BBC news – EU lifts sanctions against Burma

Monday, 22 April 2013. The European Union has lifted the last of its trade, economic and individual sanctions against Burma in response to its political reform programme.

The sanctions were temporarily lifted last year, and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi agreed Burma’s progress merited the move being made permanent.

An EU foreign ministers’ meeting said an arms embargo would stay in place.

It warned Burma needed to address “significant challenges”, particular regarding its minority Muslims.

Human rights groups say the lifting of sanctions reduces the leverage the EU has on Burma, with Human Rights Watch’s Asia head Phil Robertson describing the move as “premature and regrettable”.

It came shortly after the BBC obtained police video showing officers standing by while Buddhist rioters attacked minority Muslims in the Burmese town of Meiktila. It was filmed last month, when at least 43 people were killed in Meiktila.

‘It is time’

An EU statement, approved without a vote and issued at a foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg, said: “In response to the changes that have taken place and in the expectation that they will continue, the Council (of ministers) has decided to lift all sanctions with the exception of the embargo on arms.”

The decision came in response to political reforms implemented by President Thein Sein, who came to power after elections in November 2010. His administration has freed many political prisoners and relaxed censorship.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Burma’s political progress was substantial enough and serious enough for the temporary lifting of sanctions to be made permanent.

But he told the BBC: “The work of the EU in Burma is not remotely finished. It is important to continue working on improving human rights, on improving the humanitarian situation, in helping the Burmese to address issues of ethnic violence, particularly attacks on Muslim communities.”

Aung San Suu Kyi, who for years supported the sanctions against the country’s military rulers, backed the EU’s decision, telling the BBC the democracy movement could not depend on sanctions forever.

“It is time we let these sanctions go,” she said. “I don’t want to rely on external factors forever to bring about national reconciliation which is the key to progress in our country.”

Ms Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest for many years, leads a pro-democracy opposition which has a small presence in parliament.

Mass graves?

Violence between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in another part of Burma, Rakhine state, last year following the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in May.

Clashes in June and October resulted in the deaths of about 200 people. Thousands of people, mainly members of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, fled their homes and remain displaced.

On Monday, the New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) presented a report containing what it said was clear evidence of government complicity in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against Muslims in Rakhine state.

It said security forces had either stood aside or joined in when mobs attacked Muslim communities in nine townships, razing villages and killing residents.

It said HRW had discovered four mass grave sites in Rakhine state, which it said security forces had used to destroy evidence of the crimes.

However, the allegations were rejected by Win Myaing, a government spokesman for Rakhine state, AP news agency reported.

HRW investigators didn’t “understand the situation on the ground,” he said, adding that the government had no prior knowledge of the impending attacks, and had deployed forces to quell the unrest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22254493

BBC News – Burma apologises for police attack on protesting monks

Saturday, 8 December 2012. The government in Burma has apologised to Buddhist monks for the injuries sustained during a police operation outside a copper mine nine days ago.

More than 50 people, including 20 monks, were injured when police tried to clear protesters who said local farmers had been forced off the land.

Injuries included severe burns blamed on incendiary devices thrown by police.

The raid last month was the toughest action since a more reformist government came to power last year.

The BBC’s South East Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, says the apology reflects the government’s nervousness over the role of monks, who command high public respect.

They often take up political and social causes, bringing them into conflict with the authorities.

Joint venture

Religious Affairs Minister Myint Maung told a delegation of senior monks that the police regretted the injuries, which he blamed on the “incompetency” of the authorities.

He said the government would do its utmost to prevent such incidents happening again.

It has established a commission of inquiry, headed by opposition leader Aung Sung Suu Kyi.

She visited the area last Friday and demanded an apology for the monks.

Eight people have been charged in connection with the protests. They are being held in Insein prison in Rangoon.

The Monywa copper mine in northern Burma is a joint venture between a Chinese company and Myanmar Economic Holdings, owned by the Burmese military.

Hundreds of people are alleged to have been forced from their land to make way for a $1 bn (£620m) expansion of the mine.

