‘Cablegate’ exposes French business concerns

Thursday, 2 December 2010
By FRANCIS WADE


French President Nicholas Sarkozy stands next to former foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner (Reuters)


France’s President Nicholas Sarkozy had considered withdrawing French companies from activity in Burma before he was reined in by advisors, leaked US diplomatic cables claim.

Washington’s ambassador to France, Craig R. Stapleton, described the French leader as “forward-leaning” in his policies on Burma in an October 2007 cable sent from Paris to the US. Classified as “confidential”, it forms part of the vast disclosure of diplomatic correspondence passed to news agencies earlier this week by whistleblowing website, Wikileaks.

“While Sarkozy seems forward-leaning (he reportedly considered French disinvestment before being dissuaded by advisors), thus far France remains unprepared to implement unilateral sanctions,” the cable said.

France’s business presence in Burma is substantial. It is led by oil giant, Total, which operates the controversial Yadana oil and gas project along with US company Chevron. According to EarthRights International, the project has netted the ruling regime $US5 billion, much of which stays out of the official government budget.

Like Washington’s policy to Burma, the EU sanctions currently in place against the junta that block European partnersips with the Burmese government but do not force the withdrawal of companies there before sanctions were implemented. Thus Total and Chevron have been able to stay, despite reports of widespread human rights abuses related to Yadana.

Moreover, the French government has steadfastly refused to order it to leave Burma. Its comment that Paris was “unprepared” to join the US sanctions programme was set amongst praise for other actions it has taken on Burma, notably in the UN Security Council.

But what lies behind the mixed bag of French policy to Burma goes beyond purely economic reasons, says Matthew Smith, head of ERI’s Burma programme.

“The main reason why Total has not pulled out is mostly to maintain a French presence in a geopolitically valuable part of the world,” he said, adding however that there are concerns that if Total pulled out, the space would be taken by a Burmese or regional company with a worse human rights record.

Vested interests in the French government at the time of the cable may also play a significant role. Five years before Stapleton’s message back to Washington, Total had paid Bernard Kouchner, who later became French foreign minister, €25,000 ($US33,000) to carry out an assessment of the company’s work in Burma.

After the publication of the report, Kouchner told Le Monde that “Nothing allows me to think that the group could have lent a hand to activities contrary to human rights”. Regarding allegations of forced labour, he added that “I am 95 percent sure that the Total people are incapable of that; they are not slaveholders”.

Smith thinks otherwise. “That project has generated multi-billion dollar profits for the regime and there have been thousands upon thousands of instances of human rights abuses directly connected to Total’s presence,” he said. As recently as February, ERI documented two targeted killings close to the Yadana site that were carried out by a Burmese army battalion providing security for Total projects.

“Kouchners’s relationship with Total would colour his assessment of the company’s human rights impact in Burma,” Smith said. He added that he was “deeply critical” of the report, which based “very definitive conclusions about Total’s presence in Burma” on a “very brief trip to the pipeline area”.

He claims that it is “these types of thin assessments that oil companies in Burma have relied upon to convince investors that they are a benefit to Burma rather than an obstacle to human rights protection”.

The cable continued that Sarkozy had “urged French companies to freeze future investments”, a policy that is more in line with the EU sanctions package and Stapleton’s demand that the US “appeal to Sarkozy to redouble French efforts within the EU to push for tough sanctions” on Burma.

http://www.dvb.no/news/%E2%80%98cablegate%E2%80%99-exposes-french-business-concerns/13183

Dam projects inked as cronies prosper

Thursday, 2 December 2010
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN

Three agreements on future dam construction in Burma were signed on Friday last week at a ceremony in Rangoon, with plans inked for a second dam in the Shweli region of Shan state.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Bilin Creek dam in the country’s eastern Mon state was also signed off, as well as the transfer of running the Thaukyegat dam in Karen state to the government. All three ventures were done through Build Operate Transfer (BOT) systems, a form of public-private financing.

China-based Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower Co. Ltd will construct the Shweli 2 dam in collaboration with Asia World, which is owned by junta crony Lo Hsing Han and his son Steven Law. The capacity of the dam is expected to be around 460 megawatts (MW).

It comes as further evidence of increased muscle power of junta cronies in the post-election economy, after Yangon Airways, the only private airline not close to the regime, was forced to suspend operations.

Rumours are also circulating that Max Myanmar, which is owned by junta crony Zaw Zaw, will be rewarded contracts for the Tavoy port project in southern Tennasserim division.

While Asia World will likely construct and run the Bilin Creek dam on their own, they look set to play second fiddle to Huaneng Lancang in the Shweli project. The Yunnan-based company is already operational in the region on the Salween basin hydropower project, and contractors there include the Htoo Group, which is owned by powerful tycoon, Tay Za, and has on its board Aung Thet Mann, son of senior government minister Shwe Mann.

Construction of the first Shweli dam began in 2007 near the village of Man Tat, and came under considerable condemnation at the time from activist groups and local Paulaung villagers displaced by the project.

According to Sai Sai, from the Burma Rivers Network organisation, “Shweli 1 is already complete and most of the electricity goes to China so none of the community have been benefitting from this project. Instead the community has been suffering from forced labour, [displacement], and has been restricted from walking on their own farmland”.

Whilst few details of the BOT agreement were made public, Ren Peng, from the Chinese environmental group, Global Environmental Institute, said they had urged Chinese developers to abide by Chinese standards.

“In terms of environmental standards, it’s low [in Burma]. As a Chinese NGO we encourage them to adopt higher standards”, he said, adding that the BOT system in their experience gave developers greater scope to insist on environmental measures than if the project was undertaken by just a contractor. “To be a developer they have more space to adopt higher environmental standards.”

However, Sai Sai disagrees. “There are no bodies monitoring the standards. Under this [Burmese] government there are no institutions that make sure these companies make impact or environmental assessments, and none consult the local people.

“I think right now if you compare it to Thailand or China and what they do in their countries, the affected communities there are consulted, so that’s why they avoid these places and come to Burma and do whatever they want.”

