A New Year and Some Old Idiots
Wait, don't smile too fast. They are official...idiots!!
One Love Reggae- Bob Marley
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Regime Frees Longest-serving Political Prisoner
Burma’s longest-serving political prisoner, 79-year-old journalist Win Tin, has been freed after 19 years behind bars.
He said: "I will keep fighting until the emergence of democracy in this country."
Win Tin, formerly editor of the influential newspaper Hanthawaddy, vice-chairman of the Writers’ Union, and an active participant in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to 20 years on charges that included “anti-government propaganda.”
Win Tin won international recognition for his pro-democracy involvement, and in 2001 he was awarded the World Association of Newspapers Golden Pen of Freedom and the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
He suffered heart and prostate problems during his imprisonment, and two rights organizations, Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association, charged that he had been denied “proper medical treatment” and the opportunity to write.
Since 2006, he had been denied visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The freed political prisoners included another well-known writer, Aung Soe Myint, and four members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)—Khin Maung Swe, May Win Myint, Win Htein and Than Nyein.
Around 2,000 political prisoners are now believed to be detained in Burma’s prisons.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Than Shwe Virus
The Burmese Regime’s Cyber Offensive
Marking the anniversaries of the student uprising on September 18, 1988, and the Buddhist monk-led demonstrations last year, the Burmese junta has launched another offensive—a cyber attack—on The Irrawaddy and several other Burmese news agencies in exile.
We at The Irrawaddy quickly learned the attack was linked to the anniversary of the “Saffron Revolution.” Burma’s military authorities obviously did not want any similar sentiments this year and, once again, shot down their enemies.
Exiled media groups, bloggers, reporters inside Burma and citizen journalists played major roles in September 2007 in highlighting the brutal suppression of the monks and their supporters in the streets of Rangoon.
Live images, eye-witness reports, updates and photographs landed on our desks every few seconds. The outside world was able to witness the terror of the Burmese regime on TV and on the Internet.
And so the military regime struck back. On September 27, all connections to the Internet were closed down for four days as the authorities tried to conceal their crimes.
So it was no surprise that they attempted the same tactic this year.
On Tuesday, we received reports that the Internet in Burma was running slowly, suggesting a concerted effort to prevent information from going in or out of the country.
Then on Wednesday, our colleagues and subscribers in the US, Japan and Malaysia notified our Thailand-based office that they were unable to access our Web site.
A few hours later, I-NET, the largest host server in Thailand, confirmed: “Your site has been under distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack since around 5pm.”
I-NET finally decided to shut down our server.
Singlehop, which hosts The Irrawaddy’s mirror site, explained: “Your server is under a major attack. Due to the size of the attack our network engineers had to null route the IP to negate it. When the attack has subsided we will remove the null route.”
Singlehop told us that the cyber attack was very sophisticated.
Currently, our Web site is disabled and we have been forced to launch our daily news in blogs. Fellow exiled news agencies Democratic Voice of Burma and New Era were also disabled.
The attack on our Web sites is persistent and believed to be manually launched from various locations - the attacks on our site including mirror site continue.
It is no secret that in recent years Burma’s regime sent an army of students to Russia for cyber warfare training. They also enjoy a large budget to hire cyber criminals overseas to attack exiled media Web sites.
Burmese dissidents believe that some of the cyber criminals working for the regime are based in the US, Japan and Europe. One IP address identified in the current attack was in The Netherlands.
In Burma, Internet cafes are not safe. They are the substations of subversive activity. In some Internet cafes, users have to provide ID, informers observe students playing video games, and Buddhist monks complain they are treated like criminals if they ask to the Internet.
In this increasing climate of fear where Internet users are frequently suspected of working for exiled media, people in Burma there are naturally afraid to communicate.
Reporters, editors and publishers based in Rangoon are under increasing pressure. Earlier this month, police apprehended some reporters for allegedly working for The Irrawaddy, though they were not.
Our stringers remain undetected, though they say they are nervous.
My friend, a foreign journalist who just came out of Burma, said that the mood was very tense. “It is hard for our Burmese colleagues to report,” she said. “But they are very brave.”
Over the last 20 years, the ongoing battle between Burma’s regime and the pro-democratic forces has shifted from the streets to the jungle and now to the computer.
