Russia’s landmark deal to supply China with natural gas via pipeline over 30 years will have profound impacts globally and create a new price benchmark that may pressure other producers, as consumers choose from a variety of supply sources, according to analysts. OAO Gazprom on Wednesday clinched a contract with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to sell an estimated $400 billion worth of gas over 30 years beginning in 2018 (see Daily GPI, May 21). By the end of this decade, Russia could be supplying almost 10% of China’s gas supplies. The deal to supply 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year via pipeline is priced at around US$10.00/Mcf, versus a current price of $14.00-15.00 for Asia Pacific imports, close to what most European utilities have agreed to pay over the past two years under discounted long-term contracts. “We, Russia and Gazprom, have discovered the Asian gas market for ourselves,” said Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller on Thursday at a forum. The transaction “will influence the whole gas market,” pressuring LNG projects in North America, Australia and Africa. Several analysts agreed that the partnership is a landmark for the global gas market. The compact “sets a new benchmark for what China is willing to pay for natural gas over longer-term contracts,” said Fitch Ratings. Asia liquefied natural gas (LNG) spot prices today are about $13.70/MMBtu, versus U.S. prices of about $4.50 (Henry Hub). “The deal changes the level playing field,” Societe Generale analyst Thierry Bros wrote. “China has now secured some new gas at a competitive price,” which means LNG shipped after the pipeline is completed “would need to be competitive.” China “now has a powerful stick with which to beat down LNG prices…They can tell their LNG suppliers ‘either you bring your price below Russian piped costs, or we will install a second line from Russia and cut you out.’” Russia “has thrown down the gauntlet to LNG producers courting Chinese buyers,” said London-based Timera Energy Director David Stokes. “Russian pipeline exports, which look to be competitively priced versus LNG, are set to have a material impact in eroding Chinese LNG demand. There is likely to be an important knock-on impact on the global LNG supply and demand balance, given the central role China plays in growth projections.” Expanding Gazprom’s Reach For Gazprom, the deal also gives it a brand-new market that’s roughly the size of Europe, said Wood Mackenzie Ltd.’s Stephen O’Rourke. Russia now supplies about one-third of Europe’s gas supplies, but more important, about 80% of Gazprom’s revenues are from Europe. “With European gas demand growth uncertain and the Ukraine crisis leading to calls for Europe to reduce its reliance on Russian gas, Gazprom now needs a ‘new Europe’ — enter China,” said O’Rourke. Gazprom could increase export volumes to China without affecting its ability to deliver to existing European customers, by developing untapped reserves in eastern Russia, said Fitch Managing Director Alex Griffiths, who heads natural resources and commodities. “Some have portrayed the deal as Russia turning away from Europe, in light of the ongoing situation in Ukraine. While it certainly begins to give Gazprom options in where to export, the company’s challenge historically has been to find ways to monetize its 23 trillion cubic meters of reserves at acceptable prices — and the best scenario for the company is an increase in production. “The deal is therefore positive for Gazprom’s medium- to long-term prospects, especially if it opens the door for a further deal to sell gas from its developed western fields to China in due course…” The price Russia fetched may be comparable to that of Gazprom contracts with Western Europe customers, but it’s “far above the prices at which gas can be sold in Russia,” said Griffiths. “A key difference is that gas to be sent to China will come from largely undeveloped fields, implying a significant upfront investment, which President Putin announced as US$55 billion. The 38 bcm announced is equal to about a quarter of Gazprom’s annual deliveries to Europe.” Russia also has announced it may abolish the mineral extraction tax for gas fields that deliver gas to China, potentially adding even more to Gazprom’s bottom line, he said. Russia likely is looking well beyond China for customers. Rumors are circulating that a transaction similar to the one with China is being negotiated with India. Russia is building new facilities and expanding other LNG export plants on its Pacific coast, near Sakhalin Island, where ExxonMobil Corp. and others are partnering. ExxonMobil struck an alliance with Russia’s OAO Rosneft in 2011 (see Daily GPI, Aug. 31, 2011). The pipeline to China would position Gazprom with leading Asia Pacific gas buyers, putting it at an advantage geographically over exports from North America and elsewhere. China Gas Demand Expected to Quadruple by 2035 However, the Asia Pacific region will need a lot of gas to keep up with demand. The International Energy Agency has predicted that China’s gas demand will quadruple by 2035. Russia exports will be a “drop in the bucket” as far as Asia Pacific’s thirst for gas, said Ziff Energy’s Ed Kallio, who directs gas consulting. “It doesn’t even come close. This doesn’t even scratch the surface.” And China hasn’t placed all of its bets on Russia, with large investments in gas schemes around the world, including British Columbia (BC), where a dozen-plus LNG export terminals are on the table. It’s also a big investor in Australia export projects. As well, China is planning to build at least 15 gas import terminals, which would make it the biggest gas importer after Japan. BC Premier Christy Clark said she didn’t think the Russia agreement would satisfy China’s thirst, nor its need to diversify supply. “I don’t think there’s a country in the world that today wants to depend on Russia as their sole supplier of natural gas,” said Clark. “Providing the assurance that we are not going to play politics with energy — I think that’s worth a lot to our potential partners out there, I think, especially China…We’ve certainly seen the way that Russia likes to do business these days, and we certainly know that the Chinese want a dependability of supply. We can supply that.” Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. CEO Hal Kvisle isn’t overly concerned about the deal pressuring Canada LNG. The former chief of TransCanada Corp. discussed the tie-up during a conference call during Talisman’s annual investor day. The quantity of gas directed to China isn’t enough “to swamp the market…It certainly doesn’t shut the door on LNG exports from Canada.” Woodside Petroleum Ltd. CEO Peter Coleman, whose company is Australia’s biggest gas exporter by volume, agreed that China would need a lot of gas from a lot of sources. Australia export facilities, including those backed by Chevron Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and ConocoPhillips, have faced huge cost overruns and labor shortages, but the backers haven’t signaled a slowdown. “China’s growth is coming off such a small base at the moment…It’s got a lot of headroom in it,” Coleman said. Wood Mackenzie’s Gavin Thompson, who heads Asia gas research, said the “comparisons with the development of Gazprom’s export business into Europe are clear, with almost identical population sizes between Northeast China and Western Europe. Gazprom’s exports to Western Europe first reached 38 bcm by the mid-1980s and have since increased to over 150 bcm into the whole of Europe. “We anticipate overall gas demand from China over the next two decades will grow more rapidly than that witnessed in Europe from the mid-1980s.” He said eight provinces in Northeast China would receive the East Siberian gas; the area has a population of around 360 million, roughly equal to that in Western Europe. The region also experiences “extremely cold winters and suffers from a shortage of indigenous supply options.” By 2025, Wood Mackenzie estimates that total gas demand from the eight provinces alone will reach 125 bcm; the Power of Siberia gas pipeline system would meet “over a quarter of regional gas demand by this time.” Without that eastern Russian supply, the region was facing increased reliance on imported LNG, Thompson said. Qatar, the world’s largest LNG producer, already is negotiating with CNPC and state-owned PetroChina Co. to supply 7 million metric tons/year (mmty); China now has long-term contracts for around 5 mmty. Major gas fields offshore Mozambique and Tanzania also hold promise. Too Much Gas? With gas reserves increasingly growing worldwide as unconventional drilling techniques improve, will there be enough buyers? “There will be more gas than needed, so those who get to the market first and cheapest will win,” said Sasol Petroleum International’s Ebbie Haan, managing director. There’s also the political strength that China and Russia gain through the gas alliance. “From the perspective of international relations,” said Thompson, “this deal also signals a deepening of energy ties between Russia and China. They now cooperate across a range of different commodities and have established a broad base for further increases in trade in oil, gas, LNG, coal and electricity.” The crisis in Ukraine, which has strained Russia relations with Europe and the United States gave “new urgency to the Russian desire to branch out to new markets,” said Credit Suisse analysts. “The implied price comes out at just under $10.00/MMBtu, but more importantly, provides China with something of a lever to cap ‘expensive’ LNG.”
