Australia Urges China, India to Pressure Burma to End Abuses

Australia called o­n China and India o­n Tuesday to pressure Burma to end rights abuses and democratize faster, saying efforts by Southeast Asia and the West have failed to move Rangoon's "insensitive" leaders.

Military-ruled Burma has been the target of stinging criticism at this week's annual gathering in Manila of the Asean foreign ministers and their dialogue partners, including Australia.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Western sanctions and threats as well as Asean's approach of "constructive engagement" have failed to convince Burma's military junta to end years of rights abuses and make significant process along a "roadmap" to democracy.
"I hate to say this, but it seems to me that nothing has worked," Downer told reporters o­n the sidelines of the Manila meetings.

Burma's "leadership seems completely insensitive to and impervious to the views of the outside world," he said.

Downer said he hoped that China and India, which have important economic ties with Burma, would make its ruling junta realize that current conditions there jeopardize the small Southeast Asian nation's future.

Downer said he displayed his exasperation when he met his Burma counterpart, Nyan Win, in a meeting in Manila.

Downer told him that in more than a decade of meetings with Burma's top diplomats, he has repeatedly asked when the junta would undertake democratic reforms or release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

"I said to the foreign minister, `I suppose, this time next year, if I'm back again, you'll just give me the same answer—constitutional reform still under way,"' he said. "It's been under way for more than a decade."

Asked what the best approach toward Burma was, Downer said governments have no choice but to persistently demand change.

Asean has repeatedly said it hopes to encourage democratic reforms in Burma through "constructive engagement" with the junta, but has made little progress.

Asean foreign ministers expressed concern to Burma o­n Monday about its slow pace of change and urged it to "show tangible progress that would lead to a peaceful transition to democracy in the near future."

"We continue to express concern o­n the detention of all political detainees and reiterate our calls for their early release," they said in a statement.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the group specifically mentioned opposition leader Suu Kyi, but that Burma did not promise to free her.

UN Chief Dispatches Gambari to Burma

With mounting tension and reports of use of force by the military junta coming in, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, Wednesday night dispatched his Special Envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, to this troublesome South East Asian nation.

Welcoming the move, members of the Security Council urged Burma to allow him to go and visit the country and have him assess the situation there.

Noting reports of use of force and of arrests and beatings, Ban again called on authorities to exercise utmost restraint toward the peaceful demonstrations taking place, as such action can only undermine the prospects for peace, prosperity and stability in Burma.

In a statement, the Secretary-General also called on the senior leadership of Burma to cooperate fully with the mission of his Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari “in order to take advantage of the willingness of the United Nations to assist in the process of national reconciliation through dialogue.”

While the Burma's military government has not yet accepted Gambari’s mission, the UN Spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters that “he will stay in the region, and as soon as he gets the green light he will proceed.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour also expressed concern over the situation in Burma. He urged Burmese authorities to allow peaceful expression of dissent in the country and to abide by international human rights law in their response to the current widespread peaceful street protests.

“The use of excessive force and all forms of arbitrary detention of peaceful protesters are strictly prohibited under international law,” she said.

UN Security Council Expresses Concern over Crackdown

After initial resistance from China, the UN Security Council issued a statement of concern about Burma's violent crackdown on Buddhist monks and urged the military regime to let in a special envoy.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, was expected to leave for the region Wednesday night after briefing the emergency council meeting in the afternoon on the fatal violence.

Council diplomats said China, which has close economic ties to Burma, did not want any document issued after the closed-door session but relented and agreed to a brief statement, which was read to reporters by France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert.

"Members of the council have expressed their concern vis a vis the situation, and have urged restraint, especially from the government of Myanmar [Burma]," the statement said.

The junta's forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in the center of the country's largest city, Rangoon. At least five people died, including monks.

Ban called on Burma's government to exercise its "utmost restraint" and later met one-on-one with Burma's Foreign Minister Nyan Win. On the way to the meeting, a reporter asked about the five reported deaths and Win replied: "You asked if five people died and we said no."

The council's statement said it "welcomed the decision by the secretary-general to urgently dispatch his special envoy to the region and underlines the importance that Mr Gambari be received by the authorities of Myanmar [Burma] as soon as possible."

Indonesia's new UN Ambassador Marty Natalegawa said Burma was not on the agenda of a ministerial meeting Thursday of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Asean, on the sidelines of the high-level UN General Assembly session, but the violence was likely to come up. Burma is a member of the 10-nation group.

