http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=11673
Rich with uranium and desperate for control, the Burmese junta may find a nuclear option attractive
Bertil Lintner
YaleGlobal, 3 December 2008
Power salute: Burmese strongman General Than Shwe; reports of Burmese search for nuclear technology are a cause of regional concern. Enlarge image
CHIANG MAI: Over the past year, Southeast Asia’s diplomatic community has tried to sort fact from fiction in a stream of unconfirmed reports from Burma, the region's most isolated and secretive country. Burma’s fledgling nuclear program with Russian assistance and its mysterious connections with North Korea raise concern in the region about its purpose.
According to Burmese exiles in Thailand, the Russians and North Koreans assist the Burmese in developing nuclear capability. But wary of similar reports by Iraqi exiles a few years ago, which turned out to be false, the international community remains skeptical. In a research paper for Griffith University, for example, Australian scholar Andrew Selth, dismisses the reports.
Nevertheless, certain facts are not in doubt. Burma first initiated a nuclear research program as early as 1956, when its then-democratic government set up the Union of Burma Atomic Energy Center, UBAEC, in then-capital Rangoon. Unrelated to the country's defense industries, it came to a halt when the military seized power in 1962. New power-holders, led by General Ne Win did not trust UBAEC head Hla Nyunt.
In February 2001, Burma's present junta, the State Peace and Development Council decided to revitalize the country's nuclear program, and Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry announced plans to build a 10-megawatt nuclear research reactor in central Burma. In July 2001, Burma established a Department of Atomic Energy, believed to be the brainchild of the Minister of Science and Technology, U Thaung, a graduate of Burma's Defense Services Academy and former ambassador to the United States. US-trained nuclear scientist Thein Po Saw was identified as a leading advocate for nuclear technology in Burma.
At a press conference in Rangoon on January 21, 2002, Vice-Chief of Military Intelligence Major-General Kyaw Win issued a statement: “Myanmar's consideration of building a nuclear research reactor is based on the peaceful purposes getting modern technologies needed for the country, availability of radioisotopes being used peacefully, training technicians and performing feasibility study for generation of electricity from nuclear power."
While Burma suffers from chronic power shortages, the need for a research reactor, used mainly for medical purposes, is unclear. Radioisotopes allow imaging of the brain, bones, organs, lungs and blood flow, advanced technology for Burma's basic health services.
However, observers pointed out the Russian-made nuclear-research reactor that the Burmese authorities sought to acquire is similar to the 5-megawatt research reactor that the then–Soviet Union installed at Yongbyon in North Korea in 1965, from which North Korea later extracted plutonium for a nuclear device. Burma’s military leaders couldn’t help but notice how North Korea stood up to the US, a harsh critic of the Burmese regime, mainly due to its nuclear program.
Reports have been murky since. In April 2007, days after the restoration of diplomatic ties between Burma and North Korea – broken since North Koreans detonated a bomb in Rangoon in 1983 – a North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam I, docked at Thilawa port. Burmese officials claimed that the ship sought shelter from a storm. But two Burmese reporters working for a Japanese news agency were briefly detained when they went to the port to investigate, indicating possible other, more secret reasons for the visit.
According to the July 2007 issue of the Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based publication by Burmese exiles: "by a strange coincidence, the 2,900-ton North Korean cargo vessel MV Bong Hoafan...sought shelter from a storm and anchored at a Burmese port last November. The Burmese government reported that an on-board inspection had 'found no suspicious material or military equipment.' But journalists and embassies in Rangoon remained skeptical."
At about the same time, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported "a North Korean ship under US surveillance was believed to have unloaded self-propelled artillery at a Myanmar port."
The deal with Russia was stalled for several years, but in May 2007, Russia's atomic energy agency, Rosatom, announced construction of the nuclear-research reactor. According to Rosatom, the reactor would use low-enriched uranium, not plutonium. Up to 350 Burmese nationals, most military personnel, already trained in Russia under the initial 2001 agreement, and since then several hundred more trained at Russian institutions.
Signatories of the agreement reached in Moscow on May 15, 2007 were U Thaung and Rosatom head Sergey Kiriyenko. According to Rosatom's press release: " The sides have agreed to cooperate on the establishment of a center for nuclear studies in the territory of Myanmar (the general contractor will be Atomstroyexport). The center will comprise a 10-megawatt light water reactor working on 20 per cent-enriched uranium-235, an activation analysis laboratory, a medical isotope production laboratory, silicon doping system, nuclear waste treatment and burial facilities. The center will be controlled by IAEA."
Despite that claim, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on May 17, 2007, that Burma had not reported plans to build a nuclear reactor. As a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Burma is required to allow inspections of any nuclear facilities.
The agreement does not mention North Korea, but in November 2003 the Norway-based broadcasting station Democratic Voice of Burma, run by Burmese exiles, reported that 80 Burmese military personnel had departed for North Korea to study "nuclear and atomic energy technology."
The report remains unconfirmed, its source unclear. If Burmese military personnel traveled to North Korea, it’s more likely for training in maintenance of missiles, which Burma then wanted to buy from North Korea but could not yet afford.
Alarm bells rang in August 2008, after India withdrew permission for a North Korean plane to overfly its airspace on route to Iran, just before taking off from Mandalay in Burma where it had made a stopover. The Ilyushin-62 carried unidentified cargo, and it’s destination after the stopover was unclear.
Reports of some cooperation between Burma, Russia, North Korea and Iran have also come from two Burmese nationals, an army officer and a scientist, who recently left the country. According to them, a Russian-supplied 10-megawatt research reactor is being built, at Myaing, north of Pakokku, said to be for peaceful research. But according to the defectors, another facility exists south of the old hill station of Myin Oo Lwin, formerly known as Maymyo. Three Russians supposedly work there while a group of North Koreans are said to engage in tunneling and constructing a water-cooling system. The defectors also assert that in 2007 an Iranian intelligence officer, identified only as "Mushavi," visited Burma. Apart from sharing nuclear knowledge, he reportedly provided advice on missile systems using computer components from Milan.
Burma has uranium deposits, and the Ministry of Energy has identified five sources of ore in the country, all low-grade uranium unsuitable for military purposes. But the defectors claim that two more uranium mines in Burma are not included in official reports: one near Mohnyin in Kachin State and another in the vicinity of Mogok in Mandalay Division. The ore is supposedly transported to a Thabeikkyin refinery, conveniently located between the two alleged mines.
Until such reports can be verified, or refuted, speculations remain. But a nuclear-powered Burma would be a nightmare for all neighbors and would upset the balance of power in the region. All that is certain is that Burma has a nuclear program. It may be years, if not decades, away from developing nuclear-weapons capability. But the fact that the country's military leadership experiments with nuclear power is cause for concern.
Bertil Lintner is a Swedish journalist based in Thailand and the author of several works on Asia, including “Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld of Asia” and “Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North Korea under the Kim Clan.”
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© 2008 Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
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Saturday, December 6, 2008
Burma’s Nuclear Temptation-Bertil Lintner
Ban Rules Out Visit to Burma
ဘာမွ မထူးျခားဘူးဆိုရင္ မသြားဘူးလို ့မစၥတာဘန္ကီမြန္းကေျပာပါတယ္။
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=14751
By LALIT K JHA Thursday, December 4, 2008
NEW YORK — The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on Wednesday ruled out a visit to Burma until such time as he is assured that his presence in the country will help to move it closer to the goal of establishing a genuine democracy.
The onus for this lies on the Burmese military junta, said Ban’s spokesperson, Michele Montas.
“The secretary-general has consistently said that the primary responsibility lies with the government to deliver substantive results, including freeing political prisoners and including having a dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi,” Montas said.
The spokesperson confirmed that the secretary-general has received a letter from more than 100 former prime ministers and presidents from over 50 countries, urging him to press for the release of political prisoners before the end of the year.
Ban also received a phone call from the former prime minister of Norway, Kjell Magne Bondevik, who had taken the lead in bringing the former world leaders together on one platform.
“They discussed the letter, asking the secretary-general to visit Myanmar [Burma] and to urge the release of political prisoners by the end of this year,” Montas said, adding: “The secretary-general once more reiterated his pledge to remain fully engaged, both personally and through his personal envoy in Myanmar.”
Ban said he would like to visit Burma again to discuss a broad range of issues.
“However, he will not be able to do so without reasonable expectations of a meaningful outcome, which is what we have been saying all along,” Montas said.
Montas also said that Ban’s special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, would not visit Burma unless he too was sure of achieving some tangible results.
“Gambari himself will not go unless there is some chance that this will move forward. He will not just go for the sake of going, in other words,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, having guided America’s foreign policy on Burma during the last eight years, the US first lady, Laura Bush, said on Wednesday that she would continue to raise her voice on behalf of the people of Burma even after she leaves the White House on January 20.
“I will continue that,” Bush said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday.
“The president is going to build a Freedom Institute with his presidential library, and so it’ll be a really good vehicle for me, as well, to continue to talk about Burma, to meet with dissidents from Burma like the young Buddhist monk that I had the chance to meet with when we were in New York earlier this fall,” she said.
Inspired by Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy icon, Bush has been instrumental in pushing for US sanctions against the Burmese military junta and its cronies. The US has led the world in initiating action against the Burmese regime.
Bush, who has met with a number of Burmese pro-democracy leaders, is often the first internationally recognized figure to issue statements on issues related to Burma.
India angry as 'never before' over attacks: PM
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081205/afp/081205124036asiapacificnews.html
MUMBAI (AFP) - India has been angered "as never before" by the attacks in Mumbai, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday, as his new home minister hinted at growing evidence of Pakistani involvement.
