BURMA RELATED NEWS - July 11,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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Asia Pulse -
British Prime Minister to Arrive in Seoul July 20
DowJones - India,
Myanmar To Set Up Joint Trade Committee - PTI
AFP - Canada bans
Myanmar's military leaders from its territory
AFP - Myanmar FM
Win Aung meets Vajpayee and Sinha
AP - Senator urges
freeze on Myanmar's assets, ban on travel
NJ - Myanmar
pro-democracy groups in India use Internet to report on junta's excesses
Newsobserver -
Protesting crackdown, Canada suspends visas for Myanmar's regime
VOA News - Burma:
Reconciliation With Opposition is 'Out of Reach'
The Nation - 'No
hope' for Burmese born here
The Nation - Exiles
oppose relocation
Bkk Post - PM draws
flak over plan to review policy
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Friday July 11,
1:20 PM
British Prime Minister to Arrive in Seoul July
20
SEOUL, July 11 Asia
Pulse - British Prime Minister Tony Blair will make a one-day
working visit to Seoul on July 20 for a summit with President Roh Moo-hyun, it
was announced today.
The two leaders will discuss the North Korean
nuclear issue and ways to promote cooperation between the two countries, said
presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-young.
"The two are young leaders who
have a reform-oriented political faith in common. This meeting will help
strengthen their personal ties and improve the two countries' cooperative
relations to a new level," he said.
Seoul is one of the stops on Blair's
Asian trip that also takes him to China and Japan.
Yoon said the British
leader had originally planned to visit only China and Japan but later decided to
include Seoul in consideration of the nuclear issue.
It will be Blair's
second visit to Seoul after he attended a summit of the 2000 Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM).
Yoon said Blair will become the first British prime minister to
visit South Korea twice.
Foreign Ministry officials said Britain first
proposed Blair's visit.
"After the resolution of the Iraq issue, the
nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran have emerged as global issues," an
official said. "In East Asia, Britain is interested in the nuclear problem and
Myanmar."
Officials said Roh and Blair will hold talks for about an hour
and have dinner together. However, the rest of the itinerary is merely a
"sketch" at the moment, they said.
"We're planning to make the dinner a
small one so that the two leaders can have substantial talks," an official
said.
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India, Myanmar To Set Up Joint Trade Committee -
PTI
Fri Jul 11, 6:20 AM ET
NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- In a bid to boost bilateral trade,
India and Myanmar will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding to form a joint
trade committee that will meet at regular intervals, Press Trust of India
reported Friday.
The MOU will be signed during Commerce & Industry
Minister Arun Jaitley's visit to Myanmar beginning July 14.
Jaitley's
three-day visit is also expected to focus on the difficulties faced by Indian
companies operating in Myanmar due to the discontinuation of import and export
licenses for foreign trading firms.
Myanmar is the second largest
supplier of beans and pluses and fifth largest supplier of timber to India,
while India exports steel, steel bars, drugs and pharmaceuticals, cotton yarn,
auto parts, betel nut, resins and medicinal herbs to the Southeast Asian
country, according to the report.
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Canada bans Myanmar's military leaders from its
territory
Thu Jul 10, 5:49 PM ET
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada announced it was banning Myanmar's
military leaders from its territory to protest against the regime's detention of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Immigration officials will deny
visas for Canada to members of Burma's past and present military juntas, senior
government officials and members of the military suspected of involvement in
human rights violations," the Foreign Affairs Ministry said.
Ottawa also
said it would impose travel restrictions on diplomats representing the southeast
Asian nation. It is also calling on Canadian business leaders to avoid trade
with Myanmar.
Canada has had sanctions in place against the former Burma
for 15 years.
In January, Ottawa also excluded Myanmar from a group of
some 50 of the world's least developed countries from which it does not tax
exports.
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party's 1990 election victory was never
recognized by the military junta, was arrested and placed in "protective
custody" a month ago.
She had previously been under house arrest for the 19
months ending in May 2002.
Her recent detention drew worldwide
criticism, but the junta has given no sign of planning to release her soon.
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Myanmar FM Win Aung meets Vajpayee and
Sinha
Thu Jul 10,12:33 PM ET
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung has
discussed with Indian leaders the situation in his country in the wake of the
detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, official sources said.
