Analysts and lawmakers say belated government response served as a factor prolonging the length of the cyber attack
It has been revealed that the South Korean government knew in advance that the distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks that paralyzed web sites for major institutions in South Korea and overseas had begun earlier in the U.S., but did not properly handle the situation. Analysts say this means that the government’s sloppy response in effect increased damages resulting from these simultaneously occurring attacks.
According to accounts Friday from officials at the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) and various security companies, the attacks first struck the Web sites of major government organizations in the U.S., including the White House and the State Department, last Sunday, which was July 4 (local time) or during the Independence Day holiday in the U.S. However, the attacks did not deliver much of a blow due to the swift response of U.S. security authorities. The U.S. evaded the cyber attack by boldly blocking data for which access requests were being received from zombie PCs infected with malicious code located in other countries, including South Korea.
However, while the South Korean government knew through its Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) that major U.S. sites were suffering a DDOS attack, it considered the attack to be “something that happens all the time” and therefore, decided to not issue a warning. “The DDOS attacks that occur in one year alone in South Korea amount to dozens of cases,” said Ryu Chan-ho, head of the analysis and prevention team at the KISA’s Korea Internet Security Center. “We do not worry about the trivial stuff,” Ryu added. Major nations throughout the world share and respond in real time to information about cyber attacks and hacking through a network of CERTs, and despite prior knowledge, the South Korean government’s belated response to the attack led to an increase in damage and confusion.
A security company official who analyzed the malicious code used in the attack says, “The zombie PCs infected with the malicious code began their attack on U.S. sites on July 5th, prior to the attacks on July 7th against 25 sites in South Korea and the U.S.” The National Intelligence Service also reported in a meeting of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee that while “the U.S. took response measures on July 4 and did not suffer much damage, we responded on the evening of the 7th after the situation produced a situation of paralysis.”
The fact that all three sets of domestic cyber attacks began after 6:00 p.m. indicates that this attack began in the U.S., as 6:00 p.m. in South Korea corresponds to 8:00 a.m. in the eastern U.S. “It looks like the attacks were designed to begin at the start of business day to effect U.S. government organizations,” said another security company official. If this is the case, it means that South Korea made the situation worse through fumbling early on in the cyber attack, but ultimately suffered less damage due to the time difference.
The government’s belated response to the cyber attack was also discussed at the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee. Opposition party lawmakers expressed the position that the response was too slow, noting that the vice-ministerial meeting for the related offices was held at 3:00 p.m. the next day and the warning was issued eight hours after the attack was detected. Grand National Party lawmaker Chung Jin-suk said, “It is not the case that the NIS did nothing.” Chung added, “According to them, they gave notice for the control center to respond, and in particular, made a request to AhnLab to supply a vaccine by the morning of July 8th.”
On the matter of speculation that North Korea or forces loyal to North Korea were the source of the attack, the NIS announced that “North Korea is not among the 16 nations whose IP addresses have been detected thus far.
North Korea 'launches massive cyber attack
Malaysia Won't Allow Banks To Violate UN Sanctions On North Korea
Malaysia is looking into claims that one of its banks has been used to channel payment in an arms sale transaction between North Korea and Myanmar.
The country would also assist United States (U.S.) in its investigation into the matter, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak told reporters after chairing the National Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council meeting here on Thursday.
According to reports from South Korea, North Korea had sought payment through an unnamed Malaysian bank for a suspected shipment of weapons bound for Myanmar, which was being tracked by the U.S. Navy.
On Monday, U.S. envoy coordinating financial, arms and other sanctions against North Korea under a recent United Nations (U.N.) resolution Philip Goldberg came to Malaysia for talks.
He had told reporters that his delegation had a very good meeting at Bank Negara with Malaysian officials but did not say whether the suspected violation of the U.N. sanction by a local bank had been discussed.
The U.S. would share information with other countries on any abuse of the international banking system particularly with regard to the U.N. sanction against North Korea to make sure that whatever trade and financial activities that took place were legal and did not violate the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, he had said.
"We are looking at the detail on it," said Najib who is also Finance Minister when asked about the allegation.
