Thai Protesters to 'Shed' Blood Against Current Government
March 16, 2010
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok
Photo: AP
An unidentified Thai woman donates her blood at an anti-government rally in Bangkok, Thailand, 16 Mar 2010
Protesters in Thailand have donated their blood to be used in a symbolic demonstration against the government. The blood is to be splattered around government buildings in Bangkok as a show of their determination to see new elections.
Hundreds of anti-government protesters lined up Tuesday to have nurses draw a small amount of their blood.
The red-dressed protesters, known as the red shirts, say democracy was stolen from them and demand that the Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva call new elections.
If their demand is not met Tuesday evening, they plan to splatter the blood around government buildings.
Sean Boonpracong is the red shirts' international spokesman. He says at least 20,000 protesters have donated blood.
"It will be substantial enough to paint all of the six entrance[s]. Because, we feel like Abhisit is not human. You know, he just has no common bond with the people. He doesn't know how the poor suffer in day-to-day living. And so, he has no soul," he said. "And we feel like with him taking orders by some group of people, we don't know who they are, but it seems like he's not his own man initiatives. And we intend to force our action accordingly."
Sean acknowledges the stunt will not likely force the government to give in to their demands and says the protesters will consider civil disobedience as a further step.
An estimated 100,000 protesters are camped around Government House in the center of Bangkok and have been demonstrating there and outside of military bases.
Most of the protesters are from outside of Bangkok, particularly the north, and have been gathering since Friday.
The red shirts say the military and the political elite in Bangkok are thwarting democracy.
Many red shirts support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra whose populist policies got him elected twice but displeased Bangkok's traditional ruling class.
He was ousted in a 2006 coup and now lives overseas to avoid a jail sentence for corruption and abuse of power.
Governments friendly to him were toppled by thousands of yellow-dressed protesters in 2008.
UN Investigator Accuses Burma of Systematic Rights Violations
March 16, 2010
15 March 2010 Lisa Schlein | Geneva
Photo: AP
Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN expert on human rights in Burma, during a press conference at UN headquarters in Geneva, 15 Mar 2010
U.N. Investigator Tomas Ojea Quintana has just returned from his third mission to Burma since assuming his post in 2008. Quintana spent four days there in mid-February. He says the duration allowed for the mission was too short and the access limited.
The U.N. special investigator on human rights is accusing the Burmese government of systematic and gross violations. The investigator, who has just submitted his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, says some of these violations might entail crimes against humanity.
U.N. Investigator Tomas Ojea Quintana has just returned from his third mission to Burma since assuming his post in 2008. Quintana spent four days there in mid-February. He says the duration allowed for the mission was too short and the access limited.
Nonetheless, he says he was able to visit three prisons and hold wide-ranging interviews with 15 prisoners. He says he met with authorities and representatives from political parties and ethnic minorities among others.
Despite claims to the contrary, he says he does not believe the Burmese government is enacting the reforms needed towards the building of democratic institutions.
He says a newly enacted law strips the right of prisoners of conscience to participate in upcoming elections this year.
"There is no indication that prisoners of conscience will be released and that freedom of expression, assembly and association will be granted. My assessment is that under these current conditions, elections in Myanmar cannot be considered credible," he said.
AP
Supporters of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi hold portraits of the detained leader in Rangoon, Burma (File)
Quintana says there are some 2100 prisoners of conscience, including pro-democracy leader and Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for many years.
He says he regrets that his special request to meet Suu Kyi was rejected.
"Of course, I think that she is a prisoner of conscience," said Quintana. "She also as Secretary-General of an important party in the country, she plays an important role....Since she is a prisoner of conscience, which means she has been convicted by a court, according to this law, she will not be allowed even to be a member of the party, a party which may or not participate in the elections," he said.
Quintana reiterates his call for Aung San Suu Kyi's immediate release.
He says the government must be held accountable for past violations. He is calling for an international commission of inquiry to look into serious cases of abuse, which he says may entail crimes against humanity.
The Burmese representative at the United Nations strongly condemns and rejects, what he calls unfounded allegations. He says the U.N. investigator's report is based on disinformation coming from unverifiable and unreliable sources.
Thai PM Rejects Protesters Calls to Dissolve Government
March 15, 2010
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok
Photo: AP
Protesters and supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra hold an anti-government rally outside a military barrack in Bangkok, Thailand, 15 Mar 2010
Anti-government protests continue in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, after Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected demands to hold new elections. Tens of thousands of red dressed demonstrators surrounded a military compound where the prime minister has been based and vowed to keep up the pressure.
The massive crowd of protesters waved banners and clappd plastic noise makers as a convoy of trucks carrying protest organizers arrives at a military base in Bangkok.
An estimated 100,000 demonstrators have gathered in the Thai capital, many of them from the rural north, to demand the government resign and call new elections.
Thousands were at the base where the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has been operating during the protests. He pre-empted a noon deadline protesters had set and refused their demands on national television, saying the timing was not right for elections.
"We are coming here today to ask the prime minister to resign," said Pranot Munnyrak, who was protesting outside the military base. "That's the main point. But we have heard that the prime minister already has announced that he is not going to resign."
Despite the government's rejection, protesters vowed to press on and have threatened to step up their demonstrations if the government is not dissolved.
Nattawut Saikua, one of the protest leaders, rode on top of a truck that slowly drove past the gates of the military base. He spoke to the crowd through loudspeakers. He says if there is no dissolution of the parliament today then there must be no later than tomorrow evening. He tells the protesters to wait for their next move.
Convoys of protesters, some more than a mile long, could be seen Monday headed towards protest areas.
Many of the red shirts, as they are known, are supporters of deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who now lives in exile to avoid corruption charges.
He was ousted in a 2006 coup that protesters say was orchestrated by the military and traditional elite in Bangkok who felt threatened by his support from the rural poor.
Yellow dressed protesters overthrew a government friendly to Thaksin in 2008 by occupying government buildings and the airport.
The red shirts are hoping for a similar result but have so far limited their protests to the streets and areas surrounding government and military buildings.
Also in Bangkok Monday, the military said two soldiers were wounded from grenades fired into another military base. It was not clear if the attack was related to the anti-government protests.
Thai Demonstrators Demand New Elections, Give 24 Hour 'Ultimatum'
March 14, 2010
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok
Tens of thousands of protesters wearing red gather in Bangkok, demanding parliament dissolve and government step down
Photo: AP
Anti-government demonstrators gather Sunday, March 14, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. Protest leaders have given the government until Monday at noon to accede their demands or face mass marches on key locations in Bangkok.
Tens of thousands of protesters are demonstrating in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, demanding the current government step down and call new elections. The protesters have set a one day deadline for their demands to be met.
A sea of red clad protesters wave banners and cheer as a band plays music on stage. The protesters have been pouring into Bangkok all weekend by bus, boat, and motorcycle, mainly from the rural north, and now number in the tens of thousands.
Lining the roads leading off from the performance are hundreds of tents providing demonstrators with shade and stalls selling cold drinks and snacks.
The anti-government demonstrations are occupying the main avenue leading up to Thailand's government house and while festive, the protesters have a serious message.
They have set a deadline for the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, which they consider illegitimate, to step down and allow new elections.
Sean Boonpracong is the international spokesman for the red shirts.
"The most important message of this hour is we are giving the government ultimatum, 24 hours ultimatum, to dissolve the government ... dissolve the parliament, as we speak, 24 hours," Sean said. "And if they don't we're going to up the ante -- that means march around the city of Bangkok and we'll make that final decision tonight what we're going to do but we're not going to move today."
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has said he will not give in to pressure but will allow for elections when the time is right.
Many of the red shirts are supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra because of his policies supporting the poor.
He was ousted in a 2006 coup and now lives in exile to avoid jail time for corruption charges.
The red shirts blame the elite in Bangkok for the coup and demonstrations in 2008 that overthrew a government friendly to Thaksin.
Ariwan Laripitak, a resident of Bangkok, was at the protest and says she is also unhappy with the current government.
"I want democracy and get Abhisit get out because Abhisit is a very bad man," Ariwan said.
The protests in Bangkok are the largest since April, when red shirts clashed with security, sparking riots that left two people dead and a trail of burnt public buses and other damage.
Fifty-thousand security personnel have been deployed around government house and key areas of Bangkok to prevent violence and damage to property.
The demonstrations have been peaceful and no violence has been reported. But, tensions are expected to build as the deadline protest leaders have set is not likely to be met.
Thai anti-government demonstrators converge at a check point in Wang Noi, Thailand, 13 Mar 2010
Thousands of protesters from rural northern Thailand have begun arriving in Bangkok for a rally aimed at toppling the government of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajhiva.
Trucks and other vehicles filled highways into the capital city Saturday as security forces searched them, ahead of a protest scheduled for Sunday to restore ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to power.
Protest organizers say between 600,000 and 700,000 supporters of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) will march in Bangkok.
About 50,000 police, military and other security forces were patrolling Bangkok. The government has enacted an internal security law that allows the military to impose curfews and restrict freedom of movement.
Protest organizers say the rally will be peaceful. The demonstrators, distinguished by their red shirts, are seeking to force Mr. Abhisit to resign from power and call new elections.
A military coup ousted Mr. Thaksin from office in 2006. The last time his supporters protested, in April 2009, riots resulted and two people died.
Most of Mr. Thaksin's supporters in the UDD are rural and poor, while Mr. Abhisit is backed by members of Thailand's elite known as the "Yellow Shirts."
Mr. Thaksin currently lives in Dubai, avoiding a 2-year jail sentence on corruption charges. The French news agency says he has been encouraging his supporters via text messages and his Twitter page.
This photo provided by the White House shows President Barack Obama meeting with his national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan, Friday, March 12, 2010, in the Situation Room of the White House in
White House officials say U.S. troops and their allies are making steady progress against militants in Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama held a video conference call with his national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan Friday. They discussed increased success on recent military efforts by the U.S. and its allies.
White House Officials said President Obama was joined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal and others.
Mr. Obama and his team praised Afghan and international forces' military achievements in Marja, a major city in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says that General McChrystal also reported that the U.S. military is keeping President Obama's commitment to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to the war-torn country. "We were on schedule on our force flow in getting additional forces approved by the president into Afghanistan by the end of summer," he said.
But, Gibbs said Mr. Obama's security team now relies heavily on the Afghan government to take over future efforts to secure the Afghan people. "We're not going to be there forever, not only are we going to need improved governance but we're going to need a police force that can keep the peace," he said.
The council also discussed NATO's contributions to improve the training of Afghan forces. NATO's Training Mission Commander, U.S. Lieutenant General William Caldwell said early this month Afghan police officers had not been given formal training until recently, and Gibbs said problems such as this must be addressed immediately. "We have critical improvements that have to be made as it relates to an Afghan national army, and critical improvements that have to be made in an Afghan national police, and the importance of getting additional trainers from NATO countries to Afghanistan as quickly as possible," he said.
Gibbs said the security team also stressed the need of continued support from neighboring Pakistan, which he says is increasing every day. "We've enjoyed almost an unprecedented level of cooperation with them, dating back probably almost a year now to extremist movements that threatened the Pakistanis and I think in many ways alerted them to many of the concerns that we have long had," he said.
Pakistan has captured several Taliban leaders in recent weeks.
Gibbs says U.S. Islamabad Ambassador Anne Patterson reported that Pakistan's increased action against Taliban and al-Qaida militants on its territory has been a critical addition in the international fight against terrorism.
India, Russia Sign Energy, Defense Deals worth Billions of Dollars
March 13, 2010
12 March 2010 Steve Herman | New Delhi
Photo: AFP
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following a joint statement to the press in New Delhi, 12 Mar 2010.
A short visit to India by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has allowed New Delhi and Moscow to strengthen their strategic partnership, which has had its ups and downs since the end of the Cold War era.
Indian and Russian officials say the two prime ministers held wide-ranging discussions.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says his talks with Mr. Putin went beyond the 22 agreements they signed. "There is much that India and Russia can do together to advance global peace and stability and the process of global economic revival. We've agreed to intensify our consultations on Afghanistan and the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism in our region," he said.
But most of the attention focused on the billions of dollars worth of deals they signed.
To help India meet a shortage of electricity for its booming economy, Russia is to build between 12 and 16 nuclear power plants here, six of them by 2017. Russia is already constructing two units in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Earlier in the day, during a video conference with Indian business leaders gathered in several cities, Mr. Putin said Russia would also supply India with fuel for the reactors and cooperate on disposal of nuclear waste from the new plants. He called Russia's nuclear technology among the safest in the world.
One of the most significant agreements is intended to settle a protracted dispute over the sale and refurbishing of a Russian aircraft carrier that is to be delivered to India's Navy by the end of 2012. The two countries originally agreed on a price of about $950 million for the Admiral Gorshkov. Now it is believed to be $2.3 billion.
India has also agreed to buy 69 additional fighter jets from Russia.
The Russian prime minister also announced the two countries will work together to develop a 50th-generation combat aircraft. "Until now Russia has worked alone on the project," he said. "But significant progress has been made and the joint effort with India will yield considerable additional results."
Indian officials say the aircraft will be built within the next six years and based on the prototype of the Russian T-50 stealth fighter.
A Russian expert, Professor Anuradha Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University, says India has good reason to continue looking to Russia for critical supplies and enhanced cooperation. "Repeatedly, Russians give India technology and assistance in defense, in space, in nuclear civilian use which you do not get from anywhere else," he said. "And this has been an old pattern and this has been proved once again."
India is one of the world's top weapons importers. And Russia is trying to maintain the dominant position it held since the Soviet era as the lead foreign supplier to India's military.
Obama Delays Asia Trip to Continue Health Care Push
March 13, 2010
12 March 2010 Kent Klein | Washington
President Barack Obama will postpone for several days his trip to Indonesia and Australia, so he can help push health care reform legislation through the U.S. Congress. Plans for the president's family to accompany him on the trip have been scrapped.
President Obama will leave for the South Pacific region on Sunday, March 21, three days later than planned, and will return on Friday, March 26.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs Friday dismissed reporters' questions about further delaying or even canceling the trip, saying Indonesia and Australia are vital to U.S. interests. "For quite some time we have been absent from this important region of the world. We have important partnerships that lead to increasing our security, increasing our economic growth and increasing the likelihood that we deal with important problems, in having strong bilateral relationships with places like Indonesia and Australia," he said.
Gibbs also said Mr. Obama's stay in Indonesia will be an important part of his outreach to the world's Muslims. "We are going to visit, obviously, Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim population, an emerging democracy. The president will follow up on his speech from Cairo in a speech in Indonesia, a key partner, obviously, in our counterterrorism efforts," he said.
The president's spokesman also called Australia a very important trading partner and an important ally in U.S. efforts in Afghanistan.
Gibbs said the president's wife and two daughters will not go with him on the trip, as had originally been planned, because of conflicts with the girls' school schedules.
Meanwhile, Gibbs said the effort to pass health care reform legislation has gained momentum, and Mr. Obama will make a final push for it, calling and meeting with lawmakers. "I doubt we would be where we are on health care after this long if the president were not personally invested in, from the very beginning, getting this done," he said.
Republicans in Congress are solidly against the president's health proposal, and the administration is working to enlist the support of Democrats.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, says she is positive that Mr. Obama's decision to stay in Washington will help get the legislation passed quickly. "I am delighted that the president is going to be here for the passage of the bill. It is going to be historic," she said.
Key Democrats announced Friday that they will include reforms to college lending in the health care package. Republicans immediately denounced the idea.
With his hair cut in an abbreviation in Thai of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, a supporter of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra watches during a rally at the northern outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, 12 Mar 2010
In Thailand thousands of anti-government protesters have begun a series of demonstrations aimed at pressuring the government to call new elections.
The protesters, known as red shirts for the color they wear, kicked of their campaign Friday in several locations in Bangkok and in towns in northern Thailand.
The red shirts, many of them supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, say the current government is illegitimate and they want new elections.
A few thousand protesters rallied outside of the headquarters of the Thai military unit in charge of national security.
Weng Tojirakarn is one of the protest leaders. He says they expect the government to respond to their calls to dissolve parliament.
"The government can't stand still, don't give an answer to the one million people who come out from home. Not just only one million people because every people when [they] come out they have their relative, they have their family, they have their friend," he said. "For one man come that mean about 20 men left behind."
The red shirts plan to hold their biggest event Sunday in Bangkok - what they are calling a "million man march".
But Thai authorities expect far fewer demonstrators. Still, they have raised concerns that the protests may turn violent.
The government has deployed more than 30,000 security personnel to Bangkok.
Panitan Wattanayagorn, a government spokesman, says officials hope the protests are peaceful.
