AFP - Thailand presses Myanmar junta for Aung San Suu Kyi's
release
AFP
- US to freeze assets of Myanmar leaders, ban remittances
AFP
- Myanmar junta blasts EU boycott of annual drug-burning ceremony
AFP
- Britain's BAT vows to remain in Myanmar despite Blair warning
AP
- Malaysia Increases Pressure On Myanmar To Release Suu Kyi
AP
- Myanmar Burns Illicit Drugs To Mark UN Anti-Drug Day
Reuters - Japan ratchets up pressure over Suu Kyi
Reuters - Japan Asks Myanmar for Meeting with Suu Kyi
Reuters - Thailand adds voice to criticism of Myanmar
Reuters - Thailand says warned of suicide bomb attacks
Reuters - China says Suu Kyi detention is Myanmar's
business
MH - Opinion - After Iraq, who will help
Myanmar?
NYP - Opinion - BREAKING BURMA'S PYTHON GRIP
NP - Norway puts pressure on the Burma regime
The Herald - Blair urges firms to boycott
Burma
The Star - Syed Hamid asks to see Suu Kyi
Xinhuanet - US tightens economic attack against Myanmar's
drug dealers
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 26, 1:38 PM
Thailand presses Myanmar
junta for Aung San Suu Kyi's release
BANGKOK
(AFP) -Thailand's Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra made a new call for neighbouring military-ruled Myanmar to
release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, warning that the delay in doing so
was frustrating the region.
The Nobel peace laureate has been held under
what the junta calls "protective custody" since she and her supporters were
attacked by a government-backed mob on May 30.
"Thailand is unhappy over
the situation in Myanmar because they are prolonging the detention of Aung San
Suu Kyi. Thailand wants to push for her early release because by delaying her
release they make ASEAN and its dialogue partners more frustrated," Thaksin told
reporters.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued a
historic call last week for fellow member Myanmar to release the popular leader,
breaking with its strict tradition of non-interference in members' domestic
affairs.
The ASEAN Regional Forum, the region's top security group which
includes ASEAN dialogue partners, issued a similar call.
"Myanmar should
right now decide (to release her), otherwise they will face more sanctions and
the situation will go from bad to worse," Thaksin said.
Thailand itself
does not have sanctions in place against Myanmar, but international outrage over
Aung San Suu Kyi's detention has already resulted in the United States and the
European Union beefing up its punitive measures.
Japan, Myanmar's largest
donor, announced Wednesday a suspension of new economic aid to the impoverished
country.
Thaksin's call comes a day after Thai police said they had been
tipped off by the junta over a possible plan by dissidents to take hostages, who
would be released in exchange for Aung San Suu Kyi.
The democracy leader
is being held in a two-room hut at the notoriously tough Insein prison,
according to the British government. Junta number three Khin Nyunt has however
denied the claim.
Although she has spent seven years under house arrest,
this is the first time Aung San Suu Kyi has been jailed.
A senior US
official said Wednesday the country was preparing to freeze the assets of
members of Myanmar's ruling military junta and ban remittances sent by
immigrants from that country back home.
The proposed measures, announced
here by US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, are seen as part of efforts
by the administration of President George W. Bush to step up pressure on
Myanmar's ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and bring about the
release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We are preparing an executive order for the
president to freeze the assets of SPDC members, and ban remittances to Burma
from the United States," Kelly told members of the House Subcommittee on East
Asia and the Pacific.
"We are supportive of legislation that would place
restrictions on travel-related transactions," he added.
White House and
State Department officials were unable to say late Wednesday when the order
would be signed.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 26, 10:49 AM
US to freeze assets of
Myanmar leaders, ban remittances
WASHINGTON
(AFP) -The United States is
preparing to freeze the assets of members of Myanmar's ruling military junta and
ban remittances sent by immigrants from that country back home, a senior
administration official disclosed.
The proposed measures, announced here
by US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, are seen as part of efforts by
the administration of President George W. Bush to step up pressure on Myanmar's
ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and bring about the release of
jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We are preparing an
executive order for the president to freeze the assets of SPDC members, and ban
remittances to Burma from the United States," Kelly told members of the House
Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific.
