Word: burma
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Before it began, United Nations officials had described U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Burma as a diplomatically risky mission that could end in failure. After it ended, following two days in Burma and two rare and lengthy meetings with General Than Shwe, the reclusive leader of the country's military government, Ban had come away with nothing concrete to show for his venture. His requests to meet imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi were rejected. His pleas for the government to release its 2,000-plus political prisoners were ignored. "I believe...
...Burma, which the ruling junta has renamed Myanmar, hasn't seen anything resembling openness for nearly five decades, having been ruled by military regimes since 1962. Its generals have isolated the country, ground it into poverty and brutally suppressed periodic mass uprisings in support of democracy - the last, in 2007, was led by Buddhist monks who were gunned down or arrested. The regime says it will hold national elections in 2010, but many observers say they are designed to cement military rule under a civilian guise. The democracy movement's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been kept under house...
...Democracy activists remain unconvinced. "The regime thumbed its nose at the entire U.N. system," says Debbie Stothard of ALTSEAN, a Southeast Asia-based network of activist groups campaigning for democracy and human rights in Burma. "It's time for the international community and the U.N. to take off the kid gloves. It's time the international community stopped regarding crimes against humanity, repression and human-rights violations as normal for Burma. The regime didn't fail to take this opportunity, it refused...
...optimism going into last week's meeting probably sprung from his limited success with Than Shwe during a previous meeting in 2008, convincing him to allow outside humanitarian assistance into the country after Cyclone Nargis. But he is far from the first diplomat to fail to persuade Burma's generals to entertain any serious notion of real political reform. Going forward, Ban said he would brief the U.N. on the visit, and the organization would monitor the regime's progress on his proposals, which he did not outline in detail, save for saying election laws and an election commission should...
...sanctions came as the U.S. Navy was tracking - but not boarding - a North Korean freighter as it moved slowly across the ocean, apparently headed toward Burma, and then turned around and appeared to be heading back. East Asian diplomats have said that North Korea and the regime in Burma have recently stepped up military ties. A large North Korean military delegation recently visited the country, "and the suspicion is that it was very much a sales call. Pyongyang is looking for more customers for its missiles and other material." Deterring that kind of proliferation is what will consume...