GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will be in Geneva 14 June, her first stop abroad since being released from house arrest by Myanmar/Burmese authorities earlier this year. The head of her country’s National League for Democracy (NLD) will speak at the International Labour Organization‘s 101st international labour conference. Some 4,000 delegates from around the world will be attending the conference.
Suu Kyi has accepted the invitation of ILO Director-General Juan Somavia to address the plenary of the conference on the morning of 14 June, the ILO says in a statement.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland officially lifts all sanctions against Myanmar/Burma 10 May, except arms embargoes and sanctions against materials that could be used for repression. The government made the decision to do so at the end of April but asked the Federal Department for the Economy to draw up a plan of action. This was approved by the Federal Council yesterday and goes into effect today.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in to parliament Wednesday 2 May, finally taking public office after a 25-year long struggle against the country’s military regime.
The Nobel prize winner had initially refused the phrasing for the swearing in, which holds her to “safeguard the constitution” drafted by the military regime of the country, also known as Myanmar. She wanted the wording to be changed to “respect”, but backed down after being personally encouraged by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
Suu Kyi’s swearing-in comes a month after her party, the National League for Democracy, swept through by-elections to fill 45 vacant parliamentary seats. The party will hold little power within the assembly, with a quarter of all seats reserved for the military and the majority held by the army-backed ruling party. Changes to the country’s constitution require a 75 percent backing. The next national elections are scheduled for 2015.
The swearing-in ceremony took place in the capital, Naypyitaw, built by the military junta.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – An arms embargo will remain but other sanctions against Myanmar/Burma have been lifted by the European Union, to take effect the week of 30 April, the EU announced 23 April.The easing comes as a result of the Burmese parliament re-opening and other signs that the repressive regime is serious about opening up the country and improving its human rights record.
Switzerland, whose own sanctions match closely those of the EU, has not yet announced if it will make a similar move. The Swiss began sanctions 12 years ago because of human rights abuses, and it tightened these in 2006.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Myanmar/Birma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was easily elected to parliament, a move widely applauded in the West, after her years of house arrest by the country’s military regime.
Recognition by the state of her election is part of a series of reforms that in January led the European Union to lift some restrictions on the country’s leaders. Tuesday 3 March, Switzerland’s ministry for the economy said it is also easing travel restrictions, in line with EU measures. The change affects 87 Burmese, including President Thein Sein, but assets frozen since 2000 remain blocked and other restrictions such as an embargo on arms and precious stones remain in place.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Myanmar’s cautious approach to joining the nations of the world in political arenas is being given a very public boost this week by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the country 30 November, the first by a US leader in more than 50 years. The former Burma (still called that by some countries, notably Britain) has remained closed to the outside world, but reforms are starting to open the door.
Among significant moves, Myanmar this week took part for the first time ever in an Ottawa Convention meeting, addressing the States Parties annual review of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (also called the Ottawa Convention). The Geneva-based Convention is meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Myanmar is suspected of being one of only three countries to have recently laid landmines; the other two are Libya and Israel. The Convention is keen to pull Myanmar into the fold, with 158 countries now party to the Convention, which entered into force in 1999. Of these, 153 say they no longer have stockpiles of the weapons.
Clinton’s visit will allow her to assess reforms in Myanmar first-hand, she has said. “The historic two-day visit comes in the wake of concessions by the new government of President Thein Sein,” notes CNN. “His government freed dozens of political prisoners last month following the earlier release of Nobel Peace Laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Clinton is meeting the long-time opponent of the military regime Wednesday.
Uganda landmine survivors met in March 2012 (photo ©2011 Landmine Monitor / D Osman)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – There is some good news on the landmine front, the “Landmine & Cluster Munitions Monitor 2011″ (full report online), issued 23 November reports, but it is dampened by news that three countries laid landmines this year, with two of them, Israel and Libya confirmed.
Myanmar is the third suspect, and four non-state armed groups laid mines as well.
