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BURMA RELATED NEWS - June 16,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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AFP - Aung San Suu
Kyi assassination plot just rumours: Myanmar FM
AFP - Southeast
Asian foreign ministers press Myanmar on Suu Kyi's release
AFP - French oil
firm Total rejects economic sanctions on Myanmar
AFP - Japan to warn
of 'review' on economic aid unless Suu Kyi is released:
Reuters - EU
stiffens sanctions on Myanmar
Reuters - Myanmar
students return to universities
Reuters - Thai PTT
to sell LPG to China, Myanmar
Reuters - Suu Kyi
detention, terror dominate Asian meeting
Reuters - Asian
Clearing Union seeks tech boost to trade
Reuters - Myanmar
Opens Colleges but Suu Kyi Still Detained
AP - ASEAN calls
for release of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi
AP - Indonesia
Envisions Stronger Asean Military, Police Ties
AP - International
Red Cross expects access to detained Myanmar
Channel NewsAsia -
ASEAN ministers to discuss Myanmar's arrest of Aung San Suu
Kyi
Kyodo News - ASEAN
ministers begin talks
BBC News - Burma's
'Black Friday'
VOA News -
Controversy Over Future of Burmese Refugees in Thailand
UM online - ASEAN's
interest to have clear date on Suu Kyi's release - Syed Hamid
NYT - Showdown for
a Tool in Human Rights Lawsuits
The Daily Yomiuri -
EDITORIAL / Yangon must free Suu Kyi
Newsday - Keep
Pressure on Burma to Release Political Prisoner
Asia Times -
Hitting Yangon where it counts
Asia Times -
ANALYSIS - India and China: Neighborhood problems
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Monday June 16,
11:14 AM
Aung San Suu Kyi assassination plot just rumours: Myanmar
FM
PHNOM PENH (AFP) -A reported assassination plot against
Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was based on rumours but required
the country's ruling junta to protect her, Foreign Minister Win Aung
said.
He said on BBC television that the opposition leader was being
detained by the government due to the risk of assassins targetting
her.
"There were some assassins going in the country, I don't know whom
their targets will be, that's why we are protecting Aung San Suu Kyi for the
time being," he said on the television network on Sunday.
It was the
first time assassination was specifically mentioned by the country's leaders in
connection with her arrest, although they have consistently said she was being
held in custody for her own protection.
Her arrest followed brutal May 30
clashes between her supporters and a pro-junta mob while she made a political
tour of the country's north, prompting international outrage led personally by
US President George W. Bush.
Win Aung said late Sunday that the
assassination plot was mere rumour, but needed nevertheless to be taken
seriously.
"There were some general rumours floating around that came to
our attention and I'm not saying that definitely this is the situation but... we
need to take care of every possibility for this," he told reporters.
He
said he did not personally believe someone was trying to kill the 1991 Nobel
peace prize winner.
"But how can we predict? Maybe, there might be some
attempts... These are just rumours but we have to take care of everything," he
added.
The foreign minister was speaking prior to a dinner attended by
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers, who opened two
days of annual talks in the Cambodian capital Monday.
The ASEAN ministers
are to issue a statement of concern over developments in Myanmar at the
conclusion of the talks, according to its secretariat spokesman ASEAN
secretariat spokesman M.C. Abad.
Such a statement would represent a major
departure from ASEAN's much-criticised policy of non-interference in member
countries' internal affairs.
Myanmar's junta has refused to divulge when
it plans to release the opposition leader, who is believed to be held at a
military camp outside Yangon.
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Southeast Asian foreign ministers press Myanmar on Suu
Kyi's release
38 minutes ago
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Southeast Asian foreign ministers pressed
Myanmar for the release of its opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as Yangoon
faced the spectre of increasing sanctions from an angry international community.
"All of us in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) wish that
Aung San Suu Kyi will be free to be able to do what she would like to do," ASEAN
secretary-general Ong Keng Yong told reporters during annual ministerial talks
in the Cambodian capital.
"I think that is at the bottom of our heart
and in our own way we have explained to the Myanmar foreign minister that wish.
But we don't want to do it in a confrontational manner," he said Monday.
Military-ruled Myanmar has been the target of vitriolic attacks by world
leaders since its arrest last month of Aung San Suu Kyi and a crackdown on
democracy activists.
The United States has already toughened sanctions
against it while the European Union is expected to do so later Monday.
Japan reportedly plans to warn Yangon in talks between its foreign
ministers in Phnom Penh this week that it may "review" its economic aid unless
the junta releases the Nobel peace laureate immediately.
"In the
discussions on Myanmar many of the ASEAN ministers conveyed their concerns to
the Myanmar foreign minister," Singaporean Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar said.
"The point was made that the recent developments were a setback not just
for Myanmar but also a setback for ASEAN," he added.
Some ministers
called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, he said, declining to specify who
they were.
In a significant move for the 10-member bloc, ministers are
to express their concern in a joint communique at the conclusions of talks
Tuesday, according to ASEAN secretariat spokesman M.C. Abad.
"This is
the first time that ASEAN has taken a pro-active stand on Myanmar on the
record," he said. "In general, it will be a statement of concern."
A
draft statement released Monday said only that the grouping "expressed
appreciation for the information provided by Myanmar on the latest developments
in the country".
Secretary-General Ong said the group wished to deal
with the issue of Myanmar so that it can "put the spotlight away from this issue
alone because there are other important issues for ASEAN".
Opening the
talks Monday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen highlighted the need for the
grouping to deal with the scourge of terrorism, calling for firm measures to
tackle its rising threat in the region.
The terror attacks on September
11, 2001, and other recent events "require us to exert our best efforts to
strengthen our solidarity and take firm measures to maintain public security and
political and economic stability", he said.
Arrests in recent weeks in
Cambodia and Thailand of alleged members of regional terror network Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI), which is blamed for last October's Bali bombings, have brought
the threat of a regional attack in Southeast Asia back into the spotlight.
ASEAN and the United States are soon to endorse a five-point
counter-terrorism work plan that could see American help to safeguard shipping
in the vital Malacca Strait and sharing of intelligence information, officials
said.
The plan was developed following an agreement reached
between Washington and ASEAN in July last year to devise mechanisms "to prevent,
disrupt and combat international terrorism".
North Korea is also on the
agenda for the foreign ministers meet, even though the Stalinist state is only
sending an envoy to the talks.
Monday's meetings took place amid tight
security, which is expected to be boosted in coming days as ministers and senior
officials arrive for Wednesday's ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the Asia Pacific's
top security grouping.
Headlining the delegates will be US Secretary of
State Colin Powell, who has already warned he will push reluctant ASEAN members
to deal strongly with Myanmar's recalcitrance.
ASEAN groups Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
The ARF groups ASEAN with Australia, Canada,
China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Korea,
North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia and the United States.
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Monday June 16, 4:33 PM
French oil firm Total rejects
economic sanctions on Myanmar
KUALA LUMPUR, June 16
(AFP) -French oil company Total,
which has investments in Myanmar, on Monday rejected the use of economic
sanctions to pressure the military junta there to restore
democracy.
Chairman and chief executive Thierry Desmarest said the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) policy of constructive engagement
would be more effective in resolving the crisis over the detention of opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"The general situation of the country is not
going in line with what we hope for in terms of national reconciliation and
improvement in civil rights," Desmarest told reporters on the sidelines of an
oil and gas conference.
"We don't think embargoes will solve the problems
of the country but rather the policy of constructive engagement. We hope the
country will have a more positive evolution in the future."
Washington
has imposed sanctions including banning the import of goods from Myanmar,
freezing the junta's assets in the US and expanding its visa blacklist since Suu
Kyi's detention.
The junta says she is being held in "protective custody"
after a bloody May 30 clash between supporters of her National League for
Democracy (NLD) and backers of the military regime..
The European Union
is also expected to toughen up sanctions against Myanmar by extending a list of
leaders barred from entering the EU and strengthening an arms
embargo.
Desmarest was speaking as ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in
Phnom Penh were reportedly preparing to issue a statement of concern over
developments in Myanmar.
