Anj — BURMA – FOUR ARTICLES
Topic(s): Burma | Comments Off on Anj — BURMA – FOUR ARTICLESTrying to find news on the mass murders of monks that we know are taking
place – but nothing …. i found 4 articles on BURMA … read on ..
INDEPENDENT TODAY
Monks vanish as Burmese troops step up presence
By Rosalind Russell in Rangoon
Published: 02 October 2007
The gates were open at Rangoon’s glittering Shwedagon temple yesterday but
soldiers, not monks, wandered its marble-floored shrines and pavilions. Five
days after Burma’s military leaders began a crackdown on protesting monks
and their civilian supporters, the red-robed Buddhist clergy, normally seen
in their thousands around the city, have vanished. And the UN’s special
envoy sent to confront the military junta was stalled for yet another day.
“The monks are gone. We are worried about them. We don’t know where they
are,” said a young guide at the temple. Usually hundreds of monks would be
milling around the golden, bell-shaped, stupa – praying, chatting quietly in
groups or explaining the significance of gem-encrusted statues or shrines to
visitors. Soldiers with rifles have taken their place, their bare feet the
only mark of respect to Burma’s most sacred Buddhist site. There are few
visitors, and stall-holders selling paper flowers and incense sticks for
offerings have little trade. “It is strange now,” said the guide, out of the
earshot of soldiers. “We don’t think the army should be at the temple. We
think the monks have been taken away. We think they are in jail.” A senior
monk told The Independent at the weekend he believed 3,000 monks had been
detained by Burmese security forces, and were being held in police and
military camps. Burma’s Buddhist clergy spearheaded 10 days of street
demonstrations against the country’s military rulers, until the army cleared
the streets with tear gas, baton charges and gunfire, killing at least nine
people. By night, under cover of a curfew, soldiers have raided monasteries,
intimidating, beating and arresting monks. Rangoon residents say civilian
vigilante groups, armed only with rocks and sticks, have tried to protect
the revered clergy by blocking the gates of monasteries and confronting
troops. Collecting alms, mostly gifts of food, each day from devotees,
Burma’s monkhood is privy to the population’s increasing economic hardship.
Corrupt generals have ruined a country rich in natural resources and many
families survive on one meal a day. Meanwhile, the UN announced last night
that its envoy to Burma, Ibrabim Gambari, has now been told he can meet
Myanmar’s senior general today, as he tries to persuade the junta to end the
vicious crackdown. Gambari flew to Myanmar’s new jungle capital on Monday,
waiting to convey international concern to the junta leader Than Shwe.
Gambari has been informed “he will be able to meet the senior general, Than
Shwe, on Tuesday,” the U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said in New
York.Previously, it appeared the meeting would not take place as junta
leaders ignored Mr Gambari’s approaches. Military authorities have continued
to block internet and mobile phone texts, the channels which demonstrators
had used to organise themselves and to send images of last week’s violent
crackdown around the world. Up to a dozen independent newspapers are
reported to have stopped publishing. Talks, no progress in Burma
Bangkok Daily Post
Rangoon – The leader of the Burmese military junta Senior General Than Shwe,
met Tuesday with visiting United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari in
the regime’s capital of Naypyidaw to discuss the regime’s recent crackdown
on peaceful protests. The outcome of the meeting was not made public,
diplomats said. After the meeting, Gambari flew to Rangoon, where he was
scheduled to take a Myanmar Airlines flight to Singapore. Gambari arrived in
Burma Saturday to assess the situation in the country in the aftermath of
the brutal crackdown on peaceful monk-led protests last week that left at
least 10 people dead, according to the government’s tally. The real death
toll is feared to be much higher. On Sunday, Gambari was allowed to meet for
an hour with the country’s democracy icon, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi, in Rangoon, the former capital and the largest city, but
details of their talks have yet to be disclosed. On Tuesday, he was finally
granted an audience with Than Shwe, 74, who heads the State Peace and
Development Council, as the junta styles itself. Burma has been ruled by
generals since 1962, and there is little likelihood that the military clique
currently running the country would forfeit power to Suu Kyi and her
National League for Democracy party, which won a 1990 election but has been
blocked from assuming office by the junta. There is skepticism about what
Gambari’s mission would accomplish. On his last visit to Burma in May 2006,
he was also allowed to meet with Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest
since May 2003. A week after his departure, the junta slapped another year
on Suu Kyi’s detention term. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon instructed
Gambari in a recent telephone conversation to deliver a message to the
generals, UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. “The secretary general asked his
envoy to call on the (Burmese) authorities to cease the repression of
peaceful protest, release the detainees and move more credibly and
inclusively in the direction of democratic reform, human rights and national
reconciliation,” Okabe said in New York. In Rangoon, the site of the largest
protests, demonstrators dispersed at the weekend as the military and
security forces were out in force on the streets. But Moe Aye, news editor
for the Oslo-based opposition radio station Democratic Voice of Burma said
the broadcaster had received reports of protests in Manaung and Kyaukphyq in
Arakan, the coastal state on the Bay of Bengal, and sources had informed it
that the army continued to raid Buddhist monasteries in Rangoon. Australian
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday that at least 30
pro-democracy protesters have been killed in the crackdown while the
Democratic Voice of Burma said scores were feared dead. “It is very
difficult to get details,” Moe Aye said in a telephone interview, adding
that the station was trying to verify names with family members and
relatives. Meanwhile, the outrage over the junta’s reaction to the protests
failed to dissipate in capitals in the region. In Malaysia, lawmakers from
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) called for the
expulsion of Burma from the 10-nation organization. Zaid Ibrahim – president
of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, which is made up of members
of parliament from Asean countries, said it was time for Asean states to
take “drastic” action against Burma. He said Asean’s policy of
non-interference into members’ domestic affairs had to be put aside as the
violence was affecting countries in the region. Earlier, Foreign Minister
George Yeo of Singapore, which now holds Asean’s chairmanship, said in a
newspaper interview that Asean – which consists of Brunei, Burma, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
– had “no choice” but to deliver a tough position on the violent repression
of the demonstrations. Its statement issued last week expressed revulsion
over the beatings and killings of monks and anti-regime protesters and
called for a stop to the violence. Yeo told Singapore’s Straits Times that
the statement was delivered “with a heavy heart,” but if Asean hadn’t, “We
would feel ashamed when we looked ourselves in the mirror.” Australia’s
Downer announced that earlier this year his country had rejected Burma’s
nomination of an army general as the Southeast Asian country’s envoy to
Canberra. “We made it clear to the Burmese that under no circumstances were
we going to have somebody from their military regime as an ambassador, as a
representative, here in Australia,” Downer said. India, which has economic
interests in Burma and has been criticized for its silence on the protest
crackdown, urged the military regime to launch a probe into the crackdown
and to quickly make progress toward national reconciliation and political
reform, India’s foreign office said. India, the world’s largest democracy
and Burmese neighbour, has come under increasing criticism for failing to
use its close relations with Burma’s military to press for political change
in the country. New York-based Human Rights Watch said companies doing
business in Burma should condemn the country’s ruling junta and shut down
their operations there. “Companies doing business in Burma argue their
presence is constructive and will benefit the Burmese people, but they have
yet to condemn the governments abuses against its own citizens,” said Arvind
Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Programme at the rights
group. Human Rights Watch’s appeal was aimed primarily at the Chinese,
Indian and Thai companies, especially in the energy sector, that are
arguably keeping Burma’s military regime afloat financially. (dpa) 12.45pm
update
————————————————————————
UN envoy leaves Burma after crisis talks with leaders
Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent, and agencies Tuesday October
2, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
The UN special envoy seeking a resolution to the violence in Burma left the
country today after talks on the crisis with the detained pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and with the junta’s reclusive top general. Ibrahim
Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister, met General Than Shwe in the
junta’s remote new capital, Naypyidaw. He then flew to Rangoon for a second
meeting with Ms Suu Kyi, the iconic opposition leader who is held under
house arrest.
Shortly afterwards Mr Gambari left Burma for Singapore en route to New York,
ending a four-day visit. Details of today’s two meetings have yet to emerge.
Yesterday, Mr Gambari was stalled for a day and forced to fill in his time
visiting a remote corner of Burma courtesy of the military as tensions
continued after 12 days of demonstrations that represented the most
concerted challenge to the junta’s rule since 1988. The regime’s foreign
minister, Nyan Win, told the UN general assembly in New York that “normalcy
has now returned” to Burma. Security forces had acted with restraint for a
month, but they had had to “take action to restore the situation”, he added.
