WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will ease the ban on investments in Myanmar, rewarding the country’s political and economic opening over the last year, two senior administration officials said on Thursday. The White House is expected to announce the easing of the sanctions, along with other steps to improve relations, in an executive order later in the day.
BANGKOK - Burma’s opposition said leader Aung San Suu Kyi next week will take her first trip outside the country since 1988. The National League for Democracy said she will attend the World Economic Forum in Bangkok ahead of a tour of Europe. Thailand hosts a large community of Burmese activists and exiles and they are quite excited about her trip.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win on Friday said Aung San Suu Kyi will arrive in Bangkok mid-week. He said the democracy leader will meet Tuesday morning in Burma with the visiting Indian prime minister. She will leave for Bangkok either that evening or on Wednesday.
24 years
The trip will mark the first time the democracy leader has left Burma in 24 years, when she returned to the country to visit her ailing mother and became swept up in the country’s politics.
She planned to first travel to Europe, but the change in schedule is being welcomed by the large Burma activist and exile community in Thailand.
“It is indeed a significant visit of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi because on her first visit after so many years it is one of the countries in Southeast Asia,” said Soe Aung, a spokesman of the Forum for Democracy in Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi was locked up for challenging the military that ruled Burma for decades.
On the rare occasions she was released from custody she chose not to leave Burma because she was afraid authorities would not let her return.
She missed being with her British husband when he was dying from cancer and seeing her children grow up.
Freedom
Aung San Suu Kyi was released just days after Burma held its first election in 20 years, replacing overt military rule with a civilian face.
President Thein Sein, himself a former general, surprised critics by meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, loosening censorship and releasing hundreds of political prisoners.
Western governments responded by easing economic and diplomatic sanctions leading to a new era of engagement with Burma.
And now, Aung San Suu Kyi trusts the government enough to travel and end her long stay inside Burma.
Mixed feelings
But Thailand-based activists worry the excitement about positive change and economic opportunity in Burma will overshadow remaining problems.
Bo Kyi, with the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma, regrets that the hundreds more remaining political prisoners in jail are no longer a priority.
“The release of the remaining political prisoners is [the] key issue," said Bo. "International community or international government’s leaders should not forget the remaining political prisoners in Burma.”
Burma authorities refuse to acknowledge the existence of political prisoners.
Ethnic fighting
Activists worry ongoing fighting in ethnic minority areas is also being forgotten.Years of military abuses in fighting against ethnic rebels forced tens of thousands of minorities to flee to refugee camps in Thailand.
Soe Aung said he hopes Aung San Suu Kyi will be able to visit the camps during her visit.
“These ethnic people have long long time suffering for so many years with many difficulties," said Soe. "And, she should also urge the international community not just looking into the development inside the country but also continue with the assistance of these refugees, ethnic refugees, along the Thailand-Burma border and the organizations who are working to help these refugees.”
The NLD won Burma’s only previous election, in 1990, but the military refused to give up power.
It arrested NLD leaders and activists and many fled to India, Thailand and the United States where they formed a government in exile.
Zin Linn is a spokesman for the exile government in Thailand. He said they are excited about Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit but not likely able to meet her because legally they are an “unlawful association.”
“If the situation is possible, or if there may be some ‘green light’, we can say we might see her. Because, in this trip I think not only her and also President Thein Sein will be attend this economic forum," Zin Linn said. "So, we have to take care of the situation. We didn’t want her hurt because of our meeting.”
World Economic Forum
Thai media said, while in Thailand, Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The NLD spokesman did not confirm the meeting, but said in Bangkok the democracy leader will attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia.
Burma’s President Thein Sein is also scheduled to speak at the forum but it is not clear if he will meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.
In June, Aung San Suu Kyi in June will travel to Europe for a series of appearances including a trip to Norway to receive the Nobel peace prize she was awarded while under house arrest.
24 years
The trip will mark the first time the democracy leader has left Burma in 24 years, when she returned to the country to visit her ailing mother and became swept up in the country’s politics.
She planned to first travel to Europe, but the change in schedule is being welcomed by the large Burma activist and exile community in Thailand.
“It is indeed a significant visit of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi because on her first visit after so many years it is one of the countries in Southeast Asia,” said Soe Aung, a spokesman of the Forum for Democracy in Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi was locked up for challenging the military that ruled Burma for decades.
On the rare occasions she was released from custody she chose not to leave Burma because she was afraid authorities would not let her return.
She missed being with her British husband when he was dying from cancer and seeing her children grow up.
Freedom
Aung San Suu Kyi was released just days after Burma held its first election in 20 years, replacing overt military rule with a civilian face.
President Thein Sein, himself a former general, surprised critics by meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, loosening censorship and releasing hundreds of political prisoners.
Western governments responded by easing economic and diplomatic sanctions leading to a new era of engagement with Burma.
And now, Aung San Suu Kyi trusts the government enough to travel and end her long stay inside Burma.
Mixed feelings
But Thailand-based activists worry the excitement about positive change and economic opportunity in Burma will overshadow remaining problems.
Bo Kyi, with the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma, regrets that the hundreds more remaining political prisoners in jail are no longer a priority.
“The release of the remaining political prisoners is [the] key issue," said Bo. "International community or international government’s leaders should not forget the remaining political prisoners in Burma.”
Burma authorities refuse to acknowledge the existence of political prisoners.
Ethnic fighting
Activists worry ongoing fighting in ethnic minority areas is also being forgotten.Years of military abuses in fighting against ethnic rebels forced tens of thousands of minorities to flee to refugee camps in Thailand.
Soe Aung said he hopes Aung San Suu Kyi will be able to visit the camps during her visit.
“These ethnic people have long long time suffering for so many years with many difficulties," said Soe. "And, she should also urge the international community not just looking into the development inside the country but also continue with the assistance of these refugees, ethnic refugees, along the Thailand-Burma border and the organizations who are working to help these refugees.”
The NLD won Burma’s only previous election, in 1990, but the military refused to give up power.
It arrested NLD leaders and activists and many fled to India, Thailand and the United States where they formed a government in exile.
Zin Linn is a spokesman for the exile government in Thailand. He said they are excited about Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit but not likely able to meet her because legally they are an “unlawful association.”
“If the situation is possible, or if there may be some ‘green light’, we can say we might see her. Because, in this trip I think not only her and also President Thein Sein will be attend this economic forum," Zin Linn said. "So, we have to take care of the situation. We didn’t want her hurt because of our meeting.”
World Economic Forum
Thai media said, while in Thailand, Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The NLD spokesman did not confirm the meeting, but said in Bangkok the democracy leader will attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia.
Burma’s President Thein Sein is also scheduled to speak at the forum but it is not clear if he will meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.
In June, Aung San Suu Kyi in June will travel to Europe for a series of appearances including a trip to Norway to receive the Nobel peace prize she was awarded while under house arrest.
VOA English
The ceasefire agreement between a Naga rebel faction and Myanmar was signed without India being informed.
It is likely to have long-term implications for India's northeast and Myanmar, says Rahul Mishra.
The first in a series on India-Myanamar relations, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits that country on May 27, the first visit by an Indian leader in many years.
Taking another step forward to pacify decades-old ethnic unrest and bring back the marginalised ethnic communities to mainstream politics, the Thein Sein-led Myanmar government signed a ceasefire agreement with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang in Myanmar.
Signed on April 9, the agreement paves the way for autonomy to the NSCN-K in three districts: Lahe, Leshi and Nanyun, which fall in Sagaing -- a northwestern administrative region of Myanmar.
The agreement also provides NSCN-K members with the freedom to move 'unarmed' across the country. Moreover, as per the ceasefire agreement, the group is allowed to open a sub-office in Hkamti district.
It has also been reported that NSCN-K is trying to acquire more rights in the Naga areas of Kachin and Sagaing region.
Interestingly, Myanmar's 2008 constitution provides for the grouping together of Lahe, Leshi and Nanyun in a Naga self-administrative zone, which proves beyond doubt that the autonomy deal is part of a comprehensive plan of Nay Pyi Taw rather than an ad-hoc move.
The most promising aspect of the deal is that it might put an end to ethnic hostilities in coming days and give peace a chance in dispute resolution.
The agreement is widely projected as an achievement by both the parties involved. While the Thein Sein government is taking it as another feather in its cap, the NSCN-K projects the agreement as a stepping stone to become a trans-nationally recognised ethnic group.
From the statements of NSCN-K leaders, it is evident that they look at the Kurdish group Peshmerga -- which has signed peace deals with Iran, Iraq, and Turkey -- as a role model for themselves. The NSCN-K considers it as one of their cherished objectives. Clearly, with the inking of the deal, the group has inched closer to its long-term objective.
The decision, which has invoked mixed responses from both within and outside, is likely to have long-term implications not only on the ethnic politics of the Naga-inhabited regions, but also for India's northeast and Myanmar.
Incidentally, the other two significant players in the Naga politics -- THE NSCN-IM (Isak Muivah) and NSCN-Khole-Kitovi have expressed their displeasure, although citing different reasons. For the record, all three factions have different visions for Nagaland.
While the NSCN-IM wants the incorporation of neighbouring Naga-inhabited areas with existing boundaries of Nagaland and the NSCN-K aims to incorporate Myanmarese Naga with Nagaland, NSCN-Khole-Kitovi, to a great extent, holds a status quo-ist position on the boundary demarcation of Nagaland.
By virtue of being an immediate neighbour infested by the insurgent groups, India is likely to get affected by the new twist in the situation.
Considering that India was not informed beforehand of the NSCN-K or the Myanmar agreement, it did not go well within the Indian establishment.
To be sure, India renewed the ceasefire agreement with the NSCN-K in early May, only after seeking numerous clarifications regarding the NSCN-K-Myanmar agreement.
In order to pre-empt any unpleasant situation along the borders, the Indian authorities have clearly stated that India does not want the NSCN-K to overtly or covertly support insurgents operating from outside the country.
India has imposed conditions on the NSCN-K, as part of the ceasefire agreement to ensure that insurgent groups like the Paresh Barua-led United Liberation Front of Asom and the Manipur-based Peoples Liberation Army do not use the NSCN-K controlled region of Myanmar for anti-India activities.
The conditions include: First, strictly adhere to ceasefire ground rules; secondly, do not extend any help to anti-India insurgent groups; thirdly, make all possible efforts to stop factional killings and refrain from violence; and finally, 45 of the group's top functionaries will have to carry hologram-bearing identity cards, so that their whereabouts are kept track of during the ceasefire.
New Delhi's [ Images ] apprehensions seem justified as it has been reported lately that at least 14 rebel groups from the region had congregated at the NSCN-K's base in Myanmar to forge a united front to fight Indian forces.
To cap the NSCN-K's capabilities and influence in inflicting damage in the future, India is mulling over the initiation of a dialogue with the NSCN-Khole-Kitovi, which is seemingly the only faction intending to solve the problem within the present boundaries of Nagaland. The dialogue process is likely to commence in June.
