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-------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINES -------------------------------------------------------------- AP - U.N. envoy fails to meet or secure release of Myanmar opposition AFP - UN envoy meets with junta leader to secure Aung San Suu Kyi release AFP - US expands visa ban on Myanmar leaders, more sanctions possible AFP - More than 100 died in Myanmar attack on opposition supporters: report AFP - Britain demands access to Myanmar's detained Aung San Suu Kyi Reuters - ASEAN says concerned about Myanmar situation Reuters - Myanmar blames Suu Kyi for violence Reuters - Business Group Opposes Myanmar Sanctions Reuters - UN envoy bids to free Suu Kyi Reuters - UK warns Myanmar of consequences over Suu Kyi Channel NewsAsia - Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam visitors in Singapore on study trip VOA News - Burma Bars UN Envoy From Seeing Aung San Suu Kyi Asahi - EDITORIAL:Too soft on Myanmar Scoop Media - Burma Sanctions Effort Blunted By China, India -------------------------------------------------------------- U.N. envoy fails to meet or secure release of Myanmar
opposition -------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday June 7,
3:37 PM -------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday June 7, 10:51 AM -------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday June 7, 8:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------- Britain demands access to Myanmar's detained Aung San Suu
Kyi -------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday June 7, 2:52 PM -------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday June 7, 1:27 PM -------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday June 7, 2:38 AM
Business Group Opposes Myanmar Sanctions WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New sanctions against Myanmar, where pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for a week, would do nothing to force the government to relinquish power, a U.S. business coalition said on Friday. "The proposed new sanctions will bring ... neither freedom nor democracy to the Burmese people," said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council and co-chairman of USA Engage, a coalition of over 670 businesses, agriculture groups and trade associations opposed to unilateral sanctions. "Existing U.S. sanctions have accomplished exactly nothing -- other than to hurt a population that is in desperate need of economic aid," Reinsch said in a statement. A group of U.S. lawmakers is pressing for a ban on imports from Myanmar following what U.S. government officials said appeared to have been an ambush on Suu Kyi's motorcade last Friday by "government-affiliated thugs." The Bush administration has called on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi and give a full account of the incident, in which diplomats believe Suu Kyi may have been injured. The United States still calls Myanmar by its old name of Burma as a sign of displeasure with its military government. U.S. business is sympathetic to the desire to punish the Myanmar government for its crackdown on pro-democracy leaders, but "unilateral sanctions are not the answer," Reinsch said. "The United States should be working with the international community to seek solutions that will help bring democracy and human rights to Burma," he said. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has argued U.S. sanctions would not hurt ordinary Myanmar citizens because only the military government profits from current exports. U.S. imports from Myanmar totaled about $356 million in 2002, compared to U.S. exports to the country of $10 million. More than 85 percent of Myanmar's exports to the United States are textiles, clothing and footwear. The American Apparel and Footwear Association, which represents major U.S. importers and retailers, supports the proposed import ban. -------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday June 7, 11:16 AM
UN envoy bids to free Suu Kyi By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - A United Nations special envoy has met one of the most powerful men in Myanmar in a bid to secure the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained by the military regime for over a week. Envoy Razali Ismail met military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt and talks were still on an hour later, an official told Reuters. The meeting is likely to reveal whether the junta would grant access to Suu Kyi. "He will definitely know after that if he can see Aung San Suu Kyi or not," one diplomat told Reuters. Razali, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy to Myanmar, met Foreign Minister Win Aung on Friday, but told Reuters afterward he had not yet been granted access. The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader and 1991 Nobel peace prize winner has been held in undisclosed locations since violence erupted between her supporters and those favouring the junta on May 30 as she toured a provincial town in the North. The United States has said the fighting may have been instigated by the military regime. U.N. sources in New York said Razali's orders from Annan were to meet Suu Kyi and leaders of her NLD and said he would cut short his mission and leave Myanmar if this request were denied. Razali arrived in Yangon on Friday in a bid backed by key United Nations member countries to pressure the junta to release Suu Kyi. He is due to depart on June 10. His mission follows concern among the member states that the 57-year-old pro-democracy icon was hurt in the clashes. The United States said on Thursday it suspected Suu Kyi and her convoy were ambushed by "government-affiliated thugs." The government denied that. The military says four people died and 50 were injured in the clashes, but dissidents in exile suspect as many as 75 of Suu Kyi's supporters were killed and hundreds injured. They also say Suu Kyi received head and shoulder injuries. The United States, Britain and the European Union have said they are considering slapping more trade and investment sanctions on Myanmar as a result of Suu Kyi's treatment. Washington on Friday said it had put more associates of the military rulers in Myanmar, formerly Burma, on a visa ban list. The military has ruled the country ever since a 1962 coup. As part of a broad crackdown, the junta has shut NLD offices, ordered 19 of its top leaders confined to their houses and closed universities, seen as hotbeds of support for Suu Kyi. The NLD easily won Myanmar's last free elections in 1990 but was never allowed to rule. Suu Kyi has spent much of the last 14 years under house arrest and was last released in May 2002. -------------------------------------------------------------- UK warns Myanmar of consequences over Suu
Kyi
LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) - Britain voiced concern on Friday that Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi may have been wounded in violent clashes last week and warned authorities to grant access to her or risk the consequences. ''We remain very worried by reports that (she) has been injured,'' junior Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien said in a statement. He urged authorities in Yangon to allow the United Nations speedy access to the Nobel peace prize winner. ''A refusal to allow such access would constitute a deliberate rebuff to the international community, which would have consequences,'' he said following a telephone call with Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Win. Diplomats and Myanmar dissidents fear she and other democracy activists may have been injured in a clash with a pro-government group last Friday. Dissidents say many more were killed than the four reported -- perhaps as many as 75. -------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday June 7, 8:17 PM
Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam visitors in Singapore on study trip Channel NewsAsia - Twenty senior officials from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are in town for a 3-day study trip to learn from Singapore's experience in dealing with the SARS outbreak. The first stop was Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where they had to undergo the usual temperature checks. They also visited Geylang Polyclinic. The visitors were briefed by the Health Ministry and the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority on health screening, anti-SARS measures, public education and other strategies used in Singapore's fight against SARS. -------------------------------------------------------------- Burma Bars UN Envoy From Seeing Aung San Suu
Kyi
VOA News 07 Jun 2003, 10:14 UTC A United Nations special envoy to Burma has met with top military leaders in Rangoon, but has not yet been allowed to see the country's detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. U.N. envoy Razali Ismail met for more than an hour Saturday with Burma's number-three general, Khin Nynt. Mr. Razali said afterwards that he had not been granted access to the Nobel peace laureate, but still hoped to secure a meeting with her. Mr. Razali met with Foreign Minister Win Aung after his arrival in Rangoon on Friday, with similar results. General Khin Nynt was silent after today's talks. In a speech Friday at an airport opening in the central town of Magway, he blamed Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy for last week's events. Aung San Suu Kyi was taken into custody one week ago following a clash in a northern provincial town between her followers and government-backed protesters. She has not been seen since. U.S. State department spokesman Richard Boucher has described the May 30 attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade as a "premeditated ambush." An unspecified number of people were reported dead or wounded after the clash. Mr. Boucher said the Bush administration has decided to expand the list of Burmese officials who are banned from visiting the United States. He also said the administration is looking very carefully at legislation just introduced in Congress that would curb Burmese exports to the United States. Burma has been condemned for its action against Aung San Suu Kyi by the international community, including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In a statement Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he continues to be gravely concerned about the continued incommunicado detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the NLD. The statement said Mr. Annan fully expects that his special envoy will be allowed to meet with all sides and that all detainees will be released without further delay. -------------------------------------------------------------- The Asahi Shimbun, June 7,
2003
EDITORIAL:Too soft on Myanmar Japan must urge the junta to stop its oppression. The ruling military junta of Myanmar (Burma) has taken opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into custody. The military also put many leading members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party she leads, under house arrest, and closed party headquarters. The military says Suu Kyi was taken into ``protective custody'' when clashes between her supporters and pro-government protesters led to many deaths and injuries during her political tour of the country. Despite its claims, the junta has not released Suu Kyi even after moving her to Yangon (Rangoon). It has denied her all visits and contacts from the outside. It has been a year since the junta, under pressure from the international community to start dialogue with pro-democracy groups, released Suu Kyi from a long period of house arrest. Since regaining her freedom, Suu Kyi has sought to speak directly to the people and repeatedly went on political tours around the country. There is no doubt the military was growing increasingly frustrated by her popularity everywhere she went, and decided to revert to policy of oppression. According to Amnesty International, there are about 1,300 political prisoners in Myanmar. There are no end to reports of torture, executions without trial and forced labor. The military junta must immediately release Suu Kyi and other NLD members and return to the path of dialogue with the pro-democracy groups. The military leaders must also respect the NLD's landslide victory in the 1990 election and present a plan for a shift to civilian rule. The new academic year in Myanmar begins in June, when the fierce summer heat has abated. But with the detainment of Suu Kyi, all universities have been closed. The reopening of elementary and junior high schools has also been postponed. This has been widely accepted as a move by the military junta to avoid student demonstrations. Since the 1988 coup, the military has repeatedly closed down universities. Myanmar used to be one of the best educated countries in Southeast Asia, but now many youths despair of their future and leave the country. Junta leaders claim that only they with their military power can unite a multi-ethnic country like Myanmar. But if they cannot even provide a decent education, the future of the country is in danger. When Suu Kyi was detained, the United States and European countries immediately issued statements criticizing the move. The U.S. Congress is considering moves to strengthen economic sanctions. But what has Japan done? Since 1995, when the junta first began dialogue with the NLD, Japan has chosen aid over sanctions as a means to push for democracy. At the end of last year, the government went so far as to write off debts worth 270 billion yen. The Japanese government has been excessively more lenient than others. The present situation gives rise to serious doubt to the effectiveness of Japan's approach to Myanmar. The government, as a major aid donor, ought to criticize the junta severely, but all it has done so far is to put forth a Foreign Ministry statement that Japan ``closely follows, with concerns, the situations'' involving Suu Kyi. Japan needs to cooperate with other Southeast Asian countries and take on a Myanmar policy with a bit more bite. Otherwise, taxpayers' money is simply being wasted. -------------------------------------------------------------- Burma Sanctions Effort Blunted By China,
India
Friday, 6 June 2003, 11:52 am Article: Richard S. Ehrlich by Richard S. Ehrlich BANGKOK, Thailand (Scoop Media ) -- Burma has boasted its two "very good neighbors," China and India, will blunt U.S.-led sanctions amid attempts in Washington for tightening boycotts to support detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Burma's leader General Than Shwe, and Foreign Minister Win Aung, personally laid the ground-work for close, lucrative cooperation with the governments and two billion people in China and India. Burma is wedged between the two giants and boasts a coveted, ship-friendly coast along the Bay of Bengal -- stretching from Bangladesh to Thailand. "There is no evidence we are worried about sanctions. Not that we want them, but we are not afraid of them either because we have lived for 26 years on our own before, and we have very good neighbors around us and we can simply trade and exchange relations with our close, good neighbors," Kyaw Win, Burma's ambassador to Britain, said on Thursday (June 5). "We have the two largest countries of the world on either side who are happily trading and exchanging all kinds of technical, transportation, security measures [with Burma] and we are living in harmony with all of them," the envoy told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The Washington-based Free Burma Coalition (FBC), meanwhile, circulated a list of quotes by several influential U.S. Congress members who vowed during the past few days to pulverize Burma's economy with tighter sanctions. "It is time for regime change in Burma," Senate majority whip, Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), told Congress. "The tough sanctions legislation I am introducing...sends a clear signal that Burma's human rights violators will be punished severely," said Representative Tom Lantos (D-California). They joined others in Congress who hope to increase current sanctions to ban all Burma's exports to the United States, deny U.S. visas to a wider range of Burmese officials and freeze the regime's money and property overseas, according to the FBC. China, however, is Burma's closest ally. Much of northern Burma, in and around Mandalay, allows Chinese migrants to live and invest there while using China's yuan currency instead of Burma's much weaker kyat. Gen. Than Shwe, in a rare trip abroad, spent six days in China in January discussing Chinese financial and military aid. China arms and trains much of Burma's military. Burma depended on China for more than 40 Chengdu F-7M and Nanchang A-5C warplanes before Russia sold MiG-29 jet fighters to Burma in 2001. Burma and China also share a similar strategy in dealing with dissent. Both hung tough after unleashing bloody military crackdowns which mirrored each other almost one year apart: Beijing's infamous June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre was preceded by Rangoon's August 8, 1988 pro-Suu Kyi demonstrations. Unrelated -- except for student-led passions for greater freedom -- the twin uprisings were brutally crushed with similar military force, leaving more than 1,000 people dead in both capitals. China rapidly increased its interest in Burma during the past decade, prompting fear in India of creeping Chinese influence. China trounced India in a 1962 war. Exploiting New Delhi's lingering nervousness over China's occupation of Tibet and other Himalayan mountain high ground, Burma spent the past few years cozying up to India, which is also vulnerable along its rebel-torn northeast. Fighting in India's Nagaland has killed more than 100,000 people on all sides during the past 50 years. Christian and animist minority ethnic Naga guerrillas want a return to independence free from India's control. Naga guerrillas maintain camps across the frontier in Burma -- a thorn which India hopes to yank with Rangoon's cooperation. Within a week of Gen. Than Shwe's return home from China, Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung flew to India on a five-day trip. India had been eyeing construction of a modern highway linking mountainous Nagaland to Burma's Mandalay and Rangoon and on to Thailand's prosperous capital, Bangkok, with expectations it will enable New Delhi to commercialize Nagaland and other isolated Indian states which also suffer insurgencies, poverty and neglect. India earlier allowed Ms. Suu Kyi to live in exile on Indian soil and still voices support for an evolution to democracy in Burma. The worsening insurgency in and around Nagaland and a rising emphasis on military strength within the Indian government, however, inspired New Delhi's shift toward friendlier ties with Rangoon in recent years. While much of the world was shunning Burma, India allowed the opening of a Burmese consulate in Calcutta in 2002 to ease relations with Rangoon and speed commerce between the two ports. Singapore and Thailand also funnel a relatively large amount of investment cash into Burma and purchase its natural resources and other exports, while helping to buoy the dictatorship and gloss over its conflicts with the wider world. Ms. Suu Kyi and her supporters, meanwhile, have received millions of dollars from foreign donors. In the most recent flash of cash, Virginia-based Freedom Forum foundation gave one million U.S. dollars to Ms. Suu Kyi in February as a "personal gift" because of "her free-spirited, non-violent struggle for human rights and democracy." Burmese dissidents based in Thailand, the United States and elsewhere also receive aid from non-governmental organizations, volunteers and other sources to fund their rival political movements, publications, broadcasts and other activity. They are rallying for the regime to transfer power to Ms. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party which won a suppressed 1990 election victory. -------------------------------------------------------------- |