It is hard to imagine what life must be like for Aung San Suu Kyi, locked up inside her Yangon home, separated from her children, denied visitors, her phone line cut, her mail intercepted. Myanmar’s opposition leader, whose 1990 election victory was annulled by the military, is now in her 13th year of detention. She has been held continually since 2003. In June, she spent her 63rd birthday alone.
Unconfirmed reports suggest Aung San Suu Kyi, who has suffered health problems in the past, is unwell again. Her lawyer, who was allowed to see her last month, quoted her as saying: “I am tired and I need some rest.”
Following her refusal of a food delivery, there is also speculation she has begun a hunger strike. Her lawyer said she weighed less than the 44kg she weighed in 2003.
While uncertainty surrounds Aung San Suu Kyi ‘s plight, there is nothing at all ambiguous about Myanmar’s political, social and human rights situation one year after the junta brutally suppressed the Buddhist-monk-led “saffron revolution.” By almost any measure, it is distinctly worse. May’s Cyclone Nargis disaster played its part. But most of the deterioration is man-made.
Despite last fall’s international condemnation and impassioned calls for action, the junta continues to hold more than 2,000 political prisoners, including leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) such as U Win Tin, in jail since 1989. UN attempts to foster political reform have got nowhere. And trade sanctions imposed by the US and EU are being undermined by the generals’ energy deals with China, Thailand and India. Oil and gas sales topped US$3.3 billion last year.
Benjamin Zawacki of Amnesty International says 500,000 people are internally displaced. He said the army is continuing “systematic” rights violations against Karen and other ethnic minorities including “extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, forced labor, crop destruction [and] restrictions of movement.”
Amid some of the worst poverty, health problems and corruption in the world, many people have only one wish: escape.
Even long-suffering Zimbabweans can flee across a border. But the Burmese are locked in, held down by their rulers and not wanted in India, China or Thailand. With a population of more than 50 million, Myanmar has become the world’s biggest prison camp.
“The UN mission has been a complete failure,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK.
Since Ibrahim Gambari was appointed special envoy in May 2006, the number of political prisoners had doubled, ethnic cleansing in the east has intensified and humanitarian aid for Nargis victims was blocked, he said.
“There has been a massive deterioration in the human rights situation. But during Gambari’s last two visits no senior member of the regime bothered to see him,” Farmaner said. “He is seen as biased towards the regime and we think he should resign. He no longer has the respect or confidence of either side.”
Criticism of Gambari was also voiced by the NLD. It said his visits had produced “no positive developments.” The party said the envoy’s offer to help the junta organize elections in 2010 under a new constitution that the opposition rejects had undermined his independence.
For her part, Aung San Suu Kyi twice refused to meet Gambari.
Farmaner said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should take personal charge before the country exploded again.
“The UN needs to set timelines and benchmarks which the junta must meet. The first benchmark should be the release of all political prisoners,” he said.
“There is an increasing sense of desperation,” Farmaner said. “People were very depressed after the uprising, very frightened. But there was hope that Gambari would do something. Now that hope has gone.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS