Burma Related News - May 29, 2006.
- From: "TIN KYI" <mtinkyi@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 29 May 2006 10:26:56 -0700
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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY 29, 2006.
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HEADLINES
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AP - Myanmar holds firm on Suu Kyi detention
Reuters - Myanmar dismisses criticism of Suu Kyi detention
Kyodo News - Japan 'deeply concerned' at Myanmar's extended detention
of Suu Kyi
Monsters and Critics - Karen remain sad sideshow in Myanmar's political
deadlock
The Hindu - Suu Kyi's party to fight junta's decision to keep her
detained
The Nation - Time has come to break SPDC junta leaders
DVB News - NLD youths stage peaceful protest in Rangoon
DVB News - Golden khamauk Shwe Maung harassed by Mandalay authority
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Mon May 29, 12:00 AM ET
Myanmar holds firm on Suu Kyi detention
By SEAN YOONG, Associated Press Writer
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) - Myanmar's foreign minister insisted Monday
that pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest is a domestic
issue, making clear that the ruling junta would not bow to
international pressure to release the Nobel Peace Prize winner anytime
soon.
Suu Kyi's detention order expired Saturday, raising hopes among her
supporters both at home and abroad that she would be freed. But it was
extended again and though the government did not specify its duration,
one official said privately it is for one year.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win, who is in Malaysia for a two-day ministerial
meeting of the Nonaligned Movement, would not explain the reasons for
the extension and he gave no indication on when she would be released.
"This is not an international issue," Nyan Win told reporters in the
first public comments by a senior junta official since Suu Kyi's
detention was extended. "This is only a domestic issue."
One day before the extension order expired, United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan appealed to the junta to release Suu Kyi. State
Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the extension "yet another
sign of the regime's intransigence and brutal repression."
Asked when the government might lift the house arrest, Nyan Win said:
"You already know that it has been extended."
He added that he has no plans to discuss Suu Kyi's detention with his
Malaysian and Thai counterparts, both of whom have voiced
disappointment over the extension.
"The program is tight," Nyan Win said. "We've got no time to meet
bilaterally."
Myanmar's military junta took power in 1988 after crushing a
pro-democracy movement. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu
Kyi's political party won a landslide victory in general elections.
Suu Kyi, 60, has spent about 10 of the last 17 years in detention.
Besides, hundreds of pro-democracy activists and dissidents have been
jailed.
Suu Kyi was most recently taken into custody on May 30, 2003, after her
motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob during a political tour of
northern Myanmar. She has spent the last three years under tight
restriction, with virtually no access to outsiders. Her nonviolent work
to promote democracy won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
A visit to Myanmar last week by U.N. Undersecretary-General Ibrahim
Gambari - who became the first foreigner in more than two years to
see Suu Kyi - had fueled optimism that she would be freed.
The failure to release Suu Kyi disappointed diplomats working to ease
Myanmar's political deadlock and sympathizers of Myanmar's
pro-democracy movement.
Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, vowed Sunday to
take legal action to fight her detention.
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Monday May 29, 11:45 AM
Myanmar dismisses criticism of Suu Kyi detention
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar has shrugged off
international criticism of its decision to extend the house arrest of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, calling it a domestic issue.
"This is not an international issue. This is a domestic issue," Myanmar
Foreign Minister Nyan Win told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of
a Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Malaysia.
On Saturday, Myanmar imposed another year of house arrest on Nobel
peace laureate Suu Kyi despite international pressure for her release.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had made a direct appeal to junta
supremo Than Shwe to free her.
Malaysia, which chairs Southeast Asia's regional grouping ASEAN, voiced
surprise and disappointment at the renewed detention order against Suu
Kyi, who has spent more than 10 of the past 16 years behind bars or
under house arrest.
Myanmar's neighbour Thailand also expressed disappointment.
Nyan Win declined to explain why the 60-year-old democracy campaigner
had not been released, saying only: "You already know it has been
extended. The government has already announced it."
He also doubted he would have time for separate talks with his
Malaysian counterpart, his host for the NAM meeting, or the Thai
foreign minister. "The programme is tight," he said.