"We will try our best. Of course none of us knows the future. But we are quite certain with the measures that we put in place we should be able to manage the security, peace and safety of all people living in Thailand including foreigners and the tourists," he said. "In the end the demonstrators, the officers, local community leaders and the Thai people they all want peace."
Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a 2006 coup and is in self-imposed exile to avoid corruption charges.
A government friendly to Thaksin was forced out in 2008 by yellow-clad protesters who besieged government offices and the Bangkok airport. Those protests led to the installation of the current government.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday said he would not bow to pressure but would call for elections when the time is right.
China Counters US Report on its Human Rights Record
March 13, 2010
12 March 2010
Photo: AP
Delegates leave the Great Hall of the People after attending a session of the annual National People's Congress in Beijing, China, 11 Mar 2010
China has offered its own critique of the United States in response to Washington's annual review of Beijing's human rights record.
China's State Council issued a report Friday blaming the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. for triggering the global economic recession.
The report also accused the United States of restricting the rights of its citizens in a number of areas, including racial equality, personal security, and political and economic advancement.
The U.S. State Department accused China of numerous human rights violations in its annual global report, which it issued Thursday. It said Beijing harassed and detained more human rights activists last year, and accused the communist government of severe cultural and religious repression in Tibet and Xinjiang province.
But China says the U.S. uses the issue of human rights as a "political instrument to interfere in other countries' internal affairs."
The Chinese counter-report says it is a "pity" how Washington "revels" in pointing a finger at other nations' human rights records, while ignoring its own failings.
Tensions between Beijing and the U.S. have grown in recent months over several trade disputes, a major weapons sale to Taiwan, and China's alleged interference with U.S.-based Internet giant Google.
US Criticizes China, Burma, North Korean Rights Records
March 11, 2010
The United States criticized China's human rights record Thursday, raising concerns about restrictions that Beijing has imposed on citizens who question its policies.
The 2009 Human Rights Reportissued by the U.S. State Department Thursday said the detention and harassment of human rights activists in China increased last year, and that public interest lawyers faced harassment and disbarment.
This annual rights review detailed reports of Tibetans suffering torture and forced labor after being repatriated from Nepal. It also noted the severe cultural and religious repression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang region.
The State Department called North Korea's human rights record "deplorable," noting cases of extra-judicial killings, disappearances and arbitrary detention.
It raised similar concerns about extra-judicial killings in Burma, where the State Department said government forces also allowed disappearances, rape and torture.
The report criticized Cambodia's human rights record, accusing its security forces of acting with impunity.
On Laos, the report said the government infringed on citizens' right to privacy, and violated people's right to free speech, assembly and press.
Corruption among Thailand's police force came under attack in the report. The State Department also criticized Thailand's security personnel for using excessive force against criminal suspects.
The report said Vietnam's rights record remains problematic, as opposition movements were prohibited and press freedoms restricted.
The State Department gave rare praise to Indonesia's government, which it said generally respected citizens' human rights last year. The report said some problems persist, however, including killings by security forces, harsh prison conditions and corruption in the judicial system.
WAO Global President Dr. Aye Kyaw and WAO-USA President U U Sein Tun
WAO-USA - 3rd meeting on teleconference of World Arakanese Organization (WAO)-USA Branch's Executive Committee successfully held on Saturday, March 06, 2010. The meeting minutes took the length of time two hours and half at the US East Standard Time (9-11:30PM).
There were participating 13 attendees of Executive Committee Members and some active associates in the meeting. U U Sein Tun, President of WAO-USA, who undertook as Speaker of Ceremony spoke his Presidential address. During his concentrated speech, he suggested to all how to promote Team-work should do respectfully accordance with co-ordination and co-operation among the members. U Hla Kyi, Vice President of WAO-USA, also delivered his opening speech and reported briefly about his short journey to Burma and Malaysia.
Ko Kyaw Kyaw, Joint Secretary of WAO-USA, served as Master of Ceremony.
U Khine Kyaw Khine, In-Charge of Publicity, Ko Zaw Zaw Tun, Joint Secretary of WAO-USA, and Ko Kyaw Ray Zan, 2nd In-Charge of Publicity, reported the construction of WAO web-site and Ma Yu Yu, who is served as 2nd In-Charge of Treasure, also submitted the report of WAO-USA's financial update to the EC.
Generally, all members discussed the current issues of WAO Magazine, Arakanese Text- Book and Educational program which supports to Rakhine Tha Ha Ya Athum's scholarship.
Finally, all agendas of teleconference were making the good decisions by participants who partook as generous sponsors of WAO-USA.
US: Burma Election Law 'Mockery' of Democratic Process
March 10, 2010
David Gollust | State Department
The State Department is criticizing the Burmese electoral laws in strong terms, but it says the Obama administration is not ready to abandon its efforts at dialogue with the country's military leadership.
The comments follow the announcement of rules for elections promised for this year that would, among other things, bar the country's more than 2,000 political prisoners from participating, apparently including democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In the most extensive U.S. comments thus far on the issue, State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said the Obama administration is deeply disappointed over the political party law and troubled that it appears to bar Aung San Suu Kyi from the process, perhaps even prohibiting her from membership in the party she leads -- the National League for Democracy, or NLD.
"This is a step in the wrong direction. The political party law makes a mockery of the democratic process and ensures that the upcoming elections will be devoid of credibility," he said.
The Obama administration reversed years of U.S. efforts to isolate Burma, sending Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs Kurt Campbell to Rangoon for talks last November.
Campbell was allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi. And the detained Nobel Peace laureate was subsequently permitted to meet NLD party colleagues
The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that election laws announced by Burmese authorities "make a mockery" of the democratic process and that there is no hope that the voting planned for later this year will be credible. But the State Department says U.S. engagement with Burma's military government will continue.
The State Department is criticizing the Burmese electoral laws in strong terms, but it says the Obama administration is not ready to abandon its efforts at dialogue with the country's military leadership.
The comments follow the announcement of rules for elections promised for this year that would, among other things, bar the country's more than 2,000 political prisoners from participating, apparently including democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In the most extensive U.S. comments thus far on the issue, State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said the Obama administration is deeply disappointed over the political party law and troubled that it appears to bar Aung San Suu Kyi from the process, perhaps even prohibiting her from membership in the party she leads -- the National League for Democracy, or NLD.
"This is a step in the wrong direction. The political party law makes a mockery of the democratic process and ensures that the upcoming elections will be devoid of credibility," he said.
The Obama administration reversed years of U.S. efforts to isolate Burma, sending Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs Kurt Campbell to Rangoon for talks last November.
Campbell was allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi. And the detained Nobel Peace laureate was subsequently permitted to meet NLD party colleagues.
But the laws to govern the elections, promised at an unspecified date this year, have been a setback to U.S. hopes for the release of political prisoners in Burma and reconciliation.
The State Department's P.J. Crowley said that given the tenor of the regulations, "there is no hope" that the election will be credible.
But at the same time, he said the electoral laws do not mean that U.S. engagement with Burma will stop and that the Obama administration never expected the overnight transformation of the military government.
"We did not expect to have a couple conversations with Burma and have a compete about-face change in the nature of their society, and the nature of their political process. But this just reinforces that our choice of engagement is important, but the process is going to take some time," Crowley added.
A senior U.S. official said it is unclear whether the United States would send Assistant Secretary Campbell or another envoy to Burma before the elections.
Campbell, on a tour of Southeast Asia, said Wednesday in Malaysia that the election rules are disappointing and regrettable.
He said the United States wants to see steps by the Burmese leadership to encourage domestic dialogue in advance of the voting. He says he wants to see Aung San Suu Kyi "play an active role in the political life of the country going forward."
Aung San Suu Kyi's party won the last national elections in Burma in 1990. But the military barred her and the NLD from taking power, and she has been under detention most of the time since then.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is heading to India on Thursday for the first time in his capacity as prime minister, instead of president. Experts say his visit is aimed at strengthening existing military and energy ties between the two countries.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrives Thursday in India for a two-day visit.
Experts say he hopes to tap into India's growing energy and defense needs, both of which are being fueled by its prospering economy and its desire to modernize its military.
Moscow and New Delhi have enjoyed close ties since the Soviet era and Russia sees India as an important partner whose influence will expand in Asia.
Pavel Felgenhauer is a Russian political and military analyst.
Felgenhauer says Putin's visit is mostly about military aspects. He says Russia and India also share many similar interests and views. For example, stability in central Asia. He says India was a serious ally of the Soviet Union.
Last year, Russia and India agreed to the outlines of a 10-year weapons deal that could be worth at least $10-billion. They are also building a modern supersonic stealth fighter aircraft.
Again Russian military and political expert Pavel Felgenhauer.
He says that Russia remains India's major supplier of arms and military technology. Felgenhauer says most analysts are also expecting the final deal on the aircraft carrier Russia has been putting together for many years.
The soviet-era aircraft carrier the Admiral Gorshkov was sold to India, but is being refurbished by Russia. The Gorshkov sale has been marred by difficulties, including pricing disputes and delayed deliveries, leading many analysts to wonder whether India could be tempted to reduce its dependence on Russian military equipment by doing more trade with the United States.
The director general of the New Delhi-based Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, Narendra Sing Sisodia, says Russia will remain a reliable trading partner for India.
"We still have very strong cooperation in the nuclear field with the Russians. We are also getting submarines and aircraft carriers from them," Sisodia said. "So it is a signal that the Russians are completely committed to this ongoing relationship. I think Russia is very critical in the context of the fact that we are surrounded by other neighbors who may not be exactly that friendly. So this kind of a relationship with the Russians is, I think, strategically very important," said Sisodia.
Leaders of both countries are also expected to establish a strategy on Afghanistan, critical to their own security.
Jawaharlal Nehru University Professor Anuradha Chenoy says the talks will focus on the situation in Afghanistan, but will also extend to global issues including climate change.
"Major issues in the international security system today are the economic crisis, the financial crisis, the climate crisis and the security crisis and in all these the position India takes, very often, they can coordinate very well with Russia and I think there will be talks about all these issues with Russia," said Chenoy.
Both countries are also expected to try and boost bilateral trade as neither has made a significant presence in the other's markets. India's state-run energy company, ONGC, has been trying to augment its position in Russia, which is the world's largest energy producer.
Jawaharal Nehru University post-graduate student Isha Dubey says maintaining ties with Russia is important for her country.
"I think Russia has always been favorable towards the Indian scene, in Pakistan or she has always favored us, helped us through the defense department. So it is pretty important that we keep the strategic ties friendly and amicable," said Dubey.
During his trip to Russia last year, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claimed other countries would never sacrifice India's relationship with the Kremlin.
Russia and India, together with Brazil and China, are part of the so-called BRIC grouping of major developing economies trying to promote a multi-polar world not dominated by the United States.
Burma Election Rules Require Opposition Party to Expel Democracy Leader
March 10, 2010
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok
Photo: AP
Burma's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (2009 file photo)
Burma has published strict rules for historic elections requiring, among other things, that political parties expel any members who are imprisoned, including democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Rights activists condemn the rules as an attempt to silence the opposition.
Burma's new election rules ban anyone convicted by a court from participating in the elections and require political parties to expel all imprisoned members to remain legal.
Rights activists say the laws appear aimed at the opposition National League for Democracy and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She has been held under house arrest for most of the last two decades.
"This is a very ridiculous election law, party registration law. Actually, this is designed to force NLD party to be abolished, this is designed to force NLD party to dismiss Aung San Suu Kyi and other imprisoned members from the party," says Aung Din, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
Burma's military government holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, many of them are members of the NLD.
The new rules, published Wednesday, cover political party registration for Burma's first parliamentary elections in 20 years.
The United Nations says Burma must release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, for the elections to have legitimacy.
Aung Din says the new rules are a clear rejection of those demands.
"[U.N. Secretary-General] Ban Ki-Moon also said that without the participation of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all key political prisoners the elections will not be inclusive. Now regime answers to his request by issuing this ridiculous election law. So, I hope Ban Ki-Moon stands strong and calls for the international community not to recognize this sham election," said Aung Din.
The registration rules also require allegiance to the controversial 2008 constitution. It reserves a quarter of all parliamentary seats for the military and bars Aung San Suu Kyi from running for election because of her marriage to a foreigner.
The NLD has sought changes to the constitution and its leaders are discussing how to react to the registration rules. The party has not yet decided if it will field candidates.
The election law also forbids civil servants and members of religious orders from joining political parties.
The NLD won Burma's last election in 1990 by a landslide, but the military ignored the results and imprisoned or forced into exile many of the NLD's leaders.
The government has not yet announced a date for the elections.
Australian, Indonesian Leaders Discuss Human Trafficking
March 10, 2010
Phil Mercer | Sydney
Photo: AP
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (L) looks on as Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd speaks during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, 10 Mar 2010
The leaders of Indonesia and Australia have discussed plans to fight people smuggling and say the two nations will continue to cooperate in fighting the problem. The discussion came during Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to Australia.
Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday told the Australian federal Parliament that his country will toughen laws against people smuggling.
Thousands of people, primarily from South Asia, have tried to sneak into Australia over the past several years, many of them paying people smugglers to take them by boat from Indonesia. Both countries have been working to combat the problem.
Mr. Yudhoyono, on a state visit to Australia, stressed the increasing close ties between the two countries in his speech to Parliament. The relationship, which was tense for decades, has improved dramatically in the past eight years as the two have cooperated in fighting violent Islamic militants responsible for a number of bombings in Indonesia that were aimed at Westerners.
The president, who is the first Indonesian leader to address a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament, says that adversity brought the two countries closer together.
"Our intense and fruitful cooperation to bring the Bali bombers to justice and Australia's outpouring of sympathy, and rescue and relief effort in the wake of the tsunami tragedy of 2004 was the emotional turning point of our bilateral relations," he said.
Mr. Yudhoyono confirmed Tuesday that Indonesian police had killed one of masterminds of a bombing attack on tourist night spots on Bali in 2002. Many of the 202 people killed in the attack were Australians.
The news drew praise from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
"Our law enforcement agencies are working closely together on a daily basis to deal with the continuing threat of terrorism, and, Mr. President, today we congratulate the government of Indonesia in its further extraordinary success in fighting terrorism within its own country," he said.
The two governments have also engaged in talks about trade and climate change.
Dulmatin, a high-ranking member of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group, was one of three people killed in separate raids Tuesday
Photo: AP
Chief of Police Medical Department Brig. Gen. Musaddeq Ishaq shows a picture of the most wanted Indonesian terror suspect Dulmatin who was killed during a police raid on Tuesday, during a press conference at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia, 10 Mar 2010
Indonesian police confirm that they have killed one of the country's most wanted terrorism suspects. Dulmatin was allegedly an al-Qaeda-trained bomb-maker who played a role in the Bali bombing in 2002.
Indonesian National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri Wednesday said that the militant group Jemaah Islamiah's top bomb technician, Dulmatin, was killed in a police raid.
He says they used accountable and professional measures to determine the suspect is Dulmatin.
These measures, he said, included DNA and photographic evidence.
Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier Wednesday had announced Dulmatin's death.
Dulmatin was one of the most-wanted leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group. The United States offered a $10 million bounty for him.
Danuri refused to say whether the police will claim the reward, saying their only interest is in protecting public safety.
Dulmatin was accused of setting and triggering one of the bombs used in an attack on the island of Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people. Until recently it was believed that he was in the Philippines where he had joined the Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf.
His death is a major victory for Indonesia's counterterrorism unit, which has severely weakened the militant branch of Jemaah Islamiyah over the past eight years, killing or capturing most of its senior leaders.
Police encountered Dulmatin Tuesday during a raid on the outskirts of Jakarta. The raid was one of series of police actions that began in Aceh province after it was discovered that a JI cell was operating a militant training facility there. Danuri says three police were killed by terror suspects in these raids.
He says they lost some of their members but they also found a high-value suspect wanted by other countries.
Danuri says police arrested 16 terror suspects in Aceh, killed two more near Jakarta and captured a number of weapons, ammunition and money transfer receipts.
The announcement of Dulmatin's death comes little more than a week before President Barack Obama arrives in Jakarta for a two-day visit. Mr. Obama spent four years living in Jakarta as a boy with his mother and Indonesian step-father.
Tibetan Activists Mark Anniversary of 1959 Uprising
March 10, 2010
09 March 2010
Tibetan activists are holding rallies Wednesday marking the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.
Rights groups planned to demonstrate outside the United Nations in New York, and at the Chinese embassies in Washington, London, Italy, Sweden and Paris.
