News & Articles on Burma-Saturday, 12 February, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Saturday, 12 February, 2011
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Burma strongman urges protection of 'democracy'
NLD in Disarray
Speaking to the 'People's Loudspeaker'
Australian editor of Myanmar newspaper jailed
Watchdog slams Myanmar after reporter jailed
Suu Kyi sees no reason to lift sanctions
Than Shwe Warns Against Disrupting 'Democracy'
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Burma strongman urges protection of 'democracy'

* Published: 12/02/2011 at 03:31 PM
* Online news: Asia

Burma's junta chief told people to safeguard the country's new "democracy," a day after parliament approved a cabinet packed with retired military officers.

Myanmar's strongman Than Shwe, pictured in 2010. Myanmar's new junta-backed government is packed with retired military officers who were approved by parliament as cabinet ministers on Friday, according to officials.

Senior general Than Shwe on Saturday called for people to "tackle any forms of disruptions to the new system" in a Union Day address delivered by newly-appointed vice president, Tin Aung Myint Oo.

"The democracy system introduced to the Union of Burma is still in its infancy," the message said.

"Therefore, it is required of the entire national people to safeguard and build together the newly-introduced democracy system, which has been adopted with the combined efforts of the government, the people and the Tatmadaw (army)."

Former generals remain firmly in charge in Burma's new political system, which has been criticised as a sham aimed at hiding army power behind a nominally civilian system.

A quarter of the parliamentary seats were kept aside for the military even before the country's first poll in 20 years in November, which was marred by the absence of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) has no voice in the new parliament after it was disbanded for opting to boycott the election.

Last week the country named retired general and key Than Shwe ally Thein Sein as its new president.

Thein Sein, along with a clutch of generals, shed his army uniform to contest last year's election as head of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which claimed an overwhelming majority in the poll.

Officials said Friday that half of the 30 ministers that will make up Thein Sein's cabinet served under the previous military regime and only four have no army background.

Than Shwe, who took control of the country in 1992, has yet to indicate his plans for the future, but observers believe he is likely to pull the strings behind the scenes.

The 64th Union Day anniversary ceremony was attended by legislators and government officials in the capital Naypyidaw. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/221220/burma-strongman-urges-protection-of-democracy
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NEWS ANALYSIS
NLD in Disarray
By ASIA SENTINEL Saturday, February 12, 2011

Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy, of which she is the spiritual leader, appear in disarray about whether to continue to urge western governments to maintain their sanctions against the regime in Burma.

The Nobel Prize-winning opposition icon amazed Burma watchers by calling on members of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos to provide investment in technology and infrastructure. In a recorded audio address to the captains of western capitalism she suggested that investment was needed and welcome provided that it took account of the rights of workers and of social and environmental issues.

Shortly before the Davos address, however, in a long interview with the Financial Times she appeared to be sitting on the sanctions fence, encouraging tourism but only so long as it did not benefit the generals – a curious position given that few tourist have any way of knowing who owns what hotel or gets a cut of the taxi business.

To many the Davos address seemed a major departure from Suu Kyi's years of insistence on the merits of economic and personnel sanctions as a means of bringing about political change and of denying the military rulers and their cronies of some of the fruits of oppression and corruption. It prompted attacks on her in the columns of The Irrawaddy, the Thailand based voice of Burmese exiles.

Western governments have long had misgivings about the sanctions given that China, Thailand, India, Korea and other countries with significant economic interests there declined to take part. But such is the esteem in which Aung San Suu Kyi is held that western governments have been loath to abandon sanctions so long as she supported them.

But has she and the NLD actually changed their stance? Since the Davos meeting some NLD sources have been quoted by Irrawaddy as saying that she wants to maintain economic sanctions. But elsewhere it has been reported that the NLD wants talks with western governments to discuss the future of sanctions.

Reading between the lines, it appears that the NLD is drifting, unsurely, to a position of urging the maintenance of existing sanctions on generals and other key regime personnel while backing off from insisting on trade and investment boycotts. But shifting policy is never easy and Aung San Suu Kyi has to steer a course between offending her hard line loyalists and attracting back the support of those who feel that she has been overly stubborn and inflexible, focused on constitutional more than livelihood issues.

