http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_on_go_pr_wh/meltdown_summit
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer Jeannine Aversa, Ap Economics Writer
Play Video Video: Laffer: Obama Will Tax Us to Death TheStreet.com Play Video Video: Nutter To Deliver Letter To Washington On Friday CBS 3 Philadelphia Play Video Video: Don't blame free market system: Bush Australia 7 News WASHINGTON – With economic damage piling ever higher, President George W. Bush and other world leaders are gathering to explore options for relief and to work on ways to prevent similar credit and financial calamities from happening again.
It's a tall order, but Bush is hopeful that some common ground for action can be found at the extraordinary summit, which begins with a dinner Friday followed by closed-door deliberations on Saturday.
Ahead of the summit, Bush warned his counterparts on Thursday not to crush the global economy under a raft of strict new financial regulations. "We must recognize that government intervention is not a cure-all," Bush said. "Our aim should not be more government. It should be smarter government."
Bush put forward his own prescription, which includes bolstering accounting rules, reviewing anti-fraud provisions for trading in stocks and other securities, and improving regulatory coordination among countries. But he stopped short of the more far-reaching oversight and regulation that Europeans leaders want.
"We want to change the rules of the game in the financial world," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy said prior to the gathering.
The Europeans want to close loopholes that allow some financial institutions to evade regulation, and ensure supervision for all major financial players, including credit ratings agencies or funds carrying high amounts of debt.
"There is a need for urgency," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is seeking a new network of global regulators who would scrutinize the world's largest financial institutions.
Europeans also are advocating an early warning system that would watch for financial bubbles like the one that enveloped the U.S. housing market. The housing bubble eventually burst and created the mess the world leaders are now trying to clean up. They also want a pledge for concrete changes in just 100 days.
Critics blame lax oversight and failures by regulators in the United States and elsewhere to detect problems as one of the prime reasons behind the financial crisis.
The crisis, which erupted in the United States around August of last year as mortgage investments soured with the housing market's collapse, quickly spread to other countries. Banks and other financial companies suffered huge losses and foreclosures skyrocketed. Troubles then snowballed to other areas crimping, auto and student loans and locking up lending for many consumers and businesses worldwide.
All the fallout has pushed the global economy to the brink of recession. Unemployment in the United States bolted to 6.5 percent in October, a 14-year high.
Still, Bush put up a stout defense of capitalism.
"It is true that this crisis included failures, by lenders and borrowers, by financial firms, by governments and independent regulators," Bush said. "But the crisis was not a failure of the free market system. And the answer is not to try to reinvent that system."
Steven Schrage, a former Bush administration trade official and now an international business expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said embarking on a massive regulatory revamp at this time when economic and financial conditions are so fragile would be like "in the middle of a five-alarm fire calling together the fire chiefs and trying to restructure the fire department."
Besides the United States, France, Britain and other big industrial powers, the summit also will include leaders from developing economic powers such as Russia, China, Brazil and India.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick welcomed the mix of countries to take part in the discussions.
"It would ... be an error of historic proportions if developed countries put in place policies, structures and norms that undermined or excluded the interests of developing countries," Zoellick said. "Many governments in developing countries have taken courageous steps over the last years to put their own houses in order, and this crisis is not of their making."
One idea that has gained support is giving more countries voting power at the International Monetary Fund, the world's financial firefighter. Brown, in a related effort, likely already has won assurances from the Persian Gulf region to help fund a vast increase in the IMF's $250 billion bailout pot for struggling economies and will pressure China to follow suit.
Separately, Brown is pushing for a pledge by countries participating in the summit for a coordinated effort on a fiscal stimulus to energize their economies.
Japan said Friday that it's ready to lend the IMF up to $100 billion to support nations reeling from the global financial crisis.
The pledge, announced in Tokyo by Prime Minister Taro Aso, was among proposals outlined in a statement released ahead of the Washington summit, during which Japan hopes to raise its clout as a global leader.
The Bush administration, which has been cool to Democrats' efforts to pass another stimulus package for the U.S. economy, offered slim odds on that front.
"What's clear is that every country is in a different place in terms of where they are in responding to the crisis," said David McCormick, the Treasury Department's point man on international affairs. "And so that makes, I think, the likelihood of everybody being at the same place in terms of a fiscal measure very unlikely."
Among the forces that could impede progress is the fact that Bush is on his way out of office, which could make other leaders hesitant to cut any deals with a departing administration. President-elect Barack Obama, who takes over on Jan. 20, won't attend the summit.
However, Obama has authorized former Iowa Rep. Jim Leach and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to represent him. Obama's transition team says they primarily will be listeners on the periphery of the meetings.
Against that backdrop, major new policy initiatives aren't expected. But Wall Street investors were hopeful some progress could be made on mending the markets. The Dow Jones industrials on Thursday closed up nearly 553 points.
Friday, November 14, 2008
World leaders to face off on financial fixes
UN rights envoy says Burma's judiciary system flawed -MIZZIMA
http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/1291-un-rights-envoy-says-burmas-judiciary-system-flawed.html
by Solomon
Thursday, 13 November 2008 20:01
New Delhi - United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, says Burma's judicial system, which sentenced over 30 dissidents to long prison terms on Tuesday, is flawed and manipulated by the ruling junta.
Quintana, in an interview with Mizzima, said, "There is no independent and impartial judiciary system [in Burma]," referring to the sentencing of dissidents earlier this week to up to 65 years in prison.
Quintana, who made his inaugural investigative trip on the condition of human rights in Burma in August, said the proceedings that sentenced the activists "cannot be taken as a fair trial" and that the government should reconsider the convictions.
However, despite the UN rights expert's and the international community's condemnation of the Burmese military junta's earlier convictions, 11 more National League for Democracy members were today handed sentences of seven and half years imprisonment.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said in a statement that Ban Ki-moon is deeply concerned by the severe prison terms imposed on activists in connection with last year's peaceful demonstrations in Burma.
"He calls once again for all political prisoners to be released and for all citizens of Myanmar [Burma] to be allowed to freely participate in their country's political future as part of an inclusive national reconciliation process," the statement read.
With their words, Ban and Quintana joined the growing chorus of international condemnation over the junta's actions, which opposition groups say are aimed to eliminate all activists before the planned election in 2010.
Quintana stressed that the convictions of the activists should be reconsidered as they had not received a fair trial. He also said he will raise the issue of a fair court and an independent judicial system during his second visit to the country, which he believes will occur prior to March 2009.
"I am trying to go back to the country before March 2009, this [the judiciary system] will be part of my discussion in the country," Quintana told Mizzima.
In his earlier visit in August, the UN envoy proposed four core human rights elements to the Burmese junta for consideration, one of which was a review of national legislation in accordance with the new constitution and international obligations – in addition to the release of political prisoners, a review of the armed forces and look at how authority is exercised.
Quintana noted, "One of my goals for the next mission is to establish with the government for the implementation of these four core human rights elements."
"The human rights situation [in Burma] is a challenging task for me and for other human rights agencies," added the Special Rapporteur.
Frantic week behind Burma’s court doors
http://www.upiasia.com/Human_Rights/2008/11/13/frantic_week_behind_burmas_court_doors/5655/
By Awzar Thi
Column: Rule of LordsPublished: November 13, 2008
Burmese lawyer U Aung Thein was sentenced to four months' imprisonment for submitting a letter from clients stating that they had no faith in the judicial process. (Photo/New Era Journal)
Hong Kong, China — It has been a frantic week in Burma’s closed courts. At least 60 people have in the past few days been sentenced for their roles in last year’s mass protests, including high-profile activists, monks, a blogger and a poet.
The blogger, Nay Phone Latt, was given a sentence of 20 years and six months for having defaced images of national leaders, writings and cartoons in his email inbox, and for having had contact with other people involved in the protests.
The young man’s mother cried when she heard the verdict. She had been told to expect a sentence of around 10 years, but on just one charge under a new hold-all Internet law he was given 15.
The poet, Saw Wai, was sentenced to two years on a much more old-fashioned charge of upsetting public tranquility, which can be thrown at just about anyone for anything. He got it for writing a concealed anti-dictator message into a Valentine’s Day poem.
It wasn’t very well concealed. But well enough that the censors missed it and the magazine went to print before he was found out.
Then there was Ma Su Su Nwe, who received 12 years and six months for being at the forefront of protests that began after the government increased the price of fuels in August. Another along with her, Bo Bo Win Naing, got eight years.
Su Su Nwe was the litigant in the first successful case to prosecute local government officers for using forced labor in Burma. In 2005, she was convicted on a trumped-up charge and spent some eight months in jail before the International Labor Organization managed to get her released on health grounds.
Musician Win Maw got six years for sending false news abroad, even though it wasn’t false, and there wasn’t any evidence against him to correspond with the elements of the charge.
Over 20 dissidents received 65 years each. They are people who have been in and out of jail since 1988, some of them mostly in, and the length of the sentences is clearly intended to keep them all packed away for as long as it takes, as well as to serve as a warning to others who might be contemplating similar behavior.
Two of them are a husband and wife whose relatives have now been left to raise their baby daughter. Others worked tirelessly for people living with HIV/AIDS.
The activists’ alleged crimes are many, including illegal association, unlawful assembly and sedition. But a lot of them were charged multiple times under different laws and sections of laws for the same acts.
On Tuesday, five monks from a monastery that was at the center of the rallies were also given six-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for similar crimes. Cases against other monks, including protest leader U Gambira, are being rushed through hearings now. But Gambira is one among others who will have to make do without his lawyer, because the lawyer, U Aung Thein, is in jail too.
Aung Thein and his colleague U Khin Maung Shein were both sentenced last Friday for contempt of court and were promptly imprisoned for four months. The remaining cases from last September that the two have been handling will mostly be wrapped up during the time that they are also locked away.
A judge accused the two of contempt after they submitted a letter in another case to withdraw their power of attorney. In the letter, they stated that as their clients had indicated they had no confidence in the judicial process, they no longer wanted to be represented. Instead of going after the clients, who are on their way to jail anyway, the courts shot the messengers.
Their case followed the six-month sentences handed down to two other lawyers the week before. Nyi Nyi Htwe and Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min were convicted of interfering in the court process because they had the temerity to request that a government minister and the police chief appear as witnesses in a case they were defending.
