April 22: Geneva: United Nations human rights chief Louise Arbour delivered a stinging closing report to the U.N.’s top rights forum on Friday, saying the way it singled out just four states for rebuke was “not credible.”
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April 23: There was a time not so long ago when the beautiful face of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma, gazed out from every newspaper and television set. Burma’s ruling military junta had briefly released her from house arrest and we saw her waving to ecstatic well-wishers from behind a fence, smiling, a flower tucked into her hair.
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April 24: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday urged Burmese junta leader General Tan Shwe to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and to allow her National League for Democracy to take part in the country’s national convention.
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April 22: Brussels: EU foreign ministers will renew sanctions against Myanmar at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, an EU diplomat said.

The decision, which has the unanimous backing of the EU’s 25 members, is to be taken without a debate.

“We are going to renew the sanctions in practically an identical form for a year,” a diplomat said Friday.

“Nothing in the current situation in Myanmar justifies a lifting and since we already reinforced them six months ago, nothing justifies changing them either,” the diplomat added.

The EU in October bolstered sanctions against Myanmar, after Yangon failed to meet
EU demands for greater democraticization.

Under the sanctions, members of the ruling military junta and their families are forbidden from entering the EU.

The EU has also forbidden EU companies or organisations from making investments in Myanmar.

April 23: Jakarta: Leaders from Asia and Africa struck what they called a historic deal to build economic and political links on Saturday, and South African President Thabo Mbeki said millions of their people expected real action.

The declaration, after two days of talks in Jakarta attended by the leaders of three-quarters of the world’s population, pledged to boost trade and investment ties and stressed multilateral approaches to solving conflicts.

“The declaration of the new Asian-African strategic partnership is a milestone,” Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a closing speech.

Mbeki, who co-chaired the meeting with Yudhoyono, warned that the hard work of implementing the agreement lay ahead.

“We have the responsibility to follow up on all of this,” he told the gathering of presidents, kings and ministers from 100 African and Asian nations.

The “New Asian-African Strategic Partnership” will also seek to address issues such as terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and organized crime, the four-page declaration said.

It commits countries to meeting internationally agreed targets for poverty eradication, development and growth.

To institutionalize the partnership, foreign ministers from the two continents will meet every two years and heads of state every four.

The next summit will be in South Africa, Yudhoyono said.

The meeting marked the 50th anniversary of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in the Indonesian city of Bandung, where the Third World sought to assert itself for the first time, inspiring the Non-Aligned Movement.

Leaders will end the summit on Sunday with a nostalgic visit to Bandung, in West Java province.

ROWS TAKE SPOTLIGHT

But Asia’s diplomatic rows and old rivalries took center stage in Jakarta, including a spat between economic giants China and Japan over Tokyo’s World War II aggression, which has seen mass protests in China and sent jitters through the region.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, which is seeking a broader leadership role in world affairs, apologized on Friday in an opening speech to the summit for his nation’s wartime past and pledged to double aid to Africa.

Japan and China stole the limelight again on Saturday as Koizumi met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in an effort to ease tensions.

Military-ruled Myanmar’s top general was also present, refusing to budge on democratic reform despite growing pressure from the U.N. and fellow Southeast Asian nations.

And the number-two leaders of North and South Korea met twice, the highest-level contacts in five years, but there was no breakthrough in the crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear program and stalled bilateral dialogue.

The summit declaration called for reform of multilateral institutions, including the United Nations, to make it more democratic and ease the grip of large powers.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was on hand and made an impassioned plea for leaders from the two continents to be ready to compromise on his proposals to reform the world body. (Additional reporting by Dean Yates, Jerry Norton, Achmad Sukarsono, Telly Nathalia, Benjamin Kang Lim and Sinta Satriana)

April 23: Jakarta: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Saturday [23 April] expressed his belief that democracy could be upheld in Myanmar [Burma].
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April 24: Jakarta: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan met with President Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday to express his concern over the slow pace of democratization in Burma (Myanmar), which along with the Philippines is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
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April 24: Tham Hin refugee camp: A group of Thai senators has called on the government to stop relocating hundreds of Myanmar political dissidents to “concentration camps” along the Myanmar border, which suffer from disease outbreaks and a lack of water.
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Relocated Burmese say they don’t have sufficient food, water or electricity

Burmese exiles with protected United Nations status as “persons of concern” said their lives in camps along the Thai border are currently under threat.
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Political prisoners who were formerly students are suffering from grave physical and mental health problems, according to the exile group All Burma Federation of Student Unions.
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