UN expert slams Burma impunity

Oct 23, 2009 –Widespread government impunity in Burma has allowed the country’s “alarming” human rights situation to continue unabated, the United Nations special rapporteur for Burma said yesterday.

Little progress has been made to correct “a pattern of widespread and systematic violations” in the military-ruled country, according to Tomas Ojea Quintana, who was speaking at a press conference.

He also called for special attention to be paid to the plight of Muslim communities in Burma, who face frequent religious persecution.

Member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting in Thailand today for the start of the 15th ASEAN summit, where controversial elections in Burma scheduled for next year, are high on the agenda for discussion.

Burma’s presence in the bloc has become increasingly thorny since the imprisonment in August of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose detention was widely seen as a ploy by the government to keep her away from the elections.

An appeal drafted by ASEAN leaders that called for her release was scrapped earlier this week after critics accused it of breaching ASEAN’s non-interference policy. Quintana said that he had urged the Burmese junta on a number of occasions to ensure that the elections are fair and transparent.

“I told the Government that…freedom of speech, movement and association should be guaranteed in the country, and of course that all prisoners of conscience should be released before those elections,” he said.

He also called on the government to “take prompt measures to establish accountability and responsibility” with regard to human rights violations.

The issue of food security in Burma has made headlines in recent weeks, with a human rights group warning that Karen state in the east of the country was facing its worst food crisis in over a decade.

Quintana referred to the “starvation situation” in many regions of the country, including the Arakan, Chin, and Shan states. He also voiced concern over the “dire” social and economic conditions within the country.

Included in a four-point plan outlined by Quintana was the installation of an independent judiciary in Burma, and the reform of the military, “which needs to respect international humanitarian law in conflict areas, as well as the rights of civilians.”

Myanmar's Chin people persecuted

By DENIS D. GRAY

BANGKOK,

Thailand (AP) — The Chin people, Christians living in the remote mountains of northwestern Myanmar, are subject to forced labor, torture, extrajudicial killings and religious persecution by the country's military regime, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The New York-based Human Right Watch said as many as 100,000 people have fled the Chin homeland into neighboring India, where they face abuse and the risk of being forced back into Myanmar."The Chin are unsafe in Burma and unprotected in India," a report from the group said. The report said the regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma, continues to commit atrocities against its other ethnic minorities.Myanmar's ruling junta has been widely accused of widespread human rights violations in ethnic minority areas where anti-government insurgent groups are fighting for autonomy.

The government has repeatedly denied such charges. An e-mailed request for comment on the new report was not immediately answered.

Photo- CHRO

Chief Secretary Vanhela Pachau, a top official for India's Mizoram state, said he had not seen the report and could not comment."(The police) hit me in my mouth and broke my front teeth. They split my head open and I was bleeding badly. They also shocked me with electricity," the group quoted a Chin man accused of supporting the insurgents, who are small in number and largely ineffective.He was one of some 140 Chin people interviewed by the human rights group from 2005 to 2008. The group said the names of those interviewed were withheld to prevent reprisals.

A number of people spoke of being forced out of their villages to serve as unpaid porters for the army or to build roads, sentry posts and army barracks.Amy Alexander, a consultant for Human Rights Watch, told a news conference that insurgents of the Chin National Front also committed abuses such as extorting money from villagers to fund their operations.Alexander said Myanmar's government, attempting to suppress minority cultures, was destroying churches, desecrating crosses, interfering with worship services by forcing Christians to work on Sundays and promoting Buddhism through threats and inducements. Some 90 percent of the Chin are Christians, most of them adherents to the American Baptist Church.Ethnic insurgencies erupted in Myanmar in the late 1940s when the country gained independence from Great Britain.

Former junta member Gen. Khin Nyunt negotiated cease-fires with 17 of the insurgent groups before he was ousted by rival generals in 2004.Among rebels still fighting are groups from the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Chin minorities.At least half a million minority people have been internally displaced in eastern Myanmar as a result of the regime's brutal military campaigns while refugees continue to flee to the Thai-Myanmar border. More than 145,000 refugees receive international humanitarian assistance in Thai border camps.Alexander said that some 30,000 Chin have also sought refuge in Malaysia while about 500 were living in Thai border camps.

Burma Continues Rights Abuse on Ethnic Chin Christians Amid Food Crisis

By Joseph Keenan

A new report by a human rights watchdog says that there is widespread human rights abuses by the Burmese Army continue even as much of the population of ethnic Chin Christians are struggling with food crisis in western Burma.

Many ethnic Burmese Chin Christians, who are the main inhabitants of Chin state, have fled to the neighbouring countries due to continued persecutions. The Christians, who have had suffered enough under the military regime had to deal with a rare phenomenon of rat infestation of crops since 2007, causing the food crisis in the state.

Chin Christians claimed that the military regime knew of the impending food crisis that happens once in half a centry, but “took no action” unlike the Indian government who dealt with the same phenomenon in the neihbouring India state of Mizoram and Manipur.

The reported titled, “On the Edge of Survival: Continuing Rat Infestation and Food Crisis,” published Thursday by Canada-based Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) said that the food shortages, which began in 2007 have spread to seven townships in Chin State and parts of neighboring Sagaing Division with as much as 80 percent of the farmlands destroyed by rats in some areas affected by rat infestation.

“Through utter neglect and continuing practices of human rights abuse, the military regime has turned this natural disaster into a man-made catrastrophe,” says Salai Bawi Lian Mang, Executive Director of Chin Human Rights Organization.

Attributed to a one-in-fifty-year cyclical flowering and dying of bamboo and subsequent infestation of rats, the new report says the food shortages in Chin State have been made more acute by arbitrary policies and practices of abuse and repression against Chin civilians at the hands of the Burma Army.

The report noted that despite increased attention to the crisis and involvement by international aid organizations such as the World Food Program (WFP), the response has been limited and even problematic in certain aspects, with thousands of people still unreached by relief efforts, especially the South and Southwest part of Chin state where there is no proper connectivity of road.

Myanmar, the new name for Burma until the junta change it in 1989 is ranked No.24 by Open Doors 2009 Watch List of the top 50 nations that are worst persecutors of Christians. Myanmar has been under the junta since the infamous military coup in 1962.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organization specialized in religious freedom around the world in a secret visit to the Burma-Thailand border in May this year said there is rampant violation of human rights and restriction of religious freedom especially those of the minority Christians. It was very similar to the report of CHRO on ethnic Chin Christians.

The CSW report also uncovered forced labour, rape, torture, the destruction of villages, crops and livestock, and the use of human minesweepers at the hands of the military regime are common in states dominated by ethnic minorities like Chin, Kachin, Karen and Karenni – who are majority Christians.

