BurmaNet News, March 31, 2010

[Editor]

March 31, 2010, Issue #3929


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Fresh crackdown likely, Win Tin warns
Irrawaddy: Burma's press censored on NLD decision
DVB: Western envoys visit NLD headquarters

REGIONAL
Straits Times (Singapore): S’pore's stand on Burma polls
Mizzima News: Mixed response from India over NLD’s decision

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: US senators seek tighter Myanmar sanctions
AP: Report: US must avoid legitimizing Myanmar vote
Wheaton Gazette (US): Continuing the political fight for Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Economist: Whether 'tis nobler
New Straits Times (Malaysia): Myanmar's democrats face some tough choices
– Kamrul Idris
IPS: In opting for poll boycott, NLD goes for broke

PRESS RELEASE
FIDH: United Nations Human Rights Council: Positive steps on country
situations and the protection of human rights norms



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 31, Mizzima News
Fresh crackdown likely, Win Tin warns – Sai Zuan Sai

Chiang Mai – National League for Democracy (NLD) Central Executive
Committee (CEC) member U Win Tin has warned that the military regime is
likely to launch a new crackdown against the party.

“Our movements will be very much limited when we don’t have a party. If we
make more movements and stand against them [the junta], they will declare
our party an unlawful association,” Win Tin said.

CEC and Central Committee members yesterday decided not to register their
party with the Election Commission as they argue the electoral laws are
unjust.

As per the electoral laws, existing political parties must register with
the Election Commission (EC) by May 6th or risk being labeled unlawful
organizations.

Win Tin, who was imprisoned for 19 years because of his political beliefs,
has long advocated for non-registration.

“They will certainly imprison those who take steps ahead of others and
those who are competent. We must face it,” the 80-year old U Win Tin
commented.

“We are not working just only for winning the election and holding power.
We are working for abolishing and dismantling the entire military
dictatorship. So they will certainly come down harshly against us,” he
said.

Bogale Township NLD member Chin Won, who expressed his opinion that the
party should register with the EC in order to avoid being deregistered,
said, “Our party will be declared an unlawful association if not
registered within 60 days. Then they will certainly suppress us if we make
movements and assemble. They have already said this.”

However, even if unregistered the NLD does not need to convert to an
underground party, estimated another anti-election campaigner, Zomi
National Congress (ZNC) Chairman Pu Cin Sian Thang.

“Politics can be done if politics is in our mind. Our ZNC party has been
banned since 1993. We don’t have a right to erect our party signboard and
we can’t distribute our party literature. But we can continue our
movement,” he said.

Poet Ko Lay (Inn Wa Gone Yee) told Mizzima over the phone that he heartily
welcomed the NLD’s decision.

“I’m very much pleased with this decision. I’m not member of any party. I
am struggling just holding a free pen as a poet, but I shall support the
NLD and rally around NLD,” he said.

“There are many issues for them [the junta] to tackle, the Border Guard
Force, the NLD party and the division of power. The difficulties are not
only for us; they are facing them too and even more so. I think this
election will not take place,” he added.

____________________________________

March 31, Democratic Voice of Burma
Western envoys visit NLD headquarters – Khin Hnin Htet

Australian and the United States’ diplomats yesterday paid a so-called
‘fact finding’ visit to the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)
party’s main office in Rangoon.

The party on Monday announced that it would not register for controversial
elections in Burma later this year, meaning that under recently announced
laws it will soon be abolished.

Senior NLD member Win Tin said that the diplomats, whose frequent visits
to NLD offices are closely monitored by the Burmese government, enquired
about Suu Kyi’s role in the decision and about the party’s tenuous future
now that it will no longer be able to officially operate within mainstream
Burmese politics.

Prior to Monday Suu Kyi had voiced her objection to registering but
asserted that the party must make up its own mind. Win Tin said that her
remarks only “made our decisions more firm”.

“But we shouldn’t forget about the people’s role; the people will not
accept the points in the election laws which ban Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
political prisoners [from participating]. These are the reasons for our
decision.”

There were reportedly no objections to the election boycott from within
the NLD’s Central Committee, who made the final decision, despite a small
number of party members having previously urged the NLD to compete.

The international community has on the whole been supportive of the NLD’s
decision, despite mixed reactions from inside Burma. The US has repeatedly
condemned the elections as a sham while Australia’s foreign minister said
this week that the polls cannot now be considered free and fair.

As to the future of Burma’s main opposition party, the prospects are
worrying – Suu Kyi remains under house arrest and the majority of the
influential senior members are elderly. But, Win Tin said, there is scope
for a new emphasis on greater engagement with Burmese people, something
that the party has been restricted from doing in its 22-year history.