Such a statement would represent a major
departure from ASEAN's much-criticised policy of non-interference in member
countries' internal affairs.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi, who was also attending the oil and gas conference, urged Myanmar
to respond positively to ASEAN's efforts to defuse the crisis.
He said
the 10-member grouping had no intention of interfering in Myanmar's internal
affairs but wanted to "engage Myanmar constructively to help overcome problems
we see now.
"We feel strongly regarding what is happening in Myanmar and
I would like to see Myanmar responding positively to ASEAN's call," he told
reporters.
"I know for a fact and I believe that Myanmar will accept
members of ASEAN as friends and will place confidence and trust (in the
grouping)."
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Japan to warn of 'review' on economic aid unless Suu Kyi
is released:
TOKYO, June 16 (AFP) - Japan's Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi
plans to warn Myanmar that Tokyo might "review" its economic aid unless the
junta releases pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi immediately, a report said
Monday.
Kawaguchi plans to spell out the possibility to Myanmar Foreign
Minister Win Aung when the two meet in Cambodia on Tuesday, Jiji Press news
agency said without naming sources.
Kawaguchi is to repeat Japan's
demand for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi at a bilateral meeting on
the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional
Forum, a regional security grouping.
The top Japanese diplomat already
issued the demand in a telephone talk with her Myanmar counterpart on Friday,
demanding Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the National League for
Democracy (NLD) be released immediately.
But the Myanmar foreign
minister did not mention any immediate plans for her release, according to the
Japanese foreign ministry.
Japan is the biggest aid donor to Myanmar. It
suspended all but a small amount of humanitarian aid in the aftermath of a 1988
military coup and crack-down on pro-democracy demonstrators, but the flow of
funds resumed in 1994.
Japan extended about 2.14 billion yen (18 million
dollars) in grants to Myanmar in the year ended in March as well as millions of
dollars in technical assistance.
Tokyo has resisted US criticism for
giving economic aid to the junta, arguing the assistance was to help ordinary
people and could promote dialogue between the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi.
But the Japanese government takes the arrest of the democracy leader
seriously and is hesitant to commit itself to new aid, Jiji Press said.
"We cannot continue (aid) projects as if nothing had happened," it
quoted a foreign ministry official as saying.
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EU stiffens sanctions on
Myanmar
LUXEMBOURG, June 16 (Reuters) - The European Union decided on Monday to
stiffen sanctions against Myanmar following the detention of pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The bloc's sanctions against the country
include an arms embargo and visa bans and asset freezes on more than 150
officials in the military-ruled government. It has also suspended trade
privileges because of its alleged use of forced labour.
Officials said
foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg had decided to lengthen the list of
targeted individuals immediately instead of waiting until October as originally
planned.
``...in light of the serious deterioration of the situation in
the country, especially over the last weeks, the Council (of ministers) decided
to implement without delay the strengthened sanctions,'' the ministers said in a
statement.
Suu Kyi has been detained at undisclosed locations for more
than two weeks, despite mounting calls from the international community for her
release.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung, in Cambodia for a regional
security meeting, said on Sunday that Suu Kyi would be released as soon as the
situation in the country returned to normal, but gave no time limit.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week called for the sanctions
which Washington has imposed on the junta to be stiffened, and a group of U.S.
lawmakers is turning up the heat by pushing for a ban on imports from Myanmar.
The 15-nation bloc's foreign ministers called for the immediate release
of Suu Kyi and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD).
The EU also urged Yangon to start ``substantial and meaningful''
dialogue with the NLD, reiterated a call for the release of political prisoners
and expressed ``deep concern over the noted increase of politically motivated
arrests.''
It also said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and their key partners, China, India and Japan, should use their
influence to promote political change in Myanmar.
Myanmar, which has
been under military rule since 1962, joined ASEAN in 1997.
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Monday June 16, 2:48 PM
Myanmar students return to
universities
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar students are flocking back to
universities after the ruling military allowed classes to restart, ending a
two-week suspension amid fears of unrest following the detention of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The universities closed as part
of a broad crackdown on dissent after May 30 clashes between pro-government
groups and Suu Kyi's supporters.
"Students are peacefully attending
classes," an education ministry official told Reuters on Monday.
Universities have traditionally been centres of support for the
pro-democracy movement and regarded with suspicion by authorities since a 1988
student-led uprising which was brutally crushed by the military.
Suu Kyi
has been detained at undisclosed locations for more than two weeks, despite
mounting calls from the international community for her release.
Dozens
of exiled Myanmar dissidents demonstrated outside the Myanmar embassy in
neighbouring Thailand on Monday, urging the international community to pressure
the junta to release her.
Around 100 people stamped on signs bearing the
names of the regime's leaders and carried placards with anti-junta slogans.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung, in Cambodia for a regional security
meeting, said on Sunday that Suu Kyi would be released as soon as the situation
in the country returned to normal, but gave no time limit.
A U.N. envoy
allowed to visit her last week said the Nobel peace laureate -- whose National
League for Democracy party won 1990 elections but was denied power -- had not
been harmed in the May 30 clash north of the capital near Mandalay.
The
junta says four people were killed in the violence and some 50 injured. Exiled
dissidents say they believe dozens of Suu Kyi's followers were killed by
club-wielding pro-government thugs and hundreds injured.
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Monday June 16, 6:27 PM
Thai PTT to sell LPG to China,
Myanmar
BANGKOK, June 16 (Reuters) - Thailand's biggest energy firm, PTT
Plc, said on Monday it planned to expand liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales to
China and Myanmar this year.
The firm, with a monopoly on gas supply
through its petroleum and gas exploration and production subsidiaries, is
69-percent owned by the Thai government.
Senior Executive Vice President
Apisit Rujikeatkamjorn told reporters China has allowed PTT to market its LPG,
used as fuel in cooking and for cars, well ahead of the 2005 World Trade
Organisation deadline to open up the oil market in China.
"We have an
agreement with the Chinese government to do business there," he said.
"Previously, we exported our products to neighbouring countries from
time-to-time."
The firm was seeking approval from the military
government in Myanmar to sell LPG there, he said.
Revenues from foreign
sales of oil and LPG could reach about 160 billion baht ($3.84 billion) this
year, Apisit said, but gave no comparative figure for the past year.
In
2002, state-run PTT had total sales of 399 billion baht, of which 268 billion
baht came from the oil business, consisting of foreign trade and domestic
sales.
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Monday June 16, 7:28 PM
Suu Kyi detention, terror
dominate Asian meeting
By Jane Macartney,
Asian Diplomatic Correspondent
PHNOM PENH, June 16 (Reuters) - Cracking down on militant violence and
unprecedented criticism of the lack of democratic progress in member state
Myanmar dominated the start on Monday of a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign
ministers.
Ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) met in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, for two days of talks
overshadowed by Myanmar's detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
the war on terror and a review of the group's fundamental principle of not
interfering in a member's affairs.
"We are gathered here at a time of
both anxiety and hope," Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told the opening
ceremony in a reference to worries about extremist violence and successes in the
war on terror such as recent arrests in Cambodia and Thailand of suspected
Islamic militants.
"ASEAN, as a result of the recent arrests of
suspected terrorists, is no longer an easy theatre of operations for
international terrorism," ASEAN spokesman M.C. Abad quoted Secretary General Ong
Keng Yong as telling the ministers.
The talks precede Wednesday's annual
security gathering of the ASEAN Regional Forum that will bring U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell on a whirlwind trip to a region where he is anxious about the
spread of extremist violence and has spoken against Myanmar's detention last
month of Nobel laureate Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi's detention dominated and could
herald one of the biggest policy shifts in ASEAN's 36-year history. Several
members are concerned about an issue that has embarrassed the group and are
looking at breaking with basic principles to issue unprecedented public
criticism of one of their own.
BROADER INTERPRETATION
"What we would like to happen is a discussion of broadening the
interpretation and application of that principle," Abad told reporters.
Several nations feel Myanmar cannot escape some censure in a final
communique given the international condemnation heaped on its military rulers
for detaining Suu Kyi once again.
