--------------------------------------------------------------
Bush signs new Myanmar sanctions, pledges to stand with
Aung San Suu Kyi
Mon Jul 28,11:40 PM ET
WASHINGTON
(AFP) - President George W. Bush
(news - web sites) imposed tough new sanctions on Myanmar's crippled economy,
vowing Americans would not desert opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in her
struggle for democracy.
Bush signed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act
of 2003, which garnered huge majorities in the House of Representatives and the
Senate two weeks ago.
"The world must make clear, through word and deed,
that the people of Burma, like people everywhere, deserve to live in dignity and
freedom, under leaders of their own choosing," said Bush in a statement.
He said the move was a "clear signal" to Myanmar's generals that they
must release Aung San Suu Kyi, arrested in May, and move towards democracy."
The sanctions, which go into force in a month, include a ban on all
imports from Myanmar, and are aimed especially at the crucial textiles trade in
an economy teetering on the brink of collapse.
"By denying these rulers
the hard currency they use to fund their repression, we are providing strong
incentives for democratic change and human rights in Burma," Bush said.
The legislation also authorizes the president to aid Myanmar democracy
activists, freezes the regime's financial assets in US banks and property in the
United States, and widens a visa ban on Myanmar officials.
"The United
States will not waver from its commitment to the cause of democracy and human
rights in Burma," said Bush.
He accused Myanmar's ruling generals of
organising an attack on a motorcade in which democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
was travelling in late May, which led to her arrest.
In an official
media commentary at the weekend, the generals said that violence that led to her
arrest proved her National League for Democracy (NLD) was bent on a "strategy to
plot the downfall of the existing government."
The government ruled out
ever standing aside in favour of the pro-democracy opposition, saying the only
way forward was for them to work together.
"The true programme for
democracy is ... accepting the existing Tatmadaw (military) government as an
ally and joining hands with it," it said.
Aung San Suu Kyi's arrest
dashed hopes that a tentative UN-brokered reconciliation progress between the
government and the opposition could lead to genuine political change.
Eyewitnesses said Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters, who had been
making a political tour of northern Myanmar, were ambushed in May by a
pro-government mob in an incident feared to have left dozens dead.
The
new law won a warm welcome in Congress, where the rulers of Myanmar, the former
Burma, have few friends.
"The sanctions legislation signed into law
today by President Bush is a tough measure, but no tougher than Burma's ruling
thugs deserve," said Democrat representative Tom Lantos, a co-author of the
legislation.
"The Burmese government had two years to deal seriously
with Aung San Suu Kyi, and instead, they viciously attacked the Nobel Laureate."
At the State Department officials denounced the junta attack on
Aung San Suu Kyi.
"They made some accusations about Aung San Suu Kyi
undermining democracy that are just absolutely outrageous and fly in the face of
the facts," said spokesman Richard Boucher.
"The onus for failure to
establish genuine dialogue is clearly on the side of the junta."
The
latest commentary, part of a series denigrating Aung San Suu Kyi and aimed at
justifying its actions on May 30, blamed the NLD for Myanmar's ills since 1988
when a pro-democracy uprising was brutally put down.
Elections held two
years later were won in a landslide by the pro-democracy party but the results
were never recognized by the regime, leading to an unresolved political
deadlock.
Unbowed by the new US legislation, Myanmar Foreign Minister
Win Aung said Sunday that there was no schedule for Aung San Suu Kyi's release.
"We will announce it when the time comes. I can't see a timeframe right
now," he said shortly after arriving on an official visit to Indonesia.
Aung San Suu Kyi met an international Red Cross official on Monday and
was in good health, the ICRC said here.
"She was found to be in good
health and good detention conditions," International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) spokesman Eros Bosisio said.
Bosisio said Suu Kyi was able to
talk "in private, without interference" with the ICRC official in Myanmar, but
he declined to give further details on the visit.
Myanmar's foreign
minister Win Aung predicted on Monday that the pro-democracy leader and Nobel
peace prize winner would not remain in detention "for a long period".
But the minister, facing international outrage over Suu Kyi's arrest,
refused during a visit to Indonesia to give any timeframe for her release.
The ICRC's visit came during ongoing attempts to check on conditions of
all those detained after the May 30 clashes in northern Myanmar.
"So far
we have registered more than 30 people," Bosisio said, following visits since
June to prisons in northern Myanmar and near the capital Yangon.
He said
the ICRC hoped to visit Shwebo prison, north-east of Mandalay, on Thursday.
