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Soth Thailand In Pictures

2009-09-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

A suspected militant, still holding his weapon in hand, lies on the ground after he was shot dead by police in a jungle in Thailand's Yala province, about 1,084 km (674 miles) south of Bangkok September 2, 2009. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

A suspected militant lies on the ground near a rubber tree after he was shot dead by police in a jungle in Thailand's Yala province, about 1,084 km (674 miles) south of Bangkok September 2, 2009. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Soldiers stand guard at the scene of an attack near a restaurant during lunchtime in southern Thailand's Pattani province September 3, 2009. More than 20 people were injured in two bomb attacks in Thailand's deep south of Pattani on Thursday. The first bomb was detonated in front of a grocery store. After the first bomb went off, the second bomb, planted in a gas cylinder attached to a motorcycle, was detonated in front of the restaurant, police said. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Police officers inspect the scene of an attack near a restaurant during lunchtime in southern Thailand's Pattani province September 3, 2009. More than 20 people were injured in two bomb attacks in Thailand's deep south of Pattani on Thursday. The first bomb was detonated in front of a grocery store. After the first bomb went off, the second bomb, planted in a gas cylinder attached to a motorcycle, was detonated in front of the restaurant, police said. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Police officers inspect the scene of an attack near a restaurant during lunchtime in southern Thailand's Pattani province September 3, 2009. More than 20 people were injured in two bomb attacks in Thailand's deep south of Pattani on Thursday. The first bomb was detonated in front of a grocery store. After the first bomb went off, the second bomb, planted in a gas cylinder attached to a motorcycle, was detonated in front of the restaurant, police said. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Police and soldiers inspect the scene of an attack near a restaurant during lunchtime in southern Thailand's Pattani province September 3, 2009. More than 20 people were injured in two bomb attacks in Thailand's deep south of Pattani on Thursday. The first bomb was detonated in front of a grocery store. After the first bomb went off, the second bomb, planted in a gas cylinder attached to a motorcycle, was detonated in front of the restaurant, police said. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Thai soldiers examine the site where a bomb exploded outside a row of open-air shops and restaurants in the city of Pattani Province Thailand Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. Eight people were killed in a string of drive-by shootings and at least 25 were wounded in a bomb blast in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south, in what the army said Thursday was a 'unusually high' number of attacks in the restive region. (AP Photo/Sumeth pranphet)

Thai people help out injured people from a bomb explosion of a motorcycle parked outside a row of open-air shops and restaurants in the city of Pattani Province in Thailand Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. Eight people were killed in a string of drive-by shootings and at least 25 were wounded in a bomb blast in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south, in what the army said Thursday was a 'unusually high' number of attacks in the restive region. (AP Photo/Sumeth pranphet)

Thai soldiers carry injury from a bombing explosion of a motorcycle parked outside a row of open-air shops and restaurants in the city of Pattani Province in Thailand on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. Eight people were killed in a string of drive-by shootings and at least 25 were wounded in a bomb blast in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south, in what the army said Thursday was a 'unusually high' number of attacks in the restive region. (AP Photo/Sumeth pranphet)

Thai bomb squad units inspect the site of an explosion at a restaurant in Pattani province. The blast injured at least 27 people. Eleven people were shot dead and a powerful bomb wounded at least two dozen others as violence intensified in Thailand's Muslim-majority south during the holy month of Ramadan, police said (AFP/Tuwaedaniya Meringing)

Typhoon Morakot hits southern China - 10 Aug 09

2009-08-11T05:48:00.000-07:00

Typhoon Morakot has moved into China, with torrential rains flooding thousands of hectares.

One million people have been evacuated.

Al Jazeera's Tony Cheng, reporting from Hong Kong, says the danger for China is far from over, with landslides posing a serious threat to the southern coast.

Jailed Cambodian editor loses appeal hearing

2009-08-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

Southeast Taiwan, in the town of Chihpen. See the location on Google Maps (tabs "A" and "C"): http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&...

Chihpen is about 7 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. The hotel sat along the Jhihben River, which feeds directly from the ocean.

All thoughts and prayers go out to those in the path of this destructive storm.

Nearly one million people in China have fled to escape the typhoon:

Chinese vice premier stresses rehousing of low-income workers

2009-08-11T05:44:00.000-07:00

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (R Front) talks with hut dwellers in the Nanshi hut zone of Shuangyashan, a city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang said over the weekend that the rebuilding of shanty towns which have long-housed low-income workers is an important part of the country's effort to improve people's livelihood.

Li made the comment at a working conference to address the rebuilding of shacks in cities and at compounds of large state-owned mining enterprises held in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, on Saturday.

Such shanty towns are shabby residential areas that were built when the country started to industrialize its economy, and people living there are more often low-income wage earners in factories.

These people are either living in a space that is less than 10 square meters for each, or in apartments that have no tap water or sewers, or even toilets or kitchens.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (C) addresses a meeting on the rebuiding of cities and hut zones, in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)
China is aiming to offer proper housing for 7.5 million low-income urban households and 2.4 million households living in shanty towns of coal mines, reclamation areas, and forest zones in three years, Premier Wen Jiabao said in March.

There are another 1.14 million living in shabby apartments at compounds of state-owned mining enterprises, which are not included in the planning of cities, according to the conference.

Li urged to integrate the rebuilding of such shanty towns with the low-income housing project, initiated by the Chinese government to build affordable houses for low-income urban residents.

He also asked planners to build homes at different price levels in a region so as to avoid the concentration of poor population in a certain neighborhood.

Li stressed that the government should dominate the project of rehousing low-income workers, but it could invite funding from outside the government.

He said the government should secure land supplies for such projects and materialize tax supports.

The central government pledged to allocate 49.3 billion yuan (7.25 billion U.S. dollars) from the central budget to finance such housing projects in 2009 alone.

China backs world gathering of parliaments' speakers

2009-08-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo promised on Monday the country would take an active part in preparing for a world speakers conference.

"China supports the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) on holding the Third Conference of Speakers of Parliaments and will actively participate in its preparations," the senior official told visiting IPU President Theo-Ben Gurirab during an hour-long meeting in Beijing.

Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, said China hoped the speakers' conference would step up the member states' communication and cooperation in the multilateral framework.

Wu Bangguo (R), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, meets with Theo-Ben Gurirab, president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and speaker of Namibia's National Assembly (Parliament), in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 10, 2009. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
The IPU, established in 1889, is the international organization of parliaments of sovereign states. The union, with more than 150 members, serves as a focal point for worldwide parliamentary dialogue.

The first and the second speakers meetings took place in New York in 2000 and 2005.

Gurirab appreciated the NPC's long-standing and generous support to the IPU , calling for China's bigger role in the organization.

Wu reviewed China's 19-year diplomatic relations with Namibia as Gurirab also served as speaker of Namibia's National Assembly.

"China and Namibia are friends and partners," Wu said, citing cooperation in politics, economy, trade, education, public health, culture, justice, among other fields.

Wu pledged China's continued efforts to cement relations with Namibia among governments, parliaments and people.

As the global economic downturn also took its toll on African countries, Wu said China would encourage its companies to do businesses and invest in Africa.

China will urge the international community to pay more attention to concerns of African countries in tackling the economic slump, Wu said.

Gurirab said he was impressed with China's achievements in its modernization drive, which Namibians and other African people also felt proud of.

The 70-year-old speaker said his country would like to learn from China's economic progress and work more closely with China for better and faster development.

Gurirab is on a week-long China visit, which will also take him to west China's Gansu province.

Myanmar Dissidents Contemplate Concessions

2009-08-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

With Myanmar's military government expected to sentence dissident Aung San Suu Kyi to further detention as early as Tuesday, some of her exiled supporters are considering new tactics -- such as negotiating with the regime -- to break a decades-old political stalemate in the troubled Southeast Asian nation.

Take a look at major events in the life of famed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ms. Suu Kyi faces up to five years in prison for allegedly violating the terms of a government-imposed house arrest in May, when she allowed an uninvited American well-wisher to visit her lakeside home without state approval.

Myanmar officials have said a verdict will come Tuesday, though some analysts say the decision may be delayed due to the poor health of John Yettaw, the American visitor, who is also on trial and has reportedly suffered from epileptic seizures recently. The verdict was delayed once before, after authorities in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, said they needed more time to review the facts in the case.

Analysts and exiles expect the court to eventually find Ms. Suu Kyi guilty, resulting in further detention for the 64-year-old Nobel laureate who has spent nearly 14 of the past 20 years under arrest.

Such an outcome, combined with Myanmar's miserable economic conditions and the likelihood that Ms. Suu Kyi won't be able to participate in elections the government plans for 2010, are prodding exile groups to contemplate new strategies, including seeking negotiations with Myanmar's military regime and possibly dropping some earlier demands that have blocked rapprochement.

Ms. Suu Kyi's supporters have traditionally taken a hard-line approach towards talking with the regime, unless it agrees to free hundreds of political prisoners and recognize the results of a 1990 election won overwhelmingly by Ms. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party.

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Associated Press

Supporters of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement demonstrate at the Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo on Saturday.

The military ignored that vote and tightened its grip on the country, locking away opponents and drawing widespread condemnation for its alleged human-rights abLast week, a group of senior opposition leaders, including Sein Win, head of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which describes itself as Myanmar's government-in-exile, announced plans for a new "proposal for national reconciliation" that involves negotiations with the regime. The proposal reiterates older goals such as the release of political prisoners and a review of the country's constitution, but acknowledges the need for dialogue with the military to make those goals a realityother dissidents are pressing exile leaders to go further and possibly drop calls for the military to honor the 1990 vote if it helps advance the dissidents' other agendas, such as getting Ms. Suu Kyi freed.

Dissident groups plan to discuss further details at a convention in Jakarta, Indonesia on Wednesday and Thursday. At least 10 major dissident groups are expected to attend, including the Women's League of Burma and representatives from the NLD, along with Mr. Sein Win and others. People who intend to participate say it may be the first time in decades so many groups have come together to forge a common position in dealing with the Myanmar junta.

"We're not only thinking about what we want, but what the regime can and cannot accept. It's a move back to the center," says Nyo Ohn Myint, a senior opposition figure who's been in exile in Thailand and the U.S. for 20 years. He says a majority of senior NLD leaders now support some form of compromise with Myanmar's military government, including possibly writing off the 1990 vote.

Mr. Nyo Ohn Myint says he believes Ms. Suu Kyi is also willing to compromise, including accepting some kind of role for the military in government, though it is difficult to confirm Ms. Suu Kyi's views while she is under arrest.

Many dissidents are focusing on the regime's planned 2010 elections. Initially, opposition groups vowed to boycott the election as they believed that no vote overseen by the military could be free and fair. But some dissidents have softened their positions in the belief that participating in a flawed election may be better than sitting it out entirely.

"There is the danger that the main political activists or stakeholders like the NLD and major ethnic groups will be sidelined" if they don't in some way participate in the election, says Thaung Htun, who the government-in-exile calls its representative to the United Nations. "We need to publicly propose an alternative."

Some analysts are skeptical that any new approaches from exiles will yield results. Dialogue requires participation on both sides, and the regime has given little indication in the past that it wants to negotiate, though some dissidents believe that may change if military leaders are given face-saving options that allow them to claim the 2010 election is legitimate. The regime rarely speaks to the foreign media, Western diplomats or high-ranking dissidents, making it difficult to divine its intentions.

Myanmar's myriad exile groups have struggled to reach consensus in the past and the latest discussions could easily break down over the details of how far to go with any national reconciliation plan. Many exiles still view any form of rapprochement as totally unacceptable and worry that any participation in the 2010 election could legitimize a military dictatorship.

"The Burmese are too divided to suddenly put all their history behind them," retired Rutgers University professor and Myanmar expert Josef Silverstein said.

The Jakarta conference was planned in part "to stay relevant to meet the criticism" that older dissident groups are too inflexible, says Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Dissidents are considering new approaches "probably because things are looking so dire" in the country, with little change in recent years, forcing exiles to look "for a new way," says Monique Skidmore, a Myanmar expert at the University of Canberra in Australia.

Burma Police Arrest Bomb Plotters

2009-08-11T05:37:00.001-07:00

Brig. Gen. Khin Yi answers questions during a press conference, in Rangoon, Burma, 07 Aug 2009

Burma's national police chief says 15 dissidents have been arrested in connection with a plot to plant bombs during the visit of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month.

At a news conference Friday, Burma Police Chief Khin Yi linked the bomb plotters to a number of dissident organizations, including the party of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. A lawyer for the opposition leader denied that charge.

Khin Yi also said at least 20 security personnel have been demoted - and some jailed - for allowing an American to enter Aung San Suu Kyi's home earlier this year.

John Yettaw swam uninvited to the opposition leader's lakeside Rangoon home in early May, and stayed there for two days with her permission. The incident led to Aung San Suu Kyi's arrest on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest.

The opposition leader has spent the last two months at Rangoon's Insein prison where she was put on trial. The court is expected to hand down its verdict on August 11.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, who has spent 14 of the last 19 years in some form of detention, faces up to five years in prison.

Sources say Yettaw was admitted to Rangoon General Hospital Monday after suffering seizures. His condition is said to be improving. Yettaw is reported to have diabetes and other illnesses.

Yettaw, along with two of Aung San Suu Kyi's live-in companions, is also being tried in the case. He testified he swam to her home to warn her of a vision he had that she would be assassinated.

Hun Xen’s bilateral border talk policy with Thailand fails miserably, Heng Xamrin had to appeal ASEAN for help

2009-08-11T05:33:00.000-07:00

Heng Xamrin asks ASEAN’s involvement in the resolution of border dispute in Preah Viheare
Heng Xamrin, president of the National Assembly (NA), asked ASEAN to help resolve the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand after a deadlock for an approval by the Thai parliament was met and this situation prevented Bangkok from continuing further negotiation with Cambodia.

Cheam Yeap, CPP chairman of the NA economic and finance committee, told a press conference in the evening of 08 August, after his arrival from Bangkok, that Heng Xamrin made this appeal at the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting held on 05-06 August in Pattaya, Thailand. Cheam Yeap said that Heng Xamrin also raised the issue ot Thailand’s aggression in the Preah Vihear temple zone. Heng Xamrin wanted ASEAN to get involved in this issue, and it should not remain silent, but that it must help find a resolution and, in particular, developed countries should help poor countries.

Heng Xamrin made this appeal because the bilateral talks with Thailand do not lead to any result, and Thailand does not seem to want to reach a quick resolution on this issue.

Furthermore, Heng Xamrin also met with Thai leaders and he pushed them to speed up the border dispute resolution. Cheam Yeap said that, in response to Heng Xamrin’s request, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva said that he will send the Preah Vihear temple case to the Thai parliament. However, Cheam Yeap warned: “We don’t know if Abhisit’s words can be trusted or not yet. If the Thai parliament approves this issue quickly, only then can Abhisit’s words be trusted.”

Cheam Yeap indicated that Heng Xamrin also met with Chai Chidchob, Thai parliament president, and he made the same request also. Chai Chidchob said that he will resolve this issue quickly.

Cheam Yeap said that Heng Xamrin also raised about Cambodia’s sufficient legal backing in its claim in Preah Vihear temple, and the Thailand have a hard time saying anything because the 1904 and 1907 Franco-Siam conventions and the 15 June 1962 decision by The Hague International Court of Justice returned Preah Vihear to Cambodia. On 07 July 2008, UNESCO also accepted to list Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site.

Heng Xamrin and the Cambodian delegation returned back home in the evening of 08 August, following the conclusion of the IPU meeting on 06 August, and Heng Xamrin’s meeting with Thai leaders in the following day.

The IPU meeting was held under tight security with the presence of almost 1,000 security personnel. The IPU meeting discussed about (1) Safety, security and common regional policy, (2) Economic, commercial and foreign investment cooperation, (3) Social safety and security for the strengthening of public welfare and the prevention of contagious diseases, (5) Perpetual development and environment, and (5) Discussion in information and electronic communication.

Travesty of justice: Similarity between the Burmese and Cambodian dictatorships

2009-08-11T05:31:00.000-07:00

Members of the Free Burma coalition hold placards during a protest in front of the Myanmar embassy in Makati, Metro Manila August 11, 2009 in support of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco)

Myanmar's Suu Kyi found guilty in security case

YANGON (Reuters) - A court in army-ruled Myanmar on Tuesday sentenced opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty to 18 months in detention for violating an internal security law, a ruling certain to anger the West and further isolate the regime.

The court sentenced her to three years in prison but that was immediately reduced to a year-and-a-half on the orders of the military government, which said she could serve the time in her Yangon home.

A guilty verdict had been widely expected in a case critics say was fabricated by the military regime to keep Suu Kyi out of circulation ahead of a general election scheduled for next year.

The leader of the democracy movement in the former Burma has already spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention of one sort or another.

The charges stemmed from a mysterious incident in which an American, John Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeside home in May and stayed there for two days, which breached the terms of her house arrest.

Yettaw was sentenced to seven years' hard labor in a parallel trial on three charges, including immigration offences and "swimming in a non-swimming area."

The hearings were held in Yangon's Insein Prison amid heightened security, with least 2,000 security personnel in the area, witnesses said.

State newspapers all ran the same commentary on Tuesday that implicitly warned Suu Kyi's supporters not to cause trouble and told outsiders not to meddle in Myanmar's affairs.

"The people who favor democracy do not want to see riots and protests that can harm their goal," said the commentary in the New Light of Myanmar and other newspapers.

"Anti-government groups inside and outside the nation and the United States are accusing the government of deterring Aung San Suu Kyi from standing for election," it added.

"The approved constitution and the forthcoming election law will decide who will be entitled and who will not be entitled to stand for election."

Critics say the trial has been trumped up by the military government as a way of keeping Suu Kyi out of circulation in the run-up to, and during, a multi-party election planned for 2010.

The prosecution's case was that Yettaw's two-day stay at Suu Kyi's home, even though he was uninvited, meant she breached the terms of her house arrest and violated an internal security law.

A verdict in the trial had been expected on August 4 but the judge adjourned the case until Tuesday, August 11, after Yettaw fell ill.

However, he was moved back to his prison cell shortly before midnight on Monday, a hospital source said.

Yettaw, a Mormon, has told the court God sent him to warn Suu Kyi she would be assassinated by "terrorists."

KRouge prison chief admits personally torturing inmate

2009-08-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

PHNOM PENH — The Khmer Rouge's main jail chief on Tuesday admitted for the first time before Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal that he tortured a prisoner personally.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is on trial for overseeing the torture and execution of about 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng detention centre in the late 1970s.

Duch's confession came a day after a guard, Saom Meth, told the court that he saw his boss beat an inmate with a rattan stick.

"Regarding the testimony of comrade Meth, in general, it is true," Duch told the court.

"The point that I went to torture a prisoner at Tuy (an interrogator's) location, I would not deny it," the 66-year-old former maths teacher said.

But Duch said the most serious crime he committed was the "political indoctrination" of his staff at the prison, also known as S-21, to make them consider the inmates as enemies of the Khmer Rouge party.

"That was the most serious crime that I committed, and that I am responsible for more than 10,000 lives lost at S-21," he said, adding that he was also "the one who initiated" the arrest of many people.

"All the crimes committed at S-21, regardless of forms of torture used and regardless whether the special forces used or transported the prisoners to be executed somewhere else, they had to do it because of my instruction," he said.

"I do not deny all these crimes, I accept them," Duch said, adding that he also used to enter a room where a "very humble" Briton was being interrogated.

Earlier Tuesday, Saom Meth told the court that he heard an ex-colleague report to record-keepers that many foreign prisoners, including Americans, were burned on the street.

The prison in the capital Phnom Penh was at the centre of the Khmer Rouge's brutal campaign of repression and was later turned into a genocide museum after the movement was overthrown by forces backed by neighbouring Vietnam.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.

Appeal Court upholds Hang Chakra’s sentence: Travesty of justice perpetuated

2009-08-11T05:22:00.000-07:00

Hang Chakra (R) at his arrival in court for appeal hearing (Photo: DAP news)

In the morning of 11 August 2009, the judge of the Phnom Penh Appeal Court handed down the decision on the lawsuit against Hang Chakra, the Editor-in-chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper. In its decision, the appeal court upheld the sentence handed down to Hang Chakra, namely 1-year of prison sentence and 9 million riels ($2,250) fine.

Chuon Chou-ngy, Hang Chakra’s defense lawyer, said: “If my client wants to appeal his case to the Supreme Court, I will do as my client orders me to.”

In the hearing, Hang Chakra (allegedly) acknowledged the mistakes he has committed as he was accused.

Wat Phnom to seek special status under new classification system

2009-08-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

Photo by: SOVAN PHILONG

Vendors do business Thursday outside Wat Phnom. Officials are seeking special status for the site.

City authorities will seek top-grade tourist status for ancient temple.

THE municipal Department of Tourism has submitted a letter to the Ministry of Tourism requesting that Wat Phnom receive special status as a national tourist site, officials said Thursday.

Som Chanren, the municipal director of tourism, said the temple, from which the city derives its name, was a sacred site, and that the city wanted to have it classified as a "three-star" attraction - the highest rating under the new Tourism Law.

"In the field of tourism, we need our attractions to be judged according to a set of standards," he said, adding that the popularity of the site, which attracts an average of 500 to 600 foreign tourists per month, made it a perfect candidate for the new classification.

"The judgement should take into account whether bad pollution exists around Wat Phnom, or whether we have good services at our tourist sites," he said.
In the field of tourism, we need our attractions to be judged according to a set of standards," he said, adding that the popularity of the site, which attracts an average of 500 to 600 foreign tourists per month, made it a perfect candidate for the new classification.

"The judgement should take into account whether bad pollution exists around Wat Phnom, or whether we have good services at our tourist sites," he said.

Despite the rapid growth in international tourism in the past decade, Phnom Penh has never formally listed its tourist attractions with the Ministry of Tourism, officials said.

Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said Thursday that under the Tourism Law, tourist sites can apply for special classification and would be rated up to three stars according to criteria such as site security, public restrooms and access to parking.

"We have a Tourism Law to help sustain our tourism industry. All services have to meet benchmark standards in order to attract tourists," he said.

He added that all provinces were welcome to lodge applications to have their attractions registered with the Ministry.

Court of Women calls for action

2009-08-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

Bali, Indonesia

Photo by: Shaju John/UNDP

Vichuta Ly of Cambodia’s Legal Service for Children and Women gives expert testimony on Thursday at the Southeast Asia Court of Women on HIV, Human Trafficking and Migration in Bali, Indonesia. A jury of experts urged greater global awareness of the ‘vicous cycle of poverty, violence, trafficking and HIV’.

A jury of experts on Thursday called for urgent action to break the cycle of poverty, violence, trafficking and HIV that is ruining the lives of countless women, girls and communities in Southeast Asia.

The declaration was made at the culmination of the Southeast Asia Court of Women on HIV, Human Trafficking and Migration in Bali, Indonesia.
"Women's lives in Southeast Asia are dominated by acute inequality and injustice that make them highly vulnerable to various forms of violence, exploitation, trafficking and, subsequently, HIV," the declaration read.

"We, therefore, call upon all the governments, UN Agencies, civil society organisations, the media and the general public to take all possible steps to expeditiously address the vicious cycle of poverty, violence, trafficking and HIV that trap countless women in the region."

Wanta, a young Cambodian woman who refused to be photographed or allow her real name to be published, told the court of how she was now living with HIV as a result of her experience with traffickers. She acknowledged willingly having gone to Malaysia, where she had expected to work in a garment factory, but instead ended up in a brothel, highlighting the dangers all young women face when travelling abroad to work.