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Do the European Parliamentary Elections Matter?
Citation by Easybib Save this citation Do the European Parliamentary Elections Matter? Interviewee: Judy Dempsey, Nonresident Senior Associate, Carnegie Europe Author: Jeanne Park, Deputy Director May 22, 2014 Millions of voters from twenty-eight member states will take part in the European Parliament elections this week, a process that, for the first time, will partly influence who becomes the next EU chief. Judy Dempsey, an expert on European politics at Carnegie, says that it's been roughly two decades since the EU had a formidable Commission president that could hold sway with the various member states. She says this seems unlikely to change: "At the end of the day, it will be the leaders of the big European countries that will do the backroom deals." Meanwhile, Dempsey says that significant victories for far right or far left parties, which many are anticipating, could install a parliament with "a shrilled anti-American tone, more scepticism regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and a more restrictive policy with regard to immigrant and human rights." Election posters of Socialist candidate for European Commission president Martin Schulz (R) of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and German chancellor and head of the Christian Democratic Union Angela Merkel, in Hamburg, Germany. (Photo: Fabian Bimmer/Courtesy Reuters)Why do these European Parliament elections matter? For the first time since the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2009, the European Parliament will play a part in choosing the president of the European Commission. Who are the front-runners to replace outgoing president José Manuel Barroso? The two main front-runners are Jean-Claude Juncker, the former prime minister of Luxembourg, who is supported by the conservative grouping of the European People's Party, and Martin Schulz, a German politician and the current president of the European Parliament, supported by the European Parliament's Socialist grouping. A caveat: Even if either candidate's party manages to get the most votes, there will be a lot of horse-trading between the member states as to who will become Commission president. Much depends on the composition of the next European Parliament. It may be a hung parliament, or it may be a parliament consisting of very different alliances. At the end of the day, it will be the leaders of the big European countries that will do the backroom deals. How important is this job if so much power continues to reside with national leaders? The leaders of the EU countries have immense power, particularly German chancellor Angela Merkel. That being said, so much depends on the personality and confidence of the president of the Commission. It has been a long time since the EU had a president that could hold sway over the member states. The last was Jacques Delors (EC president 1985–1994). Since then, the Commission presidents have been generally weak and often beholden to the member states. There is a consensus that the outgoing president, José Manuel Barroso, has been very disappointing. But then it was Germany and France who supported his candidacy; neither Berlin nor Paris wanted a very strong Commission president who could challenge their own national interests. By the way, don't forget you can have very strong commissioners. The trade and competition commissioners have immense executive powers. Those two have been crucial in giving Europe a big influence when it comes to defending trade and competition policies. And they have worked hard in trying to negotiate TTIP. The general mood regarding the elections, across the twenty-eight member countries, seems to be one of apathy. What's behind this? "The recent economic crisis has fed into this sense of disillusionment with Europe and boosted eurosceptic parties across the continent." The turnout continues to decline. This time around, the recent economic crisis has fed into this sense of disillusionment with Europe and boosted eurosceptic parties across the continent. The two most prominent are Britain's UK Independence Party (UKIP) and France's Front National. But it must be said too that the mainstream parties standing for the European Parliament have not done the kind of grassroots campaigning necessary to defend Europe. In contrast, the nationalist/populist and fringe parties are exploiting this weakness with their own high-profile campaigning. They are well organized and highly motivated, and they are able to sell a very clear message. Does this apathy reveal a larger disconnect between Europeans and EU institutions? There is a huge disconnect, even though European Parliament deputies keep vowing to bridge this gap even through basic electioneering. This has not happened. Many observers are anticipating big gains for anti-EU parties in the upcoming European Parliament elections. How would victories for fringe parties (on the left and right) impact EU policymaking? "If the fringe parties do well, it could lead to paralysis in the European Parliament." If the fringe parties do well, it could lead to paralysis in the European Parliament. It could also lead to shifting alliances. If—and it's a big if—these fringe parties, left or right, could establish a united front in the parliament, then we could expect a shrilled anti-American tone, more scepticism over agreeing to TTIP, and a more restrictive policy with regard to immigrant and human rights. It is said that the European Parliament still lacks legitimacy in the eyes of many voters. What further steps can be taken to bridge the oft-referenced "democratic deficit"? Indeed, the European Parliament still lacks legitimacy. Voters across Europe cannot vote for Juncker or Schulz. Pan-European candidates do not exist. Voters can only vote for their own national list; or if they are living and registered in another EU country, they have to choose whether they will vote for the candidates in that country or their own country. Clearly, the gap between European citizens would narrow if there were genuine, pan-European political parties, and if the European Commission president was directly elected. In light of the crisis in Ukraine, there is a renewed interest in a common defense and security policy. How can the incoming European Parliament boost European foreign policy in the coming months and years? The Ukraine crisis has in fact exposed deep divisions in the EU over security and foreign policy. A real discussion about Europe's security and foreign policy has yet to begin. The outgoing European Parliament did some excellent analyses on the weaknesses of European foreign policy. But it relies on the member states to make that essential difference when it comes to giving the EU a serious foreign, security, and defense dimension. NATO in fact has been setting the agenda on security issues. Even then, the western European members of NATO cannot agree about deploying troops on a permanent basis to the eastern European members of NATO. Why have so many fringe parties and politicians aligned with Russian president Vladimir Putin? For many of these fringe parties, they find Putin's conservatism, his opposition to the so-called decadent West, and his anti-Americanism and anti-NATO stance appealing.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
EU Weighs In On Vote In Myanmar
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EU Weighs In On Vote In Myanmar
Published on October 11, 2010 Comments (Be the first)
by NewsDesk - iWireNews ™
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BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
The ruling military junta in Myanmar is gearing up for "fake elections," a human rights group told members of the European Parliament on Monday.