Christians make up about 4 percent of the estimated 55 million populations of which Baptists are the single largest Christian denomination. It is an overwhelmingly Buddhist country with as many as 89 percent adhering to Buddhism.

Many ethnic Christian minorities who form majority of Burmese Christians have fled the country due to rampant human rights violation and religious persecutions in the country.

Recent news of Burma underlines local event

August 31, 2009

Burmese democracy activists held a memorial day event at Keller Region Park, to remember those who laid down their lives 21 years ago for democracy in their homeland Burma now also known as Myanmar.

The event was organized by the Committee for Celebration, with a gathering of various ethnic compatriots of Burma, along with student activists, then and now, refugees and asylees representing various pro-democracy groups. Together they marked the 21st event to remember the 8888 Pro-democracy Movement – named for August 8, 1988, when the military junta suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations against the military takeover following the National Leagues for Democracy victory in the elections that would have made Daw Aung San Suu Kyi president.

The participants posed with a cardboard independence monument replica crafted by Aung San Oo. An oil painting of Suu Kyi by activist Chit Win was displayed together with a photo of her late father, General Aung San, considered the father of Burma's independence and assassinated by paramilitaries in 1947.

Hundred and possibly thousands students and citizens were shot during the mushrooming nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations. The Minnesota ceremony began with a laying a wreath to mourn the deaths and for the fate of the expatriates and fellow countrymen inside of Burma.

There were several statements read to call for the military to hand over power to the 1990 election winners and free Aung San Suu Kyi and Khun Htun Oo and all prisoners of conscience.

Ye Din, a student activist, called for the government to abolish its plan to hold new elections in 2010 – calling them a sham that is designed to prolong the rein of the ruling military.

Saw Hla Tun Oo of the Karen Community of Minnesota, who took part in the student demonstrations of 1988, said the events are still vivid.

“We shall not forget those who have sacrificed their lives for democracy and will strive to achieve what they have given their lives for,” said Oo.

Ko Chin, also a student activist, said that given the history of the democracy movement’s attempts to reconcile with the junta, that he now does not believe this is possible. He described a leadership vacuum where NLD leaders continue to remain jailed.

''So the only option left for change to democracy in Burma, in my opinion, is through peoples’ power or armed struggle,” he said.

Benjamin Aung, a local community leader, was a student activist in the demonstrations against the military when the army shot and killed university students on July 7, 1962.

Aung also recalled when Burma’s most well-known citizen of the 1960s, United Nations Secretary General U Thant of Burma, succeeded Dag Hammarskold in 1961 and served until 1971, and during the time of the Myanmar junta takeover. When he died of cancer in 1974, the Myanmar junta refused to grant national honors in the burial service.

The final speaker was the Venerable monk, Ashin Thondara, who said ''as a 21 year old the pro-democracy movement is very strong and healthy.''

''We should have no fear when fighting for Democracy or Human Rights,” he added. “Truth is the real strength. The world loves the truth. Have faith and carry on. Downfall awaits the junta.”

The ceremony concluded with the 1988 democracy movement song '' KAba Ma Kye Bu'' (We Shall Not Forget) with guitarist Soe Naing and Chit Win.

Women’s groups urge Security Council to act on Burma

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Women activists the world over on Friday urged Ban Ki-moon United Nations Secretary General to push the Security Council to form a Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma.

The 64 groups representing various women’s groups across the globe, in a letter written to Ban Ki-moon, said Burma’s military rulers led by Snr Gen Than Shwe have been committing crimes against humanity, particularly on women folk, with impunity.

“We are calling on the UN Secretary General to push for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate into the crimes against humanity committed by the ruling junta at the least, and we are demanding that the UNSC refer Snr. Gen Than Shwe to the International Criminal Court,” Thin Thin Aung, a presidium board member of the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), an umbrella Burmese women’s group, said.

Among many forms of violations, rape and sexual violence have been long used as a tool to intimidate ethnic women in remote areas of the country by the junta’s army and most of the time, the perpetrator goes unpunished, Thin Thin Aung said.

The call came as the 15 members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday were set to hold an informal debate on the Secretary General’s report on the situation of women across the globe.

In the report, submitted on July 15 to the Council, Ban acknowledged that discrimination against women in areas where minority communities reside are rampant, and the prevalence of sexual violence against rural women from the ethnic groups including Shan, Mon, Karen, Palaung and Chin by members of the junta’s armed forces.

In relevance to Ban Ki-moon’s report to the UN Security Council resolution 1820, the women’s groups urged the Secretary General to invoke the Right to Protect (R2P) and conduct a humanitarian intervention, as the ruling junta, despite the amount of evidence of their crimes, will resist any form of UN intervention.

“The UNSC is the highest body internationally and their referral to the ICC is the only way to force Than Shwe to justice because the junta will not agree to any UN intervention,” Thin Thin Aung said.

“In Myanmar [Burma], women and girls are afraid of working in the fields or travelling unaccompanied, given regular military checkpoints where they are often subjected to sexual harassment,” Ban said in his report to the Council.

WLB, since 2008, has begun a campaign to push the Security Council to refer Than Shwe to the ICC, and during the open debate on its resolution 1820, members of the WLB will also meet member states of the Council and will urge to endorse their call.

In their letter to the Secretary General, the women’s groups said, reports of past violations, continued systematic repression, and an incapacitated judicial system stand as solid witness to the need for  strong international intervention.

Junta permits new radio stations to air

Aug 5, 2009 (DVB)–Three new FM radio stations will soon begin broadcasting across 10 states and divisions in Burma in a joint operative between private companies and the Burmese government.

The stations, named Shwe, Cherry and Padamya, will go on air on 15 August, adding to the four FM stations already in existence in Burma.

This is the first time stations not fully owned by the government will be allowed to broadcast in the country, although the three have been given permission by the ruling junta.

“Now we can say we are stepping into a new era of the broadcasting service,” said Maung Thit Min, from the Myanmar Music Association (MMA), a state-formed industry body.

“Before there were only government broadcasting stations but now it is more like a joint cooperation between the government and the private companies,” he said.

Shwe FM radio station, which is based in Bago division, will cover the Bago and Tenasserim divisions, and Karen and Mon state.

Cherry FM will cover Shan state and Karenni state, while Padamya FM will broadcast across Magwe and Sagaing divisions, and Kachin state and Chin state.

At present there is no copyright law in Burma and stations can freely use artists’ music with no financial gains for the creator.

However, in an initiative set up by Mandalay FM, one of the four existing FM radio stations, fees are being paid individually to artists. The three new radio stations are currently negotiating with the MMA for a similar deal.

“Because the broadcasting is becoming more privatised, they start to give more favour to copyright as well as a profit for [the artists],” said Maung Thit Min.

