Thread: Aung San Suu Kyi appears at protest in Burma

FACTBOX: Sanctions against military-ruled Myanmar

Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:10am EDT

September 28 - Western governments have vowed to impose new sanctions on Myanmar after its crackdown on protesters demanding an end to 45 years of military rule and economic hardship.
Here is an overview of the sanctions imposed over the years against the former Burma.
AUSTRALIA:
-- Visa restrictions on senior junta figures and a ban on defense exports since 1988.
-- Australia said on September 27, 2007 it planned targeted sanctions against leaders of the regime.
CANADA:
-- Limited trade sanctions. Permits are required for exports to Myanmar and one other country (Belarus).
EUROPEAN UNION:
-- In its 1996 common position on Myanmar, the 27-member union confirmed an arms embargo imposed in 1990 and the suspension of defense cooperation in 1991. It also set conditions for assistance and imposed a visa ban on senior military and government officials and their families.
-- In 1997, citing forced labor issues, it scrapped duty-free access to the EU market for Myanmar's products.
-- In 2000, it targeted the assets of people linked to economic or political activities of the junta.
-- In 2004, the EU prohibited registered companies or organizations from making financial loans or credit available to named state-owned enterprises.
NEW ZEALAND:
-- A ban on visas for military leaders and their families.
UNITED STATES:
-- In 1988, broad sanctions imposed after crackdown on student-led protests.
-- In 1997, new investment in Myanmar by U.S. persons or entities prohibited.
-- In 2003, Burma Freedom and Democracy Act banned all imports from Myanmar, restricted financial services, froze the assets of certain Myanmar financial institutions, and extended visa restrictions on junta officials.
Congress has renewed the Act annually.
-- On September 26, 2007, President George W. Bush announced a tightening of economic sanctions on the leaders of the regime and an expanded visa ban on those responsible for human rights abuses and their families.
-- The United States has accused Myanmar of condoning the use of forced labor. That could lead to restrictions on certain types of foreign assistance, such as funding for government officials and employees to participate in educational and cultural exchange programs.
Sources: Reuters, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Burma - Country information - Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), The European Union, (The EU's relations with Burma/Myanmar - Overview)
,Bank of England Financial Sanctions (Bank of England|Publications|Financial Sanctions|Current Regimes
/burma.htm), Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (Canadian Economic Sanctions), U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/Show
Page&c=Page&cid=1007029394365&a=KCountryProfile&ai d=10189653079 0 1), U.S. Department of State, (Burma (06/07))

reuters.com

Like sanctions will help today's cause? A sad joke, really.

Internet cut as violence continues
updated 2 hours, 25 minutes ago

YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Shots were fired to clear crowds defying a brutal crackdown in Myanmar Friday as authorities reportedly cut Internet connections and graphic new video footage showed troops using deadly force.

A still from a video released by Myanmarese opposition shows crowds fleeing gunshots in Yangon on Thursday.
Witnesses told CNN that police opened fire on crowds to disperse demonstrators resulting in fatalities. Other sources said they had spoken to a Western witness who had seen up to 35 bodies lying in the streets.
CNN could not independently verify the claims.
A day earlier, troops with automatic rifles fired into crowds of anti-government demonstrators, reportedly killing at least nine people in the bloodiest day in more than a month of protests demanding an end to military rule.
The governemt also cut Internet connections Friday, according to reports, severing a vital information link that has been used to digitally smuggle images of the violent suppression out of the secretive state.

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A still from a video released by Myanmarese opposition shows crowds fleeing gunshots in Yangon on Thursday.


Myanmar immigrants protest outside the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday.


Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai was found dead following protests in Yangon.

edition.cnn.com

TODAY


Burma troops surround monasteries
Correspondents in Rangoon | September 29, 2007


BURMESE troops have occupied key Buddhist monasteries to confine monks who spearheaded protests against 45 years of military rule, raising concerns they may be preparing to intensify a crackdown that has killed at least 13 people.

Security forces fired warning shots and launched baton charges against 10,000 demonstrators in Rangoon yesterday, in the third day of a crackdown on anti-government rallies.

Several warning shots were fired, but there were no immediate signs of injuries among the cheering, chanting crowd of mostly young people and students in the centre of Burma's main city, witnesses said.

A second protest also broke out near a city park, with up to 500 people marching in the street, singing the national anthem, and thousands more clapping from the pavements as they walked by.

At the downtown protest, security forces used loudspeakers to order the crowd to disperse from its position on a road leading to the city's Sule Pagoda, a key rallying point in the uprising.

Monks have led nearly two weeks of mass demonstrations against the ruling junta, but after a series of raids on monasteries and arrests of dozens of monks, there were few, if any, in the crowd yesterday.

"The monks have done their job and now we must carry on with the movement," a student leader told the protesters near Sule Pagoda.
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theaustralian.news.com.au

Burma hiding death toll
Cath Hart | September 29, 2007

THE death toll following the crackdown by the Burmese junta against pro-democracy protesters is likely to be much higher than the 10 fatalities confirmed by authorities, Australia's ambassador in Rangoon has warned.

The comments came as Burma's charge d'affaires in Canberra was summoned to a meeting with Australian government officials to be told that Canberra condemned the violent crushing of peaceful protests.

At least 13 people are known to have died during the two-day crackdown on protests that have drawn crowds of up to 100,000 people on to the streets of Rangoon.

As the junta's efforts to quash the protests drew international condemnation, Australia's ambassador in Rangoon, Bob Davis, warned that the violence and bloodshed was likely to continue.

"The authorities on state television last night admitted that 10 people had been killed, including a foreign national, who in fact is a Japanese national," Mr Davis told the ABC.

"We have unconfirmed reports that a significantly larger number were killed when the military opened fire on crowds yesterday in Rangoon."

Mr Davis said the death toll was likely to be "several multiples of the 10 acknowledged by the authorities".

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theaustralian.news.com.au

28 Sep 07, 23:17
Admin: URGENT: Army is currently entering almost all the monastries in Yangon now and shooting the people.
Cbox

Soldiers crack down in Myanmar
Friday, September 28, 2007 - 07:53 AM
By: John Stall and 680News staff, with a report from the Associated Press

]Myanmar - The government of Myanmar appears to be flexing muscle today, indicating that a brutal military crackdown is about to get worse.

Military security forces have cut off Internet and cell phone access to the already isolated country, in an effort to end demonstrations against the ruling junta.

The BBC's online editor Richard Slees has been receiving e-mails from those who have independent satellite connections.

"We have reports of soldiers going into hotel rooms occupied by foreigners, looking for any use of the Internet, it's possible for the authorities to do this because the government controls the phone system which of course most of the Internet relies on to operate," he said.

International condemnation of the events in Myanmar is mounting and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has expressed "revulsion", urging the government to seek a political solution.

At least 10 people have been killed in two days of violence in the country's largest cities

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680news.com

Severing of internet link censors killings
September 29, 2007 12:00am

THE Burmese junta appeared to have cut the country's main internet link yesterday, choking off information about the crackdown on mass anti-government protests that have left at least 13 people dead.

A day after security forces smashed cameras and mobile phones, beat people carrying them and warned the media about its reporting, the internet that helped tell the world about the violence was at a standstill.
A Burmese telecoms official blamed a damaged underwater cable.

"The internet is not working because the underwater cable is damaged," an official with Myanmar Post and Telecoms said.

The internet service in Burma, renamed Myanmar by the junta, is tightly controlled and only sporadically available normally.

People with cameras and mobiles have been beaten and their gear smashed, making it harder almost by the hour to report on the suppression of the protests against 40 years of military rule and growing economic hardship.

In Bangkok, an official at a Thai telecom that provides satellite services to Burma said some internet services inside the country had been cut. One Western source inside Burma said she had not been able to access the internet since late morning.

Most businesses in downtown Rangoon, including internet cafes, were closed yesterday following a violent two-day crackdown on anti-government protests that has left hundreds behind bars.

Even a partial internet shutdown could reduce the number of photos and videos of the crackdown that have been transmitted by journalists, activists and bloggers.

Anonymous bloggers have helped send a flood of photos to the rest of the world documenting the violence.

The military government has repeatedly accused foreign media of instigating the protests.

news.com.au

U.S. blasts Myanmar for silencing Internet and calls on military government to end violence.
The Associated PressPublished: September 28, 2007

WASHINGTON: The United States criticized Myanmar on Friday for cutting off Internet access and called on "all civilized nations" to pressure the military-run government to end its violent crackdown on protesters.

"They don't want the world to see what is going on there," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown talked about the situation via secure video teleconference on Friday.

They agreed on the importance of a planned visit this weekend to Myanmar by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and on "the need for countries around the world to continue to make their views clear to the junta," Stanzel said.

"They need to refrain from violence and move to a peaceful transition to democracy," Stanzel said.

The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, said 10 people have been killed since the violence began earlier this week, but diplomats say the toll is likely much higher.

By blocking public access to the Internet, the regime cut off one of the few ways of getting information about the protests out of Myanmar, where media freedom is severely restricted.

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iht.com

Burma-Myanmar Genocide 2007

Here, we present you most updated news about current ongoing genocide in Burma/Myanmar. A translated English version of many Burmese/Myanmar blogs from within the country, for international viewers. Thanks to original reporting bloggers. http://burmamyanmargenocide.blogspot.com

BREAKING NEWS
28 Sep 07, 22:20 - This picture on the top right ( see below ) is part of the human brain of a young boy attacked by Burmese SPDC soldiers at Tarmwe Township, Yangon yesterday. Riot police were not using rubber-coated rods. They were using heavy iron rods instead, which broke the skull, putting the young man to the end on the spot. This photo was taken after the dead body was taken away by the notorious Burmese soldiers.

Rangoon: ‘army mutiny’ reported
September 28, 2007


Reports from Rangoon suggest soldiers are mutinying. It is unclear the numbers involved. Reports cite heavy shooting in the former Burmese capital.

The organisation Helfen ohne Grenzen (Help without Frontiers) is reporting that "Soldiers from the 66th LID (Light Infantry Divison) have turned their weapons against other government troops and possibly police in North Okkalappa township in Rangoon and are defending the protesters.

At present unsure how many soldiers involved."

Soldiers in Mandalay, where unrest has spread to as we reported this morning, are also reported to have refused orders to act against protesters.

Some reports claim that many soldiers remained in their barracks.

More recent reports now maintain that soldiers from the 99th LID now being sent there to confront them.

Growing numbers of protestors are gathering in Rangoon, with 10,000 reported at the Traders Hotel and 50,000 at the Thein Gyi market.

The police are reported to have turned water cannons against crowds at Sule Pagoda.

Many phone lines into the Burmese state have now been cut, mobile networks have been disabled and the national internet service provider has been taken off-line.

newsdeskspecial.co.uk

You can crack down, but you can't hide: "Satellite images confirm reports of burned villages, forced relocations and other human-rights abuses in Myanmar, scientists said on Friday.

Friday, 28 September 2007
27/09/07 killed by regime (pic form DVB)

ko htike's prosaic collection

Burma junta turns screw as protests falter
By Graeme Jenkins in Rangoon
Last Updated: 2:53am BST 29/09/2007

Broken and beaten, hundreds of people were loaded into military trucks across Rangoon yesterday as the Burmese junta launched a new phase of terror in its repression of the democracy movement.

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A rubbish collector passes a line of riot police and military officials keeping guard in Rangoon’s city centre

telegraph.co.uk

Inside a city under siege: gunfire breaks the silence as troops reclaim the streets
David Jiménez in Rangoon
Saturday September 29, 2007


The monasteries are surrounded, the monks held inside at gunpoint, whole districts are sealed off, and the internet has been closed down.

Soldiers have taken over the streets, carrying guns at their waists and always pointing forwards.

Fresh army divisions have reached the city gates from neighbouring provinces.

Rangoon is a city under siege.

The sound of sporadic gunfire broke the unusual silence which cloaked the centre of the city.

It was proof that the killings of the past two days had not weakened the determination of the thousands of Burmese protesters ready to risk their life in defiance of the regime.

Many of them disobeyed the ban on gatherings of more than five people, confronting the troops once again - unarmed and without violence.

Without a clear leader, and with the monks confined to their monasteries, young civilians have taken up the baton, and form the front line of the protests.

Thein, an adolescent with long hair and Buddhist scriptures tattooed on his body, showed his bare chest to a file of soldiers in Anawrahta street near the centre.

He carried a sheet of paper with a copy of a blurred image of Aung San, the hero of independence and father of the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Was he afraid of death? "I have no work. My father has no work. I have nothing to lose," he said

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guardian.co.uk

International community must act in Burma
By Vaclav Havel
Saturday, Sep 29, 2007, Page 9

In the coming days -- perhaps even hours -- the destiny of Burma (also known as Myanmar), and the fates of over 50 million Burmese, will be decided.

Today's crisis has been brewing for many years. But nobody knew with any precision just when open revolt against Burma's military dictatorship would erupt.

I fear that, with only a few exceptions, most countries have been surprised and caught off guard -- once again -- by the rapid course that events have taken in Burma.

So they seem to be completely unprepared for the crisis and thus at a loss as to what to do.

How many times and in how many places has this now happened? Worse, however, is the number of countries that find it convenient to avert their eyes and ears from the deathly silence with which this Asian country chooses to present itself to the outside world.

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taipeitimes.com

ASEAN issues Myanmar declaration
AP, UNITED NATIONS
Saturday, Sep 29, 2007, Page 5

COMMIT TO PEACE: Foreign ministers met on the sidelines at the UN and issued a `tough declaration' against the violence calling on leaders to 'exercise utmost restraint'
taipeitimes.com

thuriza: still nobody from ygn is online. i think internet connection is cut off

http://www.mmedwatch.blogspot.com/

BURMESE PLEAD FOR HELP AS THE SHUTTERS CLOSE
Saturday, September 29, 2007


People hold a candlelight vigil outside the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on Friday night.
Photo: REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang


With the deadly state violence continuing in Burma and internet communications severed, that country's long suffering people desperately need outside help.

This illegitimate regime (itself the very definition of illegitimate regimes) has no friends left after a stinging rebuke from its co-members in ASEAN, and China now starting to come around in a cooperative effort with Japan to influence the worsening situation.

UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari is set to fly into Burma later today from Bangkok amid hints that the regime might be looking for a way out of their mess.

The crowds in the streets were somewhat diminished on Friday, but the degree of violence used against them was much greater than on Wednesday and Thursday, with reports of dozens of bodies lined up on the roads and witnesses saying that more than a hundred may have been slain.

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agamsgecko.blogspot.com

nik's Public Gallery » Burma 28.09.07




picasaweb.google.com

thanxs to xs.to for hosting

Rice wanted 'stronger' Security Council action on Myanmar
Top Stories // Weekend, September 29, 2007



US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that the UN Security Council should have taken "stronger action" in response to the military crackdown on anti-government protests in Myanmar.

"Given what is going on in the streets in Rangoon (Yangon), I would have hoped that the Security Council would take a stronger action," she said here after a luncheon with her counterparts from the four other veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council.

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fe4.news.sp1.yahoo.com

Satellite Images Verify Myanmar Forced Relocations, Mounting Military Presence
By ScienceMode on Sep 28th, 2007



A new assessment of high-resolution satellite images .– concluded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has pinned down evidence consistent with village obliteration, enforced relocations, and a mounting military presence at twenty-five spots across eastern Burma (Myanmar) where observers have accounted human rights violations.

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sciencemode.com

Re satellite images

Link below is to the full pdf version of the report issued by American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Regards

LINK

quote lifted verbatum from another .................

Internet access restored in Myanmar

29th September 2007, 11:02 WST



Internet access was restored in military-ruled Myanmar on Saturday a day after a web blackout believed to have been imposed to stop reports and pictures of a major crackdown reaching the outside world.

Internet users inside the former Burma were able to see domestic web pages as well as send e-mails outside the country.

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Ex-protest leader tells of bloodshed
WILLIAM MACE - The Dominion Post | Saturday, 29 September 2007

A Burmese-New Zealander and former leader of a pro-democracy movement in her home country has spoken out to draw attention to the cause of her people after more bloodshed on the streets of Yangon.

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stuff.co.nz