'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.

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.

News you can use ... about Burma/Myanmar

Ever asked:

Who is in the Burmese military junta, anyway?

An excellent question, regarding the regime on which IntLawGrrls have posted here and here.

Slate's got the answer for you here.

(map credit)

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.

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 February 11, ...

... 1991, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization was formed at The Hague. UNPO's membership includes "indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments, and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them." Today, on its 2d International Action Day, UNPO's launching a yearlong focus on a theme á propos of yesterday's post by Naomi Norberg: "Freedom for Burma Now!"
... 1962, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) was born in Madison, Wisconsin.
... 1916, Russia-born American anarchist Emma Goldman was arrested by New York police for giving a public lecture on birth control. Goldman (right) "was charged with violating the Comstock Law," an 1873 federal "statute banning transportation of 'obscene' matter through the mails."

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.

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.