Biting the hand that feeds the nation

By Pascal Khoo-Thwe

(DVB)–As Peasants’ Day is marked in Burma on 2 March, the plight of farmers in the country remains desperate.

Farmers or 'peasants', including tribesmen, are one of the most abused, exploited and overlooked social denomination in Burma – and they are often taken for granted not only by the ruling elites but also by the opposition groups.

Yet they make up the majority of the population, and the ruling elites are mostly of peasant stock.

Whenever there is political instability or power struggles among the ruling elites, rural areas are where they always go to rally for support. Villagers are forced to join willy-nilly at their own risk and irrespective of the outcomes.

After the coup in September 1988, preceded by the nationwide uprising, students and activists fled into the jungles to avoid arrests. Villagers gave us shelters, fed us and guided us through the dangerous jungles, feared by us so-called educated people. But as soon as we were out of danger, it was the villagers who bore the brunt of the wrath of the army, and their villages were burnt down, crops destroyed, and they themselves were imprisoned, tortured or even killed.

During the parliamentary democracy period from 1948 to 1962, many farmers were recruited as cannon fodder for various factions of the rebels fighting U Nu's government, which also recruited villagers. When asked by U Nu why so many farmers had joined the Burma Communist Party, someone reportedly replied that had the prime minister looked after the farmers better, there would not be much support for the communists.

The late dictator General Ne Win exploited the weakness of U Nu by enticing farmers with favours and actively promoting the myth of noble peasants on the one hand and meting out brutality towards those who opposed his myth with the other. As a result, the communists were driven out of their strongholds in central Burma, but sympathy for the communists never went away, even though most of them do not believe in Communism. Once he achieved his aim of gaining absolute power, Ne Win treated the farmers with same disdain as his predecessors and ignored their plight.

The situation was no better for farmers during the colonial period either. When ex-monk Saya San led farmers – mostly armed with amulets, spears and agricultural tools – against their foreign masters during the 1930s, the British ruthlessly crushed the rebellion with a campaign that treated the farmers no better than dacoits. They were imprisoned, hung and shot. The rebellion was said to be caused by money lending Chettiars from India who monopolised the rice market and sucked the blood of farmers dry with high interest rates, which was also exacerbated by the Great Depression.

But many, including those who lived under colonial rule, argue that the situation for present-day farmers is worse than that under the British. They are certainly not wrong, if not completely right. In place of Chettiars are now companies owned by the army and relatives and cronies of the generals, who are using all available means and tricks to bleed the farmers dry. Farmers are eking out a life no better than that of slaves as their best farms, crops, communal pastures and jungles are confiscated by the army, and they are commandeered into forced labour for 'government projects'. And their children are still forcibly recruited into the army.

Their remaining children cannot afford to go to school, and some of them have sold their ancestral farmlands to look for jobs in cities and neighbouring countries, or to join the rebels. When the guardians of Burmese rural life are forced to leave their homes due to the impacts of globalisation and greed, their old communities are left derelict and lifeless.

But it is hard to imagine the rise of a new Saya San in the near future for farmers as it is harder to fight your own flesh and blood than foreign 'bloodsuckers'. It will take more than Seven Samurais to get rid of the cancerous climate of fear and its agents in Burma, as the military itself is merely an agent of powerful neighbouring countries which only are mainly interested in getting cheap natural resources from Burma.

At the same time, farmers and the children of farmers who became soldiers, doctors, engineers and the like must change or at least improve our ways of thinking and modus operandi if we are to retain a hint of our traditions and identity. Burma is like a burning house and we can't save everything. What makes it worse is, most of us affected have been playing the crying and blaming game while the house burns.

Then again, in the past no one dared to think that peasants in China could defeat the mighty Chiang Kai Sheik government or that the mighty Shah of Iran could be overthrown by a religious figure. Look at the works of history and find in them hope or despair. But I do doubt if the majority of farmers would benefit from a successful revolution – which is one of the reasons why the farmers themselves are very reluctant to rebel against a government armed to the teeth. In any case, the farmers have too many things to do on the farms to survive and the best policy for any sensible government would be to leave them alone and let them do their jobs in peace. But will they? Paddy fields, jungles and villages have been the battlegrounds of greed and hatred for more than half a century in Burma and there is no sign that it will stop to be so.

Meanwhile, whether there is a government-appointed Peasants' Day in Burma or not – which incidentally is marked on the same day that Ne Win staged the military coup in 1962 – the role of the farmers is still being overlooked by all those involved who are wasting their time on theoretical matters which lead us nowhere and not taking action.

It's also time to think carefully whether it is successive constitutions and elections that have been feeding Burma every day or the 'peasants' and other hardworking people, and to look for more pragmatic strategies to help the country.

But one thing is certain – farmers will be the true inheritors of the earth for bad or for worse, as we will still have to eat the food they grow and the animals they feed.

READ MORE---> Biting the hand that feeds the nation...

Asean and civil groups: revealing a fast learning curve

By Kavi Chongkittavorn
The Nation

AROUND MIDNIGHT Friday, the 14th Asean Summit was hanging in the balance. That same evening, Cambodia and Burma had already threatened to boycott the planned first dialogue between Asean leaders and Asean civil society groups at lunchtime. Suddenly, senior Foreign Ministry officials were having second thoughts about their whole endeavour to broaden the participation of civil society organisations. As the summit's host, when push came to shove, a choice had to be made. In this case, it was clear the Asean leaders would have precedence over the civil society representatives. After all, this was their summit.

But disaster was averted at the last minute when the civil society leaders soften their stands. Cambodia's and Burma's representatives withdrew from the list of 10 participants at the interface. Laos and Brunei did not have any representatives listed.

To make amends, Abhisit agreed to meet the two representatives at a separate place later on. I was in the room along with Pen Sommoly and Khin Omar, the two activists barred from the historic meeting 40 minutes earlier.

The conversation was amicable. Abhisit listened calmly to Omar, who told him of her plight and the struggle of the Burmese people. She pointed out that Burma had not committed itself to the Asean Charter. She urged the prime minister to continue his efforts and fight for Asean.

Pen, who was next to speak, was trying to overcome his shyness. His subject of concern was important, as it involved the future of Asean youth.

In response to their concerns, the prime minister said both sides had to work together and strike a balance between the state and non-state actors.

"We have to be partners and walk together - low and high," he said.

He stressed that since this is the first time for an extensive face-to-face dialogue between Asean leaders and civil group leaders, both sides were on a fast-track learning curve.

At that moment, on reflection, I knew that the dialogue between them would survive and become more institutionalised. He asked the civil society leaders to work out a modality for a proper channel. He was confident.

Such openness and optimism have been rarely seen within the Asean circle in the past four decades. Somehow, the Asean Charter and in particular Article 14 - the mandate to establish the Asean Human Rights Body - have become a new all-weather instrument to prod sensitive issues ahead. Despite the charter's imperfections, it has given the current Asean chair more room to exercise strategy and pave the way for the grouping's future.

One positive trend emerging from the summit was the fresh attitude of the incoming Asean chair, Vietnam. President Nguyen Minh Triet made a brief but sharp intervention during the interface with the civil society leaders. Apart from the chair, Triet was the only Asean leader to comment.

The Vietnamese President surprised everybody by welcoming the dialogue between his colleagues and the civil society sector - very much to the latter's amazement. He urged them to work out a modality for the institutionalisation of the interface - one of the civil society groups' demands.

Indeed, it was a smart comment as it certainly would generate a positive image and favourable comments for Vietnam in coming months.

Now that Vietnam has set itself a new benchmark, the Asean-based civil society groups will follow-up on his comment by increasing their engagement with Vietnam's nascent but active 2,000 civil society organisations, which are still dominated by government-linked groups.

Now the Asean civil groups are hopeful that with Asean under his chairmanship next year, voices of independent and progressive civil organisations would be heard and reflected in the summit's normal discourses.

One additional development to be discerned is the awakening of Asean lawmakers within the grouping. For decades, they have completely left it to their executive branches to handle.

A selective group of Asean legislators got together to form a caucus on Burma five years ago in Kuala Lumpur because they wanted to contribute to Asean's policy towards its pariah member, which keeps suppressing its peoples.

Now with the Asean Charter in force, Asean lawyers, mainly from more democratic members, have suddenly realised they cannot stand idle as before. They have to do more.

Back to back with the Asean Summit, six lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia met over the weekend in Cha-am/Hua Hin to establish a new inter-parliamentary caucus on rights and freedom of expression.

The new caucus will fulfil the pledges in the Asean Charter and the three blueprints concerning political and security, economic and socio-cultural fields. These lawmakers have studied the blueprint for the Asean Political and Security Community in detail. They resolved to accelerate its action plans to transform the Asean Community with Asean citizens at the centre within 2,129 days.