"We are supportive of
legislation that would place restrictions on travel-related transactions," he
added.
White House and State Department officials were unable to say
late Wednesday when the order would be signed.
Members of Myanmar's
military regime insist Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her activities
in 1991, was put under temporary "protective custody" at an undisclosed location
after May 30 clashes, which broke out when she and her supporters from the
National League for Democracy toured northern regions.
According to
British officials, she is now being held in a hut at the Insein prison complex
on the outskirts of Yangon, the capital.
But Kelly said the junta's
claim that the pro-democracy caravan had provoked the incident was "nonsense."
He insisted Suu Kyi had fallen victim of "a premeditated attack" that
was launched on her by "government-affiliated thugs" and left many injured and
some dead.
Japan, Myanmar's largest donor nation, announced Wednesday it
would freeze new financial assistance to Myanmar as the junta continued to
detain Aung San Suu Kyi.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 26, 5:30 PM
Myanmar junta blasts EU boycott of annual drug-burning
ceremony
YANGON, June 26 (AFP) - Myanmar's military government Thursday hit
out at European diplomats for boycotting an annual drug-burning ceremony in
protest over the continuing detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The diplomatic community in Yangon usually turns out in force for the
ceremony, but this year the European delegations were absent. However, a junior
diplomat from the United States embassy attended.
"We are fighting the
war (on drugs) for them and they boycott us," government spokesman Colonel Hla
Min said of the EU delegations.
"This drug thing is not a big problem
for us in this country and these efforts are for the benefit of the
international community," he told AFP.
A diplomat from one of the EU
missions in Yangon said that with Aung San Suu Kyi in custody since violent
protests on May 30, it was inappropriate to attend the event which is
effectively a public relations exercise for the junta.
"This was not any
planned boycott from the side of the European embassies. It was an individual
decision and I felt in the context at the moment that it was not necessary or
even the right thing to go there," he told AFP.
The diplomat said that
as part of a crackdown on the pro-democracy opposition launched since May 30,
the government had cancelled an annual anti-drugs youth rally for fear the large
gathering could foment unrest.
"This does not really fit well with
official events where you celebrate the successes (of the anti-narcotics
campaign)."
Aung San Suu Kyi's detention has sparked outrage among the
international community, led by the United States and the European Union which
have beefed up their sanctions against the Yangon regime.
Japan,
Myanmar's largest donor, on Wednesday announced it had suspended new economic
aid to the impoverished country.
At the drug-burning ceremony, the
government said it destroyed drugs with a street value of more than 862 million
dollars including some 219 kilos of heroin, 1,125 kilos of opium, and 7.6
million methamphetamine tablets.
UN Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) chief
in Yangon Jean-Luc Lemahieu said the Myanmar government had achieved a
"spectacular" reduction in the opium crop this year, but that impoverished opium
growers were suffering.
"There has been a 24 percent reduction this year
which is more than the total production of Laos," he said.
"It's going
down drastically, it's going down a bit too fast. And now we have issues which
we have to tackle to make the reduction sustainable as well as address the
issues of human rights."
Myanmar's anti-narcotics chief
Brigadier-General Kyaw Thein claimed major successes in fighting the production
of methamphetamine stimulants, which has been increasing in recent years even as
the fight against opium is being won.
"This is a sustained effort and we
are not losing momentum at all," he said. "We have been able to do a lot since
early this year including arrests of offenders."
"We have also had
exchange of information with our neighbouring countries concerning offenders."
Methamphetamines have been flooding into neighbouring Thailand, causing
a serious addiction crisis and sparking rows between the two countries.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said earlier this month that
opium cultivation in Asia's notorious Golden Triangle drug-producing region has
plummeted this year, falling 24 percent in Myanmar and 15 percent in Laos.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 26, 4:33 PM
Britain's BAT vows to remain in Myanmar despite Blair
warning
LONDON, June 26 (AFP) - Tobacco giant BAT insisted Thursday it
would keep doing business with Myanmar unless ordered to stop, despite Prime
Minister Tony Blair saying it was wrong for British companies to deal with the
military regime.