It is unclear why the government has given permission for the new stations, although the looming 2010 elections might provide a reason for the government to step-up its broadcasts.

Observers have said they expect to see the junta looking for new ways to spread campaign messages in the run-up to the elections.

Only four opposition radio stations, including DVB, broadcast into Burma and are picked up on shortwave radio frequencies.

All media in Burma is strictly controlled by the government's Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, and no opposition media legally exists.

Six Youths Conscripted into Burmese Army

Bandarban: Six Arakanese youth from the Indo-Burma border area in southern Chin State were recruited by the Burmese army last week with food and other property given to their family, said a teacher from the area.

"The youths are from Tharaw Ai Village and their families are very poor. The army officials organized the youths' families by giving food and cash to recruit their sons. Later the army officials forced the youth to join the army," he said.

The village of Tharaw Ai is located on the upper Kaladan River near the Indian border and consists of over 70 households, all of which are Arakanese.

The six youths who were conscripted into the army are Bo Win Tun, 18-year-old son of U Thein Aung, Aung Aung Than, 18-year-old son of Chin Khaing, Kyaw Kyaw Win, 18-year-old son of U Maung Kyaw, Aung Thein, 20-year-old son of U Aung Tun Oo, Pho Thein Kyaw, 18 years old, U Aung Thein Kyaw, and Maung Loon, 17-year-old son of U Aung Tun Khaing.

"The six youths were sent on Sunday to LIB 289 based in Paletwa. They will be sent to the Sittwe recruitment center from there for military training," the teacher added.

The youths who were conscripted by the army are mostly illiterate, and Maung Loon has never attended school.

The Burmese army is currently collecting a list of youths aged 18 to 25 who are living in the Indo-Burma border area but has not disclosed the reason for collecting this list. However, the army battalions stationed in the border area have been recruiting young people extensively by giving pay-offs of cash and food to their families.

Recently, three Khami youths in the area joined the Burmese army after army officials gave food and other items to their famine-stricken families. Youths in the border area who are illiterate and poor have been targeted by the Burmese army for recruitment and conscription.

Free Burma Rangers — Reports- Evidence of Burma Army extortion demands on villagers facing food-Chin State

View this document on Scribd

US Lawmakers Renew Import Ban on Burma for one More Year

A ban on imports from Burma has been renewed for one year by the US House of Representatives.

The ban affects a range of products but especially Burmese gemstones via third countries, said the Voice of America radio station.
The house action seeks to renew the import bans contained in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, which was due to expire on July 26.
It comes as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that the United States would consider resuming investment and other economic links if the Burmese regime freed Aung San Suu Kyi.

The sponsor of the renewed import ban, New York Democrat Joseph Crowley, said it was justified because the “junta has also rejected recent diplomatic outreach” on the Suu Kyi issue.
Republican Kevin Brady of Texas was quoted by VOA as saying that although he regarded sanctions with “great skepticism,” they are “crafted to maximize their ability to effect change.”
The renewal was backed by the American Apparel & Footwear Association.
Under the act, however, President Barack Obama has the power to lift the trade sanctions if he considers that steps have been taken by the Burmese junta to improve human rights.
Aid for Burmese Nuclear Reactor Complies with Rules, says Moscow
Russia’s state-controlled Novosti news agency has declared that Moscow’s cooperation with Burma on commercial nuclear development does not contravene international treaties on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
The agency this week quoted a Russian foreign ministry spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, on the issue at the same time the US expressed concerns about a possible liaison between the Burmese and North Korean regimes.
Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation, signed an agreement in 2007 to help construct a nuclear research center in Burma, and Moscow will stand by this agreement, Nesterenko said.
The deal, which is supposed to cost tens of millions of dollars, envisages developing a reactor with an energy capacity of 10 megawatts.
However, Novosti also noted that there had been virtually no practical development of the agreement since it was signed.
Burma Says it Wants More Trade with India and Bangladesh
Burma, Bangladesh and India have met to discuss trade expansion between the three countries.
Kyaw Nyunt Lwin, the first secretary of the Burmese mission in New Delhi, represented Burma at the talks this week in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, according to the Indian newspaper The Telegraph.
The Burmese envoy called for increased trade with India to include more Burmese imports of machinery, cement, fertilizer and consumer goods. In return, he said, Burma wanted to export more teak, fish and pulses to India.
Little was reported on the details of any improvement in Burma-Bangladesh trade.
India is one of Burma’s biggest customers for pulse crops.
New Delhi state funding is financing a US $120 million transport and port improvement inside Burma, connecting Mizoram with the Burmese port of Sittwe via the River Kaladan.
India is Burma’s fourth biggest trading partner, but still lags far behind Thailand and China. However, it is catching up with Singapore in third place.
Nepal Seeks to Improve Ties with Burma
Nepal is planning to reestablish direct air links with Burma after a 20-year break.
The plan comes as a result of the two countries’ membership in BIMSTEC—the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
Nepal and Burma are among seven member countries of the organization, which also includes India and Thailand.
Landlocked Nepal severed previous air links with Burma in 1988 and there have been virtually no economic ties between the two countries since.

State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2009 - Burma (Myanmar)

