http://theirrawaddy.blogspot.com/2009/01/bush-to-discuss-burma-with-ban-at-white.html
Posted by The Irrawaddy Magazine | Monday, January 05, 2009 | News | 0 comments »
By LALIT K JHA
WASHINGTON — US President George W Bush will discuss the current situation in Burma along with other issues when he meets with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday in the White House.
It will probably be Bush's last meeting with Ban as the US President, the White House said.
Before handing over the presidency to Barack Obama on January 20, Bush has invited Ban and his wife, Ban Soon-taek, to the White House for lunch.
"This meeting will be an opportunity for the President to thank Secretary-General Ban for his leadership of the United Nations and his cooperation on key issues over the past two years," said White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe.
"They will discuss the future of the United Nations and the challenges that remain, such as UN reform, the Middle East, Burma, Somalia and peacekeeping in Darfur," Johndroe said.
However, the meeting is unlikely to yield any result for the people of Burma, given that Bush is leaving office and Ban has been unable to make any headway towards restoration of democracy in Burma.
Ban was scheduled to visit Burma in December, but he has postponed his trip until a time when it would yield tangible results.
Johndroe said during the meeting the US President will stress the need for a United Nations that can act effectively to promote freedom, democratic governance, human rights and a world free from terror.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued Friday, one day before the 61st anniversary of Burma's Independence Day, the State Department wished the people of Burma well on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of its independence from the British rule.
"We wish to express our warmest wishes to the people of Burma on this occasion. As we reflect on Burma's independence struggle, led by Gen Aung San, we are reminded of our own history," said the brief statement.
The State Department said the US stands with the Burmese people on in honoring Aung San's vision for an independent, peaceful, and democratic Burma.
The US also looks forward to the day when Burma's citizens will be able to enjoy the fruits of freedom and democracy. "We earnestly hope that day will come soon," the statement said.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Bush to Discuss Burma with Ban at White House
NCUB Plans to Form Parallel Government in 2009
By WAI MOE Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), an umbrella organization of Burmese opposition groups, announced on January 1 that it will found a parallel government as part of its action plan for 2009.
In a special New Year statement, the NCUB said that it would establish a “National Unity Government” and “National Unity Parliament” to counter plans by Burma’s ruling military regime to hold an undemocratic election in 2010.
“As a tactic to challenge the junta’s legitimacy, we will form a parallel government,” Nyo Ohn Myint, a member of the NCUB’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
He added that plans to create a new government would go into effect after a forthcoming conference of the Members of Parliament Union (MPU), a group consisting of MPs elected in Burma’s last election in 1990. The MPU’s annual conference is scheduled to take place on January 19 in Dublin, Ireland.
Nyo Ohn Myint added that the parallel government will include both elected MPs and representatives of ethnic groups who have their own territories and armies.
The NCUB statement has excited controversy among Burmese exiles, many of whom question the value of forming a new parallel government when the democratic opposition already has a government in exile, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB).
The NCGUB was formed by exiled MPs elected in 1990 and is led by Dr Sein Win, the cousin of Burma’s detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Founded in December 1990 in Manerplaw, the former headquarters of the Karen National Union, the NCGUB now operates out of Washington, DC.
Nyo Ohn Myint denied that the new National Unity Government would function in the same manner as the NCGUB, saying that it would not merely consist of a prime minister and five cabinet ministers like the NCGUB.
He also questioned the NCGUB’s leadership because of its failure to cooperate with the NCUB’s efforts to challenge the Burmese junta’s seat at the United Nations.
Responding to criticism about its effectiveness, the NCGUB accused the NCUB leadership of embarking on a meaningless campaign without any attempt to form a consensus among members of the umbrella group.
Khun Marko Ban, the NCGUB’s federal affairs minister and a member of the MPU, said that the NCUB’s secretary-general, Maung Maung, did not even inform all concerned parties before issuing the New Year statement.
“Even though I am an executive member of the NCUB, I knew nothing about the statement until after it was released,” said Khun Marko Ban, who is also President 3 of the NCUB.
“We need to respect the organization’s consensus principle and ensure that this does not happen again,” he added.
The NCUB was formed in September 1992 by four organizations: the MPU, the ethnic-based Democratic Alliance of Burma, the National Democratic Front, and the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area).
Khun Marko Ban said that at its last conference in February 2008, the MPU initiated reforms that would make the NCGUB more proactive in the future. The MPU, which elects the NCGUB’s cabinet, will choose a new lineup at the conference in Dublin, he added.
Myanmar trade surplus shrinks as gas exports fall
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hm87QEPw1RniKyB-OGHz2QBzip-wD95HJU880
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's trade surplus shrank in the first nine months of last year on lower exports of gas, according to official statistics.
Figures from the Ministry of National Planning and Development, seen Tuesday, show the surplus dived more than 39 percent to $1.72 billion from $2.83 billion in the same period of 2007.
Imports rose 28.1 percent to $2.97 billion from $2.32 billion, while exports dropped 8.9 percent to $4.69 billion from $5.15 billion for January to September 2007.
The report says that natural gas exports, which account for about 40 percent of all export revenues, dropped 28.5 percent in value to $1.69 billion from $2.36 billion.
Myanmar's gas exports go to neighboring Thailand.
The United States and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions against Myanmar to pressure the military government to improve human rights and release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Army forcibly relocates village in Tennasserim Division; boy beaten, girl raped
http://rehmonnya.org/archives/568
January 6, 2009
HURFOM: Burmese Army troops in northern Tenesserim Division forced all residents of Amae village to abandon their homes and plantations in November. On the same day, the troops also raped a seventeen-year-old girl and severely beat a young boy.
Captain Pan Zar and 80 troops from Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 107 entered the village on November 11th. After accusing the residents of supporting an armed Mon rebel group in the area, the troops ordered the villagers to relocate. Each household was also ordered to pay the soldiers 50,000 kyat, and the residents are prohibited from visiting farms and plantations in the area.
The villagers were given virtually no time to prepare for their departure. Local sources said they left the next day, bringing only what they could carry and leaving behind the majority of their belongings, as well the timber and other valuable construction materials in their homes.
The soldiers assaulted at least one villager as they ordered the villagers to relocate. “One young man from the village asked the captain, ‘if you do like this, where will we go to live?’ said an eyewitness from Amae. “The captain replied, ‘you can go and live anywhere, but not in this area. After that he grabbed the young man and hit him in the head with the butt of his rifle. Once the young man had fallen down, the captain hit the young man’s leg and it broke.”
According to another source, soldiers also raped a seventeen-year-old girl as she worked on a betel-nut plantation nearby. The resident, who spoke with the victim’s mother and then quoted her to HURFOM, said that she was crying the whole time she told the story. “My daughter is only seventeen-years-old. She was raped by seven soldiers,” the source quoted the mother. “Those soldiers are not human. They are like animals. They are the same evil, both the captain and his solders. My daughter nearly died, and now she has tried to kill herself many times.”
