BurmaNet News, October 9, 2009

[Editor]

October 9, 2009 Issue #3816


INSIDE BURMA
New York Times: Burmese dissident leader meets Western diplomats
AFP: Suu Kyi's party hopeful she can meet Myanmar junta chief
DVB: 60 percent of UN funds to Burma not monitored
SHAN: Shan leader: Burma has no government

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Another torture victim flees Burma

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Crackdown underway on illegal businesses in Rangoon

ASEAN
AFP: In backtrack, US says top Myanmar official at Obama talks

INTERNATIONAL
DVB: Burma constitution ‘provides impunity’ for abuses
Saskatoon Star Phoenix (Canada): Feds intervene to quash deserter's
deportation to Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
Guardian (UK): A positive meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi - but caution is
understandable – Andrew Heyn
The Weekly Standard: Obama's test in Burma – Benedict Rogers & Joseph Loconte
Irrawaddy: Halfway to a handshake – Editorial




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 9, New York Times
Burmese dissident leader meets Western diplomats – Thomas Fuller

Bangkok— Myanmar’s military government allowed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the
leader of the country’s beleaguered democracy movement, to hold a rare
meeting with foreign diplomats on Friday as part of what appears to be
early but tentative signs of a détente between the junta and Western
governments.

The meeting focused almost exclusively on Western sanctions against the
country, diplomats said.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has angered the junta with her support for
sanctions, but in recent weeks she has suggested that she was open to
changing her mind on the issue.

“She was at great pains to say that this was fact-finding and that she had
reached no policy view yet,” said Andrew Heyn, the British ambassador to
Myanmar, who represented the European Union at the meeting.

“We did a lot of the talking in response to questions from her,” Mr. Heyn
said.

Also present were diplomats from Australia and the United States. Drake
Weisert, a spokesman for the United States Embassy, said the meeting
lasted an hour and was hastily arranged; Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry sent
an invitation to the American Embassy on Thursday.

The United States is reassessing the sanctions put in place after the
military government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, ignored the
results of a landslide election victory in 1990 by Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s
party.

Kurt Campbell, the United States assistant secretary of state for East
Asian and Pacific affairs, said last month that a policy of “pragmatic
engagement with the Burmese authorities holds the best hope for advancing
our goals.”

He said the United States would maintain sanctions “until we see concrete
progress.”

The Myanmar government has long been eager to remove the sanctions, which
bar certain senior members of the government from carrying out financial
transactions through Western banks and from traveling to the United
States, European Union or Australia.

The United States also bans most exports from Myanmar, including gems that
pass through third countries.

Mr. Heyn said he was not fully convinced of the junta’s sincerity.

“We have seen false dawns before, sometimes all too often,” he said in a
telephone interview. “We are all hoping that it’s the start of something
better, but we’re very, very cautious.

“Our sense is that it’s far too early to judge.”

The junta is planning to introduce a new constitution and carry out
nationwide elections next year, the first since 1990, although a date has
not been announced.

It appears unlikely that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, will be allowed to
take part in the elections. Last week, a court rejected an appeal against
the extension of her detention.

She has been held under house arrest for 14 of the last 19 years and is
now serving an additional 18-month sentence for receiving an uninvited
American guest.

Her lawyers say they will appeal to the country’s supreme court.

____________________________________

October 9, Agence France-Presse
Suu Kyi's party hopeful she can meet Myanmar junta chief

Yangon – Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party is hoping the pro-democracy
leader will soon meet with Myanmar's junta chief after signs of a resumed
dialogue between the two sides, a spokesman said Friday.

The detained Nobel Laureate was granted rare permission to meet with
Western diplomats in Yangon Friday and in the past week has twice held
talks with a junta minister, following a letter she wrote to Senior
General Than Shwe.

"We are hoping that the Senior General and Aung San Suu Kyi will meet
soon," said her lawyer and spokesman for her National League for Democracy
(NLD) party Nyan Win. It would be the first meeting between the pair in
several years.