Distribution of the benefits, namely the use of the electricity generated, will be one of the most controversial issues. Ren Peng said: “The fact is that the people, the local communities, do not benefit anything from these electricity projects.”

Burma has long been beset by severe power shortages, including in the major cities of Rangoon and Mandalay where lack of investment in electrification is woeful. As a result, the streets of Rangoon host private generators that run on imported diesel – a sight that is almost as ubiquitous as the beggars.

But not so in the new capital, Naypyidaw, which was built with the help of Asia World and Htoo Group. The latter is also set to act as a contractor in the first thermal hydropower project for turbines in the secretive city. The deal for this project was signed in August and will be built by Huaneng Lancang, making it the first such power plant developed with foreign capital.

http://www.dvb.no/news/dam-projects-inked-as-cronies-prosper/13172

Airtime scrapped for ‘political’ artists

2010-12-02



Kyaw Thu’s wife, Shwe Zeegwat, is also included in the ban, along with writer Than Myint Aung, who is in the FFSS. Joining them are singers Saung Oo Hlaing and Than Thar Win, rapper Anegga, punk-rock musician Kyar Pauk and film directors Maung Myo Myin, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi and Cho Tu Zaw.

Around a dozen entertainment artists were yesterday blacklisted by Burma’s information ministry and will no longer be given airtime on television and radio stations.

The list of those banned includes singers, actors, directors and writers, as well as the former actor Kyaw Thu, who now runs the acclaimed Free Funeral Service Society, an official at Yangon [Rangoon] City FM radio station told DVB. The majority had visited the care home for HIV patients in Rangoon that was initially ordered to close following a visit by Aung San Suu Kyi last week.

Kyaw Thu’s wife, Shwe Zeegwat, is also included in the ban, along with writer Than Myint Aung, who is in the FFSS. Joining them are singers Saung Oo Hlaing and Than Thar Win, rapper Anegga, punk-rock musician Kyar Pauk and film directors Maung Myo Myin, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi and Cho Tu Zaw.

http://www.dvb.no/news/%e2%80%98cablegate%e2%80%99-exposes-french-business-concerns/13183

Wikileaks Says Burma Passes Asean News to Beijing

Thursday, December 2, 2010
By BA KAUNG
















Burma, along with Laos and Cambodia, might be working for Beijing as spies within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), according to a US cable leak attributed to Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew.

“Within hours, everything that is discussed in Asean meetings is known in Beijing, given China's close ties with Laos, Cambodia, and Burma,” a secret cable stated, quoting Lee Kuan Yew in a conversation with US Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg on May 30, 2009.

According to a leaked text posted on the Wikileaks website, the cable was sent from the US Charge d’Affaires in Singapore, Daniel L. Shields, to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in June. The conversation, which was aimed at “eliciting MM Lee’s views on China and North Korea,” took place in Singapore's Presidential Palace.

Lee Kuan Yew was also quoted as saying in the same conversation that “Beijing is worried about its dependence on the Strait of Malacca and is moving to ease the dependence by means like a pipeline through Burma,” referring to China's major oil pipeline construction from Burma's Arakan coast to China's Yunnan province.

As China's strategic ally, Burma often seeks China's support in the United Nations whenever its human rights record is raised. And China is widely assumed to wield influence on the Burmese regime.

The leaked cable also referred to an earlier discussion between MM Lee and China's Deputy Chief of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff, Ma Xiaotian. Lee was quoted as recalling that when he asked Ma Xiaotian what China could do about North Korea, the Chinese official replied: “they [North Korea] can survive on their own.”

“MM Lee said he interpreted this as meaning that even if China cut off aid, the DPRK (North Korea) leadership would survive. This is a leadership that has already taken actions like killing ROK (South Korean) Cabinet Members in Burma,” the cable stated, referring to an incident in which North Korean commandos attempted to assassinate South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan during an official visit he made to Rangoon in October 1983.

The attempt to kill the South Korean president with a bomb was widely believed to have been masterminded by North Korean leader Kim Jong II before he succeeded his father Kim II Sung.

Among the hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables leaked by the Wikileaks website, there is little mention of Burmese issues. But in its website, it stated that there are over 3,000 records related to Burma. The documents remain inaccessible to the public but are expected to be released soon.

While the Wikileaks website lists US embassies around the world as sources for much of leaked information, the US Embassy in Rangoon is not included.

In another leaked memo released on Nov. 28 but dated July 31 2009 with its original source being US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Burma was mentioned as one of the priority issues in US foreign policy.

The memo mentioned a request for reporting of biographic information relating to the United Nations, including information about “credit card account numbers; frequent flyer account numbers; and work schedules.”

Regarding Burma, the memo asked for information on “Views of UNSC (United Nations Security Council) and member states on Burma” and also plans and intentions of the UN Secretary General on Burma and level of trust in his Special Adviser, who was then Nigerian national Ibraham Gambari. Also, views were sought from Burmese officials on the UN Chief and his special adviser; the development and democratization activities of UNDP in Burma; and details of the UNDP Resident Coordinator's relationship with Burmese officials.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/

