--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 5, 2:46 PM
Support grows in US Congress
for sanctions against Myanmar
WASHINGTON (AFP) -A groundswell of support grew in the US
Congress for sanctions against Myanmar's military regime, following last
weekend's goverment crackdown on pro-democracy activists and the detention of
the country's most visible democracy advocate.
US lawmakers said they are
weighing a number of actions to express their displeasure with the Yangon
goverment, from freezing assets belonging to the country's leaders to
prohibiting exports from Myanmar from entering the United States.
On
Wednesday, US Senator Mitch McConnell introduced the "Burmese Freedom and
Democracy Act of 2003," which would impose an import ban on goods manufactured
in Burma (Myanmar).
"Democracy is under attack in Burma today by one of
the most repressive regimes in the world," McConnell said.
He called on
Myanmar's military rulers to release pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi,
the Nobel laureate who leads opposition to the ruling junta in Myanmar and who
was detained during the crackdown.
Her arrest last week came after
clashes between her supporters and a military-backed group. The military
reported four deaths in the melee, but sources in the country told AFP that
several dozen people may have died.
"The world must not fail Suu Kyi and
other activists during this dark hour of need," said Mitchell, a Republican from
Kentucky who is co-sponsoring the sanction legislation with a bipartisan slate
of senators, including Massachussetts Democrat Ted Kennedy and Arizona
Republican John McCain.
Suu Kyi, who was arrested over the weekend during
a political tour of the region, reportedly was being held at a military camp 40
kilometers (25 miles) outside Myanmar's capital Yangon.
Senator Dick
Lugar on Wednesday also decried Suu Kyi's detention, as well as "the denial of
requests by United States and other officials to meet with her assuring her good
health and well-being are unconscionable," he said.
"The arrest of Aung
San Suu Kyi is a major setback toward meaningful reform, and raises serious
questions about whether the current ruling junta can be trusted to live up to
any of its promises," said the Indiana Republican, who chairs the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee.
On Tuesday, Senator John McCain added his voice to
those who called on the George W. Bush administration to stiffen sanctions on
the regime.
"The violent crackdown against Burmese democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and her supporters over the weekend underscores the brutal and
unreconstructed character of Burma's dictatorship," he said.
"The United
States should immediately expand the visa ban against Burmese officials to
include all members of the Union Solidarity Development Association, which
organized the attack against Aung San Suu Kyis delegation last weekend," McCain
said.
"UN special envoy Razali Ismail should not travel to Burma as
planned this week unless he has assurances from the regime that he will be able
to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi," said the Arizona Republican, who said a trade
ban would be a particularly effective way of expressing US
displeasure.
"The United States alone absorbs between 20 and 25 percent
of Burma's exports. Consideration of a US import ban should help focus attention
in Rangoon (Yangon) on the consequences of flagrantly violating the human rights
of the Burmese people and their chosen leaders," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 5, 2:09 PM
UN envoy to go ahead with
Myanmar trip and demand to see Aung San Suu Kyi
YANGON,
June 5 (AFP) - UN special envoy to
Myanmar, Razali Ismail, will go ahead with a planned trip to Yangon Friday
during which he will demand to see arrested opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
a source in the capital told AFP.
"Yes, he is coming tomorrow. He will
demand to see Suu Kyi," said the source, who is close to the national
reconciliation process.
He was responding to a question on whether
Razali's visit would go ahead despite the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi and the
confinement of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party's leadership to
their homes at the weekend.
"The decision comes from the (UN)
secretary-general after yesterday's discussions at the UN," the source
said.
"We have no indication at all if they will accept (Razali's
demand). We cannot exclude anything, even if chances seem to be
minimal."
In a briefing to foreign diplomats Tuesday, the military junta
said Razali was welcome to visit but there would be no guarantee he would be
able to see her.
The source hinted that Razali may leave promptly if not
permitted to see the democracy campaigner, who was injured in clashes between
her supporters and a military-backed mob in northern Myanmar last week which are
believed to have left dozens dead.
"There are two planes out of Yangon
every day (to Bangkok)," he said.
"He should also be able to see the
others who have been put under house arrest. He has to see the two
parties."
Aung San Suu Kyi is being held under "protective custody" in a
military camp 40 kilometres (25 miles) outside Yangon.
The source
suggested that the veteran Malaysian diplomat would be willing to travel
anywhere to meet her, including the camp.
"I imagine that the place is
not the most important thing," he said.
The June 6-10 mission would be
Razali's tenth to the country, during which he was supposed to talk to Aung San
Suu Kyi and the generals in a bid to kick-start the national reconciliation
process.
The special envoy of UN secretary-general Kofi Annan is credited
with brokering landmark talks beginning in October 2000 between the junta and
Aung San Suu Kyi aimed at shifting the country to democracy.
The talks
resulted in the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from 19 months of house arrest in
May last year. Since then, however, the talks have not progressed beyond an
initial confidence-building phase.
Annan has called for the immediate
release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior members of her NLD, along with a
slew of world leaders who have condemned the junta's latest crackdown on
democracy activists.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 5, 3:36 PM
Southeast Asian nations to
liberalize skies with aviation agreement
HANOI, June 5
(AFP) -Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and
Myanmar have drafted a multilateral air transport agreement aimed at
liberalizing skies in the sub-region, officials said.
The accord was
inked on Wednesday at a meeting of senior aviation officials from the four
countries in Vietnam's central coastal city of Danang, a spokesman for the Civil
Aviation Authority of Vietnam said.
The agreement will be formally
initialled by the four governments in December this year, he said.
It
will allow carriers in the four countries to draw up their own plans for
transport fees, flight schedules and destinations without government
intervention, the official said.
Airlines, in turn, will be given help by
the governments in publicity and marketing issues. The countries also pledged to
slash red-tape in immigration and visa procedures to help attract tourists and
investors.
Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan said the deal would
"give a new momentum to air transport cooperation" in the sub-region and help
strengthen regional airlines, state media reported.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 5, 8:08 PM
U.N. envoy insists on seeing
Suu Kyi
By Patrick Chalmers
KUALA
LUMPUR (Reuters) - U.N. special
envoy Razali Ismail says he will insist on seeing detained opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi when he visits Myanmar on Friday and has called on Asian powers
and Washington to put pressure on the ruling junta.
Razali, in an
interview with Reuters, seemed steeled for a showdown with Myanmar's generals
and asked for China, India, Japan and the United States to throw their weight
behind him.
"I am going and I am going to state my insistence that I
will see Aung San Suu Kyi. If they are not cooperative, they will see what I can
do," he told Reuters.
Diplomats and Myanmar dissidents fear Suu Kyi, in
custody now for six days, may have been injured in a clash between supporters
and a pro-government group last week.
In Yangon, the International
Committee of the Red Cross was trying to persuade the government to relent and
let its officials meet Suu Kyi and other people detained.
"We informed
the government of our desire to visit them. We are still following up on this,"
an ICRC official said.
Razali has been envoy for more than three years
but can count only minor victories in his mission to kickstart national
reconciliation that could eventually bring democracy to a country whose
government is shunned by all but its closest neighbours.
"I cannot do
the job on my own, I have to have support. Regional players must come into
action," said Razali.
"I think the Americans have a big role to play,"
he added.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate and pro-democracy icon, has
been held at undisclosed locations since her arrest despite international
agencies' efforts to see her and mounting calls for her release.
Yangon
generals have denied reports Suu Kyi was hurt but said that four people were
killed and 50 injured in the clash, and that Suu Kyi had been taken into
"protective custody".
The junta launched a sweeping crackdown on dissent
following last Friday's violence in the north of the country, where Suu Kyi was
visiting supporters. Universities closed earlier this week will not be allowed
to reopen until June 16.
Exiled dissidents say they believe Suu Kyi
sustained head and shoulder injuries after her convoy was stopped on a road and
set upon by truck-loads of government supporters wielding clubs.
