AFP
- US lawmakers call for downgrading of diplomatic ties to Myanmar
AFP - Aung
San Suu Kyi's birthday marked with protests
AFP - Myanmar issue fails to fade
away at Southeast Asia meet
Reuters - Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi in Insein Jail, says
UK
Reuters - Two Senators Urge Bush to Expel Myanmar
Ambassador
Reuters - Asia, U.S. unite to try to free Myanmar's Suu
Kyi
Reuters - Asian nations want to move on after Myanmar
row
Reuters - Myanmar silent on Suu Kyi release
Reuters - Another birthday in isolation for Myanmar's Suu
Kyi
Reuters - Canada to Consider Some Sanctions Against
Myanmar
AP
- India urges release of Myanmar's Suu Kyi
CBC
News - Graham warns Myanmar to release Suu Kyi
NBC
News - A dissident?s birthday behind bars
Malaysiakini - Six held for staging demo outside Burmese embassy
Kyodo News - Kawaguchi hints at review of policy toward
Myanmar
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 19, 11:03 AM
US lawmakers call for
downgrading of diplomatic ties to Myanmar
US lawmakers
called for tighter sanctions on Myanmar's military junta to pressure for the
release of opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her
followers.
Two senior US senators called for a downgrade of US diplomatic
relations with Myanmar.
"It's another way of conveying the message that
we consider this a pariah regime that does not deserve even the respect of
having an ambassador here," said Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who
wrote to Secretary of State Colin Powell seeking a cut in Myanmar's diplomatic
status.
"Diplomatic relations with Burma (Myanmar) should be downgraded
by sending Burma's ambassador in Washington back to Rangoon (Yangon) until such
a time that Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners are freed," he
said.
McConnell is one of the sponsors of The Burmese Freedom and
Democracy Act, approved by the Senate last week to impose sanctions on
Yangon.
California Democrat Dianne Feinstein said McConnell's proposal
was necessary because the country's military regime had not responded to
dialogue or other forms of engagement.
"My view is that it hasn't
worked," she said. "There have been talks but there's been no
action."
The two senators made their appeal as Powell urged a meeting of
the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Cambodian capital
Phnom Penh to step up pressure for Aung San Suu Kyi's release.
Mynmar's
junta has said it placed her in "protective custody" after May 30 clashes that
broke out on a political tour in the north of the country.
Dissident
groups have said dozens were killed when Suu Kyi supporters were attacked by
hundreds of what the US State Department has described as "government-affiliated
thugs."
Meanwhile, the Council of Foreign Relations, a non-partisan US
think tank, issued a scathing report on Myanmar's crackdown on democracy
activists and urged Washington to pressure the UN Security Council to hold an
emergency session on recent events there.
"This report will trigger the
first serious debate in years about what America believes it stands for in Burma
and around the world," council president Leslie Gelb said in a
statement.
The United States and the European Union have already
increased sanctions against the regime in light of the new crackdown. Japan,
Myanmar's biggest aid donor, has threatened to withdraw its economic
assistance.
At a Senate committee hearing late Wednesday, Senator Sam
Brownback agreed that the time has come to ramp up the pressure on the country's
junta.
"Engagement with the regime, whether or not it was bearing fruit,
has failed," said the Kansas Republican who chairs the subcommittee on East
Asian and Pacific Affairs.
A similar sanctions bill against Myanmar was
expected to make its way to the floor of the House of Representatives in the
coming days.
At the same hearing, Assistant Secretary of State Lorne
Craner noted Aung San Suu Kyi will likely spend her 58th birthday on Thursday in
detention, calling her detention one in a litany of abuses.
"The junta
suppresses political dissent by censorship, persecution, beatings,
disappearances and imprisonment," Craner said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 19, 8:54 PM
Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday
marked with protests
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi's 58th birthday was marked with protests instead of celebrations as
democracy campaigners called for her release from custody.
As part of a
worldwide series of demonstrations planned Thursday in more than a dozen cities,
protesters gathered at the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok and the missions of China
and India which have close ties to the Yangon regime.
A candle-light
vigil was also being organised in Chiang Mai, the northern city which has become
a focus for dissident Myanmar city border forced into exile across the border
into Thailand.