"We have told the world that the people of India have felt a sense of hurt and anger as never before due to the Mumbai terror strikes," Singh said following talks here with visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The attacks by Islamist gunmen against multiple targets in India's financial capital nine days ago killed 163 people, including 26 foreigners. Nine militants were killed, while one was captured alive.
"It is the obligation of all concerned that perpetrators of this horrible crime are brought to book," Singh said.
India says all 10 gunmen involved in the assault came from Pakistan, and has handed Islamabad a list of 20 terror suspects, with demands for their arrest and extradition.
Suspicion has focused on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group which has fought Indian control of divided Kashmir. Lashkar was blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001, which pushed the two nations to the brink of war.
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Earlier Friday, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram clearly had Pakistani groups in mind when he spoke of proof that elements outside the country were responsible.
"There is ample evidence to show that the source of the terrorist attack was clearly linked to organisations which have in the past been identified as being behind terrorist attacks in India," Chidambaram said.
"There are one or two countries which have broadly confirmed our preliminary conclusions," he added.
The United States has been sharing intelligence with India in the wake of the Mumbai bloodshed.
Chidambaram acknowledged there had been some security and intelligence "lapses" prior to the attacks.
"These are being looked into and I will do my utmost ... to overcome the causes of these lapses and try to improve the effectiveness of the security system," he said.
CNN and other US networks reported that the United States had warned India in October that hotels and business centres in Mumbai would be targeted by attackers coming from the sea.
One US intelligence official even named the Taj Mahal hotel, one of 10 sites hit in the 60-hour siege by gunmen, as a specific target, ABC television said.
Several Indian newspapers on Friday cited unidentified intelligence sources as saying that Pakistan's powerful spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was involved in training the gunmen.
The Indian Express said intercepts of conversations between the gunmen and their handlers showed the use of communication pathways often used by the ISI.
"We are 100 percent convinced that the ISI is involved," the India Abroad News Service quoted a highly placed intelligence source as saying.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Islamabad Thursday in an effort to defuse tension in the region after visiting New Delhi the previous day.
Rice said it was crucial for the Pakistani government to provide full and transparent cooperation with the Indian investigations.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said he was determined that his country would not be used to orchestrate attacks or shelter terrorists and vowed "strong action" against any Pakistani elements involved.
Indian jitters following the attacks saw New Delhi's international airport locked down for about 40 minutes overnight Thursday after security guards heard what they thought were gunshots.
The incident was finally dismissed as a false alarm.
Security was tightened across India after the Mumbai attacks, and the alert level at several airports was raised even higher Thursday after Defence Minister A.K. Antony warned of possible "terror strikes from the air."
Tourists flood out of Thailand but turmoil remains
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081205/afp/081205075003asiapacificnews.html
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thousands of stuck travellers were preparing to leave Bangkok's main airport as it resumed full operations, but political uncertainty dragged on after the king cancelled his annual birthday speech.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej turned 81 on Friday but pulled out of his customary birthday address the previous day due to illness, ending hopes that he might offer guidance on a way out of the nation's long-running political crisis.
A mid-morning ceremony complete with puppet shows and classical dance officially reopened Suvarnabhumi international airport, after an eight-day siege by anti-government protesters ended on Wednesday.
"Suvarnabhumi has officially resumed operations. All of the staff here are so happy to return to work," an Airports of Thailand spokeswoman said.
"Thai Airways TG971 bound for Moscow officially marked the full and smooth resumption of the airport."
The siege of Suvarnabhumi and the smaller Don Mueang domestic airport left an estimated 350,000 travellers stranded in Thailand, and cost the kingdom billions of dollars in lost revenue.
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Frustrated holiday-makers have been struggling to get out of a naval base southwest of the capital and a handful of regional airports, but there is a huge backlog of people waiting to fly out of the "Land of Smiles."
Suvarnabhumi can handle 700 flights and 100,000 passengers a day, although the spokeswoman said she expected up to 80,000 travellers and 550 flights to pass through the hub Friday.
Tourists in sunglasses and shorts milled around the futuristic steel-and-glass terminal, where there was little sign that one week ago thousands of protesters were setting up makeshift food stalls and tents.
Dozens of flights had already left the two-year-old hub since a court dissolution of the ruling party gave demonstrators a face-saving way to leave, but check-in and immigration were not up and running until Friday.
The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) decided to abandon its blockade of the airports after Tuesday's Constitutional Court ruling forced premier Somchai Wongsawat from office -- a key demand of their movement.
The PAD launched their campaign in May, accusing the government of acting as a puppet for Thaksin Shinawatra, the premier ousted in a 2006 coup who is living in exile to escape corruption charges.
Analysts say there is now a pause in the turmoil as Thais celebrate the king's birthday with reverential ceremonies, but warn that protests could erupt again.
Allies of Somchai have vowed to regroup under new names and simply re-form the government, since they still have a majority.
They are set to name a likely successor on Sunday, although a parliamentary session early next week when MPs would have voted for a new premier has been cancelled and has not been rescheduled.
The PAD, which draws its support from the urban elite and elements in the military and palace, has warned that it will resume protests if the new premier is too close to Thaksin. Somchai is Thaksin's brother-in-law.
"Any effort to nominate another proxy of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to lead a new administration will only result in another crisis," an editorial in the Bangkok Post said Friday.
King Bhumibol -- the world's longest reigning monarch -- pulled out of his highly anticipated address to the nation at the last minute on Thursday as millions of Thais were tuning in to hear it.
Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn said that the king was "mildly sick" in a brief broadcast, while Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn said in the same broadcast he "has a blockage in his throat and has poor appetite."
The announcement prompted speculation that the king did not want to get involved in the turmoil that has rocked Thailand since Thaksin was ousted, and sparked concerns for the health of the monarch, adored as semi-divine here.
Ex-PoWs deserve apology, says professor
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=371390
A JAPANESE professor who lectures on her country's role in the Second World War says Cambridgeshire's former prisoners of war deserve a full apology for the way they were treated.
Prof Tomoyo Nakao, who teaches at Okayama University in Japan, has interviewed many ex-prisoners about the cruelty they suffered at the hands of her countrymen.
Many hundreds of men from the Cambridgeshire Regiment were locked up by the Japanese army in Singapore prison camps in the early 1940s, and were beaten, starved and forced to work as slaves building the Burma railway.
In the News last week, some of the surviving veterans spoke about how they had never received a "proper" apology from the Japanese government or Japan's emperor - and claimed they probably would never get one.
Prof Nakao, who has visited Cambridge to speak to former prisoners and has written a book about the issue of reconciliation, said: "There are young ones as well as veterans who are concerned.
"I teach my students about the PoW issue, and I quite agree that the PoWs have not been given proper words of apology.
"I have just published a book about the failure of post-war Japan-Anglo reconciliation, in which I tried to explain why those Japanese 'apologies' issued by our prime ministers and emperor were not sufficient, and did not work, in spite of the fact that the Japanese are made to believe - by some books and in the media - that they were successful."
She added: "One of my students told me that after we discussed the issue in class, she had come to understand the importance and weight of the word of apology.
She said to me: 'I do believe that we need to apologise, and that we know what we are apol-ogising for.'
"It sounds easy but I know it is difficult. However, it is most necessary to do so. And it is important that we do not simply issue an apology, but that we make an effort to obtain forgiveness in the real sense of the word."
Prof Nakao said: "In Japan, many are made to believe that reconciliation has been achieved, and that the PoWs are now satisfied. For me, that is hard to believe."
She is a member of the International Oral History Association and has just started a website focusing on dialogue between the UK and Japan - http://powow.asia
Kyaw Zaw urges perseverance against Burmese regime
http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1984
Dec 4, 2008 (DVB)General Kyaw Zaw, a veteran politician and one of the Thirty Comrades, has urged the people of Burma to keep on fighting against the military dictatorship and not to give in to pressure from the regime.
Kyaw Zaw, speaking on the occasion of his 89th birthday yesterday, called for unity and perseverance.
"I am 89 years old today, I am now a geriatric, as [Burmese revolutionary icon] Sayagyi Thakhin Ko Daw Hmine often described himself,・Kyaw Zaw said.
I am so proud and delighted to see our people are still fighting relentlessly against the military dictatorship through over the generations with no fear in the face of the various pressures from the government," he said.
"I would like to urge everyone to keep on fighting and not to give up," he continued.
"I ask everyone to stand together in unity and show understanding towards each other; also I would like to urge the SPDC and all the troops in the military to show respect to the people as their mentors and not to treat them like their enemies."
Kyaw Zaw, along with Ye Htut, is one of the two surviving members of the Thirty Comrades, who travelled to Japan in 1941 for military training, founded the Burmese Independence Army and returned to Burma to fight against British colonial rule.
He was dismissed from the army in 1957 after being accused of leaking information on the army movements to the Communist Party of Burma, of which he was a senior member.
He went on to stand for parliament in 1960 but was unsuccessful.
Since going in to exile, Kyaw Zaw has called for dialogue between the military regime and the National League for Democracy and urged the people of Burma to continue their struggle against the junta.
Kyaw Zaw now lives in exile in China.
Reporting by Aye Nai
China's cold war on Tibet
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?fecvnodeid=59999&v5=59999&fecvid=5&lng=en&id=94401
By rejecting the Dalai Lama's call for autonomy for Tibet, Beijing could face greater upheaval in the future that would also affect ties with other countries, Sudeshna Sarkar writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Sudeshna Sarkar in Kathmandu for ISN Security Watch
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Less than a week before the scheduled start of a critical China-EU Summit in Lyon on 1 December, the Chinese government has asked for the talks to be postponed indefinitely after learning that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the rotating president of the Council of the European Union, would meet the Dalai Lama after the session.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the meeting between the exiled Tibetan leader and Sarkozy, scheduled for this Saturday, had aroused "strong dissatisfaction of the Chinese government and people."
