Monks stage quiet protest as world powers call for Burma reform

ABOUT 100 Buddhist monks in western Burma staged a peaceful protest march to mark the anniversary of last year's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators as world powers called on the junta to make "tangible" progress on political reforms.
Ahead of a possible visit by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to the country by the end of the year, the first ministerial meeting on Burma by the five permanent Security Council and mostly Asian nations urged the country's military rulers to co-operate with Mr Ban's special envoy to resolve the nation's political crisis.
Envoy Ibrahim Gambari has made four visits to Burma since the protests a year ago but failed to restart a dialogue between detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta or achieve significant gains.
In the country's biggest city, Rangoon, recently released political prisoners helped celebrate Saturday's 20th anniversary of the founding of the party led by Ms Suu Kyi, while police and other security personnel kept a close watch.
No protests directly related to the crackdown anniversary were noted in Rangoon, where last year's demonstrations attracted up to 100,000 people. The junta put down the protests with force, killing at least 31 people and detaining thousands.
But in the western port city of Sittwe, about 100 Buddhist monks marched peacefully in heavy rain for about 30 minutes, according to witnesses who asked not to be named.
The monks' march took the form of their morning round of begging for alms, but it is widely understood that such a large number of monks marching in an organised fashion represents a veiled protest.
In Rangoon, six truckloads of riot police were deployed near the opposition party offices. People attending the ceremony there were videotaped and watched by at least 50 plainclothes security personnel.
The ceremony, attended by about 350 people including party members, diplomats and reporters, was also a homecoming for a senior party member, Win Tin, released from jail a few days earlier In an anniversary statement, the party reiterated its call for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Ms Suu Kyi — who has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention — and her deputy Tin Oo. It also called for the freedom of Buddhist monks and ethnic leaders arrested by the junta.
The party was founded in 1988 after an abortive pro-democracy uprising, and since then has faced nearly constant harassment from the ruling military. When the party's candidates won the most seats in 1990 general elections, the military refused to let it take power.
The anniversary coincided with UN talks, which Mr Ban's spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said underlined "the responsibility of the Myanmar (Burma) Government to demonstrate its stated commitment to co-operation with the good offices (of the UN Secretary General) through further tangible results".
The meeting of Mr Ban's so-called "group of friends on Myanmar" also wanted the generals to "respond more positively" to international demands for the release of political prisoners, including Ms Suu Kyi, and a dialogue with the opposition, Ms Montas said.
Mr Ban chaired the informal talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly amid little signs the military junta will embrace political reforms, one year after its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
The group comprises permanent Security Council members — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — as well as Australia, the European Union, India, Norway, Japan and South Korea plus ASEAN states Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

New International Pressure on Burmese Regime to Reform

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 23 Sep 2008


Renewed international pressure is being put on Burma's military regime to release political prisoners, end oppression of minorities and institute democratic reforms. From United Nation's headquarters in New York, VOA's Margaret Besheer reports on Saturday's high-level meeting on Burma called by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 23 Sep 2008The U.N. secretary-general convened the first ministerial level meeting of the so-called "Friends of Myanmar" - the other name by which Burma is known.Representatives of the five permanent Security Council members, as well as several Asian nations, the European Union, India and Norway attended the meeting, held in the margins of the General Assembly's annual debate.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters that the Security Council has spoken clearly in demanding the Burmese regime release political prisoners and initiate an all-inclusive dialogue between the government and the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). "That degree of cooperation has not been forthcoming from the Burmese regime and it remains the fundamental tenet of the Friends of the Secretary-General that the regime must work with the secretary-general and his representative Ambassador Gambari to achieve political and economic progress," he said.The secretary-general's special envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, has made four visits to that country in the last year. His most recent has been widely criticized for not achieving any gains. During that trip, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who is under house arrest, did not turn up for a meeting with him, in an apparent show of frustration with U.N. efforts to move the political process forward in Burma.Burma experienced a devastating cyclone in May of this year. Just days later the regime held a constitutional referendum that was widely derided as neither free nor fair. But the regime has countered that the new constitution has paved the way for multi-party elections in 2010. Singapore's foreign minister, George Yeo, expressed concern about the form those elections might take. "The dice will be loaded in favor of the military, but I believe from a certain viewpoint that some progress is better than no progress. The problem is that the NLD [opposition] has not been part of the process, they may not participate in it, and if they do not the country will remain divided and the problem will remain unsolved," he said.Secretary-General Ban visited Burma after Cyclone Nargis and met with top leaders. He is widely expected to return to the country at the end of this year. But some observers questioned under what circumstances he should go back. Minister Yeo said such a visit is a "move not to be lightly taken." "When he goes back, it has to be very carefully timed, because expectations must be calibrated. He should not go back unless there are clear signs of progress, but his intervention at an appropriate time can be critical," he said.Mr. Ban did not stop to speak with reporters following the closed-door meeting. But in a statement, his spokesperson said the high-level participation at the meeting is a clear signal of the importance that the international community attaches to the situation in Burma, and encouraged the Burmese government to work more closely with the United Nations to address issues of key concern

Brad Pitt’s Burma donation

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s non-profit organisation the Jolie-Pitt Foundation has donated $1 million to charity work in Burma and Zimbabwe.
24 September 2008 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated $1 million to charity.The couple’s non-profit organisation the Jolie-Pitt Foundation has given the generous sum to the Human Rights Watch’s work in Burma and Zimbabwe.Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch’s executive director, welcomed the donation, saying: "Burma and Zimbabwe are two of the most repressive countries in the world and we need to increase international pressure on them to change."Brad and Angelina's investment in our work at this critical moment will allow intensified efforts by our researchers to expose the repression that these governments try to keep hidden and by our advocates to generate the global pressure needed to improve people's lives."Brad, 44, and 33-year-old Angelina’s contribution will go towards funding research and advocacy in the two countries.The Human Rights Watch is an independent organisation dedicated to exposing human rights violations and protecting people at risk of discrimination throughout the world.Earlier this month, the generous duo - who have six children together - handed over $2 million to fund a children’s home in Ethiopia. Their adopted three-year-old daughter Zahara was born in the African country.The couple also run a health centre in Cambodia, where their seven-year-old son Maddox was born.In June, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation donated $1 million to children affected by the Iraq war.

Leaked Document Reveals Burma’s US Policy

Burma’s military leaders know they cannot stand alone in the world, but will react according to each situation with a view to balancing their relations with the world’s superpowers, said Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo at a meeting of his ministers in July.
According to a confidential document acquired recently by The Irrawaddy detailing the minutes of a July 6 meeting, Home Ministry officials were briefed on relations with the United States, China and Indonesia, as well as the junta’s policy toward the 2010 elections, the National League for Democracy (NLD) and how the junta would react to future demonstrations.
According to the leaked minutes of the meeting, Maj-Gen Maung Oo told Home Ministry officials that in reaction to the global influence of the US and the West, Burma would continue to pursue “strong relations” with China, but that didn't mean that the junta was pro-Beijing. “In the modern world, we cannot stand alone,” Maung Oo reportedly said.
The leaked document also revealed that the regime plans to deploy riot police in the event of future protests or civil unrest.
“The international community criticized us for using the armed forces to crack down on [last September’s] demonstrators,” the home minister is quoted as saying. “Therefore we need to reorganize our riot police.”
He also warned officials to be prepared for the coming elections in 2010.
On foreign policy, Maung Oo criticized the US for “using humanitarian issues and democracy as a policy to overthrow governments that it disliked.”
Maung Oo slammed the US for using the UN and the “Responsibility to Protect” paradigm as part of an agenda to accuse the Burmese government of “Crimes against Humanity.” He also said the UN and associate international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) were “puppets” of the US and the CIA.
According to the minutes of the meeting, Maung Oo forewarned his subordinates of the possibility of a third UN Security Council resolution on Burma and subsequent economic sanctions and an embargo.
“In the event of a third presidential statement,” Maung Oo said. “There could be a resolution that the 192 members of the UN will have to follow—led by the US.”
According to the 14-page document, Maung Oo went on to accuse the US, the UN and INGOs of pushing Burma to the top of their agendas. On the Cyclone Nargis disaster, the home minister accused US relief items of providing aid to the victims “just for show” and said the US only delivered drinking water, instant noodles and medicine.
The minister is reported to have accused international aid agencies of spending humanitarian aid money on themselves and not on the cyclone victims.
“We told them to send construction materials instead of instant food,” Maung Oo continued. “But nobody did.”
He also expressed the regime's skepticism and resentment that aid was not delivered through government channels, so the authorities could not see what was being delivered.
Regarding the US naval ships’ inability to deliver aid to cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta, Maung Oo is reported as saying that the Burmese junta denied the request because the regime believed the US military would find an excuse not to leave until after the 2010 elections.
He also pointed out that although the Burmese government calculated that about US $11.7 billion was needed in relief after Cyclone Nargis, the Tripartite Core Group—comprising the UN, Asean and the Burmese regime—only approved about $0.9 billion in aid, which was 12 times the difference of the junta’s calculations.
The ministry’s minutes of the July 6 meeting also make reference to the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). Maung Oo reportedly said the regime was “not scared” of the opposition winning the election, but said that they would have to be careful because the party was backed by the US, British and French embassies.
According to the leaked document, the home minister also referred to the diplomatic standoff between Burma and Indonesia. He reportedly confirmed that there were currently no relations between the two countries at an ambassadorial level and that the first step was for the Indonesian parliament to endorse Burma's ambassador to Jakarta.

Burma Still at Bottom of List of World’s Dirtiest Countries

Military-ruled Burma is still one of the most corrupt countries in the world, ranking just ahead of Somalia and tied with Iraq for the second-lowest spot, according to the Global Corruption Report 2008, released by Transparency International (TI) today.
A map showing levels of corruption around the world (Source: Transparency International)Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden shared the highest ranking as the world’s cleanest countries, getting the top score of 9.3 on TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks countries on a scale from 1 to 10. They were followed by Singapore, which scored 9.2.
At the opposite end of the scale was Somalia, which has dropped from a CPI score of 1.4 last year to 1.0 this year. Somalia’s slide meant that it was now regarded as more corrupt that Burma, which it tied for last place in 2007.
Although Burma now shares second-worst status with Iraq, it has also become more corrupt since last year, according to the report. Burma’s score has fallen from 1.4 to 1.3, placing it just behind Haiti at 1.4 and Afghanistan at 1.5.
In a press release, TI highlights the fatal link between poverty, failed institutions and graft.
“In the poorest countries, corruption levels can mean the difference between life and death, when money for hospitals or clean water is in play,” Huguette Labelle, the chair of TI’s board of directors, was quoted as saying in the press release.
“The continuing high levels of corruption and poverty plaguing many of the world’s societies amount to an ongoing humanitarian disaster and cannot be tolerated,” Labelle added.
In a press release dated November 1, 2007, TI singled out Burma for its severe violations of human rights, as well as its widespread corruption.
“The United Nations Security Council as well as Burma’s neighbors must increase pressure on the Burmese government to end massive human rights abuses and crack down on endemic corruption,” the release said.

Burma Releases Longest-Serving Political Prisoner

Burma's military leaders have released journalist Win Tin, the country's longest-serving political prisoner, after he spent 19 years in prison.Shortly after his release Tuesday from Insein Prison in the main city of Rangoon, the ailing 78-year-old told a group of reporters and others that he would continue his fight until the emergence of democracy in Burma.Win Tin was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for allegedly writing anti-government propaganda. His release comes as Burma also announced today the release of nine thousand and two prisoners for good behavior.Official media say the prisoners are being released so they can be turned into citizens able to participate in building a new nation. The reports added that they were freed so they could take part in what it described as the "fair election" to be held in 2010.It was not clear how many of Burma's estimated two thousand political prisoners are included in the amnesty.The elections are part of Burma's long announced road map to democracy, which will give voters the first chance to cast ballots since 1990.Western nations have dismissed the road map as a sham designed to keep the military in power.Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the military refused to acknowledge the victory.The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years.

On eve of Saffron Revolution anniversary, Burma's exiled news sites attacked

On the eve of the first anniversary of the week-long Saffron Revolution, the websites of three leading Burmese news agencies in exile have come under attack, rendering them inaccessible since the afternoon of September 17.
Distributed Denial of Services (DdoS) attacks overwhelmed the websites of the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), "The Irrawaddy" and the "New Era Journal". Under DDOS attacks, websites are flooded with so much automated requests for data that their respective systems effectively get jammed.
The websites of the three Burmese news agencies have not been responding to their requests since Wednesday afternoon.
"It is pretty certain that we are under attack. We were attacked at about 11 a.m. today," Toe Zaw Latt, chief of DVB Thailand bureau told Mizzima.com, an Alerts partner of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA). Mizzima, which is also an independent news service run by exiled Burmese in New Delhi, India, itself experienced a similar DDOS attack last July.
"The Irrawaddy" magazine, an independent news provider run by Burmese journalists exiled in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said its website has been facing problems since Tuesday evening. "We can confirm today (18 September 2008) that we are being attacked," Aung Zaw, editor-in-chief of "The Irrawaddy" told Mizzima.
The Bangkok-based "New Era Journal" also confirmed that its website is also under attack.
This is the second attack against the Oslo-based DVB in the past three months.
The webmaster of the DVB said it is difficult to determine the level of the attack, adding that they could not predict when the sites will be accessible again.
"We do not know who is behind all this, but it is certain that these are deliberate attacks," Toe Zaw Latt said.
Mizzima noted, meanwhile, that Internet speed has also been down in Rangoon since Wednesday morning between 10 am to 3 pm. As a result, several Internet cafes in downtown Yangon reportedly had to close. Sources said Internet connection only resumed at its regular speed at 6 pm.
September 18 marks the anniversary of the start of street protests in Yangon which built up to a violent military crackdown in Burma last year. Burmese journalists—both inside and outside the country—have been worried about how Burma's junta might deal with the anniversary of what has come to be known as the "Saffron Revolution".

What's changed in Burma in the past 20 years?

18 September, is the 20th anniversary of the coup that ousted the socialist regime of U Ne Win and brought the State Peace and Development Council to power following the junta's crackdown on the "Four Eights" uprising.
But the question now is how much has changed in the 20 years since the 8888 uprising? Does Burma need a new approach?
Although there have been no tangible political improvements in the past 20 years, the way people think does seem to have changed. This shift in mentality could be said to be the most significant sign of progress in the past 20 years.
"All the changes are based on the 8888 uprising. A change in ideas is a very important step towards real change," said Dr Aung Khin, a London-based historian and prominent commentator on foreign-based Burmese language radio stations. He pointed out that the willingness of many Burmese inside the country to speak out to foreign radio stations is a significant change compared with the 26 years of Ne Win's socialist era.
Ludu Sein Win, a veteran journalist in Rangoon who was jailed several times during the Ne Win era for his critical writings, agrees with Aung Khin. "Yes, we have more opportunity to speak out now. I had no opportunity to talk to the media during U Ne Win's Masala era. But now, there are many journals inside the country and you in the foreign media speak every day to Thakhins [veterans of the independence war], politicians, lawyers, activists, journalists – even farmers in the countryside," he said.
"Talking to foreign-based radio stations is the only way to take action against local authorities who abuse their power and human rights," one of Sein Win's fellow journalists in Mandalay told this correspondent. "I have seen a lot of evidence of action being taken after you aired news stories about their abuses. This is a good sign," he said.
But a lawyer in Rangoon who has been a strident critic of the military regime says this is not enough. "Yes, people more criticise the government now than ever before. But how many people is that? I don’t think it’s more than 500 people, while there are another 50 million who are still afraid of the military," the lawyer pointed out.
Aung Zaw, editor of the Irrawaddy magazine in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said this increased level of criticism should not only be directed against the military government but should also focus on pro-democracy groups. "When it comes to the culture of criticism towards each other, we are still weak when it comes to using facts and figures and we lack the skills to make the other side hear us out calmly," he said.
"But at the same time, if you look at bloggers, the internet, websites and Irrawaddy publications, we have been looking at the weaknesses of the opposition almost constantly."
But Khun Myint Tun, an MP in exile in Mae Sot, Thailand, worries about the consequences of self-criticism. "In order to be open, we must be able to criticise ourselves and our organisation. But this criticism has to be constructive; we need to be disciplined and take care not to damage our unity," he said.
However, activist-turned-political analyst Aung Naing Oo says the opposition needs strong criticism. "We talk about the faults of the military government while ignoring the faults of the opposition. At the 20-year point, if we say the movement has not been successful for one year, two years, three years, 20 years, we need to think why it has not been successful," the former Student Army leader commented.
Obviously, many Burmese are now asking themselves why they have still not achieved victory after 20 years, and why they were doomed to fail again in last September’s Saffron Revolution, despite their efforts in the 8888 uprising?
There is no shortage of questions, but the answers are harder to come by. No one can come up with a precise and commonly-agreed strategy for a final push after 20 years of sitting and waiting for outside help.
But one thing that is now clear is that many activists have lost confidence in the UN's negotiating role after special envoy Gambari's last mission. They are also beginning to lose confidence in the 20-year-long push for dialogue led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Metta [negotiation] is not enough, armed struggle is also needed," said a Buddhist monk in Rangoon who was involved in last September’s Saffron Revolution. "We do not doubt the Dhamma but the Dhamma is not as useful as a bullet-proof vest when we are facing this brutal military," the monk added with a pained expression.
These views are echoed by former military officials such as captain Sai Win Kyaw, who joined protesters in the 8888 uprising, and major Aung Lin Htut, a key member of former prime minister general Khin Nyunt's spy network and former deputy ambassador in Washington.
"We know the soldiers' mindset well – they never consider dialogue, only firepower," a former army official suggested. "Unless you have a strong, well-armed force, the SPDC will not care about you."
But a rebel leader in Thai-Burma border sees things differently. "No one supports armed struggle nowadays, only non-violent methods. If you find any donors for armed struggle, please let me know," he said with a wry smile.
Of the many armed groups, including the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front which was founded after the 8888 uprising, not one was ready to come to the aid of the monks during September’s Saffron Revolution. "Armed struggle is not easy," the rebel leader said, citing the list of nearly 1000 casualties among his comrades while thousands of others have now resettled in Western countries.
However, a defence analyst based in Thailand said numbers were not the issue. "You don't need thousands of regular troops as you did over the past two decades, but dozens of elite special forces," he suggested.
"But I not sure who the donor would be for this project," he joked, alluding to the dependence of many organisations, including armed groups, on the donors' pocketbooks. "However, it would only be about five percent of the budget of the whole exile movement," he estimated.
Whether you agree or disagree with his suggestion it is clear that we need to seriously consider why we have not yet achieved our goal after 20 years. What changes do we need to make to our policy and tactics?

Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi halts food rations boycott

Burma's detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has accepted food rations for the first time in a month.
A Burmese regime official today said a package of food left at the crumbling lakeside villa where she has spent 13 of the past 19 years was picked up yesterday evening.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD), said Suu Kyi had decided to resume collecting the supplies after the regime granted some of her demands over living conditions.
The acceptance of the food came amid concerns over the 63-year-old Nobel laureate's health. Her doctor, Tin Myo Win, examined her for four hours on Sunday and said she was malnourished after declining most of the regime's food since August 16.
Suu Kyi's lawyer, Kyi Win, said the doctor rejected suggestions the opposition leader had been staging a hunger strike. Suu Kyi and her two maids relied on the meagre food stocks they had kept at the house, he said.
Kyi Win was allowed to meet Suu Kyi four times over the past two months and discussed with the military ways in which the conditions of her detention might be relaxed.
On Friday, the regime agreed she could receive letters from her two sons and newspapers and magazines such as Newsweek and Time, and that her maids would be allow to come and go freely, although they would be searched.
"She decided to accept the food again because the authorities allowed some points of her demands," said Nyan Win, although he was unable to confirm the official's assertion that the food had been collected.
"[Suu Kyi] told her lawyer that she is not on hunger strike, but managed by eating very limited food in those days."
The partial fasting had left her weak and she needed rest, he said. However, the lawyer had relayed a message to the regime saying she would like to talk to its liaison minister, Aung Kyi, after previously declining a meeting because of her fragile condition.
As part of an earlier agreement struck with the regime, Suu Kyi - whose NLD won the 1990 election by a landslide only to see the result ignored by the junta - will receive a twice-monthly visit from Dr Tin Myo Win in future.

