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ေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္..အေကာင္းဆံုးေျမၾသဇာ
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
နွိဳးေဆာ္ခ်က္
ကုလသံတမန္ကို ျမန္မာ အတိုက္အခံမ်ားက ေဝဖန္ျပစ္တင္
ဇာနည္
အဂၤါေန႔၊ ၾသဂုတ္လ 26 2008 14:11 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္။ မဇၥ်ိမမွ
ခ်င္းမိုင္။ ။ သံုးပြင့္ဆိုင္ ပင္မအုပ္စု (TCG) ၏ ေဆာင္ရြက္ခ်က္မ်ားကို ခ်ီးက်ဴးသည့္အတြက္ ကုလကုိယ္စားလွယ္ မစၥတာ အီဗရာဟင္ ဂမ္ဘာရီကို အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ (NLD) က တနလၤာေန႔က ေဝဖန္လိုက္သည္။
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ အေျခအေနကို စစ္အစုိးရ ျပသည္ထက္ ပို၍ျမင္ေအာင္ မၾကည့္ႏုိင္ခဲ့ဘဲ အေျခအေနမွန္မ်ားႏွင့္ ကင္းကြာေနၿပီး၊ သူ၏ ခရီးစဥ္အတြင္း ေတြ႔ဆံုရမည့္ အစီအစဥ္မ်ားကိုလည္း စစ္အစိုးရက စီစဥ္ထားသည့္ အတိုင္းသာ လိုက္ပါ လုပ္ေဆာင္ကာ ကန္႔ကြက္ ဆန္႔က်င္ျခင္း မရွိခဲ့ေၾကာင္း အန္အယ္ဒီက ေဝဖန္ ေထာက္ျပ လိုက္ျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။
NLD ၏ ေျပာေရးဆိုခြင့္ရွိသူ ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္းက "သူ (ဂမ္ဘာရီ) က စစ္အစိုးရ စီစဥ္ထားတဲ့အတိုင္း သြားၿပီး သူတို႔ ႐ုပ္ျပ လုပ္ထားတာေတြပဲ ၾကည့္ခဲ့ရေတာ့ အေျခအေနမွန္ကုိ ဘယ္သိမွာလဲ။ တကယ့္ အေျခအေနမွန္ကို ဒီလို အခ်ိန္တိုေလးအတြင္းမွာ သိဖို႔၊ နားလည္ဖုိ႔ ဆိုတာလည္း မျဖစ္ႏိုင္ပါဘူး" ဟု ေျပာသည္။
ဆိုင္ကလံုး ဒုကၡသည္မ်ားကို ကယ္ဆယ္ေရးလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား ဦးေဆာင္ လုပ္ကိုင္ေနသည့္ TCG သည္ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ အသိုင္းအဝိုင္းႏွင့္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအၾကား ထိေရာက္ေသာ ပူးေပါင္း ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈႏွင့္ လက္တြဲ ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈတို႔၏ နမူနာ ျပယုဂ္တခု ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းျဖင့္ မစၥတာ ဂမ္ဘာရီက ေျပာဆိုခဲ့သည္။
ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရ၊ အာဆီယံႏွင့္ ကုလအဖြဲ႔ႀကီးတို႔မွ ေစလႊတ္ေသာ ကိုယ္စားလွယ္မ်ားျဖင့္ ဖြဲ႔စည္းထားသည့္ TCG သည္ ဆိုင္ကလံုး နာဂစ္ဒဏ္ခံခဲ့ရသူမ်ားကို လူသားခ်င္း စာနာသည့္ အကူအညီအေထာက္အပ့ံမ်ား ေပးသည္သာမက တိုင္းျပည္တြင္း အျခားေနရာမ်ားတြင္ လူမႈေရး၊ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈ အကူအညီမ်ားကိုပါ ေပးအပ္သင့္ေၾကာင္းျဖင့္လည္း သူက ဆက္ေျပာသည္။
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ၆ ရက္ၾကာခရီးစဥ္ကို စေနေန႔က အဆံုးသတ္ခဲ့သည့္ ႏိုင္ဂ်ီးရီးယားလူမ်ဳိး သံတမန္ႀကီး၏ ဤမွတ္ ခ်က္ စကားသည္ ၾသဂုတ္လ ၁၈ ရက္ တနလၤာေန႔က TCG အဖြဲ႔ဝင္မ်ားႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ဆံုအၿပီး ေပၚထြက္ လာခဲ့ျခင္းလည္း ျဖစ္သည္။
ယခုလို ကုလသံတမန္တဦးက လူသားခ်င္း စာနာေထာက္ထားသည့္ အကူအညီေပးေရး လုပ္ငန္းမ်ားကို ေလွ်ာက္ၾကည့္၍ မွတ္ခ်က္မ်ား ေပးေနျခင္းသည္ သူ၏ အဓိက လုပ္ငန္းျဖစ္သည့္ ျမန္မာ့အတိုက္အခံ အုပ္စုႏွင့္ အစိုးရတုိ႔အၾကား ႏိုင္ငံေရးအရ ေတြ႔ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးမႈမ်ား ေပၚေပါက္လာေရးအတြက္ လြယ္ကူေခ်ာေမြ႔ေအာင္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးေရး လုပ္ငန္းႀကီးကို လမ္းေခ်ာ္သြားေစခဲ့သည္ဟုလည္း ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္းက ေျပာၾကားသည္။
"သူ (ဂမ္ဘာရီ) က စစ္အစိုးရကို အရမ္းကို မ်က္ႏွာခ်ဳိေသြး ေနတာပဲလို႔ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ခံစားရပါတယ္။ ဒါနဲ႔ပဲ သူလုပ္ ရမယ့္ အဓိက လမ္းေၾကာင္းကေန လမ္းေခ်ာ္သြားတာပဲ" ဟု ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္းက ေျပာသည္။
