Suu Kyi to meet party colleagues

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military government announced that it will allow detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet her party's officials Friday, the first such meeting in more than three years.

The announcement on state radio and television news Thursday came hours after U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari left Myanmar, saying he had made progress in his six-day mission to promote a dialogue between the junta and Suu Kyi.
Aung Kyi, the government minister in charge of relations with Suu Kyi, will see her first to make arrangements for the meeting, state media said.
Suu Kyi has been detained since May 2003, and has not seen fellow executive members of her National League for Democracy since May 2004.
There had been signs that Gambari's trip did not go well, including his failure to be received by the junta chief, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, and the military government's rejection of Gambari's proposal of a three-way meeting involving Suu Kyi, a junta member and himself.

The government invited Gambari to return to Myanmar, and he expects to do so in the next few weeks, said a statement posted on the Web site of the U.N. Information Center for Myanmar at the conclusion of the envoy's visit.
The statement also said Suu Kyi, who has been detained continuously since 2003, has authorized Gambari to make a statement on her behalf, although it did not say when he would do so. Gambari met Suu Kyi for an hour just before his departure Thursday from Myanmar.

The statement would apparently be the first message from Suu Kyi since she was detained, and would be the first chance to gauge her reaction to September's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators and the U.N. mediation efforts afterward.

"We now have a process going which would lead to substantive dialogue" between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi, said the U.N. statement.
"The sooner such a dialogue can start, the better for Myanmar," said the statement, issued after Gambari departed for Singapore en route to U.N. headquarters in New York.

Ref: AP

SASANA MOLIA EVENTS ON SATURDAY AT NY

SASANA MOLIA memorial service and sermon by the International Burmese Monks Organization
There will be a memorial service and sermon to be given by the members of International Burmese Monks Organization.
Date: Saturday, 10, November 2007

Venue: 777 UN Plaza (corner of 44th Street and 1st Ave.)New York, NY 10017 (2nd Floor)

The members of sangha will be officiating the memorial service to recognize thepeople of Burma who have given their lives for justice, peace and democracy in that country.The detailed programs are as follows:

10:00 – 11:30 AM: Meal offering to the members of Sangha
11:30 – 12:30 PM: Memorial Service
1:00 – 4:00 PM: Sermon by the Sasana Moli Sayadaws
Please Note: Refreshments will be served to the attendees between 10:30-11:30 AM.
International Campaign for Burma (ICB - New York).
For further information,

please contact: Ko Ye Htut (347) 226-0572 Ko Kyaw Zwar Lwin (917) 478-7086 Ko Zeyar Win (917) 834-6590 Ko Zaw Win (917) 238-8273 Ko Kyaw Thu (646) 404-4831 Ma Sandi (917) 445-9222 Ma Shwe War (347) 229-4309 Ma May Thet (917)586-1726 Ko Aung Khant (516) 808-1515 Ko Aung Min Htun (917) 415-7809 Ko Zaw Latt (718) 864-2032

