What is Important Now: Free and Fair Elections

Credit: Irrawaddy News, March 5, 2010.

Tomas Ojea Quintana was appointed UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Myanmar [Burma] in May 2008. His task is “to examine, monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights situations” in Burma, one of eight countries that the Council focuses on. He is the fourth person to hold this position, and since his appointment has conducted three visits to the country. He concluded his most recent trip, from Feb. 15 to 19, with the assessment that a free and fair election could not be held in the country under current conditions. Simon Roughneen spoke with him in the aftermath of the visit to find out more about the trip and what comes next.

Question: You expressed disappointment at not meeting Aung San Suu Kyi during your recent visit to Burma. Can you tell us why you felt it was so important to meet her at this time?

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Burmese Embassies to Suspend Passport Extension Services

By KYAW THEIN KHA, Irrawaddy News, March 5, 2010.

Burmese embassies around the world will suspend passport extension services for one month in April as the Ministry of Home Affairs has given them instructions to introduce passports using the international bar-code OCRB system.

“The Ministry of Home Affairs has instructed us to temporarily suspend passport extension services for the whole month of April. Passports that will expire in April are to be extended before then. The ministry hasn't explained the bar-code system passports to us,” an official at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

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No Progress in KIO-Junta Border Guard Force Meeting

Credit: SAW YAN NAING, The Irrawaddy News Magazine, February 1, 2010.

A meeting between Burmese Military Affairs Security Chief Lt-Gen Ye Myint and leaders of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Myitkyina, the Kachin capital, on Friday failed to achieve a breakthrough in border guard force negotiations, said a Kachin source on the Sino-Burma border.

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'We Will Fight,' Says Mon Leader

Credit: By LAWI WENG, The Irrawaddy News Magazine, January 30, 2010.

Addressing a crowd of about 1,000 ethnic Mon villagers at 63rd anniversary celebrations of Mon National Day in Palanjapan village near Three Pagodas Pass on Saturday, a Mon leader asked the crowd to clap if they were in support of the Mon army returning to war with Burma's ruling military junta.

Nai Tang Rong, 82, the head of the Thai-Mon community in Bangkok, was making a speech from the stage when he announced: “If we don’t get the freedom we want from the junta, do you think we need to fight them again?

“If you think we need to fight, please clap your hands!” he called to the crowd. The festival crowd immediately broke out in loud applause.

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"Burma Elections Must Be Credible": U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.

Credit: VOA News, 08 January 2010.

The military regime in Burma has not taken any meaningful steps that would lend credibility to general elections proposed for later in 2010. U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that "much of the opposition remains in prison, there is no space for political dissent or debate and no freedom of the press."

Mr. Kelly called for Burma to engage pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic leaders "in a comprehensive dialogue on democratic reform. This," he said, "would be a first step towards inclusive elections."

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