Myanmar cuts prison terms but no political amnesty

Laos’s Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong (left) and Myanmar President Thein Sein pose before a gala dinner to mark the Fourth GMS Summit at Myanmar International Convention Centre (MICC) in Naypyitaw on December 19, 2011.



Myanmar President Thein Sein has commuted death sentences to life in prison and cut the terms to be served by other prisoners in a gesture to mark Independence Day, state media said today, but it appeared no political prisoners would be freed.

The nominally civilian government that took office in Myanmar last March has begun to implement gradual political and economic reforms. In October, it released around 230 political prisoners jailed by the former junta.

Several hundred are still thought to be behind bars and some observers had suggested there could be an amnesty early in the New Year.

Independence Day falls on January 4, marking the day when the country, formerly known as Burma, gained independence from British colonial rule in 1948.

Clinton offers Myanmar first rewards for political reform

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered Myanmar the first rewards for reform today, saying the United States would back more aid for the reclusive country and consider returning an ambassador after an absence of some two decades.

Clinton said she had “candid, productive” conversations with President Thein Sein and other Myanmar ministers, and told them Washington stood ready to support further reforms as the country seeks to emerge from decades of authoritarian military rule.

Clinton meets Aung San Suu Kyi on Myanmar visit

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is meeting with opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (ahng sahn soo chee) on a historic visit to Myanmar.

Security goes barefoot with Clinton in Myanmar

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tours Shwedegon Pagoda in Yangon December 1, 2011. Clinton offered Myanmar the first rewards for reform on Thursday, saying the United States would back more aid for the reclusive country and consider returning an ambassador after an absence of some two decades

US security went barefoot today as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured one of Myanmar’s most revered shrines, a towering golden pagoda that is the symbol of a country seeking fresh rapprochement with the West.

Clinton arrived at the Shwedagon Pagoda shortly after arriving in Myanmar’s main commercial city, Yangon, and took off her shoes to follow respectful Buddhist tradition at a site rich with religious and patriotic significance for the country also known as Burma.

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi urges peace talks, prisoner release

Myanmar pro-Democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi gestures during a news conference to mark the first anniversary of her release from house arrest, at the National League for Democracy head office, in Yangon November 14, 2011. Myanmar’s government is preparing to release prisoners under an amnesty, for the second time in just over a month, and more political detainees should be among them, a senior official said on Sunday.



Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked the anniversary of her release from years of house arrest by renewing calls for all political prisoners to be freed and for an end to hostilities between government troops and ethnic rebels.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate also told a rare news conference today that her National League for Democracy (NLD) movement had yet to decide whether to re-register as a political party to contest upcoming parliamentary by-elections.

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi: No reason to lift sanctions

Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said today she saw no reason for Western countries to lift sanctions against the military-dominated government, but the issue had to be discussed.

Myanmar, ruled by the military since a 1962 coup, held its first elections in two decades last year and authorities later released Suu Kyi from house arrest. But the military shows no sign of loosening its grip.

Suu Kyi’s political party said on Tuesday it supported Western sanctions but wanted talks on whether to modify them, signalling a willingness to discuss a more flexible approach.

Suu Kyi (picture), asked at a party function today to elaborate, said sanctions had to be discussed.






“Whether or not to lift the sanctions is something to be decided after discussions,” she said.

“At the present situation, I don’t see any reason to lift the sanctions.”

She did not elaborate on who should discuss the issue.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the previous election in 1990 but was never allowed to govern, was officially disbanded for refusing to take part in last November’s polls.

The vote was, as expected, swept by the main pro-military party and the generals have given no indication they will really relinquish power to new civilian rulers.

In another apparent indication the country had not lost its authoritarian edge, an Australian journalist and businessman involved in the publication of a newspaper in Myanmar had been arrested, a colleague said.

The NLD, which has long supported sanctions to pressure the military, on Tuesday restated its insistence that the release of an estimated 2,100 political prisoners was a “critical requirement” to end punitive measures.

Suu Kyi has been excluded from politics since 1989, when she was first detained, a year after the military crushed a student-led uprising. She has no stake in the new army-dominated system and authorities have ignored her calls for dialogue.

But Suu Kyi has significant influence over Western countries’ policies towards Myanmar and sanctions are the only real bargaining chip she has with the generals – assuming they want the restrictions lifted.

China, Thailand, India and Singapore are already big investors in Myanmar, also known as Burma. Chinese companies poured in more than US$8 billion last year, mostly in energy-related projects, according to official Myanmar data.

Australian journalist and publisher Ross Dunkley was arrested in Yangon last Thursday under an immigration law, said a colleague, David Armstrong, chairman of Post Media Ltd.

Dunkley, chief executive officer and editor of the Myanmar Times and publisher of Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Post, was being held in the notorious Insein prison, Armstrong said, adding the timing of his arrest was significant.

