BurmaNet News, September 29, 2007
Editor
editor at burmanet.org
Sat Sep 29 11:48:16 EDT 2007
September 29, 2007 Issue # 3305
INSIDE BURMA
BBC News: New protests on Rangoon streets
Reuters: U.N. envoy flies into Myanmar maelstrom
Irrawaddy: Monks sentenced to six years imprisonment; Rangoon, Mandalay
locked
AFP: Burma death toll much higher than reported: Downer
Mizzima: War zone, where only one side has guns, protests in Rangoon
against junta
New York Times: Myanmar's descent, seen from 150 miles up
Mizzima News: Monks stage hunger strike in Bamaw prison
Kaladan News: Unofficial curfew imposed in Maungdaw and Buthidaung
Asia Times: Myanmar's blogs of bloodshed
Reuters: Smiles and tourists vanish from Myanmar
ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: The Irrawaddy’s web site disabled by Virus
BUSINESS / TRADE
AP: Firms seek access to Burma oil fields despite bloody crackdown
ASEAN
The Straits Times: Asean must act - Zaw Oo & Aung Naing Oo
AIPMC: ASEAN should expel Myanmar if violence continues
REGIONAL
CBC News: Burma apologizes for death of Japanese journalist
INTERNATIONAL
IPS: UN emergency session to study crisis
The Nation: Surayud lays into Burmese junta at UN
Reuters: Satellites confirm reports of Myanmar violence
AP: Junta hampering food movement; hunger big danger, says UN
AFP: What's in a name -- battle rages over 'Burma' vs 'Myanmar'
New York Times: U.S. steps up confrontation with Myanmar's rulers
OPINION / OTHER
The Economist: The saffron revolution - The saffron revolution; To come
BBC News: What next for Burma's generals? - Jonathan Head
Washington Post (editorial): The Saffron Olympics
Boston Globe (editorial): The junta's enablers in Beijing
STATEMENT
OSI condemns violent crackdown in Burma
ANNOUNCEMENT
DVB via BBC Monitoring: Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma to air
"almost full time " from 28 Sep
____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA
September 29, BBC News
New protests on Rangoon streets
Several hundred people have gathered in Burma's main city of Rangoon,
despite three days of a government crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
The demonstrators have been surrounded by security forces and pro-military
vigilante groups, eyewitnesses said.
The protesters are chanting slogans and taunting police, but no shots have
so far been fired.
The protest came as a United Nations special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari,
arrived in Rangoon.
He was due to fly immediately to the new Burmese capital, Naypyidaw, to
hold key talks with the country's ruling generals.
Affront
Eyewitnesses said that after a quiet morning in Rangoon, protesters again
gathered in the centre of the city.
Some eyewitnesses told the BBC that more than 1,000 people were
demonstrating against the government.
This is considerably fewer than at the height of the protests, but the
BBC's Chris Hogg in neighbouring Thailand says that even small protests in
such a tightly controlled society are an affront to the government,
especially today.
Less than 24 hours earlier state television had announced that peace and
stability had returned to Burma.
There were isolated reports of new violence.
According to AFP news agency, security forces charged a group of around
100 protesters on the Pansoedan bridge in central Rangoon.
"They beat people so badly," one eyewitness told the agency. "I wonder how
these people can bear it. I saw the security forces arrest about five
people on the streets."
There have also been reports of at least three protests elsewhere - in
Mandalay, Sittwe and Pakokku.
Witnesses in the central town of Pakokku said hundreds of monks led a
march of thousands of demonstrators.
There was no visible security presence, as the monks had struck a deal
with the local authorities allowing them to march as long as the protest
was peaceful, AFP news agency said.
Talks
Burma has now seen almost two weeks of sustained anti-government protests,
and three days of tough crackdowns on the protesters by the military.
Internet links, which the government cut to stem the flow of information
about the protests, are reported to be working intermittently.
It is not clear whether the security forces have been directly targeting
protesters or just shooting warning shots to disperse the crowds, but
Burmese officials said nine people were killed on Thursday.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he believed the loss of life had been
"far greater".
Monks, who were initially at the vanguard of the protests, have been
arrested or confined to their monasteries.
"I don't think that we have any more hope to win," one young woman told
the Associated Press, commenting on their arrest. "The monks are the ones
who give us courage."
It is not clear which members of the government Mr Gambari will be allowed
to meet, though the White House said he should be allowed to meet "anyone
he wants", including opposition figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi.
He is being encouraged to persuade the government to hold a dialogue with
the protesters, our correspondent says, but few expect him to have much
success.
Many Burmese people are not just being affected by the violence, but by
restricted access to food aid as a result of the military roadblocks,
humanitarian groups said.
The World Food Programme said its deliveries of food aid to 500,000 needy
people have been severely impeded.
Are you in the area? Are you affected by the events in Burma? Send us your
comments using the form below.
You can send your pictures and moving footage to yourpics at bbc.co.uk or
text them to + 44 (0) 7725 100 100
When taking photos or filming please do not endanger yourself or others,
take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.
____________________________________
September 29, Reuters
U.N. envoy flies into Myanmar maelstrom - Aung Hla Tun
United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari flew into Myanmar on Saturday
carrying worldwide hopes he can persuade its ruling generals to use
negotiations instead of guns to end mass protests against 45 years of
military rule.
"He's the best hope we have. He is trusted on both sides," Singapore
Foreign Minister George Yeo said. "If he fails, then the situation can
become quite dreadful."
Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister, made no comment on arrival in
Yangon as he went straight onto a flight to the generals' new capital,
Naypyidaw, 240 miles to the north.
Before heading to Yangon, Gambari said in Singapore he was going "to
deliver a message from the secretary-general to the leadership, a message
that is very much by the Security Council".
"I look forward to a very fruitful visit so that I can report progress on
all fronts," Channel News Asia quoted him as saying.
Asked if he expected to meet detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, Gambari said: "I expect to meet all the people that I need to meet."
So far, the junta appears to have ignored international clamor for a
peaceful end to their crackdown on a mass uprising led by monks, the moral
core of the Buddhist nation, which grew from small protests against shock
fuel price rises in August.
Troops and riot police manned barricades on Saturday in the area from
which the pro-democracy protests have reverberated around the world. Small
groups gathered to taunt and curse them before scattering down alleys when
they started to charge.
Such cat-and-mouse sparring between the crowds, which would re-emerge at
different points, and security forces lasted several hours on Friday.
The junta says it is acting with restraint.
In practice, that has meant firing at crowds, raiding a dozen Yangon
monasteries thought to be at the vanguard of the protests, detaining
hundreds of monks and sealing off two pagodas marking the start and end
points of the mass protests.
So far, it appears to be working.
FEW MONKS SEEN
"Peace and stability has been restored," state-run newspapers declared on
Saturday. Security forces had handled the protests "with care, using the
least possible force", they said.
Monks were scarcely seen on Friday or Saturday in crowds facing off
against security forces around the barricades in a city terrified of a
repeat of 1988, when the army killed an estimated 3,000 people in crushing
a nationwide uprising.
Their monasteries surrounded by soldiers, few monks went out on the daily
alms collection on which they depend for food, residents said. Many young
monks had evaded arrest by casting off their maroon robes and pretending
to be laymen.
The scene was similar in the second city of Mandalay, home to many of
Myanmar's more than 400,000 monks, where troops surrounded major
monasteries, a Chinese official said.
"Basically the situation is quiet. Armed police are stationed along major
streets and at intersections," he said.
In the northwestern coastal town of Sittwe, one resident said many younger
monks had been forced to go back to their home towns. The only security
officials on the streets were police, he said.
"Now in Sittwe very quiet. No more demonstrations, everything disperse,"
he said. "No more fighting here."
Monks have reported six of their brethren killed since the army started
cracking down on Wednesday to end mass protests by columns of monks
flanked by supporters who filled five city blocks.
"BARBARIC"
State-run media said 10 people had been killed since the crackdown began
and prompted international outrage.
Among the dead was a Japanese journalist whose death, apparently at the
hands of a soldier firing at point-blank range, was caught on video seen
around the world.
"I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being
reported," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday after
talking to U.S. President George W. Bush.
Bush and Brown discussed the need to maintain international pressure on
Myanmar's rulers and the White House condemned the present crackdown as
"barbaric".
Bush authorized new U.S. sanctions against the junta, which has been
operating under similar restrictions for years and turns a deaf ear to any
criticism of how it handles dissidents.
The European Union summoned Myanmar's senior diplomat in Brussels and
warned him of tighter sanctions.
EU experts looked into possible restrictions on exports from Myanmar of
timber, precious metals and gems, but reached no decisions, one diplomat
said. Investments by specific Europeans in the country were not raised, he
said.
Activist Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign U.K. called the EU sanctions
"pathetic". He said a freeze on assets had netted less than 7,000 euros
across all 27 EU member states and many countries allowed their companies
to do business in Myanmar.
China, the junta's main ally, publicly called for restraint
for the first time on Thursday. But at the United Nations, China has ruled
out supporting sanctions or a U.N. condemnation of the military
government's use of force.
However, Premier Wen Jiabao told Brown in a telephone conversation China
would work with the international community to help bring about "an
appropriate solution" to the Myanmar crisis, the Chinese Foreign Ministry
said in a statement.
The Association of South East Asian Nations, which rarely criticizes one
of its own, has expressed "revulsion" at the crackdown.
____________________________________
September 29, Irrawaddy
Monks sentenced to six years imprisonment; Rangoon, Mandalay locked down
by troops
Streets in Rangoon and Mandalay were relatively quiet on Saturday,
following three bloody days in which at least 10 protesters were gunned
down, according to state-run media, and scores of monks and civilians were
beaten and arrested by security forces.
However, members of Burma's opposition groups say as many as 200 people
may have been killed in the standoff between monks, pro-democracy
demonstrators and security forces. Many hundreds of people were seriously
injured.
Many corpses were taken to secret locations, according to opposition sources.