Chiang Mai protest organiser Zaw Zaw Tun said Aung San Suu
Kyi's birthday was usually marked by low-profile but joyful
ceremonies.
"But we have changed our plan this year from a celebration
into this kind of protest because of the recent crackdown against the National
League for Democracy and the detention of its leaders," he told AFP.
Aung
San Suu Kyi was taken into "protective custody" after May 30 clashes which broke
out during a political a tour of northern Myanmar, when her supporters were
attacked by hundreds of members of a pro-junta organisation.
The ruling
generals cracked down on her opposition party, the National League for Democracy
(NLD) and put its leadership under house arrest. An unknown number of NLD
supporters have also been thrown in jail.
In Bangkok, about 100
protesters gathered outside the Myanmar embassy, chanting pro-democracy slogans
and cutting a birthday cake in honour of Aung San Suu Kyi.
But in Yangon,
with the NLD leadership confined to their homes or behind bars, there were no
official birthday events. Instead, democracy supporters marked the anniversary
with private ceremonies.
"They are separately offering food alms at their
respective homes and visiting prominent Budhhist shrines like the 'Shwedagon' to
offer flowers and prayers for her well-being and speedy release," an NLD member
told AFP.
Although rumours of her imminent release continue to sweep
around the capital, the regime appears to be in no hurry to move the democracy
campaigner from the undisclosed location where she is being held.
With
the onset of the rainy season, a shelter for security personnel has been built
at one of the homes of the NLD leaders, indicating that they will not be freed
quickly.
Myanmar's political turmoil has dominated debate at a regional
security meeting in Cambodia, but despite the intense pressure Foreign Minister
Win Aung refused Thursday to reveal any plans to release Aung San Suu
Kyi.
"I'm going to take back home with me all of the points of view and
the concerns raised by our colleagues at the (ASEAN Regional Forum) meeting and
we will be discussing these points of view," he said.
He brushed off US
Secretary of State Colin Powell Powell's labelling of the regime as
"brutal".
"We are not a brutal people. We have loving kindness for
everybody... We are not a heartless people," he said.
Australian Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer told reporters the Nobel peace laureate should have
already been released.
"Whether it's her birthday or not is not the
issue. She should be released. If she has her birthday, I hope she has a happy
birthday."
The Washington-based Free Burma Coalition said demonstrations
calling for Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom and for regime change in Myanmar were
planned in over a dozen cities in six countries.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 19, 9:21 PM
Myanmar issue fails to fade
away at Southeast Asia meet
PHNOM PENH (AFP) -Myanmar's opposition crackdown hogged the
limelight of a meeting between Southeast Asia and its 10 key trading partners
despite attempts by the region to move on from the raging issue.
Foreign
ministers from the 10-member ASEAN gathered Thursday on the final day of their
week-long meeting in the Cambodian capital with their dialogue partners
Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, New
Zealand and the United States.
On the agenda were transnational security
issues, development and trade.
But the issue of military-ruled Myanmar's
detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- who marked her 58th birthday
Thursday -- was not abandoned by an outraged international
community.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out against Myanmar
during a courtesy call by non-ASEAN foreign ministers who attended the ARF,
according to his chief of cabinet Sok An.
"The prime minister said that
if he was involved with that situation (in Myanmar) personally, he would not
only release her (Aung San Suu Kyi) unharmed but would conduct free and fair
elections (in that country)," he told reporters.
The statement
represented another ASEAN breaking of ranks against Myanmar.
After their
annual talks here early this week the grouping's foreign ministers made a
landmark call for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, severing decades of traditional
non-interference in members internal affairs.
The opposition leader was
arrested late last month along with members of her National League for Democracy
(NLD) party after her supporters were brutally attacked by a junta-backed mob
numbering in the hundreds.
On the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting here,
North Korea blasted Asia-Pacific's top security forum, the ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF), accusing it of interfering in its internal affairs following "despicable"
lobbying by the United States.
An ARF statement, released after its
meeting Wednesday, had mildly appealed to Pyongyang "to resume cooperation with
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to reverse its decision to
withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)."
The North Korean
delegation charged that the statement was "disregarding the essence of the
nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula and openly interfering in the internal
affairs of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)".
