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BURMA RELATED NEWS - November 27, 2004 YANGON (AFP) - Hundreds of inmates were released from Myanmar's main jail, a day after the military regime announced it was expanding its prisoner release programme to more than 9,000 people, an AFP correspondent saw. The military regime said through state media late Thursday it would free 5,311 prisoners on top of the 3,937 planned releases announced a week earlier -- although only several hundred had been released before Friday. Ten trucks carrying an estimated 500 inmates swept past about 150 family members waiting outside Insein prison on the outskirts of the capital Yangon on Friday. The inmates shouted down to the relatives to meet them at government offices where they were expected to be released after officials spent days going through paperwork. The junta said the prisoners were "wrongly imprisoned" by an intelligence bureau disbanded after the sacking and arrest of the former premier Khin Nyunt last month. He was also the head of military intelligence for two decades. "We have reviewed the cases and have decided to release 5,311 prisoners," said a short statement in the state-controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper. A small group of inmates was freed Thursday from Insein jail, restarting the mass release programme after a six-day delay. Inmates had been brought in from other jails before their final release from Insein. It was not clear how many of the 9,248 total would be political prisoners or when the programme would be completed. The unprecedented announcements came just before the region's leaders meet in Laos for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) starting next Monday. The released detainees so far include fewer than 30 political dissidents, among them the leader of 1988 student protests Min Ko Naing. They were freed on a single day on Friday last week, according to witnesses and the opposition. Myanmar has more than 100,000 detainees held in some 43 prisons and more than 50 labour camps across the country, according to a prisoners' group operating from neighbouring Thailand. "This is because of the ASEAN summit," said Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the assistance association for political prisoners. "They want to focus international attention on it." Myanmar's new foreign minister Nyan Win is expected to hold a rare public briefing on political developments in Laos on Friday before the summit. Myanmar has never admitted holding political prisoners. "This is a potentially positive development," Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said in the Laotian capital Vientiane. "It promotes the atmosphere for dialogue and cooperation but we will only know the full significance of this later." Bo Kyi told AFP that his group believed there were about 1,400 political prisoners in the country. At least three opposition figures had been arrested since the announcements of the releases and at least one opposition MP had his prison term extended, he said. Bo Kyi said he expected only about 100 dissidents to be released under the programme. The National League for Democracy (NLD) headed by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi estimated earlier this week about 400 dissidents would be among the first batch of releases. Myanmar has faced strong international pressure and sanctions over its lack of democratic reforms and the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May last year. Despite rumours that security around her home had been eased in the past week, barriers remained in place and cars were being stopped from getting near to her house, according to an AFP correspondent. There was also no indication that her deputy Tin Oo would also be released. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 even though the NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990. YANGON (AFP) - The 9,248 Myanmar jail inmates promised freedom under the military regime's mass release programme will soon be out but with only 40 dissidents among them, according to the opposition and a senior prison official. "Everybody that we said would be released will be released tonight," Zaw Win, prison department director-general, told reporters at the gates of Insein jail on the outskirts of Yangon. "We have already released the first batch of 3,937," he said Friday. He said inmates were being released from 41 prisons nationwide although reporters at Insein, the country's biggest jail, saw only about 1,000 released there on Friday. The regime said through state media Thursday it would free 5,311 prisoners on top of the 3,937 planned releases announced a week earlier, taking the total to 9,248. Several hundred were freed in the past week including fewer than 30 dissidents, according to the opposition and witnesses, and there was no independent verification of the numbers of those freed Friday. Zaw Win said another 10 dissidents would be among the second batch freed, in what would be a blow to the National League of Democracy (NLD) opposition party which was hoping for 400 in the first set of releases alone. The timing of the release coincided with a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which starts in Laos on Monday. Political developments in member country Myanmar are expected to be a major focus of the meeting. Speaking to reporters in Laos, Myanmar Foreign Minister Major-General Nyan Win said the releases had been welcomed by the international community. "Among those who released are individuals who have been detained for crimes and also people who belong to political parties," he said. Most of those freed were thought to be petty criminals. Zaw Win declined to confirm names of political dissidents being released but said they would not include Win Tin, 74, one of Myanmar's best-known journalists and a prominent opposition figure. The ailing writer has been behind bars for 15 years and has been the subject of a long freedom campaign by rights groups and the United Nations. The most famous dissident so far known to have been released was Min Ko Naing, the leader of 1988 student