Re: [A-DX] Birma

[Name gelöscht <name.geloescht@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Am 28.09.2007 um 22:12 schrieb Name gelöscht:

> Nein, meine QSL ist vom 3. September 96, da gab es die also schon.  
> Und zwar schon eine ganze Weile, die begannen wohl so 92 oder 93.
>
> Ich habe das so in Erinnerung, daß die erst aus Norwegen sendeten  
> und dann aus Jülich senden wollten, weil man sich besseren Empfang  
> als über Kvitøy versprach.

Mal etwas geguhgelt und dies hier ausgegraben:

*****************************************************************

FEER: CLEAR SIGNAL
Germany gives go-ahead to Burmese opposition radio
By Hugh Williamson in Bonn
December 5,1996

First no, now yes. The Foreign Ministry in Bonn has gone back on its
decision to prevent a radio station backed by democracy leader Aung  
San Suu
Kyi from broadcasting from Germany.

The volte-face is embarrassing for Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, but  
gives
a major credibility boost to the Norway-based Democratic Voice of  
Burma, or
DVB. Bobb's OK allows the station to resume talks with telecoms giant
Deutsche Telekom to improve the reception of its short-wave  
transmissions to
Burma.

It's not just the radio that will send a clear signal- the go-ahead  
to DVB
also shows that Bonn has grown frustrated with Burma's military rulers.
"Germany has had traditionally close ties with Burma and backs  
dialogue over
sanctions to bring change in Rangoon," says Martin Smith, a London-based
writer on Burmese affairs. "But now it may be losing patience."

Negotiations on the $100,000-a-year contract between DVB and Deutsche
Telekom- a state-owned company now being privatized-were well  
advanced in
July when the German Foreign Ministry expressed "misgivings" about the
provision of frequencies to opposition radio stations. Telekom  
subsequently
withdrew from the deal.

When Bonn's stance was first revealed in October by Deutsche Welle,
Germany's international broadcasting organization, the ensuing  
publicity put
Kinkel on the defensive.

He is already known in Germany for flip-flopping on sensitive issues  
such as
human rights in China and Tibet. Now opposition politicians attacked  
him for
preaching concern for democracy in Burma but acting otherwise.

On November 13 an annoyed Kinkel changed his tune, blaming low-level
officials for the original decision. He said he could find "no reason in
international law" to block the deal. But there was a proviso: DVB  
must not
promote violence or revolution from German soil.

DVB's director, Harn Yawnghwe, a prominent Canada-based Burmese exile  
and
son of Burma's first president, Sao Shwe Thaike, said the reversal of  
Bonn's
policy was "more consistent with Germany's usual stance on human  
rights and
democracy."

The station has reassured Bonn that it aims to provide accurate  
information
to the Burmese public, not promote violence. Its task is "straight  
news and
information, not propaganda," says news editor Aye Chan Naing.

DVB was established in Oslo in 1992 on the back of a wave of Norwegian
support following the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize award to Suu Kyi. It is the
mouthpiece of the self-styled Burmese government-in-exile, the National
Coalition Govenrment of the Union of Burma.

The $270,000-a-year broadcasting operation- the money has come from
non-governmental organizations funded by the Norwegian, Swedish,  
Danish and
U.S. governments as well as the philanthropic Soros Foundation- 
broadcasts
news, entertainment and extracts from Suu Kyi's speeches for an hour  
a day.
Shows are in Burmese and four ethnic languages.

DVB hopes that, if signed, the deal with Deutsche telekom will improve
programme reception via new frequencies and more air-time. It admits  
that,
under present arrangements with Norway some transmissions "cannot be  
heard
at all."

Bonn's change of mind on the radio station "reflects recognition of  
the need
for information in Burma, where the media is totally controlled,"  
says Peter
Traub, Bangkok-based Burma expert with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation,
which is close to Foreign Minister Kinkel's Free Democratic Party. Traub
helped lobby for the change, and adds that it fits with a recent  
toughening
of Germany's stance towards the junta in Rangoon.

Dietrich Mahol, a former junior diplomat in Rangoon, agrees. Now a  
member of
parliament in Germany and spokesman of Southeast Asia for Chancellor  
Helmut
Kohl's Christian Democrats, he says "relations with Burma reached a  
new low
in February, when Rangoon refused a visit by our development  
minister." In
Mahol's view-one widely shared in the Foreign Ministry-Burma wasted a  
chance
to improve ties because it refused to allow the minister to meet Suu  
Kyi.

Until military's suppression of pro-democracy protests in 1988,  
Germany was
proud of being Burma's second-largest source of development aid (behind
Japan) and of having close links to leaders in Rangoon. But when  
Burma was
internationally isolated and aid cut off, Germany moved quickly to  
distance
itself.

"Nowadays, Foreign Minister Kinkel has no illusions about the  
character" of
Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council, says Traub. Yet
despite this, and the setback of the cancelled ministerial visit this  
year,
Germany still uses its weight within the European Union to preach the  
need
for dialogue, not trade sanctions, in fostering change in Rangoon.

Several EU member states, led by Denmark, plus some members of the  
European
parliament, are demanding trade sanctions after the recent crackdown  
on Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy. And preferential trade tariffs  
could be
suspended when an ongoing EU inquiry into forced labour in Burma is  
concluded.

Former diplomat Mahol, however, says Germany shouldn't limit itself  
to human
rights issues. "We need wider, longer-term dialogue: We believe in
evolutionary change in Rangoon," he says.

Still, he recognizes that it is Burma's nearer neighbours in the  
Association
of Southeast Asian Nations who have the most  influence over Rangoon.  
Traub
agrees: "Whatever the EU says, nothing will change if Asean's support  
for
the junta remains." (FEER)

*************************************************


--
Tschüß,
Martin     http://webadresse.geloescht/


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