They
also say many more were killed than the four the government has reported --
perhaps as many as 75.
CALL FOR SANITY
Razali
despaired of the developments in Myanmar, known formerly as Burma.
"This
is distressing, I am quite dejected," he said.
"This is a country with a
long history of kings, princes and civilisation. Saner heads must begin to
prevail.
"The people of Myanmar are supposed to be religious, loving and
devoted to pacificism. Surely the military people are also part of that
tradition?"
The veteran Malaysian diplomat said it was time for regional
governments, including Asia's big three --China, India and Japan-- to stick
their necks out by applying pressure on Yangon.
"What's clear is that
the regional actors must begin to play a role or they are not going to get the
job done. There are ample opportunities to do this."
United Nations
member countries concerned with Myanmar agreed at a meeting on Wednesday to back
Razali's mission.
The leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy
won a 1990 election by a landslide but was never allowed to govern.
She
has spent much of the time since then under house arrest, ending her last stint
a year ago. A series of trips around the country in recent months drew large
crowds, alarming the military.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday June 4, 8:22 PM
Fears mount for Myanmar's
Suu Kyi
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON
(Reuters) - Diplomats and Myanmar
dissidents fear that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent a fifth day
in custody on Wednesday, could have been injured in a clash between her
supporters and a pro-government group last week.
The Nobel peace
laureate and pro-democracy icon has been held at undisclosed locations since her
detention after the violence on Friday, despite United Nations efforts to gain
access to her ahead of a trip by an envoy of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and
mounting international calls for her release.
"Suu may be in good
health, or she may have been hurt, we just don't know," said one diplomat on
Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
The government has denied reports
Suu Kyi was hurt but said four people were killed and 50 hurt in the clash, and
Suu Kyi had been taken into "protective custody".
Despite the government
denial, the diplomat said rumours were swirling in the capital Yangon.
"One is she is getting treatment at the Mingaladon Military Hospital on
the outskirts of town. The other is that she is in a special military guesthouse
on Inya Road", he said, referring to an elite residential area in the capital
near her home.
An Asian diplomat close to U.N. special envoy Razali
Ismail -- due to arrive in Myanmar on Friday for a five-day visit -- told
Reuters the veteran Malaysian diplomat was seeking junta permission to visit the
detained pro-democracy icon.
"Razali is not sure if he will be allowed
to see her or not," said the diplomat. "We don't know for sure Aung San Suu
Kyi's condition or where she is."
"He will make his final decision on
his visit at the very last moment as he feels the situation is not clear."
Annan said it was vital Razali visit Myanmar and meet Suu Kyi.
HEAD AND SHOULDER INJURIES
The junta launched a
sweeping crackdown on dissent following the Friday violence in the north of the
country where Suu Kyi was visiting supporters.
Exiled dissidents say
they believe Suu Kyi sustained head and shoulder injuries after her convoy was
stopped on a road and set upon by several truck-loads of government supporters
wielding clubs.
They also say many more people were killed than the four
the government has reported -- perhaps as many as 75.
The government has
not given details of the disturbance, but simply blamed Suu Kyi for causing a
"commotion".
The government also detained took Suu Kyi's top aides,
closed her party offices across the country and sealed shut universities, which
have long been hotbeds of unrest.
Foreign diplomats in Yangon said they
had been denied any contact with Suu Kyi and other top members of her National
League for Democracy (NLD) who are being held under house arrest.
The
crackdown has effectively put an end to stalled talks on the country's political
future between the junta and opposition, who are pushing for a transition to
democracy, brokered by Razali in 2000.
Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister
Khin Muang Win said on Tuesday Razali was welcome to go ahead with his visit,
planned some weeks ago, but hinted he may not be allowed to meet Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi's NLD won a 1990 election by a landslide, but has never been
allowed to govern.
Suu Kyi has spent much of the last 14 years under
house arrest. But the military has been alarmed by the large crowds she has
drawn during a series of visits to supporters around the country, since she
ended her last stint in detention a year ago.