The logic of sanctions has been that it was the one card the NLD, and the western governments, held in their efforts to induce the Than Shwe regime to soften its stance towards her and begin a dialogue with the opposition. Some credit sanctions with her release from house arrest and hoped that in conjunction with the US willingness to engage with the regime would ultimately result in more progress.

However, by staging the November "elections" the regime appears to have out-manouvered the NLD whose refusal to take part in the show lead to breakaways and considerable dissatisfaction. Many opposition-inclined people who felt that the electoral process and new constitution, however flawed, provided a small wedge which might lead to wider political change. It has also proved difficult to sustain the argument that sanctions sanctions were hurting the generals not the populace given the ease with which the former were able to get rich through the gems, timber, gas and drugs trade with the immediate neighbors.

The argument is gaining ground among many NLD supporters, though not necessarily the leadership, that the more western tourism and investment the better, which will not only help the economy but, more importantly, increase access to the outside world and ideas of free flow of both information and trade.

Western government meanwhile are all to conscious of their own lack of leverage over the regime and sense that their own strategic and economic interests would be better served by offering an alternative source of investment. Even the regime itself may be concerned about over reliance on China, and particularly the dominant role of Chinese traders in Mandalay and the northeast.

A permanent and significant policy shift by the NLD may also to wait to see whether the new government in Naypiydaw shows signs of conducting more rational economic policies than hitherto and of genuinely welcoming foreign investment from sources less inclined to do cozy deals with the generals and their business surrogates.
Nothing will happen quickly if only because the generals are xenophobic and particularly anti-western, and they despise Aung San Suu Kyi even more than she despises them.

But the bottom line is that the NLD is shifting reluctantly and, some say belatedly, to take account of local and foreign political realities.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20740
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Speaking to the 'People's Loudspeaker'
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Saturday, February 12, 2011

British filmmaker Rex Bloomstein
BANGKOK — Maung Thura, known and loved throughout Burma as Zarganar, was jailed in 2008 for 35 years after criticizing the government's response to Cyclone Nargis, which left at least 140,000 people dead. The year before, British filmmaker Rex Bloomstein met Zarganar in Burma, never using the footage he shot. Later, upon hearing about his arrest and imprisonment, Bloomstein returned to Burma with German comedian Michael Mittermeier. As expected, their attempts to meet Zarganar came to nought, and the pressure-cooker, paranoid atmosphere inside the country meant that none of Zarganar's friends would agree to be interviewed for the documentary. On at least one occasion, the team came close to arrest.

“The Prison Where I Live” was screened in Bangkok over the past week at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand and the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre. Irrawaddy correspondent Simon Roughneen caught up with Rex Bloomstein, who was in town to discuss the movie and the challenges of filming under the nose of one of the world's most repressive regimes.

Question: Burma is infamous as a place where freedom of speech is non-existent, where the media is heavily censored, where reporters are given lengthy jail terms for working with foreign journalists. What was it like working inside Burma as a foreign journalist?

Answer: Firstly, I am not a journalist, but I say that with the greatest respect for the best journalism, which is fantastically important. I made a film on freedom of expression, which led to this film. As a documentary maker I am doing something different, I don’t have the time pressures a journalist faces, and I have less excuse to be simplistic. But ultimately we are all concerned with the same thing, namely exploring in a truthful way the lives of others, and in Zarganar's case attempting to convey the profound injustice of his sentence and what it means for Burma.

The most profound problem in Burma is fear, because the regime exercises its control through spies, agents and informers. People are worried about who is watching them, and those who stick their head above the parapet and challenge how things are, including Zarganar, are imprisoned and tortured.

Those who keep their head down can presumably lead some kind of normal life, but Zarganar is not one of those. Zarganar is fearless.

When Michael and I tried to talk to those colleagues of Zarganar's who had initially agreed to participate in the movie, we found this too dangerous after arriving in Burma.