“We explained [to the diplomats] that we will be working on social welfare
programmes for the people as well as programmes to provide aid and protect
people from suffering,” he said. “Holding on to these policies, we will
make our stand. Our party won’t just sit and watch.”

____________________________________

March 31, Irrawaddy
Burma's press censored on NLD decision – Ko Htwe

Outside Burma the reactions of the press and observers to the National
League for Democracy's (NLD's) decision not to contest this year's
election have been numerous and varied, but inside Burma the military
government's Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) is forcing
newspapers and other publications to publish the official line on the NLD
decision, if they publish at all.

To date, Burma's state-run newspapers have been silent about the NLD's
decision.

After submitting articles to the censorship board for verification,
journals Myanmar Newsweek and The Yangon Times on Tuesday were forced by
the PSRD to report that the NLD's decision will disrupt the election,
according to media sources in Rangoon.

Myanmar Newsweek wrote: “The NLD's decision not to participate in the
planned election damages the peaceful transition to democracy for the
country and its citizens.”

In Burma, every publication is required to verify its articles through the
PSRD before publication.

One Rangoon-based editor told The Irrawaddy: “For our journal, if we want
to publish the NLD decision, I think the censorship board will only give
us permission if we write what they want.”

The NLD executive committee decided unanimously on Monday not to register
the party for the election. The election laws promulgated by the regime
state that any party that fails to register by a deadline in early May
will cease to exist legally.

The NLD executive committee's decision not to register was prompted by the
election laws, which members described as “unjust” and unlikely to result
in a fair and inclusive election.

The laws excluded anyone serving a criminal sentence from participating in
the election—a provision that bars NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners. In order to participate in the election, the NLD
would have had to expel Suu Kyi from the party.

In contrast to the muted reaction inside Burma, observers and publications
outside the country have lined up to deliver their opinions on the NLD
decision and its consequences.

“If the NLD fails to register, Burma's regime will do as they did at the
1993 National Convention. They will say it is not our fault the NLD did
not participate in the elections and become part of the new government.
That it was the NLD's own decision,” said Win Min, a Burma analyst based
in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political commentator living in exile, told The
Irrawaddy that the NLD decision stemmed from the unjust 2008 Constitution
and the unjust election laws. “The NLD has to confront these unjust laws,”
Aung Naing Oo said. “So the question arises how they will confront them:
within the law or outside the law.  The party cannot legally stand without
registration, so they have to confront the unjust laws outside the law.”

Aung Naing Oo said the NLD's next step is “delicate and important.”

Other observers say that the future response of the Burmese military junta
depends on the next steps of the NLD.

“The situation is now in the military junta's hands and they can do what
they want,” said Chan Htun, a veteran Rangoon politician, pointing out
that if NLD members continue to deliver speeches urging a boycott of the
election, they could be arrested.

“The parties that boycott [the election] will be outlawed,” said Debbie
Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma.  “And
we have to understand that in the past when people were members of a
so-called outlaw organization, they were sent to jail.  So this is a very
big threat.”

Stothard used a football analogy to describe the environment established
by the regime's election laws, saying that the Burmese military government
has organized a game where only one team is allowed to play and there is
only one goal post.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

March 31, Straits Times (Singapore)
S’pore's stand on Burma polls

Singapore said it would be harder for national reconciliation to be
achieved in Burma because of the decision by the opposition party led by
Aung San Suu Kyi to boycott the polls widely expected to take place later
this year.

'We are disappointed that the new election laws have led to this result.
This will make it harder for national reconciliation to be achieved,' the
spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday in response
to media queries.

'We have always held that national reconciliation among the stakeholders
is a critical element for the legitimacy of the elections.

'This would require the participation of the National League for Democracy
and other political parties. It is still not too late for all parties to
reach a compromise and we urge them to do so,' the spokesman said in a
statement.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), which swept the last elections in
1990 but was never allowed to take power, decided on Monday not to contest
the upcoming elections.

The United States and Australia have blamed the ruling junta, which
cancelled the NLD's victory in Burma's last elections held in 1990, for
boxing the party into a corner and undermining hope for change after
decades of military rule, Associated Press reported.

'We think this is an opportunity lost in terms of Burma's ability to
demonstrate that it is willing to contemplate a different course of
action, a different relationship with its own people,' said US State
Department spokesman Philip Crowley, using Burma's former name.

Mr Crowley indicated that the US would continue dialogue with the junta,
but Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was downcast about prospects
for reform in the pariah state, reported the Agence France-Presse.

'I don't believe that any election without the National League for
Democracy can be a full, free and fair election,' he told ABC Radio.

Election laws announced by the junta earlier this month ban political
parties from having prisoners, like Ms Suu Kyi, within their numbers.

____________________________________

March 31, Mizzima News
Mixed response from India over NLD’s decision – Kyaw Mya

New Delhi – Indian parliamentarians have applauded the National League for
Democracy’s (NLD) decision not to participate in the Burmese junta’s
planned elections, which would be the first in two decades.