CRY, BELOVED BURMA

VIEW: Cry, beloved Burma -U Gambira And Ashin Nayaka

As monks, we believe in alleviating suffering wherever we see it, as part of the vows we have taken. We could not ignore our people’s suffering. We formed the Sangha Coalition when we saw that the country’s monks were unitedReligious orders of monks have been the face of Burma ever since Buddhism was introduced here more than 1,000 years ago. For a monk to involve himself in politics or to hold a political post is contrary to the ethical code of Theravada Buddhism. But in Burma today, this spiritual philosophy, rooted in compassion and non-violence, has assumed unexpected dimensions of defiance and recalcitrance, as monks challenge the hegemony of the military junta that rules our country.We are both Burmese Buddhist monks — a leader of the All Burma Sangha Coalition that led the recent protests, and a scholar teaching in the United States. One of us is in hiding today, because Burma’s military government met the peaceful protests of our Buddhist brothers and sisters with violence and brutality.Many monks and nuns have been abused and beaten, and thousands who have been arrested endure continued brutality. More than 1,000 are missing, and many are presumed dead.A few weeks ago, Burma’s monks began to march and pray and spread loving kindness in an effort to solve our nation’s problems peacefully. Burma is a country rich in natural resources, but its people are poor. When the government suddenly and capriciously increased the price of fuel by as much as 500% overnight, everyone was affected — and made even more desperate. As monks, we believe in alleviating suffering wherever we see it, as part of the vows we have taken. We could not ignore our people’s suffering. We formed the Sangha Coalition when we saw that the country’s monks were united.Those of us who are studying and teaching abroad share this unity, and have rallied to the support of those of us in Burma. And it is not only the monks who are united. When we started our peaceful marches for change, students, youth, intellectuals, and ordinary people joined us in the streets, in the rain.We thought that we could appeal to some, if not all, of the generals — Buddhists themselves — who control our country to join us in trying to right the many ills befalling Burma. At first, we tried to show our displeasure with military rule by refusing to receive alms from them. We turned our begging bowls upside down as a gesture of our feelings. We have not lost our loving kindness towards ordinary soldiers, nor even towards the leaders who ordered them to brutalise their own people, but we wanted to urge them to change while there was still time. We know that some people in the army and organisations close to the regime have been reluctant to use violence against the monks. We want to tell the people who are violent towards their own countrymen to stop and think whether their actions are in accordance with the dharma, whether they are acting for the good of Burma’s people. Some of the soldiers who were ordered to beat us and to stop us from marching actually refused to do so, because they understood the truth of what we were doing.We hoped to create a way out for the military leaders, a way to start a real dialogue with the people’s leaders and the leaders of ethnic groups, for the unity of the nation. But that hope was short-lived. The regime is now hunting down those who participated in the demonstrations and committing unspeakable acts of violence. They have attacked monasteries and arrested monks and nuns by force. Guards are everywhere, on all the streets, around the pagodas and residential areas. Wounded demonstrators are reported to have been buried alive in mass graves, and there are confirmed reports of bodies washing ashore in the waterways near Yangon (Rangoon). The regime is brutalising the Burmese people, and lying to the world about its actions.Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, a representative of the military, recently told UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari that the marchers in the streets were “bogus monks.” But we are genuine, and thousands of us — from Rangoon, Mandalay, Pegu, Arakan, Magwe, and Sagaing — demonstrated for peace. Some have said that the uprising in Burma is over. That is what the junta wants the world to think. But we believe that the protests represent the beginning of the end of military rule in our country. The generals who ordered the crackdown are assaulting not only Burma’s people, but also their own hearts, souls, and spiritual beliefs. The monks are the preservers of dharma; by attacking them, the generals attack Buddhism itself.We know that the international community is trying to help us, but we need that help to be more effective. We thank the many people and organisations abroad who are helping us regain the rights denied to us for more than 40 years. But we also appeal to the international community to make its actions practical and effective. The military government will do anything to remain in power, and their violent acts must be exposed to the world. They may control the streets and monasteries, but they will never be able to control our hearts and our determination.

U Gambira is the pseudonym of one of the leaders of the All Burma Sangha Coalition; Ashin Nayaka is founder of the Buddhist Missionary Society and a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University

NO LONGER THE GENERALS' BURMA

No Longer the Generals' Burma
Published in The Washington Post
by Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director

In 1988, the people of Burma launched a nonviolent struggle for democracy and were met with gunfire. I was working for Sen. Pat Moynihan, about the only prominent American to notice then what was happening in that isolated country. One day, after the Senate passed its first-ever resolution on Burma, a photo arrived in our office showing a column of Burmese marching with a banner reading: "Thank you Senator Moynihan." We were proud but profoundly sad. We knew that our meager words could not keep those brave people from being killed or their movement from being crushed. Today, Burma's military dictators have again met demands for human rights, this time from Buddhist monks, with force. Some believe that another Burmese Spring has been extinguished, and that we can do little to help. I disagree. The most recent peaceful uprising reflects fundamental changes within Burma and the wider world. Its implications won't be felt for some time but can be guided by the right international response. We should have no illusions about what is going on in Burma. Soldiers are hunting down leaders of the protest movement and torturing them. Revered Buddhist monasteries are being occupied; the monks are being defrocked, beaten and sometimes killed. Government newspapers demand unity against "neo-colonialist stooges" and "killers in the airwaves" -- the Western radio stations that Burmese depend on for news. People are afraid. But the government also has reason to worry. By attacking monasteries, it has created a problem it cannot solve: These sacred spaces cannot be shut forever (any more than Poland's communist government could have closed its Catholic churches); when they reopen, dissent will reemerge. Through the Internet, Burma's dissidents are more connected to each other and the world than ever before. The leadership is more disconnected from its people, and from reality, holed up in a bizarre new capital in the jungle. Meanwhile, Burma's neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations no longer stand by the generals; they have expressed "revulsion" over the violence. The UN Security Council, where China vetoed a resolution on Burma nine months ago, has demanded, with China's consent, that Burma release political prisoners. It has sent an envoy to mediate the only solution that appears realistic -- a negotiated political transition in which the military saves some of its status and face. What will induce Burma's generals to listen? Sanctions -- imposed by only a few countries -- have not convinced them before. Skeptics point out that if Western oil companies leave Burma, Asian companies will vie to take their place. If the United States and Europe stop buying Burmese gems and hardwood, others will fill the gap. Yet the generals are vulnerable. Whether they get rich from gas, gems, timber or narcotics deals, the revenue is usually deposited in hard currency (since Burmese cash is worthless) in accounts in such places as Singapore and Dubai. That cash generally can't be used internationally without passing through the US or European banking system, where it can be blocked, as President Bush announced Friday that the administration would try to do. America and Europe can persuade, or compel, the banks themselves to freeze the junta's accounts. Diplomats and foreign policy experts sometimes discount sanctions because -- like most of us -- they don't understand the arcane world of global finance. But targeted financial sanctions have become highly sophisticated. For example, decades of generalized trade restrictions against North Korea had little impact -- but when the United States, acting alone, caused one foreign bank to freeze one account belonging to North Korea's leaders, Kim Jong Il came to the nuclear negotiating table pretty fast. Even hermit kings can't afford to have their credit cards frozen, as Burma's rulers may soon learn. The alternative some suggest is to flood Burma with aid to raise living standards. But Burma's rulers are not like those in South Korea, where growing prosperity contributed to political opening -- they have deliberately neglected the country's schools and health care. They have squashed private initiative while building a system that works splendidly for them: No one can prosper without their permission. Outside aid might help some Burmese survive. But to think it can bring prosperity (much less spur political change) is naive. There is one problem with smart sanctions: The only policy that can work with Burma requires sustained attention that no administration has yet been willing to provide. Senior people in Washington will have to work seven days a week tracking Burmese money around the world while simultaneously managing complex, multiparty diplomacy. But here is something else that is new: The American president cares about Burma and is energizing his administration to act. And he should: Burma is one place where America remains largely admired; where the administration doesn't have to choose between the best of bad options; where it can still leave a legacy of nurturing democracy. Those who mistrust -- legitimately -- Bush's approach to the world should not be cynical about his efforts on Burma or the possibility of success if other nations do their part. The main obstacle to a successful Burma policy is the belief that we are as powerless today as we were 20 years ago. Let the generals hiding in their jungle fortress believe that nothing in the world has changed. And let us prove them wrong.