The Burmese junta will not give in—rather, they will equip themselves and become more sophisticated.
Acknowledging the magnitude of the cyber attack against us, we at The Irrawaddy have to build stronger firewalls and more effective systems to prevent inevitable attacks in the future.
However, the junta is mistaken. Ultimately, the flow of information is unstoppable. The Burmese regime’s cyber criminals cannot penetrate the strongest firewall of all—the spirit of desire for change.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
What a Shame, Burmese Generals !
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| Protesters remain at the protest site for the third day. |
The Thai prime minister has said he won't use force to evict the thousands of protesters who have been occupying the main government buildings in Bangkok since Tuesday.
The protesters are demanding that Samak Sundaravej step down, accusing him of acting under orders from the exiled former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.
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| Thais speak out on protests |
Riot police have pulled back from Government House. Mr Samak says he has the legal justification he needs to evict the demonstrators there, but wanted to avoid bloodshed.
He said he had a sword, but had chosen not to use it.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The 2010 Election Challenges
Burma's conflict is moving into a new phase of intractability. In other words, the conflict will become institutionalized in 2010.
The military has unilaterally set the rules of the new game with the ratification of its constitution and is preparing to hold elections in 2010 as part of its seven-step “roadmap.” But the new constitution will not bring about much-needed state-building, a process in which all parties rally together and make their voices heard.
Instead of entering into the state-building process, Burma ranked 12th out of 177 states in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and societal deterioration in the 2008 “failed state” index, presented by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace. In the 2007 index Burma was designated 14th in failed state rankings. The country is crumbling.
"I can't really see anything happening that will be positive for the country's better future at this stage," said David Steinberg, a Burma expert from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
The incompatible goals of the military elites and the opposition, including ethnic minorities, will not be transformed by the new constitution and the 2010 election.
The opposition will continue to fight for the goal of national reconciliation but is likely to find itself ineffective within the new institutional procedures that favor the military's exclusive domination. As result, the opposition will have to pursue alternative course of actions—such as public mobilization and international advocacy.
On the other hand, since the military continues to impose its one-sided goal of exclusive domination with the new constitution and elections it cannot expect to minimize the cost of conflict. The most visible costs of this approach will be the continuation of international isolation and further damage to the country's economy.
"We do not accept the junta's unilateral solution," said Aung Din, a former political prisoner and executive director of the US Campaign for Burma. "Until and unless there is a negotiated political settlement, made by the military, the National League for Democracy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and ethnic representatives together, the US-led western sanctions against the junta will not be lifted."
Sein Htay, a Burmese economist in exile, goes further, saying: "No matter whether there are western economic sanctions or not, the regime's policy failure and mismanagement will damage the prospect of development and public welfare. The country's economy will continue to worsen after 2010."
The threat of renewed public uprisings will still be present, since the military's intentions do not facilitate a reconciliation of interests. More repression will result, increasing existing grievances and public hostility towards the military.
"As the generals will use the same method of coercion against the people even after 2010, the existing public anger that reached an unprecedented high level during the crackdown against monk-led protests last year and the regime's negligence of cyclone relief in May will then be compounded," said Win Min, a researcher in civil-military relations in Burma. "Antagonistic civil-military relations will continue."
Apart from being unable to transform incompatible goals and relations, the new, post-2010 regime will not change any salience of the issues that the country has been facing and which have earned it pariah status.
According to the military's new constitution, a military chief will independently administer military affairs, including recruitment and expansion of troops, promotions, troop deployment, budget, military-owned businesses, purchase and manufacture of weapons, etc.
Consequently, the issues of child soldiers, forced relocations, forced labor, landmines, internal displaced person, the flow of refugees to neighboring countries, rape and other rights violations—all of which are associated with the military's unchecked interests and behavior— will continue unresolved, especially in ethnic areas such as the eastern areas of Burma.
Since the elected parliament’s legislative power will be restricted and because it will not be able to oversee the military, no civilian mechanisms will be available to redress the military’s excesses. Military personnel accused of crimes will be tried by a court-martial appointed by the head of the armed forces, the Tatmadaw—effectively allowing the military to continue its violations with impunity.
The 2010 elections could, however, contribute to leadership changes, at least on a nominal level during the initial stage. Two power centers will be created—military and government.
