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Suu Kyi celebrates birthday with no hope of being freed soon
US marks Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday, deplores her arrest
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader marks 63rd birthday
Suu Kyi supporters make solemn offerings on her birthday
Seven arrested in protest on Suu Kyi's 63rd birthday
Daw Aung San Suu kyi's quiet birthday masks powerful but peaceful resistance
Myanmar junta gang hits Suu Kyi birthday rally
Helping Burma recover
Un Human Rights Council Condemns 'Ongoing Systematic Violations'
Burma – Detention of Aung San Suu Kyi
Recent Burma News : 18 June 2008

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Suu Kyi celebrates birthday with no hope of being freed soon
Larry Jagan
Wednesday, 18 June 2008 15:27

Millions of people throughout the world will mark the birthday of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on June 19. The co-ordinated campaign around the world, which will take place in almost every major city in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, is trying to highlight the plight of one of the world's best known freedom fighters, languishing under house arrest in her lakeside residence in Rangoon.

But Burma's military rulers are likely to remain totally unmoved by the millions of Burmese and international protesters demanding her immediate release. "They can jump up and down and make as much noise as they like, General Than Shwe couldn't careless," according to a senior government official. As a matter of principle, the ruling junta will not be pressured into being conciliatory.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention. She is currently spending her third term under house arrest. The regime locked her up again after a brutal attack on her and her entourage as they were travelling in the north of the country in May 2003. She has been in detention ever since, and in the last four years she has been in virtual solitary confinement, seeing her doctor irregularly and meeting the UN envoy, Ibrahim Gambari five times in the last two years.

For the Burmese people, trampled for more than forty years by a repressive military regime, Aung San Suu Kyi represents their aspirations, and above all their desire for freedom and democracy. She was placed under house arrest the first time ten months before her party, the National League for Democracy overwhelmingly won the national elections – but was never allowed to form a government.

The irony is that Aung San Suu Kyi herself would probably disapprove of the world making a fuss over her birthday. She has continuously shunned personal attention. And even when her husband and sons accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, her acceptance speech smuggled out of the country at the time said it was not for her alone, but for all Burmese people in their struggle for democracy.

There has always been a self-effacing touch to Aung San Suu Kyi. Since her return to Rangoon to look after her ill mother in 1987, she has always put her personal concerns aside for the sake of the Burmese people.

"I draw inspiration from the courage and sacrifice of the ordinary Burmese people," she often said to me in interviews on the phone during the few years she was freed from house arrest for the first time in 10 July 1995, after six years under house arrest.

But Burma's military leader, senior General Than Shwe cannot even tolerate hearing her name. "The mere mention of her name sends the old man into a silent rage," according to a senior military source close to the top General.

Asia's foreign ministers were warned by their Burmese counterpart at the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh in 2002 to avoid mentioning her name in his presence. The former intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt frequently warned the UN envoy Razali Ismail to minimise the mention of Aung San Suu Kyi's name in front of the top general.

Indonesia's foreign minister Dr Hasan Wirajuda confided to UN officials that there was a marked change in Than Shwe's demeanour when he mentioned Aung San Suu Kyi. "His eyes glazed over and his facial muscles tensed; clearly our discussion had come to an end," he reportedly said.

This remains one of the key obstacles to resolving Burma's political deadlock. Burma's top generals are not interested in a concrete dialogue with the pro-democracy leader. "We've been trying to get them to the negotiating table for 14 years but they have never been keen on the idea," she told me the last time we met in March 2003.

Aung San Suu Kyi on the other hand has repeatedly offered to discuss the country's political future with the Generals. Everything is negotiable if they start meaningful talks, she told me weeks before she was detained for the third time more than two years ago following an attack on her and her entourage by pro-government thugs in what is now called Black Friday.

"We are in opposition to each other at the moment but we should work together for the sake of the country. We certainly bare no grudges against them. We are not out for vengeance. We want to reach the kind of settlement which will be beneficial to everybody, including the members of the military," Aung San Suu Kyi said to me in one of her last interviews before her fateful trip in 2003.

During Aung San Suu Kyi's second long period of house arrest, after she was detained trying to travel out of Rangoon in late 2000, the regime started tentative contact with the pro-democracy leader. The secret talks were largely brokered by the then UN special envoy for Burma Razali Ismail. Although this contact was never really substantive, it raised hopes inside Burma and abroad that political reform may be the agenda.

