Burma Related News - Aug 20, 2005.
- From: "Tin Kyi" <maungtinkyi@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 07:43:55 +0000 (UTC)
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BURMA RELATED NEWS - AUGUST 20, 2005.
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HEADLINES
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INQ7.net - Myanmar to resume constitutional talks by December, says UN
Kyodo News - U.N. envoy meets Myanmar junta leader
JT - Asylum in Japan eludes Myanmar's close-knit Chin minority
Bkk Post - The sense of urgency grows at the UN
FT - Health fund pulls out of Burma
The Star - Our boys lose to Myanmar
RedNova - Six More South Koreans Contract Cholera From Burma Trip
Malay Mail - Gem Heist in Sg Buloh: Myanmar nationals may be involved
Asian Tribune - Burma?s opposition group calls for co-sponsors
DVB News - Memorial service for Burmese actor Tun Wai held in Rangoon
DVB News - Cyber disobedience: unknown hackers attack Burma junta?s
websites
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INQ7.net
Myanmar to resume constitutional talks by December, says UN
First posted 03:24pm (Mla time) Aug 20, 2005
By Agence France-Presse
YANGON -- Constitutional talks suspended by Myanmar's military rulers
and designed as the first step on the junta's "road map" to democracy
are due to resume by December, a visiting UN envoy said on Saturday.
Former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas on Friday held a rare
meeting with the junta's top five leaders to discuss reforms at the
United Nations, and later met organizers of a national convention
charged with drafting a new constitution.
Alatas, wrapping up the last of a three-day visit to impoverished
Myanmar, told reporters the meeting with constitutional talks organizers
and others with government-backed social groups were added to his agenda
by the junta.
"It was quite interesting but I didn't come for this," Alatas said,
stressing his mandate was the UN reform process.
He said national convention senior organizer Judge Aung Toe told him the
talks -- which the junta suspended in March -- would resume by December.
"All I did was listen to what they have to say."
The European Union, the United States, the United Nations, and human
rights groups consider the national convention a sham because it has
been boycotted by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) of
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under her latest stint of house arrest
since May 2003.
Alatas did not meet the NLD or any other opposition groups and said he
did not discuss domestic politics or the release of Aung San Suu Kyi
during Friday's talks with reclusive junta leader Senior General Than
Shwe.
The NLD on Friday told AFP Alatas's visit would do little to ease
Myanmar's political impasse, adding only a visit by UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan would help improve the present political impasse.
Alatas said a visit by Annan was not directly discussed during his
talks, but remained a possibility. The junta has invited Annan to visit.
Alatas's visit comes as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and
Malaria said on Friday it was pulling out of Myanmar because the junta
had slapped too many restrictions on relief efforts.
It remained unclear if Alatas would discuss the global fund during his
meeting with UN staff slated for mid-Saturday before he departed for
Indonesia via Singapore. Myanmar state media carried no reports on
Saturday about the withdrawal.
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Friday August 19, 10:27 PM
U.N. envoy meets Myanmar junta leader
(Kyodo) _ Former Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, visiting
Myanmar as a special United Nations envoy, on Friday met with Myanmar
junta leader Sr. Gen. Than Shwe at the Parliament building in Yangon.
"We talked extensively about many of the issues that are on the table
for U.N. reform," Alatas told reporters after the 90-minute meeting.
Alatas arrived in Yangon on Thursday as a special envoy of U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan.
He said he and Than Shwe did not discuss Myanmar's national
reconciliation process "because I come here as special envoy of the
secretary general and not as someone that is entrusted with the task of
talking about situation in Myanmar."
Alatas was appointed in April as Annan's envoy to the 2005 World Summit,
together with three other prominent political figures --Irish Foreign
Minister Dermot Ahern, former Mozambique President Joaquin Chissano and
former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo.
Their role is to help promote Annan's agenda for the summit, which calls
on world leaders to decisively move toward important goals --halving
poverty in the next 10 years; reducing the threat of war, terrorism and
deadly weapons; and advancing human dignity in every land.
