By MIN LWIN
Former student leader Min Ko Naing and eight leading political activists from the 88 Generation Students group were transferred on Friday morning from Rangoon’s Insein Prison to Maubin Prison in Irrawaddy Division two days after they were sentenced to six months imprisonment for disrespecting the court, according to sources inside Insein Prison.
A staff member at Insein told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Min Ko Naing and eight political prisoners were loaded into a prison truck, which left the prison at about 7am escorted by two police vehicles.
The nine members of the 88 Generation Students group were sentenced to six months imprisonment on Wednesday under Section 228 of the penal code—for contempt of court—by the Northern District Court inside Insein Prison in the northwestern suburbs of Rangoon.
According to the source, the nine political prisoners were named as Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho (aka Htay Win Aung), Htay Kywe, Mya Aye, Hla Myo Naung, Nyan Lin, Aung Thu and Myo Aung Naing.
Several members of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Pyone Cho, after they led a march on August 19, 2007, against sharp increases in the price of fuel and other commodities, which led to mass demonstrations led by Buddhist monks the following month.
Since August 2008, more than 35 members of the 88 Generation Students group have been charged by the Insein Prison Special Court under a variety of charges, including Section 4 of the SPDC Law No. 5/96 (Endangering the National Convention).
The joint-secretary of Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP-Burma), Bo Kyi, said that the nine members of the 88 Generation Students group were moved to Maubin Prison because they verbally appealed to the judge for “free and fair justice.”
“They will not get regular family visits in Maubin,” Bo Kyi said. “The prison transfer will cause trouble for the prisoners’ health, their families and their lawyers.”
According to the AAPP-Burma, a political prisoner, Kyaw Myo Thant, died in Maubin Prison in 1990 under what it called “awful” conditions.
October 31, 2008
Water Shortage Threatens Thousands in Delta
By SAW YAN NAING
A water crisis is threatening the livelihoods of thousands of cyclone survivors in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta, the international aid agency Save the Children warned on Thursday.
Shazia Khan, a spokesperson for Save the Children, said that the lack of safe drinking water is a major concern because many wells and drinking pools in the region are still contaminated nearly six months after Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2-3.
As the end of the monsoon season approaches, it will become more difficult for people in the region to survive by collecting rainwater, she added.
“With the beginning of the dry season, the problem is that a lot of wells and drinking pools are still contaminated. So we are really worried about people not having enough water in the next few months,” she said.
Children are expected to be especially affected by the water shortage, as they are highly vulnerable to diseases associated with poor sanitary conditions.
“The lack of clean water will directly impact the health of children,” said Andrew Kirkwood, the country director for Save the Children in Burma.
Save the Children estimates that around 40 percent of the 140,000 people who were killed or went missing after the cyclone were children. Many who survived were orphaned or separated from their parents.
The slow pace of the recovery in the delta is also having dire consequences for the economic prospects of survivors.
“One of our major concerns is that we want to make sure that families get back on their feet,” said Khan, who added that Save the Children was not just providing families with short-term assistance, but also with the means to help them rebuild their livelihoods.
“A lot of families lost everything. They lost their fishing boats and their land, any means of earning a living,” she said.
According to Save the Children, the cyclone flooded about 600,000 hectares of agricultural land, killed up to 50 percent of livestock in the delta, and destroyed fishing boats, food stocks and agricultural implements.
“It is expensive to rebuild one’s life, and even more so for the poor,” said Kirkwood. “Any new financial obligations could force people to make difficult choices in regard to the food they buy or whether they can send their children to school.”
Save the Children is currently trying to complete a range of measures to increase access to safe water and develop the ability of families to manage over the upcoming months and supervise the health of children.
The charity is working in 14 of the 15 worst-affected townships in Burma and has reached about 500,000 people with lifesaving food and water, shelter materials and household and hygiene items.
A water crisis is threatening the livelihoods of thousands of cyclone survivors in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta, the international aid agency Save the Children warned on Thursday.
Shazia Khan, a spokesperson for Save the Children, said that the lack of safe drinking water is a major concern because many wells and drinking pools in the region are still contaminated nearly six months after Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2-3.
As the end of the monsoon season approaches, it will become more difficult for people in the region to survive by collecting rainwater, she added.
“With the beginning of the dry season, the problem is that a lot of wells and drinking pools are still contaminated. So we are really worried about people not having enough water in the next few months,” she said.
Children are expected to be especially affected by the water shortage, as they are highly vulnerable to diseases associated with poor sanitary conditions.
“The lack of clean water will directly impact the health of children,” said Andrew Kirkwood, the country director for Save the Children in Burma.
Save the Children estimates that around 40 percent of the 140,000 people who were killed or went missing after the cyclone were children. Many who survived were orphaned or separated from their parents.
The slow pace of the recovery in the delta is also having dire consequences for the economic prospects of survivors.
“One of our major concerns is that we want to make sure that families get back on their feet,” said Khan, who added that Save the Children was not just providing families with short-term assistance, but also with the means to help them rebuild their livelihoods.
“A lot of families lost everything. They lost their fishing boats and their land, any means of earning a living,” she said.
According to Save the Children, the cyclone flooded about 600,000 hectares of agricultural land, killed up to 50 percent of livestock in the delta, and destroyed fishing boats, food stocks and agricultural implements.
“It is expensive to rebuild one’s life, and even more so for the poor,” said Kirkwood. “Any new financial obligations could force people to make difficult choices in regard to the food they buy or whether they can send their children to school.”
Save the Children is currently trying to complete a range of measures to increase access to safe water and develop the ability of families to manage over the upcoming months and supervise the health of children.
The charity is working in 14 of the 15 worst-affected townships in Burma and has reached about 500,000 people with lifesaving food and water, shelter materials and household and hygiene items.
Crime on the Increase in Rangoon, Mandalay
By THE IRRAWADDY
Crime is on the increase in Rangoon and Mandalay, according to worried local residents. Although statistics aren’t made public by the police, three serious crimes were reported by the public since the start of this week.
Residents in Rangoon’s Tamwe Township told The Irrawaddy that a local woman, whom they named as Htay Htay was murdered by a man who robbed her home on Wednesday. The robber escaped.
Two armed robberies were reported on Monday at Yuzana Tower, Shwegoneting in Rangoon’s Bahah Township.
A gang armed with knives robbed the Myanmar Wood Mart company and later the same day a store in Yuzana Tower was also robbed. A quantity of foreign currency was reportedly taken from the timber company.
An increase in crime is also reported from Mandalay by the city’s independent press.
The apparent increase in crime has led to mounting criticism of the police, who are accused of doing too little to prevent robberies. “People can’t depend on the police,” said a civil servant who lives in Rangoon’s Thingangyun Township.
Crime is on the increase in Rangoon and Mandalay, according to worried local residents. Although statistics aren’t made public by the police, three serious crimes were reported by the public since the start of this week.
Residents in Rangoon’s Tamwe Township told The Irrawaddy that a local woman, whom they named as Htay Htay was murdered by a man who robbed her home on Wednesday. The robber escaped.
Two armed robberies were reported on Monday at Yuzana Tower, Shwegoneting in Rangoon’s Bahah Township.
A gang armed with knives robbed the Myanmar Wood Mart company and later the same day a store in Yuzana Tower was also robbed. A quantity of foreign currency was reportedly taken from the timber company.
An increase in crime is also reported from Mandalay by the city’s independent press.
The apparent increase in crime has led to mounting criticism of the police, who are accused of doing too little to prevent robberies. “People can’t depend on the police,” said a civil servant who lives in Rangoon’s Thingangyun Township.
Floods Kill 16 People in Central Vietnam
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HANOI—Disaster officials said floods triggered by heavy rains have killed 16 people in central Vietnam this week, including five children.
The storms swept across the central provinces of Quang Ngai, Ha Tinh and Nghe An from Monday to Friday, inundating homes.
Nguyen Duc Duong, a provincial disaster official in Nghe An, said four students aged 8 to 12 were among the dead. They were swept away while walking home from school.
Bui Duc Thai, an official in Quang Ngai, said three people were killed in the town, including a 2-year-old boy.
Officials said on Friday that the rains in central provinces had begun to ease.
In Hanoi in the north, heavy rains flooded streets on Friday, but no deaths were reported.
Vietnam is prone to floods, which kill hundreds each year.
HANOI—Disaster officials said floods triggered by heavy rains have killed 16 people in central Vietnam this week, including five children.
The storms swept across the central provinces of Quang Ngai, Ha Tinh and Nghe An from Monday to Friday, inundating homes.
Nguyen Duc Duong, a provincial disaster official in Nghe An, said four students aged 8 to 12 were among the dead. They were swept away while walking home from school.
Bui Duc Thai, an official in Quang Ngai, said three people were killed in the town, including a 2-year-old boy.
Officials said on Friday that the rains in central provinces had begun to ease.
In Hanoi in the north, heavy rains flooded streets on Friday, but no deaths were reported.
Vietnam is prone to floods, which kill hundreds each year.
Indonesia Tightens Security for Bali Bombers Execution
By NINIEK KARMINI / AP WRITER
JAKARTA—Police tightened security across Indonesia on Friday as authorities braced for potential terrorist attacks ahead of the executions of three Islamic militants convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.
Tourist destinations, vital installations and Western oil companies were under heavy guard, national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said.
The government has said that the three men sentenced to death five years ago for planning and helping carry out the October 12, 2002, twin nightclub attacks will go before a firing squad within days.
Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron have shown no remorse for the bombings and have publicly expressed hope that their executions would trigger revenge attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Most analysts have said reaction will likely be small and limited to a show of solidarity at the men's funerals.
But police were not taking any chances, Nataprawira said.
"We're on alert for potential terrorist attacks," he said.
In addition to beefed up security elsewhere in the country, 1,000 police have been sent to Cilacap, the town nearest to the prison island of Nusakambangan, where the three men are being held, Nataprawira said.
Those forces include members of an elite mobile brigade and anti-terrorism unit.
The Bali attacks—allegedly funded by al-Qaeda—were carried out by members and associates of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group blamed for at least three other suicide bombings in Indonesia since then.
The last bombings occurred in 2005, killing 21 people in multiple blasts in Bali cafes and restaurants.
Samudra, Nurhasyim and Ghufron claimed they carried out the Bali bombings to avenge the deaths of Muslims in US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of the victims in the twin blasts were foreign tourists, including 88 from Australia.
JAKARTA—Police tightened security across Indonesia on Friday as authorities braced for potential terrorist attacks ahead of the executions of three Islamic militants convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.
Tourist destinations, vital installations and Western oil companies were under heavy guard, national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said.
The government has said that the three men sentenced to death five years ago for planning and helping carry out the October 12, 2002, twin nightclub attacks will go before a firing squad within days.
Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron have shown no remorse for the bombings and have publicly expressed hope that their executions would trigger revenge attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Most analysts have said reaction will likely be small and limited to a show of solidarity at the men's funerals.
But police were not taking any chances, Nataprawira said.
"We're on alert for potential terrorist attacks," he said.
In addition to beefed up security elsewhere in the country, 1,000 police have been sent to Cilacap, the town nearest to the prison island of Nusakambangan, where the three men are being held, Nataprawira said.
Those forces include members of an elite mobile brigade and anti-terrorism unit.
The Bali attacks—allegedly funded by al-Qaeda—were carried out by members and associates of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group blamed for at least three other suicide bombings in Indonesia since then.
The last bombings occurred in 2005, killing 21 people in multiple blasts in Bali cafes and restaurants.
Samudra, Nurhasyim and Ghufron claimed they carried out the Bali bombings to avenge the deaths of Muslims in US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of the victims in the twin blasts were foreign tourists, including 88 from Australia.
October 30, 2008
Activists Get Six Months for Contempt
By MIN LWIN
Nine Burmese activists who have been detained for more than a year received six-month prison sentences yesterday after they were found guilty of contempt of court under Section 228 of Burma’s Penal Code, according to a lawyer for the group.
The nine activists, who include Min Ko Naing and other prominent members of the 88 Generation Students group, were sentenced by a judge from the Northern District Court at Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison, said the group’s lawyer, Aung Thein.
The contempt charges are related to demands by the detained activists that members of their families be permitted to attend a court hearing on October 3.
Although the court agreed to allow relatives to attend a hearing in August, when the authorities finally filed formal charges against the activists after holding them in detention for a full year, the request was denied during the hearing held earlier this month.
At the hearing in October, Min Ko Naing and other detained activists continued to insist that the court allow relatives to observe the proceedings. The presiding judge rejected the demand and told the defendants that they would be charged with contempt of court.
The activists—Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho (a.k.a. Htay Win Aung), Htay Kywe, Mya Aye, Hla Myo Naung, Nyan Lin, Aung Thu and Myo Aung—were among 35 members of the 88 Generation Students group who were charged in August with violating several laws, including Section 4 of SPDC Law No 5/96, which prohibits acts which “endanger the national convention.”
Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho and other members of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested last year for leading protests on August 19 against sharp increases in the price of fuel and other commodities.
Meanwhile, Nyi Nyi Htwe, a lawyer for 11 detained youth members of the National League for Democracy, Burma’s main opposition party, was arrested on Wednesday, according to the Washington-based US Campaign for Burma.
Sources told The Irrawaddy that Nyi Nyi Htwe and three of the 11 defendants, who were arrested in September for taking part in a peaceful march to Rangoon’s Shwedagon Pagoda to mark the birthday of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were charged with contempt after they complained that they were not given an opportunity to hold proper consultations regarding their case.
According to the latest reports, the Northern District Court at Insein Prison found Nyi Nyi Htwe and the three NLD members—Wai Lwin Myo, Aung Min Naing and Yan Naing Tun—guilty of contempt and sentenced them to six months imprisonment earlier today.
The court also sentenced another political prisoner, Aung Thein Lwin, to 11 years imprisonment today after finding him guilty on five charges.
Nine Burmese activists who have been detained for more than a year received six-month prison sentences yesterday after they were found guilty of contempt of court under Section 228 of Burma’s Penal Code, according to a lawyer for the group.
The nine activists, who include Min Ko Naing and other prominent members of the 88 Generation Students group, were sentenced by a judge from the Northern District Court at Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison, said the group’s lawyer, Aung Thein.
The contempt charges are related to demands by the detained activists that members of their families be permitted to attend a court hearing on October 3.
Although the court agreed to allow relatives to attend a hearing in August, when the authorities finally filed formal charges against the activists after holding them in detention for a full year, the request was denied during the hearing held earlier this month.
At the hearing in October, Min Ko Naing and other detained activists continued to insist that the court allow relatives to observe the proceedings. The presiding judge rejected the demand and told the defendants that they would be charged with contempt of court.
The activists—Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho (a.k.a. Htay Win Aung), Htay Kywe, Mya Aye, Hla Myo Naung, Nyan Lin, Aung Thu and Myo Aung—were among 35 members of the 88 Generation Students group who were charged in August with violating several laws, including Section 4 of SPDC Law No 5/96, which prohibits acts which “endanger the national convention.”
Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho and other members of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested last year for leading protests on August 19 against sharp increases in the price of fuel and other commodities.
Meanwhile, Nyi Nyi Htwe, a lawyer for 11 detained youth members of the National League for Democracy, Burma’s main opposition party, was arrested on Wednesday, according to the Washington-based US Campaign for Burma.
Sources told The Irrawaddy that Nyi Nyi Htwe and three of the 11 defendants, who were arrested in September for taking part in a peaceful march to Rangoon’s Shwedagon Pagoda to mark the birthday of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were charged with contempt after they complained that they were not given an opportunity to hold proper consultations regarding their case.
According to the latest reports, the Northern District Court at Insein Prison found Nyi Nyi Htwe and the three NLD members—Wai Lwin Myo, Aung Min Naing and Yan Naing Tun—guilty of contempt and sentenced them to six months imprisonment earlier today.
The court also sentenced another political prisoner, Aung Thein Lwin, to 11 years imprisonment today after finding him guilty on five charges.
Than Shwe’s Daughter Goes Shopping for Gold
By MIN LWIN
A BBC radio report that a daughter of Burmese junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe went shopping for gold worth more than US $80,000 is a hot topic of discussion these days at teashop tables in Mandalay.
The London-based BBC’s Burmese service reported that an unnamed daughter of Than Shwe visited the Aung Tharmarde gold shop on Mandalay’s 22nd Street and bought gold worth 100 million kyat ($80,645).
“People were shocked to hear about the extravagance,” said a Mandalay gold dealer. “I’d like to ask her where the money came from when most Burmese people are poor and some are starving.”
The report reignited anger over the extravagance of the marriage in July 2006 of one of Than Shwe’s daughters, Thandar, who draped herself in the precious metal when she married Maj Zaw Phyo Win. The bridal pair were showered with expensive gifts estimated to have cost the equivalent of $50 million.
One Rangoon gold dealer suggested that Than Shwe’s family wanted to invest in the precious metal at a time when the price of bullion had dropped.
A BBC radio report that a daughter of Burmese junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe went shopping for gold worth more than US $80,000 is a hot topic of discussion these days at teashop tables in Mandalay.
The London-based BBC’s Burmese service reported that an unnamed daughter of Than Shwe visited the Aung Tharmarde gold shop on Mandalay’s 22nd Street and bought gold worth 100 million kyat ($80,645).
“People were shocked to hear about the extravagance,” said a Mandalay gold dealer. “I’d like to ask her where the money came from when most Burmese people are poor and some are starving.”
The report reignited anger over the extravagance of the marriage in July 2006 of one of Than Shwe’s daughters, Thandar, who draped herself in the precious metal when she married Maj Zaw Phyo Win. The bridal pair were showered with expensive gifts estimated to have cost the equivalent of $50 million.
One Rangoon gold dealer suggested that Than Shwe’s family wanted to invest in the precious metal at a time when the price of bullion had dropped.
