The Irrawaddy News Magazine [Covering Burma and Southeast Asia]

NEWS IN BRIEF
BRIEFLY NOTED (April 2010)

APRIL, 2010 - VOLUME 18 NO.4

NLD Says ‘No’ to Election

Pro-democracy activists denounce the Burmese election protest in New Delhi on march 17. (Reuters)

Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has decided against registering for the general election this year. The decision, approved by a unanimous vote of the NLD’s 113 executive members, will effectively eliminate the party as a legal political entity in Burma. The decision was in response to the regime’s election laws, which prohibit NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners from participating in the election or retaining membership in their respective parties. Early feedback to The Irrawaddy indicated that many people in Burma welcomed the NLD decision, but said they will have fewer choices in the election.

Redshirts Rally in Bangkok

Redshirt supporters of deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra take part in an anti-government protest in Bangkok on March 20. (Photo: AP)

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva slept at an army base in Bangkok as Redshirt demonstrations were held in the Thai capital. The movement—consisting primarily of supporters of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and pro-democracy activists who opposed the 2006 coup that removed Thaksin from power—is demanding Abhisit call fresh elections. The Redshirts poured donated blood outside the front gate of Government House, the Democratic Party headquarters and Abhisit’s home in a symbolic sacrifice to press their demands for new elections. The demonstrations came after Thailand’s highest court ruled that Thaksin had concealed his assets while in office and abused his power for personal gain, and ordered the seizure of 46 billion baht (US $1.4 billion) of his $2.29 billion in frozen assets.

Asean to End Nargis Aid

Villagers carry drinking water in plastic containers from a lake in Dala Township in the Irrawaddy delta on March 21. (Photo AP)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has announced that it will end its recovery assistance for Cyclone Nargis-affected regions in Burma by July. Asean will accelerate aid delivery to affected people and transfer the coordination role of assistance for post-Nargis recovery efforts to the Burmese government, according to an Asean statement. Meanwhile, more than 500,000 cyclone survivors in affected Irrawaddy and Rangoon divisions still lack shelter and work.

Regime May Outlaw UWSA
The Burmese military junta is reportedly considering the option of outlawing the country’s largest ethnic armed group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), if it fails to agree to the regime’s order to join the planned border guard force. If the UWSA is officially outlawed, the way is open to military action against the armed group, which has an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 troops in Shan State. Regime officials are said to have appealed to China to help persuade the Wa to accept the plan. In the face of rising tension along the Sino-Burmese border, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has alerted its troops to monitor the situation closely.

UN Envoy Seeks War Crimes Commission
Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, has called for an international inquiry into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the ruling Burmese junta. He said a pattern of gross and systematic violations of fundamental freedoms continued in the country. Activist groups welcomed his recommendation, calling it unprecedented since the United Nations established a mandate to look into human rights violations in Burma in 1992.

Tension Rises in Kachin State

Tomás Ojea Quintana

Tension continued to rise around the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Laiza as the latest deadline in February passed for the KIO and other ethnic armed groups to agree to join the regime’s planned border guard force. Kachin sources said the KIO moved all its important documents from Laiza to prevent them from falling into regime hands if government forces launch an attack. The high priority materials—including files and computers—were moved to the KIO’s former headquarters at Laizin. The KIO deployed well-trained militias around its Laiza headquarters and land mines were planted around KIO bases.

Junta Releases American
A Burmese-American activist was unexpectedly released on March 18, a day after his lawyer filed an appeal against a three-year prison sentence he received in February. Nyi Nyi Aung, a 40-year-old activist, had worked full-time in recent years from his Maryland home, funded by grants, to promote democracy in Burma. A political refugee, he became a US citizen in 2002 after seeking asylum but has traveled back to his homeland several times without incident. He was arrested on Sept. 3, 2009, after arriving at Rangoon’s international airport on a flight from Bangkok. He said he was tortured while undergoing interrogation at Insein Prison and last December launched a hunger strike to protest against conditions for political prisoners in Burma.

Cambodia to Build Memorial for Journalists
Cambodia will erect a memorial to nearly 40 foreign and Cambodian journalists who died covering a savage five-year war that ended with the triumph of the Khmer Rouge 35 years ago. The groundbreaking for the monument will take place at the end of April, the anniversary of the Khmer Rouge victory, as foreign journalists who covered the conflict gather for a reunion. At least 37 journalists were killed or are listed as missing from the 1970-75 war, which pitted the US-backed Lon Nol government against the North Vietnamese-supported Khmer Rouge. They included reporters, photographers and television cameramen from Japan, France, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, India, Laos, Australia and Cambodia. A number of the journalists were captured by the Khmer Rouge and never seen again.

Google Ends Censorship in China

A supporter presents fowers near Google’s offce in Hong Kong on Jan. 14. (Photo: AP)

Google stopped censoring the Internet for China by removing its search engine from mainland China. Visitors to Google’s old service in China, Google.cn, are now redirected to the Chinese-language service based in Hong Kong, where Google does not censor its search results. Google plans to retain its engineering and sales offices in China so it can keep a technological toehold in the country and continue to sell ads for the Chinese-language version of its search engine in the US. The company also intends to keep its mapping and music services on Google.cn. The revolt against censorship threatens to crimp Google’s growth, particularly if China retaliates by making it more difficult for the company to do business in the country. The Chinese government could react by blocking access to Google’s services, much as it has completely shut off Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

China Drills More Wells, Seeds Clouds Amid Drought
Emergency wells were being drilled and cloud-seeding operations carried out in southern China, where the worst drought in decades has left millions of people without water. The drought, which has left southwestern China suffering since last year, has affected about 61 million people and left more than 12 million acres (about 5 million hectares) barren in Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing and Guangxi. For parts of Yunnan, it is the worst drought in a century, with about 5.4 million people facing water shortages according to a director at the Yunnan Land Resources Bureau. China’s large land mass means drought can occur in one region while others have record-breaking temperatures and severe storms that can cause floods. A massive sandstorm in late March covered Beijing and other cities in northern China in a layer of sand and grit.

Than Shwe Sets Ground Rules for Polls
At an Armed Forces Day speech in Naypyidaw on March 27, Burma’s junta chief warned political parties to behave while campaigning for elections later this year, adding that the armed forces can take part in politics “whenever the need arises.” In his seven-minute speech, Snr-Gen Than Shwe also warned the international community against meddling in the upcoming election and said “divisive acts” could spark anarchy and derail the transition to democracy. Than Shwe did not reveal a date for the election. The 77-year-old regime strongman rarely speaks in public, except at Armed Forces Day ceremonies.