Burma Opinion: Obama Visits, But the Political Prisoners Remain

President Obama's speech at the University of Yangon on Monday

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As Obama sets foot in Burma for the first time, it was confirmed that at least 44 political prisoners have been released. Campaigners cautiously welcomed this gesture while reminding the international community that these people are essentially being released into an open prison. They are not allowed to study, many are denied passports, lawyers are stripped of their licences and prison sentences remain unchanged. This means that they can be re-arrested at any time. They can also be replaced: since January 2012, at least 200 individuals have been detained and arrested for political reasons.

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Burma Opinion: Aung San Suu Kyi --- From Freedom Fight to Realpolitik (Oddsdottir)

Other than pleasing the international community, Suu Kyi has little to gain and everything to lose by speaking out for the ethnic minorities at the moment. However, Given that the "minorities" are actually 60% of the population, is this really a path to peace?

Is Suu Kyi all we had hoped for?

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Burma Feature: Aung San Suu Kyi & NLD Win --- Is This Beginning of "Democracy"? (Golluoglu)

Celebrations at National League for Democracy headquarters in Rangoon

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If Burma ever needed a moment to rejoice, this was it. In a nation ruled by an often brutal military junta for nearly half a century, Aung San Suu Kyi's apparent victory in Sunday's parliamentary by-election could not be exaggerated.

Swarms of chanting Burmese flocked to National League for Democracy's (NLD) Rangoon headquarters as the sun set over the crumbling city, calling for the fall of "a sham democracy" and the return of "our fair leader, our beloved leader, Mother Suu".

"We did it! We won!" shouted the thousands of supporters as they filled the streets clapping, dancing and waving red party flags.

While unofficial party results indicate that Suu Kyi may have won 65% of the vote in 82 of her constituencies' 129 polling stations, local observers said that the number may have been as high as 90%, with the NLD reported to have won a minimum of 40 of the 44 seats it contested in the 664 parliamentary seats up for grabs.

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Southeast Asia Feature: Maher Zain, Technology, and Modern Islam (Foley)

Maher Zain, with Fadly 'Padi', sings Insha Allah live on Indonesian television

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Zain's songs clearly reflect a wide-spread feeling of discontent and a desire for a different future among Islamic and secular activists in the Arab world. His awareness of that discontent and of the need for hope is an element of his popularity—epitomized by an Egyptian fan who stated at his Cairo concert in March 2010 that she loved the "revolutionary" feel of his music, which was neither materialistic nor in line with classical religious sermons.

Zain tapped into this same feeling of discontent and the need for hope in the first song he released after the start of the Arab Spring, "Freedom." He premiered the song, which is entirely in English, in Malaysia in February 2011. The song thanks God for giving friends and neighbors the strength to hold hands and demand an end to oppression. It presents a vision for a new Arab Muslim society in which people will no longer be prisoners in their homes or afraid to voice their opinions in public. While Zain acknowledges that the dream of a new Arab society has yet to be fulfilled, he promises his listeners that they are on the verge of achieving it, that God is with them, and that he will not let them fail. In the background as Zain sings, there are images of Arab flags and protestors of all ages peacefully challenging their governments in the Arab World.

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Massacre in Kazakhstan: A Video the World Needs to See...And Understand

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. Footage from Zhanaozen in Kazakstan of police attacking --- and murdering --- protesters. English subtitles.

Yesterday a video from the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan was released on-line. It shows security forces in Zhanaozen advancing against protesters, shooting them, and then beating and stomping on their bodies. The footage confirms earlier reports that a protest by oil workers on Friday, the Kazakhstan day of national independence, had climaxed in violence, with the death of 15 demonstrators and upwards of 100 wounded. Activists claim both figures are much higher, suggesting as many as 55 deaths.

The footage, seemingly shot by two women from the window of a high-rise apartment block, captures the moment that a wave of police fire on unarmed demonstrators, clearly fleeing for their lives. A man, who appears to have collapsed after being shot in the leg, is viciously attacked by a policeman with a baton. As one of the women filming comments, "Look at them, they are just beating them to death." The police continue to advance, hitting the fallen protesters as they pass them, before converging in a group, perhaps to take stock of their carnage.

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Public Relations Special: Bell Pottinger's "Reform" Image for Uzbekistan

See also Bahrain Opinion: "Loonies" and The Sins of Bell Pottinger
Bahrain Special: 4 More Revelations about Qorvis, the Regime's PR Firm

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We have been reporting on the work of public relations firm Bell Pottinger for regimes in Yemen and Bahrain, as well as carrying investigative journalism uncovering the company's claims of access to the highest figures in the British Government and its service for clients by planting and changing Wikipedia entries.

The Bureau for Investigative Journalism, which set up the fictional "Azimov Group" approached by the PR firm, has released Bell Pottinger's pitch for business, "Changing Perceptions of the Republic of Uzbekistan". Uzbekistan is the Central Asian country led by Islam Karimov, whose regime has been accused of widespread torture --- including the boiling alive of two detainees --- kidnapping, murder, rape by security forces, financial corruption, religious persecution, and censorship.

Or, as Bell Pottinger presents the challenge in the Introduction to the report, "Uzbekistan has serious reputational problems. On democracy, human rights, and child labour in the cotton fields, perceptions are strongly negative. Overcoming deep-rooted attitudes will not be easy."

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Pakistan Feature: The Warnings Come True --- Another Minister Dies Because of the Blasphemy Law

Shahbaz BhattiPakistan’s blasphemy law took another life on Wednesday. The country’s only Christian cabinet minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was gunned down 50 metres away from his home.

The government, in its silence, has failed to protect its ministers. In its refusal to amend the law, it is refusing to assume its responsibility to protect all of its people. So doing, it is going to take the back seat to a minority of violent Pakistanis who seek nothing but to destroy the country’s religious harmony and its fragile democracy.

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Thailand Special: Documents Prove Military Killed Civilians in Temple (Szep/Ahuja)

The Thai military played a larger role in the killing of civilians during political unrest in Bangkok this year than officials have acknowledged, leaked state documents show.

 A preliminary state probe into political violence in April and May concluded Thai special forces positioned on an elevated railway track fired into the grounds of a Buddhist temple where several thousand protesters had taken refuge on May 19.

Three of six people shot dead at the temple were likely killed by troops, the investigation found, directly contradicting statements by the Thai military, which has denied soldiers were responsible for the killings at the temple.

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Burma Update: Staff, Patients at AIDS Clinic Evicted after Aung San Suu Kyi Visit (BBC)

Residents and staff at an HIV/Aids centre in Rangoon have been told that they will have to leave, two days after a high-profile visit by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Burmese pro-democracy leader drew large crowds when she met residents at the clinic on Wednesday.

Late on Thursday, local officials told people at the clinic that their resident permits would not be renewed.

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Burma Interview: Aung San Suu Kyi on Opposition, Talking with the Regime, and Joining Facebook

I think the South Africans worked up to this compromise that –-- for whatever people did –-- they must take responsibility for that based on a principle of accountability. We all have to live together and one has to compromise. We have got to think about the future of the nation rather than about immediate gratification in the form of taking revenge. I have to say that I have suffered so much less in the hands of the regime than many others. So it is easier for me to talk perhaps about forgiveness and reconciliation. And yet that is the direction in which my mind as well as my heart takes me.

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