May 16, 2009
- reported by Thandar Htike
Pro-democracy activists in London, led by the exile-UK branch of Burma’s National league for Democracy, made FBE preparation meeting at Sasana Ramsi Buddhist Monastery in Colindale, London on 15.05.2009 17:30pm.
The Forum of Burmese in Europe FBE (13th conference) will be held in London on 20.06.09 & 21.06.09; which will also be attended by delegates from Asia as observers, as well as NLD-LA HQ leaders and a Minister of the exile Burmese government.
May 16, 2009
- reported by Thandar Htike
Pro-democracy activists in London, led by the exile-UK branch of Burma’s National league for Democracy, staged demonstrations in front of the British Foreign Office in London on 15.05.2009 calling for more UK pressure on Burma military regime to release people’s leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from prison.
May 16, 2009
- reported by Thandar Htike
Pro-democracy activists in London, led by the exile-UK branch of Burma’s National league for Democracy, staged demonstrations in front of the Burmese military regime Embassy on 15.05.2009 denouncing regime’s recent illegal lowly ploys to extend Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention upto five more years.
May 16, 2009
- reported by Thandar Htike
Pro-democracy activists in London, led by the exile-UK branch of Burma’s National league for Democracy, staged demonstrations in front of the United states Embassy on 14.05.2009 calling for more US pressure on the military regime to release people’s leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from prison.
May 14, 2009
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was charged on Thursday with breaking the terms of her house arrest and faces up to five years in jail after an American intruder sneaked into her lakeside home, her party said.
Opposition activists denounced her trial, set to begin on Monday, as a ploy by the country’s junta to keep Suu Kyi, 63, sidelined ahead of elections in 2010.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied power by the military, “strongly condemned” the new charges two weeks before her latest six-year detention is due to expire on May 27.
The Nobel Peace laureate has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention, most of it held virtually incommunicado at her home, with her telephone line cut, her mail intercepted and visitors restricted.
She was charged under the Law Safeguarding the State from the Dangers of the Subversive Elements, which imposes a three-to-five-year jail term if a detainee “violates the restrictions imposed on them.”
The charges stem from a bizarre incident involving U.S. citizen John William Yettaw, who, according to state media, claimed to have swum across Inya Lake and spent two days in Suu Kyi’s compound earlier this month.
Yettaw was charged with abetting, or “encouraging a violation of the law,” said Aung Thein, one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers.
Other reports said he had been charged with entering a restricted zone and breaking immigration laws, but Aung Thein could not confirm those charges.
Yettaw was arrested on May 6 as he swam back from Suu Kyi’s home. U.S. embassy officials were allowed to see him on Wednesday but he revealed little about his motives.
“We cannot comment. He didn’t tell us any details,” embassy spokesman Richard Mei said.
It was apparently the second time that Yettaw — described by state media as a 53-year-old psychology student and a resident of Missouri — had tried to meet Suu Kyi at her home.
Suu Kyi’s main lawyer, Kyi Win, said Yettaw was told to leave after his first attempt in late 2008. This time Yettaw refused.
“He said he was so tired and wanted to rest, but she pleaded with him. Then he slept overnight on the ground floor,” Kyi Win told the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB).
“GRAVE AND CONCERNING”
Suu Kyi’s detention in a house inside the prison will renew fears for her health after she was put on an intravenous drip last week for dehydration and low blood pressure.
Her main doctor, Tin Myo Win, was detained last week and is still being held at an undisclosed location.
The United Nations has said Suu Kyi’s continued house arrest is illegal under Myanmar law, which permits detention for five consecutive years before the accused must be freed or face trial.
Suu Kyi lodged an appeal against her detention after it was extended last year in an apparent violation of the law. The junta denied the appeal, saying they could hold her for a sixth year.
“The regime filed these charges to extend her detention beyond the six years,” said Aung Din, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a pro-democracy group.
“It is an act of blackmailing the international community, especially the United States, demanding a ransom to get back an American citizen and better treatment for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”
Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called the arrest “grave and concerning” and demanded her immediate release.
The 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), one of the few groups that allows Myanmar as a member, is “concerned” by the latest events there, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told Reuters.
“We would like to see positive steps being taken according to the roadmap. It’s very important the political process is inclusive,” he said.