Refusing to work, she was raped repeatedly and starved, she said, before being rescued by police following a tip-off from a sympathetic customer.

Wanta was joined by 21 other survivors of trafficking from the region. Most were from poor backgrounds, exposed to exploitation as they tried to find a way out for their families.

Like Wanta, many were left HIV-positive by their experience of being trafficked into sexually exploitative situations, highlighting what experts at the court said was a tangible link between trafficking and the spread of the disease.

"[Women and girls] are trafficked for many different reasons, but overwhelmingly sexual exploitation remains the single major purpose," said Caitlin Wiesen, regional HIV/Aids practice leader and programme coordinator for the UN Development Programme, a co-organiser of the court.

More than 250,000 women and girls are trafficked every year in Southeast Asia - one-third of total global trafficking - according to UN estimates.

The jurors also called for rights-based policies to counter trafficking and prevent further injustices from being heaped on women after experts singled out Cambodia as a country where officials had gotten policy seriously wrong.

Wiesen said anti-trafficking laws passed last year had led to more women selling sex on the street "for fear of police raids in entertainment establishments, which can drive them further underground and further increase their vulnerability to trafficking and HIV infection."

She said the legislation had led to a "significant setback" for the country's 100-percent condom use programme, with a 31-percent reduction in the sale and availability of condoms in entertainment places and a 20-percent decline in women seeking testing and treatment at public clinics.

Vichuta Ly of Cambodia's Legal Service for Children and Women said the country's trafficking legislation needed to be refocused to protect the victims. Appearing as an expert witness, she also called for a better understanding of trafficking to protect those working voluntarily in the sex industry from harassment and prosecution.

Mu Sochua requests court postponement

2009-08-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

THE Appeal Court has summoned opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua to appear on August 18 for questioning in relation to her defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Hun Sen, but the Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian, who left for the United States on Wednesday, has requested a postponement until late September.
I would like to inform His Excellency the Prosecutor General that I have to leave for the United States to have medical treatment on August 5, and will return on September 20," she said in a letter to Prosecutor General Ouk Savouth dated Wednesday.

Mu Sochua's lawsuit against Prime Minister Hun Sen, filed following comments made by Hun Sen during a speech in Kampot province in April, was dismissed by Phnom Penh Municipal Court on June 10, a decision she is now attempting to overturn.

On Wednesday, Mu Sochua also appealed against the Municipal Court's verdict convicting her of defaming the prime minister and ordering her to pay 16.5 million riels (US$3,937) in fines and compensation.

Ouk Savouth said Thursday that her request to the Appeal Court might not be successful, since her letter lacked sufficient details about her trip to North America.

"We don't know whether she is going to the US or not. If she has appealed and she does not take care of her appeal, that is her business," he said.

Burmese Opposition Unites at UN

2009-08-08T07:14:00.000-07:00

UNITED NATIONS — Exiled opposition leaders from Burma came together at the UN on Friday to present a plan for a democratic future in their homeland and ask the UN to transmit it to the country's military rulers.

The opposition leaders called for the release of Nobel Prize-winning pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, a dialogue with the regime, credible elections in 2010 and a review of the constitution adopted last year.

A supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi takes part in a demonstration in Tokyo on August 8. The protest was held in conjunction with the anniversary of the "8888" democracy uprising on August 8th, 1988 in Burma. (Photo: Reuters)
The alliance of political parties and ethnic groups asked the UN Security Council and Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to send its reconciliation plan to the military regime in Burma.

Suu Kyi is on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest after an uninvited American man swam to her lakeside home without permission in May, just before her detention was to end. Opposition leaders say the junta is using the incident to extend her detention ahead of next year's elections.

The charges against 64-year-old Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years, have refocused international outrage on Burma, which has been ruled by its military since 1962. Suu Kyi's opposition party won national elections in 1990, but Burmese generals refused to relinquish power.

Sein Win, a cousin of Suu Kyi and head of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which describes itself as the country's government-in-exile, called her trial a "mockery of justice."

He said the regime "has made a lot of promises, but if you look at the facts, it's not getting any better" as human rights are violated, villages are destroyed and the country becomes more militarized. He condemned the regime's purported nuclear ambitions.

In Burma on Friday, the regime said it arrested 15 people and accused foreign-based opposition groups and terrorists of plotting explosions during Ban's visit last month and trying to disrupt Suu Kyi's trial.

Jeremy Woodrum, co-founder of the Washington-based US Campaign for Burma, said it's significant that Burma's diverse political and ethnic groups joined in support of the reconciliation initiative.

He said the Security Council should focus on issues it has ignored like the use of child soldiers, the rape of women from minority ethnic groups, forced labor and the destruction of villages.

An arms embargo would severely undermine the military regime, he said.

The opposition's reconciliation program says the country faces a "constitutional crisis."

Woodrum called the constitution an "air-tight" framework for ensuring the military continues to dominate all levers of power, no matter the outcome of any election. The military will appoint 25 percent of the seats in parliament and can easily remove members who act independently, he said.

Burmese Army Equipped with New Arms

2009-08-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

The 400,000-strong Burmese army is now almost fully armed with locally manufactured MA-series weapons, according to several sources within the armed forces and rebel groups.
The sources told The Irrawaddy that the Burmese army—known as the “Tatmadaw”—had equipped all frontline battalions with MA1, MA2, MA3 or MA4 automatic assault rifles.
According to a weapons Web site, securityarms.com, the MA series was manufactured with the help of arms contractor Israeli Military Industries, and was designed similar to the Israeli Galil rifle.
The weapons are expected to be used in conflicts with ethnic rebel groups, in particular the Karen National Union, as the Tatmadaw seeks to extinguish the country’s 60-year-plus insurgency. The Burmese armed forces have one of the world’s most notorious records for atrocities and human rights abuses, such as killing civilians, raping women and conscripting children.
Since the 1950s, the Tatmadaw has traditionally employed German-made G-3 weapons. However, the G-3 assault rifle was considered too heavy for use in jungle warfare and, as the Burmese generals had endured decades of conflict with ethnic groups in Burma’s mountainous border regions, they began manufacture of the MA series in 2002, presumably after signing a license agreement with Israel Military Industries.
The MA1 and MA2 assault rifles are shorter and lighter than the G3, but not as powerful, said the sources.
The MA3 is an assault carbine, basically an MA1 with a side-folding stock, and the MA4 is a grenadier weapon, essentially an MA1 equipped with a single-shot grenade launcher.
Sources told The Irrawaddy that the weapons were manufactured at several factories in Burma, but the main factory is reportedly called Ka Pa Sa No 1, and is situated near Rangoon’s Inya Lake.
Sai Sheng Murng, the deputy spokesman of the rebel Shan State Army-South (SSA), said, “The MA1 and MA2 assault rifles are not heavy, so they are good for carrying to the frontlines. But they are not powerful like the G-3.”
“The MA1s and MA2s are similar to our M16s. In fact, we can use their ammunition in our M16 rifles, but they cannot use our ammunition in their rifles,” he said.
The Burmese army is one of the most battle-hardened forces in Asia, having fought almost continuously against ethnic insurgents and communist guerillas for more than six decades.
However, following the brutal suppression of student-led demonstrations in 1988, the United States and later the European Union imposed an arms embargo on the Burmese regime.
At the time, Burmese democracy activists and international sympathizers lobbied the West German government to prevent sales of G-3 weapons from the Fritz Werner arms manufacturing company going to the Burmese junta.
The German arms manufacturers registered themselves in Burma in the 1990s as Myanmar Fritz Werner Industries Co Ltd, an electrical and electronics company.
However, the photograph of a Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai, being shot during protests in 2007 by a Burmese soldier holding what would appear to be a G-3 rifle, raised doubts as to whether local production of the German assault rifle was ongoing.
Despite the Western arms embargo, the Burmese military regime has no shortage of arms suppliers—Israel, Russia, Ukraine and China are reportedly the main players.
Meanwhile, recent reports have indicated that Burma has purchased nuclear material from North Korea and harbors ambitions of creating a nuclear arsenal.

Security Tight on Anniversary of 8888 Uprising

2009-08-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

Pro-junta supporters and truckloads of riot police patrolling Burma’s commercial capital on Saturday kept potential demonstrators off the streets on the 21st anniversary of pro-democracy protests that triggered one of the country’s bloodiest uprisings.
The anniversary comes days before a Burmese court rules on whether democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi should be jailed for five years for violating the terms of her house arrest. The Nobel laureate came to prominence during the demonstrations and remains the country’s most popular politician.
The verdict, scheduled for Tuesday, has already been delayed because judges said they needed more time to sort through legal issues. But Burmese scholars say the real reason for the postponement was fears that pro-democracy groups would take to the streets on the anniversary if a guilty ruling was handed down.
Rangoon’s streets were quiet Saturday and security forces were present in much of the crumbling city.
Dozens of riot police and scores of unarmed supporters of the regime were stationed along the main roads and junctions, as well as near the major monasteries and pagodas.
Dozens of barbed wire barricades, some of them freshly painted, were placed on roadsides.
Local media used the anniversary to praise the regime and warn residents not to be taken in by unidentified opponents, most likely pro-democracy groups.
Residents interviewed in Rangoon said they dared not mark the anniversary, knowing they would be quickly arrested and face the prospect of long prison sentences. Most said they had other priorities.
“I have forgotten that today is the anniversary,” said Hla Maung, a 52-year-old trishaw driver. “I wake up every morning thinking how to feed my family of three.”
Outside the country, dozens of demonstrators marked the day with protests in front of the Burmese embassies in the Thai capital of Bangkok and the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. A small demonstration was also held at the Burmese consulate in Hong Kong.
The anniversary marks the August 8, 1988 demonstrations—known locally as the 8888 uprising—in which more than a million people protested following the government’s sudden demonetization of the currency, which wiped out many people’s savings. Suu Kyi, a political novice at the time, became the face of the movement.
The protests brought down longtime dictator Ne Win, but a new group of generals replaced him and brutally crushed the protests in September, killing an estimated 3,000 people. Elections were held in 1990, but the military refused to recognize the landslide victory of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained for nearly 14 of the last 20 years, faces up to five years in prison on charges that she harbored an American who swam to her lakeside villa earlier this year—a violation of the terms of her house arrest.
Security has been increased in Rangoon over the past several weeks and was stepped up on Saturday in response to recent security threats, national police chief Brig-Gen Khin Yi said at a news conference Friday.
He said “external opposition groups and terrorists” had planned to carry out attacks during UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit last month, as well as near Insein prison, where Suu Kyi’s trial is being held. The targets also included buildings of the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association, he said.
Khin Yi said authorities have arrested 15 people this year for planning to carry out “demolition activities” in Rangoon, Mandalay and other big cities, though he did not say how many were connected to the trial.

American Intruder Has Another Seizure

2009-08-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

RANGOON — An American on trial for entering the house of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi had three short epileptic fits on Friday, police said, fueling concerns that his poor health could delay next week's verdict.

John W Yettaw, 53, was admitted to Yangon General Hospital on Monday after suffering a seizure in prison, said national police chief Brig-Gen. Khin Yi.
Burmese Police Chief Brig-Gen Khin Yi, speaks at a news conference in Naypyidaw last year.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Each of Yettaw's seizures on Friday lasted for a few seconds, the police chief told a news conference. He did not elaborate on the American's overall condition.

Yettaw swam uninvited to Suu Kyi's home in May, prompting the government to accuse the 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate of violating her house arrest and the American of helping her to do so. Both Yettaw and Suu Kyi face five-year prison terms.

Critics say the ruling military has seized upon Yettaw's bizarre intrusion as an excuse to keep Suu Kyi jailed through next year's scheduled elections—the country's first in nearly two decades.

The charges against Suu Kyi, who has been detained for nearly 14 of the last 20 years, have refocused international outrage on Burma, which has been ruled by its military since 1962.

A verdict was scheduled for last Friday, but judges said they needed more time to sort through legal issues and rescheduled it for Tuesday.

Lawyers expect another postponement if Yettaw remains hospitalized, reasoning that courts in Burma don't generally make rulings in the absence of the accused.

The police chief declined to comment on the matter, saying only, "It depends on the decision of the court."

In addition to epilepsy, Yettaw reportedly suffers from diabetes and other health problems, including post traumatic stress disorder from his time in the US military.

Since he was taken into custody in early May, Yettaw has been on intermittent liquid diets on eight occasions, totaling 62 days, said Khin Yi.

Yettaw, a devout Mormon, told prison authorities that he was fasting due to his religious beliefs and not on a hunger strike, Khin Yi said.

Meanwhile, Khin Yi told reporters on Friday that Yettaw had connections with Burmese exiled groups, saying that a woman who was photographed together with Yettaw at an exiled group’s office in Mae Sot had been arrested in the Burmese border town of Myawaddy.

Khin Yi also alleged that in July, during UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Burma, Htay Aung of the Vigorous Burmese Student Warrior group was arrested after he attempted to detonate a bomb near Insein Prison where Suu Kyi’s trial was being held.

Suu Kyi is ‘Part of the Problem’: Goh Chok Tong

2009-08-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

Goh Chok Tong, Singapore’s former prime minister and current senior minister, said on Thursday that Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “part of the problem” facing the military-ruled country.

Goh told reporters at the Asia-Middle East Media Roundtable in Singapore that while the West sees Suu Kyi as the solution to Burma’s problems, she is also “part of problem” because she believes she is the government, according to Singapore’s Channel NewsAsia news network.

He also suggested Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), needed to seek a fresh mandate in the 2010 elections, saying that Suu Kyi should not dwell on the fact that her party’s victory in the 1990 elections was not recognized by the junta.

“That was 19 years ago, that’s history. If she realizes she has to be part of the solution, she has to offer some concessions, such as to publicly say that she would be in favor of the lifting of sanctions,” Goh was quoted as saying in The Malaysian Insider on Friday.

On Burma’s scheduled elections for next year, Goh said the junta should make sure that the elections were “fair, free and legitimate.” He added: “The process must involve parties that oppose you as well. Aung San Suu Kyi must be allowed to participate.”

The senior minister from the most developed country in Southeast Asia also said that military-ruled Burma’s economy has enormous growth potential.

“Myanmar [Burma] has the potential to boom in the next 10 years and it can be like Thailand’s today in 20 years’ time,” Goh said.

Responding to Goh’s comments, Aye Thar Aung, the secretary of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP), an umbrella group consisting of parties elected in 1990, rejected the idea that Suu Kyi is part of Burma’s problem.

“I disagree with Mr Goh Chok Tong because Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has openly said since 1988 that she could negotiate with the generals for the benefit of the country. She has also said that believes the military is needed to resolve the problems in Burma,” said Aye Thar Aung.

“Significantly, she also recognizes the importance of resolving ethnic issues. So she is still a key player in efforts to reach a resolution,” he added.

The argument that Suu Kyi is “part of the problem” is not new.

In early 2003, a number of Burma analysts, citing claims in the country’s state-run media that Suu Kyi was not willing to negotiate with the military, began to suggest that she had become an obstacle to political progress.

At the time, these analysts argued that Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt, a relative moderate among the ruling generals, should be regarded as the most important force for political change in Burma, not Suu Kyi. Khin Nyunt’s ouster in October 2004 put an end to that idea.

But the debate over Suu Kyi’s role in Burmese politics has recently been revived, with some Burma experts and international aid agencies saying that greater attention should be paid to the needs of ordinary Burmese citizens, rather than the plight of its most famous political prisoner. With the US and the European Union threatening tougher sanctions in response to Suu Kyi’s trial on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest, the debate has intensified.

In a recent interview with Asia Times online, Burmese historian Thant Myint-U, a former UN diplomat who is currently a visiting fellow with the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, called Suu Kyi’s strategy for reform “a gamble” that has not paid off.

He added that Suu Kyi’s approach has come at “the increasing cost of other roads not tested and opportunities lost as well as the enormous effect sanctions and aid cut-offs have had on ordinary people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable in the country.”

Meanwhile, Singaporean leaders, who are vocal advocates of engagement with the regime, have come under fire for being fundamentally ill-informed about Burma’s political realities.

In an interview last Sunday with The online Citizen, Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo incorrectly stated that Burma had been ruled by the military since its independence in 1948 and that Suu Kyi’s father, Aung San, had created the law that a Burmese citizen married to a foreign national could not take political office.

“The statements made by Singaporean leaders this week are undermining their own credibility,” said Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of Altsean, the Alternative Asean Network.

The CRPP’s Aye Thar Aung said that while regional leaders were welcome to play a role in resolving Burma’s political standoff, they should try to learn more about the country to get a better understanding of the roots of its problems.

Women’s Groups Want to See Than Shwe before the ICC

2009-08-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

Sixty five international women’s groups called on the UN Security Council on Friday to initiate action to bring Burma’s junta leaders before the International Criminal Court.

“We call for the UN Security Council to start with a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the horrific campaign of terror by the military regime and to refer Senior General Than Shwe and his cronies to the International Criminal Court for all crimes including for the imprisonment of Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in violation of international law,” the groups said in a joint statement.

The statement—also signed by the Thailand-based Women's League of Burma (WLB)—was sent to all members of the UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The statement said strong international intervention in Burma was needed to end systematic human rights abuses by the Burmese junta.

The statement was released to coincide with a UN debate on a report on Burma by Ban.

The WLB also called on the UN Security Council to act on the mandate of its resolution 1820, which is intended to protect civilians in conflict situations. The WLB said the Security Council should use the mandate of the resolution to halt the systemic use of rape and other sex crimes against ethnic women in Burma They had been brutalized for decades, the WLB said.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu recently added his voice to calls for Than Shwe to be held legally accountable for human rights abuses in Burma.

In a tribute to his fellow Peace Prize laurate, Aung San Suu Kyi, Tutu said: “Burma's generals are criminals, and must be treated as such. Than Shwe should be held accountable for abominable atrocities: his soldiers rape ethnic women and children, they torture, mutilate and murder at will.”

He pointed out that more than 3,300 ethnic villages in eastern Burma have been destroyed—more than in Darfur—and civilians are deliberately targeted and shot on sight.

“The UN must establish a commission of inquiry, with a view to compiling evidence for prosecution,” said Tutu.

Price of Cooking Oil Rises

2009-08-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

The price of cooking oil products in Burma has increased, a result of the Health Ministry’s ban on some imported cooking oil products in July and unusual weather patterns.

The Health Ministry has banned 11 imported cooking oil products from Thailand and Malaysia for allegedly using harmful dyes.

Among the banned oils removed from the market are Sakura, Fisherman, one Prawn, Fried Fish, Crab Water Dragon and Red Star.

A cooking oil dealer in Pyay Division told The Irrawaddy on Friday: “Now it’s time for sesame. Early this year, the price of sesame oil was 60,000 kyat (US $60) for 60 viss (90 kilograms). The current price of Magway red sesame and black sesame is 80,000 kyat for 60 viss (90 kilograms). The price of Mandalay white sesame is 100,000 kyat ($100) for 60 viss (90 kilograms).

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Complicating the price issue, Magway and Mandalay divisions, the location of many cooking oil plantations, have experienced a drought, making for a poor sesame crop.

Moreover, Pyay and Mindon divisions were hit by unusually heavy rains, hurting the crops in those areas.

Traders say they expect that some dealers will invest more in sesame crops and the price of sesame may be lower next year.

A cooking oil dealer in Magway division told The Irrawaddy, “All beans dealers ran in the red last year. But this year they made a profit, and they will invest and buy sesame.”

The current price for palm oil is about 2,7oo kyat ($27) per viss (1.53 kilograms); groundnut and sesame oil are 3,100 kyat ($31).

An oil dealer at the Bayintnaung wholesale market in Rangoon said: “For the time being, the price and demand of groundnut oil are normal. Actually, most people in lower Burma don’t like sesame oil because it has a rather bitter taste, and it’s smell is not sweet like groundnut oil. But some high class people use it for their health.”

Consumers use on average 10 kilograms of cooking oil a year, amounting to some 560 million kilograms for 56 million Burmese people, according to data from the Myanmar [Burma] Edible Oil Dealers Association.

US Senator to visit Burma

2009-08-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

The US Democratic senator from Virginia, Jim Webb, on Thursday announced that he will visit Burma as part of a five-nation tour in Asia.

Webb, who will arrive on Sunday, will be the first US lawmaker to visit Burma in a decade. No other details about the trip were available.

Webb is chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In a statement, Webb said besides visiting Burma, he would visit Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The purpose of the trip is to explore opportunities to advance US interests in Burma and the region, he said.

The statement said Webb has worked and traveled throughout Asia for nearly four decades, as a Marine Corps officer, a defense planner, a journalist, a novelist, a Department of Defense administrator and business consultant.

Meanwhile, the Burmese Prime Minister in Exile, Dr Sein Win of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, and officials of the National Council of the Union of Burma, have announced that they will present a plan to the United Nations on Friday proposing a way to unite the country.

The group will ask the UN Security Council and secretary-general to forward the plan to the military regime in Burma.

The plan, called “Proposal for National Reconciliation Towards Democracy & Development in Burma,” is the result of an alliance of pro-democracy parties and ethnic groups, both inside and outside Burma.

The plan sets out detailed steps for a transition to democracy in Burma, in association with members of the military regime.

Calling it a turning point in the history of Burma, Sein said: “For the first time, we have all come together to agree on a common platform for transition to democracy in Burma.”

“We are asking the United Nations and the international community to ensure that the regime engages in this dialogue, so that at last democracy and stability can be achieved in Burma,” he said.

Security Beefed Up on University Ave

2009-08-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

The Burmese military authorities on Thursday began beefing up security around the lakeside home of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sources in Rangoon said.

“This morning, security personnel surrounded Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s house,” said a journalist in Rangoon who spoke on condition of anonymity.

University Avenue—where the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s house stands—was open to traffic on Thursday morning, the sources said, but riot police blocked the road in the afternoon.

“At about 2 pm, the police stopped all motorists from driving down University Avenue. We had to divert to other roads,” a taxi driver in the city said.

Security forces were withdrawn from University Avenue in May after Suu Kyi was taken to Insein Prison to face trial for allegedly harboring American intruder John W Yettaw.

Thursday’s activity around University Avenue has fueled speculation that preparations are under way to bring the pro-democracy leader back safely to her home after the trial, the verdict on which is due on August 11.

Commenting on the security surrounding Suu Kyi’s house, her lawyer Kyi Win said, “In Burma, everything happens in unexpected ways.”

Meanwhile, reporters in the former capital have been notified of a press conference at the Narcotics Museum in Rangoon at 2 p.m. On Friday. The subject of the press conference is expected to be related to Suu Kyi, journalists said.

Suu Kyi’s lawyers, Kyi Win and Nyan Win, were allowed to meet with their client at Insein Prison on Thursday afternoon.

Burmese Authorities Ban Chanting of Metta Sutta

2009-08-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Buddhist monks at the Myat Saw Nyi Naung Pagoda in Yenangyaung, Magway Divison, were warned on Wednesday not to hold a ceremony to chant the Metta Sutta—the Buddha’s discourse on loving-kindness.

The monks originally planned a 12-hour-long recitation, scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Wednesday, to mark the full moon day of the fifth month of the Burmese calendar, traditionally celebrated as “Metta Sutta Day” by Burmese Buddhists.

“We only intended to recite Buddhist sutras, including the Metta Sutta, to wish for all sentient beings to be peaceful and free from anxiety. But the authorities told us to call off our plans,” a monk from Yenangyaung told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

Similar ceremonies are normally held throughout the country on this day. However, since a brutal crackdown on the monk-led protests of 2007, which featured marching monks reciting the Metta Sutta, most monasteries have been wary of publicly chanting the sutra.

