A top UN human rights envoy likened military-ruled Myanmar's constitution-drafting assembly to "mass house arrest" yesterday and said he had no idea why the junta still held democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who has twice been denied entry to the former Burma since a visit last November, said he did not understand why the junta had falsely promised to release the Nobel peace laureate after a year of detention.
It had also reneged on commitments to ease restrictions on her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in time for last month's start of the constitutional National Convention without providing any explanation, he said.
"It's a mystery for me," Pinheiro told reporters in the Thai capital. "I am terribly depressed and sad."
He also poured scorn on the junta's "roadmap to democracy," which is meant to pave the way to multiparty rule after 42 years of military dictatorship, including a 1990 election in which the NLD won a landslide victory only to be denied power by the army.
"The roadmap has had a most regrettable launching," he said, going on to describe the National Convention -- the first step of the roadmap -- as an "enormous effort for a meaningless and undemocratic exercise."
"The [government] has condemned those 1,088 people to house arrest," he said, adding that democratic transition would be impossible unless Myanmar's generals eased curbs on free or open discussion at the convention.
The convention is being held at a tightly-guarded compound outside Yangon, where delegates are banned from criticizing the state or disclosing information. Delegates have been urged to avoid bathing at inappropriate times and not eat junk food.
"If you go through this path, you will not be successful. It will not work. This has not worked in Brazil, in Uruguay, in Argentina, in Portugal, in Spain, in the Philippines, in Indonesia. This political transition will not work. It will not work on the moon. It will not work on Mars," he said.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
RSS