The 60 households now find themselves in extra-ordinarily difficult circumstances. “Now we are in a very bad situation because we could not take much food or household things. And we have not much money. We also have to find land to live on and all new materials for building a home. It is so expensive we cannot afford it,” said a former resident. “Now I am staying at my friend’s house, but I cannot stay there for a long time. I have to find a way to solve the problem – I want to migrate to Thailand to find job, but I have no money even for transportation. My wife, my two sons and I have no idea where we will go.”
UNICEF to continue polio vaccination program in Myanmar this year
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90856/6568127.html
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will continue its program of vaccination against polio in Myanmar in 2009, the local Weekly Eleven journal reported Tuesday.
The polio vaccination campaign for this year will be launched for two rounds -- the first from Jan. 10 to 12, and the second from Feb. 7 to 9, the report said.
The UNICEF polio vaccination campaign will also be launched in areas hit by the last May storm, the report added.
The UNICEF has carried out the polio vaccination campaign since1996 which also includes vaccination against measles, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough and ARI (Acute Respiratory Infection) diseases.
In 2007, A total of 2.5 million children under the age of five in Myanmar were vaccinated against polio during the country's polio vaccination campaign under a specially expanded program on immunization following the detection of fresh wild polio virus in a two-and-a-half-year-old boy in Maungtaw township, western coastal Rakhine state on April 19.
The wild polio virus was then spread from neighboring countries, earlier reports said.
Long-term cooperation has been made between Myanmar and Bangladesh, one of the neighboring countries bordering Myanmar's Maungtaw.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has also been cooperating with Myanmar's health ministry over the prevention measures.
The Myanmar health authorities have stressed the importance to continue working towards a polio-free country despite enjoying the status since 2003.
Source:Xinhua
Disaster-heavy 2008 raises pressure for climate pact, insurance
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/20316/2009/00/5-174834-1.htm
05 Jan 2009 17:48:00 GMT
Written by: Megan Rowling
Cyclone Nargis survivors sit outside their shelter in Mawlamyinegyun, Myanmar, June 2008.
IFRC/John Sparrow
After December's uninspiring U.N. climate change talks in Poland, the process that's meant to lead to a new global pact in Copenhagen at the end of this year could do with a shot in the arm.
While the world waits impatiently to see how U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will tackle climate change once his administration gets up and running in late January, perhaps a few disaster statistics will help fill the gap.
At the end of December, Munich Re - one of the world's biggest reinsurance companies - said a large number of tropical cyclones, combined with May's earthquake in Sichuan, China, made 2008 one of the most devastating years on record.
Although there was a drop in the number of events that resulted in financial losses - from 960 in 2007 to 750 - the number of people affected and the scale of the losses jumped.
More than 220,000 people died as a result of natural catastrophes - including around 135,000 after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in May (this figure includes those still missing) and 88,000 in the China quake. The high death toll makes 2008 the deadliest year since 2004, the year of the Indian Ocean tsunami.
And costly weather-related disasters helped push the total of economic losses to $200 billion (up from $82 billion in 2007). Adjusting figures for inflation, 2008 was the third most expensive year on record, exceeded only by 2005, which was the year Hurricane Katrina battered America's Gulf Coast, and 1995, when an earthquake devastated the Japanese city of Kobe.
Of course, the Sichuan earthquake was not caused by climate change, and it's difficult to finger global warming as the main culprit behind one-off events like Cyclone Nargis.
But Munich Re also pointed out that 2008 was a particularly heavy year for storms, which brought sea surges, flooding and high winds to the U.S. mainland. And the company stated that 2008 added to the evidence that climate change is boosting the risks of, and losses from, natural disasters.
"This continues the long-term trend we have been observing. Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasingly frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes," said Munich Re board member Torsten Jeworrek.
"These, in turn, generate greater and greater losses because the concentration of values in exposed areas, like regions on the coast, is also increasing further throughout the world."
Delving into some of the details on storms and temperatures provides a little more insight:
2008 was the fourth most severe hurricane season since reliable data have been available.
The number of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic - at 16 - was much higher than the long-term average, and above the average of 14.7 during a warm phase that started in 1995.
Half of the windstorms in 2008 reached hurricane strength, with five classified as major hurricanes.
2008 was the tenth warmest year since the beginning of routine temperature records, and the eighth warmest in the northern hemisphere, according to provisional estimates from the World Meteorological Organisation.
This means the 10 warmest years ever recorded all occurred in the past 12 years.
Munich Re said it was "very probable" that the warming of the earth's atmosphere is due to the greenhouse gases emitted by human activity.
"The logic is clear: when temperatures increase, there is more evaporation and the atmosphere has a greater capacity to absorb water vapour, with the result that its energy content is higher. The weather machine runs in top gear, bringing more intense severe weather events with corresponding effects in terms of losses," said Peter Höppe, who heads Munich Re's research on geo risks.
"This relationship is already visible today in the increasing heavy precipitation events in many regions of the earth, the heatwaves, and the hurricanes in the North Atlantic," he added.
At the same time, Munich Re stressed the importance of sealing a new global pact this year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which is due to replace or extend the Kyoto Protocol from 2013.
"The next climate summit in Copenhagen must quite clearly fix the route for reducing greenhouse gases by at least 50 percent by 2050 with corresponding milestones," said Jeworrek. "If we delay too long, it will be very costly for future generations."
Yet even if governments do find the political will to agree on new emissions targets, experts agree that the global warming already in the pipeline will lead to more extreme weather in the coming decades.
That's why finding ways to protect vulnerable people - particularly the world's poorest - from potential disasters, and helping them adapt to a changing climate is judged to be an essential part of a new global deal by many developing countries.
INSURANCE FOR THE POOREST
The negotiations which inched along in Poland included significant discussions on how to insure developing countries against disasters and help them put in place prevention measures.
A proposal from the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative - a coalition of insurers, non-governmental organisations and climate change experts - outlines a mechanism to manage climate risk that could be part of the new global pact.
The proposal says premiums for insuring property and infrastructure in developing countries from large-scale extreme events would be between $3 billion and $5 billion per year. Adding insurance for medium-scale losses and prevention measures would raise the annual cost to around $10 billion.
It sounds like a lot, but if you compare it to the scale of losses in 2008 - $200 billion - the cost starts to look a little more reasonable.
What's more, although the amount of losses covered by insurance rose by 50 percent last year to $45 billion, people, companies and other entities without insurance still had to swallow massive damage worth around $155 billion.
And if you look at who bore the brunt of uninsured losses in 2008, it's quite clear the people left high and not-so-dry were those least able to cope in developing countries.
According to Munich Re's breakdown, overall losses for the Myanmar cyclone reached $4 billion, but the column showing the proportion covered by insurance is blank. The Sichuan earthquake caused losses of $85 billion, but only $300 million of that was insured.
In comparison, half of the losses from Hurricanes Ike and Gustav which hit the United States - totalling $30 billion and $10 billion respectively - were covered by insurance, as was $1.3 billion of $1.6 billion in damages caused by tornadoes there.
Three-quarters of the $2 billion losses from winter storm Emma, which brought high winds, thunderstorms and hail to large parts of Central Europe in March, were also insured.
These statistics highlight how a lack of insurance in poor countries greatly increases the risks from climate-related disasters.
