globalisation is the order of the day now; the coffers are empty; the markets won’t stand it.
And for 30 years, “reform” went ahead – in reverse. This was the conservative revolution, handing over increasingly substantial and lucrative swathes of national assets to the money men, privatising public services and transforming them into cash machines to “create added value” for shareholders. This was liberalisation, with cuts in wages and social security, forcing tens of millions of people to borrow in order to maintain their purchasing power, and “invest” with brokers and insurance agents in order to cover the cost of education, healthcare and pensions.
Falling wages and social security cutbacks naturally led to financial excesses. Creating risks encouraged people to take steps to protect themselves. Speculation boomed, fuelled by the ideology of market forces, and housing became a prime target for investment. Attitudes changed, people became more selfish, more calculating, less public-spirited. The 2008 crash is not just a technical hitch that can be put right by “learning lessons” or “putting a stop to abuses”. The whole system has broken down.
The would-be repair men are already at work, hoping to restore it, plaster over the cracks, give it a fresh coat of paint, all ready to commit yet another offence against society. The wiseacres who now pretend to be disgusted with the reckless results of liberalism are the very ones who provided all the incentives – budgetary, regulatory, fiscal and ideological – for the ensuing spending spree. They should feel disqualified, but they know an army of politicians and journalists are eager to do a whitewash job.
So we have Gordon Brown, whose first act as Chancellor of the Exchequer was to “liberate” the Bank of England, José Manuel Barroso, president of a European Commission obsessed with “competition”, and Nicolas Sarkozy, who invented the “fiscal shield”, introduced Sunday working and privatised the post office: all, it seems, busy “rebuilding capitalism”.
Their effrontery marks a strange hiatus. What has happened to the left? As for the official left, it just wants to turn the page as quickly as possible on a “crisis” for which it is jointly responsible. This is the left that went along with liberalisation, Democratic president Bill Clinton deregulating the financial sector, François Mitterrand ending index-linked wages, Lionel Jospin and Dominique Strauss-Kahn privatising public services, Gerhard Schröder axing unemployment benefit.
So be it. But what about the other left? Will it be content, at a time like this, to dust off its most unambitious projects, the serviceable but terribly timid plans for the Tobin tax, an increase in
the minimum wage, a “new Bretton Woods Agreement”, wind farms? In the Keynesian era, the liberal right thought the unthinkable and took advantage of a major crisis to impose it. Friedrich Hayek, intellectual godfather of the movement that spawned Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, stated the case in 1949: “The main lesson which the true liberal must learn from the success of
the socialists is that it was their courage to be
Utopian which… is daily making possible what only
recently seemed utterly remote.”
So will someone now call free trade into question, free trade which is the very heart of the system (1)? “Utopian”? But everything is possible when it comes to banks…
NGOs and the victim industry
http://mondediplo.com/2008/11/14ngos
Is a victim the subject of aid or the object? Most people see themselves as individuals dealing with a crisis. It’s the outside world that sees them as victims
By Bernard Hours
The misadventures of the French charity Zoe’s Ark in Chad early last year (1) finally opened to question the motives and morality of aid agencies. For the first time an organisation was criticised in the media, rather than lauded for its good intentions. The humanitarian industry’s success made it inev itable its power would be abused. After the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami, people had begun to question whether non-governmental organisations had the competence to administer the huge amounts of money they received.
The ideology behind humanitarian aid depends on three principles. There must be universal human rights – a worthy premise, but problematic. You create victims whom you can save. Then you assert the right to have access to these victims.
Universal human rights, to health, education and security, make humanitarian aid legitimate. But who embodies these rights? Not the political citizen of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, but a physical body who must be saved from famine, epidemics and natural disasters. This body is the target of emergency aid (Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) has become its international symbol). The right to life is a product of the late 20th century, the “humanitarian age” which began with the presence of the Red Cross/Red Crescent, but developed in the depoliticised and moralising 1980s.
To what extent is the victim the subject of aid or the object? A victim’s dignity is abstract, and depends on the situation (living in a refugee camp, for example). A human being has a status, but being a victim is merely a state. Victims are anonymous and interchangeable, passive players in the emotive campaign leaflets of NGOs. The relationship between rescuers and rescued is, by its nature, unequal.
Most people do not see themselves as victims but as individuals confronting a crisis. Filipinos flattened by typhoons or Bangladeshis wading through floodwaters are dealing with a crisis which they see as part of their human destiny; they are dignified people living in a dangerous part of the world. It’s others who see them as victims. Ambulances come only when you call them: aid agencies just turn up and declare an emergency. They save lives, but on their own terms.
It is interesting to look at how the number of victims in any disaster is calculated, or roughly estimated, to see how much intervention is justified. Countries in Latin America tend to overestimate in order to make it onto the global humanitarian agenda, as was the case when Cyclone Mitch struck Central America in 1998. Burma, and China after this year’s earthquake, do the opposite.
Humanitarian aid workers claim they have a duty to intervene, and demand unrestricted access to victims. But this “right to interfere” has turned out to be more of a political problem for governments than a victory for humanity. It emerged at the end of the 1980s, at a time when western ideals of democracy could have appeared universal. That is no longer the case. It is not so easy to export western ideals now that economic growth has switched hemispheres. In China and Russia, with their authoritarian regimes, and many other countries, humanitarian intervention is perceived as political interference. Aid workers are being held responsible for local unrest, particularly where states are weak, and subject to international supervision. In Haiti, people throw stones in protest at well-paid foreigners driving 4x4s, or kidnap them for ransom.
Aid workers targeted
This year two members of Action Against Hunger (Action internationale contre la faim, ACF) were abducted in Afghanistan, and three volunteers with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) were killed, with their driver. Several ACF workers were killed in Sri Lanka in 2006, and MSF volunteers have been kidnapped in Dagestan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past three years. These attacks tend to take place in conflict zones when NGOs work beside military forces or international peacekeepers. Being an aid worker no longer guarantees safety in the Palestinian territories, Eritrea, Sudan, Yemen, Sri Lanka or Darfur. It’s worse in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The problem is that this sort of intervention lacks political legitimacy. It presupposes that an imaginary global civil society gives a mandate to groups to intervene, and that these groups have no nationality, ideology or agenda of their own. It denies the fact that humans are territorial, political beings, living within sovereign states.
The financial crisis of global capitalism is making sovereign states stronger. This is likely to further weaken NGOs’ “right to interfere”, especially since strong states provide humanitarian aid, and weak states receive it.
The contradictions continue. The Zoe’s Ark farce underlines the central role of the pretext of saving life, which in this case was a lie. And it shows up the absurdity of political leaders who tried to make political capital out of it. Although most people involved are genuine, the humanitarian industry abuses the spectacle of other people’s misfortune. Young people stand outside
metro stations aggressively marketing NGOs and charities as if they were brands of toothpaste. But the public is suffering from donor fatigue, from having their heartstrings tugged so often by so many causes.
The state steps in
For a long time aid work was controlled by NGOs like MSF, Médecins du Monde, and ACF. But in the 1990s governments became directly involved, ending naivety within the voluntary sector. Claude Malhuret, mayor of Vichy for Sarkozy’s centre-right UMP party, and Bernard Kouchner, now the foreign minister, became France’s first ministers with responsibility for humanitarian action (in 1986 and 1988 respectively). They made the role of NGOs official and institutionalised. As medical doctors, and in the name of human rights, both had been involved in the fight against Soviet totalitarianism in Afghanistan.
But the end of the cold war meant no one could pretend human rights was an apolitical concept: with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became apparent that the United States had secretly financed many pro-democracy, anti-totalitarian groups (2). Kouchner and Malhuret, when they became government ministers, had to tone down their rhetoric. Since then, the humanitarian industry has had less campaigning zeal to get involved with problems in undemocratic countries. Even so, the recent disasters in Burma and China and the events in Tibet (3) show the persistence of trying to export western democracy.
Governments view humanitarian aid as a strategic battleground where their military forces can operate alongside doctors, to the great displeasure of the doctors. Multilateral organisations, such as the European Union, finance largescale programmes; the UN funds peacekeeping operations. All these players flood the poorest countries, overlap and fail to coordinate with each other, creating chaos rather than order.
Governments and multilateral organisations cannot allow voluntary organisations to have a monopoly on solidarity and generosity. So humanitarian work has become a world of populist politicians; tired, concerned professionals; international funders caught in a bureaucratic, financial rationale; and suspicious or blasé donors who prefer local causes. The circus follows the show – the misfortune of others – a media product in ever greater demand.
Laundering profits
The aid industry is central to the current globalisation of ideology. Global capitalism must launder the profits from its exploitation. The harsh demands of this unregulated world – child labour, increased production, unpaid overtime – must be disguised. The huge number of people who suffer from these forms of social violence are rarely identified as victims. Governments, businesses and donors are paying a moral tax, trying to claim they are part of a moral humanity, through their pledges of morality, pseudo-transparency and charity.