After years of advocating punitive measures against the junta, Suu Kyi's
letter marked an easing of her stance, offering suggestions for getting
Western sanctions lifted and requesting a meeting with diplomats to
discuss this.

"The authorities allowing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's request is good -- she is
getting what she needs," said Nyan Win. Daw is a term of respect in
Myanmar.

"I think they will be discussing mainly the lifting of sanctions. Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi wanted to get the facts and figures on Western sanctions," he
added.

He said the meeting with diplomats meant she "could get chances to do
politics, as she is a politician".

On Saturday and Wednesday the Nobel Laureate had meetings with Myanmar
labour minister Aung Kyi, the official liaison between herself and the
junta -- the first time they have met for talks since January 2008.

State media reported Sunday that they discussed her letter at the first
meeting, but further details of the talks have not yet emerged.

The US recently unveiled a major policy shift to re-engage the junta, but
has warned against lifting sanctions until there is progress towards
democracy and repeatedly pressed for Suu Kyi's release.

Lawyers for the frail 64-year-old, kept in detention by the ruling
generals for much of the past 20 years, say she welcomes US re-engagement.

Her NLD won the last elections by a landslide in 1990, a result the junta
refused to acknowledge, leading the US and the European Union to impose
sanctions.

____________________________________

October 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
60 percent of UN funds to Burma not monitored – Francis Wade

More than half of funds allocated to Burma in 2007 by a United Nations
body went unmonitored, according to an internal audit report now being
presented to a UN budgetary panel.

The amount of unmonitored funding stands at $US1 million, which was
allocated by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to non-governmental
organizations in Burma, according to the UN Office of Internal Oversight
Services (OIOS).

The figure is equivalent to 59 percent of the total funds allotted to the
Burma country office, the report said.

It went on to say that staff believed they were only responsible for
technical aspects of their work, “although their terms of references
clearly indicated that they were responsible for both technical and
financial monitoring”.

“In addition, the contracts with non-governmental organizations did not
give the country office access to their financial records, risking misuse
of the funds,” it said.

The spokesperson for the UN secretary general, Michele Montas, said on
Wednesday that the report was now being presented to the UN Fifth
Committee, which deals with administrative and budgetary issues.

Concerns over mismanagement of overseas aid going into Burma are
compounded by a deep-rooted skepticism on behalf the Burmese government of
any foreign involvement in the country, as well as widespread corruption.

In the wake of cyclone Nargis in May last year, the ruling junta initially
blocked flows of aid into the country. One shipment of UN food that did
make it in was seized by government officials.

The following month, a UN humanitarian coordinator, John Holmes, reported
that the UN had lost at least $US10 million in aid channeled to Burma due
to the government’s distorted exchange rate.

The OIOS said that recommendations to the UNODC “to report periodically on
the use of funds by non-governmental organization” have been agreed and
implemented.

____________________________________

October 9, Shan Herald Agency for News
Shan leader: Burma has no government

The Chairman of Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), the political
arm of the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ Colonel Yawd Serk said the
current ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), cannot be called the Government of the Union of Burma because the
1947 union constitution ratified by all nationalities had already been
overthrown.

According to him, the ruling military SPDC is an ethnic organization like
many others. The government of the Union has yet to emerge as the union
has ceased to exitst since 1962 together with the 1947 constitution. “The
ruling junta is not the government. It is just a military clique led by
Gen Than Shwe,” he said.  “One way to undermine their power therefore is
not to call them government. If we do, it will mean that we still accept
them as our government.”

The juntas’ much vaunted 3 causes: Non disintegration of the Union; Non
disintegration of National Solidarity and Perpetuation of National
Sovereignty were also wrong because the union formed by all the ethnic
nationalities has gone, according Yawd Serk.

“There was a union because of the 1947 constitution,” he said, “Now that
it is no more, it means all the ethnic states have returned to their
independent previous status.”

To reestablish the Government of the Union, the Union must be restored
first. To restore it, respective representatives from all ethnic
nationalities must meet and talk similar to the 1947 Panglong conference,
according to him.

