News & Articles on Burma Sunday, 16 October, 2011 ------------------------------------- India fetes Myanmar leader on state visit India to help Myanmar in rice cultivation Myanmar trying to balance relations with India and China Myanmar agrees to take back refugees from Bangladesh Japan to restart development assistance to Myanmar Learning from Myanmar Building bridges across Irrawaddy to Myanmar Burmese change aplenty but it's only skin deep 'They were screaming: Die, die, die!': ------------------------------------ ENERGY TECH India fetes Myanmar leader on state visit by Staff Writers: New Delhi (AFP) Oct 14, 2011 India rolled out the red carpet Friday for Myanmar President Thein Sein, on a visit that followed his government's release of 200 political detainees -- the latest in a series of reformist moves. The former general, who arrived in India on Wednesday and spent two days touring Buddhist pilgrimage sites, was given a full state welcome in New Delhi for the official leg of his three-day trip. He then began a round of extensive talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The visit coincided with Myanmar's release on Wednesday of nearly 200 political prisoners, in another tentative sign of change in the authoritarian state after decades of military rule and repression. Thein Sein has surprised critics by signalling a series of political reforms since taking power in a controversial election last November, and has held direct talks with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In a rare concession to public opinion, his nominally civilian government last month suspended construction of a controversial mega-dam, risking the anger of traditional ally China, which is backing the project. The prisoner release was welcomed by the United States and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, although both called on the government to release all the roughly 2,000 political detainees still behind bars. "We see it as an important step that responds to the aspirations of the Burmese people," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "We have not yet seen a complete list. We do believe that there is still a large number of political prisoners in prison, and we call for all of them to be released," she added. Observers say the releases and the overtures to Suu Kyi signal Myanmar's desire to end its long international isolation, backed by trade and financial sanctions. India began engaging the Myanmar junta in the mid-1990s on security and energy issues and as a counter to China's growing strategic influence in the Southeast Asian nation, formerly called Burma. The policy drew international criticism, with US President Barack Obama chiding New Delhi during a visit to India last year for not speaking out over human rights abuses in Myanmar. New Delhi feels vindicated by Thein Sein's recent inititatives and, during their talks, the Indian premier welcomed his "ongoing efforts at political, economic and social reform," according to a joint statement. India also sees the stand on the dam project as a sign that Myanmar is making room for other allies apart from China -- India's main regional rival. "What remains to be seen is whether these recent signs of opening signal a greater degree of economic liberalisation," said G. Parthasarathy, a former Indian ambassador to Myanmar. An Indian foreign ministry official insisted there was room for both China and India to play a role in Myanmar's future development. "Relationships between countries are not a zero-sum-game," the official argued. Beijing has long helped shield Myanmar from international opprobrium and the impact of western sanctions with trade ties, arms sales and through its position as a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council. Indian trade with Myanmar stood at $1.2 billion last year, far short of the $4.4 billion between Myanmar and China. http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/India_fetes_Myanmar_leader_on_state_visit_999.html ----------------------------------------- India to help Myanmar in rice cultivation Zia Haq, Hindustan Times New Delhi , October 16, 2011 Myanmar president Thein Sein on Saturday said he looked to India for his country’s food security, a comment that signals a big opening for India in a neighbour that has long relied on Beijing. Myanmar’s civilian government, to which the powerful junta handed charge after elections in February, is gingerly walking down a road of political reform to help end the nation’s pariah status. Balancing relations with India is inevitably a part of this course correction. In the past, Myanmar has offered China a direct path to the Indian Ocean, apart from a steady source of raw materials for its voracious economy. The visit of Sein, a retired general, comes barely two weeks after he stunned Beijing by cancelling a $3.6-billion (Rs 20,000 crore) dam project that would have almost entirely served China. India has reciprocated the warmth generously, from a $500 million (Rs 2,500 crore) credit line to border-trade pacts. But the way to Myanmar’s heart is through its stomach. “With growing population, we can no longer rely on traditional farming,” Sein told HT, as he toured the farms of Pusa on Saturday. India will set up an Advanced Centre for Agriculture and Research in Myanmar’s Yezin to help improve rice-eating Myanmar’s paddy yields. The job has been outsourced to the premier Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), whose director HS Gupta made a closed-door presentation before the visiting president. IARI’s scientists will also help Myanmar grow basmati. Myanmar’s national planning minister U Tin Naing Thein asked IARI chief Gupta to brief him on per hectare production costs. But before it can suit the Burmese palate, basmati has to be acceptable to Myanmar’s climate. That will take a little genetic tweaking by IARI scientists. The two countries have set a target of $3 billion in trade by 2015. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/India-to-help-Myanmar-in-rice-cultivation/Article1-757830.aspx ------------------------------------- Myanmar trying to balance relations with India and China Sunday, 16 October 2011 03:25 NEW DELHI: Traditional dress for men in Myanmar combines an Indian-influenced sarong with a Chinese-style coat — fitting, perhaps, for a nation trying to balance ties with two giant neighbours as it looks outwards and relaxes decades of tightly buttoned rule. Wedged between India to its west and China to its east, Myanmar will need to work hard on that balancing act as its military-backed government heads down the path of political reform to end the nation’s pariah status and revive its economy. Throttled by Western sanctions, Myanmar has long relied on Beijing to keep it afloat with weapons, loans and infrastructure projects. But it is now courting India, too, to reduce its dependence on China, which many in the country see as a semi-colonial power. Myanmar is hoping competition between the two Asian rivals will earn it a better deal for resources such as gas and access to the Indian Ocean from its shores, for which China has so far paid bottom-dollar. “There is an awareness they have a lot in common with two great nations, China and India, and they must learn to cooperate with both to derive the maximum benefit for themselves,” said Lalit Mansingh, who was India’s foreign secretary when relations with Myanmar began to warm in the late 1990s. Broadly speaking, that seems to be the plan. Two weeks ago, Thein Sein, a retired general who in February became Myanmar’s first nominally civilian president in nearly 50 years, shocked Beijing by shelving a $3.6bn dam project that would have supplied almost no domestic electricity and had come to epitomise the army’s habit of kowtowing to China. This week he visited India, the world’s largest democracy, for a state visit that began with a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, the spot where the Buddha is said to have found enlightenment after meditating under a tree for three days and three nights. “When Myanmar’s government suspended the dam and went to India, it showed that it should not be underestimated,” said Christopher Roberts, an Asia expert at Australia’s National Security College. REUTERS http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/s.-asia/philippines/169298-myanmar-trying-to-balance-relations-with-india-and-china.html ------------------------------------ Myanmar agrees to take back refugees from Bangladesh Sunday, 16 October 2011 03:25 Dhaka: Myanmar has agreed to take back all its citizens lodged in two refugee camps in eastern Bangladesh, Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes said here yesterday. Currently, 28,000 Myanmar refugees, belonging to the Rohingya tribe, are staying in Nayapara and Kutupalong camps in Cox’s Bazar district, about 390km from here, since 1991. Quayes said that apart from the registered refugees, a large number of undocumented Myanmar nationals have also entered the country without having a refugee status. “Although they have no refugee status, we are not forcing them out of the country on humanitarian ground,” Xinhua reported quoting Quayes as saying at a press conference. He said Bangladesh and Myanmar are in talks to launch patrol on the border to stop fresh influx of Myanmar citizens into the country. IANS http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/s.-asia/philippines/169299-myanmar-agrees-to-take-back-refugees-from-bangladesh.html ---------------------------------------- Japan to restart development assistance to Myanmar 2011/10/16 Share Article このエントリをはてなブックマークに追加 Yahoo!ブックマークに登録 このエントリをdel.icio.usに登録 このエントリをlivedoorクリップに登録 このエントリをBuzzurlに登録 Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba plans to announce the resumption of official development assistance (ODA) to Myanmar (Burma), which has been mostly suspended until now in response to the regime's anti-democratic actions, when he holds talks with his Myanmarese counterpart in Tokyo on Oct. 21. Genba said on Oct. 14 he will meet with Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, which will mark the first time since 1995 that either a leader or a foreign minister of Myanmar will come to Japan on an official visit for a bilateral discussion.The ministry plans to resume mutual visits by key government figures and make it clear that it wants to strengthen bilateral ties. "It is essential to support Myanmar's reforms," a senior ministry official said. The Myanmarese government began granting amnesty to thousands of inmates on Oct. 12, including hundreds of political prisoners, but the international community is yet to decide its response to the move. Japan's foreign ministry released a statement on Oct. 14 saying, "We appreciate the move as a concrete step toward democratization and national reconciliation." During the upcoming talks, Japan plans to propose reinforced cooperation in four fields: exchanges of personnel, ODA, economic relations and cultural exchange. With regard to ODA, Japan is to announce the resumption of both the rehabilitation of the Baluchaung No. 2 hydro power plant, which was suspended after democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained in 2003, as well as the construction of the Myanmar-Japan Center for Human Resources Development, which was suspended after anti-government demonstrations were suppressed in 2007. Japan plans to begin on-site surveys by the end of this fiscal year. However, several pro-democracy groups in both Japan and overseas have argued that Japan should act more cautiously and confirm whether democratization is truly under way before taking action. http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201110150266.html -------------------------------------- Learning from Myanmar By Jyoti Malhotra Published: October 16, 2011 Who says Delhi doesn’t like dictators? Watching the Indian government romance the president of Myanmar U Thein Sein over the last few days has been fascinating. To be sure, Mr Sein is now the head of an elected, civilian government, even if the electoral process itself was suspect because of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s celebrated refusal to participate in the vote. Be that as it may, as the cliché goes. Mr Sein is here to stay for a few years and as Delhi’s eastern-most neighbour, the Myanmarese chief got a red-carpet welcome that began with the perambulation in Bodh Gaya on full moon night, considered by Buddhists to be inordinately auspicious. This was followed by a $500 million credit bouquet in the capital. Of course, this is tied aid. Meaning, Myanmar will get $500 million to spend, but all the goods have to be bought in India. It’s unclear, so far, how the money will be spent, because Myanmar is still under US-European Union-led sanctions, which means that Singapore makes a killing (in dollars, of course). That tiny city-country behaves like a clearinghouse, you see, much like Dubai does for Pakistan. That’s what the economic reform has enabled India to do, loosen its purse strings. Never mind how things are falling apart at home right now, and how everyone is in election mode already (state elections in Uttar Pradesh are expected anytime in the next six months, and with 80 seats, UP is widely believed to be a dry run for Delhi). For the moment, though, Myanmar is the flavour. Last week Delhi feted Hamid Karzai — this, after India signed a cheque for another $500 million when Manmohan Singh went to Kabul a couple of months ago. Last year, when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to town, she was handed over another $1 billion. Clearly, this isn’t about dictatorship or democracy, but about India’s national interest. After all, when General Pervez Musharraf was coming to Delhi-Agra in July 2001 and then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called to invite him, he began his telephone conversation with what was then considered both obsequious and controversial: “President sahib…” Vajpayee had dearly hoped that he could get Musharraf to promise the end of terrorism against India, so nothing was too big, including flattery. Musharraf’s conceit, of course, got the better of him in Agra and he proceeded to wreck the summit with his grandiose statements. The same applies to Myanmar. An exciting concatenation of circumstance is underway : In the wake of the elections, Suu Kyi has been allowed to get out of her house, even though her visits are tightly controlled (she has even come to the Indian embassy once); and Myanmar has announced that it will slowly move towards a market economy. Over the last few years, the Myanmarese have also been especially sensitive to shutting down insurgent camps that use Myanmar’s territory to target Indian civilian and military installations in India’s northeastern states. Get the drift? Stop the insurgency and watch India open its heart and its wallet. There’s a growing constituency inside India for greater linkages with its neighbourhood, but peace is a pre-requisite. Perhaps Pakistan’s generals could learn from their Myanmarese counterparts — who are also great friends of China — in giving peace a chance. The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist who has worked as senior editor at The Indian Express from 1997-2004 and since then has been writing for Khaleej Times, Business Standard and Wall Street Journal jyoti.malhotra@tribune.com.pk Published in The Express Tribune, October 17th, 2011. http://tribune.com.pk/story/275287/learning-from-myanmar/ ---------------------------------------- Building bridges across Irrawaddy to Myanmar Ranjit Gupta, TNN | Oct 16, 2011, 07.06AM IST For India few visits are more important than that of President Thein Sein. After decades, Myanmar is receiving very positive coverage in the global media in strong contrast to the past. A great deal of the credit for that goes