The world of humanitarian aid is post political. NGOs are in the morality business, producing token measures to appease the conscience. The 20th century was concerned with the social questions. The 21st will have to deal with the victims of natural disasters, and the social rejects of the market economy. Professionals and voluntary workers try to plug the leaks in this sinking ship. What they do is useful and generous, but it’s not the solution. Aid work, by focusing on the struggle against poverty, has, in part, eclipsed development. It is like using first aid to treat a disease.
The ideology of aid uses distress to mask injustice, and offers a meagre existence, little more than survival, where only the dying receive help. Is this moral or humane? Contrary to the aspirations of the Enlightenment, it legitimises the idea of a world divided between the successful and the weak. This way of dealing with disaster contributes to a global apartheid, where people are subject to a global moral order.
In the North, constant images of disaster are used as a political tool to encourage us to forget about the social struggles of the past. We live in a world of emotion which seems to eclipse any real sense of injustice: the defeated may rebel, but it is the victims who make you cry; they are worse off than you. Compassion produces little more than indignation, and it obstructs rebellion.
BURMA-Two more defence lawyers prosecuted -MIZZIMA
http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/1237-two-more-defence-lawyers-prosecuted.html
by Phanida
Monday, 03 November 2008 23:01
Chiang Mai – The Hlaing Township court came down heavily and prosecuted advocates Aung Thein and Khin Maung Shein on October 30. They were representing NLD party members facing trial.
The Hlaing Township court judge Daw Aye Myaing prosecuted them for contempt of court after the two lawyers withdrew criminal power granted by their political prisoner clients to represent them in court.
"We learnt that the two lawyers were prosecuted under section 3 of the 'Contempt of Court Act' by the Supreme Court in Rangoon', NLD spokesman U Nyan Win said.
"The prison authorities didn't let them enter the prison where their cases are being heard. They were prosecuted by the Supreme Court and Hlaing Township Court on contempt of court charges. Summons was served to them" an advocate said on condition of anonymity.
The court fixed the hearing for November 6.
The judge of Sanchaung Township Court threatened U Khin Maung Shein on 30 October, while he was representing his clients at the court, by saying that he could be prosecuted and imprisoned with disruption of judicial proceedings and warned him to take care. After which he was prosecuted.
Similarly young lawyer Ko Nyi Nyi Htwe was summoned to face trial on October 17 and the hearing was fixed for October 30 by the North District Court. But he was arrested on October 29 before the trial date. The North District Court Judge U Thaung Nyunt sentenced Ko Nyi Nyi Htwe to six months in prison under section 228 of the Penal Code and declared Ko Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min as an absconder, after which he issued an arrest warrant against him.
Exiled based 'Myanmar Youth Lawyers Law Firm' and 'International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and 'World Organization against Torture' OMCT released a statement yesterday calling for immediate release of Ko Nyi Nyi Htwe and demanded guarantee of his physical and psychological well being by the junta.
The statement also demanded an end to all acts of harassment - including at the judicial level - against Mr. Nyi Nyi Htwe and Mr. Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min as well as against all human rights defenders in Burma, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other related international instruments in guaranteeing the human rights and fundamental rights which are in force in Burma.
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and advocacy group for UDHR, Civil Rights and Political Rights conventions, Economic Social and Cultural Rights conventions.
Furthermore this group is acting at an advisor level in the UN, UNESCO and EU and also acting as observer in Africa Human Right and Citizen Right Commission.
The lawyer Pho Phyu said that sentencing lawyer Nyi Nyi Htwe and his clients -- political prisoners Yan Naing Tun, Aung Min Naing a.k.a. Meethway (charcoal) and Myo Kyaw Zin without hearing the complaint submitted by them is violation of section 482 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
"Lawyers in Burma do not enjoy freedom during judicial proceedings. Their rights to submitting the complaint arguing in court on behalf of their clients are being deprived. Section 8 of '1880 Lawyers' Act' is being violated. And also the judicial proceedings are not in accordance with the internationally accepted norm of 1990 Legal Counsels", he said.
Myanmar's farmers pay for China's oil thirst
http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JK04Ae01.html
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - The largest island off Myanmar's west coast is emerging as another frontier for China's expanding plans to extract the rich oil and gas reserves of military-ruled Myanmar.