Aside from the 25 percent of parliamentary seats reserved for the military and its power to appoint the three most important cabinet ministers (Defense, Home and Border Area Affairs) in the Cabinet, the generals are determined to fill the remaining government portfolios and parliamentary seats with members of its own civilian thuggish movement, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).
The election is sure to be marked by vote rigging, intimidation and bullying attacks orchestrated by the USDA and its affiliates against opposing candidates. Given the record of USDA violence against Suu Kyi's entourage in 2003 and opposition activists in subsequent years, the world will witness an election model of goon-squad democracy—comparable to the travesty of recent elections in Zimbabwe.
The new post-election power arrangement will nonetheless create conflict between two power centers over the command structure and personal interests. Even now, various reports confirm that there is serious animosity and tension between military personnel and USDA members regarding the latter's interference with the military's administrative mandate and other issues of self-interest.
Given the military's lack of experience of sharing power, it will be harder for the generals to accept being outshone by the USDA.
"Many officers in the military hate the USDA and believe it will go down when Than Shwe goes," said a source close to the military establishment.
The government's operation with two centers of power—no matter who pull the strings—could lead to either a serious internal split or miserable inefficiency of the ruling body.
Some advocates expect it will take an evolutionary shift toward liberalization. They believe the military's constitution, although flawed, can give reform options to a new generation of military officers. They suggest "using the generals’ flawed model of democracy as a starting point from which to pursue a more acceptable long-term solution."
However, the nature of the power rivalry within a post-2010 regime will not necessarily lead to a new opening and democratization in the long run. Even if it does so, the question is: how long is the long run? It may be too long to have any strategic relevancy for the opposition movement, within the country as well as abroad.
In fact, political transition is not likely to take place within the framework of a military-imposed constitution. Even amendments made to the constitution in the hope of gradual reform will not be possible within military-dominated parliamentary debate and a new power arrangement. It could happen only if the status-quo is challenged by public pressure and a negotiated settlement is reached with the military. Otherwise, the post-2010 prospect remains bleak.
The UN-led international community, therefore, must double its efforts to push for an inclusive political resolution in Burma before 2010, mediating for meaningful political dialogue among all key stake holders by using coercive diplomacy, rather than pleading to the regime to conduct elections that are just "credible and inclusive".
The international community must be fully aware that the result of the election will be in accordance with the military's constitution. Otherwise, it will make the same major mistake committed by EU leaders at their July 19 summit in Brussels when they called on the military junta "to ensure that the elections announced for 2010 will be prepared and conducted in a way that contributes to a credible and fully participative transition to democracy." Without considering contextual and consequential dangers, the EU leaders just pushed for the 2010 election and perhaps felt they were serving the cause of Burmese democracy. Moral misery and strategic blunder!
UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who is planning to return to Burma soon, should be especially cautioned not to lend legitimacy to the regime's constitution and elections in 2010. The UN, which once supported the junta's seven-step “roadmap” as a potential for an inclusive transition, must now say clearly that the map is no longer relevant since it has failed to incorporate key stakeholders.
In brief, the UN-led international community should not give up its attempt to enforce an inclusive political resolution in Burma before 2010.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
MAY 20, 2008: WHAT'S NEW
Friday Evening
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| Some 2.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone |
Listen to AudioBan: Burma to allow aid in
The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, says Burma's military leadership has agreed to let in all foreign aid workers to help cyclone victims.
Mr Ban's announcement followed a meeting with Burma's secretive leader, General Than Shwe.
UN officials said the general agreed that aid workers would be allowed into the worst-affected Irrawaddy Delta region.
The UN described this as a significant move in principle.
Aid agencies have cautiously welcomed the apparent breakthrough -- coming three weeks after the cyclone struck -- but observers say Burma has reneged on past promises to the UN.
Burma's military leaders greet UN head Ban Ki-moonOur Reports also include:
- View of Sitagu Sayadaw Ashin Nyanissara on current development of government response to international aid offers.
- Responses of international aid agencies on Burma's decision on accepting international aid workers.
African aid helicopters scrambled to Burma
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| USS Essex navy ship stationed near Burma, ready to help cyclone victims |
It's unclear whether the Burmese offer applies to military aid workers -- and whether American naval helicopters stationed off the Burmese coast can join the relief effort.