"The Tibet issue is related to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and [has bearing on] China's core interest," a Ministry spokesperson said in a statement. "We resolutely oppose [the] Dalai's separatist activities in any [country] in whatever capacity, and the contact between foreign leaders with him in whatever form."
Almost as soon as Beijing decided to shelve the Lyon meeting, it sent Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who was to visit Myanmar this week, to Nepal first - the communist republic's southern neighbor, which is now emerging as an important factor in the battle over Tibet.
Yang's three-day visit to Kathmandu ended in a bounty comprising both usual and unusual offers. While China signed the usual technical and economic cooperation agreement worth 100 million yuan (over US$14 million) and agreed to look into the possibilities of extending the Beijing-Lhasa railway to its border with Nepal to boost bilateral trade and tourism, it also, unusually, offered security assistance. The latter comes at the cost of annoying India (the other South Asia giant), which contends that per old treaties, Nepal must consult New Delhi over security agreements with other countries.
Nepali Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav, who signed the agreement with his Chinese counterpart in Kathmandu on Wednesday, parried media questions on what the security assistance entailed. "It's training and equipment," Yadav said. "The details would be decided by the appropriate channels of both countries."
Nepal is currently ruled by the Maoist party, consisting of former guerrillas who laid down arms two years ago and agreed to support a competitive multi-party democracy. When the then-coalition government, which included the Maoists, received unspecified military supplies from India in March, the former guerrillas called a general strike and set police posts on fire.
Devendra Poudel, a regional leader of the Maoists, was quoted at that time as saying that India's move was "a conspiracy to sabotage" the March national elections.
The re-emergence of a security assistance offer by Beijing less than nine months later is fueling speculation over the catalyst, especially with a renewed shoring up of Sino-Nepali military ties. In September, less than a month after he assumed office, Nepal Defense Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa visited Beijing. The trip resulted in the communist republic offering once again unspecified military assistance.
In November, a high-level Chinese military delegation headed by a major-general visited Kathmandu. A second delegation, led by a lieutenant-general, is scheduled to arrive Saturday.
The Dharamshala factor
These activities are most likely related to the six-day meeting of exiled Tibetan leaders held last month in Dharamshala, India, the seat of the Dalai Lama's government in exile. The group gathered to decide the future strategy of the diaspora, which remains scattered since China's invasion and annexation of the Buddhist kingdom of Tibet in 1951.
With the Dalai Lama finally admitting that talks with Beijing - begun in 2002 to seek greater autonomy for Tibet - had failed, there was fear that the younger generations of Tibetans, who advocate a push for independence, would assume leadership and begin a new movement that could lead to confrontation and bloodshed.
Though the special meeting averted an immediate crisis by endorsing the Dalai Lama's leadership and his advocacy of the "Middle Way" approach - seeking greater autonomy within the framework of the Chinese republic in a peaceful way - Beijing still can't afford to relax.
The meeting, for one, has set the clock ticking. The nearly 500 representatives present at the Dharamshala gathering also agreed that they might be forced to seek independence if results of further engagement with China were not evident "in the near future."
Also, while the diaspora awaits results of engagement it has launched a Charter for Engagement in the Future of Tibet - an attempt to "engage directly with the challenges facing Tibetans on the plateau" and build a new consensus.
Beijing wants to stop such engagements at any cost and suppress any eventual attempt at freedom, which has led to its increased focus on Nepal. The border between Tibet and Nepal, though dominated by high Himalayan ranges, is the traditional route used for decades by Tibetans trying to escape from China-controlled Tibet or re-enter the heavily guarded territory. If the border can be controlled, contacts between Tibetans at home and abroad as well as future independence movements can also be controlled.
With this in mind, China has not just stepped up deployment of soldiers along the border but is also pressuring Nepal to regulate its border with India further southward. India and Nepal share an 1,800-km open border, which can be crossed by the nationals of both countries without passports or visas. China suspects that Tibetans from Dharamshala, or even the US and other countries, have been using this border to cross into Nepal to stoke anti-China protests in Kathmandu for nearly seven months.
The protests, with images of unarmed monks and women being subjected to brute force by security personnel, embarrassed Beijing before, during and after the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
The Chinese government considered the protests so grave an affront that it asked the then-Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Zheng Xianglin, to urge the Nepal government to adopt harsher measures that would deter the protesters. When the suggestion was not heeded by Nepal, Zheng was recalled after completing only half of his three-year term.
The new Maoist-led government of Nepal has pledged to uphold Beijing's "One China" policy that considers Tibet and Taiwan inalienable parts of the communist republic. It has also pledged not to allow Nepal's soil to be used for anti-China activities.