Aid Group Helps to Reunite Children with their Families
By SAW YAN NAING
“We ate and drank coconuts to stay alive,” the two sisters Thida and Nilar told their father after they were reunited with him.
Fifteen-year-old Thida and Nilar, 13, finally found their father six months after Cyclone Nargis, thanks to the help of Save the Children, one of the largest international nongovernmental organizations working in Burma today.
Thida and Nilar are among more than a thousand children who have been reunited with their families with the help of the UK-based charity.
The two sisters were clinging to a bale of hay when they were swept away by the storm surge that accompanied the cyclone, which was believed to be the worst in Burma’s history.
Half a year after Cyclone Nargis hit the country’s Irrawaddy delta on May 2-3, the charity is still bringing families separated by the storm back together.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Shazia Khan, a spokesperson for Save the Children in London, said that the organization was continuing its efforts in the delta.
“Our operations there have significantly increased. And we continue to help children to reunite with their families,” she said.
An estimated 2.4 million people were affected by the disaster, which left 140,000 dead or missing, according to official government figures.
Save the Children estimates that around 40 percent of the dead and missing were children, while many who survived were orphaned or separated from their parents.
The group also said that some 3,193 primary schools were destroyed by the storm.
According to Save the Children, the cyclone flooded about 600,000 hectares of agricultural land, killed up to 50 percent of livestock in the delta, and destroyed fishing boats, food stocks and agricultural implements.
Save the Children, which has been working in Burma for 13 years, has 500 national staff and 35 offices in the country.
Other international nongovernmental organizations involved in cyclone relief efforts include the United Nations World Food Program, Médecins Sans Frontières and World Vision.
“We ate and drank coconuts to stay alive,” the two sisters Thida and Nilar told their father after they were reunited with him.
Fifteen-year-old Thida and Nilar, 13, finally found their father six months after Cyclone Nargis, thanks to the help of Save the Children, one of the largest international nongovernmental organizations working in Burma today.
Thida and Nilar are among more than a thousand children who have been reunited with their families with the help of the UK-based charity.
The two sisters were clinging to a bale of hay when they were swept away by the storm surge that accompanied the cyclone, which was believed to be the worst in Burma’s history.
Half a year after Cyclone Nargis hit the country’s Irrawaddy delta on May 2-3, the charity is still bringing families separated by the storm back together.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Shazia Khan, a spokesperson for Save the Children in London, said that the organization was continuing its efforts in the delta.
“Our operations there have significantly increased. And we continue to help children to reunite with their families,” she said.
An estimated 2.4 million people were affected by the disaster, which left 140,000 dead or missing, according to official government figures.
Save the Children estimates that around 40 percent of the dead and missing were children, while many who survived were orphaned or separated from their parents.
The group also said that some 3,193 primary schools were destroyed by the storm.
According to Save the Children, the cyclone flooded about 600,000 hectares of agricultural land, killed up to 50 percent of livestock in the delta, and destroyed fishing boats, food stocks and agricultural implements.
Save the Children, which has been working in Burma for 13 years, has 500 national staff and 35 offices in the country.
Other international nongovernmental organizations involved in cyclone relief efforts include the United Nations World Food Program, Médecins Sans Frontières and World Vision.
Burma Day Criticized
By WAI MOE
The Burma Day conference in Brussels, co-hosted by the European Commission (EC), was criticized on Wednesday by a pro-democracy campaign group, which claimed that the event favoured speakers from the anti-democracy movement in Burma.
The London-based Burma Campaign UK said on Wednesday in a press release that the commission had chosen people who largely opposed the policies of Burma’s democracy movement as speakers at the day-long conference, even though the agenda focused on humanitarian and political issues in Burma.
“EU Burma Day is always heavily biased in this way,” the Burma Campaign UK said.
There were a small number of genuine representatives, the campaign group said. Charm Tong, for example, a Shan woman activist was speaking on a panel. However, another prominent Burmese woman activist in exile attending the conference, Khin Ohmar, was not invited to speak.
Representatives of the Burma Campaign UK and a dissident group, the Ethnic Nationalities Council, attended the conference yesterday. However, according to a source at the event, the Burma Campaign UK was not allowed to join in discussions at the conference.
A press release by the European Union said that Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy, invited NGOs, advocacy groups, international organizations and think tanks from Burma and Europe to the conference, titled “Burma/Myanmar- Prospects for the Future,” to discuss the present situation in the country and its future outlook.
The conference outlined the role of Burma’s civil society in the political process and the response to Cyclone Nargis. The Burma Day event was co-hosted by the EC, the Interchurch Organization for Development Co-operation, the Burma Center Netherlands, the Transitional Institute and the Euro-Burma Office.
The Euro-Burma Office also organized a Burma conference in Beijing earlier this month. Several representatives from Chinese civil society were at the conference and they reportedly spoke out of their concerns about the crisis in Burma.
On Thursday, a closed meeting was scheduled to be held in Brussels. Burmese from inside the country and in exile were expected to join in discussions.
A Burmese researcher in Rangoon who focuses on civil society said that Khin Zaw Win, who works with the Rangoon-based International Development Enterprise, and Nay Win Maung, the CEO of the Voice Weekly, Living Color magazine, and a Burmese NGO called Myanmar E-gress, had organized participants from Burma.
Khin Zaw Win and Nay Win Maung are controversial in Burma. They are said to be receiving benefits from the Burmese authorities and international organizations for their roles in criticizing democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the pro-democracy movement in the country.
According to diplomat sources, Zaw Oo, the head of the Vahu Development Institute, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, participated with the “inside” Burma group at the Burma Day conference, even though he is a Burmese scholar in exile.
He has been a leading activist in exile since 1988. In recent years, he split from a leading dissident group, the Burma Fund, and was granted a visa to Burma by the authorities in July and September.
He has since toned down his political rhetoric, observers have said. He told The Irrawaddy in early September that his trip to Burma made him realize that many exiles do not have a complete picture of the situation inside Burma.
The Burma Day conference in Brussels, co-hosted by the European Commission (EC), was criticized on Wednesday by a pro-democracy campaign group, which claimed that the event favoured speakers from the anti-democracy movement in Burma.
The London-based Burma Campaign UK said on Wednesday in a press release that the commission had chosen people who largely opposed the policies of Burma’s democracy movement as speakers at the day-long conference, even though the agenda focused on humanitarian and political issues in Burma.
“EU Burma Day is always heavily biased in this way,” the Burma Campaign UK said.
There were a small number of genuine representatives, the campaign group said. Charm Tong, for example, a Shan woman activist was speaking on a panel. However, another prominent Burmese woman activist in exile attending the conference, Khin Ohmar, was not invited to speak.
Representatives of the Burma Campaign UK and a dissident group, the Ethnic Nationalities Council, attended the conference yesterday. However, according to a source at the event, the Burma Campaign UK was not allowed to join in discussions at the conference.
A press release by the European Union said that Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy, invited NGOs, advocacy groups, international organizations and think tanks from Burma and Europe to the conference, titled “Burma/Myanmar- Prospects for the Future,” to discuss the present situation in the country and its future outlook.
The conference outlined the role of Burma’s civil society in the political process and the response to Cyclone Nargis. The Burma Day event was co-hosted by the EC, the Interchurch Organization for Development Co-operation, the Burma Center Netherlands, the Transitional Institute and the Euro-Burma Office.
The Euro-Burma Office also organized a Burma conference in Beijing earlier this month. Several representatives from Chinese civil society were at the conference and they reportedly spoke out of their concerns about the crisis in Burma.
On Thursday, a closed meeting was scheduled to be held in Brussels. Burmese from inside the country and in exile were expected to join in discussions.
A Burmese researcher in Rangoon who focuses on civil society said that Khin Zaw Win, who works with the Rangoon-based International Development Enterprise, and Nay Win Maung, the CEO of the Voice Weekly, Living Color magazine, and a Burmese NGO called Myanmar E-gress, had organized participants from Burma.
Khin Zaw Win and Nay Win Maung are controversial in Burma. They are said to be receiving benefits from the Burmese authorities and international organizations for their roles in criticizing democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the pro-democracy movement in the country.
According to diplomat sources, Zaw Oo, the head of the Vahu Development Institute, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, participated with the “inside” Burma group at the Burma Day conference, even though he is a Burmese scholar in exile.
He has been a leading activist in exile since 1988. In recent years, he split from a leading dissident group, the Burma Fund, and was granted a visa to Burma by the authorities in July and September.
He has since toned down his political rhetoric, observers have said. He told The Irrawaddy in early September that his trip to Burma made him realize that many exiles do not have a complete picture of the situation inside Burma.
Melamine Added to China's Animal Feed, Practice Is 'Open Secret'
By ANITA CHANG / AP WRITER
BEIJING — Animal feed producers in China commonly add the industrial chemical melamine to their products to make them appear higher in protein, state media reported Thursday, an indication that the scope of the country's latest food safety scandal could extend beyond milk and eggs.
The practice of mixing melamine into animal feed is an "open secret" in the industry, the Nanfang Daily newspaper reported in an article that was republished on the Web sites of the official Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.
Publicizing such a problem is rare in the Chinese media and appears to be a tacit admission by China's central government that melamine contamination is widespread.
The news comes after four brands of Chinese eggs were found to be contaminated with melamine, which agriculture officials have speculated came from adulterated feed given to hens. The discovery of the tainted eggs followed on the heels of a similar crisis involving compromised dairy products that sent tens of thousands of children to the hospital and was linked to the deaths of four infants.
That scandal was triggered by dairy suppliers who added melamine, a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizer, to watered-down milk in order to dupe quality control tests and make the product appear rich in protein.
Health experts say ingesting a small amount of melamine poses no danger, but in larger doses, it can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.
It is forbidden to deliberately add melamine to food and animal feed, but its apparent prevalence highlights the inability of authorities to keep the food production process clean of toxins despite official vows to raise safety standards.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment. Phones rang unanswered at the Ministry of Health.
Chemical plants used to pay companies to treat and dispose of excess melamine, but about five years ago began selling it to manufacturers who repackaged it as "protein powder," the Nanfang Daily report said, citing an unnamed chemical industry expert. Melamine is high in nitrogen, and most protein tests test for nitrogen levels.
The inexpensive powder was first used to give the impression of higher protein levels in aquatic feed, then later in feed for livestock and poultry, the report said.
"The effect far more exceeds the milk powder scandal," the newspaper said.
In the past week, melamine has been discovered in at least four brands of Chinese eggs, and officials in China's largest city, Shanghai, said they had begun checks on all eggs sold in local markets.
"We are closely following the development of the egg scandals in the nation and will carry out effective measures accordingly," said Gu Zhenhua, an official from the city Food and Drug Administration was quoted as saying in Thursday's editions of the Shanghai Daily.
No one has been sickened and it was not immediately clear how many eggs have been recalled.
China's leading egg processor, Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group, was among the companies found to have tainted eggs, which were first identified by Hong Kong food safety regulators.
The government in the northeastern city of Dalian has said it was first alerted to the problem of melamine-tainted eggs on September 27—but it did not explain the delay in reporting the problem.
The company's Web site said that, besides the domestic and Hong Kong markets, its egg products are exported to Japan and countries in Southeast Asia.
China's fresh eggs are mainly exported to the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, while egg products are also sold to Japan and the US, according to a February egg market report on the Agriculture Ministry's Web site, the latest available data.
The reputation of Chinese products has in the past year come under fire after high levels of chemicals and additives were found in goods ranging from toothpaste to milk powder. In the milk scandal, Chinese authorities and a leading dairy producer delayed reporting the problem for months.
The Ministry of Health said Wednesday that 2,390 children remained hospitalized after drinking tainted milk, including one in serious condition, and 48,514 had been treated at hospitals and released.
BEIJING — Animal feed producers in China commonly add the industrial chemical melamine to their products to make them appear higher in protein, state media reported Thursday, an indication that the scope of the country's latest food safety scandal could extend beyond milk and eggs.
The practice of mixing melamine into animal feed is an "open secret" in the industry, the Nanfang Daily newspaper reported in an article that was republished on the Web sites of the official Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.
Publicizing such a problem is rare in the Chinese media and appears to be a tacit admission by China's central government that melamine contamination is widespread.
The news comes after four brands of Chinese eggs were found to be contaminated with melamine, which agriculture officials have speculated came from adulterated feed given to hens. The discovery of the tainted eggs followed on the heels of a similar crisis involving compromised dairy products that sent tens of thousands of children to the hospital and was linked to the deaths of four infants.
That scandal was triggered by dairy suppliers who added melamine, a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizer, to watered-down milk in order to dupe quality control tests and make the product appear rich in protein.
Health experts say ingesting a small amount of melamine poses no danger, but in larger doses, it can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.
It is forbidden to deliberately add melamine to food and animal feed, but its apparent prevalence highlights the inability of authorities to keep the food production process clean of toxins despite official vows to raise safety standards.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment. Phones rang unanswered at the Ministry of Health.
Chemical plants used to pay companies to treat and dispose of excess melamine, but about five years ago began selling it to manufacturers who repackaged it as "protein powder," the Nanfang Daily report said, citing an unnamed chemical industry expert. Melamine is high in nitrogen, and most protein tests test for nitrogen levels.
The inexpensive powder was first used to give the impression of higher protein levels in aquatic feed, then later in feed for livestock and poultry, the report said.
"The effect far more exceeds the milk powder scandal," the newspaper said.
In the past week, melamine has been discovered in at least four brands of Chinese eggs, and officials in China's largest city, Shanghai, said they had begun checks on all eggs sold in local markets.
"We are closely following the development of the egg scandals in the nation and will carry out effective measures accordingly," said Gu Zhenhua, an official from the city Food and Drug Administration was quoted as saying in Thursday's editions of the Shanghai Daily.
No one has been sickened and it was not immediately clear how many eggs have been recalled.
China's leading egg processor, Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group, was among the companies found to have tainted eggs, which were first identified by Hong Kong food safety regulators.
The government in the northeastern city of Dalian has said it was first alerted to the problem of melamine-tainted eggs on September 27—but it did not explain the delay in reporting the problem.
The company's Web site said that, besides the domestic and Hong Kong markets, its egg products are exported to Japan and countries in Southeast Asia.
China's fresh eggs are mainly exported to the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, while egg products are also sold to Japan and the US, according to a February egg market report on the Agriculture Ministry's Web site, the latest available data.
The reputation of Chinese products has in the past year come under fire after high levels of chemicals and additives were found in goods ranging from toothpaste to milk powder. In the milk scandal, Chinese authorities and a leading dairy producer delayed reporting the problem for months.
The Ministry of Health said Wednesday that 2,390 children remained hospitalized after drinking tainted milk, including one in serious condition, and 48,514 had been treated at hospitals and released.
Financial Meltdown Prompts Return to Agriculture
By MARWAAN MACN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
BANGKOK — As Southeast Asia feels the heal of the global financial meltdown leaders are turning to the informal sector, particularly agriculture, as a potential provider of employment.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi echoed such a sentiment this week, resurrecting a view that had emerged after a financial crisis swept through this region in 1997. The Malaysian agriculture sector will help the country to "cushion the impact of the economic downturn," he said during an encounter with farmers, according to local press reports.
The agriculture sector accounts for about 60 percent of Southeast Asia’s informal sector, which is estimated to have 161 million workers, states a new study on labor trends released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
"Agriculture still accounts for 44.5 percent of (the region’s) total employment, albeit with considerable variations across countries, ranging from less than one percent in Singapore to over 80 percent in Laos,'' the ILO study said.
The past decade has also seen South-east Asian cities, which have expanded due to rapid urbanization and migration from rural areas, taking on a greater role as a venue for the informal labor pool, adds the ILO. Food vendors along the streets are typical of this trend. A majority of them are women, giving "vulnerable" work a "feminine face."
The number of workers in the informal sector are set to increase as jobs in the region’s formal economic sector, ranging from industries to services, become limited, says Gyorgy Sziraczki, senior economist at the ILO's Asia-Pacific regional office in Bangkok. "Employers will either delay hiring or freeze new recruitment and the wage growth will slow down, with pay increases lesser than in past years."
"There will be 850,000 fewer jobs created in 2008 than in 2007. And by 2009, that number could go up to 1.27 million fewer jobs in the region," he revealed in an interview. "The number of unemployed in the region may rise to 18.5 million in 2009 as against the 16.5 million unemployed people in 2007."
Such dismal estimates are a contrast to the robust economic growth the region experienced till the onset of the spike in oil and food prices early this year and soaring inflation in some countries in the 10-member regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The region’s growth of 6.4 percent in 2007, up from six percent the previous year, "was the highest in over a decade," states the ILO in its 'Labour and Social Trends in Asean 2008.'
"The region’s strong economic performance in 2007 had a positive impact on its labour markets," adds the 116-page report. "Employment in Asean member countries increased from 260.6 million in 2006 to 268.5 million in 2007—an increase of three percent, or 7.9 million additional jobs."
The impact from the financial crash will be felt in the export sector in countries like the Philippines, which depends on the Japanese and US markets.
This week, Thailand's labor ministry revealed that 120 companies had shut down from January till October in industries dealing in food, garments and furniture.
Burma’s garment sector, which exports to Japan and the European Union, may also experience factory closures and workers being laid off, according to the military-ruled country’s garment manufacturers association.
But unlike a decade ago, governments appear more prepared to deal with layoffs and lack of work in the formal economy, says Raj Kumar, at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), a regional UN body based in Bangkok. "The 1997 financial crisis caught governments by surprise and there was little preparation to help people affected by the economies that went into negative growth."
"They have learnt some of the lessons since then and are already talking about it," he told IPS. "The current talk about the role the agriculture sector will have to play to absorb people from the formal economy was never discussed before the ’97 crash."
Yet such expectations for the informal sector—particularly agriculture—to help people from cities to return back to their homes in rural areas and serve as a safety net are not limitless. More so since the rural heartland of many Southeast Asian countries have been ignored in the past 10 years, with limited amounts of investment pouring in from national budgets to improve infrastructure and agriculture outputs.