“Banning chanting of the Buddhist sutras is a great insult to the Buddha, his teachings and his followers,” said Ashin Issariya, one of the leaders of the All Burma Monks Alliance (ABMA), the group that spearheaded the 2007 Saffron Revolution.

“There is no freedom of religion in Burma today,” he added, noting that banning large ceremonies also prevents people from making donations to monks—an important practice for Burmese Buddhists, who believe that providing monks with basic material requisites is the surest way to accumulate spiritual merit.

“The Buddha instructed monks to boycott any person who prevents donations to monks or obstructs the Dhamma,” he said. “I condemn this act by the authorities, and all other monks should also condemn it.”

According to Buddhist scripture, monks can boycott lay followers who violate religious principles by refusing to accept alms from them. This practice, known as “overturning the alms bowl,” is a powerful act of defiance, and one that has provoked a harsh response from Burmese authorities in the past.

Despite the ban on chanting the Metta Sutta at monasteries, on Wednesday the state-run New Light of Myanmar carried a commentary extolling its importance for practicing Buddhists.

“By chanting or reciting Metta Sutta, you send out to all sentient beings messages of your loving-kindness, compassion and goodwill. All who receive your good message reciprocate the same to you. You are immune from all dangers. You have no enemies, you have only friends,” wrote commentator Dr Khin Maung Nyunt.

Ashin Esika, a Burmese monk living in Sri Lanka, told The Irrawaddy: “I am greatly saddened to hear that the Burmese authorities prohibited monks from reciting the Buddha’s sutras. All monks and people need to unite and try their best to protect our religion. Moreover, all people under the sun must share kindness and compassion to uphold justice and peace in the world.”

On the Run

2009-08-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

MAE USU, Thailand — "If there is peace again, we will go back to our village," says the 60-year-old Karen woman, Bi Mae, as she holds her 4-month-old grandson in her arms in a makeshift bamboo hut.

But she knows well that she may never see some members of her family again or return to her village in Karen State, which has experienced a brutal civil war for more than 60 years.

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Just two weeks ago, Bi Mae and four of her grandchildren crossed into Thailand with more than 500 other Karen refugees, as gun fire echoed in the hills and news spread that the junta’s army was rounding up villagers for forced labor.

Since the beginning of June, fierce clashes between a joint force of the junta’s army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) engaged the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), forcing some 4,000 Karen villagers and internally displaced persons from Ler Per Her camp in Burma to flee to Tha Song Yang in Thailand’s Tak Province for safety. Many refugees are also secretly living with friends along the border, but the exact number is impossible to determine.

Refugees are living at six sites. The Irrawaddy interviewed refugees crowded into the grounds behind a Thai ecotourism site at Mae Usu cave, only a few kilometers inside the Burmese-Thai border.

"Right now 1,998 people are on the list here. Most of them are women and children,” says Chaklo, a member of the Karen Youth Organization (KYO), one of the community-based organizations helping refugees.

To help support the refugees, the Thai Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), an alliance of NGOs working for humanitarian relief, has distributed rice, beans, fish paste and salt, while the French NGO, Solidarit?s, provided water and sanitary facilities. The UNHCR has provided plastic sheets and tarpaulins for the shelter.

However, torrential rains have been falling for many days, making life even more difficult. At the camp’s makeshift clinic—supported by Dr. Cynthia Maung, and her Backpack Health Workers Team—many patients receive treatment for serious gastrointestinal problems like diarrhea and dysentery that are common ailments in the rainy season. Children in the camp are particularly at risk, according to the medics. Some children sleep in the bamboo huts while others play on the muddy ground of the green fields.

"They need to learn,” said Chaklo. “We also are ready to do that. But the Thai authorities don’t want us to set up a school here because the site is temporary."

Traditionally, the Thai policy is to start out with a short-term solution to aid new Karen refugees. While there is fighting on Burmese soil, the authorities grant the civilians permission to cross the border. But if there is no fighting, the refugees will be sent back to Burma. Presently, there have been no further reports of fighting after the withdrawal of KNLA troops from their military bases.

But there are ongoing reports of abuses by DKBA forces—forced recruitment, forced labor and money/food/livestock extortion—causing more people to flee and cross into Thailand. As a result, the refugees, for now, have been allowed to remain.

On July 9, Tassana Vichaithanapat, the director of the Foreign Affairs Division of the Operations Centre for Displaced Persons in the Ministry of Interior, visited one of the new sites, Nuh Bo.

During his visit, he met with refugee representatives, Thai district-level authorities and military officials and urged the authorities and international agencies to continue to provide humanitarian support while the Thai government tries to find a durable solution or until the displaced people are able to return to their homes, according to the TBBC.

Also, the Tha Song Yang district committee, which includes military, border police and UNHCR representatives, met on July 15 to consider possible solutions: an immediate return to Burma, relocation to Mae La refugee camp, or to open a new refugee camp at the site where the refugees are currently staying.

"Finally, they agreed that the refugees should stay where they are until the end of the rainy season.

Drugs Seized at Rangoon Airport and Outside Tachilek

2009-08-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

More than 200,000 amphetamine tablets have been seized at Rangoon International Airport and near the Burmese-Thai border town of Tachelik, state-owned The New Light of Myanmar reported on Wednesday.

Twenty thousand tablets were found at the airport in the possession of a passenger as he prepared to fly from Rangoon to Sittwe, capital of Arakan State in western Burma. He was identified as Kyaw Soe Win.

The other haul, of 200,000 tablets, was made when police stopped two motorcyclists on the road from Mae Sat to Tachilek.

Both hauls were made on August 1, the newspaper reported.A police official in Naypyidaw, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the report to The Irrawaddy and said a major drug dealer suspected of involvement is hiding in Thailand.

The Bangkok English language daily Bangkok Post reported on August 1 that a major Burmese drug trafficker, Chen Tafa, aka Ar Fa, had fled to a Thai village, Ban Arunothai, in Chiang Mai's Chiang Dao district.

Chen Tafa, 46, who is a former close aide of the late Burmese drug baron Khun Sa, fled to Thailand after Burmese authorities seized a huge amount of drugs from a six-wheel truck at a border checkpoint opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district on July 10, the newspaper reported.

The truck was heading to Burma's Tachilek when it was stopped and searched.

On July 10, Burmese police in Tachilek reported finding about 1,000 kilograms of heroin and 340,000 amphetamine tablets in a truck on the outskirts of the border town.

Later, more than 150,000 amphetamine tablets were also seized in the town.

The majority of drugs smuggled out of Burma end up in Thailand, according to a report released by the US State Department in March. The report said Burma is a significant player in the manufacture and regional trafficking of amphetamine-type stimulants.

Burma is listed as the second largest producer of heroin in the world after Afghanistan, according to experts from the United Nations and the United States.

Burmese Migrants to Hang for Murder in Malaysia

2009-08-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

KUALA LUMPUR — A Malaysian court on Thursday sentenced six Burmese immigrants to death for murdering a man in a gang fight, a lawyer said.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court found the men guilty of using a machete and a screwdriver to kill 21-year-old laborer Sadib Husin on June 26, 2005, said attorney AS Dhaliwal, who represents three of the accused.

The men had pleaded innocent, saying they were present during the street clash between rival Burmese gangs but were not involved in killing Sadib, Dhaliwal said.

Prosecution witnesses, including Husin's brother, who was at the scene, testified that they saw the six men assaulting Husin.

The six will appeal, Dhaliwal said.

Malaysia has a mandatory death penalty for various offenses including murder, drug trafficking or crimes using firearms.

Burmese Army Equipped with New Arms

2009-08-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

The 400,000-strong Burmese army is now almost fully armed with locally manufactured MA-series weapons, according to several sources within the armed forces and rebel groups.

The sources told The Irrawaddy that the Burmese army—known as the “Tatmadaw”—had equipped all frontline battalions with MA1, MA2, MA3 or MA4 automatic assault rifles.

According to a weapons Web site, securityarms.com, the MA series was manufactured with the help of arms contractor Israeli Military Industries, and was designed similar to the Israeli Galil rifle.

The weapons are expected to be used in conflicts with ethnic rebel groups, in particular the Karen National Union, as the Tatmadaw seeks to extinguish the country’s 60-year-plus insurgency. The Burmese armed forces have one of the world’s most notorious records for atrocities and human rights abuses, such as killing civilians, raping women and conscripting children.

Since the 1950s, the Tatmadaw has traditionally employed German-made G-3 weapons. However, the G-3 assault rifle was considered too heavy for use in jungle warfare and, as the Burmese generals had endured decades of conflict with ethnic groups in Burma’s mountainous border regions, they began manufacture of the MA series in 2002, presumably after signing a license agreement with Israel Military Industries.

The MA1 and MA2 assault rifles are shorter and lighter than the G3, but not as powerful, said the sources.

The MA3 is an assault carbine, basically an MA1 with a side-folding stock, and the MA4 is a grenadier weapon, essentially an MA1 equipped with a single-shot grenade launcher.

Sources told The Irrawaddy that the weapons were manufactured at several factories in Burma, but the main factory is reportedly called Ka Pa Sa No 1, and is situated near Rangoon’s Inya Lake.

Sai Sheng Murng, the deputy spokesman of the rebel Shan State Army-South (SSA), said, “The MA1 and MA2 assault rifles are not heavy, so they are good for carrying to the frontlines. But they are not powerful like the G-3.”

“The MA1s and MA2s are similar to our M16s. In fact, we can use their ammunition in our M16 rifles, but they cannot use our ammunition in their rifles,” he said.

The Burmese army is one of the most battle-hardened forces in Asia, having fought almost continuously against ethnic insurgents and communist guerillas for more than six decades.

However, following the brutal suppression of student-led demonstrations in 1988, the United States and later the European Union imposed an arms embargo on the Burmese regime.

At the time, Burmese democracy activists and international sympathizers lobbied the West German government to prevent sales of G-3 weapons from the Fritz Werner arms manufacturing company going to the Burmese junta.

The German arms manufacturers registered themselves in Burma in the 1990s as Myanmar Fritz Werner Industries Co Ltd, an electrical and electronics company.

However, the photograph of a Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai, being shot during protests in 2007 by a Burmese soldier holding what would appear to be a G-3 rifle, raised doubts as to whether local production of the German assault rifle was ongoing.

Despite the Western arms embargo, the Burmese military regime has no shortage of arms suppliers—Israel, Russia, Ukraine and China are reportedly the main players.

Meanwhile, recent reports have indicated that Burma has purchased nuclear material from North Korea and harbors ambitions of creating a nuclear arsenal.

Japanese plan for Don Mueang airport

2009-08-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

The government has accepted an offer to join forces with the Japan Aviation Academy (JAA) in developing Don Mueang airport as a regional aviation hub, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Friday.

He said JAA chief executive officer Shigeo Umezawa visited him at Government House today and proposed the government come up with investment projects to redevelop the old airport.

Mr Umezawa said that as Bangkok is already a transport centre for many countries in the Asian region it was only fitting that avation-related businesses should be set up at Don Mueang.

Mr Abhisit said he knew many Japanese businesses were now based in Thailand and had therefore decided to visit Japan soon after taking office to tighten ties between the two countries.

''It will be useful if the JAA can help Thailand develop human resources in the aviation sector.

''The Ministry of Transport has mapped out projects to develop Don Mueang airport, but one major problem is the lack of human resources in the aviation area,” Mr Abhisit said.

Japanese plan for Don Mueang airport

2009-08-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

Police Commission stands by list endorsed by Patcharawat

2009-08-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

he Police Commission has resolved to leave the reshuffle list of 152 high-ranking police officers unchanged, deputy national police chief Pol Gen Watcharapol Prasarnratchakit said on Friday.

The list had been approved by the commission at a previous meeting, but Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, the ex-officio chairman, called a meeting of the commission on Friday to reconsider it.

After the meeting, Pol Gen Watcharapol said the list will be forwarded to His Majesty the King for endorsement after the royal decree on the new structure of the Royal Thai Police Office has taken effect.

He said the petition from deputy national police chief Pol Gen Priewpan Damapong, seeking redress because he was not made acting police chief in Pol Gen Patcharawat's Wongsuwon's absence, was not considered at the meeting.

Earlier in the day, Pol Gen Priewpan petitioned Mr Suthep over the appointment. He has said publicly he was the most senior officer after the police chief and was victimised because he was Thaksin Shinawatra's former brother-in-law.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva opted instead for Pol Gen Wichien Pojphosri, also a deputy national police chief.

Pol Gen Priewpan has said he wanted the Police Commission to consider his letter at its meeting today.

Meanwhile, a subcommittee has been set up to look into whether Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva interfered in the police investigation of the attempted murder of People's Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul, Election Commission chairman Apichart Sukhagganond said on Friday.

Verdict expected in Burma on Tuesday

2009-08-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

A verdict is expected on Tuesday against the leader of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, the country which on Saturday commemorates the 21st anniversary of the 1988 student uprising which spread throughout the country.

The UK Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Ivan Lewis has marked the anniversary by issuing a tribute to Nobel prize-winner Suu Kyi and all of Burma's political prisoners.

“The students were joined in their protests by people from all walks of life – saffron-robed monks, teachers, young children, housewives and doctors. A general strike took place on August 8, 1988, an auspicious date. But Burma’s first popular uprising was put down the next month in the most bloody and ruthless manner. A brutal repression of the people that has continued to this day, and which we last witnessed in the beating and killing of monks and civilians in November 2008,” he said.

The protest brought Aung San Suu Kyi to the forefront of the struggle for democracy, freedom and civil liberties.

“She is currently subject to a political show trial and faces the prospect of a prison sentence on August 11 – a date the regime have set to avoid the anniversary of 8888, and because the Senior General believes 11 is his lucky number. Relying on numbers, lucky or otherwise, is a poor substitute for a clear strategic choice of an inclusive democracy,” Mr Lewis said.

There are over 2,100 other political prisoners being held in Burma, now called Myanmar by its rulers.

“On the anniversary of 8888, I want to pay tribute to all Burma’s political prisoners. Their courage and resilience in the face of the abuse of their fundamental human rights is humbling. I also want to repeat the international community’s call to the Burmese regime to release unconditionally all political prisoners, and commit to a genuine and inclusive process of dialogue and national reconciliation. Until they do so, future elections, such as those they plan for 2010 will have absolutely no legitimacy,” he said.

Ms Suu Kyi was put on trial after an America, John Yettaw, swam across a lake behind her home and broke into her home, where she had been held under house arrest for 6 years, although she has spent almost 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest or in prison. Her party won 82 per cent of the votes in 1990 but the Burmese regime refused to recognise the result.

She was due to be released this year and the break-in has provided a pretext for keeping her locked up, her followers believe.

International pressure has been building up. Her arrest was ruled illegal under both Burmese and international law by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the trial “outrageous”.

Burma Braces for Verdict of Aung San Suu Kyi

2009-08-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

Burma's state-run newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar is warning citizens not to incite protests on Friday, when the verdict for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be handed down.

Security has increased near the Insein prison in Rangoon, where the pro-democracy leader has been on trial for more than two months on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest in May.

She faces five years in prison for allowing an American man to stay at her lakeside home, after he swam there uninvited last May.

One of Aung San Suu Kyi's attorneys, Nyan Win, told reporters that she is holding up well but is "preparing for the worst." He says she has asked for several English, French and Burmese language books to pass her time in prison if she is convicted.

Critics say Burma's military junta is using the trial as a pretext to keep her from participating in next year's elections.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the regime is missing "an important opportunity" to engage with the international community, especially those who want to see Aung San Suu Kyi go free.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has has spent 14 of the past 20 years under some form of detention, mostly house arrest.

North Korea Helping Burma Develop Nuclear Weapons

2009-08-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

Burma may be trying to develop a nuclear bomb, according to accounts by two Burmese defectors, the Sydney Morning Herald reported August 1.

The two defectors—who had never met—both described a secret nuclear complex that Burma was constructing with North Korean help, much of it in caves tunneled into a mountain at Naung Laing in northern Burma.

Prof. Desmond Ball, who has closely studied the Burmese military, and Phil Thornton, a journalist and expert on Burma, interviewed the two defectors over a period of two years. They concluded that if the defectors’ reports were true, Burma could be nuclear-capable and producing a bomb every year after 2014.

“The evidence is preliminary and needs to be verified, but this is something that would completely change the regional security status quo,” said the head of Thailand’s Institute of Security and International Studies, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, on July 31. “It would move Myanmar [Burma] from not just being a pariah state, but a rogue state—that is, one that jeopardizes the security and well-being of its immediate neighbors.”

Burma is known to be constructing a civilian nuclear reactor with Russia’s help. Both Russia and Burma claim the reactor will be put under international safeguards.

One of the defectors was an officer with a secret nuclear battalion in the Burmese Army, sent to Russia for training. The other was a former executive of one of the military regime’s main business partners, who handled nuclear contracts with Russia and North Korea.

Although defectors’ accounts are not always accurate, these do match with other reports from the region. “All we can say is these two guys never met up with each other, never knew of each other’s existence, and yet they both tell the same story basically,” said Professor Ball.

With states like North Korea and Pakistan possessing the bomb, it is frighteningly easy for rogue nations to get hold of nuclear technology today. Israel destroyed a nuclear reactor being built by North Korea in Syria only two years ago. If Pyongyang is helping Burma get the bomb, the big question is, who else has it helped?

Burma Isn’t Broke

2009-08-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

The drawn-out show trial of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has once again focused attention on Burma and sparked discussion on how to engage the regime. U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently suggested development aid as a carrot to coax the generals to talk. But contrary to popular belief, the junta isn’t as poor as it claims to be.

Burma has emerged as a major regional supplier of natural gas in Asia-Pacific. At present, most of this gas is sold to Thailand, but new fields will shortly provide for vast sales to China. Rising gas prices and increasing demand have caused the value of Burma’s gas exports to soar, driving a projected balance-of-payments surplus for this fiscal year of around $2.5 billion. Burma’s international reserves will rise to over $5 billion-worth by the end of the year.

These revenues make next to no impact on the country’s official fiscal accounts, however. The reason is simple: Burma’s U.S. dollar gas earnings are recorded in the government’s published accounts at the local currency’s “official” exchange rate of around six kyat to a dollar. This rate overvalues the currency by nearly 200 times its market value and undervalues the local-currency value of Burma’s gas earnings by an equivalent amount. Recorded at the official rate, Burma’s gas earnings translate into less than 1% of budget receipts. By contrast, if the same gas earnings are recorded at the market exchange rate, their contribution would more than double total state receipts, and largely eliminate Burma’s fiscal deficit.

The motivation for this sleight of hand is probably to “quarantine” Burma’s foreign exchange earnings from the country’s public accounts, thereby making them available to the regime and its cronies. This accounting is facilitated by Burma’s state-owned Foreign Trade Bank and some willing offshore banks.

Flush with these funds, Burma’s military rulers have embarked upon a spending binge of epic proportions, including indulging themselves in the creation of a new administrative capital named Naypyidaw, or “abode of kings.” They are also buying nuclear technologies of uncertain use from Russia and possibly from North Korea.

This kind of behavior is par for the course in Burma. The military junta took power in a 1962 coup and has consistently expropriated the country’s output while dismantling its basic market institutions. There are no effective property rights in Burma, and the rule of law is weak. Macroeconomic policy making is capricious, unpredictable and ill-informed. The regime spends greatly in excess of its revenue and resorts to the printing presses to finance its spending, creating inflation. Most of Burma’s prominent corporations are owned by the military, and the country is judged by Transparency International as the second most corrupt in the world.

Burma’s fall from grace has been incredible to watch. The country was once one of the richest in Southeast Asia and the world’s largest rice exporter. Today, Burma can barely feed itself. In 1950, the per capita of GDP of Burma and its neighbor, Thailand, were virtually identical. Today, Thailand’s GDP is seven times that of its former peer, despite very similar religious, cultural and physical endowments.

The people of Burma are poor, but the regime that oppresses them is not. Changing this equation is the true key to economic development in Burma, and the outcome to which the efforts of the rest of the world should be directed.

Putting Burma's Junta on Trial

2009-08-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

Last month two famous defendants — one adored, the other despised — appeared in courts nearly 10,000 km apart. Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, is being tried by a special tribunal in The Hague for murder, rape, torture and other war crimes allegedly committed during the decade-long conflict in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor — known as "Pappy" to child soldiers who, say prosecutors, were abducted, drugged and dispatched to commit atrocities on his orders — used his first appearance on the stand on July 14 to dismiss the charges as "disinformation, misinformation, lies, rumors." (Read "'Lies and Rumors': Liberia's Charles Taylor on the Stand.")
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Meanwhile, and much more convincingly, Aung San Suu Kyi was protesting her innocence before a court in Rangoon. The Burmese democracy icon faces up to five years in prison for violating the terms of her house arrest after an American man swam to her lakeside home in Rangoon. The charges are farcical, the verdict a foregone conclusion: Suu Kyi is expected to be declared guilty on Aug. 11. But some in Burma's embattled democracy movement will turn to The Hague for solace. Taylor is the first African head of state to face an international war-crimes tribunal. Could Senior General Than Shwe, leader of the Burmese junta, be the first Asian? (Read "Viewpoint: Why Foreigners Can Make Things Worse for Burma.")

This is not as far-fetched as it might initially seem. A compelling case for investigating war crimes in Burma is made in a May 2009 report by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. Called "Crimes in Burma," its authors are heavy hitters: they include one former judge and two former prosecutors from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, including the British lead attorney in the case against Slobodan Milosevic.

Referring only to U.N. documents, the report lays out the "systematic and widespread" atrocities committed in Burma in recent years: killings, torture, rape, "epidemic levels" of forced labor, a million people homeless, the recruitment of tens of thousands of child soldiers, and — here they draw comparisons with Darfur — the displacement or destruction of more than 3,000 ethnic-nationality villages. These abuses were usually committed during armed conflict, which "strongly suggests" they are war crimes and crimes against humanity, says the report.

A precedent for acting on such abuses has been set by the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Darfur, the authors continue. They assert that with such overwhelming evidence from its own documents, the U.N. Security Council should establish a commission to investigate war crimes in Burma, then create a special tribunal to try those responsible for them. "The [U.N. Security] Council is the only body that can take the action necessary to respond adequately to the crisis in Burma," conclude the authors, before warning of "the painful consequences of inaction."

The Security Council held its first ever debate on Burma in 2005, but has done little but talk since. The chances of the U.N.'s most powerful body establishing a Burmese war-crimes commission are slim so long as permanent members China and Russia exercise their veto. But this shouldn't stop the U.S., U.K., and France from demanding one. It would certainly be noted in Naypyidaw, the junta's remote new capital. As the ongoing persecution of Suu Kyi amply demonstrates, Burma's generals are impervious to global condemnation. But don't be fooled by common depictions of them as blinkered, paranoid and xenophobic. "These caricatures ignore the fact that the regime contains intelligent officers who are close observers of the international scene," observed Andrew Selth of Australia's Griffith University last year. And there is some evidence that international justice is something those officers view with alarm. (Read about the 2007 crackdown in Burma.)

Just look at the military-drafted constitution, which was "approved" by a sham referendum in the wake of Cyclone Nargis in 2008. It not only formalizes the junta's rule, by reserving for the military a quarter of seats in the new parliament after elections next year. It also grants junta officials immunity from prosecution. "This clause won't protect them from international prosecution, but it shows they're worried about it," says Mark Farmaner, director of the advocacy group Burma Campaign UK. (See pictures of Burma after Cyclone Nargis.)

So does the regime's sudden interest in a little-known exile group called the Burma Lawyers' Council. In May, at a Bangkok hotel, it held a three-day seminar entitled "Advancing human rights and ending impunity in Burma." Among the subjects discussed by the 100 or so delegates were the criminal accountability of individual junta members and how the U.N. Security Council might be persuaded to investigate Burmese war crimes.