At the
final day of the ASEAN meetings Thursday, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong
pleaded for the discussion to move on from the Myanmar and North Korea's nuclear
issues to economic, financial, trade, environment, health and crime
issues.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung himself called a press
conference after being doggedly pursued by international media on the issue all
week.
He acknowledged the outpouring of protests against his
government.
"I listened to them very, very carefully and I noted them
very, very carefully," he said, adding that he would carry back expressions of
concern to Myanmar and "we will be discussing this point of view."
On
Aung San Suu Kyi's release he answered cryptically: "You might wonder if I have
the answer right now, but maybe the answer is not clear yet."
But issues
did expand beyond Myanmar.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told
ministers at the start of the meeting Thursday that Washington, along with
Israel and the Palestinians, were "pressing forward with the security
arrangements for Gaza," a US State Department official told
reporters.
The official said the situation in Iraq and counter-terrorism
cooperation were also discussed.
The so-called ASEAN Post Ministerial
Conference (PMC) Thursday wraps up a week of ASEAN-sponsored
meetings.
The PMC was first held in 1977, 10 years after the formation of
ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi in Insein Jail, says
UK
LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi is being held in the ``notorious'' Insein Jail, just outside Yangon,
Britain said on Thursday.
Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien said in a
statement he was trying to contact the jailed opposition leader and said her
detention was ``totally unacceptable.''
--------------------------------------------------------------
Two Senators Urge Bush to Expel Myanmar
Ambassador
Wed Jun 18, 2:08 PM ET
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Two U.S. senators urged
the Bush administration on Wednesday to expel Myanmar's ambassador to the United
States to protest the continued detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.
"It's another way of conveying the message that we consider this a
pariah regime. It does not deserve even the respect of having an ambassador,"
said Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, who has led a drive in
Congress to ban all imports from the Southeast Asian nation.
Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, a California Democrat, also called on the Bush administration to
downgrade relations with Myanmar by sending its ambassador back to Yangon.
The senators spoke at a news conference to unveil a report urging the
Bush administration to seek a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the
Myanmar military government's crackdown on the democratic opposition.
The report from an independent task force sponsored by the Council on
Foreign Relations also urged the Security Council to impose international
sanctions on Myanmar -- including a ban on imports and new foreign investment,
as well as denying visas to leaders of the military regime and freezing their
assets.
Suu Kyi, who has spent years under house arrest, was detained
again on May 30 after clashes between her supporters and a pro-government group.
Dissidents and some diplomats say a group of pro-junta youths, wielding
bamboo and iron rods, set upon Suu Kyi's convoy and local villagers on May 30,
killing at least 70. The government says four people died in the clash.
The U.S. Senate voted 97-1 last week in favor of banning all imports
from Myanmar. The House of Representatives International Relation Committee
approved a similar bill, but it is unclear when the full House will vote on that
measure.
The Bush administration has promised to work with Congress to
create an "appropriate and strong new policy" on Myanmar, which has been
criticized by successive U.S. administrations as a repressive and brutal regime.
McConnell said he expected Bush to sign the import ban bill once the
House and Senate agree on a final package.
"I'd be shocked if he didn't
sign such a bill. I'm confident he will," McConnell said.
At a foreign
ministers meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday with Southeast Asia nations and
China and Russia, Secretary of State Colin Powell said "the only acceptable way
forward" for Myanmar was to release Suu Kyi.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 19, 9:14 PM
UPDATE 2-Asia, U.S. unite to
try to free Myanmar's Suu Kyi
By Ed Cropley
PHNOM PENH, June 19 (Reuters) - Freeing Aung San Suu Kyi created rare
unity at an Asia-Pacific meeting, prompting Myanmar's beleaguered foreign
minister to promise on Thursday that the detention of the pro-democracy icon was
only temporary.
Foreign ministers attending the ASEAN (Association of
South East Asian Nations) Regional Forum also tackled another of Asia's most
intractable crises, closing their meeting with consensus that North Korea must
not be allowed to build nuclear weapons.
Th four days of meetings in the
Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, piled unprecedented pressure on a member country
of ASEAN and marked significant erosion of the group's 36-year policy of
non-interference in members' internal affairs.
Myanmar Foreign Minister
Win Aung issued a spirited defence of the junta but remained enigmatic over just
when Suu Kyi, who marked her 58th birthday on Thursday, might walk free from her
temporary custody.
