Friday, February 27, 2009
Asean human rights body lacks power to punish (3:36 p.m.)
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/network/asean-human-rights-body-lacks-power-punish-336-pm
CHA-AM, Thailand -- Southeast Asian officials on Friday praised the creation of a regional human rights body as a historic first step toward confronting abuses, but the body will lack the power to investigate or punish violators like military-ruled Myanmar.
A confidential document obtained by The Associated Press says the rights body, which the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations hopes to form later this year, would "promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms" in the region but will abide by the bloc's bedrock policy of not interfering in members internal affairs.
The document, which outlines the proposed powers of the future rights body, falls short of key demands voiced by international human rights groups, which say the body will have limited effectiveness unless it can impose sanctions or expel countries that violate the rights of their own citizens.
The document was presented behind closed-doors to ASEAN foreign ministers gathered at a coastal resort in Thailand ahead of an annual leaders’ summit this weekend. It is a first draft for the body's proposed powers, with a final draft expected in July before the body is created.
Delegates say the summit will focus on how the region can best cope with the global economic crisis, and the bloc planned to sign a free trade pact with Australia and New Zealand over the weekend.
Although the issues of democratic reform in Myanmar and human rights abuses will be discussed on the sidelines of the conference, ASEAN traditionally shies away from criticism of its members.
"We'll discuss every issue that affects ASEAN but we will not interfere in their internal politics," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters in Bangkok when asked if leaders will push Myanmar for change.
"Political reform in each country is their own business but we can pass on the message to them from the outside world."
Thailand, which currently holds ASEAN's rotating chairmanship and is hosting the summit, bills the meeting as a turning point for the bloc.
It is the first time leaders will meet since the group signed a landmark charter in December.
The document made ASEAN a legal entity and moves it a step closer to its goal of establishing a single market by 2015 and becoming a European Union-like community - despite being a disparate Cold War-era bloc with fledgling democracies, authoritarian states, a military dictatorship and a monarchy.
Rosario Manalo, a Philippine diplomat on the panel drafting the human rights body's outline, said the plans mark efforts of the region to move toward democracy.
"It is a historic first for Southeast Asia," he said.
Officials said the powers of the human rights body could evolve over time.
"Investigative powers should not be ruled out. We'll take it step by step," said Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Thailand's chairman of the drafting committee. "We have to go as far as we can but at the same time we have to be realistic."
ASEAN's 10 members - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – range from very poor to moderately rich.
The bloc has long been criticized as a talk shop that forges agreements by consensus and steers away from confrontation.
According to the confidential document, the human rights body would follow the principles of "noninterference in the internal affairs of ASEAN member states" and any of the group's decisions "shall be based on consultation and consensus," giving Myanmar and other violators veto power to block decisions.
International human rights groups have urged ASEAN leaders to press military-ruled Myanmar to end its rights abuses.
London-based Amnesty International said this week that ASEAN "must be empowered to effectively address human rights in Myanmar."
New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a letter to ASEAN, urged the summit to address "the dire human rights situation in Burma" and improve treatment of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.
The United States, in a report Wednesday, blasted Myanmar's junta for having "brutally suppressed dissent" through extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture, and cited the country's more than 2,100 political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (AP)
Fw: [burmainfo] 今週のビルマのニュース（0908号） 政治囚の釈放 サイクロン被災地のその後 ほか
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ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2009/2/27
People's Forum on Burma
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ビルマ情報ネットワークの「今週のビルマのニュース」をお送りします。
「今週のビルマのニュース」バックナンバー
http://www.burmainfo.org/weekly.html
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）もご利用ください。
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo/
ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀
========================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2009年2月27日号【0908号】
