- News source:
- 30 September 2007
- Reuters
- By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) – U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari had talks on Sunday with Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and several members of the military government to discuss ending a crackdown on protests against military rule.
However, there was no word on when Gambari might meet the general who heads the junta, Than Shwe, who is based in the new capital Naypyidaw, 240 miles north of Yangon, and whose government rarely heeds pressure from outside…
There were no crowds visible on Sunday in the city centre, where security forces snuffed out protests by sealing off two pagodas at their heart and keeping away the monks who led them.
Troops and police searched bags and people for cameras and the Internet remained off line.
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said at least 700 monks and 500 other people had been arrested throughout the country.
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- News source:
- 28 September 2007
- Forbes
- By AP
NEW YORK – When investor Chuck Highbaugh had a dispute with his broker, it took the efforts of a mediator to literally bring him back to the table.
When Highbaugh accused his broker of placing him in unsuitable investments, they agreed to meet at a mediator’s home in Beverly Hills. At an impasse, Highbaugh followed his lawyer out of the home, packing boxes of documents into a car and climbing in to leave.
The mediator came out to the car, saying, “‘Let’s go back and give this another try,’” Highbaugh recalled. He reached a settlement later that day.
Mediation of brokerage industry disputes appears to be an increasingly popular alternative to arbitration…
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- News source:
- 30 September 2007
- Waldo County Citizen
- By Lloyd Stover
In 1981, the United Nations General Assembly formally proclaimed Sept. 19 as a time for people around the world to think, act and pray about peace for all people. It was not a new idea.
Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, both signers of the Declaration of Independence, suggested the creation of an Office of Peace. Since then, more than 100 bills have been introduced into the Congress to create a U.S. Department of Peace…
Daily we are reminded of school shootings, gang violence, car bombings, terrorist attacks and armed conflicts around the world… The time has come to implement the humanitarian ideas of some of the most thoughtful of our founding fathers.
A U.S. Department of Peace would advise the president and all government agencies on needs for peacekeeping efforts and propose efforts to correct adverse conditions, domestically and internationally.
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- News source:
- 29 September 2007
- The Burma Campaign UK
- Dirty List with contact details... and the Clean List.
PEACEMAKERS TRUST EDITOR'S NOTE: Before writing to companies on the dirty list, visit the relevant company's site to update and evaluate the company's relevant policies.
Over the last five years a large number of foreign companies have withdrawn from the country. The reasons cited for doing so include: difficulties in working with the regime, consumer boycotts, damage to company reputation and incompatibility with corporate values. These companies now include amongst others: Texaco, Adidas, Premier Oil, Triumph International, Levi Strauss, PepsiCo, Erickson, Heineken, Carlsberg, British Home Stores, Burton, River Island, Apple, Reebok and Compaq.
In response to calls from Burma’s democracy movement, the Burma Campaign UK and other campaign groups around the world have been pressuring companies to sever business ties with Burma. The dirty list includes companies such as Chevron, Shangri-la Hotels, Siemens, and Total Oil.
Companies remaining in Burma often attempt to justify their involvement by claiming that pulling out would harm ordinary Burmese people. Aung San Suu Kyi disputes this.
(...more)
- News source:
- 30 September 2007
- New York Times
- BEWARE: The Burmese police tote guns, but the monks hold the key to spiritual status. For Buddhist clerics... that means clout.
- By Seth Mydans
Myanmar, a devout society, paid attention when monks led protests.
As they marched through the streets of Myanmar’s cities last week leading the biggest antigovernment protests in two decades, some barefoot monks held their begging bowls before them. But instead of asking for their daily donations of food, they held the bowls upside down, the black lacquer surfaces reflecting the light.
It was a shocking image in the devoutly Buddhist nation. The monks were refusing to receive alms from the military rulers and their families — effectively excommunicating them from the religion that is at the core of Burmese culture.
That gesture is a key to understanding the power of the rebellion that shook Myanmar last week.
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- News source:
- Monks say they will return to the streets of Yangon to protest
- By Al Jazeera's correspondent in Myanmar
Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Myanmar says the military is now firmly back in control of the country’s streets.
He sent this report from Yangon. He has not been named in order to protect his identity…
Disappearances reported
[The military] has managed to quell any sign of a protest at the moment and judging by the way soldiers are going round the city they are preparing to face an enemy.
They have a list of names that they are going through and a lot of people have gone to ground.
We are now getting some reports of disappearances of people.
We know at least one journalist who worked for a weekly newspaper has gone missing but do not know exactly how many others have disappeared…
I have been speaking to local monks and it is quite noticeable that every Sunday they go around from house-to-house collecting alms and this is the first time they have not done so since the troubles of 1988.
I spoke to one monk who said “it’s not over” – the monks are “not finished”.
Monk leaders ‘to return’
He said most of the monks’ leaders had been arrested but he said they will return to the streets and lead the people again.
The way that people are finding out what’s going on and communicating – mainly word of mouth -means things get distorted, rumours grow and there are inaccuracies in what is being said.