March 10 is the 51st anniversary of the uprising that sent Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile in India. It also marks the second anniversary of deadly riots that swept the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
The Dalai Lama will make a special address Wednesday from Dharamsala, India, the home of Tibet's exiled government.
In New Delhi Tuesday, Tibetan activists tried unsuccessfully to enter the Chinese embassy. Indian police detained nearly two dozen protesters before they entered the building.
In neighboring Nepal, authorities have increased security and warned Tibetan exiles not to protest.
China says Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say their homeland was independent for centuries until Chinese troops invaded in 1950.
Beijing considers the Dalai Lama a separatist seeking Tibetan independence. But the Buddhist leader says he only wants greater autonomy for the Himalayan region.
China, an officially atheist state, asserted Sunday that it will choose who succeeds the Dalai Lama after he dies. Traditionally, Tibet's Buddhist priests search for the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.
The 74-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader has suggested he may change that tradition by choosing his successor while he is still alive, and that a woman could hold the position.
American al-Qaida Fugitive Reported Captured in Pakistan
March 7, 2010
Pakistani intelligence agents say Adam Gadahn was arrested in Karachi
Pakistani intelligence agents say they have arrested Adam Gadahn, the American-born al-Qaida spokesman who has been wanted by the FBI since 2004.
The Associated Press quotes two intelligence officers and a government official, all of whom declined to be identified, as saying Gadahn was captured in the southern city Karachi in recent days. CNN reported a Pakistani intelligence officer it contacted confirmed the arrest. None of the officials discussed the circumstances of Gadahn's capture. The United States has not commented on the reported arrest.
Several senior militant commanders including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Afghan Taliban's second in command, have been detained in Pakistan in recent weeks. The arrests have led to speculation that Pakistan's intelligence agency is now cracking down on militant groups.
Adam Gadahn often appeared in al-Qaida videos calling for attacks against the United States and other western countries. His most recent statement posted on Islamist militant forums on Sunday praised the U.S. Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas. Gadahn praised the gunman as a role model for other Muslims.
Gadahn grew up in California and converted to Islam at a nearby mosque.
The FBI says he moved to Pakistan in the late 1990s, and several years later attended an al-Qaida training camp. He later served as a translator and consultant for the terrorist network.
The 31-year-old American is known by various aliases including Yahya Majadin Adams and Azzam al-Amriki.
Amnesty International: Cambodia Must Act Against Rapes, Sex Crimes
March 7, 2010
Amnesty International says rape and sexual crimes committed mainly against women and children has become a growing problem in Cambodia.
To mark the 100th International Women's Day, the human-rights group Amnesty International is releasing a report on the scourge of rape and sexual violence in Cambodia.
Amnesty's report, called Breaking the Silence, criticizes what it says is a culture of impunity, corruption and indifference to victims of sexual violence. The result is justice denied for Cambodian women, and increasingly for Cambodian girls.
During its research, Amnesty interviewed 30 victims of rape, as well as 50 non-government aid workers, police and government officials, and even a number of perpetrators. Brittis Edman, who wrote the report, explains its focus.
"What we specifically looked at is the aftermath of rape, what are the obstacles that victims face when they seek justice and when they seek access to services," said Edman.
Amnesty found that victims seeking help ran into several problems that made their situation even worse.
"Police often do not take them seriously, they do not necessarily investigate," added Edman. "They ask for bribes to launch an investigation. Court officials typically ask for bribes at all levels of the process."
Edman says medical specialists generally do not provide much in the way of free treatment, meaning victims need to pay money, which they often do not have, if they want help.
There are only a few places in Cambodia where victims can go for help. One of those is called Banteay Srei, which is based in Battambang province in western Cambodia.
Banteay Srei provides a safe house, counsels victims, and connects them with non-government organizations that provide legal services and health services.
Sun Maly is Banteay Srei's team leader. She says demand for its services has increased dramatically since it was set up five years ago.
Last year Banteay Srei helped 71 victims of rape, which was almost twice the number it helped the previous year. Sun Maly says part of the reason for the rise is that more women and local officials are aware of Banteay Srei's existence.
But, she says, the problem of rape and sexual violence against women is getting worse. And that is not due to a lack of sufficient laws.
"Cambodia has good laws, but they are not enforced and the perpetrators are not punished," said Sun Maly. "And that provides a model for other people to follow suit."
Sun Maly says most rape victims helped last year by Banteay Srei were girls.
"The number of rape victims we helped was 71, and most were underage," she added. "The majority, around 80 percent, were just 12 or 13 years old."
Amnesty's Edman says half of the rape victims she interviewed for the report were children.
And she stresses that she did not set out to interview child victims. Instead, the high proportion simply reflects the large numbers of children, mainly girls, who are victims of rape and who were being helped by the non-government organizations that coordinated interviews.
Why does Edman think so many children are becoming victims of rape?
"Children are clearly more vulnerable in many ways," Edman explained. "What we have seen in the research is that those who live in poverty are more vulnerable, we have seen that sex workers are more vulnerable, and it appears also that children are more vulnerable."
In its report, Amnesty outlined five pages of recommendations for the government. Among those is wholesale reform of the way rape allegations are investigated and processed through the court system.
Amnesty says bribes demanded by police must cease, more female police officers should be recruited and trained, and courts should be more sympathetic to victims. The rights group also says the practice of paying compensation to victims in exchange for charges being dropped should cease.
But most importantly, says Edman, the government must vocally condemn rape. That would cost the government nothing, but would provide comfort to victims and let society know that the crime of rape would not be tolerated.
As one women, who was raped by a monk last year, told Amnesty of her unresolved case: "If he cannot be touched, and is not brought to account, he can do it again. This would make him arrogant and a terrible role model to the people."
Burma's official media reported Saturday that troops confiscated grenades and other weapons from a border hide-out used by suspected drug traffickers, after an earlier gunbattle killed 13 policemen and members of their patrol.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar said the shoot-out took place February 20 near the northeastern town of Tachileik, which borders Thailand.
The report said an anti-drug squad was patrolling the Mekong river near Tachileik when it encountered drug traffickers and a gunbattle broke out. Eight policemen were killed, along with two local militia members and three police boat drivers. Two police officers were wounded.
The paper said that police, acting on a tip, found 15 tents several days later on an island in the Mekong. Authorities seized grenades, rifles, ammunition and blocks of caffeine - an ingredient of methamphetamine tablets.
Rights Group Wants Thai Investigation into Shootings of Burmese Children
March 6, 2010
A rights group has called on Thailand to investigate the use of lethal force by Thai soldiers against Burmese migrants, allegedly resulting in the deaths of three children.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a press release Friday that Thai soldiers fired on a truck carrying 13 undocumented migrant workers from Burma on February 25 after the driver failed to stop for inspection.
The rights group said it had obtained photos showing the truck riddled with bullet holes.
Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW, said the soldiers who fired into the truck, apparently without concern for who could be killed or wounded, need to face the consequences.
HRW also called on the Thai government to provide access for investigators and to ensure none of the survivors are deported to Burma while investigations are conducted.
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore Step up Patrols Following Terror Warning
March 5, 2010
Daniel Schearf | Schearf Bangkok
Photo: AP
Ships are seen off the coast of Singapore, 04 Mar 2010
Security patrols in the Malacca Strait have increased following a warning from Singapore that terrorists were planning attacks on ships.
Defense authorities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore say they have increased sea and air patrols in the Malacca Strait.
Singapore warned that a terrorist group was planning attacks on oil tankers in the shipping lanes, through which half the world's oil and much of its trade is transported.
The warning did not specify a terrorist organization or say when the sea attacks were expected. But, the Singapore Navy said militants could use small boats to launch the attacks and urged shipping companies to stay alert for suspicious activities.
Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, says the countries are right to take the terrorism warning seriously.
"Malacca Straits is one of the busiest ports in the world. And, if there is an incident in Malacca Straits that it can have a very significant impact on global trade and commerce. So, it is so important for governments to take warnings very seriously," he said.
The Singapore Navy's Information Fusion Center said terrorists may be planning attacks to seek publicity and show that they are still active.
Gunaratna says al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiya are two of the terrorist groups likely behind the warning.
"Terrorism poses a continuing threat in the region. Certainly the incidents of maritime attacks have been fewer. But, in this case there's a specific warning, a specific threat alert, pertaining to maritime attack," he said.
Pirates have used small boats to hijack ships in the Malacca Strait. But, maritime policing by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore has reduced the threat from piracy.
Terrorism however remains a concern.
Indonesian police on Thursday charged 14 suspects with planning terrorist attacks after a raid on a suspected militant training camp in Aceh province.
Indonesian police say the men are believed to have links to Jemaah Islamiya.
Aceh is at the north end of the Malacca Strait.
But it is not clear if those arrested in Indonesia were related to the terror warning issued by Singapore.
Chinese Legislative Session Opens With Focus on Improving People's Well-Being
March 5, 2010
Stephanie Ho | Beijing
Photo: VOA - Wang Nan
The Great Hall of the People on the first day of the NPC session
China's legislature has begun its annual session Friday, with an emphasis on maintaining economic growth and increasing social and rural spending in an effort to help alleviate the problems brought on by growing income inequality.
In what has become an annual ritual, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao opened the 10-day session of China's legislature, the National People's Congress.
In a lengthy work report to nearly 3,000 delegates from around the country, Mr. Wen outlined what the government has done and what it hopes to accomplish in the future.
Mr. Wen says improving people's well-being is the fundamental goal of economic development. He said making people's lives better will ensure sustained impetus for economic development, a solid foundation for social progress and lasting stability.
The country is facing a significant and growing wealth gap, and the Chinese government has worked to assure the poorer segments of society that they also will benefit from China's transformation. Economists blame income inequality for dampening domestic consumption.
To address this problem, Mr. Wen detailed increases in social and rural spending that are higher than the announced rise in this year's defense budget.
The government also is aware of the concerns of many Chinese people, who are worried about high housing prices, official corruption, land seizures and unemployment.
Mr. Wen called 2009 a difficult year for the Chinese economy because of the global economic crisis. Despite that, China saw a strong economic growth rate last year of 8.7 percent. He says China is targeting an economic growth rate this year of eight percent, which would put the country on course to replace Japan as the world's second largest economy after the United States.
On foreign affairs, the Chinese leader said his country will continue to play an international role.
He says China will continue to carry out diplomatic work in climate change and energy cooperation. He says China also will try to play a constructive role in finding what he described as "proper solutions" to hot issue and global problems.
China is at odds with the United States and Europe over climate change, whether to impose more sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program and the Chinese currency, which critics say is kept low to give Beijing an unfair trade advantage.
This session of China's National People's Congress is set to end on March 14, when Prime Minister Wen takes questions from reporters in an annual news conference.
UN monitoring situation in south-eastern Bangladesh following recent violence
March 2, 2010
2 March 2010 - The United Nations system in Bangladesh is closely monitoring the situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, which has been the scene of recent violence between different ethnic groups, and stands ready to assist those in need, a spokesperson for the world body said today.
According to media reports, the clashes that began over a week ago between Muslim settlers and Buddhist tribals in the region has led to several deaths and many injuries. In addition, several hundred homes have been burned and thousands left homeless.
The UN "hopes that all will unite to help the recovery from this tragedy in a spirit of peace for the greater good of the nation," spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters in New York.
The UN "hopes that all will unite to help the recovery from this tragedy in a spirit of peace for the greater good of the nation
"The United Nations stands ready to provide targeted assistance to those in need, in close collaboration with the Government," he added.
Clinton in Brazil After Pledging Long Term Earthquake Aid to Chile
March 2, 2010
Photo: AP
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Brasilia, 02 Mar 2010
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Brasilia for meetings with Brazilian leaders after a stop in Chile where she pledged long-term U.S. relief help for the earthquake-ravaged country. Chilean officials say damage estimates range into the tens of billions of dollars.
Clinton spent only a few hours on the ground at the Santiago airport, meeting with President Michelle Bachelet and President elect Sebastian Pinera, and delivering an initial installment of 25 badly needed satellite telephones.
But she promised that the United States intends to be responsive to Chilean requests for a list of emergency items, including mobile surgical units and water purification systems,and said that the American commitment to Chile will be long-term.
"So we stand ready to offer what we've asked for now and to stay as your partner and your friend for the long term," said Hillary Clinton. "We'll be there to be of help when others leave, because we are committed to this partnership and friendship with Chile."
President Bachelet said the earthquake - one of the most powerful ever recorded - damaged a half million homes and affected the lives of two million Chileans though the monetary costs of recovery at this point, are hard to calculate.
"I could not answer for you how much it would cost to rebuild, to reconstruct, all this damage," said Michelle Bachelet. "But I can only say, it will be a lot. Chile has the capacity, we have the engineers, we have the people, we have the experience, we have people trained and all that. But I think it will take long, and it will mean a whole amount of money."
Ms. Bachelet said that Chile, which runs budget and trade surpluses, may be able to obtain reconstruction loans at favorable rates from the World Bank and other institutions, though that would be a decision for the incoming Pinera administration to make.
Pinera, who is to be sworn into office next week, estimated earthquake damage at $30 billion - 15 per cent of Chile's annual economic output.
But he said the disaster need not cause a rollback in his campaign pledges for job creation and a six per cent annual economic growth rate, given that the rebuilding process will be labor intensive.
He said it was not the time to criticize the leftist government's handling of the crisis.
But Pinera lamented looting and vandalism that have occurred in some areas including in Chile's second-largest city Concepcion, which was hardest hit by the earthquake.
"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Sebastian Pinera. "It simply worsens the already catastrophic situation that we're in. I hope that the government was using all the tools necessary in order to combat crime and to restore order. If more troops, if more people are needed, they should be used."
Pinera, of Chile's right-leaning National Renewal Party, said he might extend the national state of catastrophe declared by President Bachelet to allow for a continued military role in relief efforts.
Clinton, under questioning, said while Chile requires military-related hardware like portable bridges to meet earthquake needs, the idea of sending U.S. military personnel to Chile is not under discussion.
The Secretary of State has talks here Wednesday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on, among other things potential new U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. Brazil, which has extensive relations with Iran, is a current Security Council member.
Fresh Political Uncertainties Lie on Thai Political Horizon
March 2, 2010
Ron Corben | Bangkok
Photo: AP
Supporters of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reacts at the Pheu Thai Party building as Thailand's Supreme Court started reading its ruling on the former leader's wealth, in Bangkok, Thailand, 25 Feb 2010
A Thai Supreme Court verdict last week against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, accused of abuse of power and concealing his wealth, has eased the political uncertainty that had gripped the country in recent months. But, new uncertainties have emerged as pro-Thaksin supporters vow to mobilize against the government to force new elections, as a way to bring Thaksin back to power.
The long-awaited Supreme Court verdict concerning telecom tycoon and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra ended months of political uncertainties, amid fears of fresh protests after the verdict's outcome.
Initial reaction by pro-Thaksin supporters has been muted. But threats of protests this month against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government adds new concerns to an already troubled political landscape.
In a verdict broadcast Friday on television and radio, the panel of nine judges found Thaksin guilty of concealment of wealth and abuse of power by using his position to benefit family-linked telecommunications business.
The court called for seizure of $1.4 billion, about 60 percent of the more than $2.3 billion of family assets frozen by the state after Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.
Thaksin faces a new round of legal cases against him and family members on charges ranging from tax avoidance to perjury.
Chulalongkorn University political scientist Pasuk Pongpaichit says the verdict ended months of uncertainty surrounding Thailland.
"Things are clearer now about what is going to happen to Mr. Thaksin. It would be very difficult for him to return to fight through his supporters here. I suspect that he will not be able to recoup any of these back," she said.
While in power for five years, Thaksin drew his support from urban and rural poor and working class people who benefited from his populist policies of low-cost health care and rural development programs.
But the urban middle and upper class accuse him of abuse of power, attacks on the media and human rights abuses. He has been in exile since 2008 to avoid a corruption verdict in absentia that sentenced him to two years jail.
In Bangkok's working-class suburb, Klong Toey, opinions were divided about the verdict. Public-opinion polls indicate fears of further potential political tension, with a majority calling for Thaksin not to appeal the decision.
Chakra Silapanongchuk, a Bangkok a taxi driver who supported the verdict, said the court ruling proved Thaksin had been corrupt, and how the former leader had used his business knowledge to carry out the corruption.
But others, such as motorbike taxi driver Sompon, said many Thais still support Thaksin, especially those from the pro-Thaskin United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship or UDD, also identified by the group's wearing of red shirts.
