BurmaNet News, July 22, 2005

[Editor]

July 22, 2005 Issue # 2766


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Former Myanmar PM gets 44-year suspended sentence: legal source
Irrawaddy: Timor Leste’s FM arrives in Rangoon

HIV / AIDS
IPS-Inter Press Service: Burma found to be source of regional HIV spread

BUSINESS / FINANCE
Lloyd's List: Unocal endorses Chevron's $ 17bn takeover offer
Irrawaddy: Yuan shift bad for Burma trade

ASEAN
AFP: Amid political turmoil, Philippines ready to take helm of ASEAN next
year
AFP: Myanmar, accountability to top ASEAN meeting in Laos
AP: When Asia holds key security meeting, top U.S. official will be a no-show

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Improving human rights will undermine terrorists, British government says

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 22, Agence France Presse
Former Myanmar PM gets 44-year suspended sentence: legal source

Yangon: Former Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt received a 44-year
suspended sentence after being convicted Friday on eight charges including
bribery and corruption, legal sources said.

A secret tribunal also handed down considerably stiffer jail terms to two
of Khin Nyunt's sons, just days before Southeast Asian ministers meet in
Laos to discuss whether Myanmar takes over the helm of ASEAN next year.

"Former prime minister Khin Nyunt was sentenced today," a source closely
following the trial in Yangon's notorious Insein prison told AFP. "The
total punishment was 44 years on eight charges."

It is believed Khin Nyunt would be kept under house arrest, where he has
been detained since his ouster in a purge last October, the legal source
and a source close to the ex-premier's family said.

The family source also confirmed the conviction of Khin Nyunt, who was the
junta's powerful chief of military intelligence, but declined to provide
details.

A Friday tribunal at Insein also handed down prison sentences of 68 years
and 51 years respectively to two of Khin Nyunt's sons, Zaw Naing Oo and Ye
Naing Win, the legal source said.

Their charges included export-import violations, the diverting of public
property, bribery and corruption, but unlike their father they are to
serve their sentences in prison, the source said.

The status of Khin Nyunt's wife, who was also facing trial, was not
immediately known.

The junta arrested hundreds of people during the October purge described
as a crackdown on corruption that toppled Khin Nyunt and dismantled his
powerful military intelligence network.

Some 300 people linked to the former premier have stood trial, with more
than 40 tried and convicted, mainly for economic crimes. Some received
sentences of more than 100 years.

Khin Nyunt, who announced military-ruled Myanmar's "roadmap to democracy"
in 2003, was seen as a pragmatist favoring limited dialogue with detained
opposition leader and Nobel peace recipient Aung San Suu Kyi. He was
replaced by junta hardliner General Soe Win.

A Western diplomat in Yangon described Khin Nyunt's suspended sentence as
"surprising".

"Everyone had expected him to be harshly sentenced and the trial swiftly
wrapped up," the diplomat told AFP.

"Perhaps some high-ranking military officials, who rose with him together
in the ranks, were willing to spare him a little."

Yet the authorities seemed to ignore Khin Nyunt's plea for clemency for
his sons.

"We don't exactly know how the system of reducing sentences works, but
there are possibilities of appeal to (junta supremo Senior General) Than
Shwe for a pardon," the diplomat said.

It was not clear if the convictions could be appealed through the courts.

The sentencing comes two days before the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations meets in Vientiane in talks to be dominated by discussion over
whether Myanmar takes the helm of ASEAN next year.

The European Union and the United States, as well as legislators from
ASEAN countries, have been leading calls for the rogue state to relinquish
its right to lead the bloc over continuing political repression and human
rights abuses.

____________________________________

July 22, Irrawaddy
Timor Leste’s FM arrives in Rangoon

Newly-independent Timor Leste sent its first government officials to Burma
on Friday, the state-run New Light of Myanmar said. Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Dr Jose Ramos Horta led the delegation, which also included Timor
Leste’s ambassador to Indonesia, Rev Arlindo Marcal. The group was greeted
at Rangoon International Airport by Burma’s Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs Maung Myint and other officials, the report said. Horta, who won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his work in Timor Leste’s struggle for
independence, is well-known for his support for Aung San Suu Kyi. The
former activist once famously said: “I absolutely oppose dictators.”

When Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, Ramos Horta was dispatched by
the resistance to act as their international ambassador. Observers say the
former activist’s behavior will have to adapt in his new role as foreign
minister, although his opinions, he has argued, have never changed. Timor
Lests has now established diplomatic relations with over 80 countries just
three years after gaining independence from Indonesia.





____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 21, IPS-Inter Press Service
Juntas: Burma found to be source of regional HIV spread - Marwaan
Macan-Markar

Bangkok: While pressure for political reform in Burma is set to dominate
next week's meeting of South-east Asian foreign ministers in Laos, a far
more deadly subject, HIV in the region, cries for attention.

Reports since the beginning of July say that the military-ruled country is
more than the political sick man of the region. Burma, according to these
revelations, has evolved into a country with increasing HIV prevalence
that could undermine the stability of its neighbours.

Burma is the main source of all the strains of HIV that have spread across
Asia, declared the most recent report, which was released this week by the
Council on Foreign Relations, a Rockefeller think tank.

With one exception, namely in China's Henan province, the other strains of
the killer virus covering a region from Kazakhstan to southern Vietnam
have ''genetic fingerprints'' that can be traced to Burma, states the
report, 'HIV and National Security: Where Are The Links?'

''The genetic HIV evidence is a smoking gun, fingering Burma,'' added the
67-page report, referring to use of new technology by scientists to
identify the progress and spread of a virus far more accurately than
before. ''The Burmese HIV contribution to much of Asia poses a clear
security threat to the region.''

While sex workers and heroin users in that country had the highest
infection rates - ''with infection as high as 77 percent in northern
Burma'' - the routes by which HIV has spread to neighbouring countries and
beyond were those along which heroin was trafficked, the report revealed.

''The heroin routes'', says the report, may be the ''greatest contributor
of new types of HIV in the world.''

This week's report lends weight to similar concerns expressed this month
in the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). While the
average prevalence rate of HIV in Burma was 1.3 percent, there were
pockets where the deadly virus had reached alarming levels, the UN agency
stated.

Among the areas singled out by UNAIDS was Hpa-an, a province in the Karen
state through which tens of thousands of migrant workers pass in search of
employment in neighbouring Thailand.

There was a 7.5 percent HIV prevalence rate among people in Hpa-an who had
been tested, among them included pregnant women and people with sexually
transmitted diseases.

By contrast, the country with the highest HIV prevalence rate in
South-east Asia is Cambodia, above two percent, followed by Thailand, at
1.5 percent.

Dr. Chris Beyrer, an HIV/AIDS expert at Johns Hopkins University in the
United States, said during an interview this month that, if not dealt
with, the spread of HIV in Burma could escalate to the staggering numbers
witnessed in the worst hit parts of Africa.

''Cambodia and Burma are the only two countries (in Asia) where the
population prevalence is approaching African levels where you would have
as many as one in 25 or even one in 20 adults with HIV infection,'' Beyrer
was quoted as having said in an interview appearing on a web portal on
HIV/AIDS by the United Nations Development Program.

Currently there are up to 40 million people with HIV across the world,
with the worst affected being in sub-Saharan Africa, 25.4 million people,
according to UNAIDS. In South and East Asia, the combined number of HIV
patients is 8.2 million people.

Burma watchers are hardly surprised by these disturbing realities as,
until very recently, Rangoon's military regime refused to acknowledge that
the country had an emerging HIV/AIDS crisis.

''Khin Nyunt was the first Burmese prime minister who spoke out publicly
that HIV had to be addressed in the country,'' said Soe Aung, spokesman
for the National Council for the Union of Burma, an alliance of Burmese
exiles.

But Khin Nyunt, a high ranking general who was appointed prime minister in
the second half of 2003 was arrested in October the following year and is
currently standing trial on various charges, including corruption.

''The military regime's commitment to HIV is very limited,'' Soe Aung said
in an interview. ''They don't reveal how many soldiers and military
officers are infected, and if a soldier or officer is found HIV positive,
he is discharged from the army.''

The harsh laws that people live under have also been blamed for the spread
of HIV. Most glaring is the legal clause that states a woman in Burma can
be arrested and face charges if she is found carrying a condom.