--------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. Lawmakers Urge Ban on Imports from
Myanmar
Wed Jun 4, 1:08 PM ET
By Doug
Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday called for
a ban on all imports from Myanmar as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi remained
in custody following a recent clash between supporters and a pro-government
group.
"The tough sanctions legislation I am introducing ... sends a
clear signal that Burma's human rights violators will be punished severely,"
said Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat and co-chair of the Congressional
Human Rights Caucus. "The brutal treatment and arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi cannot
stand."
Lantos was joined by chairman of the House International
Relations Committee Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican, and more than 20 other
lawmakers. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and Sen. Diane
Feinstein, a California Democrat, plan a similar bill in the Senate.
The
military said Suu Kyi was taken into "protective custody" on Friday after four
people died in clashes between supporters and pro-government groups in northern
Myanmar.
President Bush has urged Myanmar's military to release Suu Kyi,
a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and condemned the southeast Asian country's
crackdown on dissent.
U.S. imports from Myanmar totaled about $356
million in 2002, compared to U.S. exports to the country of $10 million.
More than 85 percent of Myanmar's exports to the United States are
textiles, clothing and footwear.
The Lantos bill would ban imports of
anything mined, made, grown or assembled in the country, freeze any assets of
Myanmar held in the U.S. and bar former and present leaders from traveling to
the United States.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a
landslide election in 1990 but has never been allowed to govern. She has spent
much of the last 14 years under house arrest.
Hopes for moves toward
democracy in Myanmar were raised last year when the military released Suu Kyi
from detention. But by April the State Department was saying "efforts to foster
peaceful democratic change in Burma essentially ground to a halt over the past
six months."
That report also blasted Myanmar for severe human rights
abuses and failure to curb its huge illegal drug industry.
Military
leaders renamed the southeast Asian country Myanmar in 1989, but the United
States still calls it Burma.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar junta tells Thailand that Suu Kyi detention
``temporary''
Wed
Jun 4, 5 :45 PM ET
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Myanmar's military rulers have assured
neighboring Thailand that the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
would be temporary and that the junta remains committed to national
reconciliation, the Thai foreign minister said Thursday.
The Nobel Peace
Prize laureate and 19 of her party members were taken into ``protective
custody'' last week after a clash between her supporters and pro-junta
protesters in northern Myanmar. The junta says four people died, though
dissident groups abroad fear the toll may be as high as 70.
The Myanmar
regime closed offices of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and shut
universities across the country in an apparent attempt to prevent
anti-government demonstrations.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai said Thursday he had received a letter from his Myanmar counterpart,
Foreign Minister Win Aung, saying the actions taken against Suu Kyi and her
supporters were for the sake of ``security and safety.''
``From this
letter, the Thais appreciate learning ... that the measures taken by the Myanmar
government are only temporary and for security and safety purposes,'' Surakiart
said in a statement.
The letter also reaffirmed the junta's commitment
to national reconciliation, he said.
On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh urged Myanmar authorities to treat Suu Kyi ``with honor,''
as about 20 exiled dissidents protested outside the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok
to demand her release.
Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since Friday,
and international concern about her fate has mounted. Myanmar has declined to
disclose where she is being held.
A U.N. special envoy, Razali Ismail,
said Thursday he will go ahead with plans to visit Myanmar to press for the
pro-democracy leader's release.
Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers angered by her
detention have called for punitive trade sanctions.
Razali is due to
arrive in Myanmar on Friday to try to rekindle national reconciliation talks
between Suu Kyi and the military that he helped launch in October 2000.
The current junta has ruled Myanmar since 1988, and refuses to hand over
power to Suu Kyi's party, which won the 1990 elections.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Red Cross Asks to See Myanmar's Suu Kyi
Wed
Jun 4,11:19 PM ET
By GRANT PECK,
Associated Press Writer
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - The International Red Cross asked to see
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and several of her colleagues Wednesday
amid reports they may have been hurt in clashes just before Myanmar's government
detained them last week.
The military junta insisted Suu Kyi and her
deputies were fine. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and 19 others were taken into
"protective custody" after a clash between her followers and government
supporters in northern Myanmar on Friday, and her party's offices around the
country were closed.
