News & Articles on Burma-Saturday, 05 March, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Saturday, 05 March, 2011
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Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD disapproves of junta’s budget sharing
Myanmar citizens among 6 dead in Russia crash
Myanmar pro-democracy group slams govt's budget
NLD Slams Military Fund
Naypyidaw Orders New “Four Cuts” Campaign
Prepare now for by-elections, MP warns opposition parties
Burma court looks at Australian's bail plea
Kachin army blocks Tatmadaw rations
Burma junta buys MiG-29s, spends $2 per person on health
UN Resolution on Libya Exposes German Hypocrisy on Burma
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Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD disapproves of junta’s budget sharing
By Zin Linn Mar 05, 2011

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has criticized the government’s freshly released budget for allocating in excess of funds to the military’s defense and not a sufficient amount to social services such as health and education..

A statement by the NLD on Friday also said the budget should not be decided by the outgoing ruling junta. The budget distribution must be settled and passed by the newly elected parliament.

The outgoing military regime endorsed the budget on 27 January, just a few days before parliament met for the first time on 31 January. The Government Gazette released by the incumbent military junta says that 1.8 trillion kyat (about $2 billion at free market rates of exchange), or 23.6 per cent of the budget this year will go to defense. The health sector, meanwhile, will get 99.5 billion kyat ($110 million), or 1.3 per cent. Education will obtain a 4.3 per cent allotment.

Quoting Ministry of Commerce statistics, 7 Day News weekly journal reported that Burma exported goods valued at $ 5.5 billion and imported goods valued at $3.3 billion. A ministry official told the Journal that most of Burma’s export revenue came from selling natural gas, followed by jade, to Asian countries. Actually, most of those incomes from exports never used in the public sectors, especially in health and education. Those financial benefits constantly flow into the defense budget expending the military strength without facing any external threat.

According to the NLD’s 4-March-statement, the unlimited ‘Special Funds’ that allows to be used by the commander-in-chief of the military – to safeguard national sovereignty and protect disintegration of the union – is totally unreasonable. The worst is that the decree says the military commander-in-chief will not be subject to questioning, explanation or auditing by any individual or organization concerning the use of ‘Special Funds’.

The funds, which actually as old as the military ruling, seem the carry-over practice of the military intelligence activities. As it is not transparent and counter check, the practice leads to corruption because responsible persons are not held accountable for those finances.

For that reason, the decree allows the commander-in-chief to use the funds without giving any grounds to respond to anyone or any organization, the law is not corresponding to the standard of the law, the NLD criticizes in its statement. Its statement also says the fiscal year 2011-2012 budget allotments should have been passed by the freshly elected legislative body, rather than endorsed by the departing junta.

The Budget is the government’s most important economic strategy and it presents a comprehensive proclamation of the nation’s priorities. Parliament, which is formed with representatives-elect, is the best proper place to guarantee that the Budget goes with the nation’s needs with the available resources.

However, Burma’s current budgetary confusion clearly shows that the commander-in-chief of the military is above the president and the parliament. He’s also above the laws as he himself is the sole creator of the current ruling laws including the fiscal year 2011-2012 budget allotments.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/49658/aung-san-suu-kyis-nld-disapproves-of-junta%E2%80%99s-budget-sharing/
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Myanmar citizens among 6 dead in Russia crash
(Reuters)

5 March 2011
A mid-sized Russian-built plane crashed in western Russia on Saturday, killing all six people on board, officials said, two of the dead were citizens of Myanmar.

The Antonov An-148, with four crew members and two other people aboard, crashed in the Belgorod province, some 600 km (370 miles) south of Moscow, during a training flight, the Emergency Situations Ministry in Moscow said.

State-run Itar-Tass cited provincial emergency officials as saying two of the dead were Myanmar citizens who were pilots by profession.

The Myanmar embassy in Moscow said it had no information about the crash.

RIA cited a source at the plant that built the plane as saying it was to be delivered to Myanmar at some point.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/March/international_March251.xml§ion=international&col =
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Myanmar pro-democracy group slams govt's budget
March 4, 2011

YANGON, Myanmar—Myanmar's pro-democracy group has criticized the government's recently released budget for allocating too much money to the military and not enough to social services.