Analysts have also indicated towards an emerging policy trend in India -- to use the NSCN-Khole-Kitovi and NSCN-IM as forces to counter an ambitious NSCN-K. One may argue that noting their relatively weaker position in Nagaland, the NSCN-K agreed to all the conditions imposed by India.
Evidently, the NSCN-K stronghold is Myanmar, whereas the NSCN-Khole-Kitovi and NSCN-IM are more powerful in India. Ongoing feuds among these groups have limited their capabilities in dealing with India.
Furthermore, India has also sought details from Myanmar about the deal during a regional border meeting of the two countries held recently.
India is likely to take up the matter again with the Thein Sein government during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Myanmar from May 27 to 29.
Considering the current situation, the NSCN-K-Myanmar peace deal is likely to remain confined within the borders of Myanmar. Nonetheless, it is highly likely that the NSCN-K might try to use the agreement with Myanmar as a bargaining chip in dealing with India.
However, it would be naive to think that India would yield to such pressure tactics. This is evident from the fact that India not only inquired about the NSCN-K's deal with the Myanmar government and firmly imposed conditions on the NSCN-K, but also categorically said that it would not tolerate any cross-border insurgency that involves the NSCN-K.
One may say that the time is ripe for India and Myanmar to endeavour to beef up the joint mechanism to deal with insurgency issues. Both India and Myanmar will have to make sure that the objectives of gaining short-term peace do not hamper their long-term national security interests.
While one cannot deny the possibility of the agreement leading to a greater understanding for more mature talks, ethnic reconciliation, and long-lasting peace in Myanmar -- there are several concerns which cannot be overlooked.
It goes without saying that India has to put its act together and tread a cautious path in dealing with northeast insurgent groups.
A long-lasting and peaceful resolution will have to be arrived at sooner than later.
Rahul Mishra is a researcher specialising on Southeast Asian affairs at the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi.Rahul Mishra
It is likely to have long-term implications for India's northeast and Myanmar, says Rahul Mishra.
The first in a series on India-Myanamar relations, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits that country on May 27, the first visit by an Indian leader in many years.
Taking another step forward to pacify decades-old ethnic unrest and bring back the marginalised ethnic communities to mainstream politics, the Thein Sein-led Myanmar government signed a ceasefire agreement with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang in Myanmar.
Signed on April 9, the agreement paves the way for autonomy to the NSCN-K in three districts: Lahe, Leshi and Nanyun, which fall in Sagaing -- a northwestern administrative region of Myanmar.
The agreement also provides NSCN-K members with the freedom to move 'unarmed' across the country. Moreover, as per the ceasefire agreement, the group is allowed to open a sub-office in Hkamti district.
It has also been reported that NSCN-K is trying to acquire more rights in the Naga areas of Kachin and Sagaing region.
Interestingly, Myanmar's 2008 constitution provides for the grouping together of Lahe, Leshi and Nanyun in a Naga self-administrative zone, which proves beyond doubt that the autonomy deal is part of a comprehensive plan of Nay Pyi Taw rather than an ad-hoc move.
The most promising aspect of the deal is that it might put an end to ethnic hostilities in coming days and give peace a chance in dispute resolution.
The agreement is widely projected as an achievement by both the parties involved. While the Thein Sein government is taking it as another feather in its cap, the NSCN-K projects the agreement as a stepping stone to become a trans-nationally recognised ethnic group.
From the statements of NSCN-K leaders, it is evident that they look at the Kurdish group Peshmerga -- which has signed peace deals with Iran, Iraq, and Turkey -- as a role model for themselves. The NSCN-K considers it as one of their cherished objectives. Clearly, with the inking of the deal, the group has inched closer to its long-term objective.
The decision, which has invoked mixed responses from both within and outside, is likely to have long-term implications not only on the ethnic politics of the Naga-inhabited regions, but also for India's northeast and Myanmar.
Incidentally, the other two significant players in the Naga politics -- THE NSCN-IM (Isak Muivah) and NSCN-Khole-Kitovi have expressed their displeasure, although citing different reasons. For the record, all three factions have different visions for Nagaland.
While the NSCN-IM wants the incorporation of neighbouring Naga-inhabited areas with existing boundaries of Nagaland and the NSCN-K aims to incorporate Myanmarese Naga with Nagaland, NSCN-Khole-Kitovi, to a great extent, holds a status quo-ist position on the boundary demarcation of Nagaland.
By virtue of being an immediate neighbour infested by the insurgent groups, India is likely to get affected by the new twist in the situation.
Considering that India was not informed beforehand of the NSCN-K or the Myanmar agreement, it did not go well within the Indian establishment.
To be sure, India renewed the ceasefire agreement with the NSCN-K in early May, only after seeking numerous clarifications regarding the NSCN-K-Myanmar agreement.
In order to pre-empt any unpleasant situation along the borders, the Indian authorities have clearly stated that India does not want the NSCN-K to overtly or covertly support insurgents operating from outside the country.
India has imposed conditions on the NSCN-K, as part of the ceasefire agreement to ensure that insurgent groups like the Paresh Barua-led United Liberation Front of Asom and the Manipur-based Peoples Liberation Army do not use the NSCN-K controlled region of Myanmar for anti-India activities.
The conditions include: First, strictly adhere to ceasefire ground rules; secondly, do not extend any help to anti-India insurgent groups; thirdly, make all possible efforts to stop factional killings and refrain from violence; and finally, 45 of the group's top functionaries will have to carry hologram-bearing identity cards, so that their whereabouts are kept track of during the ceasefire.
New Delhi's [ Images ] apprehensions seem justified as it has been reported lately that at least 14 rebel groups from the region had congregated at the NSCN-K's base in Myanmar to forge a united front to fight Indian forces.
To cap the NSCN-K's capabilities and influence in inflicting damage in the future, India is mulling over the initiation of a dialogue with the NSCN-Khole-Kitovi, which is seemingly the only faction intending to solve the problem within the present boundaries of Nagaland. The dialogue process is likely to commence in June.
Analysts have also indicated towards an emerging policy trend in India -- to use the NSCN-Khole-Kitovi and NSCN-IM as forces to counter an ambitious NSCN-K. One may argue that noting their relatively weaker position in Nagaland, the NSCN-K agreed to all the conditions imposed by India.
Evidently, the NSCN-K stronghold is Myanmar, whereas the NSCN-Khole-Kitovi and NSCN-IM are more powerful in India. Ongoing feuds among these groups have limited their capabilities in dealing with India.
Furthermore, India has also sought details from Myanmar about the deal during a regional border meeting of the two countries held recently.
India is likely to take up the matter again with the Thein Sein government during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Myanmar from May 27 to 29.
Considering the current situation, the NSCN-K-Myanmar peace deal is likely to remain confined within the borders of Myanmar. Nonetheless, it is highly likely that the NSCN-K might try to use the agreement with Myanmar as a bargaining chip in dealing with India.
However, it would be naive to think that India would yield to such pressure tactics. This is evident from the fact that India not only inquired about the NSCN-K's deal with the Myanmar government and firmly imposed conditions on the NSCN-K, but also categorically said that it would not tolerate any cross-border insurgency that involves the NSCN-K.
One may say that the time is ripe for India and Myanmar to endeavour to beef up the joint mechanism to deal with insurgency issues. Both India and Myanmar will have to make sure that the objectives of gaining short-term peace do not hamper their long-term national security interests.
While one cannot deny the possibility of the agreement leading to a greater understanding for more mature talks, ethnic reconciliation, and long-lasting peace in Myanmar -- there are several concerns which cannot be overlooked.
It goes without saying that India has to put its act together and tread a cautious path in dealing with northeast insurgent groups.
A long-lasting and peaceful resolution will have to be arrived at sooner than later.
Rahul Mishra is a researcher specialising on Southeast Asian affairs at the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi.Rahul Mishra
TOKYO (Reuters) - Myanmar's authorities need to keep calm and avoid violence in the face of protests against power outages and should view them as a natural stage in a transition from military rule to democracy, the head of the ASEAN grouping said on Thursday.
Demonstrations have taken place in several towns in Myanmar this week, including the commercial capital, Yangon, as citizens test the limit of democratic changes, leaving the authorities struggling to respond.
Demonstrations have taken place in several towns in Myanmar this week, including the commercial capital, Yangon, as citizens test the limit of democratic changes, leaving the authorities struggling to respond.
After tolerating the protests for days, police broke up a crowd in the town of Pyi and several members of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party were detained for questioning in the city of Mandalay.
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said it was important for Myanmar to stay the course and resist any temptation to suppress dissent.
"If a country or society aspires to open to democracy, it has to be prepared to deal with popular participation, pressure, demand, conflicts, tension, in some cases violence," Surin, a former foreign minister of Thailand, told Reuters in an interview.
"But a country or a government will need to deal with it."
Myanmar's military, which ruled for nearly 50 years following a 1962 coup, used force to crush outbreaks of protests over the decades.
ASEAN was for years supportive of Myanmar, opting for a policy of constructive engagement when the United States and other Western powers were imposing sanctions for its poor human rights record.
Myanmar joined ASEAN in 1997 despite the doubts of the regional group's Western partners and the objections of supporters of Myanmar's beleaguered pro-democracy movement.
Myanmar's quasi-civilian government took over a year ago and launched broad economic and political reforms.
"NO VIOLENCE"
Surin said ASEAN was ready to help Myanmar cope with pressures in case of shortages of necessities such as water, food, or transportation, drawing on many members' experiences.
"What we would like to see is (that) there won't be any disruptions, there won't be any violence in managing popular demands."
This week's marches pose a test for reformist President Thein Sein - himself a former junta general - who has freed hundreds of political prisoners, relaxed censorship, started peace talks with ethnic rebels and held by-elections that put Suu Kyi in parliament.
But the reforms are likely to raise expectations that both the government and the opposition might struggle to meet.
Supplying electricity to the 60-million population is just one of the challenges facing one of the poorest members of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc.
Asked about the impact of the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact negotiated by nine nations, including four ASEAN members, Surin said it would not hinder ASEAN's own economic integration.
ASEAN, ranging from impoverished Laos to resource-rich Indonesia to developed Singapore, is planning a union which allows for a free flow of goods, capital, services and labor by 2015. But many economists doubt the target is realistic.
Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei are also in the talks on the U.S.-led pact and Surin said other ASEAN members may consider joining if membership proves beneficial for the four.
"If they benefit ... it will be an incentive and encouragement for the rest to look into it. Whatever they agree will not undermine or undercut the ASEAN's own economic integration."
(Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Robert Birsel)
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said it was important for Myanmar to stay the course and resist any temptation to suppress dissent.
"If a country or society aspires to open to democracy, it has to be prepared to deal with popular participation, pressure, demand, conflicts, tension, in some cases violence," Surin, a former foreign minister of Thailand, told Reuters in an interview.
"But a country or a government will need to deal with it."
Myanmar's military, which ruled for nearly 50 years following a 1962 coup, used force to crush outbreaks of protests over the decades.