Win Aung called on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Foreign
Minister Yashwant Sinha on Thursday and delivered a letter from military ruler
Senior General Than Shwe to Vajpayee.
"The visit is in the context of
current developments in Myanmar," official sources said.
India has
expressed concern over the detention of the Nobel peace laureate, who was taken
into custody following riots on May 30 when her convoy was attacked by
supporters of the ruling military junta while she was touring northern Myanmar.
Win Aung, who is on a two-day visit, also held talks on bilateral
relations with Sinha.
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Senator urges freeze on Myanmar's assets, ban on travel
Thu
Jul 10,17:08 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A leading senator urged the Bush
administration Thursday to freeze Myanmar's assets in the United States and
impose travel restrictions on the Asian nation to protest the continued
detention of Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the No. 2 Senate Republican, also said
President George W. Bush should discuss the situation in Myanmar with U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan when they meet Monday.
McConnell made the
statement after meeting with U.N. Special Envoy Envoy Razali to discuss the
situation in Myanmar also known as Burma. Razali is the only outsider to have
seen Suu Kyi since her arrest more than five weeks ago. He has said U.N.
officials are ``increasingly alarmed'' about the military government's refusal
to free her.
McConnell is the author of legislation to ban millions of
dollars of imports from Myanmar that he pushed through the Senate in seven days
and he says may reach the floor of the House of Representatives next week.
He has also called on Annan to call a meeting of the U.N. Security
Council so members can hear Razali ``report on the critical situation'' in
Myanmar.
McConnell said Razali's current mandate to promote
reconciliation between Myanmar's military rulers and Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy ``and ethnic minorities is no longer relevant in light of the
brutal attack against freedom in Burma on May 30'' that led to her arrest and a
crackdown on her party.
Suu Kyi was arrested after a clash between her
supporters and government backers. The junta says four people died, but the
opposition says up to 70 people died. Bush and other world leaders have urged
Myanmar to release Suu Kyi.
``Dialogue is as dead as those the
(government) murdered on Black Friday,'' McConnell said. ``This fact cannot be
ignored or denied by the United Nations or the international community.''
He said he would hold Senior Gen. Than Swe, the junta leader,
``personally responsible for the security and safety of Suu Kyi and other
democrats being held against their will.''
McConnell said he recommended
to Bush that the ``administration immediately issue an executive order that
freezes (government) assets in the United States, prohibits remittances to Burma
and imposes travel restrictions to that country.''
He said the State
Department indicated in late June such steps would be taken but so far no action
has been taken.
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New Jersey Online
Myanmar
pro-democracy groups in India use Internet to report on junta's
excesses
By NUPUR
BANERJEE
The Associated Press
7/11/03 4:49 AM
CALCUTTA, India (AP) -- Democracy advocates in Myanmar are
operating more and more from neighboring countries such as India, where they use
the Internet to campaign against the military government.
The dissidents
-- working mainly out of India, Bangladesh and Thailand -- provide one of the
few independent sources of news on Myanmar, disseminating information through
Web sites or e-mail, said several pro-democracy writers at a workshop at Falta,
a riverside resort 30 miles south of Calcutta.
"Forty years of the junta
have ensured the smothering of the independent media, but we try to disseminate
authentic news on the country," said Soe Myint, editor of the New Delhi-based
Mizzima Internet news site.
The workshop, ending Friday, was held to
train amateur reporters and chart a media policy for a democratic Myanmar, said
Soe Myint.
Soe Myint arrived in India in 1990 after admittedly hijacking
a Thai Airways flight to Calcutta to protest the Myanmar military regime's
rejection of the May 1990 elections won overwhelmingly by pro-democracy leader
Aung Sung Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party. Despite his confession,
Soe Myint was acquitted of the hijacking charges by a Calcutta court last week.
Internet use in Myanmar is limited. The country's three newspapers, its
radio and television channels are also strictly controlled by a
military-appointed press board.
"These online independent news groups
have become the window for the international community to peer inside this
opaque country," said Aung Naing, editor of the Dhaka, Bangladesh-based, Network
Media Group.
Soe Myint accused the military regime of unleashing a
"cyber war" on the news sites.
"Our e-mail systems are always coming
under virus attacks. The viruses keep coming and we have to depute two or three
people just to keep cleaning our system," he said.
The four India-based
news organizations that participated in the workshop were Mizzima News,
Narinjara News, Kaladan Press Network and Khonumthung News.
They
recently formed Burma News International, a news agency that will sell
information on Myanmar to subscribers. Myanmar is also known as Burma.
"The BNI model, if successful, will be implemented by the news groups
functioning from Myanmar's eastern borders, mainly from Thailand," said Gary
Rozema of the Burma Relief Center on the Thailand-Myanmar border.
Myanmar's military government has recently come under intense
international criticism for its May 30 arrest of Suu Kyi following a bloody
clash between her supporters and backers of the junta. Suu Kyi, who never has
been convicted of a crime, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
The
country has gone without much bilateral aid and no new aid from the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund since 1988 when the military brutally
crushed a pro-democracy uprising. Washington banned new investment by U.S.
companies in 1997.
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The News & Observer
Thursday, July 10,
2003 11:05PM EDT
Protesting crackdown, Canada suspends visas for
Myanmar's regime
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO (AP)
- Canada is denying visas for members of Myanmar's military regime to protest
the continued imprisonment and harassment of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi and members of her party.
Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said
Thursday that other steps against Myanmar, also known as Burma, include
restricting the travel of Burmese diplomats in Canada and recommending against
new business investment or dealings there.
"These new restrictions signal
our condemnation of recent state-sponsored attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi and her
supporters and their continued detention," Graham said.
Suu Kyi has been
detained since May 30 following a bloody clash between her supporters and
backers of the junta.
In January, Canada removed Myanmar from its Least
Developed Country (LDC) Market Access initiative, which eliminates most duties
and quotas on imports.
"Immigration officials will deny visas for Canada
to members of Burma's past and present military juntas, senior government
officials and members of the military suspected of involvement in human rights
violations," said a statement issued by Graham's department.
Graham also
said that travel to Myanmar supported the military regime that profits from the
tourism sector.
Canada has urged authorities in Myanmar to release all
political prisoners and work toward national reconciliation.
The United
States is preparing to ban imports from Myanmar, which has come under intense
international criticism since Suu Kyi's arrest. Japan, Myanmar's largest aid
donor, has announced plans not to extend new development assistance. Proposed
European Union trade barriers also would chip away at export earnings.
Suu Kyi, who never has been convicted of a crime, won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1991.
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Burma: Reconciliation With Opposition is 'Out of
Reach'
VOA News
11 Jul 2003, 10:17 UTC
Burma's
state-run media say reconciliation between the ruling military government and
the pro-democracy opposition remains far away and out of reach.
An
editorial Friday, in the newspaper New Light of Myanmar says no matter how many
U.N. envoys come to Burma to mediate, the situation will not improve so long as
Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters have a "distorted" view of democracy.
Branding opposition elements in the country "extreme rightists," the
newspaper contends they believe democracy can prevail only when an authoritarian
system has been eliminated. It charges that Aung San Suu Kyi and her National
League for Democracy wanting to bring down the present government by force.
The editorial was the latest in a series of attacks leveled at Aung San
Suu Kyi and her democracy party over the past week. The Nobel peace laureate has
not been seen since she was detained on May 30, following a clash between her
supporters and a pro-government mob.
International pressure for the
release of the opposition leader increased this week, with Canada saying
Thursday that it will impose more sanctions and deny visas to members of the
Burmese junta and other senior officials of the Rangoon government.
Japan and Malaysia also have agreed to pressure Burma to release Aung
San Suu Kyi, but they did not say Thursday, what steps they will take. U.S.
Senator Mitch McConnell is urging the Bush administration to issue an executive
order freezing assets of Burma's military government in the United States.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Thursday in a newspaper
interview that the effects of international sanctions do not resolve the issue
of the opposition leader's arrest.
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The Nation
'No hope' for Burmese born
here
Pravit Rojanaphruk
Published on
Jul 11, 2003
At least 50,000 children of Burmese migrant
labourers have been born in Thai hospitals and denied rights or proper birth
certificates, an academic said yesterday.
Kritaya Archavanitkul, from
Mahidol University's Population and Social Reasearch Institute, said at least
2,000 such babies are born in Thai hospitals every year and many more have not
been reported.
He said most had no access to education and were denied
proper records which prevented them from returning home as Burmese citizens,
going to a third country or even staying in Thailand.