Nyi Nyi Htwe is serving his time now but his associate has gone into hiding. Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min may make it across a border somewhere, or he may be picked up and be doubly punished for failing to turn himself in.
The many harsh penalties have attracted some fleeting interest globally, but like most news stories this one too will dissipate within a few days. After the world has gone on to other things, Burma’s protestors and their defenders will still be in jail.
Some bloggers have started an online campaign for Nay Phone Latt. They have asked people to include his picture on their own sites, which is a good way to keep someone alive in cyberspace even if he can’t go online himself.
Perhaps other Internet campaigners could adopt different detainees. The Asian Human Rights Commission routinely issues detailed appeals on cases coming through Burma’s courts, including on some of those mentioned above. Most contain small photographs that can be copied and put into the side bars of blogs as a link to information about the person.
At times like these, posting a photo on a webpage may seem insignificant, but as the international media gets on with other things it’s important that the rest of us keep coming back to these stories and celebrate courage in the face of tremendous adversity, for the sake of our own humanity as well as that of others.
(To access AHRC urgent appeals on recent cases in Burma, go to the appeals homepage at http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/ and type “Burma” into the search bar. To access all material on Burma, do the same in the search bar at the top of the commission’s homepage.) --
(Awzar Thi is the pen name of a member of the Asian Human Rights Commission with over 15 years of experience as an advocate of human rights and the rule of law in Thailand and Burma. His Rule of Lords blog can be read at http://ratchasima.net)
Signs of Insecurity in Burma Crackdown
http://burmadd.blogspot.com/2008/11/signs-of-insecurity-in-burma-crackdown.html
By Hannah Beech
Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008
The years piled up fast. Sixty-five years in prison each for 14 formerstudent activists. Twenty-and-a-half years for a blogger.Twelve-and-a-half years for a labor leader. Six-and-a-half years for five Buddhist monks. Two years for a poet. In the space of just three days this week, more than 30 Burmese were sentenced to prison or hardlabor by the country's ruling junta, a chilling legal on slaught that sent a clear message to other potential dissidents: speak out, and get used to life in a prison cell.
Even for a notoriously repressive regime, the jail sentences were unusually harsh. Last year, the generals who control Burma, also knownas Myanmar, violently crushed a peaceful, monk-led protest movementcalling for economic and political reforms. Hopes that an influx off oreign aid — dispersed after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy Delta last spring — would convince the junta to take a softer approach were dashed by the rash of detentions that accelerated in late October. Last week, two journalists were jailed, while three lawyers representing political activists have also been sentenced to prison."These last few weeks show a more concentrated crackdown on dissentclearly aimed at intimidating the population," said Elaine Pearson,deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement from theNew York-based rights group. "These peaceful activists should not be on trial in the first place, let alone thrown in prison for years after unfair trials."
Burma has scheduled multi-party elections in 2010. The polls are considered a charade by many international observers, who note that the leader of the main opposition party, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is under house arrest and is barred from participating. But even after locking up a woman whose National League for Democracy won the 1990 elections that the junta then ignored, Burma's ruling brass still appears spooked by the power of the people."Burma's leaders are clearing the decks of political activists," says Pearson, "before they announce the next round of sham political reforms." Overall, one Burmese exile group based in Thailand estimates that 2,120 Burmese now languish in jail for their political activism, nearly double the number who were in prison before last year's anti-government demonstrations.
Despite the predictable expressions of condemnation issued this weekby countries like the U.S. and Britain, there's little that the West appears able to do to convince the junta, which has ruled since 1962,to treat its citizens more humanely. Economic sanctions by the U.S. and the European Union are undercut by the eagerness with which China and other Asian countries do business with Burma's generals. Although one of Asia's poorest nations, Burma holds a wealth of natural resources like timber, natural gas and precious stones.
The country's leaders have grown rich from the land's bounty, even as most Burmese struggle just to feed themselves. Roughly one-third of civilians live below the poverty line. Last month, many Burmese, who get their news from clandestine radio broadcasts, were shocked by a BBC Burmese service report that claimed a daughter of junta leader Than Shwe had spent more than $80,000 on a gold shopping spree in the city of Mandalay. Than Shwe himself brooks no dissent. The offense of Saw Wai, the poet who was sentenced to two years in prison? Writing a love poem published in a weekly magazine in which the first words ofeach line spelled out a brazen message: "Power Crazed Senior General Than Shwe."
Source: Time Magazine
Posted by BURMA DEMOCRACY & DEVELOPMENT at 11/13/2008 07:04:00 PM
Refugees languish in limbo-BURMA-THAILAND BORDER
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081112/FOREIGN/47741786/1015/ART
Jesse Wright, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: November 12. 2008 9:41PM UAE / GMT
Karen families walk to church. Despite living in a refugee camp in Thailand, members of this Myanmar hill tribe are reluctant to leave the camp and move away from their homeland, which has made resettlement programs hard. Jesse Wright / The National
MAE SOT, THAILAND // In the jungle-covered mountains across the Myanmar border a few kilometres inside Thailand, Sisi Sisi, a teacher, stirs a bubbling red curry over an open fire. In the dark dormitory dining hall behind her, two schoolgirls quietly peel hardboiled eggs.
Within the hour, egg curry will be lunch for 80 children. These students – like most everyone in the Mae La refugee camp – are ethnic Karen, members of a Christian hill tribe native to Myanmar persecuted for almost 60 years in one of the longest continuing independence struggles on Earth.
But unlike most of their classmates these 80 children are essentially orphans, sent across the border by mothers and fathers too poor to afford the uniforms and basic supplies needed for school in Myanmar.
Because these children are not legal refugees they can never leave the camp’s barbed wire fence and step into Thailand. They cannot go home either. Because they left Myanmar illegally, they risk death or imprisonment should they be caught by the Myanmar military during a visit home.
For years the United Nations has spearheaded a relocation scheme to move refugees to western countries in an attempt to empty the jungle camps. But there remain thousands of Karen who are not going anywhere.
The Mae La camp is one of nine refugee camps in Thailand, most of which were organised in 1984. With 40,000 refugees, Mae La is the largest camp in Thailand. It is a place where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Karen live in legal limbo. The problem is bigger than a handful of social orphans, though among the Karen their plight resonates strongly.
Inside the smoky dorm kitchen with Ms Sisi, Henry Kyaw looks on. He helped build the schools, the church, the orphanage and a handful of other buildings in the camp. Mr Kyaw could leave the camp if he wanted to, but he said he would rather stay to help his people. The children, for one, depend on him.
“In Burma [also known as Myanmar], the students have to buy everything like books and school supplies so [their parents] cannot support them,” Mr Kyaw said. “These parents have many children and they cannot earn enough to care for them so the parents contact me and I care for them.”
Mr Kyaw left Myanmar in 1985. He had some English skills and he worked hard to become a Thai citizen and find a job to support the growing camp. Between 2001 and 2007, Mr Kyaw worked on a Princess cruise ship, sailing the world and remitting his cash to the camp to support the schools and teachers.
Starting in 2005, a handful of western governments began accepting Karen refugees. By 2007 more than 10,000 refugees had left. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called the programme the biggest resettlement project in the world.
But it is far from a perfect solution. To get resettled means first getting official refugee status through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and it is more than orphans who have trouble meeting this requirement.
Naw Janey worries her family will not qualify. Ms Janey moved to Mae La this year after Cyclone Nargis destroyed her family’s bamboo fishing hut on the Irrawadday Delta. “I lost my home and everything inside. I didn’t know where to live or how to get money [to rebuild], so we came to the Mae La refugee camp,” she said.
Because they were not running for their lives or persecuted by the government, her family is not a typical refugee family so they have no official status. A teacher back home, Ms Janey’s husband now volunteers at a camp school. In Myanmar, Ms Janey sold noodles from a street cart, but in the camp there is not enough of an economy to sustain a cart. So instead she spends her days at home, a modest bamboo hut built by Mr Kyaw, high up on a hill in the refugee camp. She said she has no idea what the future holds for her, though she said she would like most to return to a peaceful homeland.
Many refugees eligible to move overseas often refuse to leave the camps. A spokesperson for International Organisation of Migration (IOM) said about 60 per cent of qualified applicants do not want to leave the camps and it cannot force them to go.
“From an IOM point of view [we want to] to satisfy the government which is taking them as well as the people who are participating,” said Pierre King, head of IOM’s Mae Sot office. “The best option is voluntary and safe return followed by local integration, with the third option being resettlement.”
Mr King said most Karen refuse to leave because they do not want to abandon the struggle. Since 1949 the Karen have been resisting the government of Myanmar in the name of an independent homeland.
With his English skills and his education, Mr Kyaw might be able to go to the United States, but he will not apply. “I don’t have any plan to go to America. I want to work among the Karen people and support the Karen people,” he said.
Mr Kyaw said about 3,000 Karen teachers left the Mae La camp this year. However, he suspects those who left dream of returning to a democratic Myanmar one day, too.
Yet, Mr Kyaw said, a dream for a peaceful, democratic Myanmar is “hopeless”.
Ms Janey is similarly grim. “There is no hope for the future because in Burma even when the UN talk to the government about their human rights violations, the government doesn’t care. They say it’s their country and they can do what they want.”
Among a younger generation there is hope, though not for resettlement.
September Paw is 22 and has lived in the Mae La camp for 10 years since her family fled Myanmar after soldiers attacked her village and burnt their house down.
In Mae La, she attended a camp school and studied English. Now she speaks the language fluently and is determined to use her education for the benefit of her people. Today she lives in Mae Sot, the nearest Thai border town, 55km south of Mae La.
Although Ms Paw has a sister and a brother in the United States, she does not want to join them – she is determined to make a difference closer to home.
She works with a local aid group, the Karen Human Rights Group, helping co-ordinate research trips into the Karen homeland. Across the border she sees and documents human rights abuses.
“I went to the Karen state once this year in February and I saw many Karen villagers who had to flee their village because [government soldiers] attacked them,” Ms Paw said.
She said the villagers fled with nothing except a bit of food and were living hand to mouth deep in the jungle. Ms Paw said her group publicises cases like this to force international awareness of the problem. She believes work like hers will put pressure on the Myanmar regime to force change.
