|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Concern grows for Suu Kyi
Reuters - Myanmar Keeps Suu Kyi Hidden But Says She's Safe
Reuters - Myanmar Slams West After Crackdown on Suu Kyi
The Irish Times - Burma hits out at criticism
over Suu Kyi clampdown
AFP - Thailand's sex industry importing Myanmar
virgins: report
AFP - Religious repression rampant in Asia : US
report
AP - Myanmar Rulers Step Up Campaign
AP - Myanmar Steps Up Propaganda Campaign
Against Suu Kyi
IT - Amnesty urges Myanmar junta to release Suu Kyi
IHT - The Missing Leader
News Interactive - UN concerns legitimate,
says Howard
The Norway Post - Norway criticizes Burmese Junta The Age - Why
Suu Kyi will win - in the end
The Age - Australian rights lawyers under fire on Burma
The Guardian - No freedom in sight for anti-junta leader padlocked inside
her house
The Telegraph - Fears for Suu Kyi's
safety
Bkk Post - Rangoon can help should it care
to
SMH - Burma: one small step can lead to great
strides
SMH -Seminars a 'smokescreen' for Burma
BBC - Suu Kyi is well says Burma Bkk Post - Drug
offensive
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - SEP 6, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Tuesday, 5 September, 2000,
10:48 GMT 11:48 UK
Concern grows for Suu Kyi International concern is growing over the welfare of the Burmese opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has not been seen in public for several days.
It comes amid allegations from the country's military leaders that members of her National League for Democracy party have been involved in "terrorist activity". Aung San Suu Kyi and 13 NLD members have not been seen in public since
Saturday when police forcibly ended a roadside stand-off over the authorities'
refusal to allow them to visit party members outside the capital, Rangoon.
The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has called on Burma
to allow access to the opposition leader and her colleagues saying it is
"gravely concerned" for their welfare.
The government says Aung San Suu Kyi is at her house on Rangoon's
University Avenue, but diplomats and journalists have been refused access to
her.
Armed guards are reported to be surrounding the property and telephone
lines to the house have also been cut.
Police raid
The NLD's party headquarters have also been closed following a police raid
on Saturday shortly before Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues were brought back
to the capital.
The government says it is investigating links between the NLD and an armed
rebel group, God's Army, based on the Burmese border.
It has denied reports that members of the group are being held under house
arrest, saying instead they have been asked to stay at home whilst the
investigation proceeds.
Human rights groups say allegations of the NLD having links with terrorist
group are routinely used to justify the mass arrests of party supporters.
Amnesty says there is no evidence that the NLD, which has always espoused
non-violence, has connections with any armed groups.
Its comments were supported by the US Charge d'Affaires in Rangoon,
Priscilla Clapp, who said any such claims were a "malicious fabrication".
Clampdown warning
Observers in the Burmese capital say there is mounting evidence that the
military authorities are preparing to clampdown on the NLD's activities.
On Tuesday, in a sign of the authorities' increasing frustration, Burmese
newspapers quoted the country's powerful intelligence chief, Brigadier General
Khin Nyunt, accusing western governments of meddling in Burma's internal
affairs.
"Two big western countries are applying various means to interfere in and
dominate the internal affairs of Myanmar [Burma] and destroy her relations with
the international community," he was quoted as saying.
"They are trying to drag the Myanmar [Burmese] people into poverty and
hardships and to cause unrest in the nation."
Correspondents say criticism of Burma is likely to increase at this week's
United Nation's Millennium Summit in New York which the Burmese Foreign Minister
Win Aung is expected to attend.
Wednesday September 6 3:57 AM ET
Myanmar Keeps Suu Kyi Hidden But Says She's Safe By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's
ruling military insisted on Wednesday that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
was safe and sound, but she remained padlocked inside her Yangon residence and
cut off from the world despite mounting international protests.
A government spokesman said Suu Kyi was in her residential compound along
with 12 members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) who accompanied her
during a nine-day roadside protest forcibly ended by the authorities on
Saturday.
``They are all fine,'' the spokesman said, adding that relatives of some of
the NLD members in Suu Kyi's compound had been allowed to visit them.
But diplomats in Yangon said they remained barred from visiting or
contacting Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her
struggle for democracy in Myanmar.
Myanmar told Britain on Tuesday it might allow diplomatic access to Suu Kyi
within two weeks.
Suu Kyi and senior NLD members have been confined in their homes since
Saturday, when the authorities brought Suu Kyi back to Yangon and launched a
crackdown on her party.
The Myanmar government has denied Suu Kyi and her senior colleagues are
under house arrest, but has said they have been asked to stay at home while it
investigates reports that some NLD members had been involved in ``terrorist
activity.''
Myanmar's treatment of Suu Kyi has sparked a war of words between the
government and its international critics, particularly Britain and the United
States.
State-run newspapers on Tuesday quoted Myanmar's powerful head of military
intelligence, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, as saying ``two big western
countries'' were meddling in Myanmar's affairs.
The government also attacked Britain's ambassador in Yangon, John Jenkins,
after he tried to visit Suu Kyi.
John Battle, a junior British Foreign Office minister, summoned Myanmar's
London ambassador Kyaw Win on Monday to protest at the crackdown and demand
information about Suu Kyi.
He said the ambassador told him diplomatic access to Suu Kyi may be allowed
within two weeks.
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has expressed ''grave concern''
for the safety of Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders.
Tuesday September 5 11:10 AM ET
Myanmar Slams West After Crackdown on Suu Kyi By Aung Hla Tun YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) -
Myanmar's ruling military hit out at its Western critics on Tuesday, accusing
them of interfering in its internal affairs as it kept opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi locked up inside her home and cut off from the world.
Myanmar told Britain it may allow diplomatic access to Nobel Peace Prize
winner Suu Kyi within two weeks.
Suu Kyi and other senior members of the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD) have been padlocked inside their residences for four days after
the military forcibly ended a nine-day roadside protest in the early hours of
Saturday.
Diplomats who tried to visit them were turned away.