- News source:
- 30 September 2007
- Agence France-Presse
BANGKOK (AFP) — Despite global outrage over Myanmar’s bloody crackdown on dissent, multinational firms are still vying for the country’s rich natural resources, throwing an economic lifeline to the military regime.
US energy giant Chevron, French oil group Total and China’s top oil producer China National Petroleum Corporation are among companies giving much-needed income to Myanmar, defying activists’ calls to pull out.
“All these profits go to the regime. These companies don’t care about human rights and what is going on in Yangon,” said Debbie Stothard, a coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Myanmar, a regional pro-democracy body.
(...more)
- News source:
- 30 September 2007
- International Herald Tribune
- By Martin Fackler
TOKYO: Japan dispatched a top diplomat to Myanmar on Sunday to protest the killing of a Japanese journalist there during the protests last week, but resisted calls to retaliate by cutting off aid to the impoverished, military-ruled nation.
The shooting death Thursday of Kenji Nagai, a 50-year-old video journalist, has shocked many in Japan, particularly since the emergence of hazy video footage that appears to show a soldier gunning him down at close range. Nagai was the first foreigner known to have been killed in the crackdown on antigovernment demonstrations in Myanmar.
The killing of Nagai brought angry calls by politicians and others here for Japan, which is Myanmar’s largest foreign aid donor, to suspend its assistance, about $25 million last year.
On Friday, [Prime Minister] Fukuda condemned the killing but said Japan would refrain for now from putting more pressure on Myanmar. Japan was slow to criticize the junta’s use of force against the demonstrations…
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- News source:
- 29 September 2007
- LA Times
- In a bid to keep news of its crackdown from the world, the military regime tries to block communications, but the images still flow.
- By Henry Chu and Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
NEW DELHI — Attempting to stop the flow of violent images that have galvanized international condemnation of Myanmar, the country’s military government Friday tried to shut down access to the Internet and cellphone service.
On the third day of the clampdown on largely peaceful protests, authorities closed Internet cafes and suspended two key service providers, but embassies and companies linked by satellite to the Web remained online.
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- News source:
- 29 September 2007
- Reuters
A violent crackdown on peaceful protests in military-ruled Myanmar has drawn a chorus of protests from around the world. Nine people were officially reported killed in one day in Yangon, the former Burma’s main city.
Here are some facts about the Southeast Asian nation’s links to the outside world.
MAJOR EXPORT DESTINATIONS: ($US million, 2006)
– Thailand: $2,135 49 percent
– India: $527 12 percent
– China: $230 5 percent
– TOTAL: $4,361
MAJOR IMPORT SOURCES: ($US MILLION, 2006)*
– China: $1,328 34 percent
– Thailand: $837 21 percent
– Singapore: $620 15 percent
– TOTAL: $3,909
OFFICIAL AID:
– Myanmar received $121.1 million in official aid in 2004, or just over $2 for each of its 56 million people. By contrast, Laos received $47 per person and Cambodia $35, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
SOURCES OF AID:
– China, India and Japan are key contributors. Western aid dwindled after a ruthless crackdown in 1988. The U.S. offers no official assistance and Myanmar is deep in arrears to the World Bank, which ceased new lending in 1987.
– Historically Myanmar’s largest aid donor, Tokyo has withheld new aid since opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained in 2003.
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- News source:
- 29 August 2007
- New York Times
- By Seth Mydans
BANGKOK — Myanmar’s armed forces appeared on Friday to have sealed tens of thousands of protesting monks inside their monasteries, but they continued to attack bands of demonstrators who challenged them in the main city, Yangon.
Protesters continued to challenge authorities in Yangon Friday, after thousands of monks were sealed off in monasteries.
Witnesses and diplomats reached by telephone inside the country said troops were confronting and attacking smaller groups of civilians around Yangon, chasing them through narrow streets and sometimes firing at protesters and arresting them…
Diplomats said that there was no way to know the toll of dead and wounded in Yangon or other cities, but that it was certainly far higher than the junta says.
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- News source:
- 28 September 2007
- CNW
- By Musqueam Indian Band Press Release
VANCOUVER – Today the Federal Court of Canada issued a critical ruling upholding the rights of the Musqueam Indian Band to be consulted regarding the sale of Sinclair Centre and 401 Burrard St., both downtown Vancouver office and retail complexes located in Musqueam’s traditional territory. The Court ordered the Government of Canada not to continue with its planned sale of the buildings to Larco Investments Ltd until it had discharged its duty to consult with Musqueam.
Without having adequately consulted with Musqueam, the federal government decided to proceed with the sale of the buildings as part of a $1.6 billion, 9 building sale/lease back initiative as part of the Government’s plan to sell off its real estate holdings across Canada.