Myanmar has a general election next month that military authorities said moves the country along the path toward civilian leadership. The military junta was criticized, however, for a decision last month to disband 10 political parties, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
Zoya Phan, a member of the British advocacy group Burma Campaign, told members of the European Parliament the military junta is seeking legal cover through sham elections.
"The regime is now going ahead with its own fake elections that will bring in a constitution that will legalize military rule," she said in a statement.
European lawmaker Heidi Hautala, who leads a subcommittee on human rights, said every dictatorship must eventually be held accountable to its people.
"It would be a mistake to put too much faith into the elections," she said.
Authorities in Myanmar said they would release Suu Kyi from custody before the vote, though the international community raised doubts over the claim.
Critics complain the election is controlled by the military junta, which gets a guaranteed a 20 percent of the seats in parliament.
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Posted 10/11/2010 1:53 PM
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Former UN Rights Officials Call for Burma Inquiry
Former UN Rights Officials Call for Burma Inquiry
Source: The Irrawaddy
Date: 06 Oct 2010
By LALIT K JHA
WASHINGTON — Two top former human rights officials of the United Nations on Tuesday urged the European Union to support the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, as recommended by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma.
The request was made by Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil and Yozo Yokota of Japan, who served as the special rapporteurs on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma in (2000-2008) and (1992-1996), respectively, in a letter to Catherine Ashton, the high representative of the EU.
"As former UN special rapporteurs on human rights in Myanmar [Burma], it is our firm conclusion that the pattern of human rights violations perpetrated by the military regime in Burma/Myanmar is severe, widespread and systematic, and directed at civilians, and may therefore violate international human rights and humanitarian laws," Pinheiro and Yokota said.
"As the current special rapporteur has concluded, the abuses are a matter of state policy and there is more than sufficient evidence to justify the creation of such a Commission of Inquiry," the letter said.
Pinheiro and Yokota also urged that the EU should propose the commission in a forthcoming UN General Assembly resolution. "It is essential to send a strong message to the regime ahead of the elections that the international community will not continue to tolerate its violations of international humanitarian law and that impunity must end," they wrote.
The letter noted that evidence of the widespread and systematic use of forced labor, rape as a weapon of war, the forcible conscription of child soldiers, religious persecution, torture and killings is well documented and has been presented by many respected human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), among others.
Copies of the letter were sent to the government of Belgium, the current president of the Council of the European Union, foreign ministers of EU member states and permanent representatives of EU member states to the United Nations in New York and Geneva.
"Since 1996, over 3,500 villages in eastern Burma alone have been destroyed, and at least half a million people internally displaced. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee to the borders of neighboring countries, and beyond. These violations of international humanitarian law have been documented by the UN in numerous resolutions by the General Assembly and Human Rights Council, and in our own and other reports of Special Rapporteurs," the letter said.
The two former UN officials said the new Constitution, which will come into force after the regime's elections in November, contains a clause providing blanket immunity for all crimes, past, present and future, committed by the military, and guarantees the military a quarter of the parliamentary seats.
"The election laws issued earlier this year, the recent de-registration of Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, and the regime's decision to exclude many ethnic populations and parties from participating, mean that the forthcoming elections offer little hope of meaningful change in Burma. The elections, in our opinion, will perpetuate military rule and result in continuing human rights violations," they said.
So far, 13 nations have expressed their support for the establishment of the UN Commission of Inquiry in Burma, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Estonia, which became the 13th supporter on Saturday.
Aung Din of the US Campaign for Burma said the European Union is the major author of the Burma draft resolution at the UN General Assembly and it has been working on a draft in Brussels since September.
Pro-democracy activists including the US Campaign for Burma are pushing the EU to include the language, "calling for the secretary-general to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate human rights violations in Burma" in the draft resolution, which will be submitted to the UN General Assembly soon.