Also Wednesday, families of university students
were told that schools shut down Sunday would reopen immediately. University
classes were scheduled to begin Monday for the new academic year, and the
closures raised fears of a widening crackdown against government opponents.
Magne Barth, deputy regional chief of the International Committee of the
Red Cross in Bangkok, said the group made a request Wednesday "at the highest
levels" to see Suu Kyi and her colleagues.
"When we have a new
development, we seek notification (of detention) and access," he told The
Associated Press.
The ICRC has had access to all detention centers in
Myanmar since May 1999 and has made more than 200 prison visits, he said.
Myanmar's ruling junta has said Friday's fighting began when Suu Kyi's
motorcade drove through a crowd of townspeople protesting her visit. Four people
reportedly were killed.
Reports from several exile opposition groups and
media sympathetic to their cause claimed Suu Kyi was hurt in the violence,
perhaps suffering severe head injuries.
They allege that 70 or more
people may have been killed in the incident ? which they described as a
deliberate ambush by government-backed forces ? and a related protest the next
day.
Tight controls on the press and the relatively remote location of
the reported clash made it impossible to confirm what happened. It has been
impossible to make telephone calls to the area since soon after the clash.
"We've heard it from many sources, that she and (NLD vice chairman) Tin
Oo are severely injured," Soe Aung of the National Council of the Union of
Burma, a coalition of exiled political and ethnic minority groups opposed to the
junta, said Wednesday in Bangkok.
In closed-door briefings Tuesday to
foreign diplomats in the Myanmar capital Yangon, Deputy Foreign Minister Khin
Maung Win said Suu Kyi was being held in a "secure place" and was uninjured.
Soe Aung, whose group is based on the border with Thailand, said he
spoke to eyewitnesses of Friday's confrontation.
"If she (Suu Kyi) is
fine, why can't someone be allowed to meet with her?" he asked.
A source
close to Tin Oo's family said Wednesday night his family received a letter in
his handwriting asking for some prescription medicine but were not told any
details of his condition.
Diplomats attending Tuesday's government
briefings were skeptical of the government account.
International
figures, including President Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have
demanded Suu Kyi's release.
Even some of Myanmar's fellow members in the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, normally loath to interfere in each
other's affairs, have expressed concern.
Leading U.S. lawmakers called
Wednesday for new sanctions against Myanmar, including a ban on exports from the
Asian nation. Bills introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S.
Senate also would freeze the assets of Myanmar's junta and require the United
States to oppose loans to the country from international financial institutions.
Myanmar's government is under serious pressure to produce Suu Kyi by
Friday, when special U.N. envoy, Razali Ismail, is due to visit.
Razali
said Thursday in Kuala Lumpur he would go ahead with the visit despite deep
concerns about the detention, and added he would convey a firm message to the
junta that Suu Kyi should be freed immediately.
Razali said he expects
to meet Gen. Than Shwe, the junta's top general to push for the release.
The envoy said earlier he hoped to see the dissident.
"It would
be difficult to fulfill my mandate if I don't see Suu Kyi," he said.
Myanmar's military government has refused to guarantee access to her.
Suu Kyi's party handily won a 1990 general election, but the military
refused to let it take power. Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
In late 2000, Razali brokered closed-door reconciliation talks between
the government and Suu Kyi which provided hope that the country's political
impasse could be bridged, but their dialogue reached a standstill last year.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Human Rights Watch
Burma: Release Aung San Suu Kyi, Investigate
Attacks
(New York, June 3, 2003) - Burma should
immediately release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other recently
detained activists and allow the United Nations to conduct an independent
investigation into attacks that left several dead and dozens injured, Human
Rights Watch said today.
Aung
San Suu Kyi and at least 17 officials of her political party, the National
League for Democracy (NLD), were detained after a clash in the town of Ye-u on
May 30, after reportedly being attacked by members of the Union Solidarity
Development Association (USDA), a government-created organization that has
increasingly taken on a paramilitary character. According to military officials,
four people were killed and fifty injured in the attack. Aung San Suu Kyi has
officially been placed in "protective custody," but her whereabouts remain
unknown, raising concerns about her condition.