In a clear reference to the United States and Britain, state-run newspapers
on Tuesday quoted Myanmar's powerful head of military intelligence,
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, as saying ``two big western countries'' were
meddling in Myanmar's affairs.
``Two big western countries are applying various means to interfere in and
dominate the internal affairs of Myanmar and destroy her relations with the
international community,'' the papers quoted Khin Nyunt as telling a
meeting.
``They are trying to drag the Myanmar people into poverty and hardships and
to cause unrest in the nation,'' he said.
The United States and Britain have both strongly condemned Myanmar's ruling
generals for their treatment of Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders, and have
demanded the lifting of restrictions placed on their movements.
Myanmar In Crisis
John Battle, a junior British Foreign Office minister, summoned Myanmar's
London ambassador Kyaw Win on Monday to protest at the crackdown and demand
information about Suu Kyi.
``I got an interesting response,'' Battle said on Tuesday.
``I said 'Is there a crisis?' He said 'Yes'. I then said, 'When then can we
have diplomatic access to Aung San Suu Kyi?' And he said, 'Shortly, perhaps in
the next two weeks.'''
Battle told BBC radio it was the first time the Yangon authorities had
admitted Myanmar was in crisis, an admission he attributed to the effect of
international diplomatic pressure.
Myanmar's government has reserved its strongest criticism for Britain,
releasing a statement on Tuesday denying reports that British ambassador John
Jenkins was manhandled at the weekend as he tried to visit leading NLD
members.
``It is difficult to understand why a foreign ambassador was so adamant to
intrude into the internal affairs of an independent and sovereign nation,'' it
said. ``Obviously, the British diplomat has overstepped the universal diplomatic
norms.''
Suu Kyi, her driver, and 14 NLD members spent nine days in their cars on
the side of a road just outside Yangon after they were halted by security forces
on their way to a party meeting outside the capital on August 24.
It was the first time Suu Kyi had tried to leave Yangon since another
roadside protest in August 1998, which ended after 13 days when deteriorating
health forced her to return home.
A large contingent of armed police took the NLD members back to Yangon on
Saturday and they have been kept locked up in their homes since then, cut off
from the outside world with no telephones and access to diplomats refused.
The Myanmar government has denied Suu Kyi and senior colleagues are under
house arrest, but has said they have been asked to stay at home while it
investigates reports that some NLD members had been involved in ``terrorist
activity.''
The Yangon authorities have not yet confirmed the exact whereabouts of Suu
Kyi and her colleagues.
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has expressed ''grave concern''
for the safety of Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders, saying the military government
should reveal where they are.
``If they are being confined to their homes, we strongly urge the Myanmar
government to allow them freedom of movement,'' it said in a statement sent to
Reuters on Tuesday.
The Irish Times
Wednesday, September 6, 2000 Burma hits out at criticism over Suu Kyi clampdown Burma went on the offensive yesterday against critics of its latest
crackdown on democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saying foreigners were meddling
in its affairs and instigating unrest.
Aung Suu Kyi and other senior members of the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD) have been padlocked inside their residences for four days after
the military forcibly ended a nine-day roadside protest in the early hours of
Saturday.
A military government statement accused the British ambassador, Mr John
Jenkins, of overstepping "universal diplomatic norms" on Monday by trying to get
into the house of Mr Tin Oo, the deputy chairman of Aung Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy party.
"It is difficult to understand why a foreign ambassador was so adamant to
intrude into the internal affairs of an independent and sovereign nation," it
said.
The Burmese government has denied Aung Suu Kyi and senior colleagues are
under house arrest, but has said they have been asked to stay at home while it
investigates reports that some NLD members had been involved in "terrorist
activity".
In a clear reference to the US and Britain, state-run newspapers yesterday
quoted Myanmar's powerful head of military intelligence, Lieut-Gen Khin Nyunt,
as saying "two big western countries" were meddling in Burma's affairs.
"Two big western countries are applying various means to interfere in and
dominate the internal affairs of Myanmar [Burma] and destroy her relations with
the international community," the papers quoted Lieut-Gen Khin as telling a
meeting.
"They are trying to drag the Myanmar people into poverty and hardships and
to cause unrest in the nation," he said.
The US and Britain have both strongly condemned Burma's ruling generals for
their treatment of Aung Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders, and have demanded
the lifting of restrictions placed on their movements.
Wednesday, September 6 8:10 PM SGT
Thailand's sex industry importing Myanmar virgins: report BANGKOK, Sept 6 (AFP) -
Thailand's sex industry has begun importing Burmese and ethnic minority virgins
from Myanmar to serve foreign customers in Thai cities, a report said
Wednesday.
"The transnational trafficking of women and girls between Myanmar and
Thailand ... is not a new development. What's novel ... is that these women must
be virgins," said a paper presented by David Kyle, a sociologist, at a UN
conference on migration here.
"Virgins -- particularly Burmese or ethnic Shan virgins -- command top
dollar in many areas of Thailand. Most of the demand seems to be coming from
Chinese tourists and businessmen."
"Virgins are highly valued not only for the reduced risk of their having
HIV, but also because in some cultures, deflowering a virgin is considered to
bestow upon the perpetrator youthful potency."
"Burmese and Shan girls are exoticized as special virgins, in part due to
the relative isolation of Myanmar for several decades."
In some cases, the brothel owners will "re-virginize" girls surgically by
reattaching their hymens in order to make them more desirable after they have
had sex, his paper said.
Kyle further charged that Thai and Myanmar authorities are tacitly
encouraging the shipment of virgins.
"Men and women from Myanmar concentrated in Thai refugee camps along the
border have reported ... that local Thai officials forced them upon threat of
being repatriated to serve as recruiters for organised human smuggling groups,"
his paper said.
And brothel owners in Thailand pay Thai and Myanmar police to ignore the
importation of young girls, he said.
The virgin girls are rarely aware of the kind of work they will be doing in
Thailand.
"While some girls are vaguely aware of the nature of the work they will
doing, they are not aware of the working conditions," the paper said.