"There has been a serious neglect of the agriculture sector in the past decade. The investments have gone down," says Diderik de Vleeschauwer, spokesman for the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Asia-Pacific office. "Those areas are not what they used to be in ‘97."
The land area available for agriculture has also decreased, he told IPS. "This is because of new land-use patterns, land being sold for non-agriculture purposes such as hotels and golf courses and the drastic impact of climate change."
In fact in the Philippines, a country expected to face the brunt of the economic downturn, there is little hope for people who migrated to the cities from the provinces in search of work to go back home.
"The agriculture sector in the Philippines is at a very low point because the government’s investment in agriculture is not a priority," says Jillian Roque, research and advocacy officer at Public Services Labour Independent Confederation, a Manila-based national union of government workers.
"The only option available for the Filipinos, who end up in the informal sector is to search for jobs abroad," she said in a telephone interview about a country that already has 10 percent of its population as overseas migrant workers. "There will be an increase in people wanting to leave the country even if there is a threat of abuse and exploitation. The crisis is creating a sense of desperation."
BANGKOK — As Southeast Asia feels the heal of the global financial meltdown leaders are turning to the informal sector, particularly agriculture, as a potential provider of employment.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi echoed such a sentiment this week, resurrecting a view that had emerged after a financial crisis swept through this region in 1997. The Malaysian agriculture sector will help the country to "cushion the impact of the economic downturn," he said during an encounter with farmers, according to local press reports.
The agriculture sector accounts for about 60 percent of Southeast Asia’s informal sector, which is estimated to have 161 million workers, states a new study on labor trends released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
"Agriculture still accounts for 44.5 percent of (the region’s) total employment, albeit with considerable variations across countries, ranging from less than one percent in Singapore to over 80 percent in Laos,'' the ILO study said.
The past decade has also seen South-east Asian cities, which have expanded due to rapid urbanization and migration from rural areas, taking on a greater role as a venue for the informal labor pool, adds the ILO. Food vendors along the streets are typical of this trend. A majority of them are women, giving "vulnerable" work a "feminine face."
The number of workers in the informal sector are set to increase as jobs in the region’s formal economic sector, ranging from industries to services, become limited, says Gyorgy Sziraczki, senior economist at the ILO's Asia-Pacific regional office in Bangkok. "Employers will either delay hiring or freeze new recruitment and the wage growth will slow down, with pay increases lesser than in past years."
"There will be 850,000 fewer jobs created in 2008 than in 2007. And by 2009, that number could go up to 1.27 million fewer jobs in the region," he revealed in an interview. "The number of unemployed in the region may rise to 18.5 million in 2009 as against the 16.5 million unemployed people in 2007."
Such dismal estimates are a contrast to the robust economic growth the region experienced till the onset of the spike in oil and food prices early this year and soaring inflation in some countries in the 10-member regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The region’s growth of 6.4 percent in 2007, up from six percent the previous year, "was the highest in over a decade," states the ILO in its 'Labour and Social Trends in Asean 2008.'
"The region’s strong economic performance in 2007 had a positive impact on its labour markets," adds the 116-page report. "Employment in Asean member countries increased from 260.6 million in 2006 to 268.5 million in 2007—an increase of three percent, or 7.9 million additional jobs."
The impact from the financial crash will be felt in the export sector in countries like the Philippines, which depends on the Japanese and US markets.
This week, Thailand's labor ministry revealed that 120 companies had shut down from January till October in industries dealing in food, garments and furniture.
Burma’s garment sector, which exports to Japan and the European Union, may also experience factory closures and workers being laid off, according to the military-ruled country’s garment manufacturers association.
But unlike a decade ago, governments appear more prepared to deal with layoffs and lack of work in the formal economy, says Raj Kumar, at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), a regional UN body based in Bangkok. "The 1997 financial crisis caught governments by surprise and there was little preparation to help people affected by the economies that went into negative growth."
"They have learnt some of the lessons since then and are already talking about it," he told IPS. "The current talk about the role the agriculture sector will have to play to absorb people from the formal economy was never discussed before the ’97 crash."
Yet such expectations for the informal sector—particularly agriculture—to help people from cities to return back to their homes in rural areas and serve as a safety net are not limitless. More so since the rural heartland of many Southeast Asian countries have been ignored in the past 10 years, with limited amounts of investment pouring in from national budgets to improve infrastructure and agriculture outputs.
"There has been a serious neglect of the agriculture sector in the past decade. The investments have gone down," says Diderik de Vleeschauwer, spokesman for the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Asia-Pacific office. "Those areas are not what they used to be in ‘97."
The land area available for agriculture has also decreased, he told IPS. "This is because of new land-use patterns, land being sold for non-agriculture purposes such as hotels and golf courses and the drastic impact of climate change."
In fact in the Philippines, a country expected to face the brunt of the economic downturn, there is little hope for people who migrated to the cities from the provinces in search of work to go back home.
"The agriculture sector in the Philippines is at a very low point because the government’s investment in agriculture is not a priority," says Jillian Roque, research and advocacy officer at Public Services Labour Independent Confederation, a Manila-based national union of government workers.
"The only option available for the Filipinos, who end up in the informal sector is to search for jobs abroad," she said in a telephone interview about a country that already has 10 percent of its population as overseas migrant workers. "There will be an increase in people wanting to leave the country even if there is a threat of abuse and exploitation. The crisis is creating a sense of desperation."
October 29, 2008
Relief as Cyclone Bypasses Burma
By THE IRRAWADDY
People living in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta spent a tense weekend last week, as Cyclone Rashmi brought heavy rains and strong winds to a region that is still recovering from the effects of Cyclone Nargis, which killed at least 85,000 people less than six months ago.
According to the Bangladesh government’s Comprehensive Disaster Management Program, the cyclone made landfall in Bangladesh early Monday morning with wind speeds of up to 80 km/hour. The cyclone, which formed over the Indian Ocean, left at least two people dead and another 11 missing.
Observers said that the loss of life and property was minimal, thanks to the successful preparedness efforts of the Bangladeshi authorities and local communities.
The Burmese government, which was heavily criticized for its failure to alert people to the threat of Cyclone Nargis before it struck on the night of May 2-3, also issued public warnings over the weekend through its department of meteorology and hydrology.
But government efforts to make a show of readiness did little to reassure local people, who feared the worst.
“We were terrified,” said one delta resident, describing his reaction to the powerful gales and menacing clouds that swept the region. “We couldn’t take our eyes off of the sky.”
This brush with a repeat of the disaster that left an estimated 140,000 people dead or missing in May came as Burma’s deputy foreign minister, Kyaw Thu, was in Bangkok to attend a United Nations-backed meeting on the country’s efforts to recover from the effects of Cyclone Nargis.
The two-day “Regional High-level Expert Group Meeting on Post-Nargis Recovery and Livelihood Opportunities,” organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), was convened on Monday to bring together disaster-response experts from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries in the region.
“Asia has always been a focal hub for world knowledge,” said Kyaw Thu, who is also the chairman of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), which coordinates the relief effort in the Irrawaddy delta. The group consists of representatives of the UN, Asean and the Burmese government.
Kyaw Thu added that he was “engrossed by [the participants’] rich experience and compelling expertise, especially in managing and dealing with the recent natural disasters that have happened in our region.”
Observers say that Cyclone Nargis had a significant impact on the thinking of some Burmese government officials, who now realize that there is a need for collaboration with international relief experts to support a sustainable recovery in the cyclone-hit areas.
“We have again found ourselves at a crucial crossroads,” said Kyaw Thu, who is the son of Dr Maung Maung, a respected scholar who served as Burma’s president for a month during the uprising of August-September 1988.
People living in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta spent a tense weekend last week, as Cyclone Rashmi brought heavy rains and strong winds to a region that is still recovering from the effects of Cyclone Nargis, which killed at least 85,000 people less than six months ago.
According to the Bangladesh government’s Comprehensive Disaster Management Program, the cyclone made landfall in Bangladesh early Monday morning with wind speeds of up to 80 km/hour. The cyclone, which formed over the Indian Ocean, left at least two people dead and another 11 missing.
Observers said that the loss of life and property was minimal, thanks to the successful preparedness efforts of the Bangladeshi authorities and local communities.
The Burmese government, which was heavily criticized for its failure to alert people to the threat of Cyclone Nargis before it struck on the night of May 2-3, also issued public warnings over the weekend through its department of meteorology and hydrology.
But government efforts to make a show of readiness did little to reassure local people, who feared the worst.
“We were terrified,” said one delta resident, describing his reaction to the powerful gales and menacing clouds that swept the region. “We couldn’t take our eyes off of the sky.”
This brush with a repeat of the disaster that left an estimated 140,000 people dead or missing in May came as Burma’s deputy foreign minister, Kyaw Thu, was in Bangkok to attend a United Nations-backed meeting on the country’s efforts to recover from the effects of Cyclone Nargis.
The two-day “Regional High-level Expert Group Meeting on Post-Nargis Recovery and Livelihood Opportunities,” organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), was convened on Monday to bring together disaster-response experts from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries in the region.
“Asia has always been a focal hub for world knowledge,” said Kyaw Thu, who is also the chairman of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), which coordinates the relief effort in the Irrawaddy delta. The group consists of representatives of the UN, Asean and the Burmese government.
Kyaw Thu added that he was “engrossed by [the participants’] rich experience and compelling expertise, especially in managing and dealing with the recent natural disasters that have happened in our region.”
Observers say that Cyclone Nargis had a significant impact on the thinking of some Burmese government officials, who now realize that there is a need for collaboration with international relief experts to support a sustainable recovery in the cyclone-hit areas.
“We have again found ourselves at a crucial crossroads,” said Kyaw Thu, who is the son of Dr Maung Maung, a respected scholar who served as Burma’s president for a month during the uprising of August-September 1988.
Burma, China Consolidating Military Relations
By MIN LWIN
Signs are evident that Burma and China are stepping up military cooperation after Burma’s top three generals met with Gen Zhang Li, the vice chief-of-staff of China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA), on Monday in Naypyidaw.
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, who frequently snubs visiting UN envoys, reportedly offered a warm welcome to the visiting Chinese delegation. Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and Gen Thura Shwe Mann also attended the meeting. Thura Shwe Mann later held separate talks with the Chinese general, according to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency on Monday.
Xinhua did not provide details of the meeting, but said that Zhang Li had discussions with Thura Shwe Mann, the chief of general staff of the Burmese army, navy and air force. The Chinese news agency also commented on the spirit of “friendly cooperation” between the armed forces of the two countries.
Htay Aung, a Burmese researcher in Thailand, said that Gen Zhang Li’s trip to Burma was a means of strengthening cooperation between the two armed forces.
China has been the major supplier of military hardware to Burma since the regime crushed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988. China has provided fighter jet planes, naval ships, tanks, military vehicles and ammunition to the Burmese junta. It has been reported that China has delivered some US $2 billion worth of military equipment to Burma since the early 1990s.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst living at the China-Burma border, said he believed that the generals’ meeting focused on the military industry.
“The Chinese armed forces have helped and supported the Burmese with heavy military hardware for years,” he said, adding that 90 percent of Burmese military transportation is supplied by China.
New York-based Human Rights Watch pointed out in its October 2007 report that India, China, Russia, and other nations have supplied Burma with weapons that the Burmese army uses to commit human rights abuses against civilians and to bolster its ability to maintain power.
The international rights group said that China has supplied Burma with advanced helicopter gunships, arms production technology, support equipment and small arms, including mortars, landmines, and assault rifles, as well as assistance in setting up an indigenous small-arms production capability. It said China had also supplied a vast array of advanced military hardware to Burma, including fighter planes, naval vessels and tanks, and other infantry support weapons.
In August, Burma’s Chief of Defense Industry Lt-Gen Tin Aye visited China. State-run Xinhua reported that he met with Gen Liang Guanglie, a member of the central military commission and chief of general staff of the PLA, in an effort to increase cooperation in political, economic, cultural and military spheres.
According to Xinhua, the Chinese defense ministry was ready to work with Burma to further expand bilateral cooperation, so as to help the two nations’ defense and to safeguard regional peace and stability.
According to a report leaked to The Irrawaddy, in July, at a confidential meeting with senior staffers, Home Affairs minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo said that Burma was not pro-China. However, Maung Oo stated that Burma was China’s “road to the sea of southern states” because allies of the US, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were encircling China.
In 1989, Than Shwe, then deputy commander in chief of the armed forces, led the first high-level visit to China to purchase military hardware.
Signs are evident that Burma and China are stepping up military cooperation after Burma’s top three generals met with Gen Zhang Li, the vice chief-of-staff of China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA), on Monday in Naypyidaw.
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, who frequently snubs visiting UN envoys, reportedly offered a warm welcome to the visiting Chinese delegation. Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and Gen Thura Shwe Mann also attended the meeting. Thura Shwe Mann later held separate talks with the Chinese general, according to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency on Monday.
Xinhua did not provide details of the meeting, but said that Zhang Li had discussions with Thura Shwe Mann, the chief of general staff of the Burmese army, navy and air force. The Chinese news agency also commented on the spirit of “friendly cooperation” between the armed forces of the two countries.
Htay Aung, a Burmese researcher in Thailand, said that Gen Zhang Li’s trip to Burma was a means of strengthening cooperation between the two armed forces.
China has been the major supplier of military hardware to Burma since the regime crushed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988. China has provided fighter jet planes, naval ships, tanks, military vehicles and ammunition to the Burmese junta. It has been reported that China has delivered some US $2 billion worth of military equipment to Burma since the early 1990s.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst living at the China-Burma border, said he believed that the generals’ meeting focused on the military industry.
“The Chinese armed forces have helped and supported the Burmese with heavy military hardware for years,” he said, adding that 90 percent of Burmese military transportation is supplied by China.
New York-based Human Rights Watch pointed out in its October 2007 report that India, China, Russia, and other nations have supplied Burma with weapons that the Burmese army uses to commit human rights abuses against civilians and to bolster its ability to maintain power.
The international rights group said that China has supplied Burma with advanced helicopter gunships, arms production technology, support equipment and small arms, including mortars, landmines, and assault rifles, as well as assistance in setting up an indigenous small-arms production capability. It said China had also supplied a vast array of advanced military hardware to Burma, including fighter planes, naval vessels and tanks, and other infantry support weapons.
In August, Burma’s Chief of Defense Industry Lt-Gen Tin Aye visited China. State-run Xinhua reported that he met with Gen Liang Guanglie, a member of the central military commission and chief of general staff of the PLA, in an effort to increase cooperation in political, economic, cultural and military spheres.
According to Xinhua, the Chinese defense ministry was ready to work with Burma to further expand bilateral cooperation, so as to help the two nations’ defense and to safeguard regional peace and stability.
According to a report leaked to The Irrawaddy, in July, at a confidential meeting with senior staffers, Home Affairs minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo said that Burma was not pro-China. However, Maung Oo stated that Burma was China’s “road to the sea of southern states” because allies of the US, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were encircling China.
In 1989, Than Shwe, then deputy commander in chief of the armed forces, led the first high-level visit to China to purchase military hardware.
Burma, N. Korea Follow Different Foreign Policy Paths
By WAI MOE
Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win met his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui Chun, in Pyongyang on Monday—a diplomatic event that disguised the different foreign policy directions taken recently by the two countries.
Nyan Win’s visit to the North Korean capital is the second by a Burmese junta official within the past month. It follows a visit by Burma’s Minister of Sports, Brig-Gen Thura Aye Myint.
Diplomatic sources say that although the two countries have developed close military ties since the 1990s, Nyan Win’s visit is more likely to have been a diplomatic one, following the 2008 Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit in Beijing.
Other high ranking military officials to visit North Korea this year include the mayor of Rangoon, Brig-Gen Aung Thein Lin (he visited in September), Lt-Gen Tin Aye, chief of the armed forces Office of Defense Industries (August) and Lt-Gen Myint Hlaing, chief of the Tatmadaw’s air defense (July).
Burma and North Korea resumed diplomatic relations in April 2007 after the Burmese government cut ties in 1983 when North Korean agents attempted to assassinate the South Korean prime minister and his delegation in Rangoon.
Despite the break in diplomatic ties, military cooperation between the two countries intensified in the 1990s.
“In late 1990, North Korea sold Burma 20 million rounds of 7.62 mm rifle ammunition,” said Andrew Selth, an expert on Burma’s military, in a research paper.
Security analysts say that the Burmese junta also sought strategic weapons such as submarines and ballistic missiles from North Korea. Pyongyang reportedly delivered nuclear technology to Burma and helped with strategic tunnel building technology in the construction of Naypyidaw. Some reports suggested North Korean technicians are in Burma.
The increasing cooperation between Burma and North Korea drew expressions of concern from the US. In testimony before the US House International Relations Committee in March 2004, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew P. Daley said: “Of particular concern, we also have reason to believe that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] has offered surface-to-surface missiles [to Burma].”
In April this year, Japan’s NHK news agency reported that North Korea had sold multiple rocket launchers to the Burmese junta.
However, in his research paper, Burma and Nuclear Proliferation: Policies and Perceptions, Andrew Selth offered the reassurance: “It is highly unlikely that Burma currently has any intention of acquiring nuclear weapons, from North Korea and anywhere else.”
Recently, the two countries have followed different foreign policy courses, and this month North Korea scored a success when the US removed it from Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The ruling, announced on October 11, followed Pyongyang’s agreement to resume dismantling its nuclear program and to allow international inspectors to monitor this work.
North Korea had shared the Washington blacklist with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. It also found itself described by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005 as an “outpost of tyranny,” along with Burma, Belarus, Cuba, Iran and Zimbabwe.
While North Korea has been winning points recently with Washington, Burma continues to be castigated by the US for its failure to institute political reform and release its political prisoners.
The foreign policy focus of the US and the European Union differs between North Korea and Burma. Democracy and human rights issues are paramount in US and EU policy on Burma, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions dictate their approach to North Korea.