"We think that all the people detained in the May 30 events are there,"
Bosisio added.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday July 29, 6:10 PM
Tobacco giant BAT sees
profits dip in 'challenging' six months
LONDON, July 29
(AFP) -British tobacco giant BAT saw
pre-tax profits dip by a quarter in the first six months of 2003 when it faced a
"challenging" business environment and stiff restructuring costs.
Pre-tax
profits for the year to June reached 762 million pounds (1.07 billion euros,
1.23 billion dollars), 25 percent lower than those during the same period of
2002, BAT said in a statement Tuesday.
However during the period,
restructuring in Britain and the United States, including the closure of a
factory in Darlington, northern England, cost BAT 279 million pounds, it
added.
The company was hit by continued falling sales in the United
States due to price wars and anti-smoking campaigning, although this was partly
offset by strong demand in Asia, the Middle East and most parts of Europe, it
said.
"These are a solid set of results in the current economic
environment," said chairman Martin Broughton.
"In a challenging year, we
remain very much on track and are underlining our confidence in the future by a
10 per cent increase in the interim dividend."
BAT's share price was hit
earlier this month after the firm announced it was paying 2.3 billion euros for
Italian state tobacco company Ente Tabacchi Italiano, far greater than analysts
had anticipated.
The sum was "more than the market was expecting and
significantly more than our competitors in the sealed bid auction were prepared
to pay," conceded Broughton on Tuesday, while insisting the deal remained good
value.
BAT has also been under fire from both human rights groups and the
British government for its continued business in strife-riven Myanmar.
At
the beginning of this month, Britain's Foreign Office asked BAT to withdraw from
the country, formerly known as Burma, in the wake of apparently
government-sponsored violence that led to the detention of opposition leader and
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
BAT, which runs a cigarette
factory in the country in a joint venture with Myanmar's military dictatorship,
rejected the call.
--------------------------------------------------------------
We don't hate Suu Kyi, insists Myanmar
minister
By Achmad
Sukarsono
BANDUNG, Indonesia, July 29
(Reuters) - Myanmar's foreign
minister said on Tuesday he was lukewarm to Indonesia mediating the nation's
political crisis and insisted the ruling military junta did not hate detained
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In an interview with Reuters, Win
Aung said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate failed to understand the country's
problems fully and had been turned into an icon for democracy by the West.
He accused the outside world of being fixated on her.
''We are
taking a calculated risk in this present situation, not because we have hatred
against Aung San Suu Kyi. We don't have any hatred to her, no animosity,'' Win
Aung, the public face of the regime, said during a visit to the West Java city
of Bandung for a meeting of Asian and African officials.
Anger over Suu
Kyi's detention has grown, even prompting an unprecedented rebuke from Myanmar's
neighbours in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). She was
arrested on May 30 after a clash between her supporters and pro-government
groups.
Win Aung said Myanmar wanted to resolve the impasse itself,
although he would not say if he rejected outright any mediation offer. He has
said Suu Kyi would not be held indefinitely.
Thailand said on Tuesday
that Indonesia, the current chair of ASEAN, wanted to take a leading role in
brokering fresh talks between the junta and Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy.
Indonesia has yet to comment.
''In internal matters
which are very complicated the homegrown process is best...I think it's better
not to complicate matters,'' said Win Aung, a bespectacled and English-speaking
official who will travel to Thailand on Thursday.
Asked if Myanmar saw
Suu Kyi as a democracy icon, he said:
''She has been created to be like
that. She lived abroad. She was educated abroad. She married abroad.''
''She is not fully informed of the reality of Myanmar politics which are
complicated. We have inherited these things from the past and from British rule.
It's not that simple.''
He said Myanmar was misunderstood in the outside
world, and that comments from leaders such as Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad did not help. Mahathir has suggested Myanmar might eventually have to be
thrown out of ASEAN, one of the few international organisations to accept Yangon
as a member.
''We have this problem created because Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
belongs to the West. She is seen as very pro-West. We are not seen as
pro-West,'' Win Aung said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Red Cross Meets Suu Kyi, Myanmar Slams
Sanctions
Tue Jul 29, 2:27 AM ET
By Aung Hla
Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - Red Cross officials, allowed for the
first time to meet detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said
on Tuesday she was in good health and high spirits after two months in
government custody.
The visit came as the United States slapped tough
new sanctions on the impoverished Southeast Asian country, a move military-ruled
Myanmar and some of its neighbors said would only hurt the country's poor.
