--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday April 17, 7:30 PM
UN rights body turns sights
on Cuba
GENEVA (AFP) - The UN's leading human rights forum turns
the spotlight on Cuba following a 24-hour postponement after Costa Rica proposed
a firmer stance against Fidel Castro.
Iraq, Belarus, the Democratic
Republic of Congo and Burundi also face scrutiny at the UN Human Rights
Commission, which itself came under fire on Thursday from campaigners over its
own record.
US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the 53-member
UN forum of having let Russia "off the hook" over alleged rights abuses in the
war-torn breakaway republic of Chechnya and in Sudan after failed
resolutions.
A critical resolution on Zimbabwe was also blocked on
Wednesday by a so-called "no action" motion, effectively halting any debate on
the issue. HRW said the move amounted to a "self-imposed gag
order".
Its spokeswoman Joanna Weschler said the voting had shown
that "many Commission members are more concerned with protecting each other than
protecting the victims of human rights abuse".
"It also highlights
how Western governments have lost the political will to take action against
abusive governments, particularly their newfound friends in the fight against
terrorism," she added.
However, North Korea, Turkmenistan and
Myanmar were criticised in resolutions Wednesday at the UN Human Rights
Commission, currently holding its six-week annual session
here.
Marking an historic first in the UN forum's 57-year history,
Pyongyang was targeted in a vote over "systemic, widespread and grave" human
rights violations in the isolated Stalinist country.
Japan welcomed
the result for giving further impetus to its campaign to resolve the issue of
North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens, an issue which a top Japanese
spokesman called "very important for Japan".
The UN forum is also
expected to deal with a draft resolution on Iraq, after its discussion was
delayed by the European Union on Wednesday to take into account the downfall of
Saddam Hussein's regime in the US-led war.
Intensive talks on Cuba
continued late on Wednesday meanwhile, after opposing wording was put forward by
both Costa Rica and Havana, and diplomats gave themselves another 24 hours to
consider the amendments.
Costa Rica called for Cuba's recent
clampdown on nearly 80 dissidents and execution of three ferry hijackers to be
criticised in the resolution, which had originally simply called on Cuba to
allow a visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights'
representative.
Cuba, which on Wednesday put forward wording
calling for "the immediate ending of the unilateral and illegal embargo against
Cuba" imposed by the United States for the past four decades, has warned it
would fight hard to ward off a critical verdict from the UN Commission.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday
April 16, 13:09 PM
UN
human rights body targets
Myanmar
violations
GENEVA,
April 16 (AFP) -
Myanmar came
under fire from a UN panel here Wednesday for human rights violations including
killings and torture, despite a number of countries highlighting cooperation by
the country's military regime with international bodies.
The 53 members of the United
Nations Human Rights Commission adopted a European Union-sponsored resolution
voicing grave concern over the "ongoing systematic violation of human rights" in
Myanmar.
It was adopted without a vote.
But
India,
China,
Sri Lanka,
Malaysia on
behalf of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations), and
Sudan pointed
out positive steps taken by the regime to cooperate with human rights experts,
the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Red Cross.
Extrajudicial killings,
reports of rape and other sexual violence by armed forces, continuing use of
torture and renewed political arrests were also highlighted for concern.
The text welcomed positive
developments, including freedom of movement within the country for opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the National League for Democracy.
It also welcomed the release
from prison of a number of people detained for political activities.
Myanmar's
representative told the UN Commission, currently holding its annual six-week
session here, that the text was "fundamentally flawed, unbalanced and
biased".
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday April 17, 3:09 AM
UN rights body targets N
Korea as Russia, Zimbabwe escape
condemnation
GENEVA (AFP) - The UN's human rights forum targeted North
Korea's human rights record for the first time, declined to condemn Russia and
Zimbabwe and put off for 24 hours a vote on Cuba.
In the historic
move on North Korea, 28 of the UN Human Rights Commission's 53 members voted to
criticise human rights violations in the closeted Stalinist states in a text
sponsored by the European Union and backed by the United States.
It
also voiced "deep concern" at reported executions of political prisoners in the
country.
South Korea effectively joined 14 other countries who
abstained from the voting by failing to record a vote on the electronic system,
with the move coming at a sensitive time in diplomacy over North Korea's nuclear
programme.
