News & Articles on Burma-Saturday, 07 May, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Saturday, 07 May, 2011
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Leaders to discuss Myanmar's bid to chair ASEAN in 2014
Burma’s New President Is No Moderate
Southeast Asian leaders gather in Jakarta
ASEAN must thoughtfully handle Burma's proposal for chair
EU to negotiate FTA with all ASEAN countries, except Myanmar
Southeast Asian leaders meet in Indonesia
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Leaders to discuss Myanmar's bid to chair ASEAN in 2014
AMITA O. LEGASPI, GMA News
05/07/2011 | 02:35 PM

The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to discuss Myanmar’s bid to chair the 10-country regional bloc in 2014, but would most likely not issue a decision on the request yet.

Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters the ASEAN leaders would definitely look into the matter but “I have a feeling personally that this is not a matter that will be decided here."

In a separate interview, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said the ministers "agreed to recommend Myanmar's bid for chairmanship to the leaders."

If the matter will not be decided in this Summit, Myanmar would have to wait until the next ASEAN meet in November to be held in Bali, Indonesia.

Indonesia is the current chair of the ASEAN.

Myanmar had formally submitted its request to exchange its chairmanship with Laos but sources said Myanmar still hopes to get the chairmanship.

The ASEAN chairmanship is a matter decided by the leaders of the member-states years ahead.

After Indonesia, Cambodia will take over the chairmanship for 2012 and will be followed by Brunei for 2013.

In 2006, Myanmar skipped its turn to chair ASEAN due to international pressure for democratic reforms on the condition that it could ask to lead the group at a later time if it felt it was ready.

Myanmar President Thein Sein, appointed in March 2011, brought up the issue when he met with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when he arrived last Thursday in Indonesia for the Summit.

Marty said “the matter was discussed and the chairman of ASEAN, our President, mentioned that this will be brought to the attention of the other leaders for their perusal and consideration."

“There will be a process to ascertain the readiness of Myanmar to assume chairmanship in 2014," Marty said.

He will be going to Myanmar soon to assess the progress and political situation there. He said other ASEAN countries are welcome to come also.

In a separate interview, Philippine House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte expressed hope that Myanmar will be able to implement changes in its political system by 2014.

“Matagal pa rin naman yun (That’s still a long way from now). I think a lot of things will happen before that. Let’s hope that by that time they will be up to it. I believe they are up in terms of competence, but there is a question on the philosophy of their government and in its human rights record)," he said.

A international human rights group earlier said the ASEAN leaders should reject Myanmar's bid for chairmanship until its government takes genuine steps toward improving human rights, including the release of more than 2,000 political prisoners.

Human Rights Watch said Myanmar has failed to address concerns repeatedly raised by ASEAN leaders in past summits.

It said Myanmar held sham elections in November 2010, with widespread restrictions on opposition parties, continued detention of political activists, and severe limits on basic freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. International election monitoring was also not allowed.

The military-backed party won a large majority of seats and now dominates the government.

"Rewarding Burma with ASEAN's chairmanship after it staged sham elections and still holds 2,000 political prisoners would be an embarrassment for the region," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"ASEAN leaders need to decide if they will let Burma demote ASEAN to the laughingstock of intergovernmental forums," she added.

Since the election, Burma freed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi when her house detention order expired. But more than 2,000 activists, journalists, artists, aid workers, and members of political parties remain in Burma's squalid prisons, locked up for peaceful acts expressing opposition.

She added ASEAN member states should set clear benchmarks for Burma to earn the right to be chair, starting with the immediate release of all political prisoners in Burma, an inclusive dialogue with all political and ethnic parties, and cooperation with international efforts to promote accountability for human rights abuses.

"ASEAN leaders should not be fooled into thinking Aung San Suu Kyi's release means any progress on reform in Burma," said Pearson. "They should join Indonesia and the Philippines in calling for Burma to release all political prisoners." — LBG, GMA News http://www.gmanews.tv/story/219931/world/leaders-to-discuss-myanmars-bid-to-chair-asean-in-2014
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Burma’s New President Is No Moderate
David Scott Mathieson | May 07, 2011

The Asean summit that starts on Saturday is a debut for Burma’s new President Thein Sein and the now ostensibly civilian, but still tightly military-controlled government formed on March 30.

Since the elections of Nov. 2010 and the release of dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, many governments in Asia and the West have intensified their search for moderates in Burma’s new military-parliamentary complex, in order to increase engagement with the government. Thein Sein’s inaugural speech is being lauded as a blueprint for a new moderate government, with his emphasis on tackling corruption, promoting the role of the media, and emphasizing health and education. But these are just words; there has been no discernible improvement in the human rights situation of Burma at all since the elections, no release of political prisoners, no letup in fighting in ethnic conflict zones or granting basic freedoms to Burma’s 59 million citizens.

It is thus disquieting to hear many informed observers on Burma refer to Thein Sein as “Mr Clean.” Without questioning the commentators’ standards of hygiene, it is safe to say that the former Lt. Gen. Thein Sein is actually a ruthless loyalist with a well-established past in command positions during some of Burma’s darker and most corrupt periods.

It is a matter of public record that Thein Sein was the commander of the Triangle Region Military Command from 1997 to 2001. This is the area infamously known as the Golden Triangle, long a redoubt of drug lords and warring ethnic and Communist armies. During his tenure, there was a decline in opium and heroin production in his area of operations, but there are two main reasons for this — neither necessarily due to a firm commitment to drug eradication.

First, Afghanistan heroin production was booming at the end of the 1990s, so Burmese syndicates such as the massive United Wa State Army couldn’t compete on global markets because of the more labor-intensive production of opium in Burma, and overwhelming new supply. Second, the main drug producers were actually branching into massive methamphetamine production, which was proving easier to manufacture, supply, and sell. The UWSA’s central narco-financier, Wei Hsueh-kang, has been under indictment by the United States since 1998, with a $2 million price tag on his head (eight other senior leaders were indicted in 2005).

Neighboring Thailand paid the highest price for the surge in meth exports, which was the main catalyst for then-Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s murderous domestic “war on drugs” in 2003. The new town of Mong Yawn close to the Thai border was the lynchpin in the UWSA’s strategy to increase drug supply into Thailand. To help Mong Yawn grow, the UWSA forcibly relocated nearly 100,000 civilians from northern Shan State from 1999 to 2001, ostensibly to break their dependence on opium cultivation. As the Lahu National Development Organization (an ethnic community development NGO from Burma), and numerous Western and Thai journalists who covered the operation reported, in this draconian transmigration hundreds are suspected to have died from abuses and disease, including an anthrax outbreak. I lived in this area in 2003, with ethnic Shan, Lahu and Akha refugees, who could see their seized land on the other side of the valley, occupied by relocated ethnic Wa, guarded by UWSA and Burmese army camps. Thein Sein’s headquarters in the town of Kengtung was right in the middle of this nearly year-long relocation.

What Thein Sein’s specific role was in the Mong Yawn project is not known, but he could not have been unaware of it, nor could he have been unwitting to the explosion of drug money in his area of operations. At the time, senior Thai army commanders claimed that Thein Sein not only knew the drug plants were there, but was actively protecting them: then Third Army Commander Lt. Gen. Wattanachai Chaimuenwong and Thai army commander Gen. Surayud Chulanont raised this fact on a regular basis, during frequent border skirmishes between Burmese and Thai forces during this period due to massive drug smuggling being protected by units within Thein Sein’s command area. According to Bertil Lintner, a noted expert on the regional drug trade, and numerous academics and researchers on Burma’s military such as Mary Callahan, Burma’s regional commanders have long been suspected to be sitting on top of a corrupt patronage system that maintains order through regulating rackets and illicit trade, not interdicting them.

Thein Sein’s recent past suggests no grounds for optimism either. Following his stint in the Golden Triangle, Thein Sein was the military adjutant general and then secretary no. 1 of the ruling State Peace and Development Council. He has since been a senior member of the regime, including serving as prime minister when scores of protesters were killed on the streets of Rangoon in a peaceful uprising in September 2007. He was in charge of the government when Western relief agencies were denied access to Burma following the devastating Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Instead of giving priority to aid for the sick and injured, the government focused on its sham constitutional referendum that is the blueprint for continued authoritarian rule. Perhaps most disturbing, since he became prime minister in 2007, the number of political prisoners doubled to more than 2,200.

The search for “pragmatists over hard-liners” within the ruling elite has been a central fault-line in the speculative trade of Burmese political analysis for years. Many Western journalists, academics, aid workers and diplomats believed former Prime Minister and military intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt was the pragmatic player who was negotiating between his intelligence faction, Suu Kyi and the West to broker a deal for democratic reforms. This apocryphal glasnost was ruptured in October 2004 when Khin Nyunt and his intelligence clique, more than 800 officers, were rounded up by the so-called hard-liners. Most are in prison or under house arrest.

It remains unclear why Khin Nyunt was considered to be a moderate given his long years of ruthless repression of the opposition, widespread use of torture against dissidents and lucrative cease-fire deals with drug lords. Perhaps it was because he would talk about possible reform with outsiders, yet his vision was of a Burma no longer ostracized by the rest of the world, not a free and democratic country. The Burmese academic Kyaw Yin Hlaing in a recent article disputed the view of Khin Nyuint as a clandestine liberal: “He was only liberal to the extent that being liberal served his interest.”

Since the November 2010 elections, most Asian and some Western countries have adopted a “glass half-full” view of Burma, seeing the release of Suu Kyi as a key concession and searching for avenues of enhanced interaction. Pragmatic policy makers may well subscribe to this Ouija-board political analysis, but in the absence of hard evidence of the new government’s sincerity to engage in reforms, including improving the rights situation, they should also take a glance at the ruthless past of these fledgling faux-democrats.

Admitting that many of Burma’s power-holders have a brutal past does not suggest that the rest of the world doesn’t have to deal with them: Asean and its dialogue partners must increase engagement on a number of fronts. However, engagement is best approached with some basic principles in hand and a clear view of whom you are dealing with, not who you would like them to be.

David Scott Mathieson is a senior researcher in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/burmas-new-president-is-no-moderate/439595
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Southeast Asian leaders gather in Jakarta
Niniek Karmini
May 7, 2011 - 6:54PM AP

A bloody border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia threatened to dominate an annual summit of Southeast Asian nations on Saturday, with Burma's bid to become chair of the regional grouping and talks on easing economic disparities across borders also on the agenda.

In his speech that opened the two-day summit, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was formed based on a desire to create peace and promote stability through regional integration and cooperation.

"We realise that to ensure peace and stability in East Asia, ASEAN must first be able to guarantee peace in its own region," said Yudhoyono, the group's current chair.
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"ASEAN is obliged to respond to the dynamics of conflict, which can affect the image of ASEAN and sustainable peace in the region," he said, apparently referring to the deadly dispute between Thailand and Cambodia that began last month.

Another hot topic at the summit was expected to be Burma's request to chair ASEAN in 2014. Some countries say Burma is ready, but others argue the government has not yet done enough to improve human rights.

Presidents and prime ministers filed into the tightly guarded summit venue in the Indonesian capital to talk about their long-stated goal of building a competitive and highly integrated economic region.

That will mean everything from improving road, rail and other transportation links to finding ways to guarantee food security and overcome vast energy challenges.

But regional security concerns such as the potentially oil-rich Spratly islands claimed by China and several ASEAN nations - a dispute that worries the US as well - and terrorism following the death of Osama bin Laden were likely to steal the show.

The most pressing issue, however, is renewed fighting along the border of Thailand and Cambodia, which has claimed nearly 20 lives in the last two weeks, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes, though fighting has eased in recent days.

Meeting on Friday ahead of the ASEAN leaders' weekend summit, several foreign ministers urged both countries to settle the issue peacefully, citing the regional bloc's bedrock principle of settling disputes amicably.

When Cambodia spoke about the border dispute, however, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Promya, visibly irked, said he was ready to argue with anyone who would attempt to discuss the bilateral conflict in detail during the annual gathering. After the outburst, the other ministers evaded the issue, according to two ASEAN diplomats who attended the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the dispute.

As current chair of ASEAN, Indonesia has been trying to help mediate the dispute over small parcels of land claimed by both countries, but has so far made little headway.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said he wants ASEAN to oversee a permanent ceasefire, according to his top adviser, Sri Thamrong, but Thailand still believes the problem should be settled bilaterally or through the International Court of Justice.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters that during the ministerial meeting, he raised the need for ASEAN to end a nine-year disagreement with China that has prevented both sides from completing the guidelines of a 2002 accord aimed at preventing armed conflicts over the disputed Spratly Islands.

The guidelines would allow China and claimant countries to pursue joint development projects to ease tensions in the disputed South China Sea region, he said.

Four ASEAN members - Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam - are among the claimants. They have agreed to pursue their claim as a bloc through ASEAN, but China has disagreed, preferring to discuss the dispute bilaterally.

Meanwhile, Burma's president, Thein Sein, who heads the military-backed party that overwhelmingly won general elections late last year, was expected to ask for the right to chair ASEAN in 2014.

The regional grouping is supposed to rotate its chair every year between member countries - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

However, Burma was forced to skip its turn in 2005 after coming under heavy pressure from the international community over slow progress on national reconciliation and human rights.