The Indian Parliamentarians Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB) said the
NLD’s decision on Monday was a bold step in opposition to the military
junta, countering the junta’s continuing plans to sustain power through
stage-managed elections.

Sharad Joshi, convenor of the IPFDB, told Mizzima, “It is a great step to
boycott the elections.”

Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD has decided not to participate in the upcoming
election, sighting the electoral laws as unfair and the fact that the
junta has not revised the 2008 constitution, which the NLD claims was
written in a one-sided fashion.

The decision came after a meeting of members of the Central Executive
Committee (CEC) and Central Committee of States and Divisions at Rangoon
headquarters on Monday.

The junta’s electoral laws, announced earlier this month, restrict Aung
San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners from running for office in the
upcoming elections. According to the laws, if the party wishes to contest
the polls it will have to exclude Aung San Suu Kyi and several other NLD’s
Central Committee members.

While the IPFDB voiced their support on the NLD’s decision, a New Delhi
think tank, Centre for Policy Research, said the NLD is making a mistake
by staying out of the political process, as the elections could be a
window of opportunity.

Sanjay Hazarika, the Managing Trustee for the Centre’s Northeast Studies
and Policy Research, told Mizzima, “The party [NLD] must think of the
interests of the people of Burma instead of the interests of individual
party leaders.”

Hazarika said though it is unfortunate that the NLD must leave out Aung
San Suu Kyi, it would still do well to participate in the elections, as it
would allow the party to have a role in the process.

He believes that the election would be the best opportunity to fight the
regime, as there are no other institutions remaining to fight, including
the sangha (monks), who failed in the 2007 protests.

“This kind of opportunity might not come again, how long will the party
wait for such an opportunity? We cannot live in hope that the people will
take part in another uprising against a brutal military regime that kills
its own people,” Hazarika added.

The NLD, for its part, is in a difficult situation, as they will be
declared outlawed if they refuse to re-register as a political party. But
if they do so, they will have to abandon their leader Aung San Suu Kyi
along with several other leaders still languishing in prisons across the
country.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 31, Agence France Presse
US senators seek tighter Myanmar sanctions

Washington — Nine US senators across the political spectrum are calling
for tighter sanctions on Myanmar's military regime to persuade it not to
hold elections that effectively bar key opposition leaders.

In the letter to President Barack Obama released Tuesday, the senators
agreed with the administration that election laws made a "mockery" of
democracy but called for a more robust response.

The senators -- including Mitch McConnell, the chamber's top Republican --
urged the Treasury Department to act on a law that would crack down on US
bank accounts linked to Myanmar's leaders and target foreign banks that do
business with the junta.

"We believe that exercising this authority represents one of the most
powerful instruments at our disposal for pressuring Burma's leaders to
change course," they wrote, using Myanmar's former name.

They also called for Obama to appoint a special representative on Myanmar,
a position required by law but vacant as senior State Department officials
spearhead policy on the reclusive Southeast Asian nation.

The Obama administration, which has made a signature policy of engaging US
adversaries, last year initiated a dialogue with the junta, judging that a
previous approach of isolating the regime had not borne fruit.

The junta plans to hold elections later this year which most foreign
observers believe are aimed at legitimizing the rule of the regime, which
never allows the opposition to take over after it won the last vote in
1990.

The main opposition National League for Democracy has decided to boycott
the election rather than give in to pressure to oust its leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who is under house arrest.

Besides McConnell, the letter was also signed by 2008 presidential
candidate John McCain along with fellow Republicans Sam Brownback, Susan
Collins and Judd Gregg.

It was also signed by Democrats Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold and Dianne
Feinstein and independent Joe Lieberman.

____________________________________

March 31, Associated Press
Report: US must avoid legitimizing Myanmar vote – Foster Klug

Washington – The Obama administration's new engagement strategy with
Myanmar risks allowing the country's military leaders to use direct talks
to justify the flawed elections it expects to hold this year, a bipartisan
report warned Wednesday.

The report from the Asia Society, a leading nonprofit educational
organization, supports U.S. efforts to press the generals who have ruled
Myanmar for decades to hold credible elections and to give more rights to
minorities and activists.

But the United States, the report said, must be wary of appearing to
legitimize elections, Myanmar's first in two decades, that opponents say
are meant to strengthen the military's power.

"The United States must tread carefully through this minefield," the
report said. "It is quite possible that the leadership's primary objective
in engaging with the United States is to demonstrate to its own population
that the United States endorses" the junta's "road map to democracy" and a
constitution that enshrines the military's leading role in politics.