========================================
【今週の主なニュース】
政治囚23人が釈放される
・ビルマ軍政は20日夜、約6300人の囚人に恩赦を与えると
発表した。ビルマ政治囚支援協会によれば政治囚23人が
21日に釈放された。同協会は、ビルマにはいまだに2100人
以上の政治囚がいるとしている。
・恩赦についての軍政の発表を受け日本の外務省は22日
に外務報道官談話を発表し、釈放を「前向きな動き」として
評価した。談話の「参考」部分には「（元囚人は釈放により）
自己、地域、国家の利益に貢献できるようになり、他の国民
とともに、2010年に開催される公正な総選挙に参加できる
こととなろう」という軍政の国営テレビ報道を掲載している。
・国連事務総長は23日、アウンサンスーチー氏を含む
全政治囚を釈放するよう改めて軍政に要請した。EUも
同日発表の議長国声明で同様の要請をした。
【その他】
NLDが日本政府を批判、ほか
・国民民主連盟（NLD）は19日に声明で、ガンバリ国連
事務総長特別顧問と中曽根外相が2010年総選挙の
開催を支持する声明を出したことについて「1990年総選挙
の結果を尊重するとしたこれまでの国連総会決議だけでなく、
わが党の要求にも反する」として懸念を表明した（NLD特別
声明4/02/09）。ガンバリ氏は来日中の12日に中曽根外相と
会談し、外務省によれば「2010年の総選挙が国際社会に
祝福されるものとなるようミャンマー政府に対し働きかけて
いくことで意見が一致」していた。NLDは2008年憲法に
基づく総選挙の開催に反対している。
・米国国務省は20日の記者会見で、現時点で対ビルマ
経済制裁を解除する予定はないことを明らかにした。
クリントン国務長官が訪問先の日本などで「（前政権の）
ビルマ政策を見直している」と述べたことについて記者
からの質問に答えたもの。
・国民民主連盟（NLD）は24日、17日に発表した声明の
一部を訂正し、米国などによる経済制裁に反対していない
ことを改めて表明した（24日付ミジマ）。17日付の声明は
軍政側の声明から語句を引用していたが、英語版では
引用部分が不明確だったため、「NLDが経済制裁に
反対を表明した」との憶測を呼んでいた。
・報告書『サイクロン「ナルギス」襲来のその後～イラワジ・
デルタからの声』が27日に発表された。ジョンズ・ホプキンズ
大学ブルームバーグ公衆衛生大学院付属の公衆衛生・
人権センター及びビルマ緊急援助チームとの共同出版。
昨年5月のサイクロン襲来後、被害が大きかったイラワジ
（エーヤワディ）デルタで調査を行った結果、食糧や水、
住居といった基礎的なニーズがまだ満たされていないこと
のほか、ビルマ当局による救援物資の横流しや横領、
転売、また強制移住などの被災者に対する人権侵害の
様子が詳細に述べられている。報告書はまた、被災地域
で起きた人権侵害の調査を、国連安保理が国際刑事
裁判所（ICC）に付託するべきだとしている。
・神奈川県警は26日、核兵器やミサイルなど大量破壊兵器に
転用可能な装置をビルマを経由して北朝鮮に不正輸出
しようとした疑いで、北朝鮮系の貿易商社などの捜索を始めた。
北朝鮮とビルマは2007年に国交を回復している
（26日付読売新聞ほか）。
【ビルマへの政府開発援助（ODA）約束状況など】
新たな発表はなし
【イベントなど】
・在日ビルマ人共同行動実行委員会アクション－
国連事務総長に対し、一刻も早くビルマを訪問し、
スーチーさんを含むすべての政治囚の釈放と対話の
促進を軍政に働きかけるよう要請するアピール行動
（国連大学前、23～27日15～16時）
・新 拓生 写真展『黙殺の視線－Shan state of Burma』
（大阪ニコンサロン、3月5日～11日）
・ドキュメンタリー「ビルマ、パゴダの影で」水戸上映会
アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本・水戸グループ主催
（水戸市あむねすみと 2F、3月8日13時半開場、14時開演）
・第3代国連事務総長 ウ・タント生誕100周年記念祝典
BDA・AaharaSazaungほか主催
（みらい座いけぶくろ（豊島公会堂）、3月8日17時半～）
・ビルマ人権の日記念デモ行進
「ビルマに自由と人権を！（仮題）」
在日ビルマ人共同行動実行委員会主催
（五反田南公園集合、3月13日14時～）
★「オルタ」2009年1・2月号
（特集「恐慌前夜─世界はいかに再編されていくのか？」）に
秋元由紀「ビルマ～天然ガス開発と日本の関与」が掲載。
☆春秋社より新刊のお知らせ～
アラン・クレメンツ著「ダルマ・ライフ－日々の生活に"自由"を見つける方法」。
著者はビルマで得度して僧になった初めての米国人。
国際的な注目を集めるビルマの状況に対して、
新たな角度から光をあてる一冊。
四六判／372頁／定価（本体2500円＋税）
★ジェーン・バーキン最新アルバム『冬の子供たち』が
発売中。アウンサンスーチー氏に捧げる楽曲「アウンサンスーチー」を収録。
【もっと詳しい情報は】
きょうのビルマのニュース（平日毎日更新）
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/burmainfo/
ビルマ情報ネットワーク
http://www.burmainfo.org/
【お問い合わせ】
ビルマ情報ネットワーク 秋元由紀
====================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2009年2月27日号【0908号】
作成： ビルマ情報ネットワーク
協力： ビルマ市民フォーラム
====================================
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配布元: BurmaInfo（ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
http://www.burmainfo.org
連絡先: listmaster@burmainfo.org
バックナンバー: http://groups.yahoo.co.jp/group/burmainfo/
※BurmaInfoでは、ビルマ（ミャンマー）に関する最新ニュースやイベント情報、
参考資料を週に数本配信しています。
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Burma’s corridor to democracy depends on regional partners
http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/1771-burmas-corridor-to-democracy-depends-on-regional-partners.html
by Moe Thu and Htet Win
Friday, 27 February 2009 10:55
Rangoon (Mizzima) - In an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, every nation has to deal with the international community in one way or another in order to achieve aims including domestic improvements and peaceful coexistence regardless of how strong or weak it stands up among world nations.
For Burma, which is no exception, the United Nations is still the best option, through the mandate of which the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) is well positioned to take further steps forward to being a modernized entity democratically demonstrable.
There has already been a recent, concrete example. As well thanks to the ASEAN’s lobby, the UN’s humanitarian intervention took place in Burma, delivering a great supply of relief assistance, when it was hard hit by Nargis Cyclone last May, which left more than 130,000 dead or missing and some 2.4 million in need of continued support.
Also in response to the UN’s political facilitation, the military government released more than 6,300 prisoners soon after UN Human Rights expertTomas Ojea Quintana visited the Southeast Asian country. Unfortunately there were only 24 political prisoners included out of more than six thousand prisoners released.
“This is the time for Burma to seize the opportunity before it, to send positive signals,” said the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, expressing his willingness to visit Burma again. He last travelled to Burma in May after the cyclone devastated the Irrawaddy coastal areas.
At this juncture, it is for the military government to show its more positive and responsive actions and gestures to the international community’s sincerity with Burma’s democratization process.
The military regime already knew how fast the cyclone-devastated areas came to recover because it allowed the delivery of international assistances (after initial resistance and delay) through a newly-formed body called Tripartite Core Group, which comprises the government authority, the UN and the ASEAN.