Days before the seminar began, the junta outlawed the lawyers' group, which previously had barely blipped on Naypyidaw's radar, then requested Thailand to halt the seminar. It went ahead, but the harassment continued. As Burmese spies prowled the hotel lobby, delegates heard reports that agents had been dispatched to kidnap or kill the group's chairman Aung Htoo. He was smuggled out of the seminar and spent three weeks in hiding in Thailand before fleeing for Sweden.

Aung Htoo says a war-crimes commission "very much concerns the Burmese leadership." He believes the prospect might cause reform-minded officers to break ranks and topple Than Shwe. Of course, it could also have the opposite effect, causing the generals to tighten their grasp on power — although ethnic minorities suffering ongoing military atrocities in eastern Burma might think this was a risk worth taking. "At the moment Burmese soldiers know they can act with impunity," says Farmaner. "A threat of consequences might change behavior on the ground."

The sad and wretched history of Burma is relentless. Its civil war — the world's longest — rages on. Cease-fires between the junta and other insurgent groups are looking shaky. Piecemeal and uncoordinated sanctions by the U.S. and Europe have failed. Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, is comatose, and more than 2,000 political prisoners are in Burmese jails. Convincing the U.N. Security Council to investigate Burmese war crimes might seem like an uphill struggle. "But that is why we campaign — to change things," says Farmaner. That campaign could galvanize Burma's weary democrats, even as their leader prepares for yet another lengthy spell in the junta's custody.

Cambodia's Shanty Evictions Roll On

2009-08-06T03:32:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (OneWorld.net) - The 60 low-income families forced to abandon their homes in Phnom Penh's "Group 78" are just the latest victims in a string of mass evictions carried out by the Cambodian government in recent years, say international observers.< What's the Story?

In mid-July, security officers entered the settlement to remove the final families that had refused to accept a government compensation offer that was widely considered inadequate and did not include any access to new land -- a key necessity for low-income families. Seven families held out an extra day, but eventually left the area as government workers dismantled homes around them.

Amnesty International monitors say the Cambodian government has been harassing the families for over three years, pressuring them to leave the area that is considered valuable real estate near two key rivers.

People have been living in the riverfront area since the early 1980s and have applied for land titles several times over the last few years. But Cambodian authorities have ignored these land ownership claims while forcing families out of the area. A final eviction notice was issued to residents of the district in April 2009, an order which goes against international law prohibiting forced evictions, according to Amnesty International.

In a series of meetings following the notice, officials warned residents that their homes would be demolished by military and police forces if they did not leave. A local commission has yet to make a decision on who owns the rights to the disputed land, and the options for accommodation and compensation were characterized as "inadequate" by Amnesty International monitors.

"Group 78 was clearly cut off from due process and denied justice," said Brittis Edman, Amnesty International's Cambodia researcher. "The Municipality of Phnom Penh made no attempts to properly consult with the affected community or explore any feasible alternative to eviction." [See the full statement from Amnesty International below.]

Squeezing out the Poor in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh's shanty towns have been a refuge over the last two decades for families who need to survive on a few dollars a day. Some people have lived in areas like Group 78 for more than 10 years, which gives them a strong legal claim to own their property, noted the BBC news service. But the government has refused to grant these families the right to the land.

"The official line is that the evictions are necessary for the development of the city," said the BBC report. But as the residents are forced out, property developers move in to build expensive apartments and shopping centers in and around Phnom Penh. By virtue of Group 78's proximity to the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, it is considered some of the most valuable land in the capital city.

Cambodian authorities have threatened the residents of Group 78 with eviction for three years without following any of the safeguards required under international law, said Amnesty International. No land was included in the compensation offer and many of the residents -- pushed out to make room for tourists, government officials, and the wealthy -- are unsure where they will go.

The World Bank, European Union, and a number of international embassies in Phnom Penh issued a statement condemning the forced evictions, saying actions like it are "creating uncertainty for, and putting at risk the livelihoods of, thousands of poor people living in disputed urban areas."

Life After Eviction

In past cases, low-income families evicted from their land often found conditions at government-provided resettlement sites much worse than those of their old homes. In 2006, families were relocated outside of the city, far from markets or schools, and had "no running water, mains electricity or sewage," reported the BBC.

Last year, around 300 families were forcibly evicted from a rural district in southern Cambodia and their houses burned to the ground. Some of the dispossessed, who were largely poor farmers who settled on the land believing it to be vacant, spent the night in the ashes of their homes. No prior notice or eviction order was given and no court decision was made, noted Amnesty International.

In January, over 130 families were forced to leave their homes in Phnom Penh in the middle of the night, without prior notice. These evictions are proving to be a trend to make room for property developers in Cambodia's capital, and they constitute a "grave breach" of human rights, said Raquel Rolnik, a United Nations housing expert.

"Given the disastrous humanitarian situation faced by the victims of forced evictions, I urge Cambodian authorities to establish a national moratorium on evictions until their policies and actions in this regard have been brought into full conformity with international human rights obligations," pleaded Rolnik.

In 2008, Amnesty International estimated that 150,000 Cambodians were living at risk of forced eviction.

- Article compiled by David Iaconangelo.
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Cambodian security forces forcibly evict 60 low-income families

From: Amnesty International
7/17/09

Sixty low-income families in central Phnom Penh, Cambodia were forcibly evicted from their homes by security forces on Thursday and Friday.

The families dismantled their homes after three years of government harassment and intimidation, with no choice but to accept inadequate compensation rather than have their homes demolished.

"Amnesty International strongly condemns this forced eviction and the deeply flawed process that led to it," said Brittis Edman, Amnesty International's Cambodia researcher.

Before dawn on Friday, at least 70 security forces, some armed with guns and electronic batons, moved in and blocked off the area known as Group 78 where seven remaining families were holding out. Human rights workers and journalists were monitoring the situation. Dozens of hired workers demolished what was left of the dismantled houses. Within hours, the resisting families had agreed to leave.

The families in Group 78 had been living under the threat of forced evictions for three years, with the Cambodian authorities following none of the safeguards required under international law.

"Group 78 was clearly cut off from due process and denied justice. The Municipality of Phnom Penh made no attempts to properly consult with the affected community or explore any feasible alternative to eviction," said Brittis Edman. "This makes a mockery of the government's obligations to protect the right to housing."

The Municipality issued a final eviction notice to Group 78 in April 2009 and, in a series of subsequent meetings, officials, including Phnom Penh's deputy governor, warned the community that the police and military police would demolish their homes if they did not accept the compensation on offer. The community had also received information that up to 700 security forces had been mobilized for the eviction.

Group 78 residents started moving into the area on the riverfront in 1983 and have applied for formal land titles several times since 2006, but the authorities have ignored their applications in spite of official documentation proving strong ownership claims.

The final eviction order was issued by the Municipality, which has no mandate under national law to issue such a document, and without the judicial overview required under the 2001 Land Law. It was issued despite the fact that a local Commission has yet to determine who owns the disputed land. The options for alternative accommodation and compensation offered by the Municipality were inadequate.

Under international law, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ICESCR), Cambodia is prohibited from carrying out forced evictions, and must protect people from forced evictions.

The Cambodian Government has consistently failed to guarantee the right to adequate housing and protect its population against forced evictions. In 2008 alone, Amnesty International received reports about 27 forced evictions, affecting an estimated 23,000 people. Amnesty International is repeating its calls on the government to end forced evictions and introduce a moratorium on all mass evictions until the legal framework protects human rights.

As part of its Demand Dignity campaign, launched in May 2009, Amnesty International has called on the Cambodian Government to end forced evictions and introduce a moratorium on all mass evictions until the legal framework protects human rights.

UN Chief Repeats Call to Release All Political Prisoners

2009-08-06T03:27:00.000-07:00

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday said he hoped that the Burmese military junta would listen to the international community at this moment and release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi, the popular pro-democracy leader.

The secretary-general made his remark at UN headquarters in New York following a meeting of the “Group of Friends” on Burma. Ban said he had the support of all key international players on his approach to Burma.

“I expect that the authorities of Myanmar [Burma] will respond positively and in a timely manner to the expectations and concerns and repeated calls of the international community to release all political prisoners and particularly Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” Ban told reporters.

He said he briefed the 14-member group about the two messages he delivered to the military regime during his visit to Burma last month and to the Permanent Representative of Burma at the United Nations last week.

“First, my clear expectation and that of the international community is that the government of Myanmar will give careful consideration to the implications of any verdict in the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and use this opportunity to exercise its responsibility to ensure her immediate release,” he said.

“Second, the international community’s high expectations that the government of Myanmar will act in Myanmar’s interest by taking timely and positive steps in follow-up to the specific proposals which I made to the senior leadership during my visit, starting with the release of all political prisoners so that they could participate in a credible and inclusive political process,” Ban said.

“I am pleased that, in our discussion today, the members of the Group of Friends welcomed these messages,” the secretary-general said.

This—together with the statements of support issued over the past few weeks from the G8 Leaders’ meeting to the Asean Regional Forum—confirms the continued interest of the international community as a whole to see Burma respond positively at this critical juncture of the country’s transition, Ban said.

When asked if he has any indication when political prisoners would be released, Ban said: “I do not have any clear indication, except what the Permanent Representative of Myanmar has reported to the Security Council in an official meeting on July 13, if I remember correctly, that upon request of the secretary-general of the United Nations, the Myanmar government was taking necessary procedures to grant amnesty to political prisoners.

“I hope they will take necessary measures to implement their commitment,” he said.

This was the second meeting of the Group of Friends on Burma after Ban’s trip to the country last month. The first meeting was chaired by Ibrahim Gambari, the special US representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“This was an opportunity for me to personally thank the members of the group for their continued strong support to my good offices’ effort. It was also an opportunity for me to hear their views on developments in Myanmar at this point,” Ban said.

The Group of Friends, founded in December 2007, represents a wide range of views on Burma and was established to hold informal discussions and develop shared approaches to support UN efforts. Its members are Australia, China, the European Union, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.

The secretary-general said another meeting of the Group of Friends will be held in September on the sidelines of the opening of the General Assembly at UN Headquarters.

Meanwhile, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said she will send a team to Burma to press the military junta and rebel groups to end the practice of using child soldiers.

"Coomaraswamy is taking all efforts to address the child soldier issues all around the world, including Myanmar," Ban said. "This is a very important step."

Burmese Migrants to Hang for Murder in Malaysia

2009-08-06T03:23:00.000-07:00

KUALA LUMPUR — A Malaysian court on Thursday sentenced six Burmese immigrants to death for murdering a man in a gang fight, a lawyer said.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court found the men guilty of using a machete and a screwdriver to kill
21-year-old laborer Sadib Husin on June 26, 2005, said attorney AS Dhaliwal, who represents three of the accused.

The men had pleaded innocent, saying they were present during the street clash between rival Burmese gangs but were not involved in killing Sadib, Dhaliwal said.

Prosecution witnesses, including Husin's brother, who was at the scene, testified that they saw the six men assaulting Husin.

The six will appeal, Dhaliwal said.

Malaysia has a mandatory death penalty for various offenses including murder, drug trafficking or crimes using firearms.

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Vice-Premier Somsavat meets Vietnam�s Party General Secretary Manh

2009-08-06T03:01:00.000-07:00

(KPL) Standing Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad paid a courtesy visit to General Secretary Nong Duc Manh of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hanoi on 4 August, during his visit to Vietnam for the mid-term meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-Governmental Committee, according to Vietnam News Agency report.
on 5 August.
The Standing Deputy PM, who is the Chairman of the Laos-Vietnam Cooperation Sub-Committee, briefed his host of the results of the meeting, and affirmed that the Lao Party, Government and people would do their utmost to strengthen and develop the traditional rapport between the two nations.
He congratulated Vietnam�s achievements in the renewal process, and expressed his belief that his Vietnamese brothers would successfully implement the Resolution of the Tenth Party Congress to develop a socialist Vietnam with a rich people, a strong country, and an equal, democratic and civilised society. Party leader Manh appreciated the meeting�s results and the efforts of the bilateral cooperation sub-committees over the recent time.
He wished that they would further tighten cooperation, exchange experiences and information, and assist each other in coping with the global financial and economic crisis. He also urged them to coordinate in implementing the two countries� cooperation agreements and drafting a strategy for the 2011-2020 cooperation.
The Vietnamese leader congratulated the Lao Party, Government and people on their achievements in national construction and defence and wished them more success in implementing the Resolution of the Lao Party�s Eighth Congress, building a peaceful, independent, democratic, united and prosperous Laos and raising the country�s position in the region and the world.

China forks out brimming remimbi for bridge but Thailand drags its feet on Thai baht

2009-08-06T03:00:00.001-07:00

(KPL) The construction work of the fourth Lao-Thai Friendship Mekong River Bridge is still put on hold thanks to Thailand�s inability to disburse money for this huge undertaking, said a local official.
According to the Public Works and Transport Office of Bokeo, the Chinese and Thai governments would make a joint contribution of US$ 59 million to fund the construction of the 480 metre bridge, which would link Don village, northern Laos� Bokeo province, and Ing village, Chiang Rai province of Thailand.
Upon completion, the bridge would facilitate the communication between the three neighbouring countries, Laos, Thailand, China.
The Lao government would give four billion kip for the compensation to the local residents in the vicinity of the proposed bridge site, who will be relocated.
Mr. Thavone Vorabouth, Deputy Director of the 4th Lao-Thai Friendship Mekong River Bridge Construction Project, told KPL News yesterday that whereas China is ready to disburse its share of the cost but Thailand has not said when it would cough up the money.
�According to the schedule, the construction should commence at the end of 2009 and due for completion in 2013 but if the Thai government dragged its feet on this the actual construction date would have to be pushed forward, said Mr Thavone.
He also said that the Cooperation Committee, made up of representatives from Laos, Thailand and China had been making preparations for the bidding process and the bid envelopes should be opened in December 2009.

Party Secretary General to visit China

2009-08-06T02:59:00.000-07:00

(KPL) The Secretary General of the Lao People�s Revolutionary Party and President of the Lao PDR Choummaly Sayasone will pay a working visit to the People�s Republic of China from 9 to 16 August.
The visit is in response to an invitation of his Chinese counterpart, the President of the People�s Republic of China who is also Secretary General of the CPC Central Committee, Mr Hu Jintao.

NOUL disseminates ASEAN work

2009-08-06T02:58:00.000-07:00

(KPL) National University of Laos (NOUL) on 5 August held a meeting, to disseminate the 42nd anniversary of ASEAN and 12th anniversary of Laos became a member of ASEAN country to students and teachers and officials in
University.
The meeting was chaired by Alounkeo Kittikhoun, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs who is also an ASEAN senior official, attended by representatives from ministries of Industry and Commerce, Information and Culture, Planning and Investment and
Finance.
Mr Alounkeo highlighted the achievements of ASEAN since establishing ASEAN and proclaiming the ASEAN charters into practice on 15 December 2008.
The initiative for ASEAN integration and ASEAN cooperation on politic, security, economy, trade and social culture were also touched upon at the meeting.

High-level meeting on controlling cigarette consumption

2009-08-06T02:57:00.000-07:00

(KPL) The Ministry of Education and the Inter-ministerial Tobacco Control Committee jointly held a meeting on disseminating information on the harmful effects of cigarette smoking in Vientiane.
on 4 August.
This meeting was attended by Mrs Sengdeuane, Deputy-Minister of Education, Mr Sath Insixiengmai, Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Tobacco Control Committee, and representatives from four district education services.
The event focused on increasing knowledge on the control on tobacco and cigarettes and how to teach school children about the harmful effects of cigarette smoking.
Regarding the work on controlling cigarette smoking, the delegates stated that it is up to the mayor of Vientiane to decide on the areas that should be smoke free, such as offices, schools, hotels, guest houses, restaurants, markets, bus stations, public parks, temples etc in Vientiane Capital.

Luang Prabang destroys fake products

2009-08-06T02:55:00.000-07:00

(KPL) The imitation products were destroyed on 4 August, Luang Prabang province, following the seizure of more than 1,000 dozens of fake shampoo and five dozens of toothpaste, worth more than 8.5 million kip, by customs officers.
The event was attended by representatives of the Committee of Intellectual and Property Rights Management and product dealers in the province.
Mr Somsak Bounmaphet said the destruction of fake products aimed at providing justice and advantages for society and protecting intellectual and property rights of the producing company.
He said that, �this was the third destruction of imitation products by the local authorities�.
In 2006, the provincial authorities seized and destroyed counterfeit products worth more than 42.2 million kip, and in the following year additional fake products worth 31.8 million kip were destroyed.
A police officer said that the confiscation was aimed at protecting consumers� rights.
�The smuggling of counterfeit products declined compared to the previous years and people knew which is fake and which is real,� he continued.However, there was a number of merchants still take advantage through the circulation of fake products, he added.
He expressed concern for peasants who lack knowledge of which products are real.
Head of Technology and Science Service in Luang Prabang province Sipaseuth Duangsavath said that the circulation of fake products did not only violate the copyright law but also impact on the socio-economic development.
He called on all social strata to combat against counterfeit products and cooperate with our inspection committees to inspect fake products smuggling.
�Any counterfeit product circulation in Laos is against the law of the Lao PDR and Prime Minister�s notice No 529, proclaimed on 4 April 2008,� a customs officer said.

Laos expresses condolences over death of late Filipino President

2009-08-06T02:53:00.000-07:00

(KPL) Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Phongsavath Boupha yesterday, at the Philippine Embassy in Vientiane
Capital signed a book of condolence to mourn for the late President of the Philippines, Mrs Corazon Aquino, who passed away on 1 July 2009.
�We wish to extend our deepest sincere sorrow and sympathy to the government and people of the Philippines, as well as the family members and relatives of Mrs Corazon Aquino,� wrote Mr. Phongsavath on behalf of the Lao government and people.

Orphan students in Luang Prabang receives aids from GPAR

2009-08-06T02:50:00.000-07:00

(KPL) The Governance and Public Administration Reform (GPAR) programme in Luang Prabang province provided a number of aids to orphan students in Luang Prabng province on 31 July.
The aid was presented by an expert of International Volunteer and received by Mr. Sengchane Sinsay, Director of Orphan School in the presence of teachers and students.
Last year the GPAR gave a number of agriculture tools to the Orphan school in Luang Prabang province.
In addition, the GPAR also presented aid relief package and cloth to students of ethnic school in Nam Bark and Xieng Ngeun district, Luang Prabang province

Privates companies grants to make Constitution Day

2009-08-06T02:49:00.000-07:00

Cambodia to lift entry visa restrictions

2009-08-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, right, and his Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhongafter signing a prisoner exchange agreement in Bangkok yesterday. (JETJARASNARANONG)

6/08/2009
Writer: THANIDA TANSUBHAPOL
Bangkok Post

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to waive visa requirements for each other's citizens starting next year to mark 60 years of diplomatic relations.
The agreement was reached yesterday at the Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission meeting led by Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong. The meeting was the first by the commission since talks were suspended three years ago.

The agreement to waive the visas for holders of ordinary passports is expected to be signed next year as part of activities celebrating the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries 60 years ago.

The decision leaves Burma as the only member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations requiring Thais wishing to enter the country to apply for a visa.

Hor Namhong said Thailand and Cambodia also agreed to strengthen cooperation on tourism by jointly promoting the sector under the Two Kingdoms, One Destination project and would expedite the single visa policy between the two countries.

He said the two sides would hasten the next Joint Boundary Commission meeting, chaired by former Thai ambassador to Seoul Vasin Teeravechyan and his Cambodian counterpart Var Kim Hong, and resume the Joint Technical Committee meeting on overlapping maritime claims which has been suspended since 2006.

Mr Kasit said all obstacles to border negotiations would soon be resolved.

In a joint statement, the two ministers said they would work together to identify the area bridging Sa Kaeo province and Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province before setting up a new international checkpoint.

An Emerald Triangle meeting would be held soon to help develop human resources, Hor Namhong said.

Mr Kasit and Hor Namhong yesterday also signed an agreement that would allow some prisoners, after serving minimum periods of imprisonment, to be transferred in order to serve their remaining sentences in their own country.

Karen Activist Wins Ramon Magsaysay Award

2009-08-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

An ethnic Karen human rights activist from Burma has won the 2009 Ramon Magsaysay Award for “dauntlessly pursuing non-violent yet effective channels of redress, exposure, and education for the defense of human rights, the environment, and democracy in Burma," according to the awards committee.

Ka Hsaw Wa is one of six winners of the award, which is presented annually to those “who address issues of human development in Asia with courage and creativity, and in doing so have made contributions which have transformed their societies for the better,” according to the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF).

Ka Hsaw Wa (Photo: ERI)

The Ramon Magsaysay Award was first created in 1957 and was named after the popular Filipino president who was highly respected for his humility and service to humanity.

Ka Hsaw Wa is the co-founder of an international environmental organization known as EarthRights International. He becomes the second Karen activist to win the illustrious award.

The first Karen winner was Cynthia Maung who founded the Mae Tao Clinic in the Thai border town of Mae Sot. She was awarded the prize in 2002 for “Community Leadership.”

Another of the six prize winners for 2009, Krisana Kraisintu from Thailand, is being recognized for “her untiring and fearless dedication to producing much-needed generic drugs in Thailand and elsewhere in the developing world.”

The other awardees are: two Chinese, Yu Xiaogang and Ma Jun; a Filipino environmental activist, Antonio Oposa Jr; and Deep Joshi, an Indian who has been recognized for combining “head and heart in the transformative development of rural communities.”

The winners of the 2009 Ramon Magsaysay awards will each receive a certificate, a medallion bearing a likeness of the late Filipino president, and a cash prize. The Magsaysay Award ceremony will be held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on August 31, according to the RMAF.

RMAF President Carmencita T Abella said, “The Magsaysay awardees of 2009 are true Asian heroes, putting their advanced knowledge and skills at the service of the critical needs of their people.”

Abella said that each of the awardees are addressing major issues affecting the growth and preservation of their respective societies, such as health care, mass poverty, community displacement, environmental degradation and human rights.

“They are each using calibrated strategies to craft lasting solutions to spirit which infuses their leadership for change. They all refuse to give up, despite adversity and opposition,” said Abella.

Suu Kyi Says Trial Tests Legal System

2009-08-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

RANGOON — Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has told the court trying her that her trial on charges she violated her house arrest is a test of the military-run country's legal system.

Suu Kyi's full testimony in the closed-door trial was released for the first time by her opposition political party, the National League for Democracy. The court is due to reach a verdict nextweek.

Two prison guards stand at the entrance to Insein prison where the trial of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is taking place on July 31. (Photo: AP)

The 64-year old Nobel Peace laureate—who is facing five years in prison for giving temporary shelter to an American man who swam to her house uninvited in early May—declared that the court's decision is already "painfully obvious."

Critics say the ruling military has seized upon the bizarre intrusion as an excuse to keep Suu Kyi jailed through next year's scheduled elections—the country's first in nearly two decades.

The charges against Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years and was under house arrest at the time of the incident, have refocused international outrage on Burma.

The district court was scheduled to deliver the verdict last Friday but postponed its decision to August 11, saying it needed more time to consider relevant legal issues.

"The Court will pronounce on the innocence or guilt of a few individuals. The verdict will constitute a judgment on the whole of legal, justice and constitutional system in our country," Suu Kyi said in her statement during final court arguments on July 24. Her party released the full statement Monday.

Suu Kyi said that she had allowed the American to stay in her home "without malice, simply with intent to ensure that no one concerned should suffer any adverse consequences."

