Fri Dec 29, 2006

YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar’s military rulers adjourned a constitution-drafting convention on Friday which is expected to reconvene for its final session next May, delegates said.

Convention convener Lieutenant-General Thein Sein told the 1,000-plus delegates, most of them handpicked by the junta, they would resume their work at “a time convenient for all,” one delegate said.

“Although he did not say exactly when, it is understood that the convention will resume in May next year for the last session,” the delegate told Reuters.

The junta, which has run the former Burma under various guises since 1962, says the convention is key to a seven-stage “roadmap to democracy” laid out in 2003 by former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who was ousted in October 2004.

Western governments, analysts and diplomats say it is nothing but a smokescreen to preserve the generals’ grip on power, especially while opposition figures such as Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remain under house arrest.

Critics point to a key objective of the convention which ensures a “leadership role” for the army in politics.

The military started the national convention process in early 1993 but never committed to a schedule to conclude the exercise boycotted by major opposition parties, including Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

The United States said on Thursday it would renew efforts early next year to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution to prod the junta to allow greater freedom and improve human rights.

“We remain concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian and political situation in Burma, which poses a threat to stability in the region,” State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington.

The United States has repeatedly pledged to ask the Security Council to take action on Myanmar, but has not yet introduced a promised draft resolution.

Russia, a permanent member of the 15-nation council with veto power, and others on the council have argued that Myanmar did not constitute an international threat to peace and security, which is the council’s mandate under the U.N. Charter.

Written by Zaid Ibrahim

Wednesday, 28 December 2005

(NST-Dec 28,2005)

Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, the Foreign Minister, will be taking along an important checklist when he leaves for Myanmar next week.

He will be Asean’s special envoy dispatched to determine what exactly the Myanmar authorities are doing to resolve the political and economic deterioration that affects millions of people. It is this ongoing crisis of governance that remains a millstone around Asean’s neck.

The weight of this responsibility is significant because Malaysia was the loudest voice in support of Myanmar’s Asean membership eight years ago. Asean’s efforts to protect Myanmar from international pressure merely emboldened the Myanmar Government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), to diversify its violations and intensify its misrule. The last Asean Summit, however, confirmed Malaysia’s own position with regard to reforms in Myanmar.

Both the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister expressed in no uncertain terms that democracy must be realised there.

There has been much speculation over what Syed Hamid will do in Myanmar and what he will report after his trip. While sceptics may criticise the trip as a last-ditch venture to find “bullets” for Asean’s “guns” to defend the regime, many Myanmar themselves hope that Malaysia will be a catalyst for genuine reforms in their country. After all, it was Malaysian diplomat Tan Sri Razali Ismail who brought forth the “secret talks” between democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the regime in 2000, and it was the Malaysian Parliament’s Myanmar Caucus that kick-started unprecedented regional pressure by legislators to deny Myanmar the Asean 2006 chair.

We should be very clear that this trip is a mission that must deliver results. It should not degenerate into a courtesy visit for the Myanmar authorities to trot out their usual platitudes about “step-by- step” democratisation efforts when it is patently clear that they have been marching backwards.

Asean must not be willing to accept any more excuses and empty promises as the SPDC dusts off its so-called roadmap for democracy, which centres on a 12-year-old constitution-drafting process that has steadily lost legitimacy, credibility and representation.

The National Convention to draft a new constitution continues to exclude nine political parties representing 91 per cent of parliamentary seats. Anyone who speaks against it can be sentenced to 20 years’ jail. The number of elected Members of Parliament at the National Convention has been reduced to 15, or less than two per cent of the assembly.

This year alone, seven more elected MPs were detained, bringing the total of MPs currently in jail to 13. Khun Tun Oo, MP and chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, was arrested in February and recently sentenced to 90 years in prison. In July, 60-year-old Muslim MP Kyaw Min (a.k.a. Mohammad Shamsul Anwarul Hoque) was jailed for 47 years. His wife and three children were sentenced to 17 years’ jail.

Leaders of various ethnic groups, including the Mon and Chin groups, have been rounded up and detained, along with activists from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). Many more remain in jail despite poor health or old age. Others continue to endure terrible conditions in prison despite having served their sentences. It is imperative that Syed Hamid strongly urges that these political prisoners, as well as Suu Kyi and her senior colleagues, are released without further delay.

The Myanmar Government must be encouraged to set aside their fear of Suu Kyi’s enduring national popularity. As someone who commands deep respect and trust across Myanmar’s diverse society, her role as a conciliator should be valued, not vilified.

Suu Kyi herself has said that she is willing to co-operate with the authorities for the sake of genuine national reconciliation. Of course, such co-operation must hinge on principles of equality and openness.

Syed Hamid also needs to have a frank discussion on how the Myanmar authorities can transform the current roadmap, which has degenerated into a political dead-end, into something that is genuinely inclusive and achieves meaningful reforms. Implementation of a sham process that tramples on human rights and the rule of law will only exacerbate the problems that Myanmar poses to this region.