Activists tell of Myanmar 'witch hunt'

Activists tell of Myanmar 'witch hunt'
For media: Download audio and watch video of eyewitnesses and activists (17 October)
Older video: Footage of the demonstration in London on 6 October (RealPlayer) Footage of the repression in Myanmar, 27 Sept. demo in London and Amnesty International's call (RealPlayer) Footage of the protests in Myanmar (RealPlayer) AI activists demonstrate in London (27 Sept.) (RealPlayer)(last updated 19 October)
Monks and activists in Myanmar have told Amnesty International of the brutal repression suffered by anti-government protesters in the country.A series of interviews with prominent activists, including Mie Mie, Htay Kywe and Nay Tin Myint, have exposed government tactics of ongoing night raids, arbitrary arrests and appalling detention conditions.These first-hand accounts follow last weekend's detention of six people, including Htay Kywe, Mie Mie, Aung Thu, Aung Gyi and and young activist Zaw Htet Ko Ko, all members of the 1988 Generation Students group. "We have seen police asking for money from families of detainees if they want their family members to be released. Young people who are on their way to offices and schools are not only stopped and checked but also robbed," said Mie Mie shortly before her arrest. Burmese who had fled to the Thai-Myanmar border described violence by riot police against marchers and onlookers, including women and monks."Some of the injured were so bloody that you couldn't tell where blood was coming from. Some of the monks lost the top part of their robes. I saw civilians trying to help an injured monk. Most of their injuries were head injuries. The riot police were aiming for the head," said a 31 year-old monk who witnessed confrontations between protesters and police at Shwe Dagon pagoda on 26 September.Shortly before his arrest, Htay Kywe said, from hiding, that "the international community must stand clearly to prevent further violations." He also called on "the international community to help as much as it can" to prevent further violations.Htay Kywe, Mie Mie, Aung Thu, Aung Gyi and Zaw Htet Ko Ko were involved in the early protest marches in August, but were soon forced into hiding as the authorities launched a manhunt for those they perceived as the leaders of the protests, in particular Htay Kywe. On 21 August, 13 key activists of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested in an overnight operation.
Demonstrations around the worldSlideshow: Amnesty International leads protests across the globe on 6 October(see also the pictures from the end of September)
The release on Wednesday of famous comedian and former prisoner of conscience, Zargana, was overshadowed by emerging reports that a growing number of those arrested in the crackdown have been sentenced to jail or labour camps in highly flawed proceedings, including in hastily convened courts behind prison walls.State press has earlier warned that those held over the protests could face jail sentences. The New Light of Myanmar warned on 9 October, "Anyone who is detained for his violation of law must be charged and serve prison terms if he is found guilty."Continued arrests fly in the face of the promises made last week by the Myanmar authorities to cooperate with the United Nations. On 11 October, the UN Security Council strongly deplored the violent crackdown and stressed the importance of the early release of all political prisoners.Up to now, the Myanmar state media has indicated that nearly 3,000 people have been arrested and more than 2,500 have been released, but the true number of people still in detention is likely much higher. At the time of writing, arrests continue to be reported. In their announcements, the Myanmar authorities have also failed to provide details about who has been detained, where people are held, in what conditions and why they have been arrested. There are continued disturbing reports of searches, surveillance and harassment of people who took part in the protests. Threats are reportedly also made to family members and neighbours of suspected protesters. Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has reported that a detained member of the National League for Democracy, the main opposition party, died as a result of torture during interrogation. Ko Win Shwe, 42, was reportedly arrested with four others on 26 September because of their participation in demonstrations.Despite Zargana's release, his fellow comedian Par Par Lay, and many others continue to be denied their freedom.
Read the stories of the two comediansAmnesty International has condemned the use of violence against peaceful protestors and is seriously concerned at the safety of all those detained across the country. The organisation has called on the authorities to ensure that detainees are not subjected to torture or any other ill-treatment and are released immediately.Read more:Myanmar: New video and audio testimony of 'witch hunt' and brutal repression (Press Release, 17 October 2007)Myanmar: UN Security Council must focus on concrete action (Press Release, 11 October 2007)Myanmar: Security Council must follow up the recent visit by Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari (Press Release, 5 October 2007)Myanmar: Global demonstrations to support peaceful protestors (Press Release, 5 October 2007)Human Rights Council deplores Myanmar repression (News, 2 October 2007)UN must impose arms embargo on Myanmar (Web Feature, 1 October 2007)Myanmar: Prompt action needed from ASEAN countries (Press Release, 27 September 2007)Myanmar: UN Security Council must increase the pressure (Press Release, 27 September 2007)Myanmar: UN Security Council must deploy urgent mission (Press Release, 25 September 2007)Myanmar’s Political Prisoners: A Growing Legacy of Injustice (Report, 16 June 2005)
Take action!
Please urgently send emails, faxes or letters in English or your own language. You may wish to use the suggested text below which you may cut and paste into your message.
Dear Minister
I am deeply concerned by the reports that thousands of monks and other peaceful protesters, including well-known activists Htay Kywe, Mie Mie, Aung Thu, Aung Gyi, Zaw Htet Ko Ko and comedian Par Par Lay, have been detained.
I strongly urge the Myanmar authorities to release them and those connected to them immediately and unconditionally, unless they are to be charged with recognizably criminal offences. I call on the authorities to ensure that, while they remain in custody, all the detainees are held only in official places of detention, and are given immediate access to lawyers, their families and any medical treatment they may require. I also call on the authorities to ensure that the detainees are not subjected to torture or any other ill-treatment.
I also call on the authorities to release the estimated 1,150 political prisoners from before the start of the crackdown two months ago, including senior political representatives of the ethnic minorities, NLD members and young activists.
I call on the authorities to ensure that all people in Myanmar are able to peacefully exercise the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly without fear of harassment, intimidation or arbitrary detention, in line with international human rights standards.
Yours Sincerely