Record ordnance cleared
On the brighter side:
- at least 200km2 of mined areas were cleared by 45 mine action programs in 2010, the highest annual total ever recorded by the Monitor; 198km2 in 2009, the previous record, and 160 km2 in 2008
- more than 388,000 antipersonnel mines and over 27,000 anti-vehicle mines were destroyed during this clearance
- programmes in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Croatia, Iraq, and Sri Lanka together accounted for more than 80% of recorded clearance
- an additional 460km2 of former battle area was reportedly cleared, destroying in the process more than 1.2 million items of unexploded ordnance; largest totals: Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Lao PDR.
Eighty percent of the world’s nation, 158 countries, have now joined the Landmine Ban Treaty. Donor contributions for mine action rose to $637 million, a record high, with 31 countries contributing. Five main mine action donors—the US, European Commission, Japan, Norway, and Canada—accounted for 64% of all funding.
Eighty-seven states have completed the destruction of their stockpiles, including Iraq, who was added to the list in June 2011.
5% increase in new victims
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Cautious enthusiasm is coming from the West for the unexpected announcement late Monday Swiss time by the Myanmar junta that it will free 6,300 prisoners. The news came via state media, which did not mention political prisoners, referred to as prisoners of conscience, but at the same time a newly formed official human rights body openly urged the country’s leaders to free the estimated 2,100 political detainees.
Monday 10 October US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, during a speech in Bangkok noted that “I think it would be fair to say that we will match their steps with comparable steps and we are looking forward in the course of the next several weeks to continuing a dialogue that has really stepped up in recent months.”
The country appeared to distance itself somewhat from Chinese influence last week when it said it will not go ahead with a major dam project with China.
Links to other sites: BBC, Houston Chronicle, New York Times,
Burma has a new government Wednesday 30 March, as its military regime steps down at the end of 20 years under the rule of General Than Shwe. Western critics are saying the change, giving the country its first civilian government in half a century, is only window-dressing, with the new head of government, President Thein Sein, a former prime minister who resigned from the army to run in elections in November. The elections were criticized in the West as being staged.
The BBC, long critical of Burma/Myanmar, reports that “critics have labelled the new so-called civilian administration a sham, since it is made up of former generals, some serving military officers and a handful of technocrats.”
Deutsche Presse-Agentur quotes the new leader as saying in his inaugural speech that the international community should ‘immediately stop bullying Myanmar, drop sanctions and to work together with the government”.
The UN’s secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, called on the new government to shift away from the old military regime.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Reuters India
An Aids clinic in a Yangon (Rangoon) suburb has been told to close by Dangon local authorities after a visit 17 November by Aung San Suu Kyi, recently released from house arrest after 7-1/2 years of detention. Authorities say neighbours have complained about the clinic. Nine local magazines have also been told to suspend publication after they printed photos of the pro-democracy leader following her release, according to the Washington Post.
She has said in interviews that she has no plans to curb political activities, even if she is jailed again.
Links to other sites: The Australian, Wall Street Journal
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two Geneva-based UN organizations, the International Organization for Migration and the UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees) say that refugees from Myanmar/Burma have been pouring into Thailand in the wake of Myanmar elections Sunday 7 November. The elections have been widely denounced by other countries as fraudulent, with citizens not having the freedom to vote correctly. Fighting has broken out in some areas.
The IOM says that “the fighting between the Myanmar military and an ethnic minority armed group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), following the Myanmar elections on Sunday, resulted in an estimated 12,000 people fleeing into Thailand at the Mae Sot and Three Pagoda Pass border crossing points. In Mae Sot [the IOM Monday] transported some 5,000 people from the Thai side of the Moei River to a safe former military compound designated by the Thai authorities. All the refugees came from the town of Miwaddy on the Myanmar side of the river.”
The Mae Sot refugee camp is designed to hold a maximum of 2,000 people.
The UNHCR says in addition to the Mae Sot area people it worked early this week with some 3,000 refugees in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, at a school at Three Pagodas Pass.
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie visited Myanmar refugees in Thailand in March 2009 to draw attention to their plight: some have been living in refugee camps for over 20 years. New fighting in Myanmar is straining the existing camps (video link below)
UNHCR provides a first-hand description of the scramble by international organizations, working together Monday, to cope with the sudden influx of refugees in Thailand:
“Refugees started pouring across the border early in the morning on foot and on inner tubes across the Moei River. Some told our staff they felt their lives were at risk after their houses were attacked, while others said they fled the sound of fighting.
