Shares in the sector tumbled by as much as 80% as investors reacted with dismay to new laws in the US which ban banks and credit card companies from processing payments to online casinos.
The legislation was a major blow for firms such as Party Poker owner PartyGaming and 888 Holdings, which rely heavily on the US for business. In almost two hours of talks, Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, told the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, that he feared his country would suffer the same fate as Iraq if UN soldiers were to intervene.. A beefed-up African peacekeeping force has emerged as the best hope of averting humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur after the Sudanese President defiantly brushed aside pressure to admit UN troops. Military junta renames country Myanmar.* 1990 Military ignores opposition National League for Democracy’s election victory, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, right, who is placed under house arrest.* 2000-2003 Suu Kyi has restrictions on movement lifted by ruling council, but is later taken into “protective custody” after clashes between her supporters and government.* 2006 UN Security Council discusses Burma for first time amid reports of repression, refugee crisis and illegal drugs trade..
If the international community and the UN were to intervene, we would support that.”Soon after Channel 4 reporters left the Karen state, the area was attacked by thousands of government troops. Eighteen thousand people were forced to flee, one of the biggest movements of internally-displaced refugees in south-east Asia since the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. A lucky few made it to Thailand, where tens of thousands of people from Burma live a life in limbo, forced to work for a pittance.Speaking to The Independent, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that the time to act is now.”The Burmese people have tried everything possible and have been flatly refused help The regime is only getting stronger. There comes a point where it is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.”Evan Williams’ Dispatches: A secret war is on Channel 4 at 8pm this evening.44 years of military rule* 1962 General Ne Win leads military coup ousting Buddhist state led by U Nu, and isolating country with a one-party, military-led state.* 1974 Power is transferred from armed forces to a People’s Assembly headed by Ne Win and a new constitution comes into effect.* 1981 Ne Win relinquishes presidency but continues as chairman of ruling party. San Yu, a retired general, takes power.* 1982 People of non-indigenous background are designated “associate citizens” and barred from working in public office.* 1987-1989 Burma becomes increasingly repressed as currency is devalued, wiping out many people’s savings Anti-government riots erupt, leading to thousands of deaths. The World Health Organisation ranks Burma second to bottom in its list of 191 countries around the world; the ruling SPDP party spends just 19 pence on healthcare for each of its citizens a year.There are indications that the regime is beginning to operate even more tightly and with greater secrecy. The inauguration of the new capital, Pyinmana, in 2005 – sequestered in a remote jungle hide-out closed to all but government officials – was directly responsible for the displacement of about 5000 Karen people alone.
Attacks on ethnic minority villages are happening with increasing regularity.Of all the weapons at the Burmese army’s disposal, rape is the cheapest. Soldiers are often ordered to rape women from ethnic minorities and leave them pregnant to breed out the resistance.The Karen have one of the last armies offering real resistance but it is an increasingly hard struggle as their supply routes are squeezed by neighbouring governments more interested in business with the generals, and especially Burma’s new-found oil and gas reserves. Pado Manh Shah, general secretary of the Karen National Union army said the situation has reached a new low “Everyday our Karen people are killed … If there is no political dialogue we have only one way forward. Mortality rates among the young in what was once the rice basket of Asia are now among the highest in the world. “Companies no longer have to put country of origin labels on their clothes so people are buying clothes from Burma without knowing it.
The British Government refuses to release a list of companies importing clothes from Burma,” Mr Farmaner says.The military junta’s policies have led to more than 600,000 deaths and up to one million people being displaced. Mark Farmaner, of the Burma Campaign UK, says: “Foreign companies are using British dependent territories to channel new investment to Burma so that Britain is not directly implicated.”Britain also imports more Burmese goods than any other country in Europe. But the company denies this, and maintains it plays a positive role.Increasing evidence that Britain is being used to channel new investment into Burma has been denied by the Government. Tomorrow Phan will join William Hague and Liam Fox in addressing the Conservative Party conference. “We are asking for Britain to impose sanctions and to stop foreign investment now. What is going on in Burma is genocide,” she says.The ruling military junta has ensured that Burma remains isolated. Cut off even from its closest neighbours, Thailand and India, the conflict that rages at its heart gets little attention.
On Friday, for the first time, the UN Security Council discussed Burma, and the US is expected soon to submit a draft resolution criticising Burma’s human rights record and demanding Aung San Suu Kyi’s release.But none of that will matter if the regime continues to reap the rewards of foreign investment. One of the regime’s pillars of financial revenue, the French oil company Total is estimated by the Burma Campaign UK to bring as much as £200m in every year. Its Yadana pipeline has been accused of being associated with organisations perpetrating serious human rights abuses. Mr Alexander then took the issue up with his party superiors.Last Friday, ABC news released not only the e-mail exchange but also a subsequent instant message correspondence with another page that was much more explicitly sexual. Unconfirmed reports out of Washington suggest four or five pages in all may have come forward to denounce Mr Foley.Democrats, meanwhile, are quietly ecstatic at the pickle their adversaries find themselves in.