Myanmar restricts speech of new parliament members

AP
YANGON, Myanmar -Freedom of speech for members of parliament in military-controlled Myanmar will be restricted under laws that dictate the functioning of the newly elected government.
The curbs announced Friday in an official gazette also set a two-year prison term for any protest staged within the parliament compound.
They come after elections this month that were swept by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. Final results have yet to be announced, but a tabulation based on state media reports shows the party garnered nearly 80 percent of the seats in the two-house Union Parliament.
The laws, signed by junta chief Gen. Than Shwe, stipulate that parliamentarians will be allowed freedom of expression unless their speeches endanger national security, the unity of the country or violate the constitution. They also provide a two-year prison term for those who stage protests in the parliament compound or physically assault a lawmaker on its premises.
Also, anyone other than lawmakers who enters the parliament hall when the body is in session faces a one-year prison term and a fine.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 and the Nov. 7 vote was widely criticized as unfairly designed and fraudulently executed.
The Union Election Commission has repeatedly corrected announced results that showed turnout exceeding 100 percent in some constituencies and when two pro-junta candidates were declared winners in constituencies in Kachin State where elections had been canceled.
The results ensure the military retains power behind the scenes as well as overtly in parliament, which will become a powerful body. The president, who will come from the ranks of the victorious party, will appoint Cabinet ministers and can call the military to step in case of a national emergency.
The previously elections in 1990 were overwhelmingly won by the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, but the military did not recognize the results.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was recently released from her latest period of house arrest. She has been in detention for more than 15 of the last 21 years.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PARTIES AND THE MEMBERS WHO CONTESTED THE 2010 “SHAM ELECTIONS BY PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS OVERSEAS

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PARTIES AND THE MEMBERS WHO CONTESTED THE 2010 “SHAM ELECTIONS BY PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIV...

UN envoy: Myanmar must address criticism of polls

AP
YANGON, Myanmar -A U.N. special envoy to Myanmar said Sunday he told its military government that it must address concerns about recent elections, which critics charge were rigged.
Vijay Nambiar, who is also chief of staff for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, spoke Sunday to reporters as he was ending a two-day visit.
He said he listened to as many parties as possible about their "hopes, expectations and concerns at this critical juncture" following the Nov. 7 polls and the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.
He said concerns about the elections have to be addressed "as transparently as possible."
"This is important for laying the foundation of a credible transition" to democratic rule, he said.
Nambiar said he also called for the release of political prisoners, estimated by human rights groups to number more than 2,200.
Nambiar met Saturday with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, who said the talks were "very valuable" but that they might need "many and frequent meetings to sort out all the problems we are facing."
Since her release Nov. 13 from more than seven years of continuous house arrest, Suu Kyi has been busy talking with diplomats, politicians and international agencies.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 and the Nov. 7 elections were widely criticized as being unfair, with vote-rigging to favor the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. Still incomplete results give the party a sweeping majority in both houses of parliament.
The official Union Election Commission has repeatedly corrected announced results that showed turnout exceeding 100 percent in some constituencies and declared two pro-junta candidates winners in constituencies in Kachin State where voting had been canceled.
The results ensure the military retains power behind the scenes as well as overtly in parliament, which will become a powerful body. The president, who does not need to be an elected lawmaker, will appoint Cabinet ministers and can call the military to take over in case of a national emergency.
The previously elections in 1990 were overwhelmingly won by the Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, but the military did not recognize the results.
Nambiar, who also met with Foreign Minister Nyan Win, election commissioners and representatives of some ethnic political parties, said the U.N.'s role in promoting political reconciliation was appreciated by all sides.
"The United Nations looks forward to continuing this dialogue through direct engagement with all parties to help advance national reconciliation and the establishment of a democratic and civilian government in a way that contributes to Myanmar's stability and development," he said.
It was Nambiar's first visit to Myanmar since he took over the position of special envoy from Ibrahim Gambari, who last traveled to Myanmar in June 2009.
A long line of U.N. officials, including Ban, has attempted to broker talks between the opposing sides, but have failed to bring them together despite numerous claims of breakthroughs.



--
Myo Thein
Director
Burma Democratic Concern (BDC)
myothein19@gmail.com
myothein@bdcburma.org
+44 208 493 9137
+44 787 788 2386
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Diplomats: UN official to meet Burma’s Suu Kyi

Nov 26th, 2010

AP
YANGON, Myanmar -A senior United Nations official will visit Myanmar this weekend to meet the country’s military rulers and recently released democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, diplomats said Friday.
Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was probably coming to “feel the temperature” in the country following the first election in 20 years and Suu Kyi’s release from more than seven years of house arrest, one diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic protocol.
Nambiar is due to arrive in the main city Yangon on Saturday, they said.
Since her release Nov. 7, Suu Kyi has been busy meeting diplomats, U.N. representatives, politicians and international agencies.
The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has made it clear she plans to pursue her goal of a democratic Myanmar but has been careful not to verbally challenge the junta.
The ruling generals and their longtime archrival have had no contact since Suu Kyi was freed from detention. She has called for face-to-face reconciliation talks with junta leader Gen. Than Shwe.
A long line of U.N. officials, including Ban, have attempted to broker talks between the opposing sides, but despite numerous claims of “breakthroughs” have failed to bring them together.
Suu Kyi’s political party swept the 1990 elections but was never allowed to take power. A pro-regime party overwhelmingly won this month’s elections amid widespread claims the balloting was rigged.
The junta regards Suu Kyi and her nonviolent struggle for democracy as a threat to its power. She has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.

http://burmadigest.info/2010/11/26/diplomats-un-official-to-meet-burmas-suu-kyi/

West Waits for Suu Kyi Sanctions Signal

By WILLIAM BOOT
Thursday, November 25, 2010

BANGKOK — American and European business organizations are reconsidering their position on Burma following the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi, as concern grows among them that economic sanctions have benefited Asian countries prepared to turn a blind eye to junta human rights abuses.

The United States Chamber of Commerce says it is waiting for a “signal” from Suu Kyi on the issue, and the European Union Business Council called for dialogue.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council this week met to discuss policy on Burma following the elections and Suu Kyi’s release.
The council is now “assessing the possibilities for engagement” with Burma’s leadership, but also calls for “all the remaining political detainees to be released without delay,” said Council President Catherine Ashton in a November 22 statement.

Tami Overby, vice president for Asia at the US Chamber of Commerce, said, “It’s fairly clear that the sanctions haven’t brought political change, but instead have outsourced jobs from US firms to their competitors in other countries that trade freely with Myanmar [Burma].”

Overby told the Wall Street Journal: “American firms would urge Congress and the [Obama] administration to consider easing the sanctions if Ms. Suu Kyi and the opposition signal an openness to revisions in the sanctions regime,”

While Western firms have stood on the sidelines, China, Thailand, India and Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries have not only engaged with the Burma military regime but also invested heavily, especially in primary industries and natural resources such a gas.

Proven gas reserves in Burma have climbed to 570 billion cubic meters over the last 10 years, according to a BP Statistical Review. Thailand and, more recently, China, have been the chief beneficiaries.

Chinese companies alone invested US $8 billion in Burma in the first six months of this year, mostly in gas, oil and hydroelectric development projects, according to a Reuters report based on official Burmese statistics.

“Some Western companies certainly are keen to move into Burma’s energy sector, I think the more so since the announcement last week that a Chinese business [Sinopec] has just discovered what appears to be another sizable gas reservoir,” a commercial diplomat with a Western embassy in Bangkok told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

“I think, however, that non-Asian governments will continue to hold back for the time being on any revision of sanctions policies, until they get some endorsement from Aung San Suu Kyi on the issue,” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicate subject.

French energy giant Total and the US concern Chevron are still operating in Burma’s lucrative offshore gas fields, excused from sanctions penalties by their respective governments under a so-called “grandfathered” deal which precluded firms already in Burma when economic sanctions were first imposed.

Chevron declined to comment on the latest political developments in Burma and its future business plans there.

“It is in the interest of the EU to re-engage Myanmar [Burma] as it is increasingly evident that the vacuum created by the withdrawal of Western investment is being filled by China, India and Thailand,” said Thaung Tun, writing for the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

“If the EU does not change course, it will not only miss the opportunity to pursue commercial interests but have no leverage to affect positive change in Myanmar. The EU should take advantage of its trade review to offer to reinstate the Generalized System of Preferences privileges to Myanmar. The initiative would be regarded as a signal that Europe stands ready to resume mutually beneficial relations,” said Thaung Tun.

Suu Kyi has already hinted that she would be in favor of some improvement in European tourism to Burma. In an interview with the German news magazine Der Spiegel this week, she noted that the EU is examining its policy on tourism.

“I haven’t had an opportunity to speak with the European Union about this, but it is essential that people see what is actually happening in this country,” the magazine quoted her as saying.

In the big commercial picture, Asian countries continue to lead the way. China, Japan and South Korea have expressed interest in participating in the Thai-led multibillion dollar plan to build a port and petrochemical industrial zone at Tavoy (Dawei) on Burma’s southeast Andaman Sea coast.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20176

Aung San Suu Kyi and Burmese Sanctions

November 13, 2010, 9:18 am
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

Congratulations to Aung San Suu Kyi on her release from house arrest. She should be president, but at least she’s finally free. And her release is also a reminder that even the odious Burmese regime, one of the most oppressive in the world today, cares a little bit about its international image.

Pressure would also be much more effective if China weren’t protecting and supporting the Burmese junta, partly so that it can gain an outlet to the Indian Ocean and access to listening posts and quasi-bases there to squeeze India. China’s role in Burma has been disgraceful, and one lesson is the need to put pressure not only on the Burmese regime but also on Beijing.

But it’s also time to rethink strategy. Suu Kyi is a brilliant mind and great leader, and I hope she’ll rethink her support for sanctions on Burma. Within the Burmese exile community (nobody except the regime uses the word Myanmar), there’s a split on this issue, although most line up with Suu Kyi in favor of sanctions.

I think that’s a mistake. Maybe sanctions were a worthwhile experiment at the beginning, but they have failed. They haven’t caused the collapse of the regime, which seems as strong as ever. But the sanctions have increased the suffering of the Burmese people. Tens of thousands of young Burmese women have lost their jobs in the garment industry, and some of them probably ended up being trafficked to brothels in Thailand and Malaysia.

More broadly, one of the lessons of history is that broad sanctions rarely work. They make regimes more isolated and give them excuses for their economic failings, when in fact it’s usually international contact that brings about change. Our sanctions on Cuba, for example, have probably helped keep Castro in power, and sanctions have done nothing to hurt North Korea.

I’d be in favor of narrowly targeted sanctions on officials, but broad sanctions have failed. Suu Kyi is her people’s real leader, and I hope she leads the Burmese democracy community to a reconsideration of sanctions.

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/aung-san-suu-kyi-and-burmese-sanctions/?scp=2&sq=aung%20san%20suu%20kyi&st=cse

Difficult Issues Clamor for Advocate’s Attention

Soe Than Win/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi left the headquarters of her political party, the National League for Democracy, on Tuesday.

By SETH MYDANS
Published: November 16, 2010

BANGKOK — The jubilant throngs that greeted Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader, this past weekend in Myanmar confirmed that her huge popularity remains intact. But as she steps gingerly back into the swirl of political combat, she confronts difficult realities that will limit her ability to translate that popularity into fundamental change.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi is taking a conciliatory tone, at least for now, saying she bears no grudge toward her former jailers and suggesting that she might support the relaxation of international sanctions against the military government in Myanmar, formerly Burma. “If people really want sanctions to be lifted, I will consider this,” she said in an interview on Sunday. “This is the time Burma needs help.”

After seven years of isolation in her lakeside villa, she is now overwhelmed with supplicants and supporters seeking her ear. “I know I said I wanted to hear what the public is thinking,” she said during her rally on Sunday, perhaps only half joking. “But now that there are so many voices and so much noise, I don’t know what is being said anymore.”

In the coming weeks, she faces difficult decisions on uniting the opposition, the demands of armed ethnic minority groups, the sort of movement she hopes to shape and the degree to which she chooses to challenge the government.

She must also assimilate new realities that include the rising influence of China, the dispersal of wealth among well-connected businesses, and the emergence of new institutions and new political players as a result of parliamentary elections held just six days before her release. And looming above all these concerns are the ruling generals who, whatever their gestures or promises, remain determined not to cede power or to allow any real democratic opening.

A new Constitution, passed last year, sets up a bicameral national Parliament, 14 regional parliaments, a president, a cabinet and new government institutions that will give military rule a much more complex form.

