News & Articles on Burma
Thursday, 14 October, 2010
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'It's All Up to Us'
KNLA Expects Offensive After Election
Zarganar in Good Health, Says Rangoon Journal
Mon Party Confident of Election Victory
The General Versus The Teenage Prisoner
Suu Kyi fights law with law
Letter to Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on a Burma Policy Review
Myanmar democracy fight polls apart
Concern greets new Security Council arrivals
Suu Kyi: I won't vote in coming Myanmar election
ASEAN Secretary-General Hopes Burma's Elections Mark New Stage
Mr. Surin Pitsuwan’s dream of Burma will not come true
Burmese Tycoon Buys the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel
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'It's All Up to Us'
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Rangoon-based Democratic Party (Myanmar) was formed in September 2009 by former political prisoner Thu Wai and three of Burma's former prime ministers' daughters: Than Than Nu (the daughter of U Nu); Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein (the daughter of Kyaw Nyein); and Nay Yee Ba Swe (the daughter of Ba Swe). It is contesting 47 seats in next month's election.
The Irrawaddy reporter Khin Oo Thar recently interviewed Democratic Party (Myanmar) Chairman Thu Wai who will contest the People's Assembly seat in Rangoon's Mingalar Taung Nyunt constituency.
He spoke to The Irrawaddy about electoral alliances, his party's strengths and weaknesses, and his expectations for a post-election Burma.
Question: With less than a month to the election, how is your party doing?
Answer: We don't have much time left, but our party candidates have been campaigning in their respective constituencies. I myself have made four campaign tours in my constituency, which is Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township. I have also been to other townships whenever possible. It has been encouraging. People were a bit intimidated in the beginning, but later I saw their open support for our party.
The day before yesterday, while I was campaigning in the street, Minister Aung Kyi, who is my opponent in this constituency, was also campaigning on another street. That is what competition is about: so that people can see the differences between us. According to reports from other townships, things are going well.
Q: What are the strengths of your main opponents, the Union Solidarity and Development Party?
A: They have power and money. For instance, my opponent Minister Aung Kyi has visited all the community centers in the area. The USDP are building roads and schools now. He also visited mosques because there are a number of Muslim residents in the area. He offered them opportunities so that they would vote for him. Still, there are people who do not support him.
Q: Several democratic parties and ethnic parties formed alliances over a week ago, but your party did not join an alliance. Why not?
A: All six members of the alliance are our allies. We have all agreed to work together. The main reason that we did not join the alliance is because of the National Democratic Front (NDF). We have to compete against each other in some constituencies. Therefore, voters may get confused seeing two allied parties competing against each other. After the election, we will be in consultation with each other. They are all our friends.
Q: The National League for Democracy (NLD) and its allies have boycotted the election. How are you going to proceed, given the different stances among opposition camps?
A: We are close friends with the NLD too. I have always attended their events. Regarding participation in the election, that is their own decision. No one is right or wrong. We respect their decision and they respect ours. We always meet at events if we are unable to meet in private. We have a mutual understanding.
Q: The regime-backed USDP is stronger and its leadership is mostly made up of former generals. The military will automatically take 25 percent of the seats. Is it fair to say that the post-election government will be dominated by the military?
A: Basically, the military will have an automatic 25 percent quota of the legislative bodies. They will also take the positions of Defense Minister and Border Affairs. The National Security Council can stage a coup any time they like. In effect, they have got so much authority.
However, in reality, you only win if you have the support of the public. Many people dislike the USDP. If the public do not vote for them, we will win this election. They will win only in constituencies where pro-democracy groups are not competing.
Q: You once said that the military was 'systematically withdrawing from politics.' Do you think your judgment was wrong based on current developments?
A: No. Since they have decided to hold an election, the military is withdrawing. Everything depends upon the people and the political parties that are truly working for the people. Even if the military has a 25 percent privilege, the political parties must still try hard. If the people really support us, we will gain the remaining 75 percent of the parliaments. It is all up to usif we advance, they must withdraw, and vice-versa.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19732&page=2
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KNLA Expects Offensive After Election
By SAW YAN NAING Thursday, October 14, 2010
PAPUN DISTRICT, Karen State—The commander of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 5 has told all soldiers in his command along the bank of the River Salween to be prepared as the Burmese regime plans to clean up the border areas after the Nov. 7 election, said KNLA sources who spoke to The Irrawaddy in a KNLA base on the Salween in northern Karen State.
“They [the government army] won't leave KNLA forces sitting undisturbed on the border after the election—they plan to clear us out,” said Ka Nyaw Poe, a KNLA soldier. “The coming offensive is a major concern for all of us.”
KNLA Brigade 5 troops prepare to resist the Burmese government and DKBA offensive. (PHOTO: Saw Yan Naing/ The Irrawaddy)
The Burmese regime is expected to order the troops of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) that became a border guard force under Burmese army control to attack KNLA bases located on the lower part of the Salween River and on the bank of Moei River in southern Karen State.
Burmese government troops will, in the meantime, clean up KNLA Brigade 5 bases located between the Moei River and along the upper Salween throughout northern Karen State.
The government forces are expected to start their offensive in southern Karen State where KNLA Brigades 6 and 7 are based and continue through to northern Karen State where Brigades 5, 3, 2 and 1 operate, according to KNLA and DKBA sources on the border.
“We heard they [Burmese regime troops] will bombard our bases with mortar fire before launching ground attacks,” said a KNLA soldier called Pah Baw.
With a contingent estimated at more than 1000 strong, Dae Pu Noh, the headquarters of KNLA Brigade 5, is one of the strongest bases and a prime target. It is a medical and military training base with more than 20 buildings including offices, schools, clinics and training facilities.
