Myanmar News

President Bush on Friday reached further into his administration’s limited arsenal of sanctions to apply against Myanmar, targeting additional senior officials and regime supporters. He also called on China and India to join international efforts to promote human rights and democracy in the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation also called Burma.
With his wife, Laura, who has taken a personal and very public interest in the nation’s political conditions, at his side, Bush said, “The people of Burma are showing great courage in the face of immense repression. They are appealing for our help. We must not turn a deaf ear to their cries.”
The measures announced Friday follow two earlier efforts to put financial pressure on the leaders of Myanmar that have shown no sign of forcing the military regime into relaxing its grip on the country’s political life.
The steps Bush announced Friday will freeze U.S. assets of 16 additional government leaders and financial supporters. Fourteen leaders were listed under previous sanctions, as well as five Burmese companies and two based in Singapore.
Bush also moved to tighten restrictions on trade with Myanmar involving certain sophisticated computers and equipment that could be used for military as well as civilian purposes.
The regime that has ruled Myanmar for 45 years has come under new pressure over the last month from demonstrations led by Buddhist monks and from diplomatic efforts originating in Washington and at the United Nations.
The special U.N. envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, has failed to gain promises from the government leader, Gen. Than Shwe, to stop the bloody repression of opposition activists and other citizens who have taken part in street protests.
Derek Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said sanctions aimed at individual leaders and their supporters served to make life a little less comfortable for them without making it more difficult for the ordinary people of Myanmar.
Bush, speaking to reporters in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, praised the European Union and Australia for also imposing targeted sanctions on individuals in Myanmar, and said he had asked “other countries to review their own laws and policies, especially Burma’s closest neighbors — China and India, and others in the region.”

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A member of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party has died after torture and interrogation, a rights group said Wednesday, as possible talks between her and the junta failed to develop.

Win Shwe, a 42-year-old member of the opposition National League for Democracy, was arrested on September 26 near Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said in a statement.

He was held along with four other people for joining anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks in Mandalay.

“He died as a result of torture during interrogation. However, his body was not sent to his family and the interrogators indicated that they had cremated it instead,” the Thailand-based watchdog said.

AAPP is run by former political prisoners who now live in exile in neighbouring Thailand. The group monitors conditions in Myanmar’s notorious prisons.

More than 2,100 people were arrested last month during the biggest anti-government protests seen here in nearly two decades. Nearly 1,000 are still being held, according to official figures.

During the crackdown the junta unleashed baton charges, tear gas and live rounds, killing at least 13 people and sparking an international outcry.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party could not immediately confirm the activist’s death.

International pressure on the military regime, meanwhile, intensified as the United States warned of new sanctions if Myanmar does not stop atrocities against its own people. The White House also demanded a probe into the democracy activist’s death.

“The United States strongly condemns the atrocities committed by the junta and calls for a full investigation into the death of Win Shwe during his detention in Burma,” said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.

Under pressure from the United Nations after its deadly crackdown on the protests, the junta has appointed Aung Kyi, a general seen as a moderate, to liaise with Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner.

But the NLD said that the general had yet to make any contact.

“The authorities have seen a need to open a process of dialogue by appointing a liaison officer,” NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.

“It is still too early to welcome him, because we do not know what he will do or when the dialogue will start.”

In an apparent attempt to forestall punitive UN action, the junta has made a series of conciliatory moves.

The military last week said that junta leader Than Shwe was willing to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for most of the past 18 years.

But it also said those talks would come with strict conditions attached, including a demand that she drop support for the international community to slap more sanctions on Myanmar.

The NLD, which won 1990 elections but has never been allowed to govern, issued a statement Tuesday insisting that any talks be held without conditions.

“The statement we released yesterday was not a rejection” of the government’s offer, Nyan Win said. “We just want to let the people know the real situation.”

A Western diplomat in Yangon said the appointment of Aung Kyi, who has a track record of dealing with the UN, was one of a number of recent “positive” signals from the regime, but warned against unbridled optimism.

“They have taken one step forward, but be cautious because they could still take two steps back,” he told AFP.

The United States, France and Britain on Friday submitted a draft UN Security Council statement condemning the regime, but were forced to soften the tone after resistance from China, one of Myanmar’s few remaining allies.

A new version was making the rounds at the Security Council in New York on Wednesday, with council ambassadors expected to weigh up the text later in the day.

Protests in Myanmar began in mid-August amid outrage at an overnight hike in fuel prices that left many commuters unable even to afford the bus fare to work.

The movement took off in late September when Buddhist monks led up to 100,000 supporters onto the streets in peaceful marches that became a potent threat to the regime.

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Myanmar’s military junta named a point man to build relations with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Monday, as the United Nations weighed action against the regime for its bloody crackdown on protesters.

Junta chief Than Shwe named the deputy labour minister, Aung Kyi, as the “manager for relations” with the Nobel Peace Prize winner, just four days after the military supremo made a heavily conditioned offer to meet with her, state television said.

Than Shwe was following a recommendation made by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who concluded a mission here last week, to name an official who would “continue relations with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the future,” state television said.

The announcement came amid an international outcry over Myanmar’s deadly crackdown on peaceful anti-government protests late last month, when Buddhist monks led up to 100,000 people in the streets in the biggest challenge to military rule in nearly two decades.

At least 13 people died and more than 2,100 were locked up as security forces beat down the protests with live rounds, baton charges and teargas.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who has come to symbolise Myanmar’s peaceful resistance against tyranny, has spent most of the last 18 years under house arrest.

The junta rarely has any direct dealings with her, but naming Aung Kyi to build relations with her seemed to indicate the military was prepared for at least a minimal level of contact.

Four days earlier Than Shwe made an offer to meet with her, although the proposal hinged on major conditions including a demand that she drop her support for international sanctions on the regime.

During Gambari’s mission here, he was allowed to meet with both Than Shwe and Aung San Suu Kyi before returning to New York to brief the UN Security Council on Friday.

The Council was set to consider later Monday a non-binding statement drafted by the United States, Britain and France to condemn the military regime.

The text condemns “violent repression of peaceful demonstrations” and urges Myanmar’s rulers to “cease repressive measures” and release detainees as well as political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

However, diplomats in New York said it was likely to be toned down at the request of China, Russia and possibly Indonesia.

Over the last week Myanmar has made a series of rare public gestures attempting to cool the international outcry over its deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

State media Monday said the the junta had donated thousands of dollars as well as food and medicines to monasteries in Yangon, in an apparent gesture of reconciliation with the monks.

During the weekend the military trumpeted its release of more than half of 2,171 people arrested in the crackdown and noted that nearly 400 of 533 monks detained had been “sent back to their respective monasteries.”

The protests in Myanmar began in mid-August after a huge overnight hike in fuel prices left many people in the impoverished nation unable even to afford their bus fare to work.

But it was only when the monks, who are revered in Myanmar, took the lead that the rallies escalated into a genuine threat to more than four decades of military rule here.

The United States has led criticism of the regime, warning Friday that it could push for UN sanctions, including an arms embargo, if the ruling generals pursue the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Any sanctions resolution is likely to face resistance and possibly a veto from China and Russia, who deem the turmoil in the southeast Asian country an internal matter and not a threat to wider peace and security.

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The junta’s crackdown has provoked scores of protests around the world and on Thursday hundreds of Buddhist monks in yellow robes marched in India chanting hymns, and waving placards that read “Stop Killing” and “No violence against democracy.”

Gambari was to brief Ban after arriving in New York on Thursday in the midst of international outrage at the use of soldiers against peaceful columns of Buddhist monks and civilians demanding an end to military rule.

Official media say 10 people were killed, including a Japanese video journalist, although Western governments say the final toll is likely to be far higher.

The body of 50-year-old Kenji Nagai, shot dead near Yangon’s Sule Pagoda, returned home on Thursday for an autopsy whose results could lead to Tokyo making good on a threat to scale back economic assistance to Myanmar, one of Asia’s poorest countries.

