Conflicting signals on reform in Burma (Myanmar) – Christian Science Monitor/RTÉ World Report
January 6th, 2012
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/0105/Conflicting-signals-on-reform-in-Burma-Myanmar
9/1/12 radio report here http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0108/worldreport.html#
BANGKOK – Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she believes that her country will hold full democratic elections in her lifetime, a good sign for the country, which has long been notorious for its oppressive military rule.
Ms. Suu Kyi’s remarks came on the heels of three high profile visits to Burma (Myanmar): Both Hillary Clinton and billionaire businessman George Soros, longtime funder of exiled opposition groups, made the trip last month, and Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague arrived in Burma earlier today. (more…)
Calming ‘irrational exuberance’ over Burma – The Irrawaddy
December 22nd, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22700
Burma President Thein Sein pictured at the 2010 ASEAN/EAS summit in Hanoi, when he was Prime Minister under the military junta (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
ABU DHABI – Three weeks after U.S. Sec of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Burma, the U.S. says it “will be prepared to take further steps” provided the Burmese Government “keeps moving in the right direction”, according to a U.S. State Dept. spokesperson.
During her visit to Burma, the first to the country by an U.S. Sec. Of State since Burma was made a military dictatorship in 1962, Sec. Clinton announced a number of initiatives that the United States plans in Burma. These include increased assistance for civil society programs to support microcredit and health programs; a resumption of counternarcotics cooperation and operations to recover missing U.S. military personnel from World War II; and support for an expanded UNDP mandate in the areas of health, education, and micro-finance, as well as assessment missions by international financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
“We are currently taking steps to move forward on all of the actions that Secretary Clinton noted during her visit”, added the spokesperson, in an emailed response to questions about U.S. policy after the Clinton visit. (more…)
Kachin conflict set to intensify – The Irrawaddy
December 9th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22630
BANGKOK — The conflict in Kachin State is set to get worse after already displacing tens of thousands of civilians, many of whom rely on support from local aid groups desperately in need of international assistance, according to a leading advocacy group for refugees.
“Tensions between the government and KIO [Kachin Independence Organization] have reached boiling point,” said Lynn Yoshikawa of the US-based Refugees International (RI), who recently concluded a fact-finding trip to the war-torn state. (more…)
EU judge recommends removal of sanctions on Tay Za’s son – The Irrawaddy
December 4th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22594
HO CHI MINH CITY – Pye Phyo Tay Za, the 25-year-old son of Burmese businessman Tay Za, could be set to win an appeal against the EU sanctions imposed on him at the European Court of Justice.
A Nov. 29 opinion by a Court Advocate-General said that the previous May 2010 judgment upholding sanctions on Pye Phyo should be reversed, and that the European Commission as well as the United Kingdom should bear legal costs, as the losing parties in the case. The assessment stated that the Court’s original ruling “gave an excessively broad interpretation of those articles (that allowed sanctions on Pye Phyo) and erred in law.”
Burma’s Vietnam moment? – Christian Science Monitor
December 1st, 2011
At work inside a clothing factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM – A pivotal moment may have arrived for Burma (Myanmar), with the arrival on Wednesday of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the first time in over a half-century that such a senior American official has visited the country.
After her meeting on Thursday afternoon with Burma’s President Thein Sein, Secretary Clinton announced that the US is ready to improve relations and even indicated it could ease sanctions with Burma’s quasi-civilian government if the country continues with recent reforms. “These are beginning steps, and we are prepared to go further if reforms maintain momentum,” she said. (more…)
Deported migrants await January plan to return to Thailand – The Irrawaddy
November 24th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22531
Migrants face dangerous journey as Napyidaw contemplates longer-term ‘Filipino-style’ overseas worker strategy
BANGKOK – Tens of thousands of Burmese migrants who fled Thailand’s floods are in danger of trafficking and extortion unless both Thailand and Burma’s Governments come up with a plan to facilitate a safe return, say activists.
From September-November 2011, almost 100,000 Burmese migrant workers returned to their homeland via Mae Sot, a town on the Thailand-Burma border that serves as the main land connection between the two countries. However tens of thousands of these migrants were deported from Thailand after homes and workplaces were flooded in the recent disaster, which left over 600 people dead in Thailand.
According to data from the Mae Sot immigration office, 39,841 of the returnees held temporary passports – meaning that they could legally cross back to Burma and can subsequently return to Thailand to resume work at their flooded employment locations. (more…)
Clinton must maintain pressure on Burmese Government – The Irrawaddy
November 22nd, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22510
Political prisoner release and an end to attacks on civilians in ethnic minority areas should be U.S. Sec. Of State’s priority in Burma.
BANGKOK – Burmese opposition figures and analysts hope that the upcoming visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Burma will boost reforms in the country, but caution that the Burmese Government continues to violate human rights despite some positive recent signals
Speaking by telephone from Rangoon, National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesperson Ohn Kyaing said that “We welcome Secretary Clinton’s visit, as we hope she can address the Government to release political prisoners, give human rights to our people and to stop fighting in the ethnic regions”. (more…)
US-China rivalry to dominate Bali summit as Clinton gets set for Burma – The Irrawaddy
November 18th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22489
BANGKOK—The weekend’s Asia-Pacific summits in Bali will be dominated by a growing US-China rivalry, part of which revolves around Burma, with Hillary Clinton set to visit the country next month.
Burma’s Government has been granted its wish to hold the Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) chair in 2014, two years ahead of schedule and one year before the country’s next elections, due in 2015. This step-by-step rehabilitation continued today, with US President Obama announcing that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Burma next month. (more…)
Bangkok floods force evacuation of migrant flood shelter – The Irrawaddy
November 4th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22391
Burmese migrants help load up trucks at Rai Khing temple in Nakhon Pathom outside Bangkok this afternoon (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
NAKHOM PATHOM, THAILAND – On Friday afternoon Thailand’s Government announced that almost 500 mostly Burmese migrant workers will be evacuated to Ratchaburi, west of capital Bangkok tomorrow morning.
“The floods are less than 2 kilometers away”, announced the Thailand’s Labour and Social Welfare Ministry, at the Rai Khing temple in Nakhon Pathom, close to the flooded western side of Bangkok.
An official, giving his name only as Kobchai, said “so we have to move the group tomorrow, starting at 9am”, he added. ‘they will go to the Skilled Labour Institute in Ratchaburi”, he added.
Around 60 of the migrants, who have fled rising floodwaters in central plains areas of Thailand and northern Bangkok suburbs, will return to Burma via Mae Sot, also tomorrow. (more…)
Thailand floods: The straw that broke the broker’s back – The Irrawaddy
November 2nd, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22371
Flooding ensued after this breach in wall along Phra Khanong canal in inner Bangkok (Photo; Simon Roughneen)
Former Burmese migrant ‘broker’ unloads on shakedown of poor migrants fleeing Thailand floods
BANGKOK – “They are using the opportunity (provided by the floods) to exploit the workers”, says *Aung, slamming Thai immigration officials and Burmese brokers for extorting Burmese migrants who have been fleeing flooding Thailand. “I have never seen anything so bad as this”, said the man.
Aung used to work as a broker in Thailand, part of a sometimes-reviled network who, for an often substantial fee, help migrants find work and living quarters in Thailand, but often collude with traffickers in Burma and Thailand, and with brutally-exploitative employers in Thailand.
Leaked information from inside the immigration detention centre near Mae Sot, the main land border crossing between Thailand and Burma, suggests that 30,000 Burmese trying to head home have been detained at the centre during recent weeks, as floods close factories and inundate their often ramshackle homes. (more…)