သူ၏ ၆ ရက္ၾကာ ျမန္မာျပည္ ခရီးစဥ္အတြင္း မစၥတာ ဂမ္ဘာရီသည္ ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရ၏ အငယ္တန္း ဝန္ႀကီးမ်ားႏွင့္သာ ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ရခဲ့ၿပီး စစ္အစိုးရ အႀကီးအကဲ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္မွဴးႀကီး သန္းေရႊႏွင့္ေသာ္၊ ထိန္းသိမ္းခံ အတိုက္အခံ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ႏွင့္ေသာ္ ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ မရရွိခဲ့ပါ။
ကုလသမဂၢ ႏိုင္ငံေရးရာ လက္ေထာက္ အေထြေထြ အတြင္းေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္သည္ စစ္အစိုးရအႀကီးအကဲ သန္းေရႊႏွင့္ ထိပ္တန္း စစ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ား ေနထိုင္႐ံုးစိုက္ရာ ေတာတြင္းတြင္ တည္ေဆာက္ထားသည့္ ၿမ့ဳိေတာ္သစ္ ေနျပည္ေတာ္သို႔ပင္ လာေရာက္ရန္ ဖိတ္ၾကားျခင္း မခံခဲ့ရဟု သတင္းရပ္ကြက္မ်ားက ေျပာဆိုၾကသည္။
စစ္အစိုးရသည္ မစၥတာဂမ္ဘာရီ၏ ခရီးစဥ္ကို သူတို႔ အေပၚယံ လုပ္ေဆာင္ထားသည့္ ႐ုပ္ျပလုပ္ငန္းမ်ားကို ထုတ္ေဖာ္ျပသရန္ႏွင့္ သူတုိ႔အက်ဳိးအတြက္ အသံုးခ်ခဲ့သည္ဟု လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ေရးအဖြဲ႔ႀကီး၏ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံဆိုင္ရာ အတိုင္ပင္ခံ ေဒးဗစ္စေကာ့မက္သီဆင္ (David Scott Mathieson) က ေျပာသည္။
"ျမန္မာျပည္ကို လာသမွ် သံတမန္ေတြအားလံုးဟာ ဒီအတိုင္းခ်ည္းပါပဲ။ နအဖ က ၾကည့္ေစခ်င္တာကိုပဲ ၾကည့္ရ တာပဲ။ ဒါနဲ႔ပဲ နအဖ က ဟန္ျပလုပ္ထားတဲ့ ဟာေတြပဲ သူတို႔ ၾကည့္ခြင့္ရၾကတာပဲ" ဟု ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံဆိုင္ရာ ကုလ အထူးသံတမန္အျဖစ္ ၂ဝဝ၅ ခုႏွစ္ ဒီဇင္ဘာလအထိ ေဆာင္ရြက္ခဲ့သည့္ မစၥတာရာဇာလီ အစၥေမးလ္ အပါအဝင္ ယခင္ ကုလသံတမန္မ်ားကို ရည္ညႊန္းကာ မက္သီဆင္က ေျပာၾကားသြားသည္။
"မစၥတာ ဂမ္ဘာရီဟာ ႏွစ္ဘက္လံုးကို ၾကည့္ဖို႔လိုတယ္" ဟုလည္း မက္သီဆင္က ေျပာသည္။
ဤခရီးစဥ္အတြင္း ဒီခ်ဳပ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားႏွင့္ ၂ ႀကိမ္ေတြ႔ဆံုခဲ့ၿပီး ထိန္းသိမ္းခံ ႏိုဘယ္ဆုရွင္ႏွင့္လည္း ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ ရရန္ ေမတၱာရပ္ခံခဲ့သည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမိုကေရစီ၏ ျပယုဂ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္က သူႏွင့္ေတြ႔ဆံုရန္ ျငင္းဆန္ခဲ့ သည္။
သို႔ေသာ္ ကုလသံတမန္ႀကီးကမူ ကုလသမဂၢ၏ ႀကိဳးပန္းေဆာင္ရြက္မႈမ်ား၏ အဆက္အျဖစ္ ကမၻာ့အဖြဲ႔အ စည္းႀကီး၏ အႀကီးအကဲ မစၥတာ ဘန္ကီမြန္းသည္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ယခုႏွစ္ ဒီဇင္ဘာလတြင္ လာေရာက္ လည္ ပတ္ မည္ဟု ေျပာဆိုသည္။
သို႔ေသာ္ ျပည္ပေရာက္ အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္၏ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရးဌာန တာဝန္ခံ ဦးၫိဳအုန္းျမင့္ကမူ အစိုးရ ႏွင့္ အတိုက္အခံ ၂ ဘက္စလံုးကို ေစ့စပ္ေဆြးေႏြးၾကရန္ ၾသဇာအာဏာသံုး ေဆာင္ရြက္ျခင္း မျပဳႏိုင္လွ်င္ ဂမ္ဘာ ရီ ႏွင့္ ဘန္ကီမြန္းတို႔၏ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ ခရီးစဥ္မ်ားသည္ အခ်ိန္ျဖဳန္းျခင္း သက္သက္မွ်သာ ျဖစ္လိမ့္မည္ဟု ေျပာဆို သည္။
"ဒီအခ်ိန္ဟာ စစ္အစိုးရက မေတြ႔ခ်င္တဲ့ တစံုတဦးကို ေစလႊတ္ၿပီး အခ်ိန္ျဖဳန္းေနမယ့္အစား ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရက လက္ခံ နားေထာင္ႏိုင္မယ့္ သံတမန္ေတြကို ကုလသမဂၢက ေစလႊတ္ရမယ့္ တကယ္အေရးႀကီးတဲ့ အေျခအေန ေရာက္ေနၿပီလို႔ က်ေနာ္ ထင္ပါတယ္" ဟု ဦးၫိဳအုန္းျမင့္က ေျပာသည္။
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ အေျခအေနကို စစ္အစုိးရ ျပသည္ထက္ ပို၍ျမင္ေအာင္ မၾကည့္ႏုိင္ခဲ့ဘဲ အေျခအေနမွန္မ်ားႏွင့္ ကင္းကြာေနၿပီး၊ သူ၏ ခရီးစဥ္အတြင္း ေတြ႔ဆံုရမည့္ အစီအစဥ္မ်ားကိုလည္း စစ္အစိုးရက စီစဥ္ထားသည့္ အတိုင္းသာ လိုက္ပါ လုပ္ေဆာင္ကာ ကန္႔ကြက္ ဆန္႔က်င္ျခင္း မရွိခဲ့ေၾကာင္း အန္အယ္ဒီက ေဝဖန္ ေထာက္ျပ လိုက္ျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။
