Bush Warm, Knowledgeable on Burma, Say Activists
By WAI MOE,
BANGKOK — US President George W Bush traded ideas about US economic sanctions on Burma, humanitarian aid after Cyclone Nargis and Chinese foreign policy during a private lunch with nine Burmese activists in Bangkok on Thursday.
“On China’s Burma policy, Bush said although the two countries cooperate with each other on many issues, the US and China have different interests in Burma,” said Win Min, a Burmese political analyst.
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| President George W Bush (L) receives a briefing on Burma from editor of the Irrawaddy Magazine Aung Zaw while at the US Ambassador’s residence in Bangkok August 7. (Photo: Reuters) |
The activists told The Irrawaddy after the lunch at the US ambassador’s residence that Bush was very knowledgeable on Burma and the rest of Asia.
Bo Kyi, a joint-founder of the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners-Burma, said, “He understands Burma and Asia. He also talked about his concern for political prisoners in Burma.”
The US president came across as a likeable, warm person, said one of the luncheon group, who represented a cross-section of Burmese interests groups.
The hour-long lunch included Burmese exiles Aung Zaw, the editor of The Irrawaddy and a former student activist; Kyaw Kyaw of the Political Defense Committee; and Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst.
The activists said the meeting was also an expression of the president’s wife’s personal interest in Burma. First lady Laura Bush on Thursday toured a Burmese refugee camp on the Thailand-Burma border and visited a free medical clinic that provides services to refugees.
When asked about the possibility of a six-party talk on Burma, similar to that held on North Korea, Bush said it would probably not be possible in Burma’s case, said one activist.
Michael W. Charney of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, asked to assess the meeting, said while it was a genuine expression of Bush’s commitment, it probably would lead to little change, partly because of his limited time in office.
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| President Bush makes remarks with Burmese exiles, at the US Ambassador’s residence in Bangkok. Left to right are Lway Aye Nang, Bush, Aung Zaw and Win Min. (Photo: AP) |
“Certainly, it will help to keep some attention on Burma and to do so from within Thailand, which has of late been favorable toward the military regime in Naypyidaw. It helps to make the latter’s position a little more uncomfortable,” he said
It would be more meaningful if the dissidents had been talking to presidential hopefuls Barack Obama or John McCain, he said.
“We will have to wait to see if there will be any new US foreign policy initiatives that impact Burma, although I expect less change under McCain than under Obama.”
Analysts said the meeting was probably intended in part to balance out negative impressions from Bush’s participation in the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, which will be held on Friday.
In a related event, more than 100 former Burmese activists, journalists and others commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Burmese 8.8.88 uprising at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok on Wednesday.
Four former student activists: Aung Moe Zaw, Aung Naing Oo, Aung Zaw and Myint Myint San, as well as Toe Toe, an ex-Burmese migrant worker who was four years old in 1988, presented a panel discussion. Dominic Faulder, a journalist who has written on Burma since 1981, served as a moderator.
Aung Zaw, who was detained as a student activist in March 1988, said, “The 8.8.88 uprising was not event, not an uprising, but a process. It was a political process in history.”
He said that he would like to honor the spirit of the people who died in the uprising. “Our struggle, our destination continues,” he said.
A Burmese political analyst in exile, Aung Naing Oo, who was a student in the English department of the University of Rangoon in 1988, said he didn’t even understand the word “democracy” at the beginning of the movement. “My brother asked me what was the meaning of democracy, and then I had to look it up in a dictionary,” he said.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=13774
Mrs Bush Visits Mae Lah Refugee Camp
MAE SOT — Burmese residents of a refugee camp near the Thai-Burmese border appealed on Thursday to US first lady Laura Bush to help them resettle in the West.
Mrs Bush promised them to do all she could as she toured the Mae Lah camp near the Thai border town of Mae Sot. Around 40,000 refugees live in Mae Lah, the biggest refugee camp in Thailand.
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| US first lady Laura Bush, center left, is flanked by her daughter Barbara as she talks with a Karen refugees family at Mae Lah refugee camp near the Thai-Burmese border. (Photo: AP) |
The refugee community gave Mrs Bush and her daughter Barbara a warm welcome, performing traditional Karen dances and showing them the camp’s schoolrooms.
In one classroom, a student had written on the blackboard: “My life in refugee camp is better than Burma but I do not have opportunities to go outside of my camp.”
The vice camp leader, Mahn Htun Htun, appealed directly to Mrs Bush to help more Burmese refugees resettle in the US.
“We are refugees and our dream is to go back home,” he said, “We have no peace in Burma now, the possibility for us is to go to third countries.”
Mrs Bush replied that the best option would be to “see a change in the Burmese government,” in which case “people could move home in safety.”
She said: “Most people do not want to have to move to third countries. They would rather move to their home villages in safety and security.”
One Burmese refugee who has been selected, along with his family, for resettlement in the US said Washington should increase the pressure on the Burmese regime so that conditions allowing refugees to return could be created.
The refugee, Saw Mardecair, thanked the US, however, for taking in large numbers of Burmese.
Mahn Htun Htun drew attention to the plight of 13,000 newly-arrived refugees who, he said, lacked adequate food and shelter.
Mrs Bush later visited the Mae Tao clinic, the Burmese migrant health care center founded by Dr Cynthia Maung, who said she hoped the first lady would raise in the US the humanitarian problems she had seen in the border area.
“All countries in the world have to come together and work together for change in Burma,” said Dr Maung.
Children welcomed Mrs. Bush to the clinic with a performance of traditional Burmese songs
By Nwes Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)
Bush meets with Burmese dissidents
7 August 2008US President George Bush met with exiled Burmese dissidents in Bangkok on August 7 on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 8888 Uprising in which an estimated 3,000 Burmese were killed.
Bush reiterated his support for Burmese independence from the military regime.
“We seek an end to tyranny in Burma,” the US president had said in his speech in a speech on US policy in Asia at the Queen Sirkit Centre.
“America reiterates our call on Burma’s military junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners,” he added.
Among these prisoners are scores of journalists, including U Win Tin, who had been in detention for the past 19 years and whose release had been denied by the junta despite his deteriorating health.
Arrests and harassment of journalists continue in Burma as authorities seek to impose total control on the flow of information in the country.
By News :http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=13659
Bush and Burma
US President George W Bush has never been to Burma, and he once called the country’s detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate “Aung Suu San Kyi,” drawing laughter from journalists at an APEC summit in Thailand.
He has since learned how to pronounce the name of Burma’s most famous pro-democracy leader; and thanks in large part to the tutelage of his wife, Laura Bush, who has taken a strong personal interest in Suu Kyi’s struggle on behalf of her people, he now knows a bit more about the problems of a remote country that he still declines to visit.
Next week, the president and first lady will be in Thailand to mark the 175th anniversary of bilateral ties with the Kingdom. While he is here, he will also meet with Burmese activists on the eve of the 20th anniversary of a nationwide pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the regime that still holds power in Burma.
The United States has always strongly supported the efforts of Burma’s people achieve freedom from military rule. The current administration has been no exception. Though often criticized at home and abroad for his foreign policy, Bush has won the respect of most Burmese for his firm stance on the repressive regime in Naypyidaw.
In 2003, the US introduced the Freedom and Democracy Act in response to a ruthless attack on Suu Kyi and her supporters in the central Burmese town of Depayin. In 2005, Bush identified Burma as one of the world’s “outposts of tyranny,” together with Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Belarus.
Last year, following the crackdown on the September uprising, he blasted the regime and tightened sanctions against the generals and their cronies. As a further sign of support, the US Congress awarded its highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to Suu Kyi last December. And just this week, Bush signed into law the Burma Jade Act, which restricts the import of precious stones from Burma and extends existing import sanctions.
Bush has often been faulted for his tendency to see complex issues in black and white. But while many condemn him for trying to impose his political vision on Iraq, few can argue that in the case of Burma, he has taken a genuinely principled stand that is perfectly consistent with reality.
The Burmese people are indeed fortunate to have the support of both Bush and his wife, Laura, who has been a real driving force in keeping Burma at the top of the world’s political agenda.
She has met with Burmese activists in Washington and New York on a number of occasions and held video teleconferences with prominent exiles. She has also participated in several roundtable discussions on Burma with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari.
When the Burmese regime crushed protests last year, she called Ban to discuss the situation—a rare move by an American first lady, and one that shows the depth of her concern for the fate of Burma’s people.
At the height of the crisis, she even called on Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the junta’s supreme leader, to step down. Instead, he moved to consolidate his position, more determined than ever to move forward with his road map to “disciplined democracy.”
In May of this year, it became evident just how much Than Shwe has staked on the ultimate success of this deeply flawed political process, which promises only a continuation of military rule under another guise.
On May 3, one week before a planned referendum on a military-drafted constitution, Burma was hit by its worst natural disaster in living memory. But Cyclone Nargis did not stop the junta going ahead with its rigged referendum, putting politics ahead of the lives of millions of people.
The American response to this disaster was markedly different from that of the rulers in Naypyidaw. The US moved quickly to temporarily suspend its sanctions against Burma so that it could assist in the relief effort, offering aid and the use of military aircraft to transport international emergency relief supplies into the country.
Humanitarian workers in Burma praised the Bush administration for its bold decision to send C-130 flights into Rangoon with relief items, setting aside politics for the sake of saving lives.
