Daily News - May 23, 2007 - Wednesday
  • Burma arrests two more democracy activists
  • ASEAN urges Burma not to renew Suu Kyi's detention
  • U.N. chief designates special adviser Ibrahim Gambari to continue efforts in Burma
  • US urges Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi
  • Laura Bush to launch a new Women’s Caucus on Burma
  • Shan rebels to discuss ceasefire with Burmese military
  • Myanmar top leader meets Cambodian PM
  • Cambodia, Burma move to strengthen tourism ties
  • Thailand's PTTEP says natural gas wells off Burma affirm commercial potential
  • Iran to cooperate with Myanmar in agriculture
  • Myanmar to deny import license for false quotation of goods prices



    • Burma arrests two more democracy activists

    RANGOON (AFP) - Burma has arrested another two members of the National League for Democracy, the party of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, activists said Wednesday, as a round-up of her supporters continued.

    The junta began detaining pro-democracy activists on May 15, in an apparent crackdown ahead of a May 27 review of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest, which is expected to be extended further by the military-run state.

    "Two NLD members were taken by the authorities on Monday for no reason," said Myint Thein, spokesman of the NLD, which won elections here in 1990 but was never allowed to take office.

    He said one woman was arrested in Rangoon as she led a prayer vigil for Aung San Suu Kyi, and a man was arrested at a different location in the city.

    At least 60 pro-democracy activists have been detained in the past week as they went to pagodas to pray for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, and 45 people, mostly NLD members, remain in custody.

    "We haven't got any information on those arrested people," Myint Thein said.

    Despite the spate of arrests, the NLD is continuing its daily prayer vigils for 61-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi, which began on May 1.

    Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 17 years under house arrest at her lakeside Rangoon home, where she has little contact with the outside world apart from a live-in maid and visits by her doctor.

    Calls for her release from world leaders past and present, as well as human rights advocates, have been growing ahead of the review date, but there are few signs Burma's military leaders plan to free her.

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    ASEAN urges Burma not to renew Suu Kyi's detention

    MANILA (AP) - Southeast Asian nations appealed Tuesday to Burma to free Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader who has spent more than 11 of the last 17 years in detention.

    Calls for Suu Kyi's freedom have been growing as she completes her latest detention term Sunday. The military government has given no indication it intends to release her from house arrest, and it is expected to renew its detention order.

    The Nobel Peace laureate has given a face to the junta's history of political repression. Many nations have condemned her confinement, including Burma's fellow members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

    "It's a consensus that we want to see her early release," Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio said. "We'd like to see the lifting of the order."

    He was speaking at a meeting of senior ASEAN diplomats to prepare for the annual meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in Manila in July. The Philippines also will host a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, Asia's largest security forum, in August.

    Burma's delegate, Aung Bwa, said he was unaware if his government would extend Suu Kyi's detention. "Let's wait and see," he said.

    Suu Kyi, head of the National League for Democracy party, has been held continuously since May 30, 2003, when her motorcade was attacked by a mob during a political tour of northern Burma.

    ASEAN has often pressed Burma to democratize, a familiar refrain at the 10-nation bloc's annual meetings.

    Imron Cotan, who led Indonesia's delegation, expressed impatience. "We have made these calls repeatedly, and Myanmar has found it difficult to respond," he said.

    In Bangkok, visiting Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill urged Burma to free Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

    "The continued incarceration or house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi is one of several issues that's posing a real blockage in terms of Burma being able to rejoin the international community," Hill told reporters.

    Last week, President Bush told Congress that he intended to continue U.S. economic and political sanctions against Burma.

    Although bound by an ASEAN edict not to interfere in each other's affairs, some members, like Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, have become more blunt in their criticism of Burma.

    Authoritarian members, like Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, have adopted a friendlier attitude and have refused to engage use stinging words against the ruling generals.

    Burma has been under military rule since 1962, and the current leaders took power in 1988. They called elections in 1990, but refused to recognize the results when Suu Kyi's party won a resounding victory.

    Burma should have been the ASEAN chairman and host of the regional summit this year, but it gave up the chance amid protests by Western governments. The prestigious chairmanship, rotated alphabetically among all members, was abruptly passed on to the Philippines.

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    U.N. chief designates special adviser Ibrahim Gambari to continue efforts in Burma

    UNITED NATIONS (AP/Kyodo News) - Ibrahim Gambari, a special adviser to the secretary-general who visited Burma twice last year, will continue U.N. efforts to pursue the release of all political prisoners and promote democratic reforms, the United Nations announced Tuesday.

    During his visits, Burma's military government allowed Gambari rare meetings with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest. At the time, Gambari was undersecretary-general for political affairs.

    U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has appointed Gambari his special adviser on the International Compact with Iraq and other issues, designated him "to pursue the good offices mandate on Burma entrusted to the secretary-general by the General Assembly, effective immediately."

    "The secretary-general looks forward to the continued cooperation of the government of Myanmar and all relevant parties to the national reconciliation process, with a view to making tangible progress towards the restoration of democracy and the protection of human rights in Myanmar," Montas said. "In the discharge of his functions, Mr. Gambari will work in coordination with relevant parts of the UN system in order to support Myanmar's efforts in implementing relevant General Assembly resolutions," Ban said in a statement released Tuesday.

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    US urges Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi

    BANGKOK (AFP) - The United States on Tuesday urged military-run Burma to release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners ahead of the junta's review of her detention this week.

    Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who was travelling in neighboring Thailand, said the junta's detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners was "very damaging" to Burma.

    "The continued incarceration and house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi is one of several issues that are posing a real blockage in terms of Burma being able to rejoin the international community until they lay out political process and release political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi," he said.

    Burma has been ruled by the military since 1962. The United Nations has estimated there are some 1,100 political prisoners, including 61-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's only detained Nobel peace laureate.

    The junta is to review the latest period of her detention on May 27. Despite growing international calls demanding her freedom, the military regime is likely to extend her house arrest.

    Meanwhile, Southeast Asian lawmakers who oppose Burma called on regional powers to slap sanctions on the junta after Russia agreed to build a nuclear facility in the country.

    Asian nations largely maintain trade with Burma in contrast with the United States and European Union, which have imposed sanctions in hopes of freeing Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Russia said this month it would help design and equip a nuclear research centre in Burma, which has also restored relations with North Korea, a fellow nuclear pariah for the West.

    "Japan and China can work together. They united against a nuclear North Korea," Cambodian MP Son Chhay said in Tokyo at an Asian lawmakers' forum on Burma.

    "So if Burma develops a nuclear facility, they can work against Myanmar," he said.

    Senator Aquilino Pimental Jr. of the Philippines said that if the situation deteriorates, the United States, Japan and European Union should impose sanctions by freezing Burma-linked bank accounts.

    "In my mind, this is a very dangerous development, and it is against the ASEAN declaration that ASEAN must never be involved in nuclear activity," he said, referring to the Russia-Burma deal.

    "It is dangerous to have a nation with nuclear capability, especially a nation that does not respect the rules of law," he added.

    Lawmakers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand met in Tokyo for two days with Sein Win, the cousin of Aung San Suu Kyi and the opposition's "prime minister-in-exile."

    The United States last week renewed sanctions on Burma for another year, citing the junta's detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

    Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 17 years under house arrest at her lakeside Rangoon home, with little contact with the outside world apart from a live-in maid and visits by her doctor.

    Her opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never allowed it to take office.

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    Laura Bush to launch a new Women’s Caucus on Burma

    The Hill, Washington DC

    First lady Laura Bush will join five female senators today to launch a new Women’s Caucus on Burma, focusing on the human-rights crisis in the South Asian country that continues to detain Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

    Bush will meet with Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), along with Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, and Shari Villarosa, deputy chief of the U.S. mission in the Burmese capital of Rangoon.

    Mrs. Bush has long pressed for stronger international action against the Burmese junta, and discussion likely will touch on a new push by U.S. negotiators for Suu Kyi’s release when her arrest term expires this weekend.