A statement Friday from Aung San Suu Kyi's officially disbanded National League for Democracy also said the budget should have been passed by the newly elected parliament, rather than enacted by the outgoing ruling junta.

The government enacted the budget on Jan. 27, just a few days before parliament met for the first time in more than two decades. Details published in the Government Gazette revealed that almost one-quarter of the 7.6 trillion kyat ($8.45 billion) national budget will be allocated to defense. Education will get a 4.3 percent share, and health 1.3 percent.
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NLD Slams Military Fund
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Saturday, March 5, 2011

RANGOON—Burma's pro-democracy group on Friday criticized a new law that allows the country's military chief access to a special fund without any oversight from parliament.

The fund—created at the same time as the new budget of which almost one-fourth was allocated to the military—can be used by the commander in chief to pay for expenses related to national defense and security. He needs only the president's approval to do so, according to a statement from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

Burmese President-elect Thein Sein is a former general who served as the outgoing ruling junta's prime minister. He now heads the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which won a huge majority in last November's election that much of the international community dismissed as rigged in favor of the junta. A mandatory allocation of one-quarter of the seats in parliament to military appointees assures that the ruling generals remain in charge.

The Special Funds law allows the money to be used "to safeguard national sovereignty and protect disintegration of the union" and says the military commander "shall not be subject to questioning, explanation or auditing by any individual or organization" regarding its use.

So-called secret funds are used in several countries to conceal details of sensitive military and intelligence activities. However, they can also serve as slush funds, leading to corruption because users are not held accountable for them.

"Since the law allows the commander in chief to use the funds without having the need to answer to anyone or any organization, the law is not in line with norms of the law," said the NLD statement.

Suu Kyi's organization also criticized the government's recently released budget for allocating too much money to the military and not enough to social services.

Its statement also said the fiscal year 2011-2012 budget should have been passed by the newly seated parliament, rather than enacted by the junta.

The government enacted the budget on Jan. 27, just a few days before parliament met for the first time in more than two decades. Details published in the official Government Gazette revealed that almost one-quarter of the 7.6 trillion kyat ($8.45 billion) national budget will be allocated to defense. Education will get a 4.3 percent share, and health 1.3 percent.

Burma is one of Asia's poorest countries, reflected in its health indicators. It has the 44th highest infant mortality rate of 193 countries listed by the UNICEF in its 2011 State of the World's Children report.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20881
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Naypyidaw Orders New “Four Cuts” Campaign
By WAI MOE Friday, March 4, 2011

The War Office in Naypyidaw has ordered Burmese government forces based in ethnic areas to relaunch their infamous “Four Cuts” strategy against the ethnic cease-fire groups that continue to resist the junta's Border Guard Force (BGF) plan.

The Burmese army's “Four Cuts” policy was developed in the 1970s during the former regime of the Burmese Socialist Programme Party with the intention of undermining ethnic militias by cutting off access to food, funds, information and recruitment, often with devastating consequences.

According to military sources, the War Office recently ordered regional commanders to reimpose the strategy in areas including Kachin State, Shan State, Karenni State , Karen State , Mon State and Tenasserim Division.

Military sources said the renewed campaign would include an additional “cut”—a policy of severing communication routes between allied ethnic groups.

Commenting on the information about the new “Four Cuts” campaign, Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese military observer at the Sino-Burmese border who has close contacts to several ethnic armed groups, said the junta’s plan could be irrelevant because many ethnic armies are based in border areas.

“The Four Cuts strategy was designed for inland counterinsurgency operations,” he said. “In particular, there were government offensives against the Communist Party of Burma and the Karen National Union in the Pegu Mountains. But now the groups that are being targeted are based at the Sino-Burmese border and the Thai-Burmese border.”

Some observers expressed concern about an escalation of human rights violations such as forced relocations, the burning of villages and summary executions in ethnic areas, atrocities that invariably accompany such a strategy, they said.

“The Four Cuts strategy has been modified by the current military junta,” said Htet Min, a former army officer who is now living in exile. “When I was in the military, it was also called 'sweeping' an area, meaning removing any suspected villagers and burning their villages.”