ASEAN was for years supportive of Myanmar, opting for a policy of constructive engagement when the United States and other Western powers were imposing sanctions for its poor human rights record.
Myanmar joined ASEAN in 1997 despite the doubts of the regional group's Western partners and the objections of supporters of Myanmar's beleaguered pro-democracy movement.
Myanmar's quasi-civilian government took over a year ago and launched broad economic and political reforms.
"NO VIOLENCE"
Surin said ASEAN was ready to help Myanmar cope with pressures in case of shortages of necessities such as water, food, or transportation, drawing on many members' experiences.
"What we would like to see is (that) there won't be any disruptions, there won't be any violence in managing popular demands."
This week's marches pose a test for reformist President Thein Sein - himself a former junta general - who has freed hundreds of political prisoners, relaxed censorship, started peace talks with ethnic rebels and held by-elections that put Suu Kyi in parliament.
But the reforms are likely to raise expectations that both the government and the opposition might struggle to meet.
Supplying electricity to the 60-million population is just one of the challenges facing one of the poorest members of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc.
Asked about the impact of the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact negotiated by nine nations, including four ASEAN members, Surin said it would not hinder ASEAN's own economic integration.
ASEAN, ranging from impoverished Laos to resource-rich Indonesia to developed Singapore, is planning a union which allows for a free flow of goods, capital, services and labor by 2015. But many economists doubt the target is realistic.
Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei are also in the talks on the U.S.-led pact and Surin said other ASEAN members may consider joining if membership proves beneficial for the four.
"If they benefit ... it will be an incentive and encouragement for the rest to look into it. Whatever they agree will not undermine or undercut the ASEAN's own economic integration."
(Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Robert Birsel)
May 24 (Reuters) - Myanmar police broke up a protest against power cuts by several hundred people on Thursday and five members of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party were taken in for questioning, a senior party official said.
Demonstrations have taken place in Pyi and other towns week, including the commercial capital, Yangon, and the city of Mandalay, as citizens test the limits of democratic changes in Myanmar, leaving authorities struggling to respond.
Until now, the security forces have allowed the peaceful demonstrations to go ahead and the civilian government, which took over from a repressive junta in March last year, has promised emergency measures to increase the electricity supply.
"So far as I heard from our members in the region, there was a protest of about 400 people at least," National League for Democracy (NLD) official Nyan Win said, referring to the area of Pyi, about 260 km (160 miles) northwest of Yangon.
"The police tried to disperse them and there was some rough manhandling and some people were injured. Five NLD members were picked up for questioning," he said.
Kyaw Sann, a member of the NLD in Pyi, confirmed that the police had broken up the demonstration. About seven people had been arrested, he told Reuters by phone.
One protest leader in Mandalay said he had heard some NLD members had been taken in for questioning there, too, but that could not be confirmed.
State television said on Wednesday that six generators purchased from U.S.-based Caterpillar Inc would be air-freighted within a week and two 25-megawatt gas-turbines would be bought from General Electric Co to help tackle the power shortage. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun and Thu Rein Hlaing; Editing by Alan Raybould and Robert Birsel)
Demonstrations have taken place in Pyi and other towns week, including the commercial capital, Yangon, and the city of Mandalay, as citizens test the limits of democratic changes in Myanmar, leaving authorities struggling to respond.
Until now, the security forces have allowed the peaceful demonstrations to go ahead and the civilian government, which took over from a repressive junta in March last year, has promised emergency measures to increase the electricity supply.
"So far as I heard from our members in the region, there was a protest of about 400 people at least," National League for Democracy (NLD) official Nyan Win said, referring to the area of Pyi, about 260 km (160 miles) northwest of Yangon.
"The police tried to disperse them and there was some rough manhandling and some people were injured. Five NLD members were picked up for questioning," he said.
Kyaw Sann, a member of the NLD in Pyi, confirmed that the police had broken up the demonstration. About seven people had been arrested, he told Reuters by phone.
One protest leader in Mandalay said he had heard some NLD members had been taken in for questioning there, too, but that could not be confirmed.
State television said on Wednesday that six generators purchased from U.S.-based Caterpillar Inc would be air-freighted within a week and two 25-megawatt gas-turbines would be bought from General Electric Co to help tackle the power shortage. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun and Thu Rein Hlaing; Editing by Alan Raybould and Robert Birsel)
Suu Kyi will give a speech on the final day of the ILO conference on June 14.
"Aung San Suu Kyi will be addressing the conference," said ILO director general Juan Somavia, adding that it will be the first time Suu Kyi "will speak internationally" since she was released from house arrest in 2010.
Suu Kyi is scheduled to make a speech in Oslo on June 16 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991.
Her British husband Michael Aris, who died in 1999 while she remained imprisoned, and her two sons accepted the Nobel medal on her behalf.
"Aung San Suu Kyi will be addressing the conference," said ILO director general Juan Somavia, adding that it will be the first time Suu Kyi "will speak internationally" since she was released from house arrest in 2010.
Suu Kyi is scheduled to make a speech in Oslo on June 16 to accept the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991.
Her British husband Michael Aris, who died in 1999 while she remained imprisoned, and her two sons accepted the Nobel medal on her behalf.
Suu Kyi, 66, confirmed last month that she planned to leave Myanmar for the first time since 1988 and was issued her first passport in two decades on May 8.
The 101st session of the International Labour conference begins on May 30.
YANGON, Myanmar – Officials and businessmen in Myanmar welcomed U.S. plans to ease economic sanctions, saying Friday it will benefit both countries in a market long cut off from most Western investment.
However, human rights activists are wary and some exporters in Myanmar say they may not immediately benefit.
President Barack Obama on Thursday announced he was easing an investment ban and naming the first U.S. ambassador to Myanmar in 22 years to reward it for democratic reforms.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's election to parliament last month prompted Western governments to roll back years of hard-hitting restrictions against the Asian nation also known as Burma, which is emerging from decades of authoritarian rule and diplomatic isolation.
Its former military regime was shunned for its human rights abuses and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government — a situation that began to change after a 2010 general election.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Washington that the U.S. was suspending sanctions on export of American financial services and investment across all sectors of the Myanmar economy — including in the resource-rich country's lucrative oil, gas and mining sectors. She spoke after meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin.
Other Western nations and the European Union had already taken similar moves, putting pressure on Washington to do likewise so U.S. companies would not lose out to foreign competitors in this latest frontier market.
Despite the easing of restrictions, U.S. companies would still be barred from doing business with firms associated with the country's powerful military. The White House also announced it was keeping the legal framework of hard-hitting sanctions in place for now, saying Myanmar's democratic reforms are still "nascent."
The ban on financial transactions had been a particular hurdle for doing business in Myanmar, since the dollar is the world's main trading currency. Transactions through other currencies raised costs to uncompetitive levels, Nay Zin Latt, an adviser to Thein Sein, said Friday.
"It's very beneficial if U.S. companies come and invest here. We can get technology, new markets and management skills," he said. U.S. companies will also be able to help Myanmar products reach a larger global export market, he said.
For foreign investors, Myanmar has the advantage of a being a low-cost economy, important for such mass market commodities as textiles and footwear.
However, restrictions that still remain on trade that will keep the American export market out of the reach of Myanmar producers, pointed out Myint Soe, a factory owner who is chairman of Myanmar's Garment Manufacturers Association Garment Factory Association.
Along with the provisional nature of the suspension, "Who will dare to come and invest here?" he asked, saying local businessmen won't immediately benefit.
"We haven't achieved our goal of getting made-in-Burma products into the U.S. market," he said.
Human rights groups and exiled Myanmar activists have been strongly critical of easing economic controls. They are particularly concerned about fighting in northern Myanmar between the government and members of the Kachin ethnic minority.
"We urge the U.S. government to be cautious in taking new directions. We urge that the easing of sanctions needs to match up with reality in Burma," said Sunai Phasuk, a researcher in Bangkok for U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, highlighting the "full-scale" armed conflict in Kachin State.
A U.S.-based group, United to End Genocide, said "President Obama's premature action to remove the investment ban on Burma is overly optimistic.
"It ignores the reality of the situation on the ground, including ongoing atrocities," the group's president, Tom Andrews, said in a prepared statement. "This is a dangerous decision that is likely to further exacerbate human rights abuses and has left the U.S. government without any leverage in the future."
The opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed the naming of a new ambassador to Myanmar and the easing of U.S. sanctions.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy, said that easing sanctions now is timely but pressure on calls for the release of political prisoners and ending ethnic conflict in ethnic regions should continue.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/18/us-eases-economic-sanctions-to-reward-myanmar/#ixzz1vJDFnKzG
However, human rights activists are wary and some exporters in Myanmar say they may not immediately benefit.
President Barack Obama on Thursday announced he was easing an investment ban and naming the first U.S. ambassador to Myanmar in 22 years to reward it for democratic reforms.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's election to parliament last month prompted Western governments to roll back years of hard-hitting restrictions against the Asian nation also known as Burma, which is emerging from decades of authoritarian rule and diplomatic isolation.
Its former military regime was shunned for its human rights abuses and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government — a situation that began to change after a 2010 general election.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Washington that the U.S. was suspending sanctions on export of American financial services and investment across all sectors of the Myanmar economy — including in the resource-rich country's lucrative oil, gas and mining sectors. She spoke after meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin.
Other Western nations and the European Union had already taken similar moves, putting pressure on Washington to do likewise so U.S. companies would not lose out to foreign competitors in this latest frontier market.
Despite the easing of restrictions, U.S. companies would still be barred from doing business with firms associated with the country's powerful military. The White House also announced it was keeping the legal framework of hard-hitting sanctions in place for now, saying Myanmar's democratic reforms are still "nascent."
The ban on financial transactions had been a particular hurdle for doing business in Myanmar, since the dollar is the world's main trading currency. Transactions through other currencies raised costs to uncompetitive levels, Nay Zin Latt, an adviser to Thein Sein, said Friday.
"It's very beneficial if U.S. companies come and invest here. We can get technology, new markets and management skills," he said. U.S. companies will also be able to help Myanmar products reach a larger global export market, he said.
For foreign investors, Myanmar has the advantage of a being a low-cost economy, important for such mass market commodities as textiles and footwear.
However, restrictions that still remain on trade that will keep the American export market out of the reach of Myanmar producers, pointed out Myint Soe, a factory owner who is chairman of Myanmar's Garment Manufacturers Association Garment Factory Association.
Along with the provisional nature of the suspension, "Who will dare to come and invest here?" he asked, saying local businessmen won't immediately benefit.
"We haven't achieved our goal of getting made-in-Burma products into the U.S. market," he said.
Human rights groups and exiled Myanmar activists have been strongly critical of easing economic controls. They are particularly concerned about fighting in northern Myanmar between the government and members of the Kachin ethnic minority.
"We urge the U.S. government to be cautious in taking new directions. We urge that the easing of sanctions needs to match up with reality in Burma," said Sunai Phasuk, a researcher in Bangkok for U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, highlighting the "full-scale" armed conflict in Kachin State.