We went in as tourists, we knew that we would endanger people if they collaborated. But there was a price to be paid even under those prohibitive circumstances, as one of our fixers had to flee the country after we were spotted filming near the prison in Myitkina, where Zarganar is held.

There are ethical issues and practical challengers when working inside a place like Burma, and it is very difficult to meet all of these simultaneously,

Q: Can you tell the readers a little about the genesis of the film? How did it come about, and what format is it in?

A: I filmed Zarganar in 2007 but never used the footage for various reasons. I was called 15 months later by a NGO in London, and I was told he was in jail. I had three and a half hours of footage, and went about trying to use that for a film. Note that in normal circumstances, you would make a documentary using 50,100 or more hours of footage, out of which would come the end product, be that an hour or ninety minutes, whatever the case may be.

To the best if my knowledge, the interview footage with Zarganar is the first such footage that has been filmed or broadcast. Despite the fact that there were only three and a half hours, it seemed to be that there was a lot of content, given the range of subjects we covered.

Through various contacts, I was put in touch with a leading German comedian, Michael Mittermeier, who has a deep interest in Burma, has visited the country, supports charities there. I was intrigued by the fact that a contemporary German comedian was so interested in a brother comedian in Burma. So when we looked at the material, we decided to go into Burma.

Q: During the making of the film there were some moments of particular danger, of high tension. Can you take us through some of these again? What was it like when the work was in progress? one example that stands out is when you all returned to the outskirts of Myitkina prison to do a second take. Do you feel that was somewhat foolhardly?

A: Yes, I do, and I said in the film that we should not have done it. But we wanted to get as close to Zarganar as we could. I was struck by the fact that a German comedian was trying to get as close as he could to man he feels is a kindred spirit. The dangers were such that we backed away from our first attempt to film near the jail, but thought that we should go back.

But as soon as we started, we were spotted, and we knew we had to get away. We were lucky, we thought we were going to be arrested, either there in the town, or back in Rangoon. They took the details of our vehicle. That led to our fixer having to leave. But we waited frankly to be arrested, we assumed it was passed up the chain of command, but nobody came.

We took small domestic-looking cameras, so we were unobtrusive with our equipment and therefore, I think, we managed to get out OK.

Q: Do you have any contact directly or indirectly with Zarganar now? I recently interviewed Htein Lin, who is listed as a consultant to your film. He said that Zarganar's health has improved somewhat of late. Do you have any more up-to-date information?

A: I don't have anything new on that. The man has another 33 years to serve of his sentence. He has had many health problems and a number of illnesses as I documented, not to mention the stress and trauma of jail, of being separated from his wife and children. Can he survive while he is so vulnerable? Can you imagine it—the rest of your life, 33 years, in jail?

He and more than 2,000 others are political prisoners in Burma. The junta is playing a cat and mouse game with the future of their country, and uses Burma as a means for sustaining itself in power. They will decide totally arbitrarily whether these prisoners will ever emerge. That is a disgrace. If the elections are not to go down as a total sham, let us give the huge benefit of the doubt that the new legislature can produce something positive. But we must retain hope that the generals will see sense and allow freedoms to emerge, though the world is skeptical. I am always hopeful, though, that we will see Zarganar free sooner rather than later.

Q: And finally, tell us something about Zarganar the man. What were your impressions of him after meeting him?

A: one of the most open human beings I have ever met, totally modest, and displaying a total commitment to exposing the wrongs and injustices of the country in which he lives. A very sharp observer of his country, a very funny man with a wonderful sense of timing, a multi-talented man, producer, songwriter. What a gift to any country this man would be, but here he is in jail.

He told me he would never satirize Gandhi, Buddha or Aung San. I asked him would he join Aung San Suu Kyi's party. He said no, that his role is to be independent. And that is him—a great independent spirit, but one who has crossed the line to become an activist as well as a performer, to take part in the struggles of the society he comments on. He calls himself the People's Loudspeaker, and that is so true.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20742
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Australian editor of Myanmar newspaper jailed
Posted: Feb 12, 2011 6:07 PM

BANGKOK (AP) - The Australian editor and co-owner of an English-language newspaper in Myanmar has been arrested in what an associate suggests is a business dispute.

