by Mungpi
Monday, 30 November 2009 02:50

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma’s military junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe on Friday patted on the back his puppet civilian organization – the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) – for a job well-done for the past 16 years and urged it to carry on with gusto until the junta’s Seven-Step Roadmap is wrapped up.

Than Shwe, in his speech on the last day of the USDA’s Annual General Meeting, expressed his appreciation of the USDA, but urged it to continue to safeguard non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty of the country, according to the state-own New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Saturday.

Burma’s military rulers claim that they are the saviors of the Union, where several groups are struggling to break away, and justify that their rule for the past 20 years have ushered in stability and peace in the country.

“Therefore, you are…. to safeguard non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty with true patriotic spirit,” Than Shwe, patron of the USDA told the meeting, held in Naypyitaw. He also urged the USDA to cooperate in the successful implementation of the Seven-Step Roadmap, and to prevent any attempt to harm the interests of the State and the people.

The junta chief, in his speech, re-affirmed that as part of the roadmap to democracy, a general election will be held in 2010, where political parties would be allowed to contest.

“Free and fair elections will be held in 2010 in keeping with the publicly-approved constitution. Political parties, formed based on their different beliefs, will get involved in political activities,” Than Shwe said.

Critics have expressed scepticism about the junta’s statement of ‘Free and Fair elections’, pointing out that the referendum held in May 2008 to approve the new constitution was rigged.

Opposition groups, including detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s party – the National League for Democracy – have demanded a revision of the 2008 constitution, which will be used as the base for next year’s election.

While Burma watchers and analysts had earlier speculated that the USDA might be transformed into a political party that will be backed by the junta, a USDA official in Naypyitaw told Mizzima that so far there has not been any ‘orders from above’ to transform the group into a political outfit.

The USDA, which was formed by Than Shwe in 1993, has been widely known for carrying out orders from the junta including those to crackdown on protesters during the Buddhist monk-led protests in September 2007.

The junta claims that the USDA has a membership of over 20 million, nearly half of Burma’s over 50 million population.

The tatmadaw trained this fat spoilt horrible litte boy to give suffering to the people of Burma!
on Signboard

by Salai Han Thar San
Tuesday, 24 November 2009 21:49

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese military junta’s priority is to get on with its planned 2010 elections rather than looking at easing western sanctions, leaving little chance of the junta supremo Snr Gen Than Shwe responding to detained opposition leader’s latest proposal, a senior member of her party said.

Win Tin, a Central Executive Committee (CEC) member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Tuesday told Mizzima that the chances of Than Shwe responding to the Nobel Peace Laureate’s letter, requesting a meeting with him, is slim as the military clique seems to be far too preoccupied with its planned elections.

On November 11, the detained Burmese democracy icon, through her party spokesperson Nyan Win, sent her second letter to Than Shwe requesting a face to face meeting to follow up on the work to help ease western sanctions.

Nyan Win on Tuesday told Mizzima that Than Shwe has not responded to the letter, which also requested permission to allow the pro-democracy leader to pay her respects to aging party leaders and to allow her a meeting at her home with the party CEC.

The senior opposition leader on Tuesday said, Burma’s military supremo Snr Gen Than Shwe is unlikely to respond to the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s proposal sent earlier this month, as the junta’s priority is its elections rather than easing sanctions.

Win Tin said, the military clique is unlikely to responds to the proposal as the 2010 elections are on the top of its agenda, compared to looking at easing western sanctions and engaging with the United States. “Sanctions do not constitute real problems for them [junta], as it does not hurt them much but creates slight difficulties in their relationship with the international community. But the elections are very important to them,” Win Tin said.

Aung San Suu Kyi on September 25 sent her first letter to Than Shwe offering to cooperate in easing sanctions. The junta responded to her proposal by granting her request to meet diplomats from the United States, European Union and Australia.

Besides, the junta also allowed the detained Burmese democracy icon to meet the junta’s Liaison Minister Aung Kyi and also the visiting US high-level delegation led by Assistant Secretary for Asia Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell.

The letters and the meetings came following the United States’ announcement of a new policy of engaging the generals in Burma while maintaining existing sanctions.

Nyan Win, while saying that so far there was no reply, said he is optimistic that something positive will turn up.

But Win Tin said, “This election will guarantee the rule of the military because it will be held based on the 2008 constitution. And the new Parliament and the new government will be controlled by this constitution that will guarantee the military’s rule for many years to come in Burma.”