to the president who is spearheading a remarkable and courageous process of political transformation in Myanmar . This is an appropriate time to consider why Myanmar is so important to India and to think about ways to substantially enhance India-Myanmar relations. India has a more security threatening and unfriendly neighbourhood than any other major country in the world. One contributory factor has been the nature of the regimes that our neighbours have had. China has consciously exploited domestic political equations in these countries for strategic advantage vis-a-vis India. In the process, China has spun a web of very strong economic, military, political and strategic relationships with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. Though India is widely regarded as an emerging great power also, the reality is that for India to be taken seriously in Asia, let alone in the wider world, an essential prerequisite is that it should command influence and respect in its neighbourhood. How can India resolve this conundrum? India cannot do much in respect of inducing change in the policy orientations of China or Pakistan. Things are looking up in Bangladesh but domestic political uncertainties remain an issue. Nepal will be in flux for some time and, in fact, is likely to pose increasing challenges. India's best prospects are in Myanmar simply because amongst all of India's neighbours, only Myanmar shares very deep strategic concerns vis-a-vis China. The two overriding objectives of India's relationship with Myanmar, beyond the self-evident need for good bilateral ties, should be: to ensure the economic development of the northeastern states and, second, to ensure that Myanmar does not become a pawn of China's strategic ambitions visa-vis India. The strategic factors underlying why Myanmar is imperatively important may be summarized as follows: in the context of India's territorial integrity; the security, stability and economic development of our northeastern states; India's strategic interests in the Indian Ocean; our energy requirements ; our 'Look East' policy with Myanmar being the geographical bridge between India and Asean; and China's ambitions in Asia. India's lack of focused interest has enabled China's footprint in Myanmar to become the largest amongst all of India's neighbours. If China were to acquire full sway over Myanmar, then, for all practical purposes, China would surround India's northeastern states and China's de facto border would also extend to the shores of the Bay of Bengal. The extensive dual use transport and economic connectivity infrastructure and other strategic assets that China is creating in Myanmar could then acquire rather sinister dimensions, particularly as Myanmar's economy is headed towards becoming a part of the Chinese economy. Such a China - Myanmar relationship would ensure that India's national security, well-being and potential role in Asia in the future could become hostage to China's strategic plans. The fact is that India cannot and should not compete with China in Myanmar. But remedial action is possible and needs to be initiated. As a first step, India has to ensure that no potentially inimically inclined foreign country, let alone China , is granted huge projects or permitted a large presence of its citizens west of the Irrawaddy River. This should be considered a strategic red-line which Myanmar should be encouraged not to breach. This would be achievable only by providing Myanmar sufficient stakes in complying. India is upgrading the Sittwe port and making 225 km of the Kaladan river from Sittwe to Setpyitpyin navigable. It would be connected to Mizoram by a 62-km road. The Kolkata-Sittwe sea route is 539 km. These projects are designed to provide connectivity between mainland India and its northeastern states. But we should think big and the setting up of a multi-purpose Special Economic Zone around Sittwe should be considered on a priority basis. Indian private sector companies should be involved. The SEZ would provide an avenue for the utilization of the gas from the exploration blocks currently with ONGC Videsh and Essar. Power for downstream industries in the SEZ could be supplied from captive power plants but also from the two hydropower projects that India is involved in Tamanthi and Shwezaye. Rites is involved in the development of rail transportation. The SEZ would synergise the objectives of these projects and become the symbol of India's presence in and commitment to Myanmar's economic development in a non-exploitative fashion, in strong contrast to what other major foreign investors are doing. An Indian consulate should also be set up in Sittwe. The president's visit could be used to signal such an Indian interest at the highest levels. A special high-level multi-disciplinary team should be constituted as a matter of high priority to study relevant data and initiate discussions with the concerned agencies of the Myanmar government at the earliest . All this would fit in well with the achievement of Myanmar's ambition for the early lifting of sanctions. The writer is a former diplomat. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Building-bridges-across-Irrawaddy-to-Myanmar/articleshow/10372950.cms -------------------------------------- Burmese change aplenty but it's only skin deep by: Bertil Lintner From: The Australian October 17, 2011 12:00AM IF most Western pundits are to be believed, fundamental change is taking place in Burma. After holding a seriously flawed referendum in May 2008 on a new constitution that gives the country's military controlling powers, and holding an election last November condemned by the West as rigged, Burma's new government has stunned the world by taking steps towards what appears to be more openness. Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been freed from house arrest; she and new President Thein Sein have been meeting; strict censorship rules have been relaxed; and on Tuesday the release of thousands of prisoners began. More importantly, Burma suspended a $US3.6 billion mega-dam joint project with China in the north of the country. According to the view of the same Western observers, recent developments may also reflect a power struggle between "hardliners" and "reform-minded liberals" within the government and the military that controls it. But reality is far more complicated. Firstly, the new constitution and elections were not intended to change the basic power structure but to institutionalise it. Once the new parliament and other institutions were in place, and the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party had secured an absolute parliamentary majority and formed a new, seemingly legitimate, government, concessions were expected. Suu Kyi's release had been announced before the election, and there had been talks about prisoner releases and an amnesty for Burmese exiles. The concessions went much further than that when the military discovered that Suu Kyi, despite her long house arrest, was as popular as ever. Nor had her party, the National League for Democracy, disappeared despite being dissolved in May last year. At the same time, a powerful, popular movement was growing against the controversial dam project at Myitsone in the northern Kachin State. The dam would have flooded an area bigger than Singapore and 90 per cent of the electricity was to be exported to China. And it would have seriously harmed the Irrawaddy River, the nation's economic as well as cultural artery. There was a potential for an upheaval that could have threatened the unity of the armed forces. The government had to act to prevent the public and elements of the military joining forces. China has been Burma's closest economic, political and military ally since the pro-democracy uprising of 1988. But it has been an uneasy alliance, as many Burmese army officers have not forgotten that China for decades supported the insurgent Communist Party of Burma. Even today, China maintains cordial relations with the United Wa State Army, a successor to the CPB, which in 1989 made a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government. Chinese duplicity was bad enough; robbing the country of its natural resources was seen as even worse. By suspending the controversial dam project, Thein Sein has taken the wind out of the sails of this movement and weathered the storm many were waiting for - at the same time as the suspension, not cancellation, of Myitsone leaves open the door for negotiations with China. Thein Sein has skilfully played "the China Card" with the West. In Washington, on September 29, Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin met Derek Mitchell, the newly appointed US co-ordinator on Burma; Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and Michael Posner, a specialist in human rights. The next day, the government decided to suspend the dam until 2015. At the same time, ongoing talks with Suu Kyi are meant to "tame" the NLD and persuade it to "return to the legal fold", as the government always terms it. Some Rangoon-based sources even suggest the aim of the government could be to form a USDP-NLD coalition after the next, 2015 election. Consequently, the US is showing signs of softening its hard stance against Burma. The US position will be eroded totally once the NLD is re-registered and all political prisoners are released. Then, sanctions are likely to be eased if not completely lifted. The EU will give in even earlier. Apart from trying to neutralise the NLD, releasing prisoners and inviting emigres to return, the government is also attempting to revitalise the economy. Economic progress is seen as vital for regime survival, and to have US and EU sanctions lifted will serve that purpose. In order to be "re-admitted" into the global community, and break its diplomatic and economic isolation from the West, Thein Sein's government is said to have set three other high-profile goals which would improve its international reputation: to host the Southeast Asian Games, which are scheduled to be held in Naypyidaw, Burma's new capital, in 2013; to assume the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014; and the 2015 election. It is likely to succeed in these endeavours, and the economy will most probably benefit as well from more interaction with and acceptance by the West. Some economic liberalisation could also follow, but major political reforms are unlikely. The new constitution has enough safeguards to protect the military and its ultimate grip on power. Despite the new honeymoon with the West, Burma is unlikely to shake off its dependence on China. And recent changes are unlikely to alter the country's fundamental power structure with the military effectively in command. The sad truth is that there is no "step-by-step" process in motion that would lead to real democracy in Burma. Bertil Lintner is a Thailand-based correspondent for the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet and author of several books on Burma, -------------------------------------- 'They were screaming: Die, die, die!': The dramatic inside story of Aung San Suu Kyi's darkest hour It was Aung San Suu Kyi's darkest hour – and it very nearly ended in her murder. Here, in an exclusive extract from a major new biography of the Burma democracy leader, Peter Popham uncovers the truth about the terrible events of 30 May 2003 Sunday, 16 October 2011 Almost a year after Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest, Burma finally seems to be on the path of reform. A series of highly symbolic moves, starting in August with an invitation to the democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prizewinner to meet the new president, culminated this week with a significant release of political prisoners – one of the opposition's key demands. But if both Suu herself and the outside world react with caution, it is understandable. Burma has been down this road before, and has been bitterly disappointed. The elections which brought the present, notionally civilian government to power were widely condemned as fraudulent; the president himself is a former top general; and standing behind him are the monstrously corrupt generals, headed by former Senior General Than Shwe, who ransacked the country while amassing vast wealth. The first time Suu was released from house arrest, in July 1995, after nearly six years, she was barred from leaving Rangoon. She was detained again in September 2000, but when she was freed in May 2002, the UN's Special Envoy, Razali Ismail, persuaded Burma's military junta to agree not merely to let her leave her home but to go wherever she chose. It was widely believed that the regime was keen to open negotiations with her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD): her release, granting her full freedom to travel, was seen as the first step. She wasted no time putting the agreement to the test. She took her democracy show, which had galvanised the country in 1989 at the start of her political career, back on the road, travelling to every corner of the country. But the epic journeys very nearly ended in her death. When Suu started travelling again in 2002, it was as if she had never been away, as if nothing had happened in the 13 years since her last election campaign trip in May 1989. If anyone supposed that the Burmese masses had forgotten all about their heroine in the intervening years, it was a rude awakening. As videos shot during her meetings prove, everywhere she went the crowds were again vast, and vastly good-humoured. Her tours in 1989 had been the most dramatic political manifestations in Burma's independent history, the most vivid demonstrations, nationwide, of the strength of opposition to the junta and the strength of support for her. The re-runs in 2002 and 2003, despite the passing of the years, were no less so. But this time around there was a sinister new element. One of the initiatives taken by Senior General Than Shwe after taking power in 1992 was the creation of a mass organisation to counter the influence of Suu's NLD. The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) was the military's civilian proxy: its means of securing the allegiance of millions of ordinary Burmese at every level of society by giving them favourable access to services and facilities, ranging from paved roads to courses in computing, from which the masses of those who don't belong are excluded. Last year the organisation mutated into the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is now Burma's notional ruling party. Both the USDA and USDP have their respectable faces, but there is another side that is not respectable at all. When occasion demands, the USDA provides hoodlums, thieves, drunks, drug addicts and other men with nothing to lose with the weapons and training to do the dirty jobs which k the regime does not care to entrust to regular soldiers. The USDA can rapidly mutate into a force of mercenary vigilantes, given a vicious edge by opening the gates of the jails, offering drink, drugs, crude weapons and meagre bribes to the inmates, then sitting back and watching the mayhem. Suu had long experience of their tactics. "The USDA has become a very dangerous organisation," she said back in 1996. "It is now being used in the way Hitler used his Brownshirts... [it] is being used to crush the democratic movement." The same year, when Suu and her colleagues were driving from her house in University Avenue to address a meeting nearby, a USDA gang attacked the car and smashed the windows; two years later, other thugs from the organisation forced her car off the road. And during her new tours of the country, this shadowy militia dogged Suu and her colleagues every step of the way. The trips had begun in June 2002. Suu travelled in a new Toyota Land Cruiser, and to counter the USDA threat, her team included a significantly larger number of student bodyguards than previously. They criss-crossed the country, visiting 95 cities, towns and villages. Then, on 29 May 2003, she left the northern city of Mandalay, heading west to the town of Monywa. The journey was planned as carefully as a military manoeuvre – which in a sense it resembled, despite the authorities' formal approval of the itinerary. Suu had warned her companions that if they were attacked by the USDA, they were not to retaliate. So their only hope of safety was in careful planning, and in numbers. Wunna Maung, one of her bodyguards, said later in testimony to the US Congress: "Before our journey we heard many rumours that local officials of the military regime were training their troops with blunt weapons, including clubs, spears and iron spikes. For this reason, Daw Suu [literally, Aunt Suu, an honorific title] advised us absolutely to avoid any words or behaviour that might lead to confrontation with any members of the military. She told us that if we were attacked we must not fight back. Even if we are struck or killed, she said, we should absolutely not fight back." Suu was well aware of the potential danger they faced. During one of the most tense periods of her previous spell of freedom, in November 1996, the secretary of the USDA, U Win Sein, who was also Minister of Transport, had told a meeting of villagers near Mandalay that killing Aung San Suu Kyi was their duty. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, "the creator of internal political disturbances" must be "eradicated", he said. "Do you understand what is meant by eradicated?" he asked them. "Eradicated means to kill. Dare you kill Daw Suu Kyi?" Villagers within earshot later testified that he repeated the question five or six times but received no reply. Given this high-level interest in her elimination, Suu was taking no chances. At 9am on 29 May, seven NLD cars and 20 motorcycles rolled out of Mandalay on the road west. In the lead, a few hundred yards ahead of the rest, was a scout car; next came Suu's dark-green Toyota, driven by a law student and party member called Kyaw Soe Lin, followed by two other cars filled with senior NLD figures, including party vice-chairman U Tin Oo, then the cars of local supporters. The group consisted of about 100 people in all. The trouble that awaited them had been carefully prepared. Starting six days earlier, the military authorities in the area, under the command of plump, pasty-faced Lieutenant Colonel Than Han, had mustered local USDA members from townships around the town of Shwebo, 100km north of Mandalay, a total it is claimed of about 5,000 men, and brought them to the grounds of Depayin High School along with more than 50 lorries and 10 pick-up trucks, to train them for the assault. On the day of the attack they were issued with their weapons: bamboo staves, baseball bats, sharpened iron rods, and similar crude implements, many of them specially made by a local blacksmith. After spending the night at a supporter's home and making a speech in the centre of Monywa, Suu did as she had been doing up and down the country and re-opened the local NLD office. Then she and her party set off again, bound for Shwebo district, 50km to the north-east. As usual, they had obtained full authorisation for this journey in advance. But as the jabs and taunts of their enemies intensified, they must have felt like an army patrol travelling through hostile guerrilla country: never sure when the next attack would come or what form it would take. And now, as they approached Depayin township, the army joined in the harassment. "When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi arrived near Zeedaw village," an eyewitness later testified, "military authorities from the Northern Command headquarters stopped the convoy, including the cars of the people of Monywa who had come to see them off." Suu and her party were permitted to proceed, but when her supporters returned later to the same village on their way back to Monywa, "the police waiting in readiness beat them up and put them under arrest". Unaware of this, Suu and her team drove on to the town of Butalin, where she once again performed the ceremonial re-opening of the local party office. They were now deep into the flat paddy fields of the countryside, far from any sizeable town and even further from the gaze of foreign diplomats and journalists. They stopped at the little town of Saing-pyin, where Suu had an emotional encounter with the family of the local NLD MP-elect, who was still serving a jail sentence. Meanwhile, her minders sent a car on to scout the road ahead. Ominously, it failed to return. Motorcycles were sent to find out what had happened to it. But they, too, disappeared. Still miles from their destination, with darkness closing in, Suu and her team were driving blind into terra incognita, with a hostile army presence behind them and no way of knowing what lay ahead. By the time they arrived at the little village of Kyi, it was pitch-dark. They had not planned to stop here, but a little way beyond the village the headlights of Suu's car picked up two elderly monks sitting on the roadside, who hailed them as they approached. "They asked if Suu could address a gathering," Kyaw Soe Lin, her driver, recalled. "I told Daw Daw Suu that we shouldn't stop, as we usually get harassed around dusk. But the monks said they had been waiting for Suu Kyi since the evening before and requested that she give a speech and greet them." To turn down such a request from two old monks would be the height of bad manners, whatever the circumstances. Suu fell into the trap. According to Kyaw Soe Lin, "Daw Daw said we should stop for them." The old men were not monks at all, but imposters from the USDA. And as the convoy halted on the road while Suu decided how best to accede to their request, the full fury of the USDA fell upon them. Four vehicles which had been tailing them, two lorries and two pick-up trucks, now roared up alongside the convoy and armed men poured out, shouting anti-Suu slogans. When the local villagers, who had come out of their houses to see what was going on, started shouting back at them, the USDA thugs attacked them with iron rods, bamboo staves and baseball bats. One of the USDA lorries took a run at the villagers in its headlights, and the villagers scattered in terror – whereupon a much larger USDA force – 4,000, according to some eye-witnesses, though the figure is impossible to verify – who had been waiting to ambush the convoy poured from the sides of the road and attacked the NLD cars and their motorcycle outriders and local supporters. "We watched helplessly and tried to show courage," said Wunna Maung, the bodyguard. "Because we had been told to never use violence, we tried to protect Suu's car by surrounding [it] with our bodies in two layers. As we waited, all the cars behind us were being attacked, and the USDA members beat the NLD members mercilessly. The attackers appeared to be either on drugs or drunk. "The USDA members struck down everyone, including youths and women. They used the iron rods to strike inside the cars. I saw the attackers beat [NLD vice-chairman] U Tin Oo and hit him on the head before they dragged him away. He had a wound on his head and was bleeding. "The attackers beat women and pulled off their longyi [skirts] and their blouses. When victims, covered in blood, fell to the ground, the attackers grabbed their hair and pounded their heads on the pavement until their bodies stopped moving. The whole time, the attackers were screaming the words, 'Die, die, die...' There was so much blood. I still cannot get rid of the sight of people, covered in blood, being beaten mercilessly to death." What saved Suu's life, according to Aung Lynn Htut, a senior military intelligence officer who later defected to the United States, was that the officers in charge of the attack had not expected her car to be at the front – which was why the initial attack was concentrated on the cars in the middle and the rear. But it was not long before they realised their mistake. "As the USDA members approached Daw Suu's car, we braced ourselves for the attacks," Wunna Maung recalled. "The attackers first beat the outer ring of my colleagues on the left side of Daw Suu's car, and smashed the window... As my colleagues collapsed one by one, the attackers then started beating the inner ring of security. The attackers hit my colleagues ferociously, because they knew we would not fight back." Wunna Maung was saved only because he was on the right side of the car, while the attacks were concentrated on the left. Inside the car, Suu's driver pleaded with the attackers, telling them who exactly he was carrying in the back – but that only inflamed them further. "My anger exploded," he admitted, "I wanted to run them over." He put the vehicle into reverse, stamped on the accelerator and the car hurtled back; the assailants reacted by raining blows on the car, breaking the windows both in the front and the back, where Suu was travelling, as well as the wing mirrors and the headlights, and battering the car's bodywork. Over his shoulder as he roared backwards, Kyaw Soe Lin saw wounded colleagues sprawled across the road, in his path; frightened that he might run them over, he again reversed direction – but now the road ahead was blocked by trucks. Pulling over to the verge he succeeded in squeezing past them, but then found himself faced by dozens more trucks, their lights illuminating more attackers – 200 to 300 was his estimate, some holding banners with anti-NLD slogans. The USDA men looked on "in surprise", he said, as he hurtled towards them. Some of his party's bodyguards were clinging to the outside of the vehicle, hanging on for dear life. "I was worried that the attackers might pull them off if we got too close," he said, "so I drove straight at them, pretending I was going to run into them, and they scattered. Then I pulled the car back on to the road and kept driving." In the murk ahead he saw more roadblocks, but resolved to get through them without stopping. "I realised that all of us, including Daw Daw, would die if we didn't get out of this place, so I kept on driving." As he roared through the hostile mob they threw objects at the car, smashing the remaining windows, and one of them striking him. "Daw Daw asked me if I was OK. I said I was fine and kept on driving. I knew that if I stopped at the road blocks they would beat us to death." He wove through another barricade of trucks and past a line of police with their guns pointed at the road, and other figures with guns who looked like soldiers. "I drove through them but didn't hit anyone, as they jumped out of the way," he recalled. "Daw Daw said we should stop only when we reached Depayin." But they didn't make it that far. As they entered the town of Yea-U, armed guards forced them to stop, demanded to know who was in the car, and made them wait. Half-an-hour later a large contingent of soldiers turned up. "One officer, apparently a battalion commander, arrived and put a gun to my temple and ordered us to go with them," Kyaw Soe Lin said. "Daw Daw nodded at me, so I did as they said. We were taken to Yea-U jail." Suu's year of freedom – her year of living more dangerously than ever before – was over. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT Suu survived the Depayin massacre without serious injury, thanks to the courage and skill of her driver, but it cost the lives of about 70 of her supporters. She herself was first put in jail and then, after protests from the UN Envoy Razali Ismail, sent back to house arrest. For the outside world, and for most people in Burma, too, Depayin was a major setback. The hopes for a negotiated return to democracy that had been raised with her release from detention in May 2002 were dashed. But the true story was not that simple. Soon after the attack, Senior General Than Shwe admitted having ordered it: in a letter to Asian governments he justified it by claiming that Suu and her party were "conspiring to create an anarchic situation... with a view to attaining power". But when the US tightened sanctions and Japan, the regime's most reliable friend, suspended aid, it became clear that the assault had been a colossal mistake, and its failure a personal humiliation. To recoup some ground he promoted military intelligence chief Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, the third man in the ruling triumvirate and the man who had pushed for talks with Suu, to prime minister. Khin Nyunt announced a "seven-point road map to democracy", intended to produce a constitution and elections. He then launched the regime's first-ever serious negotiations with Suu, so secret that their existence emerged only after Suu's release last year After a number of meetings, the two sides were close to agreement: "We were almost there," Suu revealed last November. But when Khin Nyunt presented Than Shwe with the deal, the Senior General took fright. Both Khin Nyunt and the brigadier who had led the negotiations were purged and jailed, and Burmese politics went back into the deep freeze. Another six years were to pass before Suu was released. This extract is adapted from 'The Lady and the Peacock: the Life of Aung San Suu Kyi' by Peter Popham, published by Rider on 3 November
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Saturday, 15 October, 2011
News & Articles on Burma Saturday, 15 October, 2011 --------------------------------------- Political prisoner release should prompt continued pressure on Myanmar Burma rides the winds of rapid change India offers loan to Myanmar amid tentative reforms India promises assistance to Myanmar in agri sector Indo-Myanmar pact to tackle insurgency in north-east: Gogoi Burma workers win right to strike All eyes on change in Burma India scents opportunity in Burma leader visit A shift in Myanmar Myanmar Relaxes Media Grip ------------------------------------------ October 14, 2011 Political prisoner release should prompt continued pressure on Myanmar Prisoners of conscience Zarganar, Su Su Nway and Zaw Htet Ko Ko have been released in Myanmar’s latest mass prisoner amnesty, after sustained campaigning by human rights organisations including Amnesty International. Amnesty International’s membership across the world has been campaigning for the release of the three political prisoners by writing letters, signing petitions and lobbying governments. “We are celebrating the freedom of people for whom we have campaigned for years,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director. “The now confirmed release of more than 200 political prisoners this month shows that all those letters and petitions can have a real impact in individual cases.” “But the work is far from over while many more political prisoners remain behind bars. This amnesty should inspire the international community to keep pressuring Myanmar to release all political prisoners immediately.” The Myanmar government announced that the latest prisoner amnesty was on humanitarian grounds for the elderly, sick and disabled. “This is ironic, considering that political prisoners are routinely placed in remote jails far from hospitals and support networks, and intentionally mistreated and denied medical treatment in order to ruin their health and break their spirits,” said Sam Zarifi. Zarganar, Su Su Nway and Zaw Htet Ko Ko were no exceptions. Zarganar, Myanmar’s best-known comedian, had been serving a 35-year prison sentence in a prison in Kachin state at the time of his release. Aged 50, he had reportedly been suffering health problems in prison. He was jailed in 2007 for leading a private donor movement in response to the government’s blocking of foreign aid in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. He gave regular interviews to foreign media criticising the government and exposing the