U Gambira's Post

What Burma's Junta Must Fear

By U Gambira

Sunday, November 4, 2007; Page B07

In August, the Burmese people began to write a new chapter in their determination to find peace and freedom. Burmese monks peacefully protested to bring change to our long-suffering country. As we marched, hundreds of thousands of Burmese and our ethnic cousins joined us to reinforce our collective demand: that military rule finally give way to the people's desire for democracy.

Video and the Internet have allowed the world to witness the brutal response directed by Gen. Than Shwe, Burma's de facto ruler and military leader. Than Shwe unleashed his soldiers and the regime's thugs, who attacked us. Once again the streets in Rangoon and Mandalay ran red with the blood of innocent civilians seeking to save our country from the moral, social, political and economic crises that consume us.

Hundreds of our monks and nuns have been beaten and arrested. Many have been murdered. Alarmingly, thousands of clergy have disappeared. Our sacred monasteries have been looted and destroyed. As darkness falls each night, intelligence units try to round up political and religious leaders.

Military rule has brought Burma to collapse. Our economy is in ruins. Once the breadbasket of Asia, Burma cannot feed itself. Once we were a light for education and literacy; now, the regime has closed schools and universities. Once we breathed the air of freedom; now, we choke on the foul air of tyranny. We are an enslaved people.

My colleagues and I welcomed the strong actions of the United States to impose financial and travel restrictions on the regime and its enablers. Australia is following this model, and the European Union should as well.

Than Shwe and his fellow military leaders have sought to portray this uprising as a singular event, now over. A veneer of quiet has replaced the sounds of gunfire on city streets. Unfortunately, many in the international community buy in and actively support this propaganda.

At the United Nations, China and Russia continue to block the Security Council from facilitating a dialogue between democratic forces and the regime. Within our region, senior officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have condemned the regime's actions but have done little else. Perhaps most disappointing, the world's largest democracy, India, continues to provide military assistance and trade deals that help finance the regime's war on its people.

What will it take for the world to realize that Burma's generals are a menace and that because of their misrule, drugs, diseases and refugees from Burma spill across borders and wash through other societies, ruining lives?

The recent steps by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his special adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, to open a dialogue with Burma's generals are welcome and necessary. The United Nations can help bring peace to Burma. However, the Security Council is the proper forum. All efforts must focus on making council members take the steps necessary to coerce the generals to come to terms with the people. This involves setting a timetable for the regime to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi; allow free assembly; and give a full accounting of the thousands who have disappeared. The council should also seek a ban on all arms sales to the regime.

People ask whether I am disheartened and whether this latest spasm of democratic activism is over. The answer to both questions is no. Although I am wanted by the military and forced to hide in my own country, I am awed by the bravery of so many, including sympathetic security agents of the junta who opened their homes to democracy leaders and me.

Since August, I have seen my country galvanized as never before. I have watched our 88 Generation leaders bravely confront the military. I have watched a new generation of activists join to issue an unequivocal call for freedom. And I have watched as many in the police and military, sickened at what they were forced to do to their countrymen, give so many of us quiet help. The primary tools wielded by Burma's senior generals, a climate of fear and the use of violence, are no longer working -- and with nothing to lose, we are no longer afraid.

On Wednesday, more than 200 monks staged a protest in Pakokku. They stared military officers in the face. Their spirit and determination are a warning to the regime and those that prop it up.

Burma's Saffron Revolution is just beginning. The regime's use of mass arrests, murder, torture and imprisonment has failed to extinguish our desire for the freedom that was stolen from us so many years ago. We have taken their best punch.

Now it is the generals who must fear the consequences of their actions. We adhere to nonviolence, but our spine is made of steel. There is no turning back. It matters little if my life or the lives of colleagues should be sacrificed on this journey. Others will fill our sandals, and more will join and follow.

U Gambira is the pseudonym of a leader of the All-Burma Monks Alliance, which spearheaded nationwide protests in September. Wanted by Burma's military junta, he is living in hiding as he continues the monks' campaign

UN - Secretary General's statement

2 November 2007

Secretary-General SG/SM/11253

Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York

Secretary-General disappointed by myanmar’s rejection of resident coordinator

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

The Secretary-General is disappointed by the message from the Government of Myanmar stating that it would not want the Resident Coordinator, Charles Petrie, to continue to serve in Myanmar.

The Secretary-General has full confidence in the United Nations country team and its leadership and appreciates their contribution to the improvement of the socio-economic and humanitarian conditions for the people of Myanmar.