Powell last week urged tougher
sanctions against the junta and the European Union is to discuss similar action
on Monday.
"We would like to have diplomatic words," said Myanmar
Foreign Minister Win Aung, indicating the military government was ready to
discuss Suu Kyi's situation.
Myanmar is detaining Suu Kyi amid vague
fears that assassins are on the prowl in the country but she will be freed when
the time is ripe, Win Aung said on Sunday. He could not give a date.
Myanmar students went back to universities on Monday after the military
allowed classes to restart, ending a two-week suspension amid fears of unrest
following the detention of the pro-democracy leader.
Several members are
concerned Myanmar's actions will tarnish the reputation of an organisation that
has prided itself on engaging the junta but say overly harsh criticism could
prompt it to hold Suu Kyi for even longer to avoid losing face.
The
meeting also focused on the war on terror. ASEAN, which groups mainly Islamic
states Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei with the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar,
Brunei, Vietnam, Singapore and Laos, should agree on closer cooperation,
officials say.
In the last few days, Cambodia has announced the arrests
of four suspected extremists with links to the al Qaeda-affiliated Jemaah
Islamiah group that is blamed in the Bali bombings.
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Monday June 16, 7:49 PM
Asian Clearing Union seeks
tech boost to trade
BANGALORE, June 16 (Reuters) - Central bank governors of the
eight-nation Asian Clearing Union (ACU) ended a two-day annual meeting on
Monday, aiming for more members and a technological platform which would ease
exchange deals to help regional trade.
Conceived in 1975 as a club to
help foreign exchange-scarce nations in settling payments between central banks,
the ACU now hopes to become an instrument to raise trade between members on the
back of open economic regimes, officials said.
The ACU comprises India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Iran, which houses
the ACU secretariat.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Bimal Jalan
told the meeting that most ACU members logged growth rates of more than 4.0
percent in 2000/01.
"This augurs well for the ACU. However, there is
need for better volumes of trade amongst member countries so that the system of
ACU could be utilised to the full extent," he said.
Thailand's central
bank officials joined the meeting as the ACU wooed them to join the union.
Maldives, China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Malaysia are among potential
members.
Some of ACU's members are yet to adopt the "SWIFT" system of
inter-bank messaging.
Jalan told reporters new technologies and members
were among top priorities. A central clearing house was also being considered,
which would pave the way for a "real time gross settlement" to speed up central
bank transactions, he said.
The ACU has a settlement mechanism under
which foreign exchange transactions of commercial banks of member nations are
routed though respective central banks which helps minimise correspondent bank
relations and transaction costs.
The union, which provides for currency
swaps, allows central banks two months to complete transactions between each
other, with a provision to extend the period by another two months.
In
2002, the ACU, which uses an accounting unit called the "ACU dollar" helped work
out transactions worth $6.9 billion.
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Myanmar Opens Colleges but Suu Kyi Still
Detained
Mon Jun 16, 3:05 AM ET
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar students flocked back to
universities Monday after the ruling military allowed classes to restart, ending
a two-week suspension amid fears of unrest following the detention of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The universities closed as part
of a broad crackdown on dissent after May 30 clashes between pro-government
groups and Suu Kyi's supporters.
"Students are peacefully attending
classes," an education ministry official told Reuters.
Universities have
traditionally been centers of support for the pro-democracy movement and
regarded with suspicion by authorities since a 1988 student-led uprising which
was brutally crushed by the military.
Suu Kyi has been detained at
undisclosed locations for more than two weeks, despite mounting calls from the
international community for her release.
Dozens of exiled Myanmar
dissidents demonstrated outside the Myanmar embassy in neighboring Thailand
Monday, urging the international community to pressure the junta to release her.
Around 100 people stamped on signs bearing the names of the regime's
leaders and carried placards with anti-junta slogans.
Myanmar Foreign
Minister Win Aung, in Cambodia for a regional security meeting, said Sunday that
Suu Kyi would be released as soon as the situation in the country returned to
normal, but gave no time limit.
A U.N. envoy allowed to visit her last
week said the Nobel peace laureate -- whose National League for Democracy party
won 1990 elections but was denied power -- had not been harmed in the May 30
clash north of the capital near Mandalay.
The junta says four people
were killed in the violence and some 50 injured. Exiled dissidents say they
believe dozens of Suu Kyi's followers were killed by club-wielding
pro-government thugs and hundreds injured.
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ASEAN calls for release of Myanmar's Aung San Suu
Kyi
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, June 16 ?
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations urged Myanmar's military government
Monday to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the first time the group
made such a call in a rebuke to one of its own members.
Nine foreign
ministers of the 10-nation ASEAN told their Myanmar counterpart Win Aung during
an annual meeting that they want Suu Kyi released as soon as possible, ASEAN
secretary-general Ong Keng Yong told reporters.
''All I can say is we
had a good exchange of views on Myanmar and (the ministers) conveyed the request
... to the Myanmar government that they would like to see an easing of tensions
and early release of Aung San Suu Kyi,'' Ong said.
Suu Kyi was detained
on May 30 after a clash between her supporters and a pro-government crowd in
northern Myanmar. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has been kept incommunicado
since then, jeopardizing a reconciliation process to end the country's
15-year-old political deadlock.
The ASEAN demand is unprecedented given
its policy of not interfering in the internal affairs of its members. The ASEAN
countries were apparently forced by growing international pressure on the
grouping to use its influence with the generals in Myanmar.
Singapore
Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar said the situation in Myanmar is ''a setback not
only for Myanmar but also for ASEAN.''
The 10 ASEAN ministers are
expected to refer to the problems in Myanmar in a joint communique on Tuesday.
Asked if the call for Suu Kyi's release would be mentioned in the communique,
Ong said: ''They are working on it.''
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Monday June 16, 4:54 PM
Indonesia Envisions Stronger
Asean Military, Police Ties
PHNOM PENH (AP)--Hoping to stop terrorism and build peace in
Southeast Asia, Indonesia is urging its neighbors to tackle traditionally taboo
subjects so they can form a "security community" within the next two decades,
officials said Monday.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said it was time
for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, founded in 1967 to improve
economic ties, to broach subjects like politics and security.
Rising
terrorist threats, like the Oct. 12 bombings that killed 202 people on the
Indonesian island of Bali, show that efforts to improve security are lagging far
behind Asean's moves toward economic integration, he said.
Asean "needs
to maintain 'two sides of the same coin' - a prosperous region supported by a
stable and peaceful situation," Wirayuda said in a confidential paper. A copy
was seen by The Associated Press Monday.
Although details for the
proposed "security community" were sketchy, the plan envisions Asean nations
increasing military and police ties by 2020. It rules out "the use of force as
means of problems solving."
Asean's 10 members have traditionally
avoided internal issues of its member states, but Indonesia called on the others
to be more willing to address issues that in the past have been placed "under
the carpet."
Departing from its policy of noninterference, Asean foreign
ministers said they would discuss Myanmar's detention of Nobel Peace laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi at meetings this week in the Cambodian capital.
Asean
ministers welcomed Indonesia's proposal but said it would need to be discussed
at length.
"We're now looking at it," said Asean Secretary-General Ong
Keng Yong. "The general impression is that we are not against it and we want to
discuss it further."
The Indonesian plan would uphold Asean's founding
principle of non-interference, but insists that "in the long term, a sustainable
economic community can only be guaranteed by the creation of a security
community."
The plan also calls for the formation of a forum to deal
with poaching, illegal fishing and other maritime territorial conflicts that
could worsen and threaten regional stability.
Asean members are Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
The group helped spearhead the creation of the
Asean Regional Security Forum in 1994 to discuss sensitive subjects, but "the
road to conflict resolution could not make substantial progress," the Indonesian
paper said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
International Red Cross expects access to detained Myanmar
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) June 16 - The International
Committee of the Red Cross said Monday that it expects to soon be granted access
to detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Michel Ducreaux,
regional representative of the ICRC in Myanmar's capital, Yangon, said the
organization hoped to get a reply Tuesday to its June 4 request to visit Suu
Kyi.