So far, the EU hasn't agreed to the proposal.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
တကမၻာလုံးကျမန္မာျပည္ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြကို ေစာင့္ႀကည့္ေနတယ္
တကမၻာလုံးကျမန္မာျပည္ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြကို ေစာင့္ႀကည့္ေနတယ္
ဥေရာပယူနီယံ(အီးယူ)က တကမၻာလုံးက ျမန္မာျပည္ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြကို
ေစာင့္ႀကည့္ေနတယ္လို ့ေျပာလိုက္ပါတယ္။
ဒီေရြးေကာက္ပဲြကို အနွစ္(၂၀)အတြင္းပထမဆုံးအေနနဲ ့က်င္းပတာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
လာမည့္ နိုဝဘၤာလ(၇)ရက္ေန ့မွာေရြးေကာက္ပဲြျပဳလုပ္မွာျဖစ္ေႀကာင္းျမန္မာနိုင္ငံကို
လက္ရိွအုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေနတဲ့စစ္အုပ္စုကေႀကျငာခဲ့တာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
အီးယူက တဆက္ထဲေျပာႀကားရာမွာ ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြဟာလြတ္လပ္ျပီးတရားမွ်တမႈမရိွ
ဘူးဆိုရင္ တရားဝင္တဲ့ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြလို ့ကမၻာကယူဆမွာမဟုတ္ေႀကာင္းဆိုလိုက္ပါတယ္။
ေလ ့လာေ၀ဖန္သူမ်ားကေတာ့ဒီေရြးေကာက္ပဲြဟာ ဟန္ျပေရြးေကာက္ပဲြသာျဖစ္ျပီး
အဲ့ဒီေရြးေကာက္ပဲြကေနတဆင့္ စစ္တပ္က ျမန္မာျပည္နိုင္ငံေရးမွာတရားဝင္ဦးေဆာင္
မႈအေနအထားကိုရယူနိုင္ေအာင္လုပ္ေနတာသာျဖစ္တယ္လို ့ဆိုပါတယ္။
ျမန္မာျပည္သူလူထုနဲ ့ ကမၻာ့မိသားစုႀကီးက ျမန္မာ့ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြကိုတရားဝင္တဲ့
ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြတစ္ခုအေနနဲ ့လက္ခံနိုင္ဖို ့အတြက္ နိုင္ငံေရးပါတီအားလုံးဟာ လြတ္လြတ္
လပ္လပ္စည္းရုံးခြင့္ိရိွရပါမယ္။ျပီးေတာ့မဲေပးတဲ့နည္းလမ္းစည္းကမ္းမ်ားဟာလဲ လြတ္လပ္ျပီး
တရားမွ်တရပါမည္။ ဒီအခ်က္အလက္ေတြကို ျမန္မာအာဏာပိုင္မ်ားကလုပ္ေဆာင္ေပးရမွာ
ျဖစ္တယ္လို ့ရန္ကုန္ျမိဳ ့မွာထုတ္ျပန္လိုက္တဲ့ အဂၤလိပ္သံရုံးရဲ့ေႀကျငာခ်က္ထဲမွာေဖာ္ျပခဲ့ပါ
တယ္။အထက္ပါေႀကျငာခ်က္ကို ျပင္သစ္ ဂ်ာမဏီ နဲ ့ အီတလီအပါအဝင္အျခားေသာ
အီးယူနိုင္ငံမ်ားကိုယ္စားထုတ္ျပန္ေႀကျငာခဲ့တာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
ျပီးခဲ့တဲ့ေသာႀကာေန ့ကဘဲ ကုလသမဂၢအေထြေထြအတြင္းေရးမႉးဘန္ကီမြန္းက
အလားတုူေႀကျငာခ်က္တစ္ခုကိုထုတ္ျပန္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။အေထြေထြအတြင္းေရးမႉးက ျမန္မာ့
ဒီမိုကေရစီေခါင္းေဆာင္ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုႀကည္အပါအဝင္ နိုင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားမ်ား
အားလုံးကိုလႊတ္ေပးဖို ့နဲ ့၊ ဒါမွသာျမန္မာျပည္တြင္းရိွနိုင္ငံေရးလႈပ္ရွားမႈမ်ားမွာ အဆိုပါ
ပုဂၢိဳလ္မ်ားပါဝင္နိုင္မွာျဖစ္ေႀကာင္းဆိုပါတယ္။
ျမန္မာျပည္ကစစ္တပ္ကအုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ခဲ့တာ အနွစ္(၅၀)ေက်ာ္ခဲ့ျပီျဖစ့္ပါတယ္။
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုႀကည္ေခါင္းေဆာင္တဲ့အမ်ိဳးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖဲြ ့ခ်ဳပ္ဟာ ျပီးခဲ့တဲ့
၁၉၉၀ခုနွစ္မွာျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့တဲ့အေထြေထြေရြးေကာက္ပဲြမွာအျပတ္အသတ္အနိုင္ရခဲ့ေပမဲ့
စစ္အာဏာပိုင္မ်ားက အာဏာကိုလဲြေျပာင္းေပးဖို ့ျငင္းဆန္ခဲ့ရုံတင္မကဘဲ ျငိမ္းခ်မ္း
ေရးနိုဘယ္ဆုရွင္ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုႀကည္ကိုလဲ ျပီးခဲ့တဲ့ ၂၁ နွစ္တာကာလအတြင္း
၁၅ နွစ္တာ (ယေန ့တိုင္) ေနအိမ္အက်ယ္ခ်ဳပ္ခ်ထားခဲ့ပါတယ္။
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုႀကည္ရဲ့အမ်ိဳးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖဲြခ်ဳပ္ဟာ လာမဲ့ ၂၀၁၀
ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြကို သပိတ္ေမွာက္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။ အေႀကာင္းျပခ်က္က ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြ
ဥပေဒေတြဟာဒီမိုကေရစီနည္းလမ္းမက်သလို တရားမွ်တျခင္းလဲမရိွလို ့ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
အဲ့ဒီေရြးေကာက္ပဲြဥပေဒေတြအရ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုႀကည္အေနနဲ ့ ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြဝင္ခြင့္မရိွ
ပါဘူး။ွ
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုႀကည္ရဲ့ပါတီအပါအဝင္ အျခားပါတီအမ်ားအႀကားက ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြ
လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္ေတြဟာတရားမွ်တဘူး ၊ ပါတီအမတ္ေလာင္းေတြေရြးခ်ယ္ဖို ့နဲ ့မဲဆြယ္စည္းရုံး
ဖို ့အတြက္အခ်ိန္လုံေလာက္မႈမရိွဘူးလို ့ဆိုပါတယ္။ ပါတီမ်ားဟာ မိမိတို ့ရဲ့ပါတီအမတ္
ေလာင္းစာရင္းကို ဒီလကုန္ေနာက္ဆုံးထားျပီးတင္သြင္းရမွာျဖစ္ျပီး ၊ မဲဆြယ္မႈကို
အာဏာပိုင္မ်ားက ေႀကျငာေပးမဲ့မဲဆြယ္ကာလမွာဘဲမဲဆြယ္ရမွျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
ဒီေရြးေကာက္ပဲြလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္ေတြနဲ ့ပတ္သက္ျပီးအေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စုက
အႀကိမ္ေပါင္းေျမာက္ျမားစြာရံႈ ့ခ်ေျပာဆိုခဲ့ပါတယ္။ျမန္မာနိုင္ငံကိုျပီးခဲ့တဲ့ေမလကတရား
ဝင္သြားေရာက္ခဲ့ျပီးေနာက္ မွာ အေမရိကန္နိုင္ငံအေရွ့အာရွဆိုင္ရာလက္ေထာက္နိုင္
ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး ကတ္ ကမ္ ့ဘဲ(KURT CAMPBELL) ကေအာက္ပါအတိုင္ေျပာႀကားခဲ့ပါ
တယ္။ျမန္မာစစ္အာဏာပိုင္ေတြဟာ ေစ့စပ္ညိွနိႈင္းအေျဖရွာဖို ့စိတ္ပါဝင္စားျခင္းမရိွေႀကာင္း၊
ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္ေတြကိုလဲျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲလိုစိတ္မရိွေႀကာင္း ဒါေႀကာင့္ လာမဲ ့
၂၀၁၀ ေရြးေကာက္ပဲြကို တရားဝင္တဲ့ေရြးေကာက္အေနနဲ ့ကမၻာကအသိိအမွတ္ျပဳမွာ
မဟုတ္ဘူးလို ့အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စုအေနနဲ ့ယုံႀကည္ေႀကာင္းေျပာႀကားသြားပါတယ္။
Translation By Phone Hlaing
EU tells Myanmar world is watching its elections
Sat Aug 14, 6:51 am ET
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
European Karen Network: New Burma Army Attacks Target Civilians – Europe Must Support Commission of Inquiry
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=433002284728&id=192809468269&ref=mf
New Burma Army Attacks Target Civilians – Europe Must Support Commission of InquiryShare
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Media Release from European Karen Network
For immediate release, 27 July 2010
New Burma Army Attacks Target Civilians – Europe Must Support Commission of Inquiry
As the Burmese Army steps up attacks against ethnic Karen civilians in Eastern Burma, the European Karen Network, which represents Karen communities in Europe, today called on European governments to support a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the dictatorship.