Aung Lynn Htut, a former counter intelligence officer now living in the US, said the massive internal displacement in eastern Burma is directly related to the “Four Cuts” strategy, which was known in the far south of Burma as “No Man's Land” policy during operations in the 1990s, directly commanded by the office of the commander-in-chief.

The “No Man's Land” policy was ordered by the War Office to execute anyone, including children, who were found in areas of military operations,” he said.

Since 1989, the military regime has signed cease-fire agreements with as many as 17 ethnic armed groups. However, the major cease-fire groups have rejected the BGF plan that was first raised in April 2009.

Those groups include: the United Wa State Army; the Kachin Independent Organization; the National Democratic Alliance Army, also known as the Mongla group, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army or the Kokang group, the New Mon State Party, and a faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20880
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Prepare now for by-elections, MP warns opposition parties
By Shwe Yinn Mar Oo and Soe Than Lynn
February 28 - March 6,, 2011

DEMOCRATIC political parties should begin preparing for the approximately 70 by-elections that will have to be held as a result of representatives being appointed into the new government, an Amyotha Hluttaw member said last week.

Under the 2008 constitution, ministers and deputy ministers in the new government are considered to have resigned from the day of the election. More than two dozen ministers nominated by President U Thein Sein were members of either the Pyithu Hluttaw or Amyotha Hluttaw.

The Amyotha Hluttaw Election Law states that a vacancy that arises in the upper house for any reason shall be filled by the holding of a by-election.

Amyotha Hluttaw representative Dr Myat Nyarna Soe said he expected about 70 seats in the upper and lower houses of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw to be empty when the names of deputy ministers have also been announced.

“For those 70 constituencies, there must be by-elections. We need to send questions to the Hluttaw Office asking when the by-elections are going to be held, because the law doesn’t give a time frame,” he told The Myanmar Times last week.

He said political parties should draw on the lessons learned in the November 7 election to give them the best chance of winning the vacated seats.

“They should start preparing now. It is sure that we minority [opposition parties] can’t field many candidates, while the powerful Union Solidarity and Development Party will be ready to contest every seat. They have to think about it and prepare,” said Dr Myat Nyarna Soe, who won Yangon Region Amyotha Hluttaw Constituency 4 as a representative of the National Democratic Force (NDF).

He said he was hopeful the democratic parties could win at least some of the vacant seats and while the USDP would still maintain a massive majority it would give opposition parties a stronger voice.

The USDP has 388 of the 493 seats in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw – the combined Pyithu and Amyotha Hluttaws – for elected representatives. An additional 25 percent of seats are reserved for appointed military personnel.

“Even if we get another 70 seats more, it will not be a big change. But it means we would have about one-third of seats [rather than about one-fifth]. The more representatives from democratic parties in the hluttaw, the more the representatives who would speak out for the people and who would [work] for the people,” he said.

The second largest party in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw in terms of candidates is the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), with 21. Vice chairman U Hsaung Hsi said the party was ready to contest by-elections in areas it thought it could gain enough support to win the seat.

“For example, I am sure that there will be a vacancy for the [Pyithu Hluttaw] representative from Lashio. Even if they convene the by-election within a month, it will not pose a problem for the party. We are still in touch with both the party members and the voters, our members are still active,” the Pyithu Hluttaw representative from Kyaukme said last month.

U Hsaung Hsi said he had already sent questions to the Hluttaw Office asking when the by-elections are to be held, how they would be held and how the government was making arrangements for them to be held in a free and fair manner.

He said he expected other opposition political parties would also contest the by-elections as they have been encouraged by the public interest in political affairs.

However, a spokesperson for the NDF, which has 12 representatives in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, said he thought the party was not yet in a position to take part in by-elections.

Party co-founder U Khin Maung Swe said the NDF had been contacted by some members interested in contesting by-elections but lacked the funds to register candidates and campaign.

“I don’t know where we will compete exactly but I think at a minimum we should be able to field candidates in constituencies in Yangon,” he said, adding that he hoped the by-election would not be held before May.

“If they are not in May, they might be held in October,” said U Khin Maung Swe.

