大統領にテイン・セイン氏＝新政府発足へ―ミャンマー
ミャンマー 正副大統領候補は国軍代理政党から
ミャンマー、大統領候補者３名が決定
大統領にテイン・セイン氏＝新政府発足へ―ミャンマー
時事通信 2月4日(金)16時53分配信
【バンコク時事】ミャンマー国会は4日、上下両院合同の連邦議会を開催し、テイン・セイン首相（65）を大統領に選出した。近く組閣が行われて新政府が発足、軍事政権による「民政移管」プロセスが形式上、完成する。
新政府に権限が移譲されると、国家平和発展評議会（SPDC）は解散し、タン・シュエ議長は国家元首の座を退く。しかし、テイン・セイン氏はタン・シュエ議長の側近中の側近で、国会は約8割の議席を軍政側が占めており、実質的な軍政支配が継続することになる。
ミャンマー 正副大統領候補は国軍代理政党から
産経新聞 2月4日(金)7時58分配信
【シンガポール＝宮野弘之】ミャンマー連邦議会は３日、大統領候補にテイン・セイン首相、ティン・アウン・ミン・ウー元将軍、サイ・マウ・カム氏の３人を決めた。４日の上下両院の合同議会で大統領を指名し、残る２人が副大統領となる。
大統領にはテイン・セイン氏の就任が最有力視されている。
３人とも国軍の代理政党である連邦団結発展党（ＵＳＤＰ）所属議員。副大統領候補になった少数民族政党代表は選ばれず、あくまで国軍が議会を含めミャンマーの政治体制を支配する姿勢を示したかたちだ。
ミャンマー軍政は昨年４月、テイン・セイン首相と閣僚全員を一斉に退役させると同時に、新たにＵＳＤＰを設立し１１月の総選挙に臨んだ。軍政は徹底した管理選挙を行い、その結果、ＵＳＤＰは上下両院で過半数を確保。さらに両院にそれぞれ２５％ある軍人議員枠を合わせ、９割近い議席を押さえた。
新憲法では、議会は大統領候補の資格認定で意見を言えるが、実際は軍政トップのタン・シュエ国家平和発展評議会（ＳＰＤＣ）議長の意向で人選が進められたのは確実だ。
３人のうち、テイン・セイン氏は特にタン・シュエ議長の信頼が厚いとされる。同議長は当面、国軍司令官にとどまるものの、新政権が安定した後には退役するといわれており、「後継には退役後も自分の地位を脅かさない従順な人物を望んでいる」（外交筋）との見方がもっぱらだ。
タン・シュエ氏が実際にいつ退役するのかなどは不明だが、国軍関係者によると、タン・シュエ氏の後任の司令官にはミン・アウン・フライン参謀総長、軍政ナンバー２のマウン・エイ国軍副司令官の後任にはフラ・テイ・ウィン訓練局長の名前が挙がっている。
ミャンマー、大統領候補者３名が決定
TBS系（JNN） 2月4日(金)7時22分配信
ミャンマーでは今週からおよそ５０年ぶりに開かれている国会で、新しい国家元首となる大統領を選ぶ手続きが進められています。３日には上下両院で投票が行われて、軍事政権で序列４位のテイン・セイン首相ら候補者３名が出揃い、４日にも新大統領が決まります。
軍政は大統領の選出と新政府の発足をもって“民政移管”と位置づけていますが、国会は８割以上の議席を軍人や翼賛政党の議員が占め、大統領選出は実質的に軍政が主導しています。
テイン・セイン首相の大統領選出が有力視される一方、軍政トップのタン・シュエ国家平和発展評議会議長がどのような形で新体制に関わっていくのかも注目されています。（03日17:51）
Friday, February 4, 2011
ミャンマーニュース-04-FEBRUARY-2011
News & Articles on Burma-Friday, 04 February, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Friday, 04 February, 2011
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Burmese parliament selects ex-general as president
Equal opportunity abuse in Myanmar
Myanmar picks junta insider as president: official
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THE NATION:
Burmese parliament selects ex-general as president
Rangoon - Burma's parliament on Friday elected former army general Thein Sein as the country's president, giving him the power to select a cabinet and head a powerful new security council.
Thein Sein, 65, is also chairman in military-run Burma of the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won 77 per cent of the contested seats in the November 7 elections, the first to be held in 20 years.
His two rivals for the presidency, ex-general Tin Aung Myint Oo and Dr Sai Mauk Kham, both of whom belong to the USDP, became vice presidents, government sources said.
Thein Sein was deemed the favourite of Senior General Than Shwe, Myanmar's junta chief since 1992.