Fears Aung San Suu Kyi will starve to death

1. DISSIDENTS from Burma fear that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will starve herself to death.They said yesterday the Nobel Peace Laureate was definitely on a hunger strike and refusing food rations from Burma's ruling military junta as well as rescue packages from concerned supporters.
   National League for Democracy figures and exiled student leaders who have arrived on the Thai-Burma border from Rangoon this week have flagged their deep concern about Ms Suu Kyi's health.
   "She is very weak. We don't know what is going to happen at this stage," said one student leader.
   Asked if he thought Ms Suu Kyi might kill herself, he replied: "We really don't know, but she is getting weaker and it doesn't look good."
   A senior Karen National Liberation Army figure said Ms Suu Kyi's opportunity to play any role in the country's future was diminishing.
   "I would say she has no future role," said Colonel Nerdah Mya, son of the venerated General Bo Mya, who died in 2006.
   "I think she will die in jail, under house arrest," he said during an interview inside Burma surrounded by bodyguards.
   Colonel Nerdah, who has a junta-sponsored bounty on his head, conceded it would be a blow for all Burmese opposition groups if Ms Suu Kyi died.
   But should the situation change in Burma and free and fair elections be held, he said he felt she could lead the country.
   Colonel Nerdah said anyone could become president if they were the people's choice.
   "Anyone who wants to be president must be elected, anyone who wants to be a member of parliament must be elected," he said.
   "But until we get rid of the SPDC (the ruling military junta) then everything we are talking about here is just a dream. There's no point," he said.
   Ms Suu Kyi is said to have refused food for almost four weeks now, but Burma's police chief, Khin Yee, has dismissed such claims.
   The revered opposition leader won general elections in 1990 but the country's military rulers annulled the result and prevented her from assuming power.
   Her father, General Aung San, is considered to be the father of modern-day Burma.
   She has been under house arrest since 2003

Commentary: Burma must stand on its own two feet

The Burmese opposition and pro-democracy forces have lost faith in the good offices of the United Nations after Gambari's latest futile mission and its exploitation by the military regime.
Burma's key opposition party, the National League for Democracy, spoke out against UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, stating that his mission to Burma has failed to accomplish anything. People will not rely on the UN as a trustworthy body if they become too accustomed to hearing nothing but rhetoric.
On 29 August, the NLD released a statement criticising the six-day mission of Gambari to Burma from 18 to 23 August. The party states that Gambari has a mandate to realise the resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly between 1994 and 2007, namely “the implementation of the 1990 election results, the establishment of a democratic Burma, the inauguration of meaningful political dialogue and the release of all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi”. The statement also says that the recent mission of the UN special envoy has not brought about any tangible political improvement.
It is clear that Gambari's recent mission to resolve the political impasse between the military junta and detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi seems to be slowing to a complete standstill. His efforts to create reconciliation talks between the junta and the opposition have fallen apart.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the key stakeholder in the Burma issue, refused to see Gambari during his six-day trip, although he met her on his previous visits. However, the special envoy also failed to meet the senior general or vice-senior general of the country's ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council. Gambari’s total failure to accomplish anything at all during this fourth visit now raises grave uncertainties about the future of his mission and about the UN's arbitration efforts in Burma as a whole.
It is not clear that why Gambari, as a special envoy of the UN, did not follow his own agenda during his fourth trip. It was shameful to see how he danced to the SPDC's tune – meeting scores of people chosen by the junta to converse with him – but could not persuade the regime to grant him meetings with any of the regime’s decision makers. Senior General Than Shwe – who hides entrenched in the new capital Naypyidaw some 400 kilometers north of Rangoon – has been using Gambari as a pawn in his time-buying game.
Than Shwe has continued to be too pigheaded to accept the dialogue process and refuses to meet anyone who raises the issue of reconciliation talks with the Lady, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Although Gambari sought a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, he was unable to fulfil his mission as a result of following the junta's schedule. Instead he met only with puppet ministers who have no authoritative power and dishonest pro-junta agents who have no real role in politics.
The UN envoy originally planned to meet the Lady at the State Guesthouse in a meeting organised by the junta for 20 August, but she did not show up. Obviously, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did not want Mr Gambari to overplay the impression that his mission was gradually improving. Many people also take the Lady's refusal to meet the special envoy as a signal to the nation not to depend too much on international intervention. It was a call to fellow citizens to stand up in unity on their own feet.
However, the junta's mouthpiece The New Light of Myanmar exploited the event in its coverage, claiming that the UN special envoy had voiced his support for the junta's seven-step roadmap and urged the Burmese regime to ensure free and fair elections in 2010.
According to some analysts, the Nobel laureate refused to see the UN envoy before he had seen the man who calls the shots in the SPDC. She may perhaps be of the opinion that meeting with Gambari in any other circumstances would be futile as he would have no assurances from the senior general of any intention to commence a reconciliation process.
Burma has been under military rule since 1962. The regime has earned the shameful reputation of being one of the world's worst human rights violators. It brutally suppressed pro-democracy movements in 1988, on 30 May 2003 in the Depayin conspiracy and during the Saffron Revolution in September 2007. There have been many more intermittent crackdowns. The junta has arrested over two thousand political dissidents including the Nobel laureate of Burma, who has been confined to her residence for 13 of the last 19 years. Furthermore, the junta has been intensifying its crackdown on democracy supporters to protect its undemocratic 2010 elections.
Amid the disaster wrought by Cyclone Nargis, the regime held a referendum at gunpoint on 10 and 24 May this year and unilaterally declared a popular mandate for the charter which makes the military the final arbiter of the destiny of the Burmese people. The new elections planned for 2010 will legalise military rule. Needless to say, the processes will not be free and fair any more than the referendum held at gunpoint.
The socio-economic situation is deteriorating fast, and the junta is not able to cope. It will soon come face to face with a depressing future if it continues to reject the national reconciliation process being urged by the opposition National League for Democracy and United Nationalities Alliance.
The NLD and the UNA both point out that the “ratification” of the constitution staged by the junta was invalid. Both assert that it was carried out against the will of the people and with no regard for international norms for referendums. The junta has also ignored the presidential statement of the UN Security Council issued on 11 October 2007.
The regime has turned a deaf ear to successive resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly calling for a return to democracy in Burma through a tripartite dialogue between the junta led by Senior General Than Shwe, democratic forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and representatives of ethnic nationalities. From the turn of events so far it is clear that the junta has no plans to heed the UN call or to release political prisoners, a precondition to facilitate a tripartite dialogue.
Many a pro-democracy citizen in Burma no longer trusts the UN envoy or his facilitation process. Quite a lot of Burmese democrats believe that the Lady's latest political stance may effectively encourage Gambari to find a way of seeing Than Shwe. It seems to be a pragmatic approach by the Lady to show her annoyance at the protocol of the generals who had arranged a meeting with her for the UN envoy while he was only allowed to see non-authoritative, low-ranking members of the regime.
More to the point, the junta put on a show of Gambari's meeting with the infamous Union Solidarity and Development Association – a bunch of hooligans similar to Hitler's "Brown Shirts" who carried out an assassination attempt on Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on 30 May 2003 and during the course of that premeditated attack slaughtered scores of NLD supporters.
The worst is that when Gambari met with NLD members, he tried to encourage them by suggesting measures to ensure that the 2010 elections would be free and fair. But when asked about the 1990 elections he would not give an opinion. Furthermore, he did not even focus on resuming political dialogue between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the generals.
Burmese people inside and outside the country are beginning to infer that the United Nations and its special envoy Ibrahim Gambari are preparing to support the 2010 elections, with or without the participation of key political parties such as the National League for Democracy, Shan National League for Democracy and other important ethnic parties. Such an act by the UN would mean effectively approving the seven-step roadmap strategy of the military regime.
Consequently, a question has been emerging for the world body: Will the UN recognise the 2008 military-dominated constitution unilaterally approved by the junta and its consequences?

LOCKED IN BURMA

It is hard to imagine what life must be like for Aung San Suu Kyi, locked up inside her Rangoon home, separated from her children, denied visitors, her phone line cut, her mail intercepted. Burma’s opposition leader, whose 1990 election victory was annulled by the military, is now in her 13th year of detention. She has been held continually since 2003. In June she spent her 63rd birthday alone. Unconfirmed reports suggest Suu Kyi, who has suffered health problems in the past, is unwell again. Her lawyer, Kyi Win, who was allowed to see her last month, quoted her as saying: “I am tired and I need some rest.” Following her refusal of a food delivery, there is also speculation the pro-democracy campaigner and Nobel peace prizewinner has begun a hunger strike. Her lawyer said her weight had fallen below the 7st she was known to weigh in 2003.While uncertainty surrounds Suu Kyi’s plight, there is nothing at all ambiguous about Burma’s political, social and human rights situation one year after the junta brutally suppressed the Buddhist-monk-led “saffron revolution”. By almost any measure, it is distinctly worse. Last May’s Cyclone Nargis disaster played its part. But most of the deterioration is man-made.Despite last autumn’s storm of international condemnation and impassioned calls for action, the junta continues to hold more than 2,000 political prisoners, including leaders of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy such as U Win Tin, in jail since 1989. UN attempts to foster political reform have got nowhere. And trade sanctions imposed by the US and EU are being undermined by the generals’ energy deals with China, Thailand and India. Oil and gas sales topped $3.3bn last year.According to Benjamin Zawacki of Amnesty International, half a million people are internally displaced. He said the army is continuing “systematic” rights violations against Karen and other ethnic minorities including “extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, forced labour, crop destruction [and] restrictions of movement”.Amid some of the worst poverty, health problems and corruption in the world, many people now have only one wish: escape. Even long-suffering Zimbabweans have an option to flee to neighbouring countries. But the Burmese are locked in, held down by their rulers and not wanted in India, China or Thailand. With an estimated population of more than 50 million, Burma has become the world’s biggest prison camp.“The UN mission has been a complete failure,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. Since Ibrahim Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister, was appointed special envoy in May 2006, the number of political prisoners had doubled, ethnic cleansing in eastern Burma had intensified, and humanitarian aid for Cyclone Nargis victims was blocked, he said.“There has been a massive deterioration in the human rights situation. But during Gambari’s last two visits no senior member of the regime bothered to see him,” Farmaner said. “He is seen as biased towards the regime and we think he should resign. He no longer has the respect or confidence of either side.”Criticism of Gambari was also voiced by the NLD. It said his visits, the last of which ended on August 23, had produced “no positive developments”. The party said the UN envoy’s offer to help the junta organise elections in 2010 under a new constitution that the opposition rejects had undermined his independence. For her part, ill or not, Suu Kyi twice refused to meet Gambari, reportedly leaving him standing on her doorstep.Farmaner said the time had come for Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, to take personal charge before the country exploded again. He is due to visit Burma in December following talks with Asian leaders. “There have been 37 UN visits in 20 years but things just get worse. Now they need to set timelines and benchmarks which the junta must meet. The first benchmark should be the release of all political prisoners,” he said. It was also essential the UN security council fully back the process, and be ready to pass a punitive resolution if the generals did not comply.Farmaner praised Gordon Brown who he said was personally committed to ending the impasse and actively raised Burma at the UN and in other forums. But other western leaders, and countries with real leverage such as China, were less concerned now the media spotlight illuminated by last autumn’s revolt had shifted elsewhere. “There is an increasing sense of desperation,” Farmaner said. “People were very depressed after the uprising, very frightened. But there was hope that Gambari would do something. Now that hope has gone and there is even more repression than before. At the moment, the fear is stronger than the anger. But that could change.”

Burmese days: A nation faces up to its future

A year on from the 'saffron revolution', a nation faces up to its future.