In Rangoon, as many as 1,000 monks have been imprisoned since a boycott on
alms from the military government and its supporters was declared on
September 17, according to the Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners based on the Thai-Burmese border.
The monks are being held in the notorious Insein Prison and the Government
Technology Institute compound, located near the prison in north Rangoon,
according to sources in Rangoon.
A senior monk who was taken to Insein Prison by authorities to talk to the
monks said they were stripped of their robes and are now wearing prison
clothing. Some monks have already been sentenced to six years imprisonment
by a specially convened court, he said.
Throughout the day scattered protesters numbering in the dozens to several
hundred, mostly young and bold, played hit-and-run games with security
forces in Rangoon.
"Some young people appeared on the streets, holding fighting peacock flags
and wearing arm bands. When the army trucks come, they run away," said one
resident.
The authorities, who clearly have control of Rangoon, fired tear gas in
reply to groups who dared to venture out, and there were numerous arrests.
There is some hope among protesters that Sunday may see larger
demonstrations to take advantage of the presence of UN special envoy
Ibrahim Gambari, who arrived in Rangoon on Saturday. Opposition forces are
hopeful some type of dialogue can begin with the junta with Gambari as
mediator.
Authorities maintain a heavy presence around many of the most active
monasteries in Rangoon and Mandalay. Many shopping malls, businesses,
grocery stores and public parks are closed.
Ngwe Kyar Yan Monastery in Rangoon, the scene of a bloody overnight attack
in which about 200 monks were detained early Thursday morning, has since
been looted by army troops, according to sources close to the monastery.
Everything of value was carted away, including scores of Buddha statues.
The head of one of the largest Buddhas, embedded with valuable jewels, was
cut off.
Meanwhile the price of basic food in Rangoon is increasing hour by hour.
Some retail shops say rice stocks are very low. "I have rice to sell for
only two or three days," said one shop owner. A dusk to dawn curfew in
Rangoon and Mandalay has made life very difficult for the people.
Authorities cut Internet service within the country on Friday and phone
service has been sporadic, further isolating residents.
The largest demonstration in the country on Saturday occurred in
Kyaukpadaung in Mandalay Division when about 1,000 monks led an estimated
30,000 people in a peaceful march despite the heavy presence of security
forces and military troops.
Sources say a disinformation campaign consisting of counter-demonstrations
organized by the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a
junta-backed group, has forced people from Kyaukpadaung, Myingyan and
Nyaung Oo to demonstrate in support of the junta crackdown.
Over the past weeks, leaders and members of the National League for
Democracy and other opposition groups in Rangoon, Mandalay, Magwe division
and Arakan state have been arrested by local authorities, essentially
decimating the ranks of the political opposition. Thand Nwe Oo, a youth
leader of the NLD who was arrested in Thaingangyun Township is 6-months
pregnant, said a source.
____________________________________
September 29, Agence France Presse
Burma death toll much higher than reported: Downer
Crowds taunted and cursed security forces barricading central Rangoon
overnight, as the junta tried to prevent more mass protests against
Burma's 45 years of military rule and deepening economic hardship.
Meanwhile Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australian diplomats
feared the true death toll in the country was much higher than has been
reported so far, and could be in the hundreds.
Potentially deadly games of cat and mouse went on for hours around the
barbed-wire barriers in a city terrified of a repeat of 1988, when the
army killed an estimated 3,000 people in crushing an uprising.
Few Buddhist monks were among the crowds, unlike in previous days, after
soldiers ransacked 10 monasteries on Thursday and carted off hundreds
inside.
When the troops charged, the protesters vanished into narrow side streets,
only to emerge elsewhere to renew their abuse until darkness fell and an
overnight curfew took effect.
"We only want democracy," some yelled in English. "May the people who beat
monks be struck down by lightning," others chanted in Burmese.
Despite the visceral anger in their voices, far fewer protesters turned
out in Rangoon than earlier in the week, when they had walked alongside
thousands of maroon-robed monks.
Shots were fired on Friday but there was no word of more casualties a day
after troops swept protesters from the center of Rangoon, giving them 10
minutes to leave or be shot.
Troops fired on several crowds on Thursday and state-run television said
nine people were killed.
Downer, Brown comment
"The Burmese official estimate of 10 dead is likely to be a real
exaggeration [sic]," Mr Downer said. "I think the numbers are going to be
substantially higher than that. I think they could be multiples of ten
higher."
His comments were echoed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
"I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being
reported," Mr Brown said on Friday after talking by telephone with US
President George W Bush and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
There has been no word on the fate of the monks, who turned what began as
small protests against shock fuel price rises last month into a mass
uprising when they lent their moral weight to demonstrations against the
ruling generals.
Burma's main internet link has been cut off and internet cafes in Rangoon
are closed. Several newspapers have also stopped publishing. Witnesses in
the city say soldiers have beaten and arrested people found with mobile
phones or cameras.
In other developments, UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari was in Singapore
and is expected to arrive in Burma later today.
Some monks told foreign Burmese-language broadcasters they were not going
to give up. Speaking anonymously, they said a "united front" of clergy,
students and activists had been formed to continue the struggle.
Mr Bush and Mr Brown discussed the need to maintain international pressure
on Burma's rulers and the White House condemned the crackdown as
"barbaric."
Asked whether Mr Bush and Mr Brown talked about the possibility of
encouraging Burma's people to overthrow their government if protests grew
into a full-scale uprising, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said that
would be "a hypothetical."
"We certainly support the people who are marching for democracy and
peace," he said.
The European Union summoned Burma's senior diplomat in Brussels and warned
him of tighter sanctions.
EU experts looked into possible restrictions on exports from Burma of
timber, precious metals and stones but did not reach any decisions, one
diplomat said. Investments by specific Europeans in the country were not
raised, he said.
Activist Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK called the EU sanctions
"pathetic" and said a freeze on assets had netted less than 7,000 euros in
all 27 EU member states and many countries allowed companies to do
business in Burma.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said sanctions were premature but that he
was sorry to hear about civilian deaths. "As far as sanctions are
concerned, this is a topic to be especially considered in the United
Nations," said Mr Putin.
Russia is, like China, a veto-wielding UN Security Council member and has
shown growing interest in energy cooperation with Burma. China, the main
backer of Burma's military government, has flatly ruled out backing
sanctions.
The junta told diplomats summoned to its new jungle capital of Naypyidaw
that it was "committed to showing restraint in its response to the
provocations," one of those present said. There were protests across Asia,
with many people wearing red to symbolise the blood spilled in Burma.
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/29/2046840.htm?section=justin
____________________________________
September 29, Mizzima News
War zone, where only one side has guns, protests in Rangoon against junta;
Soldiers tighten security perimeter, gear up for fresh crackdown- Mizzima
reporter in Rangoon
It resembles a chaotic urban war zone with the Burma Army preparing to
crush the people’s movement with a heavy hand.
The command centre and the soldiers are positioned in Sule pagoda. At
least 12 army trucks could be seen near the Sule pagoda in front of the
City Hall. The police station on Sule Road is cordoned off by barbed wire.
The bridges leading to the city centre are closed to prevent protesters
from entering. The my appears ready to violently suppress any protest
inside the greater downtown area to the bridges. The city centre is
largely paralyzed this morning. Shops owners would be lucky if they can
open for two or three hours in the morning.
The state television is now showing troop movements. It could be a sign
that the junta is feeling more secure. The junta is methodically and
systematically pushing the security perimeter outwards. Last night it was
up to Bogyoke Aung San Street to the north and China town to the west.
A run down of what happened yesterday in downtown Rangoon.
It is difficult to estimate the number of protesters as they appeared in
groups of a few hundred and were fractured. They [the protesters] were
desperately looking for someone to lead them. If these few agitating
groups persist, I fear they will just be slaughtered because the regime
will try and clean up everything as best as they can before letting
Gambari in," an older protester said.
The people were no longer clapping and encouraging the demonstrators as
they had done earlier though they still watch and gather but the active
demonstrators are now isolated. People will not talk as readily either, as
government informers are said to be everywhere.
A few hundred protesters with the red and gold peacock emblazoned flag
proceeded down Anawrattha Road to Shwebontha Street. From there they
quickly fled back to Shwedagonpagoda Road after cheering for several
minutes.
Five army trucks showed up on Shwebontha Street. About 20 soldiers are in
each truck with eight sitting on each side, three in front and one in the
rear. They all had their guns pointing outside at civilians and
pedestrians.
A speech was delivered through a megaphone mounted on a little truck
packed with members of the USDA and Swan Arrshin armed with batons.
In a chilling warning to the people they said that more people would die
if they did not work together with the army for peace.
At one point it sounded like a recording of yesterday’s shots being replayed.
About 50 soldiers broke off and marched through town heading west on
Mahabandoola Street. Three to five rounds of firing from automatic weapons
sent us running past the Chinatown market for cover. At this point it
appeared shots were fired in the air.
A military convoy went down Merchant Street heading west to confront what
appeared to be the same groups of protesters who gathered had earlier on
Anawrattha Street. The soldiers were led by members of the USDA and Swan
Arrshin with in a van.
Fire engines and police vans could be seen. Soldiers sent civilians and
non protesters running for cover as everyone is terrified of the army.
Several rounds of automatic rifle fire and at least one round of tear gas
were fired in the direction of protesters. The acrid smell of gunfire hung
in the air for several minutes.
____________________________________
September 29, The New York Times
Myanmar's descent, seen from 150 miles up - Donald G. McNEIL Jr.
In the ''before'' shot, from May 2004, the village is there, a cluster of
seven roofs near a small lake. In the ''after'' shot, from February of
this year, the houses are gone.
Satellite photographs of rural Myanmar released yesterday show what seems
to be evidence of human rights abuses gathered from space: villages wiped
out, populations relocated and military encampments rising.
The images, of events long reported, were released by the Science and
Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, in coordination with the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a group working
to end such abuses and bring democracy to the country known as Myanmar.
''We want to show the military junta that we are watching from the sky,''
said Aung Din, the campaign's policy director.