A U.S.-based group, United to End Genocide, said "President Obama's premature action to remove the investment ban on Burma is overly optimistic.
"It ignores the reality of the situation on the ground, including ongoing atrocities," the group's president, Tom Andrews, said in a prepared statement. "This is a dangerous decision that is likely to further exacerbate human rights abuses and has left the U.S. government without any leverage in the future."
The opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed the naming of a new ambassador to Myanmar and the easing of U.S. sanctions.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy, said that easing sanctions now is timely but pressure on calls for the release of political prisoners and ending ethnic conflict in ethnic regions should continue.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/18/us-eases-economic-sanctions-to-reward-myanmar/#ixzz1vJDFnKzG
Posted by Michael S. Rozeff
Yangon (in Myanmar) is 8,610.8 miles from Washington. Myanmar (Burma) has no air force to speak of. Its pilots have never fought a war. The U.S. first expressed its fear and trembling concerning Burma on May 20, 1997 when President Clinton made Executive Order 13047:
"I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, hereby determine and certify that, for purposes of section 570(b) of the Act, the Government of Burma has committed large-scale repression of the democratic opposition in Burma after September 30, 1996, and further determine that the actions and policies of the Government of Burma constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and declare a national emergency to deal with that threat."
Obama has just renewed this order, as have his predecessors. The American people somehow speak, even though 99.999 percent of Americans could not locate Myanmar on a map (I'm being generous). Obama somehow hears. Obama declares an emergency. Isn't "democracy" wonderful?
(Reuters) - Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be given the rare honour of addressing both houses of Britain's parliament when she makes her first trip outside Myanmar in 24 years next month, British officials said on Saturday.
The Nobel peace laureate has accepted Prime Minister David Cameron's invitation to visit Britain and will spend a week there from June 18, officials accompanying Cameron at a summit of the Group of Eight leading economies in the United States told reporters.
Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, said last month she would visit Norway and Britain in June, but it was the first time the British government had confirmed the trip.
The Nobel peace laureate has accepted Prime Minister David Cameron's invitation to visit Britain and will spend a week there from June 18, officials accompanying Cameron at a summit of the Group of Eight leading economies in the United States told reporters.
Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, said last month she would visit Norway and Britain in June, but it was the first time the British government had confirmed the trip.
Suu Kyi will give a speech to both houses of parliament during her stay, a rare honour accorded in the past to figures such as former South African President Nelson Mandela and, last year, to U.S. President Barack Obama.
Her journey caps months of dramatic change in Myanmar, including a historic by-election on April 1 that won her a seat in a year-old parliament that replaced nearly five decades of oppressive military rule.
Her trip is expected to include a visit to the British city Oxford, where she attended university in the 1970s.
Suu Kyi, 66, was first detained in 1989, and spent 15 of the next 21 years in detention until her release from house arrest in November 2010. She refused to leave the country during the brief periods when she was not held by authorities, for fear of not being allowed to return.
Cameron invited Suu Kyi to visit Britain when he met her in Yangon in April. Her British husband, Michael Aris, died of cancer in 1999.
Britain is proposing the creation of an international commission to encourage "responsible" trade and investment in Myanmar, also known as Burma, now that sanctions on the country are being lifted, British officials said.
The plan is designed to help make sure trade benefits all Myanmar's people, rather than a "select few", a British official said.
The United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada and Australia have all moved in recent weeks to ease or suspend sanctions on Myanmar, as the once pariah nation embarks on democratic reforms and seeks engagement with the world.
British officials said Cameron would outline proposals at the G8 for a Commission for Responsible Investment in Burma that could bring together representatives from the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, international companies and human rights campaigners.
The panel would establish principles that businesses would be encouraged to sign up to when trading with or investing in Myanmar, the officials said.
(Reporting by Adrian Croft)
Her journey caps months of dramatic change in Myanmar, including a historic by-election on April 1 that won her a seat in a year-old parliament that replaced nearly five decades of oppressive military rule.
Her trip is expected to include a visit to the British city Oxford, where she attended university in the 1970s.
Suu Kyi, 66, was first detained in 1989, and spent 15 of the next 21 years in detention until her release from house arrest in November 2010. She refused to leave the country during the brief periods when she was not held by authorities, for fear of not being allowed to return.
Cameron invited Suu Kyi to visit Britain when he met her in Yangon in April. Her British husband, Michael Aris, died of cancer in 1999.
Britain is proposing the creation of an international commission to encourage "responsible" trade and investment in Myanmar, also known as Burma, now that sanctions on the country are being lifted, British officials said.
The plan is designed to help make sure trade benefits all Myanmar's people, rather than a "select few", a British official said.
The United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada and Australia have all moved in recent weeks to ease or suspend sanctions on Myanmar, as the once pariah nation embarks on democratic reforms and seeks engagement with the world.
British officials said Cameron would outline proposals at the G8 for a Commission for Responsible Investment in Burma that could bring together representatives from the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, international companies and human rights campaigners.
The panel would establish principles that businesses would be encouraged to sign up to when trading with or investing in Myanmar, the officials said.
(Reporting by Adrian Croft)
NEW DELHI — The Obama administration’s decision this week to ease financial sanctions imposed on Myanmar, encourage American investment there and appoint a U.S. ambassador for the first time in 22 years should further the long-isolated nation’s reform process, analysts said Friday.
But it could also goose inflation and intensify other adjustment problems affecting millions of impoverished Burmese, they said, in a nation already struggling to cope with a recent torrent of foreign companies, dignitaries and tourists.
“This is a move that Myanmar has been waiting for a long time,” Khin Zaw Win, director of Yangon’s Tampadipa Institute, said in an email exchange. “Regrettably it doesn’t have the capacity to absorb the investment. Local costs and prices are already rising.”
Decades of isolation and iron-fisted rule under a military government have left Myanmar, also known as Burma, with a distorted and inefficient economy, extensive corruption, major industries controlled by a handful of cronies and an administration short on the technical skills needed to run a modern state.
Those deficiencies have only become more apparent as the country has opened up in recent months, holding elections, releasing political prisoners, forging peace deals with ethnic minorities, liberalizing exchange rates and writing an investment law, sparking what some have described as a new “gold rush.”
Thursday’s U.S. announcement, the start of what President Obama termed a “new chapter” in relations, follows pressure from American companies that have watched their less encumbered Chinese, Southeast Asian and European competitors pile into Myanmar ahead of them.
“It is a case of wanting to keep up with the Johansson [Europe] as well as help U.S. business,” said Bridget Welsh, a political science professor at Singapore Management University. “Myanmar — especially its resource wealth — has pipped interest by companies.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday in Washington, standing beside Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, that the administration would issue a general license paving the way for U.S. energy, mining, financial services and other companies to do business in Myanmar.
While the steady opening of Myanmar makes it increasingly unlikely that hard-line military leaders will be able to reassert the tight grip they long enjoyed, Washington is reluctant to move too fast, concerned about the country’s closed political system and human rights violations.
The U.S. will maintain its arms embargo and continue to sanction Myanmar military companies, business tycoons and generals accused of human rights violations and corruption.
“It is a difficult balancing act given that so many problems remain in Burma, and the obvious danger that rewards given too early could be counterproductive,” said Sean Turnell, economics professor at Australia’s Macquarie University and editor of the website Burma Economic Watch. “So much to do still.”
Human rights groups, however, have criticized the U.S. move, arguing that it rewards a quasi-military government that still holds hundreds of political prisoners.
The Obama administration’s decision to nominate Derek Mitchell, who has served as special envoy to Burma since April 2011, as U.S. ambassador signals Washington’s growing confidence in Myanmar’s policy direction, analysts said. But Mitchell still needs to widen his circle, some said, beyond the military, pro-democracy activists led by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and officials in Naypyidaw, the capital.
“He has been trying hard, but is little known outside Naypyidaw and Suu Kyi’s residence,” said Khin Zaw Win, the Tampadipa Institute director. “He has to do much more to make up for 22 years of isolation and neglect by the U.S.”
WASHINGTON, USA - President Barack Obama on Thursday extended US sanctions against Myanmar, warning that despite progress on human rights and governmental reform, a political opening in the country remained "nascent."
Obama's move came despite calls from some business and political leaders in the United States, Europe and Asia for sanctions to be lifted to spur further reforms by Myanmar's nominally civilian government under President Thein Sein.
But democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who for years led opposition to Myanmar's former military junta, warned this week that change was not irreversible in Myanmar and cautioned about excessive optimism.
Obama said Myanmar had made progress in a number of areas including by releasing political prisoners, pursuing cease-fire talks with ethnic groups and by opening dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
"Burma has made important strides, but the political opening is nascent, and we continue to have concerns, including remaining political prisoners, ongoing conflict, and serious human rights abuses in ethnic areas," he said.
"I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency with respect to Burma and to maintain in force the sanctions that respond to this threat," Obama said in a message to Congress using Myanmar's former name.
US law requires the president to restrict imports from Myanmar, which for decades was ruled by a military junta, and bans US investment and export of financial services to the country.
It also blocks property and assets of certain members of the Myanmar ruling class.
Obama's administration has championed dialogue with Myanmar but has been cautious about a full lifting of sanctions, saying it needs to preserve leverage to encourage change.
Hillary Clinton made the first visit to Myanmar in 50 years by a US secretary of state in December, and the two countries are moving towards exchanging ambassadors.
Obama's announcement was published hours before talks at the State Department between Clinton and Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin.
It also took place on the eve of the G8 summit at Camp David, Maryland, which Obama will host and which is likely to include discussion about how to promote reform in Myanmar.
Suu Kyi, sworn in May 2 as a member of parliament after spending most of the past two decades under house arrest, spoke to a gathering of US politicians and rights advocates including ex-president George W. Bush, via Skype this week.
"I am not against the suspension of sanctions as long as the people of the United States feel that this is the right thing to do at the moment. I do advocate caution, though," she said.
She warned that she felt sometimes that "people are too optimistic about the scene in Burma. You have to remember that the democratization process is not irreversible."
Suu Kyi said that reforms would only be considered irreversible once the military -- long Myanmar's most powerful institution with a history of abuses -- firmly committed to changing its ways.
The views of Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, are considered critical to any US decision to lift decades worth of sanctions on Myanmar.
US companies have been eager to enter Myanmar, fearing Asian and European competitors will seize the growing market. The Obama administration plans to allow limited investment but is fine-tuning the rules, as human rights groups push for strict guidelines.
Obama's move came despite calls from some business and political leaders in the United States, Europe and Asia for sanctions to be lifted to spur further reforms by Myanmar's nominally civilian government under President Thein Sein.
But democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who for years led opposition to Myanmar's former military junta, warned this week that change was not irreversible in Myanmar and cautioned about excessive optimism.
Obama said Myanmar had made progress in a number of areas including by releasing political prisoners, pursuing cease-fire talks with ethnic groups and by opening dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
"Burma has made important strides, but the political opening is nascent, and we continue to have concerns, including remaining political prisoners, ongoing conflict, and serious human rights abuses in ethnic areas," he said.