All but the very senior members of the military junta were required to resign to run for office as civilians and were replaced by a younger generation of officers in their 50s whose personal agendas could conflict with those of the senior officers.

“It’s not the same environment that existed when she was taken into detention seven years ago,” said Priscilla Clapp, the former chief of mission in the American Embassy in Myanmar and a principal adviser to the Asia Society task force on United States policy toward Burma/Myanmar.

“She has come out into a different world, and I think she is trying to feel her way into it,” Ms. Clapp said.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s mandate is precarious, built purely on the gauge of an applause meter, without an organized base or formal platform to ground her. Her party, the National League for Democracy, was forced to disband when it declined to contest the elections.

On Tuesday, she made her first trip into downtown Yangon, formerly Rangoon, to file papers with the country’s High Court asking to have her party reinstated, but analysts said the court was unlikely to rule in her favor.

While Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has moved cautiously so far, some analysts said they did not expect this spirit of compromise to last. “She’s always been confrontational, every time she has gotten out,” said David I. Steinberg, a professor of Asian studies at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, in an interview. “She has always tested the limits of how far she can go. I feel sure she’ll try to quietly test the limits of what she can do.”

She had been released twice before, in 1995 and in 2002, and both times she reached that limit. The outpouring of support for her was too much for the generals, and she was arrested and returned to detention.

Now 65, she has been under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years.

Some people are asking not only what she might be able to accomplish now that she is free, but also how long she might remain free. She was returned to house arrest in 2003 after an attack by organized thugs on her motorcade that some people say was an assassination attempt.

“This is not an ordinary military dictatorship we are talking about,” said Bertil Lintner, the author of seven books on Myanmar. “This is a military that has become expert at staying in power.”

The liberation of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi says nothing about the broader motives of the military junta, Mr. Lintner said. “It’s a public relations exercise for foreign opinion after a totally fraudulent election, rather than part of political reform, which it’s not.”

The generals may see this as a moment of national redefinition, within the boundaries they set.

Along with establishing the new Parliament, they have moved into a new capital and decreed a new flag, a new national anthem and a new name for their nation: the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (formerly the Union of Myanmar).

“I don’t think there’s a place for Aung San Suu Kyi in that new state that the military has created,” Mr. Lintner said.

Although the bottom line of military control remains unchanged, this is a nation in some flux as it sets up its first civilian government since a 1962 coup and as the military enters a period of generational change.

“She has to maneuver among all of these difficult transitional questions,” Ms. Clapp said. “The country is in the middle of a transition the likes of which it has not seen for a long time. There are many different outcomes, so I think she’s going to be very careful.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/world/asia/17myanmar.html?scp=5&sq=aung%20san%20suu%20kyi&st=cse

'The Lady' Hasn't Changed, But Neither Has the Junta

By HTET AUNG
Tuesday, November 16, 2010

After a seven-year public absence from Burma's political scene, Aung San Suu Kyi reappeared to the cheering jubilation of a huge crowd of supporters. The adulation she received, coupled with her first public comments, demonstrated that nothing about Suu Kyi has changed except the wrinkles on her face.

Unfortunately, however, the rigged and fraudulent manner in which the junta conducted the recent election shows that nothing about the Burmese military regime has changed either, except maybe moving the capital to Naypyidaw during her house arrest.

Despite being under house arrest for 15 of the last 21 years, Suu Kyi has clearly been able to maintain her influential role in politics and remains a symbol of hope for the Burmese people, whose support for her has not diminished during her two-decade struggle to achieve democracy in a country ruled by a ruthless regime.

The 65-year-old pro-democracy leader's political charisma still captivates her followers, who are ready and willing to heed her commands. Once again, however, this will surely be interpreted by the junta as a threat to its power.

Her first political speech, delivered on Sunday, briefly laid out a political road map that picked up exactly where she left off when placed under house arrest in 2003.

Suu Kyi reaffirmed that without the people's involvement, change is impossible. She also revealed her strategy for getting the people involved: the formation of a network of people to pursue her unfinished non-violent democratic struggle.

The grass-roots strategy of mobilizing her supporters to get personally involved in the cause is the same approach Suu Kyi used during her countrywide tour in 2003, when she traveled from the northern part of Kachin State down to the central Burma before her convoy was attacked by thugs near Depayin, where she was rearrested and about one hundred of her followers were reportedly killed.

In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Suu Kyi pushed the political envelope further when she said she wants to bring about a “nonviolent revolution.” She said that such a nonviolent revolution would consist of “a radical change” in Burma brought about in a peaceful manner, which she went on to describe as a “noticeable change” and a “great change for the better.”

That is a far cry from the junta's vision of building “a modern developed nation” under the leadership of the military in politics. And the question that must now be asked is: How will Suu Kyi mobilize a “people's network” to bring about a “nonviolent revolution” while avoiding another Depayin?

Despite the fact that the generals released Suu Kyi, the methods they used to rig the election show that the junta leaders are still of the same oppressive mindset as they have been for two decades and are not willing to risk any loss of their iron grip on power.

The regime still considers Suu Kyi their primary nemesis, and although Suu Kyi reiterated that the goal of her political discourse has always been dialogue with the generals rather than confrontation, her first public comments following release may have set the stage for another showdown.

In the near future, the junta will carry out the last two steps of its seven-step political road map when the first session of the new parliament is convened within 90 days after the election and a president is subsequently elected and forms the executive and judiciary branches of government.

As Suu Kyi was excluded from the election and her party, the National League for Democracy, chose not to participate because they believed the process was undemocratic, both will be absent from Burma's institutional political scene for the foreseeable future.

In this context, it is difficult to see how positive future change in the relationship between Suu Kyi and the generals will occur. So just as before, the junta and Suu Kyi's opposition will likely remain two parallel lines going in opposite directions.