"We are not a brutal people. If we were brutal, there
would be signs of brutality all across the country," he told a news conference.
He said that the ever-present threat of insurrection and violence against the
authorities or Suu Kyi justified her isolation from public life.
The
previous day, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had told "the brutal rulers
of Burma (Myanmar)" to release Suu Kyi.
Win Aung said the junta remained
committed to its long-stated path towards multi-party democracy. He said Suu Kyi
would be released although he was unable to provide a timescale.
"When
we say on the record 'temporary measures', we mean temporary," Win Aung said on
the last of four days of meetings that brought together the 10 foreign ministers
of ASEAN and of 13 other Asia-Pacific region countries including China, Japan
and Russia.
Win Aung gave no indication of what "temporary" meant.
Suu Kyi, who has spent years under house arrest, was detained again on
May 30 after her followers clashed with supporters of the military government
during a rural tour.
"She should have been released long ago, whether it
is her birthday or not is not the issue -- she should be released," Australian
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters.
Embarrassed by
Myanmar's actions, which have sparked international outrage, the ASEAN ministers
are eager to see progress towards democracy before it takes over the rotating
chairmanship of the region's main political grouping in 2006.
TAKING ON NORTH KOREA
The ministers did not
shirk from voicing their anxiety at North Korea's nuclear ambitions and stressed
the need for talks. Reclusive Pyongyang snubbed the gathering, saying its
foreign minister was "too busy" to go.
On Wednesday, Powell told the
security meeting that North Korea's nuclear ambitions were Washington's most
urgent weapons proliferation worry. His comments came on the day that Pyongyang
threatened to boost its nuclear deterrent.
His Chinese counterpart said
the road to peace on the Korean peninsula would be rocky.
"We are
conscious that there is still a long way to go, there will be ups and downs,
zigzags and perhaps also some unforeseeable difficulties," Li Zhaoxing told a
closing news conference.
He said the Beijing format for talks offered the
only way to a peaceful solution, and issued a veiled hint that a U.S. offer of
diplomatic ties might help.
Noting that North Korea was diplomatically
isolated, the Chinese foreign minister said in an interview on Thursday: "This
must be resolved." But he stressed that the Korean peninsula must remain free of
nuclear arms.
The United States, China and North Korea met in Beijing in
April to seek a diplomatic solution to the standoff. Since then, Washington has
pressed Pyongyang to agree to expand any future talks to include neighbours
South Korea and Japan.
James Kelly, U.S. assistant secretary of state,
said the United States did not know when the next round of talks would take
place but was "determined to patiently wait" with the goal of a peaceful
solution.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 19, 6:09 PM
Asian nations want to move
on after Myanmar row
By Ed Cropley
PHNOM PENH, June 19 (Reuters) - A day after a meeting of Asian nations
and their partners demanded Myanmar's military rulers free pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, the group sought to put a lid on the issue and move on to
other matters.
However, the spotlight remained firmly on the Nobel Peace
laureate, who was celebrating her 58th birthday on Thursday. She has spent
almost three weeks in custody.
Myanmar's foreign minister said his
country's military regime was not a brutal government while his Australian
counterpart said Suu Kyi's release was long overdue.
The day's session
of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) began with a call from host Cambodia to halt
discussion of issues that dominated talks a day earlier, when Myanmar held
centre stage.
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said it was time
for the 10-member Association of South East Nations and its partners to discuss
problems such as international crime, drug trafficking and epidemic diseases.
But Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung launched a spirited defence of the
junta.
"We are not a brutal people. If we were brutal, there would be
signs of brutality all across the country," he told a news conference, adding
that the ever-present threat of insurrection and violence against the
authorities or Suu Kyi justified her isolation from public life.
The
previous day, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had told "the brutal rulers
of Burma (Myanmar)" to release Suu Kyi.
Win Aung said the junta remained
committed to its long-stated path towards multi-party democracy and said Suu Kyi
would be released but was unable to provide a timescale.
"When we say on
the record 'temporary measures', we mean temporary," Win Aung said in the
Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. He gave no indication of what "temporary" meant.
Suu Kyi, who has spent years under house arrest, was detained again on
May 30 after her followers clashed with supporters of the military government
during a rural tour.