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    Shan rebels to discuss ceasefire with Burmese military

    Democratic Voice of Burma, Norway

    May 22, 2007 (DVB)—The Shan State Army-South said today they were due to start ceasefire talks with the Burmese military before the end of the month at a secret location near the Thai-Burma border.

    SSA-S spokesperson Sai Lao Hseng told DVB today that the military had agreed to meet with the rebels to discuss a possible end to hostilities between the two groups.

    “They have offered to meet us in response to an offer we have been making them for sometime. We have been working on this for a while but the date for the meeting kept changing,” Sai Lao Hseng said, refusing to say exactly when the talks would start.

    He also said details of the location and the names of people involved in the talks would also be kept secret. But he did say that a five-person SSA-S delegation had already been chosen to attend the talks.

    “First, we need to have a ceasefire agreement. Second, if we get a ceasefire agreement, then we will ask for a demilitarized zone and call for the withdrawal of all [State Peace and Development Council] forced from that zone. We believe they need to agree with us,” Sai Lao Hseng.

    The SSA-S, which is headed by colonel Yawd Serk, was formed in 1996 and controls significant areas of southern Shan State along the Thai Burma border.

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    Myanmar top leader meets Cambodian PM

    People's Daily, China

    Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Senior-General Than Shwe met with visiting Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen in Nay Pyi Taw Tuesday, the state-run Myanmar Radio and Television reported in a night broadcast.

    The report did not disclose the details about their meeting.

    Hun Sen arrived in the new capital on Monday on a three-day goodwill visit to Myanmar and shortly after his arrival, Hun Sen had talks and exchanged views with Acting Prime Minister Lieutenant-General Thein Sein, who is also first secretary of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

    The talks covered bilateral cooperation between the two countries and further strengthening of bilateral good relations, an official report said earlier without further disclosing more details.

    Thein Sein was named acting prime minister to greet Hun Sen in the absence of prime minister Soe Win who is reportedly undergoing medical treatment in Singapore for suffering from leukemia.

    It is Hun Sen's another official visit to the country as a Cambodian leader since 2000.

    Hun Sen, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Nam Hong, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh and Minister of Tourism Thong Khon, is due to end his Myanmar visit Wednesday.

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    Cambodia, Burma move to strengthen tourism ties

    RANGOON (AFP) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen met with junta head Senior General Than Shwe in military-ruled Burma on Tuesday, officials said, as the two nations moved to improve tourism links.

    Hun Sen arrived in Burma on Monday morning, his first visit to this isolated state since 2000. During the three-day trip he will discuss the possibility of introducing direct flights between the two nations.

    The visit comes as Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest is due to be reviewed and likely extended this weekend, but Cambodian officials have been tight-lipped about whether Hun Sen will urge the junta to free her.

    Officials from both countries have said the focus would be trade and tourism.

    Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told AFP that Hun Sen would discuss ways of making travel easier between Burma and nearby Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, with possible direct flights and package tours.

    "Buddhism will be the potential tourist link for these four countries -- like Cambodia, there are a lot of temples in Myanmar," Khieu Kanharith said.

    These talks are hoped to spur action on a tourism agreement already signed between the two countries, but which has not been implemented yet.

    Tourism is a key industry in impoverished Cambodia, and tourist arrivals in Burma are also creeping up, despite calls by supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi for tourists to boycott the country.

    Information ministry sources said that Hun Sen met with Burma's Senior General Than Shwe on Tuesday morning.

    On Monday, Hun Sen met with acting premier Thein Sein and a number of officials, including the transport and foreign ministers and the deputy minister for tourism, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

    The government mouthpiece said that Hun Sen, who will spend his whole visit in the new administrative capital Naypyidaw before heading home on Wednesday morning, discussed a "further strengthening of bilateral ties."

    Cambodia has close diplomatic ties with Burma, which has been under military rule since 1962 and is one of the most isolated nations in the world.

    Diplomatic relations between the two nations date back to 1955, but were broken off in 1974 as the Khmer Rouge advanced on Phnom Penh.

    Ties were restored in 1994 as Cambodia emerged from decades of civil war. A Burmese embassy opened in Phnom Penh in 1999, and one Western diplomat in the Cambodian capital said Hun Sen was keen to cultivate regional relations.