Following the anti-government protests of September 2007, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets daily, and the following a brutal government crackdown, the security situation within Burma has remained tense. The US-based Freedom House, in its 2008 global report on Freedom in the World, has ranked Burma among the 'worst of the worst' countries, 'where civilians enjoy negligible political and civil liberties'.
The military regime held a constitutional referendum in May 2008, just weeks after Cyclone Nargis had struck, despite pleas from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to postpone it and focus on humanitarian relief. The referendum – part of a 'roadmap' to democracy – ensures a pivotal role for the military, with enough seats in parliament to block any further reform without its agreement.
Minorities were widely excluded from this process. The draft constitution, written by a committee hand-picked by the government and boycotted by the National League for Democracy and ethnic parties, was only available in Burmese and English, and had not been translated into any of the 135 other languages spoken by an estimated 40 per cent of the Burmese population. According to government sources there was a 92.5 per cent approval rate of the constitutional referendum.
In the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the government failed to provide relief to hundreds of thousands of victims and blocked international aid efforts for weeks. One month after the cyclone struck, UN estimates placed the number of dead at 78,000, with 56,000 still missing; 2 million people were still in need of relief. There were reports that minorities were being systematically excluded from assistance in the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta.
The Karen, who account for nearly 7 million of Burma's 57 million people, have their own distinctive culture and language and count Buddhists, Christians and animists among them. Throughout the year an increasing number of Karen refugees crossed over the border to northern Thailand from Karen State, where South East Asia's longest separatist conflict is being waged between Burmese troops and the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU).
The current phase of the military campaign appears to be the most intense. In 2008 Amnesty International classified attacks by Burmese troops overtly targeting civilians as crimes against humanity. According to the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, around 66,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to the armed conflict and human rights abuses.
Education in state schools in Karen areas, even where they are the majority of the population, is exclusively provided in the Burmese language, and government offices provide no access to services in Karen languages. Government jobs in Karen areas appear to be increasingly the reserved domain of ethnic Burman.
The assassination of the general secretary of the KNU, Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, on 14 February 2008, was a major setback for their cause. Observers suspected that the assassins were either rival Karens or were dispatched by the Burmese government.
The Chin, 90 per cent of whom are Christian, account for about 1 per cent of Burma's population and live in the mountainous region near the Indian border. The Chin National Front armed group is engaged in a long-running battle with the military junta.
The UN reports that 70 per cent of the people in Chin State live below the poverty line and 40 per cent lack access to adequate food sources. Since 2006, the region has been plagued by a severe food crisis, which is compounded by the military regime's repressive economic policies. According to a Chin Human Rights Organization 2008 report, the use of unpaid civilian labour is widespread throughout Chin State and farmers are forcibly ordered by the regime to substitute their staple crops for cash crops. The organization also documents the arbitrary collection of 'donations' and taxes by the Burmese authorities from Chin households in major towns.
Human Rights Watch reports ongoing religious repression against the Chin in mainly Buddhist Burma. The Tatmadaw (Burmese military) has burnt down churches, demolished crosses and prayer rooms to make way for military buildings and infrastructure. Chin also describe torture and beatings by Burmese soldiers, arbitrary arrest and being forced to work as army porters.
Cheery Zahau, of the Women's League of Chinland, says Burma's military government continues to use rape as a weapon to subdue ethnic minorities.
There is a dire lack of school facilities in many villages in Chin State, forcing Chin children to walk to distant towns and villages or pay expensive boarding fees to attend classes. The quality of education is extremely poor and classes are taught in Burmese. The authorities continue to close down Chin private schools.
The construction of two dams along the Salween River is threatening the existence and livelihood of the Akha, Karen, Karenni, Lahu, Lisu, Mon, Padaung, Palaung, Pa-O, Shan and Wa minorities who live along the river. In 2008 the NGO Society for Threatened Peoples reported that the Ta Sang Dam in Shan State has already caused the forced relocation of about 300,000 people (most of whom are Shan) and the military have expelled around 15,000 people during the construction of the Hut Gyi Dam in Karen State.
The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority living in northern Rakhine State, western Burma, are unable to qualify for citizenship and their freedom of movement is severely restricted. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, in an April 2008 statement, also cited extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation and forced evictions; restricted access to medical care, food and adequate housing; forced labour; and restrictions on marriages.

Restoring Democracy in Burma, Supporting-hands from Northeast India

Nava Thakuria

July 19, 2009

Contrary to New Delhi´s policy on Burma (Myanmar), the civil society and advocacy groups of Northeast India continue supporting the pro-democratic movement in the military ruled country. If the Central government is willing to engage the Burmese junta for various strategic and trade relationship, the student-youth-journalist and also political party workers of the region maintain their demands to snap all ties with the brand of dictators of Nay Pyi Taw (the new capital of Burma after Rangoon).

They are also in unanimous in various public meetings taking places in the region that the pro-democracy Burmese icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be released and allowed her to continue the political activities.

The latest interaction between a group of Burmese exiles and local citizens of Guwahati revolved around those issues. The meeting at Guwahati Press Club on July 4, where an exile Burmese Parliamentarian participated, concluded with a number of resolutions in support for the democratic movement in the Southeast Asian country.

Organised jointly by Burma Centre Delhi and Journalists´ Forum Assam, meeting on ´India´s Policy on Burma: A Northeastern Perspective´ also witnessed the discussion on the probable ways, by which the people from Northeast can extend support for the movement led by Suu Kyi.

Addressing the gathering, Dr. Tint Swe, an exile Member of Parliament, National Coalition Government of Union of Burma, argued that New Delhi should play a major role in democratization of Burma. The elected Parliamentarian (in 1990 general election of Burma), who has been living in India for more than a decade, did not forget to mention about the help and cooperation from Indian people in general and the Northeastern in particular in their endeavor.

"India being the largest democracy in the globe should review its policy on Burma and make it as pro-democratic movement," insisted Dr. Tint Swe adding, "New Delhi should also review its Look East Policy, as the military dictators of Burma will never support the initiative to be successful."

"Burma and India has a strong historical and geographical link where Northeast shares a very close connection in terms of trade, political beliefs and culture. In 1988, during democracy uprising in Burma, New Delhi as well as the people of India strongly supported the movement and provided shelter to those who fled to Indo-Burma border by setting up refugee camps in Mizoram and Manipur," highlighted M Kim, another Burmese exile in India. Kim, who is living in New Delhi for two decades, also added, "However, from the mid 1990s, a shift took place in New Delhi´s attitude when it launched its Look East Policy and began engaging the military junta in bilateral cooperation."

Today New Delhi maintains a sustained strategic relationship with the ruling State Peace and Development Council, under which a series of agreements and memorandums of understanding were signed. More over, the government of India remains silent on the issue of Suu Kyi´s re-arrest and trail, even though the great Lady was hounoured with Jawaharlal Nehru Peace Prize and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose award. The daughter of Aung San, the father of modern Burma, Suu Kyi was also awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mentionable that Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for nearly 13 years out of 19 years stay in her country. More recently, Suu Kyi was shifted to the Insein prison of Rangoon, where she has been tried at a special court with the charge of violating rules under her house arrest. Suu Kyi is recognised as one of the world's most renowned freedom fighters and the SPDC is understood to try its best to prevent her (with her party National League for Democracy) participating in the forthcoming General Election during 2010.

"Asia had given birth to many great women leaders. But it can be said without doubt that Suu Kyi will be regarded as one of the greatest heroic women not only of Asia but of the world. While presenting the Congressional Medal of honour to Suu Kyi, Washington formally recognised her a status equal to other non-American recipients of the medal like Sir Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Mother Theresa," commented Rajen Barua of Friends of Assam and Seven Sisters (FASS).

Speaking to this writer from Houston, Barua also added, "For the Burmese people, Suu Kyi represents their best and perhaps only hope that one day there will be an end to the country's military repression. Today, from the isolation of her house arrest Suu Kyi radiates a moral authority that exposes the illegitimacy of the Burmese regime and all of its pretensions to appear different from what it really is."

Earlier in an official message to the organisers, the FASS argued that the people of Northeast´ as a neighbour of Burma need to keep in touch with the people of Burma and especially the enlightened Burmese who are living outside their counrty´.

