Archive for November 13th, 2007
Pinheiro meets Nay Pyi Taw authorities + Gambari briefs Ban Ki-moon
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro meets authorities in Nay Pyi Taw
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, traveled this morning to the new capital, Nay Pyi Taw, where he met H.E. Maj-Gen Maung Oo, Minister for Home Affairs. The Special Rapporteur was given assurances that he will be able to interview detainees, before the end of his mission, as requested.
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar,
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, meets authorities in Nay Pyi Taw
Yangon, 13 November 2007 – The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, traveled this morning to the new capital, Nay Pyi Taw, where he met H.E. Maj-Gen Maung Oo, Minister for Home Affairs. The Special Rapporteur was given assurances that he will be able to interview detainees, before the end of his mission, as requested.
Mr. Pinheiro met with the twenty members of the newly established human rights body, within the government, and engaged in a dialogue on issues of mutual concern.
Mr. Pinheiro was then taken to the City Hall where he met with U Zaw Min, Joint Secretary General of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).
Later in the afternoon, the Special Rapporteur held a meeting with some representatives of international non-governmental organizations.
At the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Special Rapporteur met with the Minister, H.E. Brig-Gen Thura Myint Maung. Then, Mr. Pinheiro resumed his day of meetings at the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development where he met Minister, H.E. U Soe Tha.
The Special Rapporteur will continue tomorrow with his schedule in Nay Pyi Taw. ENDS
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Special Adviser briefs SG on outcome of Myanmar visit
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
The Secretary-General was briefed today by his Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, on the outcome of his recent visit to Myanmar. As a result of this visit, a process has been launched that will hopefully lead to a meaningful and substantive dialogue with concrete outcomes within an agreed timeframe. The Secretary-General welcomes the willingness expressed by both sides to work with the United Nations to this end.
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12 November 2007
Secretary-General
SG/SM/11273
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Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
SPECIAL ADVISER BRIEFS SECRETARY-GENERAL ON OUTCOME OF MYANMAR VISIT
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:
The Secretary-General was briefed today by his Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, on the outcome of his recent visit to Myanmar. As a result of this visit, a process has been launched that will hopefully lead to a meaningful and substantive dialogue with concrete outcomes within an agreed timeframe. The Secretary-General welcomes the willingness expressed by both sides to work with the United Nations to this end.