Despite repeated attempts to overrun Dae Pu Noh in the past, Burmese government troops have failed to take the base.
Karen sources said that if the offensive succeeds, thousands of people will flee into the jungle in northern Karen State, becoming internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Karen State. More than 3,000 Karen refugees in Ei Tu Hta, a temporary camp on the Salween, will be forced to cross the river onto Thai soil.
Thai military sources and some observers are worried that a major military offensive against all ethnic armed groups representing the Mon, Karen, Karenni, Shan, Wa and Kachin from southern to northern Burma will be launched by the Burmese regime after the election.
In a secret meeting in Chiang Mai in September, ethnic armed groups reportedly agreed to provide military assistance to each other if they are attacked. The ethnic leaders also exchanged military information and tactics at the meeting.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19728
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Zarganar in Good Health, Says Rangoon Journal
By THE IRRAWADDY Thursday, October 14, 2010
Photographs of jailed comedian Zarganar and activist Dee Nyein Lin appeared on the website of Rangoon journal Eleven Media Group on Thursday with a prison official quoted as saying that the two are in good health.
Critics of the military government, however, said the article was a charade aimed at promoting a better image of the regime ahead of the Nov. 7 general election. They pointed out that there are currently about 100 political prisoners suffering poor health in Burmese prisons who are constantly denied proper health care.
This photograph of jailed Burmese comedian Zarganar was published on the Eleven Media Group website on Oct. 14.
According to Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), 128 political prisoners are recorded as suffering from poor health in prison and no less than 143 political prisoners have died in detention since 1988.
The website said that Zarganar, a well-known Burmese comedian who was active in helping cyclone victims in 2008, was granted an eye test in Myitkyina Prison in Kachin State on July 1. Dee Nyein Lin, a leading member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, received an eye test on July 22 in Monywa Prison in Sagaing Division. There was no mention of other specific medical treatment.
Zarganar was sentenced for 35 years for his involvement in the humanitarian relief effort in the Irrawaddy Delta after Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma in May 2008. Dee Nyein Lin was sentenced for six and half years for his involvement in an anti-government demonstration.
According to the report in Eleven Media Group, a prison officer said that more than 100 medical staff work at each prison in Burma, including 32 doctors and 27 nurses. He reportedly said that medical treatment in prison is satisfactory and that medical specialists from outside are invited into the prisons to check the health of all prisoners.
As the general election nears, the UN-led international community has called for the Burmese regime to release all political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. There are more than 2,100 political prisoners in Burma, according to rights groups.
It was reported that the Burmese authorities plan to release 3,000 prisoners before the election date, but few, if any, political prisoners are expected to be among the released, said observers.
According to a Reuters report quoting a prison official, the released prisoners will be allowed to vote in the election.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19731
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Mon Party Confident of Election Victory
By LAWI WENG Thursday, October 14, 2010
The chairman of the newly formed All Mon Regions Democratic Party (AMRDP), Nai Ngwe Thein, has predicted that the ethnic Mon party will win a majority of votes in Mon State in the Nov. 7 general election.
He added that as a former assistant director from the Ministry of Education in Mon State, he has many students in Mon State who support him and who will encourage others to vote for his party.
According to an AMRDP member who wished to remain anonymous, the party is becoming more prominent and is receiving more widespread support from people in Mon State.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, he said the platform of support includes many Buddhist monks, youths and human rights/ democracy activists. “They support the AMRDP because they believe that the Mon people should have a political party representing them in next month's election,” he said.
The head of the underground Mon Young Monks Organization in Moulmein said, “It doesn't matter whether or not a Mon party can achieve rights for our people through the election, it is our duty to help our ethnic party win more votes.”
Traditionally in Mon State, Buddhist monks play a powerful role in shaping politics and influencing the public. Mon politicians frequently seek approval from the sangha [Buddhist monkhood] before they announce their candidacy or form a political party.
“Whenever I go to a village on an election campaign, I first pay respects to the monks at a local monastery,” said Nai Ngwe Thein. “They are influential and can advise people who to vote for. Sometimes they even offer our party members food, because we are running our election campaign on our own funds.”
The AMRDP is registered to run 34 candidates to contest seven Mon townships in the general election. The party leaders have said that they face many difficulties in organizing their supporters during this election campaign because Burmese special branch police routinely follow their members to their homes and question them. They say that only the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is given free rein to campaign.
The USDP and the National Unity Party (NUP) will contest every constituency in all 10 townships of Mon State. The Democratic Party (Myanmar) and the National Democratic Force are registered to contest a handful of seats.
Meanwhile, four well-known Mon singers, including Pamo Ka Chan and Jan Yit, have composed songs for the AMRDP to aid its election campaign. The songs are due to be released on Oct. 15.
“They have been working in a studio in Rangoon and have produced CDs for distribution,” said Nai Ngwe Thein.
Several sources have told The Irrawaddy that opinion is divided among the Mon population on whether to participate in or boycott the election. Convention wisdom dictates that a majority of Mon inside Burma are inclined to vote, whereas overseas and exiled Mon are encouraging a boycott of the election.
The Mon Affairs Union—an umbrella group of Mon organizations both inside and outside Burma, including the New Mon State Party—released a statement last month urging a boycott, claiming that the election will not be free and fair, and saying that it will not bring about a political voice for the people of Mon State after the election.
In August, the Mon National Council, which is based in Australia, sent an open letter to the party leaders of AMRDP, saying that Nai Ngwe Thein's political agenda is “creating confusion” among the Mon people ahead of the election.
However, Min Nwe Soe, the secretary of AMRDP, said, “We know there are many restrictions in the electoral laws, but we are facing up to them. Our belief is that Mon people need to be represented by a political party. It is important to bring up the Mon issue at parliament. If there are no Mon parliamentarians, no one will speak up for us.”