She also said that charges against her cannot be adequately assessed without determining the legality of her latest, five-year house arrest and how Burma's constitution applies in the case.

Her lawyers have argued that the repeated extensions of her house arrest were illegal and that she is being tried under a provision of a constitution that has been superseded.

"Throughout, my lawyers have been scrupulous in their efforts to procure due process, which is critical to the rule of law. Equally critical is the principle that justice must be done and seen to be done, clearly and unequivocally," Suu Kyi's statement said.

Verdicts were also postponed in the cases against the 53-year-old American, John Yettaw, and two women who lived with Suu Kyi—Khin Khin Win and her daughter Win Ma Ma. The women face similar charges to Suu Kyi, and Yettaw is accused of abetting the violation of Suu Kyi's house arrest. He faces up to five years in prison.

Pleading for the Cause of the Rule of Law
By THE IRRAWADDY

The following paragraphs are the excerpt from the 30 pages final argument declared by Aung San Suu Kyi to the court on July 24.

The Court will pronounce on the innocence or guilt of a few individuals. The verdict itself will constitute a judgment on the whole of the law, justice and constitutionalism in our country.

On both occasion of trespass into the grounds of my house, the one on which this present case is constructed as well as the one which took place on 30 November 2008, I acted without malice simply with intent to ensure that one concern should suffer any adverse consequences. An approach that placed a premium on discernment and a sense of responsibility, rather than on imputation, would have accorded with a concept of law as the guardian of security and harmony in civilized societies.

The charges move against me can not be accessed correctly or adequately without enquiry into the legality of the process by which I was confined to house arrest for more than five years. Throughout my lawyers have been scrupulous in their efforts to procure due-process which is critical to the rule of law. Equally critical is the principle that justice must not only be done but seen to be done, clearly and unequivocally.

This lawsuit brought to light anomalies in the interpretation and application of constitutional provisions and further, raised questions about the constitution itself.

Lay Off the Lady

2009-08-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

Some ideas never seem to die. Recently, the argument that Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman seen by many as the guiding light of Burma’s quest for democracy, is actually the country’s greatest impediment to progress has made its way back into print. This notion, which is propagated by a faction of self-styled Burma experts known as the “third force,” has repeatedly reared its head over the years. The Irrawaddy believes it is time to put this myth to rest.

The latest instance of this malicious meme appeared in the July 23 edition of The Economist, in an item titled “The Lady should be for turning.” The piece begins by noting the 20th anniversary of the day Suu Kyi was first placed under house arrest, and proceeds with a de rigeur acknowledgment of her two decades of courage and personal sacrifice (no doubt to avoid the sort of excoriation provoked by an article published in Britain’s Guardian newspaper in November 2008, originally titled “Not such such a hero after all,” which was later subject to numerous corrections and a public apology).

Once the formalities are out of the way, however, the writer, citing “a growing body of opinion,” poses the question of whether Suu Kyi is an “icon or obstacle.” More specifically, Suu Kyi’s position on sanctions is obliquely attacked as the cause of Burma’s economic misery, and by extension, its failure to achieve any meaningful progress towards democracy.

There are numerous objections that one could make to this assertion, which the writer does not attempt to support in any way, perhaps assuming the logic to be self-evident. However, we can identify a few fundamental flaws in the underlying argument that should suffice to set the record straight.

The first point that needs to be made is that Suu Kyi does not dictate the Burma policy of Western countries. Although the issue of sanctions is often linked to her fate, that does not mean she is the main impetus behind the policy. When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently said that the US might be ready to invest in Burma if Suu Kyi was released, she did so at her own discretion, not in consultation with the detained democracy leader. Conversely, if Suu Kyi suddenly reversed her position on sanctions, there is no reason to believe that Western governments would automatically follow suit. To imply that she is somehow responsible for decisions made in foreign capitals is, therefore, grossly unfair.

It is also a distortion of the facts to suggest that sanctions are the cause of Burma’s endemic poverty. A total absence of accountable governance—not a lack of international aid or investment—is the real reason this resource-rich nation can barely support its own population. The junta has never had any difficulty in finding foreign partners willing to help it exploit Burma’s natural wealth. But most of the plunder from this wholesale theft of the country’s riches is deposited in overseas bank accounts or in bunkers in Naypyidaw; virtually none of it is plowed back into the local economy for the benefit of the country’s long-term development.

It is true, as The Economist notes, that official aid to Burma falls far short of what the country needs. Again, this is because most international donors don’t trust the regime to use aid appropriately or cooperate fully with the agencies that dispense it, not because they feel obliged to support the country’s pro-democracy leader. Even if Suu Kyi were completely removed from the equation—as some junta apologists and exasperated pseudo-pragmatists have long argued she should be—it would not alter the fact that, even post-Nargis, the regime does more to obstruct aid than facilitate it.

The fact that the regime has tightened the screws on the opposition at the very moment that the world wants to increase its aid to Burma shows that the generals are only interested in using the suffering of ordinary Burmese to their own advantage. In effect, they are telling the international community to make a choice: save Suu Kyi, or save the rest of the country. Suu Kyi herself would not hesitate to recommend the latter, if it were a meaningful choice. But it is not, because eliminating her as a political force would bring no tangible benefit to anyone but the generals.

The Economist is probably not, like some, hell bent on discrediting Suu Kyi. But it does subscribe to certain views that make it susceptible to the arguments of those who are. One of its most cherished ideas is that economic development is a force for political good. And so it asks if “the courageous Lady” will admit that “[d]evelopment ... could be the fastest path to democracy.”

Never mind that the experiences of China and Vietnam, two countries mentioned as possible models for Burma, do not support this claim at all.

All Talk, No Traction

2009-08-05T17:19:00.001-07:00

International gatherings like the ones held on the Thai resort island of Phuket last week are seldom much more than talk shops. The ministers who attended the Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) went there to be seen and heard, not to solve any of the region’s problems.

That’s why no one was particularly surprised or disappointed that there were no great breakthroughs in resolving the perennial problems of Burma and North Korea, which, as expected, dominated discussions at the high-level meetings.

As usual, ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) reiterated their call for Burma to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and pave the way for national reconciliation through “inclusive” general elections in 2010.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda acknowledged, however, that the Burmese regime was unlikely to budge much under pressure. The junta, he said, changes “too slowly and often a little change at a time.”

But this did not prevent his Thai counterpart, Kasit Piromya, from offering to facilitate the process of change. “Asean as well as members of the ARF would like to work with Myanmar [Burma] and are ready to assist Myanmar in its efforts to promote democracy, human rights and well-being among her people,” he said.

In his capacity as chairman of the 16th Asean Regional Forum, Kasit added that the Burmese foreign minister had been asked “to convey this sentiment to the Myanmar leadership. It is hoped that Myanmar will be responsive to the international community’s concerns.”

At least one person—Vitavas Srivihok, the director-general of the Asean-Thailand office of Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs—seemed to think that Asean’s message would get a receptive hearing in Naypyidaw.

He told reporters, “The first time I saw Myanmar’s reaction, I thought it was very positive…. They fully understand and appreciate the offers of help by Asean colleagues.

Meanwhile, others were asking what Asean might do if Burma does not comply with calls for reform. Although no clear answer to that question emerged, at least one option—throwing Burma out of the regional grouping—was ruled out as a possibility.

“There are not enough grounds to do that,” Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in response to a comment made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who suggested that expulsion should be considered if the Burmese regime continues to flout Asean’s rules.

“We have already done what we can under the Asean mechanism,” said Abhisit. “If Burma is expelled it will further isolate the regime, and would that solve the problem?”

Clinton, for her part, seemed prepared to take strong action, although she did not specify what form it might take. When she arrived in Thailand, she immediately made it clear that her government was not taking the latest developments in Burma lightly.

“We know that there are also growing concerns about military cooperation between North Korea and Burma, which we take very seriously. It would be destabilizing for the region,” she said. “It would pose a direct threat to Burma’s neighbors. And it is something, as a treaty ally of Thailand, we are taking very seriously.”

The next day, however, she struck a very different note, holding out the possibility of a fundamental shift in US-Burma relations in exchange for the release of Aung san Suu Kyi.

“If she were released, that would open up opportunities, at least for my country, to expand our relationship with Burma, including investments in Burma. But it is up to the Burmese leadership,” Clinton said.

This was followed by a rare meeting between US and Burmese officials on the sidelines of the ARF. The American delegation again urged the Burmese leadership to review its treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi and also asked Burma to cooperate with UN sanctions on North Korea.

The Burmese said they would respect the UN resolution imposing a strengthened arms embargo on Pyongyang—a wise move that will probably win the regime some support in Washington.

Clinton said she was “gratified by Burma’s statement and those of many other countries announcing an intension to implement the UN resolution.… Burma’s statement is significant because in the past, North Korea has provided Burma with materials now barred by Resolution 1874.”

Despite the Burmese regime’s claims that it is willing to cooperate with the UN, it has often allowed North Korean ships to dock in Rangoon to deliver ammunition and weapons.

Burma Must Make Clear its Nuclear Ambitions

2009-08-05T17:15:00.000-07:00

Reports of Burma’s shady nuclear ambitions have resurfaced to take their place alongside warnings by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of secret military ties and possible technology transfers between Burma and North Korea.

One report which aroused special interest was based on research by Desmond Ball, an Australian security analyst and author of several books on nuclear strategy and security issues in the Asia-Pacific.

However, to understand the present situation and Burma’s nuclear ambitions we need to look at the past. Burma’s interest in nuclear science and technology is, in fact, nothing new.

Three years ago, The Irrawaddy published a special cover story on Burma’s nuclear ambitions. A Burmese scholar, Maung Thuta, wrote: “More than five decades ago, Kyaw Nyein, the pragmatic modernist among the ruling triumvirate, with U Nu and Ba Swe, and the driving force behind Burma’s nascent industrialization, oversaw the setting up in 1953, under the Ministry of Industry, of the Union of Burma Applied Research Institute (UBAEC), in collaboration with the American Armour Research Foundation.”

In 1955, the Atomic Energy Centre and the Atomic Minerals Department were established and dozens of young scholars and technicians were sent abroad, mainly to the US, to study medical physics, nuclear physics, nuclear, metallurgical and mining engineering and technical training in nuclear applications in instrumentation, agriculture and industry. The same year Burma attended the first international conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy, which was held in Geneva. Two years later, Burma joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Maung Thuta, in an article entitled “Transparency Needed," wrote "at the dawn of the ‘Atomic Age,’ Burma’s nuclear elites centered around the UBAEC apparently had no doubts about propelling Burma into a modern industrial state through extensive research and development in the fields of power production, agriculture, medicine, industry and
education."

Indeed, Burma was well advanced in those days to develop a nuclear project, compared to neighboring countries. In the early 1960s, a site for a nuclear research reactor was designated near the Hlaing Campus in Rangoon.

“However, the first phase of nuclear ambitions faltered and stagnated within a few years when the much-vaunted ‘Pyidawthar’ industrial plan failed and UBAEC patron Kyaw Nyein fell from grace amid disputes among the ruling political elite,” Maung Thuta wrote.

Burma’s early nuclear ambitions ended there. Gen Ne Win, who staged a military coup in 1962, had little interest in nuclear projects, nor did he trust scholars. So Burma’s nuclear program fell by the wayside, although in 1984 the general admitted to university professors at a private dinner party that he had made a blunder by ending it.

One of the experts from those times, Thein Oo Po Saw, who earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois in 1950s, remains active in Burma today.

Thein Oo Po Saw played a crucial role in reviving Burma’s Atomic Energy Committee and renewing links with the IAEA. He also urged Burma’s military regime in 1995 to join the Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training in Nuclear Science and Technology in Asia and the Pacific (RCA).

The professor has taught at the Defense Services Academy in Maymyo and is currently an adviser to the Ministry of Science and Technology and adjunct professor at the Yangon [Rangoon] Technological University.

Whatever the motives involved, the regime revitalized the nuclear project. An Arakanese professor, Thein Oo Po Saw, renewed links with the IAEA. Since then, Burma has been demonstrating its intention to develop nuclear energy for “peaceful purposes.”

The regime has outwardly supported the concept of nuclear-free zones and signed the Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, or Bangkok Treaty, in 1995. A year later, Burma signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Burma’s renewed interest in nuclear technology was evident, however. The Ministry of Science and Technology was created in 1997 and headed by an extreme nationalist, U Thaung, a graduate of Defense Services Academy Intake 1.

Two years later, Burma began negotiations with Russia on a nuclear reactor project, and in January 2002 the military regime confirmed plans to build a nuclear research reactor for “peaceful purposes.” The Deputy Foreign Minister at that time, Khin Maung Win, declared that Burma’s “interest in nuclear energy for peaceful purpose is longstanding.”

Thein Oo Po Saw also played a key role in the military-sponsored National Convention.

Aquino Laid to Rest, Hailed as Moral Leader

2009-08-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

MANILA — Former President Corazon Aquino's body made its final journey through the Philippine capital Wednesday to be buried next to her assassinated husband in a culmination of grieving for the icon hailed as the example of moral leadership.

Over the last five days, hundreds of thousands of mourners have filed past her open casket. Family, friends and former aides crowded into the Manila Cathedral late Tuesday to eulogize the accidental opposition leader who led the 1986 "people power" uprising and drove away the 20-year repressive rule of Ferdinand Marcos.

Honor guards carry the casket of the late former Philippine President Corazon Aquino during her funeral march in Manila, Philippines on Wednesday.

Aquino, the 11th Philippine president, died Saturday at age 76 after a yearlong battle with colon cancer.

Her successors Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada, the latter deposed in a second popular uprising in 2001 on corruption allegations, together with East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, attended Wednesday's requiem Mass.

Aquino inspired East Timor's struggle for independence from Indonesia a decade ago, Ramos-Horta said.

"I think the greatest tribute that Filipinos can pay to Corazon Aquino and so many others who gave their lives for democracy is ... there should be no more dictatorships again," he said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was at odds with Aquino after she called Arroyo to resign because of vote-rigging allegations, paid a quick visit to the wake Wednesday morning upon her return from the U.S. and left before the church ceremonies and procession.

Hundreds of thousands chanted "Cory" lined Manila's rainy streets and walked behind the flatbed truck carrying Aquino's flag-draped coffin as the procession, lashed by winds, inched its way to her final resting place beside her husband, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., at Manila Memorial Park. Yellow confetti showered the roads.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo views the casket of the late former Philippines President Corazon Aquino at Manila Cathedral in the Philippines. (Photo: AFP)

"We never saw any wrongdoing on her part," said housekeeper Edith Sabas.

Fire trucks blasted their cannons, forming arcs of water above the procession in a salute to the former president. Yellow ribbons and balloons flapped from lamp posts, trees and vehicles—a tribute to Aquino's signature color, which became a symbol of her movement. Hundreds of bikers and cyclists in yellow shirts led the convoy.

At the simple white-painted tomb at the family mausoleum, interior designer Merly Querubin, wearing a baseball cap adorned with a yellow ribbon, said her country had two kinds of leaders. "One who we follow out of fear, and one who we follow out of respect. We have lost a leader so respected."

In a highly symbolic gesture, the late Marcos' two children paid their last respects Tuesday to the woman who toppled their father. It was unlikely, however, to reconcile the families' bitter rivalry.

Aquino's brother-in-law, former Sen. Agapito "Butz" Aquino, welcomed them at the wake saying the family had "no fight with the children" of Marcos.

Aquino rose to prominence after her husband was assassinated in 1983 as he returned from U.S. exile to oppose Marcos. Hesitant, she inherited his mantle and agreed to run against the strongman in 1986.

Marcos claimed an election victory over Aquino, but the polls were widely seen as fraudulent.

PM advises on reinforcing preventive and control measure on new flu

2009-08-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

(KPL) Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh gave an advice on controlling and countering the new type influenza A (H1N1) pandemic at the Friendship Hospital yesterday.
PM Bouasone was reported on the outbreak of new type influenza epidemic from the chief of the National Coordination Committee to Prevent Contagious Diseases, Dr Bounlay Phommasack.

In his report, a resident of central Borikhamsay province died of the new flu out of 156 people infected with the flu in eight provinces of Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Borikhamsay, Khammouane, Savannakhet, Champassak, Saravane and Vientiane Capital.
“The infection majority includes Vientiane Capital, Borikhamsay, Savannakhet and Champassak province, Dr Bounlay admitted. “The spread is rather rapid”.
Accordingly, PM Bouasone gave advice to leading committee members for preventing and controlling disease epidemic on research and upgrade the preventive level including sanitation education campaign, access to target communities, risk groups and schools.
“The health measure is a key for preventing the pandemic of 2009 flu,” PM advised. “Share experiences on preventing measure with neighbouring countries”.
This includes the use of thermal screening, isolation ward, drug resistance and medical treatment in combination with control measure. All hospitals, dispensaries and clinics rooms should cooperate in the control and prevention of pandemic, PM continued.
A preventive measure should be applied to athletes who will participate in the 25th SEA Games, particularly checking measure at the checkpoints.
PM Bouasone called on the Ministry of Public Health to study responding measure through the launch of a combat campaign against the outbreak at schools, offices and organisations, and communities. “If this campaign avails, it will reduce the outbreak,” said the Premier.
On the same day, PM Bouasone, representing the Government provided a number of preventive suits, hygienic masks, soap and disinfectants to the Friendship Hospital and they will then be further dispatched to other hospitals.

Soukkasuem debriefs press on achievements of World Ecotourism Conference 2009

2009-08-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

(KPL) The United Nations World Ecotourism Organization (UNWTO), the Pacific Asia Tourism Association (PATA) and the International Ecotourism Society (TIES) and 300 participants from the public, private and non-governmental sectors from 30 countries met at the World Ecotourism Conference 2009, hosted by Lao National Tourism Administration in Vientiane for a three days, 15-17 July.
Mr. Soukkasuem Phothisan, Vice-President of Lao National Tourism Administration said at the press conference in Vientiane on 28 July that this conference affirms that the mainstream sustainable tourism principles, processes and practices of all aspects of tourism initiatives, management, development, interpretation, program plans, policies, projects, proposals, propositions, strategies, system and undertakings can adequately meet the challenges of the Energy-Climate Era, while at the same time take steps to respect our cultural and civilized heritage.
Touching on synergies and private-public sector partnership, he reckoned that such a tie-up would be useful to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.
Regarding the value of tourism products and services, he said that the attempt to measure and evaluate its effectiveness should consider the bottom line or profits, while at the same time take into consideration the competitive factor.
He also said that academics are playing an important role in tourism as they teach tourism to the tourism officers, touching on subjects like sustainable tourism and other principles.

Results of Lao International Challenge 2009

2009-08-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

(KPL) One hundred and eleven competitors from eight countries, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia and Laos, took part in the Lao International Challenge 2009, a badminton competition. The matches were held in Vientiane and the competition ended last Saturday.
The final results:
Men’s singles final: Wong Beryno Jiann Tze (Malaysia) beat Nguyen Hoang Nam (Vietnam) with the scores: 21-17, 21-16
Women’s singles final: Umezu Chie (Japan) beat Kametani Nozomi (Japan) with the scores: 19-21, 21-15, 21-12Men’s doubles final: Angriawan Berry, Ulinnuha Muhammad (Indonesia) beat Vanhvilay Chanhda, Latsavong Yothin with the scores: 21-16, 21-15
Women’s doubles final: Akao Aki, Imabeppu Yasuyo (Japan) beat Yamada Seiko, Hayashi Yuka(Japan) with the scores: 15-21, 21-11, 21-14
Mixed’s doubles final: Duong Bao Duc, Thai Thi Hong Gam (Vietnam) beat Ulinnuha Muhammad, Gozali Jenna, with the scores: 21-17, 21-23, 21-18

Saysettha receives 500 manuals on kip currency use promotion

2009-08-05T09:47:00.000-07:00

(KPL) The Bank of the Lao PDR gave 500 copies of the manual on kip currency use promotion worth seven million kip to the Saysettha district administration, in anticipation to the 5th enlarged meeting of Saysettha district on 31 July, Vientiane.
The meeting used this manual in the dissemination of the decree on foreign currency management and Kip currency use promotion to the participants.
Mr Santy Phonmeuanglao, Deputy Director of the Exterior Relation Department of the Central Bank, presented the manual to the Office Head of Saysettha Administration, Mr. Khampane Phouangpradith.
The dissemination of decree is aimed to control the domestic flow of foreign currencies and priceless items, and kip currency stability and circulation of goods in the country.

Course on counseling for drug addicts

2009-08-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

KPL) The Lao National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision organised a training-of-trainer course on counselling drug addicts from 3 to 7 August, Vientiane. The participants were from the Ministry of Public Health, UNODC and Singapore International Foundation.
Mr Kou Chansina, Deputy President of the National Committee for Drug Control and Supervision, said that the aim of this course was to impart counseling skills and to provide knowledge on drug addiction treatment.
At present, the government is treating and rehabilitating 26,000 drug addicts.

South Korean investors runs new service apartment

2009-08-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

(KPL) Heung Hwa Industry Apartment, a service apartment establishment, which opened for business on 31 July, targets tourists and businessmen as its clientele.
This US$9 million South Korean venture in Sokpaluang village, Sisattanark district, Vientiane Capital, has 64 bedrooms, a sport centre, a swimming pool and a spacious car park.
The President of the Lao National Tourism Administration, Mr. Somphong Mongkhonvilay, who spoke at the opening ceremony on 31 July, said that this apartment complex can accommodate one hundred
tourists.
Since early 2009, 1.7 million foreign tourists visited Laos and spent an estimated US$250 million, said Mr. Somphong.
General Director of Heung Hwa Industry, Mr. In-Koo Jo said that in the near future his company planned to build a much bigger service apartment complex on the same site and it would be able to accommodate 500-600 visitors per month.

Household biogas use promoted in rural areas

2009-08-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

(KPL) The Department of Livestock Extension and Fishery makes an effort to construct more than 400 household biogas plants throughout the country in the late six months of 2009.
The construction under the authority of the Biogas Pilot Project, aims at giving the modern technology to farmers in rural areas to use energy for their better living conditions.
The project recently was able to build 500 household biogas plants in three provinces of Savannakhet, Xiengkhouang and Vientiane Capital.
The plan was released at a meeting, on 31 July to review the achievements of the Biogas Pilot Project started in 2007.
Chaired by Deputy Director of the Livestock Extension and Fishery Department, Dr Khamphai Thammavong, the meeting was attended by representatives of agriculture and forestry services from the three provinces.
Mr Khamphai called on the participants who work for the project in the three target provinces to pass on the technique of building household biogas plant to locals in rural areas.

Teachers learn new teaching skills during TESOL Conference

2009-08-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

KPL) The Faculty of Linguistics, National University of Laos, organised the Seventh Lao TESOL Conference, which is about the teaching of English as a second language at NUOL on August 2-3.
Mr. Lytou Bouapao, Deputy-Minister of Education, who spoke at the opening ceremony, said that the meeting aimed to provide pedagogical skills and to introduce new teaching skills to teachers of English language.
During the conference, the teachers exchanged experiences with one another and such interactions enabled them to hone their teaching skills.
During the meeting, the teachers focussed on improving their teaching skills in listening, reading, speaking and writing.

IUCN gives grant aid to Laos for strengthening forestry law enforcement

2009-08-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

(KPL) The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Laos provided assistance worth US$37,600 to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s Forestry Inspection Department, for strengthening the enforcement of the forestry law.
The money will be for natural conservation, protection of forests and water resources and wild animals, and other bio-diversity.
The signing ceremony took place on 29 July at the Department of Forestry Inspection.
The signatories to the document, Mr. Khamphout Phandanouvong, Deputy Director of the Forestry Inspection Department, and Ms Latsamay Silavong, IUCN country representative, and representatives of concerned sectors.
The aid will be spent on organising training courses on the enforcement of the forestry law and the implementation of the forest conservation project in Champassak province, which started early this year and will end in 2010.

