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HEADLINES
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AP - Myanmar opposes investigative powers
AP - Myanmar's Suu Kyi won't be released in 6 months, detention to last until late 2009
AP - ASEAN grapples with Thai-Cambodia dispute after issuing rebuke to Myanmar
AP - UN says Myanmar cyclone survivors face 'second emergency;' need US$1 billion for relief
AFP - Millions in Myanmar cyclone aid still to be released
AFP - UN humanitarian chief visits Myanmar cyclone zone
AFP - ASEAN has tough talk, little action on Myanmar: observers
AFP - EU welcomes Myanmar's commitment to democracy
AFP - UN chief hails ASEAN's role in Myanmar recovery plan
Reuters - SE Asian nations fail to win Thai-Cambodia breakthough
Bernama - Myanmar gang leader shot dead by police
Star Bulletin - Pace of Myanmar's recovery surprises head of US aid team
IHT - Asean's self-absorbed members
M&C - Energy sector accounts for 90 per cent of investment in Myanmar
OpEdNews - Who Killed More? Bosnia's Karadzic or Myanmar's Than Shwe
The Southern - Shimkus addresses student leaders from Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam
Times Magazine - ASEAN Turns Blind Eye to Burma Rights
Kyodo News - Japan pledges $21 mil. fresh aid to Myanmar, urges democratization
Mizzima News - Naw Ohn Hla severely injured in car accident
DVB News - Two killed as ALA clashes with regime troops

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Myanmar opposes investigative powers
By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jul 22, 5:34 AM ET

SINGAPORE (AP) - Myanmar's junta has indicated it will oppose any effort to give a Southeast Asian human rights body the power to monitor or investigate rights violations in the region, diplomats said Tuesday.

A high-level panel of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations started work Monday to set up the rights body. The panel will lay down the body's future makeup, role and powers, which will be presented to a summit of ASEAN leaders in December.

But in a closed-door session with the panel Monday, Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win said the human rights body should uphold ASEAN's bedrock policy of noninterference in each other's affairs, a diplomat present at the meeting told The Associated Press.

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

Another diplomat who attended a separate meeting between all 10 ASEAN ministers and the panel also said Nyan Win made clear his opposition to the rights body having any monitoring authority.

Myanmar's military government, which has been strongly criticized by Western governments and even fellow ASEAN members for its dismal human rights record, has used the bloc's policy to parry any attempt by outsiders to intervene on behalf of human rights victims in the military-ruled nation.

It has already been decided that the rights body will not have the power to impose sanctions or seek prosecution of violators. But Myanmar's objections, if honored, will make the body even less effective.

A majority of other ASEAN foreign ministers, led by Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, separately told the panel that the human rights body should at least be empowered to monitor violations and offer advice to prevent such problems, said the first diplomat.

Myanmar officials were not immediately available for comment but in the past they have said the human rights body should only serve as a "consultative mechanism" and that it should not "shame and blame" any ASEAN nation.

The rights body is being set up as part of ASEAN's proposed new charter, which seeks to make the organization rule-based.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said the charter will serve as a guide to the panel drafting the terms of reference for the rights body.

"They're going to follow the charter very, very closely — its principle of promoting, upholding and protecting human rights," Surin said.

The international community has condemned Myanmar's junta for its refusal to restore democracy and release pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees. ASEAN has also been criticized for not doing enough to pressure Myanmar's military leaders.

ASEAN foreign ministers, disappointed with the Myanmar junta's foot-dragging on democracy, expressed "deep disappointment" in a statement Sunday at the junta's May decision to extend Suu Kyi's detention.

ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi won't be released in 6 months, detention to last until late 2009
By VIJAY JOSHI,Associated Press Writer
AP - Tuesday, July 22

SINGAPORE - Myanmar's foreign minister has said pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi can be kept in detention legally until late 2009 and not until December this year as reported earlier, Singapore officials said Tuesday.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win was misunderstood by his nine counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations during a dinner conversation on Sunday, said a Foreign Ministry official.

Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo subsequently passed on Nyan Win's remarks to the media, which reported widely that a new glimmer of hope had been raised for Suu Kyi's early freedom.

Yeo had quoted Nyan Win as saying that a political detainee can be held for a maximum of six years, and that the limit was approaching in about "half a year's time."

But the Straits Times newspaper on Tuesday quoted Yeo as saying that the six-year period will only be reached in the six months after May 2009, when her latest one-year detention period expires.

The Times quoted Yeo as saying the ministers had "misunderstood" Nyan Win.

The Foreign Ministry official confirmed Yeo's comments. Singapore government officials cannot be named under briefing rules.

The new position dashes hopes of an early release for Suu Kyi, who has now been detained for more than 12 of the last 18 years at her home in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

In a clear sign that ASEAN is getting fed up of the Myanmar junta's foot-dragging on democracy, the foreign ministers issued a statement Sunday expressing "deep disappointment" at the junta's decision in May to extend Suu Kyi's detention.

The harsh call went against ASEAN's policy of not interfering in each other's domestic affairs.

ASEAN has faced international criticism, especially from the West, for not putting enough pressure on Myanmar, the most recalcitrant member of the grouping.

