Who's Helping Burma!

[phuketbound]

This article caught my eye. After Suu Kyi was put on trial for allowing an American man to enter her estate. She now faces another 3-5 years in prison for violating her house arrest, that was about to finish at the end of May.

Has this given the Junta a way to quiet Suu Kyi, and help the Junta continue their power. given that there is an election coming up in 2010, it certainly seems that way.

Obama has recently thought the trial of Suu Kyi may dash a change in US policy. The US was considering softening their former sanctions on Burma, but now Obama has extended the state of emergency in Burma, and continues with the sanctions. Here is the article.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has been considering whether a softer approach on Myanmar could spur democratic change in the military-run country, but the trial starting this week of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi may dash the possibility of a new U.S. policy.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly was blunt when asked Monday whether the proceedings against Suu Kyi make it more difficult for the administration to ease tough sanctions against Myanmar: It certainly doesn't help.
Kelly would not elaborate, saying only a whole range of options are being considered as senior officials from various U.S. agencies meet to review the policy meant to push Myanmar's junta to do the right thing.

Even as the review continues, President Barack Obama extended for another year on Friday a state of emergency regarding Myanmar, also known as Burma. Sanctions would have expired had the emergency order not been extended.
Still, signals from Obama's administration had prompted speculation that the United States might be poised to reconsider its hard line against Myanmar.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in February, on a trip to Indonesia, Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced the Burmese junta. She added, however, that Myanmar's neighbors' policy of reaching out and trying to engage them hasn't influenced them either.

Suu Kyi, who went on trial Monday, already has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in detention. The Nobel Peace laureate has been charged with violating conditions of her house arrest by sheltering an American man who swam to her lakeside home to secretly visit her earlier this month. The offense is punishable by up to five years' imprisonment.

David Steinberg, a Myanmar specialist at Georgetown University, said the Obama administration might have been considering small changes, such as joint efforts to recover the remains of U.S. soldiers.

The modest progress that could have taken place will be set back now, he said. The United States, Steinberg said, cannot begin easing sanctions until it sees real change from Myanmar's generals.

Suu Kyi had been scheduled to be freed May 27 after six consecutive years of house arrest. The latest charges are widely seen as a pretext for the government to keep her detained past elections scheduled for next year.

Ralph A. Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank, questioned the U.S. policy of maintaining total isolation and strict sanctions until the junta recognizes the results of the 1990 elections it lost in a landslide to Suu Kyi's party but did not honor.

That a new policy is needed is beyond dispute, he wrote last week. What that policy should or will be is far from clear, however. Some, Cossa said, have pushed for an approach similar to the six-nation negotiations being used by the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China to try to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs.

U.S. sanctions, he wrote, need to be more targeted against the government and its leaders and not against the people themselves.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is a regular critic of Myanmar's generals, offered rare praise for Obama on Monday for his decision to extend the emergency order against Myanmar.
He warned Myanmar's leaders that both Democrats and Republicans will continue to follow Suu Kyi's trial with great interest and deep concern

I seek to understand this. Are the strict sanctions helping the people of Burma? What do you think the government, if anything can do to help the people of Burma? Is this another, 'talking out of my ass', manoever from Obama now that Suu Kyi is in the spotlight?

I think more needs to be done. Stricter sanctions does not seem to be affecting the Junta considering what has happened with Suu Kyi.

[blackgang]

What the fuck is this doing in US Domestic Issues?
This has to do with Burma Domestic Issues..

[phuketbound]

Someone changed my title. I had Who's Helping Burma?

This does have to do with US issues. The original article I posted does.

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Yahoo!

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Burma allows diplomats and reporters into Aung San Suu Kyi trial
Amid rebuke for its handling of the pro-democracy leader's case, junta allows media as well as diplomats into her trial

Associated Press
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 20 May 2009 10.55 BST

Burma's military regime allowed reporters and diplomats to observe the trial of the country's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time today amid growing international criticism over the junta's handling of her case.

