BurmaNet News April 30 - May 2, 2005

[Editor]

April 30 - May 2, 2005 Issue # 2709


INSIDE BURMA
Reuters: Myanmar jibes at Western sanctions on May Day
DVB via BBC: Burma opposition radio says 10 detained Shan leaders
"secretly" tried in jail
Xinhua: Myanmar to conduct first maternal mortality survey
Xinhua: Myanmar seeks tourism market in Middle East fair

DRUGS
Thai Press Reports: Thai government satisfied with border drugs trade plan

ASEAN
Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo): Myanmar won't lead ASEAN

REGIONAL
AFP: Press freedoms suffer in Asia-Pacific: media monitor
Mizzima: Burma's Shwe Gas Project: another nightmare?

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Zoellick to visit Southeast Asia to step up ties
DVB: Burma opposition radio reports diplomats fear Rangoon recall, mulling
asylum

OPINION / OTHER
Nation: The new East Asia: the shape of things to come
Shared Concern Initiative (published in various media): An open letter to
Aung San Suu Kyi

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 1, Reuters
Myanmar jibes at Western sanctions on May Day

Yangon: Military-ruled Myanmar attacked the European Union and the United
States on Sunday for depriving thousands of its people of jobs through
sanctions.

"The neo-colonialists using their stooges under the guise of workers are
resorting to various means to harm the interest of Myanmar and her
workers," junta leader Senior General Than Shwe said in a speech marking
Labour Day.

"Their acts of sabotage have tarnished and discredited the dignity of
Myanmar workers, and caused loss of jobs resulting in economic and social
sufferings," Than Shwe added in remarks carried in all state newspapers.

Myanmar says more than 80,000 garment factory workers have lost their jobs
due to international sanctions.

Than Shwe's speech came a week after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
urged him during a meeting in Jakarta to deliver on long-promised
democratic reforms, including the release of opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi from house arrest.

Myanmar is also under pressure from fellow members of the Association of
South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to implement the reforms before it chairs
the regional bloc in 2006. The EU and the United States have threatened
not to attend meetings with ASEAN under Yangon's presidency.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party urged the United
Nation's International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Sunday, meanwhile, to
take action against the military government for use of forced labour and
its ban on formation of free labour unions.

"We, therefore, would like to call on the ILO to take action under ILO
Constitution Section 33 against Myanmar authorities," said a four-page
statement received by Reuters. It urged the junta to work democratically
toward a strong market economy.

Yangon and the ILO have been at loggerheads for years in connection with
the alleged practice of forced labour in Myanmar.

If found guilty of failing to end the practice of forced labour, Myanmar,
which said the ILO's information is based on fabricated reports by exiled
dissident groups, could face more international sanctions.

____________________________________

April 30, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC
Burma opposition radio says 10 detained Shan leaders "secretly" tried in jail

Oslo: It has been learned that the case against the 10 detained Shan
leaders including SNLD [Shan Nationalities League for Democracy] Chairman
U Khun Tun Oo was heard at Insein Jail for three consecutive days on 27-29
April.

This was the third time the case was heard in April and the judges were U
Mya Thein and Maj Khin Maung Gyi. The two public prosecutors were U Chit
Ko Ko and U Kyee Myint and the whistle-blowers and prosecution witnesses
were so-called students Ko Aye Lwin and Ko Tin Aung.

The two government-appointed defence lawyers for U Khun Tun Oo and group
were U Aung Khaing and U Aung Myint.

Family circle sources told DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] that they seem
eager to wrap up the case as quickly as possible.

The same source claimed the detained Shan leaders were charged under
Section 122/1 [of the Criminal Law] for high treason; Section 124-A for
defamation; Section 17-1 for having contacts with unlawful organizations;
Section 17-20 for unlawful printing and publishing; and Section 24-A for
unlawful exchange of foreign currencies. It is not clearly known whether
the charges were laid against all 10 of them or separately.