International concern has been mounting over Suu Kyi's health and
whereabouts, and Myanmar's ruling generals have come under intense diplomatic
and economic pressure to free her.
"Sanctions are one-sided, unilateral
actions taken by some without any regard for the people," Myanmar Foreign
Minister Win Aung told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Asian and
African officials in Bandung, capital of Indonesia's West Java province.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officials had been
trying to meet the 58-year-old Nobel Peace laureate since she was detained on
May 30 after a bloody clash between her supporters and a pro-junta group.
"I and one of my colleagues met her at where she was kept yesterday
morning," the ICRC's representative in Myanmar, Michel Ducreaux, told Reuters on
Tuesday.
"The meeting lasted for about half an hour and we were alone.
It was a very decent place and the conditions were also very decent," he said,
without elaborating on where Suu Kyi was being detained.
"She was in
very good health and she wasn't hurt at all. She was in high spirits.
Only United Nations special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail had
previously been allowed to see Suu Kyi in early June.
"HARDSHIP
ON THE PEOPLE"
Win Aung echoed previous remarks from the junta
that the democracy icon would not be held indefinitely, but gave no timeframe
for her release.
"We are not wanting any kind of destabilization of the
nation," he said. The junta blames Suu Kyi for the May 30 clash, accusing her of
whipping up unrest.
On Saturday, authorities said they had arrested 12
people with links to opposition parties for planting deadly bombs and hatching a
plot to kill junta members.
International pressure is mounting on
Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country since a 1962 coup and ignored a
1990 election victory by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
President Bush signed a bill on Monday closing the U.S. market to
imports from Myanmar. Key donor Japan has cut off new aid and Myanmar's
Southeast Asian neighbors have taken the unprecedented step of publicly
criticizing the junta.
But Malaysia, which played a key role in bringing
Myanmar into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997, said on
Tuesday that isolating the country was a mistake.
Thailand, fearing an
influx of economic migrants from its western neighbor, has also spoken against
sanctions on Myanmar.
"We can't simply follow the American
thinking, we have to look at in our context and the interest of the people in
Myanmar. Sanctions will force hardship on the people and that's not our
intention," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.
"I don't
think sanctions will be the answer in resolving the issue of Myanmar."
Some Yangon-based diplomats and Myanmar exile groups say the military
orchestrated the May 30 violence. They say hundreds of pro-government youths set
upon Suu Kyi's convoy with clubs while she was touring central Myanmar, killing
dozens.
The government denies this and says four people died.
The ICRC's Ducreaux said Suu Kyi did not ask him to carry any specific
message and added that he was seeking further meetings with her.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday July 29, 7:33 PM
Jakarta seeks to mediate in
Myanmar crisis-Thailand
BANGKOK, July 29 (Reuters) - Indonesia, the chair of Southeast
Asia's main political grouping, wants to mediate in a political crisis in
Myanmar, where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for two
months, Thailand said on Tuesday.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai said Jakarta wanted to take a leading role in brokering fresh talks
between Myanmar's ruling military and Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
(NLD).
Surakiart said a U.S. decision on Monday to impose new economic
sanctions on Myanmar had prompted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) to act, adding that he would raise Indonesia's offer with his Myanmar
counterpart on Thursday.
"I will ask Minister Win Aung on his official
reaction during our meeting in Bangkok," Surakiart told reporters.
"The
new U.S. sanctions are a wake-up call for ASEAN to accelerate its attempt to
solve the problem in Myanmar, otherwise there will be more sanctions from more
countries in the future."
International pressure has mounted on
Myanmar's military rulers since they detained Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders on
May 30 after a clash between her supporters and a pro-junta group.
U.S.
President George W. Bush signed a bill on Monday closing the U.S. market to
imports from Myanmar. Key donor Japan has cut off new aid and ASEAN has taken
the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the junta.
Myanmar is due
to chair ASEAN in 2006, a prospect many diplomats say is embarrassing for the
regional grouping.
Thailand, afraid sanctions will unleash an influx of
economic migrants from its western neighbour, has proposed key Western and Asian
countries meet Myanmar's ruling generals to hammer out a "road map" for
democratic transition in Myanmar.
"We all need to persuade Myanmar to
see the benefit of taking part in drafting a road map. The meetings must be
informal and closed-door, with little media attention."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday July 29, 4:01 PM
U.S. sanctions may deal
Myanmar economy death blow
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON, July 29 (Reuters) -
New U.S. sanctions on Myanmar will put hundreds of thousands out of work and
kill the country's textile industry, a rare bright spot for an economy in
tatters after decades of military rule, businessmen said on Tuesday.