NLD ၏ ေျပာေရးဆိုခြင့္ရွိသူ ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္းက "သူ (ဂမ္ဘာရီ) က စစ္အစိုးရ စီစဥ္ထားတဲ့အတိုင္း သြားၿပီး သူတို႔ ႐ုပ္ျပ လုပ္ထားတာေတြပဲ ၾကည့္ခဲ့ရေတာ့ အေျခအေနမွန္ကုိ ဘယ္သိမွာလဲ။ တကယ့္ အေျခအေနမွန္ကို ဒီလို အခ်ိန္တိုေလးအတြင္းမွာ သိဖို႔၊ နားလည္ဖုိ႔ ဆိုတာလည္း မျဖစ္ႏိုင္ပါဘူး" ဟု ေျပာသည္။
ဆိုင္ကလံုး ဒုကၡသည္မ်ားကို ကယ္ဆယ္ေရးလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား ဦးေဆာင္ လုပ္ကိုင္ေနသည့္ TCG သည္ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ အသိုင္းအဝိုင္းႏွင့္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအၾကား ထိေရာက္ေသာ ပူးေပါင္း ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈႏွင့္ လက္တြဲ ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈတို႔၏ နမူနာ ျပယုဂ္တခု ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းျဖင့္ မစၥတာ ဂမ္ဘာရီက ေျပာဆိုခဲ့သည္။
ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရ၊ အာဆီယံႏွင့္ ကုလအဖြဲ႔ႀကီးတို႔မွ ေစလႊတ္ေသာ ကိုယ္စားလွယ္မ်ားျဖင့္ ဖြဲ႔စည္းထားသည့္ TCG သည္ ဆိုင္ကလံုး နာဂစ္ဒဏ္ခံခဲ့ရသူမ်ားကို လူသားခ်င္း စာနာသည့္ အကူအညီအေထာက္အပ့ံမ်ား ေပးသည္သာမက တိုင္းျပည္တြင္း အျခားေနရာမ်ားတြင္ လူမႈေရး၊ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈ အကူအညီမ်ားကိုပါ ေပးအပ္သင့္ေၾကာင္းျဖင့္လည္း သူက ဆက္ေျပာသည္။
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ၆ ရက္ၾကာခရီးစဥ္ကို စေနေန႔က အဆံုးသတ္ခဲ့သည့္ ႏိုင္ဂ်ီးရီးယားလူမ်ဳိး သံတမန္ႀကီး၏ ဤမွတ္ ခ်က္ စကားသည္ ၾသဂုတ္လ ၁၈ ရက္ တနလၤာေန႔က TCG အဖြဲ႔ဝင္မ်ားႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ဆံုအၿပီး ေပၚထြက္ လာခဲ့ျခင္းလည္း ျဖစ္သည္။
ယခုလို ကုလသံတမန္တဦးက လူသားခ်င္း စာနာေထာက္ထားသည့္ အကူအညီေပးေရး လုပ္ငန္းမ်ားကို ေလွ်ာက္ၾကည့္၍ မွတ္ခ်က္မ်ား ေပးေနျခင္းသည္ သူ၏ အဓိက လုပ္ငန္းျဖစ္သည့္ ျမန္မာ့အတိုက္အခံ အုပ္စုႏွင့္ အစိုးရတုိ႔အၾကား ႏိုင္ငံေရးအရ ေတြ႔ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးမႈမ်ား ေပၚေပါက္လာေရးအတြက္ လြယ္ကူေခ်ာေမြ႔ေအာင္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးေရး လုပ္ငန္းႀကီးကို လမ္းေခ်ာ္သြားေစခဲ့သည္ဟုလည္း ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္းက ေျပာၾကားသည္။
"သူ (ဂမ္ဘာရီ) က စစ္အစိုးရကို အရမ္းကို မ်က္ႏွာခ်ဳိေသြး ေနတာပဲလို႔ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ခံစားရပါတယ္။ ဒါနဲ႔ပဲ သူလုပ္ ရမယ့္ အဓိက လမ္းေၾကာင္းကေန လမ္းေခ်ာ္သြားတာပဲ" ဟု ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္းက ေျပာသည္။
သူ၏ ၆ ရက္ၾကာ ျမန္မာျပည္ ခရီးစဥ္အတြင္း မစၥတာ ဂမ္ဘာရီသည္ ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရ၏ အငယ္တန္း ဝန္ႀကီးမ်ားႏွင့္သာ ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ရခဲ့ၿပီး စစ္အစိုးရ အႀကီးအကဲ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္မွဴးႀကီး သန္းေရႊႏွင့္ေသာ္၊ ထိန္းသိမ္းခံ အတိုက္အခံ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ႏွင့္ေသာ္ ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ မရရွိခဲ့ပါ။
ကုလသမဂၢ ႏိုင္ငံေရးရာ လက္ေထာက္ အေထြေထြ အတြင္းေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္သည္ စစ္အစိုးရအႀကီးအကဲ သန္းေရႊႏွင့္ ထိပ္တန္း စစ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ား ေနထိုင္႐ံုးစိုက္ရာ ေတာတြင္းတြင္ တည္ေဆာက္ထားသည့္ ၿမ့ဳိေတာ္သစ္ ေနျပည္ေတာ္သို႔ပင္ လာေရာက္ရန္ ဖိတ္ၾကားျခင္း မခံခဲ့ရဟု သတင္းရပ္ကြက္မ်ားက ေျပာဆိုၾကသည္။
စစ္အစိုးရသည္ မစၥတာဂမ္ဘာရီ၏ ခရီးစဥ္ကို သူတို႔ အေပၚယံ လုပ္ေဆာင္ထားသည့္ ႐ုပ္ျပလုပ္ငန္းမ်ားကို ထုတ္ေဖာ္ျပသရန္ႏွင့္ သူတုိ႔အက်ဳိးအတြက္ အသံုးခ်ခဲ့သည္ဟု လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ေရးအဖြဲ႔ႀကီး၏ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံဆိုင္ရာ အတိုင္ပင္ခံ ေဒးဗစ္စေကာ့မက္သီဆင္ (David Scott Mathieson) က ေျပာသည္။
"ျမန္မာျပည္ကို လာသမွ် သံတမန္ေတြအားလံုးဟာ ဒီအတိုင္းခ်ည္းပါပဲ။ နအဖ က ၾကည့္ေစခ်င္တာကိုပဲ ၾကည့္ရ တာပဲ။ ဒါနဲ႔ပဲ နအဖ က ဟန္ျပလုပ္ထားတဲ့ ဟာေတြပဲ သူတို႔ ၾကည့္ခြင့္ရၾကတာပဲ" ဟု ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံဆိုင္ရာ ကုလ အထူးသံတမန္အျဖစ္ ၂ဝဝ၅ ခုႏွစ္ ဒီဇင္ဘာလအထိ ေဆာင္ရြက္ခဲ့သည့္ မစၥတာရာဇာလီ အစၥေမးလ္ အပါအဝင္ ယခင္ ကုလသံတမန္မ်ားကို ရည္ညႊန္းကာ မက္သီဆင္က ေျပာၾကားသြားသည္။
"မစၥတာ ဂမ္ဘာရီဟာ ႏွစ္ဘက္လံုးကို ၾကည့္ဖို႔လိုတယ္" ဟုလည္း မက္သီဆင္က ေျပာသည္။
ဤခရီးစဥ္အတြင္း ဒီခ်ဳပ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားႏွင့္ ၂ ႀကိမ္ေတြ႔ဆံုခဲ့ၿပီး ထိန္းသိမ္းခံ ႏိုဘယ္ဆုရွင္ႏွင့္လည္း ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ ရရန္ ေမတၱာရပ္ခံခဲ့သည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမိုကေရစီ၏ ျပယုဂ္ေခါင္းေဆာင္က သူႏွင့္ေတြ႔ဆံုရန္ ျငင္းဆန္ခဲ့ သည္။
သို႔ေသာ္ ကုလသံတမန္ႀကီးကမူ ကုလသမဂၢ၏ ႀကိဳးပန္းေဆာင္ရြက္မႈမ်ား၏ အဆက္အျဖစ္ ကမၻာ့အဖြဲ႔အ စည္းႀကီး၏ အႀကီးအကဲ မစၥတာ ဘန္ကီမြန္းသည္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ယခုႏွစ္ ဒီဇင္ဘာလတြင္ လာေရာက္ လည္ ပတ္ မည္ဟု ေျပာဆိုသည္။
သို႔ေသာ္ ျပည္ပေရာက္ အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္၏ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရးဌာန တာဝန္ခံ ဦးၫိဳအုန္းျမင့္ကမူ အစိုးရ ႏွင့္ အတိုက္အခံ ၂ ဘက္စလံုးကို ေစ့စပ္ေဆြးေႏြးၾကရန္ ၾသဇာအာဏာသံုး ေဆာင္ရြက္ျခင္း မျပဳႏိုင္လွ်င္ ဂမ္ဘာ ရီ ႏွင့္ ဘန္ကီမြန္းတို႔၏ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ ခရီးစဥ္မ်ားသည္ အခ်ိန္ျဖဳန္းျခင္း သက္သက္မွ်သာ ျဖစ္လိမ့္မည္ဟု ေျပာဆို သည္။
"ဒီအခ်ိန္ဟာ စစ္အစိုးရက မေတြ႔ခ်င္တဲ့ တစံုတဦးကို ေစလႊတ္ၿပီး အခ်ိန္ျဖဳန္းေနမယ့္အစား ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရက လက္ခံ နားေထာင္ႏိုင္မယ့္ သံတမန္ေတြကို ကုလသမဂၢက ေစလႊတ္ရမယ့္ တကယ္အေရးႀကီးတဲ့ အေျခအေန ေရာက္ေနၿပီလို႔ က်ေနာ္ ထင္ပါတယ္" ဟု ဦးၫိဳအုန္းျမင့္က ေျပာသည္။
သတိ...........
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လုံး၀ (လုံး၀) ဖြင့္မၾကည့္ပါနဲ႔ .။ သင္ တုိ႔ password ခုိးသြားလိမ့္မယ္......
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(နီးစပ္ရာကုိလက္ဆင့္ကမ္းေပးၾကပါ)
လုံး၀ (လုံး၀) ဖြင့္မၾကည့္ပါနဲ႔ .။ သင္ တုိ႔ password ခုိးသြားလိမ့္မယ္......
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(နီးစပ္ရာကုိလက္ဆင့္ကမ္းေပးၾကပါ)
ဘယ္ေတာ့မွ မေသဆံုးမဲ့ ၈၈၈၈ မ်ိဳးဆက္မ်ား၏ ဥေဒါင္းစိတ္ဓါတ္
Burma 1988 uprising marked
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7548631.stm
Demonstrations are have been held to mark the anniversary of a failed uprising in Burma in August 1988.
Nick Bryant met one of the protesters who marched through the then capital, Rangoon, calling for a transition to democracy.
ေၾကာက္ခ်ိန္မို ့ လူဆိုးေတြဆီက ေလးဂြ၀ယ္ရန္ တိုင္ပင္ေနၾက
Chinese defense minister meets Myanmar chief of defense industries
BEIJING, Aug. 25 --
Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie on Monday met with Tin Aye, chief of Defense Industries of Myanmar.
Liang, also a state councilor, said China and Myanmar, as close and friendly neighbors, have increased cooperation in political, economic, cultural and military affairs in recent years. The Chinese defense ministry is ready to work with Myanmar to further expand bilateral cooperation, so as to help the two nations' defense building and to safeguard regional peace and stability, Liang noted.
