Asia Regulators Say G-20 Reform Favors US, Europe

Jakarta Globe, November 29, 2010

Hong Kong. The lack of a unified Asian voice in the Group of 20 leading economies means the United States and Europe are driving the overhaul of global financial regulation — with several of the new rules posing significant challenges for emerging markets, regulators said in a regional summit on Monday.

The G-20 has endorsed a series of major reforms to banking and financial market regulation, which the five Asian members of the group and Financial Stability Board members Hong Kong and Singapore have signed up to.

But Asian regulators say a number of these rules pose difficulties for their markets, while others do not address the way the crisis hit their economies.

This, they say, is partly due to the fact that the United States and Europe find it easier to find a common way to regulatory change.

New rules on banking liquidity, part of the so-called Basel III framework, were highlighted as one area where the reforms had not taken into account the size of some emerging markets’ debt capital markets.

“Asian countries are facing significant challenges in meeting these liquidity standards,” Lee Jang Yung, senior deputy governor of South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service, told the Pan-Asian Regulatory Summit.

Those standards mean banks must hold a certain level of highly liquid assets, such as government bonds, so they can still meet their funding obligations at times of stress in the financial system.

Such rules depend on an ample supply of government debt and other liquid assets to begin with.

“We have to make sure these new liquidity standards will not put anyone at a disadvantage because of their capital markets,” Lee said. 

Reuters

The evidence says Muhammad existed

RNW, 25 November 2010, By Michel Hoebink

(photo: flickr/Zoe52)

Some sceptical scholars claim that Muhammad did not exist and that Islam is a fabrication made up in later centuries. But Leiden University’s Petra Sijpesteijn has demonstrated from her work on Arabic papyrus manuscripts that their claim is not true.

What was the origin of Islam and what went on at the dawn of Islamic history? In the past, scholars who wanted to research the subject had to rely on the official Islamic version of events which was only written down about 200 years after Muhammad’s death. Only relatively recently has interest grown in more objective but less accessible sources such as coins, inscriptions and texts written on papyrus.

Petra Sijpesteijn, professor of Arabic language and culture at Leiden University, says that this last source is especially important. “The papyri are in fact the only contemporary source for the first 200 years of Islamic history.”

Pioneer

Papyrus manuscripts have been found in their thousands in the sand and at ancient rubbish tips all over the Middle East but especially in Egypt. Dr Sijpesteijn explains that they are often difficult to read because they are partially destroyed, badly written out or in dialect. “But if you can read them, they offer a unique glimpse of ordinary life at the dawn of Islam.”

The study of Arabic papyri is in its infancy. Only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of available manuscripts have been studied. As far as the work done so far is concerned, the Muslim faithful can set their minds at ease: Dr Sijpesteijn says the texts largely confirm the official Islamic version of events.

Disorganised horde

Dr Sijpesteijn distances herself from the small group of polemical colleagues, known as the ‘revisionists’, who assert that the Prophet Muhammad probably did not exist. They say the Arabic conquerors were actually a disorganised horde of Bedouins who gained control of half the known world more or less by chance. Islam is said to have been dreamt up 200 years later in Iraq.

“From the papyri, it appears that the Arab conquests were indeed carefully planned and organised and that the Arabs saw themselves as conquerors with a religious mission. They also appear to have held religious views and followed customs which contain important elements of the behaviour and beliefs of later Muslims.

Dr Sijpesteijn says for example that, shortly after Muhammad’s death, there is already mention of a pilgrimage (hajj) and a tax to collect money for the poor (zakat). She has also come across a papyrus text written around 725 which names both the prophet and Islam.

Even so, her discoveries form a potential threat to the image some modern Muslims have of their history. The papyri contradict the belief held by many of today’s Muslims that Muhammad delivered Islam as a sort of ready-made package. “It looks as though Islam in its first centuries developed a form gradually. There was an awful lot of discussion about precisely what it meant to be a Muslim.”

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Saudi women sue male guardians who stop marriage

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press, Cairo | Sun, 11/28/2010

Year after year, the 42-year-old Saudi surgeon remains single, against her will. Her father keeps turning down marriage proposals, and her hefty salary keeps going directly to his bank account.