U.S. President George W. Bush signed a bill on Monday closing the U.S.
market to imports from impoverished Myanmar, where pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi has been detained by the ruling generals for nearly two months.
Yangon businessmen said around 30 of Myanmar's 300 textile and garment
factories had already closed in anticipation of the move and the rest would
likely shut by September when the U.S. bill comes into effect.
"I wish
you could have come to see how the young girls burst out crying when the news of
the closure of my factory was announced a few days ago," said the owner of a
garment factory that employed 950 workers.
"I don't think the U.S.
decision will affect the ruling generals as much as they think simply because
the government doesn't benefit much from the industry. But it will affect the
people more seriously than they think."
The United States bought $356
million worth of textiles, clothing, footwear and other goods from Myanmar in
2002 -- around 10 percent of the country's exports.
The businessman said
the textile sector employed 350,000 workers and U.S. sanctions would hit one
million people, if workers in related businesses and families were counted.
The United States accounts for some 80 percent of exports from the
industry, set up largely with Korean, Taiwanese and Hong Kong investment. Most
other exports head for Europe.
INVESTMENT "ZERO AND PULLING
OUT"
The U.S. sanctions come amid growing international
pressure on the Myanmar junta to free Nobel peace prize laureate Suu Kyi,
detained since a May 30 clash between her supporters and a pro-government group
in central Myanmar.
Key donor Japan has frozen all new aid and the
European Union has threatened stricter sanctions. Myanmar's Southeast Asian
neighbours have delivered an unprecedented rebuke but, fearing regional
instability, do not favour isolating the country.
Once considered the
rice bowl of Asia and rich in minerals, Myanmar's economy has languished for
years while neighbouring countries saw surging economic growth rates.
Diplomats say the junta's economic mismanagement has fuelled Suu Kyi's
popularity among Myanmar's 50 million people, but memories are fresh of a bloody
crackdown on demonstrations during an economic crisis in 1988.
Those
protests toppled Ne Win, a dictator who grabbed power in a 1962 coup. But the
military hung onto power, ignoring a 1990 election victory by Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD) and kept her under house arrest for much of the last
decade.
"Prices are rising, incomes are not and there are fairly large
swings in the exchange rate. There are power cuts and high unemployment and
underemployment," said a Bangkok-based diplomat who regularly visits Myanmar,
also known as Burma.
"New foreign investment is zero and many investors
are pulling out. Companies are finding it hard to do business in that economic
climate and the court system doesn't function."
Western governments are
putting pressure on companies to withdraw. Britain last month asked British
American Tobacco to pull out of its 10 million pound cigarette factory, having
successfully persuaded Premier Oil Plc to leave.
Other major companies
in Myanmar include French energy firm Total , Swiss food firm Nestle SA and
Germany's Siemens AG , rights groups say.
The Myanmar government remains
defiant, insisting foreign investors who pull out will be replaced by others.
Some analysts say only action by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and military backer China will sway the junta.
"ASEAN and China
have to speak out and join hands with other nations," said Aung Zaw, editor of a
Thailand-based magazine run by Myanmar exiles. "Burmese people want to be free.
The question is, how many more years will we suffer?"
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday July 29, 1:33 PM
Myanmar, Asian nations slam
U.S. sanctions move
By Achmad Sukarsono
BANDUNG, Indonesia, July 29 (Reuters) - Myanmar slammed the United States on
Tuesday for slapping economic sanctions on the country, and found support from
key Asian neighbours who said the move would not help bring change to the
troubled nation.
President George W. Bush signed a bill on Monday
closing U.S. market to imports from Myanmar to send a "clear message" that the
detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and the "repression" of the Myanmar
people were unacceptable, U.S. officials said.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace
laureate, was arrested on May 30 after a clash between her supporters and
pro-government groups.
"Sanctions are one-sided, unilateral actions
taken by some without any regard for the people," Myanmar Foreign Minister Win
Aung told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Asian and African officials
in the West Java capital, Bandung.
International condemnation of Suu
Kyi's detention has grown, prompting an unprecedented rebuke from Myanmar's
neighbours in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Indeed, Bush urged Myanmar's neighbours to do their bit.
But
foreign ministers from Malaysia and Indonesia, key players in ASEAN, said
sanctions were not the answer.
"We can't simply follow the American
thinking, we have to look at it in our context and the interest of the people in
Myanmar. Sanctions will force hardship on the people and that's not our
intention," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.