Mr Win made no reference to the deaths, but blamed foreigners for the
violence. “Recent events make clear that there are elements within and
outside the country who wish to derail the ongoing process [toward
democracy] so that they can take advantage of the chaos that would follow,”
he said. An uneasy calm has returned to the streets of the main city,
Rangoon. Yesterday, troops withdrew cordons from the two pagodas that served
as rallying points for the pro-democracy demonstrations, sparked initially
by a dramatic rise in fuel prices that hit the already impoverished Burmese
people hard. Today the military also eased a night-time curfew, in a sign of
their confidence that the protests have been crushed. Instead of taking to
the streets, thousands of people last night began marking their disgust at
the regime by refusing to watch the nightly news broadcast on state-run
television. “This is the least dangerous anti-government activity that I can
take,” said a resident. Exile groups remain deeply concerned about the fate
of about 400 students and 1,000 arrested monks, whose presence had provided
a highly visible lead for the protests in devoutly-Buddhist Burma. Many
Burmese are still shocked by the brutal treatment meted out to the monks
when monasteries across the country were attacked in night raids by the
military. But the fear of the regime that was shrugged off for a few days
when more than 100,000 protesters took to Rangoon’s streets has returned.
During his four-day visit Mr Gambari, special representative for the UN
secretary general, was kept far from the potential flashpoints. After
spending an hour Ms Suu Kyi on Sunday, he flew back to Naypyidaw, the
capital in the jungle 240 miles north-east of Rangoon. Yesterday he was
taken further north by military helicopter to the town of Lashio, in Shan
state near the Chinese border, to an obscure government-sponsored workshop.
The episode appeared to reflect the weakness of his position and the
idiosyncratic nature of Gen Than Shwe, the 74-year-old Burmese leader. The
British ambassador, Mark Canning, said that China, Burma’s closest and most
influential ally, had pressed for Mr Gambari’s visit to be lengthy and as
far-reaching as possible. Burma’s leadership has barred envoys who
displeased them in the past, impervious to outside pressure. “Mr Gambari has
the full backing of the international community,” said Mr Canning. “Whether
that’s sufficient remains to be seen. It’s down entirely to the government
rather than the UN. But I think a number of underlying dynamics have changed
fundamentally and make us hopeful something might happen.” One political
analyst and Burmese exile, Win Min, believes Mr Gambari had the opportunity
to conduct shuttle diplomacy, conveying a message from Ms Suu Kyi to the
general, and presenting an unvarnished image of the scale of the violence
about which the ailing and reclusive general may be in the dark. Some
analysts fear that now Mr Gambari’s visit is over Rangoon could suffer a
heavy-handed crackdown if protesters again take to the streets. But
yesterday there were few reports of demonstrations as traffic flowed and
shops reopened. Troops remained on every street corner, although worshippers
were again allowed to visit the Shwedagon and Sule pagodas. No crowds
gathered. “It seems that a fierce regime has succeeded in terrifying a whole
new generation; terrifying them from speaking up,” said Liselot Agerlide, a
Swedish diplomat who has just spent five days in Rangoon. One western woman,
a long-time Rangoon resident, spoke with a number of monks and found their
spirit crushed and terrorised by the raids. Monks told how they had not
dared sleep for days, fearing that the military, which had beaten monks in
their dormitories, would return to exact further retribution.
If you want to support the monks, then call Gary Player to account
Western interests in Burma contribute to the oppression of its people. Let’s
put pressure on the companies responsible
George Monbiot Tuesday October 2, 2007 The Guardian
China has become the world’s excuse for inaction. If there is anything that
a government or a business does not want to do, it invokes the Yellow Peril.
Raise the minimum wage to £6 an hour? Not when the Chinese are paid £6 a
year. Cap working time at 48 hours a week? The Chinese are working 48 hours
a day. Cut greenhouse gas emissions? The Chinese are building a new power
station every nanosecond. China has become our looking-glass bogeyman: if
you behave well, the bogeyman will get you.
As we saw during George Bush’s climate pantomime last week, China the excuse
is not the same place as China the country. Bush insists that the United
States cannot accept mandatory carbon cuts, because China and India would
reject them. But while he stuck to his voluntary approach, China and India
called for mandatory cuts. “China” is a projection of the west’s worst
practices. I mention this because the western companies still trading with
Burma use it as their first and last defence. If we withdraw, they insist,
China will fill the gap. It is true that the Chinese government has offered
the Burmese generals political protection in return for cheap resources. In
January, for example, China vetoed a UN resolution condemning the junta’s
human rights record. Three days later it was given lucrative gas concessions
in the Bay of Bengal. It is also true that the Chinese government has no
interest in promoting democracy abroad. But the more the Burmese junta must
rely on a single source of investment and protection, the more vulnerable it
becomes. China is not intractable. If western governments boycotted the
Beijing Olympics, it would precipitate the biggest political crisis in that
country since 1989. The businesses still working in Burma are having to
scrape the barrel of excuses. Even Tony Blair, that bundle of corporate
interests in human form, said: “We do not believe that trade is appropriate
when the regime continues to suppress the basic human rights of its people.”