Thein Sein is empowered to choose the next cabinet, to be approved by parliament, and he is to chair the powerful National Defence and Security Council, a new entity that is to have far-reaching powers over both the government and the military. //DPA
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ASIA TIMES: Feb 5, 2011
Equal opportunity abuse in Myanmar
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - When independent researchers fanned out across military-ruled Myanmar's mountainous Chin State to catalogue human-rights abuses, they expected to hear the usual disturbing stories of ethnic minority women being raped by government troops. But the research uncovered an unexpected new trend of abuse: Chin men were also being sexually violated by male soldiers in the country's remote northwestern corner.
"It was not something that we expected to find," said Vit Suwanvanichkij, co-author of a new investigative report released
by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), a US-based non-governmental rights lobby. "This abuse - rape of males - has not been reported before and it shows what life is like in militarized [Myanmar]."
The 63-page report, entitled "Life Under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma's Chin State", says that the male head of five different households were among 17 people who claimed to have been raped by Myanmar troops during a 12-month period spanning 2009 and 2010. Among them was a father of five children who, according to the report, the "[Myanmar] military sexually assaulted and threatened to kill him on July 20, 2009."
The rape of men, as well as women and children, are part of a numbing list of human-rights violations committed by Myanmar troops in their quest to assert control over the remote Chin region situated near the Indian and Bangladeshi border, according to PHR's research. Male victims quoted in the report said that they believed they were targeted by predominantly Buddhist Burman soldiers because of their different religious and ethnic identity as Christian Chins.
Forced labor was documented in 92% of over 600 households surveyed in nine different townships, with tasks ranging from building roads, to portering military supplies, to sweeping for landmines. However, the prevalence of male rape may have been underestimated in the report, due to difficulties in gathering accurate information.
Parveen Parmar, another co-author of the report, says that sexual violations rank among the most difficult rights abuses to chronicle, even when, as was the case during the surveys conducted by PHR's 22-member research team, the interviews were done in private and confidentiality was guaranteed.
Myanmar's abysmal rights record is extensively well documented. Forced conscription, torture, arson and the confiscation of land and food stocks have all been used by the Tatmadaw, as the over 400,000-strong Myanmar military is known, to quash a myriad of ethnic rebel movements that have been active for decades across the country.
The use of rape as a weapon of war was first exposed in "License to Rape", an investigative report published by the Shan Women's Action Network in 2002. The account documented 625 cases, including instances of gang rape, showing how Myanmar's army systematically targeted women and girls from the ethnic Shan minority.
However, there was no hint at that time that Shan males were also targeted, according to SWAN researchers. "We documented what the community revealed happened to them from 1996 till 2001," says Charm Tong, a member of SWAN's advocacy team, during a telephone interview. "Rapes were widespread and committed by high-ranking military offices and soldiers."
In 2005, Charm Tong, 29, had an audience in the White House with then US president George W Bush, lending credibility to her advocacy group's findings. SWAN's reporting on the junta's human-rights abuses helped to harden Washington's position towards Myanmar, including an expansion of the US's sanctions regime.
PHR's revelations come at an awkward moment for the European Union (EU), which maintains its own sanctions against Myanmar for its poor human-rights record, but is now under pressure from some member governments to reconsider this position after last year's military-rigged general elections. The EU is expected to review its "common position", as the regional groupings policy on Myanmar is known, in April.
Meanwhile, the United Nations is under growing pressure to establish a commission of inquiry into the junta's human-rights abuses - a move US President Barack Obama has endorsed. Any such inquiry would now likely need to include investigations into the systematic sexual abuse of men as well as women.
"Sexual violence cases have mainly focused on women. Even human-rights people documenting this abuse have not paid attention that it could possibly happen to men," says Aung Myo Min, director of the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, a non-governmental think-tank run from Thailand's northern city of Chiang Mai.
"It is a kind of intimidation for the victim and they often don't want to talk about it because of the shame," he said. "But the recent revelations should prompt human-rights researchers to investigate this ignored area of abuse. There could be more cases."
Myanmar's military rulers have denied previous allegations of using rape as a war weapon. They deflected SWAN's report as a "fabrication" and have denied the findings of various human-rights groups who have chronicled the regime's abuses. That remained the junta's line last week during the first-ever universal periodic review of Myanmar's rights record, including in ethnic areas, at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
Win Min, a Myanmar military expert based in Chiang Mai, claims that in frontline areas of the conflict prisoners of war are seldom treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and many have been summarily executed because officers believe it is too complicated or costly to bring them to justice through court proceedings. That culture of impunity, he suggests, has fostered an environment conducive to sexual violence.