A United Nations report due to be released in late September will reveal
that sexual exploitation of children is increasing significantly throughout
Asia, UN sources previously said.
The financial crisis forced more children onto the margins of society,
pushing down the price for a child and encouraging foreign paedophiles to stream
into the region, they said.
In many cases, child molesters go free even after they have been tracked
down and arrested, child sex tourism expert Muireenn O'Briain had said.
More than 20 countries have laws which enable nationals who abuse children
overseas to be tried at home, but these statutes are difficult to
implement.
In order to be prosecuted in America, for example, authorities must prove
that US citizens travelled abroad with the specific objective of purchasing
children.
And law enforcement officials sometimes obstruct investigations into child
sex tourism to prevent embarassing their own nationals, O'Briain had said.
Thai and Myanmar police also frequently have been accused of taking bribes
to let paedophiles go free.
Last November, a Japanese man who was arrested naked with a 12-year-old boy
in Pattaya, a notoriously sleazy Thai beach resort, returned home free and
boasted to a Tokyo newspaper that he had paid Thai police 600,000 baht to
escape.
Wednesday, September 6 9:27 AM SGT
Religious repression rampant in Asia : US report NEW YORK, Sept 5 (AFP) - Asia
is pockmarked by severe religious repression imposed by largely authoritarian
governments to stifle resistance to their rule, a new US report on freedom of
worship found Tuesday.
The report on International Religious Freedom compiled by the US State
Department, offered detailed evidence of alleged abuses in China, Myanmar and
Afghanistan and expressed concern about religious violence in Indonesia.
It charged that religious repression in China had markedly increased during
the past year amid what was presented as a concerted campaign by the government
to wipe out clandestine worship.
Communist authorities had failed to live up to the country's constitutional
requirements to promote freedom of religious belief, the report said.
"It was a tough year, last year in China," said US ambassador-at-large for
religious freedom, Robert Sieple, at a press conference called to unveil the
report on the sidelines of the United Nations millennium summit.
In a damning assessment of the state of religion in China, the report said:
"The government increased restrictions on members of many minority groups,
including Tibetan Buddhists, Muslim Uyghurs, members of Falungong and other
'heretical cults' and Protestants and Roman Catholics not belonging to the
official churches."
The report was unveiled several weeks after a coalition of Chinese clergy
claimed in a press conference that no religious repression existed in China. The
presentation was seen as a pre-emptive strike at Washington's report.
Despite China's denials, critics and human rights groups maintain that only
believers who confirm to tight controls imposed by Beijing's religious bureau
can worship openly.
While admitting that state-sanctioned creeds were largely left alone by the
government, the report said the authorities had intensified a campaign requiring
all religious groups to submit to official vetting.
"The government tends to perceive unregulated religious gatherings as a
potential challenge to its authority," the report said, and accused it of
cracking down on religions it deemed threatening to "state security."
The report was published hours after authorities in China confirmed that
130 members of the underground Fangcheng protestant church, including three
Sino-Americans, had been detained last month after holding an "illegal
gathering"
The US report also details a "massive" campaign against the Falunggong
spiritual movement and covers China's "patriotic education" campaign in Tibet
viewed by many human rights groups as an attempt to stamp out a unique Buddhist
culture the region.
Myanmar, a frequent target of US ire, also came under stinging
criticism.
The report accuses troops of destroying holy sites in areas populated by
some of the country's myriad ethnic minorities which many observers who have
seen as the only internal threat to the junta's iron grip on the country.
"Security forces have destroyed or looted Buddhist temples, churches and
mosques in ethnic minority areas," said the report.
"Government security forces continued efforts to induce members of the Chin
ethnic minority to convert to Buddhism and prevent Christian Chin from
proselytizing by highly coercive means."
The report also says there is "credible evidence" that officials and
security forces compelled people to donate labour, or money to build, renovate
or maintain Buddhist monuments.
Afghanistan's Taliban was censured for sponsoring weekly "public
executions, floggings, and amputations" against people who broke strict Sharia
laws.
And the US expressed concern about the cycle of religious violence in the
Maluku region of Indonesia.
"The government responded slowly and ineffectively, and many accuse the
military and police forces of bias (against both Christians and Muslims,
respectively)."
But one country was singled out for praise in the report -- Laos, which was
seen as taking several steps pointing to a serious effort to ease religious
repression.
Wednesday September 6 9:03 AM ET
Myanmar Rulers Step Up Campaign By AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press Writer YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -
Myanmar's government released photographs Wednesday reportedly showing an aide
to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi walking in the capital - an attempt to
refute reports that opposition leaders are under virtual house arrest.
Foreign diplomats and journalists say Suu Kyi and senior members of her
National League for Democracy have been confined to their homes in Yangon, the
capital, for the last five days. Diplomats have been blocked in their attempts
to meet the party leaders.
``The situation hasn't changed,'' said a British Embassy spokesman, who did
not want to be named. ``The longer this goes on, the more serious it
gets.''
But on its Web site, the military government published three photographs of
National League for Democracy central executive committee member Hla Pe. The
caption claimed he was walking Tuesday to visit an ophthalmologist.
Government officials say they have asked party members to voluntarily stay
indoors. One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
party's leaders would be ``allowed out for medical and social purposes.''
The Web site also published a commentary titled ``Government Of Myanmar
Regrets The Unproductive And Negative Media Campaigns Waged Against Her By
Certain Quarters.''
The government also used its print media Wednesday to intensify its
propaganda war on Suu Kyi's party: It claimed that 24 of its members had
resigned in Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city and an important
constituency for Suu Kyi. The resignations, reported in state-run newspapers,
could not be immediately confirmed because the party's leaders are cut off from
communication.
The Web site claimed that relatives of the party leaders had been visiting
them at their homes, contrary to reports by diplomats that no one has been
allowed in or out.
Myanmar's government has come under international criticism for initially
blocking pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi from traveling to the countryside to carry
out political activities two weeks ago, then forcibly bringing her back to
Yangon on Friday.