``There is a good prospect that we will be allowed access,'' he
said.
Suu Kyi has been held in what the military government describes as
protective custody since she was at the center of a violent incident during a
political tour in northern Myanmar on May 30.
The only independent
observer to see her since then has been Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail, the
U.N. secretary general's special envoy to Myanmar, on June 10.
The
junta, facing enormous international pressure, allowed him to meet her inside
the Defense Ministry compound, but it's not clear where she is being held.
The government described the May 30 violence as a clash between members
of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and government supporters. It
said four people died and 50 were hospitalized.
Opposition accounts
portrayed the incident as a brutal ambush of Suu Kyi's entourage that took as
many as 70 lives. Over 100 opposition supporters and leaders were also
reportedly detained.
Ducreaux said the ICRC had been told that a ``first
batch of 22 persons called in for questioning had been released,'' but had no
further information.
The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma
shortwave radio station said about 50 people detained in connection with the May
30 incident were released last Wednesday and Thursday.
The station said
those released were students who served as a motorcycle escort for Suu Kyi on
another leg of her journey.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday June 16, 8:17 PM
ASEAN ministers to discuss
Myanmar's arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi
Channel NewsAsia - ASEAN foreign ministers meeting
in Cambodia are to discuss the arrest of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.
The ministers will also issue an unprecedented statement of
concern over the recent developments in Myanmar.
The statement will be a
departure from the grouping's normal policy of non-interference in members'
domestic affairs.
Suu Kyi was taken into what Myanmar authorities called
protective custody after clashes between her supporters and those of the
military government in the north of Myanmar on May 30, but the government has
said she would be freed.
Channel NewsAsia understands that an earlier
meeting between the UN special envoy and the Myanmar activist was, in fact,
brokered by Singapore.
Aside from this, the situation on the Korean
peninsula remains a matter of concern for the ASEAN ministers.
A
spokesman for ASEAN says that despite the absence of the North Korean foreign
minister from the regional dialogue, the Asean Regional Forum will still serve
as an important platform for discussing the nuclear stand-off.
--------------------------------------------------------------
ASEAN ministers begin talks
By Takehiko Kajita and Varunee
Torsricharoen
PHNOM PENH, June 16, Kyodo - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) started two days of foreign ministerial talks Monday that are expected
to be dominated by North Korean issues and the fight against terrorism.
Myanmar's latest crackdown on the democracy movement led by Nobel peace
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is also to be addressed, but not very deeply, in
accordance with the ASEAN policy of not interfering in members' internal
affairs.
The gathering Monday and Tuesday will be followed by a meeting
of the ASEAN foreign ministers and their counterparts from Japan, South Korea
and China on Tuesday, talks of the security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)
on Wednesday, and a meeting of the 10-member ASEAN and its dialogue partners
outside the region Thursday.
''Our meeting will be addressing a number
of developments unfolding in the world that have critical implications for the
long-term security of our region and of the world and for the economies of our
countries and the well-being of our people,'' Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor
Namhong said in welcoming remarks.
''We will be looking at ways of
mitigating the adverse impact of these events on the people immediately
affected, our own people, the security and stability of our region, and the
prospects of peace in the world,'' he said.
After the talks, the ASEAN
ministers will issue a joint communique in which they are expected to call for
the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations
between the parties concerned.
On other political issues, the ministers
are expected to discuss global terrorism, along with such issues as
reconstruction of Iraq and the situation in the Middle East.
Although
the draft agenda has no mention of it, the ASEAN ministers are also considering
including a reference to Myanmar's crackdown on the pro-democracy movement,
ASEAN sources said.
But due to its policy of noninterference, ASEAN will
use mild language, only noting the ruling military junta's ''efforts for
national reconciliation and the transition to democracy,'' according to the
sources.
ARF, the prime multilateral forum on security issues in the
Asia-Pacific region, is expected to use more forthright language about Myanmar's
generals, they said.
As for economic matters, the ministers will restate
their determination to set up an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2020, a
project to turn ASEAN into a single market free of tariffs and restrictions, the
sources said.
ASEAN foreign ministers received presentations on the
region's competitiveness study conducted by business consultant McKinsey &
Co. and they discussed Singapore's initiative to realize an AEC by 2020, Thai
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told reporters at the end of the morning
session.
''I think we should have political will to support it,'' said
Surakiart in reference to recommendations by the consultants.
''There
are some areas that most of the countries can participate in such as tourism.
Whether the new or old members will get benefits, it is very much for collective
benefits. We should, in my view, start tourism as priority area moving towards
the end goal of the ASEAN Economic Community,'' Surakiart added.
McKinsey, hired by the ASEAN countries to conduct the study, recommended
''ASEAN countries eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers in goods, remove
non-tariff barriers for services, liberalize regional capital flows with a focus
on microeconomic investment policies and establish greater mobility for skilled
labor in the region,'' an ASEAN official said.
But some ASEAN countries
were not keen on proposals that would oblige them to further economic
liberalization.
''Only Singapore and Thailand have expressed support for
the proposals, emphasizing that political will from members is vital to regional
integration. No other members, except Vietnam, made comments on the
competitiveness report,'' said an ASEAN official attending the meeting.
Vietnam expressed the concern that the proposals might widen the
economic disparities between old and new members, according to the official.
Vietnam asked McKinsey if it could conduct a more specific study for
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam and recommend how to fit their economies in
the new approach to integration, the official added.
High-level economic
officials have been asked by ASEAN economic ministers to consider McKinsey's
recommendations and the AEC initiatives.
They are expected to report the
findings to the ministers in September. ASEAN leaders are also expected to
discuss them during their annual summit in Bali, set for October.
The
ASEAN foreign ministers were expected to continue to discuss the AEC, as well as
the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and Myanmar during their informal session
in the afternoon.
ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The
ARF consists of the 10 ASEAN states along with Australia, Canada, China, the
European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Korea, North Korea,
Papua New Guinea, Russia and the United States.
--------------------------------------------------------------
BBC News - Monday, 16 June, 2003
Burma's 'Black
Friday'
Simon Montlake has visited northern Burma to hear
of the violent events which led to the detention last month of opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi.
Overhung by tamarind trees beside a dusty creek in
northern Burma, the two timber-framed houses were once desirable places to live.
But today they lie empty, haunted by the ghosts of a massacre that took
place on 30 May.
That night, thousands of men armed with sticks, clubs
and rocks attacked a convoy led by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
supporters from her National League for Democracy (NLD).
As many as 70
people may have died in the violence, according to exiled opposition groups, who
blame the attack on the ruling military junta.
Aung San Suu Kyi was
detained that night along with several party colleagues. Many more have since
been put under house arrest or taken into custody.
Two weeks on, the
reverberations from the attack are still being felt both inside and outside
Burma.
For the villagers who live along the one-lane country road where
the ambush occurred, the memories of so-called "Black Friday" are vivid and
troubling.
Some local residents were press-ganged to join the attack,
without being told whom they were lining up to fight.
US diplomats who
travelled to the site of the attack found blood stained clothes and weapons
strewn across the road.
They say the debris corroborates eyewitness
accounts of a planned attack by pro-government thugs against the convoy of Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Opposition groups outside Burma agree.
"This was a vicious, one-sided attack on the democracy movement. It's
one of the biggest political crimes in Burma since 1988," said Soe Aung of the
National Council of the Union of Burma.
Trained
convicts
Eyewitnesses say thousands of men were involved in the
operation, which continued late into the night.
Among them was a group
of 30 or more convicts.
Opposition sources say they were taken from
Mandalay prison and trained at a nearby army camp.
That afternoon, they
were moved into the two houses next to the creek, whose occupants had been sent
packing, and plied with free alcohol.
The attack began soon after
sunset, when Suu Kyi's convoy was trapped at a narrow crossing.
It was a
frenzied, one-sided battle that lasted late into the night.
Now the
convicts have gone and the two houses are empty and shuttered.
Local
residents say the families that lived there before are reluctant to return, at
least until life returns to normal.