The more things change in the junta's Burma, it seems, the more they remain the same.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20096

Suu Kyi and Asean Need to Mend Fences

By KAVI CHONGKITTAVORN
Monday, November 22, 2010

Since her release from house arrest on November 13, the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has occupied new headlines worldwide with media interviews. She has mentioned almost everything she wants to do for her country and people in coming months and years, providing that the junta does not arrest her one more time.

However, one topic has escaped her: Asean. Amazingly, she has not mentioned at all the grouping even once in those interviews that refused to communicate with her some 15 years ago. Her letter to the Asean foreign ministers in July 1995 remained unanswered. Of course, it was a bad start on both sides. At the time, it was simply a contestation of recognition between her and the junta. She wanted to communicate directly with the Asean leaders barely two weeks after her first freedom. Burma was also about to sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Brunei paving the way for a full membership. Doubtless, Asean chose the side of junta.

At the time, she was overly enthusiastic about the role of Asean thinking unrealistically that it would be able to help and steer Burma in the right direction. Prior to the founding of Asean in 1967, Burma was approached to become a founding member of Asean by Thailand. Citing the principle of permanent neutrality, the then prime minister Ne Win refused to join the scheme arguing that the planned grouping was an imperial tool of the US. Exactly three decades later, Asean granted a membership to Burma in a hurry for fear of China's growing influence. On top of it, politics of admission served as a manifestation of the grouping's diplomatic independence against the Western harsh criticism on Burma.

Since then, Asean and Suu Kyi have transformed in their own ways reflecting the region's new dynamism and her own political maturity. After over a decade of admitting Burma and Laos, the grouping was confident enough to become a rules-based organisation that aspired to respect democracy and human rights. In the past two years, Burma has yet to display its willingness to compliance with the new Asean spirit of collective responsibility albeit the Asean-led humanitarian operation in the post Nargis.

So far, she has already met with some of the Western ambassadors. In the near future, arrangements must be made between her and the Asean ambassadors. The first known attempt, organised by Thailand, to do so in July 1995 in Rangoon was aborted due to Burma's strong protest. Poksak Nilubol, the Thai envoy to Burma at the time said that Asean lost the opportunity to bargain with Burma with the membership without any condition. He said Suu Kyi could be a moderating force.

Individually, Asean envoys can meet and sound her out. There is no provision under the Asean Charter that prohibits such a meeting. In this case, Thailand should not shy away for such an undertaking. On such matter, Cambodia has in fact pushed the envelope further by engaging with domestic players in a neighboring country. In April at the side line of an international meeting on democracy in Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met briefly informally with Anwar Ibrahim.

For Suu Kyi, as a prominent citizen of Asean and the only Nobel laureate, a senior stateswoman (only one too), her status and stake is even higher. All that is said and written in the Asean charter and all sacred documents of Asean would become futile and useless with the way the case of the Suu Kyi is being handled by Asean and its mechanism. It would certainly make a mockery of the Asean promises.

More than the Asean leaders would like to admit, she has a moral authority far beyond any of them. She is the best known Asean citizen living. She can challenge them to look at her case and handle it the way they have pledged their honor and commitment to do for "the People of Asean." There is no need to remind them that the Asean Charter begins with "We the People" like the American Declaration of Independence. During the drafting process of term of reference in 2007, this preference was approved quickly without dissension.

If she wishes, she can claim and capture that high moral ground by writing an open letter addressed either to current Asean chair Viet Nam through the end of this year or next chair, Indonesia, stating her principles and vision making a clean brake from the past. Unlike the restrictive situation in Asean back in 1995, currently more Asean citizens are living under democratic environment than ever before. Indonesia, which used to serve a model of the current Burmese military junta, has transformed itself into a vibrant democracy. The Philippines also has a new president that commits to democratic values. All Asean members have also pledged to make the grouping a people-oriented community.

That way, she would be able to communicate broadly to the Asean leaders and ordinary people.

Suu Kyi can indeed play a positive dual rule on behalf of Burma in Asean as well as for Asean in the global stage. She can improve the standing and image of both Burma and Asean. Judging from her statements since her release, she would certainly maintain rather active public life and is not going anywhere or stay idle. Her political future might some days follow the same path of other dissident leaders around the world who later took up leadership roles. In the Asean, many foes have turned friends after the collapse of Berlin Wall. Leaders of Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia could easily recall their first meeting with their former enemies after joining Asean. Such leadership rapports might take years to establish. It would be wise for Suu Kyi and Asean to do it now.

Kavi Chongkittavorn is senior editor and a columnist at the Bangkok-based English-language daily newspaper, The Nation. This article appeared in The Nation on Monday.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=20141

Myanmar’s Leading Dissident Reunites With Youngest Son

Soe Than Win/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with her son Kim Aris after his arrival at Yangon airport on Tuesday.

By SETH MYDANS

Published: November 23, 2010

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Myanmar’s leading dissident, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was reunited with her youngest son on Tuesday after a decade-long separation during which she said she never felt that they had been apart.

Soe Than Win/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, center, left the Yangon airport with her son Kim Aris on Tuesday. They met after a 10-year separation.

“I am very happy,” she said in a telephone interview after meeting her son, Kim Aris, 33, at the airport, and she thanked the military junta for giving him a visa after repeated refusals.

But she said, “I don’t feel that I’ve been apart from him for so many years. I never felt apart from him.”

Nevertheless, only a few days after the exuberance of her release, she sounded weary, perfunctory and even curt during the interview, saying, “I don’t want to talk about it,” when pressed about her feelings about her reunion with her son.

The decision to grant him a visa was a symbolic gesture of leniency by the junta, which released Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi after her term of house arrest ended 10 days ago. She has been allowed to meet with supporters and give interviews.

The reunion on Tuesday underlined the personal toll of the political campaign Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has waged during the past two decades.

During that period she was detained for 15 years and only rarely allowed visitors or communication with the outside world.

She has always been free to leave Myanmar, according to her lawyers, but chose to stay for fear of being denied re-entry.

“I don’t believe in looking at it as a sacrifice,” she said of her decision to embrace her fate as a political martyr. “It’s a choice. It’s a choice I made.”