Obviously, Asean bureaucrats no longer hold a monopoly on power in shaping the future of Asean like before. From now on, they have to reach out to the lawmakers and civil society groups and listen to their voices.

Abhisit has done a remarkable job at this summit. He and Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya went out to build trust among the non-state actors, risking the chair's reputation. His fingers almost got burnt. But then common sense prevailed. Both sides acknowledged quite reluctantly that there are things they can do and cannot do in their future engagements. The key is to balance and respond in proportionate ways.

Abhisit's opening speech on Saturday said it all, that after the promulgation of the Asean Charter, Asean citizens have been awoken and they want a greater share, ownership and role in the Asean process. No more looking back for them.

READ MORE---> Asean and civil groups: revealing a fast learning curve...

Burma: US gem sanctions bite

By Robert Karniol

(ST) - With Washington rethinking its policy towards the military-run regime in Burma, there are signals that Rangoon is being hard hit by tightened US sanctions on its lucrative gem trade.

The policy review currently under way is aimed at addressing a dreary conundrum acknowledged by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a Jakarta press briefing on February 18. "Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced the (Burma) junta. But reaching out and trying to engage them hasn't influenced them either," she said.

Speaking by telephone from Washington, state department spokesman Rob McInturff explained the US objective. "We're going to be looking at all aspects of our relationship (with Burma). The goal is to make the policy effective, to have improved actions on the part of the regime," he said.

American economist Jeffrey Sachs, writing in the Financial Times in 2004, said: "Economic sanctions should be lifted because they do not work." He argued for increased diplomacy and humanitarian aid instead.

Pro-democracy activists instead favour a combined effort. Brian Leber, a Chicago jeweller at the forefront of the gem sanctions campaign, is among those advocating a carrot-and-stick approach. "Economic sanctions and the support of diplomatic efforts working towards reform can go hand in hand," he said.

The key, he added, is to finely target sanctions against a specific sector, company and individual. He, together with others in the US and elsewhere, find in Burma's gem trade the perfect fit.

According to reports citing government data, the gem trade was Burma's third most important export earner in fiscal year 2007/08 with a value of US$647.5 million. It was topped by natural gas at $2.6 billion and agricultural products at $1.1 billion, with forestry and marine products in fourth and fifth place respectively. However, the official figures are somewhat skewed as they fail to account for substantial smuggling activity of unknown worth.

Together with its contribution to state coffers, the gem trade provides specific benefit to Burma's military. Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted in a report last year that the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), or ruling junta, "has a direct stake in many mines, in some cases through joint ventures with private entrepreneurs".

It added: "It also has a direct ownership interest in many of the country's top gem businesses, including state-run firms such as Myanmar Gems Enterprise and Myanmar Pearl Enterprise. In addition, the military-owned conglomerate Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Company owns many businesses...including in the lucrative gem-mining sector (so the) gem industry is dominated by the SPDC."

Several countries have imposed sanctions against Rangoon, some broadly based and some more specific. The European Union (EU) sanctions, for example, include more than 400 named individuals and nearly 1,300 state- and military-run companies. The EU, US and Swiss sanction regimes are particularly important because of the substantial markets these represent. But there remains significant trade with China and Japan, and with the gem processing centres in India and Thailand.

The US initiative is especially noteworthy, partly because of Washington's leadership role and partly due to the monetary impact. Its import of ruby and jade alone, according to industry estimates, was previously worth more than $100 million annually. But the broad US sanctions introduced in 2003 were flawed, not least because they included a loophole allowing the import of ruby and jade from Burma if these were processed through cutting and mounting in a third country.

The US Congress moved to tighten its sanctions and shut the loopholes with an amendment to the 2003 law called HR 3890. This was approved last July and came into force two months later, with another month set aside by the US Customs and Border Protection as a buffer period.

Bangkok gem traders began to notice the impact even before HR 3890's implementation last October, as the market anticipated change. "We've been hard hit by the US sanctions and are unable to unload our stockpiles," one trader complained to The Straits Times. "Jade and ruby are particularly affected but less so with sapphire, which isn't specified in the new law."

The Chiang Mai-based periodical Irrawaddy, meanwhile, noted in a recent article that "Mogok, the historic centre of (Burma's) gem industry, is struggling to cope with the effects of (tightened) US sanctions". Citing a source there, it reported that "at least 50 mine sites in the area have decreased production and several have closed completely".

"Our view is that sanctions have a role. The gem ban, together with targeted financial sanctions, are effective," said Arvind Ganesan, director of HRW's business and human rights programme, in a telephone interview from Washington.

Hopefully, Mrs Clinton is listening.

READ MORE---> Burma: US gem sanctions bite...

Door closed for Cambodia, Myanmar reps

By Lilian Budianto
THE JAKARTA POST

CHA-AM, THAILAND - The governments of Cambodia and Myanmar have banned two representatives from their own countries from meeting with Southeast Asian state leaders during the official meeting between ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and civil society organizations scheduled Saturday at Cha-am.

Cambodia has refused to let in Pen Somony, a program coordinator for the Cambodia Volunteers for Civil Society. The Myanmar junta has barred the door for Khin Ohmar, the Bangkok-based chair of the Network for Democracy and Development. The two will not be able to join their seven counterparts in the meeting, held as part of the 14th ASEAN Summit program.

The injunction from Cambodia came as a last-minute surprise. Country representatives voiced their objection only a day before the meeting though the list of representatives had been submitted to the ASEAN Secretariat last November, said Yuyun Wahyuningrum of the Bangkok-based Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, which represented Laos and Brunei.

Yuyun said they had anticipated the ban from military-ruled Myanmar but had not expected Cambodian to follow suit, especially since the latter did not specify any reason for a ban that could undercut freedom of expression in the region.

“The Cambodian [NGO] representative feels a bit threatened by the ban and fears returning to his country and has concerns for his safety. The Myanmar representative is based in Thailand and had expected the government’s ban because it frequently limits civil society voices this way,” she said.

She added only groups from eight of the 10 ASEAN countries had sent representatives to attend the 30-minute meeting, which included statement reading and a question-and-answer session.

“Laos did not participate because of concerns over government crackdowns on activists and Brunei Darussalam did not delegate a representative because it may not have any civil groups,” said Yuyun, who was delegated to represent the two absent countries.

She said the meeting – attended by the 10 ASEAN state leaders and the six representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – ran smoothly despite the bans. Yuyun expressed regret afterward that only Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung answered the five questions put forward by the civil society leaders.

The Malaysian NGO representative, Wathshlah G. Naidu from Asia Pacific International Women’s Rights Action Watch, said their questions included public participation in the good governance process, representation on the ASEAN human rights body, migrant workers, the status of Burma (Myanmar) and gender issues.

“In response to the question on the ASEAN human rights body, they said they realized civil society leaders needed to be involved. They also recognized the [current bylaws] draft had no protective mechanisms. They affirmed that, in subsequent discussions, protections should be incorporated within the ASEAN human rights charter as part of its terms of reference,” Naidu said.

Naidu said further Abhisit had not responded directly on the issue of Burma but mentioned that ASEAN leaders would have an open discussion to address it. Yuyun added the Thai government had said they would ensure that political development in Burma would continue.

Yuyun also said the Vietnamese government had said it supported the participation of the civil society in community building but it should be within the scope of the ASEAN principle of noninterference.

“Prime Minister Abhisit agreed there is a deficit in the people’s participation in ASEAN forum that he wanted to improve. Hopefully, in the future, ASEAN is moving forward into a single society under the new charter,” she said, referring to the charter put into force last December.

“However, he emphasized that cooperation between civil society organizations and the ASEAN should be based on the principle of respect for national sovereignty and noninterference.”

READ MORE---> Door closed for Cambodia, Myanmar reps...

Stop pushing back Rohingyas to Burma: Protect the Rohingya refugee boat people

By Vang i Valdres

Norway, 01 March, (Asiantribune.com): In a statement released by Rohingya Human Rights Council based in Norway has said “We are appalled to know that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has decided to send hundreds of Rohingya boat people back to military-ruled Burma. Meeting at its annual summit, the 10-member bloc agreed to compile and pool information and interviews on the Rohingyas, who washed up on the shores of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia having fled oppression in Burma."

On the other hand, the Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Burma is ready to take back the Rohingya migrants if they can prove they are of Bengali descent.

The statement released by the Norway based Rohingya Human Rights Council further said, "The Rohingyas have been fleeing Burma because of extreme human rights violations unleashed by the Burmese military regime to annihilate the entire Rohingya populations from Arakan which is a state under the Union of Burma. They have been subjected to severe persecutions including denial of citizenship, a ban on marriage without government permission, severe restrictions of movement, religious persecution, extortion, land confiscation and restrictions on access to education.

The Rohingyas are not the descendants of the Bengalese. They are an indigenous group of Arakan where they have been living since the 7th century.

These unfortunate Rohingya refugee boat people have already suffered a lot. They have come back to life from the mouth of death after passing many days in the deep sea without food and water. And hundreds of them have perished in the deep sea after the Thailand's navy has left around 1,000 Rohingya refugees adrift in the ocean in boats without engine or food or water.

Under the above circumstances, the decision of the ASEAN to send the Rohingya refugees back to Burma is a clear violation of human rights and international law for refugees.

So, we fervently appeal to the ASEAN nations to stop push back of the Rohingya boat people and to grant them asylum.

We also fervently appeal to the international community, the world bodies including the UNHCR to stop push back of the Rohingyas to Burma and to
take necessary steps for the protection of the Rohingya refugee boat people.

- Asian Tribune -

READ MORE---> Stop pushing back Rohingyas to Burma: Protect the Rohingya refugee boat people...

Civil Society Representatives Challenge Asean Leaders on Burma

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

CHA-AM, Thailand — Burmese issues were raised once again at the 14th Asean Summit in Cha-am, Thailand, this time at Saturday’s midday meeting between representatives of Southeast Asian civil society and the 10 heads of state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

The meeting—termed “historic” by Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan because it was the first time Asean leaders had scheduled a face-to-face meeting with civil society groups—was threatened with a boycott by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Burmese premier Gen Thein Sein because they did not agree with the participation of certain members of the civil society grouping.

The matter was resolved at the 11th hour when two civil society representatives—including Burma’s Khin Ohmar of the Network for Democracy and Development—were barred from attending the meeting.

“This afternoon’s interface meeting between the 10 Asean leaders and civil society groups spread doubt whether the Asean is ready to make Article 1 of the Asean Charter on civil society participation come into reality,” said a press release by three civil society activists, including Khin Ohmar.

But the 20-minute meeting was most notable for the united stance by the civil society representatives against policies of the Burmese military government.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy after the meeting, Wathshlash G. Naidu of Malaysia-based International Women’s Rights Action Watch—Asia Pacific said;

* “We raised the issue of political participation [in Burma].
* We raised the issue of the political [opposition] leadership in Burma being detained and
* we raised the issue of the illegal constitution.”

She said that the civic group had called for the release of all political prisoners in the country, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and had urged Asean members not to recognize the 2010 elections in Burma.

“We want Asean countries to really pay attention to these issues,” she said.

Naidu said that Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein had read a prepared statement at the meeting, but did not respond to criticisms. (JEG's: do they ever respond? )

According to Naidu, the Rohingya crisis was also highlighted by the civil society representatives at the interface meeting.

On Friday at a foreign ministers’ meeting, the Burmese government for the first time addressed the matter of the Rohingya, saying it would take back any boatpeople who were ascertained to have been born in Burma. However, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win rejected the term “Rohingya” and would only refer to the ethnic group as “Bengalis.” (JEG's: not a good approach here, if we allow the Rohingya to be returned their lives are in more danger than adrift)

Analysts said that the question of semantics signaled the Burmese junta’s policy of rejecting the estimated 800,000 Rohingyas living in Arakan State as among Burma’s 135 ethnicities.

Earlier on Saturday, a small group of activists held a protest against the Burmese regime in Hua Hin, close to the venue of the Asean Summit. Calling the protest “Peace for Burma,” about 15 human rights activists, most of whom were Thai, held a cycling rally through the coastal town.

“We choose the Burma issue among others in Asean countries because Burma is the hottest issue in the Asean democratization process,”

said a Thai female activist who joined the protest.

READ MORE---> Civil Society Representatives Challenge Asean Leaders on Burma...

Activists raise Burma issues with ASEAN leaders

by Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Activists representing civil society organizations in Southeast Asian countries raised the Burma issue including freedom for Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in the forum of ASEAN leaders on Saturday.

Malaysian woman activist Wathshlah, who also participated in the meeting, said that civil society organizations' representatives held talks with ASEAN leaders including Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein on Burma's affairs such as Suu Kyi, Burmese refugees including Rohingya boat people and the ensuing 2010 election.

"During the meeting, we raised the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese refugees and Rohingya people and the 2010 election," Wathshlah from Malaysia based International Women Rights Action Watch Asia-pacific told Mizzima.

The 20-minute interface between ASEAN Leaders and civil society organizations took place at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Hua Hin in Thailand shortly before the start of the on going ASEAN summit from February 27 to March 1.

Though Thein Sein did not reply to questions on Burma, Wathshlah said, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva agreed on the need to start a dialogue on Burma but ruled out interference in the internal affairs of the country.

"He [Abhisit] recognized the need to engage in dialogue, however he said that it is important to preserve the principle of state, sovereignty and non-interference," Wathshlah said.

However, Wathshlah added, "He promised that all ASEAN members will engage in the issue to start a dialogue on Burma"

The 10-nation members of ASEAN in December ratified a charter, which pledged to protect human rights and promote democracy in the region.

However, the charter maintains ASEAN’s tradition of non-interference in member states, and does not have provisions for the punishment of states if they flout it.

Wathshlah said, the representatives of civil society organizations also discussed with ASEAN leaders about people participating in a regional grouping, human right bodies, promoting and protection of the rights of migrant workers in the region and gender issues.

Abhisit told the activists that the human rights body will be set up according to the principle of Asean Charter to ensure the protection of human rights and the people’s participation in the body, Wathshlah said.

"He said that human rights body is to be in line with the Asean Charter. He will try as much as possible to ensure the protection of human rights", Wathshlah said and added, "He encouraged people’s participation".

Earlier, the Thai government arranged for 10 persons representing civil society organizations including the exiled Burmese women activist Khin Ohmar to participate and hold a dialogue with ASEAN leaders on Saturday.

However, Burma and Cambodia objected to the participation of Khin Ohmar and Cambodian volunteer activist Pen Somony at the meeting, saying they will boycott the meeting if civil society organizations, which were not affiliated with them, were involved.

Khin Ohmar, the chair of the Network for Democracy and Development (Burma) in exile said that Burmese regime's delegates to the 14th ASEAN summit objected to her participating in the 30-minute talk between ASEAN leaders and civil society organizations.

"Without giving any reason, they [Burmese representatives] rejected my involvement in the meeting," Khin Ohmar told Mizzima. (JEG's: do they ever give reasons?)

However, on Thursday, Khin Ohmar could meet Abhisit for 10 minutes.

Khin Ohmar said Abhisit told her to raise Burma's human rights and political reform issues at the ongoing regional summit.

"He said that he will raise the matters related to human rights, national reconciliation and 2010 election in Burma," Khin Ohmar said.

READ MORE---> Activists raise Burma issues with ASEAN leaders...

US to boycott UN racism conference

(The Jakarta Post) -The Obama administration said Friday that the United States will boycott an upcoming U.N. conference on racism unless its final document is changed to drop all references to Israel and the defamation of religion.

At the same time, it said the U.S. would participate as an observer in meetings of the U.N. Human Rights Council, a body that was shunned by the Bush administration for anti-Israel statements and failing to act on abuses in Sudan and other states.

The racism conference is a follow-up to the contentious 2001 meeting in the South African city of Durban that was dominated by clashes over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery.

The U.S. and Israel walked out midway through that meeting over a draft resolution that singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism - the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state - to racism.

Israel and Canada had already announced they would will boycott the next World Conference Against Racism in Geneva from April 20-25, known as Durban II, but the Obama administration decided it wanted to assess the negotiations before making a decision on U.S. participation.

Last week, the State Department sent a team to Geneva to attend preparatory meetings for the conference but on Friday it said the closing statement under consideration mirrored the 2001 draft and was was unacceptable.

"Sadly ... the document being negotiated has gone from bad to worse, and the current text of the draft outcome document is not salvageable," spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement.

"As a result, the United States will not engage in further negotiations on this text, nor will we participate in a conference based on this text," he said.

The United States will not take part in the conference unless its final statement does not single out any one country or conflict for criticism nor embrace the draft's stance on the condemnation or take up the issue of reparations for slavery, Wood said.

"We would be prepared to re-engage if a document that meets these criteria becomes the basis for deliberations," he said.

Israel, which was deeply concerned when the administration sent a delegation to the preparatory meeting, lobbied hard for the U.S. to stay away from the conference and pro-Israel groups hailed the decision.

"President Obama's decision not to send U.S. representation to the April event is the right thing to do and underscores America's unstinting commitment to combating intolerance and racism in all its foms and in all settings," the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said.