The generals have in the past ignored calls for her release as they push ahead with a seven-step “roadmap to democracy” expected to culminate in the multi-party elections in 2010.
The NLD and Western governments dismiss the “roadmap” and last year’s army-drafted constitution as a cover for the generals to cement their grip on power.
May 13, 2009
By Daoud Kuttab
Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist, is Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.
Ramallah – As the summit between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu approaches, most of the discussion has focused on whether or not the newly elected Israeli leader will finally say that he backs a two-state solution. This is the wrong approach. Israelis should not determine the status of the Palestinian entity, nor should Palestinians have a say in what Israelis call their own state.
The only question that Obama should ask Netanyahu is, When will Israel quit the occupied Palestinian territories? Attempts at obfuscation – whether by talking about an “economic peace,” or insisting that Arabs recognize the Jewishness of the state of Israel – should not be allowed to derail the goal of ending the inadmissible occupation.
During Obama’s first meeting with a Middle East leader, a simple and courageous Arab plan was outlined. Empowered by Arab leaders, Jordan’s King Abdullah II officially presented the peace plan devised by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic States. Despite the Israeli wars on Lebanon and Gaza, Arabs offered normal relations with Israel once it quits the lands that it occupied in 1967. (more…)
May 13, 2009
By Dani Rodrik
Dani Rodrik, Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the first recipient of the Social Science Research Council’s Albert O. Hirschman Prize. His latest book is One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth.
Cambridge – It may take a few months or a couple of years, but one way or another the United States and other advanced economies will eventually recover from today’s crisis. The world economy, however, is unlikely to look the same.
Even with the worst of the crisis over, we are likely to find ourselves in a somewhat de-globalized world, one in which international trade grows at a slower pace, there is less external finance, and rich countries’ appetite for running large current-account deficits is significantly diminished. Will this spell doom for developing countries?
Not necesarily. Growth in the developing world tends to come in three distinct variants. First comes growth driven by foreign borrowing. Second is growth as a by-product of commodity booms. Third is growth led by economic restructuring and diversification into new products. (more…)
May 10, 2009
- reported by Min Hein
Pro-democracy activists in London, led by the NLD-UK branch, staged protests and demonstrations on 10.05.2009 Thursday afternoon, in front of Burmese military regime Ambassador’s Residence, to call for the regime to give better medical care for the ailing detained people’s leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma.
May 10, 2009
- reported by Thair Thair Ohn
Pro-democracy activists in London, led by the NLD-UK branch, staged protests and demonstrations on 10.05.2009 Thursday afternoon, in front of Burmese military regime Ambassador’s Residence, to call for the regime to give better medical care for the ailing detained people’s leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma.
May 10, 2009
May 10, 2009
May 10, 2009
May 10, 2009
May 10, 2009
YANGON (AFP) – The party of detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Sunday urged the military regime to allow her to receive medical attention, saying it was concerned about her health.
The 63-year-old Nobel Laureate was placed on an intravenous drip by her doctor’s assistant on Friday because she cannot eat, has low blood pressure and is dehydrated, said party spokesman Nyan Win.
But Myanmar authorities refused to grant the assistant permission to visit her again at her home on Saturday, while her physician is being detained by police on unspecified charges, he said.
“We are worried for her health situation. There should be no restrictions for medical treatment,” Nyan Win, the spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, told AFP.
May 10, 2009
To/
Mr. Fredrik Reinfeldt
Prime Minister
Royal Government of Sweden
Subject: :Request to lead Swedish government and European Union in order to seek justice and criminal accountability for victims of heinous crimes in Burma/ Myanmar
Dear Your Excellency,
I would like to request your kind attention in regard to heinous crimes being committed by the ruling military regime in Burma, SPDC, against its own people, particularly for those offenses, which constitute international crimes such as crime against humanity, genocide and war crimes, since the emergence of the International Criminal Court, July 1, 2002, inter alias, as follows:
1. The regime used about 5,000 members of its lackey organization, namely Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and crashed down Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, democracy icon in Burma, and members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) while making organizing trip at Depayin in upper Burma on May 30, 2003. Since that time, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been victim of crime and she has been under detention for almost six years. In recent month, UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention made a ruling that detention of Daw Aung Sun Suu Kyi is against the national laws as well as international laws.