As bad is the country's crumbling public health system, resulting in
limited availability of testing centres and hospitals to care for people
with HIV. ''Burma devotes only 0.19 percent of its GDP (gross domestic
product), or 2.7 percent of its state budget for public health,'' writes
Dr. Withaya Huanok in the recent issue of 'The Irrawaddy,' a news magazine
on Burmese and regional affairs published in Thailand by Burmese
journalists in exile.

''In sharp contrast, 40 percent of the national budget is spent on
defence,'' he adds. ''WHO (World Health Organisation) ranks Burma second
from the bottom of its public health care listings, after Sierra Leone.''

In 1999, the amount Rangoon set aside for public health was even lower -
0.17 percent of its GDP, according to available reports. It was the same
year, in fact, that the Burmese generals admitted for the first time that
the country was faced with the spreading killer disease, consequently
enabling humanitarian agencies to step in.

Little of this escalating public health crisis has been addressed during
either the summit meetings or foreign ministers gatherings of the
Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The 10-member regional grouping, which includes Burma, Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam,
is facing a mounting political crisis over Burma heading ASEAN in 2006.

''They will be discussing the Burma issue in Laos, especially because
Rangoon has displayed no commitment towards political reform,'' says a
Thai regional analyst. ''They have also shown little interest in HIV, even
though it is becoming such a threat to regional stability.''

____________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCIAL

July 21, Lloyd's List
Unocal endorses Chevron's $ 17bn takeover offer - Martyn Wingrove

UNOCAL has endorsed a sweetened $ 17bn takover offer from rival
Californian oil major Chevron, putting the onus back on China National
Offshore Oil Corp to improve its bid.

Chevron, the second-largest US oil company, raised its offer for Unocal by
increasing the cash element from 25% to 40% in a move making the deal more
attractive to both sets of shareholders.

Unocal's board favours the Chevron bid over a $ 18.5bn all-cash offer from
Beijing-controlled CNOOC because of the potential of intervention by the
US administration that could leave any deal in a long review process.

Politicians are concerned that a Chinese company could own US hydrocarbon
resources and that the CNOOC bid is backed by low and zero-interest state
loans.

Unocal is attractive to Chevron because of its Asian oil and gas assets
and strong deepwater Gulf of Mexico position, while CNOOC is most
interested in the Asian assets including Azerbaijan, Indonesia and
Myanmar.

Chevron's improved offer provides an overall value of $ 63 per share. In
the aggregate, it will issue around 168m shares of Chevron stock and pay
approximately $ 7.5bn in cash.

CNOOC's offer sparked heated discussions among US politicians on the basis
of protecting national energy resources and a Congressional hearing last
week attacked its overtures.

A US House energy and commerce committee will hold a hearing on CNOOC's
bid on Friday and could possibly call for a total rejection of any deal.

Unocal's shares have risen on the back of the acquisition interest and
reached record highs of $ 66.78 per share a week ago. They slipped back to
$ 64.67 yesterday.
____________________________________

July 22, Irrawaddy
Yuan shift bad for Burma trade

The re-evaluation of China’s currency announced on Thursday evening in
Beijing comes as more bad news for Burma’s border traders, who reported a
further drop in activity on Friday. China’s Central Bank announced it
would no longer peg the yuan to the US dollar, meaning the currency
increased in value to 8.11 to the dollar, compared to the previous fixed
rate of 8.27. In Ruili, on the Chinese side of the border with Burma,
traders reported a further decrease in the value of the kyat as a result
of yesterday’s news, making imported goods into Burma more expensive. The
kyat had already been hit hard by the bombings in Rangoon on May 7—on
Friday, 1000 kyat was worth 7.3 yuan, compared to 7.5 yuan on Thursday and
8 yuan before the attacks. “It will be hard for Burmese traders,” said
Aung Kyaw Zaw in Ruili, adding there had been a noticeable drop in the
sale of Chinese goods this morning.

Analysts, however, expressed doubts the move by China would have
significant effects on Burma’s economy. “It might affect our bottom line a
little but it should not be too bad,” said one Rangoon-based businessman.
The Institute of Developing Economies in Chiba, Japan, which specializes
in Burmese economics also expressed doubt the news would have a
significant impact, adding that the instability of the kyat was of much
greater concern.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 22, Agence France Presse
Amid political turmoil, Philippines ready to take helm of ASEAN next year
- Jason Gutierrez

Manila: The Philippines is prepared to take over the helm of ASEAN in 2006
if Myanmar relinquishes its right amid pressure from the United States
over its human rights abuses, officials here said.