Sompon says he believes Thaksin faces many legal hurdles, but he is still loved by many red-shirt supporters. He said Thaksin's Peua Thai Party would win an election over the Democrat Party leader, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Political economist Pasuk Pongpaichit agrees. She says the verdict will act to draw more 'grassroots' sympathy for Thaksin. "If you go and talk to people at the ground level this verdict has actually increased sympathy to Mr. Thaksin among his supporters. So in other words he has not lost any support. So this political asset in terms of his supporters has actually increased," said Pasuk.
The UDD say it will mobilize protests against Prime Minister Abhisit's government with the goal of forcing the government to resign. Some observers fear violence, while others say it will be a major test for both the UDD's support base and for the government's survival.
Kudeb Saikrajang is a member of the parliamentary opposition Peua Thai Party who believes underlying sympathy for Thaksin triggered by the verdict will draw more people to the protests. "If they can mobilize people and stay for a while, I think the government has to make it clear when they are going, otherwise they cannot rule. Neutral people will ask then what they will do. I think the best way is to dissolve the house; then the government can save face," said Kudeb.
The protests are expected to see a return to the larger street demonstrations that were at the heart of the pro-Thaksin movement in early 2009. In April 2009 protests in Bangkok and a seaside resort where red-shirt protesters crashed a conference hall of regional leaders forcing the gathering to be canceled. Troops were called out to quell the protests.
For the city of Bangkok, questions remain whether fresh street protests will end peacefully or push the government to again use emergency legislation to quell violence.
US Report Highlights Global Aspect, Threat of Drug Trade
March 1, 2010
Photo: USDS
The U.S. State Department issued its annual report on the global drug trade Monday, saying that narcotics trafficking threatens the security, health and safety of people in the United States and around the world.
The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, David Johnson, says the illicit drug trade presents a global challenge that affects all nations where drugs are produced, trafficked or consumed.
"Consumption of drugs is an international phenomenon," said David Johnson. "The country, regrettably, with the highest usage is Iran, and has substantial efforts under way themselves to help deter this. But among the fastest-growing cocaine markets is not the United States. They are the ones in Europe. So it is a global problem."
Johnson says Colombia's cocaine production continues to decline significantly, even though the nation remains the largest coca-producing state in the Andes. Still the report highlights Colombia as a key international success story, saying the nation's decade-long effort to wrest control from drug-trafficking insurgents has been remarkable.
But Johnson says Colombia's neighbor, Venezuela, has not shown a similar commitment to fight drug trafficking.
"What I would say is that if you look at the evidence on the ground where narcotics are emanating from, transiting into the Caribbean or to Africa and then onward into Europe, you see an extraordinary path of particularly aviation exports out of the Venezuelan area next to the border of Colombia," he said.
Johnson says he has not seen a significant effort on Venezuela's part to stop that traffic.
The State Department report says Venezuela does not cooperate consistently with countries working to reduce the flow of illicit drugs. And it says armed groups in Colombia are linked to narcotics trafficking through Venezuela.
Two nations highlighted in the previous report as particularly worrisome - Mexico and Afghanistan - were again discussed this year.
Johnson says U.S. counter-narcotics policy in Afghanistan has shifted away from poppy eradication to focus on alternative livelihoods, particularly in agriculture.
Johnson says narcotics trafficking throughout Afghanistan continues to present a challenge. But he says poppy production areas declined by about 30 percent between 2007 and 2009. Even so, Afghanistan produced more than 90 percent of the opium used to manufacture heroin last year.
Closer to home, Johnson stresses that the impact of Mexico-based drug cartel operations is felt in the United States well beyond the U.S.-Mexico border.
"The spillover, if you will, is more broadly into the United States," said David Johnson. "And some of the border communities can be, you know, not nearly as affected as some of the more inland areas are."
The report praises Mexico's President Felipe Calderón as well as the nation's police, judges and citizens for confronting the Mexican drug cartels. It points out that high-level traffickers were arrested last year and that Mexico is strengthening its police force with U.S. assistance.
In addition to the regions that are routinely associated with the narcotics trade, this year's drug report says West Africa, which had been largely ignored by drug traffickers, now serves as a major corridor for cocaine consumed in Europe.
Chile Battles Lawlessness, Desperation After Massive Earthquake
March 1, 2010
Michael Bowman | Washington
Photo: AFP
Chile's President Michelle Bachelet (r) talks to residents in a destroyed area of Concepcion, some 100 km (62 miles) south of the epicenter of a huge 8.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked Chile on February 27, 2010.
Chilean authorities are struggling to maintain order, distribute supplies, and rescue survivors after Saturday's powerful earthquake that killed more than 720 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings. President Michelle Bachelet is attempting to rally her nation in the face of tragedy and devastation, while appealing to the international community for assistance.
Shock and grief have given way to desperation and lawlessness in some areas hardest-hit by the 8.8-magnitude earthquake. Many looters made off with food and basic supplies. Others saw an opportunity for large-scale theft, carrying away home appliances on their backs.
Authorities declared a nighttime curfew in several municipalities, and President Bachelet sent thousands of additional security forces to restore order.
In Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, some residents have taken local security matters into their own hands, setting up impromptu roadblocks to keep track of all who seek to enter their neighborhoods.
Many are predicting dire times ahead.
One man says that the real crisis is about to begin, with people out of work and hungry.
A woman says there is no electricity, no water, and no food at all because of the looting. She says everything has been stolen from the supermarkets, the small shops, and the pharmacies.
The chaos comes as emergency responders continue efforts to find quake survivors trapped beneath rubble or unable to escape damaged structures.
The devastation appears most-severe in Chilean coastal communities. First jolted by the earthquake, many seaside towns were then struck by surging waves several meters high that washed away homes and carried an untold number of people to their deaths.
One survivor says the water swallowed him and his wife, and swept them away.
He says he cannot find her anywhere. He says he has searched everywhere, including the local hospital, but to no avail.
President Bachelet has appealed for international assistance, including temporary bridges, field hospitals, electric generators and water purification systems. Until such aid arrives, she is appealing for national unity and a sense of common purpose.
She says Chile faces a massive catastrophe that will require an enormous effort by both the public and private sectors to overcome. She adds that the effort will be required now and into the future.
This was the second major earthquake to strike the Americas this year. Although stronger than January's temblor in Haiti, the Chilean quake has inflicted a far-lower death toll than in Port-au-Prince, where more than 200,000 people are believed to have perished.
UN blames India, Myanmar for rising drug abuse in Bangladesh
March 1, 2010
The question on how illicit drugs enter Bangladesh makes Bangladesh's government and border guards greatly responsible there Monday March 01 2010 02:39:12 AM BDT The United Nations has blamed India and Myanmar for increased drug abuse in their neighbouring countries including Bangladesh. The latest report of the International Narcotics Control Board,(Newage)
the independent and quasi-judicial control organ for the implementation of the UN drug conventions, detailed the swelling influx of Indian drugs into Bangladesh.
‘The widespread abuse of pharmaceutical preparations containing narcotic drugs such as codeine is an ongoing problem in Bangladesh. Such preparations are smuggled into that country from India,' said the INCB 2009 report, released on February 24.
The INCB investigated in-depth the world-wide drug abuse, illicit manufacturing and smuggling in 2008 with an alarming compilation on the amounts of illicit drugs which had been captured by Bangladeshi law enforcers.
Citing a record seizure of 14,782 ampoules of Indian buprenorphine, which is widely abused by injection, the report said, ‘in the majority of those cases, the preparations were smuggled by persons entering Bangladesh by crossing the country's porous land borders.'
India is the primary source of injectible drugs such as pethidine and morphine widely abused in neighbouring Bangladesh and Bhutan, the UN agency said. ‘More and more addicts in these countries are shifting to injectible narcotics abuse.'
The report also blamed Myanmar as a major source of methamphetamine tablets, known as Yaba, into Bangladesh's market.
Pharmaceutical preparations containing benzodiazepines and originated in India are among the drugs most widely abused in Bhutan, said the report.
Citing seizure of more than 1,060 tablets containing chlordiazepoxide and 240 strips of tablets containing nitrazepam in Bhutan, the report said, ‘The suspected origin of the seized drugs was India.'
Describing widespread trafficking in cannabis herb and cannabis resin throughout South Asia, where climate conditions are highly suitable for their cultivation, the INCB noted seizure of 2.3 tonnes of cannabis in Bangladesh in 2008.
Major sourcing and influx of illicit drugs into Bangladesh crossing borders is quite an open secret, said former adviser to the caretaker government ASM Shajahan.
‘Information is there that many illicit drug manufacturing units are in operation across the borders and they eye Bangladesh market mainly,' said Shajahan, also a former inspector general of police. ‘Strong international criminal and financial networks control Bangladesh's drug supply chain.'
Observing that Bangladesh's narcotics department is weak to keep watch and prevent influx of illicit drugs into Bangladesh, Shajahan said ‘A strong national and functional unity by major political parties against drug abuse is also absent.'
Emphasising that the government should make a broad-based study on the issue and engage it in Bangladesh-India diplomatic priorities, Shajahan said, ‘The Bangladesh government should seek India's cooperation in tracing and eliminating the cross-border drug smuggling networks.'
An expert who works with an international programme of drug prevention, said, accusation against India as the major source of illicit drugs in Bangladesh would not resolve such a chronic problem.
‘The question on how illicit drugs enter Bangladesh makes Bangladesh's government and border guards greatly responsible there,' he said. ‘Drug abuse problems should be addressed with multifaceted programmes - supply reduction, harm reduction and demand reduction.'
Brazil, Chile to Dominate Clinton's Latin America Tour
February 28, 2010
Photo: state.gov
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flies Sunday to Latin America, where she is expected to focus on Chile's deadly earthquake and Brazil's relations with Iran.
Clinton begins her five-day tour in Uruguay, where she will attend the inauguration of President-elect Jose Mujica.
She is due next in Chile, unless the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Saturday disrupts her plans.
Wednesday's visit to Brazil will be the centerpiece of Clinton's diplomatic efforts. She plans to lobby Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to support new sanctions against Iran.
Brazil is a voting member of the U.N. Security Council, but has warm relations with Iran and has been reluctant to further punish Tehran for its nuclear enrichment program.
Clinton ends her tour in Costa Rica and Guatemala, where she will also meet the leaders of the Dominican Republic and El Salvador.
With a computer graphic showing the possible path of tsunami waves from an earthquake in Chile, Dr. Charles McCreery speaks on the phone at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, 27 Feb 2010
tsunami triggered by the Chilean earthquake has traveled thousands of kilometers across the Pacific Ocean, sending a surge of water ashore in Hawaii, New Zealand and islands in the South Pacific.
There were no immediate reports of major damage in any of the Pacific countries or territories, however the tsunami killed at least five people on an island off the coast of Chile.
Eleven others are reported missing on Chile's remote Robinson Crusoe island.
Fifteen hours after Saturday's earthquake struck Chile, the tsunami reached the U.S. island state of Hawaii, where residents had been evacuated from low-lying areas. Officials say waves there reached two meters, but caused no major damage.
Waves of about two meters have also hit the French Polynesian islands and New Zealand.
Tsunami warnings had been posted earlier in 50 countries and islands around the Pacific, but the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center later canceled them in all countries except Japan and Russia.
Japanese officials say waves of up to three meters could hit the coast Sunday.
It is hard to predict the wave length of any tsunami, or its exact path, until after it has hit the shore.
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is the most destructive on record. It was generated by a 9.0-magnitude underwater quake with an epicenter near Indonesia's Sumatra island. It killed about 150,000 people, most of them in south Asia and southeast Asia.
JPN Korea’s protest letter to PM against massive communal attack and killings by the Bangladesh Army and Bengali settlers
February 27, 2010
JPNK's demo in Seoul
To:
The Prime minister of the peoples` Republic of Bangladesh
Honorable Prime Minister,
We are very deeply concerned to learn through the Bangladeshi News-media and reliable sources that a massive communal attack in Indigenous Jumma people by the Bangladesh-army and Bengali settlers took place in 10 villages of Bhaghaihat area under Sajek Union of Rangamati District on the 19th and 20th February 2010. The gruesome attack has resulted to the death of 7 Jummas, missing of several others including Ven.Punabas Bhikkhu (a Buddhist monk) and burning down of two hundred Jumma houses including a Buddhist Temple (Banani Bana Bihara Temple) and a Christian Church. The brutal attack rendered thousands of Jumma indigenous people homeless. The fascist attack on the Indigenous Jumma people that perpetrated both by the Bangladesh Army and the Bengali Settlers have surpassed the limit of barbarism human society ever experienced in the era of civilization.
Excellency prime minister,
We are very much worried and concerned that the Bangladesh Army have been directly involved in killing and all forms of human rights abuses in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and particularly they had been involved behind the communal attacks on Indigenous Jumma people in Sajek area for the past few years in order to implement the governments` blue print of settling Bengali people as a plot to evict the Jummas from those areas. Retrospectively, on 20th April 2008, the Bengali settlers with the direct support and backings of the Army of Baghaihat military-zone attacked 7 villages of indigenous Jumma people in which at least 76 houses of indigenous villagers were completely burnt to ashes in the same area. The news of the incident was well published in the media. The local Indigenous Jumma people and civil society groups very often sought Government intervention to safeguard the Jumma people from such communal attacks. But, so far no such fruitful intervention could pave its way to solve land disputes and protect the Jummas living in the area. On the other hands, Bangladesh army have distorted the fact and always been operative against Jumma on the pretext of fighting with so called Jumma-terrorist group.
Your Excellency prime minister,
We are aware of your commitment to solve and resume peace and human rights of the Jumma people of Chittagong Hill Tracts that you have given through your election-manifesto. But your election Manifesto has again proved to be contradictory in terms of Human Rights violations in Chittagong Hill Tracts. Thus your Government has failed to protect the rights of the Jumma People. We strongly protest against continuous human rights violations perpetrated by the Military and the Bengali settlers in the CHT against the Jumma people. We condemn you for your failure to uphold your commitment. Hence forth, we urge and Appeal you to take the following measures for the protection of the rights of indigenous Jumma people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
1) To conduct Judicial investigation of the incident and to send a Parliamentary team to enquiry the incident; 2) To Immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the Bengali settlers and Military personnel responsible for the incident and to provide with due compensation for the all Jumma victims of the army and settler-attack 3) To stop expansion of Bengali settlement and withdraw both Bengali settlers and the temporary army camps from l entire Chittagong Hill Tracts. 4) To stop de facto military rule ‘Operation Uttoran'
5)) Ensure full autonomy in the CHT
Sincerely,
Jumma People`s Network-Korea (JPNK), KIM IN, hoi Gwang-Eun,Lee Sun Joo,Kimstcat,Lee Hye Jeong,LEE MIN JEONG, Kwon Moon Seok, Park dae jin, Lee Hyung-Jin, lee ji won, Lee Dae Ro,Shin Hee-Chul,Choi Chang Jin,Kim Yong Ki,Kim Hyun Soo,Song, Chul-min,Han Don Son(Socialist party of Korea), center for refugee rights(NANCEN), Han Kinam, Son Sang Hoon(Buddhist solidarity for reform), Imagination for International Solidarity(IFIS) , Dr.KuDowan( Christian activist and researcher)
Amnesty International calls on the government of Bangladesh to carry out a prompt, independent and impartial investigation into the death of two Jumma indigenous residents of the Chittagong Hill Tracts after the army opened fire on them on 20 February 2010.
Although government officials have confirmed only two deaths, according to local people at least six more Jumma indigenous people were killed on 20 February, but their bodies have not
been recovered.
The two men who died were among hundreds of Jumma indigenous people who were peacefully protesting attacks from Bengalee settlers against their homes. They were demanding protection after the Bengalee settlers had set on fire at least 40 houses of Jumma indigenous people in the Baghaichhari area of the Rangamati district on the night of 19 February. The attacks began after Jumma indigenous people protested against Bengalee settlers who were erecting illegal building structures on their indigenous land. According to reports, the Bengalee settlers then marched towards Jumma indigenous people's homes attacking them and burning their houses.
On 20 February, the Jumma indigenous people were demonstrating in their villages against the attacks by Bengalee settlers and the army reportedly came to stop the demonstration. An army commander ordered the indigenous people to leave the area but they resisted. One of the demonstrators reportedly attacked and injured the army commander with a knife. Army
personnel then fired live ammunition at the demonstrators, which hit at least two people who later died. At least 25 people were injured during the shooting. Jumma indigenous people began to flee the area but Bengalee settlers moved in and torched at least 160 of their homes, allegedly with army personnel taking no action to stop them.
Amnesty International acknowledges the responsibility of the law enforcement personnel to ensure law and order. However according to the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, they "may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty". Furthermore, according to the 1990 UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement officials, "intentional lethal use of firearms" is only to be made "when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life". Circumstances suggest that law enforcement personnel firing at demonstrators in the Chittagong Hill Tracts may have used excessive force in breach of these principles.
The settlers reportedly burnt to ashes at least 200 Jumma people's houses on 19 and 20 February in the villages of Guchchhagram, Gangaram Mukh, Hajachhara, Simanachhara, Retkaba, Jarulchhari, Dippara, Dane Bhaibachhara, Bame Bhaibachhara, MSF Para and Purbapara, in Rangamati district. They also looted the Jumma people's belongings and destroyed their religious icons including statutes of Buddha.
On 23 February, Bengalee settlers attacked a procession of indigenous people who were demanding government action against the 19 and 20 February arson attacks and killings. The procession was taking place in Khagrachari which is in another district in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. According to reports, a group of Bengalee settlers attacked them at about 11:30am that day. Bengalee settlers then reportedly set on fire at least 37 houses of the Jumma indigenous people. The attack triggered a clash between the settlers and the Jumma people. Jumma people were also reported to have set at least 29 houses of Bengalee settlers on fire
during these clashes on 23 February. One man, a Bengalee settler, was reportedly killed. Police said he was shot in the head, but it is not clear who fired the shot.
Local authorities have imposed severe restrictions on indigenous people's access to the media and independent observers. Journalists are not allowed to enter the area. Army staff have told them these measures are for the security of the journalists themselves, but human rights activists have told Amnesty International that the army has in this way prevented an independent assessment of what has happened and who has been responsible for the attacks. Since 19 February, at least four journalists covering the attacks have been attacked and injured by the Bengalee settlers.
Given the allegations that state officials including army personnel may have acted in support of the Bengalee settlers, there is a risk that incriminating evidence could be destroyed before independent observers including journalists can visit the sites of the violence.
More than 100 Jumma indigenous people are believed to be in detention, with dozens more missing. Relatives are afraid to go to the police stations or army posts to inquire about their missing members, so they have little information about their whereabouts. According to reports, some of these detainees are people who went to hospital for treatment after the attack but were taken into custody. Police have also reportedly arrested about 30 Bengalee settlers.
More than 1500 Jumma indigenous people have fled their homes and are living under open skies in deep forest, with no shelter and little access to food. The injured are reportedly afraid to go to hospitals as they run the risk of being arrested.
The government has dispatched an official delegation to prepare a report. The authorities have promised to compensate those who have been affected by the violence.
Amnesty International calls on the government of Bangladesh to:
Carry out prompt, impartial, and independent investigation into these attacks and killings to identify individuals who set houses on fire and army personnel who may have used excessive force, and bring those responsible to justice in a fair trial without resort to the death penalty; Ensure that the detainees have access to lawyers of their own choice, can challenge the legality of their detention, have access to family visits and medical treatment, and are not at
risk of torture;
Compensate the victims and survivors of the attacks, rehabilitate the people who have lost their homes and belonging and provide them with medical treatment for their injuries; Allow independent observers to visit the sites of the violence, and ensure the security of the Jumma indigenous people in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Background
For decades tension has been high in the Chittagong Hill Tracts where the Jumma indigenous communities are at risk of being outnumbered by Bengalee settlers who continue to take over their land. More than two decades of insurgency by the indigenous people came to an end when the previous Awami League government signed a peace accord with their representatives in December 1997. Two of the most important provisions of the accord remain unfulfilled. One is the formation of a land commission to identify land taken away from the indigenous people during the insurgency, which should be returned to them. This commission has just been set
up after a delay of more than 12 years, but has not begun its work yet. Another provision of the accord relates to the withdrawal of temporary army camps, of which some 400 remain in the area. The government began to withdraw some of the major temporary camps last year, but the process has reportedly been halted again Bengalee settlers have continued to take over indigenous land and drive indigenous people out of their homes, but the army which is in control of law and order in the area has allegedly not stopped them. Indigenous people say the army has in this way condoned human rights abuses committed by Bengalee settlers against them.
European Union: Statement by the spokesperson of HR Catherine Ashton, on the acts of violence in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh
February 27, 2010
EUROPEAN UNION Brussels, 26 February 2010, A 26/10
Statement by the spokesperson of HR Cathrine Ashton, on the acts of violence in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh
The spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, issued the following statement today on the acts of violence in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh:
"The EU strongly condemns the acts of violence that took place in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh on 19 and 20 February 2010.
The EU has received reports that in a number of villages in the Rangamati District, and notably in Gangarmodor Baghaihat, a number of people belonging to indigenous groups have been killed, up to 400 houses belonging to the indigenous population of the area burned down and a similar number of indigenous families displaced. The EU is aware of allegations that the incident involved army personnel and labourers employed by the army.
The EU calls upon the Government of Bangladesh to swiftly and thoroughly follow up with an independent investigation of this incident and of the allegations that the armed forces were involved. The EU calls upon the Government of Bangladesh to ensure that the perpetrators of these shameful acts are brought to justice.
It is the constitutional responsibility of the Government of Bangladesh to ensure the protection and the fundamental rights of all its citizens. Incidents such as this have no place in an inclusive and tolerant society.
The EU is also concerned about the wider impact that this violence may have on the stability of the CHT region as well as on Bangladesh's international reputation, and calls on the relevant authorities in Bangladesh to take more effective measures to implement the CHT Peace Accord."
------
P R E S S FOR FURTHER DETAILS: Lutz Guellner - Spokesperson for the High Representative +32 498/964 641 - +32 2 296 46 41 e-mail: COMM-SPP-HRVP-ASHTON@ec.europa.eu www.eeas.europa.eu
A massive demonstration led by Ven. Karunalankar Mahathero, President, Peace Camping Group and Mr. Suhas Chakma, Director, Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network was held today in New Delhi to protest recent Bangladeshi military atrocities in CHT. Over 1000 Chakmas and non-Chakma human rights and peace activists participated in the demonstration.
On 19 February Bengali-speaking settlers backed by Bangladeshi military perpetrated arson attacks on indigenous villages in Baghaihat area, CHT. About 100 houses of indigenous people were burnt into aches and 8 indigenous people were killed and over 100 were injured in these attacks. The ethnic clashes and tension continued spreading in different areas of CHT till 24 February. According to latest reports received, 66 houses of indigenous people were burnt down in Khagrachri district town alone and dozens of indigenous people were injured in this series of arson attacks in other areas. Curfew was reportedly imposed in affected areas to control the situation. Thousands of indigenous people fled away from their homes and went hiding in forests fearing more attacks. They were reportedly living in critical condition.
The attacks began with a democratic protest of indigenous people against a project undertaken by Bangladeshi military for settlement of over 15000 Bengali-speaking settlers in Sajek area some one decade ago. The area is covered with forest and full of forest resources. The government is accused of having a plan to bring the area under its strategic control by linking it with rest of Bangladesh through road network for settlement of Bengali-speaking settlers and exploitation of resources there. The project has threatened with eviction of thousands of indigenous families from the area.
The demonstration organized under the banner of PCG and CHT support groups demanded, among others, the withdrawal of Bangladeshi military rule and Bengali-speaking settlers from CHT and implementation of the CHT Accord of 1997 and stop of Bangladeshi policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide in the region. The demonstration widely covered by different media was addressed by Ven. Karunalankar Mahathero, Mr. Subimal Chakma and Mr. Suhas Chakma, among others.
After the demonstration a delegation led by Ven. Karunalankar Mahathero submitted a memorandum to the Office of the Prime Minister of India demanding Indian intervention for peaceful solution to the decade-old ethnic problem in CHT.
For more information please contact: * * * Peace Campaign Group (PCG) RZ-I-91/211, West Sagarpur, New Delhi-110046, India Tel: + 91-11-2 539 8383 Telefax: + 91-11-2 539 4277 E-mail: pcgoffice@yahoo.co.in, pcgonline@gmail.com
Burma's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (2009 file photo)
The United States has criticized Burma's Supreme Court for not releasing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from her extended house arrest.
A State Department official told reporters the Burmese court's ruling Friday was "purely political." He noted that the U.S. has consistently urged the ruling military in Burma to free its political prisoners.
New York Congressman Joe Crowley, a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, issued a statement calling Aung San Suu Kyi's continuing house arrest "a sham from day one." Crowley said the military must face consequences for violating the human rights of the Burmese people.
He said it is time for the United States to fully implement increased targeted sanctions against officials in Than Shwe's military regime under the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act.
Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted last year of violating the terms of her detention when she gave shelter to an American man who swam to her lakeside Rangoon house uninvited.
Burma's Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal against the latest extension of her house arrest.
She initially was sentenced to three years of hard labor. But Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the ruling military, commuted her sentence to just an extra 18 months of house detention.
Aung San Suu Kyi's legal team argued that the extension was not lawful, because it was based on provisions from the 1974 constitution, which is no longer in force.
Her lawyers say they will pursue a final, special appeal.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said he is "disappointed" Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal was dismissed. He called for the release of all political prisoners in Burma and for their participation in its political process.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "appalled and saddened" at the court's decision. He also said the sole purpose of Aung San Suu Kyi's trial was to prevent her from taking part in this year's elections.
The government of Singapore issued a statement urging talks between the Burmese military, Aung San Suu Kyi and other political groups ahead of the elections. Singapore said those talks would offer the best chance for "national reconciliation and the long-term political stability" of Burma.
Burma's military leaders said they will hold elections later this year, for the first time in two decades.
Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy won the 1990 election, but the military refused to relinquish power. The military has kept her under some form of detention for 14 of the last 20 years.
Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra (file photo)
The Thai Supreme Court has ruled several times against ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in its decision over the government's attempt to seize Mr. Thaksin's $2.3 billion fortune for alleged corruption.
In its reading of a lengthy ruling Friday, the high court said the former telecommunications mogul illegally concealed his ownership of shares in his company while in office, and shaped government policies in order to benefit the company.
Earlier in its decision, the court rejected arguments by Mr. Thaksin's lawyers that prosecutors had no legal authority to bring the charges.
Mr. Thaksin's assets were frozen after he was forced out of office in a 2006 coup.
Mr. Thaksin lives in exile and communicates with his many supporters, known as "Red Shirts" through electronic media. He denied the charges in a message sent Friday through the social networking site Twitter, insisting he and his family built the fortune through hard work and brains.
Thailand deployed extra security forces in provinces across the country ahead of the ruling. More than 6,000 security forces were in place in Bangkok and the surrounding areas, because of fears of protests by Mr. Thaksin's supporters.
The Red Shirts, largely comprised of the country's rural and poor citizens, have staged a number of protests demanding the resignation of current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Their counterparts, the "Yellow Shirts," have accused Mr. Thaksin of corruption and disrespecting Thailand's widely beloved monarchy.
Burma's Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Democracy Leader
February 26, 2010
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok
A Burmese national holds a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi during a demonstration in front of the Burmese Embassy in Tokyo (2009 File)
Burma's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal for the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The court on Friday upheld an extended house arrest for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
One of her lawyer's, Nyan Win, says the court did not immediately give a reason for rejecting the appeal.
He says they will file one final special appeal in the coming month but he does not want to say if they are optimistic about getting the sentence overturned.
"We have the right, according to the law, we have the right to submit the appeal. So, we'll try to submit this appeal," he said.
Last August, Aung San Suu Kyi was given 18 months detention for briefly harboring an American man who swam to her lakeside home uninvited.
Two of her live-in assistants received similar sentences.
The sentence was condemned internationally as a sham designed by Burma's military government to keep the opposition leader locked up during elections later this year.
The military government has not yet set a date for the elections and has altered the constitution so the military is guaranteed a quarter of parliamentary seats.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been kept in jail or under house arrest for most of the last two decades.
Her National League for Democracy won Burma's last elections in 1990 by a landslide, but Burma's military refused to give up power.
A Thai policeman arranges seized ivory before a press conference in Bangkok at the National Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division of the Police Department, 20 Jan 2010
Thailand has intercepted a record two tons of elephant tusks that authorities say were smuggled into the country from Africa. Thailand is seeking to be removed from a blacklist of countries involved in the illegal ivory trade.
Thai customs authorities say they seized 239 elephant tusks at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport, worth an estimated $3.6 million, late Wednesday.
The officials say the haul weighed more than two tons and was the largest bust in Thailand's recent history.
The seizure followed a tip that illegal ivory from South Africa arrived on a plane from Dubai.
The ivory was labeled as telecommunication parts destined for Laos. But Tanat Suvattanametakul, director of the airport's cargo clearance customs bureau, says the cargo declaration was false. "They need to import to Thailand but they just declare the transit to Laos," said Tanat.
Thailand is a major transit point for trafficking wildlife products, much of which goes to markets in China.
Thailand is hoping to be removed from a blacklist of countries involved in the illegal trade at a March conference of parties to CITES, the convention on international trade in endangered species.
Sulma Warne is a program officer with Traffic, an organization that monitors the illegal trade in wildlife. He says the record bust should help Thailand's image, but says there are additional steps the country needs to take to crack down on smugglers.
"The fines and the punishments that are handed out tend not to be significant enough for people not to engage or re-engage in such criminal activities. So, we would certainly like to see the enforcement or the punishments ramped up," said Sulma.
Customs officials say a Thai national tried to pick up the shipment of illegal ivory and was detained. But it is not clear if any charges were made. The United Nations banned the international trade in ivory in 1989, but smuggling continues and ivory traders often disguise illegal sources as domestic stockpiles.
Fresh communal attack on Jumma localities in Khagrachari town
February 25, 2010
Today (23 February 2010) fresh communal attack was made on Jumma-inhabited localities in Khagrchari municipality under Khagrachari district by Bengali settlers with the direct help of military forces. Around 40 Jumma houses were burnt down and several Jummas were injured in this attack. On the other, one Bengali employee was killed.
It is reported that the clash broke out around 12.00 noon after a group of Bengali settlers belonging to so-called Sama Odhikar Andolon and Parbatya Bangalee Chhatra Parishad (PBCP) chased a procession of the indigenous Jumma people at Shapla Sattwar area of Khagrachari bazaar. The Bengali settlers hit the Jumma protesters indiscriminately.
Then the Bengali settlers made arson attack on Jumma-inhabited Mahajan Para area. It is alleged that military forces dispersed the Jumma people while they tried to prevent Bengali settlers from setting fire on the houses belonging to Jumma people. Soon after the dispersion of the Jumma people, Bengali settlers set fire on Jumma houses. At least 7 houses were burnt to ashes in this arson attack.
Bengali settlers then set fire on Milanpur, Madhupur and Upali Para areas where at least 7 houses were set fire. One of the owners of the houses was identified as Ms Lucky Chakma at Madhupur area. This was followed by setting fire on Sat Bheiya Para area where at least 25 houses of Jumma people were completely burnt to ashes. Besides, a quarter of Khagrachari Government High School, where a teacher of this school Ms. Tapasi Chakma stays, was also burnt to ashes. PCJSS office at Larma Square of Khagrachari municipality was set fire. It is alleged that Bengali settlers set fire the houses after looting the valuables of the houses. It is reported that Bengali settlers also looted some Jumma houses of Basundhara area. Sources said that at least 7 injured persons were admitted to Khagrachari sadar hospital while 12 received first aid.
On the other, a Bengali was killed at Shalbagan area which is completely inhabited by Bengali settlers. He was identified as Anwar Hossain (22), a fourth class employee of Khagrachhari municipality. It is not confirmed how he was killed. However, sources said that a group of Bengali settlers attacked hostel of Vocational Institute situated at Shalbagan area where few Jumma students stay. He might be killed by this attack.
Jumma people alleged that Bengali settlers made this attack by protection of military forces from the back side. It is reported that some of Bengali settlers were brought from Matiranga upazila by 8 jeeps. During the attack, journalist of Channel i and Desh TV were also assaulted and their cameras were broken by the Bengali settlers when camera crew Dilip Chowdhury and Mongsapru Marma were filming the clashes. Talat Mamun, reporter of private television ntv and Saikat Dewan, correspondent of daily prothom alo, were hostage for few hours by Bengali settlers.
It is reported that Bengali settlers also gathered at Dighinala and Panchari in Khagrachari and Kaukhali upazila in Rangamati district.
The administration imposed a 10-hour curfew in Khagrachhari municipality from 9.00 pm in the wake of fresh communal attack by Bengali settlers. The administration with megaphones asked residents to remain indoors and that if anyone was found outside, they would be arrested and terrorists would be searched door to door.
Reaction to the fresh attack
Following the fresh communal attack on Jumma localities in Khagrachari municipality, at around 4.00 pm Indigenous Students demonstrated a protest rally in the banner of Pahari Chartra Parishad (PCP). Hundreds of students and youths belonging to indigenous community joined in this protest rally.
