Friday June 27, 5:04 PM
Myanmar exiles detained in
Thailand
By Dan Eaton
BANGKOK
(Reuters) - Thailand has detained 11
Myanmar activists planning a rally outside the country's embassy in Bangkok
after a warning that exiled dissidents may have been planning to kidnap the
ambassador.
Police swooped on the nine men and two women at a Bangkok
garment factory on Thursday night after neighbouring Myanmar's military junta
said exiled dissidents may be planning to kidnap its ambassador in Thailand.
"They are people who have entered the country illegally. We are going to
send them to the immigration office," Police Colonel Chatcharin Swangvong told
Reuters.
"The order came from national police headquarters, which had a
request from the Myanmar government warning that a group of people might kidnap
important people or the ambassador."
Five armed Myanmar students stormed
Yangon's embassy in Bangkok in October 1999, taking 89 hostages who were later
freed unharmed when Thailand gave the attackers safe passage to the Myanmar
border.
But the activists detained on Thursday said they had been
planning a protest outside the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok on June 30 to mark a
month in detention for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and denied any
plans to kidnap officials or attack the embassy.
"It is impossible news
made up by the SPDC," said activist leader Moe Hein, referring to the Myanmar
junta by its official name, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
"We demand the release of our leader Aung San Suu Kyi," he told Reuters
at a Bangkok police station.
Myanmar's ruling generals placed Suu Kyi
under "protective custody" on May 30 after the Noble peace laureate's supporters
clashed with a pro-junta group in the north of the country.
The junta,
which refused to recognise a landslide 1990 election victory by Suu Kyi's
National League from Democracy (NLD), has so far ignored mounting international
pressure for her release.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on
Thursday he had yet to be briefed on the arrests, but said Thailand would not
allow foreign groups to use its territory to carry out hostile activities
against neighbouring governments.
He said Thailand also wanted to review
the U.N. High Commission for Refugees' procedures for granting refugee status to
Myanmar dissidents.
Thailand has over the years been home to thousands
of Myanmar refugees and is currently host to nearly one million illegal
immigrants from its neighbour.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday June 27, 3:30 PM
Rights Group Says Myanmar Govt
Abets Use Of Forced Labor
BANGKOK (AP)--Disregarding promises to the international
community, Myanmar's military government still uses forced labor for
public projects, an international human rights group said in a new report.
The United Nations and Western countries have long accused the junta of
human rights abuses, such as forcing people to do unpaid manual labor and to
serve as army porters.
Myanmar "is the only country where forced labor is
in practice and the central government is complicit in it," said Masao Imanura,
an author of a report released earlier this month by Washington, D.C.-based
EarthRights International.
"The report shows the ongoing involvement of
high-level officers...who are involved in giving orders to use forced labor,"
Tyler Giannini, a member of the group, said Friday.
Myanmar's
ruling junta in 1999 banned forced labor. However, the International Labor
Organization in 2000 urged its 175 member governments to impose sanctions on
Myanmar and review their dealings with it to ensure they aren't
abetting conscripted labor.
A Myanmar government spokesman dismissed the
EarthRights report as "fabricated for ulterior motives." The government "is
cooperating with the ILO to improve in areas that need to be further improved,"
he said on condition of anonymity.
The report says the work orders are
enforced with threats and violence.
One disobedient worker was buried up
to his neck, and other villagers were forced to kick his head, it said.
A villager quoted in the report said people are forced to check puddles
for land mines with their hands.
The report says the army forces eastern
Myanmar villagers to carry supplies such as ammunition, and to act as guides,
build or maintain military facilities, clear roadsides and sweep for land mines
- all without pay.
The army has battled ethnic minority insurgents in
eastern Myanmar for decades. Imanura, based in the northern Thai town of Chiang
Mai, said "people are just taken" to become porters.
"No one knows when
they will come back," he said. "It is slavery."