Meanwhile for the second year running, EU attempts to
see Russia condemned over alleged violations by its forces in the breakaway
region of Chechnya were derailed.
Twenty-one of the Commission
members rejected the text, prompting disappointment among campaign groups and
praise from Moscow.
Loubna Freih, spokeswoman for Human Rights
Watch (HRW), said the group's presence on the ground and research indicated the
situation in Chechnya was worsening "in terms of torture, forced disappearances
and summary executions."
Russia slammed the wording of the text as
"regrettable," saying it flew in the face of a political solution at a time when
there was "very clear, evident positive momentum" following last month's
constitutional referendum in the breakaway region.
A foreign
ministry statement in Moscow hailed the UN vote, saying "the results of this
vote once again clearly show the world community is understanding more and more
that the situation in Chechnya is getting better."
Zimbabwe escaped
scrutiny of its human rights record after it won enough support for a procedural
'no action' motion, effectively blocking the EU-presented resolution even being
discussed at the forum.
European countries, Canada and the United
States spoke out against stifling the debate, while African countries rallied
around Zimbabwe.
Washington vowed last month to lead a campaign to
see Zimbabwe condemned at the UN body for what it said were flagrant and ruinous
human rights abuses.
A vote on Cuba's human rights record was
postponed until Thursday after Costa Rica proposed criticising Cuba's recent
crackdown on political opponents.
The original draft, presented by
Uruguay, Peru and Nicaragua, simply urged Havana to allow a visit by a
representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
China,
Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe all criticised what they regard as a ritual effort by
western countries to tackle Cuba, saying it was a victim of double
standards.
But after a lengthy discussion, the commission's members
decided to give themselves another 24 hours to look further at proposed changes
to the Cuba resolution.
The talks come just days after the summary
executions of three ferry hijackers and the jailing of 75 dissidents in
Cuba.
Cuba, for its part, proposed on Wednesday its own changes to
the draft resolution, including calling for "the immediate ending of the
unilateral and illegal embargo against Cuba imposed by the United States of
America."
A draft resolution dealing with Iraq was delayed by the
EU to take into account the recent changes to the country's leadership in the
text.
The UN forum also rejected another EU-sponsored text on
Sudan.
The commission adopted a resolution criticisng violations in
Myanmar without a vote, despite a number of countries underscoring the country's
cooperation with international bodies.
--------------------------------------------------------------
UN criticises Burma's human rights
record
17/04/2003 12:21:00 | ABC Radio Australia
News
Burma has come under fire from a United
Nations panel for human rights violations including killings and
torture.
This is despite a number of countries highlighting
co-operation by the military regime in Rangoon with international
bodies.
The 53 members of the United Nations Human Rights
Commission adopted a European Union-sponsored resolution voicing grave concern
over the ongoing systematic violation of human rights in Burma.
It
was adopted without a vote.
However, Malaysia on behalf of the
Association of South East Asian Nations, China, India, Sri Lanka and Sudan,
pointed out positive steps taken by the regime to co-operate with human rights
experts.
Extrajudicial killings, reports of rape and other sexual
violence by Burma's armed forces, continuing use of torture and renewed
political arrests were also highlighted for concern.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation
EXPORTS: Service sector
looks abroad
Choosak
Jirasakunthai
Published on Apr 17, 2003
Having proven its success in the international market in recent
years, Thailandâ??s service sector is looking to increase its presence overseas.
Leading companies like
Dusit Hotels and Resorts,
Bumrungrad Hospital, Chiva-Som International, and the Electricity Generating
Authority of Thailand are using this success to expand their international
presence.
Dusit Hotels and Resorts, Thailandâ??s leading hotel group,
started operating overseas
many years ago with hotels in Indonesia
and the Philippines. More recently, the hotel chain was appointed to manage a
luxury hotel in the Middle East, the Dusit Dubai.
Late last year,
Dusit took over the management of the Inya Lake Hotel in the Burmese capital
Rangoon. The hotel is jointly owned by the Burmese government and the
Hong Kong-based Pioneer Global Group.
Health resort
operator Chiva-Som, meanwhile, is preparing to make its first foray overseas
after having been picked to operate a new health resort in
Portugal.
Last year, Chiva-Som was voted the best spa destination
in the world by readers of Conde Nast UK for the third time.
Thai
hospital managers, meanwhile, have also been honing their international
reputation.
Bumrungrad Hospital is one example of a Thai
hospital-management company expanding internationally.
Subsidiary
Bumrungrad Hospital International (BHI) recently signed an agreement to manage
the Pun Hlaing International Hospital in Rangoon, the first privately licensed
hospital in Burma.
BHI was established by Bumrungrad Hospital last
year to provide international-standard healthcare consulting and management
services. Pun Hlaing International Hospital will be BHIâ??s first management
deal.
Bumrungrad Hospital was founded in 1980 and is now Southeast
Asiaâ??s largest private hospital.
The hospital treats more than
850,000 patients a year ? 270,000 of them from overseas ? and is the only
hospital in Asia to be certified by the US-based Joint Commission on
International Accreditation.
In addition, BHI hopes to sign four
hospital management and development contracts in Bangladesh and the Middle East
this year, Chatree Dungnet, Bumrungradâ??s chief medical officer, said early this
year.
Chatree added that Bumrungrad had no local expansion plans
this year.
He said that nearly 30 per cent of the hospitalâ??s
patients were foreigners.
The hospitalâ??s major shareholders are
Bangkok Bank and the Sophonpanich family.
Shortly after the
economic crisis of 1997, the Export Promotion Depart-ment identified healthcare
as a new export product. A series of road shows have since helped introduce Thai
healthcare to the world.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Authority of
Thailand has initiated a programme to promote Thailand as a health and
wellness-related destination, with activities ranging from yoga and traditional
Thai massage to medical check-ups and healthcare.
In addition to
the hospitality industry, power-plant operations and maintenance are also going
abroad.
Egco Engineering and Service, an affiliate of the
state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, recently signed a
Bt100-million contract with National Electricity Corp, a power agency owned by
the Sudanese government, to operate a 330-megawatt power
plant.
Somyos Polachan, managing director of Egco Engineering and
Service, said the company was in negotiations for further operating and
maintenance contracts in Sudan, and had set a revenue target of about Bt500
million per year from the North African nation.
The Thai company
beat competitors from China, Belgium, Denmark and Malaysia for its first-ever
contract in Sudan.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-04-17
Burma Regime Heavily Ccriticized by UN Commission on Human
Rights.
London, April 16: Burma was yet again
heavily criticized for its ongoing systematic violation of human rights and for
failing to restore democracy in a resolution adopted today at the 59th Session
of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
The
resolution, sponsored by the European Union, highlighted reports of rapes,
sexual violence and other abuses of civilians persistently carried out by
members of the armed forces in ethnic areas as well as the systematic
recruitment and use of child soldiers.
The UN reiterated its call
on the military junta to end the ongoing violations of human rights, including
the systematic enforced displacement of persons, investigate and bring
perpetrators to justice, and immediately enter into substantive and structured
dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratic leaders.
It
also called on the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) regime to pursue
through dialogue and peaceful means the immediate suspension and permanent end
to conflict with all ethnic groups, and to provide necessary protection and
assistance to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
CSW urges
the international community, particularly the trade, investment and tourism
sectors, not to be fooled by a dictatorship that demonstrates no intention to
transfer to civilian rule, that has so far ignored the request of ethnic armed
groups to implement a nationwide cease-fire, that insists on all investment in
the country to be in joint ventures and meanwhile is spending at least 40
percent of its annual revenue on arms to oppress its own
people.
CSW also urges the European governments, particularly the
UK government, to give aid to the IDPs in Shan, Karenni, Karen and Mon States,
as many of them are barely surviving in the jungles.
Stuart
Windsor, CSW's National Director, said: "Over the past decade, the UN has been
passing similar resolutions on Burma but little has changed. The international
community continues to prefer engagement over toughening policies. Trade,
investment and tourism industries, in particular, are providing the junta with
much-needed financial, technical and moral support.
"While the
international community hesitates, the junta continues to rape, kill, loot,
enslave, oppress with impunity. We are disappointed that despite numerous
pledges, the UK government has not been giving any humanitarian assistance to
those who are most needy and vulnerable in Burma - the one to two million
Internally Displaced Peoples in ethnic areas in eastern Burma."
"The international community has an obligation to augment
diplomatic and economic pressures until the SPDC junta takes concrete steps to
comply with the numerous United Nations and European
resolutions."
Meanwhile, according to the Committee for Internally
Displaced Karen People, Burmese troops attacked an internally displaced personç?´
(IDP) settlement on April 8 2003.
Soldiers from Light Infantry
Battalion 6 and Infantry Battalion 14 reportedly descended on Kho Kay in Karen
State without warning, sending 521 people from the area across the Salween river
into Thailand. The troops also burnt down five houses and one paddy barn.
This is the second time in a year this particular IDP site was
attacked. Almost eleven months ago, on the day Aung San Suu Kyi was released
from her 19-month house arrest, the SPDC launched a similar military offensive
on Kho Kay. The operation destroyed one hospital, one school, one workshop for
the handicapped, seven houses and sent 500 IDPs across to Thailand.
Recently, a relief team returned from south eastern Shan State
gave evidence that in areas jointly controlled by the Burma Army and the
affiliated pro-junta United Wa State Army (UWSA), narcotics production continues
to flourish. The area the team visited was rife with state-sponsored opium
fields and heroin refineries.
According to local sources, hill
tribes in the area are ordered either directly by the Burma Army or indirectly
through the UWSA to cultivate poppies. The opium is taxed annually by the Burma
Army and the crops are transported along main roads through Burma Amy and UWSA
outposts to nearby heroin and amphetamine refineries.
Up to a
third of the male population in the area are drug addicts. The team also
interviewed three rape survivors who claimed to have been raped by soldiers from
the Burma Army between April and August 2002.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunspot.net
American footprint
Originally
published April 17, 2003
FROM THE START, opponents of
the war in Iraq
were focused on the period that begins now.
The outcome, militarily, was
not in question. In short order,
U.S. armed
forces have routed those of Saddam Hussein. It was an impressive accomplishment,
and it silenced doubters who had worried that insufficient troops had been
deployed to get the job done.
But are the forces - and the
will and the expertise - there for the job that now needs doing?
To answer that question, it's
important to try yet again to understand what this war was about.
The trigger, ostensibly, was
Iraq's
biological and chemical weapons. There were arguments over whether they
constituted a sufficient reason for war, but little debate over their actual
existence. It has been, frankly, a surprise that they've been so hard to find.
Perhaps for that reason, the
administration is giving them less prominence, and emphasizing two other
justifications. One is to subtly foster the belief now widespread among
Americans that Mr. Hussein had a hand in the Sept. 11 attacks. But no one in the
administration can actually believe that, because it's not true. So that cannot
have been the real cause of the war.
The second argument, and it's
a better one, is to point out that the Iraqi people have been freed from Mr.
Hussein's tyranny. As a fact, no one can dispute it. Even though the mood has
started to sour somewhat from the first heady days, it's clear that
Iraq is much
better off without the murderous regime that infiltrated every corner of life
there.
The end of Mr. Hussein, as
opponents of the war always argued, is the one certain good result to be
expected from it.
But it stretches credulity to
believe that President Bush committed the United
States to war simply for the deliverance of the
long-suffering Iraqi people. If that's the driving force of
U.S. foreign
policy, then war in
Uzbekistan,
Belarus and
Myanmar must be
on the horizon. And
Cuba and
Liberia and
Turkmenistan.
And the list goes on.
No. The point of this war
seems to have been to put a big American don't-mess-with-us footprint on the
Middle East. In that sense, it was a success. But it
means that the consequences are not going to be so simple. Just getting rid of
weapons of mass destruction, or Mr. Hussein, or al-Qaida's
Iraq
connections, isn't good enough.
When Americans leave
Iraq, they have
to leave the country in good running order. They have to show the people of the
Middle East that
U.S.
intervention leads to positive results for ordinary Middle Easterners. And they
have to demonstrate to the world that
U.S. foreign
policy is making it a safer place.
That's a tall order. But
failure could be catastrophic for
America's own
interests. By taking over
Iraq, the
United States
has put its prestige, credibility and security on the line - and now comes the
hard part.
--------------------------------------------------------------