"We don't want to be accused of doing things against the United Nations resolutions or international norms. We don't want Malaysia, including its banking system, to be used for those purposes," he added.
He said Malaysia would not allow the country or its banking system to be used for transactions involving the proliferation of nuclear weapons as it did not support the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
-- BERNAMA
Burma and North Korea, Brothers in Arms
By AUNG ZAW From today's Wall Street Journal Asia.
The North Korean ship that tried to steam to Burma last month isn't the only problem facing the U.S. and its allies. There's a much broader military relationship growing between the two pariah states -- one that poses a growing threat to stability in Asia-Pacific.
A government report leaked by a Burmese official last month shed new light on these ties. It described a Memorandum of Understanding between Burma and North Korea signed during a secret visit by Burmese officials to Pyongyang in November 2008. The visit was the culmination of years of work. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were cut in 1983 following a failed assassination attempt by North Korean agents on the life of South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan while he was visiting Rangoon. The attack cost 17 Korean lives and Burma cut off ties.
One of the first signs of warming relations was a barter agreement between the two countries that lasted from 2000 to 2006 and saw Burma receive between 12 and 16 M-46 field guns and as many as 20 million rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition from North Korea, according to defense analyst Andrew Selth of Griffith University in Australia. In exchange, Burma bartered food and rice.
The two countries formally re-established diplomatic relations in April 2007. After that, the North Korean ship the Kang Nam -- the same ship that recently turned away from Burma after being followed by the U.S. navy -- made a trip to Burma's Thilawa port. Western defense analysts concluded that the ship carried conventional weapons and missiles to Burma.
This laid the ground for the MoU signed in November, when Shwe Mann, the regime's third-most powerful figure, made a secret visit to North Korea, according to the leaked report. Shwe Mann is the chief of staff of the army, navy and air force, and the coordinator of Special Operations. He spent seven days in Pyongyang, traveling via China. His 17-member delegation received a tour around Pyongyang and Myohyang, where secret tunnels have been built into mountains to shelter aircraft, missiles, tanks and nuclear and chemical weapons.
The MoU he signed formalizes the military cooperation between the two countries. According to the terms of the document, North Korea will build or supervise the construction of special Burmese military facilities, including tunnels and caves in which missiles, aircraft and even naval ships could be hidden. Burma will also receive expert training for its special forces, air defense training, plus a language training program between personnel in the two armed forces.
Shwe Mann's delegation also visited a surface-to-surface missile factory, partially housed in tunnels, on the outskirts of Pyongyang to observe missile production. The Burmese were particularly interested in short-range 107 mm and 240 mm multirocket launchers -- a multipurpose, defensive missile system used in case of a foreign invasion. Also of great interest was the latest in antitank, laser-guided missile technology.
To suppress ethic insurgents and urban dissent, the regime doesn't need such sophisticated weapons. Burma's desire for missiles, airborne warning and control system, air defense systems, GPS communication jammers and defensive radar systems indicates that the generals envision both defensive and offensive capabilities.
North Korea's military buildup is often viewed primarily as a security threat to Northeast Asia. But its burgeoning relationship with Burma is a reminder of how easily one rogue regime can empower others. Burma's burning ambition to acquire modern missile technology, if left unchecked, could pose a dangerous destabilizing threat to regional stability.
Mr. Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Chiang Mai-based Irrawaddy magazine.
Google Chrome OS
It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.
Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.
We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.
We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer.
[Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html]
Microsoft to sell Singapore ads direct
Microsoft Advertising is pulling its advertising sales operations in-house, expanding its team to serve clients directly instead of through sales partners.
The move marks the end of its partnership with dLive Media, a subsidiary of iHub Media.
According to a statement, the direct sales and advertising operations team will integrate the existing local and multinational Microsoft Advertising teams in Singapore and will serve all Singapore-based advertisers, regardless of where the ads will finally run.
The newly combined team will report to Richard Huggins (pictured), sales director of Microsoft Advertising in Southeast Asia.
“Over that last seven years, Microsoft Advertising has worked closely with dLive to build the digital advertising landscape for Singapore-based advertisers and agencies,” said Huggins. “The decision to make this strategic investment is predicated on Singapore being the pre-eminent regional hub for advertisers and agencies, as demonstrated by the recent establishment of the Interactive Advertising Bureau here.”
