'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'Some say that Clinton diluted her energy and failed to achieve any signature triumphs, such as an end to the Syrian crisis. Others argue that through a thousand lesser-known efforts and initiatives, she has achieved nothing less than a transformative shift toward a more effective and modern American diplomacy.'

–  Reporter Stephanie McCrummen, writing in today's Washington Post about U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. McCrummen's thoughtful survey of Clinton's approach these last 4 years to her position as the United States' top diplomat –  a position from which Clinton has said she soon will resign –  is well worth a read. (credit for State Department photo of Clinton, at right, with Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and, since this past April, a member of the Parliament of Myanmar)

Final Push on Myanmar Foreign Investment Law

After a half-century of brutal dictatorship and a closed economy further stymied by sanctions, Myanmar—identified by the Wall Street Journal as “one of Asia’s most promising new frontier markets”—is close to enacting a new foreign investment law.
After legislators passed the law last week, foreign investors urged President Thein Sein to send the law back to Parliament for clarification. Specific concerns included provisions restricting foreign ownership in particular industries to 50 percent, which were seen as too vague, making it difficult for investors to know which economic activities are included in the restricted industries.
Observers are cautiously optimistic about Myanmar’s new law. Politicians who are cozy with the still-powerful military originally succeeded in preserving a heavy government hand in some areas, which would prolong historical cronyism by leaving investors at the mercy of the politically connected. However, reports yesterday are that President Thein Sein and his liberal allies—most famously, pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi (pictured above) (previous posts)—have managed to secure compromises on those points.

'Nuff Said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

(credit)

'I can't wait until people like me are unnecessary.' *

-- In response to the interviewer's question about whether she would seek the Burmese presidency, Aung San Suu Kyi (left) said she thinks that what the people want is a government, leadership, adding that ideally, people like her will soon be out of a job.


*My rough translation back from the interpretation of Suu Kyi's remarks.The podcast of the interview should soon be available here, in the slot for the June 27, 8:20 a.m. invité.

Breaking News: Aung San Suu Kyi finally free

After spending 15 of the last 21 years in detention, Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has finally been released by the ruling military junta.

Inquiring minds want ... Burma

Heard murmurs a while back about the possibility of an international inquiry commission into abuses in Burma, the country also known as Myanmar about which IntLawGrrls frequently have posted.
A statement that Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe (below right), the U.S. Representative to the Human Rights Council, made in Geneva Friday (hat tip) confirms that such a possibility is on the table.
Speaking during a "general debate on situations requiring the Council's attention," Donahoe 1st put the issue in context:

In Burma, the human rights situation remains grim. Under the repressive election laws that stifle meaningful competition and with the continued detention of more than 2,100 political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the November 7 elections cannot be inclusive or credible.

(credit for above left photo 1991 Peace Prizewinner Suu Kyi (prior posts)) Donahoe then articulated the aims of the United States regarding the Asian country that's been ruled by a military junta since the late 1980s:

Our overriding objective is to promote a peaceful democratic transition, encourage national reconciliation, and achieve respect for human rights. We urge an end to systematic violations of religious freedom, notably the large-scale repression against the Muslim Rohingya, including refusal to grant citizenship, severe government restrictions on travel, and discrimination in employment and educational opportunities.

Donahoe's comment concluded by referring to a March 2010 report that had recommended "a commission of inquiry with a specific fact finding mandate to address the question of international crimes." Issuing that report was Tomás Ojea Quintana, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. The Council discussed the report at the time it was issued, but took no action. Friday, Donahoe said on behalf of the United States:

Finally, six months ago Special Rapporteur Ojea Quintana invited consideration of a commission of inquiry. The United States believes a properly structured international commission of inquiry that would examine allegations of serious violations of international law would be warranted and appropriate. My government is examining how best to proceed on this initiative.

Worth noting that Ojea Quintana's report made specific reference to the International Criminal Court. Past such commissions have been deployed in places like the former Yugoslavia and Darfur. The resulting Yugoslavia report, issued by a commission chaired by M. Cherif Bassiouni, and the Darfur report, issued by a commission chaired by Antonio Cassese, both led to international criminal cases. No less an authority than Philip G. Alston, the NYU Law Professor who recently concluded a term as Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has recommended such commissions as "an appropriate filtering mechanism" in order to "evaluate whether or not a situation warrants referral to the ICC."