Myanmar Times' editor-in-chief Ross Dunkley is imprisoned in Yangon's main Insein Prison for violating a section of the immigration law applying to overstaying a visa, a business partner said Saturday. The offense is punishable by a maximum jail term of two years, or a fine, or both.

David Armstrong, Dunkley's partner is a separate Cambodian newspaper venture, the Phnom Penh Post, issued a statement saying that Thursday's arrest "coincides with tense and protracted discussions ... about the future direction of the publishing group, ownership issues and senior leadership roles" he has been holding with his Myanmar business partners. He did not elaborate.

The dispute comes as Myanmar's long-ruling junta is preparing to hand over the reins of government to a new, nominally civilian government packed with its allies. With the military expected to continue to exercise power from behind the scenes, no loosening of restrictions on the press is expected. All daily newspapers and electronic media are directly controlled by the government

Dunkley is known for founding English-language newspapers, often with a business emphasis, in authoritarian countries. He started a similar venture in communist Vietnam in the 1990s and bought Cambodia's well-established but financially weak Phnom Penh Post two years ago. He founded the Myanmar Times in 2000 during a period of relative liberalization under the ruling junta. The weekly also has a Myanmar-language counterpart.

The Myanmar Times uses many professional journalism conventions - naming sources, portraying opposing sides of issues - though it generally pulls its punches when it comes to criticizing the government, which tightly restricts what is published.

Armstrong said in his statement, published on the website of the Phnom Penh Post, that Dunkley will be brought to court on Feb. 24.

"His lawyers in Yangon say Mr. Dunkley is confident he can answer any charges or allegations made against him and is looking forward to returning to lead the Myanmar Times group in the exciting times ahead for the publishers and the country," Armstrong said.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. http://www.abc6.com/Global/story.asp?S=14017642
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STRAITS TIMES:Feb 12, 2011
Watchdog slams Myanmar after reporter jailed

NAYPYIDAW - A MEDIA watchdog called on Myanmar on Saturday to end a 'despicable' junta policy of jailing independent journalists after a video reporter was imprisoned for 13 years.

Maung Maung Zeya, 58, was sentenced on the same day last week that Myanmar announced a new president, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said, amid fears that the military has kept a firm grip on the new political system.

The prison term 'should dispel any illusions that Burma is on a new path', said CPJ Asia programme coordinator Bob Dietz, using the country's former name.

'The old junta's pretence that its elections would install a democratic government has been revealed for the sham that it really is.' Myanmar's November election was marred by the absence of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation, while its new political system has been criticised as a way of hiding army power behind civilian rule.

A key retired general, Prime Minister Thein Sein, is the new president as well as head of the junta-backed USDP, which claimed an overwhelming majority in the poll.

Maung Maung Zeya and his son Sithu Zeya, both said to be reporters for the banned Democratic Voice of Burma exile media group, were arrested for filming at the scene of bomb blasts in Yangon last year. -- AFP http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_634290.html
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Suu Kyi sees no reason to lift sanctions
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Saturday she saw no reason for Western countries to lift sanctions against the military-dominated government, but the issue had to be discussed.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi speaks with supporters outside her home, where she was previously placed under house arrest in Yangon November 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/Files)

Myanmar, ruled by the military since a 1962 coup, held its first elections in two decades last year and authorities later released Suu Kyi from house arrest. But the military shows no sign of loosening its grip.

Suu Kyi's political party said on Tuesday it supported Western sanctions but wanted talks on whether to modify them, signalling a willingness to discuss a more flexible approach.

Suu Kyi, asked by Reuters at a party function on Saturday to elaborate, said sanctions had to be discussed.

"Whether or not to lift the sanctions is something to be decided after discussions," she said.

"At the present situation, I don't see any reason to lift the sanctions."

She did not elaborate on who should discuss the issue.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the previous election in 1990 but was never allowed to govern, was officially disbanded for refusing to take part in last November's polls.

The vote was, as expected, swept by the main pro-military party and the generals have given no indication they will really relinquish power to new civilian rulers.