Aung San Suu Kyi had spent
the last month touring northern and central Burma, attracting large crowds of
supporters and, according to press reports, growing harassment from armed USDA
members. Following the incident, the government shut the country's universities
as well as several offices of the NLD.
"This looks like a deliberate
attempt by the government to provoke violence to justify a crackdown," said Brad
Adams, director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "Unless the
government gets the message that this is unacceptable, there's clearly the
potential for more bloodshed."
Human Rights Watch called for the release
of those detained and all others imprisoned for the peaceful _expression_ of their
views in Burma. It also urged the Burmese government to hold accountable any
member of the military or the USDA found responsible for the violence, and to
permit the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Paulo
Sergio Pinheiro, to conduct an independent investigation into the attack on Aung
San Suu Kyi and her party.
"The government needs to stop persecuting its
critics and start serious talks about making the transition to a
rights-respecting member of the international community," Adams
said.
Human Rights Watch urged U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan not to
send his Special Envoy, Razali Ismail, back to Burma as planned without specific
assurances from the Burmese authorities that Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed and
able to speak privately to Razali.
"The United Nations and the
international community need to make it clear that it will not be business as
usual after these attacks," said Adams.
--------------------------------------------------------------
A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL
Atrocity in Burma
6/4/2003
THE VILE military junta that rules Burma
against the expressed will of its citizens staged a violent assault Friday
against Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
members of her National League for Democracy who were traveling with her in
northern Burma. The junta says four people were killed and 50 wounded.
Unverified accounts from eyewitnesses tell of the regime's paramilitary thugs
murdering scores and injuring hundreds. The junta's pretense that it has taken
Suu Kyi into ''protective custody,'' concealing her from her people and from
foreign diplomats, seems to confirm her followers' fear that Suu Kyi, a Buddhist
advocate of nonviolence, was badly hurt in the attack.
It would be hard
to imagine a regime more deserving of condemnation than the Burmese junta. Its
obscene violations of human rights, its complicity in narcotics trafficking, and
its refusal to honor the overwhelming 1990 electoral victory of Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy ought to make the junta an international pariah.
To their credit, President Bush, the State Department, and leading members of
Congress have denounced the junta's latest display of despotism.
''The
military authorities should release Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters
immediately and permit her party headquarters to reopen,'' said a statement from
Bush released by the White House Monday. ''We have urged Burmese officials to
release all political prisoners and to offer their people a better way of life,
a life offering freedom and economic progress.''
This was the right thing
to say. Bush should now back up these strong words with actions.
Another
Nobel Peace Prize laureate, South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu, proposed
appropriate actions in his own ringing denunciation of Suu Kyi's tormentors.
''We urge freedom-loving governments everywhere to impose sanctions on this
illegitimate regime,'' Tutu said. ''They worked for us in South Africa. If
applied conscientiously, they will work in Burma too. Freeze the assets of the
regime and impose stringent travel restrictions on them and their supporters. We
need a regime change there.''
As it happens, Democratic Representative
Tom Lantos of California will introduce a bill to impose sanctions this week in
the House, and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will introduce a
similar bill in the Senate. Bush could and should issue an executive order that
would swiftly accomplish the same thing. This is not a partisan matter. The
great lesson that ought to have been learned in the last century is that free
democrats betray their unfree brothers and sisters when they seek to appease
dictatorships.
This story ran on page A22 of the Boston Globe on
6/4/2003.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Los Angeles Times
June 4,
2003
COMMENTARY - The Military vs. Burma's
Gandhi
In moving against Aung San Suu Kyi, the government
ensures she remains the rallying point of public resistance.
By Josef
Silverstein, Josef Silverstein is professor emeritus of political science at
Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he was a specialist on Burma and
Southeast Asia.