The other nine arrested together with SNLD Chairman U Khun Tun Oo were
Secretary Sai Nyunt Lwin, members Sai Hla Aung and Sao Tha Oo, Shan State
Peace Council Chairman Maj-Gen Hso Ten, U Myint Than, U Ba Thin, U Tun
Nyo, Sai Myo Win Tun, and Sai Nyi Moe from the New Generation Shan State.
The authorities began to arrest them from 9 February.

They are still denied visits by family members and are being secretly
tried in Insein Jail. Family sources told DVB they are worried about the
health condition of U Khun Tun Oo, who is suffering from hypertension and
diabetes and needs thorough medical examination and treatment from
external specialists but the prison authorities have refused permission.

____________________________________

May 2, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to conduct first maternal mortality survey

Yangon: The Myanmar Health Department will conduct the first nationwide
survey on maternal mortality starting later this month to help draft a
strategic plan to bring down the death rates of mothers and children, a
local weekly journal reported Monday.

The survey will be so carried out as to find out specific causes of such
deaths, the Myanmar Times quoted sources with the department as saying.

The survey, assisted by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), will be made
among 250,000 households in 120 townships, an official of the department
said.

According to the official, maternal and infant mortality rates in Myanmar
are high compared with other Southeast Asian nations.

Figures released by the health ministry reveal that there were 4,300
maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in Myanmar in 2000.

Along with the survey, Myanmar will also conduct its first similar
UNICEF-funded survey on micronutrients beginning later this month to
determine the extent of deficiencies in vitamin A, iron and iodine levels,
the report said. Malnutrition also stands as a silent killer of mothers
and children.

The survey will cover women aged 15 to 49 and children under five in 1,600
households to identify nutritional factors and disease resulted from
malnutrition, the report added.

_____________________________________

May 1, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar seeks tourism market in Middle East fair

Yangon: Myanmar is seeking tourism markets in the Middle East, striving to
promote the country as a travel destination, a local press reported in
Monday's issue pre- published Sunday afternoon.

A delegation of the Myanmar Marketing Committee under the Myanmar Tourism
Promotion Board is due to arrive in Dubai Sunday to attend for the first
time a three-day Middle East travel show, the Arabian Travel Mart,
scheduled to open at the Dubai World Trade Center on Tuesday, said the
Myanmar Times.

Comprising representatives from the Myanmar Airways International (MAI),
the country's national flag carrier, and three leading travel agencies,
the delegation will participate in the show which a large number of
European tour operators and top worldwide travel industry buyers used to
attend, the committee said.

Myanmar's joining of the event came three months after the launching of
the direct flight to Yangon by the Qatar Airways, a Middle east airline.
The introduction of the flight is reported to have created the region's
interest in Myanmar as a travel destination.

Visitors from the Middle East previously had to travel to Myanmar via
Bangkok.

Official statistics show that tourist arrivals in Myanmar rose by 5
percent to over 814,000 in the fiscal year of 2004-05 ending in March
compared with the previous fiscal year.

In its bid to boost tourist arrivals, Myanmar has launched tourism
promotional campaigns in some Asian nations including Japan, Singapore,
Malaysia and India, and a special water festival activities involving
participants from five other member countries of the Greater Mekong
Subregion (GMS) -- China, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam -- was held
last month in Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay.

Meanwhile, a tourism forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), set to be hosted by Myanmar in January 2006, will provide better
chance for the country to promote its tourism in the region.

Myanmar now has 570 hotels with more than 17,200 rooms, involving an
investment of about 583 million US dollars plus 33 billion kyats (about
41.2 million dollars), according to official figures.

Contracted foreign investment in the sector of hotels and tourism has so
far amounted to 1.06 billion US dollars since Myanmar started to open to
such investment in late 1988. Of the investment, over 580 million dollars
has been injected into hotel projects, official figures indicate.

_____________________________________
DRUGS

May 3, Thai Press Reports
Thai government satisfied with border drugs trade plan

Efforts to prevent narcotics flowing into Thailand across the border with
Myanmar in the country's northern province of Chiang Rai are bearing
fruit, according to the head of the government committee responsible for
monitoring the prime minister's orders.

Col. Narong Nilawat said today that a meeting of local officials in Chiang
Rai had highlighted the success of the government's narcotics suppression
measures, particularly in the province's border district of Mae Sai.

