Sunday, 18 July 2010
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Burma: Spread the news
Burma: Spread the news
Martyr's Poems
Flood With Martyr's Blood
19th July
Ag Lin Htut's Article on 2010 Election
Burma Democracy Movement's Maggots
Justice for Actress Pan Phyu
Burma: Let's CUT Junta Cronies
„The First Handbook for Refugees Rights in Burmese Language Published — EngageMedia“
Martyr's Poems
Flood With Martyr's Blood
19th July
Ag Lin Htut's Article on 2010 Election
Burma Democracy Movement's Maggots
Justice for Actress Pan Phyu
Burma: Let's CUT Junta Cronies
„The First Handbook for Refugees Rights in Burmese Language Published — EngageMedia“
Monday, 12 July 2010
Burma's paranoid dictator plots his dignified exit
Burma's paranoid dictator plots his dignified exit
Senior-General Than Shwe is giving his regime a makeover as he calculates the safest way to step down. Peter Popham reports
In the run-up to a long promised but still unscheduled general election, the first for 20 years, Burma's military dictator, Senior-General Than Shwe, has taken a step full of peril: he has ordered his uniformed cabinet ministers to resign from the army.
Those faceless generals who adorn the front page of the New Light of Myanmar, the regime's daily paper, inspecting fish-packing factories and barrages, will still be running the country, and anything resembling democratic governance will be as far away as ever.
But the look of things will have changed. The ministers will wear longyi, the traditional Burmese sarong-like garment. And crucially for them, they will no longer enjoy the status and respect which, in a country ruled with an iron fist by the military for half a century, is the army's prerogative.
Irrawaddy, the expatriate Burmese news website, predicts trouble. "Senior-General Than Shwe is facing a mutiny among his subordinates," it claimed last week. "There are growing signs of discontent among his cabinet ministers... They have been betrayed by their boss.
"Like it or not, army uniforms are a symbol of authority in Burma," it went on. "Those who wear them always get priority over those who don't. They are respected and can expect easy co-operation from others. Suddenly they will lose that privilege."
Leaving the army also means that those ministers will not be included in the 25 per cent quota that the army has reserved for itself in the planned new parliament. "Now they are on their own," Irrawaddy columnist Bamargyi pointed out. "Unless Than Shwe supports them with some dirty deals from behind the scenes, they are sure to lose. Once this happens, they are down the drain."
In trying to rebrand his military dictatorship as a civilian administration, the 77-year-old soldier who has been the boss of his nation of 50 million people for the past 18 years, and who was recently named by the journal Foreign Affairs as the world's third-worst dictator after Kim Jong-il and Robert Mugabe, thus faces a major challenge.
And in trying to withdraw from the scene while remaining in control, he faces an even tougher test: how, as King Lear deludedly put it, to "shake all cares and business from our age,/ Conferring them on younger strengths, while we/ Unburden'd crawl towards death"? How to do that without getting the Goneril and Regan treatment – or much worse?
How, in other words, to live out the rest of his days enjoying the billions he has plundered from the state, without ending up like his late boss Ne Win, Burma's dictator from 1962 to 1988, who, on Than Shwe's orders, ended his life locked in his lakeside villa in Rangoon under house arrest while his sons languished in jail under sentence of death?
How to avoid the fate of Khin Nyunt, the military intelligence chief and for many years Than Shwe's number two, who is also under house arrest with no prospect of release (while some of his underlings were tortured to death) after China hailed him as "Burma's Deng Xiaoping"?
According to Ben Rogers, author of the first-ever biography, Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma's Tyrant, which is launched in London next week, acute anxiety about his security is behind the fact that, two years after announcing elections, the senior general has yet to say when they will be held.
"He wants to make sure that everything is sewn up perfectly and that he can continue to govern from behind the scenes," said Rogers, a human rights advocate with Christian Solidarity Worldwide. "He will hold off naming the date until he's certain he's got all his ducks in a row. He doesn't want to give the candidates any room for campaigning."
A similarly secretive, paranoid approach dictated the most extraordinary decision of Than Shwe's career, and the one which, for good or ill, will assure him immortality of a sort: the removal of Burma's capital from Rangoon to a hot, malaria-infested, seismically sensitive wasteland in the centre of the country.
The idea of moving the army's HQ out of Rangoon had been in the air for a number of years, and may have been mentioned by Than Shwe to Aung San Suu Kyi in one of the fruitless meetings they held in 1994, while the opposition leader was under her first spell of house arrest. Rangoon is in the far south; for an army engaged in multiple counter-insurgency operations in the north and east, a base in the centre made strategic sense.
But unbeknownst to the outside world, Than Shwe nursed a far more drastic plan. "At precisely 6.37 am on 6 November 2005," writes Rogers, "hundreds of government servants left Rangoon in trucks shouting, "We are leaving! We are leaving!" ... Five days later, a second convoy of 1,100 military trucks carrying 11 military battalions and 11 ministries left Rangoon. Perhaps influenced by astrologers, Than Shwe had decided to move the country's capital. He had given government officials just two days' notice."
So Naypyitaw, which translates as "Seat of Kings" and is dominated by oversize statues of Than Shwe's favourite royal forerunners, will be this man's monument. "It's the most awful place you've ever been to," said Mark Canning, a former British ambassador to Burma. "It's a collection of buildings scattered over scrubland. But they are all just dispersed, and there are two or three kilometres between each building. One can only presume it's so they don't get bombed or something, to spread out the targets." As a resident of Naypyitaw told one foreign journalist, "Although [Than Shwe] is a king, he is afraid of many things. He thinks that here he will be safe."
Naypyitaw thus incarnates what Suu Kyi once said about fear. "It is not power that corrupts, but fear," she noted in 1990 when she was already under house arrest. "Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it... Fear slowly stifles and destroys all sense of right and wrong."
Only in a system dominated by fear could a man like Than Shwe rise to the top and stay there, because throughout his career he has given the impression of being so unimpeachably mediocre as to be without ambition or hope of success. He was a man incapable of provoking fear until suddenly he was at the top of the tree, and now he has held his nation in thrall for nearly two decades.
The comments of those who have had dealings with him are uniformly unflattering. "Short and fat with not a strong voice," says one. "Relatively boring," says another. "No evident personality." "Our leader is a very uneducated man." "There were many intelligent soldiers but he was not one of them...a bit of a thug." "You feel that he's got there by accident..." The closest Than Shwe gets to being complimented is in the description of a former World Bank official: "He is such an old fox!"
Born in 1933 in the central Burmese town of Kyaukse, Than Shwe quietly rose through the ranks despite having no striking military successes, until he was appointed deputy defence minister in July 1988 in the midst of the biggest revolt since the military takeover, the regime's moment of greatest danger.
In 1990 he was there alongside the erratic, sometimes deranged General Saw Maung, head of the new State Law and Order Restoration Council, who once drew his pistol on fellow generals during a game of golf and was eventually deposed. Then it was a contest between Than Shwe and military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt – who crucially had no experience as a commander in the field, and thus no chance of being accepted as chief by the army. Eventually Khin Nyunt, too, was flung from the battlements, a denouement waiting to happen. "Every single chief of military intelligence in Burma has been disgraced," said a former ambassador. "It's rather like being the drummer in Spinal Tap – you end up disappearing."
Than Shwe's mediocrity may have had its effect on Western attitudes towards him: he is easily under- estimated. As Rogers points out, he "has demonstrated time and again his skill at offering just enough of a concession to hold the international community at bay whenever pressure intensifies...Each time the pressure eases, Than Shwe quietly abandons his promises."
Meanwhile at home he has continued on the path set by his former superior Ne Win decades back: hugely expanding the size of the army, which now includes tens of thousands of children in its ranks, and continuing the campaigns of quasi-genocidal terrorism against the Karen and other ethnic minorities.
According to Sergio Pinheiro, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma from 2000 to 2008, writing in 2009, "Over the past 15 years the Burmese Army has destroyed over 3,300 villages in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups." At the same time he has kept Burma's civilian population in poverty and hopelessness. The only "reforms" he has pushed for have had the aim of perpetuating military rule under a disguise that fools nobody.
It is safe to predict that sooner or later Than Shwe will get his come-uppance. It may come from his immediate subordinates, furious at being kicked out, and an army that has never held him in esteem. The civil servants of Naypyitaw, incandescent at being exiled from the civilised comforts of Rangoon, may play their part. The monks, whom he arrogantly and foolishly refused to appease in 2007, could have a role.
But however certain his eventual downfall, you would have to be a very brave optimist to predict that he will be replaced by someone significantly better.
The general in brief
Born in 1933, Than Shwe joined the army at 20. He became Burma's top military leader in 1992 – four years after thousands of protesters had been massacred in Rangoon. The reclusive 77-year-old is thought to be superstitious, often consulting astrologers. In 2007, his new Burmese constitution effectively barred opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from office. Some credit the general with negotiating ceasefires with ethnic rebel armies, although he has also been accused of brutally suppressing minorities. He has been linked with high-level government purges, including that of Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt in 2004.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burmas-paranoid-dictator-plots-his-dignified-exit-2024395.html
Senior-General Than Shwe is giving his regime a makeover as he calculates the safest way to step down. Peter Popham reports
In the run-up to a long promised but still unscheduled general election, the first for 20 years, Burma's military dictator, Senior-General Than Shwe, has taken a step full of peril: he has ordered his uniformed cabinet ministers to resign from the army.
Those faceless generals who adorn the front page of the New Light of Myanmar, the regime's daily paper, inspecting fish-packing factories and barrages, will still be running the country, and anything resembling democratic governance will be as far away as ever.
But the look of things will have changed. The ministers will wear longyi, the traditional Burmese sarong-like garment. And crucially for them, they will no longer enjoy the status and respect which, in a country ruled with an iron fist by the military for half a century, is the army's prerogative.
Irrawaddy, the expatriate Burmese news website, predicts trouble. "Senior-General Than Shwe is facing a mutiny among his subordinates," it claimed last week. "There are growing signs of discontent among his cabinet ministers... They have been betrayed by their boss.
"Like it or not, army uniforms are a symbol of authority in Burma," it went on. "Those who wear them always get priority over those who don't. They are respected and can expect easy co-operation from others. Suddenly they will lose that privilege."
