 |
| Photo shows Buddhist monks during a protest in Yangon. Burma's military- dominated parliament has passed a bill allowing citizens to protest peacefully, a lawmaker said on Thursday — the latest in a rapid series of reformist moves in the isolated country. (AFP Photo/File) |
Related
articles
- No Easing of Burma Sanctions in Clinton Trip: United States
- Record Vote for UN Condemnation of Iran, N. Korea, Burma
- SEA Games: Burma Takes Swipe at Indonesian Hosts
- Suu Kyi Party Announces Official Burma Comeback
- Source: Clinton to Travel to Burma
Burma's
military-dominated parliament has passed a bill allowing citizens to protest
peacefully, a lawmaker said Thursday — the latest in a rapid series of
reformist moves in the isolated country.
The bill,
which needs to be signed off by President Thein Sein to become law, requires
that demonstrators "inform the authorities five days in advance,"
said upper house member Aye Maung, of the Rakhine Nationalities Development
Party.
Protesters
would be allowed to hold flags and party symbols but must avoid government
buildings, schools, hospitals and embassies, he told AFP.
The bill
came before parliament this week, four years after a mass monk-led protest
known as the "Saffron Revolution" was brutally quashed, with the deaths
of at least 31 people and the arrest of hundreds of monks, many still locked
up.
Burma's new
parliament, dominated by army proxies, opened in January after nearly five
decades of outright military rule following an election in November — the first
in 20 years — that was dismissed by many observers as a sham.
The new
leaders of the country, which is subject to Western sanctions, have surprised
observers with a number of reformist steps in an apparent move to end
international isolation.
They have
freed and held direct talks with long-detained democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, halted work on an unpopular dam project that was backed by key ally China,
eased media censorship and passed a law giving workers the right to strike.
The
government also held peace talks at the weekend with ethnic minority rebel
groups who have been waging a violent insurgency for greater rights and
autonomy for decades.
By way of
diplomatic recognition for the promising gestures, Burma last week won approval
to chair Southeast Asia's regional bloc in 2014.
It also
received a nod from US President Barack Obama, who said he would send Hillary
Clinton to Burma next month to encourage reform — the first US secretary of
state to visit in 50 years.
A senior
White House official said on Tuesday that Clinton would look for progress on
human rights but it was "premature" to discuss lifting sanctions.
In a
further overture, Japan said on Thursday it would send officials to Burma to
discuss resuming development aid, suspended in 2003 over Suu Kyi's detention,
following recent political developments.
The
Japanese delegation will discuss the possibility of resuming construction work
on a hydropower plant, an official in Tokyo told AFP.
Suu Kyi's
opposition party announced its return to the official political arena last week
after it boycotted last year's polls.
The freeing
of all of the country's political prisoners, whose exact numbers remain
unclear, remains one of the major demands of Western nations.
A small
group of monks risked a rare two-day protest in BurmaB earlier this month,
calling for the prisoners' release as well as freedom of speech for monks and
an end to conflicts between the army and ethnic minority groups.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.