Pointing to the fact that few large lots of narcotics were now being
intercepted, he said that most of the drug traffickers now in operation
seemed to be small-scale traders.

Nonetheless, he reiterated the government's continued commitment to
fighting the narcotics trade.

_____________________________________
ASEAN

May 2, The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo)
Myanmar won't lead ASEAN - Hiroaki Hayashida / Yomiuri Shimbun

Bangkok: Myanmar has told other members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations it will decline to chair ASEAN, diplomatic sources said.

The ASEAN chairmanship rotates annually among all members of the
organization in alphabetical order. Myanmar was to assume the post under
this rule in July 2006.

It likely will be decided whether Yangon will be excused from chairing
ASEAN at a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in the Laotian capital of
Vientiane in July.

Prior to an informal meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers on Cebu Island in
the Philippines in April, the Myanmar government unofficially told the
nine other ASEAN members that it might turn down the post, according
diplomatic sources in Bangkok.

During his visit to Cambodia in April, Myanmar Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Soe
Win also convey the same message to Prime Minister Hun Sen, according to
the sources.

Yangon's intention to decline the chairmanship reflects its desire to
think about the interests of ASEAN as a whole, the sources quoted the
Myanmar government as saying. The Southeast Asian country also hopes to
concentrate on its domestic problems, the government was cited as saying.

ASEAN is currently chaired by Laos. The chairmanship will be assumed by
Malaysia after the foreign ministerial conference in July.

Myanmar was to follow Malaysia under ASEAN's rules in 2006.

Myanmar's intention to decline the post reflects its dilemma concerning
how to deal with Aung San Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy leader whom the Myanmar
authorities took into custody in May 2003. She is currently under house
arrest.

The United States and European countries have said they will boycott ASEAN
meetings chaired by Myanmar, if she is not freed.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 2, Agence France Presse
Press freedoms suffer in Asia-Pacific: media monitor

Paris: Press freedoms in Asia's dictatorships and democracies alike
suffered last year, with the Philippines and Bangladesh among the world's
most dangerous countries for journalists, a watchdog group said in a
report marking world press freedom day.

The region's independent media continued to be dogged by violence and
censorship, while authoritarian governments such as China, North Korea,
Myanmar and Vietnam tightened control of news and information, according
to the annual report by Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without
Borders, or RSF).

"The year 2004 was horribly similar to the year that preceded it," RSF
said in the report, which noted that 16 of the 53 journalists killed
worldwide last year died in Asia, excluding Iraq. Six were killed in the
Philippines and four in Bangladesh.

"In the Philippines, where press freedom flourishes more than almost
anywhere on the continent, hired killers targeted radio and local
newspaper journalists on the orders of corrupt local politicians," the
report said.

Last year six journalists were killed for doing their jobs in the
Philippines, while seven other were killed in cases with unclear motives,
the report added.

It also named Bangladesh, where there was a physical attack on a
journalist every two days on average in 2004, as "a kind of hell for the
independent press". Four reporters were killed and 10 were arrested there
last year.

Violence is "a daily reality" for hundreds of journalists there as well as
in Nepal, where the army arrested or questioned some 400 reporters,
Afghanistan and Pakistan, it added.

Of the world's 107 imprisoned journalists as of January 1, 2005, 46 were
in Asia, including a world-leading 27 in China, one of whom faces the
death penalty for divulging state secrets, the report said.

The junta in Myanmar has harassed or arrested journalists critical of
military rule, while North Korea "kept an iron grip on its journalists,
reduced to a pathetic role as propagandists."

It said democracies, as well as China, "seized on the pretext of the fight
against terrorism to justify attacks on press freedom."

China, Pakistan and Indonesia closed off large areas of territory to the
media during anti-terrorist operations in 2004, while Australia toughened
security measures allowing its secret services to monitor communications,
including those of journalists, it said.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's government passed a new law trying
to limit the influence of major dailies critical of his administration,
although it was amended under intense opposition pressure.

