News & Articles on Burma, Thursday, 18 June 2009
Jun 18th, 2009
Thousands of Karen Seek Safety in Thailand
An Ancient Pagoda’s Collapse Turns Myanmar’s Gaze to the Stars
UN’s Ban invited to visit Myanmar in July: diplomats
Ban ‘Wants Suu Kyi Freed before Visiting Burma again’
Refugees forced abroad by new Burma offensive
Myanmar says no to reopening Stilwell Road, plan shelved
KNU to Abandon Bases
Myanmar army ‘capture Karen bases’
‘Global plans’ for Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday
2000 UNISON activists in Aung San Suu Kyi mask protest
Global plans for birthday of Suu Kyi
Burmese Migrants Rely on NGOs for Care and Supplies
==============================
Thousands of Karen Seek Safety in Thailand
By LARRY JAGAN Thursday, June 18,
2009
MAE SOT — Thousands of ethnic Karen villagers have been forced to
flee
across the border into Thailand during the past few weeks as the
Burmese
army launched a major assault on Karen military units.
Fierce fighting and constant mortar fire close to the Thai border by
Burmese forces has forced an estimated 4,000 ethnic Karen to leave their
villages since the beginning of June.
Multimedia (View)
“Every day more people are arriving, looking for refuge,” Poe Shan of the
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) told The Irrawaddy. “We expect many more
to cross the border in search of safety in the coming weeks as the rainy
season sets in.”
So far, the refugees have mostly come from seven villages in Burma near
the Moei River; there are more than 40 villages in the area where the
fighting is intense.
“If the fighting continues, at least 8,000 more villagers will have to
escape across the border,” said Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of
the Karen National Union (KNU).
“The key thing now is to provide them with more adequate shelter,” said
Sally Thompson, the deputy head of the Thai Burma Border Consortium
(TBBC). “They have food and medical attention, but the flimsy, makeshift
homes they are now in provide inadequate protection from the
weather.”
Local Thai authorities are drawing up an Action Plan, which would then be
discussed with the international aid agencies and local NGOs before
implementation.
Many recent refugees are crowded into the grounds of a Thai temple, a
couple of kilometers inside the Thai border, where they lack access to
basic necessities, aid workers said.
“They are in relatively good condition,” said Kitty McKinsey, the
regional spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees in Mae Sot.
“They are not emaciated, though many have walked for more than seven days
to escape from the Myanmar [Burma] army,” she told The Irrawaddy. “They
hurriedly left with nothing but the clothes on their back.”
Ma Theingyi, 33, the mother of five children, said: “We desperately need
soap, toothbrushes and cooking utensils. More than anything though, we
need clothes for our children.”
Most refugees are women and children. Some of the men stayed behind to
look after the fields, aid workers said. Others were already in Thailand
as illegal immigrants working in foreign-owned textile factories along
the border. Others are soldiers in the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen
National Liberation Army (KNLA).
The mass exodus of villagers from inside Burma began after the Democratic
Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the Burmese army launched a major
offensive against KNU strongholds. This recent assault began about two
weeks ago when the army started shelling the border area and terrorizing
villagers with the help of the DKBA, a breakaway Karen faction that
signed a ceasefire agreement with the military government.
Two weeks ago, the DKBA had called many village headmen to a
meeting where they said they would conscript more than a 1,000
soldiers—around 10 men per village, which prompted the mass exodus.
Headmen were also told that each village had to buy two hand-held radios
for the DKBA.
“We knew what that meant; all the able-bodied men would be used by the
army in one way or another and on top of that we would have to give them
money and food rations,” said 41-year-old Pa Naw Naw, who fled with his
wife and three children. He left his 11-year-old son behind to keep an
eye on their fields and livestock.
The UN says there are some 2,000 new refugees in Thailand. Some aid
agencies estimate the figure at 4,000—with many people secretly living
with friends or hiding in the jungle on either side of the
border.
Refugees are receiving aid at five sites, including Noh Bo temple in Mae
Sot. Thai authorities have set up medical centers to provide health care
and medical examinations. The TBBC has distributed rice, beans, fish
paste and salt, while the Karen Refugee
Council has provided blankets and clothes. The UNHCR has provided plastic
sheeting and tarpaulins for the shelter.
