The Despotism Formerly Known as Burma

New York: Sept 26, 2007: By dispatching troops into the streets and imposing a curfew, Myanmar’s cruel military junta has set the stage for a serious clash with pro-democracy activists. A firm and united international response along the lines outlined by President Bush and the European Union at the United Nations yesterday offers the best hope of encouraging peaceful change in a nation that has endured a 19-year reign of fear. The question is whether the countries with the greatest influence on Myanmar’s generals — China, Russia and India, which all sell weapons to the army, as well as the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that are Myanmar’s immediate neighbors — have the good sense to condemn the repression and exert the pressures only they can wield with any hope of positive effect. It is essential that they step up to the plate, and fast, before blood is spilled.

Peaceful protests that began last month over dramatically increased fuel prices became seriously threatening to the junta when Myanmar’s highly revered Buddhist monks joined in. The growing crowds gave voice to pent-up grievances — and the junta responded in a predictable, entirely wrongheaded way. It sent troops into the streets, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was reported to have been moved to prison from house arrest.

The United States, which has long had sanctions on Myanmar, including an import ban, will now expand a visa ban against regime leaders and tighten financial penalties, Mr. Bush told the United Nations. Although not spelled out, the plan is believed to include going after regime bank accounts in Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries, a tactic used by Washington with some effect against North Korea. The European Union also warned the junta that it faced tougher sanctions if it used force to crush the pro-democracy movement. These were good and necessary moves, but the greatest leverage to forestall disaster lies with China, Russia and India, who are making money off the junta and enabling it to stay in power. China, Myanmar’s chief trade partner and the host of the 2008 Olympic Games, has beefed up arms sales to Yangon, formerly Rangoon, prompting Russia and India to do likewise as a way of offsetting Beijing’s influence.

Moscow has discussed providing the junta with a nuclear research reactor, and India — the democracy on which the United States hopes to build a key security and economic relationship for the 21st century — had a senior minister in Myanmar for energy talks, even as the democracy protests were under way. There are some signs that China has urged restraint, but more must be done, including supporting U.N. sanctions on Myanmar that Beijing and Moscow have so far blocked. The U.N. envoy dealing with Myanmar, Ibrahmim Gambari, must aggressively rally these major countries, as well as the Asean nations, to persuade the generals to stand down.
The New York Times
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Missionary's Murderer also Killed Catholic Priest

Bangalore Sept. 25th: (ENI). A Hindu activist convicted of murdering an Australian missionary and his two sons in India in 1999 has now been found guilty of killing an Indian Roman Catholic priest in the same year. "This verdict instils hope and courage for harassed minorities," said the spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, the Rev. Babu Joseph, after a court in the state of Orissa found Dara Singh and three others guilty of the murder of Catholic priest Arul Doss in 1999. The court sentenced the four defendants to life in prison. Singh is already serving a life imprisonment term for the murder of Australian Baptist missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two young sons, who all died after the vehicle in which they were sleeping was set on fire.
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Environmental Protection is a Moral Imperative

VATICAN CITY, SEP 25, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today was the text of a speech delivered by Msgr. Pietro Parolin, under-secretary for Relations with States, before the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly which is meeting to deliberate on the theme of "the future is in our hands: addressing the leadership challenge of climate change." "Climate change is a serious concern and an inescapable responsibility," said Msgr. Parolin in his English-language talk. "My delegation wishes to stress the underlying moral imperative that everyone, without exception, has a grave responsibility to protect the environment," he added.

"The best scientific assessments available have established a link between human activity and climate change," he continued. "However, the results of these scientific assessments, and the remaining uncertainties, should neither be exaggerated nor minimized in the name of politics, ideologies or self-interest. Rather they now need to be studied closely in order to give a sound basis for raising awareness and making effective policy decisions.

