By LALIT K JHA Tuesday, July 14, 2009
WASHINGTON — Three permanent members of United Nations Security Council—the United States, Britain and France—expressed skepticism that the Burmese junta will hold free, fair and credible general elections in 2010, while urging the military rulers to match their words with deeds.
China, on the other hand, which has been a strong supporter of the totalitarian Burmese rulers both inside and outside the Security Council, urged Western countries including the US, Britain and France to lift their economic sanctions on Burma.
View of the UN Security Council in New York. (Photo: AFP)
“Now is the time for Burma to match its words with deeds,” said Rosemary A DiCarlo, the US alternate representative for special political affairs, following a Security Council briefing on Burma by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the UN headquarters in New York.
DiCarlo expressed US disappointment that the Burmese authorities refused Ban’s request to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.
“By turning down this simple, straightforward request, the Burmese government missed a critical opportunity to, in your words, ‘show its commitment to a new era of political openness,’” she said.
Calling on the Burmese regime to free Aung San Suu Kyi immediately and unconditionally, she said the junta is clearly not respecting the popular will by putting the leader of the country’s democratic opposition on trial for spurious charges of violating her house arrest, which itself was illegitimate. “We are deeply concerned about these proceedings,” she said.
British Deputy Permanent Representative Philip Parham said Ban’s visit was an opportunity for the junta to transform its relationship with the international community which stands ready to respond positively to real progress.
“The regime’s failure to take this opportunity has only served to isolate it further. We can only hope that we may yet see progress in the coming days; it is not too late. But if it does not come, and if we see an unjust outcome in Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial, the international community will need to follow the secretary-general’ s lead and respond robustly,” Parham said. “The onus is on the government to act.”
He said the generals heard the strong message the secretary-general delivered in Rangoon when he addressed ministers and the diplomatic and NGO communities.
“They can be in no doubt about his disappointment and the disappointment of the international community as a whole,” Parham said.
France called for stronger actions by the Security Council.
“The current impasse is no reason for the international community to do nothing. The council must respond firmly if she [Suu Kyi] is found guilty, but inaction must not be the price of its unity,” said Jean-Maurice Ripert of France.
Far from initiating a dialogue with political parties and ethnic groups, Ripert said the junta has unilaterally implemented a “road map” to democracy which had led to increased polarization.
In defense of the junta, Chinese Deputy Ambassador Liu Zhenmin said Ban’s failure to meet with Suu Kyi should not be the criterion to judge the success of the visit.
“Gen Than Shwe had not made arrangements for the secretary-general to meet with her, and the United Nations must respect that decision by a member state. During his visit, the secretary-general had held in-depth dialogues with top leaders and that would play an important role in encouraging the democratic process,” he said.
Liu said that Ban’s visit had been significant and its positive outcome deserved to be assessed fairly by the international community.
He said Burma’s problems could not be addressed in a Western manner, the junta should steadily reform and the international community should fairly assess the country’s challenges.
He called for lifting the international sanctions against Burma, a necessary step for economic development.
“Events occurring inside Myanmar [Burma] are internal affairs that should be handled by the government, as they posed no threat to international peace and security. China is against isolating and sanctioning Myanmar and its position in that regard remained unchanged,” Liu said.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org
http://www.irrawadd y.org/article. php?art_id= 16320
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
US, Britain and France Doubt Credible Election; China Calls for Lifting Sanctions
More Karen IDPs Fleeing Fighting
More Karen IDPs Fleeing Fighting
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By SAW YAN NAING Monday, July 13, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More than five hundred Karen villagers in Mon Township, Nyaunglebin District, in northern Karen State have become internal displaced persons (IDPs) after they were forced to flee and hide in the jungle due to fresh attacks by the Burmese military, according to relief groups.
The Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a relief group operating in the area, reported on July 7 that the five hundred villagers, including women and children, are facing food shortages as they were unable to take sufficient food with them when they fled.
Infants are suffering from illness due to heavy rain and a lack of proper medical treatment in the jungle.
Three men were also killed during the attack, according to the FBR report.
Karen sources said that Burmese army forces and troops from battalions 333 and 555 of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) ceasefire militia are now more active in Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 5 area in northern Karen State after ending the week-long offensive against KNLA Brigade 7 in southern Karen State.
Due to the offensive launched by the joint force of the Burmese army and DKBA troops in June in the KNLA Brigade 7 area, about 4,000 Karen civilians in Pa-an district in Karen State fled into Thailand’s Tha Song Yang district for safety.
About 20 clashes took place in KNLA Brigade 5 areas during June, and an estimated 16 Burmese soldiers were killed and 39 were injured, according to the Karen news organization, Kwe Ka Lu.
Saw Steve, a leader of a Karen relief team of the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP) said, “We heard the Burmese army has been reinforced in Mon Township, Nyaunglebin District, and now there is more military activity in this area.”
Border sources and observers said that after the fall of KNLA Brigade 7, the DKBA and Burmese force will turn its attention to the KNLA’s outposts in Brigade 5 and 6 areas.
The joint force intends to clear the KNLA from areas they control along the Thai-Burma border as assigned by the Burmese military, before the Burmese regime holds its planned general election in 2010, sources have reported.
The DKBA is conscripting new members in order to complete its assignment and make up a border guard force with 326 soldiers in each battalion, sources said.
The DKBA split from its mother organization the KNU and signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military government in 1995.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
End in sight of Suu Kyi trial
United Press International
End in sight of Suu Kyi trial
Published: July 13, 2009 at 9:36 AM
YANGON, Myanmar, July 13 (UPI) -- Final arguments in the trial of jailed Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will be heard on July 24.
Suu Kyi won the country's general election in May 1990 by a landslide, taking 392 of the 492 seats, with the next largest party taking 23 seats. But the military refused to recognize the results, and she has been detained on various charges for 13 of the past 19 years.
Suu Kyi, 64, has been under house arrest since May 2003 and is held on charges of threatening the national security of Myanmar, formerly called Burma. The current trial is over her alleged breaking of her house arrest when John William Yettaw, a U.S. citizen, swam across a lake and gained access to her property in May.
If convicted she faces up to five more years in jail. No date has been set for sentencing if Suu Kyi is found guilty.
Analysts believe the military would like to have her officially in jail during the first multiparty elections since 1990 that they have scheduled for next year. Although the junta's constitution prevents Suu Kyi from taking part, having her out of the way would avoid any embarrassing demonstrations at rallies of officially allowed parties.
The military has given itself 25 percent of seats in any new government decided by the elections.
At a special court set up inside Insein Prison in Yangon on Friday her lawyer, a member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party, argued her arrest was unlawful because it was based on the old 1974 constitution, which was replaced by another in 2008.
Her last witness gave his testimony when the trial was restarted only for the day, a week after the country's military head Than Shwe refused to let U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on an official visit to Myanmar, see her.
In his departure speech Ban said the regime should release Suu Kyi to show the international community that the military is serious about moving towards democracy.
Amnesty International Australia renewed its call for her release this past weekend. In a written statement the pressure group called on the U.N. Security Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to intervene to secure her release "without conditions."
Amnesty also said there are 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar imprisoned in terrible conditions, including in the infamous Insein Prison where Suu Kyi is being held.
"Conditions in Burma's jails, including the notorious Insein Prison where Aung San Suu Kyi has been held for weeks, are appalling. The health of prisoners is put at risk by the circumstances in which they are forced to live and political prisoners are also at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, " said Jenny Leong, spokeswoman for Amnesty International Australia.
The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in March that the detention of Suu Kyi violates both international law and Burma's domestic legislation, Amnesty said.
Irish rock band U2 is dedicating their song "Walk On" to Suu Kyi every night on their current tour, which kicked off in Barcelona June 30.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee gave Suu Kyi the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. The European Parliament awarded Suu Kyi the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought earlier that year. The Sakharov Prize is awarded around Dec. 10 every year, the day on which the U.N. General Assembly ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
No date has been set for sentencing if Suu Kyi is found guilty.
ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2009/7/14
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2009/7/14
People's Forum on Burma
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ビルマ情報ネットワーク（BurmaInfo）からのメールを転送させていただき
ます。（重複の際は何卒ご容赦ください。）
ご紹介のドキュメンタリー映画『花と兵隊』につき、フォトジャーナリストの
山本宗補さん（ＰＦＢ運営委員）のコメントがこちらに掲載されています。
http://hanatoheitai.jugem.jp/?eid=19
8月8日より上映されます。ぜひご覧ください。
ＰＦＢ事務局 宮澤
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
以下、ご紹介いたします。
ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀
========================================
ドキュメンタリー映画『花と兵隊』（http://www.hanatoheitai.jp/）
８月８日より、シアター・イメージフォーラムにてロードショー、他全国順次公開
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
『花と兵隊』は、タイ・ビルマ国境付近で敗戦を迎えた後、祖国に還らなかった6名
の日本兵、すなわち「未帰還兵」を描いたドキュメンタリー映画である。戦争の記憶
が薄れつつあるいま、90歳を前後する彼らを20代の監督・松林要樹がとらえた。2005
年から3年に渡る長期取材で、松林はもうひとつの戦後史ともいうべき彼らの暮らし
を見つめ、その生活に寄り添うことで、新たな証言を記録した。
敗戦後、自らの意思で所属部隊を離れ、現地に残った日本兵たち。彼らは、軍隊で
培った技術を生かし、土地に根付き、新しい家族をつくった。とりわけ妻たちの存在
が異郷の地に生きる彼らを支えた。家々には、いまでも新婚当時の彼女たちの可憐な
写真が飾られている。そして、彼らは、子や孫たちと、餅をつき、蕎麦を食べ、祖国
を懐かしんでいる。
しかし、そんな望郷の想いを引き裂くように、やがて質素な部屋の一角で、壮絶な戦
争の記憶が語られはじめる――
なぜ彼らは日本に還らなかったのか？ 南国の激しい雨の間隙、晴れやかな日差しの
中で、穏やかに老後を迎える元兵士たちの平和な日常に、漆黒の時代の闇が潜んでい
る。
監督・撮影・編集：松林要樹
編集：辻井潔
音楽：津嘉田泰三
プロデューサー：安岡卓治（『Ａ』、『Ａ２』、『Little Birds －イラク 戦火の家
族たち－』、『ガーダ ‐パレスチナの詩‐』、『パレスチナ1948・NAKBA』）
製作：記録映画「未帰還兵」製作委員会
配給：安岡フィルムズ
配給協力：東風、ＫＡＷＡＳＡＫＩアーツ
（2009/106分/DVCAM/日本語・ビルマ語・タイ語他 c2009 Yojyu Matsubayashi）
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
劇場公開情報
8月8日より、シアター・イメージフォーラムにて公開
（Tel : 03-5766-0114／http://www.imageforum.co.jp/theatre/index.html）
10：15～/12：30～/14：45～/17：00～/19：15～
※8/8(土)、初回上映後と２回目上映前に松林要樹監督による舞台挨拶あり
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
お問合せ／東風tel:03-5389-6605
========================================
Posts