The Secretary-General has instructed the Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, to convey his views directly to the authorities when he visits the country beginning tomorrow, 3 November.

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Good Suggestion from Ko Htike blog, by Ma Ninn Suu

Even a female also can come out like this, Why can't we take action?

Click This to read

Come on man, I've got news to do demo on Tuesday from Yangon Demonstration Group.

We need to announce and cooperate ! ! !

We achieve! Below news is Top story of Today in the world !!!

Cry, beloved Burma
By U Gambira and Ashin Nayaka
RELIGIOUS orders of monks have been the face of Burma ever since Buddhism was introduced here more than 1,000 years ago. For a monk to involve himself in politics or to hold a political post is contrary to the ethical code of Theravada Buddhism. But in Burma today, this spiritual philosophy, rooted in compassion and non-violence, has assumed unexpected dimensions of defiance and recalcitrance, as monks challenge the hegemony of the military junta that rules our country.

We are both Burmese Buddhist monks – a leader of the All Burma Sangha Coalition that led the recent protests, and a scholar teaching in the United States. One of us is in hiding today, because Burma’s military government met the peaceful protests of our Buddhist brothers and sisters with violence and brutality.

Many monks and nuns have been abused and beaten, and thousands who have been arrested endure continued brutality. More than 1,000 are missing, and many are presumed dead.

A few weeks ago, Burma’s monks began to march and pray and spread loving kindness in an effort to solve our nation’s problems peacefully. Burma is a country rich in natural resources, but its people are poor. When the government suddenly and capriciously increased the price of fuel by as much as 500 per cent overnight, everyone was affected – and made even more desperate.
As monks, we believe in alleviating suffering wherever we see it, as part of the vows we have taken. We could not ignore our people’s suffering. We formed the Sangha Coalition when we saw that the country’s monks were united.

Those of us who are studying and teaching abroad share this unity, and have rallied to the support of those of us in Burma. And it is not only the monks who are united. When we started our peaceful marches for change, students, youth, intellectuals, and ordinary people joined us in the streets, in the rain.

We thought that we could appeal to some, if not all, of the generals – Buddhists themselves – who control our country to join us in trying to right the many ills befalling Burma. At first, we tried to show our displeasure with military rule by refusing to receive alms from them. We turned our begging bowls upside down as a gesture of our feelings. We have not lost our loving kindness towards ordinary soldiers, nor even towards the leaders who ordered them to brutalise their own people, but we wanted to urge them to change while there was still time.

We know that some people in the army and organisations close to the regime have been reluctant to use violence against the monks. We want to tell the people who are violent towards their own countrymen to stop and think whether their actions are in accordance with the dharma, whether they are acting for the good of Burma’s people. Some of the soldiers who were ordered to beat us and to stop us from marching actually refused to do so, because they understood the truth of what we were doing.

We hoped to create a way out for the military leaders, a way to start a real dialogue with the people’s leaders and the leaders of ethnic groups, for the unity of the nation. But that hope was short-lived. The regime is now hunting down those who participated in the demonstrations and committing unspeakable acts of violence.

They have attacked monasteries and arrested monks and nuns by force. Guards are everywhere, on all the streets, around the pagodas and residential areas. Wounded demonstrators are reported to have been buried alive in mass graves, and there are confirmed reports of bodies washing ashore in the waterways near Yangon (Rangoon). The regime is brutalising the Burmese people, and lying to the world about its actions.

Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, a representative of the military, recently told UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari that the marchers in the streets were “bogus monks”. But we are genuine, and thousands of us – from Rangoon, Mandalay, Pegu, Arakan, Magwe, and Sagaing – demonstrated for peace.

Some have said that the uprising in Burma is over. That is what the junta wants the world to think. But we believe that the protests represent the beginning of the end of military rule in our country. The generals who ordered the crackdown are assaulting not only Burma’s people, but also their own hearts, souls, and spiritual beliefs. The monks are the preservers of dharma; by attacking them, the generals attack Buddhism itself.

We know that the international community is trying to help us, but we need that help to be more effective. We thank the many people and organisations abroad who are helping us regain the rights denied to us for more than 40 years. But we also appeal to the international community to make its actions practical and effective.

The military government will do anything to remain in power, and their violent acts must be exposed to the world. They may control the streets and monasteries, but they will never be able to control our hearts and our determination.