More than 170 heads of state or government are expected to gather at the
2005 World Summit from Sept. 14 to 16 at the U.N. headquarters in New
York, the largest gathering of world leaders in history.
It is unclear whether Than Shwe will attend the summit.
Alatas last visited Myanmar in September 2003, as a special envoy of
former Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, to seek the release
of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house
arrest.
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The Japan Times: Aug. 20, 2005
Asylum in Japan eludes Myanmar's close-knit Chin minority
By MASAMI ITO, Staff writer
Hundreds of asylum-seekers from Myanmar have come to Japan to escape
persecution since the 1980s, including those belonging to ethnic
minorities like the Rohingya and Kachin, and dozens have so far been
recognized here as refugees.
However, one ethnic group -- the Chin -- whose members have arrived in
large numbers, only recently began contemplating refugee status.
According to Chin National Community-Japan, a group set up in 2001 to
help fight for minority rights, there are about 150 Chin in Japan.
While many arrived in the 1990s, only about 20 have so far applied for
refugee status. None so far has been recognized as refugees, but two
have been given special residency permits.
According to the Justice Ministry, 497 Myanmarese have sought asylum in
Japan since the 1980s and 61 have been recognized as refugees.
One of the Chin group's members said he arrived in Japan in the early
1990s after fleeing his hometown in Chin State, western Myanmar, and
narrowly escaping arrest for taking part in the democracy movement.
But for over 10 years, he did not apply for refugee status and continued
to campaign for democracy in Myanmar from Japan. It was only in 2003
that he finally sought asylum. But many of his fellow Chin have yet to
come forward.
Eri Ishikawa, of the Japan Association for Refugees, said the man's case
is not unusual because the Chins have traditionally been a closed
community.
"Chins have their own language and do not have much access to
information that other Myanmarese asylum-seekers have," Ishikawa said.
"As a result, many did not know Japan had a refugee recognition system.
All they knew was that they could not go back to Myanmar."
According to Andrew Ngun Cung Lian, 38, a legal consultant for
Canada-based Chin Human Rights Organization who visited Japan in May to
look into the situation, there are mainly two reasons why the Chins are
at risk of persecution in Myanmar.
First is their political affiliation, Lian said. Many Chin are members
or strong supporters of the Chin National Front, a democracy-advocacy
group established in March 1988 to oppose Myanmar's military junta.
"The Chin National Front has been outlawed by the military regime," said
Lian, who was recognized as a refugee in the U.S. after he himself
served as active member of the group from 1988 to 1994.
The second reason is religious persecution, Lian said. While most
Myanmarese are Buddhists, the majority of Chin are Christian.
"The Burmese military leaders have a hidden agenda which is known as
'Amyo, Bata, Sasana' in Burmese," Lian said. "This means there should be
one race -- Burman; one language -- Burmese; and one religion --
Buddhism."
For example, Lian said, military leaders usually deploy non-Christian
officials to Chin State, where they would intentionally ask villagers to
work on the Sabbath.
"If the villagers are reluctant to do this unpaid work on Sunday, the
army will charge them for disobeying the orders of the government," Lian
said. "Then, torture, arbitrary arrest, detention and other human rights
abuses will follow."
These factors should be taken into account when determining whether to
recognize a Chin as a refugee, said Masako Suzuki, one of the lawyers
supporting Myanmarese asylum-seekers.
Suzuki said the religious, ethnic and political considerations must be
taken as a whole to avoid rejecting valid refugees on the basis of a
single criterion -- something she accused Japan of doing.
"Japanese immigration officials and courts do not understand that the
Chin are in danger of persecution for multiple reasons," Suzuki said.
"The Japanese
government does not look at each person's situation comprehensively. It
focuses on each aspect separately and determines there is not enough
reason for fear of persecution for each aspect -- and therefore refugee
status is not granted," she said.