Dear friends of Burma,
Please see attached important document URL are ongoing legal struggle for the part of Burma Democracy and Peace in Burma.

I would like to share the current international pressure actions and movement are so much important of international community to withhold support for Burma’s 2010 elections until the constitution is amended and human rights abuses perpetrated by the government end.

I believe that international pressure can have an effect on the regime in Burma.

I really recommended to all of my friends to read all of reports and reiterates that the global community cannot support a criminal constitution or the ongoing elections, and that the only justice for the people of Burma is a referral to the International Criminal Court.

Best Regards,
Zaw Win

“There can be no global justice unless the worst of crimes against humanity are subject to the law.
In this age more than ever, we recognize that the crime of genocide against one people truly is an assault on us all –a crime against humanity. The establishment of an International Criminal Court
will ensure that humanity’s response will be swift and will be just.”

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
Call President Obama to sign into law

Call for the President Obama Administration to support United Nations Security Council Commission of Inquiry to investigate the Burmese regime’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and system of impunity (US Policy toward Burma and House Resolution 898, calling for the Obama Administration to support a UNSC Commission of Inquiry)

(http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc111/hr898_ih.xml)

Please support to Than Shwe’s family

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Obama’s Asia Trip: Too Focused on Common Ground?

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Swine Shwe Flu Rages Around the World

Posted in Asia with tags Africa, ASEAN, Barrick Gold, Bill Clinton, Burma, Central America, China, globalization, Hillary Clinton, New World Order, South America, Sri Lanka, Than Shwe, United Nations on November 15, 2009 by buffalohair

Obama urges Myanmar to free democracy leader Suu Kyi

November 15, 2009 — Updated 1309 GMT (2109 HKT)

Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic face of democracy in Myanmar, was placed under house arrest in 1989.

Singapore (CNN) — President Obama on Sunday called for the release of Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

“There are clear steps that must be taken: the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi; an end to conflicts with minority groups; and a genuine dialogue between the government, the democratic opposition and minority groups,” according to Obama, who said the regime should work to ensure its people’s needs are met.

He spoke during a meeting with ASEAN-10 leaders that included the prime minister of Myanmar. Obama is the first U.S. president to take part in a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations economic alliance. The formal meeting was held Sunday.

That 10-nation alliance includes Myanmar, which the United States and other nations have accused of human rights abuses.

U.S. officials were careful to avoid any perception that Obama’s presence at the ASEAN meeting would amount to a bilateral discussion with the prime minister of Myanmar.

After years of refusing direct talks with Myanmar, also known as Burma, the United States has indicated a possible re-engagement with the military regime it considers repressive for cracking down on political opposition, including the National League for Democracy.

The league is led by Suu Kyi, a detained Nobel Peace Prize winner.

“The statement we’re trying to make here is that we’re not going to let the Burmese tail wag the ASEAN dog,” said Jeffrey Bader, the National Security Council’s senior director for East Asian affairs. “We’re going to meet with all 10, and we’re not going to punish the other nine simply because Burma is in the room, but this is not a bilateral.”

Obama reiterated his stance in a speech Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.

“Despite years of good intentions, neither sanctions by the United States nor engagement by others succeeded in improving the lives of the Burmese people,” he said.

“So we are now communicating directly with the leadership to make it clear that existing sanctions will remain until there are concrete steps toward democratic reform.”

Suu Kyi, the iconic face of democracy in Myanmar, was placed under house arrest in 1989.

The next year, the National League for Democracy won more than 80 percent of the legislative seats in the first free elections in the country in nearly 30 years.

But Myanmar’s military junta disqualified Suu Kyi from serving because of her house arrest and annulled the election results.

Her supporters say Suu Kyi’s latest arrest — ostensibly over an American visiting her home without government permission — is meant to keep her confined so she cannot participate in the general elections that the junta has scheduled for next year.

She has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, and is rarely allowed visitors, except for her doctor.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/15/obama.suu.kyi/

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Nov 13, 2009 (DVB)–Burmese monks living in Sri Lanka have said they will enact a boycott of religious services for the visiting Burmese junta chief in protest against mistreatment of monks in Burma.