"We in the Northeast have more important roles to play. After all, we are very much concerned about the hardship that Suu Kyi is going through. We also urge the government of China, Russia and other countries with strong ties with Burma, to pressurise the military rulers for immediate release of Suu Kyi, so that she can freely move in Burma for advancement of democratic values and human rights," the message, which was read out by Jayanta Barman in the Guwahati meeting, added.

Meanwhile, in a message sent to the organisers of Guwahati meeting, the All Assam Students´ Union and the North East Students´ Organisation leader Dr Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya expressed their support to the pro-democracy movement in Burma and demanded release of Suu Kyi.

The meeting urged New Delhi to stop forthwith sales of all arms to the military rulers of Burma, who use the weapons to suppress the ever-growing movement for democracy in the country. It also demanded immediate release of over 2000 political prisoners in Burma including Suu Kyi. India should have a non-discriminatory refugee policy as early as possible, another resolution said.

The speakers including Dr Alana Golmei, Htun Htun from Burma Centre Delhi and journalists Rupam Baruah, Hiten Mahanta, Biman Hazarika, RK Goswami with others were of the opinion that trade relations between India and Burma should not be at the cost of the democratic movement in that country. Mentionable that both the neighboring countries did business to the tune of nearly US $ 900 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year.

The major outcome of the meeting was the proposal to form a regional forum to pursue democracy in Burma. The proposed ´Northeast India Forum for Democracy in Burma´ is supposed to provide space for the people of Northeast and Burma to join hands with an aim to continue the campaign against the military junta.

Similarly, few days back, hundreds of Mizo and Burmese activists organised a demonstration at Aizawl with the primary demand for an early release of Suu Kyi. Initiated by Mizoram Committee for Democracy in Burma, the programme on June 25, also included the decision to send a memorandum to the Indian President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, through the state government of Mizoram-bordering Chin State of Burma-with an appeal to pursue with the Burmese government for the release of Suu Kyi and also restoration of democracy in Burma.

Mentionable that over 50,000 Chin people have been taking shelter in Mizoram. Most of them are economic migrants, who crossed the Indo-Burma border for a better future in India. Many of them are activists, who fled their country to escape the repression of the junta. Amazingly, the Chin and Mizo people share similar historical, cultural and religious backgrounds. But time to time, the state witnesses resentment against those unwelcome guests from Burma.

Representatives from the ruling Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee, Mizo National Front (the main opposition party of Mizoram), Zoram Nationalist Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Mizoram Peoples Conference with Mizo Zirlai Pawl, Mizo Students' Union, Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl, Mizo Women Association, Human Rights & Law Network, People Union for Civil Liberties etc joined the programme.

Earlier more than hundred Indian MPs, including those from Northeast, called on the Union government to intervene for the release of Suu Kyi and for the restoration of democracy in Burma. The lawmakers under the banner Indian Parliamentarian Forum for Democracy in Burma submitted a petition on 10 June to the Indian Prime Minister urging him to take personal interest to resolve the issue amicably.

Raising Support for Democracy in Burma

By Nava Thakuria


Talk on India's Policy on Burma
It was an intense and intriguing session, where a group of conscious people got together and discussed about the present socio-political turmoil in Burma (Myanmar) and also the probable ways, by which the people from Northeast India can extend support for the cause of democracy in the neighbouring country.
The meeting on ‘India’s Policy on Burma: A Northeastern Perspective,’ was organized jointly by Burma Centre Delhi and Journalists’ Forum Assam at Guwahati Press Club on July 4, where Dr. Tint Swe, exile member of parliament, National Coalition Government of Union of Burma, joined as a main speaker.
Addressing the gathering, Dr. Tint Swe, an exile Member of Parliament, National Coalition Government of Union of Burma, argued that New Delhi should play a major role in democratization of Burma. The elected Parliamentarian (in 1990 general election of Burma), who has been living in India for more than a decade, did not forget to mention about the help and cooperation from Indian people in general and the Northeastern in particular in their endeavor.
“India being the largest democracy in the globe should review its policy on Burma and make it as pro-democratic movement,” insisted Dr. Tint Swe adding, “New Delhi should also review its Look East Policy, as the military dictators of Burma will never support the initiative to be successful.”
It may be mentioned that New Delhi maintains a sustained strategic relationship with the ruling State Peace and Development Council, under which a series of agreements and memorandums of understanding were signed. More over, the government of India remains silent on the
issue of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s re-arrest and trail, even though the great Lady was hounoured with Jawaharlal Nehru Peace Prize and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose award. The daughter of Aung San, the father of modern Burma, Suu Kyi was also awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.
However, contrary to New Delhi’s policy on Burma, the civil society and advocacy groups of Northeast continue supporting the pro-democratic movement in the land of dictators. If the Union government is willing to engage the Burmese junta for various strategic and trade relationship, the student-youth-journalist and also political party workers of the region maintain their demands to snap all ties with the junta of Nay Pyi Taw (the new capital of Burma after Rangoon). They are also in unanimous in various public meetings
taking places in the region that the pro-democracy Burmese icon Suu Kyi must be released and allowed her to continue the political activities.
Mentionable that Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for nearly 13 years out of 19 years stay in her country. More recently, Suu Kyi was shifted to the Insein prison of Rangoon, where she has been tried at a special court with the charge of violating rules under her house arrest. Suu Kyi is recognized as one of the world's most renowned freedom fighters and the General Than Shwe led regime understood to try its best to prevent her (with her party National League for Democracy) participating in the forthcoming general election during
2010.
Earlier in an official message to the organizers from Houston, Rajen Barua of Friends of Assam and Seven Sisters argued that the people of Northeast ‘as a neighbour of Burma need to keep in touch with the people of Burma and especially the enlightened Burmese who are living outside their country.’
“We in the Northeast have more important roles to play. After all, we are very much concerned about the hardship that Suu Kyi is going through. We also urge the government of China, Russia and other countries with strong ties with Burma, to pressurize the military rulers for immediate release of Suu Kyi, so that she can freely move in Burma for advancement of democratic values and human rights,” the message, which was read out by Jayanta Barman in the Guwahati meeting,
added.
Meanwhile, in another message, the All Assam Students’ Union and the North East Students’ Organization leader Dr Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya expressed their support to the pro-democracy movement in Burma and demanded release of Suu Kyi.
The meeting urged New Delhi to stop forthwith sales of all arms to the military rulers of Burma, who use the weapons to suppress the ever-growing movement for democracy in the country. It also demanded immediate release of over 2000 political prisoners in Burma including Suu Kyi. In another resolution, the participants argued that India should have a non-discriminatory refugee policy as early as possible.
The speakers including Dr Alana Golmei, M. Kim, Htun Htun from Burma Centre Delhi and journalists Rupam Baruah, Hiten Mahanta, Biman Hazarika, RK Goswami with others were of the opinion that trade relations between India and Burma should not be at the cost of the democratic movement in that country. Mentionable that, both the neighboring countries did business to the tune of nearly US $ 900
million in the 2007-08 fiscal year.
The major outcome of the meeting was the proposal to form a regional forum to pursue democracy in Burma. The proposed ‘Northeast India Forum for Democracy in Burma’ is supposed to provide space for the people of Northeast and Burma to join hands with an aim to continue the campaign against the military junta.
Similarly, few days back, hundreds of Mizo and Burmese activists organized a demonstration at Aizawl with the primary demand for an early release of Suu Kyi. Initiated by Mizoram Committee for Democracy in Burma, the programme on June 25 also included the decision to send a memorandum to the Indian President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, through the State government of Mizoram-bordering Chin State of Burma-with an appeal to pursue with the Burmese government for the release of Suu Kyi and also restoration of democracy in Burma.
Mizoram gives shelter to over 50,000 Chin people from Burma. Most of them are economic migrants, who crossed the Indo-Burma border for a better future in India. Many of them are also activists, who fled their country to escape the repression of the junta. Amazingly, the Chin and Mizo people share similar historical, cultural and religious backgrounds. But time to time, the State witnesses resentment against
those unwelcome guests from Burma.
Representatives from the ruling Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee, Mizo National Front (the main opposition party of Mizoram), Zoram Nationalist Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Miozram Peoples Conference with Mizo Zirlai Pawl, Mizo Students' Union, Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm
Pawl, Mizo Women Association, Human Rights & Law Network, People Union for Civil Liberties etc joined the programme.
Earlier more than hundred Indian MPs, including those from Northeast, called on the Union government to intervene for the release of Suu Kyi and for the restoration of democracy in Burma. The lawmakers under the banner Indian Parliamentarian Forum for Democracy in Burma submitted a
petition on 10 June to the Indian Prime Minister urging him to take personal interest to resolve the issue amicably.