A few aid agencies are already trying out medium-sized schemes that cover small farmers from the effects of droughts and floods. In November, for example, the U.N. World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development launched a $1 million initiative with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that aims to shield poor rural farmers from the impact of natural disasters and climate change.
And the Munich Re Foundation has teamed up with the German government's development agency, GTZ, to offer micro-insurance to small businesses and labourers in Jakarta who are regularly affected by river flooding. The annual premium is 4 euros and there's a payout of 25 euros if the river rises above a certain level.
"We have to make sure there is a payout for smaller losses that occur more frequently, and we need partnerships to balance out the good and bad years," Thomas Loster, chair of the Munich Re Foundation, told AlertNet at the U.N. climate talks in Poland. "We have to make (insurance) understandable to poor people."
Koko Warner from the United Nations University, who presented the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative to climate negotiators, said the international scheme could encourage more investment in micro-insurance.
"There is a lot going on but in some ways it needs a push," she said. "Governments find this (initiative) really attractive because it will help develop markets and pay for climate change adaptation."
If an international insurance facility with a focus on protecting developing countries were to be included in a global climate deal, it should at least go some way towards reducing today's stark financial inequality in disasters.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Japanese PM rejects calls for resignation
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090105/tap-as-japan-politics-4cec4ac.html
AP - Tuesday, January 6TOKYO - Increasingly unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso rejected calls Tuesday for his resignation, insisting he needs to steer the world's second-largest economy out of recession.
Aso's support now stands at just 20 percent amid growing public frustration over his handling of the sluggish economy, but he said the nation must be patient.
"I am confident that the ruling party and I can implement effective measures to boost the economy," said Aso, who is president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Opposition lawmaker Yukio Hatoyama, meanwhile, demanded that Aso resign and call for snap elections, which must by law take place by September this year.
Hatoyama, a leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, demanded Aso scrap a plan to give a cash payout to every household, calling it "a great folly." The government hopes the cash payout, worth 2 trillion yen ($22 billion) _ or 64,000 yen ($700) per household of four _ will spur consumer spending.
Aso included the cash payment measure in a supplemental budget submitted Monday to parliament.
"The measure will have no economic impact. What is more, people don't even want it in the first place," Hatoyama said. "This is nothing but a waste of public money. If we can spend 2 trillion yen, we should use that money to help the unemployed and the elderly, and support medical expenses."
But Aso said the cash payment _ which he called "emergency assistance" _ will generate much-needed spending in the economy, which is expected to post no growth over the next year.
"By distributing money to households, we can see demand being stimulated and can expect economic effects," Aso said.
Along with a 4.8 trillion yen ($52 billion) supplementary budget that includes the 2 trillion yen cash payment, Aso's government is expected to submit a record 88.5 trillion yen ($962 billion) budget for the next fiscal year starting in April 2009 to the parliament later in the month.
Opinion: We mustn’t forget Burma
http://www.libdemvoice.org/burma-9824.html
Written by Jonathan Fryer on 5th January 2009 – 12:21 pm
With the world’s attention focussed (rightly) on Gaza, the ongoing tragedy of Burma/Myanmar remains almost unseen. Just as the Israelis are keeping foreign journalists out of Gaza, so the Burmese junta stops reporters getting in there to see what is happening. Moreover, now that last year’s cyclone has been forgotten by the outside world and the monks’ protests have been quashed, Burma just isn’t ‘news’ as far as the global media is concerned, with a few noble exceptions such as the BBC World Service.
Nonetheless, the bloody repression there continues, including the torture of political prisoners. On 30 December, nine members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were arrested in Rangoon (Yangon) for demonstrating in favour of the release from house arrest of their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi (who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991) has spent more than 12 of the past 18 years in detention, her ‘crime’ being that her party won Burma’s last democratic election in 1990 – a result which the junta simply refused to accept.
As a sop mainly to its fellow members of ASEAN, the Burmese government has announced that fresh elections will be held next year, but democratic activists are convinced these will be nothing but a sham. The military chiefs, meanwhile, being aware of how much they are hated by the Burmese people, have built an almost surreal new capital for themselves at Naypyidaw, 300 miles away in the jungle. There the 75-year-old General Than Shwe and his cronies live in luxurious seclusion, while overseeing the army that keeps the ordinary people subjuugated.
Forced labour – a modern form of slavery – is still common practice in Burma. That’s how the regime gets infrastructure such as roads built on the cheap. In a sickening echo of the wartime Japanese supervision of the building of the Burma railway, they don’t care how many of the workers die in the process. Or that the Burmese people as a whole – especially the ethnic minorities, such as the Karen – are often desperately short of food and medical care.
Yet Burma is a rich country. It has abundant natural resources, not to mention some of the most spectacular tourist attractions in South East Asia, such as the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, and the Buddhist pilgrimage city of Mandalay. The country’s energy resources are vast. Although Western countries are largely boycotting energy deals with Burma because of its appalling human rights record, others, such as China, India and Thailand, are not so fussy.
Indeed, on 24 December, the junta signed a new deal with South Korea’s Daewoo and Korea Gas Corporation, as well as India’s ONGC Videsh and GAIL, to pipe gas from fields in north-west Burma to China. The South Korean government in Seoul rebuffed complaints from Korean and Burmese human rights and environmental campaigners that the Korean companies concerned had breached corporate responsibility guidelines laid down by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Many thousands of Burmese have fled the poverty and repression, the majority seeking sanctuary in Thailand. But Thailand has been so overwhelmed by the influx that it routinely returns Burmese illegal immigrants. Others fester in refugee camps near the border. Delegates from sixteen member parties belonging to Liberal International recently visited one of the these camps, Mae La, about 40 miles from the town of Mae Sot, where they met exiled leaders from Burmese political parties, who confirmed the ongoing crackdowns in Burma on student leaders, democracy activists and monks who took part in the so-called ‘Saffron Revolution’.
We have a moral duty to publicise this state of affairs and to increase the pressure for change.
Jonathan Fryer, Chairman of Liberal International British Group and No. 2 on the London list for the European Parliamentary elections, recently returned from South East Asia.
China's chance to come cleanMichael Pascoe
http://business.smh.com.au/business/chinas-chance-to-come-clean-20090105-7a35.html?page=-1
January 5, 2009
There's a common belief that the Chinese word for "chaos" also means "opportunity". Unfortunately it's just a popular myth - unfortunate because it's such a good line and because the present financial crisis does indeed contain plenty of opportunity.
That's especially the case for China which now has a great opportunity to come clean on two highly problematic fronts: the Middle Kingdom's opportunistic support for the world's worst thugs and criminals; and its domestic mishmash of dirty factories and export licences.
Think of the world's worst regimes, its most bloody and ruthless tyrants, the blood-sucking murders and thieves who routinely rape and pillage their own people and you'll compile a list of tin-pot dictators and juntas propped up by Beijing.
Wherever there are Western sanctions and pressure being applied on despots, you'll find China happily undermining those international efforts. Zimbabwe, Burma (with plenty of Indian help for the military kleptocracy there as well), Sudan et al all depend on China's willingness to fence what the criminal ruling classes steal.