Both Burma and North Korea concentrate their foreign policies on guaranteeing the survival of their respective regimes. While the North Korea regime has won legitimacy by playing the nuclear weapons card, the Burmese junta has been emphasizing the seven-step roadmap towards its version of democracy.
The language employed by each side is similar, however.
North Korea’s military said in a statement on Tuesday: "The puppet authorities had better bear in mind that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything…It will turn out to be a just war— to build an independent reunified state on it."
The tone of the North Korean statement is similar to the slogans employed by the Burmese regime—such as “Oppose foreign nations interfering in internal affairs of the State.”
Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win met his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui Chun, in Pyongyang on Monday—a diplomatic event that disguised the different foreign policy directions taken recently by the two countries.
Nyan Win’s visit to the North Korean capital is the second by a Burmese junta official within the past month. It follows a visit by Burma’s Minister of Sports, Brig-Gen Thura Aye Myint.
Diplomatic sources say that although the two countries have developed close military ties since the 1990s, Nyan Win’s visit is more likely to have been a diplomatic one, following the 2008 Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit in Beijing.
Other high ranking military officials to visit North Korea this year include the mayor of Rangoon, Brig-Gen Aung Thein Lin (he visited in September), Lt-Gen Tin Aye, chief of the armed forces Office of Defense Industries (August) and Lt-Gen Myint Hlaing, chief of the Tatmadaw’s air defense (July).
Burma and North Korea resumed diplomatic relations in April 2007 after the Burmese government cut ties in 1983 when North Korean agents attempted to assassinate the South Korean prime minister and his delegation in Rangoon.
Despite the break in diplomatic ties, military cooperation between the two countries intensified in the 1990s.
“In late 1990, North Korea sold Burma 20 million rounds of 7.62 mm rifle ammunition,” said Andrew Selth, an expert on Burma’s military, in a research paper.
Security analysts say that the Burmese junta also sought strategic weapons such as submarines and ballistic missiles from North Korea. Pyongyang reportedly delivered nuclear technology to Burma and helped with strategic tunnel building technology in the construction of Naypyidaw. Some reports suggested North Korean technicians are in Burma.
The increasing cooperation between Burma and North Korea drew expressions of concern from the US. In testimony before the US House International Relations Committee in March 2004, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew P. Daley said: “Of particular concern, we also have reason to believe that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] has offered surface-to-surface missiles [to Burma].”
In April this year, Japan’s NHK news agency reported that North Korea had sold multiple rocket launchers to the Burmese junta.
However, in his research paper, Burma and Nuclear Proliferation: Policies and Perceptions, Andrew Selth offered the reassurance: “It is highly unlikely that Burma currently has any intention of acquiring nuclear weapons, from North Korea and anywhere else.”
Recently, the two countries have followed different foreign policy courses, and this month North Korea scored a success when the US removed it from Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The ruling, announced on October 11, followed Pyongyang’s agreement to resume dismantling its nuclear program and to allow international inspectors to monitor this work.
North Korea had shared the Washington blacklist with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. It also found itself described by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005 as an “outpost of tyranny,” along with Burma, Belarus, Cuba, Iran and Zimbabwe.
While North Korea has been winning points recently with Washington, Burma continues to be castigated by the US for its failure to institute political reform and release its political prisoners.
The foreign policy focus of the US and the European Union differs between North Korea and Burma. Democracy and human rights issues are paramount in US and EU policy on Burma, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions dictate their approach to North Korea.
Both Burma and North Korea concentrate their foreign policies on guaranteeing the survival of their respective regimes. While the North Korea regime has won legitimacy by playing the nuclear weapons card, the Burmese junta has been emphasizing the seven-step roadmap towards its version of democracy.
The language employed by each side is similar, however.
North Korea’s military said in a statement on Tuesday: "The puppet authorities had better bear in mind that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything…It will turn out to be a just war— to build an independent reunified state on it."
The tone of the North Korean statement is similar to the slogans employed by the Burmese regime—such as “Oppose foreign nations interfering in internal affairs of the State.”
What’s the NLD Strategy for 2010 Election?
By SAW YAN NAING
Activists and dissidents inside and outside Burma know the military regime is committed to retain power. The question is: What’s next for the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD)?
Khin Htun, a former NLD member in Rangoon and one of the youth members who resigned from the main opposition party this month, said the Burmese people are waiting to be informed on what the NLD plans to do in the 2010 general election.
More than 100 NLD youth members resigned in mass on October 16 in Rangoon, complaining that they weren’t allowed to participate in decision-making.
Khin Htun said the NLD leadership should be conducting a dialogue with ethnic leaders and members of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP) to brainstorm strategy to approach the 2010 election.
Some NLD critics believe the group’s leaders are waiting to hear from Aung San Suu Kyi, the titular head of the party who has been under house arrest since 2003.
One ethnic Chin leader, Htaung Kho Thang, a member of the CRPP and the United Nationalities League for Democracy, said he believed the current NLD leaders are not interested in a dialogue with ethnic leaders. Ethnic leaders are ready to talk if approached, he said.
Meanwhile, Thakin Chan Htun, a veteran Burmese politician in Rangoon, called for a free and fair general election in 2010, while saying that Suu Kyi must be allowed to participate.
In addition, he called for the release of all political prisoners. He said all citizens should be allowed to vote in the multi-party election and the international community—including UN representatives, foreign observers and journalists—should be allowed to freely report on the election, he said.
If the 2010 election is held, and is free and fair, then the NLD should consider how it wants to take part in the election, he said.
Nyo Ohn Myint, a leading Burmese dissident in exile, said he was opposed to the NLD fielding candidates in the election because it would be seen as legitimizing the constitution and the election process.
NLD leaders have repeatedly issued statements calling the constitution process unfair, but cited their willingness to negotiate with the regime if it accepts a constitutional review process.
The NLD spokesperson, Nyan Win, said, “If we have a chance to talk with the regime, we will hold bilateral negotiations and go on based on the agreement. Our idea is for ‘democratic reform.’ We willingly want to negotiate with them.”
The chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy and secretary of the Committee Representing People’s Parliament, Aye Thar Aung, said he remained hopeful the NLD could establish a credible strategy for the election.
Asked about the NLD strategy, Nyan Win said the NLD will keep its plan secret for now. Meanwhile, the military regime has already conducted campaign trips to various cities to rally support from citizens and ethnic ceasefire groups.
Several ethnic cease-fire groups are expected to create proxy political parties and field candidates in the election.
Activists and dissidents inside and outside Burma know the military regime is committed to retain power. The question is: What’s next for the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD)?
Khin Htun, a former NLD member in Rangoon and one of the youth members who resigned from the main opposition party this month, said the Burmese people are waiting to be informed on what the NLD plans to do in the 2010 general election.
More than 100 NLD youth members resigned in mass on October 16 in Rangoon, complaining that they weren’t allowed to participate in decision-making.
Khin Htun said the NLD leadership should be conducting a dialogue with ethnic leaders and members of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP) to brainstorm strategy to approach the 2010 election.
Some NLD critics believe the group’s leaders are waiting to hear from Aung San Suu Kyi, the titular head of the party who has been under house arrest since 2003.
One ethnic Chin leader, Htaung Kho Thang, a member of the CRPP and the United Nationalities League for Democracy, said he believed the current NLD leaders are not interested in a dialogue with ethnic leaders. Ethnic leaders are ready to talk if approached, he said.
Meanwhile, Thakin Chan Htun, a veteran Burmese politician in Rangoon, called for a free and fair general election in 2010, while saying that Suu Kyi must be allowed to participate.
In addition, he called for the release of all political prisoners. He said all citizens should be allowed to vote in the multi-party election and the international community—including UN representatives, foreign observers and journalists—should be allowed to freely report on the election, he said.
If the 2010 election is held, and is free and fair, then the NLD should consider how it wants to take part in the election, he said.
Nyo Ohn Myint, a leading Burmese dissident in exile, said he was opposed to the NLD fielding candidates in the election because it would be seen as legitimizing the constitution and the election process.
NLD leaders have repeatedly issued statements calling the constitution process unfair, but cited their willingness to negotiate with the regime if it accepts a constitutional review process.
The NLD spokesperson, Nyan Win, said, “If we have a chance to talk with the regime, we will hold bilateral negotiations and go on based on the agreement. Our idea is for ‘democratic reform.’ We willingly want to negotiate with them.”
The chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy and secretary of the Committee Representing People’s Parliament, Aye Thar Aung, said he remained hopeful the NLD could establish a credible strategy for the election.
Asked about the NLD strategy, Nyan Win said the NLD will keep its plan secret for now. Meanwhile, the military regime has already conducted campaign trips to various cities to rally support from citizens and ethnic ceasefire groups.
Several ethnic cease-fire groups are expected to create proxy political parties and field candidates in the election.
Obama's Former House in Indonesia for Sale
By ROBIN McDOWELL / AP WRITER
JAKARTA — The small colonial-style house Barack Obama lived in as a child has received a steady stream of visitors ahead of the US presidential election, from potential buyers to a businessman who wants to turn it into the "Sweet Home Obama Bar."
Tata Aboe Bakar, the 78-year-old owner, is in little mood to sell, noting that the property, sequestered between a large mosque and park in an upscale neighborhood of the Indonesian capital, has been in the family since 1939.
Much, he said, would depend on the price.
The two-bedroom pavilion Obama lived in—initially built as a guesthouse—would be sold with the main, sprawling residence next door and the 12,900 sq. foot (1,200 sq. meter) plot of land. Together, they have an estimated market value of $3 million dollars. And that does not take into account the potential Obama-factor if the Democratic presidential candidate wins on November 4.
Aboe Bakar says one broker claimed a US Embassy official was ready to pay five times its worth if that happened, though Tristram Perry, the embassy's public diplomacy officer, said he was not aware of any such offer.
Obama moved to Jakarta with his American mother and Indonesian stepfather in 1967, spending the first two years in another humble home, where chickens and ducks used to cackle in the backyard and two baby crocodiles slithered around in a fenced-off pond.
They relocated to the small red-tile roofed pavilion with art deco windows on Taman Amir Hamzah Street in 1970 when Obama was 9 years old and stayed there for the next two years.
Aboe Bakar has few stories to tell about Obama as a child, except the time his poodle ran away, never to be seen again.
"Oh, he cried for two days," the former Navy admiral said, wearily taking a drag from his third cigarette as he showed off a long list of visitors who have knocked on his door in recent weeks.
He also flashed a photograph of the young family sitting on a wooden bench in the front yard that, like much else, remains in place nearly four decades later.
Among those who have expressed interest in the house have been Bartele Santema, a Dutchman who owns several popular pubs in Jakarta.
He says he offered to rent the smaller pavilion to open the "Sweet Home Obama Bar"—a cafe that would feature an "Obama-blend coffee," a mix of beans from Kenya and Java. He would also serve "stroopwafels," a caramel-type treat brought to Indonesia during the centuries-long occupation of the Dutch.
"The idea is to have snacks, simple food and maybe some merchandise," Santema said, adding that he was not certain, with all the recent interest, if Aboe Bakar would go for it. "We'll see. It's mostly just for fun anyway."
JAKARTA — The small colonial-style house Barack Obama lived in as a child has received a steady stream of visitors ahead of the US presidential election, from potential buyers to a businessman who wants to turn it into the "Sweet Home Obama Bar."
Tata Aboe Bakar, the 78-year-old owner, is in little mood to sell, noting that the property, sequestered between a large mosque and park in an upscale neighborhood of the Indonesian capital, has been in the family since 1939.
Much, he said, would depend on the price.
The two-bedroom pavilion Obama lived in—initially built as a guesthouse—would be sold with the main, sprawling residence next door and the 12,900 sq. foot (1,200 sq. meter) plot of land. Together, they have an estimated market value of $3 million dollars. And that does not take into account the potential Obama-factor if the Democratic presidential candidate wins on November 4.
Aboe Bakar says one broker claimed a US Embassy official was ready to pay five times its worth if that happened, though Tristram Perry, the embassy's public diplomacy officer, said he was not aware of any such offer.
Obama moved to Jakarta with his American mother and Indonesian stepfather in 1967, spending the first two years in another humble home, where chickens and ducks used to cackle in the backyard and two baby crocodiles slithered around in a fenced-off pond.
They relocated to the small red-tile roofed pavilion with art deco windows on Taman Amir Hamzah Street in 1970 when Obama was 9 years old and stayed there for the next two years.
Aboe Bakar has few stories to tell about Obama as a child, except the time his poodle ran away, never to be seen again.
"Oh, he cried for two days," the former Navy admiral said, wearily taking a drag from his third cigarette as he showed off a long list of visitors who have knocked on his door in recent weeks.
He also flashed a photograph of the young family sitting on a wooden bench in the front yard that, like much else, remains in place nearly four decades later.
Among those who have expressed interest in the house have been Bartele Santema, a Dutchman who owns several popular pubs in Jakarta.
He says he offered to rent the smaller pavilion to open the "Sweet Home Obama Bar"—a cafe that would feature an "Obama-blend coffee," a mix of beans from Kenya and Java. He would also serve "stroopwafels," a caramel-type treat brought to Indonesia during the centuries-long occupation of the Dutch.
"The idea is to have snacks, simple food and maybe some merchandise," Santema said, adding that he was not certain, with all the recent interest, if Aboe Bakar would go for it. "We'll see. It's mostly just for fun anyway."
UN Chief: Millions of Migrant Workers at Risk from Global Financial Crisis
By HRVOJE HRANJSKI / AP WRITER
MANILA — Protecting the rights and livelihoods of millions of migrant workers during the global slowdown will benefit economies, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, while also warning that some will lose jobs.
Ban said as countries slip into recession, migration flows have started to reverse, with foreign laborers leaving the construction and tourism sectors in industrialized nations.
He cited a slowdown in remittances—the backbone of poor nations' economies like the Philippines—and the risk of discrimination as national financial crises caused a rise in unemployment, personal hardship and anxiety.
"It would be naive to think the current crisis will have no effect on the movement of people across borders and on how our public perceive migration and the migrants in their midst," Ban told an international conference on strengthening overseas workers' rights in Manila.
Rather than a curse, Ban said migration should be seen as a tool to lift economies because human mobility makes them more efficient "even if they are not growing by ensuring that the right skills can reach the right places at the right time."
Migration "also helps redress the enormous imbalances that have led to harsh economic realities" as the developing world's young adults provide a counterbalance to an aging and shrinking population in the developed nations, he said.
Ban said that constraining migration will only make lives more miserable for an estimated 200 million laborers, but will never stop them from crossing borders.
"This will undermine confidence in our ability to govern—confidence that has already been damaged by the financial crisis," he said.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines, which hosted the Global Forum on Migration and Development, also called on governments to strengthen laws to protect migrant workers, saying, "All eyes may be glued to stock markets, but we can't lose sight of the poor."
With more than 8 million overseas workers, her country is among the world's top exporters of human labor, together with Mexico, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Some $14 billion remittances last year amounted to 10 percent of the Philippines' gross domestic product.
Arroyo said earlier that Filipino workers have not been affected yet by the global financial storm.
MANILA — Protecting the rights and livelihoods of millions of migrant workers during the global slowdown will benefit economies, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, while also warning that some will lose jobs.
Ban said as countries slip into recession, migration flows have started to reverse, with foreign laborers leaving the construction and tourism sectors in industrialized nations.
He cited a slowdown in remittances—the backbone of poor nations' economies like the Philippines—and the risk of discrimination as national financial crises caused a rise in unemployment, personal hardship and anxiety.
"It would be naive to think the current crisis will have no effect on the movement of people across borders and on how our public perceive migration and the migrants in their midst," Ban told an international conference on strengthening overseas workers' rights in Manila.
Rather than a curse, Ban said migration should be seen as a tool to lift economies because human mobility makes them more efficient "even if they are not growing by ensuring that the right skills can reach the right places at the right time."
Migration "also helps redress the enormous imbalances that have led to harsh economic realities" as the developing world's young adults provide a counterbalance to an aging and shrinking population in the developed nations, he said.
Ban said that constraining migration will only make lives more miserable for an estimated 200 million laborers, but will never stop them from crossing borders.
"This will undermine confidence in our ability to govern—confidence that has already been damaged by the financial crisis," he said.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines, which hosted the Global Forum on Migration and Development, also called on governments to strengthen laws to protect migrant workers, saying, "All eyes may be glued to stock markets, but we can't lose sight of the poor."
With more than 8 million overseas workers, her country is among the world's top exporters of human labor, together with Mexico, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Some $14 billion remittances last year amounted to 10 percent of the Philippines' gross domestic product.
Arroyo said earlier that Filipino workers have not been affected yet by the global financial storm.
The Faltering Asean Way
By MICHAEL VATIKIOTIS
It is ironic that just as the much-heralded Asean Charter received its final approval through ratification by Indonesia, two Asean member states faced off across a disputed patch of land and started shooting at each other. It was an inauspicious start to what the Charter's preamble refers to as 'a region of lasting peace, security and stability...'
The Thai-Cambodian border is not the only fault line that threatens peace in South-east Asia. In recent weeks, Malaysia has rattled Indonesian nerves with the threatened exploitation of disputed waters off the island of Borneo. The reaction in Jakarta? Instead of requesting the good offices of the Asean Secretary-General to mediate as envisaged in the Charter, security agencies hurriedly planned a military exercise to practice confrontation with the Malaysian navy.
Southeast Asian nations have lived in relative peace and harmony for the past half-century. But they have been reluctant up till now to formalize the mechanism by which peace is maintained. Asean member states have displayed an allergy to formal security cooperation. They have preferred instead to use informal channels and personal connections to resolve disputes.
This was a fine arrangement when Southeast Asia was a more clubbable place, its leaders more or less on the same political plane, sharing the same demons (communist insurgency and uppity peasantry). But today, Southeast Asia has become a patchwork of rather different political landscapes.