A political scandal threatening the presidency of Gloria Arroyo, who has
been accused of vote fraud, would not deter Manila from taking the
rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, they said.

The European Union and the United States, as well as legislators from
ASEAN countries, have been leading calls for the rogue state to relinquish
its right to lead the bloc over continuing political repression and
alleged human rights abuses.

The US Senate this week passed a resolution renewing a one-year ban on all
imports from Myanmar ahead of ASEAN ministerial meetings next week, where
the military-ruled state is expected to make an announcement on its ASEAN
chairmanship.

This came after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would skip
the annual ASEAN meeting and send her deputy instead -- in an
unprecedented move many consider a deliberate snub.

If the junta comes up with a face-saving measure and voluntarily
relinquishes its right to the chairmanship of the 10-member association,
Manila would have no choice but to take the role, Philippine Foreign
Secretary Alberto Romulo said.

"I am generally an optimistic person. I have great optimism that in
Vientiane we will have a satisfactory answer," he said.

Asked what he meant by satisfactory, Romulo said the junta should
implement real democratic reforms, release democracy fighter Aung San Suu
Kyi and allow the re-entry of the UN special envoy Razali Ismail.

A senior diplomat told AFP that so far there has been no indication how
Myanmar will address the issue, although the junta would likely be allowed
to exit graciously.

Romulo said ASEAN ministers view the "political noise" in Manila as the
workings of democracy and that if Arroyo's government is called to take
over from Myanmar, "we will not shirk our obligation."

Arroyo's presidency is under threat amid allegations she rigged the May
2004 vote. She has publicly apologized to the nation for a "lapse in
judgment", admitting she phoned an unnamed poll official.

She has however denied any wrongdoing and vowed to finish her six-year
term despite a wave of defections from key supporters analysts say has
weakened her fledgling government.

Her critics say she has lost the public's trust and would no longer be
effective in governing, after key ministers and officials quit the
government.

Street protests calling for her to quit have also disrupted businesses and
distracted officials from focusing on government's agenda to eradicate
poverty and battling insurgents.

Debbie Stothard, coordinator of the Bangkok-based Alternative ASEAN
Network on Burma (Myanmar), said she hoped by 2006 "the crisis will have
passed" in the Philippines.

She said the Philippines was an "old hand at hosting a range of
international conference" and has the necessary infrastructure and
protocols in place.

While the Philippine leadership may be under question at the moment, at
least the problem is being grappled in the public sphere, she said.

Public opinion, rule of law and constitutional remedies remain important
in the Philippines "unlike the Burmese situation," Stothard said.

____________________________________

July 22, Agence France Presse
Myanmar, accountability to top ASEAN meeting in Laos - Martin Abbugao

Singapore: A dispute over Myanmar's looming chairmanship and a charter to
encourage accountability are likely to dominate the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting starting in Laos Saturday,
diplomats say.

The threat of terrorism, disaster preparedness following last year's
devastating tsunamis and East Timor's admittance to a high-level security
forum are also likely to figure in week-long discussions in Vientiane.

The issue of participation by countries such as Australia and the United
States in an inaugural East Asia Summit to be hosted by incoming ASEAN
chair Malaysia in December will be another issue on the agenda.

Senior officials from the 10 ASEAN countries -- Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam -- meet on Saturday to prepare for a ministers' meeting on
Tuesday.

The ASEAN ministers are due to meet their counterparts from China, Japan
and South Korea on Wednesday before a two-day summit of Asia's only
security forum, the 24-country ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), starting
Thursday.

At the ASEAN meetings, the spotlight will be on rogue member and
international pariah Myanmar, which the other Southeast Asian nations are
hoping will announce a decision on whether or not it will assume the
alphabetically rotating chairmanship of the bloc in July 2006.

Myanmar has been under intense pressure to relinquish its chance for the
chair because of political repression and what many say are massive human
rights abuses by the ruling military clique.

The United States and the European Union have warned they will boycott
ASEAN meetings if Myanmar becomes the group's chair -- a move analysts and
diplomats say will severely damage the grouping's credibility.