"At the moment, we have no intention of pulling out.
That's our position," a BAT spokesman said.
Only if the British
government or the European Union decided to impose sanctions on the country,
"then we won't do business there," he said.
BAT, which runs a cigarette
factory employing 500 people in Myanmar, a joint venture with the country's
military dictatorship, was placed in the firing line on Wednesday after Blair
hinted strongly he wanted them to pull out.
Speaking in parliament, the
prime minister said his government had made "the strongest possible
representations" to Myanmar over the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi at the end of May.
Asked whether it was right for British companies
to conduct business with the Yangon regime, Blair was blunt.
"We are
making it clear to British companies that we do not believe this is appropriate
in circumstances where this regime continues to suppress the basic human rights
of its people," he said.
BAT chairman Martin Broughton is due to meet
junior foreign minister Mike O'Brien next week to discuss the issue, amid
speculation the government will increase the pressure on the tobacco firm to
pull out of the country.
However the BAT spokesman rejected the idea
that his firm was being "summoned" to the Foreign Office, saying the meeting was
at BAT's request.
"We'll do business in countries if it is legal to do
so," he stressed.
"What we've always said is that we're a business.
We're not the government, or an international statesman. We'll do business in
countries if it is legal to do so."
Myanmar's appalling human rights
record was placed under the spotlight again on May 30 when Aung San Suu Kyi was
put in what the government called "protective custody" following vicious clashes
between her followers and pro-regime elements.
The 58-year-old Nobel
Peace Prize laureate has endured several years of house arrest following 1990
elections won overwhelmingly by her National League for Democracy, a result not
recognised by the junta.
She was last freed from house arrest in May
2002.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 26, 4:15 PM
Malaysia Increases Pressure
On Myanmar To Release Suu Kyi
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia
(AP)--Malaysia, a key ally of
Myanmar's military regime, is adopting a harder line on the detention of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi but has stopped short of supporting
sanctions.
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar on Thursday urged Myanmar's
ruling generals to heed the calls of "good friend" Malaysia to release Suu Kyi
and get political reconciliation with her opposition party moving forward again.
He said the junta's refusal to release Suu Kyi was damaging the
reputation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"We have
managed to convince people outside our region that Asean's policy of
constructive engagement is working, but the recent events that have taken place
in Myanmar have become a setback," Syed Hamid told reporters.
Now, he
said, "Not only Myanmar is questioned, Asean is questioned."
Malaysia
was crucially involved in getting Myanmar accepted into Asean in 1997 and is a
strong defender of the grouping's core policy of not interfering in member
countries' internal affairs.
Malaysia also played a brokering role in
more moves toward resolving the standoff between Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy, which overwhelmingly won national elections in 1990, and the military
regime, which refused to hand over power.
U.N. special envoy Razali
Ismail, a Malaysian diplomat, helped win Suu Kyi's release last May from more
than 18 months of house arrest and secured promises from the junta to start
reconciliation talks with the opposition.
But Nobel laureate Suu Kyi's
detention on May 30 during clashes between opposition and junta supporters and a
subsequent crackdown on the opposition have strengthened fears that
reconciliation has stalled.
Matching calls from the U.N. and other
countries, Asean last week told Myanmar's junta to free Suu Kyi - an
unprecedented step into a member country's affairs. The junta said she wouldn't
be released until an investigation into the clashes is complete.
Mahathir, who visited Myanmar in 2001 and is considered an elder
statesman within Asean after almost 22 years in power in Malaysia, on Tuesday
described the issue as a "dilemma" for Asean.
On Thursday, Syed Hamid
urged the junta to listen to Malaysia's advice now and release Suu Kyi. But he
rejected the idea of imposing sanctions, saying they would only isolate Myanmar
further and harm innocent people.
The U.S., the E.U. and Britain have
moved to impose sanctions against Myanmar to press for Suu Kyi's release. Japan
added pressure Wednesday by suspending aid.
Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra warned Thursday that Myanmar would face
further international sanctions if Suu Kyi wasn't released quickly.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 26, 4:12 PM
Myanmar Burns Illicit Drugs
To Mark UN Anti-Drug Day
YANGON (AP)--Myanmar's military authorities burned nearly
3,000 kilograms of seized illicit drugs Thursday, as officials said the
country's opium production was declining but more heroin and amphetamines were
being made.