unfolding humanitarian crisis, marshalling over 400 volunteers to deliver emergency aid. In the 2010 documentary ‘This Prison Where I Live’, he described the mistreatment he suffered during a previous detention: “They beat and they kick and sometimes they use some rubber pipe. They use a rubber pipe to beat my back and my belly…Some of my friends in that jail tried to kill themselves…” Labour rights activist Su Su Nway, 39, had been serving a seven and a half-year sentence for treason and other vaguely defined security offences at the time of her release this October. Her acts of political protest even while in prison saw her despatched to a jail near the border with India’s Nagaland, far from her family and medical treatment, despite her heart problem. There was later a reported tuberculosis outbreak in that prison. She had been arrested in November 2007 in the wake of the ‘Saffron Revolution’, after putting up an anti-government banner near a hotel where the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar was staying. Su Su Nway was the first person in Myanmar to sue the government successfully for subjecting her and her village to forced labour. The government imprisoned her for eight months in retaliation. Upon being released in 2006 from that first imprisonment, she said to the Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident media outlet based outside the country: “I take my prison uniform with me because I know that I will have to come back to jail until Burma gets democracy." Despite being 30 years old at the time of his release, Zaw Htet Ko Ko was also known to be suffering health problems while in prison in Rakhine state, over 660km away from his family in Yangon. Shortly after his arrest in October 2007, his father told Amnesty International that he feared his son was being tortured in detention. At the time of his release, Zaw Htet Ko Ko had been serving a 10 year sentence for ‘inciting offences against public tranquility’ due to his involvement in the ‘Saffron Revolution’ protests of 2007. As a young member and official photographer of the 88 Generation Students Group, Zaw Htet Ko Ko was of the internet-savvy generation who had embraced new technology to circumvent censorship and communicate with the world outside Myanmar. During August and September 2007, the authorities reportedly raided his home up to five times and repeatedly threatened and harassed his family in Yangon. His father U Aung Myint, a political exile living in the Netherlands, told Amnesty International that he had asked his son in the past if he understood the risks of political activism. His son replied: “Yes, I've considered everything, about dangers. If I don't do what I'm doing, who will do it for the Burmese people?" http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/latest-victories/political-prisoner-release-should-prompt-continued-pressure-on-myanmar -------------------------------------- Burma rides the winds of rapid change Myo Thein, Dean Nelson October 16, 2011 FROM a shelf on a roadside news-stand, the gentle, smiling face of Burma's long-suffering freedom movement leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, beams down from a magazine, flanked by her son and the family dog. A few magazines along, there she is again, the West's poster girl of democratic defiance. Yet this is not London or New York, but Rangoon. Today, for the first time in more than 20 years, Ms Suu Kyi is the cover story in her own country. This would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago, said one Western diplomat, amazed at the speed of change in one of the world's hitherto most repressive states. Then, no publisher would have dared print her picture, let along distribute it to vendors. Advertisement: Story continues below But since the Nobel peace prize winner met President Thein Sein, a former general, in August, a series of symbolic and tangible reforms has been rolled out with such speed that a nation resigned to repression is daring to talk freely about politics for the first time in decades. The past eight weeks have witnessed the government cancel the China-backed Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River, apparently after public protest, end restrictions on the internet, allow opposition voices in the media and, on Friday, lift a ban on free trade unions. Last week, more than 200 political prisoners were released, including the country's most celebrated film star and comedian, Zarganar, who had been sentenced to 59 years in jail for criticising the government's response to cyclone Nargis; Zaw Htet Ko Ko, one of the leaders of the 1988 student uprising; and Sai Say Htan, who was serving a 104-year sentence for rejecting the country's new constitution. On the streets of Rangoon on Friday, normally cautious middle-class youths gathered in tea shops and internet cafes to take advantage of their new-found freedom. ''My family now talks more openly about politics,'' said one young man. At the Cafe Parisian on Sule Pyay Road, a civil servant spoke of how he believed that the former military ruler General Than Shwe continued to wield influence, before stopping to marvel at being able to make such a comment. Another said the government's dash for democracy had won over relations who were fierce opponents. ''My mother did not like [President] U Thein Sein but she is now saying that yes, she thinks he is doing good things. She likes now U Thein Sein and also Aung San Suu Kyi,'' he added. Other government moves to build confidence have included appointing a former liaison officer to Ms Suu Kyi to run the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. U Myint, a close friend of the Nobel laureate, has become the President's economic adviser. Mr Myint's appointment offered a clue not only to the direction in which the new civilian government was heading, but also to the cause. Mr Thein Sein wants foreign investment to develop the economy, but knows its growth potential will always be restricted by United States and European Union sanctions until Burma returns to democracy. The country has much to offer: vast unexploited oil and gas reserves, great expanses of coveted farmland for food production and an unused gateway to China, until now its only meaningful friend and patron. On Friday the President met India's Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi as part of a campaign to boost external trade and persuade the West to drop its sanctions. India announced a $US500 million loan and one of Dr Singh's most influential advisers suggested that New Delhi could play a key role in ''encouraging the US and Europe to begin dismantling their long-standing policy of isolating and sanctioning Burma''. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, and William Hague, Britain's Foreign Secretary, welcomed the recent reforms and the release of political prisoners but stressed that they would ''wait and see'' how far Mr Thein Sein goes in his talks with Ms Suu Kyi before weighing their response. The Nobel laureate, they indicated, holds the key to Burma's return to polite society. On the streets of the former capital, the euphoria is checked by a concern that it may not last. Plainclothes security agents and youth apparatchiks remain fixtures at events and in areas deemed politically sensitive. Zarganar, the actor-comedian, is unhappy that more than 1000 political prisoners remain in detention. ''They are releasing political prisoners little by little; so we are like the victims in the hands of Somali pirates. What are their ransom demands? The situation is like that,'' he said. Hours earlier he had been in his cell in Myitkyina Prison, where he had spent every day in solitary confinement since he was jailed in June 2008. When he first emerged from jail, he voiced resentment that Ms Suu Kyi's dialogue with the government had yielded so few prisoner releases, but on Friday he told the Burmese free news website Mizzama that he supported the talks. ''Some people worry Suu Kyi is being used by the government … I don't think this is the case. If you give gold to a monkey, how will it be used properly? But if you give gold to a goldsmith, it is different. Aung San Suu Kyi is a goldsmith. I think these meetings will not hamper our drive for true democracy. We can look at it as something positive.'' The Telegraph Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/burma-rides-the-winds-of-rapid-change-20111015-1lqe7.html#ixzz1afFNTigf ------------------------------------------- Saturday, October 15, 2011 India offers loan to Myanmar amid tentative reforms NEW DELHI: India promised Myanmar a $500 million credit line to improve infrastructure on Friday and praised steps towards democracy by its reclusive neighbour, which is tentatively opening up after half a century of harsh military rule. The money and warm words came as Myanmar campaigns to shed its pariah status. It freed about 200 political prisoners this week, the latest sign of reforms in the poor and tightly controlled Southeast Asian country of 50 million people. The former British colony also known as Burma has large undeveloped gas reserves and straddles busy Bay of Bengal shipping lanes, making it strategically important for energy-hungry emerging power neighbours India and China. Myanmar President Thein Sein met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi during a four-day state trip, spending two days visiting religious sites. About 100,000 refugees and migrants from Myanmar live in India. A few dozen protested during Sein’s visit to call for a faster pace of reform and the release of prisoners. “Kick-start genuine political dialogue,” read one placard held by a supporter of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed from seven years of house arrest last November. “We all have come here to support Aung San Suu Kyi and to demand a democracy,” said a 16-year-old protester. Hours after the prisoners’ release, Myanmar’s first civilian president in nearly 50 years flew to India’s Bihar state to pay homage at the site where the Buddha is said to have reached enlightenment. “The prime minister of India congratulated the president of Myanmar on the transition towards democratic government and offered all necessary assistance in further strengthening this democratic transition,” they said in a joint statement. India has long weathered criticism from international partners for its accommodating stance to Myanmar’s junta, which was dissolved in April. New Delhi feels the signs of reform vindicate its policy of engagement. Reuters http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\10\15\story_15-10-2011_pg5_28 --------------------------------------- India promises assistance to Myanmar in agri sector New Delhi, Oct 15, (PTI): India today assured technical assistance to Myanmar in the field of agriculture particularly for key crops like rice and pulses. The assurance was given by Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat to a visiting Myanmar team led by its president U Thein Sein here. The team comprised Agriculture minister U Myint Maung and entrepreneurs, who interacted with scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Myanmar sought Indian help in increasing yield of its key crops of rice and pulses to which Rawat reacted positively, IARI sources said. The team also sought India's technical assistance in the livestock sector to boost milk productivity. India is the world's largest milk producer. The sources said the Myanmar President appreciated the fact that IARI has signed an MOU with a group of private seed producing companies, and sought details to repeat the experiment of sectoral convergence in the important area of seed production in his country, the sources added. He requested New Delhi to send a team of scientists to train his men at Advanced Centre for Agriculture Research and Education set up there with the help of India. Mayanmar evinced interest in buying Tractors from India. Later, the team visited IARI's biotechnology centre and an exhibition in genetics division. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/198066/india-promises-assistance-myanmar-agri.html ---------------------------------------- Indo-Myanmar pact to tackle insurgency in north-east: Gogoi Published on Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 17:35 | Source : PTI Guwahati, Oct 15 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said the Indo-Myanmar agreement would benefit the security of the north-eastern region by tackling the menace of insurgency in the area. "The accord between visiting Myanmar president Thein Sein and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is good news for the north-east region from the security point of view", Gogoi told reporters here. "Insurgent outfits like ULFA, NSCN and other groups from the region have set up camps in Myanmar. Like Bangladesh did, we are now hopeful after the accord that Myanmar will also oust them from their territory for peace, security and stability in the region", Gogoi said. "Assam's uppermost tip Sadiya, adjacent Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar are the bastion of the militants. This will be tackled by the agreement to enhance effective cooperation and coordination between the security forces of the two countries," he added. The opening of the Stilwell Road, built during World War II in 1942 and passing through Burma would benefit Centre's Look East Policy by intensifying trading activities with South Asia to bring about overall socio-economic betterment in the area, the CM said. http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/indo-myanmar-pact-to-tackle-insurgencynorth-east-gogoi_599989.html ------------------------------------------ Burma workers win right to strike BANGKOK POST: Published: 15/10/2011 at 12:58 AM Workers in military-dominated Burma will be allowed to unionise and go on strike for the first time in decades, officials said Friday, under landmark new legislation welcomed by the United Nations. Workers in military-dominated Myanmar will be allowed to unionise and go on strike for the first time in decades, officials said Friday, under landmark new legislation welcomed by the United Nations. The law was signed into effect by President Thein Sein on Tuesday, government sources said, and replaces the repressive 1962 Trade Unions Act, in the latest sign of tentative reform by the authoritarian regime. "Workers will have the right to form unions and to strike under the law," a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The legislation stipulates that workers, with the exception of military and police personnel, may set up a union with a minimum of 30 members and come up with their own name and logo. Employers must be given up to 14 days notice of industrial action and unions must specify in advance how many people will take part in the strike, it said. Providers of essential services, such as healthcare, firefighting, telecommunications, the supply of water and electricity, do not have the right to strike. The text also states that employers in breach of the new rules risk a 100,000 kyat fine ($125) or one year in prison, while employees face a fine of 30,000 kyat ($38). "Although we can't say that everything about the new labour law is good, we have to welcome it," Nyan Win, a lawyer and spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy party, told AFP. The International Labour Organisation also cheered the new measure, although Steve Marshall, the UN agency's liaison officer in Burma, cautioned that he had not yet read the full text of the legislation. "But in principle there is no question that the law is a major step for the government of Burma," he told AFP. "It is a very important factor in terms of the development both socially and economically of the country." A well-respected Rangoon businessman who did not wish to be named said he applauded the new law because he believed workers had a right to organise. "Trade unions must exist in a democratic nation," he told AFP. But the ILO's Marshall said that in a country where labour activists have frequently ended up behind bars, it would take a while before workers felt brave enough to take action under the newly-passed law. "It is a new approach and a new culture," he said. "It will take some time. We will not see immediate change overnight." The labour law is the latest evidence of a modest wind of change blowing through Burma in recent months, as the new nominally-civilian government tries to show it is serious about embracing change after decades of repression. On Wednesday, the regime pardoned about 200 political prisoners in a much-anticipated amnesty though critics said the gesture did not go far enough as most of the country's roughly 2,000 political detainees are still locked up -- including many labour rights advocates. "There remain quite a number of labour activists still in prison," Marshall said. Burma expert Sean Turnell from Australia's Macquarie University said the authorities would have to reassure a sceptical public that they would let the unions operate in peace. "The real test will come with implementation -- will people really be able to strike?" he asked, adding that it would take "a huge leap" of faith for workers to suddenly start protesting. "People have to feel that they can trust those laws, so it is going to take some time I think before people are convinced." http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/261413/burma-workers-win-right-to-strike ------------------------------------------ All eyes on change in Burma By Andrew Buncombe 10:03 AM Saturday Oct 15, 2011 Residents await the arrival of prisoners being released from Insein Prison in Yangon. Photo / AP Expand Residents await the arrival of prisoners being released from Insein Prison in Yangon. Photo / AP It had long turned dark by the time Thein Sein reached the Mahabodhi temple complex in northeast India, the silhouettes of his security guards mingling with those of robed Buddhist monks standing among the scented grounds as the Burmese President knelt to pray. It would be tempting, if a little presumptuous, to assume the Burmese leader was seeking insight and wisdom as he prostrated himself beneath the sprawling tree where Prince Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha achieved enlightenment in 623BC. But whether or not he was successful remains unclear. The world is watching every move the President makes. It wants to know whether he represents a genuinely new chapter in Burma's history, a step on the path to real democracy and plurality, or whether his strategy is simply more of what has gone before, albeit packaged with slicker PR. On the face of it, supporters of the President, appointed earlier this year after a supposedly civilian government took over from the junta which had run the country for decades, could argue there is already sufficient evidence to suggest he represents real change. The former general and his entourage of 69, including his chef, arrived for a three-day official visit in India on the morning it emerged that the first of what is expected to be several thousand prisoners were set free from Burma's jails. Among them were up to 200 political prisoners, including a popular comedian and activist, Zarganar, who was jailed in 2008 after criticising the government's response to the devastating Cyclone Nargis. The comedian and actor was certainly pleased to be out of Myitkyina prison in northern Kachin state, released along with a sick rebel commander, but he did not mince his words: "I will be happy and I will thank the Government only when all of my friends are freed." His sentiments matched those of the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who herself was released after seven years of house arrest late last year. "The freedom of each individual is invaluable, but I wish that all political prisoners would be released," she said, even as, across the country, relatives and inmates enjoyed emotional reunions outside the jails where they had been held. While thousands of prisoners may eventually be released, it is clear that those political prisoners considered the most dangerous will not receive an amnesty from Thein Sein. Among the notable figures not released were Min Ko Naing, the "conqueror of kings", a leader of the 88 Generation Students' group who is serving a 65-year sentence, and Shin Gambira, a young monk who was among the leaders of the September 2007 Saffron Revolution, when hundreds of thousands of monks and ordinary citizens took to the streets to protest over price hikes and in support of Suu Kyi's democracy campaign. "Everybody is happy," claimed Ashin Watnawa, a monk from Burma who has lived in India for 20 years and who was visiting Mahabodhi yesterday with a colleague. "[Thein Sein] is listening to people. He is different to what went before." Asked about the brutal crackdown by the Burmese authorities in 2007, when a number of monks were among those killed and injured, he added: "You have to let some things stay in the past." It would certainly have been insightful to hear Thein Sein's views on the prisoner releases he ordered and what they represented, as well as about his plans for the months ahead in Burma. Later, as Thein Sein left Mahabodhi, strolling with his entourage past the 19 footsteps that Buddha had taken after that moment of enlightenment and now marked by a stone plinth topped with lotus flowers, his security guards stepped in to block an attempted question. "This is not the place," said one. However - in a move that highlighted the wilier, PR-savvy side of Thein Sein - it was certainly the place for media coverage that the Burmese approved of. Among the President's entourage were three cameramen from state-controlled Myanmar International Television, as well as an Indian Government photographer. They were joined later by several Indian cameramen from private channels. It certainly created a more positive image of the President than that given four years ago when monks in Burma turned their alms bowls upside down and "excommunicated" the military government of which he was part, just weeks before the Saffron Revolution. Thein Sein is going to Delhi for talks with India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and other officials. Despite Burma's record on human rights, India considers its eastern neighbour increasingly important as a source of natural gas and oil and is trying to cement a relationship which matches the one Burma enjoys with China. An Indian official said recently, ahead of this visit, that the Government in Delhi believed Thein Sein was genuine in his purported desire for change. For most, the jury is still out. - INDEPENDENT http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10759235 ------------------------------------------ BANGKOK POST India scents opportunity in Burma leader visit Published: 14/10/2011 at 01:32 PM Online news: Asia India rolled out the red carpet for visiting Burma President Thein Sein on Friday, sensing a chance to deepen relations with a neighbour traditionally allied to New Delhi's regional rival Beijing. President of the Republic of Myanmar U Thein Sein (C) and first lady Daw Khin Khin Win (R) visit the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district, Indian state of Bihar on October 13, 2011. The Mahabodhi temple is famous for being the place where the founder of Buddhism Gautama Buddha allegedly obtained enlightenment. The former general, who arrived in India on Wednesday and spent two days touring Buddhist pilgrimage sites, was given a full state welcome in New Delhi for the official leg of his three-day visit. He was scheduled to hold extensive talks later in the day with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The visit follows Burma's decision late last month to suspend construction of a $3.6-billion Chinese-backed dam project, triggering a rare public rebuke from Beijing. Some saw the move as signalling a desire by Thein Sein's new nominally civilian government to shed Burma's image as a client state of China and open other doors, including to Western nations who maintain sanctions imposed on the former military regime. For energy-hungry India, resource-rich Burma with its large oil and natural gas reserves is an inviting prospect. India began engaging the Burma junta in the mid-1990s on security and energy issues and as a counter to China's growing strategic influence in the Southeast Asian nation, formerly called Burma. The policy drew international criticism, with US President Barack Obama chiding New Delhi during a visit to India last year for not speaking out over human rights abuses in Burma. India however feels its approach has been vindicated by a series of reformist moves initiated by Thein Sein since he took power last year. He held direct talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and, on the eve of his India visit, Burma announced a mass prisoner amnesty, including a number of of political detainees. Indian trade with Burma stood at $1.2 billion last year, far short of the $4.4 billion between Burma and China. New Delhi clearly scents new opportunities under Thein Sein's leadership, and G. Parthasarathy, a former Indian ambassador to Burma, said the new government appeared to be seeking greater "diplomatic elbow room" that would leave more space for India. "What remains to be seen is whether these recent signs of opening signal a greater degree of economic liberalisation," he said. But Parthasarathy also stressed that Burma would always look to maintain a close relationship with an emerging superpower such as China. An Indian foreign ministry official insisted there was room for both China and India to play a role in Burma's future development. "Relationships between countries are not a zero-sum-game," the official argued. Beijing has long helped shield Burma from international opprobrium and the impact of western sanctions with trade ties, arms sales and through its position as a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/261346/india-fetes-burma-leader-on-state-visit ------------------------------------------ THE JAPAN TIMES: Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 A shift in Myanmar Something is happening in Myanmar. The government in that reclusive country has recently taken a number of steps that suggest change may be afoot. It is too soon to tell how substantial and enduring the changes will be, but they must be acknowledged and encouraged. It is time to engage the government in Naypyidaw and test its commitment to real reform. Military governments have ruled Myanmar since 1962. Their systemic violation of the people's will earned them international censure and isolation. (To be fair, the rulers of Myanmar have never been inclined to engage the world, either.) The first suggestions that change might be afoot came a few years ago when the government wrote a new constitution that would pave the way to civilian rule. Most observers considered that a sham, especially when most of the country's new leaders had only recently donned mufti. Elections were held last November and, as predicted, military-backed parties and individuals dominated the new parliament. Yet since taking office in March, the government of President Thein Sein has taken steps that suggest that the change is more than just cosmetic. In August, Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of the National League for Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi was invited to the capital to talk to the president; this followed her release from seven years of house arrest 11 months ago. Exiles have been invited home to rejoin the political process; the NLD, which refused to contest last year's elections because it believed they were rigged — and was subsequently delisted as a legal political party — was invited to reregister. A new national human rights commission, made up of retired bureaucrats and academics, has been set up. This was followed by the visit of the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, the first time he has been allowed to visit in over a year. Censorship of some foreign media has stopped. Earlier this month, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reprinted an open letter from the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission that called for the release of "prisoners of conscience" who pose no threat to "public tranquility." The government followed that with the start on Wednesday of the release of nearly 6,400 prisoners. In the first batch of released prisoners were 198 of the country's estimated 2,000 political prisoners. Even Ms. Suu Kyi has conceded that "We are beginning to see the beginning of change." Finally, and among the most surprising developments, is the decision in September by the Myanmar government to suspend construction of a $3.6 billion dam being built with China. The dam was a controversial project because its location on the Irrawaddy River was seen as defacing the birthplace of the Burmese nation and because it signaled China's growing influence in the country. The rest of the world should reciprocate the signs of change in Myanmar. Much of the West has kept its distance from the new government, believing that it is just the redressing of the old order in new clothes. Sanctions remain in place and the prevailing tone is one of skepticism. But the door is open. The West is talking to senior Myanmar officials — who were left off the list of individuals subject to sanctions in Europe. The United States has created a new special envoy for Myanmar and Myanmar's foreign minister visited Washington last month. Speaking in Bangkok days ago, Mr. Kurt Campbell, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Asia, said that Myanmar is witnessing "dramatic developments" and the U.S. is ready to revamp ties — "match their steps" — with the country. But real progress, said Mr. Campbell, depends on the release of political prisoners, the end of human rights abuses, dialogue with democracy supporters and ethnic groups, and answering questions about the country's nuclear program. The West has leverage. Sanctions have taken a bite and while it is too early to lift them, those governments could take a neutral stand on (or even encourage) international lending institutions resuming their aid to Myanmar. (This would also have the benefit of reducing the country's dependence on China.) The U.N. human rights representative has called for the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into suspected crimes against humanity and war crimes in the country. That vote will come before the United Nations this year and while the West should not be seen as being cynical about such issues, if the NLD supports abstention in the name of domestic political dialogue, then Western governments can heed its wishes. Of course, the most important question is whether there is real change in Myanmar or this is mere window dressing to exploit a moment of opportunity. It is difficult, if not impossible, to tell. Decision making in Naypyidaw remains opaque and it is hard to tell who is in charge. But the signs are promising and friends of Myanmar's long-suffering 60 million people, the poorest in Asia, deserve the benefit of the doubt. The key is a step-by-step process that matches Myanmar's moves with those of its critics. This moment must not be wasted. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20111015a1.html ------------------------------------------ ASIA NEWS: OCTOBER 15, 2011 Myanmar Relaxes Media Grip By a WSJ Staff Reporter YANGON—Myanmar residents knew something unusual was afoot this August when state-run newspapers suddenly dropped their regular slogans denouncing the BBC and the Voice of America for "sowing hatred among the people," followed by moves to unblock their websites in the country. Pictures and articles about famed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi began showing up in the press for the first time in years. Journalists have started posting articles online without the approval of government censors—previously a no-no—and even dared to criticize government policies in print. While still tightly controlled, Myanmar's media landscape is cracking open in significant ways, local journalists and residents say, as authorities loosen restrictions in a country long seen as one of the most repressive in the world. In recent years, Myanmar residents have been able to use the Internet and have had access to some foreign media, including CNN in hotels and some foreign news publications online. But the websites for many foreign news sources deemed overly critical of the government, including the BBC and Reuters, were customarily blocked, along with YouTube as well as dissident publications that reported closely on Myanmar affairs from outside the country. With the latest steps to unblock sites, Myanmar residents now have access to a wide array of foreign news sources, as well as dissident publications such as the Irrawaddy, which is based in Thailand and regularly publishes scathing criticisms of Myanmar's government. Myanmar's Political History Myanmar, the Southeast-Asian country formerly known as Burma, has faced political turbulence since its oppressive military regime gained power in 1962. See some key events in the country's history. Myanmar ranked next-to-last out of 196 countries in press freedom last year, ahead only of North Korea, according to U.S.-based advocacy group Freedom House—which put China in 181st place—and journalists are routinely imprisoned there, human-rights groups say. Daily coverage is dominated by a small handful of government mouthpieces, while articles in most of the country's 350 or so independent news publications—typically weeklies and monthly journals—must be approved in advance by a censorship board. For years that left essentially all critical reporting to be done by exile publications working with undercover reporters inside the country. But in recent weeks, reporters inside the country are openly writing about controversial topics—including a mass amnesty of an estimated 200 political prisoners that occurred earlier this week. The changes are among a host of recent developments that have boosted hopes Myanmar's government is looking to turn the page on decades of harsh rule since the military took over there in 1962. Soldiers handed over power to a civilian government this year after an election that was widely decried by Western observers as a fraud. But since then, authorities have rolled out a slew of conciliatory gestures, including the prisoner release and numerous economic reforms, that have caught many Western diplomats off-guard. A more robust press is already helping shape public debate in unforeseen ways in the resource-rich country between China and India. Last month, the government suspended construction of a $3.6 billion China-backed hydroelectric dam in a rare concession to environmental activists after weeks of unexpectedly critical coverage in Yangon papers, which galvanized local opposition and added pressure on the authorities to act, people familiar with the government's thinking said. The dam suspension "reflects that the government pays attention to the voice of the people and the media" now, said Than Htut Aung, chairman of the Eleven Media Group, which publishes the Weekly Eleven news journal and several other publications in Myanmar. Six months ago, he said, he wouldn't have agreed to be interviewed by a foreign reporter—saying there might have been "a lot of complications and repercussions." But "now the situation is good," he said. There are crucial limits to the media opening, which highlights why some residents remain wary of the government's recent changes. Many topics—including criticism of the military or former strongman Senior Gen. Than Shwe, who stepped down earlier this year—remain off limits, and Western-style investigative journalism into issues such as corruption is out of the question, local reporters say. Many fear the latest easing could be rolled back at any time, putting today's more outspoken journalists at risk. Even with the loosened restrictions, journalists fear they remain subject to punishments, including prison terms, if they publish something deemed later to be detrimental to the state. "Compared to what we had a few years ago, we are much freer," said Thiha Saw, editor of Myanma Dana, a monthly business magazine. But "it's not a full opening," he said. "They may be opening up, but we know they are still afraid of many things." Government officials and advisors have said authorities are serious about creating a more open media, and are contemplating a new media law that would potentially eliminate Myanmar's censorship board entirely. "What the government would like to see is a free and responsible media, not a restricted media," said Ko Ko Hlaing, an adviser to Myanmar President Thein Sein. For now, editors and journalists are trying to see how far the boundaries can be pushed. Numerous publications have splashed pictures of Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who was released from seven years of house arrest last year, on their front pages—an act that was unheard-of until recently. The Weekly Eleven newspaper this month published an interview with Aung Zaw, a known critic of the Myanmar government who edits the Irrawaddy news journal. "I had to pinch myself" to believe it was all happening, Mr. Aung Zaw said. Even so, "the openness is very limited—it's a baby step.""I don't know exactly why they are doing it," he said. Perhaps "they want to show a good face to the international community," he said, adding, "we cannot see behind the curtain." Myint Kyaw, a local freelance journalist, said several reporters have even started posting news stories online via Facebook and some newspaper websites in real time rather than waiting for censors' approval—and no one has complained, he said. He described covering a recent small protest rally to mark the four-year anniversary of the so-called "Saffron Revolution" in 2007, when thousands of monks marched on Yangon streets before the rallies were stopped in a bloody crackdown by government soldiers, killing at least 30 people. Not only were people allowed to gather on the anniversary—an unlikely occurrence in past years—but he and the other journalists were allowed to interview rally leaders and even take pictures of riot police nearby, which wouldn't have been possible before, he said. "Clearly they were instructed not to arrest" people, he said. Daily news in Myanmar is still dominated by state media, whose coverage in a handful of papers and TV news programs continues to focus on topics such as state meetings or government tours of infrastructure projects, while downplaying or ignoring controversial topics. Editions of the government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar published Thursday, for instance, focused on a presidential visit to India and a "Full Moon Day" holiday, with scant reference to the massive prisoner amnesty a day earlier that also included thousands of everyday criminals. Gone, though, are the paper's well-known rants against the Western media, such as one bold-faced warning published last year calling on citizens to "not allow ourselves to be swayed by killer broadcasts designed to cause troubles," such as those by BBC or the Voice of America. Absent, too, are once-common front-page headlines such as "Myanmar citizens must be for Myanmar and not be a stooge of any alien." —Celine Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this article. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204774604576628721876661248.html __._,_.___
Saturday, October 15, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Friday, 14 October, 2011-uzl
News & Articles on Burma
Friday, 14 October, 2011
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Marty Natalegawa to Visit Burma to Assess Democracy
Burma to up Thailand migrant assistance
Surprises in Burma's guided democracy
India and Burma expand trade ties and sign gas deals
India offers large loan and praise for Burma reforms
A small amnesty is no proof that the Burmese regime has changed
Burmese amnesty does not yet represent break with past
Burma's 'air of hopeful expectation'
Burma pressured to release all political prisoners
Myanmar's President in India to improve relations, business
"The Lady" Opens Rome Film Festival
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The Jakarta Globe
Marty Natalegawa to Visit Burma to Assess Democracy
October 14, 2011
Myanmar female prisoners walk out of the Insein central prison in Yangon on Wednesday. Myanmar started to free roughly 2,000 political detainees including pro-democracy campaigners, journalists, monks and lawyers that is a key demand of Western powers that have imposed sanctions on the country also known as Burma. (AFP Photo) Myanmar female prisoners walk out of the Insein central prison in Yangon on Wednesday. Myanmar started to free roughly 2,000 political detainees including pro-democracy campaigners, journalists, monks and lawyers that is a key demand of Western powers that have imposed sanctions on the country also known as Burma. (AFP Photo)
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Friday he would visit Burma at the end of the month to assess the country's reform efforts.
Burma is seeking to be the chair of the 10--member Association of South--East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2014, but a decision on the proposal has been deferred pending an assessment of its progress towards democratization.
"In line with the mandate given to me by ASEAN, I will visit Myanmar at the end of this month to assess developments in Burma," Natalegawa said "It looks like there have been positive developments in Burma," he said. "There's a momentum for democratization and it is in our interest to maintain the momentum." Indonesia is the current chair of ASEAN.
Laos has offered to allow Burma to take its scheduled place as ASEAN chair in 2014, since the country missed the opportunity in 2005, due to widespread condemnation of the regime's poor human rights record and refusal to implement political reforms.
Western countries have imposed economic sanctions on Burma since 1988 when an army crackdown on pro--democracy demonstrators killed an estimated 3,000 people.
Last year, Burma held its first elections in 20 years, bringing in a government led by former generals, and released opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after years of house arrest.
The government said this week it had released 6,359 prisoners on humanitarian grounds.
DPA http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/marty-natalegawa-to-visit-burma-to-assess-democracy/471650
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Imagining a Censorship-free Burma
By THE IRRAWADDY Friday, October 14, 2011
Last week, Tint Swe, the director of the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), surprised Burma watchers by telling the Washington-based Radio Free Asia that the notorious censorship board he heads should be abolished as part of the country's moves toward reform.
“Press censorship is non-existent in most other countries as well as among our neighbors, and as it is not in harmony with democratic practices, press censorship should be abolished in the near future,” he said.
Tint Swe's remarks have raised hopes that a new era of press freedom could be coming to Burma in the near future. Below is a sampling of responses to his comments from some leading members of the country's media community.
Ko Ko, CEO of the Rangoon Media Group
I welcome U Tint Swe's comment that there shouldn’t be a censorship board. Without censorship, we can work freely, as long as we stay within the bounds of ethics and journalistic integrity. We will have to take responsibility for what we write, but we won’t have to worry if we respect the law and the principles of journalism.
If there’s a new media law, more daily newspapers will be published. Actually, daily newspapers are necessary for the country to achieve democracy. Without a strong fourth pillar, the other three pillars of society will lack support. Burma needs more privately owned media, because unlike the state-run media, it is free.
Thiha Saw, chief editor of Open News Journal and Myanma Dana Economic Magazine
I think getting rid of censorship is a very good idea. There will be a lot more freedom, but we will still have our responsibilities. We've also heard that the government has started working on a new media law, but we don’t know yet what it will entail.
Maung Wun Tha, editorial adviser to Pyithu Khit Journal
Maung Wun Tha
I think it's very good news for journalists and people in the media community. Of course, there will definitely be some challenges and difficulties if we change from the current system to a new one. But we will never achieve anything if we just worry about this and cling to the old system. The main thing is to prepare for and face the challenges.
The more daily newspapers there are, the better it will be for the people. The newspapers will be able to convey information to the public much more quickly, and it will be easier for the people to offer their criticism than it is now. It is good not to have censorship.
The government will still exercise control over some matters, to prevent publication of anything that violates religious or cultural values, for example. The government will still need to warn or take action against them those who violate these things.
Thaung Htike, CEO of True News Journal
It is good to hear that U Tint Swe has said the PSRD should be abolished. We welcome his words. We also hope that they will come true.
Aunt Min Khaung, assistant editor of the Hot News Journal
It is a very good sign that the head of the PSRD has admitted that there should be no censorship. Everyone wants freedom of press and expression. I think that there will be no censorship in near future. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22262
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Burma to up Thailand migrant assistance
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 14 October 2011
Burma will greatly increase its assistance to migrants working in Thailand, following three days of talks in Bangkok between a delegation of Burmese officials and Thailand’s labour minister, Phadoemchai Sasomsap.
Speaking to DVB at the close of play yesterday, Burmese Deputy Labour Minister Myint Thein, who led the delegation, said that the two sides discussed a raft of issues related to the rights of up to three million Burmese migrants living in the Kingdom, many of whom struggle with healthcare and legal assistance.
“We are here [in Thailand] to coordinate with [Thai authorities] to go through procedures such as migrants’ national identification and issuing temporary passports inside Thailand, as well as on issues such as their visa fees and job finding.
“For the latest, we have requested the Thai government to provide assistance to our migrants being affected by recent flooding and they’ve pledged to do so.”
Andy Hall, from the Thailand-based Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), said that the meeting also resulted in the addition of a labour attaché at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok, whilst regional centres would be set up to make it easier for migrants to complete the registration process.
Chin Sein, part of the Burmese delegation, said: “We were negotiating to set up five more offices on top of already existing ones in areas including Mahachai-Samut Sakorn, Bangkok metropolitan area, and in north and south Thailand.”