2. The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a global alert on Burma, on June
29, 2007, verifying the regime’s criminal violations of the Geneva Conventions, stating that such violations were personally observed by ICRC delegates, that all confidential bilateral negotiations had broken down, and that the crimes by the government were likely to be ongoing. The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, stated as follows:
“…I urge the government of Myanmar to put a stop to all violations of international humanitarian law and to ensure that they do not recur. … I would also like to remind all States party to the Geneva Conventions of their obligation, under Article 1, to respect and to ensurerespect for the Conventions.”
3. In September 2007, the military regime brutally suppressed peaceful demonstration of
several thousands of monks, and killed and tortured them. Without paying any regard to the effective Criminal Procedural Code in Burma, the military security forces of the SPDC raided the monasteries, searched the campuses, ruined the properties of Buddhist religion, and seriously tortured the monks.
4. In June 2008, the Amnesty International reported that for 2½ years a human rights
emergency has been occurring in the form of a military offensive by the SPDC army waged against ethnic Karen civilians in Kayin (Karen) State and Bago (Pagu) Division. Accordingly, an estimate of 147,800 people have been and remain internally displaced in Kayin State and Bago Division and many of these people have been subject to widespread and systematic human rights violations including unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrests, the imposition of forced labour including portering, the destruction of homes and villages, and the destruction or confiscation of crops and food stocks and other forms of collective punishment. The research undertaken by AI raises grave concerns that the violations of international human right and humanitarian law against the Karen have been part of a widespread and systematic pattern of crimes which may constitute a crime against humanity.
5. In the wake of the SPDC’s criminal negligence after Cyclone Nargis occurred in delta
area of Burma, on May 22, 2008, European Parliament made a resolution on the tragic
situation in Burma, as follows:
Takes the view that, if the Burmese authorities continue to prevent aid from reaching those in danger, they should be held accountable for crimes against humanity and calls on EU Member States to press for a UN Security Council resolution referring the case to the ICC for investigation and prosecution.
6. On 27 February 2009, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States and Emergency Assistance Team (Burma) jointly released a report entitled “After the Storm; Voices from the Delta” and mention that the SPDC obstructed relief to victims of the cyclone, arrested aid workers and severely restrained accurate information in the wake of the worst natural disaster to befall modern Burma. The report charges these abuses may constitute crimes against humanity through the creation of condition whereby the basic survival needs of victims cannot be adequately met, “intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health” violating Article 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court.
7. Rape reports published by ethnic women in Burma including the Shan, Mon, Karen, Palaung, and Chin (Shan Women’s Action Network, Shan Human Rights Foundation, Human Rights Foundation of Mon land, Karen Women’s Organization, Palaung’s Women Organization, Women League of Chin Land and Women’s League of Burma as well as by Refugees International, document sexual and other forms of violence against women systematically perpetrated by the junta and even identify perpetrators, give relevant dates and the battalion numbers of the rapists. Despite that the military regime committed heinous crimes one period after another consistently, the judiciary inside Burma has been keeping silent and no legal action has been taken on the perpetrators for those heinous crimes. The military regime and its lackey perpetrators have been enjoying impunity endlessly and people in Burma lack any protection.
The Responsibility to Protect Doctrine or R2P is a catalyst in transforming the meaning of UN membership and participation in the international community by affirming that with state sovereignty comes the “obligation of a State to protect the welfare of its own people.” It makes clear that in exceptional cases where a State cannot or will not protect civilians the international community has a right to act, and a responsibility to do so. The legal import of UNSCR 1325 to Security Council Actions is that when the council is confronted with evidence of systematic crimes including rape in the context of conflict there should exist a presumption of a threat to international peace and security. In this case such presumption should require a UN Charter Chapter VII referral to the ICC.
In conclusion, I would like to request your Excellency to lead Swedish government and, if possible, European Union to press for a UN Security Council resolution referring the situation of Burma/Myanmar to the ICC for investigation and prosecution in order to seek justice and criminal accountability for victims of heinous crimes there. Only then, repeated crimes will be prevented; the rule of law will be restored; a genuine stability will be established; and a peaceful democratization process will also be facilitated in Burma.
Respectfully,
Download here ( Letter to Prime Minister | English | Burmese language