Though the earlier government made the same pledge, the Maoists have been able to implement it more effectively. The Tibetan protests have died down under Maoist rule and the threat of deportation hangs over future protesters.
Though successful with is neighbor, Beijing has been unable to convince other governments to adopt its views about Tibet and the Dalai Lama. China, which went to war with India in 1962, is displeased with New Delhi for allowing the Dalai Lama's "government in exile" to function from Dharamshala. It is also angered by repeated US intervention on behalf of Tibetans.
Washington had offered to Kathmandu to resettle 5,000 Tibetan refugees living in Nepal. However, the offer was blocked by an angry Beijing, which says there are no Tibetan refugees, only "illegal immigrants" who should be dealt with accordingly.
China: EU also to blame
The EU, especially France, is now on Beijing's peeve list as being the cause for the postponed summit.
"The current situation is not caused by China, nor should China be held responsible for it," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. "Nevertheless, China has not changed its determination and policy to actively develop its ties with the European Union. China is still willing to work together with the EU from the long term perspective, to push forward the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations on the basis of mutual respect on an equal footing."
Vincent Metten, EU policy director of International Campaign for Tibet, a New York-based Tibet rights organization, said in a statement that Beijing's "disproportionate action" was counterproductive to its own interests and may damage Europe's confidence in China as a responsible partner.
"Beijing cannot escape the reality that the EU, the US and the United Nations all have serious concerns about the political and human rights situation in Tibet," Metten said. "[All of them] respect the Dalai Lama's leadership and his willingness to engage with China."
Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years
အေမရိကားမွာဒီနွစ္ နိုဝင္ဘာလ တလထဲမွာ အလုပ္ျပဳတ္တဲ့သူ ငါးသိန္းသုံးေသာင္းေက်ာ္ရိွပါတယ္
ဒါဟာ ၃၄ နွစ္အတြင္းမွာအမ်ားဆုံးျဖစ္ပါတယ္၊ အခုအလုပ္လက္မဲ့ရာခိုင္နႈန္း
ဟာ ေျခာက္ဒႆမ ခြန္နွစ္ရိွပါတယ္ ။
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081205/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown/print
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer Jeannine Aversa, Ap Economics Writer
9 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Skittish employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession.
The new figures, released by the Labor Department Friday, showed the crucial employment market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid clip, and handed Americans some more grim news right before the holidays.
As companies throttled back hiring, the unemployment rate bolted from 6.5 percent in October to 6.7 percent last month, a 15-year high.
"These numbers are shocking," said economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economics Advisors. "Companies are sharply reacting to the economy's problems and slashing costs. They are not trying to ride it out."
The unemployment rate would have moved even higher if not for the exodus of 422,000 people from the work force. Economists thought many of those people probably abandoned their job searches out of sheer frustration. In November 2007, the jobless rate was at 4.7 percent.
The U.S. tipped into recession last December, a panel of experts declared earlier this week, confirming what many Americans already thought.
Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, the number of unemployed people increased by 2.7 million and the jobless rate rose by 1.7 percentage points.
Job losses last month were widespread, hitting factories, construction companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality, and others industries. The few places where gains were logged included the government, education and health services.
The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. The rise in the unemployment rate, however, wasn't as steep as the 6.8 percent rate they were expecting. Taken together, though, the employment picture was dismal.
The job reductions were the most since a whopping 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, when the country was in a severe recession.
All told, 10.3 million people were left unemployed as of November, while the number of employed was 144.3 million.
Job losses in September and October also turned out to be much worse. Employers cut 403,000 jobs in September, versus 284,000 previously estimated. Another 320,000 were chopped in October, compared with an initial estimate of 240,000.
Employers are slashing costs to the bone as they try to cope with sagging appetites from customers in the U.S. and in other countries, which are struggling with their own economic troubles.
The carnage — including the worst financial crisis since the 1930s — is hitting a wide range of companies.
In recent days, household names like AT&T Inc., DuPont, JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. announced layoffs.
Fighting for their survival, the chiefs of Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. will return Friday to Capitol Hill to again ask lawmakers for as much as $34 billion in emergency aid.
Workers with jobs saw modest wage gains. Average hourly earnings rose to $18.30 in November, a 0.4 percent increase from the previous month. Over the year, wages have grown 3.7 percent, but paychecks haven't stretched that far because of high prices for energy, food and other items.
Worn-out consumers battered by the job losses, shrinking nest eggs and tanking home values have retrenched, throwing the economy into a tailspin. As the unemployment rate continues to move higher, consumers will burrow further, dragging the economy down even more, a vicious cycle that Washington policymakers are trying to break.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected ratchet down a key interest rate — now near a historic low of 1 percent — by as much as a half-percentage point on Dec. 16 in a bid to breathe life into the moribund economy. Bernanke is exploring other economic revival options and wants the government to step up efforts to curb home foreclosures.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, whose department oversees the $700 billion financial bailout program, also is weighing new initiatives, even as his remaining days in office are numbered.
