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UN envoy Gambari to arrive in Burma
AFP- Rangoon, Burma, 03 November 2007 06:33

The United Nations's special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, was expected in Rangoon on Saturday for talks with the country's ruling generals amid a row over the threatened expulsion of another key diplomat.

Gambari's visit comes amid conflicting signals from the junta over its willingness to reform, in the wake of mass street protests against the ruling regime here that led to at least 13 deaths and the detention of thousands.

BUrma's ruling generals abruptly announced late on Friday that the mission of the UN's most senior official in Yangon, Charles Petrie, will not be renewed.

The junta also cut internet links in the isolated country on Thursday, restricting access to international websites in an apparent attempt to limit the flow of information before and during Gambari's visit.

The regime's latest heavy-handed gestures have blunted early optimism over Gambari's arrival, following this week's release of 165 people arrested during September's wave of protests.

The move to expel Petrie from Burma, where he has worked since 2003, could complicate Gambari's already difficult mission, with some warning that the row will sidetrack his reform discussions with the junta.

"The danger is that Gambari will spend his time talking about the UN's role in Burma instead of the need to end the crackdown and bring real reform," said Brad Adams, Asia director for the New York-based pressure Human rights Watch.

The inclusion of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the political process is largely seen as crucial for the country's gradual transition to democracy.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 12 of the past 18 years under house arrest, and with other NLD officials in prison the party has been excluded from any debate over Burma's future.

Current Asean-bloc chair Singapore said on Saturday it was "deeply disappointed" by BUrma's decision on Petrie, while the United States, one of junta's staunchest critics, said it was outraged.

"I hope that this is not an effort by the regime to deflect from the mission" of Gambari, said the US ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad.

A UN spokesperson said the organisation has "full confidence" in Petrie and his team, and that it has instructed Gambari to raise the issue with the government.

Ahead of the envoy's arrival, some experts said the international scrutiny faced by the junta since the crackdown could pave the way for a meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and the regime's top general Than Shwe, a key demand of the international community.

"Than Shwe does not ... want to have dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, but current international pressure and sanctions may force him to have talks," said Thai-based analyst Aung Naing Oo.

Others, though, see any concessions made by the junta as merely an attempt to appear that it is trying to meet demands for reform without ceding any real power.

"The junta is trying to make some concessions. But in terms of substance, I don't think the concessions are real," said Win Min, a lecturer at Payap University in Chiang Mai.

He added that any talks with the opposition would not represent real progress towards national reconciliation.

Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD won elections in 1990 by a landslide but was never allowed to rule.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said earlier this week that Gambari's visit "will have to bring substantive results".

This will include pressing for "more democratic measures by the government, including the release of all detained students and demonstrators and open up their society as soon as possible," according to the UN chief.

Draft UN resolution would strongly condemn Myanmar junta's crackdown on peaceful protesters
The Associated Press, Published: November 3, 2007

UNITED NATIONS: A newly introduced U.N. General Assembly resolution would strongly condemn the Myanmar government's crackdown on peaceful protesters and call on the military junta to immediately release all those arrested and all political prisoners.
France circulated the draft on Friday night, the eve of U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari's return trip to Myanmar to try to promote reconciliation talks between the junta and the pro-democracy movement, and just days before the U.N. human rights expert on Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, makes his first visit to the country since November 2003.
If approved by the General Assembly's human rights committee, the resolution would then need the backing of the 192-nation world body. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion.
The draft resolution "strongly calls" on the junta to provide Gambari with unrestricted access to all parties — including ethnic minority representatives, student leaders and dissident monks — and to engage with him to achieve "effective progress towards the restoration of democracy and the protection of human rights in Myanmar."
It also calls on the government to cooperate fully with Pinheiro by granting him "full, free and unimpeded access" and ensuring that no person or organization that cooperates with him "is subjected to any form of intimidation, harassment or punishment."
The draft "strongly condemns the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators who were exercising their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to peaceful assembly and association and expresses condolences to the victims and their families."
Myanmar's government has been strongly criticized for sending troops to quash peaceful protests, initially led by students and then by Buddhist monks, in late September. The military junta said 10 people were killed, but diplomats and dissidents say the death toll is likely much higher. Thousands were arrested, and the hunt for participants is reportedly continuing.
The draft resolution "strongly calls" on Myanmar's government to "exercise utmost restraint and to desist from further arrests and violence against peaceful protesters and to release without delay those who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, as well as all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally."
It singles out pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who leads the National League for Democracy and her deputy Tin Oo, Shan Nationalities League for Democracy leader Khun Htun Oo, and 88 Generation Students group leaders Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi. Their organization comprises activists whose generation was bloodied as young students in Myanmar's 1988 pro-democracy uprising.
Myanmar's junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement led by Suu Kyi. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party won a landslide election victory. Since then, Suu Kyi has been in and out of detention, kept in near-solitary confinement at her home.
The current protests began Aug. 19 after the government hiked fuel prices in one of Asia's poorest countries. But they are based in deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the repressive military rule that has gripped the country since 1962. The protests were faltering when Buddhist monks took the lead.
The draft resolution expresses "grave concern" at the ongoing human rights violations in Myanmar including arbitrary detentions in response to peaceful protests and Suu Kyi's continuing house arrest and discrimination against ethnic minorities.
It criticized Myanmar's decision to bar Suu Kyi's party and other political and ethnic groups from a convention to draft guidelines for a new constitution, "and the slow pace of the democratic reform."
The draft resolution also expresses serious concern at "the continuous deterioration of the living conditions and the increase of poverty affecting a significant part of the population throughout the country."
It "strongly calls" on Myanmar to lift all restraints on peaceful political activities, end the recruitment and use of child soldiers and take urgent measures to end military operations targeting civilians in ethnic areas.

Singapore concerned at Burma's decision to expel UN official
Radio Australia - Last Updated 03/11/2007, 16:15:34

Singapore says it is deeply disappointed by Burma's decision to expel the most senior United Nations official working in the military ruled country.

As the current chair of ASEAN, Singapore says Burma's announcement sends an inconsistent message about it's willingness to engage the UN after the suppression of anti government protests in September.

A Singaporean Foreign Ministry statement says the announcement has come at a most inopportune time, just before the arrival back in Burma of the UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

Burma's ruling generals announced on Friday they would not renew the mandate of Charles Petrie, who arrived in 2003.