“It coincides with tense and protracted discussions Mr Dunkley and the foreign ownership partners in the Myanmar Times have been conducting with local partners about the future direction of the publishing group, ownership issues and senior leadership roles,” he said.

Myanmar bars foreign monitors, reporters from poll

Myanmar, Oct 18 — International poll monitors and foreign journalists will be barred from Myanmar’s first election in 20 years, its military rulers said on Monday, deepening concern that next month’s poll will be a sham.

The United States, Britain and Myanmar’s Southeast Asian neighbours had urged the junta to allow independent election monitors at the Nov. 7 election, which critics say will cement the military’s grip on power under the guise of civilian rule.

Members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party wait for guests in front of posters of national hero Burmese general Aung San, father of Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, at the party headquarters May 27, 2009, before a ceremony to mark the 19th anniversary of the 1990 general election where the NLD won 392 of 485 parliamentary seats.




“We don’t need foreign observers. We have abundant experience in holding elections,” Thein Soe, chairman of the Union Election Commission, told a news conference in the capital Naypyitaw.

“Besides, the election laws enacted are very balanced and easy to understand.”

The election is the first since 1990, when Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party won in a landslide result that was ignored by the military.

Critics say the ruling generals are tightly controlling campaign activities this time to ensure their proxies win most votes and the assemblies will be dominated by their allies.

The 10-state Association of South East Asian Nations offered in July to send monitors to help ensure the elections would be internationally recognised as free and fair.

“We don’t need to clarify the credibility of these elections to other people,” said Thein Soe.

Foreign journalists are routinely denied official visas to report inside Myanmar, but many news organisations had hoped to send media to cover next month’s poll, which will usher in the first civilian government in 48 years.

“Concerning the journalists, there are resident representatives of the international news agencies in our country, and press statements will be released in a timely manner about the elections. So there is no need to allow foreign reporters to cover the elections,” Thein Soe added.

Thomson Reuters, The Association Press, Agence France-Presse, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) and several Japanese news outlets are allowed to operate with accredited local journalists. Only China’s Xinhua News Agency has permission to employ foreign nationals in the country.

Reclusive Myanmar to hold elections on Nov 7

Myanmar will hold its first parliamentary elections in two decades on Nov. 7, state media said on Friday, ending speculation over the timing of a poll criticised by rights groups as a sham to entrench military power.

As of this week, at least 40 parties had registered to take part in the first civilian government in almost half a century in the reclusive, army-ruled country of 48 million people.

The United States, Britain and human rights groups have said the elections would be illegitimate if the military junta denies a role to thousands of political opponents now in prison, including detained Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi.





Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won by a landslide in the last elections in 1990 only to be denied power by the military, has refused to register with the authorities in protest at what it called “unjust” election laws.

Many diplomats and analysts see the polls as intended to strengthen the military’s power under the guise of civilian rule in an attempt to lure investment to the resource-rich country nestled strategically between booming China and India.

“It’s essentially a costume change,” said Jacob Ramsay, senior analyst for Southeast Asia & Pacific for British-based security consultants Control Risks.

At least seven parties registered with the election commission are believed to be proxies of the military, which will retain control of key ministries and enjoy a 25 percent quota of parliamentary seats under a new constitution.

The armed forces chief will be more senior than the president. There are no indications an estimated 2,000 political prisoners will be released before or after the elections.

“The government has been working hard in the past months to disqualify or marginalise all possible contenders who might form an opposition to its plan to essentially parachute its generals into civilian roles,” said Ramsay.

Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention and remains under house arrest. The constitution bars her from standing in the election because of her criminal record as a political detainee and because her late husband was a foreigner.

Her NLD party was dissolved this year after deciding not to register for the polls.

Daughter of the hero of the country’s campaign for independence from British rule, Suu Kyi emerged as a champion of political reform during an unsuccessful student-led uprising for democracy in 1988. A year later she was first detained.

The National Democratic Force, a renegade faction of the NLD opposed by Suu Kyi, will run to challenge the junta’s proxies and says it will work with other pro-democracy parties. But without Suu Kyi, few expect it gain traction.

One of Myanmar’s biggest opposition political parties, the Union Democracy Party, threatened this week to pull out of the elections if there were signs of foul play by the ruling military in the run-up to the polls.

Some parties have accused the regime’s military intelligence unit of spying on and trying to intimidate their members.

Political analysts and diplomats, however, say the election could mark a turning point which, over the longer term, delivers a gradual transition of power to a civilian government free of military control. They add that this would be an evolutionary process rather than a junta-inspired shift.

Myanmar opposition party to boycott elections

The party of Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi decided Monday to boycott the military-ruled country's first election in two decades after the Nobel laureate blasted new electoral rules as "undemocratic."