Stop human rights violations on ethnic minorties in Burma

The Chin Democracy and Human Rights Network reports on a protest outside the Burma embassy in Korea against the persecution of ethnic minorities in Burma.  

We are a group of Burmese/Myanmar “Ethnic Chin” people based in Korea; our organisation is called Chin Democracy and Human Rights Network.  Today (5 July 2009), we are protesting - at what has happened to our democracy and at the violations of our ethnic civil rights - in front of the Myanmar embassy, in memory of our leader, the Chin student hero Salai Tin Mg Oo, who was deliberately killed by the Burma/Myanmar military junta due to his democracy and freedom movement. This is the 33rd anniversary of Salai Tin Mg Oo's assassination; the Burma/Myanmar military junta killed him at 4.00am on 24 June 1976.  We, the Chin Democracy and Human Rights Network, strongly condemn the Burma/Myanmar military government’s action. Also, we strongly condemn the Burma/Myanmar military government for the arrest of - and the bad prison conditions experienced by - Chin ethnic prisoner Hla Moe, who was found dead in Pakkoku last month.

Similarly, the military regime massacred student activists on 7 July 1962 and ordered the destruction of the Student Union Building.  Afterwards, there was a nation-wide mass uprising in 1988. The government responded by brutally firing into the crowd – leading to about 3,000 people killed. Then, there was the Depayin massacre in May 2003 in which the military allegedly killed hundreds of people. Also, there was the people's revolution in September 2007, in which the military killed and 'disappeared' hundreds of people again.

In the latest May 2008 cyclone disaster, in conjunction with a military authority-made political disaster, where the government's lack of responsiveness to the disaster victims, like that inept early warning and the delaying and halting relief aid to the victims, millions of people suffered and hundred thousand died.  Here the situation in Burma/Myanmar – the massive human rights violations and the lack of safety - was clearly revealed.

Particularly in Burma/Myanmar, ethnic minorities are threatened, oppressed and persecuted.  There was permanently conflict between ethnic groups and military government in border areas.  Subsequently, the military authority ignored the ethnic Chin people's freedom and fundamental rights; those rights are virtually absent in ethnic regions. 
Therefore, we demand that the  Burma/Myanmar military government:

• Stop human rights violations and religious restrictions among the ethnic Chin people.
• Release arrested ethnic Chin students and political prisoners immediately.  Presently, the remaining Chin political activists prisoners are Pu Cin Sian Thang, Salai Aung Thang, Salai Pa Thang and others.
• Provide ethnic Chin people freedom from political and economic suppression.

And we ask the South Korea government and the international community to support the cause of our democracy movement and help to end the ethnic oppression in Burma/Myanmar.  Also, we ask them to support and help out the ethnic Chin victims inside the country and the asylum seekers outside the country.

Junta bans travel between Indo-Burma border

Paletwa: The Burmese military junta has banned local villagers from travelling on the Indo-Burma border, especially the southern part of Mizoram state of India and south of Chin State in Burma, after seven villagers from two Indian villages died of an unknown disease, said a local resident.

“The Burmese Army has banned travel from Mreit WA village in Paletwa Township, located in southern Chin state, to India, after seven people died of an unidentified disease in two Indian villages,” he said.

Seven people, six among whom are children, and one elderly person, died recently in Maung Pu Taung and Scota Lan villages in India, opposite Mreit Wa village in Paletwa Township, of an unknown disease. However, a rumour is circulating that they might have died due to Swine Flu.

“All the deceased were Burmese, but they lived in Indian villages. Local people believe that they died due to Swine Flu. Following the deaths, the Burmese Army prohibited local people from travelling between the Indo-Burma border,” he said.

A village elder from Mreit Wa village confirmed the incident, but the cause of the deaths is still unknown.

“Some people die of diarrhea, in the same area every year, but this time it was different and they did not succumb to diarrhea. The Burmese authorities suspect that they died as a result of Swine Flu. All the villagers have been worried since the deaths occurred in the area,” the villager said.

Villagers, who are living in the border area on both sides, have avoided travelling from one side to another between the two countries, after the ban on travelling was imposed by the Burmese military junta.

According to locals, border trade in the area has also come to a standstill after the Burmese Army banned people from travelling in the area.

North Korean ship headed to Burma

A North Korean ship being tracked by the US navy over suspicions that it is carrying arms in breach of new UN sanctions on the country is likely to be heading towards Burma, according to South Korean news sources.

The United States has been tracking the Kang Nam freighter ship since it left a North Korean port on Wednesday.

Under revamped UN sanctions on North Korea, which include a complete ban on arms imports and exports, ships suspected of carrying arms can be stopped and a request for a search made.

Yesterday a South Korean news agency, YTN, quoted unidentified intelligence sources as saying the ship was headed towards Burma, which is also subject to a US-enforced ban on arms imports.

