Newley Purnell
Just wanted to point out that U.S. Senator Jim Webb has a New York Times op-ed about his recent visit to Myanmar. Worth a read. Webb discusses Myanmar’s isolation, China’s influence, and the importance of U.S. engagement.
My previous post about Webb’s visit to Bangkok is here. And here’s my post about Aung San Suu Kyi’s guilty verdict.
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US Senator Jim Webb gave a press conference here in Bangkok yesterday after the completion of Webb’s visit to Myanmar. During the trip, the Virgina Democrat met with the recently-convicted Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as the country’s top general, Than Shwe. Webb also secured the release of American John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for swimming across a lake, uninvited, to Suu Kyi’s house in May.
In speaking to the media about the trip, Webb stressed his commitment to engaging Myanmar over time. Webb said that the sanctions against Myanmar have increased the country’s isolation and driven it into the arms of China.
Webb also said that Yettaw’s actions were “regrettable” and that the Missouri native is “not a well man.” However, Webb said that Yettaw was not a “mean spirited human being.” Webb said that Yettaw was undergoing a medical review here in Bangkok, but declined to say what will come next for Yettaw.
Here are some news stories:
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![Aung San Suu Kyi [not my image]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2562/3810710957_e32ced1ed1_o.jpg)
The verdict was widely expected, but it was officially announced — after a delay on July 31 — early this afternoon, local time.
Myanmar’s imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was pronounced guilty of violating the terms of her detention by allegedly harboring an American well-wisher, John Yettaw, who swam across a lake, uninvited, to her house in May.
Suu Kyi has already spent nearly 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest.
Today’s verdict: She will serve an additional 18 months of detention. This is, technically, a reduced term, as she was initially sentenced to three years of hard labor. (Five minutes after the verdict was announced, Myanmar’s Home Minister issued the reduced sentence.)
Critics will say that this apparent show of clemency amounts to a shrewd political move: Myanmar’s government, which has faced unwanted scrutiny since Yettaw’s strange activities in May, can now argue that they’ve treated Suu Kyi with leniency. And an additional year and a half of detention means that she will be unable to influence elections — dismissed by many as a sham designed to put a civilian face on a military dictatorship — scheduled for 2010.
Of course, activists note that the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate should never have been arrested in the first place. And even if her initial detention were legitimate, surely the guards who were in charge of securing her house should be blamed for Yettaw’s intrusion.
Today I visited the Myanmar embassy here in Bangkok; it was quiet — business as usual. And I spoke with a Burmese activist who works with a group pushing for democracy in Burma. He said the trial verdict is a “slap in the face of the international community,” noting that many parties, over the years, have tried to engage with the government, but all efforts have failed. I also spoke with a representative of Amnesty International; his group has called the verdict “shameful,” and AI says the only resolution is the “immediate and unconditional release” of Suu Kyi.
Here are some additional news reports:
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In this week’s New York Times podcast1 about international news, correspondent Seth Mydans discusses Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar. If you’re looking for some general context and historical perspective, it’s worth a listen.
Click here and scroll down to World View Podcast. You can stream the 6 min., 30 sec. mp3 or subscribe for future episodes.
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Some news stories about Aung San Suu Kyi and John Yettaw:
Reuters: “Critics hit Myanmar on “trumped-up” Suu Kyi charges”
YANGON (Reuters) – Western critics slammed Myanmar’s military rulers for pressing “trumped-up” new charges against detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but the move drew only mild rebuke from Asian neighbors.
The United States and Britain — the loudest critics of the generals who have ruled the former Burma since 1962 — condemned the Nobel Peace laureate’s forthcoming trial on charges she broke the terms of her house arrest after an American intruder stayed in her home.
Human rights groups called on Myanmar’s neighbors China and India — which have strong economic ties to the resource-rich country — and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to demand Suu Kyi’s immediate release.
“Burma’s military authorities have taken advantage of an intruder’s bizarre stunt to throw Aung San Suu Kyi into one of Burma’s most notorious and squalid jails on trumped-up charges,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.
BBC (with images that are said to be of Yettaw and what appear to be improvised flippers): “Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi ‘intruder’”
The US man who allegedly broke into the home of detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been named by Burma as John Yettaw, 53.
Burmese state media said he was a psychology student living in the US state of Missouri.
They say Mr Yettaw, whose surname has also been spelled Yeattaw, entered the country on a tourist visa on 2 May.
His detention led to the arrest of Ms Suu Kyi, who is now awaiting trial in Burma’s Insein prison.
CNN: “Neighbors describe man at center of Myanmar political scandal”
Tucked away in the woods of central Missouri, obscured by tall trees and broken-down cars, is the mobile home of the U.S. citizen being detained in Myanmar.
Journalists have been flocking to John Yettaw’s modest residence in the unincorporated community of Falcon for insight into the man who allegedly swam across a lake and sneaked into the home of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi while she was under house arrest.
Yettaw was charged Thursday in Myanmar on two criminal counts: entering the country illegally and staying at a resident’s home without government permission, according to a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s political party.
AP: “Clinton: Myanmar should release opposition leader”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is urging Myanmar to immediately release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ahng sahn soo chee).
Clinton told reporters at the State Department on Thursday that she was deeply troubled by Myanmar’s “baseless charge” against the Nobel Peace laureate. She says the government is looking for a “pretext” to place further unjust restrictions on Suu Kyi (soo chee).
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AP: “Jolie asks Thailand to help Burmese refugees”
Angelina Jolie has called on Thailand’s government to give more freedom to tens of thousands of Burmese refugees it has kept locked inside camps for up to 20 years.
The Academy Award-winning actress and goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Refugee Agency visited Thailand’s Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee center Wednesday.
“I was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp, who has never even been out of the camp and is now raising her own child in a camp,” Jolie was quoted as saying by UNHCR in a statement released Thursday.
She asked Thai authorities to give around 110,000 refugees in northern Thailand greater freedom to move around and seek higher education, because they are unlikely to be welcomed back anytime soon to Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Bloomberg: “Angelina Jolie, UN Envoy, Asks Thailand to Aid Myanmar Refugees”
Angelina Jolie, a United Nations goodwill ambassador, asked Thailand to accept Muslim migrants fleeing Myanmar’s military authorities during a visit to refugee camps on the Thai-Myanmar border.
Thailand is facing an international outcry over its treatment of the minority Muslim Rohingya group, after CNN published a photo showing armed forces towing refugee boats away from the shore on Jan. 26. Five of six boats towed in late December sank, killing several hundred people, CNN reported.
Jolie issued the plea during a visit yesterday to camps in northern Thailand that house 111,000 mostly ethnic Karen and Karenni refugees from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
There’s also an accompanying article on the UN Web site.
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Here’s a new Rohingya story from the New York Times: “Burmese Refugees Rescued at Sea”
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Dozens of refugees from Myanmar, rescued by the Indonesian Navy after drifting aboard a wooden boat at sea for almost three weeks, are receiving treatment at a hospital in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesian officials said Tuesday.
About 200 refugees, all of them men, were found by a local fisherman Monday afternoon. It was the second boatload of refugees from Myanmar to land in Aceh in the last month.
Interviews by Indonesian Navy personnel indicated the men are all part of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar who had fled to Thailand in December.
Survivors from the first boat, which was found in early January and was also carrying about 200 men, told Indonesian authorities that they had been rounded up by the Thai military after escaping Myanmar, and then were beaten, towed out to sea and abandoned.
The survivors rescued Monday told Navy personnel a similar story, adding that originally there was a flotilla of nine motorless boats that had been led out to sea by the Thais, containing about 1,200 people.
There’s more from the AP, the BBC, and AFP.
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Today’s CSM has an informative update (and illustrative infographic) on the accusations that the Thai navy forced Muslim Burmese boat people back to sea in rickety boats with little food or water.
CSM: “Thailand accused of mistreating Muslim refugees”
Other stories:
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President Bush’s foreign policy speech here in Bangkok this morning focused on China and Myanmar.
U.S. President George W. Bush expressed his concern about the fate of political dissidents in China and his determination to bring an end to the “tyranny” of the military regime in Myanmar a day before he is expected to attend the opening of the Olympic Games in China.In the speech delivered Thursday in the Thai capital, Mr. Bush stressed that the stability and prosperity of Asia require the strong involvement of both China and the U.S. to ensure that the region sustains its role as an important growth engine for the global economy.
He also emphasized the U.S.’s economic engagement in the Asian-Pacific region, touting bilateral free-trade pacts with Singapore, Australia and South Korea while signaling Washington’s commitment to pursue similar trade talks with Malaysia and Thailand. Mr. Bush urged China to do more to help achieve a successful outcome to the stalled Doha round of talks at the World Trade Organization to improve access to member countries’ markets.
On the eve of the Olympic Games in Beijing, President Bush said Thursday that he had “deep concerns” about basic freedoms in China and criticized the detention of dissidents and believers, even as he praised the extraordinary gains China has made since he first visited more than three decades ago.Mr. Bush’s remarks in Bangkok, part of a speech on Asia, distilled and recast previous statements critical of China’s record on human rights. But delivered only hours before his departure for Beijing on Thursday evening, they represented a rebuke to China’s leaders, though a measured one.
President Bush on Thursday used some of his bluntest language to date on human rights in China, saying in a speech here before he flew to Beijing for the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony that “America stands in firm opposition” to China’s detention of political dissidents and religious activists.
Reuters video on YouTube: “Bush faces China balancing act”
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![Myanmar Cyclone [NY Times Graphic]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2345/2471468049_f0d732f406_m.jpg)
CNN: “Myanmar cyclone survivors desperate for aid”
More than 22,000 killed and 41,000 missing, Myanmar radio reports
Survivor tells how wall of water left bodies in trees, bushes and streams
U.N. has started getting food aid but so far it is only the first step of huge job
U.S. President George Bush says Navy is ready to help if asked
NY Times: “The Cyclone’s Wake, Seen in Taxi Headlights”
Some firsthand impressions, including messages from Westerners who were in Myanmar when the devastating storm struck over the weekend.
AP: “Myanmar cyclone death toll soars past 22,000: state radio”
The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 on Tuesday and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country’s deadliest storm on record, state radio reported.
Up to 1 million people may be homeless after Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma, early Saturday. Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out, the World Food Program said.
AFP: “Aid workers race to reach Myanmar cyclone victims”
Aid workers battled Wednesday to get food and water to desperate cyclone survivors in Myanmar, whose government is under fire after more than 22,000 people died in one of Asia’s worst natural disasters.
More than 41,000 people are also missing, but the United Nations said foreign staff were still awaiting visas from the secretive military regime — which said outside aid workers needed to “negotiate” to enter the country.
Bangkok Pundit has more information.
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I'm Newley Purnell, an American journalist in Bangkok. I report for Bloomberg BNA, ABC News Radio, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and more.