Myanmar is the world's second-largest opium and heroin
producer after Afghanistan, and has recently become a major methamphetamine
exporter.
Officials torched the drugs at a U.N. International Anti-Drug
Day ceremony attended by diplomats, U.N. representatives, the junta's
third-ranking leader, Gen. Khin Nyunt, and other officials.
Some 1,125
kilograms of opium, 219 kilograms of heroin and more than 600,000 amphetamine
pills were set ablaze at the 17th annual ceremony, officials said.
"Though Myanmar has not received international assistance, Myanmar has
exerted all efforts to eradicate narcotic drugs utilizing its own resources,"
said police Maj. Gen. Khin Yi, secretary of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse
Control.
According to surveys by the Myanmar committee and the U.N.
Office on Drugs and Crime, 1,097 metric tons of opium were produced in 2001.
That number dropped to 828 metric tons in 2002.
However, the U.N. Office
on Drugs and Crime said in a report released Wednesday that production of heroin
- an opium derivative - increased despite a "major reduction in poppy
cultivation" in the so-called Golden Triangle area, where the borders of
Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.
The area has long been one of the
world's major opium and heroin sources.
Khin Yi said the threat of
amphetamines is on the rise.
The annual amphetamine tablet seizure rose
from 1996 to 2001, but declined in 2002 to about 9.4 million tablets. Two
million tablets were seized between January and April this year, Khin Yi said.
Thai officials estimate that up to a billion methamphetamine tablets
will be trafficked into Thailand this year from jungle factories in neighboring
Myanmar.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 26, 7:42 PM
Japan ratchets up pressure
over Suu Kyi
By Teruaki Ueno and Panarat Thepgumpanat
TOKYO/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Japan has ratcheted up the pressure on
Myanmar over pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, warning it could reverse its
engagement policy unless she is freed in the next few days.
International outrage is rising rapidly over Nobel peace laureate Suu
Kyi, who has been in custody since May 30, with both Europe and the United
States threatening harsher sanctions if the junta does not release her.
Both Japan and Malaysia have asked that their diplomats be allowed to
meet her.
Officials in Japan -- one of impoverished Myanmar's key aid
donors and a long-time advocate of a more engaged stance -- said on Thursday
Tokyo would withhold new economic aid to Myanmar, and also consider freezing
economic assistance it had already pledged, if Suu Kyi's detention went beyond a
month.
"June 30 is one of the yardsticks, although we do not set a
deadline," a Japanese official said.
"It is true that the international
community will raise their sense of crisis as June 30 approaches. Keeping that
in mind, we are urging Myanmar to improve the situation."
Myanmar's
military government took Suu Kyi, 58, daughter of independence hero Aung San,
into what it called "protective custody" after a clash between her supporters
and a pro-government group.
It says it is holding her for her own
personal safety and will free her at some point.
Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD) swept to a landslide election victory in 1990 but has
been prevented from taking power by the military.
"We believe it is
inappropriate to continue with our policies to deepen engagement with Myanmar
and continue to provide economic aid as 'business as usual', as if nothing is
happening," a Japanese government official told Reuters.
Britain on
Wednesday reiterated its assertion that she is being held in Insein, one of the
nation's most notorious jails.
U.N. envoy Razali Ismail, who met her on
June 10, said she was being held in "deplorable" conditions but that she was
well and as feisty as ever. He declined to say where she was.
A Japanese
government minister also disclosed that Japan had asked Myanmar to allow its
ambassador there to meet Suu Kyi.
Thailand added its voice to the
growing chorus of outrage, with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra saying the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations was increasingly frustrated.
"We
would like to urge them to release Suu Kyi as soon as possible," Thaksin told
reporters. "The slower the release, the more frustrated ASEAN and its dialogue
partners will feel."
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said
his nation would not consider sanctions, or stopping aid, since this would
merely isolate Myanmar and make its citizens suffer.
China said Suu
Kyi's detention was Myanmar's own business and Beijing opposed pressure from
other countries against the junta.