The world had never seen anything like it. For an entire week last September we were riveted by the sight of hundreds, then thousands, then finally tens of thousands of Burmese monks, walking in bold defiance of the military regime through the streets of their country's towns and cities.
It was quickly dubbed "the saffron revolution" – which was wrong on both counts. Burmese monks' robes are not saffron in colour but maroon or cinnamon. And "revolution" wasn't right either. The monks had no banners, no apparent leaders, made no speeches. Nor were they aiming to seize power. They merely walked through the streets, through the teeming monsoon rain, chanting the Metta Sutta, the Buddhist scripture on unconditional love.
Like previous mass protests, the monks' rising was provoked by the callous stupidity of the regime, which suddenly slashed fuel subsidies without warning in mid-August, sending the price of petrol, kerosene and diesel rocketing by 50 per cent and overnight making life impossible for the impoverished population. People could no longer afford to ride their motorcycles or take the bus to school or to market.
The first protest, four days later, was almost invisible: a silent march through central Rangoon by veterans of the great uprising of August 1988 who had served long jail sentences but were finally free again. The authorities left them in peace and similar silent, low-key demonstrations followed in other cities. Political life in Burma is like an immense game of Grandma's footsteps. Normally, Grandma wastes no time in whisking round and sending everyone off to jail. But if she dozes, before you know it the whole country is on the move.
That's what happened one year ago. Among the other protests that sprang up was one by a group of monks in a sleepy provincial town on the Irrawaddy called Pakkoku, near the tourist centre of Bagan. When nothing bad befell them, they marched again the following day. But now Grandma sprang into life. Despite the fact that, for Burmese Buddhists, assaulting or humiliating a monk is regarded as one of the worst things you can do, police beat them with truncheons, tried to tear off their robes, tied some of them to utility poles and arrested others.
The monks of Pakkoku responded by demanding an apology and giving the authorities two weeks to deliver it. The regime ignored the demand, so when the deadline passed the monks came out on to the streets, not only in Pakkoku but across the country. And now their demonstration took on a broader meaning. As well as an apology they demanded the rescinding of the fuel price rise, the release of political prisoners and the start of a dialogue on political reform.
Within days the movement had become gigantic. On 22 September, three days after it began, hundreds of monks penetrated the razor-wire barriers shrouding the approach to the house where Aung San Suu Kyi is confined, and Burma's democracy leader came out of her front gate to greet them and chant sutras with them. Over the next two days the movement peaked when monks invited the ordinary people to join in. More than 100,000 people filled the biggest boulevard in Rangoon, marching through the pouring rain.
But the walls of Jericho did not fall down. Senior general Than Shwe, the regime's ageing strongman, did not lose his nerve. Unlike in 1988, the junta did not buckle under the pressure. Instead it flooded Rangoon and the other cities and towns with troops, forced them to swallow their inhibitions about attacking men of religion, and ordered them to let rip. In a few days it was all over. Thousands of protesters were thrown into improvised jails, many more were disrobed and forced out of their monasteries and back to their homes, and an unknown number were killed, including the Japanese journalist Nagai Kenji, gunned down on camera in central Rangoon.
It was another dreadful setback for the forces of Burmese democracy. But the crushing of the revolt, which had been widely predicted, could not erase the fact that the regime had been challenged by a new opponent, one with deep roots among the common people: the Buddhist sangha, the community of monks.
Buddhism is at the heart of the Burmese way of life, the way Catholicism was at the heart of the lives of people in rural Spain or Italy a couple of generations ago. One of the side-effects of Burma's long isolation is that this centrality has yet to be challenged as it has in Thailand or Sri Lanka, where consumer capitalism has elbowed religion aside. In Burma it remains massively central.
One can get an idea of this centrality from the ceremonies that unfold in temples all over the country in March, after the rice harvest and before the hot weather and the rains. Boys and girls dolled up to look like princes – like Prince Siddhartha, to be specific – are presented at the temples before symbolically undertaking the Buddha's way of renunciation, having their heads shaved, taking the monastic vows and entering the monastery, where for weeks or months they live as monks and learn to do the things that monks do: to meditate, to chant sutras, to walk
through the towns and villages receiving gifts of food. Practically every Burmese Buddhist boy has this experience deep in his memory, and very many of the girls, too. Many return to the temples as adults for periods of retreat and contemplation.
The power of Buddhism extends to the generals: the late dictator Ne Win, who seized power in a coup d'état in 1962, was a deeply superstitious believer, and took up meditation in later life. His successors continue to respect the forms of the religion: after their humiliation in the election of 1990, the generals went on an orgy of pagoda building, a traditional way for a ruler to acquire merit and establish legitimacy. The junta has tried for decades to stamp its authority on the sangha, which is about as large as the army in terms of manpower. Every year the generals pour contributions into monasteries they regard as well-disposed towards them.
Buddhism is of crucial importance in the politics of Burma because most of the civil institutions of the state have either withered away or been deliberately smashed by the generals: parliament, the judiciary, trade unions, most political parties, the independent media, civil society in all its forms. All that remains is the sangha. The rule of the Buddhist kings, the last rulers regarded as legitimate by devout Burmese, ended only 123 years ago. That is the authority – usurped by the British – to which all hark back.
Much of the love and respect which Aung San Suu Kyi continues to enjoy among ordinary Burmese is due to her own profession of piety and the meditation discipline that has helped to sustain her through the years of enforced solitude.
So while few expected the monks to emerge from their uprising with anything approaching a victory, the dramatic confrontation confirmed their position as the other great power in the land, the one force with which the generals must reckon. And that lesson was reinforced by the next terrible test the country had to face.
The monks' revolt did not bring the junta down but it had several consequences. One was the first formal action ever taken by the United Nations Security Council against Burma, "strongly deploring the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators"; another was the dispatching of the UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, the former Nigerian foreign minister, to Burma (he was back in the country for another visit on 20 August). A third was the decision by the junta to attempt to deflect the world's anger by submitting a new, pseudo-democratic constitution to a referendum, a step on the return to a sort of democracy – though with a large, built-in role for the military. The referendum was scheduled for 10 May.
So it was taken by many Burmese as a very bad omen – karmic payback for their assault on the monks – when, barely a week before the referendum, one of the most destructive tropical cyclones in history came howling in from the Bay of Bengal, with winds of up to 130mph, and ravaged the low-lying, fertile and densely populated Irrawaddy delta. Cyclone Nargis was one of the deadliest cyclones of all time, but we will never know how many people it killed because, when the official figure for the dead reached 130,000, the Burmese military junta (formally known as the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC) simply stopped giving updates. Some experts think the true toll from the cyclone could be more than 300,000. More than a million people were made homeless.
The regime proved no more reliable in bringing relief to the victims than in giving out statistics. Intensely paranoid about foreign designs on their country, it provoked a storm of international condemnation when it refused to admit the hundreds of foreign aid workers queuing at Burmese embassies all over the world for visas. "The country is not ready to accept foreign aid workers," a regime spokesman said. Journalists who entered the country as tourists then tried to cover the disaster were harassed and expelled. The delays in admitting aid were, according to the World Food Programme, "unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts". Meanwhile, the generals gritted their teeth and pressed ahead with the referendum – only delaying it for a few weeks in areas where bodies were still hanging from trees.
So in the absence of the stormtroopers of international relief, who could the shocked and desperate Burmese peasants turn to? "While the government has been criticised for obstructing the relief effort," wrote an unnamed correspondent for the New York Times on 31 May, "the Buddhist monastery, the traditional centre of moral authority in most villages here, proved to be the one institution that people could rely on for help. Monasteries in the delta – those still standing after the storm – were clogged with refugees. People went there with donations or as volunteers. Monasteries that served as religious centres, orphanages and homes for the elderly are now also shelters for the homeless."
The International Missionary Centre, run by a senior monk called Sitagu Sayadaw, was one of the main centres of Buddhist relief. "Trucks of rice, beans, onions, clothes, tarpaulins and cooking utensils, donated from all over Burma" arrived at the Centre, wrote one reporter. "Each day, shortly after dawn, a convoy of trucks or a barge on the Rangoon River departs for the delta, loaded with relief supplies and volunteers."
Win Min, an expert on Burmese national security who teaches at a university in northern Thailand, commented, "The monks have played a very significant role, beginning with the opening up of the temples in the delta to offer refuge for the victims ... This has certainly brought the monks and people closer. The monks have won the hearts of the people."
And so the strange shadow war that began one year ago with the army's brutal assault on monks in Pakkoku moves into a new phase. Already the regime is filling the cities with troops in case somebody has the idea of marking the anniversary of the monks' uprising. But even if it goes unmarked, the challenge of the sangha will not go away. The monks cannot and will not take up arms against the junta. As one monk on the Thai-Burmese border said to me last September, "To play a physically violent role would be far from our beliefs." But neither can a regime saturated with traditional religious ideas crush the sangha underfoot as it might wish.
A new message has appeared in Aung San Suu Kyi's garden, inscribed on a large signboard and visible to her neighbours. It appeared last month, on Martyrs' Day. The message was simple but cryptic: "All martyrs must finish their mission." Suu Kyi, in other words, will continue her resistance, and the monks must continue theirs. The struggle goes on.

Benchmarking Burma

The United Nations special envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, is expected to arrive in Rangoon in the next few days for another round of talks with the country's military regime. If his visit is to have any meaning, he must move beyond the U.N.'s traditional diplomatic niceties and make concrete demands for change.
Since 1990, U.N. envoys have made 37 visits to Burma. The Human Rights Council and General Assembly between them have passed more than 30 resolutions, and the Security Council has made two Presidential Statements. All of this has had little effect. Vague requests to the junta to engage in dialogue with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, made without any deadline, have led nowhere. She remains under house arrest, just as she has been for 12 years.
So rather than more of the same, the U.N. must present the regime with specific benchmarks for progress, 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. Mr. Gambari should insist that the junta release political prisoners before U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Burma in December. And Mr. Ban should be willing to cancel his trip if the junta doesn't comply.
Another important benchmark would be immediately ending the military offensive against civilians in eastern Burma, which has destroyed 3,200 villages and displaced more than a million people since 1996. The junta has destroyed twice as many ethnic villages as has the Sudanese regime in Darfur. Burma has the highest number of forcibly conscripted child soldiers in the world.
Setting such benchmarks with realistic deadlines would enable Mr. Gambari to evaluate the progress he is or isn't making. If the junta complies, so much the better. But if it misses the benchmarks, that would clearly signal the need for international action.
The international community could impose several powerful sanctions for failure to meet these benchmarks. One would be revoking the junta's credentials to represent Burma in world bodies like the U.N. The junta is an illegitimate government, having overwhelmingly lost elections in 1990 and proven itself negligent in its handling of Cyclone Nargis. According to the U.N., more than a million cyclone victims have still not received help. The U.N. also says the regime has been stealing millions of dollars of aid money through its below-market fixed exchange rates. The junta is unfit to govern, and there is a legitimate alternative in the form of the leaders elected in 1990 now living as a government in exile.
Beyond that, 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 centers such as Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as the European Union, should impose carefully targeted financial sanctions against the ruling generals' personal assets. And the international community should 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 should be brought to account in the International Criminal Court or through another jurisdiction.
The U.N.'s credibility is on the line to an unusual degree in Burma, given the obvious illegitimacy of the regime and the obvious harm it's doing to its people. Mr. Gambari owes it both to the Burmese people and to the U.N. to try a different, and hopefully more productive, approach on this trip.

BURMA: A LAND OF FEAR

Burma is ruled by an illegitimate military dictatorship - one of the most tyrannical the modern era has seen. A regime that refuses any democratisation of the political system, that systematically violates the most fundamental human rights, and that oppresses and exploits its population. It is a regime engaged in the perpetuation of relentless misery. Burma has been ruled by dictatorship since 1962. The regime that rules Burma today, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) came to power in 1988 following the brutal repression of a popular uprising. In response to hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets calling for democracy, the military opened fire, killing thousands. While the exact number will never be known, it is estimated that as many as 5,000 people were killed. Following international pressure the regime held an election in 1990; Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won an overwhelming 82% of the seats. However, the regime never honoured the result, disregarding the vote and strengthened its grip on power.
Today, two decades later, the people of Burma still strive for democracy. In September 2007 monks led a peaceful popular uprising across the country; thousands of civilians took to the streets calling for change. The regime responded with bullets, killing dozens, possibly hundreds and arresting thousands. In May 2008 the brutality of the regime was demonstrated once more as they blocked international aid from reaching the 2.4 million survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
Today Burma is ruled by a regime that:
Rules through fear. The regime uses rape as a weapon of war against ethnic women and children.
Prioritises guns over human development. Burma is the only country in Asia whose defence budget is greater than that of health and education combined.
Has no respect for Human Rights. Severe human rights abuses are routinely committed by the Burmese regime, including murder, torture, rape, detention without trial and massive forced relocations.
Arrests and tortures its critics. Today there are nearly 2,000 political prisoners in Burma. Many are routinely tortured. Burma’s democracy leader, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been under arrest for over 12 years.
Systematically uses forced labour. Men, women and children are routinely forced to work for the army and in construction projects – often imposed with the threat of physical abuse, beatings, torture, rape and murder.
Uses more child soldiers than any other country in the world. There are at least 70,000 child soldiers today in Burma.
Terrorises its own people. The regime’s campaign of terror against any opposition and minority groups has created an estimated one and a half million internally displaced people.
Pursues policies of Ethnic Cleansing. Over the past twelve years, 3,000 villages have been destroyed in Eastern Burma by the ruling military regime.

BURMA RIPOFF

The United Nations on Thursday finally acknowledged that over the past three months some $1.56 million in aid for the victims of Cyclone Nargis has been lost to "odd" Burmese foreign exchange regulations.
"The loss in value due to foreign exchange for the Cyclone Nargis international humanitarian aid during the last three months has been about $1.56 million," said Daniel Baker, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Burma.
"We are not getting the full value of dollars donated for emergency relief, and donors are extremely worried and keen to see that this issue is resolved," said Baker, in the latest UN update on relief efforts for Cyclone Nargis.
UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes had raised concerns about the loss during his first visit to the country last month.
Under Burma's foreign exchange controls, all foreign agencies must convert their dollars in to Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs) at government banks before making local purchases.
A sharp devaluation of the FECs against the dollar between May to July meant the UN and various non-governmental organizations providing relief to victims of Cyclone Nargis, were losing up to 20 to 25 per cent on the FEC exchange rate.
The Burmese military government has apparently refused to drop its foreign exchange requirements, which have been in place for decades, but recommended that UN agencies and NGOs make direct dollar transfers when making purchases in the country, as a means of skirting the FEC use.
The FEC system was put in place to assure that official transactions put dollars in the state banking system and got them out of the ubiquitous black market.
Attracting international aid for the relief effort for Cyclone Nargis, which smashed into central Burma on May 2-3 leaving about 140,000 people dead or missing, has already been complicated by the government's initial reluctance to allow supplies in to the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta and its refusal to grant visas to foreign aid workers.
The refusal to lift its foreign exchange requirements of monetary aid was deemed another barrier to donations for the Cyclone Nargis effort.
The UN had made flash appeals for approximately $500 million in emergency aid for the cyclone's victims.
The country has been cut off from aid from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and Asian Developemnt Bank and from bilateral aid from most western countries since 1988, when the army cracked down on a pro-democracy movement, killing an estimated 3,000 people.

Myanmar gem merchants dismiss US embargo threat

Thousands of sapphires, rubies, diamonds, emeralds, jade and other gems glitter in long glass display cases as merchants haggle with professional buyers — most of them foreigners — and tourists.
Business is good here at the sales center of the Myanmar Gems Museum, despite legislation signed by President Bush last month to ban the import of rubies and jade into America. Yangon gem sellers dismissed the sanction against their government as a symbolic gesture unlikely to have much impact on their lucrative trade.
"Our buyers are almost all from China, Russia, the Gulf, Thailand, India and the European Union, and we can barely keep up with their demand," said Theta Mar of Mandalar Jewelry, a store in the museum gem shop, where prices range from a few hundred dollars to about $18,000 for the best rubies.
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, produces up to 90 percent of the world's rubies and is a top international supplier of other gems and jade. The government-controlled sector, often criticized for harsh working conditions and poor environmental controls, is a major source of export revenue for the military.
No recent or reliable official statistics on the gemstone trade are publicly available, but analysts and human rights groups say it likely brings the military regime between $300 million and $400 million a year.
The embargo on gems is the latest U.S. move to apply financial pressure on the junta. Many Western nations have instituted economic and political sanctions against the military government, which seized power in 1988, violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations by monks last September and hindered foreign aid after a devastating cyclone in May.
The U.S. bill bans all import of gems from Myanmar. U.S. officials say Myanmar had been evading earlier gem-targeting sanctions by laundering the stones in third countries before they were shipped to the United States.
The United States also has been trying to persuade the U.N. Security Council to consider introducing international sanctions, and has demanded that the junta release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.
Exiled Myanmar pro-democracy activists hailed the new U.S. measure.
"This legislation sends a strong signal to Burma's military regime that the United States stands firmly on the side of my country's democracy movement," said Aung Din, co-founder of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma, which lobbies for political change.
However, the junta has not issued an official response. And local officials have privately told foreign diplomats the embargo will have no effect on the sector's foreign sales unless the wider international community joins in.
Such a move seems unlikely anytime soon. Although the European Union has edged closer to the punitive U.S. position toward Myanmar's military rulers, Yangon's regional trading partners — China, India and members of the Association of Southeast Asian States — have argued that engaging the junta will be more productive in the long run than isolating it through sanctions.
Foreign diplomats also have pointed out that sanctions would primarily impact disadvantaged minorities, who live in many of the gem mining areas of Myanmar.
So the gem trade continues to thrive. Myanmar's rubies, and particularly the rare "Pigeon Blood" stones, are highly prized on international markets because of their unique deep color. The country's precious jadeite deposits produce the dark green "Imperial Jade" that is sought-after in China and other countries in the region.
The junta holds regular gem auctions for foreign merchants during which it sells thousands of lots of valuable stones, which are said to generate upward of $100 million in foreign currency per sale. The last such event, held in November, drew more than 3,600 foreign buyers.
"We are not concerned (by the U.S. embargo)," Myint Myint Cho of the Min Thiha Jewelry Shop in downtown Yangon told a reporter. "We are not thinking of it at all."