According to Lian, three colleagues who were collecting information on
human rights violations by the Myanmarese army were brutally killed in
front of civilians. He also said he talked with several Chin women who
were raped by soldiers, and others who were arbitrarily imprisoned and
tortured.
Considering the situation in Myanmar, Lian said he hopes Japanese
immigration officials will give special consideration to Chin
asylum-seekers -- especially since the Chin are afraid to approach
police, immigration or military authorities of any country because of
the way the junta treated them.
"Japan is a democratic country, which has been trying to become a
permanent Security Council member of the United Nations," Lian said.
Therefore, "it is essential for the Japanese government to respect,
promote and safeguard . . . fundamental human rights of the people,
including refugee applicants in Japan.
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Bangkok Post - Saturday 20 August 2005
The sense of urgency grows at the UN
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is seriously considering visiting Burma
later this year, to try and revive the UN's efforts to help bring
political change to Burma
By LARRY JAGAN
Ali Alatas, a special envoy of the UN secretary-general, has just
completed a three-day mission to Rangoon where he discussed the
country's political future and a possible visit by Kofi Annan to Burma
later this year.
He is the highest-ranking UN official to visit Burma since the UN
special envoy Razali Ismail visited Rangoon in March last year.
The former Indonesian foreign minister is one of a number of Kofi
Annan's special envoys for UN reform and the Millennium Development
Gaols. While publicly he and other UN officials insist that the trip's
primary purpose was to discuss these issues with Burma's top generals,
Mr Alatas also passed on a message from the secretary-general to the
country's top general, Than Shwe.
Mr Annan is seriously considering visiting Burma later this year to try
and revive the UN's efforts to help bring political change to Burma.
For more than 18 months now, the UN's special envoy for Burma, Razali
Ismail and the special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Professor
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, have been repeatedly refused access to the
country.
Burma's top military leader invited Mr Annan to Burma when they met at
the Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta in April.
But Mr Annan cannot visit without at least a guarantee that he would be
allowed to meet the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The UN has repeatedly called for Aung San Suu Kyi's release since she
was placed under house arrest in May 2003, after her car was attacked by
pro-government thugs while she was touring in the north of the country.
The plan for Mr Annan's possible visit to Burma, was one of the key
messages from the UN secretary-general, which Mr Alatas conveyed to Gen
Than Shwe during his trip to Rangoon.
No date has been proposed for the visit, according to UN officials in
New York. While they continue to insist that he is very busy and
unlikely to visit Burma this year, there is a growing sense of urgency.
There is no doubt that the UN is desperate to resuscitate its efforts to
help Burma's reform efforts.
The opposition National League for Democracy is also anxious that Mr
Annan visits Burma. They have insisted that he must see their leader,
Aung San Suu Kyi, and that the visit take place before the National
Convention resumes drafting the new constitution.
The convention is due to reconvene in November to put the finishing
touches to the charter before putting it to a referendum next year.
The decision to send Mr Alatas to Rangoon as a special envoy for Mr
Annan was taken by top UN officials, including Mr Annan, at a special
meeting on Burma in New York on June 28.
Apart from the top dozen UN officials, the special envoy Razali Ismail
and the UN country representative in Burma, Charles Petrie, took part in
the meeting via satellite video phones.
The meeting to discuss the UN's policy towards Burma was arranged by the
secretary-general's special assistant Mark Malloch Brown, the former
head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The top-level meeting is part of the international organisation's plans
to review policy in major areas of concern. At the time, only Iraq and
the Sudan had been given such a thorough top-level review.
The UN is anxious to rejuvenate its role in bringing about political,
social and economic reform in Burma as well as supporting the country's
humanitarian needs.
UN officials are seriously concerned at the regime's continued snub of
its key envoys, particularly Mr Razali, who has been trying to help
facilitate a dialogue process between the opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi and the generals over the past five years.
There is some concerne within the UN that the organisation's apparent
stress on democratisation and human rights may have limited the UN's
potential role in the past few years.
The UN's top leadership believes a more nuanced policy towards Burma is
now needed.