A process of national reconciliation was started, ostensibly involving senior representatives of the military regime, pro-democracy leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the ethnic rebel groups, many of whom have been fighting for some form of autonomy for more than five decades.

At the time there were high hopes, although many leading Burmese dissidents abroad and diplomats in Rangoon remained highly sceptical, believing the Burmese generals had no intentions of negotiating and were only concerned about hanging on to power at any cost.

In 2001 the Singaporean Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong told me privately that the generals were incorrigible and would never give up power voluntarily. Most Asian leaders probably did not disagree with the eminent Singaporean politician at the time – or even now -- but all of them preferred to coax Burma's top military leaders to change, rather than pressure them.

Even East Timor's president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta has suggested that pressuring the Generals in Rangoon was counter-productive. "Threats and deadlines have had no affect on the junta except hardening their position and forcing them to retreat into isolation," he told me several years ago.

But Aung San Suu has persisted trying to convince the regime that she at least was prepared to negotiate and that meant making concessions. "What we've always said is that dialogue is not a competition," she told me as we chatted in Rangoon over two years ago.

"We don't want a dialogue in order to find out who is the better person, or which is the smarter organisation. We have always said that the only winner, if we settle down to negotiations, the only winner, will be the country," she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly made conciliatory gestures towards the regime. As the daughter of the independence hero and founder of modern Burma, General Aung San, she understands the military mentality and is prepared to work with them.

"We have genuine goodwill towards the Burmese military. I personally look upon it with a certain amount of affection because of my father and I want it to have an honourable position in the country," she told me as we sat together talking at the NLD headquarters, weeks before the regime showed its true colours.

During yet another "honey-moon" period, after the new Prime Minister, General Khin Nyunt announced the seven-stage road map to democracy and the regime started plans to reconvene the National Convention to draft a new constitution, there was a glimmer of hope that Burma's military leaders may at long last include Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD in the process.

In 2004, at the suggestion of the Chinese, Aung San Suu Kyi even wrote to Than Shwe suggesting that they put the past behind them and move forward in a new era of cooperation. It fell on deaf ears.

Burma's top general is convinced that by keeping Aung San Suu Kyi in detention he can marginalise her and reduce her influence in the country. It is a vain hope as the protests and parties across the world will testify to. Aung San Suu Kyi is not only a massive icon in Burma, but throughout the globe.

Shortly after Kofi Annan took over as the UN secretary general he had to find some-one to lead the UN Commission on Human Rights. "I have a great idea, he told a close mutual friend, we'll make Aung San Suu Kyi the head of the human rights commission." Whether he really meant it or not we may never know.

But of course Aung San Suu Kyi who at the time had just been released from house arrest for the first time would never have taken the post as her over-riding commitment is to the cause of democracy in Burma.

At this point of time, with Burma having experienced its worst natural disaster in living memory, the detained opposition leader's thoughts will definitely be with those victims who have lost everything in the devastating cyclone that hit Burma more than six weeks ago. Their suffering has been made all the worse by the military's slow response to the disaster and their attempt to completely control the current relief efforts and any reconstruction plan in the future.

The contrast between the diminutive democracy hero and the generals in charge of Burma has never been so stark. Following what would be Aung San Syy Kyi's lead if she was free or able to talk, the NLD has offered to put aside their differences with the regime in the interests of working together to provide relief to more than three million victims, many of whom are still waiting to receive fresh water and food, and after that help with the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase.

Instead, Than Shwe and his fellow generals remain steadfast in believing they can do it alone. The horrible irony of course is that their secretive approach to ruling the country in part resulted in the damage being greater than it might have been, Warnings were not broadcast to the Delta or rangoon before the cyclone hit – though the regime knew for days that the storm was brewing.

On the eve of the cyclone hitting Burma, government officials were ordered not say anything publicly – instructions from Than Shwe himself, according to government sources. Instead one civil servant, U Tun Lwin the director general of the meteorology department, when he was told directly by a government minister not to issue a public warning because it would cause people to panic, sent a warning SMS to as many of his friends in Rangoon as possible after midnight.

Air force fighters and private passenger planes, from Bagan Air – believed to be a joint venture between Than Shwe's family and the Burmese business tycoon Tay Ze -- and Air Mandalay were moved the evening before the cyclone from Rangoon airport to Mandalay for safety.