In China, authorities have increased scrambling of programmes on Radio
Free Asian and Voice of Tibet, and blocked Chinese-language web pages of
the Wall Street Journal and German radio Deutsche Welle, RSF added.

In its annual worldwide index of press freedom released late last year, it
placed several Asian countries at the bottom of the list, including North
Korea last at 167th place, Myanmar at 165th, China 162nd, Vietnam 161st
and Laos 153rd.

_____________________________________

April 30, Mizzima News
Burma's Shwe Gas Project: another nightmare? - Jockai

'Shwe' means gold to the Burmese people, who are great admirers of the
yellow metal for a long time. They take pride in calling their nation
'Shwe Myanmar' as they describe oil and gas--'Shwe Mae'--meaning black
gold, to signify their value to life. 'Shwe Mae' is a major source of
foreign exchange earning for the country under the Burmese military
regime.

But, with the discovery of a natural gas field in Arakan state, a
controversy has snowballed into a major issue over the proposed tri-nation
agreement for an oil and gas pipeline from Arakan to Kolkata (Calcutta),
the eastern metropolis of India, across Bangladesh.

NGOs and local people are concerned that not only the pipeline and the
exploration site will hardly benefit the local people, but they will also
lead to human rights abuses.

Earth Rights International (ERI), a human rights group, has expressed such
apprehension in its report over the project. ERI previously launched a
campaign against the controversial Yadana gas pipeline project after it
found communities living along the Yadana and Yetagun corridors being
subjected to torture. There were numerous reports of judicial killing and
rape of ethnic minority women by the Burmese military, out to evict the
local inhabitants from the project site. Thousands of evicted people took
shelter in refugee camps, while many others remained without shelter.

The anti-Shwe gas groups in exile are apprehensive that the current
project has the same disastrous effect on the common people.

Carol Ransley, an assistance director of ERI, said going by the track
record of the Military rulers, one cannot expect the project to come up
without violation of human rights. Incidents of such violation have
already poured in from Arakan with the army initiating clear-up action in
the proposed pipeline areas.

"So far the army have already confiscated the plots of land and
plantations from the local people and set up army stations in the
Ponnagyun area to protect proposed pipeline. The Burmese soldiers have
also forced the local people to clear the forests for army stations," said
Kyaw Han, Chairman of All Arakan Students and Youths Congress.

The 290-km proposed pipeline, starting at the oil field, will enter the
northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Tripura before running through
Bangladesh and finally reaching Kolkata. It would be the first
international pipeline for India.

The Shwe natural gas field was discovered by Daewoo International
Corporation on the Western Arakan coast of the Bay of Bengal. It is the
biggest find in the ASEAN region in a decade.

According to a report of 'New Light of Myanmar', a state-run newspaper,
the profit coming from the proposed project, will be more than the
combined earnings from the sale of gas to Thailand from Yadana and
Raytagon fields.

As soon as the gas field was discovered, five additional forces of Burmese
army were deployed in Arakan, Voice of Arakan reported in 2004. In
November, last year, the Burma Light Infantry Battalion 34 forced more
than 500 people, traditionally engaged in farming and fisheries in six
surrounding villages of Kyaukpyu, to work for construction of the
Yangon-Kyaukpyu, according to exiled Arakan League for Democracy (ALD).

Arakan, partly a coastal region, is one of the largest sea food producing
states of Burma with most of the people depending on farming and fishing
for their livelihood.

After Daewoo started drilling natural gas fields in November 2003,
authorities put a ban on fishing till early 2004 within the 27 - mile
radius of the Shwe drill ship.

San Ray Kyaw, a spokesperson of the 'Shwe Gas Movement' from Thailand,
said, "fishermen cannot access banned areas. If they even get close to the
areas, they will be stopped, questioned and asked for money. If they
refuse, they will be arrested." He stressed that it was very difficult for
the local people to survive around the gas field and pipeline areas, and
it would be no exception for those living in the Arakan project area.

Unocal, a US oil company and one of the biggest shareholders in Yadana,
was sued by ERI in US courts over human rights abuses associated with the
pipeline construction. Eight years later, on April 2, 2005, the case was
settled out of court. The settlement, worth about 30 million dollars,
according to a Wall Street Journal report, is being seen as a major
victory for human rights and corporate accountability.