"We feel that at a basic level this
issue is a problem between the Myanmar government and opposition and it is an
internal political issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a news
conference.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Japan Asks Myanmar for Meeting with Suu
Kyi
Thu Jun 26, 2:31 AM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has asked Myanmar to allow its
ambassador there to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as international
outrage over her detention grows, a Japanese minister said Thursday.
Suu
Kyi was taken into custody on May 30 and her detention has drawn strong
criticism around the world, including from Japan which has traditionally been
more willing to engage with the military rulers in Rangoon.
Japanese
Deputy Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano told a news conference that he made the
request during a recent meeting in Myanmar with the country's Home Affairs
Minister Tin Hlaing.
"I asked that Yuji Miyamoto, our ambassador to
Myanmar, be allowed to meet with Suu Kyi as soon as possible," he said.
Tin Hlaing replied that he would make every possible effort, Yano added.
Yano left Myanmar Monday and said that a meeting with military
intelligence chief Khin Nyunt, third in commend in the ruling State Peace and
Development Council, had yielded few results.
He said he was told that
the military government would make "their utmost effort to rectify the
situation."
Japanese government officials said Thursday that Tokyo could
reverse its policy of engagement with Myanmar if the military government keeps
Suu Kyi in custody for more than a month.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thailand adds voice to criticism of
Myanmar
Thu Jun 26, 3:14 AM ET
By Panarat
Thepgumpanat
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand added its voice on Thursday to
an international outcry of anger with neighbouring Myanmar's ruling generals,
saying their detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was frustrating the
whole region.
Japan has already said it will turn off aid to Myanmar
while the European Union and the United States are threatening harsher sanctions
if the junta does not free Suu Kyi soon.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), was getting
increasingly frustrated with one of its newest members. Myanmar will chair the
region's main political grouping in 2006.
"We would like to urge them to
release Suu Kyi as soon as possible," Thaksin told reporters. "The slower the
release the more frustrated ASEAN and its dialogue partners will feel."
Several countries, including Japan, the United States, European Union
nations and China, attended ASEAN meetings as "dialogue partners" earlier this
month, when the Southeast Asian grouping broke with tradition to criticise one
of its own and called for Suu Kyi's release.
Thaksin said Thailand was
worried more sanctions on Myanmar would accelerate a flow of migrant workers
from its neighbour.
"We have sent this signal so many times and today we
ask them again for the sake of their country," he said.
"If they receive
more sanctions their people will be in even more hardship. When more people face
hardship more of them will flood to Thailand and Thailand will shoulder more of
a burden."
THREAT TO AMBASSADOR?
Myanmar's
ruling junta has held Suu Kyi and around a dozen leaders of her National League
for Democracy (NLD) party since a clash on May 30 between her supporters and a
pro-junta group while she was touring a central Myanmar town.
Former
colonial power Britain says she is being held in the "notorious" Insein jail,
the biggest prison in the British empire before 1945, but Myanmar's government
denies this.
U.N. envoy Razali Ismail, the only outsider allowed to meet
Suu Kyi since her detention, has said the Nobel peace prize winner was uninjured
and in good spirits despite being kept in "absolutely deplorable" conditions.
Dissidents and some diplomats say hundreds of pro-junta youths set upon
Suu Kyi's convoy and local villagers with bamboo and iron rods, killing at least
70.
A six-member team of the International Committee of the Red Cross is
in central Myanmar visiting detained NLD members, but has been denied access to
Suu Kyi.
The NLD swept to a landslide election victory in 1990 but was
prevented from taking power by the military, which has ruled Myanmar in various
guises since a 1962 coup.
In Bangkok, Thai Interior Minister Wan Muhamad
Noor Matha said Myanmar had asked for extra security around its embassy because
it believed exiled dissidents may want to kidnap the ambassador to bargain for
Suu Kyi's release.
"Although we think the possibility is very small, we
have deployed all precautionary measures to prevent such an incident," Minister
Wan Muhamad Noor told reporters.