More than 7,800 acres (3,200 hectares) of land is being appropriated. Considerable damage to the environment is also reported.

Activists are calling for work at the project to be suspended to allow impact studies to be carried out, but China insists that the contentious points have already been resolved.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20650576

The Tribune – Suu Kyi seeks India’s support for her struggle in Myanmar; Says Gandhi and Nehru were leaders she felt closest to

Ashok Tuteja, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 14. As New Delhi pulled out all the stops to accord her a warm welcome, Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi today made an emotional appeal to the people of India to support the democratic movement in her country so that it could be taken to its logical conclusion.

“I was saddened that India moved away from us during our struggle for democracy,’’ she said delivering the Nehru Memorial Lecture to an august gathering at the Vigyan Bhavan this evening.

Underlining that Mahatma Gandhi and Pt Jawaharlal Nehru were the two Indian leaders she felt the closest to, Suu Kyi referred to the generally-held view that India had not stood staunchly by democratic forces in Myanmar during the prolonged military rule. “However, I have always held the view that expectation is not something one can indulge in…disappointment is not something one can indulge in.”

She made it clear that what mattered to her most was the friendship between the people and not the governments.

“Governments come and go and that’s what democracy is all about. As long as people remain with each other, the friendship will last,” she added.

Noting that her country had still not attained the goal of complete democracy, the Myanmar leader said, “I hope in this last and most difficult phase of our struggle, the people of India will stand by us and help us achieve what they have achieved.”

Her visit comes two years after elections in Myanmar that formally ended the military rule. A new nominally civilian government, led by President Thein Sein, took office in 2011 and has since implemented a series of economic and political reforms, which have been appreciated by the global community. Suu Kyi, who spent many years under house arrest, was released shortly after the November 2010 polls. Her party, the National league for Democracy, has now joined the political process and won a small presence in Parliament in the by-elections held in April this year.

During his visit to Myanmar this May, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had met Suu Kyi and also invited her to visit India to personally receive the Jawaharlal Nehru Award, bestowed on her in 1993 at the height of the pro-democracy movement in her country.

Suu Kyi’s six-day trip to India, which began yesterday, had all the trappings of a state visit as she met the PM and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai. She will meet Vice-President Hamid Ansari, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, among other Indian leaders, tomorrow.

She will visit also her alma mater, Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, where she will interact with the faculty and students.

She had spent several years in India during her early days when her mother Daw Khin Yi was the Ambassador to India.

During her 30-minute meeting with the Indian PM, Suu Kyi discussed the process of national reconciliation and democratisation in her country. “Our good wishes are with you as indeed with your struggle for democracy. We admire you for the indomitable courage you have shown,’’ Manmohan Singh said while welcoming her at his residence.

The two leaders also called for greater people-to-people contacts between their two countries, including between Parliament and judicial bodies.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121115/main2.htm

Sint-Truiden Fiesta Tropical 15 July 2012

The annual Fiesta Tropical, highlighting the diversity of cultures in Sint-Truiden

Aung San Suu Kyi in Sint-Truiden

Young Singhs

Young Sikh men with and without turban

Young Sikh men without turban

Bhangra dancers and a couple that walked into my picture

To see more Belgium (mostly Limburg) pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622046344528/

More Belgian pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

BBC News – Burma’s Thein Sein ‘would accept Suu Kyi as president’

Saturday 29 September 2012. Burmese leader Thein Sein has told the BBC he would accept Aung San Suu Kyi as president if the people vote for her.

The president insisted that the will of the people would be respected whoever they chose in an election due in 2015.

He reiterated his commitment to the country’s reform programme, and said he and Ms Suu Kyi were working together.

Thein Sein, a former leader of the military junta that ruled Burma for decades, has overseen a dramatic shift towards a civilian-led government.

Two days ago he spoke at the UN General Assembly, congratulating Ms Suu Kyi on receiving the US Congressional Gold Medal.