The big surprise about China sending war ships to the Gulf of Aden is that they're allegedly going to fight Somali pirates - it would be more in keeping with Beijing's record if they intended to trade with them.
So focused has China been on securing natural resources, it would happily deal with the devil himself - Lucifer apparently has access to plenty of heat energy for a start.
The popping of the commodities bubble provides the opportunity for China to abandon its criminal associates. With the mania taken out of the resources scramble, China has the capital and the presence to start trading a little ethically.
And that could reasonably become one of the conditions for allowing more direct Chinese investment in Australian resources projects. After all, would you want to jump into bed with someone who also sleeps with Sudan's Omar al-Bashir or Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe?
(And whether you care for cricket or not, Peter Roebuck's excellent piece on one aspect of South African-supported Zimbabwean corruption is a most educational read.)
Then there's China's internal dirty business - its literally dirty business.
During the boom times of 12% growth, countless inefficient and filthy factories continued to pump out pollutants of every type. They still are, but with the slowdown reducing production, Beijing has the opportunity to see that it's the worst polluters that close down as demand lessens.
It's axiomatic that the most inefficient steel mills, for example, are also the worst polluters. Good riddance to them - and the cleaner and more efficient mills will benefit from their absence.
Rather than causing the abandoning or delaying of Beijing's five-year plan to reduce pollution, a period of slower growth has the potential to speed it up. (There's an echo here somewhere about Australia and greenhouse pollution, but let's stick to China for now.)
China has made the best of mass dislocation before and can do so again.
To mark the 30th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's opening up of the economy, China's official media listed the "top ten catch phrases" of the three decades.
Right up there as the No. 2 catch phrase, two places ahead of "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice", is "Be laid off and get re-employed", as Xinhua reports:
"To adapt to the market economy and improve competitiveness of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the 1990s, China began restructuring.
"Encouraging mergers, standardising bankruptcy, laying off and reassigning redundant workers, streamlining for higher efficiency was a guideline in the SOEs reforms.
"No official statistics show how many workers were laid off during that period, but experts estimate the number could be tens of millions.
"To avoid social unrest and help most of those workers find new jobs, the Chinese central government offered occupational trainings, small loans and preferential tax policies."
And that's just Xinhua's version of events. The cadres once again have their work cut out to "avoid social unrest" as the economy adjusts and some of that adjustment needs to be in their own red tape.
Just as various surveys have shown that Australia's best companies tend to be exporters and our exporters tend to be our best companies, China's export-oriented factories are generally of a higher order than those dedicated to the domestic market.
Unlike Australia, many of China's exporters are not licensed to supply their domestic market.
There's been plenty of coverage of export orders slowing and factories shutting, but not of the challenge for the bureaucracy to reform its licensing system and unleash its full export capabilities on domestic consumers.
Of course none of this is the stuff of magic bullets, but they are another dose of "Reform and opening up" that can help towards a reprise of "Rise abruptly" - which is just what Australia needs China to do.
Michael Pascoe is a BusinessDay contributing editor
China leads surge in foreign investment in Myanmar during first 9 months
http://www.startribune.com/business/37080584.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1OiP:DiiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU
Associated Press
Last update: January 5, 2009 - 3:10 AM
YANGON, Myanmar - Foreign investment in Myanmar — much of it from China — nearly doubled in the first nine months of 2008 compared to the same period last year, according to government statistics seen Monday.
Mining accounted for more than 88 percent of the total foreign investment — a record for that sector.
Investment from January to September last year jumped to $974.9 million dollars from $502.5 million in the same period the previous year, said the Ministry of National Planning and Development in its latest statistical survey.
That was the second-highest amount for this nine-month span after 2006, when Thailand built a hydroelectric plant.
China accounted for $855 million of the $860.9 million invested in mining while Russia and Vietnam added $114 million in the oil and gas sector. China has signed a number of agreements with the resource-rich country to mine gems, gold and nickel.
The U.S. and European Union have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar to pressure the military government to improve human rights and release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Since Myanmar liberalized its investment code in late 1988, it has attracted large investments in the hydro-electric power and oil and gas sectors.
''Act decisively in the interest of the nation and the people." -GENERAL AUNG SAN
Suu Kyi Celebrates Independence Day with Music
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By THE IRRAWADDY Monday, January 5, 2009
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On Independence Day this year, Burma's detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has chosen not to stay quiet behind the locked gates of her home where she is under house arrest.
Members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said they heard old songs, popular in the pre-independence era, playing in her home.
On Sunday, Burma marked the 61st anniversary of its independence from Britain in 1948.
Suu Kyi has also put up a new red banner, which can be viewed from the street, with words in yellow quoting her father, independence hero Gen Aung San: ''Act decisively in the interest of the nation and the people."
The NLD, in a ceremony at its headquarter in Rangoon attended by 300 people, including veteran politicians and diplomats, called for the release of Suu Kyi, who has been detained for more than 13 of the past 19 years.
On December 30, nine NLD members were arrested when they staged a protest in Rangoon calling for her release. A commentary in the recent issue of the Weekly Eleven journal says the junta will charge those arrested "according to the law."
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Kyi Win, said Burmese authorities still have not replied to his request to meet with the detained opposition leader to discuss her appeal against her continued detention. But Suu Kyi was allowed a visit by her personal doctor, Tin Myo Win, on January 1 and she was in good health.
Suu Kyi’s latest five-year term of house arrest was extended in May for a further year—illegally, according to Kyi Win, because Article 10 (b) of the Burmese State Protection Law 1975 stipulates that a person judged to be a "threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people" can only be detained for up to five years.
Meanwhile, junta ministers, and about 3,000 government employees and senior officials, attended the official Independence Day ceremony and military parade in Naypyidaw. Junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe did not attend.
However, in his official speech, read at the gathering, Than Shwe accused "neo-colonialists"—normally a reference to the Western countries led by the US—of interfering in Burma’s affairs.
"They are using some international organizations to gain support for their schemes and driving a wedge among national people and inciting riots to undermine national unity, peace and the stability of the nation," he said.
In December, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on Burma to free all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi.
The resolution also voiced concern over the junta’s so-called "seven-step roadmap" to democracy, including the planned general election in 2010, noting the failure of the regime to include other political parties, members of Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, and representatives of ethnic political organizations in the process.
Anyone Remember Myanmar?
January 5th, 2009 by Fred Stopsky · No Comments
Yesterday marked the 61st anniversary of Myanmar’s independence from Great Britain and there is scant evidence this unfortunate nation will experience being part of a democratic nation in the forseeable future. Aung Shew, chairman of the opposition National League for Democracy, was very pessimistic about prospects of being able to persuade or force the ruling military junta to surrender any of its dictatorial power let alone give freedom to Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi or any of the other dissident leaders who are under some form of arrest because they dare to offer different views about life in Burma. In a speech to other members of his party and some diplomats, he said: “Hope for the present and future of the country is totally lacking.” Tough, but honest words from an independent voice who believes in freedom.