The United States and the council's European Union members—Britain, France, Italy and Belgium—had condemned the attacks and called on the country's military rulers to stop the violence and open a dialogue with pro-democracy leaders.

"What's going on in Burma is outrageous," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after a luncheon meeting of ministers from the eight major industrialized nations. "The regime needs to stop using violence against peaceful people and get to a dialogue so that they can have reconciliation."

China and Russia contend that the situation in Burma is an internal affair and doesn't threaten international peace and security—as required for Security Council action—so getting them to agree to the press statement was considered a positive step.

"It is a huge breakthrough," Yvonne Terlingen, UN representative for Amnesty International, told AP Wednesday night. "It is unprecedented that the Security Council made a statement about human rights in Burma—and that is very important."

China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters after the meeting that the most important thing is to see that the Burma authorities "restore stability," and to get Gambari into the country as soon as possible.

"China is a neighbor to Myanmar [Burma], so we more than anyone else wish to see that Myanmar [Burma] will achieve stability, national reconciliation, and we want to see them making progress on the road of democratization," he said. "We hope that the government and people there could just sort out their differences."

Wang said that he believed sanctions would not be helpful. He added that "these problems now at this stage (do) not constitute a threat to international and regional peace and stability."

Washington to Continue Pressure on Burmese Junta

The top US diplomat for Southeast Asia said o­n Thursday the US will continue to press Burma's military government for political reform despite recent conciliatory gestures from Burmese officials.

"We have had a strategy over the last couple of years with regard to Burma [that] has really been to try to push along both a bilateral track and multilateral track," said Eric John, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

  Following meetings between Washington's senior diplomat and two top Burmese officials in Beijing in late June, Burma's Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan said the junta is ready to cooperate with any country, including the United States, in the best interest of the two countries.
John, however, told a forum hosted by the Washington-based think-tank, The Heritage Foundation, that the US wants to see a minimum standard of basic political changes in Burma.

"We didn't meet the Burmese in Beijing just out of coincidence," he said. "That's part of the process we've been intensifying recently of engaging with China about issues in Southeast Asia, particularly Burma."

He added that despite recent cooperation, Washington and Beijing do not see eye-to-eye o­n Burma.
Meanwhile, John's predecessor, also a conference participant, was skeptical of Washington's Burma policy.

"We can't escape the conclusion that our policies have simply not moved Myanmar [Burma] in the right direction. Nor do they have any reasonable prospect of doing so," said Matthew Daley, the president of the US-Asean Business Council.

Daley, the former Southeast Asia head in the US State Department, said the US's Burma policy does not have much support within Asean, of which Burma is a member together with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
John, however, said the US policy calls for direct pressure o­n Burma for political reform through regional and international groups, including the UN, third countries and regional groupings, such as Asean. 

Burma this week marks its 10th anniversary of membership in Asean.
"To have a member like Burma in the group has not been very productive for Asean's reputation and organizational status," John said, adding that the bloc's new charter, scheduled to be approved later this year, is expected to include improved standards for membership.

Burmese Junta, Private Company Seize Land in Kachin State

Burma’s ruling junta and a private company have confiscated thousands of acres of land from farmers in western Kachin State in the name of a new agricultural project, according to sources in the area.

Yuzana Co Ltd, owned by Burmese tycoon Htay Myint, has reportedly amassed hundreds of thousands of acres over the last few years in Hugaung Valley in Kachin State to implement what it calls “the development of wild lands into farmland.”

Yuzana has been granted ownership of the land by the junta, but sources in the area say that the land was taken from local residents with help from the Burmese army.

“They simply seized my farmland and my house, saying it extended beyond their project areas,” a resident of Naung Mi told The Irrawaddy by telephone o­n Friday.

He added that he and other farmers who lost their land received no compensation and have no way to lodge complaints, since the Burmese army was involved in the seizures.

“The company said my village headman would arrange for replacement land, but that has not happened and I’ve already lost my house,” the Naung Mi resident said. “Even the village headmen have no right to complain about the company’s abuse.”

An administrative staffer at Yuzana confirmed to The Irrawaddy o­n Friday that the company does own hundreds of thousands of acres for the purpose of agricultural projects but said Yuzana has not received any complaints from area residents.

“Yes, we have agricultural projects in that area in cooperation with the government, but I have not heard of any complaints,” the staffer said.

Local sources have reported that Yuzana now owns all land within ten miles of either side of the historic Ledo Road from Tanai Township to Naung Mi village—a stretch of about 45 miles—for the alleged purpose of converting fallow land to workable farmland.

