Burma Related News - Feb 17, 2006.
- From: "Tin Kyi" <maungtinkyi@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 18:34:33 +0000 (UTC)
*************************************************************
BURMA RELATED NEWS - FEBRUARY 17, 2006.
*************************************************************
HEADLINES
*************************************************************
Reuters - Indonesia leader's Myanmar visit seen in early March
Reuters - Battles won against money laundering: world watchdog
AP - Bolton Launches Talks on Replacing Annan
Borneo Bulletin - Asean growing ?frustrated' over Myanmar's refusal to
allow M'sian FM's visit
Washington Post - Burma Disputes Report That Led to U.N. Action
Xinhuanet - Myanmar PM hopes to borrow China's experience in building
high-tech park
Xinhuanet - Myanmar to form coordination committee to work with UN
PD - Myanmar PM welcomes Chinese enterprises to invest in Myanmar
PD - Hu Jintao vows to continue developing China-Myanmar relations
IHT - Myanmar told to curb drug trade
Slate - Is Burma the Next Iran?
Hindustan Times - Myanmar military leader moves to new capital
DVB News - Warding off evil: Burma junta carries out new house blessing
ceremony
DVB News - Anti-Muslim riots at Magwe in central Burma latest
*************************************************************
Friday February 17, 5:40 PM
Indonesia leader's Myanmar visit seen in early March
YANGON (Reuters) - Indonesia's president will probably visit Myanmar in
early March, an official source said on Friday, as Southeast Asian
countries press the ruling generals to move faster to restore democracy.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government has been one of Myanmar's sternest
critics within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), one
of the few international groupings which will have Yangon as a member.
The president's spokesman said on Thursday the visit, first expected in
February, would still go ahead but gave no dates. He indicated that the
delay was due to a lack of common ground.
On Friday, the official source in Yangon said: "The visit is likely to
take place from March 1 to 2."
"I understand the Indonesian president will arrive here on his last leg
of a three-nation tour," the source said. "He is visiting Brunei on Feb.
27 and 28 and Cambodia on Feb. 28 to March 1."
The secretive junta, which has upset fellow members of the 10-strong
Association of South East Asian Nations by dragging its feet on freeing
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and on political reform, almost never
announces dates for official visits.
Criticism from within ASEAN has grown substantially as Suu Kyi, leader
of the main opposition party and a Nobel peace laureate, remains
confined to her home nearly three years after her May 2003 arrest.
Last year, other ASEAN members forced Myanmar to forgo its scheduled
2006 chairmanship of the organisation. Indonesia has been one of its
sternest critics, saying in January the generals' foot-dragging had hurt
stability across the region.
Despite apparent agreement on Yudhyono's visit, one by Malaysian Foreign
Minister Syed Hamid Albar as ASEAN's official representative remained up
in the air, the Myanmar source said.
"I don't think our government has set a date for it," he said.
ASEAN has become increasingly frustrated by the junta's slow progress on
its seven-step "roadmap to democracy", currently focused on a
constitutional conference that critics say is designed to cement
military rule.
The latest session of the conference, boycotted by Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy and the third since 2004, was adjourned in January
and is not expected to reconvene until the end of the year.
*************************************************************
Battles won against money laundering: world watchdog
Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:41 AM ET
By Gordon Bell
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Battles are being in won in the fight against
terrorism financing as countries improve cooperation and tighten systems
to identify money transfers, a top official said on Thursday.
"We have noticed that terrorist organizations are trying to change their
way of financing," Alain Damais, the executive secretary of the
Financial Action Task Force (FATF), told Reuters.
"Our system, the system that we encourage countries to put in place,
improves efficiencies and obliges them to go back to cash," he said
after a meeting in Cape Town of the international body that spearheads
action against money laundering.
The FATF groups 33 countries and sets policies designed to help
governments tackle the financing of terrorism and dirty money passing
through the global financial system.
Damais said terrorism financing was the most pressing issue for the task
force.
But groups and individuals were finding it more difficult to abuse the
banking networks and were turning to other methods to move money.
"We have noticed many instances over the last few years of an increasing
use of cash, because they can't use the banking system anymore so that
that proves the efficiency of our system," he said.