Earlier this month,
EarthRights sued U.S. oil giant Unocal (UCL) on behalf of Myanmar villagers in a
U.S. appeals court in California.
The group accuses Unocal of complicity
in slavery, murder and rape, allegedly carried out by members of
Myanmar's army, which provided Unocal with security and other help
during the 1996-98 construction of a gas pipeline partly owned by the company.
Unocal claims it can't be held liable for the
military's actions even if it knew about them, because it had no
control over the military.
Myanmar's government currently faces
international outrage for detaining opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
cracking down on her pro-democracy party.
EarthRights said its report
was based on interviews conducted in 2002-2003. The organization describes
itself as a nonprofit group of activists, organizers and lawyers.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thai authorities round up hundreds of illegal workers in
Bangkok
BANGKOK, June 27 (AFP) - Thai authorities have stepped up a
crackdown on illegal migrant workers, rounding up 814 in just one night in an
operation in the capital, police said Friday.
The swoop, which the
government said was aimed at boosting national security, comes ahead of the the
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in October when Thailand will host
leaders including US President George W. Bush.
"Based on our information
there are more than one million illegal workers in Thailand. They not only pose
a threat to national security, but also to health care and the economy," said
Labour Minister Suwat Liptapanlop.
"I want to reassure you that I will
continue the crackdown on illegal workers for the sake of national security," he
said, adding that the number of arrests so far meant there were "large numbers
of them in hiding."
The illegal workers, mostly from Myanmar, Laos and
Cambodia, will be repatriated to their home countries.
Suwat said
employers should think of the long-term consequences of employing cheap migrant
labourers, when some 800,000 Thais are out of work.
"I want to plead to
employers who are merely considering cheap wages when they hire illegal workers
that these people are creating a social problem," he said.
"Thus anyone
who violates our law will be arrested, including anyone offering them shelter,"
he said.
The Thai government only permits employers in specific
businesses, mostly the fisheries and agriculture industries where work is dirty,
poorly paid and shunned by Thai workers, to hire migrant labourers.
--------------------------------------------------------------
UN special envoy due in Jakarta for talks on Myanmar
JAKARTA, June 27 (AFP) - A UN special envoy will hold talks in
Indonesia this weekend amid heightened international pressure for the release of
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Special envoy on
Myanmar Razali Ismail will hold informal talks with Foreign Minister Hassan
Wirayuda, ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told AFP on Friday.
Talks
will focus on the situation in the military-ruled country but are "not directly"
connected to a plan by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to
send a delegation to Myanmar, Natalegawa said.
Indonesia, the grouping's
new chairman, is due to lead the delegation. No time has been set for the visit.
ASEAN foreign ministers meeting this month called for Aung San Suu Kyi's
release, breaking a decades-old convention of non-interference in members'
internal affairs.
Myanmar's ruling junta announced on May 31 that the
popular leader had been detained. She was held after a junta-backed mob attacked
her supporters in violence feared to have left dozens dead.
On
Wednesday, Razali told Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi that Aung San
Suu Kyi was being detained in poor surroundings at a Yangon prison when he was
allowed to meet her on June 10.
Aung San Suu Kyi's detention has sparked
outrage among the international community, led by the United States and the
European Union which have beefed up their sanctions against the Yangon regime.
Japan, Myanmar's largest donor, on Wednesday announced it had suspended
new economic aid to the impoverished country.
Malaysia's Foreign
Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Thursday the detention of the Nobel laureate had
damaged ASEAN's reputation and was a setback for the region.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thai PM lashes UN refugee agency over Myanmer exiles
BANGKOK, June 27 (AFP) - Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Friday
accused the United Nations' refugee agency of violating Thai sovereignty by
granting refugee status to Myanmar exiles without the government's permission.
"When issuing the cards, the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees)
must get Thai authorities' consent, otherwise the UNHCR will have sovereignty
over Thailand. Thailand is a member of the UN but not a lackey," he told
reporters.