According to journalist Bertil Lintner, if the YTN reports are true, this would be the second time the Kang Nam has been to Burma, following its docking at Rangoon’s Thilawar port in May 2007, allegedly to seek shelter from storm.

“It offloaded some heavy equipment, it’s not clear what it was, but the Kang Nam specifically is known to be carrying what the Americans usually describe as ‘material of proliferation concern’”, said Lintner.

The latest news follows the emergence of photographs earlier this month that allegedly show North Korean foreign advisors in Burma consulting with government officials on the construction of a tunnel network, likely as emergency shelters in the event of an attack.

Lintner, who revealed the North Korean tunnel project in the Yale Global, says that this is a sign that ties between the two countries are strengthening.

“Even China is reluctant to sell certain types of equipment to Burma but North Korea will be willing to sell anything they want,” he said, adding that “Burma has absolutely no interest in supporting an arms embargo”.

Given the arms embargo on Burma, it is unlikely the government there would comply with a UN resolution to allow the US to search ships docking at their ports.

North Korea, whose defense has been bolstered by the successful nuclear test, has said that interceptions of any of its ships would be considered an “act of war” and would react accordingly.

Malaysia denies Burmese human trafficking

by Usa Pichai

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Malaysia has refuted US accusations that thousands of deported Burmese migrants were handed over to human traffickers in Thailand, while more migrants crossed over to Thailand, after the announcement of the new round of migrant worker’s registration.

Malaysian Home Ministry Secretary General Mahmood Adam said that the officials have found no evidence to support the claim. "The government had already initiated a few internal investigations, but it's baseless," the Associated Press quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

Human trafficking of Burmese migrants also sparked the debate between the Malaysian government and US lawmakers in April. The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said in a report made public in April that illegal Myanmar migrants deported from Malaysia were forced to work in brothels, fishing boats and restaurants across the border in Thailand if they had no money to buy their freedom.

The report was based on a year long review by committee staff who spoke to migrants from military-ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, and human rights activists.

According to the Senate Committee report, "a few thousand" Burmese migrants in recent years might have become victims of extortion and trafficking once they were deported across Malaysia's northern border with Thailand.

The U.N. refugee agency has registered 47,600 refugees living in Malaysia as of the end of March of whom 42,300 are from Burma.

Meanwhile, many more migrants from Burma have crossed the border illegally in search of work in Thailand. But a local NGO worker in Ranong border town warned that it is dangerous for the workers for they could be cheated by the human traffickers and sent to work in dangerous jobs such as in the fishing sector without pay.

“The incident where 54 Burmese died in frozen container truck last year is a serious tragedy. Even though, authorities arrested six of the eight suspects, this kind of incident should not happen again, ” the source said.

“Recently, the Thai government announced that it will open migrant registration this year for work in businesses where there is labour shortage. This would help more people from Burma to find work opportunities in Thailand,” the source added.

Ranong is a border town close to Kawthong township in Burma, where around 100,000 people are from Burma. In addition, it is the gateway for migrants who want to work down south of Thailand.

Last week, Thai authorities in Mae Sot border with Myawaddy township of Burma tried to stop two trucks suspected to be transporting illegal workers. The trucks met with an accident and careened off the road. The policed found 28 undocumented Burmese migrants with minor injuries. They were later deported to Burma but the drivers of the trucks fled.

Burmese army returns child soldiers

(DVB)–The Burmese army has reportedly handed eight child soldiers back to their families in a ceremony in Rangoon attended by international monitoring bodies such as UNICEF and Save the Children.

The ceremony, reported in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, was conducted by the army-run Work Committee for Prevention against Recruitment of Minors, whose stated aim is to find and demobilise child soldiers in the military.

“We think this is a positive step by the army, and it was the first time we were invited to such an event,” said a spokesperson from UNICEF in Burma, who have been monitoring use of child soldiers in the country.

In 2002, Human Rights Watch named Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) as the world’s leading recruiter of child soldiers.

The problem however is not confined to the government, with several of the armed opposition groups, including the Karen National Union, believed to also recruit child soldiers.

Use of child soldiers contravenes even Burmese domestic law, and has been cited by former senior legal adviser to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Morten Bergsmo, as a reason for bringing Burma’s ruling general, Than Shwe, to trial at the ICC.

Similarly, a report released last month by the Harvard Law School said that the situation for Burma’s child soldiers warranted significant attention from the UN Security Council.

“I think it [the ceremony] is about pretending that they’re actually doing something rather than really taking all the reforms that need to be taken,” said David Mathieson, Burma analyst at Human Rights Watch.

“If they’re releasing eight children, then great for those eight children, but that’s not all of them and a lot more needs to be done before the problem goes away,” he said, adding that the SPDC were looking for “congratulation” on the issue.

“But when it comes to the rights of the child you should never get congratulations for something like that because it never should have happened in the first place,” he said.

Reporting by Francis Wade

It's incumbent upon Thailand to lead Asean on Burma

By Kavi Chongkittavorn

AFTER THE ASEAN CHARTER came into force on December 15 2008, members were obliged to follow objectives, principles and norms set forth in the document. These include the promotion and protection of human and other fundamental rights. What the Burmese regime has done against the opposition of Aung San Suu Kyi and its other citizens is not part of Asean's standards or practices.

Before the charter's drafting, it was customary for Asean members to defend their colleagues to ensure continued unity. As a regional organisation, Asean also protected members from outsider pressures and scrutiny. Under such conditions, the principle of non-interference was the mantra to glue Asean together and silence criticisms from within. Even before Burma joined Asean in 1997, the grouping was providing the most effective shield to the regime - first as an Asean observer (1995) and a signatory to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (1996) - over Burma's preponderance for using force against its own people. The East-West divide also augmented Asean's determination to admit Burma, despite repeated warnings of the consequences.

During the deadly Depayin incident in May 2003, when Suu Kyi was almost killed by junta-sponsored thugs, Asean leaders were uncharacteristically silent. At the summit in Phnom Penh six months later, the Asean leaders gave a vote of confidence to the newly appointed Burmese prime minister Lt General Khin Nyunt, hoping he could lead changes from the inside. Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra also backed the new leader saying Burma deserved a second chance. In October 2004, Khin Nyunt was purged from power and placed under house-arrest.

Now Asean has shown some backbone in handling Burma's situation and the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as with its Western dialogue partners, after Asean gained the charter. The Asean chair's statement calling for her release was the strongest ever from a country with which it shares one of the longest common borders in Southeast Asia.

At the Asean-EU Ministerial meeting in Phnom Penh last week, the Asean foreign ministers, except Burma, expressed strong support for the chair's statement. The Asean leaders are anxious to meet Burmese Prime Minister General Thein Sein on the side-lines of the Asean-South Korea Commemorative Summit scheduled today and tomorrow in Cheju Island, South Korea to gauge the regime's latest attitude.