The rain, which is already falling heavily on most days, is making life
more difficult. Most refugees are reluctant to be moved far from the
border.
“They all say they want go back as soon as possible, said McKinsey. “But
to what—they all said their crops and livestock had been confiscated by
the authorities. They are clearly traumatized. They have lived with this
kind of suffering all their lives.”
A 66-year old grandmother, Noh Thay May, told The Irrawaddy. “I
have been on the move since I was five-years-old. My days are numbered.
All I want is not to have to move again.”
Meanwhile, in Burma many villagers are bracing themselves for more
fighting and shelling. The next few days are likely to see the Burmese
military substantially step up military operations, a Thai military
officer told local journalists a few days ago.
As fighting continues, more Karen refugees are certain to seek safety
across the border in Thailand.
“We want an end to all this fighting,” said Pa Kyaw, 30, who found
shelter at Noh Bo monastery. “All we want is to be left alone in peace
and to be able to return to our homes.”
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group |
www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/
========================
An Ancient Pagoda’s Collapse Turns Myanmar’s
Gaze to the Stars
By SETH MYDANS
Published: June 17, 2009
BANGKOK — It cannot have pleased Myanmar’s ruling family: the collapse of
a 2,300-year-old gold-domed pagoda into a pile of timbers just three
weeks after the wife of the junta’s top general helped rededicate
it.
There is no country in Asia more superstitious than Myanmar, and the
crumbling of the temple was seen widely as something more portentous than
shoddy construction work.
The debacle coincides with the junta’s trial of the country’s
pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, after an American intruder
swam across a lake and spent a night at the villa where Ms. Aung San Suu
Kyi has been under house arrest for most of the past 19 years.
After two weeks of testimony that began May 18, the trial has been
suspended as the court considers procedural motions — and as the junta
apparently tries to decide how to manage what seems to have been a major
blunder, drawing condemnation from around the world.
The superstitious generals may be consulting astrologers as well as
political tacticians for guidance. That would not be unusual for many
people in Myanmar, formerly Burma.
Previously, currency denominations and traffic rules have been changed,
the nation’s capital has been moved and the timing of events has been
selected — even the dates of popular uprisings — with astrological
dictates in mind.
“Astrology has as significant a role in policies, leadership and decision
making in the feudal Naypyidaw as rational calculations, geopolitics and
resource economics,” said Zarni, a Burmese exile analyst and researcher
who goes by one name. He was referring to the country’s fortified
capital, which opened in 2005.
And so it seemed only natural to read a darker meaning into the temple’s
collapse.
The Danok pagoda, on the outskirts of Myanmar’s main city, Yangon, was
newly blessed May 7 in the presence of Daw Kyaing Kyaing, the wife of the
country’s supreme leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, along with an A-list of
junta society. The rite received major coverage in government-controlled
media.
In a solemn ceremony, the worshipers fixed a diamond orb to the top of
the pagoda along with a pennant-shaped vane and sprinkled scented water
onto the tiers of a holy, golden umbrella, according to the government
mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar.
Like the rest of the heavily censored press, the newspaper was silent
when it all came crashing down.
But word of mouth — and foreign radio broadcasts — spreads fast in
Myanmar.
“People were laughing at her,” said a longtime astrologer, reached by
telephone in Myanmar, speaking of Mrs. Kyaing Kyaing.
“O.K., she thinks she is so great, but even the gods don’t like her —
people believe like that,” the astrologer said on the condition of
anonymity because of the danger of speaking to reporters.
“Even the spiritual world will not allow her to do this thing or that
thing,” the astrologer said. “People laugh like that.”
The ceremony was part of a decades-old campaign by the senior general to
legitimize his military rule on a foundation of Buddhist fealty —
dedicating and redecorating temples, attending religious ceremonies and,
with his influential wife, making donations to monks and
monasteries.
That campaign was undermined, and perhaps fatally discredited, in
September 2007 when soldiers beat and shot monks protesting the military
rule in the streets, invaded monasteries without removing their boots and
imprisoned or disrobed hundreds of monks.
“No matter how many pagodas they build, no matter how much charity they
give to monks, it is still they who murdered the monks,” said Josef
Silverstein, a Myanmar specialist and professor emeritus at Rutgers
University, at the time of the protests.