"This is symptomatic of the military leaders' total disregard for the safety of ordinary citizens and placing the protection of the military's interest above all else," a Burmese government official told Mizzima on condition anonymity.

For Burma's top general, Than Shwe, there is no need to compromise. This is symptomatic of the absurd irrationality that prevails amongst the military rulers. When any other national leader would be looking to promote national reconciliation and reconsolidation – the junta remains interested only in their own survival and holding onto political power, no matter how petty this is, when Burma is facing such a mammoth catastrophe.

The last time I met Aung Sann Suu Kyi – the last foreign journalist to talk to her before the ill-fated trip up-country -- we talked about the sort of Burma that could emerge if there was real political change and democracy. "You'll be exhausted because of so many things going on, because it's a dynamic country, she mused.

"At the same time I would very much like Burma to retain some of its traditional charm which has something to do with the fact that we are not as frantic as other countries. In some ways perhaps the fact that we are developing later than other countries can become an asset in a sense, that we learn from the mistakes of other countries and we learn how to get the best out of development while avoiding some of the worst aspects," she said.

Now more than ever the Burmese military regime should take heed of her continual offers to work together and solve Burma's problems. In the midst of perhaps the worse horror to have befallen Burma, it is time for Than Shwe to listen. Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly made conciliatory gestures towards the regime. As the daughter of the independence hero and founder of modern Burma, General Aung San, she understands the military mentality and is prepared to work with them.

But Than Shwe believes he does not need her and that unseen she will fade away. Nothing could be further from the truth. Aung San Suu Kyi is undeterred by the years of incarceration. When I met her on the day she was released last time – 6th May 2002, she confided that the isolation have given her plenty of time to read, reflect and meditate.

During the last five years of isolation in her Rangoon residence, I am certain she continues to draw inspiration from her father and the sacrifices of the Burmese people. "I always have been strengthened and inspired by my father. Even now, sometimes when I go over his old speeches, they are as relevant now as they were then -- he was indeed a man of vision," she confided to me as I left the NLD headquarters.

"He was a truly inspirational. I am also proud of the fact that he gained nothing. He gave but he didn't take anything from the nation. He gave the country a lot and took nothing from it. I am very proud of that and that inspires me," she said. It is a pity that the current leaders of the army, which General Aung San founded, cannot find the same inspiration, at a time when the country needs it most.

As she sits alone in her Rangoon residence now, I am certain she is continuing to draw inspiration from her father and the sacrifices of the Burmese people. She would be keen to help and is probably fretting that she cannot. It is the intransigence of the generals that is now not only delaying the return of democracy to Burma, but perhaps putting millions of lives at risk.

Now Burma's top general should at least talk directly to Aung San Suu Kyi and see how she could help the reconstruction effort. They would of course need to put genuine political dialogue with the NLD on the table in the future. But the opposition leaders' commitment to improving the lives of the Burmese people would no doubt mean she was prepared to compromise in the interests of getting the whole international aid effort into full swing.

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US marks Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday, deplores her arrest
AFP
Wed Jun 18, 10:42 PM ET

The United States marked Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's June 19 birthday, noting that her continued imprisonment was a "deplorable situation" that must end.

On Thursday "Aung San Suu Kyi will spend yet another birthday in custody, denied her liberty and fundamental political and civil rights by Burma's military rulers," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday, using Myanmar's former name.

"This deplorable situation must end," she said in a statement.

Myanmar's military regime "not only continues to keep this distinguished Nobel laureate under house arrest, but there are nearly 2,000 other political prisoners currently in custody," Rice said.

Meanwhile, the junta "has backtracked on even the modest steps it had taken -- naming a liaison to meet regularly with Aung San Suu Kyi and allowing her to meet with her colleagues in Burma's National League for Democracy."

"There have been no meetings with either since January, and Aung San Suu Kyi has even been denied regular access to medical care and legal counsel," Rice said.

Instead of risking further unrest "by its unjustified detention of political prisoners and its holding of a rigged referendum in May on a sham constitution," the junta "should release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and begin a genuine dialogue with her and other democratic and ethnic minority leaders on a transition to democracy," Rice said.

The Nobel peace prize winner's US lawyer Jared Genser filed a petition Wednesday with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, saying the junta's extension of her detention last month was illegal under their own law.

Under Myanmar's State Protection Law, a person can be held without charge or trial for only up to five years, renewable for up to one year at a time.