"We can be happy with the outcome," Ka Hsaw Wa, Executive Director of
Earth Rights International, who lobbied against the US company on the
Yadana project issue, said with a broad smile.

Ka Hsaw Wa said Unocal had no respect for human rights and the environment
in Burma. Had it been so, the company would not have struck a business
deal with the military dictators, the topmost human rights violators in
the world. "By dealing with them you are marrying the most brutal
dictatorship", he said.

By associating itself with the military regime, Daewoo is also equally
responsible for direct and indirect human rights violation and destruction
of environment, he observed.

ERI has made a commitment to work among the Arakan communities with a
campaign on the Shwe Gas project and explore ways to prevent human rights
abuses as well as obtaining justice for the suffering people in the
project area.

(Jockai is a freelance journalist based in Thailand.)

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 30, Agence France Presse
Zoellick to visit Southeast Asia to step up ties

Washington: Deputy US Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said Friday he
would make a 10-day visit to Southeast Asia beginning Monday to discuss
free trade, counterrorism, maritime security and reconstruction of
tsunami-hit economies.

His regional swing from Monday to May 11 would cover Thailand, Malaysia,
Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines, all of which are key
investment destinations of American businessmen and exporters to the
United States.

Zoellick will the most senior US official to visit the region under the
second term of the administration of President George W. Bush.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had already visited North Asia and
South Asia.

"In terms of our sort of big picture effort to cover most of the region
very early in the tenure of the second term, I'll fill in the Southeast
Asian stops," Zoellick told reporters ahead of the visit.

He said he wanted "to lay the foundation at the start of a second term of
our relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or
ASEAN."

His discussions with leaders would include cooperation on counterrorism as
well as to beef up maritime security under the US-led Proliferation
Security Initiative.

Following a spate of pirate attacks recently, there have been concerns
over security along the Malacca Strait, a narrow waterway slicing
Indonesia's Sumatra island from mainland Southeast Asia.

It is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, funnelling 50,000
vessels a year between the biggest economies of the West and the East.

Aside from the six countries he would visit, ASEAN comprises Brunei,
Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. The grouping has a counterrorism pact with the
United States.

Officials say the United States remain concerned over the activities of
the largely Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian wing of
the Al-Qaeda terror network, as well as the Abu Sayaff kidnap-for-ransom
group in the southern Philippines.

Zoellick said he would also focus on the economic linkages of the US-ASEAN
relationship, including moves to forge free trade agreements with other
ASEAN members after having clinched a deal with Singapore.

He would discuss with Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra on "some key
elements" of a prospective free trade agreement and attempt "to move them
forward." There has been no breakthrough in bilateral free trade talks
that started about a year ago.

Zoellick said he would discuss a possible free trade deal with Malaysia
and hinted US backing for Vietnam's membership in the World Trade
Organization this year.

"They (Vietnam) have been making some good progress," he said. The United
States has been expressing concern over lack of democratic reforms and
respect for human rights and freedom of religion in Vietnam, its erstwhile
enemy.

Zoellick would observe the 10th anniversary of the establishment of
diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam during his
visit.

In the Philippines, he would observe another event of historical interest,
the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

A stop of "special note" would be Indonesia's Aceh province, which bore
the brunt of the December 26 tsunami that afflicted a dozen countries
along the Indian Ocean coastline and left 128,000 people dead in Indonesia
alone.

Zoellick would discuss areas where the the United States could help in
reconstruction, based on President Bush's pledge of a total aid package of
950 million dollars for tsunami-afflicted nations.

He would also consult with Indonesia and others in the assistance program
"about how we can best use" the additional tsunami-related aid that
Washington hoped Congress would approve in the 2005 supplemental budget
request, Ereli said.

Zoellick had close links with the Southeast Asian region during his tenure
as US Trade Representative, before he was named by Bush as number two top
diplomat of the United States.

_____________________________________

April 29, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma opposition radio reports diplomats fear Rangoon recall, mulling asylum

It has been learned that private discussions on whether to seek political
asylum among officials from Burmese embassies abroad have increased.