U Gambira is the pseudonym of one of the leaders of the All Burma Sangha Coalition; Ashin Nayaka is founder of the Buddhist Missionary Society and a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University

© Project Syndicate, 2007

Myanmar Orders A Top U.N. Diplomat To Leave The Country

Top U.N. Official in Myanmar Ordered Out

By THOMAS FULLER

Published: November 3, 2007

BANGKOK, Nov. 2 — Myanmar’s government ordered the expulsion of the United Nations’ top diplomat in the country today, after his office issued a critical statement urging the ruling generals to heed the voices of protesters.

The diplomat, Charles Petrie, was handed a letter ordering his expulsion at the end of a meeting with government officials today in Naypyidaw, the country’s capital.

“The government of the Union of Myanmar does not want Mr. Petrie to continue to serve in Myanmar, especially at this time when the cooperation between Myanmar and the United Nations is crucial,” the letter said.

The move complicates the visit of the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, whose six-day trip, due to begin Saturday, was intended to support reconciliation between the government and its political opponents in the wake of the violent crackdown against Buddhist monk-led demonstrators.

Reached by telephone in Yangon, Mr. Petrie said he could not say how the United Nations would respond to the order before discussing it with Mr. Gambari.

“Before any statement can be made there needs to be consultation within the United Nations to gauge the implication for Gambari’s mission,” Mr. Petrie said.

On Oct. 24, Mr. Petrie’s office issued a statement urging the government to listen to dissenting voices in Myanmar and warning of a “deteriorating humanitarian situation.” It concluded with a reference to the protests, which erupted after a fuel price hike in August and developed into a wider movement calling for political change, before troops moved in to suppress them in late September.

“The concerns of the people have been clearly expressed through the recent peaceful demonstrations, and it is beholden on all to listen,” the statement said.

The following day, Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested, saying the statement was “unprecedented” and “very negative” and complained that Myanmar officials had not been notified in advance.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Petrie said he had drafted the statement to “help trigger dialogue and consultation on the underlying causes for poverty.”

“Many of the issues that were raised over the last two months by monks and others were exactly the same issues that we were trying to raise for the last four to five years,” he said.

Good Activity, Praying for Freedom

Burmese People from Batam, Indonesia, released Birds on 30/10/2007, intend for Freedom of Buma and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all Burma Political Prisoners.

By Saying "Good Job"

The forbidden city: Construction workers at the almost-finished City Hall in Naypyidaw, Burma's new capital. Some 80,000 laborers are scheduled to finish building the secluded city by 2012. AP

Stumbling through Burma's new capital

Hacked out of malarial jungle, Burma's new capital is a medley of mammoth buildings and quiet zones, built by an army of poor laborers.

By Anuj Chopra

from the October 31, 2007 edition

Reporter Anuj Chopra gives his impressions of Burma's new capital, Naypyidaw, an island of relative opulence in one of Southeast Asia's poorest countries.

When the deeply-rutted village tracks morphed into wide, paved, six-lane roads, I knew I was nearing Burma's new jungle capital.

A long and bumpy overnight bus ride, traversing 250 miles from Rangoon, has brought me to Naypyidaw – the country's administrative capital since 2005, and a secluded, secretive sanctuary for Burma's military generals. In Rangoon, two private bus services refused to sell me a ticket, fearing retribution from the military junta for ferrying a foreigner to the generals' nerve center. One owner of a rickety bus agreed to take me after I offered to pay double – with the caveat that he'd offload me the minute he sensed trouble with military authorities.

Fortunately, it was a smooth ride (but for the rutted roads) and I was dropped at the hotel zone. I asked for a room at the Myat Taw Win hotel, one of many plush hotels, nervous I might be turned away. The receptionist gave me a cold stare, noted down my passport details in a mammoth register, and for $60 a night, offered me the key to a luxurious, self-contained villa with foreign cable TV and air conditioning.

After some arguing, the hotel agreed to rent me a $3-an-hour motorbike with a driver, for a quick tour of Naypyidaw. "No pictures," I was warned. Two men caught taking pictures a few months ago are now serving time in the notorious Insein prison in Rangoon, I was reminded.

At first, Naypyidaw feels less like a city and more like a series of desolate zones, carefully dispersed. It is eerily quiet, unlike Rangoon's crumbling, colonial-era streets. Due to be completed by 2012, it is reminiscent of Russia's Potemkin villages, the fake settlements built to impress visiting dignitaries during the reign of Catherine II.