Microsoft’s media properties include Windows Live Messenger, MSN, Windows Live and Bing.
“Microsoft is committed to the online advertising industry in this region as the digital landscape is expanding,” said Mark Inkster, managing director of Microsoft’s Online Services Group in Southeast Asia. “On average, consumers are spending over 40 per cent of their time online, and we have seen our network reach for MSN and Windows Live grow to over 74 per cent in the last year. With this new sales structure, we will be in a better position to support the growing number of advertisers who are looking to increase their digital budgets, as well as agencies that are investing in digital skill sets.”
Mathew Ward, MD Singapore of Admax Network, said the move “isn’t surprising” and that “major publishers often look to take more control of their sales force once they gain a decent market share”. He added: “Given their size in the market, I’m actually surprised that MSN hasn’t done this sooner.”
Separately, iHub Media, which is the official sales partner of Facebook in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, has appointed Grace Ng as vice-president of sales for to meet growing demand for advertising on the social network.
In her previous role, Ng was leading dLive Media’s sales team. Carmen Hui and Lindy Chan also join IHUB as assistant vice-president of sales.
Yangon, Myanmar, 4 July 2009 - Remarks on Myanmar to Diplomatic Missions, UN Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations (as delivered)
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests and colleagues
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is my second visit to Myanmar in just over a year. Both visits have been at critical times for the country's future.
My first visit was in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. This devastating natural disaster, which took so many lives and created so much hardship, touched hearts across the globe. In Myanmar's moment of need, the world responded generously.
I want to personally thank everyone here today for your remarkable contributions to the relief and recovery effort.
You have saved lives, rejuvenated communities and made it possible for many thousands of people to reclaim their livelihoods. You have helped Myanmar to overcome adversity. It is important that this work continues.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I felt the tragedy of Cyclone Nargis deeply -- as a fellow Asian and as Secretary-General .
I am Asia's second Secretary-General. The first was Myanmar''s U Thant. I revere his memory. I also recall his wise words.
U Thant said: “The worth of the individual human being is the most unique and precious of all our assets and must be the beginning and end of all our efforts. Governments, systems, ideologies and institutions come and go, but humanity remains.”
This is why I have returned.
As Secretary-General, I attach the highest importance to helping the people of this country to achieve their legitimate aspirations.
The United Nations works for people – their rights, their well-being, their dignity. It is not an option. It is our responsibility.
I have come to show the unequivocal shared commitment of the United Nations to the people of Myanmar.
I am here today to say: Myanmar – you are not alone.
We want to work with you for a united, peaceful, prosperous, democratic and modern Myanmar.
We want to help you rise from poverty.
We want to work with you so your country can take its place as a respected and responsible member of the international community.
We want to help you achieve national reconciliation, durable peace and sustainable development.
But, let me emphasize: neither peace nor development can thrive without democracy and respect for human rights.
Myanmar is no exception.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The challenges are many. But they are not insurmountable.
We know from experience that securing Myanmar's peaceful, democratic and prosperous future is a complex process.
None of Myanmar's challenges can be solved on their own. Peace, development and human rights are closely inter-related.
Failure to address them with equal attention will risk undermining the prospects for democracy, durable peace and prosperity.
However, we also know that where there is a genuine will for dialogue and reconciliation, all obstacles can be overcome.
The question today is this: how much longer can Myanmar afford to wait for national reconciliation, democratic transition and full respect for human rights?
The cost of delay will be counted in wasted lives, lost opportunities and prolonged isolation from the international community.
Let me be clear: all the people of Myanmar must work in the national interest.
I said this yesterday when I met with representatives of Myanmar's registered political parties and with those armed groups that have chosen to observe a cease-fire. I encouraged them respectively to honour their commitments to the democratic process and peace.
Nonetheless, the primary responsibility lies with the Government to move the country towards its stated goals of national reconciliation and democracy.
Failure to do so will prevent the people of Myanmar from realizing their full potential.
Failure to do so will deny the people of Myanmar their right to live in dignity and to pursue better standards of life in larger freedom.
These principles lie at the core of the United Nations Charter, whose opening words are “We the peoples”.
The founding Constitution of independent Myanmar echoes these noble words. We must work together to ensure that Myanmar's future embodies these principles too.
With this in mind, I bring three messages.
First, respect for human dignity is the precondition for peace and development everywhere.
Myanmar was one of the first United Nations Member States to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It subscribed early on to the consensus that respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is indispensable to political, economic and social progress.
Unfortunately, that commitment has not been matched in deed. Myanmar's human rights record remains a matter of grave concern.
The Government has articulated its goals as stability, national reconciliation and democracy.
The upcoming election –the first in twenty years – must be inclusive, participatory and transparent if it is to be credible and legitimate.
Myanmar's way forward must be rooted in respect for human rights
This is why I say that all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, should be released without delay.
When I met Senior General Than Shwe yesterday and today, I asked and pressed as hard as I could to visit Ms. Suu Kyi. I am deeply disappointed that he refused.
I believe the government of Myanmar has missed a unique opportunity to show its commitment to a new era of political openness. It was a setback to the international community's efforts to reach hands to Myanmar 's needs.
Allowing a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an important symbol of the government's willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen as credible.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be allowed to participate in the political process without further delay.
Indeed, all the citizens of Myanmar must be given the opportunity to contribute fully to the future of this country.
National reconciliation cannot be complete without the free and active participation of all who seek to contribute.
The country must embark on a process of genuine dialogue that includes all concerned parties, all ethnic groups and all minorities.
People must be free to debate and to engage in political dialogue, and they must have free access to the information that will help them participate meaningfully in the democratic process.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Any transition is difficult. Myanmar has already undergone transitions from sovereign kingdom, to occupied colony, and now independent State.
This history carries a twin legacy of armed conflict and political deadlock, including recent painful events: the repression of demonstrators in 1988, the cancellation of the 1990 election results, and the clampdown on peaceful dissent that continues to this day.
At the same time, there have been some positive efforts that should be recognized.
Although still fragile, the cease-fire agreements between the Government and armed groups have reduced the level of conflict. The United Nations has wide-ranging experience in making such gains irreversible.
Sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity are legitimate concerns for any government.
We contend that opening and broadening the political space is the best way to ensure that each group and each individual becomes part of the greater collective project.
The military, all political parties, ethnic minority groups, civil society, and indeed every son and daughter of Myanmar has a role to play in this country's transition.
Only mutual compromise, respect and understanding can lay the foundations for durable peace, national reconciliation and democracy.
My second message is on addressing the humanitarian needs of Myanmar's people.
I am glad I have been able to return to see the progress made in the Irrawaddy Delta. The loss of some 130,000 people was tragic, but the rebuilding I saw today was impressive.
The tragedy showed the resilience of the people of Myanmar. It also demonstrated that people throughout the world care deeply about Myanmar and its people.
Above all, the response to Cyclone Nargis proved the value of engagement over isolation.
The unprecedented cooperation between Myanmar, the United Nations and ASEAN through the Tripartite Core Group, with the support of the donor community, has demonstrated that humanitarian imperatives and the principles of sovereignty do not conflict.
Humanitarian assistance -- in Myanmar as elsewhere -- should never be held hostage to political considerations. We can and must work together to ensure access to humanitarian and development assistance to all those in Myanmar who need it.
This brings me to my third message. It is time for Myanmar to unleash its economic potential.
Myanmar sits in the middle of Asia's economic miracle. Harnessing Myanmar to the rapid advances taking place around it is the surest way to raise living standards.
I welcome the Government's policy of opening up to outside trade and investment, and its efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, control HIV, combat human trafficking and curtail opium production.
But the reality is that millions continue to live in poverty. Standards of living in Myanmar remain among the lowest in Asia.
The people of Myanmar need jobs, they need food security and they need access to health care.
We must work to ensure that the people of Myanmar can benefit from and contribute to the regional and global economy.
We must recognize that the region and the world have much to gain from a stable, prosperous and democratic Myanmar. We must work together for that goal.
The Government of Myanmar must seize the moment.
It must take advantage of the opportunities that the international community is prepared to offer to the people of Myanmar.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I came here as a friend.