Five armed Myanmar students stormed the
embassy in October 1999, taking 89 hostages who were later freed unharmed when
Thailand gave the attackers safe passage to the Myanmar border.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 26, 7:38 PM
Thailand says warned of
suicide bomb attacks
BANGKOK, June 26 (Reuters) - Thailand said on Thursday it had been
warned by international intelligence agencies of potential suicide bomb attacks
on its territory but authorities did not say who had been cited as suspects.
The country's police chief, General Sant Sarutanond, told reporters
police had told postal workers to be on the alert after one explosive device had
been discovered. He gave no further details.
"We have been regularly
warned by various countries of possible suicide bombs, and we have acted
accordingly," Sant said. "So far we've found one device but have no suspects,
but we have tightened our search on parcels via all channels."
The
comments followed local media reports that Myanmar's military government had
warned Thailand of a suicide bomb threat to its embassy in Bangkok by exiled
dissidents angry with Yangon's detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.
But Thai security forces are also on the alert for Muslim
militancy. Police arrested four suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiah network
last month, charging them with planning attacks on embassies and Thai beach
resorts popular with Westerners.
--------------------------------------------------------------
China says Suu Kyi detention is Myanmar's
business
BEIJING, June 26 (Reuters) - China said on Thursday Myanmar's
detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was its own business and
Beijing opposed pressure from other countries against the ruling military junta.
''We feel that at a basic level this issue is a problem between the
Myanmar government and opposition and it is an internal political issue,''
Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a news conference.
''We
believe the people of Myanmar can thoroughly deal with this issue.''
Suu
Kyi's detention since May 30 has drawn strong criticism around the world. Most
recently, Japan has threatened to withhold new economic said to Myanmar.
Kong, however, said pressure and sanctions ''not only cannot solve problems,
they can sometimes complicate problems.''
''In international relations,
on the whole, in terms of principles, China is against the use of pressure,'' he
said.
Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
won the country's last elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never been
allowed to govern, treated instead to imprisonment, harassment and
intimidation.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Miami Herald
Posted on Wed, Jun. 25,
2003
Opinion - After Iraq, who will help
Myanmar?
By FRED HIATT
Almost
everyone who opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, both here and overseas, agreed
that Saddam Hussein was a monster. ''We're glad the dictator is gone,'' they say
now. ``But war was the wrong way to unseat him.''
Fair enough. But then,
what is the right way? Aung San Suu Kyi might like to know.
In case you
haven't been following the news from the other side of the world, she is the
leader of pro-democracy forces in Myanmar, a lush, predominantly Buddhist nation
of Southeast Asia. At the moment she is thought to be in Insein Prison, the
terror center outside Myanmar's capital, where dog kennels have been converted
to torture cells, and prisoners are forced to beat each other bloody for the
entertainment of guards.
If Saddam Hussein's rule was monstrous, the
regime of Myanmar's junta is no less so. Ethnic cleansing, rape as an official
tool of repression, heroin and HIV/AIDS as primary exports, a vast security
apparatus spreading fear throughout society, slave labor -- Myanmar's got it
all.
But Myanmar has something that distinguishes it from most
totalitarian systems, too. In Iraq, Saddam's apologists could claim, up to the
very last minute, that the Iraqi people loved him. You could scoff at the claim,
but you couldn't absolutely prove it false. In Myanmar, you can declare with
mathematical certainty that the regime is illegitimate: It lost a 1990 election
to the National League for Democracy, which won 82 percent of parliamentary
seats even though its leader -- the same Aung San Suu Kyi -- was under house
arrest then. Those elected were never permitted to take their seats. Quite a
few, in fact, ended up in Insein.
Given all that, you might ask why
regime change is not on the world's agenda. Last week the United Nations General
Assembly adopted a $2.17 billion budget for the coming year for peacekeeping
operations. Why nothing for democracy-keeping?
It's accepted, now, that
the ''international community,'' as we call it when no one wants to take
responsibility, would have been justified if it had violated Rwanda's
sovereignty to prevent genocide there -- that is, it was morally remiss, in
fact, in failing to do so. Many nations supported the violation of Serbia's
sovereignty to save the people of Kosovo.
