News & Articles on Burma-Thursday 2 June, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Thursday 2 June, 2011
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McCain Meets Burmese Government and Opposition Leaders
US Senator McCain meets Myanmar opposition leader Suu Kyi
Senator John McCain Set to Meet Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi
17 Countries Top List Of World’s Worst Human Rights Abusers
German chancellor urges Myanmar to honour human rights
US senator McCain to meet Burma's Suu Kyi
Distribution of Bangkok Post and Nation allowed in Burma
MYANMAR: Bride trafficking to China unveiled
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McCain Meets Burmese Government and Opposition Leaders
By HTET AUNG Thursday, June 2, 2011

Amid expressions of disappointment by the US government about the lack of real change in Burma, US Sen John McCain flew to Naypyidaw on Wednesday and met with top leaders in Burma's new government to assess whether any tangible progress is being made in the country. He later met with Aung San Suu Kyi and members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Rangoon.

“Vice-President Thiha Thura U Tin Aung Myint Oo and Senator John McCain exchanged views on promotion of bilateral ties and cooperation between the two countries,” the state-run The New Light of Myanmar reported on Thursday. The newspaper did not describe any specific plans to promote bilateral ties.

Diplomatic relations between Burma and the United States have been tense for some time. The US does not have an ambassador to Burma, and has imposed sanctions on the country, its ruling elite and their cronies. The US recently decided to extend the term of the sanctions due to violations of human rights and the lack of democratic reforms in the country.

McCain also met with Khin Aung Myint and Thura Shwe Mann, the speakers of the Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House) and Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House) of Parliament, respectively, as well as with Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin.

The senator's visit followed the trip of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Yun to Burma last month. Based on Yun's trip report, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell expressed his strong disappointment a day before John McCain landed in Naypyidaw.

“We have been generally very disappointed and underwhelmed by the progress we are seeing,” said Kurt Campbell, who gave a speech on US engagement in Southeast Asia at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday. “We want to see more from our friends in Naypyidaw.”

“It is not enough to say 'Be patient, give us time.' There has been an enormous amount of time and there has been substantial patience, first from friends of Asean (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) for years hoping and waiting for progress that has not come to pass.”

Campbell said that in spite of the disappointment in the election, the US will continue to be deeply involved in dialog with other key players, including Suu Kyi, the NLD and ethnic political parties.

After his meetings in Naypyidaw, McCain flew to Rangoon, where he met with Suu Kyi and the executive committee of the NLD. He was also scheduled to meet the Committee Representing the People's Parliament, which consists of people elected to parliament in the 1990 elections, which the ruling junta never recognized.

When the meeting adjourned, Suu Kyi told reporters that McCain would “continue to support democracy in Burma.” In response to a question, she also said that she would announce in the future her detailed plans for traveling outside of Rangoon.

Asked about the key points the NLD executive committee members would raise during the meeting with the senator, Ohn Kyaing, an NLD spokesperson, said, “We will raise our concerns, which are the need to bring about political dialog, the release of all the political prisoners and the peaceful solutions to the end of armed conflicts in the border areas, all issues that we also discussed with Mr Joseph Yun.”

McCain also met on Thursday morning in Naypyidaw with the representatives of political parties such as the National Democratic Force and the Democratic Party (Myanmar), which contested the election last November, as well as members of civil society groups such as the Free Funeral Service Society (FFSS) led by the well-known movie actor Kyaw Thu, and the NLD-initiated HIV/AIDS program led by Phyu Phyu Thin.

According to website of the US embassy in Rangoon, McCain will hold a press conference at 8:45 a.m. On Friday morning at the American Center in Rangoon. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21415
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US Senator McCain meets Myanmar opposition leader Suu Kyi

Jun 2, 2011, 12:21 GMT

Yangon - United States Senator John McCain met Thursday with Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as part of his assessment tour of the military-run country under new government.

'He said he was satisfied to meet us and stands with our democracy movement,' Suu Kyi told reporters after the 45 minute meeting. 'As for reconciliation, he said both sides needed to want it,' the Nobel laureate said.

McCain said he would provide details on his meetings in Myanmar at a press conference planned in Yangon for Friday morning.