Yuzana, founded in 1994, is known for its heavy investments in Rangoon’s residential and commercial property markets, as well as a growing interest in agricultural and fishery ventures across Burma.

The company is said to employ thousands of workers for their agricultural projects, while bulldozers and other heavy machinery have been used to clear land for the planting of paddy, sugar cane, rubber plants and cassava nuts.

Some area residents have also complained that company employees have slaughtered their cattle when they strayed into the company’s project areas.

Hugaung Valley was the scene of heavy fighting in the early 1990s between armed ethnic Kachin groups and the Burmese army.

The Ledo Road, a two-lane highway linking India and China that runs through the Hugaung Valley, was built during World War II. The local population is sparse and the ownership of land is loosely enforced, say residents, because the area is poorly administered by local officials.

Burmese Rights Activists Sentenced in Irrawaddy Division

Six members of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters, a Rangoon-based human rights group, were sentenced to between 4 and 8 years in prison o­n Tuesday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

Myint Hlaing, also known as Myint Naing, was sentenced to 8 years while his five colleagues received 4-year terms handed down by a court in Henzada Township in Irrawaddy Division, according to AAPP based in Thailand. The activists were charged under sections 505 (b) and (c) for inciting public unrest.  

The arrests followed an attack o­n HRDP members in April by members of the government-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association. Myint Hlaing and another member sustained injuries. After the incident, the six members were arrested.
The Burmese rights group has worked to promote human rights in Burma since its creation in 2002.

Burmese Newspaper, Myanmar Times, Carries “Killer Than Shwe” Ad

July 24, 2007—An advertisement placed in Monday's English-language The Myanmar Times newspaper by a satirical art group had hidden messages, calling the country's military ruler Snr-Gen Than Shwe a "killer" and hailing “freedom.”

This innocent-looking advertisement carried by The Myanmar Times carried hidden messages—“Killer Than Shwe” and “Freedom”

The bogus advertisement was placed in the semi-official newspaper by Denmark-based Surrend, which has experience slipping clandestine ads under the noses of repressive regimes, group member Pia Bertelsen said in a telephone interview from Denmark with The Associated Press in Bangkok, Thailand.

  The ad, published in Burma's commercial capital Rangoon, looked like an innocent call for tourists visiting Burma from Scandinavia, with the drawing of a palm tree and sun, and text praising Burma's "beautiful country and friendly people."

It included a line from a fictitious “old Danish poem”—“Feel relaxed, enjoy everything, dance o­n minutes.” The first letters of the seven words spell out “freedom.”

At the bottom of the half-page ad was "The Board of Islandic Travel Agencies Ewhsnahtrellik and the Danish Industry BesoegDanmark," including the long Danish-looking word "Ewhsnahtrellik." When read backward it said, "killer Than Shwe."

Bertelsen said the ad was a way to show even autocratic leaders could be criticized.

"What we want to achieve with the ad is to show that there are cracks in even the worst regimes. That with art you can find these holes and fly under the censorship's radar and hit the despots," she said.

To place the ad, Surrend presented themselves as an advertising company.

The Myanmar Times was not immediately available for comment, but Bertelsen said the ad was designed in a way so it was hard for them to discover the hidden message.

"We don't think they will be blamed. And also, The Myanmar Times is an important propaganda tool for the Burma regime so they are a part of the regime we criticize," she said.

The Myanmar Times has weekly editions in both English and Burmese. It was founded in 2000 and is partly owned by the government, and like all media in Burma is censored by the Ministry of Information.

Surrend has placed similar ads with hidden messages before, including o­ne in the government-controlled Tehran Times last December that spelled out "swine" below a photo of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The ad reads like a criticism of US President George W Bush, but the first letter of each sentence line up along the left of the ad and spells "swine" when read from top to bottom.

"Our purpose with our art is not to make revolutions, but to poke fun at the despots," Bertelsen said.

Burma Campaign UK welcomes MPs’ call for more aid to Burma

‘Burma is one of the world’s forgotten crisis’ – International Development Committee
The full report can be viewed here.

The Burma Campaign UK today warmly welcomed a report on British aid to Burma,  published by the International Development Committee. The cross-party committee of MPs supported all of the proposals put forward by the Burma Campaign UK.
The report calls for a fundamental change in DFID’s aid policy, including:

• A quadrupling of aid to Burma by 2013, taking aid from £8.8m to £35.3m a year.
• Providing cross-border aid in addition to in-country aid, to ensure aid reaches internally displaced people who cannot be reached through in-country mechanisms because of restrictions imposed by the regime.
• Funding projects promoting human rights and democracy, including exile based Burmese women’s groups and the trade union movement.
• Setting up alternative mechanisms to provide funding for HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB in parts of the country that the 3D fund can’t reach because of restrictions by the regime.
• Conduct a proper assessment of the needs of IDPs in Burma to ensure adequate delivery of aid.
• Working with UN OCHA to improve co-ordination of aid efforts, which are currently “done poorly”.