"In recent times," he added, "it has been unsettling to note how some commentators have said that we should actually exploit our world to the full, with little or no heed to the consequences, using a world view supposedly based on faith." This, said Msgr. Parolin "is a fundamentally reckless approach." However "there are those who hold up the earth as the only good, and would characterize humanity as an irredeemable threat to the earth, whose population and activity need to be controlled by various drastic means." They, he stressed, "would place human beings and their needs at the service of an inhuman ecology."

"Since no country alone can solve the problems related to our common environment, we need to overcome self-interest through collective action. On the part of the international community, this presupposes the adoption of a coordinated, effective and prompt international political strategy" to "identify ways ... to enhance sustainable development and foster a healthy environment," while bearing in mind "that poor nations and sectors of society are particularly vulnerable to the adverse consequences of climate change, due to lesser resources and capacity to mitigate their effects and adapt to altered surroundings."

"The pace of achieving and codifying a new international consensus on climate change is not always matched by an equally expeditious and effective pace of implementation of such agreements. States are free to adopt international conventions and treaties, but unless our words are matched with effective action and accountability, we would do little to avert a bleak future and may find ourselves gathering again not too long from now to lament another collective failure."
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Myanmar Junta's Secretive Supremo

Five facts about the Burmese military junta's most powerful figure, Than Shwe:

Born in British-controlled central Burma in February 1933. Than Shwe joined the army in 1953 and rose through the ranks to become military supremo with the official title "Senior General" in 1992.

On taking power, he said the junta that seized power in a 1962 coup would "not hold onto power for long," sparking hopes of civilian government. Since then, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of her time either in prison or under house arrest.

Than Shwe is rarely seen in public or out of uniform. One notable exception was his appearance at a secretly leaked video of his daughter's wedding in 2006. The ceremony's lavishness sparked outrage among Burma's 53 million people, among the poorest in Asia.

He is known to have an intense personal dislike of Suu Kyi and is alleged to have walked out of a meeting with a foreign envoy when her name was mentioned.

Rumours about his failing health and imminent demise are common.
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Poor Nations Need Incentives to Cut Emissions

New York Sept. 25th: Rich countries must cut their “unacceptably high” greenhouse gas emissions and provide incentives for poorer nations to follow suit, the United Nations secretary-general told a meeting of more than 80 heads of state and government on climate change on Monday. Ban Ki-moon said industrialised countries must show more leadership on the issue. “It has been 10 years since the Kyoto protocol was adopted. Yet most industrialised country emissions are still rising and their per capita emissions remain unacceptably high.” He said that poor countries, rather than being given the strict emissions reduction targets meted out to the developed world under the current Kyoto protocol, should be given “incentives to act without sacrificing economic growth or poverty eduction”.

Gordon Brown, prime minister, did not attend the meeting as it clashed with the Labour party conference. But Hilary Benn, secretary of state for the environment, used it to urge the US to reverse its opposition to binding targets to cut emissions. “[Tackling climate change] means all of us, including the largest economy in the world, the US, taking on binding emissions reduction targets. It is inconceivable that dangerous climate change can be avoided without this happening.” His words marked a change in tone for the UK in its approach towards the US on environmental issues. Tony Blair preferred to use his relationship with George W. Bush to press him privately to soften his stance on climate change.

Mr Bush was not at Monday’s meeting, but did attend a dinner that followed. He is holding a separate meeting on climate change with the world’s 16 biggest emitting countries later this week in Washington. The US is unlikely to commit to targets to reduce its emissions. Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, told the Financial Times the US supported a “long-term global goal” for reducing emissions, but that shorter-term goals should be set at a national level. The US has not proposed a specific target for emissions cuts. Ms Dobriansky said the White House would discuss in Washington later this week what such a goal should be.

Mr Ban called on Monday’s meeting, the biggest gathering of heads of state and government to talk about the problem, to agree the broad principles of tackling climate change ahead of a UN conference in Bali in December at which negotiations will begin on a successor to the Kyoto treaty, the main provisions of which expire in 2012. Although government representatives meet each year to discuss the Kyoto protocol, progress on agreeing to action on climate change has been slow. Many observers say part of the problem is that only environment ministers and their officials attend such meetings, rather than heads of government or more senior ministers. Mr Ban’s meeting was intended to break this deadlock by persuading heads of state and government of the need for international action in the hope that they would empower their environment ministers to make more progress in Bali.

