After eight years, Myanmar’s opposition leader will be able to travel around Yangon province to promote her campaign in favour of democracy and human rights. The Nobel Prize winner hopes to see the United States renew its sanctions against Myanmar because there has not been "sufficient improvement" in the country.” The government’s recent release of a small number of dissidents is not an amnesty but an act of “clemency”.
Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Aung San Suu Kyi could soon be travelling to areas outside Yangon to campaign on behalf of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). The Nobel Prize laureate made the announcement today during a meeting with reporters. For now, she will limit her movements to areas around the former Burmese capital, and avoid the rest of the country.
Burma’s main opposition leader has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. The terms of her detention ended in November, a few days after the country’s parliamentary elections.
Right after her release, Ms Suu Kyi stressed her desire to continue her struggle for democracy and human rights in Myanmar. However, she chose not to leave the city fearing possible attacks (see “Junta to jail people who complain about election fraud, warns Aung San Suu Kyi,” in AsiaNews 17 November 2010).
In the past, Burmese authorities prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from travelling around the country fearing her popularity might spur dissent against its military rulers.
The last legal action taken against the NLD leader came in May 2003, in the wake of an attack against her motorcade in Depayin, northern Burma. She did not suffer any injuries in the incident, but dozens of NLD sympathisers lost their lives.
After a meeting with US diplomat Joseph Yun, Ms Suu Kyi talked about US economic sanctions against Myanmar. She said that she hoped US President Barack Obama would renew them because there has not been "sufficient improvement" in the country.
Commenting on the recent release of about 17,000 prisoners, Suu Kyi said that she would not call it an amnesty, but rather an act of "clemency” (see “Release of 36 Burmese activists a “pathetic response” to demands for democracy,” in AsiaNews 18 May 2011).
Jampa Pelsang was arrested in 1996 during a “re-education campaign” ordered by Chinese authorities against Tibetan monks. He was arrested for resisting the campaign along with dozens of other monks, many of whom died during their years in prison.
Dharamsala (AsiaNews) – Monk Jampa Pelsang aka Puloe died on 23 May. He had been released from Chushul prison on 6 May in very serious conditions. He had spent 15 years in prison for opposing a “re-education campaign” launched by Chinese authorities in May 1996 against the monasteries of Sera, Gaden and Drepung in Lhasa, Tibet.
In May 1996, Chinese authorities began their campaign by banning all photos of the Dalai Lama (it is still a criminal offence to have one) and preventing monks from praying in order to force them to take part in indoctrination meetings.
Monks reacted by staging a protest, telling government officials to leave. The military responded by taking over the monasteries and violently crushing the protest. Two monks, Gelek Jinpa and Dorjee, were wounded, and more than 100 were thrown out.
Dozens were arrested between 5 and 7 May. Jampa was taken into custody on 6 May 1996, along with another 62 monks. Thirty-two were handed down sentences ranging from one to 15 years in prison, whilst the others were sent to “re-education-through-labour” camps, i.e. forced labour camps.
Viewed as the leader of the protest movement, Jampa received 15 years, which he purged in the prisons of Lhasa, Drapchi and Chushul.
Born in Dri-gung, Meldro Gungkar County (Lhasa), he had entered the Gaden Monastery at an early age.
Tenzin Yeshi was convicted along with Jampa. He too died soon after his release.
Lobsang Wangchuk, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison, died in Drapchi prison on 4 May 1998, shot by a guard during a peaceful protest.
Congress gives Hu Jintao a hostile reception
In his visit to the Capitol, the Chinese president is challenged by members of Congress, who ask him to account for China’s human rights situation and free Liu Xiaobo. Things are better in Chicago, where Hu tells the mayor that despite the distance, they are “linked by friendship”.
Chicago (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The third day of Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States was his toughest. Unlike President Barack Obama at the White House, the Congress received the Chinese leader with open hostility. Even before that, House Speaker, Republican John Boehner, had breached protocol by refusing to attend the state dinner in honour of the foreign guest. After Hu’s visit to the Capitol, Boehner released a statement that said, “We raised our strong, ongoing concerns with reports of human rights violations in China, including the denial of religious freedom and the use of coercive abortion as a consequence of the ‘one child’ policy. When it comes to guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of all her citizens, including and especially the unborn, Chinese leaders have a responsibility to do better, and the United States has a responsibility to hold them to account.”
Democratic house leader, Nancy Pelosi, criticised China’s treatment of Liu Xiaobo in front of Hu. Liu, who is serving an 11-year sentence, won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize but was unable to pick it up in person in Oslo.
Almost 90 members of Congress signed a letter pressing Hu on China’s "persistent violation of trade law", which “harm our workers by putting U.S. companies out of business and impeding our economic recovery efforts.”
For his part, Hu said, "China-U.S. relations have reached unprecedented breadth and depth”. However, for them to improve, “We should keep our relations on the path of equality, [and] mutual respect”. In addition, he warned “relations will suffer constant trouble or even tension” if the US gets itself involved in “Taiwan and Tibet-related issues”.
Hu described China’s economy, which is no longer socialist and even less communist, as a “socialist market economy”, a term that encompasses both capitalism and state dirigisme.
He stressed that China’s goal is to “develop [a] socialist democracy and build a socialist country under the rule of law”, and that Beijing is not engaged “in an arms race,” nor does it “seek hegemony or pursue an expansionist policy.”
In Congress, most assessments of Hu’s visit were negative however. For Texas Republican Kevin Brady, Hu came to the Capitol just speechify rather than listen, whilst Michigan Democrat Sander Levin said that members “were not given a chance” to speak to the Chinese leader.
Things were somewhat better in Chicago, where Hu met leaders of US industry. In the windy city, the Chinese president praised Mayor Richard Daley, who has been in office for 22 years, and visited China four times since 2004. “Despite the great distance between Chicago and China, our hearts are linked together by friendship,” Hu said.
Saul Pradhan, a Pentecostal pastor, was a courteous man, but firm in defence of his faith. His bloodied body was found last week near a pond. Police claim he died from the "bitter cold". However, autopsy and determined action of the district authorities expected.
Raikia (AsiaNews) - The Orissa police have arrested two persons suspected of being the killers of a Pentecostal pastor in the district of Kandhamal. The area has become notorious for anti-Christian pogrom in 2008. The two arrested are Marda Pradhan and Baiju Mallick members of a radical Hindu group. They were the last to be seen together with the pastor Saul Pradhan.
Fr. Probodha Kumar Pradhan, a Catholic priest of the church of the Rosary of Rikia confirmed to AsiaNews that pastor Saul was found dead on 11 January, near a pond in the village of Pakal. According to his family, rev. Saul had gone to work in Nahadsoru, a nearby village, on 9 January and never returned home. When his wife Nimata and others searched for him they were told Saul was in the company of Marda and Baiju, already implicated in the pogrom of 2008. Family members immediately denounced the two. Only a few days later, faced with legal threats from the family, Marda and Baiju led them to where they found the bloodied body of Pastor Saul.
An autopsy was performed, but its results have not yet beenpublished. At first the police had said that the minister had died of the "bitter cold".
Fr. Augustine Singh, who visited the area, told AsiaNews that the pastor was a very polite man, but strongly defended his Christian faith.
Kiku Parichha Sagar, a human rights activist, who visited the village said: "We thought that the persecution against Christians was over, but it's still going on."
Parichha has also asked the district administration to carry out a detailed investigation. Also Fr. Bijay Kumar Pradhan, vicar general of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar diocese urged the authorities to decisive action against the killers and their sponsors.
An online petition (to be sent to AsiaNews, or directly to the President of Pakistan) for the revocation of the death sentence for a Christian woman sentenced to hang for blasphemy. But we are also asking for the cancellation or overhaul of the blasphemy law, which is destroying harmony and development in Pakistan.
Rome (AsiaNews) – At our reader’s request, AsiaNews has decided to launch an international petition to be sent to President Asif Zardari to save the life of Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to hanging for blasphemy. AsiaNews is also asking President Zardari to cancel or change the unjust blasphemy law, which kills many innocent victims and destroys coexistence in the country. We are asking you o support this initiative by sending a message to the following email:
salviamoasiabibi@asianews.it
Or you can send a message directly to the Pakistani President:
publicmail@president.gov.pk
Our campaign is one of many being launched in Italy (with Tv2000), Pakistan, India and the United States.
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman of 45, mother of five children, was sentenced to death for blasphemy on November 7 last. A Punjab court in ruled that the woman, a farm worker, offended the Prophet Mohammed. But in reality, Asia Bibi was first insulted as "impure" (because not-Islamic), then forced to defend her Christian faith in the face of pressure from other Muslim labourers. The husband of one of them, the local imam, decided to launch charges and denounce the woman, who was first beaten, then imprisoned and finally, after one year, sentenced to death.
Asia Bibi and her husband Ashiq Masih have decided to appeal to overturn the ruling. Meanwhile, the mother now faces months of imprisonment at the mercy of prison guards or some fanatic who could kill her under the misguided belief that he is giving glory to Allah.