In engaging the dialogue partners over Burma, Asean used to be insecure and easily angered whenever criticism or disagreements came to the fore.

Throughout the past two decades, Asean was often up in arms against the West's criticism defending Burma's record and the decision to admit the pariah state into the family. Now, it is a different story.

For instance, joint statements from the Asean-Asem and Asean-EU ministerial meetings issued last week in Hanoi and Phnom Penh respectively would not have been possible without the new Asean attitude. It was a far-cry from the atmosphere of earlier Asean-EU ministerial meetings, especially after the May 1990 polls; the two sides often traded insults and blamed each other for lack of understanding of their distinctive political environment and cultures. Burma is no longer a wedge, albeit remaining a problem, dividing Asean and EU as they see eye to eye that Burma needs to open up political space, support the UN role, free all political prisoners and hold inclusive elections.

The EU has in recent months become one of the most enthusiastic Asean dialogue partners, collectively and individually. Last week, the EU became the first regional organisation to sign a protocol to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation which now boasts 17 signatories, apart from the 10-member Asean. TAC was amended to allow EU ascension as an entity. Nearly half the 27 members have already appointed their ambassadors attached to Asean.

Asean can now ponder how best to tackle the current Burmese situation. First of all, the Asean leaders have to determine if the current trial of Suu Kyi and political oppression inside Burma are considered a serious breach of the Asean charter. This is a tough but unavoidable question as it will set a precedence for the grouping's own future.

Asean Secretary-General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan's role will also be crucial in interpreting the charter. Indonesia's draft of the joint Asean statement on Burma, which was diluted by the new Asean members in Phuket last month, specifically linked the charter with Burma's intransigence. Jakarta's position was clear that it was a breach of the charter and Rangoon failed to take up collective responsibility as part of the Asean family. The other five core Asean members including Brunei were on the same page.

As the grouping's leading democracy, Indonesia can urge the Thai chair to put the Burmese issue on the agenda of the upcoming summit to work out appropriate responses.

Indonesia, as the country that initiated drafting of the Asean Charter, feels that the charter must be taken seriously both in words and spirit, otherwise Asean's future and creditability are at stake. Protecting the charter and giving it teeth is a priority shared by Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The second approach would be the initiative of the Thai chair. To take Burma to task, the government must be firmer on overall Thai-Burma relations. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya must not abandon the much respected Burmese policies of their predecessors from 1997-2001. To do so, Thailand urgently needs to review ties with Burma and design a new and more comprehensive policy that lessens dependence on Burma's energy and resources-based imports.

Thai-Burmese border security, which has been neglected for the past several years, must be beefed up. Quite often, when the junta leaders faced a continuous international community bombardment, they would pick on Thailand to rally domestic support.

At the Asean summit in Laos in 2004, Burma skipped the Asean chairmanship due to sustained outside pressure both from Asean and the EU. But this time, the outcries over Suu Kyi's trial were louder and broader in every way. Parliamentarians from Asean countries recommended suspension of its membership.

It is incumbent on the chair to call for a meeting among the leaders on the issue.

Suspension of Burma's rights and privileges within Asean is possible if Rangoon remains defiant and Suu Kyi continues to be held. For the membership's suspension, it would require extraordinary courage for the chair as well as the leaders of core Asean members to kick off the debate.

Either approach gives life and blood to the charter, which will set the future yardstick for compliance.

Burmese Army on High Alert After Unidentified Reconnaissance Plane Spotted

Buthidaung (Narinjara), Jun 2 : The Burmese army in the Buthidaung cantonment has been put on high alert after an unidentified reconnaissance plane was spotted taking photos of military bases in the area last week, said a source close to the army.

The source said, "An unidentified reconnaissance plane flew over Buthidaung last week secretly snapping photos but the authorities knew a plane intruded into Burma's airspace on that day."

After the incident took place, high army authorities put security forces in the area on high alert.

The town of Buthidaung, 80 miles north of Sittwe, is the largest military base in western Burma, with at least 15 army battalions, including an artillery battalion, stationed there. A brigade, called Sakakha 15 in Burmese, and the military operation planning bureau are also stationed in the area.

The source reported that a military official said, "The Burmese army officials suspect the reconnaissance plane was from the US Air Force, but have not officially disclosed that this happened."

The Burmese military authorities in the area are anxious about the unidentified plan intruding into their territory.

It has also been learned that Kha Kha Kyi, the defense bureau in Burma's new capital Naypyidaw, also knew of the incident and some high technical officials from the air defense force have been sent to Buthidaung to investigate the incident.

Burma Locked Out of Region’s Prosperity, Says GatesBurma Locked Out of Region’s Prosperity, Says Gates

By WAI MOE

Burma is “one of the isolated, desolate exceptions to the growing prosperity and freedom of the region,” according to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Gates made his comment at a security conference in Singapore, where Burma’s deputy defense minister, Maj-Gen Aye Myint, tried to deflect criticism of his government and its latest action against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma’s state-run-newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported on Monday that Aye Myint told the conference that Suu Kyi’s trial in Rangoon was an internal Burmese affair.

“Thus, if any country interferes in the internal affairs of another country, that particular act may possibly affect the mutual understanding and friendly relation between countries,” he said.

Gates, however, repeated calls for Suu Kyi’s release. He said, “We need to see real change in Burma—the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the institution of meaningful dialogue between the junta and the opposition.”

Gates said, “We saw Burma's resistance to accept basic humanitarian aid last year following the cyclone, a decision indicative of that country's approach to the rest of the world.”

The Singapore conference, the 8th Shangri-La Dialogue, organized by the city-state’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, brought together defense ministers or their deputies from 27 countries. The situation in Burma and the trial of Suu Kyi were raised by several participants, despite Aye Myint’s objections.

Burma is facing mounting international pressure, also from within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

At an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of foreign ministers in Phnom Penh last week, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win opposed any consideration of the Burma issue, complaining that the gathering “has overlooked the important issue of non-interference.”

Nyan Win declared, “This is an internal legal issue and it is not a human rights issue.”

Despite Nyan Win’s objections, ministers from the European Union and Asean discussed Suu Kyi’s trial and called on the Burmese government to free her and other political prisoners.

Burma’s traditional allies, China and India, are also reportedly concerned about the impact of Suu Kyi’s trial.

The trial is also expected to be an issue at an Asean meeting in South Korea next week.

“Asean leaders will meet and discuss an issue that has received international attention —about a neighboring country—for further cooperation,” said Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose country is currently chairman of the regional grouping.

One human rights expert, Sriprapha Petcharamesree, of Bangkok’s Mahidol University said three Burmese issues—the junta’s response to Cyclone Nargis, refugees, Suu Kyi and other political prisoners—are real threats for the Asean Charter.