Since then Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, and other party
leaders have apparently been forced to stay indoors. Telephone lines to their
homes have been disconnected. The government says the party leaders were merely
asked to stay at home while investigations are in progress.
Myanmar's authoritarian government has kept Suu Kyi's party on a tight
leash since 1988, when Suu Kyi led pro-democracy demonstrations. The military
government allowed national elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results
when her party won a landslide.
The government raided and closed the party's headquarters on Saturday,
accusing the party of links with terrorist groups. The headquarters remained
closed and occupied Wednesday by security personnel who have been removing
documents.
Wednesday, September 6 12:59 PM SGT
Myanmar Steps Up Propaganda Campaign Against Suu Kyi YANGON (AP)--Myanmar's military
rulers intensified their campaign against Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy
movement, announcing Wednesday that 24 members of her party have deserted her.
State-run newspapers reported that the members resigned from the National League for Democracy party in Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, and an important constituency for Suu Kyi. The New Light of Myanmar daily said the resignations were submitted to the
Election Commission in March. But making the news public now indicated that the
government wants to convey the impression that Suu Kyi's movement is losing
popular support as it falls under increasing restrictions by security forces.
The resignations couldn't be immediately confirmed as NLD's offices and
headquarters have been shut down since Saturday by the government, which accused
the part of links with terrorists.
NLD's top nine leaders including Suu Kyi, 55, are under virtual house
arrest and their telephone lines have been disconnected. No one is allowed in or
out, and guards are posted outside the gates of their homes.
Myanmar's authoritarian government hase kept the NLD on a tight leash since
1988 when Suu Kyi led pro-democracy demonstrations. The military government
allowed national elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results when the NLD
won a landslide. Suu Kyi was awarded the 1991 Nobel peace prize for her work.
Suu Kyi's latest confrontation began on Aug. 24 when security forces
blocked her vehicle as she tried to drive out of Yangon to the countryside for
party work. She camped out in the open for nine days before being forcibly
returned to Yangon.
In the following days, the state press lunched blistering attacks on her
and the NLD. The government has ignored international condemnation and accused
the West of meddling in its affairs.
In comments published Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the head of military
intelligence, said "two Western countries" are "creating unrest in the country
by agitating a handful of disruptive and subversionist groups."
The Times of India - Sep 6, 2000.
Amnesty urges Myanmar junta to release
Suu Kyi
BANGKOK: Amnesty International on Tuesday called on the Myanmar junta to release detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party lieutenants. "We strongly urge the Myanmar government to allow them freedom of
movement," the rights group said in a statement, referring to Aung San Suu Kyi
and other NLD leaders.
"The Myanmar government should immediately reveal the whereabouts of Aung
San Suu Kyi and her colleagues, who have been held incommunicado ... Increasing
fears for their welfare," it said.
"The government should also remove the security forces surrounding Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi's home compound and the NLD headquarters in Yangon."
Myanmar authorities raided the NLD headquarters and seized "incriminatory
material" and documents early Saturday, just before they officially announced
that a nine-day showdown between Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta was over.
The Nobel peace laureate and a dozen NLD members had been camped out in
their cars on the outskirts of Yangon since August 24 when they were blocked
from travelling to a party meeting outside the capital.
At the same time as the raid, the authorities effectively placed the NLD
leadership under house arrest, although the junta has denied anyone had been
officially arrested.
A spokesman for the Myanmar junta said the detention was necessary, as the
military regime suspected the NLD of collaborating with armed opposition
"terrorist groups" to smuggle bombs into Myanmar. (AFP)
International Herald
Tribune
Paris, Wednesday, September 6, 2000
The Missing Leader Washington Post Service As kings and presidents jostle for attention at the ''Millennium
Summit'' in New York this week, they ought to devote a few words, or at least a
few moments of thought, to one of their number who will not be present. Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi, Burma's rightful leader, is effectively under arrest, captive of a
thuggish military regime that refuses to accept the results of an election she
won a decade ago. In the past few days the generals have tightened the screws on
her and her party, jailing supporters, stealing documents and cutting off
telephone connections to her house and those of her associates. Her plight
represents, among other things, a failure on the part of the international
community that will be celebrating itself with such fanfare at the United
Nations beginning this Wednesday.
The latest drama in Burma began when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi dared to set out from her house, where the regime keeps her confined even while pretending, with its usual mendacity, that she is free. The generals sent their goons to block her way, let the air out of her car's tires and divert her to a muddy field on Rangoon's outskirts. There she stubbornly camped for nine days, intent on exercising her rights of free movement and association. After nine days, the goons sent 200 soldiers on a midnight raid to return the Nobel Peace laureate to, it is presumed, her house. Even diplomats have been forbidden contact with her. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright strongly condemned the regime's
latest bullying, but as usual others send different signals. Big oil companies,
including Unocal of the United States and Total of France, continue to bolster
the regime. European diplomats plan a December meeting with Southeast Asian
officials, including those from Burma. China's gerontocrats, who feel right at
home with Burma's generals, keep the drug-tainted junta well supplied with
weapons.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi herself, when last permitted to communicate, made
clear that she and her party seek only dialogue with the regime. That
international leaders and businesses cannot unite in support of that modest,
nonviolent goal is a sad reality to temper any self-satisfied huffery and
puffery at the Millennium Summit.
News Interactive
UN concerns legitimate, says Howard From AAP 06sep00 8.00am (AEDT) PRIME Minister John Howard today said critics were wrong to
suggest Australia had wound back support for the United Nations and human
rights, despite international and domestic condemnation.
Australia wants to reform the UN committee system and has announced plans
to limit co-operation with UN inquiries after several UN reports critical of
Australia's treatment of Aborigines.
The Prime Minister was due to outline his concerns about the UN committees to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a private meeting late today. Mr Howard said world leaders, in New York for the UN millennium summit,
would be wrong to suggest Australia was winding back its support for the UN.