She has been detained initially in May 2003 and despite the expiration of her fifth year of detention last month, the junta continued to detain her, said Genser, president of US rights group Freedom Now.

"It is deeply unfortunate that the Burmese junta continues to flagrantly violate their own and international law," he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta's main challenger, was first detained in 1989, and has spent most of the last 18 years as a prisoner at her sprawling lakeside Yangon home, with only brief spells of freedom.

She led her NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but it was never allowed to take office.

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Myanmar's pro-democracy leader marks 63rd birthday
AP
Wed Jun 18, 11:58 PM ET

Myanmar's detained, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked her 63rd birthday by offering yellow roses Thursday at Yangon's famous Shwedagon pagoda through a member of her political party.

The country's ruling junta last month extended Suu Kyi's house arrest for the sixth straight year in face of international protest.

Party member Myint Soe, who buys and daily brings food to the Nobel Peace prize laureate, offered 64 roses at the soaring Buddhist shrine, party sources said. The number signifies the beginning of Suu Kyi's 64th year.

He also laid 64 yellow chrysanthemums at the tomb of Khin Kyi, Suu Kyi's mother and wife of Myanmar's independence hero Gen. Aung San. The tomb of Suu Kyi's mother is located at the foot of the Shwedagon pagoda in Myanmar's biggest city.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party celebrated her birthday by offering meals to Buddhist monks at its party headquarters several miles from her home.

A neighbor said Suu Kyi spent a quiet birthday inside her lakeside compound.

"There is no movement around the house. Only two policemen are guarding at the gate. Her compound is quiet. So far no visitors have come to bless her, no monks have come to accept alms," said the neighbor, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years under detention. Her party swept national elections in 1990 but the military rulers refused to honor the results and instead are pursuing a so-called "road map to democracy" with the junta in full control of the process.

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Suu Kyi supporters make solemn offerings on her birthday
AFP
Thu Jun 19, 12:11 AM ET

Supporters of Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi made solemn offerings to Buddhist monks early Thursday as they marked her 63rd birthday, which she is spending under house arrest.

Dozens of people gathered outside the Yangon headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, giving food to monks who were making their daily rounds to collect alms.

"Later, we will release nine doves to bring peace and freedom to Daw Suu Kyi," said Lai Lai, one of the party members.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 years under house arrest in her rambling lakeside home, where she is allowed no contact with the outside world.

However, a NLD source said she had gotten out a request for 30 of her supporters to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest shrine, to bring flowers and other offerings.

Plainclothes security forces stood watch outside the NLD headquarters, taking photos and videos of everyone passing by. Several large police trucks rumbled past, but none stopped.

While NLD supporters make offerings to monks on her birthday every year, the day had special significance coming after last year's anti-government marches led by the clergy -- protests that were violently suppressed by the regime.

At least 31 people were killed, 74 left missing, and hundreds imprisoned as security forces shot and beat protesters in the streets and raided monasteries during the night.

Many monks spent months in hiding, but in the wake of deadly Cyclone Nargis -- which left 133,000 people dead and 2.4 million in need of aid -- the clergy have taken a prominent role in the relief effort.

Survivors of the deadly storm, which ravaged Yangon and the nearby Irrawaddy delta nearly seven weeks ago, turned to monasteries for shelter.

Monks took the lead in organising the distribution of locally-donated food and other supplies, while the junta left international aid workers tangled in bureaucratic red tape for weeks.

In the midst of the storm's devastation, the regime tightened its grip on power by holding a referendum to approve a military-backed constitution. The regime claimed a 92 percent victory, but the NLD says they won through fraud and intimidation.

The junta said the charter will set the stage for democratic elections in 2010.

But the constitution would bar Aung San Suu Kyi from running for office, while giving the military broad powers to intervene in government.

Days after the vote, the regime extended her house arrest by another year, brushing off the NLD's vow to appeal her detention in the courts.

The Nobel peace prize winner, who is the junta's main challenger, was first detained in 1989. She has spent most of the last 18 years as a prisoner at her sprawling Yangon home, with only brief spells of freedom.

Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but it was never allowed to take office.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denounced her house arrest, saying: "This deplorable situation must end."

The junta "should release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and begin a genuine dialogue with her and other democratic and ethnic minority leaders on a transition to democracy," Rice said in a statement.