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ASEAN grapples with Thai-Cambodia dispute after issuing rebuke to Myanmar
By EILEEN NG,Associated Press Writer
AP - Tuesday, July 22

SINGAPORE - Southeast Asian nations grappled Tuesday with the vexing issue of democracy in Myanmar and a simmering border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia ahead of a key security meeting of regional superpowers.

Thailand and Cambodia are locked in a dangerous military standoff over a piece of land near an ancient temple. Bilateral talks on Monday failed to resolve the dispute.

"What we need is for Cambodia and Thailand to really exercise their utmost restraint ... to prevent any outbreak of open conflict," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters.

There must be a "cooling off" by the two sides, said Wirajuda, who is here to attend the annual foreign ministers' meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations through Thursday.

ASEAN's efforts on Myanmar also received a setback when the country's junta said pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi may be detained until late May 2009, rather than through the end of 2008, as had been reported earlier.

The clarification came as foreign ministers of ASEAN's remaining nine member countries on Monday "urged Myanmar to take bolder steps toward a peaceful transition to democracy in the near future."

ASEAN members usually avoid interfering in each other's domestic affairs, although that appears to be changing in a bid to give the group greater relevance.

A glimmer of hope for Suu Kyi's early release was raised on Sunday when the ministers thought they heard their Myanmar counterpart, Nyan Win, say at a dinner that the Nobel Peace laureate can be freed by December 2008.

But Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, who passed on the remarks to the media, clarified the next day that Nyan Win had been misheard, and that the detention will last until at least November 2009.

Despite ASEAN's frustrations with the junta, the regional grouping has taken the lead in calling for international aid to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated Myanmar's coastal regions in May.

On Monday, it released a joint report of a disaster assessment conducted with the United Nations and the Myanmar government, which says the survivors of the cyclone need at least US$1 billion in aid over the next three years.

Wirajuda said ASEAN expects to be contacted soon by the United Nations with a request to help resolve the Thai-Cambodia dispute over an area near a temple that was recently designated a World Heritage Site.

Cambodia's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it had requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council for help in resolving the border issue. Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong also asked ASEAN host Singapore to form a regional inter-ministerial group to help end the crisis.

ASEAN "could not stand idly by without damaging its credibility, " said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. "The situation has escalated dangerously, " he said.

Also Tuesday, ASEAN ministers will meet with their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea for wider discussions on regional security. On top of the agenda is likely to be North Korea's nuclear program.

The topic will take center-stage at another meeting on the sidelines on Wednesday between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun and their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia _ the participants in six-party nuclear talks.

It will be the highest-level meeting in the six-country negotiations, which began in 2003 with the aim of convincing North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program.

The meetings will culminate Thursday with the ASEAN Regional Forum, the premier security dialogue of Asia-Pacific between ASEAN and 16 other countries plus the European Union. It includes the United States and Russia.

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UN says Myanmar cyclone survivors face 'second emergency;' need US$1 billion for relief
By VIJAY JOSHI,Associated Press Writer
AP - Tuesday, July 22

SINGAPORE - Survivors of Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis face a "second emergency" unless relief efforts receive an influx of US$1 billion in international aid over the next three years, according to the first full assessment of the disaster.

The joint report, released Monday by the U.N., the Myanmar government and Southeast Asia's main bloc, provides for the first time a comprehensive breakdown of the survivors' needs in the aftermath of the May 2-3 disaster _ details foreign donors have demanded as a condition for aid.

The report puts the damage from the cyclone that devastated the Irrawaddy delta and parts of Yangon at US$4 billion. Infrastructure and asset losses amounted to about US$1.7 billion and loss of income was estimated at US$2.3 billion.

It paints a dismal picture of the impact of the storm, which killed at least 84,537 people. Another 53,836 are missing and presumed dead.

A wall of water destroyed 450,000 homes and damaged 350,000, the report said. About 75 percent of health facilities were damaged, as were 4,000 or more schools.

In mid-June, 55 percent of survivors had rations enough for only one day or less.

"It was a tragedy of immense proportions, " Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, told a news conference at which the report was released.

Puji Pujiono, a recovery assessment specialist in the ASEAN assessment team, cited food, shelter, water and sanitation as key priorities.

"The worst of the crisis is over but we are still in a state of emergency. People live in a very precarious condition now. If we fail to sustain the recovery efforts, they may face a second emergency," he told the Associated Press.

Though filled with grim statistics, the report makes no mention of the junta's slow response to the disaster.

During the first week following the storm, pictures of bodies floating in the water amid reports that soldiers were standing idly by horrified people around the world. The junta stalled in accepting international aid and even physically prevented relief workers from going to the hardest hit areas.

Many in the international community lashed out at the Myanmar government for its response, while also trying to cajole the leaders into opening up to aid.

The United Nations' humanitarian chief, John Holmes, noted that while Myanmar eventually cooperated with the U.N. in humanitarian operations, it was unclear how far that cooperation would extend beyond the storm response.

"I don't think anyone can say that the Myanmar government is a poster child in international cooperation beyond this narrow field of humanitarian assistance," he said.

