UN lists Burma as global peace threat 

NEW YORK — The party of Aung San Suu Kyi at the weekend welcomed a United Nations (UN) decision to add Burma to its list of nations that represent a threat to international peace and security.

A divided UN Security Council voted on Friday to add Burma to its formal list of global hot spots for the first time — deeming the junta government a threat to international peace and security.

National League for Democracy spokesman Nyan Win said that putting Burma on the security council’s agenda could help the push for national reconciliation of the country.

Ten countries, including the US, voted in favour of adding Burma, also known as Myanmar, to the council agenda, while China, Russia, Qatar and the Democratic Republic of Congo voted against it. Tanzania abstained.

The military has run the country since 1962, ignoring a 1990 landslide election victory by the National League for Democracy — the party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. She has been in prison or under house arrest since May 2003.

US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said Burma also deserved attention due to its illegal drugs trade, high HIV/AIDS rates and human rights record.

But the Chinese ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, said it was “preposterous” to argue any nation threatened international peace and security simply because it faced those problems.

“Everyone thinks that the security council is a panacea, that it could do everything, but I think that is not the case,” Wang said.

One surprise vote was Japan, which sided with the US. It previously argued that Burma was an Asian problem. Reuters

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Why was bloody China  against the decision? Thousands of Burmese refugees in Burma's neighbouring countries are strong evidence showing instabily of region. Recently, opportunists in Thailand has made a human zoo in which a Burmese tribe Padand people are grouped for tourist attraction.

Long-neck refugees get Thai "human zoo" treatment
By Noppawan Bunluesilp

MAE HONG SON, Thailand (Reuters) - For the past two decades, hundreds of ethnic Padaung "long-neck" people from military-ruled Myanmar have enjoyed relative peace and security as refugees in the hills of northern Thailand.

But plans to consolidate three Padaung villages into a single refugee settlement are intensifying concerns among human rights workers about their exploitation as a tourist attraction.

Already, busloads of foreigners on "eco-tourism" trips pile into the remote villages every day to pose beside the Padaung "giraffe women", so-called for their elongated necks propped up on layers of brass coils.

Some visitors -- and some Padaung -- say the tours are more akin to trips to a human zoo.

"I'm happy when lots of tourists come here and I have a good time with them, but when I think harder about it, they are coming because we are strange and that gives me mixed feelings," said 21-year-old Ma Ri, who fled the former Burma 10 years ago.

Unfortunately, say refugee rights campaigners, Thailand's exploitation of its hill-tribe communities is as old as the hills themselves.

"Thai people, I'm sorry to say, are insensitive to their minorities, and the hill-tribe minorities have always been a money attraction," Senator Kraisak Choonhavan told Reuters.

"If you look at advertisments for the north, you find countless pictures of all these colourful peoples and yet there has been no progress" in integrating them into Thai society, he said.

As well as citing security concerns, government officials in Mae Hong Son province, 920 km (570 miles) north of Bangkok, say the new settlement is vital to preserving ancient Padaung culture.

However, they also concede that ancient culture means tourist dollars.

"We will encourage each group to brainstorm how they could conserve their traditions to attract tourists to come, see and feel it for real," provincial governor Direk Ghonkleeb told Reuters.

Although all the other camps housing the 140,000 Myanmar refugees in Thailand are closed to outsiders, tourists pay between 250 and 500 baht ($13.30) each to enter Padaung villages.

However, the women themselves, who are officially barred from leaving the villages, receive only a fraction of that -- often as little as 1,500 baht a month -- and have to supplement their income selling trinkets and postcards.

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