The senator on Wednesday met with Vice President Thia Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, chairman of the National Parliament Khin Aung Myint, chairman of the People's Parliament Thura Shwe Mann and Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's capital since 2005.

McCain, who ran against US President Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, had vowed prior to his departure for Myanmar to press Myanmar's new government to release 2,100 political prisoners.

He also wanted assurances on Suu Kyi's safety if she tours the country later this month.

Suu Kyi was last arrested when she conducted a similar countryside tour to seek political support, in May 2003.

'I would hope that the government would not treat her as they have in the past,' McCain said.

Suu Kyi was released from seven years of house arrest on November 13, six days after Myanmar held its first general election in two decades.

The election was won by the Union Solidarity and Development Party, which is packed with former military officials, including retired general Thein Sein. It took office on March 30.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won the previous election in 1990 but was blocked from power by the military. She has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest.

McCain has been one of the foremost critics of the junta that ruled the country from 1988-2010.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Yun and UN special envy to Myanmar Vijay Nambiar visited Myanmar in April.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1643101.php/US-Senator-McCain-meets-Myanmar-opposition-leader-Suu-Kyi
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Senator John McCain Set to Meet Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi
Posted by Hannah Beech Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 4:17 am

Will they swap stories of life in detention? Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who languished for five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, is to meet on June 2 with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy activist who before being released from house arrest last November spent the better part of two decades in confinement. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Rangoon, Burma's largest city and former capital, after McCain made a quick stop on Wednesday in the remote new capital Naypyidaw that was built by the country's reclusive generals. McCain has called Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, who has spent decades peacefully pushing the country's military leaders for political reform, “my inspiration” and a “world-renowned icon of freedom.”

The U.S. Senator's short visit to Burma, also known as Myanmar, is supposed to be a fact-finding mission to a place that is presenting itself to the world as a nation changed. A civilian government officially took power in March after questionable elections last year. But there's little doubt that Burma's military and its proxies still maintain an iron grip on the country, just as they have done since wresting power in a 1962 coup. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won elections held in 1990, meaning that she should have become Prime Minister. But the results were never honored, and Burma's top brass forced the NLD to dissolve as a political party last year.

McCain visited Suu Kyi 15 years ago in Rangoon, when she was locked up in her Rangoon home. He is scheduled to return to her lakeside villa on this trip. The Naypyidaw leg of McCain's trip was somewhat more underwhelming. Instead of meeting with General-turned-President Thein Sein, the American Senator was only granted an audience with a Vice President and the Foreign Minister, both former military officers who gave up their army ranks to enter the new government. McCain's Naypyidaw stop was briefly covered in the Burmese state press, with the government mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, noting blandly that the two sides “exchanged views on promotion of bilateral ties and cooperation between the two countries.”

Shortly after U.S. President Barack Obama took office, his Administration questioned the effectiveness of economic sanctions against the regime. But earlier this year the U.S. government renewed financial restrictions on Burma, and McCain has consistently supported such sanctions. His trip follows in the footsteps of UN special envoy Vijay Nambiar and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Yun, both of whom visited Burma last month.

Suu Kyi announced this week that she is planning to travel outside Rangoon for the first time since she was released last year. The last time the democracy activist ventured out in 2003, adoring crowds flocked to her speeches. But in the central Burmese town of Depayin, a clutch of thugs believed to be backed by the military regime surrounded her convoy, killing and injuring her supporters; Suu Kyi was then locked up again by the junta. Her fans worry that a similar scenario could ensue this time around.

In the meantime, the powers that be in Burma seem intent on showing a kinder, gentler face to the international community. Last month, Thein Sein presided over a much-touted amnesty in which thousands of prisoners were reportedly released. But around 2,000 political prisoners remain incarcerated in Burma. Unlike McCain and Suu Kyi, they have no chance to talk about life behind bars.

Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/06/02/senator-john-mccain-set-to-meet-burmas-aung-san-suu-kyi/#ixzz1O83jBZvO
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17 Countries Top List Of World’s Worst Human Rights Abusers
Lisa Schlein | Geneva June 01, 2011
Freedom House's 'Worst of the Worst 2011: The World’s Most Repressive Societies' report

An independent watchdog organization, Freedom House, has named 17 countries and three territories as the world's "most repressive societies." Among those topping the list of the world’s worst human rights abusers are Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, and Sudan. The annual report was launched in Geneva.

