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Who Will Save Burma's Women and Children?
Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy release open letter to Aung San Suu Kyi.
Cindy McCain has harsh words for Myanmar's leaders
Recent Burma News : 19-06-08

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Who Will Save Burma's Women and Children?
By Nilar Thein
Published on June 19, 2008 (The Nation)
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/06/19/opinion/opinion_30075891.php

I woke up from a dream in the middle of the night. I was with my daughter, playing in a small garden.

We were playing hide and seek. I was looking at her from behind a tree. She was so beautiful, with the prettiest smile on her face, looking for me happily. I couldn't hide anymore. I wanted her to find me. I wanted to hold her in my arms and kiss her face gently. I started to show myself to her, but, suddenly I saw three men -with black coats and ugly faces - watching from the shadows near my daughter. I stepped back. I wanted to be found by my daughter, not by them. I still saw my daughter, still looking for me with her innocent smile. I didn't want to hide anymore. I wanted her to find me, but these men would take me away and put me in hell. Then I woke up, with tears on my cheeks.

I have been separated from my daughter for nearly ten months. A midnight knock at our door in August last year changed our lives dramatically. The military junta's security forces took my husband Kyaw Min Yu (also known as Jimmy) on the night of August 21, 2007. He is a leader of the prominent dissident group, the 88 Generation Students, comprising former student leaders and former political prisoners. He and other leaders were taken from their homes that night by the authorities. As a former student activist and a former political prisoner myself, I knew very well how my husband and friends would be treated in the junta's interrogation cells. Therefore, when they came back to arrest me, I went into hiding.

But I must continue to lead the 88 Generation Students with my other colleagues, so that Burma may realise its freedom, and find justice and democracy someday. I must avoid being arrested. However, there are so many difficulties and hardships in moving secretly from one hiding place to another, and I didn't want my daughter to share these hardships. Therefore, I decided to send my three-month-old baby to my parents. Now, I miss her so much.

My mind wanders to University Avenue, where "the Lady", Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has been detained under house arrest for so many years. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, will have to spend her 63rd birthday today alone in detention. She will be missing her two sons, too. Her strength and determination helps me and many women in Burma stand up for justice. I thank her for being with us and leading our movement. She is a great reminder to the world that the military junta that rules our country forcibly separates mothers and children.

Coincidentally, the UN Security Council will hold a debate in New York today on "Women, Peace and Security". This debate is a discussion of UNSC Resolution 1325, which was passed unanimously in October, 2000. Resolution 1325 "Calls on all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, and all other forms of violence in situations of armed conflict." It also "Emphasises the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes including those relating to sexual violence against women and girls, and in this regard, stresses the need to exclude these crimes, where feasible from amnesty provisions."

US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is expected to chair the debate, with many world leaders discussing the development of women, peace and security. Will they discuss Burma? Will they remember Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the women of Burma who are suffering all forms of abuse by the military junta?

Burma is now in the midst of two conflicts. One is the 50-year-old civil war, raging between the Burmese military and the minority resistance forces, predominately in the eastern part of the country. Burmese troops are raping with impunity tribal women and girls, some as young as eight years old. Burmese soldiers use women in conflict areas as porters to carry their military equipment and supplies during the day, and use them as sex slaves at night. Many women have been brutally killed to erase the evidence of these crimes.

The other conflict is a 20-year old war, waged by the Burmese junta against its own unarmed citizens, who are calling for freedom, justice and democracy. Women activists are beaten, arrested, tortured and then put in prison for many years. Many female activists are mistreated and sexually assaulted by their interrogators and jailers. Children are used as bait by the authorities to get their mothers arrested. Of the 2.5 million people severely affected by Cyclone Nargis - many of whom the military junta simply left to die through starvation and disease - at least a million are women and girls. Recently, a UN expert said that up to 35,000 pregnant women, all cyclone survivors, are at extreme risk of death. However, they will never receive any care from the military.

I hope that Secretary of State Rice and other leaders at the UN Security Council will give consideration to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the women of Burma during their debate. Resolution 1325 is a great development, but implementation and enforcement is still in question. When the government itself is the abuser of human rights and the perpetrator of rape and other forms of gender-based violence, who will protect the victims? Who will end their tragedy? Who will secure the joyful reunion of mothers with their children?

The appeasement policy of some bureaucrats is shameful. Effective and urgent action from the UN Security Council is necessary to help the women in Burma. No more debate. Take action. Please let me be happily reunited with my daughter.

nilar thein is a former student leader in the 1988 democracy uprising in Burma and spent more than nine years in prison.

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Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have released an open letter to Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.
19 June 2008

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page15807.asp

Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have released an open letter to Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

The two leaders praised Aung San Suu Kyi for her courage and dedication to the Burmese people.
Read the letter

Dear Aung San Suu Kyi,

We wish to use this opportunity, on the occasion of your birthday, to reaffirm our commitment to your lifelong struggle to achieve democracy and humanity in Burma. You have sacrificed your freedom for the freedom of others. You have shown exceptional courage and dedication to your people.

Your release from house arrest and your freedom to participate in Burma's political future remain essential. We believe the recent referendum lacks credibility as a genuine reflection of the people's
will and the new constitution cannot provide a sound basis for Burma's future political development. We call on the Government of Burma to set in motion, without delay, a fully inclusive political process which involves representatives of the full range of civil opposition and ethnic groups.

We welcome your readiness to have a genuine and meaningful dialogue with the military leadership to find a way out of the current stalemate. We are convinced that this voice of humanity and reason
will be heard, as people must now realize that bold initiatives and compromises are required and that the present situation is neither satisfactory nor sustainable.

We are very concerned by the humanitarian situation following Cyclone Nargis, and greatly saddened that Burma's people, already deprived of basic human freedoms and economic opportunities, have fallen victim to such a major natural disaster. We were further deeply saddened that offers of international aid were not taken up at a sufficient scale at the outset, but we are pleased that ASEAN countries and the ASEAN Secretary General were able to initiate a response, and that Ban Ki-Moon has given his personal support to the process. The work of the regional and international aid agencies has been encouraging, however more needs to be done to ensure aid reaches all the people in acute need and to prevent further suffering and loss of life. The UK and France have immediately committed themselves to helping the relief effort and will support the ASEAN mechanism for longer term reconstruction. The success of the international effort will rely on the actions and conditions set by the Government of Burma.

We admire your strength in reconciling the hopes of Burma's many groups and dedication to the country's national integrity. We will not forget you or your people in this struggle.

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Cindy McCain has harsh words for Myanmar's leaders
AP
By MARGIE MASON, Associated Press Writer 54 minutes ago

Cindy McCain harshly criticized Myanmar's military junta Thursday while vowing to make improving human rights there a priority if she becomes America's next first lady.

Taking a cue from current first lady Laura Bush, who has also been a sharp critic of human rights abuses in Myanmar, the wife of presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain said Myanmar leaders don't value human life.

"It's just a terrible group of people that rule the country, and the frightening part is that their own people are dying of disease and starvation and everything else and it doesn't matter," Cindy McCain said during a trip to Vietnam, where she has worked with a charity that helps children born with facial deformities. "I don't understand how human life doesn't matter to somebody. But clearly, it doesn't matter to them."

She was traveling in Asia this week to showcase her charity work and get a close-up look at relief efforts helping victims of last month's devastating cyclone in Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma.

She said she didn't even bother trying to get an entry visa to Myanmar, knowing it would likely be denied by the secretive government. Instead, the U.N. World Food Program in Thailand will brief her about its work on Friday.

Cyclone Nargis killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing, according to the government, which has turned away aid offered by the United States and other countries.

Cindy McCain has visited Myanmar twice, including once when her husband met with pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in detention for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

"The whole human rights issue in general comes down to things that move me the most," she said. "I'm a mother first and I cannot imagine what it would be like if No. 1, I couldn't feed my children and two, they were sick and No. 3, I was raped in the process. This whole issue is something that, yes, I would stay involved in."

Separately, Cindy McCain said the stir she caused in the presidential race earlier this year when she took exception to a comment by the wife of her husband's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, was unplanned and not a political ploy.

After Michelle Obama said in February that for the first time in her adult life she was proud of the United States, Cindy McCain pointedly said: "I have, and always will be, proud of my country."

Asked about her response to Michelle Obama's comment, Cindy McCain said in a CNN in an interview aired Thursday, "No, it wasn't a political opening, there was nothing planned."

"I'm an emotional woman when it comes to service to our country," she said. "I've watched many people's children leave and go serve. This is something that is the fiber of the McCain family. It was nothing more than me saying, 'Look, I believe in this country so strongly.' I think she's a fine woman, a good mother, and we're both in an interesting line of work right now."

She further explained in an interview aired Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America:" "It wasn't about being insulted at all. I don't know why she said that — everyone has their own experience. I don't know why she said what she said. All I know is that I've always been proud of my country."

Cindy McCain also showed her softer side Thursday while visiting the Vietnamese coastal town of Nha Trang where about 100 children born with cleft palates and cleft lips were awaiting free plastic surgery provided by the U.S. charity Operation Smile. The procedures will take place offshore on one of the U.S. Navy's floating hospitals, the USNS Mercy.

Cindy McCain has made several trips to the communist country where her husband was shot down during the Vietnam War and held for more than five years as a prisoner of war.

"This is what I do, and this is what revitalizes me, personally," she said. "The campaign is extremely important, of course, but this is also important to me, and so you try to balance everything."

Cindy McCain has been actively involved with Operation Smile since 2001 and is a member of its board of directors.

She has a special connection to Vietnam because she and her husband first helped a baby, Phuoc Thi Le, receive reconstructive surgery on her cleft palate and cleft lip in 1997 after a chance meeting with the girl's uncle in Arizona. Cindy McCain reunited with Le, now 11, during her one-day visit.

The McCains later adopted a daughter from Bangladesh who also was born with a facial deformity.

"When you see a child anywhere, say a child that doesn't have food or a child with a cleft palate who's been kept in a back room because the family is embarrassed or whatever it may be, it takes you back to really what's basic and what's really important," Cindy McCain said.

She also plans to visit Cambodia to participate in charity work there.

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Recent Burma News : 19-06-08

Water Buffaloes Needed in Cyclone-hit Burma, Says FAO
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
Five thousand water buffaloes are urgently needed to help farmers in the Irrawaddy Delta prepare for planting after a massive loss of draught animals and other livestock in last month's cyclone, a...

Regime Steps Up Crackdown on Private Cyclone Relief Efforts
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
Despite assurances of free access by private donors to cyclone-devastated areas of Burma, the military government continues to arrest individuals taking aid to survivors of the May 2-3 storm.Ten donor...

Kidnapped Journalists Freed in Philippines
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
Officials vowed on Wednesday to go after al-Qaida-linked militants who freed a popular TV news anchorwoman, her cameraman and a university professor more than a week after kidnapping them in the volat...

The Imprisoned Voice of Freedom
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
Everyone knows where Aung San Suu Kyi is spending her 63rd birthday today. But as millions of her supporters around the world mark the occasion, no one can say when she will be released from the famil...

Uncertainty Still Reigns in Asia Currency Markets
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
Most Asian currencies were steady to weaker on Thursday as investors treaded cautiously following rising concerns about global growth, even as the dollar weakened against major currencies. The US doll...

Malaysian Government under Increasing Pressure
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
A ruling coalition party's planned no-confidence vote against Malaysia's prime minister is unlikely to succeed, but the rebellion has strengthened the opposition's campaign to topple the g...

Indonesia Urged to Join International Criminal Court
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
A coalition of legal advocacy groups urged Indonesia on Thursday to honor a promise to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) by 2009. The world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, based i...

Postcard from cyclone-affected Irrawaddy delta
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
A month has elapsed since Cyclone Nargis lashed the shores of Burma and affected more than 2.4 million people. In recent weeks, the government announced that, in addition to accepting donations in cas...

Myanmar arrests Aung San Suu Kyi supporters on her birthday - Summary
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
Yangon - Myanmar authorities on Thursday arrested at least eight supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who had gathered to protest her five years of imprisonment on her birthday, government.. .

Myanmar junta arrests Aung San Suu Kyi supporters on her birthday
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
Yangon - Myanmar authorities on Thursday arrested at least 30 supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who had gathered to protest her five years of imprisonment on her birthday, eye witnesses...

Myanmar reopens some schools in cyclone-hit areas
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
Some schools in Myanmar's three cyclone-hit areas in Ayeyawaddy division have been reopened for the 2008-09 academic year, official newspaper the New Light of Myanmar reported Thursday. These schools ...

Myanmar lays down tourism restoration plan after cyclone
Today, June 19, 2008, 5 hours ago
Myanmar has laid down a post-cyclone tourism restoration plan to strive for maintaining the momentum of tourism industry operation in the coming open season near the end of this year, the Bi-Weekly El...

Myanmar junta gang hits Suu Kyi birthday rally
Today, June 19, 2008, 6 hours ago
YANGON (Reuters) - 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 birt...

Suu Kyi birthday marked in Burma
Today, June 19, 2008, 6 hours ago
In Burma supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi gave alms to monks as they marked the detained pro-democracy leader's 63rd birthday. Security personnel watched as dozens of people handed out food at the Na...

Myanmar junta arrests Suu Kyi
Today, June 19, 2008, 6 hours ago
Myanmar authorities Thursday arrested at least 30 supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who had gathered to protest her five years of imprisonment on her birthday, eyewitnesses said.

Myanmar farmers fret over post-storm rice harvest
Today, June 19, 2008, 8 hours ago
(AP Photo)A local worker in Bago, 58 km north of Yangon, in Myanmar Monday, June 16, 2008, loads a cart drawn by water buffalo. Farmers in Myanmar typically use water buffalo to plow rice paddies. Tho...

UN urges Myanmar to grant access to aid workers
Today, June 19, 2008, 10 hours ago
The UN Human Rights Council asked the government in Myanmar to grant immediate access to aid organizations in a resolution approved Wednesday in Geneva.

Burma - Military authorities renew interrogations of detained blogger
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
(Mizzima/IFEX) - The Burmese military junta authorities are once again questioning blogger Ko Nay Phone Latt, who has been in custody for about five months. He was interrogated twice about his blo...

Blogger hard at work for Myanmar cyclone survivors
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
LABUTTA - Bloggers may find their messages blocked by Myanmar's military regime, but that hasn't stopped Nyi Lynn Seck from raising tens of thousands of dollars for cyclone survivors through his websi...

NLD calls for parliament to be convened – Solomon
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
The statement issued by the NLD said the country is facing a national crisis in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis. And it needs to be tackled at the earliest. “The Parl...

Burmese authorities arrest three political activists
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
Three members of the 88 Generation Students group who are helping the victims of Cyclone Nargis were arrested by the authorities last Friday 13 June.

Volunteers help Myanmar cyclone victims still without foreign aid
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
Cyclone Nargis almost destroyed the remote village of Kyon Ka Nan, but residents are now rebuilding their homes and their food stocks, aided by a resilient group of Myanmar volunteers.

Myanmar bloggers help build ‘budget huts’ in delta
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
Now, the 29-year-old IT specialist and his friends are getting their hands dirty and putting the donations to work by helping to build “Budget Huts” in the Irrawaddy delta, a region still ...

Myanmar blasts spread of disaster rumors
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
A commentary published Wednesday in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the unnamed group of rumor mongers is made up of people unhappy with the achievement of the country under the mili...

Burmese endure in spite of junta, aid workers say
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
Now doctors and aid workers returning from remote areas of the delta are offering a less pessimistic picture of the human cost of the delay in reaching survivors. They say they have seen no signs of ...

Authorities obstruct farmers from getting tractors – Aye Nai
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
Farmers in Bogalay are still waiting to receive hand tractors after being sent to different places around the township and being asked to pay several admin fees to process their applications.

Flights suspended as tourism in Burma falls – Naw Say Phaw
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
Following last September’s uprising and the destruction of Cyclone Nargis, there has been a significant decline in tourism within Burma and the industry is beginning to suffer.

Myanmar’s monks call on EU to bring junta chief to court
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
The Council of the European Union should use their meeting in Brussels Thursday to back a call to bring Myanmar’s junta chief to be tried in the international court for crimes against humanity, ...

Burmese trade unionist accuses military of crimes against humanity
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
Burma’s political opposition wants to take the country’s ruling military junta to the International Court of Justice on charges of crimes against humanity, according to a top Burmese trade...

Is cyclone aftermath creating a Burmese civil society – Wai Moe
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
The aftermath of Cyclone Nargis has produced a number of local private relief groups in a country where civil society is under strict scrutiny by the authorities—giving rise to the question: could t...

Unseen Burma: An aid worker’s story – Dr Chris van Tulleken
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
Three weeks of helping to co-ordinate Merlin’s emergency response, while our medical teams in the Irrawaddy Delta worked round the clock in the heart of the devastation. Three weeks of being to...

WLB renews call for immediate release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Today, June 19, 2008, 17 hours ago
On 19 June 2008, Burma’s democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will once again spend her birthday under house arrest in Rangoon. She has been under detention and barred from communicating with th...

Local Activists Blast Relief Effort
Today, June 19, 2008, 20 hours ago
Burmese humanitarian activists have complained that the distribution of aid to cyclone survivors is uncoordinated and is restricted to people in urban areas. A well-known activist from Mandalay, Than ...

Thousands of Anti-government Protesters Rally over Thai-Cambodia Boundary Dispute
Today, June 19, 2008, 20 hours ago
The Preah Vihear temple, dating back to the 11th century, has been the subject of a boundary dispute since the 1950s. The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the cliffside temple was wit...

Cross-dressing Students Get Own Bathrooms at Rural Thai School
Today, June 19, 2008, 20 hours ago
For teen boys who prefer to dress as girls at one rural high school in Thailand, taking a bathroom break no longer means choosing between "male" and "female" rooms. There's now a "transvestite toi...

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