The UN is particularly perturbed by the regime's lack of cooperation
with its two envoys and the growing restrictions being placed on UN
staff and projects in the country.
Many in the UN also fear that Burma is in danger of collapsing back into
civil war. A briefing paper circulated to the participants ahead of the
meeting suggested that many of Rangoon's cease-fire agreements with the
ethnic rebel groups were seriously in danger of unravelling, which would
increase instability and insecurity in the country.
On top of that, UN officials in Burma are convinced that the country is
in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. HIV/AIDS is rampant throughout
the country. While the UNAids boss in Rangoon, Brian Williams, says more
than half a million people may be suffering from the disease, activists
suggest that prevalence rates across Burma are at least double that and
exceed 10%.
More than 60% of Burmese children are suffering from acute malnutrition,
the head of the World Food Programme (WFP), James Morris, told
journalists in Bangkok earlier this month after visiting projects in
Burma.
In some places this was substantially higher, according to WFP local
surveys, he said.
Only 20% of students who started primary school graduated, Mr Morris
added.
There is a genuine desire on the part of the UNs senior leadership to
review all options and to come up with a greater coherence in the UN's
response to Burma, according to a senior UN official who attended the
meeting in New York.
This does not mean the UN plans to abandon its efforts to encourage
political reform.
In fact, the UN wants to revive Mr Razali's role as a mediator.
Earlier this year Mr Annan rejected the UN envoy's offer to resign.
Instead, the top UN leaders decided to send Mr Alatas to Rangoon to
sound out the regime on the secretary-general's proposed visit and Mr
Razali's position.
Senior General Than Shwe reportedly told Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra that Mr Razali would never be welcomed back to Rangoon, when
they met in Rangoon last December.
The envoy, a former Malaysian diplomat briefed Mr Alatas, who is an old
friend, before he went to Rangoon.
During his visit, Mr Alatas did not request a meeting with the
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The former Indonesian foreign minister is no stranger to Burma. He
visited Rangoon two years ago as a special envoy of the Indonesian
president Megawati Sukarnoputri, representing Asean at the time the
regional grouping was anxious to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
She had been detained only months previously. He did not see her then,
either, as she was in hospital undergoing a hysterectomy operation.
The UN's top leaders are scheduled to meet again in New York in
September to continue their review of the UN's Burma policy. Any
decision on Mr Annan's possible visit to Burma is likely to be taken at
that meeting.
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Financial Times
Health fund pulls out of Burma
By Amy Kazmin in Bangkok
Published: August 19 2005 19:35
The global fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria on Friday
announced it was ending its $98m programme in Burma, citing new travel
restrictions on humanitarian workers in the country.
The fund said it was concerned about the impact of HIV, malaria and TB
in Burma, a state where the military junta spends little on public
health, education or other public services. Christopher Benn, the
director of external relations at the fund, said the ?increasingly
restrictive environment? for foreign aid workers breached Rangoon's
prior commitment to allow staff and partners ?unencumbered access to
project sites?, making the planned health programs impossible.
?Without resolute intervention, these diseases could soon reach
catastrophic proportions, affecting the entire region,? the fund said.
?But under the current circumstances, the decision was inevitable.?
The termination of the biggest international health initiative in Burma
is a serious setback for humanitarian workers who have been advocating
increased aid to the country. Burma is the first country from which the
fund has withdrawn a grant, and the decision is likely to spark heavy
debate. Critics are already suggesting the fund buckled to pressure from
the US, which has branded Burma an ?outpost of tyranny?.
Up to 610,000 people in Burma are believed to have HIV/Aids in one of
south-east Asia's most severe epidemics. The country also has one of the
highest rates of tuberculosis in the world.
?It's a tragedy,? said Chris Beyer, an Aids expert at the John Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health. ?Unfortunately, donor assistance can
only do so much if you don't have a partner. The climate was close to
impossible to work in, and that was a climate created by the junta.?