Myanmar's ruling junta is in the middle of a violent crackdown on urban
protests that were provoked by price increases and are being led by monks.
The release of the pictures was hastened for that reason.
Those pictures show rural provinces that are home to the Karen and Shan
tribes, but the director of the project, Lars Bromley, said it had now
asked the satellite companies to train their cameras on monasteries,
military camps and urban plazas where demonstrations form.
Mr. Aung Din said that because the junta had apparently cut Internet and
telephone ties with the outside world to prevent pictures of the violence
from getting out, ''we're trying to monitor them via satellite.''
The newly released photographs were taken from seven years to a few weeks
ago by three commercial satellites that pass over Myanmar about twice a
week, about 150 miles up. They give fairly clear pictures of objects down
to about three feet across; roofs, fences and some trees are
distinguishable, as are stretches of ground that look burned.
In recent years, a United Nations report found, 3,000 villages of the
Karen and nearby tribes have been destroyed, and more than 500,000 people
have been driven from their homes. Government troops are accused of
systematically raping girls and forcing children to join their ranks.
In several images, all or parts of villages are gone. In one, a palm grove
that once looked carefully tended appears overgrown. In others, rows of
new buildings have sprung up in refugee camps, or military encampments
have expanded and new fences and roads can be seen.
The targets were chosen to corroborate witnesses' reports of attacks or
troop movements gathered by advocates from the Free Burma Rangers, the
Karen Human Rights Group and the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium, which
have representatives in the area.
One of the hardest parts, Mr. Bromley said, was deciding where to tell the
satellites to aim in the region, which is smaller than 1,000 square miles,
because tiny villages are often not on maps and refugees shift location.
Although global positioning system devices would solve that problem by
providing coordinates, for a member of one of the rights groups to be
caught on the ground with one ''would be a death sentence,'' he said.
''They would be shot on sight.''
The science society's human rights project began 30 years ago, helping
forensic teams sift mass graves in Argentina.
Recently, it has used satellite photographs to document human rights
violations in Darfur and in Zimbabwe. In May 2006, it showed that a
Zimbabwean settlement that was a hotbed of political opposition to
President Robert Mugabe had been bulldozed flat. It had had 850 homes, and
at least 6,000 residents.
____________________________________
September 29, Mizzima News
Monks stage hunger strike in Bamaw prison - Myo Gyi
Over 30 monks being detained in Bamaw prison have started a hunger strike
. They were later transferred to other prisons and separated on September
27. The local authorities raided various monasteries in Bamaw on September
25 night and arrested 108 monks. They were forcibly disrobed and sent to
prison. Since then, 30 monks have been staging a hunger strike and over
100 monks are reciting the Sutra.
The authorities later sent them to Momauk and Mansi army lockups on
September 27.
"The monks didn't accept alms and chanted Sutra. They were taken away in
buses on September 27 and sent to army lockups in Mnahsi and Momauk, the
prison staff told us," a relative of a monk told Mizzima.
The authorities ordered beating and arresting of the monks from September
25 to 28 along with six local residents on September 25.
"They treated the monks very cruelly. The monks were arrested while they
were having alms offered by a lay disciple after winning the Myathepeik
religious lottery. They even forcibly disrobed a monk in that house," a
woman resident said.
We learnt that the NLD MP elected from the Bamaw constituency, poet Bamaw
Nyo New was transferred to a police lockup from prison but the whereabouts
and situation of other prisoners are not yet known.
____________________________________
September 29, Asia Times
Myanmar's blogs of bloodshed - Richard S Ehrlich
Dodging a deadly military crackdown, bloggers in Myanmar are now on the
front lines providing news and photos of death and insurrection. The
military responded on Friday by closing down the Internet, signaling that
a wider and more severe crackdown on street protesters could be imminent.
At least 10 people are believed to have been killed this week in protests
led by Buddhist monks against the military government. Scores of people
have been arrested, including monks, during demonstrations that have
brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets of the old capital
Yangon since the beginning of the week.
Beginning on Monday, Myanmar authorities started to close down several
public Internet cafes in Yangon, according to international press freedom
groups. The state-affiliated main Internet service provider, Bagan
Cybertech, meanwhile, apparently on government orders had slowed down the
speed of its Internet connections, making it more difficult for
journalists and bloggers to send large-file-size photos and video clips to
outside news organizations.
Less than 1% of the Myanmar population has regular access to the Internet.
But those who at least until today had regular access were able to get
around government-
administered blocks on internationally hosted e-mail accounts and the
wider Internet by using an array of proxy servers, proxy sites and
so-called http tunnels.
Their weblogs, written in Burmese and grammatically flawed English, are
mostly by people living in the commercial port of Yangon, where Buddhist
monks, pro-democracy activists and residents have been defying security
forces during more than a week of protests.
The bloggers rely on word of mouth, mobile telephones, online chat groups,
instant messaging, and first-hand experience in barricaded streets amid
tear gas and gunfire.
The best blogs provide photos, video and text updates purportedly by
witnesses, which are later confirmed by news organizations or, in some
cases, can't be verified.
Myanmar's bloody pro-democracy protests have captivated the outside world,
including US President George W Bush, the United Nations and the public,
thanks largely to the bloggers' media.
Myanmar's military regime refused to grant visas to foreign
correspondents, and blocked visas for many foreign tourists, after the
mass uprising worsened several days ago.
Burmese and foreign residents in Yangon, Mandalay and elsewhere in Myanmar
- which is mainland Southeast Asia's biggest nation - surprised everyone
by risking their lives to document the demand for liberty.
Some of the best blogs appear to be by people trying to live a normal life
while updating the world about the marches and bloodshed on the streets.
One poignant blog, by a young, "sensitive" Myanma woman who identifies
herself as Dawn, appears at www.xanga.com/dawn_1o9. "Around 1:20 or
1:30pm, I heard someone saying that the police/army started shooting in
the air," Dawn wrote, describing Yangon on Wednesday.
"At 2:00pm, I heard that buses have stopped running on Sule Pagoda Road.
Someone from the office went out to there, and came running back when
there were shots being fired. I heard the gunshots too, but it sounded a
lot like clapping. So I went out to look," Dawn said.
"I was reading the news on a blogger's Cbox, and it said that at least
five monks were dead at Shwedagon Pagoda. My sis had already called home
and told my brother not to go to work. I called home too, and also to my
father. He told me to stay at work and not to go out."
International media said at least one person died when security forces
attacked protesters on Wednesday, though some news reports said up to five
people may have been killed.
In gallows humor, Dawn wrote: "I'll let you know when I've been shot. I'll
ask someone before I die to blog about it. If it was an instant death,
I'll come to my sister in my dream and tell her to blog about it, or I
won't rest in peace."
Another popular blogger created a "prosaic collection" of vivid text and
photos at ko-htike.blogspot.com and said, "now regime open fire into these
group, and used fire engine to sweep the blood on the street".
Foreigners blogging in Myanmar include burmesedayze.blogspot.com, written
by someone who moved to Yangon in March 2006.
Before the protests, Myanmar had a strong presence on the Internet,
created over the years by Burmese dissidents and foreigners who
established pro-democracy websites in Thailand, Europe, North America and
elsewhere.
In 2006, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi received a MySpace.com webpage, created by Americans to
publicize her decade under house arrest in Yangon.
Other websites were created by non-governmental organizations, or received
funding from US government and other international sources, enabling
additional offline publication of magazines and radio broadcasts abroad.
These include Irrawaddy.org, which also publishes a monthly Irrawaddy
magazine in Thailand, and DVB.no, the Democratic Voice of Burma radio,
based in Norway.
The most respected of those websites are now mainstream, offering reports
quoted by international news organizations.
In 1988, Burmese journalists in exile set up Mizzima.com, promoting
democracy in Myanmar through the activists' India-based Mizzima News
Agency, which is bilingual in Burmese and English, and now includes online
video.
Some blogs, such as weunite-weblog.blogspot.com, collect Internet links
relating to Myanmar, and warn when the regime blocks websites and blogs.
Graffiti artists can now go to saffronrevolutionworldwide.blogspot.com for
stencil images portraying Buddhist monks - to be cut out, held against a
wall, and spray-painted, resulting in a picture of two monks walking -
similar to internationally acclaimed graffiti artist Bansky's urban icons.
"You can help make this image appear all over the world, reminding people
everywhere of the uprising in Burma and showing that the struggle for
freedom is alive everywhere," said the bloggers, based in Mae Sot,
Thailand, on the Myanmar border.
"Monks make great stencil images ... download the pattern and get your
monks on the march!"
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,
California. He has reported news from Asia since 1978 and is co-author of
the non-fiction book of investigative journalism, Hello My Big Big Honey!
Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews. His
website is www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent. With additional reporting
by Asia Times Online.
____________________________________
September 29, Kaladan News
Unofficial curfew imposed in Maungdaw and Buthidaung
Maungdaw, Arakan State : An unofficial curfew order has been imposed in
Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, Arakan state, Burma since September 25.
The Western Command Commander gave a verbal order through the concerned
authorities for people not to go out from their homes after 9 p.m to
4:00p.m., said a source in the army.
After the order, no one was arrested because no one violated the ban, said
a village elder.
People not complying with the order, he will be punished severely or
arrested.
On September 27, Burma ’s Border Security Force (Nasaka) checked every
house in Khadir Bill village in Maungdaw Township and watched the village
the whole night to see whether the villagers went out from their houses, a
villager said on condition of anonymity.
Besides, the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) members have to
inform the authorities before 6 p.m. that the villagers are present in the
village according to their family lists. If any one wants to go out of the
village or quarter, he will have to take a recommendation letter from the
VPDC Chairman and one from any concerned authority.
Six-Hloontin (riot police) is doing 24-hour security duty in front of the
Sri Mangla Hall in Maungdaw town since the demonstrations started in
Rangoon , sources said.
____________________________________
September 29, Reuters
Smiles and tourists vanish from Myanmar
The traditionally hospitable people have clammed up and the tourists have
disappeared from the streets of Myanmar's main city amid fear and anger at
the military's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Yangon's famed Buddhist shrines are barricaded with barbed wire and police
and soldiers patrol the streets, arresting anyone they suspect of taking
part in protests, shoving them onto trucks with rope binding their wrists.
Residents, renowned for their warmth, go about their business grim-faced.
"Three weeks ago when we were here everyone was smiling, but that's
finished now," said Heidi Colombo, a tourist from Brussels who returned to
the former capital after three weeks travelling around the country.
Now, foreign tourists have all but disappeared from this elegant but
dilapidated city.
In The Strand, Yangon's most luxurious hotel, the wood-panelled bar has
been bereft of revellers since a night curfew was imposed four days ago.
The Hotel Nikko, overlooking the shimmering waters of Kandawgyi Lake, has
halved its rates but its lobby remains empty, the death of a Japanese
journalist during a demonstration on Wednesday putting off its main
clientele from Japan.
In Mandalay, the country's major seat of Buddhist learning, the
receptionist at one normally bustling hotel said she only had three guests
even though the former Burma's second city appeared to have witnessed less
violence than Yangon.
"There was a little bit of soldier on the road, but very far from our
hotel. Nobody died," she said in halting English. "Not so dangerous in
Mandalay."
MEAN STREETS
The mass demonstrations have stopped since Thursday, when soldiers fired
bullets and tear gas into crowds after beating up and arresting hundreds
the monks who had lead the protests.
But in the afternoons, dozens of mainly young men gather at street corners
eyeballing the military and police.
Before this week's violent crackdown, even security officials were happy
to smile and chat with visitors.
"Only last week it was so relaxed. Some police were playing chequers in a
park. I sat down with them and played too," said one Westerner who
declined to be named.
A few days later, the same men were probably being deployed with batons
and rifles to use against their fellow countrymen.
Until Wednesday, the marches, originally sparked by a shock rise of fuel
prices before the maroon-robed monks took up the lead, had been peaceful.
One one occasion, not repeated, hundreds of monks had even been allowed to
gather in front of the house of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader
and democracy icon who has been detained for nearly 12 of the last 18
years.
People cried and one witness said a police officer guarding the gates to
Suu Kyi's leafy lakeside villa had dropped to his knees and bowed when the
Nobel peace laureate appeared.
Within days, the generals would send in the troops, and the city would be
echoing to the sound of gunfire.
____________________________________
ON THE BORDER
September 29, Irrawaddy
The Irrawaddy’s web site disabled by Virus - Saw Yan Naing
The Web site of The Irrawaddy News Magazine, a Chiang Mai-based Burmese
news agency, was infected by a virus beginning on September 27.
The attack of unknown origin tried to spread the so-called “Trojan Horse”
virus into the site as well as to Web site visitors.
Rest assured. If you view our Web site, you will not receive a virus.
There is no danger to your computer as you view The Irrawaddy Web site.
You will be automatically redirected to a safe mirror site addressed as
www.irrawaddymedia.com.
A “trojan” virus is a type that usually masquerades as something else—an
image, a video file or the like.
A quick investigation by The Irrawaddy’s technical staff revealed that a
malicious code had been inserted into the site’s main page. This led to a
virtual ‘traffic jam.’
The code caused browsers to download hidden files in the background,
eating up all available bandwidth on the server.
It is still not known whether the virus was infected via e-mails or a
direct hack to the server. E-mail messages hosting on The Irrawaddy’s
server and files inside the server getting infected.
When some readers browsed our site, they got infected. The virus also
caused slow internet connections, according to our research. The site had
been attacked since Thursday and was totally down for a few hours on
Saturday.
The Irrawaddy is an independent and non-profit news organization not
affiliated with any political opposition group or government and was
established in 1993 by Burmese exile journalists.
The Irrawaddy apologizes for any inconveniences to our readers. We will
update readers as conditions warrant.
____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE
September 29, Associated Press
Firms seek access to Burma oil fields despite bloody crackdown - Thomas Hogue
Just last Sunday—when marches led by Buddhist monks drew thousands in
Burma's biggest cities—Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora was in the
country's capital for the signing of oil and gas exploration contracts
between state-controlled ONGC Videsh Ltd and Burma's military rulers.
The signing ceremony was an example of how important Burma's oil and gas
resources have become in an energy-hungry world. Even as Burma's military
junta intensifies its crackdown on pro-democracy protests, oil companies
are jostling for access to the country's largely untapped natural gas and
oil fields that activists say are funding a repressive regime.
China—Burma's staunchest diplomatic protector and largest trading
partner—is particularly keen on investing in the country because of its
strategic location for pipelines to feed the Chinese economy's growing
thirst for oil and gas.
Companies from South Korea, Thailand and elsewhere also are looking to
exploit the energy resources of the desperately poor Southeast Asian
country.
France's Total SA and Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas,
currently pump gas from fields off Burma's coast through a pipeline to
Thailand, which takes 90 percent of Burma's gas output, according to
Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production PLC.
But investing in Burma has brought accusations that petroleum corporations
offer economic support to the country's repressive junta, and in some
cases are complicit in human rights abuses. This week's bloody clampdowns
on protests have escalated the activists' calls for energy companies to
pull out of the country.
"They are funding the dictatorship," said Marco Simons, US legal director
at EarthRights International, an environmental and human rights group with
offices in Thailand and Washington. "The oil and gas companies have been
one of the major industries keeping the regime in power."
Demonstrations that started a month ago over a spike in fuel prices have
become a broader protest against the military rulers. Ten people were
killed in two days of violence this week. Soldiers fired automatic weapons
into a crowd of demonstrators in Rangoon on Thursday and occupied Buddhist
monasteries and cut public Internet access Friday. The moves raised
concerns the crackdown on civilians was set to intensify.
Burma's proven gas reserves were 19 trillion cubic feet at the end of
2006, according to BP PLC's World Review of Statistics. While that's only
about 0.3 percent of the world's total reserves, at current production
rates and Thailand's contract price for gas, the deposits are worth almost
$2 billion a year in sales over the next 40 years.
"It points to the potential that Myanmar [Burma] has," said Kang Wu, a
fellow at the University of Hawaii's East-West Center in Honolulu.
Altogether, nine foreign oil companies are involved in 16 onshore blocks
exploring for oil, enhancing recovery from older fields, or trying to
reactivate fields where production has been suspended, according to
Total's Web site. A block is an area onshore or offshore in which an oil
company is granted exploratory and discovery rights.
Offshore, nine companies, including Total, Petronas, PTTEP, South Korea's
Daewoo International Corp, Chinese state-run companies China National
Offshore Oil Corp, or CNOOC, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, or
Sinopec, are exploring or developing 29 blocks, Total said.
Despite economic sanctions against Burma by the United States and the
European Union, Total continues to operate the Yadana gas field, and
Chevron Corp has a 28 percent stake through its takeover of Unocal.
Existing investments were exempt from the investment ban.
Both Total and Chevron broadly defended their business in the nation.
"Far from solving Myanmar's problems, a forced withdrawal would only lead
to our replacement by other operators probably less committed to the
ethical principles guiding all our initiatives," Jean-Francois Lassalle,
vice president of public affairs for Total Exploration & Production, said
this week in a statement.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy urged Total this week to refrain from
new investment in Burma; the French concern said it had not made any
capital expenditure there since 1998.
Chevron's interest in the Yadana project is "a long-term commitment that
helps meet the critical energy needs of millions in people in the region,"
said Nicole Hodgson, corporate media adviser for Asia.
Total and former partner Unocal Corp were accused of cooperating with the
military in human rights violations while a pipeline was being built
across Burma to Thailand in the 1990s. Both companies have denied the
accusations but Unocal settled a related lawsuit in the US in 2005, prior
to being acquired by Chevron.
Always worried that instability on its border could affect the juggernaut
Chinese economy, Beijing has been gently urging Burma's leaders to ease
the recent strife. On Thursday, it issued a plea for calm, asking the
government to "properly deal" with the conflict.
"The Chinese prefer to separate business and politics," said Kuen-Wook
Paik, an energy analyst at Chatham House, a think tank in London. "They
want to take a neutral stance. They don't want to risk the relationship
with the Myanmar authorities."
But China's chief interest, analysts say, may lie in its strategic
location as a site for pipelines to move oil and gas shipped from the
Middle East to southern China, avoiding the Malacca Straits, which Beijing
worries could be closed off by the US Navy in a conflict.
By building a pipeline, "you start stitching together a crisis management
capability," said William Overholt, director of the Center for Asia
Pacific Policy at RAND Corp, an American think tank.
Beyond interests in exploration blocks in the Bay of Bengal off Burma,
India also plans to build a pipeline to eastern India, but disagreements
with Bangladesh have delayed the plans.
India is not facing any diplomatic pressure to reduce investment in the
country, said R S Sharma, chairman of the state-run Oil and Natural Gas
Corp.
"There is a trade-off between the two: That is a moralistic position and
these strategic interests," said Muchkund Dubey, president of the Council
for Social Development, a New Delhi think tank, and the former top
bureaucrat at India's Foreign Ministry.
Thailand's PTTEP, a partner in Total's Yadana and Petronas' Yetagun gas
projects, said in a statement that production of natural gas is at the
normal rate, and should not be affected by the unrest.
"It is business as usual," said Sidhichai Jayamt, the company's manager
for external relations. "When we have a contract with the government, it
doesn't really matter who the government is."
____________________________________
ASEAN
September 29, The Straits Times
Asean must act - Zaw Oo & Aung Naing Oo
OUR country is dying amid the bloodshed of Buddhist monks.
The senseless killing of monks in a devout Buddhist country is too vile to
be believed. But our own experience in the similarly brutal suppression
during the 1988 uprising warns us that more violent repression will follow
soon.
With severe economic contraction in the midst of rapidly deteriorating
humanitarian conditions, 50 million Burmese could hardly survive under the
weight of potential state failure.