Burma earlier this week gave permission for just ten UN helicopters to begin relief flights.
But most of these are in Africa, and the UN has asked the US, Britain, Canada and Australia to help transport these large helicopters to Burma.
A BBC correspondent says the helicopters need to be dismantled first and reassembled upon arrival. He says this could take a week.
Also in the news..
- Account of a Burmese medical doctor who has been helping cyclone's victims in the delta region.
- U Nyan Win, a spokeperson of NLD said the extension of the house arrest of beyond May 30 would not be in accordance with current law.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained since 30 May Depayin attack five years ago.
Also in the programme..
Burma Perspective By U Maung Maung Than
"Political landscape of Burma after the Constitutional Referendum"
Cautious Optimism over Than Shwe-Ban Agreement
| By WAI MOE | Friday, May 23, 2008 |
The leader of Burma’s ruling junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has finally agreed to allow in “all aid workers” after meeting with the head of the United Nations in the country’s capital, Naypyidaw. But given the regime’s history of mistrust towards non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, most greeted the news with cautious optimism.
“I had a very good meeting with the Senior General and particularly on these aid workers,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “He has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities.”
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| UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) met with Burma's junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe on Friday in Naypyidaw. (Photo: AP) |
Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), called the news a positive step, provided the junta keeps its promises.
“We will be very glad if that news comes true,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Friday. “But the good news should have come for survivors immediately after the cyclone hit the country. Now it has been three weeks.”
Several Bangkok-based aid workers who were waiting to get a visa to enter Burma also responded cautiously to the announcement, noting that the regime has a history of not keeping its promises.
Foreign aid workers already inside Burma need permission to travel outside of Rangoon—another hurdle that will need to be cleared before an effective response to the disaster is possible.
But some Burma watchers regarded Than Shwe’s decision to allow foreign aid workers into the country—after weeks of refusing to even respond to telephone calls from the UN secretary general—as a genuine concession.
Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst, said that Than Shwe needed to make a compromise after facing weeks of unrelenting pressure.
He said that this pressure was both internal and external, leaving the junta’s top general with no other choice than to end his resistance to calls for a larger international aid effort.
“I heard even Burmese military officials are displeased with the junta’s poor relief distribution system in the delta region and slow response to international aid,” he said.
Many local Burmese aid workers who have been to delta region said that doors that have been opened slightly can just as easily be closed again. “This is the nature of the Than Shwe regime,” they said.
Larry Jagan, a British journalist who writes on Burma affairs, said he was rather doubtful that Ban Ki-moon’s remark represented a major breakthrough.
“I cannot believe that Snr-Gen Than Shwe is going to allow thousands of foreigners to delta region,” he said.
Some analysts said that Than Shwe may be worried about the possibility of the Burma issue being raised again at the UN Security Council.
France said on Thursday that it would push for a Security Council resolution authorizing the aid delivery to Burma’s cyclone victims “by all means necessary” if pressure from Ban Ki-moon and neighboring countries doesn’t work.
The French ambassador to the UN, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said that France will wait to hear from Ban Ki-moon and John Holmes, the UN humanitarian chief, as well as from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to see if there is any concrete progress on the issue of access to the victims.
“If not, we will have to go back to the Security Council,” said the ambassador.
Authorities Tighten Restrictions on Private Aid Efforts
| By MIN LWIN | Friday, May 23, 2008 |
Private aid convoys from Rangoon, which have provided a lifeline to victims of Cyclone Nargis in some hard-hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta, are facing tighter restrictions by local authorities, who say that the government now has the situation under control.
At a checkpoint near the Panhlaing Bridge in Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township, trucks and other vehicles carrying supplies to the delta are being stopped and inspected, according to local nongovernmental organizations and other private donors.
“The security officers told me not to distribute things along the road and gave me a pamphlet,” said a relief worker who passed through the checkpoint, where guards recorded license plate numbers of vehicles traveling to Kungyangone and Twante Townships located in the Irrawaddy delta.
According to the relief worker, the pamphlet claimed that the government had completed its emergency operations in the area, and was now undertaking efforts to rehabilitate the local population. It added that private donations were disrupting these efforts, as they made people in the area less willing to work.