Leaving the army also means that those ministers will not be included in the 25 per cent quota that the army has reserved for itself in the planned new parliament. "Now they are on their own," Irrawaddy columnist Bamargyi pointed out. "Unless Than Shwe supports them with some dirty deals from behind the scenes, they are sure to lose. Once this happens, they are down the drain."
In trying to rebrand his military dictatorship as a civilian administration, the 77-year-old soldier who has been the boss of his nation of 50 million people for the past 18 years, and who was recently named by the journal Foreign Affairs as the world's third-worst dictator after Kim Jong-il and Robert Mugabe, thus faces a major challenge.
And in trying to withdraw from the scene while remaining in control, he faces an even tougher test: how, as King Lear deludedly put it, to "shake all cares and business from our age,/ Conferring them on younger strengths, while we/ Unburden'd crawl towards death"? How to do that without getting the Goneril and Regan treatment – or much worse?
How, in other words, to live out the rest of his days enjoying the billions he has plundered from the state, without ending up like his late boss Ne Win, Burma's dictator from 1962 to 1988, who, on Than Shwe's orders, ended his life locked in his lakeside villa in Rangoon under house arrest while his sons languished in jail under sentence of death?
How to avoid the fate of Khin Nyunt, the military intelligence chief and for many years Than Shwe's number two, who is also under house arrest with no prospect of release (while some of his underlings were tortured to death) after China hailed him as "Burma's Deng Xiaoping"?
According to Ben Rogers, author of the first-ever biography, Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma's Tyrant, which is launched in London next week, acute anxiety about his security is behind the fact that, two years after announcing elections, the senior general has yet to say when they will be held.
"He wants to make sure that everything is sewn up perfectly and that he can continue to govern from behind the scenes," said Rogers, a human rights advocate with Christian Solidarity Worldwide. "He will hold off naming the date until he's certain he's got all his ducks in a row. He doesn't want to give the candidates any room for campaigning."
A similarly secretive, paranoid approach dictated the most extraordinary decision of Than Shwe's career, and the one which, for good or ill, will assure him immortality of a sort: the removal of Burma's capital from Rangoon to a hot, malaria-infested, seismically sensitive wasteland in the centre of the country.
The idea of moving the army's HQ out of Rangoon had been in the air for a number of years, and may have been mentioned by Than Shwe to Aung San Suu Kyi in one of the fruitless meetings they held in 1994, while the opposition leader was under her first spell of house arrest. Rangoon is in the far south; for an army engaged in multiple counter-insurgency operations in the north and east, a base in the centre made strategic sense.
But unbeknownst to the outside world, Than Shwe nursed a far more drastic plan. "At precisely 6.37 am on 6 November 2005," writes Rogers, "hundreds of government servants left Rangoon in trucks shouting, "We are leaving! We are leaving!" ... Five days later, a second convoy of 1,100 military trucks carrying 11 military battalions and 11 ministries left Rangoon. Perhaps influenced by astrologers, Than Shwe had decided to move the country's capital. He had given government officials just two days' notice."
So Naypyitaw, which translates as "Seat of Kings" and is dominated by oversize statues of Than Shwe's favourite royal forerunners, will be this man's monument. "It's the most awful place you've ever been to," said Mark Canning, a former British ambassador to Burma. "It's a collection of buildings scattered over scrubland. But they are all just dispersed, and there are two or three kilometres between each building. One can only presume it's so they don't get bombed or something, to spread out the targets." As a resident of Naypyitaw told one foreign journalist, "Although [Than Shwe] is a king, he is afraid of many things. He thinks that here he will be safe."
Naypyitaw thus incarnates what Suu Kyi once said about fear. "It is not power that corrupts, but fear," she noted in 1990 when she was already under house arrest. "Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it... Fear slowly stifles and destroys all sense of right and wrong."
Only in a system dominated by fear could a man like Than Shwe rise to the top and stay there, because throughout his career he has given the impression of being so unimpeachably mediocre as to be without ambition or hope of success. He was a man incapable of provoking fear until suddenly he was at the top of the tree, and now he has held his nation in thrall for nearly two decades.
The comments of those who have had dealings with him are uniformly unflattering. "Short and fat with not a strong voice," says one. "Relatively boring," says another. "No evident personality." "Our leader is a very uneducated man." "There were many intelligent soldiers but he was not one of them...a bit of a thug." "You feel that he's got there by accident..." The closest Than Shwe gets to being complimented is in the description of a former World Bank official: "He is such an old fox!"
Born in 1933 in the central Burmese town of Kyaukse, Than Shwe quietly rose through the ranks despite having no striking military successes, until he was appointed deputy defence minister in July 1988 in the midst of the biggest revolt since the military takeover, the regime's moment of greatest danger.
In 1990 he was there alongside the erratic, sometimes deranged General Saw Maung, head of the new State Law and Order Restoration Council, who once drew his pistol on fellow generals during a game of golf and was eventually deposed. Then it was a contest between Than Shwe and military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt – who crucially had no experience as a commander in the field, and thus no chance of being accepted as chief by the army. Eventually Khin Nyunt, too, was flung from the battlements, a denouement waiting to happen. "Every single chief of military intelligence in Burma has been disgraced," said a former ambassador. "It's rather like being the drummer in Spinal Tap – you end up disappearing."
Than Shwe's mediocrity may have had its effect on Western attitudes towards him: he is easily under- estimated. As Rogers points out, he "has demonstrated time and again his skill at offering just enough of a concession to hold the international community at bay whenever pressure intensifies...Each time the pressure eases, Than Shwe quietly abandons his promises."
Meanwhile at home he has continued on the path set by his former superior Ne Win decades back: hugely expanding the size of the army, which now includes tens of thousands of children in its ranks, and continuing the campaigns of quasi-genocidal terrorism against the Karen and other ethnic minorities.
According to Sergio Pinheiro, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma from 2000 to 2008, writing in 2009, "Over the past 15 years the Burmese Army has destroyed over 3,300 villages in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups." At the same time he has kept Burma's civilian population in poverty and hopelessness. The only "reforms" he has pushed for have had the aim of perpetuating military rule under a disguise that fools nobody.
It is safe to predict that sooner or later Than Shwe will get his come-uppance. It may come from his immediate subordinates, furious at being kicked out, and an army that has never held him in esteem. The civil servants of Naypyitaw, incandescent at being exiled from the civilised comforts of Rangoon, may play their part. The monks, whom he arrogantly and foolishly refused to appease in 2007, could have a role.
But however certain his eventual downfall, you would have to be a very brave optimist to predict that he will be replaced by someone significantly better.
The general in brief
Born in 1933, Than Shwe joined the army at 20. He became Burma's top military leader in 1992 – four years after thousands of protesters had been massacred in Rangoon. The reclusive 77-year-old is thought to be superstitious, often consulting astrologers. In 2007, his new Burmese constitution effectively barred opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from office. Some credit the general with negotiating ceasefires with ethnic rebel armies, although he has also been accused of brutally suppressing minorities. He has been linked with high-level government purges, including that of Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt in 2004.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burmas-paranoid-dictator-plots-his-dignified-exit-2024395.html
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Naypyidaw plague and dengue outbreaks infect troops, children
Naypyidaw plague and dengue outbreaks infect troops, children
Mizzima news
10 July 2010
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Outbreaks of plague and dengue fever are spreading through military units in Naypyidaw, the Burmese military regime’s seat of government, according to a military hospital source.
Infected soldiers were admitted to the new 1,000-bed military hospital in Naypyidaw for treatment. Moreover diarrhoea and dengue fever is spreading among residents in the capital’s neighbouring township of Pyinmana, home to 100,000 people.
“Children under-12 [of soldiers] in these Naypyidaw military units infected with dengue fever and plague were admitted to the children’s hospital and the troops infected with dengue and plague and their children over 12 were admitted here,” an officer from the military hospital, who requested anonymity, told Mizzima.
He declined to give further details on the scale of the epidemic.
According to official government figures released last year, Naypyidaw, meaning Royal City, is the third largest city in Burma, with a population of 925,000.
The outbreaks emerge after hundreds of thousands of rodents were reported late last month migrating from their current habitats.
“Mice are moving ‘in their thousands’ away from lakes and reservoirs in central Burma’s Bago and Mandalay divisions and towards urban areas. One man reported seeing fleets of mice on the Mandalay-to-Naypyidaw highway,” an exile media outlet reported on June 30.
In a sign of unusual openness by the junta, Ministry of Health plague warnings were seen in state-run papers on July 1 and 2.
The warning said: “Sudden death of mice may be because of plague. The people are advised to report and send the dead mice suspected of being infected with plague to the nearest health department”.
However, Dr. Khin Aye Myint from the Social Welfare dispensary in Pyinmana disagreed with any contact with the mice and offered a safer solution.
“The Health Department should instigate a public awareness campaign on plague and dead mice. If suspected, the dead mice should be poured with petrol and burned or should be reported to health department,” Dr. Khin Aye Myint said.
Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday that the Burmese Ministry of Health had also circulated a warning among government departments about rat-borne plague after finding infected dead rodents near a government office in Naypyidaw, an official said.
Moreover residents of Yauktharinn, Kanoo, Yanaung (2) and Shwechi wards in Pyinmana said that diarrhoea and dengue fever were spreading in their locality.
Previously it infected children aged between 5 and 12 but elderly people were now also being infected.
“Some dengue fever patients visited nearby clinics and could recover within one or two days. Some of them were referred to hospitals. There are also many patients suffering from diarrhoea,” a brokerage owner in Yaukthuarinn Ward told Mizzima.
The virus that causes dengue fever is carried by mosquitoes.
Wet, humid weather during the monsoon has encouraged breeding of mosquito larvae in drains, ponds and garbage dumps, which encouraged the breeding of flies and mosquitos and the subsequent spreading of the bacterias that cause diarrhoea through contaminated foods and the virus that causes dengue, Dr. Khin Myint Aye said.
Dengue spreads because of our inability to fight the mosquito menace, he said.