Some 110,000 refugees from military-run Myanmar live in camps
on the border that are administered by the Thai government. However, many others
live elsewhere in the country by registering with the UNHCR in Bangkok.
"Anyone holding a UNHCR card must stay in their camp and they are not
supposed to freely roam across the country," Thaksin said.
"But it turns
out that now the UNHCR has sovereignty over Thailand because by issuing a piece
of paper these people can live in Thailand legally wherever they want. Where is
our sovereignty?" he asked.
Thaksin said Thailand had ignored the
problem for some time before recently deciding to "put this into order".
"We have shouldered a lot of the burden of the refugees," he said. "When
we want to get something put in order, there are a lot of saints who cry out
loud and criticise."
The UNHCR office in Bangkok said it had the right
to grant refugee status because Thailand was not a signatory to the main UN
treaty on refugees, and did not have its own legislation to provide for
determining refugee status.
"Under the terms of its statute the UNHCR
has been empowered by the international community to carry out refugee status
determination itself in the absence of a state procedure," said spokeswoman
Kirsten Young.
"Obviously we only do that with the consent and
cooperation of the state in which we do it. And we've been doing this in
Thailand now for the past two decades."
The UNHCR declined to reveal how
many Myanmar exiles have been granted refugee status, but Young said only "a
very small proportion of all Burmese in Bangkok actually approach us for
protection and assistance".
Thaksin's complaint follows the arrests
Thursday of 11 Myanmar democracy activists for illegal entry after they were
found organising a demonstration calling for the release of Myanmar opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"They were asking four Myanmar workers to
gather in front of the Myanmar embassy on June 30 to mark the first month of
Aung San Suu Kyi's detention," police Lieutenant Colonel Santi
Siriwattanapornkul told AFP.
Santi said those arrested claimed they were
legally registered with the UNHCR as "persons of concern", as refugee status is
known in Thailand, but that the UN agency said their identification cards were
no longer valid.
Thailand is on high alert over Myanmar dissidents after
the ruling junta said it had learned of a possible plan to take its diplomats
hostage in protest over Suu Kyi's detention.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Asia Times - Jun 27, 2003
Myanmar:
Pumping out pills on demand
Although a number of
refineries along the Myanmese border have suspended their operations since
Thailand launched its all-out war against drugs in February, there are still
several that continue to keep shops open under the patronage of the local
military commanders so as to carry out orders placed by customers in Thailand,
according to a reliable source in Myanmar's eastern Shan state.
Tachilek,
opposite the Thai city of Chiang Rai, illustrates what is happening in other
Shan townships such as Monghsat, Mongton and Homong along the border, said the
source, who is a close relative of a Lahu militia chieftain. "To my knowledge,
there are three of them still [operating] here," he said. "Only they don't do it
unless there is an order first."
One is the refinery at Nampoong, west
of Tachilek. Owned by Nampoong militia leader Yishay, its security is provided
by Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 359. It is said to have three compressors: the
big one turns out eight pills each time, the medium compressor three and the
small compressor one. It has been in existence for four years.
Another
at Jaka Village is located along the Mekong, north of Tachilek and between
Kenglarb and Mongphong. It is owned by Ai Tu, a Wa from Panghsang, and has been
in operation for a year and a half. Security is provided by Htun Hla, 40, son of
Javi, a militia leader of Nayao, and LIB 316 stationed at Talerh. Its products
are said to have spread as far as Cambodia and Vietnam through Laos. "The
evacuation of Wa troops from the area in March did not affect their operation,"
he said.
The third, owned by Maku, 35, a Lahu, and Tafah, 47, a Kokang,
both leaders of Paniang Militia force, is located at Loi Tawmaw in Monghai
tract, north of Tachilek. It has been there since February.
Asked whether
they thought Myanmar would be rid of drugs by 2004 as declared, sources in
Tachilek were skeptical. "It depends on whether the Burmese military officers
can stop their extortions from us and the local people," said a trader.