Myanmar police arrest opposition party executive

Police in Myanmar's western Rakhine state arrested a member of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party Tuesday, a party official said.
"Nyi Pu was taken from his home early Tuesday morning," said Thein Naing, a senior official of the National League of Democracy in Rakhine.
"Police said they want to question him but it is not clear what they want to know," he said.
Police could not be contacted for more information on the arrest, because it was unclear exactly which officers detained Nyi Pu and where he was being held. Myanmar police also do not usually release statements.
Nyi Pu's arrest came four days after the anniversary of 1988 pro-democracy protests that were violently suppressed by the military. The only public demonstration known to have taken place in Myanmar to mark the occasion Friday took place in Rakhine.
Nyi Pu is the chairman of the Taunggok branch of the NLD party. Authorities detained 48 demonstrators who took part in Friday's peaceful march through the township, but released all but five the same day.
Taunggok and other parts of Rakhine state are hotbeds of anti-government sentiment. Buddhist monks in the area joined pro-democracy rallies that swelled into nationwide protests last September.
At least 31 people were killed in the country's largest city, Yangon, when the military crushed last year's protests, sparking global outrage. Rakhine has hosted some of the bigger pro-democracy protests held in Myanmar in the past year, while most of the country remains subdued.
Authorities also arrested prominent human rights activist Myint Aye, who has been arrested and imprisoned at least five times in the past 20 years.
No reason was given for the arrest on Friday.
The Aug. 8, 1988 protests brought down longtime dictator Ne Win, but a new group of generals replaced him and brutally crushed demonstrations in September, killing an estimated 3,000 people.
The protests propelled Suu Kyi, daughter of independence hero Aung San, into the political limelight, and led to the founding of her National League for Democracy to challenge army rule.
Elections were held in 1990, but the military refused to recognize the NLD's landslide victory. Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has spent more than 12 of the past 19 years in detention and is currently under house arrest in Yangon.

Burma's detained pro democracy leader granted meeting with lawyer

Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed a rare meeting with her lawyer to discuss her ongoing house arrest.A spokesman for her party says, this is the first time such meeting since 2004.The surprise meeting at her home comes a day after the new UN human rights envoy for Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana left the country after his first visit.Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for most of the last 19 years.

Burma Releases Dissidents Arrested During Protest
Burma's opposition says the military government has released 43 of 48 activists detained Friday for a protest marking the 20th anniversary of the August 8, 1988 democracy uprising.Thein Naing, a member of the National League for Democracy in the northwest state of Rakhine, told reporters Saturday that the dissidents were detained while peacefully marching in the town of Taunggok.He said there was no word on five others, but he hoped the government would release them quickly.President George Bush met Thursday with Burmese activists and refugees in Thailand. A State Department spokesman, Gonzalo Gallegos, said the president reiterated the U.S. commitment to support Burmese efforts to achieve democracy in their country.
Protesters commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Burmese pro-democracy uprising, in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manila's financial district of Makati, Philippines, 08 Aug 2008Demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the uprising were held outside the country Friday. Rallies were held in Manila, Bangkok and at a Burmese refugee camp visited by Laura Bush on Thursday.Armed guards were posted at several important sites in Rangoon, including the famed Shwedagon pagoda, Burma's holiest shrine. Security has tightened in Burma since the military's harsh crackdown on protests last year in which 31 people were killed.Millions of Burmese took to the streets in 1988 to protest the ruling military, which had been in power since 1962. The uprising brought down longtime military ruler Ne Win, but the military eventually regained control after a bloody crackdown that left an estimated 3,000 people dead.

Burmese junta arrest 48 on uprising anniversary eve

Burma's junta have arrested 48 activists during a protest march marking 20 years since the army crushed a pro-democracy uprising, killing 3,000 people.

Last Updated: 3:26AM BST 09 Aug 2008

Demonstrators outside the Chinese embassy in London commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Burmese uprising which left 3,000 people dead on August 8th 1988 Photo: EPA
Police and militia have staged a show of force in Burma on the eve of the 20th anniversary of a major uprising which left 3,000 civilians dead.
The demonstrators, mainly young men in T-shirts bearing the numbers 8-8-88 - a reference to the August 8, 1988 nationwide revolt - staged a silent walk through the northwest town of Taunggok before being stopped by a police barricade.
"They were all picked up and are being questioned at the moment," Ko Thein Naing, a local official from the opposition National League for Democracy.
Hundreds of police and pro-government militia deployed near the landmarks in the capital Rangoon.
Buddhist monasteries, which were the focal point of pro-democracy protests by monks last year, were being closely monitored.
The military rulers fear a repeat of the 1988 demonstrations which lasted six weeks and saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets.
The protests saw the rise of Aung San Suu Kyi to the forefront of the country's pro-democracy movement.
Last night, additional barriers and a fire engine were stationed outside the home of the Nobel laureate, who has been under house arrest for more than 11 of the past 18 years.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy party, said the anniversary marked "an important historical turning point".
The presence of troops on the streets was the only sign of the anniversary inside a country where the population is still struggling to survive in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis which killed at least 130,000 people in May. But protests flared outside Burmese embassies in other Asian capitals.
In Bangkok, democracy activists demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy, accusing China of supporting the Burmese generals.
"We are here because China is the main supporter of the military regime," said Kyaw Lin Oo, an activist. "We want the Chinese government to understand the actual cost of their support to the people inside of Burma."
But in Rangoon, Min Aung, a dissident, said little could be achieved by protests which once threatened to topple the regime.
"I've totally lost hope that change will come through mass protests," he said. "It's difficult to organise protests now because most of the leaders are in jail or in hiding."
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who met Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein in Beijing ahead of the Olympic Games, said he hoped Myanmar could sort out its problems "through democratic negotiation", China's official Xinhua news agency said.
"China will continue to follow a good-neighbourly policy towards Myanmar, and work with the international community to help Myanmar overcome difficulties," Xinhua quoted Mr Wen as saying.