The people of Myanmar have been
suffering far longer. Yet somehow, as in North Korea, it is considered perfectly
moral to stand aside and watch crimes against humanity that just unfold in
slower motion than Rwanda's. Burmese generals are permitted to shield themselves
behind a sovereignty that does not legitimately belong to them. Leaders around
the world go on receiving their ambassadors and embracing their foreign
ministers.
Is it fanciful to dream of a democracy-keeping force that
would liberate the people of North Korea (where at least two million have died
of officially induced starvation) or Myanmar? No doubt. Jacques Chirac would be
upset, Kofi Annan would remind us of the absence of consensus, George Bush would
see no issues of national security to justify the use of force. But then, what
would they do?
Sen. Mitch McConnell has one suggestion, and he persuaded
96 other senators to go along: a ban on imports from Myanmar. Such economic
punishments often have little effect, or end up hurting poor workers more than
rich generals. U.S. business almost always opposes sanctions.
But for a
couple of reasons, Myanmar might be different. The regime -- which calls itself
the State Peace and Development Council -- controls most of the economy and so
would be immediately affected. U.S. clothing and shoe importers, who account for
most Burmese goods sold in this country, became so disgusted by the child labor
and other coercive practices of the regime that, through their trade
association, they actually endorsed an import ban before the Senate
voted.
Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and development
expert, said Friday that sanctions ''are more likely to be effective there than
almost anywhere else I can imagine'' -- provided other countries join
in.
With which McConnell agrees. ''Our actions will not be truly
effective until our European allies and Myanmar's neighbors also place pressure
on the junta,'' he said last week.
And that brings us back to all those
politicians who bowed to no one in their disdain for Saddam Hussein -- but who
insisted that war could never be the answer. They have a chance to show that
another way might work. Aung San Suu Kyi is waiting.
--------------------------------------------------------------
New York Post
Opinion - BREAKING BURMA'S PYTHON GRIP
June 25, 2003 -- The vicious military regime in Burma is
defying the civilized world by holding incommunicado the famous pro-democracy
leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
A victim of house
arrests and other persecution since her political party won a general election
in 1990 (the result was annulled by the military), Suu Kyi was seized May 30
after government-sponsored thugs attacked her convoy, killing scores.
She is now imprisoned in the notorious Insein Jail on the outskirts of
Rangoon, the capital of the formerly rich Southeast Asian country.
Once
the world's biggest exporter of rice, Burma (renamed "Myanmar" by the regime) is
now a wretchedly poor economic basket case, as well as a vast prison for its 45
million citizens - thanks to what the regime's founder called "the Burmese way
to socialism."
Secretary of State Colin Powell has called on the Burmese
regime to release the frail 58-year-old dissident, and Washington is imposing
sanctions. The foreign ministers of Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and
Japan have also called for her release.
Even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan and the European Union - with their notorious soft spots for brutal
third-world regimes - have joined the chorus calling for Suu Kyi's release.
Unfortunately, Burma's Asian neighbors, including Thailand, India and
China, continue to befriend the Rangoon government.
They should cease to
do so: The detention of Suu Kyi is as disgusting as the regime that ordered
it.
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The Norway Post
25. Juni 2003
Norway puts pressure on the Burma regime
The
Norwegian government has decided to increase pressure on the military regime in
Burma, following the prolonged detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.
The regime's assets will be frozen and members of the government
will be refused entry to Norway, as well as transit through Norwegian
territory.
-The military junta in Burma has not taken any real steps
towards democracy, even though they in a period carried out talks with Aung San
Suu Kyi. On the contrary, the regime has now made conditions worse, says
Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.
-It is therefore necessary
to introduce these sharpened sanctions against the Burmese leadership, Bondevik
says.
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The Glasgow Herald
- June
26th
Blair urges firms to boycott Burma
CATHERINE MacLEOD
TONY Blair
yesterday told MPs that British firms should not trade with Burma until it
restored democracy and recognised human rights.
During prime minister's
question time, he revealed that the UK had made the "strongest possible
representations" to the ruling junta for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the
jailed opposition leader, and a return to democracy.
Ann McKechin,
Glasgow Maryhill MP, urged the government to press for the release of Suu Kyi
and all political prisoners in Burma and for the restoration of democracy.