Tensions are still running high,
particularly among villagers who were tricked into fighting against a courageous
woman known to Burmese simply as "the Lady".
Security forces have responded
by stepping up patrols to clamp down on any dissent.
In Monywa, the
largest town in the area, an undeclared curfew keeps most people home after 2000
local time.
The cinema, whose Burmese and Indian offerings are
advertised in splashy hand-painted signs, has cancelled evening screenings.
A foreign observer who was in Monywa on the night of the attack
describes the morning-after mood there as "furious but resigned", as word got
around of what had happened.
"There was a feeling of outrage, but then
what are you going to do? I saw very aggressive patrolling by the police. They
were pointing weapons and casting dirty looks at everyone. It was tense. You
couldn't talk to anyone," he said.
'Ready to fight'
Elsewhere in Burma - a formerly prosperous British colony that
has gradually slid into penury during decades of military misrule - reaction
seems muted to the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Given the rough treatment
meted out to "destructive elements" by security forces, public protests carry a
heavy price tag.
It is unclear whether her continued detention could
trigger demonstrations.
Some opposition sources in northern Burma say
monks are prepared to use their moral force against the regime, if "the Lady" is
not released unharmed.
Others warn, however, that soldiers fired on
monks during the 1988 uprising and would be ready to do so again.
"We're
ready to fight with our fists, but we can't fight against the guns," an
opposition politician told the foreign observer in Monywa.
But for most
ordinary people in Burma, the hardships of daily life prevail over politics.
Annual inflation is estimated at 60%, and incomes are falling behind.
Even middle-class households are feeling the pinch, after a banking
crisis earlier this year led to limits on cash withdrawals.
An artisan
in Mandalay said his family could no longer afford to give a full meal to the
monks who collect morning alms.
Instead, he said, they dole out only
rice without curry or vegetables, when monks pass by in the morning.
"Even the rice is expensive, so we are struggling every day," he said.
For the Burmese frustrated with life under the regime, the latest
crackdown is a heavy blow, after talks began two years ago promised progress
towards national reconciliation.
"The talks gave hope to the people of a
change. Now the regime has attacked the NLD and suddenly the door to change is
closed. Where is the hope?" asked Zaw Moe Kyaw, an exiled member of the banned
Democratic Party for a New Society.
--------------------------------------------------------------
VOA News
Controversy Over Future of Burmese
Refugees in Thailand
Nancy-Amelia
Collins
Bangkok
16 Jun 2003, 06:18
UTC
Thailand is currently hosting one of the largest refugee
populations in Asia, with nearly a quarter million displaced Burmese. About half
are languishing in camps along the Thai-Burmese border, while the other half
work illegally in poorly paid jobs around the country. The Thai government wants
these people repatriated, but the United Nations and rights groups say it is too
dangerous for the Burmese to return home.
Wave upon wave of Burmese have
fled fighting and oppression during the more than four decades their country has
been ruled by one military dictatorship after another.
The majority of
the refugees are ethnic minorities, who comprise around 40 percent of Burma's
population. Many are forced to flee the military government's heavy-handed
tactics used to quell decades-long rebellions by ethnic minorities seeking
autonomy or independence.
Year after year international bodies and human
rights groups cite Burma for a host of abuses detailed in a litany of reports.
They include summary executions, rape as a tool of war, the use of child
soldiers, forced labor, and forced relocations.
But when Burmese flee to
Thailand, they generally continue to live precarious and often dangerous lives
in refugee camps for years.
Sunai Phasuk, of the human rights group Asia
Forum in Bangkok, says the rule of law in the camps is virtually non-existent.
"The authorities will try not to exercise the rule of law over the camp, so it
is almost a kind of "Wild West" area in the camp, so it is another set of rules,
sometimes it involves torture, it involves beatings to render justice," he says.
Mr. Sunai says Thailand, which has never signed the 1951 U.N. Refugee
Convention, considers the Burmese to be illegal aliens and non-citizens, not
refugees.
Although abuses against the Burmese in the camps have received
wide publicity during the last two years, Mr. Sunai says more needs to be done.
"We have seen a mixed signal during the past two years that increasingly there
has been much exposure of abuses, including those committed by Thai officials
against refugees, either in the camps or outside the camps," he says. "At the
same time, the other side of the coin is that despite the greater awareness of
the public of the abuses, there have been almost no prosecution of the
perpetrators of those abuses at all."
The U.N. High Commission for
Refugees, or UNHCR, is less critical of Thailand, saying the government's
policies are in keeping with accepted conventions - including providing refugees
with shelter, medical care, and education.
Kirsten Young, a UNHCR
spokesperson in Bangkok, says the main issue is that the situation in Thailand
persists, so that refugees are neither repatriated to Burma, also known as
Myanmar, or allowed to start new lives. "UNHCR's main concern with the Burmese
refugees is that the situation has been a very protracted one. Most refugees
have been in the camps on average for around 15 or 16 years. We're very
concerned about the fact that there doesn't seem to be any early solutions in
sight for the refugees."
But business tycoon-turned-prime minister,
Thaksin Shinawatra, says his government is working to help the refugees return
safely. Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow. "So the discussions
with the Myanmar authorities, the Myanmar government, is on-going, so we hope
that eventually we can come to some kind of agreement that would permit the
orderly and safe repatriation of these displaced persons from Myanmar," he says.
The UNHCR's Kirsten Young is doubtful this will be successful anytime
soon, since Burma needs to make major changes. "In terms of the conditions
inside their country of origin, the basic standard for return would mean that
they could return under conditions of safety, security, and dignity. That means
that there would be respect for their basic human rights on return. And at
present those conditions don't exist in Myanmar," she says.
Most rights
groups agree that without drastic political changes in military-ruled Burma,
there can be no safe repatriation. And despite the Thai government's desire to
send the refugees home, officials may have to begin looking at other means to
address the plight of a quarter of a million Burmese with no place to call
home.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Utusan Malaysia online - June 16,
2003
ASEAN's interest to have clear date on Suu Kyi's release - Syed
Hamid
PHNOM PENH June 15 - Foreign Minister Datuk Seri
Syed Hamid Albar told his Myanmar counterpart U Win Aung here Sunday that it
will be in ASEAN's interest if there is a clear date for the release of detained
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
He met Win Aung before the 36th
ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, which starts Monday.
Syed Hamid said Win Aung
assured him that Yangon would speedily investigate the fracas that led to Suu
Kyi being held under protective custody on May 30.
"It will be good if there is a clear end date to the current situation. He
gave his reassurance that they are interested (in releasing Suu Kyi) as we are,"
he told Malaysian journalists.
Syed Hamid said Win Aung reiterated that
Suu Kyi would be released as soon as possible.
He said Yangon was not
against the reconciliation process and the current situation was only a
temporary measure to enable them to look at the various issues and problems to
guarantee security and stability in Myanmar.
"They do not expect the
reconciliation process between the two parties (between Myanmar government and
the opposition) to derail or stop forever. So, this is something that is
temporary," he said.
He said Yangon would carry out an intensive
investigation and advise ASEAN member countries on the latest development on the
situation as Suu Kyi's detention could have an adverse impact on neighbouring
countries.
Syed Hamid said the situation in Yangon was a concern to
ASEAN members as it would jeopardise the peace, security and have an impact on
the region.
As such, there was a need for ASEAN to be able to explain
the situation in Myanmar in a very credible manner so that the regional
grouping's reputation and image would not be questioned in any way, he said.
He, however, noted that Myanmar should not be sidelined or marginalised
by the international community in international affairs, but should instead be
brought to the mainstream.
"On our part, we've done everything possible
not to marginalise or sideline Myanmar in the international community," he said.
Syed Hamid said Win Aung expressed his appreciation to Malaysia for its
support and understanding of the country's domestic issues.
"We had a
frank and sincere discussion on the subject and I think it is important for
Malaysia to continue supporting Myanmar, which we have been doing since the
country joined ASEAN," he added. - Bernama
--------------------------------------------------------------
The New York Times
Showdown for a
Tool in Human Rights Lawsuits
By ALEX
MARKELS
June 15, 2003
IN a watershed case that
could affect how multinationals do business in developing countries, a federal
appeals court will consider on Tuesday whether the energy giant Unocal should
stand trial in connection with human rights abuses that the government of
Myanmar is accused of inflicting on villagers during construction of a
natural-gas pipeline.
The crucial question before the unusually large
panel of 11 judges is whether to apply international legal standards that hold
parties responsible for aiding and abetting human rights abuses. The case is in
the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San
Francisco.
The plaintiffs are a group of villagers from Tenasserim, a
region in southeastern Myanmar, the country once known as Burma. They say Unocal
paid the military to provide security for the project and supported the
government, which forced villagers to help build the $1.2 billion pipeline in
the 1990's and threatened those who refused with rape and other atrocities.
Unocal denies the accusations.
If the court allows the civil suit to go to a
jury trial, "this will raise the stakes for multinationals that do business with
repressive regimes," said William S. Dodge, an international law professor at
the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. "There are plenty of
repressive regimes around the world, and there are plenty of multinationals that
do business with them. The question is, how far can a corporation like Unocal go
in cooperating with such a regime before the company bears some legal
responsibility?"
THE case is among a growing number based on the
once-obscure Alien Tort Claims Act, a 1789 law originally intended to help
prosecute international pirates in American courts. Since the early 1980's, it
has been used to argue cases successfully against foreign military and police
personnel accused of human rights abuses. More recently, human rights and labor
groups have seized on it to do battle with oil, mining and other multinational
companies that work with governments that they say engage in torture, genocide
and similar violations of international law.
There have been more than a
dozen alien tort cases filed against companies since the mid-1990's, but none
have so far gone to a jury trial. Some have been dismissed on procedural
grounds, while others are pending. The possibility of trials has raised concerns
among both corporations and the Bush administration over potentially
embarrassing testimony ? and worry that a verdict could set a precedent that
encourages thousands of foreign plaintiffs to seek damages for crimes committed
by their own governments.
"You get a perfect storm of sympathetic plaintiffs,
trial lawyers and anti-globalization activists working together to bring these
suits," said William A. Reinsch, the president of the National Foreign Trade
Council, an industry group based in Washington. He cites cases like one recently
filed against dozens of companies that did business in South Africa under
apartheid. "It could be disastrous for global trade," he added.
Though there
has not been a single verdict against them, companies are feeling the impact of
the litigation, which they must increasingly factor into investment
decisions.
"It's causing companies to run away from situations like Burma,"
said Errol P. Mendes, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and recently a
co-author of "Global Governance, Economy and Law" (Taylor & Francis), which
details the impact of such lawsuits on multinational companies.
He and others
point to a variety of recent corporate decisions to demur or pull back from
projects in countries where governments have been accused of human-rights
abuses, including Nigeria, Indonesia and Sudan, as well as Myanmar.
Although
Unocal, based in El Segundo, Calif., continues to do business in Myanmar, "this
has created a great deal of uncertainty about future investing," said Charles O.
Strathman, its vice president and chief legal officer. "It's not just the legal
fees involved; it's also very disruptive and a big time commitment."
The
negative publicity from such cases may be even more costly. Social-justice and
environmental groups see the Unocal case as an example of globalization gone
bad, inspiring protests on college campuses and campaigns to pressure school
administrators to sell Unocal stock.
"Whether these
companies prevail in a court of law, they are already losing in the court of
public opinion," Professor Mendes said. "Just the launching of these lawsuits
has a huge impact on companies' brand equity, which these days is their most
important asset."
The suits are just one way to try to bring pressure on
companies. In resolutions being put before corporate directors, shareholders are
calling for companies to pull out of projects implicated in human-rights
lawsuits. For example, after a shareholder resolution and negative publicity
from a pending human-rights lawsuit, Talisman Energy in March sold its $770
million stake in an oil development project in Sudan. It had been accused of
assisting Sudanese forces in an ethnic cleansing campaign against villagers near
its oil fields.
Advertisement
"There was shareholder fatigue" in the
investment, said David W. Mann, a senior manager for investor relations at
Talisman, which is based in Calgary, Alberta, and listed on the New York Stock
Exchange. He denied the suit's accusations.
Although a lawsuit
filed against ChevronTexaco by villagers in Ecuador was dismissed last year by a
federal judge, the company decided to end its oil development there last fall.
The case is now scheduled to be heard in an Ecuadorian court. Various factors
led to the decision to leave Ecuador, but the litigation "was not a positive
indicator to say this is a place we want to continue to do business," said
Edward B. Scott, vice president and general counsel for the company's overseas
division. The threat of similar litigation, he said, "adds a further element of
risk and makes us less competitive."
SECURITY experts regard such
statements as signs that multinational companies based in the United States are
increasingly worried about their liability for acts committed by host
governments, which have long provided security and other services for their oil,
mining and other projects.
While corporate
officials emphatically defend their human-rights records overseas, "business
leaders are getting very nervous about these lawsuits," said Catherine J. Boggs,
a lawyer at Baker & McKensie in Chicago, who advises companies about
security arrangements with local governments. "Some think the best way to deal
with them is to try to repeal the law altogether, or at least modify
it."
To
that end, pro-trade groups and the Justice Department filed briefs in May in the
Unocal case, arguing that the alien tort statute had been misapplied by
plaintiffs and that such lawsuits could undermine American business interests
and the war or terrorism. The lawsuit bears "serious implications for our
current war against terrorism" and permits similar claims to be easily asserted
against allies in that war, an assistant attorney general, Robert D. McCallum,
wrote in the government's brief.
Despite increased
pressure on judges to support the antiterrorism effort, legal experts say it is
unlikely that the court will move to invalidate use of the alien tort statute in
the Unocal case. Yet even if it advances to a jury trial, it may be difficult to
prove that Unocal actively participated in abuse by Myanmar. "It's not to say
that these acts weren't horrible, but the aiding and abetting by Unocal is not
obvious," said Anthony J. Sebok, a professor at the Brooklyn Law School who
specializes in tort law. "These are difficult allegations to prove because they
have to show that Unocal knew precisely how its aid was being used to commit
human rights abuses."
Yet
company officials worry that the aiding-and-abetting standard, which can include
"knowing practical assistance, encouragement or moral support" to the
perpetrator of the abuse, is so broad that practically any involvement with the
government of Myanmar could be misconstrued as complicity. "The investment
itself could be considered moral support or assistance," said M. Randall
Oppenheimer, a lawyer at O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, who represents
Unocal in the case. "It seems fundamentally unfair to hold people liable for a
situation that they don't control."
The
plaintiffs argue, however, that Unocal was well aware of the military's poor
human rights record in Myanmar and should have known that its security forces
would engage in brutal practices, like forcing villagers who lived in the path
of the pipeline not only to relocate, but to help build it. Their lawyers cite a
1992 report by consultants who advised the company on the risks of doing
business with the government of Myanmar. The report warned that the military
"habitually uses forced labor to construct roads."
A
lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, Katharine J. Redford of EarthRights
International in Washington, said: "Their own consultants told them they could
be implicated as a willing partner in the abuse. That's exactly our
allegation."
EVEN if the suit fails to prove that such actions amounted
to aiding and abetting Myanmar's military, legal experts say that potentially
embarrassing evidence made public during a jury trial could embolden potential
plaintiffs in other cases to come forward. "It's similar to what happened with
tobacco," Professor Sebok said. "The very fact that they were able to see the
corporate files raises the threat value, so the next time around there would be
greater willingness to settle at some price."
While companies
aggressively fight both the lawsuits and the statute on which they are based,
many have also endorsed documents like the State Department's Voluntary
Principles on Human Rights and Security. It outlines ways to ensure security for
corporate operations and to prevent abuse ? to add human rights clauses to
contracts with security firms, for example.
Some
have also begun to work with organizations outside government. Executives at the
Royal Dutch/Shell Group are working with members of Human Rights Watch, based in
New York, to improve the human rights situation in Nigeria, where the company
has been accused of assisting in abuses against members of a local opposition
group. And Unocal has met with representatives of Amnesty International and
recently allowed observers from the Collaborative for Development Action, an
independent consulting group based in Boston, to visit the Myanmar pipeline and
study its impact on the local people.