"The issue of future ASEAN chairmanship is high on the agenda of the
foreign ministers. It is a matter that ASEAN members take seriously,"
ASEAN Secretariat spokesman M.C. Abad told AFP.

"We are facing an unwelcome scenario in 2006 whereby ASEAN's global
profile could be severely damaged by Myanmar's chairing the grouping,"
said US business consultant and former US-ASEAN Business Council president
Ernest Bower.

"Such damage would come at a time when it can be least afforded -- when
markets are bouncing back, foreign direct investment is returning to the
region and intra-regional trade is growing nicely."

The Philippines, due to take the chairmanship after Myanmar, will lead
ASEAN for a year from mid-2006 if Myanmar withdraws.

Terrorism will uppermost in the minds of leaders at the ARF -- which
gathers Asian nations with global giants such as the United States and
European Union -- after the deadly July 7 London bombings and
near-identical attacks two weeks later.

The ARF is expected to adopt an agreement to promote cooperation in
securing the integrity of travel documents, including the introduction of
biometrics features in passports. It will also admit East Timor as its
25th member.

ASEAN is due meanwhile to expand its cooperation on counter-terrorism to
include Pakistan, New Zealand and South Korea after signing similar pacts
with China, Australia, the EU, Japan, Russia and the United States.

For the first time since the ARF was launched in 1994, a US Secretary of
State will be absent, with Condoleezza Rice skipping the meeting and
sending her deputy Robert Zoellick in a move seen by some quarters as a
signal against Myanmar taking over the ASEAN chair.

With the Myanmar issue threatening to hurt ASEAN's credibility, the ASEAN
ministers are expected to endorse the drafting the proposed ASEAN Charter
aimed at making members legally bound to adhere to collective decisions.

Approval of the charter would transform the group, often accused of being
a mere talk shop, into a treaty-based organisation whose decisions are
legally binding on members, making them more accountable, officials said.

____________________________________

July 22, Associated Press
When Asia holds key security meeting, top U.S. official will be a no-show
- Ian Mader

Vientiane: When Asia holds its key annual security meeting on perils
ranging from rights abuses to nuclear bombs, the top U.S. diplomat will
snub the meeting for the first time in over 20 years but Australia will
likely embrace a friendship treaty with its Asian neighbors.

The gathering next week of two dozen countries at the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations' Regional Forum in Laos will coincide with the
first progress in over a year in the region's most irritating threat:
North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Six of the nations also meet next week in Beijing for talks aimed at
getting the North to disarm.

News that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will skip the Laos
ministers' forum and send a deputy prompted wide-ranging speculation: that
Washington is uneasy with China's growing military strength, angry over
Myanmar's human rights record, or has priorities elsewhere. Rice simply
cited a scheduling conflict.

It will be the first ASEAN Regional Forum since 1982 skipped by the U.S.
secretary of state.

Key U.S. ally Australia, meanwhile, has hinted it wants to warm ties with
Asian governments by signing a nonaggression pact that it so far has
shunned with arguments that it's unnecessary and might interfere with ties
to Washington.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the Australians told him
they would join the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and other
diplomats said Australia may sign a document of intent to join during the
forum.

"They will be most welcome," Syed Hamid said, adding that it would allow
Australia to join a new East Asia summit to be held for the first time in
Malaysia in December. "It will boost cooperation, understanding, good will
in all dimensions."

Rice's absence, on the other hand, does "not send a good signal" and looks
like Washington is spurning eastern Asia in favor of priorities in the
Middle East, Syed Hamid said.

"Let's be candid," Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said.
"Foreign ministers of Asia are not ecstatic about the decision."

The meeting groups ASEAN's core Southeast Asian members with Asian
heavyweights such as Japan, China and India as well as the United States,
Russia, Australia and others. East Timor will become its newest member.

Regional cooperation in fighting terrorism will be a main theme at the
conference. A weather warning system to minimize tsunami death tolls is
among many other issues on the agenda, delegations said.

Senior officials start talking on Sunday and the meetings wrap up on Friday.

Also at the forum are Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, the European Union,
Indonesia, the two Koreas, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, New Zealand,
Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Rice called the forum "a vital organization in which we want to engage
more" but said she had other commitments.