On 23rd July Burma Army soldiers attacked Tha Dah Der village in Mutraw (Papun) District, Karen State, burning 50 homes, a school and a church. Approximately 540 people from this and neighbouring villages are now in hiding in the jungle. They have only a small amount of food they were able to carry with them, and no shelter. It is the rainy season in Eastern Burma at the moment.
Hundreds more civilians are fleeing towards the Thailand border as the Burmese Army and troops from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which has been allied to the dictatorship, prepare for a new offensive. The offensive is expected against Democratic Karen Buddhist Army soldiers who are refusing to join the Burmese Army as a border guard force, which the dictatorship is demanding ahead of their fake elections later this year.
The European Karen Network has also received a report that a Karen woman in Mutraw (Papun) District was raped by a Burmese Army soldier on 10th July 2010.
The new attack on 23rd July and the rape on 10th of July are against civilians, not soldiers, as such constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The European Karen Network calls on European governments to:
•Support a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the dictatorship in Burma.
•Provide cross-border aid to those displaced by the attacks.
•Stop ignoring attacks against ethnic people and making policy solely based on developments in Rangoon and Nyapyitaw.
•Call on the dictatorship in Burma to stop attacks against Karen and other ethnic civilians.
“The dictatorship talks about reform and elections but its real intentions can be seen in its actions, burning civilian villages and raping women.” said Nant Bwa Bwa Phan, board member of European Karen Network from Germany. “The people ruling Burma are criminals and the international community is letting them stay free. European governments are complicit in these crimes because they fail in their responsibility to take action.”
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
BURMA - Democracy and ethnic rights activists welcome economic sanctions on military regime
BURMA - Democracy and ethnic rights activists welcome economic sanctions on military regime
The Ten Alliances of Burma's democracy and ethnic rights movement expressed support for the European Union's renewal of its Common Position on Burma for another year, which also extended economic sanctions on the military regime. "With their planned sham elections, the regime is hoping that the EU and other countries will fall for the thinly veiled attempt to legitimize continued military rule.
By maintaining sanctions, the EU is sending a strong signal that the regime must change course for these elections to have any legitimacy whatsoever," said U Maung Maung, General Secretary of the National Council of the Union of Burma.
In reference to Burma's planned elections for later this year, the EU Council expressed "serious concerns" that new election laws "do not provide for free and fair elections," and called on the military regime to take further steps.
The EU statement adopted in Luxembourg on 26 April also called for the release of political prisoners, an end to human rights violations, and political dialogue between all stakeholders. These points reaffirm the key benchmarks long advocated by the Ten Alliances of Burma's movement for democracy and ethnic rights.
The alliances insist that the regime must meet these benchmarks to ensure truly democratic progress in Burma, and that without them elections will not be a step towards genuine democracy. They include:
1. The unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi;
2. Cessation of hostilities against ethnic groups and pro-democracy forces; and,
3. Inclusive dialogue with key stakeholders from democracy groups and ethnic nationalities, including a review of the 2008 Constitution.
"Burma is becoming increasingly unstable under the military regime. Tensions in northeastern Burma are rising as the junta continues to press armed ethnic groups into joining their Border Guard Force.
The National League for Democracy and other opposition groups will also come under increased pressure from the junta after the political party registration deadline. The EU and international community must increase pressure on the junta to stop these hostilities immediately," said Mai Phone Kyaw, General Secretary of the National Democratic Front.
"In terms of the upcoming EU delegation to Burma, we ask EU Envoy Fassino to reiterate the EU's support of these minimum benchmarks, and focus his efforts on facilitating dialogue between all stakeholders before the elections," said U Moe Zaw Oo, Joint General Secretary of the National League for Democracy - Liberated Area (NLD-LA), in reference to the "exploratory mission" mentioned in the EU's statement yesterday.
The Ten Alliances also emphasized that any delegation to Burma should insist on meeting with representatives of opposition groups, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD, and ethnic leaders
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
EU sanctions on Burma extended
http://www.dvb.no/news/eu-sanctions-on-burma-extended/8756
EU sanctions on Burma extended
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Activists have long called for tougher EU sanctions on Burma (Reuters)
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 27 April 2010
The European Union announced yesterday that it had extended its sanctions on Burma following the ruling junta’s refusal to meet demands for democratic reform.
The sanctions have been extended for one year, according to a statement released following a Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg that has been hailed by pro-democracy groups.
“The Council deems it necessary to extend the restrictive measures provided for in the current EU Decision by another year. The Council underlines its readiness to revise, amend or reinforce the measures it has already adopted in light of developments on the ground,” it said, adding that it would “respond positively to genuine progress in Burma/Myanmar”.
The exact criteria for “genuine progress” has not been clarified, although EU ministers have repeatedly call for elections this year to be free and fair, and to be accompanied by the release of Burma’s 2,100-plus political prisoners.
