[NYTr] Moral Affroont: Thai Elites Bemoan Military Junta...In Myanmar

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Rick Rozoff via mart

Moral Affront: 

Thai Elites Bemoan Military Junta...In Myanmar


[One wouldn't know from the Bangkok Post, or from the US State
Department and the capitals of all Western countries, that a military
coup occurred a little over a year ago in Thailand and that the nation
has been ruled by a military junta in the interim. The trepasses of
Western-friendly garrison states and satrapies run by generals trained
in the West that host their troops and bases aren't mentioned in polite
Western society.  -Rick Rozoff] 


Bankok Post - Oxct 2, 2007
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/02Oct2007_news06.php

Call for int'l pressure on Burmese junta

Experts: China, India and Asean need to act

By ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT

Without concrete action from the international community, particularly
China, India and Asean, in pressuring the Burmese military junta,
bloodshed in Burma will continue while the road to democracy there will
lead to nowhere, say experts on the country.

China, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) _
not the United Nations or the United States _ are the only influential
players in efforts to bring about much needed change in Burma, said
Chulalongkorn University's senior researcher Pornpimon Trichot.

However, it is the abundant resources in Burma that cripple the world
community's action against the repressive regime, she said.

The researcher urged these countries to reimagine and redefine their
economic and political interests and stop dealing with the junta.

She believed the junta does not care much about the US or UN sanctions,
although in the longer term international players including the
European Union will have to change some tactics, since Burma relies
heavily on potential and already-existing investments from China,
India, South Korea and Russia, as well as from some Asean countries.

China's leverage in Burma lies substantially in the energy sector, she
added.

A group of 10 monks from the Network of Buddhist Organisations of
Thailand and 20 disciples went to the Burmese embassy yesterday to
lodge a petition calling for an end to violence against Burmese monks.
No embassy official appeared to accept the petition, so they left the
petition at the gate. — SOMCHAI POOMLARD

China has invested in natural gas and oil pipelines, some 2,380km long,
from Sittwe in the Bay of Bengal-based Arakan province to Kunming in
China to avoid the jammed Straits of Malacca channel, Ms Pornpimon said.

Taweewong Seriburi, of Chulalongkorn University's Institute of
Environmental Research, said Burma's massive potential in energy
production has drawn several countries, including China, India, South
Korea, Singapore and Thailand to explore and make deals with the junta.

But real investment has not yet taken shape and power grids and
pipelines have yet to be built, said Mr Taweewong, adding that the
potential is as high as 108,000 megawatts but the current output is as
low as only a few thousand megawatts.

Meanwhile, Asia-based human rights organisations have appealed to all
Asian governments, particularly the Asian members of the Human Rights
Council (HRC) who are due to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, for a special
session on Burma today and tomorrow.

They also sent two Burmese human rights activists to Geneva to lobby
and speak at the special session to help ensure the HRC will come up
with an adequate resolution.

The London-based Amnesty International yesterday urged the UN Security
Council to immediately impose a comprehensive and mandatory arms
embargo on Burma.

In Bangkok, members of the Network of Buddhist Organisations of
Thailand rallied and prayed in front of the Burmese embassy, appealing
to the Burmese junta to halt its violent suppression of monks and other
pro-democracy protesters.

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