The rally started from Aporajea Bangla at Dhaka University. Dhaka Indigenous students from different educational institutions participated in this agitation. The rally moved to Muktangan at Paltan through DU campus and High Court. Among others, students' leaders from different indigenous students' organization, Dhaka University teacher Professor Robaet Ferdous and Jobaida Nasreen Kona, Central leader of Communist Party of Bangladesh Rohin Hossain Prince were also spoke at this protest rally. They all condemned the barbaric and brutal arson attack in Khagrachari town today. Speakers demanded justice of this attack and exemplary punishment of the culprits.
UNDP closes Khagrachari office
It is learnt that on 23 February 2010 UNDP closed its Khagrachari office for indefinite period. On the others, the staffs of Rangamati and Bandarban offices of UNDP have been given leave for two days.
Update of Baghaihat attack
Today (on 23 February 2010) a MSF primary school was set fire by Bengali settlers. A group of army from Baghaihat zone were in patrolling during this attack.
Indigenous students of Jahangirnagar University also staged protest rally against killing and arson attack at Baghaihat area under Baghaichari upazila.
On the other, at around 10.00 am members of the civil society in Rangamati formed a human chain demanding a fair investigation into Baghaihat communal attack. Around 1,000 people took part in the human chain in front of the Deputy Commissioner' s office of Rangamati district. They also demanded immediate arrest and punishment of the people responsible for the incident, withdrawal of army camps and removal of Bengali settlers from the Baghaihat area.
More army to be deployed in CHT, says Home Minister
Today (on 23 February 2010) in a meeting, Home Minister Ms. Sahara Khatum said that government would consider, if needed, to deploy more army in CHT. She said that government has enough preparation to combat any evil forces whether they were Shanti Bahini, religious extremist group or any group.
PCJSS (Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti)
Kalyanpur, Rangamati-450000
Rangamati Hill District, Chittagong Hill Tracts Bangladesh
American Lisa Nesser Gives Free Education to Stateless Children from Burma
February 25, 2010
24 February 2010 Daniel Schearf | Chiang Mai, Thailand
Photo: VOA
Lisa Nesser in her school in Chiang Mai, Thailand
American Lisa Nesser moved to northern Thailand six years ago to help refugees from Burma. Lisa discovered many minority children from Burma were unable to attend regular schools in Thailand so she started giving the children free evening classes and her small group of students soon grew into a unique school. As we hear from VOA's Daniel Schearf, Nesser is making a difference in the city of Chiang Mai through her school - Thai Freedom House.
Lisa Nesser chops watermelon slices in the kitchen of a traditional Thai-style wooden house. The fruit is for about 15 stateless children from Burma who are sitting on the floor, having their evening English class.
Nesser says she never planned to open a school for stateless children from Burma. But when she saw children late at night on the streets of Chiang Mai who had no access to education, she decided to teach them herself.
Word spread about the free classes. And as more students showed up, Nesser enlisted volunteers, hired a small bus and used her own money to turn her house into a school.
"So I was really trying to get them into regular schools," said Lisa Nesser. "And they just wouldn't take them, even when I offered to sponsor fees."
Most of Lisa Nesser's students are children of migrant workers from Shan state in Burma. They do not have Thai citizenship or language skills - making it difficult for them to enroll in Thai schools.
Many of her students do not have the time or money for regular school because they have to work to support their families.
"So I have a lot of 12-year-olds that work," she said. "They work on a construction site; they mix cement; they carry buckets; they clean up. Some of them work in noodle shops, maybe from like a street stall, from 5:00 p.m. till 2:00 in the morning. So they can't go to school at 7:00 in the morning."
Nesser says that in the last few years, her school, Thai Freedom House, has taught about 200 children English, Thai and art. The school also teaches the Shan language because most students did not receive a good education in Burma.
Nesser also arranges for craft makers to teach the children how to make things they can sell to help support their families.
"They don't have a country," said Nesser. "They don't have their family structure here to support them. But if you can give them education and language and ways to express themselves, which is why we focus on the arts, that gives them another kind of freedom that otherwise they wouldn't have."
Fourteen-year-old Nam Gao says that when she moved to Thailand three years ago, her parents tried to enroll her in a Thai school. But because she does not have a birth certificate, she was rejected.
"I want to say, 'Thank you,' to the teachers [at Thai Freedom House]," said Nam Gao. "If there was no home like this, I would have no place to go to continue my education. Thank you for Freedom House."
Lisa Nesser has spent most of her savings to keep the school open. Although she solicits donations for the school, Nesser says they are never enough.
Still, she says, educating her students is worth the struggle.
In Malaysia, Increasing Religious Tension May Be Linked to Economic Concerns
February 25, 2010
24 February 2010 Brian Padden | Kuala Lumpur
Photo: AP
A Kuala Lumpur police officer inspects the damage to the Metro Tabernacle Church which was destroyed by a fire bomb a little after midnight in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Desa Melawati, Malaysia, 08 Jan 2010
Recently, a series of attacks on Christian churches and a Sikh temple in Malaysia focused attention on growing ethnic tension in the country. The Malaysian government, which has been promoting a "1Malaysia" campaign stressing racial and religious harmony, condemned the attacks. But, some critics say it may also be contributing to religious and racial divisions to solidify its political base.
A legal dispute over the word "Allah" divides Muslims and Catholics in Malaysia. The controversy started on December 31, when the Malaysian High Court allowed Roman Catholics to use "Allah" to refer to God. The government has appealed the verdict.
Although many Muslims attending prayer service at the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur believe the word "Allah" is exclusive to Islam, few endorsed the violent attacks on nine churches and a Sikh temple that followed the court ruling.
"We think it could be created, you know, to make people believe there are violence in religions here but, in fact it is not," said a Muslim man.
At Saint Ann's Church, Father Lawrence Andrew says the government's swift response to protect churches has been reassuring but the experience has left Malaysia's Catholic community concerned. "We are not really upset about it, but what is psychologically disturbing is that people can be annoyed or feel insecure at the slightest differences that appear," he said.
Although the attacks appear religious in nature, political analysts here say they are more symptomatic of conflicting economic and political pressures on the leading government party, the United Malays United Malays National Organization.
Charles Santiago is an opposition member of parliament with the Democratic Action Party. He says UMNO maintained power for years by giving special treatment to its core constituency - ethnic Muslim Malays, who make up 60 percent of the population.
"I am UMNO, the protector, and I will give you the money. I will give you all development and all you have to do is every once in five years make sure you come and vote for me, and this thing will go on," said Santiago.
However, to become more competitive in the global economy, the government is trying to rollback its system of ethnic preferences, which requires companies to reserve 30 percent of their shares for Malays.
The government public relations campaign, called "1Malaysia," which advocates the values of tolerance and equality, was designed, in part, to push public acceptance of these economic changes.
But after the 2008 elections, in which many Malays voted for the opposition, UMNO had to change its tactics.
Zakaria Ahmad is a professor of politics with Help University in Kuala Lumpur. He says, to shore up its support within the Muslim Malay community, the government now has to support or at least tolerate more hardline actions on issues of race and religion. "I think there is a breakdown of law and order, but it is not lawlessness. It is just the government seems to be unable to cope - doesn't seem to have the political will to enforce laws as before," said Ahmad.
In addition to the controversy about the use of the word Allah, the judicial system has put new emphasis on enforcing Sharia law among Muslims. In recent months, three Muslim women have been caned for sexual misconduct.
In Malaysia, Muslims are subject to Sharia courts for violating religious law and for family issues such as divorce. A separate secular court system exists for other issues and for non-Muslims.
Marina Mahathir, a women's rights advocate and daughter of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, says there are more instances of police monitoring personal behavior. "There was a recent story about wanting to, on Valentine's Day, raid people having romantic candlelit dinners, Muslim couples having romantic candlelit, I mean, what business of it is theirs and really don't they have better things to do? And, that is what our leadership should be saying, 'Don't you have better things to do," she said.
Law Professor Yusri Mohammad, with the International University in Malaysia, says the Muslim community is not becoming more conservative, but it is trying to hold on to its values and way of life. "You can't have non-Malay things that you may feel some people in countries are having that you would also like to have; but if you inject that within a Malaysian setting it becomes disruptive. It becomes - it disturbs the balance we have," he said.
He says, although some politicians may think that conflict can help them win votes, most Malaysians still embrace moderation and respect for all races and religions.
Ecologists at Bali's Environment Summit Call for a New Economic Order
February 25, 2010
24 February 2010 Solenn Honorine | Nusa Dua, Indonesia
Ecology is becoming more and more a question of economy: how much would it cost to reduce emissions; how much would we save by weatherproofing buildings. But analysts meeting in Bali for a summit on the environment say that, to save the planet, humanity has to go through an economic revolution similar in scale to the industrial revolution
Photo: AP
Opening ceremony of the 11th special session of the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, 24 Feb 2010
The sound coming from a small machine is the sound of green economy.
"This is the world's first commercially available pedal generator, allowing to convert your human power into usable electricity. It can currently recharge our own portable lights. It can also charge mobile phones," said Sameer Hajee, whose company, Nuru Design, has 10,000 clients in Rwanda, India and Kenya. It relies on a network of 80 peddlers who make a living out of pedaling to recharge the lights or cell-phones of their neighbors.
Nuru Design plans to increase its customer base tenfold by the end of the year. This activity is no charity but a viable business, servicing people who do not have access to electricity.
"Essentially the market is so huge," Hajee said. "There are two billion people affected by this problem. So, to the extend that you can get this technology to them, this could potentially be a very profitable business."
Economist Pahvan Sukdhev is a special advisor to the United Nations environment program. He explains that businesses such as Nuru Design are examples of what a "green economy" would be like.
"It is actually a new paradigm that, in many ways, is beginning to be seen," he said. "And, what you see is a new economy breaking through what's breaking down: that heavy, industrialized, over-ambitious, over-productive, over-consumptive model, which is actually going to completely destroy our chances of survival in the future. And, what the green economy is, it's an alternative that doesn't do all that."
Pahvan Sukdhev says that the green economy can generate growth. The International Labor Organization estimates that renewable energy could generate up to 20 million new jobs, if it were to represent 30 percent of the worldwide energy output.
Chinese Society Entrepreneurs and Ecology represents 130 businessmen who have embraced the principles of green economy: one builds energy efficient high-rise buildings; another ecology-friendly flooring that use fast-growing bamboo.
The Society's secretary general, Lee Peng, says businessmen in China are starting to change their attitude towards green economy.
"The majority of them is still struggling to be compliant with environmental regulations," said Peng. "But then, at the top of the pyramid, you have a small-but-growing group of entrepreneurs in China who see that greening their business is not just a legal requirement, nor a responsible act to do. It is the only way that they can secure the core competitiveness of their businesses."
Kenyan national Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in the Green Belt Movement, an organization that engages in tree-planting activities and environment conservation. She says that the goods and services provided by nature - like clean air, rain or fertile soils - should not be taken for granted. She says her organization, albeit a non-profit, has an economic impact that should be acknowledged.
"In terms of the soil that we have protected; in terms of the biodiversity we have protected by protecting forests; in terms of facilitating rainfall patterns and, therefore, supporting agriculture; this is in terms of millions of U.S. dollars," said Maathai. "I am sure. This, I'm sure, is what we should be doing in the future: paying for the environmental services we get from our environment and paying the people who take care of these services. Eventually, we should have to pay them to do this work for all of us."
Last December in Copenhagen, the international community took a first step towards making society pay for the services provided by nature for free. It is called the initiative for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, where local population would be paid to protect forests.
Pahvan Sukdhev says that this shows that the world is slowly moving towards a green economy.
"I'm an optimist, and I think if you're a pessimist that's just an excuse for inaction. People are ready [for a green economy], but the problem is, there are vested interests," he said.
Pahvan Sukdhev says that the change called for is in scale similar to the industrial revolution, but with a heightened sense of urgency, because of the threat of climate change. It would require a high political commitment that the world has yet to show.
Head of Toyota's global operations Akio Toyoda testifying on Capitol Hill, 24 Feb 2010
Akio Toyoda entered a packed congressional hearing room to deliver a simple message:
"I am deeply sorry for any accidents that Toyota drivers have experienced," said Akio Toyoda.
The Toyota CEO acknowledged that the public's confidence in the company that bears his family name has been shaken, and said he takes "full responsibility" for the problems that have emerged. Toyoda said the phenomenon of sudden acceleration in some Toyota vehicles has been identified and corrected, and that the corporation remains fully committed to safety.
He also offered a hypothesis as to how problems arose for the world's top carmaker, saying the company's priorities, as he put it, "became confused" in the midst of vigorous sales growth in the United States and elsewhere.
"Toyota has, for the past few years, been expanding its business rapidly," he said. "Quite frankly, I fear the pace at which we have grown may have been too quick."
Later, Toyoda responded to questions from U.S. representatives as to how Toyota executives in Japan learned of safety issues and how they responded to them. In 2007, Toyota initially blamed sudden acceleration on floor mats. The company later faulted sticky gas pedals. A current theory holds that the problem arises from an electrical malfunction in computer-controlled acceleration devices.
The CEO was also pressed on measures the company is taking to fix recalled vehicles, and compensation that will be provided to crash victims and their families.
Earlier in the day, the congressional committee heard from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who oversees the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Several representatives accused the agency, which is tasked with ensuring automobile safety in the United States, of being slow to act on complaints regarding Toyota vehicles.
Democratic Congressman Edolphus Towns is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee:
"The way these complaints were handled indicates problems at both NHTSA and Toyota," said Edolphus Towns. "There is a serious question of whether NHTSA used all of its regulatory tools to thoroughly investigate this issue."
LaHood defended NHTSA, calling it the most effective automotive investigative agency in the world.
"Over just the last three years, NHTSA's defect and compliance investigations have resulted in 524 recalls involving 23 million vehicles," said Ray LaHood. "We have not been sitting around on our hands. When people complain, we investigate."
LaHood said that NHTSA continues to gather documentation from Toyota about problems with runaway cars and the company's responses to it.
Wednesday, Toyota reached an agreement with the state of New York to pick up recalled vehicles and provide drivers free rental cars during repairs. At the congressional hearing, the head of Toyota's North American operations, Yoshimi Inaba, said the program would be extended nationwide.
CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS COMMISSION Co-Chairpersons: Sultana Kamal, Lord Eric Avebury, Ida Nicolaisen Members: Shapan Adnan, Lars-Anders Baer, Victoria Tauli Corpuz, Sara Hossain, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, Lee Swepston, Robert Evans, Hideaki Uemura
22 February 2010
To
Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Government of the Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh Prime Minister's Office Tejgaon, Dhaka
Subject: Urgent demand for investigation into arson attack and alleged killings in Sajek
The CHT Commission (CHTC) is appalled to receive reports of the arson attacks carried out on over 200 Pahari homes in the Baghaihat area of Sajek union under Baghaichari upazila in Rangamati district from the night of 19 February 2010, in the following villages and their adjoining areas - Gangaram Mukh, Guchchhagram, Hazachhara, Jaralchhari, Dane Baipachhara, Bame Baipachhara, Simanachhara, Chhurung Nala and Gulakmachhara, and the subsequent confirmed killings of 2 persons, reportedly in firing.
The CHT Commission is very deeply disturbed at allegations of the involvement of the army in the killings of at least two Pahari villagers in ‘brushfire'. The Commission has also received reports that the Banani Bana Bihar, a Buddhist temple of the locality, has been looted.
The CHT Commission notes with concern that certain political quarters are claiming that this outbreak of violence is primarily due to the withdrawal of army camps from the CHT (as mandated by the 1997 CHT Accord). However, the Commission in its various field visits to the CHT has not found any evidence of the army presence being withdrawn from the area in question; indeed, the army has long had, and continues to have, a garrison in Baghaihat which is in close proximity of the Pahari villages that were attacked. It has been alleged by affected people that, prior to the firing by the army, a planned arson attack was carried out by Bangali settlers in collusion with the Army and other security forces. Thousands of Pahari families have been living in this area after having been suffered internal displacement from other parts of the CHT. However, in 2008, some Bengali settlers began to illegally construct houses in Gangaram area on land used by Pahari villagers. On April 20, 2008, a group of settlers attacked several indigenous villages, injuring people and burning down more than 70 houses. However, there was no effective intervention by the authorities, despite the close presence of the army and the other security forces. Subsequently, many indigenous peoples fled the area and are in hiding.
In view of the circumstances and considerations noted above, the CHT Commission urges the Government of Bangladesh to immediately take the following remedial actions:
1. To prevent any further destruction of forensic and other evidence of killing or arson by any party, including the administration and security forces;
2. To ensure safety and security of all injured persons and transport them to a nearby hospital and provide urgent medical treatment to those suffering;
3. To also take immediate governmental custody of all dead bodies from the army and settlers, transferring them to neutral civilian government administration members, with the eventual objective of handing these over to the respective families;
4. To undertake an urgent, independent, high level investigation into the killings and allegations of human rights violations in the Baghaihat area of Sajek;
5. To prosecute through fair and prompt and independent processes those who are responsible for such killings and violence, and to ensure immediate security and safety for the bereaved families and other victims;
6. To take immediate steps to provide security of life and property, as well as food, water and shelter, for all women, men and children who have been left homeless, insecure and destitute from the arson attacks; The CHT Commission also urges the Government of Bangladesh to take the following short-term actions:
1. To take immediate steps to activate the Land Commission and amend the CHT Land Dispute Settlement Commission Act 2001, so that all outstanding land disputes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts can be readily and fairly settled, as per provisions of the CHT Accord, thereby helping to prevent the outbreak of further violence;
2. To withdraw army camps from the three hill districts in accordance with the CHT Accord, as well as terminate Operation Uttaran;
3. To immediately declare a roadmap for full and comprehensive implementation of the 1997 CHT Accord, in line with the government's election pledge. On behalf of the CHT Commission Eric Avebury ( Co-chair of the CHT Commission)
Sultana Kamal ( Co-chair of the CHT Commission)
Ida Nicolaisen ( Co-chair of the CHT Commission)
cc to: 1. Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Honorable Deputy Leader of the House & Chairperson of the National Committee for Implementation of the CHT Peace Accord. 2. Dr. Dipu Moni, Honourable Minister, Foreign Ministry, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
3. Barrister Shafique Ahmed, Honourable Minister, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Ministry, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka.
4. Mr. Syed Ashraful Islam, Honourable Minister, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperative Ministry, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka.
5. Mr. Rezaul Karim Hira, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Land, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka.
6. Mr. Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, Chairman, CHT Regional Council, Rangamati.
7. Mr. Dipankar Talukdar MP, Honourable State Minister, Ministry of CHT Affairs, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka.
8. Mr. Hasan Mahmud, Honourable State Minister, Ministry of Forest and Environment, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka.
9. Mr. Promod Mankin, Honourable State Minister, Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
10. Mohammad Shah Alam, MP and Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on CHT Affairs, Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, Dhaka.
11. Mr. Jatindra Lal Tripura, MP and Chairman, Task Force on Rehabilitation of Returnee Refugees and IDPs, Khagrachari.
12. Mr. Bir Bahadur, MP and Chairman, CHT Development Board, Rangamati.
13. Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury, Chairperson, CHT Land Commission.
ACHR 2nd Press Release – Attacks on indigenous Jummas spread to mainland Bangladesh
February 23, 2010
Press Release -------------- Attacks on indigenous Jummas spread to mainland Bangladesh
New Delhi: The attacks on indigenous Jumma peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts has spread to mainland Bangladesh. At 7.00 pm Bangladesh Standard Time today i.e. 23 February 2010 indigenous Jumma peoples at Oxygen area, Chittagong were attacked by the plains peoples. While many Jummas live in the area, many were waiting to catch buses for Rangamati and Khagrachari district.
Earlier, a procession of the members of the Pahari Chhatra Parishad (PCP) was attacked at Narikul Bagan area, Khagrahcari district by the youths belonging to the illegal plain settlers who began pelting brickbats at the procession. The PCP activists tried to resist but had to retreat. About 50 indigenous Jumma students were hurt.
Thereafter, illegal plain settlers entered Mahajonpara and Milanpur villages under Khagrachari and burnt down many houses belonging to indigenous peoples.
Asian Centre for Human Rights has been informed that the houses of the following indigenous peoples were burnt down by the illegal plain settlers:
Jhikkya Chakma Kandara Chakma Kandara Chakma Parimal Chakma Bir Bikram Tripura Babuya Chakma Prabhangshu Chakma Lucky Chakma Pipa Chakma Inside Khagrachari government school area, the settlers burnt down the quarters of Pika Talukder, Milan Chakma and Tapasi Chakma.
In Narikul Bagan area adjacent to Mahajonpara the settlers targeted Jumma shops and burnt down Sonny Rang's shop and looted the shop of Priya Kumar Chakma and vandalized and looted Ziran Hotel and Bain Textile owned by Jummas. The illegal plain settlers also damaged and looted the house of Mr Tatul Chakma.
The illegal plain settlers also burnt down a students' hostel Shanti Niketan.
Although army has been deployed following the imposition of section 144, the Bengalee illegal settlers are still roaming the streets in groups holding sharp weapons and sticks.
An estimated 20 to 25 shops belonging to Jummas at Panchari station near Mahajonpara were set afire. Jummas also set fire to a few Bengali shops at Khezur Bagan area.
At 5:15pm Bangladesh Standard Time, the settlers burnt down more houses in Satbheiyapara. Incident of arson has also been reported from Datkuppya.
At 6.00 pm Bangladesh Standard Time, the settlers started burning down MSF para under Sajek Union under Rangamati district.
At 6.00 pm Bangladesh Standard Time, the settlers attacked the indigenous Jumma villages at Dighinala Sub-Division under Khagrachari district.
Three journalists have also been injured. They are Altaf Mahmood of ATN, Mong Sha Prue of Desh TV and Bhorer Kagoj and Dillip Chowdhury. [Ends] _____________________________________________________________________ [Should you require any further information, please contact Mr Suhas Chakma at 09810893440]
ACHR Press Release – Bangladesh burns more tribal villages
February 23, 2010
Press Release -----
Bangladesh burns more tribal villages -Government asked to give access to massacre sites-
New Delhi: Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) condemned burning down of more villages of indigenous Chakma and tribal peoples today i.e. 23 February 2010 under Khagrachari district of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs), Bangladesh. Dozens of houses were set on fire at Mahajanpara and Milanpur villages at Khagrachari by the illegal plain settlers with the backing of the Bangladesh Army personnel at the time of issuing this press release. The illegal plain settlers took advantage of a strike called by the United Peoples Democratic Front, a political party of the indigenous Jumma peoples, protesting against the killings of indigenous Jumma people at Sajek Union under Rangamati district on 19-20 February 2010.
Releasing its report, "Bangladesh: IPs Massacred for Land Grab" (http://www.achrweb.org/reports/bangla/CHT012010.pdf), Asian Centre for Human Rights demanded that the government of Bangladesh provides immediate and unrestricted access to massacre sites. The government of Bangladesh has so far denied access to the sites where scores of indigenous Chakmas in 14 villages under Sajek Union were massacred on 19-20 February 2010.
The ACHR stated that at least eight Chakmas were shot dead by the Bangladesh army personnel while dozens were injured on 19-20 February 2010. The injured ones who went to government hospital for treatment of bullet injuries sustained in the firing by the Bangladesh army personnel were shown arrested in connection with the attacks on indigenous Jumma peoples since 19 February 2010.
In order to prevent the truth from coming out, the Bangladesh army personnel have prevented any independent observer including journalists and human rights activists from visiting the affected areas to hide the truth. On 20 February 2010, two journalists from the Bengal dailies - "Samakal" and "Prothom Alo" - who tried to visit the affected areas were attacked. The motorbike of "Samakal" correspondent was burnt down by the illegal plain settlers.
"It is established beyond any reasonable doubt that the Bangladesh army is denying access to the sites to prevent the truth from coming out. The arrest of six Chakmas who got admitted at Baghachari army camp with bullet injuries sustained in the firing of the Bangladesh Army for alleged rioting is a direct attempt to discourage the indigenous peoples from approaching the authorities and therefore, keep the massacre under the carpet." - stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
ACHR questioned the silence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who has recently been awarded Indira Gandhi Peace Award by the government of India, among others, for promoting"peace by resolving a long standing insurgency (problem) in Bangladesh by concluding the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord"f. ACHR has urged the Prime Minister to order a judicial inquiry into the killings of indigenous peoples at Sajek to be completed in ninety days, prosecute the culprits, provide proper resettlement and rehabilitation to the victims; terminate the military operation "Uttaran" in the CHTs, withdraw all the military forces to the cantonments and fully implement the CHTs Accord of 1997. [Ends] _____________________________________________________________________ [Should you require any further information, please contact Mr Suhas Chakma at 09810893440]
The Dalai Lama speaks to students, faculty, and guests at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, 23 Feb 2010
The Tibetan spiritual leader who teaches age-old principles of peace and tolerance has gone high-tech, joining the online messaging service Twitter.
The Dalai Lama's office in India set up a Twitter account this week under the name @dalailama.
The Buddhist leader has not personally written any messages, but his office has posted Web links to the Dalai Lama's interviews and photos during his visit to the United States.
The Dalai Lama signed up for his online account Monday, a day after meeting Twitter founder Evan Williams in Los Angeles, California.
Williams says the Dalai Lama laughed at the idea of using the social network service. But as of Tuesday, the spiritual leader has attracted 69,000 followers.
The Dalai Lama was in Florida Tuesday giving a speech on global compassion.
Follow-up of Baghaihat communal attack on indigenous Jumma peoples
February 22, 2010
Till today (on 22 February 2010) the section 144 is still going on. Due to continuing section 144, the Jumma villagers could not trace out dead bodies of the killed. Today in the morning, Bengali settlers ran after some of Jumma villagers who went to see ablaze village of Nayapara Guchhagram. However, they could narrowly escape. On the other, Bengali settlers set fire a fruit garden funded by UNDP at Gangaram.
It is learnt that the outpost of military forces was closed down and Bengali settlers numbering 12 families were withdrawn from Gangaram Duar area though other Bengali settlers are still there along the roadsides. It is mentionable these Bengali families settled there soon after arson attack on 7 Jumma villages on 20 April 2008.
It is also learnt that 7 injured villagers who got admitted at Baghaichari hospital were shown arrested in connection with the Baghaihat incident. They are taking treatment at Baghaichari hospital under police custody. They were-
1) Mr. Dhanasindhu Chakma (30) s/o Ranga Lal Chakma of Jagarabil;
2) Mr. Nagar Prasad Chakma(50) s/o Dhirendra Chakma of Bedagichara;
3) Mr. Rupayan Chakma (16) s/o Pritibindu Chakma of Golakmachara;
4) Mr. Liton Chakma (24) s/o Karuna Moy Chakma of Gangaram;
5) Mr. Batya Chakma (19) s/o Kanta Mohan Chakma of Tindwajari;
6) Mr. Debendra Chakma of Nagalmara.
Today (on 22 February 2010) PCJSS organised protest meeting in Rangamati and Bandarban district and submitted a memorandum to Home Minister through concerned Deputy Commissioner. In Rangamati, vice chairman of PCJSS Mr. Laxmi Prasad Chakma was presided over the protest meeting which was held at the premises of Deputy Commissioner's office in Rangamati. Among other, general secretary of PCJSS district branch Mr. Badhi Satta Chakma, president of PCP Mr. Udayan Tripura and general secretary of Mahila Samiti Ms. Suprava Chakma et al delivered speech while assistant information secretary of PCJSS Mr. Sajib Chakma contacted meeting. PCJSS demanded, among others, to conduct judicial inquiry; to arrest the culprits and prosecute exemplary punishment to them; to provide proper compensation and rehabilitation to the affected Jumma villagers including proper treatment to the injured persons; to withdraw Baghaihat army zone of 14 Bir Bengal; to close Bengali settlers to cluster villages and to implement the CHT Accord including withdrawal of all temporary camps.
Several monks of Parbatya Bhikkhu Sangha also attended the protest meeting in Rangamati district. They, on behalf of Bhikkhu Sangha, submitted a memorandum to the Home Minister through Deputy Commissioner of Rangamati district.
Meanwhile, civil society members, in a press statement, condemned and expressed deep concern over violent attack on Jumma peoples. They also demanded judicial inquiry into the incident. The signatures were, among others, Prof. Mong Sa Nu, Advocate Jnanendu Bikash Chakma, Sukumar Dewan, Nirmalendu Tripura, Bijoy Ketan Chakma, advocate Susmita Chakama et al.
In Bandarban, presided over by president of PCJSS district branch Mr. Sadhuram Tripura, the protest meeting was addressed by assistant general secretary of PCJSS Mr K S Mong, assistant organising secretary of PCJSS Chinghla Mong Chak, PCP leader Nitya Tanchangya et al.
On the other, Hill Students Council (PCP) orgnised protest meeting in front of Aparajeyo Bangla at Dhaka University. Presided over by PCP leader Mr. Prasenjit Chowdhury, thousands of students and youths attended the protest meeting. Leaders of the several student organisations, such as, Bangladesh Indigenous Student Action Council, Bangladesh Garo Chhatra Sangathan, Garo Students Union, Tripura Students Forum, Bangladesh Marma Students Council, Bangladesh Rakhaine Students Council, Barman Chhatra Sangathan, Santal Students Union, Bawm Students Association, Bangladesh Rakhaine Student Union, Chhatra Front and Chhatra Union attended the meeting. The said student organisations jointly submitted a memorandum to the Home Minister through Home Secretary (at Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka) demanding to conduct judicial inquiry to the incident; to send a parliamentary team for on-site visit of the spot and to prosecute those who are involved with this attack; to provide adequate treatment to the injured persons and proper compensation to the affected villagers; to stop land grabbing by Bengali settlers and to rehabilitate Bengali settlers outside CHT with dignity; to investigate and to ensure trial of all incidents of human rights violations; to declare roadmap with timeframe for implementation of CHT Accord soon; to withdraw all temporary camps including de facto military rule ‘Operation Uttoron' as per CHT Accord.
Please find the attached photo below collected from Daily Kaler Kantho.
NY City Police Department file photo released shows Najibullah Zazi (C) being escorted off an NYPD helicopter by US Marshals after being extradited from Denver, Colo., 25 Sep 2009
An Afghan immigrant accused of conspiring to attack New York City with bombs has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization. Najibullah Zazi entered the plea Monday in a New York court as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Zazi was arrested in Colorado last year and transferred to New York, where he was charged in the alleged plot.
After pleading guilty, Zazi told the court that in August 2008, he and others planned to go to Afghanistan to join the Taliban to fight against the U.S. military and allied forces.
Instead, they were recruited and trained by al-Qaida in Pakistan, and agreed to carry out suicide missions in the U.S.
Zazi said he planned to use chemicals obtained at beauty supply stores to make bombs to detonate on Manhattan subway lines in September 2009. But he became concerned that police were investigating and disposed of the materials.
The investigation of Zazi also includes charges against two former high school classmates, and an uncle and Zazi's father.
In a Washington news conference following the pleas, Attorney General Eric Holder had this to say:
"This attempted attack on our homeland was real," said Eric Holder. "It was in motion. And it would have been deadly."
Zazi faces life in prison when he is sentenced in June. His lawyers and prosecutors jointly asked the court to keep sealed the details of the agreement that led to Zazi's guilty pleas.
Thai Political Uncertainty Causes Investor Concern
February 22, 2010
Ron Corben | Bangkok
Photo: AP
Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra (file)
Thailand's finance minister says the political uncertainty gripping the country could damage economic growth and investor confidence. Some investors are concerned a Thai Supreme Court verdict against former Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, due later this week could lead to protests that could destabilize the fragile economy.
Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij warned Monday that political uncertainties in the country could adversely affect economic growth.
Korn's comments come just ahead of a Friday Supreme Court verdict on whether former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is guilty of corruption.
If the court finds Mr. Thaksin guilty of corruption, the state could seize up to two billion dollars worth of illegally acquired assets. Some observers believe a guilty verdict could also lead to fresh street demonstrations by his supporters, known for wearing red shirts.
Mr. Thaksin was ousted from power in a coup in 2006. Two years later he fled Thailand ahead of another conviction on corruption charges. A court sentenced the former prime minister to a two year jail term in absentia.
Thai business and industrial leaders say the business climate and the economy could be hit if protests erupt.
Krianglit Sukcharoensin, president of the 500-member Plastic Industries Association says the uncertainties have undermined investor and business confidence.
"The international market they are not confident we can supply product 'just in time' for their requirement of their demand. They will switch and then order from another place," said Krianglit. "Then the investor will suffer so we will have to see."
The concerns from business leaders come just as the economy appears to be recovering from the global recession, on the strength of strong exports. The government has predicted a better than four percent growth for 2010.
But analysts warn the gains may be lost amid fears a guilty verdict will lead to potential violence from pro-Thaksin supporters. The Thai share market has weakened due to the jittery climate.
Vikas Kawatra, head of institutional research for Kim Eng Securities, says the local share market's outlook depends on Thaksin's future plans after the verdict.
"It pretty much depends on what Thaskin will do next," said Vikas. "One thing is for sure, is that he's not going to like it and the extent of money confiscated will increase his frustration but diminish his ability to come back."
Concerns over possible violence has led to the United States, Britain and Australia to issue travel advisories warning their nationals to avoid locations where protests could occur. The tourism industry, with around 14 million arrivals annually, accounts for about six percent of Thailand's national output.
Richard Chapman, general manager of the Sheraton Grande Hotel, says the tourism industry has suffered in recent times because reports of political instability has undermined traveler confidence.
"I'm just hoping and praying that our friends in the world of communications and media will give a fairly good ride over the next few weeks and we can come out of it no worse that we are today," said Chapman.
Potential damage to the economy was evident in 2008 when anti-Thaksin protesters occupied a government administration building against pro-Thaksin government steps to open the way for his return to the country. Later the anti-government protesters occupied the international airport for a week at a cost of millions of dollars in lost tourism and trade revenue.
Mr. Thaksin gained popularity among the urban and rural poor for his populist economic policies. But the urban middle class, that largely backed the 2006 coup, accused him of corruption and abuse of power.
International Community Meets in Bali to Address Environment
February 22, 2010
Solenn Honorine | Bali
More than 140 governments will convene this week in Indonesia under the banner of the U.N. Program for the Environment, the largest such gathering since the climate change summit last December in Copenhagen.
Since the Copenhagen summit did not manage to reach any binding agreement to reduce carbon emissions, U.N. Program for the Environment Director Achim Steiner says it will be difficult to bounce back.
"Copenhagen, in my mind, will be in history books as a moment where [sic] humanity has failed in its responsibility to act," he said. "A deal has become more difficult than in Copenhagen".
Experts in Bali insist the issue remains urgent. While the environment continues to be threatened by human activities, climate change could accelerate.
"Acting on environment is not by definition something that has to impoverish you," Steiner said. "And I find a bitter irony: we are destroying the ecosystem that is sequestering the carbon, while spending billions of dollars betting on the next power station generation that will capture and store and sequester the carbon by a method that is as yet an hypothesis!"
Steiner insists the responsibility of finding an agreement is shared by the entire world.
"You can always find reasons not to act because of someone else not doing the right thing," he said. "And for Mexico, I think it will take leaders, and it is not only from the big ones. I think there is this suggestion right now that it is only if China and America agree. The G-20 also did not deliver, neither did the major economies forum for that matter. So please take another look at the question of whether multilateralism is dead".
The Bali meeting is the first large international gathering since the Copenhagen summit of last year. Expectations remain high that an effective leadership could arise on the international stage for the climate change issue.
New Delhi: Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) today sought the intervention of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay with the government of Bangladesh for taking appropriate actions against the burning down of the tribal villages and indiscriminate killing of indigenous Jumma peoples since yesterday night i.e. 19th February 2010 by the Bangladesh Army and illegal plain settlers. According to the information received by Asian Centre for Human Rights this morning, the Bangladesh Army has resumed the burning down of the tribal houses at 6 am GMT (20 February 2010) and the villages are still being burnt at the time of issuing this press release.
At least three tribals including Lakkhi Bijoy Chakma and Litan Chakma were shot dead this morning (20 February 2010), dozens were injured in the firing by the Bangladesh Army while one Buddhist monk, Purnabash Bhikkhu, has been missing after the Buddhist temple was burnt down. At least four indigenous/tribal villages - Gangaram Doar, Retkaba, Purba Para and Guchachagram - under Sajek Sub-Division of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh have been burnt into ashes. In addition, at least 7 shops in Ladumani bazaar, one UNDP sponsored village centre providing assistance to the indigenous villagers, one church and one Buddhist temple were burnt down yesterday night (19 February 2010).
The Bangladesh Army personnel have reportedly erected barricades and have further been preventing the public leaders, civil officials and the journalists from visiting the affected areas.
"This particular attack on the indigenous Jumma peoples shows that the government of Bangladesh has failed to change its policy of indiscriminate killings of indigenous Jumma people in order to occupy their lands and implant more illegal plain settlers instead of implementing the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997." - stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights.
Since the beginning of January 2010, illegal plain settlers with the support of Bangladesh army personnel posted at Baghaihat zone under Rangamati district resumed expansion of their illegal settlement into the villages of the Chakma people. A number of houses have already been erected by the illegal plain settlers by forcibly occupying Jumma villagers'lands.
The Jumma villagers under the banner of Sajek Bhumi Rakkha Committee (Sajek Land Rights Protection Committee) submitted a memorandum to the Baghaichhari Upazila Nirbahi Officer on 10 January 2010 with an ultimatum of 16 January 2010 to return them their lands. As the deadline expired without any fruitful result on 16 January 2010, Jumma villagers started their agitation and started to boycott Baghaihat market from 18 January 2010.
The Bangladesh Army personnel and the security forces started burning down the tribal villages since yesterday night to increase settlement of illegal plain settlers.
UN Envoy Ends Burma Visit, Denied Access to Suu Kyi
February 20, 2010
Photo: AP
United Nations envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana speaks to journalists at Rangoon international airport in Rangoon, Burma, 19 Feb 2010
The United Nations special envoy on human rights has concluded a five-day visit to Burma, where his request for a meeting with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was denied.
U.N. envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana told reporters he deeply regrets the decision by the country's military government, especially since Burma is expected later this year to hold its first national elections in two decades.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won an overwhelming victory in the last election in 1990. But the military refused to relinquish power.
Quintana met with a number of Burmese government officials and senior NLD members, including the party's deputy leader, Tin Oo, who was released from seven years of house arrest last week.
The U.N. envoy said that during his talks with the government, he was given no indication when the election will take place.
He said he urged the ruling generals to release political prisoners in advance of the vote. But he said there is no sign that will take place.
The NLD has yet to say whether it will participate in the election.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been in some form of detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
Quintana will report his findings to a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva next month.
Reports from Rangoon say the military government of Burma quietly sentenced a Buddhist monk to seven years in prison during the visit this week of a United Nations human rights envoy.
A lawyer said Saturday that U Gaw Thita was arrested last August as he returned from a trip to Taiwan. He was convicted at Burma's notorious Insein Prison Wednesday on three charges including unlawful association.
The lawyer said the monk was also convicted of failing to declare possession of foreign currency and for violation of immigration laws for taking the trip.
Senior members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), vice chairman Tin Oo (C) and Win Tin (L) meet with UN special rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana (R) in Rangoon,
The United Nations' special envoy on human rights in Burma says he deeply regrets that Burma's military government denied him a meeting with opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest.
U.N. envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana told reporters Friday he was particularly disappointed to be denied a meeting because this year Burma is expected to hold its first national elections in 20 years. He said no reason was given for the denial.
Quintana met Friday with a number of government officials to discuss the elections and other issues. He said he was not told when elections will be held or when an anticipated election law governing the vote will be announced.
He said the government also refused to release any political prisoners or even acknowledge that such prisoners exist.
The envoy made the comments at the end of his five-day visit to Burma.
The officials Quintana met with Friday include Home Minister Major General Maung Oo, Labor and Liaison Minister Aung Kyi, Chief Justice Aung Toe, Attorney General U Aye Maung and Police Chief Khin Ye.
The envoy also met Myanmar Human Rights Committee members in Nay Pyi Daw.
Quintana met with five senior members of Burma's embattled opposition National League for Democracy party in a Rangoon hotel on Thursday. He also visited the notorious Insein prison, where many political detainees are held.
Burma's military leaders have pledged to hold elections this year for the first time in two decades. The NLD won an overwhelming victory in the 1990 election, but the military refused to relinquish its control over the government.
The NLD objects to some of the rules governing this year's election. Khin Maung Swe says party members are eager to meet with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi before officially deciding whether to participate.
The military government has kept opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in some form of detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
The government did allow Quintana to see Tin Oo, the 82-year-old deputy leader of the NLD who was released from house arrest last week.
Quintana also met Win Tin, who was once one of Burma's longest-serving political prisoners until his release from prison in 2008.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma (file photo)
The United Nations' special envoy for human rights has visited with prisoners in a northwest Burmese jail.
Officials say Tomas Ojea Quintana traveled to the northwestern state of Rakhine to meet Wednesday with detainees being held at the Butheetaung prison near the border with Bangladesh.
He is also expected to visit Burma's infamous Insein prison near Rangoon, and travel to Naypyidaw, Burma's administrative capital, to meet with several officials from Burma's military government.
He is scheduled to leave Burma on Friday.
Ahead of his trip to the region, the military released National League for Democracy vice chairman Tin Oo, after seven years of detention.
NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains one of 2,100 political dissidents being held in Burma. She has been under some form of detention in Burma for 14 of the past 20 years.
'Racism Rife in Australia,' International Students Say
February 17, 2010
Phil Mercer | Sydney
Photo: AP
Indian students hold protest signs during a rally to stamp out violence against international students and racism in Sydney, Australia, 07 June 2009
A study of violence against international students of Melbourne has found about 50 percent think their race or religion put their safety at risk of attack. A series of violent assaults on Indian students has taken place in Australia's leading cities, Sydney and Melbourne, in the past year.
The Victoria University report finds that large numbers of young foreigners feel unsafe in Melbourne.
More than 500 students from Asia took part in the survey. About half said they believed their race or religion made them vulnerable to unprovoked violence.
The study finds that a variety of factors put students at risk, including their reliance on public transportation and their housing in disadvantaged districts of Melbourne.
But the motive for assaults on foreign students is harder to determine.
Associate Professor Michele Grossman, the report's co-author, says more work needs to be done to find out what part racism has in attacks.
"Some police in our study said that they felt that while an attack might begin as an opportunistic one, or where the primary intent was opportunistic, that sometimes racism could enter into that as a kind of secondary element designed to further humiliate or weaken the resistance of a victim during the course of a robbery or of another kind of violent assault" he said.
The authors of the study also interviewed government officials, police officers, and representatives of the education industry.
Some of the students surveyed said that police in Melbourne are not helpful and that some officers are racist.
The Victoria state government says it is working with the police to make students feel more secure.
Violence and racism have been highlighted by a series of attacks on young Indian expatriates in Melbourne and Sydney in the past year.
Indian student groups accuse the authorities of not doing enough to combat racist gangs. Investigators think that while some of the assaults were undoubtedly motivated by racial hatred, most were perpetrated by common criminals preying on lone victims late at night in search of computers, mobile phones and cash.
The assaults have strained diplomatic relations between India and Australia.
White House Calls Taliban Commander's Capture 'Big Success'
February 17, 2010
The White House and the Pakistani military are confirming that top Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is in custody.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the joint U.S.-Pakistan operation that captured him in Karachi several days ago "a big success for our mutual efforts in the region." He declined to discuss details about Baradar's ongoing interrogation, but said his capture is a sign of increased cooperation in the region.
Pakistan's military confirmed Baradar's capture earlier Wednesday.
Baradar, an Afghan national, holds the second most important position within the Taliban, after only the group's founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar.
U.S. President Barack Obama met with top U.S. officials in Washington Wednesday to discuss the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mr. Obama's spokesman said he received briefings from U.S. ambassadors in both countries, as well as an update from General Stanley McChrystal about the anti-Taliban offensive in southern Helmand province.
Officials describe Baradar as the most important Taliban figure captured since the start of the war in Afghanistan in late 2001.
In the past, U.S. officials have accused Pakistan's intelligence agencies of maintaining ties with the Afghan Taliban leadership, and of being reluctant to pursue fugitives in Taliban sanctuaries inside Pakistan. Authorities in Islamabad have denied those claims.
Clinton in VOA Interview: US Focusing Sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guard
February 16, 2010
Photo: AP
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a press conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 15, Feb 2010
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States is focusing sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, asserting that the elite unit has become too involved in security, political and economic decisions.
Clinton told VOA Tuesday that Iran is becoming a more belligerent and repressive nation as the Revolutionary Guard increases its influence.
Clinton suggested the power shift from clerical and political leaders to the Revolutionary Guard may stem from Iran's inner turmoil that resulted from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki criticized Clinton for saying Monday that Iran has become a "military dictatorship." He accused the U.S. of being like a military dictatorship through its actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Clinton also warned that Iran may trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East if it obtains an atomic weapon.
In a speech Tuesday at a women's college in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Clinton said evidence does not support Iran's claim that its nuclear program is being developed for peaceful purposes only.
President Ahmadinejad responded by saying he does not take Clinton's comments seriously.
On the Middle East peace process, Clinton said it is imperative to remain optimistic about resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She said both sides have so much at stake and will eventually realize it is in their best interest to return to the negotiating table.
Clinton spoke at the end of a tour of Persian Gulf states, where she sought to gain support from U.S. allies for tougher sanctions on Iran.
Myanmar's government must halt its repression of ethnic minority activists before forthcoming national and local elections, Amnesty International warned in a major report released on Tuesday.
The 58-page report, The Repression of ethnic minority activists in Myanmar, draws on accounts from more than 700 activists from the seven largest ethnic minorities, including the Rakhine, Shan, Kachin, and Chin, covering a two-year period from August 2007.
The authorities have arrested, imprisoned, and in some cases tortured or even killed ethnic minority activists. Minority groups have also faced extensive surveillance, harassment and discrimination when trying to carry out their legitimate activities.
"Ethnic minorities play an important but seldom acknowledged role in Myanmar's political opposition," said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Myanmar expert. "The government has responded to this activism in a heavy-handed manner, raising fears that repression will intensify before the elections."
Many activists told Amnesty International that they faced repression as part of a larger movement, as in Rakhine and Kachin States during the 2007 Buddhist monk-led "Saffron Revolution". Witnesses described the killings and torture of monks and others by the security forces during its violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations in those states.
Others said they were pursued for specific actions, such as organizing an anti-dam signature campaign in Kachin State.
Even relatively simple expressions of political dissent were met with punishment as when Karenni youths were detained for floating small boats on a river with "No" (to the 2008 draft Constitution) written on them.
"Activism in Myanmar is not confined to the central regions and urban centres. Any resolution of the country's deeply troubling human rights record has to take into account the rights and aspirations of the country's large population of ethnic minorities," said Benjamin Zawacki.
More than 2,100 political prisoners, including many from ethnic minorities, languish in Myanmar's jails in deplorable conditions. Most are prisoners of conscience who have expressed their beliefs peacefully.
Amnesty International urged the government to lift restrictions on freedom of association, assembly, and religion in the run-up to the elections; to release immediately and unconditionally all prisoners of conscience and to remove restrictions on independent media to cover the campaigning and election process.
Amnesty International called on Myanmar's neighbours in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as China, Myanmar's biggest international supporter, to push the government to ensure that the people of Myanmar will be able to freely express their opinions, gather peacefully, and participate openly in the political process.
"The government of Myanmar should use the elections as an opportunity to improve its human rights record, not as a spur to increase repression of dissenting voices, especially those from the ethnic minorities," said Benjamin Zawacki.
This year, Myanmar will hold its first national and local elections in two decades.
In 1990, two years after mostly peaceful anti-government protests resulted in the deaths of at least 3,000 demonstrators, the National League for Democracy (NLD) and a coalition of ethnic minority parties resoundingly won national elections.
The military government ignored the results, however, and continued their long-standing campaign against the political opposition.
Myanmar's most well-known human rights activist, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the NLD, has been under some form of detention for over 15 of the last 20 years.
In 2007, monks from ethnic minority Rakhine State initiated country-wide demonstrations against the government's economic and political policies, in what has become known as the Saffron Revolution.
In May 2008, a week after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country, the government insisted on holding a referendum on the draft constitution. The official results were that 99 percent of the electorate had gone to the polls, 92.4 percent of whom had voted in favour. While the 2008 Constitution potentially allows for greater representation in local government, it ensures that the military will continue to dominate the national government.
Ethnic minorities constitute some 35-40 percent of the country's population, and form the majority in the seven ethnic minority states. Each of the country's largest seven ethnic minorities has engaged in armed insurgencies against the government, some of which continue to date.
Amnesty International has documented serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity by the government in the context of the Myanmar army's campaigns against ethnic minority insurgent groups and civilians.
del.icio.us
2 March 2010 - The United Nations system in Bangladesh is closely monitoring the situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, which has been the scene of recent violence between different ethnic groups, and stands ready to assist those in need, a spokesperson for the world body said today. 
The question on how illicit drugs enter Bangladesh makes Bangladesh's government and border guards greatly responsible there
