Hope for dissidents behind bars? – South China Morning Post
November 15th, 2010
Htein Lin's painting based on images of monks currently imprisoned by the Burmese junta
BANGKOK – On Saturday, artist and former political prisoner Htein Lin opened a new exhibition in Bangkok, with the event punctuated by word coming through from Yangon that Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s best-known detainee, had been freed from house arrest.
Htein Lin was jailed from 1998-2004, smuggling his art out of prison with the help of sympathetic guards, proof that even amid Myanmar’s seemingly-endless saga of oppression, humanity can prevail. “One guard took a big risk, and even came to my first exhibition in Rangoon after I was released”, he said. Overjoyed at Suu Kyi’s release, Htein Lin cautioned me that “there are lots of journalists, poets and other dissidents inside”. Myanmar has over 2200 political prisoners held in labour camps, decrepit jails and detention centres in the military-ruled country.
One of those is Myanmar’s iconic comedian, Zarganar, who Htein Lin describes as “my mentor”. Zarganar was given a 35 year jail sentence on charges of “public order offences”, after criticising the military Government’s response to the May 2008 Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated 147000 people and left 3 million more homeless in the Irrawaddy delta.
Eight days later the junta pushed ahead with a referendum on a still-controversial Constitution, which in a foreshadow of last weekend’s much-derided landslide election win for the junta’s front party, passed by a 94% vote in favour amid allegations of ballot stuffing and forced voting. Over 300 of the detainees were rounded up in late 2008, as the military rulers took umbrage at criticism of their alleged callousness after Cyclone Nargis.
Conditions inside the country’s jails are thought to be harsh and many political detainees are forced into solitary confinement in in cramped and dark “dog cell”. (more…)
Suu Kyi on verge of release – RTÉ
November 12th, 2010
http://www.rte.ie/news/morningireland/ - Discussing Aung San Suu Kyi’s hoped-for release from house arrest in Burma. (Poor line quality)
Persecuted Church fends for itself – National Catholic Register
November 11th, 2010
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/a-persecuted-church-left-to-fend-for-itself/
Most of the old Thai Ha grounds have been taken by the Government (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam has the second largest population of Catholics in southeast Asia after the Philippines. But things seem to be getting harder for the Church here.
On Nov. 6, Cu Huy Vu, a lawyer who sought to defend six recently-jailed Catholic villagers, was detained on charges of “propaganda against the state,” according to state TV.
During the trial, the six, from Con Dau in central Vietnam, were denied a lawyer, after which Cu Huy Vu told the BBC that the verdict was pre-ordained. It is not clear if there is any link between Cu’s arrest and his attempts to defend the six.
But there has been a general crackdown on dissent in Vietnam ahead of the ruling Communist Party congress early next year. Prominent lawyers, journalists and activists have been arrested and jailed in recent months, while others remain under government surveillance.
Speaking in Hanoi last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the United States “remains concerned about the arrests, and the curbs on religious freedom in Vietnam,” before joining the country’s Deputy Prime Minister in extolling growing US-Vietnam trade and investment ties.
The Con Dau 6 were among 59 people arrested after clashes between around 500 Catholics and government agents at the parish cemetery of Con Dau in May. Catholics had conducted a funeral procession for an 82-year-old woman and tried to bury her in the cemetery, which had been seized by the local government to build a tourist resort. (more…)
New Burmese Government in 3 months, says Abhisit – The Irrawaddy
November 10th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddymedia.com/article.php?art_id=20026
Concerns raised about refugee repatriation amid more fighting inside Burma
Thai PM Abhisit Vejajjiva outside the IACC Conference today in Bangkok (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK – Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva believes that a new Burmese Government will be formed in three months, and anticipates that this “will help bring stability”, after recent fighting in Myawaddy sent 30000 Burmese refugees fleeing across the Thai border into Mae Sot. “We are led to believe there will be a transition period of about three months”, he said earlier today.
The refugees fled to Thailand on Nov. 8 after Tatmadaw forces moved to reclaim parts of the border town of Myawaddy from a splinter group from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), before being sent back to Burma yesterday by the Thai authorities.
Speaking in the sidelines of the 14th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Bangkok, Abhisit said that “we had anticipated some instability” after the November 7 elections in Burma, but did not elaborate on what contingency plans Thailand is making should fighting continue or spread to other ethnic areas inside Burma. Thailand hosts around 140000 Burmese refugees, and the prospect of renewed fighting in Burma would likely add to these numbers.
On Wednesday morning an estimated 3000 Karen and Mon refugees crossed into Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province after more fighting near Three Pagodas Pass, south of Myawaddy. A combined Karen and Mon force is reportedly exchanging fire with the Burmese Army, fuelling speculation that a multiethnic force could materialise in the border areas. (more…)
Myanmar’s white elephant election – South China Morning Post
November 9th, 2010
BANGKOK – Myanmar’s rulers left little to chance as they prepare to stage a much-criticised election on November 7, the county’s first in two decades. Perhaps unaware of the English meaning of the term, and hence the irony, on October 21 in Naypidaw they paraded a real-life white elephant named Nandavati, the fifth to be put on show in the service of the state.
The animals have a place in southeast Asian political lore, signifying virtuous and legitimate rulers. Dr Maung Zarni, a Burmese lecturer at the London School of Economics, said that “the General’s quest for albino elephants is partly rooted in history, as they try to portray themselves as the rightful descendants of the country’s feudal kings and emperors, who all treasured white elephants as symbols of power and virtue”.
The following day, in another ritual with political overtones, Senior General Than Shwe, the country’s military dictator, launched a new flag and renamed the country “The Republic of the Union of Myanmar”. According to Ingrid Jordt, an anthropologist who studies Burmese religion and culture, “this was done on the advice of soothsayers in order that the bad karma would follow the old government-nation-flag”, in an attempt to reverse the bad vibes generated by the regime’s crackdown on Buddhist monks and other protestors after the 2007 “Saffron Revolution”. (more…)
Myanmar holds first election in 20 years, but results are preordained – Los Angeles Times
November 8th, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-myanmar-election-20101108,0,5996111.story
The constitution and election rules favor the two main parties backed by the country’s military rulers. Some opposition groups call for a boycott, but the regime pressures citizens to turn out and vote for ‘candidates correctly.’
Myanmar held its first multiparty election in 20 years Sunday, as citizens chose among lions, peacocks, bamboo hats, eyeglasses and other party symbols in a carefully scripted contest unlikely to bring about significant change anytime soon.
While there was no immediate announcement of the results from Myanmar, also known as Burma, the outcome was never in question.
Opposition candidates were far outspent, outmanned and out-advertised by the two main parties backed by the country’s military rulers. Twenty-five percent of parliamentary seats are reserved for the military. And the government-crafted constitution and skewed election rules heavily favored the military government’s candidates.
Speaking to students in Mumbai, India, on the first stop of a four-nation Asian trip, President Obama termed Myanmar’s elections “anything but free and fair.” (more…)
Burma’s election: proxy parties and proxy coverage – The Irrawaddy
November 7th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19989
BANGKOK – Looking somewhere between flustered and bemused, the official at the Burmese embassy in Hanoi flicked through my passport, double-checking the
ANFREL Director Somsri Hananuntasuk updates journalists at the FCCT on what ANFREL volunteers are seeing on the ground in Burma today (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
details on the main page and scanning through the stamps and visas.
“We will not be able to give you a visa for Myanmar”, she said, after a a couple of minutes brow-furrowing and mouth-pursing, and likely, careful thought about what to tell me. “Why is that?” I asked. We were both playing at faux-innocence, a game where each side knows that the other is bluffing, but both pretend that everything is being taken at face-value. She hesitated. “Em, you, em, need a multiple entry visa for Vietnam sir”. “Oh I see”, I replied, “but what has my visa for Vietnam got to do with travelling to Myanmar?”
It does actually, but I thought I should try some forlorn bluffing of my own and prolong the masquerade. My Vietnam visa was granted to allow me cover the recent summits in Hanoi, so she knew I was a journalist, trying like many others to finagle a way into Burma to cover the elections taking place today, in the guise of a tourist.
“We cannot issue visas unless you are entitled to stay in Vietnam for six months”, she said, more confidently than before. “Perhaps you can try your home country for a visa”. Ireland does not host an embassy from Burma, but seeing that the conversation was going nowhere, I didn’t bother to push the point, and thanked her for her time.
For the first time since the devastating 2008 Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta, killing around 140000 people, Burma is the top story on most of the international news networks. (more…)
The General’s Election in Burma – Sunday Business Post
November 7th, 2010
http://www.sbpost.ie/news/world/little-hope-for-change-in-burma-elections-52677.html
Burmese PM Thein Sein at the recent ASEAN summit in Hanoi (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Simon Roughneen in Bangkok – Today Burma goes to polls in what most observers are dismissing as a sham aimed at putting a civilian varnish on continued military dictatorship. Most of the candidates taking part are recently-resigned soldiers, or are backed by the military, which in any case has a reserved quota of 25% of parliamentary seats. Key ministries are ring-fenced for the army, while the commander-in-chief will have the option to annul the civilian government based on an arbitrary assessment of national security.
In total, genuine opposition parties will contest only one-third of the remainder 75% of seats which are up for grabs. To illustrate, the army’s Union Solidarity and Development Party will field candidates for almost all 1,158 seats at regional, lower and upper house levels. However, the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Front, can muster a meagre 163, hampered by restrictive electoral laws and campaign curbs. The onerous US$500 registration per candidate is more than the average GDP per capita in one of the few Asian countries where poverty equals or exceeds sub-Saharan Africa, despite billions earned in oil and gas revenues from sales to Thailand, China and India.
In recent days, undercover Burmese reporters have relayed details of massive pre-election ballot-rigging and forced voting to colleagues here in Thailand. The end of the week saw internet and mobile phone connections closed down, an apparent attempt to prevent the type of citizen reporting that saw footage of the 2007 monk-led Saffron protests leaked out to international news networks. Foreign media cannot enter Burma to cover the elections, though many have tried, with this correspondent among the many denied a visa recently. (more…)
Has North Korea Risen Above Burma? – The Irrawaddy
November 3rd, 2010
http://irrawaddymedia.com/article.php?art_id=19928&Submit=Submit
While the Nov. 7 election scheduled for Burma has been dismissed by many observers in advance as a charade aimed at keeping the military junta in power, equivalent polls are unlikely anytime soon in countries such as China, Vietnam and North Korea.
“When was the last time China had an election, or Vietnam?” asked US Senator Jim Webb when meeting journalists in Bangkok back in June. He posed the rhetorical question once more in Washington, D.C. last week when urging the Obama administration not to let Burma become a Chinese province.
In his recently-published biography of Snr-Gen Than Shwe, Burma’s reclusive and inaccessible ruler, author Ben Rogers ranked Burma as slightly less oppressive than North Korea.
Foreign Policy magazine ran an article earlier this year ranking Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s ailing strongman, as the world’s “worst of the worst,” describing him as “a personality-cult-cultivating isolationist with a taste for fine French cognac” and going on to say that “Kim has pauperized his people, allowed famine to run rampant and thrown hundreds of thousands in prison camps (where as many as 200,000 languish today)—all while spending his country’s precious few resources on a nuclear program.” (more…)
ASEAN sups with Chinese ‘devil’ – Asia Times
November 3rd, 2010
HANOI – China’s rise has altered the dynamics within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and across Asia, as was on display at recently concluded
US Secretary of State and Vietnamese Foreign Minister witness signing of Boeing-Vietnam Airlines deal (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
summits meetings in Hanoi. Chinese naval expansion and increasingly assertive claims to disputed maritime areas in the East and South China Seas has prompted Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and others to reaffirm their enthusiasm for America’s security umbrella after some ambivalence in recent years.
Japan and India, China’s main Asian rivals, are increasingly looking to each other, and to Southeast Asia, as a hedge against China’s rise, which has taken a hard turn in recent months. Prime Ministers Naoto Kan and Manmohan Singh met after the Hanoi summits, which were overshadowed by the mud-slinging coming from the Chinese and Japanese delegations.
“Prime Minister Kan was keen to understand how India engages China,” India’s foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao said after that meeting. As well as increasing ties with Japan, India’s slow-to-action ‘Look East’ policy, which has brought the self-proclaimed world’s largest democracy into disrepute over its feting of the Myanmar junta, is likely to be enhanced in coming years, as highlighted in the statement issued after the India-ASEAN summit. (more…)