Liang applauded Myanmar's adherence to the one-China policy. Liang also expressed his sympathy toward the Myanmar people in the cyclone-hit region. Tin Aye said Myanmar values its relations with China, hoping that the two nations would further enhance friendly cooperation.
Myanmar would continue to support the one-China policy, he reiterated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daOjCPM-yWY မွရယူပါသည္။ေက်းဇူးပါ။
UN..ေတာ့ နအဖ ရဲ့ road map အလိမ္အညာ ဝကၤဘာ လမ္းပိတ္ၾကီးထဲမွာ ခ်ာခ်ာလည္ ေနတယ္.
Asia Times: The UN at dead-end in Myanmar - Larry Jagan
Tue 26 Aug 2008
While the United Nations heaps praise on Myanmar’s ruling junta for its collaborative spirit in dealing with the Cyclone Nargis disaster, the military regime has made it clear that cooperation stops when it comes to UN attempts to mediate a political breakthrough in the country.
UN special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari’s latest mission to break the deadlock between the military junta and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi ended in failure over the weekend. His ongoing efforts to establish a dialogue between the two sides collapsed and the diplomat left the country embarrassingly empty-handed.
Even Aung San Suu Kyi, the charismatic leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), refused to see him during this trip, although he had met her on all previous visits. More crucially, Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister, also failed to meet any senior members of the country’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
“It’s clearly the end of the road for Gambari - his role as an interlocutor is finished if he is unable to talk directly to either Aung San Suu Kyi or [junta leader] Than Shwe,” said a Western diplomat based in Yangon. “He has no more cards to play.”
Gambari’s failure raises doubts about the UN’s future role in Myanmar’s political impasse and perhaps other conflict resolution efforts around the world. In an exclusive interview with Asia Times Online earlier this year Gambari said: “It is our job, and a continuing challenge at the UN to make the impossible possible, and will continue my efforts at mediation regardless.”
He added: “Nonetheless, I sometimes wonder whether it is realized that if I fail, and the UN fails, this would have negative consequences for the role of the organization in terms of mediation, conflict prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts, not only in [Myanmar] but throughout the world.”
Gambari was scheduled to meet Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretary general Surin Pitsuwan after leaving Yangon. The UN had clearly hoped to build on the goodwill generated from the joint cyclone relief efforts with ASEAN and the Myanmar government to push its mediation agenda and encourage the junta to make their planned transition to democracy by 2010 more credible in the international eye.
With the UN’s failure “the ball is now back in Asia’s court”, said academic Win Min, an independent academic based in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. “ASEAN and China have been happy to hide behind the UN. Now they will have to take the lead to try to convince the junta to make their roadmap credible and acceptable to the region and the international community.”
Gambari had prioritized kick-starting the stalled talks between the two sides, pressing for the release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi who is still under house arrest, and discussing the junta’s roadmap to democracy and the planned elections in 2010. He is believed to have pressed these matters on certain government ministers, including the prime minister, General Thein Sein, on the last day of his visit.
He also passed along a letter to Than Shwe in relation to a tentatively planned visit by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon later this year, according to diplomats in Yangon. “The SG has also indicated his intention to return to Myanmar, when conditions are right, to continue his dialogue with the Myanmar leadership,” a senior UN spokesperson, Marie Okabe told journalists earlier this week.
Gambari also met many groups nominated by the regime to brief him and convince the envoy to endorse the regime’s roadmap to democracy, which will culminate with elections in 2010. These groups included small splinter ethnic groups, a break-away faction of former student activists and defectors from the NLD. He also held talks with the government-linked Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), which was responsible for the brutal attack on Aung San Suu Kyi five years ago and expected to transform itself into a civilian political party before the planned 2010 elections.
Many of these organizations are likely to stand candidates in the forthcoming elections, according to activists and diplomats in Yangon. Senior junta leaders, including the top general Than Shwe, who are all ensconced in their new capital Naypyidaw some 400 kilometers north of the old capital, meanwhile kept Gambari at arm’s length, as they have done on his last two trips.
Iconic snub
The UN envoy originally planned to meet opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi at the state guesthouse on Wednesday, but she did not show up, according to NLD sources in Yangon. The UN envoy also sent two of his assistants to her residence on Friday morning, but the pro-democracy leader did not respond.
“She’s making a point - that she is no longer willing to be wheeled out like a circus act just so the regime can convey a bogus impression of ‘dialogue’,” according to a Western diplomat based in Yangon.
“Aung San Suu Kyi is refusing to see the UN envoy before he sees a senior representative of the SPDC,” an opposition source close to the detained leader told Asia Times Online on condition of anonymity. “She feels there is no point in meeting Gambari at the moment, as he has nothing from the generals to report or offer,” he said.
To certain Asian diplomats, though, Aung San Suu Kyi’s actions were an affront. “It’s un-Asian to let the envoy wait in vain for her to show up,” said a Japanese diplomat, who closely follows Myanmar. “It seems unusually rude, to the extent that it gives the impression of being insensitive.”
It will only serve to further undermine Gambari’s credibility and strengthen the regime’s belief that Aung San Suu Kyi is “ill-tempered and uncompromising”, the diplomat added. Indeed the regime made the most of the snub over their tightly controlled media, with one broadcast showing Myanmar government officials outside her personal residence shouting to her through a megaphone: “Mr Gambari wants to meet you.”
The visit represented Gambari’s sixth overall visit and fourth in the aftermath of the regime’s brutal crackdown on Buddhist monk-led street protests last year since replacing the previous UN envoy, Ismail Razali, more than three years ago.
In November 2007, Gambari smuggled out and made public a letter from the opposition leader that appealed to the country’s military leaders to put aside their differences with her and to work together on national reconciliation for the sake of the whole country. The disclosure infuriated the regime, who denounced her and Gambari in the state media for weeks afterwards.
With Gambari’s failure, Asian countries are expected to play a bigger future role in seeking to influence the intransigent regime. The international community, especially China, had exerted substantial pressure on the junta behind the scenes to allow the UN envoy to visit the country. He originally wanted to return to Myanmar before the constitution referendum held in May despite the devastation caused by the Cyclone Nargis the week before the poll was scheduled.