Deal agreed to eliminate global warming gas

An environmental agreement was signed at the weekend by a host of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. The agreement was an extension to the Montreal Protocol, a landmark treaty signed 20 years ago that was intended to stem the destruction of the earth’s protective ozone layer by the use of certain chemicals. The agreement accelerated the phasing out of compounds known as HCFCs. These are used in refrigeration and other technologies as substitutes for other chemicals that destroy the ozone layer, but have the unfortunate side effect of warming the planet even more effectively than carbon dioxide. Phasing out HCFCs is much less controversial than cutting emissions of carbon dioxide because the technology to do so is readily available, whereas reducing carbon requires fundamental changes to the way we produce energy. HCFCs, though very potent greenhouse gases, make up only a small proportion of overall greenhouse gas emissions.
By Fiona Harvey Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. 2007
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Logic of Sharing and Not of Profit is the Ultimate Good

Vatican City, Sep 23rd, 2007 (VIS) - This morning, the Holy Father made a pastoral visit to Velletri, south of Rome, where he presided at a Eucharistic celebration in the cathedral square. Benedict XVI held the title of the suburbicarian diocese of Velletri-Segni from the year 1993 until his election to the pontificate in April 2005. His successor as the titular holder of the diocese is Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, while the incumbent is Bishop Vincenzo Apicella.

In his homily the Pope commented on today's Gospel reading of the dishonest manager, and reflected on the danger of excessive attachment to money and material wealth. "In truth," he told the several thousand faithful who had gathered to hear him, "life is always a choice: between faithfulness and unfaithfulness, between selfishness and altruism, between good and evil. The end of this particular Gospel passage is incisive and peremptory: no servant can serve two masters," which in the final analysis means "you cannot serve God and wealth." "A fundamental decision is, then, necessary," Pope Benedict proceeded, "the choice between the logic of profit as the ultimate criteria for our actions and the logic of sharing and solidarity. If the logic of profit prevails, the imbalance between poor and rich increases, as does the ruinous exploitation of the planet. When, on the other hand, the logic of sharing and solidarity prevails it is possible to alter and redirect our course towards equal development and the common good of everyone. Ultimately it is a decision between selfishness and love, between justice and dishonesty, ... between God and Satan. "If loving Christ and our fellow man is not considered as a superficial accessory," he added, "but rather as the real and ultimate aim of our entire life, we must know how to take fundamental decisions, to be ready to make radical sacrifices, if necessary even unto martyrdom. Today, as yesterday, the life of Christians calls for the courage to swim against the tide, to love like Jesus Who went so far as to sacrifice Himself upon the cross."

After the Mass, the Pope blessed a bronze column given to him a year ago as a gift by 100 Bavarian cities to mark his apostolic trip to Germany and his 80th birthday. Two columns were made, one is in the Pope's home town of Marktl am Inn, the other has been donated by him to the diocese of Velletri-Segni. After bidding farewell to the civil and religious authorities of Velletri, the Holy Father returned to the Apostolic Palace at Castelgandolfo where he prayed the Angelus.

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Myanmar Officials Threaten Clerics

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) Sept. 24th. — Myanmar's religious affairs minister warns the Buddhist clergy to restrain demonstrating monks, or else the government will act against protesting clerics. As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters led by a phalanx of Buddhist monks marched Monday through Yangon, the largest crowd to demonstrate in Myanmar's biggest city since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the military. From the front of the march, witnesses could see a 11/2 -kilometre stretch of eight-lane road was filled with people. Some participants said there were several hundred thousand marchers in their ranks, but an international aid agency official with employees monitoring the crowd estimated said the size was well over 50,000 and approaching 100,000.