"I have never heard of serious action [taken] by the military following reports of rape cases in ethnic areas," says Win Min. "There has been no mechanism to file such cases in the military."
Marwaan Macan-Markar is a Sri Lankan journalist who covered the South Asian nation's ethnic conflict before becoming a foreign correspondent for the Inter Press Service news agency in 1999. He is based in Thailand where he covers Southeast Asia.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MB05Ae01.html
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Myanmar picks junta insider as president: official
Published on 4 February 2011 - 8:03am
Myanmar named a key retired general as president on Friday, an official said, as the military hierarchy retained its stranglehold on power in the country's new political system.
Thein Sein, who shed his army uniform to contest controversial elections last year, "was elected as the president with a majority vote," a Myanmar official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The former junta prime minister had been tipped for the post even before the electoral committee vote, supporting fears that the regime has engineered the political process to hide military power behind a civilian facade.
A key ally of junta strongman Than Shwe, the 65-year-old became a civilian to contest the November election as head of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which claimed an overwhelming majority in the poll.
One of the president's first jobs will be to appoint a government, and he can be confident of little resistance from a parliament dominated by the military and its cronies.
Sources said he was likely to retain his position as prime minister in addition to his new role.
Under complex parliamentary rules, the upper house, lower house and members of the military each nominated one vice president.
A select committee then chose the president from the three candidates, all of them members of the USDP as Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country since 1962, continued its domination.
The two vice presidents are Tin Aung Myint Oo, another retired top general and Than Shwe ally, and an ethnic Shan, Sai Mouk Kham.
Though Than Shwe, who has ruled Myanmar with an iron fist since 1992, has not taken the top political role, many analysts believe he will attempt to retain some sort of control behind the scenes.
Maung Zarni, of the London School of Economics, said the country's power structure was "classic dictatorship".
"The good guys do not get promoted," he said.
But Myanmar expert Aung Naing Oo said the very fact that Than Shwe was taking a back seat could present a small opportunity for change.
"Anything is possible if Than Shwe leaves. Maybe now Thein Sein is considered a very loyal 'yes man' but soon he will have to find his own way," he said.
The formation of a national assembly in Naypyidaw, convened for the first time on Monday, takes the country towards the final stage of the junta's so-called "roadmap" to a "disciplined democracy".
A quarter of the seats were kept aside for the military even before the vote, and the country's first poll in 20 years was marred by the absence of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation.
USDP lawmakers bagged 388 of the national parliament's 493 elected seats, leaving little room for dissenting voices.
The opposition National Democratic Force (NDF), which split from Suu Kyi's party in order to contest the election, has a total of 12 seats in the legislature's two chambers, and the Democratic Party (Myanmar) has none.
Thein Sein's rise to president comes after the United States said it was "disappointed" with Myanmar, adding it was "premature" to consider lifting sanctions.
Suu Kyi, released from seven consecutive years under house arrest a few days after the vote, also downplayed the impact of political changes in a Financial Times interview published last weekend.
"I don't think the elections mean there is going to be any kind of real change in the political process," she was quoted as saying.
© ANP/AFP http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/myanmar-picks-junta-insider-president-official-0
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News & Articles on Burma-Thursday, 03 February, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Thursday, 03 February, 2011
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Myanmar nominates pro-army candidates for presidency
Burma’s PM is the frontrunner in the presidential poll
USDP dominates presidential race
Myanmar parliament chooses three candidates for presidency
Myanmar junta party 'sweeps presidential race'
Young blogger gets 12-year jail term
Myanmar's new parliament to select vice presidents
US vows pressure, defends dialogue
The right way to help Burma's democracy movement
US says no to easing pressure on Myanmar
Burma's Air Defense Force Deploying New SAMs
Myanmar Restricts Air Passengers Wearing Gold Jewelry Out Of Country
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Myanmar nominates pro-army candidates for presidency
Reuters
By Aung Hla Tun Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar's new parliament nominated on Thursday three pro-military candidates for the presidency, signaling only nominal changes ahead and no real shift away from an army-dominated status quo.
The nomination of three members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the military junta's political arm, represents only a cosmetic change with paramount leader, Senior General Than Shwe, expected to continue wielding behind-the-scenes power.
Analysts say Prime Minister Thein Sein is likely to win Friday's vote and become the submissive front man in a new phase of military-managed civilian rule in the resource-rich country strategically nestled between economic powers China and India.
"Than Shwe still holds all the cards and will still pull the strings. This has all been set up and there'll be no real handover of power," said Aung Thu Nyein, a Harvard-educated academic and expert on Myanmar politics.
"He's a recluse. He doesn't like public appearances or giving speeches. He's always managed things from behind a curtain and he'll still be controlling everything that way."