President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for a massive economic recovery bill to generate 2.5 million jobs over his first two years in office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vowed to have a package ready on Inauguration Day for Obama's signature.
The measure, which could total $500 billion, would bankroll big public works projects to create jobs, provide aid to states to help with Medicaid costs, and provide money toward renewable energy development.
At 12 months and counting, the recession is longer than the 10-month average length of recessions since World War II. The record for the longest recession in the postwar period is 16 months, which was reached in the 1973-75 and 1981-82 downturns. The current recession might end up matching that or setting a record in terms of duration, analysts say.
The 1981-82 recession was the worst in terms of unemployment since the Great Depression. The jobless rate rose as high as 10.8 percent in late 1982, just as the recession ended, before inching down.
Given the current woes, the jobless rate could rise as high as 8.5 percent by the end of next year, some analysts predict. Projections, however, have to be taken with a grain of salt because of all the uncertainties plaguing the economy. Still, the unemployment rate often peaks after a recession has ended. That's because companies are reluctant to ramp up hiring until they feel certain the recovery has staying power.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Online journalists now jailed more than others
အခုအခါမွာ အြန္လိုင္းဂ်ာနယ္လစ္ေတြကမၻာတလႊားမွာ တျခားနယ္ပယ္က ဂ်ာနယ္လစ္ေတြထက္ပိုျပီး
မတရားဖမ္းဆီးအေရးယူခံေနရပါတယ္ ၊ ဒီထဲမွာကၽြန္ေတာ္တို ့ ကို ေရႊ နအဖ ကလဲအားက်မခံ ထိပ္တန္းကပါဝင္ေနပါတယ္။
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8321
December 4, 2008
By Our Correspondent
NEW YORK - A total of 23 journalists remained jailed in connection with their work in Sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds held without charge, according to an annual report released today by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Thirteen journalists were held in Eritrea, which was the fourth jailer of journalists worldwide behind China, Cuba and Burma. The survey found more Internet journalists jailed worldwide today than journalists working in any other medium.
CPJ’s survey found 125 journalists in all behind bars on December 1, a decrease of two from the 2007 tally. (Read detailed accounts of each imprisoned journalist.) China continued to be world’s worst jailer of journalists, a dishonor it has held for 10 consecutive years. Cuba, Burma, Eritrea, and Uzbekistan round out the top five jailers from among the 29 nations that imprison journalists. Each of the top five nations has persistently placed among the world’s worst in detaining journalists.
Eritrea’s secret prisons held but four of at least 17 journalists worldwide held in secret locations. Eritrean authorities have refused to disclose the whereabouts, legal status, or health of any of the journalists they have been detaining for several years. Unconfirmed reports have suggested the deaths of at least three of these journalists while in custody, but the government has refused to even say whether the detainees are alive or dead.
Two other Eritrean journalists were being held in secret in neighboring Ethiopia, while the government of The Gambia has declined to provide information on the July 2006 arrest of journalist “Chief” Ebrima Manneh. Many international observers, from the U.S. Senate to the West African human rights court, have called on authorities to free Manneh, who was jailed for trying to publish a report critical of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.
About 13 percent of jailed journalists worldwide, including those imprisoned in Eritrea, Ethiopia and The Gambia, face no formal charge at all. Countries as diverse as Israel, Iran, the United States, and Uzbekistan also used this tactic of open-ended detention without due process. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 out of 23 journalists were behind bars without charge.
Antistate allegations such as subversion, divulging state secrets, and acting against national interests are the most common charge used to imprison journalists worldwide, CPJ found. About 59 percent of journalists in the census are jailed under these charges, many of them by the Chinese and Cuban governments, but also by countries like Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast.
The survey found that 45 percent of all media workers jailed worldwide are bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors. Online journalists represent the largest professional category for the first time in CPJ’s prison census. At least 56 online journalists are jailed worldwide, according to CPJ’s census, a tally that surpasses the number of print journalists for the first time.
This trend applied in Sub-Saharan Africa where at least one online journalist remained imprisoned as of December 1, 2008.
“Online journalism has started to change the media landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa and eased access to communication,” said CPJ’s Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “But some governments have reacted adversely to this trend and a growing pattern of harassment of online journalists has developed.”
The number of imprisoned online journalists has steadily increased since CPJ recorded the first jailed Internet writer in its 1997 census. Print reporters, editors, and photographers make up the next largest professional category, with 53 cases in 2008. Television and radio journalists and documentary filmmakers constitute the rest.
“Online journalism has changed the media landscape and the way we communicate with each other,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “But the power and influence of this new generation of online journalists has captured the attention of repressive governments around the world, and they have accelerated their counterattack.”
In October, CPJ joined with Internet companies, investors, and human rights groups to combat government repression of online expression. After two years of negotiations, this diverse group announced the creation of the Global Network Initiative, which establishes guidelines enabling Internet and telecommunications companies to protect free expression and privacy online. Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have joined the initiative.
Illustrating the evolving media landscape, the increase in online-related jailings has been accompanied by a rise in imprisonments of freelance journalists. Forty-five of the journalists on CPJ’s census are freelancers; most of them work online. These freelancers are not employees of media companies and often do not have the legal resources or political connections that might help them gain their freedom. The number of imprisoned freelancers has risen more than 40 percent in the last two years, according to CPJ research.
“The image of the solitary blogger working at home in pajamas may be appealing, but when the knock comes on the door they are alone and vulnerable,” said CPJ’s Simon. “All of us must stand up for their rights—from Internet companies to journalists and press freedom groups. The future of journalism is online and we are now in a battle with the enemies of press freedom who are using imprisonment to define the limits of public discourse.”
Nowhere is the ascendance of Internet journalism more evident than in China, where 24 of 28 jailed journalists worked online. China’s prison list includes Hu Jia, a prominent human rights activist and blogger, who is serving a prison term of three and a half years for online commentaries and media interviews in which he criticized the Communist Party. He was convicted of “incitement to subvert state power,” a charge commonly used by authorities in China to jail critical writers. At least 22 journalists are jailed in China on this and other vague antistate charges.
Cuba, the world’s second worst jailer, released two imprisoned journalists during the year after negotiations with Spain. Madrid, which resumed some cooperative programs with Cuba in February, has sought the release of imprisoned writers and dissidents in talks with Havana. But Cuba continued to hold 21 writers and editors in prison as of December 1, all but one of them swept up in Fidel Castro’s massive 2003 crackdown on the independent press. In November, CPJ honored Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, who at 65 is the oldest of those jailed in Cuba, with an International Press Freedom Award.
Burma, the third worst jailer, is holding 14 journalists. Five were arrested while trying to spread news and images from areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis. The blogger and comedian Maung Thura, who uses the professional name Zarganar, was sentenced to a total of 59 years in prison during closed proceedings in November. Authorities accused Maung Thura of illegally disseminating video footage of relief efforts in hard-hit areas, communicating with exiled dissidents, and causing public alarm in comments to foreign media.
Uzbekistan, with six journalists detained, is the fifth worst jailer. Those in custody include Dzhamshid Karimov, nephew of the country’s president. A reporter for independent news Web sites, Karimov has been forcibly held in a psychiatric hospital since 2006.
Here are other trends and details that emerged in CPJ’s analysis:
In about 11 percent of cases, governments have used a variety of charges unrelated to journalism to retaliate against critical writers, editors, and photojournalists. Such charges range from regulatory violations to drug possession. In the cases included in this census, CPJ has determined that the charges were most likely lodged in reprisal for the journalist’s work.
Violations of censorship rules, the next most common charge, are applied in about 10 percent of cases. Criminal defamation charges are filed in about 7 percent of cases, while charges of ethnic or religious insult are lodged in another 4 percent. Two journalists are jailed for filing what authorities consider to be “false” news, including Senegalese journalist El Malick Seck. (More than one type of charge may apply in individual cases.)
Print and Internet journalists make up the bulk of the census. Television journalists compose the next largest professional category, accounting for 6 percent of cases. Radio journalists account for 4 percent, and documentary filmmakers 3 percent.
The 2008 tally reflects the second consecutive decline in the total number of jailed journalists. That said, the 2008 figure is roughly consistent with census results in each year since 2000. CPJ research shows that imprisonments rose significantly in 2001, after governments imposed sweeping national security laws in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Imprisonments stood at 81 in 2000 but have since averaged 128 in CPJ’s annual surveys.
The United States, which is holding photographer Ibrahim Jassam without charge in Iraq, has made CPJ’s list of countries jailing journalists for the fifth consecutive year. During this period, U.S. military authorities have jailed dozens of journalists in Iraq - some for days, others for months at a time - without charge or due process. No charges have ever been substantiated in these cases.
CPJ does not apply a rigid definition of online journalism, but it carefully evaluates the work of bloggers and online writers to determine whether the content is journalistic in nature. In general, CPJ looks to see whether the content is reportorial or fact-based commentary. In a repressive society where the traditional media is restricted, CPJ takes an inclusive view of work produced online.
The organization believes that journalists should not be imprisoned for doing their jobs. CPJ has sent letters expressing its serious concerns to each country that has imprisoned a journalist.
CPJ’s list is a snapshot of those incarcerated at midnight on December 1, 2008. It does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year; accounts of those cases can be found at www.cpj.org. Journalists remain on CPJ’s list until the organization determines with reasonable certainty that they have been released or have died in custody.
Journalists who either disappear or are abducted by non-state entities, including criminal gangs, rebels, or militant groups, are not included on the imprisoned list. Their cases are classified as “missing” or “abducted”.
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