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http://www.petitiononline.com/1m8h64/petition.html -------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINES -------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Japan slams Myamar's junta over detention of Aung San Suu Kyi AFP - Singapore reiterates concern over Aung San Suu Kyi's detention AFP - Concerns for health of Myanmar's Suu Kyi after one month in detention AFP - Thai government to hold talks with UNHCR over refugee dispute AP - Thailand threatens to deport Myanmar political activists Reuters - Japan may raise pressure on Myanmar Kyodo News - Suu Kyi's whereabouts not yet confirmed: Takeuchi Kyodo News - ASEAN eyes treaty to facilitate probes of transnational crimes The Nation - POLICE WARNING: Burmese exiles targeted Bkk Post - Police chief warns Burmese dissidents BH - Film reveals Burmese prostitutes' nightmare JP - ASEAN insists on release of Suu Kyi ST - Suu Kyi marks one month in detention with no end in sight -------------------------------------------------------------- Japan slams
Myamar's junta over detention of Aung San Suu Kyi -------------------------------------------------------------- Monday June 30, 6:57 PM Singapore reiterates concern over Aung San Suu Kyi's
detention -------------------------------------------------------------- Monday June 30, 3:08 PM Concerns for health of Myanmar's Suu Kyi after one month
in detention -------------------------------------------------------------- Monday June 30, 6:35 PM Thai government to hold talks with UNHCR over refugee
dispute -------------------------------------------------------------- Thailand threatens to deport Myanmar political activists Mon Jun 30, 3:53 PM ET
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Monday threatened to deport Myanmar exiles who stage protests in Thailand against the military government in their country. Thaksin said the Myanmar dissidents are becoming a national security problem and will not be allowed to demonstrate outside the refugee camps where they are registered. ``They have to stay in the camp. We won't say anything if the demonstration is in the camp no matter how much they curse or accuse Myanmar. But they must not wander without control. It's now an issue of national security,'' he said. Myanmar refugees in Thailand have become more vocal in recent weeks, protesting against the detention since May 30 of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by the junta. Although Thailand has joined international calls for Suu Kyi's release, it has also been accused by critics of not putting much pressure on the junta beyond making the obligatory verbal demands. Thaksin's latest comments are likely to add fuel to accusations that he is appeasing Myanmar by becoming tougher on the refugees. Last week, Thai police arrested 11 Myanmar refugees who they alleged were planning to demonstrate outside the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok. Another Myanmar man was arrested and charged with drug smuggling, which police claim is supporting the activities of the dissidents. ``At some point, we'd have to deport them ... even if they face punishment back there. We need to maintain the country's security,'' Thaksin told reporters. But Thaksin did not make clear if he was talking about dissidents who are recognized as ``political refugees'' by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Under international law they cannot be repatriated against their will. He said his governments wants a greater say in the approval of refugee applications by the UNHCR. Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar people have fled to Thailand since the 1998 crackdown on a pro-democracy movement that brought the current junta into power. But a vast majority of the refugees are economic migrants or those fleeing fighting between the army and ethnic insurgents. Thaksin said he has asked the interior and foreign ministries to look into the refugee regulations. Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai is scheduled to meet with a UNHCR representative on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Suwit Khunkitti said Monday the government would relocate 16,000 Myanmar refugees living along the border to stop illegal logging and deforestation within two months. Suwit said the refugees were found to have burned forests and felled trees for timber processing plants in the Myanmar side. -------------------------------------------------------------- Monday June 30, 1:09 PM -------------------------------------------------------------- Suu Kyi's whereabouts not yet confirmed:
Takeuchi -------------------------------------------------------------- ASEAN eyes treaty to facilitate probes of transnational
crimes -------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
POLICE WARNING: Burmese exiles
targeted