The report was co-chaired by retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a 2004
Democratic presidential candidate, and by Henrietta Fore, former
Republican President George W. Bush's head of the U.S. Agency for
International Development. Its release comes about half a year into
Obama's efforts to reverse the long-standing U.S. policy of isolation and
instead engage Myanmar's top generals.

So far, the new direction has done little to spur democracy. Just this
week, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, which swept the
1990 vote but was barred from taking power, announced it will boycott the
elections. Her party now faces dissolution under the junta's new,
much-criticized election laws. Myanmar's government has not yet set a date
for this year's polls.

The Obama administration has called for patience as it pursues talks. In
the meantime, U.S. officials say they will not remove sanctions currently
in place against Myanmar, also called Burma, until political prisoners are
released, democracy begins to take hold and the government treats its
people better.

Clark said that, so far, Myanmar has been wary of U.S. calls for change,
showing only "a willingness to try to get style points."

"We haven't seen a real opening by the government," Clark said at an event
marking the report's release.

Still, U.S. officials can strengthen their leverage by holding more talks
with government officials and with activists and minorities in Myanmar and
neighboring countries, the report said.

The report warns that the United States can devote only limited time and
money to Myanmar because of other global problems. Those include wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq, an often rocky relationship with emerging economic
and military powerhouse China, and nuclear standoffs with Iran and North
Korea.

Fore said Wednesday that if Myanmar doesn't pursue democratic improvements
soon, calls will grow in the United States for even stronger sanctions,
including those targeting junta leaders.

The report urged the Obama administration to appoint a special envoy to
coordinate U.S. policy on Myanmar, which Congress recommended in a 2008
law. Nine senior U.S. senators have sent a letter to Obama also calling
for the envoy's appointment and for the administration to slap the junta
with additional banking sanctions.

The United States should not directly monitor the elections, the report
recommends, "as this could be seen as conferring legitimacy on a seriously
flawed election process."

____________________________________

March 31, Wheaton Gazette (US)
Continuing the political fight for Burma – Patricia M. Murret

Nearly two weeks after returning home from a political prison in Myanmar,
Nyi Nyi Aung of Montgomery Village cannot stop thinking of his homeland.

"I'm tired but I have to send out the message to the public," he said
Saturday, still nursing injuries he suffered during his six-month
incarceration. "I'm happy one way, but on the other hand, I am not,
because I really want my mom to be free, my friends to be free, my people
to be free."

The Burmese-born pro-democracy activist called for the United States to
reach out to the international community to put pressure on Myanmar,
formerly Burma, through increased sanctions.

The Southeast Asian country is ruled by a military junta led by Senior
General Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of
the Union of Myanmar, and known as one of the world's most oppressive
regimes. Many residents live in poverty under the dictatorial generals.

The National League for Democracy party won elections in 1990 by a
landslide, but military leaders refused to recognize the victory. Nobel
Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was elected primed minister
with 59 percent of the vote, has since lived under house arrest, along
with hundreds of supporters.

Than Shwe's regime has promised multi-party elections in 2010, but Aung
does not believe circumstances will change.

"The regime keeps doing what they want to do, they're not listening to
anyone else," he said, adding that General Than Shwe's so-called
democratic constitution does not work for people at all.

A harrowing time

Aung, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2002, was arrested in September at
Yangon's international airport, while trying to visit his dying mother.

His mother, cousin and brother-in-law, as well as friends, are being held
in prisons throughout Burma, said Aung, who was jailed and beaten in 1988
for organizing pro-democracy campaigns.

Aung came to the U.S. in 1993 as a political refugee, resettled in
Rockville in 1994, studied at Purdue University in Indiana and Montgomery
College, and worked at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. before
he returned to being a pro-democracy activist for Burma.

"My focus is actually working inside the country, trying to engage, get
their point of view, what young people are thinking, also get information
on what they are doing," he said.

The September trip was his ninth to Burma since 2005, Aung said. He
travelled on a passport bearing his legal name, Kyaw Zaw Lin, rather than
the nickname "Nyi Nyi" and father's last name, which he has used most of
his life.

Officials spotted Aung at customs, seized his laptop, questioned, arrested
and blindfolded him, then threw him in a car and drove several hours.

"They try to make up my story, like I'm a terrorist, so they keep trying
to make the connection," Aung said.

His captors asked about his contacts in Burma, where he hid documents and
satellites, who gives him financial support.

They arrived at an interrogation room, where he spent two weeks with his
wrists shackled to a table as officials kicked his chair off balance, Aung
said, and punched him in the face when he would not answer questions. He
floated in and out of consciousness in those weeks, he said. He then was
transferred to the notorious Insein prison, where hundreds of political
prisoners reportedly have died.

"The first 17 days was really a nightmare," said Aung's fiancée, Wa Wa
Kyaw, a hospice nurse for Montgomery Hospice in Rockville, who said she
told herself she might never see her beloved again.