In Indonesia, a vibrant democracy has injected nationalist stridency to the country's diplomacy. In Thailand, bitter domestic political conflict is doing the same as one side seeks to undermine the other by questioning its nationalist credentials. In the Philippines, the legislature holds the threat of impeachment over the President's head and makes it hard for the country's chief executive to follow a consistent foreign policy agenda.
Pluralism, therefore, is making it hard for Asean officials to knit together the much-vaunted regional consensus. Now more than ever, Asean needs to build a framework for dispute resolution that will allow the collective security of the region to trump domestic politics and nationalist breast-beating. The Asean Charter lays a good foundation for doing so.
But despite the Charter's ratification, there are few signs this is happening. The other day when Thai and Cambodian troops started trading fire, Asean officials were at a loss to know how to intervene. Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan asked regional leaders like Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to appeal for restraint, which he did. Foreign ministers from Indonesia and Malaysia fell over themselves to offer mediation, but no invitation came from either of the parties. The current Asean chairman, Thailand, is a party to the dispute.
Eventually, calm was restored when it emerged that the Thai and Cambodian leaders would meet on the fringes of an Asia-Europe meeting in Beijing, which they did. That is hardly an endorsement of Asean's ability to resolve disputes.
At the heart of the problem is the reluctance of Asean member states to yield an inch of sovereignty in the interests of collective security. The past few months have seen a number of attempts to gently push the boundaries of acceptable intervention, but it has not been easy.
Witness how easily domestic politics derailed a Malaysian-brokered deal between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Mindanao. Often, when regional mediation does get under way, jealous or competitive neighbors seek to sabotage or hamper these efforts. Not only has Bangkok been reluctant to embrace Jakarta's good offices as a mediator in the southern Thailand conflict, but also Malaysia appears to be unhappy to see Jakarta involved in a dispute along its border with Thailand.
Ever since the high-profile resolution of the long-running conflict in Aceh on the back of the devastating December 2004 tsunami, many in the region saw the so-called 'Aceh model' as a path to peacemaking easily replicated elsewhere, which is not necessarily the case.
Without a more formal mechanism to channel and regulate conflict management, with the implicit role of third-party intervention, Asean's efforts to forge a region of peace and security will fall on stony ground. There is something of a built-in contradiction between bedrock principles in the Asean Charter: On the one hand, it stresses respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; and on the other, a 'shared commitment and collective responsibility' for peace and security. Put another way: How can Asean ensure the peaceful resolution of disputes when the Charter insists on non-interference in the internal affairs of member states?
This contradiction needs resolving. When neighbours cannot settle quarrels between themselves, outsiders should be called on to do so. The irony of not allowing more space for regional mediation is that it leaves the door open for larger powers—like China in the case of the current Thai-Cambodian dispute—to act as the mediator.
The writer is Asia Regional Director for the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and this article recently appeared on Jakarta Post.
It is ironic that just as the much-heralded Asean Charter received its final approval through ratification by Indonesia, two Asean member states faced off across a disputed patch of land and started shooting at each other. It was an inauspicious start to what the Charter's preamble refers to as 'a region of lasting peace, security and stability...'
The Thai-Cambodian border is not the only fault line that threatens peace in South-east Asia. In recent weeks, Malaysia has rattled Indonesian nerves with the threatened exploitation of disputed waters off the island of Borneo. The reaction in Jakarta? Instead of requesting the good offices of the Asean Secretary-General to mediate as envisaged in the Charter, security agencies hurriedly planned a military exercise to practice confrontation with the Malaysian navy.
Southeast Asian nations have lived in relative peace and harmony for the past half-century. But they have been reluctant up till now to formalize the mechanism by which peace is maintained. Asean member states have displayed an allergy to formal security cooperation. They have preferred instead to use informal channels and personal connections to resolve disputes.
This was a fine arrangement when Southeast Asia was a more clubbable place, its leaders more or less on the same political plane, sharing the same demons (communist insurgency and uppity peasantry). But today, Southeast Asia has become a patchwork of rather different political landscapes.
In Indonesia, a vibrant democracy has injected nationalist stridency to the country's diplomacy. In Thailand, bitter domestic political conflict is doing the same as one side seeks to undermine the other by questioning its nationalist credentials. In the Philippines, the legislature holds the threat of impeachment over the President's head and makes it hard for the country's chief executive to follow a consistent foreign policy agenda.
Pluralism, therefore, is making it hard for Asean officials to knit together the much-vaunted regional consensus. Now more than ever, Asean needs to build a framework for dispute resolution that will allow the collective security of the region to trump domestic politics and nationalist breast-beating. The Asean Charter lays a good foundation for doing so.
But despite the Charter's ratification, there are few signs this is happening. The other day when Thai and Cambodian troops started trading fire, Asean officials were at a loss to know how to intervene. Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan asked regional leaders like Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to appeal for restraint, which he did. Foreign ministers from Indonesia and Malaysia fell over themselves to offer mediation, but no invitation came from either of the parties. The current Asean chairman, Thailand, is a party to the dispute.
Eventually, calm was restored when it emerged that the Thai and Cambodian leaders would meet on the fringes of an Asia-Europe meeting in Beijing, which they did. That is hardly an endorsement of Asean's ability to resolve disputes.
At the heart of the problem is the reluctance of Asean member states to yield an inch of sovereignty in the interests of collective security. The past few months have seen a number of attempts to gently push the boundaries of acceptable intervention, but it has not been easy.
Witness how easily domestic politics derailed a Malaysian-brokered deal between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Mindanao. Often, when regional mediation does get under way, jealous or competitive neighbors seek to sabotage or hamper these efforts. Not only has Bangkok been reluctant to embrace Jakarta's good offices as a mediator in the southern Thailand conflict, but also Malaysia appears to be unhappy to see Jakarta involved in a dispute along its border with Thailand.
Ever since the high-profile resolution of the long-running conflict in Aceh on the back of the devastating December 2004 tsunami, many in the region saw the so-called 'Aceh model' as a path to peacemaking easily replicated elsewhere, which is not necessarily the case.
Without a more formal mechanism to channel and regulate conflict management, with the implicit role of third-party intervention, Asean's efforts to forge a region of peace and security will fall on stony ground. There is something of a built-in contradiction between bedrock principles in the Asean Charter: On the one hand, it stresses respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; and on the other, a 'shared commitment and collective responsibility' for peace and security. Put another way: How can Asean ensure the peaceful resolution of disputes when the Charter insists on non-interference in the internal affairs of member states?
This contradiction needs resolving. When neighbours cannot settle quarrels between themselves, outsiders should be called on to do so. The irony of not allowing more space for regional mediation is that it leaves the door open for larger powers—like China in the case of the current Thai-Cambodian dispute—to act as the mediator.
The writer is Asia Regional Director for the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and this article recently appeared on Jakarta Post.
October 28, 2008
Burmese Join US Presidency Debate
By WAI MOE
The United States presidential election is just one week away, and Burmese both at home and in the US are watching closely to decide for themselves who is more likely to have a positive impact on Burma’s future.
Both presidential candidates are seen as having similar positions on Burma, in keeping with the tradition of bipartisan support for democratic reform in the Southeast Asian country. But each candidate has some specific appeal for different members of the Burmese public.
Some believe, for instance, that Republican hopeful John McCain will take a greater interest in Burma because he has visited the country. Supporters of the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, on the other hand, say that he is a strong advocate of human rights who will do more to press for improvement of Burma’s horrific record on this issue.
Not surprisingly, the debate has been most vocal among Burmese living in the US.
While some US-based Burmese lobby groups note that American trade unions support both Obama and Burma’s pro-democracy movement, providing a natural link between them, some activists still favor McCain because he has been more outspoken in his criticism of Burma’s military rulers.
“He [McCain] is very interested in Burma,” said Moe Thee Zun, a former Burmese student leader now living in the US. “He has been to the country and he is one of the leading senators who have backed sanctions against the Burmese junta.”
McCain, who visited Burma in the 1990s, was especially impressed with the country’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he described at the time as “the greatest person I have ever met in my life.”
Even Cindy McCain, the Republican candidate’s wife, has expressed strong views on Burma’s rulers.
“It’s just a terrible group of people that rule [Burma], and the frightening part is that their own people are dying of disease and starvation and everything else and it doesn’t matter,” she said during a trip to Vietnam in June, describing the regime’s response to the humanitarian crisis caused by Cyclone Nargis in early May.
For some Burmese living in the US, however, there are other concerns besides Burma which have persuaded them to throw their support behind Obama.
“When I migrated to the US during the Clinton administration, I got a job easily. But then George W Bush won the election and 9/11 happened, and now I have to struggle harder than before,” said Ko Shwe, a Burmese with US citizenship living in New York.
“After two terms of a Republican presidency, the economy has gotten worse. Now it affects everybody in the US,” he added.
Ko Shwe also expressed doubt about how much McCain could do to end tyranny in Burma, even if he did win the election.
Maung Yit, a Burmese who lives in California, cited Obama’s age as a key reason he has decided to support the Democrat.
“He is the same age as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was twenty year ago,” he said, suggesting that Obama’s relative youth would put him in a position to transform his country’s political scene in the same way that Suu Kyi consolidated Burma’s pro-democracy movement two decades ago.
While Burmese immigrants in the US try to decide who will do a better job of leading their adoptive country, interest is also strong in Burma, where privately owned newspapers and journals have given extensive coverage to the US election.
Local publications have tended to emphasize news that shows a more favorable outlook for Obama. The Burmese version of The Myanmar Times, for instance, recently highlighted poll results that gave Obama a nine-point lead over his Republican rival, while a report in the popular Weekly Eleven suggested that the Democrat’s strong showing in the last presidential debate practically guaranteed his victory on November 4.
Another leading weekly, The Voice, looked elsewhere for evidence that Obama was sure to win: In a report published this week, the Rangoon-based weekly said that the Russian government expected Obama to become the next president of the US.
Some local supporters of McCain have even echoed the complaints of US conservatives, who have long accused the media of a “liberal bias.”
“All the Burmese journals are covering the US presidential election and most of them favor Obama for the presidency,” said a businessman in Rangoon who said he would prefer a McCain presidency.
Ironically, some people say they support McCain because he belongs to the same party as the incumbent, President George W Bush—a deeply unpopular leader who McCain has taken pains to distance himself from.
Bush’s tough stance on sanctions against Burma’s ruling junta has earned him a great deal of respect among ordinary Burmese. Between 2003 and 2008, Bush issued three executive orders targeting the ruling generals and their cronies.
But like many people around the world, some Burmese have been captivated by the image of Obama as a new and exciting figure on the world stage.
“I prefer Obama because he is young and he will be the first black president of the world’s superpower,” said Maung Aung Min, who works with a UN agency.
Ma Swe, a travel agent in Rangoon, said she supported Obama because he is “young and dynamic.”
Meanwhile, analysts said that whoever wins the presidency, Burma policy is likely to remain unchanged, since both sides seem to fundamentally agree on how to deal with the country. They cite the bipartisan support for the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act 2008 as evidence of their common position on Burmese issues.
“I don’t think it matters for the Burmese democracy movement who wins, because they have the same view of the country,” said Bo Kyi, secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma, based on the Thai-Burmese border.
The United States presidential election is just one week away, and Burmese both at home and in the US are watching closely to decide for themselves who is more likely to have a positive impact on Burma’s future.
Both presidential candidates are seen as having similar positions on Burma, in keeping with the tradition of bipartisan support for democratic reform in the Southeast Asian country. But each candidate has some specific appeal for different members of the Burmese public.
Some believe, for instance, that Republican hopeful John McCain will take a greater interest in Burma because he has visited the country. Supporters of the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, on the other hand, say that he is a strong advocate of human rights who will do more to press for improvement of Burma’s horrific record on this issue.
Not surprisingly, the debate has been most vocal among Burmese living in the US.
While some US-based Burmese lobby groups note that American trade unions support both Obama and Burma’s pro-democracy movement, providing a natural link between them, some activists still favor McCain because he has been more outspoken in his criticism of Burma’s military rulers.
“He [McCain] is very interested in Burma,” said Moe Thee Zun, a former Burmese student leader now living in the US. “He has been to the country and he is one of the leading senators who have backed sanctions against the Burmese junta.”
McCain, who visited Burma in the 1990s, was especially impressed with the country’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he described at the time as “the greatest person I have ever met in my life.”
Even Cindy McCain, the Republican candidate’s wife, has expressed strong views on Burma’s rulers.
“It’s just a terrible group of people that rule [Burma], and the frightening part is that their own people are dying of disease and starvation and everything else and it doesn’t matter,” she said during a trip to Vietnam in June, describing the regime’s response to the humanitarian crisis caused by Cyclone Nargis in early May.
For some Burmese living in the US, however, there are other concerns besides Burma which have persuaded them to throw their support behind Obama.
“When I migrated to the US during the Clinton administration, I got a job easily. But then George W Bush won the election and 9/11 happened, and now I have to struggle harder than before,” said Ko Shwe, a Burmese with US citizenship living in New York.
“After two terms of a Republican presidency, the economy has gotten worse. Now it affects everybody in the US,” he added.
Ko Shwe also expressed doubt about how much McCain could do to end tyranny in Burma, even if he did win the election.
Maung Yit, a Burmese who lives in California, cited Obama’s age as a key reason he has decided to support the Democrat.
“He is the same age as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was twenty year ago,” he said, suggesting that Obama’s relative youth would put him in a position to transform his country’s political scene in the same way that Suu Kyi consolidated Burma’s pro-democracy movement two decades ago.
While Burmese immigrants in the US try to decide who will do a better job of leading their adoptive country, interest is also strong in Burma, where privately owned newspapers and journals have given extensive coverage to the US election.
Local publications have tended to emphasize news that shows a more favorable outlook for Obama. The Burmese version of The Myanmar Times, for instance, recently highlighted poll results that gave Obama a nine-point lead over his Republican rival, while a report in the popular Weekly Eleven suggested that the Democrat’s strong showing in the last presidential debate practically guaranteed his victory on November 4.
Another leading weekly, The Voice, looked elsewhere for evidence that Obama was sure to win: In a report published this week, the Rangoon-based weekly said that the Russian government expected Obama to become the next president of the US.
Some local supporters of McCain have even echoed the complaints of US conservatives, who have long accused the media of a “liberal bias.”
“All the Burmese journals are covering the US presidential election and most of them favor Obama for the presidency,” said a businessman in Rangoon who said he would prefer a McCain presidency.
Ironically, some people say they support McCain because he belongs to the same party as the incumbent, President George W Bush—a deeply unpopular leader who McCain has taken pains to distance himself from.
Bush’s tough stance on sanctions against Burma’s ruling junta has earned him a great deal of respect among ordinary Burmese. Between 2003 and 2008, Bush issued three executive orders targeting the ruling generals and their cronies.
But like many people around the world, some Burmese have been captivated by the image of Obama as a new and exciting figure on the world stage.
“I prefer Obama because he is young and he will be the first black president of the world’s superpower,” said Maung Aung Min, who works with a UN agency.
Ma Swe, a travel agent in Rangoon, said she supported Obama because he is “young and dynamic.”
Meanwhile, analysts said that whoever wins the presidency, Burma policy is likely to remain unchanged, since both sides seem to fundamentally agree on how to deal with the country. They cite the bipartisan support for the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act 2008 as evidence of their common position on Burmese issues.
“I don’t think it matters for the Burmese democracy movement who wins, because they have the same view of the country,” said Bo Kyi, secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma, based on the Thai-Burmese border.
Burmese Women Smuggled into China Arrested
By LAWI WENG
About 200 Burmese women have been arrested in China, after they were smuggled into the country under pretext of finding work, said a source on the border.
Aung Kyaw Zwa, a Burmese businessman on the China-Burma border, told The Irrawaddy that 200 Burmese women, who said they had entered the country illegally through the help of human traffickers, are being held in Chinese jails.
Twenty-four Burmese women were deported two days ago, he said. The others remain in jail where they will serve a three-month sentence for violating Chinese immigration laws, he said.
One young woman who was deported on Monday told a story about being “married” to a Chinese man about 60 years old. She said the man broke two of her teeth and cut her long hair, because he worried that other men would try to take her away from him.
The woman said she was told that if she agreed to be smuggled into China, she could earn 150,000 kyat monthly (US $121).
“They come here, and it is very risky,” said the source. “They hope for some good luck but most of them are unlucky.”
Earlier this month, the businessman said an18-year-old Burmese woman who was in China illegally returned to her smuggler’s home to seek help after experiencing difficulties. The smuggler refused to help her, and she was reportedly raped and killed.
The Thailand-based Kachin Women's Association of Thailand (KWAT) released a human trafficking report in August, titled “Eastward Bound,” based on interviews with 163 human trafficking victims from 2004 to 2007. The report said 37 percent of the women ended up as “wives” of Chinese men and about 4 percent worked as housemaids or in the sex industry.
After Cyclone Nagris, Burma’s economy has suffered and increasing numbers of women from Rangoon, Mandalay and the Irrawaddy delta have migrated to towns on the Chinese border in hope of finding a better life.
Burmese men, women and children are smuggled into Thailand, the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, Bangladesh, South Korea, Macau and Pakistan.
About 200 Burmese women have been arrested in China, after they were smuggled into the country under pretext of finding work, said a source on the border.
Aung Kyaw Zwa, a Burmese businessman on the China-Burma border, told The Irrawaddy that 200 Burmese women, who said they had entered the country illegally through the help of human traffickers, are being held in Chinese jails.
Twenty-four Burmese women were deported two days ago, he said. The others remain in jail where they will serve a three-month sentence for violating Chinese immigration laws, he said.
One young woman who was deported on Monday told a story about being “married” to a Chinese man about 60 years old. She said the man broke two of her teeth and cut her long hair, because he worried that other men would try to take her away from him.