Of course, as far as the junta is concerned, “neocolonialists” were out to destroy the reputation of the nice world they had created for the Burmese people in which normal behavior is agreeing with everything said or done by the junta.
There will be protests in the streets of many cities throughout the world this week in response to war in Gaza, but no one will be marching to protest the situation in Burma.
NCGUB: News & Articles on Burma - Monday,5 January, 2009
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Understanding new Thai policy towards Burma
China leads surge in foreign investment in Myanmar during first 9 months
Junta Determined to 'Guide' 2010 Polls
Bush to Discuss Burma with Ban at White House
Myanmar grants free rice export from Yangon region
Going metric would be nice global gesture
Foreign investment in Myanmar soars
Opposition: No hope for future of Myanmar
Defiant Burma junta marks independence day
Burma Blacklists U.S. Artist
Human Rights Abuse in Myanmar?
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REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Understanding new Thai policy towards Burma
By Kavi Chongkittavorn
The Nation
Published on January 5, 2009
AFTER EIGHT YEARS, it will not be easy to undo the Thai foreign policy towards Burma initiated by the Thaksin-led government and its nominees. A complete overhaul of the Burma policy is out of the question. However, some major shifts by the current government could be forthcoming that would firm up bilateral ties and strengthen Bangkok's voice on Burma within Asean. Additional principled guidelines, drawing from the Asean Charter, are imperative aimed at supporting the international community's effort to promote an open society there.
Gone quickly would be the preponderance of one-man decisions on key policies, especially those dealing with cross-border security, investment and trade cooperation.
In the past few years, Thailand has been rather compromising in its security considerations in exchange for economic benefits, which often went to individuals rather than the country as a whole. In particular, from 2001 to 2006, the Thai side allowed the Burmese side greater leeway along the 2004-km border such as issues related to Burmese migrant workers, illegal cross-border activities and harassment of minorities and Burmese exiles.
Picking up the pieces of Burmese policy where the Democrat-led government left off in early 2001, this time around the Thai foreign policy will be decided in a transparent way without any hanky panky as in the past. Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said succinctly that from now on, Thailand will deal with Burma in a straightforward manner without any dubious deals or transactions based on "four-eye meetings", which was the trademark of Thaksin's personalised diplomacy.
Prior to the return of the Democrat-led government, Thai-Burmese relations were very superficially closed, representing no real national agenda. Thai leaders were myopic, deluded in thinking that defending the Burmese regime within Asean and the international community would help them win favours from the junta leaders and subsequently secure the country's future energy and natural resources need. Indeed, the energy dependence on Burma was exaggerated to justify Thailand's closer ties with Burma, including its passivity.
Throughout the year 1999-2000, before Thaksin came to power, the Burmese people's struggle for democracy and open society was at its peak with all the support of the international community. Asean was far more united as far as peer pressure on Burma was concerned. Thailand dutifully played the leading role on Burma throughout by bringing in the international community. Former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan, currently the Asean secretary-general, pushed Asean to engage in enhanced dialogue with Burma as well as emerging transnational issues affecting the region.
However, soon after the arrival of the Thaksin-led government in early 2001, Thai policy towards Burma turned upside down. After a few weeks of border tension and tough talks on Burma's role on cross-border illegal drugs trade, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra unexpectedly softened his Burmese policy, much to the chagrin of the international community. Since then, Thailand's credibility on Burma has disappeared.
During the Cambodian conflict, Thailand's role in Asean as a frontline state was well recognised as it was pursued based on the region's interest, not tempered with vested personal interests. Asean helped to internationalise the conflict playing out at the UN continuously for nearly a decade, which gave Asean an international voice, before the Paris peace agreement in 1989. In Burma's case, it was the opposite. Thailand failed miserably to assert itself in the Asean overall approaches albeit it was the most affected by the Burmese growing oppression. Bangkok's willingness to play second fiddle to Burma further divided Asean and stymied broader cooperation with international community.
Subsequent revelations by Surakiart Sathiratai, foreign minister in the Thaksin government, showed that investment and commercial deals with Burma at that time were not honest as they were coaxed with conflict of interest.
The scandal over the Export and Import Bank of Thailand's Bt4-billion loan to the junta was just one example. Like rubbing more salt into the wounds, former prime ministers Samak Sundravej and Somchai Wongsawat made ridiculous remarks defending Burma.
Samak was the most embarrassing as he praised the military junta leaders as peace-loving leaders and boasted about their closed friendship. Under the Surayud Chulanont government (2006-7), Thailand maintained a strict policy of no new contacts or improvement of existing ties.
Burma could have made a transition to democracy if the Thai governments in question had not indulged in personalising, nationalising and making the Burmese problem bilateral. The leader's personal and group interests linked to Burma weakened not only Thai credibility, it also belittled Bangkok's voice within Asean. That helps explain why in the absence of a Thai role, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have become more pro-active in shaping the grouping's views and positions on Burma.
Coming to power at this juncture poses serious challenges to both Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Foreign Minister Kasit on Burmese policy. They have to revitalise and synergise the role of Thailand, Asean and the international community to move the situation in Burma forward.
At present, the Asean Charter, imperfect as it is, will serve as a useful tool to encourage reluctant Asean countries to get more involved on issues of human rights and democracy. The rumblings over the charter's ratification in Indonesia and Philippines were indicative of the strong desire for such endeavour.
As the Asean chair, Thai leaders will adopt a comprehensive strategy on Burma that put together various parts and needs from within region. Furthermore, this strategy must also work in tandem with the current international efforts, especially through the offices of the United Nations and related agencies and its special envoy.
After all, the Burmese quagmire is not the problem of any particular country or regional community.
It must be kept at the multilateral level so that all stakeholders can work together to end the current impasse and sufferings.
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China leads surge in foreign investment in Myanmar during first 9 months
By Associated Press 3:10 AM CST, January 5, 2009
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Foreign investment in Myanmar — much of it from China — nearly doubled in the first nine months of 2008 compared to the same period last year, according to government statistics seen Monday.
Mining accounted for more than 88 percent of the total foreign investment — a record for that sector.
Investment from January to September last year jumped to $974.9 million dollars from $502.5 million in the same period the previous year, said the Ministry of National Planning and Development in its latest statistical survey.
That was the second-highest amount for this nine-month span after 2006, when Thailand built a hydroelectric plant.
China accounted for $855 million of the $860.9 million invested in mining while Russia and Vietnam added $114 million in the oil and gas sector. China has signed a number of agreements with the resource-rich country to mine gems, gold and nickel.
The U.S. and European Union have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar to pressure the military government to improve human rights and release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Since Myanmar liberalized its investment code in late 1988, it has attracted large investments in the hydro-electric power and oil and gas sectors.
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Junta Determined to 'Guide' 2010 Polls
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER Monday, January 5, 2009
BANGKOK — Burma’s military regime ended 2008 with greater resolve to steamroll over opposition voices in order to pave the way for a junta-friendly government when the country holds general elections in 2010.
On December 30, nine supporters of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi were arrested when they staged a protest in Rangoon, the former capital, calling for her release. Some of the protesters were wearing the colors of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party that she heads.