Published on Jun 30, 2003 Sant says watch being kept on 2,000 refugees with papers Police chief Sant Sarutanond yesterday vowed to arrest any Burmese exiles who attend a rally today at the Burmese embassy to press for the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. "Thailand will not allow any groups to use our territory for their political activities against neighbouring countries," Sant told reporters. Many dissident groups - including the Democratic Federation of Burma, some of whose members were arrested last week - were preparing to demonstrate today against Aung San Suu Kyi's detention, which began a month ago. In the past, peaceful protests in front of the Burmese embassy have been tolerated. The government toughened its stance on Burmese dissidents in this country after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was accused of bowing to US pressure by calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. The government was previously viewed as a good friend to Burma's rulers. Many cabinet members have personal relations with the junta's generals. Police arrested 11 Burmese dissidents on Thursday after a tip-off from Rangoon that the exiles were planning to kidnap the Burmese ambassador in Bangkok and hold him hostage to exchange for Aung San Suu Kyi. Intelligence information leaked by police said the dissidents also planned to sabotage oil depots at Don Muang Airport. And if the plan to seize the ambassador failed, they would instead capture interior minister Wan Muhamad Noor Matha and his family. A Burmese couple was arrested Friday in Bang Khunthien with 23,000 methamphetamine tablets. One of them, known as Win Nye, was carrying a paper from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued to "people of concern" who had sought political asylum. "I don't know what the UNHCR can say when the agency learned its protected persons have been involved in illicit drugs," police chief Sant said. Police have been ordered to keep a close eye on approximately 2,000 exiled Burmese in Bangkok who are carrying UN documents, he said, adding that they would be arrested immediately if they violate Thai laws. Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said authorities would put all the dissidents in refugee camps if they disturbed social order in the Kingdom. Prime Minister Thaksin on Friday lashed out at the UN commission for granting protection to too many Burmese dissidents without the government's consent. Prime Minister's Secretary Yongyuth Tiyapairat said the premier would this week call on all intelligence agencies to coordinate measures dealing with Burmese dissidents. More than 1 million Burmese are estimated to have fled political and economic difficulty and now live in Thailand. More than 100,000 are in refugee camps along the border while many asylum seekers have obtained UN protection and live in Bangkok. --------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - Monday 30 June 2003
Police chief warns Burmese dissidents Protest in front of embassy banned National police chief Sant Sarutanont has threatened to take action against Burmese dissidents reported to be planning a protest in front of the Burmese embassy today. ``We will definitely not allow any group of people to use Thai soil to conduct political activities against a neighbouring country. ``The Special Branch and city police will see to it that there is no protest. If protesters show up there, they will be arrested,'' Pol Gen Sant said. He was responding to a report that Burmese dissidents plan to stage a rally in front of the Burmese embassy today to voice their political demands. Even those carrying cards issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would be arrested if found illegally assembling for political purposes or engaging in the drug trade, he said. Pol Gen Sant said the 11 Burmese arrested at a textile factory in Soi Phetkasem 44, Phasi Charoen district last Thursday were carrying cards issued by the UNHCR identifying them as political refugees. They were members of the Democratic Front of Burma. He said two other Burmese _ Win Naing, 20, and his wife Aye, 29 _ were arrested at a house in Soi Tha Kham in Bang Khun Thian district on Friday, with 35,790 methamphetamine pills. Mr Win was found to be carrying a UNHCR refugee card and knew the 11 Burmese arrested previously. Police were investigating if money from the drug trade was intended to support political activities in Thailand, Pol Gen Sant said. --------------------------------------------------------------
The Boston Herald
Film reveals Burmese prostitutes' nightmare Movies/By Stephanie Schorow Monday, June 30, 2003 She has the face of a cherub, the pigtails of a little girl and a story straight from hell. The Burmese 17-year-old, called only ``Zu-Zu'' in the documentary film on Southeast Asia sex trafficking ``Anonymously Yours'' by Cambridge filmmaker Gayle Ferraro, tells of being raped as a child and sold to a brothel by her own mother and aunt. Zu-Zu's harrowing tale of being sold by the brothel to a Chinese leech-breeding business might so shock audiences at the first Boston International Film Festival - where the film screens Thursday - that they might dismiss the story as too gruesome to be true. Sometime speaking in sing-song rhythm as if she were describing someone else's life, Zu-Zu tells how kidnapped girls were submerged in leech-infected ponds to their necks until they passed out from blood loss. The blood-fattened leeches are harvested and sold; the girls are revived, fed and dunked again. ``This is real,'' insisted Ferraro, who risked detention and possibly worse to sneak her film of interviews with prostitutes out of Myanmar (formerly Burma). But why not use animals as leech food? ``Animals are too valuable,'' she grimly explained. Ferraro, a petite blonde, is ferociously passionate about the subject of Southeast