protests, who was released a week ago. Among those released Friday from Insein prison and a jail in the northern city of Mandalay were six political dissidents, according to the NLD which is headed by detained democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta said the prisoners were "wrongly imprisoned" by an intelligence bureau disbanded after the sacking and arrest of the former premier Khin Nyunt last month. He was also the head of military intelligence for two decades. Myanmar has more than 100,000 detainees held in some 43 prisons and more than 50 labour camps across the country, according to a prisoners' group operating from neighbouring Thailand. "This (releases) is because of the ASEAN summit," said Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the assistance association for political prisoners. "They want to focus international attention on it." Bo Kyi told AFP that opposition figures continued to be arrested despite the release announcements and at least one opposition MP had his prison term extended. A western diplomatic source said it would take one or two months before a full assessment could be made of who had been released and their significance. Myanmar has faced strong international pressure and sanctions over its lack of democratic reforms and the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May last year. Despite rumours that security around her home had been eased in the past week, barriers remained in place and cars were being stopped from getting near to her house, according to an AFP correspondent. There was also no indication that her deputy Tin Oo would be released. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 even though the NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990. VIENTIANE, (AFP) - Sixteen Asia-Pacific leaders converge on reclusive Laos this weekend for a major summit likely to be dominated by mounting concerns over Muslim unrest in Thailand and Myanmar's "road map" to democracy. Much of the emphasis will be on trade, but the drama is expected in the politics, with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra warning he would walk out if leaders raise the recent deaths of 87 Muslim protesters in Thailand's south. "If the topic is raised, I will fly back home," Thaksin told reporters in Bangkok ahead of the November 29-30 summit. The October 25 deaths have inflamed Muslim opinion in Thailand, where a resurgence of violence in the south has left more than 550 people dead this year, and caused concern in neighbouring Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia, fellow ASEAN members. Thailand is not on the agenda of the summit, with ASEAN adhering to a strict policy of not interfering in the affairs of its members, but analysts said they expected it to feature in behind-the-scenes talks. Another highlight will be Myanmar's update on developments in the military-ruled country following a leadership shake-up last month that saw prime minister Khin Nyunt put under house arrest and replaced by Lieutenant General Soe Win. Soe Win, regarded as a military hardliner, is likely to brief his ASEAN counterparts on his country's so-called "roadmap for democracy" and plans, announced Thursday, to release a second batch of prisoners, taking the total releases announced in a week to more than 9,000. It was not clear if any political prisoners were included in those to be freed, notably opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May last year. "This is a potentially positive development," Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said in Vientiane. "It promotes the atmosphere for dialogue and cooperation but we will only know the full significance of this later," he said. Terrorism will also be a key talking point in Laos, with ASEAN and Japan expected to adopt a joint declaration for cooperation in counter-terrorism. A draft of the statement to be issued at the end of a summit involving ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea said the leaders would also restate "their determination to intensify joint efforts to fighting terrorism in East Asia" as well as support for the global fight against terror. A record number of statements and agreements are expected to be adopted at the summit, as senior officials started work Thursday on finalising 35 of them. Australia has been invited to the summit for the first time and, with Pacific neighbour New Zealand, will launch negotiations with ASEAN to create a free trade bloc whose combined annual gross domestic product would be close to China's 1.4 trillion US dollars. Free trade talks under way between ASEAN and Japan will also be discussed, and similar talks will be announced with South Korea. Another key topic for discussion among the leaders will be a push to accelerate a 2020 timetable for ASEAN to establish a European Union -style single market, Southeast Asian government officials told AFP. ASEAN members are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. HANOI (Reuters) - The world's tiger population has plummeted by 95 percent from the start of the 20th century to as few as 5,000 now and is further threatened by the lucrative trade in their skins, officials told a forum on Friday. "Commercial trade of tiger skin stemming out of female fantasy and vanity appears as a major threat to tigers in most tiger range countries," said S.C. Dey, general secretary of the Global Tiger Forum. In Asia, tiger skins can sell for $15,000 while in Vietnam a skeleton, the bones widely believed by Asians to be an aphrodisiac, can fetch as much as $25,000. "It is believed that about 100 years back, the global population of wild tigers was about 100,000," Dey said. "However, the population dwindled to 8,000 by 1960. Today it stands at around 5,000 to 7,000." The forum is an inter-governmental body set up to save the surviving tigers in the wild in 14 countries including Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Russia, Nepal, China, Bangladesh and North Korea. Dey said three out of the eight sub-species of tigers were already extinct - the Bali tiger in 1940, the Caspian tiger in the 1970s and Javan tiger in the 