Preparation for 450th anniversary of Vientiane celebration on track

2009-08-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

(KPL) The Executive Board of Vientiane Capital convened a meeting on 3 August, to review the preparing frameworks for the 450th proclamation anniversary of Vientiane as the national capital.
The celebration is a remarkable event for ethnic people nationwide, particularly Vientiane residents.
Vientiane Administration staffs at all levels are now focusing on the implementation of all movements in the preparation framework of the celebration.
The plenary meeting of organizing committees for the celebration of the 450th proclamation anniversary of Vientiane took place at Vientiane Administration Office under the chairmanship of Vientiane Mayor Sombath Yialiher who is the Deputy Chairman of the Organising Committee for the celebration.

Deputy Vientiane Mayor Somvandy Nathavong passed a progressive report on preparing the celebration of the 450th proclamation anniversary of Vientiane as the national capital, 2009’s second half plan, focal draft plan and a work plan for the year 2010, Prime Minister’s draft notice on the celebration of the 450th proclamation anniversary.
The report also pointed that Vientiane Administration would organise a meeting of Vientiane Party Cell to stimulate the implementation of the sixth five-year plan for socio-economic development.
In general Vientiane enjoys political stability and social orderliness basically.
Another important campaign is the dispatch of civil servants to the grassroots for strengthening political base, and creating development village cluster. Under this campaign, ten villages have been already declared development village cluster.
The GDP of Vientiane has increased by 11.91 %, the per capita income averaged US$1,829/year and different economic sectors have seen a constant growth.
At the same time, Vientiane was able to attract grant aids and loans from friendly countries, with an amount of over US$3.19 million of grant aid for 36 projects. The administration granted investment licenses to 37 private foreign companies, worth US$35.8 million in the first half of this year, Vientiane.
While 64 local private companies received investment licenses from Vientiane worth 451,849 billion kip.
The urban infrastructure construction project in Vientiane is in progress including the expansion of rural electricity, which is now covered by 99.4% and water supply covered by 70% out of 500 villages in Vientiane.
In preparation for the celebration of the 450th anniversary, the organising committee has completed the compilation of Vientiane history, an image of the new urban planning for 2020 has achieved 80%, and a number of public parks in Vientiane have already been decorated with flowers.
The construction of Dongdok-Thanaleng road is in progress as planned and the main roads in Vientiane have also been upgraded.

Yettaw Hospitalized During Fast

2009-08-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

John William Yettaw, the American on trial with Aung San Suu Kyi, on Monday was hospitalized for a second time, apparently the result of fasting in prison, a hospital staff member told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

Yettaw, 54, was taken from Insein Prison to Rangoon General Hospital at 2 am. His condition was not serious, and he is recovering after treatment, sources said.

Khin Maung Oo, his lawyer, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, “According to his religious belief, he has been fasting, taking only water. I wish him well and pray for him. The most important thing for a fair trial is getting enough defense witnesses.”

“The authorities said he suffered from feeling dizzy,” said a source close to the hospital who asked to remain anonymous.

Yettaw was taken to the hospital by police after he had what was described as “a fit.” He has been kept under guard and away from other patients. More than 50 persons are assigned to his security, said the hospital source.

The United State Information Resource Center in Rangoon said on Tuesday that it had no information about Yettaw’s condition.

Yettaw was charged with violating security and immigration laws after he allegedly swam across Inya Lake and entered the home of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in May. She was charged with violating the terms of her house arrest.

During July, Yettaw was treated in the Insein Prison hospital after he reportedly had declined food for 49 days.

If convicted, he could be sentenced from six months to five years in prison. He faces charges of abetting Suu Kyi's breach of security laws, immigration violations and a municipal charge of illegal swimming.

Yettaw, a former military veteran from Falcon, Missouri, is on trial along with two female aides of Suu Kyi's.

A devout Mormon, Yettaw told authorities that he embarked on a mission to warn Suu Kyi of a vision he had that said she would be assassinated.

KNU Asks Thai Government to Pull out of Salween Dam Project

2009-08-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

Burma’s Karen National Union (KNU) appealed on Tuesday to the Thai government to halt its involvement in the construction of the Hat Gyi Dam on the Salween River, warning that the project would cause “huge” environmental damage and human rights abuses.

The KNU made the appeal in a letter to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

David Takapaw, KNU vice chairman, said: “The dam will result in huge environmental impacts and human rights abuses. It will force local villagers to flee to Thailand and become refugees. So we asked him: please, don’t continue the dam construction.”

In recent months, Thai engineers have conducted a field survey at the construction site on Salween River. Many villagers in the area are reportedly opposed to the dam project.

According to the Karen River Watch, a memorandum of understanding was signed in June 2006 between Burma’s Department of Electric Power, the Thai energy authority EGAT and China’s Sinohydro Corporation to build the Hat Gyi dam.

The dam is one of a series scheduled to be built on the Salween River in a joint Thai-Burmese government program. They are expected to generate 10,000 megawatts of electricity, much of which would be delivered to Thailand.

Some reports have claimed that the dams will affect more than 10 million people from 13 ethnic groups in Burma.

Copies of the KNU’s letter to Abhisit were also to be presented by Karen environmental advocates at a meeting in Bangkok on Tuesday attended by Thai environmental rights groups and Burmese environmental advocates.

The meeting was to focus on human rights abuses and environment issue related to the project, according to an ethnic Shan environmental advocate, Sai Sai, who attended the meeting.

Thailand plans an energy program known as the National Power Development Plan which includes the dams on the Salween River. The plan is expected to be completed by the year 2014, according to Sai Sai.

Meanwhile, his environmental group, the Shan Sapawa Environment Organization (SSEO), released on Tuesday a new report titled “Roots and Resilience” and charging that the construction of dams on the Salween River will result in human rights abuses and environmental damage and will benefit only the Burmese regime and Thai authorities.

SSEO Spokesman Sai Sai said: “Human rights abuses will widely happen if the dam is constructed. Villagers will come to Thailand en masse as refugees.”

Local villagers would receive no benefit from the dams, which would serve only the interests of the Burmese regime and neighboring Thailand, he said.

The environmental damage would include flooding, deforestation and the disappearance of traditional and cultural heritages, Sai Sai maintained.

The SSEO report said the biggest Salween River dam, the Tasang dam, would flood more than 100 villages, forcing thousands of villagers to relocate. One community of 15,000 in Keng Kham, Shan State, had been forced to move 10 years ago because of work on the dam, and most had fled to Thailand, the report said.

Most of the electricity generated by the 7,110 MW Tasang dam will be sold to Thailand. Project investors include the Thai MDX Company and China’s Gezhouba Group Company.

Su Su Nway Put in Solitary

2009-08-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

A prominent Burmese labor rights activist, Su Su Nway, was placed in solitary confinement for three days after participating in a ceremony to mark the 62nd anniversary of Martyrs’ Day on July 19 in Kalay Prison, in Sagaing Division, according to her sister.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, her sister, Htay Htay Kyi, said, “She was put in solitary confinement because she stood up and sang an independence anthem composed by Min Ko Naing to mark Martyrs’ Day.”

This picture taken 19 July 2006 shows Burmese activist Su Su Nway (C) attending a Martyr Day ceremony at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy in Rangoon. (Photo: Getty Images)

Htay Htay Kyi said she visited her sister on July 21 when she delivered medicine to Su Su Nway who said she had been denied medical care by the prison authorities.

Su Su Nway, 37, suffers from hypertension and heart disease.

In 2006, she won the John Humphrey Freedom Award for promoting human rights.

She was arrested together with two colleagues after they pasted anti-government posters on a billboard in downtown Rangoon during the monk-led uprising of 2007. She was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.

Su Su Nway is among other 2,100 political prisoners who are currently being detained by the Burmese military authorities.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in July called on the Burmese junta to release all political prisoners before the national elections in 2010.

Burmese permanent representative at the UN, Than Swe reportedly told Ban that Burma will release prisoners before the election; however, he did not specify if political dissidents would be among the prisoners released.

Broken Dreams

2009-08-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

Nang Kham was a 14-year-old girl when she left her native town of Lashio in northern Shan state, eastern Burma.

Dreaming of a better life and a brighter future, she came to Thailand in 1996 and worked for nearly 10 years as a maid for a Thai family at a daily rate of 14 baht [US $0.40].

The MAP postcard supporting “International Day of Solidarity with Domestic Workers” on August 28, 2009.

Nang Kham was promised 1,500 baht [$43] per month by the couple who employed her, but they told her they would not give her the money in hand each month, saying they would save it for her.

Nang Kham agreed to the arrangement, and after nearly a decade of work, the sum she was owed as wages amounted to 48,000 baht [$1,403].

“Her employers refused to let her leave the house, even for a visit to her hometown after she had been working for several years,” said Rujisanwee Pim, a coordinator for the domestic worker campaign run by the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP), a Chiang Mai-based non-governmental organization.

Unable to bear the increasing physical and mental harassment, Nang Kham appealed to friends and relatives for help, but no one dared intervene.

When her boss found out she had made contact outside, they changed phone numbers and destroyed all her phone contacts, Nam Kham told Pim.

Nang Kham finally decided to escape when her employers offered her 10,000 baht ($292) for her decade’s wages.

Through friends, Nang Kham was able to contact MAP, who helped her negotiate with her former employers and Thailand’s Department of Labor Protection and Welfare.

Nam Kham’s employers were made to pay the 48,000 baht they owed, but they were able to deduct household expenses and the cost of her work permit, said Pim.

“She [Nang Kham] was so sad at the way they deceived her,” Pim told The Irrawaddy.

“After a decade of abuse all she wanted to do was get home as quickly as possible. She was lucky she wasn’t raped as well,” she said.

According to Thailand’s Board of Investment, the minimum daily wage ranges from 148 baht to 203 baht [$4.72 to $5.79], depending on province. In Chiang Mai it is currently set at 168 baht [US $4.79], but domestic workers will seldom get this rate.

Ma Moe, a former civil servant working for the Burmese government who has been a domestic worker in Thailand for 4 years, said: “Living standards are better here than in Burma. We come here because we have little choice.

“When I started my first job, my boss agreed to pay me 800 baht [$23.35] per month, but in reality I only got 500 baht [$14.60]. My neighbors told me my employer had relatives who were in the police, and they said other people working there before hadn’t been paid at all.

“I’m lucky I got paid,” she said.

Ma Moe described how one of her sisters, who currently works at the home of a lieutenant-colonel in the Thai police, has to work at any hour demanded, is rarely able to get out of the house, and is restricted in what she can eat.

Ma Moe currently works at the home of a foreigner, who, she says, treats her well, but she said her former boss, another foreigner, was rude.

“He got angry with me when he couldn’t find something and would accuse me of taking whatever it was he had lost. It was humiliating,” she said.

Mai Mai, who works as a rights campaigner with MAP, said: “Many domestic workers in Thailand are illegal, which puts them under psychological pressure. Abuse from their employers makes things worse.”

Jackie Pollock, the director of MAP, said: “Most governments don’t consider domestic workers as labor, and they neglect their rights. Next year, the International Labor Organization will discuss the rights of domestic workers for the first time.”

MAP is marking a regional “International Day of Solidarity with Domestic Workers” on August 28 by supporting a campaign to send postcards to the Thai Ministry of Labor demanding recognition and protection of domestic workers’ labor rights and the right to a guaranteed one day of paid leave per week.

MAP is distributing 10,000 postcards and has already circulated 5,000 [More details on the campaign can be found under on the MAP website].

Ma Par Lay, a maid who has got to know Mai Mai, brightens up at mention of the campaign.

Total Chief: Critics Can ‘Go to Hell’

2009-08-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

The CEO of the French energy giant Total said critics of the company’s operations in Burma “can go to hell,” according to an interview published by Newsweek magazine on August 3.

“I am bringing gas to Thailand. Bangkok was the world’s most polluted city. They switched from oil fuel to gas. Bangkok is clean now. We are proud of being part of this,” Christophe de Margerie, CEO of Total, told the US weekly magazine.

Christophe de Margerie, CEO of Total. (Photo: Bullsoil.com)

Thailand pipes about one billion cubic feet of gas per day from Burma’s offshore reserves in the southeastern Andaman Sea through the controversial Yadana gas pipeline, which human rights campaigners say has been a site of widespread abuses since its inception.

Total has been involved in the Yadana project since the 1990s, working in partnership with the US-based Unocal (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron), Burma’s state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Co.

Total and its partners have long been accused of turning a blind eye to serious human rights abuses committed by Burmese security forces guarding the pipeline, including forced labor, land confiscation, forced relocation, rape, torture and murder.

A brutal crackdown on monk-led protests in 2007 and the current trial of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi have brought renewed pressure on investors in Burma’s gas and oil sector, the single largest source of hard currency for the ruling regime. Burmese pro-democracy activists say energy companies should think twice about their investments in Burma.

“Today, [rights campaigners] are trying to tell us you have no right to speak. They can go to hell. If you want to ask somebody, don’t ask Total. Ask the government of Thailand, which buys Burmese gas,” de Margerie said.

“Or ask the government of India why they have companies investing in Burma, when we froze investment. Why is South Korea, ally of the United States of America, investing in Burma? Why Total?” he added.

However, de Margerie’s claims that Total has been unfairly singled out ignores actions taken against other major investors in Burma’s energy industry.

Recently, US-based NGO EarthRights International (ERI) filed a 43-page complaint to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calling for an investigation of the South Korean government’s respect for OECD guidelines.

The complaint, made on behalf of the Shwe Gas Movement and nine Korean-based organizations, is related to investments in Burma by Daewoo International and the Korea Gas Corporation.

Complaining that “Total is a punching bag while other companies invest without criticism is simply untrue,” said ERI project coordinator Matthew Smith, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

“He (de Margerie) claims that Total is proud to provide natural gas to Bangkok but at the same time he tries to deflect negative criticism to Thailand. This strategy is consistent with the way Total has handled most of the negative outcry about its presence in Burma: deny and reject any and all negative criticism.

“Total’s project has generated billions of dollars for the military regime from the peoples’ natural resources. It’s dubious at best to claim that is a positive thing for the country,” Smith said.

“Elsewhere Total has touted respect for fiscal transparency but at the same time it has not published the payments it has made to the Burmese regime—that raises serious questions,” he added.

US Voices Concern over Burma, N Korea Nuclear Nexus

2009-08-05T09:05:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON — The United States expressed concern on Monday over news reports that North Korea may be helping the Burmese military regime to achieve its nuclear ambitions.

“It is an issue of concern and it is an issue that we continue to focus on intensively,” the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, Philip J Crowley, told reporters at the State Department headquarters.

Although he refrained from making any comment on the alleged underground nuclear facility being developed by North Korea inside Burma, Crowley said the US was concerned about “the nature of cooperation between North Korea and Burma.”

“We do have concerns about the nature of cooperation between both Burma and North Korea, and North Korea and any other country. As the Secretary [of State Hillary Clinton] did during her recent trip, she argued quite forcefully that all countries have responsibilities regarding the UN sanctions and we are [working] hard at implementing them,” Crowley said.

“I think over time, we would like to clarify with Burma more precisely the nature of its military cooperation,” he said.

“The Secretary was encouraged that Burma said that it would abide by its responsibilities under the sanctions that were recently passed by the UN, and we will be looking to see them implement those sanctions,” Crowley said.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s National Security Council chief Thawil Pliensri has ordered intelligence officials to verify reports the Burmese military regime is building a nuclear reactor with a plan to make a nuclear bomb within five years, as reported in the English-language daily, The Bangkok Post.

But Thawil was quoted as saying that so far no evidence has been found that points to a Burmese nuclear program.

On Saturday, the Australian newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, reported that Burma appears to be establishing nuclear facilities with help from North Korea and Russia, possibly with the intent of producing nuclear weapons.

The newspaper, citing two Burmese defectors who were interviewed in-depth over two years by Australian strategic studies analyst Desmond Ball and Thailand-based journalist Phil Thornton, claimed that Burma has secretly constructed a nuclear reactor that would encompass reprocessing technology designed to extract weapons-grade plutonium.

UN Chief to Hold ‘Friends of Burma’ Meeting

2009-08-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON — United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will convene a meeting of the Group of Friends on Burma on Wednesday to review the world body’s policy on the military-ruled country.

Formed in December 2007, the Group of Friends consists of Australia, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Britain, the US and Vietnam, as well as the country holding the presidency of the European Union.

Ban is expected to brief UN ambassadors from these countries on his recent trip to Burma and the latest developments in the country, including the ongoing trial of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest.

Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special envoy to Burma, is also expected to brief the group.

During the meeting, Ban will seek advice from members of the group on how the world body can move forward in its efforts to help resolve Burma’s longstanding political stalemate and other issues.

Meanwhile, in yet another effort to show the world that they are united against the military regime, pro-democracy organizations from both inside and outside of Burma have decided to form a common platform and launch a transition plan.

The plan, known as the “Proposal for National Reconciliation,” will be formalized at a two-day meeting in Jakarta on August 12-13.

“This is history being made,” said Dr Sein Win, prime minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the Burmese government in exile, speaking on behalf of all the groups involved.

“The last time all major ethnic and pro-democracy organizations have forged a common position was in 1947 when all forces agreed to seek independence from the British,” he said. “As such, this is the first time an indigenous coalition has agreed to work together against a homegrown power.”

Sein Win said the alliance, known as the Movement for Democracy and Rights for Ethnic Nationalities, believes the proposal provides a means by which Burma can move through a phase of democratic reform without upheaval and recrimination.

The proposal envisages opening a process of dialogue with the junta, effectively offering a sustainable exit strategy for the military rulers. While it acknowledges a place for a functioning military, it presents a democratic future in rooted in civilian, not military, rule, said Sein Win.

Video ‘Licensing Tax’ Levied on Gathering Places

2009-08-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

Restaurants, tea shops, beauty parlors and other locations that play popular videos have been ordered to pay a “licensing tax” by the Burmese Film Association (BFA), as a way to raise funds for the group.

A BFA official told The Irrawaddy, “It will cost about 30,000 kyat (US $30) for a one-year license. Failure to pay the tax could result in a three-month prison sentence or a fine of 200,000 kyat (US $200).” The tax was first levied in August 2008.

“We have to raise funds for the film association,” the official said.

The BFA also raises funds by producing videos that promote the military junta’s policies.

A video store owner in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy, “We are ordered to buy these ‘policy videos’ which are produced and sponsored by the BFA. Right now there’s a policy disc titled ‘Mawkhom’ (Burmese Archive). I have to buy at least three discs at once, and it cost 1,200 kyat (USD $1) for one disc.”

He said most policy discs are not popular with the public because of weak stories and “because there are no famous actors or actresses in them.”

“But we have no right to object,” he said. “The authorities tell us to buy them, and I have to buy at least six discs a year.”

Burmese Actor in ‘Monk’ Photo Scandal

2009-08-05T08:59:00.000-07:00

A controversial photograph of a popular Burmese actor and his friends posing in saffron robes on the day of their ordination at a Buddhist monastery was published on a popular Burmese Website on Tuesday causing outrage and a severe backlash.

The photograph, which was reportedly taken in 2007 sometime before the monk-led Saffron Revolution, shows actor Min Maw Kun and 11 friends posing in an unnamed Burmese monastery. Well-known photographer Wanna Khwar Nee is among the youths.
This photograph, taken sometime in 2007, has recently attracted widespread attention.

Although their heads are shaved and they are wearing religious robes, most of the young men are displaying fashionable tattoos with motifs such as dragons and scorpions, as well as Old School and tribal tattoo patterns. Some of the men smile cheekily at the camera while others hug or pose provocatively.

After appearing on the niknayman-niknayman Web site, the photo was reproduced on several other Burmese blogs and Web sites. Although several bloggers responded to the photo as “funny,” others were offended.

On the Burmese version of Wednesday’s The Irrawaddy, many respondents felt the photo was in bad taste.

Ashin Issariya, one of the leaders of the All Burma Monks Alliance, said, “The Buddha never banned tattoos, so persons with tattoos can still be ordained as monks. However, they should cover up, so the tattoo cannot be seen.”

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, one of the young men who appears in the photograph, but who wished to remain anonymous, said, “The photo was taken before the 2007 uprising. It was only meant as a bit of fun. We have no idea how the photo got online.”

He added that, contrary to claims on the niknayman-niknayman Web site, the tattoos the young men displayed are real, and not fakes.

A revered monk who lives in the US, Ashin Candobhasacara, sharply criticized the 12 men on an online blog. “Why would Min Maw Kun and his friends insult our religion like that” he questioned, adding that the men “should apologize for their decadent behavior.”

Monks Question Gov’t Use of Personal Photographs

2009-08-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

Buddhist monks in Rangoon and Pegu divisions were ordered to attach a personal photograph to their government information form, which were collected by local authorities in July.

A monk in Pegu said, “I feel it is unusual because I had to attach my picture this time. Last year, I only had to provide information—no photo.”

Two Buddhist monks walk past Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon. (Photo: AFP)

He said members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a government-backed volunteer group, collected the information forms from the monasteries. Pegu, one of the main locations of Buddhist unrest during the 2007 monk-led uprisings, has an estimated 10,000 monks.

“They told me they have to send my personal file to the Southern Command in Pegu,” said the monk. “But they didn’t explain the reason. I want to know, because I don’t want the military to have my photograph.”

An abbot in Pegu said, “They believe we’ll start another uprising. This is why they collected the pictures with the information forms—in order to make us afraid of them.”

“I am waiting for another uprising, because we didn’t win the last round,” he said. “They (the authorities) used baton and guns. For us, we only had our fists.”

In Pegu, the authorities have ordered Buddhist monasteries to keep a guest record, said the abbot. “Even our supporters who come to meditate on Buddhist holidays, I have to keep a record of them.”

The abbot said he recently had to pay a 2,000 kyat fine (US $1.50) for failure to keep good records. “I’m angry because they dare to take money from monks,” he said. “They are evil people—those who killed monks. There will be a time they will be held accountable for the bad things they have done to monks. I am waiting to see it. In accordance with the Buddhist religion, they can’t outrun karma.”

Meanwhile, the authorities continue to place more restrictions on the activities of monks including traveling abroad, giving Dhamma talks and political activities.

In June, the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Rangoon prohibited monks from traveling abroad by refusing to issue letters of recommendation, even for health reasons, according to monks in Rangoon. The government tightened restrictions on monks traveling within Burma following the monk-led uprisings of August-September 2007.

A number of leading monks also have been warned during the past year about speaking out on politics or prominent government figures during Dhamma talks.

According to official statistics, there are more than 400,000 monks in Burma. Its community, the Sangha, is considered one of the most influential bodies in the country.

Rebel Groups Welcome UN’s Child Soldiers Probe

2009-08-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

Burma’s Karen National Union (KNU) and Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) said Tuesday they would welcome the arrival of a UN team which is being formed to look into charges that they are recruiting child soldiers.

The UN announced earlier on Tuesday that it was sending a team to Burma in order to press the ethnic rebel groups and the Burmese regime to stop using child soldiers.

The announcement followed a recent allegation by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the Burmese army and ethnic rebel groups, including the KNU, are recruiting children to serve as fighters. The KNU and KNPP both denied the allegation.

KNU General-Secretary Zipporah Sein said: “I want to tell the UN to come to our areas and monitor the situation by itself. We will allow them if they want to come.”

She said the KNU had stopped the recruitment of child soldiers since 2003 and had signed an agreement with UNICEF in 2007 banning the practice.