The main opposition National League for Democracy's refusal to participate would undermine the polls' credibility in the eyes of foreign governments, which have urged the diplomatically isolated junta to ensure all groups take part in the elections.

The military, which has run Myanmar since 1962, has touted this year's elections as part of a "roadmap to democracy," but a number of rules would prevent Suu Kyi herself from participating. The pro-democracy icon has spent 14 of the last 20 years in jail or under house arrest.

Suu Kyi's party won the last election held in Myanmar in 1990 by a landslide but was barred by the military from taking power.

On Monday, her party's spokesman, Nyan Win, announced after a daylong meeting that all 113 delegates present had agreed that the party should not register for the elections.

Cheering could be heard from the delegates as they concluded their meeting.

Nyan Win said the central committee members decided not to register because — as noted in a message sent to them by Suu Kyi — the electoral laws enacted by the junta "are unfair and unjust."

Her message also called stipulations in the law "undemocratic."

Nyan Win did not elaborate, but the party had previously objected to a provision of the party registration law that requires parties to expel members who have criminal convictions, or face deregistration.

Because Suu Kyi was convicted last year of allowing an unregistered guest to stay at her home, the provision would appear not to allow her to be a member of the National League for Democracy, which she helped found.

Suu Kyi is still general-secretary of the party and its most dominant figure.

The new election laws require political parties to register before the first week in May. Parties that do not register will not be able to participate in this year's election and will cease to exist, under rules enacted this month by the military government that also bar Suu Kyi from participating in the polls.

No date has been set for the polls, which critics deride as a sham designed to cement the power of the military.

Even before the official decision, party spokesman Nyan Win indicated the party would decide not to register. Asked if that would marginalize the party, he said, "We will continue to exist politically by not registering. If we register, we will only have a name void of all political essence."

"We will survive as long as we have public support," Nyan Win said.

Security was heightened, with plainclothes police and pro-government security guards stationed around the party's compound as the delegates met Monday in Yangon.

"This meeting is a life-or-death issue. If we don't register, we will not have a party and we will be without legs and limbs," said Win Tin, a veteran party member and one of Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoners, having spent 19 years behind bars before his release in 2008.

He said the journey ahead would be difficult if the party chooses to opt out of elections but that its members could still maintain their democratic principles and spirit.

Last week, Suu Kyi was quoted by her lawyer as saying she opposed registering her party. But she stressed she would let the party decide for itself.

Suu Kyi is under house arrest and the new election laws effectively bar her both from running and voting.

Myanmar's biggest opposition party said on Monday it would not register for this year's election, meaning Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party will have no role in the military-led political process.


The National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won the last election in 1990 by a landslide but was never allowed to rule, said the entire party leadership had agreed not to run.

"After a unanimous vote of the central executive committee, the NLD party has decided not to register as a political party because the election laws ... are unfair and unjust," the party said in a statement.

The election has been widely dismissed as a sham after nearly five decades of iron-fisted army rule in the former Burma, a strategically situated but isolated country rich with resources like natural gas, timber and gems and a Southeast Asian port.

Senior party members made the decision six days after Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention, said she "would not dream" of entering if the decision was hers.

The comment was widely interpreted as a veiled instruction to party members as they prepared for a ballot on whether to run.

In comments relayed from her lawyer, Suu Kyi said the NLD was not ruined and vowed to keep up her fight for democracy.

"Registering the party under the unjust and one-sidedly drawn-up laws cannot be accepted," she was quoted as saying.

"I would like to tell the people that I will continue working for the emergence of democracy."

A senior party official had earlier told Reuters some members in favor of running in the election had been urged to vote otherwise to show the party was united.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Divisions had emerged in the party between advocates of a boycott and modernizers who believe the NLD would be a spent force if it did not run. However, senior NLD member Win Tin said the party would live on.

"The party will not die," he told Reuters. "We will be among the people, our activities will not stop."

The party faces dissolution if it refuses to register.

After the announcement, party members were in high spirits and chanted slogans to show their support for Suu Kyi, wearing T-shirts bearing her picture.

The NLD is most angered by the military junta's restrictive election laws, which bar current and former prisoners from taking part. Many NLD members are among the 2,100 political detainees in Myanmar, the most famous of whom is Suu Kyi.

After the last election, the junta promised to hand over power to the NLD after a constitution was drafted and a probe launched into the polls. Neither happened and the NLD was never allowed to rule.

Some in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, disagreed with the NLD's decision and said the country's best hope for democratic change had played into the hands of the generals.

"I think the NLD has made another major policy blunder," said a retired civil servant, who asked not to be identified.

"They've walked into a trap. They could have pressed on without Suu Kyi and got something out of the election."

Experts say the junta has learned from the botched 1990 election and has drafted a constitution that ensures it will effectively remain in charge, without the need to rig the polls.

The United States and United Nations have not publicly questioned the constitution but have said the election would not be credible if political prisoners could not take part.