Their mass exodus could trigger a regional crisis. The crisis has already
tarnished the image of Asean even as it draws up a charter for a 'humane
society'.
The cause of state failure in Burma may be purely domestic; however, its
consequences will impact beyond its borders. Asean's non-interference
policy is not only outdated in the context of rapidly changing
international norms, it is also a bad policy to deal with a failing state.
Burma's neighbours must act before it is too late.
Among the Asean members, perhaps two countries in particular can extend
their helping hands because of similarities in national development.
As a state with a largely Buddhist population, Thailand is capable of
showing sympathy for and solidarity with the noble forces.
More importantly, being the only other state with a ruling military junta,
Thailand can also share its lessons in managing the transition from
military rule to popular government within a relatively short period of
time.
While its Council for National Security delivered a new Constitution and
popular election within a year, the State Peace and Development Council in
Burma took 15 years to finish the national convention.
Meanwhile, the Burmese economy collapsed under the prolonged years of
wilful mismanagement and widespread corruption.
Although Indonesia is a distant neighbour, Burma would greatly benefit
from learning the lessons in its tortuous transition from a
military-dominated authoritarian system. President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono can inspire his military counterparts in Burma with his own
experience in the difficult transition from being a soldier to getting
elected as a democratic leader.
In particular, he could share the lessons of how the sunset clause on the
dual role of military leaders in national politics prescribed in the
Indonesian Constitution led to a way forward for the military.
However, it is unlikely that these lessons alone could easily sway the
Burmese generals from sinking the country deeper in misery. That is why it
is very important for Asean to work through the United Nations Security
Council in the same way that they lobbied for the Cambodia peace
agreement.
Apart from the UN mechanism, Thailand can also convince China to adopt a
more realistic position on Burma for the sake of regional stability.
Asean secretary-general-designate Surin Pitsuwan could even take up
initiatives in crisis diplomacy in his personal capacity.
Burma can be saved only when its neighbours act.
Zaw Oo, 41, is reading for a doctorate in political economy at the
American University in Washington. Aung Naing Oo, 42, is a Burmese analyst
living in Thailand. Both men were involved in the student uprising in 1988
and now live abroad.
____________________________________
September 28, ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus
ASEAN should expel Myanmar if violence continues
Members of the ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) called an
emergency press conference on the deteriorating situation in Myanmar.
AIPMC members at the press conference, in Bangkok, Thailand, said that
more needs to be done to compel Myanmar's military leaders to "show
restraint". AIPMC President Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said "I would like ASEAN to
take one more step, and expel Myanmar from the association." He added that
if consensus at the ASEAN could not be reached, then individual member
states should themselves take action, including sanctions, to dissociate
from the military regime in Myanmar.
Former Thai Senator and AIPMC Vice-President Kraisak Choonhavan said that
the "impact on Thailand has become intolerable," and that he believed that
it was time to expel the regime from the regional grouping. He called for
ASEAN governments and legislators to "join hands upholding support and
strength and see the light of humanity" of the monks and the protestors.
AIPMC members called on the international community to work as one to find
more ways of ending the violence in Myanmar. They welcomed yesterday's
ASEAN Foreign Ministers' statement in which the group expressed
"revulsion" at the military's use of violence and reiterated calls for
restraint. AIPMC members emphasized the need for ASEAN to support action
at the UN Security Council.
Thousands of Buddhist monks have led massive anti-junta demonstrations
across most of Myanmar's States and Divisions in recent days. This is the
largest show of peaceful protests against the military regime since 1988.
In the last three days, Myanmar's military junta has responded with
horrifying brutality. Protesters have been killed, monasteries have been
raided and monks dragged away to unknown locations.
____________________________________
REGIONAL
September 29, CBC News
Burma apologizes for death of Japanese journalist
A Burmese official has apologized for the death of a Japanese video
journalist during anti-government protests after Japan strongly protested
the incident, a Japanese news agency reported Saturday.
Kenji Nagai, 50, died after he was shot in the chest in Rangoon, the first
foreign casualty of protests that have consumed the poor country, also
known as Myanmar, for nearly two weeks.
In a meeting at UN headquarters in New York, Japanese Foreign Minister
Masahiko Komura told his Burmese counterpart Friday that the death of
Nagai was "extremely regrettable and we will lodge a stern protest."
Japanese officials also said that they will send a senior official to
Burma to press the government to respond to international concerns over
the violence.
Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win responded with an apology.
"Demonstrations are beginning to calm down, and we would also like to
exercise restraint," Nyan Win said, according to the Japanese news agency
Kyodo.
Tokyo has so far ruled out immediate sanctions against Burma, though
Komura suggested tougher steps could be taken.
Burma's state media have reported 10 deaths during the government's
violent crack down on protests, though international leaders have
suggested the death toll could be two or three times that.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday he believes the death toll
is "far greater" than military regime is reporting.
Hundreds of Buddhist monks and their supporters have been arrested, carted
away in trucks at night or beaten with batons in recent days, according to
witnesses.
____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL
September 28, Inter Press Service
UN emergency session to study crisis - Gustavo Capdevila
Geneva - The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold an emergency
session next week to discuss the bloody crackdown on protests by the
military regime in Burma, which has left an unspecified number of Buddhist
monks and other demonstrators dead and injured this week and hundreds
under arrest.
The decision by the highest U.N. human rights body was the finishing touch
to its three-week ordinary session, which was largely dedicated to
procedural matters.
It is not clear how many protesters were killed this week in Burma, when
tens of thousands of people took to the streets, led by Buddhist monks.
Some media outlets have reported 13 or 14 deaths, but diplomats in Rangoon
have warned that the death toll may be much higher, and activists speak of
up to 200 victims of the security forces.
In Burma, which has been ruled by successive military regimes since a 1962
coup, a wave of protests broke out in mid-August, triggered by a 500
percent hike in oil prices. The demonstrations are the biggest since a
1988 pro-democracy uprising that was crushed with brutal force, with some
3,000 civilians killed by the army.
Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director for the New York-based Human Rights
Watch, who travelled to Geneva to follow the Council’s debates, called
Friday’s resolution "a major development."
"We believe that it is a very important step for Burma and for the Human
Rights Council, another signal to the Burma rulers that violence will not
be tolerated," said Hicks.
The European Union request for a special session on Burma -- which the
ruling junta calls Myanmar -- was signed by 17 members of the 47-member
Council, as well as 36 observer states. (Support from a minimum of 16
members is needed to call an emergency session).
Industrialised countries formed the majority of the countries that backed
the request, along with six countries from Latin America and two from
Africa.
No nation from Asia or the Caribbean backed the motion. Nor did Brazil,
the home country of the special rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.
The level of support for the European initiative would appear to indicate
that the debate, to be held next Tuesday, could end in a mild rebuke and a
call for dialogue among all parties in Burma.
Hicks said that the decision to study the situation in Burma "is not just
symbolic." She added, however, that at any rate "symbolism is important;
the Council is taking action on this. It alone is not going to change the
situation. But I think that it was incredibly important to say to the
authorities of Burma that this is a
human rights crisis in demand of the
urgent attention of this body."
With regard to the first three weeks of the Council’s sixth session, which
will continue in December, the activist told IPS that "I think that the
Council is working a little better than it has been, but it has a long way
to go."
"We are still quite disappointed," said Hicks. "We detailed the situation
in 10 countries that we thought the Council should be engaged in. But in
reality only two of them have gathered substantial attention: Darfur (the
conflict-torn region in northwestern Sudan) and Burma."
There are many more situations in the world in need of the same attention,
she stressed.
She also complained that the debate on renewing the mandates of the
special rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Sudan and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo were put off until December.
Furthermore, Hicks said, the Council ignored endemic human rights crises
like those of Uzbekistan and Iraq. Nor did it pay full attention to the
cases of Sri Lanka, Iran, North Korea, Belarus and Zimbabwe.
She applauded, however, the Council decision to begin the universal
periodic review process in early 2008. Under the new mechanism, all 192
U.N. member states will be scrutinised by 2011 with respect to their
compliance with the human rights treaties they have signed and ratified.
The universal periodic review is the main difference setting the Council
apart from its predecessor, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which it
replaced in March 2006. The Commission examined the individual cases of
countries suspected of serious human rights violations, a system that gave
rise to allegations of political bias that helped precipitate its
downfall.
The Council will begin the universal periodic review in February studying
16 countries selected in a random draw on Friday: Bahrain, Ecuador,
Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia, Finland, the United Kingdom, India, Brazil,
the Philippines, Algeria, Poland, the Netherlands, South Africa, the Czech
Republic and Argentina.
____________________________________
September 29, The Nation
Surayud lays into Burmese junta at UN - Supalak G Khundee
Premier scraps scheduled speech to call for an end to the violence
Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont took the stage at the UN General Assembly
yesterday, echoing Asean member countries and calling upon the Burmese
junta to stop using force against the massive demonstrations that have
already killed many people.
Surayud's original speech on Thai democracy was changed at the last minute
and was updated to include Asean's firm stance on the deteriorating
situation.
Thailand and Burma, being predominantly Buddhist nations, share the belief
of non-violence and tolerance.
"Thailand therefore finds as unacceptable the use of violence and bodily
harm to Buddhists monks and other demonstrators in Yangon [Rangoon]," he
told the audience at the UN.
Prior to Surayud's speech, foreign ministers of the regional grouping had
met on the sidelines of the UN meeting to take a common position over the
crisis.
They expressed their revulsion to Burma's Foreign Minister Nyan Win over
reports that demonstrators were being suppressed by violent force and that
there had been a number of fatalities.
Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo, as the chair of the grouping,
issued a statement after the meeting calling on Burma to "exercise utmost
restraint and seek a political solution".
Burma was urged to resume its efforts at national reconciliation with all
parties and to work towards a peaceful transition to democracy. The Asean
ministers also called for the release of all political detainees,
including Aung San Suu Kyi.
