Germany sides with China against UN Burma inquiry

From: Thomas Maung Shwe at Mizzima.

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The German Foreign Ministry has informed Mizzima that at this time it does not support the proposed UN commission of inquiry to investigate war crimes and human rights violations in Burma. 

In an e-mailed response to Mizzima’s questions regarding Germany’s stance on the proposal, German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Theresa Schoenfeld told Mizzima that “to ensure that this new initiative [the inquiry] is successful and has positive consequences, it is important to continue to monitor the situation and crucial to find some co-operation mechanism with the [Burmese] national authorities.”

The reluctance of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition government to support the UN inquiry comes amid reports by The Washington Post that China had waged a “high-octane diplomatic campaign” over the past two months to convince Asian and European nations to oppose the creation of a commission of inquiry.   

The Post reported that just days after the mid-August announcement the United States supported the creation of such an inquiry, Chinese UN ambassador Li Baodong “paid a confidential visit” to Vijay Nambiar, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff and the UN special envoy to Burma, to voice Beijing’s strong opposition to any inquiry.

According to Post writer Colum Lynch, three separate UN sources privy to the details of the meeting said that Baodong told Nambiar the proposed Burma inquiry was “dangerous and counterproductive, and should not be allowed to proceed”.

In response, NLD co-founder and veteran political prisoner Win Tin told Mizzima he was disappointed with Berlin’s decision not to support the inquiry, a proposal first made in March this year by UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana. 

Win Tin said it was “very upsetting that Germany is siding with China and not supporting a UN inquiry. The military’s repeated attacks on Burma’s ethnic nationalities are very severe and have killed many people. These crimes must be investigated by the international community.” 

Although 10 European Union (EU) nations including France and Britain favour an inquiry, opposition from the EU’s largest member, would likely prevent the EU executive body, the European Commission, from taking action to support the proposal or take a stronger stance against the regime. 

When informed of the German spokesman’s statement, Mark Farmaner from Burma Campaign UK took particular issue with the suggestion that there had to be a “co-operation mechanism” with the Burmese regime for the initiative to proceed. 

He offered this rebuttal: “UN inquiries and the International Criminal Court were created precisely because dictatorships won’t investigate their own human rights abuses. It is ridiculous for Germany to imply that its support for establishing a UN inquiry depends on the generals’ co-operation.”

“If Germany applied this logic domestically they’d get rid of their own police force and courts and ask criminals to voluntarily go to jail,” Farmaner added.

Monk calls German stance ‘strange’

Ashin Sopaka, one of the leading figures in Burma’s exiled monk movement, told Mizzima he was not surprised to learn that Germany was not supporting the UN inquiry.  Sopaka, who speaks German and lived there for seven years after receiving asylum, said Germany’s stance on Burma was far weaker than many other western nations. 

“Germany’s policy on Burma is really very strange, the government is more interested in business. It’s like the German government doesn’t want to accept that in Burma there is a horrible military that kills many people.”

Sopaka, who has travelled throughout Germany, added that the government’s position on Burma was quite out of step with the overall German public.

German firms shipped weapons plant to junta

Major Sai Thein Win, a former senior scientist in the Burmese military, defected last year with documentation revealing that the Burmese regime is using advanced equipment supplied by German firms for top-secret rocket research and a nuclear programme.

In a Democratic Voice of Burma documentary on Burma’s nuclear programme, he detailed how the firm Deckel Maho Gildemeister (DMG) sent engineers to assist with the installation of specialised imported machinery in Burmese military-owned factories.

Sai Thein Win said DMG machinery was designed to make precision metal parts in the manufacturing of rocket and missile parts. In addition to DMG, the Burmese military had also bought equipment from German firm Trumpf, including a specialised laser cutting machine designed to cut sheet metal quickly. 

Officials from the German embassy in Rangoon visited two of the factories where the machinery was being used in 2007, 2008 and last year. However, despite evidence provided by Sai Thein Win that the equipment was being used for non-civilian purposes, the German government has thus far done nothing to restrict the sale of such plant.


http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/4532-germany-sides-with-china-against-un-burma-inquiry-.html

Preventing Statelessness: Southeast Asian countries share lessons

Nguyen Thi Phuong, right, was stateless when this photo was taken at her mother's house in Ho Chi Minh City in 2007, after her marriage to a Taiwanese man ended. Through a new Vietnamese nationality law she got her citizenship back. (Courtesy of UNHCR)