"These children
are born in Thailand, but are treated as illegal aliens," Kritaya told a seminar
on irregular migrants.
She said some of the luckier ones were accepted
by schools along the Thai border, under the patronage of Her Royal Highness
Princess Sirindhorn.
"The government should provide proper documentation
to these people despite its policy of not educating children of those who fled
Burmese oppression," said Surapong Kongchantuk, a member of the Law Society of
Thailand's panel on human rights.
"Without proper birth certificates,
these children have no chance," he said.Many children were taken away by
immigration police as hospitals reported them to officials.
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The Nation
Exiles oppose relocation
Rungrawee C Pinyorat
Published on Jul 11, 2003
A group of Burmese exiles yesterday voiced their objection to the
government's decision to send them to border camps, saying they could be
attacked and killed by Burmese soldiers if relocated.
"It is not safe
for political dissidents to live in border camps. We could be attacked,
kidnapped and killed by Burmese soldiers stationed along the border," said Aung
Naing Htwe, the secretary-general of the 1,000-member Joint Action Committee for
Democracy in Burma (JACDB).
Aung Naing Htwe left his career as an
English lecturer at Rangoon University in 1996 after coming under severe
government harassment.
Aung Naing Htwe said that the Burmese exiles were
grateful to Thailand for providing shelter for displaced people from Burma,
although he added that the government should provide a place in Bangkok for
Burmese people with the UN's People of Concern (POC) status, rather than sending
them to potentially dangerous border areas.
Government representatives
met officials from the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last
week and agreed to relocate 1,600 Burmese exiles whom the UNHCR had granted POC
status to camps along the Thai-Burmese border.
It is still unclear to
which camps the Burmese POC will be transferred.
Aung Naing Htwe denied
the government's accusation that a group of the exiles had been involved in
planning "terrorist" attacks or other illegal activities.
Karn
Sermchaiwong, a member of the Law Society of Thailand, said the government
should find a "holistic" solution to the problem of Burmese immigrants.
Sending Burmese dissidents to border camps is not a lasting solution
because more political asylum seekers will enter the country in the future.
Kritaya Archavanitkul, a researcher at Mahidol University's Population and
Social Research Institute, also criticised the government, saying the decision
to send Burmese exiles to border camps was aimed at pleasing the Burmese junta.
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Bangkok Post - Friday 11 July 2003
PM
draws flak over plan to review policy
Right to protest must be
upheld, say critics
Anjira Assavanonda
Human
rights advocates have called on Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to reconsider
his plan to revamp government policy for handling Burmese refugees.
Mr
Thaksin earlier expressed concern over the presence of Burmese dissidents at
refugee holding camps, saying their political activities must be restricted for
the sake of national security.
Exiled Burmese students recently staged a
rally at the Burmese embassy to demand the release of pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi from detention.
National Human Rights Commission member Jarun
Dithapichai said the government had no right to limit the political freedom of
Burmese students.
``They are fighting for democracy through peaceful
means, and we must respect their political right to do so,'' he said.
Mr
Jarun reminded the government this right was guaranteed under a UN convention to
which it was a party.
The government considered reorganisation to be the
answer to all the nation's problems, he said.
Mr Jarun said he had
received complaints from many Burmese students who said they did not want to
stay at holding camps near the border because they were too risky and remote to
hold political demonstrations.
Karn Sermchaiwong, of the Law Society,
urged the government to understand Burmese refugees living in Thailand comprised
of various different groups.
``There are 1,500 who have been guaranteed
`person of concern' [POC] status by the UNHCR, but there are also non-POCs
staying inside the holding centres, as well as those living outside the centres
whose status has yet to be confirmed,'' he said.
Mr Karn said the closure
of Maneeloy holding centre had left many refugees in desperate
need.
``What will these people do if the state does not provide for their
basic needs?'' he asked. ``If we extend sufficient aid, they will not need to
get involved in criminal activities.''
Mr Karn suggested the government
take a long-term view of the issues surrounding Burmese refugees.
``The
government's previous measures have provided only short-term solutions,'' he
said. ``If we continue to see these people as a problem, the only actions will
be crackdowns and the limitation of their rights.''
A study conducted by
Mahidol University concluded there were close to 2 million Burmese migrants in
Thailand, including workers and their
families.