"It's a very cynical
strategy," said Arvind Ganesan, director of the business and human rights
program at Human Rights Watch, "because you end up with companies' trying to do
the right thing, but also trying to ensure that there's no consequences for
doing the wrong thing."
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Daily Yomiuri
EDITORIAL / Yangon
must free Suu Kyi
June 16, 2003.
The situation in
Myanmar has become turbulent as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is still
being held in detention by the military junta.
Myanmar's military
leaders had earlier said that her detention would be temporary, but they
remained tight-lipped about her release when they met a special U.N. envoy early
this month.
If Yangon wishes to promote democracy through dialogue, its
first step must be to release her immediately.
The junta says Suu Kyi
was taken into "protective custody" following a bloody clash between her
followers and projunta supporters while she was making a tour of the north of
the country. A number of people were reportedly killed or injured during the
clash.
But the U.S. government, citing its own on-the-spot
investigation, said the clash was in fact a premeditated ambush by projunta
supporters.
The junta has also detained about 20 senior members of the
National League for Democracy--which Suu Kyi heads--and shut down NLD offices.
Given these developments, one can only conclude that the junta has launched a
crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar.
End to house
release hollow sham
Suu Kyi was held under house arrest for 19
months. Upon her release in May 2002, she said she wanted to enter into
substantial talks with the junta about political issues, such as a transition to
civilian rule. At that time, the international community became optimistic about
the possibility of dialogue in Myanmar developing into a peaceful settlement.
But the junta's real goal in freeing Suu Kyi was to entice Europe and
the United States to lift the sanctions they had placed on Myanmar.
For
the past several years, Myanmar has been in an economic plight. Prices and
unemployment have been on the rise, while foreign direct investment has been on
the decline. As a result, the country has been suffering an acute shortage of
foreign currency.
To cure its fiscal ills, Myanmar has been seeking not
only the lifting of economic sanctions but also renewed economic assistance and
investment from abroad.
But the sanctions remain in place despite the
junta's expectations. Furthermore, Suu Kyi remains so popular among the people
of Myanmar that the junta apparently has come to the conclusion that her
presence is a threat to the military rulers.
To date, meaningful
dialogue between the junta and pro-democracy groups has yet to take place.
ASEAN pressure also needed
Unlike Western
countries, Japan has continued to maintain contact with the junta by providing
Myanmar with humanitarian assistance and by encouraging the junta to adopt
pro-democracy policies. As part of Japan's active involvement with Myanmar,
Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi visited the country in August, the first
Japanese foreign minister to do so in 19 years.
Europe, the United
States and Japan are all demanding that Suu Kyi be freed immediately. In
addition, Washington is moving to intensify its sanctions against Myanmar.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations--which includes Myanmar among
its members--has a principle of noninterference with the internal affairs of
member countries. Nevertheless, ASEAN should also press Myanmar to release Suu
Kyi.
The junta has been holding the reins of government for nearly 15
years--despite its earlier pledge that military rule would be a temporary
measure.
It is time that Myanmar finally frees Suu Kyi once and for all.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 16)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Newsday
Keep Pressure on Burma to Release Political
Prisoner
June 16, 2003
The brutal military junta
ruling Myanmar, also known as Burma, is once again resorting to force to
suppress the pro-democracy movement led by 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi. After the junta instigated thugs to ambush her motorcade, Suu
Kyi was put under house arrest once again.
The United States is now
putting the military regime on notice that, unless it releases Suu Kyi
immediately, it faces the likelihood of punishing economic and diplomatic
sanctions.
Secretary of State Colin Powell is seeking the help of other
Southeast Asian nations to pressure Myanmar to comply. And legislation pending
in Congress would impose stringent sanctions on imports from Myanmar and freeze
assets in this country of Burmese military leaders.
The Association of
Southeast Asian Nations has been reluctant in the past to take action against
the internal affairs of its neighbors. And sanctions have drawbacks: They may
violate world-trade rules; they often are ineffective if imposed by only one
nation, and - when they do bite - the pain is felt by the innocent workers who
make the sanctioned goods.
Still, the various moral and economic threats
should get the junta's attention, combined with previous actions - such as a ban
on travel in the United States by Myanmar leaders and the United Nations'
demands for Suu Kyi's release.
Suu Kyi has struggled for 15 years to
bring democracy to Burma. After her party's landslide victory in the 1990
elections, she was prevented from taking office by the military. She has been
under house arrest for much of the time since, until being freed a year ago.
Now, threatened by the political gains her organization has made since, the
junta has cracked down on the democracy movement again.
A Myanmar
foreign ministry official hinted to the Japanese press Friday that Suu Kyi could
be released this month. Whether that statement should be considered reliable is
uncertain, but it suggests international pressure is having effect. It's time to
tighten the screws.
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Asia Times - Jun 17, 2003
Hitting
Yangon where it counts
By Marwaan
Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - By moving to impose the toughest
sanctions on Myanmar so far of any Western country, the US Congress may finally
give the junta an overdue lesson on the economic pain such punitive measures can
bring.
The prospect of this lesson in the offing has not been lost on
Myanmese exiles in Thailand and groups seeking an end to Yangon's military
dictatorship.
They are also banking on the fact that Myanmar's rulers
are not taking the political invective flowing out of Washington - including
measures in Congress to bar the entry of Myanmese goods - to mean it can be
business as usual.
"The effort by the United States on the military
government is what is needed. The sanctions are tougher than the past efforts,"
said Zinn Linn of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, the
government-in-exile set up after the 1990 parliamentary elections whose results
were ignored by Yangon.
The measures sought by the US Congress "will
cause a stir because the language is so strong", said Debbie Stothard of the
Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN), a regional group lobbying for
human rights and democracy in Myanmar, officially known as Burma until the junta
changed its name in 1989. "It will revive our faith that sanctions can produce
change, as it did in South Africa during apartheid," she said.
The
leaders of the junta, too, are now conscious of what awaits them after their
crackdown on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters, said Aung
Zaw, editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine on Myanmese affairs published in
northern Thailand. "That comes out in what has been said before and after the
May 30 incident."
On May 30, the military regime triggered global
outrage after Suu Kyi and members of her party, the National League for
Democracy (NLD), were attacked by individuals linked to the junta while they
were visiting supporters in a town north of Yangon.
Although the junta
maintained that four people died in the clashes and 50 were injured,
human-rights groups believe that more than 70 people were killed and more than
100 NLD members were injured or are missing. Noble laureate Suu Kyi and 18 NLD
officials were subsequently whisked away by the junta and are being kept in
"protective custody".
"Before May 30, the military leaders were saying
that sanctions were an imaginary fear, but after the clashes the message coming
out hints of a genuine fear of what can happen," said Aung Zaw. "The generals
are concerned, because sanctions are one way to cut the lifeline of the regime."
According to Zinn Linn, the leaders of the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), as the military government is known, have even been making
public statements about a "neo-colonialist effort to crush us through
sanctions".
The sanctions being put in place by the US Congress,
especially the ban on imports from Myanmar, will hit Yangon where it counts
most, because the United States is the principal market for Myanmese-made goods,
according to a report on the impact of sanctions being prepared by ALTSEAN.
In 2001, Myanmar shipped US$456 million worth of goods to US markets, up
from $443 million in 2000, reveals the report due to be published next month.
The European Union, which has been a consistent second after the US market from
1995-2001, imported $404 million worth of goods from Myanmar in 2001.
Between 1995 and 2001, Myanmese exports to the United States, the
European Union, Australia and Canada increased by an average of 435 percent, the
report states. "While the SPDC is making concerned efforts to develop trade
regionally, it would be difficult at best to replace these major markets," it
says.
"This [US ban] is serious, because no one else has banned imports
from Burma," said Stothard. "It will drastically reduced the flow of US dollars,
which the SPDC needs."