The surgeon in the holy city of Medina knows her father, also her male guardian, is violating Islamic law by forcibly keeping her single, a practice known as "adhl." So she has sued him in court, with questionable success.

Adhl cases reflect the many challenges facing single women in Saudi Arabia. But what has changed is that more women are now coming forward with their cases to the media and the law. Dozens of women have challenged their guardians in court over adhl, and one has even set up a Facebook group for victims of the practice.

The backlash comes as Saudi Arabia has just secured a seat on the governing board of the new United Nation Women's Rights Council - a move many activists have decried because of the desert kingdom's poor record on treatment of women. Saudi feminist Wajeha al-Hawaidar describes male guardianship as "a form of slavery."

"A Saudi woman can't even buy a phone without the guardian's permission," said al-Hawaidar, who has been banned from writing or appearing on Saudi television networks because of her vocal support of women's rights. "This law deals with women as juveniles who can't be in charge of themselves at the same time it gives all powers to men."

In a recent report by the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, the National Society for Human Rights received 30 cases of adhl this year - almost certainly an undercount. A Facebook group called "enough adhl," set up by a university professor and adhl victim, estimates the number at closer to 800,000 cases. The group, with 421 members, aims at rallying support for harsher penalties against men who misuse their guardianship.

An estimated 4 million women over the age of 20 are unmarried in the country of 24.6 million. After 20, women are rapidly seen in Saudi society as getting too old to marry, said Sohila Zein el-Abdydeen, a prominent female member of the governmental National Society for Human Rights.

Fathers cite adhl for a variety of reasons - sometimes because a suitor doesn't belong to the same tribe, or a prominent enough tribe. In other cases, the father wants to keep the allowance that the government gives to single women in poorer families, or cannot afford a dowry.

Islam's holy book, the Quran, warns Muslim men not to prevent their daughters, sisters or female relatives from getting married, or else they will encourage sexual relations outside marriage. But under Saudi judges' interpretation of Islamic Shariah law, the crime can be punished by lifting the male guardianship, nothing more.

Hardline judges refuse to go even that far. The founder of the Facebook group, who introduced herself only as Amal Saleh in an interview with Saudi daily Al-Watan, said she set up the group after courts let down adhl victims. She said her family threatened her with "death and torture" when she pressed for her right to get married while she was under 30. She is now 37 and still single.

Some judges even punish the women themselves for rebelling against their fathers. In one high-profile adhl case, a young single mother, Samar Badawi, sued her father and demanded he be stripped of his guardianship. She fled her house in March 2008 and spent around two years in a women's protection house in Jeddah, waiting for the court ruling.

In April, she got it - she was sentenced to six months in prison for disobedience.

She was released late October, under heavy pressure from local rights group. The judge transferred guardianship to her uncle, and it is not yet clear if her uncle will let her get married.

Badawi refuses to speak to the media after her release, but her lawyer, Waleed Abu Khair, said hardline judges hate the protection shelters because they say the shelters corrupt women.

In Saudi Arabia, no woman can travel, gain admittance to a public hospital or live independently without a "mahram," or guardian. Men can beat women who don't obey, with special instructions not to pop the eye, break an arm or leave a mark on their bodies.

In the Saudi public school curriculum, boys are taught how to use their guardianship rights.

"Be jealous, beat her hands, protect her and achieve superiority over her," reads page 212 of the Prophet Sayings textbook for 11th grade.

The concept of guardianship is interpreted in conservative Islam as meaning that men are superior to women. Moderate Islamic schools of thought, however, see the practice as an order for men to protect women, financially, emotionally and physically.

Radwa Youssef, an activist, said the answer is not to abolish guardianship but to redefine it. Since 2009, she has collected 5,400 signatures for a campaign called "Our Guardians Know Best." She said many women who go against their male guardians' will marry the wrong men and bring shame on their families.

"I see guardians as bodyguards who are serving women and protecting them; it is a responsibility, not a source of power," Youssef said. "If there is a male misusing his powers, he should be introduced to rehabilitation sessions to advise and guide him."

The Medina Surgeon, as the Saudi media tagged her, has been waiting for justice since 2006.

The surgeon, who has Canadian, British and Saudi certification, filed a lawsuit to drop her father's mandate.