"That's why we issued in 2004 a new recommendation on terrorism
financing ... which deals with cash smuggling and cash couriers as we
call them."
The FATF also met with the 14-member East and Southern Africa Anti Money
Laundering Group, which has pledged to fight money laundering and
terrorism financing in the region.
Currently South Africa is the only African country that qualifies as a
member of the task force, with most countries lacking the financial
structures to adequately combat the transfer of suspect money.
Nigeria, the continent's most populous nation, and Myanmar are the only
two countries that remain on the FATF's list of nations that are not
doing enough to cooperate with other governments to stop money
laundering.
*************************************************************
Feb 17, 3:41 AM EST
Bolton Launches Talks on Replacing Annan
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.S. ambassador opened Security Council
discussions on the next U.N. secretary-general, calling the choice of a
replacement for Kofi Annan probably the most important decision the
world body will make this year.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, the council's president this month, called
a meeting of the five veto-wielding permanent members Thursday "to get a
sense of where the council is, so that we can begin to move forward on
the issue."
Annan's second five-year term ends on Dec. 31 and his successor must be
approved by the General Assembly based on a recommendation from the
council.
At the moment, the permanent members - the United States, Russia, China,
France and Britain - are divided on when to choose the next U.N. chief
and where he or she should come from.
By tradition, the job of secretary-general rotates by region - and Asian
and African nations, who represent the majority of the 191 U.N. member
states, believe it is Asia's turn to lead the United Nations.
"We believe, with more than two billion people, definitely Asia can
provide the best qualified candidates," China's U.N. Ambassador Wang
Guangya told reporters after Thursday's meeting.
Russian Ambassador Andrey Denisov said choosing an Asian would follow
tradition, "and it is better to follow traditions if we do have them,
but it doesn't mean that it is strict adherence."
French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said his government believes
the Asians "have a priority - but not exclusivity."
But Bolton reiterated Washington's strong opposition to the principle of
geographic rotation, a view backed by Britain.
"It's our view that we should pick the best qualified person, whatever
region of the world the person comes from," he said. "Obviously, the
secretary-general has to have political skills, but our view is the
management question is far and away the most important qualification."
Bolton argued that in practice there really is no geographical rotation
because three secretary-generals have come from Western Europe, two from
Africa, one from Latin America, one from Asia, and none from Eastern
Europe.
He also noted that there has never been a woman secretary-general and
asked: "If you believe in geographic rotation, do you believe in gender
rotation?"
So far, the announced candidates are all Asian men. They include South
Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, Thai Deputy Prime Minister
Surakiart Sathirathai, who is backed by the 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, and former U.N. disarmament chief Jayantha
Dhanapala of Sri Lanka who recently represented the government in peace
talks with the Tamil Tigers.
Equality Now, an advocacy organization which campaigns for women's
rights, came up with a sampling of 18 qualified women from all over the
world. Its list of candidates includes the presidents of Latvia, Finland
and Chile, several current and former senior U.N. officials, and
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize
winner who remains under house arrest by the country's military rulers.
Council members expect more candidates to enter the race in the coming
months.
Bolton wants the council to decide on a candidate by June, but other
members think that's too early.
China's Wang said the council is "informally looking at dates like
September, October" to give the next secretary-general time for a
transition.
De La Sabliere said there is growing support for a transition of two or
three months.
Not only have the five permanent council members started talking about
the next secretary-general, so have the 10 elected council members who
serve two-year terms. But all 15 members agree that discussions are very
preliminary - and there won't be any discussion of candidates for
several months.
"I think we get together not to surprise each other," Wang said of the
meetings of the five permanent members, known as the P-5. "We believe
the P-5 will have a major role to play. Whether they finally agree I'm
not sure."
*************************************************************
Borneo Bulletin
Asean growing ?frustrated' over Myanmar's refusal to allow M'sian FM's
visit
By Michael Casey
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Southeast Asian leaders are growing
'frustrated' with Myanmar's refusal to allow Malaysia's foreign minister
to visit the country to monitor democracy, a top regional official said
Thursday.
But Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of Southeast Asian Nations, told
The Associated Press there was little they could do to force the visit.
Diplomatic efforts remain ongoing to arrange the visit that was
postponed in January, he said.
But after seeing Myanmar's Prime Minister Gen. Soe Win meet with Chinese
President Hu Jintao this week, Ong said he and other Asean officials
were running out of patience.
"We are frustrated. We feel that diplomatic efforts should produce some
concrete step forward," Ong said in telephone interview from Jakarta.
"Our friends in Myanmar feel their domestic preoccupations come first.
It looks like we are losing momentum."
The criticism of the hard-line regime comes a day after Malaysia's
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters that he had no date for
a visit but was hoping to arrange it before an Asean ministerial meeting
April 17-18 in Bali, Indonesia. That way, he could report his
observations to his counterparts.
*************************************************************
The Washington Post
Burma Disputes Report That Led to U.N. Action
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; Page A17
The U.N. Security Council's first-ever meeting in December to discuss
the deteriorating situation in Burma was prompted in part by a
comprehensive report in September calling for Security Council action
that was commissioned by former Czech president Vaclav Havel and Nobel
Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu.
Now, an unusual document has been making the rounds of diplomats in
Burma, attributed to an unnamed "group of academics" at Rangoon
University, in an apparent attempt by the military government to provide
a detailed response to the comprehensive report. In a mocking tone, the
document repeatedly belittles or disputes issues that have seized
international concern.
The 70-page Havel-Tutu report contended that the Burmese government
poses a threat to peace and security in the region, in part because it
relies on forced labor, widespread rape of ethnic women and
government-sponsored drug trafficking to maintain control.
During the Dec. 16 Security Council session, Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.
undersecretary general for political affairs, privately told the
Security Council that the Burmese people "have many of their essential
rights and calls for democratic reform denied," and that there is no
evidence the government is dealing with the emerging humanitarian
crisis, according to a copy of his remarks.
The 23-page Burmese response asserted that the country, also known as
Myanmar, is "one of a handful of countries facing unproven allegations"
and "many well-informed analysts have been perplexed" by the United
Nations' attention. It alleged that many of the figures concerning
abuses in Burma are based on reports by dissidents and refugees who are
not credible or seek to tarnish the country's image.
The document does not offer many detailed figures to counter the
dissidents' reporting. The Burmese government "could be accused of lack
of transparency but the government may have its own reasons for the lack
of transparency," it said. "It is indeed unfair to make allegations by
just basing them on one-sided accusations."
The Burmese document denied that more than 500,000 people had been
driven from their homes through forced relocations, with many people
forced to live on the fringes of society. It said that the problem was a
"complex one" caused by insurgents and drug producers, and that the
government is not to blame if people are hiding. The report asked: "How
can the government provide access to health and education to those who
are hiding in the jungle?"
The document also questioned predictions that surging HIV infections
will increase, asking, "why could it not be lower?"
Jared M. Genser, an attorney at DLA Piper in Washington, which prepared
the Havel-Tutu report, said the Burmese response was "a pretty
transparent attempt on the part of the junta to try to distract from the
enormous weight of international pressure it is feeling."
President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have taken a
personal interest in Burma as part of the administration's democracy
campaign. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, was
prevented by the Burmese military from taking office after her party won
a landslide electoral victory the year before. She has been in detention
for 10 of the past 16 years.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill told Congress last week
that the administration is "considering next steps" to bring the Burma
issue again before the Security Council.
*************************************************************
Myanmar PM hopes to borrow China's experience in building high-tech park
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-17 23:37:40
GUANGZHOU, Feb. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Soe
Win said Friday his country is ready to draw on the experience in
setting up a high-tech park from southern China's Guangdong Province.
Soe Win on Friday left Xi'an, capital of China's northwestern Shaanxi
Province, for Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, to continue his
five-day official visit to the country.
When visiting the Science Park of Guangzhou, he said Myanmar is anxious
to draw on Guangdong's experience in building a high-tech park or
special economic zone to develop its own economy.