After years of denying Burma had an Aids problem, the junta last year
appeared to have recognised its existence while under the leadership of
Khin Nyunt, the then prime minister. Western donors also realised they
could no longer wait for an end to the junta's long political stand-off
with Aung San Suu Kyi, a democracy advocate and Nobel Prize winner who
is being detained.
In August 2004, the fund agreed to spend almost $100m over five years to
raise Aids awareness, boost HIV prevention activities and improve access
to drugs and support for people living with HIV, malaria and
tuberculosis. The United Nations development program, international
non-governmental organisations and a handful of local groups were to
participate in the nationwide initiative.
But the regime's attitude towards aid workers hardened after Khin Nyunt,
the former head of military intelligence and the junta's most pragmatic
member, was deposed in October.
In July the military adopted new travel curbs that the fund said would
prevent oversight of the health programs.
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The Star Online
Saturday August 20, 2005
Our boys lose to Myanmar
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia finished second best in the Asean Football
Federation's (AFF) Under-20 championships when they lost to Myanmar 0-1
in the final at the Jaka Baring Stadium in Palembang, Indonesia last
night.
The Malaysians put up a gutsy performance but failed to recover from an
early goal by Myanmar striker Hla Aye Htwe from a corner kick in the
second minute.
Team manager Datuk Redzuan Sheikh Ahmad, however, had no complaints.
?Our boys played extremely well except for the soft goal, which they
conceded from a corner kick early into the game,? said Redzuan.
It was Malaysia's second loss to Myanmar. In the preliminary rounds,
Myanmar had won 2-1.
Meanwhile, Laos thrashed Vietnam 4-1 in the third-fourth placing
playoffs.
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RedNova
Posted on: Friday, 19 August 2005, 06:00 CDT
Six More South Koreans Contract Cholera From Burma Trip
Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap
Taejon, 19 August: Six South Korean nationals who travelled to Myanmar
[Burma] last week were confirmed as having cholera after another member
of their company tested positive early this week, city authorities in
Taejon said Friday [19 August]. The officials said the seven patients
have been isolated for treatment of the highly infectious disease.
A man was confirmed as having the disease on Wednesday after a medical
examination showed tell-tale symptoms such as diarrhoea when he arrived
at Inchon International Airport on Sunday. His wife was subsequently
found to be infected, the authorities said.
The group of 15, including the man and the six new patients, travelled
to Myanmar on an evangelical mission for a week-long organized tour.
Some members of the company reported experiencing diarrhoea after eating
rice noodles and drinking tap water from an underground source on
Saturday, the authorities said. Other members of the company will be
examined to dispel fears of further infections, they said.
Cholera is caused by the vibrio cholerae bacteria and can be transmitted
through contaminated water or seafood. The disease causes an acute
intestinal infection and dehydration, and has a high mortality rate if
the infected person is left untreated. South Korea has not had any
cholera outbreaks to date but several travellers each year return home
after becoming infected overseas. There were 10 cases reported last
year.
Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
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The Malay Mail
Gem Heist in Sg Buloh: Myanmar nationals may be involved
ADIE SURI ZULKEFLLI
PETALING JAYA, Aug 20: Police are investigating if Myanmar nationals
were behind the armed robbery at a jewellery shop in Bandar Baru Sungai
Buloh on Wednesday.
Police are working on this theory after interviews with witnesses at the
scene.
The Malay Mail learnt that one witness told police that the three
robbers spoke in the Myanmar language when they entered the goldsmith
shop.
The witness told police that she had Myanmar working for her before and
she recognised the language.
Following this, police have alerted the relevant authorities to be on
the look-out for Myanmar nationals leaving the country via the legal
exit points.
Police have sent fingerprint samples lifted from the robbers? getaway
Proton Wira to the National Registration Department for verification.
In the 7.45pm robbery on Wednesday, three suspects, armed with a pistol
and two sledge hammers, walked into the premises and herded two female
sales assistants and two customers into a corner.
They were scooping five trays of jewellery from the display racks when a
policeman, lance corporal Mohd Zahid Puteh, who happened to be passing
by at that time, stopped to investigate the commotion.