"I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency with respect to Burma and to maintain in force the sanctions that respond to this threat," Obama said in a message to Congress using Myanmar's former name.
US law requires the president to restrict imports from Myanmar, which for decades was ruled by a military junta, and bans US investment and export of financial services to the country.
It also blocks property and assets of certain members of the Myanmar ruling class.
Obama's administration has championed dialogue with Myanmar but has been cautious about a full lifting of sanctions, saying it needs to preserve leverage to encourage change.
Hillary Clinton made the first visit to Myanmar in 50 years by a US secretary of state in December, and the two countries are moving towards exchanging ambassadors.
Obama's announcement was published hours before talks at the State Department between Clinton and Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin.
It also took place on the eve of the G8 summit at Camp David, Maryland, which Obama will host and which is likely to include discussion about how to promote reform in Myanmar.
Suu Kyi, sworn in May 2 as a member of parliament after spending most of the past two decades under house arrest, spoke to a gathering of US politicians and rights advocates including ex-president George W. Bush, via Skype this week.
"I am not against the suspension of sanctions as long as the people of the United States feel that this is the right thing to do at the moment. I do advocate caution, though," she said.
She warned that she felt sometimes that "people are too optimistic about the scene in Burma. You have to remember that the democratization process is not irreversible."
Suu Kyi said that reforms would only be considered irreversible once the military -- long Myanmar's most powerful institution with a history of abuses -- firmly committed to changing its ways.
The views of Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, are considered critical to any US decision to lift decades worth of sanctions on Myanmar.
US companies have been eager to enter Myanmar, fearing Asian and European competitors will seize the growing market. The Obama administration plans to allow limited investment but is fine-tuning the rules, as human rights groups push for strict guidelines.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will ease the ban on investments in Myanmar, rewarding the country’s political and economic opening over the last year, two senior administration officials said on Thursday. The White House is expected to announce the easing of the sanctions, along with other steps to improve relations, in an executive order later in the day.The move would allow the first significant American trade with Myanmar in decades, a step that worries human rights advocates who say the United States is moving too quickly to help a repressive country that is still far from free.
Relations between the United States and Myanmar, also known as Burma, have warmed with startling speed in the last year, after two decades of cold-war-like tensions and a raft of sanctions that still remain in effect. The election of a new president last year, U Thein Sein, set in a motion a series of political and economic reforms that included the end of the house arrest of the country’s iconic dissident, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and led to the election of her and others from her party to Parliament this year.
President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have promised to respond to the developments with reciprocal steps, including appointing an ambassador to the country for the first time since 1990. The actions to be announced Thursday will be the most significant steps to date. Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to meet with Myanmar’s foreign minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, and hold a joint news conference at the State Department on Thursday afternoon.
The administration officials said that Mr. Obama’s order would extend the legal authority to impose sanctions, but at the same time allow American corporations far greater license to make investments in a broad range of sectors. The Treasury Department office that enforces sanctions would still restrict American commerce with Myanmar’s armed forces and corporations closely affiliated with them in the country’s state-managed economy.
American companies would be required to report on their investments and ensure that they do not support forces inside Myanmar that repress political rights or participate in ethnic conflicts, both major concerns of human rights advocates.
“A big issue with Burma is it is so opaque,” a senior administration official said, referring as a matter of American policy to the country by its colonial name. “We’re trying to get at that part of the problem.”
This easing follows steps by the European Union and Australia to suspend sanctions, raising the prospect of a foreign investment boom in one of Southeast Asia’s poorest and most isolated countries. Prominent members of Congress have urged the administration to follow suit, including Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia.
The warming of relations has unusual bipartisan support, as well as the endorsement of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, who this month took her seat in Parliament.
Other voices have raised concern, though. Human Rights Watch appealed to the president to slowly ease sanctions, citing Myanmar’s weak rule of law, corruption and abusive practices, like forced labor.
“The U.S. government should not reward the Burmese government’s nascent and untested changes by allowing an unregulated business bonanza,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. “Tough rules are needed to ensure that new investments benefit the people of Burma and don’t fuel human rights abuses and corruption, or end up strengthening the military’s control over civilian authorities.”
BANGKOK, Thailand — To US President Barack Obama, she’s a “a hero of mine.” To Burma’s military hardliners, she’s a “traitor” best confined to her decaying family mansion.Now, US diplomats have a new name for Aung San Suu Kyi: Burma’s “powerful and principal interlocutor.”
After years of wilting under house arrest, the 66-year-old democracy icon is again ascendent, this time as a broker between the West and a new wave of army-backed leaders trumpeting reforms.
The daughter of Burma’s slain revolutionary founder, Aung San Suu Kyi has come to epitomize poise under persecution. She has suffered confinement, assassination attempts and the quashing of her 1990 election to the prime minister’s seat by a military junta.
Through non-violent resistance to government oppression, she is widely considered a successor to Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. But neither man sought elected office.
Soon, Aung San Suu Kyi will.
More from GlobalPost: Photos of Aung San Suu Kyi through the years
In a by-election with a still-unannounced date, she and her recently-unbanned party will seek seats in parliament.
In confinement, she was exalted and considered virtually above criticism. In playing politics, she runs the risk of disappointing her faithful. Just how will Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation fare if she’s elected into a murky political arena?
“With all of us loving her so much, we worry,” said Khin Ohmar, coordinator of Burma Partnership, a pro-democracy network based on the Thai-Burma border. Like many other Burmese exiles, Khin Ohmar fled after a 1988 army crackdown against Aung San Suu Kyi and her democracy uprising.
More from GlobalPost: Clinton mines for hope in Burma
Hearing her idol urge trust in an army-supported government, which rose to power last year in a rigged election, brings conflicting feelings, Khin Ohmar said.
Aung San Suu Kyi has told both her followers and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a recent visitor, that Burma’s new President Thein Sein is sincere.
“I believe in every horrible regime there are good people,” Khin Ohmar said. “There are many bureaucrats that carry on military rule but know it’s wrong. That’s how they survive.”
“[Aung San Suu Kyi] says the president is sincere, so world leaders won’t question it,” Khin Ohmar said. “Fine. But I will continue questioning whether he can deliver what he promised.”
What the president has promised is extraordinary: legalizing criticism of the government (for decades punishable by decades in prison) and opening up Burma’s long-shuttered economy.
More from GlobalPost: The changing face of Burma
Clinton ended her December visit by endorsing loans to Burma from the International Monetary Fund, and development assistance from the United Nations. The Burmese junta’s abuses have long justified Western sanctions and scared off foreign donors.
Fixing Burma’s shambolic economy will be no simple feat. But taming low-grade civil wars waged for six decades by various ethnic groups — which represent roughly 40 percent of the population — could prove much more difficult.
In his inaugural March speech, Burma’s president said armed ethnic militias had been devoted to “dogmatism, sectarian strife and racism instead of rebuilding the nation.”
But he also vowed to improve roads, hospitals and schools to mend separatist territories into a functioning nation. As it stands, most ethnic groups still defend their turf with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.
“Lip services and talks are not enough to achieve national unity,” said Thein Sein, according an official government translation.
More from GlobalPost: Is China threatened by a more open Burma?
Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, who liberated Burma from British colonialists, had signed an agreement to give full autonomy to the ethnic “frontier areas.” Though the 1947 plan was later abandoned, it has given his daughter credibility among ethnic separatists, even though she hails from the same “Burman” ethnicity that still dominates the country.
“We are the majority, the biggest group in Burma,” Aung San Suu Kyi said in a recent Skype interview with the Council for Foreign Relations. “But we’re just one of many.”
Not all, however, are convinced she can force the new government to honor its promise to Burma’s besieged ethnic nationalities.
“If she can secure this, then we’ll work with her,” said Nurul Islam, head of the Arakan Rohingya National Organization. “But we don’t see many changes coming in the future.”
His ethnic group — the 3.5 million member Muslim Rohingya of Burma’s western coast — are perhaps the most oppressed of all. Both the past and present regimes have insisted they are unworthy of citizenship. The junta’s top emissary in Hong Kong notoriously called them “ugly as ogres.”
“In Burma’s parliament, they openly reject our people. Democracy’s alright, but ethnic groups are the mega-issue,” Nurul Islam said. “We placing very high expectations on Aung San Suu Kyi.”
Aung San Suu Kyi has acknowledged that her foray into political gamesmanship could scuff up her reputation. As she reportedly told her party, the National League for Democracy, “some people are worried that taking part could harm my dignity. Frankly, if you do politics, you should not be thinking about your dignity.”
“It is a difficult transition from icon to politician,” said Jim Della-Giacoma, the International Crisis Group’s Southeast Asia Project Director. “Politicians have to compromise. It’s much more difficult to maintain popularity when you have to make difficult choices.”
“With the National League for Democracy in the legislature, or with Aung San Suu Kyi as a member of parliament,” Della-Giacoma said, “they’ll be associated with all legislation, whether it’s inspired, flawed or just mediocre.”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/111206/burma-myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi
The operator of the Tokyo Stock Exchange announced last month a deal with Myanmar’s central bank to open a stock market in the country formerly known as Burma along with Japan’s Daiwa Securities, after years of discussions.
Executives from Asia’s largest bourse plan to travel to Myanmar later this month to ink the agreement.
But they face competition from South Korea, whose exchange also aims to open a stock market in the state, according to a spokesman for Korea Exchange in Seoul.
Its director recently visited the capital Naypyidaw for talks with Myanmar’s central bank governor about developing the country’s capital markets.
But experts say the Japanese are unlikely to let the opportunity slip away.
“The Japanese need it more and they’ll be very, very competitive about getting into that market,” Tony Nash, a managing director for IHS Consulting in Singapore, told AFP.
He said there was a sense that the Tokyo Stock Exchange felt left out of recent consolidation between global market operators and needed “a growth enhancer to make them a little more attractive in terms of an exchange tie-up.” The Japanese consortium has stolen a march on the Koreans, thanks to a little known but 16-year-old stock market tucked away in a crumbling building in downtown Yangon offering over-the-counter deals in two stocks.
The Myanmar Securities Exchange Centre, a joint venture between Daiwa’s research arm and the government-run Myanma Economic Bank, has a skeleton staff of about 10 and just a few customers visiting every day.
But it is a market minnow with big ambitions, aiming to transform itself into a full-fledged bourse by 2015 using the technology and trading platforms of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Its low turnover is not due to a lack of interest. The two stocks listed — a bank and a timber company, both majority-owned by the government — offered attractive dividend yields of about 25-30 percent last year.
“Share trading is very tiny — there are so many buyers but no sellers,” Myanmar Securities Exchange Centre managing director Shigeto Inami said in an interview at the bourse’s offices, where a small board displays the day’s prices of the two stocks printed on sheets of paper the old-fashioned way.
As well as interest among Burmese, foreign investors are eager not to be left out of what could be Asia’s next big economic boom, as the European Union and other countries start to roll back sanctions.
But investing in a country whose economy has been left in tatters by nearly half a century of military rule is not without risks.
“Due to its location, population and resources Myanmar is the holy grail for frontier investors, but it is still early in its reform process,” said Douglas Clayton, founder and CEO of Cambodia-based Leopard Capital, which specialises in emerging markets and plans to launch a Myanmar fund.
“There are severe capacity constraints in human resources and physical infrastructure. Myanmar is simply not ready to absorb the tidal wave of projects foreigners can imagine starting there,” he said.
Much of Myanmar’s industry is currently controlled by companies owned by the government or their cronies, although the government’s economic reforms could lead to increased competition from new rivals.
But the real goldmine — abundant oil, gas and other natural resources — are largely dominated by foreign companies, with the exception of logging. Most of these companies are unlikely to be listed on the local stock market.
Even those that are listed may not be willing to sell their shares to overseas investors for now.
While there is no law against foreigners holding Myanmar stocks, taking even a small stake means the company has to change its status to a foreign company, leading to restrictions in areas such as land ownership, said Inami.
His message for prospective foreign investors?
“I recommend them to marry a Myanmar lady and to buy in the name of the wife,” he said with a smile.
Such drastic measures may not be necessary for long, however, as the new quasi-civilian government seeks to overhaul its antiquated laws introduced during decades of rule by a repressive junta.
A new investment law, expected to be enacted later in the fiscal year, could pave the way for more companies to list their stocks on the Myanmar Securities Exchange, said Inami.
“There are so many good companies here in Myanmar but they are waiting for the new companies act and securities exchange law,” he added.
Yet while investors salivate over one of Asia’s last frontier markets, experts warn that nerves of steel may be needed.
“Myanmar is an incredible long term opportunity but patience and hard work will be required. You can’t modernise a substantial nation overnight,” said Clayton. -- AFP
Sources:
Myanmar's government must allow reforms in the judicial system, and the first step is to guarantee its independence
 Progress must be based on an established rule of law, argues Aung San Suu Kyi [EPA] | ||
| It was the trial result Phyo Wai Aung's family must have been dreading. Having been kept in prison for more than two years, reportedly heavily tortured and given an unfair trial at a court on May 8, the judge finally slammed his gavel. Phyo Wai Aung was given the death sentence. According to the court, Phyo Wai Aung was a "terrorist bomber", responsible for the explosions during Myanmar's annual water festival celebrations in 2010. As revellers splashed water on each other, at the popular X20 stage, three explosions killed ten and injured 168. One week later, Phyo Wai Aung, a 31-year-old engineer, was arrested and blamed for the incident. Right from the beginning he was denied a fair trial, exposing a severe lack of the rule of law in Myanmar, which could hamper progress if not immediately addressed by MPs. Straight after the explosion took place, rumours went flying around the country and along its borders. Some spoke of the involvement of one or more of the various ethnic armies that oppose the state military's oppression of their people.
A potential reason for the race to find a culprit could be the rumoured targeting of Nay Shwe Thway Aung, the grandson of former regime leader Than Shwe, who is known to circulate among the stages during the water festival. Being the "favourite grandson" of the feared regime leader, the officers in charge of the case would have been feeling overwhelming pressure to find a suspect as soon as possible. Further rumours suggest that infighting between "junta kids" led to the explosion, another reason for the rush to "solve" the case. Judicial reform? Regardless of the real story, and even if Phyo Wai Aung was guilty, his arrest, trial and detention all show that, while reforms may be taking place in Myanmar, the judicial system remains the same as it has been for decades under military rule, where anyone can find themselves in the same position as Phyo Wai Aung. Since his arrest, Phyo Wai Aung has repeatedly denied his involvement in the bombing. Despite having witnesses at his construction company who say he was there the day of the bombing, the court has ignored this evidence, and rejected any calls for the witnesses to be called to court. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an NGO in exile which has spent the past ten years documenting countless cases of a similar nature, Phyo Wai Aung was severely tortured until he confessed to the crime. During his interrogation, Phyo Wai Aung says he was handcuffed and forced to stand for two days, blindfolded and severely beaten. He was forced to kneel, naked, on sharp gravel with his arms raised above his head for long periods of time while his genitals were burnt with a flame by the interrogators. According to relatives, an officer in charge of his interrogation, police Lt Swe Lin, threatened him, saying: "Even if you die during the interrogation, we will be okay." After his family finally visited him three weeks later, he was tortured for another six days. Phyo Wai Aung's health had deteriorated so much, and his torture was so violent, that the prison's superintendent is reported to have sat in on the interrogation in case he died. It was after all this abuse, sleep deprivation, psychological damage and physical violence, that Phyo Wai Aung "confessed" to being responsible for the bombing. A confession, when the torture had finished, he quickly rejected and went on to plead innocent to all the charges throughout his trial. Since Pyo Wai Aung was imprisoned, AAPP reports that he has been denied any medical treatment and external examination. He suffers from Hepatitis B, which could become life threatening if not properly treated. He has not been allowed out of his cell for exercise and has been denied visits from both his family and his lawyer. He has also been denied access to a copy of his file, and police have been listening in on phone conversations with his lawyer. For many Myanma, Phyo Wai Aung's unfair trial came as no surprise; the rule of law in the country has long been non-existent. Thousands of prisoners, political or otherwise, have faced similar conditions and draconian laws, which have led to unfair detentions for long periods of time.
Meanwhile, Than Zaw continues to languish in a dark prison cell suffering from health problems and missing the best part of his life, for a crime he seemingly didn't do. 'Progress it deserves' As opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told this writer: "You cannot have genuine reforms without judicial reforms, it is no use introducing investment laws if we don't have a good judicial system to make sure the laws are properly applied. I think without an established rule of law, there can be no real progress." At present, the government can apply the laws to stop any person or group from doing something that may threaten their hold on power. Farmers who have become increasingly mobilised against land confiscation have been feeling this the most. Seen to be concerned about the increasingly united front being formed by the farmers, the government has been arresting farmers on the most draconian of laws. U Ko Myint Naing, who led 300 farmers to protest against land grabbing in the Irrawaddy delta, was arrested for not seeking permission from government censors to copy a video tape of the protest. The worry is, regardless of any new laws, without judicial reform, those in power will continue to oppress any threat to their existence with impunity. This is, of course, not a good sign for the business vultures lurking around the country. While new investment laws are soon to be introduced, foreign and domestic companies will have little guarantee that their investments will be safe until the judicial system is completely cleansed of its regime-like tendencies. All should now be calling for certain benchmarks in order to establish a rule of law. A first step would be to completely separate the justice system from the state. At the moment, judges are manipulated by the government. Government officials also need to be subject to the same laws as everyone else. New laws need to be respected and any inconsistencies with old laws need to be addressed to make laws as clear and comprehensive as possible, so that everyone can be treated equally. Whether or not Phyo Wai Aung is guilty, his case (like countless others), shows that Myanmar is lacking a real rule of law. Like many other prisoners, numerous incidents throughout his trial have breached the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant for Civil and Political rights. This has been the same for countless civilians, farmers, monks, businessmen - and even a few foreigners - who have ended up in Myanmar's courts. In order to show a genuine will to reform the country, and progress to a democratic state, senior government ministers and opposition MPs should be calling for the immediate retrial of Pyo Wai Aung under fair and impartial conditions. This would set the new standard for any future trial in the country, and could herald a new dawn for Myanmar's judicial system. If attention is not given to the case of Phyo Wai Aung, and thousands of other prisoners who have been given an unfair trial, whether they be alleged murderers or accused environmental activists, Myanmar will never really enjoy the progress it deserves. William Lloyd George is a freelance correspondent reporting on under reported stories around the globe. Sources: |
YANGON — Myanmar's president has urged the nation's millions-strong diaspora to return, state media reported Saturday, as the country seeks skilled workers to help smooth the passage of reform.
Several million people fled Myanmar's corrupted economy and political repression under army rule, leaving the nation desperately short of professionals to help it manage massive economic and political change.
Pledging to help emigres establish businesses as resource-rich Myanmar braces for a surge of foreign investment and an expected economic boom, President Thein Sein asked migrants who left for "various reasons" to return.
"Offers are being constantly extended to Myanmar citizens who have been abroad for various reasons to come back home," he was quoted as saying by English-language state newspaper the New Light of Myanmar
"Those who were abroad include technicians, experts, businessmen as well as those who are engaged in different careers.
"The state would render necessary assistance to them if they have any difficulties in doing business in the nation."
Many exiles have been emboldened to return by a surprising series of political and economic reforms since Thein Sein took office last year.
The diaspora -- a significant proportion of the roughly 60 million population -- include skilled workers who have made successful lives overseas.
The new military-backed civilian government that took power last year has surprised observers with a series of conciliatory gestures to its opponents.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi took a seat in parliament after her pro-democracy party swept April by-elections and hundreds of political prisoners have been freed, although many others remain behind bars.
The European Union has responded by suspending for one year a wide range of trade, economic and individual sanctions, although it left intact an arms embargo.
But the United States maintained its main sanctions on Myanmar, hoping to use them to press the regime to end ongoing ethnic violence, which has marred the regime's reformist image.
Several million people fled Myanmar's corrupted economy and political repression under army rule, leaving the nation desperately short of professionals to help it manage massive economic and political change.
Pledging to help emigres establish businesses as resource-rich Myanmar braces for a surge of foreign investment and an expected economic boom, President Thein Sein asked migrants who left for "various reasons" to return.
"Offers are being constantly extended to Myanmar citizens who have been abroad for various reasons to come back home," he was quoted as saying by English-language state newspaper the New Light of Myanmar
"Those who were abroad include technicians, experts, businessmen as well as those who are engaged in different careers.
"The state would render necessary assistance to them if they have any difficulties in doing business in the nation."
Many exiles have been emboldened to return by a surprising series of political and economic reforms since Thein Sein took office last year.
The diaspora -- a significant proportion of the roughly 60 million population -- include skilled workers who have made successful lives overseas.
The new military-backed civilian government that took power last year has surprised observers with a series of conciliatory gestures to its opponents.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi took a seat in parliament after her pro-democracy party swept April by-elections and hundreds of political prisoners have been freed, although many others remain behind bars.
The European Union has responded by suspending for one year a wide range of trade, economic and individual sanctions, although it left intact an arms embargo.
But the United States maintained its main sanctions on Myanmar, hoping to use them to press the regime to end ongoing ethnic violence, which has marred the regime's reformist image.
YANGON, Myanmar — In a remote prison in northwest Myanmar, Aye Aung wakes up each day as he has for nearly 14 years — alone in a dark cell on a wooden plank, a prisoner of conscience all but forgotten by the world.
For hours, the former student activist meditates and reads the books his father brings from afar every other month. But mostly, he lives in the mind-numbing boredom of captivity. Now 36, he has never seen a cell phone, never surfed the Internet, never married or had children.
Although Myanmar’s military-backed government has released hundreds of well-known dissidents over the past year as part of a startling series of reforms that have earned it lavish praise and an easing of sanctions, rights advocates say hundreds more remain wrongfully locked away — their cases in danger of being forgotten amid rising hope for a more open, democratic nation.
“If this government is really changing, why have they not freed my son?” asked his mother, San Myint, as tears slid down her cheeks during an interview in Yangon.
“He’s done nothing wrong,” the visibly shaken 66-year-old told The Associated Press at her home, where one wall is adorned with a prominent picture of a youthful Aye Aung smiling broadly as he plays guitar beside a friend. “It’s cruel and unfair. We just want him to come home.”
Aye Aung’s troubles began in late 1998, when he was arrested and sentenced months later to a 59-year prison term for his role in a pro-democracy student movement. He had distributed pamphlets and participated in a rare public protest, both of which were deemed by authorities a threat to state security.
His sentence has since been halved, but he still must serve about 15 more years. Until then, he remains incarcerated in the Kalay prison of Myanmar’s distant northwest, a three-day bus ride from his family’s Yangon home. His parents say he suffers from stomach problems and sporadic bouts of malaria, and medical treatment in the prison is poor.
Myanmar, meanwhile, is moving on.
Global investors are lining up to do business. Tourists are arriving in droves. Foreign dignitaries jet in every few days to discuss a brighter future. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Western nations during a visit this month to ease sanctions further and boost aid.
Win Mra, who heads a government-appointed National Human Rights Commission appointed last year, said he has made some attempt to get remaining prisoners on the agenda, but acknowledged it’s not a government priority.
“If there are prisoners of conscience remaining, yes, they should be released,” Win Mra said. “But it’s a moot point right now because there are so many other things happening.”
According to a count by Human Rights Watch, President Thein Sein’s administration freed at least 659 political prisoners over the past year. They included well-known student activists, Buddhist monks who rose up in 1988 and 2007, journalists and ethnic minority leaders.
Since then, however, the issue has largely been dropped because, after the last amnesty on Jan. 13., “the Home Ministry stated clearly that they freed all of them,” Win Mra said.
For hours, the former student activist meditates and reads the books his father brings from afar every other month. But mostly, he lives in the mind-numbing boredom of captivity. Now 36, he has never seen a cell phone, never surfed the Internet, never married or had children.
Although Myanmar’s military-backed government has released hundreds of well-known dissidents over the past year as part of a startling series of reforms that have earned it lavish praise and an easing of sanctions, rights advocates say hundreds more remain wrongfully locked away — their cases in danger of being forgotten amid rising hope for a more open, democratic nation.
“If this government is really changing, why have they not freed my son?” asked his mother, San Myint, as tears slid down her cheeks during an interview in Yangon.
“He’s done nothing wrong,” the visibly shaken 66-year-old told The Associated Press at her home, where one wall is adorned with a prominent picture of a youthful Aye Aung smiling broadly as he plays guitar beside a friend. “It’s cruel and unfair. We just want him to come home.”
Aye Aung’s troubles began in late 1998, when he was arrested and sentenced months later to a 59-year prison term for his role in a pro-democracy student movement. He had distributed pamphlets and participated in a rare public protest, both of which were deemed by authorities a threat to state security.
His sentence has since been halved, but he still must serve about 15 more years. Until then, he remains incarcerated in the Kalay prison of Myanmar’s distant northwest, a three-day bus ride from his family’s Yangon home. His parents say he suffers from stomach problems and sporadic bouts of malaria, and medical treatment in the prison is poor.
Myanmar, meanwhile, is moving on.
Global investors are lining up to do business. Tourists are arriving in droves. Foreign dignitaries jet in every few days to discuss a brighter future. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Western nations during a visit this month to ease sanctions further and boost aid.
Win Mra, who heads a government-appointed National Human Rights Commission appointed last year, said he has made some attempt to get remaining prisoners on the agenda, but acknowledged it’s not a government priority.
“If there are prisoners of conscience remaining, yes, they should be released,” Win Mra said. “But it’s a moot point right now because there are so many other things happening.”
According to a count by Human Rights Watch, President Thein Sein’s administration freed at least 659 political prisoners over the past year. They included well-known student activists, Buddhist monks who rose up in 1988 and 2007, journalists and ethnic minority leaders.
Since then, however, the issue has largely been dropped because, after the last amnesty on Jan. 13., “the Home Ministry stated clearly that they freed all of them,” Win Mra said.
(Hong Kong, May 10, 2012) The Asian Human Rights Commission has described the verdict of a court in Rangoon, sentencing a torture victim to death for his purported role in a bombing, as "farcical" and a "cut-and-paste" job, and has called for his release through the intervention of outside agencies.District Judge Aung Thein presiding over a closed court in the central prison on Tuesday convicted the accused, Phyo Wai Aung, in four cases concerning the bombing of a festival in April 2010. The judge sentenced Phyo Wai Aung to death for abetting the murder of 10 people who died in the bombing, and to a total of 39 years in prison for a range of other offences.
The AHRC on Thursday morning released an urgent appeal with details of the verdicts: BURMA: Court sentences ailing Phyo Wai Aung to death after patently unjust trial
Speaking after the issuance of the appeal, the director of the Hong Kong-based regional human rights group, Wong Kai Shing, said that the verdicts showed that Burma's judiciary was clearly set in the authoritarian practices of old and had not been affected behaviourally by recent political changes.
"As the court could reach this farcical verdict only by ignoring legal grounds and instead working on the basis of some orders from elsewhere, we have no choice also but to call for a review of the case and intervention by those authorities with the power to overturn the death sentence, and secure the release of the accused," Wong said.
The court appeared to have just cut and paste its findings from one verdict to the next across the four cases, repeating the same points with little variation in contents, except as required for the specific elements of each charge, he commented.
"For the sake of his life, the people in positions to be able to get Phyo Wai Aung out of prison need to do something now," Wong added, pointing to a letter by the brother of the defendant expressing fears about his health due to liver disease, Hepatitis-B and tuberculosis.
Wong pointed out that the case highlighted the need for legal reform efforts in Burma to concentrate on the heavy reliance on confession in the handing down of guilty verdicts, which encouraged the police to torture clients to agree to give fabricated confessions.
"The use of confession as the means to obtain a conviction is from our study of the system in Burma very widespread and a cause for serious concern," Wong observed.
"In this case, the police tortured the accused for six consecutive days to have him agree to give a fabricated confession built around scraps of material and witness testimonies that they could pull together from here and there," he said.
"This forced confession constituted the basis for the guilty verdicts," Wong noted, adding that once a confession was submitted to court it was very difficult for the accused to do anything about it, even if they denied or retracted the confession, as did Phyo Wai Aung.
The AHRC's campaign webpage for Phyo Wai Aung contains detailed information on the case and relevant documents in both English and Burmese: http://www.humanrights.asia/countries/burma/phyo-wai-aung
Sources:
*****************
αူ α‘αα္းαံုး ααα₯ီးေααံုးျαီးေαာ့ αူ αααေα်ုာ္ αα္αာααွိαဲ့αဲ့ αα္αုα္ αα္ေαာ္αΎαီးα‘αီး x2o ေααα ားααα္αွာ α§ျαီα αα αα္ ααΎαၤα္ α‘αΎαα္ေααα αံုးေαါα္αဲြαဲ့αဲ့ျαα ္αα္α
××××××
ႏိုα္αံေαးα‘α်α₯္းαား αုိျαိဳးေαေα‘ာα္αာ αααααုႏွα ္ α§ျαီααွာ αα္αီး αံαဲ့ αျαီး αူααို αႏွα ္ေα်ာ္ααာ α α ္ေαးေααာαေα ေαα ααα္ေαααွာ α‘α္းα ိα္ ေαာα္αြα္းαွာ αြα့္αားαဲ့ αα္αုα္ေျαာα္αိုα္းααိုα္ α‘αူးααားαံုး αေα ေααα္α်αွα္αံαဲ့ααာαါ။
ααူα‘αႈαို αိုα္αါေαာα္αြα္ေαးေααဲ့ေα
“ α‘αႈေαးαုαွာ ααα ααႈαွာ αုα္α ααုαဲα α ြဲα်α္αα္αားαα္။ α‘ဲαီαဲαွာ ααα αုα္α ααα-α(α) α αΎαိဳαα္αΎαံα α္αႈαဲα αα္αာαို α‘ားေαးαα္ αိုျαီးေαာ့ ေααα္ေαးαားαα္။ αုαိααုα္α ααα/ααα αိုαာα αိαိုα္αာα်α္ေα ေα‘ာα္ ျαဳαုα္αာαို α‘ားေαးαα္αိုျαီးေαာ့ ေαာα္ αα္ ααႏွα ္၊ ααိααုα္αα ααα/ααααိုျαီး αာαα္ αာα်α္ေα αႈ ေαါ့၊ αာαα္αာα်α္ေα αႈαို α်ဴးαြα္αα္αိုျαီးေαာ့ α‘ဲαါαဲα ေαာα္αα္ αႏွα ္။ α‘ဲαါα αααα‘αႈα‘αြα္ ျαα ္αα္ ααုေαါ့။ ေαာα္ααႈα ေαာα္αြဲαုα္α α/α α ေαာα္αြဲαႈαို α‘ားေαးαူαီαα္αိုျαီးေαာ့ ေαာα္αα္α ααα္ ααα½ြα္းေαါ့။ ေαာα္ααႈαွာ αααားα‘αα္း αα္αြα္αα္ αိုျαီး αုα္α αα/α αဲα ေαာα္αα္ ႏွα ္ αα၊ ေαာα္ααႈα ႏိုα္αံαြα္းαို ααားααα္ αα္ေαာα္ျαီးေαာ့ αူαα္αႈ αΎαီးαΎαα္ေαးαဲα α‘ေαးေαα αα္ααα္α်α္α‘α ေαာα္αα္ α ႏွα ္၊ αီ ေαးαႈαို αေαါα္းαα္းα်αα္။ ေααα္α်αိုα္αα္”
αိုျαိဳေေαေα‘ာα္αုိ αွွα္းαα္းႏွိα္α α္ျαီး ေျαာα့္α်α္ေαးαိုα္းαဲ့αာေ
“ျαီးαဲ့αဲ့ ႏွα ္αα္α α်ေαာ္αိုααα္α α‘ျαီးαα္ေαွ်ာα္αဲα်α္ ေαးαဲ့ α‘α်ိα္αွာ αီα‘αႈα ααွα္αူး။ αွα္းαα္းႏွိα္α α္αုိα ေျαာα့္α်α္ေαးαိုα္းαိုα ေαးααဲ့α‘αႈေαါ့။ α‘ဲαါေαΎαာα့္ αႊα္ေαးαါαိုα α်ေαာ္αိုαα α‘α်α္α‘αα္ ေαြ α‘α်ားαΎαီး αα္ျααဲ့αါαα္။ α‘ဲαီαုα္းα ααα္α α₯αေαα‘αာαွိα α်ေαာ္αိုα αα္ျααဲ့ α‘α်α္α‘αα္ေαြαို αာαွαα္း αေα်αႏိုα္αူး။ ေα်αα္း αေα်ααူး။ ေαွ်ာα္αဲα်α္αို α ာαဲα ေαးαα္αα္αိုျαီးေαာ့ ေျαာαα္။ α်ေαာ္αိုα αα္ျααဲ့αဲ့α‘ေαααွာ ααားαံုးα αα္αံαဲ့ αေαာ ေαါ့။ αါαဲα αα္αα္αိုα α‘αူαံ αα္αα္αိုααဲ α်ေαာ္αိုαα α ီα α₯္ααွာေαါ့”
αိုျαိဳးေαေα‘ာα္αုိ ေααα္α်αွα္ျαα္းαွာ ျαα္းαα္αြα္းေααာα္း αူ ျαα္αα္ αြα္ေျαာα္αာေαးα‘αြα္ ααိဳးαα္းαဲ့α‘αါαွာ ႏုိα္αံေαး α‘ေျαα‘ေαေαα αူαα္ေααဲ့α‘ေααာα္း ႏိုα္αံေαးα‘α်α₯္းαားα်ား αူαီ ေα ာα့္ေαွာα္ေαးα‘αα္းαဲα αဲြαα္ α‘αြα္းေαးαႉး αိုαုိααα္ααα္း ေျαာαါαα္။
“ေααα္α်αα္αိုαာαာ ααα္αို ျαα္းαα္αဲ့ ျαα ္αα္αါ။ ααα္ αα္းα်ေαာ့ αူα αွ်ααဲ့ ααားα ီαα္αႈαို αααူး။ αα္းαီးျαီးျαီးα်α္းαွာ αα္း αူααα္α ြာ ႏွိα္α α္αံααα္။ αုα α်α္းαာေαးαα္း αေαာα္းαူး။ α်α္းαာေαး ေαα်ာ ေα ာα့္ေαွာα္ေαးαာαα္း ααွိαူး။ αါαာ αွ်ααဲ့ ααားα ီαα္αႈαို αααူးαိုααဲ α်ေαာ္αိုα ေျαာααွာαါ။ αိုျαိဳးေαေα‘ာα္ αိα α₯ αα္ αααါαူး၊ αျαား ႏိုα္αံေαးα‘α်α₯္းαားေαြαဲα αိα α₯ေαြαိုαα္း αြα္ေျαာα္αိုαα‘αြα္ ႏိုα္αံααာαိုαα္း α်ေαာ္αိုα αိုα္αြα္းေααာ αွိαါαα္။ ေαာα္ ျαα္αြα္းαွာ αွိေααဲ့ ႏိုα္αံေαးα‘α်α₯္းαားေαာα္းေ
α‘ာαွ αူα‘αြα့္ေαးေαာ္ααွα္ααα္း ႏိုα္αံေαးα‘α်α₯္းαား αိုျαိဳးေαေα‘ာα္ α‘αႈαဲα αα္αα္ျαီး ααားα ီαα္αႈαာ α်ွααဲ့α ီαα္αူ ααုα္αူးαိုα ေျαာαဲ့αါαα္။
αိုျαိဳးေαေα‘ာα္αာ ေαာα္αုα္ေαးα‘α္α်α္αီαာαα₯ီ
α‘αုαα္αွိαွာေαာာ့ α‘αα္းေαာαါေαααာ αံα ားေααျαီး α‘ျαα္αို αုα္ျαီး ေαးαုααြα့္ ααေαးαူးαုိααα္း αိαားα ုα ေျαာαါαα္။
Credit: Ma Aye Aye Mar- VOA Burmese
—
 | |
| ေαα α αα္ေα ့αေααိုα္းαြα္ αုံျαဳံေαးαားα်ား ေααေα‘ာα္αα္းα ုαΎαα္ ေαα‘ိα္α‘αီးေαြ ့αα α₯္။ |
ေααေα‘ာα္αα္းα ုαΎαα္ α‘ိα္ ႏွα့္ ααွα္း ααα္းαြα္αα္း αဲαား- α -α ီး αα္αားαα္αုိ α်α္αΏαα္ေαြααွိαဲ့αူ α₯ီးαြα္ ့αα္း α Myanmar News Now αုိေျαာαါαα္။
α‘αိုαါαုံျαဳံေαးαα္αဲြ ့αα္α်ားαွာαα္αα္α‘αΏαα့္α‘α ုံαα္αα္αားαΏαီးα်α္αα္αုိαုံးαα ္αα္ႏူိα္αα္αα္αα္αါ αα ္αြဲααွ်α္ αဲαားαα ္ေαာα္αုိα္ေαာα္αားαါαα္။αုံျαဳံေαးαα္αဲြ ့αα္α‘α္းα‘ားα ααα္αေαြααွိαα္αု αုိαါαα္။
α‘αြာα‘ေαး αα ္ေααာαွ်α္ α -α₯ီး αွိαါျαီး α‘α္းαွ်ား αီးαိြဳα့္ αွ αွα္းαα္းαီးαြိဳα့္ αΎαား αဲα‘ေα ာα့္α်ား αΎαဲαြားαါαα္။
ေααေα‘ာα္αα္းα ုαΎαα္α‘α်α္α်ဳα္αΏαα့့္ ေαα α₯္αာααြα္αα္းαုိαဲαုိ ့ေαြααူးαားααΏαα့္αα္းα‘αြα္းαုိα αားαΏαα္ေαာα္း αြားေαာαိααΏαα္αူα်ားαွာα ိုးαိα္ေαာαα်ားαΏαα ္ေααΎααါαα္။αုံျαဳံေαးαဲα်ားαိαိαာαα္ αိαိ ေαာα္αြα္ေααΏαα္းαွα္αα္ေαာ္αα္း၊αိααΏαα္αူα်ားαွာαα္းαြα္αα္α ြာα ိα္αူေααΏαα္းαΏαα ္αါေαΎαာα္း α₯ီးαြα္ ့αα္း ααα္αα္ေျαာαုိαားαါαα္။
ေααေα‘ာα္αα္းα ုαΎαα္α‘ိα္ေαွ ့αွ ျαα္αြားαဲ့ ျαα္αူαα₯ီးααα္းαα္αα္α‘ျαα္α‘α ုံαဲ ့αုံျαဳံေαးαားေαြ ေααေα‘ာα္αα္းα ုαΎαα္
α‘ိα္α‘αီးα်αားαာေαြ ့αဲ့α‘αြα္ α ုိးαိα္းαΎαီးα ြာαဲ ့αα္αီαုα္းαဲ ့αါα္αုံαုိα္ျαီး Myanmar News Now αုိေαးαုိ ့αားαါαα္။
 |
| ေαα α αα္ေα ့αေααိုα္းαြα္ αုံျαဳံေαးαားα်ား ေααေα‘ာα္αα္းα ုαΎαα္ ေαα‘ိα္α‘αီးေαြ ့αα α₯္။ |
(Mizzima) – Two Indian groups urged Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmaohan Singh to press for further democratic reforms during his three-day visit to Burma starting Thursday.
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh Photo: pmindia.nic.inThe Indian Parliamentarians’ Forum for Democracy (IPFDB) in Burma released a statement calling on Singh to push for the release of all political prisoners.
The Burma Centre Delhi released a statement backed by 27 civil society groups calling for Singh to call for an end to “the atrocities targeting ethnic areas particularly in Kachin State, the restoration of the civil and democratic rights of the Rohingya, the end of atrocities in Arakan and safe repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.”
The statement said the construction of the Tamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project (THPP) on the Chindwin River in northwest Burma’s Sagaing Division is a serious concern. The construction of the proposed dam poses a danger to an area of approximately 1,400 square kilometres, displacing over 45,000 people living nearby.
“Over 2,400 villagers have already been forcibly evicted in 2007 from the dam site, with a mere compensation of US$ 5,” the statement said.
Another concern, it said, is the Kaladan Multi-Modal Project, developed by India in 2008 to improve connectivity between the two countries.
“It has raised several concerns in border areas of Burma and India,” said the statement. “The project requires an estimated 196.75 hectares of forest land to be cleared. The development along the port and river will displace thousands of people from their homes and livelihood.”
It said environmental and social impact assessments have not been conducted, and communities inhabiting the border areas in Burma and India have no information about the proposed project.
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh Photo: pmindia.nic.inThe Indian Parliamentarians’ Forum for Democracy (IPFDB) in Burma released a statement calling on Singh to push for the release of all political prisoners.
The Burma Centre Delhi released a statement backed by 27 civil society groups calling for Singh to call for an end to “the atrocities targeting ethnic areas particularly in Kachin State, the restoration of the civil and democratic rights of the Rohingya, the end of atrocities in Arakan and safe repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.”
The statement said the construction of the Tamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project (THPP) on the Chindwin River in northwest Burma’s Sagaing Division is a serious concern. The construction of the proposed dam poses a danger to an area of approximately 1,400 square kilometres, displacing over 45,000 people living nearby.
“Over 2,400 villagers have already been forcibly evicted in 2007 from the dam site, with a mere compensation of US$ 5,” the statement said.
Another concern, it said, is the Kaladan Multi-Modal Project, developed by India in 2008 to improve connectivity between the two countries.
“It has raised several concerns in border areas of Burma and India,” said the statement. “The project requires an estimated 196.75 hectares of forest land to be cleared. The development along the port and river will displace thousands of people from their homes and livelihood.”
It said environmental and social impact assessments have not been conducted, and communities inhabiting the border areas in Burma and India have no information about the proposed project.
Mizzima
-
Announcement of New Website: Rohingya Today (RohingyaToday.Com) Dear Readers, From 1st January 2019 onward, the Rohingya N... -
By U Kyaw Min RB History April 30, 2014 At a time when I have been preparing to write a short but precise treatise on Rohingya’s... -
By Tasnim News Agency December 14, 2016 TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo... -
For the last 40 years, Rohingyas of Northern Arakan/Rakhine State of Myanmar (formerly Burma), have been subjected to what Amartya S... -
"There are several hypocritical attempts ans steps taking by the government in Arakan to deceive the visiting UN Special Rapporteur, M... -
By Dr. Abid Bahar August 19, 2009 From his recently published book: Abid Bahar. Burma’s Missing Dots. Montreal: Flapwing Publishers... -
"Although mass killings and exterminations of human races were some sort of things that the world experienced during Nazi German p... -
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoΔlu and Dr. Mohammed Yunus 30 July 2012 Davutoglu received Yunus, representative of Arakan... -
(Photo: Reuters) Aung San Suu Kyi is legitimising genocide in Myanmar and has entrenched the persecution of Rohingya Muslisms, warn s...
Popular Posts
Threatwiki
Amartya Sen: Burma's "slow genocide" of Rohingyas
Watch Professor Amartya Sen speak on what he calls Burma's 'slow genocide' of Rohingya, Harvard, 4 Nov 2014