In his meeting with vice provincial governor Tang Bingquan, Soe Win said
the economic cooperation between Myanmar and Guangdong is developing
rapidly. He believes his current China tour will further promote
bilateral cooperation and exchange in various fields.
Soe Win said Myanmar attaches great importance to its friendly
cooperation with its neighboring countries, especially China. He hopes
in the future more Chinese firms will invest in Myanmar. His country is
to provide legal insurance for the Chinese investors, he added.
Tang said in recent years, local enterprises in Guangdong and Myanmar
have expanded their cooperation. At present, more than ten Myanmar
enterprises are investing in Guangdong, while many Guangdong companies
also do business in Myanmar.
Soe Win will end his China tour on Saturday after visiting Shenzhen, a
economic booming city of Guangdong province.
*************************************************************
Myanmar to form coordination committee to work with UN
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-17 11:23:59
YANGON, Feb. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- The Myanmar government will form a
Central Coordination Committee (CCC) to work with United Nations
agencies operating in the country with their aid projects, a local
weekly reported Friday.
Besides the UN agencies, other international non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and domestic NGOs are also governed by regulations
of the CCC, a latest release of the Ministry of National Planning and
Economic Development (NPED) was quoted by the weekly newspaper as
saying.
The CCC will be headed by Minister of NPED U Soe Tha together with
Minister of Home Affairs Major-General Maung Oo and Minister of Foreign
Affairs U Nyan Win as deputy heads. Deputy ministers of related
ministries will act as CCC members and Deputy Minister of NPED Colonel
Thurein Zaw will serve as the secretary, the release said.
NGOs' projects to be implemented in Myanmar are to seek approval from
the CCC now in addition to the Health Ministry and the Foreign Policy
Committee which are the only steps to go through previously in the
formalities.
The CCC designates that all NGOs assisting Myanmar are to be registered
with the government for their operations and the traveling in the
country of their project staff is so limited that they must be
accompanied by at least a responsible official of the government.
There are 80 international NGOs in Myanmar including those thathave
signed memorandums of understanding with the government and it also has
300 Domestic NGOs.
*************************************************************
People's Daily Online
UPDATED: 07:53, February 17, 2006
Myanmar PM welcomes Chinese enterprises to invest in Myanmar
Visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win on Thursday expressed welcome
for more and more Chinese enterprises to invest in Myanmar.
Soe Win and his party arrived in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's
Shaanxi Province, Thursday morning to continue the five-day official
visit to the country.
During his meeting with Zhao Zhengyong, executive vice provincial
governor, Soe Win said Myanmar abounds in resources, expressing his hope
that more Chinese companies will invest in Myanmar.
Zhao said he hopes Shaanxi province and Myanmar can further cement
cooperation in the trade and economic field.
Upon his arrival, the Myanmar prime minister visited a compressed
natural gas program of a local car producer and the Famen temple where
he paid respect to Sarira.
Besides Beijing and Shaanxi Province, Soe Win will also travel to the
southern province of Guangdong before the end of his tour on Saturday.
(Source: Xinhua)
*************************************************************
People's Daily Online
UPDATED: 19:17, February 15, 2006
Hu Jintao vows to continue developing China-Myanmar relations
China will continue to improve diplomatic relations with Myanmar and to
develop their "friendly and cooperative ties" in order to benefit both
countries and peoples, said Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on
Wednesday.
Hu made the remark when he was meeting with visiting Myanmar Prime
Minister Soe Win, who is in the capital on a five-day visit.
These pledges are in line with China's commitment to building
friendships and partnerships with neighboring countries and its policies
of fostering an amicable, peaceful and prosperous neighborhood, he said.
"There are sound foundations and favorable conditions for our two
nations to build friendly and cooperative ties since we are neighbors
and developing countries," Hu told Soe Win in the Great Hall of the
People.
Hu said China-Myanmar relations have witnessed new progress in the new
century with the combined efforts of both sides, including frequent
state visits by the leaders of the two countries.
The two sides have strengthened cooperation in trade and economic
matters, healthcare, tourism and anti-drug sectors with positive
results, he said.
China and Myanmar have also cooperated closely on international and
regional issues, Hu noted.
