Junta takes legal action against corruption

Southeast Asian leaders due to meet with US President George W. Bush were open to talks on Burma despite US criticism of ASEAN's engagement with the junta in Rangoon. “We are very open to discuss any issues,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda told reporters on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meeting in Hanoi .

He acknowledged that in the past, Washington and other Western countries had been “very critical of … active and positive engagement with ASEAN and Myanmar ” but that they knew sanctions would not force democratic reforms.

“It doesn't push Myanmar to make progress,” he said, adding that US officials knew “we in ASEAN are frustrated by the lack of progress and tangible results in the course of democratisation in Myanmar ”.

The meeting between Bush and leaders of seven of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is scheduled to take place early Saturday, on the sidelines of the APEC leaders' summit.

Asian officials say the one-hour meeting will be free-wheeling in nature, allowing discussion on a wide range of topics, although Wirayuda said most of the session was expected to focus on economic ties.

"ASEAN countries open to discussion with US on Myanmar" Agence France Presse, November 15, 2006.

UN resolution on Burma to take on stronger

A draft resolution before the UN General Assembly includes emphatic calls for Burma 's ruling junta to achieve democratic reforms and take effective measures against rights abuses.

A current outline of the resolution demands that the military regime look into attacks against ethnic Karen in eastern Burma and to investigate the attack on democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage in Sagaing Division in 2003.

The general assembly “strongly calls upon” the military government “to take urgent measures to put an end to the military operations targeting civilians in the ethnic areas,” the resolution says, adding that UN representatives should be allowed to monitor the situation. It also urges the regime “to facilitate a genuinely independent investigation into the attack perpetrated near Depayin on 30 May 2003 .”

The draft resolution also urges Burma's military rulers to take steps in “an inclusive and credible process of national reconciliation” and to release all political prisoners, including leaders of the main opposition National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, as well as ethnic Shan leaders who have been serving lengthy sentences and former student leaders arrested in late September of this year.

"UN to adopt stronger resolution on Burma" Irrawaddy, November 15, 2006.

Killings in eastern Burma is an attempted form of genocide

Guy Horton, a British human rights researcher, says the killings in east Burma is on the same scale with what Saddam Hussein did to Kurds in Iraq , and calls for sanctions on the military junta.

Everything that allows people to live is destroyed ­including livestock and crops. Villages have been razed; their inhabitants forced to relocate at gunpoint. Those who resist are shot dead. Between 1996 and 2005, it is believed an estimated 2,800 villages have been destroyed, their inhabitants herded into government-built camps.

That is the horror that ethnic minorities ­the Karen, Shan and Karenni­ go through in eastern Burma , as the military junta that rules the country unleashes a relentless campaign of terror in the name of fighting a rebel insurgency.

Guy Horton who has documented human rights abuses in Burma , believes there are over a million people internally displaced because of the junta's strong-arm policies.

"We think it is an attempted form of genocide," says Mr. Horton.

Mr. Horton also thinks the military junta is carrying out a deliberate policy of "Burmanization." That, Mr. Horton says, is the process of resettling the destroyed villages with members of the Burman ethnic group, the majority of whom form the junta.

Mr. Horton started documenting human rights abuses in Burma in 1999, while working in neigbouring Thailand , where he met soldiers who had defected from Burma . The soldiers told him stories of killings, rape and plunder.

The soldiers also told him stories about the wanton destruction of villages inhabited by ethic Karens. That's when Mr. Horton decided to slip into Burma to see for himself. He visited destroyed villages, and saw people too frightened to speak to him about it for fear the military would kill them. One village he visited was burned down the next day after authorities learned he had spoken to the villagers.

But he's not the only one making noise about what he calls "the deliberate strategy to destroy" the Karen, Shan and the Karenni. In September, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma , made a statement to the Human Rights Council in Geneva , drawing attention to the campaigns against Burma 's ethic minorities.

"Form of genocide taking place in Burma : Researcher" Embassy ( Canada ), November 15, 2006

Gambari's trip to Burma ended

UN under Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari increased pressure on the Burmese regime, saying it was up to the government to produce results following his four-day visit to Burma that ended on Sunday.

A UN statement following Gambari's meeting with the top two in the Burmese junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe and Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, on Saturday said that discussions in the new capital Naypyidaw had been “frank and extensive.” Gambari was “pleased at the willingness of the leadership to continue to engage with the United Nations in this way,” it added.

Meeting with Gambari in Rangoon the same day, Aung San Suu Kyi said “that she welcomes continued UN engagement” on Burma , the UN statement said.

However, her party expressed frustration at the limited amount of time it had been given with the UN diplomat. Speaking on Monday, spokesperson Myint Thein noted that during four days in Burma , Gambari had only spent two hours with the opposition—one hour with Aung San Suu Kyi and another hour with seven prominent members of the party.

"Burden now on SPDC to reform, says Gambari" Irrawaddy , November 13, 2006.