Burmese soldiers parade during a ceremony marking the country's Armed Forces Day in the country's new capital, Naypyidaw. (Photo: AFP)
The risk these activists took in placing their lives on the side of political freedom has been heightened in the wake of harsh judgments delivered against leading voices of the country’s struggling democracy movement in November. Some of them were given long jail terms and Min Ko Naing, a widely respected former university student leader, was put away for 65 years.
The November verdicts, which saw 215 political activists sentenced, were largely linked to the peaceful, pro-democracy street protests, led by thousands of Buddhist monks, held in September 2007.
Buddhist monks who were in the vanguard of the protests, which was crushed by the junta, were not spared. U Gambria, a leader of the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, was sentenced to 68 years in jail.
The verdicts delivered by a military-controlled court inside Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison were as harsh on Burmese who led a humanitarian effort to aid the victims of the powerful Cyclone Nargis, which tore through the country’s Irrawaddy Delta in early May, killing tens of thousands and affecting millions.
Zarganar, a well-known comedian who was arrested for leading a team of entertainers to help the cyclone victims, was slapped with a 59-year sentence.
"This is all part of an aggressive campaign to jail good, pro-democracy activists who could run in the 2010 elections," says Debbie Stothard of ALTSEAN, a regional human rights group monitoring abuse in Burma. "Anybody who could be a viable opposition figure has been locked up. There are no signs of the regime easing up."
Even token pressure from marginal voices in the country is being stifled, she revealed in an IPS interview. "The New Year will see more arrests. They are creating another Zimbabwe."
Such ability to crush an already beleaguered people has become possible given the ease with which the junta succeeded in bullying and bluffing the United Nations through the year.
Other members of the international community, including giants China and Russia, also played their part to help the Burmese military dictatorship impose its roadmap for a "discipline flourishing democracy."
The junta’s success at reducing the world body to a minor irritant became more evident after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon cancelled plans to visit Burma, or Myanmar, in December. That the junta was in no mood for Ban—or for a push by his office for concrete issues to be discussed during such a visit—was hardly a surprise.
Ban’s predicament highlighted a defining feature of how the Burmese regime was responding to international pressure. In May, Ban became the first UN chief to visit Burma following the devastating Cyclone Nargis. But all the assurances he got from the military regime for more openness to enable humanitarian assistance to the victims amounted to little.
The UN received another embarrassing snub from the junta in August, when Ibrahim Gambari, the world body’s special envoy to Burma, was treated like an unwelcome guest and relegated to meeting minor officials during a visit aimed to prod the regime towards democratic reform. Earlier in 2008, Gambari had received a tongue-lashing from Burma’s information minister, removing all doubt about the contempt with which the junta views the Nigerian diplomat.
Yet at the same time, sections of the international community still place faith in the UN to deliver. In early December, for instance, a group of more than 100 former heads of governments and states wrote a letter to Ban, asking him to travel to Burma to secure the release of Suu Kyi and the over 2,100 political prisoners by December 31.
"It is important that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon travel to the country himself and engage in serious dialogue with the military regime and impress on them the calls by leaders and lawmakers from Asia and around the world for the release of all political prisoners," Kraisak Choonhavan, a Thai parliamentarian, said at the time.
Among the leaders who signed this unprecedented petition were former US presidents George H W Bush and Jimmy Carter, former Australian prime minister John Howard, former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and former Philippines president Corazon Aquino.
The petition to Ban drew attention to developments in the UN Security Council in October 2007, when a presidential statement had urged the prompt release of all political prisoners in Burma.
Yet what has prevailed since that rare pressure on the junta from the UN’s most powerful body illustrates the aggressive and defiant position Burma’s military regime is pursuing. In mid-2007, the number of political prisoners stood at 1,200; now it has nearly doubled to over 2,100.
The military regime "will stop at nothing to prevent people from joining demonstrations or be influenced by the voices of the democracy activists," says Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner who heads the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, a human rights group based on the Thai-Burma border. "They want to create a greater climate of fear among the general public."
It is all part of the junta’s plan to be certain of victory at the 2010 polls "even before the elections," Bo Kyi explained in an interview. "They want to avoid a repeat of the 1990 elections."
At that poll, held after the regime brutally crushed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, where close to 3,000 activists were shot to death, the NLD trounced the junta-backed National Unity Party with a thumping majority. But the regime refused to recognize the results and began targeting the elected parliamentarians.
Burmese political activists like Bo Kyi believe that only the international community in 2009 can stall the junta’s plans to hijack the 2010 polls. "The international community needs to exert real pressure that they will not accept the results of the 2010 elections without the release of all political prisoners and a free environment for the polls."
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org
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Bush to Discuss Burma with Ban at White House
By LALIT K JHA Monday, January 5, 2009
WASHINGTON — US President George W Bush will discuss the current situation in Burma along with other issues when he meets with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday in the White House.
It will probably be Bush's last meeting with Ban as the US President, the White House said.
Before handing over the presidency to Barack Obama on January 20, Bush has invited Ban and his wife, Ban Soon-taek, to the White House for lunch.
"This meeting will be an opportunity for the President to thank Secretary-General Ban for his leadership of the United Nations and his cooperation on key issues over the past two years," said White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe.
"They will discuss the future of the United Nations and the challenges that remain, such as UN reform, the Middle East, Burma, Somalia and peacekeeping in Darfur," Johndroe said.
However, the meeting is unlikely to yield any result for the people of Burma, given that Bush is leaving office and Ban has been unable to make any headway towards restoration of democracy in Burma.
Ban was scheduled to visit Burma in December, but he has postponed his trip until a time when it would yield tangible results.
Johndroe said during the meeting the US President will stress the need for a United Nations that can act effectively to promote freedom, democratic governance, human rights and a world free from terror.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued Friday, one day before the 61st anniversary of Burma's Independence Day, the State Department wished the people of Burma well on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of its independence from the British rule.
"We wish to express our warmest wishes to the people of Burma on this occasion. As we reflect on Burma's independence struggle, led by Gen Aung San, we are reminded of our own history," said the brief statement.
The State Department said the US stands with the Burmese people on in honoring Aung San's vision for an independent, peaceful, and democratic Burma.
The US also looks forward to the day when Burma's citizens will be able to enjoy the fruits of freedom and democracy. "We earnestly hope that day will come soon," the statement said.
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Myanmar grants free rice export from Yangon region
www.chinaview. cn 2009-01-05 14:52:47
YANGON, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has granted free export of rice from rice-producing Yangon region over six months after storm, the local Weekly Eleven journal reported Monday, quoting the Ministry of Commerce.
Export of surplus rice from other regions through border trade is also allowed; other local report also quoted the ministry as saying.
The country's rice export is mainly done through normal trade only but it will also be permitted to do so through border trade if there is surplus rice produced regionally, the sources said, adding that the grant covers surplus rice produced from Sagaing, Bago and Ayeyawaddy divisions.
So far, a total of 35,755 tons have been shipped by 19 companies, of which 3,055 tons were exported by 9 companies through border points since the near-end of last year.