"I don't
think sanctions will be the answer in resolving the issue of Myanmar."
Syed Hamid told Reuters that Myanmar understood Suu Kyi had to be
released, adding that a date would be welcome.
"It would be better for
the credibility of Myanmar and ASEAN to have a date. If they don't have a date,
let's watch the situation and we'll make a decision in an appropriate time."
He did not elaborate, but Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has
suggested Myanmar might eventually have to be thrown out of ASEAN if Suu Kyi
were not released.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, also
speaking to Reuters, echoed Syed Hamid's views on the sanctions. Wirajuda added
that a delegation from ASEAN could visit Myanmar at some stage, although he gave
no details.
Win Aung said Myanmar was unfazed by the sanctions.
"There was no help to our country in the past, we have to do everything,
we have to rely on ourselves. That's what we are doing and that's what we are
going to do," he said.
The new U.S. law imposes economic sanctions on
Myanmar, but limits the import ban to three years instead of continuing it
indefinitely. That reflects the U.S. business community's concerns about the
difficulty of lifting sanctions once they are imposed.
The United States
imported $356 million worth of textiles, clothing, footwear and other goods from
Myanmar in 2002.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday July 29, 2:33 PM
Jailed Suu Kyi in high
spirits
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON
(Reuters) - Red Cross officials,
allowed for the first time to meet detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, say she is in good health and high spirits.
The visit came
as the United States slapped tough new sanctions on the impoverished Southeast
Asian country, a move military-ruled Myanmar and some of its neighbours said
would only hurt the country's poor.
International concern has been
mounting over Suu Kyi's health and whereabouts, and Myanmar's ruling generals
have come under intense diplomatic and economic pressure to free her.
"Sanctions are one-sided, unilateral actions taken by some without any
regard for the people," Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung told reporters on the
sidelines of a meeting of Asian and African officials in Bandung, capital of
Indonesia's West Java province.
International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) officials had been trying to meet the 58-year-old Nobel Peace laureate
since she was detained on May 30 after a bloody clash between her supporters and
a pro-junta group.
"I and one of my colleagues met her at where she was
kept yesterday morning," the ICRC's representative in Myanmar, Michel Ducreaux,
told Reuters on Tuesday.
"The meeting lasted for about half an hour and
we were alone. It was a very decent place and the conditions were also very
decent," he said, without elaborating on where Suu Kyi was being detained.
"She was in very good health and she wasn't hurt at all. She was in high
spirits.
Only United Nations special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail had
previously been allowed to see Suu Kyi in early June.
"HARDSHIP
ON THE PEOPLE"
Win Aung echoed previous remarks from the junta
that the democracy icon would not be held indefinitely, but gave no timeframe
for her release.
"We are not wanting any kind of destabilisation of the
nation," he said. The junta blames Suu Kyi for the May 30 clash, accusing her of
whipping up unrest.
On Saturday, authorities said they had arrested 12
people with links to opposition parties for planting deadly bombs and hatching a
plot to kill junta members.
International pressure is mounting on
Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country since a 1962 coup and ignored a
1990 election victory by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
President George W. Bush signed a bill on Monday closing the U.S. market
to imports from Myanmar. Key donor Japan has cut off new aid and Myanmar's
Southeast Asian neighbours have taken the unprecedented step of publicly
criticising the junta.
But Malaysia, which played a key role in bringing
Myanmar into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997, said on
Tuesday that isolating the country was a mistake.
Thailand, fearing an
influx of economic migrants from its western neighbour, has also spoken against
sanctions on Myanmar.
"We can't simply follow the American thinking, we
have to look at in our context and the interest of the people in Myanmar.
Sanctions will force hardship on the people and that's not our intention,"
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.
"I don't think
sanctions will be the answer in resolving the issue of Myanmar."
Some
Yangon-based diplomats and Myanmar exile groups say the military orchestrated
the May 30 violence. They say hundreds of pro-government youths set upon Suu
Kyi's convoy with clubs while she was touring central Myanmar, killing dozens.
The government denies this and says four people died.
The ICRC's
Ducreaux said Suu Kyi did not ask him to carry any specific message and added
that he was seeking further meetings with her.
--------------------------------------------------------------
VOA News
Burma: Early Release of Democracy Leader Could
Destabilize Country
29 Jul 2003, 05:42 UTC
Burma's
foreign minister says an early release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
could destabilize the country.