Relief workers who have visited some of the hardest-hit areas deny that the government’s efforts have been effective in dealing with the crisis, which they say remains far from over.
Meanwhile, private donations—of money, food, water, clothing and other basic necessities—continue to be collected throughout the country.
Much of this informal aid effort is being handled by Buddhist monks, who are overseeing the distribution of scarce resources to cyclone survivors in areas that have seen little assistance from the government.
“I am afraid that the victims won’t receive the assistance,” said one donor, explaining why he declined to make donations through the government.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
THE GLEANER (JAMAICA'S LOCAL NEWSPAPER)
Burmese to stage protest in Jamaica
published: Monday | May 12, 2008
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Burmese expatriates in Jamaica will today stage a peaceful march to show solidarity with their countrymen who were devastated by a cyclone last week and have received negligible aid because of tight controls by the military dictatorship.
The protest will commence outside the United States Embassy in St Andrew at 9 a.m.
Spokesperson for the group, Dr Soe Naung, told The Gleaner the Burmese would march from the embassy to the offices of the United Nations.
"The march is to express our sympathy and condolences to those who died in Cyclone Nargis and to show solidarity, concern and care for those who live and are trying to survive there (in Myanmar)," the medical doctor said.
Showing gratitude
In addition, he said the group wants to show gratitude to two nations - the United States and France and two organisations, the European Union and the United Nations.
"Even though the junta is refusing to allow aid workers access into the country, we are urging these nations and organisations to do even more," said Naung.
The death toll in the Asian nation remains uncertain. Up to press time, media reports claimed the death toll had jumped to 28,000.
British aid group Oxfam was also quoted on Sunday as saying that the death toll could rise to 1.5 million if people do not get clean water and sanitation soon.
"Over two million are homeless, and are facing the aftermath of tropical diseases," said Naung, who still has relatives living there.
Bloody hands
One of the most important issues on the expatriates' agenda is to ensure that the Jamaican Government and all other countries attending the Law of the Sea Conference here in June do not welcome or "shake the bloody hands" of the two military Burmese representatives who are billed to attend the event.
"We are requesting that those attending the conference will use their own liberty to promote the need for ours and help us rejoin the family of free nations," urged the Burmese doctor.
Myanmar (formerly called Burma), which got independence from Britain in 1948, was placed under military rule in 1962 during a staged coup by the late General Ne Win.
Second-generation military leader, General Than Shwe, has been running the country since Ne Win's death.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
04 May, 2008; News Update
Saturday Dawn
|  |
| The US has ships with aid standing by in the Gulf of Thailand |
Burma warned over cyclone delays
The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has warned that hundreds of thousands of Burmese lives could be at risk, unless the military government removes all restrictions on foreign aid following Cyclone Nargis a week ago.
The UN has appealed for almost two hundred million dollars in aid from member countries.
The Burmese ambassador to the UN (Kyaw Tint Swe ) said his country would accept help from any quarter.
His government has said it is not ready to allow in foreign search and rescue teams but the UN's head of humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, said he believed Burma could become more flexible after the constitutional referendum this weekend.
Burma: diseases start to take hold
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| Thousands of people in the area have received no aid |
Two BBC correspondents who've travelled to the Irrawaddy delta, the area worst-hit by the cyclone, say tens of thousands of bodies are strewn across the landscape, with houses toppled and trees uprooted.
They say diseases like dysentery are already starting to take hold, and although some aid has arrived there is still no relief effort to match the size of the catastrophe.
Burmese referendum underway despite cyclone
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| Burmese referendum underway despite cyclone |
A constitutional referendum is underway in Burma, despite appeals from the United Nations for a postponement because of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis a week ago.
Voting is taking place in most of the country although the poll has been delayed for two weeks in the worst-affected areas (including the main city, Rangoon.
Also in the news:
- Early morning preparations for referendum across the country.
- Prayer vigils, donations around the World for Cyclone victims of Burma.
Monday, February 11, 2008
It is time for Burmese people to show their real wish.
"The time has now come to change from military rule to democratic civilian rule," said the announcement for the 2010 polls, broadcast on state TV and radio.
—Stephen Smith, Australian Foreign Minister
A statement from the British Foreign Office in London said "a genuine and inclusive process of national reconciliation" was necessary for a transition to democracy, and called for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
Last week, the United States broadened financial sanctions against junta members and their families and friends, blaming the military's poor human rights record and failure to hand power to a democratically elected government.