Worth watching what happens with this proposal.

Aung San Suu Kyi Rebelotte*

*Here we go again.
We've posted several times about Aung San Suu Kyi, the 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the Burmese democratic opposition who has been under house arrest (photo credit) for 13 of the last 19 years. Last week she was treated for low blood pressure and dehydration, and this week she's been dragged off to prison because an American, John Yettaw, stayed in her house for 2 days - after swimming across Lake Inya to get there. Indicted Thursday for having violated the rules of her house arrest, Suu Kyi is scheduled for trial tomorrow, just 9 days before her house arrest is scheduled to end.
Yettaw's motives are unknown, but one hopes he's not in cahoots with the junta, who may be grabbing at straws to renew Suu Kyi's house arrest and keep her off the national scene until the elections scheduled for 2010 have been held. In Burma, lodging a foreigner (who's not a family member) in your house without notifiying the authorities in advance is an offense. Yettaw apparently tried to speak with Suu Kyi once before, but left when she asked him to. This time, he did not. As a result, he, Suu Kyi, the 2 women who live with her and even her doctor, who's had her put on an IV twice recently due to her weakened state, are all in prison.

When Is Prosecution Persecution?

This, of course, is a central question in refugee and asylum law -- when does prosecution by a state cross the line from legitimate investigation into persecution, thus rendering the accused eligible for refugee status? We've recently seen an abundance of examples of this phenomenon, which illustrates the complex relationship between refugee law and global politics.

In some cases, the prosecuting state's motives are obviously illegitimate, seeking to punish dissidents for engaging in activities protected by international law.

So, we saw yesterday, in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and charged with "violating the rules of her house arrest" after an American man entered her home; under Burmese law, she could face five years in prison for this infraction. Not only is the underlying house arrest an attempt to silence a political critic, but the charges seek to punish Suu Kyi for exercising her right to freedom of association.

The same day, in Zimbabwe, human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama was arrested outside Harare's Magistrates Court for "obstruction of justice"; his "crime" was speaking to the court clerk in an attempt to free three political prisoners.

These examples illustrate one end of the prosecution/ persecution spectrum, with obviously politically motivated charges in countries that lack any pretense of the rule of law, and make for relatively straightforward refugee claims.

Determining the existence of persecutory prosecution can be significantly more complicated, however, as illustrated by Monday's spat between Bolivia and Peru. Bolivian President Evo Morales, who seeks extradition of three former government officials accused of genocide, was angered by Peru's grant of asylum to one of these officials (and review of asylum claims by the other two). Morales has charged these and other officials, as well as the former Bolivian president, with genocide for their role in soldiers' killing of 63 anti-government demonstrators in 2003. The officials argue that the charges are a "political witch hunt" and that they can't get a fair hearing. Presumably on similar grounds, the former president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, was granted asylum in the United States in 2007. So are these criminal charges persecution? The other side would argue that the former government's security forces violently gunned down indigenous protesters demanding political representation, and should be held accountable for their crimes.

A similarly complex story unfolded in England last month, when the High Court held that four accused génocidaires from Rwandans could not be extradited because they would not receive a fair trial in Rwanda. The decision relies on extensive evidence, including expert testimony from Filip Reyntjens and Philippe Sands on behalf of the accused and William Schabas on behalf of the Rwandan government, to analyze whether the accused would face an independent and impartial tribunal and whether there would be adequate protection for their witnesses in Rwanda. Is the lack of procedural safeguards in Rwandan courts so dire that trials before them would constitute persecution? This was not, of course the precise question before the court, which was, rather, deciding whether or not to extradite. But its opinion amply illustrates the heavily politically contested nature of this point. In such situations, where assertions of fact are diametrically opposed and an offer of asylum can itself be viewed as a politically aggressive act, is there any hope that refugee determination processes can remain apolitical, impartial, and fair?