Foreign Minister Win Aung told reporters
in Indonesia today that the Nobel peace laureate was being held for her own
protection. He said the leader of the National League for Democracy party would
be released as soon as the situation in Burma returns to normal.
Aung
San Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since the military detained her May 30,
after a clash between her supporters and a pro-government mob.
The junta
has blamed her for the clash, but a State Department spokesman said Monday Aung
San Suu Kyi and members of her party were victims of a "premeditated" attack
when they were detained. Meanwhile, pressure mounted on Burma to release Aung
San Suu Kyi when President Bush signed a
Approved by the U.S. Congress
two weeks ago, the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act strengthens previous
sanctions, including visa restrictions on Burma's military leaders and a 1997
ban on new investment by U.S. companies. It also condemns Burma's human rights
record and voices support for Aung San Suu Kyi's democracy movement.
Also on Monday, the head of the International Red Cross delegation in
Burma was allowed to speak with the detained democracy leader in a private
setting without interference from government officials. A spokesman said she has
not been hurt, but he offered no other details.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation
ANALYSIS: Wind of change
may be stirring
Don
Pathan
Published on Jul 29, 2003
Something is
afoot in Rangoon and it could very well bring a new power arrangement and a
better tomorrow for the military-controlled state. Informed sources say the top
three members of the military junta are at loggerheads following condemnation by
the international community and leading Asean members over the detention of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
This latest crisis started on May
30 when Suu Kyi supporters were attacked by a group of armed pro-junta thugs.
The government said five people were killed in the clash, but members of
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) said the death toll was at least
70.
Rangoon responded by rounding up NLD members and once again placing Suu
Kyi in "protective custody".
According to observers, the decision to
attack the Suu Kyi's supporters was made by General Than Shwe, head of the
junta, which calls itself the State Peace and Development Council. But, those
sources say, Than Shwe did not tell the other members, Army chief General Maung
Aye or intelligence chief Lt General Khin Nyunt, about his attack plan.
The incident would have probably gone down as just another bloody act by
one of the world's most condemned regimes if Asean and the international
community had not made a fuss out of it.
Asean, the European Union and
the United States all agreed to pressure the Rangoon government to release Suu
Kyi. Leading members of Asean, including Thailand and Malaysia, called for a
road map to lasting peace in Burma.
Condemnations rolled down like an
avalanche, with the US Congress passing legislation boycotting Burmese goods and
the European Union issuing a travel ban on Burmese leaders.
At the
recently concluded annual ministers' meeting in Phnom Penh, Asean made an
unprecedented move by calling for the immediate release of Suu Kyi.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad went as far as suggesting
Burma could be kicked out of the grouping if the junta continued to defy the
international community.
Thailand, which proposed the peace road map, is
trying to get the message through to the junta. But it not clear that Than Shwe
is listening.
While the condemnation of the outside world is getting
through to Khin Nyunt and Maung Aye, the junta's chairman, Than Shwe, is
resolutely turning a deaf ear and ignoring Thailand's road-map proposal.
Over the weekend, Than Shwe unleashed two of his closest aides, Deputy
Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win and senior intelligence officer Brig-General
Than Tun to tell the world that Burma can solve its own problem. Their
statements were carried in the international press.
But Khin Nyunt's
young bloods, meanwhile, are working behind the scenes to push for a new power
arrangement that could shunt Than Shwe into a ceremonial post and put him out of
the decision-making process.
However, it is not clear how the rivalry
between Khin Nyunt and Maung Aye will unfold if and when Than Shwe is out of the
way.
Meanwhile, Asean is not standing still. Malaysia has jumped on the
road-map bandwagon, and Indonesia is pushing for an "Asean mission" to Rangoon
to seek a way out of the deadlock between Suu Kyi and the junta.
Now,
observers are keenly watching Razali Ismail, the UN special envoy to Burma, to
see which direction he will take after a year of shuttling in and out of Burma
has failed to bring him closer to a political breakthrough.
If the issue
comes before the UN, say Bangkok-based diplomats, Burma could be put under
global sanctions. And that will mean Thailand, along with all the other UN
members, will have no choice but to stop doing business with our neighbour to
the west.
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The Nation
BURMESE RECONCILIATION:
Razali throws support behind Thai road map
Published on Jul 29,
2003
UN envoy encourages PM to press ahead despite Rangoon's cold
shoulder
Thailand is continuing to galvanise support from the
international community on its road-map plan for national reconciliation in
Burma, although Rangoon has given it the cold shoulder and made no moves to
release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra yesterday spoke to UN special envoy to Burma Razali Ismail about the
Thai-proposed road map over breakfast on Malaysia's Langakawi iland.