“Resettlement is not a sustainable solution,” Ms Paw said. “It’s important we solve the root cause of the problem… the exploitative policies of the Burmese government.”
jwright@thenational.ae
Brutal Justice in Burma
http://www.beautifulhorizons.net/weblog/2008/11/brutal-justice.html
November 12, 2008
Brutal Justice in Burma
It would take a referral from the UN Security Council for the ICC to open an investigation into Burma, something no doubt China would block, but something desperately needs to be done to change the horrid regime in Burma:
A Burmese court has sentenced 14 prominent dissidents to 65 years' imprisonment each for leading peaceful protests against a fuel price rise that spiralled into the widespread Buddhist monk-led demonstrations crushed by the military junta last year.
The sentencing to de facto life imprisonment of the second tier of leaders of the 88 Generation students was described by one diplomat as "political revenge" against activists who helped shine a global spotlight on the political repression and economic stagnation in military-ruled Burma.
"This is not a criminal justice system," said a Bangkok-based western diplomat, who monitors developments in Burma. "It smacks very much of political revenge."
China could play a major role in changing this, but that is only wishful thinking on my part. Both nations put a premium on stability and order over freedom and I can't imagine that changing. What exacerbates the situation in Burma is how deeply corruption permeates those in power.
This is precisely why the sentences are so harsh:
"There was absolutely no fair trial," said Bo Kyi, of the Thailand-based Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners.
"This is a politically motivated sentence to create a psychological climate of fear. It says to the general public: 'If you do peaceful demonstrations, you will be imprisoned for the rest of your life.'
Any nation that tortures and jails people for what is effectively life in prison does so to instill fear. A terrified population is far easier to manipulate.
Posted by Randy Paul on November 12, 2008 at 11:21 PM in Burma | Permalink
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In Burma, business ventures start with military - San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/13/MNNU12SBS8.DTL
(11-13) 04:00 PST
Hpakant, Burma -- Located in dense jungle hills, this jade mining town is a prime example of the nation's business climate.
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The northern town of 20,000 residents is connected to the outside world by a single crumbling road, a bone-crushing 16 hours to the closest transport hub during the rainy season. Ancient hulking trucks putter along in the mud, some stuck for days. Like a cruel joke, red road signs announce: "The Government has arranged for road repair from each company in Hpakant," meaning companies with lucrative government contracts are expected to pay for highway upkeep even though the military regime takes a hefty profit from each venture.
In Burma, residents call this business as usual.
More than 450 private companies and some 100 joint ventures operate in the area, the majority of which are owned by Burmese with Chinese heritage, according to Sai Joseph, 34, a gregarious family man and manager of a midsize jade company.
"There are only a few wealthy people in Burma - those who get in with the political people, the authorities who have power," said Joseph. "This is a good chance to get rich."
All of Burma's big-ticket industries are based around natural resources, including oil, natural gas, timber and mining. In essence, the country is run like a mafia, from the languid tea shops of Rangoon to this remote jungle area of Kachin state, where the mining town of Hpakant is located and provides much of the world's jade.
In 2007, sales of natural gas brought in some $3 billion, while teak and other lumber earned about $480 million. The jade industry earned an estimated $400 million.
"You name it and they (military) have figured out a way to flip it and make money out of it," said a former Western diplomat who asked not to be named. "If a businessman wants to do something - build a hotel, import cards, export lumber or get a government contract - he hooks up with an army officer who can influence the decision. There are some outright cash payoffs, but mostly it works on favors in kind."
Shining a light
Uncovering information about the regime's business deals is notoriously difficult. But in September, Earth Rights International (ERI), a Thailand-based environmental and human rights organization, released a report detailing the investments of 68 Chinese multinationals in 88 hydropower, oil, natural gas and mining projects.
Pieced together from a range of Chinese companies and government Web sites and news sources, the report aimed to raise awareness for the nation's 48 million inhabitants, who are kept in the dark on government's dealings and a global movement to pressure the military into making reforms.
"The Burmese regime has successfully convinced these companies that nothing will compromise its grip on political power," said Matthew Smith, a project coordinator with ERI. "This is a conviction the regime doesn't hesitate to demonstrate, as we've seen through its political imprisonments and violent treatment of dissent."
The report showed that Burma's generals continue to thrive off their relationship with China, evidenced by new air-conditioned supermarkets and shopping malls, packed with Chinese-made goods in major cities like Rangoon and Mandalay - products only a few Burmese can afford. Signs of conspicuous consumption are evident by a small group of multimillionaires whose wealth stands in direct relation to their proximity to junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe and other top generals.
Many pro-democracy exiles regard China as the linchpin for meaningful change, which may be hope prevailing over logic. China is the largest supplier of military equipment to Burma and is a crucial veto on the U.N. Security Council to stifle harsher economic sanctions by the international community.
In Hpakant, jade businessman Joseph estimates that there are as many as 3,000 mines set among a series of denuded hills slowly eaten away by heavy machinery. Green plant life bursts forth where it can, but most earth is an excavation site, undulating for miles into the distance.
What was once depicted as a scene out of "Dante's Inferno" - the few outsiders who had visited jade quarries here described thousands of half-naked men, women and children clawing at rocks - is now a largely mechanical process characterized by large yellow Caterpillar and Volvo backhoes and industrial-size dump trucks. A few mines still employ human diggers, and weeks before I visited Hpakant, one mine collapsed killing 20 people.
The jade trade
Just before the start of the Beijing Olympic Games, President Bush signed into law the Burma Jade Act, adding Burmese jade and rubies to a long list of restricted goods. Even though such prominent jewelers as Bulgari and Tiffany & Co. have gone along with the ban, jade sellers in the crowded outdoor markets of Rangoon told me they are doing landmark business thanks to China, India, Thailand, Singapore and Arab gulf states.
Like many business activities, the military junta takes a hefty percentage - 50 percent of profits from private companies and 80 percent from joint ventures - leaving jade miners destitute and diseased (HIV is believed to be rampant among miners, though exact statistics are impossible because international aid groups are not allowed in Hpakant).
But jade mines are a prime example of how the military regime co-opts even its enemies. Burma is home to more than 130 ethnic groups, and some continue to fight for an independent homeland. For years, some of these rebel groups financed their armed struggle through the sale of opium and jade.
Militants to middlemen
Kachin rebels, one of the most formative armed forces and mostly an animistic hill people, once mined jade illegally to buy guns. But after signing a cease-fire with the military regime in 1994, they have become "middlemen for the state's revenue generation, much of it semi-legal and all designed to prop up military rule," said David Matthieson, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Engaging in business rather than war with the military junta is tacit acknowledgement that real power is determined by proximity to the ruling generals.
"Without having personal ties with high-ranking personnel in one way or another, no businesses could survive or expand," said Win Kyaw Oo, a former journalist who is now in the private import business.
Change comes, if slowly, to Burma
Despite an economic growth rate of 5.5 percent in 2007, resource-rich Burma remains one of the world's poorest nations. The country ranks 132 out of 177 countries in the United Nations' Human Development Index. It is tied with Somalia for being the world's most corrupt country, according to Transparency International's 2007 rankings.
Burma is also known around the globe for government repression.
The military junta's use of detention and torture has been denounced even by the neutral International Committee of the Red Cross. The nation's most famous champion of democracy, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for most of the past 19 years, and more than 2,500 political prisoners languish in prison, according to Amnesty International. At least 900 have been locked up in the past year, and 14 pro-democracy activists were given harsh prison sentences on Tuesday.
Yet, Burma is also a nation where change is occurring - albeit at a snail's pace.
In recent years, Internet cafes have more than tripled in major cities and are even sprouting in backwater towns carved out of the jungle. In the afternoons, young people gab on G-talk and check their profiles on Orkut, Hi5 and Friendster. Signs posted openly explain how to circumvent government censors through proxy servers and Web sites such as www.yoyahoo.com and www.bypassany.info.
The music of Zayar Thaw, a well-known hip-hop artist who was jailed this year, is an increasingly dominant genre of choice among many young Burmese.
Access to the Internet and to satellite TV is further eroding the regime's monopoly on information, a giant step in a nation where people once solely relied on crackling shortwave radios for a connection to the outside world.
E-mail Daniel Pepper at foreign@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 17 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Ancient Burmese capital may have existed in a longer range than originally thought
http://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2008/11/13/ancient-burmese-capital-may-have-existed-in-a-longer-range-than-originally-thought/
November 13th, 2008
Visited 66 times, 24 so far today
noelbynature Posted in Burma (Myanmar) |
The ancient capital of Sri Ksetra, of the now-extinct Pyu people in central Burma may have existed even earlier than the conventional 5th century date it was supposed to have been established, and endured longer after its supposed fall to the Bagan kingdom in the 11th century. These assertions were made on the basis of similar artwork found in India dating three centuries earlier, and the number of Bagan-style architecture found in Sri Ksetra dating to after its supposed fall.
Archaeologists shed new light on old Sri Ksetra
20081112 The Myanmar Times
The Pyu settlement of Sri Ksetra could be centuries older than previously thought, according to a research paper published earlier this year.
The scholarly consensus is that the Pyu settlement arose in the fifth century CE, based largely on a stone relief now in Yangon’s National Museum. But “this dating might be revised backward”, according to the paper’s authors, as similar artwork found in India has been dated to the second century BCE.
“[I]t suggests the possibility of both craft and ritual activity at [Sri Ksetra] well before the fifth century CE,” according to the authors, archaeologist Bob Hudson, from Australia’s University of Sydney, and Terry Lustig.
Junta military builds up more forces and weapons on the Thai-Burma border
http://www.shanland.org/war/2008/junta-military-builds-up-more-forces-and-weapons-on-the-thai-burma-border
by admin — last modified 2008-11-13 11:01
Burma army continued build-up of more forces and weapons along the Thai-Burma border where the Shan State Army (SSA-South) and United Wa State Army (UWSA) are strongly active, according to reliable sources.
By Hseng Khio Fah
13 November 2008
On 9 November, weapons were sent with 15 Chinese made Dong Feng six wheel trucks from Taunggyi to Kengtung. Each truck was accompanied by 20 soldiers to provide security, said the source.
A friendly Burmese soldier told the source that the trucks were carrying ammunition and shells for heavy weapons such as 120mm and 150mm howitzers.
Moreover, the junta has placed more soldiers between Mongton to Nakawngmu on 7 November. Villagers said they later saw trucks carrying ammunition moving to Mongjawd on the way to border bases where they are facing SSA and UWSA forces.
“It is likely they [Burmese army] are building up their forces to be ready for a showdown,” said Col Yawd Serk, chairman of the Shan State Army (SSA-S).
Over the weekend, the junta set up new equipment in Monghsat, reportedly to control fighters and bombers, said a source.
In the meantime, the ceasefire group, UWSA has been training more soldiers and building more trenches and bunkers along the border of their domain in Monghpen-Hotao, south of Panghsang since July, according to sources.
Army watcher says Burma navy can't compete with Bangladesh's-DVB
http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1930
Nov 13, 2008 (DVB)-A Burmese military analyst said Burma's navy could not compete with Bangladesh's if the two countries come to blow over ongoing maritime boundary dispute in the Gulf of Bengal.
U Htay Aung from research and documentation department of Thailand-based Network for Democracy and Development said the Burmese Navy's weaponry and tactical skills are no match for those of Bangladesh.
"The Burmese government only has a few warships bought from China that break down often even during military exercises," said U Htay Aung.
"Many Burmese naval ships in Heingyi Island base were also destroyed by Cyclone Nargis," he said.
"That can also be one of the reasons why the Burmese decided to back off in the sea."
The forces of Bangladesh and Burma have gathered in striking distance at sea and land in areas between the two countries in a warlike situation amid growing tension over a disputed stretch of sea.
Ko Kyaw Myint, a leader of All Arakan Students and Youths Congress, an activist group based in Bangladesh confirmed that both sides had stepped up security in the border areas.
"[The Burmese authorities] are not allowing any water vehicle, including rice and other trade cargos, enter their territory from Bangladesh," said Ko Kyaw Mynt.
Reporting by Khin Maung Soe Min
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Asian rights body urges BIMSTEC to reject Myanmar as chair
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/entertainment/asian-rights-body-urges-bimstec-to-reject-myanmar-as-chair_100118455.html
November 13th, 2008 - 1:59 pm ICT by ANI -
New Delhi, Nov.13 (ANI): The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) today condemned the decision of the 11th summit of the Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) to appoint Myanmar as the Chairman of the 12th Ministerial Summit and BIMSTEC from 2009.
BIMSTEC consisting of India, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar is holding its 11th Summit today in New Delhi.
“The appointment of Myanmar as the Chair from 2009 is the most shameful event of the BIMSTEC. This provides legitimacy to the military Junta which has refused to take measures for national reconciliation, release Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and restore democracy in Myanmar” - stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
“The decision also undermines the efforts of the ASEAN which has rejected Myanmar as its chair for the failure of the Junta to promote national reconciliation and rejects the recent appeal of the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon to the government of India to play a greater role on Myanmar,” Chakma further stated.
Instead of following the footsteps of ASEAN, BIMSTEC is promoting the worst military dictatorship in the world, the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar against the current wave of democracy in South Asia as evident from the election of Mauhamed Nausheed as the President of Maldives, Prachanda as Prime Minister of Nepal and ouster of General Pervez Musharaff as the President of Pakistan.
The ACHR urged ASEAN, European Union and others in the international community not to send any observers, including the Ambassadors to Myanmar to the BIMSTEC Summit to be chaired by Myanmar in 2009.(ANI)
Fw: [burmainfo] FW: ビルマ：不当判決を受けた活動家たちを釈放せよ(ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ, 2008年11月11日）
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ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2008/11/14
People's Forum on Burma
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以下、転送させていただきます。
（重複の際は何卒ご容赦ください。）
ＰＦＢ事務局
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチのプレスリリースを紹介します。
英語原文は以下の通りです。
Burma: Free Activists Sentenced by Unfair Courts
Draconian Laws Invoked Against September 2007 Protestors
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/11/11/burma20181.htm
ビルマ情報ネットワーク (http://www.burmainfo.org)
箱田徹
----
報道発表 ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ www.hrw.org
For Immediate Release/即時解禁
[土井【ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ 東京ディレクター】コメント：14名に
65年の刑に声もない。ビルマの政治囚は約2100名。昨年の弾圧時の2倍だ。2010
年の選挙に向けて活動家一掃をはかる軍政。日本など影響力あるアジアの国々は
特に声をあげるべきだ。]
ビルマ：不当判決を受けた活動家たちを釈放せよ
2007年9月の抗議運動参加者に相次ぐ厳刑
(ニューヨーク、2008年11月11日) - 「ビルマ軍事政権は、2007年9月の抗議デモ
に平和的に参加したことを理由にして、不当な審理を受けている約70人の活動家
への訴追を取下げ、釈放すべきである。」ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチは本日
このように述べた。ラングーンの悪名高いインセイン刑務所内にある法廷は、本
日、このうち14人に65年の刑を宣告した。
ビルマ政府はこの2週間で、反対政党・国民民主連盟(NLD)の党員と、88世代学生
グループ(88GS)所属の反体制活動家に対する裁判手続を進行させた。2007年8月～
9月の反政府運動に参加した政治活動家、僧侶、尼僧(女性修行者)、ジャーナリ
ストなど70人以上に対し、一部には刑務所内の秘密法廷で非公開裁判が進行中で
あり、残りの人びとにはきわめて短期間のうちにこうした審理が行われ、すでに
有罪判決が下された。
「ビルマ軍政幹部が法を尊重しないのは誰でも知っていることだが、ここ数週間
は、国民全体を脅すという明らかな意図のもとで、より集中度の高い弾圧が行わ
れている。裁判にかけられている非暴力活動家たちは、そもそも訴追されるべき
ではないが、不当な裁判によって長期刑を宣告されるべきでないのは言うまでも
ない。」 ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチのアジア局長代理エレーン・ピアソン
はこのように述べた。
被告人の家族は裁判を傍聴することができないことが多い。また弁護士を立てる
こと自体を却下されるケースもある。また政治活動家の弁護についた弁護士4人
は、依頼人の要求に従って代理人を辞任したり、不当な審理に抗議したりしたた
めに、法廷を侮辱したとして有罪判決を受けている。
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチは、「政治活動家の訴追が増えていることは、ビ
ルマ軍政指導部が、2010年の複数政党制に基づく総選挙の準備をにらんで、基本
的権利の侵害をこれまで以上に強めていることをはっきりと示すものだ。」と述
べた。反政府政党の党員や政治活動家たちは、表現の自由や平和的なデモ行進、
組織の結成、無許可の外貨所持を犯罪行為とする時代遅れの法律によって刑を宣
告されている。
「軍政指導部は、見せかけの政治改革を次の段階に進める前に、活動家を一掃し
ようとしている。活動家の代理人を務める弁護士を訴追することからうかがえる
のは、裁判ではあらゆる不確定要素を排除しておこうという軍政指導部の意図で
ある。」 ピアソンはこのように述べた。
今回の一連の裁判では少なくとも3人のジャーナリストが有罪判決を受けた。う
ち1人は著名なブロガーのネーポンラッで、2007年9月の抗議運動の模様を報じた
として2008年11月10日に20年の刑を宣告された。残りの2人は汚職事件を報道し
た記者で、共に3カ月の刑を宣告された。
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチはアジア地域（特に中国、インド、東南アジア諸
国連合(ASEAN)）に対し、ビルマ政府に対して、政治活動家や弁護士、その他の
表現・結社・平和的な集会の自由という国際的に保護された権利を行使したこと
を理由に拘束されている人びとの裁判の中止又は取下げを求めるよう要求した。
「ネーポンラッとジャーナリスト2人の逮捕には、ビルマの独立(非政府)系メディ
アに今回の一連の裁判を報道させないためのあからさまな恫喝である。ビルマ軍
政に影響を与えることのできる国々は、今回の事態を傍観・放置してはならない。」
ピアソンはこのように述べた。
背景情報
2007年9月の大規模な反政府運動の後、ビルマ軍事政権は、大量の政治活動家や
デモ参加者を逮捕した(http://hrw.org/reports/2007/burma1207/)。ビルマ政治
囚支援協会(AAPPB、本部：タイ・メーソット)によると、現時点で2,100人以上の
政治活動家が投獄されており、その数は2007年9月以前の2倍を超えている。
2008年10月後半以降の活動家や弁護士の裁判については次の事例がある。
10月23日、北オカラッパ(ラングーン(ヤンゴン)市)裁判所は、7人の仏教僧と7人
の尼僧に対し、「礼拝場所の毀損または冒とく」(刑法第295条)と「口頭または
文書による…他宗教の…侮辱」(同295条A項)により重労働4年を宣告した。この
14人は2007年9月にラングーンの2つの学校で逮捕されており、うち2人はウー・
イェワダ僧院長(65)とドー・ポンナミ師(80)である。家族は裁判の傍聴を許可さ
れず、弁護団は審理に出席することをたびたび阻止された。
10月24日、マンダレーの国民民主連盟(NLD)の党員6人(ウィンミャミャ、ティン
ココ、タンリィン、カントゥン、ウィンシュエ、ミントゥ)は、「暴動教唆の意
図」(刑法第153条)と「公衆に恐怖あるいは警戒心を生じさせうる…公序への危
害をおよぼす声明」(同505条B項)という罪状で、2007年9月の反政府運動に参加
したとして2年から13年の刑を宣告された。
10月後半には、ラングーン市フラインタヤー区のNLD青年部のメンバー11人が同
区の裁判所で、騒乱教唆の容疑で訴追された。11人は2007年にいったん逮捕され
ており、その後2008年9月に平和的なデモを行ったとして再逮捕された。弁護団
は10月30日に、不当な司法手続(下記参照)に抗議したとして逮捕された。
10月29日、「88世代学生」のメンバー9人(ミンコーナイン、コーコージー、フラ
ミョーナウン、テーチュエ、ミャーエイ、ニャンリン、ポンチョー、アウントゥー、
アウンナイン)の裁判がインセイン刑務所内で行われた。この9人は2007年8月に
逮捕された活動家34人の一部で、合計22の罪状で起訴されている。具体的には憲
法制定国民会議への批判(1996年の法律5/96)、反政府プロパガンダへの従事、騒
乱の教唆などで、それぞれの活動家には推計で懲役150年が宣告される可能性が
ある。
9人の被告人全員がインセイン刑務所内で行われているこの秘密裁判に抗議した
ところ、同日中に全員に対して、法廷侮辱罪で6カ月の刑が宣告された。次に9人
はイラワディ(エーヤワディー管区)のへき地にあるモービン刑務所に移送された。
家族や支援者が訪問できない状態で裁判を続けるためだ。10月30日にはNLDに属
する被告人の代理人を務める弁護士4人が法廷侮辱罪で有罪判決を受けた。ニー
ニートゥエ弁護士とソーチョーチョーミン弁護士は、反軍政デモを行った活動家
2人に対する裁判で、政府の高級官僚を証人申請したとして、法廷侮辱罪(刑法第
228条)で6カ月の刑を宣告された。またアウンテイン弁護士とキンマウンセイン
弁護士には、法廷侮辱法第3条違反で4カ月の刑が宣告された。これは2人が、依
頼人から、重要証人の申請が行えず、被告人の家族が裁判を傍聴できないなど、
裁判中の様々な制限措置に抗議するために代理人を辞任するよう依頼されてのこ
とだった。これら4人の弁護士のうち3人はすでに拘束されたが、1人はまだ当局
の手を逃れている。
11月2日、労働運動家5人(トゥーレインアウン、チョーミン、チョーチョー、ウェ
イリン、ニーゾー)の身柄が、ラングーン市内の刑務所からビルマ西部と北部に
移された。2007年9月の抗議運動への関与について秘密裁判を開始するためだ。
11月3日、新しく結成された国内団体「正義」(正義のための新世代運動)と「最
良肥料」の活動家8人について、非合法に結社を行った容疑で裁判が始まった。8
人は2008年9月に逮捕されていた。
11月5日、2007年9月の弾圧の際にラングーンのングェーチャーヤン僧院で逮捕さ
れた仏教僧5人に対し、ラングーンの南オカラッパ裁判所で裁判が開かれた。容
疑は「礼拝場所の毀損または冒とく」(刑法第295条)と「公衆に恐怖あるいは警
戒心を生じさる意図」(同505条B項)である。5人は法廷外での読経という短時間
の抗議行動により、同日中に審理妨害(同353条)で追起訴された。さらに2年の刑
が追加される可能性がある。
11月5日、2人のジャーナリスト(ニュース・ウォッチ・ジャーナル誌のキンマウ
ンエイとトゥントゥンテイン)は、同誌の7月号に地元での汚職事件を扱った記事
を掲載したとして逮捕され、直ちに3カ月の刑を宣告された。
11月10日、ブロガーのネーポンラッは2007年9月の抗議デモの期間中にブログに
記事を書き、行動の様子を伝えたとして20年の刑を宣告された。氏は2008年1月
に逮捕されていた。
11月11日、2007年8月のデモで逮捕された活動家14人に対し、インセイン刑務所
内の法廷は、外貨の無許可所持や、様々な一般的な機材の所有に関して許可を受
けていなかったとして各65年の刑を宣告した。さらに、著名な労働運動家のスー
スーヌウェは、2007年8月と11月に行った平和的な反政府運動を理由に、12年6カ
月の刑を宣告された。氏は、反逆罪(刑法第124条)と「公衆に恐怖あるいは警戒
心を生じさる意図」(同505条B項)で訴追されていた。
報道発表「5人の活動家にヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチが授賞」
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/09/15/global19810.htm
報告書『投票しようのない国民投票：ビルマ ２００８年５月の国民投票』(英語のみ)
http://hrw.org/reports/2008/burma0508/
報告書『弾圧の実態：ビルマ2007年民主化蜂起を封じ込める軍事政権』(日本語版要約)
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/burma1207/burma1207/burma1207jasum.pdf
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチのビルマ関係情報は次を参照
http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=asia&c=burma
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配布元: BurmaInfo（ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
http://www.burmainfo.org
連絡先: listmaster@burmainfo.org
バックナンバー: http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/burmainfo/
※BurmaInfoでは、ビルマ（ミャンマー）に関する最新ニュースやイベント情報、
参考資料を週に数本配信しています。
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LDP panel mulls easing law on dual citizenship
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20081114a1.html
Mixed couples' kids could have two nationalities
By MINORU MATSUTANI
Staff writer
Liberal Democratic Party member Taro Kono said Thursday he has submitted a proposal to an LDP panel he heads calling for the Nationality Law to be revised to allow offspring of mixed couples, one of whom being Japanese, to have more than one nationality.
The panel will scrutinize the proposal, but there is no time limit to formalize it as "this is not something that needs to be done anytime soon," he said.
Under the current system, Japan, in principle, requires Japanese nationals who also hold citizenship in another country to choose one or the other before they turn 22.
However, there is no punishment for violators, and the Justice Ministry does not search for or even request people who publicly proclaim possession of multiple citizenship to choose one.
"The current law works unfavorably for honest people and those exposed to the media," Kono said. "If we think about Japan's future, we should establish a system as a nation to secure necessary human resources."
The proposal calls for Japanese who hold other nationalities to report to local authorities. Those failing to do so would be subject to a fine and possible loss of their Japanese citizenship.
While the proposal allows for multiple nationalities, the government will not let Japanese hold nationalities of countries or regions that Japan does not recognize as nations, including North Korea.
Also under the proposal, foreigners would be able to obtain Japanese citizenship without giving up their original one. But the proposal does not say whether those who had had multiple nationalities and gave up one or more to retain their Japanese citizenship can regain other nationalities.
The proposal would also affect babies born in countries that grant nationality to those born there regardless of their parents' nationalities, including the United States, Brazil and Australia.
Royalty, Diet members, Cabinet ministers, diplomats, certain members of the Self-Defense Forces and court judges can only hold Japanese nationality.
If holders of more than one nationality take such positions in other countries, they will lose their Japanese nationality, the proposal says.
To avoid granting citizenship to those with a limited connection to Japan, the proposal stipulates that those who have not lived in Japan for a total of 365 days until their 22nd birthday will lose their Japanese nationality.
13 more Myanmar dissidents get prison sentences
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ap/20081114/tap-as-myanmar-un-dissidents-2nd-ld-writ-d3b07b8.html
AP - Friday, November 14YANGON, Myanmar - Courts in Myanmar sentenced more than a dozen activists to prison in a continued judicial crackdown on the country's pro-democracy movement that has drawn international condemnation.
The verdicts Thursday came after the United Nations, the U.S. and Britain denounced long prison terms given to more than 30 democracy activists in military-run Myanmar earlier this week. Some were sentenced at closed-door trials to 65 years in jail.
They included several who played prominent roles ahead of mass pro-democracy protests that were crushed by the ruling junta in September last year.
Thirteen members of the opposition National League for Democracy party were given jail terms Thursday ranging from 4 1/2 to 9 1/2 years on various charges including disturbing public tranquility, party spokesman Nyan Win said.
"The secretary-general is deeply concerned by recent reports of sentences and severe prison terms imposed in connection with the peaceful demonstrations of last year in Myanmar," the U.N. said in a statement released by its office in Myanmar.
The U.N. reiterated calls for all political prisoners to be released and for all citizens to be allowed to participate freely in the country's political future.
International human rights groups say Myanmar now holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, compared to nearly 1,200 in June 2007, before the September 2007 pro-democracy demonstrations.
They include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the opposition party, who is under house arrest. She has been in detention for about 13 of the past 19 years.
The United States also condemned the harsh prison sentences. "These brave democracy activists are peaceful citizens whose only crime was to challenge the regime's illegitimate rule," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters Wednesday.
In London, Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said those detained had "done nothing other than exercise their right to express themselves."
After Suu Kyi's party won the most seats in 1990 general elections, the military refused to let it take power and instead cracked down on its members.
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Officials: Sen. Clinton eyed as secretary of state
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_state_department;_ylt=AlCHsxNT0dGXVFTM.MczqrUb.3QA
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer Liz Sidoti, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 12 mins ago
Featured Topics: Barack Obama Presidential Transition Play Video AP – Sources: Clinton a candidate for Sec. Of State
Slideshow: Hillary Clinton Play Video Video: Book Lists Job Openings For Obama Administration CBS 5 San Francisco Play Video Video: An icon in the making? AP AP – In this Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008 file photo, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton D-NY addresses the press after … CHICAGO – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the candidates that President-elect Barack Obama is considering for secretary of state, according to two Democratic officials in close contact with the Obama transition team.
Clinton, the former first lady who pushed Obama hard for the Democratic presidential nomination, was rumored to be a contender for the job last week, but the talk died down as party activists questioned whether she was best-suited to be the nation's top diplomat in an Obama administration.
The talk resumed in Washington and elsewhere Thursday, a day after Obama named several former aides to President Bill Clinton to help run his transition effort.
The two Democratic officials who spoke Thursday did so on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering Obama and his staff. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines referred questions to the Obama transition team, which said it had no comment.
Other people frequently mentioned for the State Department job are Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and New Mexico's Democratic governor, Bill Richardson.
US freezes assets of alleged Myanmar drug traffickers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081113/wl_asia_afp/myanmarcrimeussanctions_081113180346;_ylt=AqXbMoSdW2pB244QMD3HmK_uOrgF
Thu Nov 13, 1:03 pm ET AFP/File – A document of Thailand's police shows a picture of "Drug kingpin" Wei Hsueh Kang, displayed … WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US authorities said Thursday it had frozen the assets of 26 individuals and 17 firms tied to drug trafficking in Myanmar and prohibited US citizens from dealing with them.
Targeted were those linked to the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the most powerful drug trafficking organization in southeast Asia, and Wei Hsueh Kang, a senior UWSA commander, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
They were named "Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers" by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.
The Treasury said its "action freezes any assets the 43 designees may have under US jurisdiction and prohibits US persons from conducting transactions or dealings in the property interests of the designated individuals and entities."
Corporations found violating the Kingpin Act could be fined up to ten million dollars while corporate officers could be fined up to five million dollars and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Other individuals could face up to 10 years in prison and fines.
The United Wa State Army "is a major producer and exporter of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine," according to OFAC Deputy Director Barbara Hammerle who was quoted in the department's statement.
"Today OFAC is targeting the Wa's lieutenants and the financial holdings of this massive drug trafficking organization. We call on other nations to do the same," Hammerle was quoted as saying.
Under the Kingpin Act, US President George W. Bush identified as significant foreign narcotics traffickers Wei Hsueh Kang, in 2000, and the UWSA, around three years later, it added.
In January 2005, federal prosecutors in New York "unsealed a criminal indictment charging Wei, along with his brothers Wei Hsueh Lung and Wei Hsueh Ying, who are designated today, for narcotics trafficking," it said.
The US State Department is offering a reward of up to two million dollars for tips leading to Wei's capture.
Others named by the OFAC are Pao Yu Hsiang, Ho Chun Ting and Shih Kuo Neng.
Pao Yu Hsiang, indicted in 2005 with Wei Hsueh Kang, is the commander-in-chief of the UWSA, the treasury said.
In 2005, prosecutors in New York charged Ho Chun Ting and Shih Kuo Neng, among others, with money laundering and narcotics trafficking, it said.
In 2007, Hong Kong authorities arrested Ho Chun Ting, a partner of Wei Hsueh Kang, but Hong Kong later released him for unknown reasons, the treasury said.
Shih Kuo Neng is the manager of the Hong Pang conglomerate of companies, many of which were also named Wednesday.
Treasury adds to Myanmar drug trafficker list
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081113/pl_nm/us_usa_treasury_myanmar_1;_ylt=Ap_wmT27vWEBrlXxe7gX01fuOrgF
Thu Nov 13, 3:20 pm ET
AFP/File – A document of Thailand's police shows a picture of "Drug kingpin" Wei Hsueh Kang, displayed … WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday added the names of 26 people and 17 companies linked to Myanmar's military government to its list of accused traffickers of opium, the raw material of heroin, and other drugs.
"The United Wa State Army is the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in Southeast Asia and is a major producer and exporter of synthetic drugs," the Treasury said in a statement.
Many of the those named in the announcement are tied to the military regime and have previously been indicted by U.S. federal courts.
The full list is at www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/bulletin.txt
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, shares the notorious Golden Triangle region with Laos and Thailand, a mountainous opium-producing area that has seen its leading role in the global heroin trade eclipsed by Afghanistan.
According to Jane's Information Group, the United Wa State Army, a former insurgent force, "has successfully asserted itself as the largest and wealthiest player in Myanmar's booming narcotics trade."
"China has found itself facing a growing menace from Wa-produced heroin, while the UWSA's aggressive export of methamphetamines has acted as a persistent irritant in relations" between Myanmar and Thailand, Jane's said.
"Since 2000, the Wa have opened new narcotics export routes into Laos, Cambodia and India's northeast as well as trafficking small-arms to these regions."
Jane's said it was clear Myanmar's junta "is politically unwilling and militarily ill-prepared to risk any confrontation with the UWSA, a move that could have disastrous repercussions on ceasefire arrangements with a range of other factions."
(Reporting by Patrick Rucker, editing by John O'Callaghan)
Nine monks jailed in Myanmar: opposition
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081114/wl_asia_afp/myanmarpoliticsdemocracymonks_081114052240
Fri Nov 14, 12:22 am ET AFP/File – Armed police block off a street in downtown Yangon. Nine Buddhist monks were jailed for between six and … YANGON (AFP) – Nine Buddhist monks were jailed for between six and eight years by courts in Myanmar this week for taking part in last year's anti-junta protests, an opposition party spokesman said Friday.
At least 14 members of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party (NLD) were also given prison sentences of four to 10 years, said party spokesman Nyan Win.
Rights groups say Myanmar has intensified efforts to curb dissent ahead of elections in 2010 with a string of heavy sentences handed down to activists this week over the demonstrations in August and September 2007.
"Four monks were sentenced to eight years imprisonment each" at court hearings on Thursday, Nyan Win told AFP, without giving further details.
Also on Thursday, 11 NLD members from the commercial hub of Yangon were jailed for seven-and-a-half years each and another three were given sentences of four to 10 years, he said.
Nyan Win said five other monks arrested in September last year from Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery in Yangon were sentenced to six-and-a-half years each on Tuesday at the notorious Insein prison on the outskirts of the city.
The Myanmar protests began as small rallies in August 2007 against the rising cost of living, but escalated into huge demonstrations led by Buddhist monks that posed the biggest challenge to junta rule in nearly two decades.
At least 31 people were killed when security forces cracked down on the protesters, according to the United Nations. Hundreds more activists remain in jail, rights groups say.
The latest sentences bring to around 50 the number of activists sentenced to jail by courts in Myanmar this week in a major crackdown, including a prominent blogger and a leading poet, a western diplomat in Yangon said.
The five monks sentenced on Tuesday were included in the numbers earlier announced by relatives and opposition figures, although it was not known until Friday that they were monks.
Many of those jailed this week were former students who led an uprising in 1988 and then took part in the August protests, most of whom received sentences of 65 years each.
Japan ready to loan $100B to IMF bailouts
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/11/13/japan.crisis.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan is ready to lend up to $100 billion to the International Monetary Fund to support nations reeling from the global financial crisis, its prime minister said Friday in a newspaper column ahead of a Group of 20 summit in Washington.
Prime Minister Taro Aso described the current turmoil as "the financial crisis of the century" and urged global leaders to "hammer out realistic yet substantive countermeasures," according to a column in the Wall Street Journal.
He called for improvements in the IMF's role in monitoring financial markets and detecting potential crises early.
"Also, the Fund's financial resources must be increased to enable it to extend necessary assistance to emerging economies that drive world growth," Aso wrote. "Japan is prepared to lend up to $100 billion to the Fund as an interim measure before a capital increase takes place."
Amid the unfolding crisis, Japan has been eager to boost its international clout by helping to stabilize the world's financial system.
"In the near term, Japan's own experience with the bursting of a bubble economy, a subsequent financial crisis and a recovery process could serve as a useful guide" for other countries," Aso said.
Officials in Tokyo have repeatedly said Japan, with its nearly $1 trillion in foreign currency reserves, is ready to provide funds to the IMF if it needs more money for rescue packages. But they had previously not given an amount.
A Japanese government official said that Aso will extend the $100 billion loan offer at the G-20 meeting this weekend in Washington. He asked to not to be identified, citing government protocol.
The Washington-based IMF has dipped into its reserves fund to provide emergency loans to Iceland, Hungary and Ukraine worth more than $30 billion.
Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said last month that Japan would offer cash along with proposals about accounting standards and other regulatory changes needed to reform the international financial system.
The IMF has about $210 billion but that may not be enough, he said.
Aso also said in his column that he wanted to see a general capital increase for the Asian Development Bank, "which currently has limited scope for new lending."
The G-20 summit this weekend will bring together leaders from 20 of the world's biggest developed and developing economies to discuss ways to tackle the global financial crisis, including possible coordinated tax cuts or spending increases around the world.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast that economic output would shrink 1.4 percent this quarter for the 30 market democracies that make up its membership -- and keep contracting until the middle of next year.
That would mean the developed world has now entered a slump estimated to last at least three quarters; two consecutive quarters is a common definition of recession. For all of 2009, these countries' economies would contract by 0.3 percent.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
Fw: [burmainfo] 今週のビルマのニュース（0835号） マイケル・グリーン氏が特使に？ ほか
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2008/11/14
People's Forum on Burma
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）からのメールを転送させていただき
ます。
（重複の際は何卒ご容赦ください。）
ＰＦＢ事務局
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ情報ネットワークの「今週のビルマのニュース」をお送りします。
「今週のビルマのニュース」バックナンバー
http://www.burmainfo.org/weekly.html
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）もご利用ください。
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo/
ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀
========================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2008年11月14日号【0835号】
========================================
【今週の主なニュース】
民主化活動家らに一斉判決
・この１週間で40人以上の活動家や僧侶が長期の禁固刑判決を
受けた。判決を受けたのはアウンサンスーチー氏が書記長を務める
国民民主連盟（NLD）党員13人、「88世代学生グループ」の14人、
ラングーンのヌウェチャーヤン僧院の僧侶5人、労働活動家スースーヌウェ氏
など。軍政が2010年に予定している総選挙を前に、
反対意見を許さない姿勢を打ち出したとみられる
（13日付AP、12日付AFPほか）。
・一連の長期禁固判決の言い渡しについて英国、米国、カナダ、
ドイツなどの政府が非難の声明を発表。14日正午現在、
日本政府から声明などは出ていない。
・国連事務総長は12日、深い懸念を表明し、全政治囚の
解放を改めて呼びかけた。
・国連人権特別報告者のキンタナ氏は、ビルマ民主化系
メディア「ミジマ」とのインタビューの中で、「（ビルマに）
独立した公平な司法制度は存在しない」と述べた。また、
今回活動家が受けた裁判は公平だとは言えず、
軍政は判決を見直すべきだと加えた（13日付ミジマ）。
【その他】
マイケル・グリーン氏が特使に？ ほか
・ブッシュ米大統領は前国家安全保障会議（NSC）アジア
上級部長で戦略国際問題研究所（CSIS）上級顧問兼
日本部長のマイケル・グリーン氏をビルマへの特使として
指名した。実際に就任するには米議会上院によって承認
される必要があるが、指名公聴会の時期は未定（11日付APほか）。
本来なら就任してもブッシュ大統領の退任時に辞任するが、
グリーン氏の場合は、指名承認のかぎとなる上院外交委員会の
委員長がバイデン次期副大統領である関係から、就任すれば
オバマ政権の下でも特使であり続ける可能性も。
特使の設置は、ビルマ産宝石の輸入を禁止する法律
（今年7月に制定）で定められている。
・EUは10日、アウンサンスーチー氏ら全政治囚を解放し、
民主化勢力や少数民族との三者対話を始めなければ2010年
の総選挙は信用性を持たない、とする結論を発表した。
・ビルマとバングラデシュとが領海線をめぐって争っている
ベンガル湾海域で、ビルマ側が天然ガスの探鉱の機材を
撤退させた。しかし陸の国境ではビルマ軍が部隊を増強
するなどして緊張状態が続く（10日付イラワディ誌ほか）。
【ビルマへの政府開発援助（ODA）約束状況など】
新たな発表はなし
【イベントなど】
・宇田有三写真展「アウンサンスーチーとビルマ」
（岐阜県 瑞浪芸術館、10月25日～11月24日）
・日本ビルマ救援センター 月例ビルマ問題学習会
「ビルマ語講座入門」
（大阪ボランティアセンター地下１階ボランティアルーム、14日19時～）
・第24回世界仏教徒会議日本大会
シンポジウムにビルマ僧侶アシン・ナヤカ師出席
（浅草ビューホテル、11月15日12時～）
・連続セミナー「外国籍の家族と子どもの今」第5回
日本の難民・移民の現在と未来 トークショー第2部
『難民の家族』にビルマ難民Mさん家族
（日本キリスト教会館4F、23日14時～）
・神戸松蔭女子学院大学 2008年秋季特別講座シリーズ
「ミャンマー（ビルマ）の現状」
講師：日本ビルマ救援センター代表 中尾恵子氏
（神戸松蔭女子学院大学、26日14時40分～）
・アジアと日本のつながりを考える国際セミナー
「100人の村 あなたもここに生きています」
ヒューライツ大阪ほか主催
秋元由紀がパネリストとして参加
（大阪市阿倍野区民ホール・小ホール、12月5日14時～）
・ビルマ市民フォーラム例会
「初めての方のための『ビルマ入門講座』
-ビデオ上映と講演-根本敬」
（文京シビックセンター、12月6日18時半～）
★いとうせいこう＋沢知恵＋ダブマスターＸ
「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」
YouTubeで動画配信中
★ジェーン・バーキン最新アルバム『冬の子供たち』が
11月26日に発売予定。アウンサンスーチー氏に捧げる
楽曲「アウンサンスーチー」を収録。
☆インターネット放送局「アワープラネットTV」がビルマ
でのダム開発問題を取り上げた。
ビルマ情報ネットワークの秋元由紀が解説（映像、16分）。
http://www.ourplanet-tv.org/video/contact/2008/20081008_10.html
★特定非営利活動法人メコン・ウォッチの
季刊誌「フォーラムMekong」、最新号はビルマ特集。
－ビルマ～サイクロン後の人々、軍政－
http://www.mekongwatch.org/resource/forum/FM_vol9_2_01.html
【もっと詳しい情報は】
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo/
ビルマ情報ネットワーク
http://www.burmainfo.org/
【お問い合わせ】
ビルマ情報ネットワーク 秋元由紀
====================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2008年11月14日号【0835号】
作成： ビルマ情報ネットワーク
協力： ビルマ市民フォーラム
====================================
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配布元: BurmaInfo（ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
http://www.burmainfo.org
連絡先: listmaster@burmainfo.org
バックナンバー: http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/burmainfo/
※BurmaInfoでは、ビルマ（ミャンマー）に関する最新ニュースやイベント情報、
参考資料を週に数本配信しています。
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
What will Obama mean for Asia?
http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2008/11/what-will-obama-mean-for-asia.html
Thu, November 13 2008
South Asian Post (Canada)
"Obama’s negativity on preferential trade agreements with Asian nations has Cambodia concerned about the threat to its textile exports."
The marginalized Untouchables of India have labeled him an “American Dalit”.
Filipino politicians are riding on his popularity by adding Obama monikers to their names.
The Japanese town of Obama can’t stop doing the hula.
Everybody in Indonesia now has a friend of a friend who knew a friend from the Menteng 1 Elementary School in Jakarta where Obama was educated in his younger years.
Yes, there is elation all over Asia over the matter of the first black man to run the White House.
And most of us want to be connected to him and his gospel of change.
Asian giants like China, Japan and India are raising concerns over whether the Democratic-president elect of the United States will retain any of the relationships built by the Republicans or ruin them.
China in its congratulatory message to Obama included a subtle reminder to the New America not to recognize the democratic Taiwan, which it contends is part of its communist empire.
They also want a change from the Republican philosophy which favored Taiwan with military exports.
Some anti-Beijing commentators are already pointing out that while Obama has chastised China about pollution, he has been quiet about China’s human rights abuses and like his predecessors, is going down the “China exception” path.
They point to his China-excluded campaign speech in Berlin where he asked: “Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe?”
As Obama the orator gets ready to step into the Oval office, the American financial crisis is worsening. This will undoubtedly impact on what he needs to do for America versus what America needs to do for the world.
Japan and South Korea have already expressed worries that the sagging American economy will force Obama to implement protectionist policies in the interest of keeping his campaign promises.
Both nations are also perturbed with Obama’s planned relations with communist North Korea.
There has been a frightening chill in the Korean peninsula as the North continuously berates the South, while the South threatens to get tough with Pyongyang until nuclear issues are resolved.
Many in Japan have viewed the recent removal of nuclear-hungry North Korea from the U.S. terrorism blacklist as an indication of degrading America-Japanese ties. Japan blames North Korea for the abduction of up to one hundred of its citizens over the last four decades.
In the Philippines, John McCain was more popular than Barack Obama in a Gallup poll.
While his racial first was hailed, many in the Southeast Asian nation of islands are fearful of Obama who has voiced skepticism about the outsourcing of jobs by US companies to Asia.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whose congratulatory phone call was not accepted by Obama, is also worried that America will withdraw its 600-strong military unit, which is helping battle Islamic extremists and communist rebels in South Philippines.
Obama’s negativity on preferential trade agreements with Asian nations has Cambodia concerned about the threat to its textile exports.
Members of the ASEAN grouping in Southeast Asia all have individual issues with America, but experts have indicated that any new policy in this region will be directly linked to how Obama and Beijing get along.
While Washington is not expected to get directly involved with local politics, it can be expected that Obama’s White House will tacitly approve of a change in Malaysia to a rule by the maverick Anwar Ibrahim.
India views Obama with apprehension on many fronts.
In a country that has been a priority for the Bush administration which allowed it to resume civilian nuclear imports, India has been rankled by the 20 minute phone call to Pakistan’s Zardari. This was done before any communication with New Delhi.
Obama also wants to use the long-standing India-Pakistan dispute in Kashmir as the key to dealing with the Afghanistan conflict.
He is of the opinion that Pakistan will commit itself more forcefully to defeating Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, if the US offered it carrots in Kashmir.
India has responded swiftly saying that the US has no place in the Kashmir dispute because it is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
The Times of India commented: “There is little clarity on how the chips will fall on several issues..Pakistan, China, terrorism, nuclear issues, trade, all issues on which India has had a prickly relationship with the Democratic Party.”
History will record that Obama brought change to America.
How this change impacted Asia will likely be another story.
Posted by Heng Soy | Permalink |
Labels: Cambodia concern | Implication of Obama's administration | Textile export to the US
Burma lays landmines in Burma- Bangla border
http://www.kaladanpress.org//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1622&Itemid=2
Written by Webmaster
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Teknaf, Bangladesh: Burma has laid landmines on the Burma-Bangladesh border following tension between the two neighboring countries over gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal, according to a source close to Burma's border security force, Nasaka.
Nasaka laid mines on Burma–Bangladesh borders from pillar No. 37 to 41, which is located at Wayla Daung since November 7, 2008, bringing porters from rural areas.
Burma's ruling junta has not agreed to the Mine Ban Treaty. Burma abstained from voting on the pro-Mine Ban Treaty in the UN General Assembly Resolution 57/74 in November 2002. SPDC delegates have not attended any of the annual meetings of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty or the Inter-sessional Standing Committee meetings. Burma was one of the two ASEAN countries that did not participate in the seminar. Burma has been producing at least three types of antipersonnel mines: MM1, MM2, and Claymore-type mines.
Burma is not known to have imported or exported any antipersonnel mines. Burma has obtained and used antipersonnel mines manufactured in China, Israel, Italy, Russian, United States, and unidentified manufacturers, according to sources.
In 2002, mines were laid along much of the Bangladesh-Burma border which remain embedded in the ground and continue to claim victims despite continued diplomatic protests by Bangladesh. Later all the mines in Burma- Bangladesh border were removed by the SPDC authorities following complaints from the Bangladesh side.
Burma also reinforced its troops in the border areas and at least deployed 50 to 100 soldiers at all Nasaka camps which had only 35 soldiers earlier. There are about 300-400 army personnel in Aungzu camp and about 2,000 soldiers were deployed in border areas since November 7. The Nasaka also made trenches in every camp, according to an aide of Nasaka.
According to sources, the Nasaka will continue laying mine in border areas up to pillar No. 58, which is located in Busi Par (Busi Mountain).
Labor Migration in the Philippines: A Dangerous Doctrine
PUBLISHED ON November 10, 2008 AT 10:59 AM
The more the economy is stagnant, the less its ability to create jobs, the more dependent government becomes on overseas labor deployment.
By the Policy Study, Publication and Advocacy (PSPA) Program | Center for People Empowerment in Governance (Cenpeg)
If the state policy making and legislative agenda do not change course, the whole nation will wake up one day to find that remittances accumulated through off-shore migration or labor exportation have become government’s No. 1 pillar of economic sustainability. Right now, foreign trade and investment - steered by neo-liberal globalization - and reliance on overseas development assistance are the first two pillars, followed by the export of Filipino labor. The state policy of globalization as specified by privatization, liberalization, deregulation, and labor-only contracting binds the three major pillars together.
Labor migration has become the safety valve to the country’s unemployment crisis and a major source of foreign exchange: It has surged way past the domestic job market as the remaining option for many Filipinos. In 2000 alone, more than 800,000 Filipinos were deployed abroad while only less than 200,000 were effectively added to the domestic labor market.(1) As unemployment has worsened under the Arroyo administration compared to the past 50 years some 3,000 Filipinos leave the country every day for overseas jobs - or a total of more than 1 million every year. With remittances growing by the year - 14.4 billion US dollars in 2007 constituting 10 percent of the country’s GDP - the government target is to increase labor migration to 2 million by 2010.(2) And the government is determined to meet the target: From January to April this year there were 516,466 migrant workers deployed thus raising the daily departure to 4,314 from last year’s 3,000.
In fact remittances sent by overseas Filipinos have outstripped both foreign direct investment (FDI) and overseas development assistance (ODA) which have declined in the past several years. FDI was 2.93 billion US dollars in 2007 but minus payments to loans the actual investment inflows fell by 69.3 percent to only 341 million US dollars. Last year’s 14.4 billion US dollars remittances is equal to 25 percent of the total ODA received by the Philippines - that is, in 20 years or from 1986-2006 (39.9 billion US dollars).
In general, last year global foreign remittances already totaled thrice the amount of aid given by donor countries to developing nations: 300 billion US dollars against 104 billion US dollars . No wonder labor migration is now being trumpeted by the United Nations and other multilateral organizations as a centerpiece program for developing economies.
For a government whose economic policy is subordinated to bitter policy prescriptions of the IMF and WB and adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Arroyo regime’s agenda to make labor migration as a major source of government income received a boost from no less than UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon. Speaking before the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) on Oct. 29 in Manila, Ban Ki-moon, who is also South Korea’s former foreign minister, hailed migration as “a tool to help lift us out the (current global) economic crisis …(where) countries can draw the greatest possible development benefits.”
A model for migration
Organizers of GFMD chose Manila as the forum venue on account of the Philippines’ being a role model for labor migration among developing countries and chiefly because of the remittances accruing from foreign employment. Of some 8.2 million Filipinos(3) living and working in more than 193 countries/territories around the world, 43 percent are permanent immigrants while the rest or 4.7 million are temporary or contract workers. The Philippines is one of the leading sources of migrant labor in the world market. But it tops in the deployment of caregivers and domestics, 90 percent of them women, as well as in nurses, seafarers (30 percent of the world supply), and other medical workers and professionals.
Hypocritically since the Marcos years, the government denies the existence of a labor export policy. What it cannot hide however is the existence of a government infrastructure developed since the Marcos years that gives prime attention to the export of Filipino workers and professionals. This infrastructure promotes and processes out-migration, exacts - extorts, if you will - various exorbitant fees from outgoing OFWs, accredits recruitment agencies, provides skills training and immigration lectures, and supposedly earmarks benefits for the migrant workers and their families. This bureaucracy, which is headed by the President, includes the labor department’s Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), Technical Education and Skills Authority (TESDA), and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) with its office of migrant affairs and various Philippine Labor Offices (POLOS) based in many countries.
The government also sends several high-level missions every year to market Filipino labor abroad while job fairs for overseas employment are constantly held at home. Before it hosted the GFMD, Arroyo officials joined the first annual Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration (TFMI) held last July in Germany. Last month, President Gloria M. Arroyo signed into law the controversial Japan Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) which increases the number of Filipino nurses and caregivers deployable to Japan in exchange for relaxing restrictions to the latter’s exports and investments in the country.
No domestic economy
The promotion of labor out-migration is driven by the fact that the country does not have a viable domestic economy to speak of - an economy that generates adequate jobs to its people. Despite government land reform, 70 percent of agricultural land remains in the hands of landlords leaving the country’s millions of farmers unproductive and without a stable income. Instead of basic industries, what the country has are globally-integrated assembly lines or repackaging plants that exploit labor with low wages and lack of job security because of government’s labor contracting policy.
Moreover, labor wages are frozen low in order to attract foreign investment. It is the same policy that government promotes abroad to market Filipino skills in the form of caregivers, construction workers, and other workers. Filipino seafarers are preferred by international shipping companies because the government tolerates the low wages paid them even if monthly benchmark salaries are higher.
Attribute all these to government’s adherence to neo-colonial and now neo-liberal policies which open the country’s weak economy to unrestricted foreign trade and investment threatening not only the productive livelihoods of many Filipinos but also resulting in the shutdown of small industries. Neo-liberal policies exacerbate poverty and unemployment and are generally counter-productive in terms of building a self-sustaining economy and giving jobs.
Epic proportions
With some 4 million jobless Filipinos and another 12 percent underemployed, unemployment under Arroyo has worsened - in epic proportions since the last 50 years. Thus out-migration is a safety valve to the unemployed, including thousands of professionals - the last exit from a country that is about to implode in a social unrest. Labor out-migration has also become a political tool of sorts used by the regime to arrest a growing restlessness - if not discontent - among the people against a corrupt and weak government for its inability to provide jobs and a better future for its people. Yet while its economic management increasingly relies on foreign remittances the government has not seriously taken steps to safeguard the rights of OFWs and improve their labor conditions. For instance, of 193 destination countries for Filipino workers the country has only a handful of bilateral labor agreements.
The more the economy is stagnant, the less its ability to create jobs, the more dependent government becomes on overseas labor deployment. What government cannot provide it sells in the world market to help sustain the economies of advanced countries - that bear constant crisis anyway - and the domestic needs of their ageing populations. But this is dangerous, and not only because even before the government would take this extreme option the whole economy would have collapsed. It will erode the urgency for drastic policy reform and new governance and it will calm the people into complacency and defeatism. Or it can be used by the government to evade comprehensive policy reform that would make the economy more responsive to the basic social and economic rights of the people.
But in the first place what can we expect from a government that persists in the doctrine established by previous regimes embedding economic policies to global, transnational business perspectives? Instructive at this point is a critique of the GFMD by the parallel International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR)(4) last week: The GFMD and the UN secretary general’s pro-migration declaration “arose in the midst of the worsening world economic crisis - where far more advanced…countries are fighting their way out of this crisis even as they retain their…control and power, while poverty, unemployment, and underdevelopment continue to aggravate the lives of peoples of Third World countries.”
Decisions Needed: ASEAN and Asian Regionalism
http://www.pinoypress.net/2008/11/14/decisions-needed-asean-and-asian-regionalism/
PUBLISHED ON November 14, 2008 AT 10:20 AM by Alphonse F. La Porta
Alphonse F. La Porta (a_laporta@yahoo.com) is a retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer, who has served as ambassador to Mongolia and in Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asia is an essential component of Asia’s economic and political ascendance that broadly impacts on United States interests in this increasingly integrated world. Energizing U.S. relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is essential to build healthy regionalism and advance key interests with U.S. allies and strategic partners, especially Indonesia, not to mention India and China.
The economic stake of Southeast Asia and the United States in the current global financial crisis could be as much as $1 trillion in book investment, trade, debt holdings, and portfolio investment. With a population of more than 500 million (larger than the EU), the ASEAN countries have a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of over $1 trillion. Greater ASEAN economic integration, efforts to create a single market and trends in trade agreements favor the United States and it is likely that freer and increased trade with the region will help to haul the U.S. out of the current crisis.
Yet, the promise of ASEAN regionalism remains unfulfilled. There has been inadequate synergy in the simultaneous pursuit of economic and political objectives, both within the region and on the part of some outside actors, particularly but not exclusively the United States. For the past eight years, China alone has pursued a comprehensive strategy to maximize its economic and political interests through trade and energy arrangements and “smile diplomacy,” for the most part abjuring heavy-handed tactics. China is seen as an ever-present, if not essential, force in the region; in the words of one ASEAN envoy, there are “natural complementarities” in Southeast Asia’s economic and other relations with the great northern power. At the same time, the ASEAN tactic of balancing China by drawing in other powers (India is the newest entrant) is likely to continue. Washington therefore has latitude to upgrade its posture in regional affairs, as well as to fashion new or improved structures to promote China’s positive behavior.
Although ASEAN sees itself as the core of all Asian groupings, complementarity does yet exist in Northeast Asia. Despite current difficulties with Russia, it is not a direct competitor of the United States in this region, so the establishment of political, security, and economic mechanisms for Northeast Asia based on the six-party process can be an early objective of the new U.S. administration.
Washington has not yet mustered the gumption to join the East Asia Summit, as Indonesia and others in ASEAN wish. The new U.S. tactic on regional trade arrangements – to join the trans-Pacific (formerly P4) arrangement, which includes ardent free traders such as Singapore and New Zealand – is a positive development, but there is little evidence beyond the G-20 of more expansive economic diplomacy to engage finance ministers and central banks to address the regional implications of the global financial crisis. The United States risks repeating the neglect that stung Asia by not responding to regional and country interests during the 1997 financial crisis.
An action program, taking into account the global economic crisis, the past record of uneven U.S. engagement with the region, and the roster of unaddressed issues, should include:
1) Actively support ASEAN’s development of an effective central authority and dispute resolution capability under its new Charter. Washington should appoint a senior envoy to ASEAN who would eventually be located in Jakarta.
2) Pursue ASEAN – and Asian – economic and trade integration by accelerating the tempo of economic, financial, and central bank consultations to complement the new TransPac trade negotiations. Regional environmental, energy, health, and education initiatives can support enhanced economic and trade arrangements. In this context, greater emphasis should be given to the Mekong River Basin where energy development, water diversion, and deforestation threaten the human security of millions of people in five countries.
3) Join the East Asia Summit (EAS), in recognition of the U.S. position as a “resident power,” by acceding to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), despite perceived drawbacks that can be covered in implementing legislation. APEC should be reoriented through back-to-back summits with the EAS to engage its non-East Asia members in complementary initiatives.
4) Work to refashion the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as the core of an Asian Security Community to be complemented by a new sub-regional structure for Northeast Asia based on the six-party process. Priority should be given to support a maritime security cooperation structure, engaging the positive involvement of India and perhaps China as well as U.S. allies. U.S.-Japan-Australia security cooperation is not a substitute for these core interests, but can be useful to address extra-regional issues and interests on the East Asia littoral.
5) Work programmatically within the ARF to promote defense and law enforcement cooperation on maritime security and border control, together with measures to stem the illegal exploitation of natural resources, the transit of contraband, and human trafficking. Part of this effort should be to devise regional architecture for the exchange of operational information.
6) Initiate a dialogue with ASEAN on arms control, coupled with an undertaking to promote peaceful civilian nuclear power. Nuclear safety, liability, waste disposal, and security concerns should be addressed with ASEAN in expert forums. Other nuclear powers should be encouraged to join in ARF nuclear energy discussions to build confidence.
7) Prevent Burma/Myanmar from inhibiting deeper U.S.-ASEAN relations by seeking an understanding with Congress to support Cyclone Nargis reconstruction, increase assistance to civil society (through third parties if necessary), expand opportunities for higher education in the U.S., and fashion an action plan with ASEAN to improve intergovernmental contacts. Sanctions, strong rhetoric, and other punitive measures have not worked, thus alternative ways are needed to work around the xenophobia and self-isolation of the military regime. Support of ethnic insurgencies or military actions should not be part of the U.S. playbook.
Recognize that additional resources ($5-7 million per year, plus full funding of the multi-year ADVANCE project to provide project support to the ASEAN Secretariat) will be needed to support participation in regional meetings and new program initiatives. Higher-level attention to ASEAN and Asia regionalism overall is needed in the new administration.
There should be recognition that, for ASEAN and most Asians, form is substance. In most ASEAN and Asian deliberations, consensus is the rule and results often are not immediate, necessarily action-oriented or predictable. Consistent top-level participation and bureaucratic flexibility therefore are required as desired outcomes more often are attainable through informal consultations with key governments and opinion-makers. More nuanced and energetic U.S. approaches can earn credibility, decrease suspicions, and encourage genuine cooperation.
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