BANGKOK, Thailand, Oct. 29 (UNHCR) – Cambodia's dramatic success in documenting its citizens after the devastating Khmer Rouge years and Viet Nam's new nationality law that has rescued thousands of "economic brides" from stateless limbo have been shared with experts from nine Southeast Asian countries as model ways countries can prevent and reduce statelessness.
Yim Sam Ol, from Cambodia's Ministry of Interior, told some 60 experts at a Bangkok roundtable of his country's struggle to rebuild after all citizen registration documents were destroyed between 1975 and 1979. Using mobile teams to reach into the most remote areas, Cambodia managed to raise the percentage of birth certificates issued from five percent to more than 90 percent in just over two years.
"Birth registration is an important measure that can prevent statelessness," said Mark Manly, head of UNHCR's statelessness unit and one of the organizers of the roundtable, co-hosted by the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand and UNHCR.
The two-day meeting, which ended Friday, was financed by the European Commission and comes as UNHCR begins a year-long campaign to help the world's estimated 12 million stateless people and encourage more countries to sign up to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
"The Cambodian registration campaign underlined the link between Cambodia and its citizens, which is an important step to prevent statelessness if Cambodians ever find themselves abroad without documents," Manly said.
At the same time, he added, "lack of documentation does not make you stateless." Manly explained that refugees, migrant workers and other displaced people often can't prove their status, but actually do have citizenship somewhere.
True statelessness comes about when a person has no claim to nationality in any country, sometimes because of dissolution of states (such as the former Soviet Union), or often because of a conflict of laws concerning citizenship and marriage.
Thousands of Vietnamese women who married Taiwanese men were left stateless because they were forced to renounce their citizenship in order to apply for citizenship in Taiwan. But if their marriages broke up before they got their new nationality, they – and often their children – came back to Viet Nam stateless, even in the country of their birth.
In 2009, Viet Nam passed a new nationality law that allows for dual citizenship and prevents women from falling into that limbo. Viet Nam has also systematically set about restoring citizenship to its stateless divorced women, most of who married for economic reasons.
Trinh Thi Hong Anh, from Viet Nam's Social Affairs Ministry, told the gathering that her ministry also intends launch a media campaign warning women about the potential hazards of marrying abroad. Vocational training and counseling will also be offered to women and children who come back home after failed marriages.
Rafendi Djamin, Indonesia's representative to the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, said ASEAN is quite open to learning from the whole world, "but we can also learn well from neighboring countries."
"We see a lot of similarities in terms of values and norms, so some of the lessons are more applicable because of similar values in Southeast Asian countries," he said.
Taking "best practices" from the meeting, Djamin said, the next step is to see what can be done to identify, prevent and reduce statelessness by working at a regional level.
By Kitty McKinsey in Bangkok

http://www.unhcr.org/4ccae1009.html

UN funds Cambodia's prison of the undesirables

Sex Workers in Phnom Penh

A Human Rights Watch research consultant, Sara Bradford, who works closely with former inmates, said the Cambodian government was breaking its own laws by detaining people without charge or trial.
''Such centres are abusive, illegal and ineffective. The operation of the centres, and all funding to them, needs to stop immediately.''
Last year the UN's own Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights described the conditions at Prey Speu as ''appalling'', where people ''were illegally confined and subject to a variety of abuses of power by the staff that included sub-humane conditions of detention, extortion, beating, rape, sometimes resulting in death, and suicide''.

http://www.transcontinental.com.au/news/world/world/general/un-funds-cambodias-prison-of-the-undesirables/1983520.aspx?storypage=0

Junta Envoy Says Burma Has No Political Prisoners

Response has posted this story a little bit late, but thought it was worth it. During the ambassador's speech, it is reported, were the faint sounds of stifled laughter and the sight of fellow ambassadors hiding their red faces behind piles of important documents.

"WASHINGTON —  Burma's United Nations Ambassador, Thant Kyaw, told an incredulous UN committee on Wednesday that his country has no political prisoners.
“There are no political prisoners in Myanmar [Burma], and no individual has been incarcerated simply for his or her political beliefs,” Thant Kyaw told a committee that deals with human rights questions."

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19798

Irrawaddy: Red Shirts at the UN Cartoon

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19791

UN conference ends with pledges to promote green growth in Asia-Pacific region

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36322&Cr=Environment&Cr1=

"Government ministers from across the Asia-Pacific region today committed themselves at a United Nations conference to implement a plan to promote green growth that encourages economic development while still ensuring environmental sustainability."

Reaching Out to Minorities in Viet Nam with Midwives who Speak their Language

http://bit.ly/a0IbuF

"Five to seven women still die almost every day due to pregnancy or childbirth in Viet Nam. Although the maternal mortality ratio has declined significantly over the past few years, there are still big differences between regions – from a low of 40 up to 410 deaths per 100,000 live births in some areas. The highest ratios are found in remote and mountainous ethnic minority areas of the country, partly due to the shortage of skilled birth attendants and health care workers in these areas. Cultural barriers also keep many of the women in these areas from using reproductive health services. To address this issue, UNFPA is supporting an initiative to recruit and train local women to become village-based midwives."

I remember reading and hearing about similar initiatives in Indonesia a few years ago and if I remember rightly their successes were fantastic. Good luck Vietnam.