Soe Win hailed China's achievements in economic growth, saying he had
reached agreements with Chinese leaders on promoting bilateral ties
during his successful visit. He also voiced his appreciation for China's
support of Myanmar's development.
Myanmar is striving for national stability, reconciliation, economic
progress and improvement in people's living standards and will learn
from China's experience, said Soe Win.
Myanmar will also work with China to maintain regional peace and
security. (Source: Xinhua)
*************************************************************
The International Herald Tribune
Myanmar told to curb drug trade
Agence France-Presse
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2006
BEIJING China has urged Myanmar to step up efforts to fight drug
trafficking, warning that a "flood" of narcotics was crossing their
common border, Chinese state media said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China delivered the message to his Myanmar
counterpart, Soe Win, in talks in Beijing on Tuesday.
"At present the Sino-Myanmar border area is being flooded with drugs,
posing a huge danger to the society and people," the China News Service
quoted Wen as telling Soe Win. "We must pay much attention to this and
adopt strict punitive measures."
"The Chinese side hopes to strengthen with Myanmar bilateral and
multilateral cooperation and sign an anti-drug cooperation agreement at
an early date."
Soe Win reportedly said he would cooperate with China to curb the
scourge.
Myanmar is one of the world's biggest producers of opium. The jungle
region bordering China is a prime growing area.
Myanmar's military rulers, who took control of the country in 1962, have
long been accused by some foreign governments of condoning or having
links to the drug trade.
In 2004, Chinese police estimated that up to 80 percent of the 70 to 80
tons of heroin produced annually in Myanmar and nearby countries
transited China en route to global markets.
The trade has resulted in rising drug addiction and HIV/AIDS infections
in China, especially in southwestern Yunnan Province, which shares a
2,000-kilometer, or 1,250-mile, border with Myanmar, formerly known as
Burma.
The two nations have succeeded in curbing heroin trafficking through
joint police work in recent years, Chinese media reports said.
Manufacturing of methamphetamine in Myanmar has risen as its poppy
fields are destroyed, however.
In addition to discussing the drug issue on Tuesday, the two countries
signed a series of bilateral economic agreements, including pacts to
build a hydropower plant in Myanmar and provide it with railway cars.
Wen also proposed stepping up joint efforts at energy and natural
resource extraction in Myanmar, the China News Service said.
Trade with China is vital for Myanmar's military rulers amid enduring
Western economic sanctions and increasing international isolation over
the lack of democracy and widespread human rights abuses in the country.
*************************************************************
Slate
Is Burma the Next Iran?
A new gas discovery could pay for the nuclear technology they crave.
By Ian Bremmer
Updated Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2006, at 7:12 AM ET
The United States and its European allies worry that if they simply
accept a nuclear Iran, other states will be encouraged to pursue nuclear
ambitions of their own.
But that ship may already have sailed. As the world watches the twists
and turns of Iran's path toward the Security Council, the military
regime in Burma may be quietly selling its energy resources to finance
the acquisition of nuclear technology.
During her Senate confirmation hearings in January 2005, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice labeled Burma an "outpost of tyranny." Not
without reason. Since 1962, a military junta has ruled the country and
carefully maintained Burma's isolation from the international community.
A popular uprising in the late 1980s forced the regime to gamble on
multiparty legislative elections. But when the opposition National
League for Democracy won a landslide victory in 1990, the regime voided
the result and jailed many of the NLD's leaders?including Nobel
Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi. A decade and a half later, Suu Kyi is
again under house arrest without access to even a telephone. Most of
Burma's more than 50 million people live in poverty?though the
government has blocked international efforts to document their plight.
Burma's generals, known in state-controlled media as the State Peace and
Development Council, routinely harass and imprison opposition activists.
Citizens have been used as slave labor. The junta's security police have
been known to strafe demonstrators with gunfire. In December, an Asian
human rights group issued a 124-page report on the Burmese government's
"brutal and systematic" torture of political prisoners.