Initial explorations by a consortium, led by China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), has left a deep scar on Ramree Island, which is twice the size of Singapore and home to about 400,000 people. ''They have destroyed rice fields and plantations when conducting the seismic surveys and mining the island in search of oil,'' says Jockai Khaing, director of Arakan Oil Watch (AOW), an environmental group of Myanmar people living in exile.
''The local communities have been directly and indirectly affected,'' he said. ''Hundreds of people have been forced to relocate as a result of the drilling conducted near their communities. The locals hate the Chinese; their world has become crazy after the Chinese arrived.''
CNOOC has been pushing ahead with its work since early 2005 with no attempt to consult the local residents and showing little regard to such notions as corporate social responsibility, said Jockai. The Chinese company, which is listed on the New York and the Hong Kong stock exchanges, has ''not conducted the required environmental impact assessments and social impact assessments that are recognized internationally as a must before exploration work begins.''
To dispose the waste from its drilling sites, ''CNOOC workers dug shallow canals designed to carry the [toxic] drilling mud, or wastewater containing oil, away from the drilling sites and into Chaing Wa Creek, which curves past several local farms before flowing into the Bay of Bengal,'' states a report by AOW, released in mid-October. ''This arbitrary disposal can make soil in surrounding areas unsuitable for plant growth by reducing the availability of nutrients or by increasing toxic contents in the soil.''
Concerns about the cost of letting China tighten its grip on the natural resources in Myanmar has also been expressed by other groups, including EarthRights International (EI), a US-based group championing human rights. There are 69 Chinese companies involved in 90 ''completed, current and planned projects'' in the oil, gas and hydropower sectors in Myanmar, EI said in groundbreaking report released in late September.
That number marks an over 200% increase in the number of Chinese energy developers thought to have had existed in the country a year before. ''Given what we know about development projects in Myanmar and the current situation, we're concerned about this marked increase in the number of the projects,'' the rights lobby stated in the report [1].
''China is using Myanmar's military dictatorship to its advantage as it goes in search of oil and gas. There are no rules and regulations for Chinese companies to follow in Myanmar,'' Ka Hsaw Wa, executive director of EI, said in an IPS interview. ''This will hurt the future of Myanmar.''
Such criticisms come at a time when China has begun to show signs that the environmental cost of its projects abroad cannot be ignored. ''The country lacked comprehensive environmental protection policies in its overseas projects, although investment had been expanding,'' states a report released in mid-September by the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning (CAEP), according to the China Daily newspaper.
''China's overseas investment and aid mainly focuses on exploring oil and other resources, processing and manufacturing, and construction in African and Southeast Asian countries,'' the English-language, Chinese government-owned daily said. ''Without proper management, such projects are likely to cause environmental problems, the [CAEP] report said.''
Myanmar will prove to be an ideal testing ground, given that China has emerged as the biggest investor in the military-ruled country's power sector. The money flowing in from such foreign direct investments and the sale of gas has helped to prop up a junta notorious for suppressing its people through many forms of abuse.
In 2006, the government of Myanmar earned an estimated US$2.16 billion from sales of natural gas to Thailand, which accounts for close to half of Myanmar's export earnings and is the single largest source of foreign earnings. In 2008, Myanmar is expected to earn $3.5 billion from export of gas, according to one estimate.
But few of these benefits trickle down to the country's people. Consequently, Myanmar ranks as one of the world's least-developed countries. Nor has having abundance of natural resources improved the power supply in the country either. Regular blackouts are frequent in Yangon, the former capital, and elsewhere.
The government has profited in other ways, too, from China's energy interest in Myanmar. ''Beijing has come to the junta's rescue and protects it from criticism at international forums like the UN Security Council,'' says Win Min, a Myanmar national security expert teaching at a university in northern Thailand. ''A strong relationship of mutual benefit has developed since 1988.''
In exchange for letting Chinese companies exploit its natural resources, the Myanmar leadership has received military hardware from Beijing. They range from fighter jets and armored carriers to small weapons, Win Min told IPS. ''The junta will open the country to China because the military regime needs Beijing more than the other way around.''
Note
1. China in Burma: The Increasing Involvement of Chinese Multinational Corporations in Myanmar's Hydropower, Oil and Natural Gas, and Mining Sectors.
(Inter Press Service)
THAILAND: Anti-Coup Movement Strikes Back
Supporters at an anti-coup rally cheer as Thaksin 'speaks' from exile.