We ride past behemoth buildings – government offices, diplomatic quarters with blue and yellow metal roofs glinting in the sun, a parliamentary building, and a large military complex, the latter strictly out of bounds for civilians. Their Stalinist feel is heightened by the gigantic statues of bygone Burmese kings.

Hacked out of a malarial jungle, this 6-square-mile inland fortress is teeming with an army of 80,000 bedraggled-looking construction workers, some of whom human rights groups claim are forced laborers.

The military junta has never given any real explanation as to why it chose to relocate the capital to Naypyidaw. One theory was that Rangoon had become too congested; another was that it was done on the advice of Gen. Than Shwe's fortune teller, whom the leader has a habit of consulting on matters of state.

But the city, hemmed in by mountains and forests, undoubtedly confers the junta a strategic vantage point over potential threats. When widespread protests erupted on the streets of Rangoon in September, the ruling military generals hunkered down here from the enraged crowds in this outpost. It's their war bunker.

There are unconfirmed reports of extensive tunneling at the main site and of missile-proof caves in nearby mountains.

Naypyidaw is being built by a handful of Burmese business conglomerates such as Asia World, Htoo Trading, Eden Group, and Max Myanmar, with close ties to the junta. Asia World, a Rangoon-based construction giant run by former drug lord Lo Hsing Han, is believed to be handling over two-thirds of the construction project.

I was worried I had been spotted clicking pictures, but I wasn't questioned when I settled the hotel bill. On the bus back to Rangoon, sitting next to me, was an employee of Asia World. In a casual conversation, he revealed that the junta was defaulting on payments to the company.

Despite the losses, Asia World isn't withdrawing from the project because it was granted a government license to import foreign cars, a favor that ensures it profits elsewhere.

Last week, democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi met with junta leaders, and more recently authorities agreed to a visit by Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Burma (also known as Myanmar), despite barring him for years.

In Rangoon, I realize the regime's expenditure on the new capital has created even more resentment against the junta. "The new capital is an epic waste of money," says a senior journalist based in Rangoon. "Only a sliver of the budget goes to healthcare and education."

French foreign minister in China with sensitive issues on agenda

31 October 2007 | 11:49 | FOCUS News Agency Beijing. France's foreign minister held talks with China's leaders Wednesday to pave the way for President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit and push Beijing on a range of sensitive issues, including Myanmar and Iran, AFP informed. At the start of Bernard Kouchner's two-day trip, both sides talked up the prospects of continued warm bilateral relations despite differences over human rights and France's call for China to do more to resolve tensions in Myanmar. "The relationship between the two countries is excellent," Kouchner told reporters after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi for nearly 90 minutes.

Gambari returns to Myanmar on Saturday - diplomat

YANGON (Reuters) - U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari will return to army-ruled Myanmar on Saturday to try to coax the generals into talks on reform with captive opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a diplomat said.

"We have heard Myanmar has given the green light to Mr. Gambari to come on November 3," a Yangon-based Asian diplomat told Reuters.

Gambari has been on a six-country Asian diplomatic tour to press neighbours -- especially India and China -- to take a tougher line against the regime after it crushed pro-democracy protests last month.

United Nations special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari smiles during a news conference in New Delhi in this October 23, 2007 file photo. Gambari will return to army-ruled Myanmar on Saturday to try to coax the generals into talks on reform with captive opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a diplomat said. (REUTERS/B Mathur)

Official media say 10 people were killed in the biggest anti-junta protests in two decades, although Western governments say the real toll is likely to be far higher.

On Wednesday, 200 Buddhist monks staged a march in central Myanmar for the first time since the crackdown last month.

The maroon-robed monks chanted prayers as they marched through the town of Pakkoku, where soldiers fired warning shots over the heads of monks early last month, triggering nationwide protests.

Gambari's schedule was not immediately known, but the Nigerian diplomat met junta chief Than Shwe and Suu Kyi during his last visit in early October.

"We think he is going is to be busier during this visit than his previous one," the diplomat said. That first trip resulted in the appointment of retired General Aung Kyi as a go-between for Suu Kyi and Than Shwe, who is widely known to loathe the 62-year-old Nobel laureate.

Aung Kyi held a 75-minute meeting with Suu Kyi last week, although it is not known what they discussed.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a 1990 election by a landslide only to be denied power by the military, which has ruled since a 1962 coup. She has spent 12 of the last 18 years in detention.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters