Obama: For Myanmar or ASEAN?

[fivestars]

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Friday formally extended US sanctions against Myanmar, keeping up pressure on the junta at the height of its new showdown with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency with respect to Burma and maintain in force the sanctions against Burma to respond to this threat," Obama said in a message to Congress.

The move, which had been previewed last month by US officials and was merely a formality, comes despite an official US review of policy on Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that she wants to find a "better way" to sway Myanmar's military leaders.

Foreign ministers of the European Union last month also extended their sanctions against Myanmar for another year, but said they were ready to ease them and hold talks if there was democratic progress.

The Myanmar military government has kept Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for nearly 20 years. The Nobel peace laureate led her party to victory in 1990, but the junta never allowed the election to stand.

Myanmar was under intense international pressure on Friday to free Aung San Suu Kyi after she was imprisoned ahead of a new trial next week for breaching the terms of her house arrest.

The United States and the United Nations led calls for the immediate release of the 63-year-old, whose trial is due to start in jail on Monday.

The military government took Aung San Suu Kyi from her home on Thursday to Yangon's notorious Insein prison, where she was charged over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside residence.

 

[Lee_cunt_yew]

Obama should sanction SG for supporting and collaborating with the Myanmar Junta.

 

[fivestars]

Any society whose object, purpose or activity, whether primary or otherwise, is to —

(a) represent persons who advocate;

(b) promote; or

(c) discuss any issue relating to,

any civil or political right (including human rights, environmental rights and animal rights).

 

[fivestars]

SPECIFIED SOCIETIES

1. Any society whose object, purpose or activity, whether primary or otherwise, is to —

(a) represent;

(b) promote any cause or interest of; or

(c) discuss any issue relating to,

any religion, ethnic group, clan, nationality or a class of persons defined by reference to their gender or sexual orientation.

2. Any political association.

3. Any society which uses the word “National” or “Singapore” in its name, except where the word “Singapore” or any abbreviation thereof is used to indicate the society’s place of registration.

4. Any society whose object, purpose or activity, whether primary or otherwise, is to —

(a) represent persons who advocate;

(b) promote; or

(c) discuss any issue relating to,

any civil or political right (including human rights, environmental rights and animal rights).

5. Any society whose object, purpose or activity, whether primary or otherwise, is to discuss any matter relating to the governance of the Singapore society.

6. Any society whose object, purpose or activity, whether primary or otherwise, is to promote or discuss the use or status of any language.

7. Any society which is formed under the instruction of a foreign government or an organisation affiliated to a foreign government.

8. Any society which is formed under the instruction of a foreign organisation or is affiliated to a foreign organisation or whose major source of funding is from outside Singapore, but does not include the Rotaract Club, the Rotary Club, the Toastmaster’s Club and the Lions Club.

9. Any alumni of an educational institution that is not established in Singapore.

10. Any society which has an office bearer who —

(a) was previously holding office in a society that was dissolved under section 24 and the order for dissolution was made less than 3 years ago;

(b) while being a member of any society, was convicted for an offence involving the unlawful expenditure of the funds of the society; or

(c) has been previously declared in writing by the Minister to be unfit to act as an officer of a society.

11. Any society whose object, purpose or activity, whether primary or otherwise, is to promote, discuss any issue relating to, or to provide training in any form of pugilistic or martial arts.