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19727
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The General Versus The Teenage Prisoner
By WAI MOE Thursday, October 14, 2010
Rangoon Mayor, Ex Brig-Gen Aung Thein Lin, 58, a leading member of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), is facing a challenge from independent candidate Kaung Myint Htut, 35, who was one of the youngest political prisoners in Burma.
Both candidates are running for a seat in the lower house in Rangoon's South Okkalapa Township constituency in the Nov. 7 election.
“Frankly speaking, I don't believe the elections can bring the changes we would like to see,” Kaung Myint Htut said. “But I think people should be given an alternative to candidates from the USDP or the former military rulers in the National Unity Party.”
Kaung Myint Htut, an entertainment producer, attempted to form the Myanmar Democracy Congress Party with some colleagues when the Union Election Commission (UEC) called for registration of political parties in March, but the attempt failed because of financial difficulties and obstacles to membership imposed by the UEC regulations.
Kaung Myint Htut was 13-years-old when he was arrested following his involvement in the 1988 democracy uprising. He was arrested three times between 1988 and 1990 before he was sentenced to six years imprisonment in 1991.
He said he hoped his fellow student activists of the 1988 Generation who are in prison understand his involvement in the elections.
Coming from the ruling military hierarchy, however, Aung Thein Lin background is very different. He was a major in the military in 1988 and later became the commander of Light Infantry Division 101 and then deputy minister of Industry-2 as well as an executive of the junta’s mass organization, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), which was transformed into the USDP in April. He became mayor of Rangoon in 2003.
Aung Thein Lin’s association with the junta and the USDA may not help him win votes since the USDA under its modern guise as the USDP achieved infamy in the eyes of the general public in the past 17 years.
Political observers in Rangoon suggest that if the USDP does not cheat in the polls, even Aung Thein Lin might find it difficult to compete with Kaung Myint Htut, his main rival.
“Major U Aung Thein Lin’s political background as a general and member of the USDA stands in direct contrast with that of Kaung Myint Htut, who was a teenage political prisoner because of his principled stand for human rights against the military's injustice,” said a businessman in South Okkalapa who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The National Democratic Force (NDF) candidate [running in the same constituency] is also young, but when I read her campaign statements, I saw she has no political background, so I think Kaung Myint Htut will be a much stronger candidate,” he said.
But Aung Thein Lin has a much greater advantage than other candidates in his constituency since he can use his government position, state property and projects and the state media to support his campaign.
As the election approaches, state-run-newspapers have frequently published pictures of Aung Thein Lin and other USDP leaders inspecting and opening state construction projects in the country, describing them as government officials rather than USDP leaders.
Aung Thein Lin's picture was published in October when he attended opening ceremonies of construction projects in his constituency along with the commander of the Rangoon Regional Military Command, Brig-Gen Tun Than.
“I expect that I will definitely win my seat at this year's election,” Aung Thein Lin said in a report in The Myanmar Times weekly published by USDP candidate Tin Tun Oo. “If I win in South Okkalapa I will focus on speeding up development in my constituency. I believe that other elected representatives will try to do the same.”
However, Kaung Myint Htut told The Irrawaddy he is optimistic even though Aung Thein Lin is a heavyweight.
“Since the USDP candidates are government ministers and officials, they have more opportunities to promote their campaigns than other candidates,” he said. “But what the Burmese people are really looking for is someone who will stand before them and advocate for basic rights that are free and fair.”
“So I believe they will vote for me and the other candidates rather than U Aung Thein Lin and the USDP,” he said. http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=19734
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Suu Kyi fights law with law
By KHIN HNIN HTET
Published: 14 October 2010
Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said that under Burmese law it will be illegal for her to vote in upcoming elections, despite the ruling junta granting her participation rights.
The 65-year-old this week rejected the opportunity to vote, following an announcement by an official in late September that Suu Kyi and her two live-in maids “will get the right to vote. But they will not get permission to go outside on election day.”
Her dissolved National League for Democracy (NLD) party has boycotted Burma’s first elections in 20 years, due on 7 November, citing laws that ban Suu Kyi from running for office and which had appeared to prohibit any participation at all.
Nyan Win, lawyer for Suu Kyi, told DVB yesterday that she had asked him to explain to police “that there is no reason for her to vote as she understood that the election law states that those who are serving prison terms are prohibited from voting”.
A letter destined for the police’s Special Branch has been drafted and is waiting to be signed by Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 20 years under house arrest. The NLD won the 1990 elections in a landslide victory, but the military generals refused to transfer power.
The NLD has meanwhile taken to the streets to advocate a boycott of the polls. A group of the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) yesterday met with party members in Mandalay division, before heading to Kachin state later this week.
“We told our members that people should not vote if they are scared because if they vote, they will continue to be scared,” said CEC member Ohn Kyaing. “So they should boycott the election by not voting if they want to stop being scared. Our members understood what we said and they liked it.”
http://www.dvb.no/elections/suu-kyi-fights-law-with-law/12216
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Letter to Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on a Burma Policy Review
Source: Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Date: 09 Oct 2009
The Hon Stephen Smith, MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
R.G. Casey Building
John McEwen Crescent
Barton, ACT, 0221
Australia
Re: Australia's policy toward Burma
Dear Mr. Smith:
We write to you about the human rights and political situation in Burma and possible changes to Australia's policy. As the United States government concludes its review of Burma policy, we believe it is an opportune moment for other key states such as Australia to also take stock of their approach to Burma and recalibrate policies accordingly. While your immediate focus should be on the Burmese government's continued arbitrary detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and thousands more political prisoners, we believe it is still important for the Australian government to have a clearly articulated and comprehensive policy on Burma. We also believe that as intractable as the situation in Burma may seem, Australia does have options that could have a positive impact on the human rights and political situation there.