According to the figures of the Central Statistical Organization, in 2007-08, Myanmar exported 358,500 tons of rice, gaining 100 million U.S. dollars. The export tonnage in the first three quarters of 2008-09 went to 150,000 tons amid storm.
Of the rice export, 101,235 tons were shipped to South Africa, 11,908 tons to Singapore, 8,007.85 tons to Sri Lanka, 2,499.7 tons to the United Arab Emirate, 1,500 tons to South Korea and 1,197.7 tons to Egypt, said the Myanmar Agricultural Produces Trading.
Myanmar government has urged agricultural entrepreneurs to make greater efforts for exporting more rice, saying that the country has enough cultivable land to boost paddy production.
Editor: Xiong
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Going metric would be nice global gesture
By Steve Elliott-Gower
For the Journal-Constitutio n
Monday, January 05, 2009
There are only three nations in the world that have not officially adopted the International System of Units (the metric system) as their primary measurement system: Liberia, Myanmar and the United States.
Now one can understand why America has declined to support the Kyoto Protocol, the Landmine Ban Treaty, the Arms Trade Treaty, the Cluster Bomb Treaty, the declaration to decriminalize homosexuality, and the International Criminal Court, but the innocuous metric system? How can this be?
Could it be that the idea was originally French? It was, after all, Louis XVI who first convened a group of scientists, led by Antoine Lavoisier, to develop a universal measurement system to replace the old French system of quirky lieues, lignes and vergees, which might mean one thing in Beauce and another in Provence. Despite the fact that both Louis and Lavoisier lost a few lignes at the guillotine, the metric system was adopted by the revolutionary government of France and today is officially recognized worldwide as the Systeme International d’Unites —- hence its abbreviation “SI.”
The opportunity to go metric was certainly there for America in the early 1800s. President Thomas Jefferson, an amateur scientist and mathematician, recognized the merits of metric, and there was a lot of pro-French, anti-British sentiment in the country. (Noah Webster, by the way, was busy changing the traditional British spellings of words such as labour, colour and velour.) But it didn’t happen. Although the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey used meter and kilogram standards, the rest of America stuck with its pecks, rods, gills, furlongs, hogsheads and Winchester bushels.
An opportunity was missed, but the idea of a metric America has never quite died.
The U.S. government authorized the official use of metric measures, alongside British measures, in 1866; signed the Treaty of the Meter in 1875; authorized a three-year study on the feasibility of adopting the metric system in 1968, resulting in the 1971 blockbuster “A Metric America: A Decision Whose Time Has Come”; passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, which established the U.S. Metric Board (disestablished in 1982) and asked the private sector to make progress toward the metric system (amended in 1988 when the private sector said no thanks); and in 1991 required all government agencies to file an annual report on their efforts to go metric. There hasn’t been much activity since then.
Of course there has been some slow progress toward metrification. Our cars have KPH as well as MPH on the speedometers (although speed limits are posted almost exclusively in MPH), most packaged goods are labeled with traditional and metric measures, and we now have 2-liter bottles of soft drinks to sate our thirst. Yet we’re still a long way from joining the rest of the world in the metric system.
There just hasn’t been the political will to embrace metrification. It’s not the sort of thing that inspires Homeric rhetoric. Moreover, like raising taxes, it may just seem un-American and, well, too dang foreign.
Ultimately, America’s coolness toward the metric system may represent an example, albeit a minor example, of American Exceptionalism —- the idea that America is qualitatively different from other nations as a result of its unique history, institutions, ideals and destiny; a go-it-alone destiny measured in dollars and democracies, not millis and micros.
Which brings us to the present, the future and the point.
America can survive and even prosper without the metric system, but not without the rest of the world.
America can also play an enormously constructive leadership role in tomorrow’s interdependent world, but it will mean eschewing exceptionalism; it will mean joining the community of nations to recognize broader global interests. Joining the International System of Units would be a small gesture in that direction; more significant, of course, would be joining the Kyoto Protocol, the Landmine Ban Treaty, the Arms Trade Treaty, the Cluster Bomb Treaty, the declaration to decriminalize homosexuality, the International Criminal Court, and other widely supported international agreements.
> Steve Elliott-Gower is director of the honors program and associate professor of political science at Georgia College & State University.
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Jan 5, 4:10 AM EST
Foreign investment in Myanmar soars
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Foreign investment in Myanmar - much of it from China - nearly doubled in the first nine months of 2008 compared to the same period last year, according to government statistics seen Monday.
Mining accounted for more than 88 percent of the total foreign investment - a record for that sector.
Investment from January to September last year jumped to $974.9 million dollars from $502.5 million in the same period the previous year, said the Ministry of National Planning and Development in its latest statistical survey.
That was the second-highest amount for this nine-month span after 2006, when Thailand built a hydroelectric plant.
China accounted for $855 million of the $860.9 million invested in mining while Russia and Vietnam added $114 million in the oil and gas sector. China has signed a number of agreements with the resource-rich country to mine gems, gold and nickel.
The U.S. and European Union have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar to pressure the military government to improve human rights and release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Since Myanmar liberalized its investment code in late 1988, it has attracted large investments in the hydro-electric power and oil and gas sectors.
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Opposition: No hope for future of Myanmar
January 4, 2009 2:27 AM
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's pro-democracy party marked the 61st anniversary of the country's independence from Great Britain on Sunday, saying it foresaw no hope for the military-ruled country.
At a ceremony inside the dilapidated headquarters of the opposition National League for Democracy, its chairman Aung Shwe also called for the release of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and other party leaders.
Suu Kyi - who has been under house arrest for more than 13 of the past 19 years - put up a banner at the gate of her home quoting a speech her father, independence hero Gen. Aung San, had once given: ''Act decisively in the interest of the nation and the people.''
In a speech to about 250 party members and diplomats, Aung Shwe said that national unity is in disarray and that there is ''no harmony between the government and the governed.''
''Hope for the present and future of the country is totally lacking,'' Aung Shwe said.
Myanmar gained independence from Britain on Jan. 4, 1948, after more than 120 years of colonial rule. It has been under harsh military rule since 1962.
Meanwhile, the leader of the military junta Senior Gen. Than Shwe warned that ''neocolonialists' ' were interfering in domestic affairs and inciting riots to undermine unity and stability.
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Defiant Burma junta marks independence day
RANGOON, BURMA Jan 04 2009 09:04
Burma marked the 61st anniversary of its independence on Sunday with pomp and defiance, as the military junta called on citizens to support 2010 elections derided as a sham by democracy campaigners.
Soldiers raised the national flag at 4.28am (9.48pm GMT) -- the exact time of the country's freedom from Britain -- at a city hall in the remote capital of Naypyidaw, 400km north of Rangoon.
In comments read out by a subordinate in the bunker-like capital, Senior General Than Shwe trumpeted his seven-step "Road Map" to democracy, which the junta says will lead to multi-party elections next year.
He urged people to "cooperate in realising the state's seven-step Road Map with union spirit and patriotic spirit with the firm resolution to build up a peaceful, modern and developed democratic nation with flourishing discipline".
