As in New York the UN Security Council delays in even issuing a statement about the conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, in Jakarta a planned meeting of exiled Burmese democracy figures was cut back by Indonesian authorities, from two days to less than one.

Amid UN’s Myanmar Stalling, Exiles Curtailed in Jakarta, Suu Kyi House Litigation

By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 11 — As in New York the UN Security Council delays in even issuing a statement about the conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, in Jakarta a planned meeting of exiled Burmese democracy figures was cut back by Indonesian authorities, from two days to less than one. Three participants spoke to the Press in New York on August 7, in an event organized by Independent Diplomat, promoting their upcoming Jakarta meeting. When four days later it was curtailed, no update was given. On background, a media advisory arrived:

“Due to restrictions by Indonesian police, a revised program to discuss the Burma democracy movement’s transitional / national reconciliation package with Indonesian parliamentarians, politicians and Indonesia-based diplomats and NGOs will take place only briefly tomorrow, Wednesday, August 12. The original two-day program, will now be shortened to a one-day program where from 9 am -11 am a briefing will be held for invitees and participants at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel and then continued in the afternoon from 2-5pm at the Indonesian parliament, hosted by the PDI-P caucus at their office. There are no scheduled events or meetings and NO press conference on August 13.”

Of the three exiles who appeared at the UN in New York on August 7, an Inner City Press source writes:

“What is intriguing about your items on 5 and 8 August is that the ‘Trio’ seems to include both Sein Win (NCGUB) and Maung Maung (NCUB). Last year, against SW’s advice, MM tried to “unseat” the Myanmar delegation. MM knew it was just propaganda, but he is a better politician than SW. If they have really come together, that is news. Of the Trio who met you, only Bo Hla-Tint is an elected NLD Member. Maung Maung is the darling of AFL-CIO, the ITUC an the Italian Trade Union Confederation, but was not elected in 1990. Sein Win is PND (Party for National Democracy) and a cousin of Suu Kyi whose brother Aung San Oo, a US citizen, married Le Le Nwe Thein who must have a brother I assume to be Sein Win. Suu Kyi and Aung San Oo are fighting for possession of 54 University Avenue which has supposedly just been “sold” by family proxies for Aung San Oo, a sale which Suu Kyi is currently contesting. Sein Win, wisely, keeps well out of this family squabble.
In 2001 they were all good friends:

‘Minister U Win Sein, Chief Justice U Aung Toe, Attorney-General U Tha Tun and Auditor-General Brig-Gen. Tin Aye then left the Mausoleum. U Nan Nwe and family on behalf of U Aung San Oo and wife Daw Le Le Nwe Thein and Secretary of National League for Democracy U Lwin and party, on behalf of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi laid wreaths. Afterwards, families of the Arzanis [“Martyrs”] laid wreaths at the respective tombs and shared merits.’ (New Light of Myanmar 20 July 2001)

The UN Security Council’s deliberations will continue. Watch this site.
http://www.innercitypress.com/banvac5myanmar081109.html

BURMA: Junta To Release Aung San Suu Kyi After Elections by Larry Jagan

BANGKOK, Aug 11 (IPS) – Aung San Suu Kyi is to spend another 18 months in detention as Burma’s military rulers try to make sure she cannot influence the planned election next year.

The Nobel peace laureate was convicted of violating state security laws, while she was under house arrest. Her crime: to give an uninvited U.S. citizen food and shelter, after he swam across the lake to her home. “A shamefully predictable verdict, and a sentence shamelessly designed to constitute a ‘concession’ to international pressure and concern,” according to Amnesty International’s Bangkok-based Burma researcher.

Already there has been an international outcry, with the Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling the verdict a sham. It is “a purely political sentence” designed to prevent her from taking part in next year’s planned elections, he said.

The trial result is likely to intensify the divisions within the international community – especially between the west, which wants tougher sanctions, and Burma’s Asia allies who oppose sanction on principle.

Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years in jail with hard labour, by the court judges. But immediately after the verdict was read out, Burma’s home minister, Major-General Muang Oo, stood up and announced that the junta had decided to reduce her sentence and allow her to serve the term in her home. In effect she has been given a suspended sentence.

Muang Oo said the government had taken into account the fact that Suu Kyi was the daughter of Burma’s independence hero Aung San, as well as “the need to preserve community peace and tranquillity and prevent any disturbances in the road map to democracy” – a reference to the generals’ plans for the introduction of a guided democracy, including elections next year.

The American intruder, John Yettaw, was jailed for seven years – four with hard labour.

Suu Kyi has already spent more than 14 of the past 20 years in detention. She denied the recent charges, but through her lawyers, said she expected to be convicted.

Senior General Than Shwe,is one of the world’s most brutal and reclusive dictators. Hidden in his bunker in the newly built capital, Naypyidaw (which means “seat of kings”), his appearances in public are rare and his interactions with the international community unusual.

Burma’s ruler: brutal, reclusive – and a skilled manipulator

Aged 76, the former postal clerk became Burma’s ruler in 1992, 30 years after the military under Ne Win first seized power. Colourless, uncharismatic and relatively uneducated Than Shwe rose through the ranks by simply obeying orders and showing loyalty. Indeed, his apparent lack of flair, initiative and intellect were precisely the qualities the army rewarded. He was not perceived by his superiors as a threat – and was rewarded accordingly. Far from showing courage or prowess on the battlefield, he led his troops into numerous defeats at the hands of the Communists – but that did not appear to have been a barrier to promotion.

A skilled manipulator, Than Shwe consolidated his power using classic divide-and-rule tactics against his rivals within the regime and his opponents among the democratic and ethnic groups. Trained in psychological warfare in the 1960s, he lectured for a time at Ne Win’s Central Party School, so he is steeped in the use of propaganda. Billboards across the country display the regime’s message in Orwellian tones.

His regime has relentlessly suppressed pro-democracy activists, while in its long war againt the ethnic minorities it has used forced labour, rape, extra-judicial killings and torture as weapons of war and has overseen the destruction of 3,000 villages. The Burmese junta ranks alongside its new partners North Korea as among the worst abusers of human rights in the world.

Than Shwe is heavily influenced by astrology. In 2005, he announced that he was moving the capital from bustling Rangoon to the middle of the jungle 600 kilometres away. It is believed that he made this decision on the advice of astrologers, although it was also a result of his fear of a US invasion and to protect him against another uprising. He reportedly has at least seven personal astrologers, including several dedicated solely to monitoring the fortunes of imprisoned democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A new constitution will enshrine military rule, and elections scheduled for next year are expected to be a sham.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burmas-ruler-brutal-reclusive-ndash-and-a-skilled-manipulator-1766568.html

“There is an anxiety on the part of the Indian Government not to antagonise the military junta in Burma. Unfortunately in the interests of realpolitik, the Government of India has avoided taking a stand on the question of Aung San Suu Kyi … they are worried that if they antagonise the junta they will push it further into the hands of the Chinese.”

India and China pull their punches to please Rangoon
ASIA’S rising powers, India and China, vying for influence with the military junta in Rangoon, have struck a very different tone to Western countries over the latest show trial and conviction of the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

China yesterday called on nations to “respect Burma’s judicial sovereignty” after the US, Britain, Australia and European Union countries condemned the treatment Ms Suu Kyi and called for her immediate release.

India, the world’s biggest democracy, issued a bland statement calling for further political reform in Burma that avoided specific comment on Ms Suu Kyi’s detention.

A Government spokesman said India emphasised to the Burmese ”the need to expedite their political reform and national reconciliation process and … noted the various steps taken so far … We have maintained that this process should be broad based, including the various ethnic groups. In this context, the issue of release of political prisoners will no doubt receive due attention.”

India, which shares a border of more than 2500 kilometres with Burma, is deeply suspicious of Chinese influence in Rangoon. B. Raman, a prominent Indian strategic analyst, said India had avoided making strong statements on Ms Suu Kyi for about six years.

A day after the verdict against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the talk of the town in Burma is undoubtedly junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s theatrical “last-minute” intervention to reduce her sentence.

According to sources in Rangoon, the teashop jokes and sarcasm erupted as soon as state-run media aired the “Breaking News” of Than Shwe’s statement at 1:30 p.m. On Tuesday.

The “statement of mercy” scene could hardly have been more farcical had Ed Wood been directing it.Moments after the judges had vacated the courtroom after handing down a three-year sentence with hard labor to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the regime’s Home Minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo entered stage left and addressed the courtroom.
Reading a prepared statement from Than Shwe, the minister for home affairs said that as Suu Kyi was the daughter of national independence hero, Aung San, the junta chief had decided “to exercise leniency upon her.”

9. August 2009 Japan

NLD Interview 11.August 1-3

An International Commission of Inquiry more urgent than ever-report en.

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An unfair sentence, a dark future for the country – FIDH/BLC/Altsean-Burma Press Release

An unfair sentence, a dark future for the country – FIDH/BLC/Altsean-Burma Press Release

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Burma Lawyer Council (BLC) and The Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (Altsean-Burma) express their outrage regarding the condemnation of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi by the Insein prison court in Rangoon to 18 months house arrest.

“This shocking verdict illustrates once more the Burmese junta’s total disregard for its international human rights obligations and shows the real face of the regime. With the main opposition leader and 2,100 political prisoners behind bars, the elections planned by the regime for next year will be nothing but a mockery,” said Aung Htoo, General Secretary of BLC.

In an advocacy note released today, FIDH, BLC and Altsean-Burma demonstrate that the widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law documented by numerous Burmese, regional and international NGOs and UN mechanisms over the past years amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. FIDH, BLC and Altsean-Burma therefore call for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry by the UN Security Council.

“The condemnation of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is not an isolated act of repression: it is taking place in a context where crimes against humanity and war crimes have been perpetrated for decades in Eastern Burma together with other grave human rights violations in the rest of the country. The international community must move immediately to stop this inhumanity: the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry by the Security Council is the first step for any process of justice to be initiated,” concluded Souhayr Belhassen, President of FIDH.

“The ongoing atrocities in Burma increase the urgency for a Commission of Inquiry. Even now, men, women and children continue to be subjected to extreme and systematic forms of violence and murder. The world should not allow this to go on”, emphasized Debbie Stothard, Coordinator of Altsean-Burma.

The Report entitled “Burma: An International Commission of Inquiry more urgent than ever,” can be downloaded at http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/bu08.pdf

Press contacts:

Gael Grilhot, FIDH Press Office: + 33 1 43 55 90 19
Debbie Stothard, Coordinator of Altsean-Burma: +668 1686 1652
Aung Htoo, General Secretary of BLC: + 46 70 866 4159

Riz Khan – Myanmar’s verdict – 11 Aug 09 – Part 1-2

Western governments have imposed sanctions on Myanmar for their treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi and other human rights abuses, but these measures have had little effect so far. Nor have efforts by the UN and others to engage the military government produced tangible results. What is the way forward for Myanmar?