As you know, Burma remains one of the most repressive countries in the world. There are strict limits on basic freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. The intelligence and security services are omnipresent. Censorship is draconian. More than 2,100 political prisoners suffer in Burma's squalid prisons. These prisoners include many members of the political opposition, courageous protestors who peacefully took to the streets in August and September 2007, and individuals who criticized the government for its poor response to Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. All have been sentenced after unfair trials, summary hearings that often take place in the prisons themselves. The recent conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi on trumped-up charges reminded the world of the despotic nature of the military government that has been in power since 1962.
At the same time, military abuses connected to armed conflicts in ethnic minority areas continue. Human Rights Watch has for many years documented the recruitment and deployment of child soldiers, the use of forced labor, and summary killings, rape, and other abuses against minority populations, including the Rohingya, Chin, Shan, and Karen. Recent attacks against Shan and Karen communities have once again led to large-scale displacement of ethnic communities and needless death and hardship. Fighting between the Burmese army and ethnic armed groups has also driven thousands of civilians from northern Shan state into China.
In addition to rampant violations of civil and political rights, corruption and mismanagement have meant that under military rule Burma has become one of the poorest countries in Asia. The government seems to care little for the basic welfare of its people; to give but one example, while the Burmese government received an estimated US$150 million per month in gas export revenue in 2008, its last announced annual budget to address its AIDS crisis in 2007 was a mere US$172,000. While most Burmese struggle to subsist, the country's leaders have the comfort of "5 star" lives of luxury generated through corruption from the plunder of the country's natural resources.
There is no mystery in the military's long-term intentions, as the ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has been totally open about its plans to stage-manage an electoral process that will ensure continued military rule with a civilian face. Burma's generals have learned from their resounding defeat by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in 1990 and periodic protest movements that it cannot risk staging a credible election (indeed, last year the government announced a 98 percent turnout and a 92 percent vote in favor of a new constitution, just months after the 2007 street protests that rocked the country). They doubtlessly hope that this will mollify Australia, the United States, European governments, and other countries that oppose military rule, end the pressure from ASEAN states to make progress on political reform and national reconciliation, and encourage large-scale international aid flows.
Based on the experience of the 2008 referendum, the harsh prison sentences handed down to activists, the lack of serious dialogue with the political opposition and Burma's many ethnic groups, the stonewalling of United Nations and ASEAN efforts to discuss political and human rights issues, the lack of any reform measures, and the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, it is clear that there will be no meaningful change in the political direction of the country before or after the 2010 elections unless concerned governments and international bodies take steps to change the SPDC's calculations.
We recognize the scale of this challenge. The military government has close relations with its neighbors China, India, and Thailand, and has large revenue streams from these countries from the sale of gas, timber, gems, and other natural resources. For their own narrow reasons, China, Russia, and even South Africa have decided to protect the government from united action at the United Nations Security Council. Speculation of closer defense links between Burma and North Korea are also cause for grave concern to regional security in Asia.
In short, while much of the world sees Burma's rulers as isolated, ruthless, and despised, from the SPDC's perspective it has influential friends in the region that provide massive resources through the purchase of energy and other commodities, and shield Burma from concerted action at the UN, ASEAN, and other international fora on subjects like effective arms embargoes or targeted sanctions.
We welcome frequent official statements from Australia in support of a free and democratic Burma. Following the reprehensible verdict against Aung San Suu Kyi, you committed Australia to a stronger approach to Burma when you said on August 11: "Australia will now consult closely with the international community-including the United Nations and Australia's ASEAN partners-on the need to put even more pressure on the Burmese regime to move down the path of democracy. Australia maintains financial sanctions against the Burmese regime. The Government will now move to update these and keep them focused for maximum impact."
We suggest that Australian policy should, therefore, aim at making more effective all three prongs of Australia's engagement approach-diplomacy, sanctions and humanitarian aid-and not placing one ahead of the others.
© Copyright, Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MMAH-8A85P3?OpenDocument
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ASIA TIMES:Oct 15, 2010
Myanmar democracy fight polls apart
By Clifford McCoy
SINGAPORE - Myanmar's first elections in 20 years are less than a month away, and the country's main pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), will not participate despite winning a landslide at the annulled 1990 polls.
The party, led by the detained former Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was officially banned this year after it declined to register for the polls. Instead of challenging the ruling military junta on what it perceives an unequal electoral playing field, the NLD will immerse itself in "people-politics" to maintain a voice in the transition from military to civilian rule.
NLD vice chairman U Tin Oo recently spoke to Asia Times Online in Singapore about the NLD's future. "Everything is purposely
[done] to marginalize the NLD," said the 83-year-old, a former military general and defense minister.
"The military junta wishes to marginalize Aung San Suu Kyi from the election." Even before the NLD refused to participate, Suu Kyi was legally banned from contesting the polls because she was married to a foreign national. (Her husband, Oxford University academic Michael Aris, died in 1999.)
The NLD was the runaway winner of the 1990 elections, receiving nearly 59% of the vote. The junta's National Union Party (NUP) garnered a mere 21%. The polls were judged by international observers as free and fair, but facing defeat, the military declared the elections were not for seats in parliament but rather a national convention to design a new constitution.
Soon thereafter, the military launched a campaign of harassment against the NLD, including jailing its members and shuttering its headquarters. The harassment took a violent turn in 2003 when Tin Oo and Suu Kyi, freshly released from a period of house arrest, traveled the country to regalvanize the party's base.