You can copy and paste this sample letter into an e-mail or a document to print out. If you are planning to write your own appeal please read our letter writing guide.
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Foreign Minister Nyan Win Ministry of Foreign Affairs Naypyitaw Union of Myanmar
Fax: +95 1 222 950 OR +95 1 221 719
E-mail: mofa.aung@mptmail.net.mm
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In a Southern State,Immigrants' Son Takes Over

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 21 — The first words from Bobby Jindal to his supporters after he won the Louisiana governor’s race on Saturday night were not about his victory, but L.S.U.’s triumph over Auburn the same day.
The message could not have been clearer: I’m one of you, a normal, red-blooded football-loving Louisiana guy. It is a theme that seems to have informed the youthful Republican congressman’s every step, from his decision at age 4 to jettison his given name of Piyush for that of a character in the television series “The Brady Bunch” to the attentive faith-infused courting of conservatives that led to his victory on Saturday with 54 percent of the vote.
Mr. Jindal’s reach for normalcy only highlights, though, what is glaringly obvious to anyone who sees and hears the slight 36-year-old son of immigrants from India. He is a highly unusual politician, becoming the nation’s first Indian-American governor in a Southern state where race is inseparable from politics.
Still, Mr. Jindal offered something few others could to a state that is on its knees. Louisiana is more desperate than ever, a place where the glaring needs of its citizens evidently trumped considerations of race and ethnicity.
He has taken an already lengthy public policy résumé, mostly in health care, along with sterling educational credits (Brown University and Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar) and come back home instead of using his credentials as a ticket to escape, as many other accomplished Louisianans do.
Louisiana — largely impoverished, undereducated and unhealthy — has been left behind by whatever national prosperity has accrued in recent decades. Hurricane Katrina only knocked it back further. Mr. Jindal, outside the Louisiana mainstream but within the well-to-do 21st-century American one, seemed to offer a ticket to the latter.
Mr. Jindal is a technocrat and a Roman Catholic convert, a policy aficionado well-versed in free-market solutions to the crisis in health insurance and a proponent of “intelligent design” as an alternative theory to evolution, suggesting it may be appropriate in school science classes.
His ascent has delighted many Indian-Americans, who have never seen one of their own elected to such a high political position. Sanjay Puri, chairman of the U.S.-India Political Action Committee, predicted that Mr. Jindal would surprise doubters with the depth of his understanding on policy issues. Others, however, are cautious, saying that Mr. Jindal is out of the mainstream on issues that matter to Indian-Americans.
“The fact that he’s of Indian ancestry is a subject of jubilation,” said Vijay Prashad, professor of South Asian history at Trinity College in Hartford, speaking of the way Mr. Jindal has been portrayed in the Indian-American press. “But there’s a very shallow appreciation of who he really is. Once you scratch the surface, it’s really unpleasant.”
Mr. Jindal’s platform, though conscientiously detailed, was hardly revolutionary, and the campaign itself was a study in caution. Louisiana’s rickety fiscal structure went mostly ignored. And Mr. Jindal, intent on not jeopardizing a big lead in the polls, shunned reporters.
Though he was criticized during the campaign for talking relatively little about hurricane recovery in still-suffering New Orleans, he said Sunday he hoped to secure more federal assistance for homeowners and planned to meet with President Bush to discuss the region’s needs.
Piyush Jindal was born on June 10, 1971, in Baton Rouge to Hindu parents who had come to the United States six months before so his mother could pursue a graduate degree in nuclear physics at Louisiana State University. His father was an engineer from the Punjab region of India, the only one of nine siblings to attend high school. The younger Jindal, growing up in Baton Rouge, was not expected to come home from school with anything less than 100 on tests. Public high school in Baton Rouge was followed by Brown, where Mr. Jindal was Phi Beta Kappa, and a conversion to Roman Catholicism that Mr. Jindal has described in transformative terms. “I draw my definition of integrity from my Christian faith,” Mr. Jindal said during the campaign. “In my faith, you give 100 percent of yourself to God.”
“But we live in a pluralistic state,” he was careful to add.
After Oxford, a well-paid stint at the Washington consultants McKinsey and Company was followed by an interview for the job of secretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals with the newly elected Republican governor of Louisiana, Mike Foster, in 1995. Mr. Jindal was 24; it was the biggest department in state government, and it was in serious financial trouble. He got the job despite Mr. Foster’s initial skepticism, made cuts and restored the department to financial stability; Louisiana still has one of the highest percentages of uninsured, however.
More high-level jobs followed in quick succession: chairman of a bipartisan Medicare reform commission in Washington, head of the statewide University of Louisiana system, assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services under Mr. Bush.
He and his wife, Supriya, returned to Louisiana to so he could run for governor in 2003. The Jindals have three young children, Celia, Shaan and Slade.
During that campaign, Mr. Jindal attacked liberals in radio advertisements and talked up his connections to Mr. Bush. The so-called bubba vote was nonetheless against him that year and he lost to the current governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who has chosen not to run again.
Mr. Jindal was elected to Congress from the New Orleans suburbs in 2004, and it was common knowledge that he was biding his time for another run at the governor’s mansion. His short time in Washington was unobtrusive, and he continued to campaign at home while others in the state’s Congressional delegation established a more forceful presence as hurricane recovery efforts unfolded.
Mr. Jindal’s biggest test comes now. Failure to lift Louisiana would be obvious. He said he arrived in Baton Rouge intent on “cleaning up the corruption” and determined to “show the voters and the entire country that we are serious about changing our reputation.”
Legislators in Huey Long’s state Capitol are sensitive to such suggestions, however. Mr. Jindal’s honeymoon could be short.

referrenced by: NYtimes

About BURMA

Country profile: Burma

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is ruled by a military junta which suppresses almost all dissent and wields absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions.
The generals and the army stand accused of gross human rights abuses, including the forcible relocation of civilians and the widespread use of forced labour, which includes children.

OVERVIEW

A popular uprising was forcibly crushed in 1988 and mass demonstrations were not seen again until 2007, when a small string of protests about living standards gained momentum among a public normally too cowed to voice any dissent.