    He said Hun Sen "has a long-term view of where he wants Cambodia to be," and could see engaging Myanmar as part of a larger plan to raise the country's profile as a regional power.

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    Thailand's PTTEP says natural gas wells off Burma affirm commercial potential

    International Herald Tribune

    BANGKOK (AP) - Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production Pcl has confirmed the commercial potential of a natural gas field offshore Burma and plans to drill three more appraisal wells, the company said in a statement released Wednesday.

    PTTEP announced the discovery of gas in the M9 exploration block — about 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Rangoon — in January, and has been drilling appraisal wells this year to evaluate the size of the field and develop a production plan. Two wells drilled in April and May have affirmed the commercial potential of the field, the company said in it statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

    "The news is good but we need to do more exploration and confirm the production plan," said Sidhichai Jayamt, the company's manager for external relations.

    Drilling results for the two wells reported Wednesday indicated a good flow potential from the field, he said.

    "We may not have to drill the same amount of wells as in the Gulf of Thailand" to develop the field, Sidhichai said, although the company would have to confirm that the flow rates would hold.

    The flow rate from the Zawtika-3 well tested at 26.68 million standard cubic feet of gas a day from one zone in the well. The rate from the Zawtika-4 well tested at a combined 71.1 million cubic feet of gas per day from two zones.

    Comparatively, normal flow rates in the Gulf of Thailand are 5 million cubic feet of gas a day to 10 million cubic feet a day, Sidhichai said.

    PTTEP International Ltd., a 100-percent owned subsidiary of PTT Exploration & Production, is operator and sole shareholder of the M9 gas block.

    PTTEP's exploration program for the block called for spending US$16 million in the first four years, starting from 2004, Sidhichai said. The company can't yet say when commercial production from the field might begin, he said.

    The company will develop its production plan for the block after the completion of the three more appraisal wells in July, he said.

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    Iran to cooperate with Myanmar in agriculture

    People's Daily, China

    Iran has proposed to Myanmar to cooperate in the sector of agriculture, said a report of the local Pyi Myanmar weekly Tuesday, quoting the Ministry of Commerce.

    Besides cooperating in cultivation of paddy, sugarcane and rubber, Iran is also interested in Myanmar's marine products, the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture was also quoted as saying.

    Iran has also proposed to Myanmar on setting up an economic and trade cooperation committee between the two countries and an Iranian delegation will be sent to Myanmar to coordinate for the initiative, according to the report.

    Despite having diplomatic links between Myanmar and Iran, there were few exchange between the two countries in the past seven years except a visit to Myanmar by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Amin' Zedah in January 2000.

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    Myanmar to deny import license for false quotation of goods prices

    People's Daily, China

    Myanmar will deny application for an import license with false quotation of goods prices, the local Yangon Times reported Wednesday.

    The commodity prices quoted for getting an import license shall be within the range of those approved by a bi-weekly price meeting chaired by two deputy ministers of commerce, and finance and revenue, the Directorate of Trade was quoted as saying.

    The regular meeting also involves related business organizations and national entrepreneurs, the sources said.

    Another local report also said Wednesday that the border trade authorities have also relaxed a step in export formalities under normal trade system, lifting restriction on traders' compulsory presentation of bank account declaration which had brought delay on work rotation.

    However, the Directorate of Border Trade has warned against selling of export licenses.

    According to the authorities, all Myanmar's 13 border trade points have adopted the normal trade system to replace the border trade one.

    Meanwhile, a survey on and proposal to the government's introduction of export and import formalities was invited from traders early this month.

    According to official statistics, Myanmar's foreign trade hit 8 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2006-07 which ended in March, exceeding the original target of 7 billion dollars.

    Of the total which stood a new record high in 18 years since 1989, Myanmar's exports accounted for 5 billion dollars, while the imports took 3 billion dollars, registering a trade surplus of 2 billion dollars.

    Myanmar mainly exports natural gas, agricultural, mineral and marine products, while importing machinery, crude oil, edible oil, pharmaceutical products, cement, fertilizer and consumers goods.

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