"We got no time to meet bilaterally. But I will meet ministers from
some other countries." He did not name them.
Myanmar is isolated from the West and increasingly estranged from its
fellow members of ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations),
which it joined in 1997.
Its neighbours had hoped engagement would be the best way to encourage
democracy in Myanmar but they have instead grown frustrated at a lack
of reform and have begun to join the West in making explicit calls for
Suu Kyi to be released.
In 1990, her National League for Democracy humiliated the junta at the
ballot box, winning 392 of 485 parliamentary seats, but the military,
which has run Myanmar under one form or another since 1962, refused to
accept the result and cede power.
Since 2003, Suu Kyi has been held virtually incommunicado with her
telephone line cut and all visitors, apart from her housemaid and
doctor, barred.
Her supporters had hoped she would be freed on Saturday when her
detention order was due to lapse, especially after the junta had
allowed a senior U.N. official to visit her the week before. It was her
first contact with an outsider in three years.
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Monday May 29, 6:07 PM
Japan 'deeply concerned' at Myanmar's extended detention of Suu Kyi
(Kyodo) _ Japan is 'deeply concerned' about Myanmar's extended house
arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 'strongly hopes' she
and other political prisoners will soon be released, Foreign Ministry
spokesman Yoshinori Katori said in a statement.
Myanmar's ruling junta extended the pro-democracy leader's house arrest
for another year on Saturday, which marked the third anniversary of Suu
Kyi's latest period of detention.
Hopes were growing among her supporters that she might be released
soon, after Yangon allowed U.N. Undersecretary General Ibrahim Gambari
to meet Suu Kyi on May 20.
"Japan deems it regrettable that the government of Myanmar has not yet
lifted the detention under house arrest" of Suu Kyi, Katori said,
urging Yangon to expedite the democratization process.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spent 10 of the last 17 years
in confinement. She was most recently detained in May 2003.
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Monsters and Critics.com
Karen remain sad sideshow in Myanmar's political deadlock
By Mick Elmore May 29, 2006, 14:53 GMT
Ei Tu Hta, Myanmar - Myanmar's (Burma's) military junta over the
weekend extended the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi by another year, refocusing world attention on the plight of one of
the world's best-known political detainees.
Meanwhile, however, in the makeshift bamboo camp of Ei Tu Hta on the
Salween River, victims of the junta's latest campaign against one of
the ethnic minority groups that comprise the so-called Union on Myanmar
quietly trickle in from their former homes in the Karen State, fleeing
the regime's ongoing atrocities there.
Abuses by Myanmar's generals have been documented across the country,
starting with Suu Kyi, languishing in her family compound in Yangon
(Rangoon) for the past three years, to the dozen ethnic minorities in
the country's hinterlands.
But the horrors the regime is inflicting on the Karen people are
singular in the extent of their cruelty.
An estimated 15,000 Karen have been forced out of their homes and
villages in the Karen State over the past three months in what the
military government claims is an effort to secure the area but in what
the Karen see as an effort to destroy them as a people and drive them
for their traditional homeland.
Among the military, the Karen are arguably the most despised of
Myanmar's minorities because they are the only one that has refused to
sign a ceasefire with the regime.
Over the past decade, annual campaigns against the Karen have included
systematic attacks on the civilian population, razing villages, raping
women and conscripting labourers, forcing about 140,000 refugees to
seek safety in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border
The Karen have been fighting for an autonomous Karen State for nearly
five decades, but increasingly, this struggle has simply become one for
survival of a people.
Unfortunately, the plight of the Karen remains very much a sideshow in
the bigger Myanmar political picture, where Suu Kyi is clearly the
centre of attention as the leading hope of finding some democratic
resolution to the country's problems.
When United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was in Bangkok last
week, he used the occasion to appeal to Myanmar's leader, Senior
General Than Shwe, to release Suu Kyi but stopped short of calling on
him to stop the abuses against the Karen.
As it turned out, Annan's appeal fell on deaf ears anyway, and Suu Kyi
remains one of Myanmar's many persecuted people.
