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Pluto
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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 Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:52 pm Post subject: Problems in Burma; What can we do? |
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Bad neighbour
Oct 17th 2007
From Economist.com
Why ASEAN should be worried about Myanmar
THE diplomatic pressure on Myanmar�s military regime has been growing. Late last week the United Nations Security Council, after much cogitation, issued a statement �strongly deploring� the regime�s use of violence against the recent, monk-led protests calling for democracy.
The council called on the Burmese regime to release its political prisoners and engage in genuine dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's pro-democracy leader, and others. China rejected Western countries� moves to include an implied threat of sanctions in the statement but, still, that it signed on to a strongly worded rebuke of the regime was telling.
AFP
Ibrahim Gambari pleads with AsiaOn October 15th the European Union tightened its economic sanctions, as America had done after last month�s violent crackdown. The EU is banning imports of Burmese timber, gemstones and precious metals, which help finance the regime. The next day Japan cut part of its aid to Myanmar, in protest at the shooting of a Japanese journalist by a Burmese soldier during the protests.
But Western leaders know that their measures may have little effect unless they can persuade Myanmar�s Asian neighbours, who are its main trading partners and arms suppliers, to join them. Their task therefore is to convince India, China and Myanmar�s fellow members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) that they cannot simply go back to business as usual with Myanmar once the fuss over its slaughter has died down.
So far the regime has remained largely unmoved. It has agreed to meet the UN�s special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, and appointed an intermediary to talk to Miss Suu Kyi. But it has rejected the Security Council�s demands, arrested more protest leaders and, so far, denied the International Red Cross access to detainees.
It has also announced plans for another money-spinning auction of gems and jade, next month. On Sunday state newspapers announced that Soe Win, the prime minister, had died. But he was only thought to be fourth in the junta�s hierarchy and his demise seems unlikely to change things.
This week Mr Gambari toured Asia to plead with Myanmar�s neighbours to join the West in tightening the screws. The response so far has been feeble. Malaysia ruled out even such mild sanctions as suspending Myanmar�s membership of ASEAN.
General Surayud Chulanont, the prime minister in Thailand�s military-backed government, suggested the creation of a regional forum to solve Myanmar�s crisis, comprising ASEAN, India, China and the UN, modelled on the six-party talks on North Korea. But the North Korean talks include countries�notably America�that urge a tough line against North Korea, as well as more-friendly China. Without such a �nice cop, nasty cop� element, General Surayud�s proposed forum would likely achieve little.
ASEAN�s secretary-general, Ong Keng Yong, and several member countries� senior ministers, parrotted the line this week that a sudden regime change in Myanmar could cause �another Iraq�, given the country�s various ethnic-minority insurgencies. This is a vast exaggeration. In any case, nobody is actually proposing a sudden regime change. Even Miss Suu Kyi agrees that the military should play a strong continuing role in the country.
Though Myanmar�s neighbours deny it, their soft line stems at least in part from selfishness. Some ASEAN members, and India and China, are loth to forgo the financial benefits of trading with Myanmar. ASEAN and India also fear that if they are too tough on the regime it will fall into China�s arms. ASEAN and China have good reasons to fear setting a precedent for international intervention on the grounds of human-rights abuses.
However, while they all seem blind to the moral arguments for curbing the Burmese regime, there are some more hard-headed reasons for taking a harder line. One is that Myanmar�s problems, like drugs, could easily spill across its borders and cause problems for them. The UN said last week that opium-poppy production has begun to rise again in Myanmar after six years of sharp declines.
Production of methamphetamines for export to Asian neighbours is another concern. An poor, ill-run and isolated Myanmar is less able to fight the drugs scourge than a peaceful, democratic one that allowed international agencies to help.
The regime, for all its defiance, may be weaker than any outsider knows and, if it were to collapse, it would serve ASEAN, India and China right if the new Burmese government punished their selfishness by cutting them out of rich deals to explore its natural resources. That is yet another reason why Myanmar�s neighbours might consider pressing harder for a negotiated transition.
Finally, for ASEAN especially, taking a firmer line on Myanmar would give it a chance to show that it is a serious and relevant player on the world�s diplomatic stage. Only a few months ago ASEAN leaders were talking about setting up a regional human-rights body and adopting a strong new charter that would, for the first time, impose binding decisions on member countries and sanctions against wayward ones.
They had begun backtracking on this ambitious agenda even before the crackdown against Myanmar�s protesters. But the violence in Yangon exposed the enormous credibility gap between ASEAN�s grandiose talk and its piffling achievements. Doing something serious about their most roguish member would be a good way to prove wrong those doubters (including your columnist) who see ASEAN doomed by its own inaction to irrelevance.
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http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/asiaview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9975183
What can Western nations do without the supposrt of ASEAN nations? So far, Japan seems to be the only nation taking a harline stance against the Myanmar regime. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:27 am Post subject: |
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Myanmar Democracy Activists Pin Hopes On 'Panty Power'
Thu Oct 25, 5:48 AM
BANGKOK (AFP) - A campaign is underway to chastise Myanmar's military regime, not through dialogue or sanctions, but by flooding the country's foreign embassies with women's underwear, an activist said Thursday.
A pro-democracy group based in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai is urging people all over the world to "post, deliver or fling" their undergarments to Myanmar's international embassies 
"The Burma military regime is not only brutal but very superstitious. They believe that contact with a woman's panties or sarong can rob them of their power," the Lanna Action for Burma group said on its website.
The generals who rule Myanmar, previously known as Burma, provoked international outcry in September when they violently cracked down on peaceful protesters, killing at least 13 people.
Europe and the United States led the chorus of disapproval, announcing new sanctions against the regime.
Despite the outcry and a United Nations statement deploring the crackdown and urging dialogue, the junta has shown little sign of moving any closer towards democracy or freeing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Those behind the so-called "Panty Power" campaign hope that lingerie can succeed where international diplomacy has so far failed.
"We want to raise awareness first, and we want to target the Burmese government officials, letting them know we are against them abusing their power," said Tomoko, an activist with Lanna Action for Burma.
Tomoko, who goes by one name only, said she had heard that Myanmar embassies in Thailand, Australia and the United States had been targeted by the Panty Power campaign, which began last week.
"We are sending (the generals) panties as a symbol of putting their power down," she told AFP.
Last edited by igotthisguitar on Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:28 am; edited 1 time in total |
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:39 pm Post subject: |
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Myanmar Embassy in Washington DC, United States
2300 S Street, NW
Washington DC 20008
United States
City: Washington DC
Phone: (+1) (202) 332-3344
Fax: (+1) (202) 332-4351
Email: [email protected]
Myanmar Consulate in New York, United States
10 East 77th Street
New York
New York 10021
United States
City: New York
Phone: (+1) (212) 535-1310
Fax: (+1) (212) 737-2421
Email: [email protected]
Myanmar Embassy in Seoul, Korea (South)
723-1, 724-1, Hannam-Dong Yongsamn-Ku, Seoul, 140-210
City: Seoul
Phone: (82-2) 792-3341, 796-9858, 796-7814
Fax: (82-2) 796-5570
Email: [email protected]
For more addresses here's the link:
http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Myanmar#124 |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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Burmese Desperate For Health Care
By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer
Sun Oct 28, 4:37 AM ET
MAE SOT, Thailand - They travel for days though checkpoints, across dangerous roads and past Myanmar's bribe-hungry soldiers to make it to the Thai border.
They're not refugees fleeing the junta � they simply want to see a doctor.
MORE ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/myanmar_health_crisis;_ylt=As5l0gsf18Maj2RkznIZh3gDW7oF |
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