Than Shwe accused "neo-colonialists" -- usually a reference to the United States -- of interfering in Burma's affairs.
"The entire people are duty-bound to safeguard the motherland.. . while keeping a watchful eye on attempts of neo-colonialists to harm the sovereignty of the country," Than Shwe said.
About 3 000 ministers, government employees and senior officials attended the ceremony and the formal military parade, although the ageing Than Shwe was not present.
The US, European Union and United Nations have dismissed the lengthy "Road Map" as a sham due to the absence of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
Burma pro-democracy activists say the polls are aimed at cementing the military's grip on the nation, with Aung San Suu Kyi banned from running and 25% of Parliament seats reserved for members of the armed forces.
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Burma Blacklists U.S. Artist
2009-01-04
An American academic couple abandons a visit to Burma because one of them is blacklisted.
BANGKOK—A prominent American professor and human rights advocate has scrapped a visit to Burma after authorities turned away his wife at the airport, saying she had been blacklisted.
Eric Stover, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley , arrived at Mingalardon airport aboard Thai Airways in the former Burmese capital, Rangoon, on Jan. 1, with his wife, Pamela Blotner, according to sources who asked not to be named.
Stover, director of the human rights center at Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies, went to Burma to conduct a workshop on medical ethics from Jan. 9-11, the sources said. Blotner is a visual artist and academic in California.
A Thai Airways official and Burmese immigration official informed the couple that Blotner’s name was on a government blacklist, and the couple returned to Bangkok, the sources said. A third official photographed them.
Stover is a former director of the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights. Blotner, an artist, created the Burmese American Art Exchange, which exhibited the work of 12 American and 24 Burmese artists at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon in late 2007.
Blotner has paid several visits to Burma. Burmese artists, she was quoted as saying in a U.S. newspaper earlier this year, “bring the same wonder into making art that a child does but with an adult’s intelligence and sensibility.”
“On some levels, the [Burmese government] censorship is ...horrific but it’s also galvanizing. It’s something to fight against. These are the things that draw artists together.”
Reported and translated by Ko Ko Aung for RFA’s Burmese service. Service director: Nancy Shwe. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.
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01-04-2009 15:03
Human Rights Abuse in Myanmar?
By David Watermeyer
It is tragic, yet sadly unsurprising, that the Korean government has rejected a serious complaint filed against Daewoo International and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) regarding their ``complicity in human rights abuses" in Myanmar (Burma) in the course of building a pipeline through the country.
``Burma'' is used here to show solidarity with those who denounce as nothing less than evil the actions of military junta who were responsible for naming the county Myanmar.
According to a news release put out by the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM), SGM global coordinator Wong Aung, a member of the Arakan ethnic group, through whose community the proposed pipeline will traverse, strongly criticized the Korean government's decision on Tuesday.
An extraction from the report says, ``The Korean government has decided to ignore the reality of major resource extraction projects in Myanmar and the specific devastating effects of the Shwe project on the people in the pipeline regions.
The Korean government has a responsibility under OECD guidelines. In rejecting the complaint they are abdicating their responsibility to investigate violations and mediate disputes in line with the guidelines; guidelines to which the have agreed to be obligated.''
All over the world people have watched in horror as atrocity after atrocity is committed by the military junta in that country, where unarmed Buddhist monks were gunned down like flies and rations from foreign countries after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country on May 3 meant for the starving millions by were blocked from delivery by this same military junta in an unspeakable act of callousness.
What is less known is how the junta continues to empower itself to rule over its people through dealings with various other countries and companies.
If these entities would not support the military junta but rather join the rest of the world in condemning and boycotting it, the tyrannical regime would not be able to continue.
The news release said, ``Daewoo International and the KOGAS have breached and will continue to breach a number of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises related to their activities in Burma (Myanmar)."
``These breaches are related to the companies' exploration, development, and operation of the natural gas project in Burma known as the Shwe Gas Project, meaning ``gold" in Burmese."
Few are unaffected by the trying economic times we are living in and that may play a part in why KOSGAS and Daewoo International, despite being told clearly at the highest level what is going on, appear to be paying no heed to the cries of the Myanmarese population.
But surely there are other options to explore than being complicit in evil.
David Watermeyer is a freelance writer residing in Seoul. He can be reached at davidnwatermeyer@ yahoo.co. uk. The views expressed in the above article is those of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of The Korea Times.
Myanmar junta condemns 'neocolonialist' threat to independence
Yangon- Myanmar's military junta on Sunday condemned "neocolonialists" and appealed for a renewed sense of nationalism as it marked the 61st anniversary of independence from Britain. Junta chairman Senior General Than Shwe said the country was threatened from the outside by Western nations and organizations bent on destabilizing the regime.
"Today, neocolonialists are interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, putting pressure on and coercing other countries to serve as their minions, and resorting to all possible ways of forcing a government to serve as a puppet one that will dance to their tune with the intention of harming the sovereignty of their targeted counties," an official translation of the general's speech read.
"Moreover, they are using some international organizations to gain support for their schemes, and driving a wedge among national people and inciting riots to undermine national unity, peace and stability of a nation."
Than Shwe said all Burmese people were duty-bound to safeguard the country's independence and sovereignty.
The military junta is an international pariah for its human rights abuses and refusal to return the country to civilian democratic rule.
Burma junta marks independence day
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5243894/burma-junta-marks-independence-day/
January 4, 2009, 9:07 pm
Burma has marked the 61st anniversary of its independence with pomp and defiance, as the military junta called on citizens to support 2010 elections derided as a sham by democracy campaigners.
Soldiers raised the national flag at 4.28am (0848 AEDT) on Sunday - the exact time of the country's freedom from Britain - at a city hall in the remote capital of Naypyidaw, 400km north of Rangoon .
In comments read out by a subordinate in the bunker-like capital, Senior General Than Shwe trumpeted his seven-step "Road Map" to democracy, which the junta says will lead to multi-party elections next year.
He urged people to "cooperate in realising the state's seven-step Road Map with union spirit and patriotic spirit with the firm resolution to build up a peaceful, modern and developed democratic nation with flourishing discipline".
Than Shwe accused "neo-colonialists" - usually a reference to the United States - of interfering in Burma's affairs.
"The entire people are duty-bound to safeguard the motherland ... while keeping a watchful eye on attempts of neo-colonialists to harm the sovereignty of the country," Than Shwe said.
About 3,000 ministers, government employees and senior officials attended the ceremony and the formal military parade, although the ageing Than Shwe was not present.
The United States, European Union and United Nations have dismissed the lengthy "Road Map" as a sham due to the absence of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
Burmese pro-democracy activists say the polls are aimed at cementing the military's grip on the nation, with Aung San Suu Kyi banned from running and 25 per cent of parliament seats reserved for members of the armed forces.
The NLD held a parallel independence day ceremony on Sunday attended by foreign diplomats and party members in Rangoon .
"Although there were many security members, they did not disturb us," said NLD spokesman Nyan Win, adding that the party used the opportunity to call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
Burma has been ruled by the military since 1962, despite a 1990 election win by Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD. Instead of allowing her to take office, the military regime simply kept her under house arrest.
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