"The announcement is vague, incomplete and strange," NLD party spokesman Nyan Win said Saturday night.
"Even before knowing the results of the referendum, the government has already announced that elections will be held in 2010," he said, also implying the government was certain the draft constitution would get approval.
Tun Myint Aung, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group, said citizens must study the proposed constitution carefully, since pro-democracy groups were excluded from the drafting process.
He noted the junta announced a decree, known as 5/96, in 1996 that prohibits criticism of the national convention. If convicted, a person can receive a life sentence.
“Unless 5/96 is withdrawn, the referendum in May will not be free and fair,” said Tun Myint Aung. “That means the Burmese people could face a bloodbath in the future because there is no meaningful resolution in the junta’s plans, and there will be mass protests again if the people do not get a real democracy.”
Larry Jagan, a British journalist who specializes in Burma issues, said that until the details of a constitutional referendum and general election are known, it is impossible to say whether the junta has made a significant step towards a real democracy.
The junta was badly defeated in the 1990 general election, he noted, and the generals may have tricks to use against the NLD and other candidates, including limiting their ability to field candidates, raise money and run a campaign.
Simply announcing the referendum and general election dates does not enhance the junta’s credibility, he said.
Jagan said the real issue is true dialogue which is not taking place.
“How can the constitution be representative and legitimate without the participation of all-important sectors of Burmese society, including pro-democracy opposition groups, Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic groups?” he asked.
"I am not interested in their referendum because the results are known already," said 48-year old noodle salad seller Mar Mar Aye, echoing the popular belief that the government is confident its constitution will be approved.
Singapore's Foreign Ministry hailed the move by Burmese military government to set a timeframe for a referendum on a new constitution and elections as a "positive" one.
Burma's announcement of new elections
The Burmese opposition has described as vague, incomplete and strange the military government's decision to hold a referendum on a new constitution in May.
The generals said a multi-party election would follow in 2010, two decades after they annulled the last election.
The surprise announcement comes just months after the brutal suppression of last September's pro-democracy protests.
Britain said Burmese political leaders had not been consulted, and called for a genuine process of reconciliation.
But Singapore's Foreign Ministry hailed the move by Burmese military government to set a timeframe for a referendum on a new constitution and elections as a "positive" one.
The pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest, and hundreds of political prisoners are in jail.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Thursday, 24 January 2008, 22:04 GMT
Thursday, 24 January 2008, 22:04 GMT 
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| The foreign ministers of the The rare joint statement - at the World Economic Forum in The three foreign ministers said the regime had met none of the list of demands made by the UN Security Council in October. The demands included the release of all political prisoners. The Burmese junta bloodily suppressed pro-democracy protests in September. 'Horrified' David Miliband, Condoleezza Rice and Bernard Kouchner said in their statement that "the urgent need for progress towards a transition to democracy and improved human rights in "It is now more than four months since the world was horrified by the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations in "We must convince the Burmese regime to meet the demands of the international community and respect the basic rights of The Security Council called on the junta, among other things, to free all political prisoners - including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been kept under house arrest for 12 out of the past 18 years. | |
January 21, 2008 (Monday)
Burma monk still testing the military
Aging storyteller uses allegory to remind people rotten regimes have fallen before
In one of his most talked-about lectures, Buddhist monk Ashin Nyanissara tells the legend of a king who ruled more than 2,500 years ago. The king believed that spitting on a hermit brought him good fortune.
At first, it worked like a charm, but before long his realm was annihilated under a rain of fire, spears and knives.
Today's audiences easily find the hidden message: The assault by Burma's military government on monks leading protests during the fall looks like a modern version of the ancient monarch's abuse. And they hope the ruling generals will suffer the same fate.
In the recent crackdown, many monks were beaten and defrocked in prison. Human rights activists say several monks were among the 31 people the United Nations says were killed by the government.
It was a traumatic wound to a mainly Buddhist society, one that forced a lot of soul searching among people who practice one of the oldest forms of the religion, which emphasizes critical thought and reasoning over blind faith.