RUNNING LATE
"She should
have been released long ago, whether it is her birthday or not is not the issue
-- she should be released," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told
reporters.
This week's meetings piled unprecedented pressure on a member
country of the Association of South East Asian Nation's (ASEAN), a significant
erosion of the group's 36-year policy of non-interference in each other's
internal affairs.
As Powell left Cambodia for Bangladesh after winning
Asian support against Myanmar's ruling junta, the focus also shifted off North
Korea, which a day earlier came under pressure from ARF members not to pursue
its nuclear weapons programme.
On Wednesday, Powell told the security
meeting that North Korea's nuclear ambitions were Washington's most urgent
weapons proliferation worry. His comments came on the same day Pyongyang
threatened to boost its nuclear deterrent.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing said the Beijing format for talks offered the only way to a peaceful
solution and issued a veiled hint that a U.S. offer of diplomatic ties might
help.
Noting that North Korea was diplomatically isolated, the foreign
minister of reclusive Pyongyang's nearest friend said in an interview on
Thursday: "This must be resolved."
But he stressed that the Korean
peninsula must remain free of nuclear arms.
The United States, China and
North Korea met in Beijing in April to seek a diplomatic solution to the issue.
Since then, Washington has pressed Pyongyang to agree to expand any future talks
to include neighbours South Korea and Japan.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 19, 11:07 AM
Myanmar silent on Suu Kyi
release
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Myanmar has noted the world's concern
over its detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Ky,i who has turned 58
on Thursday, but Foreign Minister Win Aung said he was unable to give a time for
her release.
"That was the question I was asked and I said 'please, I am
foreign minister coming out to expose myself to the world and please forgive me
for not being able to give the time'," he told CNN in an interview telecast on
Thursday when asked how far Mynmar was from releasing Suu Kyi, who celebrated
her 58th birthday on Thursday.
Win Aung was speaking on the sidelines of
an Asian conference where U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday
slammed Myanmar's military rulers for detaining Suu Kyi.
"The brutal
rulers of Burma (Myanmar) need to understand that the only acceptable way
forward is to release Aung San Suu Kyi," Powell told a news conference in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia's capital.
The U.S. is also considering tough measures to
ratchet up pressure on the military junta.
Suu Kyi, who has spent years
under house arrest, was detained again on May 30 after her followers clashed
with supporters of the military government during a rural tour.
"We are
waiting for the normalcy to come back and a clear picture... then I think Aung
San Suu Kyi, restrictions put on her, would be lifted," Win Aung said.
"We don't have intention to prolong this arrangement, but for the time
being we have to swallow the bitter pill now... We have not intention to hold
her forever."
The foreign minister told CNN he would take what he had heard
at the conference to his leadership.
"Everything what is being said is
now being noticed. Of course when I go back home will take with me the ...
concerns expressed by other ministers during the meeting and will submit to my
leadership of what I have heard," Win Aung said
He said Myanmar had not
abandoned its goal of democracy and wanted to move ahead, but it did not want to
return to the days of 1988 when millions of people joined anti-government
protests. Hundreds were killed when troops fired at crowds.
"We were
very much concerned that the days of anarchy of 1988 will be back... We are not
sure what is the motives of these young militants, young people roaming all over
the place... and young monks too."
"We have to clear up, clear up means
that what is the real intention behind all these activities. And if the
situation is really leading towards anarchic days of past then we might (find)
it very difficult to come back," Win Aung said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 19, 1:56 PM
Another birthday in
isolation for Myanmar's Suu Kyi
By Dominic
Whiting
BANGKOK, June 19 (Reuters) - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi spent her 58th birthday in detention on Thursday as supporters planned
vigils around the world and diplomatic pressure mounted on the country's
military rulers to free her.
Around 100 Myanmar exiles lit 58 candles on
a birthday cake and shouted anti-junta slogans outside the Myanmar embassy in
Bangkok as part of protests planned in a dozen cities around the world,
including London, Brussels and Washington.
But in Yangon the military
showed no signing of easing a crackdown on Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy (NLD), with a handful of plainclothes security officers milling around
the party's padlocked headquarters.
While the junta has held Nobel
laureate Suu Kyi virtually incommunicado at undisclosed locations since a May 30
clash between her supporters and a pro-junta group, the European Union and the
United States have threatened more economic sanctions.