"Then I knew that he was alive, but we had no had idea what kind of
charges would be imposed on him."

Hoping for freedom

Kyaw heard about Aung's arrest from his brother in Thailand, then went
more than two weeks without news. Once she learned he was alive, she
scaled back her work to spend one day a week lobbying Congress, Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other members of the Obama
administration to help secure his release.

Freedom Now, a Maryland and Washington-based nonprofit group that works to
free prisoners of conscience, helped. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Dist. 8) of
Kensington and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D) of Baltimore were especially
instrumental. Aung was limping when he returned from Burma on March 19.

"His whole body was shaking," Kyaw said.

Two days later, she took him to see a spine specialist. He had suffered a
herniated disc and spinal compression, the doctor said, likely the result
of his punishment in the interrogation room and sleeping on uneven wooden
slats for six months.

Aung said his 8-foot-by-20-foot concrete cell had no chair. He sat for
hours on the floor crying out his beliefs in democracy. More than 300
political prisoners have died in Insein prison since 1998, he said.

"I have to be strong to get freedom for the people of Burma, otherwise we
will be under the oppression forces," he said he told himself. "I really
want Burma to be free, so I have may have to pay my life, to give to the
people."

Aung feels better after receiving an epidural shot in his spine and taking
prescribed medications to relieve pain. He hopes to avoid spinal surgery.

He will continue to wage a non-violent struggle against the junta in
Burma, he said.

"I have to get healthy first."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 31, Economist
Whether 'tis nobler

The opposition’s boycott of planned elections is understandable and
principled—but still regrettable.

OFFERED a choice between political suicide and a crippled half-life as a
legal party, Myanmar’s main opposition force this week, unlike Hamlet,
reached for the bare bodkin. Heeding the reported advice of its detained
figurehead, Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy announced
in effect its own termination by refusing to register for the elections
the ruling junta has promised to stage later this year. A boycott was the
only option if the party was to remain true to its democratic ideals. But
it was also, probably, a mistake.

There is no shortage of reasons to justify an electoral boycott. The
constitution, drafted without the League’s input and under which the
election will be held, was foisted on Myanmar through a farcical
“referendum” in 2008. It entrenches the army’s role, guaranteeing it a
quarter of parliamentary seats. Many others will be filled by “retired”
army officers. Laws bar Miss Suu Kyi from office both as the widow of a
foreigner, and, under a rule that also debars many of the League’s other
leaders, as the holder of a criminal conviction. For Myanmar’s press, as
stifled as any in the world, the opposition and its point of view might as
well not exist.

In 1990, the previous time the generals had an election, the League won by
a landslide. The junta prevented it taking power, but was mightily
embarrassed. It seems determined not to make the same error twice. After
20 years of brutal harassment and persecution of the opposition in all its
forms, there is absolutely no chance of a free and fair election. Its
leaders, Miss Suu Kyi above all, are cut off from the news, advice and
debate to make informed decisions. The “civilian” regime that emerges from
the polls will probably be dominated by the very same thugs and
incompetents who have made such a benighted mess of a fertile,
resource-rich country.

So it is understandable that the League should decline to afford either
the constitution or the election any credibility by taking part. And their
decision will at least make it harder for the outside world to pretend
that these elections open more than a tiny crack in the junta’s
totalitarian façade. America and Europe were in any case always going to
find it difficult to pretend, but Myanmar’s Asian neighbours might have.
And they probably have more influence, which is not saying much.
A crumb is better than no bread

A tiny bit of influence, however, is better than none, which is also why
the League should contest the election. Its activists tell foreign
diplomats in Yangon that they can continue their struggle for democracy as
an NGO. That seems unlikely, given the junta’s record of unmitigated
repression. The alternative to registration may well be political
extinction.

The League will also be excluded from the first set of significant changes
in Myanmar’s government since the present bunch of generals took over,
after the crushing of a popular uprising in 1988. Some observers believe
change will be far-reaching. They point to the growth of a small but
wealthy business class, the limited devolution promised to some of the
border areas inhabited by rebellious ethnic minorities, and the
generational shift under way in the army itself.

The “senior general”, Than Shwe, is 77 and, apparently worried about the
comfort and security of his twilight years, is distributing power among a
coalition of interest groups. The crack he has opened, some argue, will
widen inexorably. The pluralist genie will be out of the bottle. Even this
seems hopelessly wishful thinking. But, at least, some change is coming to
Myanmar. Almost any, short of all-out civil war, would be better than
none. And it would help if Miss Suu Kyi and her party had some role,
however circumscribed, in shaping it.

____________________________________

March 31, New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Myanmar's democrats face some tough choices – Kamrul Idris

THE only thing certain about the Myanmar elections due this year is that
they will not be free and fair.