"In the circumstances, now is the time to stop British trade with this
country," she added.
The prime minister agreed and said: "We are making
it clear to British companies that we do not believe this is appropriate in
circumstances where this regime continues to suppress the basic human rights of
its people."
Stepping up pressure on Burma, also known as Myanmar,
France announced it had invited Suu Kyi and 15 supporters to a Bastille Day
reception at its embassy in Rangoon on July 14.
Japan told the junta
that aid would be halted if it refused to release the Nobel laureate, 58, who
has been in detention since May 30 and is being held in a prison near Rangoon.
Razali Ismail, the United Nations envoy, said in Tokyo that Kofi Annan,
the UN secretary-general, was "increasingly alarmed" about her after learning
she was held in what Razali called deplorable conditions.
He earlier
told Japanese officials that he met Suu Kyi in a "concrete house" within the
grounds of Insein prison.
"What I can say is that where I met her was
absolutely deplorable," he added. But he repeated that Suu Kyi was "uncowed and
feisty".
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The Star - Thursday, June 26,
2003
Syed Hamid asks to see Suu Kyi
By
MERGAWATI ZULFAKAR
PUTRAJAYA: Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed
Hamid Albar has requested to see detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.
?Yes, I would like to see her personally in Myanmar as
soon as possible. I met the Myanmar foreign minister recently and made the
request,? Syed Hamid said yesterday.
Syed Hamid met his Myanmar
counterpart, Win Aung, on the sidelines of the Asean Ministerial Meeting in
Cambodia last week.
Asked if any indication was given to the
request, Syed Hamid replied: ?He did not reply but said that Myanmar is doing
everything to bring the situation in the country back to normalcy.?
Myanmar's military government took Suu Kyi into what it called
?protective custody? on May 30 after a clash between her supporters and a
pro-government group. Myanmar had also said that they were holding Suu Kyi for
her own protection.
Yangon has been under growing international
pressure to release her with Japan saying it would halt its hefty economic aid
to the country unless Suu Kyi was released. The United States is considering
tough new sanctions.
The Asean Foreign Ministers during their
annual meeting took an unprecedented move in discussing the matter despite the
grouping?s non-interference policy of its members? domestic affairs.
Syed Hamid said that the request was made to give further assurances to
other countries that Asean was engaged in talks with Myanmar on the
matter.
?Malaysia is responsible in bringing Myanmar into the
grouping and now the best thing for them to do is to give the end date (for her
release).
?They must make a positive move now,? he added.
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US tightens economic attack against Myanmar's drug
dealers
Xinhuanet 2003-06-26 12:47:16
BANGKOK, June
26 (Xinhuanet) -- US government had
tightened economic attack against the Myanmar's United Wa State Army (UWSA),
which is regarded as the biggest narcotic producer and trafficker in the region,
and hoped the measure could move the war on drug forward.
An US
anti-drug official was quoted by the Bangkok Post Thursday as saying that it had
been completely illegal for any American company or any foreign company trading
with the US to do any business with the UWSA or it's leader Wei Hsueh-kang.
Wei and the UWSA had been blacklisted with a number of Latin American
drug cartels and their leaders together under a sweeping law known as the drug
kingpins act in early June, the report said.
Until now, only former Shan
group heroin warlord Khun Sa has ever been on the kingpin list of US from
Southeast Asia.
The drug kingpin legislation, passed late in the
administrationof President Bill Clinton, provides for major fines and heavy
prison sentences against companies and executives who break the law.
The
US official said that the effect of the listing of Wei and the Wa gang is very
widespread as no bank, no company, no individual can do any business at all with
Wei, his UWSA in or through the United States.
This is a big step
forward in helping to combat the Wa drug dealers, he noted, adding that the
measure had achieved major success in Mexico and Colombia.
The UWSA has
been accused of being the main force behind the millions of methamphetamine
pills flooding Thailand on a weekly basis.
The US State Department says
the 20,000-strong UWSA is the world's largest drug-trafficking army while a US
federal court hasconvicted the deputy chairman of the UWSA Wei Hsueh-kang.
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