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Seven arrested in protest on Suu Kyi's 63rd birthday
AFP
19 June 2008

Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday spent her 63rd birthday alone and locked under house arrest, while seven of her supporters were detained for shouting for her freedom.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent more than 12 years confined to her rambling lakeside home, where she is allowed no contact with the outside world.

The regime has long ignored international demands for her freedom, which were reiterated by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , who called her detention a "deplorable situation."

Seven of her supporters were arrested outside the headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, where more than 100 people had gathered to give food to monks as a religious offering for her birthday.

After releasing 63 sparrows to call for her freedom, a small group on the sidewalk shouted: "Release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi now!"

One man held a placard denouncing the regime's response to the killer cyclone last month. "The storm disaster is a problem. Living is a problem."

Just a few minutes after they began shouting, a pro-junta militia confronted them and seven people were arrested, according to party members who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of their safety.

NLD supporters make offerings to monks on her birthday every year, but this one took on special significance after last year's anti-government marches led by the clergy -- protests that were violently suppressed by the regime.

At least 31 people were killed, 74 left missing, and hundreds imprisoned as security forces shot and beat protesters in the streets and raided monasteries during the night.

Many monks spent months in hiding, but in the wake of deadly Cyclone Nargis -- which left 133,000 people dead and 2.4 million in need of aid -- the clergy have taken a prominent role in the relief effort.

Survivors of the deadly storm, which ravaged Yangon and the nearby Irrawaddy delta nearly seven weeks ago, turned to monasteries for shelter.

Monks took the lead in organising the distribution of locally-donated food and other supplies, while the junta left international aid workers tangled in bureaucratic red tape for weeks.

The All Burma Monks' Alliance, which claims to have organised the protests, said in a statement that Than Shwe should face trial for crimes against humanity for blocking relief supplies.

"The actions of the junta leave millions of people to die from starvation and infectious diseases in the delta region," the group said in a statement received in Bangkok.

In the midst of the storm's devastation, the regime tightened its grip on power by holding a referendum to approve a military-backed constitution. The regime claimed a 92 percent victory, but the NLD says they won through fraud and intimidation.

The junta said the charter will set the stage for democratic elections in 2010.

But the constitution would bar Aung San Suu Kyi from running for office, while giving the military broad powers to intervene in government.

Days after the vote, the regime extended her house arrest by another year, brushing off the NLD's vow to appeal her detention in the courts.

The opposition leader, who is the junta's main challenger, was first detained in 1989. She has spent most of the last 18 years as a prisoner at her sprawling Yangon home, with only brief spells of freedom.

Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but it was never allowed to take office.

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Myanmar junta gang hits Suu Kyi birthday rally
Reuters
By Aung Hla Tun 7 minutes ago

Pro-junta thugs broke up a rally by supporters of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday, detaining three people among a crowd chanting for her release on her 63rd birthday, a senior opposition member said.

At least six truckloads of Swan-Arr-Shin, or "Masters of Force," gang members waded into the crowd outside the dilapidated headquarters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in the former capital, Yangon, one witness said.

"We saw some of them slapping and beating NLD members," the witness said. Senior NLD official Win Naing later told Reuters three people had been taken away.

Police cordoned off roads leading to the rally where the NLD members had shouted slogans demanding freedom for Suu Kyi and more than 1,300 political prisoners believed to be behind bars in the former Burma.

Suu Kyi's confinement in her lakeside home in Yangon was extended in May despite international pleas to the generals to end her latest stretch of detention, which began in May 2003.

The Nobel peace laureate has now been confined for nearly 13 of the past 19 years, with her telephone line cut and all visitors barred apart from her cook and occasionally her doctor.

ANNUAL RITUAL

Her birthday has become an annual ritual inside and outside Myanmar for campaigners seeking an end to the 46 years of military rule that have reduced a once-promising economy and country to an impoverished international pariah.

Every year, the NLD's ageing leadership releases birds and statements calling for Suu Kyi's freedom and a meaningful transition to democracy.

Every year, the junta ignores them -- as it does the protests and all-too-familiar statements of outrage and frustration that mark the day outside the country.

After Cyclone Nargis, which left 134,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million destitute, campaigners are worried about the international community quietly shelving their icon's plight in a bid to get the junta to open up to outside aid.

"The U.N. is crawling on its knees before the regime, afraid to speak the truth in case it affects aid access deals which the regime is already breaking," Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK said last month.

Washington has imposed ever-tighter sanctions on the generals in a bid to force them into political rapprochement with the NLD, which won a 1990 election landslide only to be denied power.