The regime in Burma can murder its opponents, intimidate
and torture them and violate their rights on a daily basis, but despite all its
weapons and all its power, it apparently cannot defeat the charismatic woman who
has stood up to it for the last 15 years, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi and
her party won the parliamentary election in 1990, and a year later she won the
Nobel Peace Prize for her work. But she was never allowed to serve. Instead, she
spent 7 1/2 years under house arrest, during which time her husband died in
England and she was separated from her sons. Yet she did not renounce her
cause.
She was finally released a year ago when conditions seemed to
ease. But now, the situation is worsening again.
The military regime ?
which renamed the nation Myanmar ? this week detained Suu Kyi, closed the
offices of her political party and shut down universities.
These were the
latest actions in an increasingly forceful campaign initiated against the
democracy movement since Suu Kyi tested the boundaries of her freedom by
traveling across the nation for months in an effort to rebuild her party.
For 15 years, there has been an uneven struggle between the regime,
which holds all the weapons and doesn't hesitate to use them against the unarmed
people, and Suu Kyi.
Some of the military rulers have limited education
and knowledge of the outside world, yet they impose policies they do not
understand and drive the nation ever deeper into economic chaos. They ignore
international criticism as they violate human rights.
Their rival ? a
brilliant woman with a modern education, worldly experience, a deep knowledge of
and belief in Theravada Buddhism (the faith of most of the people) and the
peaceful resistance tactics and strategy of Mohandas Gandhi ? has committed
herself to restore democracy through peaceful means.
The military rulers
have no idea how to eliminate her as a rival, short of killing her and provoking
a civil war.
What is the basis of Suu Kyi's power to attract so much
support and loyalty that some people are ready to give their lives, if need
be?
Probably the most important is that she is the daughter of Gen. Aung
San, who from 1945 to 1947 led the nation to the threshold of independence and
was assassinated by a political rival before he could achieve his goal. On Aug.
26, 1988, at a political rally in Rangoon (now called Yangon), his daughter
became the people's leader as she spoke for the first time and challenged the
military's right to rule and deny freedom to the people. To many in the audience
she appeared to have picked up her father's mantle.
The links to her
father are more than blood and symbolism. It is also her style of speech, her
themes, her concern and interest in the people and willingness to stand with
them and share their suffering.
She endured years of house arrest and
isolation, the regime's refusal to allow her to return if she left the country
to be with her dying husband in London and her sons. She gave up a pleasant life
as the wife of an Oxford don to remain in Burma to be with the people. The
people knew this.
Suu Kyi had lived and traveled throughout the world
and married a non-Buddhist but never lost touch with her Burmese Buddhist roots.
She raised her sons within the faith and lived according to its religious
precepts. She has asked for no special privileges and treatment and has been
given none.
The world has recognized her achievements and sacrifices and
rewarded her with the Nobel Peace Prize and other important awards. She has not
used these gifts for herself; instead she has given them to help others. This is
the woman whom the people walk miles to see, wait hours to hear and reach out to
touch. This is the woman who continues to challenge an army of 400,000.
In launching a new attack against her, the military leaders have again
made certain that she stands at the center of political affairs with the support
of the people.
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Chicago Tribune
Envoys confirm Suu
Kyi hurt and under arrest
Items compiled from Tribune news
services
Published June 5, 2003
MYANMAR -- Diplomats confirmed
on Wednesday that Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi suffered a facial
wound and an injured shoulder and is being held in a military camp after she and
her supporters were caught in a violent clash Friday with assailants controlled
by the Myanmar military.
The Nobel peace laureate and opposition figure
was being detained in the Yemon military camp about 25 miles outside Yangon,
Myanmar's capital, diplomats said.
Three diplomats in the region,
including one from a Western embassy in Yangon, confirmed that Suu Kyi, who was
arrested Saturday with at least 18 supporters and colleagues, was injured when a
brick or rock was thrown at the car in which she was traveling. Her shoulder may
have been dislocated or broken when it was struck by the projectile, they said.
One diplomat said she was injured on the side of her face.