But despite a paper trail carrying testimonies from suitors turned away by her father, bank documents that show her father taking over her salary, medical reports showing physical abuse, and the fact that her four other single sisters over 30 face the same destiny, no ruling has yet been issued.

The only answer she gets from the judge is to go back to her father and seek reconciliation.

"He wants me to go to death," she told The Associated Press over the phone from Medina, speaking on condition of anonymity because she feared family retaliation. "Until when I am going to wait? ...The prophet Mohamed himself wouldn't have allowed adhl to take place."

The surgeon lives in a "protection house," one of dozens scattered around the kingdom for victims of adhl and domestic violence. Under a fake name, she gets escorted to courts accompanied by guards, fearing retaliation from her father.

She recalled her last encounter with her father inside the court: "I kissed his feet. I begged him to let me free, for the sake of God."

Restrained by religious, family and tribal traditions that dictate who a woman may marry, many are choosing to appeal to Saudi Arabia’s courts in order to overturn what many women see as unfair or illogical opposition to marriage by fathers and other male relatives. (AFP Photo/ Amer Hilabi)

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U.N. envoy to meet Myanmar junta, meet Suu Kyi

Reuters, YANGON | Fri Nov 26, 2010 6:35am EST

(Reuters) - A top United Nations envoy will visit military-ruled Myanmar this weekend to meet with senior government officials and recently released pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, diplomats said Friday.

Vijay Nambiar, an Indian diplomat who was appointed U.N. special envoy to Myanmar earlier this year, will be the most high-profile dignitary to meet Nobel laureate Suu Kyi since her release from seven years of house arrest on November 13.

A Foreign Ministry official said Nambiar would visit "soon" but would not say whether government ministers or members of the ruling junta were prepared to meet him.

A Western diplomat in Yangon said Nambia had been given the go-ahead by the regime to visit Myanmar this weekend.

Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in some form of detention because of her fight against military dictatorship, has been given a free reign by the generals since her release, which has raised some suspicion about their motives.

She has met regularly with supporters, party members and given numerous interviews with foreign media. However, the Supreme Court, which critics say is influenced by the regime, has turned down her appeal to have her National League for Democracy party reinstated following its dissolution in September.

Nambiar is a former Indian ambassador to China and is believed to have a good relationship with Beijing, a key ally of the Myanmar junta. He recently visited India, China and Singapore to discuss issues related to Myanmar and its political process.

Nambiar is U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff. He replaces Ibrahim Gambari, who served as the U.N.'s envoy to Myanmar for four years but was widely criticized as being ineffective.

Ban has welcomed Suu Kyi's release but warned the military not to place any restrictions on her. Although he has criticized the November 7 election, won overwhelmingly by a proxy party of the military, he says the U.N. is willing to work with the new government when it is formed.

(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Andrew Marshall)

China, Russia quit dollar in trade settlement

People Daily Online China, November 24, 2010

Premier Wen Jiabao shakes hands with his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin on a visit to St. Petersburg on Tuesday.ALEXEY DRUZHININ / AFP

China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.

Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.

"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.

The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.

The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.

"That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries," he said.

Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.

The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.

Putin said one of the pacts between the two countries is about the purchase of two nuclear reactors from Russia by China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, the most advanced nuclear power complex in China.

Putin has called for boosting sales of natural resources - Russia's main export - to China, but price has proven to be a sticking point.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who holds sway over Russia's energy sector, said following a meeting with Chinese representatives that Moscow and Beijing are unlikely to agree on the price of Russian gas supplies to China before the middle of next year.

Russia is looking for China to pay prices similar to those Russian gas giant Gazprom charges its European customers, but Beijing wants a discount. The two sides were about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters apart, according to Chinese officials last week.

Wen's trip follows Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's three-day visit to China in September, during which he and President Hu Jintao launched a cross-border pipeline linking the world's biggest energy producer with the largest energy consumer.

Wen said at the press conference that the partnership between Beijing and Moscow has "reached an unprecedented level" and pledged the two countries will "never become each other's enemy".

Over the past year, "our strategic cooperative partnership endured strenuous tests and reached an unprecedented level," Wen said, adding the two nations are now more confident and determined to defend their mutual interests.

"China will firmly follow the path of peaceful development and support the renaissance of Russia as a great power," he said.

"The modernization of China will not affect other countries' interests, while a solid and strong Sino-Russian relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries."