Thaksin said the UN envoy had encouraged him to go ahead with the
initiative.
Thailand will seek cooperation from many countries including
India and China to break the Burmese political deadlock, he said.
"We
understand that Rangoon has tried to solve the problem on its own but the
situation is too complicated to do [it] alone. Everything we have done is to
help them, otherwise the situation would get worse," Thaksin told reporters
after returning from Langkawi.
Thailand is at the forefront of the
matter, seeking an "exit" to break the political deadlock in Rangoon which has
come under strong international pressure after a bloody incident on May 30 led
to the arrest of opposition leaders.
Last week during the Asia-Europe
Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, Thailand raised the idea of organising a Burma Forum
to discuss a road map to achieve national reconciliation. China, the United
Kingdom and Austria have agreed to participate in the forum which is scheduled
to be held here before the end of the year pending Burma's approval, said
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai. Malaysia is the latest country to
express an interest in joining, he added.
Meanwhile, junta head Than
Shwe dispatched envoys to explain its story to several countries in a bid to
reduce pressure.
Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung was in Jakarta
yesterday to discuss an Asean proposal to send a mission to Rangoon to secure
the release of Suu Kyi.
But the Burmese minister gave no positive
indications about her release to Indonesia, which currently chairs Asean.
"It's not a delay . . . We are working for everything to become normal,"
Win Aung said after meeting Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. "Maybe
the time will come after the cooling down."
Win Aung is due to arrive
here on Thursday to discuss with Surakiart the Burma Forum and road-map ideas
while attending a two-day meeting on economic cooperation with Thailand, Laos
and Cambodia.
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Firefighters to shed Burma jackets
Lobby group
says firefighters' winter jackets made in rogue nation
Matthew Ramsey
Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, July
29, 2003
The president of Vancouver's firefighters' union says he
and most unionized firefighters will no longer wear the department's winter
jacket should allegations the jacket supplier ordered the coats from a
manufacturer in a rogue nation be true.
The B.C. Ethical Purchasing Group
says the jackets the city of Vancouver ordered from Evin Industries Ltd. were
made in Burma, a country under military dictatorship and notorious for human
rights abuses and shoddy labour practices.
Firefighter union president
Rod McDonald supplied jacket labels to the Ethical Purchasing Group indicating
the garments were made in Myanmar, the name given to Burma by its ruling
military junta.
McDonald said Burma's reputation for using sweatshop
labour and the political situation in that country make the $180 coat seem too
ethically and morally expensive.
"[If true,] we would not want to wear
these jackets. I've made up my mind I won't wear the jacket," McDonald said.
"Getting a deal on a coat -- that's pretty much a total abandonment of any
morals and ethics Canadians stand for."
Vancouver fire department deputy
chief Bob Smith, who is in charge of clothing for the department, said the
department's winter jackets come from Evin and another Vancouver-based supplier
and that roughly half of the city's 815 firefighters have opted for the Evin
jacket.
Smith said the department has a standing order with Evin to keep
about 200 of the jackets in stock and has used the company's jackets for about
six years.
Reached late Monday, Smith was not able to provide the exact
amount spent on Evin jackets or the precise number worn by city
firefighters.
But Smith said Vancouver is pursuing another contract with
a different company for jackets.
Bill Saunders, president of the
Vancouver and District Labour Council (which is part of the recently-formed B.C.
Ethical Purchasing Group), said the city of Vancouver should follow the lead of
Toronto, Windsor and Halifax and enact a "No Sweat" policy. Such a policy would
require companies supplying products to the city at taxpayer expense to ensure
those products are ethically produced and meet minimum standards established by
the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO).
"This public tax money
is being used to purchase an unethical product," Saunders said, adding that
because the jacket is part of the Vancouver fire department uniform,
firefighters don't really have much of a choice but to buy and wear
it.
In 2000, the ILO called on all governments to examine their relations
with Burma given allegations the country engages in a system of forced
labour.
Since deposing the democratically elected government of Aung San
Suu Kyi, the Burmese military government has banned labour unions and student
organizations and has been accused of human rights violations including forced
conscription and slave labour.
The Canadian government has asked
Canadian companies to voluntarily refrain from doing business with Burmese
companies and does not engage in ministerial-level visits to the country. Nor
does Canada officially recognize the country's name of Myanmar, given by the
ruling military junta.