Myanmar's political and economic allies are unlikely to disapprove of such an arrangement.
China and Thailand, which are tapping Myanmar's big energy reserves, welcomed a November 7 general election swept by the USDP, despite widespread allegations of cheating.
Junta hard-liner Tin Aung Myint Oo, the regime's fifth in command, is another presidential candidate along with Sai Mauk Kham, a little-known USDP politician from Shan State, a rebellious region bordering China, where voting in November was either scrapped or boycotted in many areas.
The process of choosing a president has been highly secretive. Assembly members provided the nominations to Reuters on condition of anonymity because speaking to the media carries a punishment of two years imprisonment.
The two unsuccessful candidates in Friday's vote by three special committees will become vice presidents.
RETIREMENT PLANS?
The committees are comprised largely of members of a USDP/military-appointed bloc that control 83 percent of a legislature that has limited power compared with the president, who will appoint a government, attorney general and chief justice.
Than Shwe's absence from among the presidential candidates has raised speculation about his role in the isolated country of about 50 million mostly impoverished people.
Experts believe he will retain a powerful role to preserve his ostentatious lifestyle and insulate him from any purge.
Few people in Myanmar are privy to the 78-year-old strongman's thinking. It is assumed the former village postal clerk will remain head of the military as commander-in-chief.
However, references in Myanmar's tightly controlled state media on Thursday have prompted a flurry of speculation he could retire, not just from politics but from the military also.
Newspapers reported that a special meeting of military-appointed assembly members was attended by "the commander-in-chief", but did not refer to Than Shwe by name, as they normally do. Such omissions in state media are rare and have sparked rumors he may have quietly chosen a successor already.
The carefully planned transition from military rule to a civilian-led system leaves little room for opposing voices and the biggest pro-democracy party, the National Democratic Force, has only 12 seats in parliament and barely any veto power.
Former members of the junta have been named house speakers and others are expected to take cabinet and regional chief minister posts. An armed forces reshuffle last year pushed Than Shwe loyalists into plum positions.
While the November 13 release of the long-detained leader of Myanmar's democracy movement, Aung San Suu Kyi, has brought hope of positive change, she has no official political role following an election boycott by her National League for Democracy, the winner of the previous polls in 1990 that the regime ignored.
Her party was officially dissolved because of its boycott.
Sai Mauk Kham's presidential nomination was seen largely as a token gesture to Myanmar's numerous ethnic groups, which have barely any political representation. (Writing and additional reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Jason Szep and Robert Birsel)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110203/wl_nm/us_myanmar_president
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Burma’s PM is the frontrunner in the presidential poll
By Zin Linn Feb 03, 2011 7:28PM UTC
Burma or Myanmar’s parliament, which was besieged by the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), Thursday, selected three candidates for the presidency – all of them members of the USDP, sources said. The president will be chosen on Friday.
Under complicated parliamentary rules and regulations, the Upper House, Lower House and members of the military each nominate one vice president. A select electoral committee must then approve the candidates and pick one of them as president.
The Lower House (People’s Parliament) voted for Prime Minister Thein Sein as its candidate, over Saw Thein Aung, leader of the ethnic Karen State Progressive Party (KSPP).
Thein Sein, 66, is also head of the USDP, which won 77 per cent of the parliamentary seats in the November elections.
And for the Upper House (National Parliament) selected, Sai Mawk Kham, a doctor and member of the Shan ethnic group, over Aye Maung, the leader of Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP). Sai Mawk Kham is also a representative-elect from USDP.
The candidate for the military-appointed lawmakers, who represent 25 per cent of the seats in parliament due to 2008 constitution, is Tin Aung Myint Oo, an ex-general who is powerful as first secretary in the current military junta.
Remarkably, all three winning candidates are members of the USDP, the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
Most analysts and observers presume the presidency will definitely go to the current Prime Minister, Thein Sein, the military junta’s fourth in command. The 66-year-old career soldier retired from the army in April 2010 to lead of the army-backed USDP, which claimed landslide in the poll. Thein Sein was appointed in April 2007 by the nation’s ruling military junta as interim prime minister, replacing Soe Win undertaking medical treatment. Thein Sein succeeded Soe Win on 24 October 2007 after Soe Win’s death in October 2007.
Thein Sein and Tin Aung Myint Oo gave up their military positions last year in order to take part in the November election. Thein Sein became the choice of Senior General Than Shwe, who has been ruling the country since 1992.
As observers estimated earlier, out of the five nominees for the three vice-presidential positions, the lucky three are unsurprisingly members of the USDP. At last, Thein Sein, Tin Aung Myint Oo and Sai Mawk Kham, all USDP members, are chosen as the three vice-presidents.
Parliament gathering in the new capital Naypyitaw, 350 kilometers north of old capital Rangoon, has to form an electoral college on Friday to choose one out of the three candidates to turn into president.
Thein Sein is expected to be the winner as he always obeys the military boss Than Shwe. As a result, Than Shwe trusts him as a loyalist and he can control Thein Sein from behind the curtain.
The 7 November elections were identified a fraud by the western democratic governments criticizing the military for passing laws that cleverly disqualified the chief opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and its leader Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The elected president has the right to assign a cabinet, which is likely to be crowded with members of the military-backed USDP. The president will also take a seat on the new National Defence and Security Council, which is to control the military.
Moreover, the president, with the approval of the Union Parliament or combination of the upper and lower houses, has to designate the Ministries of the Union Government as necessary and can increase or decrease the number.
Thus, majority of Burmese citizens do not see the current parliamentary sessions as a change and they are in the hunt for genuine political reform relentlessly.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/47639/burma%E2%80%99s-pm-is-the-frontrunner-in-the-presidential-poll/
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USDP dominates presidential race
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 3 February 2011
Burma’s new president is guaranteed to be a member of the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) after the three vice presidential spots were all won by party members.
Rumours are circulating that current prime minister, Thein Sein, who was today elected as a vice president, will take the top spot in what the Burmese junta has professed will be a civilian government. Under Burma’s constitution, the president must be selected from one of the vice presidents.
The decision is due to be announced on Friday, but a representative for the USDP, Khin Shwe, said that the prime minister was the strongest contender.
“Everyone is speculating that…Thein Sein will become the president, given the fact that he is the current prime minister, has a lot of experience and ideas, and is already familiar with the international community.”
Thein Sein is also known to be close to Burma’s junta chief, Than Shwe, whom state media last week made clear was not running for the post. The close relationship has no doubt contributed heavily to Thein Sein’s chances for the job.
The nomination of the three vice presidents, who also include current First Secretary Tin Aung Myint Oo and USDP representative Sai Mouk Kham, came as no surprise to observers who claim that the make-up of the new parliament, which is dominated by the USDP and pre-appointed military officials, weighs heavily in favour of junta-backed representatives.
Tin Aung Myint Oo was voted to the position by the military contingent of parliament, meaning he effectively faced no competition. Thein Sein won 435 votes in the People’s Parliament (or lower house), while Sai Mouk Kham won 140 votes in the Nationalities Parliament (or upper house).
Thein Sein became chairman of the USDP in April 2010 after quitting his military post along with 20 other officials, including Tin Aung Myint Oo. The 65-year-old was made prime minister in 2007 after scaling the ranks of the junta following the 1988 uprising.
Sai Mouk Kham is the only one of the three not to hail from a military background. Instead the ethnic Shan politician had owned a medical clinic in Lashio, having earned a degree in medicine, and was chairman of Shan Literature and Culture Association.
http://www.dvb.no/news/usdp-dominates-presidential-race/14044
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Myanmar parliament chooses three candidates for presidency
Feb 3, 2011, 8:15 GMT
Yangon - Myanmar's parliament Thursday elected three candidates for the presidency - all of them members of the pro-junta party that won last year's election, government sources said.
The president is to be selected Friday.
The lower house voted for Prime Minister Thein Sein as its candidate, over Saw Thein Aung, leader of the ethnic Karen State Progressive Party.
Thein Sein, 65, is also chairman of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won 77 per cent of the contested seats in the November 7 elections.
The upper house selected Sai Mon Khun, a doctor and member of the Shan ethnic minority group over Aye Maung, leader of the Rakhine National Development Party.
The candidate for the military's appointed legislators, who account for 25 per cent of the seats in parliament, is Tin Aung Myint Oo, an ex-general who is first secretary in the ruling junta.
All three candidates are members of the USDP, the proxy party of the military establishment.
Thein Sein and Tin Aung gave up their military posts last year in order to contest the election, the first held in Myanmar in two decades.
The polls were branded a sham by western democracies, who criticized the military for passing laws that effectively excluded the chief opposition party, the National League for Democracy, and its leader Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Parliament, meeting in the capital Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Yangon, was to form an electoral college on Friday to vote on which of the three candidates will become president.
Thein Sein was the favourite as he has the trust of military supremo Than Shwe, who has ruled the country under a junta since 1992.
'Thein Sein is likely to obey Than Shwe, so Than Shwe likes him because he can control him from behind,' said Win Min, a US-based Myanmar scholar based.