Her no-show follows a Pentagon report warning that Chinese military
planners could now be looking beyond their traditional goal of threatening
rival Taiwan to asserting dominance in the rest of the region.

"The U.S. might want to express concerns about China's military
expansion," said Keiichi Hatakeyama, a political scientist at Japan's
Gakushuin Women's College. "The U.S. has been putting the brakes on China
when something happens while also maintaining trusting relations."

China denies any designs on regional hegemony.

"Not only is China not a threat to anyone, but we would also like to make
friends with people in every country, work together and develop mutually
beneficial cooperation in order to facilitate everyone's progress,"
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said this week.

Larry Wortzel, an Asia expert at Heritage Foundation, said China has been
successful in drawing confidence about its intentions from Southeast Asia,
but less successful with the United States. With Japan, it still has
simmering disputes stemming from World War II history.

"Frankly, they work to American interests because they strengthen Japan's
alliance with the US," he said.

Japanese political scientist Akihiko Tanaka of Tokyo University suspected
Rice's move was aimed at pushing ASEAN to deny Myanmar the group's
chairmanship next year as scheduled.

"It's the Myanmar issue," Tanaka said. "It is not preferable to skip a
multinational security forum like the ARF. But ... Myanmar should not be
chair."

Southeast Asian nations have urged Myanmar to meet U.S. and European
demands to liberalize and release pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu
Kyi from house arrest or forgo the chairmanship, so as not to endanger the
region's development aid.

ASEAN rotates its chairmanship alphabetically and next would come the
Philippines, which says its neighbors have urged it to be ready for the
chairmanship if Myanmar agrees during the coming week's meetings to step
aside.

"Like Boy Scouts, we are always prepared," the Philippine foreign
secretary said.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 21, Associated Press
Improving human rights will undermine terrorists, British government says
- Sue Leeman

London: Improving human rights around the world will help undermine the
propaganda and recruiting efforts of terrorist groups, the British
government said Thursday at the launch of its annual report on human
rights.

Foreign Office Minister Ian Pearson said the bombings in London on July 7
- and a series of attempted bombings Thursday - underlined the threat from
terrorists.

"Terrorism is the most vile way in which human rights are destroyed,"
Pearson told a news conference. "But there are others - poverty,
oppression, exploitation and dictatorship. ...

"In dealing with the discontent which exists in many parts of the world -
injustice, religious intolerance, lack of democratic accountability - we
will help undermine the terrorists' propaganda and their recruiting
grounds," Pearson said.

He said Britain is spending more than 14 million pounds (US$23 million;
[euro]21 million) this year on schemes to improve human rights - double
what it spent two years ago.

In the past year, Britain has condemned human rights abuses in Sudan and
Chechnya, Zimbabwe and Myanmar, he said, and has worked with the U.N.
Security Council to improve human rights in the Ivory Coast.

In other cases, like that of China, Britain has engaged in dialogue with
the authorities in an attempt to improve the human rights situation,
Pearson said.

The Foreign Office's eighth annual human rights report highlighted the
fact that in recent months there were free and fair elections in Ukraine,
Afghanistan and Iraq as well as demands for representative government in
countries like Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan.

"We have also been encouraged by the tentative moves towards more
participatory governance in parts of the Middle East - although there is
still a long way to go in that region," said Pearson.

In a clear signal that the international community will not tolerate gross
human rights abuses, the U.N. Security Council referred human rights
abuses in Sudan to the International Criminal Court, the first time it has
made such a referral.

In Zimbabwe, the report said, the government has turned on its most
vulnerable citizens, driving hundreds of thousands from their homes and
destroying livelihoods, and the southern African nation remains a cause
for concern.

In Myanmar, also known as Burma, Pearson said the military junta
"continues to cling to power and ignore the international community's
repeated calls for democracy and national reconciliation."

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who celebrated her 60th birthday this
year, has now spent a total of nine years under house arrest.

The report welcomed the recent release of some 250 Burmese political
prisoners, but pointed out that more than 1,000 remain in jail.

In Uzbekistan, the report said, authorities are refusing to allow an
independent inquiry into events in the eastern region of Andijan on May
13, when more than 500 people were reported killed during a demonstration.

And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the report said, human rights
violations add daily to the death toll of millions from the recent civil
war.

On the Net: 	Foreign Office: www.fco.gov.uk