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BURMA RELATED NEWS - November 24, 2004 YANGON (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar's promised release of nearly 4,000 prisoners appears to have faltered, relatives said on Tuesday, dashing hopes more political detainees might be set free. Friends and family of many prisoners of conscience in the former Burma have waited anxiously outside Yangon's notorious Insein prison for news after the junta's shock announcement last week it would free 3,937 prisoners. The release of Min Ko Naing, a student leader deemed to be Myanmar's second most important political detainee after democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, had raised hopes other opposition figures might be among those freed. Those hopes are fading by the day. "To our surprise, there was no release at all today. We spent the whole day near the outside gate of Insein," Maung Maung Khin, a close friend of Win Tin, a high-profile political prisoner and formerly Suu Kyi's closest aide, said late on Monday. Suu Kyi herself remains under house arrest at her Yangon lakeside home, without a telephone and requiring military permission to receive visitors. Families of several other political prisoners hoping for good news said they too had been waiting in vain. It is unclear how many of the proposed 3,937 releases, which followed October's purge of Prime Minister and military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt, have actually been carried out and how many were political detainees. State media have offered no details. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) said 28 political prisoners had been released out of a total of around 1,400 prisoners of conscience estimated by human rights groups. Many of those confirmed as released were old and had either completed or were nearing the end of their prison terms. The family of Than Nyein, a member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) who was imprisoned for seven years in 1997, said his prison sentence was extended by another two months the day after the releases were announced. "Last Friday, he was remanded for another two months, for the third time since his official sentence expired in July," a family source told Reuters. Than Nyein, who had gone on hunger strike in protest in September, was taken to hospital and returned to Insein prison when he recovered, but told his jailers he would go on hunger strike again if he was not released, the source said. DHAKA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Bangladesh is hoping an Indian pipeline traversing the northern and eastern part of the country to bring natural gas from Myanmar will earn it an initial $500 million, the country's energy minister said on Tuesday. Bangladesh had agreed in principle to the Indian proposal, which was set to be formally agreed in December, state minister for energy and mineral resources A.K.M. Mosharraf Hossain said on Tuesday. "We expect to settle the matter mostly in our next meeting in Dhaka, in December, before the final deal at the tripartite meeting in January," he told Reuters, adding certain conditions still had to be met. The conditions would give Bangladesh's state-owned Gas Transmission Company Limited management responsibility over the project, bringing in annual fees of about $125 million. India would build the 290 km (181.25 miles) pipeline, which is expected to cost more than $1 billion. It would enter eastern Bangladesh through its Brahmanbaria border and cross into India's West Bengal state through the northern Rajshahi border. "If the plan is implemented, about $350 million will be invested in Bangladesh and we will get nearly $100 million as carrying charges per year," the energy minister said. Bangladesh's gas reserves are shrinking, having fallen by a quarter to 15.33 trillion cubic feet in the last 40 years, officials said. Its production does not meet its own needs and it does not sell natural gas to India. South Korea's Daewoo International operates and owns 60 percent of Myanmar's gas-rich A-1 block, in which India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. holds 20 percent, while GAIL India Ltd. and Korea Gas Corp. each hold 10 percent. Daewoo's 100 percent-owned A-3 block is close to A-1, which could hold 6 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. YANGON (AP) - Military-ruled Myanmar will resume its convention to draft guidelines for a new constitution in February next year, a top member of its junta said Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, in remarks broadcast on state radio and television, said the convention would resume as part of the junta's so-called road map to democracy announced last year, supposed to lead to free elections at an undetermined time in the future. Thein Sein, chairman of the National Convention Convening Commission, did not give an exact date when it would resume its work. He also reiterated comments made last month that the government remained committed to the road map, which was announced last year by Gen. Khin Nyunt, who was ousted as prime minister on Oct 19. Although Khin Nyunt has been accused by the junta of corruption and insubordination, it is widely believed that he was pushed out because he was seen as too willing to compromise with Nobel laureate Aunt San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy movement. Khin Nyunt's ouster raised concern that Myanmar would retreat from its promised reforms. Especially concerned were Myanmar's fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, who had encouraged the regime in its gradualist