Members of ASEAN, the region's main bloc, usually stick to a policy of not interfering in each other's domestic affairs. But ASEAN foreign ministers wrapped up their annual meeting Monday with their strongest-ever public criticism of Myanmar.

The joint statement expressed "deep disappointment" that the country's junta had yet to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. The junta extended Suu Kyi's detention in May by another year, the sixth straight year that she has remained under house arrest in her dilapidated villa.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy movement. It has kept Suu Kyi in detention for 12 of the last 18 years at varying times.

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Millions in Myanmar cyclone aid still to be released
AFP - Tuesday, July 22

GENEVA, July 22, 2008 (AFP) - More than 5.8 million dollars in emergency aid for victims of Myanmar's cyclone Nargis is still to be released by donor countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Tuesday.

WHO has reviewed emergency aid following May's devastating storm and now puts the amount needed at more than 12.8 million dollars.

Donor countries -- including Australia, Britain, Denmark, Italy, Monaco, Norway, Romania and the United States have already released seven million dollars for the aid effort, a WHO spokesperson told journalists.

In total, aid to Nargis victims and reconstruction will cost a billion dollars, WHO and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said on Monday.

It is estimated that a little over a billion dollars is needed over the next three years with priorities including food, agriculture, and housing as well as assistance to restore livelihoods, they said in a statement.

Myanmar's ruling generals attracted worldwide condemnation after the cyclone for blocking entry to many foreign aid workers and relief shipments, relenting only after a personal visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The disaster left at least 138,000 missing or dead.

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UN humanitarian chief visits Myanmar cyclone zone
AFP - Tuesday, July 22

YANGON (AFP) - - UN humanitarian chief John Holmes arrived in Myanmar on Tuesday for a three-day trip to see how the military-run nation is coping after a devastating cyclone, an airport official said.

Holmes landed in Yangon at about 10:00am (0330 GMT) and took a helicopter straight to areas worst-hit by Cyclone Nargis, which left about 138,000 people dead or missing when it battered southern Myanmar in early May.

"He arrived in Yangon and now he is going to the Irrawaddy Delta," a government official at the airport told AFP, asking not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media.

The United Nations said in a statement that their humanitarian envoy would "make a rapid aerial assessment of the delta area".

Holmes, who flew in from Singapore where he attended a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will return to Yangon later Tuesday and meet with aid workers and donors on Wednesday.

On Thursday, he will travel to Myanmar's isolated new capital Naypyidaw to meet with government representatives, the UN said, before leaving the country.

It is not yet clear which junta officials he will be able to meet.

This will be the envoy's second visit to Myanmar since the cyclone hit, causing major damage to infrastructure and creating a humanitarian emergency.

Myanmar's ruling generals -- wary of any outside interference -- at first blocked entry to many foreign aid workers and relief shipments, and only relented after a personal visit by UN head Ban Ki-moon.

ASEAN on Monday released a report saying that rebuilding Myanmar's cyclone-devastated south and bringing aid to millions of survivors will cost one billion dollars over the next three years.

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ASEAN has tough talk, little action on Myanmar: observers
AFP - Tuesday, July 22

SINGAPORE (AFP) - - ASEAN has expressed "deep disappointment" over Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention, but the verbal swipe does not signal a major shift in attitude towards the junta, observers say.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has been criticised in the past for its failure to act firmly against its renegade member, on Sunday issued one of its strongest statements yet on the issue.

"The foreign ministers expressed their deep disappointment that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's detention under house arrest had been extended by the Myanmar government," Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said after hosting a dinner of the bloc's 10 foreign ministers.

Ministers repeated a call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees, while urging the junta to engage with her movement, which has been shut out of a much-criticised "roadmap to democracy."

Egoy Bans, spokesman for the Free Burma Coalition in the Philippines, said the comment was the latest in a series of jabs that ASEAN has made at the regime over the past two years.

ASEAN "is coming out strongly" over rights in Myanmar, Bans said, but added that although the bloc is talking tough, it has not matched its words with action.

"Concretely, we are not seeing a shift in the policy," he said. "Their diplomatic actions have always been very, very careful, and not reflective of the statements."

While the foreign ministers expressed "deep disappointment" on Sunday night, those words were removed in a final communique issued after formal talks the following day.

"I would say that they're still not going to interfere in the affairs of other countries," said Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar, and now a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.

K. Kesavapany, director of Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said ASEAN's expression of disappointment was consistent with a pattern adopted over the past two years.

ASEAN has "taken a more proactive stance towards Myanmar because we do want to see a change there," he said.

The regional grouping pursues a controversial policy of "constructive engagement" with Myanmar, which is under European Union and United States sanctions over its human rights record.

Myanmar was also severely criticised internationally for its delay in allowing foreign aid into the country after a May 2-3 cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing.

It belatedly allowed aid workers to enter under an arrangement forged with ASEAN and the United Nations.

On Monday, Myanmar formally ratified the ASEAN charter, under which its members commit "to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and the rule of law, and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms."

The charter, which still requires ratification by three of the bloc's members, aims to give ASEAN a legal framework and sets out principles and rules for members.

Wilson said it would "make a mockery of the whole exercise that ASEAN is going through with the charter" if the group had not issued a strong statement on Myanmar.