Once selected, the president is to appoint a cabinet, which is expected to be packed with USDP members. The president will also sit on the new National Defence and Security Council, which is to control the military.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1616724.php/Myanmar-parliament-chooses-three-candidates-for-presidency
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Myanmar junta party 'sweeps presidential race'
AFP
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's junta-backed party swept a vote for presidential nominations on Thursday, officials said, as part of a secretive process apparently designed to reserve the top job for a key regime insider.
Prime Minister Thein Sein, a general who retired from the army in April last year, was one of three candidates selected by soldiers and lawmakers, Myanmar officials said, with the president set to be announced on Friday.
A key ally of junta strongman Than Shwe, Thein Sein was tipped for the post even before the vote, supporting fears that the regime held a widely panned election to hide military power behind civilian rule.
Thein Sein "is likely to be announced as the president," said Khin Shwe, a lawmaker for the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in the upper house.
The 65-year-old, a career soldier, became a civilian to contest the election as head of the USDP, which claimed an overwhelming majority in the poll.
All three candidates chosen on Thursday were members of the leading party as Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country since 1962, appeared set to continue its domination.
Under complex parliamentary rules, the upper house, lower house and members of the military each nominate one vice president. A select electoral committee must then approve the candidates and pick one of them as president.
Thein Sein was selected by the lower house, while the military is believed to have nominated Tin Aung Myint Oo, another retired top general and Than Shwe ally.
The upper house picked another USDP member, Sai Mouk Kham.
"They will elect the president from these three vice-presidents tomorrow," said a Myanmar official.
Than Shwe, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1992, appears not to be among those put forward for the top political post.
But the 77-year-old has been the subject of a storm of conflicting speculation in recent months and many analysts believe he could attempt to retain some sort of control behind the scenes.
The country's first poll in 20 years was marred by the absence of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation.
A quarter of the seats were kept aside for the military even before the vote, and the USDP bagged 388 of the national parliament's 493 elected seats. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110203/wl_asia_afp/myanmarpoliticsparliament
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Young blogger gets 12-year jail term
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 3 February 2011
A man arrested last year in connection with the Rangoon bombings and later sentenced to two years’ in prison was yesterday given an additional 10 years under Burma’s draconian Electronics Act.
Courts alleged that Kaung Myat Hlaing, 22, had also been involved in various poster campaigns calling for the release of political prisoners in Burma prior to his arrest in April 2010.
But it appears that his role as an underground blogger eventually came to the attention of authorities, whom last month brought him from his cell in Rangoon’s Insein prison to stand in a closed court and hear the verdict.
A family member who spoke to DVB on condition of anonymity said that Kaung Myat Hlaing had blogged under the name of Nat Soe (‘dark angel’) following the September 2007 uprising. Authorities had been looking for him since, he said, adding that “in 2010, he was arrested under the pretext of being connected to the bombings that he didn’t have anything to do with.
“He was interrogated for 10 days and authorities found out that he took part in the poster campaigns, sticking up posters on police and army trucks calling for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.
“He was not allowed to sleep and also denied food and water during the 10-day interrogation.”
A decade-long sentence is the minimum punishment for being found guilty under the Electronics Acts, which has been used on a number of occasions to silence dissenting media outlets.
Burma was recently ranked as the world’s fourth biggest jail for journalists by the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ). It also came 171 out of 175 countries in Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index last year.
Kaung Myat Hlaing joins nearly 2,200 other political prisoners in Burma’s jails, more than 20 of whom are journalists.
Whilst under interrogation, the family member said, he allegedly admitted to being a member of activist group The Best Fertiliser, which has organised a number of anti-regime campaigns in the past.
Five other youths arrested in connection with the bombings are also awaiting verdicts.
Three separate grenade attacks hit the X20 pavilion in Rangoon on 15 April 2010 as revellers celebrated the Thingyan festival. Nine people died, making it the most deadly attack on Rangoon in half a decade. A 31-year-old has been charged with murder for his role in the bombings.
http://www.dvb.no/news/young-blogger-gets-12-year-jail-term/14039
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Myanmar's new parliament to select vice presidents
By AYE AYE WIN
The Associated Press
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — Myanmar's new parliament met Thursday to elect two of the country's three vice presidents, one of whom will become president and lead the new military-dominated government.
The army has held power in Myanmar since 1962 and is now essentially handpicking the country's president. The military's own delegates in parliament and their civilian allies hold an 80 percent majority in the new legislature, so the new leader is certain to be a top member of the outgoing junta.
The parliament on Tuesday selected five candidates, including two chosen by the lower house, two from the upper house and one by the military representatives of both houses. One-quarter of the seats in each chamber are reserved for military appointees.