"Anything they want, they demand that we give it. If we refuse, it is forcibly
taken from us. And what they've gotten out of us has merely served to whet their
appetite for more."
Myanmar has pledged to wipe out drugs by 2004 and
Laos by 2005, the Bangkok Post reported on June 21.
Wa, reputed to be
the biggest drug organization in the world, has promised to be drug-free by
2005.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday June 27, 7:21 AM
Taiwan Inks Accord on
Cambodia's Wto Membership
GENEVA, June 27 Asia Pulse - Taiwan signed an agreement with
Cambodia Thursday on the Indochinese country's accession to the World Trade
Organization (WTO), which may take place before September this year, sources
from Taiwan's representative office at the WTO's headquarters said Thursday.
Taiwan Representative to the WTO, Yen Ching-chang, inked the agreement
with Cambodian Vice Minister of Commerce Sok Siphana on Cambodia's accession.
The two countries wrapped up some 10 months of bilateral market access talks
recently, paving the way for the two sides to sign the agreement.
Cambodia has just completed bilateral talks and signed agreements with
key trading partners such as the EU and some Southeast Asian countries.
If Cambodia completes all required bilateral talks before September, it
will be able to take part in the WTO meeting to be held in Cancun, Mexico in
September as the 146th WTO member.
Commenting on the signing of the
Taiwan-Cambodia WTO agreement, Yen lauded the move as "more rewarding" than
expected for Taiwan.
Yen said by signing the agreement, Taiwan -- the
largest foreign capital source of Cambodia -- will reap more than economic and
trade benefits,
adding that the agreement will have a far-reaching influence
on bolstering substantive bilateral relations between the two countries.
In its negotiations with Taiwan, Cambodia has pledged to lower tariffs
on 110 agricultural, forest, fishery and industrial products from Taiwan.
Cambodia also promised that it will talk with Taiwan first before
adjusting tariffs on Taiwan's top five export products to Cambodia, namely dyed
and weaved fabrics and yarns, color-printed weaved fabrics, synthetic fibers and
related products, knitted fabrics and clothes and zippers, in the future.
For services, Cambodia has agreed to open 61 categories of its service
markets to Taiwan companies, including those in computers, telecommunications,
mobile phones, taxation, civil engineering consultation, distribution systems,
banking and finance, as well as the travel industry.
Cambodia has also
offered to remove other non-tariff barriers for Taiwan to help facilitate
bilateral trade.
Nearly 30 countries have applied to join the WTO in
recent years. Beside Cambodia, Taiwan has also engaged in bilateral access talks
with Vietnam, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Ukraine and Belarus for those
countries' WTO memberships, Yen said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
World Socialist Web Site
Burmese junta refuses to
release opposition leaders
By Sarath
Kumara
27 June 2003
Despite mounting
international pressure, the Burmese military junta has refused to release
opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained more than three weeks ago
with other National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders. Her ongoing
incarceration and isolation makes a mockery of official claims that she is being
held in ?protective detention? for her own wellbeing.
Suu Kyi was
arrested on the night of May 30 after the regime staged an attack on her convoy
in a remote area of northern Burma. As many as 70 of her supporters died when a
pro-government mob, numbering in the hundreds and armed with sticks, clubs and
rocks, descended on the vehicles. Many were members of the military-sponsored
Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA). Some were disguised as Buddhist
monks.
Villagers told a BBC journalist who visited the area that locals
had been press-ganged into joining the attack without being told who was the
target. Others explained that a group of convicts had been taken from Mandalay
prison and trained at a nearby army camp then, on the afternoon of the attack,
moved to a house near the scene.
The junta has denied any involvement but
immediately used the incident to unleash a crackdown on opposition supporters
and groups. Fearing protests, the government ordered the shutdown of
universities two days after the attack. It also sealed off NLD offices
throughout the country and began to round up and detain party
members.