Hkun Okker of the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) also
shared the view of Col Yawd Serk that the Union has been destroyed, but
the spirit of the Union is still being used by the junta military and they
are still ruling the country as a government even though they are not
recognized by the people.

“They are called illegal government or de facto government. The union they
are ruling is an artificial union,” he said.

To be a legitimate government and build a genuine union of Burma, they
must draft a constitution which truly guarantees the ethnic equality and
right to self-determination and accepted by all ethnic nationalities. “The
difference will be whereas 1947 was a process of coming together, this
time it will be a process of holding together,” he said.

The exile opposition had already launched a credentials challenge campaign
at the UN last year.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 9, Irrawaddy
Another torture victim flees Burma – Min Lwin

Released after being incarcerated for 16 days in Burma’s notorious Aung
Thapyay interrogation center in Rangoon last month, Toe Aung decided to
leave the country, fearing he would be rearrested.

The 45-year-old activist was arrested on Sept. 11 on charges of
connections with the monks’ organizations that are allegedly organizing a
political movement inside the country. During his 16 days in detention, he
said he was beaten and tortured.

“I was taken from my hostel in Kamayut Township [in western Rangoon] and
put in a cell. For the first two days, the officers deprived me of sleep
and food,” said Toe Aung from a safe house in Mae Sot, a Thai border town.

“The police officers were very violent,” he said. “Worse, I had to survive
without water for three days.

“Without food and water, I became more and more exhausted. They came to my
cell and interrogated me, but if they thought I was lying, they beat me
up.”

Toe Aung said he was arrested like a common criminal by several police
officers and members of the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development
Association civic group.

It was not the first time this had happened. He previously served nine
years in Insein and Mandalay prisons for his political activities with
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

When it comes to the election planned for next year, Toe Aung said he
disagrees with the idea that the NLD should participate.

“I support the Shwegondaing Declaration,” he said, referring to the
announcement by the NLD in April that offered to establish a dialogue with
the military junta and take part in the 2010 election on the condition the
regime release all political prisoners, review the Constitution and
establish a true democracy.

“Ordinary Burmese people are afraid to become involved in political
activities such as protests because the military government oppresses the
people,” Toe Aung said.

He said that about 20 political activists were being interrogated in the
center while he was there. Among them, he met Nyi Nyi Aung, a Burmese-born
US citizen, who was arrested on Sept. 3 at Yangon International Airport
when his flight landed.

Toe Aung said Nyi Nyi Aung seemed to be suffering from physical and
psychological trauma due to torture.

In late September, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
(Burma), an exiled rights group, issued a press statement titled “Torture
is State Policy in Burma.” The statement said, “Nyi Nyi Aung was taken to
various different interrogation centers where he was kicked and beaten,
deprived of food for seven days, and questioned throughout the night.”

“Even though Burmese domestic law and international law forbids torture,
no officials are ever held to account for their actions,” Bo Kyi,
joint-secretary of the AAPP, said in the statement. “There is no doubt
about it: torture is state policy in Burma. We are deeply concerned for
the safety of those activists recently arrested.”

Toe Aung also said that he met some monks in Aung Thaphay interrogation
centre who had been arrested by Burmese intelligence on suspicion of
planting bombs.

“It made me sad, because the authorities disrobed monks and beat them,” he
said.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 9, Irrawaddy
Crackdown underway on illegal businesses in Rangoon

Burmese authorities are cracking down on illegal businesses in Rangoon
such as brothels, massage parlors and karaoke clubs, following the ouster
of the former Rangoon Division police chief over alleged corruption and
misuse of power.

Five owners and managers of illegal businesses have been arrested, as well
as 34 women staff, since the crackdown started on Sept. 16, sources told
The Irrawaddy.

Police conducted raids on massage parlors, brothels, karaoke clubs and
beauty shops in Latha, Lanmadaw, Mayangone and Tamwe townships.

Many brothels, massage parlors and karaoke shops closed in fear of the
crackdown.

The crackdown was monitored by chief of national police Brig-Gen Khin Yi
and ordered by officials from Naypyidaw, sources said.

The move came shortly after the newly appointed Rangoon Division police
chief, Pol Col Aung Naing Thu, assumed the office.