“The Committee is clearly saying that DFID is not doing enough, given the scale of the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Burma,” said Zoya Phan, Campaigns Officer at the Burma Campaign UK. “The British government must ensure aid reaches those most in need, and if the regime blocks aid to
people because of their ethnicity, then others ways to deliver aid must be found, such as delivering aid cross-border from neighbouring countries.”

In December last year the Burma Campaign UK published a report – Failing the people of Burma? – highlighting concerns with DFID’s Burma policy. DFID has refused to fund cross-border aid, which is the only way to reach some of the most vulnerable people in Burma, and despite ministers stating that the regime is responsible for Burma’s humanitarian crisis, has not funded projects targeted at promoting human rights and democracy in the country.

“The report vindicates what we have been saying about the problems with DFID’s current aid policy,” said Zoya Phan. “If DFID implements the recommendations of the Committee, millions of lives will be saved or transformed. We hope that this report will shame DFID into action.”

Resettlement Program Hits Burmese Refugee Education Standards

July 23, 2007—The resettlement program for the Burmese refugee community along Thailand’s border with Burma is having a negative effect o­n education in the camps, according to an official of the Karen Refugee Committee.

Schools were losing teachers, contributing to an increasing lack of interest among students, said the committee’s education coordinator, Deborah Htoo. “Exam scores of the students are lower than ever before,” she said.

This year, o­nly 2,467 out of 34,000 primary and secondary school students passed the annual examination called the “border test.”

When high school students were included in the statistics the pass rate was 72 percent, still below last year’s figure of 80 percent.

Deborah Htoo said the loss of school principals, teachers, teacher-trainers and other staff due to the resettlement program was having a negative effect o­n teaching standards and student morale. Vacant positions were not easy to fill, and students found it difficult to adapt to younger teachers, she said.

Lay Thaw, a teacher-trainer in Umphiem refugee camp, said educational standards would continue to decline as long as the present resettlement program remained in force.

A recent report by the Committee for Coordination of Services to Displaced Persons in Thailand said a decrease in the quality and availability of teaching staff would have a negative impact o­n the education sector. Over time, the report said, the decline would have reverberating effects within refugee camps, because there would be a lack of qualified people to fill high level camp-based jobs.
From 2005 to early May 2007, 5,500 Burmese refugees from the nine refugee camps in Thailand left for resettlement in third countries. The proportion of educated refugees accepted for resettlement was higher than other camp residents.

Hollywood Actor Visits Karen Refugee Clinic in Mae Sot

July 23, 2007—Karen refugees along the Thai-Burmese border have welcomed another US celebrity, Hollywood actor Walter Koenig, whose visit to a refugee medical clinic o­n July 20 was an attempt to draw world attention to o­ngoing attacks by Burmese soldiers o­n Karen civilians.

Best known for his role as Pavel Chekov o­n the long-running and iconic television series “Star Trek,” Koenig visited the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, run by Dr Cynthia Maung, and which caters for the needs of Thailand’s growing Karen refugee population.

Koenig is also scheduled to meet members of the media at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok o­n July 24.

The trip was organized by the US Campaign for Burma, a Washington, DC-based lobby group.
Koenig’s visit follows an earlier trip in June by American television actor Eric Szmanda from the hit series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

Koenig is best known for his role as the likeable, perpetually cheerful Pavel Chekov o­n Star Trek and the hated, intensely driven Alfred Bester o­n Babylon 5. 

Koenig’s film work includes appearances in the seven Star Trek feature films, for which he earned two Saturn Award Best Supporting Actor nominations.

US Campaign for Burma is trying to organize US celebrities to become involved in promoting Burma's struggle for democracy and human rights, especially in eastern Burma, where fighting over the past 10 years has forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes.

“Famous actors can speak up about Burma through the media so the UN Security Council can know this eastern Burma civil war disaster,” Jeremy Woodrum, the campaign director for US Campaign for Burma, told The Irrawaddy o­n Monday.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Misses Ceremony Marking Father's Assassination

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was absent for the fifth consecutive year from a ceremony Thursday to mark the death of her father, Burma's independence hero, as the military junta beefed up security for the event.