Explaining his company’s decision to pull out of the country, the CEO of
Reebok noted that “it’s impossible to conduct business in Burma without
supporting this regime. In fact, the junta’s core funding derives from
foreign investment and trade”. As the junta either controls or takes a cut
from most of the economy, and as almost half the tax foreign business
generates is used to buy arms, any company working in Burma is helping to
oppress the people. The travel firms Asean Explorer and Pettitts, which take
British tourists round the country in defiance of Aung San Suu Kyi’s pleas,
both refused to comment when I rang them, then slammed down the phone.
Aquatic, a British company that provides services for gas and oil firms, was
more polite, but still refused to talk. The tourism companies Audley Travel
and Andrew Brock Travel Ltd promised to phone me back but failed to do so.
But aside from invoking the Chinese bogeyman, each of the others I talked to
produced a different justification. The spokeswoman for Orient Express, a
travel company that runs a cruiser on the Irrawaddy river and a hotel in
Rangoon, told me that “tourism can be a catalyst for change”. Given that
tourism has continued throughout the junta’s rule, I asked how effective
that catalyst has been. “There has been very slow progress, but we feel it
has helped.” The Ultimate Travel Company explained that: “We feel we just
like to offer the people who travel with us a choice. If people want to
travel, they can. And really I’d prefer not to enter into a debate about
it.” Rolls-Royce, which overhauls engines for Myanmar Airways, a company
owned by thestate, told me that it operates “in line with UK export licences
… As long as we are meeting government requirements, that’s what we work
to. I’m not getting into a debate on this issue. We’re doing this to ensure
passenger safety.” William Garvey, the boss of the furniture company that
bears his name and that works mostly in Burmese teak, admitted that he buys
timber “that comes from Rangoon, through government channels”. But if he
stopped, “a highly likely consequence is that the rate of felling would
increase dramatically … Whatever you may think about the Burmese
government, they are still using a sustainable system for extracting teak.”
Aren’t human rights a component of sustainability? “In the strict sense,
no.” The managing director of Britannic Garden Furniture, which makes its
benches from Burmese teak and supplies the royal parks and the Tower of
London, told me: “I know it’s no excuse to say we don’t buy it directly …
You try and get teak from other sources. But it’s rubbish … The government
has given us no directive not to trade with Burma.” All these companies have
felt some pressure already, thanks to the work of The Burma Campaign UK,
which includes them on its “dirty list”. But I have stumbled across one
western firm that most Burma campaigners appear to have missed. It is run by
one of the world’s most famous sportsmen, the golfer Gary Player. Player has
made much of his ethical credentials. Next month he will host the Nelson
Mandela Invitational golf tournament, whose purpose is “to make a difference
in the lives of children”. One of his websites shows a painting of Mr Player
bathed in radiant light and surrounded by smiling children. Nelson Mandela
stands behind him, lit by the same halo. Golf, to most of us, looks like a
harmless, if mysterious, activity, but in Burma it is a powerful symbol of
oppression. Some of the country’s courses have been built on land seized
from peasant farmers, who were evicted without compensation. Golf is the
sport of the generals, who conduct much of their business on the links.
Player’s website shows him, in 2002, launching the “grand opening” of the
golf course he designed, which turned “a 650-acre rice paddy into The Pride
of Myanmar. The golfer’s paradise that stands in Myanmar today is said to be
living proof that miracles do happen.” I asked his company the following
questions. Who owned the land on which the course was constructed? How many
people were evicted in order to build it? Was forced labour used in its
construction? As Player’s company is based in Florida, did the design of
this course break US sanctions? His media spokesman told me: “The Gary
Player Group has decided not to comment on any questions regarding
Myanmar-Burma.” It seems to me that there is a strong case for asking Nelson
Mandela to remove his name from Mr Player’s tournament. If, like me, you
have been shaking your head over the crushing of the protests, wondering
what on earth you can do, I suggest you get on the phone to these companies,
demanding, politely that they cut their ties. I sense that it wouldn’t take
much more pressure to persuade them to pull out. By itself, this won’t bring
down the regime. But it will cut its sources of income, and allow us to
focus on confronting the reality of Chinese investment, rather than the
excuse. www.monbiot.com
__,_._,___