Congress is also pushing for a freeze of assets
in the United States belonging to the regime and its leaders, and for Washington
to oppose any loans to Myanmar from international financial institutions such as
the World Bank.
These sweeping measures were never the case in the past,
when Western governments talked about the threat of sanctions or imposed "tough
measures" to bring about political change in Myanmar.
Even when
Washington banned on new US investments in Myanmar in 1997, the prospect of
Yangon crippling under the economic strain was not amply evident. "A lot of US
companies managed to bypass the 1997 law, although campaigns in the US by groups
like the Free Burma Coalition have led to some companies pulling out of Burma,"
said Stothard.
But the tough US moves may well make it easier for other
Western governments to take more action against Myanmar, or at least put the
spotlight on the economic ties that other Western nations have with Yangon.
For instance, Britain has spoken out against the military regime, but
has not put the brakes on its investments in Myanmar. By 2000 the United Kingdom
had close to $1.4 billion worth of investments in the country, according to
ALTSEAN's findings.
"The common perception that Asian countries are the
largest investors in Burma is a misconception," states the ALTSEAN report.
"During the 1990-2000 period Western countries disbursed more than 80 percent of
investments that they committed, accounting for about 65 percent of actual FDI"
(foreign direct investments).
Countries such as the UK argued that
greater economic clout provided opportunities to work from within to elicit
change. Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbors, too, opted for "constructive
engagement" to nudge the junta toward openness.
But in the wake of the
US Congress moves, it may soon prove embarrassing to be seen cuddling with
Myanmar's strongmen for the sake of profits and talking the language of
democracy at the same time.
(Inter Press Service)
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Asia Times - Jun 17, 2003
ANALYSIS -
India and China: Neighborhood problems
By Rahul Bedi
NEW DELHI - China's
deliberate delay in announcing Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's
visit to Beijing, until barely a week before his departure next Sunday, appears
to be a shrewd tactical move by a "dormant enemy" to weaken Delhi's negotiating
position on a range of outstanding territorial, security and diplomatic
issues.
Vajpayee's will be the first visit to China by an Indian prime
minister in a decade.
Repeated pronouncements by senior Indian leaders
on Vajpayee's impending trip to China, without any formal announcement on the
exact schedule by his hosts, signaled to Beijing that Delhi was desperate for a
summit at a time when the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus had
besieged the region and visits to the area were seriously curtailed.
Even after meeting Vajpayee at St Petersburg this month, Chinese
President Hu Jintao declared that the Indian premier's visit would take place
"within the year".
Diplomats admitted that this had considerably
dampened the Hindu nationalist government's enthusiasm over Vajpayee's China
visit, besides conceding tactical advantage to a "patient" and "confident"
adversary.
"China's diplomatic price for a visit could go up, since
India was publicly committed to it and would lose face if it did not happen,"
China analyst Harvey Stockwin declared. China also strengthened its negotiating
position by never publicly committing itself to the June visit, he added.
Security officers in Delhi said that in dealing with the Middle
Kingdom's leadership - which prefers subtle nuances, gestures and a combination
of "smoke and mirrors" as negotiating tools - India has made a tactical blunder
by indicating through numerous reports what concessions it is seeking from
Beijing.
"Delhi's announcements have been greeted with characteristic
silence by Beijing, showing up India's political and diplomatic naivete in
dealing with a seasoned leadership," a senior diplomat said, declining to be
identified.
Besides territorial issues that remain unresolved after the
1962 Sino-Indian war and demarcating the disputed 4,056-kilometer frontier
between them, such issues as Bejing's military and nuclear relationship with
Pakistan are to feature prominently in discussions between Vajpayee and senior
Chinese leaders, officials said.
Increased US presence across Asia and
the military alliances between close Indian ally Russia and oil-rich Central
Asian Republics bordering China will also be debated.
"For the old
apparatchiks who constitute the new leadership in Beijing, Vajpayee's visit to
China is an opportunity to further Chinese interests," declared security analyst
and former Indian National Security Advisory Board member Brahma Chellaey.
If anything, the Chinese are providing valuable training to Indians on
how to talk peace but aggressively pursue national interests.
India's
recently released annual Defense Ministry report cautions against ignoring the
fact "that every major Indian city is within reach of Chinese missiles and this
capability is being further augmented to include submarine-launched ballistic
missiles".
This "asymmetry" (in nuclear weapons) is likely to be further
accentuated as China responds to Washington's national missile defense program,
it states. China's defense relationship with Pakistan takes a particular edge in
view of the latter's known belligerence and hostility to India and its
acquisition to nuclear assets, the report adds.
After 22 years of border
negotiations, India is the only country with which China has not settled its
land frontiers or even defined a line of control.
So far, it has only
exchanged maps on the largely undisputed "middle sector" covering the border
with the contiguous hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal with
Chinese-administered Tibet, but not the more controversial eastern and western
sectors, the resolution of which would impinge negatively on Chinese strategic
interests.
Alongside Chinese military activity in Tibet, Nepal and
Myanmar, directed at India, Beijing's "expansionist naval ambitions" in the
Indian Ocean are greatly worrying Delhi.
India's chief of naval staff,
Madhavendra Singh, recently expressed "concern" about the Chinese navy's "close
interaction" with Indian Ocean states such as Myanmar. In an interview with the
British-based Jane's Defence Weekly, he said China - which allocates 33 percent
of its defense outlay on the navy - is helping Myanmar modernize its naval bases
that can support Chinese submarine operations in the region.
Singh said
the Indian navy was also "closely monitoring" Chinese activity in developing
Gwadar port on close military ally Pakistan's Makran coast, a move that could
seriously endanger vital shipping routes in the Persian Gulf, crucial to India's
trade and petroleum needs.
Security officers said China is helping
Myanmar modernize naval bases at Hainggyi, the Coco Islands, Akyab, Za Det Kyi,
Mergui and Khaukphyu by building radar, refit and refuel facilities.
The
Chinese are also believed to be establishing a signals intelligence (SIGINT)
facility on the Coco Islands, 30 nautical miles from India's Andaman Islands
territory, to monitor its missile tests.
Indian Defense Minister George
Fernandes, who openly supports Myanmese dissidents and hosts many in his
official residence in Delhi, has declared that Hianggyi base to be a joint
Sino-Myanmese naval establishment and that the Coco Islands had been lent to
Beijing.
In a direct reference to China, but without naming it, the
Defense Ministry report declares that "Myanmar remains an area of security
interest for India ... because of the activities of countries working against
India's legitimate security concerns".
Indian concerns also center on
increased Chinese involvement in the annual export to India of Myanmese pulses
and beans, worth about US$300 million. Until recently this trade, vital to
India, was controlled by ethnic Indian traders operating out of Singapore.
Beijing is also lobbying hard for a corridor to the Indian Ocean from
southern China via Myanmar in addition to the established route via the Malacca
Straits. China has already constructed a highway from Kunming, capital of its
Yunnan province, to Shewli on the Myanmese border.
According to a
proposal being reviewed by Myanmar's military junta, Beijing wants to extend
that road link to Sinkham for access to the Irrawaddy River, flowing through to
Yangon and into the Andaman Sea. Once completed, Chinese barges would transport
Chinese goods down the Irrawaddy to Yangon and transfer them on to waiting
Chinese ships.
Yangon is resisting this move, but foreign diplomats said
it is a matter of time before Beijing prevails.
Consequently, after more
than a decade of rhetoric, India has dumped the cause of Myanmese democracy at
the altar of strategic and economic considerations and launched an aggressive
diplomatic and commercial thrust into Yangon to try to blunt China's influence.
Pakistan and China were among the few countries to defy international
opinion and forge close military ties with Yangon's junta in 1988, cleverly
complementing their strategy of encircling India.
"India has long
ignored China and to some extent Pakistan's growing influence with Burma's
military government at its peril. It is now looking to correct this imbalance,"
a senior military official said.
To neutralize China's influence in
Yangon, India was also instrumental in persuading Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka
and Thailand about five years ago to form an economic-cooperation group. But
little of significance has emerged from this coalition.
(Inter Press
Service)
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