Despite the government?s claim that Suu Kyi is being held for
her own good, she has been held under the country?s draconian state protection
law, which provides for detention without trial for 180 days at a time without
access to lawyers or family members. Under this law, a detainee can be keep up
to a total of five years without any avenue of legal appeal.
UN special
envoy Razali Ismail has been the only foreigner permitted to visit Suu Kyi. He
told a press conference: ?What I can say is that where I met her was absolutely
deplorable.... She?s uncowed and feisty; she was outraged that this had happened
to her.? The junta has refused to allow messages and calls, including from US
Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Mike O?Brien. Last
Friday, military authorities allowed the International Red Cross to visit other
NLD leaders but not Suu Kyi.
The May 30 attack was the most violent
crackdown on the opposition since the military?s brutal repression of mass
unrest throughout the country in September 1988, when more than 3,000 people
were killed in the capital of Rangoon alone after soldiers opened fire on
anti-government protesters. As part of a deal with the military, Suu Kyi called
off the 1988 protests in return for national elections in 1990. The NLD won the
poll overwhelmingly but the junta refused to recognise the result.
The
latest arrests mark a sharp break with attempts by the military, under
considerable international pressure, to reach a political accommodation with Suu
Kyi and the opposition. After 19 months of house arrest, the junta released the
NLD leader in May last year and allowed her limited freedom of movement. The NLD
was allowed to reopen some of its offices but any recognition of the 1990
election result was firmly ruled out.
The regime eased the restrictions
on the opposition in a desperate bid to end the economic sanctions imposed by
the US and European powers. However, over the past year, Rangoon has faced
further demands for steps toward a power-sharing arrangement with Suu Kyi,
backed by threats of further restrictions.
Last November, US Assistant
Secretary of State James Kelly warned: ?[I]f progress remains elusive, Burma
must consider the possibility that other countries may join in measures with the
US, such as a ban on new investment.? In April, the European Union (EU)
increased the number of Burmese government officials on a visa blacklist and
extended the existing economic and arms embargo for another
year.
Government spokesman Colonel Hla Min expressed the junta?s
frustration with the economic restrictions when he told the BBC on June 20:
?Instead of giving us time, instead of giving us encouragement and a pat on the
back, they are always coming with threats, like sanctions and more sanctions.?
>From its standpoint, the junta gained nothing by easing restrictions on the NLD,
which, in the weeks before the May 30 attack, was beginning to gain public
support.
Initially, Suu Kyi adopted a cautious approach following her
release from house arrest and sought to reach a compromise with the junta. As
recently as March 14, she told the Democratic Voice of Burma that she wanted to
resolve the further release of political prisoners through dialogue. But her
rallies were beginning to attract crowds, particularly in the countryside, where
people took the opportunity to show their opposition to the junta.
On May
29, a day before the attack on her convoy, Suu Kyi held a rally at Monywa that
attracted tens of thousands. Two days previously, on May 27, for the first time
since her release, she publicly called for the 1990 election results to be
implemented. Both the growing public support for the NLD and Suu Kyi?s
insistence that her party form government will have contributed to the junta?s
decision to crack down on the opposition.
Suu Kyi?s arrest has prompted
expressions of outrage from the US and European governments. President Bush
expressed concern on June 2 and called for Suu Kyi?s release. US Secretary of
State Powell warned in a column in the Wall Street Journal on June 12 that ?the
thugs who now rule Burma? have ?to understand that their failure to restore
democracy will only bring more and more pressure against them and their
supporters?.
The US Congress has strengthened economic sanctions by
imposing a ban on Burmese manufactured goods. Washington intends to freeze
Burmese government assets in the US and expand a visa ban to former and present
government leaders. Under US pressure, the Association of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN) issued a mild rebuke to the junta at the recent ASEAN meeting in
Cambodia.