On September 18

On this day in ...
... 1988 (20 years ago today), about 6 weeks after hundreds of thousands had demonstrated in cities across the country, and just over 3 weeks after then-43-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi, "daughter of Burma's independence leader stood outside Shwedagon Pagoda" (left) in Rangoon, "and addressed a huge crowd on the need for democracy," military leaders crushed the Burmese democracy movement. Troops fired into crowds, killing many and arresting others. To this day, "[t]he military remains firmly in control" in the country it calls Myanmar.
... 1961, the bodies of 12 persons were found in the wreckage of a plane outside Ndola, a town in Northern Rhodesia (today, Zambia). Among those killed in the crash was U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, who'd been on his way to take part in "peace talks following clashes between United Nations peacekeeping troops and forces striving for independence in the breakaway Congolese province of Katanga." The 1961 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded posthumously to Hammarskjöld (right), born 56 years earlier in Sweden; in the words of the BBC, "he did much to raise the profile of the UN and the post of secretary general."

On July 19

On this day in ...
... 1947, paramilitaries burst into a meeting in Rangoon of the Executive Council that was working toward Burmese independence and assassinated Aung San (right), a premier architect of that strategy, and 6 others. He is the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman now leading opposition to the military junta controlling Burma/Myanmar.
... 1900, the 1st line of the Paris Métro began operations. Today it's among the world's busiest subways. Details:

The system boasts 211 km (131 miles) of track and 14 lines, shuttling 3500 cars on a precise schedule between 380 stations (not including RER stations), 87 of these offering connections between lines. It is said that every building in Paris is within 500 meters (3/10 mile) of a métro station. Roughly 6 million people per day patronize the métro, which employs over 15,000.

The Dark Side of Sovereignty

Poor Burma.
If ever a country deserved better, it is Burma. A peaceful, predominantly Buddhist country, rich in natural resources and fertile land, Burma should be the economic engine of South East Asia. Instead, the country has suffered in the grips of a repressive military junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Concil (SLORC) for years. SLORC has held the elected leader of the country, Nobel Peace Prizewinner Aung San Suu Kyi (left), has been held under house arrest for more than a decade.
Last fall, the junta smashed monk-led street protests. Those protests were sparked by the soaring price of rice, but were popularly perceived as a challenge to the regime itself. An unknown number of monks and other civilians were killed, and many remain in detention.
Then came Cyclone Nargis with its 120 mile an hour winds.
On May 3, the cyclone swept through the Irrawaddy delta, a densely populated rice growing region, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Tens of thousands are dead. Survivors face poor sanitation, no shelter and a lack of drinking water. Outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever, as well as cholera and dysentery, are likely.
To top it off, the entire nation’s food security is now in jeopardy. The cyclone devastated area produces most of Burma’s rice and fish. Save the Children's Burma Representative Andrew Kirkwood has compared the scale of the disaster to the 2004 tsunami. The Food and Agriculture Organization today called for $10 million dollars of emergency assistance to farming and fishing communities. With climate change apparently well underway, we can expect more of these severe storms, and as always, it is the poorest who are most vulnerable.
Will help Reach Those in Need?
Astonishingly, in Burma, that vulnerability is being compounded by an irresponsible and unresponsive government. The SLORC government is preventing foreign aid workers from reaching those in jeopardy. Today, the United Nations announced that it is suspending relief efforts after SLORC seized U.N. rice stores and equipment. According to the World Food Program, the junta seized all of the food aid that the agency had managed to get into Burma.
Watching this humanitarian disaster unfold, I can’t help thinking that we are seeing the dark side of sovereignty. Is the international community really powerless to prevent the junta from refusing to admit foreign aid workers, and thwarting international relief efforts? The survivors of this disaster deserve better. France apparently agrees. According to the Daily Mail, France proposed invoking Security Council Resolution 1674, which articulates an international "responsibility to protect," to bypass the junta and deliver aid directly to those in need.

P.S.: By the way, I deliberately choose to call the country Burma, not Myanmar, because the name-change was a SLORC project, and has not been recognized by the opposition (the legally-elected government.) The UN may use Myanmar, but it will be Burma to me until the democratic opposition says otherwise.

On May 6

On this day in ...
... 1882, the U.S. Congress passed An Act to Execute Certain Treaty Stipulations Relating to Chinese, better known as the Chinese Exclusion Act. The United States' 1st major immigration restriction, the Act provided that Chinese "skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining" who tried to enter in the next 10 years would face imprisonment and deportation, and further barred Chinese immigrants from U.S. citizenship. (photo credit)
... 2002, opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi left her lakeside villa for the 1st time in 19 months when Myanmar's military government released her from "house arrest and said it would allow her to pursue her political activities as leader of the country's democratic opposition." In fact, however, Suu Kyi (left) later would be returned to house arrest, and to this day, as we've posted, the junta in the country once known as Burma (site this weekend of a devastating cyclone) blocks her from seeking elective office.