Now that she is free, she said, she intends to lead what she calls a nonviolent revolution, rather than an incremental evolution.

She said her use of the term “revolution” was justified because, “I think of evolution as imperceptible change, very, very slowly, and I think of revolution as significant change. I say this because we are in need of significant change.”

The change she had in mind, she said, was “a change for the better from the point of view of human rights and democratic institutions.”

But she said that unlike some of her supporters in the West, she did not see regime change as a goal. “What we want is value change,” she said. “Regime change can be temporary, but value change is a long-term business. We want the values in our country to be changed. We want a sound foundation for change.

“Even if there’s regime change, if these basic values have not changed, then one regime change can lead to another regime change and so on and so on.”

She said she did not endorse moves among her supporters overseas to try to bring the junta leaders into international court for crimes against humanity.

“I’ve never said I want them to be brought into the international court,” she said. “I don’t think there is any solid reason for the generals to fear for their safety. We are not after them personally. I certainly do not wish them ill.”

As for her own ambitions, she said, “I’m not very much concerned whether I personally come to power, but I am concerned about the power of the people.” The people of Myanmar, whose aspirations and whose popular uprisings have been crushed over the years, must understand that real power is in their hands, she said.

To this end, she said she would continue to work through her party, the National League for Democracy, although the government banned it as a political party when it declined to take part in a parliamentary election this month.

For the moment, she said, she is busy in Yangon, the main city of Myanmar, but she did not rule out a resumption of the trips she made around the country during her last one-year period of freedom, in 2003.

“One should be free to travel around one’s country as one chooses,” she said.

Her last period of freedom ended when a government-backed mob attacked her convoy, killing dozens of people and forcing her to flee for safety.

Asked if she might again be putting her supporters at risk in public gatherings, she said, “They don’t have any reason to feel nervous just because they come out to greet me.”

But she said, “In any society where the rule of law is not firmly established and basic human rights are not respected, there’s always a risk.”

Asked about the personal animus the junta’s leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, is said to feel for her, and what she thinks of him, she said, “I don’t think we know each other well enough to care or not care for each other.”

Television footage on Tuesday morning from the airport in Yangon showed Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and her son in a brief embrace before walking out of the terminal together.

One of the first things he did after greeting his mother was to show her a red tattoo bearing the symbol of her party, which won an election in 1990 but was not allowed by the military to take power.

This month, the junta held its first election since then, carefully engineered to produce a victory for its favored party, creating a new Parliament that analysts say will provide a civilian face to continued military rule.

In 1991, a year after the previous election, Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which was accepted for her in Oslo by her older son, Alexander Aris. Her late husband, Michael Aris, raised their two children in Britain. He was unable to visit with his wife before his death a decade ago at the age of 53, and she refused to leave the country to see him for fear that she would not be allowed to return to resume her house arrest.

Asked in the interview about the culture shock of emerging from the sensory deprivation of house arrest to the tumult that surrounds her now, she said, “It’s a bit hectic, but it will calm down in a few weeks.”

Thomas Fuller contributed reporting from Bangkok.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world/asia/24myanmar.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=aung%20san%20suu%20kyi&st=cse

Burma's evolving opposition

Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters will find they are not the sole voice of opposition

With Aung San Suu Kyi released and elections completed in Burma, South Asia specialist and Chatham House associate fellow Marie Lall argues that the political landscape for opposition forces could now be very different.

On 7 November, Burma went to the polls for the first time in 20 years.

A total of 37 political parties stood for more than 1,100 seats across two houses of parliament and 14 local legislative assemblies for the seven states and seven regions.

The parties included the pro-regime USDP, the NUP representing the regime which had ruled the country between 1962 and 1988, and a plethora of other, smaller parties, including the NDF - the splinter party from the pro-democracy NLD which had withdrawn from the elections and advocated a boycott.

They also included a large number of ethnic minority parties which were focused in particular on the representation of their ethnic group and were standing not across the whole country, but primarily in states where they had potential constituents.

Advance voting

The playing field was seriously tilted in favour of the USDP, which was able to field candidates in almost all constituencies, whilst the pro-democracy parties were limited to much fewer candidates, largely because they had so little time to raise funding for registration fees and election expenses and to set up and organise their parties and secure membership.

The playing field was seriously tilted in favour of the USDP

The elections also had the controversial feature of advance voting, whereby many officials and members of the armed forces were instructed to vote before the 7th. The elections were therefore not expected to be in any sense fair.

On the day reports from across the country show that on balance the behaviour at the polling booths allowed for a free choice.

There were also reports of infringements, and the USDP is heard to have offered new clothes, coffee and snacks as incentives.

Mostly however, especially in the urban areas, people were able to vote as they pleased. The counting in each polling station, in many but not all cases held in front of party representatives and members of the public, registered wins for opposition and ethnic minority candidates alongside those of pro-regime candidates. On the night of the 7th there was cautious optimism.

On the morning of the 8th, a number of constituencies reported that the counting of the advance votes, largely cast for the USDP quite possibly under pressure had nullified a number of wins.

Whilst the official constituency based results are still unknown, the regime has announced winning 80% of the seats, and a number of those who believed they had been elected the night before have found that they have lost to the advance ballots.

Campaign groups, the NLD, and other anti-election forces will say that this is no surprise. Yet despite this the elections still matter. Those in Rangoon report that people are upset - but they also say that the teashops are buzzing with political talk.

Politics is legal again, people are openly supportive of legally accepted opposition parties. Some parties, including the NUP, are considering taking the matter of overturned wins through advance votes to court.

'Third force'

The main outcome of the elections has been that the new opposition parties - who decided to try to bring change within the structures allowed by the regime, have gained popular support.

One outcome of the election is that political talk is buzzing again

Loosely known as "the third force", they were considered of little importance until now. They are cautioning that people need to press on and remind that no-one ever thought the process of change would be easy.

Their leaders are now waiting to see how the institutionalisation of the new structures will play out. Their role is to maintain the existing political space open whilst preparing to use it for the next elections in five years.

What about Aung San Suu Kyi? If she is allowed to move about now she is free, she will draw crowds of supporters.

But she will also find a very different political landscape from the one she encountered after her last release.

Whilst it can be expected that she will draw a hard line in opposition with the regime over the legality of the new constitution and the new government, it would be wise to take into account the fact that the NLD, now defunct as a political party, is no longer the sole voice in the opposition.

This mantle will have to be shared with the third force. In fact, co-operation with the new opposition forces would probably be the best strategy to unite those fighting the regime, albeit from different political positions.

Whilst Aung San Suu Kyi is unlikely to compromise, she risks marginalising the NLD movement in the long run with an uncompromising stand.

Those who are fighting for change within the new structures will ultimately be able to find some common ground with the regime, leaving the NLD out in the cold.

What does this scenario mean for the rest of the world, and most importantly for those outside the country or on the border?

What is fast becoming Burma's greatest fault line is the rift between the anti-regime groups inside and those outside of the country.

They want the same thing but cannot reconcile their positions.

Today this is the biggest challenge for society in Burma - the need for a convergence between the two opposition groups.

This will start only when those abroad and the NLD acknowledge the role of the new opposition parties in the struggle.

Failing this, the fight will not end up being against the regime, but against each other rendering the opposition meaningless.

Marie Lall is a South Asia specialist at the Institute of Education, University of London, and an associate fellow at Chatham House.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11750330

Suu Kyi Does Not Support War Crimes Trial for Generals

Published Thursday, 25 November, 2010

Aung San Suu Kyi said she does not support efforts to bring the Burmese military generals in front of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes. “I’ve never said I want them to be brought into the international court,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. “I don’t think there is any solid reason for the generals to fear for their safety. We are not after them personally. I certainly do not wish them ill.” The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Burma has called for the establishment of a commission of inquiry into possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/

Notes to all: We must follow our leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, without wavering.

Aung San Suu Kyi visits site where political career began

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's freed democracy leader, maintained her determination to return to her normal life when she prayed with her youngest son at the country's holiest Buddhist site, the place where her political career began.

Aung San Suu Kyi last saw Kim Aris in December 2000 Photo: EPA

By Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok 2:17PM GMT 24 Nov 2010

Kim Aris, 33, who lives in Britain, and his Nobel laureate mother paid homage Rangoon's gold-domed Shwedagon Pagoda, in the corners linked to the days on which they were born.

Then the pair, wearing traditional Burmese garb, gave flowers as an offering and ritually poured water over the statues. Asked what she prayed for, she laughed and replied: "I cannot reveal it. Otherwise, my wishes might not be fulfilled."

Ms Suu Kyi, 65, was reunited with her son after a decade when he flew into Rangoon on Tuesday after he was finally being granted a visa following a three-week wait in the neighbouring Thai capital.

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She was freed from seven years' house arrest ten days earlier and met Mr Aris at the airport, where he pulled off his over-shirt to reveal a tattoo of the symbol of Ms Suu Kyi's now dissolved National League for Democracy party.

The return to Shwedagon was symbolic in other ways. It was the site where in 1988 she gave her first big speech calling for democracy in the country ruled by the military for 48 years.

It was also the focal point where monks gathered during the so-called "Saffron Revolution" in 2007, which was also ruthlessly put down by the military.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/8157014/Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-visits-site-where-political-career-began.html

Myanmar to evict AIDS victims from Suu Kyi shelter

YANGON, Myanmar -Myanmar’s health ministry has ordered the eviction of 82 HIV/AIDS patients from a shelter run by supporters of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi because the center is not hygienic, state media said Wednesday.
An official at the facility said the patients have refused to move, setting the stage for a showdown with authorities who said they must vacate by Thursday.
Local authorities last week ordered the HIV/AIDS victims to leave following a visit by the newly freed Suu Kyi, who promised to help provide badly needed medicine.
Health officials inspected the shelter in July and August and found it unhygienic with patients susceptible to infections because of overcrowding, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said.
But shelter organizers said authorities simply want to pressure them because of the visit by Suu Kyi, who was freed from more than seven years of house arrest Nov. 13.
Yarzar, one of the center’s staff members who uses only one name, admitted the shelter was crowded but said preventive measures were taken against the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis.
Health authorities offered to relocate patients to a state-run HIV/AIDS center, but they refused to move out as their shelter not only offers medical care, food and accommodation but “warmth and affection that no other center can provide,” Yarzar said.
Since the patients have decided not to leave, Yarzar said he was ready to face any consequences.
The shelter, which includes a small wooden house and a two-story building of wood and thatch walls, accommodates 82 patients, including young children.
Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy, was first arrested in 1989. She has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.
Suu Kyi led her party, the National League for Democracy, to victory in 1990 elections, but the junta refused to recognize the results.

Suu Kyi, Son, Reunited after 10 Years Apart

23 November 2010
Photo: AFP
Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi holds the hand of her younger son Kim Aris after his arrival at Rangoon airport, 23 Nov 2010

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been reunited with her younger son for the first time in 10 years after an emotional scene at Rangoon airport.

The pro-democracy activist was waiting at the airport Tuesday morning when 33-year-old Kim Aris arrived on a flight from Thailand, where he had waited two weeks for a visa. The two posed arm-in-arm for photographers and Aung San Suu Kyi said she was "very happy."

Aris showed his mother a tattoo on his right arm with the symbols of his mother's National League for Democracy party.

The Nobel Peace laureate, who married and had her two children in Britain, has been largely cut off from her family since she returned to Burma in 1988. She has spent 15 of the last 21 years in prison or under house arrest.

Aris was repeatedly denied permission to visit Burma during his mother's latest house arrest, which ended 10 days ago.

Through her lawyer, Aung San Suu Kyi thanked authorities for granting the visa on this occasion.

Aung San Suu Kyi also has an older son, Alexander, who is reportedly living in the United States.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/