In another apparent indication the country had not lost its authoritarian edge, an Australian journalist and businessman involved in the publication of a newspaper in Myanmar had been arrested, a colleague said.

The NLD, which has long supported sanctions to pressure the military, on Tuesday restated its insistence that the release of an estimated 2,100 political prisoners was a "critical requirement" to end punitive measures.

EXCLUDED, IGNORED

Suu Kyi has been excluded from politics since 1989, when she was first detained, a year after the military crushed a student-led uprising. She has no stake in the new army-dominated system and authorities have ignored her calls for dialogue.

But Suu Kyi has significant influence over Western countries' policies towards Myanmar and sanctions are the only real bargaining chip she has with the generals -- assuming they want the restrictions lifted.

China, Thailand, India and Singapore are already big investors in Myanmar, also known as Burma. Chinese companies poured in more than $8 billion last year, mostly in energy-related projects, according to official Myanmar data.

Australian journalist and publisher Ross Dunkley was arrested in Yangon last Thursday under an immigration law, said a colleague, David Armstrong, chairman of Post Media Ltd.

Dunkley, chief executive officer and editor of the Myanmar Times and publisher of Cambodia's Phnom Penh Post, was being held in the notorious Insein prison, Armstrong said, adding the timing of his arrest was significant.

"It coincides with tense and protracted discussions Mr Dunkley and the foreign ownership partners in the Myanmar Times have been conducting with local partners about the future direction of the publishing group, ownership issues and senior leadership roles," he said.

Government officials were not available for comment.

(Writing by Robert Birsel, editing by Miral Fahmy)

Copyright © 2011 Reuters http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/12/worldupdates/2011-02-12T165900Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-548485-1&sec=Worldupdates
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Than Shwe Warns Against Disrupting 'Democracy'
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Saturday, February 12, 2011

NAYPYIDAW — The leader of Burma's junta warned against any "disruption" of the country's new military-dominated government, urging people Saturday to protect what he called the country's nascent "democracy system" a day after a Cabinet was approved.

Snr-Gen Than Shwe issued the call as the regime held a lavish national celebration at the isolated capital that will serve as headquarters for the new civilian government.

After decades of repressive military rule, critics say that Burma's self-described transition to democracy is a charade and that last year's election was orchestrated to perpetuate military rule. With one quarter of the seats in the new parliament filled by military appointees, and a lion's share of the remaining seats won by a military backed party, the army effectively retains power.

Than Shwe's message on Saturday for Union Day called on the nation's citizens to build and safeguard a "democracy system" that is "still in its infancy."

He also urged people "to tackle any form of disruption to the new system."

The new parliament on Friday unanimously approved all of President-elect Thein Sein's Cabinet nominees, although they were not told which post each would take.

Thein Sein, who was elected by parliament last week, was prime minister and a top member of the military junta that is handing over power to the new government. It is not clear when he and his Cabinet will be sworn in.

Most of the Cabinet appointees are former military officers who retired in order to run in last November's elections—the country's first in 20 years—and about a dozen were ministers in the junta's Cabinet. Only four of the appointees are strictly civilian.

Than Shwe's speech was read out in an open space at the City Hall in Naypyidaw to celebrate Union Day, which marks the anniversary of a 1947 agreement among the country's ethnic groups that paved the way to independence from Britain. The ceremony was attended by lawmakers and new and old Cabinet members.

The army has held power in Burma since 1962.

The party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which won the last elections in 1990 but was blocked from taking power by the military, boycotted November's vote, calling it unfair. Much of the international community also dismissed the elections as rigged in favor of the junta.

Suu Kyi's party was to hold its own separate ceremony to commemorate Union Day. It was Suu Kyi's father, Gen Aung San, the country's independence hero, who met with ethnic minority leader to sign the agreement that the holiday commemorates.

In further celebration, the government opened a "Safari Park" in Naypyitaw Saturday morning.

The park, on nearly 300 acres (120 hectares) along the Rangoon-Mandalay highway, holds animals from Asia, Australia and Africa, some of them brought to Burma on chartered flights.

Related Article: Than Shwe to Head Extra-Constitutional 'State Supreme Council'
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20741