Politics: Burma has been under military rule since 1962; the regime stifles almost all dissent
Economy: Burma is one of Asia's poorest countries; its economy is riddled with corruption
International: Burma is seen as a pariah state by the West, which maintains sanctions; China is its main ally

Timeline

Prominent pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has had various restrictions placed on her activities since the late 1980s.
Her party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in 1990 in Burma's first multi-party elections for 30 years, but has never been allowed to govern.
Military-run enterprises control key industries, and corruption and severe mismanagement are the hallmarks of a black-market-riven economy.
The armed forces - and former rebels co-opted by the government - have been accused of large-scale trafficking in heroin, of which Burma is a major exporter.
The largest group is the Burman people, who are ethnically related to the Tibetans and the Chinese. Burman dominance over Karen, Shan, Rakhine, Mon, Chin, Kachin and other minorities has been the source of considerable ethnic tension and has fuelled intermittent separatist rebellions.
Military offensives against insurgents have uprooted many thousands of civilians.
A largely rural, densely forested country, Burma is the world's largest exporter of teak and a principal source of jade, pearls, rubies and sapphires. It is endowed with extremely fertile soil and has important offshore oil and gas deposits. However, its people remain very poor and are getting poorer.
Activists argue that French oil interests fuel oppression by co-operating with the junta in a joint venture to exploit gas. They allege that France has been blocking tough European Union sanctions against the military.
The country is festooned with the symbols of Buddhism. Thousands of pagodas throng its ancient towns; these have been a focus for an increasingly important tourism industry.
But while tourism has been a magnet for foreign investment, its benefits have hardly touched the people.

FACTS
OVERVIEW FACTS LEADERS MEDIA
Official name: Union of Myanmar
Population: 50.7 million (UN, 2005)
Capital: Nay Pyi Taw
Largest city: Rangoon (Yangon)
Area: 676,552 sq km (261,218 sq miles)
Major languages: Burmese, indigenous ethnic languages
Major religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam
Life expectancy: 57 years (men), 63 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 kyat = 100 pyas
Main exports: Teak, pulses and beans, prawns, fish, rice, opiates, oil and gas
GNI per capita: not available
Internet domain: .mm
International dialling code: +95

LEADERS
OVERVIEW FACTS LEADERS MEDIA
Head of state: Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
Senior General Than Shwe is the country's top military leader and heads the SPDC, the body of 12 senior generals that runs the country and makes the key decisions.

Than Shwe, a one-time specialist in psychological warfare
He has steadfastly ruled out a transfer of power to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
In 1993 he established the National Convention, a reconciliation process aimed at drawing up a new constitution. However, the general is said to be in no hurry to allow political change and talks have been boycotted by the NLD.
Born in 1933 near the town of Mandalay, Than Shwe joined the army at the age of 20. His career included a stint in the department of psychological warfare. He was decorated more than 16 times during his career as a soldier.
He is said to be introverted and superstitious, frequently seeking the advice of astrologers.
Reports in early 2007 said the 73-year-old had sought treatment in Singapore for an undisclosed medical condition.
Power struggles have plagued Burma's military leadership. Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was sacked and arrested in 2004. The former premier, who said he supported Aung San Suu Kyi's involvement in the National Convention, was seen as a moderate who was at odds with the junta's hardliners.
Vice-chairman of SPDC: Maung Aye
Prime minister: Soe Win (deceased)
Defence minister: Than Shwe
Foreign minister: Nyan Win
Home affairs minister: Maung Oo

MEDIA
OVERVIEW FACTS LEADERS MEDIA
The Burmese media have been strictly controlled since the 1962 military coup. Everything from poetry to films is censored, filtering not only criticism of the government but most bad news, including reports of natural disasters and sometimes even defeats by the national football team.
The state controls the main broadcasters and publications. Print and broadcast media are dominated by formulaic reports on the daily official and religious ritual activities of the ruling generals, accounts of progress in the implementation of policies, and denunciations of alleged US and UK plots against Burma.
Foreign radio is a key source of information about both the outside world and events at home. The BBC, Voice of America, the US-backed Radio Free Asia and the Norway-based opposition station Democratic Voice of Burma target listeners in Burma.
Well-off Burmese have access to some international television and a limited number of international publications.
Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has placed Burma among the bottom 10 countries in its world press freedom ranking. It says the press is subject to "relentless advance censorship".
Internet access is tightly controlled by the government. It is further hampered by a poor telephone infrastructure and an unreliable supply of electricity. Reporters Without Borders calls Burma a "black hole" whose system "increasingly resembles an intranet as more and more foreign electronic services have been cut".
The press
Kyehmon - state-run daily
Myanmar Alin - organ of State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
New Light of Myanmar - English-language organ of SPDC
Myanmar Times - state-run English-language weekly
Television
TV Myanmar - state-run, operated by Myanmar TV and Radio Department - broadcasts in Bamar, Arakanese (Rakhine), Shan, Karen, Kachin, Kayah, Chin, Mon and English
MRTV-3 - state-run international TV service
Myawady TV - army-run network
TV5 - state-private joint pay-TV venture
Radio
Radio Myanmar - state-run, operated by Myanmar TV and Radio Department
City FM - entertainment station operated by Rangoon City Development Committee
Democratic Voice of Burma - opposition station based in Norway, broadcasts via shortwave
News agency/internet
Myanmar News Agency (MNA) - state-run
Mizzima News - run by Burmese exiles

ref: BBC

Fear is a Constant Companion!!!