The strategy appears merely to have driven the regime further into isolation, as shown by its complete distrust of U.S. offers of ships and military helicopters to ferry aid to Nargis victims in the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta.

Dozens of people protested outside the Myanmar embassies in Bangkok and Manila, where they carried roses, gift-wrapped boxes and placards.

In the Indian capital, where Suu Kyi went to school in the early 1960s while her mother was ambassador to New Delhi, police briefly detained more than 50 demonstrators who marched through the streets wearing black "Free Suu Kyi" bandanas.

(Additional reporting by Manila bureau)

(Editing by Ed Cropley and Sanjeev Miglani)

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Helping Burma recover
PostBag
Bangkok Post - Thursday June 19, 2008

We understand that the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have sent staff to join the Asean post-Nargis joint assessment that is currently taking place in Burma. We also understand that the assessment team will present a preliminary report in late June and a final report in mid-July.

We are concerned that the World Bank and the ADB may view the humanitarian crisis in Burma as an opportunity to increase engagement with Burma's military regime, the State Peace and Development Council.

Until a genuinely democratic government is installed in Burma, the World Bank and the ADB should focus only on facilitating humanitarian relief efforts. In addition, the SPDC should be obliged to use its foreign reserves to supplement external funding for relief efforts.

As stakeholders in Burma's future, we insist that the World Bank and the ADB include the undersigned and other community-based organisations which are advocating for genuine political reform, in any decision-making process regarding their activities in Burma.

As organisations with a broad range of contacts within Burma, we are well-informed about the situation in ethnic areas, and are able to communicate the requests and concerns that those inside Burma cannot express for security reasons.

We further insist that details of the World Bank and ADB's activities in Burma, including any assessment missions and details of support to the Asean Humanitarian Task Force, be made public so that they may be reviewed widely by us and all other stakeholders in Burma's recovery.

ETHNIC COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FORUM

Together with:

1. Burma River Network;
2. Kachin Women's Association, Thailand;
3. Karen Environment and Social Action Network;
4. Nationalities Youth Forum;
5. Salween Watch Coalition; 6. Shan Women's Action Network;
7. Shan Youth Power

http://www.bangkokpost.com/190608_News/19Jun2008_news34.php

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MYANMAR: UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CONDEMNS 'ONGOING SYSTEMATIC VIOLATIONS'
New York, Jun 18 2008  7:00PM

The United Nations Human Rights Council today condemned "ongoing systematic violations of human rights" in Myanmar and called on the Government to stop making politically motivated arrests and to release all political prisoners immediately.

In a resolution adopted without a vote, the Council also called on the Government of Myanmar to fully implement commitments it made to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that it would grant relief workers "immediate, full and unhindered access" to people in need in the wake of last month's catastrophic Cyclone Nargis.

It called on the Government to refrain from sending victims of the disaster back to areas where they would not have access to emergency relief, and to ensure that any returns are voluntary, safe and carried out with dignity.

The resolution, introduced before the Geneva-based Council by the European Union, also condemned the recruitment of child soldiers by both Government forces and non-State armed groups and urged "an absolute an immediate stop of this appalling activity."

In addition, it called for an independent investigation into reports of human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, acts of torture and forced labour, and called for those responsible for such crimes to be brought to justice.

The resolution also called on the Government "to engage in a real process of dialogue and national reconciliation with the full and genuine participation of representatives of all political parties and ethnic groups who have been excluded from the political process."

Introducing the resolution on behalf of the EU, Slovenian representative Andrej Logar said previous resolutions had not been implemented by Myanmar and many political prisoners remained in detention.

The recent constitutional referendum was conducted in complete disregard of basic standards on such issues as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, he said.

Myanmar's representative U Wunna Maung Lwin described the resolution as politically motivated and lopsided and said powerful States were trying to influence matters through political interference.

The representative said Myanmar was working with the international community in the response effort to Cyclone Nargis, which struck the country on 2-3 May, and was also making efforts on the political front, such as with the recent holding of the constitutional referendum.

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon briefed the General Assembly today on his recent trip to Myanmar, saying that overall the relief effort there is continuing to improve and to be scaled up.

More than 134,000 people are dead or missing as a result of Cyclone Nargis and the subsequent tidal wave, and as many as 2.4 million people were affected and now need humanitarian assistance.

In his address to Assembly members, Mr. Ban stressed that the humanitarian tragedy wrought by the cyclone should not be politicized, and he plans to remain focused on the issue, drawing on the efforts of his Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari.

The Secretary-General also covered other issues in his remarks to the Assembly, including his latest travels, the most recent developments in the global food crisis and the situation in Zimbabwe.

 2008-06-18 00:00:00.000

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Burma – Detention of Aung San Suu Kyi
Statement by Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC

June 18, 2008Tomorrow, on June 19, Aung San Suu Kyi will spend yet another birthday in custody, denied her liberty and fundamental political and civil rights by Burma’s military rulers. This deplorable situation must end.

Sadly, the regime not only continues to keep this distinguished Nobel laureate under house arrest, but there are nearly 2,000 other political prisoners currently in custody. Burma’s rulers should release all political prisoners and begin to move in earnest to transform Burma into a democratic society.

Meanwhile, the regime has backtracked on even the modest steps it had taken – naming a liaison to meet regularly with Aung San Suu Kyi and allowing her to meet with her colleagues in Burma’s National League for Democracy. There have been no meetings with either since January, and Aung San Suu Kyi has even been denied regular access to medical care and legal counsel.

Rather than risking further unrest in Burma by its unjustified detention of political prisoners and its holding of a rigged referendum in May on a sham constitution, the regime should release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and begin a genuine dialogue with her and other democratic and ethnic minority leaders on a transition to democracy.

2008/508

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Daw Aung San Suu kyi's quiet birthday masks powerful but peaceful resistance
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/06/19/politics/politics_30075905.php
By Subhatra Bhumiprabhas
The Nation
Published on June 19, 2008

Today Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will spend her 63rd birthday as a political prisoner in Burma.

While many consider the lady's determination over nearly two decades of confinement as a waste of time, some scholars see another success story of a non-violent approach that reminds the world about the path of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in fighting against an unjust society.

"What she has done is called democratic resistance. It has made the world see the facts about the military regime. It has damaged the regime's image as the world community has seen the cruelties it has imposed on her over the past 20 years," said peace scholar Chaiwat Satha-anand.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has also been a symbolic leader who is the focus of non-violence resistance in Burma, Chaiwat added.

Pipob Udomittipong, who translated Suu Kyi's book "Letter from Burma", published in 1997, firmly believes she 'walks her talk' and having been held captive for almost 20 years is not a waste of time.

"We have to understand that 'civil disobedience or a version with a more spiritual approach, like Gandhi's 'satayagraha' , does not just aim at achieving external objectives. For Aung San Suu Kyi, I believe to be kept under house arrest also fulfils her inner purpose, a tranquil and peaceful mind," Pipob said.

"In many of her letters she eloquently touched on the benefits she has gained personally from being in solitude, to contemplate on the sufferings of the National League of Democracy members and other prisoners of conscience who are incarcerated and languishing in jail."

Suu Kyi's peaceful action during her house arrest inspires many who are fighting for Burma's cause. It stimulates people to practise tolerance. This is a very important factor that will enable peace to prevail in a highly multi-ethnic society such as Burma, where ethnic strife is well entrenched and needs to be resolved through the nurturing of tolerance, Pipob said.

Although restricted in her freedom of movement, Suu Kyi has not allowed the military regime to restrict her freedom of expression, said Naruemon Thabchumpon, director of the International Development Studies Programme at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Political Science.

Naruemon said the military regime could do nothing about Suu Kyi's civil disobedience, while her peaceful action in confinement reflects the people's sufferings under the regime. It also keeps people in the outside world aware of the regime's suppression of its people. "What Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been doing under house arrest is a way of telling people about civil disobedience, which is aimed at shaking the moral consciousness of the military regime," Naruemon said.

Whether she is able to create a moral consciousness in the regime or not, Suu Kyi's civil disobedience is meaningful, especially in a Buddhist society like Burma, she said. "For me, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's civil disobedience under house arrest is still a powerful resistance."

However, as many praise Suu Kyi's peaceful resistance as "civil disobedience" , Chaiwat said that understanding could create misunderstanding about the basic uses of civil disobedience.

Civil disobedience is a subset of non-violence activities, and what Suu Kyi has been doing in fighting against the military regime is non-violent resistance, he said.

"Civil disobedience can be done in a certain context of a nearly just society or a nearly democratic society. But Burma is nowhere near a just society," he said.

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