One constituency that is certain to see a by-election is Mingalar Taung Nyunt in Yangon, as former labour minister and USDP Pyithu Hluttaw representative U Aung Kyi was listed among the 30 ministers in the new government.

On November 7 U Aung Kyi defeated Democratic Party (Myanmar) chairman U Thu Wai by more than 8000 votes – 28,566 to 20,257 – to secure a place in the Pyithu Hluttaw.

U Thu Wai said he was still unsure whether he would re-contest the seat, adding the funding was the major difficulty.

“I think by-elections will only be held when the government is formed and stable,” he said. “In the [November 7] election, voting was cancelled in some places because of security issues. So I think they will make those places stable first and then the by-elections will be held after that.”
http://www.mmtimes.com/2011/news/564/news56402.html
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Burma court looks at Australian's bail plea

Australian journalist and publisher Ross Dunkley appears to face criminal charges in Rangoon. [Reuters]

A court in Burma has agreed to consider a bail application from an Australian news publisher who has spent three weeks in Rangoon's Insein prison.

Ross Dunkley, publisher of the Myanmar Times and the Phnom Penh Post, was arrested for breaching his visa after a prostitute alleged he assaulted her.

He has been kept in prison even though she withdrew the charges last week.

On Thursday he made his second appearance in court, where a judge promised a ruling after another hearing next Tuesday.

Mr Dunkley's local business partner, Tin Htun Oo, insisted outside the court that the case is not politically motivated.

Tin Tun Oo said there was no business dispute and said he had signed Mr Dunkley's bail application to help his request.

"Ross's case is not linked to business or politics. I think it's just a personal matter," he added. "It's not true that it happened at my instigation. I will try to help him."

He said the ownership structure of their company had not changed. http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201103/3155700.htm?desktop
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Kachin army blocks Tatmadaw rations
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 4 March 2011

Food rations being delivered to Burmese troops stationed in Bhamo were reportedly blocked by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) as rising tensions in the northern state show no sign of abating.

The battalion due to receive the rations had allegedly been deployed in territory belonging to the KIA, one of Burma’s biggest ethnic armies. The Burmese army has beefed up its presence in the unstable region with additional deployments of troops and tanks close to the group’s headquarters in Laiza.

The recent incident is the latest in ongoing encounters between the two forces: reports from the region claim that troops led by Major Myint Naing Oo carrying supplies to a military base were stopped by the KIA. Burmese soldiers were then ordered to block the road between Mong Hkawng and Mansi in Bhamo district for three days between 23 and 25 February.

Sporadic bursts of fighting have broken out in Kachin state since late last year, following the KIA’s rebuttal of junta demands to become a Border Guard Force (BGF). On 6 February gunfire was exchanged after a Burmese battalion entered KIA territory under the pretext of seeking and destroying illicit narcotics.

The KIA has been undertaken a drug eradication programme in areas belonging to another Kachin army, the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), which is loyal to the junta. Burmese officials reportedly warned the group against destroying poppy fields.

And in January a new military command zone was designated for Tanaing, a region controlled by the KIA, adding to Burmese army presence there.
http://www.dvb.no/news/kachin-army-blocks-tatmadaw-rations/14585
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Burma junta buys MiG-29s, spends $2 per person on health
By Zin Linn Mar 03, 2011 11:08PM UTC

This month Burma is to receive the first of 20 RSK MiG-29s costing about €400 million ($553 million), more than doubling the country’s MiG-29 fleet, reports Flight International.

The MiG-29s were ordered in November 2009. The aircraft will be delivered in three designs, comprising 10 MiG-29B and six MiG-29SE single-seat fighters and four MiG-29UB twin-seat operational trainers.

Burma earlier bought used MiG-29s from Belarus, but approached manufacturer and Russian arms export company Rosoboronexport for help after experiencing a high corrosion rate. Moscow responded with help on weapons, spare parts and training, including the installation of a simulator at one of its air bases, Flight International said.

As reported by the Defense Industry Daily , Burma’s air force ordered 12 MiG-29Bs from Russia in 2001, to supplement a fleet that mostly relies on Chinese F-7 (MiG-21 copy) and J-6/ Q-5 (MiG-19 copy and heavily modified MiG-19 derivative) fighters. Present-day levels of readiness among the regime’s existing aircraft types are doubtful, and in late January 2010, one of those F-7s crashed, killing the pilot. This is not exceptional with MiG-21s and their derivatives, which can be challenging to fly safely.