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- News source:
- 27 September 2007
- Straight Talk
- By Gurpreet Singh
Children will gather in White Rock on Tuesday (October 2) to shun toys of violence on the 138th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the international peace icon…
Pummy Kaur, a teacher and a social-justice activist from White Rock, has organized an event in which elementary students will convert war toys into art. Kaur, a past president of B.C. Teachers for Peace and Global Education, has authored the book What Would Gandhi Do? K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple Solutions to Global Problems…
(...more)
- News source:
- 28 September 2007
- ICBL Newsletter
- By International Campaign to Ban Landmines
On 23-25 May, representatives from 67 states, as well as international and non-governmental organizations, gathered in Lima, Peru for the second international conference on cluster munitions.
For three days delegates discussed the substantive elements of a new treaty, agreeing on the need to include obligations to provide assistance to victims, clear contaminated land, destroy stockpiles and provide international cooperation and assistance. Remarkably, victim assistance was the first topic on the agenda. Twenty-eight new countries joined the process in Lima, bringing the number of states supporting a cluster munition ban treaty to 75. The number subsequently rose again, reaching 80 after the Latin American Conference on Cluster Munitions hosted by Costa Rica at the beginning of September…
The Lima Conference was a stepping stone in the international process towards a ban on cluster munitions, and it concluded with clear and strong support for a new treaty, setting the tone for future meetings in the process.
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- News source:
- 28 September 2007
- Washington Post Foreign Service
- By Edward Cody
BANGKOK, Sept. 27 — The United States and Europe have fiercely criticized Burma’s military rulers for clinging to power during another round of pro-democracy protests, this time led by unarmed monks. But closer to home, the junta’s Asian neighbors and trading partners — China chief among them — have walked a distinctly more cautious line, expressing distress over the violence and, after long hesitation, renewing calls for reconciliation and eventual transition to democracy.
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The recent crackdown of security forces on anti-government protestors has thrust Burma into the global spotlight. How can the international community prepare itself to support the inevitable political transition in the country? To answer this question, USIP’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention commissioned a Working Paper that draws on the deliberations of prominent U.S. and international academics and NGO/IGO representatives.
(Full Report – pdf)
- News source:
- 27 September 2007
- Common Ground News Service (Ynetnews.com)
- By Majdi Halabi
TEL AVIV—Last month, Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Abdul Ilah Khatib, and his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Abul Gheit, presented to our prime minister and political leaders the details of the Arab initiative ratified in Saudi Arabia. The initiative, which was rejected by former premier, Ariel Sharon, who was busy with the disengagement at the time, is back on the international stage, and constitutes a rare window of opportunity.
For the first time in 60 years, all Arab countries are willing to recognize the existence of the Jewish state and even maintain normal relations with it. The conditions for it, according to a source involved in drafting the initiative, are very general: Israel is obligated to withdraw from the occupied territories and grant the Palestinians an independent state whose capital is east Jerusalem. In addition, the initiative calls for a fair solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.
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- News source:
- 24 September 2007
- Amnesty International AI Index: MDE 14/041/2007
- A spiralling crisis
- By Amnesty International
The humanitarian crisis triggered by the mass exodus of refugees from the on-going and widespread violence in Iraq shows little sign of abating. In fact, recent estimates show this to be the fastest growing displacement crisis in the world with the number of those displaced now having reached 4.2 million(1) – 2.2 million internally displaced within Iraq(2) and over 2 million outside the country. The impact of such mass movement has resulted in an increasingly critical situation for host communities, notably Syria and Jordan, which can no longer be ignored. Unwelcome measures are now being taken by these neighbouring states to restrict the entry of Iraqi refugees as they become overwhelmed by a humanitarian crisis to which the world has thus far failed adequately to respond.
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The humanitarian crisis triggered by the mass exodus of refugees from the on-going and widespread violence in Iraq shows little sign of abating. In fact, recent estimates show this to be the fastest growing displacement crisis in the world with the number of those displaced now having reached 4.2 million(1) – 2.2 million internally displaced within Iraq(2) and over 2 million outside the country. The impact of such mass movement has resulted in an increasingly critical situation for host communities, notably Syria and Jordan, which can no longer be ignored. Unwelcome measures are now being taken by these neighbouring states to restrict the entry of Iraqi refugees as they become overwhelmed by a humanitarian crisis to which the world has thus far failed adequately to respond.
- News source:
- 27 September 2007
- New York Times
- By Roger Cohen
MALMO, Sweden – A 16-day overland odyssey has brought Mokaled Gamil, a former Iraqi Army officer, to this southern Swedish town, and what he fears now more than anything is resettlement north of the Arctic Circle in some snow-bound place that will ice over his Mesopotamian blood…
Between January and August this year, Sweden took in 12,259 Iraqis fleeing their decomposing country. It expects 20,000 for all of 2007. By contrast, in the same January-August period, the United States admitted 685 refugees, according to State Department figures.
The numbers bear closer scrutiny. In January, Sweden admitted 1,500 Iraqis, compared to 15 that entered the United States. In April, the respective numbers were 1,421 and 1; in May, 1,367 and 1; and in August 1,469 and 529.
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