The countries on the list are those that have received the lowest rankings on political rights and civil liberties. The report notes that unfortunately, the same countries keep appearing on this hit parade of violators year after year.

It says countries such as Syria, Somalia, Turkmenistan, Libya, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia are places where people suffer from some of the most severe, systematic abuses of human rights on the planet.

The director of advocacy at Freedom House, Paula Schriefer, says she is pleased the U.N. Human Rights Council is becoming more active in shining the light of shame on these countries.

In the past few months, she notes, Burma, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and North Korea have been the focus of resolutions or special sessions by the Council.

But, she says, Freedom House regrets the Council’s reluctance to go after the most powerful country on the group's list, China.

“It has never been the target of a successful resolution or a special session at the Human Rights Council or previously at the Commission on Human Rights despite the fact that egregious violations take place in the country," said Schriefer. "Groups like the Falun Gong, the repression of minorities, such as the Uiguars, Tibetans are common.”

Seven African countries figure among the list of the world’s worst violators. Osman Hummaida, the executive director of the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies, is from northern Sudan. He lives in exile in Uganda.

He says he is sorry his native country is on top of the worst country list. He says the government has been employing more repressive measures in reaction to the so-called Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt,

“Since January, the government has opted to use different tactics and mechanisms to stay in power," said Hummaida. "They have been very disturbed by the situation in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. And, their response and crackdown on the demonstrations and protest by civilians, particular among students, have been associated with a very disturbing pattern of torture and other measures the government has taken against these groups.”

The Freedom House report says there has been an overall decline in global respect for the values of liberal democracy in the last five years. It says new threats have emerged in nearly every region of the world.

These include heightened attacks on human rights defenders and civil society, increased limits on press freedom and attacks on journalists.

Despite recent setbacks, the report says the world in 2011 is still significantly freer than it was 30 years ago. It says dozens of states have replaced dictatorships and authoritarian regimes with democratically-elected governments. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/pan/17-Countries-Top-List-Of-Worlds-Worst-Human-Rights-Abusers-122958138.html
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German chancellor urges Myanmar to honour human rights

Jun 2, 2011, 6:25 GMT

Singapore - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday urged the new government in Myanmar to pledge to uphold human rights, saying she was concerned about the country's bid to chair the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2014.

A November general election brought to power a new government in Myanmar after nearly four decades of military rule, but the party that won is pro-military and filled with former military men. Human rights groups called the election a sham and charged the new rulers have done nothing to improve the country's poor human rights record.

'I expect Myanmar to pledge to human rights, by word and deed,' Merkel told a forum in Singapore.

The chancellor said that as long as the new civilian rulers did not prove to be serious about democracy, she was 'concerned about the discussion of Myanmar's bid to chair ASEAN.'

Merkel said on the final day of a two-day state visit in Singapore that she encouraged all ASEAN members to contribute to the promotion of freedom and the rule of law in Myanmar.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

After the November 7 election and the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest a week later, Myanmar's new rulers said they were ready to host the ASEAN summit in 2014.

Last month, other ASEAN leaders said they had no objections in principle to the request but urged Myanmar to improve its human rights record leading up to 2014.

Myanmar was originally scheduled to chair an ASEAN summit in 2005, but it bowed out because of widespread condemnation of its human rights record and refusal to implement political reforms.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1643025.php/German-chancellor-urges-Myanmar-to-honour-human-rights
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US senator McCain to meet Burma's Suu Kyi

Published: 2/06/2011 at 01:31 PM
Online news: Asia

US Senator John McCain was expected to meet Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday during a visit for talks with the new army-backed government and opposition.

File photo of US Senator John McCain, who is on a visit to Myanmar. The senior Republican's visit comes as President Barack Obama, who beat McCain in the 2008 White House race, pursues greater engagement with the military-dominated nation.

The senior Republican's visit comes as President Barack Obama, who beat McCain in the 2008 White House race, pursues greater engagement with the military-dominated nation.

On Wednesday McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, met with Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo and Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in the capital Naypyidaw, according to state media.