So when the Danok pagoda suddenly collapsed May 30 as workmen were
completing its renovation — killing at least 20 people, according to
émigré reports — many people saw it as the latest in a series of bad
omens for the junta that included a devastating cyclone early last
year.
The pagoda’s sacred umbrella tumbled to the ground, and its diamond orb
was lost in the rubble, according to those reports.
“The fact that the umbrella did not stay was a sign that more bad things
are to come, according to astrologers,” said Ingrid Jordt, a professor of
anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and a specialist
in Burmese Buddhism.
“It is also a sign that Than Shwe does not have the spiritual power any
longer to be able to undertake or reap the benefit from good acts such as
this,” Professor Jordt said in an e-mail message.
“In a sense, the pagoda repudiated Than Shwe’s right to remain
ruler.”
As laborers began trying to rebuild the pagoda, local residents gave
émigré publications vivid accounts of supernatural happenings.
“The temple collapsed about 3:10 p.m. while I was loading bricks on a
platform around the pagoda,” a 24-year-old construction worker told The
Irrawaddy, an exile magazine based in Thailand.
“The weather suddenly turned very dark,” he was quoted as saying. “Then
we saw a bright red light rising from the northern end of the pagoda.
Then, suddenly, the temple collapsed. I also heard a strange haunting
voice coming from the direction of the light.”
Indeed, the Danok pagoda may have been a poor choice for the junta’s
ruling family to seek religious affirmation.
According to The Irrawaddy, “Several elderly locals from Danok Model
Village said that they believed that the pagoda never welcomed cruel or
unkind donors, and always shook when such persons made offerings.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/
============================
Khaleej Times Online >> News >> INTERNATIONAL
UN’s Ban invited to visit Myanmar in July:
diplomats
(Reuters)
18 June 2009
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UNITED NATIONS – Myanmar’s ruling military junta has invited U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit the country in early July, though
it was not clear whether he would accept, Western diplomats said on
Wednesday.
The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Ban was concerned
the government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, could use such a
visit for propaganda purposes.
“He doesn’t want his trip to be seen as giving any kind of legitimacy to
the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi,” one of the diplomats told Reuters,
referring to the imprisoned leader of Myanmar’s democratic
opposition.
Suu Kyi is currently on trial for allegedly violating the terms of her
imprisonment. She has been detained for more than 13 of the last 19
years.
Ban has not made a final decision on whether to visit Myanmar, said
Michele Montas, his spokeswoman.
The U.N. chief had said that he was considering a trip to Myanmar soon to
press the junta to release Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners in
the country and to keep its promises to democratize.
But it was not clear until now whether the generals would be willing to
receive him.
The diplomats said they suspected Myanmar’s ruling generals want to
ensure that Suu Kyi is in detention when next year’s multi-party
elections take place.
“Ban can put pressure on them to let her go,” one of the diplomats said.
“We don’t have many options apart from the secretary-general.”
The trial of Suu Kyi and of American John Yettaw, whose uninvited visit
to her home last month was deemed a breach of her house arrest, is set to
resume on June 26. Suu Kyi faces up to five years in prison if found
guilty.
Ban and his special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, received a
petition on Tuesday signed by more than 670,000 people worldwide. It
urged Ban to make the release of Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 political
prisoners his personal priority.
Czech President Vaclav Havel, who spent many years in prison due to his
activities as an anti-communist dissident, was among the world figures
who signed the petition.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/
=
==========================
Ban ‘Wants Suu Kyi Freed before Visiting Burma
again’
By LALIT K JHA Thursday, June 18,
2009
The Burmese military junta has invited United Nations Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon to visit Burma next month, but UN sources say he is unlikely
to accept if opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is convicted and
sentenced to imprisonment or a further term of house arrest.
The sources say said Ban wants to make sure that any visit to Burma
produces tangible results and is not used for propaganda purposes by the
military junta.
Ban’s spokesperson, Michele Montas, told reporters that no decision had
yet been taken on the junta’s invitation.
The UN sources said Ban would consult members of the Security Council and
his Group of Friends on Burma before deciding whether to accept the
invitation.
A team of UN officials is discussing with Burmese authorities details of
a Ban visit to Burma.