Suu Kyi, who has been in detention without trial for more than 13 of the past 19 years, is accused of violating the terms of her house arrest by allowing an American visitor to stay at her home without official permission. The offense is punishable by up to five years' imprisonment.

She is standing trial with two members of her party who live with her, and John Yettaw, the American who triggered the charges by swimming to Suu Kyi's lakeside property in Yangon under the cover of darkness earlier this month and sneaking uninvited into her home.

Suu Kyi had been scheduled to be freed on May 27 after six years under house arrest. The charges against her are widely seen as a pretext for her to stay in detention during elections scheduled for next year – the culmination of the junta's "roadmap to democracy", which has been criticised as a fig leaf for continued military rule.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962. It last held an election in 1990, but the junta refused to honour the results after a landslide victory by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party (NLD).

The court on Monday rejected a request by her lawyer for an open trial.
But today, the information ministry ruled that five foreign correspondents and five local reporters could attend the trial's afternoon session. Authorities also said all embassies could send one diplomat.

A US consular official had been allowed to attend the court sessions because Yettaw is standing trial, but the proceedings were otherwise in camera.

The move came a day after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) expressed "grave concern" about developments related to Suu Kyi and reaffirmed calls for her immediate release. It also called for her to get adequate medical care and be treated with dignity.

Burma allows diplomats and reporters into Aung San Suu Kyi trial | World news | guardian.co.uk

The SEAsian Nations call for her immediate release, yet continue to use a soft non-interference tactic with Myanmar, Thailand excluded. I don't think Burma will care what the SEAsian countries say, one way or the other.

[chassamui]

This reminds me of Iran. Snctions were hurting the poorest people but under Saddam, as brutal as he was, at least life was predictable.
Don't suppose for one minute that Myanmar has any oil or other mineral deposits of value to the west. Long, slow and painful for the worse off citizens, there is no other safe option for the rest of the world.
let's just hope it does not go the same way as Zimbabwe.
This woman Aung San Suu kyi is a beacon of sanity, perseverance and leadership for her people.

[sabang]

Burmas largest trading partner is quite likely Thailand.

[Rural Surin]

Burmas largest trading partner is quite likely Thailand.

Shhhh....{don't tell anyone}.

[TSR2]

Burmas largest trading partner is quite likely Thailand.

Maybe that beacon of democracy China perhaps

[Rural Surin]

Burmas largest trading partner is quite likely Thailand.

Maybe that beacon of democracy China perhaps

....and their good friends in Tokyo, Washington, London, Hamburg, and Moscow.

[phuketbound]

Export Partners: Thailand 44.3%, India 14.5%, China 7.1%, Japan 5.7% (2007)

Import Partners: China 33.7%, Thailand 19.1%, Singapore 15.5%, South Korea 5.8%, Indonesia 5.2%, Malaysia 4.2% (2007)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...s/bm.html#Econ

Chassamui

Don't suppose for one minute that Myanmar has any oil or other mineral deposits of value to the west.

Myanmar has a lot of natural resources including minerals such as rubies, oil and gas, but the U.S has imposed sanctions, and is not accepting imports from Burma, the same goes for the European Union.

Do you think Thailand is really helping the situation in Burma, by being their highest exporter ? China being their highest importer?

New news..

Suu Kyi 'composed' on day 5 of trial

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has entered the fifth day of her trial looking composed and in charge, says an ambassador.
Ms Suu Kyi is facing five years in prison after an American man swam to her lakeside house and stayed there for two days, even though he was not invited.
On Wednesday (local time), the trial at Rangoon's Insein prison was opened for a day to foreign diplomats and the media, but it has now gone back behind closed doors.

Britain's ambassador Mark Canning was in court and told ABC Radio he would not be surprised if diplomats and journalists were allowed back in at a later date.
"Clearly what it's all about is, I think, trying to buy off some of the stream of international criticism that the launching of this trial has provoked," he said.
Mr Canning said Ms Suu Kyi looked well despite her difficult situation.
"She was composed, upright, crackling with sort of energy, very much in charge of her defence team," he said.

