Ecstatic scenes have marked the electoral successes of Burma National League for Democracy party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi. But the reconciliation she is calling for with the other political parties will not bring true democracy.
The NLD has claimed 43 out of the 45 parliamentary seats which it contested in Sunday’s by-elections. The army and its allies still dominate the 664-seat parliament.
It was the first time that the party’s leader has been allowed to campaign in an election. Daughter of assassinated revolutionary Aung San, modern Burma’s founding father, she founded the NLD in 1988. But she was placed under house arrest in 1989 and remained there for a total of 22 years.
The Nobel prize winner was banned from standing in 1990, but the NLD still won 59% of the vote, which guaranteed it 80% of parliamentary seats. The ruling military junta promptly nullified the election results.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now 66, survived an attack by 200 thugs acting on behalf of the regime whilst travelling in a motorcade in 1996. She defied illness to campaign in the poorest areas of Burma.
NLD party officials complained about poster defacing and the use of waxed ballot papers. Among other irregularities, the Democratic Voice of Burma, said that some 6,000 names were missing from the voters’ lists in Ward 1 of Myaung Mya constituency in Irrawaddy Division. But the presence of foreign journalists and teams of monitors was a first under a regime which has sought to hide its crimes.
Of course there is plenty of caution and realism mixed in with the joy. Many realise that the vote will not shatter the brutal control exercised by the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, which is a proxy for the military junta.
The release of political prisoners over the past year and increased political freedom is construed by many as the regime’s cynical attempt to get Western sanctions lifted.
Those in refugee camps are watching developments anxiously to see if it is safe to return home. The brutality of the regime towards Burma’s ethnic minorities created desperate conditions for many, forcing them to become refugees. The UN estimates that there are some 163,700 Burmese refugees in Thailand, and 229,000 in Bangladesh who have been in border camps for more than 20 years. Another 150,000 people are internally displaced.
Burma’s rich natural resources have allowed its ruling elite to negotiate deals with the Chinese government and profit-hungry investors. Villagers in Kachin state fear the resumption of work on the Myitsone Dam project on the Irrawaddy river. The dam, which is being financed by China Power Investment Corporation, will dislocate thousands of people. Ninety percent of its power is destined for China.
According to Zoya Phan of Burma Campaign UK, human rights abuses have increased over the past year. She points out that hundreds of political prisoners have been released, but many more remain in jail, while there is a continued failure to recognise the rights of ethnic minorities who make up 40% of the population.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s protracted and fearless campaign has provided the people of Burma with a powerful symbol of their aspirations. The have spoken through to reject their old rulers. She is right to say that “it is the rising political awareness of our people that we regard as our greatest triumph.”
Whatever the final results, the turn-out for the NLD shows that Burmese people were desperate to speak out. The results so far shed a big chink of light in a country blighted so long by military dictatorship and extreme poverty for the many. Now is the time, inside and outside Burma, to take up the torch and move from a little democracy to real economic and political democracy.
Corinna Lotz
A World to Win secretary
For revolutionary solutions to create a sustainable, not-for-profit economy in place of global capital alongside a real democracy based on People’s Assemblies. Visit our web site at www.aworldtowin.net
Showing posts with label Burma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Burma. Show all posts
Monday, April 02, 2012
Monday, May 12, 2008
Burma: the roll call of shame
As the world watches with horror at the actions of the military junta that rules Myanmar (Burma) with an iron fist, the generals are not the only ones to bear the blame for the suffering of millions of people who are victims of Cyclone Nargis. The international roll call of shame is a long one.
Step forward China, the junta’s main weapons’ supplier and supporter, which blocked a UN resolution aimed at pressuring the regime to accept humanitarian aid at once. China was also at the forefront of preventing the UN from acting when the people of Myanmar rose up against their oppressors in October last year. But they are not alone.
Step forward Russia, which in 2006 signed a deal with the junta that it would supply weapons and an anti-aircraft system in return for a chance to exploit the country’s oilfields. Step forward the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), criticised this week by Human Rights Watch (HRW) for failing to put any pressure on the regime. Thailand, Indonesia, India and South Korea continue to trade with the junta.
Step forward the European Union, whose trade sanctions exempted the most profitable areas and which therefore have had no affect whatsoever. Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK said: "The EU sanctions are pathetic: it's as if they've been designed to miss the mark.” Whilst they would affect a state-owned pineapple company, or a small tailor’s shop, the timber and gas industries, where the regime earns most of its revenue, are not affected. Step forward France, whose national oil company – Total Oil, the fourth largest in the world – provides around $450m revenue each year to the junta. They are associated with an oil pipeline project built, it is asserted, by forced labour.
Step forward Britain, where companies say they get no clear message that the government opposes trade with the junta. Mike Packer, from Timbmet, a British wood company which has now pulled out of Myanmar, said after last year’s uprising that companies got “a political message without teeth” and that “so far as we are concerned... there's been no approach to timber importers to say the government doesn't support trade with Burma”. New Labour is, according to the Burma Campaign UK, the only party that does not support a unilateral investment ban.
And finally, step forward the global corporations, which over three decades of unrestrained growth in capitalist production, have brought the planet to the verge of climate disaster. The director of New Delhi's Centre for Science and Environment is in no doubt that the unprecedented force of Cyclone Nargis is due to the impact of climate change. She cites the report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change which predicts that "based on a range of models, it is likely that future tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) will become more intense, with larger peak wind speeds and more heavy precipitation associated with ongoing increases of tropical sea surface temperatures".
CSE director Sunita Narain says: "Nargis is a sign of things to come. In 2007, Bangladesh was devastated by the tropical cyclone Sidr. The victims of these cyclones are climate change victims and their plight should remind the rich world that it is doing too little to contain its greenhouse gas emissions.”
Meanwhile, the junta went ahead with a sham constitutional referendum and continued loading rice on to ships for export to Indonesia, secure in the knowledge that from China to Russia, from Paris to London, behind all the crocodile tears shed in official circles about the suffering of Burmese people, it would be business as usual.
Penny Cole
Environment editor
Step forward China, the junta’s main weapons’ supplier and supporter, which blocked a UN resolution aimed at pressuring the regime to accept humanitarian aid at once. China was also at the forefront of preventing the UN from acting when the people of Myanmar rose up against their oppressors in October last year. But they are not alone.
Step forward Russia, which in 2006 signed a deal with the junta that it would supply weapons and an anti-aircraft system in return for a chance to exploit the country’s oilfields. Step forward the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), criticised this week by Human Rights Watch (HRW) for failing to put any pressure on the regime. Thailand, Indonesia, India and South Korea continue to trade with the junta.
Step forward the European Union, whose trade sanctions exempted the most profitable areas and which therefore have had no affect whatsoever. Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK said: "The EU sanctions are pathetic: it's as if they've been designed to miss the mark.” Whilst they would affect a state-owned pineapple company, or a small tailor’s shop, the timber and gas industries, where the regime earns most of its revenue, are not affected. Step forward France, whose national oil company – Total Oil, the fourth largest in the world – provides around $450m revenue each year to the junta. They are associated with an oil pipeline project built, it is asserted, by forced labour.
Step forward Britain, where companies say they get no clear message that the government opposes trade with the junta. Mike Packer, from Timbmet, a British wood company which has now pulled out of Myanmar, said after last year’s uprising that companies got “a political message without teeth” and that “so far as we are concerned... there's been no approach to timber importers to say the government doesn't support trade with Burma”. New Labour is, according to the Burma Campaign UK, the only party that does not support a unilateral investment ban.
And finally, step forward the global corporations, which over three decades of unrestrained growth in capitalist production, have brought the planet to the verge of climate disaster. The director of New Delhi's Centre for Science and Environment is in no doubt that the unprecedented force of Cyclone Nargis is due to the impact of climate change. She cites the report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change which predicts that "based on a range of models, it is likely that future tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) will become more intense, with larger peak wind speeds and more heavy precipitation associated with ongoing increases of tropical sea surface temperatures".
CSE director Sunita Narain says: "Nargis is a sign of things to come. In 2007, Bangladesh was devastated by the tropical cyclone Sidr. The victims of these cyclones are climate change victims and their plight should remind the rich world that it is doing too little to contain its greenhouse gas emissions.”
Meanwhile, the junta went ahead with a sham constitutional referendum and continued loading rice on to ships for export to Indonesia, secure in the knowledge that from China to Russia, from Paris to London, behind all the crocodile tears shed in official circles about the suffering of Burmese people, it would be business as usual.
Penny Cole
Environment editor
Thursday, September 27, 2007
China fears Burma uprising
While the Buddhist monks and people of Burma heroically defy bullets and batons to continue to march against the military junta, no one should be surprised that world leaders sit on their hands and/or offer up crocodile tears. Some, like the Chinese regime, have a lot to lose in Burma – and we’re not just talking about trade in oil, gas and timber. Beijing’s Stalinist rulers in particular are terrified that the mass movement in Burma could easily spread to China itself and unseat the corrupt bureaucracy ruling the country. The Chinese leadership has turned the country into a paradise for the global corporations – and a nightmare for hundreds of millions of workers and peasants. Countless strikes, riots and demonstrations are reported in the official press – so the real picture must be much worse.
A recent report into China’s toy export industry exposes the super-exploitation. The report describes working conditions as “devastatingly brutal”, with long hours, unsafe workplaces and restricted freedom of association – all in “blatant violation of Chinese and international labour law”. Whole batches of toys were recently recalled because they were unsafe and the report blames the transnational corporations for their “single-minded pursuit of ever lower prices” The Hasbro corporation is a major manufacturer in China. Hasbro reported net revenues of $691.4 million for the second quarter of 2007 – up 31% on a year ago and an operating profit for the period of $55.8 million, up a whopping 171% on the same period last year. The reason for soaring profits is self-evident. The report says: “Short-sighted policies drive corporations like Hasbro to turn a blind eye to safety - and to ignore the labour conditions in their supplier factories, as well. Instead of concentrating on improving product safety and workers’ lives, companies spend their energy creating beautiful pamphlets on social responsibility, disputing critical reports and shifting blame.”
During its investigation, China Labour Watch found that workers often worked for a month without a day off, facing the sack they declined “overtime”. Factories illegally impose fines and fees. The resulting wage is well below the official minimum wage for the region of about $92 per month. Raw materials, work equipments, rubbish, unfinished products and finished products are piled up throughout plants, including the emergency exits. The report concludes: “To multinational toy companies, workers are merely tools to use to build their massive profits.”
As for the so-called European Union sanctions against Burma, these are clearly not worth the paper they are written on. New Labour, which merely calls for “restraint” in Burma, is accused by campaigners of conducting business as usual. "The EU sanctions are pathetic: it's as if they've been designed to miss the mark," said Mark Farmaner, acting director of the Burma Campaign UK. "You have no significant trade sanctions at all; there is a limited investment ban for some named state-owned enterprises including a pineapple company, tailors shops and others. The timber and gas sections where the regime earns most of its revenue were exempt... so it's had no impact at all." Over the past three years, British imports in some categories such as seafood, footwear and handbags, have actually risen. Timbmet, a British wood company, which did £3m of business with Burma last year, says it is now pulling out. Director Mike Packer, says: "So far as we are concerned... there's been no approach to timber importers to say the government doesn't support trade with Burma."
Paul Feldman
AWTW communications editor
A recent report into China’s toy export industry exposes the super-exploitation. The report describes working conditions as “devastatingly brutal”, with long hours, unsafe workplaces and restricted freedom of association – all in “blatant violation of Chinese and international labour law”. Whole batches of toys were recently recalled because they were unsafe and the report blames the transnational corporations for their “single-minded pursuit of ever lower prices” The Hasbro corporation is a major manufacturer in China. Hasbro reported net revenues of $691.4 million for the second quarter of 2007 – up 31% on a year ago and an operating profit for the period of $55.8 million, up a whopping 171% on the same period last year. The reason for soaring profits is self-evident. The report says: “Short-sighted policies drive corporations like Hasbro to turn a blind eye to safety - and to ignore the labour conditions in their supplier factories, as well. Instead of concentrating on improving product safety and workers’ lives, companies spend their energy creating beautiful pamphlets on social responsibility, disputing critical reports and shifting blame.”
During its investigation, China Labour Watch found that workers often worked for a month without a day off, facing the sack they declined “overtime”. Factories illegally impose fines and fees. The resulting wage is well below the official minimum wage for the region of about $92 per month. Raw materials, work equipments, rubbish, unfinished products and finished products are piled up throughout plants, including the emergency exits. The report concludes: “To multinational toy companies, workers are merely tools to use to build their massive profits.”
As for the so-called European Union sanctions against Burma, these are clearly not worth the paper they are written on. New Labour, which merely calls for “restraint” in Burma, is accused by campaigners of conducting business as usual. "The EU sanctions are pathetic: it's as if they've been designed to miss the mark," said Mark Farmaner, acting director of the Burma Campaign UK. "You have no significant trade sanctions at all; there is a limited investment ban for some named state-owned enterprises including a pineapple company, tailors shops and others. The timber and gas sections where the regime earns most of its revenue were exempt... so it's had no impact at all." Over the past three years, British imports in some categories such as seafood, footwear and handbags, have actually risen. Timbmet, a British wood company, which did £3m of business with Burma last year, says it is now pulling out. Director Mike Packer, says: "So far as we are concerned... there's been no approach to timber importers to say the government doesn't support trade with Burma."
Paul Feldman
AWTW communications editor
Monday, September 24, 2007
Beijing the key to Burma protests
All eyes are on how Beijing will react as Burma’s Buddhist monks lead waves of protests against the country’s dictatorship. It is the biggest movement Burma has seen since people rose against the junta in 1988 when 3,000 people were gunned down. Burma’s military junta is utterly dependent on the Chinese regime, which is ruthlessly exploiting the country’s oil and gas reserves. China has sold $2 billion worth of arms to the junta which are used in continuing atrocities against the political opposition as well as ethnic minorities. Beijing’s Stalinist regime is, of course, also deeply involved in propping up the notorious regimes in Zimbabwe and Sudan as it exploits Africa’s resources.
At the weekend the monks were joined by young, pink-robed, shaven-headed nuns as around 20,000 people took part in a march in the former capital Rangoon, often knee-deep in rainwater, calling for an end to the dictatorship. On Saturday, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy (NLD) who has been under house arrest for 11 years, emerged for a tearful moment to pray with the 2,000 monks who had made their way to her house. Yesterday, however, the authorities turned back monks from the road leading to her home.
Elsewhere in the country, soldiers and state-backed militia beat up monks in cities like Pakokku, Mandalay, and in Sittwe, where tear gas was fired and arrests were made. The movement, led by a new group of young monks, the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, is now a direct challenge to Burma’s military authorities, the State Peace and Development Council (SLORC). A spokesman for the group said they would protect their leaders from arrest.
The present crisis was sparked by an abrupt doubling of petrol and diesel prices on August 15 which triggered protests during which demonstrators and monks were brutally beaten. The anti-junta movement gathered international momentum towards the end of August when actor and comedian Jim Carrey, went on U-tube calling for viewers to join US anti-junta organisations. On September 18, the 19th anniversary of the SLORC military coup, protests were held in 20 countries around the world.
There are presently around 600,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPS) in Burma, with huge refugee camps on its borders in neighbouring Thailand and Laos. A group of US Congressmen is currently calling for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics “unless the Chinese regime stops engaging in serious human rights abuses against its citizens and stops supporting serious human rights abuses by the governments of Sudan, Burma, North Korea against their citizens”. As the junta spends billions on arms and wallows in luxury, one third of the country’s children are malnourished. People scrabble in the streets of the capital for food handouts from the temples. Humanitarian organisations like Medecins Sans Frontieres and disease-fighting specialists have been forced to leave, with even the Red Cross finding it difficult to operate.
Several Buddhist monks have stated they would not end the marches and demonstrations until the dictatorship is “wiped from the land” and there have been chants saying, “Our uprising must succeed.” If the junta decides to crack down, it may well rely on new helicopters supplied by India, containing British and EU parts, to gun down protesters.
Corinna Lotz
AWTW secretary
At the weekend the monks were joined by young, pink-robed, shaven-headed nuns as around 20,000 people took part in a march in the former capital Rangoon, often knee-deep in rainwater, calling for an end to the dictatorship. On Saturday, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy (NLD) who has been under house arrest for 11 years, emerged for a tearful moment to pray with the 2,000 monks who had made their way to her house. Yesterday, however, the authorities turned back monks from the road leading to her home.
Elsewhere in the country, soldiers and state-backed militia beat up monks in cities like Pakokku, Mandalay, and in Sittwe, where tear gas was fired and arrests were made. The movement, led by a new group of young monks, the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, is now a direct challenge to Burma’s military authorities, the State Peace and Development Council (SLORC). A spokesman for the group said they would protect their leaders from arrest.
The present crisis was sparked by an abrupt doubling of petrol and diesel prices on August 15 which triggered protests during which demonstrators and monks were brutally beaten. The anti-junta movement gathered international momentum towards the end of August when actor and comedian Jim Carrey, went on U-tube calling for viewers to join US anti-junta organisations. On September 18, the 19th anniversary of the SLORC military coup, protests were held in 20 countries around the world.
There are presently around 600,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPS) in Burma, with huge refugee camps on its borders in neighbouring Thailand and Laos. A group of US Congressmen is currently calling for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics “unless the Chinese regime stops engaging in serious human rights abuses against its citizens and stops supporting serious human rights abuses by the governments of Sudan, Burma, North Korea against their citizens”. As the junta spends billions on arms and wallows in luxury, one third of the country’s children are malnourished. People scrabble in the streets of the capital for food handouts from the temples. Humanitarian organisations like Medecins Sans Frontieres and disease-fighting specialists have been forced to leave, with even the Red Cross finding it difficult to operate.
Several Buddhist monks have stated they would not end the marches and demonstrations until the dictatorship is “wiped from the land” and there have been chants saying, “Our uprising must succeed.” If the junta decides to crack down, it may well rely on new helicopters supplied by India, containing British and EU parts, to gun down protesters.
Corinna Lotz
AWTW secretary
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Business as usual in Burma
This week Amnesty International, Saferworld and other NGOs pointed to a breach of the EU arms embargo on Burma (Myanmar) by the Indian government. Their report demands that the EU “stand by its obligations” and urges the Indian government to stop the transfer of a military helicopter to the dictatorship. Roy Isbister of Saferworld said: “The EU embargo states that no military equipment should be supplied, either directly or indirectly for use in Myanmar – what’s the point in having an arms embargo if it is not going to be implemented or enforced?”
New Labour’s Ian McCartney, the former trade and investment minister and Blair himself have claimed to be in favour of the sanctions. At the same time the British government has backed companies trading in Burma to the tune of £22.9m, despite Blair himself having called for the release of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, held by the junta for over 12 years. She is one of over 1,000 political prisoners in the country. The supply of the helicopter makes a mockery of the arms embargo since the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) cannot operate without components made in the EU and US. Ninety percent of its parts originate from five countries in the EU, including its hydraulic package, flotation equipment, fuel tanks and internal gearbox, which is made by GKN Westland. India’s defence ministry admits that the country does give military hardware support to Burma, but claims that “the equipment is not offensive”. This is clearly untrue since the ALH is armed with rocket launchers made by Forges de Zebrugge in Belgium and engine, guns and rockets from France. The official also revealed that Burma was helping in the battle against insurgents in India's northeast.
The Burmese junta is currently waging war on the Karen people and other ethnic groups, as well as engaging in cross-border attacks on tens of thousands who have fled to Thailand. In April the Burmese army and its proxy forces positioned artillery and heavy machine guns overlooking the Mae La refugee camp where 45,000 Burmese citizens had sought shelter. The Karen Human Rights Group which campaigns for the Karen people whose state lies in eastern Burma, has documented the continuing ethnic cleansing policies of the Burmese regime, including forced labour, land confiscation and military campaigns and rape carried out by its armed forces. The junta is building a series of dams on the Salween river, which forms a natural border between Burma and Thailand with the support of the World Bank, ignoring heavy criticism.
The reality is that several countries want to exploit Burma’s rich natural resources to fuel their rapid industrial growth. South Korea’s Daewoo International and India’s state oil and gas companies have major stakes in Burma’s Shwe gas project. Large deposits of natural gas were recently discovered off the coast of Arakan State in western Burma. Natural gas exports have now become Burma’s main source of foreign exchange. China, India and Russia are supplying the Burmese military with artillery, jets, helicopters and other hardware, which are being used to crush internal opposition from the Karen National Union (KNU), which has fought the Burmese government for 60 years, as well as terrorise civilians. The European Union and New Labour provide one of the worst regimes in the world with a figleaf of criticism whilst business goes on as usual.
Corinna Lotz, AWTW secretary
New Labour’s Ian McCartney, the former trade and investment minister and Blair himself have claimed to be in favour of the sanctions. At the same time the British government has backed companies trading in Burma to the tune of £22.9m, despite Blair himself having called for the release of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, held by the junta for over 12 years. She is one of over 1,000 political prisoners in the country. The supply of the helicopter makes a mockery of the arms embargo since the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) cannot operate without components made in the EU and US. Ninety percent of its parts originate from five countries in the EU, including its hydraulic package, flotation equipment, fuel tanks and internal gearbox, which is made by GKN Westland. India’s defence ministry admits that the country does give military hardware support to Burma, but claims that “the equipment is not offensive”. This is clearly untrue since the ALH is armed with rocket launchers made by Forges de Zebrugge in Belgium and engine, guns and rockets from France. The official also revealed that Burma was helping in the battle against insurgents in India's northeast.
The Burmese junta is currently waging war on the Karen people and other ethnic groups, as well as engaging in cross-border attacks on tens of thousands who have fled to Thailand. In April the Burmese army and its proxy forces positioned artillery and heavy machine guns overlooking the Mae La refugee camp where 45,000 Burmese citizens had sought shelter. The Karen Human Rights Group which campaigns for the Karen people whose state lies in eastern Burma, has documented the continuing ethnic cleansing policies of the Burmese regime, including forced labour, land confiscation and military campaigns and rape carried out by its armed forces. The junta is building a series of dams on the Salween river, which forms a natural border between Burma and Thailand with the support of the World Bank, ignoring heavy criticism.
The reality is that several countries want to exploit Burma’s rich natural resources to fuel their rapid industrial growth. South Korea’s Daewoo International and India’s state oil and gas companies have major stakes in Burma’s Shwe gas project. Large deposits of natural gas were recently discovered off the coast of Arakan State in western Burma. Natural gas exports have now become Burma’s main source of foreign exchange. China, India and Russia are supplying the Burmese military with artillery, jets, helicopters and other hardware, which are being used to crush internal opposition from the Karen National Union (KNU), which has fought the Burmese government for 60 years, as well as terrorise civilians. The European Union and New Labour provide one of the worst regimes in the world with a figleaf of criticism whilst business goes on as usual.
Corinna Lotz, AWTW secretary
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