Wen said Beijing is willing to boost cooperation with Moscow in Northeast Asia, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in major international organizations and on mechanisms in pursuit of a "fair and reasonable new order" in international politics and the economy.

Sun Zhuangzhi, a senior researcher in Central Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the new mode of trade settlement between China and Russia follows a global trend after the financial crisis exposed the faults of a dollar-dominated world financial system.

Pang Zhongying, who specializes in international politics at Renmin University of China, said the proposal is not challenging the dollar, but aimed at avoiding the risks the dollar represents.

Wen arrived in the northern Russian city on Monday evening for a regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government.

He left St. Petersburg for Moscow late on Tuesday and is set to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday.

Agencies and Zhou Wa contributed to this story.

By Su Qiang and Li Xiaokun, China Daily

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Asia needs to spend more to cut disaster risk: U.N.

Reuters, MANILA | Thu Nov 25, 2010

Earthquake and tsunami victims help carry cooking equipment and food aid from an Indonesian Army Mi-17 helicopter after they were delivered to Malakopa in Mentawai region, in the province of West Sumatra October 30, 2010.  (Credit: Reuters/Crack Palinggi)

(Reuters) - The United Nations says Asian governments need to spend more in disaster risk reduction measures to meet Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of cutting poverty and improving access to health and education by 2015.

In 2009, Asia accounted for about 40 percent of more than 330 natural disasters around the world but 89 percent of victims, the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters said.

Disaster damage costs have shot up to nearly $1 trillion dollars from $75.5 billion in the 1960s, and 85 percent of people in developing countries across the world are exposed to quakes, typhoons, floods and drought, it said.

Margareta Wahlstrom, U.N. special representative on disaster risk reduction, said at a meeting of Asian parliamentarians in Manila that governments needed to allocate at least 1 percent of their budget toward disaster risk reduction projects.

"Disaster risk reduction will contribute to reducing poverty through ensuring that people's assets are not destroyed during disasters, particularly in countries were there is very low insurance coverage," Wahlstrom said, adding insurance coverage was insufficient in about 70 percent of countries.

"If we are going to achieve MDG targets for which governments have allocated some budget, perhaps we could consider increasing disaster risk reduction funds; otherwise you can't achieve these goals," she said.

Steps ranged from building safer, more disaster-resistant schools, hospitals and other infrastructure to enhancing public health skills to respond to emergency cases, she said.

(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by John Mair)

Reader’s Digest Asian of The Year Announced for 2010

Antara News, Thursday, November 25, 2010 10:43 WIB | News Release

SINGAPORE, Nov. 25 (ANTARA/Medianet International-AsiaNet) --

After much deliberation, the fourth annual Reader's Digest Asian of the Year award for 2010 has been awarded to Taiwan's Chen Shu-Chu, who has devoted her working life to helping those less fortunate than herself.

A humble vegetable market stall holder, Chen has managed to save and donate NT$10 million ($321,550) towards various charitable causes around children, healthcare and education.

Chen's work has been more remarkable because she doesn't fund raise or seek donations, but rather she goes without, in order to save the proceeds of her meager earnings to donate to worthwhile causes. She is so acclaimed that even Oscar winning director Ang Lee has endorsed her work.

Asian Reader's Digest Editor Dora Cheok explains what it means to be the winner of such an honorable award: "We look for a person who embodies the best contemporary expression of Asian values, as well as those of Reader's Digest, and who is working to shape the future of Asia in a positive manner."

"We are looking out for ordinary people doing extraordinary things and that remains our fundamental theme," she continues.

Three other noteworthy people have been singled out for honorable mentions in the 2010 Readerâ??s Digest Asian of the Year award:

They were: 

• India's Kousalya Periasamy â?? who campaigns tirelessly for medical treatment and jobs for HIV positive women.
   
• Hong Kong's Susan Lam Kwai-Ha â?? who quietly devotes her time, love and concern to assist the elderly and destitute â?? even going so far as to arrange their funeral rites when their time comes. 
• Thailand's Bungon Rithiphakdee â?? who wages a constant war against big tobacco companies and established the South East Asia Tobacco Control alliance (SEATCA.)

Taiwan's Chen Shu-Chu takes over the title of Reader's Digest Asian of the year from India's Jockin Arputham, who has devoted his life to helping slum dwellers. Other former winners include actor and director Jet Li (2009), for his work on the One Foundation, Thailand's Krisana Kraisintu for work with HIV and malaria (2008) and Nepalese eye surgeon Dr Sanduk Puit in 2007.

-ends-

    For interviews or a copy of the story, please contact:

    Singapore:

    Dora Cheok:

    +65 68433360

    Siti Rohani:

    +65 68433362

    Taiwan/Hong Kong:

    Raycine Chang 

    + (886)0936-320-770

    China:

    Michael Wang 

    +86 135 0182 5250

    Thailand:

    SuneeThanalertkul 

    +66 81 482 5844

   

    India:

    Mohan Sivanand 

    +91 98701 48533

   

    Indonesia:

    Dalyanta Sembiring

    +62 21 520 9370, ext 4151

   

    SOURCE: Reader's Digest

Dutch queen’s father ‘was involved in arms trade’

RNW, 24 November 2010

Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands

Historian Gerard Aalders from the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) says Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (Queen Beatrix's father) was involved in arms dealing in Indonesia around 1950. Dr Aalders makes his allegation in his book, Bernhard Zakenprins (Bernhard, Prince of Business) which is published on Thursday. Prince Bernhard died in 2004.

The historian has not unearthed any evidence that the prince actually bought or sold arms himself. However, he says he has indirect evidence from which it can be deduced that the husband of Queen Juliana became involved with the arms trade with the aim of bringing about the fall of the government of newly independent Indonesia.

“A number of arms dealers knew Prince Bernhard personally and the infamous Afghan arms dealer Ali Shah visited him at Soestdijk Palace for business talks,” says Dr Aalders. He says his conclusions are “98 percent complete”. He believes many important records remain behind closed doors.

Indonesian Vice-president Hatta and Dutch Queen Juliana at the signing ceremony in The Hague at which the Dutch recognized Indonesian sovereignty. (27 Dec.1949)

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Senior bankers arrested in India 'scam' probe

BBC News, 24 November 2010

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Police in the Indian city of Mumbai say that they have arrested eight people, including senior executives of top state banks, over a suspected scam.

The allegations are the latest in a series of
corruption scandals

They say that the alleged fraud involved bribes paid to secure large corporate loans.

Senior figures from the Bank of India, the Central Bank of India and the Punjab National Bank were arrested.

The Bombay stock exchange recorded significant losses after the arrests were made public.

The arrests are the latest in a series of corruption scandals to hit the country, including alleged financial irregularities at the Commonwealth Games, an alleged scam involving homes for war widows in the state of Maharashtra and the resignation of a government minister in a row over the issue of multi-billion dollar mobile phone contracts.

At a news conference in Mumbai, police said that raids had taken place across the country and officials were arrested in Delhi and Mumbai.

There was no immediate response from any of the arrested officials or the institutions for which they work.

Among those arrested was the chairman of Mumbai-based financial services group, Money Matters, and two other executives from the firm, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said.

Correspondents say that the company specialises in advising corporate clients on how to borrow money.

The CBI said that Money Matters was "allegedly bribing senior officials of public sector banks and financial institutions for facilitating large scale corporate loans".

CBI official P Kandaswamy told the BBC that the "financial proportions of the scam were not known and investigations were going on".

All eight officials appeared in court in Mumbai on Wednesday and were remanded in custody for five days.

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RI ranked second in ASEAN skill competition

Antara News, Wednesday, November 24, 2010 22:35 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian contingent succeeded in winning the second place in the ASEAN Skill Competition (ASC) VIII which was held in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 14-24, 2010.

"On behalf of the government, we express our congratulation and pride for the hard work and resoluteness of all members of the Indonesian ASC VIII contingent which eventually presented its best achievement and improve the image of the state and nation," Manpower Ministry`s Secretary General Besar Setyoko said when he welcomed the arrival of the Indonesian contingent at Soekarno-Hatta airport on Wednesday.

The Indonesian contingent won eight gold, two silver and six bronze medals in the competition. The achievement exceeded the one it gained in the ASC VII in Malaysia in 2008.

Jakarta concerned over North-south Korea armed clash

Antara News, Tuesday, November 23, 2010 21:47 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has expressed deep concern over the armed clash between North Korea and South Korea on Yeonpyeong island that has claimed lives.