1980s. Another sub-species, the South China tiger, could also soon disappear. "Whether tigers still exist in North Korea is doubtful and debatable," he said, noting that statistics were not available. Officials said illegal poaching of wildlife, especially in large parts of south and southeast Asia, is to blame for the reduction in the wild tiger population. "Illegal hunting of wildlife has not been strictly controlled resulting in the severely decreased population of tigers in Vietnam," said Vietnam Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat. The number of wild tigers in Vietnam does not exceed 150, he said. Vietnam had clinched several agreements with neighbouring countries, including China, Laos and Cambodia, to halt trans-border tiger poaching, he said. BANGKOK (Reuters) - Every country in the world must come up urgently with a plan to deal with an inevitable influenza pandemic likely to be triggered by the bird flu virus that hit Asia this year, a top global health expert said on Friday. "I believe we are closer now to a pandemic than at any time in recent years," said Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Region of the World Health Organization (WHO). "No country will be spared once it becomes a pandemic," he told a news conference. "History has taught us that influenza pandemics occur on a regular cycle, with one appearing every 20 to 30 years. On this basis, the next one is overdue," he said at a conference of 13 Asian health ministers trying to figure out how to avoid one. "We believe a pandemic is highly likely unless intensified international efforts are made to take control of the situation," he said of the H5N1 avian flu virus, which has defied efforts to eradicate it in several Asian countries, including Thailand. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919 killed upwards of 20 million people and WHO experts say the next could infect up to 30 percent of the world's more than 6 billion people and kill up to 7 million of them. Omi said that to stave that off, the world would have to cooperate closely by sharing information promptly and openly on the virus -- such as how it spreads, why it hits children more easily than adults and how quickly it is mutating. Secrecy in China last year helped the deadly SARS virus spread to many other countries before it could be brought under control and Beijing has also been accused of hiding the extent of its AIDS epidemic. "Vaccine will protect you from the disease and reduce the impact individually. But vaccination alone will not prevent this outbreak," Omi said. "Each country has to come up with a plan because, as I said, a pandemic, it will happen." HUGE HUMAN TOLL Two U.S. firms are working on a vaccine, but neither is likely to have one ready until March, well after the cooler Asian season in which bird flu thrives best. The H5N1 virus, which has already killed 20 Vietnamese and 12 Thais, arrived in Asia about a year ago, probably spread by migrating birds, especially wild fowl heading to warmer climes at the onset of the northern winter. Governments have slaughtered tens of millions of poultry in a bid to eradicate it but WHO experts say it is now probably a permanent fixture. The wild birds, which can carry the virus without falling ill, are flying south through Asia to escape the northern winter and, in an alarming development, domesticated ducks are showing they too can have the virus without showing it, Omi said. Experts say a pandemic will emerge from an animal, most probably a pig, which can harbor both flu viruses that affect humans and the avian flu variety. The two would mate and produce a virus to which people have no immunity, they say. That has not happened yet, but Omi said the geographical spread and the impact of the H5N1 virus was unprecedented and had struck animals such as tigers and domesticated cats not previously known to be susceptible to avian flu viruses. "We have found that the virus is resilient, very, very versatile," Omi said. The Asian health ministers -- from Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- promised they would make plans for a pandemic and cooperate to stave it off. In a joint statement at the end of the two-day meeting, they pledged to work together to develop vaccines, diagnostic tests for humans and research urgently needed to provide more information on the virus. (Kyodo) _ Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is arranging to meet with his Myanmar counterpart Lt. Gen. Soe Win on Monday in Vientiane as part of several bilateral summits being planned on the sidelines of ASEAN-sponsored meetings, Japanese officials said Friday. In their first meeting since Soe Win replaced Gen. Khin Nyunt as premier in October, Koizumi plans once more to urge Myanmar to promote democracy and confirm that Soe Win will maintain his predecessor's reconciliatory line on democracy and foreign relations, the officials said. Koizumi is also arranging to meet Monday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, they said. On Tuesday, the Japanese premier is expected to meet with Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Laotian Prime Minister Boungnang Volachit. Koizumi is slated to leave Saturday for the Laotian capital to attend a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its dialogue partners Japan, China and South Korea, a Japan-ASEAN summit and a trilateral summit with China and South Korea. A quadrilateral meeting with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam is also planned on the sidelines of the series of regular meetings. ASEAN groups Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Laos is serving as host for the series of the meetings for the first time. (Kyodo) _ Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win vowed Friday that his country's military government remains committed to its road map to democracy despite a recent leadership shakeup but sidestepped questions on when detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will be released. At a news conference Nyan Win held ahead of the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he described the ouster last month