YANGON, Myanmar, Oct. 17 — Worshipers have begun returning to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the towering gold-coated landmark that had been cordoned off with soldiers and barbed wire only days before.

At the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. The government just ended a ban on gatherings of more than five people there.
Myanmar Government Lifts Curfew (October 20, 2007)
But at its four entrances, pictures of what appeared to be detainees, their faces harried or bruised from beatings, were posted as a warning. Soldiers in green uniforms lurked in the shade with their rifles. The surrounding area looked deserted, with the monks having fled and many shop workers, witnesses to the bloody crackdown, hauled away for questioning or told to relocate.
An ominous calm has settled here, less than a month after the military junta crushed an uprising for democracy led by the nation’s revered monks. People have quietly returned to the squalor and inflation that brought them to the streets in protest. There are even suggestions of peace: young couples embracing under trees around scenic Kandawgyi Lake; music from a restaurant drifting across the placid water.
But beneath the surface, anger, uncertainty, hopelessness — and above all, fear of the junta — prevail.
“It’s not peace you see here, it’s silence; it’s a forced silence,” said a 46-year-old writer who joined last month’s protests in Yangon and was now on the run, carrying with him a worn copy of his favorite book, George Orwell’s “1984.” “We are the military’s slaves. We want democracy. We want to wait no longer. But we are afraid of their guns.”
After the government shut down Internet access and denied visas for outside journalists, keeping much of the world at bay, terror continued to rage through Yangon, the main city, for days, according to witnesses and dissidents here. Soldiers raided homes and monasteries to arrest demonstrators, witnesses said, using pictures taken by government informers during the protests.
“Keep your pen and piece of paper in your pocket; there are spies everywhere,” said a 62-year-old retired man in Yangon’s Chaukktatgyi Pagoda. “Please don’t tell anyone my name. Big trouble for me.”
On the campus of the defunct Government Technology Institute, one of the several detention centers believed to hold people arrested during the nighttime raids, soldiers tore off monks’ saffron robes, beat them and made them “jump like frogs,” said a 60-year-old monk.
Even now, weeks after the initial crackdown, “neighbors are looking for their family members missing,” said a 33-year-old businesswoman. She added: “We have never seen anything like this in our history. Even the British colonial rule, they stopped chasing people when they ran into a monastery.”
By perpetrating what most Burmese felt was unthinkable — the beating and killing of monks — the ruling generals proved that they would stop at nothing to keep their grip on power. People were again cowed into subjugation. Now dissidents worry that the world, after its initial uproar, will again leave the Burmese people to cope with the junta on their own.
“We want to explode our feelings, but if we do, who will help us?” said a 58-year-old businessman who, like many, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “The U.N.? The U.S.? China? They all said they would help us. But all they did was blah, blah, blah.”
Some residents specifically found fault with the recent report on Myanmar by Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations special envoy, who cited “continuing and disturbing reports” of abuses, including “beatings, arbitrary arrests and disappearances.”
“Does the U.N. Security Council really think the regime here will care about its statement?” asked a 46-year-old dissident journalist.
Like diplomats here, many Burmese continue to quietly question the government’s official death toll — which stands at 10 — but they have little more than rumor to go on.
After the protests, the government banned gatherings of more than five people. But each day, across the nation, it organized rallies attended by thousands of people holding signs that condemned “external interference” and accused the BBC, the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia of “airing a skyful of lies.”
The junta also sought to discredit the monks. The New Light of Myanmar, a government-run daily newspaper, reported that during “purification” searches at 18 monasteries, the authorities had found, among other things, pornographic videos, “one Nazi headband and two American headbands.” At the same time, government-run media carried pictures of generals kneeling and bowing before senior monks with cash and food donations — an apparent effort to soften the military’s image.
“They come with fire in one hand and water in the other,” said the 60-year-old monk. “These days, I cannot even leave my monastery without their permission.”

Referenced By: the NYtimes

US sanctions to Burmese Militray's possessions

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Friday set new sanctions against members of Myanmar's military junta and their associates in response to the junta's violent crackdown on democracy protesters.

President Bush announces new sanctions on Myanmar's ruling junta on Friday.

