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BURMA RELATED NEWS - November 28-29, 2004 VIENTIANE (AFP) - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is heading for disaster with its plan to hold its 2006 summit in Myanmar, home to one of the world's most reviled regimes, activists said. The event would not just bolster the isolated country's military junta, but also undermine ASEAN's credibility and could be a "death knell" for the organization, argued Deborah Stothard from regional rights group Altsean/Burma. "It's an endorsement of military rule. It's an incredibly impractical move by ASEAN. The instability that it causes in Burma threatens the security in ASEAN," she said, referring to Myanmar by its former name. "Members will be sending low-ranking officials," she said. "ASEAN will continue to plod along, but the more dynamic parts of the region will seek other ways to promote their objectives." She said it was a "shocking thought" that once Myanmar assumed the chair of the 10-member ASEAN little more than a year from now, it would be host to a series of important conferences. "As long as ASEAN continues to shield Burma and refuses to face its problems, the situation will just continue to worsen," she said. Myanmar joined with Laos in 1997 and has been a lingering embarrassment for ASEAN ever since, but raising the country to the head of the organization could take controversy to a whole new level, observers warned. "In terms of international relations it will be hurtful for ASEAN," said Lim Kit Siang, Malaysian opposition leader. "Economically, it will also have an adverse impact in terms of attracting investment to ASEAN." Lim was among a group of regional lawmakers who issued a statement at the weekend in Kuala Lumpur urging Myanmar be suspended from ASEAN unless the military-run nation makes progress towards democratic reforms. Razali Ismail, a former Malaysian top diplomat who is now the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, said he expected no changes to ASEAN's plans to hand the reins to the regime. "Certainly, Myanmar will be the chair of ASEAN in '06. I don't think there's anybody in ASEAN that would want Myanmar not to be chair," he told AFP. "'06 is still a long way. So certain things can happen that may not make the problem difficult for everybody. I am told by certain officials of ASEAN that they think Myanmar is aware of its responsibilities," he said. Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win did what he could at an ASEAN meeting in Laos to encourage bullishness about the country's future. "We are committed to democracy. There will be no turning back," he told reporters. "Once the new constitution is drafted and adopted by the people through a referendum, elections will be held in keeping with the constitution," he said. Activists argued Myanmar had done nothing to justify optimism among other ASEAN members in the past. On the contrary, ASEAN will harm itself by not facing the awful realities of the regime, they said. Some overseas Myanmar groups who are otherwise committed to political reform did however argue that treating the country as a full-fledged worthy member of ASEAN and other international organizations was a good idea. "Governments come and governments go. And it's important that Burma remains integrated in international society," said May Oo, a Thailand-based spokeswoman of the Free Burma Coalition, which supports democratic change in Myanmar. "The regime doesn't respond positively to outside pressure. It doesn't help to criticize them for human rights violations," she said. YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar has completed its mass release of more than 9,000 prisoners, a prison department source said, amid opposition claims the move would be meaningless without the freeing of more dissidents. "All the listed prisoners in the announcement were released by late Friday night," he told AFP on Saturday. The regime said Thursday through state media it would free 5,311 prisoners on top of the 3,937 planned releases announced a week earlier. But there has so far been no accurate independent verification of the numbers released. Several hundred were freed in the past week including fewer than 30 dissidents, according to the opposition and witnesses. Another 10 dissidents were among the second batch freed, said Myanmar officials. The National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party had been hoping for freedom for 400 dissidents in the first set of releases alone. "I am quite disappointed but I continue to hope that more such official announcements of prisoner releases will follow, especially political prisoners," NLD spokesman U Lwin told AFP Saturday. U Lwin said if the junta did not commit itself to the release of greater numbers of political prisoners "all of this would be meaningless". 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. The junta has said the prisoners were "wrongly imprisoned" by an intelligence bureau disbanded after the sacking and arrest of former premier Khin Nyunt last month. He was also the head of military intelligence for two decades. Most prisoners were petty criminals, according to the junta, which has so far refused to name the handful of political prisoners also freed. However, Myanmar's foreign minister Major-General Nyan Win said Friday the release list did 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, the country's largest jail, and a prison 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. Opposition groups claim the releases have been announced to gain political ground at the ASEAN summit following mounting international criticism of the regime's failure to reform or to release Aung San Suu Kyi. There has also been no indication that her deputy Tin Oo has been released. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 even though the NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990. YANGON (AFP) - Thrown into prison 16 years ago as a strong-willed young student leader, Min Ko Naing, the highest profile dissident among more than 9,000 detainees freed by Myanmar's military rulers, has emerged a frail and disoriented middle-aged man, supporters say. Min Ko Naing, now 42, who united students and led pro-democracy protests crushed by the military in 1988, complains he cannot sleep after spending years behind bars and slipped from public view four days ago to stay with friends at a secret address. "For the past 16 years I have always gone to sleep with prison sounds as substitute for my mother's lullabies," a supporter from the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) quoted him as saying. "Now I find myself unable to sleep without them." His health has been checked by the personal physician of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than a year under house arrest. The doctor said Min Ko Naing had a weak heart and suffered from shortage of breath. He has been told to take it easy. Min Ko Naing was the country's second most prominent political prisoner after Aung San Suu Kyi until he was set free from prison in Sittwe, southwestern Myanmar, on November 19. The former student activist, whose fight for freedom had been championed by rights activists and the UN, was released on a moonlit night and flown back to his parents' humble home and shop in the capital Yangon. "All my nights were moonless nights," he told supporters after his release and said he had written songs about it during the time on his own in jail. "Dark or bright didn't make much difference to me." The botany student started agitating against the regime by putting up posters around campus at Yangon University but later gave up his studies to become a full-time activist. A year after the student protests, in which an estimated 3,000 people died, he was arrested for anti-government activities and remained behind bars until his release 10 days ago. Last week he held court from the parlour of his parents' home, decorated with paintings by his artist father, and was visited by friends, well-wishers and diplomats. The comings and goings were watched by security officials from outside his home. The slight and tired-looking figure said he would take time to think over his future and expressed fears over what he said could affect prisoners still inside jail. They include 12 opposition MPs, according to campaigners. However, his humour remained intact. "I've been told I've received several international awards but I have yet to see any of them" or if any amounted to more than a "stuffed teddy bear", he told AFP last week before he left his home. The pro-democracy movement said it was disappointed that only an estimated 40 political dissidents had been freed since November 19 by the Myanmar authorities. Activists cited the failure to release senior NLD party member and pro-democracy journalist Win Tin. The award-winning writer, aged 74 and in poor health, has spent the last 15 years in detention. Releases were ordered following the ousting of former premier Khin Nyunt last month, who is currently under house arrest for corruption, and the dismantling of the intelligence network he oversaw. The government said the 9,248 were released after it reviewed cases and found them to have been "improperly" jailed by a now defunct intelligence bureau. Khin Nyunt's ouster has strengthened control of the government, formally known as the State Peace and Development Council, under its head Senior General Than Shwe, a military hardliner. KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Myanmar should not be allowed to take over as chairman of the ASEAN group of nations and its membership should be suspended due to the lack of progress towards democracy, lawmakers in the region have said. Myanmar's scheduled assumption of the chairmanship in 2006, "would be severely detrimental to the interests of ASEAN", parliamentarians of The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said in a statement issued on Sunday at the end of a two-day meeting in Malaysia. "Unless progress towards...democratic reforms in Myanmar is evident forthwith, we strongly urge that ASEAN bar Myanmar from serving as chairman of ASEAN and immediately review Myanmar's membership with a view of suspending Myanmar as a member," the statement said. The recommendations are not binding on the 10-member group, which holds a summit meeting in Vientiane, Laos, on Monday. Malaysia's member of parliament and lawyer Zaid Ibrahim said Southeast Asian government leaders should take the opportunity to speak out on Myanmar during the summit. "It is our view the governments have been soft for too long, you're not going to get anything from the military," he said. The lawmakers are also planning to visit Myanmar and seek a meeting with its ruling generals. With its policy of non-interference in internal national affairs, ASEAN has consistently ducked the issue of military rule in the former Burma, even though Yangon's reclusive generals are an increasing embarrassment. However, the purge last month of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who presented ASEAN with the seven-stage "roadmap" to democracy in 2003, has worried southeast Asian governments, who are staking reform hopes on a policy of "constructive engagement" with Yangon. Many of ASEAN's other members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Phillippines -- have criticised some of the junta's actions, especially the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar's military government said on Friday it had released thousands of people from jail but the mass release did not cover Suu Kyi or Tin Oo, the deputy leader of her National League for Democracy, who are both under house arrest. There is no word when they might be freed. VIENTIANE (Reuters) - Southeast Asian leaders will not make any public comment on Myanmar's military junta and its questionable progress toward democracy, according to a draft summit communique obtained by Reuters on Saturday. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) closing statement makes no mention of Myanmar's widely derided "roadmap to democracy," even though ASEAN secretary general Ong Keng Yong had promised "a lot of hard questions" on the subject. "We discussed issues of common concern to all members, including political and economic developments, in particular the latest developments on terrorism, the Korean peninsula, the situation in Iraq and the Middle East," the statement said. "We discussed a wide range of ASEAN political cooperation," the bland statement went on, without elaborating. With its mantra of non-interference in internal national affairs, ASEAN has consistently ducked the issue of military rule in the former Burma, even though Yangon's reclusive generals are an increasing embarrassment to the 10-member group. However, the purge last month of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who presented ASEAN with the seven-stage "roadmap" in 2003, has worried southeast Asian governments, who are staking reform hopes on a policy of "constructive engagement" with Yangon. Many of ASEAN's other members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines -- have criticized some of the junta's actions, especially the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. However, with too many commercial interests at stake, they have been loath to follow the West in imposing sanctions. Myanmar's military government said on Friday it had released thousands of people from jail but the mass release did not cover Suu Kyi or Tin Oo, the deputy leader of her National League for Democracy, who are both under house arrest. There is no word when they might be freed. NO MENTION OF THAILAND EITHER The communique from the ASEAN summit, which will be held in the Laos capital on Monday, also refused -- at least in public -- to address the unchecked Muslim violence in southern Thailand, which has claimed nearly 500 lives this year. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose latest idea to solve the unrest is to bomb the area with millions of paper birds, threatened this week to fly straight home if anybody dared raise the issue at the meeting. However, Syed Albar, foreign minister of Malaysia, which borders the troubled region, suggested Kuala Lumpur wanted the issue brought into the open since it could have far-reaching implications for regional security. Countering Thaksin's threat, Albar told reporters there was "no such thing as absolute non-interference." "We know the Thais are able to handle it in a way that will bring peace and security in that province. But if anybody should ask that question, it should not be simply put aside as interference," he said. KUALA LUMPUR (AP) - Southeast Asian countries should reconsider their policy of not interfering in each other's internal affairs and step up pressure on Myanmar to speed up democratic reforms, lawmakers from the region said Sunday. The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations has failed to curb "a political and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar" that has resulted in widespread human rights violations, legislators from seven ASEAN countries said after a two-day conference in Malaysia. "After over a decade, ASEAN's constructive engagement policy has yet to yield the desired results for change," the more than 40 lawmakers said in a joint statement. "Broader changes in Myanmar can only be effected with pressure from other ASEAN governments." ASEAN should consider suspending Myanmar's membership and block it from taking its turn as the regional grouping's chair in 2006 if the ruling junta refuses to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and work toward political reconciliation, the statement said. The recommendations at the conference, which parallels an ASEAN summit in Laos, were nonbinding on ASEAN members. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ruled by the military since 1962. The current junta called elections in 1990, but refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory. Suu Kyi has been under arrest since May 2003. "It is our view that the ASEAN governments have been soft," said Malaysian government lawmaker Zaid Ibrahim. "If affects ASEAN's credibility." The lawmakers agreed to establish an ASEAN caucus of parliamentarians to further discuss the issue at a meeting in the Philippines in April. The meeting would likely be open to lawmakers from other regions, including Europe. ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. SINGAPORE (AP) - Singapore's coast guard arrested two 18-year-old Myanmar citizens attempting to enter the island by swimming with inflated trash bags from neighboring Malaysia, police said Sunday. Officers detected the teenagers with surveillance equipment late Saturday night, fished them out of the sea and placed them under arrest, a police statement said. The incident brought the total number of illegal immigrants arrested this year for attempting to enter by sea to 144 _ of whom 120 were attempting to swim in, it said. The waterway separating Malaysia from Singapore is about a kilometer (0.6 mile) at its narrowest point. The two men, who were not identified, will be charged with unlawful entry, the statement said. If convicted, they could face six months in prison and three strokes of the cane. Wealthy Singapore is a magnet for foreign workers seeking a better life. In August, it built fences along parts of its coastline facing Malaysia to deter illegal immigrants from swimming over. In 2003, police arrested 5,500 illegal immigrants. (Kyodo) _ Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win on Saturday sounded a negative note over Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura's call on the country to admit U.N. envoy on Myanmar Razali Ismail at an early date, a Japanese official said. Nyan Win also did not reply directly to Machimura's request that Myanmar let detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi take part in the country's democratization process, but said Myanmar remained committed to it. "We need a little more time" before admitting Razali, Nyan Win was quoted as telling Machimura during their talks in Vientiane on the sidelines of a series of talks related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. But Nyan Win did not elaborate on why, according to the official. Machimura made the request after he met with Razali earlier in the day and agreed with him on the need for Razali to visit Myanmar soon to accelerate the democratization process. Machimura also told Nyan Win that Japan hopes democratization will proceed in a way in which "all people concerned will participate," referring to Suu Kyi and members of her opposition National League for Democracy. Nyan Win tried to play down concern that the junta's Oct. 19 replacement of Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt by Lt. Gen. Soe Win could slow democratization, saying he was sacked to take the blame for domestic corruption. SINGAPORE (Channel NewsAsia) - The Singapore government has come out publicly to urge Myanmar to make more determined and visible progress on its roadmap to democracy. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who met Myanmar's Prime Minister Soe Win on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Laos, expressed his concern at the situation in Myanmar. Mr Lee's press secretary said Mr Lee expressed his concern as the situation in Myanmar affected ASEAN's standing and credibility. Mr Lee also had a call with the Prime Minister of Laos, Bounnhang Vorachith, before ASEAN leaders attended an informal working dinner. - CNA Yangon, Myanmar, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Myanmar forces have destroyed at least six rebel camps in the country's northeast this month after India complained of militant attacks across the border. India helped Myanmar soldiers locate the camps by providing information about cross-border attacks, and moved 3,000 troops to the Indo-Myanmar border to support the crackdown, the Indian Express reported Monday. This was in line with the "coordinated approach" agreed between Myanmar Senior General Than Shwe and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when the Myanmar leader visited India on Oct. 25. The visit had "translated into almost immediate gains for India," the newspaper said. No figure was given on the number of insurgents killed or the groups to which they belonged, but they are believed to be separatists seeking autonomy for two tribal groups in India's northwest. Relations between India and Myanmar have warmed in recent months. Myanmar's new Prime Minister Lt. General Soe Win will visit India soon, the newspaper said. Win was appointed prime minister after the sudden ouster of Khin Nyunt in mid-October. India is Myanmar's second largest export market and is involved in several infrastructure projects in that country. VIENTIANE: The UN envoy to Myanmar sought an update from the military-ruled country's new ministers on its pledges to move toward democracy and whether Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi could be released soon. Special envoy Tan Sri Razali Ismail said yesterday that he would meet with Myanmar's foreign minister, Nyan Win, here. It would be the first meeting since a surprise Cabinet shake-up in Myanmar in September. When Razali was asked if he would also try to meet Myanmar's new prime minister, Gen Soe Win, he said: “If he wants to see me,” but added that he would first meet Nyan Win. The UN envoy met former premier Gen Khin Nyunt several times, but has yet to see his successor. Gen Khin Nyunt was seen as more amenable to making concessions to the opposition and the soft face of the government while dealing with neighbouring countries. – AP VIENTIANE: Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will push Asean leaders at a summit in Laos to address the lack of political reform in military-ruled Myanmar, a source of growing embarrassment to the group, officials said yesterday. Thaksin, who is due to have a working breakfast with the former Burma's new Prime Minister, Soe Win, tomorrow, wants Yangon to brief Asean members on the stuttering progress of its “roadmap to democracy”. “Prime Minister Thaksin will suggest at the summit that Asean leaders should have an informal discussion on Myanmar to learn about the latest situation there,” government chief spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said. “But that request would need to be agreed upon by Myanmar,” he added. Asean has set its reform hopes on the democracy roadmap, which Western governments have dismissed as a sham, particularly while opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest. – Reuters |
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