Fears of a repeat of 1988, when the army killed an estimated 3,000 people in a crackdown lasting several months, were not realized, but even China, the junta’s closest ally, made a rare public call for restraint.

China praised Gambari’s mission — which Western diplomats said Beijing helped facilitate — saying it gave his efforts a “positive appraisal.”

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Crowds taunted and cursed security forces barricading central Rangoon overnight, as the junta tried to prevent more mass protests against Burma’s 45 years of military rule and deepening economic hardship.

Meanwhile Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australian diplomats feared the true death toll in the country was much higher than has been reported so far, and could be in the hundreds.

Potentially deadly games of cat and mouse went on for hours around the barbed-wire barriers in a city terrified of a repeat of 1988, when the army killed an estimated 3,000 people in crushing an uprising.

Few Buddhist monks were among the crowds, unlike in previous days, after soldiers ransacked 10 monasteries on Thursday and carted off hundreds inside.

When the troops charged, the protesters vanished into narrow side streets, only to emerge elsewhere to renew their abuse until darkness fell and an overnight curfew took effect.

“We only want democracy,” some yelled in English. “May the people who beat monks be struck down by lightning,” others chanted in Burmese.

Despite the visceral anger in their voices, far fewer protesters turned out in Rangoon than earlier in the week, when they had walked alongside thousands of maroon-robed monks.

Shots were fired on Friday but there was no word of more casualties a day after troops swept protesters from the center of Rangoon, giving them 10 minutes to leave or be shot.

Troops fired on several crowds on Thursday and state-run television said nine people were killed.

Downer, Brown comment

“The Burmese official estimate of 10 dead is likely to be a real exaggeration [sic],” Mr Downer said. “I think the numbers are going to be substantially higher than that. I think they could be multiples of ten higher.”

His comments were echoed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported,” Mr Brown said on Friday after talking by telephone with US President George W Bush and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

There has been no word on the fate of the monks, who turned what began as small protests against shock fuel price rises last month into a mass uprising when they lent their moral weight to demonstrations against the ruling generals.

Burma’s main internet link has been cut off and internet cafes in Rangoon are closed. Several newspapers have also stopped publishing. Witnesses in the city say soldiers have beaten and arrested people found with mobile phones or cameras.

In other developments, UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari was in Singapore and is expected to arrive in Burma later today.

Some monks told foreign Burmese-language broadcasters they were not going to give up. Speaking anonymously, they said a “united front” of clergy, students and activists had been formed to continue the struggle.

Mr Bush and Mr Brown discussed the need to maintain international pressure on Burma’s rulers and the White House condemned the crackdown as “barbaric.”

Asked whether Mr Bush and Mr Brown talked about the possibility of encouraging Burma’s people to overthrow their government if protests grew into a full-scale uprising, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said that would be “a hypothetical.”

“We certainly support the people who are marching for democracy and peace,” he said.

The European Union summoned Burma’s senior diplomat in Brussels and warned him of tighter sanctions.

EU experts looked into possible restrictions on exports from Burma of timber, precious metals and stones but did not reach any decisions, one diplomat said. Investments by specific Europeans in the country were not raised, he said.

Activist Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK called the EU sanctions “pathetic” and said a freeze on assets had netted less than 7,000 euros in all 27 EU member states and many countries allowed companies to do business in Burma.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said sanctions were premature but that he was sorry to hear about civilian deaths. “As far as sanctions are concerned, this is a topic to be especially considered in the United Nations,” said Mr Putin.

Russia is, like China, a veto-wielding UN Security Council member and has shown growing interest in energy cooperation with Burma. China, the main backer of Burma’s military government, has flatly ruled out backing sanctions.

The junta told diplomats summoned to its new jungle capital of Naypyidaw that it was “committed to showing restraint in its response to the provocations,” one of those present said. There were protests across Asia, with many people wearing red to symbolise the blood spilled in Burma.

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