"So it's, in a way, a good start," he said.

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EU welcomes Myanmar's commitment to democracy
AFP - Tuesday, July 22

ROME, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - The European Union's special envoy for Myanmar, Piero Fassino, on Monday welcomed the military regime's decision to sign a charter that commits it to respecting ideals of democracy and human rights.

"The announcement of the ratification by Myanmar of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) charter which commits member countries to respect human rights and democratic conduct is a positive and substantial move," Fassino said in a statement.

"We hope that the Myanmar authorities are now going to take consistent steps towards talks with the opposition, the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, as well as proper respect for the civil and human rights of all the people of Myanmar."

Fassino, an Italian, added that the EU "appreciates" the growing role taken by ASEAN and intends to support initiatives aimed at strengthening democracy and stability in Southeast Asia.

The EU special envoy has carried out numerous trips to the region in the past few months and has stepped up contacts with ASEAN members.

In the charter, ASEAN members commit "to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and the rule of law, and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms."

ASEAN has been widely criticised for its policy of "constructive engagement" regarding Myanmar, which is under EU and United States sanctions over its human rights record.

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UN chief hails ASEAN's role in Myanmar recovery plan
AFP - Tuesday, July 22

UNITED NATIONS, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday hailed the 10-nation southeast Asian bloc ASEAN's "constructive role" in helping draw up a recovery plan for Myanmar following the devastation caused by cyclone Nargis.

"The Secretary General congratulates ASEAN for the constructive role it has played in the successful Tripartite Core Group coordination mechanism," Ban's press office said in a statement.

"He believes this partnership serves as a very good basis for further cooperation between the Government of Myanmar, ASEAN and the United Nations," it added.

Earlier Monday, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the UN and the Myanmar government issued a joint report that said rebuilding Myanmar's cyclone-devastated south and bringing aid to millions of survivors would cost one billion dollars over the next three years.

"The report offers a comprehensive, credible assessment of the humanitarian and medium-term recovery needs in the affected areas," said the UN statement.

The report said the priorities were providing food, restoring agriculture and basic services, and helping communities rebuild and recover their livelihoods.

It outlined the scale of Myanmar's worst ever disaster, which damaged or destroyed 800,000 homes, flooded 600,000 hectares of agricultural land and left 138,000 people dead or missing early last May.

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SE Asian nations fail to win Thai-Cambodia breakthough
By Bill Tarrant

SINGAPORE, July 22 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian nations failed on Tuesday to mediate a smouldering border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, which grabbed most of the attention at a meeting of Asia-Pacific powers.

Foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations met their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand for talks ranging from North Korea nuclear diplomacy to food and energy security.

But with Thailand and Cambodia in a military showdown over an 11th-century temple on their border claimed by both nations, ASEAN has been distracted geopolitical issues by one of the periodic intramural spats that feeds scepticism about the 41-year-old group's ambitions to become a coherent political and economic bloc.

ASEAN foreign ministers offered their good offices at a working lunch on Tuesday after Thailand and Cambodia sent hundreds of soldiers and heavy artillery to their border in recent days.

Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, host for this year's ASEAN ministerial meeting, said both sides "reiterated they were committed to a peaceful resolution of the issue", and another meeting of their General Border Commission to discuss the issue "would be held in the near future."

But no consensus could be reached for ASEAN to get involved, Yeo said in a statement.

Thailand would prefer trying to settle the issue bilaterally before asking ASEAN's help, a Thai official told reporters after the lunch.

Singapore's foreign ministry spokesman Andrew Tan said the two sides would likely meet again after Cambodia's general election on Sunday, outside the "intense media glare" and political pressures that are fueling emotions. "You need to give them some space to manage this issue."

The dispute is testing ASEAN's unity while it is in the midst of ratifying a charter that would turn the 41-year-old grouping into an EU-style, rules-based organisation.

SLAP IN FACE

"The border engagement is not only relevant in terms of the problem that we see between the two states, but also it could be a test to ASEAN," said Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim.

The fracas did manage to shove Myanmar out of the spotlight it usually occupies with great uneasiness at ASEAN meetings.

The meetings began with a rare ray of optimism on Sunday from the country's junta, which seemed to indicate detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be freed in about six months.

But Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win soon dashed such hopes saying his remarks had been misunderstood and Suu Kyi would stay in detention until at least May of 2009.

That clarification came as ASEAN urged Myanmar to "take bolder steps" towards a peaceful transition to democracy and to release all political detainees, including Suu Kyi.

That was the first time ASEAN had ever specifically mentioned Suu Kyi in one of its communiques, diplomats said.

At the broader meeting of East Asian ministers on Tuesday, discussion focused on energy and food security.

"Many expressed the concern that the two were linked," the Singapore foreign ministry spokesman said.

The ministers also recognised that efforts to boost biofuels had to be done responsibly and not at the expense of food security, he said.

That marked a subtle but significant shift from 18 months ago, when ASEAN -- whose member nations are big producers of palm oil and sugar cane -- was backing a move into biofuels, which can use those commodities as feed stock.