Thailand and several other countries have indicated they wouldn't be opposed to Burma chairing ASEAN in 2014, but Singapore said it would be better to push back the date because of lingering concerns about human rights abuses.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/southeast-asian-leaders-gather-in-jakarta-20110507-1ed9b.html
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ASEAN must thoughtfully handle Burma's proposal for chair
Sat, 2011-05-07 02:07
By - Zin Linn

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been considered granting military-led Myanmar (Burma) the chair of the grouping in 2014, regardless of grave concerns about human rights violations and sham democratic system.

Senior ASEAN officials meeting in Jakarta ahead of a leadership summit at the weekend said Myanmar (Burma) had sought the chair of the 10-nation bloc in 2014, when communist Laos was due to take the job. At the meeting, the Laotian officials said that they would not mind switching with Burma with its chair in 2014. Cambodia and Brunei will the AEAN chair in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

The new ex-general Thein Sein-led namesake civilian government of Burma is upset to acquire ASEAN’s endorsement. If it accepted as chairman of the organization would definitely provide them crucial recognition. Burma under the former military junta missed out its turn as chair of ASEAN in 2006 because of strong international objections led by Western countries.

In 2004 August, activists in ASEAN area launched an international campaign calling for Burma to be disqualified from chairing the regional bloc in 2006, saying it would affects the grouping's credibility and reputation.

At that time, a delegation led by Dr Gothom Ariya, the then secretary-general of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) presented Thai Foreign Ministry officials an open letter with signatures by organizations from the region, East Asia, Europe and North America. Copies of the letter addressed to respective ASEAN governments were delivered by a group of activists to member nations' embassies in Bangkok.

Burma abandoned the opportunity to preside over ASEAN in 2006 due to international objections for its lack of political improvement. Burma has often pledged to perform economic and political reforms but all of those promises to ASEAN have been broken.

Human Rights Watch pointed out in its 6 May Statement that Burma has failed to address concerns repeatedly raised by ASEAN leaders in past summits.

“Rewarding Burma with ASEAN’s chairmanship after it staged sham elections and still holds 2,000 political prisoners would be an embarrassment for the region,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“ASEAN leaders need to decide if they will let Burma demote ASEAN to the laughingstock of intergovernmental forums.”

Burma‘s President Thein Sein has already arrived in Indonesia, the current chair of ASEAN, to be present at the two-day summit opening Saturday. He met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday on what is his first journey overseas as president since he was sworn in on March 30.

On the other hand, The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) also calls on ASEAN leaders attending the 18th ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia on 7-8 May 2011 to reject the application by Myanmar (Burma) to chair ASEAN in 2014, unless real democratic and human rights reforms are made by the Myanmar government.

The AIPMC says in its statement that oppression in Myanmar make up a black stain on the credibility of ASEAN. It will be an obstacle to efforts by ASEAN to build an ASEAN Community by 2015. ASEAN should rather consider suspending Myanmar from the organization over its flagrant violations of the ASEAN Charter.

The AIPMC underlines: “We urge Thailand in particular to refrain from any considerations to repatriate refugees from Myanmar currently on Thai soil. Most importantly, we call on ASEAN to support the call for a UN-led Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar as a step towards ensuring that this region will no longer tolerate impunity and violations of human rights and to press upon Myanmar the need for tangible steps towards inclusive democracy in the country.”

AIPMC gives a clear message to Burma that genuine political reform was expected before Burma could become the chairman of ASEAN.

However, the chairmanship remains ASEAN’s only influence with the Burmese government and the group should take advantage of it more efficiently. ASEAN ought to take part to start a meaningful dialogue between Thein Sein government and the political dissident groups including key opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

ASEAN should make use of Burma's bid for chair in three years' time as a useful bargaining chip. This opportunity may be a delicate diplomatic attempt for ASEAN to play as a facilitator between President Thein Sein and the democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. All at once, the grouping can take part in addressing relationship between Burma and the Western democracy countries as well.

I n brief, ASEAN should persuade its member Burma to organize a national reconciliation talk among the Burma’s stake-holders. At this point, the most important thing ASEAN has to do is driving the new Thein Sein government to release all political prisoners as a sign of benevolence message not only to its own people but also to the International Community.

In brief, while coping with the Burma topic, ASEAN must abide by the ASEAN Charter that specifies the loyalty “to the principles of democracy, the rule of law and good governance, respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/05/06/asean-must-thoughtfully-handle-burmas-proposal-chair
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EU to negotiate FTA with all ASEAN countries, except Myanmar
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 05/07/2011 11:16 PM |

The European Union is looking forward to engaging in free trade agreements with ASEAN member nations. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht talked to The Jakarta Post’s Sita Winiawati Dewi and other reporters in Jakarta on Friday.

What is the progress of FTA negotiations with Indonesia?

With Indonesia, the idea last year was to have a Vision Group to assemble a report, and they have come up with their report and it will be officially presented in June in Europe. All we are waiting for are signatures from Indonesia to start the official scope exercise and subsequent negotiations. I think we have made very good progress. I don’t want to put a date on it because of the responsibility of our Indonesian counterparts. It’s up to them.

Would that be a region-to-region approach or region-to-country approach. How does it work?

We started the negotiations with ASEAN as a bloc, but we had to stop this for two main reasons. There’s a very different level of development in each of the countries, which has made negotiations very difficult.

Secondly, because of Myanmar. But even if we were to negotiate under present circumstances, region-to-region, in practice, it would be largely a discussion with each individual country, because there is no common external tariff, custom union nor internal market, which means that in any case, you would have different arrangements from one country to another. We are now negotiating to take care so that all of these negotiations have the same backbone. That’s one of the discussion [points] with Vietnam. We want them to agree on the level of ambitions that coincide with a common backbone. Once we have completed these negotiations with all of the individual member states interested in doing so, there’s where the economic community comes about. I think that would be the right moment to move into the region-to-region approach.

The whole ASEAN region has poor human rights and democracy track records. Some members are stuck, or even moving backwards. So why is Myanmar singled-out, and do you think this problem could be overcome?

First of all, I wouldn’t say that the only country that has been shaved from the region-to-region approach is Myanmar. That is certainly not true. I would say that if you were to continue a bloc-to-bloc [approach], it would take years. You would be better to take it one after another to achieve practical results. There is not only the link to Myanmar. That is not true. What is true is that the Myanmar topic is extremely sensitive in Europe. But we are also open to changes. For example, there has been a recent election and there also has been the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi. We have reacted by softening some of the sanctions. We are ready to be reactive to positive developments in that country. But much more should be done. And by the way, I believe ASEAN is playing a positive role by putting pressure on Myanmar to walk in the right direction. Now, as you say there are human rights problems in some of these countries, I don’t want to single out any one. We are going to address it in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and also in the Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which are political angles in these kinds of agreements. And we have the policy that a PCA comes before the FTA, or at least simultaneously.

Would the EU negotiate one-by-one until the tenth country? Would there be a limitation on the number of countries that will negotiate with the EU?

We negotiate with any country that asks us to negotiate. I think it’s clear that in the moment we would not be ready to engage FTA negotiations with Myanmar. There’s no certain limitation and I hope that limitations will disappear. But for now, if Myanmar were to ask us to negotiate on a free trade agreement, we would say no. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/05/07/eu-negotiate-fta-with-all-asean-countries-except-myanmar.html
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Southeast Asian leaders meet in Indonesia
AFPBy Romeo Gacad | AFP – Sat, May 7, 2011

An Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Jakarta. The talks wereovershadowed by conflict on the Thai-Cambodia border and ongoing rights abuses in MyanmarEnlarge Photo

An Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Jakarta. The talks wereovershadowed …

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Indonesia on Saturday for talks overshadowed by conflict on the Thai-Cambodia border and ongoing rights abuses in Myanmar.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened the two-day summit in the Indonesian capital, which is expected to focus on long-term efforts to create a closely integrated regional economic zone by 2015.

Other issues expected to be addressed include the scourge of human trafficking in the region, food security, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and East Timor's membership bid.

But even before they gathered in Jakarta, the 10-member group's leaders were already under pressure to reject a request by military-led Myanmar to chair the block in 2014.

Human rights activists said ASEAN would become a "laughing stock" if they agreed to give such an honour to a country like Myanmar, a pariah state in the democratic world and serial rights abuser.

They are also facing mounting pressure to do something to end a bloody border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia which has claimed 18 lives and temporarily displaced 85,000 people in recent months.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa met his counterparts from both countries in Jakarta on Friday and said the two sides had agreed to accept 15 Indonesian military observers on each side of the disputed frontier.

But he said the deployment of this modest observer mission, which would have no power to police a ceasefire, was still some way off due to unreconciled differences over troop deployments.

"We're seeing a status quo, meaning exchange of fire and artillery, as we talk about ASEAN community. That's not quite right. There's something wrong if we keep on doing this," he said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/southeast-asian-leaders-meet-indonesia-013726259.html

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