The generals in charge of one of the world's darkest corners have written
a Constitution and election laws that pre-empt the participation of the
surefire winners if a proper ballot is held - Aung San Suu Kyi and the
vanguard of her National League for Democracy (NLD), who have been
outlawed by imprisonment or contact with foreigners.

With Stalinist precision, the Constitution was approved in May 2008 by
referendum with 98 per cent voting and 92 per cent saying yes, a mere days
after Cyclone Nargis caused the country's worst natural disaster in
decades.

Among some sensible regulations for the registration of political parties,
the election laws decreed this month require the NLD to sack Suu Kyi if it
wants to remain a legal entity.

In case the deck was not sufficiently stacked, an election commission has
been set up with reliable junta members to veto any hint of a repeat of
the 1990 vote - which the NLD unexpectedly won while the soldiers were not
looking, and thus had to be quickly reneged on by a return to 20 more
years of military misrule.

The slow denouement of the election process has been observed by
Myanmar-watchers with predictable groans of disappointment.

"The election laws are totally unacceptable to anyone with an aspiration
to even appear to be democratic," said Roshan Jason, executive director of
the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus.

Measured against any respectable yardstick, the steps taken towards
representative government are a flop. They do not go far enough to
persuade anyone, inside or outside the country, that the generals of the
State Peace and Development Council mean to kick themselves out of power
in favour of a popularly elected civilian leadership.

But this is Myanmar - like the proverbial dog walking on its hind legs,
the surprise is less that the elections will somehow be rigged but that
they are taking place at all.

That is why in the deluge of criticism on the heels of the regime's
"roadmap to democracy" - including by the United States, which has
switched to a policy of engagement - lies an undercurrent of realism.

The temptation to look through a glass brightly is exemplified by the
Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) and others who have
maintained a difficult objectivity on the highly emotive subject.

In a report last August, the ICG advised against a rush to pre-judgement.
"For all the control that the regime intends to wield over the electoral
process and subsequent appointment to key executive and legislative posts,
Myanmar will still have a new bicameral national legislature in which
representatives from different parties will sit; regional legislatures
that allow for more ethnic representation than in the past; and some scope
for increased interaction between civilian and military leaders, all in
the context of a major generational transition at the top ranks of the
military," it said.

"The Constitution may inadvertently provide the tools to open up a little
space as the post-Than Shwe era grows closer."

Aging, superstitious and xenophobic, the senior general warned at the Army
Day parade on Saturday against "divisive" campaigning and outside
interference as armed forces personnel swap uniforms for civvies to become
establishment politicians.

Many among Myanmar's diaspora intelligentsia, who have eluded the regime's
paranoia and been allowed to return home regularly, are hard-headed,
cautiously holding out the prospect of a despotism inching away from the
shadows.

Under the new dispensation "ordinary people do not have to worry too much
about transgressing rules which are not known. They will now have to
contend with rules that are known", said one.

"For most of them, who are very worried about the economic situation, they
might find some sort of reprieve."

That glimmer of hope has been enough to throw the NLD into a dilemma. Suu
Kyi, from the sainthood of her house arrest (no TV, phone or much in the
way of company), has stood firm in not wanting to have anything to do with
the elections. A faction in the NLD, however, aims to take part, and
prevent a slide into irrelevancy as the political vacuum is filled by
surrogates less hidebound by years of unbending opposition to the regime.

If the party stays reasonably united, it could even win a majority,
although that would be hobbled by the military's guarantee of a quarter of
seats in Parliament. A crisis conclave of party representatives on Monday
chose Suu Kyi's moral high ground, refusing to register under what they
considered "unjust" laws.

Last week, at the Puchong, Selangor, premises of the NLD foreign affairs
committee, whose reception room is draped with posters of Suu Kyi,
chairman Kyaw Kyaw awaited the decision with trepidation.

He and most of the estimated 5,000 political exiles in Malaysia believe
that the vote is being foisted on an electorate whose aptitude for
political choices has been maimed by ignorance, poverty and despair. Few
are thought to understand the Constitution, to which so many had allegedly
assented.

Kyaw has been on the lam since 1996, not long after he was jailed in
Yangon's notorious Insein prison at the age of 16 for student agitation.
He and the 11 dissidents of the committee, which is headquartered in
Bangkok and has offices in eight other countries, face arrest in Myanmar.
With the NLD confronting dissolution and the generals ascendent, their
chances of going back to the families they left behind are vanishingly
remote.

Many in Asean blame Myanmar for bringing Africa to Southeast Asia, the
latest manifestation of which is United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur
Tomas Quintana's allegation of gross abuses and crimes against humanity.
But they also know that the 10-member grouping's leverage is limited.

As long as there is movement towards elections, no matter how crabbed or
crooked, the generals can count on the international community not
treating them worse than it does now.

____________________________________

March 31, Inter Press Service
In opting for poll boycott, NLD goes for broke – Marwaan Macan-Markar

Bangkok — If Burma’s military regime goes ahead with its promised general
election this year, some 27.2 million voters will be deprived of the
chance to cast a ballot for the political party that has come to symbolize
democratic hope in that oppressed nation.

This is the scenario taking shape after the National League for Democracy
(NLD), led by pro-democracy icon and party leader Aung San Suu Syi,
decided on Monday to boycott the general election.

A damning indictment on the South-east Asian nation’s first parliamentary
poll in two decades, the NLD decision was hardly a surprise. It endorsed
the unequivocal message that was delivered days before by Suu Kyi, through
her lawyer Nyan Win, to over 150 central committee members and party
representatives who met in Rangoon, the former capital.

Suu Kyi, who has been placed under house arrest for over 14 of the past 20
years, had said "she will never accept registration (of her party to
contest the poll) under unjust (electoral) laws."

"The NLD’s decision not to register the party and contest the elections
will be a big loss for the people," says Win Min, a Burmese national
security expert at Payap University in the northern Thai city of Chiang
Mai. "There are many people who wanted to vote for the NLD. They will be
sad even though they will support the boycott."

Yet the NLD’s position may have been exactly what Burma’s strongman,
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, favored, Win Min explained to IPS. "It seems the NLD
played into Than Shwe’s hands. He wanted to avoid a repeat of the 1990
election outcome."

In that last election in Burma, also known as Myanmar, the newly formed
NLD secured 82 percent of the 485 parliamentary seats up for grabs. But
the military regime, which had been in power since a 1962 coup, refused to
recognize the results.

It is little wonder why the five election laws rolled out by the junta
this month were aimed at avoiding a repeat of its 1990 poll defeat, and
the NLD’s activism that followed.

The Political Parties Registration Law, for instance, was targetted to
keep Nobel Peace Laureate Suu Kyi out of contention by declaring that
"people who are serving a prison term cannot form a political party" and
that "people who are serving a prison term cannot be a member of a
political party."

Suu Kyi, one of the over 2,200 political prisoners in Burma, was convicted
of violating the terms of her house arrest when US national John William
Yettaw swam to her home last year.

By opting for a boycott, the NLD hierarchy has opted to remain loyal to
its popular leader rather than ditching her to meet electoral requirements
and contest the poll. "Without any objections, all the party leaders
reached a consensus not to register the party and join the election
because the junta’s election laws are unjust," Khin Maung Swe, a senior
party official who attended the Mar. 29 meeting, was quoted as having told
‘The Irrawaddy’ magazine run by Burmese journalists in exile.

Yet it is a high-stakes political gamble, for the NLD may have placed
itself in an awkward position by taking the moral high ground instead of
following pragmatic politics. The NLD ignored the "big picture in Burmese
politics and the important role it has to play in helping to transform the
country towards a democracy," a senior official of a Southeast Asian
country told IPS. "Democracy is a process, not a morality play."

Even Western governments who have been trenchant critics of the junta are
not all in agreement with the NLD’s move. "It is a disappointing decision.
It disregards the variety of opposition opinion inside the country," a
European diplomat who regularly visits Burma observed in an interview.
"The NLD discredits those who will form parties to contest the election."

Between 11 to 15 political parties are expected to register before the May
7 deadline, a number much lower than the nearly 100 that registered to
contest the 1990 election.

The coming poll may come to haunt the NLD in other ways, too. "This
election will be a referendum on the popularity of the NLD," says Benjamin
Zawacki, Burma researcher for the London-based rights lobby Amnesty
International. "The test will be whether people participate and vote or
acquiesce to the NLD’s call to boycott the poll."

"It is political brinkmanship on the part of the NLD," Zawacki told IPS.
"Should they succeed and people boycott the poll, it could fundamentally
change the political landscape of Myanmar. But if they fail – if voters
ignore the boycott and vote for other parties – then it could spell the
end of the NLD as a political party."

The risk that the 2010 election may sound the death knell for the NLD has
not been lost on the party hierarchy. "Our party can die, but not our
political movement," was how Nyan Win, Suu Kyi’s lawyer and NLD spokesman
described the party’s sentiment ‘The Irrawaddy’.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

March 31, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
United Nations Human Rights Council: Positive steps on country situations
and the protection of human rights norms

Commenting on the results of its 13th session which ended on Friday March
26th , FIDH considers the United Nations Human Rights Council has taken
positive steps to respond to the human rights violations committed in
Guinea and Burma and has prevented parts of initiatives of certain
countries to draft new norms on racial discriminations that may have
undermined human rights standards and the fight against racism at the UN.

Country situations: In adopting resolutions dedicated to the human rights
situations of Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Democratic
Popular Republic of Korea, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and
Myanmar/Burma, the Council has maintained an important country related
focus, which FIDH believes contributes to preventing abuses, in situations
where there is a serious pattern of violations. The resolution on Guinea
was a long awaited first reaction of the UN's primary body in charge of
human rights on the massacre of September 2009 in Conakry. It prolonged
the UN Security Council's mobilisation and agreed to the establishment of
an Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guinea. The
resolution on Myanmar provide an important and timely reaction to the way
the junta is organising elections next fall, regretting that the «
electoral laws do not meet the epectations of the international community
regarding what is needed for an inclusive political process », calling
upon them « to ensure a free, transparent and fair electoral process which
allows for the participation therein of all voters, all political parties,
and all other relevant stakeholders in a manner of their choosing ».

The resolution also supports the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur
on Myanmar, notably after his latest report called for the establishment
of a commission of inquiry on the international crimes in Burma. FIDH and
its partner organisations Altsean Burma and Burma Lawyers' Council have
long been denouncing the electoral process and urged for the establishment
of a commission of inquiry1, a call we hope will be supported following
the resolution.

FIDH nevertheless regrets that the Council's review of its mobilisation on
the Democratic Republic of the Congo failed to establish a dedicated
expert mechanism to monitor the implementation of deeply needed reforms in
the country, despite the alarming reports of UN Special procedures and of
the High Commissioner on the absence of genuine progress.2 While the
resolution will maintain the attention of the Council on the country's
evolution, FIDH and its
member organisations expect that the Council will ultimately retailor its
response to the challenges ahead as recommended by the High Commissioner,
or witnessed through the assessments of the UN Security Council's
consideration of the country.

FIDH also regrets the absence of a dedicated initiative on human rights in
Iran: while the
situation has been thoroughly debated and reported by the UN High
Commissioner, the Council failed to adapt its decisions to the escalating
repression. Notwithstanding the Universal Periodic Review and the General
Assembly resolution, the Iranian regime pursues the repression beyond the
streets to its tribunals, condemning peaceful activists to the death
penalty, reinforcing its control over channels of information, repressing
human rights activists, and persecuting religious and ethnic minorities.

Thematic situations: A large number of thematic issues were under
discussion, and the workload of the reports to be considered does not give
satisfaction to the importance they deserve. Specific themes would benefit
from a greater attention and mobilisation, notably to counter specific
attempts to diminish the protection mandate of the Council's instruments.
This was witnessed throughout the topics on which FIDH mobilised.

 FIDH applauded the introduction of a joint report on Secret detention, a
report which consideration will be delayed following the controversy it
sparked.

The report provides the first comprehensive UN study to describe and
confront secret detention practices in the context of the fight against
terrorism. It is an important echo at the universal level, of the
documentation lead by experts from the Council of Europe and Members of
the European Parliament. It demonstrates how in spite of a large
mobilisation, States responsible or complicit of secret detention
facilities failed to adequately investigate and prosecute the human rights
violations they were - or still are - responsible of.

FIDH regrets the controversy on the report, while we believe it
strengthens the quality of the work presented by expert to the Council. We
hope the delay in its consideration will enable States to implement its
important recommendations and mainstream its results throughout the UN
architecture, in particular at the UN Security Council's Counter-terrorism
Committee.

FIDH welcomes the dedication of the resolution on Protecting human rights
while countering terrorism, which echoed the work of the Special
Rapporteur, on the protection of the right to privacy while countering
terrorism, a balance which is at the heart of contemporary legal
initiatives in European States, a right balance which few States have been
able to strike globally.

FIDH regrets the renewed introduction by Pakistan of a resolution on
"Combating defamation of religions". "Defamation of religion" does not
accord with international human rights law, nor does it provide a
protective framework to respond adequately to disproportionate
restrictions to freedom of religion such as was the Swiss referendum on
Minarets, nor an appropriate reaction to respond to the repression that
individuals are suffering on grounds of their religious beliefs. We
however note the decreased support to the resolution3, and welcome notably
the decisions of Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina and Zambia to vote against it.

FIDH also takes note of the resolution on the elaboration of complementary
standards to the International Convention on the elimination of all forms
of racial discrimination and as such, welcomes the fact that the
resolution has not endorsed the controversial initiative of Algeria and
Pakistan to promote the drafting of binding norms, to further protect the
expression of religious identity in societies, in contradiction to clear
expert recommendations on the issue.

Finally, FIDH approves the resolution adopted on the Protection of Human
rights defenders while regretting the initiatives to reformulate its scope
to limit the protection they should benefit from, on grounds of promoting
their "responsibility" or challenging their funding.

For further information: Julie Gromellon, FIDH Representative to the UN,
+41 79 331 24 50