North Korean nuclear diplomacy will take centre stage on Wednesday when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun along with the foreign ministers from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia -- who together make up the "six party" nuclear talks.

"It's very significant because this is probably the first time the foreign ministers from the six parties are having such a meeting," China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told reporters after talks with his Japanese counterpart.

"I think it will be beneficial to pushing forward the progress of the six-party talks."

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Myanmar gang leader shot dead by police
Bernama - Wednesday, July 23

KUALA LUMPUR, 22 Julai (Bernama) -- Slipping into the country illegally two years ago, the strapping Myanmar youth rounded up his compatriots and began a career in drug trafficking, kidnapping, murder and extortion.

The gang, dubbed 'Myanmar Gang', targetted and terrorised only the Myanmar community in the country.

For the past two years, the youth in his 20s, and gang members seemed unstoppable as they left a trail of crimes in their wake.

Early today, the life and crimes of the Myanmar 'mafioso' came to a bloody end - seven police bullets found their mark on the gang leader's face near the Selayang wholesale market.

Earlier, the unidentified gang leader was cornered by the police, following a high-speed chase from Taman Sri Sentosa, Old Klang Road.

Despite having the odds stacked against him, the Myanmar alighted from his green Proton Satria and began firing at the police team, only to be cut down by a hail of bullets.

Kuala Lumpur CID chief SAC Ku Chin Wah said the Myanmar fired two shots at the police team before the man who was high on the police 'wanted list' was shot dead.

He said police seized a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver from the dead man and 18 packets of heroin from his trousers, adding that a kilogramme of syabu was found in the vehicle where an assortment of weapons, including a parang, were found.

Initial police investigations revealed that the nine-man Myanmar gang was linked to murders involving Myanmars, kidnaping, drug trafficking and extortion since 2006.

Ku said that the police were currently in the midst of tracking down four of the gang members for a spate of serious crimes since 2006.

On July 7, police arrested four Myanmars in Taman Pelangi, Rawang, in connection with the murder of a Myanmar woman at the Selayang wholesale market on May 18.

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Pace of Myanmar's recovery surprises head of US aid team
Star Bulletin - By Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The leader of the only U.S. medical team to enter Myanmar since a cyclone struck two months ago said yesterday he saw a surprising number of replanted rice paddies and more reconstruction than he expected.

Dr. Carl Lum spoke a day after returning from a two-week trip to the Irrawaddy delta with 25 doctors and nurses of the Honolulu-based Aloha Medical Mission.

"I was surprised to see how much recovery they had so far. People were rebuilding their damaged homes ... putting up new roofs," Lum said. "The rice paddies were really green as far as you can see."

Even so, Lum said it was clear many homes, schools and shops needed to be rebuilt. In the town of Kyeingchangi, where only 700 survived out of a population of 4,000, residents used blue tarp to graft makeshift roofs and walls onto their wooden homes.

Traveling on an old ferry converted into a floating clinic, Lum saw towns that were only partially destroyed, but others were almost completely ruined. He said the cyclone victims need building materials and equipment to purify water supplies.

Earlier yesterday a report by the United Nations, the Myanmar government and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said Myanmar would need $1 billion in international aid over the next three years.

The May 2-3 disaster killed more than 84,000 and left more than 53,000 missing and presumed dead. The storm destroyed 450,000 homes and damaged 350,000.

Lum's team did not see widespread cases of cholera, malaria, dengue fever and other illnesses they expected would be epidemic. Instead they treated stress-related ailments like gastrointestinal problems and post-traumatic stress disorder. Other common complaints included respiratory infections, high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis.

Lum, a retired Honolulu surgeon, said the team did not see anyone suffering from starvation or malnutrition. This is likely because the area's fishermen have been catching fish and frogs. Buddhist monks also delivered food aid, he said.

Myanmar's military government stalled in accepting international aid, earning widespread condemnation from the U.S. and other nations. The government even physically prevented relief workers from going to the hardest-hit areas.

Lum said he could not measure the effect those moves had.

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Asean's self-absorbed members
The International Herald Tribune -
By Philip Bowring
Published: July 22, 2008

HONG KONG: The annual meeting in Singapore this week of Asean foreign ministers and those from the major nations of Asia, Europe and America will get some international attention because of events on its sidelines, where U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to meet her North Korean counterpart at the six-party nuclear talks.

It deserves notice, too, that the Association of South East Asian Nations has finally criticized one of its members, Myanmar - an admission of the failure of its efforts to influence the Burmese generals despite the organization' s good work on cyclone relief.

But the meeting itself is a sideshow to broader developments in a region that has failed to take advantage of favorable economic conditions that may not last much longer.

Domestic political instability in several member states has begun to spill over into relations between Asean members. The expectations of Malaysia, Thailand and other middle income members that they would follow South Korea and Taiwan to becoming fully developed economies now look threadbare. Economic integration is making more progress on paper than in practice. Meanwhile, China, which presents a smiling image as it talks about a free trade deal with the group, actually follows a policy of divide and rule.