“Local people have been pitching in as well, and we have asked that they co-ordinate their efforts with us to make sure that those who are most in need get helped first. One man delivered 1,000 blankets to the new site, which we plan to distribute today to the most vulnerable.”
“Many collected their children from school and fled to Thailand with only the clothes on their back, some even barefoot.
Children play in front of Eliécer Baron’s home in Cartagena. The community leader organized neighbours to build a school for displaced children and they are now looking for computers to equip it.
A preview of the Colombian photos in the exhibit is available on UNHCR’s flickr pages
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The annual “Dialogue” meeting at UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), 9-10 December, focuses on the relatively new phenomenon of urban refugees. The high-level meetings were accompanied by the opening of a photo exhibit at the United Nations building in Geneva Wednesday evening. “A struggle for rights”, by Geneva-based photographer Zalmai, shows some of the people, urban refugees, who often live unnoticed by their neighbours in three cities in three countries: Colombia, Malaysia, and South Africa.
The exhibit is open to the public.
The photographs were shot during five months, and show the stark reality, in black and white, of refugees and displaced persons in three cities not immediately associated with massive dislocations of people. Zalmai spent time among the internally displaced in Cartagena, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, already poor country people who were uprooted by the simmering conflict over the drugs trade in the country.
In South Africa, the photographer depicts the plight of the human flotsam from three or four countries of Africa who have sought refuge in the country in recent years, the most recent being refugees from Zimbabwe fleeing that country’s economic implosion and ongoing violence.
John Yettaw, who swam to dissident Aung San Suu Kyi’s home in Burma/Myanmar and was sentenced to seven years in prison for his act, has been released from prison and deported following the intervention of US Senator Jim Webb. Webb visited military ruler Than Shwe, then was taken to a guest house where he met with Suu Kyi for three-quarters of an hour. The dissident leader received an additional 18 months of house arrest because of Yettaw’s visit. BBC, NPR and blog democracyforburma on Yettaw.
US Senator Jim Webb, a member of the Senate’s foreign relations committee, will be the first US member of Congress to visit Burma/Myanmar in more than a decade. He is on a two-week trip to Asia that takes in 5 nations. He will also be the first US official to meet the reclusive General Than Shwe, leader of the military junta that has ruled Burma since 1962. It is unclear what Webb’s mission is.
Earlier this week the US condemned Burma’s conviction of Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 months house arrest for violating the terms of her detention. CNN, Reuters
The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century was visible along a 155-mile wide stretch of Asia Wednesday 22 July: from India’s holy Hindu city of Varanasi through Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and along China’s Yangtze River to the Pacific. Coastal areas had cloud cover, but much of the rest of the area had clear skies and the eclipse was easily visible. For scientists in India and China the eclipse provided a rare opportunity to do solar experiments, although Chinese scientists said the cloud cover reduced some of the options. Reuters, Times of India, Xinhua
The man from Missouri, John Yettaw, who swam across a lake to visit Burma/Myanmar political activist Suu Kyi is to give testimony Wednesday 27 May at her trial which Western governments are calling a “charade.” She is on trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest: she allowed Yettaw to spend two nights at her house on what she has said were humanitarian grounds because he had leg cramps. Suu Kyi is expected to be found guilty, which would lengthen the time of her house arrest at a time when the country is preparing for elections. Yettaw is under arrest for “immigration violations, illegal swimming and breaking a security law that protects the state from ‘subversive elements’,” reports Reuters.
Update 21:10 Veteran pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for almost 20 years, is scheduled to appear in court Monday 18 May and will likely be charged under the country’s stringent security laws. Witnesses say she was taken from her home by police to a prison to hear the charges. She is reportedly in poor health and, if convicted, faces up to five years in prison. Police last week detained a US citizen, John Yettaw, who swam across Inya Lake in Yangon/Rangoon and entered her house. BBC, CNN
A UN body has ruled that the detention of Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi is illegal under Burmese domestic law. Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 years confined by house arrest under orders from the government.
The decision Monday 23 March marks the fifth time that Suu Kyi’s confinement has been declared arbitrary and illegal under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The ruling stated that Suu Kyi be released immediately and without condition from her continued house arrest. Reuters, BBC