Their caravan was attacked by pro-government thugs who killed an estimated 100 NLD supporters in an orgy of violence. Both Suu Kyi and Tin Oo were arrested in the assault's aftermath. Tin Oo was released from detention in February this year and resumed immediately his role as the NLD's vice chairman.
Meanwhile, the junta's long-awaited new charter was finally passed in a May 2008 national referendum - many believe in a pre-ordained result.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has since moved to the next step in its so-called "roadmap to democracy" by calling for parliamentary elections on November 7. Many believe the polls will be similarly skewed in favor of junta-linked parties and candidates. The new parliament by law reserves 25% of its seats for military members.
The run-up to the polls has already been criticized by several foreign governments and organizations, including the United States and even United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Parties connected to the regime, especially the Union Solidarity and Development Party, an offshoot of the junta's mass organization the Union Solidarity and Development Association, and the NUP, have received advantages through support from the government and state agencies.
Widespread criticism has also focused on the regime-appointed Election Commission, which has barred several parties, especially those deriving support from ethnic ceasefire organizations, from participating in the polls. Election rules have also made it almost impossible for parties to contest the elections at all levels nationwide.
The NLD voted in March against registering for the elections, a move that resulted in its official disbandment in September. According to Tin Oo, the party's decision to boycott was taken after two proposals put forward to the military regime were rejected.
The first proposal demanded that the junta free all political prisoners ahead of the polls and for the regime to honor the 1990 election results. The second called for a tripartite dialogue between the junta, the democratic opposition and ethnic groups as part of the transition towards democracy.
"If the State Peace and Development Council agreed, the NLD would endorse the process and carry on with the elections," said Tin Oo.
Instead, the regime said that for the NLD to join the election process, it must endorse the 2008 constitution, reject the 1990 election result and dismiss Aung San Suu Kyi from the party. The junta also refused to release nearly 2,200 political prisoners. "How can we agree?" asked Tin Oo.
People-power politics
Most NLD members voted not to participate in the elections during a meeting of 100 central committee and other key members. Several members, however, broke off to form the National Democratic Force led by former NLD member and veteran politician Khin Maung Swe; it will contest the polls.
For Tin Oo and other NLD stalwarts, the party will continue its activities despite its official disbandment. "We will carry on like the NLD is still in existence," said Tin Oo. "The NLD will continue to do politics." Rather than function as a political party with elected members in parliament, the NLD will take its actions directly to the people, he said.
"The members will move into the masses, stay with them. They will carry out acts under the existence of law. Even if there is no flag, no sign, no office, it doesn't matter. We will do people-politics, not party politics. We will survive in the people."
The NLD's grassroots campaign is already up and running. One of its programs looks after the families of political prisoners. Another tends to HIV/AIDS sufferers, whose numbers have recently swelled in an absence of adequate public-health facilities. A third tends to the welfare of workers and farmers, including reporting on government use of forced labor, recruitment of children into the armed forces and official land-grabbing.
"These are the things we can carry on," said Tin Oo, who was first jailed in 1977 by then-dictator Ne Win on suspicions he withheld information of a plot to assassinate the leader and stage a coup. "They seem like social matters, but they are our politics. They are the ideas and the thoughts for the time after Aung San Suu Kyi's release."
Suu Kyi is scheduled for release from house arrest, where she had been held 14 of the past 20 years, in November after the polls have been held. The NLD clearly hopes to maintain a high profile through its social outreach programs, despite its lack of political status or representation in the new parliament. Tin Oo also hints at post-election accommodation.
"We want political stability, that is the main thing. The junta maintains stability with armed repression. We believe in creating trust. We want to trust the army and the army to trust us," said Tin Oo. "After the elections, there is still a need for talks. Talks between the government and the military need to be inclusive, all parties including the ethnic groups. Aung San Suu Kyi has expressed her openness to help the regime."
At the same time, the NLD has endorsed a United Nations Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity by the military regime, as recommended by UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana.
"I signed for the commission," Tin Oo said. "The report [from Quintana] was strong enough. The junta has never complied with previous advice [from UN rapporteurs]. It is the kind of language the junta will understand."
Tin Oo also makes a point of placing Myanmar's future politics within a geostrategic context, with the NLD favoring ties with democratic over authoritarian nations. "For [Myanmar], China is a big tiger, India is a big tiger. India and China compete and this will affect us. This is why we must make friends with democratic countries," he said.
"We realize the danger ahead. The government gives concessions to India and China, but they don't take into account the long-term danger. We need peaceful coexistence. We need a friend. We don't know the future [in regards to what competition between India and China might bring]. We see the US as a democratic country."
"I am very sorry about China. I met Mao Zedong two or three times when I headed the [Myanmar government] party to China. We were received well, with a red carpet. Mao said, 'The oppressed people of China have stood up. The oppressed people of Burma [Myanmar] will stand up.' It was very nice to hear that. [Now] China must see what is true and right, who is the oppressed and the oppressor."
Clifford McCoy is a freelance journalist. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LJ15Ae01.html
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Concern greets new Security Council arrivals
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 14 October 2010
India and South Africa will take up a two-year membership of the UN Security Council next year but their appointment to the powerful grouping has concerned Burma observers.
They are among five UN member states, including Colombia, Portugal and Germany, recently appointed to the Council’s temporary seats. According to analysts, however, they have little leverage over the permanent members – China, Russia, Britain, US and France.
South Africa’s last stint as a Council member came under fire from rights groups after it voted against a resolution in 2007 condemning rights abuses by the junta in Burma. It did the same to prevent the Council from criticising the Zimbabwean government, and in both cases Russia and China had led the defence.
It is in the Security Council that some of the fieriest international debates over Burma have played out, with the chamber pitting two of the junta’s strongest critics, the US and UK, against its key economic and security allies, Russia and China. But while China has used its power of veto only six times, it is the US that leads the way with 82.