State-backed media in Burma have not reported any information about the
former police chief’s ouster or the new police chief in Rangoon.

The new chief replaced former police chief, Pol Col Win Naing, who was
dismissed in mid-September following reports of misuse of power and
corruption.

Sources estimated that Win Naing received around 600,000 kyat (US $550)
per massage parlor or karaoke club each month. His wife, Hmwe Hmwe,
reportedly also ran illegal businesses, such as brothels and massage
parlors, as well as solicited bribes from massage parlors and karaoke
clubs in Rangoon, according to sources.

Win Naing was interrogated after owners of massage parlors and karaoke
clubs complained to high officials that he reportedly increased the bribes
to around US $925, sources said.

____________________________________
ASEAN

October 9, Agence France Presse
In backtrack, US says top Myanmar official at Obama talks

Washington, D.C. — A senior Myanmar official, likely the prime minister,
will be at President Barack Obama's talks next month with Southeast Asian
nations, US officials said, after earlier suggesting leaders from the
military state would not attend.

The US backtrack Thursday on details of the summit, preserves the rare
prospect of a US president coming face to face with a senior member of the
Myanmar government, which Washington has condemned for years over its
suppression of the pro-democracy movement.

A US official said on condition of anonymity that Prime Minister
Lieutenant General Thein Sein, who serves as the official head of the
Myanmar government, could take part in the talks.

"The Burmese head of state Than Shwe is not expected to attend but it is
anticipated that there will be a lower level Burmese leader, likely the
prime minister, at the meeting with the president," a US official said on
condition of anonymity.

"The president, along with all the ASEAN leaders are expected to speak in
the group meeting. There will not be individual bilateral conversations in
the meeting."

Earlier, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had suggested junta leaders
would not be at the talks, when asked whether Obama was prepared to meet
leaders from Myanmar at the meeting.

"I don't believe they will be in attendance," he said.

Gibbs announced on Wednesday that Obama would meet ASEAN leaders when he
is Singapore for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in
mid-November.

"The president will hold his first-ever meeting between a US president and
leaders of the 10 Southeast Asian nations that make up the ASEAN, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations," Gibbs said.

The United States has recently reversed policy on contacts with Myanmar,
holding the highest-level talks with junta officials in nearly a decade,
but has warned it will not lift sanctions until democracy is introduced.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for Asian affairs, met Myanmar
officials last month in New York after unveiling a US engagement blueprint
designed to lure the pariah state out of self-imposed isolation.

Campbell called on the junta to engage in dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi's
opposition National League for Democracy and restive ethnic groups and to
free political prisoners.

Obama's administration has made dialogue a signature policy, saying it is
open to talks with staunch US foes such as Iran and Cuba.

The State Department said Campbell's meetings were the highest-level
interaction between the administration and the junta since September 2000
under Bill Clinton's administration.

Campbell said that the United States would talk to Myanmar about elections
scheduled next year but for the time being was "skeptical" about the vote.

The elections would be the country's first since 1990, when Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy won overwhelmingly but was prevented from
taking power.

As well as Myanmar, ASEAN also groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma constitution ‘provides impunity’ for abuses – Joseph Allchin

Burma’s redrafted 2008 constitution provides impunity for human rights
abuses and should not be the bedrock for elections next year, a damning
report has claimed.

Many of the provisions of the constitution suggest that “instead of being
a true catalyst for lasting change, it further entrenches the military
within the government and the associated culture of impunity,” the
International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) said.

Its report, Impunity Prolonged: Burma and its Constitution, says that
within the constitution, the regime has granted itself impunity for sexual
violence, forced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Burma, it says, is “one of the most difficult challenges in the world in
relation to making progress toward combating impunity.”

Khin Omar, coordinator of the Thailand-based Burma Partnership, said the
constitution will “force military rule on Burma forever”.

“[It is] the most problematic element as to whether we move further toward
being a failed state or whether we move towards national reconciliation,”
she said.

The report says that “officers and troops systematically use rape and
other forms of sexual abuse as a strategy of war.”