Rights groups have however criticized apparently “soft” EU sanctions on Burma that have failed to stop French oil giant Total from operating Burma’s lucrative Yadana gas pipeline. EarthRights International (ERI) believe that Total, along with its partner in the project, US-based Chevron, have netted the junta around $US7.2 billion.
In May last year the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner told parliament that ramping up sanctions on Burma risked hurting Total and in turn gas supplies to Burmese people.
Continued foreign investment in Burma, notably from China, has dampened the impact of sanctions, with the US and EU unable to rein in Burma’s regional neighbours whose ongoing trade has provided a crutch for the regime in the face of Western isolation.
Burma Campaign UK said yesterday however that relaxing sanctions would “give a green light to the generals to increase human rights abuses, help finance increased abuses, and give up potential leverage against the regime”.
“The problem with EU sanctions is that most are not effectively targeted, have not been used as part of coordinated diplomatic efforts, and those sanctions which could be effective are being broken, as there is no monitoring or implementation.”
It added that the EU statement made no mention of any attempts by EU ministers to correct this.
Tags: eu, sanctions, total
Author: FRANCIS WADE Category: Economics, News
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
UN, West pressure Myanmar for change from within
By JOHN HEILPRIN (AP) – 17 hours ago
UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that elections in Myanmar must be free and fair, amid mounting concerns that they won't be.
"We need to work more for the democratization of Myanmar," Ban told a press conference in Oslo, Norway, with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. "This election in 2010 must be a fair and credible and inclusive one."
Ban said he was working hard to keep the pressure on General Than Shwe and other of Myanmar's leaders to live up to their commitments to hold legitimate elections in 2010. At a minimum, the U.N. wants Suu Kyi and 2,000 other political prisoners released. A transcript of Ban's remarks were made available at the U.N. in New York.
Than Shwe has resisted U.N. demands to open up democratically, ignoring four Security Council statements and direct entreaties by Ban and a top envoy. Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since her pro-democracy party won in the polls but was denied power.
Myanmar's government has given no indication it will release her or the 200 political prisoners that Ibrahim Gambari, Ban's top envoy, told The Associated Press he expected would be freed after Ban's most recent trip.
Western and U.N. diplomats increasingly view Myanmar as intent on holding staged elections to enshrine its military dictatorship next year, with few other than the government or neighboring China able to steer an alternate course.
"It's the Burmese leadership that have to take the decision to move forward, rather than to keep their country held back in a state of lack of freedom, military regime and an environment in which there's going to be very little international investment," British Ambassador John Sawers said in an AP interview.
China and Russia, two of Myanmar's main weapons suppliers and trading partners, oppose the idea of a U.N.-backed international arms embargo, and they also blocked the council from making anything more than a tepid protest of Suu Kyi's return to house arrest on Aug. 11.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. http://www.google. com/hostednews/ ap/article/ ALeqM5hTLKeb1OEm TBx0wCiSeGVbwOkZ yAD9AE2MPG1
Monday, May 18, 2009
EU considers tighter sanctions against Burma
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-05-18-eu-considers-tighter-sanctions-against-burma
AMELIE BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS | BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - May 18 2009 14:14
European Union nations on Monday mulled tighter sanctions against Burma's government, but many saw China and India as the best hopes of applying pressure on the junta to free opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, spoke in favour of boosting EU sanctions against the regime as the Nobel peace laureate went on trial facing a further five years in detention.
"We are ready to go forward," the Czech minister said as he arrived for a meeting in Brussels with his EU counterparts.
"It's not the moment to lower the sanctions, it's the moment to increase them," echoed EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
However, other EU foreign ministers and EU officials were looking more for pressure from Burma's giant neighbours.
"I don't think additional sanctions will help because you have seen they have not helped," said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
"We have to reinforce dialogue with Burma's neighbours ... I think that is the way forward it should always be a subject of discussion with China, India and others," she added.
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said that political sanctions took decades to have an effect in apartheid South Africa and that sort of time lag meant a lot of suffering for the population.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the matter could be addressed at a meeting in Hanoi next week with foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).
Friday, May 8, 2009
OVER 60 BRITISH MPS CALL FOR UN INQUIRY INTO CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN BURMA
CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE
For Immediate Release
07 May 2009
OVER 60 BRITISH MPS CALL FOR UN INQUIRY INTO CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN BURMA
Over 60 British MPs are calling for a United Nations (UN) commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma, just two weeks before Nobel Laureate and democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is due for release from house arrest.
Former Foreign Office Ministers, Ian McCartney, MP and Keith Vaz, MP join over fifty other MPs in signing an Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled by John Bercow MP, Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma, to express their profound concern at the deteriorating human rights situation in Burma.
EDM 1336 urges the UN to invoke the principle of Responsibility to Protect in relation to a campaign of ethnic cleansing Burma’s military regime is carrying out against its ethnic nationalities.
The Burmese junta’s policies include the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war, forced labour, the use of human minesweepers, child soldiers, and the destruction of over 3,300 villages in eastern Burma since 1996, in addition to the imprisonment of over 2,100 political prisoners. Attacks on civilians have also resulted in the internal displacement of one million people.
John Bercow MP said: “I have visited the ethnic peoples on both the Thailand-Burma border and the India-Burma border with CSW, and have been shocked by the horrific stories I have heard from victims of this barbaric regime. I have sat face to face with victims of unspeakable torture, including women and children who have seen their loved ones murdered. They have looked me in the eye and pleaded for the world to hear their cry. It is time their cries were answered and the junta's crimes investigated. The people of Burma urgently need the freedom and justice they have been denied for so long."
Alexa Papadouris, CSW's Advocacy Director said: “CSW strongly urges the British Government and other Governments to take this call seriously and to initiate a commission of inquiry into the junta's crimes against humanity. We will not stop campaigning and we will not stop speaking out until the suffering in Burma is over and all Burma’s people are free.”
For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Theresa Malinowska, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on email theresamalinowska@ csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org. uk.
CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.
Note to Editors:
1. The full EDM text reads: That this House expresses profound concern at the desperate and deteriorating human rights situation in Burma; condemns the continuing widespread and systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, torture, forced labour, forced relocation, religious persecution, forcible recruitment of child soldiers and use of human minesweepers by the military regime; further condemns the military offensives in eastern Burma, including attacks on civilians, resulting in the internal displacement of one million people and the destruction of more than 3,300 villages in eastern Burma alone, and the imprisonment of over 2,100 political prisoners and continued detention of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi; calls on Her Majesty's Government to draw these gross violations of human rights to the urgent attention of the UN Security Council and the Secretary-General; urges Her Majesty's Government, along with other governments, to propose the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma; and urges the UN to invoke the principle of Responsibility to Protect in relation to the crisis in Burma.