The policeman was fired at by an accomplice waiting in the getaway car.
Zahid returned fire, resulting in a shootout where at least 10 shots
were fired.
One of the suspects is believed to have been injured. The robbers,
however, escaped with RM150,000 in jewellery. They abandoned their
getaway car some 500 metres from the goldsmith shop.
Investigations revealed that the car was reported stolen in Kelana Jaya
last month.
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Asian Tribune - Date : 2005-08-19
Burma?s opposition group calls for co-sponsors.
New York, 19 September, (Asiantribune.com):Burma?s oppositions have
decided to extend their ?Signature Campaign? to address the
deteriorating situation in Burma to the members of the UN Security
Council, and they have now seek co-sponsors from the Burmese community
as well as from other organizations.
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma National Council of
the Union of Burma has now invited organizations to cosponsor the
campaign and pursue efforts to bring the attention of the UN Security
Council members on the emergency situation in Burma.
Earlier on the eve of the 17th Anniversary of the 8888 Democratic
Uprising in Burma, the National Coalition Government of the Union of
Burma (NCGUB) launched a signature campaign calling on the United
Nations Security Council to address the situation in Burma.
The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) which
comprises of representatives elected in the May 1990 elections and the
National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) an umbrella organization
of democratic and ethnic forces, the Members of Parliament Union-Burma,
and the National League for Democracy (NLD) in a statement said ?We were
heartened by the wide interest shown in our campaign and positive
response received from the patriotic people of Burma and friends around
the world.?
The statement further adds: ?With the intention of broadening campaign
globally with the participation of various organizations and
individuals, and to step up the momentum of the campaign, the NCGUB and
the NCUB warmly invite organizations to cosponsor the campaign and
pursue efforts to bring the attention of the UN Security Council members
on the emergency situation in Burma.?
According to a statement released by the NCGUB, the campaign period is
to be extended up to the end of September 2005. It further reveals in
addition to collecting signatures, all individuals and organizations are
also urged to:
* Present the situation in Burma and seek the support of
diplomats of embassies which represent member-nations of the UN Security
Council, from respective officials from ministries of foreign affairs
and Members of Parliaments in your countries,
* Request Members of Parliaments to raise
questions to their governments about foreign policy initiatives taken in
response to deteriorating political and human rights situation in Burma.
* Request Members of Parliaments to adopt
motions which call on the UN Security Council to immediately address the
situation in Burma.
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Memorial service for Burmese actor Tun Wai held in Rangoon
Aug 19, 2005 (DVB) - A Burmese Buddhist memorial service for renowned
actor and director Tun Wai who died on 13 August, was held at his
Rangoon home on 19 August.
The service was attended by veteran politicians, renowned student
leaders and figures from art and literary circles.
Tun Wai died at the age of 85 and he is survived by wife Htay Htay, two
sons and four grandsons.
He was actively involved in the 8888 pro-democracy nationwide uprising
and he was one of the main organisers of the famous public address by
Aung San Suu Kyi at Shwedagon Pagoda.
Subsequent military juntas banned Tun Wai from making films or acting in
films or publishing books, to the point of his death. His named was not
even allowed to be mentioned in journals and magazines.
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Cyber disobedience: unknown hackers attack Burma junta?s websites
Aug 19, 2005 (DVB) - Burmese computer experts and hackers are
increasingly targeting their attacks on websites owned by and related to
Burma?s military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC),
according to sources close to Burmese hackers.
A Burmese computer student told DVB that recent breakdowns of the New
Light of Myanmar and Myanmar Times websites could be the handiworks of
either independent hackers or computer experts of ousted military
intelligence service (MIS).
A Burmese hacker who calls himself Mr. H. said hackers live within and
without Burma and most of them are young Burmese people in exile who
have no love for the oppressive junta. He also went on to explain how
one could destroy a Burmese junta website by various means.
These hackers regard themselves as political activists and term their
hacking activities as cyber civil disobedience.
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