Credit:Marwaan Macan-Markar/IPS
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44567
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Nov 4 (IPS) - For the past five months Ataporn Kampa has endured insults hurled at him by an anti-government protest movement, that is supported by affluent, urban-based Thais who openly profess right-wing, conservative views and want the military to take over the country.
To this protest movement, the likes of Ataporn, who come from the impoverished agricultural belt of north-east Thailand, are a bane to the country’s politics. They have been sneered at as uneducated, stupid and lacking in intelligence required of voters in a democracy.
Such brazen contempt for the country’s rural poor by this right-wing movement, which calls itself the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), has also prompted calls for the rolling back of the voters’ power in the country. The PAD wants the military to turf out the ruling six-party coalition that was elected at last December’s poll.
Yet Ataporn has a stark message for Bangkok’s elites who have rallied around the banner of the PAD. ‘’Democracy is not about the rich telling the poor what to do. It is about us being equal as voters,’’ says the 44-year-old resident from the province of Loei, where he works as a barber. ‘’We are also people who have hearts and minds. Those insults hurt.’’
In fact, the father of two feels that Thailand’s young democracy will be in peril if the PAD gets its way. ‘’They want to take us backward; to become another Burma,’’ adds the man who only has a fourth grade education. ‘’We need to go forward.’’
But Ataporn is not alone. Similar sentiments were echoed by others from the provinces who, like Ataporn, showed up for a political rally on Saturday evening to counter the pro-coup sentiments of the PAD and the entrenched old money elite in this kingdom. Bualoy Siriwiang, from the north-eastern province of Khon Kaen, was among them. ‘’I am here because I am against those who only want non-elected people to run the country.’’
This crowd also drove home a message with their impressive numbers. An estimated 80,000 of them, all dressed in red, packed Bangkok’s largest sports stadium to offer an effective counter-weight to the PAD, which has virtually crippled the elected government by its on-going street protests. Some 20,000 of the country’s ‘’red army’’ came from the provinces, while the rest came from Bangkok and its vicinity, according to police estimates.
At the best of times the PAD, whose supporters wear yellow for their rallies, have not been able to garner more than 20,000 at its main protest site, the prime minister’s office, which it has forcefully occupied since late August. Its street protests have attracted less.
Little wonder why those who attended the Nov. 1 rally, organised by the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) and its media partner, a popular television programme called ‘Truth Today’, feel they have the numbers to challenge the free run that the PAD has enjoyed since May to shape the political agenda of the country.
The weekend’s rally has also added another milestone in a country that has seen 18 coups since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932. It was the first time that Thailand witnessed such a large public rally to oppose possible designs by the military to drive out an elected government.
The ‘appearance’ of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in the last putsch, in September 2006, could not have been more symbolic of the political direction the anti-coup movement wants this South-east Asian nation to take. He was given a rousing ovation as he spoke live for 15 minutes in a telephone conversation that was amplified at the stadium and then ‘delivered’ a 20-minute talk recorded on video.
‘’We shall oppose coups d’etat together,’’ said Thaksin, currently living in exile in London to avoid a string of corruption-related court cases filed after he was driven out by the junta. ‘’They have abused the legal process to get rid of me. I was overwhelmingly elected prime minister twice yet I was overthrown in a military coup.’’
‘’I cannot return home because I was sentenced to two years' imprisonment," he added, referring to a judgement handed down in October that found him guilty of abusing power in a land deal during his first term. ‘’The injustice is the reason why people had gathered to fight, so justice may return to society.’’
Other speakers also touched on a similar theme during an event that was been billed as a ‘’No More Coups’’ rally. The country has come under military rule for over half of the 76 years since a revolt against absolute monarchy. The recent weeks have seen Thailand awash with rumours of another bout of military rule due to the on-going tension between the PAD and the coalition government, led by the People’s Power Party, which has close links to Thaksin.
‘’The army cannot ignore the message going out from this rally,’’ says Jaran Ditapichai, a former member of the country’ national human rights commission, who was at the event, sporting a red T-shirt. ‘’Any confusion people may have had about another coup has been clarified by this successful rally. The silent majority has spoken by coming here to oppose another junta.’’
Pranormsri Boomsirithum, a Bangkok businesswoman in her mid-50s, agrees. ‘’We are developed enough to solve our political problems without resorting to coups,’’ she said, following Thaksin’s speech. ‘’I came here to show my support for that view. There are many here who feel like me. Look at the crowds.’’
(END/2008)
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