In recent months Indonesia has also been trying to develop an international consensus on Myanmar at several high-level but informal meetings at the UN in New York. Now a member of the UN Security Council and an important ASEAN member, the Indonesians have taken a leading role in trying to find news ways of exerting international influence on Myanmar. Jakarta is also working closely with China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and India to convince the junta they must make their democratic roadmap credible to the international community.
“Myanmar claims to have a new constitution and these elections [planned for 2010] will be multi-party elections, but what is important for us at ASEAN is to ensure that a more credible process is taking place,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told journalists in Jakarta earlier this week. Recently taking over as ASEAN’s chair for the next 18 months, Thailand, a junta ally, will also look for ways to nudge the junta.
Thailand’s new Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag has just completed a two-day visit to Myanmar. There is no doubt that Myanmar’s roadmap featured prominently during his talks with the regime. It is presumed he was given a warmer reception and more candid briefing than Gambari received during his more high-profile, and most likely, last visit.
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
Tue 26 Aug 2008
While the United Nations heaps praise on Myanmar’s ruling junta for its collaborative spirit in dealing with the Cyclone Nargis disaster, the military regime has made it clear that cooperation stops when it comes to UN attempts to mediate a political breakthrough in the country.
UN special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari’s latest mission to break the deadlock between the military junta and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi ended in failure over the weekend. His ongoing efforts to establish a dialogue between the two sides collapsed and the diplomat left the country embarrassingly empty-handed.
Even Aung San Suu Kyi, the charismatic leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), refused to see him during this trip, although he had met her on all previous visits. More crucially, Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister, also failed to meet any senior members of the country’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
“It’s clearly the end of the road for Gambari - his role as an interlocutor is finished if he is unable to talk directly to either Aung San Suu Kyi or [junta leader] Than Shwe,” said a Western diplomat based in Yangon. “He has no more cards to play.”
Gambari’s failure raises doubts about the UN’s future role in Myanmar’s political impasse and perhaps other conflict resolution efforts around the world. In an exclusive interview with Asia Times Online earlier this year Gambari said: “It is our job, and a continuing challenge at the UN to make the impossible possible, and will continue my efforts at mediation regardless.”
He added: “Nonetheless, I sometimes wonder whether it is realized that if I fail, and the UN fails, this would have negative consequences for the role of the organization in terms of mediation, conflict prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts, not only in [Myanmar] but throughout the world.”
Gambari was scheduled to meet Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretary general Surin Pitsuwan after leaving Yangon. The UN had clearly hoped to build on the goodwill generated from the joint cyclone relief efforts with ASEAN and the Myanmar government to push its mediation agenda and encourage the junta to make their planned transition to democracy by 2010 more credible in the international eye.
With the UN’s failure “the ball is now back in Asia’s court”, said academic Win Min, an independent academic based in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. “ASEAN and China have been happy to hide behind the UN. Now they will have to take the lead to try to convince the junta to make their roadmap credible and acceptable to the region and the international community.”
Gambari had prioritized kick-starting the stalled talks between the two sides, pressing for the release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi who is still under house arrest, and discussing the junta’s roadmap to democracy and the planned elections in 2010. He is believed to have pressed these matters on certain government ministers, including the prime minister, General Thein Sein, on the last day of his visit.
He also passed along a letter to Than Shwe in relation to a tentatively planned visit by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon later this year, according to diplomats in Yangon. “The SG has also indicated his intention to return to Myanmar, when conditions are right, to continue his dialogue with the Myanmar leadership,” a senior UN spokesperson, Marie Okabe told journalists earlier this week.
Gambari also met many groups nominated by the regime to brief him and convince the envoy to endorse the regime’s roadmap to democracy, which will culminate with elections in 2010. These groups included small splinter ethnic groups, a break-away faction of former student activists and defectors from the NLD. He also held talks with the government-linked Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), which was responsible for the brutal attack on Aung San Suu Kyi five years ago and expected to transform itself into a civilian political party before the planned 2010 elections.
Many of these organizations are likely to stand candidates in the forthcoming elections, according to activists and diplomats in Yangon. Senior junta leaders, including the top general Than Shwe, who are all ensconced in their new capital Naypyidaw some 400 kilometers north of the old capital, meanwhile kept Gambari at arm’s length, as they have done on his last two trips.
Iconic snub
The UN envoy originally planned to meet opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi at the state guesthouse on Wednesday, but she did not show up, according to NLD sources in Yangon. The UN envoy also sent two of his assistants to her residence on Friday morning, but the pro-democracy leader did not respond.
“She’s making a point - that she is no longer willing to be wheeled out like a circus act just so the regime can convey a bogus impression of ‘dialogue’,” according to a Western diplomat based in Yangon.
“Aung San Suu Kyi is refusing to see the UN envoy before he sees a senior representative of the SPDC,” an opposition source close to the detained leader told Asia Times Online on condition of anonymity. “She feels there is no point in meeting Gambari at the moment, as he has nothing from the generals to report or offer,” he said.
To certain Asian diplomats, though, Aung San Suu Kyi’s actions were an affront. “It’s un-Asian to let the envoy wait in vain for her to show up,” said a Japanese diplomat, who closely follows Myanmar. “It seems unusually rude, to the extent that it gives the impression of being insensitive.”
It will only serve to further undermine Gambari’s credibility and strengthen the regime’s belief that Aung San Suu Kyi is “ill-tempered and uncompromising”, the diplomat added. Indeed the regime made the most of the snub over their tightly controlled media, with one broadcast showing Myanmar government officials outside her personal residence shouting to her through a megaphone: “Mr Gambari wants to meet you.”
The visit represented Gambari’s sixth overall visit and fourth in the aftermath of the regime’s brutal crackdown on Buddhist monk-led street protests last year since replacing the previous UN envoy, Ismail Razali, more than three years ago.
In November 2007, Gambari smuggled out and made public a letter from the opposition leader that appealed to the country’s military leaders to put aside their differences with her and to work together on national reconciliation for the sake of the whole country. The disclosure infuriated the regime, who denounced her and Gambari in the state media for weeks afterwards.
With Gambari’s failure, Asian countries are expected to play a bigger future role in seeking to influence the intransigent regime. The international community, especially China, had exerted substantial pressure on the junta behind the scenes to allow the UN envoy to visit the country. He originally wanted to return to Myanmar before the constitution referendum held in May despite the devastation caused by the Cyclone Nargis the week before the poll was scheduled.
In recent months Indonesia has also been trying to develop an international consensus on Myanmar at several high-level but informal meetings at the UN in New York. Now a member of the UN Security Council and an important ASEAN member, the Indonesians have taken a leading role in trying to find news ways of exerting international influence on Myanmar. Jakarta is also working closely with China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and India to convince the junta they must make their democratic roadmap credible to the international community.
“Myanmar claims to have a new constitution and these elections [planned for 2010] will be multi-party elections, but what is important for us at ASEAN is to ensure that a more credible process is taking place,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told journalists in Jakarta earlier this week. Recently taking over as ASEAN’s chair for the next 18 months, Thailand, a junta ally, will also look for ways to nudge the junta.
Thailand’s new Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag has just completed a two-day visit to Myanmar. There is no doubt that Myanmar’s roadmap featured prominently during his talks with the regime. It is presumed he was given a warmer reception and more candid briefing than Gambari received during his more high-profile, and most likely, last visit.
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
ဘဲဥပုပ္စာမိ မဲ့ သူ ့မ်က္ႏွာၾကီး..ထြက္ျပပါဦးလား၊ ရွက္ျဖီးျဖီးနဲ ့
အာေခ်ာင္သူၾကီး..ခဲစာေတာ့ မိေတာ့မယ္။ ကိုယ္ေဘး ကိုယ္မသိ..ပါေလရာ စပ္စု ၾကီးျပာေနျပီ။ သူလည္း သန္းေရႊလိုပါဘဲ။ လူေတြ သူ ့ကို ခ်စ္ၾကမယ္. သူ ့ကို ေထာက္ခံမယ္ထင္တာ။ ဘယ္ဟုတ္မလဲ။ အခုေတာ့ ထိုင္း ျပည္သူေတြကေတာင္.သူ ကိုလက္မခံေတာ့တာ.. မေထာက္ခံေတာ့တာ မ်က္ဝါးထင္ထင္ ျမင္ရမွဘဲ..ပုလဲမ်က္ရည္ တရႊတ္ရႊြတ္..ခေနပါသတဲ့။ ဆံပင္ျဖဴေတြ မွ..အားမနာ..ရွက္စရာပါ။
Thai prime minister's offices under siege
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/26/thailand.protests/index.html
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Tensions were high in the Thai capital late Tuesday as a huge phalanx of protesters besieged the main government compound, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's government
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Tensions were high in the Thai capital late Tuesday as a huge phalanx of protesters besieged the main government compound, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's government
Demonstrators gather outside Thailand's Government House during a rally on August 26 in Bangkok. Protests outside the Government House have been going on for months, but Rivers said the demonstrations "stepped up a quantum leap" on Tuesday. He said hundreds of protesters continue to pour into the streets outside the Government House late in the day. Watch more about the Bangkok protests »
Samak, who has been unable to get into his official residence, held a news conference Tuesday night refusing to back down and warning protesters that police will be moving in to disperse the crowds.
Other government ministers were also prevented from attending a weekly cabinet meeting inside the building.
But the protesters showed no sign of ending their demonstrations and have tried to fortify their positions with razor wire. Protesters also rallied outside the ministries of finance and agriculture
Some anti-government protesters also shut down a state-run television station in Bangkok. Armed with guns and knives, they briefly stopped NBT television's programming before police arrested 80 of them, the Thai News Agency reported.
The protests were the latest by the People's Alliance for Democracy, which says Samak's administration is a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and fled to England.
He returned to Thailand after Samak came to power in parliamentary elections in December. Thaksin fled again this month, just as he was to appear in court in a corruption case.
The alliance contends that Samak is trying to amend the constitution so that Thaksin does not have to face the charges. It also blames the government for not trying to extradite the former prime minister.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
ေဒၚစု အစာငတ္ခံဆႏၶျပေနသည္.
Aung San Suu Kyi reported to be on hunger strike - မည္ဟု
Aljazeera သတင္းမွ ယေန ့ထုတ္လႊင့္သြားပါသည္။
News Hour: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi refused to accept the food supplies
BDD
She refused to have food supplies since 15th August. "Which is a deep pressure for generals" said NLD senior.
"August 15th was her last one week supplies", close associate with friends who were responsibility to send her weekly food supplies said. Reasons of refusal were related to Mr. Gambari’s sixth UN goodwill visit and she also refused to meet him three different occasions. NLD seniors stressed Mr Gambari is just a postman of regime's wishes and there was no sign of NLD proposal could deliver to the regime.
Her food supplies was delivered on 15th August would be finished on 22nd. But no one is able to send another food on 22nd August. Reports saying she asked NLD member not to send her next weeek on 15th August, thus, she believed to have a food supply for only a week and that would have gone on 22nd August. Now, five days have been without proper food.
Reports confirmed that she demanded to reconvene the negotiation process and possible result from regime. However, regime refused to accept her demands and she chooses to her strong objection against the UN initiative that regime played for their own interest.
Reign of Terror in Burma Requires Genuine U.N. Action - Not Just Official Visits
Benedict Rogers
Advocacy Officer, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Deputy Chairman, Conservative Party Human Rights Commission
www.csw.org.uk www.conservativehumanrights.com
http://thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=713&pageid=16&pagename=Opinion
The Lingering Disaster in BurmaBack to Opinion
Benedict Rogers August 25th 2008, Cutting Edge News Asia Desk
Burma's Generals
On July 27, Nhkum Hkawn Din, a 15 year-old school girl in Kachin State, northern Burma, was brutally gang-raped and then murdered by Burma Army soldiers. Her skull was crushed beyond recognition, her eyes gouged out, her throat cut, she was stabbed in her right rib cage and stomach, and all her facial features were obliterated. Her body was found after a three-day search, naked and mutilated, 200 meters from an army checkpoint near Nam Sai village, Bamaw District. She was on her way to bring rice to her brother.
Against this backdrop, UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari has just completed another visit to Burma last week for more talks with the country’s brutal, illegitimate military regime. But instead of taking the regime to task for human rights violations, he spent two days talking with the regime and its cronies, and just twenty minutes with the leaders of Burma’s democracy movement, the National League for Democracy (NLD). Even though his previous visits have yielded no change in the junta’s behavior, and Burma’s human rights record continues to deteriorate, Gambari rejected calls from activists to drop the diplomatic niceties and photo-calls and set out unambiguously the requirements for change.
Instead he spent time talking with groups such as the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), the major funder of the regime’s brutal proxy militia group “Swan-Arr-Shin”. This group led the regime’s efforts in attacking and killing peaceful monks and democracy activists during and after last September's Saffron Revolution. According to the US Campaign for Burma, Gambari also met with the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a group comparable to Hitler's “Brown Shirts,” that carried out an assassination attempt on Nobel Peace Prize recipient Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003. During that attack dozens of her party members were killed. Also on his schedule was a meeting with the National Unity Party, the military-backed political party that lost severely to the NLD in 1990 elections -- gaining only 10 out of 485 seats in parliament.
Since 1990, there have been 37 visits by UN envoys to Burma – yet the crisis in the country has worsened in that time. More than 30 resolutions have been passed by the UN Human Rights Council and General Assembly, and the Security Council has held past two presidential statements, with little effect. Vague, timeless requests to the junta to engage in dialogue with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi have led nowhere. She has spent more than 12 years under house arrest, and her detention has been extended again. Earlier this year the regime said she deserved to be “flogged”. The Generals are not people who are persuaded at cocktail parties.
Gambari’s efforts have clearly failed. Now, activists say, it is time for the UN to set out some specific benchmarks for progress for the junta, accompanied by deadlines. The first benchmark should be the release of political prisoners, who currently number over 2,000. Many are in extremely poor health due to bad prison conditions, mistreatment, torture and the denial of medical care. In the past 20 years, 137 have died in custody. This year alone, there have been 267 arbitrary arrests. The UN should insist that the Generals release political prisoners before Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Burma in December.
Further benchmarks should follow – such as an end to the military offensive against civilians in eastern Burma which has destroyed 3,200 villages and displaced more than a million people since 1996, and an end to the culture of impunity and the systematic and widespread use of rape as a weapon of war against ethnic nationalities in Burma. Over a thousand cases of rape have been documented in Burma’s ethnic areas, and many more go unreported. The pattern is nationwide – Kachin, Chin, Shan, Karen, Karenni and Mon women’s organisations have all documented cases. Last year four schoolgirls in Kachin state were gang-raped by Burma Army soldiers – and then arrested and charged with prostitution when they reported it. The UN Security Council has recognized rape and sexual violence as a crime against humanity in Resolution 1820 passed on 19 June this year – something Mr. Gambari should have reminded the Generals this week.
Setting benchmarks, with realistic deadlines, would enable Mr Gambari – if he is kept in his post—to evaluate, incrementally, the progress – or lack thereof – that he is making. If the junta complies, so much the better. But if it continues with its policies of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, bold action should be taken.
A universal arms embargo should be imposed through the Security Council – and maximum pressure placed on China and Russia not to use their veto. Major financial centres such as Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as the European Union, should impose carefully targeted financial sanctions against the Generals’ personal assets and investments. And the international community should stop the diplomatic charade and call the Generals by name for what they are: criminals. The prosecution of Sudan’s leader Omar al-Bashir and the capture of Radovan Karadzic have set a precedent. Burma’s Generals are guilty of every imaginable crime against humanity, and should be brought to account in the International Criminal Court or through another jurisdiction.
The regime’s credentials to represent Burma in the UN should also be challenged. The junta has no legitimacy, having overwhelmingly lost elections in 1990, manifestly rigged a referendum on a new constitution earlier this year, and proven itself criminally negligent in its handling of Cyclone Nargis. The junta ignored 41 warnings about the approaching cyclone, initially rejected international offers of aid and then restricted, obstructed and diverted relief. According to the UN, over a million cyclone victims have still not received help. At least 2.5 million are still homeless and over 140,000 dead. And now the UN says the regime has been stealing millions of dollars of aid money through its below-market fixed exchange rates. Burma is the world’s second major opium producer and a leading producer of amphetamines – and the regime is knee-deep in drugs. The junta is unfit to govern, and there is a legitimate alternative in the form of those elected in 1990 now living as a government in exile.
These may seem drastic measures, but the situation is dire. The regime has destroyed twice as many ethnic villages as in Darfur, civilians are shot at point-blank range, and forced labour, torture and the use of human minesweepers is widespread. Burma has the highest number of forcibly conscripted child soldiers in the world. It is widely believed that one reason the regime denied aid to some cyclone victims was because they were Karen. The regime has been conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Karen for decades, and it may have used a natural disaster to assist in its efforts.
Last week, two Members of Parliament elected in 1990 were arrested for signing a letter to Ban Ki-moon. Several other signatories went into hiding. The letter refers to the Secretary-General’s strong stand on Zimbabwe: “We applaud the courage of the Secretary-General and his expression of moral authority … We expect [the] Secretary-General [to] also stand for the rights of the people of Burma, who were unable to express their real aspirations in the referendum.” It continues: “At the very least, we don’t want the United Nations siding with the dictators, and forcing the people of Burma into an untenable position.”
The UN should not just call for the release of those arrested last week – Ban Ki-moon and Gambari should read their letter carefully. They should warn the Generals that if they do not change, calls for such action will grow louder, and pressure on Burma’s protectors – China, India, Thailand and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) – will only grow stronger. The status quo is unsustainable, and Gambari’s record is a failure. Both he and the junta need to change their act.
Benedict Rogers is the author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People (Monarch, 2004), and has visited Burma and its borderlands more than 20 times. He also serves as Deputy Chairman of the UK Conservative Party's Human Rights Commission.
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