Last week, SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] Chairman Sr-Gen Than
Shwe has informed former military intelligence officers - Burmese
Ambassador to Singapore U Hla Than, Burmese Ambassador to Thailand U Myo
Myint and Burmese Ambassador to Italy U Khin Maung Aye - to return to
Rangoon as soon as possible.

An SPDC diplomat stationed in a West European nation told DVB [Democratic
Voice of Burma] that the ambassadors and their families are worried and
scared as they do not know what fate has in store for them once they
return to Rangoon.

The diplomat claimed that Burmese Ambassador to UK Dr Kyaw Win and U Mya
Than, Burmese ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, were recalled
to Rangoon and dismissed from their positions. They are now being
interrogated.

The reassignment notifications of the three ambassadors who have been
urgently recalled to Rangoon have already been issued since February, said
the diplomat. U Hla Than is transferred from Singapore and appointed as
ambassador to Sri Lanka, U Myo Myint is transferred from Thailand and
appointed as ambassador to Nepal, and U Khin Maung Aye is transferred from
Italy and appointed as ambassador to Laos.

The families became worried and scared when the ambassadors were urgently
recalled after their appointments have been confirmed and they are
thinking of seeking political asylum somewhere, said the SPDC diplomat.

Let alone the ambassadors and their families, even the other Burmese
embassy officials are concerned about being recalled to Rangoon and are
discussing among themselves privately on whether to seek political asylum.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 2, The Nation
The new East Asia: the shape of things to come - Kavi Chongkittavorn

Refer to East Asia whatever way you want because it does not matter
anymore. By December, East Asia will be East Asia only in name, once
events in Kuala Lumpur lead to the conception of a broader Asia. This new,
emerging Asia will be the key mover and shaker of the decades to come.

Asean leaders agreed recently that the first East Asian Summit (EAS) will
have a new beginning as a separate non-exclusive process from Asean plus
three, which has been the preferred cooperative mechanism.

India has been invited to join the new forum as a founding member. As
such, East Asia has incorporated the world’s largest democracy, which will
inject much dynamism into the region. For the first time, all key Asian
countries will be gathered under one roof.

In the past, India was shut out from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
and the Asia Europe Meeting. With the EAS, India has been given the new
identity of being part of East Asia.

East Asia is an evolving concept. Prior to 1997, it only covered the three
Northeast Asian countries – China, Korea and Japan – together with Taiwan
and Hong Kong, which were considered the region’s developed economies. To
mark the 30th anniversary of Asean in 1997, the leaders from China, Japan,
South Korea and the grouping came together in Kuala Lumpur. Since then,
they have been holding a yearly summit and possess a strong sense of
shared destiny.

>From 1997 onward, East Asia cast broader geographic footprints, stretching
from the Sea of Japan to the Strait of Malacca. Of course, Asean being
Asean, the grouping insisted on calling this cooperation the Asean plus
three process.

Later this year, the process will give way to the EAS, which will stretch
from the Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean to incorporate India.

That is good news. For decades, Asean has guarded its territory very
dearly, making sure that whatever new undertakings the grouping initiated
did not undermine its unity, norms and principles. The feeling of
non-exclusiveness is new and has been echoed by Indonesia and Singapore,
which have been backing such thinking all along.

If this spirit continues, Asia, also known as East Asia, will avoid the
pitfalls of the recent past, which saw the grouping squabbling over
trivial, nitty-gritty issues, hindering deeper and broader integration
with the regional economies. Is this a major break from the past? The
answer is a mix of yes and no.

Asean has set three criteria for the prospective EAS members. First, they
must have substantive relations with Asean and support the principles
enshrined in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC). Finally, they must
be dialogue partners.

Strange as it may seem, these criteria are aimed at attracting Australia
and New Zealand to the party. It is still early to tell if these two
countries will make it. They are negotiating with Asean to find proper
wordings to ensure the second criteria is met in a spirit of pragmatism.