Asean's 10 members have all benefited from the commodity price boom. Four are significant net energy exporters - Indonesia (coal and gas), Malaysia (oil and gas), Vietnam (oil and coal), Myanmar (gas). Among food commodities, Indonesia and Malaysia dominate global palm oil; Thailand and Vietnam, rice exports. The region is a major provider of such booming items as coffee, rubber, sugar and seafood. Even the resource-poor Philippines has benefited from a surge in remittances from its overseas workers in oil rich regions, and Singapore is prospering as an oil sector intermediary and a safe haven for its neighbors' money.

These good times have been showing up in foreign exchange surpluses and steady economic growth. But a sense of impermanence is growing as populations fret about inflation, and local investors prefer to guard their wealth rather than take on long-term commitments, despite the desire of sovereign wealth funds to focus more resources on the region.

Inflation cannot be blamed only on global circumstances and high commodity prices. Vietnam allowed it to get out of hand before a belated effort to control the money supply seemed to stabilize the situation. There, as elsewhere, governments made insufficient use of interest-rate and exchange-rate policies to dampen inflation.

One consequence has been to further raise the political temperature, particularly in Thailand and Malaysia. Thailand is no nearer to re-establishing a stable democracy than it was when the generals overthrew Thaksin Shinawatra nearly two years ago. The anti-Thaksin alliance has shown itself to be more concerned with countering him than defending democracy and has recently stirred up a nationalist hornet's nest over an ancient Hindu temple located in an area of Cambodia that some Thais claim as their own creating.

Things are no better in Malaysia, where, despite the anti-corruption efforts of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, the governing United Malays National Organization, whose senior figures sometimes appear above the law, are taking extreme measures to try to block a challenge for the leadership by a one-time deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. The result could be increased communal tensions and more capital flight - and that is before the commodity cycle turns from boom to bust.

The Philippines faces no immediate crisis, but while President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has proved durable and improved the public finances, investment remains weak and the nation becomes ever more dependent on money from its workers overseas.

Singapore is stable, but even there, many people wonder what the impact will be after the country's aging longtime leader, Lee Kuan Yew, is gone. The International Bar Association recently cast doubt on judicial independence there and criticized the use of court actions against political opponents.

Of the 10 Asean members, perhaps only Indonesia and Cambodia have exceeded expectations. But for all the moderate leadership and sensible economic policies of Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and for all his country's ability to combine democracy with tolerance, corruption and institutional failures remain a drag on both its image and investment at a time when money remains plentiful.

Given domestic preoccupations, progress on trade liberalization has stalled and some Asean members continue to look more to bilateral deals than to the organization itself.
Nor is there much sign of diplomatic cohesion against bullying by big powers. Last week, Beijing warned foreign oil companies against participating in oil exploration in waters off Vietnam. China's border claims extend hundreds of miles to the shores of Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

But, just as for years the subject of oppression in Myanmar was off-limits, addressing the China Sea issue would entail a degree of confrontation that few of its members want - especially at a time when most of its individual states are pre-occupied with bilateral relations and domestic issues.

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Energy sector accounts for 90 per cent of investment in Myanmar
Monsters and Critics - Jul 22, 2008, 3:32 GMT

Yangon - Investments in Myanmar's energy sector last year amounted to 474 million dollars or 90 per cent of the total foreign direct investment in the country which is the target of economic sanctions, media reports said Tuesday.

Myanmar, a pariah state among western democracies for its poor human rights record and failure to implement democratic reforms, has been drawing increasing investment interest in its natural gas reserves in recent years as international oil prices hit historic highs, local energy expert Hla Maung told the Myanmar Times, an English-language weekly.

Foreign investments in the energy sector reached 474 million dollars last year, compared with 187 million dollars in 2006, and several multi-million dollar investments have already been signed this year, said Hla Maung.

Last month, two multi-billion dollar gas contracts were signed, one between Myanmar, China and South Korea, the other a Myanmar-Thailand deal to develop, produce and export gas from offshore gas fields to China and Thailand.

Myanmar earned 2.6 billion dollars off its exports of natural gas to neighbouring Thailand in fiscal year 2007-08, ending March 31.

'I expect revenue from natural gas will double in the coming years as the prices increase,' said Hla Maung.

Currently, Myanmar sells gas to Thailand at 4.41 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet.

Hla Maung, author of The World and its Energy Crisis, predicted that natural gas prices would reach 8 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet in the near future, pushed up by oil prices.

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Who Killed More? Bosnia's Karadzic or Myanmar's Than Shwe
OpEdNews - July 22, 2008 at 09:46:50
by Ashin Mettacara   

Karadzic was one of the world's most wanted war crimes fugitives. He is a former Bosnian Serb president and a masterminded man of the ethnic cleansing .

More than 8000 Muslims were killed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. But the latest research says about 100,000 people were killed in this war. Karadzic was arrested on early Tuesday morning in a sweep by Serbian security forces.

After Karadzic, Myanmar military leader Than Shwe should be considered and included in the list of world’s most wanted because he masterminded to kill the Buddhist monks and people during September uprising , 2007. He can also be accused of masterminding "ethnic cleansing" killings of Shan , Kayin and its own citizens.