In an interview with the BBC’s Hardtalk programme, he went even further by talking about the possibility of the Nobel Peace Prize winner becoming president.

“Whether she will become a leader of the nation depends on the will of the people. If the people accept her, then I will have to accept her,” he said.

“There isn’t any problem between me and Aung San Suu Kyi. We are working together.”

But he added that the army, which retains many of the seats in parliament, will continue to play a central role in the country’s politics.

Ms Suu Kyi was kept under house arrest for 15 years and repeatedly denounced by the former regime.

Thein Sein’s remarks this week have been the warmest from Burma’s political leadership since the junta was formally dissolved in March 2011.

But Burma still faces many problems, including a recent outbreak of fighting between Muslim Rohingya people and Buddhist Rakhine people.

The president has repeatedly pledged to end internal strife, but neither he nor Ms Suu Kyi have provided a possible solution to the problems in Rakhine state.

Meanwhile, the president also renewed his appeal for economic sanctions placed on his country to be lifted.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already said the US would ease its import ban on Burmese goods.

Many other targeted measures have already been lifted by the US and other Western countries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19772834

BBC News – Aung San Suu Kyi: Burma pro-democracy leader visits US

Sunday, 16 September 2012. Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is travelling to the United States, her first visit to the country in two decades.

During her 18-day trip she will be presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honour in the US, among other awards.

She will also meet President Barack Obama and various Burmese groups.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent years under house arrest in Burma, but was elected to parliament in April.

The new civilian-led, but military-backed, government has enacted a series of political and social reforms, including the relaxing of media laws, the legalisation of protests and the releasing of hundreds of political prisoners.

In response, Western nations including the US have lifted sanctions imposed during the military rule.

The Nobel laureate is likely to face questions over deadly ethnic conflict in western Rakhine state earlier this year.

The violence, which pitted Burma’s majority Buddhists against minority Muslims, was sparked by the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman. Dozens of people died and thousands were displaced.

Rights groups have expressed concern over the fate of the Rohingya, a mostly Muslim group who Burma says are not Burmese citizens but who have often been denied asylum in neighbouring countries.

Aung San Suu Kyi has remained relatively quiet on the issue, although has called in parliament for laws to protect the rights of ethnic minorities.

Asked in June whether Rohingya should be regarded as Burmese citizens, she said: “I do not know”, saying Burma should clarify its citizenship laws.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19617156

BBC News – Burma: UN calls for inquiry over Rakhine violence

Saturday, 28 July 2012. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has called for an independent investigation following claims of abuses by security forces in Burma’s Rakhine state.

Ms Pillay said forces sent to quash violence in the northern state were reported to be targeting Muslims.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says about 80,000 people have been displaced following inter-communal violence.

The agency says most of those displaced are living in camps and more tents are being airlifted in to help them.

The latest violence in Rakhine state began in May when a Buddhist ethnic Rakhine woman was raped and murdered by three uslims.

On 3 June, an unidentified mob killed 10 Muslims.

Ms Pillay’s office says that since then at least 78 people have been killed in ensuing violence but unofficial estimates are higher.

“We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes,” Ms Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.

“Reports indicate that the initial swift response of the authorities to the communal violence may have turned into a crackdown targeting Muslims, in particular members of the Rohingya community.”

She welcomed a government decision to allow a UN envoy access to Rakhine state next week, but said it was “no substitute for a fully-fledged independent investigation”.

‘Scared to return’

The UNHCR says that about 80,000 people had been displaced in and around the towns of Sittwe and Maungdaw.

Spokesman Andrej Mahecic said that many were too scared to return home while others were being prevented from earning a living.

“Some displaced Muslims tell UNHCR staff they would also like to go home to resume work, but fear for their safety,” he said.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi recently called for laws to protect the rights of ethnic minority groups.

In her first statement in parliament, she said such laws were important for Burma to become a truly democratic nation of mutual respect.

Burma has undergone a series of political reforms initiated by the military-backed government.