The stern-faced Nyanissara, a 70-year-old monk in owlish glasses and a maroon robe, is able to stare down generals with chests full of medals by stepping carefully through the minefield that makes free speech lethal in Burma.
Shielding himself with allegory, he crisscrosses the country giving lectures that draw on history and legend to remind people that rotten regimes have fallen before. As the generals try to crush the last remnants of resistance, he is cautiously keeping the fire alive.
But he knows it isn't the first time in 45 years of military rule that the government has attacked monks who challenged its absolute authority. In at least four previous crackdowns, dating to 1965, the military rounded up thousands of monks, killing some, defrocking others, while closing monasteries and seizing property.
Each time, the brutal repression outraged many people, but in the end they felt powerless to do anything about it, the crises passed and the generals continued to oppress with an iron fist.
It's the nature of any government's leaders to "strongly test their political power. They don't want to lose it," he said in a recent interview at the International Buddhist Academy, which he founded in this riverside town whose forested hills the faithful believe Buddha walked on his path to enlightenment.
"But in any faith, when politics and religion come into competition, religious leaders always defeat anything. Religion is the leader. Jesus Christ was killed, but which was more powerful? Religion or politics?"
The institute sits in a valley beneath the Sagaing Hills, where hundreds of golden spires, stupas, rise like spiritual beacons from monasteries and pagodas that dot the hillsides, 12 miles southwest of Mandalay.
The first monks to demonstrate against the government last year took to the streets in Pakokku, 60 miles southwest of Sagaing.
Still trapped in the latest cycle of political turmoil, many of Burma's people are looking to Nyanissara for more than spiritual guidance.
At midday recently, he had just returned from addressing hundreds of the faithful in a village pagoda and was hurrying to leave for an afternoon lecture, a daily routine that keeps him on the move to meet the demand for his wisdom.
Barefoot in a corridor of the university where student monks and nuns are trained for missionary work, the monk ran a disposable razor over his tonsured head and down across his face and neck, removing the faintest midday stubble as he spoke.
Then, flanked by young aides and walking as straight and sure-footed as a man half his age, the monk got into his black sport utility vehicle, which sped on a 110-mile journey to his next stop.
Nyanissara draws large, rapt audiences wherever he goes, whether they are poor villagers crowded into small monasteries or city residents sitting in orderly rows on a side street.
On a recent night, a few thousand people filled a street in Rangoon, Burma's largest city, sitting quietly as they waited for the monk to arrive.
When he emerged from his SUV, people bowed their heads to the ground as he made his way to a stage, where he sat cross-legged on a gilded chair as big as a throne.
In large public gatherings such as these, when the generals' spies lurk in the audience and listen for any hint of trouble, his lectures often are built around the same lesson: Cruel rulers create bad karma. And they will suffer for what they have done.
That's a moral not easily shrugged off by a government whose leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, is intensely superstitious: He consults astrologers to make important decisions.
The ruling generals also churn out propaganda images portraying themselves as devoted Buddhists, receiving the blessing of sympathetic monks. If their faith is true, they know their actions will determine their next life in reincarnation's endless cycle of death and rebirth.
"They have to be afraid they'll be coming back as cockroaches," wisecracked one Western envoy.
Several of Nyanissara's lectures have been burned onto DVDs, with titles including "Last Days of Empire." The generals have arrested people caught selling them, but they are still widely available across Burma, also known as Myanmar.
To most people, the pain of seeing monks beaten in the streets is more than just an insult to religious faith. To many, it's as if the military had harmed their own family, and the anger does not ease quickly.
Almost any Buddhist with a son has watched with pride as his head is shaved to make him a novice monk in an initiation ceremony called shin-pyu, a moment as life-defining as a baptism, christening or bar mitzvah.
It is a religious duty for Buddhist boys to become novice monks from age 7, and most youngsters in Burma answer the calling, Nyanissara said.
Just as Buddha left his own family to seek enlightenment, they live in a monastery for a few weeks, during which they are allowed to have only eight possessions: a robe, a belt, footwear, a razor, an umbrella, a glass for water, a begging bowl and a filter to make sure no living thing slips into their food to be eaten.
"They learn morality and how to pay respect to their elders, and Buddhist monks, too," said U Kondala, abbot of a monastery with a library of 16th century copies of Buddha's laws and philosophy, handwritten on palm fronds folded like Chinese fans. "After understanding the ways of the Buddha, they are more polite and clever, and consider the welfare of other people."