The Army and Senior General Than Shwe had committed similar crimes of killing NLD members and students on many occasions. The major massacre is in Depe Yin town , 30th May 2003, hundreds of NLD members led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, were killed. The intention of Depe Yin massacre was to assassinate Daw Aung San Kyi, but she fortunately released with the help of people and pro-democracy members.

Recently the Nargis cyclone hit many parts of Myanmar, with more than 138,000 people killed and more than 2 million people helpless, homeless and hopeless. Nargis killed less, but Myanmar military government killed more with the failures to rescue, food supplies and medical supplies. All the cruelties of life in Myanmar are masterminded by Senior General Than Shwe.

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Shimkus addresses student leaders from Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam
The Southern - BY SCOTT FITZGERALD, THE SOUTHERN
Monday, July 21, 2008 10:33 PM CDT

CARBONDALE - Van Anh, 24, of Hanoi, Vietnam, asked a question Monday that was not just food for thought for U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville.

It also caused others at Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Faner Hall to wonder.

"How do you keep areas that have substantially survived on a single crop from being displaced by globalization? " Anh asked.

Shimkus answered by speaking about some of this county's tax policies involved with trade agreements.

Shimkus said he favors the practice of free trade, although many of his constituents do not, such as Caterpillar in Decatur.

"There will be hot issues that come to the floor. A good example is free trade. I believe in it. However, organized labor does not," Shimkus said.

The spirited exchange between Shimkus, who is serving in his 12th year in Congress, and Anh, who just graduated from Hanoi University, was part of the U.S. Department of State's Summer Institute for Undergraduate Student Leaders.

This is the 12th year SIUC has hosted the state department program.

This year's participants are 19 students from Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

"This has been a good group. You can see the school teacher in him," David Kenney, a professor of political science at SIUC, said about Shimkus' demeanor. Kenney helps his political science professor colleagues John Foster and John Jackson host the program each year.

After his presentation, Shimkus said he has enjoyed the experience of coming here since 2005 to address future leaders.

"They are interested in our political system. We come here as a guest of the university," Shimkus said.

The group arrived at the end of June and has participated in fun leisure activities in Southern Illinois in addition to seeing and learning how the wheels of American government work.

They leave today for Springfield and eventually to Washington, where they will join other groups that have been located at six other universities.

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ASEAN Turns Blind Eye to Burma Rights
Times Magazine - Tuesday, Jul. 22, 2008
By HANNAH BEECH/BANGKOK
 
A new charter for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was signed on July 21 with much flourish and a promise to "strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and the rule of law, and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms." An admirable undertaking, except that the person formally ratifying the charter was Nyan Win, the Foreign Minister of Burma, a country with one of the world's most appalling human-rights records. Indeed, Burma's signing of the document during this year's ASEAN ministerial meeting in Singapore threatens to render meaningless the lofty humanitarian goals set by the organization' s 10 member nations.

Burma's economy limps along with help from its regional neighbors, including ASEAN members such as Thailand and Singapore as well as non-members India and China.

Critics of ASEAN say the forum has not done enough to pressure Burma to end human-rights abuses. Although Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines indicated earlier that they might delay their own ratifications of the charter until Burma cleans up its human-rights record, they have been less publicly forceful in their demands since then. While the U.S. and the European Union have tightened sanctions against Burma's ruling military junta since it violently crushed monk-led protests last year, ASEAN has continued with a "constructive engagement" approach that it hopes will, through dialogue and investment, convince Burma's leaders to treat its people more kindly.

So far, the approach has failed. Since Burma's junta took over the country, also known as Myanmar, in 1962, its people have gone from some of the richest in Asia to among its poorest. An election won by the opposition was duly ignored. Political prisoners crowd jails. The most recent example of the generals' callousness came in May when Cyclone Nargis devastated the country's Irrawaddy Delta, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing and causing $4 billion in damage, according to an international assessment released on July 21. Yet instead of promptly accepting offers of help from around the world, the regime spent weeks refusing visas to foreign aid workers and setting up roadblocks to stop international agencies from delivering relief supplies. Even today, after Burma promised in an ASEAN-brokered deal to stop impeding foreign aid groups, non-Burmese still have to apply for special permits from the country's Ministry of Defense to visit the delta.

So for ASEAN's nine other members not to at least arch an eyebrow when Burma signed the charter is nothing short of willful ignorance. Yes, ASEAN did speak forcefully on July 20 when Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo said the bloc's members felt "deep disappointment" that Burma in May prolonged the detention of opposition figurehead and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. But any mention of that negative emotion was excised from the formal communiqué issued by ASEAN the following day. And an initial flurry of excitement caused by Yeo when he said that his Burmese counterpart had told him Suu Kyi might possibly be released in six months' time turned out to be a misunderstanding. A clarification was quickly issued in which the Burmese government was quoted as saying the earliest Suu Kyi might be freed would be after May 2009.

Of course, ASEAN's kid-gloves approach toward Burma isn't unique. Another item on the agenda at this year's meeting? A treaty of amity and cooperation with none other than North Korea. After buddying up to Burma for so long, ASEAN, it seems, isn't too picky about its friends.

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Japan pledges $21 mil. fresh aid to Myanmar, urges democratization
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 12:05 AM

SINGAPORE, July 22-(Kyodo) Japan pledged Tuesday to give an additional $21 million in reconstruction aid to cyclone-hit Myanmar, but Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura also urged in talks with his counterpart Nyan Win that the junta move forward with democratization, a Japanese official said.

Komura stressed the need for the Myanmar government to involve all stakeholders in the political process and immediately release political detainees, including pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The talks in Singapore came on the heels of a joint communique by ASEAN foreign ministers on Monday that urged Myanmar to free all political detainees and explicitly named Suu Kyi for the first time since 2003.

Meeting on the sidelines of a series of ASEAN-hosted ministerial talks, Komura also repeated calls for the junta to open access for foreign aid personnel to assist in reconstruction efforts after the May cyclone devastation and improve transparency for aid received.

The freshly pledged aid from Japan will mainly focus on assistance for recovery of agricultural activities and education, such as building elementary schools, in the aftermath of the cyclone devastation, the Foreign Ministry official said.

Komura pressed for thorough investigation into the September shooting death of Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai in Yangon and repeated Japan's demand that Nagai's video camera and other belongings be returned.

Japan and Myanmar remain far apart over the circumstances in which Nagai was fatally shot when he was filming the junta's crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Yangon in September. Myanmar insists he was shot by a stray bullet and not from close range, as Japan claims.

Myanmar has repeatedly said that while the death was regrettable, the incident was "accidental. " Nyan Win was quoted as saying Tuesday he will continue to do his best on the issue while noting the case is not under his ministry's jurisdiction.

Komura expressed concern that the junta's dialogue with Suu Kyi has recently stalled and that she remains under house arrest, the official said.

On Monday, Nyan Win said Suu Kyi's detention will expire toward the end of next year and that his fellow ASEAN ministers had earlier misunderstood that she could actually be released in six months, according to Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo.

Yeo had told reporters Sunday that Nyan Win indicated to other ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations over a working dinner that his government could release Suu Kyi in about six months' time.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the 1990 general election by a landslide but the junta refused to honor the results. Suu Kyi has been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

Komura is also scheduled to meet bilaterally with Yeo and hold a separate meeting with his counterparts from the Mekong nations of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam later on Tuesday.

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Naw Ohn Hla severely injured in car accident
Mizzima News - Tuesday, 22 July 2008 19:00

New Delhi – A prominent Burmese political activist Naw Ohn Hla was severely injured in a car accident on Monday afternoon and is admitted to the Rangoon General Hospital (RGH) Emergency Ward, a fellow activist said.

Naw Ohn Hla, who regularly held prayer meetings on Tuesdays for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, was severely injured in a car accident and was reportedly admitted as in-patient at RGH Surgical Ward, at about 4 p.m. on Monday.

"She was severely injured in the head and received 17 stitches. And her left collar bone and rib bone is broken. She was brave enough to talk to NLD members who visited her at the hospital," a member of Burma's opposition party – National League for Democracy - who visited her, told Mizzima.

According to the fellow activist, who took her to the hospital, Naw Ohn Hla was traveling on a Toyota Hylux light truck, Pa/8679, which is used as public bus on the Taikyi-Rangoon bus Route, at about 2 p.m. on Monday. She was heading to Aung San village in Hmawbe Township in Rangoon division for her usual Tuesday prayer meeting and to offer Waso robe and alms to the monks for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the unfortunately, the bus overturned before reaching Aung San village, her fellow activist said.

Naw Ohn Hla and another passenger are currently treated as in-patients at RGH Emergency Ward. Five other passengers received minor injuries and a nurse is in a critical condition.

Since 2004 July, she has visited Shwedagon pagoda and prayed for the release of all political prisoners including pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

After taking part actively in the saffron revolution in September 2007, she was barred from going outside Hmawbe Township. She had been receiving physiotherapy for her joint pain but could not continue after the authorities imposed restriction on her movement.

She was on her way to Shwehmawtin pagoda in Aung San village to observe the 4th anniversary of her Tuesday prayer meeting and to offer alms and robes to the monks.

The scheduled alms and robe offering ceremony was done by her colleagues on Monday as she could not attend after the accident.

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Two killed as ALA clashes with regime troops

Jul 22, 2008 (DVB)–A clash between the Arakan Liberation Army, armed wing of the Arakan Liberation Party, and State Peace and Development Council troops on the morning of 21 July left two SPDC soldiers dead.

According to an ALP statement, a fifteen-man squad led by ALA detachment leader Khine Linn launched an ambush upon 10 SPDC soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 538.

The SPDC battalion, based in a frontline camp in Myeik Wa, was led by second lieutenant Aung Ko Linn and was travelling by boat along a creek to pick up their battalion commander lieutenant colonel Aung Ko Linn in Taung Pyo at around 8am on Monday.

"The violent clash lasted about 47 minutes before it ended with the SPDC boat sinking and two of their soldiers being killed," the ALP statement said.

"The ALA also seized two MA1 assault rifles along with other ammunition left by the SPDC troops."

The SPDC's LIB 538 only arrived in the region in the first week of May to replace LIB 20 which has previously been based at the frontline camp.

The ALA claimed there were no casualties on its side.

Reporting by Thet Naing

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