of former Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt as "normal" and said there will be no changes in the country's domestic and foreign policy. "We will continue to work ceaselessly to ensure that the seven-step road map is implemented systematically until its logical conclusion," he said. The news briefing was apparently an attempt to head off criticism by some ASEAN leaders who are to begin annual talks here Monday. Indonesia's newly elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and reelected Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are expected to pressure Myanmar to improve democracy and release Suu Kyi when the ASEAN leaders meet for an informal working dinner on Sunday. It was the first international news conference by a Myanmar minister since the ouster of relatively moderate Gen. Khin Nyunt on Oct. 19 and his replacement by hardliner Lt. Gen Soe Win. "Our policies are made by the collective decision of the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council)...They are not dependent on personalities. Individuals may come and go but national policies will remain the same," the minister said. "We are committed to democracy. There will be no turning back. Once the new constitution is drafted and adopted by the people through a referendum, elections will be held in keeping with the constitution," Nyan Win said. Nyan Win said a meeting convened by the junta to draft the new convention would be reopened in next February. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party boycotted the convention's first round held May 17-July 9. Asked if Suu Kyi would be among the mare than 9,000 prisoners to be released by the junta within this week, Nyan Win said "because of the large number of (prisoner releases), it is not normal for me to name names. If you would wait and observe, you will probably know." Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May last year following what the junta says were violent clashes between her supporters and pro-government demonstrators in northern Myanmar. He also commented that the 1990 elections which the NLD won by a landslide were only made for a constitutional assembly, not administrative power. NEW DELHI, Nov 26 Asia Pulse - Myanmar, India's eastern neighbour, on Thursday expressed its interest in forging a long lasting trade alliance with Indian heavy machine tools and small medium enterprises. Commerce Minister of Myanmar Brig. Gen Tin Naing Thein expressed the interest in a meeting with federal Heavy Industries Minister Sontosh Mohan Dev, who is currently visiting Myanmar, an official release said here. Both the ministers discussed various issues relating to the promotion of bilateral trade and economic cooperation. Issues like Foreign Direct Investment and security along the Indo-Myanmar border also figured in the discussions. Briefing Thein of India's strength in various sectors including IT, automotive and readymade garments, Dev expressed the country's willingness to lend its expertise in these sectors to the neighbouring country. The minister said India would continue to import Myanmar's teak products, previous stones and beans and pulses as they of high quality. Dev's visit coincides with India-ASEAN car rally in the historical city of Mandalay. The Indian minister invited Myanmar's Commerce Minister to the Second Session of the Joint Trade Committee scheduled to be held in New Delhi in January 2005. Mandalay (Myanmar), Nov 26 (PTI) India has said it would like to see democracy given a chance in Myanmar, but asserted that it would not interfere in the internal affairs of the country. "Our policy is that we will indeed be happy to see democracy here and all over the world. But we are also commited to the principles of Panchsheel and will follow the non-interference stand," Indian Ambassador to Myanmar, Rajiv Bhatia, told reporters accompanying the first India-ASEAN Car Rally here yesterday. He said India had time and again made its concerns over lack of democracy known to Myanmar government in a very friendly and cordial manner, and the authorities here had told them that they appreciated New Delhi's concerns. Asked whether the change in India's policy to befriend the Myanmar government despite the territory's use by militants had helped, Bhatia said the military junta has assured New Delhi that it would take serious action against any anti-India activities. "Our policy has indeed evolved in last 12 years based on realistic assesment in the larger context. India is deeply concerned on security issues and has conveyed it to the Myanmar government. They have assured us to take stringent action," he said. PTI KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov 26 (UNHCR) – Languishing in Malaysia's immigration detention centres awaiting resettlement in a third country are 342 refugees, among them the elderly, women and children and particularly vulnerable cases – including torture victims. In an effort to alleviate the refugees' despair and distress at their circumstances, UNHCR is urging the Malaysian government to make a humanitarian gesture and release 37 particularly vulnerable cases being held on immigration infractions, while they await resettlement. Included in this group are 17 Rohingyas – a Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar to whom the Malaysian government recently said it would give temporary stay permits. "We have, on a constant basis, requested the Malaysian authorities to release them soon, as we are in the midst of the resettlement process and convincing third countries to take them in," said UNHCR's Representative in Malaysia, Volker Turk. More than half the 342 refugees in detention in Malaysia are from Indonesia's strife-torn province of Aceh, with the Chins – an ethnic minority from Myanmar – making up another large group, along with the 17 Rohingyas and refugees of 57 other nationalities. Fleeing persecution in their own countries, often without documentation, the refugees feel desperate to find themselves detained in a country where they hoped to find a temporary safe haven. "Basically, we left Aceh to save ourselves from the military and