The woman said she was told that if she agreed to be smuggled into China, she could earn 150,000 kyat monthly (US $121).
“They come here, and it is very risky,” said the source. “They hope for some good luck but most of them are unlucky.”
Earlier this month, the businessman said an18-year-old Burmese woman who was in China illegally returned to her smuggler’s home to seek help after experiencing difficulties. The smuggler refused to help her, and she was reportedly raped and killed.
The Thailand-based Kachin Women's Association of Thailand (KWAT) released a human trafficking report in August, titled “Eastward Bound,” based on interviews with 163 human trafficking victims from 2004 to 2007. The report said 37 percent of the women ended up as “wives” of Chinese men and about 4 percent worked as housemaids or in the sex industry.
After Cyclone Nagris, Burma’s economy has suffered and increasing numbers of women from Rangoon, Mandalay and the Irrawaddy delta have migrated to towns on the Chinese border in hope of finding a better life.
Burmese men, women and children are smuggled into Thailand, the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, Bangladesh, South Korea, Macau and Pakistan.
The New KNU?—Let’s Wait and See
By SAW YAN NAING
Burma’s oldest ethnic rebel group, the Karen National Union (KNU), concluded its 14th congress in Karen State on October 18, with 11 new appointed executive members, including the first woman general-secretary.
Some Karens and observers welcomed the appointments, while others criticized the KNU leadership as being too old and inactive.
Eighty-eight-year-old Gen Tamla Baw was named chairman of the KNU and his daughter, Zipporah Sein, was appointed general-secretary at the congress.
Maj Hla Ngwe was appointed joint secretary (1) and Saw Daw Lay Mu was appointed joint secretary (2). The other executive committee members appointed were David Htaw, Roger Khin, Mutu Say Poe, Arr Toe, Lah Say and Kay Hser and Vice-Chairman David Takapaw.
As the first woman leader to serve as the KNU’s general-secretary, Zipporah Sein assumes the position of the politically experienced and influential former KNU general-secretary, Mahn Sha, who was assassinated on February 14, 2008, by two gunmen allegedly hired by Karen breakaway group members.
Some observers are confisdent that Zipporah Sein has enough experience and knowledge to take on the role. However, others do not expect her to perform as effectively as Mahn Sha.
Zipporah Sein currently serves as general-secretary of the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO), which is actively involved in social activities and the human rights movement, compiling data on human rights abuses committed by the Burmese junta’s soldiers against ethnic Karen.
In June 2007, she received the Perdita Huston Human Rights Award for her work to aid women’s struggle for freedom, democracy and equality in Burma. She was also nominated by an international women’s organization for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
A member of the KWO said, “As a Karen woman, I am very proud that Zipporah has been appointed general-secretary of the KNU and I believe she will be the best leader for all of the Karen.”
The general-secretary of the Women’s League of Burma, Nang Yain, also voiced support. “This is an acknowledgement that the KNU recognizes the role of women in the political movement,” she said.
Zipporah Sein’s father, Gen Tamla Baw, was appointed chairman at the congress. Tamla Baw previously served as head of the KNU’s military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army. He was a close colleague of the late Gen Bo Mya.
However, several analysts and observers have questioned whether he is up to the task of leading the KNU.
“It would be better if someone who is more active and aware of both politics and the armed struggle took over the position,” said one Burma observer. “But, if he stayed on as an adviser that would be fine.”
Several Burma observers remain optimistic and point out that it is not only the KNU, but also the main opposition party in Burma, the National League for Democracy, and the Burmese military government that retain an aged leadership.
“We can say the KNU passed its leadership to the hands of a new generation,” said Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst on a Burmese blog and former senior leader of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front. “Except for Gen Tamla Baw, the rest of the leaders are young.”
Speaking to The Irrawaddy from Australia, a young Karen woman who has resettled said, “I think people in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) areas or border areas are not interested in the KNU nowadays. Most people want to go to a third country. They don't believe and don’t trust the KNU leadership any more.”
The KNU is one of the oldest surviving rebel groups in Southeast Asia and has been fighting for autonomy since 1949. It has never signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government.
However, in 1995, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army split from the KNU and reached a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese regime.
Then, in early 2007, another splinter group, the KNU/ KNLA Peace Council, led by former KNLA Brigade 7 leader Maj-Gen Htain Maung, also signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta.
Since the KNU/ KNLA Peace Council split from the KNU, assassinations between the KNU and its breakaway groups have occurred frequently. The latest major assassination was former KNU general-secretary Mahn Sha.
Mahn Sha was respected not only by ethnic Karens, but by most Burmese democratic alliance groups and individuals who have participated in the pro-democracy movement for Burma.
“It is necessary for the new KNU leadership to quickly stop the assassinations and divisions among Karen people,” said Aung Thu Nyein. “It is time for the KNU to reestablish unity among the Karen people.”
Joint Secretary (1) Maj Hla Ngwe admitted that the KNU had been cleverly manipulated by the Burmese military regime.
“We have had weaknesses and divisions in the past,” Hla Ngwe said. “That is natural. It can happen in any party or organization. But, we should learn from these events and ensure it doesn’t happen in the future.”
Meanwhile, the newly appointed vice-chairman of the KNU, David Takapaw, said that political conflicts in Burma should be solved by political means, but the KNU would continue the armed struggle in self-defense.
David Takapaw also said that the KNU would still welcome negotiations with the Burmese government and would consider a ceasefire agreement under certain conditions, such as a Burmese troop withdrawal from Karen State and the release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
“If the Burmese authorities really want to negotiate with us, we are ready to sit at the table,” said David Takapaw.
In 2004, former KNU Chairman Gen Bo Mya visited Rangoon for peace talks with Burma’s former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt. The result was the so-called “gentlemen’s agreement.”
However, in early 2006, Burmese troops launched major military offensives against Karen civilians in northern Karen State and forced an estimated 30,000 Karen villagers to flee into the countryside as well as to seek refuge across the Thai-Burmese border.
In February 2007, the KNU broke off all contact with the Burmese regime when Maj-Gen Htain Maung and some 300 KNU soldiers defected to the Burmese army.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, a Karen religious leader in Rangoon said that the KNU leaders have good points, but they also have weak points. He called on the new KNU leaders to think maturely when making decisions.
However, he said that it was still too early to comment about the KNU’s new leadership.
“Let’s wait and see,” he said.
Burma’s oldest ethnic rebel group, the Karen National Union (KNU), concluded its 14th congress in Karen State on October 18, with 11 new appointed executive members, including the first woman general-secretary.
Some Karens and observers welcomed the appointments, while others criticized the KNU leadership as being too old and inactive.
Eighty-eight-year-old Gen Tamla Baw was named chairman of the KNU and his daughter, Zipporah Sein, was appointed general-secretary at the congress.
Maj Hla Ngwe was appointed joint secretary (1) and Saw Daw Lay Mu was appointed joint secretary (2). The other executive committee members appointed were David Htaw, Roger Khin, Mutu Say Poe, Arr Toe, Lah Say and Kay Hser and Vice-Chairman David Takapaw.
As the first woman leader to serve as the KNU’s general-secretary, Zipporah Sein assumes the position of the politically experienced and influential former KNU general-secretary, Mahn Sha, who was assassinated on February 14, 2008, by two gunmen allegedly hired by Karen breakaway group members.
Some observers are confisdent that Zipporah Sein has enough experience and knowledge to take on the role. However, others do not expect her to perform as effectively as Mahn Sha.
Zipporah Sein currently serves as general-secretary of the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO), which is actively involved in social activities and the human rights movement, compiling data on human rights abuses committed by the Burmese junta’s soldiers against ethnic Karen.
In June 2007, she received the Perdita Huston Human Rights Award for her work to aid women’s struggle for freedom, democracy and equality in Burma. She was also nominated by an international women’s organization for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
A member of the KWO said, “As a Karen woman, I am very proud that Zipporah has been appointed general-secretary of the KNU and I believe she will be the best leader for all of the Karen.”
The general-secretary of the Women’s League of Burma, Nang Yain, also voiced support. “This is an acknowledgement that the KNU recognizes the role of women in the political movement,” she said.
Zipporah Sein’s father, Gen Tamla Baw, was appointed chairman at the congress. Tamla Baw previously served as head of the KNU’s military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army. He was a close colleague of the late Gen Bo Mya.
However, several analysts and observers have questioned whether he is up to the task of leading the KNU.
“It would be better if someone who is more active and aware of both politics and the armed struggle took over the position,” said one Burma observer. “But, if he stayed on as an adviser that would be fine.”
Several Burma observers remain optimistic and point out that it is not only the KNU, but also the main opposition party in Burma, the National League for Democracy, and the Burmese military government that retain an aged leadership.
“We can say the KNU passed its leadership to the hands of a new generation,” said Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst on a Burmese blog and former senior leader of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front. “Except for Gen Tamla Baw, the rest of the leaders are young.”
Speaking to The Irrawaddy from Australia, a young Karen woman who has resettled said, “I think people in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) areas or border areas are not interested in the KNU nowadays. Most people want to go to a third country. They don't believe and don’t trust the KNU leadership any more.”
The KNU is one of the oldest surviving rebel groups in Southeast Asia and has been fighting for autonomy since 1949. It has never signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government.
However, in 1995, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army split from the KNU and reached a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese regime.
Then, in early 2007, another splinter group, the KNU/ KNLA Peace Council, led by former KNLA Brigade 7 leader Maj-Gen Htain Maung, also signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta.
Since the KNU/ KNLA Peace Council split from the KNU, assassinations between the KNU and its breakaway groups have occurred frequently. The latest major assassination was former KNU general-secretary Mahn Sha.
Mahn Sha was respected not only by ethnic Karens, but by most Burmese democratic alliance groups and individuals who have participated in the pro-democracy movement for Burma.
“It is necessary for the new KNU leadership to quickly stop the assassinations and divisions among Karen people,” said Aung Thu Nyein. “It is time for the KNU to reestablish unity among the Karen people.”
Joint Secretary (1) Maj Hla Ngwe admitted that the KNU had been cleverly manipulated by the Burmese military regime.
“We have had weaknesses and divisions in the past,” Hla Ngwe said. “That is natural. It can happen in any party or organization. But, we should learn from these events and ensure it doesn’t happen in the future.”
Meanwhile, the newly appointed vice-chairman of the KNU, David Takapaw, said that political conflicts in Burma should be solved by political means, but the KNU would continue the armed struggle in self-defense.
David Takapaw also said that the KNU would still welcome negotiations with the Burmese government and would consider a ceasefire agreement under certain conditions, such as a Burmese troop withdrawal from Karen State and the release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
“If the Burmese authorities really want to negotiate with us, we are ready to sit at the table,” said David Takapaw.
In 2004, former KNU Chairman Gen Bo Mya visited Rangoon for peace talks with Burma’s former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt. The result was the so-called “gentlemen’s agreement.”
However, in early 2006, Burmese troops launched major military offensives against Karen civilians in northern Karen State and forced an estimated 30,000 Karen villagers to flee into the countryside as well as to seek refuge across the Thai-Burmese border.
In February 2007, the KNU broke off all contact with the Burmese regime when Maj-Gen Htain Maung and some 300 KNU soldiers defected to the Burmese army.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, a Karen religious leader in Rangoon said that the KNU leaders have good points, but they also have weak points. He called on the new KNU leaders to think maturely when making decisions.
However, he said that it was still too early to comment about the KNU’s new leadership.
“Let’s wait and see,” he said.
Dalai Lama Calls Special Meeting to Discuss Future of Tibetan Struggle
By ASHWINI BHATIA / AP WRITER
DHARMSALA — The Dalai Lama has called a special meeting of Tibetan exiles to discuss the future of their struggle as talks with China have foundered, officials said Tuesday.
The unusual meeting comes after the Dalai Lama told Tibetans on Saturday that he has given up on efforts to persuade Beijing to allow greater autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule and he would now ask the Tibetan people to decide how to take the dialogue forward.
The five-day meeting, scheduled for mid-November, will be attended by representatives of all the Tibetan exile communities and political organizations, said Karma Choephal, speaker of the self-declared Tibetan Parliament-in-exile.
The meeting could mark a significant shift in the Tibetan strategy for confronting China, long dominated by the Dalai Lama's "middle way," which rejected calls for outright independence but argued that greater autonomy was needed to preserve Tibet's unique Buddhist culture.
Choephal said the meeting would be held from November 17-22 in the north Indian hill town of Dharmsala, where the Dalai Lama has had his headquarters since fleeing Tibet in 1959 in the wake of a failed uprising against China.
"Anything can come up in the meeting," Choephal told The Associated Press. "The outcome of the meeting will have a democratic and moral bearing on the future thinking of the Tibetan leadership."
He said this was the first time the Dalai Lama had called such a meeting since the exiles adopted their charter in 1991, which gave the government in exile the authority to speak on behalf of the Tibetan people.
On Saturday, the Dalai Lama told a public function in Dharmsala that he has "been sincerely pursuing the middle way approach in dealing with China for a long time now, but there hasn't been any positive response from the Chinese side."
"As far as I'm concerned I have given up," he said in an unusually blunt statement.
The surprising move from the 73-year-old Nobel peace prize winner comes at a tumultuous time for the Tibetans.
In March, peaceful demonstrations against Chinese rule in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, spiraled into violence. Beijing says 22 people were killed in the riots, in which hundreds of shops were torched and Chinese civilians attacked.
China then launched a massive crackdown in Tibet and a broad swath of Tibetan regions in the country's west. Tibetan exile groups said at least 140 people died. More than 1,000 people were detained, although human rights groups say the number could be higher.
The Dalai Lama, who is deeply revered among Tibetans, was hospitalized in August and October with health problems and had to cancel a series of trips abroad. Doctors said he was suffering from exhaustion. He had gallstones removed before doctors pronounced him healthy.
Many Tibetans insist they were an independent nation before Communist troops invaded in 1950, while Beijing says the Himalayan region has been part of its territory for centuries.
DHARMSALA — The Dalai Lama has called a special meeting of Tibetan exiles to discuss the future of their struggle as talks with China have foundered, officials said Tuesday.
The unusual meeting comes after the Dalai Lama told Tibetans on Saturday that he has given up on efforts to persuade Beijing to allow greater autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule and he would now ask the Tibetan people to decide how to take the dialogue forward.
The five-day meeting, scheduled for mid-November, will be attended by representatives of all the Tibetan exile communities and political organizations, said Karma Choephal, speaker of the self-declared Tibetan Parliament-in-exile.
The meeting could mark a significant shift in the Tibetan strategy for confronting China, long dominated by the Dalai Lama's "middle way," which rejected calls for outright independence but argued that greater autonomy was needed to preserve Tibet's unique Buddhist culture.
Choephal said the meeting would be held from November 17-22 in the north Indian hill town of Dharmsala, where the Dalai Lama has had his headquarters since fleeing Tibet in 1959 in the wake of a failed uprising against China.
"Anything can come up in the meeting," Choephal told The Associated Press. "The outcome of the meeting will have a democratic and moral bearing on the future thinking of the Tibetan leadership."
He said this was the first time the Dalai Lama had called such a meeting since the exiles adopted their charter in 1991, which gave the government in exile the authority to speak on behalf of the Tibetan people.
On Saturday, the Dalai Lama told a public function in Dharmsala that he has "been sincerely pursuing the middle way approach in dealing with China for a long time now, but there hasn't been any positive response from the Chinese side."
"As far as I'm concerned I have given up," he said in an unusually blunt statement.
The surprising move from the 73-year-old Nobel peace prize winner comes at a tumultuous time for the Tibetans.
In March, peaceful demonstrations against Chinese rule in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, spiraled into violence. Beijing says 22 people were killed in the riots, in which hundreds of shops were torched and Chinese civilians attacked.
China then launched a massive crackdown in Tibet and a broad swath of Tibetan regions in the country's west. Tibetan exile groups said at least 140 people died. More than 1,000 people were detained, although human rights groups say the number could be higher.
The Dalai Lama, who is deeply revered among Tibetans, was hospitalized in August and October with health problems and had to cancel a series of trips abroad. Doctors said he was suffering from exhaustion. He had gallstones removed before doctors pronounced him healthy.
Many Tibetans insist they were an independent nation before Communist troops invaded in 1950, while Beijing says the Himalayan region has been part of its territory for centuries.
Thai Tensions Form Apt Backdrop for Asean Meeting
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
BANGKOK — The decision by Thai government to shift the venue of a regional summit from Bangkok to the northern city of Chiang Mai points to an administration unsure of its place in the country’s capital.
Prime Minster Somchai Wongsawat announced the move during a weekend visit to the country’s second largest city, which nestles in the hilly region close to the Burmese border. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders’ meeting will run there from December 15-18.
"The main reason for the change was the government’s worry that the continuing protests led by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) could cause trouble for the event," the ‘Bangkok Post’ reported on Monday, quoting an unnamed foreign ministry source.
It is a decision that is winning little praise from some former diplomats, given what a change of venue implies. "This is the government’s admission of its weaknesses and that it is not in control," Kasit Piromya, a former Thai ambassador to the United States, told IPS. "It is the government that runs the country, yet we see that they are not in charge."
It also reflects the government’s refusal to "solve the problem by having a dialogue with the PAD," he added. "The government has not shown any sign that it wants to speak with the PAD and defuse the situation to hold the Asean summit in Bangkok."
The PAD, which champions a conservative, right-wing and an extreme nationalist agenda, has crippled the ruling six-party coalition from functioning through its street protests that have continued since May. It currently occupies the prime minister’s office and hundreds of its protesters laid siege to parliament in early October.
However, political tension does not plague Thailand alone. Malaysia, to its south, is gripped with its own turmoil. The government that has ruled for decades, led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), is in a spin due to an internal tussle for power and pressure from the opposition led by the charismatic Anwar Ibrahim.
The power of the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Alliance) coalition was shattered during general elections in March, emboldening the opposition and the country’s minorities to mount challenges after the watershed poll. The opposition won five states and 82 seats in the 222-seat parliament, while the Barisan retained 140 seats.