But the reaction
of its Asian neighbours is more likely to worry ruling generals in Myanmar,
formerly called Burma.
This week the region's main political group, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), broke with three decades of
tradition to criticise one of its own, with foreign ministers saying they wanted
Suu Kyi freed soon.
Those neighbours are under mounting pressure from
Washington.
"Together, we must tell the Burmese leaders to free Aung San
Suu Kyi, to free her supporters, and to free the people of Burma," U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell told a gathering of foreign ministers in
Cambodia on Wednesday.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung, also in
Cambodia for the ASEAN meeting, said Suu Kyi would be freed but did not say
when.
"Of course when I go back home (I) will take with me
the...concerns expressed by other ministers during the meeting and will submit
to my leadership what I have heard," he said in an interview with CNN broadcast
on Thursday.
But as Suu Kyi knows after spending seven of the last 14
years confined by the junta to Buddhist meditation and playing piano at her
lakeside house in central Yangon, international pressure has so far failed to
bring change in the country.
The army has ruled the country since a 1962
coup, ignored a 1990 landslide election victory by Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy and kept hundreds of activists imprisoned for a decade.
"It's
important that Burma gets the message from ASEAN that it's not business as
usual," a Western diplomat said. "But they haven't been very receptive to what
has been said before."
U.N. envoy Razali Ismail, who was instrumental in
persuading the junta to free Suu Kyi from her last spell of house arrest in May
2002, is the only outsider to have seen her since May 30.
He left Yangon
last week saying Suu Kyi was in good spirits, and had not been injured in the
violence that erupted at the end of a tour to central and northern Myanmar.
Dissidents and some diplomats say a group of pro-junta youths, wielding
bamboo and iron rods, set upon Suu Kyi's convoy and local villagers, killing at
least 70. The government says four people died in the clash.
"WHO OUTSIDE WILL HELP?"
During the trip Suu
Kyi, the daughter of independence hero Aung San, drew large crowds, to the
irritation of the junta.
"I thought people would do something because
Suu Kyi was attacked," said Aung Zaw, editor of a Thai-based magazine set up by
Myanmar exiles. "But the people I've spoken to in Burma are so afraid. They just
ask, who outside will help us'."
Pressure from China, a major supplier
of arms to Myanmar's junta, is key to any change in the country. But diplomats
say this is unlikely to happen because of Beijing's ambitions to channel trade
from southern China through Myanmar sea ports.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Canada to Consider Some Sanctions Against Myanmar
By
David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada said on Thursday it would
consider imposing a visa ban on leading members of Myanmar's military junta and
applying other sanctions to pressure the South Asian country to restore
democracy.
Foreign Minister Bill Graham said Canada had "serious
problems" with the approach taken by Myanmar -- formerly known as Burma -- and
insisted it immediately release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She has been
in custody since May 30 after clashes between her supporters and a pro-junta
group.
"I'll be writing to the (Canadian) minister of citizenship and
immigration to recommend that we consider putting certain members of their
leadership on an interdict list for visa applications," Graham said.
"This is a clear indication to them that they don't have complete
impunity as to what they do," he told reporters by phone from Cambodia after
attending an Association of South East Asian Nations Regional Forum.
The
Myanmar junta launched a sweeping crackdown on dissent following the violence.
This ended stalled talks on the country's political future with the opposition,
which is pushing for a transition to democracy.
Washington said on
Wednesday it was considering whether to freeze the assets of key Myanmar
government members. But Graham indicated Ottawa would not be following suit
since it was unlikely such assets were in Canada.
"We will be looking at
all the possible legal measures we could take within the framework of our own
legislation," he said, without giving further details.
"Our Asian
colleagues here are saying to us, 'Push them, but try and encourage them to do
the right things as well'. So that's the carrot-and-stick approach that we're
certainly considering at this time."
Ottawa broke off high-level
bilateral ties and suspended official commercial relations with Myanmar in 1998,
withdrawing all support for Canadian firms doing business in the country.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a 1990 election in Myanmar
by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern. She was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1991.
Graham also urged the Myanmar government to do more
to clamp down on the illegal drug trade.
"This is a huge problem and
their position is that they're taking measures to restrain it but our view is a
lot more measures could be taken," he said.
"They should be doing it
themselves because they have to take action within their own borders."
Myanmar is the world's second-largest opium producer and police in the
region are expressing alarm at the amount of methamphetamines being produced
there.
--------------------------------------------------------------
India urges release of Myanmar's Suu Kyi
NEW DELHI, India -June 19 (AP) - India urged Myanmar's ruling military
junta to release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday _
her 58th birthday _ and said it backs the neighboring nation's democracy
movement.
India's Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha met his Myanmar
counterpart Win Aung in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on the sidelines of a meeting with
the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
In a letter to Win
Aung, Sinha ``expressed the hope that ... Suu Kyi would be released soon,''
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters.
In Phnom
Penh, Win said he ``cannot give a date'' when asked by The Associated Press
about Suu Kyi's release.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi has been
held incommunicado since May 30, following violent clashes in northern Myanmar
where she was recently on a tour. The junta says the violence started when her
motorcade tried to plow through a group of pro-government demonstrators.
Opposition groups outside Myanmar say her motorcade was ambushed by
pro-junta mobs to intimidate her and curb the growing appeal of her democracy
message among rural residents.
``We have consistently supported efforts
for the restoration of democracy in Myanmar,'' Sarna said in New Delhi. But he
added that ``external pressures can be counterproductive.''
In Phnom
Penh, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell joined ministers from countries
including Canada, Australia, Japan and ASEAN members in urging Myanmar to free
Suu Kyi and let her carry on with her political campaigning.
India and
Myanmar have had a 2,000-year relationship, with close religious and cultural
ties.
Myanmar's junta, which came to power in 1988, refused to step down
after Suu Kyi's party won a 1990 general election. She was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1991 and spent most of the time since then under house arrest or
strict surveillance.
India supported Suu Kyi after the crackdown on her
pro-democracy party. But its relations with the junta improved after New Delhi
received Myanmar's help in suppressing Indian insurgent groups operating in
dense jungles straddling the two countries.
India is one of Myanmar's
main trading partners.
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CBC News
Graham warns Myanmar to release Suu Kyi
Last Updated Wed, 18 Jun 2003 16:46:02
PHNOM PENH -
The military rulers of Myanmar must release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said on Wednesday.
In Cambodia
for a two-day meeting of Asia-Pacific foreign ministers, Graham said Suu Kyi has
to be released and allowed to resume her political activities.
Suu Kyi
has been in custody since May 30. She and members of her National League for
Democracy party were arrested after a bloody confrontation with supporters of
the military junta.
An attack on Suu Kyi's motorcade allegedly left as
many as 70 people dead.
Ottawa has already taken preferential trade
standing away from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Graham threatened tougher
measures against the country could follow if Suu Kyi is not released soon.
A Nobel laureate, Suu Kyi led her party to a landslide election victory
in 1990, but was never allowed to assume power. Instead, she was put under house
arrest for nearly six years.
She has continued to struggle to bring
democracy to her country, and has been put under house arrest several times.
Others at the conference, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell, echoed Graham's call for Suu Kyi's release.
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A dissident?s birthday behind bars
By Ron Allen
NBC
NEWS
HONG KONG, June 19 ? Through the month of
June, in a distant country that doesn?t often make the headlines, one of the
world?s most recognized political prisoners has been jailed. The regime holding
her calls it ?protective custody? and says she is being guarded for her own
safety. But the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi has admirers and supporters around the
world extremely worried, especially as she marks her 58th birthday on Thursday
behind bars at an unknown location.
THERE IS A tremendous amount of
concern about what the generals who run Myanmar, formerly Burma and a rogue
regime high on many lists for regime change, will do with the Nobel Peace Prize
laureate, known back home simply as ?the Lady.?
The latest chapter in
Suu Kyi?s defiant battle for democracy in her homeland turned ugly on May 30.
During a trip to meet with supporters in the countryside, her convoy was
ambushed as the sun set, a day that?s now referred to as ?Black
Friday.?
The United States has described the attackers as
?government-affiliated thugs.? Several press reports piecing together the
incident describe what was apparently a bloodbath, with dozens of attackers
armed with clubs and spears killing and injuring perhaps scores of people, and
perhaps harming Suu Kyi herself. It?s unclear exactly what happened, because
much of the evidence reportedly was either burned or dumped into a nearby river.
There are few independent accounts of the incident. Myanmar remains one of the
toughest places for Western journalists to get permission to enter.
UNKNOWN FATE
Since then, Suu Kyi has been
jailed, her fate unknown. The only visitor from outside the country was a U.N.
envoy Razali Ismail, who has been working with little success during the past
three years to bring peace and reconciliation to the country. After meeting Suu
Kyi briefly, Ismail reported her to be ?well and in good spirits,? with no
obvious physical injuries. He predicted she would be released within the next
several weeks.
His prediction, intended to ease concern and worry, only
served to increase the outrage and intrigue. Even the Bush administration has
taken notice. This week Secretary of State Colin Powell is in Cambodia at an
annual regional security meeting, where he and other leaders have called for Suu
Kyi?s freedom. ?Together, we must tell the Burmese leaders to free Aung San Suu
Kyi, to free her supporters and to free the people of Burma by returning
democracy to that nation,? Powell was quoted as saying.
What?s more, the
U.S. Senate recently passed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, by a
vote of 97-1. If signed into law, it would impose, among other measures, an
import ban on goods from Myanmar into the United States, and expand a ban on
visas for officials from the government, or junta, as it?s often derisively
referred to. The United States is one of Myanmar?s biggest export customers,
mostly through textile products.
STOLEN
VICTORY
Suu Kyi?s political party won an election by an
overwhelming margin back in 1990. The generals have never let the winners take
power, however, and since then the country has deteriorated into a place
described by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell in the Wall Street Journal Asia recently
as ?synonymous with repression, rape and poverty.?
Suu Kyi?s story is an
inspiring one. She is a woman who has dedicated her life to realizing the dream
of democracy and freedom for her people. Now 58, she was once a housewife in
Britain, a student at Oxford and an employee at the United Nations in New York.
She returned to her native land in the late 1980s to care for her ailing mother
and has never left. She even refused to leave Myanmar to be with her husband,
who often was denied visas to visit, before his death, without her by his side,
in 1999. Suu Kyi always feared that if she left the country the generals would
not allow her to return.
So now once again she is in custody ?
confinement apparently more harsh than the years she has spent at her home under
so-called ?house arrest.? It seems that since being ?freed? about a year ago,
after intense international pressure, the military government led by Gen. Than
Shwe, the country?s strongman who?s also referred to as ?No. 1,? grew concerned
about the increasingly large and restive crowds Suu Kyi was
drawing.
Those who know Suu Kyi?s unique power to inspire remember her as
a slight, dignified figure standing before thousands of supporters, usually
wearing bright flowers in her hair. Now many inside and outside the ravaged
nation of Myanmar worry when, and if, they will see Suu Kyi again.
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Malaysiakini
Six held for staging demo outside Burmese
embassy
Yap Mun Ching
1:18pm Thu Jun 19th, 2003
Six persons were arrested in the vicinity of the Burmese embassy this
morning as police foiled attempts by a group of Burmese nationals to protest
against the continued detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The five men and one woman were part of a group of 40 demonstrators who
attempted to march past the embassy bearing pictures of Suu Kyi and posters
calling for her release.
However, they were stopped by police some 20 metres away from the embassy
building and forced to disperse. Several persons who persisted in holding up
their posters were arrested.
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Kawaguchi hints at review of policy toward
Myanmar
PHNOM PENH, June 19, Kyodo - Japan will continue to urge the Myanmar
junta to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and may review its
''constructive engagement'' policy unless Suu Kyi is freed, Japanese Foreign
Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said in an interview with the BBC aired Thursday.
Kawaguchi said she told Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung to release Suu
Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) when the two foreign
ministers met on the sidelines of the meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)
which ended Wednesday.
The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) interview
was recorded Wednesday, Japanese officials said.
When asked if Japan
will take tough measures on Myanmar, Kawaguchi responded that it is up to how
the junta deals with the issue.
During the meeting with Win Aung,
Kawaguchi hinted Japan may review its aid policy toward Myanmar if there is no
progress on the issue.
Japan has provided grants to Myanmar in such
areas as health and welfare, education and technical assistance, saying the aid
is intended to encourage the military regime to promote democracy.
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