Asia sex trafficking. Her 87-minute documentary features lengthy interviews with four strikingly different Burmese women, interspersed with travelogue-style shots of Myanmar's temples, teahouses, farmland and poverty-stricken streets and homes. There is little narration, just enough to tell viewers that sex trafficking is a huge industry in Southeast Asia, with Bangkok, Thailand, as its epicenter. ``I wanted people to experience this on an emotional level, not an intellectual level,'' Ferraro said. Mostly the camera focuses on the faces of the women: Yi-Yi, a kindly brothel cook turned social worker; Cho-Cho, a tense, taut, yet hauntingly beautiful 24-year-old; San-San, a saucy 32-year-old with careless bravado who services Western men in nightclubs; and Zu-Zu, who still brings home money to her mother. ``I wonder what English-speaking people will think of this,'' she says. ``Please don't think badly of me.'' The illiterate, almost feral Zu-Zu ``obviously was intelligent. That's the heartbreaking part. She was so aware,'' Ferraro said. Ferraro had not planned to make ``Anonymously Yours.'' She had made the documentary ``Sixteen Decisions'' about entrepreneurial women in India and was on her way back to India to make another documentary when she stopped in Myanmar to visit a fellow student from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. (Ferraro has a degree in public administration from Harvard.) The friend was working with former prostitutes and insisted Ferraro consider a documentary. After she met Zu-Zu, ``it was a done deal.'' Ferraro returned in December 2000. It was not an easy choice. Myanmar is under a harsh dictatorship and Ferraro's three-woman crew had to shoot surreptitiously and avoid authorities. Former and current prostitutes were interviewed with elaborate safety precautions and the final film had to be smuggled out in batches. Once the crew was caught in a restricted area by the military and Ferraro almost couldn't speak, even to ``play dumb tourist,'' she was so scared. ``We were out of our minds with terror on how to get the film out,'' she said. But the outrage Ferraro felt listening to Zu-Zu, Cho-Cho and others has been matched by her frustration here in getting the film viewed. She has found screening venues only after great difficulty. ``It's hard for people to relate to this because it seems like ITAL their UNITAL problem,'' she said. Such as the man who, after a screening, demanded to know if prostitution was halted, ``what about the economy?'' She feels, however, that this is ITAL our UNITAL problem as Western tourists are a huge part of Thailand's sex industry; ``sex tours'' can be booked on the Internet. But while Ferraro slams wealthy Westerners as the ``top of the food chain,'' she's surprisingly sympathetic to the Burmese men who seek out prostitutes. ``Every tea shop has girls who are working it. There's no TV, there's no radio. Most of the men are unemployed and illiterate. They married as children and have seven, eight, nine kids. He doesn't go home to his wife,'' Ferraro said. ``It's like going out for a beer.'' That's why viewing the documentary can be unsettling, with its unrelenting examination of how deeply prostitution is ingrained in the country's culture. Still, Zu-Zu's story will challenge those who insist prostitution is a victimless crime. As for Zu-Zu herself, Ferraro only knows that the girl has disappeared. The first Boston International Film Festival will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday at John Hancock Hall, 180 Berkeley St. Boston. Screenings include movies from Mexico, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, England, Haiti and the United States. For more information, call 781-935-0871 or go to www.bifimfestival.com. ``Anonymously Yours'' will screen Thursday at 3:40 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------
The Jakarta Post
ASEAN insists on release of Suu Kyi Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta June 30, 2003 The Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) is continuing to seek the early release of Myanmar democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from government detention, a government official says. "We want to get results, that is, the early release of Suu Kyi, but off course in a spirit of partnership with the Myanmar government," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa said Sunday when asked about the meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda and the United Nations special envoy on Myanmar, Razali Ismail, on Saturday. The two discussed follow-up action on the worldwide demands for Suu Kyi's release. Indonesia currently chairs ASEAN. Marty said the two officials discussed the possibility of developing better ways of ensuring the release of the pro-democracy leader, including Jakarta's idea of sending a high-powered ASEAN ministerial team to Myanmar. "We need the Myanmar side to respond to the proposal as they promised. We are waiting for them to give us a proposal regarding the team," Marty added. Separately, Ismail said that Myanmar could no longer afford to ignore appeals from its Southeast Asian neighbors for the release Suu Kyi. "I don't see how Myanmar can turn a deaf ear to the appeal of the ASEAN countries," Ismail told Agence France-Presse after meeting Hassan over breakfast. "My purpose here ... is to underline how seriously the UN looks at the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi," said Ismail. Myanmar's military junta announced on May 31 that the popular leader had been detained. She was held after a junta-backed mob attacked her supporters in violence feared to have left dozens dead. Her detention has sparked outrage around the world. The United States and the European Union have beefed up their sanctions against the Yangon regime. During the 36th ASEAN foreign ministers meeting early this month, the group asked for the release of Suu Kyi. Myanmar has come under pressure from the international community for the release of Suu Kyi, while the largest donor country to Myanmar, Japan, has suspended aid to the country over the issue. The decision was taken following Ismail's confirmation to the Japanese foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi that Suu Kyi was being detained in poor conditions in a Yangon prison when he was allowed to meet her on June 10. Although during the ASEAN meeting, Myanmar's foreign minister U Win Aung was open to member countries in explaining the situation, so far there have been no signs that Suu Kyi will be released in the near future. Malaysia's foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar said last Thursday that the detention of the Nobel laureate had damaged ASEAN's reputation and was a setback for the region. Marty said Saturday's meeting was held at the request of Ismail, and was intended to compare notes and fill each other in on the latest developments in Myanmar. Ismail returned to Malaysia on Sunday before going on to the United Nations
in New York.
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The Straits Times
Suu Kyi marks one month in detention with no end in sight JUNE 30, 2003 MON UN envoy warns Myanmar's ruling junta that it can no longer ignore the appeals of its Asean neighbours for her release YANGON - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi marks one month in detention today, with the country's military leaders giving no sign of when she will be released despite a mounting international outcry. UN special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail - the only outsider to have seen Ms Suu Kyi since she was taken into what the junta called 'protective custody' on May 30 - said when he met her on June 10 that he expected her to be released within two weeks. But since then, Myanmar's generals have only repeated that her detention was temporary and that she would be released 'as soon as possible', while refusing to give any indication of when that might be. Amid growing international pressure, Asean broke with its strict tradition of non-interference in member nations' internal affairs and urged Myanmar to free Ms Suu Kyi. Mr Razali said in Jakarta on Saturday that Myanmar could no longer ignore the appeals of its Asean neighbours. 'I don't see how Myanmar can turn a deaf ear to the appeal of the Asean countries,' he said after meeting Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda. Indonesia, the grouping's new chairman, is due to lead a planned Asean delegation to Myanmar, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman. US President George W. Bush has personally led the charge of world leaders calling for her release. The United States and the European Union have already toughened sanctions, while Myanmar's largest donor country, Japan, has suspended new economic aid. Concerns are growing over the conditions she is being forced to endure after the British government said she was being held in a two-room hut at the notorious Insein jail without a change of clothes. Mr Razali told reporters last week: 'What I can say is that where I met her was absolutely deplorable. It was not in keeping with the stature and the status of Aung San Suu Kyi as a political leader or as a national leader. 'She's uncowed and feisty. She was outraged that this had happened to her. That's the Suu Kyi I've always known,' he said. This is the first time the popular leader has been jailed, although she had spent just over seven years under house arrest, imposed by Myanmar's military rulers, since beginning her pro-democracy campaign in 1988. The Nobel peace laureate was arrested after her convoy and supporters were attacked violently by a junta-backed mob while on a political tour in northern Myanmar. The junta, meanwhile, again accused dissidents and the foreign media of trying to stir up unrest through their reports. The state-run Kyemon newspaper said in a commentary yesterday that the foreign media had made 'slanderous accusations'. The Kyemon accused Myanmar's ethnic Karen rebels, the BBC, the Voice of America and the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma of spreading disinformation. It said that foreign media accounts were meant 'to instigate unrest, create anarchy, bring down a military government and install the government that would listen to the dictates of colonialists'. It criticised the foreign media for not accepting Mr Razali's assurances she was unhurt. 'They are not worried about her well-being, but are looking for a reason to point fingers and put the blame on the government,' it said. The commentary did not mention Mr Razali's expressions of deep worry about Suu Kyi's detention. -- AFP, AP -------------------------------------------------------------- |