Suu Kyi’s ineligibility for office confirmed

“Too late, the Constitution’s already been written”. So replied General Kyaw Hsan, Burmese Minister of Information to UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari when the latter asked that the military junta amend the draft Constitution it intends to have approved by referendum in May. As I’ve posted, the draft Constitution was written entirely by the junta and assures that the military continues to play a major role in the constitutional government. Last month I wrote that the junta had added a criteria for electoral eligibility aimed directly at excluding democratic opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi from holding any role in the new government: no one who is or has been married to a foreigner may run for office. Gambari is in Burma/Myanmar to mediate the constitutional referendum’s organization. In telling Gambari that it was too late to amend the Constitution—and boost its credibility with Western nations—General Hsan accused him of partiality and exceeding his role as mediator: during his November 2007 visit to the country, Gambari apparently had published Suu Kyi’s statement that she was ready and willing to work with the military regime to foster national dialogue. Hsan went so far as to intimate that Gambari himself wrote the statement.
Ah, the paranoia that comes with stolen power.

On this day

On March 2, ...
... 1903 (105 years ago today), the Martha Washington Hotel (right), the 1st U.S. hotel solely for women, opened in New York City. With entrances at 29 East 29th and 30 East 30th streets, the lodging had 416 rooms and a restaurant open to men as well as women.
... 1962, via radio, General Ne Win announced that a military junta had seized power in Burma. Calling itself the "Revolutionary Council," the junta comprised 17 Army, Navy, and Air Force officers. The takeover, and the arrest of Premier U Nu, were said to have been designed to prevent imposition of a federal government in which members of the Shan minority would have some governmental power. The junta continues to rule the country it's renamed Myanmar (flag below). At the time of Ne Win's death in 2002, the BBC wrote: that he "was a ruthless and corrupt figure whose 26 year-rule helped cause the country's economic decline"; that "his brutal regime curtailed human and political rights and was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people"; and that his "hand-picked successors placed Aung San Suu Kyi, the dissident politician and daughter of a former colleague, under house arrest following pro-democracy protests in 1988."

Myanmar elections upcoming but not soon

Myanmar's military government has finally announced multi-party elections….in 2010. The first in 20 years, the elections will follow this coming May’s referendum to adopt a new constitution and are apparently made possible by the junta’s having “achieved success in economic, social and other sectors and in restoring peace and stability." That is, after it put down the pro-democracy demonstrations led by Buddhist monks last fall. In fact, things were already going well enough in 2003 for the junta to lay out a 7-step roadmap to democracy, with the nationwide referendum to ratify the new constitution being step number 4. It is believed, however, that the constitution will keep Aung San Suu Kyi (right), about whom we’ve posted here and here, from holding office by barring from leadership positions, which will be held primarily by members of the military, anyone married to a foreigner: Suu Kyi’s the widow of British academic Michael Aris.

Bhutto and Suu Kyi briefly swap places

With the road leading to her home blocked by barbed wire, metal barricades and dozens of police officers, Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister and major opponent of Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf, was kept yesterday from attending a rally. Bhutto had intended to lead demonstrators in protest against the week-old state of emergency (see our discussion of states of emergency in posts below by Diane, Michelle, Fiona, myself and again Fiona), but found herself confined for the day. She was, however, able to meet with her party’s leaders Saturday midday. Bhutto has only recently returned to Pakistan, following a deal with Musharraf. Her brief confinement has probably increased her credibility without damaging her chances of making a deal with Musharraf; indeed, it is reported that talks between the two are continuing. (Bhutto's by no means the only woman to have endured house arrest this last week; see Diane's post below.)

Meanwhile in Burma/Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi (see here and here) has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years, and hasn’t met with members of her party, the National League for Democracy, since 2004. Yesterday, she was allowed to do so to discuss the preconditions the military junta has set for meeting with her. Though Suu Kyi is not seeking confrontation or regime change, the proposed talks follow on massive demonstrations led by monks ending in a crackdown by the junta in the last days of September. Ibrahim Gambari, the UN representative who has visited Burma/Myanmar twice since then, was apparently “instrumental” in arranging the proposed talks between the junta and Suu Kyi. Talks may lead to a constitutional referendum and election: after 14 years of on-again off-again sessions, in early September a constitutional convention produced guidelines for a constitution. Unfortunately, the guidelines ensure a strong role for the military.

Of mother's milk and monks

Another Sunday and the posting choice is difficult. I've been following the monks on march for democracy in Burma, was going to be a bit lazy and and post about a study that proves that women prefer pink. Actually, the prefer the red side of the color chart, thus everyone's favorite color, blue, becomes pink or lilac for women. The authors of the study think that this might be so because women gathered fruit, which is red when ripe. I can think of a more sanguine reason... In any case, I opened my LA Times e-mail alert and was jolted out of complacency by the Bush administration's utterly irresponsible caving in to pressure from the baby formula industry and weakening public health ad campaigns promoting breast feeding, which has many more life-long health benefits than does baby formula. Once riled, I figured it was time to post about Burma (currently called Myanmar by the military junta; while US news sources state these facts the other way around, i.e., Myanmar, formerly called or also known as…the French continue to call it Burma and the capitol city Rangoon, rather than the junta-redubbed Yangon). Protests have been going on since August over unannounced and unexplained hikes in gas and other prices and, as anyone who’s been following the news these past weeks knows, Buddhist monks have been leading massive demonstrations (10,000 monks, 20,000 total people in the biggest demonstration last week), even managing to stop and pray before the home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But the junta finally cracked down violently, even killing a Japanese journalist and cutting cell phone and internet connections to stop information from getting to the outside world. The UN envoy was finally granted a visa and was able to meet with both Suu Kyi and junta leaders, but few have great hopes for the outcome. While things are clearly at a turning point, without the help of China (Burma’s biggest trading partner), the rest of the world seems powerless to get the junta to democratize (or at least end Suu Kyi’s house arrest) and China, while calling for restraint and peaceful settlement of the situation, will not join the international movement for sanctions or boycotts.

On June 19, ...

... 1945, a daughter was born to in the city then known as Rangoon to Aung San, commander of the Burma Independence Army, and Daw Khin Kyi, senior nurse of Rangoon General Hospital. Named Aung San Suu Kyi, she would devote her life to nonviolent struggle for change in her country, renamed Myanmar following a military coup. The 1990 electoral victory of her opposition party resulted not in a change in government, but in the house-arrest of Suu Kyi. In 1990 her son accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf. Despite international outcry, Suu Kyi's remained in detention at her home in the city of her birth, now known as Yangon, for 11 of the last 17 years; recently, detention was extended for yet another 12 months. (photo courtesy of Suu Kyi's website)
... 1862 (145 years ago today), an act declaring that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the Territories of the United States ... otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" was approved. Marking the occasion to this day are Juneteenth celebrations, not only in the United States, but throughout the world.

Another woman’s struggle

Labeled a "threat to national peace and tranquility," Aung san suu kyi (at right), the democratically elected leader of Myanmar/Burma is still under house arrest. Affectionately called “The Lady” by her people, Aung san suu kyi was elected in 1990 and awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1991. But the ruling military junta refused to hand over the governmental reins and has kept her under house arrest—without telephone, mail or visitors—for 11of the past 17 years. Even a visit from her exiled dying husband was refused. Meanwhile, as the lawyers working with Freedom Now in Washington to represent Aung San Suu Kyi reported in the IHT:

[M]ore than 3,000 villages have been destroyed since 1996 as the military wages a relentless campaign of killing, torture and rape against ethnic minorities. A million refugees have fled the country and 600,000 internally displaced people struggle to subsist in primitive jungle conditions. More than 800,000 people are used as forced labor and the country has over 70,000 child soldiers. Myanmar is currently the world's second largest exporter of heroin and opiates as well as a major producer of methamphetamines. The junta's failure to address its burgeoning HIV/AIDS crisis has led to the spread of the disease along the drug routes into neighboring countries.

29 consecutive UN resolutions and pleas from numerous world leaders have so far failed to secure The Lady’s release. What about sanctions? Divestment?