Reports that
Suu Kyi, 57, leader of the National League for Democracy, was seriously wounded
had overstated the extent of her injuries, a diplomat said. It was unclear
whether she has been treated by a doctor.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khin
Maung Win on Tuesday assured diplomats in Yangon that Suu Kyi was in good
health.
Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 14 years under house arrest,
including a 19-month period that ended a year ago.
In another
development, an education official said Thursday that universities would reopen
June 16 after officials shut them in a crackdown on dissent.
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The Washington Post
Suu Kyi Injured,
Diplomats Confirm
Clash on Friday Left Burmese Activist With Face
and Shoulder Wounds
By Ellen Nakashima and Alan
Sipress
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 5,
2003; Page A22
JAKARTA, Indonesia, June 4 -- Diplomats confirmed
today that Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi suffered a facial wound
and an injured shoulder and is being held in a military camp after she and her
supporters were caught in a violent clash Friday with assailants controlled by
the Burmese military.
The Nobel peace laureate and opposition figure was
being detained in the Yemon military camp about 25 miles outside Rangoon, the
Burmese capital, diplomats said. Late tonight, U.N. officials decided to send a
top envoy to Burma on Friday to reinforce the message that Suu Kyi should be
released.
Three diplomats in the region, including one from a Western
embassy in Rangoon, confirmed a report that Suu Kyi, who was arrested Saturday
along with at least 18 supporters and colleagues, was injured when a brick or
rock was thrown at the car she was traveling in. Her shoulder may have been
dislocated or broken when it was struck by the projectile, they said. One
diplomat said she was injured on the side of her face.
Reports that Suu
Kyi, 57, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), was seriously
wounded overstated the extent of her injuries, a diplomat said. It was unclear
whether she has been treated by a doctor.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khin
Maung Win on Tuesday assured diplomats in Rangoon that Suu Kyi was in good
health. "People were just incredulous at their assertions," said a Western
diplomat who attended the briefing.
U.N. envoy Razali Ismail will travel
to Rangoon on Friday, though some officials in Washington and other capitals had
urged him to delay the trip if he was not guaranteed access to Suu Kyi. Others,
however, said his visit would pressure the government to release the charismatic
leader, whose NLD crushed the military-backed ruling party in 1990 parliamentary
elections but was prevented from taking power. Suu Kyi has spent much of the
last 14 years under house arrest, including a 19-month period that ended a year
ago.
"The safety of Aung San Suu Kyi is a factor that increasingly has to
be taken into account in the decision that the U.N. makes about Razali's visit,"
a diplomat in Southeast Asia said. This diplomat said Razali might be one of the
few international figures who could intervene to ensure that greater harm does
not come to Suu Kyi while in detention.
In Washington, lawmakers called
for a ban on all Burmese imports to send "a clear signal that Burma's human
rights violators will be punished severely," said Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.),
co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. "The brutal treatment and
arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi cannot stand."
Lantos was joined by
House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) and more
than 20 other lawmakers; Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.) are supporting a similar measure, according to news service accounts.
Exiled dissidents say that according to witnesses, Suu Kyi's convoy was
stopped late Friday by several trucks carrying government supporters in Dipeyin,
about 400 miles north of Rangoon. The government has said only that the clash
lasted about two hours until police intervened.
An exiled dissident who
has regular contact with NLD members inside Burma, also known as Myanmar, said
that according to a witness who was injured and escaped, Suu Kyi's convoy was
attacked by soldiers and security forces using sharp bamboo sticks.
"He
was shocked," said Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners in Mae Sot, Thailand. "He never thought such brutal methods
could happen. He said they beat the activists with hatred."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Koizumi, Mahathir Agree To Call For Suu Kyi's Early
Release
Tokyo, June 5 (Jiji
Press) -- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad Thursday agreed to call for the early
release of Myanmar's [Burma's] pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In a
meeting here, the two leaders confirmed their stance of seeking dialogue with
Myanmar's military junta to persuade it to promote democratization and release
Suu Kyi, Nobel peace prize laureate and leader of the opposition National League
for Democracy, from detention at an early date.
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