Another is 60-year-old Sha Paw, who was in the first group to arrive in
early March at Ei Tu Hta, a village on the Thai border built hastily by
Karen fleeing Myanmar troops.
Soldiers beat her husband to death in Tawoo village in Hsaw Mu Der
District. After fleeing her home, she travelled with a group from her
village through the jungle for two months before setting up one of the
first bamboo houses at Ei Tu Hta, now a village of 827 people.
Saw Nai Nai, 28, arrived in late May with his wife and their four
children, ages 6 months to 6 six years. They arrived after soldiers
entered their Kyauk Pya village of 170 and killed five people in early
March, prompting the rest of the villagers to flee into the surrounding
jungle, he said.
After two months in the jungle, surviving on the small amount of rice
they carried with them when they fled and foraging for what was edible
in the jungle, Saw Nai Nai said his family arrived in Ei Tu Hta.
The other villagers from Kyauk Pya - at least those who survive - are
on their way.
Twelve years ago, the State Peace and Development Council, as Myanmar's
junta styles itself, could not have succeeded in such a campaign
because the Karen National Union (KNU) resistance movement was stronger
then and would have offered stiff resistance.
But its strength has dwindled since they lost their headquarters at
Manerplaw 12 years ago. However, it is still throwing its weight behind
the push for democracy in Myanmar because it expects self-autonomy for
the Karen people to follow.
'There are two important issues,' said Mahn Sha Lah Phan, KNU general
secretary. 'The first is democracy. This is very important. The second
is the ethnic groups need equality and self-determination rights.'
'If we get democracy, ethnic rights will automatically follow,' he
said.
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The Hindu
Suu Kyi's party to fight junta's decision to keep her detained
Yangon, May. 28 (AP): The party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi vowed today to take legal action to fight her detention - a day
after the junta ordered the extension of her house arrest in defiance
international pressure.
"We will take legal measures against the restrictions imposed on Aung
San Suu Kyi. We will exercise our right, according to law," said Nyan
Win, a lawyer and spokesman for the National League for Democracy.
Although no public announcement was made, a Myanmar government official
told The Associated Press yesterday that the junta had issued an order
extending Suu Kyi's detention by one year. He spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
A statement from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party
confirmed the extension, but did not specify its duration.
The government's rationale for detaining Suu Kyi has been that she
could be a threat to public order. She has been detained for about 10
of the last 17 years.
"We are deeply saddened by the news because this is opposite to the
expectation of the people. Hopes were higher this year than last year,
but now our hopes are dashed," Nyan Win said today.
The NLD issued a statement yesterday characterising the junta's action
as unlawful.
Noting that Suu Kyi is being held under an anti-subversion law, it said
that "Since there is no proof of security threat, the extension of her
detention is not in accordance with national law and the extension will
not benefit the national reconciliation process."
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The Nation
Time has come to break SPDC junta leaders
Kavi Chongkittavorn
Published on May 29, 2006
It was heartening to see the front page of The Guardian in the UK last
Monday covered with a huge portrait of a smiling Aung San Suu Kyi. At
the very least it reminded the world that she was still a prisoner, as
she has been for 10 of the past 17 years.
The visit paid to her by Ibrahim Gambari, the UN under-secretary
general for political affairs, and his optimism brought the fate of the
Nobel laureate to the fore once again. Unfortunately, hopes for her
release were dashed when the junta announced on Saturday that she would
be kept under house arrest for another year.
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) junta knew how to use
the high-profile UN visit and the meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi to
create a less hostile international environment, even temporarily. At
this point the junta leaders are unable to make any other concessions
on rights or political freedom as they have their own "road map" to
pursue at all costs.
They want to drag their feet again knowing their giant neighbours,
China and India, will not change their stance. These Asian giants'
interests in Burma are so entrenched that any move by either side would
simply be a faux pas. Furthermore, Russia and China are two members of
UN Security Council that are willing to stick their necks out for
Burma. Their unwavering support actually increases the regime's
intransigence and encourages it to toughen its stance against the
opposition and make the road to democracy more difficult.