It then cites a clause within the constitution stating that: “No
proceeding shall be instituted against the said Councils (the military) or
any member thereof or any member of the Government, in respect to any act
done in the execution of their respective duties.”

Burma expert Robert H Taylor told DVB however that “No one has proven that
[rape] is public policy,” adding that “we don’t know how the military
deals with instances of rape”.

He cited anonymous sources that claim the government has action against
people accused of assault and rape, but added that the constitution “has
its problems, but which doesn’t?”

In a sign that the regime responds to international pressure, the report
cited an agreement between the junta and the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) to address forced labour and child soldiers.

The 2008 constitution was ratified in the weeks following cyclone Nargis
last May, in which 140,000 people were killed and millions of acres of
land destroyed. Despite the cyclone, the government claimed a 99 percent
turnout, with 92.4 percent voting in favour.

A report released last year by Hong Kong-based constitutional expert,
Professor Yash Ghai, said that “the cynicism with which the regime held
the referendum and manipulated the results was on a par with the cynicism
and coercion by which the draft was prepared”.

The ICTJ have called on the international community to withhold support
for elections in Burma next year. Khin Omar echoed the calls, and said
that a constitutional review must take place before the elections do.

____________________________________

October 9, Saskatoon Star Phoenix (Canada)
Feds intervene to quash deserter's deportation to Myanmar – Jason Warick

Saskatoon, Canada — Nay Myo Hein and his common-law wife couldn't sleep
Friday night. The Saskatoon man was scheduled for deportation to his
native Myanmar, also known as Burma, this week.

Supporters believed that as an army military deserter in a nation run by a
notorious military regime, he faced prison, torture and possible
execution.

But Saturday morning, everything changed.

Hein received word that both federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and
Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan had personally reviewed the case,
and were quashing the deportation order. In addition, Hein would be given
temporary immigrant status. That means he no longer has to prove his case
as a refugee, and can eventually apply for full Canadian citizenship.

"I thought I was going to die. If I went back to Burma, there would be
nowhere for me to hide," Hein said over the weekend as friends and family
celebrated. "I am so happy now, very happy."

Hein says he was coerced into the Burmese military at age 12 but had no
appetite for the work and eventually fled the country.

Kenney's communications director Alykhan Velshi said the minister first
heard about Hein's case last week, and he decided to become involved once
the legal process was concluded.

In an interview with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix Sunday, Kenney said he
discussed the case with the group Canadian Friends of Burma, with which he
has a long-standing relationship. He and Van Loan reviewed the previous
decisions by other legal bodies and refugee boards, which had rejected
Hein's claim.

Kenney said he found no fault with the previous decisions, but was
concerned about the potential harm Hein faced upon return to his former
homeland. The widely publicized case may have been noticed by Burmese
officials, who might target him for criticizing the "totalitarian regime,"
Kenney said.

"Under normal circumstances, I would not have intervened. We face a lot of
cases like this, but this is extraordinary, quite exceptional," he said.
"We wouldn't want to return someone to face persecution or punishment. It
is a chance we were not prepared to take."

So after e-mailing back and forth Saturday morning, Van Loan agreed to
quash the deportation order, which had Hein booked on a flight Tuesday.
Kenney simultaneously granted Hein a "ministerial permit," which will
allow Hein to eventually apply for full Canadian citizenship.

Kenney reiterated the Canadian government's disapproval for the Burmese
military regime, and noted Canada bestowed honourary citizenship last year
to jailed Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi.

Hein, who works at a local auto repair shop, thanked the ministers, as
well as the Burmese community and general public which inundated the
government with letters, e-mails and phone calls last week. The Canadian
Friends of Burma and Amnesty International's Canadian section were also
organizing rallies in major Canadian cities, which were called off at the
last minute when word of the developments spread.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 9, Guardian (UK)
A positive meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi - but caution is understandable –
Andrew Heyn

Earlier this morning, I had the honour of being the first British
ambassador to have a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi since April 2003. The
venue was the government state guest house in Rangoon.

During the meeting, she was in remarkable form - engaging, eloquent, and
determined to go through the full background and detail of the US,
Australian and EU approaches to sanctions. Overall, I felt she really
enjoyed the chance to engage seriously with outsiders.

The purpose of the meeting was specifically to discuss the sanctions
issue. As has been widely reported, Aung San Suu Kyi had written to the
senior general, Than Shwe, at the end of September, with an offer to
discuss issues concerning the restrictive measures put in place by the
international community against Burma. As part of this process she asked
to meet the representatives of Australia, the US and the EU in Rangoon -
Britain is acting EU president in Burma because Sweden (who has the EU
presidency at the moment) does not have a mission here.

There has been some speculation about whether Aung San Suu Kyi's position
on sanctions has changed. She was very clear about this during the
meeting. She wanted to know the facts – in detail – before assessing her
policy options. And then she needed to discuss the issue with her
colleagues in the NLD, with whom she has not yet been allowed to meet.

Media interest in this meeting has been intense. Much of the interest has
focused on the longer-term significance of this session when set alongside
the two meetings between Aung San Suu Kyi and the government liaison
minister over the last week or so. The dialogue is undoubtedly welcome,
but my feeling is that it is too early to pass judgment on the wider
implications. The Burmese authorities have said the meeting was "a gesture
of goodwill". But there have been so many false dawns here before, caution
among Burma watchers is understandable.

Perhaps the best way to look at it is to hope that, in time, a meeting
between Aung San Suu Kyi, or any opposition leader with a foreign diplomat
is completely un-newsworthy. An event so regular and commonplace (as
meetings between diplomats and opposition figures are in other countries),
that it attracts, at most, passing comment. That really would represent
progress.

____________________________________

October 9, The Weekly Standard
Obama's test in Burma – Benedict Rogers & Joseph Loconte

The Obama administration recently announced the results of its
long-awaited Burma policy review. On the face of it the outcome is sound.
The United States will maintain existing sanctions on Burma's brutal
regime, while attempting a dialogue with the generals. The combination of
engagement plus pressure is precisely the package long advocated by
Burma's democracy movement and its jailed leader, Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Whether team Obama has the conviction and
fortitude for successful negotiations is an open question.

For many years the policy debate about Burma has been polarized and
oversimplified, constructed as a false choice between engagement or
sanctions. Critics of sanctions regard themselves as pro-engagement, and
accuse sanctions advocates of seeking to isolate the regime. But the goal
of sanctions isn't isolation, the goal is to deprive the junta of
legitimacy and to provide the country's democracy movement with greater
leverage. Ever since 1988, "dialogue" has been Aung San Suu Kyi's mantra.
The regime could not have a more reasonable opponent, and she recently has
reiterated her call for dialogue in a letter to the dictator, Senior
General Than Shwe. The purpose of sanctions and other forms of pressure,
if properly targeted, is to get the generals to the negotiating table.

The broad thrust of the Obama administration's new Burma approach is
therefore welcome. The debate should not be about whether to pursue
engagement or pressure, but rather what type of engagement, with whom, and
what form of pressure. There must be no repeats of last month's decision,
for example, to waive the U.S. visa ban and allow Burma's foreign minister
to sneak into Washington, D.C. He had a chat with Democratic Senator Jim
Webb but, to our knowledge, had no conversation with administration
officials. One of Southeast Asia's most brutal generals was allowed to
inspect repair work at the Burmese embassy and go sightseeing. It was the
worst of all worlds. Either the United States should maintain the visa ban
on potential war criminals or invite them to join open, frank, direct, and
accountable dialogue.

Indeed, only high-level engagement with Than Shwe would have any effect,
as he alone makes the decisions. Friendly chats with middle-ranking
officials will achieve nothing. Engagement must also include Aung San Suu
Kyi, the democracy movement, and the ethnic nationalities. Clear
benchmarks are needed. All talks should be co-ordinated with other actors,
particularly the United Nations and the European Union, in order to
present a united front of international opposition.

Pressure must be maintained if engagement is to have any chance of
success. Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific
Affairs, told a Senate hearing last week that "lifting or easing sanctions
at the outset of a dialogue without meaningful progress on our concerns
would be a mistake." Precisely. It was a clear rebuff to the regime's new
best Ameican friend, Senator Webb, who wants to lift all sanctions
immediately,

Campbell was ambivalent about the regime's planned elections in 2010,
saying only that he would "assess the conditions." But the conditions are
very clear. Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from participating, and has been
given another eighteen months under house arrest to keep her out of the
way. Last year's sham referendum on a new constitution tells us exactly
how the regime intends to behave. Most importantly, the new
constitution--upon which elections will be based--is a profoundly
undemocratic document, intended only to preserve military rule. It does
nothing to protect human rights or recognize Burma's ethnic groups. A
Burmese activist calls it "a marriage proposal from a rapist." The Obama
administration should urge the regime to amend it.

In the meantime, humanitarian assistance must be expanded, including
cross-border aid to the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced
people in eastern Burma who are on the run from attacks by the Burma Army.
Since 1996, over a million people have been forced to flee their homes,
and more than 3,300 villages have been destroyed--a scale of suffering and
destruction similar to that in the Darfur region of Sudan. Similarly, in
Chin State along the India-Burma border, more than 100,000 people in over
200 villages are in dire need of food supplies, as a result of a chronic
food shortage.

There are two measures the Obama administration should pursue while
seeking a dialogue with the generals. First, a universal arms embargo,
implemented by the U.N. Security Council, is long overdue. There is no
moral justification for selling arms to a regime that has no external
threats and uses those arms to suppress its own people. Second, the
groundwork should be laid for a U.N. Commission of Inquiry to investigate
crimes against humanity. Burma's regime stands accused of using rape as a
weapon of war, forced labour, and child soldiers on a widespread and
systematic basis. It continues to commit gross human rights violations
with impunity. It must be brought to account. Of course China and Russia
will be obstacles, but it's getting harder to rationalize support for a
regime with so much blood on its hands.

In pursuing engagement, the White House must be clear-eyed. This canny and
deceitful regime is among the worst in the world. Last month a
Burmese-born U.S citizen, activist Nyi Nyi Aung, was arrested in Rangoon.
He joins another 2,200 political prisoners detained in Burma today. What
is the Obama administration doing to secure his release? Even China, the
regime's staunchest ally, is losing patience with the junta. Last week
Beijing issued an extraordinarily strong statement, demanding that the
regime "rapidly investigate" attacks by the military on ethnic Chinese in
Burma, "punish law-breakers" and report back to Beijing.

The Obama administration prides itself on its willingness to use "smart
diplomacy" to tackle international crises. It will face growing pressure
to end the sanctions regime against Burma. But a policy of engagement that
is all carrots and no sticks would be naïve--and self-defeating. Those
fighting for democracy in Burma will need more than lofty words and good
intentions.

Benedict Rogers is a writer and human rights activist with the
London-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He is co-author of a new
biography of Burma's dictator, Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma's Tyrant, to be
published in 2010.

Joseph Loconte is a lecturer in politics at the King's College in New York
City who writes widely about international human rights, and is a frequent
contributor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

____________________________________

October 9, Irrawaddy
Halfway to a handshake – Editorial

Burma’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is not a saint; she is
more than a saint.

Since Suu Kyi entered politics in 1988, Burma’s international profile has
risen from relative obscurity to the status of one of the world’s most
important fronts in the global struggle for freedom and democracy.

To a great extent, this has been due to Suu Kyi’s courage and charisma.
Through sheer force of personality, she has transformed her country’s
political aspirations into a cause that enjoys the support of people
around the world.

But Suu Kyi’s compelling image is also largely a product of her
tormentors’ heavy-handed attempts to silence her. The recent mockery of a
trial against her, for instance, thrust her back into the media spotlight
and put her incredible grace under pressure on full display.

Perhaps this is why the Burmese generals seem to feel entitled to use Suu
Kyi’s iconic image for their own ends: after all, they may reason, they
made her the martyr she is today.

Whenever it suits their purposes, Burma’s rulers loosen her shackles and
even act like they are ready to respond to her calls for dialogue. Usually
this happens when they need to deflect intense domestic and international
pressure—or when there is something to be gained, such as a relaxation of
sanctions.

The trouble is that Suu Kyi is not just the saintly figure she is made out
to be. When she says she wants to talk, she means business.

Now, Suu Kyi is meeting with three Rangoon-based Western diplomats to
discuss economic sanctions against Burma. Although the details of their
discussions have not yet emerged, these talks, and two earlier meetings
with a junta liaison, have generated considerable buzz, raising hopes of a
breakthrough, mixed with anxiety over how the junta will attempt to spin
this recent development.

In all probability, these talks will end in another impasse once the
generals have gained whatever they expect to get from them, or realize
that their machinations are not working. And when they do fail, as they
almost certainly will, the regime will be quick to argue that Suu Kyi’s
obstinacy was the cause.

For the past 21 years, Burma’s rulers have blamed Suu Kyi for most of the
country’s problems. In particular, they accuse her of instigating the
West’s punitive actions against the regime.

But let’s be clear: the sanctions are in place because of the junta’s
egregious behavior, not because Suu Kyi’s moral authority is so
irresistible that the world’s most powerful nations feel obliged to
support her.

The regime has earned the world’s opprobrium with its poor human rights
record, brutal military offensives against ethnic minorities and ruthless
crackdowns on dissidents. Unless the junta can somehow prove that Suu Kyi
made them commit these outrages, it is ludicrous to suggest that she is
responsible for the sanctions.

Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 20 years in detention, cut off from the
outside world. She has only rarely had an opportunity to publicly state
her position on sanctions. In 1996, for instance, she asked tourists to
shun Burma to send the regime a message as it launched “Visit Myanmar
Year.”

Now, after years of being blamed for the sanctions, Suu Kyi has signaled
that she would like to help the regime remove these barriers to the
country’s development. Last week, she sent a letter to Burma’s paramount
leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, asking him to allow her to meet with foreign
diplomats so she can learn more about the sanctions.

Suu Kyi wrote that in order to “effectively work for lifting sanctions 
 I
believe that we need to try at first to understand about all sanctions
imposed on Burma; understand about the extent of losses due to sanctions
imposed on Burma; and understand about the positions of governments which
imposed sanctions on Burma.”

Before today’s meeting with diplomats from the US, UK and Australia, Suu
Kyi met twice with Aung Kyi, the regime’s “relations minister,” who was
appointed in 2007 as the generals’ go-between with the opposition leader.

Last month, the US announced plans to modify its tough policy of isolating
the military regime. Instead of relying on sanctions alone, the Obama
administration said that it would instead try to engage the junta through
high-level talks. Soon after this new policy was unveiled, the regime’s
prime minister and foreign minister visited New York to attend the UN
General Assembly, where American and Burmese officials held a meeting.

But this does not mean that the sanctions’ days are numbered. Assistant
Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, who met Burmese officials, told a US
Senate panel: “Lifting or easing sanctions at the outset of a dialogue
without meaningful progress on our concerns would be a mistake.”

The benchmark set by the US is clear. Washington wants the regime to free
all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, and to hold a credible and
inclusive election in 2010. It is unlikely the regime will honor these
requests.

Than Shwe has rarely made concessions in the past, and there is no reason
to believe he will make any in the near future. It is far more likely that
he will continue to rely on his usual modus operandi: brutally suppressing
his domestic opponents while occasionally softening his stance to
manipulate his international critics.

For her part, Suu Kyi has long expressed a willingness to work with the
armed forces—which were founded by her father—for the good of the country.
She has extended her hand to the junta in the past, and has done so again
now. But she is powerless to make a difference on sanctions unless the
generals decide to do the right thing and reciprocate.

For more than two decades, the Burmese people have waited to witness the
historic handshake that will finally decide their country’s future. But as
long as Suu Kyi is the only one making the effort, the sanctions will
remain in place, and real progress will be no more than a distant dream.