"If anybody does say that to me, and I don't think anybody will because
it's wrong, but if anybody were to say it I'd say they were wrong," Mr Howard
said.
"We are not reducing our commitment to the United Nations, but we are
expressing legitimate concern, and serious concern, about the way the committee
system operates."
He said Australia was the 10th largest contributor to the UN and was an
active participant in all core activities of the UN.
He said he had received unexpected support for his stand from other nations
attending the UN summit, but he refused to name the countries.
He said Australia's response was measured, and came after a four-month
inquiry into the UN committee system.
"If you actually read what we've done, it's measured and sensible. It's not
arbitrary. We're not seeking to abrogate our responsibilities.
"We're seeking to improve the operation of these committees so they give a
fairer hearing to democratically elected governments and not give more weight to
the views off non elected bodies than they do to the views of an elected
government."
Meanwhile, the influential Financial Times newspaper condemned Australia
for its stand on UN committees.
"By choosing now publicly to repudiate the UN, Australia is jeopardising
not only its own reputation," the Financial Times said.
"It risks undercutting the moral authority of nations with western values
and their efforts to apply pressure through the UN to such unregenerate human
rights offenders as China and Burma."
The Bangkok Post said Australia had taken the wrong decision for the wrong
reasons.
The newspaper claimed in its editorial yesterday that Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer was “whinging” and “grumbling” by saying UN investigations were
not fair.
The downgrading of co-operation with the UN has also been reported in the
Indonesian press amid widespread coverage of the Olympics and of Aboriginal
protests in Sydney.
Yesterday Foreign Minister Alexander Downer claimed Australia was doing the
UN committee system a favour by blowing the whistle on its problems.
Australian officials had helped draft a UN protocol against the
discrimination of women, which the government later refused to sign, Mr Downer
said.
But the Government's decision not to sign the optional protocol has sparked
outrage among women's groups.
The decision not to sign the protocol comes amid heavy Opposition criticism
for downgrading its co-operation with the UN committee system and for seeking to
withdraw from a key refugee determination obligation.
Mr Downer said the Howard government's decision to cool relations with the
UN was an act of courage aimed at highlighting the organisation's flaws.
He said the Government was prepared to argue its case for reforming the
system to the international community.
But Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton yesterday said the
move left Australia without a shred of international credibility.
The Opposition also renewed its calls for Australia to cancel a human
rights workshop in Rangoon next month in protest at the ongoing home detention
of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Last week a group of international law experts from Australian universities
expressed concerns about the government's stance in an open letter.
The group's letter said the Government's decision to not accept the
optional protocol to the women's convention was perverse.
Australia's peak overseas aid body last week said the Federal Government
decision could undermine the entire UN treaty system.
The Norway Post
6. September 2000 Norway criticizes Burmese Junta The Norwegian government demands that the Burmese opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi's democratic rights be respected, and that members of the opposition
party NLD be permitted to carry out legal political functions.
In a press release, the Norwegian Foreign Office expresses concern over the
Burmese military Junta's new infringements on Aung San Suu Kyi's and her fellow
party members' rights.
Norway condemns these acts, and requests the junta to enter into a dialogue
with the opposition, the press release states.
The government also expresses concern for the safety of the members of the
opposition party, and says that it has contacted other governments, to discuss
how to apply stronger pressure on the military junta.
The Age
Why Suu Kyi will win - in the end By GWYNNE DYER Wednesday 6 September 2000 It's Round 15 (or is it 20?) to the Burmese junta, and Aung San Suu Kyi
hasn't won a single test of strength yet. But Burma's military dictators cannot
win, and in the long run the woman who incarnates the South-East Asian country's
long struggle for democracy cannot lose. Not even if they kill her - and it is
significant that they do not dare, though they would love to.
Suu Kyi should have become prime minister of Burma 10 years ago, when her
National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in an election the
soldiers had thought they could win. Instead she spent the first half of the
1990s under house arrest, while the military arrested and tortured thousands of
NLD members, and the past five years offering increasingly bold defiance to the
regime.
Her favorite technique, which she uses to focus international attention on
the regime's illegitimacy, is simply to get in her car and try to visit her
supporters outside Rangoon. The soldiers claim she is free to go, but they are
so afraid to let her travel around the country that they invariably stop her
only a short distance outside the capital - whereupon she goes on a sit-down
strike and gets global headlines for a week or two.
She did it four times in 1998, and in late August she did it again. She and
14 assistants got into a small caravan of vehicles and headed out of town to
meet members of the NLD's youth league. The military forced their cars off the
road and into a rice field - so she stayed in the field for the next nine days,
while the world's media reported on the stand-off daily.
It's hard to see how letting her get to the meeting could have hurt the
regime more. But these are not very bright people and they live in such paranoid
isolation, even from other Burmese, that they just don't get it. Any intelligent
12-year-old from Bangkok, Bangalore or Boston could explain how this sort of
thing plays in the media, but the Burmese generals live in an intellectual
cave.
It showed, above all, in the fact that it took them nine days to realise
the damage being done to their already dreadful international reputation. Then,
finally, Foreign Minister Wing Aun delivered himself of the deathless insight
that this was an "insincere, premeditated move (by Suu Kyi) to attract
international attention" and sent in 200 military police on September 2 to force
her back to her house in Rangoon.
So who won? Not Suu Kyi, whose 10 years of bearing witness for Burmese
democracy have brought her a Nobel prize but cost her almost all contact with
her family. (When her English husband was dying of cancer two years ago, he was
not allowed into Burma to say goodbye, and she dared not leave for fear of being
trapped permanently in exile.) She cannot know how much longer she must live
like this, but it must already seem interminable.
Not the 48 million people of Burma, who have repeatedly shown they despise
the corrupt soldiers who rule over them. Their country is rich in natural
resources and sparsely populated by regional standards, but in a part of the
world where development and democratisation have both been happening faster than
anywhere else, they lag a full generation behind their neighbors on both
counts.