"It's a clear signal to the international community that this administration refuses to validate the hijacking of human rights by regimes led by Libya and Iran," said the Simon Wiesenthal Center, referring to countries that are supporting the draft statement.

U.S. officials said they are pressing European nations to boycott the conference unless there are revisions to the final statement. The Netherlands and France have already expressed concern about the contents.

Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said he hoped the U.S, position "will galvanize like-minded countries and those who have been sitting on the sidelines to end this mindless march toward an outcome that serves none of the victims of racism, xenophobia and intolerance."

Although it announced the boycott of the Durban II conference, the tate Department also said it would attend, as an observer, meetings of the U.N. Human Rights Council that the United States had previously stayed away from of criticism of Israel it said was one-sided.

Despite those concerns, Wood said the Obama administration believes that "it furthers our interests and will do more (to) advance human rights if we are part of the conversation and present at the council's proceedings."

"These times demand seriousness and candor, and we pledge to closely work with our partners in the international community to avoid politicization and to achieve our shared goals," he said.

The Obama administration had declined to speak during the council's review earlier this month of the human rights records of China, Russia and other countries the United States has previously criticized for abuses.

READ MORE---> US to boycott UN racism conference...

Best of Harn Lay's for this season

The Irrawaddy News

READ MORE---> Best of Harn Lay's for this season...

New Report Slams Junta for Nargis ‘Crimes’

A new report says that the Burmese junta’s response to Cyclone Nargis could constitute crimes against humanity. (Photo: www.allmyanmar.com)

By NEIL LAWRENCE
The Irrawaddy News

In stark contrast to an earlier assessment of the Cyclone Nargis relief effort by Burma’s ruling junta and its international partners, a new report released today accuses the regime of widespread rights abuses that “may constitute crimes against humanity.”

The report, “After the Storm: Voices from the Delta,” is the first independent inquiry into the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma on May 2-3 last year, killing as many as 140,000 people.

Unlike the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report released last July by the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), consisting of the junta, the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the new report does not shy away from the issue of human rights abuses by the Burmese regime.

“We did not prompt this. We asked a number of questions about relief efforts and agencies, and what kept coming out was people trying to struggle and negotiate their communities’ relationships with the junta,” said Dr Chris Beyrer, director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which released the report.

The report is based on interviews with 90 private relief workers and cyclone survivors conducted between June and November 2008. The interviews were carried out by the Emergency Assistance Team—Burma (EAT), a social organization based on the Thai-Burmese border and staffed by community aid workers from cyclone-affected areas.

The interviews detail a pattern of abuses by the military authorities, including the misappropriation of relief supplies, forced labor and harassment and arrest of local aid workers.

“After one month, they came to the village, saw my supplies and started asking—they sent my information to Yangon [Rangoon] to investigate me. They were asking why there were so many supplies. They think it was anti-government. So I left; I don’t like prison,” recounted one relief worker who was interviewed for the report.

The authors of the report say that such abuses “may constitute crimes against humanity through the creation of conditions whereby the basic survival needs of victims cannot be adequately met,” in violation of Article 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

“These allegations, taken together, may amount to crimes against humanity and may need to be investigated,” said Beyrer, adding that the case could be referred to the UN Security Council for consideration.

The report also highlights the international relief effort’s failure to engage community-based groups, and calls for a more thorough assessment of the situation in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta, including the junta’s role in obstructing aid.

“There are some [international] groups working directly with community organizations, but they have to be very careful about how they work together. It is very risky. That is why we want the UN and Asean to tell the government to allow the community-based organizations to work freely to do their humanitarian work,” said Dr Cynthia Maung, who serves as the chairperson of EAT.

“We would also like to recommend that the UN or the international community do a more thorough assessment,” she added. “Unless we get a proper assessment or report, it may be very hard to continue working to improve the situation [in the cyclone-affected area].”

The report was released as Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, speaking at the annual Asean summit being held in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin, revealed that the Burmese regime was set to extend the TCG’s role in the delta.

It is unclear how the regional grouping, which has generally closed ranks in defense of the Burmese junta in the past, will respond to the report.

“We hope that there is a positive and constructive response, not a response of denial or obfuscation, but rather that people will say, all right, these kinds of practices must cease and desist,” said Beyrer.

“These kinds of allegations simply cannot be ignored. The people of the Irrawaddy delta deserve to have a reconstruction effort that’s free of rights abuses,” he added.

READ MORE---> New Report Slams Junta for Nargis ‘Crimes’...

ILO, Burma extend ‘supplementary understanding’

by Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - The International Labour Organization and Burma’s military regime on Thursday extended Supplementary Understanding on the treatment of complaints lodged against forced labour for another 12 months, Burma’s state-run newspaper said.

The New Light of Myanmar, Burma’s military junta’s mouthpiece, on Friday reported that Burma’s Labour Minister Aung Kyi and ILO’s Executive Director Mr. Kari Tapiola on Thursday signed the extension of the Supplementary Understanding.

The ILO and Burma reached an agreement in February 2007 to establish a complaint mechanism for victims of forced labour. Under the agreement, the ILO was allowed to have a liaison officer in Rangoon.

This Supplementary Understanding supports the application of existing laws prohibiting the use of forced labour in Burma and provides a complaints’ mechanism, facilitated by the ILO Liaison Officer in Rangoon.

Under Article 1 of the Supplementary Understanding, Burmese citizens can, with protection from reprisal, seek justice under the law if they are subjected to forced labour.

The Burmese junta’s Labour Minister Aung Kyi said, signing the extension of the Supplementary Understanding supports Burma’s “political commitment to the eradication of forced labour.”

Human Rights groups have criticised military-ruled Burma for its appalling human rights records and has documented the widespread use of forced labour in building army camps, constructing roads and even including forced conscription of children into the army.

Aung Myo Min, the director of the Thailand-based Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB), in an earlier interview with Mizzima said, the Burmese Army has at least 60,000 child soldiers.

READ MORE---> ILO, Burma extend ‘supplementary understanding’...

Singing a requiem for the rohingya boat people

"We can also perhaps stop all payments to the United Nations and its numerous agencies, use the money to feed the refugees and send a debit note for that amount as our annual subscription to the world body…

By SUMET JUMSAI
The Nation Multimedia

THIRTY YEARS AGO, I wrote the article that is partly reprinted below. It was published in The Nation on June 27, 1979, against the backdrop of the Vietnamese boat people. Things have not changed much since then. Today's inhumanity still rears its ugly head while our leaders cling to the excuses of "national interest" or "security concerns" to justify the drowning of the Rohingya boat people, instead of taking a moral stand.

A few generations ago, prisoners of war, refugees or economic migrants, as many of our forebears were, having come from Shantou in South China, were welcomed as a positive economic force for the Kingdom. Going back further in history, in the 16th century, my ancestors were Mon refugees from Burma (namely Phya Kien and Phya Ram). I feel that we, refugees or descendants of refugees, made this country - against all odds, against the inhumanity and the animal-like cruelty of modern day nationalists.

This then, was my requiem for the boat people of the world as it would be for today.

"In my student days, I remember marching behind Bertrand Russell and participating in his rallies. Since that time, I assume that the world no longer has a conscience.

"But a few days ago Sartre came out of the oblivion to speak for the Indo-Chinese refugees and, in effect on behalf of what remains of homo sapiens. I felt then that in humanity's four-million-year progression, there may yet be a ray of hope.

"Here, in this part of the world, to entertain views other than towing the desperate refugees back to sea or pushing them back to their war-torn country is to be unpatriotic. This being the case, I want everyone to know that I am the most unpatriotic person around. Whatever the wickedness, passiveness and guilt of other nations in regard to the refugee problem in Southeast Asia, I cannot enlist my soul to repeat after the popular cry to evict those unfortunate people regardless of everything else.

"We can also perhaps stop all payments to the United Nations and its numerous agencies, use the money to feed the refugees and send a debit note for that amount as our annual subscription to the world body…

"I have no idea what people see when they look at pictures of old folk, young people, children and women being towed out to drift in the sea. Certainly at this point in time, I am witnessing the lowest ebb in human evolution.

"What is happening in [a neighbouring country] makes us seem relatively humane. Nevertheless, except for the social workers along the border who toil without saying a word, the lack of compassion or metta amongst our rank and file convinces me that ours is hardly a Buddhist country. Notwithstanding, I believe that karma or the reciprocal law applies whether the country is Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or nothing at all. Whoever tows out those poor souls into the sea will find themselves recompensed accordingly.

"Setting people adrift to die is as cruel as processing Jews in the Nazi solution for Europe. I ask myself whether it would not be easier, and perhaps less cruel, to make the refugees queue up and take the 'showers' in the chambers. At any rate, if I were a refugee I would ask the authorities to issue death pills instead of towing me out in a junk to eventually drown in the middle of nowhere. At least I shall not have to see old folks, women and children going through such an ordeal.

"Actually the entire humanity is in the same boat - Spaceship Earth as R Buckminster Fuller called it - a tiny craft amongst nine others orbiting around a tiny star called the Sun, which in turn is the centre of a minute system amongst 30,000 million such systems in one of the myriad of galaxies.

"In this grand scheme of things - and we can see it clearly if we only look to the sky on a clear night - humans on a tiny spacecraft quarrel over 300 metres of ill-defined borders which cannot even be seen with the most powerful telescope from the nearest spacecraft called Mars, and whether people should be defined as refugees or displaced persons.

"In spite of fantastic tool inventions, I now question whether humans without the capability to understand the universe will survive into the 21st century. It must seem a long time ago since hominids took the road to become human or since life germinated on our spacecraft four billions years ago. Scientists now see a rapid deterioration on the latter's physical condition: man-made pollution in both the stratosphere and atmosphere, the destruction of the natural balance of land and sea, and the burning up of the spacecraft's non-renewable energy.

"As a humanist, I can see that perhaps long before the craft's self-automated mechanism stops functioning completely, the human race may have already raced itself out of existence through incredible selfishness. For humans, the four million years of evolutionary effort might yet be undone in less than a hundred!

"With this article, I take leave of my readers in order to research into the origins of our species. Perhaps something worthwhile did exist then, in which case this column might be reactivated."

READ MORE---> Singing a requiem for the rohingya boat people...

Ethnic delegation urges Australia to lend more support

by Solomon

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The apex body of Burma’s ethnic nationalities, the Ethnic Nationalities Council, said it had called on Australia to send a special envoy to Burma, in order to facilitate a process of dialogue.

Delegates of the ENC, an umbrella organization of Burma’s ethnic political and armed groups, said they had urged the Australian government to designate a special envoy to put pressure on Burma’s military rulers for political reforms.

During an eleven-day lobbying trip to Australia, the Thailand-based ENC representatives, urged Australia to take a stronger stand on Burma and boycott its proposed 2010 elections, as it was a process to legitimize military rule in the country.

The representatives also explained the importance of a tripartite dialogue that would include the government, the opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi and representatives of ethnic nationalities and urged Australia to mount pressure on the junta to kick-start a tripartite dialogue.

Duwa Mahkaw Hkunsa, General Secretary of the ENC, who is among the four-member delegation, told Mizzima that the Australian government had given a positive response to their requests of pressurizing the Burmese junta on ethnic issues, and to provide more support for the Burmese democratic movement both politically and financially.

The ENC delegation, has so far met an Australian parliamentarian, Assistance Secretary of Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship. The delegation began their trip on February 20 and it will continue until March 3.

“They [government] agreed to our suggestions and they told us that there would be discussions later in the government meetings,” Mahkaw Hkunsa said.

He added that the main goal of the mission was to urge Australia for increased support on Burma’s movement for democracy and to highlight the need for ethnic participation in Burma’s political solution.

Mahkaw Hkunsa said the ENC would continue with its lobbying mission to Canada, Japan and the United States in order to gain more support for Burma’s democratic movement and to boycott the junta’s one-sided roadmap, including the 2010 elections.

In a statement, the ENC made a 13-point recommendation for the Australian Government to implement, in support of Burma’s democratic movement, including pressurizing the Burmese junta to release all political prisoners, to ensure ethnic nationalities’ participation in political processes, to provide financial support for democracy and humanitarian assistance to the people of Burma.

ENC said, Burma’s political problems could only be solved through a tripartite dialogue, which included the military government, ethnic representatives and opposition party led by detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

READ MORE---> Ethnic delegation urges Australia to lend more support...

Civil Society Edges Deeper Into Regional Summit

By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
The Irrawaddy News

CHA-AM, Thailand — In a nod towards greater engagement with people's organizations, a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in this resort town will slightly extend its customary face-to-face with civil society representatives.

The 30 minutes that civil society leaders from eight countries in the region will have with the 10 presidents and prime ministers on Saturday is, symbolically at least, an advance from past summits, where only 15 minutes were provided for such engagements.

This widening window is in keeping with the promise of a more "people centred'' Association of South-east Asian Nations, the 10-member bloc founded in 1967 to stall the spread of communism. In December, a new Asean charter came into force, making the regional alliance a rules-based entity and one that could hold governments to be more accountable.

The pledge to make it an inclusive body is part of the charter. And the theme of the summit held in this town south of Bangkok is "Asean Charter for Asean Peoples.''

The 10 members of Asean span the political spectrum, where space for a politically active and critical civil society and grassroots organizations is often not embraced by all. They range from Brunei, an absolute monarchy, Burma (or Myanmar), under the grip of an oppressive military dictatorship, Laos and Vietnam, both one-party states headed by their respective communist parties, and Singapore, a one-party state that crushes dissent and tolerates little opposition.

The only countries in the region where shades of democracy are visible are Indonesia and the Philippines, less so in Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia, albeit with increasing space for political and civil liberties.

The 10 civil society representatives who will meet the leaders at the 14th Asean summit are from Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and hosts Thailand.

"Issues running into three or four pages addressing concerns of civil society are up for discussion,'' says Thitinan Pongsuthirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University who will chair the dialogue between the leaders and the civil society organizations (CSOs). "The treatment of the Rohingyas by Burma-Myanmar, freeing the political prisoners there, the economic crisis, and the food crisis are some of the issues.''

"CSOs also want to institutionalize this engagement. They want to make it a regular event at Asean summits, not a one-off meeting or one done off-and-on,'' Thitinan said in an IPS interview.

"I have to give a lot of credit to the Thai foreign ministry for organizing this dialogue,'' he added. "They have made an important push to make this a people-centred Asean.''

Saturday's dialogue is the culmination of a range of CSO activities held ahead in Bangkok over the week to drum pressure for the summit in Cha-am. A record 1,000 CSO representatives from across the region have been meeting since the last weekend to shape their agenda.

The key themes that CSOs rallied around during the Asean People's Forum and the Civil Society Conference included the plans by Asean leaders to create a regional human rights body, the free trade agreements the bloc's leaders are to sign with India, Australia and New Zealand, and how the region will be impacted by the global economic slowdown.

In a first for Asean, Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the regional bloc, and Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, representing the host country, participated in an hour-long engagement with activists on Sunday afternoon.

"I don't think we are afraid of anything,'' Surin told IPS. "With the charter, every issue is open for discussion.''

They are words that Asean activists are determined to use as guiding principle. "We want to open the Asean process to everyone,'' says Joy Chavez, a researcher at Focus on the Global South, a regional think tank and a Philippine national. "The participation of CSOs here reflects that. Four years ago the number of participants would have been 20 percent (of the number attending the current Asean summit).''

The spirit of accommodation on show at the summit is coming in for praise by long-time observers of Asean. "For the past four decades, Asean has seldom heeded, let alone listened to, the voices of ordinary people,'' writes Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior editor and columnist for The Nation, and English-language daily in Thailand.

He credits Malaysia for ushering in the change when Kuala Lumpur hosted the Asean summit in 2004. "(The Malaysian leader) initiated the meeting between Asean leaders and civil society groups and, in the process, provided input to them directly. That first encounter ignited the civil groups' interest in Asean.''

The meetings that followed in the Philippines and Singapore mirrored this shift in relations between government leaders and CSOs. Yet such an opening has not ended the distrust CSOs have of the region's governments and, consequently, are reluctant to cheer the welcome mat being rolled out on Saturday by Asean leaders.

"Civil society groups that have tried to engage their governments on Asean Charter-related issues such as human rights and democracy have been subjected to serious and even brutal retaliation in member states such as Burma, Laos and even the Philippines,'' says Gus Miclat, executive director of Initiatives for International Dialogue, in a statement released on Wednesday.

READ MORE---> Civil Society Edges Deeper Into Regional Summit...

Asean Will Not React to Pressure: Thai FM

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

CHA-AM — The chairman of the Association of South Asian Nations (Asean) said on Thursday that issues such as human rights in Burma and the Rohingya crisis would be discussed at the 14th Asean Summit, but not in reaction to pressure.

As the current chair of Asean, Thailand is hosting the three-day summit at Cha-am in Petchaburi Province. The 14th Asean Summit was originally due to be held in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, in December, but was postponed due to political unrest in the kingdom.

Responding to questions at a press conference on the eve of the summit, current Asean chairman, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, said, “Anything of concern, we can talk about with one another without making demands.”

He said that delegates will also talk about human rights issues in the region at informal meetings.

On the Rohingya boat people issue, he said Thailand will handle the matter through the Bali process. He added that he would talk with his Burmese counterparts about the matter at informal meetings during the summit.

Initiated in 2002 and co-chaired by the governments of Australia and Indonesia, the Bali Process brings together more than 50 countries and numerous international agencies to help combat people smuggling, human trafficking and related transnational crimes in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Asean foreign ministers held an “informal working dinner” on Thursday evening ahead of Friday’s foreign ministers meetings, which will specifically concentrate on an Asean human rights body and the Asean Charter.

Burma is expected to be the main focus of any discussions on human rights. The military-ruled country has some 2,100 political prisoners in its jails, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

In the past, the United States and the European Union have criticized Asean for neglecting to react to human rights violations in Burma.

Aside from the Rohingya boat people issue, Asean leaders are due to talk with Burmese delegates on an extension to the Tripartite Core Group (TCG)—comprising Asean, the United Nations and the Burmese regime—which acts in response to last year’s Cyclone Nargis disaster in southwestern Burma.

An emergency meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Singapore in May 2008 agreed on the forming of the TCG.

However, the TCG agreement expires in July. According to the UN, both the UN and Asean are prepared to continue humanitarian and rebuilding projects in Burma, but the Burmese regime has not officially approved an extension of the TCG.

A Thai official at the summit, who spoke to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity, said, “We are waiting for an answer from Myanmar [Burma] about the TCG, but there are some hardline ministers.”

READ MORE---> Asean Will Not React to Pressure: Thai FM...

Burma’s corridor to democracy depends on regional partners

by Moe Thu and Htet Win

Rangoon (Mizzima) - In an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, every nation has to deal with the international community in one way or another in order to achieve aims including domestic improvements and peaceful coexistence regardless of how strong or weak it stands up among world nations.

For Burma, which is no exception, the United Nations is still the best option, through the mandate of which the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) is well positioned to take further steps forward to being a modernized entity democratically demonstrable.

There has already been a recent, concrete example. As well thanks to the ASEAN’s lobby, the UN’s humanitarian intervention took place in Burma, delivering a great supply of relief assistance, when it was hard hit by Nargis Cyclone last May, which left more than 130,000 dead or missing and some 2.4 million in need of continued support.

Also in response to the UN’s political facilitation, the military government released more than 6,300 prisoners soon after UN Human Rights expertTomas Ojea Quintana visited the Southeast Asian country. Unfortunately there were only 24 political prisoners included out of more than six thousand prisoners released.

“This is the time for Burma to seize the opportunity before it, to send positive signals,” said the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, expressing his willingness to visit Burma again. He last travelled to Burma in May after the cyclone devastated the Irrawaddy coastal areas.

At this juncture, it is for the military government to show its more positive and responsive actions and gestures to the international community’s sincerity with Burma’s democratization process.

The military regime already knew how fast the cyclone-devastated areas came to recover because it allowed the delivery of international assistances (after initial resistance and delay) through a newly-formed body called Tripartite Core Group, which comprises the government authority, the UN and the ASEAN.

That could be a sign that the junta is gradually departing from its isolationism stance amid situations, which demand greater cooperation with the international community in this globalised age to be able to address domestic issues, although a few top-ranking military officials falsely claimed that the country could manage to recover from the natural disaster then.

It would be fair to say that the military elites could have adopted much more precaution to offset any political string, which is likely to come along with international aids to the local needy. The military government might have learnt from Indonesia province of Aceh experience. After Tsunami in 2004, it got huge assistances from all over the world, which had negative effects on the Acehnese, contaminating the Acehnese. For example, money politics and under-age-voting occurred in the 2006 elections on Aceh for its governor and mayor.

Frankly speaking, a full recovery with Burma’s suffered areas is a national concern. Needless to say that the planned 2010 elections is an issue that can be crucial for the country and that many world nations and ASEAN are interested in it and watch out for, as a step to transition to democracy.

It is sure that not just Burmese people but their military government would like to be proud of their country’s goal to a prosperous, democratic one, though there are differences in what kinds of democracy one actually wants to see for the country.

Looking back the recent past, ASEAN may be the most important component of any international Burma policy, inviting the country to join it in 1997, partly because it thought that the integration would be more workable than pursuing the isolation to influence the military government. That’s also partly because ASEAN is intent on containing China’s influence on the nation’s natural resources.

At the same time, the 10-member bloc has come to recognize that Burma is not only a stain on its international reputation but also a drain on its diplomatic resources, plus a trauma to peace and stability in the region of more than five hundred million population.

Inside Burma, however, since 1996, four years after Senior General Than Shwe took the chair of the junta, repression grew more brazen, sending thousands of democracy activists and ordinary citizens to prison and displacing over one million people – mostly Karen and Shan minorities, which has resulted in their open-exile in Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia and Thailand.

The United States limited its diplomatic contact with the junta and eventually imposed mandatory trade and investment restrictions on the regime and its business back bones. Europe became a vocal advocate for Burma’s reforms and human rights. However, many Asian states moved to expand trade, aid, and diplomatic engagement with the military elites. China and Russia have vetoed attempts to impose international sanctions on Burma in the United Nations Security Council.

The answer is simple: Some countries still want Burma as it is. China and India could be the greatest obstacles to efforts to introduce genuine democratic reforms in the country. China has many interests in Burma. Over the past 15 years, it has developed deep political and economic relations with Burma, largely through billions of dollars in trade and investment and more than a billion dollars' worth of weapons sales. It enjoys important military benefits, including access to ports and listening posts, which allow its armed forces to monitor naval and other military activities around the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea.

To feed its insatiable appetite for energy, it also seeks preferential deals with the ruling generals for access to Burma's oil and gas reserves.

Beijing's engagement with the SPDC has been essential to the regime's survival. China has provided it with moral and financial support -- including funds and material to pay off Burma military elites -- thus increasing its leverage at home and abroad. By throwing China's weight behind the SPDC, Beijing has complicated the strategic calculations of those of Burma's neighbours that are concerned about the direction the country is moving in, thus enabling the junta to pursue a classic divide-and-conquer approach.

Like China, India is hungry for natural gas and other resources and is eager to build a road network through Burma that would expand its trade with ASEAN implementing its “Look East” policy. As a result, it has attempted to match China step for step as an economic and military partner of the SPDC allowing it to become now Burma's fourth-largest trading partner. Successive governments in India after 1990s including the present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government have also fallen for the junta's blackmail over cross-border drug and arms trafficking and has preferred to give it any assistance necessary rather than let Burma become a safe haven for insurgents active in India's troubled northeastern region.

Amid such challenges to move Burma forward, ASEAN leaders are highly expected to consider the interests of millions of people in Burma, and avoid an elite-to-elite vanity fair. All in all, multilateral-scale honesty and transparency are much in need, if the regional leaders are really working on a true development and democracy in the region including Burma. What’s more, it is ASEAN leaders, who gather at the 14th Summit in Thailand, to use an opportunity to be forging a new Burma leadership.

READ MORE---> Burma’s corridor to democracy depends on regional partners...

Malaysian PM: Push back Rohingya refugees

CHA-AM, Thailand (IHT): Malaysia's prime minister has called for Myanmar's Muslim boat people to be pushed back if they attempt to land on any Southeast Asian shores in search of asylum, a newspaper said Friday.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also took swipes at Myanmar and Thailand on the issue of the Rohingya refugees, which has escalated into a major problem for the region and one of concern internationally.

Thousands of the stateless Rohingya have fled Myanmar as well as refugee camps in Bangladesh in recent years, but their plight was only highlighted recently when hundreds were believed to have drowned after being pushed out to sea by the Thai military.

"But if we cannot be firm we cannot deal with this problem. We have to be firm at all borders. We have to turn them back," Badawi said in an interview with the English-language Bangkok Post.

Badawi was scheduled to arrive at this beach-side resort Friday for the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-nation bloc with includes Myanmar. The Rohingya issue is expected to be discussed on the sidelines of the three-day conference but is not part of the official agenda.

Thailand has called for a special regional conference on the refugees, who often attempt to land in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

"We feel that they are being pushed onto us instead of Thailand accommodating them somehow," Badawi said who also criticized Myanmar's military regime.

"Of course, we know they come from Myanmar (Burma). When we ask Myanmar, they ask: 'Are you sure they are our people? What evidence have you got?'" he said. (JEG's: and so the believers turn back in sadness)

It was unclear from the interview how Bawadi reconciled his call for Thailand to accommodate the refugees while at the same time saying that they should be pushed back from Southeast Asian shores.

The Rohingyas, an ethnic minority not recognized by Myanmar's government, number about 800,000 in that country. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Middle East.

"From Thailand they come to us, from us they go to Indonesia. We don't want to be unkind. But the problem has been about people who come to us without permits," Badawi said.

The prime minister said he would be pleased to see international organizations helping to solve the problem. (???) (is he saying we should solve government problems? it is a government problem and they are too soft with Myanmar which is to solve the problem once and for all... now they turn to international activism to SOLVE THE GOVERNMENTS PROBLEMS?)

"They (the organizations) are very concerned and at times they are critical of actions taken by governments," he said. (JEG's: that is right we are concerned, the problem should be solved and the victims should be treated humanly, but the problem should be fixed by governments, we just make the noise)

Human rights groups have been highly critical of Thailand for allegedly abusing groups of Rohingya refugees whose rickety boats reached its shores and then towing them out to sea without adequate provisions or fuel for their craft. Thailand has denied the allegations.

"This is not just Thailand's problem. It's a problem for all the region's countries, whether they are countries of origin, countries of destination or countries of transit," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has said.

READ MORE---> Malaysian PM: Push back Rohingya refugees...

Burma blocked aid supplies - report

By JOE HUMPHREYS
Irish Time

THE UNITED Nations Security Council should refer Burma (Myanmar) to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the manner in which it blocked humanitarian relief efforts during last year’s cyclone in the country, according to an independent inquiry into the episode.

A report, framed around extensive interviews with relief workers and survivors, says the government’s “systematic obstruction” of relief aid, penalisation of minority ethnic groups and use of forced labour in reconstruction could constitute crimes against humanity.

The report, published today by a group of leading international healthcare experts, says the Burmese government had been more concerned about forcing through a referendum on an authoritarian new constitution on May 10th last year rather than dealing with Cyclone Nargis, which struck eight days earlier, killing 140,000 and affecting 3.4 million people.

“The data reveal systematic obstruction of relief aid, wilful acts of theft and sale of relief supplies, forced relocation, and the use of forced labour for reconstruction projects, including forced child labour,” the report states.

“The slow distribution of aid, the push to hold the referendum vote, and the early refusal to accept foreign assistance are evidence of the junta’s primary concern for regime survival and political control over the well-being of the Burmese people.”

The report, After the Storm: Voices from the Delta , is jointly-authored by the US-based Centre for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Emergency Assistance Team (EAT), an umbrella group of health care workers which helped an estimated 180,000 survivors without the approval of the Burmese government. Among the 90 relief workers and survivors interviewed was a physician who said he had to flee the country when the military started asking questions about his connections with external relief agencies. Another relief worker said the government refused to give aid to Christian minorities “because they know they may be helped by Christian organisations”. The report says there is evidence of “multiple human rights violations and the abrogation of international humanitarian relief norms and international legal frameworks for disaster relief”.

These could constitute crimes against humanity, it says.

Burma Action Ireland said European members of the UN Security Council should request an immediate ICC investigation.

READ MORE---> Burma blocked aid supplies - report...

Asean parliamentarians urge action on Burma

By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation (Thailand)

Parliamentarians from Asean countries yesterday urged leaders attending the Asean Summit from today until Sunday (March 1) to seek solutions to pushing Burma toward democracy and social justice.

The junta run country will hold a general election next year but the poll might not be inclusive enough to have participation from all stakeholders, notably ethnic minorities, said Charles Chang, a parliamentarian from Singapore.

A group of parliamentarians from Southeast Asian countries under the Asean Inter Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) gathered yesterday at a Bangkok hotel to discuss social justice in Burma.

They met Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, as Thailand holds the chairmanship of Asean, to highlight key issues of the current situation in Burma, including human rights suppression and the 2010 junta sponsored general election.

The issue of Burma has dominated Asean meetings since the country failed to reform politics and release key opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Kasit told the parliamentarians that his government would address the issue of Burma a lot more seriously and with more engagement of civil society, according to an Asean MP who attended the meeting.

The minister was quite open as he allowed former elected MPs from Burma who are now in exile to see him yesterday, said AIPMC president Kraisak Chonhavan.

"It [more open discussion] would be like turning to a new chapter, but how to put it into political practicality in Burma is another question. This is the most open pre-Asean meeting I have ever seen," he said.

Asked whether the foreign minister, as the representative of Asean, had promised any action towards change in Burma, Kraisak declined to be specific, saying that the Asean charter had set out the standard for human rights in the region. :(...:( ...:(

"The point is that countries which are dictatorships, or countries which are democratic in name only, can no longer dictate the Asean theme.
Human rights is now an open horizon and will not stop," he added.

READ MORE---> Asean parliamentarians urge action on Burma...

Malaysia wants Myanmar to be open about refugee problem

By MERGAWATI ZULFAKAR

HUA HIN (Thailand) The Star: The problem of Rohingya refugees fleeing from Myanmar has become a regional problem and Malaysia wants the military junta to address the matter.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim raised the issue at the Asean Foreign Ministers informal dinner on Thursday night where he stressed to Myanmar that the problem was immense.

“We need to float this matter as something that Asean must look at and the best level to discuss this is at the foreign ministers level,” he said.

“The difficulties are immense because no one authority is in charge of this exodus. “The data seems be to different from one authority to the other. There are authorities that say Malaysia has no less than 14,000 but these are (just) the registered ones, so there no could be more,” he told Malaysian journalists.

Lately Indonesia has been facing an incoming exodus of Rohingyas after allegations that the Thai navy turned them away from their shores after fleeing from Myanmar.

Dr Rais said Malaysia and Indonesia should be together in voicing the matter to Myanmar which he said appeared to be avoiding the problem.

“Myanmar must understand this is their problem as much as ours,” he said. “We understand these people are encouraged to leave but we do not know the actual story. So we would like Myanmar to be open about it.”

He said that if Myanmar refused to own up to the issue, it would become a worldwide problem and the United Nations might have to step in.

Dr Rais also said Malaysia was working towards getting a separate statement on Gaza to be issued by Asean leaders at the 14th Asean summit this weekend.

The matter was raised at Asean seniors officials meeting Thursday.

READ MORE---> Malaysia wants Myanmar to be open about refugee problem...

Burmese election will be a sham and change nothing

By SAI WANSAI
The Nation

Once again, UN and US pleas for the release of all political prisoners in Burma will be met with deafening silence, as is always the case where the Burmese junta is concerned.

It should be evident to the UN, the US and the EU that the junta is determined to carry on its charade of a 2010 election. Everyone knows that this fiasco is aimed at cementing the regime's rule through some "democratic" trappings and is in no way going to lead to real democratisation and reconciliation.

Just as a reminder, the constitution is drawn by the military and the election rules will be the same. In the end, the junta will be allotted 25 per cent of the seats without election and the rest will be for its self-created USDA-like parties or affiliates. It is all going to be stage-managed. A few individual parties will be allowed to contest, for the sake of window-dressing, and nothing radical will come out of it.

The junta could create a turning point for the better, just in a single day, simply by releasing all political prisoners, calling for a nationwide ceasefire and implementing a process of reconciliation and all-inclusiveness in the political arena.

However, this scenario is just wishful thinking. The world body and influential stakeholders can only make a difference by imposing a new, fair game plan, rather than going along with the junta's self-serving roadmap.

READ MORE---> Burmese election will be a sham and change nothing...

Break the Broken Record

By KYAW ZWA MOE
The Irrawaddy News

The Burma issue is like a broken record: the same things are repeated over and over.

No 1: The junta routinely arrests political activists; it says economic sanctions should be repealed and blames the opposition party for it; it tries to sell its upcoming election in 2010, as part of its democracy roadmap.

No 2: The opposition parties, including the National League for Democracy (NLD), call for dialogue without any new, results-oriented strategies. They simply oppose whatever the government does.

No 3: All the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries are afraid directly confront the Burmese military leaders.

No 4: Without action, the international community calls for the release of all political prisoners and for dialogue between opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

No 5: The US remains the strongest vocal critic of the military leaders.

After hearing most of these positions repeated over and over for two decades, it’s not surprising that people are jaded and complacent. But things may be changing.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during her first trip to Asia: “We want to see a time when citizens of Burma and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi can live freely in their own country.”

The big question is when and how? During her trip, Clinton talked about Burma with Japan, Indonesia and China. She noted that US policy has failed to achieve positive results. “Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced the Burmese junta.”

She noted the path taken by Burma’s neighboring countries, a “constructive engagement policy,” hasn’t influenced the military leaders either.

The new administration of US President Barack Obama can be expected to create a new approach to Burma, based on Obama’s track record of creative thinking and pragmatism.

In his inaugural address, his message was clear: "We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." Definitely, his message was heard by Burma’s military leaders.

Two core political bargaining chips stand out: the release all political prisoners and the removal of economic sanctions.

The first is a key principle of the NLD; the second is a key principle of the junta.

These two issues are probably the keys to unlocking the status quo in Burma.

When UN Special envoy Ibrahim Gambari visited Burma recently, premier Gen Thein Sein told the envoy, “The UN should make an effort to lift economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar [Burma], if the organization wants to see a prosperous Myanmar with political stability.”

The prime minister said economic sanctions have hindered Burma’s efforts to alleviate poverty. He said the country is “like a person who is forced to run quickly while his legs are tied together.”

The prime minister sent a clear message to the Western world, especially the US, which has led the world effort to impose sanctions since 1997.

During her meeting with Gambari, Suu Kyi and senior NLD leaders emphasized the release of all political prisoners and a return to real dialogue.

President Obama and his secretary of state should make these two issues the focus of direct, or back channel, talks with the junta, and the sooner the better.

To drive home the message that direct talks are needed, the US administration should immediately name a special envoy to Burma, to carry the administration’s negotiating views directly to Than Shwe.

Last November, former President George W Bush appointed Michael Green as his special Burma policy coordinator with a rank of ambassador. But President Obama has yet to nominate him for the job.

With a special Burma envoy in place, the United States can get down to business, focusing on a basic quid pro quo: the release of all political prisoners for a lifting of economic sanctions.

If progress can be made on these two key issues, then the door is open for more change, and the old broken record will be broken.

READ MORE---> Break the Broken Record...

Thai PM Calls for All Sides to Participate in Burmese Elections

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

CHA-AM, Thailand — Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he has asked Burmese Premier Gen Thein Sein to encourage the opposition to compete in the forthcoming general election in Burma and expressed optimism that the military junta was making progress in its steps toward democracy.

Speaking to reporters at the 14th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on Friday, the Thai premier said he had asked his Burmese counterpart “to encourage all sides to participate in the 2010 Burmese elections” and said that he could see “clear progress” in the military junta’s steps toward holding democratic elections next year.

Abhisit said he had held bilateral talks with the heads of state of Burma, Cambodia and Malaysia that day.

“We hope to see progress [in Burma]. We hope to see involvement, particularly from the UN. I also said that the process should be as inclusive as possible,” he told assembled reporters.

He added that Thailand’s policy toward Burma was “clearly one of engagement.”

However, the Thai prime minster, like most other delegates at the summit, found that his press conference became driven by reporters toward the sticky issue of Rohingya boatpeople.

Calling the Rohingya crisis a “complex and complicated issue;” Abhisit said Thailand will deport the migrants if it could ascertain their point of origin. In response to a question by The Irrawaddy regarding boatpeople whose point of origin could not be identified, the Thai premier was not specific, but reiterated that Thai policy was “to promote cooperation and consultation in the region, so that the problem will not recur.”

Five or six countries are involved in the Rohingya issue, he said, adding that the matter would be dealt with again at a Bali Process meeting iin Indonesia in April.

At an earlier press conference, the secretary-general of Asean, Surin Pitsuwan, said that the Burmese Prime Minister, Thein Sein, had confirmed a one-year extension (until July 2010) of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) for rebuilding and humanitarian projects in areas affected by Cyclone Nargis.

The TCG proposed a three-year rehabilitation plan for the cyclone victims at a conference in Bangkok on February 9.

READ MORE---> Thai PM Calls for All Sides to Participate in Burmese Elections...

Burma sets condition for accepting Rohingya migrants

by Usa Pichai

Hua Hin (Mizzima) The Thai Foreign Minister has said that the Burmese military regime has agreed to take back only those migrants, who have been verified as “Bengalis” from Burma, at the regional bloc’s summit in Thailand.

Kasit Piromya, the chairperson of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), told the press on Friday after he had a meeting with foreign ministers from the 10 member countries, that the solution to the refugee problem required cooperation from these countries as well as the ASEAN Secretariat.

He said the Bengali ethnicity of the Rohingya in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia would be verified and then it would be confirmed that they were from Burma.

“The Burmese officials said that in the official ethnic groups list of Burma, there is only a Bengali group, but Rohingya has not been approved as an ethnic group in Burma,” Piromya added.

The solution to this issue would be worked out at two levels, firstly enlisting the cooperation of related countries at ASEAN and the second would be at a bigger level during the Bali Process.

Secretary General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan also said at a press conference that the Rohingya issue was a regional problem, and at the moment the solution could not be reached only by the countries in the bloc, so it would be raised during the “Bali Process” that is scheduled for April 14 to 15, 2009.

In addition, the ASEAN Secretariat would play a role in building a census of the Bengali population in Burma. However, the time frame has not been announced yet.

Apart from the Rohingya issue, the meeting also discussed matters regarding the Cyclone Nargis, expressed relief that the ASEAN‘s relief programme had succeeded. It also decided to extend the programme for another year, till the middle of 2010.

The Thai Foreign Minister also added that the common experience in humanitarian work, among member countries both during the Tsunami in 2004 and Cyclone Nargis in 2008 would help to find a solution for the Rohingya issue.

Meanwhile, the rights groups, which are concerned about the issue, said that ethnic verification was not the solution to the problem.

Kodchawan Chaiyabut from Amnesty International, Thailand, said that this reaction showed insincerity of the related government. “However, I hope that they will improve their actions in the future. We (rights group) expect the plan of setting up a new human rights body will be a new ray of hope for the region,” Chaiyabut said.

On Friday, a network of Peace for Burma (Thailand), Webster University and Burma Partnership, organized a forum “ASEAN: Is Burma an Internal Problem or a Regional Crisis?” at Webster University, Hua-Hin, to discuss and promote better understanding on the plight of Burma.

READ MORE---> Burma sets condition for accepting Rohingya migrants...

Public Health School Calls for Investigation into Burma's Handling of Cyclone Recovery

A young survivor of the cyclone Nargis wait for relief supplies in Bogalay,
Burma, 13 May 2008

By Ron Corben

(VOA)- A report led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine has called for a United Nations investigation into Burma's handling of aid and assistance to cyclone hit regions last year, accusing the military government of crimes against humanity. Relief groups are calling on Asian countries and the international community to press Burma's military government towards greater transparency and accountability in receiving assistance.

The report, a joint project of aid workers from the Thai-Burma border and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, charges Burma's military government with abuse and corruption in its handling of aid and recovery to the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region hit by last year's cyclone Nargis.

The report charges Burma's military of resisting international and regional aid, interference in assistance, confiscation of aid and resale, arrest of aid workers, discrimination in aid along ethnic lines, forced labor and confiscation of land.

Chris Beyer of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Chris Beyer, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says the key recommendation is for a United Nations investigation into the charges that may represent "crimes against humanity."

"Taken together there is an argument to be made for an assessment and we call for an investigation of crimes against humanity - that is based on the Rome Statute article 7-IK - essentially its based on the argument that there has been intentionally great suffering, mental and physical health," he said.

The project report, After the Storm: Voices from the Delta, was centered on interviews with relief workers and Burmese army defectors over several months after the devastation of the cyclone in May that claimed tens of thousand of lives.

Immediately after the cyclone, over 300 Burma aid workers from the Thai-Burma border worked as teams delivering assistance into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region, often undercover to avoid military checkpoints and arrest.

Burma's military government has been widely criticized for its slow response to the disaster and restrictions it placed on access of assistance to the region, including direct aid from neighboring Asian countries.

Beyer says, based on the interviews with aid workers, the allegations of misconduct and abuse highlighted in the report appeared to be widespread throughout the Delta Region.

"We can say with some confidence that most of what was being reported was common," he said. "Force relocation, virtually everybody we interviewed reported forced relocation, forced labor was also common, forced child labor less common. The confiscation, thefts and resale of relief aid was ubiquitous - that appeared to be very much standard operating procedure throughout the area."

Dr. Cynthia Maung, who oversees a Burmese health clinic in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, said the Association of South East Asian Nations - ASEAN - and international community had to pressure the military to be held accountable in the delivery of aid.

"As you see in the report and as we found out in the information inside Burma - the relief effort should be more thorough and more accountable," she said. "Our aim is to how to become more effective to deliver assistance as well as for the reconstruction of the country, how to rebuild or broaden the cooperation between the community organization and the international comunity".

The report stands in contrast to a recent positive review by the tripartite U.N, ASEAN and Burma's military, that the leadership "had gained a higher degree of confidence" in working with the international community. The tripartite assistance group called for a further $700 million in funding over three years to assist in longer term recovery to cyclone affected regions.

READ MORE---> Public Health School Calls for Investigation into Burma's Handling of Cyclone Recovery...