Suu Kyi's father, Gen Aung San, led the struggle against British colonialists and later the occupying Japanese forces during World War II before eventually negotiating the country's split from Britain.

But o­n July 19, 1947, six months before Burma was to gain its formal independence, he was gunned down along with six Cabinet ministers and two officials. A jealous political rival, former Prime Minister U Saw, was tried and hanged for arranging their assassination.

The anniversary of his death is marked each year as Martyr's Day at a mausoleum near the famous Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon.

Culture Minister Maj-Gen Khin Aung Myint led the official ceremony, placing wreaths at the mausoleum, followed by relatives of the slain leaders.

Suu Kyi used to lay three baskets of flowers at her father's tomb every year but she has been absent since her detention in May 2003.

Suu Kyi's estranged elder brother, US citizen Aung San Oo, and his wife laid a wreath at the father's tomb o­n her behalf.

In 2005, the government announced that Suu Kyi had been invited to lay a wreath at her father's tomb but that she told them she did not want to attend the ceremony.

In an apparent effort to pre-empt enthusiastic supporters from going to Suu Kyi's house where she remains in detention, the junta expanded a roadblock across the road.

Security was also beefed up in the city.

Armed policemen at road junctions and hundreds of pro-junta plainclothes security officials were stationed near the headquarters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy where the party held a private ceremony to commemorate Martyr's Day.

At the ceremony, party members called for the release of Suu Kyi as well as other political prisoners and urged the junta to reopen party offices that have been closed since 2003.

About 350 people including party members, diplomats and representatives from the United Nations attended the ceremony as security officials watched and videotaped the event from across the street.

Unlike last year, authorities allowed NLD members to visit the mausoleum to pay tribute to Gen Aung San.

The NLD members are allowed to go there in groups of 10 or 12 and were permitted to wear T-shirts bearing photos of Suu Kyi or Gen Aung San.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent almost 12 of the past 18 years in confinement. She was last detained by the government o­n May 30, 2003, after her motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob in northern Burma. She has been held at her Rangoon residence and is not allowed visitors or telephone contact with the outside world.

Martyr's Day was an important event in Burma's calendar for years, but has been gradually downgraded since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, which was crushed by the junta.

Since 1996, official newspapers have abandoned an earlier tradition of publishing commemorative Martyr's Day biographical sketches of Aung San along with photos of slain leaders and articles extolling them.

However, private local news journal carried articles and special features about those killed.

UN Chief Urges Burma to Be More Open

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon o­n Wednesday urged the Burmese junta to make its national reconciliation process “transparent and participatory” involving all sections of the society.
The statement comes as Burma’s National Convention began its final session to draw up guidelines for a new constitution.

Expected to last about two months, the convention is the first step in a "seven-step road map to democracy" proposed by the military junta. Pro-democracy advocates have not been included in the process, because their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest.
A statement issued by the UN said the secretary-general is closely following the constitution drafting process.

“The secretary-general takes note of the resumption today of Myanmar’s [Burma's] National Convention for its final session, as announced by the Government of Myanmar, and is closely following developments,” said the statement.

Ban Ki-moon said the Burmese government should seize this opportunity to ensure that the subsequent steps in Burma’s political roadmap are as inclusive, participatory and transparent as possible.

He said the process should allow all political parties and ethnic groups to fully contribute to defining the country’s future.

Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to be briefed this week by his special adviser o­n Burma, Ibrahim Gambari.

Gambari has just returned from a tour of China, India and Japan where he held discussions o­n the issue of Burma.

“Gambari had detailed and open discussions o­n how best the United Nations and the countries he visited can continue to work together to support Myanmar's efforts in implementing relevant General Assembly resolutions,” a UN spokesperson told The Irrawaddy.

The UN is expected to announce a date for Gambari's next visit to Burma soon after the submission of his report.

UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser, Gambari, to Submit Burma Report to UN

Ibrahim Gambari, the UN Secretary-General’s special adviser o­n Burma, will brief the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, this week o­n his meetings with top officials of China, India and Japan o­n the issue of Burma.

A senior UN official said after Gambari submits his report the next issue would be to decide o­n the timing for his next visit to Burma.

“Gambari had detailed and open discussions o­n how best the United Nations and the countries he visited can continue to work together to support Myanmar's [Burma's] efforts in implementing relevant General Assembly resolutions,” a spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General told The Irrawaddy.

At the advice of the Secretary-General, Gambari visited Beijing, New Delhi and Tokyo last week holding series of consultations with top officials. UN officials now handling Burma believe that the three Asian powers can play an influential role in resolving two main issues—restoration of democracy and protection of human rights.

Beijing—the closet ally of the Burma’s military government—was the first stop o­n Gambari's tour, where he met with top Communist leaders. From there, he went to New Delhi to meet with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, followed by a trip to Japan.

Burmese Opposition Group in Exile Opposes Constitution Plan

A group of Burmese opposition members in exile in Thailand has dismissed regime plans to resume drafting a constitution later this week, saying that the finished document would not deliver promised democratic reforms nor protect minority groups.

Speaking at a press conference in the northern Thai border town of Mae Sot, six Burmese leaders said Sunday that they initially took part in the National Convention to draft the constitution believing it was the best hope for democracy.

However, they said they became disenchanted over concerns that the junta—known officially as the State Peace and Development Council—was using the convention to remain in power, so they fled to Thailand.

"This is a sham constitution because o­nly 12 of the convention representatives are elected members of parliament. The rest were hand-picked by the SPDC," said Myint Tun, a member of the country's opposition National League for Democracy who left the convention in 2005 and fled to Thailand. "They are just trying to gain the upper hand so the army can continue ruling the country."
Another convention delegate, Shay Rae, said he was forced by the junta to take part and was called o­n to represent farmers even though he was a teacher. He abandoned the convention seven years ago and also fled to Thailand.

Most of the six are members of the National Council of the Union of Burma, an exiled pro-democracy group based in Thailand which routinely criticizes the junta. All but Myint Tun have been in Thailand for several years.

A government spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.
The attack is likely to rattle the junta, as it comes before the National Convention is set to resume drawing up guidelines for the constitution this week. The junta has not said when it will be finished nor when a vote will be held o­n the document.

The junta says the convention is the first of seven steps o­n a "roadmap to democracy" which is supposed to culminate in free elections. The junta hand-picked most of the convention's 1,000 delegates.

Critics say the proceedings have been manipulated and should not be taken seriously because opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest and cannot attend. Her National League for Democracy party has boycotted the convention to protest her detention and that of other NLD leaders.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

Burma has been without a constitution since 1988, when its 1974 charter was suspended.
The junta first convened the convention in 1993, but it was aborted in 1996 after NLD delegates walked out in protest, saying it was undemocratic and the military was manipulating the proceedings. The convention was resurrected in 2004.

Burmese Opposition Questions Gambari’s View of “Progress”

Leading Burmese opposition figures took issue o­n Friday with a call by the UN Secretary-General’s special adviser o­n Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, for “progress” to be recognized as a way of encouraging movement by the Burmese regime towards democracy.

Gambari made the appeal in an interview with Reuters news agency during a stop in India o­n his three-nation Asian tour to sound out governments o­n the Burma issue. “The best approach is…to combine, to recognize progress where it has been made and encourage them to move further along the lines of democratization and respect for human rights,” Gambari said.

“I want to ask what progress [made by the regime] means,” was the reaction o­n Friday from Myint Thein, spokesman for Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy. “I have to say there is no progress politically.” 

Myint Thein said India, as the world’s largest democracy “as well as our neighbor,” should “encourage democratization in Burma, rather than building a good relationship between the two countries.”

Cin Sian Thang, chairman of the Zomi National Congress, also took issue with Gambari’s statement. “I see no progress toward democracy at all,” he said in a phone interview with The Irrawaddy o­n Friday. “The military operations and human rights violations in ethnic minority areas and pro-democracy activists arbitrarily arrested by unknown people, not the authorities, backed by the regime are not progress.”

Asked whether the completion of the National Convention could be seen as “progress,” Cin Sian Thang said: “It will be progress for them [the regime], not for the people.”
During his India visit, Gambari had a “candid discussion” with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, said UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe.

First stop o­n his tour was China, where he met Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai.

“China believes the situation in Myanmar [Burma] does not pose a threat to regional and international peace and stability,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang told reporters after the meeting. “What happens in Myanmar should be solved independently by the people in Myanmar itself.”

Gambari was in Japan o­n Friday, and was scheduled to meet senior foreign ministry officials before returning to New York.

Gambari’s former boss, ex-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, urged Asean during a visit to Malaysia o­n Friday to be “politically courageous” in promoting good governance in the region.
“All other regional organizations which started the same way of non-interference now realize that crises do not remain internal or geographically limited for long.”

Former UN Chief Urges Asean to Be More Forceful with Burma

ormer UN chief Kofi Annan o­n Friday urged Southeast Asia's regional bloc to be more bold and aggressive in prodding military-ruled Burma to democratize.


The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations must not use its noninterference policy as "an excuse to stay out and not get involved" in helping Burma to improve its human rights record, Annan told reporters o­n a visit to Malaysia. "I had encouraged Asean to be a bit more active in the neighborhood... Asean can play a role, Asean can use its peer pressure to steer things right in Burma," said Annan, who had increased UN efforts to engage Burma during his 10-year term. He stepped down in December.

"All other regional organizations which started the same way of noninterference now realize that crises do not remain internal or geographically limited for long," Annan said.
"It tends to spread and they have been much more active in intervening whether it is the African Union, the European Union ... they have been very active in trying to assist their neighbors to get things right and I think Asean should be able to do that."

Burma, which has failed to deliver o­n its pledge to allow democracy, has become a growing embarrassment for the Asean bloc, which comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Burma's junta took power in 1988 and crushed the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide election victory.

Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been in prison or under house arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

In a speech at a forum in Kuala Lumpur late Thursday, Annan said Asean must be more "politically courageous" to promote good governance in the region, in an apparent reference to Burma.
He warned political oppression and human rights abuse often send citizens across borders as refugees, which could "poison the whole neighborhood as a whole."

Amnesty Urges Release of Popular Writer from Burma Prison

London-based Amnesty International called o­n Burma’s military government to release political prisoner and researcher Aung Htun from Insein Prison in Rangoon in a letter sent to Burmese authorities o­n Thursday.

The writer is known to be suffering from asthma, and the letter said the group’s plea for release was motivated by humanitarian considerations rather than politics.

“Aung Htun is currently suffering from asthma, hemorrhoids and arthritis in all four limbs, but he hasn’t received any effective medical treatment in the prison,” said Tin Hlaing, a spokesperson for the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) in Mae Sot. “But authorities have allowed his family to visit him in prison.”

About 50 members of Amnesty International collaborated o­n the letter to alert Burma to the fact that Aung Htun was detained o­nly because of his nonviolent political activism, according to the letter.

“We are particularly concerned about his health, as he is suffering as a result of being tortured in 1998,” the letter said.

Aung Htun was arrested February 1998 and sentenced to 17 years for distributing his book in Burmese, 88 Years History of Burmese Students’ Movements.

The book includes historical details of the Rangoon University Students Union constitution, the All Burma Federation of Student Unions constitution and information o­n the relationships between the groups, with both inter- and intra- organizational documents in Burmese and English version.
According to AAPP, six political prisoners died in the last year, while 80 are currently suffering form serious disease. Many prisoners with health conditions receive inadequate or no medical care, according to the group. There are over 1,100 political prisoners currently in detention in Burma.
Aung Tun was awarded a Hellman/Hammett grant in 1999 and was made an honorary member of the PEN centers in Norway, Australia and Canada.

EU Calls on Burma to Lift Restrictions on ICRC

The European Union o­n Wednesday urged Burma to lift restrictions o­n the International Committee of the Red Cross, denouncing recent moves to limit the group's humanitarian work in the country.

The EU's External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel appealed to Burma authorities to restart dialogue with the ICRC as soon as possible.

The Geneva-based ICRC last Friday issued a rare statement condemning abuses against civilians and detainees in Burma, saying they were causing "immense suffering."

Michel said he was "concerned about the seriousness of the violations denounced by the International Red Cross," adding that actions to destroy food supplies and reported abuses by the military against men, women and children living along the Thai-Burmese border amounted to violations of international humanitarian law.

"The provisions of the international humanitarian law should ... be fully applied," Michel said in a statement. The ICRC said Burmese authorities were compelling thousands of detainees to serve as porters for the armed forces, exposing them to the dangers of combat and other risks.
The ICRC said it had tried to resolve the problems through confidential talks with the Burmese military junta but that so far they had refused to engage in serious talks.

Ferrero-Waldner said the EU could help facilitate talks between the Red Cross and the junta.
Red Cross officials said Burma had imposed increasingly severe restrictions o­n ICRC staff, making it impossible for them to move independently and hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The ICRC has been unable to meet political prisoners, notably with the country's most prominent detainee, Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.
The ICRC last visited Suu Kyi in 2003. She has spent more than 11 of the past 18 years in detention.

Burmese Regime Rejects Red Cross Charges

Burma’s military government has rejected charges of human rights abuses leveled by the International Committee of the Red Cross, saying they would have “negative implications” for future cooperation.
In a rare statement last week criticizing the Burmese regime, the ICRC charged that prisoners were being forced to act as porters for the armed forces. The Burmese government responded last Friday to the charges, describing them as “one-sided accusations lacking any factual basis, evidence or proof…Myanmar [Burma] categorically rejects the groundless accusations that the government targets [the] civilian population.” 

The statement continued: “By violating its own principles, the mutual trust and confidence between Myanmar and [the] ICRC have been eroded. This would have negative implications in Myanmar's cooperation with the ICRC.” 

Ribaux Thierry, deputy head of the ICRC office in Rangoon, told The Irrawaddy that he was aware of the government statement but did not want to comment o­n it. “We do hope to resume the dialogue with the government via the press release,” he said in a phone interview.
Thierry said the ICRC office in Rangoon was functioning normally despite the organization’s criticism of the regime. Its office in Taunggyi had closed at the end of June, however, leaving just two other offices outside Rangoon—in Pa-an and Mandalay.

Burma's Army to Stop Recruiting Child Soldiers

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Talks between a senior United Nations envoy and Burma’s acting prime minister Thein Sein in Rangoon, last week, may actually see an end to the recruitment of children into the armed forces, say observers.

Following the five-day visit to Burma of UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy, Burma’s military leaders agreed to set up a special government post to work with the UN o­n the issue of using child soldiers to quell ethnic rebellions.

"The good news is they agreed to set up a focal point at the ministry of social welfare to engage directly with UNICEF," Coomaraswamy told presspersons. Officials involved in the talks with the government said Burmese leaders were accommodating and were committed to reducing the recruitment of children into the army.

"We feel there is a chance the government may be fairly serious about cooperating—or at least being seen to be—on this issue," a UN official told IPS o­n condition of anonymity. "If nothing else, because it's o­n the Security Council agenda and because it gives them a chance to discredit the figure of 70,000 child soldiers that is being bandied about.’’

Opposition activists agree that the government’s apparent willingness to cooperate is because they know this issue comes with a UN Security Council tag, and the last thing the regime wants is for the UN to have another excuse to put Burma back o­n the Security Council agenda.
The head of the UN team in Burma Charles Petrie told IPS that since 2003 the UN has been able "to start addressing some very difficult issues" with the military government, including the problem of child soldiers.

But while the use of child soldiers is still common in the Burmese army, there has already been a significant drop in the conscription of children into the army, according to international aid workers working with children in Burma.

"In the past when army recruiters were short of new recruits they would press gang young kids from the few street children’s centers that operate in Rangoon," a former aid worker in Burma Karl Dorning told IPS: "Since the committee was set up and we pointed out that it’s illegal to recruit children under the age of 18, they have left us alone."

Burma has been heavily criticized by human rights groups over the past two decades for recruiting large numbers of child soldiers, some as young as 11.

The United States-based group Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 40 percent of the 350,000-strong army may be child soldiers. These youngsters are often kidnapped o­n their way home from school. They are then brutalized and physically abused during their induction and basic training before being shipped off to fight in the country’s border areas. HRW has also accused some ethnic rebel guerrilla groups of using child soldiers.

During her visit, Coomaraswamy met senior government officials, military commanders, representatives of civil society and affected children from conflict areas, according to UN officials.
The envoy has been at pains to dismiss suggestions that her trip was a fact-finding mission. "This was not an investigation mission or a fact-finding mission," she told journalists in Rangoon at the end of her trip last week. "There are various reports with regard to child soldiers and the government gave me their point of view. But the purpose (of this trip) was to set up a monitoring mechanism, which the government has now agreed to."

The next step is for the UN agencies o­n the ground in Burma, especially the UN Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, to gather information o­n child soldiers and clarify the real situation before reporting back to the Security Council later this year, according to the special envoy.

The government has become increasingly sensitive about the issue of child soldiers. HRW’s comprehensive report, released in late 2002, provoked an international outcry and stung the junta into doing something about the forcible recruitment of child soldiers.

The military regime set up a committee for the prevention of military recruitment of under-age children in January 2004. It developed a plan of action, which was adopted by the government in October 2004.
But UN agencies and diplomats in Rangoon have continued to report the use of child soldiers by the armed forces as well as by rebel groups.

No independent comprehensive assessment of the use of minors by government forces and ethnic rebel armies has been conducted since the setting up of the government committee. But the envoy‘s visit may have helped put a mechanism into place that will be able to do that in the future.
However, the issue of the use of child soldiers by ethnic rebel armies remains more problematic. The envoy met representatives of the United Wa State Army who, apparently, promised to cooperate.