Senior General Than Shwe, who has presided over the ruling military government since 1992, this week made a rare visit to Sri Lanka.
The notoriously reclusive leader is known to regularly shun diplomatic meetings with foreign envoys visiting Burma, and rarely sets foot outside of the new jungle capital, Naypyidaw.
U Awbartha, a member of the Burmese Scholar Monks Association in Sri Lanka, said that the normally apolitical monk community would deny religious services, a practice known as Pattanikkujjana, for Than Shwe.
“Burmese monks inside and outside of the country initiated their act of Pattanikkujjana against the government who tortured, murdered and imprisoned them after the 2007 Saffron Revolution,” he said. “The Pattanikkujjana act is still in place so we would not accept any donation [from Than Shwe]. We have also urged our fellow monks to refuse his donations.”
He added that ties between the two countries appear to have strengthened since the Sri Lankan government successfully defeated the rebel group, the Tamil Tigers, last year.
The Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has been heavily criticized by the United Nations for allegedly violating international law during the conflict, visited Burma soon after the Tamil defeat.
The Sri Lankan conflict had ranked alongside the Burmese junta’s conflict with the opposition Karen National Union (KNU) as one of the world’s longest running.
“Burma doesn’t have many friends in Europe and in America,” said U Awbartha. “Similarly, Sri Lanka hasn’t been in close relations with these countries due to their war against the Tamils. I think these two countries are building diplomatic ties because of this.”
Meanwhile, Than Shwe has reportedly been taken ill at the President’s House in Colombo, where doctors are treating him for a “minor stomach ailment”, according to the Colombo Page news agency.

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Obama talks about human rights in Asia, skips Tibet

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The moral/ethical tour of Cucalorus

Aung San Suu Kyi has proposed to her party’s leaders that she meet with junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe for direct talks on how to remove international economic sanctions against Burma, according to sources close to the National League for Democracy (NLD).

On Wednesday, Suu Kyi met with Nyan Win, the NLD spokesperson, and asked him to inform the party’s executive committee of “important” proposals. Nyan Win declined to elaborate on the nature of her proposals.When The Irrawaddy asked Nyan Win on Friday if Suu Kyi had discussed meeting with Than Shwe to talk about economic sanctions, he said: “The sanctions would be the most suitable issue to start any high-level talks.” However, he declined to elaborate, saying, “Wait until Tuesday.”

He said the NLD central executive committee will discuss Suu Kyi’s proposals on Monday and probably issue a statement on Tuesday.

Presumably, if given her party’s consent, Suu Kyi would write a letter to Than Shwe seeking a direct meeting or make a proposal through Aung Kyi, who serves as Than Shwe’s liaison officer to Suu Kyi.

According to sources, Suu Kyi will also ask the regime to allow her to meet with NLD party leaders and to visit the homes of three executive committee members—party chairman Aung Shwe; secretary U Lwin; and Lun Tin, all of whom are in poor health.

In the past, Suu Kyi has angered the junta because of her vocal support for economic sanctions, but in recent months she has indicated that she is now open to cooperating with the regime to work for their removal. Her change of mind comes at a time when the US has initiated a new direct engagement policy with Burma and has held several exploratory discussions with high-level generals.

In August, Suu Kyi sent a letter to Than Shwe, offering to cooperate with the government and requesting to meet with Western diplomats to discuss the extent and impact of the sanctions.

Since then she met twice with liaison Aung Kyi. A short while later, she was allowed to meet with Rangoon-based diplomats from the UK, Australia and the United States in order to gather information about the impact of sanctions.

Expectations that Suu Kyi may soon be released from house arrest or given more discretionary freedom are running high in Rangoon, following a statement by Min Lwin, the director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, given to The Associated Press in Manila on Monday, in which he said, “There is a plan to release her [Suu Kyi] soon.”

Meanwhile, Suu Kyi’s lawyers filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on Friday that challenged the legality of her house arrest.

The United States said on Thursday that if Suu Kyi were not allowed to participate in Burma’s 2010 elections, the international community would not consider the election credible. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this week called for Suu Kyi’s unconditional release to ensure the elections would be free and fair.

Nov 12, Colombo: The visiting leader of Myanmar General Than Shwe has fallen ill and a special medical team has been sent to the President’s House in Kandy to treat him.

According to the sources General Shwe who arrived in the island this afternoon is suffering from a minor stomach ailment.

Two doctors and two nurses from the Kandy General Hospital were sent to treat General Shwe who is staying at the President’s house in Kandy.

The Head of State and his delegation is to pay homage to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and participate in religious ceremonies tomorrow.
colombo page

BAD KARMA

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