"We must not turn a deaf ear to their cries," Bush said of those who have taken to the streets for democracy in the Southeast Asian nation.
In late September, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it was freezing the assets of 14 senior members of the government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Also, the State Department imposed travel restrictions against the same junta leaders.
Bush said Friday he was expanding those sanctions to include 11 more members of the ruling junta. In addition, 12 individuals associated with Myanmar's government will face U.S. sanctions.
"Burma's rulers continue to defy the world's just demand to stop their vicious persecution," Bush said in explaining the additional sanctions.
Bush praised nations that have joined in sanctions on Myanmar and asked others to join in the effort to hasten democratic reforms in the country.
Pro-democracy protesters took to the streets of Myanmar in August after the government raised fuel prices as much as 500 percent. Nearly a month later, Buddhist monks took the lead in the protests and defied military orders that they stop.
The protests reached their height on September 27, when at least nine people, including a Japanese photojournalists, were killed by government troops.
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Myanmar's ruling junta said earlier this week almost 3,000 people were arrested in connection with the protests that began in August. Almost 500 people were still being held, the junta said, and others accused of participating in the protests were still being sought.
Bush called on the junta to release political prisoners and negotiate with the democratic opposition, threatening to increase U.S. pressure if that does not occur.
"We will continue to review our policies and consider additional measures if Burma's leaders do not end the brutal repression of their own people, whose only offense is the desire to live in freedom," Bush said.
On Thursday, the State Department announced new sanctions on Myanmar for not doing enough to combat human trafficking, saying the Myanmar government is directly involved in forced labor and reportedly drafts children into the nation's military. E-mail to a friend

referrenced by : CNN.com

Militray Juntas drop the curfew

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar lifted a curfew Saturday and ended a ban on assembly imposed during a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests.


The crowded streets of Yangon, Myanmar are returning to normal after mass demonstrations in September.

The move is the latest sign the military rulers are confident they have fully crushed the largest demonstrations in two decades.

The White House dismissed the change as "cosmetic" a day after President Bush announced new penalties against the military-run government.

"What we need are signs of serious intent to move toward a democratic transition," presidential press secretary Dana Perino said.

The relaxing of restrictions imposed September 25 was announced from government vehicles driven through the streets of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.

"The curfew and ban on assembly has been revoked effective today, because security and stability has improved," according to the announcement issued from a speaker atop one of the vehicles.

It was not immediately clear if the restrictions were also lifted in Mandalay, another major city and a focus of last month's anti-government demonstrations.

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The lifting of the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and ban on gatherings of more than five people indicates the junta believes it has stamped out the uprising that was sparked in August by public anger at a sharp rise in fuel prices. Small protests quickly grew into anti-government demonstrations tens of thousands of people strong and spearheaded by legions of the country's respected Buddhist monks.

It was the largest show of dissent in the tightly controlled state in nearly two decades.

The junta responded by detaining thousands of demonstrators and shooting into the crowds, killing as many as 10 by official count. Diplomats and activists say the death toll is much higher.

Since the crackdown, authorities in Myanmar have attempted to apply a softer touch. They have cleared the streets of soldiers and released some prominent activists.

Perino said Saturday's announcement was "a bad sign that the regime now feels confident that it has cleared the monasteries of dissidents by either jailing them or sending them to their home villages, and arrested all the major players in the demonstrations and sent into hiding or exile those they have not captured."

Perino urged the junta to enter talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained opposition leader, and invite U.N. Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari to return.

The junta has also been intensifying efforts to arrange talks with Suu Kyi, issuing an unusual plea in state media Saturday for her to compromise for the sake of national reconciliation.

The government announced earlier this month that military leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe was willing to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner, but only if she meets certain conditions, including renouncing support for foreign countries' economic sanctions targeting the regime.

The junta has also urged Suu Kyi, detained for 12 of the last 18 years, to give up her support for "confrontation" and "utter devastation" -- an apparent reference to the recent protests.

Myanmar's repressive regime has repeatedly rebuffed the world's calls for democratic reforms, saying it will follow its own seven-step road map to democracy that is supposed to culminate in a general election.

While Gambari has been working toward a dialogue, the United States and other governments have stepped up pressure on the regime by tightening sanctions.

Bush announced Friday that Washington would expand sanctions imposed last month to punish the military-run government and its backers for the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Referenced by the CNN.com

Green Politics

These contradictions also invlove the political structures suggested to resolve the ecological crisis.One of the isues considered in this work is whether green politics is a new phenomenon. In general,green politics has become a catch-all term in which any political group or action concerned with the environment finds ittself covered. However,the traditions of interest in the natural environmental stretch back into political history way beyond the areas discussed below.However,the terms used are varied and need to be explored.
In Britain and the United States earlier concepts if conversation and environmentalism had existed before the development of green politics and equally recent concept of political ecology. These terms need disentangling as they may help to identify different types of political action, from a reformist position to more radical life-style politics.

Green Politics

The development of green politics has been seen as a major revolution in social and political thought. It has also bred a form of political activity which is intimately linked to ideas of personal transformation and a change in lifestyle. Its rise and influence on mainstream politics is so significant that critics have sometimes referred to a green establishment, and are critical of the way in which green issures are so readily accepted and used in educational establishments.

Earlier efforts to lift environmental issues into the popular consciousness were not to successful. However,the association of a new political movement with a particular science and a spiritual revival has been unique in recent years and this assocaition has also resulted in a series of contradictions.