China and Russia veto US/UK-backed Security Council draft resolution on Myanmar

From UN News Centre :

China and Russia veto US/UK-backed Security Council draft resolution on Myanmar

12 January 2007 – China and Russia today vetoed a draft resolution in the Security Council – the first use of multiple vetoes at the Council since 1989 – that had called on Myanmar to release all political prisoners, begin widespread dialogue and end its military attacks and human rights abuses against ethnic minorities.

Sponsored by the United States and the United Kingdom, the text received nine votes in favour, the necessary number for a majority. Those in favour were Belgium, France, Ghana, Italy, Panama, Peru, Slovakia, the UK and the US. But the permanent members China and Russia issued vetoes, and South Africa also voted against the resolution. There were three abstentions: Indonesia, Qatar and the Republic of the Congo.

Opponents of the text said that while Myanmar was experiencing clear social and economic problems, the country was not a serious threat to international peace and security and therefore the issue should not be dealt with by the Security Council.

Speaking before the vote, Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said the problems in Myanmar were largely the internal affairs of a sovereign State and the Government and other groups should be allowed to continue their efforts towards reconciliation.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the issue would be better handled by other UN organs, particularly the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly and humanitarian agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO).

The ambassadors also said the resolution would hamper diplomatic efforts being carried out through the good offices of the Secretary-General, which included the recent visit to Myanmar by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari.

After the vote, US Acting Ambassador Alejandro Wolff and UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry both expressed deep disappointment, saying the resolution would have sent a much-needed signal from Council members.

Mr. Wolff said Myanmar’s military regime “arbitrarily arrests, tortures, rapes and executes its own people, wages war on minorities within its own borders, and builds itself new cities, while looking the other way as refugee flows increase, narcotics and human trafficking grow, and communicable diseases remain untreated.”

But Myanmar’s Ambassador Kyaw Tint Swe said the draft resolution was based on “patently false” information and, citing UN Development Programme (UNDP) data, said his country was making economic gains. He added that the Council was clearly exceeding its mandate by considering the issue.

The draft text called on Myanmar to release all political prisoners, including the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 10 of the past 16 years, and to allow the National League for Democracy (NLD) and other political parties to operate freely.

It also demanded an end to human rights violations against the members of ethnic minorities, “including widespread rape and other forms of sexual violence carried out by members of the armed forces.”

Last September the Council agreed to focus on the situation inside Myanmar in a vote taken during a procedural meeting, in which no member’s vote has the power of veto.

The most recent Council veto was used in November, when the US blocked a draft resolution that would have called, among other measures, for the withdrawal of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. Sponsored by Qatar, that text followed an Israeli military operation in the town of Beit Hanoun that killed 18 civilians.

The last time multiple vetoes were used was in 1989, when the US, the UK and France blocked a resolution on the situation in Panama. The last time China and Russia both vetoed a resolution was in 1972, and that concerned the Middle East.

Please help !!

HELP

Flood-Brace for the worst until Boxing Day

More than 90,000 people were displaced and seven killed in Malaysia Saturday following massive floods caused by the heaviest rainfall in a century, said officials.

There were nearly 74,000 evacuees in the southern state of Johor bordering Singapore, 12,650 in neighboring Malacca state, and 5,100 in eastern Pahang state, said an official of the police Internal Security and Public Order Division.

Seven people have been reported dead, all in Johor, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department said the heavy rains in southern and eastern peninsular Malaysia are expected to persist until Sunday, after which weather conditions should improve.

The likelihood of Malaysia's biggest city, Kuala Lumpur, experiencing heavy rainfall is slim, the department said in a statement.

The rainfall and floods over the past five days in Johor are reported to be the worst in 100 years.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi rushed to visit affected areas in Johor Saturday upon his return from an official visit to Venezuela, said the national news agency Bernama.

Abdullah promised food supply and other necessities to flood victims, and called on the authorities to ensure the health of the evacuees at relief centers by inoculating them.

"We want to ensure that everyone gets to return home safely," Bernama quoted him as saying.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told state-run RTM1 TV station that there was sufficient supply of food and blankets for all evacuees.

The government will provide money to those whose homes and crops were damaged by the floods, Najib said while visiting victims in Malacca.

On Friday, Najib said Malaysia does not need foreign help to tackle the floods.

Several countries had expressed willingness to help Malaysia, Bernama said without naming the countries.


Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi visited the flood-stricken south Saturday as the country struggled to cope with torrential rains that have forced almost 90,000 people to flee their homes.

Abdullah went to Johor state to meet victims and inspect damage, as newspaper reports said the death toll from the floods had risen to seven, with the death of a 90-year-old woman, whose body was found floating in her home.

The rains, which started a week ago in Johor, Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan states in south and central Malaysia, have now spread to northeastern Kelantan and Terengganu states, swamping entire towns and villages.

Southern Selangor and Klang Valley are likely to be affected by the heavy rainfalls should the conditions persist, the Meteorological Department warned today.

The Department has issued these areas with a Red Stage warning, the most severe of the three-stage weather warning, and advised people to prepare and brace for the worst conditions.

A forecaster said heavy rainfall and thunderstorm were expected to persist in the Klang Valley until Boxing Day (Tuesday, Dec 26, 2006).

"The heavy rainfalls and wind condition that are currently affecting states in the east coast and Johor are expected to bring heavy downpour to the Klang Valley and its surrounding areas.

"Generally, the weather will be cloudy in the morning while heavy rains are expected in the afternoon and night, but the public is advised to update themselves with the weather forecast," she said when contacted by Bernama.


The flood victims in Johor desperately need your help. There is a gross shortage of pillows, blankets, baby food, clothes, clean/new underwear, and more. In the spirit of Christmas cheer, this may be the best time to demonstrate love and goodwill towards fellow man.

There are two collection points: Parliament House and Kontena Nasional. For more information you can contact YB Halimah Sadique at the following numbers:

07-772-1567
012-718-0010
019-774-3007

Folks,

Down south, mostly in Johor, there are some 75,000 people who have had to leave their homes and are feeling very wet, cold and hungry. So, if you can, please donate blankets, pillows, mats, baby food, underwear ( CLEAN ones only please!) and clothes, baby diapers and other essential items. You can send them to the Dewan Serbaguna at Parliament House, or to the Kontena Nasional outpost in PJ.

Please also pass the message on to whoever you think can help, and can mobilise donations. They don't need money, they need these items urgently.

Thanks a lot.

--- Marina Mahathir.

The ugly side of human nature has started to emerge from the floods that have hit several states – there are reports of looting and people are claiming that certain parties, including uniformed personnel, have asked for money before rescuing victims.
The Star said.

To looters, Bukit Aman Deputy Internal Security director Deputy Comm Datuk Mohamad Muda has this to say: “Beware, you will be arrested on sight.”

He issued the warning to ensure that people did not take advantage of the thousands of abandoned properties in flood-stricken areas.

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ASIA: AHRC announces the release of its 2006 Human Rights Report – The State of Human Rights in Eleven Asian Nations

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) announces the release of its Human Rights Report for 2006 (345 pages), entitled "The State of Human Rights in Eleven Asian Nations." The report includes in-depth analysis of the situation of human rights in the following countries : Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

2006 has been a year in which the AHRC has noted continuing discontent over malfunctioning democracies and legal systems and the consequent setbacks these shortcomings cause for human rights and the rule of law.

Specifically, Asia's people feel discontent over the authoritarianism of democratically elected governments as well as military regimes. They are restlessness over restrictions on their freedom of expression, association and assembly. They are angry at the use of martial law and emergency and terrorism laws that steal their rights in the name of making them secure. They are frustrated over rampant corruption and dissatisfied over the ineffectiveness of states to stop manifold forms of discrimination that are widely experienced throughout the continent. They are distressed as extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture continue unabated, and they are disappointed over the ineffectiveness of parliaments, judiciaries, police forces and prosecution systems to address these deficiencies. Moreover, states are not dealing with this discontent in a positive manner by trying to resolve these problems. Instead, governments resort to even worse military and policing methods to deal with them. This is the grim picture of Asia as it approaches 2007.

2006 has witnessed certain notably highs and lows. Firstly, Nepal has witnessed a historic popular revolt that has effectively over-thrown the country's King, whose regime was responsible for gross and massive violations of human rights. This has led to a political process that could well enable a lasting end to the internal conflict that has raged in the country for over a decade, if all parties abide by their commitments, although much needs to be done in order to dismantle impunity and achieve justice for the thousands of human rights victims in the country. Sri Lanka has descended into further violence, and the AHRC has branded the country the most violent place in Asia at the moment, with the State having singularly failed to take any serious steps to bring the situation under control. In Thailand, respect for human rights and the rule of law were set back many years with the return to power of the military on September 19. The Philippines has been the stage of a campaign widespread, targeted political extra-judicial killings, accompanied by the abject failure of the government to do anything to halt them or bring those accountable to justice. In other countries, such as Bangladesh, Burma, and Pakistan, endemic, gross violations continue unabated, while the international community turns a blind eye. In India, the majority of the population continue to suffer from poverty and a lack of access to rights, despite the much heralded economic boom that the country is experiencing.

To surmise, in all the countries contained in the AHRC's Human Rights Report for 2006, serious violations of human rights are ongoing, impunity prevails, and the institutions of the rule of law are failing to carry out the basic functions of protecting individuals' rights, notably those of the millions of poor and/or marginalised members of society.

Asian Human Rights Commission - Malaysia

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Amnesty slams Malaysia for deporting Cambodian former police chief

Amnesty International has criticised the Malaysian government for deporting a Cambodian ex-police chief to his home country, where he fears he will be tortured and killed.

Heng Pov's lawyers were shocked by the move, which came as Federal Court judges were about to hear an appeal against the deportation order.

Amnesty International's Malaysian branch says the deportation is evidence that the Malaysian government has failed to respect the asylum process.

Malaysian rights group Suaram also condemned the "lightning" deportation and said it raised questions about whether the Cambodian government had put pressure on Malaysia.

Heng Pov was convicted and sentenced in absentia by a Cambodian court on September 18 for conspiracy in connection with the killing of a judge in Phnom Penh.

He fled the country and arrived in Malaysia, where he was detained on immigration offences in early October

Heng Pov, who had been convicted of murder in Cambodia in his absence, was spirited out of Malaysia while the courts were still hearing the case.

He had previously been ordered to return to Singapore from where he intended to fly to Europe.

Heng Pov was convicted of killing a judge in his native Cambodia in 2003.

The circumstances of Heng Pov's deportation were extraordinary.

Reversed decisions

Just six days ago, Malaysia's High Court ordered that he be returned to Singapore from where he had entered the country.

From there, he was expected to travel to Finland, which had offered him a visa.

But on Thursday morning, Malaysia's appeals court set aside the lower court's decision.

Lawyers for the former police chief, who have argued that he faces torture if returned to Cambodia, immediately appealed to the federal court, Malaysia's highest.

But within an hour, immigration officials had handed Heng Pov to the Cambodian authorities and the wanted man was flown out on a private plane.

When the federal court convened to consider the matter a mere 50 minutes later, Heng Pov was en route to Phnom Penh.

The judge heading the panel, Richard Malanjum, reprimanded state prosecutors handling the case.

Civil liberties activists and lawyers have accused the authorities of treating the courts with contempt.

Meanwhile, the police chief's wife has appealed to international human rights groups to help her husband.


Malaysia flood help Cambodian ex-police chief Heng Pov AHRC Asian Human Rights Commission

Watch it, Mahathir !

Watch it, Mahathir !

Umno yesterday cautioned former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad against going overboard with his criticism of the government, saying he should "know his limits".

The party's supreme council decided this at a meeting which shot down a proposal from Umno Kedah to remove Mahathir from his advisory positions in government-linked companies and statutory bodies.

"Nobody is immune ... it's a matter for us to decide whether there is going to be action or not. For the time being, we are not going to take action against him." said Abdullah.

However, he warned: "He should know what the limits are. There is no need to ask what we are going to do and when we are going to do it and what the limits are.

"We will hear and we always get reports of his activities from members."

Calls have been made from within the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) to kick Mahathir out of the party and remove him as adviser to key institutions including state energy firm Petronas and carmaker Proton.

"With regard to... Tun's role as advisor to a few government-linked companies, we have decided that Tun will not be asked to step down," Abdullah told a press conference, using Mahathir's honour title.

Abdullah once again denied Mahathir's charges that his children had benefited improperly from government contracts, and rejected calls for them to reveal their assets.

"I have never done anything to abuse my power in relation to my children," he said. "They have not done anything wrong to warrant the declaration of their assets."

Mahathir said this week that he would accept any decision to terminate his role as adviser to government-linked companies - positions which allow him to air his views on issues of major national importance.

He also publicly regrets choosing Abdullah as his successor, and has been accused of trying to engineer his early departure.

UMNO has become increasingly unsettled by the feud, which threatens to destabilise the government.


Tun Dr M, how about a post of adviser in Opposition ?

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been offered a post as adviser to the Opposition coalition.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said it was up to the former prime minister to take up the post.

He said he had no problems with Dr Mahathir joining the Opposition, despite their past differences.

"As long as he is a citizen, I would not stand in his way.

"But he still would need a green light from the other Opposition leaders," he said after attending a Hari Raya gathering organised by the party in Pekan Batu 6, Kuala Nerus, here.

Keadilan and Pas are members of an informal coalition Barisan Alternatif.

Anwar said he also pitied Dr Mahathir as he had come under heavy fire from Umno leaders who once worked side by side with him.

"It seems that the Umno members have forgotten his contributions to the country for 22 years," he said.

Anwar served the government about 16 years before he was sacked and jailed in 1998 during Dr Mahathir’s rule. A Friend in need is a Friend indeed ?

From Business Times - 'Malaysia gets first tantalum facility'

ROLLS-ROYCE, a leading provider of power systems and services, has teamed up with Metalysis Ltd to launch Malaysia's first tantalum processing and research and development (R&D) facility.

The facility, located at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park in Kedah, is expected to produce 100 tonnes of tantalum a year, worth about RM3 billion.

Tantalum, in powder form, is used for the production of electronic components. End-users include mobile phones, personal computers and automotive electronics.

Targeting 10 per cent of annual global consumption for the product, Metalysis Malaysia Sdn Bhd is to conduct R&D to scale up and increase production of super-grade tantalum powder.

The facility should be operational by September 2007.


Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who launched the facility from his office yesterday, said the Metalysis operation is another milestone for the country in its advance materials industry.

Najib said Rolls-Royce plc, which is investing US$5 million (RM18.25 million) in the facility, has provided Malaysia the entry point to the global advanced materials market.


The British engine- maker's investment is part of the offset arrangement with the Government for the procurement of Roll-Royce Trent 900 engines for Malaysia's fleet of six A380s.

A further US$10 million (RM36.5 million) investment will be raised to finance the production facilities.

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ASEAN's new charter: Don't look now

It could be the most significant development for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since it was established in 1967. Yet few among the regional bloc's 550 million people are even aware that they are about to have a charter for closer cooperation and economic integration.

Officials say the bulk of the work in gaining recommendations for the charter has been completed. But instead of regular, broad-ranging consultations at all levels of society across the grouping - which comprises Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam,

Myanmar, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore - most people are clueless.

The plan to establish a charter was first outlined in a Kuala Lumpur declaration last December during the 11th ASEAN summit. An Eminent Persons Group (EPG) was tasked with coming up with the recommendations for inclusion in the charter.

The EPG's recommendations will be presented to the ASEAN summit in Cebu, Philippines, next month. The bloc will then set up a high-level task force to draft the charter proper, which is expected to be ready by the December 2007 summit.

The EPG says it has met with civil-society groups but many have not heard about the charter, while others are belatedly submitting a joint memorandum after a civil society-initiated workshop held last month organized by Malaysian human-rights group Suaram and the Southeast Asia Committee for Advocacy (SEACA).

Critics suspect the lack of public consultation over the charter could be due to the real intention behind the blueprint. They see it as giving a legal personality to ASEAN, paving the way for a regional economic framework that would facilitate investment and trade in the region, while the interests of ordinary people - workers, the poor and the marginalized - could come a distant second.

They point to the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), which will eliminate tariffs on all products in the region, and the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services, which aims to achieve a free flow of services, both by 2015. Meanwhile, the ASEAN Investment Area agreement aims to facilitate a free flow of investment.

ASEAN's "Vision 2020" of economic integration and competitiveness was further developed into the concept of an "ASEAN Economic Community" (AEC) at the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh in 2002. The AEC is seen as the end goal of economic integration in ASEAN by 2020, though it could become a reality by 2015.

But ASEAN secretary general Ong Keng Yong said it was crucial to underscore that the bloc was not constructing an economic community along the lines of the European Union.

"While the EU ensures the free movement of goods, services, capital [including investment] and people across the territories of its member states, ASEAN seeks to create a unique single ASEAN market where there is a free flow of goods, services, investment, skilled labor and a freer flow of capital," he said in September, pointedly omitting unskilled labor, including migrant workers, hundreds of thousands of whom are undocumented and exploited in host countries in the region.

In some ways, the lack of extensive public consultation on the ASEAN charter is reminiscent of the high-level official secrecy surrounding the negotiations for the free-trade agreement between Malaysia and the United States, the third round of which got under way this Monday in Kuala Lumpur.

Activists fear that once the ASEAN charter is ready, it will be thrust on the people of the region as a fait accompli. They want the charter to be people-centered as opposed to being business- or trade-centered and they are calling for the interests of workers and labor to take precedence over the interests of corporations and capital.

Civil-society groups in Malaysia also want the ASEAN charter to uphold economic and distributive justice that would reduce poverty and close the region's yawning gap between the rich and the poor. "The ASEAN charter should not legitimize the current neo-liberal economic policies being pursued by ASEAN through bilateral and multilateral free-trade agreements," said the joint memorandum prepared after the Suaram-SEACA workshop last month.

"We want the ASEAN charter to include the promotion and protection of human rights" as the core value to be embraced by ASEAN states, Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng told Inter Press Service.

Activists want these rights standards to be based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related conventions rather that any relative "Asian" notion of human rights that may suit authoritarian regimes. The charter should also be gender-sensitive and oriented toward sustainable development.

But they are also wary that well-meaning principles and provisions will be useless if the charter does not provide for effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms and institutions. These could include semi-judicial bodies such as a regional human-rights commission and judicial bodies such as a regional human-rights court.

It is unlikely, though, that the charter will include such a strong human-rights framework. Among the ASEAN states are several undemocratic nations that pay lip service to human rights, if anything at all. These countries will very likely resist any attempt to introduce universally accepted human-rights standards into the charter.

Instead, the most activists can hope for is a reference in the charter to an ongoing initiative to set up a regional human-rights mechanism, which has been dragging on for a while without any tangible results. The hope is that such a mention will put the initiative on a firmer footing and allow the mechanism to take root in ASEAN, giving it a life of its own to evolve into stronger regional institutions and enforcement mechanisms.

In line with this, activists are also asking for a broader understanding of "security" to be spelled out in the charter. They argue that the current ASEAN security community's definition of security issues is not inclusive, as references are made only to the state but not to the people.

They are therefore asking for the concept of "human security" to be enshrined. "Human security encompasses not only freedom from violence but also freedom from threats to people's lives, including hunger, poverty, disease, marginalization and exclusion," said the Solidarity for Asian People's Advocacies (SAPA) in a submission to the EPG in Bali this year.

SAPA is a network of civil-society groups engaged in campaigns and advocacy on various issues of public interest at the national and regional levels.

Human security, it added, also hinged on environmental integrity and ecological security that safeguarded against degradation and destruction that caused disease, harsh living conditions and loss of lives and livelihoods.

There is also growing recognition of trans-boundary issues such as migration, the flow of refugees into neighboring countries, smog and people-trafficking. Activists want ASEAN's principle of non-interference to be removed as "it can no longer effectively address and resolve such issues satisfactorily", said Yap.

Another activist argued that ASEAN could take a leaf from the ALBA pact among Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba. ALBA (the Spanish acronym for the "Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas") is a progressive alternative to the US-promoted Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Under ALBA, each country is free to develop as it wishes, taking into consideration its cultural and historical heritage, and its economic and social needs. The ASEAN charter, he said, could emulate the pact's principles such as sovereignty (instead of corporate rule), solidarity (instead of domination), cooperation (instead of exploitation) and complementarity (instead of competition).

Crucially, ALBA principles oppose the corporate privatization of basic services such as health care, education and distribution of water: instead, the interests of smallholders, cultural diversity and biodiversity are all supposed to be protected and great importance placed on the welfare of rural and indigenous populations.

A senior Malaysian Foreign Ministry official told activists in Malaysia that there was still time for civil groups to make their views heard. But for the millions of ordinary people across the region, news of plans for the charter will probably reach them too late.
(Source : Asia Times)
Malaysia Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Tun Mahathir Asia ASEAN