With the support of Asean, UN special envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari was
given the green light to visit Burma. Nyan Win assured the meeting that
his visa would be issued in Singapore.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon approved the decision and called on the
Burmese authorities to engage in constructive dialogue with his special
envoy and to commit to a path of peaceful and inclusive national
reconciliation.
Gambari was on his way to Singapore and was expected to arrive in Burma in
a couple of days, said Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram.
Asean asked the Burmese government to cooperate fully with Gambari.
"Gambari's role as a neutral interlocutor among all the parties can help
defuse the dangerous situation," said the Asean chair's statement.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Burma should fully engage
with Gambari and allow access for him to find a solution toward democracy.
"Now there is no going backward, there is a need for political process
they should not deal with the demonstration by using violence," Syed told
reporters after the Asean meeting.
Nyan Win refused to give an interview to journalists, but Syed said his
Burmese counterpart thought that some parties were trying to create
instability within Burma.
"But we want to see the tangible side of political reconciliation, and
that Aung San Suu Kyi is released," Syed said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a meeting with her Asean
counterparts - which Nyan Win did not attend - praised the Asean move.
"The US is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty in
Burma," Rice told reporters after the meeting.
____________________________________
September 29, Reuters
Satellites confirm reports of Myanmar violence - Maggie Fox, Health and
Science Editor
Satellite images confirm reports earlier this year of burned villages,
forced relocations and other human rights abuses in Myanmar, scientists
said on Friday.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science said the
high-resolution photographs taken by commercial satellites document a
growing military presence at 25 sites across eastern Myanmar, matching
eyewitness reports.
"We found evidence of 18 villages that essentially disappeared," AAAS
researcher Lars Bromley said in an interview.
"We got reporting in late April that a set of villages in Karen state had
been burned. We were actually able to identify burn scars on the ground --
square-shaped burn scars the size of houses."
Myanmar, formerly Burma, is suffering its worst unrest since a 1988
rebellion by students and monks.
The military government in the poor and isolated Southeast Asian country
has long been accused of repression.
Aung Din, policy director for the U.S. Campaign for Burma activist group,
said his organization will use the evidence to pressure Myanmar's
government, which this week begun a violent crackdown to quell protests
led by Buddhist monks.
"We are trying to send a message to the military junta that we are
watching from the sky," he told reporters in a conference call.
He said the images also will be used pressure the Chinese government to
support U.N. sanctions against the junta.
Din said the satellite images corroborate reports by refugees and human
rights activists, who say abuses have been going on in many parts of the
country for years.
The researchers are now gathering satellite images of major cities inside
Myanmar.
"As most communication links from these cities are cut, these images -- if
they come through -- will be one of the few ways to understand the level
of deployment of the military regime," Bromley told reporters.
BEFORE AND AFTER
Bromley's group got funding from the Open Society Institute and the John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to book satellite time over
Myanmar and to buy archived images.
"If an attack was reported in a certain area and that attack was said to
have destroyed a village or certain villages, we looked for satellite
images before and after the date of attack," Bromley said.
"We literally scroll through them inch by inch and look for villages that
essentially disappeared."
They also found evidence of "forest relocation -- where a lot of people
are taken from more remote areas and forced to build homes in areas under
control of the military government," Bromley said.
"In one area around a military camp that we spotted, there were about 31
villages that popped up in a space of about 5 1/2 years," he said.
"That is either an incredible baby boom or some sort of targeted
development program or, because we have no information on either of those,
the forest relocation would be a logical candidate."
The AAAS has used the same technology to document destruction in Sudan's
Darfur region and Zimbabwe.
The AAAS worked with three human rights groups to follow up on
descriptions of more than 70 instances of rights violations from mid-2006
through early 2007 in eastern Myanmar's Karen state and surrounding
regions.
It was not easy -- the satellites are only rarely over Myanmar, there is
often cloud cover and the lush forest grows quickly to mask evidence of
damage. But they got images of the locations of 31 reported events and
were able to corroborate reports of human rights violations at 25 of them.
(Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago)
___________________________________
September 29, Associated Press
Junta hampering food movement; hunger big danger, says UN
Burma's military rulers have restricted the movement of food during the
ongoing political unrest, hampering UN efforts to feed some 500,000 people
in the impoverished country, the World Food Program said.
"We appeal to the authorities for access to all parts of the country," WFP
Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement Friday. She said
the hungry are primarily young children, as well as HIV/AIDS and
tuberculosis patients who desperately need assistance.
The WFP's operations "rely on the government to facilitate the movement of
food and personnel," it said.
The junta's forces opened fire on Wednesday and Thursday to crush
demonstrations by Buddhist monks and civilians, who have been demanding an
end to military rule and the restoration of democracy. The government says
10 people were killed but dissident groups and foreign governments say the
death toll could be many times that number.
While the unrest has been centered in the main cities of Rangoon and
Mandalay, the impact is "being felt elsewhere including areas where WFP is
supporting vulnerable communities with food assistance," the WFP statement
said.
Local authorities in Mandalay have stopped all movement of food out of the
area, which would affect WFP operations in northern Shan state and a
central zone which depend on food deliveries from Mandalay, it said.
Disturbances in the port town of Sittwe also have had an impact on the
movement of food to WFP operational areas in the northern Rakhine state,
it said.
The WFP says it plans to reach a total of 1.6 million vulnerable people at
a total cost of US $51.7 million over three years. The food it distributes
includes rice, beans, vegetable oil, salt and high-protein blended food.
The WFP operates in Burma in collaboration with 22 UN and private agencies.
But due to current limited funding, WFP will face food shortfalls in
November that will reduce planned assistance to primary school students
and vulnerable families, it said.
Donors to WFP's operations in Burma include Australia, Japan, the European
Union, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, the United States and New Zealand.
____________________________________
September 29, Agence France Presse
What's in a name -- battle rages over 'Burma' vs 'Myanmar' - Frank Zeller
Burma or Myanmar? As the military regime has cracked down on pro-democracy
protests in the Asian country this week, a war of words has flared again
over what to call the troubled nation.
Political exiles, the United States and the BBC prefer the old name,
'Burma,' which stems from British colonial days, while the United Nations,
Japan and many other nations have adopted 'Myanmar' as the official name.
The country's ruling junta made the switch to 'Union of Myanmar' in 1989,
the year after its soldiers massacred some 3,000 activists supporting Aung
San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The regime derived the English name from the traditional 'Myanma
Naingngandaw,' symbolically breaking with the era of the British Raj when
the colony was called 'Burmah' after the dominant Burmese ethnic group.
They made a host of other geographical name changes, turning what was then
the capital, 'Rangoon,' into 'Yangon' -- similar to changes made later to
Indian city names, such as the switch from 'Bombay' to 'Mumbai.'
But critics say the move lacked legitimacy because it was made by an
unelected junta and should be ignored by the world.
Some have even drawn parallels to the change from 'Cambodia' to
'Kampuchea' which was made by the murderous 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime but
reversed after their overthrow by Vietnamese troops.
"A lot of exile groups still use 'Burma' because that was the name of the
country before they fled after the 1988 protests," said David Mathieson of
Human Rights Watch (HRW), whose group has stuck with the name Burma.
"The US and many organisations who call it 'Burma' made an official stance
saying they'll stick with the pre-1989 name. The UN, on the other hand, is
bound by what the sovereign government says."
White House spokesman Tony Fratto this week said Washington's refusal to
use the junta's term was "intentional" because "we choose not to use the
language of a totalitarian dictatorial regime that oppresses its people."
"And we have freedom of speech here, maybe they don't," he quipped.
US President George W. Bush -- and First Lady Laura -- have stuck with
"Burma" in line with the US State Department, which pointedly notes that
the 1989 name change never won approval from the country's legislators.
"The democratically elected but never convened Parliament of 1990 does not
recognize the name change, and the democratic opposition continues to use
the name 'Burma'," the State Department website says.
"Due to consistent support for the democratically elected leaders, the US
government likewise uses 'Burma.'"
Mathieson, a long-time expert on Burma/Myanmar affairs for the New
York-based group HRW, said the point is perhaps more hotly debated outside
the country than by its citizens, many of whom have got used to the
change.
"It would be great if the country was free and there could be an open
debate about it," he said.
____________________________________
September 29, New York Times
U.S. steps up confrontation with Myanmar's rulers
The Bush administration stepped up its confrontation with the ruling junta
in Myanmar on Friday, and officials said they were searching for ways to
persuade China and other nations to cut off lending, investment and trade
into the country.
But in a sign of how limited Washington's leverage is against the country,
which has long been the target of American sanctions, officials said they
were concerned that China, a trading partner and neighbor of Myanmar,
would block any serious effort to destabilize the Burmese government.
The administration seems to regard the violent crackdown on Burmese monks
as a long-hoped-for opportunity to get other Southeast Asian nations to
rethink their insistence that they should not interfere with the internal
politics of their neighbors. The hope is that American pressure might
force the Burmese leaders into a political process that would drive them
from power, if not from the country.
''What we are trying to do is speed their demise,'' said a senior American
official. ''The question is, do we have the diplomatic and economic
influence to hit a bank shot here,'' by persuading Beijing, in particular,
that its dealings with Myanmar could embarrass it as the 2008 Olympics
approach.
Another senior official said the administration would try to persuade
China to offer sanctuary to the leaders of the junta, in hopes it would
get them out of the country. Other ideas include getting China and India
to halt investment in new oil and gas projects, cutting off bank lending
in places like Singapore to freeze Burmese accounts.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were
discussing internal policy deliberations.
Many of the techniques are modeled on the sanctions designed against North
Korea. Officials were surprised at how quickly banks ceased dealing with
that country as soon as they realized it could affect their access to the
American banking system.
''International institutions take our list seriously,'' one of the
officials said, referring to banks. The official added, ''They quickly
realize the downside of dealing with these people is greater than the
upside.''
At least for the moment, officials said, the junta leaders seemed to be
gaining some ground over the protesters, cutting off their access to the
Internet, so that photographs and video of the street confrontations would
not circulate around the world.
The government does face international criticism, though. The United
Nations, under pressure from the Bush administration and European leaders,
is sending a special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, to Myanmar, which agreed to
allow him to visit after China intervened, officials said.
In a meeting on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confronted a
midlevel Burmese diplomat, according to officials who were present,
telling him it was ''bizarre'' that he was defending his government while
pictures emerged of troops shooting unarmed monks.
On Friday, Ms. Rice expressed disappointment that the United Nations
Security Council could not act more forcefully, largely because of
opposition from China.
''I will say on Burma that given what is going on in the streets in
Rangoon, I would have hope that the Security Council would have taken
stronger action,'' Ms. Rice said in New York, referring to the country's
capital, Yangon, by its traditional name. American policy does not
recognize the military government's changing of the country's name to
Myanmar and continues to refer to it as Burma.
The Bush administration's efforts have received praise from an unexpected
quarter: human rights advocates.
''To the extent the international community is not moving, it is not the
fault of the United States,'' said Jeremy Woodrum, a co-founder of the
U.S. Campaign for Burma, an advocacy organization in Washington. He
credited President Bush with forcing through statements critical of
Myanmar's leaders this week by the United Nations Security Council and the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Officials said Mr. Bush saw the events in Myanmar as a chance to reinforce
his push for democracy around the world. ''It's a legacy moment,'' a
senior American diplomat said.
Mr. Bush discussed how to respond to the military crackdown in a video
conference on Friday with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, who
promised to seek tougher sanctions through the European Union. The State
Department also announced that it had barred ''more than three dozen''
senior officials and their family members from entering the United States.
On Thursday, the Treasury Department announced a list of 14 of Myanmar's
leaders who now face sanctions. One of the senior officials said that the
list would be expanded next week to include more officials.
Few Burmese leaders have ever traveled to the United States, but President
Bush pointedly included family members when he announced the visa bans.
The State Department did not specify who was on the list, though it almost
certainly includes those on the Treasury Department's list.
The officials warned that it could easily be expanded to include Burmese
officials' children or grandchildren who might be visiting or studying in
the United States.
One of the senior officials said that the administration was also
considering the fate of the only major American investment in Myanmar, a
Chevron energy stake, which was grandfathered in when the Clinton
administration imposed sanctions on the country in 1997.
Chevron owns a share of a gas field and pipeline project that was
initially acquired by Unocal. The project also includes Total from France,
PTT Exploration and Production of Thailand and Myanmar's Myanma Oil and
Gas Enterprise.
A spokesman for Chevron, Donald Campbell, declined to comment on whether
the new sanctions or any other under consideration would affect the
company's investment.
Given the dearth of American investment and trade with Myanmar, the
financial levers appear limited, officials acknowledged.
But the United States has stepped up pressure in other ways: Voice of
America and Radio Free Asia doubled their broadcasting into the country in
Burmese to five hours a day.
Officials hope to increase that, and also to shift funds to help support
nongovernmental organizations and purchase cellphones to help disseminate
information, especially now that the government has shut down Myanmar's
Internet connections.
Ultimately, though, the officials said the greatest hope for forcing the
military government to negotiate its own demise, in effect, rested with
the country's neighbors, especially China.
President Bush used an Oval Office meeting with China's foreign minister
on Thursday to press for strong action, but American officials say the
Chinese are reluctant to act against a significant trading partner or set
a precedent for undermining a single-party government that represses
dissent.
Still, the White House press secretary, Dana M. Perino, said Friday that
Mr. Bush was pleased with the outcome of his meeting with the foreign
minister, Yang Jeichi. ''I think that the Chinese were helpful in allowing
to make sure the U.N. special envoy was allowed to get there, to Burma,''
she said.
____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER
September 29, The Economist
The saffron revolution - The saffron revolution; To come
If the world acts in concert, the violence should be the last spasm of a
vicious regime in its death throes "FEAR", the lady used to say, "is a
habit." This week, inspired in part by the lady herself, Aung San Suu Kyi,
partly by the heroic example set by Buddhist monks, Myanmar's people
kicked the addiction.
Defying the corrupt, inept, brutal generals who rule them, they took to
the streets in their hundreds of thousands to demand democracy. They knew
they were risking a bloody crackdown, like the one that put down a huge
popular revolt in 1988, killing 3,000 people or more. In 1988 Burma's
people were betrayed not just by the ruthlessness of their rulers, but
also by the squabbling and opportunism of the outside world, which failed
to produce a co-ordinated response and let the murderous regime get away
with it. This time, soldiers are once again shooting and killing unarmed
protesters. Can the world avoid making the same mistake twice?
In New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Western leaders, led
by George Bush, harangued the junta, and threatened yet more sanctions.
They have probably already shot their bolt. Western sanctions have been
tried and have failed, in part because Myanmar's neighbours have for years
followed a different approach. Its fellow members of the Association of
South-East Asian Nations waffled about "constructive engagement" while
making economic hay in Myanmar from the West's withdrawal. India, too,
anxious about China's growing influence, and hungry for oil and gas, has
swallowed its democratic traditions and courted the generals.
China itself has built an ever-closer relationship. The two countries,
after all, have a lot in common beyond a shared border. Since the 1980s a
wave of "people-power" revolutions has swept aside tyrannies around the
world. Mercifully few regimes, and few armies, are willing to kill large
numbers of their own people to stay in power. Two big exceptions have been
Myanmar and China, whose government in 1989 likewise stayed in power
through a massacre.
Yet it is China that now offers the best hope the outside world has of
changing Myanmar for the better. Admittedly, it is a thin hope. There are
plenty of reasons to doubt China's willingness to upset Myanmar's
generals. China's traditional posture, heard again this week, is to oppose
any "interference in the internal affairs of another country". It trots
out this formula so often when foreigners criticise its own behaviour
that, even if it supports change, it is hard for it to utter more than
platitudes, as it has this month, about the desirability of a "democracy
process that is appropriate for the country".
China has also been the chief beneficiary of the partial Western boycott.
Myanmar offers two of the prizes China values most in its foreign friends:
hydrocarbon resources and a friendly army, willing to give it access to
facilities on its coast on the Bay of Bengal. China has become the junta's
biggest commercial partner and diplomatic supporter.
Nevertheless there are two reasons why China might now see its own
interests as best served by assisting a peaceful transition in Myanmar.
The first is that China wants stability on its borders, and it is becoming
obvious that the junta cannot provide it. The generals' economic
mismanagement has helped reduce a country blessed with rich resources to
crippling poverty. Fleeing economic misery as much as political
oppression, up to 2m migrants from Myanmar are in Thailand. And it was an
economic grievance—a big, abrupt rise in fuel prices—that sparked the
present unrest.
The junta has at least succeeded in cobbling together ceasefire agreements
with most of the two dozen armed insurgencies lining its borders. But the
price has been lawless zones where banditry and illegal-drug production
are rife. Myanmar's slice of the "Golden Triangle" on its Thai and Lao
borders was for a while in the 1990s the world's dominant heroin producer.
It has been largely priced out of that market by Afghan competition. But
it has successfully diversified into methamphetamines. The business relies
on precursor chemicals coming from China, but, just as heroin from Myanmar
brought China addiction and, through shared needles, HIV and AIDS, so
"ice" can wreak havoc. Nobody expects any transition to democracy to be
trouble-free. But, Chinese leaders must be asking themselves, can it be
any worse?
China must also be wondering nervously how all this will affect next
year's Olympic games in Beijing. Already, protests about China's support
for the government of Sudan, larded with comparisons to the 1936 Berlin
Olympics, have shown that its foreign policy as well as its human-rights
record at home is under scrutiny. Myanmar is justifiably a popular cause
in the West. If China proves actively obstructive to international efforts
to bring the junta to book, it may provoke calls for a boycott of the
games.
It is of course wrong to assume that China can dictate to Myanmar. In the
generals' deluded world-view, only they can preserve Myanmar's
independence. They will take orders from no other country. China's role is
crucial, nonetheless. It must not blunt the impact of measures taken by
other countries and provide the junta with a shield to fend off demands to
do what it should.
That, at least, is easy to prescribe. It should stop shooting protesters;
free all political prisoners, including Miss Suu Kyi; scrap the
constitutional guidelines drawn up by its farcical "national convention";
and start serious talks with all groups, including Miss Suu Kyi and her
party. The aim of those talks should also be clear: to arrange a
transition to civilian, democratic rule. For their part, provided free and
fair new elections are held, Miss Suu Kyi and her party should not insist
on the results of the election they won in a landslide in 1990 being
honoured. And, unpalatable as it is, they should offer the generals
whatever incentive they need to go quietly. This all sounds a pipedream.
It will certainly remain so if the outside world does not unite around a
set of demands, and agree on the sticks and carrots that might make deaf
old soldiers listen.
____________________________________
September 28, BBC News
What next for Burma's generals? - Jonathan Head
Will Burma's military rulers listen to the endless pleas for restraint and
dialogue? Could the regime crumble under the weight of popular anger, or
through splits in the ranks of the armed forces?
Or will they succeed in terrorising the population into submission again
through mass killings, as they did in 1988?
We simply do not know which of these scenarios is more plausible, because
it is impossible to know the thinking of the tight clique of generals who
run the country.
But there are "end-of-regime" scenarios we can look at in other countries;
specifically Indonesia, a fellow member of the Association of South-East
Asian Nations (Asean).
Military role
The Burmese junta, the SPDC, makes no secret of its admiration for the
pseudo-democracy run by President Suharto, the former Indonesian
strongman, so perhaps it is instructive to look at how the Suharto regime
was overthrown.
The parallels between the two countries are striking. They are both large,
tropical countries comprising many diverse ethnic groups and cultures that
won independence from colonial rule in the chaotic aftermath of the Second
World War.
In both countries, nation-building was hampered by strong separatist
movements in their outlying regions.
In both the army became the dominant political force in the 1960s, arguing
it was the only institution that could hold the country together.
Both countries' officer classes involved themselves heavily in business
and politics.
Both Gen Suharto and Gen Ne Win, Burma's military strongman until the
1990s, were from humble, superstitious backgrounds, but had their
worldviews profoundly altered when they were members of Japanese
paramilitary units as young men during the Japanese occupations of their
countries.
It instilled in both men a belief in martial values and the central role
of the military in political life.
But there the similarities end.
'Tiger' economy
Perhaps timing was the reason - Indonesia nearly fell apart under its
mercurial founding father Sukarno in the 1960s.
Suharto took advantage, after a failed coup, but needed rapid economic
development to restore the government's legitimacy.
It was a time when Western governments needed Cold War allies - they were
willing to overlook Suharto's horrific human rights abuses, and offered
aid and investment.
At the time, Ne Win had taken Burma along what he called the "Burmese way"
of socialism, a bizarre form of isolation.
As a result, by the 1980s Indonesia was being hailed as one of the
successful "tiger" economies of South-East Asia with spectacular growth
rates. Burma was a basket case. That led to two very different results.
In Burma, economic misery provoked massive anti-government protests in
1988, which were savagely put down by the army over a period of three
months. Thousands died.
The regime tried to adapt itself. It held elections, but miscalculated
disastrously, losing by a huge margin to Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party.
It refused to recognise the results, but tried to win the population over
by encouraging foreign investment in an attempt to stimulate
Indonesian-style development.
But it was no longer the 1960s; it was the post-Cold War 1990s.
Western governments were no longer willing to overlook human rights
abuses. They were charmed by the dignity of Aung San Suu Kyi, who had won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and imposed increasingly tough sanctions.
But President Suharto's successful development strategy came back to haunt
him. When people began tiring of his corrupt and authoritarian ways in the
1990s, he reverted back to type, banning newspapers and locking up or
intimidating his opponents.
He had skilfully managed promotions in the army to keep it loyal, and gave
it a large slice of the economy to manage.
He created pseudo-parties guaranteed to win pseudo-elections to a pseudo
parliament - all tactics now being copied by Burma's generals.
But rapid development had created a powerful new class of people who
became rich through trade with the rest of the world, who sent their
children to be educated in America, Europe or Australia.
Even some army officers enjoyed foreign contact and training.
'Elite' class
When the charms of the aging Suharto and his clique began to fade, this
group was not prepared to risk international isolation; it didn't have the
stomach for massive repression. Instead, it told Suharto to go.
In Burma, complete isolation means the generals have little to lose from
international sanctions. Nor is there a large and powerful middle class
with a lot to lose. There is only the military - the most powerful
institution in the country - with its fingers in every aspect of daily
life.
It suffers little from isolation, except in the increasingly narrow view
of its officers.
Soldiers are taught that they are an elite class, entitled to special
respect - and that anyone who opposes them is an enemy bent on returning
the country to chaos and civil war.
That will almost certainly be the warped instruction given now to the
troops who have shot at unarmed monks and civilians in Rangoon.
____________________________________
September 29, Washington Post (editorial)
The Saffron Olympics
The slaughtered monks of Burma will haunt China.
By now China's Communist rulers must have realized that one unintended
consequence of hosting the 2008 Olympics is unprecedented global scrutiny
of Beijing's retrograde foreign policy. For decades, one pillar of that
policy has been the cynical political and economic exploitation of rogue
states that most of the rest of the world shuns -- notably North Korea,
Zimbabwe, Sudan and Burma. Under growing international pressure, and with
the looming threat of a besmirched Olympics, Chinese policy is slowly
changing. But not fast enough, as this week's events in Burma demonstrate.
In the past three days, Burma's ruling junta has carried out a bloody and
criminal crackdown on a peaceful protest movement led by thousands of
Buddhist monks. The regime admits that 10 people have died in the volleys
of gunfire and the baton charges its soldiers have directed at
demonstrators. More likely is that the death toll is in the scores.
Hundreds of monks and democratic opposition activists have been rounded up
at night and trucked away to unknown fates; troops have occupied and
ransacked monasteries.
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Sadly, the degree of international outrage over these events has been
inversely proportional to the influence those speaking out have over the
Burmese regime. The Bush administration and European Union have been
admirably outspoken, but the generals have a long record of dismissing the
West. Burma's neighbors, who made the controversial decision to admit the
regime to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations a decade ago,
expressed "revulsion" at the use of violence against the protests but did
not call for an end to military rule. India, which has struck military and
economic deals with Burma, was even milder, saying it "is concerned at and
is closely monitoring the situation."
But the weakest response of all was left to China, which did $2 billion
worth of business with Burma last year alone and is its principal supplier
of weapons. China's ambassador at the United Nations blocked a Security
Council resolution condemning the crackdown. The strongest word Beijing
has been able to cough up is "restraint." U.S. officials counted it as an
achievement that China supported the dispatch of a U.N. envoy to Burma.
Western diplomats speculate that Chinese officials are pressuring the
Burmese generals behind the scenes; they note that earlier this month a
senior Chinese official made a cryptic statement to visiting Burmese
leaders about "a democracy process that is appropriate for the country."
This is arguably more than would have been done a decade ago by a Chinese
government that massacred its own democracy movement in 1989. It's in
keeping with Beijing's incrementally more constructive policies toward
North Korea -- which it has nudged toward giving up nuclear weapons -- and
Sudan, which it has pressured to accept international peacekeepers in
Darfur.
China's behavior is nevertheless a pathetically puny response to savage
brutality by one of the world's most corrupt and illegitimate governments.
Burma's generals might not take orders from Beijing. But the failure of
President Hu Jintao's leadership to forthrightly condemn the repression
has had the effect of giving the junta a green light. Burma's
saffron-robed monks will join Darfur's refugees in haunting the Beijing
Olympics -- which are on their way to becoming a monument to an emerging
superpower's immorality.
____________________________________
September 29, Boston Globe (editorial)
The junta's enablers in Beijing
Burma's military junta has been showing its true colors this week, firing
automatic weapons at peaceful demonstrators and raiding monasteries to
beat and kill Buddhist monks. But the junta's criminal disdain for human
rights has also cast a harsh light on China, the principal commercial
partner, strategic ally, and diplomatic protector of the junta.
While protesters were being shot in Burma, China was preventing the United
Nations Security Council from considering sanctions on the killers - or
even issuing a condemnation of the junta's use of lethal force. China's
ambassador to the UN justified his government's stance on the grounds that
the bloodletting in Burma does "not constitute a threat to international
peace and security."
China used the same rationale last January, when it joined with Russia to
veto a Security Council resolution that would have called on the junta to
release all political prisoners, open a political dialogue with the
democratic opposition, and cease its assaults on Burma's ethnic
minorities. Had China and Russia allowed that resolution to be approved,
the generals in Burma might have been compelled to seek reconciliation
with Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for
Democracy - the party that won more than 80 percent of parliamentary seats
in a 1990 election that the generals ignored.
China has its reasons for hiding behind a restrictive, self-serving
interpretation of the Security Council's mandate. Beijing maintains
important economic and strategic ties with the junta. These include
pipeline projects that could assure China of energy deliveries from the
Middle East that would not have to pass through the Strait of Malacca, an
easily closed passage between Malaysia and the Indonesian island of
Sumatra. China also wants access to Burmese ports on the Indian Ocean.
Sad to say, democratic India has also been drawn into the junta's spider
web. India is peddling weapons to the junta in exchange for help against
insurgents in India's northeast, and is contracting to develop Burma's
offshore natural gas reserves. The strategic aim is to counter China's
influence in Burma.
But the key is China, and China has its vulnerabilities. In October,
Beijing holds a Communist Party Congress at which policy is set for the
next five years and leadership promotions are made. Chinese leaders do not
want to be associated with a Burmese version of the Tiananmen Square
massacre while their Congress is in session. And they don't want the 2008
Beijing Olympics to be ruined because of their complicity with the despots
ruling Burma.
Because it exports narcotics, HIV/AIDS, and fleeing refugees, the Burmese
junta is a threat to international peace and security. And if China does
not rein in its clients in Burma, Beijing too is a threat to international
peace and security.
____________________________________
STATEMENT
September 28, Open Society Institute
OSI condemns violent crackdown in Burma
The Open Society Institute condemns the Burmese military’s use of deadly
force against unarmed and peaceful demonstrators, and calls on the
international community to intervene.
The military junta ruling Burma, the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), has launched a violent crackdown in response to the public
protests against its rule, which have swelled to hundreds of thousands of
people in the last week. We are receiving reports that soldiers have fired
live ammunition into crowds, killing an unknown number, and that thousands
of monks have been beaten and arrested in night raids on the monasteries.
The use of excessive force and all forms of arbitrary detention of
peaceful protesters are strictly prohibited under international law.
"The courageous people of Burma are again risking their lives to win their
freedom," says Maureen Aung-Thwin, Director of OSI’s Burma Project. "This
time, the world—and the United Nations—must come to their aid."
We call on the United Nations and international actors to act decisively
to stop the crisis in Burma before more lives are lost.
____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT
September 29, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC Monitoring
Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma to air "almost full time " from 28 Sep
Text of report by Norway-based Burmese Democratic Voice of Burma website
on 28 September
Dear listeners. Democratic Voice of Burma [DVB] radio programmes
transmitted via satellite will be broadcasted almost full time daily
beginning 28 September.
The DVB radio programmes via satellite will be broadcasted almost full
time except 1630 to 1730 Burma Standard Time [ 1000 -1100 gmt].
The programmes will be aired from Asiasat 2 satellite with Frequency 4000
MHz, Symbol Rate 28125, and audio bit 2314.
The programmes will directly air the prevailing situation in Burma and
will include discussions, talks, songs, and rebroadcasting of DVB's normal
programmes.
Tonight's programme will include extraordinary news and repeat of most
major news broadcasted in the morning.
DVB has planned to provide a live broadcast of a rally to be held in
Norway to support Burma's democracy movement tonight at 2230 to 2330 Burma
Standard Time [ 1600 -1700 gmt].
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