Time for Burma’s exiles to go home? – The Diplomat
January 19th, 2012
http://the-diplomat.com/2012/01/19/time-for-burma-exiles-to-go-home/
Some await more reforms and a government role for Aung San Suu Kyi, as Burma’s foreign-based media eye up the home market. India-based Mizzima is hoping to set up an office in Burma, according to editor, Sein Win, who said “We’ll wait for the publication of the new press law, maybe in February or March. I’m hopeful they will abandon the censorship board.”
In the years since the Burmese authorities crushed a 1988 student-led uprising, killing perhaps 3,000 in the process, many of the country’s opposition figures have been jailed or worked from abroad – or sometimes both. Some of those jailed were freed, only to be swept up in a junta dragnet after the 2007 Saffron protests, which also saw the jailing of hundreds of monks.
As a result of Burma’s historic persecution of dissidents, hundreds – perhaps thousands – live abroad, along with hundreds of thousands of other refugees and several million migrant workers scattered across Southeast Asia. Bangkok, New Delhi, London, Washington DC, Brussels are all bases for Burmese dissidents, with a mini industry-sized network of NGOs, media, refugee support agencies, clinics – not to mention armed opposition groups – all operating along the Thailand-Burma border.
Could all that be about to change? Since taking office in March 2011, President Thein Sein has, it seems, steered his military-backed government on a reform route – reaching a truce with the country’s longest standing ethnic militia, relaxing censorship laws, allowing the formation of trade unions and, with limits, the holding of public demonstrations. (more…)
US restores full diplomatic ties with Myanmar – Los Angeles Times
January 14th, 2012
Front page of LA Times, Jan 14. Right-click, save as to download .pdf
By Paul Richter, Simon Roughneen and Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-myanmar-prisoners-20120114,0,97902.story
Reporting from Washington, Bangkok and New Delhi — The Obama administration restored full diplomatic relations with Myanmar, moving swiftly to reward the military-backed government for reforms that include a cease-fire with ethnic insurgents and the release of political prisoners.
The move Friday came only six weeks after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a historic visit that highlighted Washington’s attempts to reengage with a strategic Asian nation that remains under strict sanctions for its dismal human rights record.
The White House was eager for rapprochement partly to pull the resource-rich country out of China’s political and economic orbit. Clinton flew to the capital, Naypyidaw, shortly after President Obama announced a “pivot” in U.S. military and diplomatic policy to reassure allies in the Asia-Pacific region who are nervous about China’s increasing assertiveness.
Diplomatic relations with Myanmar were kept to a minimal level over the last two decades but never severed. The administration now will send an ambassador to the country for the first time since 1990, and it invited the Myanmar government to send an envoy to Washington.
On Friday, Obama hailed Myanmar’s progress on several fronts, especially the announced release of 651 prisoners. Although U.S. officials could not confirm the total, or the identities of those released, they said it included some pro-democracy leaders who had languished in prison since authorities in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, crushed peaceful antigovernment protests in 1988.
In a statement, Obama called Friday’s release “a substantial step forward for democratic reform.”
“Much more remains to be done to meet the aspirations of the Burmese people,” he said, “but the United States is committed to continuing our engagement with the government.” (more…)
In surprise amnesty, Myanmar releases high-profile political prisoners – Christian Science Monitor
January 13th, 2012
BANGKOK, THAILAND - Myanmar’s government today freed hundreds of political prisoners in a landmark release that could see Western sanctions on the former military dictatorship relaxed.
The surprise amnesty, the second significant prisoner release since the current military-backed government was formed and new reforms implemented, comes amid growing rivalry between the US and China in Asia. Myanmar (Burma) has long been an economically and politically tied to China, but some see its rulers as chafing under Beijing’s influence, while the US is trying to recover lost ground in the region.
Singaporean academic Simon Tay says that Myanmar’s reforms, though promising, could be more about forming better relations with the West, which has long called on Myanmar’s rulers to bring about change, than about real democratic progress.
The timing and magnitude of today’s mass release came as a surprise to many analysts, including Aung Naing Oo, a former student protester from Myanmar who is now deputy director of the Vahu Development Institute in Thailand. “The military moves slowly, cautiously,” he says explaining why the release came after some recent smaller amnesties that many found disappointing. (more…)
Anwar verdict resets Malaysian politics – Asia Times
January 10th, 2012
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NA11Ae01.html
Leader of Malaysia's Islamist party PAS Abdul Hadi Awang arrives at the court Monday morning (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
KUALA LUMPUR – A not-guilty verdict in a sex scandal case against Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim could prove a game-changer in the run-up to elections due by 2013 but thought by many analysts to be held this year.