2. To find out more about CSW’s Change for Burma! Campaign and to watch an interview with John Bercow MP, please click here.
3. To sign a CSW supported online petition led by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and the Forum for Democracy in Burma, calling on the UN Secretary-General to make the release of Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners a personal priority, please click here or visit www.changeforburma. org
ENDS
Thursday, May 7, 2009
EU-Japan call for inclusiveness in 2010 election
http://www.mizzima.com/news/election-2010/2080-eu-japan-call-for-inclusiveness-in-2010-election.html
by Mizzima News
Tuesday, 05 May 2009 20:20
New Delhi (Mizzima) - The European Union and Japan on Monday said Burma’s 2010 elections could be welcomed if it is based on an inclusive dialogue among all stakeholders in the country.
Leaders of the EU and Japan, in a joint statement released on Monday, expressed hope that the Burmese regime would tackle the country’s severe political, structural and economic problems and foster a peaceful transition to a legitimate, democratic and civilian government without delay.
The leaders also pointed out that “elections proposed for 2010 could be welcomed by the international community if they were based on an inclusive dialogue among all the stakeholders in Myanmar [Burma].”
In the context of the election, the leaders also called on the Burmese junta to release political prisoners and detainees, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and to lift all restrictions imposed on political parties immediately.
The EU, which has imposed economic sanctions and travel restrictions on Burma’s military generals, extended its common position on Burma for another year in April. But it recorded its willingness to open a dialogue with the regime.
Japan, however, has not imposed any sanctions against the Burmese military regime, and continues to cooperate with Burma’s military.
The summit was chaired by Mr Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, which currently chairs the European Union.
Summit leaders, in their statement, said they are willing to respond positively if the Burmese regime could provide proof of political progress and steps towards respect for human rights.
The EU and Japan also reiterated their support for the United Nations Secretary General’s special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma and called on the Burmese junta to cooperate fully with him.
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009
EU eyes extending Myanmar sanctions - officials
http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-38696420090325
Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:25pm IST
JAKARTA (Reuters) - The European Union will wait until next month before deciding whether to extend sanctions against Myanmar, a special envoy said on Tuesday, although another EU official saw little prospect of them being lifted.
There has been an emerging debate in the international community over policies towards Myanmar after Washington said it was reviewing its policy and conceded that sanctions had not influenced the junta on human rights and democracy.
The EU's special envoy to Myanmar, Piero Fassino, said there had been no decision yet on new sanctions, which expire at the end of April.
"Our attitude about this is in relation with the evolution of the situation. If there will be some positive new steps, we take note," said Fassino, who is on a trip to the region before reporting back to Brussels.
"The European Council many times declared we are ready to change the sanctions if there are some positive steps in (the) direction to obtain our goals," he said, without elaborating.
But another EU official was pessimistic there could be progress within a month to justify lifting sanctions.
"The chances that (the junta) will move in the next month, there is only one month's time, I don't think they're very big," the official told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
The sanctions apply to a long list of Myanmar officials and firms associated with its military rulers.
The EU has been pushing Myanmar to open a dialogue with the opposition, release political prisoners and guarantee elections due in 2010 are free and fair.
The junta, which has ruled the former Burma since 1962, has refused to recognise a 1990 landslide election victory of the opposition National League for Democracy. Its leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for most of the past two decades.
Myanmar has been pursuing its own "roadmap" to democracy, which includes a referendum on an army-drafted constitution.
Western governments have criticised the poll as a sham aimed at entrenching military rule. The 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, has sought to address democratic reforms and human rights issues in the former Burma under a policy of "constructive engagement".
But the EU and Washington have urged ASEAN to put more pressure on their neighbour.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month on a trip to the region that the sanctions had not influenced the junta, but also said that trying to engage them had failed.
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EU could ease Myanmar sanctions
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1237969023.15
25 March 2009, 11:53 CET
(JAKARTA) - The European Union could consider easing sanctions on Myanmar at a top meeting next month if it sees democratic progress in the military-ruled nation, the EU's senior Myanmar envoy said Wednesday.
The European Council, the EU's principal decision-making body, could vote for an easing of sanctions if Myanmar's military junta eases restrictions on opponents ahead of elections slated for 2010, Piero Fassino told reporters.
"The European Council many times declared we are ready to change the sanctions, suspend the sanctions, if there are some positive steps in the direction of our goal," Fassino said.
"If in the next month, there is some positive evolution, for example putting in place real democratic guarantees, we'll consider this, we'll reflect how to handle these measures," he said.
The European Council's external relations council is slated to discuss sanctions against Myanmar at the end of April.
Fassino said the EU would only consider the 2010 elections to be free and fair if the government passes fair electoral rules and frees political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"It is impossible to achieve a free and fair election if the leader of the opposition is in prison," he said.
Fassino's comments were made at the end of his visit to Indonesia, following meetings with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and Association of Southeast Asian Nations secretary general Surin Pitsuwan.
Asian nations including Indonesia, which underwent a turbulent transition from military-led rule to democracy a decade ago, could play a key role in ensuring the fairness of 2010 elections, Fassino said.
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
European Union wants role in Myanmar polls, special envoy tells Bangkok
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-7344.html
Bangkok, Mar 20 : The European Union(EU) would like to be involved in observing Parliament elections, scheduled for the next year in Myanmar, the EU Special Envoy for the Southeast Asian country said here.
Piero Fassino, the EU Special Envoy for Myanmar, stated this during a meeting with Thailand's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Panich Vikitsreth.
The EU is keen to see progress towards political reconciliation in Myanmar based on dialogue among all stakeholders, the Special Envoy told Bangkok.
The Thai Vice Minister emphasised that Thailand was engaging Myanmar to promote economic development and democratisation within that country.
Pro-democracy activists and others have expressed skepticism about Myanmar's declared intent to usher in democracy with the 2010 general elections.
They cite continued suppression of civil liberties and freedom of speech in the country with reports that a lawyer defending pro-democracy activists in Myanmar was sentenced yesterday to four years in jail.