approach. Western nations shun the junta because of its failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a 1990 general election, but the military did not allow parliament to convene. Myanmar's political deadlock is expected to be a major topic when ASEAN leaders meet in Vientiane, Laos on Nov. 29 at their annual summit. The constitutional convention's first session was held from May to July. The National League for Democracy refused to take part, mainly because the junta declined to free Suu Kyi from house arrest. She has been in detention since a violent clash last year between her party members and government supporters. (AP) - Democracy's apparent dead end in Myanmar, the terrorist threat from a Muslim insurgency in Thailand, and the flight of foreign investment to colossus China are on the diplomatic plate for Southeast Asia's annual summit next week. This year's Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting will be hosted by the poorest and most isolated member, Laos. It's a coming-out party for the communist nation, and also the first regional parley for new leaders in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Myanmar. "What's new in the field today? Terrorism, diseases like bird flu and SARS, and the economic relevance of ASEAN," said Ramon Navaratnam of the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, a non-governmental think-tank, in Kuala Lumpur. The 10-nation ASEAN opens its conference Thursday in the Laotian capital Vientiane, culminating in a leaders' summit next Monday and Tuesday. The group has been working on an ASEAN Free Trade Area, a market of 530 million people and a combined economy of US$ 1 trillion (euro 769 billion). But the countries remain a chain of disparate markets. Some countries impose higher tariffs than has been agreed, goods can take five weeks to clear customs and prices on identical items vary on average 31 percent across the region, said a report by consultancy McKinsey & Co. in March. Malaysia has stood out for measures protecting the region's only homegrown car industry. ASEAN was founded by Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand in 1967 as a bulwark against communism. It evolved into a political, cultural and economic club, with Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia joining from 1985 to 1999. Chin Kin Wah, a regional analyst for Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said ASEAN needs to push for greater economic integration. "How much further can we take this economic grouping? That is the most important question," he said. "ASEAN has to take the grouping beyond just tariff reduction." ASEAN's economic relevance could be undermined by bilateral free trade agreements negotiated by richer ASEAN countries, especially Singapore, which has been impatient with the pace of liberalization. "Singapore is a Trojan horse in ASEAN," Navaratnam said. "She is only interested in her own interests ... and can't wait to move with others." ASEAN also is worried by the growing influence of China and India, which draw away foreign investment. The McKinsey report says ASEAN suffered a 66 percent decline in foreign investment and a 50 percent drop in economic growth since Asia's 1997 economic crisis. But when it comes to China, the region's mantra could be: If you can't beat them, have them join you. In Vientiane, an agreement will be signed by China and ASEAN to set up a free trade area aimed at removing tariffs on merchandise goods by 2010. The two sides are supposed to begin the tariff cuts in 2005. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will hold a separate summit with ASEAN leaders, as will prime ministers of Japan, South Korea and India. In addition, for the first time since 1977, leaders of Australia and New Zealand are invited to the summit. The four first-time attendees from Southeast Asia are Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Myanmar's Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Soe Win. Soe Win will likely face intense questioning in private from colleagues about his military-ruled country's professed quest for democracy, which has all but stalled, drawing unwanted criticism for the region from world leaders. Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, and relatively moderate Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was fired last month on corruption allegations. Last week, the junta released nearly 4,000 political prisoners from jail, apparently to blunt criticism, and that may placate ASEAN partners, said Malaysian political analyst P. Ramasamy. "I don't think ASEAN is ready to renounce its non-inteference policy," he said. "I don't see ASEAN putting any pressure on the Myanmar government to release Suu Kyi." However, in a departure from protocol, Myanmar political's situation is likely to be cited in this year's summit statement, Thai government sources said on condition of anonymity. Thailand also may face scrutiny _ especially from Muslim-majority countries Indonesia and Malaysia _ over allegations of heavy-handed tactics to control an Islamic insurgency in its southern provinces. More than 500 people have been killed this year, including 85 at the hands of security forces on Oct. 25. "ASEAN needs to pay special attention to the situation in southern Thailand as it can become a new flashpoint for terrorism in Southeast Asia," political analyst Agos Yusuff said in Kuala Lumpur. "Thailand must also stop treating this as a domestic issue but one with the potential to threaten regional stability." Thailand is ready to respond if the issue is "raised by any country," said Kitti Wasinondh, the Thai Foreign Ministry's head of ASEAN affairs. Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The International Labor Organization will send a team to Myanmar to discuss allegations of forced labor with the military government after the replacement last month of the Asian nation's prime minister, General Khin Nyunt. The ILO ``considered that the response to particularly worrying cases will demonstrate the extent of the current government's will to solve these matters,'' the agency said in a statement on the United Nations' Web site. Government changes in Myanmar in recent weeks mean that officials who were involved in negotiations on forced labor allegations ``are no longer in their jobs,'' the ILO said. The ruling junta in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, replaced Khin Nyunt with Lieutenant General Soe Win, a change seen as an end to a power struggle between Khin Nyunt's supporters and army generals opposed to reconciliation with pro- democracy parties. The U.S. government said the leadership change will harm progress toward democracy by Myanmar's junta, which has run the country formerly known as Burma since 1962. The ILO said it will ask its member nations to review economic and other relations with Myanmar after its team completes the report on forced labor. ``There are several outstanding questions relating to the allegations of forced labor, which the ILO's liaison office has transmitted to the authorities,'' the UN agency said. Myanmar's junta last week released 3,937 prisoners, saying they may have been wrongly jailed by the intelligence unit headed by Khin Nyunt, Agence France-Presse reported at the time. The unit has been disbanded as part of an investigation into corruption and Khin Nyunt placed under house arrest, the military has said. Those released include Min Ko Naing, who was jailed in 1988 for leading pro-democracy protests by students, AFP reported during the weekend, citing U Lwin, a spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy. ``There are good numbers of releases of prisoners who have been held for political positions, important prisoners,'' the British Broadcasting Corp. cited Razali Ismail, the UN special envoy to Myanmar, as saying yesterday. ``That is a good sign.'' BANGKOK - The initial euphoria that greeted the recent release of nearly 4,000 prisoners from jails in military-ruled Myanmar seems to be dissipating fast. For all it may be, this amnesty might not necessarily translate into political reform. Despite the release after 15 years of solitary confinement of Min Ko Naing, Myanmar's second-best-known political prisoner after Aung San Suu Kyi, the profile of most of the prisoners freed, the timing of their release and the reasons being offered by Yangon's junta have fed this assessment, undermining any hope the military rulers might have had of profiting from this goodwill gesture. For one, only between 20 and 28 of the 3,937 prisoners granted freedom last Thursday were jailed for their political activities. The majority were thrown behind bars by the oppressive regime for alleged crimes, including theft. In addition, most of the prisoners released already had served their full sentences. Currently, Myanmar has close to 1,400 political prisoners held in harsh conditions within the 39 prisons spread across the Southeast Asian country. They include parliamentarians, writers, pro-democracy activists and Buddhist monks. Among them is Win Tin, a close aide of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, jailed since 1989 for his political beliefs. "The release of the prisoners suggests nothing other than an effort to please the international community," Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner, told Inter Press Service. "Most of the prisoners had finished their terms, so they were not being released for special reasons." According to Bo Kyi, who heads the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Myanmar, a group based in the northern Thai town of Mae Sot, the junta is still committed to jailing citizens who challenge its political view. "Last week they arrested three members of the NLD," he said, referring to the National League for Democracy, the political party headed by Suu Kyi that won a landslide victory at the 1990 elections but was denied power by the junta. Suu Kyi herself currently is under house arrest. Same old song and dance In 2001, the release of nearly 200 political prisoners from jails, including the notorious Insein prison in Yangon, was typical. The move occurred at a time when the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the junta is officially known, was under fire from the international community. Then, too, the prisoners released had served their full sentences and were not freed by any special amnesty. Three years later, Myanmar's strongman is facing a more formidable array of critics on the international stage. This follows the sacking of Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt from his prime minister's post on October 19. Khin Nyunt, who currently is under house arrest, was appointed premier last year and soon convinced some Myanmar watchers that he was a moderate keen on pushing ahead with political reform. His successor, Lieutenant-General Soe Win, is regarded as a military hardliner and has been named by Myanmar political exiles in Thailand as having been the primary figure behind an attack led by thugs linked to the junta on Suu Kyi and her NLD supporters in May last year. Besides the usual critics such as the United States, the United Kingdom and other European Union countries, Myanmar finds itself feeling the heat from regional allies who together form an economic bloc of Southeast Asian nations. Some Myanmar watchers see a link between the release and the Association of South East Asian Nations summit to be held in Laos next week; ASEAN is one of the few international organizations to have diplomatic ties with Myanmar, which is a member. On another front, a body of regional parliamentarians led by a bipartisan group from the Malaysian legislature is also exerting pressure on the regime. And the International Labor Organization (ILO) added its voice this month to the growing number of UN bodies and officials losing patience with Yangon's lack of political reform. In fact, the Geneva-based labor agency has threatened to consider imposing sanctions against Myanmar for its continued use of forced labor. "If the SPDC is sincere about reform, it should start by releasing all political prisoners," Soe Aung, foreign-affairs spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Myanmar, a group of Myanmar political exiles, told IPS. "Then it must start talks for the restoration of democracy with the NLD and other ethnic political parties." Myanmar watchers also feel that the SPDC is gaining little sympathy by blaming Khin Nyunt and the military-intelligence division that he headed for much of the country's political trouble. Last week, for instance, Yangon accused Khin Nyut's intelligence network for imprisoning the nearly 4,000 people who were given amnesty last week. "Khin Nyunt was part of the problem, but Than Shwe cannot get away making him a scapegoat, because all levels of the military regime have oppressed the people," Soe Aung said. Myanmar has been under the jackboot of the generals since a military coup in 1962. In 1988, students led the way toward a democratic uprising, which was brutally crushed by the junta, with more than 3,000 pro-democracy protesters killed. One of the famous student leaders in that mass uprising, Min Ko Naing, was arrested in March 1989. After enduring more than 15 years of solitary confinement, Min Ko Naing, 42, was among the 4,000 prisoners released last week. "His release cannot be ignored since he is well respected and has the potential to reorganize," Beejoy Sen of the Myanmar Lawyers Council told IPS. "Than Shwe can use it to his advantage against his critics. But he will have to do more to win sympathy, like making the release a process towards political change." Bangladesh is hoping an Indian pipeline traversing the northern and eastern part of the country to bring natural gas from Myanmar will earn it an initial $500 million, the country's energy minister said on Tuesday. Bangladesh had agreed in principle to the Indian proposal, which was set to be formally agreed in December, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain said on Tuesday. "We expect to settle the matter mostly in our next meeting in Dhaka, in December, before the final deal at the tripartite meeting in January," he told Reuters, adding certain conditions still had to be met. The conditions would give Bangladesh's state-owned Gas Transmission Company Limited management responsibility over the project, bringing in annual fees of about $125 million. India would build the 290 km (181.25 miles) pipeline, which is expected to cost more than $1 billion. It would enter eastern Bangladesh through its Brahmanbaria border and cross into India's West Bengal state through the northern Rajshahi border. "If the plan is implemented, about $350 million will be invested in Bangladesh and we will get nearly $100 million as carrying charges per year," Minister said. Bangladesh's gas reserves are shrinking, having fallen by a quarter to 15.33 trillion cubic feet in the last 40 years, officials said. Its production does not meet its own needs and it does not sell natural gas to India. South Korea's Daewoo International operates and owns 60 per cent of Myanmar's gas-rich A-1 block, in which India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp holds 20 per cent, while GAIL India Ltd. and Korea Gas Corp each hold 10 per cent. Daewoo's 100 percent-owned A-3 block is close to A-1, which could hold 6 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. Encroachers are not leaving even temples in the city alone, if the situation at the 76-year-old Myanmar Buddhist Temple, the only one of its kind in Calcutta, is anything to go by. The ground floor of the four-storeyed building, located off Central Avenue, in the Bowbazar police station area, has been allegedly occupied by people who are refusing to vacate the premises or legalise occupancy by paying rent. “We have lived with the problem for years. But the situation is becoming worse. We feel threatened and have to keep our gates locked all the time,” said Ashin Thireinda, head priest of the temple. “There is a statue of Lord Buddha, made of gold leaf, at the temple altar and we do not want any harm to come to it,” he added. Moreover, pilgrims from Myanmar, many of them women, do not feel secure in the temple,” the priest added. A local welfare group is taking up the matter with police and the administration in an attempt to throw out the unwanted elements and allow the temple authorities to clean up and redesign the exterior. “We have decided to send memorandums to the local police station and councillor, informing them about the predicament of the temple authorities,” said Manabendra Mondal, secretary of Citizens’ Welfare Committee (Bowbazar). “It is not fair that such a small and harmless community should feel threatened for no fault of their own.” The only indication of the discreet existence of the temple is a billboard that hangs over the entrance of 10A, Eden Hospital Road. Yet, behind the nondescript exterior, a full-fledged temple and dharamshala function in silence. Groups of Myanmarese tourists visiting the Buddhist shrines in India make a stop-over here. According to Thireinda, “The temple was established by U San Min, an extra assistant commissioner during the British Raj. He had acquired the building, and till date, the electricity bill comes in his name. The ground floor was utilised by Myanmarese students, pilgrims and the traders who would frequent Calcutta port.” Since the temple and its priests had no source of income, two families were allowed to stay on the ground floor for nominal donations. Over the years, more people started occupying the ground floor. “Things have come to such a state that the guests have started feeling insecure,” said Chandu Sen, a member of the local welfare committee, who was born and brought up in Myanmar. Myanmar's military government has sentenced a senior opposition National League for Democracy figure to an additional 60-day prison term, just as he completed a seven-year sentence for alleged corruption. The wife of opposition leader Than Nyein, Khin Aye, told VOA Monday the family had expected him to be released along with other political prisoners on Friday. Last week, military rulers began releasing nearly 4,000 prisoners they said were wrongly detained by the recently disbanded National Intelligence Bureau. Sources in Rangoon told VOA Monday that only a few hundred prisoners, including key opposition figure Min Ko Naing, have been released. They say no detainees were released on Monday. There are about 20 political prisoners held in Myanmar jails, including three elderly members of parliament. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her top deputy, Tin Oo, remain under house arrest. BANGKOK (AP) — Women in East Asia are contracting HIV at a faster rate than in the rest of the world, and there's a worrying new trend in Thailand: men who have visited prostitutes are increasingly passing on the infection to their wives, the United Nations says. In many parts of the world, but particularly in Asia, more women than men are getting the disease because it has spread beyond the brothels where most infections occurred 12 years ago, said the latest global HIV status report published Tuesday. Women have also seen higher rates of infection than men because it is easier for them to get HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — through heterosexual intercourse. About 2.3 million out of the 8.2 million people living with HIV in Asia are women — an increase of 56% since 2002. Nearly 50% of the 39.4 million people infected with HIV worldwide are women, according to the report. The epidemic has claimed about 540,000 lives in Asia so far in 2004. In Thailand, about 90% of HIV transmission 12 years ago was between prostitutes and their clients. But now, about half of all infections are occurring in the wives of men who visit prostitutes. Most new HIV infections in Asia occur when men buy sex, a practice that an estimated 5 to 10% of men in the region — many of them married or in steady relationships — engage in, said the report, citing household surveys in several countries. The disease has spread through Asian countries at various speeds and levels of severity. While national infection rates remain lower than in other parts of the world, particularly Africa, the large populations of many Asian countries mean that vast numbers of people are stricken with the illness. While countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand were hit early during the epidemic, others — including Indonesia, Nepal, Vietnam and China — are only beginning to see the disease spread rapidly and must launch efforts to stop it. AIDS has now been detected in all parts of China, spreading mainly through intravenous drug use and prostitution. It is also frequently transmitted sexually from injectable-drug users to their partners in China. In Myanmar, a large percentage of injectable-drug users have gotten HIV, with as many as 78% testing positive for the virus in some areas of the military-ruled country last year. In India's Tamil Nadu state, about half of sex workers have been found to be infected with HIV. But Bangladesh, East Timor, Laos, Pakistan and the Philippines, among some other Asian nations, have particularly low infection rates and still have the opportunity to thwart serious outbreaks, the report said. Myanmar's planned release of nearly 4,000 prisoners appeared to have halted yesterday with no sign of any easing of restrictions around the nation's most famous detainee, democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Families of political dissidents faced an anxious wait after one opposition MP expected to have been released was told he faced an additional 60 days in prison, according to his family. Myanmar's military leaders on Thursday ordered the release of nearly 4,000 inmates they say may have been wrongly imprisoned by a now-dissolved military intelligence unit. The opposition said red tape meant the process could take a week. Only several hundred have so far been released, among them a couple of dozen dissidents including the leader of 1988 student protests, Min Ko Naing, the country's number two political prisoner after Aung San Suu Kyi. Media on Monday gathered close to the home of the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) amid widespread rumours of her release from house arrest but security remained at normal levels, according to an AFP correspondent. |
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