Apparently, from the regime's standpoint, releasing Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners, as repeatedly demanded by the United Nations,
Asean and the rest of international community, would be too dangerous
at this juncture. She is still a popular leader and her party, the
National League for Democracy (NLD), is still a legitimate political
entity. She remains the biggest threat. So far, the regime's insidious
ploys to undermine her leadership, including attempts to kill her
through a front organisation, and her party have not worked. The latest
attempt, to brand the NLD a terrorist group, is a case in point.
This reflects the regime's current thinking. Facing international
wrath, especially from the West and Asean, is preferable to possible
domestic upheavals led by Suu Kyi, as she has done previously.
Internally, the junta can use brute force to control Burmese society
and crack down on dissidents at will. Following its move to the new
capital Pyinmana last November, the junta's top priority is to
consolidate the military's hold and further isolate the military from
civilian populations.
Ironically, in the international arena Burmese apologists and countries
benefiting from Rangoon's lack of democracy and legitimate government
are out in force defending the regime like wolverines.
The extension of Suu Kyi's detention was based on the shrewd
calculation that there would be no change in the regional and
international environment in the next 16 months that would alter the
current political landscape beneficial to the regime. At the very
least, there will be a status quo. The SPDC believe that their road map
has made progress and they can muddle through with a new constitution
backed by national referendum later this year, followed by a general
election next year.
The rest of world will not learn of the nitty-gritty anyway because of
preoccupation with other serious global issues.
As such, it is imperative that the UN and Asean live up to the
expectation of bringing openness and democracy to Burma. Gambari's trip
to Burma marked the UN's return to a role in Burma after two years of
complete absence. Before that, the UN special envoy for Burma, Ismail
Razali, was the key person. For 15 years the UN has deliberated on the
human-rights situation in Burma without any tangible action. UN chief
Kofi Annan has reiterated that he wants to see progress in the
country's openness.
Gambari's four-hour meeting with Suu Kyi was a big slap to Asean's
face. When Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar went to Burma in
March as the grouping's special envoy, his request to see the NLD
leader was turned down. He fumed and then cut short his visit by a day.
But being in the Asean family, his discontentment quickly evaporated
after the ministerial retreat in Cebu in April, when he suddenly and
shamelessly started playing Rangoon's tune.
Lest we forget, in July 2000 Asean put forward a plan to dispatch a
troika to Burma for a fact-finding mission, which Rangoon quickly
rejected. However, when the European Union proposed a similar plan, it
was accepted.
Asean's short memory and inconsistency is directly tied to the junta's
brinkmanship and ability to work the concerns of individual members
against the group's collective psyche andgoals. Using the grouping's
fear of outside interference has shielded Burma from further isolation.
Burma's ability to join the Asia-Europe Meeting last year was a big
success for the junta.
After months of confusion and mess, the regime wanted to show off the
new capital, situated in the hinterlands, with Gambari's visit. The
junta was wise to give the UN envoy cause for optimism about the
political process and the possibility of Suu Kyi's freedom. Now the
Nigerian diplomat must be wondering why he momentarily lapsed and spoke
of a new era for Burma and the UN's willingness to give at least US$100
million (Bt3.8 billion) worth of aid in exchange of political progress.
Gambari is scheduled to brief the UN Security Council in the next few
days. A resolution on Burma, called for by the United States and
Britain, could be adopted afterwards to deplore the general oppression
there, including the attacks on Karen refugees along the Thai-Burmese
border. It will be a different briefing from the one he gave informally
last December. For the past 15 years the junta has succeeded in
stopping the council from putting the Burma situation on its agenda,
thanks to the backing of China and Russia
To date it is the US government and lawmakers who have done the most to
push the issue onto the council's agenda. Last week, both houses of the
US Congress also passed a bipartisan resolution to extend and renew
import sanctions against Burma for another year.
With Suu Kyi's renewed detention, the international community cannot
stay idle. While in Bangkok last week, UN chief Kofi Annan pleaded for
her release and reiterated that progress in the political process must
be inclusive. Her freedom, he said, would "allow the government and the
people, not only to build the nation together, but to focus on the
essential issue of economic and social development".