However, the Bush administration?s professed concern for
democratic rights in Burma is completely hypocritical. Washington is supporting
Suu Kyi as a means of ending military rule because it regards the junta as an
intolerable barrier to foreign investment and the exploitation of Burma?s
reserves of raw materials and cheap labour.
Like the former Suharto
dictatorship in Indonesia, the Burmese regime exerts direct control over large
sections of the country?s economy, despite limited attempts at market reforms.
Some 40 percent of all investments are funnelled through the state-owned Union
of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited, established in 1990 to oversee joint
ventures. Suu Kyi and the NLD, on the other hand, have pledged to implement a
program of economic restructuring, aimed at opening up the Burmese economy to
foreign investment.
Washington?s hostility to the Burmese generals is
also a product of the junta?s close relations with China. The installation of a
pro-US government in Rangoon would strengthen US efforts to isolate China, which
Bush declared in his 2000 election campaign to be a ?strategic competitor?.
Under the banner of its ?global war on terrorism,? Washington has been building
closer military ties on a vast arc along China?s borders, stretching from North
East Asia through South East Asia to the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan and
Central Asia.
The Burmese junta finds itself boxed into a corner.
Incapable of resolving the country?s immense economic and social crisis, the
military leaders have only one response to growing social unrest?brutal
repression. Shortly after the May 30 arrests, military intelligence chief
General Khin Nyunt signalled further harsh measures when he praised the 1988
military massacres as a necessary means to ?maintain law and order?. Nyunt is
considered one of the more ?liberal? elements of the junta and the chief
architect of the attempt to reach a rapprochement with Suu Kyi.
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Asia Times - Jun 28, 2003
Myanmar
blasts: Electricity one of the fuses
On May 21, bomb
explosions in Tachilek, Myanmar, killed four people and wrecked the statue of
King Bayintnaung, a 16th-century national hero. But a recent informal meeting of
traders in Mae Sai, a town across the border from Tachilek in northern Thailand,
concluded that the reasons for the attack were probably not entirely to do with
politics.
"The destruction of the statue of King Bayintnaung [1551-81]
was carried out simply to confuse the issues," said one trader. "The main object
of the exercise was the Tar Wai power station, where the blast successfully
damaged two of the generators there."
Tachilek is a border town 60
kilometers north of the Thai city of Chiang Rai. Because of Myanmar's shortage
of electric power, many such border towns have turned to neighboring countries
for local supply. Laokai, a Kokang town in the north, for one, gets its
electricity from China.
Recently, however, local businessmen in Tachilek
have been wrangling for control for the power-supply business. Now, except for
government quarters and people with private generators, the town is once more in
the dark since the Wai Family Electrical Production and Supplies Co Ltd's
electricity plant went out of commission during the explosion, which also killed
one of its workers. The power station was in operation for less than a month
(since April 28).
One of its conditions for taking responsibility for
supplying Tachilek with power was to discard the existing, durable Thai meter
boxes and install new ones that have to be replaced every two years, each
costing more than 30,000 baht (over US$700). This, together with the
eight-baht-per-unit (19-cent) service charge, had upset several prominent
citizens. "We had to pay only five baht to Khun Prasong [Markmahsin, the former
Thai agent]," said another one.
Sai Hseng, 55, a local businessman, was
said to have offered to retain the Thai meter boxes at the rate of four baht per
unit. But his application was turned down and the concession was granted to Tar
Wai, who enjoys close ties with the United Wa State Army and its business firm,
Hong Pang.
"The grant has angered even the local authorities, who
thought they had been cheated out of their rightful shares in the spoils by
Brigadier-General Khin Zaw," said a source, referring to the commander of the
Triangle Region Command headquartered in Kenntung, 160km north of Tachilek. "As
a result, there is a concerted effort by some officers at present to have him
removed from eastern Shan state."
Believe it or not, they said, power
supply is a business of great reward. "Remember an U Kyi Htwe, who was found
dead in 1999 with gunshot wounds?" asked one rhetorically. "He had also applied
for [an electricity] license."
Currently, U Tar Wai (aka U Sai Shan),
Maung Win, 58, another ethnic-Chinese applicant and an unidentified
representative of the Thai power agent in Mae Sai are in Yangon to get the issue
resolved. "It might turn out that Thais are back again with their electricity,"
said one resident.
Meanwhile, Tip Taiwan, a former follower of the
notorious drug lord Khun Sa, is being detained at the Military Intelligence
Detachment No 24 in Tachilek. "He is being forced to confess that he, as a Shan
State Army saboteur, was responsible for the 21 May blasts," said a trader.
The SSA "South", the main armed movement still at war with Yangon, has
denied any connections to Sai Tip, who is labeled by Yangon as San Tit.
--------------------------------------------------------------
VOA News
Aung San Suu Kyi's Detention Sparks Criticism
from Burma's Neighbors
Gary
Thomas
Bangkok
27 Jun 2003, 10:14 UTC
The
Burmese government's detention of democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi has
sparked a new wave of condemnation. But there is a significant difference
between this latest government crackdown and earlier ones. Pressure is now
coming from neighboring countries not usually critical of Burma's ruling
generals. The military government's treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi has become
something of embarrassment for Burma's neighbors.
For years there has
been an unspoken but well-understood commandment among member states of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations to never speak ill in public of a fellow
ASEAN member. This precept, widely known as "The ASEAN Way", was breached only
once before. In 1997, Cambodia's application for admission to ASEAN was put on
hold due to the coup by Prime Minister Hun Sen against his rival and co-prime
minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
Until now, the sharpest
international criticism of Burma has come from Western governments, most notably
the United States and Britain.
But, at the recent meeting of ASEAN foreign
ministers in Phnom Penh, ASEAN reprimanded Burma, also known as Myanmar, for its
most recent detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ronald May, a professor of
Political and Social Change at the Australian National University, says Burma is
becoming an embarrassment to ASEAN. "There must be a feeling within ASEAN that
the sort of things that are happening in Burma don't do the standing of ASEAN
much good internationally. And I think that there probably is a feeling among
some of the countries of ASEAN that there is a need to pull Burma into line a
bit if it's going to remain a member of ASEAN," he says.
Noel Morada, a
professor of political science at the University of the Philippines and an
expert on ASEAN, says the regional grouping also spoke up to head off criticism
from Western nations of ASEAN on the Burma issue. "What I know, and what I
gathered from some friends in ASEAN is that they wanted to preempt Western
criticism. And so, you know, that was, I think, part of the reason why they had
to be vocal at this time," he says.
Burma was admitted to ASEAN in 1997,
the same year Cambodia's membership was delayed. Some member states privately
expressed misgivings about letting Burma in. Aung San Suu Kyi, repeatedly held
in detention, had already acquired near mythic status approaching that of a
fellow Nobel laureate and one-time political prisoner, Nelson Mandela of South
Africa.
Mr. May says ASEAN hoped admission to its ranks would have a
positive influence on Burma's ruling generals. "I think that there was probably
some expectation at the time that the older ASEAN members might be able to
exercise some liberalizing influence on countries like Burma," he says.
The United States and other Western nations are prepared to impose new
economic sanctions on Burma, and Japan, Burma's biggest aid donor, has announced
a suspension of any new assistance until Aung San Suu Kyi is released.
But analysts say it is not likely that ASEAN will take similar hard
action. Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, says that
engagement with Burma rather than confrontation remains Thailand's policy.
"Well, we believe that right now that countries are making their concerns known.
Let's see how the Myanmar government reacts to the concern expressed. And we
don't think that it's time to impose sanctions. And we think that having
dialogue is probably the best way," he says.
ASEAN member governments
are a mixed bunch, ranging across a spectrum of democratic to authoritarian and
analysts believe that some governments are afraid of taking any strong action
against Burma, lest their own legitimacy be challenged.
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The International Herald Tribune
Democracy
for Burma
Jose Ramos-Horta
Friday,
June 27, 2003
Lean on the generals
DILI, East Timor Burma's
military regime should not only release Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters, and
reopen the offices of her party, the National League for Democracy. The regime
must accept a clear timetable for restoring democracy in Burma.
.
The
recent attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's opposition leader, and her
supporters were orchestrated by hard-liners in Burma's military regime who fear
her enduring popularity and the national reconciliation process supported by
other, more tolerant, members of the ruling junta.
.
Aung San Suu Kyi,
who was awarded the Nobel Peace for her campaign to restore democracy and civil
liberties in Burma by peaceful means, has been incarcerated and held
incommunicado for several weeks. The United Nations special envoy, Razali
Ismail, who met her not long ago, says that she is unharmed.
.
But the
British government says Aung San Suu Kyi is being held, under the most draconian
law that the military authorities have at their disposal, in a two-room hut at
the notorious Insein jail just outside Rangoon. I and many others are worried
not just about her fate but of hundreds of her supporters whose whereabouts and
well-being are unknown.
.
The foreign ministers of ASEAN, the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations - of which Burma is a member - recently broke a taboo
against interfering in what have traditionally been regarded as the internal
affairs of a member state. Embarrassed that the international reputation of
ASEAN is suffering because of the gross and systematic human rights violations
in Burma, the ministers demanded at their annual meeting in Phnom Penh that Aung
San Suu Kyi be freed immediately.
.
China and Japan, as regional powers,
working closely with Indonesia in its current position as chair of ASEAN, should
prod Burma's military leaders to move toward restoring democracy. The United
Nations, in close consultation with ASEAN leaders, must be involved in
facilitating and supervising the steps for free elections within three years. In
working towards a peaceful and stable political transition, the democracy
movement in Burma as well as the international community must also consider
safeguards and incentives for those in power to allow the evolution to proceed.
.
Meanwhile, the United States and the European Union should consider
responding to each meaningful step taken by the military government with
measures such as gradual easing of travel restrictions for regime members and
providing humanitarian aid through nongovernment organizations.
.
As the
regime shows evidence of irreversible movement toward free elections, foreign
investment, trade and tourism should be encouraged. A federated Burma would be
one way to keep the country united and spare it a new wave of conflicts along
ethnic lines.
.
With political reform under way, the World Bank and other
institutions such as the United Nations Development Program should step in to
help reform Burma's institutions and economy.
.
Because of repression in
Burma, ASEAN is facing a serious credibility challenge. It must resolve the
impasse in its own backyard with the help of other concerned countries. Failure
to do so will weaken ASEAN and undermine its international influence.
.
The writer, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, is East
Timor's minister for foreign affairs.
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The Daily Yomiuri - June 27, 2003
Freeze set on ODA to Myanmar
Yomiuri Shimbun
The government plans to freeze official development assistance to
Myanmar until pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is released from detention,
a senior government official said Thursday.
Senior Vice Foreign Minister
Tetsuro Yano said the government found it extremely difficult to extend
additional ODA to Myanmar under the current circumstances.
The
government extended about 2.1 billion yen of grants-in-aid to Myanmar in fiscal
2002, but has not made any payments during this fiscal year.
On the same
day, the government asked Japanese Ambassador to Myanmar Yuji Miyamoto to seek
information from Myanmar's ruling military junta to confirm the whereabouts of
Suu Kyi as soon as possible.
When U.N. envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail
met Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Wednesday in Japan, he said he had met
with Suu Kyi on June 10 in a building on prison premises. However, Yano said
when he met with Gen. Khin Nyunt, Myanmar's intelligence chief and third-ranking
leader Monday in Myanmar, the general had denied Suu Kyi was being held in a
prison.
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