Up until now, the blasphemy law had not led to an execution of any accused or convicted. But 33 people charged with blasphemy were killed in prison by guards, or in the vicinity of the court. The latest such case involved two Protestant Christians, Pastor Emmanuel and his brother Rashid Sajjad, shot at point blank range as they left the court in Faisalabad on 19 July. However we can group these deaths with those killed in the massacres of entire villages, in Gojra, Korian, Kasur, Sangla Hill, where hundreds of houses belonging to Christians were burned and where women and children were killed or burned alive, just because one member of the village had been accused of blasphemy.
It is now startlingly clear that this law has become a tool in the hands of fundamentalists that pit Muslims against Christians in order to measure the extent of their power over Pakistani society. It is also clear that almost all the accusations of blasphemy are born from envy, revenge, competition, and that the arrest of the accused is but the first step to allow the expropriation of land, looting and theft.
We desperately want to save Asia Bibi. But we can not content ourselves with this alone. We must strive so that this law, defined by the Pakistanis themselves as "obscene", is changed or better yet, revoked. It was desired by the dictator Zia ul-Haq in 86, in exchange for the Islamic community’s support. But in doing so he laid the foundation for the destruction of Pakistan. This country, founded as a secular republic and neutral toward religion, has become an Islamic state that kills its own people, destroys its own social fabric and is of major concern to the international community.
The blasphemy law has become a sword of Damocles over every person’s head and especially those belonging to minorities, who are paying dearly; Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus, Muslims but also Shiites and Sunnis.
By eliminating this law - or at least curbing it – new impetus will be given to interfaith coexistence in Pakistan, to democracy and development. This will also give greater breadth to security and the international community, which views the spread of Taliban rule in a country that has nuclear weapons with concern.
We believe that the only bulwark to the growth of fundamentalism is to ensure equal coexistence between Christians and Muslims. For this reason we ask for the life of Asia Bibi to be saved. And with this we ask, we hope that Pakistan may also be saved.
Peter Jacob, secretary of the Church’s Justice and Peace Commission, said the death sentence is unjust, that it does not take into account how the law is being abused. Nazir Bhatti calls on the government to cancel the sentence as it has done in the past for some of terrorists.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) – “The sentence against Asia Bibi is a veritable incitement to crime. There was never any insult to Islam in the case and the judge did not take into account how the blasphemy law is being abused. So he came down with a harsh sentence,” said Peter Jacob, secretary of the Church’s Justice and Peace Commission, as he spoke to AsiaNews about the death penalty inflicted on a 37-year-old female farm worker by a court in Punjab last Sunday. “We absolutely condemn this way of doing things; we call on the government to intervene and stop the law from being abused,” he added.
Asia Bibi, mother of two, is the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy. She has been in prison since last year. The trial judge accepted the prosecutor’s contention that she insulted Muhammad in a heated discussion with colleagues. In fact, all she did was to object to her fellow workers’ name-calling (infidel) and their attempt to get her to renounce Christianity. For this, Asia was beaten and reported to police in Ittanwali (Punjab) who arrested her on false blasphemy charges.
For Nazir S. Bhatti, who heads the Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC), Asia’s case is a clear attack on inter-faith dialogue because she was sentenced to death for her comment on Muhammad, not for any insult to the prophet.
“According to the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the president of Pakistan or the interior minister have the power to withdraw any case,” Bhatti said. “There are examples of cases of terrorism withdrawn by the government of Pakistan. Why then the Pakistani administration is silent on Asia Bibi’s sentence?”
“In Pakistan, some 2.8 million Christians are treated as second class citizens, whilst Islamic government feel no shame to release Muslim criminals and terrorists,” he said.
Yet, despite the authorities’ silence, many figures in Pakistan’s civil society, both Christians and Muslims, are mobilising on Asia Bibi’s behalf as well as calling for the repeal of the blasphemy law.
Aung San Suu Kyi freed
Yangon (AsiaNews) - Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader that has become an icon of freedom and of the brutality of the Burmese junta, was freed from house arrest at 6pm (local time).
According to witnesses “The Lady”, who greeted the crowd gathered since yesterday outside her home, it is very thin, but determined. Among other things, she said: "We must work together to achieve our goal."
Thousands of her supporters, who stayed until one am outside the front gates of her home, returned again this morning at 4 to wait for this moment shouting slogans, wearing shirts with her picture, carrying large banners.
Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Aung San Suu Kyi could soon be travelling to areas outside Yangon to campaign on behalf of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). The Nobel Prize laureate made the announcement today during a meeting with reporters. For now, she will limit her movements to areas around the former Burmese capital, and avoid the rest of the country. 