all the problems. We are hoping for the international community to help us. We want the international community to help us get out of this camp," a refugee who was arrested for lack of documentation, told UNHCR. "I can't take it anymore," said a young woman from Myanmar in tears. "We left our country under a lot of difficulty. If we are sent back home, our lives will be in danger. So based on these reasons we stay here, even though it's so difficult." Many of the detainees are in a state of despair. Every visit by a UNHCR official is awaited with hope of news of resettlement. "Waiting is the most difficult. Everyone comes to visit. Then, people who come after us are resettled. There are some old people – 65 to 70 years old – they are crying inside. They've been waiting for two years and nobody does anything for us." Conversations with the refugees are punctuated by sighs of contained frustration. They feel forgotten. "We are suffering from Burma to here. We are suffering but no one recognises us.... I'm not recognised as a human being. I want to go somewhere, where I am recognised," said one young man. UNHCR is making determined efforts to get the refugees out of detention and resettled, but that requires the goodwill of the government and the resettlement countries. The constant anxiety of the refugees about their future is detrimental to their health and well being. "We've been expecting every day to get released and discuss about our future. Sometimes, it's difficult to hope for the future. Sometimes we feel our future is not certain. We cannot return to our home country and we do not know the future," said a detained refugee from Myanmar. There are some 28,000 asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia. Most of them are considered illegal immigrants, which is why they can be detained on immigration charges. UNHCR asks states to explore different alternatives to detention of asylum seekers and refugees, and to abstain in principle from detaining children. Vientiane _ Burma will pursue the seven-point road map to democracy under its new leadership with the second session of the National Convention, excluding the opposition National League for Democracy, reconvening next February, said Foreign Minister Nyan Win. The road map announced by ousted prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt was still in place, as it was a collective decision of the State Peace and Development Council, Maj-Gen Nyan Win said in a briefing ahead of the 10th Asean summit to open on Nov 29 in the capital of Laos. The second session would involve 1,088 delegates. Nyan Win, who replaced career diplomat Win Aung as foreign minister in September, defended Burma from allegations of soldiers raping women and religious intolerance, saying Burmese culture and law did not condone such crimes. He offered a long explanation on the recent reshuffle to head off fears that without the pro-western leader Khin Nyunt, the country might go backwards. ``Khin Nyunt's subordinates were implicated in bribery and corruption and he had to be held responsible. People who break the law will face strong action but legitimate private enterprises can continue doing their business,'' he said. Burma's military government says it remains committed to democracy, and will hold elections, despite a recent leadership shakeup that consolidated the power of hard-line generals. The announcement was made in Laos on the eve of the summit of Southeast Asian nations, and came as Burma released thousands of prisoners from jails across the country. Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win says the military-led government remains committed to its "roadmap" toward democracy, despite the dismissal last month of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt who originally announced the process. In his first appearance outside Burma since his appointment last month, Nyan Win said through an interpreter that the government will re-convene a suspended national convention in February to draft a new constitution. "Because we are committed to democracy, there will be no turning back. Once a new constitution is drafted and adopted by the people through referendum, elections will be held, in keeping with the constitution." The foreign minister said the government intends to continue negotiating with ethnic-based rebels. But he indicated that the opposition National League for Democracy, which won elections in 1990, but was not allowed to govern, would not be included in the democratization process, because it boycotted the national convention earlier this year. The government in May re-convened the convention for two months, but the National League for Democracy boycotted because of the continued house-arrest of its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and what it said were attempts by the junta to control the process. The foreign minister's remarks came as delegates gather in Laos for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Burma is expected to come under questioning over the lack of progress toward democracy and the continued detention of the Nobel peace prize winner. The summit opens Monday. Mr. Nyan Win confirmed that thousands of detainees are being released across Burma, but he was evasive about whether Aung San Suu Kyi is to be among them. "Those released number over nine-thousand. Because of the large number, it is not normal for me to name names, but if you would wait and observe, you will probably have the names." National League for Democracy leaders in Rangoon say most of those released have been ordinary criminals, but about 30 are considered political prisoners, and several are prominent National League for Democracy leaders. A prisons official told reporters that several thousand had already been freed by Friday evening. Burmese officials say the detainees are being released because they were wrongly arrested by the recently disbanded Military Intelligence Bureau, headed by Khin Nyunt. Critics say the releases are aimed at defusing criticism during the ASEAN summit. This article uses material from VOA. |
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