Syed Hamid, like his father, is known for his strong sense of justice and fairness. I am sure he will add his voice to efforts to secure guarantees that aid agencies be allowed to deliver emergency relief directly to those who need it. He should be especially concerned about the revelation made in August by World Food Programme director James Morris that the authorities only allowed WFP to deliver a mere 430 tonnes of 5,500 tonnes of rice earmarked for mostly Muslim communities in North Arakan state.

The “to-do” list is indeed a long and significant one, but our Foreign Minister, with the support of other Asean countries, will be able to proactively engage the Myanmar Government on key issues. The credibility of Malaysia and Asean, as well as the destiny of the people of Myanmar, is at stake.

We have confidence in Syed Hamid’s abilities and talents to transform what others may consider a “mission impossible” into a possibility of peace and democracy for the long-suffering people of Myanmar. Bon voyage.

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is MP for Kota Baru and president of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, a multi-partisan regional network of legislators supporting democratisation in Myanmar.

A group of women who regularly brave Burma’s military spies to pray for detained opposition heroine Aung San Suu Kyi gave food to Buddhist monks Wednesday, after being banned from the country’s famous Shwedagon Pagoda.

The group, lead by the former head of the women’s wing of the National League for Democracy, Daw Naw Ohn Hla, made the religious and political gesture at the prominent Tha-tha-na-gon-ye monastery of Abbot Sayadaw U Zawana in Bahan Township Yangon.

Political activists have regularly prayed for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi at the Shwedagon that dominates the Yangon skyline since July 2004. The popular opposition leader has been confined to her house after a group of militia and thugs ambushed her cavalcade in May 2004. Aside from rare foreign visitors she has been isolated and apparently, at times, ill.

The prayers were previously held in the Tuesday corner of the Shwedagon because that is the day Suu Kyi was born. The pagoda’s authorities recently banned “political prayers” at the Tuesday hall and loudspeakers around the temple warn visitors not to engage in political activities.

Suu Kyi has been the focal point of the opposition to the military that has ruled since a 1962 coup. Her NLD party won a 1990 election by a landslide, which was ignored by the ruling generals.

The regime has arrested student leaders engaged in the “prayers for peace” campaign and last month temporarily detained activists who attempted to pray at the Shwedagon.

Burma’s police chief Brig-Gen Khin Yi said last month that activists were exploiting the country’s sacred places for political reasons.

Suu Kyi has notably attempted to win the moral high ground with righteous behavior and self-sacrifice in her campaign to move Myanmar towards democracy. The ruling generals have countered by building and restoring Buddhist temples.

© 2006 DPA

Thu Dec 28, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States vowed on Thursday to renew efforts early next year to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution to prod Myanmar’s military rulers to ease repression and improve humanitarian conditions.

“We remain concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian and political situation in Burma, which poses a threat to stability in the region,” said State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey, using the country’s former name.

The United States would pursue a resolution “as soon as possible in the new year” urging the government in Yangon to allow greater freedom and improved humanitarian conditions, he said in a written statement.

The United States has repeatedly pledged to ask the Security Council to take action on Myanmar but has not yet introduced a promised draft resolution.

John Bolton, the then-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said a month ago he would offer a resolution “within the next few days or weeks” telling Myanmar’s junta to stop policies that threatened international peace and security.

Russia, a permanent member of the 15-nation council with veto power, and others on the council argued at the time that Myanmar did not constitute an international threat to peace and security, which is the council’s mandate under the U.N. Charter.

The military has run Myanmar under various guises since 1962 and the current group of generals took power in 1988.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been in and out of house arrest after her National League for Democracy won a landslide election victory in 1990.

Washington Post; Sunday, December 17, 2006

THE UNITED Nations has a new secretary general, but one of his first challenges is a very old problem: the recalcitrant and brutal dictatorship of Burma. The U.N. Security Council voted several months ago to put Burma on its official agenda. Now it must decide whether to give that vote any meaning. The United States is circulating a draft resolution calling for the release of political prisoners, an end to the Burmese military’s use of rape as a weapon of war and a few other measures that should hardly be controversial. Are there any council members — Argentina? Japan? China? — who oppose such measures?

Burma, also known as Myanmar, matters on three counts: in its own right, as a symbol, and for its effect on its neighbors and the world. It’s a nation of some 50 million people in Southeast Asia, rich in resources but stripped and impoverished by its corrupt dictators. The regime’s ethnic cleansing campaign against certain internal nationalities has killed thousands, pushed well over a million out of their homes and forced many more into slave labor. The Burmese people deserve better.

Burma matters as a symbol because it’s a rare dictatorship where we know, beyond dispute, that the people object to their misrule — and we know what they would prefer. We know this because the junta allowed, in 1990, an election, and the National League for Democracy triumphed in a landslide. The junta nullified the results, jailed many of the winners and has kept the democrats’ leader, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for most of the years since. There could not be a clearer test of whether the people’s will means anything to the United Nations.

Finally, Burma is a menace to the world — a source of drugs and AIDS and refugees, as was amply documented in a report commissioned last year by retired archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and former president Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic. There should be no doubt about U.N. authority to weigh in. That’s especially true since other diplomatic measures, including dispatching envoys from the secretary general, have been tried and have failed. The draft resolution proposes no coercive measures but simply insists that the secretary general pursue vigorously the liberalization that everyone knows is needed. That needs to start with the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi and her imprisoned associates and their inclusion in a political dialogue.

Asian Tribune. Friday, 2006-12-15

By Mr Djoko Susilo MP – Indonesia

In September the United Nations Security Council debated the situation in the Southeast Asian country of Burma for the first time in history. Our Muslim brothers and sisters inside Burma and around the world welcome this major step forward.

The rulers of Burma are the State Peace and Development Council, one of the world’s most brutal military regimes. The supreme leader of this regime, General Than Shwe, has brutalized the Burmese people, forcing over 1 million refugees to flee the country, burning down and relocating over 3,000 villages, using modern-day slave labor, holding more child soldiers than any other country in the world, and locking up over one thousand political prisoners.

To top it off, the regime has made Aung San Suu Kyi the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient – locking her up under house arrest.

Suu Kyi is not just a charismatic, nonviolent leader; she led a political party, the National League for Democracy, to a landslide victory in Burma’s last democratic election. The military regime has refused to recognize these election results.

Than Shwe’s regime represses all the peoples of Burma, but as Human Rights Watch has thoroughly documented, the regime especially targets Burma’s Muslim population in Arakan state. Our brothers and sisters in Burma’s northern Arakan state are murdered, imprisoned, and raped on a systematic basis by soldiers of the military regime. They are also denied any freedom of movement, are robbed of food and land, are forced to convert from Islam, and are often penalized for even marrying and having children.

Muslim couples are harassed, fined, and jailed for marrying without permission from the regime, or forced to pay draconian fees for simple government documents.

But the repression does not end there. Muslim land is being confiscated by the military regime, leading to chronic food shortages on almost famine levels, and as a result, serious and chronic malnutrition. Than Shwe’s regime has armed and incited mob violence to destroy mosques, desecrate the Koran, and terrorize Muslim communities in Northern Arakan state through sexual violence against Muslim women.

When forces of the Burmese regime captured central Dooplaya District, Muslims were driven en masse out of their villages, copies of the Koran were torn up in front of them and their mosques were dynamited and bulldozed.

Even worse, soldiers and military-backed thugs from the military regime often rape Muslim women and girls. This can happen for days on end, and the soldiers do not discriminate amongst their victims. Soldiers of Than Shwe’s regime even rape girls and pregnant women. The perpetrators of these vicious crimes are almost never prosecuted.

Survivors of such heinous acts as rape by the military cannot seek justice in Burma because the Burmese regime’s Citizenship Law denies citizenship rights to Muslims in Arakan state. Amnesty International calls this “grossly discriminatory” and “in clear violation” of Burma’s “obligation as a state and member of the United Nations”. As Human Rights Watch reports, the law prevents these Muslims from becoming citizens solely on the basis of their religion, when the reality is that the Muslims in Arakan State “have had a well-established presence in the country since the twelfth century”.

Intense and systematic discrimination by the regime against Muslims in northern Arakan state leaves these people without any protections and freedoms. The regime has rendered these people stateless in their own home country. Amnesty reports that “tens of thousands have fled to neighboring Bangladesh and other countries.”

Those who have no choice but to stay in northern Arakan state cannot travel from village to village without special passes, which are almost impossible to attain. To underline the severity of these travel restrictions, the government refuses to issue many passports so Muslims can travel to perform the Haj.

There are some whom have claimed that the UN Human Rights Council should deal with the situation in Burma. But the matter is far more serious than this, and the United Nations human rights mechanisms have already miserably failed over the past 14 years. The UN General Assembly and UN Commission on Human Rights have passed 28 consecutive resolutions calling for change in Burma.

The Commission has appointed 4 special envoys to Burma, while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed 2 full-time envoys. The regime has ignored every single resolution and envoy. The last envoy, Malaysian Tan Sri Razali Ismail resigned in frustration. Even Mr. Annan himself has called for change in a direct meeting with Than Shwe, but the call fell on dear ears. Than Shwe’s oppression must not be allowed to continue. It is long past-due for the international community to respond to his illegal rule.

The Burmese military regime is no longer simply threatening its own people. It has become a problem for the world. Muslims want the United Nations Security Council to immediately pass a resolution to bring about national reconciliation, and we strongly urge the government of Qatar, who is presently a member of the Council, to support such action. The people of Burma deserve no less than a serious, binding UN Security Council resolution.

Djoko Susilo is a member of parliament from Indonesia where he serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is the Chairperson of the Indonesian Parliamentary Caucus for Democracy in Burma.

- Asian Tribune -