If Ban decides to go, he will be preceded by UN Special Envoy Ibrahim
Gambari. Sources say that despite the low profile Gambari has been
maintaining, he has been in close communication with the Burmese
authorities.
Ban last visited Burma after Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, and he has since
shown keen interest in returning, this time to discuss political issues
with the junta—including moves towards democracy and the release of
political prisoners.
Ban and Gambari are reported to have both written letters to the junta
expressing their concerns about the trial of Suu Kyi. However, the
response has been “opaque,” officials said.
Gambari, on behalf of Ban, has been insisting that any visit by the
secretary general should result in tangible results, including progress
in restoring democracy and the release of Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners.
The junta on the other hand has been seeking firm assurances from the
members of the Security Council—specially the US, Britain and France—that
economic sanctions against Burma would be lifted. These countries,
however, want the junta to take the first step and release Suu Kyi,
before they lift at least some of the sanctions.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/
=============================
Refugees forced abroad by new Burma
offensive
Print Print
18/06/2009 – 09:54:58
Burma government forces have overrun three Karen rebel positions in an
offensive that has forced thousands of refugees across the Thai border,
an aid group said, even as the rebels claimed to have killed or wounded
scores of government soldiers.
Burma troops and their allies in the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a
local militia, launched an offensive against Karen National Union
strongholds in early June, shelling their camps and sending more than
4,000 civilians fleeing into Thailand.
The KNU said Ler Per Her camp in Burma, which sheltered internal
refugees, was abandoned last week – prompting one of the largest refugee
movements into Thailand in recent years – and that government forces were
trying to overrun five Karen positions in the area of the camp.
The Free Burma Rangers, which helps displaced people in eastern Burma,
said government troops had overrun three of those positions.
KNU spokesman David Thaw maintained that the guerrillas have largely
repelled the offensive and “killed or wounded 148 soldiers” in
recent weeks. Only five Karen have been killed in the fighting, he
said.
It was impossible to independently verify the claims because reporters
cannot access the area and the Burma government has not responded to
requests for details of the fighting.
However, Burma’s state media said today the “so-called
refugees” fleeing into Thailand were not ordinary villagers but
Karen rebels and their families from five KNU brigades.
The KNU has been fighting for more than 60 years for greater autonomy
from Burma’s central government, but its strength has dwindled over the
past decade due to army offensives and divisions within its
ranks.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/
==========================
Myanmar says no to reopening Stilwell Road, plan
shelved
By: IANS
Date: 2009-06-18
Place:Guwahati
India’s plans of reopening the historic World War II Stilwell Road,
linking the country to China via Myanmar, has come a cropper with Yangon
rejecting moves to allow its territory for resuming age old road links,
an official here said on Thursday.
“The plan as of now stands cancelled with Myanmar objecting to the
reopening of the Stilwell Road for security reasons,” Minister for
the Development of the Northeastern Region (DoNER) Bijoy Krishna Handique
told journalists.
The 1,726 km Stilwell Road connects India’s northeastern state of Assam
to Kunming, the capital of southwest China’s Yunnan province, after
cutting through the Pangsau pass in Myanmar. It touches almost all the
important Southeast Asian capitals.
Named after American General Joseph Stilwell, who led its construction,
Stilwell Road was a vital lifeline for the movement of Allied Forces
during World War II as they battled to free China from Japanese
occupation.
Chinese labourers, Indian soldiers and American engineers took three
years to build the road. The Stilwell Road on the Indian side is about 61
km long. The major stretch of 1,033 km lies within Myanmar, while the
stretch in China is 632 km.
China had already completed constructing their stretch of the Stilwell
Road with the only major hitch being the rugged section of the legendary
road in Myanmar, which Yangon refused to build.
Myanmar maintains that the Stilwell Road, which passes through its Kachin
region, is infested with militant camps belonging to outfits from India’s
northeast and hence reopening the road would provide better access to the
rebels.
“Myanmar is of the view that reopening the Stilwell Road would only
help Indian militants and hence the objection,” the minister
said.
The Kachin region in the North Sagaing Division of Myanmar is home to
about eight rebel groups of India’s northeast, including the SS Khaplang
faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) and the
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
India was hopeful that reopening of the Stilwell Road would greatly boost
the economy and trade activities of the region with Southeast Asian
countries.