It was the latest in a series of protests that began Aug. 19 as a movement against economic hardship in the Southeast Asian country after the government sharply raised fuel prices. But arrests and intimidation kept demonstrations small and scattered until the monks entered the fray. The usually iron-fisted junta has so far kept minimal security at the protests, and diplomats and analysts said Myanmar's military rulers were showing the unexpected restraint because of pressure from the country's key trading partner and diplomatic ally, China. The march kicked off, like the previous ones, at the Shwedagon pagoda, a historical centre for political movements as well as the country's most sacred religious shrine. Some 20,000 monks took the lead, with onlookers joining in on what had been billed as a day of general protest.

In the central city of Mandalay, meanwhile, 500 to 600 monks set off shortly after noon on their own protest march. The monks, who took over a faltering protest movement from political activists, already had managed to bring people into the streets in numbers not seen since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising snuffed out by the army at a cost of thousands of lives. On Sunday, about 20,000 people including thousands of monks filled the streets in Yangon, stepping up their confrontation with authorities by chanting support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The increasingly confrontational tone of the anti-government protesters has raised both expectations of possible political change and fear that the military might forcefully stamp out the demonstrations, as it did in 1988. A Southeast Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity as a matter of protocol, said the regime is under pressure from China to avoid a crackdown just as its larger neighbour has pressured it to speed up other democratic changes. "The Myanmar government is tolerating the protesters and not taking any action against the monks because of pressure from China," the diplomat told the Associated Press. "Beijing is to host the next summer's Olympic Games. Everyone knows that China is the major supporter of the junta so if government takes any action it will affect the image of China." China, which is counting on Myanmar's vast oil and gas reserves to help fuel its booming economy, earlier this year blocked a UN Security Council criticizing Myanmar's rights record saying it was not the right forum. But at the same time, it has employed quiet diplomacy and subtle public pressure on the regime, urging it to move toward inclusive democracy and speed up the process of dialogue and reform.

Josef Silverstein, a political scientist and author of several books on Myanmar, said it would not be in China's interest to have civil unrest in Myanmar, also known as Burma. "China is very eager to have a peaceful Burma in order to complete roads and railroads, to develop mines and finish assimilating the country under its economic control," Mr. Silverstein said. The movement seemed to gain momentum Saturday, when more than 500 monks and sympathizers went past barricades to walk to the house where Suu Kyi is under house arrest. She greeted them from her gate in her first public appearance in more than four years. But access to her home was barred Sunday. The meeting symbolically linked the current protests to Nobel laureate's Suu Kyi's struggle for democracy, which has seen her detained for about 12 of the last 18 years.
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Myanmar officials threaten clerics

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) Sept. 24th. — Myanmar's religious affairs minister warns the Buddhist clergy to restrain demonstrating monks, or else the government will act against protesting clerics. As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters led by a phalanx of Buddhist monks marched Monday through Yangon, the largest crowd to demonstrate in Myanmar's biggest city since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the military. From the front of the march, witnesses could see a 11/2 -kilometre stretch of eight-lane road was filled with people. Some participants said there were several hundred thousand marchers in their ranks, but an international aid agency official with employees monitoring the crowd estimated said the size was well over 50,000 and approaching 100,000.

It was the latest in a series of protests that began Aug. 19 as a movement against economic hardship in the Southeast Asian country after the government sharply raised fuel prices. But arrests and intimidation kept demonstrations small and scattered until the monks entered the fray. The usually iron-fisted junta has so far kept minimal security at the protests, and diplomats and analysts said Myanmar's military rulers were showing the unexpected restraint because of pressure from the country's key trading partner and diplomatic ally, China. The march kicked off, like the previous ones, at the Shwedagon pagoda, a historical centre for political movements as well as the country's most sacred religious shrine. Some 20,000 monks took the lead, with onlookers joining in on what had been billed as a day of general protest.

In the central city of Mandalay, meanwhile, 500 to 600 monks set off shortly after noon on their own protest march. The monks, who took over a faltering protest movement from political activists, already had managed to bring people into the streets in numbers not seen since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising snuffed out by the army at a cost of thousands of lives. On Sunday, about 20,000 people including thousands of monks filled the streets in Yangon, stepping up their confrontation with authorities by chanting support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The increasingly confrontational tone of the anti-government protesters has raised both expectations of possible political change and fear that the military might forcefully stamp out the demonstrations, as it did in 1988. A Southeast Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity as a matter of protocol, said the regime is under pressure from China to avoid a crackdown just as its larger neighbour has pressured it to speed up other democratic changes. "The Myanmar government is tolerating the protesters and not taking any action against the monks because of pressure from China," the diplomat told the Associated Press. "Beijing is to host the next summer's Olympic Games. Everyone knows that China is the major supporter of the junta so if government takes any action it will affect the image of China." China, which is counting on Myanmar's vast oil and gas reserves to help fuel its booming economy, earlier this year blocked a UN Security Council criticizing Myanmar's rights record saying it was not the right forum. But at the same time, it has employed quiet diplomacy and subtle public pressure on the regime, urging it to move toward inclusive democracy and speed up the process of dialogue and reform.

Josef Silverstein, a political scientist and author of several books on Myanmar, said it would not be in China's interest to have civil unrest in Myanmar, also known as Burma. "China is very eager to have a peaceful Burma in order to complete roads and railroads, to develop mines and finish assimilating the country under its economic control," Mr. Silverstein said. The movement seemed to gain momentum Saturday, when more than 500 monks and sympathizers went past barricades to walk to the house where Suu Kyi is under house arrest. She greeted them from her gate in her first public appearance in more than four years. But access to her home was barred Sunday. The meeting symbolically linked the current protests to Nobel laureate's Suu Kyi's struggle for democracy, which has seen her detained for about 12 of the last 18 years.
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Zimbabwe 'near collapse'

September 18th: Zimbabwe is "closer than ever to complete collapse" under the weight of a deepening economic crisis that threatens to destabilise southern Africa, an independent report said today. The International Crisis Group (ICG) called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) group of nations to overcome internal divisions and focus on ways to persuade Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to step down. "SADC must resolve internal differences about how hard to press into retirement Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's 83-year-old president and liberation hero, and the wider international community needs to give it full support," the Brussels-based think tank said in a report.

SADC has launched an initiative led by South African President Thabo Mbeki aimed at mediating between Mugabe and Zimbabwe's opposition in the hope of reaching a political solution that would end the country's turmoil. SADC heads of state report "positive" mediation efforts but Western diplomats say little progress has been made as Mugabe tightens his grip on a once prosperous country suffering from the world's highest inflation rate and food and fuel shortages. "Four out of five of the country's twelve million people live below the poverty line and a quarter have fled, mainly to neighbouring countries," the ICG report said. "A military-led campaign to slash prices has produced acute food and fuel shortages, and conducting any business is becoming almost impossible."

Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, accuses the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Western foes of sabotaging Zimbabwe's economy and plotting to oust him. He denies accusations that he has hurt the economy with policies like seizing white-owned farms for landless blacks. Mugabe faces few political challenges. His opponents are weak and divided and international efforts to isolate him have had little impact, analysts say.

"Western sanctions - mainly targeting just over 200 members of the leadership with travel bans and asset freezes - have proven largely symbolic," said the ICG. "And general condemnations from the UK and US if anything (are) counterproductive because they help Mugabe claim he is the victim of neo-colonial ambitions." Mugabe has vowed to crush opponents in a presidential vote expected in 2008 and has manoeuvred to consolidate his control. His government has introduced a bill to give blacks majority ownership of foreign firms, including mines and banks, a move business leaders fear will further hurt the ailing economy. Zimbabwe's parliament was expected to start debating a constitutional bill today that would allow Mugabe to pick a successor if he chose to retire. "Some SADC leaders remain Mugabe supporters, and there is a risk the organisation will accept cosmetic changes that further entrench the status quo," the report said.
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UN Chief Urges Immediate Climate Action

UNITED NATIONS(AP)Sept. 24th. — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an unprecedented summit on climate change Monday that "the time for doubt has passed" and a breakthrough is needed in global talks to sharply reduce emissions of global-warming gases. "The U.N. climate process is the appropriate forum for negotiating global action," Ban told assembled presidents and premiers, an apparent caution against what some see as a U.S. effort to open a separate negotiating track. The U.N. chief also addressed a chief U.S. objection to negotiated limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, that it will be too damaging to the American economy. "Inaction now will prove the costliest action of all in the long term," Ban said.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in another summit-opening speech, told the international delegates U.S. states are taking action. While the Bush administration has resisted emissions caps, California's Republican governor and Democrat-led legislature have approved a law requiring the state's industries to reduce greenhouse gases by an estimated 25 percent by 2020. Other U.S. states, in various ways, are moving to follow California's lead. "California is moving the United States beyond debate and doubt to action," Schwarzenegger said. "What we are doing is changing the dynamic."

The one-day meeting, with more than 80 national leaders among some 150 participants, also was scheduled to hear from Al Gore, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other international figures. U.N. chief Ban organized the summit to build political momentum toward launching negotiations later this year for deep cutbacks in emissions of carbon dioxide and other manmade gases blamed for global warming. President Bush, who has long opposed such negotiated limits on "greenhouse gases," wasn't participating in the day's meetings but was to attend a small dinner Monday evening, a gathering of key players hosted by Ban. Rather than accept treaty obligations, Bush has urged industry to cut emissions voluntarily, and emphasizes research on clean-energy technology as one answer.

On Thursday and Friday, Bush will host his own two-day climate meeting, limited to 16 "major emitter" countries. It's the first in a series of U.S.-sponsored climate gatherings. Many environmentalists fear the separate U.S. "track," which will involve China and India, may undercut the global U.N. negotiating process. But some hope it eventually helps draw those two big developing nations and others into a new, U.N.-negotiated emissions regime. Speaking to a technology session at Monday's U.N. conference, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the administration views the Washington sessions "as the first in a series of meetings to support and help advance the ongoing U.N. discussion."

This first-ever U.N. climate summit looked ahead to December's annual climate treaty conference in Bali, Indonesia, when the Europeans, Japanese and others hope to initiate talks for an emissions-reduction agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. The 1997 Kyoto pact, which the U.S. rejects, requires 36 industrial nations to reduce heat-trapping gases emitted by power plants and other industrial, agricultural and transportation sources by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Advocates say a breakthrough is needed at Bali — almost certainly requiring a change in the U.S. position — to ensure an uninterrupted transition from Kyoto to a new, deeper-cutting regime. To try to spur global negotiations, the European Union has committed to reduce emissions by at least an additional 20 percent by 2020.

In comments clearly directed at the U.S., long the biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Monday's summit that "all the developed countries and the largest emitters" must commit to a 50 percent reduction by 2050. Sarkozy, speaking for the EU, also said the U.N. negotiating process is the only "efficient and legitimate framework."
Bush has objected that Kyoto-style mandates would damage the U.S. economy, and says they should have been imposed on fast-growing poorer countries, such as China and India, as well as on developed nations. The U.N. summit follows a series of reports by a U.N. scientific network that warned of temperatures rising by several degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and of a drastically changed planet from rising seas, drought and other factors, unless nations rein in greenhouse gases. The U.N.-sponsored scientists reported global average temperatures over the past 100 years rose 1.3 degrees, and the planet's sea levels rose 6.6 inches, as oceans expanded from warmth and from the runoff of melting land ice. Just last week, U.S. scientists reported that warmer temperatures this summer had shrunk the Arctic Ocean's ice cap to a record-low size.
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
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