Since the poll, Anwar, who leads the National Justice Party, has held regular political rallies in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere, attracting thousands of people at times. He has already threatened to form a new government by attracting defectors from the Barisan’s parliamentarians.
What is happening in Thailand and Malaysia reflects a "shift in how people perceive democracy in this region," says Roshan Jason, executive director of the Asean Inter-parliamentary Myanmar (Burma) Caucus. "The public is demanding greater engagement in the process of government and decision making."
"The old order of letting Southeast Asian governments rule without any accountability to the people is unravelling," he added during a telephone interview from Kuala Lumpur. "Unfortunately, Asean still trails behind other regions in this area," Jason said.
Yet not all of Asean’s founding nations—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand—are eager to create a political culture that keeps an elected government in check through opposition pressure and campaigns by anti-government activists. The affluent city-state of Singapore is still determined to remain a nominal democracy.
Recently, Chee Soon Juan, leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, was slapped with another crippling fine in the latest of legal cases brought against him by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, Lee Kuan Yew. The cases affirmed the authoritarian climate that still prevails in the region’s most economically developed nation.
Indonesia and the Philippines, by contrast, have made strides towards becoming more democratic and have moved beyond the stage where Thailand and Malaysia find themselves. Asean’s other members include Brunei, an absolute monarchy, Burma, under the grip of a military dictatorship, Cambodia, which has a young, flawed democracy, and Laos and Vietnam, both of which are ruled by communist parties.
Bringing this patchwork of struggling democracies, semi-democracies and non-democracies into a cohesive regional entity is the challenge that looms before the 14th Asean summit. After all, the period under Thailand’s stewardship was to mark a major transition for this bloc, which was created in 1967 as a bulwark against the spread of communism during the height of the Cold War.
The focus of this year’s summit is the endorsement of the Asean Charter, which aims to transform this 10-member body into a rules-based entity. A key pillar in this makeover is a plan to establish a new regional human rights mechanism. Asean has also set its sights on creating a unified, integrated economic community by 2015.
"We now look forward to an early entry into force of the Asean Charter before the Asean leaders meet in Bangkok for their summit," Surin Pitsuwan, Asean secretary-general and former Thai foreign minister, said in a statement last week before the change of venue was announced.
In fact, one regional diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the political tension in Thailand leading up to the summit in Chiang Mai serves as "a reality check for the Asean governments about the new political attitudes in our region. The Charter will be meaningless if this trend is ignored there."
BANGKOK — The decision by Thai government to shift the venue of a regional summit from Bangkok to the northern city of Chiang Mai points to an administration unsure of its place in the country’s capital.
Prime Minster Somchai Wongsawat announced the move during a weekend visit to the country’s second largest city, which nestles in the hilly region close to the Burmese border. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders’ meeting will run there from December 15-18.
"The main reason for the change was the government’s worry that the continuing protests led by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) could cause trouble for the event," the ‘Bangkok Post’ reported on Monday, quoting an unnamed foreign ministry source.
It is a decision that is winning little praise from some former diplomats, given what a change of venue implies. "This is the government’s admission of its weaknesses and that it is not in control," Kasit Piromya, a former Thai ambassador to the United States, told IPS. "It is the government that runs the country, yet we see that they are not in charge."
It also reflects the government’s refusal to "solve the problem by having a dialogue with the PAD," he added. "The government has not shown any sign that it wants to speak with the PAD and defuse the situation to hold the Asean summit in Bangkok."
The PAD, which champions a conservative, right-wing and an extreme nationalist agenda, has crippled the ruling six-party coalition from functioning through its street protests that have continued since May. It currently occupies the prime minister’s office and hundreds of its protesters laid siege to parliament in early October.
However, political tension does not plague Thailand alone. Malaysia, to its south, is gripped with its own turmoil. The government that has ruled for decades, led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), is in a spin due to an internal tussle for power and pressure from the opposition led by the charismatic Anwar Ibrahim.
The power of the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Alliance) coalition was shattered during general elections in March, emboldening the opposition and the country’s minorities to mount challenges after the watershed poll. The opposition won five states and 82 seats in the 222-seat parliament, while the Barisan retained 140 seats.
Since the poll, Anwar, who leads the National Justice Party, has held regular political rallies in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere, attracting thousands of people at times. He has already threatened to form a new government by attracting defectors from the Barisan’s parliamentarians.
What is happening in Thailand and Malaysia reflects a "shift in how people perceive democracy in this region," says Roshan Jason, executive director of the Asean Inter-parliamentary Myanmar (Burma) Caucus. "The public is demanding greater engagement in the process of government and decision making."
"The old order of letting Southeast Asian governments rule without any accountability to the people is unravelling," he added during a telephone interview from Kuala Lumpur. "Unfortunately, Asean still trails behind other regions in this area," Jason said.
Yet not all of Asean’s founding nations—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand—are eager to create a political culture that keeps an elected government in check through opposition pressure and campaigns by anti-government activists. The affluent city-state of Singapore is still determined to remain a nominal democracy.
Recently, Chee Soon Juan, leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, was slapped with another crippling fine in the latest of legal cases brought against him by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, Lee Kuan Yew. The cases affirmed the authoritarian climate that still prevails in the region’s most economically developed nation.
Indonesia and the Philippines, by contrast, have made strides towards becoming more democratic and have moved beyond the stage where Thailand and Malaysia find themselves. Asean’s other members include Brunei, an absolute monarchy, Burma, under the grip of a military dictatorship, Cambodia, which has a young, flawed democracy, and Laos and Vietnam, both of which are ruled by communist parties.
Bringing this patchwork of struggling democracies, semi-democracies and non-democracies into a cohesive regional entity is the challenge that looms before the 14th Asean summit. After all, the period under Thailand’s stewardship was to mark a major transition for this bloc, which was created in 1967 as a bulwark against the spread of communism during the height of the Cold War.
The focus of this year’s summit is the endorsement of the Asean Charter, which aims to transform this 10-member body into a rules-based entity. A key pillar in this makeover is a plan to establish a new regional human rights mechanism. Asean has also set its sights on creating a unified, integrated economic community by 2015.
"We now look forward to an early entry into force of the Asean Charter before the Asean leaders meet in Bangkok for their summit," Surin Pitsuwan, Asean secretary-general and former Thai foreign minister, said in a statement last week before the change of venue was announced.
In fact, one regional diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the political tension in Thailand leading up to the summit in Chiang Mai serves as "a reality check for the Asean governments about the new political attitudes in our region. The Charter will be meaningless if this trend is ignored there."
Burma’s Wasted Intellectual Potential
By SAI SOE WIN LATT
As Burma’s economy continues to shrink year by year, the domestic labor market cannot keep pace with the country’s growing population or its expanding number of university graduates. As a result, thousands of graduates leave the country every year for the sake of their future.
The loss of an educated labor force to foreign countries is not a problem unique to Burma. The “brain drain” phenomenon is common one in most underdeveloped countries.
After a recent conversation with several old high school friends who are now working in Singapore, however, I realized that Burma’s youthful university graduates are finding it especially difficult to find a place to use their skills. Both the regime that rules at home and the exile groups that operate abroad have failed to fully appreciate their value.
Many of my friends living both inside Burma and overseas seem to have lost their childhood dreams because of the country’s failing education system. I recall that many of them were among the top 40-45 students out 4-500 students for each grade—very promising young people who had the potential to succeed in high-status professions such as medicine or engineering.
But over past ten years since we all graduated from high school, their aspirations have been beset by a host of problems. The frequent closure of universities in the late nineties was one obstacle; the government’s decision to move campuses to remote, out-of-the-way locations was another. The emergence of information technology drew some of them away from their earlier aspirations of becoming doctors or engineers. Some got Bachelor’s degrees and either married and settled down in Burma or moved overseas to join the migrant workforce.
There are some who went abroad soon after graduating from high school to study in foreign universities. But even these people ended up studying subjects that would enable them to make a living as typical immigrants, instead of pursuing their original dreams.
In Singapore, many Burmese immigrants are university graduates and skilled laborers. They are engineers, computer technicians and managerial staff—the sort of people that commercial and industrial economies are after. But all seven of the people I spoke to complained about exploitation by Singaporean employers who refused to give them the official minimum wage and forced them to work overtime for little or no extra pay. They also said that they were experiencing financial and social distress and even occasional racism in the workplace.
Working in such diverse fields as computer science, engineering, hotel management and accounting, these people could have made an important contribution to the Burmese economy if the opportunities had been there for them. They would have been leaders, decision-makers, bureaucrats, high-end professionals, technicians and university faculty, rather than immigrants in countries that exploit their skills and labor for cheaper wages.
But the Burmese regime is not alone in undervaluing the skills of these young people; pro-democracy groups have also failed to give them the opportunities they need to help them improve both their own and their country’s prospects.
Burma’s pro-democracy groups seem to be reluctant to recruit younger people. Instead of making scholarships available to them—and creating a future talent pool for their organizations—most democracy groups have shown little interest in cultivating the skills of the young. Some groups have had scholarship programs, but they fell far short of the hopes of young people who were prepared to make a commitment to the democracy movement. When opportunities for further study opened up in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they were quickly claimed by older members of the leading organizations.
These groups have failed not only to create new opportunities for study, they have also done little or nothing to make use of the skills of hundreds of students from opposition backgrounds or from border areas who have received an education in Asian or Western countries (not to mention those who came out of Burma directly).
Meanwhile, the Burmese government is recruiting technicians and administrators to support its military bureaucracy by sending them off to colleges and universities in Russia, Singapore and some other countries. But the exile groups are failing to offer any opportunities to those who have taken the initiative in seeking a university education either on very limited scholarship money or by financing themselves.
There have been instances of university graduates being recruited as “assistants” by some exiled organizations. Usually, however, they end up working as general office staff, while their upgraded skills and knowledge go unused. “Assisting” the aging leaders of such organizations seems to be the highest available positions for well-educated young people.
Countries like Canada, the US and other developed nations, on the other hand, are quick to take advantage of the skills of educated people to maintain their superior position in the global order. For example, the Canadian immigration system, which is based on a point system, attracts thousands of educated and skilled people each year by offering permanent residency and citizenship.
Some Burmese graduates in these countries have already been recruited as policy advisors, researchers and junior officers by host governments and government-funded institutions. Some have entered the private sector as technicians as well.
These countries can’t be faulted for recruiting talented young Burmese; they are simply making use of the human resources that are available to them. If Burma wants to retain its best and brightest, both the government and opposition groups need to do more to recognize the need for new minds with fresh ideas.
Sai Soe Win Latt is a Ph.D. student of geography at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada.
As Burma’s economy continues to shrink year by year, the domestic labor market cannot keep pace with the country’s growing population or its expanding number of university graduates. As a result, thousands of graduates leave the country every year for the sake of their future.
The loss of an educated labor force to foreign countries is not a problem unique to Burma. The “brain drain” phenomenon is common one in most underdeveloped countries.
After a recent conversation with several old high school friends who are now working in Singapore, however, I realized that Burma’s youthful university graduates are finding it especially difficult to find a place to use their skills. Both the regime that rules at home and the exile groups that operate abroad have failed to fully appreciate their value.
Many of my friends living both inside Burma and overseas seem to have lost their childhood dreams because of the country’s failing education system. I recall that many of them were among the top 40-45 students out 4-500 students for each grade—very promising young people who had the potential to succeed in high-status professions such as medicine or engineering.
But over past ten years since we all graduated from high school, their aspirations have been beset by a host of problems. The frequent closure of universities in the late nineties was one obstacle; the government’s decision to move campuses to remote, out-of-the-way locations was another. The emergence of information technology drew some of them away from their earlier aspirations of becoming doctors or engineers. Some got Bachelor’s degrees and either married and settled down in Burma or moved overseas to join the migrant workforce.
There are some who went abroad soon after graduating from high school to study in foreign universities. But even these people ended up studying subjects that would enable them to make a living as typical immigrants, instead of pursuing their original dreams.
In Singapore, many Burmese immigrants are university graduates and skilled laborers. They are engineers, computer technicians and managerial staff—the sort of people that commercial and industrial economies are after. But all seven of the people I spoke to complained about exploitation by Singaporean employers who refused to give them the official minimum wage and forced them to work overtime for little or no extra pay. They also said that they were experiencing financial and social distress and even occasional racism in the workplace.
Working in such diverse fields as computer science, engineering, hotel management and accounting, these people could have made an important contribution to the Burmese economy if the opportunities had been there for them. They would have been leaders, decision-makers, bureaucrats, high-end professionals, technicians and university faculty, rather than immigrants in countries that exploit their skills and labor for cheaper wages.
But the Burmese regime is not alone in undervaluing the skills of these young people; pro-democracy groups have also failed to give them the opportunities they need to help them improve both their own and their country’s prospects.
Burma’s pro-democracy groups seem to be reluctant to recruit younger people. Instead of making scholarships available to them—and creating a future talent pool for their organizations—most democracy groups have shown little interest in cultivating the skills of the young. Some groups have had scholarship programs, but they fell far short of the hopes of young people who were prepared to make a commitment to the democracy movement. When opportunities for further study opened up in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they were quickly claimed by older members of the leading organizations.
These groups have failed not only to create new opportunities for study, they have also done little or nothing to make use of the skills of hundreds of students from opposition backgrounds or from border areas who have received an education in Asian or Western countries (not to mention those who came out of Burma directly).
Meanwhile, the Burmese government is recruiting technicians and administrators to support its military bureaucracy by sending them off to colleges and universities in Russia, Singapore and some other countries. But the exile groups are failing to offer any opportunities to those who have taken the initiative in seeking a university education either on very limited scholarship money or by financing themselves.
There have been instances of university graduates being recruited as “assistants” by some exiled organizations. Usually, however, they end up working as general office staff, while their upgraded skills and knowledge go unused. “Assisting” the aging leaders of such organizations seems to be the highest available positions for well-educated young people.
Countries like Canada, the US and other developed nations, on the other hand, are quick to take advantage of the skills of educated people to maintain their superior position in the global order. For example, the Canadian immigration system, which is based on a point system, attracts thousands of educated and skilled people each year by offering permanent residency and citizenship.
Some Burmese graduates in these countries have already been recruited as policy advisors, researchers and junior officers by host governments and government-funded institutions. Some have entered the private sector as technicians as well.
These countries can’t be faulted for recruiting talented young Burmese; they are simply making use of the human resources that are available to them. If Burma wants to retain its best and brightest, both the government and opposition groups need to do more to recognize the need for new minds with fresh ideas.
Sai Soe Win Latt is a Ph.D. student of geography at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada.
October 27, 2008
Checkpoints, Barricades Removed from in Front of Suu Kyi’s Home
By MIN LWIN
Checkpoints and barricades were removed on Sunday from outside the Rangoon lakeside home of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Two leading members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), Spokesman Nyan Win and Central Executive Committee member Khin Maung Swe, both confirmed that the road in front of Suu Kyi’s house had been cleared of security checkpoints and barricades and was now open to normal traffic.
Political observers in Rangoon saw no significance in the development. A veteran journalist told The Irrawaddy the regime was “just playing” and misleading the international community with “disinformation.”
“The junta can release Suu Kyi within minutes, they don’t need to remove barricades first of all,” he said.
The NLD’s Khin Maung Swe, who was released from Lashio prison in September after serving a long term of imprisonment, made an appeal for Suu Kyi’s release. “Aung San Suu Kyi must be released from house arrest, if the junta want to solve Burmese politics,” he said.
The new constitution and the general election planned for 2010 offered no solution and couldn’t work in the long term, he said.
The NLD said no response had yet been received to the handing in of an appeal against Suu Kyi’s latest term of house arrest. Her legal representative presented the appeal to the military government in Naypyidaw on October 8.
The 63-year-old Nobel peace laureate has spent more than 13 years of the past 19 years confined to her Rangoon home. Suu Kyi’s current period of house arrest began in 2003 after she and her supporters were attacked by government backed thugs in upper Burma.
NLD lawyers say the extension last May of her house arrest conflicts with article 10 (b) of the Burmese State Protection Law 1975, which stipulates that a person judged to be a threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people can only be detained for up to five years.
Asian and European leaders attending an Asia-Europe meeting in Beijing on Saturday called on the Burmese government to release political prisoners, lift restrictions on political parties and engage all sides in an inclusive political process.
Checkpoints and barricades were removed on Sunday from outside the Rangoon lakeside home of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Two leading members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), Spokesman Nyan Win and Central Executive Committee member Khin Maung Swe, both confirmed that the road in front of Suu Kyi’s house had been cleared of security checkpoints and barricades and was now open to normal traffic.
Political observers in Rangoon saw no significance in the development. A veteran journalist told The Irrawaddy the regime was “just playing” and misleading the international community with “disinformation.”
“The junta can release Suu Kyi within minutes, they don’t need to remove barricades first of all,” he said.
The NLD’s Khin Maung Swe, who was released from Lashio prison in September after serving a long term of imprisonment, made an appeal for Suu Kyi’s release. “Aung San Suu Kyi must be released from house arrest, if the junta want to solve Burmese politics,” he said.
The new constitution and the general election planned for 2010 offered no solution and couldn’t work in the long term, he said.
The NLD said no response had yet been received to the handing in of an appeal against Suu Kyi’s latest term of house arrest. Her legal representative presented the appeal to the military government in Naypyidaw on October 8.
The 63-year-old Nobel peace laureate has spent more than 13 years of the past 19 years confined to her Rangoon home. Suu Kyi’s current period of house arrest began in 2003 after she and her supporters were attacked by government backed thugs in upper Burma.
NLD lawyers say the extension last May of her house arrest conflicts with article 10 (b) of the Burmese State Protection Law 1975, which stipulates that a person judged to be a threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people can only be detained for up to five years.
Asian and European leaders attending an Asia-Europe meeting in Beijing on Saturday called on the Burmese government to release political prisoners, lift restrictions on political parties and engage all sides in an inclusive political process.
Burma's FM Makes First Visit to North Korea in 25 years
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RANGOON — Burma's foreign minister visited North Korea on Monday, an official said, more than a year after two of the world's most repressive governments resumed diplomatic ties.
It was the first official visit by a foreign minister from military-ruled Burma to North Korea in 25 years.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win traveled to Pyongyang after attending the Asia-Europe Meeting—known as ASEM—in Beijing, the Burmese official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Burma severed relations with North Korea in 1983 following a bombing in Burma's largest city, Rangoon, by North Korean secret agents targeting South Korea's then President Chun Doo-hwan. He was unhurt, but 21 people were killed, including four South Korean Cabinet ministers.
The two countries have been quietly working to normalize relations for the past few years, and agreed to resume diplomatic ties in April 2007.
Burma, which faces an arms embargo by the United States and European Union countries, has also reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.
Officials from the two countries have made some diplomatic visits since ties were restored. Burma's sports minister, Brig-Gen Thura Aye Myint, recently traveled to North Korea. A military delegation led by senior military officers also visited the North earlier this year.
RANGOON — Burma's foreign minister visited North Korea on Monday, an official said, more than a year after two of the world's most repressive governments resumed diplomatic ties.
It was the first official visit by a foreign minister from military-ruled Burma to North Korea in 25 years.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win traveled to Pyongyang after attending the Asia-Europe Meeting—known as ASEM—in Beijing, the Burmese official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Burma severed relations with North Korea in 1983 following a bombing in Burma's largest city, Rangoon, by North Korean secret agents targeting South Korea's then President Chun Doo-hwan. He was unhurt, but 21 people were killed, including four South Korean Cabinet ministers.
The two countries have been quietly working to normalize relations for the past few years, and agreed to resume diplomatic ties in April 2007.
Burma, which faces an arms embargo by the United States and European Union countries, has also reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.
Officials from the two countries have made some diplomatic visits since ties were restored. Burma's sports minister, Brig-Gen Thura Aye Myint, recently traveled to North Korea. A military delegation led by senior military officers also visited the North earlier this year.
Cost of Burmese Lottery Ticket to Double
By KYI WAI
RANGOON—The price of a Burmese lottery ticket will be doubled in order to raise revenues starting with the No. 240 lucky draw in January, 2009, according to the Finance and Taxes Department.
After January, a regular lottery ticket will cost 200 kyat (US 0.20 cents). Tickets with favorite words or numbers could cost anywhere from 50 to 100 kyat or more, after being marked up by wholesalers and retailers.
The new pay off for the first prize winning ticket will increase to 100,000,000 kyat (US $ 79,050) from 50,000,000 kyat. The lowest prize will win 100,000 kyat, according to state-run newspapers.
''Purchasing lottery tickets is like paying a special tax,'' said a retired professor at the Economic Institute. ''The gross revenue of the lottery will double because the lottery ticket price increases two times.
The price increase in lottery tickets is the latest sign that inflation is affecting both the government and consumers. Many businesses have laid off workers recently, and the economic sector is expected to continue to suffer as a result of the worldwide economic slowdown.
“Trying to entice the people into the lottery is just a form of gambling, and it’s not good for the country,'' said the professor, who noted there are also illegal lotteries that take place daily and bi-monthly.
Before 1988, a lottery ticket cost 2 kyat; the price increased to 5 kyat on December 20, 1988; and 10 kyat in April 1991. In December 1998, the price increased to 50 kyat and doubled in November 2005 to 100 kyat.
The government keeps 40 percent of the gross from the lottery, and 60 is distributed in winnings, according to the sources at the Finance and Taxes Department.
The professor said gross income from the state lottery is third, behind regular income taxes and trade taxes.
In a recent lottery, 26.9 million tickets were distributed in one lucky draw. Wholesalers and retailers buy tickets from the government for resale, making anywhere from 50 kyat or higher per ticket.
Wholesale distributors warned that doubling the cost of a ticket could hurt overall lottery sales, at a time when the state lottery is already experiencing a decline in sales.
''If the ticket price becomes too high, purchasing power will be lowered and that will cut into wholesalers’ and retailers’ profits,'' he said. “So we are forced to invest more money than previously.''
RANGOON—The price of a Burmese lottery ticket will be doubled in order to raise revenues starting with the No. 240 lucky draw in January, 2009, according to the Finance and Taxes Department.
After January, a regular lottery ticket will cost 200 kyat (US 0.20 cents). Tickets with favorite words or numbers could cost anywhere from 50 to 100 kyat or more, after being marked up by wholesalers and retailers.
The new pay off for the first prize winning ticket will increase to 100,000,000 kyat (US $ 79,050) from 50,000,000 kyat. The lowest prize will win 100,000 kyat, according to state-run newspapers.
''Purchasing lottery tickets is like paying a special tax,'' said a retired professor at the Economic Institute. ''The gross revenue of the lottery will double because the lottery ticket price increases two times.
The price increase in lottery tickets is the latest sign that inflation is affecting both the government and consumers. Many businesses have laid off workers recently, and the economic sector is expected to continue to suffer as a result of the worldwide economic slowdown.
“Trying to entice the people into the lottery is just a form of gambling, and it’s not good for the country,'' said the professor, who noted there are also illegal lotteries that take place daily and bi-monthly.
Before 1988, a lottery ticket cost 2 kyat; the price increased to 5 kyat on December 20, 1988; and 10 kyat in April 1991. In December 1998, the price increased to 50 kyat and doubled in November 2005 to 100 kyat.
The government keeps 40 percent of the gross from the lottery, and 60 is distributed in winnings, according to the sources at the Finance and Taxes Department.
The professor said gross income from the state lottery is third, behind regular income taxes and trade taxes.
In a recent lottery, 26.9 million tickets were distributed in one lucky draw. Wholesalers and retailers buy tickets from the government for resale, making anywhere from 50 kyat or higher per ticket.
Wholesale distributors warned that doubling the cost of a ticket could hurt overall lottery sales, at a time when the state lottery is already experiencing a decline in sales.
''If the ticket price becomes too high, purchasing power will be lowered and that will cut into wholesalers’ and retailers’ profits,'' he said. “So we are forced to invest more money than previously.''
Glaucoma Sufferers Treated at Mae Sot Clinic
By LAWI WENG
More than 500 Burmese with eye problems crossed the Thai border from Myawaddy this week to take part in a free eye care program at Dr Cynthia Maung’s Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot.
This year the annual program was staffed by two volunteer foreign doctors. A total of 593 patients were treated.
Last year, the clinic treated about 200 eye patients in a similar program.
Many totally blind patients arrived too late to be treated, said a volunteer doctor from Edinburgh University.
“Blindness is a big problem in Burma,” he said, “In many other countries, patients with serious vision problems can get treated before going totally blind.”
Many totally blind patients who suffered from glaucoma could have had their vision partially corrected if treated earlier, he said. Others who had earlier stages of glaucoma were treated and will have full or partial vision.
A clinic staff member said Burmese came from different regions. Most patients simply can not afford the cost of a glaucoma operation in Burma, he said, so they came to Mae Sot after word of the program spread.
One woman who lives in Kachin State in northern Burma and who suffers from glaucoma said she paid about 100,000 kyat (US $79) for the trip to Mae Sot, less than the 500,000 kyat ($395) cost of a glaucoma operation in Burma.
After the operation, she said, “I hope I will be able to see, and my eyes will be better soon. It’s free here, so I wanted to come.”
A clinic staff member said the high incidence of serious eye disease in Burma is partly due to a lack of knowledge about eye problems and a lack of money, forcing many people to ignore early signs of problems.
The Mae Tao Clinic was founded by Dr. Maung to provide free health care for Burmese refugees, migrant workers and others who cross the border from Burma to Thailand. People of all ethnicities and religions are treated.
The clinic’s origin goes back to the students’ pro-democracy movement in Burma in 1988 when fleeing students needed medical attention and were treated by Dr. Maung in a small house in Mae Sot.
More than 500 Burmese with eye problems crossed the Thai border from Myawaddy this week to take part in a free eye care program at Dr Cynthia Maung’s Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot.
This year the annual program was staffed by two volunteer foreign doctors. A total of 593 patients were treated.
Last year, the clinic treated about 200 eye patients in a similar program.
Many totally blind patients arrived too late to be treated, said a volunteer doctor from Edinburgh University.
“Blindness is a big problem in Burma,” he said, “In many other countries, patients with serious vision problems can get treated before going totally blind.”
Many totally blind patients who suffered from glaucoma could have had their vision partially corrected if treated earlier, he said. Others who had earlier stages of glaucoma were treated and will have full or partial vision.
A clinic staff member said Burmese came from different regions. Most patients simply can not afford the cost of a glaucoma operation in Burma, he said, so they came to Mae Sot after word of the program spread.
One woman who lives in Kachin State in northern Burma and who suffers from glaucoma said she paid about 100,000 kyat (US $79) for the trip to Mae Sot, less than the 500,000 kyat ($395) cost of a glaucoma operation in Burma.
After the operation, she said, “I hope I will be able to see, and my eyes will be better soon. It’s free here, so I wanted to come.”
A clinic staff member said the high incidence of serious eye disease in Burma is partly due to a lack of knowledge about eye problems and a lack of money, forcing many people to ignore early signs of problems.
The Mae Tao Clinic was founded by Dr. Maung to provide free health care for Burmese refugees, migrant workers and others who cross the border from Burma to Thailand. People of all ethnicities and religions are treated.
The clinic’s origin goes back to the students’ pro-democracy movement in Burma in 1988 when fleeing students needed medical attention and were treated by Dr. Maung in a small house in Mae Sot.
Will Next US President Have Strong Connection to Asia?
By FOSTER KLUG / AP WRITER
WASHINGTON — For all their political differences, Barack Obama and John McCain share a life-changing, though sharply different, personal experience: They both spent long stretches of their early lives in Asia, Obama as a boy in Indonesia, McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Asian relations have not topped the presidential candidates' list of concerns, with Americans worried about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a weakening economy. But the next US president, whichever man wins, will have a perspective on a critical region unlike any of his predecessors.
"Most Americans don't know Asia," Jonathan Adelman, a professor of international studies at the University of Denver, said. "These people had intensive, multiyear experiences at important times in their younger life, when it would matter."
It is difficult to predict how their Asia experiences might influence US policies when either Obama, a Democrat who has a solid lead in most polls, or the Republican McCain takes office in January. "But there is clearly some empathy there," Adelman said. "They're not going to stereotype the other side after their very intense personal experiences."
Other presidents have had ties to Asia. George HW Bush was the top US envoy in Beijing in the 1970s for about a year, and he and John F Kennedy both fought in the Pacific in World War II.
But either Obama or McCain would bring a unique, deeply personal Asia connection to a White House that will face a nuclear-armed, confrontational North Korea; a struggling Pakistan that terrorists are using as a haven to attack US troops in Afghanistan; and an increasingly powerful China that can help or hinder American interests around the world.
For both, their experience in Asia began the same year: 1967.
McCain was 31 in October of that year and on his 23rd bombing mission when he was shot down. A mob dragged him from a Hanoi lake, his arms and a knee broken. They stabbed him with bayonets and took him to prison, where, he says, he was "dumped in a dark cell and left to die."
McCain tried suicide twice, endured repeated beatings and refused offers of early release. Of his 5 1/2 years of confinement in North Vietnam, three were in solitary. McCain, who spent years moving from place to place with his father, an eventual admiral, and during his own time in the Navy, once quipped early in his political career that "the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi."
At the Republican National Convention in September, he spoke of how a prisoner in the next cell, after McCain had suffered a particularly bad beating, told him "to get back up and fight again for our country."
He has made the experience a central part of his presidential campaign and is often praised for putting aside past anger to push for normalized U.S. relations with communist Vietnam, despite strong opposition.
Barbara True-Weber, a political science professor at Meredith College, said that McCain's "perspective has been shaped much more by his military background and his perceptions of threat to American goals." But, she said, his prison experience deepened his "characteristic defiance, insistence on duty and resistance to threatening pressure."
During the campaign, Obama has played down his time in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, apparently for political reasons; some opponents have spread false rumors that Obama, a Christian, was educated in a radical Muslim school.
In his memoir, "Dreams from My Father," however, he writes vividly about leaving his birthplace in the US state of Hawaii, a multicultural, Asia-oriented group of Pacific islands, as a 6-year-old to spend four years in Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather.
Obama recalls how it took him "less than six months to learn Indonesia's language, its customs and its legends," how he became friends with "the children of farmers, servants and low-level bureaucrats," and how he survived chicken pox, measles "and the sting of my teachers' bamboo switches."
He also describes the desperation of farmers beset with drought and floods and how his stepfather taught him, after Obama got in a fight with an older boy, to box: "The world was violent, I was learning, unpredictable and often cruel."
In 1971, when he was 10, Obama's mother sent him back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents.
Ralph A. Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank, says that people in Southeast Asia see Obama as "one of us." But, he said, "expectations may be too high. When Obama, if elected, does the normal things US presidents do to protect and promote US interests, Asians may be more disappointed that he did not put them first."
During the campaign, the candidates' rhetoric has provided glimpses at policies that could emerge during the next presidency.
McCain has been skeptical of what critics call the George W Bush administration's overeager pursuit of a nuclear deal with North Korea. It is Obama, not Bush's fellow Republican, McCain, who is likely to follow Bush's recent multilateral approach more closely.
McCain also has criticized Obama for saying that, as president, he would authorize unilateral military action if al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden were found in Pakistan and the Pakistani government refused to go after him.
Cossa said events and national interests drive policy decisions more than personal experiences. Both candidates, he said, "have more experience and association with Southeast Asia than any former US president, but that will not make Southeast Asia a higher priority in Asia, much less in the world."
WASHINGTON — For all their political differences, Barack Obama and John McCain share a life-changing, though sharply different, personal experience: They both spent long stretches of their early lives in Asia, Obama as a boy in Indonesia, McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Asian relations have not topped the presidential candidates' list of concerns, with Americans worried about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a weakening economy. But the next US president, whichever man wins, will have a perspective on a critical region unlike any of his predecessors.
"Most Americans don't know Asia," Jonathan Adelman, a professor of international studies at the University of Denver, said. "These people had intensive, multiyear experiences at important times in their younger life, when it would matter."
It is difficult to predict how their Asia experiences might influence US policies when either Obama, a Democrat who has a solid lead in most polls, or the Republican McCain takes office in January. "But there is clearly some empathy there," Adelman said. "They're not going to stereotype the other side after their very intense personal experiences."
Other presidents have had ties to Asia. George HW Bush was the top US envoy in Beijing in the 1970s for about a year, and he and John F Kennedy both fought in the Pacific in World War II.
But either Obama or McCain would bring a unique, deeply personal Asia connection to a White House that will face a nuclear-armed, confrontational North Korea; a struggling Pakistan that terrorists are using as a haven to attack US troops in Afghanistan; and an increasingly powerful China that can help or hinder American interests around the world.
For both, their experience in Asia began the same year: 1967.
McCain was 31 in October of that year and on his 23rd bombing mission when he was shot down. A mob dragged him from a Hanoi lake, his arms and a knee broken. They stabbed him with bayonets and took him to prison, where, he says, he was "dumped in a dark cell and left to die."
McCain tried suicide twice, endured repeated beatings and refused offers of early release. Of his 5 1/2 years of confinement in North Vietnam, three were in solitary. McCain, who spent years moving from place to place with his father, an eventual admiral, and during his own time in the Navy, once quipped early in his political career that "the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi."
At the Republican National Convention in September, he spoke of how a prisoner in the next cell, after McCain had suffered a particularly bad beating, told him "to get back up and fight again for our country."
He has made the experience a central part of his presidential campaign and is often praised for putting aside past anger to push for normalized U.S. relations with communist Vietnam, despite strong opposition.
Barbara True-Weber, a political science professor at Meredith College, said that McCain's "perspective has been shaped much more by his military background and his perceptions of threat to American goals." But, she said, his prison experience deepened his "characteristic defiance, insistence on duty and resistance to threatening pressure."
During the campaign, Obama has played down his time in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, apparently for political reasons; some opponents have spread false rumors that Obama, a Christian, was educated in a radical Muslim school.
In his memoir, "Dreams from My Father," however, he writes vividly about leaving his birthplace in the US state of Hawaii, a multicultural, Asia-oriented group of Pacific islands, as a 6-year-old to spend four years in Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather.
Obama recalls how it took him "less than six months to learn Indonesia's language, its customs and its legends," how he became friends with "the children of farmers, servants and low-level bureaucrats," and how he survived chicken pox, measles "and the sting of my teachers' bamboo switches."
He also describes the desperation of farmers beset with drought and floods and how his stepfather taught him, after Obama got in a fight with an older boy, to box: "The world was violent, I was learning, unpredictable and often cruel."
In 1971, when he was 10, Obama's mother sent him back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents.
Ralph A. Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank, says that people in Southeast Asia see Obama as "one of us." But, he said, "expectations may be too high. When Obama, if elected, does the normal things US presidents do to protect and promote US interests, Asians may be more disappointed that he did not put them first."
During the campaign, the candidates' rhetoric has provided glimpses at policies that could emerge during the next presidency.
McCain has been skeptical of what critics call the George W Bush administration's overeager pursuit of a nuclear deal with North Korea. It is Obama, not Bush's fellow Republican, McCain, who is likely to follow Bush's recent multilateral approach more closely.
McCain also has criticized Obama for saying that, as president, he would authorize unilateral military action if al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden were found in Pakistan and the Pakistani government refused to go after him.
Cossa said events and national interests drive policy decisions more than personal experiences. Both candidates, he said, "have more experience and association with Southeast Asia than any former US president, but that will not make Southeast Asia a higher priority in Asia, much less in the world."
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