“Now there are plans for an alternative route to connect the
Northeast to other South Asian countries through the Sittwe Port in
Myanmar. We need to build up infrastructure to enable using the Sittwe
port,” the minister said.
There is strong demand for Indian automobile components, fruits, grains,
vegetables, textiles and cotton yarn in most neighbouring countries. On
the other hand, Indian traders are keen on importing electronic gadgets,
synthetic blankets, teak, gold and semi-precious stones.
Assam, the gateway to the northeast, is about 2,000 km from the Indian
capital New Delhi and some 3,000 km from the country’s biggest commercial
centre, Mumbai.
Yangon, Bangkok and even some Chinese cities are much closer to most
northeastern states than New Delhi or Mumbai.
For instance, Kunming in China is only 1,726 km from Ledo in Assam, where
the Stilwell Road begins.
Only 250 km out of the northeast’s 5,000 km outer perimeter touches
India. The remaining 4,750 km represents international boundaries with
China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
http://www.mid-day.com/news/
=============================
KNU to Abandon Bases
By THE IRRAWADDY
Thursday, June
18, 2009
The Karen National Union (KNU) will abandon its Brigade 7 military bases
because they are unwilling to kill their fellow Karen and lose soldiers
in the fighting, according to Karen sources.
The Karen sources said that the KNU will let the joint Burmese army and
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) force take over the military bases
because it does not want Karen people to kill each other. The DKBA
soldiers split from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the
military wing of the KNU in early 1995.
During the recent fighting, the DKBA soldiers were ordered by the Burmese
army to fight on the frontline as minesweepers, while Burmese soldiers
fired mortars from the rear for support, said KNU sources.
Sources said the KNU prefer to use guerrilla tactics instead of
confronting the combined troops as it will cost fewer lives.
The joint force has already seized three military bases belonging to KNLA
Brigade 7, since the combined force started the offensive in early June.
The seized bases belonged to KNLA Battalion 21, 22, and 101.
About 20 soldiers from the joint force, who were mostly from the DKBA,
have been killed and 50 injured, according to KNU sources. Five KNLA
soldiers have reportedly been injured.
The offensive launched by the joint force has forced at least 4,000 Karen
villagers to flee their homes in Pa-an District in southern Karen State
and escape to Thailand.
The DKBA is recruiting soldiers as the Burmese regime has ordered their
troops to become border guard militias. They have also been asked to
clean up KNLA military bases along the Thai-Burma border by 2010, when
the regime plans to hold the general election, according to Karen
sources.
The KNU has been fighting for autonomy for six decades but has never
signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese regime.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/
============================
Myanmar army ‘capture Karen bases’
Karen rebels have been fighting for
an independent homeland for over 60 years [EPA]
Government forces in Myanmar have captured three Karen rebel
bases in an offensive that has forced thousands of civilians to flee
across the Thai border, an aid group has said.
According to the Free Burma Rangers, more than 4,000 Karen civilians have
been forced to seek refuge in Thailand in view of the fighting.
Myanmar troops and their allies in the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a
local militia, launched an offensive against Karen National Union (KNU)
strongholds in early June.
The KNU has been fighting for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central
government for more than 60 years.
The KNU said that Ler Per Her camp in Myanmar, which sheltered internal
refugees, was abandoned last week, prompting one of the largest refugee
movements into Thailand in recent years, and that government forces were
trying to overrun five Karen positions in the area of the camp.
The Free Burma Rangers, which helps displaced people in eastern Myanmar,
said on Wednesday that government troops had overrun three of those
positions.
The refugees are taking shelter about 100km north of Mae Sot, a border
town located 380km northwest of the Thai capital, Bangkok.
KNU claim
Hopes fade for Karen seeking Myanmar homeland
But David Thaw, a KNU spokesman, told the Associated Press that the
rebels have largely repelled the offensive and “killed or wounded
148 soldiers” in recent weeks.
He also said that five Karen fighters have been killed in the
fighting.
It is impossible to independently verify the claims because reporters
cannot access the area and the Myanmar government has not responded to
requests for details of the fighting.
But on Thursday, state media in Myanmar said the “so-called
refugees” fleeing into Thailand were not ordinary villagers but Karen
fighters and their families from five KNU brigades.
