Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of Parliament and distinguished guests and observers. This is a great opportunity for me to share with you what happened in Burma and also the response of the Canadian government to these situations. We all saw what happened in Burma l

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Larry Bagnell, for all your questions. There are lots of questions. Probably I can touch on a few of the questions, especially the political prisoner situation. As far as we know, there are more than 1,800 political prisoners who remain in detention centres, and

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, thank you. The referendum is a very important one. Lots of people are talking about the role parties should play in this referendum. The referendum is for the draft constitution prepared by the military junta. As far as I know, the majority of people will vote against this

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. The list compiled by the Australian government includes the names of individuals who are targeted, who are related to the militaries, including the military leaders. The list is 417 people. It's only names, not entities. When we look at the Canadian list, t

Foreign Affairs committee  There are some Canadian companies still working in Burma--for instance, the Canadian helicopter company CHC. That company is providing helicopter services to Total and Unocal, the two Chinese companies providing all the technique and all the expertise for the natural gas pipeline

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chair and honourable members, it is a great honour to be here to talk about Burma and to answer your questions related to the current political situation in Burma. I represent the Canadian Friends of Burma, a federally incorporated non-governmental organization working for d

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Overall, the situation on the surface seems to be very encouraging, but if you look deeply, the situation is different. When it comes to freedom of expression or free media, there is some freedom of the press, but today, for example, there is more international press today. Acco

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The Kachin organization has been taking a political stand. They used an old document called the Panglong agreement, which is the document that formed Burma. With that, Burma gained independence from the British. With the agreement, it meant that with all ethnic leaders at that ti

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There are two issues. One is related to the dam. The other one is a political issue. Politicians are constantly asking for political solutions to create a peaceful country and to coexist together, but successive Burmese military governments never agreed to that kind of political

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Many other ethnic people and organizations are also asking for the same autonomy and self-determination in Burma, but Kachin, as far as I know, is one of the strongest groups in Burma.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Forced labour in Burma was quite bad in the past. When the ILO, the International Labour Organization, got involved, the previous Burmese government decided on some kinds of standards, and even changed some laws preventing the use of forced labour in Burma, but still there is for

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There were a few mining companies. Some companies got involved in the exploration of some precious stones in northern Burma. Some companies no longer exist there, as far as I know—for example, Jet Gold. That was a company based on the west coast. I don't think they are still in o

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, we are in the process of finalizing the paper. I was hoping to present it to this committee, but we are still talking and working on that. Maybe in a week or two we will be able to present it.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't know the details about other mining companies, but I know a few details about the Ivanhoe mines corporation. Some mining companies in Burma in the past didn't have that kind of bad reputation, as far as I can see. They were just there to explore the possibility of invest