Saunders stressed that the B.C. Ethical Purchasing
Group is not calling for a boycott of all Evin Industries products, but is
asking the company to stop importing products from Burma and consumers to stop
purchasing those products. Evin Industries representatives were not available
for comment Monday.
Since it formed five months ago, the B.C. Ethical
Purchasing Group has lobbied local governments and universities to adopt "No
Sweat" policies. The group is also asking the federal government to require
manufacturers to include the factory of origin of their garments so companies
who do abide by labour codes are not all tarred by the reputation of their
country.
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Suu Kyi detained at Yangon gov't guesthouse:
minister
By Christine T.
Tjandraningsih
BANDUNG, July 29, Kyodo - Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
is being detained at a government guesthouse in Yangon, but she is in good
health, Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung said Tuesday.
''She is very
well...We are looking after her,'' Win Aung told Kyodo News in an interview on
the sidelines of an Asia-Africa conference in the West Java provincial capital
Bandung.
''She is exercising every morning,'' he added.
Asked if
she is being detained in Yangon, the Myanmar envoy answered, ''She is...yes, in
Yangon'' and in a ''government guesthouse.''
Prior to Win Aung's
remarks, the junta had not commented on where Suu Kyi is being detained.
Earlier Tuesday, Win Aung told reporters he does not think Suu Kyi will
be held in detention for ''months.''
''We don't have any intention to
prolong the arrangement,'' he said, adding that she will be released ''as soon
as the situation returns to normal.''
''We are working day-by-day,
night-by-night and you know, we are not doing nothing,'' he said.
Members of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team who
met with her Monday said Tuesday they were allowed to do so only on condition
they did not reveal her place of detention.
The team found the Nobel
Peace Prize laureate to be in ''very good health'' and in ''good spirits,''
according to an ICRC official in Yangon.
Myanmar's ruling generals have
been detaining Suu Kyi and several members of her National League for Democracy
(NLD) since May 30, following what the junta claimed were violent clashes
between NLD supporters and pro-junta demonstrators in northern Myanmar.
Win Aung did not give any time for Suu Kyi's release, despite
international pressure, including from the 10-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is itself a member, seeking her
immediate release.
In the interview, Win Aung stressed his government
''never wanted'' to confront Suu Kyi and her followers, showing several pictures
when she was talking and shaking hands with junta leader Sr. Gen. Than Shwe.
''That's why we are not taking any legal steps against Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi and we don't aim anything for that purpose,'' he said.
''And our
intention is not to harm her or not to put her in a more difficult situation.
Our intention (is) always to put everything back to normal as soon as
possible,'' he added.
Earlier, to reporters, Win Aung took the
opportunity to slam as ''one-sided'' Monday's decision by U.S. President George
W. Bush to sign a bill that closes U.S. markets to imports from Myanmar to
protest Suu Kyi's detention.
''That's (a) unilateral action taken by
some without any (regard) for the benefit of the (Myanmar) people. Aung San Suu
Kyi, she is only one individual,'' he said.
Win Aung, speaking on the
sidelines of the Asia-Africa Subregional Organizations Conference being held to
prepare for the 50th commemoration of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference that gave
birth to the Non-Aligned Movement, said his government does not view the
sanctions as obstacles to nation-building.
''We feel some difficulties
in our exports, but our country's main economy is agriculture...With hard work,
with taking (care of) our fields, we (will be able) to build our country
further,'' he said. ''Without help, we have to do it ourselves.''
The
foreign minister likened Myanmar to a sailboat, saying, ''Without wind from
behind, we have to paddle...to reach our goals, it will be a longer process.''
Myanmar's problems, he said, can only be solved by ''cooperation'' and
''by talking to each other. If we step into every country's affairs and start
criticizing and saying like that, the problems will never end.''
Asked
during the interview about Japan's threat to stop Overseas Development
Assistance (ODA) unless Suu Kyi is released, Win Aung said, ''We don't blame
(the Japanese government) for this step.''
''That's your own
sovereignty. You can have your own right. And for us, assisted or not, we have
to work for our country by ourselves,'' he said.
Most ASEAN members held
a meeting last week on the sidelines of the fifth Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of
foreign ministers on the Indonesian resort island Bali where they reached a
common position on Myanmar.
The ASEM meeting yielded a statement that
called on the generals to immediately release Suu Kyi and other NLD members and
ensure their freedom to engage in political activities.
It also called
on the junta to resume its efforts toward national reconciliation and
democracy.
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