Zipporah Sein conceded that the KNU had allowed children to serve as soldiers in the past as some young people wanted to sign up after they and their families suffered torture and other abuse at the hands of Burmese army troops.

The KNPP also denied recruiting child soldiers and said the proposed UN team would be welcome to inspect its territory.

Khu Oo Reh, secretary 1 of the KNPP said: “We warmly welcome them to come and witness the situation in our area.”

According to an Associated Press report, the UN Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to name and shame nations and rebel groups engaged in conflicts leading to children being killed, maimed and raped.

The UN stressed the council's intention “to take action,” including possible sanctions against governments and insurgent groups that continue violating international law on the rights and protection of children in armed conflicts.

Mexico’s UN Ambassador, Claude Heller, said: “Notwithstanding, we must also recognize that there is still much to be done if we want children to never again fall victim to the spiral of violence that armed conflicts generate.”

The latest report by Ban in June accused the Burmese junta of failing to provide proof of measures it said it was taking to stop the use of child soldiers, and of blocking UN access to its associated rebel groups.

The UN’s special representative for children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We still are not sure how comprehensive that is and the extent of it. And so I am dispatching a team [to Burma] at the end of this month.”

The team would hold talks with Burmese regime and rebel groups that made peace with the regime, said Coomaraswamy.

Aye Myint, a leader of a social and labor rights group inside Burma, Guiding Star, said that the recruitment of the child soldiers is still widely practiced in the Burmese army.

In the last three months, more than 20 children who say they were forced by Burmese officials to serve as soldiers were helped by Aye Myint’s group and International Labour Organization to return to their families.

Aye Myint said the latest, Ye Ko Ko, 17, was reunited on Tuesday with his parents. Another young soldier, Aung Zaw Myo, 14, had contacted his family on Tuesday but remained in the Burmese army.

UN Chief to Hold ‘Friends of Burma’ Meeting

2009-08-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

EDITORIAL: Burma's bomb

2009-08-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

The Soviet Union used to be described jokingly as a "Third World country with atomic bombs." But the spread of nuclear weapons in the developing world is no joke.

Burma is the latest case. In 2007, the military junta that runs the country confirmed that it was developing a 10-megawatt nuclear reactor with Russian help, claiming the program was for peaceful uses only. But according to reports last week in the Australian press based on defector testimony, the military government maintains a secret underground weapons complex at Naung Laing in the mountainous northern part of the country. Burma, which its leaders call Myanmar, could be ready to build a bomb in less than five years.

The junta's reported accomplice in this venture is North Korea. Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed official concern about deepening military cooperation between the two countries. In June 2009, the U.S. Navy shadowed the Burma-bound North Korean freighter Kang Nam I, which was suspected of carrying illegal weapons components. The ship ultimately turned back. The same month, Bangkok-based Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner published photos of North Koreans excavating secret tunnels in the new Burmese capital of Naypyidaw and elsewhere. Burma purportedly is trading yellowcake uranium to North Korea and Iran in exchange for nuclear expertise, though the details are sketchy at this point.

The strategic rationale for a Burmese bomb is questionable -- defense against Thailand, apparently -- but the political rationale is ironclad. Nuclear capability would solidify the junta's rule against any countries upset over its dismal human rights record, black-market activities and narcotics dealing. And given the reluctance of the international community to take effective action against nuclear proliferators, prospects for a nuclear Burma look good. Since the failure to find an operational program to develop weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, no country other than Israel has demonstrated the resolve to engage in active nuclear counterproliferation. The message to the world, as North Korea has demonstrated, is that even the poorest and most backward countries can become nuclear powers if they want to.

The spread of nuclear weapons into the developing world is cause for alarm. The more of them there are, the less control will be possible. Security would be questionable, and the likelihood would increase that non-state groups would be able to obtain weapons to conduct terror attacks or engage in nuclear blackmail. Those who believe that deterrence alone can keep a lid on nuclear weapons should look into the beliefs of superstitious junta leader Gen. Than Shwe. Astrology reportedly plays a key role in his decision-making. For example, he moved the capital from Rangoon to Naypyidaw on Nov. 11, 2005, at 11 a.m. in 1,100 trucks carrying 11 government ministries. This is not someone who should have his finger on the nuclear trigger.

So Burma is in the nuclear game. Iran could soon have a weapon. Will Venezuela be next? Or Cuba? Syria? We wonder how many small, potentially unstable and habitually unfriendly states will have to achieve nuclear capability before the United States gets serious about countering nuclear proliferation.

Myanmar: American Falls Ill

2009-08-05T08:39:00.000-07:00

An American facing up to five years in jail for entering the house of the democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been hospitalized after suffering seizures.
Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest for allowing him to spend two nights at her home, could also be sentenced to five years in the case. The American, John Yettaw, 53, who has epilepsy, was admitted to Yangon’s main hospital on Monday, and his condition is improving, hospital employees said.

Mu Sochua not to negotiate with the gov’t over her immunity

2009-08-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Mu Sochua raised a lit candle during a press conference held the SRP headquarters in Phnom Pen on 04 August 2009 (Photo: Zakariya, RFA)

04 August 2009
Zakariya
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

On 04 August, Mrs. Mu Sochua indicated that she and the SRP still maintain their stance of not negotiating with the government in exchange for the return of her parliamentary immunity.
Mrs. Mu Sochua made this declaration during a press conference at the SRP headquarters following the announcement of her verdict in Phnom Penh. The press conference was attended by both national and international reporters. Mrs. Mu Sochua commented that she is asking for an end to the culture of begging for pardon from the government, and she would rather see that the court provides justice to her instead.

Mrs. Mu Sochua said: “The judge said that Mrs. Kong Sam Onn [Mu Sochua’s former defense lawyer] was let go because he begged for pardon. As for me, if it is done according to the law, the [guilty] verdict should be handed down to the guilty party. The verdict should be done according to the law, not according the begging for pardon.”

Clash between cops and Mrs. Mu Sochua’s supporters

Following the guilty verdict handed down to Mrs. Mu Sochua, and the 16.5 million riels fine imposed on her, opposition leader Sam Rainsy and a number of other SRP MPs, as well as about 200 other people started to march from the Phnom Penh municipal court to the SRP headquarters. During the march, a brawl took place with armed cops along the marching route and violence took place to oppose the march.

Sam Rainsy condemned the hundreds of cops who used violence on the peaceful march, calling the cop action a serious violation of human rights.

Sam Rainsy said: “They do not allow people to use their rights, this action is condemned by freedom-loving people and by democratic people.”

Ho Sirin, a SRP activist, was beaten by the cops when he was trying to protect Mrs. Mu Sochua during the police brawl. He said: “The cops pushed Mrs. Mu Sochua, I pushed one of them out, he was angry with me and he kicked me. The cops came back to her again, I pushed them back again, then about 20-30 cops came to strangle me.”

Ong Yentieng, government spokesman and chairman of the government human right commits, declined not comment in this brawl case. He indicated that he was busy in a meeting. RFA could not reach any other government officials to obtain clarification on this issue.

A joint SRP and HRP statement was issued, it rejected the verdict handed down to Mrs. Mu Sochua by the PPenh municipal court on 04 August.

In this statement, the opposition parties also called on the international community to continue paying attention and to follow up on the situation in order to prevent the use of the defamation [lawsuit] and the judicial system to crack down critics. The opposition also called on the international community to push the government to apply with fruitful results the judicial reform and it must also force the government to apply all the principles of plural democracy.

Thailand, Cambodia sign pact on transfer of sentenced persons

2009-08-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

BANGKOK, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Thailand and Cambodia signed a bilateral agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons and co-operation in the enforcement of penal sentences during the 6th Meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation on Wednesday.

The agreement was signed by Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, according to a news report by Thai News Agency.

From Wednesday to Thursday, Thailand has been hosting the 6th Meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation in capital Bangkok.

The two-day meeting will focus on bilateral cooperation, namely education, politics, security, economics, society, science and technology and also incorporate the issues of cooperation in other multilateral frameworks including the ASEAN, the two ministers told a joint press conference.

The Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation between Thailand and Cambodia has provided a mechanism responsible for supervising and overlooking the overall bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries.

The commission comprises representatives from all governmental agencies of Thailand and Cambodia, who have been tasked with duties in the area of development and promotion of bilateral cooperation.

UN appeals to Cambodia to respect free speech obligations

2009-08-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

Aug 5, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The UN's human rights office in Cambodia Wednesday appealed to the judiciary to respect the country's national and international obligations on freedom of speech, saying that a recent spate of lawsuits risks stifling public debate.
Cambodia's courts have found against three defendants in recent weeks, and fined or jailed them for disinformation or defamation.

Human rights groups have complained that the cases, which were brought by the government against perceived critics, are politically motivated.

'Under international law, freedom of expression is to be restricted only in exceptional cases, where clearly necessary and proportionate to the value that the restriction seeks to protect,' the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.

Opposition parliamentarian Mu Sochua was found guilty Tuesday of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen and fined 16.5 million riel (4,124 dollars).

In June, the editor of an opposition-aligned newspaper was fined and jailed for a year for articles alleging corruption within the government.

And last month, the director of a local cultural organization was fined and sentenced to two years in prison, in absentia, for suggesting that new lighting at Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple could damage the stonework.

The government has consistently denied the charges are politically motivated, saying it is acting only to maintain social order.

Desmond Tutu: my tribute to Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi

2009-08-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed. Every day I ask myself: have I done everything I can try to end the atrocities being committed in Burma? And I pray that world leaders will ask themselves the same question. For if they did, the answer would be "no", and perhaps their conscience will finally force them to act.

Humankind has the ability to live in freedom and in peace. We have seen that goodness has triumphed over evil; we have witnessed political transitions in South Africa, and elsewhere, evidencing that we live in a moral universe. Our world is sometimes lacking wise and good leadership or, as in the case of Burma, the leadership is forbidden to lead.

Aung San Suu Kyi has now been detained for more than 13 years. She recently passed her 5,000th day in detention. Every one of those days is a tragedy and a lost opportunity. The whole world, not just the people of Burma, suffers from this loss. We desperately need the kind of moral and principled leadership that Aung San Suu Kyi would provide. And when you add the more than 2,100 political prisoners who are also in Burma's jails, and the thousands more jailed in recent decades, the true scale of injustice, but also of lost potential, becomes heartbreakingly clear.

Like many leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi has had to make great personal sacrifices. It is cruel enough to deprive an innocent person of her freedom. Burma's generals are crueller still. They try to use her as leverage to make her submit to their will. They refused to allow her husband to visit one last time when he was dying of cancer. She has grandchildren she has never even met. Yet her will and determination have stayed strong despite her being kept in detention for so many years.

More than anything, the new trial and detention of Aung San Suu Kyi speaks volumes about her effectiveness as a leader. The only reason the generals need to silence her clarion call for freedom is because they fear her and the principles she stands for. She is the greatest threat to their continuing rule.

The universal demand for human freedom cannot be suppressed forever. This is a universal truth that Than Shwe, the dictator of Burma, has failed to understand. How frustrated must he be that no matter how long he keeps Aung San Suu Kyi in detention, no matter how many guns he buys, and no matter how many people he imprisons, Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma will not submit. The demands for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners of Burma grow louder and echo around the world, reaching even his new capital hidden in central Burma. Words, however, are not enough. Freedom is never given freely by those who have power; it has to be fought for.

The continuing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's other political prisoners is a crime and an indictment of an international community that often substitutes the issuance of repeated statements of concern for effective diplomacy. The UN treats the situation in Burma as if it is just a dispute between two sides, and they must mediate to find a middle ground. The reality is that a brutal, criminal and illegal dictatorship is trying, and failing, to crush those who want freedom and justice. The international community cannot be neutral in the face of evil. That evil must be called what it is, and confronted.

Change is overdue to the framework within which the international community approaches Burma. Twenty years of trying to persuade Burma's generals to reform has not secured any improvement. Forty visits by UN envoys have failed to elicit any change. The warm embrace of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) did not improve the behaviour of the regime towards Burma's citizens whether Christian, Buddhist or Muslim. The regime rules with an iron fist and those under its rule have suffered long enough.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters have time and again offered to dialogue with the regime. They offered a path of reconciliation and non-violent transition. Even as Aung San Suu Kyi stood before the regime's sham court, facing five years' imprisonment, we heard her voice loud and strong. She said: "There could be many opportunities for national reconciliation if all parties so wished."

Burma's generals must now face the consequences of their actions. The detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is as clear a signal as we could get that there will be no chance of reform and that the regime's "road map to democracy", including the call for elections, in 2010, is an obstacle to justice.

A new report from Harvard Law School, Crimes in Burma, commissioned by some of the most respected jurists in international law, has used the UN's own reports to highlight how Burma's generals have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Burma's generals are criminals, and must be treated as such. Than Shwe should be held accountable for abominable atrocities: his soldiers rape ethnic women and children, they torture, mutilate and murder at will. In eastern Burma, more than 3,300 ethnic villages have been destroyed, more than in Darfur. Civilians are deliberately targeted and shot on sight.

Than Shwe spurned the compassion of those willing to provide assistance following Cyclone Nargis. Instead, he conducted a referendum and he declared his undemocratic constitution the victor while victims perished from the cyclone's devastation. These are war crimes and crimes against humanity. Than Shwe and the rest of the generals cannot be allowed to go unpunished. The UN must establish a commission of inquiry, with a view to compiling evidence for prosecution. Failure to do so amounts to complicity with these crimes.

An international arms embargo must also be imposed immediately. Those countries supplying arms to Burma are facilitating these atrocities. Countries across the world must declare their support for a global arms embargo, making it impossible for China to resist such a move at the Security Council.

Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma deserve nothing less than our most strenuous efforts to help them secure their freedom. Every day we must ask ourselves: have we done everything that we can? I pledge that I will not rest until Aung San Suu Kyi, and all the people of Burma, are free. Please join me.

Verdict delayed in Suu Kyi trial

2009-08-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

Security has been tight in Rangoon in anticipation of

A court in Burma has postponed delivering its verdict in the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The court had been due to rule on the case on Friday, but the

verdict has now been delayed until 11 August.

The judges said they needed more time to review the case, according to Western diplomats in Rangoon.

Aung San Suu Kyi is accused of breaching the terms of her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American to stay in her home.

Despite international calls for her release, a guilty verdict has been widely expected.

Analysts suggest that the delay may signal a belated recognition on the part of the government at the level of anger over Ms Suu Kyi's prosecution.

Deflecting criticism?

Riot police surrounded the prison on Friday, following warnings in the local media that any protests against a guilty verdict would not be tolerated.

All roads leading to Insein prison - where the trial is being held - were blocked by barbed-wire barricades.

Timeline: Aung San Suu Kyi trial

Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi

But in the event, the streets remained quiet as news got out of the postponement.

The trial had initially been expected to last a few days, but has now dragged on for more than two months.

Analysts say the Burmese junta may use this trial to make sure the popular pro-democracy leader is still in detention during elections planned for early next year.

Her term in house arrest was about to come to an end when she was arrested on this latest charge.

Ms Suu Kyi's international legal counsel, Jared Genser, said the delay in the verdict was an attempt by the junta to deflect international criticism.

"It is in some ways a smart move - push off the verdict until the middle of August when numerous government and United Nations officials around the world will be on vacation," he told the French news agency AFP.

"But it remains to be seen whether this ploy will work or if anticipation will be heightened in the run-up to the issuance of the verdict."

Protests have been held demanding Aung San Suu Kyi's release

'Vision warning'

Ms Suu Kyi faces five years in jail if she is convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest.

She is accused of allowing American well-wisher John Yettaw to stay at her lakeside home in Rangoon after he swam there.

Mr Yettaw has said he swam to her home to warn her he had a vision that she would be assassinated.

Lawyers for Ms Suu Kyi have not disputed the events, but say she had no control over the situation and that the guards around her home should have kept Mr Yettaw away.

Her lawyers have also argued that the law she has been charged under is part of a constitution abolished 25 years ago.

Her Burmese lawyer, Nyan Win, said Ms Suu Kyi was "preparing for the worst", stockpiling books and medicines in anticipation of a long prison sentence.

Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take power.

The 64-year-old has spent nearly 14 of the last 20 years in detention, much of it at her Rangoon home.

Maddox Jolie-Pitt [aka Rath Vibol], Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's oldest son, turns 8

2009-08-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

Maddox with mom Angelina (AP photo)

August 5, 2009
Examiner

August 5 is Maddox Jolie-Pitt's 8th birthday, if you can believe it. Almost since the minute he was adopted by Angelina, Maddox has been in the tabloids and has certainly been leading a pretty cool life. Let's see what he's been up to for the past seven years, shall we?
Born in Cambodia, Angelina spotted him in an orphanage while as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. She had previously been in Cambodia while filming Tomb Raider and was taken with the country. Upon meeting Maddox, who was known as Rath Vibol, she applied to adopt him and it was made official on March 10, 2002.

At the time, Angelina was married to Billy Bob Thornton, but the two divorced and Angelina was granted sole custody. Angelina famously went on to meet Brad Pitt in 2005 and the two actors forged a relationship. It wasn't long before Brad adopted Maddox, along with Zahara, Angelina's adopted daughter from Ethiopia. They Jolie-Pitt clan has grown steadily since then, and now Maddox has even more siblings: Shiloh, Pax, Knox, and Vivienne.

Maddox has toured the world in his short life. Some of the exotic locales include India, Jordan, Namibia, France, Spain, Italy, Cambodia, the UK, and even recently went to Iraq. He spends part of his time in the Jolie-Pitt homes in New Orleans, France, Los Angeles, and New York. As such, he speaks French and Angelina has stated before that she wants him to learn about his Cambodian culture and plans to take him there frequently as he grows older.

The choices facing Burma's military

2009-08-05T06:33:00.000-07:00

Burma's Senior General Than Shwe faces a dilemma

He desperately wants to keep his most influential opponent away from the Burmese public, yet he fears the uproar that will ensue if he keeps her locked up.

Than Shwe and his ruling generals have already procrastinated over Aung San Suu Kyi's latest trial. Most court hearings in Burma last a few days at most, but this one has been going on for more than two months.

Now they've stalled again, postponing the verdict until 11 August.

Unlike the other 2,000 political prisoners - whom the Burmese military seem to keep in jail without much thought for public opinion - it is evident that Burma's officials do not know what to do with this demure 64-year-old woman.

Revered and respected

Aung San Suu Kyi is not an ordinary prisoner. As the daughter of Burma's independence hero General Aung San, she was always going to command people's respect.

But as the rightful winner of the country's last democratic elections in 1990 - which the military refused to recognise - she gained credibility in her own right.

John Yettaw's nocturnal swim gave the junta the pretext they wanted

By imprisoning her for so long, the junta has unwittingly given her even more symbolic significance in the eyes of Burmese people.

"An aura has built up around her," said Maung Zarni, a research fellow at the London School of Economics. "The public view her as the conscience of Burmese society."

It is especially important for the military generals that Aung San Suu Kyi is out of the way ahead of the next elections, which they plan to hold in early 2010.

The polls are widely seen as an attempt to legitimise the regime by increasing its democratic credentials.

But in order for this to work to its favour, the generals need to make sure their allies win.

In the 1990 elections, the military miscalculated in a big way - they were trounced by Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy. This time they don't want to take any chances.

When an eccentric American swam to Ms Suu Kyi's lakeside house in his homemade flippers in May, he gave the generals the excuse they were looking for.

By accusing her of breaking the terms of her house arrest because she let her uninvited well-wisher stay the night, they finally had a reason to extend her detention and keep her safely locked away throughout the election process.

Risky strategy

But even if the junta find some tenuous legal reason to jail Ms Suu Kyi, or extend the terms of her house arrest, they know they will stoke intense public outrage.

The public view her as the conscience of Burmese society.

Maung Zarni, Research fellow on Burma, London School of Economics

Keeping behind bars a woman who is not only a Nobel Peace Prize laureate but also the world's most famous political detainee is a high-risk strategy.

Burmese people will be angry and upset if she is found guilty, but according to Mung Pi, who runs a blog site for Burmese exiles, the government knows there is not much that people inside the country can actually do to change things.

"A guilty verdict probably won't lead to large street protests, because people are still suffering from 2007," he said.

In September 2007 large-scale demonstrations led by monks - the most revered sector of society - were brutally quashed by the military, and the opposition movement is still said to be recovering. The generals know that, right now, their opponents do not have the strength to fight back.

Than Shwe did not let Ban Ki-Moon meet Ms Suu Kyi on his trip to Burma

"The opposition movement has the moral backing of the people, but it's whoever controls the streets, not the moral high ground, who matters," said Maung Zarni.

Coping with the indignation of the international community, though, is a different matter.

On the surface, it seems that the Burmese generals are completely intransigent when it comes to the demands of the rest of the world.

They have ignored recent incentives from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and refused to let UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon meet Aung San Suu Kyi on a recent visit.

They also remain resolutely unswayed by the constant pleas from celebrities and protest marches.

But there are times when the junta does listen to the outside world.

It belatedly reacted to criticism of its handling of the devastating cyclone last year, letting in foreign aid after initially saying it could manage alone.

And if the military really was oblivious to international reaction, it would surely not have bothered to plan elections - no matter how flawed those elections might be.

Chinese influence

The lengthy delays in Aung San Suu Kyi's trial are another indication that the recalcitrant generals can sometimes be swayed by foreign influence.

"The regime wants to take its time because of the mounting pressure it's under," a diplomat in Rangoon told reporters.

The regime wants to take its time because of the mounting pressure it's under

Western diplomat in Rangoon

It is still doubtful the military will take much notice of the West, though. The long years of EU and US sanctions mean that Burma has been thrown into the arms of China and Russia, as well as neighbouring Asian nations.

"When push comes to shove, they can afford to just ignore... what the West thinks. They're backed by China," said Justin Wintel, the author of a book on Aung San Suu Kyi.

And as long as they can rely on China and Russia to veto any major action by the UN Security Council, and their neighbours at the Asean regional forum to do little more than voice occasional disapproval, the generals probably feel there will be no serious ramifications to keeping Aung San Suu Kyi behind bars.

Which is ultimately why most analysts believe that Ms Suu Kyi will be found guilty; the negatives of having her free outweigh the positives.

But even if he does send her to jail, Than Shwe already knows that she is likely to remain his most potent opponent.

She may be out of sight, but someone as iconic as Aung San Suu Kyi will never be out of Burmese minds.

UN chief gambles on Burma breakthrough

2009-08-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

Ban Ki-moon is not a man known for taking risks. Yet his decision to visit Burma and meet its secretive military rulers - at a time when the rest of the world is outraged by their decision to put opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on trial - is quite a gamble.
Ban Ki-moon in Japan - 1/7/2009
Mr Ban has been criticised for his unassertive style of diplomacy

The visit was requested by the Burmese government.

The generals are rarely graced by the presence of figures of Mr Ban's international stature in their bunker-like capital Nay Pyi Taw.

If the secretary-general gets nothing in return, he will be assailed by his detractors for being naive, for allowing the status of his high office to be used by a pariah regime.

Critics have already argued that a UN secretary-general's visit should be a prize, to be awarded after significant concessions have been made, not before.

But if Mr Ban's visit can revive a dialogue between the military and the opposition that has been dead for six years, he can chalk up the greatest achievements at the UN to date.

So what are his prospects?

Previous UN envoys have generally had little success in Burma.

Burma's rulers are prepared to sit in splendid isolation if they feel threatened by international pressure

Why is junta afraid of Suu Kyi?
Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi

The one exception was Razali Ismail, a distinguished Malaysian diplomat, who was appointed UN Special Envoy to Burma in April 2000.

He helped broker talks between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi that resulted in her release from house arrest in May 2002.

But after she was detained again a year later, Mr Razali was repeatedly denied entry to the country, and he resigned in frustration at the end of 2005.

His successor, Ibrahim Gambari, has led eight missions to Burma, but has little to show for them.

He arrived there right after the army's violent suppression of mass anti-government protests in September 2007, and thought he had been given assurances by Senior General Than Shwe that the military would be lenient with the protesters.

Since then, in a seemingly calculated snub to international opinion, military-dominated courts have imposed harsh sentences on hundreds of political prisoners.

Election risk

Ban Ki-moon's position as secretary-general may make it easier for him to deal with the notoriously reclusive and stubborn military ruler.

It may be that his oft-criticised unassertive diplomatic style strikes a chord with Than Shwe.

Mr Ban certainly seems to feel he has a rapport with him, a big claim to make after just one meeting over a year ago - but a claim nonetheless that few other international figures can rival.

Tunnel construction in Burma

In pictures: Burma's tunnel network

What we do know is that Burma's rulers are prepared to sit in splendid isolation if they feel threatened by international pressure - the networks of tunnels being constructed underneath the new capital, with North Korean help, are testimony to that.

But they do care about their legitimacy and respectability in the world.

Why else take the risk of holding elections next year, albeit elections which will leave the military in a dominant position?

Mr Ban must seduce them with offers of respect away from the comfort zone of their bunkers.

The few people who have any contact with top Burmese officials say they have been genuinely caught off-guard by the storm of international protest over Aung San Suu Kyi.

That the trial has been repeatedly delayed suggests they have concerns - dissident trials are usually rushed through with little due-process - so there is some willingness to acknowledge world reaction.

Dialogue test

Measuring the success of Mr Ban's mission will be difficult.

He may win the release of a number of political prisoners. Some will dismiss this as a mere token, but such concessions do matter.

Mr Ban has a list of those of greatest concern to the UN; some are being held in very harsh conditions. Dozens of political prisoners have died in custody over the years.
A protest calling for the release of leader Aung San Suu Kyi (24/05/09)
Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party was brutally suppressed by the army

He almost certainly will not obtain Ms Suu Kyi's release. The real test will be what happens over the next few months - whether a real dialogue can be restarted with the opposition.

Another test will be whether next year's election can be made more inclusive.

At the moment the main opposition party, Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, says it will only consider taking part if the military government meets a series of demands including the release of political prisoners and changes to the military-drafted constitution.

As it stands, the election result is likely to be dismissed by many countries around the world as too unrepresentative and too tightly controlled by the military to be recognised officially.

Yet Than Shwe clings to the hope that the election will give his rule international legitimacy.

The election will, though, make meaningful changes to the arbitrary way Burma is ruled by a small cabal of military men.

If it can be improved, if the military can be persuaded to allow the opposition a greater role - these are very big ifs - it could offer the country a way out of its current dire predicament.

This is a prize Ban Ki-moon clearly thinks is worth pursuing.

Burma's suffering is also ours

2009-08-05T06:19:00.001-07:00

I THINK of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed. Every day I ask myself: have I done everything I can to end the atrocities being committed in Burma? And I pray that world leaders will ask themselves the same question. For if they did, the answer would be ‘‘no’’, and perhaps their conscience will finally force them to act.

Humankind has the ability to live in freedom and in peace. We have seen that goodness has triumphed over evil; we have witnessed political transitions in South Africa and elsewhere, evidence that we live in a moral universe. Our world is sometimes lacking wise and good leadership or, as in the case of Burma, the leadership is forbidden to lead.

Aung San Suu Kyi has now been detained for more than 13 years. She recently passed her 5000th day in detention. Every one of those days is a tragedy and a lost opportunity. The whole world, not just the people of Burma, suffers from this loss. We desperately need the kind of moral and principled leadership that Suu Kyi would provide. And when you add the more than 2100 political prisoners who are also in Burma’s jails, and the thousands more jailed in recent decades, the true scale of injustice, but also of lost potential, becomes heartbreakingly clear.

Like many leaders, Suu Kyi has had to make great personal sacrifices. The generals try to use her as leverage to make her submit to their will. They refused to allow her husband to visit one last time when he was dying of cancer. She has grandchildren she has never even met. Yet her will and determination have stayed strong.

More than anything, the new trial and detention of Suu Kyi speaks volumes about her effectiveness as a leader. The only reason the generals need to silence her clarion call for freedom is because she is the greatest threat to their continuing

Maddox Jolie-Pitt [aka Rath Vibol], Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's oldest son, turns 8

2009-08-05T05:55:00.001-07:00

Maddox with mom Angelina (AP photo)

August 5, 2009
Examiner

August 5 is Maddox Jolie-Pitt's 8th birthday, if you can believe it. Almost since the minute he was adopted by Angelina, Maddox has been in the tabloids and has certainly been leading a pretty cool life. Let's see what he's been up to for the past seven years, shall we?

Born in Cambodia, Angelina spotted him in an orphanage while as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. She had previously been in Cambodia while filming Tomb Raider and was taken with the country. Upon meeting Maddox, who was known as Rath Vibol, she applied to adopt him and it was made official on March 10, 2002.

At the time, Angelina was married to Billy Bob Thornton, but the two divorced and Angelina was granted sole custody. Angelina famously went on to meet Brad Pitt in 2005 and the two actors forged a relationship. It wasn't long before Brad adopted Maddox, along with Zahara, Angelina's adopted daughter from Ethiopia. They Jolie-Pitt clan has grown steadily since then, and now Maddox has even more siblings: Shiloh, Pax, Knox, and Vivienne.

Maddox has toured the world in his short life. Some of the exotic locales include India, Jordan, Namibia, France, Spain, Italy, Cambodia, the UK, and even recently went to Iraq. He spends part of his time in the Jolie-Pitt homes in New Orleans, France, Los Angeles, and New York. As such, he speaks French and Angelina has stated before that she wants him to learn about his Cambodian culture and plans to take him there frequently as he grows older.

UN appeals to Cambodia to respect free speech obligations

2009-08-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

Aug 5, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The UN's human rights office in Cambodia Wednesday appealed to the judiciary to respect the country's national and international obligations on freedom of speech, saying that a recent spate of lawsuits risks stifling public debate.

Cambodia's courts have found against three defendants in recent weeks, and fined or jailed them for disinformation or defamation.

Human rights groups have complained that the cases, which were brought by the government against perceived critics, are politically motivated.

'Under international law, freedom of expression is to be restricted only in exceptional cases, where clearly necessary and proportionate to the value that the restriction seeks to protect,' the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.

Opposition parliamentarian Mu Sochua was found guilty Tuesday of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen and fined 16.5 million riel (4,124 dollars).

In June, the editor of an opposition-aligned newspaper was fined and jailed for a year for articles alleging corruption within the government.

And last month, the director of a local cultural organization was fined and sentenced to two years in prison, in absentia, for suggesting that new lighting at Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple could damage the stonework.

The government has consistently denied the charges are politically motivated, saying it is acting only to maintain social order.

Suu Kyi co-accused 'in hospital'

2009-08-05T05:46:00.000-07:00

John Yettaw
Like Ms Suu Kyi, Mr Yettaw faces five years in jail over his unsolicited visit

The American man on trial in Burma for making an uninvited visit to detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is said to have been taken to hospital.
John Yettaw - who is thought to suffer from epilepsy - was admitted to the main hospital in Rangoon after having seizures, hospital sources said.
His condition was said to be improving, though he remains in hospital.

Mr Yettaw is on trial with Ms Suu Kyi, who has told the court the case was a test of the country's legal system.

Ms Suu Kyi made the remarks during final court arguments in the closed-door trial on 24 July, but they have only now been released in full by her opposition political party, the National League for Democracy.

She faces five years in jail for violating the terms of her house arrest by allowing Mr Yettaw to stay - on what her supporters and many observers say are trumped-up charges.

'Getting better'

Mr Yettaw was transferred from Insein jail to hospital overnight after having convulsions, an unnamed hospital source told AFP news agency.

"He is getting better now," the hospital worker was quoted as saying.

Mr Yettaw's lawyer, Khin Maung Oo, told the agency he was unaware of the incident but said his client had already been receiving treatment for diabetes, epilepsy and a heart complaint while in prison.

The verdict in the case against Mr Yettaw, Ms Suu Kyi and two women who lived with Ms Suu Kyi will not now be delivered until 11 August.

But, in the transcript of Ms Suu Kyi's closing arguments in court on 24 July, Ms Suu Kyi said the court's decision was already "painfully obvious".

Justice must be done and seen to be done, clearly and unequivocally
Aung San Suu Kyi

The choices facing Burma's military

"The court will pronounce on the innocence or guilt of a few individuals. The verdict will constitute a judgment on the whole of the legal, justice and constitutional system in our country," she said.

She said that in allowing Mr Yettaw to stay she had acted "without malice, simply... to ensure that no-one concerned should suffer any adverse consequences".

She told the court the charges against her could not be adequately assessed without a simultaneous assessment of the legality of her latest, five-year term of house arrest.

The 64-year-old has spent nearly 14 of the last 20 years in detention, and her lawyers have argued the repeated extensions to her house arrest are illegal.

They also say the law she has been charged under is part of a constitution abolished 25 years ago.

"Throughout, my lawyers have been scrupulous in their efforts to procure due process, which is critical to the rule of law.

"Equally critical is the principle that justice must be done and seen to be done, clearly and unequivocally," Ms Suu Kyi told the court, according to the testimony released by the NLD.

Aung San Suu Kyi says trial is test of Burma's legal and political system

2009-08-05T05:10:00.000-07:00

A passerby looks at a poster of Aung San Suu Kyi in a cage during a Tokyo protest on her 64th birthday to demand her release. Photograph: AFP/Tishifumi Kitamura

Aung San Suu Kyi has described her trial for violating the terms of her house arrest as a test of the entire legal and governmental system installed by Burma's ruling junta.

In a statement to the trial, a transcript of which has just been released by supporters, the pro-democracy leader argued that no proper verdict could be reached without an assessment of the legality of the process under which she has been detained at her home for the past five years.

The comments were published as it was reported that the American man, whose surprise arrival at her lakeside home prompted the trial, had been admitted to hospital.

Unnamed medical sources quoted by the Associated Press said John Yettaw, 53, had been taken to Rangoon's main hospital yesterday after suffering seizures, and his condition was now improving.

Yettaw, whose motives remain unclear, swam to Aung San Suu Kyi's home in the city in May and stayed there for two nights. He faces charges at the same hearing, where a verdict is due next week.

According to the transcript released by the leader's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), she told the court last week that she had allowed Yettaw to stay "without malice, simply with intent to ensure that no one concerned should suffer any adverse consequences".

Her statement continued: "The court will pronounce on the innocence or guilt of a few individuals. The verdict will constitute a judgment on the whole of legal, justice and constitutional system in our country."

The 64-year-old Nobel peace prize winner, who has been in various forms of detention for 14 of the last 20 years, said the charges hinged on her house arrest being permissible.

"Throughout, my lawyers have been scrupulous in their efforts to procure due process, which is critical to the rule of law. Equally critical is the principle that justice must be done and seen to be done, clearly and unequivocally," she said.

The NLD won a crushing victory in a general election in 1990, a vote which was then ignored by the military, which has ruled Burma since 1962.

Cambodian PM Wins Defamation Case Against Activist

2009-08-05T02:36:00.000-07:00

In Cambodia, opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua has been fined $4,000 for defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Mu Sochua, the former minister for women's affairs, sat quietly in the court Tuesday as the judge ruled she had defamed Hun Sen at an April news conference.

The suit was brought against her in a tit-for-tat action after she initially attempted to sue the prime minister, also for defamation, over derogatory remarks he allegedly made.

However, the court dismissed her suit. Many rights activists had expected Tuesday's ruling, as there is a history of political interference in Cambodia's judiciary.

Mu Sochua says that outside influence frightened lawyers away from taking her case and affected some of the court's rulings.

"If the court, the judiciary system in Cambodia were free, independent and impartial, my case should not even go to court. It's the case that I filed against the prime minister of Cambodia for defaming me that should have gone to court," she said.

She and human rights activists say the courts are being used to silence government critics, after a rash of law suits was brought against the opposition and civic groups.

"I think he feels I am too critical, I am too vocal and his aim is to destroy the opposition," she said. "I think it's about wanting to eliminate the voice of the opposition."

Mu Sochua originally served as a member of Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cabinet, but later left the government and now is a senior member of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party. The U.S.-educated social activist has long worked to help Cambodian women and children, particularly victims of human trafficking and the sex trade. She has been internationally recognized for her human rights work.

The Sam Rainsy Party has indicated it will pay the $4,000. Almost half will go to the state, the balance to the prime minister. Mu Sochua has one month to appeal the verdict.

Cambodian lawmaker found guilty of defaming PM

2009-08-05T02:28:00.000-07:00

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen won a US$4,100 defamation judgment against opposition lawmaker Mu Sochoa today. — Reuters pic
PHNOM PENH, Aug 4 — A Cambodian court ordered an opposition lawmaker to pay US$4,100 (RM14,350) in damages today for defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen, provoking fresh concerns the government is using the judiciary to suppress its detractors.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court ruled that Mu Sochua of the Sam Rainsy Party had defamed the long-serving premier when she tried to sue him over comments he made about her conduct during last year’s election campaign.

Critics said the ruling reflected Hun Sen’s determination to use the courts to muzzle the opposition.

“That was not justice in the courtroom. It was totally political,” Sochua told reporters, who were banned from attending the court session.

“I will continue to fight until I get justice. Today, the court could have been a light for justice. The judge gave us darkness instead.”

Sochua, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for her work against the trafficking of women in Cambodia, and another lawmaker, Ho Vann, were stripped of their legal immunity last month and lost their seats in parliament as a result.

Vann is accused of spreading false information and faces three years in prison.

Newspaper editor Hang Chkra is serving a one-year sentence in Phnom Penh for writing about alleged government corruption. An opposition activist, Moeung Sonn, fled the country in June after being given a two-year sentence for questioning a lighting system at the famed Angkor Wat temple complex, the country’s biggest tourism draw.

Another opposition newspaper shut down after 10 years of publishing to avoid government legal action.

Sara Colm of New York-based Human Rights Watch told Reuters today: “This is the most serious crackdown on freedom of expression in years. The space for opposition media and peaceful dissent is rapidly shrinking.”

“These lawsuits are a clear attempt to harass the opposition and prevent members of parliament from exercising free expression.”

Colm urged donors, who provided nearly $1 billion in aid last year, to make the government aware of their concerns.

“Donors — particularly those who have funded judicial and legal reform — need to take a firm stand,” she said.

Human Rights Watch also called for an end to using the judiciary as a tool to silence government critics.

Sam Rainsy, leader of the country’s largest opposition party which carries his name, said the court ruling had drawn attention to Hun Sen’s attempts to intimidate his opponents.

“It may be a judicial defeat, but it is a moral and political victory for us as the opposition,” he said.

Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla, criticised rights groups and foreign diplomats last month for interfering in Cambodia’s affairs after they voiced concern about the removal of lawmakers’ parliamentary immunity.

He has dominated Cambodian politics for more than two decades and won a landslide election victory in July last year. — Reuters

Cambodia police, protesters clash after PM court win

2009-08-05T02:09:00.000-07:00

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodian police on Tuesday clashed with supporters of an outspoken lawmaker from the country's main opposition party after a court found her guilty of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen.

A Phnom Penh court ruled that Mu Sochua of the Sam Rainsy Party was guilty of defaming Hun Sen for remarks she made during an April press conference, in which she also announced she would sue the premier for allegedly insulting her.

After Tuesday's ruling, opposition leader Sam Rainsy and Mu Sochua, along with dozens of her supporters, marched from the court through the capital, chanting, "Justice! Justice!"

Police attempting to break up the march clashed with a few protesters, grabbing, punching and kicking several of the loudest demonstrators, an AFP correspondent at the scene witnessed.

Most journalists and rights activists were banned from attending the brief hearing in which Judge Sem Sakola ordered Mu Sochua to pay 2,000 dollars in compensation to Hun Sen, who filed the suit soon after her April remarks.

The judge also ordered the lawmaker to pay a fine of 2,125 dollars to the state, but Mu Sochua told reporters that she did not accept the court's decision.

"The ruling is based on political motivation, not by laws," Mu Sochua said outside court.

"That was not justice. I made it very clear, I will continue to fight until justice is provided to me."

The Cambodian National Assembly stripped Mu Sochua of parliamentary immunity in June to clear the way for the controversial court proceedings against her.

Her lawsuit against Hun Sen was meanwhile dismissed in court.

International rights groups have expressed alarm over a recent spate of defamation and disinformation lawsuits lodged by senior Cambodian officials against government critics.

New York-based Human Rights Watch alleged Hun Sen's government aimed to silence political opposition and critics with a recent "campaign of harassment, threats, and unwarranted legal action."

Sam Rainsy was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in February after accusing Hun Sen's party of corruption during elections last year and then failing to pay a 2,500-dollar fine.

His immunity was later restored when his party eventually paid the fine.

Former sex slave seeks help as 4-year-old found in brothel

2009-08-05T02:07:00.000-07:00

CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) - A former sex slave on Monday launched a global campaign against trafficking, saying the age of girls forced into prostitution keeps getting younger.

Cambodian Somaly Mam, whose eponymous foundation is dedicated to fighting the $12 billion a year sex-trafficking industry, said a four-year-old girl was found last month at a brothel in Cambodia after being reported by a male client.

The youngster had been sold to the brothel by her mother, who is also a prostitute.

She is now being cared for at one of the seven shelters run by the Somaly Mam Foundation in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam set up to protect and rehabilitate girls rescued from sex slavery. The group also has an office in Thailand dealing with repatriation.

"You just have to hold her and stay with her and show her that you love her. Children can become children again," Mam told Reuters as she launched a joint venture with cosmetics retailer The Body Shop to raise awareness of sex trafficking.

"There is this belief that having sex with a virgin will cure you of HIV so there is an increasing market for younger and younger girls. In my time it was girls aged 15 or 16 but it has got younger and younger."

The United Nations estimates that two million women and children are trafficked every year, with 30 percent of these in Asia. Poor families sometimes sell a daughter to pay off debts.

PERSONAL TRAGEDY

Mam personally knows the horror of a life of slavery having been sold to a brothel at the age of 16 by an abusive elderly man whom she called "grandfather." She was sold to pay off his debts.

She managed to escape the brothel with the help of a Swiss patron who paid off the owner and has since campaigned tirelessly against forced prostitution, setting up the Somaly Mam Foundation in 2007 to rescue and rehabilitate girls.

She was recently named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People."

Mam, who wrote about her journey from sex slave to crusader against prostitution in her memoir "The Road of Lost Innocence," has faced threats from pimps and organized crime syndicates over the years while her shelters have come under armed attack.

In 2006, Mam's teenage daughter was kidnapped. She was eventually rescued, but Mam still refuses to leave her work.

Vietnam beats Malaysia in Southeast Asian U19 championship

2009-08-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

Vietnam defeated Malaysia 2-0 in the Southeast Asian U19 football championship at Thong Nhat Stadium Tuesday.

The Vietnamese under-19s kept up a relentless attack on a strong Malaysian defensive line, with good performances from midfielders captain Van Quyet and Hai Huy, and the two strikers Minh Tuan and Dinh Bao.

The home team applied constant pressure in the first half but failed to score. Vietnam carried on their aggressive play in the second half and took the lead four minutes after halftime after Dinh Bao headed home a free kick from left winger Quoc Phuong.

The Malaysians fought back in vain as Vietnam’s Van Quyet skirted Malaysian defenders from the left flank and beat goalkeeper Mohd Khairul.

“The players applied the strategies very well and this win makes our way to the semis easy,” coach Vo Hoang Buu said.

In other action, Thailand crushed Cambodia 3-0 and Australia drew 1-1 with Singapore.

Vietnam will play the second group stage match against Myanmar Thursday at Thong Nhat Stadium.

Youngsters help out in Cambodia

2009-08-05T01:59:00.000-07:00

Bags are packed - the Bideford Methodist Circuit group pictured before leaving for Cambodia.

WHEN young members of the Bideford Methodist Church Circuit found out that thousands of children in Cambodia were not going to school because their parents could not afford to buy the uniforms, they vowed to do something about it.

They spent almost two years fund-raising and on Sunday eight of them, aged 16-19, left for a two-week adventure during which they will visit children living in poverty and highlight their plight.

With them went youth worker Chris Turner, his wife, Debbs and children Stan, two and four-month-old Solomon,

The young people all raised £1,250 each to travel with UK charity edukid, which works with children suffering from the legacy of war.

They will visit an orphanage, a city slum and stay overnight in a remote village.

During their fortnight's stay, they will be making a film of their experiences, which they will show to 15,000 people at the Greenbelt Festival at the end of August. Plans are in place to put the film into 10,000 schools across the UK.

* You can follow the group's adventures by logging on to this website as they will be sending back regular reports.

Thailand, Cambodia sign pact on transfer of sentenced persons

2009-08-05T01:57:00.000-07:00

BANGKOK, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Thailand and Cambodia signed a bilateral agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons and co-operation in the enforcement of penal sentences during the 6th Meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation on Wednesday.

The agreement was signed by Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromyaand Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, according to a news report by Thai News Agency.

From Wednesday to Thursday, Thailand has been hosting the 6th Meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation in capital Bangkok.

The two-day meeting will focus on bilateral cooperation, namely education, politics, security, economics, society, science and technology and also incorporate the issues of cooperation in other multilateral frameworks including the ASEAN, the two ministers told a joint press conference.

The Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation between Thailand and Cambodia has provided a mechanism responsible for supervising and overlooking the overall bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries.

The commission comprises representatives from all governmental agencies of Thailand and Cambodia, who have been tasked with duties in the area of development and promotion of bilateral cooperation.

Khmer Rouge court told how Westerner burned alive

2009-08-05T01:54:00.000-07:00

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A former security guard at the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison told a tribunal Wednesday he watched as a Western prisoner was burned alive.

But the head of the prison — the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial in the U.N.-assisted tribunal — denied it.

"It's hard for me to believe that the prisoner was burned alive. I believe that nobody would dare to violate my order," Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, told the court. "They had to be killed and then burned to ash."

Up to 16,000 people were tortured under Duch's command at S-21 prison and later were taken away to be killed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule of Cambodia. Only a handful survived.

Cheam Soeu, now 52, told the court he was a youth when he joined the Khmer Rouge and helped the communist regime take power. He spent two years as a guard at S-21, where four Westerners were among the prisoners.

The Westerners included an American, an Australian, a New Zealander and a Briton, who were captured on their yacht while sailing in Cambodian waters.

Cheam Soeu told the court he was on guard outside the prison late one evening and watched as one of the Westerners — he does not know which — was led by three security guards to the street.

"The prisoner was still alive. They asked him to sit down, and they put a car tire over his body," Cheam Soeu testified. He said guards then set the body on fire. "I saw the charred torso of the body and black burned legs."

Cheam Soeu said he constantly feared that if he did something wrong he would face the same fate.

Some 1.7 million Cambodians died of torture, summary executions, disease and starvation during the Khmer Rouge's rule, during which the Maoist ideologues emptied cities and forced virtually the entire population to work on farm collectives.

Duch (pronounced DOIK) testified previously that he carried out orders from the regime's late leader Pol Pot to kill the four Westerners and then burn their corpses. Prison records suggest there may have been as many as 11 Western prisoners.

Duch, 66, is the only senior Khmer Rouge figure to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. He is charged with crimes against humanity and is the first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials.