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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY 11,
2002.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- WFC - Not free yet
Reuters - Myanmar hotel blast kills one, injures
three
AFP - ASEAN and China to launch talks on huge free
trade zone
Newsday - Questions About Myanmar
Sanctions
Reuters - Veteran Myanmar
politicians urge crisis talks
AP - Opposition leader's release in Myanmar raises
questions about strength of sanctions
----------------------------------------------------------------- WorkingForChange (May 10,
2002)
Not free yet Burma victory no reason to relent Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed Monday after
nineteen months of house arrest, is certainly a charismatic leader. I remember
well the address she gave to the nongovernmental forum of the UN Women's
Conference in China in 1995. Banned from travelling, Aung San Suu Kyi's speech
was transmitted over video-satellite. Even piped-in, her words riveted the
thousands-strong crowd (at least as much as Hillary Rodham Clinton's did, though
the latter made more of a hit with the U.S. press).
She's charismatic for sure, but Suu Kyi is no big believer in what the U.S. army calls "the power of one." To the contrary, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner puts her belief in movements, and people. In one of her signature statements, she declared that "sometimes it is better to have the people of the world on your side than the governments of the world." So it's a pity that in the coverage of her release the media have given
short shrift to the popular movements Suu Kyi believes in, the movements that
helped to bring about her liberation.
Ever since the Burmese military crushed the pro-democracy movement she
helped to lead in 1988, and refused to recognize the elections her party won in
1990, there's been an international movement to free Aung San Suu Kyi and the
people of Burma from forty years of military rule.
The European Union, United States and Canada ? as well as global grassroots
"Free Burma" activists ? have applied constant pressure on the Burmese regime
through consumer boycotts and diplomatic and economic sanctions. Since 1995,
citizen campaigns have persuaded over 50 multinational corporations, (including
PepsiCo, Wal-Mart, Texaco and ARCO) to cut ties with the southeast Asian nation.
In November 2000, after an exhaustive investigation, the UN's International
Labor Organization called on its membership, comprising 175 governments
(including the United States), to review their relationships with and policies
toward Burma to ensure they were not collaborating with forced labor. When last
year's Olympic torchbearers turned out to be wearing uniforms made in Burma,
activists made it into a major embarassment for the organizers and the firms
concerned.
Following in the tradition of college action against apartheid in South
Africa students across North America have lobbied their universities to stop
investing in companies like Unocal, which continue to do business with the
Burmese generals. Unocal, a California-based oil corporation, has built a
pipeline across Burma that was made possible only by the forced relocation of
thousands of local people, and that is now protected by Burmese troops.
TIAA-CREF, a popular pension fund among university and college professors, is a
major investor in Unocal.
Students at American University, the University of Minnesota, the
University of Wisconsin, and the University of Virginia have all successfully
lobbied for divestment. Last December, the student association at UCLA passed a
divestment resolution that would apply to the whole University of California
state school system.
Suu Kyi says her party has not yet changed its support of economic
sanctions. Her own freedom does not mean that Burma is free yet. By all means,
celebrate her release (as thousands of Burmese did), but keep an eye on the big
picture ? this is no time to lift the pressure off the bloody-handed Burmese
government and the corporations that do business with it.
Saturday May 11, 1:49 PM
Myanmar hotel blast kills one, injures three YANGON, May 11 (Reuters) - A bomb blast at a hotel in the eastern Myanmar border town of Tachilek killed a woman and injured three other people, state-run newspapers said on Saturday. The Myanmar language Kyemon newspaper said government officials were
investigating the explosion on Thursday in a third floor room of the Strand
Hotel.
The blast was the fourth bomb attack in eastern Myanmar near the Thai
border in two weeks.
Myanmar military officials have blamed elements of ethnic Karen National
Union (KNU) for being behind some of the recent attacks.
The KNU is one of many armed ethnic groups based near the Thai-Myanmar
border that have campaigned for autonomy from the government in Yangon in the
past several decades.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday May 11, 6:43 PM
ASEAN and China to launch talks on huge free trade zone (AFP)A first round of talks
aimed at creating what will be the world's biggest free trade zone, encompassing
China and South East Asia, will be held in Beijing next week.
A Singapore delegation will be in the Chinese capital from May 15-16 to
start talks on a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between China and the
ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Singapore's trade
ministry said Saturday.
Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China
last year agreed to work out an FTA within the next 10 years, a move that could
result in an integrated market of nearly two billion people, a third of the
planet's population.
Last month, visiting Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao and Singapore Prime
Minister Goh Chok Tong called for early negotiations on the proposed agreement
that would cover 10 Southeast Asian countries as well as China.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Singapore also confirmed Saturday that it had been approached by Taiwan
about a free trade deal city state and the island.
"Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) previously proposed to Singapore an FTA with the
separate custom territories of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu," the statement
said.
It said Singapore has studied the proposal "and is prepared to proceed with
a joint study to explore the feasibility of an FTA within the framework" of the
World Trade Organisation and the goals of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) forum.
The small but affluent and trade-dependent city-state has been spearheading
a flurry of FTA negotiations beyond its borders. It has signed agreements with
New Zealand and Japan and is in the thick of talks with the United States and
Australia, with which it will hold a seventh round of negotiations from May
20-24.
The trade ministry said it expected the trade deal with Japan to take
effect in the middle of the year following the adoption of the necessary
legislation in both countries.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Newsday
Questions About Myanmar
Sanctions
By GRANT PECK - Associated Press Writer May 11, 2002, 7:48 AM EDT BANGKOK, Thailand -- Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's release
from house arrest this week has raised anew the question of whether economic
sanctions can pressure governments to change. The answer is crucial for Myanmar,
where the military has ruled for 40 years.
Suu Kyi's release is the first step in what is expected to be a difficult,
drawn-out transition toward democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma. The
world's stance toward the country's military junta -- hard-line or soft -- will
influence the pace of change, analysts say.
"At this point they should not be too pushy," said Kyaw Yin Hlaing, a
Myanmar-born scholar at the National University of Singapore. He said the junta
may become more recalcitrant if it feels pressured by the international
community.
Donor nations blocked virtually all development aid to Myanmar after the
military violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988, killing
hundreds of people.
Today, the total annual foreign aid to Myanmar is equivalent to about $1
for every citizen, compared to $35 per capita for Cambodia and $68 for Laos.
While no country has imposed a trade embargo on Myanmar, the United States
banned all new investment in 1997 and the European Union has had an arms embargo
and a suspension of bilateral aid in place for 11 years.
The EU has also imposed sanctions against members of the military regime
and their families through a visa ban and suspended high-level government visits
to Myanmar.
Suu Kyi has been an unflinching proponent of sanctions, saying the junta
must be isolated until it allows democracy. But with a quarter of the population
living below the poverty line, she might be tempted to call for the resumption
of humanitarian aid.
The sanctions and economic policy blunders by the regime have reduced
Myanmar, once one of Southeast Asia's wealthiest countries, to one of its
poorest.
Heads of U.N. relief and development agencies in Myanmar last year appealed
for a dramatic increase in foreign aid, warning that the country is "on the
brink of a humanitarian crisis."
One quarter of babies in Myanmar are born underweight, only half of its
children complete primary school and an AIDS epidemic is stretching the
government's resources thin.
The largely agrarian country's exports were worth $1.3 billion in 1999, the
latest year for which figures are available, but its annual imports are worth
$2.5 billion.
Despite the mixed track record of sanctions on countries such as Cuba,
South Africa, Iraq and Libya, most Western analysts say sanctions helped free
Suu Kyi.
Josef Silverstein, a professor emeritus at the Rutgers University, said the
punitive measures pushed the military leadership's back to the wall.
"They have no option of getting any money and at this point they had to
take some action. Sanctions work," said Silverstein, who has studied Myanmar for
four decades.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, emerged as a democracy
leader and was placed under house arrest in 1989. Her party won general
elections held the next year, but the military government annulled the results.
The junta and Suu Kyi began reconciliation talks in October 2000, a month
after she was placed under house arrest. Following her release, both sides said
they will take the talks a step higher and discuss substantive issues. But the
talks will remain secret, they said.
Some observers feel that it was not just sanctions that forced the junta to
make the concessions.
Cajoling by Myanmar's sympathetic neighbors, especially Malaysia, may have
also helped. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad -- certainly not known as
a human rights advocate -- warned the junta last year that its stubbornness
toward the opposition was unwise.
The way forward now, almost everyone agrees, is to set up a series of
benchmarks for the government to meet.
"We should say something like this: if you do 'X,' we will do 'Y,' and so
on," said David Steinberg, a Myanmar specialist and director of Asian Studies at
Georgetown University. He said holding successful elections could be a good
starting point for lifting sanctions.
But at what point punishment should give way to rewards is a matter of
contention.
"It doesn't do any good to yell and scream, because they (the junta) have a
nationalistic attitude," Steinberg said.
So far, judging by their public statements, many Western countries seem
inclined toward a harder line.
Glenys Kinnock, a British member of the European Parliament, told the BBC
that the European Union should give Myanmar's government six months to release
more political prisoners and phase out military rule.
"If in that time we do not see progress, then I think the European Union
must go back to the table and put on an investment ban," Kinnock said.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Veteran Myanmar politicians urge crisis
talks
YANGON, May 11 (Reuters)? A
group of veteran Myanmar politicians called on the country's ruling military on
Saturday to follow up on the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from
house arrest with meaningful reconciliation talks.
The 21-strong group, including some who held key government positions
during Myanmar's last period of parliamentary democracy shortly after
independence from Britain, also called for the unconditional release of all
political prisoners.