The MiG-29. Pic: AP.

Meanwhile, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, criticized the Burmese junta over its human rights violations. Human rights violations in Burma are burdening other countries in the region, with an influx of refugees fleeing a host of abuses from forced labour and land confiscation to arbitrary detention and sexual violence.

At the same time, several human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, claim hat there is no independent judiciary in Myanmar. The military government restricts Internet access through software-based censorship that limits the material citizens can access on-line. Forced labour, human trafficking, and child labour are common.

According to the UN estimation, one child in three under the age of five is already suffering from malnutrition. Burma’s authoritarian military regime is getting in the way of health community’s efforts to control infectious disease threats in Burma, according to an investigation published in Public Library of Science Medicine.

Dr Chris Beyrer (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and colleagues carried out field investigations in Burma in 2005 and 2006, and also searched the medical and policy literature on HIV, TB, malaria, and avian flu in Burma. The researchers found that the SPDC’s investment in healthcare is one of the lowest worldwide and that the health sector has been weakened by widespread corruption.

So, political opposition and independent observers condemn the junta for the amount spend on the defense budget, while key areas such as education and health are neglected. The recent Government Gazette released by the incumbent military junta says that the health sector will get 99.5 billion kyat ($110 million), or 1.3 percent of this budget year 2011-12. That means regime will spend less than $2 per head on public healthcare.

For that reason, people are asking International Community for tighter sanctions (not humanitarian aid) on the military regime until the ruling generals commit themselves to democratic reforms.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/49518/burma%E2%80%99s-junta-purchases-mig-29s-while-2-per-head-public-healthcare/
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CONTRIBUTOR
UN Resolution on Libya Exposes German Hypocrisy on Burma
By MARK FARMANER Friday, March 4, 2011

There has been widespread surprise that China voted in favor of the new UN Security Council resolution on Libya. The resolution imposes economic sanctions, an arms embargo, and refers Libya to the International Criminal Court. These kinds of actions are usually vociferously opposed by China, as part of its so-called policy of noninterference in the internal affairs of countries.

For those who follow Germany’s policy on Burma, their vote in favor of the resolution is also noteworthy, and also begs the question: if Libya, why not Burma? The human rights abuses listed as justification for action in the resolution on Libya are all taking place in Burma.

Much of the language used in the resolution has for many years featured almost word for word in UN General Assembly resolutions on Burma and reports from the UN Special Rapporteur on Burma:

“Violence and use of force against civilians … systematic violation of human rights, including the repression of peaceful demonstrators … violence against the civilian population made from the highest level of the Libyan government … widespread and systematic attacks currently taking place in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya against the civilian population [that] may amount to crimes against humanity … refugees forced to flee the violence in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya … shortages of medical supplies to treat the wounded … the need to respect the freedoms of peaceful assembly and of expression, including freedom of the media … the need to hold to account those responsible for attacks, including by forces under their control, on civilians... .”

Yet despite these similarities, the German approach to Burma has been the polar opposite to its approach to Libya. On Burma, Germany consistently opposed targeted economic sanctions, agreed to an arms embargo but allegedly supplied dual use factory equipment enabling Burma to build its own weapons, and refuses even to support a UN Commission of Inquiry into Burma, let alone a referral to the International Criminal Court.

Germany has given a variety of reasons to justify its policy towards Burma’s generals. On occasion it argues against sanctions in principle, saying that they are a step short of war and should only be used as a last resort. On other occasions, it grasps at and exaggerates the smallest possible positive moves by the regime, arguing they justify relaxing pressure.

More recently Germany argues that sanctions have been tried and have failed, and that now some sanctions should be lifted and more engagement should be tried instead. There is deep irony in this argument. For more than a decade Germany has argued against and done all it can to block the European Union imposing effective targeted economic sanctions. Germany was also one of the main countries ensuring those sanctions that have been imposed were watered down.