Australia has already had a change of heart and is now ready to go beyond
the usual Asean-Australia tango. Canberra is now willing to express
support for the TAC. If this happens in time for the Asean ministerial
meeting in July in Vientiane, then Australia and New Zealand could be
included in the EAS.

It is amazing how this regional cooperation has expanded. When Asean
started out in 1967, it had only five countries. In 1984, Brunei was
added. The real enlargement came during 1995-2000 when Vietnam, Burma,
Laos and Cambodia joined the grouping. But within a decade, East Asia has
expanded from three countries to thirteen, then fourteen. With the
possibility of the two from Down Under coming in at the late minute, it
could be sixteen.

Will EAS be like the Asean Regional Forum, with 24 countries across the
Asia-Pacific region? For the time being, this will not be the case. In the
next few years, EAS leaders will need to consolidate their new forum to
ensure their relevance, especially when it comes to articulating issues to
be discussed. Global and transnational topics with regional ramifications
will be the top of their agenda.

After all, Asean hopes that with a 16-member, non-exclusive EAS, the US
will feel more at ease with Asian cooperation and realise it is not aimed
at competing with the US, as the original East Asian Grouping was in the
early 1990’s. The scheduled visit of US Deputy Secretary of State Robert
Zoellick to Asean this week will enable him to assess the new geographical
configuration and its long-term implications.

With India and the two from Down Under on board, the EAS will become a
pivotal driving force for the region, and will have much to do with
Asean’s future attitudes. If it remains outward-looking, as it appears to
be now, the EAS will take off and fly. But some Asean members are still
fearful of losing a grip on the process they initiated – so much so that
they want to increase Asean’s control, with proposals like Asean-chaired
meetings and reserving the right to choose prospective EAS countries.

If such a myopic perspective and insecurity is allowed to take hold, it
will affect EAS’s vibrancy and create unnecessary tension and delays.
Therefore, it is incumbent on the core Asean countries to make sure that
the strengthening of the EAS will continue unabated.

It will not be long before we know whether the EAS will mark a new
frontier of cooperation or more wishful thinking dreamt up by the media.
______________________________________

April 30, Shared Concern Initiative (published in various media)
An open letter to Aung San Suu Kyi

At the beginning of the third millennium our global society is, thanks to
modern technologies, able to easily communicate with anyone anywhere in
the world. We are all becoming part of a larger spiritual dialogue that is
further evolving our civilisation. Everyone has a right to become a
meaningful and authentic part of this dialogue. Everyone has something to
say and, in his or her own way, something to contribute. But you have been
denied this basic right for a number of years. A great many believe you
have been deprived of this basic right because your voice - gentle,
gracious and inspirational - resonates with the undeniable and resolute
force of truth; a truth that threatens those who deny your right to speak.
Internationally, your voice has become an inspiration for civil society
and it is a light in the darkness along the way to spiritual freedom.

People from all over the world write you letters and hold you in great
esteem because you are a symbol of hope, courage and dignity. They write
you even though they know their letters and words of hope may never reach
you. History, however, has taught us that neither walls nor weapons can
silence even the most isolated voice of courage and truth. Indeed, the
efforts to silence such a voice only make it louder. Please know that we
carry your voice in our hearts for all to hear.

Combating attempts, such as this one, to silence the truth is one of the
reasons that we, the undersigned, along with others, have come together to
form a collective effort known as Shared Concern Initiative. Shared
Concern Initiative is an informal group of political, religious and
intellectual leaders from around the world who, in the interest of good
governance, tolerance and respect for human rights have dedicated
themselves to address important challenges facing global society.

The first undertaking of Shared Concern Initiative is this open letter to
you as a symbolic attempt to jointly break through the totalitarian
barriers erected so unfairly around you.

With this letter also comes our humble invitation. We would be honoured if
you joined us in the Shared Concern Initiative and in our effort to form a
collective voice for truth, tolerance and transparency.

With deep respect,

Václav Havel, The Dalai Lama, FW de Klerk, Prince El Hassan bin Talal,
Mary Robinson, Desmond Tutu, George Soros, Richard von Weiszäcker, Vartan
Gregorian Andre Glücksman, Michael Novak, Karel Schwarzenberg, Hans Küng