"And then following the conclusion of the session she spoke briefly to the diplomats who were there to welcome their presence, to say that she hoped she would meet them in better times."

Mr Canning says that despite strong criticism, particularly from the region, the junta finds itself locked into having to come up with a guilty verdict.

"There is some speculation that perhaps they would deliver a sentence that is shorter than it might have been before, but we don't really know, but I think we can be fairly safe in the assumption that it would be a guilty verdict," he said.

[kingwilly]

Don't suppose for one minute that Myanmar has any oil or other mineral deposits of value to the west.

erm, on contraire.

loads of oil/gas/gems/wood

but the generals get it all, not western companies.

[chassamui]

Don't suppose for one minute that Myanmar has any oil or other mineral deposits of value to the west.

erm, on contraire.

loads of oil/gas/gems/wood

but the generals get it all, not western companies.

Perhaps i should have made it clear that my comments were sarcastic. (Iraq was only "saved" because of the oil.)
I was intimatiing that there would have to be something more valuable than mere democracy at stake, in order for the major nations of the world to intervene.

[Rural Surin]

Burma consciousness. Nothing more than fashionable trends.

[The Zapster]

The Burmese seem weirdly resigned to their fate. There's an acceptance that there's no hope for them, and they just get on with it as best they can. Their situation appears not dissimilar to jews awaiting the gas chambers in the concentration camps - I could never understand how they could just accept their fate, although I suspect I'd be exactly the same in their shoes. The Burmese need a popular uprising, and fast.

Anyway, the real tragedy of Iraq is the west will no longer be able to implement regime change in failed states ever again. The people of Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Somalia and others' continue to suffer through the cackhandedness of the Americans. The solutions to failed states is for the Americans to remove the cancer, allowing the British to nation-build - something we are peerless at. Our diplomatic corp would solve the world's problems at a stroke if given the chance.

[panama hat]

Perhaps i should have made it clear that my comments were sarcastic. (Iraq was only "saved" because of the oil.)

I believe the word you are looking for is 'liberated' or 'democratised'

[chassamui]

Perhaps i should have made it clear that my comments were sarcastic. (Iraq was only "saved" because of the oil.)

I believe the word you are looking for is 'liberated' or 'democratised'

No PH, i think saved is sufficiently sarcastic thank you.

[panama hat]

^ You're probably right.

[Rural Surin]

The Burmese seem weirdly resigned to their fate. There's an acceptance that there's no hope for them, and they just get on with it as best they can. Their situation appears not dissimilar to jews awaiting the gas chambers in the concentration camps - I could never understand how they could just accept their fate, although I suspect I'd be exactly the same in their shoes. The Burmese need a popular uprising, and fast.

Anyway, the real tragedy of Iraq is the west will no longer be able to implement regime change in failed states ever again. The people of Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Somalia and others' continue to suffer through the cackhandedness of the Americans. The solutions to failed states is for the Americans to remove the cancer, allowing the British to nation-build - something we are peerless at. Our diplomatic corp would solve the world's problems at a stroke if given the chance.

One might suggest, historically, that's why the world is the way it is today - from unnecessary intervention. Perhaps it's less benign and benevolent than some regard it to be.

[ItsRobsLife]

Burma consciousness. Nothing more than fashionable trends.

Does that make Mid a fashion guru?

[britmaveric]

Well apart from an invasion kicking the military dictatorship out - little else one can do for suffering Burma. Drop the sanctions and the military gets rich, besides I believe the locked up elected president of Burma has says continue the sanctions indefinitely until a freely elected govt his back in power.

[Jet Gorgon]

Burmas largest trading partner is quite likely Thailand.

I think it is panama hat, from all the money he says he makes there.

Don't suppose for one minute that Myanmar has any oil or other mineral deposits of value to the west.

erm, on contraire.

loads of oil/gas/gems/wood

but the generals get it all, not western companies.

Au contraire! PH gets it, but he helps the Burmese people.

[Marmite the Dog]

PH gets it, but he helps the Burmese people.

Spot on.

[phuketbound]

Burmas largest trading partner is quite likely Thailand.

I think it is panama hat, from all the money he says he makes there.

Don't suppose for one minute that Myanmar has any oil or other mineral deposits of value to the west.

erm, on contraire.

loads of oil/gas/gems/wood

but the generals get it all, not western companies.

Au contraire! PH gets it, but he helps the Burmese people.

Am I missing something here? Is PH working in trade?

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Breaking News: Demonstration in Burma May 30th
2009 MAY 22

Message By ; Inside Burma

Pro Democracy activists inside Burma what the world and their fellow countrymen to know that May 30th is the day the Fighting Peacock will arise in a National Demonstration. The world must know that the trial being held in Burma is a violation of Burma’s law. Than Shwe is making a mockery of his own rules in an effort to “fix” the illegal election on 2010 with his paranoid attempt to silence Aung San Suu Kyi.

Symbolically May 30 marks the 6 year anniversary of the Depaeyin Massacre when the military junta tired to assassinate Daw Aung Suu Kyi. Fortunately she survived only to be placed under arrest. But for hundreds of her followers their fate was met with bloodshed since they were beaten to death by junta thugs.

Sources within Burma request that in a show of solidarity that everyone wear white and gather at tea shops. Suggested places to gather are Shwedagon Pagoda, Hledan Junction and Insein Prison. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi stands defiant and strong and has urged that the people overcome their fears. Freedom From Fear and a show of support by the people of Burma will show the world that the flame of democracy still burns brightly in the hearts of millions. The people of Burma call for Ban Ki-Moon to personally engage this growing crisis at this juncture. What is happening to Aung San Suu Kyi is a criminal offence and a violation of human rights and it is time for the UN and the world to make a stand on this issue.

The National League for Democracy clearly does not agree with the premise of this sham trial do to its unconstitutionality and blatant criminality. They urge world leaders to demand a public and open trial at the very least.

For the riot police, soldiers and generals within Burma it is time for you to stand by your people and stand for freedom against tyranny and fear. You can’t murder your own people in order to keep the peace when it is the military junta who has declared war on its own citizens. You can’t be a party to crimes against humanity any longer. The junta is moving troops into position as of this writing.

The people of Burma ask their soldiers to stand with them instead of against them on this historic day or remembrance and not repeat the travesties Than Shwe perpetrated on his own people. If a crisis arises from this peaceful demonstration it is urges that the pro democracy leaders inside of Burma assume their leadership roles that has been prescribed to them. The man of steel, U Win Tin, has been at the gates of Insein Prison from the onset in support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Exercising Freedom From Fear he stands with thousands of other citizens so that Aung San Suu Kyi does not stand alone. Freedom From Fear means freedom from tyranny and repression.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is a victim of a heinous crime and it is being perpetrated before the eyes of the world. With raw courage she defiantly stands up to the junta and it is time for Burma to stand up for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

By request of pro democracy activists it is requested that this message be spread around the world so everyone will be aware that the cause for freedom and democracy is not dead but very much alive. It is time for Ban Ki-Moon, the UN and the world to get involved and demand that Aung San Suu Kyi be released from this criminal detention. It is time to take a stand for the people of Burma and the duly elected leader of this enslaved nation.

I worry that this peaceful protest will kill many more innocent people. Although, they have to do this for freedom and democracy. On May 30th, I'll be wearing white.

[panama hat]

We sell technology to small-holders in Burma, despite Jet's protestations it's not a big money spinner for us at all as we sell in a type of barter agreement . . . and they 'pay' us after they've made enough to do so.

Pay no heed to the vile bitch . . .