The Secretary-General reiterates that the return to the status quo that existed before the crisis is not sustainable and he encourages the Government and all relevant parties to redouble their efforts towards achieving national reconciliation, democracy and full respect for human rights. He looks forward to his Special Adviser’s early return to Myanmar, as part of an open and regular process of mutual engagement.
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ျမန္မာ့အေရး ႏွစ္ဆတိုး ႀကိဳးစားရန္ ဘန္ကီမြန္း တိုက္တြန္း
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံတြင္ အမ်ဳိးသားျပန္လည္သင့္ျမတ္ေရး၊ ဒီမိုကေရစီရရွိေရးႏွင့္ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး မ်ားကို အျပည့္အ၀ ေလးစားလုိက္နာလာႏိုင္ေရးအတြက္ ျမန္မာအာဏာပိုင္မ်ားႏွင့္တကြ သက္ဆိုင္သည့္ အဖြဲ႔မ်ားအားလံုးက ႏွစ္ဆတိုးႀကိဳးစားၾကရန္ ကုလသမဂၢ အေထြေထြ အတြင္းေရးမႉးခ်ဳပ္ ဘန္ကီမြန္းက တိုက္တြန္းလိုက္သည္။
စက္တင္ဘာ အေရးအခင္း မတိုင္မီက ရွိေနခဲ့သည့္ အေနအထားမ်ဳိးသို႔ ျပန္ေရာက္ေအာင္ လုပ္၍ ရႏိုင္မည္ မဟုတ္ေၾကာင္း၊ ႏွစ္ဖက္သေဘာတူေသာ အခ်ိန္သတ္မွတ္ခ်က္အတြင္း တိက်ခိုင္မာသည့္ ရလဒ္မ်ား ထြက္ ေပၚလာႏိုင္ေအာင္ ဓမၼဓိဌာန္က်က် ေလးေလးနက္နက္ ေတြ႔ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးေရးကို ေမွ်ာ္လင့္ႏိုင္သည့္ လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္တခုကို စတင္လုပ္ေဆာင္ ႏိုင္ခဲ့သည္မွာ အထူးသံတမန္ ဂမ္ဘားရီ၏ ခရီးစဥ္မွ ထြက္ေပၚလာသည့္အက်ဳိး ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ျမန္မာႏို္င္ငံမွ ျပန္လည္ေရာက္ရွိလာသည့္ ဂမ္ဘားရီႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ဆံုအၿပီးတြင္ ဘန္ကီမြန္းက ထုတ္ျပန္သည့္ ေၾကညာခ်က္၌ ေဖာ္ျပထားသည္။
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၌ ႏွစ္ဖက္စလံုးက ကုလသမဂၢႏွင့္အတူ လက္တြဲလုပ္ေဆာင္ရန္ ဆႏၵ ရွိေနၾကျခင္းကို ဘန္ကီမြန္းက ႀကိဳဆိုလိုက္ၿပီး အျပန္အလွန္ ပြင့္ပြင့္လင္းလင္း ညွိႏိႈင္းသေဘာတူႏိုင္မည့္ ပံုမွန္ လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္တရပ္ အေနျဖင့္ ဂမ္ဘားရီက ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ခပ္ေစာေစာ ျပန္သြားႏိုင္ရန္ ဘန္ကီမြန္းက ေမွ်ာ္လင့္ထားေၾကာင္းလည္း အေထြအေထြ အတြင္းေရးမႉးခ်ဳပ္၏ ေျပာေရးဆိုခြင့္ ရွိသူက ေျပာသည္။
၁၃-၁၁-၀၇ ေန႔လည္ပိုင္းတြင္ ဂမ္ဘားရီသည္ အေထြေထြညီလာခံဥကၠဌ Srgjan Kerim အားေတြ႔ဆံုရန္ ရွိသည္။ ေအာက္တိုဘာ (၅)ရက္ေန႔က သူတို႔ႏွစ္ဦး ေနာက္ဆံုးေတြ႔စဥ္ Srgjan Kerim က ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး အေျခအေနႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ အဖြဲ႔၀င္ေပါင္း ၁၉၂ ႏိုင္ငံရွိသည့္ အေထြေထြညီလာခံက ဆံုးျဖတ္ခ်က္ အမ်ားအျပား ခ်မွတ္ထားခဲ့ၿပီး ကူညီေျဖရွင္းရန္ ဆက္လက္ စိတ္၀င္စားလ်က္ရွိေၾကာင္း ဂမ္ဘားရီကို အေလးအနက္ မွာၾကားထားခဲ့သည္။
မူလက အေထြေထြညီလာခံမွ တာ၀န္ေပးခ်က္အရ ျမန္မာ့အေရးကိစၥကို ဂမ္ဘားရီက ေဆာင္ရြက္ရသည္။ ထို႔ေနာက္ အေထြေထြညီလာခံက ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး အေျခအေနကို ေဆြးေႏြးရန္ႏွင့္ ဒီမိုကေရစီ ရရွိေရး လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္မ်ားကို ေဖာ္ေဆာင္ရန္ အေထြေထြ အတြင္းေရးမႉးခ်ဳပ္ထံသို႔ တာ၀န္လႊဲေပးလိုက္ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။
လြင္ေအာင္စိုး
၁၃-၁၁-၂၀၀၇
Reference:
မစုစုေႏြးႏွင့္ ဦးဂမီၻရ အဖမ္းခံရ
ဧရာ၀တီ အင္တာနက္ မဂၢဇင္း
ကိုသက္ | ႏို၀င္ဘာ ၁၃၊ ၂၀၀၇
ယေန႔နံနက္ပိုင္းက ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕လယ္တေနရာတြင္ အန္အယ္လ္ဒီ လူငယ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္ မစုစုေႏြးႏွင့္ လူငယ္ ၂ ဦး အဖမ္းခံရေၾကာင္း စံုစမ္းသိရွိရသည္။
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မစုစုေႏြးသည္ ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕လယ္ရွိ အာဏာပိုင္တို႔စိုက္ထူထားသည့္ အေမရိကန္ ဆန္႔က်င္ေရးဆိုင္းဘုတ္တြင္ စစ္အစိုးရ ဆန္႔က်င္စာ ကပ္ရန္သြားစဥ္ အဖမ္းခံရ ျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္ဟု မစုစုေႏြးႏွင့္ နီးစပ္သူတဦးက ဧရာ၀တီကို ေျပာသည္။
မစုစုေႏြးသည္ ၾသဂုတ္လအတြင္း ရန္ကုန္တြင္ျပဳလုပ္သည့္ ကုန္ေစ်းႏႈန္းႏွင့္ ေလာင္စာဆီ ေစ်းႏႈန္းက်ဆင္းေရး လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ ဆႏၵထုတ္ေဖာ္ပြဲမ်ားကို ဦးေဆာင္ခဲ့သူတဦးျဖစ္ၿပီး စစ္အစိုးရ၏ လိုက္လံဖမ္းဆီးမႈေၾကာင့္ ေရွာင္တိမ္းေနရသူ ျဖစ္သည္။
လြန္ခဲ့သည့္လကုန္ပိုင္းမွစ၍ မစုစုေႏြးသည္ ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕အတြင္းရွိ စစ္အစိုးရ၏ အၾကမ္းဖက္မႈေၾကာင့္ ေသြးေျမက်ခဲ့သည့္ ေနရာမ်ားတြင္ လြမ္းသူ႔ပန္းျခင္းခ် ျခင္းႏွင့္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအန္တုသည့္ လႈပ္ရွားမႈမ်ားကို ဆက္တိုက္လုပ္ကိုင္ခဲ့သူ ျဖစ္သည္။
လြန္ခဲ့သည့္အပတ္ကလည္း ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံလံုးဆိုင္ရာ သံဃာ့တပ္ေပါင္းစုအဖြဲ႔ႀကီး၏ ဦးေဆာင္သံဃာေတာ္ တပါးျဖစ္သည့္ အရွင္ဂမီၻရအား အာဏာပိုင္တို႔က ဖမ္းဆီးလိုက္သည္။
အရွင္ဂမီၻရသည္ စက္တင္ဘာလအတြင္းျဖစ္ပြားခဲ့သည့္ သံဃာေတာ္မ်ား၏ ပတၱနိကၠဳဇၨန ကံေဆာင္ပြဲမ်ားႏွင့္ ဆႏၵျပလႈပ္ရွား မႈမ်ားကို ဦးေဆာင္ခဲ့ေသာေၾကာင့္ ၎အား စစ္အစိုးရက အပူတျပင္းလိုက္လံရွာေဖြခဲ့သည္။
ကမာၻ႔ကုလသမဂၢ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး အထူးကိုယ္စားလွယ္ မစၥတာ ေပၚလို ဆာဂ်ီယို ပီညဲ႐ိုးသည္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ေရာက္ရွိေန သည္ၿပီးၿပီး ရန္ကုန္ရွိ ေ႐ႊတိဂံုဘုရား၊ အင္းစိန္ေထာင္ႏွင့္ ဘုန္းႀကီးေက်ာင္းမ်ားသို႔ လိုက္လံစံုစမ္း ေနစဥ္ကာလအတြင္း စစ္အစိုးရက ဖမ္းဆီးထိန္းသိမ္းမႈမ်ားကို ဆက္လက္ျပဳလုပ္ေနျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။
ထိုင္းႏိုင္ငံအေျခစိုက္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားမ်ား ကူညီေစာင့္ေရွာက္ေရးအသင္း (ေအေအပီပီ) ၏ အတြင္းေရးမႉး ဦးတိတ္ႏိုင္က “မစၥတာ ပီညဲ႐ိုး လာသည္ျဖစ္ေစ၊ မစၥတာ ဂန္ဘာရီ လာသည္ျဖစ္ေစ သူတို႔ (အာဏာပိုင္) ကေတာ့ သဲႀကီးမဲႀကီး လိုခ်င္ေနတဲ့သူေတြ၊ သူတို႔ကို အႏၲရယ္ေပးလာႏိုင္တယ္လို႔ ယူဆထားသူေတြကိုေတြ႔ရင္ ဖမ္းမွာကေတာ့ ေသခ်ာတယ္” ဟု ဧရာ၀တီကို ေျပာသည္။
မစုစုေႏြးသည္ အဓမၼလုပ္အားေပးခိုင္းဆိုမႈႏွင့္ အဓမၼေငြေၾကးေကာက္ခံမႈမ်ားေၾကာင့္ သူမေနထိုင္ရာ ရန္ကုန္တိုင္း ေကာ့မႉး ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ထန္းမႏိုင္ေက်း႐ြာ၏ ရယက ဥကၠဌႏွင့္ ဆယ္အိမ္မႉးမ်ားကို တရားစြဲဆိုခဲ့ရာ အာဏာပိုင္တို႔အား ၿခိမ္းေျခာက္ႀကိမ္း၀ါး သည္ဟူသည့္ စြပ္စြဲခ်က္ျဖင့္ ၂၀၀၅ ခုႏွစ္ ေအာက္တိုဘာလတြင္ ပထမအႀကိမ္ အဖမ္းခံရသည္။ သူမအား ေထာင္ဒဏ္ တႏွစ္ခြဲခ်မွတ္ခဲ့ရာ ၇ လ အၾကာတြင္ ျပန္လည္ လြတ္ေျမာက္ခဲ့သည္။
ယခုႏွစ္ ေမလအတြင္းက ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားမ်ား လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရးလႈပ္ရွားမႈကို ဦးေဆာင္ ခဲ့ရာ ဒုတိယအႀကိမ္ အဖမ္းခံခဲ့ရၿပီး ဇြန္လတြင္ ျပန္လည္လြတ္ေျမာက္လာခဲ့သည္။ အထိန္းသိမ္းခံဘ၀မွ လြတ္ေျမာက္လာ သည့္ မစုစုေႏြးသည္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားမ်ားလြတ္ေျမာက္ေရးႏွင့္ ဒီမိုကေရစီရရွိေရး လႈပ္ရွားမႈမ်ားကို တက္ႂကြစြာပါ၀င္ ခဲ့ရင္း တတိယအႀကိမ္ အဖမ္းခံရျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။
မစုစုေႏြးသည္ ေမြးရာပါ ႏွလံုးေရာဂါႏွင့္ ေလးဘက္နာေရာဂါတို႔ကို ခံစားေနရသူျဖစ္ၿပီး ေရွာင္တိမ္းေနရစဥ္ကာလ အတြင္း ခြဲစိတ္ကုသမႈတႀကိမ္ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့ရသည္။
လြန္ခဲ့သည့္လကုန္ပိုင္းတြင္ ဧရာ၀တီက တယ္လီဖုန္းျဖင့္ ဆက္သြယ္ေမးျမန္းခဲ့စဥ္ မစုစုေႏြးက “က်မခြဲစိတ္ၿပီးေတာ့ ေဆး႐ံုမွာတညေလာက္ဆက္ေနရမွာကို က်န္းမာေရး ၀န္ထမ္းေတြ ထိခိုက္မွာစိုးလို႔ သတိရတာနဲ႔ျပန္ဆင္းခဲ့ပါတယ္။ အိမ္ျပန္ေရာက္ေတာ့လည္း ေဆးဆက္မသြင္းႏိုင္လို႔ က်မေတာ္ေတာ္ေလး ဒုကၡေရာက္ရပါတယ္။ က်မလိုပဲ ထြက္ေျပး တိမ္းေရွာင္ေနရသူေတြဟာလည္း ေတာ္ေတာ္ေလး ဒုကၡေရာက္ၾကပါတယ္” ဟု ေျပာဆိုခဲ့သည္။
http://www.irrawaddy.org/bur/news2007/November/nov_13_07.html
ဒီဗီဘီ ျမန္မာ
World Focus on Burma (13-11-2007)
- Redoubled Efforts Needed To Resolve Burma Crisis
Scoop.co.nz, New Zealand -
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today encouraged the Myanmar authorities and all relevant parties to redouble their efforts towards achieving national … - Burma: Gem Trade Bolsters Military Regime, Fuels Atrocities
Human Rights Watch (press release) -
Burma’s military junta has organized the auction, which is scheduled to run from November 14 to 26 at the Myanmar Convention Center. … - Ban urges Myanmar parties to speed up reconciliation efforts
AFP -
“Burma’s rubies and jade are prized for their beauty but the ugly truth is that the trade in these stones supports human rights abuses,” said Arvind Ganesan … - Myanmar Should Agree on Timetable for Political Change, UN Says
Bloomberg -
More than 90 percent of the world’s rubies originate in Myanmar, it said. “Burma’s rubies and jade are prized for their beauty but the ugly truth is that … - UN Secretary-General Hopeful After Special Envoy’s Briefing on Burma
Voice of America -
By VOA News United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is hopeful a process initiated by his special envoy to Burma will lead to meaningful … - Myanmar gem auction to top up junta coffers despite sanctions
AFP -
… increasingly difficult for the Burmese generals to move their money around,” said Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma. … - Gambari to brief UNSC on Myanmar
NDTV.com, India -
UN Special Envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, would brief the UN Security Council on Wednesday morning (IST) on his five-day visits to the country last week. … - Myanmar to put over $200 mln gems, jade for bidding
Xinhua, China -
13 (Xinhua) — Myanmar will put quality gems, jade, pearl and jewelry worth about 230 million US dollars at floor prices on sale at a mid-year gems emporium … - Military presence swept under carpet before UN rights probe
Mizzima.com, India -
November 13, 2007 – Troops of the Burma Army were conspicuous by their absence in Rangoon on the eve of the arrival of the UN rights expert, Paulo Sergio … - Myanmar Should Agree on Change Timetable, UN Says (Update1)
Bloomberg -
More than 90 percent of the world’s rubies originate in Myanmar, it said. “Burma’s rubies and jade are prized for their beauty but the ugly truth is that … - How Myanmar spins its grip on power
Globe and Mail, Canada -
A recent flurry of diplomatic activity in Myanmar – formerly known as Burma – including meetings between Ms. Suu Kyi and a government minister have sparked … - The Lessons from Myanmar
Just International, Malaysia -
Suu Kyi s fight platform, in the 1990 elections, was extremely ingenious in the sense of trying to take from Myanmar s cultural tradition, the fundamental … - India stands by Myanmar status quo
Asia Times Online, Hong Kong -
India’s relations with Myanmar are even more troubled and delicate than China’s. During the British colonial era, Myanmar, then known as Burma, … - India Cuts Them Off At The Free Pass
Strategy Page -
Then India made deals with Bangladesh and Myanmar to shut down ULFA camps there. Inside India, life was much more dangerous for ULFA fighters, … - Reporter details censorship
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN -
As a result of the government’s tight rein on newspapers, magazines and electronic communication, Hein said, “most people in Burma do not know what’s going … - Foreigners flock to Myanmar gems auction despite calls for a boycott
PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria -
«The sale of these gems gives Burma’s military rulers quick cash to stay in power.» Myanmar is also called Burma. The state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprise said … - Burma: Junta Diversionary Tactics?
UNPO, Netherlands -
Tentative talks in Myanmar between pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s military rulers have raised hopes in some quarters of a possible … - Assure medical care and human rights in Burma
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, HI -
By any measure, the country called Myanmar by its military junta but Burma by the democratic party that legitimately and overwhelmingly won the 1990 … - The Geopolitics and Economics of Burma’s Military Regime, 1962-2007
ZNet, MA -
[34] Most fundamentally, the SLORC passed the Union of Burma (Myanmar) Foreign Investment Law in November 1988 that allowed foreign companies to establish … - Myanmar gems auction shrugs off Western sanctions
Guardian Unlimited, UK -
Human Rights Watch has called for a total ban on precious stones from the former Burma, where state-controlled mines supply sapphires, pearls, … - Fugitive Myanmar Dissident Arrested
The Associated Press -
The Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based radio station run by Myanmar dissidents, reported that on Oct. 27 she laid lay flowers at the spot where … - Myanmar activist arrested during UN envoy visit
Reuters -
The Brazilian law professor, on his first trip to the former Burma in four years, visited Yangon’s notorious Insein prison and other sites on Monday where … - Prominent Myanmar Activists Arrested
Guardian Unlimited, UK -
The Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based radio station run by Myanmar dissidents, reported that on Oct. 27, she laid flowers at the spot where Japanese … - Pinheiro waiting to meet generals as they keep arresting activists …
AsiaNews.it, Italy -
The 88 Generation student group confirmed that U Gambira, a leader of the Alliance of All Burma Buddhist Monks who played a key role in the anti-fuel price … - Myanmar Gem Show to Draw Merchants
Houston Chronicle, United States -
“The sale of these gems gives Burma’s military rulers quick cash to stay in power.” Myanmar is also called Burma. The state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprise said … - Thailand: Migrant workers unprotected and uninformed
YubaNet, CA -
Seven years ago, in her small Myanmar hometown, Tha Zin, 30, a garment factory worker, watched as one of her closest friends – a girl just a few years … - Burmese Monk, Labor Activist Arrested In Burma
Scoop.co.nz, New Zealand -
The arrests come as a United Nations human rights envoy is in Burma to investigate the September crackdown by the country’s military government. … - Asian rly routes inspire Dhaka’s plan for highway
The Daily Star, Bangladesh -
However, Dhaka joined the Trans-Asian Railway network on November 9 as it goes through India-Bangladesh-Myanmar and will not serve as a corridor for India. …
Human Rights Watch calls for total ban on Burmese gems, jade
2007 November 13
Rangoon – New York-based Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on China and Thailand to join the European Union and US in banning imports of gems and jade from Burma, where the state-run trade is allegedly financing military rule and human rights abuses.
“The sale of these gems gives Burma’s (Myanmar’s) military rulers quick cash to stay in power,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch in a statement made availablein Bangkok.
The call for a complete ban on Burma gems and jade has coincided with the opening Tuesday of a government-run auction of precious stones in Yangon, where more than 2,000 buyers have flocked for the bi-annual event.
Burma, the world’s largest supplier of rubies and jade, earned an estimated 300 million dollars last year from its gem auctions.
Working conditions at government-controlled gem and jade mines in Burma are notorious for using forced labour and allowing atrocious health conditions, with HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis running rampant among the labourers.
Burma’s ruling junta is already under international censure for cracking down on protests led by Buddhist monks last September.
“It is simply unconscionable for traders to help Burma’s generals sell off the country’s natural resources for their own benefit while average people are victimized and harassed,” said Ganesan.
“Trading in Burmese gems bolsters the country’s military rulers at a time when they are committing serious human rights abuses, driving their people into further poverty, and rejecting calls for political reconciliation.”
In the wake of the September crackdown, the European Union has imposed new sanctions to block the import of Burma precious and semi precious stones, and US Congress is considering legislation that would ban the purchase of Burma-mined gemstones, closing a loophole in existing US sanctions that allows gems from Burma to be sold in the US if they have been processed in a third country.
Thailand is the largest importer/processer of Burmese gemstones while China is the main importer of Burmese jade.
“Burmese jade, which is popular in China, reportedly is increasingly sought after for use in products commemorating the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” said Human Rights Watch.
India is another major importer of Burma gemstones, which are cut and polished and exported.
“The governments and companies that have stopped buying Burmese gems deserve credit for not supporting human rights abusers,” said Ganesan. “The rest have the blood of Burmese on their hands.” (dpa)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=123531
Burma junta agrees to talk
2007 November 13
United Nations – The military government and opposition parties in Burma have agreed to hold “meaningful and substantive” talks to resolve the political crisis, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.
Ban said he had been briefed by his special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who returned to New York this past weekend from a six-day visit to Burma aimed at convincing the military junta to agree to democratic reforms to ease a crisis triggered by pro-democracy demonstrations.
“As a result of this visit, a process has been launched that will hopefully lead to a meaningful and substantive dialogue with concrete outcomes within an agreed time frame,” Ban said in a statement.
“The secretary general welcomes the willingness expressed by both sides to work with the United Nations to this end,” the statement said.
The president of the UN General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim, added his support to the reported agreement to start dialogue.
Kerim said he “welcomes the inauguration of a process that may lead to substantive and unconditional dialogue among the main parties.”
He stressed the importance that this process must achieve “concrete results and a clear commitment” on the part of the government of Burma to work constructively with Gambari.
Both Ban and the UN Security Council have urged the Burmese regime to move beyond the crisis in September when the military cracked down on demonstrations led by Buddhist monks, saying that a return to the pre-September period is not sustainable and acceptable.
They have called for democratic reform, national reconciliation, full respect of human rights in one of the world’s poorest nations and the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy.
UN Special Rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro arrived in Rangoon Sunday to investigate the violent repression of the monks and their supporters during the September uprising.
The street demonstrations began after the government drastically increased prices of petrol in mid-August.
Gambari’s visit last week was his second to Burma and he is scheduled to return there again for a third round of talks.
Ban said he wants Gambari to make an “early return to (Burma) as part of an open and regular process of mutual engagement.” (dpa)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=123522