On Thursday, the two houses will each pick one of the vice presidents from among their candidates, said Saw Thein Aung, one of the lower house nominees. It was not immediately clear if the military's pick for a third vice president would also be announced Thursday.
The most prominent nominee among the five is Thein Sein, a general who served as prime minister in the outgoing ruling junta and also heads the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which won a huge majority in November's general election.
Thein Sein's seniority makes him the most likely pick for the top post. But no matter who fills the post, the longtime junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe is expected to remain a dominant force in the country.
Another leading candidate is a retired top military figure, Tin Aung Myint Oo, who was also a senior member of the junta.
One of the positions is reserved for an ethnic minority, an inclusion that is an important gesture because conflict with the country's substantial ethnic groups who seek greater autonomy has long posed a threat to national stability.
There has been little popular interest in the opening of parliament, which occurred on Jan. 31, due to the widespread perception that the military cheated in November's general election and has no true intention of paving the way for democracy.
The party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which won elections in 1990 that the junta refused to honor, boycotted the vote and is without representation in the new legislature. http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/myanmars-new-parliament-to-826144.html
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US vows pressure, defends dialogue
By AFP
Published: 3 February 2011
US vows pressure, defends dialogue thumbnail
Kurt Campbell speaks to media as South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin looks on in Seoul (Reuters)
The United States said Wednesday it was premature to ease sanctions on Burma and urged the regime to take more concrete steps as it shakes up leadership following controversial elections.
Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said after a trip to consult Southeast Asian nations that the United States was broadly disappointed with Burma but committed to maintain dialogue.
“Several Southeast Asian nations have come out saying it’s time to lift sanctions. We have stated very clearly we think that that is obviously premature,” Campbell told reporters.
“We are looking for much more concrete steps from the new government as they form a new government policy on a host of issues,” he said.
Burma this week convened a military-dominated parliament that the regime sees as a key step in its so-called roadmap to democracy.
But Western nations and the opposition have cried foul, charging that elections last year were rigged to sideline pro-democracy forces and ethnic minorities.
Campbell said that the United States stood behind opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in her calls for the military to make clear its intentions.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy swept the last elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take power. The military released the Nobel Peace laureate in November after years under house arrest, but only after the elections.
Campbell in 2009 opened dialogue with the military, part of the effort by President Barack Obama’s administration to reach out to US adversaries.
“We have been disappointed, basically, across the spectrum,” Campbell said, insisting the administration has never tried to “oversell” the fruits of engagement.
“It is also the case, however, that we believe a degree of engagement serves the best interests of the United States and our regional policy,” he said.
http://www.dvb.no/news/us-vows-pressure-defends-dialogue/14032
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The right way to help Burma's democracy movement
Wednesday, February 2, 2011; 8:17 PM
SOME OBSERVERS have hailed the inauguration of a new parliament this week as an augur of a potentially more democratic era for the sad, Southeast Asian nation of Burma (also known as Myanmar). If so, it's an odd sort of democracy.
The session took place in Naypyidaw, the remote and lavish new capital that Burma's ruling generals constructed, at huge expense, reportedly on the advice of astrologers. The city's chief feature is that almost no one lives there, and almost no one who doesn't live there is permitted to visit. Parliamentary rules were consistent with that paranoia. Journalists were barred, as were ordinary citizens, and even parliamentarians were not allowed to bring in cellphones, cameras or recording devices. Any legislator who wants to ask a question has to submit it 10 days in advance, with the regime ruling on its appropriateness.
This would be amusing if it weren't so tragic. The Burmese people have shown, through courageous uprisings in 1989 and 2007, that they are desperate to govern themselves. But unlike in Egypt so far, the Burmese army has proved willing to kill as many civilians as necessary to maintain power. The regime, led by Gen. Than Shwe, is one of the world's most brutal, and it has led the nation of 50 million - once among Asia's most prosperous and educated - steadily downward.
The latest farce of controlled elections to a pseudo-parliament is hopeful in one sense, though: It shows that the generals care enough about global opinion at least to pretend at democracy. That in turn suggests that outside nations could exert some influence if they chose.
Which brings us to the failing policy of the Obama administration, ostensibly a marriage of engagement and targeted sanctions. In practice, engagement has been half-hearted and fruitless - the regime seems uninterested - and sanctions have been allowed to languish. The administration hasn't added a single name to the Treasury Department's Burma sanctions list or cracked down on a single bank doing business with the regime - even as the generals sign multibillion-dollar development deals with companies in China, Thailand and elsewhere.
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There's an honest debate to be had about whether sanctions hurt ordinary people more than their rulers. But a focused effort to target the regime and its cronies might leave more room to expand humanitarian aid to the population. Right now, the administration has the worst of all worlds. It's not influencing events, it's not helping the people and it's positioning itself to be blamed nonetheless.
A less honest debate would be one that blames the administration's lassitude on Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's democracy movement, or argues that sanctions should await a clear pronouncement from her. Though she was recently freed from house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi is not in an easy position; if she did call forthrightly for enhanced sanctions, she would be vilified in the poisonous state-controlled press. The biggest help the West could give the democracy movement would be to freeze the bank accounts of the nation's rulers and their relatives, to keep them from stealing more of their nation's patrimony, and let Aung San Suu Kyi call for relaxation when and if events merit. The opening of a Potemkin parliament wouldn't qualify as one such event.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/02/AR2011020205786.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
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US says no to easing pressure on Myanmar
Posted: 03 February 2011 0726 hrs
WASHINGTON - The United States said Wednesday it was premature to ease sanctions on Myanmar and urged the regime to take more concrete steps as it shakes up leadership following controversial elections.
Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said after a trip to consult Southeast Asian nations that the United States was broadly disappointed with Myanmar but committed to maintain dialogue.
"Several Southeast Asian nations have come out saying it's time to lift sanctions. We have stated very clearly we think that that is obviously premature," Campbell told reporters.
"We are looking for much more concrete steps from the new government as they form a new government policy on a host of issues," he said.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, this week convened a military-dominated parliament that the regime sees as a key step in its so-called roadmap to democracy.
But Western nations and the opposition have cried foul, charging that elections last year were rigged to sideline pro-democracy forces and ethnic minorities.
Campbell said that the United States stood behind opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in her calls for the military to make clear its intentions.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy swept the last elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take power. The military released the Nobel Peace laureate in November after years under house arrest, but only after the elections.
Campbell in 2009 opened dialogue with the military, part of the effort by President Barack Obama's administration to reach out to US adversaries.
"We have been disappointed, basically, across the spectrum," Campbell said, insisting the administration has never tried to "oversell" the fruits of engagement.
"It is also the case, however, that we believe a degree of engagement serves the best interests of the United States and our regional policy," he said.
- AFP /ls http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1108591/1/.html
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Burma's Air Defense Force Deploying New SAMs
By KO HTWE Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Burma’s Air Defense Force intends to deploy the S 125 Neva/ Pechora surface-to-air missile after Burmese army soldiers spotted an unidentified flying object assumed to be an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) flying over eastern Shan State in early January.
Originally from Russia, the S-125 Neva/Pechora is a kind of surface-to-air-missile (SAM) that has a shorter effective range and lower engagement than others.
“Air Defense Force troops will be in training between this month and April at Burma’s Air Defense Force schools,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, the editor Thailand-based Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN). “The training involves the UAV that was spotted in January.”
The UAV flew across Namhsan Township and was identical to a UAV spotted by government troops in the last week of December over Kengtung Township. The Burmese Air Force has reportedly been ordered to shoot the UAV down if spotted again in Burmese airspace.
Normally, Burmese Air Defense Force battalions are equipped with 57 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft auto-cannons, 37 mm anti-aircraft guns and Russia-made IGLAs, a portable anti-aircraft missile. Burma's military has sent junior Air Defense Force officers to Russia to be trained in portable air defense missile systems.
During the NATO air strikes in Yugoslavia, an F-117 stealth aircraft was shot down by a Serb S-125 air defense system in 1999.
As of December 2008, over 200 Pechora-2M upgraded ramp-launched missiles had been ordered by Egypt, Syria, Libya, Burma, Vietnam, Venezuela and Turkmenistan, according to the website www.deagel.com.
Burma's military has two Air Defense Force schools, one based in Meikhtila in Mandalay Division and the other in Hmawbi in Rangoon Division, and eight Air Defense Force commands.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20659
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February 03, 2011 13:08 PM
Myanmar Restricts Air Passengers Wearing Gold Jewelry Out Of Country
YANGON, Feb 3 (Bernama) -- The Myanmar customs department has restricted domestic air passengers leaving the country wearing gold jewellery, allowing only one tical of net gold to be taken along with a passenger, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the local Popular News report Thursday.
The measure is being introduced in the Yangon and Mandalay International Airports, the department was quoted as saying.
The report said that a gold ring shall not be inserted with any kind of gem or jade stone.
Myanmar citizen boarding a plane wearing more than one tical of gold jewellery will be denied air passage and be charged, the report added.
Tical, a unit of weight in Thailand and in Myanmar, is used for determining the weight of gold, silver and other commodities.
-- BERNAMA http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=561343
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