--- UNI
Monday, March 16, 2009
Norway NGO plans to build 6,000 houses in Myanmar cyclone-hit areas
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90856/6610945.html
A non-governmental social organization of Norway has planned to build 6,000 houses for cyclone victims in Laputta township, Myanmar's Ayeyawaddy division,the local Weekly Eleven News reported Tuesday.
The organization will start to build 300 houses as well as 10 basic education schools in the first phase as agreed with the government, the report said.
The report also quoted a post-Nargis joint assessment report of Myanmar, ASEAN and the United Nations as saying that the Myanmar government has arranged to build 20,847 houses in cyclone-hit regions.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government will provide 3 million U.S. dollars more of aid through the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to rebuild the remaining damaged houses in the cyclone-hit regions following its aid of 2 million dollars throughthe Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) earlier to help in agricultural restoration work in the Ayeyawaddy delta after storm,according to the Japanese embassy.
Besides, the European Union (EU) will also give Myanmar humanitarian assistance of 40.5 million euros (52 million USD) this year, earlier report said.
Moreover, another Malaysian humanitarian organization, the Mercy Malaysia, will also provide help to rebuild a dozen healthcare facilities in Dedaye in the same Ayeyawaddy delta.
Statisitcs show that cyclone Nargis, which swept Myanmar in Maylast year, destroyed a total of nearly 800,000 houses in Ayeyawaddy and Yangon divisions worth of 686 million U.S. dollars.
Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis hit five divisions and states - Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on May 2 and 3 last year, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.
The storm has killed 84,537 people, leaving 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured according to official death toll.
Source:Xinhua
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
EU leaders warned to beware new 'Iron Curtain'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-leaders-warned-to-beware-new-iron-curtain-1635135.html
Fears that protectionism will divide Continent dominate Brussels summit
By Ben Russell, Home Affairs Correspondent
Monday, 2 March 2009
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been vocal about any EU protectionism
European leaders have insisted that trade protectionism would not create a new economic "iron curtain" across the continent as they declared that the free market would help pull the member states out of recession.
They rejected moves yesterday to restrict the single market, despite reports of a split between the union's largest economies and the poorer states of eastern and central Europe.
EU nations agreed that governments should make sure that bailouts for banks or car makers should not be protectionist or hurt the economies of other members in the 27-nation bloc. A French scheme for a €6bn (£5.3bn) package of state loans to its carmakers in return for guarantees that they will not shift production elsewhere has prompted fears that EU governments will rush to protect their own industries at the expenses of others.
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Roland Rudd: If Europe wants to be relevant, it needs an elected president
"People neither want protectionism nor do they want to be in a situation where we don't take the interest-rate and fiscal action that is necessary," said Gordon Brown after emergency talks in Brussels aimed at co-ordinating the response to the global economic crisis. "I found complete support for the measures that I am talking about that are central to the success of the G20." The G20 summit is being held in London in a month's time.
Mr Brown added: "Protectionism will mean less trade, less business and less jobs in the long run. When I talked about the importance of British workers, what I was talking about was how in an open, free-market, competitive economy we had to help workers get the skills that were necessary for the jobs of the future.
"I think what is happening in Europe is people are realising that if trade falls then businesses will collapse and then jobs will go. That is why the communiqué today is saying very clearly that protectionism is no answer to the current crisis."
The Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the EU presidency until the end of June, said: "We agreed that as much as possible we should use the single market as a motor for growth." Earlier, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, warned that the recession could cause new divisions in Europe, two decades after the collapse of Communist rule in the east. "We should not allow a new 'Iron Curtain' to ... divide Europe into two parts," he said. "At the beginning of the Nineties we reunified Europe. Now it is another challenge – whether we can unify Europe in terms of financing and its economy."
The European Commission has backed the French car industry scheme, noting that the loans do not contain any formal conditions on the location of activities, but has said it will monitor events closely. Jose Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, said the 10 former Soviet bloc members of the EU did not want a special bailout programme for their region. He insisted they "do not want a programme just for them". However, Mr Topolanek said that the EU would not leave any nation "in the lurch".
World leaders at the G20 summit will be faced with strong demands to use the downturn to invest in green manufacturing jobs, action to cut global warming and development in the Third World. A coalition of trade unions and international aid organisations will stage a major demonstration in London before the summit to press their case for an end to the profit-driven policies of the past 20 years.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Release all political prisoners in Myanmar: EU
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-99376.html
Release all political prisoners in Myanmar: EU
Brussels, Feb 24 : The European Union has called for 'an immediate and unconditional release' of all political prisoners and detainees in Myanmar, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The EU presidency, held currently by the Czech Republic, urged for an all-inclusive dialogue between the authorities and the democratic forces, including ethnic groups in Myanmar, EuAsiaNews reported.
The statement issued by the presidency pointed to the recent visit by the UN Secretary General's Special Adviser Ibrahim Gambari and noted with regret that there is no tangible outcome of his visit to Burma.
The EU shares the view expressed by Gambari that it is the time to demonstrate the Myanmar's commitment to addressing concretely the issues of concern to the international community.
--- IANS
Monday, February 16, 2009
Forum of Burmese in Europe
Friday, February 13, 2009
EU: Leaders strengthen ties with ASEAN
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=3.0.3009335993
Jakarta, 12 Feb. (AKI) - The European Union has announced a series of measures aimed at deepening ties with members of the Association of South East Asian nations (ASEAN). Among the measures is the accreditation of EU ambassadors to ASEAN.
The British, French, German, and Czech ambassadors to Indonesia were formally appointed representatives to ASEAN from their respective countries in Jakarta on Thursday. The appointment of other EU ambassadors is expected to follow soon.
ASEAN is headquartered in the Indonesian capital. However, EU diplomatic representation to ASEAN will be conducted as part of a "EU Troika", comprising the current EU presidency, the subsequent EU presidency and a delegation from the European Commission.
Individual EU member sates will maintain their own bilateral contacts.
The European Union delegation in Indonesia has increased staff numbers in Jakarta and the European Commission is due to spend more than 50 million euros on development cooperation with ASEAN in the next three years.
Since the adoption of the ASEAN charter in December, ASEAN took the next step in its process of regional cooperation and integration. The charter reflects the commitment of ASEAN's ten member states to deepen their cooperation on political, economic and social affairs, along the lines of the EU.
ASEAN is comprised of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Cambodia.
As of 2006, the ASEAN region included a total population of about 560 million and a combined gross domestic product of almost 1,100 billion dollars.
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