And certainly the generals did not win. Suu Kyi achieved her short-term
goal, and Western governments that might otherwise be tempted to cooperate with
the military regime in return for the right to rape Burma's natural resources
have instead had to issue public condemnations of the dictatorship. But the game
may go on for years yet.
Burma is southern Asia's unfinished business: the last completely
unrepentant dictatorship between Pakistan and Vietnam. It should have been part
of the first wave of non-violent democratisation in the late 1980s, when nearby
countries such as the Philippines, Thailand and Bangladesh all dumped their
dictators, but the Burmese generals stopped a comparable popular movement in
Rangoon in 1988 by slaughtering hundreds or even thousands of protesters in the
streets.
Now they are trapped in power, for they have too much blood on their hands
to retire safely. All of Burma is trapped with them, in a perpetual stand-off so
tense that all the national universities have been closed for almost half the
past decade. Their worst crime is not their corruption, or their oppression, or
even their stupidity; it is that they are wasting everybody's time.
But it is they, not Aung Sang Suu Kyi, who are living on borrowed time. She
cannot really lose. One false step, and they are gone.
Gwynne Dyer is a London journalist.
The Age
Australian rights lawyers under fire on Burma By CRAIG SKEHAN SOUTH-EAST ASIA CORRESPONDENT - BANGKOK Wednesday 6 September 2000 Academics and lawyers involved in Australia's controversial human rights
seminars for officials of Burma's military regime are under fire from people who
would usually be their allies.
"I know that I am going to be accused of supping with Satan," said senior
law lecturer Professor David Kinley.
"The Burmese may be acting cynically, but I think there is at least a
possibility of change.
"And I don't think these seminars in themselves are going to make the
regime more palatable."
Critics say the seminars are being used to pretend there is a willingness
to reform while at the same time intensifying repression of dissent, including a
crackdown this week on democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Hye Htut, a Burmese who has been working as a lawyer in Australia for 23
years, said yesterday that Burmese officials attending the seminars would have
"zero influence" on the regime's policies.
"They really are a smokescreen," he said. "Everyone knows that there is not
going to be dialogue."
The Australian Government has allocated $500,000 for a two-year human
rights program in Burma.
The cost of seminars being run under contract by Melbourne's Monash
University, including another round for 10 days from October 9, is only
$121,000.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday there
would be an assessment before deciding whether or not to continue with seminars
after October.
Professor Kinley, a senior law lecturer at Monash who is leading the
seminar team, said that although there was a contract, the future of the
seminars would come down to a "political" decision by Mr Downer.
He added that the Australian human rights' lecturers might not be willing
to go to Burma if the present security situation in which soldiers have cordoned
off the headquarters of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) did not
improve.
He acknowledged that the latest crackdown on the democracy movement in
Burma had put the human rights project under pressure.
Professor Kinley said that to end its status as an international pariah
Burma would first have to end human rights abuses and return the country to
democratic rule.
The Guardian (UK)
Wednesday September 6, 2000 Rangoon tells London to mind its own business No freedom in sight for anti-junta
leader padlocked inside her house
John Gittings, East Asia editor Burma's representative in Britain has told the Foreign Office that western
envoys may be allowed access within a fortnight to the democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, who has been padlocked inside her house.
But his emollient words in London were counter-balanced in Rangoon by junta
tongue-lashings of Britain and the British ambassador in the Burmese capital.
The Foreign Office minister John Battle said in London that he had summoned
the Burmese ambassador, Kyaw Min, to protest at the military regime's crackdown
on Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
He said the ambassador had admitted that there was "a crisis" in Rangoon,
and then conceded that diplomatic access to Ms Suu Kyi might be granted "within
the next two weeks".
Amnesty International has expressed grave concern for the safety of Ms Suu
Kyi and seven of her colleagues who are being held under house arrest. She has
not been seen since September 2, when Burmese security forces ended her 10-day
attempt to travel outside Rangoon, breaking up her roadside camp in the dead of
night.
Ms Suu Kyi is believed to be in her house in Rangoon but - with phone lines
cut and the main gate padlocked - that has not been confirmed. Food is being
handed in over the garden railings.
A junta statement said that "certain quarters of the NLD have been
conspiring with some armed outlawed youth organisations [and] an armed terrorist
group, God's Army. The group has its base on the Thai border.
The statement said that while senior NLD members were not under arrest,
they had been "requested to stay at their respective residences and to cooperate
with the government during the course of investigation".
Human rights groups say that allegations of terrorist links have been made
in the past to justify the mass arrest of NLD supporters.
The US charge d'affaires in Rangoon, Priscilla Clapp, called the
allegations a "malicious fabrication".
The head of military intelligence, General Khin Nyunt, restated the
regime's assertive nationalistic line in a speech shortly before Ms Suu Kyi was
forced to return home after trying to travel in her homeland.
Foreign countries, he said, were "using every pretext from forced labour
and narcotic drugs, to [complaints about] health and education conditions to
interfere in internal affairs". He also accused "two big western countries" of
trying to "destroy" Burma's international relations.
Britain and the US are the two culprits in the regime's eyes, a message
reinforced yesterday when the junta accused London's ambassador to Rangoon, John
Jenkins, of overstepping "universal diplomatic norms" by trying to reach the
house of the NLD's deputy chairman, Tin U, on Monday.
Tin U was forcibly removed with Ms Suu Kyi from the encampment and has been
confined to his home since then. A government statement said that Mr Jenkins had
tried to "force his way" into Tin U's house before being blocked by a
plainclothes security officer.
"It is difficult to understand why a foreign ambassador was so adamant to
intrude into the internal affairs of an independent and sovereign nation," the
aggrieved statement said.
The restrictions placed on the NLD were no concern of the outside world, it
said. "The people who are involved are purely Myanmar [Burma] citizens and not
British."
British and US diplomats were not invited to a meeting on Monday when the
Burmese deputy foreign minister, Khin Maung Win, met other envoys to give the
junta's version of its crackdown on Ms Suu Kyi's party. He accused young NLD
activists of conspiring with terrorists to smuggle five remote-controlled bombs
into the capital.