After months of railing against what he deemed trumped-up and politicized charges, Anwar cut an understandably cheerful and relieved dash on Monday morning when speaking to perhaps 3,000 supporters outside the Kuala Lumpur court where he was acquitted of charges of sodomizing a male party aide in 2008. Sodomy is a criminal offense punishable by 20 years in prison in Malaysia, where Muslim citizens are subject to sharia law. (more…)
After sodomy acquittal, Malaysia’s Anwar pressing for power – Christian Science Monitor
January 10th, 2012
Opposition supporters outside Malaysia's High Court on Monday morning (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
In an unexpected conclusion to a two-year trial, a Malaysian court acquitted opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges that he insisted were politically motivated.
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Monday’s surprise acquittal of Malaysia’s opposition leader in a sodomy trial that many viewed as politically motivated eases the prospect of unrest in the multi-ethnic country, one of southeast Asia’s largest tourist draws
The potential for trouble was highlighted by three small explosions near the courthouse on Monday morning, injuring several people, while a jubilant Anwar Ibrahim mingled with a raucous, fist-pumping crowd of several thousand supporters. (more…)
A decommissioned inquiry on Myanmar – Asia Times
January 9th, 2012
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NA10Ae01.html
UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana pictured at Thailand's Foreign Correspondents Club (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
KUALA LUMPUR – When United Nations human-rights rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana recommended that the UN consider the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry (COI) into alleged crimes against humanity committed by the country’s military rulers, the proposal was widely supported by Western countries, including the United States, that maintained economic sanctions against the country.
Depending on the proposed commission’s findings, Myanmar’s former ruling generals and current governing ex-generals could some day be tried in some form of international tribunal or at the International Criminal Court. The proposed COI would determine whether or not charges should be brought against Myanmar’s rulers and would likely focus on the Myanmar army’s well-documented abuses in the ethnic minority-populated borderland regions.
The establishment of a COI seemed a remote possibility at the outset, given that UN Security Council unanimity would likely be needed to authorize it. (more…)
Thai court sentences American citizen to 2.5 years in prison for insulting monarchy – Christian Science Monitor
December 8th, 2011
Gordon's lawyer Anon Nampa, speaks to press outside the court after today's sentencing (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK - US citizen Joe Gordon was sentenced to 2-1/2 years jail today for translating a banned biography of the Thai king and posting it online while living in Colorado, drawing condemnation from free speech advocates and US officials.
Mr. Gordon is the latest to be charged on Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws, some of the strictest in the world, which include prohibitions on posting anti-monarchy slurs online and can mean a prison sentence of 3 to 15 years.
Exact figures are not available, but lèse-majesté cases and convictions have spiked in recent years amid political uncertainty since a 2006 military coup and concerns over what will happen when King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s long reign ends. (more…)
Thailand sentences American to prison for insulting king – Los Angeles Times
December 8th, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-thailand-american-20111209,0,607185.story
Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra leads Bangkok candle-lighting celebration to mark King's birthday on Monday evening (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
By Simon Roughneen and Mark Magnier. Reporting from Bangkok, Thailand, and New Delhi, India
A U.S. citizen Thursday received a 30-month prison sentence in Thailand for insulting the king, the latest punishment handed down under a law critics see as archaic, prompting the U.S. government to denounce the ruling as excessive and a violation of free speech. (more…)
Thailand’s lèse-majesté taboo leading to witch-hunt – Asia Sentinel
December 7th, 2011
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4020&Itemid=392
Caption - Rossamarin Tangnoppakul holds photo of husband Ampon with grandchildren (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK - Thailand’s growing curbs on freedom of speech have seen a grandfather sentenced to twenty years in jail for insulting the country’s monarchy, while a U.S citizen awaits a possible similar fate in a ruling due tomorrow.
Last month Ampon Tangnoppakul, 61 was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of insulting Queen Sirikit in four sms texts sent to an official working for Thailand’s former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva.
Ampon’s crestfallen wife Rossamarin spoke to Asia Sentinel on Monday in a coffee shop near her home in Samut Prakarn in eastern Bangkok. Her jailed husband, she said, “is still very stressed by everything and gets sick often.”
In court last month, Ampon claimed innocence and his family insist that he does not even know how to send mobile phone text messages. (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.”