That could be a sign that the junta is gradually departing from its isolationism stance amid situations, which demand greater cooperation with the international community in this globalised age to be able to address domestic issues, although a few top-ranking military officials falsely claimed that the country could manage to recover from the natural disaster then.
It would be fair to say that the military elites could have adopted much more precaution to offset any political string, which is likely to come along with international aids to the local needy. The military government might have learnt from Indonesia province of Aceh experience. After Tsunami in 2004, it got huge assistances from all over the world, which had negative effects on the Acehnese, contaminating the Acehnese. For example, money politics and under-age-voting occurred in the 2006 elections on Aceh for its governor and mayor.
Frankly speaking, a full recovery with Burma’s suffered areas is a national concern. Needless to say that the planned 2010 elections is an issue that can be crucial for the country and that many world nations and ASEAN are interested in it and watch out for, as a step to transition to democracy.
It is sure that not just Burmese people but their military government would like to be proud of their country’s goal to a prosperous, democratic one, though there are differences in what kinds of democracy one actually wants to see for the country.
Looking back the recent past, ASEAN may be the most important component of any international Burma policy, inviting the country to join it in 1997, partly because it thought that the integration would be more workable than pursuing the isolation to influence the military government. That’s also partly because ASEAN is intent on containing China’s influence on the nation’s natural resources.
At the same time, the 10-member bloc has come to recognize that Burma is not only a stain on its international reputation but also a drain on its diplomatic resources, plus a trauma to peace and stability in the region of more than five hundred million population.
Inside Burma, however, since 1996, four years after Senior General Than Shwe took the chair of the junta, repression grew more brazen, sending thousands of democracy activists and ordinary citizens to prison and displacing over one million people – mostly Karen and Shan minorities, which has resulted in their open-exile in Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia and Thailand.
The United States limited its diplomatic contact with the junta and eventually imposed mandatory trade and investment restrictions on the regime and its business back bones. Europe became a vocal advocate for Burma’s reforms and human rights. However, many Asian states moved to expand trade, aid, and diplomatic engagement with the military elites. China and Russia have vetoed attempts to impose international sanctions on Burma in the United Nations Security Council.
The answer is simple: Some countries still want Burma as it is. China and India could be the greatest obstacles to efforts to introduce genuine democratic reforms in the country. China has many interests in Burma. Over the past 15 years, it has developed deep political and economic relations with Burma, largely through billions of dollars in trade and investment and more than a billion dollars' worth of weapons sales. It enjoys important military benefits, including access to ports and listening posts, which allow its armed forces to monitor naval and other military activities around the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea.
To feed its insatiable appetite for energy, it also seeks preferential deals with the ruling generals for access to Burma's oil and gas reserves.
Beijing's engagement with the SPDC has been essential to the regime's survival. China has provided it with moral and financial support -- including funds and materiel to pay off Burma military elites -- thus increasing its leverage at home and abroad. By throwing China's weight behind the SPDC, Beijing has complicated the strategic calculations of those of Burma's neighbours that are concerned about the direction the country is moving in, thus enabling the junta to pursue a classic divide-and-conquer approach.
Like China, India is hungry for natural gas and other resources and is eager to build a road network through Burma that would expand its trade with ASEAN implementing its “Look East” policy. As a result, it has attempted to match China step for step as an economic and military partner of the SPDC allowing it to become now Burma's fourth-largest trading partner. Successive governments in India after 1990s including the present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government have also fallen for the junta's blackmail over cross-border drug and arms trafficking and has preferred to give it any assistance necessary rather than let Burma become a safe haven for insurgents active in India's troubled northeastern region.
Amid such challenges to move Burma forward, ASEAN leaders are highly expected to consider the interests of millions of people in Burma, and avoid an elite-to-elite vanity fair. All in all, multilateral-scale honesty and transparency are much in need, if the regional leaders are really working on a true development and democracy in the region including Burma. What’s more, it is ASEAN leaders, who gather at the 14th Summit in Thailand, to use an opportunity to be forging a new Burma leadership.
Burma cyclone response was 'crime against humanity'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/4839404/Burma-cyclone-response-was-crime-against-humanity.html
Burma's regime deliberately blocked international aid getting to victims of last year's cyclone, a report has claimed.
By Thomas Bell, South East Asia Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:33PM GMT 26 Feb 2009
Survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Burma did not receive donor money they were promised to rebuild their lives Photo: AFP/Getty
The first independent inquiry into the aftermath of the disaster has said the authorities should be referred to the International Criminal Court for stopping help getting through and persecuting survivors.
It found the Burmese leadership failed to provide adequate food, shelter and medical care in the wake of Cyclone Nargis which struck the Irrawaddy Delta on May 2 last year, killing at least 140 000 people.
Around 3.4 million people were effected by the disaster, which swept away homes, farms, granaries, livestock and wells.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in America and an organisation of Burmese volunteers called the Emergency Assistance Team – Burma (EAT) have documented what happened in the following weeks.
Military checkpoints were set up across the delta as the regime treated the disaster not as a humanitarian emergency but as a security crisis.
The report claims some people who attempted to distribute private aid were arrested. It details allegations of aid being stolen and resold by the military authorities.
The researchers also claim the army used forced labour, including of children, in the aftermath of the disaster.
According to one survivor: "[The army] did not help us, they threatened us. Everyone in the village was required to work for five days, morning and evening, without compensation. Children were required to work too.
"A boy got injured in his leg and he got fever. After two or three days he was taken to Rangoon, but in a few [days] he died."
There were also anecdotal accounts of people dying in the aftermath of the cyclone due to the actions of the army.
But restrictions in the country mean no one has been able to estimate how many died in a supposed "second wave" of deaths in the period after the cyclone.
Under international law, creating conditions where the basic survival needs of civilians cannot be adequately met, "intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health," is considered a crime against humanity.
The report concludes that the United Nations Security Council should refer the junta for investigation by the International Criminal Court.
Bangladesh-Myanmar maritime dispute
http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/02/27/news0879.htm
Mungpi
Burma's military generals in a secret meeting warned commanders and officers to beware of Bangladesh in the wake of a maritime dispute between the two countries in November.
Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of the Northern Military Command, during a meeting held recently said that Burma considers Bangladesh a hostile neighbour, and warned commanders and officers to keep an eye on Bangladesh's military movements.
The minutes of the meeting held in Naypyitaw, a copy of which is in Mizzima's possession, said while Burma was exploring for gas in its territorial waters and in its economic zone, Bangladesh had strongly opposed the activity that led Burma to withdraw.
"In other words," Soe Win said, "Bangladesh is provoking us." Soe Win also accused the United States, which has imposed financial sanctions on the generals, of backing and inciting Bangladesh to oppose the exploration.
Besides, Soe Win, voicing the general's paranoia, said the army has received information of movements of US Navy fleets using Thai and Bangladesh waters as a base.
"Therefore, all must understand that there is a likelihood of foreign invasion and we must carefully observe military movements," Soe Win added.
During the meeting, attended by several field officers and commanders, Soe Win reminded them of the need to maintain vigilance along the border areas as a preparation for any possible intrusion from foreign countries.
Though there seems to be no other verification for Soe Win's fears, the Generals, however, are reportedly intensifying military presence in Arakan state, which borders Bangladesh.
According to a Bangladesh-Burma border based Burmese journalist, the junta is stepping up its military presence, particularly the artillery battalion in the border township of Maungdaw in Burma's western Arakan state.
"The junta is shifting several of its battalions to a new military base in Maungdaw. Particularly the artillery battalion," the journalist, who requested not to be named, told Mizzima.
The journalist, citing local sources in the area said the Burmese Army is being stationed in a long stretch of valley behind the cover of mountains to conceal their presence.
"It looks to me that the army is preparing for an impending war or some kind of conflict. But we don't know against whom," he added.
Similarly, an Editor of the Dhaka based Burmese News Agency Narinjara told Mizzima that in recent months, at least 13 battalions of the Burmese Army have moved up to northern Arakan state in Maungdaw Township.
"We also can confirmed that the army is building an airbase in Maungdaw Township," Narinjara's editor Khaing Mrat Kyaw said.
He added that Burma's military leaders including Vice Snr. Gen. Maung Aye, the junta's second strongman, and Prime Minister Thein Sein have paid visits to Arakan state in recent weeks to check on the progress.
"Obviously it is some kind of preparation. And I think the junta wants to make a come back in the Bay of Bengal to continue the gas exploration," Khaing Mrat Kyaw said.
"They seem to be really sore with Bangladesh over the last dispute," Khaing Mrat Kyaw remarked.
In early November, Bangladesh and Burma had a face off, when Bangladesh objected to the exploration work of a South Korean company Daewoo, which was accompanied by Burmese naval vessels in the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh said the block in which the Burmese vessel and Daewoo were test drilling comes under its maritime boundary and immediately sent two Navy vessels to the spot.
Burmese generals, though saying that the area belongs to the Burmese economic zone, later moved out of the area.
During the stand off Bangladesh deployed two naval vessels in the Bay of Bengal and reinforced its border security, but Burma was unable to bring in timely reinforcements, Khaing Mrat Kyaw said.
"I think that's why they are now building their bases and even constructing roads and railways, so that they can move their army anytime quickly," Khaing Mrat Kyaw observed.
(Source: Agencies)
Fw: [burmainfo] 「予防できる運命 HIV患者を放置するビルマ軍政」（イラワディ誌への寄稿、２月９日）
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2009/2/27
People's Forum on Burma
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）からのメールを転送させていただき
ます。
（重複の際は何卒ご容赦ください。）
ＰＦＢ事務局
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
「予防できる運命 HIV患者を放置するビルマ軍政」
（ヴォラウィット・スワンニッキット氏、クリス・バイラー氏による寄稿、
2月9日にイラワディ誌に掲載）をご紹介します。
ビルマ軍政のHIV対策の不十分さを、具体的な数字を挙げて批判しています。
記事によれば、ビルマ軍政が国内のHIV患者・感染者7万6千人に対して、
2007年に支出した金額はたった18万ドル（7000万円）で、一人当たり
70セント（63円）です。この金額で治療できる患者は全体の0.6％、460人
にしかなりません。しかし軍政にはHIV対策にもっと金をかける余裕があります。
天然資源の売却益による外貨準備高は40億ドル（3600億円）、2007年度の
貿易黒字は32億ドル（2900億円）に上っているのです。
ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）のウェブサイトでもご覧になれます。
http://www.burmainfo.org/health/irrawaddy20090209.html
原文（英語）はこちら。
http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=15077
ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀
========================================
予防できる運命 HIV患者を放置するビルマ軍政
ヴォラウィット・スワンニッキット、クリス・バイラー
2009年2月9日
「イラワディ」誌
========================================
国連のガンバリ事務総長特別顧問は2009年2月3日、ビルマへの7回目の公式訪問を終
えた。ガンバリ氏はアウンサンスーチー氏や国民民主連盟（NLD）の幹部らとの会合
にこぎつけた。スーチー氏らは、意義ある政治改革の実行には、2100人以上いるとさ
れる政治囚を解放することが先決だと述べた。
他方で、ガンバリ氏は今回もビルマ軍事政権（国家平和発展評議会＝SPDC）最高指導
者のタンシュエ将軍と会うことができなかった。タンシュエ将軍はガンバリ氏より、
カンボジアや中国、ベトナムの新しい大使を迎えることを優先させたのだった。
ガンバリ氏は仕方なく、代わりに軍政のテインセイン首相と会った。首相は、国連が
ビルマの「経済発展と政治的安定」を望んでいるなら、経済制裁を解除するべきだと
述べた。経済制裁は健康を害するので人権侵害なのだという。
国連の顔にさらに泥を塗るかのように、軍政はガンバリ氏の訪問の直後、サイクロン
被災者への支援活動を監督する三者コア・グループ（TCG＝国連、ASEAN、軍政で構
成）の議長を務めていたチョートゥ副外務大臣を突然左遷した。
また、ビルマを逃れたロヒンギャ移民がタイやインドネシアで漂着している問題に国
際的な関心が高まっていることに対して、軍政は「ミャンマーとはまったく関係のな
い問題であり、人権問題でもない」と言ってのけた。
政治的に行き詰ったままのビルマでは、保健・人道面での危機も続いている。軍政が
「国家的懸念事項」とするHIV・エイズの感染拡大も止まっていない。国境なき医師
団（MSF）は2008年11月に発表した報告書『予防できる運命：ミャンマーでのARV治療
拡大の失敗』で、HIV・エイズ患者を治療する活動が非常に困難となっていることを
明らかにした。現在、7万6,000人のビルマ国民が、生存のために抗レトロウィルス薬
（ARV）による治療を必要としているとされる。しかし、実際に治療を受けることが
できているのは2割に満たない。このうち約1万1,000人は国境なき医師団から薬を受
け取っており、1,800人がビルマ政府を通じて治療を受けている。
国境なき医師団は「ARV治療に対する非常に大きなニーズに応えようと、過去5年間で
懸命の努力をしてきたが、治療の拡大を一手に引き受け続けることは不可能だと判断
した。ARV治療を担う組織がほかにないため、国境なき医師団の能力は限界に達して
いる。大変心苦しいが、治療する新規患者の数を大幅に減らす決断をせざるをえなく
なった」と述べた。
生存に必要な薬を与えないという軍政の方針は、国境なき医師団の報告書への反応と
同様、予想通りのものである。軍政の保健大臣でタンシュエ将軍の主治医でもある
チョーミン氏は「わが国がHIV患者に効果的な治療を施さず、HIV対策にも十分な支出
をしていないとして非難する大国がある。だがミャンマーは2007年に1億9,140万
チャット（18万ドル＝7000万円）をHIV対策に費やした」と述べた。
これは軍政が患者一人あたり、わずか70セント（63円）しか支出していない計算にな
る。たったこれだけの金額では、一年分の抗レトロウィルス薬（ARV）を購入して
も、7万6,000人のうち約460人しか治療できない。
だが軍政は天然資源に恵まれており、その外貨準備高は40億ドル（3600億円）に上る
とされる。2007年度には、タイへの天然ガス輸出に支えられて32億ドル（2900億円）
の貿易黒字を計上した。軍政はHIV対策にもっと金をかける余裕があるのだ。
とはいえ、公的資金を一般市民に費やそうとしないことだけが問題なのではない。ビ
ルマではこの1か月で、数十人の活動家や民間の篤志家のほか、地域ベースの援助関
係者（HIV関係で活動していた人々も含まれる）などが長期刑を宣告された。こうし
た勇敢な人たちも政治囚となっているのだ。
HIV患者に住居と治療を提供していたラングーン（ヤンゴン）のマギン僧院の僧侶エ
インダカ師は16年半の刑を宣告された。僧院は強制的に閉鎖され、僧侶や患者たちは
路頭に迷うことになった。
HIVの啓蒙活動を行う団体「レッドリボンの友」のタンナイン氏は6年の刑を受けた。
多くの活動家や援助関係者らが脅迫や嫌がらせを受けたり、逃亡生活を余儀なくされ
たりしている。国民民主連盟（NLD）の党員でHIV患者にカウンセリングや教育、治療
先の紹介をしていたピューピューティン氏もその一人だ。氏は患者たちから「希望の
山」と呼ばれて慕われていた。
ラングーンのシュエヒンタイェレ僧院には治療を受けるために上京した地方のHIV患
者が滞在していた。ピューピューティン氏は滞在する患者への支援活動を行っていた
が、この1月に僧院は襲撃され、患者たちは追い出された。
保健分野への慢性的な支出不足のほか、援助活動に対する厳しい制限、援助関係者へ
の嫌がらせや投獄が、ビルマでの保健・人道危機の根本原因となっている。本当に健
康を害する人権侵害とは（テインセイン首相が言ったように）経済制裁などではな
く、このような問題のことなのだ。
援助はもちろん増額されるべきだ。しかし軍政には自らの役割を果たし、国家予算を
国民のために使う義務がある。相次ぐ大災害を尻目に、軍政は1990年代以降、20億ド
ル（1800億円）相当以上の武器を中国から輸入し、ロシアから5000万ドル（45億円）
を超える原子炉を購入し、タンシュエ将軍の娘に豪華な結婚式を行い（祝い品の総額
は推定5000万ドル）、40億ドル（3600億円）以上をかけて新首都ネピドーを建設し
た。
ネピドーには24時間電気が送られており、ゴルフ場が3つに、冷房完備のペンギン舎
が置かれた動物園まである。
こうしたなか国際援助機関への活動制限はますます厳しくなっている。特に国内移動
や情報収集に関する規則は非常に厳格だ。軍政の優先順位ははっきりしている。ビル
マの現実を前にして国際社会が立ち上がらない限り、人道危機は終わらない。治療を
受けられないばかりに今日も70人のHIV患者が命を落としているのである。
ヴォラウィット・スワンニッキット、クリス・バイラー（ともに医学博士および公衆
衛生学修士）はジョンズ・ホプキンズ大学ブルームバーグ公衆衛生大学院の公衆衛生
と人権センター研究員。
出典：
Burma’s Man-Made Suffering by Voravit Suwanvanichkij and Chris Beyrer,
February 9, 2009, at:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=15077
（日本語訳 ビルマ情報ネットワーク）
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UN: World drug control efforts face huge problems
http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/world/2009/02/25/D96J1JDO0_as_china_drugs/
By ELAINE KURTENBACH Associated Press Writer
Print Feb 25th, 2009 | SHANGHAI -- The world risks losing decades of progress in drug control if it fails to counter the emergence of a criminal market of "staggering proportions," a U.N. official said Thursday.
"I confess I feel somewhat frustrated," Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said following a meeting to commemorate a century of international work on curbing trafficking in opium and other drugs.
Countries should "take control of organized crime far more seriously. Otherwise the accomplishments generated over the past few decades could be undermined," Costa said of the threat from criminal syndicates spreading their reach across almost every continent.
International efforts to curb trading in opium and other narcotics began in 1909 in Shanghai, then China's main hub for the opium trade, with the meeting of the 13-country International Opium Commission.
The delegates meeting Thursday issued a "Shanghai declaration" lauding progress in controlling the trade in opium and its derivatives in the decades that followed that first meeting but urging stronger efforts to combat modern drug scourges.
"We must have the courage to look at the dramatic, unintended consequences of drug control: the emergence of a criminal market of staggering proportions," Costa said. He did not make any specific recommendations at the commemoration.
Countries have so far failed to implement anti-crime measures in a way that has had an impact on the drug trade, he added, describing efforts to curb use of the Internet for drug trafficking and other crimes as "inept to say the least."
The international opium commission did not put an end to opium trafficking in China, which persisted in the chaotic times leading up to the 1949 Communist revolution.
But its decision to begin trying to regulate the opium trade holds a special significance for China, a country whose appetite for the drug left it bankrupted and vulnerable to humiliating defeats by colonial powers.
In the 1950s, China largely eradicated widespread drug use, mostly of opium, along with prostitution and gambling.
But as social controls were loosened in the past several decades, the drug trade in China has flourished. Government statistics put the number of known addicts in China at 1.2 million, including 700,000 heroin users, more than two-thirds of them under the age of 35.
"The achievements made by the international community in drug control remain fragile with a strong possibility of reversing," said Chinese Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu.
The resurgence in drug abuse has brought with it rising rates of HIV infections, often due to sharing of needles. Last year, AIDS was the top killer among infectious disease, the government reported earlier this month.
In China, heroin and opium come from Burma and Laos and, to a lesser extent, Central Asian nations. Occasional reports say opium is also being cultivated in isolated parts of southern China. Ketamine and menthamphetamines are growing problems.
But the biggest source of opium globally, accounting for 90 percent, remains strife-torn Afghanistan, Costa said.
------
On the Net:
U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime: http://www.unodc.org
Violence Against Women: Most Pervasive Human Rights Violation
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/Pv01mr09.html#1_VIOLENCE_AGAINST_WOMEN:_MOST
2-26-09, 11:10 am
Original source: People's Voice (Canada)
As International Women's Day nears the century mark (the first IWD was held in 1911), women have made enormous progress in many respects. But the present global economic crisis will have a profound negative impact on women, and the long struggle to end violence against women remains far from victory.
For the past decade, the United Nations has chosen an annual theme to mark International Women's Day. This year, the slogan is "Women and Men United to End Violence Against Women and Girls."
As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said on IWD 2007, "Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women's lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence – yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned."
Facts and figures from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) show that this is the single most pervasive human rights violation on a global scale.
At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime – with the abuser usually someone known to her.
For women aged 15 to 44 years, violence is a major cause of death and disability. In a 1994 study based on World Bank data regarding selected risk factors facing women in this age group, rape and domestic violence rated higher than cancer, motor vehicle accidents, war and malaria.
Moreover, studies have revealed that women who experience violence are at a higher risk of HIV infection: a survey among 1,366 South African women showed that women who were beaten by their partners were 48 percent more likely to be infected with HIV than those who were not.
The economic cost of violence against women is considerable. A 2003 report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the costs of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceed $5.8 billion per year, including $4.1 billion for direct medical and health care services, and productivity losses accounting for nearly $1.8 billion. A recent survey by the American Institute on Domestic Violence found that domestic violence victims lose nearly 8 million days of paid work per year – the equivalent of 32,000 full-time jobs.
Women are more at risk of experiencing violence in intimate relationships, and in no country are women safe. Out of ten counties surveyed in 2005 by the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 50 percent of women in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Tanzania reported having been subjected to physical or sexual violence by intimate partners, rising to a staggering 71 percent in rural Ethiopia. Only in Japan did less than 20 percent of women report incidents of domestic violence. An earlier WHO study puts the number of women physically abused by their partners or ex-partners at 30 percent in the United Kingdom, and 22 percent in the United States.
Based on several surveys from around the world, half of the women who die from homicides are killed by their current or former husbands or partners. Women are killed by people they know and die from gun violence, beatings and burns, among numerous other forms of abuse. A study conducted in Sao Paulo, Brazil, reported that 13 percent of deaths of women of reproductive age were homicides, of which 60 percent were committed by their partners. According to a UNIFEM report on Afghanistan, out of 1,327 incidents of violence against women collected between January 2003 and June 2005, 36 women had been killed – in 16 cases by their intimate partners.
By the year 2006, 89 states had some form of legislative prohibition on domestic violence, and a growing number of countries had instituted national plans of action to end violence against women. This is a clear increase from 2003, when only 45 countries had specific laws on domestic violence. Yet high levels of violence against women persist.
Limited availability of services, stigma and fear prevent women from seeking assistance and redress. This has been confirmed by a study published by the WHO in 2005: on the basis of data collected from 24,000 women in ten countries, between 55 percent and 95 percent of women who had been physically abused by their partners had never contacted NGOs, shelters or the police for help.
Sexual violence by non-partners is also common, but estimates of its prevalence are difficult to establish, because in many societies, such violence remains an issue of deep shame for women and their families. Statistics on rape extracted from police records, for example, are notoriously unreliable because of significant underreporting.
It is estimated that worldwide, one in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. In a study of nearly 1,200 ninth-grade students in Geneva, Switzerland, 20 percent of girls revealed they had experienced at least one incident of physical sexual abuse.
According to the 2005 multi-country study on domestic violence undertaken by the WHO, between 10 and 12 percent of women in Peru, Samoa and Tanzania have suffered sexual violence by non-partners after the age of 15. Other population-based studies reveal that 11.6 percent of women in Canada reported sexual violence by a non-partner in their lifetime, and between 10 and 20 percent of women in New Zealand and Australia have experienced various forms of sexual violence from non-partners, including unwanted sexual touching, attempted rape and rape.
In many societies, the legal system and community attitudes add to the trauma that rape survivors experience. Women are often held responsible for the violence against them, and in many places laws contain loopholes which allow the perpetrators to act with impunity. In a number of countries, a rapist can go free if he proposes to marry the victim.
Trafficking involves the recruitment and transportation of persons, using deception, coercion and threats to keep them in a situation of forced labour or servitude. Persons are trafficked into a variety of sectors of the informal economy, including prostitution, domestic work, agriculture, the garment industry or street begging.
While exact data are hard to come by, estimates of the number of trafficked persons range from 500,000 to four million per year. Although women, men, girls and boys can become victims, the majority are female. Various forms of gender-based discrimination trap millions of women and girls in poverty. This puts them at higher risk of becoming targeted by traffickers, who use false promises of jobs and educational opportunities to recruit their victims. Trafficking is often connected to organized crime and has developed into a highly profitable business that generates an estimated US$7-12 billion per year.
Trafficking is usually a trans-border crime. According to a 2006 UN global report on trafficking, 127 countries have been documented as countries of origin, and 137 as countries of destination. The main countries of origin are in Central and South-Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Asia, followed by West Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The most commonly reported countries of destination are in Western Europe, Asia and Northern America. By 2006, 93 countries had prohibited trafficking.
The victims in today's armed conflicts are far more likely to be civilians than soldiers. Some 70 percent of the casualties in recent conflicts have been non-combatants, most of them women and children. Women's bodies have become part of the battleground for those who use terror as a tactic of war - they are raped, abducted, humiliated and made to undergo forced pregnancy, sexual abuse and slavery. Violence against women has been reported in every international or non-international war-zone, including Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Peru, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Chechnya/Russian Federation, Darfur, Sudan, northern Uganda and the former Yugoslavia.
A 2002 UNIFEM-sponsored report on the issue quoted a UN official in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on the terror of daily life for people in the region: "From Pweto down near the Zambian border right up to Aru on the Sudan/Uganda border, it's a black hole where no one is safe and where no outsider goes. Women take a risk when they go out to the fields or on a road to a market. Any day they can be stripped naked, humiliated and raped in public. Many, many people no longer sleep at home, though sleeping in the bush is equally unsafe. Every night, another village is attacked. It could be any group, no one knows, but they always take away women and girls."
Recently, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes reported that more than 32,000 cases of rape and sexual violence have been registered in South Kivu Province alone since 2005 - just a fraction of the total number of women subjected to such extreme suffering.
UNIFEM says that "Protection and support for women survivors of violence in conflict and post-conflict areas is woefully inadequate." Access to social services, protection, legal remedies, medical resources, and places of refuge is limited despite the efforts of local NGOs to provide assistance. A climate of impunity further exacerbates the situation, and serves as an incentive to ongoing violence.
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, adopted in 2000, calls for women's equal participation in peace and security issues. But almost a decade later much more effort is needed to strengthen mechanisms to prevent, investigate, report, prosecute and remedy violence against women in times of war, and to ensure their voices are heard in building peace.
Myanmar to introduce GAP system in breeding fish for export
http://www.macaudailytimesnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23348&Itemid=32
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Myanmar will introduce the Good Aqua-culture Practice (GAP) system to replace the natural one for all fish breeding ponds to improve the quality products for export in the next fiscal year 2009-10 starting from April, sources with the Fishery Department said on Wednesday.
The project will be implemented together with other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as agreed.
The fish breeding under the GAP system calls for using clean water and non-chemical feed in the undertaking for natural growth.
Fish for export will require GAP recommendation issued by the department, the sources said.
According to official statistics, in the fiscal year 2007-08, Myanmar exported 352,652 tons of marine products, gaining 560 million dollars.
However, Myanmar estimated a drop by 80 million U.S. dollars or 14.2 percent in its marine export earning in the current fiscal year of 2008-09 ending March.
The estimated fall of the export earning is attributed to the impact of last year's May storm, the global financial crisis and flash surge of hard currency exchange rate.
The commerce authorities revealed that purchase order from abroad was down by 50 percent compare with normalcy, while domestic purchase power fell by 40 percent.
Along with the reduction of foreign market demand, price of fish also dropped in the domestic market.
The country's fishery sector remained as the fourth largest contributor to the gross domestic product and also the fourth largest source of foreign exchange earning during the past five years.
With a long coastline of over 2,800 km and a total area of 500, 000 hectares of swamps along the coast, the country has an estimated sustainable yield of marine products at over one million tons a year.
2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
Myanmar to grant cross-border tourists from China to travel deep into country
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6601712.html
+ - 14:21, February 26, 2009
Myanmar will grant visa-on-arrival for cross-border tourists entering by road from Teng Chong, southwestern Yunnan province of China, to travel deep into Myanmar's tourist sites by air en route the border town of Myitkyina in the northernmost Kachin state, local media reported Thursday.
As part of its bid to promote cross-border tourism with China, Myanmar will also grant such visa on arrival for tourists arriving Myitkyina through chartered flights from Teng Chong international airport, as well as other international airports of China to travel far up to such tourist sites as Yangon, Mandalay, ancient city of Bagan and famous resort of Ngwe Saung, the Weekly Eleven News said.
Normally, cross-border tourists from China are allowed to travel up to Myitkyina only and formal visa is required for traveling deep into the country.
The introduction of the visa-on-arrival has removed difficulties for tourists to obtain Myanmar visa from the Myanmar consulate-general stationed in Kunming, the report said, setting that leaving Myanmar on return trip for those who travel by road from Teng Chong to Myitkyina shall take the original route of crossing back the border gate.
Myanmar's move also came after the inauguration of the 96-kilometer Myitkyina-Kanpikete section in the Myanmar side in April 2007 and the Teng Chong International Airport on Feb. 16 this year.
The overall 224-kilometer Myanmar-China cross-border road extends as Myitkyina-Kanpikete-Teng Chong with the prior Myitkyina-Kanpikete section lying on the Myanmar side, while the latter standing as a cross-border section of Kanpikete-Teng Chong, which is a tunnel road.
The overall highway of Myitkyina-Teng Chong, which costs a total of 1.23 billion yuans, is regarded as a road of facilitating exchange and cooperation to link China with India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the Chinese tourism ministry formally opened up the border tourism line of Teng Chong-Myitkyina on Nov. 3, 2008.
According to the 7-Day News, the opening of the facilities have brought about 500 visitors per month and the number is expected to grow to 2,000 per month in the coming years.
Official statistics show that in the first nine months of 2008, a total of 188,931 world tourists visited Myanmar, the number of which dropped by 24.9 percent compared with the corresponding period of 2007.
Source: Xinhua
US lashes 'brutal' Myanmar rights record
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090225/usa/us_rights_myanmar_1
Wed Feb 25, 4:39 PM
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States lashed out at the Myanmar regime's human rights record Wednesday, saying the military was "brutally" suppressing its citizens and razing entire villages.
In an annual global report on human rights, the State Department said Myanmar's ruling junta carried out numerous extrajudicial killings along with rape and torture without punishing anyone responsible.
"The regime brutally suppressed dissent," it said, faulting the junta for "denying citizens the right to change their government and committing other severe human rights abuses."
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, crushed a 2007 uprising led by Buddhist monks, killing at least 31 people, according to the UN. In May last year, a cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing.
"The regime showed contempt for the welfare of its own citizens when it persisted in conducting a fraudulent referendum in the immediate aftermath" of the cyclone, the State Department said.
It said that Myanmar also "delayed international assistance that could have saved many lives."
The regime forcibly relocated people away from their homes, particularly in areas dominated by ethnic minorities, with troops then confiscating their property or looting their possessions, the report said.
"Thousands of civilians were displaced from their traditional villages -- which often were then burned to the ground -- and moved into settlements tightly controlled by government troops in strategic areas," the report said.
"In other cases villagers driven from their homes fled into the forest, frequently in heavily mined areas, without adequate food, security or basic medical care," it said.
The State Department also said that women and members of certain minority groups are completely absent in the government and the judiciary.
Myanmar's most famous woman, pro-democracy advocate and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for most of the last 19 years.
Rethinking Relations With Burma
http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2009-02-25-voa4.cfm
25 February 2009
President Barack Obama has held out his hand to world leaders seeking engagement, rather than confrontation to solve international disputes. This entails a review of the way the United States deals with specific countries, and such an effort is now under way regarding the government of Burma.
The U.S. government has long sought to encourage peaceful change in that Southeast Asian nation and has promoted genuine dialogue with opposition groups as necessary for transition to a representative government that responds to the will of its people. Since the 1960s, Burma has been controlled by a military junta that tolerates no opposition and keeps tight control of the nation's economy.
More than two thousand political prisoners languish in Burmese jails, a number that has doubled in the past 18 months, and democracy activist leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has remained under house arrest for the majority of the past 19 years. In response, the U.S. has maintained economic sanctions and visa bans against members of the junta and its top supporters, but with no appreciable change in attitude by the generals in Rangoon.
On her recent visit to Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. is looking at the best ways to influence the Burmese regime, acknowledging that neither sanctions nor engagement have worked. No decisions have been made, but there is a clear goal to develop a policy that ultimately benefits the Burmese people in their desire to shape the future of their own country.
In what the regime touts as a nod toward reform, the Burmese government has planned elections next year under a constitution approved in a referendum that was neither free nor fair, and conducted amid the turmoil following Cyclone Nargis, which devastated parts of the country. But it has a long way to go before achieving true representative government, since the military is guaranteed a quarter of the seats in both the upper and lower houses of parliament. In its review of its approach to Burma, U.S. leaders will have much to consider.
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