They "exchanged views on promotion of bilateral ties and cooperation between the two countries," the New Light of Burma reported.

On Thursday McCain was expected to hold talks in Rangoon with Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in November shortly after the junta held the first election in 20 years.

The vote, which was won by the military's political proxies, was marred by widespread complaints of cheating and intimidation.

Suu Kyi's party was abolished by the junta for boycotting the poll and has no voice in the new parliament.

McCain wrote on the Twitter micro-blogging website he was "looking forward to seeing my inspiration, Aung San Suu Kyi. It has been a long, long time."

He was also expected to meet Khin Maung Swe, the leader of the National Democratic Force, formed by a group of former members of Suu Kyi's party who broke away to run in the November vote and won several seats in parliament.

"We will discuss the hot issues here like sanctions and (a prisoner) amnesty," Khin Maung Swe told AFP.

Rights groups criticised Burma last week after it released thousands of prisoners last month in a so-called amnesty. Most of them were common criminals rather than political prisoners.

McCain's talks follow a visit last month by senior US diplomat Joseph Yun, who called for "meaningful, concrete steps" towards democracy, respect for human rights, and the release of political prisoners, the US embassy said.

It was the highest-level meeting between the two nations since the handover of power to the new government.

US President Barack Obama's administration in 2009 launched a drive to engage with Burma's junta.

But Washington has voiced disappointment with the results of the dialogue and refused to ease sanctions.

Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said in Washington on Tuesday that patience was wearing thin with Burma over efforts to move towards democracy, but he added that the United States would maintain a two-year-old policy of dialogue with the regime.

"It is not enough to say, 'Be patient, give us time.' There has been an enormous amount of time and substantial patience," Campbell said.

The Republican Party has also criticised the November election as a farce to rubber-stamp regime-backed candidates.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/240229/us-senator-mccain-to-meet-burma-suu-kyi
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Distribution of Bangkok Post and Nation allowed in Burma
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 21:14 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A controlled distribution of two Thai daily newspapers, The Bangkok Post and The Nation, was begun in Burma on Wednesday.

Two Thai newspapers are now being distributed in Burma.

Two Thai newspapers are now being distributed in Burma.
Sources said that a small number of copies for six ministries in Naypyitaw, Rangoon-based foreign embassies and UN offices would not need to be scrutinized by the censorship board but other copies would be checked by censorship board officials before distribution would be allowed.

‘We started the distribution of these two daily papers today. We have done marketing at all hotels except two in Mandalay for distribution of the papers’, said Myo Aung, the owner of Success International Publisher’s Distributors which received a license for the distribution.

The papers will be sent to Burma on Thai Airways International and reached Mingladon airport in Rangoon at about 8:30 a.m.

The importer applied for a distribution license at the Economics and Commerce Ministry with the consent of the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (censorship board) under the Information Ministry. The license was approved five days from date of application.

The daily newspapers will be sold for 2,100 kyat (US$ 2.66) per copy.

‘We removed the pages with articles related to Burma which badly criticized the government in the past in distributing other foreign papers when the censorship board told us to do so. We distributed the remaining pages’, said Myo Aung, who started distributing foreign papers in 1994.

He said news stories which severely criticized the government or information about the demonstrations led by monks in 2007 were not allowed by the censorship board. His company currently distributes about 10 daily newspapers including The Strait Times and Business Time from Singapore and Asahi and Nikkei from Japan.

‘Some of the contents in these two daily newspapers, The Bangkok Post and The Nation, might infringe on the laws in Burma. When the censorship board finds something which cannot be allowed, I must face the problem. At first I was afraid to get into this business but now I think, as a businessman, it’s time to do this business as the censorship regulations and business atmosphere are liberalizing and relaxing’, Myo Aung said.

The readership for foreign daily newspapers is very small, he said.

A spokesperson at the South East Asia Press Alliance (SEAPA) said that distributing the two Thai newspapers was a positive and constructive step in the Burmese media world and it should be welcomed.

‘We must wait and see how the government will treat the foreign daily newspapers in the long run’, he said. ‘We must see how the government views these foreign papers if and when they publish news and commentary which criticizes the ruling government’.

