Daily News - March 19, 2010 - Friday
  • Group of Friends on Myanmar to meet at UN headquarters
  • Junta deports jailed Burmese-American activist
  • Myanmar to expand soft-shell crabs export to Europe




    • Group of Friends on Myanmar to meet at UN headquarters

    People's Daily, China

    UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has requested a meeting of the Group of Friends of Myanmar at the United Nations headquarters in New York on March 25, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Thursday.

    An emergency meeting had been requested by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was quoted in a government press release on Tuesday saying he sent a letter to Ban requesting a meeting to discuss Myanmar's new electoral laws for the first nationwide election to be held in 20 years.

    However, the secretary-general told reporters on Tuesday that he had not received the letter.

    Brown was also quoted as saying that he intends "to seek international support to impose an arms embargo" against the South Asian country.

    "Burma has ignored the demands of the UN Security Council, the UN secretary-general, the U.S., EU (European Union) and its neighbors by imposing restrictive and unfair terms for the elections," Brown's statement said, using Myanmar's former name." The targeting of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD is particularly vindictive and callous. We will also seek international support to impose an arms embargo against Burma."

    The United Nations is a member of the "Group of Friends on Myanmar," which includes the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

    The ruling Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which has not yet set a date for nationwide elections, enacted five electoral laws, the state Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) reported last week.

    However, the UN secretary-general told reporters after the announcement that the new electoral laws "do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process. "

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    Junta deports jailed Burmese-American activist

    BANGKOK (Reuters) – Junta deported a Burmese-American activist on Thursday after sentencing him last month to three years in prison for forgery and immigration offenses.

    Nyi Nyi Aung, a U.S. citizen, was sent home after serving five weeks of his sentence. The reason for his deportation, which was agreed by the junta Wednesday, was not immediately known.

    Washington, which has seen few results from a year-long drive to encourage Burma to make democratic reforms, said the release was good news but would not detract from broader political problems in the country.

    "We welcome this small but positive step," State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told a news briefing.

    Nyi Nyi Aung, also known as Kyaw Zaw Lwin, was jailed on February 10 for carrying a fake identification card and undeclared foreign currency and for failing to renounce his Burmese citizenship. He was arrested at Rangoon's international airport in September and was accused of plotting unrest in the country. He had been to Burma five times as a U.S. national and planned to visit his mother, who has thyroid cancer, and his cousin.

    Both were imprisoned for their role in nationwide monk-led protests in 2007, the biggest challenge to military rule since a bloody pro-democracy uprising in 1988 that left an estimated 3,000 people dead.

    Nyi Nyi Aung, who took part in the 1988 protests, fled to the United States in 1993 and was granted citizenship in 2002.

    "In one way, I'm really happy but on the other side, all my friends and my family are still in prison. That's my only message," Nyi Nyi Aung told reporters at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport. He plans to return to the United States Friday.

    It was the second time in seven months that a U.S. citizen has been deported from Burma having been convicted and imprisoned.

    John Yettaw, whose uninvited stay at pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's home last May landed her in detention for another 18 months, was deported in August after serving only five days of a seven-year jail term for immigration and security breaches.

    POLITICAL PRISONERS

    Burma plans to hold elections this year, which the junta has promised will be free, fair and inclusive, but the jailing of journalists and political activists for minor offenses has continued unabated.

    An estimated 2,100 "prisoners of conscience" remain in detention in Burma. The junta says no political prisoners are being held in the country, insisting all are criminals.

    A new election law published last week said any citizen who has served time in prison would be barred from running in the polls, for which a date has not yet been set.

    The United States said the barring of political prisoners from the election made a mockery of democracy, adding there was "no hope" that the polls could be credible.

    A senior U.S. official, responding to news of Thursday's release, said Nyi Nyi Aung's case simply underlined the broader plight of political prisoners in Burma.

    "They shouldn't be throwing people in jail for these types of spurious reasons," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's positive in that sense, but really it just points to the bigger problem."

    Rights group Freedom Now expressed satisfaction at Nyi Nyi Aung's release but urged the United States to press the junta to release all political detainees in Burma.

    "We're absolutely thrilled he has been released and excited to know he will be going home," the group's lawyer, Beth Schwanke, said by telephone.

    "However, we hope the United States will not forget the other 2,100 political prisoners."

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    Myanmar to expand soft-shell crabs export to Europe

    People's Daily, China

    Myanmar private companies are striving to expand soft-shell crabs export market to European Union countries this year as production with the exporting items is making progress, sources with the Crab Entrepreneurs Association (CEA) said on Thursday.

    A soft-shell crab breeding zone has been established in the country's southernmost Myeik archipelago in Taninthayi division to raise the production in addition to existing one in Yangon where the breeding area is as large as over 280 hectares.

    Meanwhile, Myanmar will raise its soft-shell crab production by 25 percent starting this year, due to the high foreign demand, earlier reports said.

    The soft-shell crabs are mostly exported to China, China's Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Singapore and Malaysia, from where they are transited to more countries and the monthly export amounted to 80 to 100 tons.

    During the first three quarters (April-December) of 2009-10 fiscal year, Myanmar earned a total of 28 million U.S. dollars from the crab export alone against the target of 35 million dollars.

    In 2008-09, the country fetched 31.5 million dollars from crab export, figures showed.

    Myanmar achieved soft-shell crab production on its own with its raw material after two year's endeavors in the move.

    Previously, crabs are exported to neighboring China on demand and raw materials to Vietnam and Thailand for production of soft- shell crab.

    Soft-shell crab has become a new export item of the country's marine export products in addition to fresh-water fish, crabs and prawns.

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