National League for Democracy (NLD) leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu
Kyi was released from 19-months of house arrest last Monday.
''We who participated in the nation's independence struggle most humbly
appeal to the SPDC and the NLD to open talks immediately...for overcoming the
political, economic and social crisis currently facing the country,'' the open
letter said.
''We also appeal for the including of representatives of ethnic groups in
these talks.''
Myanmar has been under strict military rule 1962 and public calls for the
military to negotiate on political reform and release political prisoners are
rare.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) said on Thursday it
was preparing for a new round of talks with Suu Kyi's NLD.
Most of the veteran politicians held political posts in the
post-independence 1950s, before General Ne Win seized power with a military coup
in 1962.
Talks between the junta and the NLD began secretly in late 2000 after Suu
Kyi was confined to her home for defying orders not to travel outside the
capital Yangon to meet party supporters.
But the talks have not progressed past a confidence-building phase and have
yielded few concrete results.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Opposition leader's release in Myanmar raises
questions about strength of sanctions
ASSOCIATED PRESS BANGKOK, Thailand, May 11 ? Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest this week has raised anew the question of whether economic sanctions can pressure governments to change. The answer is crucial for Myanmar, where the military has ruled for 40 years. Suu Kyi's release is the first step in what is expected to be a difficult,
drawn-out transition toward democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma. The
world's stance toward the country's military junta ? hard-line or soft ? will
influence the pace of change, analysts say.
''At this point they should not be too pushy,'' said Kyaw Yin Hlaing, a
Myanmar-born scholar at the National University of Singapore. He said the junta
may become more recalcitrant if it feels pressured by the international
community.
Donor nations blocked virtually all development aid to Myanmar after the
military violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988, killing
hundreds of people.
Today, the total annual foreign aid to Myanmar is equivalent to about $1
for every citizen, compared to $35 per capita for Cambodia and $68 for Laos.
While no country has imposed a trade embargo on Myanmar, the United States
banned all new investment in 1997 and the European Union has had an arms embargo
and a suspension of bilateral aid in place for 11 years.
The EU has also imposed sanctions against members of the military regime
and their families through a visa ban and suspended high-level government visits
to Myanmar.
Suu Kyi has been an unflinching proponent of sanctions, saying the junta must be isolated until it allows democracy. But with a quarter of the population living below the poverty line, she might be tempted to call for the resumption of humanitarian aid. The sanctions and economic policy blunders by the regime have reduced
Myanmar, once one of Southeast Asia's wealthiest countries, to one of its
poorest.
Heads of U.N. relief and development agencies in Myanmar last year appealed
for a dramatic increase in foreign aid, warning that the country is ''on the
brink of a humanitarian crisis.''
One quarter of babies in Myanmar are born underweight, only half of its
children complete primary school and an AIDS epidemic is stretching the
government's resources thin.
The largely agrarian country's exports were worth $1.3 billion in 1999, the
latest year for which figures are available, but its annual imports are worth
$2.5 billion.
Despite the mixed track record of sanctions on countries such as Cuba, South Africa, Iraq and Libya, most Western analysts say sanctions helped free Suu Kyi. Josef Silverstein, a professor emeritus at the Rutgers University, said the
punitive measures pushed the military leadership's back to the wall.
''They have no option of getting any money and at this point they had to
take some action. Sanctions work,'' said Silverstein, who has studied Myanmar
for four decades.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, emerged as a democracy leader and was placed under house arrest in 1989. Her party won general elections held the next year, but the military government annulled the results. The junta and Suu Kyi began reconciliation talks in October 2000, a month after she was placed under house arrest. Following her release, both sides said they will take the talks a step higher and discuss substantive issues. But the talks will remain secret, they said. Some observers feel that it was not just sanctions that forced the junta to
make the concessions.
Cajoling by Myanmar's sympathetic neighbors, especially Malaysia, may have
also helped. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ? certainly not known as
a human rights advocate ? warned the junta last year that its stubbornness
toward the opposition was unwise.
The way forward now, almost everyone agrees, is to set up a series of
benchmarks for the government to meet.
''We should say something like this: if you do 'X,' we will do 'Y,' and so
on,'' said David Steinberg, a Myanmar specialist and director of Asian Studies
at Georgetown University. He said holding successful elections could be a good
starting point for lifting sanctions.
But at what point punishment should give way to rewards is a matter of
contention.
''It doesn't do any good to yell and scream, because they (the junta) have
a nationalistic attitude,'' Steinberg said.
So far, judging by their public statements, many Western countries seem
inclined toward a harder line.
Glenys Kinnock, a British member of the European Parliament, told the BBC
that the European Union should give Myanmar's government six months to release
more political prisoners and phase out military rule.
''If in that time we do not see progress, then I think the European Union
must go back to the table and put on an investment ban,'' Kinnock said.
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