|
---------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - JULY 20,
2002.
---------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
---------------------------------------------------------------
AFP - Aung
San Suu Kyi heads for second political trip out of capital
AFP - Myanmar's Aung San
Suu Kyi attends official Martyrs' Day ceremony
Reuters - Myanmar
opposition demands urgent talks with junta
OneWorld - Thailand and Myanmar Urged to Lift Media
Bans
--------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday July 20, 1:50 PM
Aung San Suu Kyi heads for second
political trip out of capital
(AFP) - Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has embarked on a political trip to southeastern Mon state where she was due to meet with ethnic groups and visit her party's offices, a senior party official said. The trip, expected to last four days, is the second time the charismatic National League for Democracy (NLD) leader has left the capital Yangon on party business since her release in May from 19 months under house arrest. "She left here at 6:00 am and is on her way to Mon state. She will inspect NLD offices in Mon state, and today she will arrive in the capital Mawlamyine," NLD spokesman U Lwin told AFP. Mawlamyine lies 172 kilometres (106 miles) southeast of Yangon. Earlier, NLD sources had said she was due to travel on to Kayin state but U Lwin said this was not part of the itinerary. The Nobel peace laureate departed Yangon in her own vehicle, escorted by members of the NLD youth wing, and was accompanied by NLD deputy chairman U Tin Oo in his car, another source said. On Sunday, Aung San Suu Kyi is scheduled to inspect other towns in Mon state, including Thanbyuzayat, the site of a famous WWII cemetery containing the graves of more than 3,500 Allied prisoners of war, U Lwin said. She will stay the night in Mudon, and the following day visit the island of Chaung Zon, west of Mawlamyine, where she will inspect the NLD office there before returning again to the state capital, he said. On Tuesday the opposition leader will inspect various government projects in the region before returning to Yangon. "There are two places (on her itinerary) right now, but there may be more. She will visit one dam and a new bridge that crosses the Salween river from Mawlamyine," U Lwin said. Aung San Suu Kyi is also expected to stop at Kyaid Doe, the site of the "Golden Rock", an important pilgrimage place for Buddhists. But she would only be visiting the town itself, U Lwin said. During the trip, she will meet with Mon, Karen, Pa-O and other ethnic groups, and members of a Mon political party allied with the NLD, he said. "She wants to find out the desires of the people," U Lwin said. "And they want to meet Aung San Suu Kyi." Observers have said that the inclusion of ethnic minorities in secret talks on national reconciliation, which have been under way between Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta since October 2000, will be a crucial step towards a peaceful and democratic Myanmar. Mon state remains a sensitive area as insurgent groups from the region continue to fight against the military regime. This trip follows Aung San Suu Kyi's triumphant nine-day visit to the northern city of Mandalay and other destinations late last month. The whirlwind tour was considered an unqualified success by both her own party and diplomats, who saw it as the first true test of her freedom. Aung San Suu Kyi said after her release that the junta had promised her complete freedom of movement, but some observers doubted the hardline regime would permit long-distance travel for political purposes. The trip was particularly significant because Mandalay was the city the junta blocked her from travelling to in September 2000, an incident that led to her being put under house arrest. The 57-year-old leader rallied the nation a dozen years ago with a passionate democratic groundswell that alarmed Myanmar's military rulers. Her party won a sweeping election victory in 1990 but it was never honoured by the junta. --------------------------------------------------------------- Friday July 19, 12:56 PM Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi attends official Martyrs' Day ceremony (AFP) - Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi attended a government ceremony marking Martyrs' Day, which honours the anniversary of her father's assassination in 1947. General Aung San is highly respected both by the junta and the pro-democracy movement for his role as the nation's founder and independence hero. The ceremony, held amid tight security at the Martyrs' Mausoleum in the shadow of Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda, began with a 15-minute appearance by a delegation from the military junta. Led by Cultural Minister Tin Win, officials including Chief Justice Aung Toe and Attorney-General Tha Tun laid wreaths as the national anthem was played. Military buglers then played the Last Post as the national flag was lowered to half-mast. After the official delegation departed, Aung San Suu Kyi was escorted to the site by Brigadier-General Than Tun, who acts as her liaison officer with the regime. Dressed in black and white, and without the usual sprig of flowers adorning her hair, the pro-democracy leader was accompanied to the monument by five young girls. She solemnly laid three baskets of lilies and orchards, as one of the girls held an umbrella aloft to shield her from the gentle drizzle that fell during the morning ceremony. The opposition leader kowtowed -- bowing from a kneeling position -- three times and left within a few minutes. Aung San Suu Kyi did not attend last year's Martyrs' Day ceremony, as a gesture to highlight the house arrest conditions imposed by the junta since September 2000. The Nobel peace laureate was finally released from house arrest on May 6 this year, a move that raised hopes for the reconciliation process she began with the generals a month after she was confined to her home. In recent weeks, however, there have been concerns that the landmark dialogue between the opposition leader and the ruling State Peace and Development Council has failed to make further progress. In a positive sign, Aung San Suu Kyi made a triumphant nine-day visit to the northern city of Mandalay and other places earlier this month, which appeared to have been facilitated by the junta. In other events to mark Martyrs' Day, members of the families of the other soldiers assassinated along with Aung San, and foreign diplomats, also laid wreaths. Aung San Oo, Aung San Suu Kyi's elder brother who is suing for half-ownership of her Yangon residence, did not attend the ceremony this year but a close friend, Nan Nwe, laid a wreath on his behalf. The public was allowed to pay its respects at the mausoleum only after the official ceremony was completed. Across Yangon, flags were being flown at half-mast. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy is scheduled to hold its own commemorative ceremony this afternoon. ---------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday July 20, 2:31 AM Myanmar opposition demands urgent talks with junta By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition demanded a dialogue with the military government to end the country's political stalemate on Friday. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been holding confidential talks with the junta for nearly two years but says they have yet to move beyond "confidence building". Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in May, but since then there have been no signs of progress in her dialogue with the ruling generals. Friday was the anniversary of the 1947 assassination of Suu Kyi's father, independence hero Aung San, and eight other cabinet ministers. They were killed when Burma, as the country was then called, was on the threshold of independence from Britain. At a ceremony to mark the anniversary, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) said it wanted urgent talks. The NLD won Myanmar's last election, in 1990, by a landslide but the military government, which calls itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), refused to hand over power. "As the wise saying goes, time and tide wait for no man," NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo said in a declaration read at the ceremony. "As a gesture of paying respect to the policies of our fallen independence heroes, the NLD and the SPDC should immediately hold dialogue to look for solutions to the problems being faced by the people." Suu Kyi, 56, attended the ceremony but made no statement. Earlier in the day she attended the official government ceremony at the Martyr's Mausoleum at the foot of Yangon's holiest shrine, the glittering Shwedagon Paya. She placed three baskets of flowers on top of her father's tomb before kneeling down in front of it for a Buddhist prayer. The military has ruled Myanmar for the past 40 years. Suu Kyi emerged at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement in 1988 when anti-government demonstrations were bloodily suppressed by the military. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. The military insists it wants to build democracy in Myanmar but says moving too fast could unleash anarchy. Several countries have imposed sanctions on Myanmar, and its economy is in tatters. Analysts say the military's decision to start talks with Suu Kyi was mainly motivated by its eagerness to improve its international image and try to get sanctions lifted. ---------------------------------------------------------------
Thailand and Myanmar Urged to Lift Media Bans Fri Jul 19,11:39 AM ET Kalyani,OneWorld South
Asia
As the situation along the shared border between Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma) heats up, a tit-for-tat press battle has prompted a leading human rights group to renew its call for the two neighbors to lift their restrictions on the media. Forum-Asia said Thursday that it was repeating a request, made earlier this week, that the two Southeast Asian nations lift bans covering their domestic media and take steps to ensure that hostilities along their insecure border do not lead to further impositions on the press. "There is already a war of words going on between the two nations," said Somchai Homlaor, secretary-general of the Bangkok-based Forum. "We are urging them not to let the clashes on the border worsen freedom of the press in the two countries," he said. Last Friday, Myanmar's ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) banned 15 Thai journalists who were accused of writing "scathing articles" about the junta, which seized power in 1988 and threw much of the democratic opposition into prison. According to the Forum, the reports had accused the SPDC of intensifying its military operations along the 2,400-kilometer border to divert attention from the release earlier this year of democracy activist and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The move came just two weeks after Thailand denied visas for two journalists of the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper--columnist Ma Tin Win and editor Maung Maung--who had been critical of Thai history and the monarchy. "These absurd directives of the Thai government and the SPDC once again violate the media's right to freedom of _expression_ and the right to receive information," the Forum said in a statement earlier this week, encouraging senior officials in Yangon (Rangoon) and Bangkok to facilitate, rather than deny, access to information. Border tensions, that resulted in the press clampdown, have heightened since May when crossfire between Thai troops and the United Wa State Army, a militia group aligned with the SPDC, prompted the closure of Myanmar's checkpoints. The SPDC accused the Thai army of launching artillery attacks against several military bases with assistance from the rebel Shan State Army (SSA), recruited from the Shan ethnic group, which makes up 8.5 per cent of the Myanmar population and is opposed to Yangon's rule in the fertile northern valleys of the country. Thailand denied that it was involved in any joint operations with the SAA, but stressed that its territory would not be used by the Myanmar army and its allies to fight the SSA. On May 22, the SPDC prohibited all independent media from carrying articles about Thailand or advertising Thai products, and in June, it banned a magazine which used the word "Yodaya," the former name for Thailand, in its latest edition. Forum-Asia said that it would continue to monitor media freedoms in the two countries over the coming weeks, but it noted, "There is nothing much we can do but hope that the two countries will lift the restrictions soon." Freedom of _expression_ is an international right guaranteed under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which includes the ability to "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Among other human rights treaties based on the UDHR, Thailand has signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. |