Recently, the junta-backed new government has relaxed and liberalized some censorship rules and regulations and some publications can now publish articles without prior submission to the censors. More news-oriented publications must still run their stories through the censorship board before publication.
http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/5352-distribution-of-bangkok-post-and-nation-allowed-in-burma.html
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MYANMAR: Bride trafficking to China unveiled
Photo: Natalie Bailey/IRIN
Not every bride is willing

BANGKOK, 2 June 2011 (IRIN) - Most cross-border human trafficking in Myanmar involves women tricked into travelling to China to get work, only to find a groom waiting for them on the other side.

Thazin* was trafficked to China from Yangon and forced into marriage in 2008. Now 29 and back in Yangon, she told IRIN that one day she drank a cup of coffee spiked by an acquaintance, woke up in China and was soon married against her will.

According to the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), 70 percent of Myanmar's trafficking cases in 2010 involved stories like Thazin's.

In 2010, the authorities recorded 122 cases of forced marriage, up from 104 in 2009, Myanmar's Ministry of Home Affairs reported. For more than a decade, Burmese women have been trafficked across the 2,000km border to marry men who are unable to afford the dowry required by a Chinese bride, said Ohnmar Ei Ei Chaw, national programme coordinator for UNIAP in the Mekong region.

Chinese husbands-to-be pay upwards of US$8,000 to arrange these marriages, many believing their bride is willing. On the other hand, Burmese parents, looking for a better life for their children and themselves, accept as little as $1,000 for their daughters, according to UNIAP's 2010 report.

"It is a local custom and some think cross-border marriage is normal," Ohnmar Ei Ei Chaw said.

"With education programmes, they begin to realize this is against the law, and they begin to think 'We are putting our girls in a high risk position'." But bride trafficking will continue for as long as people are poor, she added.

Action taken

According to Save the Children, which has been working on this issue along the China-Myanmar border since 2002, trafficking for the purposes of forced marriage has increasingly been in the spotlight since 2006.

China and Myanmar now consider such arranged marriages to be human trafficking, and in 2009 they signed a comprehensive trafficking memorandum of understanding.

As Myanmar's five-year plan of action to combat trafficking comes to an end in 2011, the number of cases recorded has increased, along with the number of traffickers apprehended.

In 2010, the authorities prosecuted 502 perpetrators (197 male, 305 female) and rescued 381 people (89 male and 292 female).

Photo: Khaing Min Htoo/World Vision
In search of a better life, many women fall victim

Sting operations as well as education about the dangers of falling into a recruiter's trap have made these arrests possible, said a senior official from Myanmar's Central Body for the Suppression of Trafficking in Persons, who spoke to IRIN on condition of anonymity.

The 176-strong Trafficking Task Force, trained by the Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons Project and funded by the Australian Agency for International Development, has been deployed in 23 locations around Myanmar, including hotspots such as Muse, a border town, as well as source cities such as Yangon.

Prevention strategies

Special attention is being paid to buses, the main mode of transport used by traffickers. But prevention efforts are still the primary need, said David Brickey Bloomer, child protection director with Save the Children UK in Myanmar.

"Anti-Trafficking work in Myanmar is primarily focused on rehabilitation and reintegration; there needs to be a greater commitment on the part of all towards more prevention strategies which are inherently sustainable," he said.

Instead of helping, Thazin's brother said the police in Yangon demanded $600 as a bribe before they would search for her. He was unable to afford this sum, so Thazin remained a captive of her "husband" - until she could take no more and managed to escape.

"I even tore off my clothes. I was running naked," she said, until she reached a bus station near the border where people clothed her and returned her to Myanmar.

The woman who gave Thazin to the traffickers is serving a three-year prison term; it is not known if the traffickers have been found.

The US State Department releases its 2011 Trafficking in Persons report in the coming weeks. Myanmar has always ranked among Tier 3 countries, the lowest ranking possible in anti-trafficking performance. The 2010 report acknowledged the work done against international trafficking, but condemned Myanmar for continued in-country forced labour.

China has been on the Tier 2 watch list for the past six years.

*not her real name

nb/lm/ds/cb

Theme (s): Gender Issues, Migration,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=92868

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