Indonesia urges the two sides to immediately stop the hostility and to restraint themselves maximally to avoid increasing tension, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said in a press statement issued here on Tuesday evening.

Marty said the Indonesian government underlined the importance of resuming the six-party talks by South Korea, North Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan to discuss all aspects relating to creation of peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea fired artillery to Yeonpyeong island close to the maritime border between North and South Korea triggering a firefight.

North Korea did not recognize the border considering it as being determined unilaterally by the US after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with a truce.

Three marine battles occured in the region in 1999 and South Korea had blamed North Korea for its attack that had sank South Korean warship in March this year.

In its statement to North Korea`s state news agency KCNA as quoted by South Korea`s Yonhap the North Korean supreme military command has accused South Korea of starting the tension by firing the North.

Efforts to reduce tension between the two countries triggered by North Korea`s controversial nuclear program through the six-party talks ended in 2008.

North Korea left the forum in April 2009 and five months later it announced that it had reached the final stage of utanium enrichment program which is an important step ahead of making a nublear bomb.

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Hundreds killed in Cambodian festival stampede

BBC News, 22 November 2010

At least 339 people been killed in a stampede during festival celebrations in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said.

There are fears the death toll will rise further

Huge crowds had gathered on a small island for the final day of the Water Festival, one of the main events of the year in Cambodia.

The stampede took place on a bridge, which eyewitnesses said had become overcrowded.

Hundreds more people were injured in the crush.

Hun Sen described the stampede as the "biggest tragedy" to hit Cambodia since the mass killings carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.

He said he had ordered an investigation.

The authorities had estimated that more than two million people would attend the three-day festival.

Panic broke out after a concert on Diamond Island, which followed a boat race on the Tonle Sap river regarded as a highlight of the festivities.

Sean Ngu, an Australian who was visiting family and friends in Cambodia, told the BBC too many people had been on the bridge.

People at both ends were pushing, he said, causing those in the middle to fall to the ground and then get crushed.

The bridge became jammed with people, some crushed under foot and others falling into the water.

Witnesses spoke of bodies littering the area.

Burmese Aids patients ordered to leave shelter after Aung San Suu Kyi visit

Burmese authorities ordered more than 80 Aids patients and staff to leave a shelter hours after they gave Aung San Suu Kyi, the freed democracy leader, a rapturous welcome.

The Telegraph, By Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok 5:04PM GMT 21 Nov 2010

A throng of about 600 turned out to see Aung San Suu Kyi
at the clinic in the city's eastern suburbs Photo: AP

The patients and staff, who need permits renewable monthly to live at the shelter on Rangoon's outskirts as they are not from the former capital, were told to go after the Nobel laureate's high-profile visit.

Few are in any doubt the authorities' notification that the 82 patients would have to leave or face legal action was a direct result of Ms Suu Kyi's trip last Wednesday and the regime's efforts to stymie her.

"We have been allowed to renew our permits in the past," said Zeyar, who uses only one name and is a member of Ms Suu Kyi's disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD) party. "I think the authorities want to pressure us because of [Mrs Suu Kyi's] visit."


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A throng of about 600 turned out to see Ms Suu Kyi, 65, at the clinic in the city's eastern suburbs, where she called for more medical assistance for the shelter's 82 inhabitants, which include young children.

It came four days after she was freed without strings from seven years of house arrest - the latest detention of 15 of the past 21 locked away - when she pledged a "peaceful revolution" while seeking dialogue with the autocratic generals who rule.

The simple shelter, a wooden house and a two-storey structure with thatched walls, was set up by Phyu Phyu Tin. A prominent member of the NLD's youth wing, he wanted to cater to a few of the estimated 240,000 Burmese living with Aids.

Many Aids sufferers had lived in monasteries and were nursed by monks in the past. But since the 2007 monk-led uprising, the so-called "Saffron Revolution", patients are no longer allowed to stay in monasteries.

Htin Aung, a patient at the Rangoon clinic, told the BBC Burmese Service the shelter which provided food and medicines was his slender lifeline and only option.

"I don't think we can move out," he said. "In our home towns we see all the patients die. Here we have systematic treatment and we have medicines."

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