Day: August 15, 2009

Investigation of Yettaw’s involvement in conspiracy is needed!

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Investigation of Yettaw’s involvement in conspiracy is needed!
Burmese people are calling for investigation of Yettaw’s involvement in conspiracy against Aung San Suu Kyi and Webb’s business tie with junta.
John William Yettaw is the intruder to Aung San Suu Kyi’s residence. Because of him Aung San Suu Kyi is sentenced to 18 months house arrest. We strongly believe that there is a conspiracy behind the Yettaw illegal entry to Aung San Suu Kyi residence.

Webb is boosting his name to promote his profile by giving in Burmese junta to free Yettaw. But, his show business to free Yettaw is too insulting not only to our noble leader Aung San Suu Kyi but also all 50 million Burmese people. Webb is dreaming of hero welcome in US after surrendering junta. Webb visits is endorsing junta acts while they are hungry for legitimacy in their 2010 election.
If Obama administration fails to investigate the Yettaw’s accident, then it will be tantamount to supporting junta’s crime. We want to know the truth. Submission to junta is not the answer. We want to know the link between the Yettaw, junta and third party who plot the ploy behind the scene.
Yettaw accident is the conspiracy. Junta, Yettaw & some people who wanted to manipulate Burma crisis; plotted the ploy on Aung San Suu Kyi. We can see the smoke already.
Obama must prove that he is a man of action.

BDC

The European Union has added four state-run media outlets to its list of Burmese sanctions targets in response to the court ruling against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

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Four media enterprises—the Myanmar News and Periodicals Enterprise, which publishes three state-run newspapers; the Tatmadaw Telecasting Unit, which runs Myawaddy Television; Myanmar Radio and Television; and the Myanmar Motion Picture Enterprise—were added to the revised sanctions list published on Friday.

The EU stated that it put the media organizations on the list because they have been involved in promoting the regime’s policies and propaganda.

Responding to the move, journalists in Rangoon noted that the listed enterprises were not the only ones used by the regime to promote its policies. Private journals and magazines owned by the junta’s associates also play a similar role, they said.

“Like the state-run media, these privately owned journals and magazines run by associates of the ruling generals also play a significant role in spreading the regime’s propaganda,” said a Rangoon-based journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Also added to the sanctions list were judges and government prosecutors from the Northern District Court, which sentenced Suu Kyi on August 11.

The EU sanctions on Burma includes visa bans, an arms embargo, limiting diplomatic contacts, freezing officials’ offshore accounts, and suspending non-humanitarian aid or development programs.

The European bloc first introduced sanctions on Burma in 1996. The sanctions have been updated, renewed and extended every year since then, and are set to expire on April 30, 2010, if they are not renewed.

On August 13, two days after Suu Kyi’s conviction, the Council of the European Union announced the adoption of additional sanctions against the Burmese regime to condemn “the unjustified trial of and the verdict against” the pro-democracy leader.
“Under the new restrictive measures, members of the judiciary responsible for the verdict are added to the existing list of persons and entities subject to a travel ban and to an assets freeze,” the EU council said in a press release on Thursday.

“Moreover, the persons and entities subject to the restrictive measures is extended to cover the assets freeze to enterprises that are owned and controlled by members of the regime in Burma/Myanmar or by persons or entities associated with them,” the council added.

Forty Burmese enterprises owned by cronies of the junta are included on the EU sanctions list.

Senator Webb:In the summer of 2001, Webb visited Burma to meet with business leaders, workers and leaders of the military junta, discussing his desire to bring Burma more productively into the world community.

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Senator Webb’s long experience in the region

Senator Webb has enjoyed a continuous personal involvement in East Asian affairs that long predates his time in the Senate. In addition to his more recent visits as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Webb has worked and traveled throughout the vast region, from Micronesia to Burma, for nearly four decades, as a Marine Corps officer, a defense planner, a journalist, a novelist, a department of defense executive, and as a business consultant.

In the summer of 2001, Webb visited Burma to meet with business leaders, workers and leaders of the military junta, discussing his desire to bring Burma more productively into the world community.

What should I think about this?

The Global Justice Center denounces the Secretary-General’s Response to the Conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi as contrary to his mandate under the U.N. Charter

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Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, under the orders of Senior General Than Shwe, has spent thirteen of the last nineteen years under house arrest. This imprisonment is a crime and this crime was compounded by Aung San Suu Kyi being thrown into Insein prison after being arrested on “sham” charges of aiding a swimmer. After a “sham trial” by “sham judges,” Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted on August 11, 2009, and sentenced initially to three years hard labor. This conviction is a crime against humanity by means of a judicial order. Judges are Senior General Than Shwe’s weapons of choice and Judges U Thaung Nyunt and U Nye Nye Soe, who convicted Aung San Suu Kyi, are “top performers” in the junta’s judicial arsenal.

What is shocking is that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks on the conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi are totally at odds with his mandate under the U.N. Charter. As a Representative of the U.N., and given these circumstances, international law requires Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to call for an end to impunity, not convey his “disappointment” and call for “reconciliation”.

The Global Justice Center takes exception to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks which fail to address the junta’s systematic rule by crime: Continue reading “The Global Justice Center denounces the Secretary-General’s Response to the Conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi as contrary to his mandate under the U.N. Charter” →

POST BAG: Asean policy and trade with Burma

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Having just seen PM Abhisit Vejjajiva’s interview on BBC World news, I am left with the wholly depressing conclusion that salvation for the Burmese people is not going to come from Asia – and certainly not from Asean.

No amount of words from the erudite and well-spoken prime minister can hide the fact that Asean is, even now, sanguine about doing business with a completely criminal regime that has a record of theft and murder.

Asean is unperturbed by its business relationship with the junta, even as it wrings its hands over the incarceration of Aung San Suu Kyi and the dreadful situation in Burma.

In the interview, PM Abhisit signally fails to clarify why it would be counter-productive for Asean to ”pressure” the regime with even the threat of Asean sanctions. On this point I think it is beholden on the media in Thailand and internationally to be much more forceful on this issue: Asean definitely has the leverage, as any economist who knows about Burma’s trade, will tell you.

Burma’s trade is the regime’s oxygen; it is vital to keep this monster alive. The natural resources that the regime trades (mainly with Asean) funds the army and fills the generals’ bank accounts. It signally does very little to support the Burmese people at all. For instance, I wonder if the tripartite core group can give a realistic figure of the amount of money the regime has actually spent on relief and redevelopment in the cyclone-devastated areas?

When the history of this appalling affair is written, Asean will be seen in a very bad light indeed _ unless it decides to change its policies in favour of the Burmese people instead of a bunch of murderous and thieving thugs. Even now it is not too late.
BKK Post

American who visited Suu Kyi to be freed

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The American man who swam across a lake to visit Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be released on Sunday, according to a statement issued by U.S. Senator Jim Webb.

American John Yettaw had been sentenced to seven years hard labour by Burma’s military government.

“I am grateful to the Myanmar (Burma) government for honoring these requests,” said Senator Webb who is visiting Burma and sought Yettaw’s release.
irishsun