The Telegraph(UK) - ISSUE 1930
Wednesday 6 September 2000 Fears for Suu Kyi's safety By Alex Spillius in Bangkok CONCERN grew yesterday for the health and safety of Aung San Suu Kyi as
Burma's military rulers refused to confirm the opposition leader's whereabouts.
The human rights group Amnesty International called on the junta to reveal where the Nobel peace laureate and 12 of her supporters were being held. Miss Suu Kyi, 55, is believed to be in her home on University Avenue, Rangoon along with a dozen supporters who were forcibly returned to the capital early on Saturday and have not been seen since. She, her driver and 14 members of her National League for Democracy spent
nine days in their cars at the side of a road just outside Rangoon after they
were halted by security forces as they drove to a party meeting.
A government statement on Saturday said the group was "escorted back . . .
for their safe and convenient return". The authorities have denied that anyone
is under house arrest but there have been reports from opposition sources that
some supporters have been imprisoned.
After two previous similar stand-offs, in 1998, friends were allowed in and
out of the house and delivered messages from Miss Suu Kyi. A spokesman for the
British embassy in Rangoon said: "We are assuming she is inside and that she is
okay, but nobody has seen her.
"She was very ill in 1998, and they are denying her doctor access. The
longer they deny access, the more we have grounds for worry."
Bangkok post - Sep 6,
2000.
Editorial Rangoon can help should it care to The recent expansion of United Wa State Army influence over areas once
controlled by the Shan State Army and its success in forging a loose alliance
with the pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army pose a direct, serious
threat to Thai national security and the Thai people. As the biggest producer of
methamphetamines in the Golden Triangle, which is responsible for flooding the
Thai market with hundreds of millions of speed pills a year and, more recently,
with a new type of ecstasy, the territorial expansion will enable the UWSA to
expand or relocate its drug production. The collaboration with the Karens will
open up new routes along which drugs can be smuggled across the border into Tak
province or further south to feed the insatiable dependency of our
ever-increasing drug-user population.
The Thai military and intelligence agencies are keeping a close watch on
these developments and the security threat they pose. Troops have been
redeployed from the Cambodian and Lao borders to the Burmese frontier directly
opposite the bases of the UWSA and its sphere of influence. But with most of the
border not yet demarcated and passing through rough terrain, it is almost
impossible for the troops, despite their additional numbers, and police to stem
the drug flow. Their efforts are doomed to failure unless Rangoon can be
convinced to lend a serious helping hand.
But so far the Burmese junta has been indifferent to the drug menace
suffered by its neighbour and fellow member of Asean. The junta claims,
disingenuously, that it can do nothing to help because the areas in question are
beyond its control. What rubbish. The generals in charge approve, at least
implicitly, of the UWSA's drug trade and, for all intents and purposes, licensed
the operation in a peace deal concluded in 1989 which allows the Wa to exercise
control over areas bordering Thailand and China, and to protect this operation
through their right to bear arms.
Thailand must do something. We cannot sit by idly and watch as our youth
are destroyed through the use of methamphetamines. This is the human cost. There
are others. There is also the expense, estimated at several billion baht a year,
of people financing their drug habits and the hundreds of million baht more
spent on drug suppression and rehabilitation efforts.
The Thai government cannot afford not to tell the intransigent Burmese
junta in the most no-nonsense terms that its lack of co-operation with
Thailand's efforts to combat the drug production activities on Burmese soil
constitutes an act of hostility which cannot be tolerated any longer. The
international community also must be told of Thailand's desperate plight and
Burma's reluctance to help.
Thailand has its back to the wall. Enormous amounts of resources have been
dumped into the failed effort to deal with the drug menace. So desperate is the
situation that some Thai planners are contemplating a military option-conducting
precise, decisive and limited cross-border sorties aimed at destroying the drug
factories inside Burma. Fortunately, cooler heads prevail. The military option
is the very last option, and has not gone ahead for fear of the international
backlash it would excite.
We are in a difficult position. The crux of the problem, and its solution,
lies across the border in Burma. If Rangoon can honestly do nothing to stamp out
the drug trade because the areas of production are beyond its control, then it
could invite Thailand, in the spirit of Asean co-operation, to do the job. This
would not only be a wise gesture from a friendly neighbour but proof to the
world that Burma is genuinely serious about getting tough with the drug barons
and is doing something to bring an end to their contemptible
operations.
Sydney Morning Herald
Burma: one small step can lead to great
strides
Date: 06/09/2000 That there has been so much discussion recently on human rights in Burma is
a very good thing. I am disappointed, though, that there appear to be some
misconceptions about what Australia is doing and what we are trying to achieve.
There can be no argument about the extent of human rights abuses in Burma. The
events over the past 10 days have reinforced the need for democratic reform and
respect for human rights.
The challenge facing the international community is what we should do about
it.
Over 10 long miserable years for the Burmese people, isolationist and
sanctions-based approaches have led to no change whatsoever in the political
situation, neither have they contributed to any improvement in the very grim
human rights picture that is Burma today.
For precisely this reason, fresh, innovative approaches to Burma are
needed. The Australian Government's human rights initiative aims in a small,
incremental way, to try a different approach to help improve human rights in
Burma.
In July 1998 I suggested to the then Burmese Foreign Minister, U Ohn Gyaw,
that Burma should consider setting up an independent human rights institution.
This approach held out the promise of a path for Burma to work to guarantee
human rights within its own jurisdiction.
An obvious model that we considered would be acceptable to the Burmese was
that of Komnas HAM - the State-funded but independent national commission on
human rights - which was set up in Indonesia under President Suharto's
rule.
The Australian Government was not alone in this thinking. Australia's then
Commissioner for Human Rights, Chris Sidoti, saw merit in the initiative. His
visit to Burma in August 1999 identified, as an initial step, the potential for
human rights training. Through co-operation at government level, the first two
workshops in July this year provided an introduction to human rights for
middle-level Burmese civil servants. A third workshop is planned for
October.