The move was “cautiously welcomed” by HRDF, with Hall adding that many migrants feel that the embassy under the previous junta “didn’t care”.
The meeting also established that Burma would “also send five teams of … delegates to install online shared data system between Myanmar [Burma] and Thailand in order to reduce working procedures and time,” according to a Thai government press statement.
There are between two and three million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, whose total migrant population accounts for some five percent of the Thai work force, and seven percent of GDP. They invariably occupy the most undesirable and dangerous professions.
The Thai government press statement further noted that the Burmese delegation “also asked the Thai government to permit those accompanying Myanmar workers to legally be in Thailand”, likely referring to the family members who join their relatives working in Thailand. “And after they are nationality verified and legally employed, Thai employers should be responsible for Social Security contribution of Myanmar workers.”
Thailand’s former Democrat government had sought to exclude foreign workers from a national workers’ compensation fund, which would see migrant workers rely on their employers for insurance in the result of injury in the workplace. But the Abhisit administration’s refusal was deemed by critics to be a contravention ofThailand’s treaty obligations in lieu of discriminating on the basis of nationality.
The Thai government has also been desperately attempting to regularise the large numbers of workers who travel with little or no documentation. http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-to-up-thailand-migrant-assistance/18199
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THE NATIONAL TIMES
Surprises in Burma's guided democracy
October 15, 2011
When generals take off their uniforms, put on civilian suits and then get themselves voted into a new government with the most proven popular alternatives disqualified from running, there is bound to be scepticism that it means any real change.
The elections held last November by the Burmese military, which has been the power running the country since 1962, struck many analysts as an anachronistic effort to copy Indonesia's late General Suharto in camouflaging army rule with civilian clothes and manipulated elections - an advance certainly, but still 40 years behind the current Jakarta model.
Yet the new Burmese President, Thein Sein, a former general and prime minister in the old junta, has delivered some stunning surprises in the past month, half a year after being sworn in to office.
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They amount to a studied rebalancing of Burma's relationships in its region and with the rest of the world, including Australia.
The most discomfited is China, which until now seemed able to use Burma as an extension of its own territory, preparing to pipe its natural gas into its southern Yunnan province, damming its rivers for electricity feeding into Chinese grids, using its land to grow food, and developing ports on its coastline as alternatives to the tenuous raw material supply line around Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, all potentially hostile nations.
Thein Sein's boldest step was his announced suspension two weeks ago of the massive Myitsone dam project on the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River, a $US3.6 billion construction headed by a state-owned Chinese company. The dam was displacing about 15,000 people and had reopened an armed insurgency by an ethnic Kachin army previously in a truce with the government.
Sein instructed his parliament to act ''according to the desire of the people'' - itself a novel concept in a country where the government has tended to tell the population what it should want.
His Foreign Minister was sent off to Beijing, getting very high-level attention in the form of a meeting with the Vice-President, Xi Jinping, who is expected to take over from Hu Jintao as state President and Communist Party head a year from now. Official statements said the two governments had agreed they would ''properly settle'' the issue. A Burmese adviser to Thein Sein said other resource deals would be forthcoming to replace Myitsone's electricity that was to be transmitted to China as repayment for loans.
Any view this might have been just a hasty step to avoid the Kachins joining in the increasingly co-ordinated campaigns by Wa, Shan, Karen and other ethnic minorities against the Burmese government is dispelled by comments from the adviser, Nay Zin Latt.
''It is not good for Burma or any other nation to rely too much on relations with just one country,'' he told the Thai website The Irrawaddy this week, describing the Myitsone decision as a bold step taken in the national and public interest. ''We must forge friendly ties with all nations.''
The Burmese President has now followed this up with a visit to his country's other big neighbour, India, this week, his second foreign trip as President after going to Beijing in May. He started at Bodh Gaya, where Siddartha Gautama found enlightenment about 2500 years ago, and yesterday was due to meet Indian leaders for some decidedly more earthly concerns such as trade, investment, cross-border links and security.
In New Delhi, he comes on the heels of President Truong Tan San, of Vietnam, whose growing closeness with other powers is being watched with concern by China. In late July, a Chinese warship challenged an Indian Navy ship travelling between Vietnamese ports in the South China Sea, warning it was ''entering Chinese waters''.
The President's moves in domestic politics also have important ramifications for Burma's international relations. The freeing of the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest soon after the elections, and Thein Sein's recent opening of direct talks with her, have been followed by the inclusion of about 100 political prisoners in a mass release of 6359 prisoners on Wednesday, the same auspicious day in the Buddhist calendar that the President was visiting Bodh Gaya.
The gesture has met a guarded response from dissident groups and human rights organisations, who point out Burma has about 2000 political prisoners and many younger figures likely to present a strong popular challenge to the government, such as the leaders of the 1988 student uprising, do not so far appear to be included in the release.
Still, it has led to Washington's most senior diplomatic official for Asia, Kurt Campbell, promising the US will ''match their steps with comparable steps", suggesting the releases will be followed by the easing or lifting of some of the sanctions targeted against senior Burmese army commanders and their civilian business partners.
Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, told an audience in Bangkok on Monday the Myitsone Dam suspension was one of several developments that "demand closer attention", and the US was "looking forward in the course of the next several weeks to continuing a dialogue that has really stepped up in recent months''. He described Thein Sein as ''a serious interlocutor'' and said his discussions with Suu Kyi were "very consequential".
The new Burmese government is also reaching out to the country's often embarrassed fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose annual summit it hopes to hold in three years. Cleaning up its act in human rights will make this more likely.
Nay Zin Latt, the presidential adviser, has been in Jakarta recently, saying Burma could learn from Indonesia's peace deal in Aceh province for its minorities and from the lessons of the transition from Suharto's rule - and even putting the best spin on the realities of Burmese power. ''Burma's style is a top-down change,'' he told a Radio Free Asia interviewer. ''We may go faster [in adopting changes] than Indonesia.'' http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/surprises-in-burmas-guided-democracy-20111014-1lp1s.html
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14 October 2011 Last updated at 14:01 GMT
India and Burma expand trade ties and sign gas deals
India and Burma have agreed a series of measures to boost trade and co-operation during Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein's state visit to Delhi.
India has promised Burma $500m (£316m) credit for infrastructure projects and they will expand co-operation in oil and gas exploration and border trade.
The visit came as Burma released about 200 political prisoners, the latest in a series of steps towards reform.
But India has been sharply rebuked in the past for hosting Burmese leaders.
Human rights groups and activists condemned last year's five-day visit to Delhi by former military ruler General Than Shwe, aimed at deepening trade links.
Correspondents say that with a rapidly growing economy India is desperate to access any major source of energy and will also be keen to offset China's influence in the region.
Burma has huge natural gas reserves in its western province of Arakan and the adjoining seaboard, estimated at more than 30 trillion cubic feet or more.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Burmese counterpart issued a joint statement which emphasised the need for energy security.
The deal between India and Burma agreed on Friday also includes speeding up the construction of natural gas pipelines. The infrastructure projects for which India has extended credit include roads, inland waterways and ports.
In a further sign that Burma's new leadership may be considering wider public opinion, the president recently suspended construction of the controversial Chinese-backed Myitsone hydroelectric dam.
But Indian officials played down any economic rivalry with its Chinese neighbour.
"We have an important relationship with Myanmar [Burma]. And we have an important relationship with China. There is no competition," external affairs ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.
There are already substantial trade links between Burma and India. Indian energy companies are already investing in Burma's energy sector. The $500m of credit comes on top of $300m (£190m) of credit extended last year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15304791
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India offers large loan and praise for Burma reforms
FRANK JACK DANIEL NEW DELHI, INDIA - Oct 14 2011 16:16
India promised Burma a $500-million credit line to improve infrastructure on Friday and praised steps towards democracy by its reclusive neighbour, which is tentatively opening up after half a century of harsh military rule.
The money and warm words came as Burma campaigns to shed its pariah status. It began releasing 6 300 convicts on Wednesday in its latest liberalising move, but kept some political detainees behind bars, dampening hopes for a broader amnesty.
It was not clear how many of the country's estimated 2 000 political detainees were included in the amnesty -- one estimate said only 206 of them were freed. But the released included ailing Shan Army commander Hso Hten and comedian Zarganar, who was imprisoned after criticising the government's response to Cyclone Nargis in 2008.
The former British colony has large undeveloped gas reserves and straddles busy Bay of Bengal shipping lanes, making it strategically important for energy-hungry emerging power neighbours India and China.
Burma President Thein Sein met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi during a four-day state trip, spending two days visiting religious sites.
Hours after the prisoners' release, Burma's first civilian president in nearly 50 years flew to India's Bihar state to pay homage at the site where the Buddha is said to have reached enlightenment.
"The prime minister of India congratulated the president of Burma on the transition towards democratic government and offered all necessary assistance in further strengthening this democratic transition," they said in a joint statement.
India has long weathered criticism from international partners for its accommodating stance to Burma's junta, which was dissolved in April. New Delhi feels the signs of reform vindicate its policy of engagement.
The United States, Europe and Australia are unlikely to soften sanctions on Burma unless nearly 2 000 more political prisoners are released. Other Asian countries, however, are keen to access resources in the mainly Buddhist nation.
New Delhi put aside concerns about human rights in the early 1990s for fear of losing access to oil and gas as China stepped in with military assistance and loans to help the regime withstand sanctions.
India's efforts have only been partially successful, with planned roads and ports behind schedule. India part-owns two natural gas projects off Burma's coast in the Bay of Bengal but the gas is sold to China.
The $500-million credit line follows a similar $300 million scheme last year. The money will be used on infrastructure projects, particularly irrigation, the statement said.
India buys most of Burma's agricultural exports and wants its neighbour to raise output further by planting on idle land. – Reuters http://mg.co.za/article/2011-10-14-india-offers-large-loan-and-praise-for-burma-reforms/
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OCTOBER 14, 2011.Burma's Prisoner Shell Game
A small amnesty is no proof that the Burmese regime has changed
By DAVID SCOTT MATHIESON
Chiang Mai, Thailand
The Burmese government freed more than 200 political prisoners this week, a move many in the West are hailing as a sign it's time to repeal economic sanctions. Their argument is that the regime needs encouragement to continue the embryonic and fragile reforms put forward this year.
But the release is not as significant as it first appears. First of all, an estimated 1,900 political prisoners remain. And the political showmanship is consistent with the regime's ongoing strategy of using thousands of dissidents, Buddhist monks and nuns, artists, labor activists, writers, and hip hop stars as human bargaining chips to repress Burmese society and negotiate with the international community.
The use of mass amnesties of prisoners, in which thousands of common criminals and only a handful of dissidents are freed, is a longstanding practice. In the 10 amnesties since 2004, 60,000 people have been freed, but only 600 were political prisoners. After they are released, many dissidents are soon back in prison.
Burma's most famous comedian, Zarganar, is a case in point. Released this week, he has been in and out of prison since the 1980s, banned from public performances. In 2009, he was sentenced to an astonishing 59 years, later reduced to 35, after he criticized the government's incompetent response to 2008's Cyclone Nargis.
Mr. Zarganar's pugnacious attitude hasn't been dulled by prison, though. In one of his first interviews after his release he called for all political prisoners to be released and said "art and politics are interrelated, I will continue to do both of them."
Critic Zarganar, freed this week, has been in and out of prison for decades.
.Likewise, labor rights advocate Su Su Nway has been amnestied before. She was imprisoned in 2005 for lodging a formal complaint against an official who had made her perform forced labor. She was released but participated in peaceful protests in Rangoon in 2007, and raised a banner critical of the government at the hotel where then U.N. Special Envoy on Human Rights in Burma Paulo Pinhiero was staying. For these acts, a Burmese court sentenced her to 12.5 years in prison, later reduced to 8.5 years.
But we should not forget the prisoners who weren't released. For example, Min Ko Naing and other leaders of the 88 Generation Students Group, student activists from the 1988 uprising, have spent much of the past two decades in prison, using their fleeting freedoms to call for dialogue with the government. All have been sentenced to 65 years in prison, and there have no signals so far that any of this group will be released.
As the experience of many political prisoners makes clear, and as I have seen in the 15 years I have studied the human rights situation in Burma, the Burmese judicial system is used for control, not justice. The evidence is starkly apparent in the astonishing sentences handed down in recent years—65 years for marching peacefully in a call for lower commodity prices, 20 years for blogging about protests, and other long terms for writing poems or sending information to exile Burmese news organizations.
The release of this group of political prisoners as part of an amnesty of 6,300 can be seen as a gesture, perhaps encouraging but very limited, on the part Burma's new nominally civilian government of President Thein Sein. It comes after years of international pressure to free dissidents. More releases are expected, but nothing short of the total and unconditional release of all political prisoners should be acceptable.
The new government, largely led by senior figures of the previous military dictatorship, has promised bold economic, political and legislative reforms, softened their Stalinist rhetoric with references to human rights and democracy, and loosened censorship. The official mantra is "good governance, clean government, flourishing of democratic practices, ensuring rule of law [and] making economic reform." Officials have invited exiled dissidents to return.
Outside observers are both bewildered and encouraged by the prisoner releases. But even if Burma's leaders release every unjustly jailed prisoner—which would be wonderful—that would still not be a "reform." Reform requires changes in laws and institutions. The government needs to repeal the repressive and vague laws used to stifle dissent. Bills in the national parliament that guarantee freedom of assembly and the ability to form unions, and the formation of a national human rights commission sound promising, but fall short of international standards.
One test of whether releasing even this small group of dissidents means anything will be the quality of their freedom. Will they be subjected to the same vicious cycle of freedom, activism, repression and arrest they have endured for decades?
The onus is on the government to prove it is serious by allowing the freed dissidents the basic freedoms of speech, assembly and participation in public affairs they have long called for, and sacrificed so much to realize. This amnesty should be viewed as an opportunity for the government to bring about genuine national reconciliation. Mr. Zarganar and his contemporaries will continue to risk their new-found freedom to press for real change, and the international community should back them up.
Mr. Mathieson is a senior researcher in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch.
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The Financial Times : October 14, 2011 2:32 am
Burmese amnesty does not yet represent break with past
From Mr Ron Brewer.
Sir, Your editorial “Change in Burma” (October 13) suggests that the new Burmese leadership contains reformist elements, whose gaining influence was most recently dramatised by the announcement of a prisoner amnesty, and that the west has the responsibility to encourage them. However, assessments of the trajectory of the current regime may benefit from consideration of the following issues.
You contend that the government’s plan for the mass release of more than 6,000 inmates is a sign of change. However, the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners Burma, a non-governmental organisation based in Thailand, confirms that to date only 206 of the estimated 2,000-plus political prisoners have been released. A closer reading of contemporary Burmese political history reveals that the well-timed release of political prisoners was a routine practice of the military regime to alleviate international pressure. The recent amnesty does not yet represent a departure from past behaviour, but appears to be more of the same. It is also noteworthy that the new government continues to deny the existence of political prisoners, but instead justifies the recent release in humanitarian terms for inmates who are old, disabled, sick or who had shown good “moral behaviour”.
Your editorial echoes a recent, important turn in Burmese policy debate positing that it is incumbent on the west to bolster the newly “elected” reformers through some form of accommodation. Clearly, time-tested, ineffective policies of sweeping financial sanctions imposed by the west need to be swept into the dustbin of history and more forward-thinking policies require consideration. However, although you contend that while “the west could be taken for a ride ... doing nothing would be riskier”, this does not justify carte blanche accommodation with the allegedly ascendant reformist clique. Effective policy requires thoughtful consideration of the bona fides of the leadership, such as meeting benchmarks for reform. The release of all political prisoners and the revocation of the authoritarian legal framework justifying their detention are important steps in that direction. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f7f393da-f4fb-11e0-9023-00144feab49a.html#axzz1adTk6Y7i
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THE TELEGRAPH: 14 Oct 2011
Burma's 'air of hopeful expectation'
Teresa Machan found Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's most famous dissident, filled with optimism.
It’s the oldest trick in the book. Find the address, knock on the door and hope they’ll talk. Number 54 University Avenue is one of the most famous addresses in the world – this is where Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, spent almost two decades under house arrest. Located on a busy thoroughfare in the Kamayat district of Rangoon and flanked by National League for Democracy (NLD) banners, it’s not difficult to find – but it’s by no means a tourist attraction.
Most Burmese won’t loiter here – the road was closed off for the duration of Suu Kyi’s house arrest and one taxi driver who dropped a Westerner off in its vicinity was allegedly hauled off for questioning.
But the guide who met us at the airport had welcomed us to the “new Burma”, and I couldn’t leave Rangoon without paying a visit. Next morning we bought flowers from the Hledan market, including her favourite, fragrant champaca, and nine (auspicious number) pieces of fruit in a presentation crate and turned up in the spirit of Harvest Festival to pay homage at the bright yellow gate of Daw Suu (Auntie Suu, as she is affectionately known). Surmounted above is a black-and-white photo honouring Suu Kyi’s father, the revered independence hero, General Aung Sang.
“She’s not here,” said the boys who opened the gate just wide enough for them to clock our gifts, and for us to register their startled expressions. Just leaving flowers would have been enough, but after a brief exchange it transpired that Daw Suu was at her office, a mere 10-minute drive away.
Reclaiming our offerings, including an increasingly comedic pomelo (citrus maximus), we scooted off to the National League for Democracy offices, leaving two pairs of eyes peering through the letterbox. Inside what was essentially a large wooden lean-to with a corrugated iron roof, it was clammy, and crowded with devoted NLD workers. Heroic pictures lined the walls. According to an elderly gentleman who spoke excellent English (as many Burmese do), Daw Suu was upstairs. We did our Harvest Festival routine, and waited.
We were in luck. Daw Suu was on her way out and within minutes she was descending the stairs in a turquoise silk top and traditional lyongi – dignified, demure and even slighter than she appears on television. There was little time for dialogue, but no matter.
I had come to Burma on her say-so – lifting a self-imposed travel ban after seeing an interview in May with a British journalist in which she gave her blessing to intelligent tourism to the country on a small scale: “Come, but visit Burma with your eyes open.”
It’s very early days, but there’s at least an air of hopeful expectation in Burma. The day before we arrived a law had been passed permitting peaceful demonstrations. Bigger news still was the halting of a hugely unpopular $3.6 billion Chinese-backed hydroelectric dam project, a rare snub by the government to its northern neighbour. The day we left, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper announced an amnesty for more than 6,000 prisoners. I had found a genuine spirit of optimism during my short stay, but what, honestly, were her own hopes for the future?
“It’s the beginning of the beginning,” she said. “We’ve got a long way to go and we will have to work very hard, but I really believe the government is prepared to listen.”
Polite but firm, Daw Suu told us she had to go. As we posed for a photo, one of our group absent-mindedly put a protective hand on her back, and found it quickly shoved away by a supporter.
As we made our way out, cameras flashed from the tea-shop opposite. Government spies, according to an expatriate who accompanied us and who recognised the photographers’ motorbikes. But I was too busy watching the lady in blue inch herself gracefully into the back of a white Toyota Carbriolet with her small bunch of wilting flowers and, somewhere in there, three oranges, a couple of pears, three apples and a citrus maximus. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/burma/8826438/Burmas-air-of-hopeful-expectation.html
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RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS:
Burma pressured to release all political prisoners
Burma's President Thein Sein have arrived in India's capital New Delhi amid criticism by exile groups that his government doesn't genuinely represent the nation's people.
Hundreds of pro-democracy activists from Burma held a protest march ahead of the president's arrival in the Indian capital on Thursday.
His visit comes a day after authorities freed 200 political detainees on Wednesday, under a general amnesty for over 6,000 prisoners.
However 2,000 political prisoners are still in prison.
Thein Sein's visit is his first to India after assuming the presidency earlier this year.
He's expected to hold talks with top Indian leaders, including the prime minister today to consolidate the growing economic and political ties between the two countries.
Opposition
Burma's opposition has called on the government to free all political prisoners.
The release of about 200 political detainees on Wednesday, under a general amnesty for over six-thousand prisoners, follows more dialogue with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
They include journalists, pro-democracy activists, government critics, monks involved in anti-government protests and members of Burma's ethnic groups fighting for greater autonomy.
"Each one of them has priceless value," she said. "Freedom of a person is priceless."
However 2,000 political protesters are still in prison.
Foreign support
The United States, Europe and Australia say the freeing of political prisoners is essential to considering lifting sanctions.
The European Union welcomed the release, but says it will judge the move based on how many are eventually freed.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she is encouraged by promising signals of reform, but that it is too early to announce steps Washington might take in response.
Prominent satirist and vocal government critic Zarganar was among those released on Wednesday.
Geeral Hso Ten, a prominent ethnic Shan leader sentenced to 106 years for charges including high treason, has also reportedly been released.
The UN has called on the military-backed government to hold by-elections by the end of the year.
"Our disappointment is not only about the number... We are not satisfied because the government never recognises the existence of political prisoners," Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners' Khaing Min said. http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201110/3339651.htm
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International Relations | 14.10.2011
Myanmar's President in India to improve relations, business
Myanmar's President Thein Sein is on a visit to India. The Indian government is looking forward to furthering ties with the country, which has been traditionally a close ally of China.
A former general in Myanmar's junta and the country's new president, Thein Sein, has been touring Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India since Wednesday. The President is accompanied by 13 senior colleagues from Myanmar and will hold a series of talks with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday.
The discussions are expected to be focused on bilateral, regional and international issues. The countries also expect to sign agreements on science and technology with New Delhi likely to extend a line of credit and assistance to projects in Myanmar.
Thein Sein's visit follows his government's decision to suspend construction of a Chinese-backed 3.6 billion-dollar dam after protests from people living in the area affected by the project. Beijing has expressed its displeasure at the Myanmar government's decision.
Leader of Myanmar's military junta, Than Shwe, visited India in 2010Leader of Myanmar's military junta, Than Shwe, visited India in 2010
However, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that India was not in competition with China. There was room for both India and China to grow and "relationships between countries are not a zero-sum game," according to the ministry.
Security and energy issues
India began engaging the Myanmar junta in the mid-1990s on security and energy issues and as a counter to China's growing strategic influence in the Southeast Asian nation, formerly called Burma.
Both countries have placed emphasis on upgrading border roads and maritime transport along the Kaladan River in western Myanmar's Rakhine state. The project involves the Indian Inland Waterways Authority and the ESSAR Projects (India) Company. It is expected to be completed in June 2013, according to the Indian foreign ministry.
India's policy towards Myanmar has invited criticism from the international community. US President Barack Obama, who visited India last year in November, expressed his disapproval with New Delhi for collaborating with the Myanmar junta, which had been accused of severe human rights abuses.
Agencies: AFP, PTI (mg)/ Editor: Grahame Lucas http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6637941,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-asia-5133-rdf
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"The Lady" Opens Rome Film Festival
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Friday, October 14, 2011
ROME — French director Luc Besson's "The Lady," about Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, will open this year's Rome Film Festival, organizers said Thursday.
The Oct. 27-Nov. 4 festival will feature 15 in-competition films and conclude with a screening of a restored "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to mark the classic's 50th anniversary.
"The Lady," which stars Michelle Yeoh and Daniel Thewelis, is being shown out of competition.
Films vying for the Marc'Aurelio prizes include US director Tanya Wexler's "Hysteria," about the invention of the vibrator in Victorian England; "Hotel Lux" by German director Leander Haussmann and Norwegian director Pal Sletaune's "Babycall."
Richard Gere is to receive a special actor's prize, while directors Wim Wenders and Michael Mann are expected to be on hand for audience talks.
The jury of the sixth annual Rome Festival is headed by Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone and features Roberto Bolle, a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, and actresses Debra Winger and Carmen Chaplin.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22256
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