But some parts of the country are still hit by conflict and unrest, most recently Rakhine state.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19025549

BBC News – Burma tells Aung San Suu Kyi ‘call us Myanmar’

Friday 29 June 2012. Burmese officials have told opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to call the country by its official name, Myanmar.

The country was renamed Myanmar in 1989 by its then military rulers and the change has been widely adopted since.

But opposition groups have continued to use the old name as a sign of defiance, along with some Western governments and media organisations.

Ms Suu Kyi was freed from arrest in 2010 and elected to parliament this year amid continuing political reforms.

She is set to return from a high-profile trip to Europe, during which she referred to her country as Burma.

She also used the term Burma during a speech to the World Economic Forum in Thailand on 1 June, apparently annoying her country’s military-backed civilian government.

Correspondents say the authorities may be trying assert themselves after Ms Suu Kyi, who leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), was feted throughout her European tour.

In a statement published in The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the electoral commission said: “As it is prescribed in the constitution that ‘the state shall be known as The Republic of the Union of Myanmar’, no one has the right to call [the country] Burma.

“It is announced that the commission… has again informed the NLD to write/address the name of the state as prescribed in the constitution… and respect the constitution.”

NLD party spokesman Nyan Win responded by saying that referring to the country as Burma “does not amount to disrespecting the constitution”.

The then ruling military chose to rename Burma two decades ago, arguing that the old name was a hangover from colonialism and only represented the dominant Burman ethnic group.

Etymologists and others suggest that this argument is false, as both Myanmar and Burma come from the same root – referring to the Burman ethnic group – and have been used interchangeably for centuries.

The US and UK governments still use Burma to refer to the country, as do some media organisations, including the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18643715

BBC News – Suu Kyi warns against ‘reckless optimism’ on Burma reforms

Friday 1 June 2012. Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has warned against ”reckless optimism” over reforms in the country.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Bangkok, she said the process was not yet irreversible.

The parliament of which she recently became a member was still far from democratic, she added.

She also called on investors to meet the country’s needs, saying that job creation and training was vital for Burma’s young population.

She added that when investment comes into the country, then it should not fuel corruption or inequality.

”I am here not to tell you what to do but to tell you what we need,” she said in her first major speech outside Burma for more than 20 years.

She urged investors who are planning to put money into Burma to do so with an awareness of the need for improvement in the lives of ordinary Burmese people.

”Please think deeply for us,” she said.

Burma’s military-backed civilian government has started a series of reforms to open up the country.

Practical plans

Ms Suu Kyi said Burma didn’t want investment to mean further corruption and greater inequality.

”We want it to mean jobs,” she added.

She said that skills training would be a key factor in enabling Burma’s workers to fill any of the new jobs that are created.

”There is a great need for basic skills,” she said. ”We need vocational training much more than higher education.”

While she said that she valued the latter, she added that the international community should consider the country’s needs ”in a very practical way”.

Burma is committed to reforms, she said, and would like to be ”linked to a regional and global commitment to share growth”.

”We want to be part of that more prosperous, peaceful world,” she said.

More prominence

Since arriving in the Thai capital on Tuesday, she has met Burmese migrants in the Samut Sakhon province – who gave her a rousing welcome – as well as dignitaries including Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

For the past two decades, Aung San Suu Kyi has either been under house arrest or was afraid that if she left Burma she would not be allowed to go back.

But recent reforms led to her election to parliament last month and she is playing an increasingly prominent role both inside and outside Burma.

The pro-democracy leader was given a passport in early May.

After her trip to Thailand she plans to return to Burma before travelling to Europe later this month.

She intends to go to Norway to formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize that she won in 1991, and will also visit the UK where she has family. She has also accepted an invitation to address the British parliament on 21 June.

It has also been reported that she will go to Geneva, Paris and Ireland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18291862

BBC News – David Cameron calls for Burma sanctions to be suspended

Friday, 13 April 2012. David Cameron has said economic sanctions against Burma should be suspended in recognition of the
changes taking place in the country.

The prime minister spoke after a meeting with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon.

Ms Suu Kyi welcomed his call and said the suspension of sanctions would “strengthen the hand of the reformers”.

Mr Cameron is the first Western leader to visit Burma since her success in a series of parliamentary by-elections.

He is also the first UK prime minister to visit the country since it gained independence in 1948.

Earlier, Mr Cameron met President Thein Sein and said the government had to demonstrate that moves to democracy were “irreversible”.

‘Send a signal’

Burma was ruled for almost half a century by a military junta that stifled almost all dissent and wielded absolute power. The EU, US and other nations imposed sanctions.

The first general election in 20 years was held in 2010.

The installation of a military-backed, nominally civilian government in March 2011 and a series of reforms since – including the release of hundreds of political prisoners – has led to speculation that decades of international isolation could be coming to an end.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Ms Suu Kyi at the lakeside villa where she spent 15 years under house arrest, Mr Cameron said the arms embargo in place against Burma should remain in place, but it was right to suspend – not lift – the remaining sanctions.

They include an assets freeze imposed on nearly 500 people and restrictions on key industries such as mining and timber.

“[Burma] shouldn’t be as poor as it is. It shouldn’t have suffered under dictatorship for as long as it has, and things don’t have to be that way,” the prime minister said.

“I do think it is important to send a signal that we want to help see the changes that can bring the growth of freedom of human rights and democracy in your country.”

‘Long way yet’

Mr Cameron said it was right to respond to signs of change “with care”, adding: “All courses of action are full of risk, but I think this is the right step forward.”

He also praised Ms Suu Kyi, calling her “an inspiration for people across the world”.

She in turn welcomed his call for the suspension of sanctions, saying: “We still have a long way to go but we believe we can get there.

“This suspension will have taken place because of the steps taken by the president and other reformers.

“It would also make it quite clear to those who are against reform that should they try to obstruct the way of the reformers, then sanctions could come back.”

EU foreign ministers are to discuss policy towards Burma on 23 April, and sanctions are due to expire on 30 April unless leaders choose to renew them.

The BBC’s deputy political editor, James Landale, who is travelling with the PM, says the change in position by the UK makes it very likely that Europe will agree to lift the sanctions.

Sanctions safeguards

But he says Mr Cameron’s move is a gamble – and some would call it too much too soon – because if there is any regression by the regime it will be difficult to get European nations to agree to reimpose sanctions once again.

Labour shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said “the sequenced lifting of sanctions along with careful monitoring of developments” was “a sensible way forward”.

But former Labour minister Baroness Kinnock, the chairwoman of the all-parliamentary group on Burma, sounded a note of caution, saying there must be “clear measures in place to ensure that sanctions will be reimposed if there’s no further progress”.

“So we need to see interim measures, we need to see deadlines, we need to see benchmarks,” she told BBC Radio 4′s World at One.

Wai Hnin, from the Burma Campaign UK, told the BBC the recent changes in the country were proof that sanctions were working, but there was still “no democratic system in Burma yet”.

“To remove all the sanctions would be a little bit silly – I’m afraid that these changes will stop,” she said.

Mr Cameron also revealed he had invited Miss Suu Kyi to visit Britain in June.

She said that two years ago she would have declined, knowing she would have been prevented from returning to Burma.

“Now I am able to say perhaps. That is great progress,” she added.

‘Cultural’ activities

Burma is the final leg of the prime minister’s tour of South East Asia promoting UK interests.

Prior to arriving in Nay Pyi Taw, he stopped briefly in Singapore to meet its leader, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Ten members of the business delegation, which includes defence firms, accompanying Mr Cameron on his tour are also in Burma.

However, Downing Street has insisted the visit is purely political and the businessmen will merely be carrying out “cultural” activities.

Mr Cameron is not the first major Western figure to visit the country – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a landmark trip to Burma in December 2011.

He is, however, the first sitting UK prime minister to do so – Anthony Eden, who later became PM, travelled there while
foreign secretary, and Edward Heath visited after leaving No 10.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17698526