In the mid 1990s, when strong calls for targeted sanctions first began, as a major trading partner and investor in Burma, the European Union had significant economic muscle it could have used to pressure the generals into dialogue. Germany has consistently been one of the main countries that stopped effective sanctions being imposed. Having undermined effective sanctions, Germany then has the cheek to argue that sanctions against Burma don’t work.

Germany seems reluctant to admit its role behind the scenes, and its vehement opposition to increasing pressure on Burma’s generals. It doesn’t like to make public statements which it might have to defend. Instead it prefers to let political foundations in Germany to take the lead in pushing for a softer policy towards Burma’s generals. German diplomats and politicians prefer to do their dirty work behind the scenes in private meetings with other EU members. They even deny they have tried to block sanctions. However, their opposition is well known in diplomatic and NGO circles, and in a cable from the US Embassy in London released by Wikileaks, the British Foreign Office described Germany as being “at the far end opposing sanctions.”

Perhaps useful for understanding Germany’s position on Burma is its long history of aiding, trading and arming dictatorships in Burma.

Germany historically had uniquely close ties to the isolationist Ne Win regime. State-owned German company Fritz Werner was involved in the country for decades, supplying arms and equipment for manufacturing arms. It was the first foreign company allowed to have a joint venture in Burma while the isolationalist Ne Win still ruled the country, and the company remains operating in Burma to this day. Fritz Werner supplied the G3 assault rifles used by the Burmese Army to massacre student protestors in 1988. Germany was also a large aid donor, and trained soldiers from the Burmese military.

Even to this day, Germany still assists representatives of the military regime, giving them diplomatic training. This training is, no doubt, very useful for the regime when it tries to deny human rights abuses, as it did when it claimed that there are no political prisoners in Burma, and then lobbies to prevent international action in response to its human rights abuses.

Germany plays down its business involvement in Burma, but it is not insignificant, especially for an economy the size of Burma’s. Germany has unashamedly continued to send trade delegations to Burma, going against the spirit, if not the letter, of European sanctions. Germany is the dictatorship’s largest European trading partner. Some estimates put bilateral annual trade at over $600 million a year. German turbines pump the gas from offshore fields that are the largest source of income for the dictatorship. German companies have exported, and transport, timber, gems and other products.

The European Union is currently in the process of reviewing its policy on Burma ahead of the annual renewal of its Council Decision at the end of April. Once again, Germany is one of the main countries proposing a softer line, even arguing for a relaxation of some sanctions. This is despite the fact that there has been no improvement in the human rights situation in the country and that even Germany had to admit that the election held in November last year was not free and fair, despite diplomats privately briefing that they were a positive step forward.

Commenting on the UN Security Council Resolution on Libya, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated: “The unanimous decision of the UN Security Council is a strong signal to Colonel Gaddafi and other despots that human rights abuses do not go unpunished.”

No despot aware of Germany’s approach to Burma will take her warning seriously. The message that Burma’s rulers get from Germany is one of comfort, protection and financial benefit. Merkel has to explain why there is one rule for human rights abuses in Libya and another for the same abuses in Burma. The policy isn’t consistent and leaves Germany open to the charge of hypocrisy.

So why does Germany support action against Libya and not Burma? Why isn’t Germany arguing that more trade and tourists will persuade Gaddafi to reform? Perhaps one reason is the high-profile nature of what is happening in Libya, on TV screens every night. Similar abuses in Burma take place every day, but in places with no phones, Internet or TV cameras. Perhaps the discrepancy can be put down to ignorance.

Or perhaps there is another reason. There is a big difference between quietly blocking and undermining sanctions against Burma in private meetings with European partners. It is quite another to publicly vote against sanctions against Libya at the UN Security Council, where the world will see what they are doing.

Germany’s actions effectively defend the dictatorship in Burma, but they don’t want the world to know what they are doing behind the scenes. If there is a lesson to be drawn from Germany’s vote on Libya, perhaps it is that when the world is watching, Germany will support action against dictatorships.

So, Angela Merkel, we are watching now. Will you continue to propose relaxing EU sanctions on Burma? Will your government continue to oppose the EU supporting a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma? And whatever the position of your government is on these issues, will you have the courage to defend them publicly?

Mark Farmaner is Director of Burma Campaign UK
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http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=20874