My duty is to uphold the ideals and principles of the United Nations Charter.
My role is to encourage all of you – the Government, political parties, ethnic groups, civil society – to move forward together as one people and one nation.
Nothing is insurmountable or impossible when the people's interest is placed above divisions.
The region and the world are changing fast. Myanmar only stands to gain from engagement -- and from embarking on its own change.
The Government of Myanmar has repeatedly stated that cooperation with the United Nations is the cornerstone of the country's foreign policy.
We ask it to match deeds with words.
The more Myanmar works in partnership with the United Nations to respond to its people's needs and aspirations, the more it affirms its sovereignty.
Similarly it is incumbent on the international community as whole to work together to help Myanmar meet our shared goals: a united, peaceful, prosperous and democratic future, with full respect for the human rights of all the country's people.
Kyae zoo tin bar tae.
New iphone 3GS launch on 10th July
THE NEW Apple iPhone 3G S, which goes on sale this Friday, will cost less than its predecessor, and those who bought the earlier model will be allowed to trade it in for the new handset.
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), the handset's exclusive local distributor, on Monday announced that the iPhone 3GS will be given free to those who sign up for its $205 a month mobile plans, while those on its new low-end $39 a month plan will pay $678.
Last August, SingTel sold the iPhone 3G for up to $848, and in light of how well it had done - it sold more than 100,000 iPhones - industry observers had expected that it would sell the new model for around the same price.
Another piece of good news: SingTel will offer iPhone 3G users who have been its customers for at least six months to upgrade their handsets. They will have to pay between $200 and $738, depending on plan and the handset. Their contract lengths will also be 'reset' to 24 months.
SingTel is also cutting the price of the 8GB iPhone 3G to $398, making it 'one of the lowest entry prices for touchscreen smartphones', said SingTel spokesman Chia Boon Chong.
While 'there are still a lot of iPhone fans out there' willing to pay any price for the latest Apple offering, Mr Foong King Yew, technology analyst firm Gartner's research director for carrier operations and strategies, said SingTel likely decided to lower prices in response to recession-hit pursestrings.
Meanwhile, the upgrade offer is to keep its original iPhone customers happy so they stick with it, rather than giving them a reason to switch to a competitor, something especially important for companies operating in mature, competitive industries like mobile telecommunciations, he said.
While the new handset is attractive, SingTel iPhone 3G user Lina Tan will take a pass.
'Next year Apple will launch yet another handset. I may as well wait until then when my contract is up, then change,' said the 20-year-old student.
'Anyway, from what I have read, it's physically identical and doesn't do much more than what I have already.'
Firefox 3.5 is Out!
It’s official folks, Firefox 3.5 final has just been released! Not only does the new version have a smaller memory footprint and better memory management, but it’s also twice as fast as the previous one. So what are you waiting for? Each second you spend reading this is a second of future productivity lost!
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With No Clear Path Out of a Diplomatic Thicket, a Push to Redraw the Map
Some people from this country despair at the rigid choreography of what might be called the Myanmar diplomatic minuet. United Nations interlocutors come and go, declaring that the moment is at hand for the military junta to release the endlessly prosecuted Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but the generals do not budge.
Over the weekend, it was Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, who, despite the weight of his personal intervention, failed to secure so much as a chat with Asia’s most famous political prisoner, much less any concessions.
The fact that Mr. Ban emerged empty-handed after his two-day visit that ended Saturday provides the strongest evidence yet that a different approach is overdue, analysts of Myanmar said.
Rather than tying negotiations, not to mention sanctions, to the treatment of just one figure, say policy analysts, humanitarian workers and exiles, the world should engage the junta on a broad range of economic, humanitarian and ethnic issues that will return electoral politics to its rightful place as one concern among many. They admit that borders on heresy, considering Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s virtual beatification in the West, but they consider it a shift she would readily accept given her lifelong commitment to solving Myanmar’s problems.
“People are angry with the U.N. because how many missions have we seen over the past 20 years jetting in and out,” said Aung Zaw, who went into exile after the bloody 1988 uprising and is now the Thailand-based editor of Irrawaddy magazine. “Have they produced any progress?”
Mr. Ban took a stab at articulating a new policy toward Myanmar, formerly Burma, in an unusual speech on Saturday to the humanitarian and diplomatic community. He called on the government to respect human rights, address the dire humanitarian needs in the wake of Cyclone Nargis that killed about 130,000 people in May 2008 and try to join the rest of Asia’s economic tigers.
But for the bulk of his visit, Mr. Ban focused on pushing for free and fair elections, and the release of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and some 2,000 other political prisoners.
What is missing from this approach, analysts note, is a vision of Myanmar as seen by Senior Gen. Than Shwe and the other four generals who together make up the ruling State Peace and Development Council. General Than Shwe views himself as having shut down a failed socialist system; opened up the country to foreign gas companies that discovered reserves worth billions of dollars; signed cease-fires with some 20 ethnic groups in guerrilla wars that lasted since independence from Britain in 1948; and pushed through a new Constitution that enshrines military control of the country behind a civilian leadership.
Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s sweeping national following makes her a threat to this plan. But analysts said they believed that as military men, the generals worry far more about insurgent armies financed by narco-trafficking, including the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army in the north and the Kachin Independence Army, with 10,000 men.
Senior United Nations officials are dismissive about addressing the armed conflicts, saying their General Assembly mandate covers only political matters. But critics argue that they are being too timid.
“I think we need a more general view of the problems in the country,” said Thant Myint-U, the author of a Burmese history titled “The River of Lost Footsteps” and a former United Nations official. “Some new agreement between the Burmese Army and its armed opponents is essential for new elections. The opponents with the guns are in many ways more important to them than the opponents who are locked up.”
Western attempts at isolation combined with the endless domestic civil war have made the generals comfortable in their siege mentality, analysts said. A prime way to bust through that would be humanitarian aid, though analysts say the United Nations has failed to convince donor nations of its importance. In Mr. Ban’s “Five Plus One” pillars for Myanmar, humanitarian aid comes after various aspects of political freedom and economic development.
Given Myanmar’s pariah status, countries have balked at providing aid for recovery and reconstruction. Emergency relief after Cyclone Nargis came quickly, but donors have pledged only about $100 million of the more than $600 million sought for the next phase, said Catherine Bragg, the deputy United Nations humanitarian coordinator.
A report last fall by the International Crisis Group said that aid should be seen not only as a means to alleviate suffering, “but also as a potential means of opening up a closed country, improving governance and empowering people to take control of their own lives.”
It has worked that way at least in the Irrawaddy Delta — the area hit hardest by the cyclone — where villagers have adopted a modicum of self-governance through being consulted by foreign or local organizations on issues ranging from divvying up donated tractors to revamping school curriculums.
As a result, the junta has grown wary, clamping down on visas for foreign aid workers. There is a backlog of more than 200, and 100 recently granted were just one-month extensions, Ms. Bragg said.
While some advocacy groups support lifting sanctions, they want it done in a way that helps economically vulnerable groups like textile workers and farmers. “It shouldn’t be about automatically repealing the sanctions and giving a lot of money to the regime — that would be folly,” said David Mathieson, the Myanmar researcher for Human Rights Watch.
United Nations members are deeply divided over Myanmar, with important trading partners like Russia and China protective of the regime and other Asian neighbors often mute. The United States is reviewing its own policy of economic and other sanctions. At his confirmation hearings last month, Kurt M. Campbell, the highest State Department official for East Asia, said that the review had been enormously complicated by the fact that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was again on trial, but that Washington was looking for “a more constructive approach.”
The hurdle, of course, is that the country’s star dissident has developed a worldwide following. “Aung San Suu Kyi is the 800-pound gorilla in Burma,” said Maureen Aung-Thwin of the Open Society Institute. “Everything that happens — elections, the political process, reconciliation — is inexorably linked to her.”
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Maureen Aung-Thwin as an employee of the International Crisis Group.
U.N. chief urges credible elections in Myanmar
GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for Myanmar's generals to prepare for credible multi-party national elections next year.
Ban was speaking to a news conference in Geneva after a two-day trip to Myanmar, where he was denied a visit to detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"It is up to the leadership to set in place the elements necessary for elections to be credible and legitimate," he said.