This approach is consistent with the practical measures we have adopted
with many other states in the region, including those which have established, or
are in the process of establishing, national institutions of their own. It is
also consistent with the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights
Institutions.
As in China and Vietnam, training is an important first stage in building
an environment of greater understanding and respect for human rights. The
Burmese Government also announced at the New Zealand meeting of the Asia Pacific
Forum of National Human Rights Institutions on August 10 that it was moving to
set up a Human Rights Commission of its own. Naturally, we will follow very
closely how the Burmese do this.
These are the only positive developments in human rights in Burma over the
past decade.
Judgments by some commentators that recent events in Rangoon are evidence
of the failure of the Australian Government's approach are premature and
simplistic.
In the light of a decade of failed approaches to bring about change in
Burma, to suggest that our small-scale efforts to provide human rights training
have failed soon after it started is either very naive or highly
disingenuous.
Our approach has also been falsely characterised as turning a blind eye to
the abuses of the Burmese Government. We do not tolerate human rights abuses.
Our approach is not appeasement or "cosying up" to the Burmese Government. We
have never hesitated to criticise human rights abuses in Burma as we have done
in relation to current events in Rangoon.
We have always strongly supported United Nations' efforts to influence
change in Burma. Our human rights initiative complements UN processes, such as
the efforts of the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Burma. We work
with other like-minded countries in multilateral forums such as the United
Nations General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights to produce tough
consensus resolutions on Burma. On June 14 this year Australia voted in favour
of a strong resolution on forced labour at the International Labour Conference
in Geneva.
Assertions that Australia is the only country engaging with Burma are pure
myth. Burma is now a member of ASEAN, and as a member, Burma talks with the
United States, with the EU, and with Australia, all ASEAN dialogue
partners.
Nor should we pretend that Australia is the only developed country engaging
Burma through education programs. A number of countries, such as Japan and some
major European nations, are engaged with Burma through the provision of
scholarships and training, including for Burmese government officials.
Australia's policy is not an endorsement of the Burmese regime. We are in
total agreement with the United States, European Union and many in Asia in our
campaign to see significant political reform and an improvement in the human
rights situation in Burma. Significantly, we have chosen to engage the Burmese
Government on the specific issue of human rights.
That said, we know our human rights initiative is a very small first step.
We also know that it will not be an easy process, and most of all we know that
results will take a considerable time. The choice before us is to do something,
or to do nothing.
Alexander Downer is Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Sydney Morning Herald
Seminars a 'smokescreen' for Burma Date: 06/09/2000 By CRAIG SKEHAN, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok Academics and lawyers involved in Australia's controversial human rights
seminars for officials of the Burmese military regime are under fire from people
who would usually be their allies.
"I know that I am going to be accused of supping with Satan," said senior
law lecturer Professor David Kinley. "The Burmese may be acting cynically, but I
think there is at least a possibility of change.
"And I don't think these seminars in themselves are going to make the
regime more palatable."
Critics say Burma is using the seminars to pretend it wants reform while
intensifying repression of dissent, including a crackdown this week on democracy
leader Ms Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr Hye Htut, a Burmese who has been working as a lawyer in Australia for 23
years, said yesterday that Burmese officials attending the seminars would have
"zero influence" on the regime's policies. "They really are a smokescreen," he
said. "Everyone knows that there is not going to be dialogue."
The Australian Government has allocated $500,000 for a two-year human
rights program in Burma.
The cost of the seminars, being run under contract by Melbourne's Monash
University, is $121,000. Another round of the seminars begins on October
9.
A spokesman for the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, yesterday said there would
be an assessment before deciding whether to continue the seminars after
October.
Professor Kinley, a senior law lecturer at Monash who is leading the
seminar team, said although there was a contract, the future of the seminars
would come down to a "political" decision by Mr Downer.
He said the Australian human rights lecturers might not be willing to go to
Burma if the security situation in which soldiers had cordoned off the
headquarters of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy did not improve.
He said the latest crackdown on the democracy movement in Burma had put the human rights project under pressure. "I can't help feeling we are being hung out to dry," he said. "But I am not
some devil. I was born and brought up in Belfast, so I know about human rights
abuses."
Ms Janelle Suffin, a Labor Member of the NSW Upper House and an activist on
Burma issues, said the Australian Government had distanced itself from Ms Suu
Kyi to strengthen diplomatic links with the military regime. "These human rights
seminars should be scrapped immediately," she said.
"The Australian taxpayers' money being used would be better spent
supporting the democracy movement if we want to effect change in Burma.
"We have become part of their propaganda campaign."
An instructor at the next round of seminars is the outgoing Australian
Human Rights Commissioner Mr Chris Sidoti, whose participation has also come
under attack.
BBC- Wednesday, 6 September, 2000,
09:43 GMT 10:43 UK
Suu Kyi is well says Burma The military authorities in Burma say the opposition leader, Aung San Suu
Kyi, is safe and well in her house in the capital, Rangoon.
Miss Suu Kyi has not been seen in public, and foreign diplomats have been
barred from contacting her, since she was forcibly returned to the city on
Saturday.
She'd staged a nine-day roadside protest after police stopped her group
from travelling to a party meeting. A spokesman for the military government says
a doctor and twelve members of the National League for Democracy are with her.
The authorities say family members have been visiting her compound and the
residences of other NLD officials. The authorities say she hasn't been arrested,
but has been asked to stay at home while alleged links with rebels are
investigated.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Bangkok Post - Sep 6, 2000.Drug offensive
The army will allocate more funds and weapons to
northern and western borders to cope with the movement of Burmese ethnic troops
who are increasing drug production near Thai territory. Gen Surayud Chulanont, the army chief, yesterday said the army had adjusted
its strategy and was focusing on narcotics suppression along the borders. The strategy would not emphasise extra troops but more money and weapons, he
said. The army was closely monitoring the movements of the
methamphetamine-producing United Wa State Army (UWSA) which is expanding its
control in areas of the Shan State Army (SSA) opposite the border in the
North. |