Novices return to normal life with a profound respect for monks who were their teachers. When thousands joined protest marches last fall, their chants gave comfort to people who had known them since childhood.
"All of the monks who came out of the monasteries into the streets only recited verses from the teachings of the Buddha," Kondala said. "The people are suffering, they are getting poorer and poorer, so the monks wanted to protect them against any danger."
Nyanissara said the region surrounding Sagaing is now home to 1 out of every 10 of Burma's 400,000 monks, robed legions that listen carefully to his lectures to see the right path ahead.
"It's a very big army," the monk said, and he laughed a little. But he wasn't smiling.
This article appeared on page A - 19 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
January 21, 2008 (Monday)
Indo-Burma Kaladan project to be inked in April
Nava Thakuria, 21 January 2008, Monday
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Views:: 68
The agreement on the much-awaited Indo-Burma Kaladan project will be signed in April. The project will allow the northeast states of India to access commercial sea routes to ASEAN nations.
THE GOVERNMENT of India has gearing up for an agreement with its neighbour
Burma (Myanmar) for the widely discussed Kaladan project. New Delhi has been planning to develop a port in Sittwe, the capital of northwest Burma province of Rakhine (earlier known as Arakan). Called the Kaladan Multi-modal Project, it includes developing the Kaladan river to connect northeast India (through a road link from Kalewa in Burma to Aizawal) with the Bay of Bengal. The Sittwe is nearly 400 km from Mizoram’s capital Aizawal.
"The Kaladan project with a budget of $120 million will be a ’Build, Transfer and Use’ (BTU) project and will be financed by a grant by the government of India to its neighbour," said Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for Commerce. Speaking to journalists recently, Ramesh also added that a final agreement on the project is likely to be signed during a high-level Burmese delegations visit to India during April this year.
"New Delhi wants to connect the Northeast with the commercial sea routes. Moreover, with the development of Sittwe port and the Kaladan River as navigation efficient, the region is expected to have another viable access to the Association of South East Asian Nations," Ramesh had said during an earlier visit to the Northeast. He also said arrangements would allow the movement of cargo ships from Sittwe to any Indian port.
The Northeast - comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim - is surrounded by Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet (now a Chinese territory), Burma and Bangladesh. With a population of nearly 50 million, the region is connected to the mainland by the Chicken’s Neck in North Bengal. More precisely, only two per cent of the region’s territory is attached to the country.
Conceived and proposed by the Indian External Affairs ministry in 2003, the project - having obtained approval from the Planning Commission - has also been given the green signal by the Burmese government. The Kaladan flows from Mizoram to Sittwe (formerly Akyab) through another Burmese state called Chin (the capital city is Haka), and is the biggest waterway in the locality. The coastal region in western Burma is separated from the mainland by the Rakhine Yoma mountain range. Sittwe port, at the mouth of the Kaladan on the Rakhine coast, is an important harbour that emerged as a centre for rice export after British occupation in 1826. Earlier, it had a small fishing and farming community.
The Kaladan project that will include shipping, riverine and road transport, and is anticipated to be completed within four years and will include the construction of roads from Kalewa to Saiha (Mizoram border). Later, this road will be connected to India’s National Highway 54 in Mizoram. The project will be executed by India’s public sector organisation RITES (Rail India Technical Economic Services) and is expected to be commissioned by 2009.
New Delhi’s move to invest in a Burmese port assumes significance in view of Dhaka’s reluctance to give India access to Chittagong port, which is nearer the Northeast. Moreover, the Bangladesh government has been showing unwillingness to provide space to run a gas pipeline from Burma to the mainland India (Kolkata) through its territory. The Bangladeshi seaport in Chittagong is less than 200 km away from Agartala, the capital of Tripura.
However, India’s growing engagement with Burmese military government has turned out to be bitter-sweet for the Burmese pro-democracy movement. Burmese pro-democracy politicians want to see India’s involvement in Burma as a glimmer of hope for stopping Communist China’s ever increasing, but unwelcome influence on Burma. But on the other hand, Indian government’s current realpolitik approach towards Burma is causing disappointment among Burmese democrats who used to regard India as a good and reliable friend of democracy.
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