To deepen the country's isolation, last November the generals began to
move Burma's capital from the southern coastal city of Rangoon to the
mountain stronghold of Pyinmana, deep in the country's interior. Perhaps
the regime's oft-stated fear of a U.S. invasion prompted the retreat
from the coast. That would explain press reports that the junta has
surrounded its new capital with land mines. Perhaps the regime is even
more afraid of the ethnically diverse and impoverished students of
Rangoon. We can't look for answers to the United Nations' envoy to
Burma. He resigned in January after failing for nearly two years to gain
entry into the country.
Despite the regime's aversion to international attention, Burma
generated international headlines Jan. 11 when the Korean conglomerate
Daewoo announced a substantial gas find off Burma's northwest coast.
Media reports describe the field as "massive," though Daewoo won't know
just how massive until intensive exploration and testing are completed
next year. The company announced that a petroleum consultant, the Ryder
Scott Co., estimates that the find may produce between 2.9 trillion and
3.5 trillion cubic feet of gas, the equivalent of about 600 million
barrels of crude oil. Whatever the final numbers, the discovery provides
yet another reminder that Burma has become an important natural-gas
provider for Asia's wealthiest countries.
Just as Iran's energy wealth frustrates U.S. and European efforts to
sanction Tehran, foreign competition for gas contracts will obstruct
international attempts to pressure Burma toward democratic reform. China
has profited time and again by forging commercial deals with states that
are the objects of international scorn, and other energy-dependent Asian
countries (India and South Korea, in particular) don't want China to
monopolize Burma's energy reserves. These states and others will
continue to chase energy deals there, including agreements to build the
infrastructure needed to pipe gas or petroleum directly to their
consumers and industries. Even the United States and European Union have
resisted pressure to ban all investment in the country?so energy firms
Unocal and Total can join in the scramble.
The Burmese junta knows when it approves these deals that it's giving
its Asian neighbors an important stake in the regime's survival. China,
a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, is an
especially useful provider of diplomatic cover. Energy revenues also
help finance the domestic repression that keeps the opposition in check
and the generals in charge.
What else might this new wealth buy? The riches generated by Burma's
natural-gas deposits may provide the junta with enough cash to realize
its long-standing ambition to purchase nuclear technology. In 2002, the
Russian government approved an agreement with Burma to help the regime
build a civilian nuclear reactor.
The deal was never consummated, according to the Russian foreign
ministry, because Burma lacked the money to pay for it. But when
Russia's atomic agency announced last October that talks on the subject
had resumed, Western governments reacted with alarm and dismissed
official Burmese claims that the facility is meant only for medical
research and the production of radiopharmaceuticals for cancer
treatment. More worrying still, the junta's long-rumored high-level
contacts with North Korea may well include discussion of the transfer of
nuclear technology.
Maybe the Burmese government believes a nuclear weapon offers the
ultimate insurance against a U.S. invasion. After all, the United States
invaded Iraq, which did not have nuclear weapons, but has not attacked
North Korea, which does. Burma's fear of an American attack tells us
more about the junta's paranoia than about U.S. intentions. But the
Burmese generals cannot have been pleased when President Bush, during
last month's State of the Union address, included Burma on a shortlist
of states in which "the demands of justice and the peace of this world
require freedom."
Another reason Burma matters for regional stability is that it adds to
the growing list of irritants in U.S. relations with China. Burma
provides China with the use of a military base on the Indian Ocean.
Sino-Burmese trade grew by more than 10 percent between 2004 and 2005 to
more than $1.1 billion. Late last year, China outmaneuvered India for an
agreement to buy 6.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. As China's dependence
on Burma's energy grows, we can expect Beijing to help the junta resist
international pressure?just as they have done for authoritarian regimes
in Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. (China has invested around
$300 million in Zimbabwe in return for mining concessions and direct
supply of gold, diamonds, chrome, bauxite, and possibly uranium.) That
will only add to Washington's diplomatic frustrations.
The United States and several other countries would like to move Burma
onto the Security Council's formal agenda and pressure the junta into
reform and greater transparency. But the more dependent Burma's
neighbors become on the country's energy resources, the less likely it
is that any international body can force change on this repressive
regime. As a similar scenario unfolds in the diplomatic battle over
Iran's nuclear weapons, Burma's generals will be watching closely from
their new mountain fortress.
Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group, the global political risk
consultancy, and senior fellow at the World Policy Institute.
*************************************************************
The Hindustan Times
Myanmar military leader moves to new capital
Agence France-Presse
Yangon, February 17, 2006|18:15 IST
Myanmar's military leader Senior General Than Shwe arrived in the
country's new administrative capital on Friday, signalling the
completion of a surprise relocation of power from Yangon, sources said.
The notoriously secretive State Peace and Development Council abruptly
announced in November it was moving the government to Pyinmana, 320
kilometers north of Yangon, and set a deadline for the end of February.
"The senior general and his entourage left here by special flight for
Pyinmana early on Friday morning and arrived there to receive the key to
his recently completed official mansion at the military site," a source
close to Than Shwe's family told the agency.
"All the 34 ministries as well as the war office are now present and
accounted for at the new site, with most of the staff in place," a
second source, a private contractor, told the agency on condition of
anonymity.
Some buildings in the civilian zone under his responsibility were not
yet finished, the contractor added.
The new administrative capital will be known as "Pyinmana Naypyidaw".
The announcement of the relocation was without ceremony and caught both
government staff and the international community by surprise.
Speculation about the reason for the relocation ranges from the junta's
fear of a US invasion to astrological predictions and worries over
possible urban unrest in Yangon.
*************************************************************
Warding off evil: Burma junta carries out new house blessing ceremony
Feb 17, 2006 (DVB) - Burma?s military junta, State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) chairman General Than Shwe, on 17 February, carried out a
house blessing ceremony at the country?s new capital Kyetpyay near
Pyinmana and it was attended by top generals and their family members.
After the ceremony, the generals attended signboard-raising ceremonies
for some new ministerial buildings, according to a high-ranking civil
servant who was speaking on condition of anonymity.
The generals flew to Kyetpyay on 14 February having seen off Prime
Minister Gen Soe Win who was on a friendship visit to China at Rangoon
Mingaladon Airport. The same official said that the generals carried out
a warding off evil (Yadaya-chay in Burmese) ceremony by wearing ancient
royal costumes at the ceremony.
No one except top high-ranking military officers are allowed to enter
the residential quarters of the generals, another civil servants told
DVB. Civil servants have been ordered to refer to the new city as
?Naypyidaw? (The Royal City).
Than Shwe and his family members are planning to live at their new
palatial home until 27 March (Armed Forces/Resistance) Day in an attempt
to ward off evil, according to a famous a Burmese astrologer who doesn?t
want to be named.
*************************************************************
Anti-Muslim riots at Magwe in central Burma latest
Feb 17, 2006 (DVB) - The anti-Muslim riot which started at Sinbyukyun,
Magwe Division in central Burma on 16 February spread to nearby towns
and the authorities are restricting the movement of Muslims.
At Yenanggyang the authorities have been stopping cars leaving the town
and barred Muslims from travelling further and security measures have
been placed in the town, according to the local residents.
Similarly, at Magwe and Chauk, the authorities have been placing tight
security measures in the towns ? especially areas around mosques and
Muslim living quarters. The riot started after a report of an alleged
rape of a young Burmese woman by three Muslim men.
According to latest reports, the woman is receiving medical treatments
at Salin Hospital and the three men had been arrested and detained. Some
angry Burmese Buddhists destroyed the homes and mosques Muslim when they
hear the report of the alleged rape.
An official from Minbu district office, who doesn?t want to be
identified, told DVB that the deputy Interior Affairs Minister himself
is visiting the affected areas and dealing with the case.
But some local people insisted that the riot was deliberately created by
the authorities to divert people?s attention away from political and
economical crisis in Burma.
*************************************************************
--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
.
- Prev by Date: THAIS IS LYING TO THE THAI...IT'S NOT...THAI RAK THAI...!!! HA! HA! HA!
- Next by Date: Ye authorities under investigation for suicide of municipal director
- Previous by thread: THAIS IS LYING TO THE THAI...IT'S NOT...THAI RAK THAI...!!! HA! HA! HA!
- Next by thread: Ye authorities under investigation for suicide of municipal director
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
|