Some 100,000 mostly Karen refugees already shelter in camps in Thailand
after fleeing the violence over the past two decades, while aid agencies
say nearly half a million others are internally displaced inside eastern
Myanmar.
Human rights groups as well as the United Nations have long accused the
Myanmar government of torture, killings and rape of Karen civilians in
their attempts to stamp out the insurgency.
The military government denies such allegations.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
=============================
‘Global plans’ for Aung San Suu Kyi’s
birthday
AFP
‘Global plans’ for Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday AFP/File – A file photo of
Filipino demonstrators reflected on the portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi
during a rally outside …
18 mins ago
YANGON (AFP) – Supporters of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi made
preparations around the world Thursday to mark her 64th birthday, with
calls for her release from jail as she faces trial by the ruling
junta.
The Nobel laureate is set to spend her birthday on Friday at Yangon’s
notorious Insein prison, where she is being held on charges of violating
her house arrest after an American man swam to her lakeside
house.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention since the
junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy’s (NLD)
landslide victory elections in 1990.
In Yangon, NLD members were making preparations at party headquarters for
a similar celebration to those in previous years, including giving
breakfast to Buddhist monks.
“We have to hold the birthday party without the host again. We would
be very happy if she could be released, we are hoping and praying for
this,” senior party member Lei Lei told AFP.
“We will offer a dawn meal to five monks early in the morning to
mark Daw Suu’s birthday. After that we will release balloons, doves and
sparrows before the small party starts,” said May Win Myint, another
senior party member.
Campaigners across the world will mark the day with events ranging from
live music and speeches in Malaysia, evening vigils in Ireland and
Australia and debating forums in Thailand.
The website “64 for Suu” was set up to gather birthday wishes
– including many via Twitter and YouTube — and has so far received
nearly 10,000.
Famous names who have sent messages demanding her release include British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, footballer David Beckham and US actors
George Clooney and Julia Roberts.
On Monday, a global petition was delivered to UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon, signed by more than 670,000 people from 220 countries, calling
for the release of all Myanmar’s political prisoners, especially Aung San
Suu Kyi.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces five years in jail if convicted in her trial,
which resumes on June 26. The court case has provoked international
outrage and has been described as a “show trial” by US
President Barack Obama.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
==============================
18/06/2009
2000 UNISON activists in Aung San Suu Kyi mask
protest
More than 2,000 delegates at the UNISON national conference in
Brighton today donned masks of Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi in protest at her continued detention by the Burmese
military.
It was a show of solidarity and support for the National League for
Democracy leader on the eve of her 64th birthday. During the masked
protest, UNISON Vice-President, Angela Lynes, read out a message calling
for Suu Kyi’s immediate release and for the Burmese Government to end the
“repression” of its people and respect human and labour rights. Angela
Lynes read out the following statement:
“On the eve of your 64th birthday, UNISON condemns your continued
imprisonment at the hands of a brutal military dictatorship who have no
respect for human rights, international law, democracy or the welfare of
their own people, and who use every odious means at their disposal to
cling on to power.
“We call on the United Nations to work tirelessly for your release and
that of the more than 2,000 other political prisoners, many of whom are
fellow trade unionists.
“We will continue to protest your loss of liberty and campaign for your
release. We will continue to remember you and all those who are suffering
in Burma. Your suffering will not be in vain.
“Happy birthday, Aung San Suu Kyi”.
The National League for Democracy won the elections in 1990, the result
of which was overturned by the military. Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial for
“violating” the terms of her house arrest after a man uninvited swam a
lake to her home. She is an honorary life member of UNISON and the union
has been campaigning with Burma support groups in the UK and overseas for
her release. Ends
http://www.unison.org.uk/
======================
Global plans for birthday of Suu Kyi
June 18, 2009 – 7:54PM
Supporters of Burma’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi are making
preparations around the world to mark her 64th birthday, with calls for
her release from jail as she faces trial by the ruling junta.
The Nobel laureate is set to spend her birthday on Friday at Rangoon’s
notorious Insein prison, where she is being held on charges of violating
her house arrest after an American man swam to her lakeside
house.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention since the
junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy’s (NLD)
landslide victory elections in 1990.
In Rangoon, NLD members on Thursday were making preparations at party
headquarters for a similar celebration to those in previous years,
including giving breakfast to Buddhist monks.
“We have to hold the birthday party without the host again. We would
be very happy if she could be released, we are hoping and praying for
this,” senior party member Lei Lei told AFP.
“We will offer a dawn meal to five monks early in the morning to
mark Daw Suu’s birthday. After that we will release balloons, doves and
sparrows before the small party starts,” said May Win Myint, another
senior party member.
Campaigners across the world will mark the day with events ranging from
live music and speeches in Malaysia, evening vigils in Ireland and
Australia and debating forums in Thailand.
The website “64 for Suu” was set up to gather birthday wishes -
including many via Twitter and YouTube – and has so far received nearly
10,000.
Famous names who have sent messages demanding her release include British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, footballer David Beckham and US actors
George Clooney and Julia Roberts.
On Monday, a global petition was delivered to UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon, signed by more than 670,000 people from 220 countries, calling
for the release of all Burma’s political prisoners, especially Aung San
Suu Kyi.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces five years in jail if convicted in her trial,
which resumes on June 26. The court case has provoked international
outrage and has been described as a “show trial” by US
President Barack Obama.
© 2009
AFPhttp://news.theage.com.au/
==============
Burmese Migrants Rely on NGOs for Care and
Supplies
By Leila Darabi
June 18, 2009 – 8:00am
Leila Darabi’s picture
An estimated two million Burmese refugees have fled conflict zones in
Burma to live as undocumented migrants in Thailand. This population has
few options when it comes to seeking information about even basic
anatomy, let alone health care. With migrant schools that end after the
first or second grade, virtually no internet access, low levels of
literacy and limited to access to television – which, even if available,
is broadcast in Thai, not Burmese – community-based organizations play a
large role in providing reproductive health information and
services.
A new report released this week by the Thailand-based Adolescent
Reproductive Health Network (ARHN) reveals that the country’s birth
spacing and family planning program is not reaching young migrants.
Instead, adolescent refugees from Burma living in Thailand rely
disproportionately on community-based organizations, pamphlets and
posters for sexual and reproductive health information and supplies like
condoms.
ARHN’s “Protecting Our Future” report presents findings from a
survey of nearly 400 12-24 year olds living in and around UN refugee
camps on the Thai side of the border. The data were collected by local
Burmese migrant activists also living undocumented in Thailand and shed
light on a population about which previously very little was known.
Around the world, little research exists on the sexual and reproductive
health needs of young people living in areas of conflict.
Not surprisingly, the study found that knowledge of sexual health and
anatomy is very low among adolescents from Burma’s conflict zones. Most
young people had heard of condoms and birth control pills, but few had
ever used them. The authors estimate the prevalence of sexually
transmitted infections (STI) among young people to be seven percent and
found high levels of acceptance of gender based violence and male
authority over women’s reproductive choices among both men and women
interviewed.
In communities where ARHN, a network of nine community-based
organizations (CBO’s) works, the study found that a majority of teens got
information about sex and reproductive health from trainings by CBO’s in
migrant schools or factories; or from pamphlets and posters prepared and
distributed by the network.
These results suggest the work of the network is having major impact in
areas with virtually no other reproductive health services. Donors
interested in meeting the needs of vulnerable populations should invest
in low-cost interventions such as the network’s community education
programs, the authors suggest. Since contraception is subsidized
nationally by the Thai government, ARHN is able to provide an individual
with a month’s supply of birth control pills for just $2-3 US
dollars.
In order to raise awareness of the migrant populations of the Thai-Burma
border, a group of international photographers have put together a photo
book and exhibition on the ongoing civil war in Burma and its
fallout. Sponsored by Burma Borders Projects, the Global Justice
Center, Ibis Reproductive Health and the Women’s Refugee Commission,
“Invisible Lives” features photographs by Tom Soddart, Morgan
Hagar, Becky Hurwitz, and amateur Burmese and Karen photographers.
These images will be on display from June 16-29 at powerHouse Books in
DUMBO and proceeds from the book sale will benefit ARHN. The show opens
today, June 17th with a reception open to the public.
http://rhrealitycheck.org/
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June 19th, 2009 at 4:34 am
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