Asean should show leadership on the Burma issue. As the process of
putting together the Asean charter continues, the drafters should keep
in mind Burma's actions since its admission almost a decade ago. In the
long run, only a sensible Asean charter can have any real impact on
this intransigent member.
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NLD youths stage peaceful protest in Rangoon
May 27, 2006 (DVB) - Around 400 National League for Democracy (NLD)
youth members today marched towards the home of detained democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and staged a peaceful protest to show their
displeasure at the extension of her detention to another year.
At around noon, the protestors marched in an orderly way from the NLD
HQs at Shwegondaing Road towards Aung San Suu Kyi's home in the
University
Avenue after holding a ceremony marking the 16th anniversary of the
1990 election, which the NLD won a landslide victory but never allowed
to rule.
But members of security police, fire brigade and pro-junta Union
Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) blocked the roads and
barred them from reaching her home.
"We set off after the end of the ceremony. When we reached
'Hermitage', they blocked us with two cars and told us to march
with three people in tandem," said a female youth member who took
part in the march. "Then when we did that the two cars followed us
from behind. Just before we reached Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's compound,
just beyond the park, they they set up barbed wire barriers.
"There were about 200 of us. They began to stop us in front of Mya
Yeik Nyo Hotel. But despite their attempt to stop us, we pushed ahead
and continued with the march until we reached the garden near her home.
It was not long after that they blocked the road. About eight
truckloads of security personnel, five detention cars to carry away
those arrested, five truckloads of fully armed personnel, and a fire
engine came to the scene," said another youth.
"They surrounded us and told us to go home. We told them that we will
stay there until 4pm (locale time) and we negotiated with them," said
the other youth.
"There, when we asked them to allow us to meet with the old lady
(Aung San Suu Kyi) peacefully, they told us that we have no rights to
do so as she is not free yet. At 3.35pm, we all dispersed peacefully.
In the end, we all chanted the health of Aung San Suu Kyi and
returned."
"We shouted May Daw Aung San Suu Kyi be healthy (Longlive Aung San
Suu Kyi) four times," said the female youth.
The other youth said that there were some intimidations from the
authorities and the latter also planted some civilians to cause
problems among the protesters.
"People in civilian clothes came in two Dyna cars and they came down
from the cars and mingled with us. To avoid trouble, we controlled our
people to show restraint. We had to do that to ensure everything was
peaceful. We pushed ahead and continued our march and there was no
untoward incident there," he said.
"There has been no arrests until the time we left the place. The
incident boosted the morale of the youths and they also learned that
they could still do things without violating thelaw. We are now
thinking of continuing our work within the framework of the law if in
case she does not get released".
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Golden khamauk Shwe Maung harassed by Mandalay authority
May 26, 2006 (DVB) - Shwe Maung from Mandalay in central Burma who was
imprisoned for moulding figure of a khamauk (Burmese bamboo hat), the
symbol of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has been harassed by
local members of Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA)
and the special branch (SB) police.
"I buy and sell lands. For that, in order to hurt me, they have been
trying to make the neighbours misunderstand me by (saying that) my
money comes from this (political) party and that," Shwe Maung told
DVB. "They have been watching my house from the front and back with
many people. They threatened me with arrest and confiscation. They are
also spreading the propaganda now. They also interrogated other agents
who deal with me and asked them; what do you buy for him. If you buy
for him you are in danger, you know and the like. After selling the
lands, I dreamed of setting up a good carrying truck (business) for my
cousins to drive. I studied the truck with car dealers and the news
reached them (the authorities). Then they said if I bought the car it
will be confiscated. Now I bought an empty house at the west end of the
new town. Then, they accused me of buying it with the money of a party
to turn it into an office. The whole office (of the authorities) came
down with the intention of arresting me. Then when they studied it
properly, they found no incriminating evidence, I learnt. They know
that I am an honest person and doing business with pure heart. Knowing
that, they have been threatening to confiscate (my business) on this
and that day."
Shwe Maung from Mandalay Htundone New Town was sentenced to three years
in prison in 2002 for moulding the statue of the golden khamauk. He had
to serve the full sentence and released in November 2005.
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