This conflict of interest could scupper any progress towards indicting junta chief Than Shwe at the International Criminal Court (ICC), an issue that has grown in prominence in recent months and which has received backing from key Security Council players, including the US and France.
India’s admittance will raise further concerns about the Council’s power to take any action on Burma. Delhi’s once-vocal condemnation of the junta changed in the mid-1990s to a policy of engagement, primarily to secure economic interests, and it has shifted its position to one of caution in criticising the generals.
“The fact that India and South Africa are on board probably means that the ICC issue is now further away than before,” said political analyst Aung Naing Oo, who claimed that the chances of indictment were slim in the first place.
“India is very close to the Burmese military, and they have a bigger fish to fry. They also have to look at the bigger picture: geopolitically, there are issues [other than Burma] that are imperative to India, and if it ever comes to a vote [on the ICC], I’m not sure that India will vote yes: they may abstain.”
South Africa has however been critical of the ruling junt, with comparisons made between its 1983 constitution, which looked to legitimise apartheid rule through only token participation of ethnic groups, with Burma’s controversial 2008 constitution.
South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim told DVB that the transition to democracy that the junta promises after the 7 November elections cannot happen unless certain conditions are met.
“The [Burmese] government needs to create conditions for free dialogue, as well as releasing all political prisoners and lifting the ban on political parties and activists. Importantly, like South Africa, it should allow all exile to come back and participate in the dialogue.
http://www.dvb.no/news/concern-greets-new-security-council-arrivals/12222
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Suu Kyi: I won't vote in coming Myanmar election
From Kocha Olarn, CNN
October 14, 2010 2:42 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi has rejected voting in Myanmar's coming election, the country's first in two decades, her lawyer said.
"Since NLD (National League for Democracy) is not participating in this coming election, she doesn't want to vote," her lawyer Nyan Win said Thursday.
The National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi's party, announced in March that it would not participate in the November 7 election. The party had refused to register under the country's new constitution, which automatically made the NLD illegal.
The constitution requires more than 100 military nominees in parliament, which critics say is aimed at tightening the regime's grip on Myanmar.
The country, also is known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Critics say the coming election aims to create a facade of democracy.
Myanmar's military regime informed Suu Kyi that she has the right to vote, her lawyer said.
Her party won a landslide election victory in 1990, but the military junta rejected the results.
The regime recently passed a law that made Suu Kyi ineligible to stand in the November 7 election because of her court conviction. The Nobel laureate has called the law unjust.
Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She has spent most of the past 20 years under house arrest.
An estimated 2,000 political prisoners remain behind bars in Myanmar.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/14/myanmar.suu.kyi.vote/index.html
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ASEAN Secretary-General Hopes Burma's Elections Mark New Stage
Ron Corben | Bangkok 13 October 2010
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, 13 Oct 2010
The secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has called on Burma's government to ensure the coming elections help lead to national reconciliation. Surin Pitsuwan hopes Burma's conflicts with the international community over its human rights record may also be resolved after the vote.
When Burma - also known as Myanmar - became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian nations in 1997, many countries criticized ASEAN leaders because of Burma's questionable human rights record.
Burma has even created divisions within ASEAN, because some members, such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, have pressed the military government for political reforms. Other members, particularly Laos and Cambodia, disagreed.
After years of prodding, Burma is holding parliamentary elections on November 7th, the first in 20 years.
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan Wednesday said he hopes the elections will offer a chance for national reconciliation and help end Burma's international isolation.
"Myanmar has been a major issue for ASEAN in its cooperation, interaction with the global community," he said. "We would like to see this issue behind us. And the only way that that can be done is to make sure that this election is going to be a relatively effective mechanism for national reconciliation."
In a news conference in Bangkok, Surin also said the elections need to be accepted as legitimate by a majority of Burmese.
Human rights groups and several Western countries call the vote a sham aimed at ensuring continued military rule. The armed forces are guaranteed a quarter of the seats in the new parliament.
Strict election laws meant that several political parties, including the leading opposition group, the National League for Democracy, could not take part in the vote. The laws required parties to expel members under detention, including the NLD's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest. The NLD refused to do so, and the government ordered it disbanded.
The government also will not set up polling stations in several border regions that are under the control of ethnic militias.
Surin says the aim should be that the elections produce a government acceptable to the international community.
"Now the date is set everybody is anticipating - with a sense of relief - that it is coming, real, definite," he said. "We hope that it will be accepted and it will function effectively, and after that recognition. All these things are in anticipation is just have to wait for the real result coming but all of us hope that Myanmar will cease to be an issue of irritation between ASEAN and the rest of the international community."
Several countries, including the United States have imposed economic sanctions on Burma's government because of its poor human rights record. The U.S., the European Union and several nations have long called on ASEAN to push Burma to make reforms. But there have been few changes. Rights groups say Burma holds more than 2,000 political prisoners and continues to repress free speech and use forced labor to keep the population in line.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/ASEAN-Secretary-General-Hopes-Burmas-Elections-Mark-New-Stage--104854479.html
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Asian Correspondents
Mr. Surin Pitsuwan’s dream of Burma will not come true
Oct. 14 2010 - 08:01 pm
Zin Linn
The secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has called on Burma's government to ensure the coming elections help lead to national reconciliation. Surin Pitsuwan hopes Burma's conflicts with the international community over its human rights record may also be resolved after the vote, according to VOA’s Ron Corben from Bangkok.
When Burma - also known as Myanmar - became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian nations in 1997, many countries criticized ASEAN leaders because of Burma's questionable human rights record.
Burma has suffered under military boots since 1962. The regime has earned a reputation as one of the world's worst human rights violators. It brutally suppressed pro-democracy movements in 1988, during the Depayin conspiracy on May 30, 2003, and the Saffron Revolution in September 2007, as well as many other sporadic crackdowns.
The junta has arrested over 2,200 political dissidents including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been confined to her residence for 15 of the last 21 years.
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said on 13 October he hopes the elections will offer a chance for national reconciliation and help end Burma's international isolation.
However, in last July, Burma's ethnic Karen communities and rights groups said Burma's armed forces stepped up attacks on villages in eastern Karen state, including the torching of several homes forcing hundreds to escape into the jungles. Rights groups fear the attacks may be the start of a campaign ahead of upcoming elections this year.
The military forces later torched the villages forcing more than 900 people to flee into the nearby jungles. Zipporah Sein, general-secretary of the Karen National Union, fears the attacks are part of a new campaign of intimidation by the military ahead of national elections scheduled for later this year, as reported by VOA last July.
Surin Pitsuwan hopes Burma's conflicts with the international community over its human rights record may also be resolved after the vote, according to VOA’s Ron Corben from Bangkok.
When Burma became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian nations in 1997, many countries criticized ASEAN leaders because of Burma's questionable human rights record.
Burma has suffered under military boots since 1962. The regime has earned a reputation as one of the world's worst human rights violators. It harshly suppressed pro-democracy movements in 1988, during the assassination attack on Aung San Suu Kyi at Depayin on May 30, 2003, and the Saffron Revolution in September 2007, as well as many other sporadic crackdowns.
The junta has arrested over 2,200 political dissidents including Suu Kyi, who has been confined to her residence for 15 of the last 21 years. The secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has called on Burma's junta to guarantee the coming polls help lead to national reconciliation. However, dreaming of reconciliation without releasing political prisoners is building castles in the air.
Burma has even created disagreement within ASEAN, because some members, such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, have hard-pressed the military regime for political change. Other members, particularly Laos and Cambodia, are different.
After pressing on for several years, Burma is holding elections on 7 November, the first in 20 years.
"Myanmar has been a major issue for ASEAN in its cooperation, interaction with the global community," Surin said. "We would like to see this issue behind us. And the only way that that can be done is to make sure that this election is going to be a relatively effective mechanism for national reconciliation."
However, many critics are skeptical, saying the regime has made promises of reconciliation in the past without honoring them. Kraisak Choonhavan, president of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), said the junta has often stated that it would respect democratic values, but has constantly refused to let its opponents participate freely in the political process.
Analysts say the 2008 Constitution and the junta's unyielding adherence to its seven-step roadmap in the direction of the 2010 elections will create a highly unstable political climate. Without an agreement on national reconciliation, the elections will only lead to further political mayhem.
The Burmese generals’ intentions are clearly visible. Their practices are rooted in disrespect for human rights. Political prisoners, who stand on principle, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are not likely to be released before November polls.
Although, Mr. Surin Pitsuwan likes to see national reconciliation in Burma after November elections, the ground situation will not allow fulfilling his hope. http://asiancorrespondent.com/uzinlinn/mr.-surin-pitsuwan%E2%80%99s-dream-of-burma-will-not-come-true
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Burmese Tycoon Buys the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel
By HSET NAING Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Htoo Trading Company, owned by Tay Za, a Burmese businessman with close ties to Burma's military regime, has bought the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township in Rangoon for US $29 million, according to sources.
Owned by a Burmese-born American, Robert Thein Pe, who controls the Baiyoke Group of Hotels, the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel has operated under a 30-year contract with the government and has 13 years left on the contract, sources said.
“The hotel was sold to the Htoo company for $29 million and representatives from Htoo will join the hotel directors' meeting on Oct. 14,” a member of the hotel's board of directors told The Irrawaddy.
The hotel staff will be retained, he said, and their salaries will be increased by 10 percent. Whether the name of the hotel will be changed is not known, he said.
A shop owner in the hotel's gems and jewelery sale center said that because of the change in ownership all shops in the center will close by November.
“We were told on Oct. 8 that we would have to move out by November at the latest,” said the shop owner.
An official from the hotel said the gems and jewelery center, which has a total of 60 shops, has been open for about nine months.
A training school and a seafood restaurant owned by the hotel will be transferred to Htoo company, the official said.
“The training school will host training in the future as usual. A large-scale renovation of training venues will be carried out,” said an instructor with the school.
Observers say that there is speculation that Htoo Trading Company will also acquire the Traders Hotel, owned by the Shangri-La Group, and the well-known Strand Hotel, which is known internationally and is more than 100 years old. The rumors could not be confirmed by The Irrawaddy.
Two years ago, the Htoo company bought a hotel in Rangoon owned by a Japanese company and changed the name to the Chatrium Hotel.
Apart from hotels, the Htoo Trading Company has investments in enterprises such as airlines, communication, logging, mining and electricity.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19733
Sunday, November 14, 2010
News & Articles on Burma-Thursday, 14 October, 2010
Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi released
Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi released
Buzz up!205 votes ShareretweetEmailPrint Play Video Reuters – Suu Kyi released from house arrest
Slideshow:Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Freed AP – Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi talks to the supporters as she stands at the gate of … – 25 mins ago
YANGON, Myanmar – Pro-democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi walked free Saturday after more than seven years under house arrest, welcomed by thousands of cheering supporters outside the decaying lakefront villa that has been her prison.
Her guards effectively announced the end of her detention, pulling back the barbed-wire barriers that sealed off her potholed street and suddenly allowing thousands of expectant supporters to surge toward the house. Many chanted her name as they ran. Some wept.
A few minutes later, with the soldiers and police having evaporated into the Yangon twilight, she climbed atop a stepladder behind the gate as the crowd began singing the national anthem.
"I haven't seen you for a long time," the 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize Laureate said to laughter, smiling deeply as she held the metal spikes that top the gate. When a supporter handed up a bouquet, she pulled out a flower and wove it into her hair.
Speaking briefly in Burmese, she told the crowd, which quickly swelled to as many as 5,000 people: "If we work in unity, we will achieve our goal."
"We have a lot of things to do," said Suu Kyi, the charismatic and relentlessly outspoken woman who has come to symbolize the struggle for democracy in the isolated and secretive nation once known as Burma. The country has been ruled by the military since 1962.
But while her release thrilled her supporters — and also clearly thrilled her — it came just days after an election that was swept by the ruling junta's proxy political party and decried by Western nations as a sham designed to perpetuate authoritarian control.
Many observers have questioned whether it was timed by the junta to distract the world's attention from the election. It is also unlikely the ruling generals will allow Suu Kyi, who drew huge crowds of supporters during her few periods of freedom, to actively and publicly pursue her goal of bringing democracy to Myanmar.
While welcoming the release, European Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso urged that no restrictions be placed on her.
"It is now crucial that Aung San Suu Kyi has unrestricted freedom of movement and speech and can participate fully in her country's political process," he said.
Click image to see photos of Aung San Suu Kyi's release
REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
Other international leaders also welcomed the end to her detention.
President Barack Obama called Suu Kyi "a hero of mine."
"Whether Aung San Suu Kyi is living in the prison of her house, or the prison of her country, does not change the fact that she, and the political opposition she represents, has been systematically silenced, incarcerated, and deprived of any opportunity to engage in political processes," he said in a statement.
While the government had not announced the date of the release, Suu Kyi's lawyer had said the detention would end Saturday. Her supporters began to gather near the house starting Friday.
Their reactions reflected Suu Kyi's widespread popularity.
"She's our country's hero," said Tin Tin Yu, a 20-year-old university student, standing near the house later Saturday night. "Our election was a sham. Everyone knows it, but they have guns so what can we do? She's the only one who can make our country a democracy. I strongly believe it."
Critics say the Nov. 7 elections were manipulated to give the pro-military party a sweeping victory. Results have been released piecemeal and already have given the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party a majority in both houses of Parliament.
The new government is unlikely to win the international legitimacy that it craves simply by releasing Suu Kyi because the recent elections were so obviously skewed, according Trevor Wilson, former Australian ambassador to Myanmar.
What happens next will depend on what kind of restrictions the regime puts on Suu Kyi — and what she says if she is allowed to speak, said Wilson.
"We will have to wait and see. It could be a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game," Wilson said. "The regime may wait for her to make a tactical error and crack down on her again."
Suu Kyi — who was barred from running in the elections — has said she would help probe allegations of voting fraud, according to Nyan Win, who is a spokesman for her party, which was officially disbanded for refusing to register for the polls.
Such actions pose the sort of challenge the military has reacted to in the past by detaining Suu Kyi.
Myanmar's last elections in 1990 were won overwhelmingly by her National League for Democracy, but the military refused to hand over power and instead clamped down on opponents.
Suu Kyi's release gives the junta some ammunition against critics of the election and the government's human rights record, which includes the continued detention of some 2,200 political prisoners and brutal military campaigns against ethnic minorities.
Despite that, it was hard not to see some hope in her release.
"There is no formal opposition (in Myanmar) so her release is going to represent an opportunity to re-energize and reorganize this opposition," said Maung Zarni, an exiled dissident and Myanmar research fellow at the London School of Economics.
But he also said the release was "a tactical move by the regime. It is not out of compassion or as an act of adherence to any legal norms."
The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which tracks political detainees in Myanmar, drew attention to continuing abuses.
"In the absence of rule of law, with the lack of an impartial judiciary and with laws that criminalize basic civil and political rights, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will continue to face the threat of re-arrest," said the group's Joint Secretary, Bo Kyi. "Daw" is a Burmese term of respect for an older woman.
Suu Kyi was convicted last year of violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly sheltering an American man who swam uninvited to her lakeside home, extending a period of continuous detention that began in 2003 after her motorcade was ambushed in northern Myanmar by a government-backed mob.
Suu Kyi, something of an accidental political leader, took up the democracy struggle in 1988.
Having spent much of her life abroad, she returned home to take care of her ailing mother just as mass demonstrations were breaking out against 25 years of military rule. She was quickly thrust into a leadership role, mainly because she was the daughter of Aung San, who led Myanmar to independence from Britain before his assassination by political rivals.
She rode out the military's bloody suppression of street demonstrations to help found the NLD. Her defiance gained her fame and honor, most notably the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
Her popularity threatened the country's new military rulers. In 1989, she was detained on trumped-up national security charges and put under house arrest. She was not released until 1995. Out of the last 21 years, she has been jailed or under house arrest for more than 15.
Suu Kyi's freedom had been a key demand of Western nations and groups critical of the military regime's poor human rights record. The military government, seeking to burnish its international image, had responded previously by offering to talk with her, only to later shy away from serious negotiations.
Awaiting her release in neighboring Thailand was the younger of her two sons, Kim Aris, who is seeking the chance to see his mother for the first time in 10 years. Aris lives in Britain and has been repeatedly denied visas.
Her late husband, the British scholar Michael Aris, raised their sons in England. Their eldest son, Alexander Aris, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on his mother's behalf in 1991 and reportedly lives in the United States.
Michael Aris died of cancer in 1999 at age 53 after having been denied visas to see his wife for the three years before his death. Suu Kyi could have left Myanmar to see her family but decided not to, fearing the junta would not allow her to return.
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Associated Press writers Kay Johnson and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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