Dengue outbreaks are not rare in Burma. Ministry of Health announced that 910 people were infected with dengue during the January-May period and six those died from this disease that is also known as break-bone fever because of severe pain in the bones and joints that often characterises infection.
At least 80 people were infected in Rangoon in the last week of June, Mizzima reported on July 1.
According to official statistics, 3,129 Burmese people were infected with dengue last year and 37 died.
Mizzima news
10 July 2010
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Outbreaks of plague and dengue fever are spreading through military units in Naypyidaw, the Burmese military regime’s seat of government, according to a military hospital source.
Infected soldiers were admitted to the new 1,000-bed military hospital in Naypyidaw for treatment. Moreover diarrhoea and dengue fever is spreading among residents in the capital’s neighbouring township of Pyinmana, home to 100,000 people.
“Children under-12 [of soldiers] in these Naypyidaw military units infected with dengue fever and plague were admitted to the children’s hospital and the troops infected with dengue and plague and their children over 12 were admitted here,” an officer from the military hospital, who requested anonymity, told Mizzima.
He declined to give further details on the scale of the epidemic.
According to official government figures released last year, Naypyidaw, meaning Royal City, is the third largest city in Burma, with a population of 925,000.
The outbreaks emerge after hundreds of thousands of rodents were reported late last month migrating from their current habitats.
“Mice are moving ‘in their thousands’ away from lakes and reservoirs in central Burma’s Bago and Mandalay divisions and towards urban areas. One man reported seeing fleets of mice on the Mandalay-to-Naypyidaw highway,” an exile media outlet reported on June 30.
In a sign of unusual openness by the junta, Ministry of Health plague warnings were seen in state-run papers on July 1 and 2.
The warning said: “Sudden death of mice may be because of plague. The people are advised to report and send the dead mice suspected of being infected with plague to the nearest health department”.
However, Dr. Khin Aye Myint from the Social Welfare dispensary in Pyinmana disagreed with any contact with the mice and offered a safer solution.
“The Health Department should instigate a public awareness campaign on plague and dead mice. If suspected, the dead mice should be poured with petrol and burned or should be reported to health department,” Dr. Khin Aye Myint said.
Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday that the Burmese Ministry of Health had also circulated a warning among government departments about rat-borne plague after finding infected dead rodents near a government office in Naypyidaw, an official said.
Moreover residents of Yauktharinn, Kanoo, Yanaung (2) and Shwechi wards in Pyinmana said that diarrhoea and dengue fever were spreading in their locality.
Previously it infected children aged between 5 and 12 but elderly people were now also being infected.
“Some dengue fever patients visited nearby clinics and could recover within one or two days. Some of them were referred to hospitals. There are also many patients suffering from diarrhoea,” a brokerage owner in Yaukthuarinn Ward told Mizzima.
The virus that causes dengue fever is carried by mosquitoes.
Wet, humid weather during the monsoon has encouraged breeding of mosquito larvae in drains, ponds and garbage dumps, which encouraged the breeding of flies and mosquitos and the subsequent spreading of the bacterias that cause diarrhoea through contaminated foods and the virus that causes dengue, Dr. Khin Myint Aye said.
Dengue spreads because of our inability to fight the mosquito menace, he said.
Dengue outbreaks are not rare in Burma. Ministry of Health announced that 910 people were infected with dengue during the January-May period and six those died from this disease that is also known as break-bone fever because of severe pain in the bones and joints that often characterises infection.
At least 80 people were infected in Rangoon in the last week of June, Mizzima reported on July 1.
According to official statistics, 3,129 Burmese people were infected with dengue last year and 37 died.
Friday, 9 July 2010
Burma on New China ‘Watch List’ for Resources
BANGKOK—China has put Burma on a special “watch list” for potential acquisition of urgently needed natural resources, including coal, gold and copper as well as oil and gas.
All China’s land border neighbors are the subject of a resources study with a view to future acquisition, Beijing’s Ministry of Land and Resources has disclosed in the Chinese official media.
The study follows a the rejection of some takeover bids made by Chinese state firms in minerals-rich Australia, where China has already spent billions of dollars acquiring coal and gas assets.
State-owned Chinese companies venturing abroad are backed by huge national reserves of more than US $2 trillion, and the results of the neighbors’ resources study will be assessed by Beijing’s ministry of finance, the China Business Journal reported.
The study includes Burma, Mongolia, Russia’s Siberian Far East, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the paper reported.
It comes as China prepares to become Burma’s biggest natural gas buyer, after it acquired all the gas to be produced from two blocks in the Shwe offshore field in the Bay of Bengal.
But despite huge and increasing imports of gas and oil, China’s main fuel remains coal and millions of tons are being bought from Australia, Indonesia and South Africa.
China is also the world's biggest buyer of copper, iron ore and some foodstuffs.
Burma has coal, copper and gold.
The recent discovery of new coal reserves in Burma was highlighted by Chinese state media only this week.
“Newly found coal in the Mongma area holds the highest deposit of quality coal and it is estimated to yield thousands of tons of the mineral annually,” said the People’s Daily, noting that China is among several countries vying to help develop Burma’s coal industry.
Burma and Beijing signed a deal on mining among 15 cooperation agreements during a visit in early June by China’s Premier Wen Jiabao.
“One of China’s big five energy firms, the Guodian Corporation, is supposedly going to build a coal-fueled electricity generating plant in Burma, but there must be doubts about that as much of Burma’s current coal output is exported to China and Thailand,” industry analyst-consultant Collin Reynolds told The Irrawaddy this week.
“Burma is desperately short of electricity but Chinese know-how would be needed to revamp Burma’s power transmission infrastructure for any expansion in power capacity to be any use.
“China’s Yunnan Province adjoining northern Burma is also desperately short of electricity and coal,” Reynolds said.
According to unspecified “statistics” Burma has 82 “coal mining blocks” which “produced 233,983 tons of coal in the fiscal year 2009-10,” the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said this week in a report on Beijing’s new assessment of its neighbors assets.
“Burma's generals have never hesitated from selling out their country's resources for short-term cash or political protection, and so we cannot see this latest announcement from China as anything but confirmation that the scouring of Burma will go on and on,” prominent Burma economy analyst Sean Turnell told The Irrawaddy.
“In a country where nothing else can be relied on, this one is in the back of the net,” he said, referring to China’s assessment of Burma’s natural resources.
Turnell is an economics professor at Macquarie University in Australia and co-editor of the Burma Economic Watch bulletin.
Despite its highly polluting nature—except maybe when burned in costly plants using the latest technology—coal is being increasingly seen in Asia as the best cheapest substitute for oil and gas.
To underline this trend, Thailand’s state oil and gas giant PTT announced just this week that it intends to expand its acquisition of coal resources abroad.
PTT’s offshore gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand, as well as concessions held by its subsidiary PTTEP in Burma, supply about 70 percent of Thailand’s electricity generating fuel.
But the Thai government has ordered diversification of power fuel to reduce dependency on gas
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18902
All China’s land border neighbors are the subject of a resources study with a view to future acquisition, Beijing’s Ministry of Land and Resources has disclosed in the Chinese official media.
The study follows a the rejection of some takeover bids made by Chinese state firms in minerals-rich Australia, where China has already spent billions of dollars acquiring coal and gas assets.
State-owned Chinese companies venturing abroad are backed by huge national reserves of more than US $2 trillion, and the results of the neighbors’ resources study will be assessed by Beijing’s ministry of finance, the China Business Journal reported.
The study includes Burma, Mongolia, Russia’s Siberian Far East, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the paper reported.
It comes as China prepares to become Burma’s biggest natural gas buyer, after it acquired all the gas to be produced from two blocks in the Shwe offshore field in the Bay of Bengal.
But despite huge and increasing imports of gas and oil, China’s main fuel remains coal and millions of tons are being bought from Australia, Indonesia and South Africa.
China is also the world's biggest buyer of copper, iron ore and some foodstuffs.
Burma has coal, copper and gold.
The recent discovery of new coal reserves in Burma was highlighted by Chinese state media only this week.
“Newly found coal in the Mongma area holds the highest deposit of quality coal and it is estimated to yield thousands of tons of the mineral annually,” said the People’s Daily, noting that China is among several countries vying to help develop Burma’s coal industry.
Burma and Beijing signed a deal on mining among 15 cooperation agreements during a visit in early June by China’s Premier Wen Jiabao.
“One of China’s big five energy firms, the Guodian Corporation, is supposedly going to build a coal-fueled electricity generating plant in Burma, but there must be doubts about that as much of Burma’s current coal output is exported to China and Thailand,” industry analyst-consultant Collin Reynolds told The Irrawaddy this week.
“Burma is desperately short of electricity but Chinese know-how would be needed to revamp Burma’s power transmission infrastructure for any expansion in power capacity to be any use.
“China’s Yunnan Province adjoining northern Burma is also desperately short of electricity and coal,” Reynolds said.
According to unspecified “statistics” Burma has 82 “coal mining blocks” which “produced 233,983 tons of coal in the fiscal year 2009-10,” the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said this week in a report on Beijing’s new assessment of its neighbors assets.
“Burma's generals have never hesitated from selling out their country's resources for short-term cash or political protection, and so we cannot see this latest announcement from China as anything but confirmation that the scouring of Burma will go on and on,” prominent Burma economy analyst Sean Turnell told The Irrawaddy.
“In a country where nothing else can be relied on, this one is in the back of the net,” he said, referring to China’s assessment of Burma’s natural resources.
Turnell is an economics professor at Macquarie University in Australia and co-editor of the Burma Economic Watch bulletin.
Despite its highly polluting nature—except maybe when burned in costly plants using the latest technology—coal is being increasingly seen in Asia as the best cheapest substitute for oil and gas.
To underline this trend, Thailand’s state oil and gas giant PTT announced just this week that it intends to expand its acquisition of coal resources abroad.
PTT’s offshore gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand, as well as concessions held by its subsidiary PTTEP in Burma, supply about 70 percent of Thailand’s electricity generating fuel.
But the Thai government has ordered diversification of power fuel to reduce dependency on gas
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18902
Burma on New China ‘Watch List’ for Resources
BANGKOK—China has put Burma on a special “watch list” for potential acquisition of urgently needed natural resources, including coal, gold and copper as well as oil and gas.
All China’s land border neighbors are the subject of a resources study with a view to future acquisition, Beijing’s Ministry of Land and Resources has disclosed in the Chinese official media.
The study follows a the rejection of some takeover bids made by Chinese state firms in minerals-rich Australia, where China has already spent billions of dollars acquiring coal and gas assets.
State-owned Chinese companies venturing abroad are backed by huge national reserves of more than US $2 trillion, and the results of the neighbors’ resources study will be assessed by Beijing’s ministry of finance, the China Business Journal reported.
The study includes Burma, Mongolia, Russia’s Siberian Far East, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the paper reported.
It comes as China prepares to become Burma’s biggest natural gas buyer, after it acquired all the gas to be produced from two blocks in the Shwe offshore field in the Bay of Bengal.
But despite huge and increasing imports of gas and oil, China’s main fuel remains coal and millions of tons are being bought from Australia, Indonesia and South Africa.
China is also the world's biggest buyer of copper, iron ore and some foodstuffs.
Burma has coal, copper and gold.
The recent discovery of new coal reserves in Burma was highlighted by Chinese state media only this week.
“Newly found coal in the Mongma area holds the highest deposit of quality coal and it is estimated to yield thousands of tons of the mineral annually,” said the People’s Daily, noting that China is among several countries vying to help develop Burma’s coal industry.
Burma and Beijing signed a deal on mining among 15 cooperation agreements during a visit in early June by China’s Premier Wen Jiabao.
“One of China’s big five energy firms, the Guodian Corporation, is supposedly going to build a coal-fueled electricity generating plant in Burma, but there must be doubts about that as much of Burma’s current coal output is exported to China and Thailand,” industry analyst-consultant Collin Reynolds told The Irrawaddy this week.
“Burma is desperately short of electricity but Chinese know-how would be needed to revamp Burma’s power transmission infrastructure for any expansion in power capacity to be any use.
“China’s Yunnan Province adjoining northern Burma is also desperately short of electricity and coal,” Reynolds said.
According to unspecified “statistics” Burma has 82 “coal mining blocks” which “produced 233,983 tons of coal in the fiscal year 2009-10,” the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said this week in a report on Beijing’s new assessment of its neighbors assets.
“Burma's generals have never hesitated from selling out their country's resources for short-term cash or political protection, and so we cannot see this latest announcement from China as anything but confirmation that the scouring of Burma will go on and on,” prominent Burma economy analyst Sean Turnell told The Irrawaddy.
“In a country where nothing else can be relied on, this one is in the back of the net,” he said, referring to China’s assessment of Burma’s natural resources.
Turnell is an economics professor at Macquarie University in Australia and co-editor of the Burma Economic Watch bulletin.
Despite its highly polluting nature—except maybe when burned in costly plants using the latest technology—coal is being increasingly seen in Asia as the best cheapest substitute for oil and gas.
To underline this trend, Thailand’s state oil and gas giant PTT announced just this week that it intends to expand its acquisition of coal resources abroad.
PTT’s offshore gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand, as well as concessions held by its subsidiary PTTEP in Burma, supply about 70 percent of Thailand’s electricity generating fuel.
But the Thai government has ordered diversification of power fuel to reduce dependency on gas
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18902
All China’s land border neighbors are the subject of a resources study with a view to future acquisition, Beijing’s Ministry of Land and Resources has disclosed in the Chinese official media.
The study follows a the rejection of some takeover bids made by Chinese state firms in minerals-rich Australia, where China has already spent billions of dollars acquiring coal and gas assets.
State-owned Chinese companies venturing abroad are backed by huge national reserves of more than US $2 trillion, and the results of the neighbors’ resources study will be assessed by Beijing’s ministry of finance, the China Business Journal reported.
The study includes Burma, Mongolia, Russia’s Siberian Far East, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the paper reported.
It comes as China prepares to become Burma’s biggest natural gas buyer, after it acquired all the gas to be produced from two blocks in the Shwe offshore field in the Bay of Bengal.
But despite huge and increasing imports of gas and oil, China’s main fuel remains coal and millions of tons are being bought from Australia, Indonesia and South Africa.
China is also the world's biggest buyer of copper, iron ore and some foodstuffs.
Burma has coal, copper and gold.
The recent discovery of new coal reserves in Burma was highlighted by Chinese state media only this week.
“Newly found coal in the Mongma area holds the highest deposit of quality coal and it is estimated to yield thousands of tons of the mineral annually,” said the People’s Daily, noting that China is among several countries vying to help develop Burma’s coal industry.
Burma and Beijing signed a deal on mining among 15 cooperation agreements during a visit in early June by China’s Premier Wen Jiabao.
“One of China’s big five energy firms, the Guodian Corporation, is supposedly going to build a coal-fueled electricity generating plant in Burma, but there must be doubts about that as much of Burma’s current coal output is exported to China and Thailand,” industry analyst-consultant Collin Reynolds told The Irrawaddy this week.
“Burma is desperately short of electricity but Chinese know-how would be needed to revamp Burma’s power transmission infrastructure for any expansion in power capacity to be any use.
“China’s Yunnan Province adjoining northern Burma is also desperately short of electricity and coal,” Reynolds said.
According to unspecified “statistics” Burma has 82 “coal mining blocks” which “produced 233,983 tons of coal in the fiscal year 2009-10,” the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said this week in a report on Beijing’s new assessment of its neighbors assets.
“Burma's generals have never hesitated from selling out their country's resources for short-term cash or political protection, and so we cannot see this latest announcement from China as anything but confirmation that the scouring of Burma will go on and on,” prominent Burma economy analyst Sean Turnell told The Irrawaddy.
“In a country where nothing else can be relied on, this one is in the back of the net,” he said, referring to China’s assessment of Burma’s natural resources.
Turnell is an economics professor at Macquarie University in Australia and co-editor of the Burma Economic Watch bulletin.
Despite its highly polluting nature—except maybe when burned in costly plants using the latest technology—coal is being increasingly seen in Asia as the best cheapest substitute for oil and gas.
To underline this trend, Thailand’s state oil and gas giant PTT announced just this week that it intends to expand its acquisition of coal resources abroad.
PTT’s offshore gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand, as well as concessions held by its subsidiary PTTEP in Burma, supply about 70 percent of Thailand’s electricity generating fuel.
But the Thai government has ordered diversification of power fuel to reduce dependency on gas
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18902
ILO: Forced Labor Still Widespread in Burma
The United Nations' International Labor Organization (ILO) says Burma has made limited progress in curtailing the use of forced labor.
Steve Marshall, the International Labor Organization's liaison officer in Burma, says over the past three years there have been "significant steps" toward eliminating forced labor in the country. The most progress has been in private organizations and the civil administration.
"To an extent, the government has passed laws which say that forced labor is illegal, which is a very important first step of cours," said Marshall. "The government has undertaken quite a lot of educational activity among local authorities particularly within the military as to the law and the responsibilities under the law."
Burma's military government has long used forced labor in everything from building roads to carrying military supplies through the jungle. At its extremes, there have been reports of people being pressed to walk through mine fields as human minesweepers.
Rights groups say thousands of Burmese are forced to work against their will, including children and the elderly. Many suffer abuse, including gang rape and murder.
Marshall said Thursday in Bangkok the military particularly continues to use forced labor.
"There are some indicators within the civilian side of the administration, which is very good," said Marshall. "In the military side of the administration, there is no clear evidence of any change whatsoever."
One area of progress has been a new system that allows citizens to complain to the ILO. That has helped the rescue children forced to join the military.
In its new report, the ILO report says the government now regularly discharges under-age soldiers if complaints are filed.
Some armed ethnic groups also use child soldiers and Burma's government has allowed the ILO to talk with them to try to end the practice.
Marshall says there are moves to write new labor laws to allow trade unions once a new parliament is convened after elections later this year.
Regional political analysts say Burma's government appears to be taking a more cautious approach in dealing with labor and economic issues ahead of the elections. The vote will be the first in 20 years and is expected to place the government under the international spotlight.
Source: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/economy-and-business/ILO-Forced-Labor-Still-Widespread-in-Burma-98019769.html
Steve Marshall, the International Labor Organization's liaison officer in Burma, says over the past three years there have been "significant steps" toward eliminating forced labor in the country. The most progress has been in private organizations and the civil administration.
"To an extent, the government has passed laws which say that forced labor is illegal, which is a very important first step of cours," said Marshall. "The government has undertaken quite a lot of educational activity among local authorities particularly within the military as to the law and the responsibilities under the law."
Burma's military government has long used forced labor in everything from building roads to carrying military supplies through the jungle. At its extremes, there have been reports of people being pressed to walk through mine fields as human minesweepers.
Rights groups say thousands of Burmese are forced to work against their will, including children and the elderly. Many suffer abuse, including gang rape and murder.
Marshall said Thursday in Bangkok the military particularly continues to use forced labor.
"There are some indicators within the civilian side of the administration, which is very good," said Marshall. "In the military side of the administration, there is no clear evidence of any change whatsoever."
One area of progress has been a new system that allows citizens to complain to the ILO. That has helped the rescue children forced to join the military.
In its new report, the ILO report says the government now regularly discharges under-age soldiers if complaints are filed.
Some armed ethnic groups also use child soldiers and Burma's government has allowed the ILO to talk with them to try to end the practice.
Marshall says there are moves to write new labor laws to allow trade unions once a new parliament is convened after elections later this year.
Regional political analysts say Burma's government appears to be taking a more cautious approach in dealing with labor and economic issues ahead of the elections. The vote will be the first in 20 years and is expected to place the government under the international spotlight.
Source: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/economy-and-business/ILO-Forced-Labor-Still-Widespread-in-Burma-98019769.html
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Burma: Ready to die for it (Htein Lin)
The people of Burma have been suffering under one of the world's most brutal and repressive regime. The military regime uses murder, torture, rape, political imprisonment and forced labour as practices for ruling the citizens of Burma. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are non-existent and Burmese citizens are denied any state in the shaping of their future.
In Burma, power is centred on the ruling junta--the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC--which maintains strict authoritarian rule over the people of Burma. Control is maintained through intimidation, the strict censuring of information, repression of individual rights, and suppression of ethnic minority groups.
One of the opponents of the military regime is Htein Lin, the dedicated Burma democracy activist.
Htein Lin said "I am ready to die for it". He is the Burma democracy activist devoted his life to work for democratisation of Burma. His dedication, determination and devotion for the cause of Burma democracy movement is incredible. We believe that there are thousands of new generation democracy activists ready to die for Burma.
For more information please visit Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) at http://bdcburma.org/Index.asp
Sittwe Students Protest Bus Fare Hike
Hundreds of students from Technological University in Sittwe in western Burma protested peacefully on Monday against a 100 percent hike in school bus fares.
The university's buses previously charged 150 kyat (US $0.15) per student for the ride to the campus, which is located 12 miles from Sittwe city center. Fares were increased on Monday morning to 300 kyat ($0.30).
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, a student from Technological University said, “We are unhappy with the increased bus fare, and we took to the streets to voice our concerns.”
At 3 p.m. On Monday, about 300 students from Technological University refused to take the bus because of the revised fare and walked from the campus to Sittwe city center at a time when most students were returning home. The number of protesters grew to about 1,000 after students from Computer University in Sittwe joined in, said the source.
“Soldiers blocked us on the road and threatened to shoot us if we kept marching,” he said. “But, we didn't listen and kept on walking.”
The protest continued until 10 p.m. when the head of Computer University in Sittwe, Aung Kyaw Nyein, met with the students and said he would resolve the matter, the source said, adding that the number of people had by that time increased to about 3,000, including students' parents and onlookers.
The western region commander Maj-Gen Thaung Aye reportedly put pressure on teachers on Tuesday to find out who initiated the protest.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, a history professor at Sittwe University said, “It is not good for the students if bus fares go up. But, bus drivers were only getting 150 kyat from each student. The price of gasoline has gone up. They have to put their fares up.”
In January last year, students from Technological University staged similar protests in the Arakan capital.
Hundreds of demonstrators also took to the streets of Sittwe during the Saffron Revolution of 2007, which was sparked by a protest over a hike in gasoline prices.
Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18897
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Interview with Robert Goebbels, member of the European Parliament
Mizzima (Brussels) – Robert Goebbels, a member of the European Parliament (EP) from Luxembourg, received Mizzima at his office in Brussels. The Socialist member of the EP since 1999 is vice-chairman of the delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and Asean and has been minister of economic affairs, transport and public works and energy for Luxembourg. He is a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group within the EP, the second-largest bloc in the parliament.
Robert Goebbels
Since the early 1990s, the European Union (EU) has maintained a set of sanctions on Burma that, given the lack of progress on human rights and democracy in the country, has been strengthened over time. These restrictions comprise a travel ban on junta leaders, members of the judiciary and figures associated with the state-controlled economy (and in most of the cases, their close relatives); an assets freeze; and a ban on the export of regime-linked entities working in the industries of woods, metals, construction material, information technology and the media.
Do the existing EU sanctions on Burma bear any influence on the Burmese military rulers?
I am personally against any policies based on sanctions; history has shown that they never work. The imposition of restrictions only serves the EU to give itself a good conscience. First of all, restrictions rarely hit the ruling elites. Cuba, Iraq and now Iran have evidenced how in the end, this type of embargoes only disrupts ordinary people. Furthermore, I seriously doubt that sanctions could ever prove conductive to bring about change in any way.
How can the EU streamline its current range of sanctions if it is to promote human rights and democracy in Burma?
The Burmese regime does not look at the approval of the West. Besides, the junta still makes business with a number of EU companies [the EU economic sanctions on Burma do not apply to companies operating in the country prior to the ban]. On the top of this, the junta’s dealings with a number of mighty economic allies [China, Russia, India, for example] secure the establishment with much-needed foreign investment. In its endeavour to persuade the military regime to pave the way for opening up, the EU would be better advice if it engages in dialogue with the Burmese rulers.
They are certain policy discrepancies between the EP and the European Commission (EC) – the EU’s executive body – as the latter favours further dialogue with the junta. What do you make of this?
That is true. In the EP, there are a number of members who monopolise this debate, and I am afraid that these very people tend to be wrong. Some members of the EP subcommittee on human rights keep pursuing a misguided strategy on Burma – one that has largely failed in its aim to enhance the junta’s respect for its citizen’s fundamental freedoms. Consequently, I back the EC approach of generating new channels of dialogue. There are some times when we make the mistake to act in a paternalistic fashion, dictating to others what they should do.
Since last year, the EC has declined to finance aid for Burmese refugees living along the Thai-Burmese border. What could possibly be the EC’s reasons to stop such funding?
I am not informed about the details of the EC’s motives. I suspect that most of these funds go to NGOs. Despite that, the non-profit sector plays a very constructive role in the field; some NGOs also finance themselves out of the resources provided by the EU. The EC may know better than the EP committees concerned what the situation on the ground is. This would have probably prompted its decision.
Does the Burmese issue interfere with relations between the EU and Asean?
The situation in Burma is always present on EU-Asean talks. Nonetheless, we should bear in mind that the ties between both supranational entities are essentially of an economic nature. In such a framework, the economic actors do not pay much attention to the human rights situation in Burma – otherwise, there would not be so many companies operating in the country.
Are you satisfied with the Asean method of dialogue without meddling in members’ domestic affairs?
Obviously, Asean could have a larger influence on the junta’s policy-making. Yet, it should not be forgotten that various Asean member states have themselves poor records on human rights, which partially explains why the organisation is not very vigorous in challenging the junta. Nevertheless, the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights [formed last year] embodies a platform that should be better brought into play when dealing with the Burmese leadership.
Recently, the EP encouraged the governments of China, India and Russia “to stop supplying the Burmese regime with weaponry and other strategic resources”. However, China has just sold 50 jet fighters to Naypyidaw. In the end, China, Russia, India and others are reluctant to stop their arms sales and energy deals with the regime. Could the EU possibly take any initiative to warn these states of Brussels’ annoyance?
I would focus my answer on China, as I do not think that the EU has at its disposal much leverage against Beijing. One can say that China has not friends, only interests. In addition, we should not forget that many EU member states run vast investments in China; thousands of joint-ventures produce goods in China for the EU market. A number of European economies need China to expand, and the situation in Burma is unlikely to get in its way.
If it was for you to say what the Burmese military should first do to boost the credibility of the forthcoming elections, what would be your advice?
If the junta were really aiming to hold credible elections, the regime should invite foreign observers to monitor the whole process. Following the polls, I am confident that the newly established parliament will not be satisfied with its given powers. At some point, the parliament will contest its original rubber-stamp role. I am positive that the new assembly will gradually challenge the military.
source: http://www.mizzima.com/edop/interview/4084-interview-with-robert-goebbels-member-of-the-european-parliament.html
Robert Goebbels
Since the early 1990s, the European Union (EU) has maintained a set of sanctions on Burma that, given the lack of progress on human rights and democracy in the country, has been strengthened over time. These restrictions comprise a travel ban on junta leaders, members of the judiciary and figures associated with the state-controlled economy (and in most of the cases, their close relatives); an assets freeze; and a ban on the export of regime-linked entities working in the industries of woods, metals, construction material, information technology and the media.
Do the existing EU sanctions on Burma bear any influence on the Burmese military rulers?
I am personally against any policies based on sanctions; history has shown that they never work. The imposition of restrictions only serves the EU to give itself a good conscience. First of all, restrictions rarely hit the ruling elites. Cuba, Iraq and now Iran have evidenced how in the end, this type of embargoes only disrupts ordinary people. Furthermore, I seriously doubt that sanctions could ever prove conductive to bring about change in any way.
How can the EU streamline its current range of sanctions if it is to promote human rights and democracy in Burma?
The Burmese regime does not look at the approval of the West. Besides, the junta still makes business with a number of EU companies [the EU economic sanctions on Burma do not apply to companies operating in the country prior to the ban]. On the top of this, the junta’s dealings with a number of mighty economic allies [China, Russia, India, for example] secure the establishment with much-needed foreign investment. In its endeavour to persuade the military regime to pave the way for opening up, the EU would be better advice if it engages in dialogue with the Burmese rulers.
They are certain policy discrepancies between the EP and the European Commission (EC) – the EU’s executive body – as the latter favours further dialogue with the junta. What do you make of this?
That is true. In the EP, there are a number of members who monopolise this debate, and I am afraid that these very people tend to be wrong. Some members of the EP subcommittee on human rights keep pursuing a misguided strategy on Burma – one that has largely failed in its aim to enhance the junta’s respect for its citizen’s fundamental freedoms. Consequently, I back the EC approach of generating new channels of dialogue. There are some times when we make the mistake to act in a paternalistic fashion, dictating to others what they should do.
Since last year, the EC has declined to finance aid for Burmese refugees living along the Thai-Burmese border. What could possibly be the EC’s reasons to stop such funding?
I am not informed about the details of the EC’s motives. I suspect that most of these funds go to NGOs. Despite that, the non-profit sector plays a very constructive role in the field; some NGOs also finance themselves out of the resources provided by the EU. The EC may know better than the EP committees concerned what the situation on the ground is. This would have probably prompted its decision.
Does the Burmese issue interfere with relations between the EU and Asean?
The situation in Burma is always present on EU-Asean talks. Nonetheless, we should bear in mind that the ties between both supranational entities are essentially of an economic nature. In such a framework, the economic actors do not pay much attention to the human rights situation in Burma – otherwise, there would not be so many companies operating in the country.
Are you satisfied with the Asean method of dialogue without meddling in members’ domestic affairs?
Obviously, Asean could have a larger influence on the junta’s policy-making. Yet, it should not be forgotten that various Asean member states have themselves poor records on human rights, which partially explains why the organisation is not very vigorous in challenging the junta. Nevertheless, the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights [formed last year] embodies a platform that should be better brought into play when dealing with the Burmese leadership.
Recently, the EP encouraged the governments of China, India and Russia “to stop supplying the Burmese regime with weaponry and other strategic resources”. However, China has just sold 50 jet fighters to Naypyidaw. In the end, China, Russia, India and others are reluctant to stop their arms sales and energy deals with the regime. Could the EU possibly take any initiative to warn these states of Brussels’ annoyance?
I would focus my answer on China, as I do not think that the EU has at its disposal much leverage against Beijing. One can say that China has not friends, only interests. In addition, we should not forget that many EU member states run vast investments in China; thousands of joint-ventures produce goods in China for the EU market. A number of European economies need China to expand, and the situation in Burma is unlikely to get in its way.
If it was for you to say what the Burmese military should first do to boost the credibility of the forthcoming elections, what would be your advice?
If the junta were really aiming to hold credible elections, the regime should invite foreign observers to monitor the whole process. Following the polls, I am confident that the newly established parliament will not be satisfied with its given powers. At some point, the parliament will contest its original rubber-stamp role. I am positive that the new assembly will gradually challenge the military.
source: http://www.mizzima.com/edop/interview/4084-interview-with-robert-goebbels-member-of-the-european-parliament.html
AAPP submission for the UPR of Burma
Information Release
Date: 6 July, 2010
Burma’s Human Rights Record Up For Review
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has submitted its report to the UN Human Rights Council for the Universal Periodic Review of Burma. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a new mechanism of the Human Rights Council (HRC) aimed at improving the human rights record of all 192 UN Member States.
Burma is up for its first review in the 10th session of HRC, in January 2011.
“For countries, like Burma, with a poor human rights record and a low ratification rate of international human rights treaties, the UPR provides a unique opportunity to put them in the hot seat and have their rights record publically scrutinized” says Bo Kyi, Joint Secretary of AAPP.
“Through the UPR, the Human Rights Council has examined country situations that are rarely raised at the international level and would otherwise fall off the radar, such as North Korea. It also draws attention to the human rights concerns in states, with a generally good human rights performance, showing us that no state is perfect”, says Bo Kyi.
AAPP’s UPR submission shows that the human rights situation for the more than 2,170 political prisoners in Burma remains dire: incommunicado detention, torture, and the denial of adequate medical care are common place. This treatment is meted out to all prisoners, without distinction to age, health and the special needs of women, children and those with disabilities. Evidence collected by AAPP suggests that torture is a cultural norm, amongst the military, police and security officials. AAPP has documented hundreds of cases of torture experienced by political prisoners, dating back to 1988 and as recent as 2010.
AAPP, along with a number of other independent non-governmental organizations working inside Burma and in exile, joined together and worked hard to produce credible reports for the UPR.
“Will the SPDC take the UPR process just as seriously, asks Bo Kyi?
North Korea's approach illustrates the limitations of UPR. They mocked the process by refusing to accept any of the recommendations offered by a wide range of member states, as every other country has done at the UPR sessions. Instead, they would only state which recommendations they rejected.
“Ultimately, the effectiveness of UPR can be measured by the extent to which it inspires a country to alter its actual human rights practices, as there is no enforcement mechanism” says Bo Kyi.
When the SPDC are confronted with the reality of their human rights record at the HRC in January, will they respond with defensive rhetoric, fabrications and denial as they have done in past, or engage in a meaningful debate to improve the situation for the people of Burma?
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)
For further information, please contact:
Tate Naing, Secretary +66 (0) 81-287-8751
Bo Kyi, Joint-Secretary +66 (0) 81-962-8713
Date: 6 July, 2010
Burma’s Human Rights Record Up For Review
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has submitted its report to the UN Human Rights Council for the Universal Periodic Review of Burma. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a new mechanism of the Human Rights Council (HRC) aimed at improving the human rights record of all 192 UN Member States.
Burma is up for its first review in the 10th session of HRC, in January 2011.
“For countries, like Burma, with a poor human rights record and a low ratification rate of international human rights treaties, the UPR provides a unique opportunity to put them in the hot seat and have their rights record publically scrutinized” says Bo Kyi, Joint Secretary of AAPP.
“Through the UPR, the Human Rights Council has examined country situations that are rarely raised at the international level and would otherwise fall off the radar, such as North Korea. It also draws attention to the human rights concerns in states, with a generally good human rights performance, showing us that no state is perfect”, says Bo Kyi.
AAPP’s UPR submission shows that the human rights situation for the more than 2,170 political prisoners in Burma remains dire: incommunicado detention, torture, and the denial of adequate medical care are common place. This treatment is meted out to all prisoners, without distinction to age, health and the special needs of women, children and those with disabilities. Evidence collected by AAPP suggests that torture is a cultural norm, amongst the military, police and security officials. AAPP has documented hundreds of cases of torture experienced by political prisoners, dating back to 1988 and as recent as 2010.
AAPP, along with a number of other independent non-governmental organizations working inside Burma and in exile, joined together and worked hard to produce credible reports for the UPR.
“Will the SPDC take the UPR process just as seriously, asks Bo Kyi?
North Korea's approach illustrates the limitations of UPR. They mocked the process by refusing to accept any of the recommendations offered by a wide range of member states, as every other country has done at the UPR sessions. Instead, they would only state which recommendations they rejected.
“Ultimately, the effectiveness of UPR can be measured by the extent to which it inspires a country to alter its actual human rights practices, as there is no enforcement mechanism” says Bo Kyi.
When the SPDC are confronted with the reality of their human rights record at the HRC in January, will they respond with defensive rhetoric, fabrications and denial as they have done in past, or engage in a meaningful debate to improve the situation for the people of Burma?
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)
For further information, please contact:
Tate Naing, Secretary +66 (0) 81-287-8751
Bo Kyi, Joint-Secretary +66 (0) 81-962-8713
Sunday, 4 July 2010
Burma: Let's Take Decisive Action -- Let's Save Ourselves
"In such circumstances, we had no alternative but to turn our weapons against them as true patriots of our land and as lovers of Justice". (Bogyoke Aung San)
"I would especially like to see our younger people stride confidently into the future, their richness of spirit soaring to meet all challenges. I would like to be able to say: "This is a nation worthy of all those who loved it and lived and died for it--that we might be proud of our heritage." (Daw Aung San Suu Kyi)
Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) is the global campaigning and lobbying organisation to restore democracy, human rights and rule of law in Burma where everyone can enjoy the freedom of speech, press, beliefs, assembly and rule of law that emphasizes the protection of individual rights. Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) have the firm determination, dedication and devotion to keep on working until the democracy restore in Burma.
Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) is equipped with participants who had political background and in depth knowledge of Burma issues.
Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) is empowering new generation leaders to engage in current activities and to be ready for the future nation building.
Please see the messages of the democracy activists' heart-felt pledges to restore justice, liberty, democracy and human rights in Burma.
"We need to believe in what we are doing. Yes we can. Yes we can. We can do it. Wherever you are whoever you are. You can do it". (Myo Thein)
"New generation leaders--please come forward. Our leader, Bogyoke (Aung San) once said that removing the small stumbling block on the road is also politics". (Kyaw Bo Bo San)
"I am destined to work and will work for democratisation of Burma. I will try my best to provide messages of what we, Burmese in exile working for democratisation of Burma, are doing by all means through various ways". (Zin Zin Myo Thant)
"People of Burma please do not be despair since you are not alone. Even though we are in exile, we are doing what we can for democratisation of Burma. Once we get signal from inside Burma we are ready to go back inside Burma together with our friends of Burma". (July Myat Tun)
"I would like to request fighting together (to topple junta). As for me I will fight until the regime is out of power." (Ye Wut Mar)
"Please start working from where you are. I will start working from where I am". (Pyei Phyo Minn)
"I will try my best to topple military junta in order to establish democratic Burma." (Khin Yamon Po Kun)
"I am ready to go back inside Burma to fight together with people of Burma to topple brutal junta" (Naing Win)
Thank you very much for your unwavering support.
For more information please visit Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) at
http://www.bdcburma.org/Index.asphttp://bdc-burma.blogspot.com/http://bdcburma.wordpress.com/http://www.youtube.com/user/bdcburmahttp://twitter.com/bdcburmahttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/g...
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Burma Democracy Activists Around the World: Message from U Khin Maung Kyi -- Former Burmese Diplomat
Dear all activists
Myanmar Association ( UK ) in London is being sponsored by the Burmese Ambassador Maj-Gen.Nay Win long ago. This MAUK is pro-SPDC and a military related association. Please see the link at http://www.myanmarnet.co.uk/
This is unlawful association in London. Maj-Gen.Nay Win, who is the Ambassador of the Embassy of the Union of Burma is in charge of the sale of tickets for Myanmar Association ( UK ), Myanmar Anyeint & Music Concert hold on 31st July 2010 at Cophland Community College,Cecil Avenue , Wembley. HA9 7DU, London, during office hours in Embassy premises.
According to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, article 55-Sec 2, the consular premises shall not be used in any manner incompatible with the exercise of consular functions. Also in article 57-Sec 1 , it is clearly stated the career consular officers shall not carry out any professional or commercial activity in the receiving state.
Our view to this matter is also that this group falls into the third category ( personnel benefiting from the SPDC ) and should be banned from entering the European Community countries.
To avoid the ban of European Community visa to those benefiting from SPDC, the Burmese Ambassador of UK have used Burmese doctors residing in UK to sponsor the Burmese singers and dancers to acquire vistor visas to enter UK. Also the Burmese singers and dancers have no right to perform without UK work permit and they no right to sell tickets without VAT and Commercial taxes.
Sincerely yours
U Khin Maung Kyi
Former Burmese Diplomat and on behalf Burmese Community ( UK )
Myanmar Association ( UK ) in London is being sponsored by the Burmese Ambassador Maj-Gen.Nay Win long ago. This MAUK is pro-SPDC and a military related association. Please see the link at http://www.myanmarnet.co.uk/
Myanmar Association ( UK ) in London is being sponsored by the Burmese Ambassador Maj-Gen.Nay Win long ago. This MAUK is pro-SPDC and a military related association. Please see the link at http://www.myanmarnet.co.uk/
This is unlawful association in London. Maj-Gen.Nay Win, who is the Ambassador of the Embassy of the Union of Burma is in charge of the sale of tickets for Myanmar Association ( UK ), Myanmar Anyeint & Music Concert hold on 31st July 2010 at Cophland Community College,Cecil Avenue , Wembley. HA9 7DU, London, during office hours in Embassy premises.
According to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, article 55-Sec 2, the consular premises shall not be used in any manner incompatible with the exercise of consular functions. Also in article 57-Sec 1 , it is clearly stated the career consular officers shall not carry out any professional or commercial activity in the receiving state.
Our view to this matter is also that this group falls into the third category ( personnel benefiting from the SPDC ) and should be banned from entering the European Community countries.
To avoid the ban of European Community visa to those benefiting from SPDC, the Burmese Ambassador of UK have used Burmese doctors residing in UK to sponsor the Burmese singers and dancers to acquire vistor visas to enter UK. Also the Burmese singers and dancers have no right to perform without UK work permit and they no right to sell tickets without VAT and Commercial taxes.
Sincerely yours
U Khin Maung Kyi
Former Burmese Diplomat and on behalf Burmese Community ( UK )
Myanmar Association ( UK ) in London is being sponsored by the Burmese Ambassador Maj-Gen.Nay Win long ago. This MAUK is pro-SPDC and a military related association. Please see the link at http://www.myanmarnet.co.uk/
The Burmese Elections: Prolonging the Misery and Postponing the Inevitable
Burma (aka Myanmar) is of the world's most brutal regimes and unfortunately, it is also amongst the least well understood. In terms of trade and communications, the country is as closed as North Korea and nearly as isolated as Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Its human rights abuses are widespread and increasing. The junta has one of the worst images in the world. It has very few friends and even it's powerful regional allies (China and India) keep a safe public distance so as not to catch any of the generals' political cooties.
Although the monk-led nonviolent Saffron Revolution, which hit a peak of public activity in the fall of 2007, has failed thus far to bring an end to the repression, the movement (which was a continuation of the student-led uprising from 1988) still persists. Brave activists risk their lives every day to move information in and out of the country, hoping to give global audiences a glimpse of the horrifying truth behind the veil.
The junta is holding elections sometime later in the year (best guesstimates are for October 10- which would make the date 10/10/10, a date consistent with the paranoid generals' fixation on numerology and superstition), but Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy party, which won 81% of the seats in the 1990 parliamentary elections (before the junta declared the victory fraudulent), has been imprisoned or under house arrest for most of the past 22 years and has been banned by the junta from participating in the elections. In protest, the NLD has also withdrawn from the elections. Which means that the people will have very little means constructive means through which to channel their discontent and hope for a free and democratic Burma unless the pro-democracy movement can organize an opposition force within the next three months, a feat that would be daunting even in an open society that permitted freedom of speech, association and movement.
So the conventional wisdom is that the junta will "win" the election and that this will "reinforce their power." This is a dangerous presumption, based on a common and deeply-embedded misconception that violence equals power. The generals will probably win the election because they have beaten, killed, imprisoned and otherwise bullied their competition out of the running. And where the process is corrupted, the result can not be legitimate. So the election will not reinforce the junta's power. It will simply reinforce the lie that the junta has real power.
Political legitimacy can be understood as the situation where the regime still stands even when the threat of force is removed. If the junta in Burma allowed for a fair and competitive election, they would lose. Resoundingly. Which means that the election is nothing more than a farce, designed to placate the increasingly global community with a show of "legitimacy." Because these particular tyrants seem even more removed from reality than many of their counterparts around the world, it is likely that their margin of victory will be enormous (in a healthy democratic election, it is very unusual to get a margin of victory of more than 10 percentage points, and where the incumbent party gets more than 70% in a national election, more times than not it is an indicator of corruption or fraud.)
The purpose of a democratic election is to 1) ascertain the best social choice, and 2) bestow legitimacy on the legislative/executive authority. If the process is manipulated so that neither of these things can happen, the outcome is meaningless. Understanding this, it is disappointing to think that any legitimate media observers take this farce of an election to be anything but a pathetic demonstration to the world that the generals can still repress their own people with the worst of them.
With their brutality against Buddhist monks- the soul of Burma- the junta gave away their last bits of moral authority. And this farce election is evidence that their last shreds of political legitimacy have evaporated. The international community has an obligation, at the very least, to recognize this inevitable "victory" for what it is- the last gasp of a decaying system. Sadly, the generals have demonstrated that they do not intend to go down alone. They'll spread the misery as far and wide as possible. But each act of brutality girds the people's will to resist them, and while the junta may again stretch out their tenure, these elections should be viewed not as a beginning, but as the beginning of the end.
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-boaz/the-burmese-elections-pro_b_628705.html
Although the monk-led nonviolent Saffron Revolution, which hit a peak of public activity in the fall of 2007, has failed thus far to bring an end to the repression, the movement (which was a continuation of the student-led uprising from 1988) still persists. Brave activists risk their lives every day to move information in and out of the country, hoping to give global audiences a glimpse of the horrifying truth behind the veil.
The junta is holding elections sometime later in the year (best guesstimates are for October 10- which would make the date 10/10/10, a date consistent with the paranoid generals' fixation on numerology and superstition), but Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy party, which won 81% of the seats in the 1990 parliamentary elections (before the junta declared the victory fraudulent), has been imprisoned or under house arrest for most of the past 22 years and has been banned by the junta from participating in the elections. In protest, the NLD has also withdrawn from the elections. Which means that the people will have very little means constructive means through which to channel their discontent and hope for a free and democratic Burma unless the pro-democracy movement can organize an opposition force within the next three months, a feat that would be daunting even in an open society that permitted freedom of speech, association and movement.
So the conventional wisdom is that the junta will "win" the election and that this will "reinforce their power." This is a dangerous presumption, based on a common and deeply-embedded misconception that violence equals power. The generals will probably win the election because they have beaten, killed, imprisoned and otherwise bullied their competition out of the running. And where the process is corrupted, the result can not be legitimate. So the election will not reinforce the junta's power. It will simply reinforce the lie that the junta has real power.
Political legitimacy can be understood as the situation where the regime still stands even when the threat of force is removed. If the junta in Burma allowed for a fair and competitive election, they would lose. Resoundingly. Which means that the election is nothing more than a farce, designed to placate the increasingly global community with a show of "legitimacy." Because these particular tyrants seem even more removed from reality than many of their counterparts around the world, it is likely that their margin of victory will be enormous (in a healthy democratic election, it is very unusual to get a margin of victory of more than 10 percentage points, and where the incumbent party gets more than 70% in a national election, more times than not it is an indicator of corruption or fraud.)
The purpose of a democratic election is to 1) ascertain the best social choice, and 2) bestow legitimacy on the legislative/executive authority. If the process is manipulated so that neither of these things can happen, the outcome is meaningless. Understanding this, it is disappointing to think that any legitimate media observers take this farce of an election to be anything but a pathetic demonstration to the world that the generals can still repress their own people with the worst of them.
With their brutality against Buddhist monks- the soul of Burma- the junta gave away their last bits of moral authority. And this farce election is evidence that their last shreds of political legitimacy have evaporated. The international community has an obligation, at the very least, to recognize this inevitable "victory" for what it is- the last gasp of a decaying system. Sadly, the generals have demonstrated that they do not intend to go down alone. They'll spread the misery as far and wide as possible. But each act of brutality girds the people's will to resist them, and while the junta may again stretch out their tenure, these elections should be viewed not as a beginning, but as the beginning of the end.
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-boaz/the-burmese-elections-pro_b_628705.html
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Election funds generated by issuing two-wheeler licenses
For the Burmese junta in Kachin state, election funds are now being sourced by issuing new licenses to illegal two wheelers, said local sources.
In one week, over 600 million Kyats (over US$625,000 as of 1$ = 650 kyat) has been raked in from people owning unlicensed motorcycles and motorcycle rickshaws in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State alone, said a local reliable source close to the authorities.
Chinese motorcycle rickshaws are popular in Kachin's capital Myitkyina for local transportation. Photo: Kachin News Group.
The cheap and poor-quality Chinese two wheelers are imported illegally along the border in eastern Kachin State, bordering China’s southwestern Yunnan province.
The license fees depend on the type and make of vehicles ranging between 180,000 Kyat (US$277) and 260,000 Kyat (US$400) for a motorcycle, and between 500,000 Kyat (US$769) and 800,000 Kyat (US$1,231) for a motorcycle rickshaw, owners of unlicensed vehicles in the city said.
New car licenses are not issued in Kachin State but orders are out to seize unlicensed cars, said residents.
At the same time, over 60 Japanese cars mostly without license and its drivers have been detained in Myitkyina. The drivers face three years in prison, said sources close to the seized unlicensed car owners.
In Kachin State, the military community and officers mainly use unlicensed Japanese cars but it is never confiscated by the authorities.
Unlicensed vehicles are being detained in Manmaw, or Bhamo, the second largest city in Kachin State since last week, said Zau Awng, a local resident.
In Kachin state, people are reluctant to make licenses because the fees are very high being nearly equal to the cost of the vehicles, and it is also difficult to acquire.
The order relating to issuing new licenses for vehicles excluding cars was announced early last week in Kachin State and will be wrapped up by June 30 by the Myitkyina Tax and Custom Office. The order also warns that all unlicensed two wheelers in the city will be confiscated as the nation’s property starting from July 1.
The junta desperately needs funds for the first elections in 20 years. The order to generate funds is on instructions of Burmese military leaders in Naypyitaw, the country’s capital.
Chinese vehicles, mainly motorcycles and motorcycle rickshaws are transported largely to military-ruled Burma from the illegal border trade points in Kachin State.
Seizure of unlicensed vehicles in Kachin State is noticed when urgent funds are need in Naypyitaw.
Source: http://kachinnews.com/News/Election-funds-generated-by-issuing-two-wheeler-licenses.html
In one week, over 600 million Kyats (over US$625,000 as of 1$ = 650 kyat) has been raked in from people owning unlicensed motorcycles and motorcycle rickshaws in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State alone, said a local reliable source close to the authorities.
Chinese motorcycle rickshaws are popular in Kachin's capital Myitkyina for local transportation. Photo: Kachin News Group.
The cheap and poor-quality Chinese two wheelers are imported illegally along the border in eastern Kachin State, bordering China’s southwestern Yunnan province.
The license fees depend on the type and make of vehicles ranging between 180,000 Kyat (US$277) and 260,000 Kyat (US$400) for a motorcycle, and between 500,000 Kyat (US$769) and 800,000 Kyat (US$1,231) for a motorcycle rickshaw, owners of unlicensed vehicles in the city said.
New car licenses are not issued in Kachin State but orders are out to seize unlicensed cars, said residents.
At the same time, over 60 Japanese cars mostly without license and its drivers have been detained in Myitkyina. The drivers face three years in prison, said sources close to the seized unlicensed car owners.
In Kachin State, the military community and officers mainly use unlicensed Japanese cars but it is never confiscated by the authorities.
Unlicensed vehicles are being detained in Manmaw, or Bhamo, the second largest city in Kachin State since last week, said Zau Awng, a local resident.
In Kachin state, people are reluctant to make licenses because the fees are very high being nearly equal to the cost of the vehicles, and it is also difficult to acquire.
The order relating to issuing new licenses for vehicles excluding cars was announced early last week in Kachin State and will be wrapped up by June 30 by the Myitkyina Tax and Custom Office. The order also warns that all unlicensed two wheelers in the city will be confiscated as the nation’s property starting from July 1.
The junta desperately needs funds for the first elections in 20 years. The order to generate funds is on instructions of Burmese military leaders in Naypyitaw, the country’s capital.
Chinese vehicles, mainly motorcycles and motorcycle rickshaws are transported largely to military-ruled Burma from the illegal border trade points in Kachin State.
Seizure of unlicensed vehicles in Kachin State is noticed when urgent funds are need in Naypyitaw.
Source: http://kachinnews.com/News/Election-funds-generated-by-issuing-two-wheeler-licenses.html
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Burma: a brief history
Later this year, Burma is expected to hold its first multi-party elections for twenty years. We look back at the country's turbulent and oppressive history.
World War II
Burma was a major battleground for the British and the Japanese. Three hundred thousand refugees fled to India, but by July 1945 Britain had re-taken the country from the Japanese. The Burma National Army, formed by revolutionary and nationalist Aung San in 1937, initially supported the Japanese, but in 1943, fearful that the Japanese promises of independence were not sincere, changed sides and joined the Allies.
Post-1945
After the war, Aung San was instrumental in restoring civilian politics from the military administration established by the British. He also negotiated independence for Burma with British Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
In 1947, the first elections were held in Burma since its split from the British Raj. Aung San's Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) won 176 of the 210 seats, but Aung San and six of his cabinet ministers were assassinated by paramilitaries loyal to colonial era Prime Minister U Saw. Several British military officers were also implicated in the plot, and were tried and imprisoned. U Saw was executed.
The Union of Burma
Following Aung San's assassination, the leadership of the AFPFL passed to U Nu, who oversaw the country's final transition to an independent Burma in January 1948. U Nu became the first prime minister of the Union of Burma.
Under the constitution of 1947, a bicameral parliament was elected. General elections were held in 1952/3, 1956 and 1960, with the AFPFL continuing to dominate both houses.
In 1961, Burmese civil servant U Thant was unanimously appointed UN Secretary-General, the first non-westerner to hold the position. Among the Burmese staff he took with him to the post was Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San. But in 1962, just two years after the republic's third general election as an independent state, the government of U Nu was overthrown in a coup d'etat lead by General Ne Win.
The 'Burmese Way to Socialism'
Ne Win ruled the country as a one-party state until 1988, under the auspices of an ideology he called the 'Burmese Way to Socialism'. This lead to economic and political isolationism, the expulsion of foreigners, and the nationalisation of industry.
Student protests at Rangoon University in 1962 resulted in 15 deaths, and similar student activism in 1975, 1976 and 1977 were also suppressed. In 1974, anti-government protests at the funeral of UN Secretary-General U Thant were quickly and violently suppressed by the military.
On the 8 August 1988, frustration at economic mismanagement and brutal oppression lead to the nation-wide protests known as the 8888 Uprising, in which students, monks, and citizens took to the streets to protest against the military junta.
Once again, the revolt was brutally put down, with many casualties. Precise numbers differ, with opposition groups claiming thousands of people were killed by the military, whilst the regime say only 350 lost their lives.
Rule by military junta
A group which was to become the still-ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), lead by General Saw Maung, seized power and declared martial law. In May 1990, the first multi-party elections were held in 30 years.
The National League for Democracy, lead by Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 of the 498 seats, but the SPDC refused to relinquish power. In 1992, Saw Maung unexpectedly resigned for health reasons, and current dictator Than Shwe succeeded him as head of state, secretary of defence and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and has subsequently spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest.
In 2007, following the junta's decision to remove fuel subsidies, causing the price of fuel to double overnight, demonstrations took place. After an initial crackdown, marches continued under the leadership of thousands of Buddhist monks. Thousands were arrested, and 14 of the leaders were sentenced to 65 years in the infamous British-built Insein prison.
Buddhist monks have been a rallying point for opposition since the early 20th century, when riots broke out over the issue of the British colonists refusing the remove their shoes in the temples.
Beyond the 2007 uprising
Ethnic violence continues in the country, with the Karen people of southeastern Burma particularly prominent in their insurgency. There has also been protracted conflict between the junta and the Han Chinese, Va and Kachin people in the north.
The devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 in the Irrawaddy rice-farming region was severe, with around 200,000 people estimated to have died. However, the isolationist stance of the junta and the endemic corruption in major industries and local government prevented either domestic or foreign aid having much of an impact. United Nations planes bringing food aid and medical supplies were delayed by the junta.
In 2009, an American named John Yettaw swam across Lake Inya to reach Aung San Suu Kyi's residence for the second time (he first visited in May 2008), and was arrested and deported for breaching the terms of her house arrest. As a result, she was given a further 18 months' confinement, meaning that she can take no part in elections held in 2010.
Under the new constitution ratified by referendum amid the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the new democratically-elected assembly will reserve a quarter of its seats for the military. Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, has said that it will boycott the elections because of laws that prevent their leader from participating.
http://www.bdcburma.org/NewsDetails.asp?id=657
World War II
Burma was a major battleground for the British and the Japanese. Three hundred thousand refugees fled to India, but by July 1945 Britain had re-taken the country from the Japanese. The Burma National Army, formed by revolutionary and nationalist Aung San in 1937, initially supported the Japanese, but in 1943, fearful that the Japanese promises of independence were not sincere, changed sides and joined the Allies.
Post-1945
After the war, Aung San was instrumental in restoring civilian politics from the military administration established by the British. He also negotiated independence for Burma with British Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
In 1947, the first elections were held in Burma since its split from the British Raj. Aung San's Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) won 176 of the 210 seats, but Aung San and six of his cabinet ministers were assassinated by paramilitaries loyal to colonial era Prime Minister U Saw. Several British military officers were also implicated in the plot, and were tried and imprisoned. U Saw was executed.
The Union of Burma
Following Aung San's assassination, the leadership of the AFPFL passed to U Nu, who oversaw the country's final transition to an independent Burma in January 1948. U Nu became the first prime minister of the Union of Burma.
Under the constitution of 1947, a bicameral parliament was elected. General elections were held in 1952/3, 1956 and 1960, with the AFPFL continuing to dominate both houses.
In 1961, Burmese civil servant U Thant was unanimously appointed UN Secretary-General, the first non-westerner to hold the position. Among the Burmese staff he took with him to the post was Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San. But in 1962, just two years after the republic's third general election as an independent state, the government of U Nu was overthrown in a coup d'etat lead by General Ne Win.
The 'Burmese Way to Socialism'
Ne Win ruled the country as a one-party state until 1988, under the auspices of an ideology he called the 'Burmese Way to Socialism'. This lead to economic and political isolationism, the expulsion of foreigners, and the nationalisation of industry.
Student protests at Rangoon University in 1962 resulted in 15 deaths, and similar student activism in 1975, 1976 and 1977 were also suppressed. In 1974, anti-government protests at the funeral of UN Secretary-General U Thant were quickly and violently suppressed by the military.
On the 8 August 1988, frustration at economic mismanagement and brutal oppression lead to the nation-wide protests known as the 8888 Uprising, in which students, monks, and citizens took to the streets to protest against the military junta.
Once again, the revolt was brutally put down, with many casualties. Precise numbers differ, with opposition groups claiming thousands of people were killed by the military, whilst the regime say only 350 lost their lives.
Rule by military junta
A group which was to become the still-ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), lead by General Saw Maung, seized power and declared martial law. In May 1990, the first multi-party elections were held in 30 years.
The National League for Democracy, lead by Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 of the 498 seats, but the SPDC refused to relinquish power. In 1992, Saw Maung unexpectedly resigned for health reasons, and current dictator Than Shwe succeeded him as head of state, secretary of defence and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and has subsequently spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest.
In 2007, following the junta's decision to remove fuel subsidies, causing the price of fuel to double overnight, demonstrations took place. After an initial crackdown, marches continued under the leadership of thousands of Buddhist monks. Thousands were arrested, and 14 of the leaders were sentenced to 65 years in the infamous British-built Insein prison.
Buddhist monks have been a rallying point for opposition since the early 20th century, when riots broke out over the issue of the British colonists refusing the remove their shoes in the temples.
Beyond the 2007 uprising
Ethnic violence continues in the country, with the Karen people of southeastern Burma particularly prominent in their insurgency. There has also been protracted conflict between the junta and the Han Chinese, Va and Kachin people in the north.
The devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 in the Irrawaddy rice-farming region was severe, with around 200,000 people estimated to have died. However, the isolationist stance of the junta and the endemic corruption in major industries and local government prevented either domestic or foreign aid having much of an impact. United Nations planes bringing food aid and medical supplies were delayed by the junta.
In 2009, an American named John Yettaw swam across Lake Inya to reach Aung San Suu Kyi's residence for the second time (he first visited in May 2008), and was arrested and deported for breaching the terms of her house arrest. As a result, she was given a further 18 months' confinement, meaning that she can take no part in elections held in 2010.
Under the new constitution ratified by referendum amid the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the new democratically-elected assembly will reserve a quarter of its seats for the military. Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, has said that it will boycott the elections because of laws that prevent their leader from participating.
http://www.bdcburma.org/NewsDetails.asp?id=657
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